Literary drought

[gildeddawn]

This didn't work at all on Facebook, so I'm hoping with the semi-permanent nature of Livejournal posts these days (what with the friends page being sparsely populated), it'll work better here. I feel like I'm out of books to read and need suggestions. Anyone?

Comments

[salieri]

I was recently impressed with Shadow of the Torturer. Also, do you ever read Murakami? I really liked The Wind Up Bird Chronicles and Hard Boiled Wonderland... something.

[userj]

I found Shadow of the Torturer extremely boring! Stopped about 1/2 way through and it's still on my shelf. :/

[salieri]

It's definitely more driven by weird narrative choices than plot or character development. I was actually surprised it held my interest as well as it did. But the world is so big and well thought out! There were also a lot of scenes I ended up thinking back on. But I'm not sure I can describe what I like about it any better without sounding foolish.

[gildeddawn]

I tried to read Gene Wolfe once and thought it was completely worthless, though it was not that particular novel. There was no narrative thread at all, as I recall. Kind of wrote him off after that.

I've read one Murakami, Norwegian Wood, which struck me as pretty stark and depressing. Are the others as well?

[salieri]

I could see someone describing Windup Bird that way, but you should try Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. There's more humor in that story and it's just cool.

I really can't defend Wolfe's narrative style. If that bothered you in whatever else you read I don't think you'll like the Book of the New Sun series any better.

What about a good old Donald Westlake caper? I always enjoy his John Dortmunder novels, though I can't speak to anything else of his.