Need a book to read

[moranfan]

So I happened to stumble across this pleasant little place yesterday (google is a wonderful thing, isn't it?), and I figured this would be the best place to ask about a good book to read. I suppose giving a few details about my preferences might help things a bit.

The last book I read was The Idiot. I didn't like it; the climax made me so angry. Before that I read A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield: loved them both. Dickens is my favorite author, but I think I want to take a break from him right now. I think I'd most like to read a Slaughterhouse 5 or a 1984 type of book. Those were another pair of excellent books.

I'm very much a concrete type of thinker, though; and symbolism and I don't get along very well. So I'd like it to be a book that is enjoyable on the surface. There is one little caveat, though. It's kind of tough for me to get a hold of books here in Iraq, so it would be a lot easier if the book was one I can read off of this website.

Thanks in advance.

[johann cruyff]

If it's dystopia you're looking for, I'm pretty sure you can find Aldous Huxley's Brave New World on this site.

Also, I'd suggest some works by Tolstoy, also available here - you can't go wrong with any of them. Not that these books don't have any symbolism in them, but they can be read even if you don't pay that much attention or are not always able to understand it. (e.g. Anna Karenina)

[Jozanny]

So I happened to stumble across this pleasant little place yesterday (google is a wonderful thing, isn't it?), and I figured this would be the best place to ask about a good book to read. I suppose giving a few details about my preferences might help things a bit.

The last book I read was The Idiot. I didn't like it; the climax made me so angry. Before that I read A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield: loved them both. Dickens is my favorite author, but I think I want to take a break from him right now. I think I'd most like to read a Slaughterhouse 5 or a 1984 type of book. Those were another pair of excellent books.

I'm very much a concrete type of thinker, though; and symbolism and I don't get along very well. So I'd like it to be a book that is enjoyable on the surface. There is one little caveat, though. It's kind of tough for me to get a hold of books here in Iraq, so it would be a lot easier if the book was one I can read off of this website.

Thanks in advance.

If you enjoy Dickens you might like Elizabeth Gaskell. She is a softer feminine counterpart to Dickens, and is available online. A good site is here:
http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-etexts.html

[moranfan]

If it's dystopia you're looking for, I'm pretty sure you can find Aldous Huxley's Brave New World on this site.

Also, I'd suggest some works by Tolstoy, also available here - you can't go wrong with any of them. Not that these books don't have any symbolism in them, but they can be read even if you don't pay that much attention or are not always able to understand it. (e.g. Anna Karenina)
I've already read Brave New World, actually. It was a pretty good one. I'm thinking about reading his other book on this site, Crome Yellow. And as for Tolstoy, I'm a bit leary of Russian Literature right now. And I read The Death of Ivan Ilyich in high school: that was one of the most miserable books I've ever read. Perhaps I need a bit more seasoning before I can get in to that stuff. I never read a whole lot outside of school up until recently.


If you enjoy Dickens you might like Elizabeth Gaskell. She is a softer feminine counterpart to Dickens, and is available online. A good site is here:
http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-etexts.html
Any suggestions on where to start?

[Scheherazade]

Hello Moranfan! :)

If you visit our Book Reviews section, maybe you can find something that is interesting to you:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6877

Welcome to the Forum!:)

[Jozanny]

Any suggestions on where to start?

Mary Barton, but bear in mind there is no accounting for taste, which is why we need moderators online and referees in the ring. :alien: If you can access wiki from where you're at, check summaries and things, this way you can see what might intrigue you and what not.

See? Sche appears like magic! ;)

[moranfan]

Thanks for the kind welcome.

I was browsing through the book reports section a bit, but I usually prefer to avoid reading much about a book before I read it. Even the brief blurbs on the back cover of a book can give away too much of the story for my tastes.

[armenian]

you live in iraq?

or just visiting

[kelby_lake]

Russian books are pretty miserable

[Jozanny]

Russian books are pretty miserable

:lol: Yes, but a more nuanced view is based on history and geography. The Slavic soul is divided between Europeanized Moscow and Mongol/Asian culture. I don't know what global warming will do to it, but Siberia isn't fun, and the Russian climate can be arguably said to have won the second World War for the Allies.

These unique conditions inform upon many Russian authors, even Pushkin, and no doubt created the Ideal Peasant which Tolstoy always insists upon, and which I find a dubious propagada. If one really wants an education about the social cost of poverty, Gissing had his finger on it. I've read his novels, and they are not beloved because they show what poverty did to the English working class--though admittedly they emphasize urban life, as opposed to Tolstoy's occasional pastoral enthusiasm.

[PabloQ]

On the main menu of authors for this site, you'll find Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and even Edgar Rice Burroughs. I sense you might be looking for something light and sci-fi-ish without symbols.
If your looking for contemporaries of Dickens, Trollope or Thackeray might be to your taste.
One comment, though, if you enjoyed Slaughterhouse-5 and 1984, I'd say you like your symbolism applied with hammer. If that's the case, try The Jungle.

[blazeofglory]

Please read Turgenev' s father and sons

[eyemaker]

Welcome moranfan.
Try some Russian novelists like, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dostoevsky.( They really are great!)
Start with Dostoevsky.

oh, try Scheherazade's suggestion as well, you can find good books there. !

[moranfan]

you live in iraq?

or just visiting
Heh heh, I guess you could say I'm visiting. (American military)