Just curious to see if anyone has read things that are on more of a college level/adult level of liturature and what you thought of them. I'm talking about writers like Kurt Vonnegut, Haruki Murakami, Thomas Pynchon, Walt Whitman, Ayn Rand, Hemmingway, Kafka and soforth. This excludes such lovely modern books such as Twilight, Harry Potter, or anything you can buy on the shelves at a wal-mart. I personally just finished The Trial by Kafka for the 2nd time and I really enjoyed the 2nd go through it more than the first. I've found that to be a trend with his writing.
I believe that I can add my name to this since i'm reading a ton of Blake, Whitman, Faulkner and Eliot this semester. The thing that i've found out so far from reading a selection of Blake and Whitman is that they both are heavy on Experimentalism when it comes to writing poetry which today is considered revolutionary but back in the 1850's with Whitman it was deemed that his writing was turning the classical into romanticisms which the die-hard didn't want change.
Mmm Murakami, Kafka and Kant are things I've been more familiar with. I'm reading Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami currently, in fact. And although I don't typically count school textbooks, "You May Ask Why" by Dalton Conley is a great book I'm reading for Sociology right now. It reads so much smoother than normal passive voice HS textbooks. Thank God. But I suppose that's a no-brainer, since it's college.
The work of Chuck Pahalniuk (most famously known for writing Fight Club) is absolutely outstanding. The humor is very dark and without a doubt a guilty pleasure. You'll fall in love with his odd and flawed characters. The books I've read so far have been Survivor, Rant, and Diary. Of those three, Survivor, I felt was the most similiar to Fight Club, so if you're a fan of that movie, that would be where I'd start and you'll immediately become hooked. Also, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 is truly a classic. I read it in this god awful Science Fiction class, where our teacher hated everyone. This book was the one thing that kept the class from driving me insane. It gives both a unique look at WWII (I had never heard of Dresden until this book) and it also entertains with lots of intersting Science Fiction ideas
I can't say I'd group chuck pahalnuk outside of most shock writers, He's ok in general, but some of it is either poorly written or just written seemingly for the intrinsic value of being weird. I've only read three or so books by him though. SH5 is a completely amazing book in every regard however. I absolutely adore it.
So far I have read: - The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka) - Light In August (William Faulkner) - To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) - A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) - Slaughterhouse 5 (Kurt Vonnegut) - 1984 (George Orwell) - Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) - the tetralogy The Sea Of Fertility (Yukio Mishima) - Lord Of The Flies (William Golding) - Fight Club and Diary (Chuck Palahniuk) Nothing out of the ordinary. Recommendations are welcome though.
i know they mostly teach it in high school now, but 1984 is an amazingly in-depth novel that i really enjoyed getting my hands on. all the implications about our society and the timelessness of the consequences presented in the book are brilliant. george orwell was truly awesome! oh, and ive also read almost anything and everything by tolkien and shakespeare... thats deep, "high level" stuff :D
Hmmm. What about Oscar Wilde and Charlotte Bronte? I can't say I've read most of what was mentioned, but I'm working on A Clockwork Orange at the moment. :) All else is temporarily held off as I've just recently come into possession of a dozen or so Shakespeare plays. Edit: Oh dear, I've gone and forgotten Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens. D:
Well I have read adult level fiction (no, not porn, but kinda close) It was alright, I guess... just kinda wierd how different it is.
Sadly I am not as exposed to it as some people in this thread are. I am trying to change this but I barely have time to read comics anymore let alone literature that is more in depth. I have, however, read some of Kafka's work before and I really liked it. He has a style that is dark and somehow delicious at the same time. :b that being said I have also read the majority of the books that Styx listed.
Ahh! I adore Jane Eyre! And I'm planning on reading the Portrait of Dorian Gray at some point. I love reading the classics. To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Great Gatsby, and Pride and Prejudice are all good ones. Oh, and don't forget the brilliant Mark Twain.
I do not think Dan Brown is like that and I think you could find his books on the shelves of Walmart. Anyways he is great and is one of the best authors of this century.
I really like Lord Of The Flies and for a long time The bell jar has been one of my favorite novels, although I know alot of people don't like it. In the country of men is one of the next novels I intend to read that may be considered more adult.
I have an extreme amount of work to do. I have only read the two famous dystopian novels Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World, along with The Great Gatsby. I am currently working on Catch-22 and am looking around for something by Kafka or even Dostoyevsky, along with a lovely book called We by Yevgeny Zamatin.
I'm not quite sure if it counts, but I'm currently reading Frankentein and The Tale of Genji. Both are lovely. The Tale of Genji is by Murasaki Shikibu and was written about... 1000 years ago, I think? It says how long in the introduction. But yeah. I'm also about half through Fahrenheit 451. Mostly just things I take from my mother's book shelves. Once I'm through with those and a few other books that are more modern novels, I'm planning on reading the rest of my mother's shelf which includes Dante's Inferno, which she's been trying to get me to read. obtw this little comment is kinda spammy- you all must read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's... amazing. <3 Forgive me if I got the titles/authors of any of these books wrong.
