ITT great books are recommended

[NAD]

Fury by Salman Rushdie, the most intense book I've ever read.

 

[xfer]

i'm the only English major/grad student/teacher ever who has never read anything by Faulkner (except short stories).

 

[The Dope]

You really should read "The Sound and the Fury," even if you read nothing else by him. It's such a beautiful/tragic story and it's written wonderfully.

 

[The Dope]

Though since you hate the South so much, you might not enjoy it the way I do.

 

[xfer]

i'm sure that at some point in my life i'll have a faulkner phase and read four or more of his books in a row.

 

[minxnim]

faulker weirds me out!

 

[mindspell]

I read As I Lay Dying in college (philosophy seminar) and it was entertaining and very well written but didn't push me into reading more Faulkner.

Much like Lolita has not pushed me into more Nabokov, despite the quality of the writing.

I am currently reading The Black Dahlia from James Ellroy, its my third Ellroy book and looks to be the best of the bunch so far.

 

[Reanna]

I bought Lolita, but havent read it yet. Should I?

 

[xfer]

um YES

 

[Astral Poetry]

Ohhhh yes, The Sound in the Fury is an essential read, but my preference for Faulkner is Sanctuary. He's really an amazing author, particularly his structuring.

The most interesting book I've read lately has to be House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I highly suggest that anyone who wants a very very complex (should I say avant-garde?) read should check it out.

 

[xfer]

i'm kind of interested in that, but the guy who recommended it to me is also a huge chuck palahniuk fan, so i'm somewhat inclined to believe the critics who said it wasn't nearly as good as it first seems it is when you hear what it's about.

i will read it at some point, though.

 

[Astral Poetry]

It definitely has a Chuck Palahniuk feel, but where his novels tend to bore or just become ridiculous, House of Leaves remains pschological and cerebral throughout, particularly in the use of physics (of all things) to scare you.

 

[xfer]

well, chuck palahniuk has some good plots and ideas, but his writing is so shitty it's hard to have the desire to see the plots out. i guessed that danielewski's book might suffer from similar problems (good ideas, shit writing). but i haven't read it yet.

 

[inkybmistro]

fight club was the first chuck palahniuk book i ever read, and i thought at the time that the writing style was different and interesting, and i'd say i liked it. so then i picked up survivor and i realized, "wtf exact same writing style, gay." and then choke: same. i thought at first that he just used that style in fight club or something, but oh, no.

 

[xfer]

he's just really...inept at the craft of writing. i think that my writing is inept in a similar way, actually, so i don't despise him as a person or anything. but still.

 

[Firedwarf]

Alex, PMs.

 

[inkybmistro]

it wouldn't have been so bad if, like i thought, only fight club was intentionally written that way to emphasize the in your face pop-culture aspects of the story or something.

 

[xfer]

firedwarf, you stored private message quota is full, but here's a helpful link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Zembla

 

[Firedwarf]

I just cleared some stuff out and sent you another one!

 

[lizard]

I just finished a novel by Globe columnist Brian McGrory, Dead Line, where the Southie Mayor of Boston has an estranged gangster son named TOBY!