Massive reading recommendations

[rirv]

So I'm off for a month to South America this time next week - Bolivia, Peru. There's going to be some lonely nights, long bus rides etc.

My plan is to take a book that I would not have the patience or time to read otherwise.

My thoughts so far are either Ulysses or War & Peace. You know, the kind of books you read just to say you have.

Any other ideas?

[Bob]

i've been trying to read under the volcano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Volcano) for the past year or so on trains and lunch breaks and it's been impossible because it's a book that you really need to sit down and read in silence for hours and hours at a time i think. it's not especially long (it's novel-sized, maybe 400 or so pages) but there are paragraphs that literally span 2-3 pages. one of them was a single parenthetical. so flowery. so verbose. i wish i liked it more than i did, but i think it's a book that needs to be read in longer than 15 minute intervals

it's about an alcoholic in mexico who's trying to get back together with his wife. i think. it will be a good book to read on hot days because mexico is also hot. the long rambling paragraphs make sense when you consider that they resemble the thoughts of someone whose mind has been wrecked by booze, at least that's my take on it

also the brothers karamazov

[MC Moot]

Given your destination I'd suggest some Gabriel Garcia Marquez...”Love in the Time of Cholera” (http://www.amazon.com/Love-Time-Cholera-Vintage-International/dp/0307387143/ref=pd_sim_b_1) or ”One Hundred Years of Solitude” (http://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Solitude-Gabriel-Garcia-Marquez/dp/0060929790)...monumental/epic South American stuff...(y)

[Myu-to]

Calvin and Hobbes.

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[gbsuey]

There's an amazing trilogy by Louis de Bernieres...The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Senor Viva and the Coca Lord, and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. They're set in a fictional S America, funny and a bit magical and completely random. I'd recommend them to anyone, not just because it's set where you're going. Anything by Scarlet Thomas. I had to leave Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as i was too distracted to get through it, that may be worth a go. The master and margerita...that was mentioned on here recently...awesome book and great holiday read. Dune? The Iliad or The Odyssey? Some Kerouac. George Orwell.

[Myu-to]

I honestly enjoyed the Harry Potter books, they are exceptionally well written. Hemingway, Jules Verne, John Grisham, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Stephen King's The Stand, and others. I've also always enjoyed history books.

Another idea, if you haven't done it yet, is check the "What Book Are You Reading" thread.