/lit/ - Literature

...Narnia?

>>3223045
yep thanks

Inheritance Cycle
Kingkiller Chronicles

Animorphs.

The Death Gate Cycle is a pretty fun read.

>>3223054
>>3223052
>>3223051
saved to backlog

The Maze Runner

The Lies of Locke Lamora
The Witcher
The Dark Elf Trilogy (Anything by Salvatore with Drizzt in it)

I really liked Norwegian Wood, is that more of a 'mature' book?

Why?

>>3223081
what do you mean why? I want to read em

Jules Verne

Kafka

>>3223098
>>3223099
NOPE

The Elminster series - and as someone mentioned previously, anything by Salvatore.
Also; GRRM's short stories contained within his retrospective books(Dream-songs).
A lot of great books out there, and it doesn't all have to be the fanciest high-brow stuff to be good - Sometimes you just need a good story.

>>3223061
It's not really a 'mature' book - It's known for being incredibly appealing to young people, and especially men. It is a great book, definately worth a read.

>>3223061
It's mainly read by teenage girls so take that for whatever you want. Murkakami's typically the first step someone takes when they try to move into 'serious' literature

>>3223108
>>3223106
what a contradiction !

well I'm a young man and I got a boner from the milf scene in Norwegian Wood

>>3223108
Teenage girls? I'm pretty certain that it's mainly for the male audience - It doesn't exactly portray women as the strongest people, which is what fems want.
>>3223113
That WAS an amazing scene... I felt weird afterwards tho'.

>>3223118
They made it in the movie but I haven't seen it just the scene. I must really like milfs.

>>3223127
I'm not a big fan of the movie - it seemed like it was all crammed together.
But still - the scene in the book is pretty damn hot.. In the movie, not as much.

>>3223051

The easy reading I have been doing lately:

Dresden files (best fun I have had reading a book in a while)
Wheel of time (just got the post author died books, new guy cant write matt for shit)

Something I found on the internet, not as mainstream as the books above:
John dies at the end (so excited for the movie)
and This book is full of spiders (look em up on amazon)

Read everything in OPs post and I must say Hunger games was awful no matter which perspective you come at it from.

>>3223052
Less for manchildren more for actual children.

Wizard's First Rule

robert jordan

>>3223187
You do not talk about Wizard Club?

Bernand Cowell.

>>3223184
He got married. He's trying to calm down and stay alive for his wife.

>>3223223
Who?

Skulduggery Pleasant.

The saga of darren shan

You said Ender's Game but does that mean all of the Ender books?

Because Speaker for the Dead was amazing, the two after that... kind of weird.

Also Ender's Shadow? I feel like I'm the only one who liked Shadow more than Game. I just like Bean better.

>>3223707
>read all of these books in middle school
>get into reading because of them
>get to second to last book
>final book doesn't come out for like a year and a half
>in high school read all of the Ender Books
>finally find the last Darren Shan book 2 years after I finished the second to last one
>read half of it
>can't stand it

I'm not saying it sucked, it was just an interesting thing that happened.... to me anyway...

You have to of come across this junk at some point, and the books are nowhere near as bad as you'd think

>>3223712
>the two after that... kind of weird.
Xenocide was a little boring, but Children of the Mind was outstanding, I liked that more than Speaker.

Jules Verne is most appreciated by inspirable and adventurous children, fuck you for dismissing him like you have.

>>3223718
>I'm not saying it sucked, it was just an interesting thing that happened.... to me anyway...
Same thing happened to me with Redwall and the Pendragon Adventure books, loved 'em as a kid but I probably wouldn't be able to get through them now.

For OP:
Abarat
The Bartimaeus Trilogy
His Dark Materials trilogy

>>3223724
Well I guess I never got to Children of the Mind because Xenocide I couldn't really get through.

But this was years ago (i was in high school too) Fuck, right now I barely remember what it was about SFTD that i loved. So I need to reread all the books, I just remember picking it up thinking it was going to be a bunch of philosophy shit, and it fucking blew me away. Now that you say that though, I'll read those last two.

>mfw it's going to be just like reading them for the first time again

>>3223721
I've been told that Abnett is pretty much the only worthwhile Black Library author.

>>3223745

>>3223749

By far the best anyway that I've come across. But to be fair most of them are at least adequate if you're in that kind of mood. Think good, solid: 4/5 for sheer un-taxing fun and possibly nostalgia value.

seconding his dark materials + abarat
sabriel series
not really manchild but discworld is mandatory
all dianna wynne jones(howl's moving castle, dark lord of derkholm, deep secret, sudden wild magic, chrestomanci, etc.)
so you want to be a wizard series
wrinkle in time + wind in the door
artemis fowl

can we just agree sci-fi/fantasy books are for manchildren

If you can't read a book without spaceships or knights with big swords you might as well go back to reading comic books

>>3223040
I'm a high schooler progressing into the deeper literatures, so I might be the most helpful here.

You seem to like fantasy/dystopian/sci-fi, so I'll see what I can come up with.
COMPARATIVELY CHILDISH:
-Ranger's Apprentice (first one off my head, perhaps a bit too childish for you, but it's good for an hour read)
-Fablehaven (same as above)
-The Edge Chronicles (weirdass fantasy/steampunk setting)

YOUNG ADULT:
-Eragon
-The Tapestry (dystopian/sci-fi)


That's all I've got. Again, these are all books I had read in 7th grade and below (and some of 8th grade), so there's a possibility none of them will be worth reading. I went through a long bout of not reading in the past year, so I haven't anything better than that.

On the subject of the parallel between childish/deep, can anyone recommend some entry-level "deep" books?

>>3224047
Forgot to add; any pratchett book.

how exactly does lotr fit in with the rest of those? how do you go from easy and addicting to insufferably dry and boring?

>>3223100

The Kafka dude was an obvious troll, but Verne is right up your alley if you enjoy fantasy. It's pretty cool to see how the same tropes were played out one century before.

Lord of The Rings is not fucking "manchildren books" and I hate you all

>>3224054
Nah, the dryness of that universe goes (ascending order): Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Children of Hurin, the Silmarillion, and the History of Middle Earth.

>>3224076
o_0

>>3223054
huzzah! a weis and hickman suggestion!

>>3223207
i'm commenting just because it wasn't funny

>>3223184

Animorphs is a good story no matter how old you are. Well-drawn characters, escalating overarching plot, pertinent themes, interesting moral quandaries.

Manchild classics:
Jules Verne
H.G. Wells
Edgar Rice Burroughs
H.P. Lovecraft
Robert E. Howard
Isaac Asimov (Foundation trilogy, Robot trilogy, selected short stories)
Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, selected short stories)
Arthur C. Clarke (2001 series, Rama series, selected short stories)
Frank Herbert (Dune series)

Manchild fantasy:
Patrick Rothfuss
Brandon Sanderson
Joe Abercrombie
R. Scott Bakker
Peter Brett
Jim Butcher

>>3223100
Nothing wrong with Jules Verne, I was reading Journey to the Center of the Earth in like 4th grade.

>>3223721
My friends have always ploughed through 40k books but they have shit tastes. What are 40k required reading books?

>>3224326
I agree with this bro.

20k Leagues Under the Sea
Jouney to the Center of the Earth
All of Lovecraft
Howard - esp Conan and Solomon Kane

Joe Abercrombie also great.

>>3223718
This happened to me with the Drizzt books. It pained me to do it, but just a couple weeks ago I ended up boxing them up because I was running out of room on my shelves.

>>3223040
Seeing that i am still reading some of these i would say they are manchildren books... i am ashamed of most of them...

>>3227693
>i am ashamed of most of them
good boy

>>3227693
I have read about 2/3 of them.

>>3227714
I don't detect any shame
>>>/tg/

>>3224030
>can we just agree sci-fi/fantasy books are for manchildren
Nope. The majority of fantasy and science fiction books are derivative trash, but the same thing could be said about any genre.

>>3227739
manchild detected

>>3227717
I'm not ashamed. I like sci-fi, I like fantasy, I even like some YA. There aren't that many classics that I like. And fuck you, mom, Imma read what I want.

>>3227752
2deep4u autistic "intellectual" detected.

>>3227794
Your detector is damaged from years of reading escapist genre-filth

>>3227810
>implying there's anything wrong with escapism
>implying all fantasy and science fiction works are bad

>>3227810
When you want something to enjoy and pass the time you read escapism books.. i will not read classics, then come on here and pretend i liked them like you pretentious fucks do on a regular basis.

You know those old fucks doing their word play doesn't get you hard nor excited if it does.... you need to start reading "escapist genre-filth" to escape your life because it sucks.

You read a book for a story or a plot they all have some something they are trying to get across if you enjoy someone listing a dictionary....

also not the guy you responded to

>>3228087
>he's liking something I don't like, he must be pretending

You are an unintelligent, unappealing, pathetic, little shitstick.
Your opinions will never approach a grain of worth.
Your parents, your friends, your associates, your partners, your children, none of them will ever think you worthy of even the minutest modicum of respect.
Fuck off

>>3228168
... if you are female i would totally let you dominate me right now... you sound abusive

>>3228223

I'd let them piss on me. Don't care whether male/female.

>>3228223
I am a man and I will rip your intestines out and choke you to death with them

>>3228799
hawt
Do you like it up the butt

>>3227693
>Anita Blake

My guiltiest pleasure!

Discworld is a must.

>>3223118
That's what fems THINK they want.

The Night Angel Trilogy is enjoyable.
The Lord of the Rings is serious stuff. Don't read it if you won't appreciate it.

>>3228960
Yea it was nice for like 16 or 18 books...
She was like a virgin in book one, had sex with only one guy and was keeping herself chase afterwards... then like in book 2-4 she does a complete 180 and starts fucking like a maniac, EVEN though she made a promise she won't until she was married(remember she doesn't break her oaths/ promises).
I over looked that part because the council and mommy dearest came along, then she started gathering more and more men .... then she wanted the men to bugger each other..... and give each other head...... and the last couple books have not NOTHING to do with the original story she just fucking(i need food), they're like book 1 and up sans a real crisis and filled with many men in each other's poopers.

>>3228960
>>3227693
Lol i saw this on goodreads.
The Holy Terror marked it as will-never-read
Shelves: hate-this-series, terrible-writing, you-are-dead-to-me, abandoned-series, unnatural-character-progression, dumb-females, dumb-males

The one and only time I will ever put a gif in a review.

Edited on 5/7/12, because I apparently have more to say ...

Hit List was the end of Anita Blake for me, after reading this series for the better part of a decade, so check out my review of it to see why I'm not reading Kiss the Dead. I grew attached to the characters and the story and was thoroughly invested with these books until it just got to the point that I couldn't read them without wanting to stab myself in the eye or tear my hair out, or both. It wasn't the sex (which, even though it got ridiculous it was at least hilarious enough to be entertaining), it wasn't the plot (what little existed), it wasn't JUST the writing (though it continued to go downhill with each subsequent book), it was a combination of all of those things and more.

She's run this series into the ground and continues to milk it even though it's painfully obvious she doesn't know what she's doing with it anymore. I don't even recognize most of the characters (especially since some of the leads haven't even been IN the books for the last few) and Anita is just an awful Mary Sue who runs around in circles asking the same questions and getting into the same disagreements and adding more and more men and more and more powers to both her and others through her magical vagina. Every book ends with a couple of pages to wrap things up in an epilogue instead of using the bulk of the book for those plot points. If someone reads this book and sees my review and can prove me wrong and this one is different, I'd love to know, but any trollish comments will be deleted.

>>3230531
2/3
I went looking for new info about the Meredith Gentry series (yes, I still will read that one and I actually even enjoy it a little bit), and happened upon an excerpt from an outtake that was "too hot to handle" (seriously, how is that possible? Once you write tentacle and human/"childlike" golbin sex and double penetration, I ... don't want to know what "too hot to handle" could possibly mean), from Kiss the Dead. Really, how anyone can read this and not understand why she needs to get a new editor (saw on her blog she actually DOES have one, though how much she lets her editor actually EDIT is suspect), and stop writing this series until she knows what the fuck she wants to do with it is beyond me.
I finally let myself look at that face, and I felt like I had from almost the first moment I’d seen him, that he was simply one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen. The black curls touched the edge of his face, as if bringing attention to the curve of his mouth, the line of his cheek, and those eyes. They always looked blue, but they were so dark. Midnight blue with their double edge of black eyelashes like dark lace to frame the deepest blue I’d ever seen in anyone’s eyes. His eyes were a blue like deep ocean water, where it runs cold and will eventually spill down into something warm and mysterious, where creatures the light has never seen live and thrive.

>>3230535
3/3
Those gorgeous eyes looked at me, and there was love in them, but the second he saw me in the doorway, walking toward him, there was lust, desire, and just a heat that brought a blush to my face and an answering heat to my own eyes. Six years after we’d first started dating I was still a little amazed that this most lovely of men wanted me so badly. They talked about burning for each other, and we still did. I never seemed to get over the surprise of turning around and seeing him there. You’d think I’d get used to seeing such a beautiful man and knowing he was mine, but it never grew old, as if his beauty and the fact that he was mine, and I was his, would forever surprise me.
Hmm. I think she's trying to describe a MAN with BLUE EYES who is HERS in this scene. I'm not always great at critiquing literature, but I think that's what she was going for. Maybe.

Seriously, did you see she wrote "he was mine" twice in the same sentence? Well, good to know that this scene was cut from the book because it didn't fit in with whatever "plot" she came up with and not because it's so awful it shouldn't be published ... oh, wait, it IS being published. Instead of making this a free story on her site for whatever fans she has left, she's selling it as an ebook for $2.99. Shameful, but it doesn't surprise me at all. The only thing that still surprises me is that she has any fans left.