Along with games and movies, books are another medium that hold a very special place in my heart.

For those of you who also love books, what are your favourites, and what meaning do they hold for you?

Just to list my favorites (approximately in order):

Dune (original 6 books)
LotR
HHGttG
Discworld
American Gods etc. by Neil Gaiman (though I generally think his comics are better than books)
D&D: DragonLance (Weis/Hickman main series) and Drizzt Do'Urden by Salvatore
Neuromancer etc. by William Gibson
Agatha Christie, mainly Poirot and And Then There Were None
A Clockwork Orange
Stainless Steel Rat series
Ringworld

I mostly have favorite authors

JRR Tolkien (LotR)
Arthur C Clarke (Space odyssey etc)
Terry Pratchet (Discworld series)
Isaac Asimov (Foundation series etc)
Larry Niven (Ring world series etc)
Tad Williams (Otherland etc)
Peter F Hamilton (Commonwealth etc)
Stephen Baxter (The long earth etc)
Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time)
Brandon Sanderson (Elantris etc)

I mostly read in summer, nothing better than to lay down / recline in the sun with a book.

I'm currently rereading the Discworld novels (well not currently it's mid winter freezing rain... But read some at the car dealership waiting for repairs) after finishing LotR again. It's been over 35 years since I first read LotR, just as exciting as the first time while 'seeing' a lot more now. I have Exodus from Peter F Hamilton on my list for when it gets warm again. Too many other distractions to read inside!

This is the first time I see someone referencing Sanderson by Elantris instead of Mistborn or Stormlight Archive. He's arguably more know even for Wheel of Time final book! 

Haha I know, it's just the latest book I read of him and made an impression. And the first I read after he completed the Wheel of Time series. Which got me interested in him as a writer.

I don't remember if I've read Mistborn nor Stormlight, they sound familiar but I'm far more into sci-fi than fantasy. 

I also really liked Larry Niven's Destiny's road and it's companion books, Legacy of Hearot and Beowolf's Children by Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, and Steven Barnes.

Then be happy to know he's starting to write some sci-fi as well! He wants his stories to process over the eras, with some getting into a space era

First Mistborn was placed in something that looks like old regime France (1400~1500). Second era is a Western, after industrial revolution with a bit of steampunk (late 1800 to early 1900)

He's writing the first book of his third trilogy and will only release it when he finishes the third according to him by 2027. It will have a 80's level of technology 

The next two trilogies will be a Cyberpunk-like, and the last one will be a Space Opera

He already have a book that is scifi-lite, Yumi and the Nightmare Painting

The two books who have impacted me the most, even noticeably changing my world view in some way, were Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, and The Bell, by Iris Murdoch. Some other more recognizeable highlights were Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.

The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien
Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
Childhood’s End - Arthur C Clarke
Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Foundation Trilogy → I, Robot → Galactic Empire Trilogy (especially Pebble in the Sky) → Robot trilogy → Foundation sequels → Robots and Empire → Foundation prequels (just order of reading) - Isaac Asimov
The Witcher Shorts - Andrej Sapkowski
Ulysses - Joyce
The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guin
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Republic - Plato

I’m very drunk, so I’m probably missing several.
EDIT: like, I can’t believe I remembered Ulysses but not Dracula! I love the stylistic discrepancies between the different voices, but I somehow enjoy Stoker more than Joy ce on this one… most of the time, though really respect Joyce in this. Probably better if you’re Irish or a Newfie. Also, I want to do a special call out to Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu with Carmilla, which IMO… should be read before Dracula, and before that read the poem by lazy author/poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge… Romantic period English poet who has written some brilliant shit.

Nice. I've been running out of Peter Hamilton books (hence rereading LotR and Discworld series) and waiting for him to write Exodus.

Brandon Sanderson is on my list to exhaust next :)

I was reading Game of Thrones as well, never got into the TV show though and George Martin seems to have gotten bored of the series. I was kinda getting bored of it as well by book 5 lol.

Looking through my book collection (mostly mangled paperbacks from reading outside :/) I've also read a lot from
Greg Bear (Hull Zero Three comes first to mind but have read most of his work)
Alistair Reynolds (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark etc)
Terry Goodkind (The Sword of Truth)

I also really enjoyed Time's Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter as well. Sci-fi and history mixed together.

Oh I love reading. To many to call out.

But if I have to highlight my fauvorite author. It's Terry Pratchett.

The Discworld series (and his others) are a wonderful mirror in the Human soul. Re-packaging the real world into a fantasy world and just having hilarious fun with it. Smiles all over.