I'm a big nerd and I've read a lot of books of all different kinds, and I'm an English teacher.
Tell me what you like or what you're looking for and I'll recommend something I think is good
Also, fun history fact, this comm used to be called c/books until I started posting poetry on main every day in protest of there not being a literature comm. Direct action gets the goods comrades
Academic mysteries - maybe the work of Javier Marias, like All Souls and Your Face Tomorrow?
We have the same taste in poetry. Check out Louis Zukovsky if you haven't already. For novels that challenge your feeling and knowledge of language, Raymond Queneau and the rest of the Oulipo crowd, or Arno Schmidt.
That's the second time in my life someone has recommended Arno Schmidt to me, so I guess I finally have to set aside the time to read Zettels Traum.
It doubles as a fitness program! (I have it but have very much not finished it.)
Schmidt's hard enough to find in English so I'd say start wherever you can. @thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net is another Schmidtite but last we discussed it I think we'd read completely different sections of his oeuvre. I've since caught up on The Stony Heart, though, and it might be my favorite so far. Still need to devote some attention to his later, larger works.
Glad you enjoyed The Stony Heart! It might be my favorite of Schmidt's as well; I go back and forth between so many of his works.
@Pisha@hexbear.net Dalkey Archive is reprinting Nobodaddy's Children this autumn, which is a wonderful place to start. (I would recommend against starting with Zettels Traum at all costs) It's a collection of three loosely connected novellas that are easy to jump into, but give you a crash course in Schmidt's particular type of language and concerns. The /r/Arno_Schmidt subreddit is doing a reading group for the book if you're interested: https://old.reddit.com/r/Arno_Schmidt/comments/1654e6y/announcing_rarno_schmidts_nobodaddys_children/
I'll check it out! I'd be reading it in the original though; hopefully, that's not a problem. I've ordered the book from the library and if it shows up on time, I'll probably be there at the reading group.
Can't imagine reading it in the original is a problem; in fact, more of an asset. Jealous that you know German; virtually all of my favorite writers write in German.
German is such a useless language for traveling anywhere in the world or interacting with other cultures, but it does give access to some great literature and philosophy, so I try to make the best of it.