Recommendations please!

[ceelo]

Hi :)

So i've noticed that I have stopped reading as much as I used to and want to get back in to it.

Recently i've finished reading and re reading..

In Cold Blood
The Great Gatsby
Pride and Prejudice

A few of William Faulkner's novels and some Haruki Murakami.

I get quite sick of Murakami quite quickly. His work is captivating and enjoyable yet I find something quite irksome about it. Faulkner would probably be my favourite author, Light in August being my favourite novel.

Any recommendations based on the above information would be great thanks :)

[Patrick_Bateman]

Cousin Bette - de Balzac

[prendrelemick]

When you become stale, it is a good idea to try something completely different. Find a book from a different genra, that has stood the test of time and been enjoyed by millions - they can't all be wrong.

[YesNo]

Pride and Prejudice

When my daughter was a freshman in high school she was required to read Pride and Prejudice but couldn't get started and was getting frustrated. She said the language was too ancient for her to understand. I had never read it, but immediately assumed, since it was old, that I might not understand it either.

So I decided to read it to her out loud figuring she's reaching the age when this may be the last time she would want me to help her with her homework. (Which was true.) We read about 100 pages together like this until she was able to continue reading on her own.

I couldn't believe how hilarious the book was and can see now why people still assign it.

Anyway as a recommendations on what to read, I've just finished Amal Bhakta's Bhagavatam which is a translation of 26 stories from the Shrimad Bhagavatam. These are stories about Hindu deities and sages. I found these stories incredibly original, but they were probably first told thousands of years ago.

The only reason to recommend it is because it is totally different from what you would likely be reading.

[kelby_lake]

Hi :)

So i've noticed that I have stopped reading as much as I used to and want to get back in to it.

Recently i've finished reading and re reading..

In Cold Blood
The Great Gatsby
Pride and Prejudice

A few of William Faulkner's novels and some Haruki Murakami.

I get quite sick of Murakami quite quickly. His work is captivating and enjoyable yet I find something quite irksome about it. Faulkner would probably be my favourite author, Light in August being my favourite novel.

Any recommendations based on the above information would be great thanks :)

Okay, so we've got 20th century American greats, a 19th century english author and a Japanese author.

- I quite enjoyed Soldier's Pay- that was by Faulkner.

- Read Lolita, if you haven't already

- James Baldwin was a pretty good American writer but he's not as well-known.

- Have you ventured into the Southern Gothic genre? The Ballad of The Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers is typical Southern Gothic. Southern Gothic is basically novels set in the South, which have mythical/bizarre/gothic elements.

- If you like 20's America, what about 20's/30's England? Evelyn Waugh might be a good choice, or Noel Coward, if you don't mind reading plays.

[mal4mac]

If you like Austen, why not read some more? Like Emma & Persuasion (the only other two I've read so far, and they were just as good as P&P.) Save them as books to retreat to when you are trying to recover from something unreadable. Hardy, Dickens, Tolstoy, Zola and George Eliot are other authors I'd recommend to keep you reading... intersperse them with some of the more outre suggestions in this thread, then if it gets bad you can retreat to a safe harbour... (I'm just recovering from an attempt at Henry James by reading Zola...)

[Bellwether]

Agreeing with the above user, I would give "Emma" a try.

Frankly, I loathe Jane Austen- although I'm quite ready to admit to her ability, and I do see why she appeals to some-- but I actually became quite engrossed in "Emma", which is something I can't say about "Pride and Prejudice". In my undergrad years I was assigned to read P&P on two separate occasions, and both times I failed miserably. (I think I got as far as page 150).

On the other hand, I lent "Emma" to a friend who adores Jane Austen, and she said it didn't really do it for her... so go figure! :D

Bellwether

[drago]

The Beautiful and the Damned - Fitzgerald's almost auto-biography! Gorgeous work and a smart choice if you enoyed Gatsby.
Also, whenever I find that my thirst for reading vanishes - I pick up a really good, controversial book. I look for books that make my stomach turn and show new perspective's on situations.
Therefore, I completely agree you should read Lolita. If you enjoy Lolita, try Belinda by Anne Rampling. Truly amazing.

[Lord Macbeth]

Ahem:

SHAKESPEARE!!!!!!!

(What else is someone named "Lord Macbeth" going to suggest?) ;)

Besides that, how about Steinbeck? Of Mice and Men never ceases to amaze me, so short and seemingly so simple, and yet there's SO MUCH IN THERE...

Or some Poe and other Gothic writers of that sort?

[Sine_lege]

hm... "The Time of Indifference"- Alberto Moravia?