I Need Literature

[kaieth]

Alright, so I just finished another Kurt Vonnegut novel(Mother Night) and I don't have anything to read. This is a problem. So would you kindly post some of your favorite books/series to help me decide what to pick up next. Who knows, you might even see something that catches your own eye in here.


Book suggestions in 3...2...1...go!

Try some Asimov, it's classic for a reason.

If you like classic literature, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, and Dante are all quite good (if kinda dense).

Fantasy? The Wheel of Time, or maybe something by Piers Anthony or Neil Gaiman.

Sci Fi? Ender's Game, Neuromancer, Armor, Starship Troopers.

None of these? Michael Crichton or Max Barry.

Neuromancer-William Gibson. Basically it's a book about a drug addicted computer hacker who has to work for suspicious people because his previous employers destroyed his nervous system so he was unable to continue his work. ...yeah. It's a good book though.

God, I love Neuromancer. Basically created cyberpunk and the Matrix in a single stroke.

 

[genamp]

Definitely something meta-fiction or transgressive; you know, the kind that really shows what humanity is at its finest. Anything by Danielewski, Irvine Welsh, Bret Easton Ellis... Hell, Palahniuk and Anthony Burgess are also great. A Clockwork Orange is a classic. Most of 'em deal with human transgressions (and thus the genre title). Stuff like violence, drugs, but also social class escapism, etc... Minimalist, yet clean and detailed. Really well written. Kinda like imaginative Dostoevsky.

Can't go wrong with House of Leaves. Very different.

"Do Androids dream of electric sheep?" I'm an avid fan of Phillip K. Dick. He's kinda like an Orwellian writer but his themes are good. Basically Blade Runner with more depth(BR was based off the book)
Edit:Ninja'd. Good readers out here

I also second Phillip Dick. He is perhaps the best sci-fi writer to once exist. Intelligent and his novels just leap from the page. I recommend Ubik outta his works.

And tigermilk, I'm glad to see that there are others out there reading the French Classic existentialists. Love me my Camus and Sartre, especially the latter's plays.... Although, I think that Fahrenheit 451 was written by Bradbury.

 

[Dr_Horrible]

I would say, if you want fantasy, you may want to try Terry Pratchett or Steven Brust. Both authors are excellent in my opinion.

 

[New Troll]

Just read these forums! Though it will get very, very repetitive fairly quickly.

 

[ApeShapeDeity]

I'm gonna suggest 3 authors

1)Jack Kerrouac (One of the beat authors)
2)Hunter S. Thompson (odd, insightful and funny)
3)Carl Hiaasen (Biting and hilarious)

Oh, and I read White Tiger a little while ago, that was pretty solid, also.

 

[Doctor What]

Kitchen Confidential is a great expose of the cooking industry. The corrections will take you a couple weeks to read. Catch 22 is a hilarious read, and I always have to recommend Crime and Punishment.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Artemis Fowl series.

Well thought out, for all ages, very imaginative.

 

[crudus]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I haven't read any other book series.

So would you kindly post some of your favorite books/series to help me decide what to pick up next.

Spoiler

 

[smearyllama]

Journey To The West.

It's about a monkey king who causes crazy antics.

It's pretty sweet.

why does this remind me of a videogame?

Ah, yes. They recently released Odyssey to the West. It was a post-apocalyptic sci-fi retelling of the classic story.

 

[fnlrpa]

The Lost Fleet series
Excellent scifi story with engaging chacter(they all fell human), beleivable story and it can be hard to put down at times.

 

[LikeDustInTheWind]

Journey To The West.

It's about a monkey king who causes crazy antics.

It's pretty sweet.

why does this remind me of a videogame?

That's because the (quite good) game Enslaved: Odyssey To the West was loosely based on the book. There's a Zero Punctuation review that goes into a bit more detail if you want to check it out.

Edit: Ninja'd. Damn.

 

[psivamp]

EDIT: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Dick) or anything (and everything) by Philip K Dick perhaps closer to Vonnegut than any of the above (altough my knowledge of him doesn't stretch beyond Fahrenheit 451 and I read that many years ago).

What connection are you making between Vonnegut and Fahrenheit 451? Fahrenheit is by the late Ray Bradbury and was published prior to all of Vonnegut's major works so there can't be any references...

OT: I'm going to agree with a couple of the recommendations I've already seen:
Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen starting with Gardens of the Moon (amazing fantasy epic)
Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the source material for Blade Runner and just awesome), or pretty much anything else by him
Neil Gaiman - American Gods (masterpiece); I would add Good Omens which he wrote with Terry Pratchet; also, pretty much everything he's written is excellent

I would also toss in Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. I'm reading the last book and it's a pretty good read (fairly science-based space opera). Or along those lines but less than 3000 pages total, Scott Westerfeld's Risen Empire.

 

[massaffect123]

The Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin for a fantasy series.
The Gaunt's Ghosts series by Dan Abnett if you like Warhammer 40k for sci-fi.
I'm also going to break with tradition and recommend a non-fiction book. Helmet for my Pillow by Robert Leckie is a damned good read and probably my favorite book in any category, not just non-fic.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Starship Troopers for the win.

 

[tigermilk]

EDIT: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Dick) or anything (and everything) by Philip K Dick perhaps closer to Vonnegut than any of the above (altough my knowledge of him doesn't stretch beyond Fahrenheit 451 and I read that many years ago).

What connection are you making between Vonnegut and Fahrenheit 451? Fahrenheit is by the late Ray Bradbury and was published prior to all of Vonnegut's major works so there can't be any references...

OT: I'm going to agree with a couple of the recommendations I've already seen:
Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen starting with Gardens of the Moon (amazing fantasy epic)
Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the source material for Blade Runner and just awesome), or pretty much anything else by him
Neil Gaiman - American Gods (masterpiece); I would add Good Omens which he wrote with Terry Pratchet; also, pretty much everything he's written is excellent

I would also toss in Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. I'm reading the last book and it's a pretty good read (fairly science-based space opera). Or along those lines but less than 3000 pages total, Scott Westerfeld's Risen Empire.

My bad, any novels I haven't read in over ten years ago tends to just meld together in my mind.