Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction

[JereLock]

I agree with Catcher in the Rye

Also:
Brave New World
Life of Pi

two fantastic books

[Kimbell175113]

Phil,
that's a good link, thanks.

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

[gumpzilla]

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."

[gurgeh]

-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.

[ssaul2]

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.

[hanimal]

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.

[hanimal]

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.

[That Foreign Guy]

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.

[Event Duality]

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.

[Keyser.]

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.