Please suggest a book for me

[KT-R]

Hello All!

I posted in the "Introductions" thread that I graduated with a degree in English about six years ago, but that I did not stay in academia... I went into Finance. Sadly, I had not read a book for leisure in the years after I graduated except for Finance text books. And... except for a silly NY Times Best Seller I picked up at Target the other day, and wasted two days of my life reading a 500 page book. Stupid move. I've never started a book that I didn't finish so I finished it...I felt obligated too after I got knee deep in it... but I was so mad at myself for reading it!!! Ugh! I bet you all know why!

So, I was hoping you all could make some suggestions on a book for me to read. I looked at a few top books lists out there and I found I've already read most of them because of my old academic career and well, I used to like to read a lot.

Perhaps a book that you think I must have already read because it usually appears on undergrad English reading lists, but is a million times better the second time? Or, a book that usually isn't assigned to English majors but you think should have been and I would love? Or a book that is SO different from what English majors usually are assigned or tend to gravitate to, but is just so good that I must read it?

You're probably going to ask what my tastes are to get an idea of what books to suggest that might interest me, but...honestly, I was able to appreciate most of what I studied because I found the academic discourse and analysis the enjoyable part. It was never a matter of "pretty language" or plots that made me "feel good" or a story that I found "entertaining." Complex tropological systems and philosophical texts intrigued me and I loved being challenged to unlock their meanings.

I'm not planning to read a book then write a paper these days. I probably forgot how to do that by now anyway. But I am looking for something that will at least make me FEEL like I want to write something on it, maybe get me to write some notes in the margins, every now and then some passages that will make me want to read again and go back to, maybe even some passages that will make me say "wow, this is amazing."

OK maybe that last one was asking for too much, LOL. But I am sure you all get what I'm saying right? I miss those feelings. You don't get much of that in Finance, I'll tell ya that much.

K

[tonywalt]

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

It's a complex and philosophical book

[KT-R]

Infinite Jest.... I'm interested. I looked over the wiki and it might just be right up my alley because I DO have a soft spot for Sci Fi but some of it sounds a little...ridiculous? Is it supposed to be funny? I have to admit I don't have the greatest sense of humor and I can't always sense sarcasm, especially. You might be picturing Sheldon Cooper's inability to sense sarcasm when I say that and well, you might not be totally inaccurate with that. Maybe it's not the right book for me.

Any other suggestions?

[The Kid]

If you want something stimulating that will make you feel like writing, you may want something that is written with a scholarly tone but has a strong, emotional topic. Perhaps a nonfiction about some sort of humanitarian crisis.

Or perhaps Franz Fanon, or Huey P. Newton. Both of them are somewhat scholarly but their subjects are very emotional (anti-colonialism/ anti-imperialism) and they are both very psychological. Even if they don't align with your political views the psychology aspect might interest.

[FROADS]

Ethics:The Essential Writings by Gordon Marino

Basically, a compilation of essays on ethics and morality ranging from Plato, Kant, Schopenhauer to Waltzer... Picked it up and was absorbed by it. Great book.

[mal4mac]

As you have read most of the classics why not choose yourself? What classics are a warm glow in memory?

[Kyriakos]

Since you mentioned you were interested in something a bit labyrinthine, maybe Borges or Kafka?

They are very different from each other, but both construct intricate formations in their works. Borges is more about showing you the delicate pattern, whereas Kafka possibly just was following his own stride in the unknown labyrinth.

So, in my view, if you want to read a small story, or a small amount of stories, you may want to read some Borges. If you want/mean to study an entire personal existence, then go with Kafka. Kafka, of course, self-destructed in the end, whereas Borges mostly faded away.

[KT-R]

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions!

I ultimately decided to take on Proust's In Search of Lost Time as one the one main book(s) for my new reading list. I ordered the 6 pack last night on Amazon! I glazed over Swann's Way in one of my last classes in college and it's something I'd like to dig deeper into now that I don't need to cover so much ground in such a short period of time. I am sure this won't be a quick task so I am sure there are some other works I'll want to read and take a break from it with so keep the suggestions coming.

The "intricate formations" and "delicate pattern" of Borges has got my attention. I remember reading some Borges in a magical realism course I took, but I think it was a critical theory piece? I cannot remember exactly. Any suggestions on which book to pick up?

[Kyriakos]

In my view his best work is the one presented in three story collections: The garden of forking paths, Ficciones, Aleph.

I think the last of those (Aleph) is probably my favorite, although i don't like the title piece (the story Aleph). Some of the other stories there are great in my view, such as The house of Asterion and The other Death. :)

But all three of those collections are good. If you get the Ficciones one, be sure it contains the latter addition of the story "The South".

[KT-R]

Thank you, Kyriakos! I'll order those later today. Before I search, are there any particular versions/translations that I should look out for?

[Lokasenna]

Borges is indeed excellent - my discovery of him is one of the most important events in my literary life.

I think the Penguin modern classics versions are pretty good translations. I speak enough Spanish to be able mostly to read Borges in the original, but on the few occaisions when recourse to a translation is necessary, it is clear that they are both very accurate and retain Borges' oratorical flair.

[hannah_arendt]

Borges is indeed excellent - my discovery of him is one of the most important events in my literary life.

I think the Penguin modern classics versions are pretty good translations. I speak enough Spanish to be able mostly to read Borges in the original, but on the few occaisions when recourse to a translation is necessary, it is clear that they are both very accurate and retain Borges' oratorical flair.

Borges has been a discover for me too. Have you tried Cortazar or Fuentes too?

[Kyriakos]

Thank you, Kyriakos! I'll order those later today. Before I search, are there any particular versions/translations that I should look out for?

I did not read them in English (or Spanish), so you should go with Lokasenna's suggestion :) Penguin is known as a very good publishing house anyway..

[hannah_arendt]

I did not read them in English (or Spanish), so you should go with Lokasenna's suggestion :) Penguin is known as a very good publishing house anyway..

I think that the language of translation is not so important here.

[Lokasenna]

Borges has been a discover for me too. Have you tried Cortazar or Fuentes too?

No, I haven't actually. I got in Borges because of his interest in Norse mythology (he was the first person to translate the Poetic Edda into Andalusian Spanish, and although I rapidly fell in love with him I haven't really had much of a chance to read some of his contemporaries - except for Pablo Neruda (who he didn't like anyway), whose poetry I've long enjoyed.


I think that the language of translation is not so important here.

I don't know about that - I suspect it would matter to Borges. After reading Beckford's Vathek in Spanish translation, he thought it was superb - and was very disappointed when he read the English originial. He famously remarked El original es infiel a la traducción (the original is unfaithful to the translation).

[hannah_arendt]

No, I haven't actually. I got in Borges because of his interest in Norse mythology (he was the first person to translate the Poetic Edda into Andalusian Spanish, and although I rapidly fell in love with him I haven't really had much of a chance to read some of his contemporaries - except for Pablo Neruda (who he didn't like anyway), whose poetry I've long enjoyed.



I don't know about that - I suspect it would matter to Borges. After reading Beckford's Vathek in Spanish translation, he thought it was superb - and was very disappointed when he read the English originial. He famously remarked El original es infiel a la traducción (the original is unfaithful to the translation).

Sometimes the translation sounds better than the original version :)

I remember reading Marquez in Spanish. At the very beginning it was very difficult but I felt it stronger in Polish. I bought "Lord of the ring" in German. Maybe one day I`ll manage to read it.

[apferraresi]

May I suggest "The books map"? It contains reviews of the most amazing books I've ever read. Visit thebooksmap.blogspot.co.uk/

[chrisvia]

I would think Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum fits the bill if you're looking more for the erudition of the content than the literariness of the prose. Written by the semiotician, it is chock full of symbols and meanings--some real, some imagined.

[RetsixArp]

... I went into Finance. ... Complex tropological systems and philosophical texts intrigued me and I loved being challenged to unlock their meanings. ...Finance, complex tropological systems?

I've never completed William Gaddis's "J R" (1975), but it sounds up your alley: anonymous 11-yr-old parlays penny stocks into a fortune. It's all dialogue, but the speakers are never named. I tried reading it years ago but traveled lots for my job then & never got thru it. I'll try again one day.

Currently reading Philip Roth's "Operation Shylock" (1991), about a narrator named Philip Roth who meets his double, Philip Roth, in Jerusalem in 1988, during the John Demjanjuk trial. Narrator Roth assumes the identity of double Roth.