I went ahead and fractured my ankle (pictures can be seen here: http://www.fleetmack.com/picturepages/colorado/2005/august/index.htm ) , on crutches for 8 weeks and since it's my right ankle I can't drive. Pretty much out of commission and will be in my apartment for 8 weeks. I've watched enough TV in the first weeks.... so...... BOOKS!! I need to know of some good books to read.

I'm big into autobiographies and GOOD fiction that is fast reading. Examples: Reading "Cold Mountain" was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. Reading "Mystic River" was one of the best. Anyways -- I'm looking for suggestions for fast-reading good books.... whatcha got for me?

I just finished reading: A Child Called IT, The Lost Boy and A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer... a good enough read that I even managed to hardly speak to my boyfriend in the time I was reading them.

Another good one could be Billy (Billy Connellys bio)..

Okay, given that you dont actually say you like scifi/fantasy, thats about 70% of my book recommendations out the window. You dont mention horror either, thats another 10%... Comicbooks/graphic novels? No? Damn, thats another 17%... Okay, out of the other 3% I would second Commandergoods recommendation of the Janet Evanovich "Stephanie Plum" series. A bonus being that they are REALLY easy to tell what order they should be read in. (Start with "one for the money", then "two for the show", and so on...). They arent a demanding read, but they are quick and entertaining.

As for autobiographys... "With Nails In", the richard e grant one is okay, but nothing great. I thoroughly recommend "Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks" by Mick Foley. Even if you havent watched professional wrestling since you were 10, the man has some fantastic anecdotes, and is a fantastic writer, especially when you consider how often he has been hit in the head with steel chairs. It doesnt try to patronise you by claiming wrestling is a "real sport" like a lot of wrestlers bios tend to, and was actually written by the man himself with no ghostwriter, which is fairly rare in a sports autobiography. Plus you can pick it up for buttons on amazon, especially secondhand.

"Billy" by pamela stephenson is pretty good, but I kind of thought she was too close to him to be particularly objective at times (shes his wife).

"American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story" by Cynthia True suffers the opposite problem, its a decent read, but the woman who writes it never actually met bill hicks. I havent had a chance to read "Bill Hicks: Agent of evolution", but I do intend to at some point, similarly with "Love all the people", a collection of bill hicks letters and routines.

Ooh, back to crime/thriller for a minute, "the Straw Men", by michael marshall is pretty good, are as the sequels "The lonely dead" and "blood of angels". But when you've read them, go and read his sci-fi stuff (under the name "Michael marshall smith"). Its far superiour. I dont know ANYONE who read Spares and didnt enjoy it.

Iain Banks' "Espidair street" ranks as probably the greatest biography of a rock star that never existed ever written. Its about an (imaginary) rock star looking back on his career. You could also try "Whit". The rest of his non-sci fi tends to be either good but demanding (Crow Road, The Wasp Factory) or pretty terrible (Canal Dreams, the bridge).

Again in crime, I thoroughly recommend anything ever written by Christopher Brookmyre. Buy "One fine day in the middle of the night" or "not the end of the world", see how you like his stuff. Its a scottish take on the kind of Elmore Leonard style of writing. Plus, as a bonus, there is a scene in one of his books where someone gets shot at just round the corner from my work. :P

I also have to recommend hunter s thomsons "Fear and loathing in las vegas". If you havent already read it, its definately worth a go.

Anyway, if you are looking for sci-fi/fantasy recommendations, or good graphic novels <cough Transmetropolitan by warren ellis cough> let me know, because thats the genres I read most of.

Just remembered: Also meant to recommend Lindsey Davis' "Falco" series, they are detective novels set in ancient rome, following the life and career of an informer named falco. If that interests you at all, pick one or two of them up. The first one is called "the silver pigs", but its not necessarily the best one to read first, she really hits her stride a book or two later.

White Noise (Don DeLillo) --> NOT at all the same story as the lameass movie by the same name. I got all excited when the previews first came on, but 5 seconds later I was cursing and swearing at the blasphemy I had just witnessed.

The Chrysalids (John Irving??)

That is all, I don't read much.

Marg

The chrysalids was by John Wyndham. (I'm not great with names, but my SYS english dissertation was "A comparitive study of the use of religious imagery and themes in Philip K Dicks "Do androids dream of electric sheep?", John Wyndhams "The Chrysalids" and Walter Millers "A canticle for liebowitz".)

i like the suggestions i've gotten so far ... but this guy has summed up what i like to read the most (other than autobiographies) ... perhaps i should have specified that first .... but i'm enjoying this list thusfar, so thanks for all the suggestions up to now!

Odd you mention that. I'm listening to it now. I also bought the dead tree edition, and read that before I go to sleep. That was really good, as was Neverwhere.

And the entire Sandman series, all penned by him.

And before that, the latter half of the short lived comic Miracleman, back in the 80's (fuck you Todd McFarlane!)

I'd recommend All Quiet on the Western Front.Just generally a spectacular book, and quite a quick read.

Virginia Woolf can be hard to deal with at first, but once you get past her writing style, she's awesome.

I find WWI fiction to be generally worth reading, although depressing/frustrating at times.

My personal SF suggestions would be The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuinn and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick (I swear it's just a coincidence, I'm not obsessed with authors whose middle initial is K). The Dick book is the one that Blade Runner was loosely based on.

If you can find it, look for The Man Who Turned Into Himself. I can't remember the author's name, but I'm sure you'd be able to google it. It's quite a short book, but I remember it being quick to read and having a spectacularly surreal/mind-bending twist at the end.

For the record, while I'm in Korea, I plan on reading a bunch of classics that I've never gotten around to going through. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, A Farewell to Arms and The Oddysey are all on my list. I'll let you know if I actually get through them. I may, if I'm feeling stupidly brave/foolhardy enough, try to tackle a Dickens book, but I've never been able to read more than a chapter before, so I don't hold too much hope for that particular goal.