Good Books

[Trillipse]

I enjoy :

Steinbeck, Bukowski, Tibor Fischer, Graham Greene, "The Dice Man", and other such things.

But i keep running out of books and end with no new toilet literature.

Does anyone know of any other authors i might enjoy?

i live in hope

[flashpig]

Have you tried Jeeves and Wooster? I am pushing this on everybody at the moment, with no success. They are great fun though, with short-ish episodic chapters which are ideal for loo reading.

Joining me in my toilet at the moment is War and Peace, which so far no amount of consipation has helped me to read, and The Onion which works splendidly as lav-lit.

[simonella]

How about William Gibson ('Neuromancer' for instance to see where 'The Matrix' got their ideas from 15 years before the film!) or Iain Banks for some strange stuff, esp 'The Wasp Factory', 'Complicity', and 'The Crow Road'

Alternately, Tom Wolff (esp. his early journalistic 'right' stuff), De Sade (for a laugh), Terry Pratchett, James Ellroy (but not 'The Cold Six Thousand'), Maupassant (wonderful easy to read short stories) or the all time great E. A. Poe.

[Trillipse]

blimey. now those are what i *call* quality responses.

 

i've read ellroy's "the big nowhere", but nowt else by him.

also, what's the best way to get hold of good books without paying the ridiculous cover price. surely there must be some way of being a reader of literature without ruining onesself financially...

[simonella]

Generally I find hanging around charity shops is a good start (if you have the time, volunteer a couple of hours a week in one and get to the stock first!).

Alternativley, there are some decent book clubs around (usually advertising in the weekend broadsheets).

Depending on where you live there may be bookshops which deal in secondhand stuff. Amazon can also offer discounts (the more you buy the less P&P you pay).

The best way is to borrow them from people you don't like and not return them.

Libraries, but you do have to return those!!

Good luck

[maxi29]

This seems to be a common question on here and one I find a bit strange. I believe that the UK publishes more books per capita than any other country, so there's plenty of choice.

I also find the comment that books are expensive a bit peculiar. There's a very good essay by George Orwell that ridicules this notion that books cost too much - and I'd guess the relative price has gone down since his day.

Most bookstores these days have "Three for two" offers (or something similar), just buy some books randomly and see what you like. Or go to Amazon, type in some books you like, and see what other purchasers have bought. Dig those books up via Amazon or, www.abebooks.co.uk for second-hand copies. Browse charity shops; they're a valuable source of books, I often buy a cheap paperback from there for a long train journey, cheaper than a magazine and more satisfying.

And don't be tied up on finding certain authors; part of the fun of reading is coming across people by chance, try something completely different, you might like it.

[Trillipse]

clearly we have our differences then maxi. as to your informed comment about the uk publishing "more books per capita................." i'm unsure of the point you're trying to make. if only a couple of books were published, i'd have less trouble separating the wheat from the chaff, surely. so telling me that the uk publishes loads of books makes me think i'd like to put a question to a community of people whose opinion i respect, asking them for their collective help in finding books i might enjoy, without trying to read every book in the known universe. i'd assumed pooling knowledge was what this forum was all about... i could be wrong.

As for your comment about the price of books, admirably backed by Mr Orwell, (i haven't read that particular opus, but i'm a fan) i have no doubt that people who make a living from selling books would tend to believe that they aren't overpriced. fair play to him. however this is barely relevant to my enquiry. if i find books hard to afford and mention this in my question, then well... oh dear.

And (sigh) no, i wasn't tying myself down to particular authors, and *yes* i do read authors i've never read before (otherwise, surely, i would never have read a book)... i was merely trying to give the potential repliers to what (initially) was meant to be a simple question, an idea of the kind of writing i'd really enjoyed in the past, in the hope of uncovering some similar work. my apologies for having preferences.

so thanks for your advice, but do you have to be so preachy?

[maxi29]

Sorry, Trillipse, I wasn't trying to be preachy, I was trying to be helpful. The comment about publishing was more of an aside, but of course, you're right, the large amount of published books does make things harder.

But my general point , which perhaps was lost, is that it's not always the best exercise to ask other people - even on a website such as this, because people will tend to name their favourite authors, whether they have little bearing on your taste - note Flashpig's recommendation of PG Wodehouse. Now, there's nothing wrong with Wodehouse (he's one of my favourites too) but he's not the first person that comes to mind after Steinbeck and Bukowski have been mentioned. Of course, you may well love Wodehouse but my point is that we couldn't have deduced this from your previous taste.
I thought that my suggestion of using Amazon's "other people have bought" section would have been a useful guide however.

I'm afraid we'll have to disagree about the cost of books (although you raise a good point about Orwell's self-interest, although I think the essay was written before he was a best-selling author). I reckon that books are a remarkably cheap form of entertainment. About 20 years ago, I was on the dole for about 10 months and was stoney-broke but I still managed to buy a couple of second-hand paperbacks a week. If you find a couple of quid a week tough, then fair enough, but I don't think you can deduce that, generally speaking, books are expensive (btw, I have no connection to the book trade so I have no interest to declare :-) )

Good luck with your search though. I hope you find a world of other authors.

[Trillipse]

although a mere student psych nurse at present, i still can find a couple of quid a week. i wasn't referring to second hand books, which are clearly affordable, but first hand ones, which will empty your pockets. i appreciate your reply. i still feel i need to validate my original ask, by saying that all of my favourite books and authors have been recommended to me by others. again, thanks for the amazon tip, you're clearly a lovely, insightful, studious and erudite person, but don't make me legitimate my query any more... i'm not sure i can take it ... (tails off, sobbing quietly)  ;-)

[maximo]

Hello Trillipse ! I don't know if it's going to be helpful to you, but here's a short list of authors I absolutely looove ( and discovered through friends recommending them ) : John Irving ( the World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen...and many more !), Paul Auster, Patricia Cornwell ( for thrillers ), Wilbur Smith ( so many books, it'll take you months to run out of them ! Widely available in charity shops too. Not great litterature but rather addictive.  ), and for a laugh : Bill Bryson, a travel writer ( guaranteed to have you in stitches ). There you go ! If you get to read some of them, I hope you'll have as much fun as I did  !  Also, on the subject of price, could I mention libraries ? It's still the cheapest way to read, and you can even make new "friends" ( I did...)  !

[simonella]

Hi, me again!

Had an overnight thought...have you tried any Chuck Palahniuk? Also 'Absalom Absalom' by William Faulkner?

Another thought is do you read History for pleasure? I don't mean those dry tomes with all the tax etc. stats in, but the biographies which are written in a narrative style and can be quite involving and atmospheric? If you fancy trying then I would recommend 'Peter the Great' by Robert Massie, 'Catherine de Medici' by Leonie Frieda, or most stuff by Alison Weir.

Good luck with your reading!

[Murielle]

You might want to try www.whichbook.net

[lissyl78]

Only just joined or would've replied earlier. For books similar to Bukowski and Rhinehart, 'Lolita' by Nabakov and 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' by Hubert Selby Jr are a must - know it's cliche to recommend them but still amazing books. For the great observational storytelling of Steinbeck and Greene, it would have to be anything by Milan Kundera but esp. 'Unbearable Lightness of Being' (cliche again - sorry!) or 'Life is Elsewhere' and Albert Camus' 'The Outsider'.  For something more classic 'Crime and Punishment' by Dostoevsky is fantastic too. x

[lissyl78]

Ps As well as Amazon, Ebay often has people selling new unused books at low prices x

[neurosurgon*]

patricia cornwell, robin cook, diana gabaldwin.