getting started on books and reading

If you're like me and you like a good quest with some danger thrown in and someone or somewhere in deadly peril then I would recommend either The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E Feist or The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. The Riftwar Saga is a set of books that tells of the invasion of a world named Midkemia by an alien race known as the Tsuranuanni (sp?). Midkemia has many precious metals that the Tsurani want and will take it by force if necessary. It has the usual assortment of dwarves, Elves, Gblins and whatnot but they are actually quite good in this set and don't seem to be relegated to minor or humiliating roles as sometimes happens. Definitely worth a look in my opinion. The Black Jewels Trilogy is set on the darker side of Fantasy and is set around a race of People known as the blood. The blood all have a jewel that shows what rank they are such as warlod or prince and how much power they have (yellow being weaker than black). They are supposed to take care of the land and the realms. There are three realms, Kaeleer, Tereille and Hell. The Blood of course have become corrupted and just want more and more power and it's all down to one woman, Dorothea and her cronies such as Heketah who was once consort to the Prince of Hell, Saetan SaDiablo. Dorothea's court (or coven if you will) is at once the only safe place to be because then you are in favour and nobody will cause you trouble and is also the worst place to be as you can esaily come to her attention and you REALLY don't want that lol It's up to Saetans son, Daemon and a wonderfully dark witch, Jaenelle to save those few members of the Blood who are still honourable and heal the land. This book as you probably guessed is my absolute favourite and I would quite happily rant on about it for ages! Hope that helps you out some :)

I recommend you Terry Pratchet's Discworld series. It IS fantasy, but it's more like a refflection of a human society and nature. It's funny but in an intelligent way. And has loads of graet, likable characters, too...

Hello quawertz!!!!!May I suggest some biographies of famous people.I could mention some names,but I will rather give you just one it is entitled "I,Phoolan Devi" and it is the autobiography of Phoolan Devi the famous or should I rather say infamous Bandit Queen of India who later became a politician.

I love to read but have trouble finding the time these days. So my recommendations may be a little dated. I really like Science Fiction and in that genre almost anything by Isaac Asimov would be good; I can recommend many other authors and some titles in that area if you like. Outside of the Science Fiction genre there are many other good books. Hemann Hesse has written some excellent out of the ordinary books one of which is "Magister Ludi" which also is known as "The Glass Bead Game." An excellent book by an Austalian author is "Leaning Towards Infinity" by Sue Woolfe. There are so many but you will be getting a lot of recommendations and will be busy for some time, but do consider the Sue Woolfe book which may be a little hard to find and some Science Fiction.

Some of the best books I've read recently are Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, which is a kind of vampire romance but extremely well written, I was totally surprised by it. Another book I loved is The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruíz Zafón. The characters are extremely likeable and the story is absolutely great. A more 'intellectual' novel I quite enjoyed was Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely loud and Incredibly Close about an extremely intelligent nine-year-old who has lost his father in 9/11 and tries to cope. It's a wonderful book, funny and heartbreaking at the same time and very well written as well.