Permanently Deleted

  • Indifference_Engine [comrade/them, any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I don't know if it's a "can't put it down" kinda book, but my go-to recommendation is just always The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This is 100% the most unique novel I've ever read. There's absolutely nothing else quite like it. Everything de Selby does is amazing.

      Have you read The Dalkey Archive or anything else by O'Brien?

  • notthenameiwant [he/him]M
    ·
    3 years ago

    House of Leaves is the last book that really kept me reading until I finished it.

    • Steely_Gaige [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Ya know, I'm re-reading this right now, and I never know what to think of this book. Is it extremely pretentious? Sarcastic as hell? Love the set-up to the story, though.

      • notthenameiwant [he/him]M
        ·
        3 years ago

        I can see where you're coming from, but I think it does what it's intending to do fairly well.

        spoiler

        Insanity horror is almost never tried, and when it is, it is almost always from the point of view of an onlooker. Never the protagonist.

        The font fuckery may come off as pretentious to some, but I'd call that making the most of the medium.

        • machiavellianRecluse [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I didn't find it very compelling after a point. It was neat I think but didn't quite do much for me after a while (plus the author says we should think of it as a 'Love Story' in some blog post iirc which I found very funny).

        • Steely_Gaige [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Man, I really wanna read your thoughts on this, but I'm trying to go in with fresh eyes. I'll come back to this or make a thread when I'm done.

  • chauncey [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I also tend to read mostly non-fiction. Here are a couple fiction books I had trouble putting down:

    All The Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy

    White Noise - Don DeLillo

    Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

    Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

  • duderium [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The Forever War is excellent, brisk, anti-war, hard science fiction.

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    These aren't really easy, but they're my favorite novels:

    Lanarck by Alasdair Grey

    Shikasta by Doris Lessing

    The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr

  • Kaputnik [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" by Murakami, his writing style is really captivating and flows really well

    • TheOtherwise [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I can second this. I didn't love the story, I mean I liked it more as it went on, but mainly there was just something about the writing that kept me wanting to read it.

      It was enjoyable.

  • anaesidemus [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Brandon Sanderson is good if you really like reading, he's a lib but his heart is in the right place. I'd recommend Elantris or even one of his YA series, like Skyward, if you want to get a feel for him as an author. The Stormlight Archive is shaping up to be the Wheel of Time of our age.

    Terry Pratchett is also an excellent author, I could recommend many of his Discworld books, there are many self contained arcs in the series so you don't have to read all 20+ of them

  • discontinuuity [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod: a fun sci-fi adventure with flying saucers and communist-occupied Scotland. The sequel Dark Light is pretty good, the third book was disappointing.

    Glasshouse by Charles Stross: a post-singularity sci-fi/horror/mystery novel about an amnesiac war criminal who signs up for an experimental recreation of a 20th-century American town.

    Walkaway by Cory Doctorow: Semi-Automated Luxury Pansexual Terrestrial Anarcho-Communism.