A journalist gets shipwrecked on the island of Pala with initial intentions to get his good pal access to the rich oil there. He learns their way of life- eastern religion mixed with western science and a few other interesting ways of life chucked in (tantric, environmentalism, drug use etc), and eventually sees its merits. If i were to ever be religious, it would be to follow this path. The philosophy i deeply agree with and this is one of my most favourite books ever. Huxley is a genius, i swear.
Another Huxley book, but this time not a Utopian, but a dystopian (one of my most favoured genres!). It's set some time in the future where humans are conditions and controlled through sleep therapy, drugs and genetic engineering. Seriously intelligent stuff (and brings up huge moral issues). A 'native' is introduced to this world from one of the last remaining 'normal' tribes (where family and religion are central) and well i don't want to give away the plot...
Okay, the last Huxley book I'll mention, i promise. This is only a short novel but it begins (well sort of, it actually begins with movie producers finding a script in the bin and going to a search to find the author) set at the scene of world war 3, where a race of intelligent baboons force Einsteins (each side has one on a leash) to release nuclear weapons on the opposing side, the results seem quite obvious no? Fast forward 100 years and a group of New Zealand biologists (NZ was spared in the bombings as it was of no importance) travel to California to study. What they find however is a devil worshiping tribe, which makes for very interesting reading!
Okay, if you haven't heard of this or Jack Kerouac, then you aren't living! Ha.. well this influential novel was of course during my favourite period of time- the Beat Generation, and is based on truth of America in the 40s and the travels of Kerouac and co. It makes me want to get in a car with no expectations and just drive across America, meeting anyone, doing anything and just living. Oh, oh, oh. Amazing. Please read, it will really change things for you.
A group of kids get shipwrecked on an island, and start to create a society of their own. It makes a clear point of human nature and the failings of man. And it's just eye opening, because it is kids that are doing such things it really strikes a cord to think, wow, this can and does happen. It's intense. Please read it, i want to read it again too!
Though controversial (subject matter is paedophilia) when read it doesn't seem disgusting in the slightest. Nabokov's supreme writing really makes you understand to some extent Humbert's fascination with nymphets. Don't let it worry you, trust me.
Kafka is astonishing. This novel is so full of ambiguity and nothingness, but it really is symbolic for bureaucracy. A man arrives in a town, claiming he has been hired as a surveyor, yet he is denied access to the castle which it seams is a hugely complex labyrinth of red tape. To work he must go to the castle, yet he cannot go to the castle because he doesn't have this job of importance. Frustrating it is, yet poignant.
There is sense in nonsense, as shown by Carroll. This book is quirky, entertaining and to me strikes some similar cords as the castle. Alice tries to get home, yet on the path there she ends up where she was before she left. It's just gold, this book.
Wow, reading this in some parts i physically felt sick. Did he really kill all these people or was it all some dark fantasy. The superficiality of the 90s is a main driver of this novel, chapters being added to describe dress style, decor of the restaurants and bands popular at the time, as if it were coming straight from a magazine. The ways in which Bateman lives and feels and kills is unbelievable, and i don't know how Bret Easton Ellis came up with it!
I really drew some big comparisons between myself and the main character, so this may be one reason why i enjoy it so. It was just so interesting to read something with this quirky style and content, it really deals with issues experienced by many I just dug it. It's hard to describe all these books as it's likely I'll take different things from it than you, but the main thing is i just really enjoyed them all tremendously
Very Palahniuk in style, Rhinehardt writes about a man lives by the die, whose life is dictated by the number he rolls and the option previously picked for said number. It challenges what we think of as free will and openness o new things, and is a totally different way to deal with psychiatry. Though it is hefty, it's quite a breeze to read through.I think that's a fair few books there, but some more i will mention are:
Doors of perception- Huxley
the trial and the metamorphosis- both my Kafka
harry potter (derr!)
The bitterbynde trilogy (for those fantasy fans)- Cecelia Dart-Thorton
1984 and Animal Farm- Orwell
The Giver- Louis Gowry (i think!)
Fight club and Survivor- Chuck Palahniuk
Any book by Douglas Adams
High fidelity- i forget the authors name, sorry!
Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
Vernon God-Little- DBC Pierre
Do Androids Dram of Electric Sheep- Philip K Dick (this was what Blade Runner was made from)
Catcher in the Rye- J D Salinger
The Great Gatsby- F Scott Fitzgerald
A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time- Mark Haddon
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES!- John Keneddy Toole
The World According to Garp- John Irving
Portrait of an Artist as a young Man- James Joyce (I'm not quite ready for Finnegan's wake, but keen to read Ulysses)
Three Novels- Samuel Beckett
William S Burroughs.. really anything by him, he's a big fan of ellipses, like me...
Catch-22- Joseph Heller
The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
Okay, i really like books, now you should too! :)
