I bought this

[skoosiepants]

I have decided that I am going to try reading actual paper books this summer! Instead of fanfiction! I don't know if it'll work, but we shall see. So, anyway, you should tell me what's good to read! I like comedy, teens, romance, time-travel, dogs, horses, sci-fi, historical fiction, etc. I don't like anything heavy or depressing. I don't mind having to think, but I'm hugely disapproving of long, boring descriptions, no matter how accurate or whatever. I'm afraid I have a low tolerance now for epithets, sloppy POVs, use of "lover" (oh god, shoot me), and, seriously, hate, hate, hate something that's overly-wordy for no purpose at all, but just because the author likes to write about flowers or bicycles or sunsets or clothes or quidditch (hi, JKR) - bleh. ANYWAY, I'm sure you all can suggest something to read that isn't going to make my eyes bleed and my brain ooze out of my ears. Summer fun!

I've got 27 pages of utter Kevin/Mike high school AU crap, but whatever, I'm still trucking. I figure I'll just write and write and write and then go back and slice it apart and put it back together into something that maybe makes sense and doesn't suck, but no promises.

Also, I'm SO TEMPTED to write iCarly het, because Sam and Freddie are so adorable together and Sam is like my favorite character on TV right now and iCarly rocks, even J likes it.

Comments

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

these sound perfect!! thank you!

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

oooooo, excellent, thank you!

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

I love those books!!! I'm waiting for my mom to buy the newest one because I know she'll let me read it first :)

[1001cranes.livejournal.com]

awesome, thank you!

and as a slightly random book rec, anything Francesca Lia Block. My favorite is The Rose and the Beast, which is a collection of nine reimagined fairytales, mostly (I think all?) reset in modern day LA. faaaaantastic.

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

omg, the ep where Sam and Freddie kiss, I almost died, it was so awesome!!

yay, new book! sounds fantastic, thank you!

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

dude, awesome, thank you!!

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

yay, fairytales! thanks, that sounds wonderful!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_slashygoodness/]

Umm, ummm, crap. Personally, I like Runaways and Young Avengers a lot. YA sort of... evaporated after a bit. Runaways is just getting into a new arc. You can pick up TPBs (trade paperbacks) to catch up pretty quickly. Both don't lean too heavy on the rest of the Marvel universe, but it helps to know them a little.

Runaways is the story of six teens who are the children of wealthy families in Cali. Every year, their parents meet up to talk shop in the basement study and they decide to spy. Turns out their parents are a secret society of super villians with a huge web emanating from the West Coast. So what do they do? What any good teenager would: go rogue.

Young Avengers: The Avengers have just disbanded (see Avengers: Dissembled). Iron Lad comes and tells three teens that they're a part of the Avengers Initiative, a program he found within the remains of The Vision. Billy, Teddy, and Eli join him and form a new vigilante team, dubbed the Young Avengers by the press.

In both the Marvel and DC universes, big monster crossover events recently ended so if you don't mind waiting those TPBs, I'd say do that.

There's also Umbrella Academy (written by Gerard Way). I really love the story in that. Ummm, don't think I can summarize that without spoiling though.

Mike Turner's Shrugged (Aspen Comics) is really good and (to where I am) fairly light. That can, obviously, change pretty quickly.

The Sandman (written by Neil Gaiman, various artists) is always amazing. There's also various spinoffs, notably ones involving Death (who is adorable, seriously).

Tori Amos has a huge coffee table collection of comics that I really want to check out.

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee and Filler Bunny by Jhonen Vasquez are all good but fairly dark and all dark humor. JtHM follows Johnny, who definitely has a psychosis. Squee follow Squee, who Johnny sometimes torments engages in conversation. Filler Bunny is, well, filler from those two plus a bit more, I believe.

Haven't read too much else lately that fits what you're looking for.

[shaggirl.livejournal.com]

No problem! I hope you like it. :))

[chopchica.livejournal.com]

Don't read more in the series. They all turn into giant assholes. Just reread the first two!

[libgirl.livejournal.com]

Hmm. For a fast afternoon read, and it's a fabulous book, I recommend Boy Meets Boy by David Leviathan. I really like everything he's done. :D

I'll think of others, but that's my standby rec.

[yetunknown.livejournal.com]

hey, that's what I'm trying to do, too. except people revealing their Big Bang made my defenses crumble.

but the one book I read recently that I really liked was The Graveyard Boy by Neil Gaiman. then again, you can hardly go wrong with Gaiman.

[yetunknown.livejournal.com]

You should read all Diana Wynne Jones books immediately
seconded! I'm obsessed with her books.

[starflowers.livejournal.com]

You must read Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore.

Seriously. Best book ever, recommended by 9 out of 10 Chapters Employees. Trust me, I was one, for four amazing years.

It tells the story of Jesus's Awkward Teen Years, through the POV of his best friend Biff, who is a shithead, and who experiences various illicit and sexual deeds while Jesus watches from a crack in the stable wall, just because Jesus is sulky that he's the misiah, so he can't have sex.

Also, I post my Big Bang on FRIDAY. This means I must EDIT, and QUICKLY!!

[ficliously.livejournal.com]

WRITE ICARLY!! Sam and Freddie are my OTP (at least when I'm watching iCarly).

[o4fuxache.livejournal.com]

This might be too heavy but UGH I miss working in a book store so my ultimate FAVORITE right now is... (drumroll)

The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears. It's a love story through time! No listen!

Okay so basically it's three stories that take place in different periods of time in the same part of France (Provence). One takes place during the fall of Rome, one takes place during the great plague when the Vatican is moving into France or moving out of France or dancing around France or something, I can't remember. The other takes place during the Holocaust. But the stories are interwoven together and naturally they are all connected. I love this book and this author insane amounts. INSANE.

I'm also reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, which I'm considering light reading and it's not bad. I haven't had the term "lover" yet when it wasn't being used either ironically or self-consciously (if at all).

I love books!

[audrey1nd.livejournal.com]

Wow, you totally just opened up my can of worms. You know me and books if you've ever read my journal and all my ramblings about cataloging my books. And I am now resigned to cataloging all the books in my house so that I will know where everything is when my books eventually leave my room for shelves.
Anyways, EVERYTHING by Francesca Lia Block. You've got gay boys, romance, fairies, prettiness and cuteness. Jasper Fforde. He writes these Thursday Next books which are about an alternate universe where there is kind of like a book police? And there are all these awesome literary references which make you want to read the books he mentions (the first one is called the Eyre Affair and it totally made me read and love Jane Eyre) and also, the heroine goes into this awesome bookworld.
Holly Black writes awesome teen books about this girl who discovers she is Fae and then a companion book about a girl who just kind of enters the world of the Fae.
Amanda Quick writes really great regency mystery romance novels. My mom picked one up once and was like, wow, this is really good. Because the mystery part is always awesome!
I read Twilight for the lolz, but I think it just made me laugh because I could make so many parallels to Roswell, my fav show of ridiculous teen angst.
Phillip Pullman's Sally Lockhart series. Girl heroine who solves mysteries is Victorian England. She is very awesome and self-sufficient.
I loved John Bellairs as a kid and he wrote supernatural mysteries for kids. It was like kid plus adult wandering around with mystical things happening and all the settings are really cool. My favorite are the Anthony Monday series.
And I would have to look around my room to suggest more, but I think that should give you a start as most of those are series/authors you won't get sick of reading. At least, I still haven't even after all these years.
And if you do end up wanting a more serious heavy read, I loved Stranger in a Strange Land, Gone with the Wind (gave me a total head trip when in 6th grade I realized I was totally Scarlett O'Hara), of course Austen and Bronte, which make me giggle in glee, and the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. That is a really awesome universe of powers and politics and I've been reading it since 5th grade and while the 1st one takes a while to get into, once you're into it, it really takes off. There's giant battles, and romances, and sex, and really, really, tangled relationships and after a while it becomes hard to keep track of everything, but that's why there's a glossary! Also known as the reason for why I am so fond of children's fantasy these days. But still a very good read.
Let me know if you need any other book recs. I have lists of the books I read in middle school (and can recall almost every single one) and a catalogue of what I own. Also let me know what you think if you read any of them.

[nishatalitha.livejournal.com]

I suggest anything by Lois McMaster Bujold - fantasy or science-fiction. Vorkosigan series is more or less space opera; five gods universe is theological fantasy with a made up theology that is both different and believable; Sharing Knife is more or less a romance-fantasy quartet set in an alernate america during the 1800s and contains, among other things very interesting looks at duty, love, family and race.

Also recommend Transformation and sequels by Carol Berg. Second the Scott Lynch recommendations above.

Nation by Terry Pratchett is an interesting look at death from an aetheist's perspective - it's marketed as a kids book that adults will enjoy, but I think it's really the other way around.

[nutty-moo.livejournal.com]

This was really helpful for me as well LOL because I need some things to read.

Um I would also recommend The Magician's Trilogy by Trudi Carnavan. She is Aussie (thus awesome) and this was her first tilogy. Bit raw but it has Magic, Evil, Love & Gay Romance.

Also Sarah Rees Brennan had just released Demon's Lexicon. I have no idea if they are good but I have read her fan works for years and find her funny but also with great depth.

The other people have said. For non sci-fi there is also Melanie La'Broy. She does romantic comedy realy well.

That is all I can remember that would be different to what you have probably read :)

Re: OMG, how did this get so long?

[attentie.livejournal.com]

No worries, I found a couple of good recs in the answers already! Also, now I want to reread MY meg cabot YA books... I love fanfiction AU's too, so, you know, let's blame it on that.

Good luck with picking books this weekend! I always want too many books and stand there for an embarassing amount of time weighing the pros and cons of each book... Hopefully the recs will help you deciding!

[attentie.livejournal.com]

Ahaha we just both have good taste :)

[appending-doom.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend Sunshine, by Robin McKinley (sp?). It's sort of the anti-Twilight, in that vampires aren't secret, aren't sexy, and just want to eat us.

It gets more complicated, which is a good thing.

[melodylemming.livejournal.com]

Oh, please write iCarly. Slash, het, gen, whatever. I kind of love Sam, Carly and Freddie equally, but there's no denying that Sam is cooler than the other two combined. And everyone either of them has been in anything with. Or met. You know.

I don't know if you're at all interested in older books, but that's mostly what I read. It might defeat the paper books thing, though, because I make a point of reading things that are Available for Free on the Internet. Two recs, though:

The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton, because it is like crackfic! There is a duel! it includes the follwing lines:

"If anyone has any use for my left eyebrow," he said, "he can have it. Colonel Ducroix, do accept my left eyebrow! It's the kind of thing that might come in useful any day," and he gravely tore off one of his swarthy Assyrian brows, bringing about half his brown forehead with it, and politely offered it to the Colonel, who stood crimson and speechless with rage.

It's kind of amazing.


The other rec: A Woman Named Smith, by Marie Conway Oemler. Sophy Smith is a drab secretary. She inherits a beautiful southern mansion from her crazy old lady relative. She turns it into a boarding house for famous people. There is a mummy in the basement.

I may be recommending this mostly because it could totally work as a bandom AU.

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite scifi books is Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed. Le Guin is really awesome at worldbuilding. Also some great hard SF here (http://qntm.org/?fiction) - it is not fanfic but it is also not on paper idk :P

In comedy (also a little scifi) my favourite ever is Incompetence by Rob Grant, it provokes literal rofls no matter how many times I reread it. Okay, this book begins (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0575074493/ref=sib_dp_bod_ex?ie=UTF8&p=S00B#reader-link) with "The flight was uneventful enough, except the pilot accidentally touched down at a slightly wrong airport and forgot to lower the landing gear, so we left the plane by way of the emergency chute, and I lost my shoes."
It is set in an alternate EU where it's illegal to fire someone for incompetence. Except it's a spy thrillier. I KNOW.

I mean, that and Terry Pratchett but I generally assume people have either read his stuff or fall into that small odd category that just totally dislike it.

[skoosiepants.livejournal.com]

yay, thank you!