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Recommend me a book to read, and I'll read it...

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Finished The Twits. I swear I read that before when I was younger, but I could be mistaken.

Going to check out Cross Game now.

Edit: Hmmm... Just realized it's a large series, and possibly a manga. I might skip over this for now, but that would be against my personal rules.
 
Just finished Wolf in White Van and really liked it (but I adore The Mountain Goats so there might be some bias there.)

There are more than a few lines in that thing that could have been from an album of his.

Starting The State of the Art by Iain M Banks tomorrow - always intended to finish up the Culture books.

This thread inspired me to order the hardcover of the Southern Reach Trilogy, which will be third.

Happy reading!

Edit: Graffgor, try Good Omens from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman if you haven't. One of the most genuinely funny books I've read.
 
Graffgor said:
Finished The Twits. I swear I read that before when I was younger, but I could be mistaken.

Going to check out Cross Game now.

Edit: Hmmm... Just realized it's a large series, and possibly a manga. I might skip over this for now, but that would be against my personal rules.
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It is a manga, yes.
 
Will Millar's Irish Joke Book.

It includes stories, poems, songs, cartoons, & all sorts of material that can tickle your funny bone.
 
Graffgor said:
Just one caveat, it has to be a book you truly enjoyed.

I'll let you know if I read it already. I'm going to compile a huge list based on this thread and read everything.

Edit: Going to mention here that everything is fair game... Fiction, non-fiction, even stuff like graphic novels.

Also they need to be available for Kindle.
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Dr. Zhivago - Heartbreaking novel that follows a doctor and his family between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and WW2. It is stoic in nature and has some incredibly deep character growth. You really feel for the characters and the story for some of them is so expertly wrapped up that other characters in other stories will forever be a disappointment.

The Good Women of China - This lady was a radio announcer back in hyper conservative post Mao China. She interviewed tons of women for a radio show she hosted and some of the best stories are collected in this book. One of the more memorable ones is her trip to an incredibly poor, incredibly far province. She found some red leaves laid out on the ground and questioned the local women and was informed that those leaves were used as menses pads.

A Confederacy of Dunces - Set in the 50s/60s New Orleans, incredibly vivid, incredibly funny. Stars a complete and utter moron who believes that his incredible failures in life are due to some kind of cosmic joker fucking with him and not because he's a complete and utter moron.

Persepolis Part 1 and 2 - Graphic novel, girl grows up in Revolutionary Iran, escapes to Europe and gets involved in Anarchism and Goth sub cultures. Eventually rejects them and returns to Iran. Great story. Author also draws it.
 
The Joy Luck Club.

Not sure why I read it, yes it's exceedingly popular, and I usually read sci-fi, but I enjoyed it.
 
Graffgor said:
I never read a manga before, and I'm pretty open minded.

Is this a good book to start with?
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Yeah, Adachi's manga are good stuff. He loves writing sports manga, but with big emphasis on romance and drama aspects of his characters rather than the actual sport. Cross Game is a bit lengthy though.
 
Spoiler on the tone of 1Q84:

50% in and the book just went batshit insane. Like Kojima style. I think I preferred it when it was more grounded.
 
Graffgor said:
Spoiler on the tone of 1Q84:

50% in and the book just went batshit insane. Like Kojima style. I think I preferred it when it was more grounded.
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It'll get back there. One of the things I liked about it -- and a lot of Murakami's work -- is the juxtaposition between the surreal and the mundane. Ten pages about making noodles and listening to jazz, followed by ten pages about ghosts in wells, talking cats, and alternate reality assassins.
 
Well I finished 1Q84.

I feel like the book should have been about half as long, and it felt like it wasn't sure of its identity at times.

But, I did enjoy the journey, and I'm glad to have spent the time in that world.

Edit: I just realized my go-to comment is "I enjoyed it."

You'd think my vocabulary would have expanded a little by now.

Edit: On to Breakfast at Tiffany's!
 
I'm guessing you're open to any genre.

Consequences by Aleatha Romig

Hopefully this book would deter you from reading 50 Shades of Grey and its popularity. And don't worry, it's not ridiculously graphic as FSoG.
 
For foodies: Pretty Good Number One, an American Family eats Tokyo
Cheerful dystopias: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Gaming side: JPOD or Microserfs
Food industry: My Year of Meats
 
Graffgor said:
Well I finished 1Q84.

I feel like the book should have been about half as long, and it felt like it wasn't sure of its identity at times.

But, I did enjoy the journey, and I'm glad to have spent the time in that world.

Edit: I just realized my go-to comment is "I enjoyed it."

You'd think my vocabulary would have expanded a little by now.

Edit: On to Breakfast at Tiffany's!
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I seriously couldn't get through more than 1/3 of the book. It was clearly not going anywhere at that point and I knew the payoff would be disappointing
 
Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman. Recommend it to everyone. It's a bunch of pop culture essays but goddamn if they aren't fantastic.
 
super-famicom said:
1Q84 by Murakami Haruki
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Jesus, why would you wish that book on anyone? Ahh, I'm still so mad I sacrificed so much of my time to that behemoth.

OP: I'm always a cheerleader for David Foster Wallace, mainly because he's one of the best contemporary writers who often goes unmentioned for whatever strange reason.

I totally recommend Brief Interviews With Hideous Men as a spring board into his other work. There's an enormous amount of pain behind his writing, equalized with humor and head. Basically, to heck with these books and jump in this author.
 
I finished Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I... kind of despise Holly.

Also "Fred" is a total sap.

Edit:

Veritigo_X said:
I've been on a huge Kurt Vonnegut kick lately. I read a lot of his stuff in high school, but it's cool going back and re-reading them with a new perspective.

My favorites are:

Cat's Cradle (my all time favorite of his)
Galapagos
Siren's of Titan
Mother Night
(and of course) Slaughterhouse-Five
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Going on to Cat's Cradle, but I'm probably going to break up these list posts so I don't stick with one author for too long.
 
Man... Cat's Cradle was really really really good.

I waxed and waned on if I actually felt that way, but something about that last chapter clicked that opinion into place.

Edit: I'm going to jump on Galapagos since I still feel like reading Vonnegut.
 
Graffgor said:
Man... Cat's Cradle was really really really good.

I waxed and waned on if I actually felt that way, but something about that last chapter clicked that opinion into place.

Edit: I'm going to jump on Galapagos since I still feel like reading Vonnegut.
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I really like Galapagos, but I'm weird in that I really enjoy some of the "lesser" Vonnegut books like it, Bluebeard, And God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater more than his bigger hits. It may be time to do a Vonnegut re-read.
 
Uhm, I'll suggest 'On a Pale Horse' (by Piers Anthony) and 'Hyperion' (by Dan Simmons). If it is not too late for suggestions that is.
 
Graffgor said:
Man... Cat's Cradle was really really really good.

I waxed and waned on if I actually felt that way, but something about that last chapter clicked that opinion into place.
Click to expand...
I read it recently and felt the same way about not being sure what I thought of it, but I feel like it's a book I have to read a few times before I can decide how I feel about it.
 
Forgot to make a post saying I finished Galapagos. I loved the general "feel" of it. It was an incredibly bleak story with an undercurrent suggesting the whole thing was very funny.

So I skipped ahead a little on the list, since a real life friend actually recommended I read The Stand.

I checked the posts here and sure enough it's on the front page.
 
A little over a month later, but I finished The Stand.

What a god damn cool story. A little too much god and fate undertones for my tastes, and there was some questionable writing at times (wee-wee in his pants?), but overall it was a fantastic story.

Edit: Also the ending sucked.
 
I'm impressed you are still keeping up with this OP. I have figured by now you would have either quit or just started reading different shit that you like.
 
survivor said:
I'm impressed you are still keeping up with this OP. I have figured by now you would have either quit or just started reading different shit that you like.
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I fully intend to read everything as long as this thread is in existence.

Also my next book moving back to Vonnegut with Sirens of Titan.
 
Okay I finished Sirens of Titan after taking a small break from reading to catch up on other mediums. Going to now take a one book break from Vonnegut, even though I've thoroughly enjoyed reading his stories.

That means I'm starting Mumei's intimating list, beginning with If on a winter's night a traveler.
 
Graffgor said:
Okay I finished Sirens of Titan after taking a small break from reading to catch up on other mediums. Going to now take a one book break from Vonnegut, even though I've thoroughly enjoyed reading his stories.

That means I'm starting Mumei's intimidating list, beginning with If on a winter's night a traveler.
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:)

<3

I had to go back and look at what was on that list! I'm also going to second Necrovex's suggestion of A Little Life. The debut of the author who wrote that book, The People in the Trees, is also on that earlier list. A Little Life was only just released in March, and I only learned about its existence shortly after it came out. I haven't had an emotional experience with a book like that one, though I would still recommend prioritizing The People in the Trees over it, assuming you plan to read both.

I hope you enjoy the things on the list. They're all on my (semi-fluid) list of favorite books ever, though they also aren't what I'd expect to be universally appealing. If on a winter's night a traveler should be one of the most different things you've read, if only for the structure and intermittent use of second person narration.
 
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This is a pretty interesting thread. It's different from the 'what are you reading' one since though posts on there do often have opinions attached, this one is just full of books that impacted people enough to recommend.

I think I'm going to jump into reading a lot of these blind, as often if I check something out on goodreads I'll be put off by a setting I don't have much interest in. Hopefully it'll broaden my horizons a bit since I tend to just stick with fantasy and sci fi.

My recommendation for the list would be Hokkaido highway blues by Will Ferguson. I randomly picked it up years ago, and found it incredibly interesting. It's an account of the author's hitchiking trip through Japan. Gives you a nice impression of how every day life there is.
 
Okay I had a lot of personal issues that needed/still need to be sorted, but I'm going to get back into this.

Unfortunately Mumei If on a winter's night a traveler wasn't grabbing me at all. I did like the odd perspective switches and the myriad short stories without endings, but not enough to stay engaged. I'll likely give it another chance in the future, but for now I'm going to move on to the next book you recommended.
 
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