Just finished A Feast For Crows, the fourth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. I can't remember enjoying a book, let alone a whole series, as much as I enjoyed those four books. So what the hell do I read now? I'd like to explore the fantasy genre, since before this series I hadn't really gotten into it, other than Tolkien.

I just finished this. I think this is going to become a common text for literary criticism and analysis of literary devices in many Univeristy 3rd and 4th year lit courses in the future.

I really enjoyed the book, for the most part. The sentence structure reminded me Hemingway's style, and the narration reminded me of some of Faulkner's work. I too was disappointed with the ending, but overall the book has a lot of depth for study.

The interesting thing about this is that an 8 year old could read it and understand it, a high school or college grad could enjoy it, and an English major with an interest in analysis could take it to a whole different level and have a field day with so many elements of the book.

PS. The first two sentences of the book must have been intentionally odd. If I wrote the following, my lit profs would have put "awk" on both sentences:

When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping besdie him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before.

I quickly realized I wasn't reading Ludlum , Patterson, etc (lol), and got used to the style pretty quickly. It reminded me that I have to get back into some serious books that I have been meaning to read....

I agree 100%, but I really enjoyed the book on the whole. I was pretty disappointed with the ending to be honest.

I was in a similar situation as you and since finishing ASOIAF I've read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie which I both enjoyed a lot. I have the other two Abercrombie First Law trilogy books arriving tomorrow and can't wait to start on those.

I agree, the series was great. Storm of Swords to me was the best and most intense. Based on an earlier suggestion on here I started reading Glen Cook "The Black Company". its a 10 part series, ~350 pg books. Most of the way through the first one and I like it. The writing style is set up to read like a journal almost and the book has a dark element to it. There is battles, wars, and a little bit of magic type stuff, but not overdone or harry potter like.

I’m a hundred pages into catch 22 and toying with the idea of putting it down and not picking it up again. I’m finding the smart-alec zaniness kind of grating. It’s delivered little more then a few half smiles and unless some definite plot starts appearing soon I’m not sure I can maintain interest.

Going to Powell's here in Portland today (book shopping mecca) and will check these out. Last time I was there buying A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows one of the "Employee Recommendation" placards talked about some series being "the next A Song of Ice and Fire;" I'll check on what that one was too.

I felt the exact same way. The only time I sort of smiled was the chapter on Major Major Major Major.

I thought the book got a little better from the point where [mild spoiler]

I never finished Catch 22 either

Read Dan Brown's latest, The Lost Symbol. Nowhere near as entertaining as The Davinci Code or Angels and Demons. Pretty horribly written with an even more absurd villain than an albino monk.

Strangely, the last 50 pages or so really moved me, though.

That's a shame. The ending is very, very good. If you remembered nothing else about the book, the ending would be sufficient to recommend it highly.

just finished it tonight. the last 50 pages was easily the best part. Only thing that saved the book imo.

Theres a ton of books recommended in this thread, but my reading list extends to dan brown's books and alot of more childish books (ie Harry potter etc). I'm looking to expand my literary knowledge and depth and therefore I am looking for deas for a book that wont throw me completely off the deep end but is still in the fantasy genre? Im 21 if that matters in your suggestions.

FWIW I have read a couple historical fictions that I thoroughly enjoyed (agony and the ecstacy, Genghis, Lust for Life)

cryptonomicron -- by neal stephenson.

a 1,000+ page novel. the book tells a story about some principal players in the Enigma ( german crypto-machine during wwii ) decyphering. ( Turing, et al... ) then follows the exploits of their offspring 2 generations later as they, through some bizarre providence, follow in their grandparents' footsteps unwittingly. Some random plot devices: treasure hunting, obsession with crypto-analysis, war battles, war personalities, and some fascinating character development and interplay. nearly every character is multi-dimensional and believable.

the guy just loves to write and can turn "eating a bowl of Cap'n'Crunch" into poetry.

A fun read.

Why not read the thread? That will give you plenty of ideas.

I was gonna pick this up at Books-A-Million the other day but no one was working the register and I didn't have time to wander around trying to find someone to ring me up.

Pretty sure I'm just gonna start buying all my books on Amazon.

Really? This fascinates me. Unless it's a massive spoiler and the tentacle monster or whatever appears to be helping the protagonist until the final plot twist, don't say, but otherwise, I'm desperate to know what the villain is.

If you haven't read any good ol' detective stories, I recommend reading a few of Rex Stout's "Nero Wolfe" series. Rex has a great way of describing people and their mannerisms that strike a nice reality chord. Also, some of the stories are downright awesome. Funny, attempts to make films, TV shows from this series have never worked very ( for me ). I think Nero Wolfe is too complex a character or something...

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr

Somehow never read this till now. 1959 SciFi. Read more like a 1970s book.
It is a "message" book about the stupidity of man, repeating our mistakes and how we need to fear the nuclear war. It is set as three stories after a atomic war.
Very well written, dry sense of humour, makes fun of mankind and many of our "institutions". I Liked it.

Dan Brown is drivel. Seriously - he is one of those authors that just writes whatever he thinks sounds good; it is quite obvious he doesn't do much of anything in the way of checking with experts regarding topics he writes about. He couldn't even plagiarize "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" accurately when he wrote The Davinci Code. To get a really good idea how bad he is read Digital Fortress.

Bernard Cornwell is pretty reliable for a good read when it comes to historical fiction. Nothing illuminating, but good reads.

just read some calvin and hobbes in the bookstore and was reminded of how amazing it is.

Tried reading Heart of Darkness but besides a few beautiful passages it mainly bores me.

Enders game was a pretty good book

You really should give it a try again sometime. It's only barely a hundred pages. It is not by any stretch a roller coaster thrill ride, but the quality of the text is very good and worth reading.

Hearts of Darkness is amazing....I can't imagine being anything but enthralled by Conrad's prose.

If you're looking for some classic fantasy novels, you can't go wrong with Evangeline Walton's The Mabinogian Tetralogy, which is based on Welsh legend. I read the series years ago and loved it. Note that one Amazon reviewer says this edition is poorly edited, so it may be better to get the individual novels from the library.