Book recommendations....

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Time to talk about literature. Book recommendations. Sometimes I feel like there’s nothing left to read. I need more, now. No trash, only your best recommendations. Watch this video, and then state the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of the best books I might not have read, but which you have.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GuzBkmVp2k[/youtube]

Here are a few of mine:

Who: Silas Marner, by George Eliot.
What: Classic. About a falling out with community/religion, a change to money making, and then finding what’s really valuable.
Why: Nobody has a more intense and penetrating insight into the human condition than Eliot. It seems like everything she writes is 1-part (fairly standard) 19th C. English country narrative, but also 1-part amazing illumnating psychological insight. Sure, she’s talking about her characters, but you’ll see sides of yourself. I picked this book because it’s not such a massive tomb, like some of her other books. It’s shorter, more manageable.

Who: Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol
What: About a guy is basically a hustler or a scammer. Really odd plot. Goes around buying the titles of already dead laborers for something like a handout from the govn’t.
Why: I don’t know, really. It’s a bit dark. A bit insightful. A bit well-written. It’s got a bit of everything.

Who: A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay
What: WARNING Reading this book is like an acid trip. Surreal, bizarre, highly unusual other-world fantasy quest mixed with some occult, some philosophy. A battle between good and evil, if you will.
Why: Whenever we’re talking about something crazy, the ‘why’ is the same as the ‘what’.

These are all really different, hence why I picked them.

2

I cannot hear the video where I am, but I suggest…

Kundera’s
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
and
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

What: Ja, so two books written by a Czech ex-pat who was oppressed himself by the communists and who is no doubt intermingling his own and friends and acquaintance experiences in these books about ideas, romance, politics, aesthetics, irony.
Why: he is very smart and waxes philosophical, and I Think the books will appeal to people who like philosophy. He is pretty damn fearless.

Any of Iain Banks Culture novels.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series
(I don’t Think I’ve read the first one)

What: all deal with a future civ made up of unbelievably smart AI spaceships and habitats and smaller ‘machines’ and humans. The Culture is a sort of projection of the West. A very humanist - but on the edges utterly ruthless - civilization that pretty much makes all of its Citizens safe - except those at the edges who have special roles and these tend to be main characters.
Why: the guy is fucking brilliant and humorous and he raises a lot of philosophical issues via plots and character dilemmas. The interactiosn with other civilizations and between AIs and humans are fascinating and utterly believable. If you are Writing about heroes and characters who are supposed to be brilliant, you need to be brilliant, and he is.

Worries about the older ones being out of date could make one go for one of the recent ones. The plots are independent and one gets up to speed on Culture, but I am pretty sure the old ones still stand.

3

I still think Kundera’s early work, The Joke, is best.

4

Dude books are like, I mean I’m drinking straight vodka.

YOU ARE the CULMINATION of EXISTENCE.

Cheers.

5

Did you know he just died? I saw his last interview with Kirsty Wark. He seemed quite cheerfully resigned.

I’m reading Banks at the moment. After he died recently I decide to go back to him. I’d prevously read The Bridge and Wit. The first Culture books is "Consider Phlebus", its not the best. After Player of Games which was great, I skipped to The Use of Weapons.
You can read these in any order I think.
I’d never read any of his sic-fi before but glad that I am.

I think it is quite optimistic of you to suggest that the Culture is post-west, or a projection of it. It’s more like a socialist dream. In fact Banks said it was a reaction to the mainly right wing shit from the US sci fi writers of the 1960s.
From the fair description from wiki:“The Culture is a post-scarcity society formed by various humanoid races and artificial intelligences about 9,000 years ago. Since the majority of its biological population can have virtually anything they want without the need to work, there is little need for laws or enforcement, and the Culture is semi-anarchist.” I’d love to think that we were going that way, but I doubt it.

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Can’t get past Rene Crevel’s Babylon. I am trying to connect it to some psychological underpinning, like the voluptousness of Freud’s Wolf man, one of his early patients. This is a book that has to be read continuously.

For instance, if you put it down and forget where you were, you can just read a little segment here, there, try to impute some kind of continuity in plot and characterization, and have a sense of what is going on. It is very in line with writing I would like to do on the next month, on the way on our trip to New Orleans. It’s dissociated meaningfully, psycho analytically. It takes the reader on a trip of responsibility: to conjure up some correspondence, a credible landscape, a need to make sense.

The need to understand is frustrated on every page. This frustration is what is appealing, a sense that you can’t ever get “into it” as reaching some delimited meaning, it always escapes you, as you think it can be encapsulated. After a while one has the sense, that in order to pull it together it has to be let go, and allow it to define it’s own meaning.

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So on your recommendation I read Player of Games (the second one, I think), and Excession. I liked both of them. You’re right that the plots led to some thought provoking situations. They were good sci-fi.

One thing I noticed was that in both books the civilization that opposed the Culture were fairly similar—the Azad and the Affronters. Both civs focused on hedonism—like the Culture generally—but they were gender-hierarchical, ruthless, inegalitarian, …actually pleasure for both civs seemed to come from causing pain.In Plato’s Republic, the character Thrasymachus defends the idea that “justice” is just the advantage of the stronger. Azad and Affronters were like Thrasymachian civilizations. But I wonder if in other books the Culture encounters a civiliation that is opposed to it somehow, but might have more to say in the way of justifying how it lives. Maybe one of the Elder civilizations—the ones who “sublime”—have some greater role… like one of those particular Buddhist societies who don’t care about the enlightenment of others, or something.

I’ll certainly read more of the Culture series, but I think the only think that would turn me off is if the Culture keeps contacting very similar civilizations. But in a nutshell, they were entertaining.

I’ve read Unbearabe LIghtness of Being before… years ago. I don’t remember liking it. I forget how it ended, but there’s a good chance I stopped reading it.

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von Rivers:

Good.

I have to admit that they all blur together. I don’t Think they all deal with the same kinds of other civs. I Think he manages to make the plots/issues rather different. There is a background issue of Culture is the best option it seems but still it’s not quite right. I Think that is lurking there in most of them. Some happen primarily outside of Culture.

The I probably will nto recommend The Man Without Qualities. Ever tried War and Peace? I put that one off expecting to be bored to tears, but found it actually more like a huge Collection of short stories, ones that kept reuptaking characters from earlier stories. I can’t tell how much was relief that I was enjoying myself and not suffering immensely, but I do recommend it.

The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles - you feel like you are there, weird desert adventure of a woman, no idea what is coming, sort of a mystical experience, though nothing supernatural happens that I remember.
The Third Policeman, Flann Obrien (a pretty radical novel. Sort of a philosphical detective novel, with footnotes. sometimes Surreal, sometimes philosophical essay. Weird, funny)
Kafka’s Short Stories
I love 100 Years of Solitude - this was a while ago. The lives of one family in an imagined South American country. magic realism, wondrous,
Oh, yes, pretty much anything by Cormac McCarthy, but especially The Border Trilogy. He has these characters that escaped into the West from Macbeth or Dostoyevsky. But very Little of their inner lives. Unique view of reality.
Paul Auster - though his novels blur together and some I liked much better than others. There is a New York Trilogy and I am pretty sure that is part of the ones I really like. Idea driven odd urban fairy tales that are mainly possible, if I rememer right. Captures the mystery of New York.
As a guess I would Think yuo would like Neal Stephenson - he has sci-fi, like snowcraft, and then some novels that read like sci-fi, but really they are about the coming of science and western reason. Very clever, manages to give you a kind of Encyclopedia of information via interesting characters in interesting places.
Elementary Particles – Michel Houellebecq or some of his other novels. Conservative, lateral thinking cynical, humorous dark. I don’t reemmber his plots. It seems like sexual affairs and strange business Contacts and the sickness of the modern World presented with the darkest wit.
Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Peter Hoeg. A woman investigates the Death of an Inuit (Greenlander, in any case) Child. Very interesting character in Smilla. As Always, I like books of fiction that seem like non-fiction. I do not mean like a biography, but rather where I am Learning about parts of the World I did not know about and from interesting unique angles. The mind is unique AND the portions of the World I am Learning about are unique. By portions of the World I do not mean Greenland, though Learning a bit about Greenland was interesting also.
The Death of a Beekeeper - Lars Gustavsson - dark, mundane, philosphical. The title sums up the plot. Whoooe!! Nevertheless it is very interesting. A nice analysis of a certain kind of fairly common male. In this case he is very smart and philosophical, and the book is his notebooks. But he is also very stupid and damaged the way a lot of men are - myself included.
The Summer Book - Tove Jansson - easiest read so far, just a plain old Beautiful book. Simple stories that end up being rather profound. A Little girl and her grandmother in the archipelago off Sweden. So lots of nature and two very powerful character forces.

9

Hello Good Sirs

I should finish The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks pretty soon. It’s an autobiograohy about her strifes to over come schizophrenia. While having a nasty case of schizophrenia, she writea about her struggle through getting a philosophy degree, then switching over to Law, and eventually becoming a law professor. She never gave up. That’s character and courage.

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Thanks, I like the sound of that one!

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Yea. It seems to kick off in 10 different places, rounded along a continuum from the macro to the micro, but each plot line converges in the center, ending in a happy marriage (and peace) that’s as improbable as anything in a Jane Austen novel, but doesn’t leave you feeling like you’ve been told a fairytale and had your intelligence insulted. It’s amazing and realistic at the same time.

I think I read one once, about him changing into a spider in his room, not wanting to leave the room. Not sure if that was Kafka. It kind of creeped me out…

I’ll look into some of these. Thanks.

12

Opps, excuse this post!

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I agree with that take. It felt like Reading non-fiction, which is the feeling I get when I read most of the novels I like. Even some of the weirder novels still feel like they are real. I find a lot of middlebrow novels actually feel unreal, even though the people Writing them have less imagination (involved).

it is a beetle, though most people, for some reason, say it is a cockroach. I don’t like that one, The Metamorphosis, as much as others of his - though this may only be because I was given it high school rather than choosing it on my own. His stories may not be for you, but you might try The Penal Colony.

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If you like semi-historical narratives you might like Waverly by Walter Scott, or Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol. That’s about the only way I can swallow my historical facts and figures, or just any kind of factual info for extended periods of time----not that there’s much in those books. I pretty much feel like I’m reading straight up natural science when I read Jules Verne… but I’m pretty sure I’m not. But I think any good book should seem real while you’re reading it.

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I loved Jules Verne when I was a kid. I’ve read Taras Bulba and like it. I’ll try Scott.

Thrillers/Detective - basically good airplane reads - if you like these things…

Harlen Coben - pretty much any novel. They tend to be about fairly normal people who end up in very convoluted, twist and turn thrillers. No deeper meaning, but exceedingly clever. He also has a series with a Sports Agent. Sounds boring but they are pretty much the same as the others. I prefer the others however.
Lee Child - Jack Reacher series. An ex-military cop who just walks around the US with no job and ends up embroiled in battles with bad people. A great character. Cool, strong, no nonsense, Always informing us about weapons, fights, coffee, tactics, in a blunt, non-selfcongratulatory way. Very satisfying. No deeper meaning, though deeper than Coben because the character itself is, let’s say, a good balance to certain attitudes we might all have. Grab a novel from the middle years or later. He does get to be a better writer over time. Persuader was my first and that hooked me.
Michael Connelly - Bosch series. Just a good, solid flawed character. The author knows cop procedure. Very believable. LA set.
John Connelly - the weird suggestion on the list. Private detective whose wife and daughter are killed by a serial killer. The books have supernatural overtones and the bad guys often seem to have one foot in Another World, as does the hero. Troubled half damned guy that he is. Still the plots are pretty down to Earth with this aura around them.
Dennis Lehane - any of his Kenzie Genero novels, like Gone baby gone - nice adapted for the screen by Ben Afleck. Great quirky Boston characters, including a charming Polish psychopath. Great banters. Enough twists and action to make them good distractions.

A step up in class is Robert Wilson - here you get Culture, military and country history, economics and more thrown into thriller mysteries. Can’t say there is actually more depth, but heck they are thrillers. More breadth in any case. A Small Death In Lisbon, The Blind Man of SEville were my first two and probably my favorites. Set In Europé.

Stieg larson’s Millenium Trilogy - set in Sweden, two great main characters - a journalist on his way to prison for libel and a probable Aspberger’s hacker, kickboxer women who first investigates him for the security firm she works for and then works with him. Conspiracies, spys, secret police, serial killers, a Court case. Of course you could Watch the films, Swedish with subtitles. Fincher probably did a good job but it looks like he is only going to have made the first one. His in English.

These coudl all be guilty pleasure list material. I fear flying and being afraid of things in a thriller works wonderfully homeopathically for me. All these writers are smart and technically just fine, most have an ear for dialogue. Characters you like and are interested in. Coben’s characters are more ciphers, but they are meant to be everyman characters, and they work fine in his Rube Goldberg plots.

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I’ve never given the thriller/detective genre a real chance. I don’t know why… maybe partly because I’ve got a weak stomach for taking in really gruesome crimes, (and expect to find that), and/or I get some of that on visual/television which is maybe better for thrill experiences. I know those aren’t fair reasons for dismissing an entire genre.

I tried to read Davinci Code one time. I could tell it was good but I didn’t give it a fair chance. I think I watched one of the Steig Larson’s book movies. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I think. Swedish. I remember watching it with my younger cousin… and there was the whole rape scene by her parole officer, and then re-rape scene on her parole officer, and I was like, “Coovverrr yourrr eyesss! Runn forr yourr livesss!”, or something. I think it’s a thing with Swedish movies… always dark, disturbing, depressing. (At least in my small sample size). Maybe it’s their climate. The closest thing I’ve read for thriller/detective is probably The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or maybe Frankenstein would even count.

So yea, I don’t really have any recommendations up that alley.

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If you decide you want to try one, let me know and I can guide you away from the grusome ones.

I Think a list of your favorites, from whatever genres you like, would help me figure out what you might like. I did see the ones in the OP and am triangulating with other references you make.

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Forget ‘the Penal Colony’ I realized. Grusome.

Non-fiction
Born to Run
amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-S … 0307279189
About a group of ultramarothoners, a very diverse group, some weird adn mystical, some Native Mexicans, one woman, who gather to do a grueling superrace in a canyon labyrinthe. There are a bunch of stories as we meet these very odd characters a while before the race. Something very life affirming about this book. You don’t have to be a runner or athelete to enjoy this book, but if you are one, you will.

(by the way, when I first saw this thread, I could not think of a single book to recommend, which almost frightened me, so I am enjoying sifting my brain for books I truly enjoyed)

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Yes, I’m sifting my brain as well…

I think fiction should make you a better person somehow—more wise about the world and people in it, maybe. At least I hope it does. I guess someone could just say, “well then why don’t you just read textbooks”. But textbooks are boring, and there might be something lost when you remove a narrative structure. Good stories should feel like they actually put you there, in the setting, experiencing things like the characters do.

I used to like reading Nietzsche----he seemed to know me better than I knew myself. I’d read something and then reflect, and I would have the “ooooohh, damn” realization. Same for George Eliot, who I think is probably my favorite, generally. I saw sides of myself in her characters, and they were really insightfully written about. For both those people, I think the actual writing helped. They were magnificent writers. I like reading G.K. Chesterton’s essays for similar reasons, but for the added reason that he’s usually saying something that I disagree with at first glance, and I find myself wondering why I do…

Comedy

I haven’t read much comedy. I’m halfway through The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. It has its moments where you go, “heh, that is comedic, heh”. But I don’t think it’s the kind of comedy I like. Isn’t it usually the case in “dry humor” that you have a thin layer of seriousness and the funny stuff right underneath…? Well it seems like you have a thin layer of seriousness, and then the funny stuff underneath, and then more serious stuff right underneath that. It’s hard to really laugh. I’d class Don Quixote in that as well.

The only other comedy thing I’ve read was Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest… and one or two parts really made me howl out-loud, like this one….

Jack: I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can’t go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left.
Algernon: We have.
Jack: I should extremely like to meet them. What do they talk about?
Algernon: The fools? Oh! About the clever people, of course.
Jack: What fools!

Sci-fi

I love SciFi on TV, but it’s just recently I’ve gotten into reading it. I read Harry Harrison’s Deathworld and Planet of the Damned—pretty much the same book, written twice. That’s my equivalent of airplane, guilty-pleasure, reading. Just basically superficial hero shooting up brutal aliens.

I tried Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. I didn’t like it. I put it down, midway through. There was something about it I didn’t like. Maybe the repetitiveness of the Seldon crises, or the constantly new and not very interesting characters tackling them. The were different characters and different crises in the book, but they all kind of felt the same. Maybe I didn’t give it a fair chance.

I’d say that what I’ve read so far of Iain Banks Culture series is probably my favorite. It features some interesting abilities in the Culture worlds—interesting to dwell on and imagine as real. The conflicts so far, and their resolutions have been thought provoking. Every so often there’s a shocking scene to startle you… but simply bombarding you with shock-factor is not the focus, which is good.

Romance

George Eliot… Mill on the Floss. Realistic. Not a fairytale. Believable. Insightful.

Dark/depressing fiction:

I’m not sure how to categorize this one. But you could probably put Dostoyevski in it, or at least what I remember of the Unbearable Lightness of Being. Probably Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. I’m not saying these are favorites, I’m just trying to outline the category… lonely, dark characters, not fitting in with reality, depictions of raw nature, sometimes off the beaten path, dark…. Hopefully you get it…

There was one book I thought was really good, if you’re in the mood for this sort of thing. It was Journey to the End of the Night, by Louis Ferdinand Celine. Odd mix of total nihilism and despair with the odd piece of humor and beautiful writing. Not sure how that happens, really.

Historical fiction

Ummm… Walter Scott’s Waverly, I guess. It’s sort of a blur now.

Adventure:

I liked Jules Verne. Around the world in 80 days was fun. Or Mysterious Island was good. They’re pretty fresh in my memory.

A lot of what I’ve read is older… partly because I can get it for free online.

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My desire to read always fucking rages. Happiness increases as I flip the pages. My eyes fucking bleed. My brain fucking swells. On theoretical concepts, my brain fucking dwells. No holding back the book attack. Time to read is the only thing I lack. No holding back the book attack. So many books; I don’t want to slack. No!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAydQ3mgI-c[/youtube]