please suggest a decent book to read - I am tired of wasting precious time on junk?

Answer 1

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Answer 2

Jeffery Deaver, Dennis Lehane and Lee Child, in my opinion they are the holy trinity of thriller/suspense/mystery writers! I am a avid reader in this genre and have read Coben, King, Koontz, F. Paul Wilson, Michael Connelly, Stewart Woods and many others but none can touch the three I've listed! The Deaver book I'm reading now is The Sleeping Doll--a brand new release and is literally keeping me up at nights!! I'm quite sure you'll love his other thrillers as well, such as The Bone Collector, A Maiden's Grave, The Coffin Dancer, Praying For Rain, Cold Moon, The Twelfth Card, The Vanished Man, Devil's Tear drop et el. For Lehane, start with A Drink Before War (don't let the title fool you) then Darkness Take My Hand, Sacred, Gone, Baby Gone, Prayers For Rain, Shutter Island and Mystic River. For Lee Child, you can start with his first and move forward, but it's OK if you don't. Some personal favs are: One Shot, Trip Wire, Hard Luck and Trouble--a new release, The Persuader-my personal fav, The Hard Way, but they are all page turners! Let me know what you think. Greg

http://www.leechild.com
http://www.jefferydeaver.com
http://www.dennislehanebooks.com

Answer 3

I just read A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, and I absolutely loved it-which is weird b/c I absolutely hated his better known books.
Also just finished Breakfast at Tiffany's, which is surprisingly dark if you've ever seen the movie-but its a great book all on its own
Try anything by Arturo Perez Riverte if you liked the Da Vinci Code- I like his stuff better, I think its smarter. The Flanders Panel and The Seville Communion were both really good.
I don't know if you are a guy or girl, but a good and funny "chick-lit" book is My Latest Grievance by Eleanor Lipman. Also try Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer...its about a boy whose father died in 9/11, and its actually way funnier and happier than it sounds, but it makes u cry anyway.
Those are the last good things I read. Hope that helps!

Answer 4

I don't know what you'd call "junk", and I don't know what you like either. It's tempting to just shovel the references out and hope some of them take. That said, here's what I'm considering - more contemporary books (the canonical ones speak for themselves). Here are a few titles I've read and really enjoy:

Fiction:
-A David Lodge Trilogy: 3 novels, actually - Changing Places, Small World, and Nice Work. Also sold separately.

-James Joyce, Dubliners. A collection of stories I find haunting. (A little "old"? Yes. OK, so I'm slipping here.)

-Graham Rawle, Woman's World. Go on, just check it out.

Nonfiction:
-Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club. Historical interpretation of the origin of pragmatism. The Economist magazine ranked it one of the top 10 books of 2001. Speaking of...

-The Economist Style Guide. Who would've thought a style guide could be fun to read? In this case the blurbs are right.

-Ray Monk, Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. Well written biography of a great thinker, who happened to be a most peculiar mensh.

I hope you find some of these interesting. Good reading!

Answer 5

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
The alternative to junk books. It's been the bedside classic of statesmen, generals, cardinals and other leaders for centuries. I read an interview a reporter had with Bill Clinton and when he was asked what book he'd bring to a desert island it was The Meditations.
It's a book of reflections and aphorisms exemplifying the greatest stoic virtues, especially that one should have honor as a moral keystone.
OK, so maybe it didn't transform Bill Clinton, but its still a great book.

Answer 6

that really depends on the type of books you like to read. So i will suggest some but can't assure you that you'll like them as i have no idea who you are.

I like the Jasper Fforde books, they are really funny and slightly odd. Basically about a literray detective who lives in an alternative 1985 where wales is a socialist republic, cheese is illegal, Dodos exist again and the main character Thursday Next has the ability to go into books where she spends her time trying to stop characters from escaping from their books or trying to change their storylines.

As i said, the books are funny and weird but probably not everyones cup of tea. If the storyline i have outlined sounds interested then give them a go. The first of the series is called the Ayre Affair

Answer 7

The Prey Series, John Sandford, does a good line in cop bullsh1t; "My Cousin My Gastroenterologist", Mark Leyner, is great for meandering weirdness (not really a novel though); "Infinite Jest", David Foster Wallace, is a lot of effort, and very complex but ultimately rewarding; "Weaveworld", Clive Barker, is a beautiful novel about magic; the Quiller series, Adam Hall, are excellent spy novels, unlike any other; "Foucault's Pendulum", Umberto Eco, is a bit like the da vinci code, except it's worth reading; Robert Anton Wilson's various works of fiction, non-fiction or both are always rewarding.

Answer 8

I would suggest any of the books by William Faulkner or William Kennedy. But what I do is go to the new books section of the public library and check out several. If a book holds my attention (I read mostly non-fiction, but the writing has to be good), I finish it.

Answer 9

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
The shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Bettany's Book by Thomas Keneally
and anything by Jodi Picoult

Answer 10

You should try reading The Asian Saga written by James Clavell, the first book of the six is called Shogun and it's brilliant, it's well over a thousand pages but it's so well written and thought provoking you'll barely want to put it down and the pages will just fly by.

Answer 11

I would suggest Louis de Bernieres. The War of Don Emmanuel's Never Parts. It hilariously funny, stunningly written, tragic and gruesome in places. Both true to life and ludicrously magical at the same time. Its the first of 3 books. If your an open minded worldly wise person you will love it.