Your Favourite Books, Your Favourite Authors

The film thread got me thinking about this one.

Iain M Banks and his alter ego Iain Banks are amongst my favourite authors. He writes fiction and sci-fiction. (The M is used for Sci-fi.)

I think he's done one non-fiction about whisky distilleries as well!

A Scottish writer, Scotland seems to produce plenty of good writers given its small population.

Bank's novels always seem to have very well developed characters, ditto for the worlds/universes they inhabit. It's full of descriptive narrative, almost too much at times.

But the best thing about any of his books you will read is the twists. You don't see them coming and when they do they always leave you wanting to read just that little bit more. I'm not a fast reader - but I get through Bank's work in no time at all.

He cleverly weaves suspense, drama, violence, humour and the plain absurd into a rich tapestry. Always keeping you guessing and wanting to read more. Gripping is one word you could use to describe  books such as 'The Wasp Factory' and 'Complicity'. All essential reads in my opinion.

His sci-fi work is also top drawer. Feersum Endjinn for example features its own style of language to draw you into a far-off world that  is  so removed from our own, yet made as real as anything else you will read.
Also worth a punt are his 'Culture' novels. 'The Culture' being a race of people descended from some sort of human life-form.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks

Another guy who is rather removed from the Scottish scene, is US Crime/Drama/Dark Humour writer George Pelecanos.

Involved in 'The Wire' on HBO. But he made his name as a writer of fictional novels first. Some in the first person (The Stefanos series) or in the third person later on (The Night Gardener etc or the DC Quartet). I've read all his work and it's all superb in my opinion. Especially the short (ish) story - Shoedog.

Pelacanos is kind of the opposite to Banks, in that while they both give a very real and detailed scape to their worlds & characters, Pelecanos does it with the minimum of words. Bank's work is more Epic.

The vast bulk of his writing is set in and around Washington DC and Maryland. He has the ability to quickly paint a detailed picture in your mind of everything that is happening, seemingly without effort on either his part or the readers.

His books are an effortless joy to read. The language is simple. But so skilfully deployed that he is one of the most powerful writers to come out of America that I have read.

When I read his work I feel like I'm watching the scenes play in my head like a film.

He's not published anything in a while as much of his time is spent working in TV and Film nowadays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelecanos

Christian Jacq wiki page

I read around 13 of his books, i really enjoyed them, they were somewhat predictable but i enjoyed the storytelling (when i read them i was 13 yrs old) so for me they were pretty awesome

the books i have read where

The Ramses Series

nice one rich! i have to put my effort here but will take me a while

my favorite of all time: all DUNE books started originally by Frank Herbert in 60-s and continued in 90-s by (his son) Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.. read all the books twice...

an interesting thing with Sci-Fi is the fact that all the words and expressions they made up back then (and earlier in 20th century) are now being used in science, such as laser, blaster, teleport, etc...

ps. great thread!! and i know Banks and have read a few of his novels, very good stuff.

I shall go the classic route. I honestly did not realize that Richie could read. I thought he liked books with pictures  

CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia was great....its up there because I read them as a child.

Ayn Rand's books are a real headcase.....who is john galt

I always enjoyed HG Wells - The Time Machine or Jules Verne

Lindsay Simpson, Sandra Harvey "Brothers in Arms" Allen & Unwin 2001

Not a classic by anymeans, but a great insight into bikers war here in Australia....

                 

You mean the religious, neo-conservative route?  

Cheers for the topic idea, Richard.  

Favorite books:


Fiction:

Siddhartha
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Count of Monte Cristo (English translation, I'm not Richard   )
The Stand
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Catcher in the Rye
Ender's Game
All in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series
Catch-22


Non-fiction:

The God Delusion
Einstein
The Fabric of the Cosmos
The Age of Reason
The Greatest Show on Earth
Schindler's List
The Nine

..........Well being English, I got to admit it's difficult trying to decipher your 'pigeon grammar' Mr P!!    

Mallam: The God Delusion - what an awesome book!!!! Read it a few years back. I even have it as an audio book now so I can re-live it on the iPod.  

My latest book is actually..... French. As in written in said language.  

I'll let you know how I get on with it.

660 pages of semi-decipherable sentences await!

I'm at the coast this weekend, so a bit of light reading for the beach.    

So far I've read 14 pages and don't really understand too much of it. Where the hell did I put my French dictionary?

Richard, we certainly have similar tastes (in movies, as well)!  


Richard Dawkins is an amazing author, both in content and writing ability.  The former Oxford Professor has taught me much.  Have you read any of his other works?  The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The Greatest Show on Earth, etc?  If not, do so!  If so, let's discuss!  


Cheers, bud.  

well, maybe too obvious, but 1984 is one of my favourite among a few. it has impressed me too much too early in my life so i cant never forget. the quote

-does BB exists?
-of course he exists!
-does he exist in the same way i exist?
-you do not exist!

sounds very true up at present when we all have "democracy"

the film adabted is not bad too, Richard Burton is OK and John Hurt is awesome

Get it together idiot!

I have always been a huge fan of CS Lewis, mostly for his books but his Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity are great ones.

Ayn Rand had objectivism, which was certainly not conservative nor religious. She stated the following "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute". Which is in direct contradiction to my own personal beliefs. She also argued about the laissez-faire approach to the market and we all know what that led to.

HG Wells was an atheist by the end of this life and very outspoken against the Catholic Church. So no religion there and his views were not conservative.

Jules Verne enjoyed pushing sci-fiction books and stayed out of conservative views.

like I said slacker, you really tried with that blanket statement....