MALADROITHIM'S PROFILE

How long have you been painting? I see some nice techniques in your image, but it's very geometric.

Also you have an awesome name which means you were probably meant to be a famous artist.

I'll never forgive Kazukeri for not releasing Dragoon Legends during 2007 because now I'll have the same situation in 2008 that I had in 2006, where two of my soundtracks were competing against each other.

author=Euphorian link=topic=558.msg7343#msg7343 date=1200022680
Chances are I will never read another book in my life. Thanks a lot, society (and stumbleupon >.>)

That is absolutely awful.

I got a lot of emails about Wilfred the Hero, but none of them were that unusual. They were generally pretty articulate. However, since the game is actually much more popular in Germany than it is in America, many of the emails I got were sincere but riddled with absolutely awful grammar.

I'll make a top five because I don't read as many books as most "book-lovers" do, and also because Kentona cheated and listed too many.

5: Terry Pratchett: Going Postal

Shadowtext and other Pratchett hardcores will tell me that this book isn't very good and that OLD SKOOL Pratchett is much better, but I wouldn't know, because I've only read his newer novels. This, like most of the other Discworld novels, is extremely funny and extremely British as well as being competent pop literature aside. It chronicles the adventures of a new Pratchett character, Moist von Lipwig, who is one of the better main characters I've encountered in a comedy. This book contains a bonus treat for smoking fetishists.

4. Frank Herbert: God Emperor of Dune

This is the last book in the Dune series before it starts to suck really terribly, and one of the best. It features the self-professed "first truly long-term thinker in human history", and the implications of this are fascinating. Herbert's view on women, and their role in his vision of an authouritarian distant future, suggest an interesting and surprisingly politically relevant view on government and what sort of fundamental changes could be made for the better. There are some rocky bumps on the way to get to this entry in the Dune series (the awful Children of Dune for example), but having a strong foundation in the Dune universe is reasonably important to properly appreciate the themes in this novel.

3: C.S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia

I consider the series as one book, because the books individually read more like acts than they do individual novels. Popularly viewed as simpleton children's literature and thinly-veiled church propaganda (an idea contributed primarily for Rowling fans, most of whom have read very little outside of the Harry Potter series), I thought that altogether the series made for an excellent fantasy novel. It has none of the ridiculous Biblical prose of Tolkein and none of the manufactured grit of Game of Thrones, and sticks strictly to fancy. I really recommend the series if you, like me, think most fantasy writing is overblown and pretentious (buzzword of 2007).

2: James Lee Burke: The Tin Roof Blowdown

James Lee Burke is a pop-literature author and is generally considered one of the finest crime novelists alive. He has a number of different "series" that he returns to from time to time and sometimes writes historical fiction. The Tin Roof Blowdowm brings back two of his most popular characters, the detective Dave Robichaux and his hard-boiled, alcoholic, and extremely fat best friend Clete Purcell. I found the supporting character Purcell much more interesting the the main character Robichaux, mainly because of the ridiculous caricature Purcell represents, but whatever. What makes this different from other crime thrillers is that it is not only extremely well-written and pretty smart, but takes place amidst the chaos of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (which the author had personally experienced). It is simultaneously pop thriller as well as pointed criticism of the natural disaster bringing out the very worst in humanity.

1: Frank Herbert: Dune

Dune is my favorite book in general because. It posits extremely fascinating subject matter concerning psychology and selective human being that it posits. Furthermore, the lack of "thinking machines" in the universe, or computers as we know them, paints a distant future that seems much more plausible than something like Star Trek; the science fiction does not seem out-of-date like the writing of Herbert's contemporaries. Unfortunately, the first chapter is the most boring and nonsensical thing I've ever read in my life and I've met a few people who could not make it past the first page. I recommend skipping straight to chapter two.