Coming off a literary high - please help

@cote ...having read further into the thread, I definitely recommend Dark Tower. You don't need to retread the first one again (that one is a bit pants tbh) - just dive in with book 2. All you need to remember is summarised at the front. And if you time it right you will be able to read the new book in the correct sequence (after wizard and glass and before Wolves.....) when it comes out in just over a fortnight. I absolutely adore The Dark Tower.

And persepolis really not a comic book!

Well if we're considering graphic novels, I strongly recommend Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Tells the story of the author growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and Iran/Iraq war and is absolutely fascinating. I found it more so because the author is just a year older than I am, so I remember seeing on the news all the things she lived through.

@cote read Mitchell's other books. Ghostwritten is my favourite but they are all brilliant.

Just trust me!

Yes to, 'The Hunger Games.' I've only read the first one so far, but I enjoyed it.

Also Patrick ness', 'Knife Of Never Letting Go' series if you don't object to teen fiction.

Swastika Night. It makes Handmaids Tale look like it was written for children.

How about China Mieville The City and the City, which I really liked, though I am struggling a bit with Perdido Street Station.

If you haven't read it yet, you could always try The Hunger Games Trilogy for a fairly quick read.

Oh yes Dune and maybe the second Dune book but you end up with the law of diminishing returns after that.

I wouldn't (being a geek and former Comicshop owner) blow off the graphic novels so lightly. The films of V for Vendetta and Watchmen bare no relation to nor are anywhere near the same league as the original books. Both of these are incredibly deep and layered tales. V for Vendetta especially (a dystopian tale about a terrorist/freedom fighter in a 1984esq world).

Sandman is written by Gaiman and covers a whole range of different styles of writing, art and storytelling. I think personally it is a far superior work to his later novels.

Batman Year one and Dark Knight Returns are superhero comics but are considered to be the last word in them. Year One follows the parallel tales of Jim Gordon coming to Gotham and Bruce Wayne returning and it is brutal, gritty and very down to Earth. DKR is written as the last Batman tale and features an aged Bruce Wayne returning to the mantle. It is a parody of American culture and the American dream.

Watchmen and any of Alan Moore's work from the 80s and early 90s are well worth a look. Watchmen transcends the superhero genre and is a metatextual piece that plays with time, colour, style and even genre.

From Hell is a telephone book sized pHD paper on Jack the Ripper in graphic form (and again bares utterly no relation to the film based on it).

Strangers in Paradise is just wonderful. That's all.

Most are available from the library if you don't want to buy.

Slaughterhouse V is pretty much my favourite book of all time; So it goes.

Iain M Banks and his nonsci-fi alter ego Iain Banks are well worth a look he is dark in either guise but often in very different ways.

Nope - just go straight onto the second. The only things you need to remember are that Walter is Roland's nemesis and that Roland chooses to let Jake fall - ie he sacrifices love in his quest for the tower (and could therefore potentially be damned).

The Handmaid's Tale is v good. A Thousand Splendid Suns is crap.

Hurray! Together, we may just convince her! :)

It took me several attempts to read, 'A Clockwork Orange' too - for ages I couldn't get past the second page...but then I forced myself to keep going and it turned out to be one of the best books I have ever read.

Oh and Cote - have you read the CJ Sansom Matthew Shardlake series?

And, 'Paula' by Isabel Allende?

And, you might like, 'Wolf Hall' though I must admit it irritated the hell out of me.

Interesting - I thought Cloud Atlas was brilliant but found This Thing of Darkness really pedestrian, just one long exposition of stuff I already knew, and not a novel at all.

Remus I'm not a Pratchett fan (though I do like Hogfather and Soul Music) but I found Good Omens enjoyable in an 'easy read' kind of way, and I think he's tempered very well by Gaiman's input.

Clockwork Orange I attempted twice before I finally finished it, and have to say I'm glad I did because I did enjoy it.

I'd agree with your advice to Cote to have a go at the second Dark Tower book before writing the series off. It's really not a magical questy type book once you get past the first installment.

Not sure you'd like, 'Good Omens' tbh. In fact, I'm pretty sure you'd hate Pratchett.

Have you read, 'Fight Club' by any chance? I didn't 'like' it as such but it was reasonably diverting.

Ooh and what about the book about the true story that inspired Moby Dick? I can find out its name if you're interested - that was excellent.

Cote Please try the second Dark Tower book before you write the series off for good. I also hate pretty much most other fantasy but this is truly excellent.

Have you read, 'American Gods' and 'Anansi Boys' by Neil Gaiman? I think you might like those. Also, have you read the obvious things like '1984' and 'Day Of The Triffids' etc? I imagine you have, but I thought I'd ask anyway!

btw loved this thing of darkness but not so keen on cloud atlas...much preferred ghostwritten by david mitchell

why not go for a complete contrast....have just finished elizabeth von arnim's enchanted april...4 women escape to italy from london in the 20's...quite a light read with some knockout insights and one liners along the way.

I loved Cloud Atlas.
The Road by Cormack McCarthy is intense. Also love Margaret Atwood - Handmaid's Tale is still my favourite. And look up Joyce Carol Oates - she's written loads of great books: My Sister, My Love, Black Girl/White Girl and We Were the Mulvaneys to name some excellent examples.