Book Recommendations

[sybaritical]

i liked white noise, too-----perfect for the supergay with a short attention span

I am supergay.

Watch me ride!

Hear me roar!

Picked up Ernest Hemingway for some reason. $4 at a thrift store yesterday

and it reads like a boys' own.

[Guest youngteam]

i agree with all of this. and TO THE LIGHTHOUSE may be the most beautifully written english-language book ever.

denimdestroyedmylife, let's start a superfuture book club. entree requires the ability to form sentences using a gerund, infinitive and participle; a written sample that contains correct and liberal usage of the semicolon; belle and sebastian on one's ipod; a conspicuous absence of testicles.

[haptronic]

[sybaritical]

I'll see you and raise.

[polishmike]

[cyberPUNK]

anything by haruki murakami is a great read. for beginners i'd recommend "hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world," it'll give you a good introduction to his writing style, even though it's been translated.

[perledeculture]

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is an amazing read.

Be warned, however, it is a monstrosity of a book.

[feather]

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

Neal Stephenson - Snow crash, Diamond Age

William Gibson - Neuromancer, Pattern Recognition

Ruy Murakami - Almost Transparent Blue

Neil Gaiman - Sandman, American Gods, Stardust

Grant Morrison - Arkham Asylum

John Simmons - The Invisible Grail

Alfredo Marcantonio - Well-written and red

M. J. Harrison - Light

Roger Zalazny - Lord of Light, Great Book of Amber

Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen

Mike Carey - Lucifer

Haruhi Murakami - Norgwegian Wood

Banana Yoshimoto - Kitchen

Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinth

Helen Gardner, et al - The Metaphysical Poets

E. E. Cummings - Selected Poems

Milan Kundera - Life is elsewhere

Jeff Noon - Vurt

[fade to black2]

48 laws of power.

[justinbaily21]

A Light In August

Absalom, Absalom!

The Sound and the Fury (Big Faulkner fan)

Don Quixote

Infinite Jest (about 200 pages in and it's great so far)

The Sun Also Rises

The book of Ecclesiastes (Ignore the first and last few lines. Different author than the rest of the book.)

I also enjoyed "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs," but the chapters are very hit and miss. Same with "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." I can only take so much ironic, self-awareness. It was a good summer read, though.

[soepom]

the new english dandy

this is insane, i was at pageone today and i saw this very book for the first time. i was browsing through it contemplating whether i should buy it for the ex. but decided against it in the end because he doesn't have the personality for those fits. and then i come back and see this post!

too serendipitous. given what's transpired between us over the past few days jmatsu, this is frightening.

that said, it's also strange that out of the few books i do actually own, among them are the fountainhead, the alchemist, oyster boy and the little prince. i've also read quite a number of the other books listed here. given that music tastes seem so diverse on sufu, i find it odd that our reading preferences seem alot more similar.

since this isn't the favourite books thread, but the recommend-to-superfuturians thread. i'd say:

Life on The Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet - Sherry Turkle

The Internet has become a significant social laboratory for experimenting with the constructions and reconstructions of self that characterize postmodern life. In its virtual reality, we self-fashion and self-create.

Turkle, 1995:180

even though some of the observations are a little obsolete due to changes in the technology, it is still a seminal text for those interested in understanding online social interaction.

[superBobo]

epictetus - "the handbook"

marcus aurelius - "meditations"

very very inspiring, for me atleast.

[justinbaily21]

^^^ I'll sign off on both of those books. I didn't want to list off every philosophy book that I've read in college, although I gladly would. Meditations and Handbook are both air-tight examples of how to lead a noble life.

[zimzima911]

the omnivore's dilema - michael pollan...and botany of desire for that matter. both are by pollan.

im into food writing and these were both quite intriguing, both an outside of the box take on food culture and history in the us.

[palabok]

"Holes" - Louis Sachar

[sleazie ninja number 47]

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is an amazing read.

Be warned, however, it is a monstrosity of a book.

co-sign on this. i read this shit in 2 and a half days...so good.

[feather]

this is insane, i was at pageone today and i saw this very book for the first time. i was browsing through it contemplating whether i should buy it for the ex. but decided against it in the end because he doesn't have the personality for those fits. and then i come back and see this post!

Bah--you should've bought it for yourself. It's dope.

[BOORADLEY]

black spring - henry miller

[feather]

No To kill a mocking bird?

[lllllllllllllll]

the five people you meet in heaven

falling leaves

the kite runner

[arevalo]

anything by haruki murakami is a great read. for beginners i'd recommend "hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world," it'll give you a good introduction to his writing style, even though it's been translated.

I'm almost done with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Awesome writer.

[pete mcstunna]

Great thread!

The Confessions of Nat Turner, by William Styron.

Novel about the leader of a slave revolt, a must-read for the U.S. History heads.

[brightbill]

Not a book, but - half.com! Bunch of the titles on this page are on there for $0.75-$2.00... find a good seller with a couple titles you like, combine shipping, you're good with a stack of books for a while.

Oh, also - if you somehow haven't already, East of Eden

[Handlethevibe]

1984

A Brave New World

The Island

Fahrenheit 451

Anthem

We

I love dystopian/anti-utopian novels.

[DEPHT]

Things Fall Apart

A History of Reading

East of Eden

Monocle (magazine)

The Name of the Rose

Who Owns History?

[DrMoBueno]

fools die/mario puzo

american tabloid/james ellroy

pattern recognition/william gibson

on the road/jack kerouac

[chromesquared]

On the road would also be on my list.

The sun also rises (Fiesta)

Devil in the white city (amazing, basically true story, highly rec)

Cannery row

A farwell to arms

Currrently reading, the green hills of Africa.

[FUCK]

sound and the fury-faulkner

a few people recommended house of leaves, i enjoyed it but really fucking pretentious at times, but if you have ever lived in LA you'll probably enjoy it.

I'm reading Infinite Jest at the moment which i'm assuming helped inspire danielewski, but infinite jest is probably triple the size but only 300 pages into and i love it soo much more, masterful and an immense contribution to literature.

IF you're going to read anything by rand read the fountainhead, everything else is gravy.

Baron in the trees-Calvino, prob one of my top ten books, greatest ending ever.

Dubliners, Portrait, anything by joyce really.

lots of great stuff out there! i could go on and on but i won't becuase this thread probably isn't even relevant anymore

[viv1984viv]

Loads of good suggestions here. Im currently reading regeneration by Pat Barker, brilliant stuff, I guess its a sort of mythopoeisithesizing story, mining a fiction, between WHR Rivers, Siegfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen at a hospital for shell-shocked during WW1, really great stuff. Its the first part of a trilogy.

I also read Austerlitz recently - cant recommend this book enough, conceptually just so so developed, really great, every word is important, this whole book could fill a gcse syllabus. In regard to the times we live in I see this book as much more relevant than anything ive read from Gibson ( i know this i peculiar comparison! ).

I also read 2 short storys by Craig Davidson - wow - this guy... I really want to read one of his novels or maybe his shorts collection next. Thats if I dont get distracted by the countless others Ive yet to read *sigh*

In relation to all the above posts

100 years of solitude was a let down for me, maybe I just dont get it

Fahrenheit 451 is so underated, for me its on par with 1984 at least.

Dubliners is great, really paints a picture

[tweeds]

dunno if this is the right place for it but-

might anyone care to introduce me to your favourite lyrical poets?

i have a huge crush on dylan thomas

when i get the chance to read [with friends, or ] i like to use his work

also philip larkin

such complexity in his writing! and so much aural potency