Coming off a literary high - please help

What about 100 years of solitude or Love in the Time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Both fantastic books.

The Catcher in the Rye
The Bell Jar,

'Catcher' very over-rated imho. Read 'East Of Eden' instead! :)

Nomen. I am always reluctant to suggest that people 'persevere' with books just becuase I liked them. I think books can be a bit like peopl -, you just get on better with some than others. I was curious why you had that impression of Wolfe though. I do seem to like him more than pretty much anybody else I know. I have started to wonder if that is partly becuase I first read a Tom Wolfe book when I was a teenager. I was much less critical then and fell in love with books and stories and authors and characters in a sort of starry eyed way that I don't anymore (and I miss that). Anyhow....

I had to Wikki Holden Caulfied. Amazed to realise I have never read Catcher in the Rye. Should I? Is it as good as the hype suggests?

Ugh - I HATED 'Shades Of Grey.' Shouldn't have bothered trying it tbf as I haven't liked any of his others either but keep trying in the hope I might suddenly start to like him! Won't try any more.

Omen I can't believe I missed out Maus! Good call.

So glad Wolf hall came up- I just loved it. Thinking back over the years for one off books that I read and loved- would you do magic realism at all? How about Like water for Chocolate, or early Isabelle Allende? I remember falling into House of Spirits aged 15 and and not surfacing for days- but havent read it since so dont know how I would feel now. Also really liked Bel Canto from a few years ago and Knowledge of Angels- all quite easy reads rather brain hurty. In terms of where we might meet taste wise I venture into the sci fi like Diamond Age etc but I also wait impatiently for Ian M Bands and will resort to frantic Prachetting if stressed, which will be a black mark I suspect.

Has anyone mentioned Shades of Grey by jasper fforde- its a fantasy book in that it is set in a world nothing like ours although may have once been ours, very readable, and refreshingly unlike anything I have ever read-keep meaning to track down his other stuff.

'Lolita' is one of my favourite books ever - have read it many times. Less fond of his others and in fact can remember almost absolutely nothing about them.

Middlemarch was the book I adored from age 17 to about 25. It totally absorbed me at that age & undoubtedly shaped a lot of my views of the world & convictions (in a desperately do-gooder I-want-to-be-Dorothea way). Not picked it up now for years & not sure I could face re-reading, but it did mean an awful lot to me at the time. I haven't read any other Eliot for years...if its going to be something from that era I'd prefer Dickens now.

Never really attempted any of the Great American authors of the Roth/Wolfe era, I've stuck to Donna Tartt, Jonathan Franzen, etc. Would like to give Don deLillo a go, though.

Any takers for Nabokov? Lolita was impressive but left me repelled & not wanted to go back to it. Pale Fire was...interesting...

Maybe. But the plots (what I read about them, at least) of his novels, especially Bonfire and that college girl one just didn't appeal. But perhaps it was their try-hard, contrived social setting thing? Should I persevere? I somehow felt it would be like reading the literary output of an ageing Holden Caulfield (though god knows how I formed this impression - no doubt unfair!).

Apols if I am abrupt in posting. On touchscreen so can't be arsed with long sentences.

Nomen, out of interest, do you sort of sense that perhaps Wolf is trying a bit too hard?
I ask because lots of people say that sort of thing when I mention him, but don't know why either.

I am not on Twitter. Scared of addiction.

Ok, phew. Enough to read already, and so little time.

Yes, that's her. She's always Anna in my head when I read her posts.

I've not read any Wolfe. Strangely put off by him. Not sure why.

Har-har, Eggsits.

So, should I read the Blue Ant trilogy? (Blue Ant? - is that right? Off to google...)

Is BonsoirAnna the same person as Bonsoir who's on the S&B threads?

I failed totally with, 'Bonfire Of The Vanities' (found it completely unreadable tbh) but somebody irl (whose opinion I totally respect in most things!) recently recommended it to me again.

Hmm. Overuse of grin smiley.

I've not read the latest trilogy. The earlier stuff - like Dick, I guess - just does your head in with its uncanny prescience.

I only found them in the last 10 years or so, though, after The Matrix, I'm embarrassed to say...

I also have it on good authority that BonsoirAnna is v. nice. But you have to admit that she is the queen of the p-a smiley.

I'm not taking it personally (though now it sounds as if I'm protesting too much! ).

I wasn't insulted. Just reflecting that one woman's daft is another's best ever.

Besides, I love a lot of science and dystopian fiction. Dick, Gibson, Atwood, etc.

Could never get into Dune. The Atreids thing was too funny to me (Vico, Nietzsche, Joyce, Mitchell again...). But on the strength of this thread I'm going to try it again.

Whoops - 3

OP Have you read The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass?

Now there is an interesting book.