Recommendations based on Better than Lifeby Grant Naylor

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

    by Grant Naylor
    Two hapless space-faring technicians get into all sorts of trouble as they travel the galaxy repairing and causing damage to spaceships.

    The book begins in 2180. Commercialism is still rife, and most of Earth 's natural resources have been depleted. Most of the solid planets and moons in the solar system have been colonised. Having ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

    by Douglas Adams
    An eccentric detective's surreal journey through time and space to solve a mysterious case.

    Richard MacDuff attends the Coleridge dinner at his old college St Cedd's , where he witnesses his former tutor, Professor Urban "Reg" Chronotis , perform an inexplicable magic trick in which he ... (Wikipedia)

  3. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

    by Douglas Adams
    Quirky sci-fi adventure following a group of time travelers seeking to save the future.

    Arthur Dent , Ford Prefect , Trillian , and Zaphod Beeblebrox leave the planet Magrathea on the Heart of Gold . A Vogon ship attacks them, and Arthur's attempt to have the ship's computer make him a ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Night Watch

    by Terry Pratchett
    A comedic fantasy adventure story of a man who must save the world with the help of magic and unlikely allies.

    On the morning of the 30th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution of the Twenty-Fifth of May (and as such the anniversary of the death of John Keel, Vimes' hero and former mentor), Sam Vimes — whose ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

    by Douglas Adams
    An offbeat detective story set in a surreal, supernatural world.

    Dirk Gently, who calls himself a " holistic detective", has happened upon what he thinks is a rather comfortable situation. A wealthy man in the record industry has retained him, spinning a story ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Men at Arms: The Play

    by Stephen Briggs
    A humorous play about a hapless army unit, facing a seemingly undefeatable enemy.

    Edward d'Eath, an Assassin and son of a down-and-out noble family, becomes convinced that the restoration of the Ankh-Morpork monarchy will solve the social change in the city which he blames for his ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Men at Arms

    by Terry Pratchett
    A group of misfits join forces to save a kingdom from a sinister plot.

    Edward d'Eath, an Assassin and son of a down-and-out noble family, becomes convinced that the restoration of the Ankh-Morpork monarchy will solve the social change in the city which he blames for his ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Reaper Man

    by Terry Pratchett
    A humorous fantasy adventure featuring a young witch and her Discworld allies.

    The Auditors of Reality are beings who watch the Discworld to ensure everything obeys The Rules. As Death starts developing a personality the Auditors feel that he does not perform his Duty in the ... (Wikipedia)

  9. The Andromeda Strain

    by Michael Crichton
    Scientists race against time to contain a deadly virus of extraterrestrial origin.

    A team from an Air Force base is deployed to recover a military satellite that has returned to Earth, but contact is lost abruptly. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona , ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury

    by Bill Watterson
    A collection of beloved Calvin and Hobbes comic strips, exploring life’s adventures with childlike wonder.

    Beginning with the day Hobbes sprang into Calvin's tuna fish trap, the first two, Calvin and Hobbes, collections,, Calvin and Hobbes, and, Something Under The Bed Is Drooling, are brought together in ... (Barnes & Noble)

  11. Lost in a Good Book

    by Jasper Fforde
    A journey through the magical world of fiction as a character attempts to find a way out of the book.

    Three months after the events of The Eyre Affair , Thursday Next is happily married to Landen Parke-Laine and working as a literary detective out of Swindon . One day, Thursday meets her father, a ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Starship Troopers

    by Robert A. Heinlein
    A futuristic military drama, exploring the consequences of war and human nature.

    The novel opens with Rico aboard the corvette transport Rodger Young (named after Medal of Honor recipient Rodger Wilton Young ), , serving with the platoon known as "Rasczak's Roughnecks". The ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Neuromancer

    by William Gibson
    A hacker's journey through a dystopian cyberpunk world, searching for a way to survive.

    Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City , Japan. Once a talented computer hacker , Case was caught stealing from his employer. As punishment for his theft, ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Sword in the Storm

    by David Gemmell
    A young warrior must defend his people against a powerful enemy, while also confronting his own inner demons and doubts.

    Fierce and proud, the Rigante dwell deep in the green mountain lands, worshiping the gods of air and water, and the spirits of the earth. Among them lives a warrior who bears the mark of fate. Born ... (Goodreads)

  15. Guards! Guards!: The Play

    by Stephen Briggs
    An imaginative retelling of Terry Pratchett's popular Discworld novel, set in the city of Ankh-Morpork.

    Adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs, in this book the city of Ankh-Morpork is under threat from a 60 foot fire-breathing dragon, summoned by a secret society of malcontented tradesmen. Defending ... (Goodreads)

  16. 2001: A Space Odyssey

    by Arthur C. Clarke
    An interstellar journey of exploration, confronting humanity's place in the universe.

    A mysterious alien civilization uses a tool with the appearance of a large crystalline monolith to investigate worlds across the galaxy and, if possible, to encourage the development of intelligent ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Snow Crash

    by Neal Stephenson
    A hacker's quest in a futuristic America dealing with a mysterious computer virus.

    Hiro Protagonist is a hacker and pizza delivery driver for the Mafia. He meets Y.T. (short for Yours Truly), a young skateboard Kourier ( courier ) who refers to herself in the third person , during ... (Wikipedia)

  18. First Among Sequels

    by Jasper Fforde
    A madcap, comedic detective story featuring a time-traveling protagonist.

    It's been fourteen years since Thursday pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and Friday is now a difficult sixteen year old. However, Thursday's got bigger problems. Sherlock Holmes is killed at the ... (Goodreads)

  19. Three Men in a Boat

    by Jerome K. Jerome
    Three friends and a dog embark on a whimsical boat journey down the Thames, encountering unexpected adventures and mishaps.

    A comic masterpiece that has never been out of print since it was first published in 1889, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat includes an introduction and notes by Jeremy Lewis in Penguin ... (Goodreads)

  20. Malice

    by John Gwynne
    A tale of war and betrayal, as the battle between good and evil unfolds in a world of magic and mythical creatures.

    A black sun is rising … Young Corban watches enviously as boys become warriors under King Brenin’s rule, learning the art of war. He yearns to wield his sword and spear to protect his king’s realm. ... (Goodreads)

  21. Armor

    by John Steakley
    A soldier's journey through a war-torn land to protect those he loves from a tyrannical enemy.

    Armor is the story of humanity's war against an alien race whose foot soldiers are three-meter-tall insects, referred to in the book as "ants". , It is also the story of a research colony on the ... (Wikipedia)

  22. Hellboy, Vol. 3: The Chained Coffin and Others

    by Mike Mignola
    A thrilling supernatural adventure of a demon on a mission to save humanity from destruction.

    This Hellboy short-story collection includes the following stories with the author’s notes preceding each tale: “Wolves of Saint August”; “The Corpse and the Iron Shoes”; “A Christmas Underground”; ... (Goodreads)

  23. Something Rotten

    by Jasper Fforde
    A comedic detective story set in a literary world, filled with literary allusions and puns.

    The fourth installment in Jasper Fforde’s, New York Times, bestselling series follows literary detective Thursday Next on another adventure in her alternate reality of literature-obsessed ... (Barnes & Noble)

  24. Travels with My Aunt

    by Graham Greene
    A retired bank manager travels with his eccentric aunt, discovering her scandalous past and finding adventure.

    The novel's narrator is Henry Pulling, a conventional and uncharming bank manager who has taken early retirement in a suburban home, and who has little to look for except for tending the dahlias in ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There

    by Lewis Carroll
    Alice's fantastical journey through a strange and surreal world of her own making.

    Chapter One – Looking-Glass House : Alice is playing with a white kitten (whom she calls "Snowdrop") and a black kitten (whom she calls "Kitty") when she ponders what the world is like on the other ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Foundation and Empire

    by Isaac Asimov
    A quest to save the Galactic Empire from destruction, featuring advanced science and politics.

    The first half of the book, titled "The General", tells how the enterprising General Bel Riose of the Galactic Empire launches an attack against the Foundation. The Empire still retains far more ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists

    by J.K. Rowling
    A collection of tales, exploring the magical world of Harry Potter and its characters.

    'No Muggle Prime Minister has ever set foot in the Ministry of Magic, for reasons most succinctly summed up by ex-Minister Dugald McPhail (term of office 1858-1865): “their puir wee braines couldnae ... (Goodreads)

  28. The Dragonbone Chair

    by Tad Williams
    Epic fantasy adventure to save the kingdom from an ancient evil.

    Simon , a fourteen-year-old kitchen boy and servant in the great castle Hayholt, muddles his way through the daily routines of castle drudgery in the last days of the long reign of King John ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Truth

    by Stephen Briggs
    A man's quest to uncover secrets of his family's past, uncovering truths that will change his life.

    William de Worde is the black sheep of an influential Ankh-Morpork family, scraping out a humble lifestyle as a common scribe and making extra pocket money by producing a gossipy newsletter for ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Ringworld

    by Larry Niven
    A sci-fi adventure to an artificial ring-shaped world, full of unexpected challenges.

    On planet Earth in 2850 AD , Louis Gridley Wu is celebrating his 200th birthday. Despite his age, Louis is in perfect physical condition due to the longevity drug boosterspice . He meets Nessus , a ... (Wikipedia)