Coming off a literary high - please help

[CoteDAzur]

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?

I'll plow through this thread a bit later, but thought I'd mention Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

I'll plough through this thread a bit later, but thought I'd mention Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

Ah, someone got in first with the Jonathan Strange suggestion I see (and I somehow published my post before and after correcting my spelling!?).
Anyway, I assume you've read The Magus? It would be RIGHT up your alley!

Also, second (third?) Murakami - I loved The Wind Up Bird Chronicles and can't wait to read more of his work.

Oh and Midnight's Children by Rushdie.

I've read a few Murakami books and although I loved 'What I Talk About... Running' I do find a lot of his work a bit melancholic for my liking. Great for these other recommendations; will investigate later :)

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is the only book by Murakami that I have read and I loved it (as an enthusiastic runner who has been benched for the past 5 months with a hip injury ). What a man. I will definitely read more by him.

animula - I still don't understand what that book is about which might be a sign that it is not for me. I'm a mathematical kind of person who doesn't quite get unashamedly exerted emotional pulls in general. Thank you for the effort of explaining it all, though

Marukami = nonsensical meandering, I think. Haven't read the running one but dp liked it. Have read, 'After Dark' and the one about sheep and The Wind Up Bird or something. Quite liked After Dark but thought the other two were just stupid.

I don't think anybody on here has mentioned Douglas Coupland. Might be worth a look?

Remus - now Douglas Coupland used to be a perennial favourite here UNTIL I read 'All Families Are Psychotic', at which point I went right off him. Instantly. What a load of ole shite that book was.

And agree with you re. nonsensical meandering. It's all just a bit too obviously existential. I'm sure it's all meant to mean something significant, but it's a bit like kicking leaves, and frankly I just didn't get it. Which might say more about me than it does about him.

DC has deffo got worse as a writer, rather than better. I didn't mind 'All families' but thought J-Pod was crap and wasn't v taken by the highschool shooting one either (which I'd expected to love). Really liked his first couple though and still live in hope that one day he will write The Perfect Novel.

Yes, I was smitten by Girlfriend in a Coma... (although even that got a bit silly at the end...)

High school shooting... now I know this is veering way off, but have you ever seen Gus Van Sant's 'Elephant'? Superb.

Such A Long Journey & Family Matters - Rohinton Mistry
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
A Place of Greater Safety & Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
Music and Silence - Rose Tremain

Atomised - Houellebecq

Creation - Gore Vidal
Julian - Gore Vidal
The American Empire series - Gore Vidal

Love love ol Gore

The Vivisector - Patrick White

The Shikasta series - Doris Lessing

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

Loved Middlesex - see comments below.

the enchantress of florence-salman rushdie....massive scope geographically, historically and structurally....stayed with me for a long time after i'd read it

www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/mar/29/fiction.salmanrushdie

this isn't a novel but...i felt i was quite knowledgeable about ww2 concentration camp experience but this showed me that i wasn't

www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/chil+rajchman/solon+beinfeld/samuel+moyn/treblinka/7905442/

The Worst Journey is , quite simply, my favourite book. I've recommended it to so many people and I've read it four times now.x

It's brilliant, isn't it? And on this enormous thread you are the first person to seem to have heard of it since I mentioned it way down.

COTE - you must read it! It is as good as, or even better than, 'This Thing Of Darkness.'

Cote have you read Slaughterhouse V yet? You said you were off to buy it.

I logged in specifically to look for recommendations having just this morning finished the awesome This Thing of Darkness. So thanks for the thread, Cote.

The Worst Journey looks like just the sort of thing.