David Griver

This wasn't amazing in the conventional sense. I was however amazed by just how much this story managed to freak me out. The Metamorphosis made me feel a very unique mixture of horror, disgust and sadness.

Ted's short stories are as close to perfect as I can imagine - nobody packs this much heart and imagination so efficiently

I must say I found the stories from Sacks' younger years quite astounding. The latter half though is profound, heartwarming and sad at times. In a different lifetime Sacks would probably have been a novelist.

It's a shame (but maybe not a surprise) that Huxley and Orwell get all the love in the world of utopian fiction because The Dispossessed really should be considered (as of now) the apotheosis of the genre. Le Guin doesn't give herself the easy way out, and every time you think you have her perspective figured out she introduces more subtly, and more complexity, but never too much for you to handle - it's artful.

It's hard to find faults in the book, it's dense with beautiful ideas and even more beautiful prose. The only fault one could find in the book is that it contains so many great sentences in a row that unless you're vigilant to remain appreciative, you're likely to stop noticing them. Any of Le Guin's sentences in any other novel would be a rare gem, the kind that makes you stop for a second to digest and appreciate. But here - they are like pebbles on a beach.

One of the things that's amazing about this book (There are too many to list) is how well Ursula manages to wind together the threads of the “Big Ideas”: Anarchism, Mysticism, Taoism, Science, Technology, with the threads of “Small Ideas”: Love, Work, Play, Relationships, etc.. Creating a beautiful tapestry that somehow seems to contain everything that you could ever care about (and more).

If you haven't read this book, read it now! (It might change your life)

Catch-22 is almost unequivocally the best work of fiction I've ever read. It's definitely a grower, but boy when it does, you're in for a wild ride. Reading this book you are bombarded with a slew of hilarious stories about an insane cast of characters. Slowly but surely there comes into focus a tragic tale of a bunch of officers trying to make it through a horrible war with their mind and body in one piece. This novel manages to capture with perfect clarity the absurdism of war and the (funny) craziness of bureaucracy and hierarchy. Never has a book managed to be so funny and sad at the same time. Not to mention the fact that it's endlessly quotable:

“They're trying to kill me,” Yossarian told him calmly.
No one's trying to kill you,” Clevinger cried.
Then why are they shooting at me?” Yossarian asked.
They're shooting at everyone,” Clevinger answered. “They're trying to kill everyone.”
And what difference does that make?”

Stop what you're doing, and go and read this book right now, force yourself to read the first 150 pages no matter what, it takes a while to “get it” but once you do, boy will you be glad.