There is one author I take a keen interest in. Fascinating, insightful, funny takes you to a magical place back in time. Not many people on here will have heard of Matthew Le Tissier but would certainly recommend.
Have you read a lot of Russian writer's? I really enjoyed Dostoevsky's The Gambler. Funny, clever, fast paced, profound. I struggled a bit with Crime and Punishment, found it a bit slow but I was glad I persevered with it. Couldn't finish Notes From The Undergound I'm afraid. Tolstoy was and imo always will be the towering genius of Russian literature. War and Peace is the most exceptional literary work I ever expected to come across, a deeply thought provoking and profoundly beautiful novel from a spiritual philosopher-poet. Then I read Anna Karenina, and he'd exceeded his own brilliant standards. Turgenev's Notes From a Hunter's Diary is a little gem of a story collection, if you haven't come across it before. I read all these guys in English so I'm aware I will have missed a lot. It's almost worth learning Russian, such is the depth of literary talent from that country.
Ray Bradbury Massive amount of fine quality work, not just science fiction. He understood people, yet still believed the best was yet to come.
She kept his heart in a desk for a couple of years after his death. Odd lot, them and Lord Byron but certainly no lack of genius in those circles
Yeah, Byron was a fascinating character. Died on the battlefield didn't he? Keats was another of that crew who died young. Poets were the rock n rollers of the early 19th Century.
Died of a fever whilst fighting for Greek independence. Did well for a guy with a club foot. My fav poem by Byron is Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull Start not—nor deem my spirit fled: In me behold the only skull From which, unlike a living head, Whatever flows is never dull. I lived, I loved, I quaff'd, like thee: I died: let earth my bones resign; Fill up—thou canst not injure me; The worm hath fouler lips than thine. Better to hold the sparkling grape, Than nurse the earth-worm's slimy brood; And circle in the goblet's shape The drink of Gods, than reptiles' food. Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone, In aid of others' let me shine; And when, alas! our brains are gone, What nobler substitute than wine? Quaff while thou canst—another race, When thou and thine like me are sped, May rescue thee from earth's embrace, And rhyme and revel with the dead. Why not? since through life's little day Our heads such sad effects produce; Redeem'd from worms and wasting clay, This chance is theirs, to be of use. I love the verse in bold but the whole poem just resonated with me when I read it
Terry Pritchett . Neil Gaiman . Tolkien . Stephen King . Holly Black . Sergei Lukyanenko . Also love amongst other things the autobiography’s of Magnus Magnussen . Murray Walker . Raymond Baxter . just for Starters
I like the two lines above... And when, alas! Our brains are gone, What nobler substitute than wine? Those Romantics all liked a drink I think. When they weren't high on opium. Do you know Thomas DeQuincey btw? An essayist rather than a poet or novelist, and a friend of Wordworth and Coleridge in particular. Confessions of an English Opium Eater contains some extraordinary passages.
I'll read anything but I have a real passion for Science-Fiction. In my humble opinion, nobody comes close to Iain M Banks. Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Endymion books are rightly lauded as masterpieces in the genre but Banks's Culture novels are simply phenomenal. The man was a social commentator beyond compare.
Read "Confessions" many years ago when at uni, not very familiar with his writing though. I think it was a case of interesting times breed interesting people as far as the Romantic poets went.
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn My uncle John (a great humanist) kept pestering me to read it. I did eventually read it and found it incredibly desolate and harrowing, but also full of hope and an incredible struggle for freedom.
I might give that a try. I read Cancer Ward, which was similarly bleak, but also life affirming. And of course, A Day in the Life of Aleksandr Denitsovitch. I read that in a day, I think. Literally couldn't put it down.
Knut Hamsun Hunger Mysteries Growth of the Soil Victoria Magnificent writer (if you can overlook the very dodgy political views)
I've never I've never heard of it but glowing recommendations always excite me. I'll be on that as soon as I've finished my current book (The long way to a small, angry planet.)