What five books do you wish everyone had read/you most love to talk about? And WHY???

Can't wait!

This is why I was hyperventilating!

I REALLY think you'll like him.

Try getting his audio tapes; he's one of the few authors that can read his own prose and actually improve the tone.

You (and Drewdad) want to have his babies, don't you?

For discussing lit'rature:

1. A passing familiarity with the classic epic poems. Iliad, Odyssey, Beowulf, Epic of Gilgamesh. So much of modern narratives are built over these foundations.
2. A passing familiarity with Shakespeare and his works. Again, you'll see Shakespearean plot devices all over the place. (An episode of Black Adder had a woman passing as a man, with many hilarious consequences. A rip-off of Twelfth Night, which in turn was a rip-off of earlier works.)
3. Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams. The epitome of great SF.
4. Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. I absolutely detest this book, but it is one I love to discuss. Incredible detail, terrible "ending".
5. I have too many other books clamoring for a place in the list....

Pretty much.

OK, I don't want to overhype. He just strikes me as being in a continuum with other stuff I know you like -- Douglas Adams, Monty Python -- and it's nice to be able to recommend something that I think you'd really like, that you apparently know nothing about.

DrewDad, Chai, farmerdude, what do you think she should start with? "Holidays on Ice"? (Includes the elf story but then some more forgettable ones.)

One comment, and I have a fanboy crush? Sheesh.

Epics and Shakespeare...agree.

Convince me on Aristoi! I don't do SF since I was a kid.

ok...why do you hate Grapes????

(Waiting patiently until they agree...)

Snow Crash: great characters and adventure
Their Eyes Were Watching God: loved the main character
Tourist Season: made me laugh out loud many times

I'd list more than three if my memory allowed. Unfortunately what books I have time to read now are young adult fantasy (my son's books) and I'm afraid to discuss them in adult company.

I consider Santaland Diaries to be a great starting point. Don't remember which book it's in.

I think you can listen to it, here: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/weed/20001223.weed.02.rmm

Because it just cuts off the story in the middle.

The problem is that any meaningful synopsis would give away spoilers.

I like his Cryptonomicon better. Anathem's good, too. How can you dislike a book with a character named Hiro Protagonist, though?

I'll have to read more of his stuff. I started reading one other that I didn't like as much as Snow Crash. Can't remember the name of it, though.

It was a standalone, then in "Holidays on Ice." (Santaland Diaries = elf story.) Farmerman mentioned that one too so maybe a consensus is emerging.

FreeDuck, very much agreed with "Their Eyes Were Watching God."

I'm kinda struggling through his trilogy about Newton, the Royal Philosophical Society, etc. Some of it is interesting; a lot of unnecessary stuff to wade through, though.

I think I learned something about myself pondering this question. I realized that all the books I talk about the most (but don't necessarily love the most) have a similar theme: tragi-comedies about being outside the "norm".

All of these books are funny but be forewarned -- some of them are so dark that many people don't think there is one single thing funny about them. So without further ado, I offer:

"Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh. Probably the book that influenced me the most by helping me realize that I wasn't an awful kid but that most kids are pretty awful.

"Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn. Loving mother drinks insecticide and other poisons while pregnant in hopes of having freaky babies so that they can "make money just by being themselves" while touring with the family freak circus. It doesn't sound funny but it is.

"The Gospel Singer" by Harry Crews. WTF? Seriously weird. What is normal and who gets to decide the definition? No funny "haha" but funny peculiar.

"My Happy Life" by Lydia Millet. So you're locked in an insane asylum that is scheduled to be demolished. Everyone is gone and you have been completely forgotten. You have nothing to eat but soap, you have a broken pencil and a shoebox full of memories. How do you spend your time? You recount the "happiness" that lead you here, that's what. Most of the story is horrifying but the way it's told is kind of happy.

"Soon I Will Be Invincible" by Austin Grossman. Who knew superheros and supervillians could be so petty? Hilarious.

One of these might soon be replaced by the book I'm reading now "A Fraction of the Whole" by Steve Tolts, which I quoted to you on another thread, dlowan. I find myself talking about this book all the time to everybody.

listening to the audio book of "Soon I Will Be Invincible", really great story