I've been suffering from burnout lately and one of the things I read was that reading books unrelated to work/productivity is supposed to help. I'm headed in vacation in a couple of weeks and I'm curious what the best fiction book you ever read was? If your book is already in the comments below please just upvote it.
The biggest tragedy of A Confederacy of Dunces is that it's author, John Kennedy Toole, did not live to see its publishing and success. I also love this book!
I seriously recommend the Riverworld series, written by the excellent Philip José Farmer. I think after The Foundation from Asimov I cannot find anything good or exciting for fiction.
It's so hard to recommend something without a frame of reference. Personally, I've found myself re-reading The Lord of the Rings lately.
But, if I had to pick one book that was my favourite, I might say Moby Dick. (I'll admit that I actually read it first after seeing the Wrath of Khan as a kid)
I agree with this. "Fiction" is a really broad term and may lead to many different and, probably, meaningless suggestions to the OP. If he can specify wich kind of fictions he likes maybe he will get better recommendations, I've read so many fiction books from different genres that it's really hard to choose one in particular.
If the OP is looking for a page turner, then Stephenson's Snow Crash is another great recommendation. Anathem was slower to me, and Reamde was good. But if I was to pick up Stephenson's stuff again I go to Snow Crash, then Cryptonomicon as my one, two.
The Baroque cycle: Quicksilver, The Confusion and System of the World is awesome as well.
Who doesn't want to read fiction about The Royal Society, Isaac Newton and Liebniz mixed in with phrases in the line with "In memory of Englands greatest swordsman, beaten to death with a club by an Irishman". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle
A few on my "re-read every few years" list: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Speaker for the Dead, Infinite Jest, Watchmen, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
I purposely left it open-ended. I probably haven't read a fiction book in 15 years. I've been so heavy on business/marketing/tech/startup/biography books that I'm not even sure what fiction I would enjoy anymore.
Books I've enjoyed recently are Titan, Outliers, Blue Ocean Strategy. I think a portion of my burnout is losing my sense of fun - hence my general attitude towards fiction over the last decade+ has been it's fake and thus a waste of time. While I know that's not true (the waste of time part), it just hasn't been 'productive' to read a fiction book.
So I was just curious which fiction books everyone else enjoyed, and I was going to pick a couple from the list that was created.
Look for page-turners rather than literature as you're getting back into fiction. Business and popular non-fiction books these days are written in a very elementary style. I take nothing away from Malcolm Gladwell, but his writing style is very easy to read compared to many of the books we're suggesting.
Top three:
Mockingbird, by Walter Tevis;
Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban;
Glimpses of the Moon, by Edith Wharton
Some other favorites:
The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller;
To Reign In Hell, by Steven Brust;
Machine Man, by Max Barry;
The Dawn Patrol, by Don Winslow;
The Woman, by Hank Ketchum
A Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett is usually for me a good way to step back from everyday life and work. It's funny, there are many references to scientific and nerd culture and it helps to reconsider some "serious" things...
The Master of Hestviken, by Sigrid Unset (long forgotten, but she was a Pulitzer-winning author in the 1930's), is probably the best novel I've ever read.
All the nerds I know (which is basically everybody I know) like the Vlad Taltos books. As long as you're OK with dragons, sarcasm, and crime you should like them, too.
Catch 22 is a fantastic read. I don't think I've read anything else where everything in the book is such a great illustration of its main theme. Plus, it's just plain entertaining.
