Shayde on 23/4/2009 at 15:12
My bestest best book ever is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Not only is it beautifully written and encourages you to think, but on the surface it's a great story.
If you want something lighter then I always suggest Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Kolya on 23/4/2009 at 15:33
There's a scene in Dirty Dancing where Robbie the waiter who's after Baby's sister Lisa at this time, is confronted by Baby about having knocked up the dancer Penny for whom Baby will eventually substitute, and he's not even being willing to pay for the abortion.
Robbie: "I didn't blow a summer hauling bagels just to bail out some chick... who probably slept with every guy here.
Francis: "A little precision, please."
Robbie: "Some people count and some people don't."
*he takes out The Fountainhead from his pants backpocket and hands it to Francis*
Robbie: "Read it. I think you'll enjoy it. But return it. I have notes in there."
Francis: "You make me sick. Stay away from me. Stay away from my sister or I'll have you fired."
Ulukai on 23/4/2009 at 16:07
TBH, these days I only read Airport Pap, which I grip tightly and read like a trojan on take-off because it takes my mind off what it would be like to explode in a fireball.
This also means I have no recollection of any of the pages I was reading, so I have to go back and read them all again when they bring round the drinks trolley, which is usually a good indicator that we didn't die on take-off
Stitch on 23/4/2009 at 16:19
Quote Posted by dethtoll
I actually read this recently. Very weird, but ultimately a decent book.
Personal favorite of mine, Murakami's <U>After the Quake</U> is also quality from start to finish (as far as short story collections go).
Scots: what's wrong with English Lit books, as long as they're enjoyable?
As for Chabon, <U>Kavalier & Clay</U> is a great place to start, but beyond his books I also love his role as vocal defender of plot-based genre fiction.
edit: fuck me I love this thread
fett on 23/4/2009 at 16:21
Seems like I recommend the same stuff every time:
All the Discworld books about the Watch (Guards!Guards!, Men At Arms, Feet of Clay, etc.) For anyone not yet convinced that TP is a fucking god.
The List of 7 and The 6 Messiahs by Mark Frost (the much maligned and ignored collaborator on Twin Peaks)
The Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffery Deaver
The Repairman Jack series by F.Paul Wilson (or anything by him, really)
Lots of really great young adult stuff floating around right now as well:
Fly By Night by Francis Hardinge
The Sabriel series by Garth Nix
Gregor the Overlander series by Susan Collins
The Artemis Fowl series by Ein Colfer (though I'm currently boycotting this fucker for his participation in the current corpse rape of Douglas Adams :mad::mad:).
The Theodosia series by R.L. LeFevers
Seriously, the most fun stuff to read these days is in the children's/YA sections because that genre is absolutely exploding with unique voices and great fantasy.
Starrfall on 23/4/2009 at 16:33
Fett read all of the Twilight novels in one night its true.
N'Al on 23/4/2009 at 17:13
George Orwell.
Dan Brown, lol.
Aja on 23/4/2009 at 18:02
Quote Posted by Stitch
As for Chabon, <U>Kavalier & Clay</U> is a great place to start, but beyond his books I also love his role as vocal defender of plot-based genre fiction.
I enjoyed the book, mostly, but once it stopped focusing on comics production I felt it lost some of its momentum, and the ending was kind of abrupt and unsatisfying for me. But Chabon's a talented writer, no doubt, so what would you recommend of his after Kavalier and Clay?
And dethtoll -- if you don't like Joyce you don't like him (I feel kinda the same way about Shakespeare) but I'm definitely not just reading him because academia encourages me to.
demagogue on 23/4/2009 at 18:09
I thought Vonnegut would get more air-time in this thread. I don't have any picks from him, either, but I do get a kick out of reading him.
Old standbys for me are Dostoyevsky (The Idiot), Camus (The Fall), and Faulkner (Sound & the Fury). Borges's short stories (Labyrinth) also deserve some love, though they're 'short'.
My current rage is Alduous Huxley, esp his 'other' books (than Brave New World)... I picked up Chrome Yellow on a lark recently and had a lot of fun with it, and I really liked Island. Reminds me that I'm also a fan of novelists that write essays.
On that, though, by "books" I'm assuming the topic is about fiction. Most of the stuff I read these days is non-fiction, essays or some academic/humanist stuff. Well, what the hell: DeTocqueville's Democracy in America; Camus's The Rebel; Dennet's Consciousness Explained, or The Mind's I.
I also really like reading those niche texts that you can tell the author really doesn't expect people outside his little field to read, but you can tell he's really pouring a lot of love and attention into his work, and it's enlightening, like Corballis, Lopsided Ape: Evolution of Generative Mind; Mehta, Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination & Individuality in Locke's Political Thought; Detmer, Freedom as a Value: Critique of Ethical Theory of Sartre... I love these kinds of jewels in the rough.
