What to read??

[bones]

Hi, I enjoy Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, but would like to read something from a more modern author (well at least in the last 20 years or so).

I would like something with a bit of depth, but also some of the humour of the above authors.

Can someone help??

[Chilly]

You say as in depth and as funny...yet give no better details to know exactly what you want. If it wasn't for the fact that you want something from the last 20 years, we could suggest almost anything to you.

Luckily, that 20 year limit really cuts down how many books fit those terms. Hardly any books from modern times are in-depth and all I could suggest is:
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
A thousand splendid suns and the kite runner by Khaled Hoseini
The harry potter series (which are much more in-depth then the movies will have you believe)
And although i've never read his books, Stephen King

However, keep in mind that the writing style from nowadays is extremely different from the style of 150 years ago.

PS I'm curious as to what other decent books have come out lately too

[Apocrypha75]

I'm going to throw in a vote for:

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close By Jonathan Safran Foer.

He also wrote 'Everything is Illuminated' -- which I was not a huge fan of. I approached the follow-up (Extremely ...) with some trepidation, not expecting it to fair much better. However, I was very pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's quite original, VERY funny and surprising moving in more than a few places. Give it a whirl if you fancy. :)

[lupe]

You say as in depth and as funny...yet give no better details to know exactly what you want. If it wasn't for the fact that you want something from the last 20 years, we could suggest almost anything to you.

Luckily, that 20 year limit really cuts down how many books fit those terms. Hardly any books from modern times are in-depth and all I could suggest is:
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
A thousand splendid suns and the kite runner by Khaled Hoseini
The harry potter series (which are much more in-depth then the movies will have you believe)
And although i've never read his books, Stephen King

However, keep in mind that the writing style from nowadays is extremely different from the style of 150 years ago.

PS I'm curious as to what other decent books have come out lately too

"Life of Pi", Khaled Hoseini, "Harry Potter" and Stephen King are "in-depth" litterature ? Somebody must be either joking or completely mad !!!!

These are probably the worst choises one can make for serious litterature in the last 20 years...:sick:

[Eryk]

I thought the novel How to Be Good (http://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Good-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573229326/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243349676&sr=1-1) by Nick Hornby was intelligent and funny.

[kiki1982]

My suggestion would be Saramago,. He is certainly in depth. Funny he is by moments. But he is Portugese.

Terry Pratchett is funny, but is a little phantasy. Although, he actually writes about our world, but putting it into a kind of 'copy'-world in a disk-shape balanced on a tortoise (don't ask). I didn't really think it was in debth, until I saw a play (adaptation) of one of his books. Loads of references to Shakespeare. ('When shall we three [witches] meet again?' 'Oh (taking their agendas), I'm not free on Friday, but maybe...' (MacBeth)) I never read anything, but what my husband read to me, I found quite satisfactory.

[curlyqlink]

Dickens and Twain point to social satire for me, so for something in the same vein but modern I'd suggest Francine Prose (Blue Angel is terrific) or something by Kingsley Amis or Martin Amis.

[Chilly]

"Life of Pi", Khaled Hoseini, "Harry Potter" and Stephen King are "in-depth" litterature ? Somebody must be either joking or completely mad !!!!

These are probably the worst choises one can make for serious litterature in the last 20 years...:sick:

Well I'm sorry if that is seriously the best I could find from modern times. Sure they're not that in depth but do you know how much better they are than Dan Brown or Stephany Meyer?

At least the books I listed give you something to think about. At least they have intricate plots, realistic characters and plot changes. Compared to the thriller trash we get shoved down our throats, these things are treasures. They are like James Joyce is to Ian Fleming.
Sure Harry Potter isn't that in depth(and please understand that I meant the later half of the series when I said they were) but it is really a breath of fresh air, a small one albeit, in this dull world of simple books.

Honestly, if what I said is the "worst" then i think you're completely mad, not me. Are you trying to say that, for example, Inca Gold by Clive Cussler, is more worthwhile then Life of Pi; that cheap books where the same basic thing happens over and over again are more worthwhile then something that makes you think, even for only 20 minutes?

Could you point out anything remotely better then what I have listed from the last 20 years.

[mona amon]

I haven't read Life of Pi, Khaled Hoseini or Stephen King, but as a rabid Potterfan, I agree with you about Harry Potter, Chilly. :)

I recommend Margret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro. Not sure if they are in-depth, but they are good. Not very funny though.

[librarius_qui]

...
But he is Portugese.



(Should I laugh at it? ...)

Er ... What do you mean, Kiki? There are translations of J. Saramago into English :rolleyes:

[bones]

Well I'm sorry if that is seriously the best I could find from modern times. Sure they're not that in depth but do you know how much better they are than Dan Brown or Stephany Meyer?

At least the books I listed give you something to think about. At least they have intricate plots, realistic characters and plot changes. Compared to the thriller trash we get shoved down our throats, these things are treasures. They are like James Joyce is to Ian Fleming.
Sure Harry Potter isn't that in depth(and please understand that I meant the later half of the series when I said they were) but it is really a breath of fresh air, a small one albeit, in this dull world of simple books.

Honestly, if what I said is the "worst" then i think you're completely mad, not me. Are you trying to say that, for example, Inca Gold by Clive Cussler, is more worthwhile then Life of Pi; that cheap books where the same basic thing happens over and over again are more worthwhile then something that makes you think, even for only 20 minutes?

Could you point out anything remotely better then what I have listed from the last 20 years.

Thanks Chilly, I appreciate your thoughts, and recomendations

[kiki1982]

(Should I laugh at it? ...)

Er ... What do you mean, Kiki? There are translations of J. Saramago into English :rolleyes:

:lol::lol:

No, that's not what I meant.

Dickens and Twain are both originally in English (Twain American) and so Saramago is a little different in feel and in approach, so i you want something really similar to Twain or Dickens, then don't take a Portugese writer... ;)

Anyway, Saramago is ot satire, but sometimes he can be really funny, although that is not his main object.

Terry Pratchett might be a better bet.

[grotto]

Milan Kundara, "Imortality"

[Scheherazade]

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

:p

[lupe]

Well I'm sorry if that is seriously the best I could find from modern times. Sure they're not that in depth but do you know how much better they are than Dan Brown or Stephany Meyer?

At least the books I listed give you something to think about. At least they have intricate plots, realistic characters and plot changes. Compared to the thriller trash we get shoved down our throats, these things are treasures. They are like James Joyce is to Ian Fleming.
Sure Harry Potter isn't that in depth(and please understand that I meant the later half of the series when I said they were) but it is really a breath of fresh air, a small one albeit, in this dull world of simple books.

Honestly, if what I said is the "worst" then i think you're completely mad, not me. Are you trying to say that, for example, Inca Gold by Clive Cussler, is more worthwhile then Life of Pi; that cheap books where the same basic thing happens over and over again are more worthwhile then something that makes you think, even for only 20 minutes?

Could you point out anything remotely better then what I have listed from the last 20 years.

There are hundred of choices among the literature produced during the last 20 years, for somebody who would like something "in depth", but also with humour.

You can start from the recent works of Gunter Grass ("The Rat", "A Broad Field"…) or Bernard Schlink ("The Reader", "Homecoming"…), move to the late Ugo Klaus ("The Sorrow of Belgium", "The Swordfish"…) and Elfrede Jelinek ("The piano teacher", "Lust"…) and continue with some of the best novels of Italian authors such as Uberto Eco ("Baudolino", "The mysterious flame of queen Loana"...) and Niccolo Ammaniti ("Io no ho paura", " Come dio comanda"..).

You can pick up anything recent from the great José Saramango ("All the names", "Blindness", "Death with interruptions"…) or – since we are in Portugal – Antonio Lobo Antunes ("The inquisitors' manual", "What can-I do when everything's on fire?"…) and José Cardoso Pires ("Ballad of the Dogs' beach", "Republic of Ravens"…). Next door, you have Arturo Perez-Reverte ("The Flanders Panel", "The queen of the South"), Camilo Hosé Cela or José Carlos Somoza ("The art of murder", " The Athenian Murders"…). And don't forget some of the new French authors that have become very popular: Michel Houellebec ("Atomised", "Platform"), Jean-Cristophe Rufin ("Rouge Bresil", "Lost Causes") and Jean Echenoz ("I'm gone" , "The Big blondes"…) among others.

Nothing can be funniest – yet profoundly good – than the novels of Mario Vargas Llosa ("The Storyteller", "The feast of the goat"…). He is surrounded by a bunch of excellent modern Latin American authors, such as Luis Sepulveda ("The lost frontier", "The world at the end of the world"…), José Donoso ("The obscene bird of night", "Coronacion"…), Eduardo Galleano (" The mountain that eats men"," Walking Words"…) or the late Roberto Bolano ("2066", "By night in Chile"…)

There are many other obvious choices, such as the Indians Salman Rushdie ("The ground beneath her feet", "Fury"…), Kiran Desai ("The inheritance of loss"…) and Arundhati Roy ("The God of small things"…). Japanese author Haruki Murakami ("Sputnik Sweetheart", "Kafka on the shore"…) is only the most famous of several brilliant representatives from Asian countries.

You will love the last books of Naguib Mahfouz ("Fountain and Tomb", "The seventh Heaven"…), but don't ignore numerous African authors that become more and more sophisticated: Chinua Achebe ("Anthills of the Savannah)", Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi ("Purple Hibiscus", "Half a yellow sun"…), Ahmandou Karouma ("Allah is not obliged", "Waiting for the wild beasts to vote"…) and many others.

Is this enough, or should-I continue with the English-speaking, Caribbean or Eastern European literature?

[PoeticPassions]

I second the Kundera... he is wonderful!

It is tough to suggest something in the last 20 years for me personally.... I haven't read much that is really recent. I really liked Rick Moody's THE ICE STORM, but that was tragic/comic.
But some modern novels (more in the last 40-50 years) that I would recommend are CATCH-22 and anything by Kurt Vonnegut (I read SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5 not too long ago)