Plato’s Cave
By Dylan on May 2nd, 2014Posted In: News
Some pretty strong talk here for a lady who falls squarely between “shaman” and “mystic.”
I’m taking the week offline – my family is in continued need of some detox! That means packing some hefty reading material – usually one solid wacky romp and one sludgy 19th century doorstop.  I’ve been enjoying suggestions from folks on Twitter for what to read. Everything from Connie Willis (delightful!) to James Joyce (why do they always suggest Joyce) to Trollope (appropriately turgid!).
What are your favorite “beach reads” – guilty pleasures or impenetrable oeuvres?
There’s always John Scalzi if you like scifi and snarky humor. You can either go one-shot (Agent to the Stars is fun, as is Redshirts – particularly if you like Star Trek) or if you need a longer pile of things-to-read, his Old Man’s War series is a treasure.
In a similar stylistic vein but more superhero than scifi, I recently read “Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m A Supervillain” which is super fun and fantastic. It’s a little bit The Incredibles/Sky High with a dash of Harry-Potter-Accidentally-A-Slytherin.
For airplanes, trains and rainy weekends I usually turn to Susanna Clarke’s ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell’ or anything – but especially the most recent Thomas Cromwell novels – by Hilary Mantel (though if you haven’t read one of hers by now it’s probably because, unbeknownst to you, your immediate community has been actively conspiring to keep her books out of your grasp. That’s the only possible explanation). I can speak only for myself when I say I am able to happily fall into those books for days at a time without resurfacing except to engage in the very basic business of living (eating sleeping & etc.), but everyone I’ve recommended them to in the past has really enjoyed them as well.
This time next year everyone and their grandmother will also have read ‘The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo’ by Tom Reiss (somebody is making a film adaptation, I am equal parts terrified and excited). Hope that contributes something.
I love Jane Austen for such occasions, or the Flashman novels for a very different but quite as delightful reading experience…
Well maybe you may try the “Simplicissimus” from Grimmelhausen, a old, but nonetheless entertaining novel, about a ypung man (called Simplicissimus) who tries to find his place in the world. The setting ist Germany, while the 30-years war and the book is mix of roadmovie, fantasynovel and the best example for a “Schelmenroman”.
The english translation doesn’t sound that bad, so yeah, I think you could read it. It’s fun, really fun.
I hope my english wasn’t and wish you a lot of fun at your vacation point. And good work so far, very good work. This is one of the best webcomics I have ever read :-).
With friendly greetings from Germany
Harry Easter :-)
PS: Don Quijote is also a good book!
The Last Man by Mary shelley is a good long read. It is available for free online.
I always used Guy Gavriel Kay’s books as my long travel reads. Until I read them all. I remember the first one I read was so good I kept getting distracted from what I needed to be doing, a sure sign of a good book! Other than that it always depended on whether I was in a sci-fi, fantasy, romance, or mystery mood while I was packing, and if I was waffling I’d just take one of each. Terry Pratchett or Jim Butcher are two of my go to fantasy authors, John Scalzi and Lois McMaster Bujold for sci-fi, Nora Roberts and Georgette Heyer for romance, and Ellis Peters and Agatha Christie for mystery. And that is a very, very shortened version of the list.
GRRM is a good travel read.
As for Joyce, if you haven’t read his letters… well, they’re appropriately salacious.
http://theamericanreader.com/december-13-1909-james-joyce-to-nora-barnacle-joyce/