A Few Good Books
I’m reading a succession of crappy books. Not deliberately. That would be weird. It just turned out this way: dud after dud. Every time I crack open a new one, I hope that I’m about to get that feeling: that moment when I realize, “Ooh, this is good.” But: nope. Nothing. I’ve even started abandoning books before the end, which I never used to do no matter how bad they were. (Instead, I would complain to Jen every night until I finished, stopping to point out particularly egregious passages. She prefers the new method.)
So it’s a good time to remember that I have read some good books recently. Of course, when I say “recently,” I mean “since I last updated my list of favorite reads,” i.e. in the last three years. But if I can assume that you care about my opinion, and aren’t here just because you googled for lonelygirl15, then maybe you’re interested in my recommendations.
Here are some books that, if you stopped by my house and said, “Got anything good to read?”, I would loan to you. I mean, once we had gotten past the screaming and “how did you get in here” stage.
Corpsing (Toby Litt): This was the first book of Toby’s I ever read, and I loved it so much that I keep buying more of his, even though all of those have turned out to be terrible. For me, Toby is that guy you know is trouble but can’t keep away from, because maybe this time it will be different; maybe he’ll treat you right. He never does. He’s a bad, bad man.
The Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World (Neal Stephenson): I adored these. Almost everybody I’ve recommended them to has given up about 150 pages into the first book, saying, “Why the hell did you think I’d like that?” It’s inexplicable. I think all three books are amazing. If I had tried to write something like this, it would have taken me about 40 years. In fact, it would have taken me that long just to type them out, because they’re about 900 pages each.
Apathy and Other Small Victories (Paul Neilan): Obviously.
A Certain Chemistry (Mil Millington): The British do excruciating better than anybody. Reading this was like having my fingernails pulled out, only with more laughing. When I’d finished I felt like I had been beaten around the head, but with love. Because of this I’m putting it ahead of Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, which is also very good and possibly funnier.
The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger): This one is a rough ride, too. Some of it is astonishingly beautiful, some is unbearably tragic. I thought it dragged a little in the middle, but still loved it.
Astonishing X-Men (Joss Whedon): I’ve been reading some comics lately, and this one is gorgeous. Book 3 (“Torn”) is especially juicy. Joss Whedon is, of course, one of the greatest human beings to ever walk the Earth, and he’s in great form here. I obsessively read X-Men comics in high school and college, and it’s very cool to return to these characters and see them handled so well.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon): I have never heard anyone say anything bad about this book, ever. So there’s no need for me to praise it. I’ll just say: they’re right.
The Men Who Stare At Goats (Jon Ronson) [non-fiction]: This book started out as a light, ridiculous, funny read, then turned dark and disturbing. I love that.
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Robert Rankin): It’s funny and it’s clever, but more than that it has a surprising and truly wonderful dynamic between the two main characters. Warm, snuggly, and gooey (in a good way).
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell (Susanna Clarke): I don’t usually read the backs of books until I’ve finished them, but I snuck a look at this one early and discovered that it was Time Magazine’s Book of the Year (2004). I wish I hadn’t done that, because from that point onward all I could think was, “Well, it’s good, but is it Book of the Year good?” So try not to do that. It is an absorbing read: simultaneously rich and dry.
Watching Racehorses: A Guide to Betting on Behaviour (Geoffrey Hutson) [non-fiction]: I don’t care about racehorses. I have no interest in betting on them. I only read this book because Geoff is a neighbor. But it was genuinely fascinating, very funny, and worth it for the section on clitoral winking alone. (I know. Intriguing.)
Haunted (Chuck Palahniuk): This is a bunch of short stories with a novel wrapped around it. As with any short story collection, the quality varies, but some of the ones in here scared the absolute crap out of me. So even though I wouldn’t rate this as Chuck’s best, it was a good read. Incidentally, I read a review of this in The Washington Post that was more like a drive-by shooting, with several bullets aimed below the belt, and noticed that Amazon.com chose that one, that one, to put on their site. It was nice to see that that doesn’t just happen to me.
The Beach (Alex Garland): Yeah, it’s already on my old list. But I re-read it, and ohhh, it’s so good.
Comments
This is where site members post comments. If you're not a member, you can join here. There are all kinds of benefits, including moral superiority!
Colette (#324)
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
Quote: "What's popcorn made of?"
Posted: 1530 days ago
Oh, and I love Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash as well.
shabooty (#637)
Location: D.C./V.A/M.D.
Quote: "I will shake your foundation. I will shake the f**cking rafters. Nobody'll be the same -Danny Bonaduce ....& go visit my blog @: http://www.shabooty.com"
Posted: 1530 days ago
you also forgot to mention Terrel Owen's forthcoming Children's Books :)
gotta love those right?
$
Jeff T. (#2591)
Location: USA
Quote: ""WHO ARE YOU?!""
Posted: 1529 days ago
Phill Sacre (#1822)
Location: Colchester, UK
Quote: "Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working, if you open windows."
Posted: 1529 days ago
I can recommend one of my latest purchases: "How to survive a robot Robot Uprising - Tips on defending yourself from the coming rebellion." It's required reading for when the robot revolution comes ;-)
Kalle (#1278)
Quote: "Sex is herital. If your parents never had it, chanses are you'll never have it either."
Posted: 1529 days ago
Henry T. Monkeypimpenstein (#1212)
Location: Wellington, NZ
Quote: "Monkeypimp: Geeky enough to use his lame NS forum name here too."
Posted: 1529 days ago
Jeffrey (#2286)
Location: Right here
Quote: "Mathematics is a powerful language. Just look at how mathematicians destroyed the housing market."
Posted: 1529 days ago
Dieter Lunn (#1363)
Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Posted: 1529 days ago
Aliens Finished my Sudoku (#2732)
Location: UK
Posted: 1529 days ago
Cathy (#1802)
Location: UK
Posted: 1529 days ago
So, out of 13 books plus one trilogy that you recommended, I already have read (or have on my wishlist) eleven of them. This isn't good, Max, I need *new* books to read! Do better next time!
(You should read "Yes Man" by Danny Wallace, by the way. Or, really, anything by Danny Wallace.)
Mickey Finn (#2595)
Location: Houston, TX, USA
Posted: 1529 days ago
Terry Pratchett's also highly reccomended.
For dark and dirty cyberpunk, Richard K. Morgan's addictive as hell.
David O'Sullivan (#1855)
Location: UK
Posted: 1529 days ago
Leo (#2722)
Location: New Castle, De
Posted: 1529 days ago
And I agree, The Beach by Alex Garland is very good!
MARILYN BAKER (#2629)
Location: Miami Beach, Florida
Posted: 1529 days ago
Hallie (#2348)
Location: Reading, UK
Quote: "Dancing is the vertical expression of horizontal action"
Posted: 1529 days ago
Adam A. (#256)
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Quote: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." -George Carlin"
Posted: 1529 days ago
Best book I read in a while was 'The Prestige' by Christopher Priest (soon to be a movie). Blew me away.
Also 'The Fortress of Solitude' by Jonathan Lethem was really good, especially if you like comics (and really well written novels).
I also loved 'The Beach', but Max, have you, or anyone one else, read his other books 'The Tesseract' or 'Coma'? Was wondering if they were as good.
Geoff Gibson (#1038)
Location: California
Quote: ""If pleasure was illegal I'd happily do time.""
Posted: 1529 days ago
Celeste (#2590)
Location: St.L. MO, USA
Quote: "You can't child-proof the world, so world-proof the child."
Posted: 1529 days ago
"The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy" reads like a mystery novel, encompasses the history of the Industrial Revolution, Equal Rights, Women's Rights, Workers Rights, Trade Policy, the role of Government and politics in Free Trade, and could possibly be used as an economics textbook, (it was written by an economics professor) and did I mention it reads like a mystery novel?
The author is not content to research this book from her seat in Academia, but actually buys a T-Shirt, and talks to EVERY SINGLE PERSON involved in making that T-shirt, starting with the man who grew the cotton, and ended up in China talking to the factory workers. Then she dug up research on factory workers and included interviews with women who worked in factories since the beginning of factories. Not content, she found out what happens to your T-shirt after you donate it to Goodwill, and followed it to Africa, and then onto its final resting place (you'll be surprised).
And what could be a dry bit of "boring but important research" READS LIKE A MYSTERY NOVEL. And will make you think differently about the "Made in" labels in your T-shirts.
Good reading!
Taylor Cathcart (#2124)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Quote: "The elixir is hidden in the poison"
Posted: 1529 days ago
austin (#2462)
Location: rhode island
Quote: "hmmm...bleh..."
Posted: 1529 days ago
Check out my webbie. www.freewebs.com/htpo
read my book, entitled about a carpet. Please and thank you.
Alan Westbrook (#1427)
Location: San Jose, California
Quote: "It's not a bug, it's a feature!"
Posted: 1529 days ago
If you like social commentary fantasy humor, you will like his books.
Alan
Max
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Quote: "I'm my number one fan!"
Posted: 1529 days ago
Choke: big thumb's up. (Palahniuk is always interesting, nearly always brilliant.) The Tesseract: didn't like it. I was so excited when it came out, because of The Beach, but it just didn't click for me. The Coma looks interesting, though, and I plan to read it.
Thanks for the recommendations! I'll check 'em out.
Rod McBride (#688)
Location: Gardner, KS
Quote: "www.MidwestRockLobster.blogspot.com"
Posted: 1529 days ago
That said: James Patterson shuld have his word processing license revoked. I can't even take him in audio-books at work. If he had a story that wasn't ripped from the prime time cutting floor or characters that seemed real or good dialogue or anything... I swear, there is no indication that a single sentence in 'Along Came a Spider' was given a second thought...
I put more thought into responses on Max Barry's blog.
My only suggestion for Max (seeing what you're recommending above) is Cormac McCarthy. He's not as 'light' as some of your recommendations, and he's stylistically challenging at times (apparently some punctuation marks are simply broken on his typewriter, and yes, I suspect he is still using an old fashioned typewriter), but he's worth the trouble. Terrifying, funny and thrilling stuff. Especially 'No Country For Old Men.'
Myke (#2316)
Posted: 1529 days ago
Yenzo (#829)
Location: Secret underwater pyramid base in the Pacific
Quote: "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe (Carl Sagan)"
Posted: 1528 days ago
Hey Max, which stories in Haunted did you find the scariest?
Oh, and - though it's maybe the most personal question of all - who's your favorite X-Men character?
gStein (#585)
Location: 127.0.0.1
Quote: "That's not change! That's more of the same!"
Posted: 1528 days ago
Katy (#2345)
Location: Los Angeles
Posted: 1528 days ago
Second to none but... Company, Jenifer Government, and Syrup....
Kit (#850)
Location: UK
Posted: 1527 days ago
Len (#2632)
Location: England
Quote: "[kwoht] v; n; to repeat words from (a book, author, etc.)."
Posted: 1527 days ago
howard (#810)
Location: uk
Quote: "err"
Posted: 1527 days ago
Kate (#2426)
Location: London
Quote: "If you're being chased by seventeen horses, an ostrich and a tiny fire engine with a madly-ringing bell - get off the merry-go-round."
Posted: 1527 days ago
*Brit daytime TV couple - nuff said.
Kate (#2426)
Location: London
Quote: "If you're being chased by seventeen horses, an ostrich and a tiny fire engine with a madly-ringing bell - get off the merry-go-round."
Posted: 1527 days ago
towr (#1914)
Location: Netherlands
Posted: 1526 days ago
e.g.
'What does a martian look like?', about the science of extra terrestial life; with a lot of discussion of science fiction.
And 'The science of Discworld', where you'll be shown earth through the eyes of the wizards from the discworld; 50% discworld novel and 50% science, history, philosophy etc.
davesgonechina (#1035)
Location: New Jersey
Quote: "One word: nappies"
Posted: 1526 days ago
http://www.craphound.com/index.php?cat=5
Cory is one of the Boing Boing team, fyi. I didn't read the other books he lets you download, but I hear they're good too.
Strange and Norrell was dry, funny and unmistakably British. Which is redundant, but it's that good.
Michael Ricksand (#2212)
Location: Terra
Quote: "You do not have a right to be stupid."
Posted: 1521 days ago
I recognize the "Is it Book Of The Year good?" problem. I have the same problem with the SF-masterworks series of books. "Is this a Masterwork"? I ask myself everytime I read them. It's a good thing they are so good or this would be a serious problem.
Two books that deserve more attention is
1: Olaf Stapledon's "First and last men", about the rise and fall of 18 humanoid species of which homo sapiens sapiens is the first and least evolved.
2: "Aniara: a review of man in time and space" by Harry Martinson, about a spaceship traveling endlessly through space, escaping the polluted earth. It's written in verse and unlike anything I have ever read (cliché intentional for the sake of irony).
Mike Reason (#2743)
Location: Rhode Island, USA
Quote: ""Carpe Diem!""
Posted: 1518 days ago
howard (#810)
Location: uk
Quote: "err"
Posted: 1516 days ago
Cheers
H
Peter Larkins (#2811)
Location: Sydney
Quote: "Never let logic get in the way of a good MKTG idea ..."
Posted: 1475 days ago
That and Syrup were my two favourite Oz-Lit finds when I was living in Melbourne between 1999-2001 and scouring lots of Brunswick second hand book stores, before the imperative to find paying work forced me to move back to Sydney :(
Comments are now closed for this post.