Recommendations

I've hit a wall when it comes to books, and so I come to you guys for help.

It's kind of hard to describe what I'm looking for, but I'll try.

Stuff that's kind of tragic, and personal. Where you spend a lot of time inside the head of the main character. Stuff like Never Let Me Go(Kazuo Ishiguro) and Norwegian Wood(Murakami).

Hope that helps. Any recommendations?

Fresh Fields

Some Dostoevsky perhaps

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, followed by Ulysses.

>>2

Sounds good, thanks.

>>3

I'll give it a try.

>>4

I tried reading Portrait once, I'm a little ashamed to admit it was way over my head. I hardly ever knew what was going on.

The Outsider by Albert Camus (sometimes translated as The  Stranger)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexsander Solzhenitsyn

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Big Sur by Jack Kerouac

JG Ballard. Try Crash, High Rise or Empire of the Sun.

Journey to the End of the Night by Louis Ferdinand Celine. This book is incredibly saturnine and pessimistic, but it has been one of my favorite reads of all time. in a way it was also influential to me as well. it got me interested in traveling and finding a virtue which will allow me to escape the over-programmed life i live.

>>6
this.

also...

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
Fyodor Dostoevsky - Notes from the Underground
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
John Fowles - The Collector

OP here

Just got back from the library. Checked out Big Sur and One Day In The Life of Ivan Desinovich. Started the latter and it's great so far.

Made a list of the other recommendations, and I'll get to them eventually. Thanks for helping.

OP,

This is really uncanny because I just finished reading Never Let Me Go and I finished Norwegian Wood some time before that. For a second I thought this was a thread I created.

I second The Stranger by Camus.
You should also check out:
Franz Kafka- The Trial
Ryu Murakami- Almost Transparent Blue
David Guterson- Snow Falling On Cedars

Oh, to hell with Camus, he's a depressive asshole. So is Nabokov, but Lolita is good.

My 2-cents.

Victorian style seems like what you're getting at.

Charles Dickens - "David Copperfield" and "Great Expectations"
    Dickens has really fallen out of popularity recently, probably because of people exaggerating his importance which caused people to say that he was not important at all, hyperbole's all around, but I digress.  He masterly puts you in the mind of his main characters.  Many people have said that once you read Copperfield, you wish he were real.  Only because throughout the book your mind comes up with questions... you really want answered.

Tolstoy - "Anna Karenina"
   Yet again, stereotyped.  "War and Peace" is alright, at best.  AK is his best work, hands-down.  You will never be so interested in Russian royalty, and Russian awkwardness.  He paints a complete picture of the lives, well the important parts anyways, of well over 10 main characters.  Detailing how they intertwine with another, act independently, and all while keeping you engaged with complex drama.

Thomas Hardy - "Jude: The Obscure"
   This is one of those books were everyone who reads it, comes away with completely different versions of what philosophy he was trying to include.  A warning though, it's a little depressing. 

Joseph Conrad - "Lord Jim"
   If you're up for a challenge, this book is it.  It's mainly a tale of a man not built hardy enough to deal with the savagery of modern (at the time) culture, and how emotional people react to random, unfortunate, tragic events.  The interesting part is that you are only exposed to the main character within the first person during the first chapter.  Everything after that is 3rd, 4th, 5th... person accounts, to drive the plot along.  You'll start asking yourself how all of these sea-dogs got their psych degrees on the high seas. 

Aldous Huxley - "Brave New World"
   Similar to 1985, in that they can both be referenced to vaguely explain the other, but that's were it ends.  It's a real personal account on the struggle of the individual attempting to conform to a society that holds no value to the individual.  Lots of stuff about consumerism, morality of technological innovation, the power of brain washing, and more fun stuff.


These are the only ones I could think of off the top of my head.  Good luck, and good reading.

OP here

Just letting you guys know I'm still around, and keeping up with your recommendations. I really appreciate it.

Best Murakami was Sputnik Sweetheart, but he's a one trick pony - after a while all his books sound the same.

>>15

Yeah, I've read most of his books(everything translated except a short story collection or two), and I agree. It doesn't bother me so much, because I really like his style, but yeah.

His non-fiction is pretty different though, and pretty good too.

I think everyone should read Hunger by Knut Hamsum

>>15
I got that sense after my third Murakami. so I took a break from him. I want to enjoy the rest of his stuff as much when I go back to it. I don't think the problem is entirely of his making, but it's exaggerated by his style, the whole first-person man-and-girl thing.

>>17
That's somewhere in my virtual pile. Grabbed it from Project Gutenberg because it looks fascinating.