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| Literature Please come visit. People get upset, write poetry about it, and post it here. Sometimes we also talk about books. |
04-03-2009, 07:01 AM
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#1
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Oxford, England... come visit :P
Posts: 106
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Any recomended books?
I really want to know what you'd recomend as a good read, I haven't much experiance with good literature past Dostoyevsky, Bester, Poe and Lovecraft... and I was wondering if there were any you would recomend to someone trying to widen their range of reading.
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04-03-2009, 07:27 AM
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#2
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: the concrete and steel beehive of Southern California
Posts: 7,449
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
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04-03-2009, 07:43 AM
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#3
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Oxford, England... come visit :P
Posts: 106
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I have read that, but found it terribly boring lol Wilde isn't my cup of tea really. Thank you for the suggestion anyway HumanePain!
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04-03-2009, 07:57 AM
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#4
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 340
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I highly reccomend The Great Train Robbery, a Victorian railroad heist novel by the late Michael Crichton.
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04-03-2009, 08:34 AM
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#5
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 38
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Even though it's almost two hundred years old, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is an amazing piece of work. Paradise Lost by John Milton is even older, but a very interesting read if you like poetry.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is decent, along with Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.
If you want Science Fiction, try Foundation, I, Robot, and Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. Also, Farenheit 451 by Rad Bradbury is very good.
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04-04-2009, 09:03 PM
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#6
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Jersey Sticks.
Posts: 1,062
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If science fiction is your cup of tea I'd highly recommend Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or Ubik by Philip K. Dick. The Death of Ivan Illyich by Leo Tolstoy is also another good read.
__________________
"I love Wagner, but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws." - Charles Baudelaire
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04-05-2009, 05:31 PM
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#7
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Harlem
Posts: 6,909
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Anything by Neil Gaiman.
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No Gods. No Kings.
Not all beliefs and ideas are equal.
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04-05-2009, 05:49 PM
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#8
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Fiddler's Green
Posts: 1,406
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William S. Burroughs and the Beats are amazing reads, or pick out On the Road or Maggie Cassidy by Kerouac if you can. Chuck Palahniuk's great, too. Never gets boring.
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04-05-2009, 07:34 PM
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#9
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: WV, USA
Posts: 111
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Hmm, Raven Digitalis' "Goth Craft" is good, goth oriented, and some Wiccan flavor.
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04-06-2009, 12:45 AM
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#10
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In Antarctica with the Penguins
Posts: 1,521
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KontanKarite
Anything by Neil Gaiman.
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To go more specifically I'd say the blend of Gaiman and Pratchett in the novel "Good Omens" proves to be quite an enjoyable read. At least to me at any rate.
And to go farther Terry Pratchett's got a humorous series of books himself, and Gaiman's got a wonderful Sandman series as well. Not to mention the other stuff they've both done.
__________________
Droppin' knowledge since 1986.
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04-25-2009, 08:39 AM
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#11
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Here and There
Posts: 22
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For what it's worth...
The beats are always a good read especially with some Nag Champa whaffing through the air. Or brew a nice pot of Lapsang and pick Orlando by Virginia Woolf - a real mind fck
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04-25-2009, 09:15 AM
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#12
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Yew City
Posts: 2,413
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I no longer read fiction, but when I did, the rule was to shun Austen in favor of the Bronte sisters.
"House of Leaves" and "Only revolutions" are interesting reads by Mark Daniwlewski.
Seamus Haney's Beowulf rules
Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent".
The bio of Sarah Bernhardt.
If you are in the states, Mark Twain is required reading for damned good reasons. His Adam and Eve journals and Autobiography are among the best
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I am The Mighty Cooch!!!!!!
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04-25-2009, 09:24 AM
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#13
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 48
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Frank Herbert's Dune series
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
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04-25-2009, 10:11 AM
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#14
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: nomad
Posts: 336
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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
anything by Franz Kafka - The Trial is one of those I liked best, but you can start with his short stories to see if you like the style
Friedrich Dürrenmatt - Traps, The tunnel, The visit (play)...
Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front
Carlo Levi - Christ Stopped at Eboli
Gabriel García Márquez ...
Mark Twain ...
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and I, too, can recommand Pratchett and Gaiman.
there are so many good books around 
__________________
"The reason why truth is so much stranger than fiction is that there is no requirement for it to be consistent."
Mark Twain
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04-25-2009, 10:52 AM
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#15
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Cimmeria
Posts: 7,162
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nike
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
anything by Franz Kafka - The Trial is one of those I liked best, but you can start with his short stories to see if you like the style
Friedrich Dürrenmatt - Traps, The tunnel, The visit (play)...
Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front
Carlo Levi - Christ Stopped at Eboli
Gabriel García Márquez ...
Mark Twain ...
.....
and I, too, can recommand Pratchett and Gaiman.
there are so many good books around |
Nike, those sound like really interesting books you`ve listed there, and you have also reminded to read `All Quiet On The Western Front` which is still on the pile of books I have to read !!!.
I think you would find these books interesting Nike (I`ll tell you more about them nect time we chat) ...
`The Legacy Of The Viking Ragnar Lothbrok` by Christopher Robinson
`Thermopylae 480 BC` by Nic Fields
`Roman Legionary 58 BC - AD 69` by Ross Cowan
__________________
For in each delve and greenwood,
far wiser creatures play,
and in their veins and sinews,
live the gods of yesterday.
Be excellent to one another !!!.
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04-25-2009, 04:11 PM
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#16
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,678
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Ask the Dust by John Fante. It tears along wildly, it should suit you if you can't really get into classic literature.
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04-25-2009, 06:26 PM
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#17
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: A lovely place where the humidity melts your makeup off.
Posts: 113
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Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera
Dante's The Divine Comedy, if you can read an entire book in verse.
Also, The King Arthur series. These are generally in verse, unless you are lucky enough to find on that isn't in verse.
Shakespeare is also good, if you like reading plays.
Dracula is slightly gorey, but intriguing
JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is good.
Nathaniel Hawthorne has some pretty good works, along with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Charles Dickens is also very mysterious.
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04-25-2009, 06:49 PM
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#18
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Gallifrey
Posts: 2,817
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Bluebeard from Vonnegut
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04-25-2009, 07:49 PM
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#19
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Hell, Alabama
Posts: 36
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Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite: A good vampire novel.
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04-25-2009, 08:58 PM
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#20
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Between firing synapses
Posts: 350
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadows_Jukebox
I really want to know what you'd recomend as a good read, I haven't much experiance with good literature past Dostoyevsky, Bester, Poe and Lovecraft... and I was wondering if there were any you would recomend to someone trying to widen their range of reading.
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Gosh, I really wish you had been more specific about what you are looking for in a book...But I can second the recommendations for Kafka, Philip K Dick, One Day In the Life of Ivan Desinovich, Fahrenheit 451, and anything by Vonnegut. In science fiction I would add J.G. Ballard's Concrete Island; I haven't read any of his other books but I enjoyed that one immensely.
It's so nice to see so many G.netters with good musical taste!
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04-26-2009, 05:23 AM
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#21
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Backwoods hick town, NC
Posts: 82
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Being an H.G. Wells fan, I'm gonna have to recommend The Time Machine.
If my instincts prove right we're all going to evolve into Morlocks.
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04-26-2009, 09:35 AM
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#22
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Gallifrey
Posts: 2,817
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The Bell Jar from Plath as well, along with By The Light Of The Moon or Odd Thomas from Koontz.
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04-26-2009, 09:49 AM
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#23
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Dirty South
Posts: 1,726
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"Fundamentals of Network Security" by Eric Maiwald
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04-26-2009, 10:07 AM
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#24
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 2,721
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Yeah, Fante and Vonnegut are great recommendations - they're both incredibly accessible and easy to read, but also amazing writers. Vonnegut in particular is one life-affirming motherfucker. Reading his stuff is like eating candy that's good for you.
__________________
All pleasure is relief from tension. - William S. Burroughs
Witches have no wit, said the magician who was weak.
Hula, hula, said the witches. - Norman Mailer
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04-26-2009, 03:04 PM
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#25
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Gallifrey
Posts: 2,817
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Brilliant analogy.
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