MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Moving from SF to contemporary fiction recommends please

Coops · 12-31-2011, 09:21 AM

Douglas Adams' 'Dirk Gently' novels are wonderful. I reckon they're under appreciated due to being filed under the 'Science Fiction' section...

Only two of them: "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and the lovely titled " The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul".

'Tea-time' opens with:

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport."

Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.....

ps just bought a copy of "The shadow of the wind" , sounded well worth a go.... the backlog of books in my calibre collection is getting a bit out of hand...

and I thought of another recommendatio for the OP...
Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5" . I re-read this some while back, and intend to read it again just to check whether it's as wonderful as I think it is...

Yes to Murakami also... may want to start with "Norwegian Wood" ( a less mystical/weird Murakami novel) and then go straight to "The Wind Up bird Chronicle" - and if you like him, make sure you read "Underground" - sounds a bit dull, but is oddly extremely interesting writing on the sarin gas poisoning in Japan...

12-31-2011, 09:21 AM	#14
Coops Zealot Posts: 129 Karma: 77756 Join Date: May 2009 Device: Kindle Oasis, Sony T3 backup	Douglas Adams' 'Dirk Gently' novels are wonderful. I reckon they're under appreciated due to being filed under the 'Science Fiction' section... Only two of them: "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and the lovely titled " The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul". 'Tea-time' opens with: It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport." Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort..... ps just bought a copy of "The shadow of the wind" , sounded well worth a go.... the backlog of books in my calibre collection is getting a bit out of hand... and I thought of another recommendatio for the OP... Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5" . I re-read this some while back, and intend to read it again just to check whether it's as wonderful as I think it is... Yes to Murakami also... may want to start with "Norwegian Wood" ( a less mystical/weird Murakami novel) and then go straight to "The Wind Up bird Chronicle" - and if you like him, make sure you read "Underground" - sounds a bit dull, but is oddly extremely interesting writing on the sarin gas poisoning in Japan... Last edited by Coops; 12-31-2011 at 09:31 AM.