h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I thought I'd ask the great minds of h2g2 for some reading recommendations in the hope that I may discover something amazing but previously unknown. It's worked before with recommendations I've had here.

I don't want to specify writers, genres, styles or anything else that would influence the responses - just that it's something I (or anyone for that matter) should read.

Although maybe there should be *one* stipulation ruling out some books...the ones outlining philosophies and outlooks - religious or otherwise - which "will change your life for good and you'll never look back".

Ray Bradbury - Death is a Lonely Business

Raymond Feist - Magician

Two I've enjoyed recently

Forgot the *proper* why

Mr Bradbury is a brilliant writer, 'Death...' reads like an Ed McBain (another favourite of mine) *The city was a bitch* etc. Classic noir. He also wrote some rather good SF

Feist? because he writes well and it's the first in a *huge* chronicle

I'm currently half-way through Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. He's an excellent writer, but the story's a tragedy. Still well worth reading. And it's listed in 501 Must Read Books. It's also quite short, so it needn't trouble you for long if you don't like it.

But first you should read this, because everyone should: http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/jfb/huckfinn.pdf

TRiG.

"it's listed in 501 Must Read Books"

I promise not to hold that against it.

Thanks Trig and Mags, I've noted those. There are some interesting ones trickling in already.

I *loved* "Death Is A Lonely Business". There were two "sequels", "A Graveyard For Lunatics" and "Let's All Kill Constance", which I love as well.

Then again, I haven't read a Bradbury yet I haven't loved (and I've read a lot).

I'd also gladly recommend anything at all by Vonnegut, just because he's so witty and amusing and brutally pragmatic.

A couple of other suggestions, though I'll be crap at explaining why...

"Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie. One of few books that has really moved me emotionally, it's just beautifully and emotively written and the characters so well-developed. "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn- about a waaaaaaaaaaay dysfunctional family with a whole lotta love. And "A Confederacy Of Dunces", which is great if you're ever snobby, or inversely snobby, or annoyed by snobbery or inverse snobbery. Laugh out loud funny.

TRIG!

Any idea what word is missing after the indefinite proposition 'an' in the following quote:

"...but when I here call any morality bad, I think you will agree with me that it is bad; and that is an I need."

What is it the writer needs? And to what purposes?

It's from the top of the third and last paragraph at the bottom of page one of your link. I was really engrossed up to that point and suddenly realised the missing ideation would corrupt everything that followed. I also need to know the date it was written before I can trust him.


~jwf~

Ah! 1974.

I snuck a peek to the bottom of page one and there it was all along. But I still don;t trust him niw. Gotta know what he needs!


~j~

The "My Teacher is an Alien" series by Bruce Coville. I think it should be taught in schools.

<"...but when I here call any morality bad, I think you will agree with me that it is bad; and that is an I need.">

Looks like a typo: 'and that is [all] I need.' seems to work...

It sounded like a typo but I couldn't read that far into the link to check. The first few sentences are so badly written that I had to think twice as to whether I was being told that Himmler or Huckleberry Finn was in the SS!!

Anyway, The Death of Reginald Perrin by David Nobbs. If you've seen the 70s tv programme then put it out of your head. The book is the most funny and the saddest novel I've read. Its prescience of 21st century Britain is uncanny (but I just thought of that; previously I'd thought that its prescience of late 20th century Britain was uncanny.) It's a bloody good book

>> ...had to think twice as to whether I was being told that Himmler or Huckleberry Finn was in the SS!! <<

Hopefully Trig will return and offer his thoughts on the matter. Unless of course he was just testing us.

I too found the conjunction of Himmler and Huckleberry somewhat shocking but was prepared to consider an hypothesis until the typo (some typos are part of god's mysterious ways) threw me into serious doubt about the writer's true motives and intentions.

~jwf~

PS: I liked the Reggie Perrin series; it had a certain 'literacy' above the usual Brit comedy stock. Thanks for explaining why, I'll keep an eye out for the book. Oh, and the 70s were such a long time ago; can you recall 'Rising Damp'? Was it a sequel or just contemporaneous or is there some other connection that my memory has used to file these two shows in the same folder?

Both stared Leonard Rossiter, of course:

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/R/htmlR/risingdamp/risingdampIMAGE/risingdamp.jpg

http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/reginaldperrin.jpg

Any other book recommendations? There can never be too many!

>> Any other book recommendations? <<

Sorry, I've post thrice and have yet to mention Terry Pratchett who should be mentioned well before Post#20 of ANY thread about good books.


~jwf~

>> Leonard Rossiter, of course,,, <<

Of course.
Thanks.

http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/reginaldperrin.jpg

He'da made a good Doctor Who too.

~j~

Nobody said that the books have to be good - crap books are welcome too, if there is a reason to spend time reading them.

The last book that made me laugh, cry and squirm all at the same time - sign of a good book in my mind! - was Preston Falls by David Gates. Beautifully, if uncomfortably, written novel about a middle aged man having a breakdown while taking some time out from a stressful job to do up his summer cottage and deteriorating even more rapidly from the stress of DIY.

Not everyday light reading, but very funny in bits and a definite keeper!

I first saw this essay in a book: The Moral Life by Louis P. Pojman. I'll see if I can dig it up. The printed version probably had fewer typos.

For now, go with an => all.

TRiG.

Looking at it again, it has a 1 for an I further down, which suggests that many of the typos are the result of optical character recognition.

TRiG.