^Word to that. (pun intended of course)
In the Category of World Literature, Team Discovery Channel is proud to select:
My Name is Red
by Orhan Pamuk
This book won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary award in 2003, and its author was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.
I'm reading it right now, haven't made it all the way through, but it's staggeringly good. The basic outline is that during the 17th Century, the Sultan of Istanbul has commissioned an illuminated manuscript, however he's asked that the images be rendered in a western style, which is blasphemy to many of Istanbul's muslims. The novel opens with the chapter "I am a Corpse" where one of the illustrators is lying murdered in a well and the mystery spins from there.
It's about Art, Power, Love and Sex and the writing is astonishing.