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Demonaut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:16 AM
Original message
Trying to broaden my book reading
Started reading "Tom Jones" but the writing is so dated and the wit is absolutley ancient. Just got done reading "South" by Earnest Shackleton so will try to slog through and complete a chapter a night.Any suggestions...I've tried reading Shakespeares complete works but I get into emotional overload with him...make's me want to weep. An incredible playwright
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Feanorcurufinwe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:18 AM
Response to Original message
1. Jerzy Kosinski.
Esp. 'The Painted Bird'
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Nevernose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:22 AM
Response to Original message
2. Patrick O'Brian
The "Master and Commander" series is awesome, although there are a lot of nautical terms (they explain them to you, though, in the first book). The dialogue is nineteenth century, too, but some critics say that the dialogue is more realistic than anything that was actually WRITTEN in the nineteenth century.

Oh, and the Russel Crowe movie, based on two of the books, opens next week; hopefully it'll be good, 'cuz a lot of people think that these books are the best historical fiction ever written (and not jsut the reviewer on the dust jacket, either).
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Tom Yossarian Joad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:24 AM
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3. Umberto Eco
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A HERETIC I AM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:25 AM
Response to Original message
4. Jitterbug Perfume
Tom Robbins. Also check out "Only Cowgirls Get the Blues" He is funny and insightful. Of course, a little Ayn Rand never hurt anyone. "The Fountainhead"


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553348981/002-0720967-3136014?v=glance
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Demonaut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:28 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Read lotsa Tom Robbins
Liked "Another Roadside Attaction" the best
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Demonaut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:29 AM
Response to Reply #5
7. Meant "Attraction"
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grannylib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:29 AM
Response to Original message
6. Marilyn French (esp. The Women's Room)
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KFC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:30 AM
Response to Original message
8. Just stay away from Salinger
At the very least, don't borrow Salinger from the library.
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DuctapeFatwa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:31 AM
Response to Original message
9. God of Small Things, Confederacy of Dunces, Midnight's Children

Magic Mountain, Dream of the Red Chamber, Bleak House - -

Ok I will stop
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Demonaut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:34 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. Thanks everyone, will print this thread and start looking..cept salinger
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Spider Jerusalem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:40 AM
Response to Original message
11. Lots of suggestions...
"The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom", T.E. Lawrence

just about anything by Vladimir Nabokov, especially "Lolita" and "Ada"

Anthony Burgess: "The Wanting Seed, "A Dead Man In Deptford" (novelisation of the career and death of Christopher Marlowe), "Earthly Powers"

"Cryptonomicon", Neal Stephenson

and you can try this...go to http://www.globalnetworkofdreams.com/ (site will tell you what authors people who like, say, F. Scott Fitzzgerald read. Works like Amazon's recommendations system without the ads, essentially. I've found new music, authors and films with it, with a good deal of success...seems to work pretty well as a taste predictor.)
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Nov-13-03 12:41 AM
Response to Original message
12. It took me years to read Tom Jones
but it was worth it.

What sorts of books are you looking to read? Classics? If you want to read a great classic novel from the Enlightenment, try Candide. If you want to read a great classic about the sea, try Moby Dick.
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