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Original poster

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

81 replies

BlameItOnTheBogey · 07/03/2009 15:10

Books that I have most enjoyed are; To kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, A Town Called Alice. YOu get the picture. I really want to read a Good book. Not one that is forgettable as soon as you put it down.

Any suggestions?

OP posts:
FiveGoMadInDorset · 07/03/2009 20:05

Louis De Berniere books are all great

love in a time of Cholera

popsycal · 07/03/2009 20:06

i must re-read east of eden

DeeBlindMice · 07/03/2009 20:07

I wasn't crazy about New York Trilogy, but Paul Austers worth reading are The Music of Chance and Mr Vertigo

God, it's been too long since I read a really good novel.

Or any novel for that matter. Damn baby

janeite · 07/03/2009 20:07

The Pearl is wonderful; odd yes but really heartbreakingly wonderful.

Popsy - sorry but we have had a parting of ways already: I can't stand Ian McEwan!

Ivykaty44 · 07/03/2009 20:08

I thought it was a book that you dont forget once you have put it down and one to realish as you read - not rush through.

Am reading this at the moment

here

popsycal · 07/03/2009 20:08
Grin
DeeBlindMice · 07/03/2009 20:11

@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.

cuppachar · 07/03/2009 20:12

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

janeite · 07/03/2009 20:13

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

How about Kafka?

popsycal · 07/03/2009 20:17

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

popsycal · 07/03/2009 20:18

oooh janeite - kafka yes

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

HumphreyCobbler · 07/03/2009 20:21

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.

DeeBlindMice · 07/03/2009 20:24

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

DeeBlindMice · 07/03/2009 20:25

spent

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

popsycal · 07/03/2009 20:26

oh dee - give poor John Irving another chance

popsycal · 07/03/2009 20:27

truman capote???

janeite · 07/03/2009 20:27

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

popsycal · 07/03/2009 20:30

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

janeite · 07/03/2009 20:36

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

DeeBlindMice · 07/03/2009 20:40

No popsy, I just can't risk it

Mr. Irving and I are finished for good

infin · 08/03/2009 16:27

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.

slayerette · 08/03/2009 16:31

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.

cheapskatemum · 22/03/2009 15:59

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

The Bone People - Keri Hulme

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

DoThisDoThat · 23/03/2009 07:13

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

BlueIsTheColour · 24/03/2009 14:54

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)

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