Compiling a reading list

Hello everyone!

After a couple of years away from any sort of novel, I have decided it is time for me to get back into the habit of reading. My one big problem is simply...I do not know where to start. There are so many authors and novels out there. I discovered this place and I am hoping for most of you to help with some recommendations and whatnot.

I guess to start out I'll write a little bit about myself:

I am currently attending university, I'll be in my 3rd year. I love film (that is what my degree is in) and my favorite filmmaker is Rainer Werner Fassbinder. I eat, sleep, drink Fassbinder. I have yet to view his entire filmography (working on that), but from what I have seen I love Whity and The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. Some of my other favorite films are The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, All That Heaven Allows, Week End (1967), Scorpio Rising, Eraserhead, and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

When it comes to music, I worship Grimes. Her music and her voice are beautiful. I also enjoy The Beatles, Radiohead, Big Black, Sunn O))) (my name, har har), just to name a few.

As I have stated before I have not read in a while, and by that I mean the books I have read have mostly been assigned for class. Because of that I do have some bias against certain books, but for a few others I just simply do not care too much for them. The books I do have an immense joy for include: Of Mice and Men, Things Fall Apart, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and I Am Legend.

Some novels that have called my attention, but I have yet to pick up, include: Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow, Berlin Alexanderplatz (for obvious reasons), Moby Dick

That should be all you need to know to help me out. I will truly appreciate your help! If you have any more questions, please let me know.

How about Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. There was a 60's rock band named after the book and Boney M sang a song outlining the plot.

Go to a public library.
Pick a book by Aardvark and one by Zygote (or as near as you can get alphabetically to these celebrated authors.)
Read the last ten pages of the book by Aardvark, and the first ten pages of the book by Zygote.
If you don't want to know what happens in Zygote's book, or why it happened in Aardvark's, then these authors are not for you, else you've found an author you find interesting.

Repeat with books by Aardvark+1 and by Zygote-1.

Try anthologies from Norton and other publishers.

It seems to me like maybe you like dark humor, and a quirky, maybe gritty sensibility. Gravity's Rainbow is maybe my favorite book, but hard to recommend to someone not used to a long, hard read, that also happens to be bitterly funny. Same goes for Ulysses. An easier choice would be Catch-22, or Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49. For some reason your love of Fassbinder is making me recommend Nathaniel West, Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locust, sold together and a great bargain. Everyone should read Moby Dick. You might like Clockwork Orange. More hints would lead to more recommendations

As you like Tolstoy and Steinbeck why not try more of them? Maybe intesperse them with the more demanding modernist works on your list (Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow, ...) so you have somewhere confortable to retreat to if they prove too demanding... as Ulysses did for me...