Good book reccomendations

[Wise Child]

Anyone read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy? Absolutely freakin' amazing.

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by Xnguela

See, I was thinking of the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. That's why I was confused.

It's easily done..hardly anybody i know has even heard of go ask alice, it is pretty old though

[-ID-371]

didnt see anyone name ravenloft, one of the biggest gothic horror series ive seen. good too!

[winged_dreams]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

i dont think so....its a girl whos on drugs and then she comes clean and dies, hardly anyone has heard of it

I've heard of it. I have it in fact. I just need to get around to reading it.

[Fallenfromgrace]

Thanks for the reccomendations i will definatly check some of these out

[Corpus_Draconis]

I recommend almost anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, especially Tigana and the Fionavar Tapestry (FT is a trilogy. Quite Arthurian). And the Sarantine Mosaic duology (is that the word?) is based heavily on Byzantium. Some of the events in it correspond with the history of Rome and Byzantium/Constantinople.

Neil Gaiman is very good too, especially Neverwhere and American Gods.

And I just finished reading the first book of the Kushiel series, and I found it rather lacking in setting description, and I didn't like the whole "I thought I was miserable then, but that's nothing compared to what I felt later..." thing.

A book I would like to read is "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." A guy in my class last year read it, and it sounded interesting. Anyone ever heard of it?

[Corpus_Draconis]

I'll see if I can find it. Prolly won't find it at a second-hand store though?

[Scythan]

I loved the Fionavar Tapestry. I reread it twice. That was back when I was more into fantasy, though.

[Dark Art]

Okay, not all of these are very Gothic, but I thought I'd put them out there anyway.

The Anita Blake series:
The first one is called Guilty Pleasures. Don't be put off by the suggestive new covers - these are not (shudder) romance novels. The whole series is set in an AU where everything is exactly the same as modern-day but vampires, zombies, lycanthropes, and other such critters exist within the public sphere. Anita Blake, zombie-raiser and vampire-slayer, is the main character. The books are from her perspective, which is what really makes them entertaining, since Anita has a very quirky sense of humor. The style is very gritty and realistic, with lots of gore for those who like it. These are really a good read, particularly if you're interested in vampires and werewolves.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket:
This series of thirteen books, each with thirteen chapters, may look like they are children's books. Don't be fooled. Despite the caricature-like characters and surreality (is that a word?) of the plots, these books have a lot to say about modern society, the nature of evil, and the irony of life.

And that's all for today, folks. If I tried to put every book I liked in this post, it would extend for fifteen pages. If I think of any others I absolutely HAVE to recommend, I'll let y'all know.

[Dark Art]

Like Harry Potter.

I actually wrote one of my best papers in high school on A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was all about how one of the central themes of the books is the difference between actual truth and what is perceived as truth by society.

[PhilSmith]

Not really gothic, but give the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake a go.

[ghostposts]

on my wish list:


Bayou Jesus, by Mike Miller

e_e's book, Simplicity - by Mark Dirschel

http://www.geocities.com/edible_eye/

[Godslayer Jillian]

Oh, a book that was classified as Victorian gothic:
Wraeththu. It's about 800 pages thick, which most of my friends think ridiculous, but come on, if it's a good book
I think you will like it. It has sex, magic, sex magic , hermaphrodism, homosexuality at the beginning, culture, art, gods, legends.....

[Morpheus_Noctifer]

Originally Posted by -ID-371

didnt see anyone name ravenloft, one of the biggest gothic horror series ive seen. good too!

Do they still publish anything Ravenloft related? I still have the first edtion of "Domains of Dread" for the game and an old hardback "I Stahd", which was a good book by P.N. Elrod. Her work also makes good reading. But I thought when they "simplified/dumbed down" AD&D they did away with everything Ravenloft. I hope I'm wrong.

[Circle V]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

i dont think so....its a girl whos on drugs and then she comes clean and dies, hardly anyone has heard of it

I disagree. Even in Bolivia, it was a quite well-known book among people of my approximate age, especially girls.

[NecromanticSunshine]

ok...I don't think I'd consider these "goth" books...but here are some good ones that I love...

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. It's so amazing. And descriptions of the artwork and documents in there are true. I've even looked some up. I recommend this book to everyone. But, just a warning...It holds you in anticipation as to what the big secret is til about half-way through the book.

I also have The "Sweep" Series by Cate Tiernan which I'm always re-reading. There's Fourteen series books and then one super-edition called Night's Child That happens something like 20 years after the 14th book left off. It a series dealing with witchcraft and they have a lot of true facts, but Cate Tiernan obviously adds her own stuff. She makes Blood Witches and powers blood witches have. It's a very addicting series...for me, at least

[NecromanticSunshine]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

i dont think so....its a girl whos on drugs and then she comes clean and dies, hardly anyone has heard of it

Actually, Go Ask Alice is required Summer Reading for going into 8th or 9th grade in my old school. My sister had to read it for school to I believe and she's 9 years older than me. It's actually a very well-known book from the 70s.

[NecromanticSunshine]

Well, nice to know my opinion is criticizedeven though it's just that...an opinion. I happen to like fiction novels. With the DaVinci Code, I like the plot. Even if it's not real, the book keeps me interested which is hard for me to find in most books. The sweep series holds me the most which is why it's my favorite. Any book that can hold me long enough for me to sit down for a half hour or maybe even an hour is a great book in my opinion.

[Blushing Heliophobe]

I mentioned it already in the 'Commentary' section, but I really enjoyed 'Witch's Hammer' by Jane Stanton Hitchcock.

[pitseleh]

I would strongly recommend reading some Haruki Murakami. His books will take your brain on some very strange and beautiful walks through lives and thoughts, described in an intimate way that ties the physical world inextricably with the world of dream and memory, by invisible threads of history and the relationships of people... uh... and I'm wandering off over here, but the point is - he writes beautifully. I mean, your eyes will go all shiny from the things he can make words do, just in a single sentence. Writing that really lives in your mind, even after you finish reading.

So, to recommend some of his books... all of these are good reads, in different ways. I'll list them approximately from the most to the least abstract: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. A Wild Sheep Chase. Dance, Dance, Dance. Norwegian Wood.

.;.

[pitseleh]

Hehe... Go ahead TStone, see if you can Wind Up my Bird...

[Empty_Purple_Stars]

Ahh but the real question is...

Can we play Shadow Puppets with your Norwegian Wood?

*Blink*

[JuliaGaltic]

Are you guys on another Wild Sheep Chase?

[cannibalnuns]

The Way of the Gladiator (Originally titled: For Those About To Die) by Daniel P. Mannix

[winged_dreams]

This series of book isn't gothic. Well it does have souls coming back to posess people and has a bunch of people who follow the Light Brother (aka Satan)...Anyways, it's called the Night Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. It's an awesome series (six books in total) even though the ending was a bit weak. I still enjoyed a lot. So if you like sci fi give it a shot.