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What novels should I read next? - Page 4

post #46 of 55
8/6/10 at 9:33pm
If you want to read something else by a Russian, try Fathers and Sons by Turgenev.

If you want something about relationships, try Isaac Bashevis Singer's Enemies or Shadows on the Hudson. Herzog by Saul Bellow is also a masterpiece.
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post #47 of 55
8/6/10 at 10:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lawyerdad View Post
Trust me on this one, GQ. Whatever one thinks about Rand's political/social views, as literature Atlas Shrugged is crap.
Ya... I wasn't intending on reading that. I'd rather blow my brains out. I started reading The Picture of Dorian Gray because it was already on my iphone and when I finished Anna K I had a 30 minutes subway ride. It's a short book and rather enjoyable so i should be done by monday. It's nice to have time to read again. Can't wait till I my kindle 3 gets here. Might read 100 Years of Solitude after that. Could probably read a book a week right now. Lots of free time b/c my new job doesn't have the hours my old one did.
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post #48 of 55
8/6/10 at 10:32pm
You pretty much have to read Dead Souls before you read Karamazov, and I don't know if you really ought to read Dead Souls before Evgeny Onegin. Dead Souls is probably my favorite of them all, though I will wait for why's comments before I am willing to stand by my current preferences.
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post #49 of 55
8/6/10 at 11:36pm
For your Russian greats, stick to the Pevear/Volonohsky translations. I think they've covered just about all the major works with the last Tolstoy collection (The Death of Ivan Ilyich and other stories) - Chekhov, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. Their translation read more naturally than the public domain stuff they give you in high school.
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post #50 of 55
8/6/10 at 11:36pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by iammatt View Post
You pretty much have to read Dead Souls before you read Karamazov, and I don't know if you really ought to read Dead Souls before Evgeny Onegin. Dead Souls is probably my favorite of them all, though I will wait for why's comments before I am willing to stand by my current preferences.

Weren't you a self-proclaimed illiterate? Seems you weren't lying! i will get to Karamazov eventually, but don't feel like reading another 850+ page tome right now.
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post #51 of 55
8/7/10 at 1:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by countdemoney View Post

Wodehouse is also great stuff if you want something lighter and enjoy a well turned phrase.

+1. And just a hilarious, fun read.
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post #52 of 55
8/7/10 at 10:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by indesertum View Post
these threak makes me want to hurt myself.

+1 on this

+1 on whoever said Great Gatsby if you haven't already done it.

Call me a whatever, but I tend to find Great Works kinda boring and hard work. I went back and reread a bunch of Jane Austen stuff last year....wading through the phrasiology is tiring, and I am typically tired enough as it is...so I do not derive particular pleasure from this. If you guys find it more rewarding than I do, then more power to ya,

As for recommendations - three stand out for me from the past few years...listed in the order I read them...firstly Q&A (later adapted into a little film called Slumdog Millionaire, but, as in most cases, this particular Oscar winner cannot hold a candle to the book that inspired it).

Kite Runner was an incredible read. Again, a decent movie followed, but one that does not get anywhere near the tale of redemption that the book presents.

Finally, The Book Thief, written by an Australian guy, and perversely mismarketed in the US as 'young Adult fiction' holds the disctintion of being the best thing I have read this year. Written as a first person narrative by Death during WWII. Really amazing work.
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post #53 of 55
8/7/10 at 11:12am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt View Post
+1 on this

+1 on whoever said Great Gatsby if you haven't already done it.

Call me a whatever, but I tend to find Great Works kinda boring and hard work. I went back and reread a bunch of Jane Austen stuff last year....wading through the phrasiology is tiring, and I am typically tired enough as it is...so I do not derive particular pleasure from this. If you guys find it more rewarding than I do, then more power to ya,

As for recommendations - three stand out for me from the past few years...listed in the order I read them...firstly Q&A (later adapted into a little film called Slumdog Millionaire, but, as in most cases, this particular Oscar winner cannot hold a candle to the book that inspired it).

Kite Runner was an incredible read. Again, a decent movie followed, but one that does not get anywhere near the tale of redemption that the book presents.

Finally, The Book Thief, written by an Australian guy, and perversely mismarketed in the US as 'young Adult fiction' holds the disctintion of being the best thing I have read this year. Written as a first person narrative by Death during WWII. Really amazing work.

Yeah, i've read Gatsby. And I love Jane Austen and don't find reading her to be hard work at all. Shakespeare, on the other hand, isn't something to be read quite so casually...
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post #54 of 55
8/7/10 at 11:13am
very eventful read darker than midnight by maggie shayne
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post #55 of 55
8/7/10 at 11:28am
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean I never considered going fishing until I finished reading this book. Afterwards, I went fly fishing on a tiny crowded stream in western North Carolina. I haven't fished since but A River Runs Through It remains one of my favorite novels of all time.
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