bluepolaski

Well, I work a night shift at a small time porn store. It's never very busy so I spend most of my time reading, and I've just finished my pile of to-read books, and I'm looking for more - anyone have suggestions? I'm looking for easy-to-read, light-hearted stuff is possible. Classics too.

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Redlemon

Can you give us at least a few names of books that you have read that you liked, or even that you didn't?

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Mith

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is hilarious.

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desal75

Harry Potter is light hearted and easy to read.



Catch 22 is super funny but it can be hard to follow at times. Autobiographies of athletes or musicians are very wity most of the time without being much work for the brain.

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The_Jazz

Try A Confederacy of Dunces. It gets my vote for the greatest posthumous debute novel ever.

That's my basic recommendation for anyone who's looking for a book. However, you need to answer Redlemon's question before I can give you anything else.

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Willravel

I really enjoyed Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, but it's not light reading by any stretch. I also love Jules Verne. Ghandi On Non-Violence is a personal favorite. Les Miserables is pretty good. Ender's Game comes highly recommended.

snowy

Classic Series to Read:

Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings
The Chronicles of Narnia
Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy

Other books to read:
Chuck Palahniuk: Choke and Fight Club
J.D. Salinger: Catcher in the Rye
David Brin: The Postman
Ernest Hemingway: And the Sun Also Rises
Mark Twain: Innocents Abroad
Irvine Welsh: Trainspotting, Ecstacy
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

A mix of classics and new stuff...hope that helps.

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albania

How about a collection of short stories by O. Henry, although you could say some of his works are slightly difficult to read just because he wrote in the early 1900s. They're usually simple enough though.

snowy

I read Gift of the Magi at Christmas to a 4-year-old and condensed the language a little bit for her, but she understood the point of the story--which is the important thing when reading O. Henry.

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bluepolaski

Looking at my bookshelf, I'm noticing that I have hardly any books which are fiction. Mostly philosophy, and other non-fiction stuff which is hard to read at work because it requires deep concentration and I get interrupted by customers every so often. So I need good novels, memoirs, and humor too (just broke up with my girlfriend).

Today I went to the book store and purchased Penguin Classics: Portable Sixties Reader and Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. I've heard a lot about the latter being hilarious.

As for fiction which I have read and enjoyed recently, that list would be something like:

Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
1984 (Orwell)
Running With Scissors (A. Burroughs)

Fuck... That's about it. Told ya, not a lot of fiction.

I've always had something against Harry Potter, but I feel like giving it a shot because they do seem like light and easy reads, seeing as how fans blow through them in a night or two. and a couple of those Terry Prachet books sound funny.

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"I never stopped to think of it before, but you know - a policeman will jest stand there an' let a banker rob a farmer, or a finance man rob a workin' man. But if a farmer robs the banker - you'd have a whole darn army of cops out a-shootin' at him. Robbery is a chapter in etiquette." - Woody Guthrie

Willravel

Sci fi, right up my alley. This list should keep you busy for a few months:
Dune Series
Ender's Game Series
Foundation Series
2001, A Space Odyssey
Childhood's End
The Martian Chronicles
The Neanderthal Parallax
The God's Themselves
The Illustrated Man
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Bladerunner)

kramus

Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury.
Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold
Gaea trilogy by John Varley
Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin

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Redlemon

If Klosterman rings your bell, try some Mark Leyner.

The lightest good stuff I can think of would be Spider Robinson's "Callahan's" series, and Robert Asprin (but only stuff 10 years old or further back).

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pai mei

Iron Heel by Jack London, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

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highthief

Ulysses is some nice light reading by this Irish author, Joyce.

Various stuff by Dostoyevsky also make for a quick read.

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snowy

Play nice, highthief...

Why don't you throw in Ayn Rand while you're at it?

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SecretMethod70

LMFAO

I'm honestly not sure what to recommend for "light reading"...

I haven't read the Discworld series, but it seems that might fit the bill. You could also try getting some collections of short stories as well. If you like Science Fiction, there's a good collection of short stories by Philip K. Dick which might fit what you're looking for. There are a few other good recommendations in this thread, but to be honest I don't think most of them qualify as light reading. (Seriously will, Les Miserables?)

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Willravel

Light reading? The last light reading I did was the Berenstain Bears or Goosebumps. I read Moby Dick in 6th grade and never looked back.

When I read "light reading", I thought you just meant "not War and Peace". Les Mis is less than War and Peace. Also, no one does characters quite like Hugo.

SecretMethod70

hehe, that's why I have difficulty thinking of light reading as well. Though, I think Philip K. Dick's short stories can be classified as such, and probably Terry Pratchett as well. Harry Potter probably is (but I haven't ready any), and The Lord of the Rings is also probably light enough. The Sun Also Rises isn't something I'd call light reading, but Hemingway's writing style makes for some pretty easy and quick reading IMO, so you might want to give it a try anyway. Don't touch Victor Hugo, James Joyce, or Fyodor Dostoevsky, at least not for reading while you're at work. They require - and deserve - much more attention than reading at work can allow.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

Willravel

I guess I was going by gross weight to categorize light reading. Anything under like 10 pounds is pretty light!

debaser

Hemingway. 'nuff said.

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Elphaba

Still wiping the tears from my eyes.

How about a nice little collection of short stories like "Canterbury Tales?"

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fresnelly

How about a collection of short stories?

A rollicking good start would be The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century: including stories by Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Finney, Joe Haldeman, Ursula K. Le Guin... by Harry Turtledove (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor)

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Manic_Skafe

I think you'd probably dig Miranda July's newest collection of short stories. She the same woman that wrote, directed, and acted in "Me You And Everyone We Know" and I think her newest collection of short stories (that are oddly yet not surprsingly titled) - "No One Belongs Here More Than You should be right up you alley. The book kept me reading, laughing, and even awkwardly aroused at times.

While they're nothing alike, I'm pretty sure that if you enjoy "Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs" then you'd also like "No One Belongs Here More Than You". Although with your porn shop job - you may want to go with yellow jacketed cover rather than the pink.

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thingstodo

Try some Nelson DeMille, David Ellis, Elmore Leonard, Michael Palmer, Frederick Forsyth, David Baldacci, John Sanford...

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MSD

Keep yourself occupied for a while: pick up Bradbury's The Illustrated Man and Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths.

ratbastid

Check out the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons. My favorite SciFi novels of all time. I've bought and "loaned" many copies of the first book (called Hyperion), and it's so good, I don't mind having to re-buy it. Also Illium and Olympos, same author.

Check out ANYTHING by Christopher Moore, but maybe start with Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, which is FREAKING HYSTERICAL. You WILL laugh out loud, especially if you have a Christian background.

and Lullabye and Survivor and Haunted. Run, don't walk. These are books that stick to your brain's ribs.

mixedmedia

Whenever anyone asks me for a seriously good read that is not too 'serious' I always offer Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Don't let the fact that it's a 'western' put you off. You forget that after the first chapter or so.

Another read that's a lot of fun and not too heavy is Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe.

Michael Chabon, David Sedaris, John Irving - any of their books are totally readable, yet totally outstanding.

And if want to read something that will really blow your mind with both extreme subject matter and extremely beautiful writing try, Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is a very engaging read and by turns very funny and very disturbing.

That's all I can think of right now.

I second snowy's The Great Gatsby recommendation. It's one of my all-time favorites.

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snowy

I'll second your recommendation of Lolita. Nabakov turns a phrase like no one else.

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spindles

I'll second this.

I'd also add Piers Anthony - I especially like the Incarnations of Immortality series.

and if you like fantasy - do yourself a favour a read some David Gemmell - not necessarily too mind expanding, but easy reading...

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SecretMethod70

Ah yes, I have a friend that is a big fan of Piers Anthony. Another one I haven't read yet but have heard many good things about.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

roachboy

if you can find anything by peter markus (good, brother) try his stuff--it is strange and beautiful and made up of short sections.
the "if you can find..." qualification comes from the fact that calamari press puts it out, and that is a small press that makes lovely things but not so many at a time.

ben marcus: the age of wire and string
another astonishing writer.

j-l borges: labyrinths, ficciones
um...yeah.

georges perec: species of spaces

daniel kharms and alexander vvedensky: the main with the black coat
fabulous, dark, funny russian surrealists (for lack of a better word)

victor pelevin: omon ra

where others above veered into sf, i veered into noir fiction. jim thompson is a reliable favorite, tho of his stuff population 1280, the grifters, after dark, my sweet and the getaway are all excellent.
also try:
raymond chandler
charles willeford
chester himes

for sf: try out some j.g. ballard. the short stories, atrocity exhibition, concrete island, crash...

btw:

i think joyce is getting a bad rap above.
dubliners is lovely--especially "the dead"--and fits around a punctuated attention span.
you have to read portrait of the artist before ulysses, so that works out.

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Crack

Can't go wrong starting the Wizard's First Rule series by Terry Goodkind.

You say you have time on your hands? That will fill it. I read all of the 11 books, in about 8 months, 90% of the time the reading was done whilst "otherwise occupied" in the mens room at work. I don't think that any of the books are shorter than 600 pages, and most are MUCH more, but you will be so involved in the lives of the characters that you will blow through them in no time.

Bonus: The final book in the series is coming out in November! (I think its November...)

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hagatha

I'm reading A Widow for One Year by John Irving. Its incredibly engaging and I recall that The World According to Garp was equally so. If you like books that start off as ordinary but veer into extraordinary paths, Irving delivers.
I also recommend Lonesome Dove, and really I haven't been disappointed by any Larry McMurtry --its light(ish) but highly plot driven.

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Ourcrazymodern?

Anthony's Xanth series is fluffy and punny as well.

Anything by Julian May or Sarah Zettel might fire your imagination...

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StellaLuna

ratbastid says:
Also by Christopher Moore:
Island of the Sequined Love Nun
A Dirty Job
The Stupidest Angel (which is a lovely Christmas story, the only one I know of in which Santa dies a horrible death, a small child drops the c-bomb, and a lonely man attempts to teach himself he doesn't want women by sending electric shocks through his nipples. I freaking LOVE Christopher Moore!!!!)

If you're an alternate history/sci-fi buff, I recommend the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, starting with His Majesty's Dragon. The 4th book in the series comes out on the 25th of this month, so you have time to read the rest!

eta: Thanks for the thread, by the way. I love reading new books... mayhaps I will be running to the store myself soon.

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snowy

Oh, I almost forgot a couple of my favorites:

White Noise by Don DeLillo
The Living End by Stanley Elkin (HILARIOUS)

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Willravel

Catcher in the Rye was amazing. I'd recommend it to anyone.

To the NSA: What? What are you talking about? I've never read Catcher in the Rye. I've never even heard of it. What is it? Some kind of book? Whatever it is, I'll have no part of it. I'm going to eat some apple pie, fill up my tank of gas, and support the war!

Ourcrazymodern?

THAT must have been tongue-in-cheek!

Robert Asprin is amusing.

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onodrim

I'm really into Neil Gaiman at the moment. I think it would work well for some lighter reading while you're working. What's great about it to me is that it is a fairly quick and easy read with some great wit and humor, but it says something as well. He has a few short story collections out, I haven't read them, but might be a good place to start.

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