good reading

[MightyMouse]

I want to take a break from playing [insert gambling card game here], I'm looking for some good fiction reccomendations (contemporary or "old"). I don't like fantasy and I don't like mass produced writers like that Dan Brown fellow. Come on OOT, let's hear it. TY in advance.

ZZzzZZzzZZzz

[phage]

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser

[Slow Play Ray]

i am in the middle of Pillars of the Earth. it is excellent so far.

[RunDownHouse]

A book I got for Christmas last year was Kite Runner. Very good read, especially since it educated me - in part - about a culture of which I was pretty ignorant.

I know you asked for fiction recommendations, but in any reading suggestions thread I'll throw this one in: Sperm Wars by Dr. Robin Baker. Evolutionary biology for the layman.

[jason_t]

Collected Fictions - Jose Luis Borges

[MightyMouse]

[ QUOTE ]
A book I got for Christmas last year was Kite Runner. Very good read, especially since it educated me - in part - about a culture of which I was pretty ignorant.

I know you asked for fiction recommendations, but in any reading suggestions thread I'll throw this one in: Sperm Wars by Dr. Robin Baker. Evolutionary biology for the layman.

[/ QUOTE ]

FWIW, Kite Runner is my favorite book of all time if any of you have read this and can think of similar suggestions. Absolutely amazing. ZZzzZZzzZZzz.

[RunDownHouse]

This just occurred to me, and I haven't thought about it much, but if you enjoyed Kite Runner, I think you'd like Cormac McCarthy's stuff, specifically The Crossing, although all of his stuff is very good.

Whenever I take a break from pinochle I like to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Love in the Time of Cholera is his best IMO.

[MightyMouse]

[ QUOTE ]
Whenever I take a break from pinochle I like to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Love in the Time of Cholera is his best IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

read it in high school. writing = too flowery, not enough action for MM.

ty for the reccomendation though.

ZZzzZZzzZZzz

Hmmm...well about some Thomas Pynchon or Don Delillo then?

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
Whenever I take a break from pinochle I like to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Love in the Time of Cholera is his best IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great choice, but I like both "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" and "100 Years of Solitude" more.

MightyMouse, if you have not read "Cannery Row" by Steinbeck, I highly recommend it.

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
Whenever I take a break from pinochle I like to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Love in the Time of Cholera is his best IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

Excellent choice; Marquez is brilliant. The opening sentence to One-hundred years of Solitude is one of the finest in all of literature.

[MightyMouse]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Whenever I take a break from pinochle I like to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Love in the Time of Cholera is his best IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great choice, but I like both "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" and "100 Years of Solitude" more.

MightyMouse, if you have not read "Cannery Row" by Steinbeck, I highly recommend it.

[/ QUOTE ]

What is the theme of Cannery Row? Excuse my ignorance, but what is a cannery?

[jason_t]

Simply put, it's about a blue-collar community in Monterey, CA (of Monterey Jack and winery fame) that is incredibly poor but whose characters still lead happy lives. It's a truly uplifting story.

A cannery is a factory for canning foods.

[mslif]

I agree with you about the "Chronicle of a Death Foretold", great book but "100 Years of Solitude" is one of the few book I did not finish. I felt like I was wasting my time trying to remember the characters and their relations and what in the world is occuring in this make believe town of Macondo. Marquez may be a skilled writer and storyteller, but this book confused, bored and frustrated me without offering entertainment or insight.

[diebitter]

Stephen King's Different Seasons - I'm not kidding

Has Shawshank Redemption and 'The Body' (basis for the film 'stand by me'), and both wonderfully written novellas.

Apt Pupil is a strong piece too, but very disturbing (deals with nazi atrocities).

[MikeNaked]

In the Lake of the Woods - Tim O'Brien

Dark, mysterious, and brilliant....

[WildDan]

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski.

But make sure you have a firm grip on reality before starting in..

[flatline]

[ QUOTE ]
i am in the middle of Pillars of the Earth. it is excellent so far.

[/ QUOTE ]

Glad you are digging it, and Pillars of the Earth would be my suggestion.

[malokoman]

If I had to choose only one Pynchon book, which would it be?

[malokoman]

As for the op, I am particular towards Russian literature. Turgenev and Dostoevsky. The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is one of my top 5. Extremely funnny and well written. I seriously suggest you check it out.

[edtost]

crying of lot 49.