This is good literature

[Mr Buckshot]

http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:IrbKKS_5v295CM:http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/10290000/10299664.jpghttp://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:th6btHMdAfFeRM:http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n10/n54646.jpghttp://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:9v3pZ8Mp1Z8ILM:http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n11/n58578.jpghttp://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:5XdCaDa95IB0IM:http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n11/n58572.jpghttp://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:dJWquNSWSItDMM:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/de/Scorpia.JPG/200px-Scorpia.JPGhttp://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:KCRAl3IWJRc-sM:http://hodori.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/n1379011.jpghttp://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:zfcS7jLw4TcN3M:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Snakehead_britishcover.png/200px-Snakehead_britishcover.png

Went to the public library to get some reference material, but I got "distracted" when I passed the young adults section and saw book covers that just screamed "action movie," under the H section (by author).

Personally I'm not a fan of arts literature, especially those damned novels I have to read for IB English SL like Crime and Punishment or Wuthering Heights. Shakespeare is even worse. It doesn't matter what language it's published in - whether it's English, Chinese, French, etc, if it's very humanities-focused I disdain the prospect of reading it.

But THIS stuff is bloody wicked. Firstly, it's written in a concrete, clear manner that suits all ages, and is also very good for english-as-a-second-language people. More importantly, it's packed with more action than an average 007 or Bourne movie.

In all these books, 14-year-old London spy, Alex Rider, works for MI6 (often against his will) and saves the world many times. Plots are often unrealistic (except maybe Scorpia), but who cares, they're too fun. READ THESE NOVELS, PEOPLE!

Until now, my favorite English-writing author was Tom Clancy, but many of his novels are quite political and complex, rather than action-packed. I like the Halo novels, but not as much as I suddenly like these "masterpieces" by Anthony Horowitz (who is a British man of Israeli descent).

Discuss!

[Xetsuei]

Read all of them but Snakehead, and loved them all. Great books.

What I didn't however like was the Stormbreaker movie. THAT was complete garbage.

[thehoodedsmack]

Eww... I'll admit... I was intrigued up until the character turned out to be 14... I'll see if there's any next time I'm at the library, though. Thanks, guy.

[Xetsuei]

Why? What's wrong with the main character being 14?

[Limited]

I know a great spy fiction writer, I just cant remember his name. I'll find it out then post.

His book is based on a british spy I think.

[Ifafudafi]

Read all the way up 'till Eagle Strike, and got bored. Interesting concept which looked promising but quickly deteriorated (particularly when they started bringing the chick into it.)

Of course, I'm the kind of pretentious faggot who actually enjoys Shakespeare and those heavy philosophyfests like Crime and Punishment, so it's not like my opinion's worth anything :v:

[thehoodedsmack]

Why? What's wrong with the main character being 14?

These stories look like they're attempting to be serious action novels. I'm worried I'm gonna have to deal with some angsty protagonist. Plus, I just don't like the "super-kid" idea. But hey, I'll still check it out if I find the books.

On the topic of awesome spy/action novels, though, I'd suggest anything by Vince Flynn, particularily the ones involving Mitch Rapp. Just mah' two cents.

[Dwood]

I know a great spy fiction writer, I just cant remember his name. I'll find it out then post.

His book is based on a british spy I think.

:lol:

I hope you're being sarcastic because this is that exactly.

Skeleton Key was pretty good imho.

I'm going to have to see if my library has the other stuff :D

[Limited]

:lol:

I hope you're being sarcastic because this is that exactly.

Skeleton Key was pretty good imho.

I'm going to have to see if my library has the other stuff :D
Uh nope, I think the topic of British spy has become popular because of James Bond. But I'm talking about a different author, I just cant remember the name :(

[Heathen]

Eww... I'll admit... I was intrigued up until the character turned out to be 14... I'll see if there's any next time I'm at the library, though. Thanks, guy.
same

[LlamaMaster]

No thanks, school has already effectively killed my natural interest in reading. Hell, I don't even like sitting through an hour for CSI.

[Syuusuke]

AHA those were the books I was looking for!

I was too busy reading the Pendragon series, very unrealistic, but hell, I love it, I prefer that over Harry Potter actually...

[Mr Buckshot]

IMO the fact that Alex Rider is 14 increases the cool factor of this series by a lot :P

Now this is like my favorite English novel.


No thanks, school has already effectively killed my natural interest in reading.

Same, until I saw the front covers of these young adult novels. I went to the library to read academics, very unwillingly of course, but these novels have finally renewed my interest in reading.

I wanted to take all 7 books home (yes, the public library had all of them) but I also had to take some academic material home and I was limited to only 10 items on my card. So I read 2 of the books in the library and took the other 5 home, and filled up the remaining 5 slots with academic bullcrap.


Of course, I'm the kind of pretentious faggot who actually enjoys Shakespeare and those heavy philosophyfests like Crime and Punishment, so it's not like my opinion's worth anything :v:

Hey if you ever decide to learn Chinese, I can sell you a Chinese book that analyzes ancient Chinese philosophy (i.e. Lao Tzu, Confucius) in great detail. My aunt gave it to me as a gift and I never opened it because philosophy just doesn't interest me, no matter what country it's from.

Hey I just realized, this Alex Rider series being my new favorite English novel is kind of like how the Chinese wuxia novels I read are among my favorite Chinese books - those books basically have simple, unrealistic plots with tons of swordfighting action, just like how Anthony Horowitz's excellent works have simple, unrealistic plots with explosive storylines and 007 gadgets and some cool villains.

[Phopojijo]

Ehh...

My inclination is similar... often the attempt to make the protagonist in an action series early/mid teens is nothing more than a branding attempt... and often waters down the experience.

If you want to see a good example of this -- Compare "The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe" to "The Lord of the Rings". "Oh wow, we have a really good formula... let's market it to kids and get that slice of the pie."

True that might not be what's going on with the book... but you know -- bitten once twice shy... that's too common to NOT be the first thing we think of.

[Mr Buckshot]

I've just finished reading all the books, and I don't really see any "emo kid" in the series, I think Harry Potter has a lot of that though (in response to a previous post).

Phopojio, that's a good point. Still, I think you might not find such faults with the Alex Rider series, especially the most recent one, Snakehead.

Snakehead has one of the best escape-from-gruesome-death scenes ever in an English book. Especially since Alex Rider intentionally causes some very nice destruction in that scene.

[Huero]

You know what were good books when I was 7?

Fucking Deltora.

[Xetsuei]

If you want to see a good example of this -- Compare "The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe" to "The Lord of the Rings". "Oh wow, we have a really good formula... let's market it to kids and get that slice of the pie."

I'm pretty sure C.S. Lewis wasn't thinking about that when he wrote it.

[ExAm]

Two words: Neal Stephenson. Thread over.

[Mr Buckshot]

Two words: Neal Stephenson. Thread over.

Never heard of him, I'll check him out. I know a lot more British literature than American literature, due to English classes in the Commonwealth of Nations being kinda biased towards the "mother country's" novels.

[blind]

Why? What's wrong with the main character being 14?
Hahahhaahahahhah.

[ExAm]

Never heard of him, I'll check him out. I know a lot more British literature than American literature, due to English classes in the Commonwealth of Nations being kinda biased towards the "mother country's" novels.
I recommend you read Snow Crash first and foremost.

[Needles]

Why? What's wrong with the main character being 14?

Sound like it takes out a good amount of violence.

Stephen King is a really good author too, read some of his books. Or Michael Crichton, read "The Lost World" (it's the book that the second jurrasic park film was based of off).

[Corndogman]

You guys should Definitely Check out Matthew Reilly, he's a great action adventure writer from Australia. Temple, Contest, 7 Deadly Wonders, 6 Sacred Stones to name a few of his books are really good.

[Pope]

Sorry did everyone forget one of the greatest spy series writers ever? Robert Ludlum. Check out any one of his books and I can be assured you won't be disappointed. Btw He created the Bourne series.

My favourite authour to me is John Grisham. His thriller lawyer novels, and even just his intellectual pieces are great comments on both the world today and interesting politicing that goes behind closed doors.

And if you want just :awesome:. Michael Crichton...nuff said.

[Bodzilla]

god delusion.
Richard Dawkins.

read it now.
gentlemen.

[Phopojijo]

I really liked (some!) Battletech novels. Michael Stackpole was a good author for that.

[Huero]

read The Prometheus Deception.
Do it.

[Pope]

I really liked (some!) Battletech novels. Michael Stackpole was a good author for that.
I like his Star Wars books better (Mostly Rouge Squadron series)

[Phopojijo]

One thing he did really well was perception.

He's able to jump characters and know exactly what each should know, what each possibly could know, what each definitely doesn't know, and most importantly -- each character's opinions (biased or otherwise) of each other and events.

[nooBBooze]

Tom Clancy [...], political and complex
I thougt his writing was pretty naive.
Then again I'm into pretentious literature.

[Limited]

Chris Ryan, his books are great. I finally found the book :D

Right now I just started "The Hit List".

[Sel]

better book

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie%27s_World

:awesome:

[English Mobster]

My favorite author: Douglas Adams (R.I.P.)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy saga is probably one of the best series I've ever read.

[ExAm]

My favorite author: Douglas Adams (R.I.P.)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy saga is probably one of the best series I've ever read.
^This.

[SnaFuBAR]

Read Das Boot. Also, look up Tom Clancey's books.

[Reiper]

Wow. Reading this thread has made me realize how long since I've read a book for fun (Damn you IB program! JK. IB is cool.) Some of my personal favorites from class are Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, and Macbeth. Shakespeare has exciting plots in my opinion, but I have a problem with the English that he writes in, which causes me to not do well in class... :gonk: I've recently picked up Grey's Anatomy (Yes... I know its a textbook) and am admiring First Strike from the outside. That story is my favorite from the Halo novels so far. I hope more are written!


What I didn't however like was the Stormbreaker movie. THAT was complete garbage.

Why? I thought that movie was really entertaining, except for the proportionately weak ending.

[Limited]

^^ Agree, Shakespeare was awesome and laid the foundations to the language we use today, buts is so bloody hard to understand and make sense of, plus they LOVE testing your English skills in exams with his work :( Grrr

[Mr Buckshot]

Wow. Reading this thread has made me realize how long since I've read a book for fun (Damn you IB program! JK. IB is cool.) Some of my personal favorites from class are Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, and Macbeth. Shakespeare has exciting plots in my opinion, but I have a problem with the English that he writes in, which causes me to not do well in class... :gonk: I've recently picked up Grey's Anatomy (Yes... I know its a textbook) and am admiring First Strike from the outside. That story is my favorite from the Halo novels so far. I hope more are written!

IB too ;) When I was a kid I was in Chinese Immersion at a Singaporean primary school, basically I learned English, math, science, and PE in English, while I had a very accelerated Mandarin course, a Chinese art course (hated the calligraphy part), and a Chinese social studies course (mostly talking about how Mao sucks lol). Hard and memorable times. I guess I've always had a thing for being in the challenging school program.

My favorite books from class are Lord of the Flies and Grapes of Wrath and Animal Farm, and that's where it ends.

I f***ing hate Shakespeare.

Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider spy series finally rejuvenated my natural interest in reading. It's ironic how high school English tends to make you disdain reading.

[Ifafudafi]

The problem with high school Engilsh (and even middle-school, to an extent) is that unlike pleasure-reading, you're forced to read, re-read, re-re-reread, analyze, discuss, write about, and otherwise pick the books until you're so sick of it that after another day, you'd die; and then they move to a new book before starting the cycle all over again.

The purpose of high-school English is not to give you an appreciation for the literary arts, but rather to show you all the crazy symbolism that's going on and to make you interpret and write about shit that you'd never really care about anyway. It's a sad facet of the standardization of education, but I've already ranted about that.

Myself being an English teacher, I urge any of you people who've given up on reading: try it outside of school. The educational system can somehow find a way to make anything difficult and completely uninteresting. But hey, I actually like Shakespeare (after I got out of High School, anyway) so once again, what's my opinion worth :v:

[ExAm]

I stopped reading books that don't stock the "humor" aisle after high school :smith:

[ultama121]

Hmm... I really haven't done too much reading outside of school. I really enjoy folklore and all sorts of horror writing though. I absolutely love compilations of short horror stories such as the "Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark" series, as well as "Tales of Horror and the Supernatural".

Also since I'm a weeaboo, I'm of course into visual novels. The combination of Prose, Music, possibly Voice Acting, and Picture Visuals can be quite compelling. Here's the introduction to the only visual novel I've finished (and loved). Its entitled Tsukihime.
Xof0mICrNbo
I was really sucked in after reading just this.

[Bodzilla]

The problem with high school Engilsh (and even middle-school, to an extent) is that unlike pleasure-reading, you're forced to read, re-read, re-re-reread, analyze, discuss, write about, and otherwise pick the books until you're so sick of it that after another day, you'd die; and then they move to a new book before starting the cycle all over again.

The purpose of high-school English is not to give you an appreciation for the literary arts, but rather to show you all the crazy symbolism that's going on and to make you interpret and write about shit that you'd never really care about anyway. It's a sad facet of the standardization of education, but I've already ranted about that.

Myself being an English teacher, I urge any of you people who've given up on reading: try it outside of school. The educational system can somehow find a way to make anything difficult and completely uninteresting. But hey, I actually like Shakespeare (after I got out of High School, anyway) so once again, what's my opinion worth :v:
http://www.petitionspot.com/uploads/6799-Spanky%20Ham.JPG
why must i ruin everything so beautiful.

i hated english for this very reason. Also the extreme hypocrisy and the complete and utter lack of knowledge on the very subject they where teaching.
i saw a report done by some of the teachers favourites in class Talking about contrast in the movie edward scissor hands.
they used a power point display with Pink text on a purple backround.....
straight A's.

"WTF MISS they dont even know what contrast is! there fucking talking out they're ass, you cant be serious! Pink text on a purple backround WHAT THE FUCK??"
"Bodie leave my classroom now".

>________>

[Mr Buckshot]

The problem with high school Engilsh (and even middle-school, to an extent) is that unlike pleasure-reading, you're forced to read, re-read, re-re-reread, analyze, discuss, write about, and otherwise pick the books until you're so sick of it that after another day, you'd die; and then they move to a new book before starting the cycle all over again.

The purpose of high-school English is not to give you an appreciation for the literary arts, but rather to show you all the crazy symbolism that's going on and to make you interpret and write about shit that you'd never really care about anyway. It's a sad facet of the standardization of education, but I've already ranted about that.

Myself being an English teacher, I urge any of you people who've given up on reading: try it outside of school. The educational system can somehow find a way to make anything difficult and completely uninteresting. But hey, I actually like Shakespeare (after I got out of High School, anyway) so once again, what's my opinion worth :v:

Good point. Btw do you teach in high school or middle school or elementary school? Tell your students to call you Mr Ifafudafi lol.

Middle school English back in America was easy crap though, no real analysis of any of those shitty novels, no Shakespeare either, easy A. English only started becoming a pain in 11th grade, where the teachers force you to write long essays under a tight timeframe and then they scrutinize the essays closely...

[Syuusuke]

Wrong type of contrast bodie =D

[Bodzilla]

not in what they where talking bout.

Edward and his castle or whatever is very grey and dark and washed out (if i recall correctly) and in the suburbs theres loads of bright pastel colours ect.

ergo they hey no fucking idea what they where talking bout and should of bombed the assignment.

[Warsaw]

I read the original entry into the series back when I was 14. It was good. I don't think I'd be very entertained reading it now though.