18 Nov 05
Originally posted by Bosse de NageHavn't heard of him - I'll check him oput. Amazing that someone else in this world has read Hope-Hodgson. He deserved far more attention. In my opinion, he surpasses many other fantasy / science fiction writers, even H.G Wells.
Do you like Iain Sinclair too perhaps? He's big on Hodgson.
(Hodgson was into body-building as well as writing weird tales.)
19 Nov 05
The Master Butcher’s Singing Club L. Erdrich
The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
Angela’s Ashes F. McCourt
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay M. Chabon
100 Years of Solitude G. Marquez
The Handmaid’s Tale M. Atwood
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler I. Calvino
Me Talk Pretty One Day D. Sedaris
Ulysees J. Joyce
20 Nov 05
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Originally posted by znshoYeah spose you are right - but we're talking books that make a difference here - so our headspace is important too
[b]Some pretty boring, arty-farty, namby-pamby stuff mentioned here. Now, here's a list that will REALLY entertain:
1) The House on the Borderland, William Hope-Hodgson
The best science fiction / fantasy book ever written.
will try the Hodgson - anybody who says best ever must have a point
but my current ten are (in no order)
1John Fowles - Magus (made a big impression when I was a lad)
2Russell Hoban - Riddley Walker
3Doris Lessing - Shikasta (a damn good SF/philosophy hybrid)
4Neal Stephenson - Diamond Age
5Phil Dick - Man in the High Castle (just a good one out of many he wrote)
6T Coraghessan Boyle - Water Music (BosseDN you should try this if not already)
7Merv Peake - Gormenghast trilogy (great/immense gothic story)
8Haruki Murakami - Wind-Up-Bird Chronicle (I really learnt something about Japan)
9J P Donleavy - Onion eaters (one of many good ones)
10 WM Miller jr - Canticle for Liebowitz
...couldn't really go for Asimov's Foundation series (because its so dated and corny now even though great concepts)...couldn't pick an IM Banks ... like the big Russians but like Dickens and Tristram Shandy and Barth they do drag a bit sometimes. Dune nearly made it - so did Perfume ...Solitude and Ulysses and there will be others that will strike me in time.
I've picked up several recommendations from this thread (beckett etc..) so keep 'em coming.
20 Nov 05
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Originally posted by znshoHow did you find out about him?
Amazing that someone else in this world has read Hope-Hodgson. He deserved far more attention. In my opinion, he surpasses many other fantasy / science fiction writers, even H.G Wells.
What especially do you value about his style of writing?
How do you rate The Boats of the Glen Carrig?
Thomas Ligotti is a great contemporary horror writer, subtler than Clive Barker (not to mention S. King etc). If you succumb to him, for a few days you will emit a faint odour of violets.
21 Nov 05
Originally posted by abaloneWater Music's been sitting on my shelf for ages. Maybe this is the prompt I've been waiting for.
Coraghessan Boyle - Water Music (BosseDN you should try this if not already)
Merv Peake - Gormenghast trilogy (great/immense gothic story)
...couldn't really go for Asimov's Foundation series (because its so dated and corny now even though great concepts)...couldn't pick an IM Banks ...
Gormenghast, if you're into fantasy & haven't read it, give yourself a D. I'm still wandering around in it somewhere. --For similar hyper-visual atmosphere (Peake illustrated his own books, he had a wicked line) but briefer treatment, try Austrian surrealist Alfred Kubin's "The Other Side" (Der Anderer Seite).
Had to laugh at your comment on Asimov, rings very true for me. I also wonder if I'll be able to read LOTR again. And what is it with Iain M. Banks? I devoured his sf up to a certain point and then a door slammed shut somewhere--I can't get into them. Although I'm hoping The Algebraist will break this now 10-year-old trend.
Have you read anything by Gene Wolfe? Google him up, all I can say is the servile praise puffs fall short of the mark, he is the Real Thing all right. Whips Tolkien's butt (not that they were ever in competition). A good starting point is The 5th Head of Cerberus (slavery, cloning, prostitution, parricide) or any collection of short stories (The Death of Dr Island & Other Stories & Other Stories is a winner).
Also have to mention Ursula Le Guin...great writer, many styles (fantasy, s-f, "straight"😉, leagues ahead of, say, Doris Lessing--why hasn't she got the Nobel Prize?
21 Nov 05
William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses
Russell Banks, Affliction
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
William Carlos Williams, Collected Poems, 2 vols.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions
David James Duncan, The Brothers K
Donald Barthelme, The King
Edmund Morris, Dutch: A Memoir
21 Nov 05
Originally posted by WulebgrAhh a fellow Kundera lover. In no particular order and ever changing:
William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses
Russell Banks, Affliction
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
William Carlos Williams, Collected Poems, 2 vols.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions
David James Duncan, The Brothers K
Donald Barthelme, The King
Edmund Morris, Dutch: A Memoir
Life is Elsewhere - Milan Kundera
Feersum Endjinn - Ian M. Banks
LOTR - JRR Tolkein
Dune - Frank Herbert
Snow - Maxence Fermine
Number 9 Dream - David Mitchell
Atheism, the Case Against God - George H Smith
Knulp - Herman Hesse
Don Quixote - Cervantes
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
22 Nov 05
Originally posted by c99uxi cannot believe there is no Paulo Cuelo mentioned yet. The Alchemist? C'mon.
Top 10 Books so far:
1: Hitchikers' Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
2: Catch 22, Joseph Keller
3: War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
4: Dune, Frank Herbert
5: Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkein
6: The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky
7: 1984, George Orwel
8: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
9: A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
10: Shogun, James Clavell
1. Paulo Cuelo - the Alchemists, The Pilgramage, Veronika Decides to Die
2. Catch 22
3. Lord of the Rings
4. Sea Wolf - Jack London (another great not yet mentioned)
5. Shogun
6. Need More Kurt Vonnegut - Slaugterhouse 5, Sirens of Titan among others
7. Clockwork Orange and One Flew Over the Cucoos Nest both need to be on there, similar
8. Ivanhoe
9. Old Man and the Sea
10. Kafka - Metamorphosis
Other good ones not in my top ten are Shibumi - Trevally, Ender's Game - Scott Wells, Dune, Memoirs of a geisha, River of the Sun, The Narnia Series.
22 Nov 05
Originally posted by HawaiianhomegrownI think Old Man and the Sea is derivative Hemingway--not that I'm a big fan of his.
i cannot believe there is no Paulo Cuelo mentioned yet. The Alchemist? C'mon.
1. Paulo Cuelo - the Alchemists, The Pilgramage, Veronika Decides to Die
2. Catch 22
3. Lord of the Rings
4. Sea Wolf - Jack London (another great not yet mentioned)
5. Shogun
6. Need More Kurt Vonnegut - Slaugterhouse 5, Sirens of Titan among others
7. ...[text shortened]... ly, Ender's Game - Scott Wells, Dune, Memoirs of a geisha, River of the Sun, The Narnia Series.
Other than White Fang, I need about 5 cups of coffee to read anything by Jack London. Snore.
Slaughterhouse 5--good stuff
Memoirs of a Geisha is excellent. It's being made into a movie. Ugh.
Never read Paulo Cuelo hmmm.