Origin of the Matrix relating to a Science Fictional setting... [more inside]
posted by madmamasmith on Dec 24, 2009 - 19 answers

Help me find that perfect novel for a Christmas present. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Dec 10, 2009 - 15 answers

I love Bill Simmons' "The Book of Basketball". What should I read next? [more inside]
posted by reenum on Dec 8, 2009 - 11 answers

Between my iPhone's Stanza app and the loooooong quiet days ahead of me in the office during the holiday season, I'd like to read some stuff online. Any suggestions? [more inside]
posted by Madamina on Nov 25, 2009 - 6 answers

I'm looking for book recommendations for a young woman who has recently become interested in religion. Ideas please! [more inside]
posted by schmoo on Nov 22, 2009 - 20 answers

I am looking for all kinds of fiction, especially for children, featuring a protagonist named Scarlett or Scarlet. Children's stories, novels, poems, movies, songs etc etc are all of interest. Thanks! [more inside]
posted by beniamino on Nov 18, 2009 - 15 answers

With NaNoWriMo looming ever nearer, I would like to hear your best tips, tricks, habits, and techniques for staying chained to the keyboard. [more inside]
posted by BitterOldPunk on Oct 22, 2009 - 26 answers

Name This Book: Help me figure out the title of a YA novel I read in middle school before I go bonkers! [more inside]
posted by santojulieta on Oct 13, 2009 - 8 answers

What well-known novels lack any character descriptions aside from names?
posted by odinsdream on Oct 9, 2009 - 17 answers

Back in the 70's/80's, I remember seeing a series of scifi/fantasy books, where the cover art for all the books had a consistent theme of a red/orange sun that figured prominently. What was it? [more inside]
posted by nomisxid on Oct 6, 2009 - 19 answers

Please help me understand aspects of the ending of the novel "The Terror" by Dan Simmons! Super spoiler-icious details inside (definitely don't read unless you've read the book, or are sure you never want to)... [more inside]
posted by taz on Aug 21, 2009 - 12 answers

What's the best literary equivalent of Alien/Aliens? [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Aug 9, 2009 - 21 answers

I need famous drinks from famous books. Kind of like how Holden Caulfield always drank Tom Collinses in Catcher in the Rye. Or how the Famous Five always had Tea with their scones. Thanks!
posted by Sully on Jul 14, 2009 - 46 answers

I demand to know your favorite short story anthologies. [more inside]
posted by zoomorphic on Jun 23, 2009 - 30 answers

I need to compile my summer reading list ASAP. Please give me some suggestions. [more inside]
posted by CrazyLemonade on May 16, 2009 - 27 answers

Please help me identify this comical children's adventure story book from the 80s... [more inside]
posted by kumonoi on May 8, 2009 - 6 answers

What should I (a late-marrying, book-crazy, somewhat institution-of-marriage-wary bride) read on my honeymoon? Inspired (in a way) by this question, I'm looking for novels to help me reflect on, process, and understand marriage. [more inside]
posted by minervous on Apr 30, 2009 - 24 answers

Looking for sci-fi/speculative fiction that deals with the issue of colonization, immigration, and refugees. The more details the better! Specifically looking for stories that deal (at least partly) with the stories of the immigrants themselves, and not just the abstract idea. [more inside]
posted by sarahkeebs on Apr 4, 2009 - 40 answers

KidsBookFilter: I've been racking my brain for hours trying to dredge up the title of a book I read sometime in the 90's while in elementary (or possibly middle) school. I remember very little of the plot and sparse details beyond that: at some point the main character's personal clubhouse was vandalized by a classmate--with mustard. [more inside]
posted by miratime on Mar 9, 2009 - 4 answers

I'd like recommendations for short stories that are strange, humorous, or have a surprising twist. [more inside]
posted by Rinku on Mar 8, 2009 - 56 answers

Who are the new exciting, young novelists of the 21st century? I suddenly find myself with a lot more time on my hands for reading. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Mar 2, 2009 - 24 answers

I'd really like to find some good historical fiction about modern art movements, scenes, or artists. [more inside]
posted by One Second Before Awakening on Feb 13, 2009 - 7 answers

Seeking relatively well-known, canon-caliber fictional accounts of imaginary encounters between actual, historically significant figures -- especially encounters that could well have taken place, but which we know did not or remain undocumented. Philip Levine's poem "On the Meeting of Garcia Lorca and Hart Crane" typifies what I'm looking for. Mark Twain's _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ does not (respectable evidence out there of a historical Arthur notwithstanding). The literary field is rife with examples, I know -- say, some novel casting Charles Lindbergh and Adolf Hitler into a tete-a-tete. But, ack, I'm drawing a blank. [more inside]
posted by taramosalata on Feb 5, 2009 - 31 answers

Since I began a reading life (at about age eight), I have had a problem: my mind automatically places action in just a few places familiar to me from my life: my house, the main street of my hometown. Whether the action in a novel takes place in 16th century Scotland, or the Black Forest, or under the Unisphere. Are there ways to get around this, or to learn to read fiction more actively, and, fantastically/creatively? [more inside]
posted by Tufa on Jan 29, 2009 - 30 answers

I'm looking for some relatively modern fiction that is mostly about how people think, or see the world, or become who they are. [more inside]
posted by salvia on Jan 12, 2009 - 25 answers

San Francisco filter: Help me find a good book club for 20-30-somethings? [more inside]
posted by mingodingo on Jan 11, 2009 - 13 answers

Stories of life abroad w/r/t aloneness and the inscrutability of culture. Any recommendations? [more inside]
posted by ecmendenhall on Jan 3, 2009 - 19 answers

I love The Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean Auel, and am looking to read other series in the same vein (i.e. historical, fact-filled, plot driven awesomeness) What would you recommend?
posted by melodykramer on Dec 7, 2008 - 38 answers

I'd like to read a book set in/about every US state, and would love recommendations from those living in or from each state. Actual travel I'd been hoping to do won't happen, so please help me make a journey via the library. [more inside]
posted by carbide on Nov 18, 2008 - 46 answers

I'm trying to remember a children's science fiction book (or series of books) that I read about 35 years ago. One had a giant tentacled creature that held the good guys in its tentacles--drawn either on the cover or within the book. The other book I think was called "The Boy With the Power". The boy of the title I think was eventually revealed to have telekinisis or something, but as the book starts, he has amnesia and wakes up on a planet of Alpha Centuri, where he walks by a barbecue, smells hot dogs and hamburgers, and finds the hambergers tastier. Odd collection of things I remember--can anyone find links to the actual books?
posted by Schmucko on Nov 14, 2008 - 1 answer

I want to read novels about pirates. I don't care about genre, I don't care about quality (much), I just want lots and lots of Age of Sail pirates. [more inside]
posted by Katemonkey on Nov 12, 2008 - 40 answers

Can you recommend good books about Los Angeles? Non-fiction preferred but fiction as well. [more inside]
posted by jeremias on Oct 29, 2008 - 25 answers

I'm looking for werewolf literature. Any fiction with a halfway decent plot. Novels, short stories, folklore. Comics or graphic novels also okay. [more inside]
posted by Ritchie on Oct 16, 2008 - 38 answers

Book-filter (again)! I just read Markus Zuzak's "The Book Thief" and loved it and loved being moved by it. Give me more books that do the same. [more inside]
posted by robotot on Oct 9, 2008 - 15 answers

Women writers like Neal Stephenson, are there any? [more inside]
posted by exceptinsects on Oct 5, 2008 - 18 answers

I will be traveling through Toronto (from Detroit area) on the way to Muskoka soon and I am looking for some good bookstores in the region. I am interested in everything, but I really have a yen for good mystery and crime fiction. Any ideas?
posted by cows of industry on Oct 1, 2008 - 10 answers

Short Story Askme: I read a short dystopian story many years ago set in a run-down, post apocalyptic future. A queue of people line up on a street to spit at a painting. The painting represents all the problems of the past. It is implied that the painting is The Mona Lisa. What is the story?
posted by bollockovnikov on Sep 25, 2008 - 2 answers

What Terry Pratchett book should I read first? [more inside]
posted by alhadro on Sep 4, 2008 - 39 answers

Could you point me towards some good sci-fi about creating life? In particular, I'm interested in stories about the possibility of human scientists discovering a means to create life out of previously non-living matter. even more in particular, i'm looking for sci-fi that discusses the possible social/political/philosophical ramifications of such a discovery within a cultural climate analogous to our own. whew! [more inside]
posted by es_de_bah on Aug 29, 2008 - 18 answers

I need a longish, interesting, well-written book (fiction) to read on an upcoming trip. Any suggestions? [more inside]
posted by mosessis on Aug 21, 2008 - 58 answers

Why do novelists use "________" in place of a character's name? [more inside]
posted by serazin on Aug 11, 2008 - 10 answers

Recent poetry, fiction, histories re: Cork, Ireland? The question title says it all, except maybe to clarify: not looking for authors from Cork so much as stories about or set in Cork. Even better if it's something that is likely to be on the shelves at a book store in the US. Thanks.
posted by quarterframer on Aug 7, 2008 - 3 answers

Play more name-that-book! Young Jesus adjusting to role as Messiah. [more inside]
posted by jk252b on Jul 29, 2008 - 11 answers

I'm looking for an old science fiction novel about an evil, blue giant titled "The Blue Man" - the Google and Amazon search is poisoned by both The Blue Man Group, and a young-adult science fiction novel "The Blue Man" which isn't it at all. [more inside]
posted by Slap*Happy on Jun 27, 2008 - 3 answers

Looking for decently written, page-turning historical fiction. [more inside]
posted by banjo_and_the_pork on Jun 15, 2008 - 66 answers

WhatWasThatBookFilter: a friend of mine needs help tracking down a fantasy/sci-fi paperback she read back in 1997. Full description below. [more inside]
posted by bettafish on Jun 11, 2008 - 5 answers

Looking for sites or reviewers who review books other than literary fiction [more inside]
posted by reenum on Jun 10, 2008 - 4 answers

Two of my favorite books for summer are "Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin and "Smilla's Sense of Snow" by Peter Hoeg; I'd like suggestions for other (preferably hefty) novels with complex/absorbing story lines and wintry settings or themes to help me stay sane 'til September. Got an ice book to recommend?
posted by taz on Jun 10, 2008 - 46 answers

Book recommendations: ecotopian fiction? (Something to read after The Fifth Sacred Thing)? [more inside]
posted by salvia on May 26, 2008 - 16 answers

I'm interested in reading more fun books, written in 1945 or earlier, which clearly set themselves in the time and place that they were written. Examples include Anne of Green Gables, Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, Pride & Prejudice, and China to Me. [more inside]
posted by Margalo Epps on May 24, 2008 - 39 answers