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The Official "Books Worth Reading" Thread

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
I used to be an avid reader, but over time I've found it difficult to commit to the literature being released. I figure I just must be missing out on the good stuff. Use this thread to recommend the "best of the best" that you've encountered.

I've read all but the last "Game of Thrones" (Ice and Fire) books. However, my favorite series of all time is Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. Before that, I read a ton of fantasy and horror books, but none worth really recommending. Probably my favorite Stephen King book is Needful Things.

Any other readers out there?
152 REPLIES 152

Phaserlight
Heroic Explorer


I created this post a while back, I found some great recommendations from forum members.

https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/29656/vr-books

Or the summary (editing it a bit to distill it down to just the ones I think really worth reading as that is the post title. Credit to the recommendations are in my previous post.)

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline - (highly recommend) Fantastic Book. No need for introductions.

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson's - (highly recommend) Great unique novel. A no holds barred brutal Cyber Punk future with large servings of action, VR, mystery and Katanas. Unusual writing style but you'll get used to it.(read twice)

Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan (highly recommend) - Cyber Punk Noir / The Maltese Falcon style Book - fast paced and Action packed. VR in it but not main story. Real cool book.

Broken Angels - Richard Morgan Change of style for this book 2 - more of a tomb raider kind of feel. Still good and worth a read.

William Gibson sprawl trilogy
------------------------------------------
If you like cyberpunk few beat Gibson' imagined worlds. Not many books I read twice but Gibson's are pretty deep and atmospheric and I seem to need to read them twice to get the full benefit)

1. Neuromancer - (highly recommend)  (read three times, probably my favorite sci-fi book ever)
A washed-up computer hacker is hired by a mysterious employer for one last job against a powerful AI. 
2. Count Zero - Good but more like epilogue for the first one but who can't get enough of the Gibson universe
3. Mona Lisa Overdrive - Another good one better than Count Zero. More Atmospheric Cyber Punk.

Another Gibson
The Peripheral (Recommend)  In a distant future technology has been discovered to communicate with the past. Every time they connect it creates a different alternate universe. Rich people can hire a server and play god with their own instance. (Gibson on form again)

Ascend Online Series (three books plus an offshoot to story): If you like good light adventure stories (Ready Player One kind of style) all based on a Skyrim type RPG VR game (Sword art online technology). 
'Jason logs into Awaken Online fed-up with reality. He's in desperate need of an escape, and this game is his ticket to finally feeling the type of power and freedom that's so sorely lacking in his real life. ...'

Permutation City from Greg Egan - - (highly recommend if you like deep thought provoking books) The concept of this book is mind blowing. A real universe is born from the virtual auto-verse.

Bobiverse Series
(highly recommend) A man is copied into a computer and sent into space as one of man's last hopes. These are epic books.

'Masters of Doom'
The story of John Romero and John Carmack's rise to infamy.
Not normally my kind of book but I really recommend this as it charts the rise from unknown teenagers to their eventual split and onwards until up to 2004.

For me it was incredibly interesting as I never knew the back history of the games that help define my childhood (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake). Especially as I had no idea how much I owed these guys and their team for bringing virtual worlds to my life.

John Carmack joining Oculus was like a jigsaw piece clicking into place. Another bonus is Wil Wheaton is narrating it on Audible. That guy can make stamp collecting sound interesting.

The Girl with all the gifts
Post apocalyptic Zombie romp, what more could you ask. Rated quite highly on audible and rightfully so. They made a film out of it which was dire. Only watch after you have read the book, so you can curse film industry for another pathetic attempt at drastically changing a books story line to give everybody a happy, fuzzy, warm feeling inside.

The Name of the Wind - (highly recommend) or also know as The king killer chronicles first two books in the series by Patrick Rothfuss

Like a darker version of Harry Potter, couldn't stop listening to it. Slow start but it warms up very very nicely. Plus the other good thing is you really get your monies worth, I think both both books each were 40 hours plus. It takes him 6 years to write each one which shows the attention to detail he puts in them. I think the last one is due in the next 2 years.

Great story telling and the narrator is first class Rupert Degas (who also has won awards for narration) 


Seveneves, Cryptonomicon, and Reamde by Stephenson are also so good.

Count Zero was better than Mona Lisa Overdrive (change my mind).  I also recommend Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and the Burning Chrome collection by Gibson.

Nonfiction books I recently finished include The City of the Lost Monkey God, and The Quantum and the Lotus; both gripping reads.  I am currently slogging through The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind which is heady, dry, and probably wrong, but I am determined.

The Word for World is Forest is a good read, and so is Dune.

Tadin
Heroic Explorer
Snowdogs list pretty much sums up a lot of my favourite books, but I'm surprised noones mentioned Anne McCaffrey Dragon Riders of Pern series, now thats a classic.

Also, Weis and Hickman - Dragonlance Chronicles series is great as well, set in a D&D universe, so lots of Dragons and Wizards and all that fun stuff.

I think Patrick Ruthfuss The Name of the Wind may be my fav book of all time though, as mentioned, its slow to start but really is a page turned by the end.

Someone mentioned Tom Clancy, i really loved Red Storm Rising, very very good book about a Soviet invasion of Europe and the middle east after a terrorist attack on the Soviet oil fields.

Luciferous
Consultant

@tadin If you like The Name of The Wind, try Brandon Sanderson 'Mistborn' Series. Excellent books. I am onto the fifth book now, really good. The way he creates depth to stories and characters is amazing.

I am more of a cyber punk kind of reader but after reading 'The Name of the Wind' and unable to wait for the last book I found this series. Get the first book Final Empire, I'll bet you love it.


Luciferous
Consultant



Seveneves, Cryptonomicon, and Reamde by Stephenson are also so good.

Count Zero was better than Mona Lisa Overdrive (change my mind).  I also recommend Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and the Burning Chrome collection by Gibson.

Nonfiction books I recently finished include The City of the Lost Monkey God, and The Quantum and the Lotus; both gripping reads.  I am currently slogging through The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind which is heady, dry, and probably wrong, but I am determined.

The Word for World is Forest is a good read, and so is Dune.


Well don't get me wrong I loved both books, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive but in the latter (if I remember right) Molly Millions makes an appearance again, grounding me a little more to Neuromancer.

I was not so impressed with burning chrome to be honest. I liked a couple of the short stories but it fell short of his normal standards.




Phaserlight
Heroic Explorer





Seveneves, Cryptonomicon, and Reamde by Stephenson are also so good.

Count Zero was better than Mona Lisa Overdrive (change my mind).  I also recommend Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and the Burning Chrome collection by Gibson.

Nonfiction books I recently finished include The City of the Lost Monkey God, and The Quantum and the Lotus; both gripping reads.  I am currently slogging through The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind which is heady, dry, and probably wrong, but I am determined.

The Word for World is Forest is a good read, and so is Dune.


Well don't get me wrong I loved both books, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive but in the later (if I remember right) Molly Millions makes an appearance again, grounding me a little more to Neuromancer.

I was not so impressed with burning chrome to be honest. I liked a couple of the short stories but it fell short of his normal standards.






So... to be totally honest I never finished Mona Lisa Overdrive; it just didn't grab me in the way that Neuromancer and Count Zero did, even though any time Gibson puts words on a page it's art (have you checked out his poem Agrippa?).

Count Zero holds a special place in my heart due to the Loa.  The novel has a very nice timbre and tempo.

Burning Chrome was my first pass at Gibson, so I'm no doubt somewhat biased.  However, it's great in a way that a writer just stretching his wings can be.  Any would-be novelists ought to take note: before writing a novel, try writing short stories.  Maybe use some of the ideas generated in your first novel.  I remember Red Star Winter Orbit, The Belonging Kind, The Gernsback Continuum, Johnny Mnemonic, and Dogfight being good.

logotomie
Expert Protege
Quite a few books i agree on have been listed.

Dune by Frank Herbert, at least the first trilogy is a must imho
Hyperion Cantos, Dan Simmons is great
Southern reach trilogy,  the first one genius, the second book is a bit of a drag. The last a fitting conclusion. If you can live with questions unanswered, maybe just read the first.
Phillip K Dick. Its hard to recommend a specific one
The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronen


Anonymous
Not applicable
Now that I'm not getting a Yaw VR motion simulator this year I decided to buy myself a cheapo tablet from Amazon so I can start reading books again. Only cost me 37 quid so it's not going to be great but should be good enough for reading books and watching Netflix. 😄

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
Dear Oculus, there's not enough book references on your forum. Only two pages? Fuck you, I'm buying a Vive.

😛

Anonymous
Not applicable
 😄  😄 😄

Epona0000
Protege

snowdog said:

And the Second Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant has my all time favourite quote in it, which you can see in my signature  😄


Thomas Covenant series was always a favorite. Saltheart Foamfollower frequently brought me to tears, with his words or his deeds..

“Are you a storyteller, Thomas Covenant?"
Absently he replied, "I was, once."
"And
you gave it up? Ah, that is as sad a tale in three words as any you
might have told me. But a life without a tale is like a sea without
salt. How do you live?"

... Unconsciously, he clenched his fist over his ring. "I live."
"Another?"
Foamfollower returned. "In two words, a story sadder than the first.
Say no more -- with one word you will make me weep.”


Then there's the Apprentice Adept, and Incarnations of Immortality series' from Piers Anthony. And David Eddings' The Belgariad. The Well World series by Jack L Chalker. Crystal Singer and Killashandra from Anne McCaffrey.

Heck I have a library of books I love. Too many to mention.