Book Suggestions
 

I'm getting on a nine hour flight at 5:00 and I need some suggestions as to what book I should get from the airport bookstore. I prefer mysteries (Ludlum, etc) or maybe some sci-fi if it's good sci-fi. Any ideas?

"The Blade Itself" by Marcus Sakey. A good thriller/crime fiction.

"A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. Not sci-fi, but fantasy. The best fantasy series out there.

I doubt you'll find either in the airport bookstore.

oh lord H_B. I was just about to suggest AGOT. Figured he could prolly read the whole book in the 9 hours. Course if he gets AGOT you should warn him to get ACOK (book 2 of the series) too. Cuz once you put one down, you wanna have the next right there to pickup.

I'm reading the Ender Wiggin series. Good sci-fi if you haven't read them before.

reminds me it's about time for me to reread those (for the 4th or 5th time)

I doubt you would find any in an airport shop, but if you can make an extra stop at a real bookstore I would highly recommend picking up a book by Rudy Rucker. One of the better cyberpunk sci fi writers, I think The Hacker and the Ants or Frek and the Elixir are great examples of his work.

Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time

Enjoy the trip and be careful.

I just read "Sign of the Cross" Doesn't totally fit your bill but really liked it...good airplane reading probably.

I ended up getting both A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings (Atlanta airport has 'real' bookstores, rather than just newstand-type bookstores). I figure that since I have over 24 hours of flight time coming up this week, I should be able to get through both.

With a couple more trips like this coming up in the next few months, I'll probably be able to read everyone else's suggestions at some point, so thank you to all for your input.

Get the first book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, "The Eye of the World" -- or if you're into superhero/alternate history, "Wild Cards" edited by George RR Martin.

I may have missed you, but I recommend "The Blind Side," by Michael Lewis (of Moneyball fame). It is a true story about an inner city kid from Memphis that turns into a big-time college football recruit. Very good read that weaves together the story of the kid and how left tackle became such a premium position in the NFL (and, as a result, in college).

Excellent. If you enjoy them about half as much as I did, you'll be disappointed each time the plane lands.

Enjoy!

Just don't make the mistake I did and buy Empire. God, what a shitty read.

The Gold Coast - Nelson Demille

If you come thru Oslo you can catch the direct Continental flight back to the Stats. I buy you a cup of coffee and a book for the way home.

so where is VPI going? i forget...

Jack McDevitt is excellent sci-fi.

Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch. If you liked Ender's Game, you should like this book, which is the first in a series. It's like old sailing ships in outer space.

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. It's a non-fiction book about Michael Oher who's a Left Tackle at Ole Miss. Really good book about the evolution of the Left Tackle and the true story of how Michael Oher was adopted by a white family and taken care of in Memphis. He was living on the street and had no future in his Freshman year in High School, but became one of the highest rated High School prospects in the nation.

My favorite series from my teenage years. I re-read it every few years. Great series of books.

Great choice, I'm enjoying those books a great deal, although I found the first book hard to get into for a while. I'll second Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time series as well (which also had that problem for me in the 1st book.)

Do you really want to point him at a series that isn't finished with the author near death?

me too. although i feel it gets weaker as it goes on.

But I played a cool MUD based on the Wheel of Time...

What?!? I haven't looked up any info on Jordan for a while. I know he wasn't in great health, but I hadn't heard that he was deteriorating.

The last I heard was that he has some rare form of cancer and wasn't doing well. It was probably reported here and I haven't heard anything beyond that. I just figure it isn't a good sign when an author 12 books into a 13 book series publically gives his wife permission to finish the series if he dies.

Funny couse I got into the Martin series right about a year ago when I was going to be making the return trip on a business flight and asked a coworker for suggestions. I couldn't stop reading them until I was caught up through all of the current books.

I read the sequel to this, Challengers's Hope.

A pretty good read IMO

It's funny, my girlfriend and I both read A Game of Thrones this week, and I was impressed enough that that's what I thought of suggesting as soon as I saw this thread title. Good call on grabbing the second book as well. We ordered the rest of the series, and we're both anxious for them to get here.

Not that I'm crazily in the loop or anything, but 'Jordan' gets his stogies at the same store I do, and word is he's doing better.

That is good to hear. I have been following that series for a really long time and I would like to see him get the chance to finish it himself.

Ditto. I can't believe it has been over a decade since I started reading the series and I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Atlanta - Frankfurt - Amsterdam today (I'm in Frankfurt right now). Then off to Helsinki on Tuesday, then back to the States on Friday.

I finished the first ~350 pages of A Game of Thrones on the first leg...great read so far. It killed me when that thing happened to Bran since I seemed to identify him with my son, but it seems like things are headed to where he will play a big role later so hopefully that's the case.

Good to hear you are enjoying it :). If you think the first 350 pages are a great read, wait until the final 350 pages of the book ;). Basically, you ain't seen nothing yet (which actually is pretty scary because the first half of the first book is sooo damned good in itself) :D.

I was going to say I saw the first three books at O'Hare last June, so I'd have been surprised if at least one of them wasn't available.

The "March Upcountry" saga from David Weber and John Ringo is also fantastic if you find yourself needing to revisit this thread down the road.

Good to hear! I'm glad you're enjoying it. It just keeps getting better and better.

Dare I ask what these books are about since all of you seem to love them so much? Are they scifi or fantasy books? (Game of Thrones series)

I know there has to be some scifi that I would like. I've read a book called Calculating God and some other book by Sawyer. Read In the Prescence of my enemies by Turtledove and liked all of those. Tried to read Revelation Space (I think its called) and couldn't get into that one at all.

They are fantasy books. I'd call them "low" fantasy since there is very little magic, very little in the way of "fantastical creatures" and no other humanoid races (e.g., no orcs, elves, dwarves, etc.)

Regardless of whether you agree with Scientology or have seen the shitty movie, Battlefield Earth is a pretty good book.

They are also very crude books. Expect a lot of rape, incest, brutality and swearing. These are harsh characters in a harsh world. Not at all what people normally think of with a "fantasy" setting.

Same here. I remember posting in a Robert Jordan newsgroup back in college, and I recent had my 10-year reunion. I don't think I've stuck with anything as long as Jordan...well, maybe Star Wars. :)