I really love Nick Hornbys books (High Fidelity, About a Boy, etc) - what other books would I like?

CHUCK PALAHNIUK.

before anyone seconds lefteh, I should note that i’ve already read most of chuck p’s stuff, and while it is quite awesome it’s a little too dark/cynical for what i’m in the mood for.

Damn! In that case, check out Douglas Coupland.

Irvine Welsh. Brush up on your Scottish.

Check out Tom Robbins. He’s like Chuck Palahniuk, but crazier.

Also, Hornsby tends to focus on loner male protagonists, you might like Dave Eggers (Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity). And my favorite author these days is Haruki Murakami. He’s a lot deeper than Hornsby, but he also focuses on lone men trying to deal with modernity.

Finally, I think my favorite book ever was called Naive Super by Erlend Loe. It’s his only book translated from Norwegian and I picked it up in a college bookstore a few years ago, surely depriving some Scandinavian Lit student of their copy. But I probably have read it once a year for the last five years. It’s about a grad student who, facing the contradictions and meaninglessness of modern society, drops out of society to try to think his way out of it. That sounds pretty heavy, but it’s a fast read and incredibly enjoyable. You should totally buy this book.

Carl Hiaasen.