Books you can't miss

Originally posted by Bad wolf
I don't read books, I really should, I have a really short attention span and I am therefore bored easily. I think I'll just stick to getting myself a nice endgame book for now.

Grattan Catalogue. pages 270-300......... enjoy your end game!

Originally posted by Bad wolf
I don't read books, I really should, I have a really short attention span and I am therefore bored easily. I think I'll just stick to getting myself a nice endgame book for now.

Try dictionaries or phone books. They don't have a story line you need to follow, so you don't need to read them from front to cover. Just read one entry at a time.

Originally posted by Bad wolf
I don't read books, I really should, I have a really short attention span and I am therefore bored easily. I think I'll just stick to getting myself a nice endgame book for now.

chuck palahniuk writes just for people like you (and me), check him out. (he's the guy who wrote fight club)

Originally posted by wormwood
I liked tokyo, and it's quite easy reading and think 250-300 pages only. probably more for the youth, but worked for me. I stumbled to it accidentally, I don't follow much what gets published. I got it in finnish, but didn't bother to look for the english name. 🙂 I can't read in spanish...


alex garland's 'coma' was a very nice little book.

I doubt Tres Tristes Tigres is translated into English, even less to
Finnish. There are amazing writers from Cuba, indeed, but as long
as I know, if they are not anti-Castro they barely go into other
languages.

If you happen to step into a Finnish translation of Juan Rulfo, get
your hands on it. It is the true creator of 'magic realism' but from a
very, very gloomy perspective. A jewel!

I'll check garland!

Originally posted by wormwood
chuck palahniuk writes just for people like you (and me), check him out. (he's the guy who wrote fight club)

Thanks, I'll look into it. 🙂

Originally posted by Nordlys
Try dictionaries or phone books. They don't have a story line you need to follow, so you don't need to read them from front to cover. Just read one entry at a time.

😴

Originally posted by Bad wolf
😴

Hey, they are fun! You can find lots of cool words or names in them.

Originally posted by Nordlys
Hey, they are fun! You can find lots of cool words or names in them.

we once read a phonebook for five hours and laughed ourselves silly. it's was a pretty bad hangover though...

Originally posted by Nordlys
Hey, they are fun! You can find lots of cool words or names in them.

Phonebooks are best used with a prank call.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
p.g. wodehouse, "Mike" (a nice novel with some cricket scenes):
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7423/7423-h/7423-h.htm

p.g. wodehouse, "My Man Jeeves":
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8164

Quality. 😀

Originally posted by wormwood
when you read it as a teenager, it's a 'generation x' story with a self-destructive outsider, which blows your mind at that age. when you read it in your 30's it's tiresome drivel from a middleaged man in the midst of his middle-age crisis. which is kind of interesting also, but still mind-numbingly boring.

pretty much same applies to henry miller.

I ...[text shortened]... lcio: stay away from russian classics! run! -excluding daniil kharms of course.

Ever see the Steppenwolf movie starring Max Von Sydow?...What a trip.

Yeah, it's a sort of tiresome read. I still think that Hesse has some validity as a terrific writer.

Originally posted by badmoon
I still think that Hesse has some validity as a terrific writer.

I totally agree with you, mate. He was the reason I started to write and
thus will always have a special place in my memory.

That doesn't mean I will read it again, though.

😀

Originally posted by Seitse
I totally agree with you, mate. He was the reason I started to write and
thus will always have a special place in my memory.

That doesn't mean I will read it again, though.

😀

He has written some great poems.

Im Nebel

Seltsam, im Nebel zu wandern!
Einsam ist jeder Busch und Stein,
Kein Baum sieht den andern,
Jeder ist allein.

Voll von Freunden war mir die Welt,
Als noch mein Leben Licht war,
Nun, da der Nebel fällt,
Ist keiner mehr sichtbar.

Wahrlich, keiner ist weise,
Der nicht das Dunkel kennt,
Das unentrinnbar und leise
Von allen ihn trennt.

Seltsam, im Nebel zu wandern!
Leben ist Einsamsein.
Kein Mensch kennt den andern,
Jeder ist allein.

- H. Hesse

Originally posted by Nordlys
He has written some great poems.

Im Nebel

Seltsam, im Nebel zu wandern!
Einsam ist jeder Busch und Stein,
Kein Baum sieht den andern,
Jeder ist allein.

Voll von Freunden war mir die Welt,
Als noch mein Leben Licht war,
Nun, da der Nebel fällt,
Ist keiner mehr sichtbar.

Wahrlich, keiner ist weise,
Der nicht das Dunkel kennt,
Das unentrinnb ...[text shortened]... wandern!
Leben ist Einsamsein.
Kein Mensch kennt den andern,
Jeder ist allein.

- H. Hesse

Oh wow!

...

...

...

...

...

Can you translate, please? 😳

Originally posted by asromacalcio
I've just started reading. Never liked it before, now finding it an important relief for boredom.

What do you think is a MUST read, any fiction from any period.

I have no plans to read Harry Potter, Jeffrey Archer or cookery books however.

An easier question might be 'what shouldn't I read'.

But since you didn't ask that...

Vonnegut, especially Cat's Cradle, Slaughter-House 5, Breakfast of Champions, and I hear good things about Galapagos.

Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves (insane...)

Or if you're looking for potentially more intellectual but still entertaining reading maybe look at...

Tolkien - LOTR

Orwell - 1984