(Ir)religiosity

You've come to the right place, sir, which…is…your own site, so yeah.

First I'll recommend Snow, a novel by Orhan Pamuk about an exiled poet from Turkey who finds his way back to his hometown of Kars to investigate some young adult female suicides. While there he runs into his former lady friend, there is a political coup, and he finds himself getting new ideas for poetry. Pamuk is a Pulitzer winner and totally awesome.

On the topic of comics, please read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. You'd be doing yourself a favor. It's not a comic itself, but it's about two Jewish cousins who want to make a name for themselves as comic creators during and right after WWII, the trials and tribulations of trying to do so, and the hardships of being who they are in that time period. Another Pulitzer winner, the author Michael Chabon totally rocks the effing house with this. This was my favorite novel that I read in 2007.

As far as comics themselves, if you haven't read Bone you should definitely check it out. My favorite comic ever.

Lastly, if you want just a big list of novels for ideas, you can check out what Joe and I have discussed on the show over the passed couple of years here.

Well, one of my all time favorites is 1984, if you haven't read it. In the same vein, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is also a good read.

Also, Pope Joan by Diane Woolfolk Cross is a fun read and based on legend if not some historical fact. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeannette Winterson is about a young gay girl growing up in an evangelical household, but it's full of great satire. In fact, if you are into 1984, you might like The Stone Gods by Winterson. It's one of the most unusual books I've ever read. The main concept is cyclical time, but it runs through a futuristic society (that's in the past and on another planet), and several time periods on earth.

Also, if you like Gothic literature, O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker is awesome. It starts out with a young girl's murder in Scotland, but spends the whole book getting around to telling you how and why it happened.

I was going to mention Chabon as well, may want to check out Yiddish Policeman's Union.

Nabokov is great… "Pale Fire" is brilliant, especially if you're in academic land. Chekhov's short stories are incredible – always good reading.

Stephen King, who I'm not a huge fan of, also has a few good ones that I've read lately: Duma Key and Bag of Bones were both quite good.

For this summer, I've got Toni Morrison's Beloved, Maryanne Robinson's Gilead, and some Rumi on tap.

Twilight!
Ok, ok kidding.

I cannot more highly recommend "The Silmarillion" perhaps you have read it (you said you read Tolkein in HS, but most people just mean LotR when they say that). Also, it's not fiction, but Kevin Roose's "The Unlikely Disciple" was a good non-academic read (about a semester he spent at Liberty University).