BOOKS! Need recommendations

[jetpack_monkey]

I'm traveling on a train to Vividon in August -- 43 hours there and 43 hours back. Exciting! I have some stuff planned to occupy my time. I'm going to put a few choice movies on the iPad and I've downloaded some board games to play with echan. However, I also want to do some reading!

I know my friends' list is fully of savvy book lovers and I want to get some recommendations from you folks. Novels, non-fiction, etc. If it's available for Kindle or in the iBook store, all the better.

Fiction I like: Hitchhiker's Guide (only read the Adams books -- are the later ones any good?), Discworld, Vorkosigan, Dresden Files, Game of Thrones (halfway through book 2 now), 1984, Brave New World, The Running Man, the first Hunger Games book (yes I like dystopia, what of it), Frankenstein, Edgar Allan Poe, Rebecca (du Maurier), Ender's Game, Flannery O'Connor.

Tried getting into Honor Harrington and the military strategy/tech stuff just went right over my head. Might give it another shot.

Non-fiction I like: Books on movies, mostly. More toward the academic/analytical end of things, but given my vidding, I want to start looking at technical stuff related to editing as well. Most of my books are horror-related for obvious reasons and I'd like to branch out from that, although I am still obsessed with genre as a concept and its eternal chicken/egg struggle.

Also, John Green's Crash Course series on Youtube is making me more interested in world history, so if there's any really great reads there, let me know. Ooh and anything on the War of the Roses. I want to compare and contrast it with Game of Thrones.

Comics: Marvel tends to have more deals in the Comics app on the iPad, so I've been reading a metric ton of their stuff lately. I'd like to switch to DC and get some digital trades from the Kindle store. Any really good DC comics or independent series/storylines lately (by lately, I mean in the last eight years)?

Comments

[rhivolution]

In DC stories, I heartily recommend Manhunter to all and sundry, because Kate Spencer is amazing.

[adalger]

Neil Gaiman - anything. A good entry book is Good Omens, with Pratchett.
Asimov's Chronology of the World
Possibly Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, which is an excellent piece of historical perspective.

[thirdblindmouse]

I'm currently reading the latest in Charles Stross's Lovecraftian spy novels on my boyfriend's Kindle. The first in the series is "The Atrocity Archives". They're a nice mix of funny and terrifying.

See you at VividCon!

[lizbetann]

Ooh and anything on the War of the Roses. I want to compare and contrast it with Game of Thrones.

Oh, my.

I'm lending you my e-copy of Sunne in Splendour.

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

43 hours?? Where is Vividcon? The moon?

I'd definitely recommend picking up the other two Hunger Games books. Also, Graceling by Kristin Cashore is really good and has a similar vibe. I also really enjoyed Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series which is dystopian YA.

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

Most of the fiction I read is more ~~literary fiction~~ but you might really enjoy Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers. For super-hero-y stuff, Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman is enjoyable, and probably just right for a train ride! Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts is good if you're looking for something more experimental.

Nonfiction I mostly read science books? Why Evolution is True is exceptionally well put together, but if you've read a lot of Dawkins it'll mostly be retread. Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is always enjoyable. Mary Roach's Packing for Mars is about the challenges we'd face in space, and is super interesting. I have Bad Science and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (about the woman they took the HeLa cell line from, without her knowledge) on deck; the later is supposed to be gorgeous. I've heard really good things about The Disappearing Spoon as well.

Comics I'll admit I mostly read Marvel as well, but some things you should check out if you haven't: Marvel Adventures: The Avengers is made of joy and sunshine and awesomeness, NEXTWAVE is hilarious and satirical and amazing, Y: The Last Man is just all around fantastic storytelling (post-apocalyptic story about the actual last man on earth), and Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men gives THE BEST Emma Frost. I assume you've already read the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels?

Sorry! I have A LOT OF THOUGHTS about books, but I managed to restrain myself somewhat!

EDIT: I missed the part where you were looking for academic/technical books about movies, not in general! Sorry!

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Karen Pearlman's Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit

[shannonsequitur.livejournal.com]

Dunno if you've already read them, but if you like Adams and Pratchett, there's a good chance you'll like the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Comment posted before I actually finished... In addition to that book (thuviaptarth and laurashapiro rec too) I'm reading Octavia Butler’s Parables book series. It sounds like it'd be right up your alley. It didn't grab in with the first chapters, but I'm really into now. For comics, I always suggest Fell, even though the series is unfinished.

That's cool. Will the train have plugs for an iPad? I've never thought about that.

[yoshimi.livejournal.com]

Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde

[lizbetann]

Fantasy novels:
Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series -- may squick you, but some lush, GORGEOUS worldbuilding.

Bujold's Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls

[airawyn.livejournal.com]

DC Books:
Blue Beetle (2006-2009 series.) Don't bother with the Nu 52 version, but the previous run is AMAZING. Also, pretty self-contained.
Batgirl - My favorite is the 2009-2011 series (Stephanie Brown), but the 2000-2006 series (Cassandra Cain) is also very good. (The Nu 52 series is Barbara Gordon in one of the most ableist and sexist retcons I've ever seen. Don't go near it.)
I love the Young Justice classic series, which may be older than eight years, actually, but it's still quite fun.
Look for the "Under the Red Hood" storyline, if you haven't read it yet, and pick up "Red Hood: Lost Days" as well.
GOTHAM CENTRAL. Absolute must-read. There's five TPBs.
Gotham Knights through about issue 50 is generally a good read. (And it's where my icon is from.) After around 50, the focus shifts from the Batfamily to the Gotham villains. Not terrible, but not as much fun.

You are reading Wolverine and the X-Men, right? I swear it's a Marvelized Fandom High.

[anoel.livejournal.com]

I didn't love the first book (I had issues) but a lot of people love them more than I: the Chaos Walking series is good dystopian YA fiction. Just be sure to get all three books, there's a cliffhanger.

FINISH GAME OF THRONES!!!

[sol-se.livejournal.com]

Monster by A. Lee Martinez! I think you'd like it.



It's been a few years, but on the dystopian front, I remember really liking Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.

I read one of the non-Adams Hitchhiker books a while back (And Another Thing...). It was ok, but kind of meh. Definitely not Adams.

Also, I'm still a newbie just getting into comics, but I'm looking forward to where the current Army of Darkness run is going after reading #1.

(Don't mind me, I'll just be over here stalking your comments and taking notes on all the recs you get.)

one more bit of literary prosthelytization

[yoshimi.livejournal.com]

i'm also fairly obsessed with kazuo ishiguro's 'never let me go.' i loved it. a lot.