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Original poster

Coming off a literary high - please help

438 replies

CoteDAzur · 07/04/2012 09:40

I just read Cloud Atlas and This Thing Of Darkness in quick succession, both epic, fantastic books of great scope and vision.

Now I don't now what to do with myself. Read another book, but what? What can I read now that won't be a huge disappointment after these two wonderful books that I have just finished?

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Original poster
CoteDAzur · 09/04/2012 22:31

It was an honest question. I didn't mean to insult you or your favourite books.

I think you are wrong to write off sci-fi as a genre because the future can't be foretold. For the most part, good sci-fi doesn't aim to forecast the future, but to create a future by asking just a few "What if?" questions. What if it were possible to download personalities into bodies, eliminating death by old age, among other things? What if all computers were banned everywhere and some people were trained to "compute"? What if a lunar mission found a smoothly cut monolith buried underground? What would people do then and what kind of world would that lead to?

Many sci-fi authors prefer to call their books "speculative fiction" these days, because the term "sci-fi" brings to mind wonky fantasies about some silly future. That is not what the good ones do, at all.

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NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:28

Yes, I second notenough's thanks. Lots I want to read now.

NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:27

Oh god, Eggsits. Now I'm going to spend all night wondering about the second book. Joy of Sex?

notenoughsocks · 09/04/2012 22:26

oooo - just thought. On the 'big books' theme you might try Tom Woolfe's (sp?) Bonfire of the Vanities. Maybe a bit out of left field. I really enjoyed it but then I really enjoy Tom Woolf (even though I can't remember how to spell his name).

Thanks for starting this thread by the way. Is great to get all these suggestions.

Eggsits · 09/04/2012 22:24

Oh no, someone had to mention Middlemarch.

It is one of the only two books I own where the back has come off, not from being read so many times, but from being started so many times.

I have absolutely no idea what the attraction is.

I am not telling you what the other book without the back is.

NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:24

Is that a passive aggressive BonsoirAnna type smiley? Particularly after your Freudian slip (kinda)?

Grin
NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:21

Not read Vineland. Probably early Pynchon is better.

notenoughsocks · 09/04/2012 22:21

Another vote for Lessing's Golden Notebook also. (and, she wrote a great introduction for a re-issue in which she discussed ways of reading and of finding new books to read)
Also, that suggestion put me in mind of the L Shaped Room. Maybe a bit dated now, but I loved it. I remember it as one of those sort of 'life changing' books that somebody mentioned.

Original poster
CoteDAzur · 09/04/2012 22:20

I was wondering what you were talking about in that post, with Jouce and Vicomte. Assumed you were some minor characters in history you've read a book about Smile

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Original poster
CoteDAzur · 09/04/2012 22:18

The only Pynchon I've read is Vineland. Am I missing something? It was pure drivel, from start to finish. Author's intellectual masturbation. All about "Look how long my sentences are! Look how funny I am!". Gah.

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NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:18

I dunno. I tend to scoff at books which sincerely imagine the future 20,000 years hence. Doesn't mean they're not good.

NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:15

Pynchon is good, too. Crying of Lot 49 (little); Gravity's Rainbow (big).

NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:13

And who the merry hell is Jouce? Hmm

NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:12

Vicomte? Wretched iPad. Should say VICO.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 09/04/2012 22:11

Thanks - am pretty clued up on Stalin.

Will try and get Master and Dune in the library tomorrow.

NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:11

Indeed. Or like Vicomte and Jouce said too... Wink

Original poster
CoteDAzur · 09/04/2012 22:11

Can we enjoy it even if we scoff at books for adults that talk about good and evil? It sounds interesting, otherwise.

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Original poster
CoteDAzur · 09/04/2012 22:08

Nomen - I dare say Mitchell was not plagiarising nor paying homage in Cloud Atlas with his numerous references to other books & stories. Imho those were intentional, and used to drum in the feeling that everything repeats, just like Nietzsche said.

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archfiend · 09/04/2012 22:03

Have to add my vote for Master-fabulous book. In fact, I think I will dig out my copy for a re-read, it's been a while since I last read it and I always enjoy getting into it again. Talking cat is a bonus!

NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 22:00

Not read Coraline. Been meaning to.

Which reminds me: Maus and the sequel are excellent graphic novels.

No, you don't need to be clever. There is a lot which you could look up (e.g. about Stalinist Russia) to enrich your reading. But you only need to know about good and evil, and love, to 'get' it.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 09/04/2012 21:55

Allegorical good. Talking cats good (is it like the one in Coraline?). Satire - maybe good. Pilate - maybe good. Shit - not good. :)

Do I need to be v v clever to 'get' it?

NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 21:55

Fair deuce, Cote. But do give Perec a try. That and Ulysses (amongst other things, of course) are what Mitchell was plagiarising paying homage to.

Original poster
CoteDAzur · 09/04/2012 21:54

Well, I would just say that you seem to be me and so would no doubt love it Wink

Also, it is otherworldly (literally) but timeless because it deals with the complex inner calculations of people, rather like a vast multi-player chess game. I wish there were more books like it.

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basildonbond · 09/04/2012 21:53

You are missing out ? Middlemarch is one of the best books I've ever read. Dorothea is a fabulous character and I have seldom read such an insightful description of an unhappy marriage

NomenOmen · 09/04/2012 21:52

Because there is a talking cat in Master. And Pontius Pilate. And it's all allegorical and satirical and shit.

I am too lazy to try to persuade you. After all, it's your loss, IMO, if you don't...