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Raven, A couple of ideas: For a rather different view of books and content, you might want to check out a short story by Jorge Luis Borges called "The Library of Babel". I think it contains some very interesting ideas. Also, when I was thinking about a book totally lacking content, the...

Wow, Donald Barthelme! I remember being very impressed with his book Snow White back when I was in college.

I've never read Robbins, but here goes. You might like any of the following: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy The Field of Vision by Wright Morris A Fan's Notes by Fred Exley The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon Without more info, I'm shooting in the dark, but they're all good books.

Here are a couple of my favorites: " A man may destroy everything within himself, love and hate and belief, and even doubt; but as long as he clings to life he cannot destroy fear: the fear, subtle, indestructible, and terrible, that pervades his being; that tinges his thoughts; that lurks in...

cdm, I didn't mean to say that people shouldn't read Rohmer. I think, on balance, they are a lot of fun. Like I said, Rohmer was a master of atmosphere. Plus, the books read like an old serial, with most chapters ending in a cliff hanger of some sort. My mention of the race aspect was...

Haethurn, I am sure that I have copies of some of the epics you mentioned, though without looking I don't know which ones. As far as assembling a library of them . . . well, it certainly isn't anymore silly or ridiculous (or anything else) than most of the collections I imagine the members of...

Wow, Helen, I didn't think that anybody read Sax Rohmer anymore. As you say, he was a master of the Victorian/Edwardian atmosphere (all gaslights and fog and such). Unfortunately, his fiction is tinged by a sort of racism. (That is not to say Rohmer himself was racist. I don't know. But his...

Haethurn, I am not sure that I agree with your assessment of state of literature. Or, at least, I am not sure that this day and age is any worse than previous ones. Sure, there are lots of people out there (writers, publishers, etc.) who are doing what they do "strictly for the money"...

You might want to check out The Beetle Leg by John Hawkes.

I strongly recommend David McCullough's The Johnstown Flood .

I'm not familiar with the book you named, unfortunately, but had a very similar reaction to A Confederacy of Dunces .

Sorry, Kaz, but the book actually has nothing to do with deafness. One of the characters has a slight speech impediment which causes him to pronounce "death" as "deaf". At any rate, the books are about a kid coming of age in "rust-belt" Erie, PA. They are the American, blue-collar equivalent...

Ooh, yeah: A Fan's Notes by Fred Exley Ask the Dust by John Fante

I'm not familiar with Nicholas Spark, so I may miss the mark, but then, I recommend these books to anyone and everyone: Experiments with Life and Deaf & Loop's Progress by Chuck Rosenthal (out of print, but worth every effort). Short History of a Small Place by T.R. Pearson Desolation Angels...

My recent purchases of note: The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte Out of the Flames by Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone The Tower at the End of the World & The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge by Brad Strickland and a stack of used mystery paperbacks about 2 feet tall.

Yeah, yeah. I always liked "When you want to kill a man, you've gotta shoot him in the heart." Clint's character says this to Indio each time he gets off the ground, having had a rifle slug just bang into the sheet of steel under his poncho. It's a very understated type of "macho" when...

I haven't read any other Zelazny books (yet), but Lord of Light is one of my all-time favorites of the genre. I remember it being a very well-written and clever book. That is to say, it wasn't just the same old sci-fi plot, and the story really sucked you in. I may read Doorways in the Sand next.

Well, I just finished Edison's Eve by Gaby Wood. It is about various attempts to build life-like automatons through history. In my opinion, the book was OK, but only OK. I thought Ms. Wood had a little bit too much of an axe to grind. At times, she seemed to be really stretching a point, or...

What a great question. Off the top of my head, I'd have to vote for Joseph Conrad's Victory (which has been filmed) or a Chuck Rosenthal book (from the Loop trilogy).

Phil, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who "stalks" books. I thought it was some sort of bizarre character flaw of mine. At worst, now, it is a "condition".