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We've had a favorite movie thread; it's only fitting that we do favorite books too!

Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien: Duh. Probably the masterpiece of 20th century literature, by a man who loved language enough to invent his own and make up a history to match it.

The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis: Must-read for any fantasy fan.

The Chronicles of Prydain, Lloyd Alexander: Great young adult fiction, where grown up means wishing to be a planter of turnips over a great warrior.

The Deed of Paksenarrion, Elizabeth Moon: Great description of life as a mercenary and the training of a paladin.

The Deryni Cycle, Katherine Kurtz: Reads like it could be real history.

The first and second Dragonlance Chronicles, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman: The best swords-and-sorcery, D&D-type epic written. One of the few times that I've been choked up reading a book is Sturm Brightblade's death.

The Riftwar Saga, Raymond Feist: Swords-and-sorcery with a twist--a great Oriental feel to it. "My place is not here."

Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling: Duh. The books that gave many budding readers their first all-nighters--"just one more chapter!"

The Eyes of the Dragon, Stephen King: Good solid yarn--just imagine all those napkins...

The Unlikely Ones, Mary Brown: Unusual fantasy, one of those books that will stick with you through the years.

Magic Kingdom for Sale, Terry Brooks: Witty without being slapstick, a good-hearted knock on the genre.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, Fritz Leiber: Think "Lethal Weapon" set in a fantasy world; hijinks and high adventure!

Have I left out your favorite? (I'm sure I'm neglecting some too.) Post away!

Carl

One word "Inheritance" the series that includes Eragon and, more recently, Eldest. I highly recommend it

Anything written by L. E. Modesitt, Jr., namely, his Recluce series (go figure!).

Also, Feist's Riftwar saga is good for having many historical details (and is currently being made into a comic book, which is cool, cause I can make minifigs based off of their character designs).

What about The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings... Many years since I read them but I remember loving them.

I also highly reccomend The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment and The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart.

And of course.... my alltime favourite book: The Silmarillion!

I've only read a few of the above and have heard of half of them.

The only one that I can think of that isn't up there is The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. There are currently 11 books in the main series plus 1 prequel. RJ says there will be 2 more prequels and at least 1 more book in the main series.

I would recommend that to anyone, it goes into a lot more depth then any other series I've read. The real big twist is that the hero has to "conquer" the world so that he can use it's armies to fight the armies of the Dark One at the Last Battle. The only problem with it, the only problem most people have with it is that at times it focuses so heavily on the female characters that you can let the book get covered in dust without ever wondering what happens next. That and books 7-10 could be summed up in a few chapters but that's a whole different thing.

Either way, I still say it's an awsome read.

I have to say Narnia are my favorite books. Up next comes LOTR with its detail and adventure. I used to gobble up the Mossflower books when I was 9, yet don't have time, or maturity to waste any more Yet back in the day they were some awesome books

I think this has been brought up before but its a GREAT topic. I love to read, and use all sorts of things for inspiration.
my current favorite is A song of ice and fire - up to four books now by George R R Martin.
next to that is the Hammer and the Cross series told by Harry Harrison - an alternate history of the dark ages.
The Deathgate cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance too!) - those two have written some great things, but stay away from the darksword trilogy.. it sucks. - OH a good one is the Rose of the Prophet trilogy! Great reading, and I havent read it in about three years.. time to pick em up again.
Currently I am reading Robin Hobbs "Tawny Man" series - goes with the Liveship traders and Assassins apprentice series. Fantastic author.
next to those are several series mentioned in the other posts

Nice! I've read most of these books and liked them all. For those I haven't read...hmm...I need to stop by the library.

I'd like to add that the Dinotopia books are chock-full of inspirational images, and the story isn't half-bad, either.

LEGOFREAK wrote:my current favorite is A song of ice and fire - up to four books now by George R R Martin.

Have you read the comic book series of The Hedge Knight by GRRM? It's so freak'n awesome, and was beautifully illustrated. I'd love to see some fo the designs be made into minifigs. They're also working on a second part to that series. I haven't read the books, just the comics, but they're on my list!

Oh come on, no one mentions G.A. Henty? I prefer his books because they have lots of big words (they're fun to pronounce) and his books go into lots of detail. They also span from the time of Hannibal to the American Civil War.

Lord of the Rings is good also, for the big words , and The Chronicles of Narnia are pretty good too. Redwall books are also kind of inspirational

HenrytheV

I don't read as much as I should.
Most the books I have are for reference material(illustrations mostly). The only books that I have and some I've read are:
Myths of the Norsemen(my brother read this one, I have not)
A Chinese mythology book(forgot the title)
Cross Sections Castle Edition: Cool illustrations and descriptions of castle life.
Castles and Fortresses: Beautiful pictures of actual castles and forts and with a brief history. Good book for architecture ideas. Of course nothing beats actually going to these castles in person before they become nothing but dust.
Weapons: With illustrations, showing the evolutions of weapon development, weapon origins and descriptions of weapons of history.
Faeries: A book with descriptions, some stories and cool illustrations of fairies which includes goblins, redcaps, dwarfs, elves, gnomes and many other types of creatures.
D&D Player's Handbook: Good for character description ideas.
The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History: Small guide book about Medieval Europe , listed chronologically, using maps showing territories, populations and migrations of cultures.

My favorites have smile emotiicons.

What? No one's mentioned the Dragon Knight series by Gordon Dickson? These inspired me in building last summer (and the fastest I've built too--one castle in ~2 weeks).

Other than that, Narnia and LOTR are good, though not exactly medieval. I have heard the Recluse and Wheel of Time series are good, so now I have even more encouragement to read them.

It's also funny that I was thinking of posting just yesterday about this same thing, and you've beat me to it.

Oh, also, almost all the books by writer/illustrator David Macaulay are great inpirations to me, especially Castle and Cathedral.

Regarding the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I have to admit that they are good but they have one major flaw: There mare far too many books! I got tired of it after I had read about 9 books and realized I still hadn´t done half of it....

My favorites:

Asken Yggdrasil (The ash Yggdrasil)
The Hobbit
MYTHOLOGY (yup, spelt with capitals)
The Chronicles of Prydain
Faeries (not really any epic stories there)

I havent read much though...