I LOVE biographies! Some of my favourites are:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel
Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind
And a graphic novel: Blankets by Craig Thompson

Also... The Millennium books by Stieg Larsson are just as amazing as people say.

Has anyone read the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy? I'm on the (third) Amber Spyglass and loving it!

I read the first one and liked it. If I had read it as a 13 year-old I would've loved it.

booook recommendations you say?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Mix-Tape-Rob-Sheffield/dp/0749951427/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316946030&sr=8-1
"In this stunning memoir, Rob Sheffield, a veteran rock and pop culture critic and staff writer for "Rolling Stone" magazine, tells the story of his musical coming of age, and how rock music, the first love of his life, led him to his second, a girl named Renee. Rob and Renee's life together - they wed after graduate school, both became music journalists, and they were married only five years when Renee died suddenly on Mother's Day, 1997 - is shared through the window of the mix tapes they obsessively compiled. There are mixes to court each other, mixes for road trips, mixes for doing the dishes, mixes for sleeping - and, eventually, mixes to mourn Rob's greatest loss. The tunes were among the great musical output of the early 1990s - Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Pavement, Yo La Tengo, REM, Weezer - as well as classics by The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and more. Mixing the skilful, tragic punch of Dave Eggers and the romantic honesty of Nick Homby, "Love Is a Mix Tape" is a story of lost love and the kick-you-in-the-gut energy of great pop music. It's a deeply moving love story, and a testament to music's unique ability to guide us through the most important moments of our lives." - Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/America-Unchained-Dave-Gorman/dp/0091899370/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316946099&sr=1-1
"The plan was simple. Go to America. Buy a second-hand car. Drive coast-to-coast without giving any money to The Man™. What could possibly go wrong?
Dismayed by the relentless onslaught of faceless American chains muscling in where local businesses had once thrived, Dave Gorman set off on the ultimate American road trip – in search of the true, independent heart of the U S of A. He would eat cherry pie from local diners, re-fuel at dusty gas stations and stock up on supplies from Mom and Pop’s grocery store." - Amazon

ok,so Dave gorman goes on a trip to find clichés in america.. i accept that one now.. but cliché in the term of what we percieve as traditional america, rather than the giant wallmart were all getting used to..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dawn-Dumb-Dispatches-Idiotic-Frontline/dp/0571238416/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316946248&sr=1-3
because nothing makes me lol outloud like a good hatred for british television..

I'm sure that this is mentioned but A Song of Ice and Fire. I started series after seeing HBO's Game of Thrones and now reading fifth book, A Dance of Dragons. What a ride, highly recommended.

Has anyone read the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy? I'm on the (third) Amber Spyglass and loving it!

I read the first one and liked it. If I had read it as a 13 year-old I would've loved it.

Honestly I was saying just the other day that I'm glad I didn't read it at a young age. Sure, I would've enjoyed it, but I wouldn't have understood it.
I was raised religiously and I didn't actually start questioning and exploring until about age 13. I'm glad to read the series now that I have a developed opinion on religion and faith.
Pullman is an agnostic, and these books are very Luciferian. He derived the title, "His Dark Materials", from Milton's Paradise Lost.
Definitely worth a read if you're not afraid of venturing into the young adult fiction section.

Halfway through Game of Thrones. The second book is right there all the time and I want to skip this one and start reading it so badly. The temptation is killing me. 350 pages to go.

Friend gave me this book. Am looking forward to delving into it!

feel like reading belgariad and the malloreon for the nth time..

Halfway through Game of Thrones. The second book is right there all the time and I want to skip this one and start reading it so badly. The temptation is killing me. 350 pages to go.

Friend gave me this book. Am looking forward to delving into it!

Just finished it and about to start reading the second one. I'm not sure if it's because I had already watched the story or if books just give you so much more time to think but I've never thought this much about the characters's intentions.

Halfway through Game of Thrones. The second book is right there all the time and I want to skip this one and start reading it so badly. The temptation is killing me. 350 pages to go.

Friend gave me this book. Am looking forward to delving into it!

Just finished it and about to start reading the second one. I'm not sure if it's because I had already watched the story or if books just give you so much more time to think but I've never thought this much about the characters's intentions.

It's an amazing series. I almost wish I hadn't found it when I did, because the wait between novels keeps getting longer. lol Supposedly there are two more to go in the series, and if it is taking 5 or more years between novels we won't see how it ends for another 10 years!

Waiting for The Night Eternal to be released (Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan's finale to their vampire trilogy). Gonna read the first two books again soon to get refresh myself in the story.

I'm sure that this is mentioned but A Song of Ice and Fire. I started series after seeing HBO's Game of Thrones and now reading fifth book, A Dance of Dragons. What a ride, highly recommended.

I'm working my way through these as well at the moment... Stalled on reading them for years because of Martin's ever-increasing gaps between the books in the series but I couldn't hold on any longer after seeing the TV series and the books have certainly not disappointed. I'm currently on A Feast For Crows and the only thing I haven't really liked so far in the entire series is the character split he did in A Feast For Crows and A Dance of Dragons... Although I may change my mind on that by the time I actually finish A Dance of Dragons... The story itself just gets progressively more epic the more you go through and he really isn't afraid of hitting you with some MASSIVE swerves and twists as you go along. I also absolutely love his totaly disregard for basically every character, and really just generally not giving a shit who he fucks over. I find it really adds to the series when you know that everyone in it can potentially go from totally fine to completely screwed on any given page. The POV way it's written is also really well done and I just find myself really enjoying his writing style in general. Loving it.

Dune (Frank Herbert), Look To Windward (Iain Banks), Your Brain on Music (Dan Levitin).

Three of the best (or most useful) books I've read recently. Well worth the time.

Martin Nowak - Super Cooperators (Evolution, altruism and human behaviour or why we need each other to succeed)

Martin Nowak is an Austrian professor for biology and mathematics in Harvard. One of the younger scientists who has really big ideas about social behaviour proving them in the animal kingdom and publishing them in Nature, Science, PNAS, PlosOne etc. It's a nice read about the basics of cooperative behaviour, not too complicated and making you more aware of interacting with other persons.

I'm sure it's been recommended before, but:

House of Leaves. Seriously. Best book ever.

I know this was posted forever ago, but I second this wholeheartedly.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith (who did Pride & Prejudice & Zombies). Recently finished it, and thought it to be funny, tense, and very intelligent in its allegorical use of American slavery and vampire lore. I'll even say that it's a better read than his previous book.