In this thread, Miller recommeded that I read Canticle for Liebowitz. I just did. It was fantastic ! Thanks, Miller !
I also read The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant on the recommendation of a Doper. There are probably a few others which slip my mind just now.
Now I need to hit the library again. I’m going to pick up Riddley Walker, another one recommended in that thread, and I’m kind of tempted to give Voltaire’s Bastards a shot after reading Hamish’s current Canadian Authors thread.
So, has anyone else had good book tips from this place? If so, share !
Based on a thread in which I was lurking earlier this week, I’ll be picking up a couple of books by Steve Martin. I enjoy Rakoff, Sedaris, Roach and Borowitz so I’m sure I’ll like Martin.
I’ll post back to this thead, assuming it’s still active, once I’ve read a selection or two.
If you’re not familiar with Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., you need to be. The best books for a beginner are Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions.
My favorite author is Samuel Beckett. He wrote a bunch of fantastic books, but the only one that’s even remotely accessible is Murphy. If you like that, you might check out Watt, and the trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnameable.
ultrafilter: the Liebowitz suggestion actually came from my rhetorical question of ‘Is there a better post-apocalyptic novelist than Vonnegut?’
Well, you know what they say about great minds ! I’ll put Beckett on my list as well, thanks for the tip about the only accessible one.
I just got Voltaire’s Bastards out of the library. Heavy reading, man - the thing must weigh twenty pounds !
Funny, I’m currently reading Canadian author Atwood’s post apocalypitic novel Oryx and Crake right now. Can’t recommend it until I finish it. This is my third start on the novel. Its a little dark and intense for my current reading habits.
Just finished Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I enjoyed it far more than I enjoyed Wicked. Also just reread Sense and Sensibility. Can you go wrong with Austen?
Have you read The Sparrow? I despised the book and didn’t finish it, but the rest of my bookclub LOVED it. Something about what you are talking about makes me think you might like it.
I’ve been trying to get as many people as possible to read Evolution by Stephen Baxter. Fictionalized history of humans from the death of the dinosaurs until the death of the earth. It was one of the most compelling things I’ve read in a long time.
Dangerosa: I was pretty disappointed with Oryx and Crake. (I started a thread to discuss it but it went nowhere.) It was good, but I expect greatness from Atwood. And at least one inspiring woman character.
Kaspar: great screen name ! You seem to have learned to type very well in English … 
I will also add Evolution to my list. I’m curious about how a novel can span the life and times of the Earth and still have plot/characters etc … but hey, Liebowitz spans several thousand years as well.
I’m enjoying it so far (as much as you can enjoy a book like that - its depressing and disgusting with a sarcastic bite). And having read a lot of Atwood, I have no expectations other than wonderful use of language (which the book has in spades) when I pick it up. Her stuff has been all over for me. Some of it among my favorites, some I couldn’t get through. But she can use words.
The first author I usually start raving about (think I’ve already done so here) whenever someone asks me for a recommendation is Jorge Luis Borges, specifically Labyrinths. (Though three recent volumes, Collected Fictions, Selected Non-Fictions, and Poems pretty much comprise the whole shootin’ match.) Borges wrote these amazingly concise, mind-bending short pieces that all dealt in some way with time and infinity. No writer excites me intellectually like this guy does.