Q

[inti]

Shout-out to all my fellow lit-dorks: what should I read? I need some good, thick, satisfying FICTION. Here's what's currently on my plate:

Have Read (2007):
Fiction
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Locked Rooms, Laurie R. King

Nonfiction
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid , Douglas Hofstadter
Descartes' Baby, Paul Bloom
Brain &

Comments

[cardsaysmoops]

Although it's a graphic novel, I've been trying to force Watchmen down everyone and his brother's throat recently. I will do the same to you. Time Magazine named it one of the 100 best novels of all-time, and it's amazingly complex despite being, you know, a comic. Lots of metafiction...lots of stuff that takes a second or third read to appreciate. Lot of subverting the superhero genre.

So yeah, pick it up.

[springphoenix]

My favorite that I've read recently was the Otherland series by Tad Williams. The first is called City of Golden Shadow.

[flamingophoenix]

You will back me up on Russell. :-)

Tad Williams also has an excellent standalone novel called The War of the Flowers if you don't want to commit yourself to 3200 pages of reading. :-)

[wondershot]

Read Aunt Julia and the Script Writer by Mario Vargas Llosa. It's a fun book that I'm reading right now. Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado is also a real load of fun.

How long did it take you to polish off Godel, Escher, Bach? It's a lame excuse, but don't know if I could handle a book like that.

[flamingophoenix]

Have you read everything by Guy Gavriel Kay? If not, do so! I especially liked Sailing to Sarantium/Lord of Emperors/The Lions of Al-Rassan, three novels set in a Europe-like continent. The first two are a...um...bilogy? The third is a standalone novel that happens to exist in the same alternate reality.

Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children of God are two of the most amazing books I have ever read. Part of this is just coincidental over-self-identification (I made that term up) (the main character is named Emilio and is a linguist) but mostly they are just amazing. Gnarr. So hard to describe.

I mostly only read fiction, so I won't be any help with the other categories. :-(

Have fun!

[pwylltwiceborn]

I think he describes the Sarantine Mosaic (the first two) as a duology.

[flamingophoenix]

Duology makes sense to me.

[springphoenix]

Oh! Right! Obviously!

Yeah, definitely go read The Sparrow and Children of God. They are FANTASTIC.

[shard83]

I've been reading Cormac McCarthy, who is most often compared to Faulkner in terms of style. I really can't comment on the validity of that because I haven't read Faulkner (or at least not since high school). The other problem with McCarthy is that his books tend to be rather violent, which really puts people off.

One that might really be of interest to you is 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan. One of the best books I have ever read.

And if nothing else really interests you, just read the Harry Potter books from start to the most recent one, that will kill 10 days right there.