List as many or as few as you like!

  • DaEagle
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    1 year ago

    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

  • EntropicalVacation@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • aquaarmor23@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      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)

      • EntropicalVacation@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        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.

  • maxrebo@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I had no idea writing, even fiction, could be so ridiculous and non-traditional. It really shaped my imagination from a young age.

  • ProblemsTheClown@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Witch@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I’m probably gonna be an odd one out here with a cleaning book, but I really, really like K.C Davis’s “How to Keep House While Drowning” book about cleaning your house while mentally unwell and not considering yourself a moral failure for the state your house is in.

    I think it’s the one that had the most amount of positive benefits to my life. It turns out having a positive influence in the form of a book that tries to encourage you take things one step at a time, a book that even admits it doesn’t know everything either—well, it’s more beneficial than my real life acquaintances and family who opted for the shame method.

  • iwaspunkrockonce@kbin.social
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    1 year ago
    • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    • Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
    • The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsay Drager
    • The Book of Nightmares by Galway Kinnell
    • Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki
    • The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    • Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
    • Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
    • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • Austin-Philp@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Small Gods by Terry Pratchett - which is interesting for me, because most of what I read is SciFi - but it’s such a fascinating, thought provoking, and entertaining read

    • stom@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      I love Small Gods! It’s my go-to when people ask which Discworld book they should start with and want a good standalone.

      The image of Om, in turtle form, piloting an eagle by biting it’s unmentionables to canonball the head priest is fantastic.

  • davefischer@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago
    • 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.

  • hakase
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    1 year ago

    My top 3, in order are:

    1. The Lord of the Rings

    2. Dune

    3. The Count of Monte Cristo

  • bear_delune@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    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

    • Sass@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • Chloyster [she/her]@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I really didn’t read much for a bunch of my life. Now that I’m out of school I’m finally trying to read a bunch of stuff. I recently did all the cosmere stuff so I guess for now I’d have to say stormlight, and war breaker. Just love those books a lot. I’m sure my opinions will change as I keep reading a bunch though

    • Zak8022@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Really anything from Brandon Sanderson I’ve come across has been amazing. I think I first found out about him when he wrote a short story/book in the Infinity Blade game universe.

        • Zak8022@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I have not, but have heard it recommended. I’m sort of in a reading lull lately, but I’ll add it to the list. Thanks for the suggestion!

  • Humanoid@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    In no particular order:

    The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
    A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud
    Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong
    Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu
    The Red Night Trilogy of William S. Burroughs (Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, The Western Lands)
    On the Road: The Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac
    Book of Haikus by Jack Kerouac
    The Stranger by Albert Camus
    The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
    The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    After Dark by Haruki Murakami
    The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
    Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
    One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
    Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

    • davefischer@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Please Kill Me rank high for me too. I remember the first time I heard Blank Generation: I couldn’t listen to anything else for weeks. Just that album, over and over…

      Are you familiar with Kharms?

      • Humanoid@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Blank Generation is a special album for me too! Richard Hell is a genuinely foundational artist for my musical tastes, along with much of his NYC cohort. You know Blank Generation is going to be remarkable right out of the gate when you hear Hell wailing “Love comes in spurts! Oh, god… it hurts!

        I’m not familiar with Kharms, but a cursory search tells me that he checks a lot of boxes for what I like. Do you have any recommendations as to where I should start with him?

  • flyinghorse@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I loved the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Read it as a kid and every time I go back to reread my beat up copies it is a joy.

  • LeifJ@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    A chain of voices - Andre Brink

    Cosmos - Carl Sagan

    The name of the rose - Umberto Eco (so much better than the movie)

    A prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

    I used to read a lot when I was younger. Now I’m down to max two books per year. I miss it.

    • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I was the same way, I felt guilty for reading or like I could never sit still long enough to finish a book. I really recommend audiobooks… Now I just listen to a book while I’m doing chores, driving, playing games, etc. I’m back to reading a book or two a week!