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?

Thank you all, by the way. These are great recommendations. Please keep them coming.

I didn't like Cloud Atlas either..

(it felt like he was saying 'how clever am I? Cute enough to kiss?')

But love love love Julian Barnes. Though I do see how he could be accused of the same crimes as Mitchell remus

I guess it's that very fine line, for me Mitchell's artifice was the thing itself, whereas there is a human warmth in Barnes that always draws me in.

But Sarah Waters is definitely my current favourite.

Invention, fabulous storytelling, and always an acknowledgement to the debt she owes Wilkie Collins, but has built on magnificently..

Remus I may be fick too but I couldn't get on with that Julian Barnes either.

Cote - I think I may have abandoned Foucault's Pendulum at the "it's a shopping list" bit, it made me VERY angry. I have effectively flounced from Eco now (doesn't seem to have done his career too much harm).

What about John Irving? I'm thinking you've already read A Prayer for Owen Meany? Or Jonathan Coe? Or The Corrections? I also like Liz Jensen, the Ninth Life of Louis Drax. Oscar and Lucinda?

I absolutely adored, 'Flaubert's Parrot' and 'Arthur And George' but detested, 'England, England' and was bored and annoyed by 'A History.' Can't remember if I've read any more.

I can't stand Sarah Waters (though I seem to in a minority there!).

So, do I need to read, 'Dune?' I know nothing about it - please can somebody enlighten me?

Ooh, I LOVE 'The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax.' 'My Dirty Little Book Of Stolen Time' is good too; her others less so.

Can't be doing with Owen Meaney - far, far too long and contrived.

John Irving.

Now. There's a thing.

I either find myself wholly immersed (A Son Of The Circus; Cider House Rules) or alienated and unable to finish the book (Owen Meany; Last Night At Twisted River)

And I don't know why.

Though I have always been a little nervous of a vague streak of misogyny...

(I should declare at this point that I'm a geezer)

Remus - You have to read Dune! Please trust me as I trusted you (and just downloaded Dark Tower #2 & Clockwork Orange on my Kindle [busmile])

You could read Dune, Remus.

Or perhaps you could stick pins in your eyes.

Much the same effect..

Oh - who to trust?

I finished Owen Meaney (God knows why) but it irritated the hell out of me - except for the car bit, which I liked. I read 'A Widow For However Long It Is' and was really bored by all the sex in it.

re Wilkie Collins - If you are interested in Wilkie Collins and/or Charles Dickens, there is a book called Drood by Dan Simmons where the narrator is Wilkie Collins and the story is just so strange but brilliantly told. A very long book but historical detail is amazing, especially since the story it tells is so fantastical.

I didn't like, 'Drood.' I had high hopes for it and enjoyed the first half but the second half got more and more silly. I do like Wilkie Collins though!

Thank you, Cote, I shall look that up.

...and I must confess that I read Dune thirty years some time ago, and that my view may have been coloured by the film.

I mean. It starred Sting FFS...

I've just remembered one that I bet you will like: Here. Bits of it are absolutely brilliant and bits of it are bonkers - but it is deffo a 'head hurt' kind of book.

I was disappointed with the latter half and the ending, too, but how else could it have ended? I checked some of its stuff and Dan Simmons was very faithful to facts. Like WK's "twin" - apparently, he was quite vocal about repeatedly seeing "him"

I didn't enjoy 'Widow for one year' by John Irvine, and for about three-quarters of the book, found 'Owen Meaney' really hard going, but then it took a twist and I really loved the ending.

Loved 'Cloud Atlas'. Have you read 'Lanark' (think it's by Alisdair Gray)? That is a similar style of book to Cloud Atlas, but (I think) older. Very good and well worth a read.

The film was awful and its latter half was completely different than the book. It isn't even just the plot - how can a book that rests mostly only inner thoughts of characters be filmed? The whole chess play aspect of the book was completely lost in the film.

Now you have to read Dune, too. And stop this heresy about pins in eyes at once! It has consistently been elected the best sci-fi of book of all time, from Amazon in 2000 to Reddit just last year, so I dare say you may have missed something there.

Yes, it was clearly v well researched but the whole murder stuff just got increasingly ridiculous. I did enjoy it more than the one about Dickens' wife 'Girl In A Blue Dress' or something like that, which was stupifyingly boring.

Lanark sounds interesting, thanks for the recommendation.

Remus, I read The End Of Mr Y several years ago when it came out. It was interesting, although got a bit silly in the end. Some good ideas in there, though.

Ok. I shall re-submit myself to Dune!

(and confess that my aversion has as much to do with distancing myself from my 16 year old self as anything else...)

So. Sci Fi. I read The Man In The High Castle a couple of weeks ago, and enjoyed it, until the ending.

Which, frankly, I didn't understand...

Can anyone shed any light? Was it a dream world or a parallel universe or what?

What about, 'Middlesex' by Jeffery Eugenides (sp?). That is vast. Personally I much preferred his first novel, 'The Virgin Suicides' though.

I loved Middlesex. Should I read Virgin Suicides? (watched the film but didn't think much of it)

retired - That is one of the few books by Philip K Dick that I haven't read.

Not seen the film - I loved the book. It's short though - not the epic you're after now!

No worries, I can come back to it later. Since I got my Kindle last year, I've been reading on average three books/month.