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Looking for a good book.... within my requirements.

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 9:53 pm
by DaveTheAve
Heres the deal, I HATE to read, I'm horrible at it, my mind wonders, I'm never engaged, I find it horribly boring, and I'm sure I can go on naming half-a-million other complaints. Thus, I would like you to provide me with a few books you'd recommend to me to read. Now I know that is extremely contradicting; however, I feel that if I push myself to read a book I like, I MIGHT become more open to reading.

First I'll give you what I'm hoping to find in a book:
1. Short (around 400pages Willing to ballpark that.)
2. MUST not be too detailed. If there are too many details, my mind WILL wonder.
3. MUST heavily include characters psyche. I'm big on psychology. This will actually make me drastically MORE interested.
4. Should have a great plot.
5. Should have lots of action or drama.
6. Books dealing with the helping of a suicidal people are actually a plus. In the past year, I've had to save over half-a-dozen suicidal people. This is due to my good understanding of people's Psyche. (Also why I liked to read about it - to help me help others.)
7. Did I just completely describe a soap-opera?

Books I like and can remember:
1. Some Stephen King book about this plane that looses all it's passengers and winds up in this deserted airport with a psycho.
2. Fighting Ruben Wolfe (Long time ago but I liked it)
3. Playing in Traffic (Gail Giles)
4. The Alex Rider Series
5. The Raven's Gate Series (written by the creator of the Alex Rider series.)
6. Artemis Fowl

I don't like:
1. Lord Of the Rings
2. Harry Potter
3. Halo / D&D / etc.

I'm not much of a help I know, but like ANYTHING you mention I'll at least Amazon it to read the description. If I like it I'll check it out at my college library.

Re: Looking for a good book.... within my requirements.

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:35 pm
by andyhoneycutt
I enjoyed the hell out of Jennifer Government by Max Barry. I'd also recommend Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan but it's 120-odd pages over your max-capacity ;)

Amazon has some decent reviews of the books.

-Andy

Re: Looking for a good book.... within my requirements.

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:13 pm
by Mordred
DaveTheAve wrote:7. Did I just completely describe a soap-opera?
Not a regular soap opera -- a SPACE soap opera!

Here's the main character: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Vorkosigan
He's a disfigured hyperactive little genius, overcoming his physical disabilities with 10x brains, willpower, bravado and luck.
There's also a cast of other lunatics around, none too suicidal (except his clone-brother-whatever Mark), but often homicidal as hell.

For starters I recommend the short story "Borders of Infinity" (available as part of a book with the same title).
Warning: Do not read wikipedia's description, it contains vital and fun-damaging spoilers.
It demonstrates very well his modus operandi with impossible-to-do things.

If you get hooked, "The Vor Game" is a good novel to start the Saga with.

Re: Looking for a good book.... within my requirements.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:14 pm
by Chalks
If you want something easy to get into, go with Ender's Game. Fun read, and the author really gets into mind games a couple times. It's pretty short too.

If you want something funny, pretty much anything by Terry Pratchett is good. here is a reading guide. The Colour of Magic is an excellent place to start.

If you liked Artemis Fowl, you might really like Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Don't be dissuaded by the TERRIBLE movie... the book is very entertaining. There's a sequel called Eldest that's also good. And in a month or so, a third book is slated to come out. I can't wait to read it. :)

A much longer and more involved fantasy type story is the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. Very, very good, and very, very long. Each book is huge, and there are already 4 published books with 3 more planned. edit: there's also a game based on Martin's series: A Game of Thrones. I played it and it was fantastic... took 6 of us 7 hours to finish, but dang, we had a blast. We got so into it we literally forgot to eat lunch.