What are your favorite writers/books ? | INFJ Forum

What are your favorite writers/books ?

James

Infamy, infamy.. they've all got it infamy
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Dec 29, 2009
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I was just thinking of reading something new, I think I've been spending too much time on non-fiction books. Any suggestions ? What are your favorite authors, books ?

The last really good non-fiction book I read was The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Has anyone ever read any Murakami ? I loved Norwegian Wood when I read that. I'm kind of writing two books myself at the moment, not to be the next Dan Brown or whoever. I think the last few weeks really sparked my creative side, and I've been rattling off a few thousand words each day. It's not a race, but I would like to finish them.

One was intended to be a sort of thriller and the other a social commentary/relationship/character study - I decided to go with two, so I didn't get stuck with them and could switch back and forward.

Sorry I wandered off topic - any really great books that I should pick up on ? Thanks.
 
I LOVE "The Secret History"! Doesn't everyone? That masterpiece is destined for a special place in the canon. It is Gothic and superb. I also really loved "The Little Friend", it was an awesome Crime novel, and I believe it is usually misunderstood and not located properly in Crime genre. (I have not read her most recent novel.)

I have never read a Murakami novel and in fact I have hardly read anything "serious" at all since I finished my undergrad degree in 2011. But I have read Joyce's "Ulysses" and Richardson's "Clarissa" since then because I planned to boast about having read them, but they turned out to be my favourite novels I've ever read. Before that my favourite was Nabokov's "Lolita", but they managed to nudge it out just by an edge... which is maybe not really a valid comparison though, but it's a subjective thing also so I think I can get away with it. I also read them for a similar reason to why I read "Moby Dick" (also after graduation), because once some horrible person shamed me as a literature student for not having read it. "You're a literature student and you haven't read 'Moby Dick'? That's pretty bad." So I read them just so people wouldn't have an opportunity to shame me anymore. (I also enjoyed "Moby Dick". People say it's boring. To them I say, go watch some pornos if you are so dependent on incessant excitation... this is literature.)

I've been reading "War and Peace" for like seriously 2 years. I have read "Anna Karenina" before and really enjoyed it. But "War and Peace" is super heavy philosophically; in the sense of just not being very enjoyable. It's enjoyable because there is a lot of thrilling detail going on, but I am finding the philosophical aspects REALLY intense. But I swear I will finish it. I think the main reason I haven't finished is because I have been so busy with study and other things, it's just really difficult to concentrate.

For anyone who has endured a lot of my company on this forum you will also know that I have been an avid consumer of Adult Romance genre fictions and have probably read about 80 Romance novels in the past five years, not sure how many.

I think it depends what interests you and then if it interests you, you should read as much of it as you can. But I also think that people should try to read those things that they have never read and have always maybe fantasised about being able to say that they have read. There's nothing wrong with accomplishment, besides which, these books are rich with meaning and will nourish your mind, and you will get to learn for yourself what all the fuss is about... or at least puzzle over what it is about. My advice for reading "challenging" literary works is to persist even when you don't understand. If you don't understand something, don't get discouraged but just plough on through, and enjoy the parts that you do understand.

James, my view of art is that the most important thing is the experience of the creator. If you are enjoying your creative process, then that is what is important. I'm not going to go into detail with that, but I truly believe it. But if you also dream of being the next Dan Brown, why not try?

My book recommendation that everyone should read is Ovid's "Metamorphoses". I think it's the first Magic Realist text that ever existed, which is like fairly historically significant. It is also a cultural and artistic skeleton key.

<3
 
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If you enjoy thrillers, how about some Crime classics that you have not yet got to. Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett. Or some Graham Greene, "Our Man In Havana". Have you seen the Popular Penguins range with green covers? And if you are wanting a novel with a more multifaceted woman character, how about "Lady Audley's Secret" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon? Well you probably know these already, but if not, check them out!
 
If you enjoy thrillers, how about some Crime classics that you have not yet got to. Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett. Or some Graham Greene, "Our Man In Havana". Have you seen the Popular Penguins range with green covers? And if you are wanting a novel with a more multifaceted woman character, how about "Lady Audley's Secret" by Mary Elizabeth Braddon? Well you probably know these already, but if not, check them out!

I have read Graham Greene - but not the others, I will be checking them out, thank you !
 
I have read Graham Greene - but not the others, I will be checking them out, thank you !

"The Big Sleep" by Chandler was made into a famous film with Bogart and Bacall. But the film SUCKS in comparison to the book. The book is a great read. I have heard so many times Chandler described as the originator of the "hard boiled hero". There's a whole series of about 12 of them and the detective character is called Philip Marlowe. I've only read 3 of them but they were all really good. I read them in a bindup from Penguin Modern Classics, but the problem with that bindup was that the concluding novel in the series was included, so if you want to read more, it's kind of crap because you already know what happened to Marlowe. So I recommend reading "The Big Sleep", and if you really enjoy it, maybe consider starting from the beginning of the series. Or if you just slightly enjoy it and want to read more, find out what people rate as the best Philip Marlowe novels, and read those.
 
I haven't been reading as much as I'd like to, lately... hard to with a toddler about! But my favorite authors are Pearl Buck and Octavia Butler...

I was legit sad when I realized I had read everything they both wrote. I loved Buck's The Good Earth because it opened up a whole other world that I never gave any thought to, which was China in transition from imperial to communist system of government, as experienced by a poor peasant farmer and his family. There is a trilogy. The Good Earth, Sons and A House Divided. Another great novel that she wrote was Dragonseed, which takes place during the Japanese invasion and rape of Nanking. Pearl Buck was the daughter of missionaries and spent most of her life in China. Through reading her novels, I started reading classical Chinese literature and studying Chinese history because I just had to learn more!

Octavia Butler is my favorite sci fi author. Her themes are mostly concerning eugenics and power dynamics.

Wildseed was a stunning novel about two godlike mutant beings and their relationship to one another and the rest of humanity. I don't want to give too much of it away.
 
That sounds intriguing, I'm quite a fan of sci-fi and I will add those to my 'to do' list. Thank you for your suggestions.

I haven't been reading as much as I'd like to, lately... hard to with a toddler about! But my favorite authors are Pearl Buck and Octavia Butler...

I was legit sad when I realized I had read everything they both wrote. I loved Buck's The Good Earth because it opened up a whole other world that I never gave any thought to, which was China in transition from imperial to communist system of government, as experienced by a poor peasant farmer and his family. There is a trilogy. The Good Earth, Sons and A House Divided. Another great novel that she wrote was Dragonseed, which takes place during the Japanese invasion and rape of Nanking. Pearl Buck was the daughter of missionaries and spent most of her life in China. Through reading her novels, I started reading classical Chinese literature and studying Chinese history because I just had to learn more!

Octavia Butler is my favorite sci fi author. Her themes are mostly concerning eugenics and power dynamics.

Wildseed was a stunning novel about two godlike mutant beings and their relationship to one another and the rest of humanity. I don't want to give too much of it away.
 
Octavia Butler is my favorite sci fi author. Her themes are mostly concerning eugenics and power dynamics.

I got my copy of Kindred, just haven't started it yet. Have you read it?
 
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Stephen King!
 
Sidney Sheldon.
 
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Constantine's Sword
 
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#1. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I love to read but I LOVE this book. Those caps say it all.
 
Just off the top of my head:

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction
by J. D. Salinger

On The Road by Jack Kerouac

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard

Save The Cat! by Blake Snyder

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Das Perfum by Patrick Süskind
 
I'm rereading the works of Haruki Murakami. I'm a huge fan of his, but not of the bungled translations of his writing.

Tsch, so you didn't learn Japanese specifically to read his books? You wannabe poser. Let me guess, you've never read War and Peace in Russian either.:m052:
 
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Tsch, so you didn't learn Japanese specifically to read his books? You wannabe poser. Let me guess, you've never read War and Peace in Russian either.:m052:
Sadly, I can't read Russian either. Woe to me. I only wish some of the translators for books in different languages would have a firm grasp of both the language the book was written in as well as the language the book is translated to. I'm also a huge fan of the poet Neruda, and thankfully I can read Spanish because there's another who's works were completely butchered by the English language. Screw you, English, now I have to go and learn all the Languages ever!
 
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