Book suggestions

[peteguy]

John Grisham

 

[curl]

Ivan Doig if will make you hate yourself for not growing up in Montana.
The Bartender's Tale and The Eleventh Man are two excellent books to start your exploration of this guy's work.

 

[fnord]

Pan:
You've had some wonderful suggestions already: Hemingway - especially the short stories, Jeff Archer, Patrick O'Brian, (I'm currently on the sixth novel) Larry McMurtry, P.K. Dick, but I'll also offer novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald - especially the short stories, James Jones - especially the short stories, John O'Hara - especially the short stories and my favorite crime writer, Raymond Chandler.
Chandler once wrote, "It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window."
Jesus, Mary and Joseph! How can you not love a guy who can write a line like that?
Fnord

 

[darwin]

I just polished off Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole crime series. Highly recommended.

 

[fnord]

Frank:
I don't want to steal the OP's thread but "Moby Dick" made me drop one high school and two college literature classes. Finally, at 23, I gutted through the first 150 pages and the book took on a lyrical quality.
It just might be the greatest U.S. work of fiction ever written and, at 57, it's a novel that keeps drawing me back every five years or so.
Brother, even the John Huston movie is a treat: Gregory Peck thundering from the main deck, Orson Welles stumping up to the pulpit to deliver his homily and Richard Basehart's incredibly understated performance as Ishmael.
I could, and should, put that movie right up there alongside "The Godfather" as the best film we have to offer as a country.
Fnord

 

[sablebrush52]

Great suggestions, all. I'll add Bram Stoker - Dracula, Charles Dickens - all of it, Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone, Henry James - The Turn Of The Screw; Roger Zelazny, Phillip José Farmer, Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, Ursula K LeGuin, Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, Michael Chricton, and Isaac Asimov for Sci-Fi and fantasy; Lawrence Block, Rex Stout, and Dashiell Hammett for mystery and detective fiction; and Shelby Foote for his Civil War history, which is pure poetry.

 

[oldreddog]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Michael Moorcock, so I will
Moby Dick is a changeling read, and without doubt the greatest novels in the American language. To my mind Vanity Fair is the finest novel in the English language.

 

[ocpsdan]

I listen to quite a few audiobooks at work, and my current 'read' is The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss. Great story, and makes the top ten lists for great fantasy works. Highly recommended.

 

[terrygoldman123]

Not sure what we're talking about. Read the classics when I was younger but now read loads of fiction-mysteries etc and for my money James Lee Burke's works are unparalleled. The prose is extra ordinary, the locales scenic and charming (either New Orleans or Montana), and the plots engaging. Google the Web site for him and read the books from the beginning.
Don't blame me when you get "hooked."

 

[indianafrank]

So many books, so little time!

 

[phred]

If the OP enjoyed both Poe and Verne, then I highly suggest H. G. Wells. "Island of Dr. Moreau", "War of the Worlds", "The Invisible Man", "The Time Machine"... All classics in their own right.
I've heard that the old "Five Foot Shelf" of Harvard Classics is now available in e-book format - definitely worth taking a look at. Here's a link.