OT - what's your favorite fiction novel or author?

gdenby

Haven't read much fiction for the last 20 years or so. Sometimes go back to old "hard boiled" detective stories, Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, etc. Not much humor there, altho there is usually a good bit of sarcasm.

Read just about everything William Gibson and Bruce Sterling wrote before I checked out. Like wise Vonnegut, who is one of my younger son's big favorites. Ever try Philip ****? I've read that his "Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" may be heading to being a movie. Not humor. Really, terribly scary.

Or jump into something quite odd. "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thos. Pynchon. Bizarre, convoluted, full of conspiracy, and some really ludicrous laughs. A story set in WW2, about a fellow named Tyrone Slothrop, who had a strange operation as a child. The result is that he becomes, ahem, erotically stimulated when he is standing next to where a V2 rocket is about to land.

Eggcelsior

HP Lovecraft

Acn

Other thoughts; have you read any Wodehouse?  The Jeeves stories are very funny, and a very quick and easy read.

I've also been going through all my Dad's old Rex Stout books.  Nero Wolfe is a great detective.

nolaegghead

Fiction, comedy, unintended satire:  Donald Trump "Art of the Deal"

gmac

Used to read a lot of Ian Rankin. Now mostly Bill Bryson (which is travel and history so maybe not fiction) and I go back to some classics every year. Hemingway in particular. Conrad, reading Siddhartha again right now but never read any other Hesse. 

JohnInCarolina

My tolerance for mediocre writing is pretty low, even if the stories themselves are interesting.  

By the way for non-fiction if you aren't reading Coates you are missing a contemporary Baldwin.

Skrullb

Mark Twain. All day, every day. 

HeavyG

JohnInCarolina said:

My tolerance for mediocre writing is pretty low, even if the stories themselves are interesting.  

By the way for non-fiction if you aren't reading Coates you are missing a contemporary Baldwin.

I've always enjoyed his stuff  for The Atlantic but have not yet read his latest book. It's been on on my Kindle for many months but hasn't bubbled to the top yet.

nolaegghead

Dr. Seuss, by a light year.  He writes at a level that most people can understand (this works for elections also).  Thneeds.  THNEEDS!  Brilliant!

Ozzie_Isaac

nolaegghead said:

Dr. Seuss, by a light year.  He writes at a level that most people can understand (this works for elections also).  Thneeds.  THNEEDS!  Brilliant!

I missed you.

Botch

Forgot one: Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull).   I've read most if not all of his other books, and really liked them all.  

blind99

If you like the lee child / Daniel silva kind of stuff try I Am Pilgrim. Has the same flaws as all those books but it's like getting 4 of them packed into 1. 

JustineCaseyFeldown

"Glass Bikini" by Seymour Hare

"Yellow River" by I. P. Daley

"You Look Wonderful Tonight" by Heywood Jablomy

"The Drunk Wore a Pillow" by Justin Casey Feldowne

bgebrent

Skrullb said:

Mark Twain. All day, every day. 

Related distantly and agree.  Granny's last name was Clemens.  Good call.

PoppasGrill

I really enjoy C S Forrester's Horatio Hornblower series.
have re read them several times over the years along with Hemingway and Twain.
recently I read a book called The Shack by William Paul Young. Religious based book that had me yelling , putting my Nook down and then picking it back up to read more of it. 

Hans61

JustineCaseyFeldown said:

"Glass Bikini" by Seymour Hare

"Yellow River" by I. P. Daley

"You Look Wonderful Tonight" by Heywood Jablomy

"The Drunk Wore a Pillow" by Justin Casey Feldowne

Lol. "20 yards to the outhouse" by Willie Makeit, illustrated by Betty Wont 

SGH

Botch said:

For non-humorous, give me Tolkein 

 Brother Botch, I have a copy of everything that J.R.R.Tolkien released. I also have a copy of everything that his son Christopher released. 

NPHuskerFL

Penthouse Letters

JohnInCarolina

SGH said:

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Botch said:

For non-humorous, give me Tolkein 

 Brother Botch, I have a copy of everything that J.R.R.Tolkien released. I also have a copy of everything that his son Christopher released. 

I didn't know Tolkien released one of those Guides for Dummies.  Pretty nice of you SGH to keep that around for kids who don't read good.

SGH

JohnInCarolina said:

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SGH said:

Botch said:

For non-humorous, give me Tolkein 

 Brother Botch, I have a copy of everything that J.R.R.Tolkien released. I also have a copy of everything that his son Christopher released. 

I didn't know Tolkien released one of those Guides for Dummies.  Pretty nice of you SGH to keep that around for kids who don't read good.

I have a couple of books in that line that are not Tolkien books. 3 if memory serves. 2 of them are "Tolkien Guides".  And I have the 1 Tolkien for dummies as well. I keep it handy for my liberal friends

bgebrent

Scottie's got a certificate of hygiene there from the state of Mississippi.  Explains a lot about the "filthy" hippy.

Spring Hen

Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon has everything. Love, war, history, and written in such a way you cannot put the books down. 9  books so far and so good they made a TV series on Starz channel of her books.

nolaegghead

bgebrent said:

Scottie's got a certificate of hygiene there from the state of Mississippi.  Explains a lot about the "filthy" hippy.

That's for his wife, but I like your explanation better....

JustineCaseyFeldown

We doin photos?


Hardcover. One of maybe 1200 printed, most destroyed/remaindered. And very few signed. I don't read this on the subway.  



The wife's "Christmas Carol". 1843. Handcolored plates by John Leech. Printed on the day of our anniversary. But like 150 years earlier. 

Got a bunch of crap like this.

I don't get out much. Once I kissed a girl. It was awesome. 

Hope to again some day. 

frognot

I like mysteries and Robert Crais and Michael Connelly are a couple of favorite writers.

jabam

Stephen King

Little Steven

JustineCaseyFeldown said

I don't get out much. Once I kissed a girl. It was awesome. 

Why did you go the other way then?

JustineCaseyFeldown

Little Steven said:

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JustineCaseyFeldown said

I don't get out much. Once I kissed a girl. It was awesome. 

Why did you go the other way then?

It gets cold in a fishing cabin. And when one of the guys is a short toothless stranger, with a flat head for resting a beer, and from an exotic and erotic area of the world (canada)....  well. When in Toronto....

but no kissing. 

Don't tell the wife tho. She thinks it's about drinking and fishing and good food. 

Really had to cover for the latter when she saw the fotos of indian food on prison trays. 

Little Steven

Next time I'll get proper thali platters so you can maintain the ruse.

YukonRon

This is a list of 10 from about 500 of my favorites. Adding Shakespeare to this list, (Richard III, Henry V, etc., just because I am compelled to do so) needs no explanation.

I could easily add another 50, which I believe to be just as impactful, and thought provoking.

In Search of Lost Time - Proust
Ulysses - Joyce
The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez
The Trial - Kafka
Catch 22 - Heller
Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
The Stranger - Camus
For Whom The Bell Tolls - Hemingway