I just finished Roadside Picnic. I think that would fit your list pretty well. It's also a quick, short read so could be a good place to start.
this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
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This has been on my radar for years. Thanks for reminding me!
If you like historical, dystopia stuff and have already read McCarthy, I couldn't recommend Blood Meridian enough. It's maybe my favorite book of all time and certainly his best in my opinion.
Aside from that, I'd recommend Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace which doesn't fit into your criteria other than being fiction, but I love that book too much to not recommend it any chance I get. I also read House of Leaves a few months ago, which is a deceptively easy to read thriller.
The road absolutely sucked me in, I couldn't put it down! To be honest I didn't know much about him outside of that and no country for old men, if the rest of his work is that good or better I'm all in.
I'll have to look into the others as well, thrillers aren't normally my forte but I'm up for a change. Thanks!
Fun reads:
- Catch 22
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- A Confederancy of Dunces
- The Martian
- Most anything by Neil Gaiman
The Discworld books are astonishingly clever. I started on #20 because it seemed wild, and it was, then went back and plowed all 41 in order.
So what's the deal with discworld? Are they an anthology or something, where each book is it's own separate story? I have vague memories of reading something about them to that effect
Sort of. Each book is usually it's own self-contained story (the exception being book #2 which is a direct sequel to #1) but many books follow up on characters that were introduced in previous books. You don't have to have read any of the previous books to understand the story you picked up, but there's some continuity and references if you have. It's kind of like several different novel series all set in the same shared universe rather than a true anthology though.
- Before coffee gets cold series (Book)
- Slewfoot Brom (Book)
- The Midnight Library (Book)
- Solo Leveling (Manhwa)
- No Game No Life (Manga)
Wasn’t sure if you’d like them but still wanted to recommend.
Before the coffee gets cold sounds pretty neat, I haven't had time to check out the others yet. I appreciate it!
First, follow that 1984 rabbit hole if you enjoyed it:
Fahrenheit 451
Brave New World
Animal Farm
Aside from that, I enjoyed the biographical fiction "The Agony And The Exctasy" by Irving Stone. It's a fictionalized (but historically accurate) telling of Michaelangelo's life and works. If you like the psychology and drive of creativity, you'll probably like this.
For more recent works, try Tad Williams' "Otherland" series. They're a great mix of fantasy and science fiction that kind of cosplays through the styles of other significant works of fiction. He has other series, but I couldn't get in to the straight fantasy stuff quite as much.
Obligatory H.P. Lovecraft plug as well. You'll either love it or hate it, but if you do get in to it there's really nothing like it.
As a secondary recommendation to that, if you like the darker themes of Lovecraft, try the short story compilation "The King In Yellow" by Robert Chambers. It's what originally inspired H.P. Lovecraft's writing, but Chambers has an entirely different style than Lovecraft. He started out in the dark suspense genre, but ended up writing romance later in life. His writing is warmly vivid, even in the suspense stories. It's not a chore to make it through paragraphs of description like it can be with Lovecraft, and I think Chambers is adept at maintaining suspense through allusion and suspension, never quite revealing what you should be afraid of directly. His later romance writings don't have the same creative flare, I think he maybe was just trying to earn a living at that point.
The King in Yellow is great. Doesn't get the attention it deserves.
Absolutely, I wish his suspense catalogue was bigger! It's been neat to see his ideas getting worked in to modern fiction like True Detective. There's also a handful of TTRPG games that are using the mythos of Carcosa and the king in yellow as the premise for pre-written adventure scenarios.
Those all sound pretty interesting. I've read animal farm and brave new world before but I never got around fahrenheit 451, maybe it's time to change that! What's a good starting place for lovecraft? I know his work can be hit or miss
Nice, yeah Fahrenheit 451 is easily my favorite of the bunch. Ray Bradbury's passion for the human experience is infectious, and he has a way of elevating the idea of reading to an almost spiritual level 😅.
For Lovecraft, try grabbing his complete works as an e-book if you can. It's usually only $2 or $3 dollars on e-book sites and will let you sample around in the stories.
Here's a few things that a might make the reading more enjoyable (at least it did for me.)
- Lovecraft was a very feaful, anxious person. His stories were a way that he tried to deal with fear of the unknown.
- There is a rythym to his writing: he spends a long time circling around an idea, painting a picture of mundane facts that don't mean much on their own, but then towards the end of the paragraph or the chapter he will drop one or two sentences that cast an eery, unsettling light on those mundane descriptions. Those payoff sentences were great, I was always on the edge if my seat waiting for them.
- The story is not so much to tell the story itself, but to try to communicate a feeling or emotion to the reader.
Here's a few stories to dip a toe in to:
The Call Of Cthulhu At the risk of sounding a bit front door, this is probably the best starting place. It may not be the best of his stories, but it is not too long or overworked, and has a nice array of the characteristic Lovecraft style. You'll probably be able to tell if you're onboard after this one.
At The Mountains Of Madness This is the one I started with. Its very long and incredibly dense in the beggining especially. I remember actually skipping the introductory set up, up to about page 15 😄. Now I've gone back and appreciated the world building, but goodness H.P. gets wordy. It is a fantastic story and might be my favorite despite it's density.
The Lurking Fear This one crosses more from suspense in to horror. He doesn't get too dark, but this one definitely is meant to get you on an instinctual fear level.
The Shadow Out Of Time This one I read later on, and it is another good example of his world building and story construction. Interesting premise and good descriptive elements.
I took a look at my book shelf, here's a few more books that I've really enjoyed over the years:
"An Unsuitable Job For A Woman" - P.D. James, Mystery
"The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail - Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee, Script of a stage play that is sold in book form
Vernor Vinge, Author - mostly science fiction Any of his books are good, notably Deepness In The Sky and Rainbows End. Deepness in the sky is technically a sequel, but I read it out of order and still enjoyed it. "Fire Upon The Deep" is the prequel. It was good, but a little more scattered. I had a harder time visualizing the scenes.
EDIT: spelling
You're awesome, I appreciate the thorough breakdown. I'm gonna be spending a lot of time on libgen tonight haha
I totally didn't know about libgen, that's an awesome resource! I've used Project Gutenburg for public domain stuff, but sometimes they just haven't digitized the work I'm looking for. Between the two of them I bet there won't be much that isn't available.
Happy to spread the word, enjoy! If you've got an e-reader, calibre is a handy library program that can format, find covers, edit metadata, etc. for your epubs/whatever format yours uses
Caliber is great! It's super nice to not be chained to some specific bookseller's store/library.
Here's all of Lovecraft:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KLBK1QQPc5ZuKm6nlveswoWKGBI-Hjeo/view?usp=sharing
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Don't forget about The Giver in your list of dystopian novels.
That's funny, I have it on my shelf and almost included it! It really is a great book.
I have no recommendations but please know that Gender Trouble is actually a psyop book written only to melt the brain of people who attempt to read it (/s)
I just can't get my head around this monster of a book!
I just got to chapter 3. I started reading it around christmas lol. My e-reader says it'll take me about 12 hours to finish. I'm also reading seeing like a state which is a little over twice as long and that's saying it'll take me 10. Gender trouble makes me question if I even know how to read. I wish you the best in your endeavor, try to avoid an aneurysm if you can
- Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol.
- Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan.
My goto brain vent book series are the Alex Verus books by Benedict Jacka. It's y/a urban fantasy in London without being too childish or over sexualised. The ~400 pages each book are easy to read.
On the other hand I currently read "Slow Horses", the book series the AppleTV show is based on. These are stories focused on the worst of MI5 and how they stumble across and solve a case, or prevent something.
For something with a strong story, an equally strong protagonist, and is oddly cathartic
- The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller
If you enjoy fantasy and dystopian then you may like some magical realism and surrealism. I recommend any fantasy novel by Haruki Murakami. After reading a few of his novels he has become my current favorite author.
- Kafka on the Shore (not his most surreal but is a great intro into his style and worldbuilding)
- The Wind Up Bird Chronicles
- Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
If you don’t mind a rogue, a rake, a real scoundrel (anti hero even) I’d say the Flashman books.
George Macdonald Frasier’s series of historical fiction.
Flashy is, by his own admission, not a good person, but a fun easy read.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan.