08-07-2005 21:01									#1
	Best NON-SF/Fantasy Novels Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Something's wrong with you people. Nearly every book thread is about sci-fi or fantasy. That'd be understandable if there weren't more than a handful of truly great writers in these genres, but there ain't. Sorry, but them's the facts.

So this thread's for your Nabokovs, Faulkners, Naipauls, etc.

	08-07-2005 21:04									#2
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Oh, what the hell.

Atlas Shrugged.

	08-07-2005 21:09									#4
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Best NON-SF/Fantasy Novels

	08-07-2005 21:21									#5
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That's because most people here are nerds

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	08-07-2005 21:51									#6
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Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow
Pleading Guilty - Scott Turow
The Russia House - John LeCarre

	08-07-2005 21:56									#7
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I liked Absalom Absalom a lot

also War and Peace

and Youth (spelling?)

Jon Miller

	08-07-2005 22:39									#8
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I love Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities. Amazing, amazing book. Here's a site about Musil, for those of you who haven't heard of him:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jikje/New/about.html

Last edited by nostromo on 08-07-2005 at 23:00

	08-07-2005 22:57									#9
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'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' James Joyce.


A book which can strengthen your Catholic faith, or weaken it- and one which I return to, often.

'What Maisie Knew' Henry James.

One of the best portrayals of life seen through a child's eyes- and the effects of the callous indifference of adults on youth.


And two items which don't exactly qualify as novels, but definitely should be in-

Daniel Defoe's spare and haunting 'Journal of the Plague Year' and Jonathan Swift's still biting satire, 'Gulliver's Travels'.

If only Reagan had read Voyage Three, to the floating island of Laputa, where they carried out pointless scientific pursuits, such as trying to extract sunbeams from cucumbers.....

	08-07-2005 23:09									#10
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Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Bless Me, Ultima



John Grisham is also certainly a great fiction writer of today.

	08-07-2005 23:45									#11
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quote: Originally posted by Verto John Grisham is also certainly a great fiction writer of today.

If you want courtroom drama, Turow is the man to read. Grisham isn't 1/10 the writer that Turow is IMO.

	08-07-2005 23:46									#12
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quote: I liked Absalom Absalom a lot

I'll second that jon! Though the only reason I enjoyed it was that I read 3 summaries of it before I read the pages- if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have known what the *@(# was going on
----

quote: Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe Lord of the Flies, William Golding The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

...May I please inquire How those are your favorites and why?

	08-07-2005 23:48									#13
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Anything by Michael Crichton.

Actually, I really don't read any fiction EXCEPT Michael Crichton...

	08-07-2005 23:50									#14
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quote: I'll second that jon! Though the only reason I enjoyed it was that I read 3 summaries of it before I read the pages- if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have known what the *@(# was going on

I was utterly confused when I read The Sound and the Fury, especially the first chapter.

	08-07-2005 23:58									#15
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I'm convinced that it's impossible to enjoy Faulkner without either reading summaries or rereading his novels twice

	09-07-2005 00:08									#16
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quote: I liked Absalom Absalom a lot

One of my favorite novels.

I'm particularly fond of the Rooskies: Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Pushkin, etc.

	09-07-2005 00:13									#17
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what about Gogol... the Ukrainian semi-fantasist surrealist?

	09-07-2005 00:14									#18
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Haven't read him, yet.

	09-07-2005 00:21									#19
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quote: Originally posted by Richelieu Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow Pleading Guilty - Scott Turow The Russia House - John LeCarre

only Le Carre ive read were Tinker, Tailor and Honourable Schoolboy.

	09-07-2005 00:22									#20
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quote: Originally posted by nostromo I was utterly confused when I read The Sound and the Fury, especially the first chapter.

Its all about golf

	09-07-2005 00:25									#21
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quote: Originally posted by molly bloom 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' James Joyce.

"Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."

	09-07-2005 00:28									#22
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I can't stand Scarlet Letter or Portrait of an Artist. Or A Seperate Peace, for that matter.

Hmm... If we're speaking about modern ones, I'll say "Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" off the top of my head. For ones part of the literature canon, possibly "Crime and Punishment", though these are both things that I'll have to think about more.

	09-07-2005 00:29									#23
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Anything by Tom Clancy.

No, not really.

	09-07-2005 00:42									#24
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quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark only Le Carre ive read were Tinker, Tailor and Honourable Schoolboy.

I only started reading Le Carre recently and then again, only in french. I have to admit that i don't enjoy his earlier work as much as i thought i would.

	09-07-2005 00:51									#25
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quote: Originally posted by Richelieu I only started reading Le Carre recently and then again, only in french. I have to admit that i don't enjoy his earlier work as much as i thought i would.

If youre comfortable reading English, you should try reading him in the original. In Honourable Schoolboy, theres a certain amount of interplay between the British and Americans, and the different national (and class -yes among the Americans too) dialects is something he uses to establish charecter, and that would likely be lost.

	09-07-2005 01:35									#26
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quote: Originally posted by DarkCloud ..May I please inquire How those are your favorites and why?

Uh....because I like them?

quote: Anything by Michael Crichton.

I love Michael Crichton as well, but I figured most of his books (Jurassic Park, Lost World, Sphere, Prey, etc, would be classified as sci-fi, and thus excluded from this "poll".

quote: If you want courtroom drama, Turow is the man to read. Grisham isn't 1/10 the writer that Turow is IMO.

Never heard of Turow; I'll certainly have to check him out next time I'm at the library.

	09-07-2005 01:47									#27
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Robinson Crusoe

	09-07-2005 02:03									#28
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I don't think I've read any books that aren't either sci-fi/fantasy or political (which I don't really feel comfortable categorizing as "best")

Don Quixote is probably as close as it gets, although it's really a fantasy book.

	09-07-2005 02:26									#29
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If you are looking for plain entertainment, try Desmond Bagley or Alistair MacLean. HMS Ulysses and Where eagles dare are good - just found out Iron Maiden has made a piece based upon that book : http://www.lyricsfreak.com/i/iron-maiden/68038.html - I have difficulties to connect Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood and Iron Maiden, but what the heck, I like the lyrics

More heavy stuff could be Doris Lessing - Shikasta, although it's a boarderline sf book; jonathan swift : Gulliver's Travels - a little old but quite funny.

	09-07-2005 02:33									#30
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I'm partial to Hemingway and Steinbeck, so I'd say: For Whom The Bell Tolls andGrapes of Wrath.