Quote: Original post by Programmer One@Sirisian: You totally missed the point of Lord of the Flies.

heh :P Nah, I read it in a literature class in HS, so I know all of the motifs and symbolism in the story. I just really didn't like it. I found the plot to be unrealistic, and many times while I was reading it I kept thinking to myself "yeah that wouldn't happen like that". One of the biggest parts was when they kill Simon for no reason after he's discovered the truth. Also the ending was really lame and anti-climatic with no explanation as to what happened about the murders. Wasn't my kind of book.

Oh yeah and some books that are hard to put down might be Lord of the Ring. I read those fairly quickly one after another when I was younger. At the time they seemed interesting, but I can't remember much about them. (The Hobbit is good too).

Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity. Perhaps his best book, IMO, beating out the (also real page-turners) Foundation trilogy. Where his writing is less than stellar, his plots more than carry the day.

Edit: Then again, Asimov has some 400 published books, and since I've read only a handful, I guess I should qualify my "best book" assertion.

House of Leaves!

Some pages contain only one word, others are written upside down, mirrored, different type faces and in footnotes, pictures and all manners of gathered scraps and clues etc. There's even a letter to decode.

The content so far is intruiging too, it's about the recovered bits of film (floating around) from a known documentary maker that films himself and his girlfriend settling in their new home and how they discover the inside of the house is bigger then the outside. It's like a journal of sorts written by two previous owners.

Not your average thriller novel.


[edit] Asimov has a few excellent short stories floating around the web too!

Quote: Original post by Sirisian
One of the biggest parts was when they kill Simon for no reason after he's discovered the truth.

Uh, that's not quite what happened. When Simon stumbled upon them and tried to explain what was going on, they mistook him for the Beast they were after and killed him. It was a mistake brought on by bloodlust, not "for no reason."

a song of ice and fire - fantastic series

Quote: Original post by Sirisian
I found the plot to be unrealistic, and many times while I was reading it I kept thinking to myself "yeah that wouldn't happen like that"

And you didn't come to the same conclusion with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit? [wink]

Quote: Samith
but I really enjoyed Joseph Heller's Catch-22

I'd certainly second that, although it seems to be one of those books that splits opinions, bit of a marmite effect but then again I guess most books have that power.

A couple of other books I've read recently that have been impossible for me to put down are :

Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
The Wasp Factory, Ian Banks
1984, George Orwell

There are probably shed loads of others, but these are the ones that jump out at me.

Currently I'm reading Max Havelaar by Multatuli, although it's not a "can't put it down book", it's certainly worth a read - particularly for the original structure (plus you can say you've read something by a dutch author ;) I'm pretty sure you can get an english translation.

Actually there's another book I like. The book Night. I read it in HS then in Uni. Awesome book. Since I had to write a 5 page report on it I ended up reading it twice. Takes less than a day to read.

There's another book Voltaire's Candide. Awesome book. Takes a day to read. I bought my copy for like 2 bucks.

Quote: Original post by Oberon_Command

Quote: Original post by Sirisian
One of the biggest parts was when they kill Simon for no reason after he's discovered the truth.

Uh, that's not quite what happened. When Simon stumbled upon them and tried to explain what was going on, they mistook him for the Beast they were after and killed him. It was a mistake brought on by bloodlust, not "for no reason."

No I get that, but I just find it hard to believe they mistook him for the beast. Try to put yourself in their shoes and imagine you see one of your friends walk out from the forest at night. It's hard to kill them especially if they say something. meh.

Quote: Original post by _moagstar_

Quote: Original post by Sirisian
I found the plot to be unrealistic, and many times while I was reading it I kept thinking to myself "yeah that wouldn't happen like that"

And you didn't come to the same conclusion with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit?[wink]

I actually don't remember the books well. I read them when I was young. I'd have to unwrap the boxset I have and read them again. It was fantasy though and from what I can remember I never at any point questioned talking trees or anything. I just kind of sat back and read them without analyzing what was happening.

Quote: Original post by Sirisian

Quote: Original post by Oberon_Command

Quote: Original post by Sirisian
One of the biggest parts was when they kill Simon for no reason after he's discovered the truth.

Uh, that's not quite what happened. When Simon stumbled upon them and tried to explain what was going on, they mistook him for the Beast they were after and killed him. It was a mistake brought on by bloodlust, not "for no reason."

No I get that, but I just find it hard to believe they mistook him for the beast. Try to put yourself in their shoes and imagine you see one of your friends walk out from the forest at night. It's hard to kill them especially if they say something. meh.

Well, yeah, in normal circumstances, I wouldn't kill anyone. If I was scared shitless by some vague threat and riled up for a hunt for the same threat, I didn't really know what the threat was, and I couldn't see my friend properly, not to mention that I was only 12 years old or so? Hard to say. I might at least attack. Remember that they didn't actually know what the Beast looked like, or what even what it was supposed to be - it could have been anything and anyone, and Simon arrived when they were charged up in a hunting frenzy. Their minds were geared only towards that, with almost no thought as to how it would be directed. Their very perceptions were warped by the same thing - fear and bloodlust. Those emotions can do similar things to adults - remember the Salem witch trials?

I find it hard to believe that you're empathizing with those characters enough, if your complaint is that you find it "hard to believe" that they mistook Simon for the Beast. I think I'm going to agree with Programmer One in saying that you missed the point.

Quote: Original post by Scint
I'm curious, what are some of your favorite books that you could not put down?

Effective C++ ;)

Applied Cryptography!





As for fiction ... Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep, and Deepness in the Sky were pretty awesome, especially for those with some background in computers.