Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Huck Finn by Mark Twain
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
(just a few classics that are must reads if you haven\'t already)
for everyone who replied with Wally Lamb. Totally agree. Try "She\'s Come Undone".
It depends what you are into really. I just read "Afternoons with Emily"....a fictional account of Emily Dickinson\'s life. I thought it was pretty good.
Wow thanks guys. I have read a lot of thoes alreay, but i can\'t wait to get started on the other ones.
keep \'em coming if you can.
anything by Chuck Palahniuk-
Invisible Monsters
Diary
are two I think you might like.
Novels:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Eat Pray Love (forgot author\'s name, new-ish book)
not novels:
Wherever you go there you are by Jon Kabat-Zinn (about mindfulness and meditation)
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell (Christianity)
another classic that anyone would enjoy:
tarzan of the apes - edgar rice burroughs
I don\'t have much time to read, but I\'ve been getting lots of audiobooks for my iPod - I just finished a biography on the Beatles called "Ticket to Ride" :thumbsup::thumbsup:
sex, drugs and cocco puffs. Anything by Chuck klosterman. Or Kafka. They are a natural progression. Then Gravity\'s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. For some light reading afterwards, you can\'t go wrong with Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Ulysses or Finnegans Wake
Ok, most people wont be able to handle anything on that list except the first one. Just stick with Klosterman
Well that was not a very nice or humble thing to say Paul.
Alli... If you aren\'t intimidated by a long read, try Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I am perpetually suggesting it to people and no one ever reads it because it is long and has several storylines going at once that don\'t connect until you are a couple hundred pages in. It seems confusing, but it all comes together incredibly. It is hilarious, bizarre, and brilliant.
From Wikipedia:
Infinite Jest (1996) is a novel written by David Foster Wallace. This lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America. The novel touches on the topics of tennis; substance addiction and recovery programs; depression; child abuse; family relationships; advertising and popular entertainment; film theory; and Quebec separatism...
...The book\'s plot centers on a lost film cartridge, titled Infinite Jest by its creator James Incandenza, and referred to in the novel as "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat". The film is so "entertaining" to its unwitting viewers that they become lifeless, losing all interest in anything other than endless viewings of the film. In the novel\'s future world, North America is one unified state composed of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, known as the Organization of North American Nations (O.N.A.N.). Corporations purchase naming rights to each calendar year, eliminating traditional numerical designations; e.g., "The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment", "The Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland". Much of what used to be the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has become a massive hazardous waste dumping site known as "The Great Concavity"/"The Great Convexity".
i forgot Paul Ryan has superhuman reading powers that can\'t be matched by us mere mortals.
Bret Easton Ellis\' books in order....
Less Than Zero
Rules of Attraction
The Informers
American Psycho
Glamorama
Lunar Park
High Fidelty by Nick Hornby
Mainilines Blood Feasts, And Bad Taste by Lester Bangs
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
Say Cheese and Die by RL Stine.... always a classic...
Alli... If you aren\'t intimidated by a long read, try Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I am perpetually suggesting it to people and no one ever reads it because it is long and has several storylines going at once that don\'t connect until you are a couple hundred pages in. It seems confusing, but it all comes together incredibly. It is hilarious, bizarre, and brilliant.
From Wikipedia:
Infinite Jest (1996) is a novel written by David Foster Wallace. This lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future version of North America. The novel touches on the topics of tennis; substance addiction and recovery programs; depression; child abuse; family relationships; advertising and popular entertainment; film theory; and Quebec separatism...
...The book\'s plot centers on a lost film cartridge, titled Infinite Jest by its creator James Incandenza, and referred to in the novel as "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat". The film is so "entertaining" to its unwitting viewers that they become lifeless, losing all interest in anything other than endless viewings of the film. In the novel\'s future world, North America is one unified state composed of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, known as the Organization of North American Nations (O.N.A.N.). Corporations purchase naming rights to each calendar year, eliminating traditional numerical designations; e.g., "The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment", "The Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland". Much of what used to be the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has become a massive hazardous waste dumping site known as "The Great Concavity"/"The Great Convexity".
i started this book about...let\'s see.... six or so years ago -- and i\'m still working on it! lol. i do agree that it\'s quite original. thanks for putting it out there. makes me want to pick it up again.
anyone looking for a quick but very interesting and hilarious read should check out "Funny in Farsi: A memoir of growing up Iranian in America" by Firoozeh Dumas.
"Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" = most overrated book.
of course, the LORD OF THE RINGS series is unbeatable. tolkien is a genius.
another great read was "The Kite Runner" (now out in theaters...)
agree w/ the "love, eat, pray" recommendation.
great thread idea... i\'ll definitely have to check some of these out...
Well that was not a very nice or humble thing to say Paul.
Come on Joc, I said
most people on this board.
Anyway, I only said that because it\'s true. Those are the list of the hardest books I\'ve tried to get through, Finnegans Wake, Godel Escher and Bach and Gravity\'s Rainbow also being on my list of "tried multiple times to read and I can\'t ever finish because they are so damn confusing". The only other book on that list is of course, malleus maleficarum. But what do you expect out of a middle ages papel bull on witch craft?
<-still looking for someone who can explain finnegans wake to me. :sigh:
Clockwork Orange
Catch-22
Brave New World
Even though it is somewhat old in it\'s english:
Rights of Man by Thomas Paine is a good bed-rock for politcal discourse.
"The Game is Up" - translated, I don\'t speak french