Help me start reading again!

[leglessAlex]

Hi all.

Right, so I used to read a lot, at the peak of my reading I was going through a book every three days or so and usually fantasy. However, since I started uni about three years ago I haven't really read much, maybe only 40 books? I think part of the problem was I had exhausted most of the well known good fantasy, and every other book I read just seemed to be Lord of the Rings in a slightly different guise.

I think the last books I really enjoyed were by Haruki Murakami, the only book of his I haven't yet read is his latest, which as far as I know hasn't been translated yet.

So, my question is what should I read next? I can't find any Fantasy that appeals and I haven't read before, and the same goes with Sci-Fi although I haven't read as much of that. I would welcome suggestions in those genres but ideally I'm looking to broaden my horizons a bit.

[barwea]

I'm not a massive reader, especially of fantasy books - but I recently read the first three of Scott Lynch's "Gentleman bds" series. I enjoyed them. The Lies of Locke Lamora is the first book.

[irocfan]

grab yourself a kindle and start trawling amazon - loads of (st and actually quite good) books at 79p or even free. For the more expensive stuff you can always look at the previews - seems to work out in most cases as a chapter or 2 for free so you can decide whether you can 'get into' the book (lets be honest in most cases 2 or 3 chapters gives you a fair idea by that stage)

[grumbledoak]

For Sci Fi, start with Ender's Game or Use Of Weapons.

Ian M Banks , Peter F Hamilton, Orson Scott Card pretty much all good.

[leglessAlex]

Yeah Scott Lynch was very enjoyable, I just wish he didn't take so long to write each book! I've read some Peter F Hamilton too and they didn't appeal to me so much, but I might try him again. The same goes for Ian M Banks.

Orson Scott Card is a good shout, I've heard of Ender's Game but never read it.

Edit: I do have a Kindle but to be honest I'm not really a fan of it, I much prefer books to be proper books. I have fifteen thousand odd kindle books that I downloaded, it's just a matter of finding out which ones to try!

[irocfan]

leglessAlex said:

Yeah Scott Lynch was very enjoyable, I just wish he didn't take so long to write each book! I've read some Peter F Hamilton too and they didn't appeal to me so much, but I might try him again. The same goes for Ian M Banks.

Orson Scott Card is a good shout, I've heard of Ender's Game but never read it.

Edit: I do have a Kindle but to be honest I'm not really a fan of it, I much prefer books to be proper books. I have fifteen thousand odd kindle books that I downloaded, it's just a matter of finding out which ones to try!

another reason I suggested the Kindle approach is that you get the whole 'if you liked that you might like this' section at the end of the books a good way to also latch onto something you might find agreeable. As for things to try:

The Lost Fleet series (SF)
David Gemmell (all) (F)
Monster Hunter International series (yes it's pulp fiction and probably poorly written - but I enjoyed it) (UF)
Falkenberg's Legion series (SF)

[RizzoTheRat]

If you fancy going slightly more fantasy try Neil Gamian.

My default when I run out of stuff to read is to reread a Terry Pratchett, I could happily read most of his dozens of times.

[MacW]

Ian M Banks runs hot and cold with me so it may be that you're tried the wrong ones. The Player of Games is one of my all time favourite books however it took me 3 attempts to read Excession and I gave up on The Hydrogen Sonata about a 3rd of the way through.

Peter F Hamilton can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. The Night's Dawn trilogy is one of my favourite stories.

David Gemmell.. meh... read one of his books then, regardless of whether you liked it or not, ignore the rest. His books all seem to have pretty much the same story just with different character names.

I quite enjoyed the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson and the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn books by Tad Williams have a permanent place on my shelves.

[leglessAlex]

RizzoTheRat said:

If you fancy going slightly more fantasy try Neil Gamian.

My default when I run out of stuff to read is to reread a Terry Pratchett, I could happily read most of his dozens of times.

I've lost count of the amount of times I have re-read Mort, it's such an enjoyable book. I might have to re-read a few more of his. As for Gaiman, I've read some but not all of his. Enjoyable, but I guess I'm looking for something different.

MacW said:

Ian M Banks runs hot and cold with me so it may be that you're tried the wrong ones. The Player of Games is one of my all time favourite books however it took me 3 attempts to read Excession and I gave up on The Hydrogen Sonata about a 3rd of the way through.

Peter F Hamilton can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. The Night's Dawn trilogy is one of my favourite stories.

David Gemmell.. meh... read one of his books then, regardless of whether you liked it or not, ignore the rest. His books all seem to have pretty much the same story just with different character names.

I quite enjoyed the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson and the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn books by Tad Williams have a permanent place on my shelves.

The Memory, Sorrow and Thorn books are favourites of mine, but they represent exactly what I'm bored of, traditional fantasy. I think I tried the Mistborn series and got bored, the storyline sounds familiar.

I've read a lot of Gemmell, and as you say they get a bit repetitive. I still liked them though, I re-read the Skilgannon books.

I've read the Commonwealth Saga by Hamilton, and while I liked it I had no desire to re-read it. It was a bit drawn out for my liking. I might give Nights Dawn a go though if you reckon it's worth it.

I'll certainly give Banks another go if he is that sort of writer, I'm pretty sure I have Player of Games around here somewhere.

Thanks for all the advice so far, it's much appreciated.

[Cotty]

[quote=MacW]Ian M Banks runs hot and cold with me so it may be that you're tried the wrong ones. The Player of Games is one of my all time favourite books however it took me 3 attempts to read Excession and [/b]gave up on The Hydrogen Sonata about a 3rd of the way through[/b]uote]
Being about a 3rd of the way through myself, I can see why.