Be Happy
Making Friends
Follow Your Heart

all by Andrew Matthews

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

No, I am not old, I'm only 18 this year. |: |

Personally feel inspired after reading:

1. Life Without Limits - Nick Vujicic

2. A Stolen Life: A Memoir - Jaycee Dugard

3. Who Moved My Cheese - Spencer Johnson

1.1984 - orwell
2.slaughterhouse five-kurt vonnegut
3.anything by dostoevsky!!!

1. Curious Incident of the dog in the night time - Mark Haddon

2. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

3. Yes Man - Danny Wallace (still reading)

1. In death series by JD Robb
2. The Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer
3. The Ring by Danielle Steel

Wow, so many Paulo Coelho fans in this thread. I haven't yet read his Alchemist, but I've read reviews criticising his spiritual sententiousness. But I'm in no position to judge, so I'll still read it when I have the time.

Not a list of three, BUT I BEG EVERYONE to drop everything and read all of Ted Chiang's speculative fiction RIGHT NOW. PLEASE. They're all short, very short, and yet, they are impeccable works of art. Each of them create a world so remarkable and with a set of rigid rules which leave you hankering for more. You will not regret it.

The absolute best science fiction I've yet to come across.

1) Story of Your Life and Others- Ted Chiang

I beg to differ. I have read Ted Chiang's short stories; while some of them are novel, they are certainly not ground-breaking. In fact, I always take sci-fi recommendation with more doubts than other genre because most of them were rated based on their novelty. For instance, both the "Quantum Thief" and "Embassy Town" were Locus nomination, but I find myself struggling to finish them. Maybe it's just me because I love sci-fi with not only great ideas, but it must have at least some interesting characters, as well as good amount of mystery to keep the readers motivated to read on. Something like the Expanse series i.e Leviathan Wakes where there is soap opera as well as intriguing plots. The other recent sci-fi which is absolutely well-written, intriguing, full of mysteries, good characterisation is Blind Sight by Peter Watts.

Thank you everyone for contributing to this thread, will definitely refer back here when stumped on what to read next!

Im a big darren shan fan and i love all his works. The cirque du freak series was my first series under mr shan and up to date, ive read them 3x already, loved the twist and turns of the plot and ofcos author's humour.

Dune -Frank Herbert
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Speaker For The Dead - Orson Scott Card

angela's ashes - frank mc court
les miserables - victor hugo
crime and punishment - fyodor dostoevsky

I guess it's a question of taste, but I (as you can tell) really enjoy Ted Chiang's novellas. It's a fair point you make, but perhaps it works to my favour. He does often dispense with his character's personal lives and focus more on the world-binding mechanics of his fictional universes. Like you say, there is very little intimacy or "soap opera" in any of his works. Instead, I really enjoy learning about how each of these worlds function as a rule. I'd like to label his works as a kind of expanded flash-fiction, a building of distinct games with rules within a quick, short amount of pages, thus negating it of any actual drama (in the ordinary sci-fi/fantasy sense).

To each his own, I guess. Nice to see how other people view them. I'll look at the books you mentioned though, thanks.

a child called it -dave pelzer
a walk to remember-nicholas sparks
*spot reserved*

1. Animal Farm by George Orwell
Timeless and very apt allegory

2. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
Comprehensive philosophy 101 centred around a very engrossing fiction

3. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (in fact, all his other sequel of memoirs as well)
heartbreakingly funny recollection. read it over and over again

My top 3 books of all time for non fiction

1. Millennium trilogy - Stieg Larsson (Highly recommended)

2. Prisoner of Birth - Jeffrey Archer

3. Master of the Game - Sidney Sheldon

Don't read much of fiction so can't really say haha