june gloom on 24/4/2009 at 18:01

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The problem is that Stephenson isn't fun. His books are painfully boring. A good example is Snow Crash, recommended frequently by people who never read it. While it's an amusing deconstruction of the (http://www.youtube.com/user/XOmniverse) anarcho-capitalist worldview, it gets bogged down by some post-modernist bullshit about ancient Sumeria or whatever that I seriously didn't give two shits about. I'm sorry, but when I read cyberpunk I expect, you know, cyberpunk.

reizak on 24/4/2009 at 18:56

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Most of my favorite authors have been mentioned already, but a few specific titles worth a try would be:

Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment really is that good.
Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan or Cat's Cradle tend to be what I say when someone insists I must have a favorite book.
Borges, Collected Fictions is an amazing (http://www.amazon.com/Borges-Collected-Fictions-Jorge-Luis/dp/0140286802) value for money.
Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, because I've never had such a strong and irrational dislike for an author before while enjoying their book that much. There's a (http://www.italo-calvino.com/ifon.htm) demo out, so it's practically risk-free.
Eliot, any collection with The Waste Land in it, or just that on its own (Norton Critical Edition is great).
Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus for a non-fiction venture into the human condition.

I hesitated to include the bottom two, thanks to the stigma, but I'm not an angsty teenager (I'm an angsty adult :thumb:)

Sypha Nadon on 3/5/2009 at 02:13

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If I had to pick a favorite novel I'd say "American Psycho." Though J.K. Huysmans' "La-Bas" is probably a close second. Also enjoy Dennis Cooper's George Miles cycle, Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap Cycle (to say nothing of his private eye novels), "Naked Lunch," "The Fountainhead," Philip K. Dick's "Valis," etc. For short stories, Lovecraft, J.G. Ballard and Thomas Ligotti.

Just finished reading John Fowles' "The Magus." It's quite good, though a little long-winded. I hear the movie's pretty bad though. I'll have to check it out for myself.

One writer I just can't get into is Pynchon. I did read "The Crying of Lot 49" but have never been able to get past the first 100 pages of "Gravity's Rainbow." Tried reading "V" this year but bogged down at the halfway point and never made it any further.

ercles on 3/5/2009 at 08:28

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I'm currently working my way through On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. It's a fair effort in parts, and reminds me a lot of Kafka, in that it is an exceptionally draining book to read at times, due to the effort to figure out what the fuck is going on. Probably due to the fact that Kerouac was high as a kite when he wrote the thing. The sections that work are absolutely brilliant; he does an incredibly job of capturing the concept of finding meaning in the act of being constantly on the move.

Just throwing out what springs to mind:

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I really got on the bandwagon very late here, reading it last year. Incredibly well written book, and almost impossible to define as one genre. It's a fantasy modern novel written in the present, with large elements of horror and the road book implemented. Sandman should be a strong enough recommendation for anyone who hasn't read this and is mildly interested in fiction to pick this one.

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. Easily the most fascinating example of a "distopian" novel I have read, and is impressive only for the sheer scale of what was pulled off here. It's basically a mosaic of different stories interspersed with a few main plots describing the situation of an entire planet.

Time by Stephen Baxter. Fairly original conceptually, especially once an octopus is trained to fly a spaceship. The problem with a lot of sci-fi is that it fails to be engaging on a human level, as the author gets caught up with how smart they are and how cool their science is. This novel does a great job of balancing both sides of the science/fiction equation.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. As a combination of journalism and fiction it was fairly controversial in inventing its own stream of crime fiction. Luckily Capote was an incredibly talented writer, I far prefer his style to that of his protege, Harper Lee. A fairly horrifying look at the mind processes of two murderers.

Narziss and Goldmund by Herman Hesse. My personal favourite novel by Hesse, as the combination of his ability to wax lyrical about nature, combined with his examination of how one should lead their life makes for an incredibly satisfying read. Sidartha comes a close second for me.

The New France by Andrew Jefford. Just a left of centre pick, as a work of non-fiction. It's pretty simple though. If you like wine, buy this book. If you enjoy wine or food writing, buy this book. Jefford is easily the most talented wine writer of this generation, and does an incredible job of conveying the passion and artistry that define old world wine makers. I have had it for years and never bought a single bottle it recommends but I love reading it none the less.

Anything by Hemingway. Seriously, the man was a fucking machine. I often just pick up one of his books at a second hand book store, and I am never dissapointed.

Muzman on 3/5/2009 at 16:17

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What do you expect of cyberpunk though? It's rarely without mind/body/evolution/philosophy mishmashes in my experience, perhaps more implied than explicit.
While 'it's a parody' might be the most worn out defense of anything ever, I do think you really have to read Snowcrash in the mid '90s. I thought it was pointedly hilarious in its, I dunno, summary of the genre's excesses and still had enough 'cool shit' and interesting ideas to carry it along.
It's funny how it's lost favour over the years. The prose being a sort of conversation between a drunken Quentin Tarantino and James Ellroy (the people, not their work. And the style of such a conversation, not the content) is probably what hurts the most.