Attn readers. book and author reccommendations?

[Dan Steely]

Just looking for ideas. I'm kind of stuck on the same authors over and over. Ken Follet, Steven King(not really into horror per se I just think his stories are really good), Robert Ludlum, Crichton, Clancy. How about scifi? When I was younger I read Bradbury and Asimov and I liked them. Will I still like them as an adult? I just read for entertainment so I'm not all elitist about it but I have been disappointed by what seemed to me lesser quality writers like Clive Cussler, the non ludlum Bourne books, John Wells"The Faithful Spy". Not terrible, just not in the same league as say Ludlum or King. A good post apocolyptic would be cool. Not into wizards and elfs, sorry, tried, just not for me. Open to a variety of subject matter though.

[Raisin]

"A Confederacy of Dunces" - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces)John Kennedy Toole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces)

"Breakfast of Champions" and most others by Vonnegut.

"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" - Carson McCullers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carson_McCullers)

" Rule of Bone" and several others by Russell Banks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Banks)

Geek Love is a novel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel) by Katherine Dunn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Dunn)

"Angela's Ashes" or "Tis" by Frank McCourt

Anything by Cormac McCarthy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy) is usually fantastic, just ask Duckfeet.

"Middlesex" by Jeffre Eugenides was pretty good.

Tortilla Flat was my introduction to Steinbeck and a lot of great books.

This is all stuff I just thought of but a lot of it might not be your cup of tea. If you know what genre you like google it and find some authors. I find lists of people's favorite or "most important " books to be great places to find things I haven't read. When I lived in Brooklyn I loved the fact that when people were moving a lot of times they would take the books they didn't want to lug with them and place them in a box and leave them on their stoop. I found a lot of books this way. here's always the classics as well. Sometimes I'll look up lists of classic books when I'm looking for something to read and picksomething that I haven't erad yet. In fact right now I'm reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" that I decided on by checking out one of said lists.

Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World

by Donald Antrim (http://www.powells.com/s?author=Donald%20Antrim)

[Opiyum]

If you like Sci-Fi you have to check out Kurt Vonnegut. He's the greatest. In my eyes at least.
I've been reading Chuck Palahniuk lately and he has pretty interesting stuff out there.
He wrote Fight club and another book that was made into a movie that wasn't near as good called Choke but the book was pretty awesome. Other than those two the only other of his that I have read is called Pigmy buy that is a very difficult read and I wouldn't recommend it for your first of his books. It was a good book but when I say difficult to read I mean that because it's basically the diary of this young kid who was raised in a militarized country (similar to North Korea but it is never said where actually) and he is in the states on a foriegn exchange program and he is a terrorist.
I'll type on paragraph, at random, from the book.

"For official record, host father present as vast breathing cow, blowing out putrid stink diet heavy with dead slaughterhouse flesh, bellowing stench of Viagra breath during cow father reach to clasp hand of operative me. From tissue compress rate of father fist, bone-to-cow ratio, host father contain 31.2 percent body fat. Wearing is anchored spring apparatus gripping chest blouse pocket of father, one laminated name badge swinging there, giving name "Donald Cedar," from orange dot code, security level nine. Swipe magnetic strip. American industry typical biological exposure indicate strip, as stripe gray along bottom edge of badge, strip showing no recent exposure.
Operative me, am agitating vast fist of cow father, while free hand of this agent reach to acquire security badge."

The entire book is written in this manner and after the first few chapters you do start to get used to it and it does become a very interesting story of this extremely highly trained kid here to commit this great terrorist act. As you can see though it is very difficult and many paragraphs need reread a few times.

Definately look into Vonnegut though. Specifically Breakfast of Champions and Cat's Cradle.

[dharma bum]

Hey read some Philip K. Dick especially V.A.L.I.S. for some good sci-fi..

Cormac McCarthy's stuff is very good and very 'readable' for the most part, then i read Blood Meridian----not what i'd call a 'light' read at all but very very worth it. Start with The Road..

Awesome Palahniuk shout-out and GEEK LOVE? Read that one if you want yourself or your family to feel 'normal'. Disturbing, I like.

I just bought 'Tis the other day--my dad bought it for me actually---haven't read any of it though or a's ashes..

And if you like Robert Ludlum you should really check out John LeCarre's works. I haven't gotten to them yet either but I have two of his i found at a goodwill. I bought them from an indirect recommendation from Duckfeet. They're in my 'read next' file...

Sorry I don't have more. I'm sick and i just smoked a bowl...:o

[Opiyum]

Hey read some Philip K. Dick especially V.A.L.I.S. for some good sci-fi..

Cormac McCarthy's stuff is very good and very 'readable' for the most part, then i read Blood Meridian----not what i'd call a 'light' read at all but very very worth it. Start with The Road..

Awesome Palahniuk shout-out and GEEK LOVE? Read that one if you want yourself or your family to feel 'normal'. Disturbing, I like.

I just bought 'Tis the other day--my dad bought it for me actually---haven't read any of it though or a's ashes..

And if you like Robert Ludlum you should really check out John LeCarr's works. I haven't gotten to them yet either but I have two of his i found at a goodwill. I bought them from an indirect recommendation from Duckfeet. They're in my 'read next' file...

Sorry I don't have more. I'm sick and i just smoked a bowl...:o

Oh fuck yeah. I forgot about Mr. Dick. He's a great Sci-Fi writer too.

[Duckfeet]

I'm reading Underworld by Don Delillo...I actually had been reading mostly non-fiction, about computer stuff, and where the web is going, but I'd heard this guy was good, and it seems to be a really good book, so far...and yeah, most any of LeCarre's earlier stuff, is good, and McCarthy I've loved since I first read All the Pretty Horses: my favorites are Blood Meridian and Suttree.

[Dan Steely]

Thanks for the suggestions. Next time I go to the library I won't be so clueless. "Can I help you find something?" They looked worried that I was gonna go postal on them or something.:rolleyes:

[Opiyum]

I'm reading Underworld by Don Delillo...I actually had been reading mostly non-fiction, about computer stuff, and where the web is going, but I'd heard this guy was good, and it seems to be a really good book, so far...and yeah, most any of LeCarre's earlier stuff, is good, and McCarthy I've loved since I first read All the Pretty Horses: my favorites are Blood Meridian and Suttree.

IS that the Underworld they made a movie about?

[Morfiend]

All I have to say is Accelerando (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_(novel)) Charles Stross

[Indy]

Thomas Pynchon just came out with a new book. his older stuff is good too. i won't even try to explain it other than it's contemporary historical fiction, you can just look on wikipedia anyway.

Here's a great site for ebooks if you can stand to read on the computer (or have another way to read them): http://www.truly-free.org/ . It's got a ton of books including Thomas Pynchon, and quite a few of the books suggested in this topic are there.

[Duckfeet]

Thomas Pynchon just came out with a new book. his older stuff is good too. i won't even try to explain it other than it's contemporary historical fiction, you can just look on wikipedia anyway.
<snip>.

I want to at least try to read this book, when I'm done with Underworld...: I'm an L.A. boy myself, and it sounds good...but I read...V, and liked that at the time, but honestly, some of Pynchon I feel like it's written in machine code or something, and I just get lost...or worse...bored...that happened to me with Mason-Dixon...but this sounds good...

IS that the Underworld they made a movie about?

I'm not sure: it's a good book, jumps around, but don't know if it's same movie: it's def not scifi...just a very big novel...

[Indy]

V made no sense, for sure. Try Crying of Lot 49. It's super short and makes a lot more sense

[LongKissGoodNite]

I agree with everyone about Vonnegut, his stuff is really entertaining.

Also, if you really want to get into scifi then my personal favorite has always been the 'Dune' series by Frank Herbert. They made a move about the book in the seventies, pretty entertaining but couldn't hold a candle to the book of course. The book is long, but then thats a good thing. And there are 7 books in the original Dune series. Then they've recently released more books written by his son and David Anderson, who also was a big contributor to the Star Wars series if you've ever been into that. The additional books are 2 more trilogies that take place before the Dune series, and another trilogy that happens after that. In all there are about 16 books I think?

It's sort of a science fiction fantasy kind of feel, but rather than elves and wizards, its more like telepathy, human enhancing drugs extending life and allowing prescience, foreknowledge. Aliens, giant worms, government entities spanning planets and organized like feudal 'houses'. Cool shit.

[InfectedMushroom]

Mark Z. Danielewski is one of my favorite authors by far.

House of Leaves is a must read and his second book, Only Revolutions is pretty good as well. Very different writing style than traditional books.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is a really good read as well

[RxQueen]

for sci-fi, i've been rereading a buncha robert heinlein lately.

[Lil_T]

Hey Dan, I'm a huge fan of Stephen King myself and I'm working on finishing the Dark Tower series. If you haven't read those I definetly recommend them, all 7 of them! But I have a great recommendation.

I just finished a book by Stephanie Meyer, the same author who wrote Twilight. Now when I was told about this book I was thinking, oh great, a teenage soap opera. The book is called "The Host." It is written for adults, so no worries about teenage soap opera. If you like all the authors you mentioned you will love this book, it's unlike anything I've ever read.

[nick]

I'm rereading Flannery O'Connor's Wiseblood and it's good fun.

and,of course,read plenty of Bukowski

[Opie I. T.]

i second the Charles Bukowski recommendation. also, cant go wrong with Tom Robbins.
if your into humorous type essays maybe try David Sedaris.

[BillyPilgrim]

Recently finished Hunter S Thompson's "Hells Angels". It's pretty much straight journalism but quite interesting. Especially the parts about the media and the blatant bullshit and misinformation they printed at the time.

and

"Timequake" by Kurt Vonnegut. A must for any fan (seems to be a few of them on this forum) it's full of stories from his life often jumping from depressing to hilarious in a paragraph.

Recommend both!

Currently reading "Rob Roy" and it was a bit of a shock coming from reading two very modern, fast paced writers to the thick, description heavy writing of a book from 1817. Beautiful stuff but.

[30_Units]

I always like rereading douglas adam's The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. It's actually five books, the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, the restaurant at the end of the universe, life, the universe and everything, so long and thanks for all the fish, mostly harmless, and young zaphod plays it safe. But you can find it altogether as a collection in some places.

Don't judge it on the movie that was released a few years ago. Trying to put five books that were originally a radio program into a movie format was pretty dumb, and reflected in the shit movie.

[I'm-Nod-Addicted]

A good quickie:
The Hunger Games (http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439023483)

A few classics:
The Brothers Karamazov (http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Karamazov-Fyodor-Dostoevsky/dp/0374528373)
The Idiot (http://www.amazon.com/Idiot-Fyodor-Dostoevsky/dp/0375702245)