This is my first discussion post. A book or books you wish that more people had read. I'll start if off with "Saul and Patsy" by Charles Baxter. A fantastic book with a lot of thought-provoking material. Most people I know who read have not read it and I wish they had.
It's overhyped, I know.
George Orwell - 1984
I think people will look back at it as a prediction/warning of the route the world is taking as a whole.
dermaphoria -- clevenger
lean on pete -- vlautin
ledfeather -- jones
my abandonment -- rock
Two from the Magical Realism genre:
"The Sound of Building Coffins" by Louis Maistros
"The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break" by Steven Sherrill
It's overhyped, I know.
George Orwell - 1984
Agreed. Animal Farm too. They are fundamentals when it comes to writing anything that discusses government and society. Orwell's writing is just too important to ignore, unless you want to ignore it, which is an understandable choice.
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges.
An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison
Howl by Allen Ginsberg.
Macrolife by George Zebrowski
The Long Hard Road Out of Hell by Marilyn Manson
Angels by Denis Johnson.
And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave.
(Totally unintentional 'angel' link there.)
Now this is a pretty long list already... I'll add Slaughterhouse Five to it, Kurt Vonnegut, since I mentioned it in another thread. If you don't mind being a little confused, but you will be amused and moved (I'm sure some of you read it so did I do it justice with these 3 words?)
Slaughterhouse Five, followed by Cat's Cradle and then Galapagos (in that order)
Ender's Game
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Fear of Flying
Catcher in the Rye
Lolita
Catch-22
The Art of Warfare
Huck Finn (without the editing)
On the Road
A River Runs Through It
The Prophet
Farenheit 451
The Long Argument
The Road
Papillon
Are You There God, It's Me Margaret (this didn't use to be the case, but Nickelodeon comes along and kids stop reading!)
it's a long list... =X
The Idiot, Dostoevsky
Everything Jen Todd said, and my addition:
Narciss and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
V for Vendetta - Alan Moore
The smartest kid on earth - Chris Ware
Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee
Poems - Hugo Claus
Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs — Hunter S. Thompson
It's all about Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. I'm also partial to Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald -- gets overshadowed by Gatsby most of the time.
What Dreams May Come - Richard Matheson.
To me, it's a perfect romance novel.
Geek Love -Katherine Dunn
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things & Sarah -JT Leroy (I know this author was just a figment of Laura Albert's imagination, but it's still amazing writing.)
True Story -Michael Finkel
Language of Fear -Del James (This is the only book that has ever given me nightmares. It's definitely not a book you should read right before bedtime.)
Tortilla Flats -John Steinbeck
The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas -Davy Rothbart
Magical Thinking -Augusten Burroughs
I wish more people had read Pynchon and Alasdair Gray because I don't have many people to talk about them with.
With regards to specific books:
Dog of the South by Charles Portis - the funniest book I've ever read.
Flashman - a whole series of historical novels starring a self-confessed coward and scoundrel.
Remainder by Tom McCarthy - one of the best British novels in the last decade. There.
Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
Less than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
Angeldust Apocalypse - Jeremy Robert Johnson
Extinction Journals - Jeremy Robert Johnson
I'm not a fan of the Bizarro genre but this author is very talented. Both novels are less than 200 pages but worth the short read.
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
The Book Thief - Markus Zuzak
Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond
Lord of the Flies
Guns, Germs and Steel
Gah--Guns, Germs and Steel is covered. And in the most recent post, no less. So I choose to swap it out with something completely different: Waiting For Godot and/or Glengarry Glen Ross.
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
"Perfume" by Patrick Suskind.
I wish more people had read Passion of The Antichrist by Tejun Fowler *(A member here)
It is just fantastic written, heavy with religious philosophy frrom a gay context. It's pretty bloody amazing.
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis.
Agree, The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis.
^ Yup.
Sometimes I feel like the only guy in the world who thinks Ellis is overrated.
Who's your favorite author?
The Bible.
I'm no bible thumper, by any means. I'm still on the fence whether or not I believe, but it makes for a hell of a story.
In the Miso Soup - Ryu Murakami
I, Lucifer - Glen Duncan
The Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
And a host of others. These just off the top of my head.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.
Billy Collins' Sailing Alone Around the Room or The Trouble With Poetry collections should be a must-read to prove to the masses that good poetry can be fun.
Agree, "Sailing Alone Around the Room" should be mandatory.
Now this is a pretty long list already... I'll add Slaughterhouse Five to it, Kurt Vonnegut, since I mentioned it in another thread. If you don't mind being a little confused, but you will be amused and moved (I'm sure some of you read it so did I do it justice with these 3 words?)- I agree, though I must add Dead Eye Dick is highly overlooked.
Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
The Stranger - A. Dumas
Skellig - David Almond
The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury
I've seen it has been listed by kdmccl02, but also Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.
My list of books to read has grown after reading these posts. I read Skellig and The Halloween Tree when I was younger and I remember feeling a little dazed when I finished them. Also Almond's Heaven Eyes.
Glad to see Ledfeather in the list. And The Ass Saw The Angel is also an interesting choice, Annie. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned House Of Leaves yet.
I'll add Fishboy: a novel, by Mark Richard; and Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, by Jhonen Vasquez.
Dune by Frank Herbert. Mostly because I just want more people to talk to about it. This is probably because I haven't read Lord of the Rings and everyone loves to talk about it instead.
And since 1984 was covered, I'll add Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I read it right after 1984 and loved how one preached that what we fear will destroy us, and the other preached that what we love will destroy us. So we're boned either way.
Johannes Cabal Series
The Engineer Trilogy by KJ Parker
Transmetropolitan - A graphic novel but its fantastic.
All Arturo Perez-Reverte
The Kingkiller Chronicles - Patrick Rothfuss
Malazan Series - Steven Erikson
The Coldfire Trilogy - CS Friedman
The Alienist - Caleb Carr
All Graham Greene
I just wish more people read. No one I know does. Without you guys, I'm a lonely reader...
@Nathan
I agree with you there, buddy. I can't even begin to tell you how many people said OOT was one of the first books they finished in a while.
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Guess the world would be a better place, or maybe not, but still.
the lone ranger and tonto fist-fight in heaven -- sherman alexie
451 -- bradbury
Penny Dreadful--Will Christopher Baer
@Phil K: No, no you are not the only one.
Homer, The Iliad. Robert Fitzgerald's translation is very well done.
Shockwave Rider- John Brunner
Geek Love was already mentioned twice, but it is a great read.
