Help an English lit noob out - need some good fiction

[dethgrind]

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.

[hanimal]

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.

[mikech]

[ QUOTE ]
- 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.

[/ QUOTE ]
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.

[knowledgeORbust]

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.

[SoCal11053]

On the Road.

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

[Allinlife]

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.

[Xanta]

[ QUOTE ]
On the Road.

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

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

[tolbiny]

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

Of Human Bondage is a great book.

[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[garcia1000]

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.

[Kimbell175113]

[ QUOTE ]
Of Human Bondage is a great book.

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