Thread: My list - modern lit

Hm. Here's two lists, actually. My list of recommended titles as well as a list of titles I want (which also kind of count as recommendations, I guess). Some books appear in both lists... meaning I've read them from the library and want to buy them.

Oh... and if you can think of anything else that would fit on the list, let me know. It isn't big enough already... and my bank account balance isn't in the negative figures yet.

Recommended

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk
Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk
Diary - Chuck Palahniuk
Fugitives and Refugees - Chuck Palahniuk
Non-Fiction - Chuck Palahniuk
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
Filth - Irvine Welsh
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
Only Forward - Michael Marshall Smith
Spares - Michael Marshall Smith
One of Us - Michael Marshall Smith
The Straw Men - Michael Marshall Smith
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
Men in Black - Steve Perry
Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
Miss Wyoming - Douglas Coupland
Hey Nostradamus! - Dougplas Coupland
Life After God - Douglas Coupland
The Beach - Alex Garland
The Tesseract - Alex Garland
Animal Farm - George Orwell
1984 - George Orwell
Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett
Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett
Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchett
Jingo - Terry Pratchett
Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett
Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Truth - Terry Pratchett
Soul Music - Terry Pratchett
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Books to get:

The Contortionist's Handbook - Craig Clevenger
1984 - George Orwell
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Generation X - Douglas Coupland
Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland
Miss Wyoming - Douglas Coupland
Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
Life After God - Douglas Coupland
The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis
The Coma - Alex Garland
Reasons to Live - Amy Hempel
At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom - Amy Hempel
The Dog of the Marriage - Amy Hempel
About A Boy - Nick Hornby
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
Marabou Stork Nightmares - Irvine Welsh
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
Syrup - Max Barry
Jennifer Government - Max Barry
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Spares - Michael Marshall Smith
One of Us - Michael Marshall Smith
The Dumas Club - Arturo Perez-Reverte
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Phillip K. Dick
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Buffalo Soldiers - Robert O'Conner
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Satan Burger - Carlton Mellick III
Teratologist - Edward Lee, Wrath James White
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff
Perv: A Love Story - Jerry Stahl
The Life of God - Franco Ferrucci
Crash - J. G. Ballard
Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem
The Fortress of Solitude : A Novel - Jonathan Lethem
Girl in Landscape : A Novel - Jonathan Lethem
Amnesia Moon - Jonathan Lethem
Gun, With Occasional Music - Jonathan Lethem
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby Jr.
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Kiss Me, Judas : A Novel - Will Christopher Baer
Middlesex: A Novel - Jeffrey Eugenides
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

Originally Posted by Saponification

Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
Miss Wyoming - Douglas Coupland
Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
Generation X - Douglas Coupland
Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland
Life After God - Douglas Coupland
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby

I Love Doug. I think I've read all of his books now, save God Hates Japan, written only in Japanese. I can second the recommendation of all of the above, especially Miss Wyoming, Microserfs and Hey Nostradamus. (High Fidelity's cool too, man.)

*shivers with joy*


oh god... trainspotting...


LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!

Middlesex: A Novel - Jeffrey Eugenides

This is a great book. You'll love it. "The Virgin Suicides," also by Eugenides, is another must read.

Originally Posted by demonic_harmonic

*shivers with joy*


oh god... trainspotting...


LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!

That's one of the few books that's ever successfully headfucked me. In fact the only others I can think of now are Only Forward and Survivor.

I'm reading Filth now and loving it. Different to Trainspotting, but you can tell it's by the same author. It's a lot less alienating as well... altho' I suspect Welsh intended for Trainspotting to be alienating like that to non-Scots.

Saponification, you influenced me to get Trainspotting. I just bought the book cause i couldnt find it at the library.

I did see the movie, but I couldnt take the accents.

Originally Posted by gohn67

Saponification, you influenced me to get Trainspotting. I just bought the book cause i couldnt find it at the library.

I did see the movie, but I couldnt take the accents.

You can't take the accents but you're going to read the book?

Oh dear...

Why does the book have accents in it? I havent looked at the book yet.

I wathced the last half with subtitles And the movie was much better.

OK, I just looked at the book. [horrified look on face] I wish this book had subtitles as I don't understand what is going on. I read like 7 pages.

You'll get used of it. Once you do I recommend going back and reading from the start.

yeah, you get used to accents and dialect quickly.

just like in a clockwork orange. hehehe.... whooo...

is filth the sequel to trainspotting? the one where they have the porn shop? or is that a different one?

Originally Posted by demonic_harmonic

yeah, you get used to accents and dialect quickly.

just like in a clockwork orange. hehehe.... whooo...

is filth the sequel to trainspotting? the one where they have the porn shop? or is that a different one?

Newp, you're thinking of Porno.

Filth's about a cop who's bordering on being a sex addict and has been given the task of solving the murder of a black man, even though he's probably one of the most racist, sexist, homophobic pricks of a character ever to exist.

It's also occasionally narrated by his tapeworm, who fairly quickly begins to realise that he has an awful lot in common with his beloved Host.

Is Filth written in the same stlye as Trainspotting?
Cause it sounds like a story I would enjoy reading.

Saponification, is your avatar the bird from Lullaby
?

Yep, it's the bird from Lullaby. US cover.

Filth's a lot easier to read than Trainspotting. Most of the time the dialogue still has an accent, altho' the characters are more... educated, for want of a better word.

The descriptions and stuff still have a few accented words, but nothing that major. More than Vernon God Little, but nowhere near as much as Trainspotting.

Hey, Sapp...

Fine fucking books you've got there. CMIII? Fan of the small press circuit? Love eraserheadpress.

Read much of those, want to read many more.

DC is coming to my university for book signings and readings from Hey, Nostradamus! Going to be a fine show.

Clockwork Orange is swell. Kurt Vonnegut is liquid insanity. Post-Trainspotting Welsh has been disappointing, but I'm willing to give him another shot.

Books to add?

The World According to Garp (saw Owen Meany on there), Nine Stories by Salinger, Naked Lunch, Breakfast of Champions, Fear and Loathing in LV, The Trial, Night, Ham on Rye, Notes from the Underground, Lolita, Pilgrim, Req. for a Dream (didn't want to screw up spelling), Alice in Wonderland...

Reading = orgiastic.


Andy