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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 1673245" data-attributes="member: 259">My all-time favorite author, reigning supreme for nearly two decades, is Ursula K. LeGuin. Although a few of her books are stinkers (you sometimes get the impression she's just read a political book that cheesed her off, and she turns it into a novel that thinly veils polemics under the guise of a story), most of her stuff is thoughtful, wise, beautiful, and awesome.  She's like the homemade whole-wheat bread of my reading regimen:  delicious, filling, and good for me. China Mieville, on the other hand, is like a Gorgonzola and Kalamata Olive dish:  pungent, almost overwhelming, and intensely flavorful.  Or maybe he's like a crazy guy on the street who knocks you down, grabs you by the lapels, and whispers lunacy in your face, and it starts making sense to you, which scares the snot out of you.  He's the closest I've come in a long time to finding someone as good as Le Guin. George R.R. Martin is a superior hazelnut chocolate chip cookie.  No, he's not nutritious, and he's not especially filling, but damn he's tasty.  A Song of Ice and Fire is my favorite non-literary reading in years. Mr. Westlake, of the Dortmunder novels, is --okay, the food analogy has run its course.  His prose is nothing special, and his characters aren't remotely plausible, but it's rare that a book makes me giggle as much as his do.  I can still think of scenes from his books and start snickering, several months after reading them. Mimetic fiction?  The Secret History, by Donna Tartt, is the best I've read in a very long time.  If you've been in academia at all, it'll be very familiar and very eerie.  My brother-in-law called my sister's voice mail while reading it to tell her that he'd put it in the freezer. Oh, and have you read Wild Seed, by Octavia Butler?  It's my favorite book by her, considerably better (IMO) than Kindred. Daniel</blockquote>

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