21–30 of 31 posts
Nobody has suggested Umberto Eco yet.I would try The Island of the Day Before or Baudolino before Foucault's Pendulum. Alistair Reynolds is space opera done nicely (if you want to look in that direction). Chasm City stands on its own, but there are some similar works there. Twain fits in with some of your other comments.
Take anything from Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Dostoyevsky is a great. Still haven't read The Brothers Karamazov.
Nobody has suggested Umberto Eco yet.I would try The Island of the Day Before or Baudolino before Foucault's Pendulum. Alistair Reynolds is space opera done nicely (if you want to look in that direction). Chasm City stands on its own, but there are some similar works there. Twain fits in with some of your other comments.
Thanks for the suggestion on Eco. I picked up a few books by Fernando Pessoa too.
Pessoa is fascinating. I believe it was he who wrote:
Poets pretend
They pretend so well
They even pretend
They suffer what they suffer.
Nobody has listed "Anything by Terry Pratchett" yet? Of course, it very much depends what you like. Your list contains a lot more nonfiction than I usually read in book form, for instance.
Yeah, I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction. I'm trying to discover good fiction to read. Open to suggestions on anything.
The 19th century Russians from Gogol to Chekhov are pretty much can't-lose. Turgenev's Fathers and Sons is beautiful and captures the spirit of youth.
Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier is a short masterpiece. The Great Gatsby is as good as its reputation says. Read Dickens if you want the essence of the English language and character. Read Kafka for the strangest articulation of modernity. Bruno Schulz is more whimsical. Borges is another whom your list suggests you should try.
If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, find Martin Seymour-Smith's Guide to Modern World Literature and browse through it to blow your mind. It covers everything and seems impossible, except it exists so it can't be.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the suggestion on Eco. I picked up a few books by Fernando Pessoa too.
Wait, how'd you get to Pessoa from there?! Pessoa is fascinating. I believe it was he who wrote: Poets pretend They pretend so well They even pretend They suffer what they suffer. ... something that lodged itself in my brain years ago and never left. Pessoa wrote under countless pseudonyms. He is like Kierkegaard in that respect. You might like Fear and Trembling , in fact, based on your list.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction. I'm trying to discover good fiction to read. Open to suggestions on anything.
It depends on what you like. Flannery O'Connor's fiction is extraordinary. I bet you'd like Nabokov based on what you've said so far; I like his earlier Russian novels best (which have excellent English translations), like The Defense , for example. If you want to go whole hog into postmodernism then try Pynchon or Gaddis. The 19th century Russians from Gogol to Chekhov are pretty much can't-lose. Turgenev's Fathers…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, how'd you get to Pessoa from there?! Pessoa is fascinating. I believe it was he who wrote: Poets pretend They pretend so well They even pretend They suffer what they suffer. ... something that lodged itself in my brain years ago and never left. Pessoa wrote under countless pseudonyms. He is like Kierkegaard in that respect. You might like Fear and Trembling , in fact, based on your list.
Pessoa created his own worlds. Reminds me of Henry Darger. Check out IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL if you haven't seen it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSzzirIP0No .
You might like Gormenghast: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gormenghast_(series)
Wyndham Lewis's novels, especially the Human Comedy that he wrote at the end of his life, are something I've always been meaning to get to. It's hard to tell if they're meaningful or impenetrable.
Nobody has suggested Umberto Eco yet.I would try The Island of the Day Before or Baudolino before Foucault's Pendulum. Alistair Reynolds is space opera done nicely (if you want to look in that direction). Chasm City stands on its own, but there are some similar works there. Twain fits in with some of your other comments.
I really liked Patricia Highsmith with the sequels of Mr. Ripley. I also love the french book write Jean-Christophe Grangé with their beloved black novel books. Love the all of them.