Like the title! I’ve been getting back into reading for pleasure, and want to know what you like! I recently read Piranesi and loved it. I’ve heard good things about The Poppy War and Babel by R.F. Kuang, has anyone read them?
Generally just want a bunch of recommendations from your favorites, on our commie corner of the internet. No genre needed!
You know, people give Herbert a lot of flack for his writing style, but upon rereading Dune I really grew to appreciate the prose. Every word feels very deliberately chosen, and I like how much attention is given to what characters are thinking about each other and manage perception of themselves (especially Paul).
Yeah, and it’s especially critical in a story that involves a lot of manipulation and “plans within plans within plans”.
I enjoyed it, but I like the Movie’s changes to it a lot more because of certain… things… haha
I mention it in every book recommendation thread: 100 Years of Solitude
I just deleted a bunch of attempts to explain why it’s so good. I think about it all the time even years after reading it, scenes and images from it pop into my head suddenly the way childhood memories do.
1984 ofc
Roadside picnic and The Road are definitely at the top. I am legend is so much better than the will smith movie genuinely brilliant story. His dark materials is a great series worth reading.
If you’ve ever seen the red dwarf TV series I’d recommend the books as they have a much darker more serious vibe but also hit a lot of the same comedy notes as the show. It also has a more satisfying storyline and payoff.
Once in those early years he’d wakened in a barren wood and lay listening to flocks of migratory birds overhead in that bitter dark. Their half muted crankings miles above where they circled the earth as senselessly as insects trooping the rim of a bowl. He wished them godspeed till they were gone. He never heard them again.
Oh, will add those, thanks! Roadside Picnic is fantastic, I agree, I really loved it.
I am legend is so much better than the will smith movie genuinely brilliant story
The main positive is that the movie is just one of those “trailing end of the zombie fad, what IP can we latch onto” types and has basically nothing in common, so it doesn’t spoil the impact of the book.
I’ve been rereading @KurtVonnegut’s works. Personal favorite is God Bless You, Mr.Rosewater. Great thing about Vonnegut is that you can just pour through 'em.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson is a must.
Also The Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs.
Thank you, I’m honored.
If you like easy reads, try my classics Sirens of Titan, Cat’s Cradle, and Galapagos. Breakfast of Champions is also fun, and it’s where my profile pic comes from. If you want to get REALLY weird, try Slapstick, Jailbird, or my short story collection Welcome to the Money House.
So it goes.
Cat’s Cradle is one of my favorite books… I’ve read it multiple times which is rare for me
I got turned on to Becky Chambers last year and really enjoyed her stuff, both Wayfarers and the Monk and Robot series. Just recently read China Mieville’s Bas Lag trilogy, that was really good. Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin was really good but touches on a lot of transphobic stuff, so could be triggering. Love Terry Pratchett, The Culture Series, and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Oh, just read Butler’s Kindred which was really good too. Less of a fan of Parable of the Talents. LeGuin is great too!
Edit: Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson is about a world in which John Brown won!
Thanks for the recs! I’ve had China Melville’s stuff recommended to me to death, so he’s been on my list for a while, same with LeGuin.
