Favorite non-vet related books

[twelvetigers]

...license plate says HGWRTS...

Really? Mine says 12TIGRS. Wonder what that says about me?

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[Myotis]

I have a wand and I bought the school robes and gryffindor socks and scarf and my license plate says HGWRTS and I got the deathly hallows tattoo....

I am the biggest Harry Potter nerd. Every year my friend and I dress up and go to the midnight showings, generally at theater's with bar's next to them to make the 4 hour line wait go by much more quickly. But overall, best books of all time....

Oh my goodness! That is AWESOME! hahahaha

 

[Myotis]

I'm seconding/thirding/whatevering Pat Rothfuss too! Name of the Wind was possibly the most amazing thing I've read in a very long time. If you're a super geek, check out his blog (http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/blog/blog.html) it is wonderfulness also, although not much on updates for the next book(last he posted about that, it was in the editors hands for FINAL revision).

Also, if you don't mind a bit of tedious world building, Anathem by Neil Stevenson is also wonderful.

Oh, I go to Pat's blog all the time lol, and I'm a fan of his on facebook, so I get updates that way too

 

[Highlsnds3]

I LOVE HP!! Also want to second the Temeraire series (I got the first in the series free from Amazon for my Kindle), and third/fourth... The Princess Bride I just wish Buttercups Baby (or whatever the sequel is called) had been written.

I also want to STRONGLY recommend the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (so far 7 books). Here's what Amazon has to say about the first book.

"Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she's somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank's evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders' daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frnak and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire's resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward"

Also just about anything by Dean Koontz, and I LOVE Boy's Life by Robert McCammon (great story about a kid growing up in the 60's when kids used their imagination more than they watched TV).

 

[dlf]

Oo GellaBella Pillars of the Earth was epic!! And the sequel World Without End!

Also, Water for Elephants (it's actually sort of vet-related I guess, about a Cornell Vet grad who works for a circus in the 30s... very good read).

And I'm sure these books are not actually that good, but I have awesome childhood memories of the Thoroughbred Series... Ashleigh Griffin and Wonder, anyone?

Ahhh I love Water for Elephants

 

[luplodw]

Ahhh I love Water for Elephants

I was surprised I didn't really like Water for Elephants.

 

[Ausheya]

I'm so glad there are other pre-vets who like reading--especially fantasy books! The pre-vets I've met don't seem to like reading for fun, which is depressing to me. Well, okay, most of the people at my school look at me funny when I say I like to read.

Some of my personal favorites:
Authors: Tamora Pierce, Jim Butcher, Sherwood Smith, Patricia Briggs, and Ilona Andrews.

If you haven't read Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith... please read it. It's an amazing book. I've read that book so many times, it's completely falling apart. I need to get her other books, but they don't carry them at the bookstores I've been to. They have her new series, but not the older ones.

I also read Robin McKinley a lot in high school, but haven't kept up with her more recent books. I love Deerskin. Another author I liked but lost track of is Kelley Armstrong. I don't really know why. I just lost interest in her series.

For single books, I like Green Rider (I didn't like First Rider's Call, and only sorta liked High King's Tomb) and Jurassic Park and The Lost World a lot. Those are the only ones off the top of my head, and most of my book collection isn't to hand.

 

[psjlg2]

Some of my personal favorites:
Authors: Tamora Pierce, Jim Butcher, Sherwood Smith, Patricia Briggs, and Ilona Andrews.

I love Tamora Pierce, especially the Wild Magic Series, although the Lioness Rampant ones were fantastic as well. I haven't yet been able to get into the new Bekka Cooper ones....oh well there will be time for that later

 

[twelvetigers]

THere are lots of familiar sounding authors on this page... anyone else here forget half of what they read? I've totally gotten a book before, sat down to read it, and figured out that I've read it already. I can't keep track! Same with movies. Unless I LOVED it (or, conversely, HATED it) I tend to forget it completely.

 

[Ausheya]

I love Tamora Pierce, especially the Wild Magic Series, although the Lioness Rampant ones were fantastic as well. I haven't yet been able to get into the new Bekka Cooper ones....oh well there will be time for that later

Wild Magic was what really started me on fantasy books. I only picked it up because it had horses on the cover. I'm really glad I did!

The Beka Cooper series is amazing. I didn't really like the Trickster duology, when compared to her older works, so I was a little leery of the Beka Cooper books. But they're so good. I love that there's a tie-back to her old series--a couple, actually. I thought it was worth the few hours of lost sleep time. XD

 

[Ausheya]

THere are lots of familiar sounding authors on this page... anyone else here forget half of what they read? I've totally gotten a book before, sat down to read it, and figured out that I've read it already. I can't keep track! Same with movies. Unless I LOVED it (or, conversely, HATED it) I tend to forget it completely.

Umm, yes. All the time. Not as much recently, but in middle school and high school I would go through books so fast that half the time I wouldn't remember the title a week later. Now, sometimes I pick up a book in the bookstore, start to read it, and think, "This sounds familiar..." and eventually figure out I've read it. Oops!

 

[OneHealthDVM]

I'm a huge Kurt Vonnegut fan, especially Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-five, and God bless you, Dr. Kevorkian are on my list. Also, most things from Stephen J. Gould(Wonderful Life/ The Panda's Thumb/ The Flamingo's Smile), E.O. Wilson( Consilience), and Carl Sagan (Pale Blue Dot/ Cosmos).

Also, since I think I'm a pretty big nerd, I also like to read about theoretical physics and string theory...so I like some work done by Michio Kaku (Hyperspace, Physics of the Impossible)

However, I think that if i didn't go into the sciences or medicine, I would have liked to study the classics, so anything by Homer, Virgil, and Ovid are spectacular reading.


Anyway, I guess that's way too many books.

 

[Highlsnds3]

Some of my personal favorites:
Authors: Tamora Pierce, Jim Butcher, Sherwood Smith, Patricia Briggs, and Ilona Andrews..

I've not read Smith or Pierce, but LOVE the other two. Basically, if it's got weres, witches, magic, or vamps I'll read it and go back for more from the same author if they are good.

I agree with twelvetigers, I loose track of the books that I've read, and the authors I like. Yet another reason I love my Kindle It'll tell me if I try to buy a book that I've already bought! Plus I can look at the books I already have (listed by author) and figure if I have more than one from an author I probably really like their writing! LOL

 

[katryn]

I agree with twelvetigers, I loose track of the books that I've read, and the authors I like. Yet another reason I love my Kindle It'll tell me if I try to buy a book that I've already bought! Plus I can look at the books I already have (listed by author) and figure if I have more than one from an author I probably really like their writing! LOL

I second that notion...I forget which books I've read all the time. The kindle is very good for this. So is Goodreads.com. It's essentially just a place to make a giant list of all the books you've read or want to read and rate them.

 

[Highlsnds3]

I tried Goodreads but since it requires ME to put things in I didn't do so well with it

 

[aspiringDVM]

I also want to STRONGLY recommend the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon (so far 7 books). Here's what Amazon has to say about the first book.

I love the Outlander books! People reading the Amazon summary might think the overall premise sounds a bit hokey, but they're really, really well written and not flakey in the least.
I also loved "To Kill a Mockingbird," almost anything by Jane Austen, Lauren Willig's novels about spies with flower names around the time of the French revolution (sorry I can't remember the actual name of the series -- the last one I read was "the Temptation of the Night Jasmine").
The last book I read was called "Day After Night," by Anita Diamont (author of "The Red Tent," which was also excellent) about Jews held in the Atlit camp while trying to make their way to Israel after WWII.

 

[lazyjayn]

hmm.. I love the Dark Hunter books by sherrilyn kenyon. Up until Ash's book, every time he shows up I want to give him a puppy.

I really enjoyed darkest evening of the year, by koontz. I'm a sucker for a creepy golden story.

My ongoing, ever and always love affair with green eggs and ham. And if I can't find that, the lorax.

I still re-read where the red fern grows every once in a while. And the Dark is Rising series by susan cooper. I'll give most caldecott or Newberry winners at least one shot, and many of them show up in my lists of favorites.

Hmmm... there's a fantasy/ futuristic series by patricia kennealy-morrison. Celtic/ arthurian. Called I think the keltiad. The first three- copper crown, throne of scone, silver branch- were the best, I think.

Um.. kinda creepy, but I also really enjoyed Atwood's the handmaid's tale.

No, I am not a reader. Not at all. How dare you accuse me of such an evil thing.

Oh, and if you've never read it, Island of the Blue Dolphins kicks serious butt.

-j.

 

[NittanyKitty]

Sweet thread! I'm definitely printing out some of these responses for my next visit to the library! And as for my list, here they are in no particular order. I'm limiting myself to 15 books because I could go on for pages.

"Watership Down" by Richard Adams
"Matilda" by Roald Dahl
"Star Trek: Imzadi" by Peter David (huge nerd, right here)
"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens
"Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
"A Prayer for Owen Meaney" by John Irving
"It" by Stephen King
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
"Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis
"Life of Pi" by Yaan Martel
"Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling
"A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain
"Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White

 

[pawprints]

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

That's my favourite book of ALL TIME! My copy is so tattered and tear stained, I've read it so many times...And I still can't prepare myself for the ending...

 

[twelvetigers]

Nittany, I have read and dearly enjoyed 11 of those books/series. Twinkies?

 

[NittanyKitty]

Nittany, I have read and dearly enjoyed 11 of those books/series. Twinkies?

Yes please!

 

[firelily]

The Kushiel Trilogies(there are two)-Jaqueline Carey

I loved those trilogies! I just got completely sucked in and couldn't put them down!

Also, I just read The Last Unicorn and it completely blew me away. Yes, it was made into a "children's" animated movie, but the book is completely more mature and amazing than the movie. Not saying the movie was bad, but the book was just phenomenal. I suggest it for anyone and everyone...it was beautiful and magical and just go read it. You'll be glad you did.

Anything by Christopher Moore is funny and weird and worth checking out. I just finished The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by him, which was really amusing, but the first one that got me hooked on his stuff was A Dirty Job, about a guy who works at a pawn shop who becomes a soul reaper...someone who collects people's souls when they die to pass them on to other people. Bizarre, and completely engrossing.

Other good ones:

The Red Tent
A Thousand Splendid Suns (just finished it yesterday and it broke my heart into a million pieces)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

 

[twelvetigers]

Also, I just read The Last Unicorn and it completely blew me away. Yes, it was made into a "children's" animated movie, but the book is completely more mature and amazing than the movie. Not saying the movie was bad, but the book was just phenomenal. I suggest it for anyone and everyone...it was beautiful and magical and just go read it. You'll be glad you did.

I mentioned Bruce Coville somewhere above - a childhood favorite, and you're right, it's still very readable as an adult. I love the Squijum.

ETA - WAIT! That was The Unicorn Chronicles (Song of the Wanderer) by Coville. The Last Unicorn is by Peter Beagle or something like that. I'm not sure I've read that one. Well, I'll trade you - you read one of the books by Coville, and I'll read The Last Unicorn.

 

[TexasTiger]

Harry Potter, is, of course, an all-time favorite
But a definite shout out to Jaqueline Carey, Anne McCaffrey, Brian Jacques, Michael Crichton, Charlaine Harris, Naomi Novik, Mercedes Lackey (The Obsidian Trilogy and Valdemar) and Philippa Gregory (I tend to list by author rather than book, haha)

If you like quick, fascinating (although not always believable) action/adventure, Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt series are just fun to read, as are all of Dan Brown's books (although I wasn't a huge fan of his sequel to The Da Vinci Code)

I also absolutely fell in love with Stephen Lawhead's King Raven trilogy- it's a historical fiction/almost-fantasy about the person who was possibly the "real" Robin Hood.

And E.E. Knight has two fabulous series: Vampire Earth (I can't even explain this one...it would take a whole extra post, haha) and The Age of Fire, which is a series told from the point of view of a family of dragons and was described as a "bloody, unsentimental fairy tale"...which is totally true, but it's amazing.

And has anyone read Patricia Briggs? She does a lot of the werewolf/vampire thing (more fur than fangs, tho) and I LOVE them...probably more than the Sookie Stackhouse books

...I only like to read a little

 

[Myotis]

Anything by Christopher Moore is funny and weird and worth checking out. I just finished The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by him, which was really amusing, but the first one that got me hooked on his stuff was A Dirty Job, about a guy who works at a pawn shop who becomes a soul reaper...someone who collects people's souls when they die to pass them on to other people. Bizarre, and completely engrossing.

His books are incredibly entertaining. I loved The Stupidest Angel and You Suck. They're perfect if you want a quick, entertaining read

 

[Ausheya]

And has anyone read Patricia Briggs? She does a lot of the werewolf/vampire thing (more fur than fangs, tho) and I LOVE them...probably more than the Sookie Stackhouse books

Mercy=awesome. I love her books.

Have you read Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood? They're both really good, quick reads. I love Ward and Oreg. Oreg's usually my favorite, except when he acts like a brat. The Sianim series (Steal the Dragon and When Demons Walk) is also pretty good, although the books are only loosely related and can only be called a series in the broadest sense of the word.

 

[twelvetigers]

How about The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip? I have a stuffed tiger (of course) named Tamlorn. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_A._McKillip

 

[thereservoirdog]

One of my all time favorites is "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan. Who knew the Dust Bowl could be so interesting? It actually gave me a few nightmares.

Besides that, I'll second Water for Elephants and Into the Wild. Oh yeah also The Old Man and the Sea.