Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction

[GTL]

Cormac McCarthy. pretty much anything he has written, although his last two novels seem to have been written with film adaptation in mind. the Coen brothers directed a film based on "No Country For Old Men" which comes out this fall and is supposed to be quite good. That book and "The Road" are very different from his past books. Much less dense, with stylistic differences. Also, they are set in modern and post-apocolyptic periods which differ from his previous novels which were generally set in the 19th century or early 20th. His masterpiece is "Blood Meridian", I highly recommend it.

[BretWeir]

If you want something with some literary value but that isn't "literature" and is comparatively light, try some classic noir msyteries. Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, and James M. Cain are three good authors to start out with.

[chumofchance]

A really amazing book that no one ever seems to have heard of is "It Happened in Boston?" by Russell Greenan.

If you have a really good dictionary at hand (preferably the OED), you might like Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon. It's definitely not an easy book but it was a blast to read.

[knowledgeORbust]

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The Virgin Suicides won a bunch of prizes.

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I thought the movie was pretty sweet too, had to watch it for a Psych class. Might have to pick up the book as they're always better.

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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.

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This is in my top 3 also, great read especially if you're on the road, planning on traveling, or starting any new branch of your life. Kerouac's writing is uncannily down to earth, and his descriptions of people and places are fantastic. It's like he nails down every little thing's exact being and energy - sorry hard to 'splain [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] The character descriptions were novel and vivid for me.

[Manimal]

For sci-fi, I find that Philip K. Dick is great.

Otherwise, as everyone else has said, Catch-22 is a very entertaining read. I also found Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut to be a lot of fun and very easy to read.

[Kimbell175113]

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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.)

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Wow, I'll have to check that out.

[Ken_AA]

All Quiet on the Western Front???

This and Brave New World are two of my favorites.

Ken

[tdarko]

I know the classics will always be mentioned in these threads and Cormac (rightfully so!!!) but how has Phillip Roth not been mentioned? He is a must read.

[NaturalSelection]

John Irving is my favorite living author. The World According to Garp is probably the best one to start with since you've probably seen the movie.

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen is also amazing.

[lennytheduck]

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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."

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These are three of my favorite books. Everyone should read them.