# Most Evocative Book You've Ever Read is...? (HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282 "2006-05-03T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rebecca\_DiMwitter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@Rebecca\_DiMwitter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebecca_DiMwitter)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/41 "2006-05-04T18:11:54Z")
[QUOTE=don’t ask] Two books that made me want to jump on a plane and go where they were set, although only one is a novel: Hemingway’s _A Moveable Feast_ about his days as a nobody in Paris. James Lee Burke’s _In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead_ and all his other books that I subsequently read. [/QUOTE] Ooooh, James Lee Burke! A fave of mine also. Met him at a book signing in Missoula, Montana some years back (nearly 9 now, I guess…WOW.) and have a signed copy of “Cimarron Rose” from him in my collection. He’s a great guy, with a kind of Hoyt Axton’s looks-from-the-early-eighties-vibe to him, articulate and interesting. He does make you want to go boozin’ and trawling with Dave Robicheaux all up and down the Bayou, doesn’t he? –Beck ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/42 "2006-05-04T19:44:18Z")
Got me some Flannery O’Connor and some Joyce Carol Oates, as well as Roach’s _Spook_. but I have work to do! Argh. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/43 "2006-05-05T08:26:38Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] I watched this on Masterpiece Theater a few weeks ago. Beautiful production, and an incentive for me to read the book. Did you see it? [/QUOTE] Haven’t seen it yet (I take it it’s the BBC film?). Do read the book. It helps if you appreciate English humour, I think, but Durrell was a very funny yet evocative writer - I can almost hear the insects buzzing in the olive groves still… ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/44 "2006-05-05T09:53:13Z")
Mr God, This Is Anna - read it when I was eleven, and every couple of years since. Ursula K Le Guin creates worlds that also sing to my soul S/F or fantasy. Ben Elton - though preferrably those of his books _without_ deviant sexual acts, because they take so very long to leave the internal movie screen… ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/45 "2006-05-05T16:58:12Z")
I forgot to mention another book (or series of books) that was very evocative for me - Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet. (I think the mention of his brother Gerald reminded me). Kristin Lavransdatter transported me to Medieval Norway; This transported me to Egypt, ca. 1940s. And I’ll also mention Paul Scott’s Jewel in the Crown novels - although I didn’t read them until after seeing the BBC mini-series, when I read them the images from the books and tv show all mushed together to make me feel I was there witnessing the end of the Raj in India. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/46 "2006-05-06T15:31:36Z")
**The Chalk Giants** - Keith Roberts **When the Lights go Out** - Tanith Lee All of Patrick O’Brian’s sea stories, but especially \*\*The Far Side of the World \*\* and **The Mauritius Command** **Perdito Street Station** - China Mieville \*\*The Pastel City \*\* - M John Harrison **The House on the Brink** - John Gordon ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282/47 "2006-05-06T16:41:13Z")
Definitely _Dandelion Wine_ by Ray Bradbury–that book takes me into a world that I can feel, touch, taste, and smell. It’s absolutely incredible, and one that I have to reread every so often so I can relive it. I feel the same way about _Fahrenheit 451_ and _Something Wicked This Way Comes_. _To Kill A Mockingbird_ is also very evocative, as is everything I’ve read by Flannery O’Connor. I haven’t read much Capote, and this thread is inspiring me–I’m going to have to make a library run. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-evocative-book-youve-ever-read-is-here-there-be-spoilers/355282.md?page=2)