Waiting for Godot is probably his most famous. I'm thinking about buying the trilogy of novels that Molloy belongs to; three-in-one for $10 on amazon.

Nice. That's what I've got. Haven't had the stones to read the other two yet, though. I read the first one, not sure whether that's Molloy or Malone Dies. Either way, it was interesting for Beckett's insight-coated rambling more than it was rewarding on a narrative level. Such is probably to be expected, though.

What have you read by Coetzee? I volunteer at a bookstore and we have a lot of copies of Disgrace.

I wrote my senior seminar final essay over Waiting for the Barbarians. Tough novel to crack, tough novelist to crack. Had an obvious anti-imperialism theme but he also played with some stuff that, according to research I did, is indebted to Beckett, like the psychology of storytelling, how it's ultimately self-serving and self-deceptive etc.

Haven't read Disgrace. Do you have a lot of copies because people keep returning it? Waiting was a good book but not exactly fun reading.

Thanks for this thread, and don't worry you're not the only one with the impressions. I like classics, and I've read quite a few.
Bronte, Twain, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Wells, Chekhov - they're all my companions through a rainy night or a lazy afternoon. =)

I was reading a Lovecraft essay where he said that writers from generations before were not as knowledgeable or possessed of as great prosaic skill as contemporary ones, with the exception of certain geniuses who transcended cultural limitations that had been lifted in Lovecraft's time...

my mind went immediately to Hawthorne. It's also ironic, cuz the same can be said of prose now versus in Lovecraft's day. He had an amazing imagination and decent writing skills but his prose is formulaic and dry compared to a lot of what's come after.

For me it has to be Endgame, fantastically absurd and so desolate, theres a really great Irish tv adaption staring Michael Gambon as Hamm.

Loving everything Richard Yates at the moment, so much so that I'm writing my dissertation on him and his work. Such a shame he didnt get the praise he deserved when he was alive, then again, would that have affected his work? Most probably.

Just finished Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) - man, that is some brutal stuff! I hope that one day they actually do make the film adaptation that seems to have been stuck in development hell for the last decade.

That is my favorite book of all. Now do yourself a favour and read the rest of his stuff. Not as good but great stuff all around.

I have The Road on my nightstand but I think Id rather read Umberto Eco right now.

I really enjoyed The Road. I didn't really feel like I was left with a lot after the book was done, but it has a wonderful atmosphere.

Just got the latest Stephen King, Tom Clancy & Umberto Eco for Christmas so that's my reading schedule sorted for the moment!

Eco seems a bit odd sandwiched between those two. Then again I've always kind of wanted to read the dark tower books.

I've been reading an essay about hypertext I got in this huge anthology of criticism for some english award in highschool. It's cool because it came from my teacher's personal collection as he didn't think the "official" prize was very awesome. Anyway, the essay is pretty interesting--I love reading about the intricate ways media impact us, especially when we are usually unaware of the processes taking place. Of particular interest is the fact that this piece was written before the advent of Wikipedia, making it both somewhat anachronistic and eerily prescient.

I've read The Road before, and I got the border trilogy for my Father as an xmas present, so I will read those when he's done.

Currently I'm reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell, and its just great. Really beautifully constructed sentences all the way through that you just want to go back and read again.

My folks got me "Madness and Civilization" and "Discipline and Punish", both by Foucault, and "Living in the End Times" by Zizek for Christmas. My brother got me "Republic" by Plato, of course, and "Spiritual Writings" by Soren Kierkegaard. The latter author is a theologian, and I'm not too sure what my little brother is trying to imply by getting me this (he's not religious, but far more sympathetic towards it than I am), but according to him I made some comment about finding him interesting, which I don't remember. Oh well, best to get both sides of the argument, right?

Right now though I'm reading "Moby-Dick". Philosophy will have to wait.

Edit: Nevermind, doesn't seem to suit the nature of this thread

Kierkegaarde is a Christian, but he's also considered one of the grandfathers of existentialism. I only have Sickness Unto Death and I've only read part of it but he isn't your run of the mill theologian.

Also, if Moby Dick isn't a philosophical book then I'm a Christmas ham.

Well, I am only about forty pages in. I'm sure I'll walk away from it having learned something, though.

Best friend got me A Song of Fire and Ice box set for Christmas.

What are they like? I've heard great things about them.

“Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters.”

or don't hang around guys who shave their top lip?


Anyone read - Dreaming of Cockaigne: Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life by
Herman Pleij?

They're fantasy novels.

Literally everything you wrote was my reading list during my Junior year at college, save Plato, which was Freshman.

Moby Dick to this day remains my favorite piece of literature. A fantastic look into the soul of man, the ideas of masculinity, the fragility of life and the balance between human beings. Wrote a 35 page paper on Ahab's blessing of his spear. What a wonderful book.

Sample chapter from The Winds of Winter! http://georgerrmartin.com/if-sample.html

Spoiler alert: it's pretty awesome.

I've been accompaning my cousin for the last year or two while he drives 2 hours and back to exchange his son with his ex for allowed custody days, and for the last couple of months we've been listening toe audio books of the Deathstalker series, honestly, those books are fun, it seemed like the writer was looking at all the usual concepts and cliches for Scifi and said "Fuck it, what if I did them all at once" and that's what he does. All at once, we have an Evil Empire, Royal houses fueding, an church out of control, Rogue AIs plotting to inslave humanity, Aliens invading, Clones, Pyschics, Cyborg men, over the top advanced technology, mysterious alien technology and a rebellion against the said empire. And you can tell that the story is simply having fun with itself with all this going on at once.

Yeah, I'm not religious either but I still like Kierkegaarde a lot. A good way of characterizing it might be to say that if Nietzsche had read any of his work, he probably would have agreed with most of it, particularly with his criticism of the "Public" or what Nietzsche would call the "Herd". Kierkegaarde rails against what he sees around him; the perpetual tendency of people to live passively, essentially detached from themselves, becoming just another faceless nobody among the crowd. He is also very critical of organized religion and the fact that the majority of people who claim to be religious often prove to be hypocritical, and very disinterested with the very thing that's supposedly the most important thing in their lives; God. He's talking to those people that are falling asleep in church, or who only go to Christmas eve services, for instance.

The appeal in his work lies in the fact that he engages the topic of individuality like no one before him. It's centered on the relationship, or lackthereof, individuals have with God, and it has everything to do with becoming what you truly are. It won't change your views on religion but you'll respect the man for his level of commitment to faith. Truth is subjectivity in his eyes, and only by committing every fiber of your being to something with infinite, authentic passion, can you live the satisfying life of a true individual. I can't say I favor him over Nietzsche or other Atheist existential philosophers but I still like him a lot and think he's very useful. Well worth the read if you're interested at all in Existential thought considering that he was the first, and one of the bests.

Having said that, I haven't read the selection RedMisanthorpe mentioned but I have read Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death along with other excerpts from his writing, and it's some damn good stuff. A Christian you can read without hating.

About 1/3 way through Lovecraft's At The Mountains Of Madness and I'm absolutely loving it. I never thought that I'd enjoy literature that much again, but this has done it. Sadly though, I just have an ebook; it seems all my literary ventures will be done like that from now on (and it's a shame, because I like have a physical copy much better).

Am also gonna start reading Let The Right One In soon, I think. Apparently, LOTS has been left out in both the Swedish original movie adaptation and the American remake.

Read some bits from Paradise Lost and Arcadia for an English literature course. Not half as bad as I expected. (Mind you, I don't read.)

Currently reading The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton and started The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan yesterday on the train.

Hamilton is Hamilton as always, doorstopper books, the Night's Dawn trilogy even more so than the later Commonwealth books; clean, readable, neutral, pragmatic style, a bazillion characters and plots, but all in all it's interwoven pretty well and creates an entertaining, epic story. He "still" seems to be obsessed with writing sex scenes and descriptions of utopian female bodies everytime he can, but I've gotten used to that for the most part. There's also the sometimes unnecessarily bloated description of sceneries. I understand that he tries to make his immense universe believable and plastic, but it tends to get tiresome sometimes. The books could probably profit from having 100-200 pages cut.

Sagan is that typical popular science not-too-light-a-read with a wry-dry sense of humour thrown in occasionally, something I've already come to appreciate from the works of Dawkins or Hawking. There are probably some parts that are a bit outdated (it's from 1977), but overall it still seems to still hold up today. His musings are quite interesting and incredibly easy to read in terms of flow and style.

Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama arrived recently and is already resting on my nightstand.

I also began reading Gene Wolf's Shadow & Claw and while the writing seems to be top-notch, the story didn't captivate me much yet, so that I focused more on Hamilton. Will get back there in time, though.

^ Love Sagan, as well as Dawkins. Dragons of Eden was a great read.

Anyone read Stephen King's latest yet? I just started it last night. I'm about fifty pages in, and something seems off. I know he is writing from the character's perspective, but it just doesn't seem like he is writing up to typical King caliber.

I'm waiting for King's 8th Dark Tower book.

I just got the first four Dark Tower books for a gift on the holidays. Never really got into fantasy too much, but I'm a huge Stephen King fan. I'm hoping they are worth my time.

Just bought an Edgar Allan Poe compilation with some of his classic tales. What should I expect exactly?

A few brilliant tales of the macabre intermixed with a slew of bloated, sub-par melodrama. Have you read early Lovecraft? It's a bit like that, only Poe is more aged red wine and Lovecraft was fucking absinthe.

I completed the Decamerone today and thought it was time to order some new stuff. Huxley's Brave new World and The Iron Heel by Jack London; yes, I am working myself through the dystopian literature at the moment. I called my local bookstore -- I do not use Amazon or Thalia or any other online store -- and the person who took my order -- I think it was the woman who runs it -- started to giggle at some point, when she realized who I was. The reason is that I had ordered a book not too long ago, which was supposed to be available, but had been delayed again and again. Only after six or seven months after it was supposedly been out, I had a chance to lay my hands on it... she sold it to me, and with some considerable amusement.

I thought he finished TDT? Is this one supposed to be the last, or is he just going to milk it for as long as he can?

Slowly but surely making my way through Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man. I'd like to finish it before classes resume on Jan 9, because it's very likely I won't have time for it between my assigned lit readings.

I love Lovecraft, and if Poe is anything like that, then I should like his work to at least some degree.

Only early early Lovecraft is anything like Poe - the old man himself admitted to blatant Poe-worship in his formative writing years. As he progressed he got farther and farther away from that dry, gothic style of prose and into my smiley...tentacle-ey territory.

Oh, I get it. So Poe is more gothic and conventional?

Indeed.