I would say that VALIS is up there by PKD. I’m into that sort of crazy rabbit hole type of thing. I also read his Exegesis and several other novels and shorts, but I think I’m not done with him - I think I need to read Flow My Tears… The Interface thing on Reddit by mother horse eyes was really great and in the same vein.
Recent good science fiction: I really adored the Southern Reach trilogy which has some deep inscrutable undertones to it. There’s also a book called Shades of Grey that I very much enjoyed and I hope it gets some follow up. Station Eleven was good, part of a book club I was in. I very much like and respect Michel Holloubeq’s speculative fiction novels but he’s not for everyone. The whole 3 Body Problem thing was amazing but a bit outside of what I usually read.
I also was surprised to get obsessed with Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Min Kamp sextet. I thought the last novel of the series was a genius piece of work, but I can’t remember if it was book 2 or 3 that I really didn’t enjoy.
I also like classics and I fucking adored War and Peace by Tolstoy. Someone mentioned Steinbeck in this thread and East of Eden is stunning. I also really really enjoyed Tortilla Flat. Is Bolano considered a classic? He should be. Some “classic” outliers that you may not have heard of: Alfred Kubin’s The Other Side. The War of the End of the World by Llosa. Oh, also anything by Hermann Hesse is going to be great.
Both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stevenson’s the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde are fantastic.
The Name of the Rose by Eco is a wonderful mystery set in a medieval monastery.
William Gibson is a solid go-to for sci-fi.
I’m much in love with the strange ridiculousness of Samuel Beckett’s stuff too.
Nonfiction: Arctic Dreams by Lopez is stunning. Anything by John Muir. Nature/environment/ecology stuff which I like.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve read Lem and love his work. Will totally check out their work. I think I’ll start with Roadside Picnic as Stalker is easily one of my favorite movies ever. I just saw Hard to be a God and loved it! You just made that connection for me, so I’ll definitely dig into their books. I really love all of Tartovsky’s stuff too and I even got to see Nostalghia in the theater about a decade ago. I’m American but I love that era of Soviet cinema.
I would say that VALIS is up there by PKD. I’m into that sort of crazy rabbit hole type of thing. I also read his Exegesis and several other novels and shorts, but I think I’m not done with him - I think I need to read Flow My Tears… The Interface thing on Reddit by mother horse eyes was really great and in the same vein.
Recent good science fiction: I really adored the Southern Reach trilogy which has some deep inscrutable undertones to it. There’s also a book called Shades of Grey that I very much enjoyed and I hope it gets some follow up. Station Eleven was good, part of a book club I was in. I very much like and respect Michel Holloubeq’s speculative fiction novels but he’s not for everyone. The whole 3 Body Problem thing was amazing but a bit outside of what I usually read.
I also was surprised to get obsessed with Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Min Kamp sextet. I thought the last novel of the series was a genius piece of work, but I can’t remember if it was book 2 or 3 that I really didn’t enjoy.
I also like classics and I fucking adored War and Peace by Tolstoy. Someone mentioned Steinbeck in this thread and East of Eden is stunning. I also really really enjoyed Tortilla Flat. Is Bolano considered a classic? He should be. Some “classic” outliers that you may not have heard of: Alfred Kubin’s The Other Side. The War of the End of the World by Llosa. Oh, also anything by Hermann Hesse is going to be great.
Both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stevenson’s the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde are fantastic.
The Name of the Rose by Eco is a wonderful mystery set in a medieval monastery.
William Gibson is a solid go-to for sci-fi.
I’m much in love with the strange ridiculousness of Samuel Beckett’s stuff too.
Nonfiction: Arctic Dreams by Lopez is stunning. Anything by John Muir. Nature/environment/ecology stuff which I like.
The Other Side is one of my favorites.
Do you like the Strugatskies?
I am unfamiliar! Tell me more!
Brothers Boris and Arkady. The second most important Soviet-era Eastern Bloc sci-fi writers, after Lem.
Lem wrote Solaris, the Strugatskys wrote Roadside Picnic (adapted as Stalker).
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve read Lem and love his work. Will totally check out their work. I think I’ll start with Roadside Picnic as Stalker is easily one of my favorite movies ever. I just saw Hard to be a God and loved it! You just made that connection for me, so I’ll definitely dig into their books. I really love all of Tartovsky’s stuff too and I even got to see Nostalghia in the theater about a decade ago. I’m American but I love that era of Soviet cinema.