Hilarious book! Hard to believe it's more than a hundred years old! If everyone read that book, perhaps more people would have "perspective".
I read it about a year ago and enjoyed it. It's surprisingly funny and also helps you to understand that video someone posted a while ago about ten dimensions. I didn't realize it's over a hundred years old though.
jasper fforde is brilliant, i'm also a fan of douglas coupland, terry pratchett, and jonathon coe to mention but a few
Anything and everything by William T. Vollmann. Also agree with earlier poster re: Haruki Murakami. James Ellroy--The Demon Dog of modern fiction. David Mitchell--All are good, Cloud Atlas is my favorite Thomas Pynchon--They're all good, but some are pretty abstract Anything and everything by William T. Vollmann. Seriously. He's amazing.
I can't believe I typed Bonebreaker. You're right, I meant Boneshaker. Definitely worth reading. Neil Gaiman is actually very good. His book Neverwhere is one of my favorites, and American Gods is also worth reading. If you like police procedurals, Michael Connelley is great with his Harry Bosch character. There are a dozen in this series with the latest one, 9 Dragons.
If you enjoy history at all, "Cicero" by Anthony Everitt, was exceptional. Arguably one of Rome's greatest polititians. If you enjoy a more academic prose, "The Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides and translated by Rex Warner, provides an excellent survey of events from that long conflict.
I hate to plug the book again...but "house of leaves" people. It will show you just how powerful and disorienting literature can be. Using odd spacial arrangements and color, his writing quite literally takes on a life of it's own.
please keep the reccomendations coming, its going to take me a while to get through all of them, but I'll keep checking this thread for new ones. Maybe we need a TA book club
No mention of "A Clockwork Orange" yet? I read the book first and I remember thinking "this would make a great movie". Then I saw the movie and was like "what is this sh*t?!?!" A lot of people love the movie, but the book is so much better it's not even worth comparing. I didn't notice you mentioned that book. I read it a couple years ago, but I think I might reread it soon. There have only been a couple books that I've wanted to reread: 1) Blood Meridian (greatest book I've ever read... twice... so far). 2) A Clockwork Orange (don't judge it by the movie) 3) House of Leaves 4) The book of Illusions (Paul Auster) 5) The Divine Comedy I like my books dense I can't tell if you're joking or not. I'm too stunned to try and figure it out.
Tell me about it. da shiz, the Divine Comedy is an Italian poem from the 14th century. It's good, but it's not quite as "sick ass" as that trailer makes out
It's now my sig Yeah, shiz, The Divine Comedy is one of the most important pieces of literature in the world... Dante was a poet, though, not a warrior battling through hell to save a woman
Since Chinese New Year is almost upon us, perhaps some of the great Chinese classics: Journey To The West (Origin of the Monkey King (Sūn Wùkōng) character that is in half a billion video games/comics/movies/etc...) Romance Of The Three Kingdoms (iPhone game) Water Margin (Think Ali Baba and his forty theves) Dream Of The Red Chamber (Can get a little soap-opera-ish) Listed in the order I'd read them.
I'm joining. It would be great if we could all come to a consensus and pick a book to read together for a month. Or if someone could take the lead and force me to read a particular book. I'm paralyzed with indecision by all the tantalizing options being thrown at me. AHHHH!
What exactly is steampunk? I started reading American Gods, but I wasn't particularly compelled to finish it. I began reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series at the same time and became too engrossed with that. Maybe I'll give American Gods another try.
