recommendations (1 Viewer)

[kirbflare]

i havent been the best reader in my life (ok i never read.. ever) and i dunno... now i find people who read on the train to be extremely interesting and.. more intellectual? idk.. well the point is i want to start reading again, improve my vocab a little... but i dunno where to start. i went to the library with my sister the other day & did not know where to start.

so... recommendations? something like john marsden would be ace, ive read all his books ive could find. something like him. i just didnt know who to ask. laters.

 

[loller]

i havent been the best reader in my life (ok i never read.. ever) and i dunno... now i find people who read on the train to be extremely interesting and.. more intellectual? idk.. well the point is i want to start reading again, improve my vocab a little... but i dunno where to start. i went to the library with my sister the other day & did not know where to start.

so... recommendations? something like john marsden would be ace, ive read all his books ive could find. something like him. i just didnt know who to ask. laters.

Try John Grisham.

I recommend "The Client" to start with. It is reasonably short, moderate language, enjoyable read.

 

[staplers...YAY]

Anything by Jodi Picoult, mainly Match and My Sister's Keeper. The others I find a little tedious, but most of my friends loved them.
Lolita is good. It's a little heavy (not size-wise), but the writing is breathtaking, it just rolls magnificently but it does centre itself around paedophelia. Great book though.
Crime and Punishment is spectacular.
You might enjoy Secret River by Kate Grenville, maybe Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Anything by Shakespeare is obviously good.
Poetry is also really good. Poets like T.S. Eliot who wrote The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock or Ted Hughes or John Keats or Robert Frost.
Edgar Alan Poe is also another great (literary). He wrote many short stories, in fact, he wrote just about everything. Read Murders in the Rue Morgue by him, it's a crime fiction short story about his famous detective character, Dupin.

Also, Catcher in the Rye is a great novel. To Kill a Mockingbird is good, Lord of the Flies is also good. Girl With A Pearl Earring. The Devil Wears Prada. Snow Falling on Cedars. All of them very good novels.
Happy reading.

 

[~Songbird~]

Heya!

I personally would NOT recommend Heart of Darkness. The author is so despicably racist I couldn't manage reading it. If you can just accept the fact that he's so racist I guess you could enjoy the book, but I couldn't.

Umm...I would recommend 1984 by George Orwell. He is a brilliant author.

I haven't read it all yet, but I'm told that The Book Thief is a great book. It's written from the point of view of Death, that's gotta be pretty interesting.

Yeah John Marsden is pretty awesome eh?

Have fun reading!

 

[Tulii]

If your willing to jump into a big but absolutely amazing read, try Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. I now have a slightly altered look apon life.
If you let it, this book can change you.

 

[nick3157]

u might not be interested but i read anthoy kiedis' (the lead singer or the red hot chili peppers) autobiography 'scar tissue' a couple of years ago. its a bloody good book and surprisingly interesting and relevant for an autobiography. sorry but i cant contribute too much to fiction and poetry. but i read the tomorrow series as a kid so i guess marsdens other stuff would be good.

 

[dwarven]

hmmm.
try Matthew Reilly

HEAPS good =]

all his books have an excellent storyline. really interesting
etc..

 

[Kittikhun]

Firstly and this is a priority, get yourself a very good dictionary before you read. I recommend an English dictionary instead of an Australian one. Oxford or Collins are formidable dictionaries. All the books that are recommended above will require one if you wish to improve your vocabulary. If you really need vocabulary fast and efficiently though, you cannot beat National Geographic. Read lots of that and you will be speaking English like they do at Oxford or Cambridge University! Plus when you read National Geographic you will really appreciate the world around you more and read stories you never thought you would read and know about!

The books I recommend are all non-fiction based, so if you're looking to balance your books with fiction and non-fiction here is the list!

Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose. Probably the best book I have ever read in my life together with a magnificent mini-series adaption that is the finest thing ever to be shot in film in my opinion. 300 pages, small print.
Citizen Soldiers by Stephen E. Ambrose. A very good book that talks about the experiences of US soldiers in the North Western European Theatre of Operations during World War Two. 520 pages, small print.
With the Old Breed by Eugene B. Sledge. An excellent memoir from a US Marine mortarman of K/3/5 1st US Marine Division during the Pacific campaign during World War Two. This book has been used in the PBS series The War and has also been used for the mini-series The Pacific co-executived produced from the makers of Band of Brothers by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg which has just finished filming here in Victoria, Australia with a budget of over $200 million US. 350 pages, small print.
Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah. A fantastic book that reveals the hardships and resilience of a strong Chinese girl (the author) during her childhood. Adeline Yen Mah was rejected by her immediate family because her mother lost her life giving birth to her. I highly recommend you read this book a lot. It's a very inspirational and touching story. 150 pages, I think, but big print.
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden. It's better than the movie. 500 pages, standard print.
Generation Kill by Evan Wright. An account of the 1st Marine Recon Battalion during Operation Iraqi Freedom. It is now a HBO mini-series. A vocabulary factory. 350 pages, standard print.

That's it. Enjoy reading!

hmmm.
try Matthew Reilly

HEAPS good =]

all his books have an excellent storyline. really interesting
etc..

Great imagination but he writes like a kid!

 

[electrolysis]

well if you are interested in action, then Matthew Reilly would definitely be the best choice
if you are interested in literature, then Charles Dickens has really good books, espescially A Tale Of Two Cities
for fantasy, i'd reccomend Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
if you are looking for something interesting with action, then the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz is really good

 

[xONBROKENWINGSx]

reading definately increases your intelligence.
- the firm
- scarecrow
- the leopard hunts in darkness
- a time to kill