81–90 of 175 posts
I hope we've moved past the engineering cliche of "I don't read fiction, why would I read something someone just made up?"
Not sure how well these are known in the US.. Mans search for meaning by Victor Frankl. Anything by Dostoyevsky. José Saramago's the double. They made a film based on this with jake gyllenhall but not sure how well known the book and saramego is in the US, both book and film are excellent. A girl is a half formed thing by Elmer mcbride is the best thing I've read in years with a really unique writing style. It's an i…
> Anything by Dostoyevsky.
These are extremely well-known in the U.S.
Dostoevsky is considered heavy literature however. It's well known but not often read.
Books by P. G. Wodehouse. English author, an outstanding humorist.
Others:
- Enid Blyton's children books - Five Find Outers, Secret Seven, Malory Towers etc.
- C.S. Forester - Horatio Hornblower series
Non-English authors:
- Georges Simenon - Inspector Maigret series (French detective genre)
- Sigrid Undset - Kristin Lavransdatter (Scandinavian)
Some foreign authors whose popularity is rising in the U.S. at the moment
- Elena Ferrante (Italian)
- Karl Ove Knausgaard (Norwegian)
On a related note, Wikipedia has a more comprehensive list of best-selling world authors [1]. Ironically many of top writers in the English language aren't widely read in America.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction_a...
From where I stand, Hispanic and Slavic literature is fairly unknown and underrated on the other side of the pond. Ramón del Valle Inclán's "Lights of Bohemia": A great portrait of Madrid and the dirty guts of the Spain from 100 years ago, written in a gorgeously precise, dark and multifaceted range of vocabulary. Ortega y Gasset's "Rebellion of the Masses". It is centered in the individual "I am me and my circumstan…
English native speakers in general are not too fond of translations not done by other English native speakers. Unfortunately there aren't many English native speakers who happen to be experts in Polish literature. On top of that all four of them are lumberjacks.
I always think of it as the Dutch version of The Catcher in the Rye, which deals with similar themes. But the main character in The Evenings is decidedly less of a prick than Holden Caulfield hahaha.
By some great mistake of the book's editors in its time, this masterpiece did not get translated in Enlish until last year or so. If it would have been translated in the years after it was written, it would surely have been a major hit in the Enlish speaking world like it was over here.
From where I stand, Hispanic and Slavic literature is fairly unknown and underrated on the other side of the pond. Ramón del Valle Inclán's "Lights of Bohemia": A great portrait of Madrid and the dirty guts of the Spain from 100 years ago, written in a gorgeously precise, dark and multifaceted range of vocabulary. Ortega y Gasset's "Rebellion of the Masses". It is centered in the individual "I am me and my circumstan…
Isabel Allende also enjoyed a period of brief popularity in the U.S. (for House of Spirits).
Some great comics/graphic novels that are relatively unknown in the US Asterix comics [1] Tintin comics [2] Yes, I know Spielberg's Tintin animated movie is well known but I doubt most people in the US have heard of the entire series of Tintin comics. I couldn't devour these fast enough when I was growing up. [1] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3... [2] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no…
Some great comics/graphic novels that are relatively unknown in the US Asterix comics [1] Tintin comics [2] Yes, I know Spielberg's Tintin animated movie is well known but I doubt most people in the US have heard of the entire series of Tintin comics. I couldn't devour these fast enough when I was growing up. [1] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3... [2] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no…
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (1889, London). http://www.gutenberg.org/files/308/308-h/308-h.htm The first half of the opening chapter is the best intro to any work of comic fiction I've read. At face value it's a simple road trip story (by boat), but the episodes of hypochondria and camaraderie still feel contemporary and fun — it is written and to be read for the pure joy of it, and you need look for no d…
The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. Set in pre WWI Vienna. It’s a three volume unfinished novel full of brilliant writing, much of which should appeal to the crowd here.
And of course the (sort-of) French equivalent about life in modern times: In search of lost time.