Help me decide what to read next

[Representing_Tromba]

I want it to be shorter but I also want it to be fun and interesting. Give your thoughts!

 

[AYM]

Spoiler: Mfw someone actually asks about traditional books here:

/s

 

[Arkus86]

The Iliad and Odyssey.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

The Iliad and Odyssey.

I already read that rather recently.

Spoiler: Mfw someone actually asks about traditional books here:

View attachment 39965 /s

It's the home of original stories, not the home of smut fanfic.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Come on, Beowulf, you need more love. ?

 

[Placeholder]

> but I also want it to be fun and interesting.

Holmes is fun, and a bunch of shorts.

I'd read Aaronovich's Rivers of London. A-maz-ing!

Then Banks's Consider Phlebas. Straight in, no summary or spoilers.

 

[Deleted member 166465]

How about Gustave Flaubert - madame Bovary?

 

[GwynLordofTinder]

Gotta go Holmes for short and fun, although be ready for novel length rants against labor unions and mormonism.

 

[Hoshino]

All tommrows.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

How about Gustave Flaubert - madame Bovary?

I am only choosing based off of books I own at the moment and these are all the options I want to choose from at the moment. Though I will add it to my reading list.

All tommrows.

huh?

 

[Deleted member 166465]

I am only choosing based off of books I own at the moment and these are all the options I want to choose from at the moment. Though I will add it to my reading list.

huh?

I see... In that case, my split between macbeth and quixote... You cant go wrong with old william, But Quixote is even older and the magnum opus of spanish literature... I say read them both. Start with wichever you want, hummm start with shakespeare.

 

[Alski]

 

[Corty]

Man, you forgot to put me on the list. Silly goose!

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Man, you forgot to put me on the list. Silly goose!

I will eventually

 

[Rhaps]

Don Quixote, gotta check it out. Its a fun book to read

 

[BigBadBoi]

Beowulf was short as fuck you can read it in like 10-15 minutes. Read Sherlock Holmes.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

If you're into the Arthurian stuff, I'd go to either the more historical ones like Bernard Cornwall, or the more fantastical ones like Cordway Jones, rather than going "back to the source" (as there are a lot of bad translations out there).

You can't go wrong with Shakespeare, but it often works best if you either have friends to read it with you as if putting on a play, or have a group to discuss it with (I would also say the same, though you didn't list any, for anything written by James Joyce).

Holmes is a good thought, but I've seen three very different "complete collections" so be careful if you go that route to see that you ARE reading a complete collection (including the one novella - Hound of the Baskervilles - and the tangentially connected "A Study in Scarlet" along with the Return of Sherlock Holmes, which is often omitted in collections.)

If you want an outside recommendation, George MacDonald Fraser's "The Flashman Papers" are some of the best anti-hero, borderline smut, comedy, historical fiction that sometimes intersects regular fiction ever published.

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

Macbeth is one of the finest examples of Mr. Shakespear's lasting influence on the English language. It is full of phrases, words, and contractions that have no historic precedent but remain in common use today.

 

[LiteraryWho]

Gotta go Holmes for short and fun, although be ready for novel length rants against labor unions and mormonism.

You mean based Doyle chapters?

You probably can't go wrong with any of those, depending on what you're looking for. If it's just for fun, Sherlock Holmes is probably your best bet, but if you're looking to inform your writing on early American culture (for that Historical Fiction you're working on), then the Scarlet Letter is the obvious choice (etc. for the others).

 

[CharlesEBrown]

You mean based Doyle chapters?

You probably can't go wrong with any of those, depending on what you're looking for. If it's just for fun, Sherlock Holmes is probably your best bet, but if you're looking to inform your writing on early American culture (for that Historical Fiction you're working on), then the Scarlet Letter is the obvious choice (etc. for the others).

A Study in Scarlet was one of Arthur Conan Doyle's few novels - it has Holmes in it very briefly (IIRC twice, kind of a "framing device"). A small section of that novel does criticize unions, and a larger section does attack, IIRC (read it in the 80s so may be blurring details), founder John Smith specifically and Mormonism in general for a good size chunk of the text.