Recommend me some books to read, please.

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by AndrewTheAndroid, Mar 1, 2016.

  1. Madao13

    Madao13 Valued Member

    It's generally considered his best book. I also read it last year and I like it a lot as well!

    Dick is the best at creating a fantasy world.
    The reader can really feel like he is living in these future societies.
    And his characters are very interesting and unique as well. I love how well he can communicate the feeling of helplessness and weakness.
    You feel how desperate the characters feel.
     
  2. 23rdwave

    23rdwave Valued Member

    There is the scene in Flow My Tears where the policeman comes down in his helicopter to tell the guy at the gas station that he feels sad and lonely.
     
  3. Madao13

    Madao13 Valued Member

    I have considered to read some authors of Beat Generation like Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg, but like Hemingway, Bukowski hated their guts and he kind of passed that detest to me after reading so many of his books.
    He also detested Henry Miller and for the right reasons judging from the "Tropic of Cancer".

    Bukowski is or used to be my favourite author together with Murakami and the author that got me into reading books.
    I can understand why someone would see him that way.
    He is always talking about sex and liquor and in a very vulgar way, so it's easy to miss how poetic and profound he can be.
    He essentially wrote about love and how it can drive people mad and how difficult is to be alone and not following the social norms.

    To be honest I started reading him because he seemed badass to me when I was 18 and it took me time and many of his books to grasp him.
    These days he seems repetitive to me and I don't read him as much as Murakami.
    Apparently as a novel writer he is considered good but as a poet, he was considered the best American poet of his generation and in Europe he was extremely respected by people like Jean-Paul Sartre.
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2016
  4. Madao13

    Madao13 Valued Member

    Now that you mention it, I remember the part that he comes down to the gas station, but not what he said to him. I remember the tears though. :p
     
  5. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    I think I grew to dislike Bukowski as I saw him as a bit of drunk loser who was incapable of writing but pandered to pretentious wannabe drunk losers in colleges and the art world. But yeah, I've kinda swung back and am enjoying his stuff again. I stupidly gave his books away on a trip abroad and wanted to save some luggage space...now I need to re-buy them.

    I didn't know Bukowski hated the Beat poets and authors, it's quite odd as there are similarities in style and themes and, in my opinion, to Miller too.

    Burroughs, Ginsberg and Kerouc are all quite different from one another (especially some of Burroughs work) though and you can only compare them up to a point. I am not a fan of Kerouc at all, Burroughs and Ginsberg are good. Bukowski's, stories of sex and liquor pale in comparison to Burrough's stories of sex and heroin....and he could do social and political commentary about the themes too.

    Miller - You should try Under the Roofs of Paris/Opus Pistorum. It's seriously disturbing stuff, Miller claimed he didn't write it for so many years as he was quite embarrassed by it. I read it when I was really young, I don't think that was a good idea :) I wouldn't recommend spending the money on it though...and you need to only read the first half of the book to understand how he go the reputation he did.

    A lot of those authors were well respected in Europe back in the day, even though they were detested and some were in trouble for obscenity in the US.
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2016
  6. SWC Sifu Ben

    SWC Sifu Ben I am the law

    My short list when people ask me for recommendations:

    The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
    The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
    Neuromancer - William Gibson
    Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs
    The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien

    ... and if you're interested in marketing
    The Purple Cow - Seth Godin
     
  7. AndrewTheAndroid

    AndrewTheAndroid A hero for fun.

    Thanks man I am reading Hardboiled Wonderland right now actually. It is really good, but I don't know if it is my favorite. Hard to beat Kafka on the Shore with all of it's interesting characters. I've also read a Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance. I loved them as well. 1Q84 was also pretty good but a bit repetitive. His newest book The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki was pretty good actually it helped me get through a tough time because I related to the main character so much.
     
  8. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    It's funny, I actually met Tim O'Brien once but it's the only book on your list I haven't read.
     
  9. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    It's a great book. Lake of woods is my favourite though.
     
  10. SWC Sifu Ben

    SWC Sifu Ben I am the law

    Seems like now I've got a new book I need to read.
     
  11. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    Definitely go for it. Judging by the quality of your list I think you'll really appreciate it.
     
  12. Prizewriter

    Prizewriter Moved on

    TBF it's been a while since I read Salvatore, maybe it is rose tinted glasses from my teenage years.

    Although seriously impressed you got through WoT books in 3-5 days! It would take me at least a few weeks.
     
  13. AndrewTheAndroid

    AndrewTheAndroid A hero for fun.

    Thanks for all the recommendations keep em coming. I am going to reconsider the 50 books challenge and keep it down to about 20 or less.
    s
     
  14. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    50 is pretty easy mate, you can do it. And if you can't hit your target, start reading Mr Men books! (You might have to google that). I usually read about 55 a year, ditching a few on the way, which I don't count, and I am not a fast reader.

    I think one book a week can be pretty hard going, but 50 a year is no problem. There's weeks that you'll read two or three books and then it might take you two weeks to finish something else. But then again I guess it depends on what other things you get up to in your free time.

    Go big or go home!
     
  15. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    OH DUDE.

    Saramago. Read Saramago. The Cave, All the Names, Blindness, all great. Maybe All the Names is my favorite.
     
  16. Madao13

    Madao13 Valued Member

    He hated their guts although he respected some of them.
    Even when he was flattering Ginsberg's poetry for example he would complete his sentence with badmouthing him.

    I think that the major reason he didn't like them was that the beat movement was looking like a trend to him. A fashion of the time.

    From what I have read the Beats were all about living adventurously and exploring life's pleasures, while Bukowski was just an impoverished, marginalized person in a bad psychological state that was drinking in order to cope with his life. Or he could just be jealous of them :p


    I don't own many of the books I read anyway. I possess only one or two books of each author I like.
    I haven't heard of this Opus Pistorum. I'll keep it in mind although Tropic of Cancer made me to almost hate the guy.
     
  17. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    I think you probably have the answer there. :)

    You'll probably hate Miller more after reading Opus...it's basically hardcore porn stories and really shocking stuff. I'm surprised that it is even allowed to be published. If I remember right, Miller wrote them for easy money when he was broke and his writing career wasn't working out.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2016
  18. Madao13

    Madao13 Valued Member

    You could always choose to read the recommended books with the smallest amount of pages and make it. :p
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2016
  19. Madao13

    Madao13 Valued Member

    Now that you mention it I have a collection of Anaïs Nin's short erotic stories.
    She did say in the preface that her and Miller were paid by the page by a wealthy man in France to write pornographic stories and they did it in order to get by. :p
    I bought it last year in a second hand book market for 2 or 3 euros.
    I only read one story and dropped it though.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2016
  20. Langenschwert

    Langenschwert Molon Labe

    I have so many good fantasy books to recommend it's not even funny. Which is weird, because fantasy today is kind of "meh" to me. I generally prefer the Sword & Sorcery genre, of which here are a few good choices:

    Robert E. Howard. Conan. The original, unedited Conan is fantastic. Not the stuff than Carter and De Camp put their fingers into.

    Michael Moorcock: Elric series. Wow.

    Fritz Leiber: Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series. A great writer, featuring one of the best dynamic duos of all time.

    Tanith Lee: Cyrion, Companions on the Road, Night's Master, etc.

    Karl Edward Wagner: Bloodstone. Oh yeah.

    Non-S&S stuff:

    C. J. Cherryh: The Faded Sun trilogy. Wow. Amazing. There are not enough superlatives to describe it.

    Patrick Rothfuss: Name of the Wind. Series is not finished yet, but this guy can write.

    H.P. Lovecraft. Read everything he wrote. There is no excuse not to. There would be no modern horror without him. Essentially Edgar Allen Poe on mescaline.
     

Share This Page