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What kinds of books do you like?

Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
edited June 2010 in General Banter
I want to write a book but and I'm at the point I can turn it anywhere. What do you, the reader, want to, well, read? Romance? Thriller? Horror? Science fiction? A mixture? Just post what genre of book you like to read, easy!

All the best
Jellybean
«1

Comments

  • LiberteLiberte
    edited May 2010
    Mr Author2B JB
    You forgot mystery... I read one called The Skull Mantra which was a good mystery and one of the things which interested me in learning more about Buddhism.
  • RainRain
    edited May 2010
    I only read non-fiction information-type books. Mostly I study religion.

    I've never been a fan of fiction. If I were to read fiction, I'd at least want it to read as if it could have been true.. someone's life I can fall into as if they lived next door. None of that fantasy stuff :D
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I prefer fiction. I think the whole point of a book or film is to throw you into a magical, impossible world. Or sometimes even things that could be real but are still amazing. I have a few ideas, one to do with science fiction, one drama/mystery, one fantasy/horror and one, well just plain bare quirky. I can't decide though whether to write seperate books or mix 2 or 3 together... hmm.... ?
  • kennykenny Explorer
    edited May 2010
    I typically read Sci-Fi or Fantasy books as I always loved reading about the impossible and it changed things up from the normal everyday scenarios. However any kind of book can be good it just depends on the writer and how well he/she understands people and knows how to throw around their emotions =). My favorite series has always been “The Noble Dead Saga” (http://nobledead.com/). <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Ckmh%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> Kind of a generic fantasy book (elves and such) but, so well written I read the first 4 books in a week, couldn’t put it down.
    <o></o>

    I find anymore as I am grounding myself on truth that reading such books affects my mindfulness and therefore haven’t read these kinds of books in a long time. Now I just read and reread “Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah” (http://www.amazon.com/Food-Heart-Collected-Teachings-Ajahn/dp/0861713230).
  • MidpackMidpack
    edited May 2010
    I read non-fiction only, haven't read any fiction since forced to in college about 35 years ago. Fiction's great for movies, but I want to learn if I'm going to read a book. YMMV
  • KikujiroKikujiro
    edited May 2010
    It's easier to say anything that takes my interest. Because I have no "I like this kind of book, but not this kind of book" preferences.

    But my faves are of these, of the top of my head,

    What makes you not a buddhist
    The Unbearable Lightness of Being
    Mixing with your mind
    Jonathan strange and Mr. Norrell
    Fear and loathing in las vegas
  • pearlpearl
    edited May 2010
    I love the art of short stories.
  • StephenStephen
    edited May 2010
    Nice, a question I can answer mwahahahaha. Lesse here... I like sci-fi, fantasy, comedy, the combination of any of those three, and finally horror. I think that's about it for books, at least the fiction kind.

    For instance:
    Sci-Fi = Ender's Game
    Sci-Fi/Comedy = The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    Fantasy = The Chronicles of Amber
    Horror = IT (Stephen King)
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    When I was younger I wrote short stories but now in my own time I want to write something few people of my age write; a real, proper novel. However in school when we have to right short stories I'm quite good. I aparently have a talent to right comically but that's usually just in short stories. Recently we did a five part story in English called Escape from Kraznir, it had a warrior, troll, dwarf, wizard, stratergist and evil king like no other. We had to write in in four different styles. Plan, discriptive, play and song. I got above average for all but the first I got an above average when I tried it again. In year 6 I wrote a 2 part story that was quite random and funny too. In proper really long stories I rely more on funny metaphors for the funny. My present story is turning out quite sad at the minute but it's still going good I think.

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • StephenStephen
    edited May 2010
    *cough* The ability to "right" comically eh LNP? ;)
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I usually have better spelling :o
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Douglas Adams is a funny, random authur :D
  • StephenStephen
    edited May 2010
    Want another good sci-fi comedy then? The Stainless Steel Rat, by Harry Harrison. I give it a 10/10. Trust me it has nothing to do with an actual stainless steel rat. ;) It's about a criminal so slick the only thing they could do with him when they finally caught him was to make him a cop.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    LOL
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited May 2010
    I love books period. :D

    I'm currently reading Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy. Next on my list is The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. After that, I'm thinking about Richard Gombrich's What the Buddha Thought or A. J. Ayer's short biography of Russell.

    I suppose after that I'll tackle one of the many political-economic books I've picked up recently.
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited May 2010
    Stephen wrote: »
    Want another good sci-fi comedy then? The Stainless Steel Rat, by Harry Harrison. I give it a 10/10. Trust me it has nothing to do with an actual stainless steel rat. ;) It's about a criminal so slick the only thing they could do with him when they finally caught him was to make him a cop.

    I was always a fan of the Bill the Galactic Hero series myself.
  • GlowGlow Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I read mostly poetry nowadays, with some popular science thrown in. My favorites right now are Michael Polan's The Botany of Desire, and the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska, Kay Ryan (current U.S. Poet Laureate) and Richard Hugo.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    keep 'em comin
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited May 2010
    Since today is International Midwives' Day and the birthday of Karl Marx, I recommend reading The Red Tent and Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 respectively. It's also the birthday of Soren Kierkegaard, but I've yet to read anything by him.
  • johnathanjohnathan Canada Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I prefer fantasy... Anything by R.A. Salvatore, Terry Goodkind (The sword of Truth series), Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time series), David B. Coe (Winds of the Forelands series), George R.R.Martin (The Song of Ice and Fire series), J.R.R.Tolkien's (Lord of the Rings),

    also a bit of Sci-Fi... Orson Scott Card (the whole Ender's Game series), Tad Williams (the Otherland series),
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited May 2010
    johnathan wrote: »
    I prefer fantasy... Anything by R.A. Salvatore, Terry Goodkind (The sword of Truth series), Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time series), David B. Coe (Winds of the Forelands series), George R.R.Martin (The Song of Ice and Fire series), J.R.R.Tolkien's (Lord of the Rings),

    also a bit of Sci-Fi... Orson Scott Card (the whole Ender's Game series), Tad Williams (the Otherland series),

    If you haven't read them already, you might like L. E. Modesitt's Saga of Recluse series and Terry Brooks' Shannara series. I also highly recommend the Frank Herbert's Dune series, which is one of my all-time favourites along with the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I have one idea for a/my book, it's about a mental hospital's patients struggling for survival in a bittersweet alternative reality and another about a very modern family hurtled into a world of adventure. I don't if I'll mix them up still, it depends if I start running out of ideas on a book and need something really big and fresh to be added.

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • Fran45Fran45
    edited May 2010
    I love travel literature - Paul Theroux, William Dalrymple, Dervla Murphy, Colin Thubron. I've just read Yoga School Dropout by Lucy Edge which was very funny. I'm now reading City of Djinns: A year in Dehli. I'm unable to travel long haul because of my health, so I get great pleasure from armchair travel.

    I also read a lot of short stories by Alice Munro and Lorrie Moore. Novels by Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Michelle Roberts. I'm a big fan of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens too.

    In addition I read a lot of books about Buddhism and spirituality. I'm currently reading How to Practice by HH Dalai Llama and Nothing Special: Living Zen by Charlotte Joko Beck. A big favourite is Psychoanalysis and Buddhism by Jeffrey Safran which I go back to over and over again.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Cool, thanks Fran. At the minute I'm trying to write two books. One about a group of school friends who try to find out there school's ghastly secret and one about the quirky adventures of a small family which stemmed from four children who escaped a dangerous and remote island.

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • Fran45Fran45
    edited May 2010
    Enjoy your writing - it is great that you're so full of ideas and motivation! It is said that all the best writers read voraciously.....So, what kind of books do you read?
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I read loads, adult murder books, romance, comedy, quirky, magic, sad, horror, there's only 2 fictional books I've ever started to read and got so board I stopped LOL. I read ALOT of books, at the minute I'm reading 'The Art of Happiness', 'The Mystery of the Missing House' and 'So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'.
    The books I'm writing aims and educating people that you shouldn't bully and that it's cool to be different. It's based on the children in a support group, who are in there for disabilities or bullying for various reasons. All there parents abuse them and they are very unhappy... The ending isn't happy but it isn't sad. I've got a loose, changable plan of what happens...

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • ZachaaZachaa
    edited May 2010
    OOOoooOOOOhhhh I belong in this thread! Already so many of my favorites have been mentioned... Hitchhiker's Guide, Ender's Game, Book of Amber, LOTR, A Song of Ice and Fire (I follow the author's blog and he IS making progress... just... very... slow... ... ... progress!) :):):)

    Also, of course, Harry Potter. I love all the books but my personal favorites are 3 and 6. I just finished Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series and quite enjoyed it. Recently I've been re-reading the Mists of Avalon. I guess I'm into the thick, epic tomes :)

    Jellybean, I used to write creatively SO MUCH... and then I grew up. Don't let that happen to you!!! I regret it. I know it's never too late to start up again but now I'm just so cynical and critical of my own writing that it's difficult. Keep writing, especially through college (that's about where I lost it).
  • Fran45Fran45
    edited May 2010
    Mists of Avalon is one of my favourite books - thanks for reminding me of it!
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I scrapped my last story-line but am starting afresh (once again even better words are coming out much more often and much more prolific than before) and I've written a fair bit already. It's set in a very similar Alternative Reality and is about this play called Romantic and Murderous Music that's sent to South Hemlock Secondery School in a small village named Tightrope in which the children will be the first people to act it out in the world. So three exceeding children, one very very optimistic, one very very pessimistic, and one very very realistic hold auditions and they start acting out the play which is set in 1964 about an American woman who falls in love with an African man, and some people frown on them and try to break them apart and then someone tries to kill him and other people die and they embark on a murder mystery with the occasional song. While the kids are trying to rehearse a group of them also have to embark on a murder mystery when one of the pupils is killed, and on the way they fall in love and have the occasional song, not forgetting lots of sleeze :D

    All the best
    Jellybean
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Oh, and then find out why there lives are happening in a recognisable manor to the play and... Well I haven't quite fully planned that out for now :D
  • ZenBadgerZenBadger Derbyshire, UK Veteran
    edited May 2010
    All this fantasy and Sci Fi, chewing gum for the eyes (...no thanks Ted!).

    If you really want to learn how to write then you can do little better than to read Charles Dickens, H.G.Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Brontes, Jane Austen or Thomas Hardy. If I had only three books to take to my desert island they would be Great Expectations, Treasure Island and Jane Eyre, although it would be difficult to only choose three.

    I am quite partial to the odd Simon Scarrow or Robert Rankin though...
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    There was a question sheet at school and here was the question...
    The person who discovered the theory of evolution was Charles D.....
    My friend said Dickens :D
  • Fran45Fran45
    edited May 2010
    Great Expectations is good.....Our Mutual Friend is wonderful too.

    Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy is another great book and destined to be a classic. I've also read and reread Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy. He deservedly won a Nobel prize in literature.

    The plot of your book sounds very complicated Love'n'Peace!
  • Fran45Fran45
    edited May 2010
    I was once in a bookshop when a person asked for a copy of the Bible and I heard the assistant ask who it was written by.....Even worse was that it was a university bookshop! :eek:
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Hehehe!
    The plot's going to be an ickle bit tricky to write, but as seen as I'm not physically strong I better give the old brain a 50 km run :D I've got to carefully plan the story-line for the murder mystery and all the clues and red-herrings as well as where all the little clues that two people are falling in love come in, all the songs come to me naturally :D

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • Fran45Fran45
    edited May 2010
    Post it notes may come in handy to keep track then!
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    LOL I can borrow some from my nan and make a little trail of post-it notes on the wall for each step to completing my book, my own little stair-way to Heaven :D

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • StaticToyboxStaticToybox Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Kikujiro wrote: »
    It's easier to say anything that takes my interest. Because I have no "I like this kind of book, but not this kind of book" preferences.

    This. Some of my favorites are:

    The Children of Hurin and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
    The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
    1984 by George Orwell
    We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (I guess I do kinda have a thing for distopian fiction)
    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
    Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

    In addition religion fascinates me and I like to read the holy texts of various religions. I'm also greatly fond of the writings and art of William Blake.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Those books sound interesting, I've never read any of them though. Have you ever read Skellig, there's a girl in it who hangs on William Blake's every word :D It's a good book, we're reading it in English and I've went on a school trip to see it at the theatre and I've watched it on TV, it's good :)

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • FoibleFullFoibleFull Canada Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I like psychological fiction ... books that deal with people trying to live their lives, coming-of-age books, ones where the protagonist gains new understanding about an important aspect of living, etc. ... in short, books that show the basic human dignity.
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Yeah, they can be quite good :)

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • ZenBadgerZenBadger Derbyshire, UK Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Takeahnase wrote: »
    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    Oooh yess! I often read Frankenstein when I am working abroad, just because my home town (Matlock) gets a mention!
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    OMG really? Matlock is the nicest place I've ever been to :D

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • StaticToyboxStaticToybox Veteran
    edited May 2010
    ZenBadger wrote: »
    Oooh yess! I often read Frankenstein when I am working abroad, just because my home town (Matlock) gets a mention!

    Matlock?
    matlock2.jpg



    As an aside I love the Walter Sobchak avatar.
  • ZenBadgerZenBadger Derbyshire, UK Veteran
    edited May 2010
    Quite a few Americans turn up here just to say they have been. As the show has never been broadcast over here it was a complete mystery to us for many years...

    As for Walter, I have been mistaken for John Goodman on many occasions, the guy at the bowling alley always checks me for guns :)
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    LOL
    Anyways, Matlock's a place in Derbyshire :p

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • MarmaladeMarmalade
    edited May 2010
    The best kind of books take you somewhere. You know, those kind that envelopes you in someone else's perspective. I know it sounds cliche, but write the book that you want to read. For me, when I stop making music that I think others will like, and make the music that I like, I produce my best stuff.

    Lately I've been really getting into those old folktale type of short stories. The ones that have clever little bits of wisdom in them. The other day I was at the library and read this comic book called "The Sandman: The Dream Hunters", it was a really cool integration of comic books and clever, Chuang Tzu-like stories

    And Stephen King, he's goooooood :)
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    That sounds a sound bit of advise Marmalade, thanks :D I'm definitely writing the thing I'd love to read :D

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • Love-N-PeaceLove-N-Peace Veteran
    edited May 2010
    I read on the internet that you should write from your own life and to do that I'll make a list of key problems that I can incorporate in my story that have been key problems in my life.
    Family divorce and falling out.
    Love confusion.
    Back-stabbing two-faced 'friends'.
    Unfair side-taking.
    I've decided to make up a family that ranges from newborn to OAP to get a full view of people of different ages :)

    All the best,
    Jellybean
  • daveysmithdaveysmith
    edited May 2010
    crime fiction.
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