Your first Neal Stephenson experience should have been Snow Crash at age 14.

For people who are into fantasy, Steven Erikson is absolutely incredible. He has a series that is at about 11000 pages at this point. Amazingly rich and detailed world. The pacing is for the most part excellent and the many viewpoints make sense, even if it takes a thousand pages to fully express why. First book is Gardens of the Moon. Getting into this series is the cure for what happens after you read the latest book in A Song of Ice and Fire.

I was well over 300 pages into it before I really got INTO it.

Not all classics but some of my favourite recent reads;

Kafka on the Shore
American Pastoral (outside 10 years but whatever)
The Secret Scripture
Shantaram
Interpretation of Murder

HP isn't great literature but overall its a pretty good story that is very accessible to a wide range of readers

HBO has signed on for the pilot episode of the first book which could be amazing, and if picked up could really help the series popularity

www.ascentofhumanity.com

I'm assuming that you're talking about Bill Bryson, a writer which I love, and would like to know more books like his. Altho when I search for 'Krakenkour' on google etc I can't find anything.. Anyone know the correct spelling of his name?

Thanks

Jon Krakauer

Ty

Read Into thin air and that was really good. Going to check the others as well.. wonder why the name didn't pop into my head.

I want to bring a fantasy book into the mix, though its a very funny and different one called The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie its the start of the first law trilogy. So if you like it just three books to get through instead of reading a series reaching the teens where most have diminishing returns. Its also very easy to read even if your not a big fantasy fan.

Probally older than ten years but I love Tis' by Frank McCourt who just passed away, a sequel to Angelas Ashes but less of the dark more of the heartwarming and funny. It concerns his life in NewYork and I come back too it alot.

Some great books already mentioned here so I thought I would mention a couple of different options.

Oh and if its a pretty long flight Micheal Connellys books basically read themselves and are hard to put down, basically great holiday reads.

Not sure of the best books of the last ten years, but the most fun books written in the last ten years (that I've read) were

Martin Millar's The Good Fairies of New York : Tiny drunken Scottish pixies move to New York to play punk rock; end up causing race riots among American pixies and playing matchmaker for cute emo girl.


Micheal Chabon's Summerland : Terrible little league baseball team travels through multiple dimensions, saves all reality from machinations of Coyote, the Trickster.

I also like Shadow of the Wind a lot. Was kinda bummed the few days after finishing it, because that meant I did not have the book to read anymore. Also liked Kafka on the Shore even though I cannot explain why and describing the book, it just comes across as weird.

What is so great about Infinite Jest? Serious question. Haven't read it.

Zafon has a new one out - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Angels-Game-...9904322&sr=8-1 - it's kind of a prequel to Shadow of the Wind, with a couple of recurring characters and locations.

It's a bit more complicated and has a weird ending, not really as good but certainly worth reading. As for Murkami, I have much preferred some of his older stuff like Norwegian Wood and Dance Dance Dance (which isn't that popular with his fans, apparently)

A new fantasy author who I am excited about is Patrick Rothfuss. His book "The Name of the Wind" is written in a style totally different from basically every fantasy book I have written. Not sure if it's in the "best book of the decade" discussion but it is definitely not another ****ty ripoff of GRRM or Tolkien. Absolutely worth the read.

James

In no order, some of my favorites (that I haven't seen listed yet):

Oracle Night, Paul Auster
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
The Echo Maker, Richard Powers
America America, Ethan Canin
The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem

One not for everyone, but that I enjoyed a lot at the time:

John Henry Days, Colson Whitehead

House of Leaves is about the only book i willingly have read that was published in the last 10 years.

It was way cool

Finished last night. Incredible book.

House of Leaves was the most interesting book I have every read. It doesn't seem close to me.

Ken

i agree with this. definitely not the best but far and away the most interesting.

Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991, not quite 10 years but oh well)

This book was fantastic, just finished it.

I really liked it. A lot!

Just finished this and liked it a lot. Very good story, and it is fiction as you say not that that takes anything away from the book.

Starting this now.

Just noticed this, you are apparently an author. Heh.

Anyway, I liked this book although I think the Joe Abercrombie trilogy (which has been mentioned in this thread) was better if you're looking for fantasy. The Rothfuss book is definitely worth reading though.

I agree. The title just does it for me.

Can I have 11 years? Cause I'd like to slip Fagles' translations of The Iliad and Odyssey in there. This is so much more powerful than the Fitzgerald or Pope translations I can't express it.

The Landmark Thucydides and The Landmark Herodotus. These works can be extremely difficult to read out of context. These editions provide the context with voluminous notes and copious maps.

Martin's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. This translation renders Ovid into a dignified but modern english. Ovid himself is a wild ride, and we tend to get our mythology from secondhand sources like Bullfinch and Hamilton who are pulling stuff from Ovid and Homer, better to get it from the source with the sustained grandeur intact.

So I guess, the best books of the last 10 years are 2000-3000 years old.

Just read "World Without End". More of the same, except the characters actually do change a little. People are good or evil, the good guys win through in the end, rape, murder, etc.