Books!

[raven]

Flist, quick: recommend me books! Quick, do it now! I just finished the six Chrestomanci books - so much fun, yay - and am waiting for Mixed Magics to come from home; I have one more of the dreadful Swendson books to go. After that, no more. And seriously, seriously, books are keeping me sane right now, I can't emphasise this enough, I really can't.

So, what are your favourite books that I should read? Brownie points for: light and fluffy; SF/fantasy; preferably both at once; I also adore YA more than is quite normal, so also brownie points for that; really would prefer paperback (so I can carry them around). Nothing super-serious, please, I really am reading for escapism here.

(Also, if Ithaca has any good bookshops, I want to know about them, please. There are a couple of nice second-hand ones downtown; for new books, though, I feel like I'm doomed to a) the campus bookstore, about which less said the better; and b) Borders. Neither of which have Three Men In A Boat, a book I set out optimistically to buy today.)

Comments

[naraht]

You can read Three Men in a Boat via Project Gutenberg, if you're willing to compromise on the whole paperback idea. My pet favorite public school story is also on PG but that doesn't help if you want to hold the book in your hands.

(Being that I am also in a bookstore-light area at the moment, I've had to compromise. But I had some luck with a local university library. Does Cornell not have Three Men in a Boat, or are there borrowing restrictions?)

[raven]

I actually have my own copy here with me - I wanted to buy one as a present for someone! I've caved and got it off Amazon, now. This whole supporting-local-bookshops thing is getting harder and harder.

[soupytwist]

I think you might like Hope Mirrlee's Lud-in-the-Mist if you haven't read it already: it is fantasy, would have been YA had the category existed and very good YA too, and is, if not floating away is at least vaguely on the light and fluffy end of the spectrum...

[naraht]

Yeah, I've sort of given up on that here.

[naraht]

Strangely I found that a difficult read, though I wanted to like it...

[such_heights]

eee, Chrestomanci! <333 Another book by Diana Wynne Jones that I really love is A Tale of Time City. Light, fluffy time travel adventures!

[ancalemon]

Robin McKinley's Chalice?
Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom books? (a little serious, but so delightfully weird!)

[thingswithwings]

There actually is a little tiny SF/Fantasy bookstore downtown - it's in a tiny nook between the comic book store and the Collegetown Bagels on Aurora at Seneca. For new books, I often go to Buffalo Street Books (also downtown, on Seneca next to the Greenstar Oasis), but that's mostly for fancy lit-ra-ture type books or popular lit or newnew stuff (in hardback) - you might not find a ton of fantasy there. Although I think they do have a pretty good YA section with some good YA fantasy and scifi. They also do special orders upon request. Both are independent and local, yay!

For recs, I can't come up with anything off the top of my head, but I bet rachelmanija can help you; she does lots of recs and lately has been going through all kinds of YA fantasy and scifi and specfic. Plus she's superawesome.

[petra]

Jo Graham is to Mary Renault as Naomi Novik is to Patrick O'Brian--same time period (Aeneid, Alexander the Great, and Cleopatra in Graham's case), same general feeling, less ornate, with more explicit fantasy elements. Though I'm not sure it qualifies as light and fluffy, it's definitely escapist.

[soupytwist]

It's very weird to get into, definitely - or at least I found it so, because WOAH WHAT IS THIS WORLD OF FANTASY THAT IS IN NO WAY IN DISCUSSION WITH TOLKIEN? - but charming and intriguing even before that's worn off, I thought. :)

[raven]

I have great faith in your taste. :)

[raven]

Ooooh! Sounds fabulous!

[raven]

Ooh, interesting! I've read the Abhorsen books, but nothing else by him. *note*

[raven]

Thank you for this! And I've been meaning to ask you for a while, actually; I don't know if you're still feeling ill and if so of course never mind, but if you're not too busy and fancy it, do you want to meet for coffee sometime?

[raven]

I think Shim has something of hers. I shall make inquiries!

[thingswithwings]

Sure, that sounds nice! I am feeling mostly better, so am now allowed out of the house again. Why don't you email me - epistemophilia at gmail - and we can discuss a time and a place?

[icepixie]

You've probably already read it, but if you haven't, as someone currently going to an American university you should read Pamela Dean's Tam Lin. It's not exactly light and fluffy all the way through, but neither is it all doom and gloom.

Also, Moira J. Moore's "Heroes" fantasy is tremendously funny and fun and full of adorable ship. The first one is Resenting the Hero; there are five total so far. I've seen them all at Borders, but the first three are definitely old enough to start showing up in used bookstores.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'll take a look.

[vikingwriter.livejournal.com]

I would recommend a series by Sara Donati simply because it's set in upstate New York. It's historical and a bit of a romance (not sure I would strictly call it a historical romance, though, if that makes sense), but they're light, fun reads if you're interested. The first book is Into The Wilderness and I think there's 6 of them, all available in paperback (well, maybe not the last one, though it should be soon).

I'm not that conversant with sf or fantasy, and what I know is usually dark. That said, I found the Twilight books hilarious once I could put out of my mind the fact that scores of American teenage girls are reading it as a) serious literature and b) serious romance.

Oh, and in the nonfiction category, I'm a huge fan of Bill Bryson and while I've never read it, he wrote A Walk In The Woods (I think that's the title) about walking the Appalachian Trail, which might also have a little geographic synchronicity. But it might be too far out of your interest area...

[vikingwriter.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forgot ya - I just finished Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and while I'm waiting for the second from the library and so can't speak for the series, the first book was a pretty fun ride.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

I wish I were at home so I had my bookshelves to consult - I only have a handful in Oxford and my mind's currently a blank. However, I can think of a few off the top of my head. I loved PopCo by Scarlett Thomas, and you might also like another book by her, The End of Mr Y, which mixes time travel and literary theory and philosophy. I just read Bet Me by Jennie Crusie, which is intelligent, well-written romance which has a male protagonist who is dyslexic and insecure about it and who reassures the awesome female protagonist about her weight and feeds her Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I loved Sister Crazy and Feed My Dear Dogs by Emma Richler, which are about mental illness and fear of growing up and which I find completely compelling. I also can't remember having seen if you've read Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries - if not, I would recommend them in a heartbeat, as they're wonderful.

(After reading To Say Nothing of the Dog, which I loved utterly, I've found myself really wanting to read Three Men in a Boat, but have likewise had no luck finding a copy.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I have to admit, I have tried the Twilight books, but I can't get past the first few pages. And, yes, A Walk in the Woods is a fabulous book - it's a great shame my lovely first-edition hardback is 4500 miles away!

(Other people have mentioned Percy Jackson. I shall make inquiries.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thank you. I shall investigate all of these! I have read most of the Lord Peter Wimsey books - am technically halfway through Thrones, Dominations but as I left it behind I suspect this may be a continuous state of being - but am not motivated enough to read the rest!

To Say Nothing of the Dog is SO GREAT. Have you read Blackout? I am currently on tenterhooks for All Clear.

(Three Men in a Boat, aaargh, it's not like it's a classic of English literature and variously thought to be the funniest book ever written, OR ANYTHING.)

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read Gaudy Night (although I assume you have, being from Oxford), then you must. (Although it may make you homesick for Oxford, so perhaps put that off for a bit.)

No, I haven't - I'm currently about three-quarters of the way through Fire Watch, and have Blackout on my To Buy list (which is already huge, seeing as I tend to want all the books in the world).

(And I was in an award-winning independent bookshop when I looked for it! Admittedly, it had hardly any fiction books, but still, woe.)

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

...My best offer is that I could bring you Stoppard's Invention of Love over the weekend? And both Sara and Meredith could vouch for it? The only issue being, well, I can see its being very homesickness-provoking for you. And while it's not super-serious--often it's incredibly funny and clever--it does kind of have, uhh, a CORE OF UNSPOKEN ANGUISH.