Metamorphosis is awesome. I think it was the first book I read in one sitting. Of course, it is very short so it doesn't mean much, but I love the book. When I was a teenager, Poe and Kafka were my favorite authors.

Just finished myself. I liked it a lot. I look forward to teaching this in the future if given the opportunity. I often want to go find supplemental materials after reading a book, and this was no exception. It seems like there's so much you could chew on in this little book. I think I will love it shortly.

I read a lot of historical fiction but really don't like Cornwell. There are always some cool historical facts in his books but, as Brian said, the stories are extremely formulaic and predictable. In the couple books I've read Sharpe practically becomes a super hero at the end, crushing the bad guys and saving the day. Not that they are horrible books or anything, but there are just so many better options.

A few suggestions for good historical fiction:
Shogun and King Rat by Clavell
Gods and Generals and Killer Angels by Jeff/Michael Shaara
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

All of those authors have a number of good books but those are some of my favorites.

Road of Stars to Santiago by Edward F. Stanton

This is personal account of a man on a pilgrimage walking across northern Spain to the town of Santiago de Compostela from the French border.

This is one of the most famous pilgrimages in Christianity and probably the whole world. This pilgrimage was the subject of a movie last year called The Way starring Martin Sheen and directed by his son, Emilio Estevez.

One of the things pointed out in the book is that this pilgrimage route probably predates Christianity because the Celts thought of Finistere (a couple of walking days beyond Santiago)to be a holy place. So this pilgrimage my be another case of Christianity co-opting existing local customs while it supplants them. In fact, many non religious or non Christians go on this pilgrimage.

He covers about 500 miles (800 kilometers) in a month so it is no leisurely stroll. He meets various people along the way, many of them are fellow pilgrims. One of the differences that struck me about this book and the movie that came out last year was the difference in apparent popularity between the time this pilgrimage took place (1990ish) and the movie which was presumably only a few years ago. In the movie they make out the pilgrimage to be virtual parade of people streaming across northern Spain, whereas the author did not run into a fellow pilgrim until he had completed half of it.

And anytime you walk you see more of the scenery and partake in what is going on around you so that really comes through in the book. Not great literature by any means but if you have an interest in travel or northern Spain I can recommend this book.

good recommendations all around but this book might be the best historical fiction I've read

Killer angels is required reading. Gods and generals, not so much.

The Agony and Ecstacy
Ragtime

I'll def check out the first man in Rome.

There's an alternate history written by Richard Dreyfus and turtledove that I love called the 2 Georges - premise is that GB won the US revolution and is set in present day.

lagdonk, I feel that way every time I revisit Nabakov. Sometimes I'll sit down to write, recall Lolita, and figure, "why bother?"

Although I really dislike Chuck P.

Now recall that to be as good as Nabakov, you'd have to write that well in Russian.

what's that expression again? Oh yeah:

Read Twilight, then sit down and write. You'll have a better book in about 10 days.

Thanks for the recs. Dont know anything about the genre, just see his books all over the place.

Quicksilver a really fun trip with an awesome view of the Newtonian revolution that took place in 17th century. When it isn't revealing the developing scientific insights of the time it is knee deep in vagabonding, mercantilist speculation and 17th century political machinations. I would never expect there would be any author who'd have the balls to even attempt something as absurd as this but Stephenson pulls it off effortlessly.

I guess the only criticism I have, and I felt this way about cryptinomicon, is that for much of the book you don't really have a good idea of where the book is going or what the point of the chapter to chapter action is. It's not a big deal because it more a journey not the destination type book but i would think that someone as talented as Stephenson could add a little something to make me feel like the book is working towards something.

Stephenson has definately solidified himself as my favorite modern sci-fi author.

If you like historical novels - "the thousand autums of jacob de zoet" is ****ing brilliant. david mitchell hits home runs on every single one of his books. amazing author. TTAOJDZ is set in Dejima, Japan, a man made island ordered by the Shogun (God incarnate) to host the Dutch East Indies Company as their sole contact to the outside world. The attention to detail is...wow.

btw, i read that the rights to a Cloud Atlas (another book of his) movie was bought by teh wachowski brothers (of the matrix movies) and they've written a screenplay which david mitchell himself thinks very highly of. I would love to see it get made.

I recommend reading this entire interview http://www.theparisreview.org/interv...david-mitchell

edit: i have to include this wrt detail in TTAOJDZ

Cool I will check it out. I'm planning on taking a break from the baroque cycle and am going to give the Malazan series a shot. With game of thrones season two almost here I am in the mood for some epic fantasy. We'll see if Gardens of the Moon is any good.

Just finished this, very very good. If you are thinking of getting into meditation or mindfullness or Buddhism well worth a read.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wherever-You...2331980&sr=1-3

Also, has anyone read any creative writing books? Need a recommendation. Want to try a novel but short of confidence.