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Suggest just one book to read.

Wow, amazing the wide variety of books suggested. Should just tell the person to read all of these, they are bound to come across the category that is their niche. :)
 
booksblog.co.uk said:
One flew east, one flew west...
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It's the sort of book that you can't stop thinking about for weeks after you finish it. And if you've only seen the film you're missing out on Big Chief's superb narrative.

If you like Triffids, you should also pick up Wyndham's other frighteningly probable The Chrysalids.
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Yes, Kesey is a very good author. Speaking of which, has anyone read Sailor Song, I am interested in trying it, but was wondering if anyone had read it?
 
SillyWabbit said:
Sounds great! Added it to my "to buy" list, also known as my "i'm spending too much money" list :D
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I prefer to call mine the "where my money's going when not on anime and video games list." My problem is that the last three books I've bought have not even been off the list, but instead were pure impulse buys, so it's growing all the time!
 
Depends so much on who you're recommending to, doesn't it?

For instance, if recommending to a fiction writer, I would say The Shipping News, but I know it's a writer's book. Many others have thrown it across the room.

For a kid, I would second Orson Scott Card. For a young kid, the Redwall series, way better than Harry Potter.

For someone who wants to disappear into a book for a couple of weeks, I would say Great Expectations.

For the bath, poetry: Tintern Abbey, Yeats, Robert Lowell.

For historians, Churchill.

For someone who thinks they don't like to read, John Cheever's short stories.

Many choices for many situations and people.

Novella
 
Hello Murphyz - I have to ask at this point have you read Salman Rushdies Midnights Children or Satanic Verses?. I read them then a short while later I read "The God of Small Things" - I was deeply disappointed with it , too many of the plot twists and turns mirrored Rushdies two works I mentioned earlier. So many things were the same I began to get annoyed with it even as I read thus spoiling the experience. It did tend to "plod" a bit in places as Roy became somewhat overenthusiastic in the narrative.

It is however assured a place in history as a Booker winner but I worry about its inacessability to some readers leaning so heavily on Rushdies style as it does ( not to mention his plotting). The Booker prize is a quixiotic prize with different judges each year - many books are superb but if any are compared to each other its hard to see how some got a prize at all, especially given some of the outstanding books in many of the shortlists - like Atwoods "Alias Grace" the previous year that failed to get the prize .
 
I would suggest Animal Farm - George Orwell. It's not too intimidating for it's length or size. And it's an awesome book.
 
Book to read

I'm new to these forums but a book that some might not have heard of that I would highly recommend is "Kindred" by Octavia Butler. The book is about what it would be like as an African American woman to travel back in time to pre-Civil War America and uses fantasy/sci-fi to explore issues about slavery and its legacy in the US that don't really get spoken about. Sounds heavy but it is both a short and very good read.
 
'The Angels Weep' by Wilbur Smith.

This book affected me a lot. If you're familiar with Smith, you'll know about his link with Rhodesia, writing about historical events but weaving fiction through them beautifully. Basically, this book is history, action, and romance that defies all cliches.

If you're fed-up with superficial romance and beauty-this, beauty-that, this book will go down well with you. It's natural and realistic, well written and extremely evocative (I'd even go as far as provocative). It actually reached my heart - something very few books do with me.

It's full of soul; heart-breakingly beautiful.

Similarly, 'Eagle In The Sky' is incredible. Shorter than the first book I mentioned, but just as heart-wrenchingly soulful and realistic. Gritty, almost, but superb.
 
Bugger. I forgot 'The Prodigy' by Herman Hesse, about the pressures of education and one boy's fight to deal. Very short, ideal for an intermediary read.
 
The Chosen by Chaim PotokI read this book for my sophomore honors english class over Christmas break, and it was so beautiful. I learned so much from it. Everyone I know who has read it has loved it, and I highly recommend it. My head is so full of all the books I would like to recommend, but I guess since I just checked out the sequel The Promise from the library for my little brother, this one just struck me the most to share. A lot of you have probably read it anyway, or seen the movie.
 
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