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Favourite fiction read this year

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rub92me

Don't look back
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Well, let's see if we can have a nice non-controversial thread for a change...
Which book did you enjoy reading the most this year?

My pick is Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts.
If you liked Papillion, you are gonna love this one! I read it while in India a couple of months ago, which added to the experience. Movie rights have been sold as well, so if/when the movie comes out, this will probably get a reprint. Deserves to sell millions of copies in my opinion.
 
'Papillon' is still one of my favourite books.
So I will definitely read 'Shantaram'
Thank you rub92me.
 
Favourite fiction I read this year was the governments response in question time last month - woops - (and you thought it wouldnt be controversial lol).
 
I'm re-reading "Jitterbug Perfume" Tom Robbins. It is the only great work he's ever produced... and it's a great read. About a king in the middle ages who stands up to religon, and his own predetermined fate (when he is sentenced to death) and he roams the land searching for immortality...
It is well written and Robbins uses some very colourful metaphors.

Though you'll shun me as a geek... Asimov is pretty awesome as well. "Pebble in the sky" (his first novel) I read at Chrissie last year- he has an awesome imagination/science knowledge.
 
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash <---awesome post-cyberpunk fiction

Jeff Noon - Nymphomation <-----a gritty, urban psychedelic fantasy

Phillip K. Dick - A Scanner Darkly <-------awesome philosophical journey into the politics of drug addiction


some of my favourites
 
Kipp said:
I'm re-reading "Jitterbug Perfume" Tom Robbins. It is the only great work he's ever produced.
Click to expand...
I like all his stuff, although some of course is better than others.

Skinny Legs & All and Jitterbug Perfume are probably my favourites.

GP
 
tech/a said:
Realist.---sorry just had to.
Click to expand...
Well, I'm sorry too, Tech, because that's rather unkind. But hell, it's funny!

Never mind, Realist. I've also really absolutely agreed with you more than once also!

Julia
 
Not sure that it really constitutes fiction, but definitely the best book I've read in about the last ten years: "Candy" by Luke Davies. A semi autobiographical account of succumbing to heroin with all the crime and degradation involved in maintaining the addiction, with very in-your face accounts of multiple attempts at withdrawal, but with ultimately a sense of hope for the future. This is a confronting book but beautifully written, at times raw and at others almost lyrical in its prose.

The author had previously won several awards for his poetry.

Julia
 
Hmm, surprised, not as many avid readers as I thought on this forum...
5 out of 10 posts unable to stay on (simple) topic of the thread - no surprise there

Okay, I'll throw in a few more:
Critical Space - Greg Rucka (I read a lot of mystery/thriller novels, but this is one of the best imo)
Drama City - George Pelecanos (all his other books are good too)
 
I'm on about my eight novel for the year, but haven't read anything that stands out... loved Fight Club (love dark humour, i.e. Palahniuk, Welsh, etc.). If you've seen the movie, still read the book, as it misses out a lot--although the movie does a fine job compared to other based-on-book movies. Reading Desperation by Stephen King at the moment.

Edit: I love horror/thriller BTW, so am open to recommendations.
 

if you like grit and humour look up Charles Bukowski's stuff, semi autobiographical, I liked Trainspotting and some other Welsh stuff (though he seems a bit of a one trick pony) as well as Fight Club which led me to this Bukowski. Very dark and he can be quite loathsome though. But talented.
 
Yogis posts,
No, sorry, I'll try to be nice :
The Runes Of The Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever) by Stephen Donaldson
Hows that for a mouthful.
 
Favourite new fiction this year: It's a tie: "March", by Geraldine Brooks, and "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson.

Favourite memoir about fiction: "Reading Lolita in Tehran", by Azar Nafisi

Favourite "finally got around to" fiction this year: "Bleak House", by Charles Dickens. "Great Expectations" and "David Copperfield" have been part of the mental furniture for years, but I think this one might be even better.

I haven't read any other Neal Stephenson, and I can't quite imagine that anything would be quite like Cryptonomicon. But I'll have a look at "Snow Crash" thanks Imajica.

I read the earlier Thomas Covenant series once and I've still got them on the shelf, but I've never been tempted to read them again. Which is odd, because lots of scenes stick in my mind: the giant struggling to laugh; the horrible dawns in the 2nd series...

Ghoti
 

Thanks for that. You've probably checked this page out--lists other similar authors. And this for more of the same.
 
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