I loved the books by Nevil Shute. Yes, On the Beach is depressing, but it is interesting and scary, and it's supposed to be. We spoke about his novels at Mudcat before, and his Trustee from the Toolroom got my vote as an interesting quirky little novel.

Faulkner is great, but if you want to get the pace of it get something like Go Down, Moses on an unabridged book on tape and listen to it. I guarantee, if you pick up the book after that and read it, you'll have the pace in your head. You can breathe again!

That Hardy novel is Far from the Madding Crowd, not "Maddening" crowd. I read most of his novels in print in the U.S. back in college and loved them. They made you work, but they were wonderful. For creepiest of the bunch, Jude the Obscure wins the prize; for most overall rewarding I think Mayor of Casterbridge.

Loved Tolkien. Loved Updike--back when they were coming out I read all of his Rabbit books.

I read a series of Piers Anthony books back in the 1980s and they were pretty funny. But you could only read so many in a row or you went a bit nuts.

Don't worry about not liking Bridges of Madison County. Most credible reviews said it stunk, but when it came out as a movie it was clear from those same reviewers that it was better as a premise for a movie.

SRS