The Tales of Genji. I'm still a little at sea on some of the mores, but it is really quite exceptional.
Ooooo, I've wanted to read this. But haven't gotten around to it yet.
I had just finished 20,000 Leagues under the sea and wanted something a little less...biology (though, it was a great book.)
Reading The Stand now, "unedited" which is a lie, because I looked at mom's original version from the early 1980s, and King decided in the re-release to "update" the year and make it set in the 90s. This MIGHT have been an okay idea, but now all the cultural references are stupid. Like, I love Crosby Stills and Nash's Daylight again album, but when King says the song "Wasted on the Way" was constantly playing on the radio...yeah...by the 90s, naw. Not happening. And would anyone have called the disease "Captain Trips" by the 1990s? I doubt it.
Aside from that complaint, it's actually pretty good. The characterization is done well, and I always like the way he writes in general. Just wish he hadn't changed the dates when it was supposed to be "unedited." Kinda counter productive :/