Book Recommendations: Wanted!

[rebness]

So... um. Number three in my New Year resolution list is to read more, and by reading more I mean discounting the back of cereal boxes, teletext, anything on the internets unless it's an e-text of a book and newspapers. My book count for 2005 was pitiful and composed of too many re-readings.

Now, well-read flist, any recommendations? I'm something of a literary snob, so I likely won't go for chicklit, and I'm not the biggest fan of science fiction. Feel free to recommend any nonfiction works or biographies, too. I need to put these Waterstones' vouchers to sensible use.

For what it's worth, here's what I can remember of (Am ashamed.):


The Aeneid, Virgil
Short Stories, Anton Chekov
Death in Venice, Thomas Mann (re-read)
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Farcia Marquez (almost slung against the wall in frustration)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S Thompson (re-read)
Marie Antoinette, Antonia Fraser (unfinished)
Venice: Tales of the City, edited by Michelle Lovric
Short Stories Guy de Maupassant (French version)
Casanova: My Life, Giacomo Casanova (unfinished)
Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
Castle in the Air, Diana Wynne Jones
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, JK Rowling
Night Letters, Robert Dessaix (re-read)
The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy (poetry), Tim Burton
Farenheit 451, Raymond Bradbury (unfinished)
Pleasures and Days, Marcel Proust (unfinished)
The Firebrand, Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Motorcycle Diaries, Ernesto "Che" Guavera
Charmed Life, Diana Wynne Jones
The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke (still reading)

... There are more novels, but I can't remember them. They must have left such a lasting impression upon me.



As you can see, I need help. >:

Comments

[peregrinuscanus.livejournal.com]

Okay. I read 102 books last year (about 50% were Young Adult books that can be read in an evening). Some of the notables were -

Port Mungo - Patrick McGrath (in fact any Patrick McGrath book is v.v.v.good)
Small Island - Andrea Levy 5*
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 5* as well
Old School - Tobias Wolff (he wrote This Boy's Life as well)
Some Martin Amis - Money and Night Train being the ones I enjoyed most
Lolita - Nabokov
The Cider House Rules - John Irving

and for Young Adult books

The Lives of Christopher Chant/Conrad's Fate/Witch Week - Diana Wynne Jones (I defy you not to love Chrestomanci even more, and want Richard E Grant to play him in the film).
also -
Surrender - Sonya Hartnett (all her books are v. good)
Useful Idiots - Jan Mark (excellent and thought-provoking)

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Lots of people seem to love this Cloud Atlas, so I'm going to go with that, I think. I've always shied away from Martin Amis, but I'll give him a go.

Richard E. Grant would be sublime as Chrestomanci. I'll definitely continue the series this year.

interrupting, oh noes

[fadedacolyte.livejournal.com]

Chrestomanci? As in, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci?

How did I not know it's going to the big screen!

Re: interrupting, oh noes

[peregrinuscanus.livejournal.com]

It's not :( It just ought to! before REG gets too old to play Chrestomanci. I watched him in Withnail & I last night and it confirmed that he is born to play someone snooty in a dressing gown.

Re: interrupting, oh noes

[fadedacolyte.livejournal.com]

Awe no. There went my hope to see how much Hollywood can make things go awry to see it outside of my...um, head. o.O

Re: interrupting, oh noes

[rebness.livejournal.com]

We should make it happen one day. Possibly by kidnapping Mr. Grant.

[saffronlie.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I like Old School. I've told Becky to read that before. Perhaps she wants us to write it in huge letters on a banner or something before she gets the message.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

All right, all right, I get the hint. I trust both of you, so I'll check it out. ;)