Books, books, books...

[Cult of Jared]

Margaret Atwood, all the way.

deserves to be on that list.

Amy Tan has only one book, but it is a good one.

I'd also like to put Dave Barry and Steven King down, but they aren't who you are looking for.

I am missing a bunch of course. Too many people write too many things.

[Roderick]

Bah humbug, I was thoroughly unimpressed by Junot Diaz' Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

[Cult of Jared]

Bah humbug, I was thoroughly unimpressed by Junot Diaz' Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

His short stories are way better than TBWLoOW. But you are still wrong.

Try the one I linked above. Eight minutes, you won't regret it.

Joseph Heller isn't technically alive. But Catch 22 is the best book, so add him anyway.

[vimes]

I've just gobbled Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas in two days and was surprised to find that - even though less grotesque than the movie - I enjoy the same kind of moments in both. Everything about the lawyer was a complete miss again and if I enjoy the description of each drugs effects this time around, it was really because for the dry writing style than anything else. What I kept looking forward to were the short and lucid analysis that pop between those, like the wave speech... I was really impressed by those and might read the Campaign Trail books because of these.

[miffy495]

Having read a tonne of Thompson, I have to say that if you were to only read one of his books ever, it should be Hell's Angels. If you haven't read that, do it. It's a lot more of that analysis that you seemed to like, interspersed with compelling and occasionally horrifying stories. The campaign stuff is cool too, but Hell's Angels is the one to read.

[StrangeFish]

How about Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go"? The way he wrote it, you could almost believe that it happened.

[Cult of Jared]

Combed through this thread for gift ideas, and noticed two conspicuously missing authors.

1. Christopher Moore is a funny man. I recommend Lamb, or Bloodsucking Fiends for San Fransisco natives.

2. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls. Dysfunctional-family-voyeurism at its best. Plus many people have read it. This means you will be able to converse about it, which is not something you can say about Issac Asimov or Nabokov.

[Cult of Jared]

x2 combo multiplier!

I just finished Painted Ocean, Painted Ship by Rebecca Makkai. Pretty excellent: I'd forgotten how good/depressing short stories are.

The Briefcase is also by her, also good, and very short.

[juv3nal]

Ted Chiang does really good sci fi short stories if y'all have not read any yet.

[Chris]

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is pretty remarkable. You should read it.

[juv3nal]

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is pretty remarkable. You should read it.

Checked out Ghostwritten yet?

(edit: in case it's not clear, that's a recommendation: you should)

[pabosher]

Finally finished Ernest Hemingway's Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises yesterday.

I decided to study Literature A Level purely because it would force me to read more books. Unfortunately, this endeavor hasn't really paid off as well as I would have liked. Although I had texts I had to study for my exams last year, I didn't actually read all of them, and I find it increasingly harder to force myself to read books.

This was also the case with Fiesta. The main difference is, however , I actually enjoyed reading it. After years of reading authors like JK Rowling, James Patterson (whose books I still enjoy), Douglas Adams and many others, Hemingway's writing style was arresting, unique, and fascinating. I'd never read a writer's work before who actually let the reader imagine the majority of the scene for themselves; nor have I ever read a book where the sense of time has been abstracted to such an extent that hours can pass in a single sentence, or where a minute can last an entire page.

Fiesta follows an expatriate, Jake, living in Paris in the early 1920's. He's in love with Lady Brett Ashley, but it's a love he can never satiate, as both he and her are deeply flawed characters. It sounds cliché and horrible, but I highly recommend it. It seems like a Thumbs-y sort of book, so :tup:

Also, I just realised, that made it sound far more like a romance than it is. There's lots of alcohol, bullfights and other things going on too.

[Thyroid]

Yeah, Ernest Hemingway's use of simple sentences was revolutionary for its time, and still mind-bogglingly clever today. It's hard to let go of its influence when you start doing your own writing, a problem made worse by the style itself being much harder to pull off that well than a first glance would indicate.

I have never read Fiesta!. I have, however, gone through several short stories, his memoir A Moveable Feast, a decent section of Death in the Afternoon, and The Old Man and the Sea. The last is the greatest of all these. I was far too young to understand it when I read it (being ten or eleven), but the older I grow the more I like it. It's telling that I haven't even touched the book since, but still think about it so often.

[jennoa]

I've just begun working my way through "Colonel Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris. I'm enjoying it so far, and it really does an amazing job of exposing the manic energy that drove Theodore through the end of his life. If you've read Morris' earlier books, "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and "Theodore Rex," it's an absolute must read.

[Sully907]

I've just begun working my way through "Colonel Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris. I'm enjoying it so far, and it really does an amazing job of exposing the manic energy that drove Theodore through the end of his life. If you've read Morris' earlier books, "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and "Theodore Rex," it's an absolute must read.

I've read both rise, and rex, that's amazing that Morris wrote ANOTHER book about roosevelt, I assume it covers his life after his presidency? A really great series of books.

[Cult of Jared]

Ted Chiang does really good sci fi short stories if y'all have not read any yet.

These are pretty good. I usually dismiss science fiction by saying it 'falls on the stupid side of epic'. But between these and Enders Game, I might have to invent a new phrase.

[jennoa]

I've read both rise, and rex, that's amazing that Morris wrote ANOTHER book about roosevelt, I assume it covers his life after his presidency? A really great series of books.

Yeah exactly, the title comes from his insistence on being called "Colonel" initially after he had left office.

If nothing else, Edmund's books always hint that one could write a hundred novels about the events in Roosevelt's life, and not be at a lack for content.

[Wubbles]

I'm reading Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium. It is a strikingly mixed bag of pros and cons.

I mean, how many times can you describe someone as "phlegmatic"?

[jennoa]

There is no upper limit.

[Orv]

I'm reading Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium. It is a strikingly mixed bag of pros and cons.

I mean, how many times can you describe someone as "phlegmatic"?

A great, great many number of times, though Jurgen is eventually described by other words, if essentially synonyms. I really enjoy the Ciaphas Cain demi-world of Warhammer, but Eisenhorn/Ravenor probably remains my favorite.

[DanJW]

Heh, the only Warhammer novel I ever read was Inquisitor. The guys on TV Tropes seem to love the Ciaphas Cain series though, for its sheer bombaster. It sounds like Flashman IN SPACE.

[Wubbles]

I've read only one other 40k book, Titanicus. I haven't finished Hero of the Imperium yet, but I expect I'll feel the same way about it at the end as I do now; Titanicus is way better. Scary metal giants aren't as endearing as Cain and his pals, though, admittedly.

Edit: INTERESTING FACT. The word "phlegmatic" originates in the Hippocratic approach to medicine, where disproportionate quantities of phlegm are associated with stoicism.

Edited January 5, 2011 by Wubbles

[Orv]

Ugh, TV Tropes.

For twice, they are correct. (The only other time I have ever agreed with them is "Dropped a bridge on him".)

It's very much a "OH SHIT, RUUUUUUUUN *five hours later* I saved the Imperium through saving my own skin!"

It's great fun, and kind of ridiculous, which is nice in such a dark and miserable world.

If you're looking for more 40K, might I recommend. . .

Space Marines -

Ultramarines Omnibus, Graham McNeil (? Its been a while and I don't actually possess the book anymore)

Imperial Guard -

Gaunt's Ghosts, Dan Abnett (Up to 12 books now, I believe, with Armour of Contempt)

Inquisition -

Eisenhorn/Ravenor, Dan Abnett

Wut? -

Space Marine, Ian Watson

Derp, I are Warhammer fan.

[Wubbles]

I like 40k too! Unfortunately, most of my knowledge of it comes through the Lexicanum. An encyclopedia doesn't really offer the best way to experience rich fiction.

[Nevsky]

So I invested in a Kindle. Since studying a BA in English Literature put me off reading anything longer than a New Yorker article for a couple of years, I want to get back into reading prose books.

In the last couple of years, apart from huge piles of comics, I have mostly been reading stuff by Dave Eggers and Tove Jansson. Oh, and The Road, Tom Bissell's book, The Story of Forgetting and Steve Martin's memoir.

I have almost finished the rather harrowing and quite brilliant book Room, and am looking for something to pick up next. But the Kindle store is unpredictable and frustratingly sparse - and sometimes the price just isn't worth it (damn VAT).

So, please suggest some things for me to check out. I might download/read them!

Oh, I have been through the thread and made a list. Couldya believe it, they have no Hunter S. Thompson, apart from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas?