People o’ the internets, I need your help.
I will soon be traveling to Europe in a combination of planes, trains and automo-buses that will take, by my calculations, approximately FOREVER.
As a member of the short attention span generation I have absolutely no ability to entertain myself and therefore need you to suggest the books and the tunes that will do it for me.
So, what do you love? What do you not love so much? What should I avoid like the plague? Books about the plague are welcome as long as they’re not The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time because I’ve already read that one.
I thank you in kitten guns.
Pyow! Pyow!
I’m really enjoying Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Cranford” right now. “Wuthering Heights” is also a perilous read, if you go for intense gothic romance.
Have fun!
I LOVE Gaskell’s North and South (have you seen the BBC adaptation? Almost as good as Colin Firth in Pride & Prejudice) and I keep meaning to watch the film versions of Cranford, but I haven’t gotten around to them or the book. But perhaps I shall. I did a huge paper on the representations of internal colonization in Wuthering Heights in undergrad so I’m still a little Bronte’d out. But maybe something by Anne or Charlotte…
I can give you a big long list of books if you like, but before I overwhelm you, I’ll give you just one secret recommendation: the blood of flowers by amirezzvani. No one’s heard of it, but It’s the absolute best book my book group has ever read and everyone loved it.
actually, I did a wee thing on books not that long ago, so there’s three more of my faves plus one I really didn’t like:
http://www.oranges-and-apples.com/2011/11/what-im-reading-and-favourite-books.html
I’ve read The Blood of Flowers! It was excellent.
I think you should buy all the DVDs of the TV series “Breaking Bad” and watch them on your laptop. Not like I did that over Thanksgiving or anything. Holy shit that show is good.
I’m watching it every now and then on Netflix, but I haven’t gotten into it the way other people have. Maybe it was the sight of Bryan Cranston in his underpants…
Depends on what you like in books. For nonfiction, I’d recommend The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, if you haven’t read it. For fiction: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz; Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, by Peter Cameron; In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker; White Cat, by Holly Black; Dairy Queen, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock; Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban; and Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale. Those are some of my all-time favorites and some of the best I’ve read in the last year, anyhow.
Tunes: I just bought the EP “Room for Ghosts” by My Terrible Friend because I liked their song “When I Decide,” which might be up your alley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m4QE-KvuNU
Haven’t listened to the rest of the EP yet, but I bet it’s good.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down was fascinating, wasn’t it? I haven’t read any of your other suggestions (which I love, since I read A LOT and usually have already been there, done that) and they’re all going on my list.
I agree with Mia and I’ll raise you the Game of Thrones series, which I read across the UK this summer while doing all my highfalluton dissertation research.
A friend told me that the Game of Thrones tv series is like Dungeons and Dragons with all the nudity boys wish was in Dungeons and Dragons. But I’ve also heard that the books are really good.
I just read the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and it was really good. I also love Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer. On my massive 47 hour journey from Canada to China to Australia I read The Help. Also crossword puzzles and sleeping pills and ear plugs…
I love Foer – a good friend gave me Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close before she moved to Korea. Have you seen the film version of Everything is Illuminated?
“I am most premium dancer! All the women want to be carnal with me.”
My votes are “The Code of the Woosters” by P.G. Wodehouse or “All Creatures Great and Small” by James Herriot.
Yessss, All Creatures! James Herriot is so grand, even when he’s got his arm up a cow’s uterus.
I used to listen to books on tape when I was little to fall asleep, and James Herriot was one of my favorites.
If you haven’t read the Hunger Games series, I’d suggest it. It’s quite good without requiring a lot of concentration. If you can find it, there is a book called Dancer with Bruised Knees that I think is brilliant. I also would highly recommend anything by Lorrie Moore. I love here.
Hmm, I’ve read the first Hunger Games but have yet to finish the series. Good suggestion. And the title “Dancer with Bruised Knees” has intrigued me so much I just requested it from the library.
Okay, for fun reads I totally recommend the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlene Harris, and the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. But standout favorites of mine are The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George, Julie and Julia by Julie Powell (even better than the movie!), The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni. These books are all over the place as far as genre goes, but they’re some of my favorites.
I’ve read Kingsolver and Hosseni, but I’ll have to check out the other ones. Thanks!
Have you ever read Jasper Fforde? Metaphysical literary detective series that are both hilarious and clever. I happened upon inexpensive copies of his ‘The Eyre Affair’ and Jane Eyre together while travelling in Europe and had a blast…
I think I remember Chelsie reading him when we lived together. And I think I remember her once throwing the book across the room in frustration. Or maybe that was the book that you had to read out loud phonetically. Chels?
I just clicked on the comments to recommend Jasper Fforde, so here’s a second endorsement of him
The Eyre Affair series is hilarious (I laughed out loud while reading them) and smart, and his newest series is also a good read (although a little more serious and less comedic in tone). Other fiction that I love includes Robin McKinley (esp Sunshine and Spindle’s End), Enchantment by Orson Scott Card, and American Gods by Neil Gaiman. As far as listening (not music), you probably already do this, but I love Radiolab and This American Life podcasts (they save me from the boredom of repetitive tasks in the lab). For music, lately I’ve been hitting repeat on a playlist including Meyer Hawthorne, Fitz and the Tantrums, and surprisingly the soundtracks from the Twilight movies.
I’m totalz late to the party, but just in case you’ve not read them yet (but probably you have, being more worldly and in tune with things than I generally am), I heartily endorse both of the following series:
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
- The Hunger Games
Also, what about Tomson Highway’s trilogy of plays, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, The Rez Sisters, and Rose? Or Eden Robinson’s short story collection, Traplines, and her haunting (and nice and long) novel, Monkey Beach?
Even late-er to the party!
I have NO idea what sorts of books you might like, or what you’ve already read, but for some old-ish scifi nerd suggestions, Dan Simmon’s Hyperion and George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides (though perhaps Earth Abides, being post-apocalyptic-plague, might come too soon on the heels of The Great Mortality?) and Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age are perennial favorites of mine. For lighter airport reading, anything by Terry Pratchett (though in particular Night Watch) or Neil Gaiman is fun.
I have an embarrassing love for obscure L.M. Montgomery novels The Blue Castle and A Tangled Web are both hysterical, and far less treacle-y sweet than the Anne books. You can sometimes find the hypertext for ‘em online.
The Game of Thrones series is excellent, but for me, it was a little too absorbing and gritty for long, isolated reading. I read the first three books while I was alone on winter break one year, and when I emerged, I was sort of horrified with the universe, sort of in the same way that a Mad Men marathon makes me feel like everyone is a terrible person.
Sorry for the rambling. BOOKS.