I love Bill Simmons' "The Book of Basketball". What should I read next? [more inside]
posted by reenum on Dec 8, 2009 - 11 answers

MeFites, help! Need more books to read. /book-recommendation-filter [more inside]
posted by titantoppler on Dec 5, 2009 - 23 answers

Did I spend too much on a book? $325 for a very good hardcover 1st Edition UK (Picador) Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy? [more inside]
posted by Bacillus on Nov 29, 2009 - 12 answers

With NaNoWriMo looming ever nearer, I would like to hear your best tips, tricks, habits, and techniques for staying chained to the keyboard. [more inside]
posted by BitterOldPunk on Oct 22, 2009 - 26 answers

I want to give a book to a young friend but I can't remember the title and the librarian could not find it either. Book teaches about Gandhi in a cool way. [more inside]
posted by CollegeNelson on Oct 18, 2009 - 2 answers

What well-known novels lack any character descriptions aside from names?
posted by odinsdream on Oct 9, 2009 - 17 answers

Is this a real book? All I remember is that 1 or more characters could activate some kind of special powers or transformational abilities by imagining the shape of a particular object in their mouth. [more inside]
posted by vytae on Oct 3, 2009 - 4 answers

Please help me remember a book I read about a guy who saw ghosts! [more inside]
posted by internet!Hannah on Sep 6, 2009 - 3 answers

Please help me understand aspects of the ending of the novel "The Terror" by Dan Simmons! Super spoiler-icious details inside (definitely don't read unless you've read the book, or are sure you never want to)... [more inside]
posted by taz on Aug 21, 2009 - 12 answers

Suggest absorbing fiction about mysterious England. [more inside]
posted by Doctor Suarez on Aug 2, 2009 - 54 answers

I'm trying to remember the title and/or author of a children's/young adult book I read when I was younger. It involves a school dance where students are assigned dates via a matchmaking computer program. The protagonist (who I remember as male but my sister thinks was female!) and his/her best friend hack into the system (or may have written the program in the first place) in order to match themselves with the people they want to be with. Google has been no help and I've already stumped a couple of youth/teen services librarians.
posted by srah on Jun 18, 2009 - 14 answers

I've just finished reading Let The Galaxy Burn, a collection of Warhammer 40k short stories, and I really liked it. What are some other good Warhammer 40k books? [more inside]
posted by thewittyname on Jun 9, 2009 - 11 answers

I crave a great novel that's as addictive as a popcorn movie. Please recommend me some literary page-turners. [more inside]
posted by Beardman on Jun 5, 2009 - 104 answers

Does this book exist or did I imagine it? It was a book of fiction about a 20(30?)-something loser who's working on an obsessive (and as yet unpublished) encyclopedia of every arcade game ever made, or something similar... [more inside]
posted by twins named Lugubrious and Salubrious on Feb 22, 2009 - 3 answers

Anybody have recommendations for good historical fiction/nonfiction books set in China or Southeast Asia? [more inside]
posted by ebeeb on Feb 19, 2009 - 20 answers

San Francisco filter: Help me find a good book club for 20-30-somethings? [more inside]
posted by mingodingo on Jan 11, 2009 - 13 answers

ID That Story: novel (novella? short story?) in which a man is standing in line. Pretty much the entire story is his experience while waiting in line. It's a future/dystopia story. The man is waiting in line to make a complaint. He falls in love with the girl in front of him, though she's not allowed to turn and look at him. It's a parable about overpopulation. It was probably written in the 60s or 70s. That's all I remember.
posted by grumblebee on Nov 20, 2008 - 8 answers

I need a longish, interesting, well-written book (fiction) to read on an upcoming trip. Any suggestions? [more inside]
posted by mosessis on Aug 21, 2008 - 58 answers

I'd like to broaden my horizons by getting a better understanding of life in different cultures and time periods. Please recommend great books or films (fiction or non-fiction) which paint a broad, immersive, reasonably accurate picture of a place and time. [more inside]
posted by MetaMonkey on Jul 12, 2008 - 29 answers

Please-help-me-identify-a-book-filter. Trying to track down a young adults hardish sci-fi book from the mid 80s in the UK about a space medic in trouble. [more inside]
posted by ArkhanJG on Jul 1, 2008 - 3 answers

Looking for sites or reviewers who review books other than literary fiction [more inside]
posted by reenum on Jun 10, 2008 - 4 answers

In the early 80's, I read a library book that featured a heroine stumbling into a parallel world and encountering chicken-legged vampires (not Baba Yaga) and their master. I can't recall the title nor author of this novel and you will earn my eternal gratitude if you can identify this work for me so that I can locate and read it again. [more inside]
posted by Carmody on May 19, 2008 - 6 answers

looking for a book, its about a geneticly altered boy (his whole colony was altered thus) he is really big and strong, they raise dangerous animals as pets. Anyway he is the first of his colony to go off to a sort of galactic school, where he ends up fighting all sorts of creatures, near the end he fights a huge mutant bear and wins by smashingits head with a camera. I aplogize if this is not the proper place to post but i could not find what i need
posted by quseio on Apr 8, 2008 - 5 answers

A long time ago I read a fantasy book which featured several American college students entering a fantasy realm whilst playing Dungeons and Dragons (or some role playing game of similar ilk). I remember one of the main characters was a wheelchair bound guy whose fantasy character is a dwarf warrior... Can anyone help me track down the title or series of this book?
posted by Scramblejam on Apr 1, 2008 - 5 answers

I am trying to find a SciFi book that I read the first couple of chapters of. It involved two companies racing to come up with some kind of genetic cure and in the process creating a monster or something. [more inside]
posted by rbs on Feb 23, 2008 - 6 answers

I was told of a book of Daemon's, where the protagonist is a C coder who gets transported to a magical world where his code can do magic. [more inside]
posted by Pontifex on Jan 17, 2008 - 12 answers

I'm looking for a series of hardback science fiction anthologies I dimly remember from childhood (sometime in the mid 80s). I think it had a one word title with a number, and the series went up to at least number five. I remember two stories in particular... [more inside]
posted by Artw on Jan 13, 2008 - 11 answers

Korean Book Gift Filter: What Korean books (meaning books written in Hangul) should I get for my parents? [more inside]
posted by ignignokt on Dec 20, 2007 - 5 answers

Where is this idea from? "You can be a connoisseur of anything, even driveway gravel" I have this paraphrased idea in my mind that I swear I read somewhere. However, I can't seem to remember its source. [more inside]
posted by k7lim on Dec 3, 2007 - 3 answers

What is your favorite book or DVD series about Mexico? Particularly historical fiction or contemporary fiction. Preferably in English, but if you have a great recommendation in Spanish, I'd take that too! My grandmother thanks you! [more inside]
posted by barnone on Nov 27, 2007 - 8 answers

BookFilter: Tom Clancy novel from ~10 years ago ... Help me remember the name! [more inside]
posted by enobeet on Oct 29, 2007 - 10 answers

BookFilter: I read an odd science fiction book when I was younger, but then it got lost in a move long ago and ever since I've been wondering what it was. [more inside]
posted by chrominance on Jul 30, 2007 - 12 answers

Please help me remember the title of a particular fictional, young-adult book from the 80s or maybe 90s. [more inside]
posted by poopdbq on Jul 21, 2007 - 5 answers

BookFilter: Looking for a post-apocalyptic novel that I thought was called "The Last American" but apparently isn't. [more inside]
posted by szechuan on Jun 20, 2007 - 8 answers

Is there a definitive resource on the web for finding literary agents who represent science fiction and fantasy? [more inside]
posted by JWright on Apr 6, 2007 - 13 answers

Bookfilter: When I was a kid, I read a book or series of books about a lost tribe of children who lived in sewers, were at war with the adult world (or parts thereof) and made effective use of slingshots. There was one scene in particular I recall in which someone - a baddie presumably - was killed with a shovel that had been slowly sharpened through digging in silt for something. There might have been something odd about the children's ears as well. I know it's vague, but if I could remember more I probably would have found it without having to ask the hive mind!
posted by tim_in_oz on Mar 16, 2007 - 8 answers

Another tired name-that-kid's-book-filter question: purple cover (?) paperback, crazy old lady in the neighborhood hosts kids on a rainy day. Something about an elaborate basement in her house, nothing overtly magical involved so far as I remember, but an air of "magical realism" most definitely abounds. [more inside]
posted by joe lisboa on Feb 28, 2007 - 6 answers

Lost childrens book! I'm trying to find this sci-fi book I read in 1978 but don't remember enough details to turn up anything useful on a web search. [more inside]
posted by jtoth on Feb 25, 2007 - 8 answers

Help me identify this youth science fiction book-filter! [more inside]
posted by antifuse on Sep 22, 2006 - 18 answers

KidsBookFilter: Seriously, this was an awesome book... or, at least, that's the way I remember it! I read it in the mid-70s in the 2nd or 3rd grade probably, so it could have been published in the 60s. It was about the ghost of a cat (or the 9 lives of a cat?) that followed it's human family through several generations. That's all I can remember. That and it was an awesome book! So, no, there's not any [more inside]
posted by catcatwomanman on Sep 20, 2006 - 8 answers

Please help me select a book as a present for my nephew. He's 19, and when I gave him a Chapters gift card for his high school graduation last spring, he used it to buy a complete set of Tom Clancy novels. Political espionage/intrigue/adventure has to be the genre I know the least about. If my nephew likes Tom Clancy's and Frederick Forsythe's works, what other books in the same genre would he enjoy?
posted by orange swan on Sep 17, 2006 - 25 answers

Help find a SF book that my friend can't quite recall, but remembers themes of? [more inside]
posted by Meep! Eek! on Sep 1, 2006 - 7 answers

Help me remember this novel where all the adults die, leaving children to run the world. [more inside]
posted by acoutu on Jun 30, 2006 - 19 answers

What's the most exciting novel you've ever read? I mean this in the simplest sense: an exciting plot. I'm looking for page-turners. Novels that keep you on the edge of your seat and refuse to let you sleep until you finish them. I'm looking for genre novels -- but I don't care what genres: Mystery, thriller, sci-fi, etc. (though sci-fi/fantasy has been done-to-death here, so I'm really more interested in other genres.) Oh, I care about words. So no matter how exciting, I'll quit reading if the prose is crappy. [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on May 25, 2006 - 148 answers

Identify this book: My friend recommended a book to me. Except he doesn't know the title, or the author. It's about spelunking. It's fiction. He thinks it takes place in Italy. He says the main character has/had relationship trouble, and ended up with a Volvo (he thinks) that reminds him of her, so he is always kicking it. But mostly it's about exploring caves, and scuba diving through underground rivers. He recalls one particular part where the character(s) were dropping ink or power packets into the water to determine the water speed/exit points. If this sounds familiar, please let me know. Thanks.
posted by gummo on Mar 1, 2006 - 7 answers

Once I read a story about people who could give a disease to computers. Or possibly they could catch this disease through the keyboard. Citizens with this disease, I vaguely recall, were not allowed to use computers without rubber gloves. If you had AIDS or HIV you were protected and allowed unrestricted access to computer keyboards. Does this ring a bell for anyone? [more inside]
posted by dual_action on Sep 14, 2005 - 1 answer

In high school, I read a book that I remember being titled "The Island Girl." It seems like it would be easy to find this book since I have a title, unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure that's the title, and even if it were, there are approximately nine million books named "The Island Girl." [more inside]
posted by headspace on Jun 7, 2005 - 3 answers

I would like recommendations for "end of the world" fiction books. [more inside]
posted by cmonkey on Dec 13, 2004 - 71 answers

More FictionFilter: Nuclear warhead, meet Oz. Sound familiar? [more inside]
posted by melissa may on Nov 19, 2004 - 8 answers

i'm reading gibson's pattern recognition. i'd like something the same, but better. more inside. [more inside]
posted by andrew cooke on Jun 20, 2004 - 27 answers