What is your favorite book and why?

idk. Probably harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban

HP and the order of the phoenix. It's the only long book that actually is interesting.

I liked reading prisoner of azkaban. That was interesting.

K

The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner

My favorite is probably one of the novels I wrote, but to mention the title would be self-promotion. So, I will have to say my all-time favorite book is Mark Twain's "Joan of Arc". This novel gives a very engaging and sympathetic fictional portrayal of that young woman.

Some other favorites: J.D. Salinger's "A Catcher In The Rye" "The October Country" by Ray Bradbury, Ellen Kushner's "Thomas The Rhymer" and the extremely well-written, "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson. This last one is the scariest and most disorienting story I have ever, ever read - and if you are looking for a chilling Halloween read, I assure you it won't disappoint!

oooh, what is the scariest book?

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

i will try to find that..

I like the hunger games and all of the Greek/Roman mythology books written by Rick riordan (Percy Jackson, heroes of Olympus, and trials of Apollo)

Being a novel writer myself I am a bit careful with my judgment. Some writers who already got world fame or at least fame among the people who read the same stuff I do, have been kind of examples for me in how to discover my own style and that could me me prejudiced.

J.K. Rowling is such an example. Harry Potter has a bad rep because people are easily skeptic when a franchise really get a crap load of fame and a big line of merchandise around it, and I must admit that Harry Potter has indeed become a bit overcommercialised. Yet the original 7 books captured me and when you read those books (and ignore the movies, please! Forget all you've seen in them when you start reading the books) you will find a very well set up plot with a lot of wisdom, but also a lot of unexpected plot twists. Some covered in the movies, yes, but also some the movies didn't cover adequately or even not cover at all. It's just a pity that the commerce around the series has gone a bit over the top, and that always gives a bad rep. The rep does not do the books justice. In some rare cases over-the-top-commericialized series do offer quality.... It's rare, I know.

I am also trying to get my hands of the "A song of Ice and Fire" novels... The title of the first book was used of the spin-off TV series "A game of thrones" (in the novels merely the title of the first book). I like very well set up plot twists. I know the contents globally (also thanks to the TV series, but I do know some differences with the books). I could read a few chapters by borrowing my ex-wife's novels when she was still my wife (although they were translated to Dutch as her English is not very good), but you can guess she does not easily lend out those books now that she's no longer with me (I'm still on good terms with my ex-wife. We're still friends, it just didn't work out romaticly).

I don't have a true favorite. It's also how my mood is. A book that always fascinated me as a teenager was "Oorlogswinter" by the Dutch author Jan Terlouw. The English translation is called "Winter in Wartime". Although the story is set in WWII the village and the people living there are fictional. The main protagonist, a Dutch teenager called Michiel experiences how the Germans invade the Netherlands. First he hopes for big sensation, but soon he'll learn that war is very serious business and nothing funny. By coincidence he gets responsible for hiding an English pilot from the Germans, which gives a nasty situation.

I agree with you, for the most part. It has become over commercialised and the movies are waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy different than the books. And good luck getting those novels! what books did you write?

Fantasy. And I am still looking for a good editor. It was once only a child-friendly story, but it grew out of proportion and now it has matured into a world with a very big background lore, in which many races live... For a long time in war... And in the more recent days OFFICIALLY in peace, but not really in full trust. The lore has become to expanded to explain in a few words.

wow, is it easy to write books?

Depends on your inspiration, as that is the one factor you cannot control and when you lack it, then you get what we call the "writer's block" and that is getting a bit to me now. Aside from inspiration you also need the ability to present your story well... Know how to make it interesting for the reader. A good plot line but poorly written out can drive readers away, yet a crappy plot but written well can attract the reader more at first... Of course if they think things true they can be disappointed anyway.
When it comes to the mastery of the language you write in (and I recommend to use your first language only and leave other languages, no matter how well you speak them to translators), you must at least know what kind of idioms are common and have the basic knowledge of all the rules, however I do recommend not to focus too much on that, and leave that for when your first draft is done. Being too picky on that will ruin your story. And of course, always let somebody else do the final spellcheck as you always have a blind spot for your own language errors, both on spelling and grammar.

Of course you first need a global plotline. A synopsis, an extremely short version of how the story should go. From that synopsis you can think about the details and slowly your story will take shape. You also need to have a good proper view on your personalities... their strengths and their weaknesses. Nobody wants a perfect person, but a person everybody hates, well it can work, but only for specific roles (villains in particular). When you have a villain you need to give that villain a good background story. Why is the villain "evil"? A villain who is just evil for being evil's sake won't work. Voldemort in HP worked so well because he has a really worked out background story.. a story that has more depth than Harry's own. Make the reader understand why the villain is a villain... Note, I said understand, not justify, although in some stories the actions of the villains are justified, but then you are dealing with a villain who will eventually turn out not to be a villain. Those are very hard to set up, as you then need to fool your readers. Distracting the readers yet giving them tons of hints... that's where the hard part lies.

wow. Reading just that made me want to become a writer instead of an engineer. Whatever book you manage to publish, i will buy it. You're rlly good at writing, i can tell!

I'm afraid you'll need to learn the Dutch language in order to read it (still looking for good translators. I recommended before to only use your first language, which is in my case, Dutch).

My two books for sale are now:
"De Wraak van Yuleria" (Yuleria's revenge) in which Yuleria, the most powerful magician the elves have ever seen, was in spite all her magic power driven away from her homeland by the Befindo's. But she's immortal and survived the ages, and she comes back and wants revenge, however over 40k years have passed, and Yuleria can't accept times have changed and that the former enemy is now an ally and trade partner. Yuleria is strongly based on autism.

"De waanzin die 'liefde' heet" (The madness called 'love') is about the boy Jim Sernio whose girl-friend, devoted her life to the arts of healing and managed to manipulate a war with her powers. The kings of man killed her for that, and Jim wants revenge, however his girl-friend didn't "die", but became the Goddess of Healing for the Elves in stead, and Jim wants to study the forbidden science and magicks in order to turn himself into a god in order to be by her side again, and let me tell you, it won't go to the happy end you think you saw coming.

I've also written stories for computer games. Those stories are in both English and Dutch. Those games are free. Want me to link you?

I can learn languages, i speak 3 (i understand a 4th, but that doesn't count) And sure, you can link me, but i am using school computer. And your english is really good, considering you speak Dutch.

Well, when it comes to my story based games:
The Fairy Tale REVAMPED (fantasy)
- https://gamejolt.com/games/tft/174735

Star Story (Science Fiction)
- https://gamejolt.com/games/dyrt/20688

The Secrets of Dyrt (fantasy)
- https://gamejolt.com/games/starstory/58632

Good to note is that my fantasy games are part of the same saga as my novels.

And thank you for your assessment about my English :)

Your welcome! And thank you for those games!

your a novel writer? nice!

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

nice!

My favorite book is probably the harry potter line of books or "The Giver"

we read the giver last year! I t was gooooood!

We read it last year too, and we had a report contest and i won

we watched the movie.

i heard it was weird

no, not really. Why do you think that?

i havent seen it, thats what i heard

the only weird thing was jonas and fiona kissing.

My favorite book... th8s is a tough one...

Warriors, Crowfeather's Trial. It shows pain and grief, but also how to love, no matter how much you have lost.

Hands down Escape from Furnace series.

hmm. never heard of that one. What is it about?

the first book is Lockdown and the author is Alexander Gordon Smith if you decide 2 check it out.

Theme is dystopian/horror in the future. Basically Furnace was built during WW2 by this war vet and he was set on the idea of making these super beings out of a dark energy that went into him long ago when he was very young. When he finally succeeded on doing that he went to his home country cause the war had spread there and he wanted to win it, the war was already over. So him and his assistant started Furnace HQ where most of the experiments were held. His assistant moved 2 the USA to make the Furnace prison where a slaughter caused by gang minors broke out killing a lot of people. Furnace is a prison especially built for minors to go to if they cause any trouble. Well, thats the back story. The main character and his frnd were skilled thieves and broke into homes. Well, eventually they both got caught. The frnd died by the employees of Furnace while the main chracter got taken away there. Then its just the thrill filled journey of him and his will pwr 2 get out of that hellish place because nobody ever did. Its really good highly recommend if you like books giving you an adrenaline rush and always leave u craving 4 more.

wow, i am definitley gonna read that!

Yay!

im super sry of the long rant. But i just had 2 give a good summary cause a few sentences wouldn't do the series any good at explaining wht its about and how good it is.

its ok. I like reading a lot of books. so yea, i understand!

haha cool and thx!

wlcm!