Suggest a book (recreational reading)

http://forums.naim-audio.com/e...142919017#8142919017
How about here Tim.
Or
http://forums.naim-audio.com/e...8019385/m/2002944127
Incidentally Voltaire's first recommendation here gets a big thums up from me

Classic books that I'd recommend to anyone. 'Classic' implies a certain vintage to me.

First that come to mind;

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Love In The Time Of Cholera.

Tolstoy: War and Peace requres effort but it truly magnificent.

Dickens-take your pic. Suprisingly readable, brilliant. 'Tale Of two Cities' is very accessible.

Bruce

"Kill your friends" by John Niven to take you back to a pre-internet music industry of 1997, tons of drugs, world-class swearing and much, much more.

Very funny and no doubt based on real people.

Jono

Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five
Thomas Hardy The Woodlanders

Something modern that everyone I have ever lent my copy to always enjoys is William Boyd: Any Human Heart. I have read it 4 times and still love it. Also for something zany but full of delights the Pullitzer winning 'Kavalier and Klay' by Michael Chabon is huge fun yet touches on very big themes.

Bruce

Slaughterhouse 5 is a good call too.

25 years ago, when I was in my mid 20s, I read Oliver Twist for the first time. It was life changing

'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' by Hunter S Thompson. A pretty easy read, but an absolute blast of drug induced hedonism.

'Generation X' by Douglas Coupland, a snapshot of slackers passing away the days at the start of the 90's. Very little plot, but such amazing character, and his writing really is like a snapshot, or polaroid, capturing an atmosphere. I would also recommend his collection of articles and and short stories 'Polaroids from The Dead' (The Dead being short stories about different characters at a Grate Dead concert).

John Steinbeck is a wonderful author, simple writing again capturing atmosphere and character, 'Cannery Row', 'Sweet Thursday' and 'Tortilla Flat' are my favourites, as well as 'Of Mice and Men'.

If you already like Sci-fi, then I would recommend Isaac Asimov, pretty much anything by him, but 'I Robot', 'Caves of Steel' and 'The Naked Sun' are good starting points.

John Irvin 'The World According to Garp' or especially 'The Cider House Rules'. Fun and sad at the same time, fantastic characters.

Although a slow read Mervin Peake's gothic comedy 'Titus Groan' and 'Ghormenghast' are fantastic (literally) books. Certainly not in the Tolkein vein, and nothing like the dreadful BBC adaptation.

It depends what appeals to you are looking to find. I certainly like a lot of character, but pleasant to read without the author trying to prove how superior they are to you (like E.M. Forster for example).

The Card by Arnold Bennett

A couple of all-time favorites are "Les Miserables" and "East of Eden". The former is a bit of work, but well worth it.

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, starting with "Master and Commander", is wonderful stuff. The naval jargon gets a bit thick now and then, but you don't need to be a sailor to fully appreciate what's going on.

The last fighting tommy, the life of Harry Patch
A story of his 111 years

Simply stunning and emotionally intelligent book about war and the loss of innocence



and costs next to nowt from here

diccus

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
Something modern that everyone I have ever lent my copy to always enjoys is William Boyd: Any Human Heart.

Bruce

My recommendation too. A wonderful book.

My recommendation too. A wonderful book.[/quote]

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
Something modern that everyone I have ever lent my copy to always enjoys is William Boyd: Any Human Heart.

Bruce


My recommendation too. A wonderful book.

Ok Gents I'll buy that...and I have,thanks.

quote:

Any suggestions for a classic book you couldn't imagine going though life without having read?

For a "true" clasic....

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontte

But make sure you buy a copy with the family chart in it, otherwise you'll end up going insane, like Heathcliff, wondering who's married to whom......and when!!

Cheers

Don

Some great recommendations already, and loads I haven't read. Here's some stone-cold classics:

James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Martin Amis - The Rachel Papers
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
F Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the Night
Ian Fleming - Casino Royale

"James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired. He always knew when his body or his mind had had enough and he always acted on the knowledge. This helped him to avoid staleness and the sensual bluntness that breeds mistakes." (From the first page of Bond's first outing.)

Some of these don't take long to get through at all so really are a fantastic use of time:

Woman in the Dunes: Kobo Abe
Unbearable Lightness of Being: Milan Kundera
The Old Man and the Sea: Ernest Hemmingway
Tender is the Night: F Scott Fitzgerald
The Waves: Virginia Wolf
The Outsider: Albert Camus
Girlfriend in a Coma: Douglas Coupland

Andy

Heartily recommended are:

The Frank Herbert "Dune" series (but not the ones that weren't written by him.)

The Harry Potter books (Yes, really. They are very good stories.)

The Julian May "Many Coloured Land" series.

Smallcreep's Day by Peter Currell Brown

Anything by Thomas Pynchon.

steve

quote:

Originally posted by Howlinhounddog:
My recommendation too. A wonderful book.

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
Something modern that everyone I have ever lent my copy to always enjoys is William Boyd: Any Human Heart.

Bruce


My recommendation too. A wonderful book.

Ok Gents I'll buy that...and I have,thanks.[/QUOTE]

Let us know what you think. It grows on you rather than being an instant grabber.

Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by JamieL_v2:
'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' by Hunter S Thompson. A pretty easy read, but an absolute blast of drug induced hedonism.

'Generation X' by Douglas Coupland, a snapshot of slackers passing away the days at the start of the 90's. Very little plot, but such amazing character, and his writing really is like a snapshot, or polaroid, capturing an atmosphere. I would also recommend his collection of articles and and short stories 'Polaroids from The Dead' (The Dead being short stories about different characters at a Grate Dead concert).

John Irvin 'The Cider House Rules'. Fun and sad at the same time, fantastic characters.

I second those choices.

Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children
Peter Mathiessen - The Snow Leopard
Ismail Kadare - The Siege
Italo Calvino - If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Peter Carey - Oscar & Lucinda
Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong
Anthony Burgess - Earthly Powers
Annie Proulx - The Shipping News
Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
Amin Maalouf - Samarkand

and of course Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude

I'm mildly surprised I'm the first to suggest these, apart from Marquez. They have all mesmerised.

Good luck, silent tim, you've got a lot of enjoyment in prospect.... even if you ignore this list!

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
Something modern that everyone I have ever lent my copy to always enjoys is William Boyd: Any Human Heart.

Bruce


My recommendation too. A wonderful book.

Ok Gents I'll buy that...and I have,thanks.

Let us know what you think. It grows on you rather than being an instant grabber.[/quote]

How correct you are Bruce, loved it!
Emotionally gripping but I almost doubled with laughter, then felt ever so slightly bad during Mr Monstuarts 'dogfood days'.
If I was to recommend something of a similar ilk it would have to be 'The book of Ebeneezer Le Page' by G.B.Edwards (possibly out of print). Not as easily accessable as Boyd but the life of a Guernseyman taken over a similar timespan.
I curiously came upon this book obliquely following a recommendation of Voltaires to read the 'Magus' by John Fowles. I followed that by reading all of Fowles novels and found an introduction written by Fowles to Ebeneezer Le Page. Recommended.
H.H.D.

Everything by Kinky Friedman (twice) and then think about Hardy and Joyce.

OK, given your usual preferences you may have tried this already but... (actually it's OK rather than terrific but I can't resist froma completist sense)

That's on my christmas list.

quote:

Anthony Burgess - Earthly Powers

recreational reading

A Clockwork Orange ...Yes