As some of you maybe know, I'm working as a part time librarian and - oh joy! - my task for today (or tomorrow, well gotta get it done as soon as possible) is to buy some new books for the library.
I am allowed to spend about 300 quid and mustn't buy any classics, but more "leisure reading" stuff. I've got already a list of books I'll definetely buy, but I'd be happy if you could suggest me some more.

My list contains so far:
- another set of Hornby novels ( together with Bridget Jones 1&2 most often borrowed books at the moment)
-TEA (probably no use buying LIAGB and WOLP, as people mostly don't borrow more than the two required books for their reading skills class, but I want to get them hooked on the series anyway)
- Keith Owen's Tunnel Vision
- HP5
-Some of Stephen Fry's novels

I refuse to buy any Tom Clancy or Stephen King as a matter of personal taste, we've got some as donations and I think they're enough and unfortunately almost noone there is interested in Pratchett so there's probably no use in buying more Discworld novels.

I'd be really happy if some of this well-read community could help me with filling the shopping basket.

Thanks,

Vio



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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

(N. Chomsky 1957)

Hey Vi,

I recommend Dan Brown's DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons and Deception Point.

Also recommend Katherine Neville(any).

For it's humor alone, Janet Evanovich

'The Dice Man' - Luke Rhinehart - famous cult novel, very entertaining

Bill Bryson stuff?



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

In addition to JF (and various non-fiction tomes in the course of duty) I've enjoyed the following over the past month or so and wouldn't hesitate in recommending any of them, to subscribers to this list at least.

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Carter beats the Devil by Glen D. Gold
Dan Leno & The Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd

& for ideal lightweight holiday reading,
Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce


I also heartily enjoyed reading 'Maldoror & the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautreamont' (trans. by Alexis Lykiard) a couple of months ago - but I'd hesitate to recommend it to any but the most dedicated, although it's worth persevering with for lines like: "Birds spilled out their warning canticles, and humans, having answered their various calls of duty, were bathing in the sanctity of fatigue..." - particularly since it sums up fairly accurately how I feel right now zzzzzzzzzz z z z z

I absolutely love Kate Atkinson. I find her style and use of narration and visual devices intriguing and inspiring.

I’ve read her novels in back to front order and totally recommend ‘Not The End Of The World’ as a starting point even though it was the last to be published.

nggy

Buy some of mine ! I'm a published author, which has been mentioned in the past on the fforum, but possibly before you joined. I write westerns and I can let you have copies of 'Darrow's Word' and 'San Felipe Guns' for £3 per copy.

I inflicted a copy of 'Darrow's Word' on Jasper, so if it's good enough for him...

The same offer applies to other fforumites. I have taken some orders, and the ones that didn't need posting have been distributed, but I've been a bit lazy about organizing the others. I am on paypal, so overseas payments are possible.

Here endeth the shameless plug.

Yoss - By Odo Hirsch.



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Those who forget the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

Darkfall and sequels, by Isobelle Carmody. Really good in-depth stuff for fantasy junkies!;)

Also, The Other Wind , the newest one by Ursula le Guin.

Zadie Smith--'White Teeth' and 'The Autograph Man'

Dave Eggers--'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' (although Miss P says it might be hard if English is your 2nd language)

Chocolat - Joanne Harris

Captain Correlli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres

Both better than the films.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

How about ...

"The Barrytown Trilogy" or "Paddy Clarke, ha ha ha", Roddy Doyle
Anything by Kurt Vonnegut, especially "Breakfast of Champions", "Cat's Cradle" and "Slaughterhoue 5"
"The Flanders Panel" and "The Club Dumas" by Arturo Perez-Reverte
"House of the Spirits" Isabel Allende
Anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (my favourite author)
Douglas Adams, for a laugh
Stephen Fry, ditto
Anything by Barbara Kingsolver ...

And now, a plug for the Canadians ...
Margaret Atwood (loved The Handmaid's Tale) or Robertson Davies (The Fifth Business), Thomas Findley, especially "Famous Last Words" - fascinating premise.

But I could go on and on ...

Just some suggestions ....

Thanks a lot to all of you!
I'm just about to spend the last 70 € and your suggestions were a great help for me. I couldn't use all of them for library purpose, as I have to watch out for the customers' interests ("Do you have something short? In large print? Few pages? Pictures in it?" ...okay, not all of them are like that, but still...), anyway, some of the suggestions I couldn't use for job matters still got me interested.

Thank you again

Vi



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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

(N. Chomsky 1957)

And regarding Stephen Fry:
"The Liar" is fantastic. It's plot is outstanding and it's a real LOL-book. I've read it seven times.
"The Hippopotamus" has a great, nasty main character and a lot of humour.
"Making History" is an okey scifi sort of story.
"The Stars' Tennis Balls" is boring, boring, boring. Fry with his imagination should be able to make up a story of his own and not just do a modern version of The Count of Monte Christo, where the second half is told in a nearly Concordian speed.
"Moab is my washpot" is probably his best book, apart from "The Liar", mostly because it actually is "The Liar", but in real life. It's his autobiography to the age of twenty.
"Paperweight" is a collection of essays, articles, reviews, short stories, stuff, etc. Very good in some parts, but slightly difficult to understand in all its Brittish references.

/Mattias

(And no - no connection to Mathias, the horse)

I don't see it as neccessarily unimaginative to write a modern novel on the foil of a classic. There are of course really really bad modern rip-offs of classics, but I do like "The stars' tennisballs". Of course, one needs the willing suspension to disbelieve to be able to fully appreciate it, but, however, I found the book beautiful.



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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

(N. Chomsky 1957)

There is a sequel to Day of the Triffids, but it's written by another author.



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Those who forget the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

Oh, and You Don't Know Me, by David Klass.



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Those who forget the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

The sequel to Day of the Triffids is by Simon Clark, who writes pretty good (if a bit samey) post-apocalypse stuff. Haven't read it yet, though.



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

I thought it seemed pretty faithful to the first.



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Those who forget the pasta are doomed to reheat it.

Anyone here read any Gervase Phinn?



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

I've recently been reading & enjoying a series of fantasy novels, set on a version of present-day Earth, by a Canadian author named Tanya Huff: Their titles are 'Summon the Keeper', 'The Second Summoning', and 'Long Hot Summoning'. Especially recommended for cat-lovers...

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"God rot Botchkamos Istochnik!"



Post Edited (08-08-03 18:49)