[Fnoord]

The correct answer really depends on what you're into, and what kind of person you are. There are a lot of subcategories in fiction (just like there are in non-fiction).

Lord of the Rings is much more than mere fiction. It is possibly interesting from a linguistic PoV as it contains an entirely new language called Quenya developed by Tolkien. It also contains a lot of subjects which are relevant IRL.

Without getting further into LOTR I agreed with another poster on Dune and attempted to explain the subjects it touches in another reply to your post.

Problem with both of these (as well as say GoT) is there are movies made of them.

You might also be interested in stories which are based on non-fiction, but are written in a story telling kind of way, greatly adding to suspense. In that category I read the books Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick and Kingpin by Kevin Poulsen [1]. If you're interested in following a suspenseful hacker story I can recommend them both.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13240924

[DanBC]

> You might also be interested in stories which are based on non-fiction, but are written in a story telling kind of way, greatly adding to suspense. In that category I read the books Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick and Kingpin by Kevin Poulsen [1]. If you're interested in following a suspenseful hacker story I can recommend them both.

Another excellent book along those lines is "The Cuckoos Egg" by Clifford Stoll. (And he's awesome person too.)

[qwertyuiop924]

LoTR is not something I can recommend. When I read it, it was a miserable trek, and I read obsessively. It was a book written by somebody who cares more about the language then they do they story, and it shows.

That's not necessarily bad, but unless you share that point of view, I'd give it a miss.

Anyways, in the same vein as Ghost in the Wires, I recommend The Cuckoo's Egg and Exploding the phone, which are both fantastic.

[captn3m0]

+1 on Ghost in the Wires. You could also try On wings of Eagles, a narrative of a rescue of EDS employees during the Iranian Revolution.

Wikipedia tells me that the genre is called Non-fiction novels.

[Fnoord]

I'll take your word on that one. I've been more of a movie/docu person, and have seen a movie based on that story, Argo [1]. The movie was good. Non-fictional, based on the real story, slightly romanticized/more suspenseful.

While I'm trying to steer more towards reading books I made the rule to not watch a book of a movie I've seen. It just doesn't work very well for me (other way around seems fine).

So yeah, the movie spoiled it for me...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film)