Almost done with '1984' and...

[Nico87]

..I'm loving it!

Hi, I'm a 20 year old guy from Norway who just found these forums, and I thought I'd register.

I've read Boer War, South-African War, and World War 1 & 2 litterature and non-litterature for about 5 years now, and I knew it would be pretty hard for me to read a "non"-war book for a change. Well, I'm completely hooked now.

I find it very interesting to see how writers experimented witht their thoughts on what the world would be like in the future, from a time when Nazism and Communism was around, and other (negative) things we've been ridden of, and at the same time they try to warn us about 'something'. It's also amazing to read what they thought would happend to the world if this and that had happened, or if that guy or this guy was "in charge".

(Don't know if I made any sense in the paragraph above, its 04:25 in the morning here and I've been working a 10-hour shift. Needless to say, I'm beat.)

Well, I'm making this thread because I would like to read other books similar '1984' (not too similar, of course), and I thought I'd ask you guys if anyone could recommend any books within the same genre (political, utopia/dystopia/anti-utopia).

I'm planning to read 'Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited' by Aldous Huxley, when I'm done with Orwell's masterpiece. I already have 'The Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged', by Ayn Rand (please dont flame me because of this! There's bound to be some Anti-Rand's in here! ;)), so you can cross these out of your lists.

I'm leaving for Afghanistan in January so I'm not even gonna start reading any of the two books by Ayn Rand due to the high number of pages (700-something and 1000-something), so I'm kind of looking for fast-paced books of about 3-400 pages.

Well, as I said, some sorts of recommendations would be appreciated. I've been looking at 'Darkness at Noon' and 'Scum of the Earth' by Arthur Koestler, and Animal Farm by Orwell, but I haven't made my mind up yet.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Nico

Oh, and sorry for the long post!

[Nico87]

Sorry, but why was this post moved to a sub-forum? It's hardly a thread about George Orwell or 1984, as what I'm requesting is recommendations on other books.

Thanks

[barbara0207]

Welcome to the forum, Nico!
Well I don't know Koestler, but Animal Farm is certainly worth reading.
Then you might take a look at anything written by Isaac Asimov - especially the Foundation series, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5.

Um, if I remember right there was a similar thread some time ago. I'll have a look.

Edit: Here it is: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27179
Lots of people recommended sci-fi literature there, and many of these works are utopian/dystopian.

[Nico87]

Thanks alot, Barbara! Appreciated!

[Niamh]

Sorry Nico. My mistake. Welcome to the site!

[tscherff]

darkness at noon is excellent---1984 without the rats

if you want to really jump into the deep end try thomas pynchon's "gravity's rainbow".

also "2001 a space odyssey" is a more futuristic perspective

[Nico87]

No probs, Niamh!

Thanks, tscherff, will check 'em out!

[Sancho]

Hi Nico,
and bienvendidos!

What are you going to be doing in Afghanistan?

I hear it's nice there in January

[Nico87]

I'm a soldier. Going over with the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) to do some peacekeeping :yawnb:

[Sancho]

Ah-hah,

Well keep your head down and watch out for the Pashtun's, they're gettin' kind of fed up with foreigners.

[Nico87]

Heh, so I've heard.

Anyway, just ordered hardback editions of 'Regeneration Trilogy' by Pat Barker (I've read Regeneration before but not the two other books), 'Darkness at Noon' by Arthur Koestler, 'If This Is a Man' by Primo Levi, 'Cancer Ward' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and I actually ordered two different copies of Animal Farm (don't ask me why). One from Everyman's Library, wanted my two Orwell books (1984 and Animal Farm) from this excellent publisher, and one with illustrations by Ralph Steadman. Would cancel the one with pictures in it if it weren't already too late. I saw the Everyman's Library edition five minutes after I found the one with pictures in it, but by then the seller had already processed the order.

[ClickForth]

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