Book Recommendations?

Question

I would like recommendations on what I should read next, based on my tastes below:

Books I have liked:
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand,
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad,
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman,
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut,
East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
Also Short Stories by:
Franz Kafka and
D.H. Lawrence.

Books I did not like:
Harry Potter, The Notebook, The Lord of the Rings.

Answer 1

The Grapes of Wrath
1984
Farenheit 451
Brave New World
Anthem
Atlas Shrugged
The Lord of the Flies
Anything by Tolstoy or Dostoevsky; a few good ones include:
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, War and Peace
Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, The Brothers Karamazov
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
The Turn of the Screw
Faust
Dante's Divine Comedy

Although you don't like Fantasy, I will take the liberty of recommending one Science Fiction book, which is Enders Game. H.G. Wells is also a good Science Fiction author; these books are definitely better written than HP, and may be more interesting to you than LOTR.

Answer 2

You might like:

Cat's Cradle...Vonnegut You almost can't go wrong with any Vonnegut

Tortilla Flats....Steinbeck This is Steinbeck having fun.

Milagro Beanfiend Wars....Nichols One of my favorites.

Nick Adams stories...Hemingway Early Hemingway, but I think the best Hemingway.

An Instance of the Fingerpost...Pears I read an awful lot of books to find one I like this much

Sometimes a Great Notion....Kesey One of the few books I've read twice

Mean Spirit...Hogan Best of the Indian stuff I've read

Out of Africa....Dinisen Beautiful language

The Right Stuff...Wolfe I can recommend all of his work, Bonfire of the Vanities for fiction.

Confederacy of Dunces....Toole Will read this one again

Accidental Tourist....Tyler So good, but the only thing of her's I like.

Cold Sassy Tree...Burns Very well written

Don Quixote...Cervantes Gotta go old school

Illium....Simmons Gotta throw in the best sci-fi

Answer 3

I recommend "Lord Jim" by Joseph Conrad and "Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays" by George Orwell which is a Penguin Books paperback published as the Orwell Centenary Edition with interesting stories like "Why I Write", "Bookshop Memories", "Such, Such Were the Joys",etc. However, his "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" have been regarded as his literary masterpieces among his contemporaries in the 20th century.

If you want to know how he spent his life with the poor, find this one and read, "Down and Out in Paris and London". While reading it last year, I kept adoring his determination to live there and, you know, it's his own courage to do so due to his poverty as well as his ambition to become a writer and he simply wanted to know how they lived and worked, there's no reward or any sponsorship for his life there.

Answer 4

We have some of the same literary tastes in common. I loved "The Life of Pi" by Jan Martel. It won the Man Booker Prize a few years ago and I read it this summer. It was excellent and I hope you read it.

I think you would also like "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. I really loved that book too. It is now a favorite with a lot of book clubs and there are a lot of topics for discussion/thought.

Answer 5

"The Stranger" by Albert Camus
This book is also philosophical like those of Ayn Rand or Joseph Conrad, although darker and less wordy.

Answer 6

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. You liked Fountainhead? I liked it too but this one is 10 times better in my opinion.

Answer 7

We have similar tastes it would seem. I loved Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood and The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. Hey, how about you join my online bookclub?

Answer 8

Post office By Charles Bukowski. Try it babe,you wont be disappointed ,I promise.