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Lord of the Rings just about saved my life in high school. Possession by A.S. Byatt. Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, though I’ve yet to read the sequels. Atonement by Ian McEwan. Just about anything by Geoff Ryman, Ali Smith, José Saramago, or Sheri Holman.
Your taste seems like exactly the sort of thing I’d enjoy, do you have any specific suggestions for someone who absolutely loves Eco’s metafictional novels in particular and metafiction in general? (Aside from Possession, which I’ve never heard of but is going directly on my to-read list)
I recently read How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, which I really liked. It is science fictional, though, but maybe not…maybe more surreal. Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, David Markson. I started Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić many years ago, got interrupted, and haven’t got back to it, but I definitely need to because it was so intriguing in form.
I will throw down for Pride and Prejudice. It is 95% shade.
Since I was a kid, I always loved the Star Wars expanded universe. My favorites of the whole thing are probably the Republic Commando series and the Thrawn Trilogy. Also love the Gotrek and Felix books, and ive been getting into the Dragonlance franchise
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- David Copperfield
@Kamirose
1984, Lord of the Flies, The Wheel of Time, and the Death Gate Cycle.So, for me, the cliche answer is Lord of the Rings. But another book that I’ve always really loved, is East by Edith Pattou. It’s a very simple fantasy story, but I read it when I was much younger and it’s always just felt very comfy and cozy whenever I read it.
I’m putting east on my TBR list! Thank you for sharing!
I really hope you’ll enjoy it! The sequel, West is also good, though a bit weaker than East. I don’t often reread books, just because I would rather spend my reading time with a book I haven’ yet read, but East is one of the few books I’ve made an exception for; I must have read that book four or five times by now.
Oh man. “All time” is hard because I’ve been through so many phases of my life. I count a favorite as any book I’ve bought, since I’m usually such a library person.
Tween/teen:
- The belgariad
- Harry Potter
- Anything by tamora Pierce (Alana, the circle)
- Enders game
- Name of the wind (still waiting for doors of stone, damn you Patrick)
- Wrinkle in time
- The giver
college:
- Hyperion
- Dune
- Mists of Avalon
Now:
- The housekeeper and the professor
- The house on the cerulean sea
- Stories of your life and others
- Shit Cassandra saw
- The last graduate series
- A Court of Thorns and Roses series (it’s a guilty pleasure and I’m ashamed to post it in the same thread as these classics but I’m addicted right now)
The belgariad was great when I was a kid, reading about the author was wild though. Don’t if you don’t want to taint the image.
I’m depressed enough knowing what I know about JK Rowling and Orson Scott Card…
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
It’s cliche I suppose, but 1984 by Orwell. It’s actually a fucking great read beyond it’s thematic meaning. People are correct in saying A Brave New World was more prescient, but it’s not as good a book in my opinion.
Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series, all six mainline books and even the side books are all fantastic.
It’s manga, but Berserk by Kentaro Miura. IYKYK
I read Frankenstein in my highschool literature class way back, loved it then and love it now. Shelly was a pioneer.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance can be a difficult read at times, but is honestly incredible.
If you like having things to ponder and think on, it’s unforgettable
I was assigned Zen in college. I could not get into it. And I had to get it read. I took it chapter by chapter backwards and loved it.
I listened to it on Audiobook myself; i think it’s very suited to the format
- Philip K Dick - Galactic Pot-Healer
- Jose Donoso - The Obscene Bird of Night
- Alfred Kubin - The Other Side
- Ursula K Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven
- Stanislaw Lem - Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
- Boris & Arkady Strugatsky - Roadside Picnic
- H G Wells - When The Sleeper Wakes
- Stefan Wul - Oms en Serie
- Yevgeny Zamyatin - We
- Jerzy Zulawski - On The Silver Globe
I also really love all the Moomin & Oz books.
I like to hand out copies of WE to anyone who mentions 1984. I get chills when discussing it sometimes.
The Wooden Sea (Crane’s View, #3) by Jonathan Carroll
- I suggest jumping into this novel blind and do not ask questions, just go with the flow
Dragonriders of Pern Series by Anne McCaffrey
- Self explanatory
On mobile, too tired to write but… So many… But I honestly think Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is as close to the perfect book as I can imagine (for me!). Also, Kafka for me is like the Final Boss, once you go through him, everything else pales in comparison
I have a few favorites, but if I were stranded on a desert island, the one book I’d take with me would be Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The book is so layered, and the world is so unusual. It’s one of the few books I kept trying to put off finishing because I didn’t want it to end.
The Dune series. Especially books 1 and 4 left such a deep impression on me. Hard to put into words. Haven’t experienced something similar yet.
World War Z
