Hello fellow readers. I’m looking for something, not too specific but one caveat.
I just want to read something with a great writing style. I’ve been kinda distracted lately; perhaps my attention span took a hit thanks to social media, and so I keep starting books but not finishing :/
So I thought of what I fundamentally like, what might break this malaise and I think a great writing style might do the trick.
Past favorites include Steinbeck, Hemingway, Marquez, and more recent authors like Chuck Palahniuk, Jennifer Egan, and Gillian Flynn. I realize these don’t all fit into the same box and are not necessarily “exquisite” lol. Anyway yes I could use something new.
TIA!
by rotterdamn8
19 Comments
The Overstory by Richard Powers had some phenomenal prose.
[The Girl Who Drank the Moon](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/b8b6a493-2301-493a-bc3e-d4e79c04f4a3) by Kelly Barnhill
If you haven’t already, try The adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow.
It’s a captivating writing style and it will do the work to carry you.
Anything by E. B. White or C. S. Lewis
The most beautifully written book I can think of is “Lolita,” but that’s hard to recommend due to the subject matter.
Definitely Ray Bradbury.
Fahrenheit 451 is a classic for a reason and the prose is absolutely exquisite. I mean this is the opener:
I also really loved his book Farewell Summer.
An example of the prose;
“Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it. It’s like boats. You keep your motor on so you can steer with the current. And when you hear the sound of the waterfall coming nearer and nearer, tidy up the boat, put on your best tie and hat, and smoke a cigar right up till the moment you go over. That’s a triumph.”
It’s a coming of age story. A sequel to Dandelion Wine, which I haven’t gotten my hands on yet.
His books are also quite short and he wrote a lot of short stories so I feel like he’s good for when you’re attention span isn’t 🙂
The Little Prince, is a really short, very philosophical book that I really enjoyed. Despite the pictures and sparse text, it isn’t a children’s book. It takes like an hour or so to get through so if you don’t like it it’s not much time lost.
The bee sting by Paul Murray. It’s not flowery but his writing is so effective and he can build a moment for 100 pages that has you gripped even though it’s mostly a classic character study
The Lost Boy (novella)
Thomas Wolfe
Redbook Magazine, November 1937
> Light came and went and came again; the great plume of the fountain pulsed, and the winds of April sheeted it across the Square in rainbow gossamer of spray. The street-cars ground into the Square from every portion of the town’s small compass and halted briefly like wound toys in their old quarter-hourly formula of assembled Eight. The courthouse bell boomed out its solemn warning of immediate Three, and everything was just the same as it had always been.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell by Suzanna Clarke
‘SOME YEARS AGO there was in the city of York a society of magicians. They met upon the third Wednesday of every month and read each other long, dull papers upon the history of English magic.
They were gentleman-magicians, which is to say they had never harmed anyone by magic – nor ever done anyone the slightest good…’
*Edited to correct Authors Name
Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos – and anything else by her
I think the word “exquisite” can be associated with Oscar Wilde as well as some of the names you mentioned. Sometimes I read poems to quench my thirst for exquisites too.
I’m quite fond of Virginia Woolf’s prose, especially in Orlando. The writing in that book is just gorgeous.
Currently reading Still Life by Sarah Winman and I certainly find the prose very beautiful
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
Recently: All the Sinners Bleed by S.A Cosby
*Frankenstein* – Mary Shelley
*The Name of the Rose* – Umberto Eco
*Don Quixote* – Miguel Cervantes
A couple of writers of beautiful prose: Marilynn Robinson, Lauren Groff.
Someone else to writes nice prose of a different style was John Updike. If you want flamboyance Saul Bellow and Martin Amis.
Howard’s End by E.M. Forster; A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry