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What are the best books you've ever read?

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11 Options Considered

11 Options ConsideredPriceLast Updated
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The Lord of the Rings
-Sep 15, 2017
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
$6.98Apr 17, 2017
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The Private Life of Chairman Mao
$16.15Apr 23, 2017
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Lord of the Flies
$11Apr 24, 2017
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The Wheel of Time
-Apr 22, 2017
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The Lord of the Rings

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Seth Petersen
Top Pro

Some of the most memorable characters in literature

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The Lord of the Rings is home to a great many memorable characters, but the names of Gandalf, Frodo, Legolas, and Aragorn are known far and above the rest.
Seth Petersen
Top Pro

It's got an incredibly deep, detailed backstory

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Lord of the Rings boasts one of the most detailed backstories of any series in the world. Supplementary books have been released that detail thousands of years of stories that all lead up to the events of The Lord of the Rings series.
Seth Petersen
Top Pro

The books are filled with songs and poems

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Tolkien was a great writer, and that wasn't limited to books. His works are filled with a host of wonderful songs, poems, and riddles for you to enjoy.
Seth Petersen
Top Pro

Incredible storytelling

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Tolkien is one of the all-time masters of story telling, and Lord of the Rings is his masterpiece. You enter the realm of Middle Earth, where men are joined by elves, dwarves, orcs, and other fantastic creatures, in a battle for the fate of the very world.
Seth Petersen
Top Con

It may be too slow for a casual reader

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The Lord of the Rings has a very slow narrative pace to begin with, and all the incredibly detailed descriptions of the environment don't help with that very much.
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

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The Private Life of Chairman Mao

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Alex
Top Pro

Provides a unique insight into history of modern China

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Author of the book saw firsthand and managed to convey stories that were never supposed to get wide publicity. They include violent attacks on political adversaries, Chairman's unscrupulous private life, and depravity of his numerous sycophants.
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Lord of the Flies

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Francisco
Top Pro

Rich, complex characters

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One of this books main strengths is the richness and complexity of its characters. Most of them tend to be living symbols of different aspects of human nature and their conflicts represent inner struggles constantly happening within each individual.
Francisco
Top Con

May cause readers to lose faith in humanity

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As a tale about what happens when a group of individuals finds itself freed from societal constraints, it is quite bleak and dark.
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The Wheel of Time

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Adrian Richardson
Top Pro

A diverse cast of main and side characters bring the world to life

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Starting with the main character, Rand, and his two friends, Matt and Perrin, the cast of this series continues to grow throughout the books as the events of the story have far-reaching effects. All of these characters are written very well, with deep personalities and realistic flaws, and feel li...
Adrian Richardson
Top Pro

Incredibly detailed world building

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Across 14 books author Robert Jordon builds an amazing world full of interesting places, people, and events.
Adrian Richardson
Top Con

Wheel of Time is a very long series

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With 14 books, many long in their own right, this is a very long series and the middle books in the series can get a bit dry as the politics of this world take a front seat in the build up to the finale.
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Dune

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Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Huge scope

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The book covers topics such as ecology, politics, religion, humanism and war and touches on subjects like artificial intelligence, gender dynamics, nuclear weapons, architecture, engineering, heroism and many many more. All of these aspects are intertwined and executed on a grand scale.
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Amazing worldbuilding

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Bryan
Top Pro

Filled with great insight

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Know any negative aspects of this option?
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Night by Elie Wiesel

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Jessica Ramirez
Top Pro

Award Winning

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Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit tru...
Alex
Jessica Ramirez
Top Pro

Eye-opening

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Know any negative aspects of this option?
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The Things They Carried

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Jessica Ramirez
Top Pro

Excellent account from the author who was in Vietnam War

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Endurance by Alfred Lansing

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Kendall Fargo
Top Pro

This is one of the greatest true stories

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This is a true story about Ernest Shackleton and his crew being stranded off of Antarctica in 1915 and their fight for survival.
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A Song of Ice and Fire Series

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Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Mostly grounded in reality with some fantasy elements

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Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Rich and deep backstory

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Endi Sukaj
Top Con

The ending may never be released

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Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

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smts
Patricia Q
Top Pro

Light-hearted tone

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Most of the book is told in a rather light-hearted tone, even when dealing with serious situations. The tone represents his attitude towards things which, ultimately, is why the book is so enjoyable.
Know any negative aspects of this option?

10 Community Recommendations

Kendall Fargo
Jessica Ramirez
Adrian Richardson
Francisco
Seth Petersen
WhiteLilac
Alex
Laura Kyle
Mike Weekes
Qasim
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