Reading list

[whiskyinmind]

Comment to this post if you have a suggestion for a book you would like the comm to read.

Books should be:

• Published and/or available in the english language (or with available english translations).
  
• Readily available through libraries and/or bookshops - rare books, while amazing finds, don't generate as much discussion

Other than that I have no

Comments

[tessarin]

Two more suggestions :-

Duncton Wood - William Horwood (Watership Down meets Lord of the Rings, very magical and emotional)
Last Act in Palmyra - Lindsey Davis (First in the series of her Roman detective novels set in Vespasian's reign)

[whiskyinmind]

Excellent - added! (And I've not read either of them so I'm looking forward to them!)

[tessarin]

Thanks, Last Act is fairly short but deftly written which is why I suggested it plus a different genre and Duncton Wood is just....well. My descriptive shorthand doesn't do it justice:-)

Not read some of the others practically the only thing I don't generally read is horror.

[whiskyinmind]

Cool! I will pretty much read anything so long as it's well written and engages me. Genre doesn't matter too much to me, to be honest.

I may be odd. I've come to terms with that now... *g*

[bellatemple]

Should I feel all proud that I've already read four of those?

If I might add: If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
The Adventures of Blue Avenger (young adult, but still excellent) - Norma Howe

[whiskyinmind]

*grins*

It's kinda my favourites so I've read most of 'em. All but two to be honest, (of the original list) and the other two are ones I really want to read and always have - Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time has been on that "I should read this as soon as I can!" list for a couple of years now, so thank you for adding it!

List updated!

[bellatemple]

Excellent. Oh, and while I'm thinking in that direction, for the more vaguely fannish and geeky end of things (plus just being fantastic historical fiction), there's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon

Which I need to finish reading. . . .

[whiskyinmind]

Oooo - that's a new one to me. I should read that...

Added!

[bastardsnow]

Howdy! If I may offer a few suggestions...

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester

Excellent books, all, IMO =)

[whiskyinmind]

2 of which I adore - the other I have yet to read.

Can't wait! Added!

(Watching new season of Torchwood now, slightly distracted...)

[willowmina]

If I may suggest Antony Burgess' Clockwork Orange - never seen the film, and don't really want to - the book does for me. Also:

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Attwood
Possibly one of the Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy? (or all - tends not to make sense otherwise).
And possibly a historical fiction romance - Philippa Gregory and the like..?

[whiskyinmind]

I've added Handmaid's Tale but I'm a little reticent to add series as series. If that makes sense? Individual books which can act as an introduction to the series would make more sense than the whole series.

Thanks!!

[amy_star_]

Maybe some current talked-about stuff

[whiskyinmind]

Excellent - thank you!

I think what we'll end up doing is actually cover all of the books that are available. I can check through the vast majority of library OPACs in the UK and if you would be willing to check your store's database for NA then that would be awesome!

[amy_star_]

I can check my store's database, but things may be available in the US that we still won't get in Canada (some books still don'ty have a Canadian publisher and are with a small enough imprint that they won't get a Canadian distribution deal through a larger source, although that's largely *very* small print runs of more obscure titles). But I can check them through Amazon as well, just to see what the availability is like.

I looked up those two books through the library (and granted, we aren't a *huge* city; we're a University town with somewhere in the vicinity of 200,000 people) and there is one copy of Duncton Wood, but it's in storage; two of Last act in Palmyra - the large-print edition is also in storage, but there is one copy of the hardcover in circulation at one branch. So it could be doable here.

[tessarin]

That's odd as I suggested those two precisely because they were still in print and both readily available in Libraries in the UK. Maybe they didn't get US publishers? Does seem to be out of print there though.