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

[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.