Books You Can't Shut Up About

[Nope]

The one I seem to be constantly telling people about and recommending to all of my friends and family is Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. Whenever someone talks about something "meta", or some new piece of literature/film comes out that incorporates sort of "nested storytelling" elements (such as the novel House of Leaves or the film The Grand Budapest Hotel), I always tell them that, if they enjoy that device, Pale Fire is the modern trope codifier.

(Of course, in the same vein is Don Quixote, which I read in college, and was probably the trope originator. It was fantastic. But Pale Fire's... well... shorter, for one...)

I keep trying to read the House of Leaves and never make it very far. It is weird because I think that the writing is good and I like the overall story but somehow every time I pick the book up, I read for a few days and then forget about it.

[Jenny A]

No offense, Jenny, but Possession was just about the most pretentious bullshit I've ever read. I really, really, really wanted to enjoy that book, and I really, really really wanted to tie all the characters down and smash the over the head with a metal pole. It's completely turned me off Byatt.

Ah well. I enjoyed it, though I wanted to set fire to the movie. The Virgin in the Bower, I adored.

[Nope]

I'm loving this thread. My Christmas present from my husband is going to be several books from Amazon. I just have to pick them out. I am going to get some books ideas from this thread.

When I was a teenager, I fell in love with an incredibly long book called Kirsten Lavransdatter. It has been years since I read it but I was thinking about purchasing it along with some other books. Has anyone read it? It won the Nobel Prize in literature, I believe.

[abaris]

I have not read anything in quite some time.

However, what I would most likely first recommend to anyone is Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series.

That's actually one I can't shut up about it. But not for the reason of the series being that good, but because the later books turn into objectivist preaching.

Continuity errors aside, the first three books are readable.

[DeadChannel]

Right now I'm obsessed over Infinite Jest.

There's this one book that a lot of people won't shut the fuck about. Forget what it's called.

[Mudhammam]

Sorry I couldn't narrow it down to just one.

[Alex K]

This is nonfic, or even meta-fic , but I got Pinker's "A Sense of Style" for Christmas, and I can't shut up about it. I really share his passion for what he calls classic style.

[DeadChannel]

I've been pretty into Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia".

[Whateverist]

Just read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, mostly over winter break. Early Japan, like Clavel's Shogun, but not trite and macho. Quite the page turner but not an eye opener full of insights. More and more I'm preferring novels to nonfiction.

[Pyrrho]

I usually do not bother trying to get people to read books, because it rarely has any effect.

Some great ones:


Candide, by Voltaire http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19942?ms...e_stranger

A superb disemboweling of Leibniz's absurd idea that this is the best of all possible worlds. And it is a fun read. And gives good, practical advice for how to live one's life.


An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume (Selby-Bigge edition) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/341

One of the greatest works of philosophy ever, by one of the greatest philosophers ever. Contains a great section showing the absurdity of belief in miracles that really annoys religionists. Hume is very droll.


Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Far better than any of the adaptations on film. Jane Bennet is better in the book than in any of the films, which always change her to be less intelligent and less pretty, evidently to ensure that the viewer will prefer Elizabeth Bennet. The book starts with a very famous and memorable first sentence. A delight to read. Austen is a keen observer of human nature.


Letter to Menoeceus by Epicurus http://www.epicurus.net/en/menoeceus.html

Brilliant, practical, and surprisingly modern. Less well-known than he deserves, largely due to successful Christian propaganda against him. The propaganda has been so successful that the word "epicurean" in English means almost the opposite of what he actually advocated.


"The Ethics of Belief" by William Kingdon Clifford http://ajburger.homestead.com/files/book.htm

Brilliant essay on the immorality of having faith (i.e., belief unsupported by evidence). Religionists hate him, because they hate the idea that one should have evidence for one's beliefs. Usually, they deny that he gives reasons for his position, which is absurd and ridiculous. But making such a false claim is easier than trying to argue against his position.


I would be happy to discuss any of these works if you wish. Just start a thread on whichever one interests you, and send me a PM if I do not find it on my own (which will be likely enough, since I have no idea where you will post it, nor do I expect that you will actually start such a thread at all).