The DMF Book Club.

[Kyna]

The Count of Monte Cristo.  Try to find a good translation and I know you will love it!

+1 I really loved this book. 

Okay, for a serious book -
Marcus Aurelius Meditations - again, find a good translation.  It's one of my favorite books.

A more light read

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
I like anything by Pratchett so far.  He writes primarily satirical fantasy.

[Manny]

Oh! And speaking of good translations, Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney is amazing. But I'm not mailing that one to anyone.

I will mail a copy of Black Sun by Edward Abbey. Amazing love story set in the desert.

[Smiling End]

There's a lot of good ones on here. 

+1 to Chuck Palahniuk's books, and Fight Club the book is not exactly like the movie, it has a different ending.

+1 to Christopher Moore's books.  Try to read them in the order he publishes them.  A lot of the characters are recurring and will appear in later books in bit parts.


The Count of Monte Cristo is absolutely amazing.  I've read it probably about a half a dozen times so far.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is incredibly funny.  If you like that you should try American Gods by Gaiman.  It's a little darker but an amazing story that will pull you in right off the bat. 

If you want to read more of Terry Pratchett, in particular the Discworld series of books, check out this site for a recommended reading order:

http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/

[sbrguy]

I try to avoid reading anything serious.

Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk - As wild as Fight Club, he's just a great writer
Outrageous Fortune - Tim Scott - Lots of twists and turns and pretty damn funny
Last Call - Tim Powers - Vegas, Poker, Magic, Gangsters
Lamb - Christopher Moore - Jesus, the missing childhood years, as narrated by his best friend, Biff
The Tides of War and Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield - maybe the best classical historical fiction writer out there.  Tides is about Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War and Gates is about the same battle as the movie 300, just better.

i just finished reading the Lamb book that you suggested, that is one hilarious book..

i'm not religious at all, but i would highly suggest this book to anyone that has a good sense of humor about religion and jewish customs.  the book is meant as a funny story that is all, and he is great at it.. the main character Biff and the stupid angel Raziel are hilarous.

i'm definitely going to have to read his other book "the stupidest angel" that brings back Raziel the moronic angel.

[DCXCV]

i just finished reading the Lamb book that you suggested, that is one hilarious book..

Awesome! - all his books are like that and as someone else mentioned, there are lots of recurring characters.

[Kyna]

If you want to read more of Terry Pratchett, in particular the Discworld series of books, check out this site for a recommended reading order:

http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/

I love the Discworld books.  Thanks for the site, I may try to read them in some order now.

[Smiling End]

I love the Discworld books.  Thanks for the site, I may try to read them in some order now.

That's what I've gone back to try and do.  I had read a few here and there but now I'm reading them "in order."

For those of you who mentioned Beowulf you should definitely check out the classic Grendel by John Gardner.  It tells the tale from the perspective of the monster.

[darylbowden]

I just finished re-reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami, I'm a big fan of his, I also enjoyed After Dark.  I have a ton of Russian lit that I love, lots of Bunin, Karamzin and the like. 

[Smiling End]

I just finished re-reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami, I'm a big fan of his, I also enjoyed After Dark.  I have a ton of Russian lit that I love, lots of Bunin, Karamzin and the like. 

I assume you've read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov?  It's an amazing book.  I have the translation by Diana Burgin, which is supposed to be the best.

[darylbowden]

I assume you've read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov?  It's an amazing book.  I have the translation by Diana Burgin, which is supposed to be the best.

I do actually, thanks to a semester of Russian literature.  It's funny, when dealing with Russian lit, a good translation is SO important, moreso than any other language (that I've experienced at least).

[Smiling End]

I do actually, thanks to a semester of Russian literature.  It's funny, when dealing with Russian lit, a good translation is SO important, moreso than any other language (that I've experienced at least).

Can you read Russian?  That'd be pretty cool.  Unfortunately, I can only read English so I've never really had the opportunity to read something in it's native tongue and English to compare.  The closest I've come is reading Fernando Pesoa's Book of Disquiet in English while a friend of mine reads it in Portuguese.

[darylbowden]

Can you read Russian?  That'd be pretty cool.  Unfortunately, I can only read English so I've never really had the opportunity to read something in it's native tongue and English to compare.  The closest I've come is reading Fernando Pesoa's Book of Disquiet in English while a friend of mine reads it in Portuguese.

No, unfortunately not.  I was just lucky enough to have a very respected professor (and translator himself) who was able to suss out the good translations for us students.  We also had to do some comparison readings with multiple translations and the differences were astonishing.