Summer time, reading time

[gwaevalarin]

It's summer and the semester is almost over. That calls for hours and hours of lying in the garden with a good book. Well, as soon as the weather gets better again. If it doesn't then it calls for hours of lying on the sofa with a cup of tea and a good book. Either way, there's one problem: I've pretty much run out of reading material which is to say of books that I can't wait to read.

A trip to the bookshop yesterday taught me that a) the English section of German bookshops is way too small and b) there are too many books that could be good but that could just as well suck.

So I'm asking you: Are there any books you can recommend? Any must-reads? Books you read recently and enjoyed immensely? Books that you can read over and over again?

I'm open for almost everything that's either fiction or non-fiction with a lot of British humour (like An Utterly Impartial History of Britain). Preferably by British of Irish authors.

Comments

[linfer.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, wenn dich Fantasy interessiert, dann würde ich die First Law-Trilogie von Joe Abercrombie (Brite) empfehlen. Der Mann hat einen tollen Humor und Schreibstil, und die Bücher lesen sich praktisch selbst.
Es ist eher bodenständige Fantasy, zwar mit Magie, aber ohne wirklich abgefahren zu sein, die Charaktere sind allesamt einfach nur göttlich.

Edward Rutherfurd hat einen ziemlich tollen Zweiteiler über Dublin geschrieben, ein Mix aus vielen historischen Fakten und der fiktive Geschichte einer Dubliner Familie durch die Jahrtausende erzählt. Man sollte sich nicht zu sehr an die Charaktere binden, weil der Autor gnadenlos durch die Jahrhunderte springt, aber es ist imo großartig und spannend erzählt.

[nebulein.livejournal.com]

Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman?

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

Das klingt Beides sehr gut.
Ich mag Fantasy, wenn es nicht zu sehr mit magischen Kreaturen bevölkert ist und in die Sparte schein die First Law-Trlogie ja genau zu fallen.
Und ein Zweiteiler über Dublin würde sich gerade perfekt an meinen "Irish Studies"-Kurs anschließen.

Vielen Dank. :)

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

I love Terry Pratchett. Are Neil Gaiman's solo works as good as "Good Omens"? Because that was simply hilarious.

[fresleyforever.livejournal.com]

A book that I absolutely loved was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

I also enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

[flora2y5.livejournal.com]

Ich steh im Moment total auf Christopher Moore. Leider kein Brite, so weit ich weiß. Ich habe "Die Bibel nach Biff" gelesen und fand das Buch zum Schreien komisch...aber es ist schon etwas speziell.

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

The Book Thief... I've heard that title before. Somewhere. *wanders off to find out more*

Thank you.

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

Inwiefern speziell? Prinzipiell klingen die Beschreibungen auf amazon nämlich sehr gut, ich bin mir gerade nur nicht sicher, ob mir sein Stil eventuell zu amerikanisch ist.

Aber auf jeden Fall schonmal vielen Dank für die Empfehlung. :)

[flora2y5.livejournal.com]

Speziell im Sinne, dass es sich halt um eine Beschreibung des Leben von Jesus handelt und ich mir vorstellen kann, dass das nicht bei allen Leuten gut ankommt. Ich fands aber sehr lustig. Keine Ahnung wie der Stil ist, ich habs ja aus Faulheit auch auf Deutsch gelesen, da kann man das immer schlecht beurteilen.

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

Damit habe ich als heidnisch angehauchte defintiv-nicht-Christin eher keine Probleme. ;)

[lainvess.livejournal.com]

Neil Gaiman is, in my eyes, seldom actually "hilarious". By which I do not mean he never cracks jokes, or doesn't make any good ones - I'm just saying don't expect his books to be as thoroughly funny as "Good Omens", they're usually a little... well, not exactly dark. Slightly gloomy. And a little otherworldly. And very obviously meant for adults.
But you prabably shouldn't listen to me, I've only read about four or five Gaiman books (and one graphic novel) :p


I'm seldom any good at book recommendations, especially seeing as I have usually only a vague idea what the person asking likes to read and/or little experience with that area.
Glancing at my bookshelves, of course I can name you a couple of titles I personally adore and find generally underappreciated - my all-time favourite, "Winter Rose", for example - one of the most beautifully written books in the world, in my eyes, about a wild young woman getting obsessed with a supposedly cursed young man moving into the neighbourhood and suddenly finding herself facing powers beyond her wildest imagination. Or right next to it, "The Haunting of Alaizable Cray" - amazingly tense and creepy, but the point of it sort of is its being populated with lots of magical creatures, so it might not be your first choice. And next to that sits Jan Siegel's Fern Trilogy ("Propero's Children", "The Dragon Charmer" and "Witch's Honour"), amazingly written and little known books of beautiful poetic language on the awakening and rise of a young witch in the nineteen-eighties; of which you might say, if you like, that they are populated with magical creatures - but very few of them actually show up, and when they do, it's often in a very subtle way. I don't know quite how to describe it.

Other than that... I don't know. You know I keep a book list (which, I just realised, desperately needs an update), though I tend to blab for hours about the books on it. Do not read "Brisingr" or any books of Ebert's "Hebamme"-series. Do pick up "Die Eleganz des Igels", if you haven't yet.
And there's always Groschenromane :p

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thank you for that detailed recommendation.
I'm certainly going to look into the books you mentioned. :-)
By the way, I don't mind magical creatures in general but there's always a danger of things getting a little ridiculous when there's too many of them around.