This is not The Haters Club You're Looking For discussion

Okay, I have several compulsions that I hate, but I'm just going to focus on one. I have almost as many to-read books as read books, and my mind keeps telling me that it will be really satisfying somehow to have more to-read than read. But I can't seem to find any. I even added some recently which were pretty marginal. Many of them might suck. And I just can't find any more to add. Because I hate paranormal romance, queer artsy books, books with more than 1000 pages, dude on dude erotica (to be honest, I don't like any kind of erotica, but that would be my least favorite erotica), books that involve female castration, any book that was ever on any list compiled by Oprah, books where you have to think, because everything is symbolic, Spanish literature (I've read more than enough Borges and Marquez for one lifetime, and I'm proud to be the only Spanish Major who never finished Don Quixote), anything by a Bronte, books that are mostly read by chicks (reduntant, I know), etc.

I don't know if I'm fishing for recommendations or just bitching, but mercifully, I'm done.

OK well since I'm spending all day on the computer trying to get itunes to take it's head out of its ass and behave the way it's supposed to, which is BORING, i'm going to assume you're fishing for recommendations and give you some.

See No Evil The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
(i didn't read this but my husband said it was good.)

Winterdance The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod

The Angel of Darkness
since I saw you read The Alienist

An Unfinished Life

The Power of One

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint A Novel

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned

Keep getting your Cormac McCarthy on.... Read more of his books.

Pick up Jose Saramago: most importantly Blindness, The Cave, and Death With Interruptions.

Have you read any Jules Verne? I didnt see any Verne in your list. Get some of his shit.

A Scanner Darkly by Dick. Do it! It's a great read.

The Day of the Triffids

David Maine has some really great things out. Biblical but fictional and really interesting.

Glen Duncan too... big question mark on the afterlife kinda shit... my favorite of his was Death of an Ordinary Man

Maus I A Survivor's Tale My Father Bleeds History

Maus II A Survivor's Tale And Here My Troubles Began

Kingdom Come (art by Alex Ross)

The Mote in God's Eye

Footfall

Lucifer's Hammer

Somehow i think you'd like those last three...and Mote is probably my favorite Larry Niven book. If you're at all interested in police procedural novels, any of Ed McBain's novels are good. There's at least two Batman/Grendel graphic novels featuring Matt Wagner's Grendel character up against Batman... which led me later to some of the other Grendel graphic novels. Any Usagi Yojimbo tpb would be good... the character is loosely based on the legendary Japanese figure Miyamoto Mushai, and is quite good if you can get past funny animal characters and black and white artwork. You may also be interested to know that Stan Sakai, the creater of Usagi, was the letterer for Groo for a long while. Speaking of which... there's something like 60 Groo books listed on Goodreads...

If all else fails, do what i do: raid the book lists of friends/ people you know, or of people who positively reviewed books you like. I certainly raided the hell out of yours (though many of those were books i've already read but didn't have on my list).



Regarding Wizard's First Rule, which is already on your "to read" list...i hope it's one of the marginal ones you mentioned. I've got five books in the series, but i kept reading long after i had any real interest. The first book isn't bad...but it kind of deteriorates after that...

More:

The Question Vol. 1: Zen and Violence - reprinting the first few issues of The Question series written by (frequent Batman author) Denny O'Neil... Rorschach was loosely based on this character.

Freakonomics Rev Ed A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything -I wasn't all that impressed with it, but a lot of people were...

Okay, I did it. Thanks for your help, people. And yes, for some reason it's strangely satisfying. So you were right again, brain. This round goes to you. But I'll get you next time, you son-of-a-bitch, and you'll never see it coming.

I added it to the list, KD. And while I was looking at your bookshelves, I noticed that you share another of my compulsions - the need to catalogue every book accurately and thoroughly (which, I guess makes sense - seeing as how you work at a library). I was very impressed by your three pages of bookshelves. I've only got two so far, but I'll get there.

Holy Shit! King D - You actually listened to my request and read a Maine novel!!!! Yay!!!!!

I'm so happy. This was so campy it was impossible not to like it :)

So if you like this type of book, I have two more to suggest that are right in line with this.... ready?

Fragment
and
Curse of the Tarantula

and DO pick up more Maine! He's such a great writer.

btw, King D... I just totally raided your shelves and added some great looking novels to my to-buy list.

:)