I need 20 hours of reading recommendations, minimum.
Thoughts to keep in mind:
I probably read faster than you do: I chew through 80-90 pages of lightweight stuff in an hour.
I probably have read much of what you may recommend, due to the above (and the fact I constantly am reading).
I have already put Dumas' 10 Years After and 20 Years After on the list.
Engrossing, somewhat humorous, intelligent, all are important traits. Oh, and I need the reccs by tomorrow.
UPDATE:
I just got a good look at how many pages are in '10 Years Later'. Hah- nope, not going to need other recommendations. ;)
Thoughts to keep in mind:
I probably read faster than you do: I chew through 80-90 pages of lightweight stuff in an hour.
I probably have read much of what you may recommend, due to the above (and the fact I constantly am reading).
I have already put Dumas' 10 Years After and 20 Years After on the list.
Engrossing, somewhat humorous, intelligent, all are important traits. Oh, and I need the reccs by tomorrow.
UPDATE:
I just got a good look at how many pages are in '10 Years Later'. Hah- nope, not going to need other recommendations. ;)
I'm reading Peter Biskind's DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES, a history of Miramax, Sundance and indy film in the 90s and it's been a good read so far. Weird to know that Biskind was the nebbishy producer in Altman's GOSFORD PARK.
Those should ge tyou for at least 2 hours :)
I Aim to Please
Courtship Right, Donald Kingsbury (SF)
Swordspoint, Kushner (Fantasy)
Anything by Dorothy Sayers (Mystery)
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden (Literature)
Relic and the even better sequel Reliquery, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Horror)
Anno Dracula, Kim Newman (Horror?)
I hope this helps.
Re: I Aim to Please
Anything by Gerald Durrell.
the tesseract, alex garland
also, and certain i haven't asked about:
take the cannoli>, sarah vowell (humorous essays)
petals and thorns, bret fetzer (very clever, often funny/gruesome new fairy tales) and
tooth and tongue, bret fetzer (same)
winter tides, james p. blaylock; liked this better than the previous two blaylock novels i'd read, nice socal beach town setting behind a ghost story with a couple of nasty characters
these would all just be nibbles for you, i'm sure. but nice nibbles.
Re:
Grendel - John Gardner
Ghost and Horror Stories - Ambrose Bierce
The Plague - Albert Camus
Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon
The Complete Stories - Flannery O'Connor
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
Narcissus and Goldmund/or Demian - Herman Hesse
Re:
Not too shabby. But it's not faster than me. ;) ok ok, that is actually about the pace I read. :)
Sadly, I have no serious recommendations, since I'm pretty sure you've read anything I could actually suggest. :)
If you like, check out my book review journal at
Re:
Pamela Kaufman's 'Shield of Three Lions'
Ian Hancock's 'We Are The Romani People'
Irving Wallace's 'The Nympho and Other Maniacs'
Bob Hope's 'Don't Shoot, It's Only Me'
Roger Hall's 'You're Stepping On My Cloak and Dagger'
Roger Hall's 'All My Pretty Ones'
H.E. Bates' 'The Darling Buds of May'
Leo Rosten's 'The Joys of Yiddish'
the Quincunx by Charles Palliser (or his other books: Betrayals and the Unburied)
Just about anything by Paul Auster
Moab Is My Washpot by Stephen Fry
I, Lucifer by Glenn Duncan (I'm halfway through this at the moment)
the Public Burning by Robert Coover
Alasdair Gray: Lanark, Poor Things, etc.
Duke Hamilton Is Dead! by Victor Stater
Re:
I, Lucifer rocks.
Thank you for the other recommendations!
have you ever read edmund white? his use of imagery is absolutely stunning. i just finished his 2 memoirs: 'a boy's own story' and 'the beautiful room is empty' and just started one of his fiction novels.
also, 'sex, drugs, and the twinkie murders' by paul krassner and 'wait until spring, bandini' by john fante spring to mind as meeting your criteria.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman;
The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson (and, if you want, the Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy an unofficial sort of sequel);
Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson;
The Island of the Day Before or Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco;
Finnegan's Wake by Joyce (and maybe Tindall's A Reader's Guide to Finnegan's Wake as well);
and, finally, of course, anything by Nick Mamatas. :D
Re:
His Dark Materials, comprised of The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass, Phillip Pullman.
Prospero's Children, The Dragon Charmer, and The Witch Queen, Jan Siegel.
A Sorceror and a Gentleman, The Price of Blood and Honor, and The Well-Favored Man, Elizabeth Willey.
Anything by Connie Willis, especially Dooms Day Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Bellwether, and Passage. (Note: I cried through the last third of the book. But I'm a sap.)
The Language Instinct, Stephen Pinker.
Queen of Denial, Selina Rosen.
Through Wolf's Eyes, Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart, Brother to Dragon, Companion to Owls, Jane Lindskold.
That's about all I can think of, off the top of my head.
Re:
I'm reading this one, I usually devour books, but to carry the food analogy, I'm nibbling this one to death.
Creepy and disturbing in a low key kind of way. It makes you ask yourself, what would you do if you measured the inside and outside of your home, and the inside was 1/4" larger than the outside.
Re:
I do wonder if Mr. Danielewski will write a second novel: I suspect that this may be wunderkind syndrome.