Summer Reading Recommendations!

[readingrainbow]

I have been on a reading streak lately and suddenly can't think of anything else I want to read. I'm going to run by the library in the morning to return some books and was hoping to get some suggestions! I want something that isn't too much of a classic, I've read too many of them and need to just indulge myself now. Just reading to pass the time. Please suggest! And please, no sick romance novels. Eww.

[applepie]

I enjoyed one we read in a book club here a few years ago. It is called Someplace to be Flying and it is written by Charles De Lint. It was one of those books that just sucked me in, and I've been reading his short stories when I have time since.

[Equality72521]

Ah. Well, I just read, I think, my favorite book of all time. It's Anthem, by Ayn Rand. It's well written and very good. It's also a short read, so, if you need something quick but good, it's your book.

There's also, the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. Very good. It's currently at three books right now, but will reach four by August second.

and...

I also just finished reading, The Lady in the Tower, by Jean Plaidy. It's excellent!

Hope that helps!

[kevinthediltz]

Strangers in a strange land is a great book. It is kind of a classic but it is impossible to put down. It takes a great look at our society from the view of an outsider. Also Oil! by Upton Sinclair is good. It was written after The Jungle. It was also the inspiration for the movie There Will Be Blood, which is an amazing film.

[EricP]

Also Oil! by Upton Sinclair is good. It was written after The Jungle. It was also the inspiration for the movie There Will Be Blood, which is an amazing film.

I should pick this up. "There Will Be Blood" is one of my favorite recent films, and "The Jungle" was excellent! I've heard that the movie and the book are very different; is that true?

[stlukesguild]

I want something that isn't too much of a classic...

In other wods, you want something that isn't too good?:D I'll assume you want something that isn't all that heavy. There are still endless good and very good (even great) works that fit that mold. Try Italo Calvino. The Baron in the Trees or Invisible Cities. Perhaps some short stories: check out Checkov, Gautier, Borges, Julio Cortazar, Augusto Monterroso, Ambrose Bierce, Donald Barthleme. Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther.

[Dori]

A good short story you might want to look into is:

"A Summer's Reading" by Bernard Malamud

That's the first thing that came to mind when I read Summer Reading. :lol:

[stlukesguild]

Other possibilities: A short novel/novella by Turgenev, Nabokov's Lolita, Nathaniel West's [I]Miss Lonelyhearts...

[Vincent Black]

I should pick this up. "There Will Be Blood" is one of my favorite recent films, and "The Jungle" was excellent! I've heard that the movie and the book are very different; is that true?

Very.

Note that Oil! is the inspiration for "There will be Blood", which means they can take the basic idea and change everything else.

[Equality72521]

There Will be Blood was a fantastic movie! One of my current favorites. :) I am trying to get to Oil!, but I have a lot to books to read before I can get to that. :(

[Sir Bartholomew]

try these:

the sun also rises
under the volcano
death comes for the archbisop
the sheltering sky

[aabbcc]

Read Hesse. Not hard, yet entertaining, but still not wannabe-ish (like, say, Coelho). I recommend his short stories and Demian; The Glass Bead Game is perhaps more 'heavy' so maybe it would not suit you, but virtually anything else by him is not.

Read Turgenev's Fathers and Sons or Hunter's Sketches, both short, not hard; I found them to be 'surprisingly readable' because I read them in the time when I was swept by those heavy Russian classics like Tolstoy or Sholokhov, and Turgenev was my saviour. :)

I also second whoever recommended Calvino, he can be quite 'refreshing', to say so. And while we are at Italians, Bassani and Buzzati, for completely different reasons though. Try, perhaps you will like them.

[papayahed]

I enjoyed one we read in a book club here a few years ago. It is called Someplace to be Flying and it is written by Charles De Lint. It was one of those books that just sucked me in, and I've been reading his short stories when I have time since.

That booked sucked me in as well.

[Trekker114]

Two books I've read very recently that I would recommend:
Perter Straub's Ghost Story
Mervyn Peaks's Gormonghast

[bounty]

Two books I've read very recently that I would recommend:
Perter Straub's Ghost Story
Mervyn Peaks's Gormonghast

and not a star trek book? or am i missing the origin of your name? smiles....

[Trekker114]

bounty,
No, you guessed correctly. I used to be a huge Star Trek fan, but I haven't watched an episode in a year or two. (and I have never read a Star Trek book - I have some dignity. ;) ) I still identify as a Trekker, though. Can you guess the origin of the "114"?

[toni]

If you don't want anything that is a classic, (although I'm telling you there are a tons of wonderfully written classics you should read), I recommend any work from Neil Gaiman or Michael Crichton.
:D

[curlyqlink]

Suggestion for a light summer read that is fun but not dumb: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Yes, I know, it's a "Starbucks" book, but I was pleasantly surprised by it... and I don't even particularly like dogs!

I just bought a copy of Upton Sinclair's Oil! and am looking forward to starting it. Just have a couple of books in line ahead of it at the moment.

[papayahed]

(and I have never read a Star Trek book - I have some dignity. ;)


Heyyy!!! (actually I used the think the same thing until a coworker brought in 3 star trek books and asked me to read them:( )


Can you guess the origin of the "114"?



???????

[mjga]

Ah. Well, I just read, I think, my favorite book of all time. It's Anthem, by Ayn Rand. It's well written and very good. It's also a short read, so, if you need something quick but good, it's your book.

There's also, the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. Very good. It's currently at three books right now, but will reach four by August second.

and...

I also just finished reading, The Lady in the Tower, by Jean Plaidy. It's excellent!

Hope that helps!

Wow talk about similar taste! I read the Meyer series laate 2007 and loved it. Looking forward to the 4th. I also just happened to read Anthem and really liked it. I teach an existentialism unit in my senior English class, but plan on uses piece of her novel as a nice foil for philisophical writings.

[mjga]

Also - anything by Julia Alvarez in my opinion. I have read Peel My Love Like and Onion and How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents and both were outstanding.

[bounty]

bounty,
No, you guessed correctly. I used to be a huge Star Trek fan, but I haven't watched an episode in a year or two. (and I have never read a Star Trek book - I have some dignity. ;) ) I still identify as a Trekker, though. Can you guess the origin of the "114"?

i concur with papayahead on the books---if youre a fan of the shows, the books are like visiting old friends. and whats neat about them is, they are written by folks who love the series and in my experience, treat their subject matter with a good deal of gratitude if not outright reverence.

hmm, the 114? nothing comes to mind from star trek lore (for lack of a better word). the only thing i can think of is its the # of your favorite episode maybe?

[Trekker114]

"i concur with papayahead on the books---if youre a fan of the shows, the books are like visiting old friends. and whats neat about them is, they are written by folks who love the series and in my experience, treat their subject matter with a good deal of gratitude if not outright reverence."

Intersting. Perhaps I have missed out. At the time I was watching a lot of the show I had a strange pride about the kind of literature I would read. I plan on buying the DVDs eventually, so when I am watching the show often again I may give one of the novels a try.

"hmm, the 114? nothing comes to mind from star trek lore (for lack of a better word). the only thing i can think of is its the # of your favorite episode maybe?"

Nope, it has nothing to do with Star Trek. :p

[bounty]

well short of a vulcan mind meld then trekker im hoping you'll tell us where 114 comes from...smiles...anything to do with descartes i wonder? page 114 in one of his works?

a quick note on the books---ive read the original series, next generation, voyager and ds9; im okay with the latter two but i like the former two much better.

[PeterL]

"The Stones of Nomoru" by L. Sprague de Camp is an essential for every August, because of an incident in it.

[_Shannon_]

It'd be easier to make suggestions if you told us what kind of books you do like....

when I was waiting the final two weeks for my first to be born I read all of the Anne of Green Gables and all of the Narnia books--they were so fun and the story was so great--but at the same time-just about as involved as I could manage with my preggo brain.

Another book I really liked was Where The Heart Is by Billie Letts. It was an early Oprah book--but it was good and just a great read. I also rather liked Rebecca Well's first two books--the Ya-ya Sisterhood books when I read them.