i like sci-fi stories 

War and Peace. It's very long, but pretty good.

I have to say that I love Hemingway though. He's probably my favorite author. I've read every finished short story of his and prior to War and Peace I read For Whom the Bell Tolls which was just a great, great book. 

Possibly the only H G Wells novel that could make it to the silver screen without being FUBARed.

Basically, it's about a chap on a cycling holiday (despite never riding a bicycle before in his life) who has some rather interesting experiences. The only beef I have is that Wells' chosen narrative voice is too self-conscious at times. 

But I recently received two gifts: Closed on Account of Rabies, and The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection, both on CD. They're both collections of various people reading Edgar Allan Poe's stories.

Closed on Account of Rabies is a bit of a mixed bag. The tracks have ambient music and background sound effects to help set the mood. Unfortunately, sometimes the effects and music aren't quite appropriate or interfere too much. Some of the tracks are poems put to song, which such IMHO. Mostly the stuff is good, though. Christopher Walken reading "The Raven" was a good one, though.

I haven't really started The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection yet. It's read by Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price, and no music or sound effects AFAIK. The few tracks I've heard so far a good, although the volume is a bit low.

(/me wonders if he b0rked the underline tags) 

Anything by Chuck Pahlaniuk really, though I can really recommend Survivor.

One of the best reads out there is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, a scientific book about why stuff happened the way they did.

Also, you can never really go wrong with Naomi Klein, No Logo is one of the best books about the new economy and the new society as it were. If you've ever eaten a burger - you might also want to check out a book called Fast Food Nation, written by some jewish guy whose name escapes me at the moment.

The latest fictional I finished was the latest installment in the George RR Martin low-fantasy series. It's not Robert Jordan, but it gets me through.

I hear most cereal boxes has some excellent prose too shambler :) 

I'm currently reading 'Battle Royale' by Koushun Takami (inspired the movie of the same name). Last few books I've read are 'Towing Jehovah' by James Marrow (God dies, falls in ocean, needs to be towed to artic to be 'burried') and 'Roverandom' by JRR Tolkein (short book about a dog having some strange adventures).

I'm also into graphic novels (comics). Big fan of Frank Miller's stuff ('Sin City', 'Ronin', 'The Dark Knight Returns', 'Hard Boiled'). Just read some 'Hellboy' by Mike Mignola which seems excellant and I plan on reading more. J Micheal Straczynski's 'Rising Stars' has also been good and I can't wait until he finishes it. The series 'Powers' by Brain Micheal Bendis is also very good. 

The best piece of prose I've read must be 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey. Incredibly insightful, yet it's perspicacious scrutiny of society's hypcrosies and nueroses is tempered by real compassion.
I've just started reading the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh.
If you're at all into the gothic vibe, Poppy Z Brite is worth checking out; her short stroy collection 'Swamp Foetus' is some of the most condensed character-driven atmospherics I've read. Horror anthologies I find are always great sources of inspiration.

Graphic novels: Hellboy is great; prior to Hellboy, Mignola did an Aliens graphic called Salvation - find it if you can, it makes a far better story than either of the latter two Aliens movies.
And of course, Arkham Asylum, tho that one's getting kinda dusty now. 

I am making it a summer routine to read Neuromancer every year. I am doing it again atm. This is the third time through. I find new shit everytime. Just finished All Tomorrow's Parties by Gibson as well, not amazing, but worth a read. Also awaiting the Novemeber release of Steven King's next Dark Tower book. This series is amazing if you have not read it I highly recommend them. The Stand is another fabulous book, especially if you consider current events (SARS). Also enjoyed Hearts in Atlantis by King which puts an interesting narrative twist on things. After I finish Neuromancer, I will be moving on to Snowcrash which everyone I know has highly recommended and been shocked I hadn't read yet. With all the excitement surrounding Harry Potter, and LOTR these days, I got to thinking about the Narnia (lion witch wardrobe) books by C.S. Lewis which I am certain I would love to read again soon. I don't know if anyone is into reading American Westerns (I know that Kell mentioned a film about Indians in the movie thread) but anything by Louis L'Amour is amazing. The Sackett books, Haunted Mesa, Sitka, Last of the Breed, the list goes on and on.

Graphic Novels: The original Aliens vs. Predator dark horse series was amazing, HardBoiled (Frank Miller, Geoff Darrow) The first Mask books rocked hard, as well as Sin City which has already been mentioned. The first 2 aliens series just rocked hard (black and whites/Airbrushed series) As a matter of fact I am convinced that elements of Alien Resurrection were ripped directly from that comic, and those where the only bits that were any good. I stopped reading comics all together though in the early 90's when Rob Liefeld ruined the industry, and Simon Bisley stopped drawing Lobo comics. 

I haven't been following it since I finished the fourth one... hmmm that'll give me a good reason to start em all over again from book 1

there has been talk of a Narnia movie, all 7 books in one go, which I think would be utterly confusing to someone who hasn't read it as theres quite a big passing of time between some books etc.

Dune rules, tho I can't make it past book 3 in the series as it starts to get dull. 

...but a recent romp through Tales of Mystery and Imagination gave me much joy. One story was so visually inspiring I scrapped the Knave based void map I was working on and ploughed into an IK2K themed work. Usher Recompiled is busy compiling as I write (expect it mid June UWF)

...and I agree bp, Dune doth rule! Pity the series goes 1. Awesome book 2.3.4. Sometimes boring and not always important geo/politico/historico scene setting 5. Awesome book.

I re-read The Dosardi Experiment, The Jesus Incident and Hellstrom's Hive by Herbert every two or three years. 

I hear most cereal boxes has some excellent prose too shambler :)

Cheers. I love you.

Bitch. 

Reading the Quake manual 

And I'm planning to finish reading my three books of H.P. Lovecraft stories sometime soon.

With that I'll leave you with this brilliant quote from CyBeAr:

<blehbear> t3h best of hewlett packard lovecraft
<Bal> rofl 

Nausica� valley of the wind - go read if you haven't. 

do you folks keep calling them graphic novels?
they're comics!

what with the geeky defense mechanism? :) 

Graphic novels: subcategory then, currently mainly meaning lots more visually intense with nice color glossy and all that. I've seen some good ones, but currently read only black and white comics series just as much graphic novel style. Cerebus (currently at about page 5700 of 6000), Thieves and Kings, A Distant Soil, Bone.

All Tomorrow's Parties by Gibson: I liked _Idoru_ a lot, that's a sequel you know, good though.

Current read Greg Bear _Darwin's Children_ about some interesting implications of normal human DNA retroviruses. Also recent good L. Niel Smith _The American Zone_ on alternate American realities (including freedom), David Brin _Kiln People_ with neat first person views of both the MC and his clones, Philip Dick _Clans of the Aliphane Moon_ where people get classed into the various mental deficiency groups and live happily ever after. Lots more Brin, Baxter, Niven, all that stuff.

I'll have to check back on this thread when I need more.. 

Currently I'm reading Kurose/Ross - Computer networking; a top-down approach featuring the internet. Quite damned boring. Wouldn't reccomend it to anoyone.

Other than that, I'm going to read all the Narnia books again, because they are my number one favourite book series ever (even though the last few books gets all rabid religious and preachy,) and I've read them about a zillion times. Narnia movie? ugh. There was already the series by BBC or whatever, which was a mildly acceptable translation, despite the �1 costume budget.