I'm going to the library tomorrow, please tell me what book I should borrow!

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I've finished reading everything in the house - most recently "Flowers For Algernon" and "Running with Scissors" (both of which I read as a result of recommendations from here) and which I enjoyed greatly.

What should I read next? Something entertaining, the sort of thing I can pick up and put down without forgetting a complicated plot (though I do read very quickly)

Which three books should I borrow from the library to read next week? I'd love some of your brilliant suggestions, please! :)

― C J (C J), Friday, 11 April 2003 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

The World Book Encyclopedia's a hoot, and no pesky plot. ;-)

More seriously, a collection of Robert Sheckley short stories, Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary and Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

The first Harry Potter is now the most borrowed library book in Britain.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Pick up a book of JL Borges short stories, look for 'Labyrinths', 'The Aleph', or 'The Book of Imaginary Beings'. Beautiful, well-crafted stories, the product of an amazing and captivating imagination some of them only a few pages long. Once you've found one of them, I really, really liked Italo Calvino's 'If On A Winter's Night A Traveller', and although it's everywhere right now, 'Schotts' Original Miscellany' is a joyful easy read.

― Alex K (Alex K), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Jasper FForde's "The Eyre Affair"

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

someone tried to make me read that once. I didn't like the look of it.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow - thank you for such a swift response. I have in fact read the Encyclopedia many times, Ned. I enjoyed it almost as much as the telephone directory :p

Thank you for your suggestions. I plan on spending the Easter weekend being totally self-indulgent with a large box of chocolates, a bottle of nice wine and several good books.

― C J (C J), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I enjoyed it almost as much as the telephone directory :p

An ever changing repository of human dreams.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:31 (twenty-two years ago)

someone tried to make me read that once. I didn't like the look of it.

It's a lovely light book about books.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Richard Brautigan, Revenge of the Lawn

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

"quarantine" by greg egan would make somesort of a followup to "Flowers For Algernon"

the hero is a detective who is using all sorts of intereting cognitive tools. At one point he explains "Axon grew out of a compagny wich peddled "subliminal learning tools" -audio and video tapes bearing inaudible or invisible messages, supposedly percieved "directly" by the subconscious. Like all the other self-improvement snake oil of the time, this did more than provide placebo effects for the gullible and megabucks for the rip-off merchants; it also heled create the market for a technology that did work, once such a thing was actually inventeed." here's an example of how he is using this tech: " I invoke Backroom worker (axon, $499) and guide it through what I want done with each name: "first, check my own natural memory for any associations (...)"

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Friday, 11 April 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

flowers in the attic

― Clare (not entirely unhappy), Friday, 11 April 2003 19:09 (twenty-two years ago)

But but but encyclopaedias are brilliant!

I want to get a book out on the Black Death. So there's my recommendation.

― Mark C (Mark C), Saturday, 12 April 2003 08:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Why is it the first Harry Potter in particular? Does this suggest a lot of people read that and can't be bothered with the others? How could anyone resist Harry's charms? :) (Yes, I do like them, and to be honest I was desperate not to... really popular stuff always makes me suspicious...)

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Saturday, 12 April 2003 13:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I think people probably borrow the first Harry Potter book from the library to see what all the fuss is about, and then enjoy it so much that they rush out and buy all the other books. That is my theory. (I was desperate to hate the books too, Christine, as I hate bandwagon-jumping-on etc. But I have read all of them at least a dozen times and love them to bits)

Went to library today but there was a paucity of good books - I couldn't get any of the above recommendations. I ended up with a copy of Bill Bryson Down Under and a couple of Alan Coren books. That will only last me until about Tuesday :(

― C J (C J), Saturday, 12 April 2003 17:51 (twenty-two years ago)

If you like fantasy, check out the following:

George R. R. Martin (the ones he wrote, not the WildCard anthologies, which I haven't read)
Robin Hobb - _Ship Of Magic_
???? - _Transformation_ <--- TONS OF FUN, as are the sequels

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 12 April 2003 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Nicely narrowed down with the last one there, Dan. ;-) Would you be referring to this?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 12 April 2003 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

YES. Carol Berg.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Sunday, 13 April 2003 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm just finishing Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. It is great.

― Stuart (Stuart), Sunday, 13 April 2003 00:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked the first of R. R. Martin's current cycle--A Game Of Thrones or whatever it was called. The subsequent ones were kind of.. overlong and tedious, I guess. So was that one, but I did energetically read it at the time.

Ubik, A Scanner Darkly and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick are great whack-o S/F.

I, Claudius by Robert Graves is good historical fiction about insane Romans.

I'm reading The Glass Bead Game by Hesse now; I'm still not sure if I like it/agree with his ideas about education/intellect. Maybe the translation isn't that great, either. Hard to say as I don't read German.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Sunday, 13 April 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I got Cryptonomicon as a gift from someone a few months ago. I've still only read a few pages... I would like to stick at it, but I can't decide if it's my thing or not...

(Yep, this post is a no-brainer. Sorry.)

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Sunday, 13 April 2003 02:10 (twenty-two years ago)

"The Church of Dead Girls" by Stephen Dobyns

Sounds lurid and trashy ... is actually an eloquent and poetic (and yes, scary) novel about social disintegration. Seriously, I love it.

― jewelly (jewelly), Sunday, 13 April 2003 06:48 (twenty-two years ago)

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