[|literary suggestions

[NavyStyles]

I started thinking about it, and I don't believe we've ever had a post about books/poems/essays that we enjoy. The Passion thread brought up a couple of recommendations, but they obviously weren't the focus of the discussion. I'm going out on a limb and assuming that most every person here is somewhat well-read. Odds are we could easily give one another some insight into literature. I'll start by listing the first set that comes to mind... A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest J. Gaines The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald The Natural - Bernard Malamud The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway Anthem - Ayn Rand Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris These are the first books that jumped out. When I think of some more, I'll add them. Meanwhile, let's hear what y'all have to say.

 

[jpeirpont]

Nice list NavyStyles. The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye along with A Separate Peace makes up my favorite novels. Other books I like are:

The Official Preppy Handbook- By Lisa Birnbach
The House of Morgan- By Ron Chernow
Our Kind of People- by Lawrence Otis Graham
Bonfire of the Vanity's- By Tom Wolfe

I also read a lot of magazines. My favorites are
The Economist
Forbes
Bloomberg
Cigar Aficionado
and GQ

 

[NavyStyles]

Surely someone else has read at least one book/magazine/pamphlet that would be a good recommendation to others... right? I'll go ahead and add one more I enjoyed. Common Sense - Thomas Paine

 

[matadorpoeta]

i'm more of a film guy but here a few books that come to mind:

death in the afternoon by ernest hemingway
the garden of eden by ernest hemingway
the little prince by antoine-marie-roger de saint-exupery
the story of the eye by georges bataille
the way of the peaceful warrior by dan millman
this bloody mary is the last thing i own by jonathan rendall

charles bukowski's short stories are very funny too.

 

[esquire.]

high fidelity by nick hornsby. the book was much, much better than the movie

the alieniest- nonfiction that combines history of nyc and psychology. really entertaining to read

the watchmen- a graphic novel by alan moore that deconstructs the whole comic book phenomenon

the collected essays of david sedaris. you might have read some of his essays in esquire or gq.

unbearable lightness of being by milan kundera. i hear he's on the short list of nobel prize nominees

the remains of the day by kazuo ishiguro- its like a modern day greek tragedy. every word is perfect.

one-l by scott turrow- describes his experience in his first year of law school. very entertaining

books by tom wolfe

 

[ken]

some important non-fiction I think everyone should read:

People of the Lie -- Peck
The Origin of Species -- Darwin
I'm OK, You're OK -- Harris
Capital -- Marx (OK, haven't read that one ALL the way through)

Good modern fiction:

Kavalier and Clay -- Chabon
Everything is Illuminated -- Foer
The Corrections -- Franzen

Absolutely Positively Stay Away From:

House of Leaves -- Danielewski
I picked it up because its Poe's brother (of 'Angry Johnny' fame). It's the worst attempt by an artsy-fartsy at being the artsy-fartsiest in the world... ever.

 

[cristobal]

Cannery Row and The Wayward Bus, both by John Steinbeck. Two of the most brilliant character studies in American literature. Both highly recommended.

 

[LabelKing]

the alieniest- nonfiction that combines history of nyc and psychology. really entertaining to read

I believe that is a fiction book. I rather liked it. Have you read the sequel?

"Ulysses" James Joyce
"The Balcony" Jean Genet
"No Exit" Jean Paul Sartre
"The Sun Also Rises" Ernest Hemingway
"Against Nature" or "A Rebours" J.K. Huysmans
"The Magic Mountain" Thomas Mann

For amusing reads-
"The Flanders Panel" Arturo Perez-Reverte
"The Love of Stones" Tobias Hill

I also have a penchant for Cold War/Russian novels.

 

[esquire.]

sorry, the alieniest is a fiction book. and i did read the sequel, the angel of darkness.

it was also very entertaining, but i liked the first one more since it was a unexpected delight to read.

 

[matadorpoeta]

2 guys have mentioned 'the sun also rises' so i just had to comment that i've never been able to finish that book. i've read the first half twice but i get bored with it. then a friend of mine told me hemingway was writing about his impotency (i hadn't even figured that out yet) and that ruined it even more.

 

[norcaltransplant]

My 2 Cents, (pence), (yen), etc.... 1) The Brothers Karamazov-Dostoevsky. A little long, but probably one of the best books ever written. Read the chapter entitled "the Grand Inquisiter". It puts Mel Gibson to shame. 2) One Hundred Years of Solitude- GG Marquez. I hate Oprah. Why did she have to add this one to her book list? 3) The Cider House Rules- Irving Iriving's best work. I love the eloquent use of language in this novel... I also have a soft spot for the pro-choice treatise intertwined within the novel. The World According to Garp is also a worthwhile read if you like his other books. 4) The Master and Margarita- Bulgakov Heavy use of literary allusion geared towards fellow Russian authors. The first half of the book is extremely entertaining. 5) The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay I second this recommendation. Non-fiction: 1) Guns, Germs, and Steel (or) The Third Chimpanzee - Jared Diamond. The best pop anthro/science writing I've come across. His arguments and language are compelling to even non-science nerds. 2) Barbarians at the Gate For you Wall Street/corporate raider types. Periodicals: 1) The Economist 2) The Atlantic Monthly Anyone else been really disappointed with Harper's recently? Little too leftist for my liking. Next to read list: 1) Blindness by Saramago 2) The Davinci Code 3) Middle Sex (no, not the English novel)

 

[norcaltransplant]

"The Balcony" Jean Genet "No Exit" Jean Paul Sartre

Methinks Labelking subscribes to a certain philosophical tract. Â Would you cringe if said that I believe in categorical imperatives? Â Truth? Objective Morality?

 

[jpeirpont]

Have anyone read "The Protestant Establishment"

 

[aybojs]

Just to break the overwhelming focus on 20th century stuff; I like a lot of it, but I can't stand most of it, especially the post-modern crap (just too pretentious for me):

-Pretty much anything by Euripedes (Bacchae, Trojan Women, the Iphigenia plays)
-Suetonius - Lives of the Emperors is a pretty fun narrative of early imperial Roman history
-Boccacio - Decameron
-Chaucer - Canterbury Tales
-Moliere - pretty much all of his plays are hilarious (Misanthrope, Tartuffe, Would-be Gentleman, Miser)
-Turgenev - Fathers and Sons

Reading up on ancient mythology is always good too, like Norse, Egyptian, and of course classical. I can't stand the Celtic stuff though.

 

[Thracozaag]

Favorite authors:

Philip K. Dick
Erich Maria Remarque
Charles Bukowski
Julio Cortazar
John O'Brien
Douglas Coupland
Wittgentstein
Stanislav Lem
John D. MacDonald
Roger Zelazany
Lloyd Alexander
Susan Cooper
Octavio Paz
Ernesto Sabato
Enrique Lihn
Thomas Mann
Rilke
Kobo Abe
Banana Yoshimoto
Haruki Murakami
Andre Gide
Albert Camus