Recommendations?

stupidmansuit

Registered
Joined
Aug 22, 2005
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Hey all,

Please forgive me if I'm putting this in the wrong place, but I wasn't sure where it should go. I'm in the mood for a good book, and was hoping you guys could give a few suggestions. I really am in the mood for a book that will have a huge effect on me-- I've been devasated by books in the past, like after I read John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany, I felt like I could never read anything again cause it would never be good enough.
So, my question is to you all, what do you consider required reading for this life? The books that affected you most deeply? I guess I really just need a good book.
Many thanks.
 

Sesselja

When I read The Secret History by Donna Tarrt, I exclaimed that I wanted to marry the book. So I would recommend that one.
 

Inkdaub

wrapped in plastic
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
1,074
Reaction score
89
Location
Past where the river bends, past where the silo st
I recently read 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon(translation by Graves) and it is one of the best books I have ever read. We'll see if it stands the test of time but it really hit me hard. I can't recommend it enough.
 

Cath

The mean one
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
8,971
Reaction score
2,298
Age
50
Location
Here. Somewhere. Probably.
Website
blog.cathsmith.net
Depends what kind of thing you enjoy, but if you like literary fiction, I can recommend Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. It's powerful, devastating in places and very intelligently written.
 
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Messages
267
Reaction score
13
Age
74
Location
7th generation Floridian
Huckleberry Finn remains the winner and still champion of American books. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' THE YEARLING won almost every important award and is excellent. Tolstoy's WAR & PEACE sits atop Mt.Olympus...alone. But you must endure 200 pages of introductions before it takes flight. John Steinbeck's CANNERY ROW and SWEET THURSDAY are fun, excellent reads, too. GEORGIA SCENES by Abraham Baldwin Longstreet was published in 1835 and is still in print. It's a hoot and influenced Mark Twain's style.
 

alleycat

Still around
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
72,873
Reaction score
12,224
Location
Tennessee
Three off the top of my pointy little head . . .

The Stranger, Camus

The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullers
 

kilamangiro

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 25, 2006
Messages
66
Reaction score
7
Location
Ireland
you've probably read both, but "To Kill A Mockingbird," or "Wuthering Heights" probably fit the bill.
For a contemporary novel I would recommend "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time," by Mark Haddon. There is a thread about it below.
 

TrainofThought

A flowering bud of bitchiness
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 7, 2006
Messages
6,179
Reaction score
6,835
Location
Land of Bier
Website
www.authordenisebaer.com
stupidmansuit said:
I've been devasated by books in the past, like after I read John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany, I felt like I could never read anything again cause it would never be good enough. So, my question is to you all, what do you consider required reading for this life? The books that affected you most deeply? I guess I really just need a good book.
”A Prayer for Owen Meany” is one of my favorite books. I loved the way John wrote Owen’s lines in CAPS; awesome and made sense at the end. Anyways, to answer your question, you can read the book I’m reading and maybe explain it to me (JK). Here are a few recommendations: “I Know This Much Is True” by Wally Lamb. This may be considered a woman’s book, but the subject matter affected me - “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult. The top book I recommend is “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This book really inspired me to write. Hope you find a good book.
 
Last edited:

stupidmansuit

Registered
Joined
Aug 22, 2005
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Thanks for all the replies/suggestions! Got lots of ideas, and have been looking on amazon. I usually kind of read just literary type novels, but I am open to everything, really. Like right now I'm reading Gregory Maguire's Wicked, for the first time (after falling for the stage show), and am in rapturous love with it.
Re Owen Meany- I still don't think I've ever found anything as good, that affected me so, again. The ending of that book, the last 100 pages, just made me put my head in my hands and weep. Truly.
Ones I think I might like to try are the Kafka on the Shore, Shadow of the Wind, and I Know This Much Is True (has been on my shelf for forever), but they all sound good... Curious Incident, too, I keep hearing good things about....
Thanks again!
 

kali_weim

Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
41
Reaction score
2
Location
Ohio
I don't want to sound like too much of a newbie, but I really enjoyed "The Five People You Meet in Heaven." It shows how the people you meet can change your life and the life of the ones you meet.

The ending was great for me.
 

seppuku05

Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
80
Reaction score
6
Location
Cambridgeshire
Website
www.seppuku-arts.co.nr
'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro is centered around life, there are is a lot to be learned from it - The narrator is the main character and an unreliable narrator, who most of the time is in the delusion of his own perfect world, to only come to terms with it in his first holiday/days off from working as butler for 40 years. - This has been high rated and made into a movie starring Antony Hopkins, James Fox, Christopher Reeve, Hugh Grant (Before Notting Hill) and whats-her-face ;) But if you must, watch the movie last, the book is far better.

'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro - Another great novel by him, I actually loved this, I think it is much better than his other novel listed here, he got a lot of bad crit from the 'Unconsoled' but this one makes up for it. I managed to grip onto this really well - It's basically the life story of the character 'Kathy' but there's more to it, in her childhood her and her friends have been 'extra special' from anybody else...-The ending was quite sad and sweet.

'1984' by George Orwell - Yeah it's more of a political statement, but it makes you see things differently and apply certain things to society today, perhaps life changing the sense you're going to be skeptic of what you see and try to lead your own life and not one the media or other people try to set out for you.

'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss - Non Fiction, but knowing there are pedantic nutters like her out there, it will make you think twice about your punctuation, ;)
 

PrettySpecialGal

roll, roll, roll in ze hay
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Messages
2,026
Reaction score
688
Location
wis ze "photographer husband"
I don't want to sound like too much of a newbie, but I really enjoyed "The Five People You Meet in Heaven." It shows how the people you meet can change your life and the life of the ones you meet.

The ending was great for me.

ooooh- I do love this one.

Also- HUNDRED SECRET SENSES by Amy Tan- that's my fav

I usually read children's lit- there's so much out there that can speak to us adults as well. JACOB HAVE I LOVED by Katherine Patterson, anything by Kimberly Willis Holt...
need more?
:)
 

Scrawler

Bored fanatic
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 7, 2006
Messages
662
Reaction score
62
Location
Los Angeles
I'm looking forward to reading S.E. Hinton's newest, "Some of Tim's Stories"
Her YA novels ("The Outsiders" and "That Was Then, This is Now") made a big impression on me when I was a teen.