Should I choose:
- The Passage, by Justin Cronin
- The Unit, by Ninni Holmqvist
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell
- Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami
- The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman
Or something else entirely?
Monday, July 19, 2010
What should I read next?
I'm taking a train trip (soon), and I want to stock up on some fresh reading material (that is, something other than the classics I've got on standby). It has to be available as an ebook. I'd like it to be relatively recent (written this century). It must be engrossing, and easy enough to follow that when Helena announces that she's bored I can break away from the book to set her on some new tack and come back to it and know exactly who's who and what's what.
Should I choose:
Or something else entirely?
Should I choose:
Or something else entirely?
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10 comments:
Well, that is quite a selection there. The Imperfectionists is on my soon to be read list and have been told by several reliable sources that it is very entertaining and all read in a single day. The Unit was one of my favorites last year despite the fact that I usually avoid utopian/dystopian fiction but is not particularly uplifting. Maybe The Imperfectionists.
The only one I've actually read is the Cronin, which would certainly meet your criteria. It might be better to read the others when you won't have as many distractions.
The Unit. Such a great novel. I still find myself thinking about it.
Well, I've read all of them except The Passage, and they are all good reads. I would leave the Mitchell until you have a nice long period of uninterrupted reading time because you'll get hooked quickly. The Imperfectionists is nice for a trip because while all the stories are connected, they each stand alone, so if you are interrupted, it's easy to go back. The Unit will give you shivers but is a quick, engrossing read, so also good for the train. Kafka on the Shore is very surreal, so good if you want a complete reading escape from the mundane.
Even if you have a totally quiet, uninterrupted period of reading without any Helena around, you will still not know "exactly who's who and what's what" in Kafka on the Shore. Also, I don't know your level of sensitivity with this, but it has a pretty awful cat-torturing scene. I ended up glad I read it, but I still kind of wish I could erase that one scene from my memory. Animal cruelty is "that issue" for me, though. :-/
Have heard great things about the Homlqvist and Mitchell books!
The Mitchell..
Thanks, All! So many answers, it's almost like no answer at all! I factored in a few votes I received via email and facebook, and then Helena cast the deciding vote in favour of postapocalyptic vampires. But I'm still debating how many of the others I can reasonably justify buying at this point — there is a return trip to consider after all.
Hey, Mitchell fans: I've never read anything by him. Maybe I should start with Cloud Atlas?
If you want a sense of how Mitchell can dazzle with narrative originality, then Cloud Atlas is the one to start with. But my personal favourite is Black Swan Green because he so inhabited the voice of this young boy and it was such a convincing, heartbreaking book - it was really proof of how good a writer Mitchell is and how he never writes the same book twice.
Hmmm..... I was looking at this Mitchell book just this evening at Chapters.
The intriguing dustjacket drew me hitherward.
I haven't read anything by Mitchell either.. but have a feeling me and him are gonna click..
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