Got Any Fiction Recommendations?

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

I'm really particular about fiction, needs to be really good. If it has a spiritual component, that's a plus but not necessary. Some of my favorites are 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', any Garcia Marquez, Fowles' 'The Magus', 'Shantaram', Russian Literature, Mary Renault's 'The King Must Die'... (no 'pop' fiction). Please, if you have any favorites, I'd love a recommendation to take on my vacation and bury myself into. I mean the kind of fiction that colors your world and perceptions while you read it and for weeks or months afterward and the effects linger...aahhhh....

[Edward M]

Hey, I'd highly recomend, "Tales of Brother Marcus - the rose priory dialouges"

 

It's about a guy who comes back from india where he had been searching for a guru, but had not found one. He ends up going to talks with a christian mystic who is well versed in the kabalah.

 

He talks about meditation, the bagavad gita, the bible and it's kabalistic interpretation, the chemistry of consciousness etc.... the end is amazing-- i wont tell you why!

 

it's very well written and you will 100% get some good insights from it.

 

peace

Ed

[3L3VAT3]

Yeah,

Most Definitely...

read Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein...

[ralis]

I'm really particular about fiction, needs to be really good. If it has a spiritual component, that's a plus but not necessary. Some of my favorites are 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', any Garcia Marquez, Fowles' 'The Magus', 'Shantaram', Russian Literature, Mary Renault's 'The King Must Die'... (no 'pop' fiction). Please, if you have any favorites, I'd love a recommendation to take on my vacation and bury myself into. I mean the kind of fiction that colors your world and perceptions while you read it and for weeks or months afterward and the effects linger...aahhhh....

 

'Radix' by A.A. Aatanasio. One of my very favorites.

[balance.]

I've really enjoyed Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Hard to go wrong with either of those authors.

 

Oh, and what of Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man by Gopi Krishna?

 

 

 

 

edit for addition.

Edited July 3, 2010 by balance.

[goldisheavy]

I'm really particular about fiction, needs to be really good. If it has a spiritual component, that's a plus but not necessary. Some of my favorites are 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', any Garcia Marquez, Fowles' 'The Magus', 'Shantaram', Russian Literature, Mary Renault's 'The King Must Die'... (no 'pop' fiction). Please, if you have any favorites, I'd love a recommendation to take on my vacation and bury myself into. I mean the kind of fiction that colors your world and perceptions while you read it and for weeks or months afterward and the effects linger...aahhhh....

 

Dune series by Frank Herbert, anything by Richard Bach, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. I think all the books in my list meet both of your requirements.

[goldisheavy]

Yeah,

Most Definitely...

read Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein...

 

Great book.

[Eric23]

Am currently enthralled with Roberto Bolano; start with The Savage Detectives. Also Robert Anton Wilson, Illuminatus Trilogy.

[gendao]

Has anyone read The Alchemist by Paul Coelho? Must be in Oprah's Book Club - because it seems like a lotta chicks loved it.

 

Anyhow, it sounds sort of like The Celestine Prophecy, so I'm curious what its all about? And why it's become one of the best-selling books in the world???

 

Anybody??

[yugenphoenix]

Great book is Bones of the Master about this poet that befriends a Mongolian monk/kung fu dude and helps him to visit the grave of his master. Wonderful insightful book, anyone else read it?

[goldisheavy]

Has anyone read The Alchemist by Paul Coelho? Must be in Oprah's Book Club - because it seems like a lotta chicks loved it.

 

I've leafed through it at the book store. I think it's a decent book that has its moments, but I wouldn't put it anywhere close to Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters or to anything Richard Bach wrote. It's not for me, but I can see how it can be beneficial for someone else.

 

Anyhow, it sounds sort of like The Celestine Prophecy, so I'm curious what its all about? And why it's become one of the best-selling books in the world???

 

Anybody??

 

Just walk down to your bookstore and check it out. How hard can it be?

[三江源]

.

Edited March 30, 2015 by 三江源

[Tactile]

Some stuff from the top of my head I've enjoyed greatly..

 

Waves by Virginia Woolf is awesome.. prismatic and beautiful. Not the lightest read but really worth it when you get into it.

 

Other author I really dig is David Mitchell. I'm just reading his newest book, "Thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet" which seems good but I maybe wouldn't recommend that as the first one of his to read. "Cloud Atlas" or "Black Swan Green" are really nice reading. He has a kind of witty and strong style of writing and likes to play with genres a lot also.

 

Haruki Murakami is also one author I would really recommend. Especially his books "Norwegian wood" (kind of cult classic in Japan and a bit different style than his other books) and "Kafka on the Shore" are especially good. Also "Wind up Bird Chronicle", "Dance Dance Dance", "A wild Sheep chase" and "Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world" I would recommend. His style is kind of plain, quite eas but it has a lot of stuff happening underneath it and it mysteriously draws you in. A certain vibe which some people really like (me included) ..

 

not anything particularly spiritual here, just some great fiction which I think people here would enjoy.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Great book is Bones of the Master about this poet that befriends a Mongolian monk/kung fu dude and helps him to visit the grave of his master. Wonderful insightful book, anyone else read it?

 

 

Yes, a wonderful read!

 

 

read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda, it isnt a novel, but it's very fun to read and wonderful and long, and easy to read, too.

 

 

One of my all-time favorites, it kick-started my spiritual path in my early 20's. I re-read it from time to time.

 

'Radix' sounds really interesting, and I loved 'Foucault's Pendulum'. I have never read Le Guinn, I'll check it out, and 'Tales of Brother Marcus' looks fantastic but hard to find. It sounds like it may be worth searching out...

Edited July 3, 2010 by TheSongsofDistantEarth

[goldisheavy]

Radix sounded really interesting to me too, especially after I read some raving amazon.com reviews. BUT.... BUT!!! The book is out of print???!??? :( What is up with that? I thought maybe it is some ancient book, but it's only been written in 1981 or so. So it's not that old. What the??? Apparently it wasn't popular enough or what? No idea. But if I want to get it now, I have to hunt through used book sales and obscure book stores.

 

I thought I could just get it at my local book store, but it looks like I may need to order it online.

 

More info: http://www.radixtetrad.com/tetrad_index.html

 

So looks like you can get 3 of the 4 books of the Radix series, but not the Radix itself, which will be reissued in late 2010. Well, you can still get Radix from obscure stores, but not in any major book stores.

Edited July 4, 2010 by goldisheavy

[voice]

I can recommend (in the spirit of "The Magus" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude"):

 

1) Anything by Neil Gaiman, especially "American Gods".

 

2) Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

 

3) Anything by Herman Hesse, especially "Magister Ludi".

 

4) Litte Big, by John Crowley (His Aegypt cycle is supposed to be good too).

 

5) Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin.

 

6) "DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown. Fluff, but a page turner; I got the copy with copies of art in it.

 

7) I second the suggestions of Wilson's "Illuminatus" trilogy and anything by Douglas Adams; and I second (or third) avoiding "The Alchemist" and all things "Celestine"!

 

8) "The Island", by Aldous Huxley.

 

9) Anything by Henry Miller.

 

10) "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", by Milan Kundera.

 

11) "Possession", by A.S. Byatt.

 

12) "V" by Thomas Pynchon.

 

13) "Trout Fishing in America" by Richard Brautigan.

[Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan]

I mean the kind of fiction that colors your world and perceptions while you read it and for weeks or months afterward and the effects linger...aahhhh....

 

 

I am actually currently struggling to flesh out a multi-faceted take on spirituality, mythology, religion, and society and throwing them all together in one huge sci-fi/fantasy/fiction/"RPG".

 

 

"RPG" because it's not a story you just tell people, but re-enact through storytelling...

 

The idea is to hash out an "official" story to get the feel of the plot you will deal with, but i need other writers to crate the diversity i require to accomplish this goal.

 

 

If this is more interesting to you than reading a "prefab" tale, i will tell more about this epic chronology.

[ralis]

Radix sounded really interesting to me too, especially after I read some raving amazon.com reviews. BUT.... BUT!!! The book is out of print???!??? :( What is up with that? I thought maybe it is some ancient book, but it's only been written in 1981 or so. So it's not that old. What the??? Apparently it wasn't popular enough or what? No idea. But if I want to get it now, I have to hunt through used book sales and obscure book stores.

 

I thought I could just get it at my local book store, but it looks like I may need to order it online.

 

More info: http://www.radixtetrad.com/tetrad_index.html

 

So looks like you can get 3 of the 4 books of the Radix series, but not the Radix itself, which will be reissued in late 2010. Well, you can still get Radix from obscure stores, but not in any major book stores.

 

 

Radix is awesome! Am going to read it again for about the 5th time. Here is an Amazon link for used copies.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0553254065/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1278219745&sr=8-1&condition=used

 

Attanasio's site.

 

http://www.aaattanasio.com/

Edited July 4, 2010 by ralis

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

I can recommend (in the spirit of "The Magus" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude"):

 

1) Anything by Neil Gaiman, especially "American Gods".

 

2) Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

 

3) Anything by Herman Hesse, especially "Magister Ludi".

 

4) Litte Big, by John Crowley (His Aegypt cycle is supposed to be good too).

 

5) Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin.

 

6) "DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown. Fluff, but a page turner; I got the copy with copies of art in it.

 

7) I second the suggestions of Wilson's "Illuminatus" trilogy and anything by Douglas Adams; and I second (or third) avoiding "The Alchemist" and all things "Celestine"!

 

8) "The Island", by Aldous Huxley.

 

9) Anything by Henry Miller.

 

10) "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", by Milan Kundera.

 

11) "Possession", by A.S. Byatt.

 

12) "V" by Thomas Pynchon.

 

13) "Trout Fishing in America" by Richard Brautigan.

 

 

'Little, Big' was amazing, as was 'Possession'. Loved 'Trout Fishing', and 'Unbearable' too. Never read any Henry Miller (yet), but 'Winter's Tale' and 'The Island' sound very promising.

[ralis]

Can't forget Tom Robbins! 'Jitterbug Perfume' 'Another Roadside Attraction'

 

ralis

[Eric23]

Can't forget Tom Robbins! 'Jitterbug Perfume' 'Another Roadside Attraction'

 

ralis

 

Robbins is great!! Jitterbug Perfume is one of my all time favorites.

[Stigweard]

Found this gem ages ago ... so worth reading:

 

 

Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street

[Edward M]

Here you can get tales of brother marcus: http://www.imagier.com/ and also

 

http://www.watkinsbooks.co.uk/cgi-bin/newinfo.pl?item=9780955841514

 

both places are uk based, but if you can afford shipping charges, go for it!

 

peace

Ed

[Enishi]

For awhile I was getting bored with most of the scifi/fantasy which I used to voluminously consume since there aren't many stories which focus more specifically on cultivation/spirituality.

 

Therefore I'm writing my own series.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Some stuff from the top of my head I've enjoyed greatly..

 

Waves by Virginia Woolf is awesome.. prismatic and beautiful. Not the lightest read but really worth it when you get into it.

 

Other author I really dig is David Mitchell. I'm just reading his newest book, "Thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet" which seems good but I maybe wouldn't recommend that as the first one of his to read. "Cloud Atlas" or "Black Swan Green" are really nice reading. He has a kind of witty and strong style of writing and likes to play with genres a lot also.

 

Haruki Murakami is also one author I would really recommend. Especially his books "Norwegian wood" (kind of cult classic in Japan and a bit different style than his other books) and "Kafka on the Shore" are especially good. Also "Wind up Bird Chronicle", "Dance Dance Dance", "A wild Sheep chase" and "Hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world" I would recommend. His style is kind of plain, quite eas but it has a lot of stuff happening underneath it and it mysteriously draws you in. A certain vibe which some people really like (me included) ..

 

not anything particularly spiritual here, just some great fiction which I think people here would enjoy.

 

 

Dave Eggers reviewed David Mitchell's "Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet' in today's NYT book review cover story, and described Mitchell as "one of the more fascinating and fearless writers alive" and raved about the book. Maybe I'll try ' Cloud Atlas'.

 

I like your description of Murakami's writing style, plain with a lot happening underneath that mysteriously draws one in. That kind of writing is very powerful.