Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

I've been having some boredom/motivation related issues lately (ok the whole year) and Krantz' post inspired me to start taking short trips to chill, take in some nature, and read. Lately I've spent way too much time on 2+2 and Wikipedia vs. books.

Problem is, I'm not really familiar with English literature. I've read mostly Dutch stuff, and I feel like broadening my horizons a bit. So, I'm hoping you guys in your infinite wisdom can give me some recommendations.

- No LOTR/Harry Potter or anything like that. I'm just not into that [censored].
- I like science fiction, but not just for its own sake. I read some Heinlein, planning to get more. What are similar authors?
- While I'm not against heavy literature, the type of English can't be absurdly difficult. Finnegan's Wake is definitely out. I did read some Shakespeare, but I feel that I would miss too much of between the lines stuff if it wasn't explained to me.
- Appeal to a young man. Last year I read Pride and Prejudice in the metro, and while I enjoyed it in a good literature kind of way, I'd prefer something that's easier to identify with.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

I personally don't like them, but reading annotated versions of Shakespeare works might help if you feel you are missing out on contextual/period references.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Hemingway
Conrad
Catch-22
Beowulf

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Steinbeck
Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mocking Bird

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Orson Scott Card.

All the Ender books.
They are a cross between sci-fi and political science and are a great read.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Confederacy of Dunces and Fear and loathing in las vegas are two such weird books. They will change your perspective.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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Confederacy of Dunces

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the second funniest novel I've ever read, the first being Catch-22.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

I love good literature but quickly get bored with it. Short stories are good compromise, you get the best of an author without the boredom.

There's a great collection of the classics here: http://www.bibliomania.com/0/5/frameset.html

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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Beowulf

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Oh brother.

Count of Monte Cristo is probably more appealing to men, if I understand your point correctly. Although it is pretty long.

Have you read any Tom Clancy? It's fiction, it's science, but it's not really science fiction - it comes pretty close to reality. Sum of All Fears or Hunt for Red October were both pretty good (the movies for those were bad and good, respectively).

Something I'd recommend you do is surf through Amazon for awhile. Go look up a book you like (Heinlein for example) and then start looking at the "Listmania" links. Customers list their favorite books. Also if you read through the reviews for some of your favorites, you'll read other recommendations.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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- I like science fiction, but not just for its own sake. I read some Heinlein, planning to get more. What are similar authors?

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Here are examples of what I was talking about
http://tinyurl.com/2puouz
http://tinyurl.com/2kx5kz
http://tinyurl.com/342m7r

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

I agree with Catcher in the Rye

Also:
Brave New World
Life of Pi

two fantastic books

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Phil,
that's a good link, thanks.

OP,
It's been suggested already, but I bet you would like Hemingway.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Catch-22 is a great suggestion. Very readable, very funny, very good. Catcher in the Rye is another excellent choice. I think Confederacy of Dunces is very overrated, but you might enjoy it anyway.

Some other choices I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Great Expectations (personally, I've found I like Dickens a lot)
Lolita
The Great Gatsby

All of these are, in my opinion, pretty solidly enjoyable "classics."

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

-Catch-22 (I know it's been mentioned several times, I just think this should be your next read).

-If you like Heinlein you should take a look at Frank Herbert (Dune) and Iain M. Banks. The latter wrote my favorite book of all time, Use of Weapons. Also see Excession if you like the play between ship minds, or The Player of Games for obvious reasons.

-H.P. Lovecraft if you like horror (mostly short stories, so you won't get stuck in a novel you don't like).

-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle if you like mystery (see above comment).

-Anything by Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse Five is his most well known book, but all the other novels I've read have been similarly satirical, humorous, and insightful. Hocus Pocus comes to mind specifically.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

The book that made the largest impact on my life was called "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn. This is an often overlooked masterpiece which is very emotionally effective (I think good lit should be) but if you don't want your emotions torn apart I wouldn't recommend it. It really starts getting good after the first 50-80 pages. Also, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon is a great novel which won the Pulitzer a few years back. Another really good book is The Echo Maker by Richard Powers. If you want to be hooked on a book that you will never forget read one of these three and post an update when finished to tell everyone how amazing they are.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Catcher In the Rye is overrated.
Read This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff instead.
Or read both, but read This Boy's Life definitely.

As mentioned, Vonnegut is really great. Some of his nonfiction writing might get you a good idea about what he's all about/his philosophies, God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian, Palm Sunday, Wampeters Foma and Grandfalloons. His books are not too difficult either.

Cormac McCarthy is really good, a bit challenging though but I think it makes it more rewarding once you finish one of his books. I guess he is described as southern gothic, very lonely west feel.
Read the Border Trilogy: All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing (my favorite), Cities of the Plain, also Blood Meridian and his new one The Road.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Oh and Great Gatsby is great as mentioned and you might want to read some William Faulkner although he is really tough, at least for me.
I really enjoyed The Sound and the Fury but it took me a while to get through it and I don't know if you'll like it.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Catch 22 (again)

Red Badge of Courage

A lot of Isaac Asimov's short stories are good. Try http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html - one of the best short stories I've read in a long while.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Catch-22 is really very good.
Any of the Vonnegut novels are decent reads.
Brave New World, 1984, and The Great Gatsby are good books also.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

You seem you'd like some Tom Wolfe. I recommend The Bonfire of the Vanities and I Am Charlotte Simmons. I assume his other books are great too but those are the only ones I've read.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Enders Game is great and really easy to read. It's my first recommendation to people who don't read novels and are looking to start. Another excellent one is High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. I don't know of anyone who's read that and didn't like it.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Holy crap I love High Fidelity.
I relate to Rob so much (as I'm sure a ton of guys do).
Really good read, full of music and pop culture references, funny, poignant.

Hornby writes about relationships in a very real, non-cheesy way.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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- Appeal to a young man. Last year I read Pride and Prejudice in the metro, and while I enjoyed it in a good literature kind of way, I'd prefer something that's easier to identify with.

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hey herm, have you thought about reading any poetry? i think the Romantics would especially resonate with young men, given that many of them never lived past 30 or so themselves. keats, shelley, byron, also blake and early wordsworth: it's almost difficult not to love them.

i would also recommend some Modern poets, starting with whitman, as well as some great non-english poets like mayakovsky, rilke, and rimbaud. these were the writers who most spoke to me in my early-20s.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Dostoevsky is excellent, top-shelf reading. He writes about human psychology and spirituality, politics sometimes, and talks about what the people are like in 19th century Russia. That last part's probably not that important, but most of his books take place around there, because that's where he's from. Exceptional writing, lucid and insightful. Entertaining in that Fight Club dark-humor satirical kind of way and also quite practical.

I, like Phil, get bored easily and would recommend Notes From Underground, 130 pages short.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

On the Road.

My all time favorite book. It's a great view of America post WWII from outside the mainstream.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Oryx and Crake by Margret Atwoods

it's about a future AC society with private police force/ various pharmaceutical companies control vast amounts of wealth.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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On the Road.

My all time favorite book. It's a great view of America post WWII from outside the mainstream.

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Mega entertaining. This books is basically the chronicles of the freest spirit I've ever heard of, fictional or non.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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Last year I read Pride and Prejudice in the metro, and while I enjoyed it in a good literature kind of way, I'd prefer something that's easier to identify with.

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Of Human Bondage is a great book.

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I did read some Shakespeare, but I feel that I would miss too much of between the lines stuff if it wasn't explained to me.

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I've read mostly Dutch stuff, and I feel like broadening my horizons a bit

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If by these quotes you mean English isn't your native language Catch -22 might go right past you. If not, put it on your list for sure.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

May I suggest Dune?

It is about a desert planet with drugs on it. There are forcefield shields, laser pistols, nukes, interstellar frigates, an emperor, desert rebels, suits which recycle urine into pure water, and giant worms.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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Of Human Bondage is a great book.

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Don't know how Maugham slipped my mind. OHB and The Razor's Edge and others are all greatness.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Even though they are considered "children's" books:

Summer of the Monkeys - Wilson Rawls
The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter

Any Faulkner, Hemingway or Fitzgerald

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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Don't know how Maugham slipped my mind. OHB and The Razor's Edge and others are all greatness.

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Haven't read the book, but I loved the movie - it's a real sleeper (the one starring Bill Murray, not the original. No, it's not a comedy.)

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Snowcrash.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

here are some books i think young guys would like:

The Quiet American is a really great book. Greene is a very talented novelist.

Catch Me if You Can is a great lite read.

The Virgin Suicides won a bunch of prizes.

i really haven't been reading much fiction lately. if you want to read a great book about sexual evolution that is written by someone who knows how to write and not a scientist who bores you to death, check out The Red Queen - it really is an awesome read. One of my favorite books of all time.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

I love how the vast majority of recommendations here are for American writers.

OP, try out books by these writers so as you're not completely Americanised:

Graham Greene,
Patrick White,
Evelyn Waugh,
George Orwell,
Tim Winton,
Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

An American writer that I feel is presently writing really good work is Paul Auster.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

Although its not the most emotionally moving book, I really enjoyed Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Its probably one of the most fun books I have ever read, I sat and read the whole thing with a smile on my face, giggling the whole time.

Other than that I would suggest One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, and for a some decent sci-fi Phillip Jose Farmer's 'Riverworld' series is really good, it starts with the book 'To All Your Scattered Bodies Go'.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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Although its not the most emotionally moving book, I really enjoyed Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Its probably one of the most fun books I have ever read, I sat and read the whole thing with a smile on my face, giggling the whole time

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I agree, and literature should entertain you in my view. Iain M Banks has also made some very good sci fi books. Perhaps "The Player of Games" would best suit a poker player? I like "Excession" the most though.

I don't know what you'd make of Haruki Murakami, but I always recommend him in any literature threads. Some of his books are vaguely sci-fi too, though really would be best described as "weird".

Oh, and I really liked William Gibson - Pattern Recognition. It's not sci-fi, but he's written some in the past.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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Dostoevsky is excellent, top-shelf reading. He writes about human psychology and spirituality, politics sometimes, and talks about what the people are like in 19th century Russia. That last part's probably not that important, but most of his books take place around there, because that's where he's from. Exceptional writing, lucid and insightful

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Start with "The Gambler", just to be topical. It's a good short story on roulette. I don't really like books that're older than about 50 years old as the English has too many differences to the English I read today. I don't know if I like Dostoyevsky because his books were translated into a style I can still read, but it works for me whatever...

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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Snowcrash.

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I liked Diamond Age more. Infact, I liked the Baroque Cycle books more, but they're probably not a great place to start reading books more.

Re: Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction
 

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I love how the vast majority of recommendations here are for American writers.

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- The vast majority of posters are American and thus more likely to be familiar with American letters. Evelyn Waugh isn't exactly standard fare over here.

- I sort of wondered about the appropriateness of suggesting literature that was translated from another language, e.g. Marquez, as that's not really English literature.

Between those two things, you get a pretty good explanation for it.