Comments | a_napoleon: A Question about Literat-cha

a_napoleon

A Question about Literat-cha

Feb 10, 2009 17:33

OK, so I was bored today (meaning that I totally had work that I should have been doing but wasn't) and so I went for a walk to Borders to look around. Now I've noticed before that in the 'Literature' section (i.e. all fiction that doesn't fall under sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, or horror) there are a trillion books by a trillion authors, the majority ( Read more... )

Comments 6

robynjade13 February 11 2009, 02:08:34 UTC

This is really really hard. At places like Borders, I usually look for authors I've heard of or enjoyed. But this is why I prefer independent bookstores-- the employees are usually very helpful, and at Kepler's (the nice big store I like in Menlo Park) they even have little tags on some of the books that say "[this employee] recommends" or "if you liked Harry Potter, try this" and the like. All else fails, I pull out books with interesting sounding titles and read the back to see if it's actually something I'd want to read.

What kind of thing are you looking for?

a_napoleon February 11 2009, 04:20:58 UTC

Yeah mostly. I was kinda hoping there was more lit-major-fu involved though.

robynjade13 February 11 2009, 04:27:45 UTC

Ah, see, lit majors take lit classes, and lit professors give us lists of things to read.

I can throw you some syllabi if you like, but that's all I got.

finglegend February 11 2009, 05:20:55 UTC

I hear ya. With genre fiction, I am oddly comfortable judging a book by its cover. It helps that the publishers can usually pick an appropriate cover artist for the kind of work. With “Literature,” I need to know the author.

isisantonius February 11 2009, 18:28:44 UTC

Yeah, thirded -- straight-on lit is hard to shop for if you don't have a recommendation that you trust or an author you know to look for.

So, this is incredibly silly-sounding, but have you tried inputting some of your current library into Amazon or the like and seeing what recommendations you get? (sometimes they suck, but not always).

Also: this fits more into the fantasy category, but you might enjoy the Temeraire series. It's basically set in England during the Napoleonic Wars, except with dragons forming an aerial corps in each side's military. It's a really quick read and I've enjoyed it thus far. On the other hand, given that it's a quick read it may be a bit on the trite side if you're looking to sink your teeth into literature.

Have you looked into James Joyce? I find him fun. In the "wait, what... oh. I'd better go" kind of way.

a_napoleon February 11 2009, 18:53:32 UTC

Arranging matches is he?