/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6171572]

Name a work of fiction you're pretty sure only a few people here have read. I'll go first:

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

[Anonymous No.6171630]

>>6171572
I read that book close to 20 years ago. Good stuff.

[Katzbaum No.6171678]

>tfw stopped this book 100 pages in

I just got bored with the animal mutilations. Should I pick it back up?

Anyway The Toy Collector by James Gunn

[Anonymous No.6171690]

although it was pretty popular

[Anonymous No.6171696]

> OP checks back. Literally only a couple of people have read The Wasp Factory, as predicted. Nice. Also doubles.

[Anonymous No.6171713]

I'd be surprised if anyone here has read it. It's great by the way.

[Anonymous No.6171721]

I thought this was pretty good. It's about an Albanian nobleman employed by an Ottoman government agency tasked with the investigation of dreams. I think it might also be an allegory for communism or something. Not the brightest reader here haha.

[Anonymous No.6171724]

>>6171678
>Should I pick it back up?
Yes.

[Anonymous No.6171769]

>>6171572
Wasp Factory is literally on the /lit/ recommendations wiki. Get the fuck off this board.

[Anonymous No.6171771]

Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee (short story collection)

It's her first published book, so I'm pretty sure it hasn't been that widely read yet, although I've been a fan of her short stories for a while now. Very unique imagery, it's poetic but you can also see her math background coming through in a kind of interesting way. And not in the dry, dull, boring way that a lot of math and science people write.

Oh, and I own Wasp Factory. That book is great.

[Anonymous No.6172097]

ITT: people admit to reading trash

[Anonymous No.6172130]

>>6172097
Yes, that is some il/lit/erates definition of "books not everyone else on here has read."

[Anonymous No.6172136]

a sadly ignored book

[Anonymous No.6172169]

Although I think It's on surrealist recommendation picture.

[Anonymous No.6172181]

ill go with the tortilla curtain by tc boyle

>>6171572
nah i read it, was pretty good.

[Anonymous No.6172190]

this

[Anonymous No.6172198]

Only me and one other guy on this board have read it.

[Anomalous No.6172291]

Evolution by Stephen Baxter
Hothouse by Brian Aldiss

[ΟΥΤΙΣ No.6172309]

>>6171572
Evolution.
Evolution!
EVOLUTION
>evolution
>evol ution
>revolution
>revol ution
>revol t ution
>REVALATION!
evil potion like peehole lotion, beware the wrath of empty motions. EmptyMOTIONS emotions, oceans worth... close one!! Close one not close but close like clothes from lowes: an illusion allusion but illusion a fusion of evolution revolution and revelation; rev a nation into gear out of fear for fear itself is near to HELL! DWOOSH FWOOSH DFWEEE AHHHHHH FUCKING HELL WHY GOD WHY

[Anonymous No.6172410]

dis rite ere

>One of the characters of The Celestine Prophecy disappears while exploring a forest in the Appalachian Mountains. The book discusses ideas about other dimensions, past lives, conception and birth, the passage through death to an afterlife, hell and heaven. It also illustrates the author's vision of human destiny and the notion that fear of the future is endangering Earth's spiritual renaissance.

[Anonymous No.6172455]

>>6171572
This was pretty popular around here maybe a year or two years ago.

[Anonymous No.6172467]

>>6172291
Someone gave me a copy of Evolution years ago, but I've never bothered reading it. What did you think of it?

[Anonymous No.6172616]

>>6172190
I just read the Peregrine back in January. Beautiful prose. I saw it recommended in a thread on favorite NYRB books.

[Anonymous No.6173010]

>>6171572
I read it. I wish that I havent though

[Anonymous No.6173053]

Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams (I can't even find a pic)

[Anonymous No.6173104]

>>6171713

My nigga

[Anomalous No.6173142]

>>6172467
I read it when I was 16 last so it's been a while. I thought it was imaginatively written with a blunt prose reminiscent of his other works. I found it enjoyable as basically an episodic anthology of separate human epochs, and Baxter doesn't have to fantasize about the immortality of the human race. Definitely gave me a deeper empathetic insight.

[Anonymous No.6173152]

I read The Wasp Factory after someone told me it was the most disturbing book ever.
I didn't hate it but I didn't exactly shit myself over it either. Meh.

[Anonymous No.6173161]

Cyteen: too long and character focused to interest sci fi fans, but too genre fiction to interest serious readers. The most underappreciated Hugo Award winner, maybe next to Stand on Zanzibar.

>>6172291
I read half of Hothouse.

[Anomalous No.6173167]

>>6173161
I read it when I was 14 and it was pretty much erotica

[Anonymous No.6173313]

[Anonymous No.6173351]

>>6172190
Love this book so much

[Anonymous No.6173657]

>>6173351
going to read it now, thanks

[Anonymous No.6173907]

>>6173161
Confused that you think either Cyteen or Stand on Zanzibar are too character focused for SF fans. Rare to find someone who both likes character focused SF books, but isn't aware of how big a thing this is and still has the weird College English Department snobbery that all SF is lasers and spaceships.

Honestly, Cherryh isn't even particularly character-epiphany driven by comparison to lots of other SF writers.

[Anonymous No.6173908]

>>6172169
>cover looks like goatse
I'm sold

[Anonymous No.6173922]

>>6173313

I fucking love that book. I don't think anyone writes prose like Faber. Too bad he's retiring from writing novels.

[Anonymous No.6173923]

>>6172190
I guess I found my next book to read

[Anonymous No.6173955]

>>6173922

Seriously? Fuck. What's he doing instead?

[Anonymous No.6173981]

[Anonymous No.6173992]

[Anonymous No.6174043]

How has nobody said pic related yet?

Seriously though, have a lot of you read Kafka's novel Amerika? He's discussed quite often here, but I never see mention of that work. I just started reading it, not sure how I feel about it yet. Seems very different from everything else I've read of his (a lot).

[Anonymous No.6174075]

>>6174043
I'm reading Amerika

I really really like it, though his other stuff is probably better - it's obviously an earlier effort.

There's an irony in its naivety, don't you think?-- given that he seems naive in a big way about the US. My edition has endnotes pointing out loads of instances of his mistakes, it's actually quite funny. Maybe it's purposeful.

I urge you to continue reading.

[Anonymous No.6174085]

>>6174075
I meant to say its theme of naivety. oops

[Anonymous No.6174095]

>>6173955
>>6173922
The Book Of Strange New Things is really, really good as well.

His wife recently died so I guess he's taking some time off, I guess he may come back.

[Anonymous No.6174242]

This came out last year. I don't think anybody's heard of it but it was worth whatever I paid.

[Anonymous No.6174285]

>>6174043
Amerika is one of my favourite novels. People say it isn't muhh Kafkaesque but it is, its just more subtle than his later works.

[Anonymous No.6174344]

[Anonymous No.6174372]

Probably the funniest book I've ever read. Based Persian literature.