Name a great writer/author not enough people have read

[WilliamPitt]

Lester Bangs.

[HEyHEY]

1. Sorry to ask but....

Isn't Lester Bangs the guy from Casino?

I'll say Graham Green

[Syrinx]

11. he was a rock music critic

I think he wrote for Rolling Stone, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

[HEyHEY]

14. Ah yes...he wrote for Cream magazine - sorry

I was watching Casino tonight and the name of James Wood's character is "Lester Bernum" silly me

[Syrinx]

20. sorry if I missed the joke

I've never seen Casino.

[HEyHEY]

21. No, no joke I really was confused

[nightperson]

54. James Woods in

Casino is Lester Diamond. Kevin Spacey in American Beauty is Lester Burnham.

[WilliamPitt]

92. Find a book titled

'Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung.' It's a collection of his record reviews and essays for Creem and other mags. Bangs was one of the greatest writers who ever lived, and happened to write only about rock n' roll.

Did you see 'Almost Famous'? The guy the main character was telephoning at the beginning and throughout was Bangs.

[Cats Against Frist]

2. Ben Marcus

Wonderful. Wonderful. I can't get enough.

[lazarus]

3. Steve Brust

yeah, it's fantasy, but it's got its political components (the author is a strong socialist, and you can tell in some of his work. But not all.)

Plus, Steve's a cool guy. He taught me how to play poker and drink single malt scotch.

[Redneck Socialist]

10. Brust is good.

I haven't read anything by him in a long while though.

[lazarus]

17. He's getting better and better

according to his blog, he's in the midst of the next Vlad book.

All the Vlad novels have been released in omnibus form, now so you can get them much easier.

[Redneck Socialist]

23. I read some of the early Vlad books

I should go back and pick them up again.

[lazarus]

26. Yeah

One thing, though:

Read them in publication order, and avoid reading the blurbs on the backs of the books. IIRC, at least one of the later editions gives away one of the two HUGE spoilers that occur in the later books.

We're talking "Luke, I'm your father" level spoilers. :D

[hedgetrimmer]

33. Robert Penn Warren. n/t

[hedgetrimmer]

34. sorry for the confusion, this was in response to the original thread....

my bad.

[Kellanved]

53. a new one?

Yay

Thanks for the info.

[Fenris]

4. Patricia Nelson Limerick

Haynes Johnson

[KissMyAsscroft]

5. Lewis Grizzard

nt

[RebelOne]

60. No, he's popular, though dead now.

But I'm sure everyone has read his stuff at one time or another.

[Paragon]

6. Sarah Vowell.

The female David Sedaris, for lack of a better description. Just read Take The Cannoli and The Partly Cloudy Patriot -- can't wait for the next compilation.

In fact, if someone knows where I can read her current pieces and/or hear her NPR stuff, it would be greatly appreciated.

[eileen from OH]

8. I ADORE Sarah Vowell

Can't help you on finding more but The Partly Cloudy Patriot was indeed a gem.

eileen from OH

[Syrinx]

12. she's great

I always enjoy her appearances on Letterman. They're just not frequent enough.

[SOteric]

7. Milan Kundera

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

91. Never knew you were a Kundera fan! I'll raise you one Brautigan

Richard Brautigan that is :D

[Redneck Socialist]

9. Shit, where to start

Colin Bateman for humor
David James Duncan for fiction
Glen Cook for fantasy

I could go on and on.

[Taverner]

13. Chuck Palahniuk

Choke

Read it

[eileen from OH]

15. Denise Mina (mysteries)

British - her stuff is top-notch. Darkish and moody and very compelling. Her Garnethill trilogy - Garnethill, Exile, and Resolution - is fabulous.

eileen from OH

[ibegurpard]

16. Louise Ehrdrich

Some of the best literature I have ever read I encountered in a Native American Literature class I took.
Another great writer I discovered in that class was Leslie Marmon Silko. Her book "Ceremony" moved me deeply.

[Ann Arbor Dem]

18. Christopher Moore

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

[peacefreak]

58. Yes!

Just read an advance of "The Stupidest Angel". You'll love it. Raziel visits Melancholy Cove at Christmas time. "Fluke" is good, too.

[Skinner]

67. I have to second Christopher Moore.

Just finished Lamb. Now I'm reading Fluke. This dude is funny.

[Ann Arbor Dem]

77. I loved Fluke and Island of the Sequined Love Nun too.

I hope that "The Stupidest Angel" will be released soon!

[Caution]

99. I'll vouch for Christopher Moore

Fluke
Lamb
Isle of the Sequined Love Nun
Coyote Blue
Bloodsucking Fiends
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Practical Demonkeeping

This guy is flat out terrific.

[BigMcLargehuge]

19. John Wyndam (Day of the Triffids)

William Barton (When Heaven Fell is one of my all time favorites)
WT Quick (Dreams of Flesh and Sand/Dreams of Gods and Men/Singularies)

Those are my otherwise undiscovered Science fiction favorites.

For general fiction, I am covinced people do not read enough Joseph Conrad.

[guitar man]

22. Barbara W. Tuchman

She wrote a masterful work called "The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam"

Had anybody in the Boosh misadministration read this book.....oh who in the hell am I kidding, they never listened to a damn thing anybody tried to tell them.

Anyway, it is a great read for anyone who is interested in reading about history's greatest blunders in detail.

[Paragon]

24. William Rivers Pitt

;-)

Should be doing Stephen-King-type numbers, far as I'm concerned.

[Syrinx]

25. bingo, we have a winner!

;)

[guitar man]

27. I thought he already was

Doing Stephen King type numbers, except in a non-fiction format. The Boosh gang keeps feeding him plenty of material for lot's of horror stories.

[Paragon]

28. You'd have to ask him that.

Far as I know, the only guy doing Stephen-King-type numbers is Stephen King.

Helps when you're as fast (poorly written?) as he is.

[Skittles]

104. I agree

I have his books and they are wonderful. :D

[Blue-Jay]

29. Michael Ondaatje

Sure, everyone has heard of "The English Patient". (shitty movie adaptation). Do yourself a favor and read "Coming Through Slaughter". You'll never regret it.

The Chicago Tribune said "Michael Ondaatje is a novelist with the heart of a poet", and that's a goddamn understatement.

[harper]

81. He's also a fine poet

I went to a reading of his...he read "The Cinnamon Seller's Wife" from his book of poetry of the same name. Wonderful.

[Dr Fate]

30. John Fante

n/t

[beanball]

31. Great writer/author

Cornel West

[hrhdeb]

32. Ayn Rand

She has a loyal following, but not enough people have read her.

[Syrinx]

35. ha

[HEyHEY]

36. Welcome to DU!

[Interrobang]

42. I think you mean "too many."

Instead of "not enough," that is.

At least, I have very little patience for someone who blatantly plagiarized the great Yevgeny Zamyatin and bastardized his masterwork with her pitiful little lack of talent... If you don't believe me, read _Anthem_ back-to-back with _We_, and then take a look at the copyrights page... _We_ was published first in English in 1924, and _Anthem_ didn't come along until 1938.

...and that's just my criticism of Rand from a literary point of view.

[non sociopath skin]

55. Of course there are those who say that Orwell ripped Zemyatin off too ..

Try reading "We" and "1984" back-to-back.

The Skin

[Screaming Lord Byron]

108. Not enough sane people, perhaps.

[asianjoanne]

37. Peter Mayle

He's an author who writes some pretty funny books and makes some funny movies. Some of his works are: "A Year In Provence" and "French Lessons".

[Interrobang]

38. Since I'm on a historical literature kick...

I'm going to say:

Theodore Dreiser
Frank Norris
and Upton Sinclair

none of whom get any respect, but I like them all.

I'd also nominate Jeff Torrington, Tom Holt, and Louise Rennison.

If he's not too well-read by everyone, I'd also like to mention Isaac Bashevis Singer!!

Oh, yeah, King basher upthread -- pick up _Everything's Eventual_. Nothing poorly written in there...in fact, now that King's kicked the booze and the coke, he's batting about .990 instead of .370 like he was before. :)

[Rowdyboy]

39. John Barth and John Kennedy Toole...

[non sociopath skin]

56. Finally got around to reading "The Sot-Weed Factor" recently

Very impressed (even though it was hard work).

What else of Barth's would you recommend?

The Skin

[Rowdyboy]

75. My all time favorite is "Giles Goatboy, or the New, Revised Syllabus"

It is one of the deepest, multi-leveled books I've ever read and enjoyed. If you can find it, please give it a try. I also read "Sotweed Factor" and you're right-it was very hard work. "Giles Goatboy" is too. It took me several months to finish but I still remember it clearly after nearly 30 years, which (to me)is the mark of really serious literature.

If you enjoyed "Sotweed", then I think you'll really get into "Giles"

[Beetwasher]

76. "Sot Weed..." Was One Of The FUNNIEST BOOKS I Ever Read!

That and Confederacy of Dunces!

[Susang]

40. Ruth Ozeki

Or Donna Tartt, take your pick.

[gate of the sun]

41. Joseph Chilton Pearce

Evolution's End. YOU can learn a bit about how your mind works......how it was programed to work and well ultimately it's potential.

[WindRavenX]

43. F. Scott Fitzgerald

Most people have read "The Great Gatsby", but not many have read his short fiction, which are abosultly brilliant. See "A Diamond As Big As The Ritz", one of the first sci-fi short stories.

[shrike]

79. Great story!

Didn't much care for "Tender is the Night," but Fitzgerald's short fiction is brilliant.

[Sufi Marmot]

44. Mikhail Bulgakov, V.S. Naipaul, Peter DeVries, Idries Shah...n/t

[HuckleB]

94. Bulgakov, no doubt. But Naipul and DeVries are quite popular.

[Sufi Marmot]

100. Point noted...

Although most, if not all of DeVries' stuff is out of print and hard to find. I have to scour used book stores to find his novels. I personally don't consider DeVries to be essential reading, I just love his stuff and find him hysterically funny. :-)

Naipaul has lots of name recognition, especially since the Nobel, but I wonder how many people actually read him.

-SM

[Colin Ex]

45. Marty Beckerman!

www.martybeckerman.com

-C

[tavalon]

46. I'm fairly sure you weren't looking for ego strokes

but honestly, in my mind, William Rivers Pitt, though I am doing the best I can in my tiny, weird part of the world, to remedy that.

[DS1]

47. Neal Stephenson

Snowcrash
Cyrptonomicon
others

[Stockholm]

48. Astrid Lindgren n/t

[Ithuilwen]

64. Is she the one

who writes "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" (or some such title)?

[wickerwoman]

49. Flan O'Brien

Especially At Swim Two Birds and the Miles na gCapaleen columns. The man was brilliant in four different languages.

[nightperson]

50. My taste in music, etc. was not identical,

but around '87 this guy's writing had an influence on mine that no doubt persists, and I'm saddened to see that it's so hard to find his early writing on the net, let alone elsewhere. An even earlier sample. Besides all the bands he signed etc., he was an ahead-of-his-time "stylist", in my not so humble opinion. Whatever.

[neverborn]

51. Andrea Dworkin

[Kellanved]

52. Heinrich Mann

In his novels he analyzed the Imperial German Mindset like no one else. In his novels the later German history seems almost unavoidable; in retrospect the books are almost prophetic.

His left-leaning themes kept him in his younger brother's Thomas shadow during his lifetime, but today some people consider him the better author.

The best novels are (IMHO)
Der Untertan / The Patrioteer ; telling the story of a Patriot in Imperial Germany

Professor Unrat / Small town tyrant

Henry IV / Young Henry of Navarre ; Henry, King of France

[non sociopath skin]

57. Brits worth exploring: John Cowper Powys, Rose Macaulay and Joyce Cary

All less well-known than they deserve.

The Skin

[peacefreak]

59. Howard Frank Mosher

Donald Harington

[soothsayer]

61. Charles Bukowski

But there's a film out (starts today!) about this drunken wonder.

[rbnyc]

62. Gina Berriault

Lights of Earth is my favorite.

[Mnemosyne]

63. Albert Camus, and don't get me started, too many. n/t

[HuckleB]

95. Writers just don't get much more famous or widely read than Camus.

Sorry, it just seems like an odd choice to me.

:shrug:

:hi:

[sniffa]

65. mick foLey

[Screaming Lord Byron]

66. The Peerless Richard Brautigan.

[Salmo Trutta]

68. Edward Abbey

Desert Solitaire
Monkeywrench Gang

Also: Norman Maclean

[AngryAmish]

69. Penthouse Forum

I never thought I would write a letter like this. However, I work as a pizza delivery guy near a local university...

[Az]

70. Carl Sagan

Heart and Science. He was the heart of science. We still have his books and they are wonderful things. People see science as some dry lab entombed thing. Sagan had the art to bring it to life. Science is life learning about life. His book Demon Haunted World is a gift to us. It is far under-read and should be required reading. It is the stuff that can drive away the demons of ignorance and gullibility. Too few children go through our school systems without sufficient critical thinking skills. Sagan offers a passionate path to learning that many could benefit from.

[Mojambo]

120. Wholeheartedly agree!

Demon Haunted World is one of the top 5 most influential books I've ever read.

[XNASA]

71. Charles DeLint

Urban fantasy-fiction writer. Lots of bits about music and the magic that it holds. Nothing earthshattering but his books take me to a place that's comforting......

He shows that, far from being escapism, contemporary fantasy can be the deep mythic literature of our time.
- Fantasy & Science Fiction

Charles de Lint is a folksinger as well as a writer and it is this voice we hear...both old and new, lyric, longing, touched by magic.
- Jane Yolen

Mr. de Lint's handling of ancient folklore to weave an entirely new pattern has never, to my knowledge, been equalled.
- Andre Norton

De Lint's touch is deft and clean in a genre choked with tin eared dialogue and warmed over Dunsany and Tolkien. His narrative has the deceptive simplicity and tension of Alan Garner.
- Parke Godwin

[underpants]

72. Kilgore Trout

:bounce:

[Squeech]

73. Jorje Luis Borges

Amazing writer and thinker. Most of his work was short stories that posed philosophical conundrums. Deserved the Nobel, but apparently there was one guy in Stockholm who was dead set against him.

Remarkable linguist too. Anthony Burgess (another polymath of literature) once visited him in Argentina, at a time that the ruling junta considered him something of a security risk. They decided to converse in Chaucerian English as the language they had in common that was least likely for his government handlers to interpret.

As a rock'n'roller, I am certainly down with Lester Bangs. (There's an SF story called "Dori Bangs," in which instead of dying of flu, Bangs splits for the coast and falls in love with underground comix artist Dori Seda, and recounts their life together. Silly, but oddly touching. I forget who wrote that story-- possibly Richard Sperling, who also belongs on this list.)

I never want to read Brautigan again as long as I live, nor Bukowski.

[Maestro]

82. You are so right!

Incredible writer. Try reading it in Spanish. His literature just comes alive and, well, I think you need to be on drugs to understand some of it, but most excellent writer.

[Bridget Burke]

74. R. A. Lafferty

A lover of language who wrote fantasy/science fiction/magic realism. His work is highly original & often very funny in a surreal way. Is it true that somebody called him the Catholic Kafka? After his death in 2002 many of his works escaped from out-of-print limbo.

Nine Hundred Grandmothers is an excellent short story collection. Past Master & Fourth Mansions are my favorite Lafferty novels. Arrive at Easterwine is one of his weirder ones but I wanted to post this Abdul Mati Klarwein cover; it has nothing to do with the content but might generate a flashback or 2:

[Khephra]

78. Jonathan Carroll

For fans of modern (somewhat urban)fantasy (with a touch of horror) or magical realism. Readers of Neil Giaman, Tim Powers, DeLint, and Tom Robbins should like his work.

Biblography:

The Land of Laughs
Voice of Our Shadow
Black Cocktail (novella)


The Rondua Sextet:

Bones of the Moon
Sleeping in Flame
# A Child Across the Sky
From the Teeth of Angels
Outside the Dog Museum
After Silence


The Panic Hand *

The Crane's View Trilogy:

Kissing the Beehive
The Marriage of Sticks
The Wooden Sea


White Apples


NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE

"FAIRY TALES FOR ADULTS"

"If you want to know how the rockets are going to work in any hypothetical future, turn to Larry Niven or Robert Heinlein;
if you want literature about what the future might hold, you must go to Ray Bradbury or perhaps to Kurt Vonnegut.
What powers rockets is 'Popular Mechanics' stuff. The province of the writer is what powers the people."
Stephen King (1)

If at all, booksellers store his novels on their 'Fantasy' or 'Horror' shelves. Whether this label is attached to Carroll's works on the basis of their titles, cover art, or trade gossip (for want of informed critical opinion) - it is probably as relevant to their content as the label of science fiction is to the novels of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Such a label however may make or mar an author, as Vonnegut's history of initial lack of recognition attests; the normative theories of literature are equally removed from the critical practice and from the reading habits of the public at large. Then again, even such well-established and elevated pieces of literature as Alice In Wonderland will be found among children's books as well as in the Penguin Classics, depending on the issue format. Suffice it to say that, despite their face value, Jonathan Carroll's novels would not score high as horror: not when measured against the works of such masters of the genre as Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft or Stephen King. For most part they fail to evoke and sustain the emotion of fear, and it is the characters, rather then the readers, who experience most suspense in the course of action. In fact, the readers will usually be allowed the comfort of watching the scenes unfold, with minds cool and collected, much as they might be drawn to sympathize with the protagonists, and so a question should arise, whether the author - the one responsible for the feelings of both his characters and his readers - actually undertakes to "frighten" anybody, whether horror is either his target genre or the target emotion. That understood, it might still be possible to endeavor a comparative study: to examine in what ways Carroll's writings depart from horror, still retaining enough qualities of the genre for the association to be evident; the usefulness of such an attempt this author finds at least questionable. (2) The last thing a critic could do to save this concept would be to observe that in Carroll's work the feeling of fear is secondary to that of paranoia and then... either proclaim the emergence of "a new type of horror"(3), or better, to refocus his attention: from the general (the genre) to the particular (the set of writings). This would lead the hypothetical critic to what this author wishes to make the scope of his inquiry: the novels of Jonathan Carroll, without further qualifications. And as it is impossible to comment on them without referring to the notion of horror - or fear, or paranoia - in the pages of this guide, the reader is asked to assume that henceforward any mention of the word "horror" will refer to the concept or emotion it signifies, and not (unless clearly indicated) to the genre.

The reason why this misplaced label has become so firmly attached to his novels probably lies in the difficulty of defining, or "describing" Carroll's style and subject matter. In a few words, that is. If the hundred-word reviewers and authors of back-cover blurbs are to be masters in the art of expression both concise and precise, perhaps it is not out of way to resort to these excerpts. After all, they provide the first information a potential reader is likely to find, save for the title and the cover price of a book. Here they are, in order of appearance. The Land of Laughs was thus hailed by Washington Post: "Beguiling and original. An intricate, challenging, ultimately chilling tale." Voice of Our Shadow, International Herald Tribune: "Jonathan Carroll seems to have invented the tale that is convincingly supernatural in some episodes, psychological in others, and totally ambiguous in others." (seems to have invented... totally ambiguous... Are we being enlightened yet?) Bones of the Moon, Library Journal: "A powerful story that traverses the two-way street between the dreams and the reality" (not quite illuminating, given the fact that the plot of this particular novel develops in two interwoven lines, one narrating the apparently "real" world events, while the other describes the main character's sequence of dreams - the quoted excerpt is thus no more than a statement of an obvious fact). Sleeping in Flame, Kirkus Reviews: "Fever-dream writing; many vivid images" (the same can be said of hard-core pornography). A Child Across the Sky, Observer: "Searching, cold, quicksilver tale... Carroll is sly and taxing and corrosive." (Brilliant adjectives certainly help advertise, but hardly elucidate.) Outside the Dog Museum, Million: "Quirky, wondrous, pithy, magical, poignant, scary, luxurious, profound, uplifting, enigmatic..." Fortunately, no blurbs for the latest novel, After Silence, as yet. To conclude this eloquent parade, here are the spare words Jonathan Carroll himself used to describe the quirky and the wondrous: "Outside the Dog Museum is 100% serious." (4)

http://www.jonathancarroll.com/indexframes.html

http://www.jonathancarroll.com/indexframes.html

80. William Eastlake - recommended by Kesey and Edward Abbey

Bamboo Bed is one of the GREAT Vietnam novels

&

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1564781364//qid=1089384678/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/102-9129276-0254509?v=glance&s=books&vi=reviews

Edward Abbey
"Although Eastlake's novels are more complex and subtle than they might first appear and therefore worthy of careful examination, they are not difficult. They are a pleasure to read, easily accessible on many levels. The wit is balanced by irony, the comedy and fantasy rooted in an honest avowal of the harshness, cruelty, and sometimes ugliness of the modern world. Eastlake tells the truth. And that truth is informed by a sympathy for the wounded, by hatred for injustice, by scorn for the powerful, by love for the good and the beautiful. In my book those qualities add up to greatness, whether in life or in art."

New Yorker
"Mr. Eastlake's language is direct and simple, and the effect he creates is one of urgency, as though time were running out."

Walter Van Tilburg Clark, author of The Ox-Blow Incident
"William Eastlake has brought into sharpest focus all the questions about modern man and his values . . . with the most unimpeachable blend of sardonic realism and far-reaching myth."

Ken Kesey
"Eastlake's prairie-hard prose is as pure and clean as the wind-sanded land that fosters it."

Book Description
These novels face head-on the reality of the American Indian, perhaps the last great taboo in American culture. After all of the flag-waving, the wars to protect the Land of the Free, and interventions around the world in the name of democracy, how do Americans admit, even today, that America was not discovered by Columbus and not courageously cultivated by white Anglo-Saxons? The land was invaded and a people destroyed, all in the name of religion, political freedom, and money.

Long before Cormac McCarthy and even long before Tom Robbins, William Eastlake invented an American Southwest whose comic and tragic dimensions, as well as its hard beauty, encapsulates American myths and nightmares in much the way that Faulkner did with his invented Yoknapatawpha County. Against a background of New Mexico that transcends regional space, Eastlake explores race, greed, and tradition, evoking stereotypes for the sake of exploding them and laying bare an American reality that is a strange mix of pop culture, zany humor, biting satire, and a deep-seated respect for and love of the land.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

83. Iain Banks and Iain M. Banks.

No relation, honest. :evilgrin:

[Khephra]

84. Banks is hit or miss for me

Some of his Culture novels are great (Player of Games)and then others (Excession sp?) are a chore for me to finish.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

85. I'm more of a fan of his non-sci-fi stuff.

Particularly The Crow Road, Complicity and Espedair Street.

[blindpig]

86. Carl Hiaasen, David Quammen

particularly Hiaasen's Sick Puppy and Quammen's Song of the Dodo.

[rhino47]

87. Annie Dillard

Pilgrim at tinker creek.Great book.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

88. Italo Calvino.

[NightTrain]

90. Didn't he write a short story that was set in the main character's mouth?

Or am I thinking of somebody else?

[NightTrain]

89. Hubert Selby, Jr.

Not the most prolific novelist, but the ones he wrote were uniformly powerful and nihilistic. LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN, THE ROOM, SONG OF THE SILENT SNOW, THE DEMON, and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM are the Selby books with which I'm familiar, and they all left me feeling as if I had been kicked in the balls!

[HuckleB]

93. Juan Carlos Onetti and Ernesto Sabato.

I'm noticing a lot of very popular writers being listed here. Writers I wouldn't say qualify as answers to your request: Ondaatje, Kundera, Camus, Abbey, Sagan, Borges, Calvino, Naipul, Fitzgerald, Mayle, Palahniuk, Bukowski, Mann, etc... are all incredibly well read by those who actually read.

[Speck Tater]

96. Mark Twain. Brilliant, funny and relevant even today. (nt)

[HuckleB]

97. Jon Evans' "Dark Places" -- First book. Great for this genre.

And not getting enough press or readers.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060594233/qid=1089391576/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-2063207-2925407?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Also, Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" should be read by every American, like, NOW!

[HuckleB]

98. Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" & Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death"

Yes! Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" should be read by every American, like, NOW! These books show the scary prophecy of Bush's ascendance to power like none other. They show exactly what's happening in the country and the world today, and they show why.

Please. Read these books!

[Tom_Foolery]

101. Harry Crews n/t

[JackDragna]

102. All of them.

Nobody reads anymore. For most people, picking up someone like Steinbeck, Bronte or Faulkner would be new to them. I'd just be happy if I could come across at least one casual acquaintance sometime who knew at least a little something about a Shakespearean play, "The Grapes of Wrath," anything.

[LeftishBrit]

103. R.K. Narayan

A great Indian writer: author of "Swami and Friends"; "The English Teacher"; "The Dark Room"; etc.

I'd also second the recommendation of Astrid Lindgren. and writers for children/ young people in general. So many of them are better than lots of the grown-up writers!

[Parrcrow]

105. Paul Quarrington

King Leary, Whale Music, Home Game, Civilization.

[Parrcrow]

106. Will Ferguson

Generica, Why I Hate Canadians, Bastards and Boneheads.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

109. How to be a Canadian is pretty good too.

[Parrcrow]

110. and I Was a Teenage Katimiviktim

[LowerManhattanite]

107. Robert Caro...

He does NOT write short easy-on-the-brain quickies. His biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson are perhaps the most naked explanations what happens at the nexus of power and politics. You will learn nearly everything you'll ever need to know about what goes on behind the doors of power in America after checking these out. Because these are such ponderous reads (because of his intense research and annotating) most folks don'ttackle these books.

You should.

The Power Broker by Robert Caro
Lyndon Johnson—Master of the Senate by Robert Caro

[WillyBrandt]

117. ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! I'm on Caro book number four

I actually think they are compelling reads!

[GumboYaYa]

111. Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer who won the Nobel Prize

for literature in 1988. Mahfouz writes in Arabic and many of his works have not been translated to English. Those that have are must reading for any one who wants to begin to understand the cultural differences between Arabic society and the West. Rushdie is a great starting point, but to get a true Arabic perspective you have to read Mahfouz.

[chaska]

112. Read Barry Holstun Lopez. His "Winter Count" is extraordinary.

It's a book of short stories that are some of the most poetical prose writing I've seen. It's a book with nature as a broad theme. He sort of combines an inscrutable, almost Asian approach to symbolism with American Western locations and subject matter, while simultaneously appealing to the intellectual mind. Very urbane, poetic, rustic, strange, even other worldly at times.

Very highly recommended.

[Hand]

114. Roger that...

"Winter Count" has some utterly haunting imagery. The singing buffalo story had my hair standing on end...

:toast:

[Amaya]

113. How about:

Marc Bojanowski & Jeffrey Eugenides

[Lindacooks]

115. Laurie Colwin

Fantastic fiction, and two great books about cooking and eating that are collections of her Gourmet magazine column.

[NashVegas]

116. Dumas

Everyone sees the movies.

The books are wonderful.

[Dogmudgeon]

118. Philip Wylie

Author of When Worlds Collide, progenitor of Doc Savage, composer of various rants about the desexualization of society in the 1940s, nuclear madness in the 1950s, and ecological destruction through the 1960s, screenwriter and uncle of the late lamented Kitty Genovese -- and probably the most underrated, forgotten social sci-fi author ever.

Don't believe me? Find, and read, a copy of The Disappearance. It was written in 1951 but it holds up well. The premise is that one day, all the women on Earth disappear to the men -- and all the men disappear to the women.

His best known work of polemic was Generation of Vipers (1943) -- though I liked An Essay On Morals (1955) better. He was often mischaracterized as being an anti-feminist, but I would say he was an anti-Stepford-Wife kind of proto-feminist. And, he was often classified as being politically right-wing, but was in step with the counterculture sensibility of the late 1960s. Much like the previous generation's H.L. Mencken, Philip Wylie was a driven, engaging firebrand who is still difficult to place -- and even in death mocks our obession to categorize him.

Here's a bio to get you started:
http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?mp=b&c=235641

--bkl

[Djinn]

119. Christopher Brookmyre

He's a Scottish crime writer - but if you're not into crime novels don't let that put you off - I'm not either but I've read everything he's ever written - he's HILARIOUS. He's been described as Scotland answer to Carl Hiasen but I think he much much better.

His best so far (and the easiest for a US audience as there's less "Scottishisms") is "Not the End of the World" which is about a US fundie preacher who preaches that God is about to punish the US for it's evil ways.

Can read an exerpt here...http://www.brookmyre.co.uk/ext3.htm

[Mojambo]

121. Eric Hobsbawn

and the GREAT Howard Zinn.

[DoctorBombay]

122. Russell Banks and Rick Moody

Two contemporary guys...Banks' best known is "Continental Drift", Moody's is "The Ice Storm".