Book Recommendations For An Utter Illiterate

[Clive Durdle]

Jo Nesbo

[Clive Durdle]

Biggles?

[kennyc]

Sum stuffs:


Here's my favorite novels list:


The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Dhalgren - Samuel R. Delany
Foundation Trilogy - Issac Asimov
Dune - Frank Herbert
Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler
Lord of the Rings - J R R Tolkien
City - Clifford D. Simak
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Road - Cormac McCarthy


Top 10 SF:
In no particular order after the first two.

Dhalgren - Samuel R. Delany
Foundation Trilogy - Issac Asimov
Dune - Frank Herbert
City - Clifford D. Simak
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Ringworld - Larry Niven
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin
The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood

My favorite Short Story Collections

"You Must Read This"
"The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: 50 North American Stories Since 1970"
"The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories"

Nonfiction

The Immense Journey - Loren Eiseley
The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Lives of a Cell - Lewis Thomas

My Favorite Essays
(can be found in various books and collections)
Many in:
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction
Or -
In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction

The Brown Wasps - Lauren Eiseley
The Dream Animal - Lauren Eiseley
The Slit - Lauren Eiseley
The Judgment of the Birds - Lauren Eiseley
The Star Thrower - Lauren Eiseley
Lives of a Cell - Lewis Thomas
Suspended - Joy Harjo
The Deck - Yusef Komunyakaa
The Fourth State of Matter - Jo Ann Beard
Three Spheres - Lauren Slater
The White Album - Joan Didion
Moving Water, Tucson - Peggy Shumaker
Heaven and Nature - Edward Hoagland
Embalming Mom - Janet Burroway
Visitor - Michael W. Cox
Leap - Brian Doyle
Small Rooms in Time - Ted Kooser
Enough Jam for a Lifetime - Maxine Kumin
Remembering I was not there - Anne Panning
Fury and Grace - Pattiann Rogers
The Indian Dog - N. Scott Momaday
Dogged - Barrie Jean Borich
Work - Kim Barnes

and my current short story list (sort of in favorite order)
available in various collections, anthologies or single author books:


The Prophet from Jupiter - Tony Earley
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - Ursala K LeGuin (Incredible Story)
The Story of Your Life - Ted Chiang (also Hell is the Absence of God...and others he is an excellent short story writer)
Wild Horses - Rick Bass
Frost and Fire - Ray Bradbury
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall - Katherine Anne Porter
Rescue Party - Arthur C Clarke
The Star - Issac Asimov
A Rose for Ecclesiastes - Roger Zelazny
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Cathedral - Raymond Carver
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes.
The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allen Poe
A Boy and His Dog - Harlan Ellison
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce
The Hills Like White Elephants - Ernest Hemingway
The End of Something - Ernest Hemingway
A Clean Well Lighted Place - Hemingway
A Rose for Emily - Faulkner
Chicxulub - T.C. Boyle
Bullet in the Brain - Tobias Wolff
Where Have you Been, Where are you Going - Joyce Carol Oates
The Ceiling - Kevin Brockmeier

[Blip]

Plenty already to keep you going, but I don't think anyone has mentioned John Fowles yet; I'd say The Magus was a good 'new readers start here'. And The French Lieutenant's Woman is one of my favourites.

Also, people think of Captain Corelli's Mandolin in connection with Louis de Bernières, but I recommend his first three novels, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman.

I'll also put in a word for Life of Pi by Yann Martel and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. The latter is long, but I couldn't put it down.

[Onyx8]

@kennyc: "The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood " She would have your balls for calling that sci-fi. She doesn't write sci-fi, dontcha-know?

Great book though.

[Ironclad]

[quote="Nautilidae";p="2238092"]Greetings, all.

What books would you recommend for someone who has read virtually nothing for the majority of his life and is quite frankly done with that being the case?.[/quote]

Scratch n Sniff. You're welcome.