Comments on: Stock my liberry.

Question: Stock my liberry.

zoomorphic — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:51:57 -0800

I just finished the last book on my Must Read list. Help make me a new one.

Short-Listed Favorites: Lolita, Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Middlesex, Autobiography of Red, White Teeth, God of Small Things.

Gathering dust on my shelves: Pynchon, Roth, DeLillo. No conspiracy theories or White Man crises about how mass media and technology are snuffing out our souls.

I've undergone the mandatory high school and college reading lists, so I'm looking for something new and mind-blowing.

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:00:51 -0800

My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl

Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

By: mediareport

mediareport — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:02:25 -0800

So it's Interesting Modern Novels, hold the Suburban Angst, is it? Ok, then; I finally got around to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and it's been a marvelous, odd, fun, consistently engaging read.

By: einekleine

einekleine — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:05:48 -0800

Bruno Schulz - get your Street of Crocodiles on - it's funny, melancholic and the prose is mind-blowing without being tortured.

By: Mocata

Mocata — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:11:26 -0800

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov. Troubles by J.G. Farrell. Hunger or Pan or Mysteries by Knut Hamsun. Anything by Tobias Wolff. The Master by Colm Toibin. Beckett's First Love. Anything by George Orwell. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. If you like Lolita, try The Book of Evidence by John Banville.

War and Peace, if you haven't read it, is probably the number 1 must-read.

By: hominid211

hominid211 — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:23:11 -0800

Carter Beats The Devil by Glen Gold was a fun time. I would also second mediareport on Kavalier & Clay.

No love for DeLillo though? For me it's not what he's saying, but how he says it. That man does magic with his sentences.

By: shiu mai baby

shiu mai baby — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:44:07 -0800

Ditto on Kavalier & Clay. Effing phenomenal book. Give it time, though, because it takes a few chapters to get going, but once it does, it's staggeringly good. LOVE it.

By: RogerB

RogerB — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:53:19 -0800

Borges, Labyrinths or Collected Fictions, if you haven't already. A.S. Byatt, starting with Possession (or the four-book series starting with The Virgin in the Garden if you like a little more historical flavor and have a lot of time). Angela Carter, though perhaps more magical than the realism you're listing. Also take a look at Hanif Kureishi. And Naipaul? (I'd second Banville and Calvino.)

By: Gortuk

Gortuk — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:54:33 -0800

Borges' Collected Fictions is the most mind-blowing thing you'll ever read.

By: gauchodaspampas

gauchodaspampas — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:54:59 -0800

I'm making a wild guess that most of the stuff you've read has been stuff originally written in English, and probably several translations from French. If that's the case, look for some of the greats from other languages.

-Definitely read some Jorge Luis Borges
-Maybe some Carlos Fuentes (I'm personally not a big fan) El Naranjo would be a good one.
-One Hundred Years of Solitude
-The Alchemist or Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

Do you like epic poems?
-Gilgamesh
-Homer, if you haven't read him already
-The Lusiads by Camoes
-Lots of countries (well, at least some) have official national epic poems

By the way, these mostly happen to be Latin American, because I study Spanish and Portuguese. I can't recommend to much non-british, french or american literature outside of romance languages.

Ooooh.
-Niketche by Paulina Chiziane. I just saw her speak at my school.

By: gauchodaspampas

gauchodaspampas — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:55:52 -0800

Gortuk, jinx. I agree totally. I have that book. Also get his collected poetry.

By: sLevi

sLevi — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:56:37 -0800

I've had great luck with the BBC's Big Read list...I've enjoyed the vast majority of the ones I've read, and it sure beats taking a random book off the bookstore shelves.

Please do share your Must Read list...

By: slyboots421

slyboots421 — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:58:39 -0800

These aren't especially "academic" or "mind-altering" books, but if you enjoy fiction, I'd recommend anything by Nelson DeMille. He wrote "The General's Daughter" which was turned into a movie, as we know, and as usually happens, the movie did the book absolutely zero justice. He writes a lot about military and military law - one of his books, Up Country, was fantastic. It's about a Vietnam Vet who has to go back through Vietnam on a "special ops" type thing and relives his war experience. DeMille's books are all REALLY good, and he writes the characters to have such dry, sarcastic wits that I often find myself laughing out loud while reading.
I highly recommend everything he's written, I think I've read pretty much all of it!

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:01:49 -0800

Ask the dust by John Fante

By: dseaton

dseaton — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:04:01 -0800

Empire Falls, by Richard Russo, is a great book. Maybe not quite as mind-blowing as Kavalier and Clay, but amazing in its own way.

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:05:32 -0800

I don't know whether non-fiction interests you, but Bert Holldobler and E.O. Wilson's The Ants is mind-blowing.

By: booth

booth — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:09:31 -0800

You mention Autobiography of Red, which I've never heard of, but it reminds me that I am Red is a great book by Orhan Pamuk, who recently won the Nobel.

By: backwards guitar

backwards guitar — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:12:03 -0800

"Green Grass, Running Water" by Thomas King.

"Empire Falls" may be the award winner, but I preferred Richard Russo's hilarious "Straight Man".

If you're considering non-fiction - I just finished reading "Consider The Lobster" by David Foster Wallace last night. I glossed over a few pieces, but there are some exceptional pieces in there ( "Up Simba" in particular).

By: zoomorphic

zoomorphic — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:13:11 -0800

I love that no one's recommended me Everything Is Illuminated yet. Hated that book, but that's what usually gets brought up when people read my list.

sLevi, my Must Reads were: The Beauty of the Husband, The City in Which I Love You, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, Interpreter of Maladies, Ariel, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, I Served the King of England, and A Gesture Life (the last four should have been up there among the short-listeds, but I wanted to be brief).

I own Kavalier and Clay, so I'll read that next. Keep 'em coming, and thanks for all the suggestions so far!

By: zoomorphic

zoomorphic — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:16:20 -0800

booth- Anne Carson is one of the best poets writing in the English language today. The tragedy is that no one ever reads her!

By: faunafrailty

faunafrailty — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:17:55 -0800

I've read (and enjoyed) five of your seven favorites. Out of the past couple of years, I'd recommend Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Also Simplify by Tod Goldberg.

And whenever I'm really out of something to read, I go back to John Irving. He has his flaws, but the books are entertaining. Just pick one that was made into a movie.

If you want any nonfiction, I also really enjoyed A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger.

By: phatkitten

phatkitten — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:25:43 -0800

Another Richard Russo recommendation: Straight Man.

Also: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It's been 8 years since I last flipped through it and it's still one of the most deeply affecting novels I've ever read.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:29:52 -0800

The tragedy is that no one ever reads ~~her~~ poetry!

On that front, grab the collected works of George Oppen.
Also dittoing the recommendation for some Borges.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:36:05 -0800

The Last Samurai by Helen Dewitt is great. No relation to the movie of the same name. It's about a single mom and her son, and watching the movie Seven Samurai. Quirky characters; best if you have seen Seven Samurai, which you should see anyway.

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx was a big hit in the 1990s, so you might already have read it or decided you hate it. But I think it's great; a good book to read in the winter. The first 50 pages or so are crazy depressing, so you have to be patient to get to the good stuff. Again, quirky characters.
She has written a bunch of other stuff, lately mostly westerns, which are lovely.

-John McPhee The Control of Nature -- four longish nonfiction magazine articles
-Keri Hulme The Bone People
-Alice Munro's short stories
-David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest -- can be a pain in the ass at times, and is one million pages long, and lacks an ending, but still one of the best books I've read. It's about addiction. So it has a bit of "tv is killing our souls" but it also has legless Quebecois separatists and long rants about topics both serious and trivial, and ok maybe some conspiracy theories but also antidotes to those. Try to distance yourself from the pretentiousness and it really is a rewarding enjoyable read. Plus it will keep you in reading material for a month.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:37:18 -0800

Also, try Salman Rushdie Midnight's Children. Very enjoyable, though a weak ending as I recall.

By: milarepa

milarepa — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:37:36 -0800

"Ceremony" by leslie marmon silko. Great book no one ever read!

Also, you should try Ulysses out. It's worth it!

By: zoomorphic

zoomorphic — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:49:10 -0800

I keep meaning to pick up Rushdie, but I always tackle Satanic Verses and then realize I'm in way over my head in terms of the frenetic sociopolitical backdrop. I've read Joyce in college (I personally think Woolf did everything Joyce did, but better and with less pompous fanfare), and loved 100 Years of Solitude.

By: exceptinsects

exceptinsects — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:14:21 -0800

I asked a similar question a while back and got some great responses...

A new favorite of mine is Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.

By: ejaned8

ejaned8 — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:15:31 -0800

Robertson Davies to me had a similiar feel to Kundera (spirituality themes/drama/theatre, set in academic canada). If you haven't read Kundera's other works, those.

I'd second Gabriel Garcia Marquez. You may not like Coehlo (it reads somewhat like a sermon at some points), but read a few pages in the bookstore and give it a try.

Grendel by John Gardner.

I like some of the same books, and my all time favorite is Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio -- it's great for the character sketches, but it's basically the drama of a small-town in the 1940s.

By: thinkpiece

thinkpiece — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:21:14 -0800

Midnight's Children is Rushdie's most accessible, I think.

Ian McEwan
Martin Amis
Cormac McCarthy
Graham Greene
John LeCarre
J. M. Coetzee

By: Powerful Religious Baby

Powerful Religious Baby — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:23:18 -0800

Based on your shortlisted favorites, I can highly recommend Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish, by Richard Flanagan. It's one of the wittiest and most involving books I've read in years.

booth: I recommend Autobiography of Red to anyone who will listen. It's fantastic.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:40:38 -0800

I'd say if you loved Lolita, go for more Nabokov: Pale Fire, Ada, Pnin, Bend Sinister. The stories are terrific, too, especially "Signs and Symbols", "The Vane Sisters", "Cloud, Castle, Lake" and "That in Aleppo Once..."

Also, seconding recommendations for Bruno Schulz, Annie Proulx, Cormac McCarthy, anything by Alice Munro.

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:46:14 -0800

Alice Munro is great.

By: nancoix

nancoix — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:15:22 -0800

Based on what you love, I'd recommend "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers. And "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver -- please don't let the Oprah endorsement scare you away.

By: dersins

dersins — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:20:59 -0800

I got some great recommendations from people here, but they were definitely more, uh, "guy"-ish books than what you have listed. Worth checking out what people suggested, though, as many of them were excellent suggestions.

Have you read any Jonathan Lethem? Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude got all the press, but his earlier books (Gun with Occasional Music; As She Climbed Across the Table) are great, too, if a little more tilted toward (literary) sci-fi, which doesn't sound like it's your bag.

I second the recommendation of DeWitt's "Last Samurai," and if you like that, I would definitely recommend checking out Brian Hall's "The Saskiad."

Finally, I'll go a bit out on a limb and suggest Ken Kesey's "Sometimes a Great Notion." I'm working my way through it fairly slowly, and it definitely took some time to adapt myself to its rhythms, but it's turning out to be fucking spectacular. Imagine if Faulkner had lived in the Pacific Northwest, and had had a chance to read the Beats before he started writing. It's certainly not for everybody, but I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that it may well be one of the truly great American novels.

By: zoomorphic

zoomorphic — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:56:47 -0800

Books mentioned that are on my shelf: Grendel, Atonement, 3 Munro collections, Last Samurai, Possession, Homer, more Nabakov. I feel sorry for them now, since I loved them just as much as the ones I mentioned previously.

The rest of these suggestions are just fantastic, and I'll start marking favorites soon. Thanks for saving me from the solitary Amazon browsing that always ends up with a very long wish list and an empty cart.

By: anotherbrick

anotherbrick — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:10:09 -0800

A second for Sometimes a Great Notion and Borges. Though it plays heavily with society and technology, Paul Theroux's Mosquito Coast is an intense and well-written work.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:25:28 -0800

Lorrie Moore; Ron Hansen; Lydia Davis
Mary Scott, Not in Newbury
One strategy is to check out some of the Best American Short Stories collections from the library. It's a good way to sample a bunch of new authors quickly, and the selected authors often have other novels/short story collections you can branch out to.

By: josh

josh — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:44:40 -0800

If you haven't read Anna Karenina or The Brother's Karamazov, they are amazing.

By: mikoroshi

mikoroshi — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 13:01:55 -0800

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue are two of the best pieces of new fiction i've read in a long time. both are heart-rendingly amazing.

By: RogerB

RogerB — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 13:29:10 -0800

I can't believe I forgot to mention Coetzee. I found that reading Elizabeth Costello after Disgrace really helped, though that might just be me.

Especially if Borges and Calvino click for you (and after reading all of Kafka's novels, too), a novel that deserves more attention is Dubravka Ugresic's The Museum of Unconditional Surrender.

Take a look at Jeanette Winterson, too.

By: AuntLisa

AuntLisa — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:54:43 -0800

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

And regarding the Irving books - I particularly love "The Hotel New Hampshire" and "A Prayer for Owen Meany". Please also consider his non-fiction collection "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed"

By: vraxoin

vraxoin — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:58:31 -0800

Second Calvino, especially If on a winters night a traveler, probably the only book written in the second person that anyone would ever care to read.

If you're not frightened off by something that's nominally science fiction, I heartily recommend The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, one of the cleverest and most engaging books I've ever read (originally sold as four books, now generally as two large trades). Gene Wolfe is to sf what Borges is to fantasy.

The Count of Monte Cristo is extraordinarily enjoyable. If you're not interested in the vagaries if 19th c. Paris society you can probably get by with the abridged version.

I agree that Infinite Jest is worth the annoyance of reading it.

Finally, go get all of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch detective novels. For some reason Connelly's characters never use contractions in their speech, but beyond that the books are a stellar way to waste time.

Also: read some good comics.

By: eve harrington

eve harrington — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:45:14 -0800

Two westerns (written recently): Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Ron Hansen's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I remember Patrick Suskind's Perfume as great, though I read it years ago. Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller killed me, too. Man, I love a good book and plan to mine this list of MeFi faves myself.

By: gsteff

gsteff — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:53:49 -0800

Non-fiction, but Godel, Escher, Bach generally takes the cake for blowing minds.

By: anjamu

anjamu — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 19:04:28 -0800

If you like books that tell really good, multi-layered, interconnected stories, then I can't recommend enough that you read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Mario Vargas Llosa's Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter.

Two books on my to-read list Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. I've heard great things about both of them.

I also want to second two suggestions above: caddis' mention of Alice Munro (and if you like short stories, I can recommend more in that vein) and AuntLisa's mention of Bel Canto.

Also, have you read Montesquieu's Persian Letters or Voltaire's Candide? Both of those combine philosophy with plot, and I enjoyed them for their storytelling alone.

By: honeydew

honeydew — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 19:32:28 -0800

I'm thirding Bel Canto, which was so good that I actually stopped before the ending and started it again because I couldn't bear having it end yet. Absolutely fantastic.

By: melissa may

melissa may — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:37:49 -0800

The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett is also great reading. My strongest suggestion is for you to read both Blindness and Seeing by Jose Saramago.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 01:28:06 -0800

Second Calvino, especially If on a winters night a traveler, probably the only book written in the second person that anyone would ever care to read.

Camus might have something to say about that.

A worthy addition to the library, btw.

By: mjao

mjao — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 05:50:20 -0800

White Oleander - Janet Fitch (again, don't let the oprah thing affect you on this)
Identity - Milan Kundera
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man - Dostoyevsky (paradisian)
Why I Am So Wise - Nietzsche (Nietzsche's arrogance is so outstanding in this novel as to be highly amusing and engaging)

But my main recommendation: anything by Banana Yoshimoto. Her writing is very spare, and highlights simple beauty. But it's more than that. Try any of these first: Goodbye Tsugumi, Asleep, Kitchen. Or her collection of short stories, Lizard.

(I am also yet another person urging you to read Borges..... his poetry as well as his fictions.)

By: Ekim Neems

Ekim Neems — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 10:01:31 -0800

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart - A novel of ancient China that never was. Amazing fantasy/fiction/alternative history. Funny and completely charming.

By: merejane

merejane — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 11:46:52 -0800

Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin, is my favorite book of all time. I could try to describe why I love it so much, but others have done a much better job than I ever could. For example, Benjamin De Mott's 1983 review (on the New York Times website; free registration required) does this wonderful book justice. I completely understand Mr. De Mott when he says "There's far more that I would wish to say about the book - so much more that I find myself nervous, to a degree I don't recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance." His conclusion is right on: "Not for some time have I read a work as funny, thoughtful, passionate or large-souled. Rightly used, it could inspire as well as comfort us. 'Winter's Tale' is a great gift at an hour of great need."

By: jayder

jayder — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:13:30 -0800

A couple of books that would probably suit you, and are not larded with the intellectual pretentiousness of much highly lauded contemporary writing. (And, most important, they were thoroughly unputdownable for me.)

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

Men in Black by Scott Spencer. Spencer is flabbergastingly underrated. This book has nothing to do with the movie by the same name; it's just a coincidence.

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:12:20 -0800

Gathering dust on my shelves: Pynchon, Roth, DeLillo. No conspiracy theories or White Man crises about how mass media and technology are snuffing out our souls.

I saved this response until now, as it really does not fit all of your requirements. My favorite book of the last few years, and by quite a wide margin, was Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. It was a brilliant book, very readable, very well written from the sentences up through the major themes. However, Jonathan is a white man, and his major theme here is how our souls are being snuffed out by modern life. I think he captured our current condition about as well as any writer has. It really was quite the page turner though. It was as much fun to read as Harold Robbins, yet nearly as deep as Pynchon, Roth or DeLillo. There were detractors, but it seemed to me that most of them just thought it wasn't difficult enough to get from one page to the next to be worthy of their praise. He had me laughing, and sometimes crying, through the whole book. I can't wait until he comes out with a new novel.

By: booth

booth — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 07:03:22 -0800

Another late entry because eve harrington mentioned westerns*. Lonesome Dove is epic and beautiful and heartbreaking and one of my favorite books.

Nobody mentioned another recent favorite, and a quick read: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. A heroic story set on a small stage.

By: reenum

reenum — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 07:17:46 -0800

I'd fourth Bel Canto.

You might also check out Jhumpa Lahiri's books. Her writing is easy to read, yet compelling. I went through both of her books in about a day each.

By: whimsicalnymph

whimsicalnymph — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 22:28:35 -0800

Country of My Skull by Antje Krog

By: flibbertigibbet

flibbertigibbet — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 07:51:26 -0800

If you're going to read Borges' Labyrinths, read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Difficult to get into (he says the first 100 pages are a sort of filter, and only the reader that can be lead as he wants passes), but really rewarding (the Apocalypse! A murder mystery! Philosophy! Good prose!)