azuire: (yatta!)
azuire ([personal profile] azuire) wrote in [community profile] inkstains2010-07-28 11:40 pm

tnt: recommendations!

Reminders: Editing Post, and Week 2 Topic!

Hello everyone! Today we're having an open T&T thread, for book recommendations!

Each recommendation should give a brief summary of the book and why this book has earned a place as one of your favourites. A simple 'because I liked it' usually isn't enough to convince someone, so tell us why we should pick it up ourselves. :-)

I'll go first!

title: If on a winter's night a traveller
author: Italo Calvino
why: You are trying to read a book called If on a winter's night a traveller. As you venture further into the book, it comes apart at the seams: the walls between fiction and reality start to fade. Little mysteries in the plot come together (like how the titles of the chapters make up a coherent sentence). A definite must the next time you want an armchair adventure.
draigwen: (Default)

[personal profile] draigwen 2010-07-28 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Title: The Eyre Affair
Author: Jasper Fforde
Why: It's a book about books. About visiting books and living in the 'book world'. Where the characters in the books are real, in a sense. It's very very quirky. It's followed by a series of books so don't read this unless you're willing to read the rest of the series!
pipisafoat: image of virgin mary with baby jesus & text “abstinence doesn’t work" (Default)

[personal profile] pipisafoat 2010-07-29 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
The "book about books" thing reminds me of Inkheart; have you read that book or seen the movie?
draigwen: (Default)

[personal profile] draigwen 2010-07-29 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I *may* have seen the movie - the name sounds somewhat familiar. But I've definitely never read the book. Will have to watch out for that one!
draigwen: (Default)

[personal profile] draigwen 2010-07-29 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Yup - it's the first in the series. So worth a read!
pipisafoat: image of virgin mary with baby jesus & text “abstinence doesn’t work" (ted reads)

[personal profile] pipisafoat 2010-07-29 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
title: A Planet Called Treason
author: Orson Scott Card
why: I love most anything by OSC, and I have absolutely nothing against rereading them, but this is one I pick up exactly once a year - it's close enough that I remember why I love it and don't get antsy to read it, but it's far enough apart that I'm still surprised by what happens a little bit. It's a fun sci-fi/fantasy read, but it's got a lot of social commentary underneath that, which is what I really like.

The other book I read each summer, which I haven't yet this year because my friend is borrowing it, is also a huge amount of social commentary, though without the sci-fi coating:
title: Atlas Shrugged
author: Ayn Rand
lalalaleigha: (Default)

[personal profile] lalalaleigha 2010-07-29 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I am reading Atlas Shrugged right now. I've read the first 400 pages three times and then I have to stop because I get too involved. I'm on page 367 and yesterday I experienced great gripping fear about how much society dictates our potential and how we've desensitized ourselves to it enough that we barely even notice the extent to which it's being done. I'm taking a break again. I'd really like to finish it this time though. I love it madly; it's just very intense.
mercredigirl: Text icon: Some books leave us free and some books make us free. (Emerson) (some books)

[personal profile] mercredigirl 2010-07-29 07:27 am (UTC)(link)
title: a suitable boy
author: vikram seth
why: the description is so sensory it draws the reader in; it has as its backdrop the independence of an ENTIRE COUNTRY and manages to make that work; and it blends comedy with tragedy in an effortless mix of bitterness and wryness. it doesn't shy away from big themes (queerness! race! caste! religion! colonialism!), and it packs a hefty punch.

[personal profile] cheratomo 2010-07-29 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Title: Confession of a Shopaholic
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Why: Although it pretty much is a guilty pleasure, it's earned a nearly top spot for having a ridiculously addictive inner monologue. I have never read an inner monologue that is so fluid and entertaining before. I can seriously read each book in this series in a day because it's so addictive.