i really love paulo coelho's work but i prefer Brida and veronica decides to die to the alchemist. from reading your posts i assume you would like "the devil and miss prym" the most of all read it if you have time...

you said you love murder mysteries have you read crime and punishment?

Whoa, I totally agree with the Crime and Punishment recommendation, that book is brilliant.

I'd also recommend War and Peace. It's a little heavy going but it's really well written.

(And I kind of have a thing for Russian novels...)

Hmm, LotR is always a classic read. Also, Memoirs of a Geisha amd Gone With the Wind.

I read metamorphosis at the beginning of the year...
maybe you're thinking about it you hard because it's in plain english and you think it means something deeper xD
I think it's overall theme is that one individual is not that important to the overall scheme of things.. like how gregor's family moved on without him so easily. it's pretty cynical :P or the fancy word would be existentialist

oooh, so decisions have been decided 14th?
-Jamo

@bethan
yeah i totally agree with you "I kind of have a thing for Russian novels..."
ooh and LOTR i know every sentence of it and a tolkien collection. memoirs of a geisha is very very sweet...

@jamo
where did you get that news from?

@Deng You make a lot of sense on the Metamorphosis account. I suppose most of the problem is that I don't feel that I'm moving toward a point, a final ending?

@Sepideh Will check out those books, Crime and Punishment has always been really intimidating though! Thick books are.

@Bethan I'm scared of LotR, I tried to read it when I was 10? And it was so thick and un-understandable... =( When did you read it, perhaps I should retry?

@Jamo/Sepideh Well I just guessed it'd be around the 16-20th so, eh, just minus or add a few days.

@Fiona,
I have not read any of the books you mentioned

I like Californian Tale, you are right if you don't read it because i didn't read your favorite books, IT's Mark Twain and it's a very right story to read

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Californian%27s_Tale

short and he makes me crazy when he can write long beautiful sentences

@Fiona

I tried to read LotR when I was 11, and managed to get all the way to the 1st chapter of the 2nd book, but then I gave up on it.

I re-red it at 16 and loved every second of it.

@sepideh

I used to be able to quote LotR by heart, but I've forgotten most of it by now XD

But I have a surprisingly good memory of the appendices. I know who Arvedui is :)

@michelle
i try to read it every year not to get out of the spirit. sometimes i just open my "tolkien companion" to refresh some info. something strange i do is i try to read it in the different languages i know which i call it my tolkien collection. (everyone, don't think i don't have any thing to do this is mostly in my free time, i have 2 jobs ...)

@fiona
i have to confess, when i read it for the first time i was 12 and when i got by the part about the ringwraiths i got scared!...ooh this is so embarrasing and i just didn't continue till i was 14 and started all over again and finished the trilogy plus the hobbit in 15 days, my mom thought i was going crazy...

Ahh, Kafka's Metamorphosis. Gotta get around to that at some point. Maybe after I get around to Faust. (Thing is, due to still trying to perfect my German, I have to read them auf Deutsch).
I was about to read A Thousand Splendid Suns for my English free choice, but alas too many people took it. So I have to find an alternative *sniff*

Really sad thing: All of what I've read this year that wasn't required of me was nonfiction and blogs. XD Oh, wait, no, I read Duerrenmatt's "The Physicists." Which was really odd but made an interesting point.

Might I reccomend Duerrenmatt's "Besuch der alten Dame" (The Visit in English, I think) if you're looking for a good plot?

Oh, also - favorite book EVER (er, fiction book, that is, because by default physics/chem/EAPS textbooks are superior to all fiction): A Separate Peace by John Knowles (:

I liked metamorphosis. Any time you want to discuss it I'm game. great book! :)

Khaled Hosseini's books are sure good :) If you want some good non-fiction, i recommend: The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is superb. Also, biographies/autobiographies of great personalities like:

Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
The Age of Turbulence (Alan Greenspan)

Good to read these for some perspective before you get into college!

Fiona: I think that IS the point: that there's no point xD

Okay.... There's the usual stuff, H2G2, LOTR, 1984, Brief History of Time and all that, which I'm sure almost everyone here has read, so there.

Life of Pi is really cool. Tigers rule.
Cryptonomicon is extremely technical. Or fun. Can't really tell the difference in this book.
Animal Farm is totally awesome. When I was a kid, it seemed like a normal, sad story, but now, the symbolisms are just mindblowing.
And I managed to get to about page 50 in Ulysses before Confusion made me die a little inside.

BTW, I've got that Carnegie audio book as well! Can't wait to listen to that!

Kafka has always been a mysterious writer. When you read him, don't try to rationalize the situation, you have to go along, it is way of exploring yourself. Let yourself free and empathize the characters. I am certain that you will figure out new emotions that you have never felt. That is kafka, he just took language to a new level, to a level where he defines new emotions with language, a sort of mystical impending danger.
I think you have to think less and get carried away with his novel to get the thrill of it.

Hello!

Just introduce myself: I am a man (says my wife), I am 50 years old (hmm, that looks bad isn't it?) and I am a terrible bad programmer (I say myself).
My hobbies: computer (of course), my 17 years old son and of course my wife. I like to play billiard, I do a very little bit and very simple programming in VB and I try to make a site for my billiard-club in the near future.

thanks.