If anyone's really bored... here are some books I enjoyed, what else might I like?

[hopefully]

Not posted on here before, but there seem to be lots of alarmingly well read people, so I'm hoping someone can make some recommendations.

I'll read really pretty much anything at all, with the possible exception of 'classics' (I have started War and Peace 4 times, and my record is page 25). Also any book with sloppy editing, which discounts a lot of chick lit (although I love it when its tightly edited). My all time most hated book in terms of editing was Eragon, and one of the Harry Potters (maybe the 5th one?)

I've got 5 weeks of annual leave coming up before maternity leave starts, and I'm hoping I might find time to read some books in between pre-washing 8 million nappies...

So here's what I've read recently:
Many books by Terry Pratchett (been re-reading discworld books)
The time travellers wife
The lovely bones
A couple of Terry Goodkind books
Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson
Yes Man - Danny Wallace
The Thursday Next books - Jasper Fforde
Dirk Pitt novels - Clive Cussler
The book of lost things - can't remember author's name!
Shopaholic and baby - Sophie Kinsella (sorry, I know I said I liked good editing!)
The Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
The artemis fowl books - Eoin Colfer

Sorry, I know there's a bit of a jumble in there - I'll read almost anything! I love fantasy, but also non-fiction, 'literature' ones like the lovely bones. Erm....

[zippitippitoes]

i dont think i can help the only book i have read that you mention is war and peace (twice)

[hopefully]

I am v envious of you - I start it absolutely determined that I will not be put off, and I always end up picking up another (easier) book and never getting back to it.

TBH I could do with having some more top end books recommended, as I think I'm quite lazy with my reading (hence the many children's books)

[TillyScoutsmum]

Ok - I quite like "easy" reading and have enjoyed some of the ones you mention (couldn't do War & Peace either but have done some of the classics). A few suggestions - warning - its an eclectic mix

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Piccoult
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
The Kiterunner - as above
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The Thirteenth Tale ( can't remember author and had lent the book out)
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory

[Pruners]

Message withdrawn

[zippitippitoes]

what about some magical realism

or margaret atwood

brilliant book tahir shah the sorcerer's apprentice

patrick mcgarth asylum

jenny diski any but skating to antarctica and the dcream mistress are good

memories of a ghost brother by heinz insu fenkl

isabel allende

[sallyforth]

Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go
Rohinton Mistry - Family Matters

...um.......

Diana Wynne Jones - Howls Moving Castle (or whatever the book is called, that is what the film is called), Archer's Goon, etc.

If you have never read the Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking glass books then you must!

Sorry not great on more grown-up fantasy but my friends have read Lois McMaster Bujold, etc.

btw there is a website called Librarything where you tell it what books you have got (and, presumably, like) and it recommends others that people with a similar "library" to you have got.

[sallyforth]

Oh yes agree with margaret atwood recommendation

[Inquisitive]

Some (very) random thoughts...

To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold
Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees
Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen - Garth Nix

[MissingMyHeels]

The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas is a fab read, fairly "light" but with lots of philosophy if you want to take it that way.

Mark Hadodn books? A spot of bother, The curious incident of the dog in the night time and loads more.

David Mitchell - Gohstwritten

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

Have you read the other Jasper Fforde books, The Big Over Easy etc?

[hopefully]

Ooh, thanks for suggestions so far! Have read Mockingbird, and the book thief (how did I forget that one? It was probably my favourite book of the year?), but will note down the others.

Someone suggested Jodi Picoult, what kind of stuff does she write? The lovely bones was... ermmm... what's her bloody name? Anna Sebold? something like that.

My list is getting longer, I am excited! I have about £80 that is going on books this month (I'm being ridiculously indulgent, but it's amazing what you can afford when you don't have to buy a monthly ticket into London!)

I am always scared by the covers of Atwoods books - for some reason I always think they are going to be boring. Judge a book by its cover? Moi? Never.

[ChukkyPig]

Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy and all other douglas adams would be right up your street.

Guess you've probably already read them all!

Feersum Endjinn by Iain M Banks is good. Jeff Noon writes interesting stuff - I loved Vurt when I was at uni not read it for a few years now though. (trying to think of sci.fi/fantasy type stuff for you!).

[mum2oandh]

very random but

The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall (slow to start but then my favourite book ever)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (just beautiful)

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (funny and black and brilliant)

happy reading......[snile]

[hopefully]

I meant someone else suggested Jodi Picoult to me once.

[hopefully]

Oh bugger, have to go to midwife appointment - will check up on further recommendations and add to my list when I'm back!

[mum2oandh]

snile ha ha was of course a

[choosyfloosy]

would second Lois McMaster Bujold, one of the few authors recommended by my xh that I liked (sounds lukewarm recommendation but it isn't!)

I bet you'd like Robin Hobbs and Diana Gabaldon (the series that starts with Cross-Stitch).

I can help more on the chick side:
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield
Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald
and if you haven't read any Adele Parks I thoroughly recommend her. Any of hers really.

[TillyScoutsmum]

Jodi Piccoult books always have a legal/courtroom basis. Usually children involved, Some of them are good, some not so and if you read more than, say, 3 or 4 of them, they're a bit samey but I really enjoyed the first couple I read.

My Sister's Keeper was probably my favorite. Salem Falls and Vanishing Act were both ok as well

I like Sarah Waters as well - Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet

[Inquisitive]

Ooh yes, Provincial Lady/Nancy Mitford are great. And if you like them, you might also like I Capture the Castle by Dodi Smith and The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice.

[cyteen]

If you've got a few weeks to get lost in a massive series, I can't recommend the Song of Ice and Fire books (by George R R Martin) highly enough. The first three, especially, are just spectacularly good. It's fantasy with a huge scope but full of diverse and perfectly drawn complex characters; it covers a nation's descent into civil war in pretty unflinching detail, but is also warm and funny amongst all the death and grimness. They're massive books but once you get into them they just fly by

Other stuff you might like:

Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex
Rupert Thomson - Death of a Murderer
Steven Sherrill - The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
Anything by Tim Moore - he's like Bill Bryson, only British and (IMO) funnier

[Fanella]

Being another Pratchett fan I would have to recommend Neil Gaiman - especially American Gods. Also love Clive Barker - particularly Imajica & Weaveworld.

I've only read one Terry Goodkind and I didn't enjoy it at all.

Highly Recommend Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy - in fact all Douglas Adams.

[cyteen]

Oh yes, Neil Gaiman's short story collection (Smoke and Mirrors) is very good.

You could do worse than investigate some graphic novels too. Anything with Alan Moore's name on it is usually worth reading - I particularly love the Promethea series and Top Ten, although From Hell, V For Vendetta and Watchmen are all brilliant too. A good non-fantasy graphic novel I read recently is Blankets by Craig Thompson - it's a lovely memoir about first love and teenage angst, the artwork is amazing.

[Sam100]

If you like a bit of historical time travelling romance stuff try the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I think the first one is called "Cross Stitch" here.

[thumbsucker]

And to add to the time traveller theme, what about Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume - one of my favourite books ever

[artgirl73]

Try Christopher Brookmyre for intelligent and very funny crime fiction?

I have just finished a Richard and Judy (ugh, I know!) thriller called No Time For Goodbye, and it was a cracking good read with a great plot.

Let us know what you pick, and good luck!

[LadyThompson]

The Cazalet Chronicle by Elizabeth Jane Howard (4 books, first one is The Light Years). Delicious. She is an underrated writer. Family/inter war drama. Family of posh people. Fab fab fab, and I don't normally like 'that sort of book'.