When was the last time you reveled in a piece of literature?

Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall. (I loved them both.)

One reviewer’s somewhat smarmy take, “It also meets the demand for a cracking good read – the carefully-crafted entrapment of Boleyn and the alleged plotters is superbly told. Superior to Wolf Hall, its predecessor, Bring Up the Bodies will stimulate a feel-good factor throughout the nation’s book groups.” Source

6th July, four days ago. I read a brief poem that has stuck in my mind since.

In my case, too, it was while reading a poem. It is a feeling unlike any other, eh @Hawaii_Jake?

@marinelife It was not recent, but I can recall getting lost in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Variations. They were enchanting, mesmerizing.

At lunch time today. I’m reading Khaled Hosseini’s latest, “And the Mountains Echoed”, and it’s as good as his earlier works: Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I was mesmerized by Salman Rushdie’s “Joseph Anton – A Memoir.”

Crime and Punishment. Expected to hate it but came out loving every bit of it. Not that I’m a landlord murdering fan but it was a riveting book.

Every and any time I read anything by W.B Yeats.

When I finished House of Leaves my world was so rocked I becamed morally offended at the tyranny of all these other books that dared to try imposing the tyranny of sequential reading on me. Pfft. Linear storytelling…literary fascism!

The first time I read The Pickwick Papers.

Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union really enthralled me. I’m stunned and jealous at his ability to dream up a world that’s both imaginary and completely plausible.

@jaytkay: I listened to The Yiddish Policeman’s Union on an audio book and was very taken with it.

When I was revising my latest short story

I loved “The Years of Rice and Salt.” The first chapter is a pretty depressing account of a Mongolian scout who strikes out west into a deserted Europe, where nearly everyone has died from the black plague. He falls into the hands of slave traders and dies a pointless, violent death.

The rest of the book follows this character and a few others through multiple reincarnations as history goes in totally new directions. As you follow the characters through their lifetimes, they gain a little bit of empathy and understanding each time. At the same time, humanity moves forward from its savage and inhumane past, taking incremental steps toward a progressive, collaborative future. It ends on a very simple but joyous note, with a big epiphany for the main character who we’ve been following all this time. It’s a really optimistic ending that felt totally earned and stayed with me for a long time.

Plus, the characters and their lives are engaging and fun to read about, and I liked watching the clever alternative history unfold.

Oh, also “Deep River” by Shusaku Endo. It leaves you with the same feeling of connectedness and optimism.

@josie: Even Yeats wrote some poems that were just ho-hum or not very clear. All that stuff relating to “Perne in a gyre” and his experiments with drugs produced some weird stuff.

That said, I am a huge fan of much of his work and refer to many of his poems often. At this time of the year, I think often on The Lake Isle of Innisfree and nine bean-rows.

I most recently loved Jack London’s Call of the Wild and Baree the Wolf-Dog. His ability to relate to the dog and wolf and transmit it to paper is beautiful and passionate.

Edgar Allen Poe is so riveting as well what that man can do by knock knock knocking on the door. My heart pounds, and I marvel at his ability to turn a killer into a human.

Then I must say I love almost every one of Ray Bradberry’s stories that I have read. His sparing use of verbage that is so descriptive and transparent. I am in awe.

And Kurt Vonnegut, ok some of his books are harder to engage in but his short stories in Monkey House. Most of them flew by. I was transfixed and needed a fix.

For modern writer’s Jim Butcher. Ok so he lacks substance his action sequences are 95 percent of the book but somehow he manages to develop characters and pose questions to the readers regardless.

Games of Throne’s Marvelous intricate character building and world creation. The ability to de villainize everyone. Just create a world that explored darker aspects of humanity so thoroughly. I would almost say it rivaled Dune except for size and scope.

Reading an essay my daughter wrote regarding her home life/upbringing, beautifully written & universal praise lavished liberally. Beats any so called professional work every time, that’s my girl.

When I read this book

http://www.amazon.com/Perfume-Story-Murderer-Patrick-Suskind/dp/0375725849/

I can highly recommend it.

My 18 year old is really big into books like the ones mentioned above. He’s always recommending something for me to read. If I tell him that it doesn’t sound interesting and that I already have plenty to read, he gets all uppity and points out that that James Patterson is not literature and how could I possibly have thought the Twilight series was worth wasting all of those hours on. lol So, just joking with him of course, I say “Really? What 18 year old reads Shakespeare for fun??” I’m actually really proud of him. He’s a smart boy.

I did attempt to read The Iliad. Does that count?

@Katniss Ah, The Iliad: it’s all in there.