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  3 0 I think The Road is one of Cormac McCarthy's weaker books. My favorite from him is The Crossing, though it isn't the easiest read, unless you speak Spanish. All the Pretty Horses is really beautiful. And Blood Meridian is the darkest, bloodiest thing I've ever read. Have you tried Haruki Murakami? His Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is great. Kafka at the Shore is lovely. And his most fantasy oriented work is Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Murakami especially makes me think. He writes very sparing and accessible prose, but it sticks with you. I recently read the most recent National Book Award winner, Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann and was completely awed by it. It is extremely accessible but beautiful and profound. vinogatito answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 Fight Club vooodooo84 answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report 3 comments by NowhereMan, vooodooo84, and Madeline Rider… 0 0 Or probably anything by Chuck Palahniuk no? Bloke seems like he lives to write the gross-out sort of novels she mentions (from what little snippets I've read). NowhereMan commented over 2 years ago | Report 0 0 The only other Palahniuk I have read was Choke, which was decent but lacked the je ne se qua, that seemed to make Fight Club special. vooodooo84 commented over 2 years ago | Report 0 0 i've read most of chuck palahniuk but am pretty bored by it now. it's got the gross out bizarro factor but it's not really as intelligent as palahniuk would like to think. plus he's kinda a downer when it comes to thinking about the world. i met him once and my friend asked him what his spiritual leanings were. he said catholic so that must explain it. Madeline Rider commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 Try Joyce Carol Oates if you haven't read her--she is a beautiful writer who also happens to be incredibly disturbing. I'd recommend Haunted (an anthology) to start with based on your specific tastes. The stories she writes are subtly and magnificently creepy, but twisty in a way that has you contemplating who you are, where you've been, and what you've been hiding from yourself. Also, long shot that you haven't already read this, but Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes is engrossing. Richard Adams' Girl In a Swing is well written, with a fairly large helping of the disturbing and fantastic. Sphinx answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report 1 comment by CleverScreenName… 0 0 Good call on Something Wicked This Way Comes. It's a brilliant book and I can't read it again because it creeps me the hell out. In the same vein, I forgot to mention Richard Matheson as someone the original poster might like. CleverScreenName commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 I just finished reading "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley and really loved it. I also like a lot of the books you mentioned (Vonnegut, "high school" classics, etc.). Brave New World will likely make you examine your way of life/existence AND it's super short (200 pgs) and a breeze to read through. Urgutha Forka answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report 2 comments by Sphinx and Madeline Rider… 0 0 For Huxley, I actually like Island much more than Brave New World. Sphinx commented over 2 years ago | Report 0 0 i've read both :) can't believe i didn't put it on my list of favorites! Madeline Rider commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 You'll probably love Katherine Dunn's "Geek Love". It's bifurcated into past and present without any confusion. It's largely the first-person narrative provided by an albino dwarf who recounts her early life with mom and dad, owners of a traveling carnival, and her siblings--all of whom are "freaks". It's astonishing. Read some of the reviews on Amazon by other readers or google its industry reviews. Randal answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report 1 comment by Madeline Rider… 0 0 another favorite i forgot to put on my list. i picked up another of dunn's books called "truck" but haven't started it yet. Madeline Rider commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 existence/your life: try Ayn Rand's Anthem followed by Wolfe's The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test for two very interesting extremes. For gore & high school english class, I like me some vampires: Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire (and sequels) often hits the spot. Rev.Enant answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 I'm just reading Gunter Grass's "Crabwalk" now and it is pretty interesting. I think you might be interested in it. I am not sure how everything is going to tie together in the end, but the book is a kind of exploration of the effects of Nazi Germany...well, if I could paint a broad brush with it. It is kind of a hard book to explain. It might sound kind of wonky, but it is good. It is fiction and centers around a number of people and events that have to do with a sinking boat. But, it isn't anything like I describe it, because it is a very rich and interesting book. In the beginning the names might be a bit confusing just because there are so many, but if you hang in there, they come together in your mind. Kristin Bell answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Louis-Ferdinand Céline's Voyage to the End of Night influenced Vonnegut, Burroughs, Bukowski, Heller and Kesey. I too read Out and I liked it very much. I add Robert Coover as a suggestion as well. You Must Remember This, Or A Night at the Movies is a delightful postmodern selection of short stories akin to a matinee bijou programme gone awry. For the contemplation of life, Coover's early novel The Universal Baseball Association, J. Henry Waugh, Prop. is apt and accessible. Christina L answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Hey Madeline, Funny how that works, isn't it? If I had cable, I'd probably never read. First: You should totally read Out. I think Out is better than Grotesque. You might also like the work of Egawa Rampo, which is a pseudonym for a Japanese writer who liked Edgar Allan Poe so much that he adopted his name. (I am not kidding.) Rampo mostly wrote short fiction, and he wrote one especially good short story about a man who built a custom chair that he could smuggle himself into so that he could fulfill his fantasies of having a woman unknowingly sit on him. Creepy! Patricia Highsmith is the American version of that same kind of creepy thrill-ride. You might also like Tom McCarthy's The Remainder. It's a great twisty psychological thriller about a man who gets brain damage and then does the same things over and over again. If you haven't read Nabokov, too, I bet you'd love him. Have you read Joseph Heller? I think he would probably appeal to your modern classic-loving side. The best thing about him is that none of his books read the same. I loved God Knows, a satirical novel told from the point of view of King David, but Vonnegut himself loved Catch 22 and, especially, Something Happened. You should feel no shame in liking Hiassen. Have you tried Elmore Leonard? His novels are fast, well-plotted and great fun. They're a great replacement for cable. Paul Constant answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Take out the tasteful gore (not that I have anything against tasteful gore, I just can't say I've read it) and your third paragraph is a pretty broad summary of my reading habits. These made me think and I don't think they're "difficult": -Arthur Nersesian: The Fuck-Up, Chinese Takeout, maybe Unlubricated if you like the taste. -Aleksandar Hemon: The Question of Bruno, Love & Obstacles, (again) maybe The Lazarus Project. If you're interested, read Nowhere Man and explain to me what the heck the deal is with the ending (I didn't get it on the first run through and haven't found the time, or at least the overriding inclination, to try again). -Nick Hornby: A Long Way Down hit the spot for me, though that might've been down to the timing. -Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being you might have heard of, The Joke is the only other book of his I felt was worth it. -Leonard Cohen: Beautiful Losers offers some poetic highlights, if you're into that sort of thing, though the (for lack of a better word) erotica-like bits can be distracting. -Eduardo Galeano: Not fiction, and probably only if you're into Vonnegut's politics; Days and Nights of Love and War and Open Veins of Latin America are probably your best bets. The former is always good for a quick dip, like on the bus or something. Hopefully something there might spark some interest... NowhereMan answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 I go back and forth between (mostly) 3 genres lately; the more "literary" chick lit, total dick lit, and serious historical fiction. For the chick lit, I'd recommend Elinor Lippman; for the dick lit, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and Ken Bruen; and for the historicals, Bernard Cornwell and Sharon Kay Penman. I loved Dennis Lehane's foray into historical fiction, The Given Day, but a lot of people found it dull. I thought it was wonderful, but YMMV. Geni answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 "The Tennis Partner" may do both. It's written from the perspective of a doctor who sees his friend relapse back into addiction. The great detail keeps it real and avoids it becoming yet another my-druggie-friend-started-using-again novel. It's an intelligent read, but not a difficult one. CleverScreenName answered in Books & Writing over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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