Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth

    The entire book is a first-person monologue of a 33-year-old man talking to his shrink, and all he does is bitch the whole time. Imagine a more adult "Catcher in The Rye" with a Jewish twist and a whole lot more masturbation and humor. After reading the hilarious chapter 2 I really thought I'd enjoy this, but around page 90 his self-absorbed demeanor, sexual frustration, and rejection of pretty much everything in existence spoils anything good about this. It has its decent moments, but eventually it became repulsive to read and I had to put it down. Recommended for sex addicts, angry narcissists, or fans of dark humor. 

Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner

Absalom, Absalom! is an historical fiction that synchronizes the events of one man's life with the downfall of the south after the Civil War. I didn't mind all the hundred-word sentences and 3-page paragraphs, but it was difficult to follow at times. The scenes would often change abruptly in mid-paragraph and so would the setting. Then it was sometimes difficult to decipher who was actually in the setting or what was happening, as Faulkner never explicitly tells you what's going on, but rather keeps you guessing about what's happened. While this book can be frustrating to follow, a few visits to sparknotes.com can clear up any confusion. 

Faulkner is a great writer, and this is probably his best. I would have to say that Rosa's letter in chapter V is the highlight of this tragic novel, a novel in which it seems every single person goes through something horrible. It's as difficult to read emotionally as it is intellectually, but it's so admirable and symbolic that it could represent a milestone in classic fiction and the pinnacle of "modernist" literature. 

 

Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield

    Read this one for a more realistic, intimate version of the movie 300. The Battle of Thermoplyae is one of history's most famous upsets- a few hundred Spartans defeated the entire Persian army. Pressfield did a great job of engaging his readers with characters that we should care about, and building the type of suspense needed to set the table for one dynamite of a battle. I still feel drawn to the story of Xeo and his sister to this day, and that's something that every powerful book needs to do. 

Otherland 2: River of Blue Fire, Tad Williams

    From this book I'll never forget that cartoonish simworld that had the dancing vegetables and fighting utensils.  There was also a pirate ship that sailed on a river meandering through a gigantic kitchen floor, the source of which turned out to be ice cubes melting high up in a freezer, spawning a waterfall that fell the entire length of the refrigerator.  Orlando and Sam were the heroes in this simworld; they had to face the pirates and animated food-army that was trying to kill them. Otherland is so out there and creative that you can almost think up your own simworlds and imagine they exist inside Tad William's versatile creation. 

Otherland 3: Mountain of Black Glass, Tad Williams

Otherland is a vast network of interconnected simworlds, or virtual reality settings.  One simworld has an endless city of enormous mansions with spires shooting to the sky. Others are based on ancient history and mythology, like Egypt and the Homeric epics.  The one that really rattled my brain was the Black Mountain, where the climax takes place. This is where the “reality” of the entire network starts to buckle and break down.  A group of people had come to Otherland by various means: most of them for noble causes, like saving a family member.  But the mystery of the network's deterioration intrigues them all into finding the source of it, catalyzed by their prior ambitions.  In Mountain of Black Glass, the third of the four-book series, the complex plot is escalated onto a spectacular and mysterious level that makes the following book Sea of Silver Light a must read.  

This volume is slow at first, getting more intense and action-packed the farther along it goes.  That climax though, when all of the seemingly unrelated plotlines merge into (un)focus; Paul’s journey from the seas of Odysseus to the Trojan War to the Black Mountain; Renie, Xabbu, and t4b going from “nothingland” to the House City, to the Trojan War, to the Black Mountain; Orlando and Sam battling simGods in Egypt and the Trojans in Troy before ascending the obsidian flank; the villain Jongleur surprised to find himself waiting for them on Egyptian broadcast when they reach the top; the trickster Dread swooping in, surprising everyone and putting an exclamation mark on all the chaos; all plotlines veiled in a cloud of mystery, finally lucid in the agony of a sleeping giant: The Other?  It is golden in so many facets of storytelling that it may just be the best finish to a book I've ever read. 

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, David Foster Wallace

    This collection of short stories employs a diverse number of styles and arrangements, but what is common to them all is the theme of psychology, particularly the condition of men and women in sexual relationships. Contrary to the title I didn't find all of these men to be hideous, but a few of them were hideous enough for me to skip their stories! In my opinion the best stories were "The Depressed Person"-an extremely verbose psychoanalysis of a lonely woman, "Church Not Made With Hands"- a symbolic, surreal, contemporary myth about the cosmos, "Tri-Stan"- a brilliantly divinized (a la William Gaddis) satire on entertainment with an ironic twist, and the climactic "Brief Interview #4"- one of the most moving rape stories you'll ever read. My only problem with his style is that it gets repetitive at times, but David does it in a way that flows well, making it easily forgivable. This was my introduction to David Foster Wallace and I'm very much looking forward to Infinite Jest! 

Fingerprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock

    Read this book if you are prepared be blown away by several related mysteries that span the whole of the globe and pinpoint to a pre-agrarian, technologically advanced maritime civilization that may or may not have been wiped out by a cataclysmic flood. All you Atlantis wackos jump on board with me, this is the mothership! 

Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

    In which this is the book that got me through detention, and is responsible for my insatiable desire to run naked across a desert island; all thanks to Friday, that lean Adonis, former cannibal, neutered for civilization by the jolly old erudite Robinson Crusoe after his faraway adventures at sea. 

Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jules Verne

    Pretty much the most awesome adventure ever. An eccentric professor and his skeptical nephew stumble upon a map that leads to a volcano in Iceland. This volcano, one with a name that I won't even try spelling, has a portal that descends deep into the interior of the Earth. The professor, anxious to earn an accomplishment for his name, will stop at nothing to reach it. No matter how much his nephew tries to convince him that he shouldn't risk his life for the glory of science, the professor's manic insanity ignores him and alights a flame of ambition to guide them down into the Earth. Giant mushrooms, prehistoric beasts, subterranean oceans, massive echo-chambered batholiths, lightning storms, and an eruption over Stromboli make this a highly memorable read. So what if these things aren't scientifically possible? Expand your mind and let the story take hold. 

A Midsummer Nights’ Dream, William Shakespeare

A magical brilliancy that outshines the most enchanting of stories with its amusing plot twists and weaving rhymes. On a star-speckled night in an ancient forest, a Fairy King and his mischievous sprite connive against their Queen, but two pairs of wandering human lovers get involved, and a lost oafish actor is in for one big surprise. Shakespeare's most surreal artistic achievement paints dazzling emotional scenes that twist and turn through mazes of greenery. 

 

Demetrius: "O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine! 
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? 
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show 
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! 
That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, 
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow 
When thou hold'st up thy hand: O let me kiss 
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!" 
 
Theseus: "Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, 
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 
More than cool reason ever comprehends. 
The lunatic, the lover, the poet 
Are of imagination compact: 
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; 
That is the madman: the lover, as all frantic, 
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt: 
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 
Doth glace from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, 
And, as imagination bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
Turns them into shapes, and gives airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name. 
Such tricks have strong imagination...