Fiction Recommendations .

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' timestamp='1282146837' post='2159531']
you should read Terry Goodkinds books. kind of Ayn Rands philosophy and speeches, boiled down to 5 page speeches and considerably more story.
[/quote]
Plus a legible print size.

[eustace scrubb]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' timestamp='1282146837' post='2159531']
you should read Terry Goodkinds books. kind of Ayn Rands philosophy and speeches, boiled down to 5 page speeches and considerably more story.
[/quote]

I'm gonna back this, because he's a good writer and not as obnoxious and long-winded as I find Rand.

[Era Might]

[quote name='Marie-Therese' timestamp='1282008217' post='2158596']If you have any interest in plays, I recommend anything by Edward Albee. [i]Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe[/i] is simply brilliant, and [i]Zoo Story[/i] is great as well. In the play genre, I also recommend Tennessee Williams.
[/quote]
"Death of a Salesman" ftw!

I like "A Doll's House" as well. "A Raisin in the Sun" is another good play.

Edited August 21, 2010 by Era Might

[Era Might]

[quote name='MithLuin' timestamp='1282062574' post='2158913']I'm not a fan of Fitzgerald - I didn't particularly care for [i]The Great Gatsby[/i] or [i]Tender is the Night[/i] - there is a deep, inevitable melancholy hanging over his work.
[/quote]
The only work by Fitzgerald that I've read is his short story "Babylon Revisited," which I really liked, and which would seem to confirm your sense that there is a "melancholy" in his work. But that's just the kind of literature I like...literature that deals with death (in various kinds of ways...not just literal death). As some poet wrote (I forget who), "Every actor wants to play Hamlet."

Edited August 21, 2010 by Era Might

[Resurrexi]

Does manga count as fiction?

[Era Might]

[quote name='MithLuin' timestamp='1282141648' post='2159490']About Shakespeare...I hesitate to recommend just reading his work. It's almost always better to go see a production of the play than to just sit and read it. [...] The comedies are funnier when performed. Sitting and reading Midsummernight's Dream can just be tedious.
[/quote]
I kind of like just reading his plays because then I can imagine them as I imagine them. I recently watched an old film version of "Hamlet" starring Laurence Olivier, and in some sense it kind of made me feel removed from the story because I had to imagine Hamlet as an historical figure. And not to mention, seeing Laurence Olivier in tights kind of makes Hamlet less manly to me (though I suppose tights probably weren't seen as unmanly in Shakespeare's day). When I'm reading the play I can pretty much imagine Hamlet however I want to imagine him...which will, inevitably, lead me to imagine him as myself. But that makes it so much more meaningful to me.

And of course, the language alone makes Shakespeare well worth the read.

But seeing Shakespeare performed can be fun too...especially when you already know the play.

Edited August 21, 2010 by Era Might

[Ora et Labora]

I didn't read the entire post, but I didn't see The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. He is AMAZING to say the least!

And also Mr. Blue by Myles Connolly. All I can say about that is you have to read it! Lol

[MithLuin]

[quote name='Archaeology cat' timestamp='1282147023' post='2159533']
Read Coleridge!
[/quote]

I second this!

'It is an ancient mariner, who stoppeth one of three....' [url=http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/646/]The Rime of the Ancient Mariner[/url]

'a damsel with a dulcimer' is my favorite part of Kubla Khan.


[b]Rexi[/b], he requested work that was originally written in English. As most manga is translated from the Japanese, it probably wouldn't count.

[Old_Joe]

Have you read anything by Henryk Sienkiewicz?