Books!
We seem to have various film and game threads so why not a book thread?
So let's recommend some books to each other, comment on books we've read (Good and Bad) or hire firemen to burn the books for us so we can be entertained by our in-ear radio!
Here are some suggestions/comments:
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban Seriously, buy this book. It is a literary masterpiece written in a fantastic form of non-existent English. The plot is great and it is so full of word play that you'll find something new every time!
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks A brilliant example of World War I literature written long after the war. The characters are deep and the writing is superb.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Preferably you'd get this in the original 14th century middle english but a decent modern translation will do. I highly recommend The Miller's Tale, The Reeve's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale.
Cold Mountain by Charles Fraizer Slow to start but when you get into it you will find a magnificent tale of love, treachery and what it is to be human
So let's recommend some books to each other, comment on books we've read (Good and Bad) or hire firemen to burn the books for us so we can be entertained by our in-ear radio!
Here are some suggestions/comments:
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban Seriously, buy this book. It is a literary masterpiece written in a fantastic form of non-existent English. The plot is great and it is so full of word play that you'll find something new every time!
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks A brilliant example of World War I literature written long after the war. The characters are deep and the writing is superb.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Preferably you'd get this in the original 14th century middle english but a decent modern translation will do. I highly recommend The Miller's Tale, The Reeve's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale.
Cold Mountain by Charles Fraizer Slow to start but when you get into it you will find a magnificent tale of love, treachery and what it is to be human
Comments
The Phantom Tollbooth!
Sideways stories from Wayside School, which was my favorite series when I was in elementary school, and this year Nickelodeon turned it into a TV show that doesn't do the books justice!
Oh yeah, read the Jeeves books.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley In the vein of 1984, but in my opinion a much more potent and relevant look at an imaginary society. The question the book leaves unanswered could be debated forever, yet is intrinsically tied with the meaning of life.
Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman This is the first volume in the Sandman series of graphic novels. There's 11 in all, and I've only gotten through half of them, but each volume offers at least one literary orgasm (when you read something so profound or beautiful it sends shivers down your spine and makes you moan with pleasure. Everyone gets these... right? It's not just me being a total nerd?) As always, Gaiman skillfully portrays beings that exist beyond normal human comprehension. Very fun read.
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin Not exactly high literature, but it certainly comes close. The narrative structure of this series of books (called A Song of Ice and Fire) is fascinating, as each chapter is told from the perspective of a certain character. It's roughly based on the world as it was during the War of the Roses, and combines fantasy, medieval life, and political intrigue. The characterization is freakin awesome, and no one is immune to death. NO ONE.
Also, I'm sure everyone has, but if you haven't: Read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Seriously.
Edit: Night Watch is an interesting book. It's Russian Sci-Fi, by Sergei Lukyanenko. It has an interesting take on magic, and I found it interesting. The other two books after it are so so.
The Dresden Files is a fun series of books, starting with Storm Front. It had a Sci-Fi Channel show, but it was terrible. It's about a wizard who lives in Chicago and investigates the paranormal. It's pretty funny, especially in later books. The story also builds up pretty well over the course of the books.
I have others, but I'll post those when I remember them.
Despite being first published in 1861, it's still readable today. It starts off with general considerations of metallurgy, with some comparisons between basic ores (esp. their melting points) and then goes on to explain fuels (with a great section on four different methods of manufacturing charcoal). This is followed by a brief chapter on materials used in the construction of furnaces and crucibles, afterwhich one can find the meat of the book: Whole chapters dedicated to specific metals. Included are Copper, Zing and Brass. Percy explains in his preface that he'll have a second volume consisting of "Iron, Lead, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Nickel, Cobalt, Arsenic, Antimony, Tin, Mercury, etc." hopefully ready for publication by the end of 1862. I guess we'll have to wait to see if that volume makes it to the light of day.
EDIT OF: Oh shit. Apparently it's 2007.
Seriously, His Dark Materials is AWESOME!! And it's especially amazing how literary it is. My girlfriend read it for the first time right after reading a big chunk of Milton's Paradise Lost, and she says there's a LOT of references. That might be obvious from the quotation and the title, but I still think it's cool.
Has anyone read Otherland by Tad Williams? I've been knee deep in those books for like a year now.
I reccomend H.P. Lovecraft to anyone who hasn't read anything by him yet. Cthulhu commands you!
I agree that everyone should read some Lovecraft. Some of his stories are totally killer, and the way he writes is just insane. It blows my mind that he was writing this messed up shit all the way back in the 20s.
However, I wouldn't recommend reading a LOT of Lovecraft, as a lot of his stories tend to blend together after a while.
But, I could further your recommendation by listing some of his short stories I really liked.
Obviously, the must-read is "Call of Cthulhu". It spawned a whole mythology, and is great writing to boot. I also enjoyed "The Rats in the Walls", kinda Poe-esque I think, but also very Lovecraftian. Finally, for a really short but bizarre read, try "The Music of Erich Zann".
Might I quote his compilation "Young Men in Spats"?
EDIT:
Oh, I must add another from "The Code of the Woosters"
EDIT: Holee' Shit you guys I am going to read this book.
I also enjoyed The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes by him. I've been working my way through another collection of short stories by him called Quicker Than the Eye but they're hard to get through sometimes, I find the stories emotionally exhaust me.
I've been meaning to read Strawberry Wine, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
From other authors, I recently read Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris for one of my classes, this memoir of his is absolutely hilarious and everyone should read it.
I also read another memoir by Barbera Kingsolver called High Tide in Tuscon, it was pretty good, really thick and descriptive, it really tired me out when I read it, in a good way.
What else... If you can find an accessible translation everyone should read Beowulf at least once. It's not the best piece of old English literature, but it's a fairly important story by historical standards, and I have to say I rather liked it.
If you're looking for poetry, pick up something by Frank O'Hera, his poems get to me, but I can't read much of him without having to stop and rest for a while.
A while back I also read this novel-length poem called Autobiography of Red, written by Anne Carson. It's a stylized retelling of the the myth of Geryon and Herakles.
I tend to find that the books I end up liking the most usually leave me exausted and my brain feeling like it's jammed full of cotton. Most good poetry does this to me, I tried reading through Leaves of Grass a while back and I just couldn't do it, it drained me too much.
Otherwise, I also recommend His Dark Materials, I read the first two books before the Amber Spyglass even came out, and I bought it the day it was released in hardcover.
The ending made me cry.
Edit: Asimov is always a good choice, most anything you pick up by him is pretty good. I really rather enjoyed I Robot, Nightfall (and Daybreak), The Gods Themselves, Nine Tomorrows and Nemesis. The Foundation series is also a good read.
And, everyone should read The Last Question, one of his absolute best short stories.
Everyone should really also read the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, you should be able to find them all online (I know they're all on Project Gutenberg). You must at least read the first three, but all 12 of them would be great too, and they're not overly complicated reads by any means.
You people are making be run back and forth between my computer and my bookshelf every time I think of something.
The Martian Chronicles was alright, another class-assigned book, but probably not something I'd ever pick up again.
Teaching books taints them somewhat, I believe.
I also suggest:
The Brothers Karamazov is a serious contender for my all-time favorite book. The major themes of the book involve the complications of free will, reason vs. faith, and other things. It is beautifully written, moving and clever and probably the quintessential Russian novel. If you want to know more about Russia but don't want to invest the time into War and Peace; if you want to hear some arguments for and against the existence of God; if you want a story that is a romance, murder mystery, courtroom thriller, slice of life, and so much more, I cannot recommend this book to you more. Even just talking about it right now makes me want to dig it out of my pile of books and read it again.
If you liked the movie Amadeus, I think you'd love Bach at Leipzig by Itamar Moses. It is a fast-paced play that examines Bach's audition for the position of Kappelmeister at St. Thomas' Church in Leipzig, Germany. It is by far the funniest piece of theatre I have ever read and/or seen. It works well enough on its own, so if you just read it as a book, I think you would enjoy just as much.
If you're looking for something a bit lighter, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman is one of the funniest dissections of American pop culture out there. He spends a bit too much time on sports, granted, but even I, abhorrer or all things athletic, can appreciate his writing on the subject.
If you're into poetry, one of my favorite collections is The Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. It's a collection of messages from the dearly departed of Spoon River, Illinois, in the mid-19th century. Death could not stop them from arguing amongst each other about the meaning of life, gossiping about their neighbors, and reflecting upon their past. My favorite poem is some thoughts from Sexsmith, the local dentist:
heh heh heh heh, converted another person. get ready to go insane.
The Caves of Steel, on the other hand, is just awesome. Its sequels were a bit disappointing, though.
Apparently they're going to begin filming this month, and there are already cast lists available for the major characters... SOO FUCKING EXCITED. I'm really hoping that this will be comparable to Rome as far as production quality and attention to historical grittiness... and there's a good chance it will be since HBO is going to be responsible for this show. George R. R. Martin says that the show will be faithful to the book....... PLEASE BE GOOD. PLEASE DO THE ENTIRE FUCKING SERIES. PLEASE DON'T GET CANCELLED AFTER THE PILOT BECAUSE PEOPLE AREN'T SHOWING ENOUGH INTEREST.
Edit: Can't you hear it in his voice? "I seldom fling children from towers to improve their health. Yes, I meant for him to die."
Did you see the guy they got to play Tyrion? He looks like he can easily look all grizzly and cynical.
See the cast list with pictures here.
Edit: That article had a link to its original choices, and I really don't agree with them. Like half of the cast, if they had it their way, would have come directly from Heroes.
Double edit: I got an even better role for Gottfried. He can be Hodor!
I can just hear it now... in that angel's voice...
I love anything by Toni Morrison. Beloved is my favorite of her books.
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.
The Cider House Rules by John Irving.
Harry Potter series! Not ashamed in the least.
Anything by Larry McMurtry. Streets of Laredo being my favorite.
I could go on all night.