For bookworms and bibliophiles...

[pink_princess]

I just read a great book called Perfume: The story of a murderer by Patrick Suskind. It's sooooooooooo compelling though slightly gruesome too... I was wondering if anyone knows any good web sites with free book analysis coz i have to write a paper on it?

[Dark Matter]

My book reading lists consist of mainly vampire and murder books

I usually end up getting my own ideas for books from these. My favourite author though by far is Stephen King. Seriously, his books are SO good. The only book of his that I found a little more ... slow to read was Cell. There was just something about it that seemed like I was forcing my self to read it. Then again the one I read right before that was 'Salem's Lot so maybe I was secretly missing the vampires.

Also, a good vampire series of books was the Darren Shan Cirque Du Freak. It is a bit more of a "kids" style of books, but I still enjoyed it. The books are also easily read in a day.

[sweetnsimple786]

Haha yeah, I read the Cirque Du Freak series a couple of years ago. It was... cute. haha but still had the adventure and was probably scary for 9 year olds?

Erm I loved, loved, loved Walk Two Moons. It's a story within a story. It's an old, easy read but definitely worth it.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a fave. Unforgettable, really. It seems like an epic at times, but it's beautifully written and quite captivating. [Plus it has substance, and leaves you thinking.]

[Guest Chance]

I really need to read french litterature so next on my list is 'The three musketeers' and 'Le conte de Montecristo' by Alexandre Dumas. I also want to read stuff by Voltaire, Montesquieu, Zola and stuff but don't know which books to read.

Word of advice: be sure to read Voltaire's Candide. Not only is it hilarious, it conveys a much more important theme of life.

Candide is one of my IB English books, and is pretty much the only one I think I'm going to enjoy analysing. Really funny book.

I'm reading The Three Musketeers now, which I like so far, but I'm only about 50 pages in.

[memski]

well my favorite book of all time is slaughter house five,

re read it again after starting ib (aka. tok) and now i cant help but analyze every little bit of it.

highly recommend it.

[rrswong]

I have too many books that I love, I can't pick a favourite! I'm currently reading The Mysteries of Uldopho by Ann Radcliffe, and I got Evelina for my birthday so I'll be looking forawrd to reading that.

[godofib]

My favourite series outside HP would probably be the inheritance cycle (eragon series. Also, the lord of the rings is an amazing series, Da vinci code, Angels and Demons, Ender's game, sherlock holmes stories etc.

Note: these were just personal choices, not IB books.

Edited July 13, 2009 by godofib

[powa2]

I think every IB student has to be a bibliophile or else you can't stand the course. My favorite right now is probably The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, I think it's a wonderful book that you have to reread at least three times to get the philosophical meaning to it. Having a interesting story helps too. My most hated world lit book is probably Crime and Punishment. I can't stand that book, it wastes a few thousands words to describe events that could be described in a few concise paragraphs. But I guess that the English translation could be the cause since it could be badly translated and the original in Russian might have been more interesting.

[Taigan]

I am a bookworm. I enjoy fantasy/adventure books the most but will read anything if it's good. Here are a few books I'd recommend reading.

Harry Potter, of course

The Pendragon Series. The writing is not amazing but the story certainly is. I recommend

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Perfect books. The style is fresh, the story brilliant. Sarcastic, amazingly well-written, fast-paced and full of action. I was hooked after the first three pages!

Equal Rites, this is a discworld novel, terry pratchett style. Good for all ages. snappy.

The Alchemyst: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (this is a series but I only read the first one. Its pretty good)

changing genre:

Misery by Stephen King. Great thriller, enjoyed it all the way through. Stephen King is usually too sullen but this was a good book.

The Historian. its dark and appealing but I can't recall the author just yet.

hmmm... what else?

[Nurin Ayesha]

Oooh...I love Pride and Prejudice as well! Hahaha, and I'm also patriotic, so I have to admit, I love Margaret Atwood! Has anyone read Memoirs of a Geisha? I think the book does a much better job than the movie...

Yeah, I'm agree with you.. There's a lot diff between the movie and the novel..

[Caustica]

I used to be a bookworm in primary school. Am now now, but I still enjoy reading - if the book is good. Most of my time, however, is spent on the computer.

My personal favourites are:

1984 - George Orwell

East of Eden - John Steinbeck

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

The Cather in the Rye - JD Salinger

And yes, I do have a thing for dystopian fiction

Currently reading Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck. And no, none of these were parts of any lists. Didn't ever have lists.

[AtouchofSoul]

Personally, I've enjoyed all the books that we've had to read in school--Perfume, Things they carried, Sorrow of War, Fiela's Child, etc. But outside of curriculum, I'm mostly drawn towards dystopian society novels. Recently I read Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games series, and it was absolutely fabulous. I highly recommend both novels!

[Austin Glau]

i love the Inheritance series (Eragon, Elderst, Brisignr). The curriculum books are not so interesting to me (The Stranger, Hero of our Time, House of the spirits <- especially nasty)

[AtouchofSoul]

I was wondering if anyone knows any good web sites with free book analysis coz i have to write a paper on it?

Yeah, I just finished a massive paper on it and I'm also using it for WLP1. I'd love to share ideas!

[sweetnsimple786]

Write a paper on what? If you want help on assignments, you can go to the Language A1 forum [here] & just discuss the books here for the heck of it. =)

Edited December 14, 2009 by sweetnsimple786

[Ejoriah]

Funny that someone thought that House of the Spirits was nasty, I really enjoyed reading it, although it was recreationally and not for IB.

I also like Of love and other Demons by Marquez, even though it's quite short I really did enjoy it. The Lord of Rings trilogy is amongst my all-time favourites, along with The Children of Hurin which is absolutely amazing considering the circumstances.

I am currently eagerly awaiting the next book in the Sword of Shadow series by J. V. Jones, and I am about to start the third book of Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children soon since I got it recently.

Earlier in the year I read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

So yes I do think I'm a huge bookworm

[Mostly Harmless]

I'll read anything that isn't nailed down - from Proust to Pratchett. I'm a bit of a classic fantasy and sci-fi nut - definitely think it's an underrated genre-but it's Japanese surrealist fiction at the moment.

J.V. Jones' Sword of Shadows - is that the Cavern of Black Ice, etc? I think I saw the third one in a bookshop recently.

[defyIB93]

I love to read!!!! My bedroom doubles as a library. lol.

I think my favorite books so far:

1. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

2. Wicked by Gregory Maguire

3. Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

4. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Basically, I love all the classic authors: Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy, etc.

For my IB English: my favorites are One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

and Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta. They really inspired me in some way.

[teresad]

I absolutely love reading, which is good, since I am aiming at a doctor degree in literature.

I really love classic literature. I must say that my absolute favorite at the moment are:

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

The Master and Margarita - Makhail Bulgakov

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

Hamlet - Shakespeare

Phantom of the Opera - Leroux

Various short stories by Edgar Alan Poe

+ a billion more.

I am currently collecting books for my own personal library consisting of rare, beautiful or classic books.

[lkn]

Books... I really like them, but I've been too weary to read pretty much anything fictional lately. However, there are some books that I've found really moving.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok. It's basically the story of the friendship of two Jewish young men living in the Williamsburg district of Brooklyn, New York. It's an interesting book in terms of its narrative choice - the first-person narrator of the story isn't the protagonist - and I think the novel also gave a very realistic portrayal of how hatred can evolve into friendship. But the thing I absolutely loved in this book was its thematic content! The protagonist was experiencing a conflict between the expectations set for him (his father wanted him to become a leader of a Hasidic sect) and his own dream of becoming a psychologist. Now quite many books depict situations like this, but the situation of the protagonist was made really difficult by the fact that he really respected his father and could understand what people were expecting from him, plus that he knew that he would be perfectly capable to become a religious figure. Thus, it was only his own feeling that resisted the idea. The narrator follows how the protagonist struggles to find in himself the courage to break the silence and do as he feels is right for him. I was really touched by all this, mainly because there's something so familiar about Danny Saunders... This book is very true!

And then Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice. Many things about that book attracted me as I read it. The vampires are portrayed as pansexual, they do not sparkle, they actually have some thematic meaning about them other than looking good... But first and foremost, the language. The way Anne Rice writes is something really sensual and rich, the novel transmits emotion in an exceptional way. And the way she describes love as something ghostlike and not as something solely good or bad attracted me. Even though the characters are mostly vampires, the novel itself is very humane. Music of the night for anyone who is on a plaintive mood.