Future by Dmitry Gukhovsky and 1984 by George Orwell.
Levitation Seeks Head by Louis Jagger
you won’t have heard of them.
I’d have to say The Best of Tolstoy
Ooooh, I didn’t know Pixar did compilations.
Serious response incoming! Off the top of my head with vague reasons…
John Irving - A Prayer For Owen Meany
Funny, powerful, and incredibly moving. It’s just the most beautiful portrayal of love and friendship.
Joseph Heller - Catch 22
So so funny, a bit sad, and enduringly relevant even as its setting becomes more distant in history. Every one of us has a Yossarian in us. We all know a Major Major Major Major. And so much conflict is so futile
Iain M Banks - The Excession
The ship-mind dialogues I love the idea that such powerful intellects would still act like petty children around each other.
Phillip Pullman - The Amber Spyglass
Because I can’t choose all three. Like Owen Meany, it’s a book I was cautious of revisiting as an adult in case it sullied my memory of it, but it’s just as magical. Like Owen Meany, it’s another beautiful depiction of love and friendship.
Stephen King - The Stand
Oh boy, I love post-apocalyptic novels. Close between this and The Passage but King edges it because of how much I enjoy his cartoonish good vs. evil setups.
All written by men, aren’t they?
For Whom The Bell Tolls and Blood Meridian
With you on Owen and The Stand. (Think we’ve spoken about the Irving before on here).
I like a lot of books. I like reading books. I don’t have the time to read very much now in terms of the books, but I like reading them.
This one is just one that just came out. CNN. The CNN book just came out. I hear it’s doing well.
Just read ‘The Black water lilies’ while I was in holiday and it was very good even if the way they tie up the loose ends at the end was a bit weak in parts.
hemingway, carver, john fante.
the usual boring shite.
Trout Fishing in America - Tragic/funny surrealism that folds in on itself between childhood, and a fishing trip with Brautigan’s wife and young kid. Lot of characters end up having Trout Fishing in America at the start of their names, which is fun.
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept - Heartbreaking book sized poem about another hippy this one’s going to be a mother and isn’t very happy about it.
Yeah think that’s how I heard of it originally too
what’s that one written by the english woman, extremely experimental sci-fi one, maybe 60s or 70s, irl she had a lot of mental health problems and they sort of fed into her work? help me out?
favourite ever book is hard. i have a few favourites.
slaughterhouse 5 - vonnegut
v - pynchon
revolution in the head - ian macdonald
why did i ever - mary robison
strange pilgrims - marquez
fun thing i’ll never do again - dfw
cosa nostra - john dickie
birds of america - lorrie moore
a better angel - chris adrian
2666 - bolano
get in trouble - kelly link
do she’s great. reminds me of george saunders in a roundabout way.
i’ll add civilwarland by him to my list now i think about it.
Ah man, what a great book! Was thinking about it the other day. Did you read anything else by him?
Off the top of my head:
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Suttree - Cormac McCarthy
V/Mason & Dixon - Thomas Pynchon
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wilde
Demons - Dostoyevsky
The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
Clearly I need to read more books by women.
Razzle
working up to savage detectives but i’m not sure if it’s for me from the bits i’ve read. took a punt on 2666 knowing literally naff all about him, ended up loving how it fucked with me in a way i didn’t realise i would enjoy, the murkiness of plot, and what everyone is really about, and that section about the murders.
edit to my list now that you mention bloodshed and chaos:
would also like to add some james ellroy
la confidential
black dahlia
american tabloid
his stuff is evil genius.