recommend some very entertaining books

College Confidential Community
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<p>
[quote]
Either way, this thread is for "very entertaining books," and I think that, though interesting, Sartre and Camus wouldn't necessarily fit into this category.

[/quote]

I dunno, I get entertained when I read something interesting (hence why I used to spend a lot of time reading wikipedia), but I suppose other's mileage may vary.</p>

<p>How about The Hobbit? It's a pretty fun fantasy book J. R. R. Tolkien.</p>

<p>EDIT:</p>

<p>
[quote]
i want some super entertaining books that are also valuable

[/quote]

I don't really understand this feeling. Books tend to be one or the other. "Valuable" books are books are the literature books you have been surprised we have been suggesting, while "super entertaining" books are the pop books like Harry Potter, Goosebumps and Animorphs that have been mentioned. Very few books try to be both. Shakespeare wrote his plays to appeal to the mass audience of his day, so his works qualify, and like I said I think The Little Prince can be enjoyed both for its story and for its message, but the vast majority of books either try to be an entertaining read or try to explore ideas, philosophies and themes and don't do the other. Harry Potter has no real value beyond simple page-turning entertainment, for example.</p>

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<p>thanks for the hobbit recommendation. i started it friday and am finding it pretty entertaining so far heh. i dont think books are in only one of those two categories (entertaining or serious idea exploration). ideally, i think most books should be both. harry potter, i will agree, isn't exactly revolutionary, but i do think it has some literary value of sorts. i mean it has its lessons, themes, good characters and plot, etc.</p>

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<p>Yes! Charlaine Harris Souther Vampire series (True Blood on HBO), light, easy and very fun!</p>

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<p>I also liked The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. Fun to read.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
i dont think books are in only one of those two categories (entertaining or serious idea exploration). ideally, i think most books should be both. harry potter, i will agree, isn't exactly revolutionary, but i do think it has some literary value of sorts. i mean it has its lessons, themes, good characters and plot, etc.

[/quote]

I dunno what they "should" be, but I know from experience that it is rare they are both. I think this has to do both with motivations, and with the fact that one style is often counterproductive to the other. For example, if you are using a character as a symbol, you have to keep him acting in a way that is consistent with what he represents, not necessarily with what makes sense from a realistic perspective or with what makes a good story. Or else, a writer who writes pop is often just trying to make money doing something like (writing), and just think about what will make an entertaining story that will sell as opposed to taking the time to think deeply about ideas they wish to explore in their work. Harry Potter contains a recurring theme of friendship, for example, but does Rowling ever use her books to explore what is really friendship, for example? No, all we get is a "friendship is good" message coming from her pre-suppositions. </p>

<p>Conversely, literature writers often do not care about how appreciated to common readers the book is, and will disregard making a superficially entertaining book in favor of making a deeper one. As Albert Camus said:</p>

<p>"Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators."</p>

<p>But anyway, since you seem to enjoy fantasy, how about The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho? It is pretty blunt about its philosophy, with characters in the book coming outright and spelling it out for you, but on the plus side this leaves the author a lot of room to write a good story, which he does.</p>

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<p>Dante's Divine Comedy was very good.</p>

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<p>the phantom tollbooth</p>

<p>kind of a children's book though</p>

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<p>can i bump this?!</p>

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<p>Some books I find quite entertaining (warning, my definition of "entertaining" may differ from yours):</p>

<p>One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Great Gatsby
Moby-Dick
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Choke
House of Leaves
American Psycho
Johnny Got His Gun
Grendel (the existential novel by John Gardener..not the comic book or the movie or the video game or whatever)
1984/Animal Farm/Brave New World
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Awakening
Franny and Zooey
Water for Elephants
Age of Innocence
The Harry Potter Series
The Weetzie Bat Series
The Crucible (I know it's a play, but I still love it)
Our Town (I know it's a play, but I still love it)
Bleak House
Sirens of Titan
The Tipping Point
etc.</p>

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<p>I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.</p>

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<p>The Namesake by Jhuma Lahiri, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and Frankenstein (seriously, I liked it :))</p>

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<p>I hardly made it through Frankenstein alive... I had to read it for English class. </p>

<p>I agree with teh person who posted the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I'm trying to read them in french now, which is really hard... :(</p>

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<p>The Phenomenology of Spirit by Hegel ... genuine nail-biter</p>

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<p>Most entertaining books I've read recently:</p>

<p>Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series
All 3 Malcolm Gladwell books
Harry Potter series</p>

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<p>Anything by Frank Peretti or Ted Dekker. Religious, but VERY entertaining.</p>

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<p>I love "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo, and "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. Esepcially the latter, since the former takes a bit a perseverance to get through. Yeah, the Ender series is awesome, I suggest reading the whole series, quite thought-provoking. I'm trying to get my hands on "Ender in Exile", but I don't think my parents would let me read it because of the bad words (only part I don't like about the series).</p>

<p>I've been reading a lot of Hemingway lately and he's really entertaining, but I think mostly it's just his writing style that I like.</p>

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<p>"Da Vinci Code" and 'Devils and Angels" by Dan Brown.
Also "In Death" series by Nora Roberts.
And I second Frankenstein. I liked it.</p>

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<p>the mysteries of pittsburgh by michael chabon</p>

<p>amazingamazingamazing</p>

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<p>
[quote]
perks of being a wallflower, youth in revolt, catcher in the rye, harry potter, ender's game, ender's shadow, kite runner, giver, watchmen

[/quote]

Very nice, maybe a bit generic, but I have a similar taste...</p>

<p>As far as "entertaining" recs, try Catch-22, anything by Stephen King, or other Orson Scott Card books... I just finished Enchantment by Card, very different from Ender but just as good.</p>

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<p>Evelyn Waugh - The Loved One</p>

<p>Just read this in AP English. Absolutely hilarious, and a whole lotta literary value to boot.</p>

<p>Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. Super entertaining, if you're interested in the obscure corners of American history. Seriously -- I couldn't put this down.</p>