I just finished a great book, "Under the Banner of Heaven", by Jon Krakauer. It's about crazy Mormons, the history of the Mormon religion and how the fundamentalist sects formed, and the practice of polygamy within the whole thing. It's really fascinating- couldn't put it down.

Both great but Dick has written much better book. Valis is his magnum opus imo.

This thread makes me a bit depressed, I've spent so much time reading Austen, Brontes, Dickens and Shakespeare that I'm waaay out of touch with the modern classics, I need to get down the library.

I'd reccomend Alistair Gray although I'm not a big fan myself.
And The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway if you haven't already read it.
Pale Fire by Nabakov for something a bit different.

I cant be bothered going back to see who it was - but thanks to whoever recommended 'God of Small Things' - I just finished it and thought it was really amazing.

lol it was probably me, i am obsessed with that book a bit. every time i finish reading it it makes me depressed for like two weeks haha.

People what know me, what is a long, serious, well-regarded and yet still slightly light and frothy novel that I can read on flights to and from Australia, and travel on bus and train within it? I need something damn good. I'll have loads of time in transit.

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Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

serious but light and frothy?!
uh. first thing that comes to mind is On Beauty by Zadie Smith?
not sure why.
it's long-ish, anyway.

or i mean. you could always get some of the stuff eluned had us read. lisa jewell, lol.

I have a Lisa Jewell novel somewhere! Never read it. Maybe I should.

By "serious, but light and frothy" I sort of meant "well-considered by literary snobs, and kind of deep and shit, but without sacrificing on-train readability".

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

well okay. On Beauty then. unless you've already read it.
basically it is a very good book, serious but funny in some parts (which i guess is why i thought of it as both serious and frothy).

but i read it back in '06 so i can't remember too much about it.
lately all i've been reading is 19th century stuff, and i'm sure you don't want anything like that. so unfortunately i don't have any super-recent recommendations.

I'll try On Beauty.

Why would I not want 19th century stuff? Are you being a stereotypist? I quite enjoyed Jane Eyre, you know.

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Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

yeah but none of it is light and fluffy at all? except for oscar wilde & lewis carroll. pretty much 99% of what i read this semester was heavy depressing stuff.

i think you should read gone with the wind, bort.

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don't you think every kitten figures out how to get down
whether or not you ever show up

I will say:

Jack Kerouac - specially On the road, of course
Burroughs and Bukowski - no matter what you think of it
Sylvia Plath - of course, bell jar is required
Allan Poe
Milan Kundera - the unbearable lightness of being
and definitely definitely
Virginia Woolf
I also think the little prince must be read
and don´t call me cheesy - it just must

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Motel... Motel... Motel... Broken neon arabesque - WSBurroughs

I just read Wide Sargasso Sea. Anyone who enjoys new spins on old classics would love that.

has anyone read any Ezra Pound? I'm starting to appreciate...

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ah i LOVE wide sargasso sea. so does bortles.
i have a couple of her other books i think but even though they are really short i still haven't gotten around to reading them.

It made me really really sad. I still hate Jane Eyre though, boring fucking tome.

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haha. yeah i read wide sargasso sea before i read jane eyre (wss in 2006 and jane eyre in 2008), and to my surprise i actually did like jane eyre. all the christian wank could have fucked off though to be honest. and i didn't like the ending. but i guess that's what it was like back then. i agree about wide sargasso sea being sad. i wrote an essay about jane eyre and wide sargasso sea in relation to colonialism and imperialism this year, actually. it's pretty interesting when you think about it.

I thought The Eyre Affair might make Jane Eyre appeal to me, but whether she goes off with St John Rivers, or goes back to Rochester, she's still submissive and meek and annoying.

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yeah i agree. like one minute she's a really great character who goes on diatribes about not talking down to women, or not going with that bastard St. John to be a freaking missionary because she wants to be independent, but then she goes back to Rochester to essentially be nothing but a housemaid and/or redemptive figure for him. blah.