UKH

As said, any recommendations? Not walking outdoor related, just generally. Ta.

1984

animal farm

three men in a boat

hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

Dracula (contrary to expectations, mostly set in Tilbury)

There used to be a very good book series using  the " How to ........"  title.

One was called how to write your own will.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance & The Art of War

Neither are definitive, but both give you something to think about.

Oh, and the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and most of the Discworld novels are good for a grin as well.

A long one...

"Stiff", by (I think..) Mary Roach?

A great look into the alternative uses for human cadavers, should you choose you choose to not go the traditional route of burial / cremation.

Things I had no idea happened to bodies, but which are obviously necessary.  Heads for use by trainee plastic surgeons.  Bodies left in gardens to study how long it takes insects and bacteria to act on them (to help forensic scientists narrow down the time of death on actual murder victims).  Real life crash test dummies.  Shot at with live ammo to test protective clothing. 

A very good read, and not all morbid.

https://www.enotes.com/topics/stiff

A few to get you going:

Hangover Square

Slaughter house five

The road

Morven Caller

The debt to pleasure

Never let me go

Buddenbrooks

In Watermelon Sugar

The ingenious nobleman Sir Quixote of La Mancha

A sentimental journey

Moby Dick

Just one book stands out for me - "Wind, Sand & Stars"

Personally I also cannot recommend "Moby Dick" highly enough

I love "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" too but I suppose it's not for everyone

Some modernist masterpieces to consider:

Joyce: Ulysses

Pynchon: Gravity's Rainbow

Wallace: Infinite Jest

Self: Umbrella/Shark/Phone

Moby Dick and Papillon are the first two to spring to mind to me although there are plenty of others (which I can't think of right now)

here’s a mixed bag, but all classic in their genre:

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

South by Earnest Shackleton 

The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney

At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John Le Carre

Life on Air by David Attenborough 

Independent People by Halldor Laxness 

and Fiva, by UKC’s very own Gordon Stainforth

that lot should keep you going for a bit...!

Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey. 1988 Booker winner.

The Ascent Of Rum Doodle. 

A Prayer For Owen Meany. 

The Grapes Of Wrath. 

Cider With Rosie.

Full Circle - Ellen MacArthur. 

Death wouldn't seem a bad option after wading through that lot. 

Phillistine! But if the reaper was at the door there is the graphic novel project  "Ulysses Seen" - there's even a LEGO reimagining of Wallace!

I suspect you mean Whitby. The Youth Hostel there used to be in a creaky old barn right on the end on the promontory above the town, just past the ruins of the Abbey (a major location in the book).

I recommend Dune, or if you prefer lighter sci-fi then Asimov's Robots of Dawn is a great whodunnit.

War & Peace it is

Weighty tomes: The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

Fresh and snappy: Perfume by Patrick Suskind; The Master and Margerita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Plot-weaving masterclass: The Smiley Trilogy by John le Carre

Non-fiction: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari; As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee

Loads of good ones to consider.... but here are a few I have read more than once that I found exceptionally rewarding

Shogun - James Clavell (possibly the most epic of epics, it's long but an amazing story written with such a depth of knowledge of Japanese culture. I read it for the first time trekking in Nepal and I was so engrossed that the trekking was getting in the way

Quo Vadis - Henryk Sienkiewicz (has to be W S Kuniczak translation) Beautifully written prose and a fantastic love story. Historical fiction set around the time of Nero and the persecution of the first Christians. Was recommended by an English teacher I had a brief relationship with (her favourite boook). Was dubious, but took it to the Dolomites and again...the walking and climbing got in the way. Couldn't put it down.

Independent People - Halldor Laxness . Main protagonist is my pseudonym on here. A book that requires a little effort to begin with but pays back in spades once you are tuned in. Set in a croft in Iceland at the beginning of the 20th Century. Follows the harsh existence of a man determined to be independent of debt and the consequences of that on his family. (Glad to see No More Scotch Eggs mention it as well, glad you really enjoyed it

He came ashore at Whitby, but a lot of the book is definitely set in Tilbury or Purfleet where Dracula's  Carfax House was placed, along with the Lunatic Asylum. 

Got to rush, full moon in a week

I rate Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" highly too. I know some people don't like it

Ta folks, must get a pen and write down some suggestions, then see what can be found in my local library or bookshops I occasionally visit.

The Iceland one sounds maybe interesting, a bit different.

Currently reading "Origin" by Dan Brown, skipping bits, plenty of padding, suspect it will peter out like Inferno did.

Have read Moby Dick years ago, great yarn.

Oh god, really?  I totally get that it's supposedly a great classic, has memorable imagery and allegorical depth but I've had three goes at this and just can't get into it.  Even when it was the only book I've had with me on a long trip it's came back unfinished.

Plus 1 for "The Ascent of Rum Doodle".

Any mountaineer worth their salt should read it, particularly anyone who has been high.

Some might suggest The Bible.

Badly written, overly long, extremely far-fetched and often abandoned in hotel rooms.

He's currently reading Dan Brown, so that's a perfect fit.

A tale of two cities.

The old man and the sea.

To kill a mocking bird.

Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy

The shadow of the wind.

Learning to breathe.

If This is a Man/The Truce

The Great Gatsby

Invisible Cities

Foucault's Pendulum

Stop reading Dan Brown shite.

If you want a long book which will astonish you try Life, a users manual by Georges Perec. The best writer no one has heard of..........

Cormac McCarthy wrote the Border trilogy (all the pretty horses is one of them a google will get you them all) which is a beautiful read. He also wrote Blood meridian.......a fine read.

Len Deighton's Game set Match trilogy and the others which follow forma  well researched narrative with enough plot twists to set your head reeling.

The Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr are great, he is one of my favourite heroes in fiction, a real life plausible alternative to James Bond, more like Sam Spade in fact.

Don DeLillo- Underworld, one of the best US novels of the last century ? Discuss. 

I actually read it thanks to you- I googled your pseudonym and thought, that looks interesting 

i’d say ‘enjoyed’ isn’t quite the right word. It was indeed hard work in places; and I was very angry at Laxness for the way certain characters were treated. 

But; it’s probably the most intense experience I’ve ever had reading a book. The characters and the setting are brought so vividly to life they feel very much real, which makes the events in the second half so hard to read about. 

But thank god I didn’t have to live in Iceland 100 years ago- harsh doesn’t even begin to describe it!

overall, a masterpiece. 

No idea. Couldn't finish it!

The Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser

Yes it is. But as you'll see from my recommendations, I do love a modernist monster. 

If you're a visitor to the highlands of Scotland, you might want to read His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet.  My recommendation for this comes with a disclaimer; I didn't enjoy the book.  But what it did do very vividly was to shine a light onto what life may (and probably was, give or take a bit of artistic licence) have been like in the western highlands back in the 1800s, and so may give you something to ponder next time you're there.

Since I'm bucking the trend a bit, I'll recommend another book that I thought was hard work at times; Happy, by Derren Brown.  It's a bit overlong and you wouldn't miss a great deal if you skipped the historical background review, but otherwise it may give you much to think over.

They'll keep you out of mischief for a while . . .

T. 

Some excellent suggestions above and some I own and have not read (His Bloody Project and Blood Meridian) so a good nudge in the ribs. Good shout for the Flashman novels, Steinbeck and Shackleton.

I would say jumping from Dan Brown straight into "the Iceland novel" might be a bit of a shock to the system and might mean you don't enjoy it as not acclimatised. They are very very different. 

Have just scribbled down most suggestions on paper..ta.

Finished Origin by Dan Brown, petered out as expected.

Not sure what to look for first!

My stand out book is 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'.......it made me realise why Hemingway was so well thiought of.

A few more

The Sea -John Bancroft

If no-one speaks of remarkable things - Jon McGregor

non-fiction- Barrow's Boys - Fergus Fleming

The War of Don Emmanual's Nether Parts - Louis de Bernieres (if anyone's read Captain Corellis Mandolin and hated it this is much better).

memory fails me after that...

I loathed HP Lovecraft, as much for how turgid and long winded the prose was for the horrendous racism

an old Woody Allen quote goes something like "If I lived my life over I'd do everything the same, except read Moby Dick"

That’s a book that makes you wish you were dead rather than a book to read before you die.

Try the Harry Potter books. All 7 of them. Great reading entertainment and the 8 film series is remarkably true to the books and well worth a watch. 

To (selectively) quote Stephen D: big words... make us unhappy. 

I came to Halldor Laxness via The Atom Station (ok) and The Fish Can Sing (good) but Independent People is on another level completely. Your name sake is one of the most definitive examples in literature of ''cutting your nose off to spite your face' his life is a train wreck that you just can't look away from. I've also read Under The Mountain, which is also good though not a patch on Independent People.

Other favourite books of mine are The Grapes of Wrath, The Sparrow, The Birth of the People'' Republic of Antarctica and The Damned United, which is far superior to the admittedly good film.

Gravity's Rainbow is a brilliant book. I've never read anything else that's so engrossing and hard work at the same time.

It just shows that thinking a book is a great one is very much a matter of taste / preference!

Beside the Ocean of Time - George Mackay Brown 

If you like fantasy the mistborn trilogy is a great series by brandon sanderson. 

I don’t have a problem with big words - it’s the random order they’re in that’s the problem. Reading Tolstoy in the original was easier. 

Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. 

One of my favourites.  Others that I'd say meet the OP's criteria:

1984

Blood Meridian

The Jeeves and Wooster series

Here's a quotation from "Ulysses" for anyone tempted to read it:

"Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and shells. You are walking through it howsomever. I am, a stride at a time. A very short space of time through very short times of space. Five, six: the nacheinander. Exactly: and that is the ineluctable modality of the audible. Open your eyes. No. Jesus! If I fell over a cliff that beetles o'er his base, fell through the nebeneinander ineluctably. I am getting on nicely in the dark. My ash sword hangs at my side. Tap with it: they do. My two feet in his boots are at the end of his legs, nebeneinander. Sounds solid: made by the mallet of Los Demiurgos. Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount strand? Crush, crack, crick, crick. Wild sea money. Dominie Deasy kens them a'."

Not my cup of tea. Thanks for listening

yes I really enjoyed this, it had a joy and vividness that was missing from Corelli 

it was me that mentioned HP Lovecraft, and that’s strong criticism, so I feel I should respond.

There’s no doubt, sadly, that Lovecraft was racist, even by the standards of his time and background. And there’s no doubt that some of his work is infused with racist attitudes, or worse, has an implicitly racist theme. 

His prose is also unquestionably verbose to the point of self parody at times. At his worst, it’s unreadable and offensive 

But to dismiss his entire work on this basis misses some of the most influential and powerful science fiction written. I picked At the Mountains of Madness as an example of when he largely reined in the purple prose; it’s as fine an example of science fiction as you’ll find, and I really don’t remember any racist subtext to that one (I sincerely hope I’m right on that...). The Colour Out of Space, and The whisperer in darkness are in a similar vein. 

 It’s a difficult one? Is it ok to appreciate the work of a known racist? Your comment certainly gives pause for thought. 

He’s not alone in being an artist with racist views though. Wagner wasn’t just the favourite composer of high profile racists. Roald Dahl was, sadly, anti Semitic. And not just artists- James Watson of double helix fame can’t stop himself from making racist remarks. Even Churchill, widely celebrated as the greatest ever Briton, appears to have had racist views to a greater extent than would have been expected for his era. 

Not an easy issue to come to a consistent position on.

The St John's Ambulance handbook?

Anything by Terry Pratchett.  Christmas without a new book (since he died) is sad for me.  

Nice to hear from another Pynchon fan. I don't think there are many of us on UKC! 

Thanks for the considered response. The list of writers and film makers who cite Lovecraft as an influence attests to his legacy. I only really stated a personal reaction to his books. On a personal note  I blew 16 quid on a rather handsomely bound anthology after a recommendation after binging on M R James ghost stories. You're quite right about artists with less than savoury views to us in this century and it would be absurd to self censure when it comes to enjoying art. It was that there was something particularly ugly about some of the writing I couldn't get past, the rest is personal taste. 

How many people who list Ulysses by James Joyce as one of their favorite novels have *really* read it? It may well be a work of genius, but it is *such* hard work for the reader, and even after all that hard work virtually impenetrable. I really wanted to like it, particularly as I thought (and still do) Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was absolutely brilliant - one of the best books I have ever read..

The Blue Bear by Lynn Schooler

Nobody has actually read Ulysses.

I've read it three times in total - but I'm proud to count myself as a fanatical Joycean. I accept it's one of those books that's far more started than finished - but I'm surprised that many of those who fail to enjoy it seem to feel it's the fault of the novel. Believe it or not, I also enjoyed Finnegans Wake - now that really is a challenging read! 

I forgot to include:

Armadale

Like others I really tried to read Ulysses, twice, but made no headway at all and completely gave up

Liar.

Cheeky. Keep going to page 693 and you will come across an ultra classic E5.

Could you explain the text that Profit of Doom kindly provided then please? Do you speak fluent German? or would you check the meaning of all the words you didn't understand on your phone as you went?

Read? Yes. Understood? No. As a final kick in the balls, the last chapter has no punctuation.

I'm off to the wall soon, so I don't have time for a detailed exegesis. If I recall this is from Proteus and Stephen is walking along the beach with his eyes closed so he can concentrate on the sounds made by his boots and reflecting on (Aristotle's?) philosophical theories concerning reality and our perception of it through our senses. The German refers to the arrangement of things in space or time, painting or poetry. He becomes very aware of the feel and sound of his walking cane, but loses his sense of orientation in time: am I walking into eternity? The sounds of the crushed shells and seaweed become ever more musical.  The shells have already reminded him of money and give us the beautiful phrase "wild sea money."

Why would needing to look up the German be a barrier to your enjoyment of such gorgeous writing? Come to that, you could read with an online concordance. This is a complex, difficult and challenging work, but ultimately hugely rewarding for a determined reader.

That's the first time I've heard a female orgasm described as a kick in the balls!

"Why would needing to look up the German be a barrier to your enjoyment of such gorgeous writing?"

For the same reason that I only read books in English. So I hopefully enjoy them through comprehension of the authors chosen words.

Appreciate the translation, but I see no beauty in pairing an obscure german word with an obscure english word (nebeneinander ineluctably). It's just a chore for me...constantly trying to decipher an impenetrable code... like reading endless cryptic crossword clues.

eye of the beholder and all that ...so fair do's to you.

Dow duddon and slate.

We live in hope. 

I read Papillon recently and thought it was excellent. The 2018 film doesn't do it justice -- you need a Netflix style series for that. Banco follows on from that and is worth reading, as is Guillotine Sèche by a different author with similar experiences. Another good book I read last year, where I can still picture some of the more harrowing descriptions, was the Forgotten Soldier. 

Some excellent ones here. Another couple -

Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurt

Seven Years in Tibet - Heinrich Harrer

Dave

I enjoyed "Papillon" too, decades ago, until I found out it was not true as written. Exactly the same thing happened with "The Incredible Voyage" by Tristan Jones. Very sad and unfortunate

Blood Meridian

This book changed what I had thought a book capable of. It shocked, moved me, provoked and made me think too much.

Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods”

Robert Heinlein’s “Starman Jones”

I have a great Victorian book about the history of bridge design from pre-roman times to the then-present, can’t remember the details and it’s in a packing box.  

+1 for Darwin’s account of his voyage.

Tom Sharp’s  Riotous Assembly.

The Conquest Of Gaul in the original Latin.

Stick Man by the Julia Donaldson.  Gosh that’s dark for a modern children's tale.

The Sea is a great novel but I suspect a lot of people will find Banville too much of a glass-half-empty man (as most Irish novelists seem to be).

He is far more entertaining writing as Benjamin Black, though. Unfortunately I haven't kept up with his seedy hero Quirke's doings and undoings recently.

I would recommend the Border Trilogy over Blood Meridian but it is superb too. Brutal, visceral and yet also beautiful writing.

Great quote by Mark Twain "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."

Ooh I'll give his alter ego a try, thanks! 

This. Especially "The Crossing" which contained such deep thinking ideas that I sometimes had to re-read passages to grasp what was being proposed. That said, anything McCarthy has written is dark and thought provoking - just not uplifting.

To expand on this a little. It is beautifully written but ultimately tragic tale of a friendship between a photographer and a boat owner who, together, search the Alaskan Pan handle for the elusive "Blue Bear". Somehow, Lynn has a style that is utterly engaging.

Some great recommendations on this thread, as well as stuff I know I'll never go near!

A vote here for The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthieson. That's worth reading before you die. 

What should I be reading once I'm dead?

Taking me back to my childhood, Mossflower & Salamandastron by Brian Jacques were fantastic escapes.

I am halfway though blood meridian and enjoying it.

Also recently read The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and thought this was brilliant.

The Bardo Thodol I suppose. 

Or maybe once one is dead the entire corpus of all human outpourings ever will be uploaded into your consciousness? 

William Burroughs beat that in Nova Express, using the "cut-up" method.  Type out a novel, get the scissors out, chop your novel into strips ranging from a couple of sentences, to phrases, to single words.  Rearrange the strips randomly and that's your new novel.  It's hard to get into, but I found if you go with it it sort of starts to - well, not make sense, but somehow become followable.  I really got into it.  Unfortunately, I lost my place about two thirds of the way through.  Chances of finding where you were up to?  Zero 

Come to think of it, Nova Express may qualify as one of those 'read it before you die' books.  It's wildly different and a heck of an experience.  I remember I last read it on a very hot Saturday afternoon in a launderette.  It stayed with me.

Nova Express is a good shout. I think two earlier novels, the seminal The Naked Lunch and the follow up The Soft Machine are at least as powerful. I'd say all three are must reads for anyone with a serious interest in avant-garde and experimental  literature. And Burroughs' infamous cut-up method has had quite an influence on popular music, through the approaches to lyric writing of Bowie, Karl Hyde, Kurt Cobain and Thom Yorke.

I'd agree with you completely about his Bloody Project - it drew life in Scottsh crofts and run rigs perfectly, but the story didn't do it for me. As a result I've not gone on to read his contemporary French detective stuff.

My Bloody Project is decent enough, but hardly an essential read. I wouldn't bother with the French detective stuff, it's not very good. 

Other books worthy of consideration: 

Siddartha, by Hermann Hesse

The Deptford Trilogy, by Robertson Davies

L'Assommoir, Germinal, Nana, La Terre, and La Débâcle, by Emile Zola

Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope (and if you can find it, the 1982 BBC adapation of this is superb)

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

and of the Asterix the Gaul books, but particularly Asterix the Gaul and Asterix in Britain

The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler. Utterly incomprehensible plot, but a marvellous genre piece. 

One of my favourites that. Some fantastic characters and set pieces.

The Cornish Trilogy is probably just as good. The middle book is his finest work of all but the first and last are slightly weaker.

I've read that when they were filming The Big Sleep the screenwriters contacted Chandler to clear up a whodunnit issue on the plot and he admitted that he didn't  actually know, himself.....

Indeed:  "They sent me a wire ... asking me, and dammit I didn't know either"

It could almost be a Marlowe line itself. 

Indeed:  "They sent me a wire ... asking me, and dammit I didn't know either"

It could almost be a Marlowe line itself. 

From the City, From the Plough  Alexander Baron

A novel published in 1948 about a fictional infantry battalion before and after D-day.

When published those who had been in Normandy said this was the most accurate representation of non-officer infantry soldiering. A good read if you knew/know anybody who was there.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/City-Plough-Alexander-Baron/dp/0948238445

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Hans Rosling

Recommended on UKC a few times. Challengers your thinking a bit so it really is worth a read.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Factfulness-Reasons-Wrong-Things-Better/dp/1473637...

I reckon a spot of Jeeves and Wooster never hurt anybody.

To kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee.

Something by Robert McFarlane - The Old Ways?

There is a list on the Guardian website of the best 100 non fiction books ever if that floats your boat.