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| Books & Authors Recommended and not so recommended reading. |
02-02-2006, 09:54 PM
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#31
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Addict
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Michigan
Gender: Female
Posts: 196
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My absolute favorite is Jeffrey Eugenides. His books have a similar appeal as that of Greek tragedies. Horrible yet so lovely.
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02-09-2006, 11:13 PM
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#32
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Scribe
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 89
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I would have it as thus
1. Frank Herbert, i am breathtaken by DUNE
2. George Orwell, i liked Animal Farm alot, especially the ending
3. Roald Dahl, love the classic books.
4. Micheal Crichton, especially with Prey
and many more
__________________
The mind is the ultimate barrier. But remove it, and you remove yourself
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02-10-2006, 04:13 AM
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#33
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: South-east UK
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,432
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Connor Wolf
Oh, to have a world where you call a book a book; taking each one on the merit of its story, words, and themes, and try, for once, not to bracket them.
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Ah, the pidgeonhole thing. Don't you just hate it?
Moorcock. Ballard. Aldiss. Wyndham. Yoshimoto. Zelazny. Murakami. Miéville. Bradburys, Malcolm and Ray. Amis, father and son. Ian Banks in both his guises. Voltaire. Saramago. Marquez. Kafka. Tolkien (No, just kidding about that one!). Ellison. Harrison. Welles. Hughes. Camus. Vonnegut. Many more that don't spring to mind right now.
The ones that most influenced my writing were the first three, and the New Wave movement in general. |
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02-10-2006, 04:27 AM
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#34
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Profound Writer
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Glasgow, UK
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,117
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mike C
Ah, the pidgeonhole thing. Don't you just hate it?
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I do dislike it but, at the same time, I'm happy to browse books safe in the knowledge that if I see a dragon on the cover it's probably figurative as the literal dragons are in a special part of the bookstore I tend not to go near.
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Moorcock. Ballard. Aldiss. Wyndham. Yoshimoto. Zelazny. Murakami. Miéville. Bradburys, Malcolm and Ray. Amis, father and son. Ian Banks in both his guises. Voltaire. Saramago. Marquez. Kafka. Tolkien (No, just kidding about that one!). Ellison. Harrison. Welles. Hughes. Camus. Vonnegut. Many more that don't spring to mind right now.
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I'm looking to try some Saramago (finally!) this year and I have recently bought The Plague and The Outsider by Camus on eBay (without realising the seller was one of those who didn't use PayPal and still, in this day and age, insists on cheques and postal orders; come on! postal orders are for those crappy plates in Sunday magazines nobody reads).
Money by Amis junior is sitting on my shelf and I'm looking to read that soon. Murakami, after mistakenly reading Dance Dance Dance, I find annoying to get into as, regardless of what book I pick up, there's some lonely guy, living in his apartment, with a spaghetti fixation.
Which Hughes are you referring to? The ones that come to my mind are poet, Ted, and author, Richard. |
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02-10-2006, 04:42 AM
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#35
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: South-east UK
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,432
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For Saramago start with Blindness. Murakami's spaghetti fixation can be a bit annoying, but Norwegian Wood is beautiful. Also, you MUST read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto; it's a novella, the best thing of hers I've read (so far) and just gorgeous.
The Hughes would be Ted. I can't do poetry, but if I could write prose that dripped with meaning like his work does, I could die happy.
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02-10-2006, 05:03 AM
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#36
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Profound Writer
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Glasgow, UK
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,117
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mike C
For Saramago start with Blindness. Murakami's spaghetti fixation can be a bit annoying, but Norwegian Wood is beautiful. Also, you MUST read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto; it's a novella, the best thing of hers I've read (so far) and just gorgeous.
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Blindness is the one I think when someone mentions Saramago , so Blindness it will be. It will be a bit away though as I'm thinking of moving away from the "thinnies" and taking in Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy and Harry Thompson's This Thing Of Darkness (1,500 and 800 pages, respectively) to have a look at longer plots; because my writing tends to have about as much plot as Ulysses (without the klakahahahahahfworafworatworaklak!).
I'll look out for Yoshimoto (I've heard recommendations elsewhere, too) and will eventually come round to Murakami again: I have The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle on the shelf. Spaghetti, mmmm!
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The Hughes would be Ted. I can't do poetry, but if I could write prose that dripped with meaning like his work does, I could die happy.
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I did Hughes' Thrushes at school. In fact, looking at the Poetry Archive, I'm surprised there isn't anything by him. Personally, I think Edwin Morgan is an interesting poet; over fifty years he has written all manner of poetry covering many disciplines (his concrete poetry is incomprehensible but, sometimes, fun). A handfull of Morgan's poems, with recordings, are here. |
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02-10-2006, 05:13 AM
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#37
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: South-east UK
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,432
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I'll look Morgan out. I forgot to add to my list Orwell (how could I forget!) and - guilty pleasures from my youth - Eric Ambler and Alistair Maclaine.
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02-10-2006, 05:58 AM
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#38
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Wordsmith
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Belgium
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,012
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As I just love to read, I have more than one favourite author.
From my childhood days: Agatha Christie, Alexandre Dumas, Anne Golon, Juliette Benzoni.
More recently: Jeffery Deaver, John Connolly, Christopher Fowler, Harlan Coben, Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich, Karen Hawkins, Sabrina Jeffries, Kathryn Caskie, Teresa Medeiros.
And most likely forgot a few!
Nickie
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02-10-2006, 12:33 PM
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#39
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Scribe
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Gender: Female
Posts: 78
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Sara Douglass, George R.R. Martin, Elizabeth Haydon, Jacqueline Carey, Robert J. Sawyer, Jim Grimsley, Patricia Nell Warren, Oscar Wilde, Mary Renault, Poppy Z. Brite, Lynn Flewelling
What a list... |
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02-10-2006, 12:38 PM
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#40
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Novice Fantasist
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hurricane Alley
Gender: Male
Posts: 128
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Clive Barker, Stephen King, Brian Lumley, Gregory Maguire, J.R.R. Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, HP lovecraft
__________________
I think my keyboard is trying to kill me.
It's in league with that awfully blank page.
They laugh at me while I try to create something from nothing.
Memoirs of a Dead Lesbian Fish Girl
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02-10-2006, 12:38 PM
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#41
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Addict
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Essex, England, U.K.
Gender: Female
Posts: 153
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Tolkein, Raymond E. Feist, Maya Angelou, Barbara Erskine, Bernard Cornwell, Dickens, Shakespeare..... the list goes on...
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WITHIN THE CONFINES OF THESE WORDS LIE THE TALES OF THE ANCIENTS, THE LEGENDS OF THE DEAD AND THE MYTHS OF MANKIND...COME WITH ME TO WITNESS THE BLACK BETRAYAL
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02-10-2006, 05:19 PM
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#42
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Mentor
Join Date: Jun 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,485
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mordecai richler, jd salinger, kafka, hunter s thompson, bret easton ellis, irvine welsh...theres more but theyre slipping my mind.
__________________
His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.
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02-10-2006, 09:32 PM
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#43
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Writer
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: New York
Gender: Male
Posts: 30
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I like most of Dean Koontz's stuff. I've read some Dan Brown, too. Oh, I love Anthony Horowitz's "Alex Rider" series. I've read its for young teens, but I don't care, I love those books. I'm waiting for a new one to come out in April.  |
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02-24-2006, 10:21 AM
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#44
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Feb 2006
Gender: Private
Posts: 314
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Sidney Sheldon. I love the fact that he writes about strong women. He showed me how powerful fiction could be because his books influenced who I am today
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02-24-2006, 10:21 AM
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#45
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Feb 2006
Gender: Private
Posts: 314
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Oh yeah, and James Patterson
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