imagine an alien who could read english really well got dropped on earth

[reprise85]

and tell me what books you'd recommend to them.

because i want to start reading and i'm woefully under-read

i started with portrait of the artist as a young man. which i am enjoying very much.

[yo soy el mejor]

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser is a real page turner. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, too.

You strictly going for fiction?

[ilikeplanets]

I really enjoyed reading The God of Small Things, Confederacy of Dunces, and Faust

[ilikeplanets]

This inspired me to reread Candide, because I have completely forgotten what it is about. Almost halfway through it.

[reprise85]

Originally Posted by yo soy el mejor

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser is a real page turner. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, too.

You strictly going for fiction?

thanks. not necessarily but mostly, yes. i need something to engage my creativity, not feel like i'm studying

[reprise85]

thanks both of you

[Shallowed]

Finnegans Wake

[run2pee]

Some of my all time faves before my current job sapped all joy from the act of reading:

Enormous Changes At the Last Minute - Grace Paley
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
2666 - Roberto Bolaño

[topleybird]

Light in August, by William Faulkner
The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson (the collection, not just the story)
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez
Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro

[FoolofaTook]

[duovamp]

Originally Posted by topleybird

Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro

Super good suggestion. I was thinking of throwing in a British country house novel.

[topleybird]

I've found every Ishiguro I've read to be a goddamn delight, that one and Never Let Me Go in particular. I've never done this before or since, but when I got to the end of Never I paused, went back to the first page, and started over. And then again.

[buzzard]

Please give Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses a go.

I would also highly recommend Adolfo Bioy Casares' The Invention of Morel. Please let me know if you (or [almost] anybody else) would like a digital copy.

[redbreegull]

The Man Who Was Thursday
The God Of Small Things
A People's History of the United States
The Hunchback of Notre Dame

[FoolofaTook]

Originally Posted by buzzard

I would also highly recommend Adolfo Bioy Casares' The Invention of Morel. Please let me know if you (or [almost] anybody else) would like a digital copy.

Yes, thanks for reminding me.

For the poor sap who doesn't fall under [almost]:

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/re...o-bioy-casares

[reprise85]

ok, I made a text file. I'm going to start with:

An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser

Hunchback of Notre Dame

and i will go through others from there, see what i want to explore

going to get hard copies of them, dont really want to go ebook

keep suggestions coming please

[reprise85]

Originally Posted by topleybird

Light in August, by William Faulkner
The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson (the collection, not just the story)
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez
Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro

i remember reading the lottery story, prob will check out the whole book once i'm done with one of the first two

[reprise85]

i don't expect to be going voraciously through these, 30min-1 hour a night, so prob a few weeks each, longer if they are difficult or long. who knows, may get sucked in though

[duovamp]

Eulogy probably has some good suggestions too.

Mine are all going to be lame. I’m going to go through my shelves tonight to look for some bangers.

[FoolofaTook]

ur dad's a banger

[duovamp]

Yeah he's a qt lil sweet tart.

[reprise85]

thanks you guys i really appreciate the recommendations, fo shizzle

[Eulogy]

I am very ashamed of how little I’ve read post schooling. Could maybe blame a couple years on burnout but uh. Not anymore. Will think about this though. It’s to the point where I don’t even remember the names of some of the suggestions that came to mind right away : (

[ilikeplanets]

The large majority of these books weren't originally written in English, but I digress

[yo soy el mejor]

Shadow of the Wind was originally in Spanish. A married French guy I was seeing (his name was Yves...classic!) when I was 23 gave me his copy, which sucks cause I don't want to tie anything good to that time in my life. But hey, it's a great book.

[buzzard]

Saying "Yves and Lauren" fairly quickly is actually a pretty handy pronunciation guide.

[LaBelle]

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
It's 3 books but worth it!

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez

Dracula - Bram Stoker

[FoolofaTook]

I need to read 100 Years. Read Midnight's Children last year and I want more stuff like that.

[run2pee]

Love in the Time of Cholera is better than 100 years imo

Less characters to keep track of and more heartfelt

[vixnix]

100 Years is my #1 best human book of all time, I haven’t read the last 10 pages because I’ve saved it to do it on my deathbed.

I loved Love in a Time or Cholera...but Chronicle of a Death Foretold is kind of like my fan favourite or something. I remember feeling this weird sense of triumph at the end of it, vicariously, something like “wow, you did it”