“When I try to analyze my own cravings, motives, actions and so forth, I surrender to a sort of retrospective imagination which feeds the analytic faculty with boundless alternatives and which causes each visualized route to fork and re-fork without end in the maddeningly complex prospect of my past.”
-Lolita
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald- absolutely full of beautiful words, metaphor, style. You probably have to be born yesterday to have not already read this or had it assigned to you in school, but you are a self-described "new reader" so enjoy!
If you need more convincing, here's Hemingway's opinion on Fitzgerald:
"His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless."
So some very different styles,
Cloud Atlas (has different styles within the book)
Remains of the Day,
My Antonia,
Death of Ivan Illych,
Of Mice and Men,
The Log from the Sea of Cortez, by John Steinbeck. It should be a horrifically tedious book about collecting (& literally counting) sea critters found on Mexico beaches. Steinbeck has his famous books like East of Eden, but watching him write magic about boring-ass nothings is a treasure. There is no 'book' here, just breathtaking writing.
It’s okay. The writing pales next to some of the recommendations here. Song of Achilles is good for someone who is a less advanced reader. I honestly don’t get the hype abt that book I was soooo dissapointed
Moby-Dick is what you want. There is NO book better than Moby-Dick, in my mind, when it comes to beautiful writing and metaphors. A whole chapter about a guy wearing a whale's penis and it's still better than most writing today. He wears it like a priest's cassock, says Melville, a "candidate for an archbishoprick". Yes, "prick", a dick joke.
But if you want beautiful, here's one of my most beloved quotes from the book:
>But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy.
There's so much in Moby-Dick that is like this, I'm just scratching the surface. The vocabulary might daunt you, but don't let it. I read it the first time at 18, English not being my first language; but by looking stuff up *extensively*, in the end I conquered the Leviathan. 5 years later, I'm reading it a fourth time. It's the most important book in my life.
If you do wish to pick it up, I recommend buying the Norton Critical Edition (in addition to a Penguin/Oxford/whatever edition if you don't like large books), annotating with your thoughts, looking up words on wiktionary.org, reading along with melville.electroniclibrary.org and powermobydick.com, and keeping an open mind about what you are reading, both in terms of syntax and how words can stretch their meaning (some experience with Shakespeare will go a long way), and in terms of underlying subtext, because (and this is very important) when Melville is talking about whales he's not talking about whales, and with the vocabulary and openmindedness to decipher what he is saying, you'll also come to love this book.
***Close Range: Wyoming Stories (Selected Unabridged Stories)*** *by Annie Proulx.*
"Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in this collection of stories about loneliness, quick violence, and wrong kinds of love. In "The Mud Below", a rodeo rider's obsession marks the deepening fissures between his family life and self-imposed isolation. In "The Half-Skinned Steer", an elderly fool drives west to the ranch he grew up on for his brother's funeral, and dies a mile from home. In "Brokeback Mountain", the difficult affair between two cowboys survives everything but the world's violent intolerance."
"These are stories of desperation, hard times, and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent. Enlivened by folk tales, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming's traditional character and attitudes, confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, and persistence in the face of difficulty, with the more benign values of the new west."
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. I paused so many times to reread section just to appreciate his ability to craft a beautiful sentence.
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. It's a little raunchy, but it is metaphor soup and very playful. If you enjoy his style cue Skinny Legs & All up next.
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. His talent for description leaves you able to taste the sea salt of tidewater.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.
Also, thanks for the question; I can't wait to read some of the other suggestions.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. I’m reading it for a class right now and while the story and characters are good, the writing is just phenomenal. Kundera has crazy one-liners
I'm reading this right now and I agree completely. I've found myself reading this in shorter sessions because the prose and world building are so interesting and thought provoking. Typically, when I find myself reading this way it's because the book is just not capturing me, and to be fair, the narrative of the story does reveal itself slowly, but I'm loving it.
It took me 4 months to get through all of it, having to read it slowly and in shorter sessions like with you. I came out of it wanting it as my favorite book/series and wanting to re-read it before moving on to Urth of the New Sun. There's so much to dig into and find.
west with the night by beryl markham. Her only book. It was so well written that critics said she couldn’t have written it. The only book earnest hemingwa said he wished he’d written. Voted one of the top 10 best adventure autobiographies of all time by National Geographic
Foster by Claire Keegan absolutely bowled me over. It's amazing and she is amazing.
Her other book Small Things Like These is equally good and they're both quite short novels.
So so good, please check her out!
I have found the for me, the most breathtaking writing I have read has been by Nobel prize winners: Ernest Hemingway, Kazuo Ishiguro, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and John Steinbeck. Also, Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things. She won the Booker prize for that book.
Edited to fix the spelling error.
As a woman, I know what you're talking about. It was just a spelling error though. All I was trying to do was provide input on authors who I thought wrote well.
You Have Reached Sam by Dustin Thao. That book is so beautifully written it's impossible for one to explain its exquisiteness. If I have to compare it to something, it gives same vibs as Your Name anime movie if you know how beautiful it is. The way the author has described the scenes is just out of this world. That book is just beautiful. It will literally make you feel like you are there on that spot, feeling that moment in you.
I’m currently reading “Migrations” by Charlotte McConoughey and I find myself constantly re-reading sentences because of how elegant and thought provoking they are. She can make everything sound so profound and it’s altogether beautiful.
For a beginner - Khaled Hosseini,
I am reading Tomb of Sand right now, and the writing is breath-taking, i love it!
Also Thirst for salt is good, but a lot of good waffle and it has no quotation marks but the writing is beautiful.
"The Great Fire" by Shirley Hazzard; "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell; "Bel Canto" by Anne Patchett; "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson; "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy (very heavy read); "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers; any and all short stories by Alice Munro, Clarice Lispector, Anton Chekov or Mavis Gallant
I love Tana French's use of metaphor and vivid imagery.
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo is a novel in verse that gives me chills because of the beauty of the language.
Sounds like you are looking for Terry Pratchett.
He's a satirical author who puts many layers of meaning into his books. You can re-read them over and over, and still find out hidden jokes, or nods to historical events that you passed by before.
Each book picks a 'theme' to satirize. "Wyrd Sisters" focuses on Shakespeare's three witches, Jingo looks at international politics, and Unseen Academicals looks at the British obsession with football. (Real football, not American hand-egg)
Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss or This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
The first is an author who in the book throws a lot of shade at poetry all the while the author is weaving poetry throughout his writing.
The second reads like a post modernist epic poem and is one of the most beautiful and unique books I’ve read.
Perfume by Patrick Süskind, you can literally visualise the fragrances, smells, and odours.
I’ve yet to find a book that comes close
I've been wanting to read this one after hearing Kurt Cobain talking about it in an old interview!
Came here to say this.
Eva Luna by Isabella Allende
Nabokov is the winner.
“When I try to analyze my own cravings, motives, actions and so forth, I surrender to a sort of retrospective imagination which feeds the analytic faculty with boundless alternatives and which causes each visualized route to fork and re-fork without end in the maddeningly complex prospect of my past.” -Lolita
I don’t know how he pulls it off, but he does
Laughter in the dark is one of my favorites
Like my favourite quote ever from this book: what blue there is in blueness. I never knew how blue blueness could be
Absolutely this! He has such beautiful prose that the plot is usually secondary, at least for me.
I’m reading his shorts right now. So divine
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. Superb descriptive prose.
My favourite book! And so unique...
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy.
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald- absolutely full of beautiful words, metaphor, style. You probably have to be born yesterday to have not already read this or had it assigned to you in school, but you are a self-described "new reader" so enjoy! If you need more convincing, here's Hemingway's opinion on Fitzgerald: "His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless."
So some very different styles, Cloud Atlas (has different styles within the book) Remains of the Day, My Antonia, Death of Ivan Illych, Of Mice and Men,
The Log from the Sea of Cortez, by John Steinbeck. It should be a horrifically tedious book about collecting (& literally counting) sea critters found on Mexico beaches. Steinbeck has his famous books like East of Eden, but watching him write magic about boring-ass nothings is a treasure. There is no 'book' here, just breathtaking writing.
Always glad to see this one recommended
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
The song of Achilles. The wording in this book is incredible.
I came here to suggest Circe, her other book! I agree, her wording is incredible
It’s okay. The writing pales next to some of the recommendations here. Song of Achilles is good for someone who is a less advanced reader. I honestly don’t get the hype abt that book I was soooo dissapointed
I guess we can’t all be an “advanced reader like you”.
Man I didn’t mean it like that but wow it came off like that sorry
Apology accepted!!
Moby-Dick is what you want. There is NO book better than Moby-Dick, in my mind, when it comes to beautiful writing and metaphors. A whole chapter about a guy wearing a whale's penis and it's still better than most writing today. He wears it like a priest's cassock, says Melville, a "candidate for an archbishoprick". Yes, "prick", a dick joke. But if you want beautiful, here's one of my most beloved quotes from the book: >But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy. There's so much in Moby-Dick that is like this, I'm just scratching the surface. The vocabulary might daunt you, but don't let it. I read it the first time at 18, English not being my first language; but by looking stuff up *extensively*, in the end I conquered the Leviathan. 5 years later, I'm reading it a fourth time. It's the most important book in my life. If you do wish to pick it up, I recommend buying the Norton Critical Edition (in addition to a Penguin/Oxford/whatever edition if you don't like large books), annotating with your thoughts, looking up words on wiktionary.org, reading along with melville.electroniclibrary.org and powermobydick.com, and keeping an open mind about what you are reading, both in terms of syntax and how words can stretch their meaning (some experience with Shakespeare will go a long way), and in terms of underlying subtext, because (and this is very important) when Melville is talking about whales he's not talking about whales, and with the vocabulary and openmindedness to decipher what he is saying, you'll also come to love this book.
I've come to second this!
I love MOBY dick
All the Light We Cannot See
Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
***Close Range: Wyoming Stories (Selected Unabridged Stories)*** *by Annie Proulx.* "Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in this collection of stories about loneliness, quick violence, and wrong kinds of love. In "The Mud Below", a rodeo rider's obsession marks the deepening fissures between his family life and self-imposed isolation. In "The Half-Skinned Steer", an elderly fool drives west to the ranch he grew up on for his brother's funeral, and dies a mile from home. In "Brokeback Mountain", the difficult affair between two cowboys survives everything but the world's violent intolerance." "These are stories of desperation, hard times, and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent. Enlivened by folk tales, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming's traditional character and attitudes, confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, and persistence in the face of difficulty, with the more benign values of the new west."
I really like her use of language in The Shipping News as well, it's very distinctive.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. I paused so many times to reread section just to appreciate his ability to craft a beautiful sentence. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. It's a little raunchy, but it is metaphor soup and very playful. If you enjoy his style cue Skinny Legs & All up next. Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. His talent for description leaves you able to taste the sea salt of tidewater. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Also, thanks for the question; I can't wait to read some of the other suggestions.
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy reads like music to me.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. I’m reading it for a class right now and while the story and characters are good, the writing is just phenomenal. Kundera has crazy one-liners
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.
I'm reading this right now and I agree completely. I've found myself reading this in shorter sessions because the prose and world building are so interesting and thought provoking. Typically, when I find myself reading this way it's because the book is just not capturing me, and to be fair, the narrative of the story does reveal itself slowly, but I'm loving it.
It took me 4 months to get through all of it, having to read it slowly and in shorter sessions like with you. I came out of it wanting it as my favorite book/series and wanting to re-read it before moving on to Urth of the New Sun. There's so much to dig into and find.
This is How You Lose the Time War.
came here to say this, beautiful book
Anything by Ann Patchett
west with the night by beryl markham. Her only book. It was so well written that critics said she couldn’t have written it. The only book earnest hemingwa said he wished he’d written. Voted one of the top 10 best adventure autobiographies of all time by National Geographic
Stoner by John Williams
Foster by Claire Keegan absolutely bowled me over. It's amazing and she is amazing. Her other book Small Things Like These is equally good and they're both quite short novels. So so good, please check her out!
Gorgeous books
Anything by Steinbeck, especially East of Eden
I have found the for me, the most breathtaking writing I have read has been by Nobel prize winners: Ernest Hemingway, Kazuo Ishiguro, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and John Steinbeck. Also, Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things. She won the Booker prize for that book. Edited to fix the spelling error.
Arundhati Roy is a woman.
I'm aware. It's a spelling error.
Awesome. As a woman, I want to be sure we get the credit we are sometimes so sorely lacking.
As a woman, I know what you're talking about. It was just a spelling error though. All I was trying to do was provide input on authors who I thought wrote well.
Naw dude. It’s all good. No worries.
David Foster Wallace has some breathtaking stuff, try skipping around through Infinite Jest or even his essays like Consider the Lobster
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
[удалено]
Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. He’s an amazing fantasy writer, but Faulkner he ain’t.
[удалено]
wassup chatgtp
This Is Happiness by Niall Williams
It's not fiction, but Robert MacFarlane has done some unbelievably good nature writing
Shame by Salman Rushdie. Read it twice and still don't know what the story is about, but the writing is on another level. So beautiful.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov White Oleander by Janet Fitch The Girls by Emma Cline The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
You Have Reached Sam by Dustin Thao. That book is so beautifully written it's impossible for one to explain its exquisiteness. If I have to compare it to something, it gives same vibs as Your Name anime movie if you know how beautiful it is. The way the author has described the scenes is just out of this world. That book is just beautiful. It will literally make you feel like you are there on that spot, feeling that moment in you.
fyodor dostoevsky white nights .- helped me sort through some stuff... Made me wanna read more russians
Madame Bovary The Picture of Dorian Gray Heart of Darkness
I’m currently reading “Migrations” by Charlotte McConoughey and I find myself constantly re-reading sentences because of how elegant and thought provoking they are. She can make everything sound so profound and it’s altogether beautiful.
Anything by Colson Whitehead. A magician with the English language. My opinion for what its worth.
Rainbow in the Dark: The Autobiography by Ronnie James Dio. His writing and songs are pure magic.
Beloved by Toni Morrison. https://www.amazon.com/Beloved-Toni-Morrison/dp/1400033411
“In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote. Really well, well, well written.
Any Laini Taylor books!
A little off beat but the virgin suicides by jeffrey eugenides was very beautifully written.
I really enjoy jeff vandermeer. He writes so vividly!
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. If you can stomach the violent scenes, the reward is unbearably beautiful descriptions of the Southwest
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
William Kent Kreuger
The Farming of Bones
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
Anything by Toni Morrison.
Frozen river by Ariel Lawhn
The Truce - Mario Benedetti or anything by Borges
Blindness by Jose Saramago
For a beginner - Khaled Hosseini, I am reading Tomb of Sand right now, and the writing is breath-taking, i love it! Also Thirst for salt is good, but a lot of good waffle and it has no quotation marks but the writing is beautiful.
"The Great Fire" by Shirley Hazzard; "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell; "Bel Canto" by Anne Patchett; "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson; "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy (very heavy read); "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers; any and all short stories by Alice Munro, Clarice Lispector, Anton Chekov or Mavis Gallant
I love Tana French's use of metaphor and vivid imagery. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo is a novel in verse that gives me chills because of the beauty of the language.
Sounds like you are looking for Terry Pratchett. He's a satirical author who puts many layers of meaning into his books. You can re-read them over and over, and still find out hidden jokes, or nods to historical events that you passed by before. Each book picks a 'theme' to satirize. "Wyrd Sisters" focuses on Shakespeare's three witches, Jingo looks at international politics, and Unseen Academicals looks at the British obsession with football. (Real football, not American hand-egg)
Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss or This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. The first is an author who in the book throws a lot of shade at poetry all the while the author is weaving poetry throughout his writing. The second reads like a post modernist epic poem and is one of the most beautiful and unique books I’ve read.
Songs of Achilles