Awesome books...

[theshoegazer]

So I've just started reading again after a long hiatus from the literary world. I'm not particularly well read to be honest. The last time a read a novel was more than a few years ago and I was into hilariously nerdy fantasy literature. Now I'm filled with the overwhelming desire to read just about anything that I can get my hands on that interests me. What are some good books I need to read?

On the list:
The Brother Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Nausea - Jean-Paul Sartre
One, No One and One Hundred Thousand - Luigi Pirandello
Note From the Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Yeah, I like existentialism....

[smile_man]

I too have recently jumped back into the literary world.

I enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction type stuff, particularly The Road by Cormac McCarthy (a movie was recently made on this) and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (this book was the inspiration for Bladerunner). Maybe try Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

[theshoegazer]

I too have recently jumped back into the literary world.

I enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction type stuff, particularly The Road by Cormac McCarthy (a movie was recently made on this) and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (this book was the inspiration for Bladerunner). Maybe try Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I'm definitely into post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction as well. The Road is on my buy list I'm actually reading Galapagos by Vonnegut right now.

[futuresailors]

If you want to get all existential I've liked everything Camus has done, and Candide by Voltaire is great.

I think Cat's Cradle was my favourite Vonnegut book. I've been on a Haruki Murakami bender myself, so I would recommend after the quake if you're into quirky short stories.

[Gunner Recall]

I'm on a Pynchon kick at the moment, I'm reading reading V. (which has been absolutely brilliant so far).
Next up is either infinite jest or the screwtape letters, probably both since IJ is too heavy to lug around to work.

[Seizurema]

Everything Lovecraft has ever written,
The Stand by King,
The Sprawl Trilogy by Gibson,
Any collection of Harlan Ellison or John Shirley short stories,
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (Trilogy) by Adams,
1984 obv.
The Stranger, if you haven't read it already,
Snow Crash by Stephenson ..er.. anything by Stephenson.

Will update when I remember things I'm forgetting.

[theshoegazer]

Nice suggestions. Thanks guys.

I just started reading Naked Lunch. I'll be honest, I'm sure what the big deal is. The write style is so broken and rambling it renders the text nearly unintelligible. Its still quite fascinating but not really my cup of tea. Meh?

[CBGB]

If you like existentialism and Russians, maybe try...

Alexander Herzen - From the Other Shore
Evgeny Zamyatin - We
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master & Margarita
Viktor Pelevin - Omon Ra

The best thing I've read recently is Borges' short story collection Labyrinths. Mindblowing.

[smile_man]

The Authors Note in A Scanner Darkly is one of the most moving things I've ever read.

[bubstance]

.

[dorfmeister]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Anything by J.D. Salinger
Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Ernest Hemingway
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Raymond Carver

[Jenesis]

As far as fiction goes, pretty much the only author I read is Stephen King. /

The vast majority of books I read are non-fiction. History, nature, war etc.

[sevenSHARPnine]

[iblamesummers]

man. i'm not trying to be an elitist snob or nuthin' cuz i spend my fair share of being lobotomized-out on video games and the INTERNET and watching professional sports and stuff but this thread is mega-depressing.

[Gunner Recall]

Books (or tits) or gtfo