Kindle Recommendations for a Lit. Nerd

Hey Lit nerds.

So I got a sweet Kindle 3G for Christmas and I'm looking for some sweet lit to cram into it, but I need some recommendations — I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis (fic. and NF), Kurt Vonnegut, J.D. Salinger, Mark Twain, Steven King, Umberto Eco, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Mark Danielewski, Isaac Asimov, William Gibson, Garrison Keillor, Ray Bradbury and George Orwell.

Based on these writers, what titles or other authors do you think I should check out?

The very first thing I did was flip through the first 20 pages of public domain free books and pick up anything that struck my fancy. I mean... it's free right? So that meant a lot of Kipling, Joyce, Austen, Stoker, Wilde, and generally whatever had 4+ stars because hey. It's free. I don't like it nothing lost but the time it takes to remove it from the Kindle.

Yeah, I just rolled through the Amazon.com listing of free Pub Dom books, and there are a lot of great classic lit. works there. I'm probably going to download about 25 off that list. Too bad I'm at work right now — I just got the confirm from Amazon that it showed up, and my neighbor signed for them.

There's also a collection of 100 Lovecraft stories + a bio for $4 if you're intereseted in trying him out.

IIRC, there's some good things for free on there, which you might not find otherwise. Are you a P.G. Wodehouse fan? Because if you are (based on your list, you seem to have the necessary knowledge of English culture to enjoy them) they're free, or at least some of them. Orwell fan? They've got a cheap copy of We, which is pretty similar to Brave New World. You seem to have somehat similar tastes to me, so I'll watch this thread for good bargains. I got a Kindle for Christmas too.

Not sure whether they're available on Kindle but based on your taste in literature I'd say get some Thomas Pynchon, Neal Stephenson, Peter Straub, or David Foster Wallace.

I already own the complete works of HP Lovecraft in a physical book

I've never read Wodehouse, and I do like English Literature. I was a Lit. minor at university and British Lit. and Modern European Lit. were some of my favorite classes. I even took a semenar class on C.S. Lewis, which was fantastic. Anyway, welcome to the thread, and now I know that someone on here has similar tastes to my own, I'll try to update occasionally with good finds I come across. I'm always looking for good value in my ebooks.

You unfortunately can't get Pynchon on Kindle in America... And I'm really interested in reading Infinite Jest... The other two I will add to my wishlist today!

If you like C.S. Lewis, you might give Dorothy Sayers and GK Chesterton a chance. Some of Chesterton's works are in the public domain, and should be free.

Seconding the Chesterton.

I got a recommendation, it's a book that I wrote myself.

Tales of Daavas: Heroes Dawn

I only just got it published a little over a week ago.

edited 27th Oct '16 8:13:05 AM by TyphonOmega

If you liked Lord of the Rings, you will probably like The Goblin Emperor. Non-combatant protagonist, elves and language. (Okay, the elves and goblins are not quite the same as Tolkien's.)

There's always my little Kindle self-published book in my sig - but I don't know if it would be your thing... though Narnia has been a major influence on me... I was told by a friend once that he thought I had a style similar to Madeline L' Engle... and (one of my fanfiction reviewers has compared me to Stephen King)... I don't think my work is classic or terribly masterful yet... so, according to your list, all I can say is "Great list!"

For what it's worth, I've been, of late, reading a (hardbound book, gift from a friend) copy of Carl Sagan's "Contact" - and for brainy science fiction lit, I'd definitely recommend that. If you like comedy, I'd recommend most of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy books.

edited 19th Oct '16 12:17:57 PM by Shadsie

I recommend the following:

• George R.R. Martin for A Song of Ice and Fire and Fever Dream because George rocks.
• Joe Abecrombie's The First Law Trilogy for the Anti-Tolkien
• Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire series for a would-be dark lord rising to power at age 14.
• Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard series for fun fantasy thieves

The much LESS dark and much more FUN Riyria books by Michael J. Sullivan. They're extremely fun fantasy adventures.

• Marion G. Harmon's Wearing the Cape for awesome fun superhero stuff starring a Supergirl EXPY.
• Peter Clines Ex-Heroes for The Walking Dead vs. The Justice League
• Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillainy by Richard Roberts for some silly YA fun

Sci fi?

• Peter Clines' 13 because he's just an awesome author period. It's a weird ass building which may include the Cthulhu Mythos.
• Altered Carbon by Richard K, Morgan for a book which out Gibsons the cyberpunk genre with memory swapping.

And in terms of self-promotion

• The Rules of Supervillainy for superhero comedy
• Cthulhu Armageddon for post-apocalypse Western revenge in the shadow of the Great Old Ones

I also recommend the works of Terry Pratchett,

edited 21st Nov '16 8:12:21 AM by CharlesPhipps