Literary Question

I need suggestions and directions from people with similar tastes in literature. I've devoured everything i possibly can by ever author i know i like. need suggestions. so can anyone think of an author that somebody who reads Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, Bucky Sinister, John Fante, Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palinhuk and Fydor Dostoevski would like? I know this is a very strange question, but i am completely and utterly out of ideas, rendering trips to the bookstore to be completely boring and painful. i could use some help.

yeah, fnord, and all.

You might like "Camp Concentration" by Thomas Disch

John Fante

"The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories" by H.P. Lovecraft

I'm taking a shine to Ambrose Bierce as well.

[Edited on Feb 06, 2004 by psychoholicagogo]

Vonnegut's my boy. I actually think I saw him once in a local IHOP, he was berating someone and smoking unfilitered cigarettes... damnedest thing. As for HP Lovecraft, I've never been a fan, but thanks everyone for the advice, and the promptness of it, as well.

Ever read "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson? If not I recommend it highly. Several of those short stories have been made into movies. The title story became The Omega Man. Stir of Echoes came from it, as well as a bit from the Trilogy of Terror about a fetish doll.

if you like the psychological aspect of doestoyevsky you might like this as well

[Edited on Feb 06, 2004 by zenhell]

Charles Portis
Philip Roth

John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces is possibly the funniest book ever. I'm laughing just thnking about it!

hubert selby jr. check out last exit to brooklyn, it very similar to the acid house by irvine welsh, several short stories all loosely connected by location, condition etc.
the room is also good, but a little sickening at times

not that it falls into any specific genre, but i just finished reading 'the devil in the white city: murder, magic and madness at the fair that changed america' by erik larson. it tells the parallel stories of the team of architects charged with the task of mapping out and building the chicago worlds fair of 1893 and a man named d.d. holmes, who murdered over 40 women that came to the event. it's the best book i've read in the last several years. ive never taken a particular interest in late 19th century american history, but it really is incredible how gargantuan and unlike anything else any american had ever seen the chicago worlds fair was. it was the first time many people had ever seen electricity in use. people were coming from as far away as new york city, when the journey took as long as 3 weeks. they averaged 700,000 visitors a day, every day, for 6 months. its pretty amazing stuff. its like ted leo sings, 'nostalgic for gaslit times ill never, ever see'. but im rambling; its a good book. pick it up

ALAN WARNER
IRVINE WELSH
IAIN BANKS
NICHOLAS BLINCOE (N0T R.P. NICHOLAS BLINCOE! )
MICHEL HOULLENBEQUE (SEXY)


Anyone read the novel 'King of the City' by Micheal Moorcock,too cool, Lemmy makes a cameo as a character

[Edited on Feb 06, 2004 by squizzytaylor]

Alexy Gogol was a great peice of russian lit, darker than Dostoyevski.

Knut Hamsun, as far as I'm concerned, was the founder of modern literature, check out Hunger by him, or Pan, he was a norwegian.

Louis Ferdinand Celine was an amazing author, Journy to the end of the night and Death on the installment plan are very good.

BURROUGHS!!! FUCKING!!! THE CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT TRI BY BURROUGHS!!!

LIGHT YEARS BEYOND JUNKY AND QUEER AND NAKED LUNCH!!! READ THE CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT TRI!!!

Burroughs had a kid too, his works are a bit contrived, but are decent.

Perhaps plays by Anton Chekhov is to your liking, his work is amazing.

Jesus, uh.

Seriously consider looking into Kerouac and Ginsberg.

hell, escape the drudgery and read something like Yeats or go for the gold and read Hemingway, Ayn Rand, Sartre, Nietzche, Kierkergaard.

Read all the old trippy shit, Carlos Castenda, Terrence Mckenna, Johnathin Ott.

Chaucer, Goethe, Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau.

Acctually, check out Emile Zola's 'Germanal'

Rousseau's emile is an overlooked favorite of mine.

But fuck lit man, and fuck philosophy, check out the bhagavadgita or the bible. The prajnaparamita (diamond of trancendental wisom) is kick ass too.

Literature is fucking stupid, there is a lot better stuff out there.

Have you ever considered Anti-Oedipus: capitalism and schizophrenia?

It's my favorite book, look into it.

Or you could read Finnigans Wake.

Brett Easton Ellis

Jesus, you guys are getting all fired up. It's like a pack of wild dogs that need to be placated with thick, hardcover, libary books. Dangerous territory.

Ayn Rand? Are you fucking kidding me? I'd rather take off the front of my face with a shotgun than read another Ayn Rand novel. Never, ever, again.

Thanks for all the other suggestions. Except for Kerouac, I find him course and vulgar. And I'm currently reading Confedarcy of Dunces, it's kind of grating on me.

Maybe Faulkner deserves a second look though.

Thanks.

What am I thinking about, Tom Robbins.

I like those authors and I really like the new book " A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. It's non-fiction though. Ethan Hawkes "Ash Wednesday" was good for a quick light read.

i second tom robbins, faulkner, and john kennedy toole.
rock !

Faulkner is god.

But you may not dig him if your preferred style is short and terse, a la Buk.

You might enjoy Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, or The Sun Also Rises.

Edited to say that if you decide to pick up some Faulkner, I recommend starting with As I Lay Dying.

And now excerpted in full for your reading enjoyment is the greatest chapter in Modern American literature:

VARDAMAN

My mother is a fish.



*applause*

[Edited on Feb 06, 2004 by dogslife]

Lovecraft, Burroughs, and Vonnegut are good.
A writer that no one else is going to talk about is
thee Whiskey Rebel (www.whiskeyrebel.com) has 2 very entertaining books.

also if your into comics at all, check out Transmetroplitian by Warren Ellis and Derdrick Robberts.

The Icelandic sagas are also an inresting read.

If you like Pynchon, you could also try Martin Amis, he's one of my favorites. Also if Faulkner is too old school you could try Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, same dark southern gothic styling.

Paul Auster