Looking for books to read

[RitterSport]

I think this is the right forum. Anyway, I have a fairly long commute, so I get through a lot of books and I've run out of things to read. I could explore new authors I don't know about, but I'm bad about starting a book -- I feel like I need to finish it, even if I don't like it. Dumb, I know.

Anyway, here are some of the authors I really like:

Kurt Vonnegut
Joe Haldeman
Terry Pratchett
Caleb Carr (well, not the one set in the future)
Neil Stephenson (except Diamond Age)
John Irving
David Sedaris

It's pretty sci-fi oriented, I guess. I think I like a good story told in a straightforward way, with interesting ideas in it. Funny is definitely a plus. I think I don't like very descriptive writing, or airy, dreamy books.

Authors I don't like:

Clive Cussler (I read Sahara, and that was enough)
William Faulkner (I read the first few pages of Absolom Absolom and couldn't get any further)
Ben Bova
Orson Scott Card (I liked Ender's Game, but the rest of that series really turned me off to him)
Isaac Asimov (just too idealistic or something)
Hemingway (I've only read the Old Man and the Sea, but I really disliked that book)
Harry Harrison (his writing style just grated on me)

I liked Catch-22 a lot, as well as Job by Heinlein, but Heinlein's other books were very hit and miss. I read Left Hand of Darkness and it was OK, but not my favorite kind of writing.

This board has the most literate, intelligent group of people I can find anywhere. I know you'll set me on the right track.

Thanks!

[Athena]

Check out Robert Charles Wilson - "Spin" is a great book, and I liked "Julian Comstock" almost as much.

Connie Willis is also a good read - "Doomsday Book" is great, and her new one, "Blackout" is set in the same world.

[WordMan]

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Literate sci-fi about a Jesuit mission to an alient world...and how it goes awry.


The Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami. One of the great writers working today, these (along with his recent Kafka on the Shore) have, well, a Kafka-esque quality of not-quite-being set in our reality, with the bits of fantasy tied up in the identity of the protagonist and their place in the world. Incredibly well written.

[RitterSport]

This is great stuff! Keep it coming!

[filling_pages]

Have you tried Neil Gaiman yet? Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Neverwhere, and American Gods all seem like they'd be up your alley.

Oh, and if you haven't yet read anything by Douglas Adams, now's the time.

[RitterSport]

Originally Posted by filling_pages

Have you tried Neil Gaiman yet? Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Neverwhere, and American Gods all seem like they'd be up your alley.

Oh, and if you haven't yet read anything by Douglas Adams, now's the time.

As far as I can tell, I've read everything by Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams. They seemed pretty similar to the other authors I mentioned that I thought it wasn't worth listing them separately. I think I've read everything by Vonnegut, Haldeman, and the other authors I mentioned (there may be a book or two of Pratchett's that I missed, but I got most of them, I think). I even read Joe Haldeman's Star Trek books and his brother Jack's Star Trek book.

I'm pretty desperate for new reading material.

To add further, I'm not a big fan of William Gibson, but I think I've read it all anyway. I wish I could better articulate the kind of writing I like, because it really doesn't have to be sci-fi, just good stories, and straightforward writing.

[WordMan]

Oh - and read Old Man's War by John Scalzi - recent, but VERY reminiscent of good Heinlein - just a fun, quick read...

[anu-la1979]

Connie Willis writes good books. For her I'd recommend To Say Nothing of the Dog and Doomsday Book.

Flashman Papers, George McDonald Fraser (historical fiction focusing on the world's awesomest anti-hero...not sci-fi but loads of fun)

Hyperion: Dan Simmons

The Magus: John Fowles. I have to put this on there even if it's not a "straight forward" book. It's weird and left me thinking for a long time afterwards. I even ended up calling my sister to talk about the Jungian shit (she's a psychiatrist).

Bridge of Birds: Barry Hughart. Humorous fantasy set in China.

Cloud Atlas: David Mitchell. Probably one of my favourite contemporary novels.

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by anu-la1979

The Magus: John Fowles. I have to put this on there even if it's not a "straight forward" book. It's weird and left me thinking for a long time afterwards. I even ended up calling my sister to talk about the Jungian shit (she's a psychiatrist).

Best read when you are, oh, early 20's - wonderful book that will totally mess with your head in a good way. If you read it much past that age, you may not find it nearly as easy to identify with the protagonist...

[Balance]

Originally Posted by anu-la1979

Bridge of Birds: Barry Hughart. Humorous fantasy set in China..

Seconded, thirded, and passed by acclaim.

I would also recommend the Kencyrath novels by P. C. Hodgell. The first two, God Stalk and Dark of the Moon are currently available as an omnibus edition The God Stalker Chronicles. If you do ebooks, the first four books and an anthology are available as a bundle from Baen books for $25.

The books are dark, intricate, densely written fantasy, but they're also loaded with (often surreal) humor. They follow a young woman with a murky past, a keen sense of honor, and a penchant for causing disasters as she tries to return home to her people (and then survive their response).

[RitterSport]

Thanks again, to everyone for the suggestions, especially those authors that have multiple works.

I'm checking out one of these tonight at the library, so I'll post back next week sometime.

[Gukumatz]

Richard Morgan writes pretty great, tough sci-fi. If you want to check out his style in general, I'd recommend "Black Man." If you like that, odds are you'll like the Takeshi Kovacs novels as well.

A good newcomer is Gavin Smith with "Veteran." You wouldn't know it was a debut book unless you checked and the title gives it far less credit than it deserves. It's one of those books where I can't give you any pre-knowledge without either making it sound bland - which it sure as hell isn't - or ruining things, which I sure as hell won't. The start of Men In Black meets the ending of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

If you like things a bit complex, the Commonwealth Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton is both very interesting and a lot of fun. While it's not quite "hard" sci-fi, it's at least pretty stiff and explores some very cool territory.

If you're not averse to fantasy, there's a long list of suspects to run down, of course. Bakker, R.R. Martin, Scott Lynch, Hobb, Tchaikovsky, Sanderson, etc. Since I'm not going to be able to make you read all of them, I'll just focus on my perennial favourite, Steven Erikson. Yes, he takes a long time to set things up, but the payoff is astronomical. He's almost the anti-Stephen King.

[RitterSport]

I've just finished Julian Comstock and it was pretty good. I found that I had to suspend just a tad too much disbelief for comfort (Secular Ancients for people who lived just a couple of hundred years ago? C'mon.). And, it was an interesting concept, but I don't think he made a lot of use of the idea that just a few centuries prior, we were at the pinnacle of civilization. You could have written the book and set it back in colonial Civil War times, with almost no changes.

I'm starting on Connie Willis' Doomsday Book and I like it very much so far. I'll keep reporting back, in case anyone is interested. Thanks again for the suggestions.