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Raymond Carver

Charles Bukowski

Henry Miller

Jack Kerouac

Kevin Canty

J.D. Salinger

Frederick Exley

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Kilgore Trout

Yep. Vonnegut, for sure.

 

Also:

J.D. Salinger

Harlan Ellison

Salman Rushdie

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And, maybe I need to clear my head and give him another fair shot, but I generally find Pynchon to be insufferably long-winded.

(Although I do appreciate his sense of the absurd.)

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And, maybe I need to clear my head and give him another fair shot, but I generally find Pynchon to be insufferably long-winded.

(Although I do appreciate his sense of the absurd.)

I have read only one Pynchon ("V") and found it a difficult yet satisfying read. I may have to try another.

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I have read only one Pynchon ("V") and found it a difficult yet satisfying read. I may have to try another.

 

I apparently don't have the intelligence for Pynchon.  Got about 20 pages into Gravity's rainbow and realized I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the slightest. 

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I apparently don't have the intelligence for Pynchon.  Got about 20 pages into Gravity's rainbow and realized I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the slightest. 

 

Me too. Screw Pynchon.

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There should be a "Worst Books" thread. Years ago I had to read something called the sisterhood of traveling pants for a book club. The book club meeting itself consisted of everyone yelling at the host for picking that book. That was rewarding, the book sure wasnt.

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I know it always sounds bullshitty and pretentious or whatever but Mark Twain really is one of my favorites.  If you have not read Huckleberry Finn since high school, give it another read.  Truly the great American novel.

 

Oh, and Stephen King.

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Not mentioned so far:

 

John Fante

Raymond Carver

Thomas Hardy

James Ellroy

 

Already mentioned:

 

John Irving

Jack Kerouac

Kurt Vonnegut

Ernest Hemingway

Flannery O'Connor

Charles Bukowski

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I tend to like particular novels or nonfiction over having favorite authors, but here are a few I like a lot

 

Bill Bryson

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Charles Dickens (really)

Emily Dickinson (only poet I'd count as a favorite)

I love Dickens, I went through a phase were I read about 5 novels back to back. Great Expectations is in my top 10 all time fav list.

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I know it always sounds bullshitty and pretentious or whatever but Mark Twain really is one of my favorites.  If you have not read Huckleberry Finn since high school, give it another read.  Truly the great American novel.

 

Oh, and Stephen King.

 

I love Mark Twain. Also Jane Austin. Both, in very different ways, are wickedly witty observers on the human condition.

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I love Mark Twain. Also Jane Austin. Both, in very different ways, are wickedly witty observers on the human condition.

 

Twain is marvelous. He does get overlooked as a "children's" author in some ways, unfortunately, as though we outgrow Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer.

 

As an English major, I must confess my reading experience is pitifully lacking in Austin and--shame--Shakespeare! When I was in college, there was a move toward lesser-known authors or canonized authors' lesser-known works rather than classics, which was both good and bad.

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On Dickens, I've read Xmas Carol and Tale of 2 Cities. Loved Xmas Carol, didn't get into A Tale of 2 Cities until the final 1/3. Not exactly high literature, but I love Nick Hornby.

I read A Christmas Carol and it was a revelation being inside of Scrooge's head. Completely changed the story for me... for the better and destroyed any hyper-sentimentality that the movies displayed that was such a turn-off for me. Just a great, great book. Loved it.

 

Right after I finished it, I started reading Oliver Twist and had a hard time getting through it. Only got about 1/3 through before I put it down with every intention of finishing it; but I never picked it up again.

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