I particularly like Murakami and George R.R. Martin. This is my reading list so far. 1) Hardboiled Wonder Land and the End of the World By Murakami 2) A Dance with Dragons By Martin 3) The Judging Eye By Bakker 4) The White-Luck Warrior By Bakker 5) Forever Fluent By Wyner 6) Waking Up By Sam Harris 7) The Buddha in your Mirror By a couple of authors 8) The Red and the Black 9) The Torrents of Spring By Hemmingway Any recommendations will be helpful because I am trying to read 50 books this year.
50 books is just under 1 book per week! Good luck A Bridge Of Birds, a short novel that is fun. Like Asian Hobbit.
Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (like Murakami) She/King Solomon's Mines/Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard (like Martin) The Foundation Pit by Andrei Platonov Happy Moscow by Andrei Platonov The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo José Cela Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
I don't really like those "like xy-comparisons", so I only go for: You seem to like fantasy Did you try the books of David Eddings? Personally I really enjoyed those. Dave Duncans "Great Game"-trilogy wasn't bad either, but that's a bit different.
Not a book recommendation as such, but do you use Goodreads? I read 52 books a year and Goodreads helps me find books that might be interesting. There's a whole bunch of "Best Fantasy" or whatever lists with reviews and stars.
The Gentleman ******* series: Fantasy but different from the rest, with high praise from Mr Martin, (amongst others). His Dark Materials Trilogy: forget the movie. This series is rightly regarded as a classic. Most stuff by R.A Salvatore The first 5/6 books of the Wheel of Time Series are better than a song of Fire and Ice IMO, but it would be tough to get through one of those beasts in a week.
I typically read WoT books in 3-5 days. I've only read Icewind Dale, but I found Salvatore naive and poorly written. I can't recommend Patrick Rothfuss enough. Both series by Joe Abercrombie are superb.
Michael J. Sullivan's stuff is quite good fun if you want fantasy that's a bit...old school. The Low Town trilogy is an interesting fantasy noir trilogy and a little bit different from the usual. Fritz Leiber is worth checking out if you like things a little more Sword and Sorcery. You should read some proper books too.
The Affirmation - Christopher Priest The Lake of Woods - Tim O'brien The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen Death of an Ordinary Man - Glen Duncan The Innocent - Ian McEwan The Book of Revelation - Rupert Thompson I Lucifer - Glen Duncan Loads more but that should be enough for now!
Have you thought about reading some historical fiction? It often has the same feel as fantasy, but it's usually better written and for me more interesting as it's based on truth. Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series about the Mongols is awesome.
I second this, if you fancy a bit of historical fiction. The Conqueror series is definitely one of my favourite set of books ever! He's also done some other series based on Julius Caesar and The War of the Roses but I couldn't get into them really. I'll have a look in my collection and see about anymore fantasy ones I could recommend!
i saw you have hemingway on your list. just a suggestion...but, he's got many classics and the torrents of spring, while a fine book, isn't up to the same level as: the sun also rises, a farewell to arms, for whom the bell tolls, the old man and the sea. i also second the 'his dark materials' suggestion.
Murakami's quiet, sincere magical realism always impressed me. His stories remind me of that moment when you wake up, perfectly clearly, in dawn light with a half remembered dream. Because of that I'd recommend Italo Calvino's "If On a Winter's Night a Traveler," a puzzling series of stories about you reading a book about your life or perhaps someone else's while you fall in love with the woman of your dreams. Isabel Allende's "House of the Spirits" is another one of my favorites in a similar sort of way, quiet beauty, but her take on Pinochet's revolution is more political. Reminiscent of Marquez but definitely it's own thing. Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beasts is great as well. If you're still up for some magical realism but want a slightly different take on it, I recommend Gunter Grass' Tin Drum and Mikhael Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, and of course the book they inspired, Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. All incredible, incredible books, but a slightly different tone than Murakami. If you like Hemingway, Steinbeck is a natural followup, Cannery Row is an often neglected classic. Graham Greene is another writer in that quasi Western, all too American sort of authorship. If you like Harris you might enjoy Dan Dennett's Breaking the Spell.
Steinbeck before Hemingway personally. Hemingway was great but a bit patchy, but Steinbeck was consistently awesome...and he had great taste in dogs. Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat are both fast, easy but brilliant reads and should be read by everyone. Of Mice and Men, obvious, but one of my favourites.
I love Murakami, as well. He is by far my favourite author. I think I have read 11 of his books. I adore his smooth and simple prose. Relaxing, easy and beautiful. The plots of his books leave a lot to be desired though and his characters are always flat and detached. As an author he has a lot of glaring weaknesses, that normally would make me to look down on him, but he speaks to my heart more than any other author. I am starting to believe that the guy might actually have metaphysical powers or something. So having said that I recommend the Trilogy of the Rat if you haven't read it yet and then Dance Dance Dance which is the continuation of the trilogy. Hardboiled Wonderland is an excellent choice and it's up there with the ones I mention. Murakami considers it his best work! Whitepanda, tell me if you like which of his books have you read so far, so I can recommend something new if I can. Now, Murakami has mentioned that when he writes a book he tries to make a work like a combination of a Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled detective book and Dostoevsky. Both great writers and personal favourites of mine. I would recommend you to read The Long Goodbye, The High Window and The Lady in the Lake by Chandler and from Dostoevsky Notes from Underground, The Gambler and Crime and Punishment I would also recommend Charles Bukowski's Factotum, Tales of Ordinary Madness, Ham on Rye John Fante's Ask the Dust, Louis-Ferdinand Céline's Journey to the End of the Night and by Philipp K Dick The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said This is the list of my absolute favourite books by my favourite authors and I listed them in order, beginning from the work I liked the most by each author. Incidentally all those books are also about lonely guys, and isolation and loneliness plays a big part in them. Especially in Murakami's, Bukowski's and Dostoevsky's books. If you read some of them I can come back with more recommendations depending on which of them you liked the most.
I'm reading this Chinese book. http://baike.baidu.com/picture/1513...&pic=908fa0ec08fa513d000e5de83a6d55fbb2fbd95b In this book, the main guy has 17 wifes. The following lines are quite interested. Guy: I can't be your boy friend. I already have many girlfriends. Girl: You don't mind to add one more into your list, don't you? Number 1 wife: You are just too strong for me. I can't handle you by myself. I'll need a lot of help. Husband: @#$%^&*()! Friend: Which girl is your wife? Guy: They are all my wifes.
I've just rediscovered Bukowski. I was a big fan when I was young, then came to the conclusion that his books were utter garbage, but for some reason started to see the genius in him a few months ago. I think it says more about me than him though...and not in a good way! Burroughs. Read Burroughs. Naked Lunch, Queer and Junkie are all good places to start as long as you don't mind reading about drugs, sex, homosexuality and pervy sex and often all at the same time.
There is not a week that goes by that I don't think of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch since I read it last year.