A Random Mix of Recommended Books
Submitted by jim on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 10:03
Tags:
- The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
- The Midnight Examiner by William Kotzwinkle
- Dr. Rat by William Kotzwinkle
- Picture This by Joseph Heller
- Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
- Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
- Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
- Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
- The Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
- Naked by David Sedaris
- South by Sir Ernest Shackleton
- Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
Author Comments:
These didn't really fit on other lists, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. The "beach books" on the list should be obvious.
I have to agree with you about Jurassic Park being a very good read, even though dectective stories are my "genre reading." I have actually read it twice, and it is a very good read.
Jurassic Park is my favorite book, so I agree with it being on the list.
I would have to second the recommendation of Ficciones. I think Borges is a wonderful writer, with a very unique view of the world. I read his story "The Garden of Forking Paths" as an undergrad and thought it captured the essence of the many worlds hypothesis of physics. The rest of his stories are equally interesting.
and I third..
what's the skinny (i hate that expression and don't know why i used it) on "jitterbug perfume"? i picked it up when i was in high school and got too neurotic to get past twenty pages but don't remember why. any reason why it's good?
For me, one Tom Robbins book is pretty much like any other, so you either enjoy or dislike his body of work. Since I like him, I probably could have put any of his books on this list. But I think he's kinda trashy-fun-disguised-as-literature (that sounds more disparaging than I intend it), so I only wanted to pick one, and I thought Jitterbug Perfume was the best of the lot. Or maybe it was Still Life With Woodpecker. Damn. They've all blended together in a Robbins-stew in my mind. I like him. I generally enjoy his characters, light philosophical riffs, and sense of humor. Nothing deeper than that, I'm afraid.
Have you read any other Perez-Reverte books? I just finished The Flanders Panel recently and really enjoyed it. What was your take on The Ninth Gate movie (if you've seen it)? I'm undecided... They made a number of changes to the book, some I like, some I didn't.
I can't believe I let this comment go unanswered for so long! Sorry, I scroll down to books so rarely these days (I still read, it's just that my book lists have fallen into some disuse. If I can ever make Listology my full-time job I'll remedy that :-).
I too enjoyed The Flanders Panel. It's the only other one of his I've read.
I didn't care for The Ninth Gate, however. It was just too slow for me. And I thought the removal of the entire Dumas sub-plot weakened the story quite a bit.