Books and Authors I think you should read

because they're good!

Published on September 23, 2004 By citahellion In Books

Here's some stuff I think more people should read...

Anything by Doris Lessing, but particularly:

Canopus in Argos: Archives (a 5-book series; read 'em all!)
Briefing for a Descent into Hell (very strange and thought-provoking)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. You can watch the movie instead, it's a pretty good adaptation.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. You can watch the movie of this one too, but read the book for a lot more nuance. Warning: the recently-released-in-America "British version" has an extra chapter that totally dilutes the most powerful element of the book; avoid it until you've read the American version or watched the movie. Or, if you find yourself at the start of chapter 21, just ignore it.
Watership Down by Richard Adams. Yeah, it's about rabbits, but it's good stuff.
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. A short story, so you may have to find it in an anthology somewhere, but well worth the effort.
The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Very interesting take on the legend of Arthur.
The Ender's Game series (and just about anything else) by Orson Scott Card. I ignored these books for a long time, but I'm very glad I finally got around to them.
SiddharthaI and Demian by Hermann Hesse. Most of his other stuff is good, too.
Anything by Terry Pratchett or P.G. Wodehouse, because they're lighthearted and unceasingly amusing.
Anything by Neil Gaiman, because he's mysterious, informative, and fascinating.
Anything by Ray Bradbury, because he's thoughtful and philosophical.
Anything by H. Beam Piper, because he was a master of "the self-determined man" and of a coherent, interesting future history.
Anything by James P. Hogan, because he's got a great knack for mingling real science with possible science and solid characters to make a great story.

Comments (Page 2)

Angloesque

on Sep 25, 2004

read the whole collection by the same name, not just the one story though.

Very true.

-A.

citahellion

on Sep 25, 2004

Dig into some John Irving

I went through a John Irving phase in high school, I think; The World According to Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, Setting Free the Bears, and at least a couple others. I don't remember A Prayer for Owen Meany, though. I'll try to look it up.

I liked A Clockwork Orange specifically because of its conundrum regarding the consequences of free will. (Nadsat, the Russian-English slang, was also very interesting). But I'm not much into most depictions of violence. I don't have a weak stomach per se, I just find no interest in such things when I could be reading something else. (Never saw "Fight Club", either. Sorry.)

I guess I'll have to check out A River Runs Through It, too.

Thanks for the recommendations!

citahellion

on Sep 25, 2004

Oh, and mig, congratulations on having already covered so much of my list.

I especially recommend the Doris Lessing stuff, though. While the Canopus in Argos: Archives series does technically qualify as Science Fiction, it is still in her greater context of classic fiction/literature as social commentary.

nmrhth

on Oct 03, 2004

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexander Dumas. A truly amazing story. It's pretty long, but worth it. It is my favorite book of all time.
Le Morte D'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory. The original compilation of the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Great stories, but a very difficult read. I've only manage to get to page 750 out of 1100.
2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke. Even better than the movie, although the movie was amazing in it's own way. The three follow up books are good too, but not as good as the first.
The Princess Bride, by William Goldman. The book upon which the movie was based. Goldman also wrote the screenplay. It's 100 times funnier than the book, and a more satisfying story.
The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler. One of the best novels from the originator of private investigator mysteries. Just read this one for my detective fiction class. I absolutely loved it.

Even though I spent the first 16 years of my life neglecting tv, movies, friends, and girls in favor of reading, that's all I can come up with right now. Hope you read some of those and enjoy them

citahellion

on Oct 04, 2004

All excellent recommendations, nmrhth. (I haven't read the last 2, though I did see "The Princess Bride". ... Did you really mean that the movie is that much better than the book?)

And of course I should have recommended almost anything by Robert Heinlein, but in particular Starship Troopers (nothing like the movie, thank heavens) and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

nmrhth

on Oct 05, 2004

I meant that the book was 100 times better than the movie. I also really liked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I haven't read Starship Troopers, although I'd like to.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!