I could never read so many books.
I have a few recommendations though, so if you haven't read these yet you can put them into your list.

1. "Steppenwolf" - Hermann Hesse
2. "Demian" - Hermann Hesse
3. "Siddhartha" - Hermann Hesse

Um, I could go on forever with the existentialistic literature, but for now I'll only post Hesse's work.

Oh yeah, here we go: I dare you to read Thus Spoke Zarathustra in a week!

Seriously though, James Clavell's Shogun is excellent and highly readable. I finished it in three days myself, but that was without sleeping.

PS: has anybody seen the books thread? I can't seem to find it.

Added a couple more.

18.    The Science of Good & Evil - Michael Shermer
19.    Why People Believe Weird Things - Michael Shermer
20.    House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
21.    The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
22.    The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
23.    1984 - George Orwell
24.    Shogun - James Clavell

Damn.  This is hard!  I thought I could rattle off a lot more than this.

Anyone have a few non-fiction books to recommend?

Do you like Agatha Christie? My personal favorite is 'The Mysterious Mr. Quin'.

nvt2125 wrote:

Anybody else thinking of starting their own list?

Yes, but first I need to get my lazy self into the home "library" to see what all I already own and still need to read.  That'll cover about 20 books or so.  And then see what's actually available in my local library system, and then see what I want to risk buying (okay, so that'll be anything by Murakami Haruki and Yoshimoto Banana...)

Since you seem to like Stephen King, have you read Rose Madder?  It's the only book of his that I've actually read, but I liked it (except for a weird part involving a mirror--felt really out of place in the overall story) when I read it about 6 or 7 years ago.

Hinotori wrote:

If you want a pile of books that are easy to read but are still relatively good I'd recommend the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. They're basically the most fun things I've ever read and boy are there ever a lot.

Let me second that!  I'm not one for fantasy really (I have some I like, but I wouldn't call myself a fan of the genre), but I adore Pratchett's comedic take on things.  Once I get around to making my own list, at least one of his will be on it, probably more.

nvt2125 wrote:

While I have heard good things about Pratchett and Discworld, I don't want to commit to a series at the moment.  Right now, I won't start a series that has more than three books.

I'm slowly going through the lit thread.  For some reason, I keep putting it off...  I have no idea why...

For the most part, the Discworld books aren't really connected at all.  The first three (Light Fantastic, Color of Magic, and...umm...the other one) kind of do best together, but really, you can read the books in any order, don't need to read them all, etc.  They're just all set in the same world, but that's it.  It's not really a series in the sense of each book following the next or anything like that.  You don't have to commit at all.  I've only read 5 of them thus far, the first being Small Gods.

Thanks for the recommendation on Misery.  I'll probably pick it up at the library.  I think I have The Stand at home (Paradox's) so I might try that as well.

Cerise wrote:

For the most part, the Discworld books aren't really connected at all.  The first three (Light Fantastic, Color of Magic, and...umm...the other one) kind of do best together, but really, you can read the books in any order, don't need to read them all, etc.  They're just all set in the same world, but that's it.  It's not really a series in the sense of each book following the next or anything like that.  You don't have to commit at all.  I've only read 5 of them thus far, the first being Small Gods.

This is generally true, in as much as any Discworld book can be read independant of the rest. There are 'arcs,' however, where having read previous books will give the reader a better appreciation for some reference. The arcs are generally based on which characters are dealt with, for example there are several books in which Death (anthropomorphised) is the connecting figure. [Although Death also shows up as a minor character in nearly every book.]

Even though The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are the first two Discworld books, I highly suggest starting with something else. The general concepts were still unformed, making them read more like standred fantasy with some interesting bits thrown in. They're my least favourites (aside from Sourcery, I guess.) Small Gods is probably the most stand alone and a very good book to boot. Going Postal is also very self-contained (it looks to be starting an arc of its own) but being one of the latest books it does make a fair bit of reference to earlier works.

So to sum up, if you do decide to read any Discworld, I'd suggest starting with Small Gods. (Or The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents!)

Raven Nightshade wrote:

nvt2125 wrote:

While I have heard good things about Pratchett and Discworld, I don't want to commit to a series at the moment.  Right now, I won't start a series that has more than three books.

Then you might want to wait on the Hitchhiker's Guide series, unless you're willing to make an exception. OR you could buy the big hardback version with everything in it and pretend it's just one big book.

EDIT: On the subject of Stephen King, have you also read Gerald's Game, Firestarter, Carrie, and Thinner?

Whoops!  How did I miss that? *Takes Hitchhiker out*

Thinner is the only one of those four that I read.  It wasn't my favorite Bachman book (The Long Walk holds that title), but I still liked it.  And yes, it is strange that a SK like me has read a lot of his works, but not his first.  Now that I think about it, I seem to be doing the same thing with Richard Dawkins and his first book, The Selfish Gene.

Cerise, if you are serious about starting The Stand, you should read Misery first, just to be sure you like his style.  The Stand is one long mother (checks shelf... the uncut paperback edition: 1141 pages.)

Tamago wrote:

44. Utopia by Sir Thomas More

Added.

nvt2125 wrote:

Thinner is the only one of those four that I read.  It wasn't my favorite Bachman book (The Long Walk holds that title), but I still liked it.  And yes, it is strange that a SK like me has read a lot of his works, but not his first.  Now that I think about it, I seem to be doing the same thing with Richard Dawkins and his first book, The Selfish Gene.

So have you missed a lot of his earlier stuff, then, particularly the ones that were made into his more popular movies?

Gerald's Game is a good read. It's more in the vein of Misery than Carrie or Firestarter in that it's psychological instead of supernaturally oriented.

Raven Nightshade wrote:

nvt2125 wrote:

Thinner is the only one of those four that I read.  It wasn't my favorite Bachman book (The Long Walk holds that title), but I still liked it.  And yes, it is strange that a SK like me has read a lot of his works, but not his first.  Now that I think about it, I seem to be doing the same thing with Richard Dawkins and his first book, The Selfish Gene.

So have you missed a lot of his earlier stuff, then, particularly the ones that were made into his more popular movies?

Gerald's Game is a good read. It's more in the vein of Misery than Carrie or Firestarter in that it's psychological instead of supernaturally oriented.

Yeah, I do tend to drift away from King's supernatural works.  There are exceptions to this (Dark Tower and others), but I seem to get drawn into stories where the protagonist doesn't need to rely on a charm/magic spell/other deus ex machina in order to get out of a jam.  Another one of my favorite authors, Scott Sigler, is very good at creating white knuckle tension and using solutions that don't seem like escape hatches.

If you want to read one of his best books, Ancestor, for free, go here: http://scottsigler.podshow.com/2007/03/19/ancestor-pdf/  He put the entire PDF of Ancestor on his site before the book went on sale at amazon.

Here's Ancestor's summary, taken from the book: Scientists struggle to solve the problem of xenotransplantation -- using animal tissue to replace failing human organs. Funded by the biotech firm Genada, Dr. Claus Rhumkorrf seeks to recreate the ancestor of all mammals. By getting back to the root of our creation, Rhumkorrf hopes to create an animal with human internal organs. Rhumkorrf discovers the ancestor, but it is not the small, harmless creature he envisions. His genius gives birth to a fast-growing evil that nature eradicated 250 million years ago -- an evil now on the loose, and very, very hungry.

His other works, Earthcore, Ancestor, Infection (The best one),and The Rookie are available for free at: http://scottsigler.podshow.com/ and http://www.podiobooks.com/

One day, I would like to do something like this. But I am a slow reader, so it would probably be fewer books.

My favourites:

The Tithe - Holly Black
Ironside - Holly Black
American Gods - Neil Gaiman