I am desperate and need you all to help me please!

[ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie]

I have got one and a half history books left and then I am, once again, bookless. I have been to three different libraries in the last ten days and have failed to find even a single book that I fancied or hadn't read before.

I have some Nectar points to spend, so I could have a bit of an Amazon splurge - but what shall I get?

1. Favourite writers are Jane Austen and Stephen King
2. I like v well written fantasy (ie Tolkein) or v well written historical who-dunnit stuff (eg Doyle or Sansom) or quirky history books
3. I am a snob and get very twitchy about shoddy writing but can't stand overly self conscious crap (step forward Ian McEwan)
4. I am very, very fussy
5. I read very, very quickly so the bigger the book, the better

Please help!

Okay - this is probably going to be the wrong sort of book but one of my all time faves is

The Wedding Officer - by Antony Capella.

It's set in war time Naples and I think (although am not a literary genius , it's very well written about a subject I knew very little about.

Oops, should have said "The Outlander" series by Gabaldon. She does others too but I have no Knowledge of them.

I have a suggestion for you: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

It is historical (WWII codes, Enigma, Alan Turing is a character etc), very long (my hard cover copy is over 900 pages long), good writing without an ounce of pretentious "literary" aspiration.

Thank you. Is it sci-fi? Is it a bit Catch 22-ish?

Historical whodunnits - I like Arianna Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death books. Pathology in the time of Henry II. Not as well written as the Sansom ones imo, but pretty good.

For fantasy/alternate reality Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World.

Straight history - Antonia Fraser The Weaker Vessel - women during the Civil War.

Iain M Banks - sf/fantasy.

A Suitable Boy is the best book ever!

Have read all the Arianna F ones - the series and a stand alone one about the Princess Anastasia.

No to Banks.

In fact, can people please forget that I mentioned fantasy as the blurbs for most of them aren't inspiring me at all, sorry.

Have read some Antonia F but worth another look, so thanks for reminding me.

I PROMISE to read A Suitable Boy as soon as I can get my hot little paws on it. :)

Jonathan strange and Mr Norrell, you absolutely must. Huge Regency era fantasy written in Austen pastiche - will keep you going for weeks days at your pace. Seriously, as a fellow Austen / King / Pratchett / Gaiman reader you can't do better.

Young adult but excellently written is Frances Hardinge - I can't sum up her plots because they're so sui generis but I cannot recommend too highly.

And Ursula Le Guin's masterpieces The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed (ostensibly hard sf, but beautiful prose and with a social sciences bent) are fabulous.

There's always Moby Dick and Gibbon if you really are running out of material.

And at the risk of being insultingly obvious....what about Georgette Heyer?

I wouldn't call Cryptonomicon sci-fi although it is definitely about computer science and is fiction, obviously Two parallel stories run through the book and are beautifully united at the end - one is the young computer programmer trying to build a data safe haven (like Switzerland is a safe haven for money) and his grandfather cracking the Enigma code with Alan Turing and playing mind games with the Germans during WWII. It is not an easy read but a masterpiece.

Banks is very weak rubbish and Ursula LeGuin's stories are thinly veiled socialist propaganda (and definitely not "hard sci-fi"). If you are going to read sci-fi, try Frank Herbert & Arthur C Clarke for the timeless classics and William Gibson's earlier books and Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Diamond Age, and his recent Anathem) for mind-blowing "cyberpunk".

Stephenson is definitely worth considering for sheer volume and meatiness (though the women in Cryptonomicon are disastrous). Not for everyone though, you'd be well advised to try a short extract before committing to eight hundred pages of hermetic theory or whatever.
Would agree that Le Guin has a strong socialist tint, which may or may not put the OP off.

"Hermetic theory" etc is in Quicksilver and its two sequels. I have read everything Stephenson has written ( I'm a big fan) except those two sequels because I found Quicksilver to be boring and Pirates-Of-The-Caribbean-ish.

Ye gads no to Moby bloody Dick. I have read an excellent non-fiction one though, about the true story that inspired it.

Have read lots of Georgette Heyer to the point where I'm rather tired of her - but I did enjoy some of them for non-thinking bath books.

Failed with Jonathon Strange - found it v tedious.

Have read most 'classic' sci-fi (my dad was a sci-fi writer) but to be honest, most of it isn't really for me.

Will try and find an extract of Cryptonomicon. Thanks again everybody - this thread is proving v useful!

Hello Colonel, how is your book search going? Such a long thread. Getting some great recommendations from it.

My DH has also recommended Moondust - Andrew Smith. About the moon landings. Of any interest? But think that you might like your history a bit older than 40 years ago!

There is a history genre (not historical fiction) on Good Reads. The initial page shows a US bias, but it's probably worth an explore.

There's lots of good suggestions there. What do you do with all your books when you've read them? I'm a hoarder on the whole but have exchanged lots of duplicates and some books I either didn't like that much or don't feel a need to hoard (chicklit) on readitswapit and bookmooch, and found some good stuff.

Are you interested in writing about the books you read in a bit of detail? I review books for www.thebookbag.co.uk and you can find lots of recommendations there, look up books you're thinking of buying, but they're also always looking for people to write reviews - lots of non fiction, lots of teen fiction - reviews about 400-600 words I think (actually I've submitted reviews of between 300-900 words which have been put up pretty much as I sent them, it depends a bit on the type of book and my mood whether I struggle to find things to say or ramble on for a while!)

I have tried Good Reads but prefer www.librarything.com, though either will give you lots of ideas for reading.

I'd add 'Barrow's Boys' by Fergus Fleming. A big, meaty doorstop of a book packed with tales of British exploration in the 19th c. Excellent 'true-life' history.

OP, I'm a bit puzzled as to how you can run out of books, though - I always seem to have millions queued up that I want to read next, either in my head or in reality (and I have the over-crammed, tottering bookshelves as evidence, sadly). Or do you just focus exclusively on the book of the moment?

Just to add my tuppence worth, although most of the good books I've ever read have already been mentioned ...big fan of Stephen king.

What about things like the Man in the Iron Mask? I remember it being tedious but good. Also things like Dr Zhivago? Took me ages to get into but I really enjoyed it once I got the hang of the looooong Russian names.

At the moment I'm reading The Gate by Francoise Bizot, which is an easy read but interesting too.

Colonel - I'm dying to ask who your dad was but know of course that you can't say. However, if you are J G Ballard's DD, may I just say that he was an amazing man and I'm in awe of his mind.

Did anyone recommend Margaret Attwood yet?

Or how's about Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde?

:) to Cote. Not him, no - just a pretty much unknown sci-fi writer.

Thanks for all the recent posts, which I need to read properly now. Thanks to Elkie for the site recs - no time or interest in writing reviews, as I'm too busy reading!

I've just started Wild Swans.

Re: running out of books - I read stupidly quickly, read a stupid amount and am horribly fussy - hence never having huge piles waiting for me!

'Barrow's Boys' looks good - just read a lot about him in a book about Franklin and the North West Passage, actually - so it would be a continuation of the theme.

Hmmm... well, you did say you were fussy, Colonel

Nah, I got nuttin right now. I'm just gonna jot down some recs from here, second (or third?) George RR Martin, and be on my way.

Based entirely on what you have said about the other books, and whilst trying to avoid the more obvious suggestions, I would throw these ones at you:

1. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafron
2. The War of Don Emmanuals' nether parts - Bernierres (but nothing like his later stuff, this is a rip-roaring piss-take of magical realism)
3. If, on a winter's night, a traveller - Calvino
4. All the pretty horses - Cormac McCarthy
5. Headlong - Michael Frayn (I wanted to suggest Copenhagan, which is an unbelievable stage script, but that could be thought of as a bit hardcore)
6. The remains of the day - Ishiguru
7. When did you last see your father - Blake Morrison (a memoir)
8. Waterland - Graham Swift
9. Jean de Florette - Marcel Pagnel

1. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafron Tried and failed with it several times
2. The War of Don Emmanuals' nether parts - Bernierres (but nothing like his later stuff, this is a rip-roaring piss-take of magical realism) Read it
3. If, on a winter's night, a traveller - Calvino
4. All the pretty horses - Cormac McCarthy Hated one of his and was mildly annoyed by The Road for failing to be as good as The Stand
5. Headlong - Michael Frayn (I wanted to suggest Copenhagan, which is an unbelievable stage script, but that could be thought of as a bit hardcore) Read it and thought it was okay
6. The remains of the day - Ishiguru HATE this book!
7. When did you last see your father - Blake Morrison (a memoir)
8. Waterland - Graham Swift
9. Jean de Florette - Marcel Pagnel

Not read the others and will investigate them, thanks.

Colonel - if you love 'The war of Don Emanuel's Nether Parts' (as I do too) have you read the two sequels? They are 'Senor Viva and the Coca Lord', and 'The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman'. May be hard to get hold of, though.

And I know you said you've given up on fantasy, but have you tried Kate Elliott's Crown of Starts series?

I'd also recommend Tim Powers - also may be very hard to get hold of though, but 'The Anubis Gates', 'On Stranger Tides' (wondering whether Pirates of the Caribbean IV is based on this???), 'Dinner at Deviant's Palace' (very dystopian, that one), 'The Drawing of the Dark' and 'The Stress of her Regard' are very good. Weird, but good.

Lastly, can I recommend 'Pavane' by Keith Roberts? It's a slow burner, not immediately accessible but once you're about halfway in you find yourself seeing how all the pieces fit together, and the man's prose is beautiful.

There's another trilogy I'd like to recommend to you but it doesn't spring to mind right now - will get back to you tomorrow when I'm not so knackered.