Oh, do read Tom Stoppard. You have to. He’s the wonderfulest. Do you like reading plays, though? I know that not everyone does. If you do, Tom Stoppard’s totally the way to go. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern if you’re okay with absurdist theater, or if not then Arcadia BEST PLAY IN THE WORLD (at least in the top five), or also The Real Thing.

Oh you should read Lolita. Honestly. The prose is just crazy good.

I love Diana Wynne Jones for that reason! (among many) I find that her descriptions, though brief, give you this really, really strong sense of who the characters are as people. She just has a knack.

I haven’t revisited Renault in years (I read The Persian Boy at a formative time in my life), but Miller just underwhelmed me.

I find it interesting to compare writers who describe things lierally, which is generally boring, with those who can cut through to the essence of things (or people) with just a few words. I recently re-read a crime novel by Nicholas Blake (pseudonym of the poet Cecil Day-Lewis), and he was very good at providing minimal description but conveying volumes.

I read that (STICP) not long after I read Daniel Handler’s ‘The Basic Eight’ and it seemed way too similar for me to accept that Pessl’s book was worth the hype.

HE WROTE OTHER STUFF. All of it sad though, I think.

I haven’t no – the hype put me off, but I banked it for after I’ve forgotten about the hype because of the excellent title. I will add your infromation to the book chosing database (otherwise known as my juggling brain).