(no subject)

[aprilstarchild]

QoaD, pt. 2:

I need to read more. Tell me a book to read. Something you think I really need to read.

Any genre, fiction or non-fiction; but I have a definite taste for fantasy/sci-fi, memoir/autobiography, and anything with really strongly written characters.

I am currently in the middle of:

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Utne's Guide to Salons (I think I have the title right)

but I read fast. So, gimme some more ideas.

Comments

[jameslentz.livejournal.com]

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard. Zoë and I can loan you our copy, if you'd like. It's the best book ever.

[ourglasslake.livejournal.com]

I just came here to post this. But since I get my own rec, I recommend Lolita. It's not as squicky as you might think, and it's absolutely beautifully written.

[jameslentz.livejournal.com]

Since the poor Pilgrim seems to have a lot of competition for your attention, I figured I should come back and give some reasons why it's the best book ever.

First off, Annie Dillard is probably the best prose stylist writing in English alive, and quite possibly ever. Some big-name reviewer (I forgot who) said that she was the only writer who could consistently evoke awe in her readers. I've never felt so amazed at the world's beauty and complexity (while reading a book, anyway) as I do every time I read even a paragraph of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. For a while I referred to it as my bible; not because of its spiritual message (it has one, but its subtle) but because I kept it by my bed and would regularly open it to random pages, just to treat myself to Dillard's insight and artistry.

It's a memoir, or an autobiography. It's also her first book, and her first award: she won the Pulitzer for it. There's little plot. However, the imagery is so intense and the emotional content so raw and honest that the lack of plot doesn't matter. She went to a cabin in the woods of Virginia, near Roanoke, recorded her observations and thoughts on the natural world around her, and produced the the most moving, most rewarding, and most artful piece of literature I've ever read.

You should totally read it.

[ourglasslake.livejournal.com]

I know James is sitting across the room from my typing out his reasons for you to read this book, but here are mine, as well.

I'm usually a fast reader. A really, freakishly fast reader. But this book took me weeks to get through. I took it paragraphs, sentences at a time, because *every single sentence* is so carefully crafted, so full, so rich, that it's like reading the literary equivalent of a 88% cocoa chocolate bar. You can only take a square at a time, and even of those squares, a bite at a time, and just let it melt all over your tongue.

I can't really tell you what it's about, because it doesn't really have a narrative plot. Annie Dillard spent a while (a year?) at Tinker Creek, VA, and she wrote about it. But of course, it's more than that.

She's my absolute favorite writer, and if I could ever get over myself enough to actually do something about the fact that I want to be a writer more than anything, I would say she was my biggest influence. :)

[mechalith.livejournal.com]

Well, like I said Anansi Boys is good...

Das list:

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
"The Diamond Age, or: a Young Ladies Illustrated Primer" - Neal Stephenson
Villains By Nescessity (don't remember the author's name offhand)
Neuromancer, Count Zero and MonaLisa Overdrive - all by William Gibson (they're Cyberpunk though, so I'm not sure you'll like 'em)
War for the Oaks - Emma Bull

I'm sure I could come up with more. =)

[dragon-mintz.livejournal.com]

I'll give Mona Lisa Overdrive a jumping up and down second. I haven't read that in ages, must remember to do that.

[singswithtrees.livejournal.com]

Eve Forward is the author of Villains by Necessity.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I said tell me a book. Singular. *lol*

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

galactagogue got me reading His Dark Materials. Very interesting stuff.

[ourglasslake.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I *love* His Dark Materials. James read them to me last year.

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

Stardust and Coraline are my two favorite Neil Gaiman books. But you'd probably really enjoy the Sandman series, too.

And I know you've heard this, but I think you should dabble in some Tom Robbins, and I'd recommend Jitterbug Perfume as his best and most "you."

I'd also strongly recommend Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis & Derick Robinson, though frighteningly, much of that horrific "future" is already coming true, so it's getting dated. I mean, when you point out that the emperor has no clothes, it's supposed to do him in, but that doesn't happen anymore, so when Spider brings down the powerful with his pen, you kinda doubt it could happen these days. But the future described is quite fascinating regardless.

[mechalith.livejournal.com]

I don't know why I didn't think of recommending Transmet.

I like Stardust but I felt like parts of it were missing when I read it. There are bits where things are glossed over or skipped entriely and I felt a tiny bit cheated somehow. Haven't gotten to Coraline yet.

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

have you seen the original stardust that was illustrated by charles vess? It's amazing. I think his watercolors really bring the book even more alive than it is as a text-only novel.

And coraline... I don't even know what to say. It's novella length, and I devoured it as quickly as the words could come into my brain. As far as the hook of a work goes, Coraline grabbed me and fascinated me probably more than any other work by Gaiman, though Sandman and stardust seem to stick with me as more "important." I guess what I mean is that if one is to understand certain cultural references... gaiman mythology if you will... then the endless (and say, Matthew the Raven) along with Stardust (and to a lesser extent Tristran and the town of Wall) are the characters with whom you should be familiar. But Coraline is just a really damned fun book to read.

[alicia-stardust.livejournal.com]

Harp of the Grey Rose by Charles De Lint.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull.
Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
War of the Flowers by Tad Williams.

[mechalith.livejournal.com]

*eyes you with suspicion*

You're raiding my library, aren't you... =P

I love Good Omens, and probably would've suggested it to her, but someone borrowed my copy months ago and still hasn't given it back, and I alway feel vaguely guilty about recommending books I can't let someone borrow.

[alicia-stardust.livejournal.com]

I just figured you had good taste in books. =P

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Already read it. :^)

Borrowed it from dragon_mintz.

[ourglasslake.livejournal.com]

Man. Every time I read Good Omens, I cry. It's not a particularly *sad* book, but it just gets me.

[singswithtrees.livejournal.com]

You do realize that this is a dangerous thing to ask me, right? Okay, here it goes.

Vegetarian America (the author's last name is Iacobo. I can't remember the first name)
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock (and if you like this, read the next three--Lavondyss, The Hollowing, and Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn. Lavondyss, though, is the best of the four, I think, but the series makes no sense if you read them out of order.)
Winter of Magic's Return and Weirdos of the Universe, Unite! by Pamela F. Service
Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson by George Alec Effinger
Elsewhere by Will Shetterly
Mad Amos by Alan Dean Foster
Changing Planes and The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula LeGuin

[jenhowell.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read it yet, go and get Lolita by Nabokov. It gets my vote for being the best novel ever. Also, Alice in Wonderland. If you haven't read it, you must experience the book itself.

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

Alice is canon. Both books.

[rikell42.livejournal.com]

alice is one of my all time favorites.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

I read Alice in Wonderland and THrough the Looking Glass in middle school. I think I read them again in high school, but it's been a while.

What little bits of Lolita I read really creeped me out. Is it literary etc enough to be worth the fact that it gives me the heeby jeebies?

[ourglasslake.livejournal.com]

Haha, I didn't see this before I commented. It really isn't squicky once you get past the first page, imo. Humbert is creepy, but, I dunno, pathetically so? Lolita isn't a victim.

And it's a love story! Nabokov's romance with the English language, that is.

I reread AiW every year. I think Jen does, too. :)

[rikell42.livejournal.com]

Neuromancer would be my number one recommendation. It is probably the most influential scifi book written in the last 30 years.

at least that is my view of it all.

[arielrose.livejournal.com]

Trader, Forests of the Heart, Dreams Underfoot, Someplace to be Flying...all by Charles DeLint. He is my favorite author ever and is the best kept fantasy secret in America I think ;)

[aeonflux1973.livejournal.com]

Kushiel's Dart - Jaqueline Carey (And the 2 books after that)
Anything by Sarah Douglass (Ask Nathan and Alicia)
Eragon by Christopher Paolini as well as the 2nd book
Terry Goodkind's Wizards First Rule series
House of the Spirits - Isabell Allende
100 years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Anansi boys - Neil Gaiman
Robert Newman's The Fifth Sorceress series
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

[cheerjess.livejournal.com]

I also recommend starting (and devouring) the His Dark Materials trilogy by Mr. Phillip Pullman. I also read quickly and this way there are two more books to follow and get lost in.