Recommend some really great books (fiction/nonfiction) OUTSIDE my usual comfort zone

[franch]

Just heard Tim Smit (the Eden Project social entrepreneur) talking about the 'gang rules' of his company, one of which is to read 2 books (also go to 1 concert, 1 play and 1 movie) outside your normal sphere of interest, every year. I thought this was a great philosophy. To be absolutely honest I"m struggling to read 2 books within my sphere of interest a year at the moment, but would like to start a list of books beyond my comfort zone anyway, to spur me on.

Bit tricky this as you don't know me, but my comfort zone includes:
literary fiction - I'm an Annie Proulx / AS Byatt / Martin Amis / Raymond Carver type, if that makes any sense
very little non-fiction, but I guess most of my interests are fairly 'soft' / 'feminine' / 'artistic'

I know nothing about:
most of the arts beyond literature!
architecture
business
history
religion
science
politics
philosophy
geography
sport

I never read:
crime
sci fi
fantasy
horror
romance
'genre' fiction in general

Can you recommend anything good, then, that might stretch me a bit?

I, Robot. Isaac Asimov.

excellent sci-fi, read it for the first time a few weeks ago. Will definately make you think!!

(is absolutley nothing like the film btw)

Fantasy - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Must confess that I didn't enjoy it, but half my book group did.
Spy - Restless by William Boyd - not as incomprehensible as John Le Carre.
Art/Crime - My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk - all about Ottoman miniaturists and the effect of the Italian renaissance on their painting with a murder mystery and some romance as well.

OK non fiction- To Holt is a great luagh imo, weird but great anyway. here is a good one

non fiction- how about something by the Dalai lama? Or maybe something such as the dhammapada, Qur'an or Bhagavad Gita? I have this and its really interesting and makes you think differently.

I could lend you it, or maybe a Qur'an or something by Nietzche if you CAT me

For fantasy/adventure/romance that is challenging in a philospophical/religious way too, how about Northern Lights by Philip Pullman? Then you can go see the movie in the autumn (pleeeease don't watch the movie first.)

LOL at your reaction to Alistair Gray - spoken like a true Edinburgher! Go on, you know you want to . Meantime, here are soem more suggestions:

Science - how about Stephen Pinker? His stuff on language is interesting - The Language Instinct. If that kind of thing would be interesting for you, you could try Jean Aitchison too - she's very readable. Try 'The Articulate Mammal' or 'Words in the Mind'.

History - have you read Primo Levi? Possibly in your comfort zone, but 'If this is a man' and 'The Truce' are sort of must-reads, though v depressing.

Lit fiction: Philip Roth or Cormac McCarthy (both suggested by DP - outside my own zone, as I've never read!). Also, have you ever tried Murakami? Movillis. Try 'The Wind-up Bird Chronicle' or 'Sputnik Sweetheart'.

Oh oh, and how about WG Sebald? 'Austerlitz' is fantastic.

And Bruce Chatwin? In Patagonia or The Songlines?

fabby fabby fabby I love lifelong learning

And I adoooore you wonderful educated MNers, and genuinely admire some of the stuff you feed your brains with. I have a PhD in eng lit and am dead proud that us mums can be so impressive - whoever said motherhood kills the brain - pah

I am going to make time for this stuff - somehow it motivates me more than a whole pile of my usual fare.

Will come back to the latest suggestions in detail asap - tho maybe not for a bit as we're packing up for holiday

Last thing before I go to bed. To complete your american writers collection don't forget kurt vonnegut, slaughterhouse n. 5 being the best known.

Franch, don't mean to sound rude but how can you strike out quite a number of books even thugh you said you wanted to try something different to your usual reading material? In fact your list doesn't make much sense at all tbh.

I second Stephen Pinker in science - The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works

How Babies Think by Gopnick, Meltzoff and Kuhl

Also Richard Dawkins - anything. If I had to choose only one, The Blind Watchmaker

Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan

History - Mary Renault's novels of ancient Greece - all of them.

History/biography: Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally. The Fatal Englishman by Sebastian Faulks. Claire Tomalin's biog of Samuel Pepys (The unequalled self); Mozart's last year by HC Robbins Landon; Karl Marx by Francis Wheen.

OK, in return, can you point me to anything that would help me to 'get' science fiction, fantasy or similar?

Message withdrawn

Has anyone finished Wild Swans??? LOL!!! I tried, i really tried (twice, about 8 years apart!!) Why does it have to get so damn boring in the middle!!?

Message withdrawn

hats off to you!!

Has anyone suggested Longitude - can't remember who wrote it - but it is absolutely gripping and very informative.

I loved Longitude.
I was going to recommend the Pepys biography that won the Whitbread a couple of years ago. Claire Tomlinson, I think.
Or the Kevin Crossley Holland Arthurian books.

Franch: Sorry I can't do links but maybe the Amazon search doesn't like the space between G and the I. Try

GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation.

Deborah Dash Moore is a professor of Jewish History at the University of Michigan, and one of the subjects of this book is her father. She has written other books on Jewish history too.

Francis Wheen's biography of Marx.

Barbara Erskine Lady of Hay - not challenging but VERY creepy!

What about some classic horror - Lovecraft, or Mary Shelly or Bram Stoker? Or Henry James - The Turn of the Screw makes me shiver just to think about it!

Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion.

anything by A L Kennedy

Oh my goodness mercy, by 'STRIKING OUT', I didn't mean 'crossing out'

I meant these books would involve me 'striking out' into the unfamiliar! A GOOD thing!!! These are the books I am desperate to read!!!

Really hope no one else has misunderstood the phrase and been offended.

striking out striking out striking out SEE BELOW

Longitude is a great read. You know what else is in that genre? Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh. Unbelievably.
I also enjoyed Cod (arf) by Mark Kurlansky.
I have heard good things about Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, but haven't read it.
The Consolations of Philosophy might be a bit comfort-zone-ish but though lite it is...consoling. I found.

Sorry Franch, my mistake

For history try David Starkey's books, especially Elizabeth. They're almost written like a novel and very anecdotal so quite easy to read and very gripping. On business Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis is brilliant - especially if you're interested in how The City works at all. The best sport book I ever read is called All Played Out by Pete Davies and it's about the England team at Italia 90. Also Football Against the Enemy by Simon Kuper is a great book. Romance you can't go wrong with the blockbusters Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (ignore the politics) and The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCoullough.

Okay - on my list now -

Carribbean food - am veggie so what would you recommend?

Books - I like History books but tend to not go beyond The Great (!) War, so "Wild Swans" will be a real departure for me.

"The Articulate Mammal" sounds interesting too. The Bill bryson is the only "Science" book I've read since school.

Also quite fancy "Longitude".

Has anybody else been inspired by this brilliant thread?