I'm looking for good books to read. Suggestions?

[heyelander]

you haven't met heye, have you ...

Well, I had lost my wallet that day...

[Gregg]

My favorite author is Cliff Notes.

He has written many interesting and short books. Gets right to to the point.

Very difficult to find in hard cover.

[Sour Masher]

I second the suggestions of The Road, The Book Thief, and Ready Player One. The last is being made into a movie, I believe; I hope they do a good job with it.

Also, if you were willing to read sci-fi dystopia, it is an older book (early 90s), but Snow Crash is a great read, both fun (the main protagonist is named Hiro Protagonist) and thought-provoking. Stephenson is a guy who has been read by and influenced a lot of computer programs I've known over the years, but Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are the only novels of his I could get through--like Stephen King, he seemed to allow himself to become less and less edited as his fame grew.

And if you are open to a 1950s era sci-fi dystopian novel, I don't think I've ever read a more tightly written one than The Stars My Destination. Not a wasted word in the whole thing--a quick and engaging read by an under-appreciated and inventive author--Alfred Bester. Personally, I love reading old sci-fi. I love how authors tried to anticipate the future while addressing their present. Reading them makes me feel like I am reading about both the past and future at the same time. I also appreciate short, tightly written novels, as I have trouble finishing 500+ page tomes--especially if I think the same tale could be told in half the pages.

And speaking of shorter works, if you want a break from dystopian fiction and are open to irreverent humor, I recommend Christopher Moore. All his books are quick, fun reads. By far his best is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal . It is damned funny (pun intended). While I'd characterize it as profane, it is lovingly profane. I think both non-religious folks and Christians who have a sense of humor would enjoy it. If you think the idea of getting the inside scoop on what went down in all those years the New Testament skips before Jesus pops up a fully made Messiah around age 30, and that inside scoop is told from an apostle so annoying he was left out of the new testament, and his account involves Jesus going East to learn Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu thinking, and doing kick ass Kung Fu, could be funny, it is a good book to give a go. It is a surprisingly well-researched, thoughtful, and good-natured send up.

[Pauly]

I absolutely loved Ready Player One.

I am an avid reader of the genre, and for me, one of the best post-apocalyptic reads Ive had in quite a while were Justin Cronin's Passage trilogy. The first two books are tremendous...seriously great stuff and he is a great and talented writer. You will fly through them, I promise. The first book is called "The Passage", second is "The Twelve" and third is "The City of Mirrors".

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/PAS/passage-trilogy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6690798-the-passage

You will finish RP1 in a few days and it is great...this trilogy will last you a month or two. Great reading!

Adding: I read the Road and it is super depressing, even for a post-apocalyptic...Mccarthy is a terrific writer though

[Hornsby]

Something off the beaten path that I really was surprisingly happy with..."The Old Man and the Wasteland". it's a trilogy, but it's a short one...make sure you buy the trilogy, or apparently you get screwed on the 3rd book, or so says some reviewer. Here's the Amazon blurb.

Part Hemingway, part Cormac McCarthy's The Road, a suspenseful odyssey into the dark heart of the post-apocalyptic American Southwest.

Forty years after the destruction of civilization, human beings are reduced to salvaging the ruins of a broken world. One survivor's most prized possession is Hemingway's classic The Old Man and the Sea. With the words of the novel echoing across the wasteland, a living victim of the Nuclear Holocaust journeys into the unknown to break a curse.

What follows is an incredible tale of grit and endurance. A lone traveler must survive the desert wilderness and mankind gone savage to discover the truth of Hemingway's classic tale of man versus nature.

[Fresno Bob]

I was going to recommend "The Passage" as well.

[Redbirds Fan]

I picked up "Ready Player One" on Kindle, and I'm about half way through it. I'm really enjoying it. I like the author's writing style, and it is an interesting read.

The 80s pop culture stuff is great, too.

[Igor]

I picked up "Ready Player One" on Kindle, and I'm about half way through it. I'm really enjoying it. I like the author's writing style, and it is an interesting read.

The 80s pop culture stuff is great, too.

Agree, but don't be in a hurry to read his second book, Armada, was disappointed.

[mjl]

I liked Ready Player One also, but I understand the cultural backlash that hit after Armada and with the news about the movie - a lot of the value of the books is in saying "I recognize that!" which kind of wears thin eventually and doesn't always cover for a lack of competent story. Armada really has nothing except the pop culture references.

A couple other options: The Postmortal and 17776 football, which is not a book and won't take you very long but I just loved it.

Also Snow Crash (and Diamond Age) are great.

[Fresno Bob]

Agree, but don't be in a hurry to read his second book, Armada, was disappointed.

yep, a weak ass "Last Starfighter"....

[Redbirds Fan]

Agree, but don't be in a hurry to read his second book, Armada, was disappointed.

I finished "Ready Player One" and have mixed feelings. I thought the first half was great and that it set things up for a really great second half. I didn't really get what I was looking for.

I was expecting a certain maturation of the characters and an increased emotional complexity of plot that wasn't there. Instead, the second half was very much like the first half.

As a result, the book wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped it would be. Still good, but not great. JMO.

[TranaGreg]

Maddonas of Lenningrad
https://www.amazon.com/Madonnas-Leni...dp_kinw_strp_1

thanks for the reco on this one, I read it on the weekend ... really enjoyed it, it's the kind of story that sticks with you afterwards

[Mithrandir]

https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Fletcher-Novel-Tom-Perrotta-ebook/dp/B01NAKX8WI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1506355312&sr=1-1&keywords=mrs+fletcher

[heyelander]

thanks for the reco on this one, I read it on the weekend ... really enjoyed it, it's the kind of story that sticks with you afterwards

Glad you enjoyed it.

I'm currently in the second book of The Passage series. I keep thinking I know where it's going and it always seems to head off somewhere else. I'll reserve judgement until I'm done with the three.

[heyelander]

Glad you enjoyed it.

I'm currently in the second book of The Passage series. I keep thinking I know where it's going and it always seems to head off somewhere else. I'll reserve judgement until I'm done with the three.

So I'm a third of the way through the third book now...

Spoiler!

Alicia has just tried to kill zero only to find out she is incapable... he launches into a 100 pages whine about his mom, Harvard, love, loss and whatever else... about half way through I couldn't understand how, after being forced to listen to all this, Alicia suddenly didn't find the strength to slit his throat.