The Name of the Rose

- Sapiens - The Lord of the Rings - Siddhartha - Chaos: Making a New Science - The Death Gate cycle books - Neuromancer - Head First Design Patterns - Valis - Dune - The name of the rose I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones off the top of my head.

I've begun reading The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, his first novel. It's left a very good impression so far. It's a fourteenth century murder mystery, set in a monastery, where the mystery is mostly an excuse for exploring the historical and cultural contexts, which are very interesting. Wikipedia has a nice summary: "an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory". Eco was a semiotician and a philosopher and he brings the best of that to the table in this book.

Loved Foucault's Pendulum, but I think Name of the Rose is a better novel. The characters are more convincing, the narrative momentum more propulsive, and the intellectual pyrotechnics just as satisfying. The film, with Sean Connery, is pretty good too...

Been a big Stephenson fan since Cryptonomicon. Enjoyed the Baroque Trilogy, Anathem & Reamde, but non of them are as good as Cryptonomicon. It's a bit like be an Umberto Eco fan - nothing since Name of the Rose has been quite as good. Or Wes Anderson for that matter; there's been good stuff, but nothing's touched the heights of Royal Tenenbaums.

Good author. A bit, elitist in their prose and a bit rude with the reader. He makes you read a lot before getting a bit of emotion. In Il nome della rosa he does a masterful work, to me. I really liked Patricia Highsmith with the sequels of Mr. Ripley. I also love the french book write Jean-Christophe Grangé with their beloved black novel books. Love the all of them.

Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco