If I tell you some books I have loved, can anyone recommend something I would like?

If you liked A Town like Alice, you might enjoy John Masters. His books are a series, following a family through multiple generations in India. Bowhani Junction is the one people tend to have heard of, as it was made into a film, but I much preferred the earlier ones. They are very good stories.

If you are feeling brave, try Joseph Conrad, who wrote a lot about the far east. Into the Heart of Darkness was the basis for Apocalypse Now.

What is the idea of that map? Can someone explain?

Hi,

There's a really good message board on www.thereadinggrouponline.co.uk. The members on there always have loads of great recommendations (which is why the OH is moaning about my overflowing book shelves right now!)

Also, I noticed that a lot of the books people are suggesting are Richard and Judy Book Club books (Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns etc) so might be worth a look on there for some ideas. My favourite R&J book was No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay... I really rate this and know lots of people who have read this and loved it too.

Hi, the book I bought for all my friends and even recommended to a stranger in a book shop was The Island by Victoria Hislop. It is well written and the story was really special.
My favourite book of all time to read and read again is The Power of One by Bryce Courtney a coming of age story set in South Africa. Has anyone else read it and loved it?

A day in the life of Ivan Ivanesovitch is a must read - just amazing

I would heartily recommend any of the Dorothy Whipple books published by Persephone as excellent reads:

www.amazon.co.uk/Someone-at-Distance-Persephone-Classics/dp/1906462003/ref=sr_1_1?i e=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237997471&sr=1-1

Susan Glaspell is also underrated

www.amazon.co.uk/Fidelity-Susan-Glaspell/dp/0953478033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=boo ks&qid=1237997538&sr=1-1

I am sorry I have read these books as it means I can't now read them for the first time

Camus - L'etranger
Any Margaret Attwood
Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm
Thomas Hardy - Mayor of Castrerbridge or Return of the Native
Dickens - Great Expectations
Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea

I love reading (scuttles off to bookshelf to browse old favourites)

Brave New World for sure. I can still remember the final sentence after 20 years.
Chrysalids by John Wyndham
Rebecca

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

The Bone People - Keri Hulme

All of Sophie Hannah's novels: Little Face, Hurting Distance and The Point of Rescue

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies for any duplicates but if you've enjoyed 1984 I really recommend Handmaid's Tale (Atwood) and A Brave New World (Huxley) - both dystopian visions.

American fiction that you might enjoy: Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres, Capote's In Cold Blood, Proulx's Postcards.

I have just finished 'The Poisonwood Bible' by Barbara Kingsolver. I thought it was wonderful. My all time fav book is mentioned earlier in this thread; 'A Fine Balance'. All of Rohinton Mistry's books are exceptional IMO.

No popsy, I just can't risk it

Mr. Irving and I are finished for good

Breakfast At Tiffany's is good (and quite far removed from the film which is also great): not read any others.

The film is truely bizarre - I will give you that! But I ind the book compelling

and a prayer for owen meany///you know the ending at the beginning and it is a 'how' dunnit

how not who

I've not read any John Irving but Hotel New Hampshire is probably the strangest film I have ever seen.

truman capote???

oh dee - give poor John Irving another chance

spent

That is one book I will NEVER be reading in the present tense again

I still blame John Irving for stealing the precious hours I spend reading The World According to Garp.

It almost made me rethink my "I've started, so I'll finish" policy

janeite - I do agree about Mr Whicher. The end was a real anti-climax.

Robertson Davies is brilliant and not really much read at the moment. My mn name is my favourite R D character.

oooh janeite - kafka yes

I am noting all of these down for when my life has time again

Deeblindmice I dont read as often as I would like to at all - pesky kids hey!!! But I do like to re-read 'comfort' books. My favourite to re-read is The Hotel Nrew hampshire'by JOhn Irving. I first read it around 13 years ago, and have probably erad it 10 times since then

Ivy - Mr Whicher is okay but really drifts off towards the end. I was expecting a lot more from it.

How about Kafka?

Some of my favourites....
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracey Chevalier
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
Cancer Ward - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Life of Pi - Yann Martel

I've found this list is good for ideas: Waterstone's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century

Or you could look at Booker Prize Winners

@popsycal

reading books for a second time seems such an unimaginable luxury, do you do it often?

I remember as a kid how I would read and reread books, but now I feel like there are too many I need to read to be wasting time reading things for a second time.

It's silly though, because you get so much out of reading something a second time. The last book I reread was Crime and Punishment and it was so, so worth it.