Insomnia always has the best of me... So I decided to list a few books off the top of my head (I will add to it in the future) that people should probably read. I recently purchased a Kindle so I've been reading more than ever and I am inspired to start this list.
1984
Animal Farm
Catcher In The Rye
Brave New World
Fight Club
Enders Game
Dune
Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Flies
Of Mice and Men
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Cat's Cradle
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Anything bt J.R.R Tolkien
The Great Gatsby
The Wealth of Nations
The Communist Manifesto
The Art of Warfare
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or anything by Hunter S. Thompson for that matter
Lamb
I would be happy for anyone to add onto it. I'm always looking for something to read. This is in no order and obviously incomplete.
I've always wanted to read 1984, so I'm sure I'll get around to eventually. I should probably read Enders Game because I've heard so many good things about it, and I should also really read the Lord of the Rings. I have all 4 books sitting on my bookshelf. I got through The Hobbit in 7th grade, and I honestly wasn't too impressed with it, but I was also only 13 and it's more of a prequel to the rest of the books than anything else anyway. I tried to pick up Fellowship, but got really bored of it. I think I'll have more appreciation for it now though.
I was supposed to read Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby in high school. I tried to read them, but I found them way too boring.
A really good friend of mine had bothered me for a long while to watch Game of Thrones and get the books too. I watched the first season on HBO, and it was pretty cool. I picked up the book recently and I've been reading that. I would definitely suggest picking it up.
Another book you would probably like is Farenheight 451. I had to read it in high school. The characters are really dry, and I never finished it because of that, but the dry characters are kind of the whole point of the book. Now that I understand the ideology better, I feel like I need to read it again to give it justice.
Also, keep an eye out for my book. It might take a few years to come out; it depends on when I actually finish it. I've been picking up some steam on it lately though, and I've had a major rush of motivation now that college is ending and I feel like I can finally move on with my life to something that isn't school. Anyway, I think the book is going to end up being called "Keepers of the Realm." The title might change, but every time i try to change it that one alwasys comes back to me. It might end up being more than one book too just because of the amount of content.
Lol, I think The Hobbit would have been a lot more exciting for me if it had ended differently. Tolkein sets you up for this big thing that is supposed to happen at the end, and then it doesn't end up happening. It's just a huge annoying twist that suddenly makes the adventure way too easy and really not heroic at all.
I can agree with that about the Hobbit... It's still the only Tolkien book that I really like. The Felloship was pretty good... But it was almost a chore reading through the rest of LotR. Anyway, here are a few that are worth checking out:
A Song of Ice and Fire (there's nothing even close to this series)
Catch Me if You Can (100x more unbelievable than the movie)
1984 (no I have not read Fahrenheight 451, Brave New World, etc... Whenever I say 1984 everyone immediately says, "OH! Have you read those novels, they are sooo much better..." I'll read them one of these days... and if 1984 is better I will slap everyone.
Into Thin Air
Into the Wild
iWoz
Frankenstein
Steve Jobs (I hate Apple, but this was interesting)
Perdido Street Station (this one is too weird for most... amost too weird for me)
holy shit I actually read Fahrenheight 451 and the great gatsby in high school, great gatsby was ok, too oldschool for me, Fahrenheight 451 was pretty good, keep in mind that book was written a very long time ago and had things like Personal TVs in it before they were thought of
Funfact, miyamoto named Princess Zelda after F. Scott Fitzgerald (wrote the great gatsby)'s wife
I read another that same year but I forgot the name of it, it had a mentally ill criminal who had a CPU put in his nervious system to try and reform him, it was pretty good
flowers for algeron
Pendragon series
and the Original Jurassic Park book provided a lot more backstory
I'd also suggest reading Metro 2033. The game was alright (based on the book, quite loosely), but the book is absolutely wonderful - everything is thought out so well and the storyline twists seem to be one huge rollercoaster.
Can't wait to get my hands on Metro 2034, but it hasn't been translated to English yet...
And finaly, one of my favourite paragraphs in a book: "I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So i walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane." - John Green, Looking For Alaska
Some of my favorites: Earth Abides, World War Z, The Stand, Alas Babylon, One Second After, The Critical Path( R. Buckminster Fuller), The Road, Blood Meridian (awesome western), Atlas Shrugged, The electric kool-aid acid test.
Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick is very interesting. Also I'm really getting into The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. I'm into space, black holes, time travel, just physics in general.
A lot of people say Ender's Game, but after reading both of his series in that universe I think the Shadow saga is better.
The Ender's saga after the first book blasts into the future and deal with colonies and stuff, the Bean saga goes to earth and deals with war, politics and the return of the genius strategists and their impact on the world.