in which I demand people tell me what to read

[raven]

Snow, snow, slush, ice, more snow. I stood on the top of Divinity Road for quite some time and looked down, watching the people edge up step by step. No one, I noted, was even trying the return journey. I didn't risk it. I did get home eventually, having abstracted myself from an incomprehensible lecture on equity when it seemed suspiciously dark around the blinds. (Sitting there, in the break, eating an orange the lecturer had given me the beneficial interest in - he believes in learning by doing - I said, thoughtfully, "In Goa, it's probably twenty-five degrees. The sea is lapping gently on the shore."

"You," someone said, "are an exquisite form of torture.")

The Mousehole is - or was, now - without power or heating, so escaping seemed the order of the day, and now I am warm and dry and feeling better disposed to the world.

So! Dear internets: recommend me books. I am trying to make 2009 the year I get into reading for pleasure again, and so far it's going pretty well - have read five books this year so far, which is the same as I read the previous six months, I'm sure - but, like all worthwhile enterprises, it needs a steady supply of raw material.

So! I trust your taste. Feel free to recommend me anything you like. But, this is what I like, for reference:

-Science fiction and fantasy. Well, I write fanfiction on the internet, this one's pretty much a given. But I'm not fond of hard SF, barring Iain M. Banks' Culture novels, and they maybe aren't hard SF, I don't know. (I like Excession and The Player of Games, love The State of the Art, really really love Look To Windward and have never made it through Consider Phlebas. I have had magic_doors' copy of Matter for donkey's years, and brought it up for the express purpose of returning it, but still haven't read it because I FAIL.)

I have also read a lot of Asimov and Clarke, and like some of the former and lots of the latter, but generally speaking, I like the lighter things. I like Connie Willis and Douglas Adams and Ursula Le Guin's YA stuff. Anything that has aliens or ghosts and doesn't take itself too seriously is good by me.

-Twentieth-century offbeat stuff. I like random things like The Bell Jar and Breakfast At Tiffany's and the various books that begin Fear and Loathing.... I really love the Beat writers. (I went to City Lights in July and about died; gamesiplay can attest to this.) Anything, I am embarrassed to admit, that you might wish to describe as "cool", or dystopian: I love Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 and even Utopia itself is growing on me with sufficient distance, though I don't count it as fiction.

-Bestellers. Well... what an independent bookshops calls bestsellers, bearing in mind it won't stock a lot of the stuff that a supermarket might stock. Book-club books, shall we call them? Working in a bookshop, I read The Time Traveler's Wife and My Sister's Keeper and The Lovely Bones and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen as they first came out, and liked all of them. I do like this sort of thing, but find it hard to think of a common denominator beyond "they sell well to women in their forties".

-Chick-lit. I love chick-lit, but good chick-lit, and there's not a lot of that around. Bonus points for NRI chick-lit, a narrow subgenre that I absolutely lap up. (Mostly, it's terrible. This isn't a problem.)

-Non-fiction-wise, well, I do read it, but I don't like biography or history, which narrows my choices a bit. I like popular science, travelogues, books on language and linguistics, but again, prefer the lighter touch.

-My favourite book of all time is Three Men in a Boat. I feel I should mention it, considering it doesn't fit in any of the above categories.

So. Please recommend me books! It is much appreciated.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

On dystopias, have you read Yevgeny Zamyatin's We? It's nearest to 1984 in plot, and it's a bit less well-known than the latter.

[osymandias.livejournal.com]

You might like Alistair Reynolds, along a sort of Banks-like theme. I really must read 'Look to Windward'. I will recommend 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell' to anybody, so might as well throw that one in. Robert Harris? Vaguely historical fiction (and 'Imperium' is apparently pretty accurate). Somebody wrote 'three and a half men in a boat', which I read years before the original and enjoyed, though I can't remember who wrote it. There's a lovely collection of short stories called 'Stories of your life and others' which is light on the sci-fi but heavy on the ideas in some really interesting ways.

Hmm, sure there are others, but will have to think for a bit.

[osymandias.livejournal.com]

Oh, 'The Lies of Locke Lamorra', on the fantasy that doesn't take itself too seriously line. And 'Temeraire' is fun and silly. On sort of dystopian stuff, have you read any Stephenson? Snow Crash is good, as is the Light Ages. Haven't read Cyrptonomicon.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Have you read Ted Chiang at all? I got recced his short story collection "Stories of Your Life and Others" and it blew me away. (sci-fi but...*fails at explaining*). Leigh heartily approved when I recommend at her and I guarantee at least one story will satisfy the linguist in you.

Elizabeth Moon's Speed of Dark is fairly light sci-fi (near future) where she tries to write from the PoV of an autistic character. I found it fascinating.

[maryavatar.livejournal.com]

Given what you've listed, I think you'd like Richard Morgan's 'Altered Carbon'. It's sci-fi with a cyberpunk flavour.

Actually... from one book addict to another... keep an eye on your e-mail. I may have something for you ;)

[janne.livejournal.com]

Osymandias already recommended nearly all the same books I was thinking of -- and has a shiny blue dragonfly icon, just like my beloved Ikea lamp thingie. Twin? Anyhow, the only other book I can think of offhand is Carnival by Elisabeth Bear. Oh, and a random book I read by chance and unexpectedly liked was one of the Erast Fandorin books by Boris Akunin... sort of a russian Sherlock Holmes.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

You say you like Le Guin's YA-- have you also read the big adult novels? (Sorry, "adult novels" sounds so condescending; I just mean it in opposition to "Young Adult.") Because if not: THOSE. POSTHASTE.

I will return to this post with more once I've compiled a list. *is really unjustifiably excited*

[purplerainbow.livejournal.com]

If you haven't already, I suggest you read Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns because I am reading it now and really enjoying it. It would probably fall under the bestsellers section because everyone is reading it and Hosseini's The Kite Runner, but there is a reason for that because they are so very good. This one possibly pips Kite Runner at the post because it has two great female protagonists so far.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* I don't know, maybe he is your long-lost (perhaps fraternal) twin.

You're the second person to rec me Boris Akunin, actually. I will bear that in mind.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I have not! Thank you for the rec!

[hips-lips-tits.livejournal.com]

one of the best books i read last year was ballad of the whiskey robber: a true story of bank heists, ice hockey, transylvanian pelt smuggling, moonlighting detectives, and broken hearts (http://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Whiskey-Robber-Transylvanian-Moonlighting/dp/0316010731/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233955202&sr=8-1) which could arguably earn the distinction of being both non-fiction as well as 'twentieth-century offbeat stuff,' as i see it, anyhow. i thoroughly enjoyed it.

i will recommend lovecraft as i feel it is compulsory, but that may not be your thing. doesn't matter what you pick up, although admittedly i think that my favorites are the dream cycle tales, although my favorite story is 'the shadow out of time.' they're all collected in little anthologies, though, so whatever you pick up will have a bit of everything.

the only other things i ever really read consist mainly of epidemiology, the history of diseases and their effects on the human race, accounts of who discovered what germ first, etc etc.. don't know if you'd be too into that. i did read a non-fiction novel last year, though, that i enjoyed for something that's pretty out of the norm for what i usually read, the gargoyle (http://www.amazon.com/Gargoyle-Andrew-Davidson/dp/0385524943/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233955760&sr=8-1") by andrew davidson. not that it was the greatest piece of literature i've ever read, but this guy has an interesting style, and it's a really beautiful story. it had me tearing up a little towards the end.

(also, re: YA/chick lit, have you ever read any francesca lia block? she's got a weird style, and everything invokes a sort of other-wordly, dream like setting for her scenes. but it's good to pass the time with.)

ok, ok, i'm done!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Is it you whom I keep telling to read Look To Windward? Dude, read it. It is far and away my favourite of the Culture novels, possibly because it is the one that takes itself the least seriously. (Plus, lots of ship names. Always a bonus.)

I have an unread copy of Jonathan Strange knocking about... perhaps this might be the year. Thank you for recs!

[hips-lips-tits.livejournal.com]

excuse me. i read a FICTION novel last year, that was 'the gargoyle.' you'll have to excuse me, i'm running on 3 hours of sleep here.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

the only other things i ever really read consist mainly of epidemiology, the history of diseases and their effects on the human race, accounts of who discovered what germ first, etc etc..

I don't know if Iona's into this (sorry for hijacking your post, Iona!), but I love this stuff. What have you liked? I'd love to find more that I haven't read.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of Ted Chiang, but I trust you and Leigh implicitly. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*waves magnanimous hand* Germs are, I admit, not quite my thing, but dude, I like the image of my comments as a nice café somewhere where people come to talk about books...

[amaberis.livejournal.com]

Along the lines of books that appeal to middle-aged women, I really enjoyed The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. From the four others you listed in this category (of which I've read the first three) I'd say it's probably most like The Time Traveler's Wife.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

And, lo and behold, there is a copy of Altered Carbon right here. I shall check it out, thank you!

[darksideofstorm.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read it, Ender's Game (and it's parallel companion, Ender's Shadow) by Orson Scott Card are both fairly fantastic. I'd class them as soft Sci-fi dragged through excellent characterization, with a dash of humour and heartbreak and decent storytelling thrown on top.

(And yes, Orson Scott Card is an ass of ginormous proportions, but I'd almost forgive him for his writing.)

[avendya.livejournal.com]

I'd assume you've read China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and his much brighter YA book, Un Lun Dun?

[hips-lips-tits.livejournal.com]

typhoid mary by judith walzer leavitt
pox: genius, madness, and the mysteries of syphilis by deborah hayden (this was a particular favorite)
the hot zone by richard preston
the woman with a worm in her head: and other true stories of infectious diseases by pamela nagami
plague: a story of science, rivalry, and the scourge that won't go away by edward marriott
devices and desires: a history of contraceptives in america by andrea tone (alright so not really about diseases, per se, although there is obviously a lot about sexually transmitted diseases.. still, i found it fascinating so you might, also. more of a history of public health, but then again, most of these books have a healthy dose of that mixed in.)

anyway, these are the ones sticking out in my mind at the moment. hope you find something you like!

[icepixie]

Mmmm. We is friggin' amazing.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome. I haven't even heard of a couple of these, including the pox one. Now I know what I'm getting next time I go to the library! Thanks.

[icepixie]

Seconding the Jonathan Strange and Mieville recommendations. So good.

Have you read Byatt's Possession? Aaaaaaah, amazing. And about poetry and academia! Other amazing books are Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (offbeat and 20th century and very postmodern) and Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale, which is a beautiful, beautiful book written twenty years ago and set in nineteenth-century New York. Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale is another book about books that is love. Oh, and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian. It's kind of like if The Da Vinci Code were actually well-written, and also involved Dracula.

In sci-fi, I've been really into Octavia E. Butler recently. The dystopian Parable of the Sower was quite good. I'm contemplating using it in my sci-fi class next year.

[vampire-kitten.livejournal.com]

Go throught Triptree Award list? Sci-fi exploration of gender - list here

http://www.tiptree.org/?see=award

http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/mcintyre/index.html

is one of the short stories. Remind me next friday and I'll bring some of the anthologies down to Oxford with me (I currently have 1/3, 2 seems to have gone missing, but 3 have my favourite short story EVER called 'looking through lace'.

Longer leng