I want to read something amazing

[~Kate]

"Boy's Life" by Robert McCammon.

Not Science Fiction, and truly one of the best books I have read in my entire life.

[Randeep]

Originally Posted by jktreads

Hi -
I first bought Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel a few years ago because I heard good things about it, but the book was too large and intimidating. Now I have it electronically and I find that I'm stuck about 150 epages in. Do I keep reading? How far do I read before I give up and wonder why this book makes so many readers lists?

Not sure what to tell you- I enjoyed this book from the get-go. Beginning through to the end!

Some books that blew me away outside of the fiction realm:

Ghengis Khan and The Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford: a great historical biography

Perpetual Patterns by Neil Chopra (only available on Amazon unfortunately) a really great sort of self-help/philosophical book.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by ~Kate

"Boy's Life" by Robert McCammon.

Not Science Fiction, and truly one of the best books I have read in my entire life.

Agreed. A wonderful book.

[jtdolphins]

Originally Posted by Randeep

Ghengis Khan and The Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford: a great historical biography

+1 Fantastic book. I read it last year when I came across it looking for something else. I sat down at the library and just never put it down. I read a lot of history books, but I wouldn't call most page turners. This would be one of the few exceptions.

[Randeep]

Originally Posted by jtdolphins

+1 Fantastic book. I read it last year when I came across it looking for something else. I sat down at the library and just never put it down. I read a lot of history books, but I wouldn't call most page turners. This would be one of the few exceptions.

It's always a hard sell when I tell people about it, and I can't blame them because like you said, History books are not known for being page turners. The introduction was the most amazing part for me, blowing away the many preconceived notions we have about the Mongolian Empire and the man himself. The details that follow in the chapters ahead just make for very engaging reading.

[aecardenas]

Originally Posted by ~Kate

"Boy's Life" by Robert McCammon.

Not Science Fiction, and truly one of the best books I have read in my entire life.

Oh, yes! I've just started it (on Part two now) and I'm loving it. It's so wonderfully written and beautifully felt.

[aecardenas]

Originally Posted by fjea

I registered just for this, and I have a feeling it's stating the obvious but, what about Kafka?

I don't read much fiction, but I truly enjoyed The Trial and Amerika. I have The Castle too, but as of yet not got round to reading it. His style may be an acquired taste, but I find it very stimulating. Some translations are better than others, though which exactly I don't recall.

Coincidentally was recently in Prague, took a photo of his street (and building)!

Hope this might be helpful

Love Kafka. And The Trial (probably the translation by Breon Mitchell) is one of the greatest works of modern fiction, right up there with James Joyce's Ulysses and Proust's In Search of Lost Time.

Kafka's style is just as strange and compelling as the stories he tells. He describes weird and completely crazy situations (A man wakes up to find himself transformed into a bug, a man is on trial for a crime the nature of which is completely unknown, a prisoner is going to be executed by a machine that carves a list of the man's crimes onto his flesh, etc.) with such casual and matter-of-fact sentences. In many ways, I think Kafka's work formed the basis of the "magic realism" movement that became the hallmark of author's like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, among others.