Any recommended reads?

Question

I own quite a few books and have read quite a lot of classics but would like to try something else.

I don't like romantic books or girly chick lit, I'm not a fan of those Richard and Judy type books either.

I'm quite interested in learning a bit more about WWI (but I've got Birdsong, so don't recommend that), but I'mquite open to things - but I can't stand "supermarket" books.

And not Harry Potter because I've already read it.

Not Dan Brown, can't stand him.

Not WWII. And yes I've read Catch-22. Please nothing too obvious.

Thanks Buffhead - but obviously I'read 1984. I got most of Orwell's stuff.

Please stop suggesting obvious things like Hitchhikers Guide (got it) and WWII books.

Some people seem to be confusing the Second World War with the First. I'm not interested in Hitler or the Nazis.

Ok, @ve read Dostoevsky, Handmaidens Tale, Flowers for Algernon already (but thanks).

Really not interested in Terry Pratchett or horror.

Answer 1

Hi Mizza, these will keep you busy:

Free e-Books

There are 19,000 free ebooks in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalogue.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

http://www.truly-free.org/

http://www.bibliomania.com/

http://www.readprint.com/

http://www.readbookonline.net/

http://www.fictionpress.com/

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/

http://www.free-ebooks.net/

http://manybooks.net/

http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/catalogs/bysubject-top.html

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/

http://www.baen.com/library/

http://www.ebooks3.com/

http://www.bookyards.com/

http://www.free-online-novels.com/

http://www.starry.com/novel/authors.htm

Answer 2

Joshua's Song by Joan Hiatt Harlow
City Of The Gods by Sonny Whitelaw
The World's Religions by Huston Smith
Avalon High by Meg Cabot
Survival Of The Fittest by Sabine C Bauer
Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller
Trial By Fire by Sabine C Bauer
Roswell by Sonny Whitelaw
Quantum Prophecy The Awakening by Michael Carroll

Answer 3

Have you read 'to kill a mockingbird' by harper lee? I read this at school about 8 years ago for english coursework. Its absolutely brilliant! Its definetley a classic (nothing to do with WW1 though!) I recently bought it off the internet to read it again I finished it the other night I couldnt put it down. I also bought the dvd the other day (it hasnt come yet though!!!!) Its told through the eyes of a little girl whos dad is a lawyer defending a black man charged with raping a white girl. But theirs other stuff in it too! Just buy it and let me know how u find it!! x

Answer 4

Atomised by Michel Houellebecq
The Outsider by Albert Camus
The Collector by John Fowles
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

Answer 5

Okay, what about 'Brothers To Us' which is really confronting and you may find it impossible to read and is about Apartheid in South Africa - you'll never see the world the same way again - very tough read. Schindler's List (the book not the movie) about a business man who turned good and saved people's lives, for something funny anything by Terry Pratchett, for something nourishing the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Well that's a start.

Answer 6

Hi,
For a fun read try The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, loads of laughs and very cleverly written. I don't know about WW1, but Helen Forrester's autobiography series is superb. It details her life from 12 years old to adult from coming from a slum dwelling in Liverpool. Wo'nt spoil the books for you, but highly recommended. The fourth book in the series covers living through the Blitz in WW2. The series are: Twopence To Cross The Mersey, Liverpool Miss, By The Waters of Liverpool and Lime Street at Two.
Enjoy!

Answer 7

Birdsong also got me very interested in World War one literature, however I’m well aware the book I’m going to suggest is from WWII hold on from the thought of ‘shooting me down’. If all that disinterests you about WII is ‘Hitler and the Nazis’, then consider a book called Suite Française, it was on my list to buy eventually, though I ended up getting it sooner than I thought. One-hundred pages in and I have only just heard of a German soldier, no presence of Hitler. It details the lives of ordinary French people, first Parisians fleeing from the invading army and moving onto detailing the lives of a small rural community under occupation.

Written by Irene Nemirosvsky, one of the few novels to be written about the war, during the war, she eventually ended up in Auschwitz, her manuscript discovered sixty five years later.


Pat Barkers - Regeneration. There are three books in the Regeneration series all focusing on WW1 however taking it each and every time from a different angle. Regeneration, Eye in the door, The ghost road.

Strange Meeting - Susan Hill: John Hilliard, a subaltern returning to the Western Front after a period of sick leave back in an England blind to the horrors of the trenches, finds his battalion tragically altered. His commanding officer finds escape in alcohol, there is a new adjutant and even Hilliard's batman has been killed.

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
One by one the boys begin to fall...In 1914, a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war'. With the fire and patriotism of youth, they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young 'unknown soldier' experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

Moving away from war literature, I’d also suggest

One hundred years of solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Free fall - William Golding: I have walked by stalls in the market-place where books, dog-eared and faded from their purple, have burst with a white hosanna.

Answer 8

Are you one who goes for action-packed, gripping stories? For that John Grisham's books are a sure-win. Especially The Brethren, or The Broker.

But one of my all-time favorites are Paulo Coelho's books. The world-famous The Alchemist, Veronika Decides to Die, The Devil and Miss Prym, and the newest one of the bunch, The Witch of Portobello.
Each of them a refreshing, inspirational read and one that you'll not easily tire of.

Then again, Paulo Coelho's books are famous so you prolly already read that.

How's humour? Autobiography of a One Year Old by Rohan Candappa. It's surprisingly funny, a light laugh-out-loud read, and as the title suggests, is in a POV of a brainy toddler who happens to think too much. Forget funny, it's hilarious.

Answer 9

Good - you have seen that Richard and Judy books are the spawn of the Devil. Its interesting that you loath the same books as I. I often wonder who buys that garbage.

Anyway, 1984 by George Orwell is one of my favourites and its themes are based on communism and nazi germany. One of the best books ive read is candide and other stories by Voltaire. I'd say for you, this is a must read.

Answer 10

Try the Temeraire series. It's a historical fantasy series set in the Napoleonic era(I know it's not WWI, but it's still exciting). British Naval officer obtains a dragon egg as battle spoil meant for Napoleon. There are 3 books so far, 4th coming out near the end of the year.

Answer 11

Big queston... I'll just look at some WW1.. a big challenge as there are few books that can rival All Quiet on the Western Front even in translation. ( Erich Maria Remarque) some like Late In The Day: Ernest Raymond ad I read the book Hemmingway worked on as he was in ambulances in WW1 and wrote a novel on the Italian front..A Farewell to Arms.. however it isn't my fave

and non-fiction
Before Endeavours Fade: (Rose Coombes).