Looking for book recommendations

Logan wrote: Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake

f**kING CRAKE! 

Read that one on a week long cruise.  For some reason I liked it a lot (I have absolutely no idea why).

Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale might interest you if you've not read it.

My favorite America novel is John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany.  It's a treat to read all the way through (with some occasional bitching about Ronald Reagan), but the last four pages made my jaw drop and I quit trying to write fiction for months.

Nick Harkaway - The Gone Away World

Ever read any Ken Kesey?

Beyond that, my main recommendations would be Vonnegut and McCarthy, both of whom I see you already read



Depending on your tolerance for verse, you might find Anthony Burgess' Byrne an interesting read

Right now I'm reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.  I'm finding it really enjoyable



Edited by Triceratopsoil - February 25 2011 at 17:38

^ I\ve heard of Yzegeny Zamyatin.  Will look into; thanks, as well as the Koestler book.  Thanks!  Sounds good.

Tri... Yeah, Vonnegut is a fave.  I've read some Kesey.  I read One Flew Over the Cuckoo''s Nest  for a High School English class.

- Yeah, I was about to recommend 'We' by Ivanovich, its always cool to know the influences of certain classics. However, for me the best thing of 'We' which I bought in spanish was actually its prologue or preface, which is the translator's comment about dystopias and related, like 10 pages of it, really worth it if you read in spanish.

Edited by The Quiet One - February 25 2011 at 18:46

Ever read Umberto Eco or Salman Rushdie? Eco's Foucault's Pendulum is a real mind bender, and I just finished Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence, which was very entertaining.

I used to be a very heavy reader, especially when in my teens, so I've read a number of suggestions.  I was thinking about adding Umbert Eco's Foucalt's Pendulum to my list since it's my favourite of his, but the son called me away.  I\ve only read Rushdie's Satanic verses.  I started on another of his not long ago, but my eyes were sore so i returned it.  H..G. Welles was one of my favourite authors. My parents gave me a nice leatherbound compilations of his novels for my twelth birthday.  I read The Food of the Gods to my daughter not long ago to help put her to sleep.  I know lots of vonnegut, including those stories.  That P.D. James novel is excellent -- I should have mentioned it.'It'll be on my to re-read list.  My mum has a copy and I'm making the trek tto see her today and can pick up a couple of recs there.  Plus they have  a much better library near where she lives.  I was really disappointed when I moved to where i live now at the quality of the libraries (though good if one likes to read in Chinese or Punjabi).

I loved Kafk''s Metamorphosis.  haven\t read it for many years, though.  Excuse punctuation mistakes, I have a new laptop and having some difficulties with this keyboard.

Ian, I haven't read any of your recs, despite having read  a lot of King and Moorcock.  my favourite that King collaorated on is The talisman, and my favourite Moorcock is, wow name escapes me. My godfather gave it to me, who is an author himself and had an effect on my reading at an early age.  I have yet to thank him for a pile of books he sent to me a couple of years ago. (mostly psychological and philosophical, but he's head and shoulders above me in terms of intellect, as were my parents).

Pablo, I like Tom Robbins a lot.  It started with an anonymous gift to me at a place I worked of a book of his at a playhouse I worked for with the cryptic message: To Greg, for when you want to be a little bit not be.  Lots of stuff to look into there.

I will look into Zamyatin's We as I also love dystopias.

For a long time I stopped reading, and watching movies, due to poor eyes, but since my laser eye surgery I can read better and feel I have a lot of catching up to do -- both new books and getting some classics.  When I was young I used to read a novel a night c0mmonly, but cannot read at nearly the same speed anymore.

I'd alos like to read various satires.

^Thanks, will look into.

Music related, I recommend The Real Frank Zappa Book and Miles Davis autobiography.  Joe Jackson's A Cure For Gravity  auto is a good read, too .

^Thanks. Love that Bradbury book, and am one of the few, it seems to also love the Truffaut movie version.  I've read The Devils and Candide, excellent.  Though i\ve read lots of Vonnegut, don't know how much of those I would have read.  As for the others, will look into.

Dean wrote: You could read my book  ... or better still, download it for free.

You\re quite a renaissance man, Dean.  I've rturned to your music, and enjoyed it more and more.  Looks like that would really interest me.  I might just self-publish some of my old stories, but I fear they would only appeal to the limited rabbit-fetish market.


Edited by Logan - February 26 2011 at 13:48