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[–] caius_iulius_caesar ago 

My favorite novels are The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Bell Jar, Last Exit to Brooklyn, A Confederacy of Dunces and The Rules of Attraction.

I love then for their technical features (predominantly their sentence-structure), the skill and poignant beauty of their writing and the way they find nuggets of humor in otherwise tragic subject-matter.

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[–] ZOAS ago 

Hrm. While I'm not sure about Favorite book (a bunch of things come to mind, honestly.), I can say that the books I've read and re-read the most are Stephen King's The Stand and Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

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[–] KThief 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

1984 by George Orwell.

It's difficult to pick a favorite of all time, so I tried to select a book that really got me interested in reading when I was younger. I won't credit any of the numerous (mostly forgettable) YA fantasy series I read in middle school, or other 'recommended reading' like Catcher in the Rye, although those were all enjoyable.

1984 was the first novel that really opened my eyes to the fact that (good) literature can not only mirror and interpret our world, but even shape the world as we experience it.

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[–] Razor_Teverek 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

All Quiet On the Western Front. It is a work of fiction featuring a German soldier during World War 1.

Make no mistake, this book does not romanticize war or play it up. Although fiction, this is the story of the pain, the love, and the loss of a German soldier.

Erich Marie Remarque, who was himself a WW1 German soldier accurately portrays the level of horror he and his comrades experienced on the western front.

I find the work quite capable of evoking emotion, and for that I love it.

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[–] zen_music ago 

Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright - It's a fully realized fantasy world, except populated by humans. In fact, the fantasy is only a little removed from history as we know it, which makes the disconnect so familiar and likely that we fall into the story as if it were a feather bed.

The story itself gets a bit long winded, and the ending is abrupt; but the concept, wow. It just felt...right. I've come back to read again at least 3 times during my life.

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[–] Captain_Defect ago 

Metro 2033 by Dmitri Glukhovski. I really like it because it's like Fallout's other half, only a lot more realistic and it was actually a book before it became a game.

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[–] 546076? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Horus Rising by Dan Abnett.

For a Scifi book in the Warhammer 40K series it is written like literature, the descriptions, concepts and themes are mind blowing, the story is layered, there are a ton of philosophical arguments and ethical concerns raised and discussed by characters in the book e.g. what is the purpose of a weapon in times of peace or sindermanns "I am right and you are wrong" speech

Edit:

my runner up is the book of the new sun by Gene wolfe often it is known as "the Ulysses of Scifi" it is extremely complex but pays off.

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[–] haveallthebananas [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Horus Rising is what got me into the table top w40k game. Sadly i got out of it. I should get back into it...

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[–] KThief 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Dan Abnett is a fantastic writer, and looking forward to his books is what kept me chugging thru 'the slow books' of The Horus Heresy. If I had some way to prove it I would claim that he launched the series single-handedly. Although I haven't read it in awhile, I remember Legion being my favorite from the series. The Eisenhorn/Ravenor stuff is probably my favorite work of his overall.

If I might make a return suggestion, Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks is a fantastic high-tech / futuristic / philosophical-introspection-type-space-opera. If that's a thing. (Unless 'Player of Games' sounds more like your thing.... I consider it to be a better intro book to the series... but I'll try not to dissolve into that discussion O.o)

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[–] 547058? ago 

Seriously all of his books in the HH serious are stand outs, Legion and Prospero burns are both very different but individually brilliant.

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[–] SLUMLORD_MILLIONAIRE 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

I'm a huge Ayn Rand fan. Both my daughters are named after her. I personally love 'Anthem' and if I had to pick a favorite that would be it.

I have a special place in my heart for Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Anthem was the first book I chose to read, outside of school. I didn't have to read it for an assignment or for anything else. I picked it up off the shelf in the library and started reading it and started a lifelong love of Ayn Rand. It's really simplistic and written for a 6th-7th grade reading level. It's super short too. Only 108 pages if I remember correctly. I've sat down and read it in a single session many times.

I didn't know anything about Ayn's philosophy or any of her politics or anything. The book to me was just a post apocalyptic love story. I didn't even realize the significance of what I was reading until much later. Her books have that affect on you though.

I really initially just liked the sci-fi utopian (dystopia) aspect of it all. How all of life was regulated and there's one man who is disgusted by it and doesn't know why (holy shit does that appeal to teenagers!) Ayn's vision was different than some of these other YA dystopian fiction books that are popular like the giver, divergent, the hunger games, etc. Those books really appeal to teenagers trying to find their place in the world and their feelings of being different and special and not wanting to really conform to society .... in Anthem the man wasn't really different or special. He was just an average dude that simply found out a truth that others didn't know. In those other books these people are usually born different, they're given this special knowledge by birthright - they've been different (or divergent if you will) their entire lives and then they're thrust into circumstances and become heroes. In Ayn's work you can feel the suffering of the entire society, not through outright oppression but by them taking their nature away. You have the guy that screams through the night, etc. There's an undercurrent of going against nature making individuals miserable. That's so true and even more true today with what society is becoming. When you try to socially engineer people against their biology you end up with a lot of mental illness and pathological behavior and the breakdown of the family unit.

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