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

What is the name of this fantasy book that I only vaugely remember? [more inside]
posted by tylerfulltilt on Sep 18, 2009 - 2 answers

Children'sBookFilter: Please help me identify these two young reader novels which I read many years ago. [more inside]
posted by dave99 on Aug 15, 2009 - 5 answers

[LibraryFilter] What are your best resources for (fiction) reader's advisory (children, YA, adult)?? [more inside]
posted by tamarack on Jul 24, 2009 - 7 answers

Show me the Best Online Science Fiction book list... Not a title, but a list! [more inside]
posted by samuel1613 on Jul 13, 2009 - 12 answers

I've just finished reading Let The Galaxy Burn, a collection of Warhammer 40k short stories, and I really liked it. What are some other good Warhammer 40k books? [more inside]
posted by thewittyname on Jun 9, 2009 - 11 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

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

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 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

I would like some good, engrossing, addictive, fast-paced fiction: thrillers, conspiracies, mysteries, anything. [more inside]
posted by turgid dahlia on Oct 1, 2008 - 48 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

Can you help me set the writing soundtrack to my novels? [more inside]
posted by changeling on Jun 26, 2008 - 23 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

Yet another what-is-this-book/story question (sci-fi, possibly young adult, writen pre-1983) [more inside]
posted by pointystick on Apr 22, 2008 - 15 answers

A novel about a computer that attempts to create art? Help me identify this sci-fi book. [more inside]
posted by bradth27 on Apr 22, 2008 - 5 answers

If you please—I urgently require a few good recommendations of novels that have India as a backdrop. [more inside]
posted by hadjiboy on Jan 13, 2008 - 55 answers

I know about road movies. What about road books? [more inside]
posted by changeling on Oct 29, 2007 - 50 answers

Best-selling childrens' novels of the last 20 years (age 8+)? [more inside]
posted by long haired lover from liverpool on Aug 17, 2007 - 22 answers

BookFilter: I’m pregnant and would love recommendations for fictional books including or centering on pregnant characters. [more inside]
posted by lynda on Apr 20, 2007 - 24 answers

I loved fairy tales as a child, and now that I am (nominally) a grownup, I love the "retellings" of fairytales — the fleshed-out versions which, for example, feature actual character development instead of lines like "she was as beautiful as she was good". I love Robin McKinley's retellings of "Donkeyskin", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty and the Beast" (which she did twice for good measure), and Gregory Maguire's surprisingly political Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. What other good grown-up fairytales are out there?
posted by orange swan on Apr 11, 2007 - 60 answers

I'm doing research (for a writing project) into Film Noirs and Mystery Pulps, and I'm looking for good selections of a certain plot type: the "missing person" scenario. [more inside]
posted by SmileyChewtrain on Mar 11, 2007 - 20 answers

What were some of the most influential novels of each decade of the 20th century? [more inside]
posted by n-clue on Dec 21, 2006 - 59 answers

Please help me select a book as a present for my nephew. He's 19, and when I gave him a Chapters gift card for his high school graduation last spring, he used it to buy a complete set of Tom Clancy novels. Political espionage/intrigue/adventure has to be the genre I know the least about. If my nephew likes Tom Clancy's and Frederick Forsythe's works, what other books in the same genre would he enjoy?
posted by orange swan on Sep 17, 2006 - 25 answers

Need suggestions for good reads to bring along on a two week vacation to (mostly) rural Germany for an American Lit and Creative Writing teacher. [more inside]
posted by ontic on Jul 10, 2006 - 12 answers

I'm looking for the longest sentence in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. [more inside]
posted by rorycberger on Mar 24, 2006 - 16 answers

What should my book club read next? [more inside]
posted by number9dream on Feb 26, 2006 - 43 answers

Fiction usually comes in two flavours: 1st person narrative or 3rd person description. What short stories or novels have been written in 2nd person perspective (i.e. from the reader's viewpoint)? Also, are there any movies shot entirely from this angle?
posted by 0bvious on Jan 17, 2006 - 63 answers

Please recommend some good novels about people between 25-35. [more inside]
posted by callmejay on Aug 30, 2005 - 24 answers

What's your favourite work of trashy fiction? I'm looking for some good, fun, trashy yet smart reads in which I can unabashedly wallow. [more inside]
posted by orange swan on Jul 19, 2005 - 47 answers

Please help me arrange a list of Post-World War II American Novels for a bookgroup. [more inside]
posted by OmieWise on May 13, 2005 - 32 answers

To all Philip K. Dick fans: Dick seems to have published a formidable amount of work, and rather than trying to read all of his novels/short stories, I'm wondering if any MeFites are familiar with his books and could recommend his best 5 or so. [more inside]
posted by Malachi Constant on Apr 28, 2005 - 38 answers

Solve This! I love mystery novels and have a hard time finding some that I like. What do you recommend? [more inside]
posted by orange swan on Mar 8, 2005 - 35 answers

I'm trying to learn about the Edwardian era especially (but not exclusively) in England, Ireland, and Canada. What excellent materials (fiction and non-fiction books, movies, websites, etc.) have you read and seen about this period?
posted by orange swan on Mar 1, 2005 - 17 answers

What are your favourite historical fiction novels? [more inside] [more inside]
posted by Johnny Assay on Dec 11, 2004 - 46 answers

The lights along the dim hallway flickered as she walked toward the door at the end. The floor of the old house creaked underneath her webbed feet, but otherwise all was still. Until she heard the sound of footsteps behind her, and she turned and saw.... I love ghost stories. Can any of you recommend some good ones? To give you some idea of what I would like, I loved Edith Wharton's creepy tales and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, but I'll pass on any more Stephen King or Peter Straub. I want good writing, subtlety, suspense, and enough thrills and chills to scare the feathers right off me.
posted by orange swan on Oct 30, 2004 - 16 answers

The 2nd Man. Can anyone think of any examples of literature which is written in the second person? We've had a think in this office and can't think of any 2nd person stuff that is pornographic. Surely there must be something?
posted by twine42 on May 7, 2004 - 28 answers

I've just finished both David Gilmour's Sparrow Nights and Scott Spencer's Endless Love, each for the second time. They're even better than I remember them. What's your favorite book about unrequited love? I'd like to keep up the streak.
posted by dobbs on Apr 27, 2004 - 17 answers

Please recommend fantasy novels for someone who doesn't like fantasy novels (more inside). [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Mar 23, 2004 - 58 answers

This is yet another "help me identify a book I read in childhood" question [more inside]. [more inside]
posted by orange swan on Dec 19, 2003 - 6 answers