MKK

As you can see, I’m looking for the sophisticated yet accessible high-quality yet readable engaging yet not too demanding literate yet unpretentious timeless classic preferably in several long parts. Is that so much to ask?

Personally, I’m of the firm opinion that when one is stuck in one place, like an airplane seat, for a very long time, good-quality escapist stuff works best. For me, that means mysteries. Depending on your tastes, here are some I find a bit more “literary” (or at least literate) than most:

John Connolly’s “Every Dead Thing” series;
The Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child books (just finished “The Cabinet of Curiosities,” which I thought was well done;
Philip Kerr’s older stuff – especially his “Berlin Noir” trilogy, which I thought was incredible.

Oh, and three authors come to mind that might actually fit ALL of your criteria:

Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” and “Foucault’s Pendulum”;
Iain Pears’s “An Instance of the Fingerpost”;
Anything by Arturo Perez-Reverte, but especially “The Club Dumas” and “The Flanders Panel.”

If I had to pick three authors on my groaning bookshelves that fit all of your preferred categories – well, “dese is dey.”

Happy reading! (And if you try any of them, let me know if you liked/hated ‘em.)

For a three-hour throwaway read, you could try Bringing Down the House, a very poorly-written but entertaining book about MIT students who won millions counting cards in Vegas. In more literate nonfiction, Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams makes pretty good travel reading, as do bits from Edward Abbey or mountaineer-types like Herzog (Annapurna).

For more hard SF, my favorite is Walter Jon Williams, pretty much any of his stuff. David Brin and Greg Benford are also good. Kiln People is Brin’s latest and is better than his Uplift War books.

Good luck!

Interested in business? Probably not enough to like actual business books. But The End of Marketing as We Know It is quick and worthwhile.

The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico by Bernal Diaz del Castillo is the most amazing adventure story of all time, and (largely) true.

Oranges by John McPhee is nice, light, reading for the amateur biologist in all of us.

I have a soft spot for Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis.

And Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch is wonderful. Inspiring.

-Magik

Also, “Perdido Street Station” and “The Scar” by China Mieville have both actual and literary heft.

“Cyteen” by C.J. Cherryh is one I haven’t gotten to yet, but it looks fairly lengthy on my bookshelf.

Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy is good reading, even though it’s ostensibly YA.

J. Gregory Keyes’ “Newton’s Cannon” and 3 follow-ups is interesting if you are at all interested in magical alt history.

Would it be too obvious to suggest the Lord of the Rings?
Octavia Butler – “Kindred”

“Mojo: Conjure Stories” – one of the only short story collections I read in which I liked every single piece

So, the book you must read (really!) is The Liar’s Club, by Mary Karr. The funniest sad story to never become maudlin. You can’t possibly resist that.

One that you can probably resist but may love is Wittgenstein’s Mistress, by David Markson. Our heroine, the last person on earth, travels and ruminates. One of my favorites.

Bon Voyage!

I strongly second China Mieville, especially Perdido Street Station—if you don’t like naval fiction, The Scar may be troublesome.

The best translation of Anna Karenina is by Louise and Aylmer Maude, who were contemporaries and friends of Tolstoy. I’ve read both that and the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation, and while I think (not speaking Russian) the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation is probably more technically accomplished, the Maude translation is far more resonant. Unfortunately, I think the only edition of it available in the US is Everyman’s Library.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson if by some slim chance you haven’t read it.

Most stuff by William Gibson but especially Idoru. His new one, Pattern Recognition, is not bad, but some people have said they find it pretentious.