Book recommendations

I recently found a $50 Kindle on craigslist and couldn't resist. I wasn't really an ebook fan but this thing is darn convenient and free books are nice. That said, I'm looking for some good books to read. I generally like sci-fi but there are a ton of classics in every genre I'm sure I need to read. Books that I can download for free get major bonus points as I'm poor.

Other free download site recommendations are also appreciated.

Cruising this site at the moment for free downloads:

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://free-ebook-download.org/

one of my favorite series of books is Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, but i'd imagine they arent easy to find free.

Many of the scifi publishers release ebooks for free through their own websites.

The Harvard Classics should be free and include the basic classic works you need to read up to 1909 or so.

-James

Project Gutenberg has been around forever. Long, long before e-book readers existed. They have a rather extensive library of literature, all free. As I'm sure you have discovered.

Sci-fi you say?

The trilogies by Ian Douglas and the new Star Carrier novels are some of the best sci-fi IMO. Also pick up some Warhammer 40K stuff if you like dark stuff. Eisenhorn and Ravenor by Dan Abbnett are classics, the Ciaphas Cain stuff by Sandy Mitchel is humorous, and I really enjoy the Horus Heresy series.

Non sci-fi, check out the Imperial Cruise. It will change everything you think about Teddy Roosevelt, WWII, and Hawaii.

Frank herbert.

Charles stross.

Peter f. Hamilton

bluej wrote: Frank herbert.

It's never too late to stop reading Dune. You'll always appreciate it more if you stop where you are. I mean that seriously.

Dune is one of the best sci-fi books ever written. It is awesome, but the last part of the book is not as good as the set up in the rest of it.

Children of Dune is a really good book - a fun read - but not quite as well written as the first one

Dune Messiah is a fairly decent book if you're into the Dune series, but it could be be better....odd how the story becomes less compelling when you've close to achieving your goal and the goal posts shift.

God Emperor Dune is a stinking pile of E36 M3. OK, that's not fair. God Emperor Dune is a horrible read, regardless of whether or not you enjoyed the prior books. It was so horrible that I could not bring myself to read the last two books of the series.

My recommendation is that you read the first half of Dune and then stop. If you do, you'll think he's the most amazing author EVER. If you MUST finish the book, put it down immediately and walk away. Don't pick up another book if you want to continue to enjoy the story.

ASIMOV.
I, Robot
the foundation trilogy and all the others that followed (especially Foundation's Edge
Bicentennial Man
Bradbury's Martian Chronicles

Some Wells, Some Orwell, you know: the classics.

Second the Asimov choices.

Dune was a tough slog of a read. The rest of them just reeked, I don't think I finished any of them.

The Harry Harrison 'Stainless Steel Rat' stories are a lot of fun.

'The Forever War' series by Joe Haldeman is very good, if a little despairing of humanity.

If you can find it out there, 'The Collected Essays of Mark Twain' is a lot of fun, especially the story about him learning to ride a penny/farthing bicycle. Samuel Clemens had a real gift with the written word.

vonnegut vonnegut vonnegut
every single book I have read of his, numbering about 20 so far, has been absolutely amazing.
Pretty sure this is contrary to most Vonnegut fans preferences but my favorites are Mother Night and Galapagos. They are all Stellar though

Oh, if you haven't already done so check out anything by Harlan Ellison. He's most famous for writing the book which was made into 'RoboCop'.

From his Web site http://harlanellison.com/quoteentry.htm "Why do people keep insisting that I join the 21st Century? I LIVE in the 21st Century! I just don't want to be bothered by the E36 M3heads on the internet!"

'Lucifer's Hammer' by Niven and Pournelle is a good book, too.

Folk on here got me hooked on Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash and Zodiac are my favourites of his.

Luke wrote: Folk on here got me hooked on Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash and Zodiac are my favourites of his.

+1 I love both of those books. The "Hiro didn't have zanshin" scene in snowcrash is brilliant, and EVERYTHING about Zodiac is wonderful. I'm wanting to read his book The Big U

The story chronicles the disillusionment of a number of young intellectuals as they encounter the realities of the higher education establishment parodied in the story. Over time their lives and sanity disintegrate in different ways through a series of escalating events that culminates with a full scale civil war raging on the campus of American Megaversity.

It is probably not as polished as his later work.....

Stephenson has said he is not proud of this book.[1] By the time Snow Crash was published, The Big U was out of print, and Stephenson was content to leave it that way. When original editions began selling on eBay for hundreds of dollars, he relented and allowed it to be republished, saying that the only thing worse than people reading the book was paying that much to read it.

...but it would still be fun.

The Big U is a great read, too. I enjoyed it as much as any of his books. Excellent satire, and very funny in parts.

Cryptonomicon is also worth mentioning. Certain sections are a bit of a slog, but all of the tangents and plot off-shoots come together very well in the end, I think.

Try your local puplic library. Mine has dowloadable ones thru your computer.

I read Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut, it was pretty good.

Recently wrapped up Time Machine and War of the Worlds by HG Wells.

Read Dune a few years back, it was OK but the focus was overly political for me IIRC.

Working on some Jules Verne stuff now, I think Twain is next on the list after those.

I've somehow never read any Asimov stuff, I'll have to get to it soon.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, keep 'em coming. I'll routinely burn through a book in a couple days given the free time.

Curmudgeon wrote: 'Lucifer's Hammer' by Niven and Pournelle is a good book, too.

+1

PubBurgers wrote: I've somehow never read any Asimov stuff, I'll have to get to it soon.

Start with this short story - http://75.24.127.133/Stories/Nightfall.htm

The Social Animal

porksboy wrote: Try your local puplic library. Mine has dowloadable ones thru your computer.

Yup, I make decent use of that with my local library. The selection isn't awesome, but I've found a couple of good authors that way and it's a good way to explore. Just like physical books!

Make sure they're Kindle-compatible books, though. There are some really stupid moves being made on everyone's part with DRM, and it's causing havoc and unneeded confusion amongst people who just want to read books.

Asimov isn't the world's greatest writer, but he's not challenging and developed some pretty well-thought-out worlds. I suspect his writing style masks the depth of the ideas - I have to admit I haven't read one of his for years, but a number of his stories stick with me two decades later. That means something.

Picked up Slaughterhouse Five in paper form today. For some reason I have a real hard time finding Vonnegut books in stores. Even the second hand store I bought Slaughterhouse in only had that one in stock.

for the kindle or any other e-reader, BAEN has made a bunch of their catalog free in hopes that you'll pony up a few clams for the rest of the series. :) http://www.baen.com/library/

It worked on me. lol

my reccomendations, admittedly very car-biased: The War of the Worlds and Time Machine (both Wells), The Art of Racing in the Rain (Stein, bit surprised nobody has mentioned it yet), as much Douglas Adams as you can possibly get, if you want some good auto-related books, try The Unfair Advantage (Mark Donohue) and The Gold Plated Porsche (Stephan Wilkinson), Unfair Advantage is a bit dry but it's still interesting, Gold Plated Porsche can be downright funny and is full of situations I think all of us can relate to as we do a bit of inventive cursing in the garage