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I'm surprised this has yet to be mentioned. They're far better than LOTR. I've never read anything else so well written. Peake died before he could finish the forth book unfortunately.
Note: If you've had the displeasure of watching the BBC adaptation of the novels, they should not be used to gauge the content of the books. The TV mini series was atrocious even compared to average British television.
relatively recent:
richard russo: empire falls
kaye gibbons: ellen foster
tim o'brien: the things they carried
matthew pearl: the dante club
michael shaara: killer angels
classics:
edith hamilton: mythology
alexander solzhenitsyn: one day in the life of ivan denisovich
james agee: a death in the family
nathaniel hawthorne: scarlet letter
i'm also particularly fond of montaigne when it comes to philosophy
Robert B. Parker. Noir with a sense of humor and a heart. The master of the laconic witticism. He can get a bit cryptic and Hemingway-esque sometimes, though. Once you've read a few of the Spenser books, the characters will really grow on you. (He's written well over twenty.)
Steven Brust. Witty, wonderful fantasy. He came up with one of the best fantasy universes I can think of, and is one of the slickest and most stylish wordsmiths in a genre dominated by juvenile, lead-handed series hacks.
James Joyce. You've got to read him. It ought to be a law. (Feel free, though to skip the stuff that nobody understands like Ulysses)
There's so much else, but this is getting long. Grr.
Some of my faves:
Wallace Stevens
James Merrill
Ezra Pound
TS Eliot
WH Auden
John Ashbery
HD
Dante
Wordsworth
Marianne Moore
Thomas Hardy
WB Yeats
John Berryman
Robert Lowell
Frank O'Hara
Mina Loy
Chaucer
Shakespeare
Joyce (yes, he wrote some pretty good poetry as well)
Petrarch
ee cummings
Michaelangelo
(everything else by David Sedaris, while I'm at it)
Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson. Awesome non-fiction book about language.
Wicked - Gregory Maguire.
The Women's Room - Marilyn French. One of my all-time favorite books.
Culture of Fear - Barry Glassner. Non-fiction, very engaging.
Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin.
Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage - Stephanie Coontz. Really interesting (non-fiction) look at marriage.
Lust - Geoff Ryman. English author, interesting (if unsettling) concept.
Coin Locker Babies - Ryu Murakami. Like most of his work, highly disturbing, but excellent.
Thank you, Rubacava!
Coleridge, particularly Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Clive Barker - The Thief of Always
And I support the votes for Dark tower series, Orson Scott Card, Heinlein, more. Word.
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Conversations in the Cathedral: by: Mario Vargas LlosaSurely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by: Richard Feynman
The Overcoat by: Nikolai Gogol
some other books i love that have not been mentioned:
Mother Night - Kurt VonnegutDevil in the White City - Erik Larson
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
The Fountainhead -Ayn RandAtlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Deception Point, and Digital Fortress - Dan Brown
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - Douglas Adams (R.I.P. :cry:)
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Timeline, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and others - Michael Crichton
The Bourne Trilogy including Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, and Bourne Ultimatum - Robert Ludlum
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Night Over Water - Ken Follett
Hornet Flight - Ken Follett
Eye of the Needle - Ken Follett
Battle Royale - Koushun Takami
Kiss the Girls - James Patterson
Along Came a Spider - James Patterson
Pretty much all the other Alex Cross novels - James Patterson
3rd Degree - James Patterson
The Harry Potter series - J. K. Rowling
Absolute Power - David Baldacci
There are probably others...
[spoiler:a6ad9547ee]I might read too much for somebody my age...[/spoiler:a6ad9547ee]
Any recommendations?
Out of the ones I named, Absolute Power, Jurassic Park, Timeline, Lost World, Battle Royale (hard to get, must import on ebay, I haven't seen it yet), Kiss the Girls, Along Came a Spider, and the Bourne Identity and Supremacy. However, I am about to read Fight Club, so we'll just read that one together
I highly recommend:
The Onion Eaters
and recommend:
The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B
A Fairytale of New York
Steven Brust
Dune, by Frank Herbert
This is a really incredible book. I've read it three times and each time I get something new out of it. It's depth is mind-blowing, and simply a really, really good, surprisingly easy read. Definitly one of my favorites.
Book and the Sword: by: Jin Yong/Louis Cha (Translated Wuxia)The Deer and Cauldron: by: Jin Yong/Louis Cha (Translated Wuxia)
Wizardry Series: by: Rick Cook (Fantasy/Programming)
Suzumiya Haruhi: by: Tanigawa Nagaru (Japanese shonen)
Some links I've found. Over here is a list of good free reads, some of which are short stories from some of the authors already listed. Great lunch reading. And over here is a lot of information about Jin Yong's translated wuxia (Chinese kung fu) novels. In my opinion, it's all well worth reading.
I highly recommend you read "A Scanner Darkly" by Philip K. Dick. It may not be your style, but I really liked the direction he took the characters with their 'problem'. The movie was pretty good, too.
The novels are set in two neighbouring fictional countries: To the south lies Ancelstierre, which has a technology level and society similar to that of early-20th century England, and to the north lies the Old Kingdom, where magic works and dangerous spirits roam the land - a fact officially denied by the government of Ancelstierre and disbelieved by most of Ancelstierre's inhabitants. (Those who live near the border know the truth of it, especially on days when the wind is blowing out of the Old Kingdom.) These dangerous spirits range from undead corpses known as Dead Hands to supernatural beings known as Free Magic elementals.
These living Dead are raised by Necromancers, or black magicians, who roam the Old Kingdom or live in Death, using Hands (zombies) to do their bidding. To remedy the problem of dangerous, living dead, there is a sorcerer called Abhorsen, who is essentially a Necromancer himself (or herself), only in the reverse; he puts the dead to rest using necromancy, free magic, and music.
Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past
Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again
Oscar Wilde's Portrait of Dorian Gray
James Joyce's Ulysses
Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon
Franz Kafka's In the Penal Colony and The Hunger Artist
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