[Feanor]

I second the harry potters and the Ender books. The ender series was my fav. when I was young, I loved the first two books(only read the rest now). I still like them immersly. You might want to try Terry Pratchett's Diskworld books, very funny and intelligent.

 

[wallijonn]

What type of literary style do people prefer? I tend to have problems with a style that is overly first person-ish or that has too much dialogue. But if the writing tends to evoke mental images and has a flowing "beat" (poetry in motion, flowing prose) I tend to find that I enjoy it more. Now that I'm older I wish I had saved some of my favourite books which I had read when I was a teenager.

I say, start with "The Wizard of Oz", or any book which appeals to the mind creating mental imagery, which by necessity, are crafted towards children and imaginitive minds. That would include the "Tales of Narnia", the Tolkein series, etc.

So, what makes a book great? Is it the premise of the book?, is it the literary style?, or are there factors of which we are not cognizant?, that, like "art", we just know that we like? How does one recognise that a book appeals to 'them'? What was the last book you read which you consider "great"?

Please forgive my mix of tenses; I find informal writing archaic.

 

[19lexicon78]

it should be easy for you to read english, as russian is the most difficult language on the planet. followed by dutch..

 

[swalker]

How about the books they use in high school? I loved reading some of the books used in classes believe it or not. My personal favourites are "Fifth Business" by Robertson Davis, "Color Purple" by Alice Walker and "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella (later turned into the movie "field of dreams" but the novel is infinitely better IMHO). 3 very different prose styles but they all make great reads.

 

[Angelic]

For me, the best way to improve English is listening to radio, watching TV, and, of course, reading everyday forums of head-fi

It gives significant results.

Additionally, I can reccomend books with Russian fair tales, translated to ENglish, for Jorg it will be helpfull. SOmething like Kashey the immortal, Adventures of NEznaika, etc.

 

[Jorg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 19lexicon78 it should be easy for you to read english, as russian is the most difficult language on the planet. followed by dutch..

Really?

I didn't know that. I thought Japanese or Chinese are the most difficult.

Quote:

Additionally, I can reccomend books with Russian fair tales, translated to ENglish, for Jorg it will be helpfull. SOmething like Kashey the immortal, Adventures of NEznaika, etc.

I didn't know these books are translated to English. My brother will like them and at least I'm going to buy them for him.


Everybody, thanks again for your help.

 

[ooheadsoo]

I've always heard that Chinese was the hardest. Personally, I think Chinese is harder than Japanese. My Japanese friends agree. I still need to do a foreign language and I want to take Japanese because it's easier than Chinese but my parents will kill me if I do that because I'm Chinese.

Why not give George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice wind fire blah blah, something like that a shot. I don't think the english is very hard and the story is exciting and enjoyable. It's fantasy.

Lois McMaster Bujold writes some very good english (gee great english i'm writing) while making a fun story. She's won a few awards for her books. Her alliteration is great - hopefully you will be able to appreciate that and catch that when reading it. It's mostly sci-fi though she has recently branched to fantasy.

 

[Jazper]

Well I'm a native english speaker, but Anne Rice novels taught me a lot about phrasing, structure with a good sprinkling of new words here and there to keep me interested. Admittedly she has something of a morbid view on life (from my perspective) but the english is a fantastic read.

I recommend her first few vampire books (The vampire lestat, tales of the body thief, queen of the damned etc.), pandora, and my personal favorite "cry to heaven". Her earlier works seem to be better than her later works to me.

May not be everyone's taste but worked for me

Another good read is William Gibson's Neuromancer, if you ever get the chance to read it. Fun to read, not nearly as technical.

 

[mikeg]

The entire history of the conflict between the US CIA and the Soviet KGB is told in the following book: "The Main Enemy" by Milt Beardsen and James Risen. It is well written, easy to understand and follow, and really absorbing.

 

[MartinJ]

A Clockwork Orange by Malcolm McDowell....

 

[YamiTenshi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ooheadsoo I've always heard that Chinese was the hardest. Personally, I think Chinese is harder than Japanese. My Japanese friends agree. I still need to do a foreign language and I want to take Japanese because it's easier than Chinese but my parents will kill me if I do that because I'm Chinese.

It really depends on which dialect of Chinese you are learning. If you know no Chinese whatsoever and are just starting to learn, then Cantonese would be the worse. For anyone that speaks Cantonese fluently you know that the written and spoken versions are very different. How you would write something is completely different then how you would say it. And the langauge is always changing. It's hard to keep up with the slang, because its not considered slang, its really everyday language that even old grandmothers understand. And don't you hate it when a spoken word is not a word at all, there is no way to write it! *sigh*

But don't feel bad about wanting to learn Japanese, I'm trying to learn it too, though to no success.

So back on topic. I also recommend the Harry Potter and Ender's Game books. Not only are they a quick read, but they have good storylines that will keep you entertained.

BTW, has anyone gotten Shadow of the Giant yet? I'm going to wait until the softcover comes out... but I really want to know how it ends.

 

[MrJoshua]

Snowblind by Robert Sabbag

One of my favorite books

 

[rauer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinJ A Clockwork Orange by Malcolm McDowell....

LOL. That book was nearly as difficult to understand as Scrypt's posts. On the other hand, I believe many of the strange expressions in CO come from Russian, so Jorg might have more luck understanding it than us.

 

[wali]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinJ A Clockwork Orange by Malcolm McDowell....

Malcolm McDowell is the actor playing the lead character in clockwork orange [the] movie.

Anthony Burgess is author of Clockwork Orange the novel.

 

[MartinJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wali Malcolm McDowell is the actor playing the lead character in clockwork orange [the] movie. Anthony Burgess is author of Clockwork Orange the novel.

Hehe, picked up my book to check if you were right, and you are....ooooopsie