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I am looking for some fiction reading for the summer. I usually read classic's but I would like to branch out. What have you read lately in the past year or at least the last most memorable piece?
I am looking to read something intellectually stimulating and fun? What have you read that was hard to put down?
I am looking to read something intellectually stimulating and fun? What have you read that was hard to put down?
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Albany
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Re: Best Book Vote
Sun, May 24, 2009 - 11:11 AMLanguage Older than Words, by Derrick Jensen. I'm reading it right now. -
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Re: Best Book Vote
Mon, May 25, 2009 - 2:23 AMIsabelle Eberhardt's "Prisoner of Dunes". A very thin volume full of short stories and diary entries but- WOW! One of the best writers I ever came across. And now I have been recently elected to be the new moderator of the tribe created in her memory. tribes.tribe.net/isabelleeberhardt
Some of my other favourites are books by John Irving, esp. "Cider house rules" and by Milan Kundera. Not all of Kundera's books are fun, but "Laughable loves" and some of the others he wrote while still in Prague certainly are very enjoyable in their subtle sense of irony. If you are into the classics, how about starting with "Immortality"? Some of the classical authors show up in there, in a very unconventional way (think of J.W. v. Goethe hanging out with Ernest Hemingway in the Beyond because he is tired of his friendship with Friedrich Schiller, hehe)
And then, as I mentioned before, "The elegance of the hedgehog", a new bestseller translated from French and a brilliant book.
Or have you read "The Red Tent" yet? Every woman should at least have a look inside that one.
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Re: Best Book Vote
Mon, May 25, 2009 - 10:11 AMAnything by Gene Wolfe. He writes highly literary scifi/fantasy, but he has a few novels that are outside that genre, and a few collections of short stories. I highly recommend him. -
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Re: Best Book Vote
Wed, May 27, 2009 - 6:38 AM>>Anything by Gene Wolfe<<
I have only read the Books of the New Sun, but they were excellent as long as you do not mind a terribly unreliable narrator and having to figure most things out as you go along. I think those characteristics made the books more interesting. I definitely have to re-read it sometime soon because I'm sure I missed a lot. It is a slow read also. By slow I mean reading speed, not the pace of the book. It took me about twice as long to read as most books.
I don't really have a best book, it depends on what mood I'm in and I will usually read two to four books simultaneously unless it is a lite and entertaining enough book that I can finish it a few hours, like most Pratchett.
For other sci-fi I recommend Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling. For fantasy try George RR Martin's newer series (Game of thrones, clash of kings, etc), just don't read book 4 until book 5 comes out. There are supposed to be 7 books total but he is taking forever finishing the 5th. In the Name of the Wind by Rothfuss is also good traditional fantasy. It is just the first book of the series though, the rest aren't out yet. Almost anything by Le Guin is good (sci-fi and fantasy) although sometimes her stuff can be heavy with preachy feminism. Some people appreciate it, some don't.
Christopher Moore writes some entertaining fiction, but there usually isn't much substance to it otherwise. I think Lamb is by far his best so far. -
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Re: Best Book Vote
Wed, May 27, 2009 - 9:51 PMDid you read the fifth book? I forget the title.
The off-theme novels I'm thinking of are good reads.
Like "There Are Doors". There are submerged Craft/Masonic/Qabalah themes.
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Re: Best Book Vote
Mon, May 25, 2009 - 1:13 PMAlthough it is a "classic," though much lesser known than his other works, "Lucien Leuwen" by Stendhal comes highly recommended!
Still rather happily immersed in the era surrounding revolutionary france, I am reading it for my third time, as if I am reading it for the first time, because it is so rich in insight and details with regard to post-Napoleonic and post-revolutionary France, as well as with regard to love!
But if you are not also somewhat familiar and interested with the era, then it may not be for you.
And I am among those that dig it, though an unfinished work, more than "The Red and the Black" or "The Charterhouse of Parma." -
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Re: Best Book Vote
Mon, May 25, 2009 - 1:16 PMOr "Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich.
I consider this a must read!
ijustfinishedreading.tribe.net/th...e69
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Re: Best Book Vote
Tue, May 26, 2009 - 1:37 PMI absoluteyl LOVE The Savage Detectives by Arturo Bollano. It's very dense, and quite long, and there are a ton of reapearing characters with foreign names you have to remember, but it's amazing. Truly one of the best books I've ever read. I just read it for the second time.
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Re: Best Book Vote
Tue, May 26, 2009 - 1:50 PMThe Hierophant of 100th Street
by Cullen Dorn
