Widening the angle

[firstlight]

Dear flist,

I'd really like some book recs. Anything you think might grab me. I've been reading a lot of sci-fi lately, so I'd be particularly interested in... you know... other things, but of course I love sci-fi so if there's something I absolutely have to read in that area then that's good too.

Pretty please?

Love,

Liz


(Today = tidying-up-fic day. Oh the pain.)

Comments

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

Well. I don't know what else I want! My reading horizons are so narrow these days. >_

[firescribble.livejournal.com]

Right. I'm having trouble coming up with anything today. But I shall try.

Have you read anything by Tove Jansson? She's most well known for her childrens books about the Moomins, but they can be read by people of any age. Especially the later books Moominland Midwinter, Moominpappa at Sea and Moominvalley in November (my favorite) are deeply psychological and searching. She wrote a couple of novels and very good short stories for adults as well, but I wonder if you'd be able to find them. I think you'd enjoy her books. Her language is crisp and precise and she's been known to say that her main inspiration is the sea. Everyone must read Tove Jansson at some point in their life.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories is ALSO A CHILDRENS BOOK OMG WTH, ME. This is a work of magic realism and you know how I love those. A boy named Haroun needs to help his dad, who's given up his work as a story teller after his wife left him for a very dull man. Now Haroun has to restore dad's gift of the gab. This story contains a damsel in distress, General Kitab (or General Book), commander of a library/army. Blabbermouth, a Page at the library. The pages make up Chapters, that form Volumes. LOL. A floating gardener made up of vines (You can chop suey, but you can't shop me!). IT'S AWESOME I WANT TO REREAD IT RIGHT NOW.

Doctor Murke's Collected Silence by Heinrich Böll. Because it's fun.

Sweet Thurdsay by John Steinbeck. The only sugar sweet book I will ever recommend.

Stephen Fry's autobiography Moab is My Washpot.

If you want a challenged I'd go for The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. It's very good but requires a lot of concentration. Or maybe I'm just a bit stupid. *FLAIL*

Of you want classics I think Dostojevskij is much more readable than his reputation gives him credit for.

[helga-b.livejournal.com]

While I can't speak for the English translations, I'm going to have to jump in to second the Tove Jansson rec so very very hard anyway. One of my favourite writers of all time.

[firescribble.livejournal.com]

The only thing I've read translated to English is "Vem skall trösta knyttet?" and I thought it was ok. That should be one of the more difficult of her books to translate so I'm hoping the Moomi books are readable. It'd kill me if they screwed up her language. :(

[giving-ground.livejournal.com]

As always, you come up with the good stuff. *grin* (I tried to find Moab is My Washpot today but though the library has three copies they're all out or missing. :( Oh well. I punished my spine enough for one day I feel.)

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

I second Moab is My Washpot. It is very fun. I'm reading the Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's young adult fiction, I think, but really really good.

[firescribble.livejournal.com]

The Book Thief isn't young adult fiction. It's just fiction. And MiMW IS fun, but it's also touching, I think. He's so honest. It's comforting in a way, that a man like him can make so many mistakes.

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

Mm, I guess it's not really YA. Found it in the YA section, though. But it is really really good~

I think I liked it more than his fiction books, actually. His nonfiction is always so drenched with his personality and it's really nice.