good books

OK...has anyone read 50 Shades of Grey? I have never heard of this book until yesterday...then it seems like it is all that people are talking about. Is it worth the time to read?

Please do NOT waste your time. My book club picked it, otherwise I'd never look at it twice but trust me, there is better porn out there

If, conversely, you are looking for a good book, let me suggest "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein. That book was worth the time!

bump~

Gillian Flynn's two books are awesome. I also love Laura Lippmann. I just started "Into the Woods" by Tana French and I'm getting into it. Everyone talks about the hunger games but I just can't bring myself to read it. I'm not into futuristic societies and I don't want to read about teenagers.

My fiance wrote a novel and had it published. It's called "Tired of Sex" by D. Camfield. You can find it in hardback, paperback, and ebook (Nook & Kindle) format. He describes it as a modern day Catcher in the Rye. An homage to the modern generation of young adults.

http://www.amazon.com/Tired-Sex-Daniel-L-Camfield/dp/146286953X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335462825&sr=1-1
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tired-of-sex-daniel-l-camfield/1102096203?ean=9781462869541

"I start to wonder if I might not be the worst possible human imaginable. But then I think that I'm not any worse than anyone else living in this building, this city, this country, this reality. This realization does not soothe me. It only makes me feel worse."

Success is a right. Sex is easy. The world is there to inherit.

Mark Brock is a rich, attractive Californian with the world at his fingertips. He is completing his Master's at Lockean University in southern England. He is twenty-two years-old, and will soon have a fast-tracked career to complement the wealth he has inherited. Amongst his fellow students and coworkers in England, he has the charm of a foreigner, the easy appeal of one from a warmer land. A modern-day Gatsby living with American bravado in the European culture... and he is doing his best to throw it all away.

Mark has learned to become an incredibly bitter, detached individual. His parent's are cold, choosing to travel the world rather than see their own son graduate. Mark and his younger brother regard each other with equal levels of disgust. Even escaping that life in California, Mark can only find his new home mundane.

The morning after his birthday, he wakes up in a strange room, naked, no memory of the night before. As with everything else in life, he accepts the situation. He leaves without trying to find out who he slept with. Days blend into weeks, weeks into months His final year of university in England is a cycle of self-destruction, a never-ending night of parties, wealth, and casual sex.

He has everything anyone could ever want, except one thing: a sense of purpose, of self-worth. An afternoon in the pub seems more productive going to class, than finishing his dissertation. Life is stuck on fast-forward.

Most of his time is spent with a best friend who is a loathing addict, or with a dangerous and aggressive drug dealer who Mark finds simultaneously repulsive and fascinating. The rest of his time is spent desperately searching for a new lover, someone special. Someone that he could call the one. Mark is never hard-pressed to find a new partner. But while women are more than happy to sleep with the charming Californian, none of them will spend any intimate time with him. Women will have sex with him, but won't have dinner with him. He simultaneously wants to feel wounded and to feel that this is what he deserves, that he is unlovable.

But ultimately there is no epiphany. Hiding in the beds of strangers is just another drug used to numb himself from the pain of Emily, the ghost of his past. Falling in love soon becomes another addiction. More and more he just grows numb to the cycle

Despite his efforts at self-destruction, he still graduates with honors, and quickly finds a faceless corporate job. This is the cycle that Mark traps himself in. Another business meeting. Harder and harder drugs. Another cocktail in another bar. Another bed with another stranger. Both love and heartbreak are found on Facebook, in the clubs, at drunken office parties. And even as he watches his own soul die, an onlooker at a horrible accident, he can't seem to bring himself to stop it.

Mark's life becomes a dizzying spiral of desperation as he looks for answers in all the wrong places. The harder he searches for meaning, the more horror he sees and commits. Things grow more dangerous, and before long Mark is not only harming himself, but those around him. As his numbness grows, he tries to blame the drugs, the alcohol, the sex. But deep down he knows he can't blame those things. It is something that is innate in him. Something far worse. But it's all he knows.

what about the game of thrones series? by george r.r. martin? i have been hearing about this book a lot recently

My Dad has read them and absolutely LOVES them. He loaned me all of the books in the series so far. I would like to tell you I've read them and I enjoy them..but truth be told I haven't even started them yet. But for what it's worth, I have heard very good things about the books by more people than just my dad.

Books I really like are World War Z, Zombie Survival Guide, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I Am America and So Can You (only suggested if you like Stephen Colbert). Other than that the books I read and I was like "this was okay" are The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo triology, Go Ask Alice and We Need to Talk about Kevin.

As I said, my Dad loaned me The Game of Thrones series, but he also loaned me a TON more. I may have more suggestions when I get through it.

I just finished Killing Lincoln, liked it a lot.

Requiem for a Dream is hard work, horrifically depressing but still so worth it, and the film is the best film ever made so watch that too! If you're looking for something much lighter/easier, read the Edge chronicles. Children's books but the illustrations are beautiful and the fantasy world is so detailed and...like well thought out. It seems real

Requiem for a Dream is a GREAT book and an even better movie. The book is a little difficult to read due to the way it was written but definitely worth a try!

The Mortal Instruments books by Cassandra Clare are entertaining.

1. City of Bones
2. City of Ashes
3. City of Glass
4. City of Fallen Angels
5. City of Lost Souls (releases in May)
6. ???

There's also the prequel series, called The Infernal Devices.

1. Clockwork Angel
2. Clockwork Prince
3. Clockwork Princess (September 2013)
4. ???
5. ???
6. ???

I also have a ton of book reviews on my book blog, Roof Beam Reader. Feel free to browse through to find suggestions (and reasons why I liked/disliked certain books). www.roofbeamreader.net

I didn't love the Hunger Games (I'm not usually a big fan of young adult novels)... I prefer science fiction or military history. Read Unbroken if you want a really emotional book. Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors (Cryptonomicon, Anathem are two of my favorite books of all time). I also really like A Prayer For Owen Meany, another one of my favorites...

If you're looking for something light and fun definitely the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. I also really like the Jack Reacher series from Lee Child, they are crime thrillers with a sexy leading man.

If you're in the mood for something a lilttle more serious but still romanic sigh worth I recommend, Time Travellers Wife, and Like Water for Chocolate. Time Travellers Wife movie did the book no justice, it's full of action and adventure and a heart wrenching love story. Like Water for Chocolate is just a beautiful story, but it might make you hungry since each chapter starts with a recipe.

If you like the occasional bio book, I loved Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, it's a tough read in some parts since it deals with some terrible issues facing women, but it's a very good read. The tragic parts help you really understand the beauty in the rest of the story.

Great thread BTW. I'm adding some new books to my must read list.