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Dr Scoofles posted:Are there any good horror books where than main focus is a totally awesome creepy house or location? I loved the house parts of House of Leaves so so much and have also read The Haunting of Hill House by S.Jackson which I also enjoyed. I next tried Hell House by R.Matheson and I hated it, it's the kind of awful schlock I would try to avoid like the plague. I think I put it down when the ghost got a hard on and kept touching up the hot assistant. Maybe the best example in recent memory is the short story (not the film) Room 1408 by Stephen King. He really does a great job of being very subtle in how the room infects the protagonist. No other examples are coming to mind, unfortunately.
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Aug 3, 2013 11:01
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Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's Memories of the Future contains a short story that fits (and might have been the inspiration for HoL). You could also check out Bradbury's short story The Veldt and the classic, highly symbolic The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
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Aug 3, 2013 11:29
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regulargonzalez posted:Maybe the best example in recent memory is the short story (not the film) Room 1408 by Stephen King. He really does a great job of being very subtle in how the room infects the protagonist. I just read this and it's brilliant, exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, thank you! Fantastically creepy and to me I imagined that the room was throbbing and growing around Michael like a cancerous tumour that ravaged his body and mind, leaving him for the rest of his life a frail survivor. Mission accomplished, this story freaked me out. funkybottoms posted:Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's Memories of the Future contains a short story that fits (and might have been the inspiration for HoL). You could also check out Bradbury's short story The Veldt and the classic, highly symbolic The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Wonderful! I'm going to track down these short stories late this afternoon. I've not read the yellow wallpaper but I understand its more about mental breakdown and hallucinations rather than a horror story per se, so I might give it a miss but thank you for the recommendation all the same. I'm really looking forward to reading Memoires of the Future though, cheers! Any other recommendations from others are greatly appreciated too 
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Aug 3, 2013 14:09
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Dr Scoofles posted:Are there any good horror books where than main focus is a totally awesome creepy house or location? The Mourning House by Ronald Malfi is a pretty good "weird, hosed up house" story. It's novella-length. The Other Side by R. Chetwynd-Hayes is a collection of four long stories about a haunted house; I really, really enjoyed it (though the later books based on the same house are not quite as good). It's OOP, but you can get used copies for a penny + shipping. The Bleeding Horse and Others and Old Albert: An Epilogue by Brian J. Showers are two collections wherein all the stories are about a neighborhood in Dublin. They're a bit of a slow burn, but I loved them.
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Aug 3, 2013 17:55
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Any suggestions for American Civil War focused historical fiction? I'm looking to avoid mawkish stuff like Gone with the Wind but linger around work like The Killer Angels. I'm also open to alternate history versions of the Civil War too, but not any of that Cherie Priest malarky.
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Aug 4, 2013 00:33
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Dr Scoofles posted:Are there any good horror books where than main focus is a totally awesome creepy house or location? I loved the house parts of House of Leaves so so much and have also read The Haunting of Hill House by S.Jackson which I also enjoyed. I next tried Hell House by R.Matheson and I hated it, it's the kind of awful schlock I would try to avoid like the plague. I think I put it down when the ghost got a hard on and kept touching up the hot assistant. I would be interested in any recommendations based on this too. Just curious have you read Salem's Lot? It was influenced by The Haunting of Hill House. Of course with King I have to mention The Shining. The Overlook is a bad bad place.
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Aug 4, 2013 01:00
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joelcamefalling posted:I thought Rainbow 6 was fun, even if it is 'airport fiction' that dudes in cravats will look down on you for reading Thanks all the recommends. I'll start looking into them after the weekend. Was watching 'The Hunt for Red October' which made me want to reread Rainbow 6 so I am, but need some new books.
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Aug 4, 2013 02:22
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Dr Scoofles posted:Are there any good horror books where than main focus is a totally awesome creepy house or location? I loved the house parts of House of Leaves so so much and have also read The Haunting of Hill House by S.Jackson which I also enjoyed. I next tried Hell House by R.Matheson and I hated it, it's the kind of awful schlock I would try to avoid like the plague. I think I put it down when the ghost got a hard on and kept touching up the hot assistant. Architectural Horror is one of my most beloved of genres and finding the ultimate haunted house book is kind of my holy grail. I'll preface my recommendations by stating that my current two faves are The Haunting of Hill House (which you loved), and Hell House (which you hated) FG Cottam's House of Lost Souls is partially told in Diary form and skips around between present day and the 1920's. He pulls in occult elements including Aleister Crowley. I thought it was a good, spooky read and it up there in my top tier. Michael McDowell's The Elementals is a very heavy Southern Gothic story that is unfortunately out of print, which I think is a travesty. I think he is one of the most underrated modern horror novelists of our time. The cloying heat and sand that permeates the novel sets a fantastically creepy tone. Highly recommended. David Annandale's Gethsemane Hall is more recent and a little more straightforward. Shades of Lovecraft in the greater evil but a very, very spooky haunted house tale. Lastly a couple of left field suggestions. Adam Nevill is a popular UK writer who is considered UK's version of Stephen King. He's written 4 novels, all which would fit your bill, but I actually really liked his last 2 novels the best, especially The Ritual which is about 4 hikers which end up lost and hunted by an unknown and ancient evil in the Arctic circle. His last one, Last Days, is about a documentary film maker who gets hired to do a film on a Jim Jones style cult and Jonestown-esque Massacre. If you're looking for something that's a little less haunted house but still 'haunted', I would recommend those two as well.
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Aug 4, 2013 08:57
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Ornamented Death posted:The Mourning House by Ronald Malfi is a pretty good "weird, hosed up house" story. It's novella-length. The Other Side by R. Chetwynd-Hayes is a collection of four long stories about a haunted house; I really, really enjoyed it (though the later books based on the same house are not quite as good). It's OOP, but you can get used copies for a penny + shipping. Brilliant, thank you for this! I'm recovering from an operation so have pleanty of time for reading, I really appreciate these. Mourning House is on kindle so I can get started on that right away. nate fisher posted:I would be interested in any recommendations based on this too. I have a confession. I tend not to read King's books as I have inevitably seen the film versions and so there is no enjoyment for me as I know what's going to happen. That said, I love The Shining a lot, the hotel is for me the biggest 'character' in the whole film. Am I missing out big time by avoiding these books? Poutling posted:Architectural Horror is one of my most beloved of genres and finding the ultimate haunted house book is kind of my holy grail. I'll preface my recommendations by stating that my current two faves are The Haunting of Hill House (which you loved), and Hell House (which you hated) I love the term Architectal Horror! Is that a real thing or did you coin that yourself? Haunted House as a genre sounds a bit hokey and limiting to me and doesn't really convey what it is about certain buildings or places that is so unsettling. I can spend hours looking through urbex photos and giving myself the chills and it has absolutely nothing to do with ghosts, but rather the decay, the strange sense of loss and the odd traces of humanity left behind. I get the feeling there is a terrible story that can told just by looking at abandoned furniture and peeling walls. Anyway, thank you for the recommendations, in particular Adam Nevil, I'm a Brit and an shamefully unaware of him so I look forward to checking him out.
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Aug 4, 2013 10:39
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Dr Scoofles posted:
Yes, yes you are, at least where The Shining is concerned. I saw the movie a dozen times before I decided to read the book last year, but the book was still really scary and had a lot more to the story than the movie did. I definitely recommend it.
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Aug 4, 2013 11:19
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Brainamp posted:Need a birthday present for a friend. Can kind goons recommend anything starring a female protagonist that doesn't fall in love with the first guy/girl she meets who is her own age or something. She isn't a fan of books with a heavy focus on romance. Preferably sci-fi or fantasy I think. Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. My wife recommends The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, and The Witch Doctor's Wife and The Headhunter's Daughter by Tamar Myers.
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Aug 4, 2013 13:50
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Dr Scoofles posted:
Well, at least The Shining and (perhaps less obviously) Salem's Lot seem almost exactly what you're looking for. There's also a short story that's a kind of prequel to Salem's Lot that would work, called "Jersalem's Lot," which appears in Night Shift. Then "One for the Road," also in Night Shift, is also a kind of sequel set in Salem's Lot. King does a really good mix of atmosphere and place. For most of his stories where this is true, "place" means "small town in north eastern United States," and while that's absolutely true in the Salem's Lot series, the horror in those stories gets a little more focused than usual to a single house. For a really good story with atmosphere and place see "The Reach" in Skeleton Crew Other relevant King stories: - "The Graveyard Shift" in Night Shift (a textile mill) - "The Mangler" in Night Shift (a factory... er, factory equipment) - "The House on Maple Street" in Nightmares and Dreamscapes (a house)
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Aug 4, 2013 14:37
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Dr Scoofles posted:I just read this and it's brilliant, exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, thank you! Fantastically creepy and to me I imagined that the room was throbbing and growing around Michael like a cancerous tumour that ravaged his body and mind, leaving him for the rest of his life a frail survivor. Mission accomplished, this story freaked me out. To each his own, I guess, but you'll be missing a good, creepy story if you skip The Yellow Wallpaper.
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Aug 4, 2013 21:09
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KildarX posted:Looking for recommendations for Cyberpunk stuff. The recent Shadowrun game got me geeked for the Genre and I wish to see what it offers in literature. Daniel K. Moran's Continuing Time series is the best cyberpunk I've ever read and I have a pretty good collection. They just recently became available on Kindle.
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Aug 5, 2013 01:45
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Dr Scoofles posted:I just read this and it's brilliant, exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, thank you! Fantastically creepy and to me I imagined that the room was throbbing and growing around Michael like a cancerous tumour that ravaged his body and mind, leaving him for the rest of his life a frail survivor. Mission accomplished, this story freaked me out. Glad you liked it! My favorite thing is that even on a reread, it's impossible to pinpoint exactly where the room starts to infect him. He's having normal thoughts, then slightly random but still relatable thoughts, one thought leading fairly naturally to the next, and then all of a sudden you're like "Wow, this is seriously hosed up, when did that happen?" For content, since in your op you stated creepy locations / settings and not necessarily the house itself being haunted, I'll recommend the Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw
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Aug 6, 2013 00:13
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It's not her usual genre, but Anne Rivers Siddons' The House Next Door. Possibly a bit atypical as it's about an evil house, but it's not horror. It's set in the American south, but isn't southern gothic. It's a more modern setting (1970s) and is psychological.
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Aug 6, 2013 02:35
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Brainamp posted:Need a birthday present for a friend. Can kind goons recommend anything starring a female protagonist that doesn't fall in love with the first guy/girl she meets who is her own age or something. She isn't a fan of books with a heavy focus on romance. Preferably sci-fi or fantasy I think. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. Main character is a mercenary general out for revenge. She has sex in the book, but it's not a sign of some great burgeoning romance. There's also capers, big-time. Note that it's technically part of the First Law series, but it works fine as a stand-alone novel.
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Aug 7, 2013 13:31
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Brainamp posted:Need a birthday present for a friend... Missed this before. There's plenty of YA that fits the bill (His Dark Materials, Coraline, Uglies, Graceling...), but the only adult novel that's coming to mind is Le Guin's Lavinia. Oh, Geek Love, too, but you definitely don't want to give that book to the wrong person, and also Gregory Maguire's Wicked series or The Handmaid's Tale.
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Aug 7, 2013 14:06
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I need some good books where the protagonist is an unapologetic murderer, scoundrel, and criminal. Anti-hero or pure villain, I'm not particular. I just wanna root for some bad guys.
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Aug 10, 2013 12:53
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tliil posted:I need some good books where the protagonist is an unapologetic murderer, scoundrel, and criminal. Anti-hero or pure villain, I'm not particular. I just wanna root for some bad guys. Prince of thorns and its sequel.
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Aug 10, 2013 14:12
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tliil posted:I need some good books where the protagonist is an unapologetic murderer, scoundrel, and criminal. Anti-hero or pure villain, I'm not particular. I just wanna root for some bad guys. You need some Parker in your life. quote:The Parker series offers a criminal's take on the business of working, with Parker as a central character with no inner life at all -- he just eats, sleeps, has sex, and works. He never talks, except to say something concrete. He has no permanent home and no friends, just business associates and sex partners. Parker never ruminates; he just plans. When wronged, he becomes a fearless revenge machine. (In one of the later Parker novels, Parker brazenly seeks out a homicide detective who's looking for him. Parker uses his presence at the man's home as a dare; he knows that the cop can't go after him without risking his wife and children. The detective's conclusion: "He used my weakness.") In short, Parker is Westlake's vision of a skilled professional manager run amok. The books, written by Donald Westlake under the pseudonym Richard Stark, are extremely well-written and profoundly influential.
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Aug 10, 2013 16:39
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tliil posted:I need some good books where the protagonist is an unapologetic murderer, scoundrel, and criminal. Anti-hero or pure villain, I'm not particular. I just wanna root for some bad guys. Patricia Highsmith's Ripley books are really good.
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Aug 10, 2013 17:01
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Darth Walrus posted:OK, this isn't necessarily a book-specific question, because any form of medium is OK, but I was thinking of introducing my family (particularly my parents) to Journey to the West. What's a fun, accessible, and reasonably faithful-ish version, please? Asked this a week ago, didn't get a reply. Mind if I ask again, please?
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Aug 10, 2013 17:06
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Walh Hara posted:Prince of thorns and its sequel. dokmo posted:You need some Parker in your life.
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Aug 10, 2013 22:02
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tliil posted:I need some good books where the protagonist is an unapologetic murderer, scoundrel, and criminal. Anti-hero or pure villain, I'm not particular. I just wanna root for some bad guys.
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Aug 10, 2013 22:44
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Does anyone have recommendations for books about the conflict in Northern Ireland? I feel like I know almost nothing about Irish history.
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Aug 11, 2013 01:37
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tliil posted:Just what I was looking for, thanks! Those Parker books ought to keep me busy for a while... To the person who suggested the Ripley books, I've read them and really like them. I have every Parker book in original and reprints. That's how good it is. Here are the others David Manuel's Paladin. Warren Hammond's KOP Eric Gabrielsen's Gideon John Locke's Donovan Creed and Dr, Gideon Box Joe Abercrombie's Logan Nine Fingers Neal Asher's Skinner Victor Gischler's Go-Go Girls Gary Philips' Jook Dan Simmons' Hard Case Duane Swierczynski's anything Charlie Huston's Hank Thompson trilogy
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Aug 11, 2013 03:39
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How are Winston Churchill's books? There's a ton of them on sale at Amazon today and I was thinking about picking some up.
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Aug 11, 2013 18:52
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Krakkles posted:How are Winston Churchill's books? There's a ton of them on sale at Amazon today and I was thinking about picking some up.
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Aug 11, 2013 18:58
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Krakkles posted:How are Winston Churchill's books? There's a ton of them on sale at Amazon today and I was thinking about picking some up. As prose, they are pretty good. As history, they are problematic for many reasons. The biggest one is that he is an actor in the story, which makes his perspective unique but biased. Another is that he writes in the whig tradition of history, with their old fashioned focus on "great men" and normative judgments. He is a terrific writer, but not the best interpreter of historical events.
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Aug 11, 2013 19:21
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dokmo posted:As prose, they are pretty good. As history, they are problematic for many reasons. The biggest one is that he is an actor in the story, which makes his perspective unique but biased. Another is that he writes in the whig tradition of history, with their old fashioned focus on "great men" and normative judgments. He is a terrific writer, but not the best interpreter of historical events. For a great one volume overview of WW2, try Max Hastings' Inferno. His book has a really refreshing bias towards using the testimony of the public caught up in the events which helps to breathe life into the narrative. It hits you on an emotional as well as cerebral level.
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Aug 11, 2013 20:59
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My favorite Churchill book is a collection I have of his speeches, published in I think 1941 right before the U.S. entered the war. It has the "blood sweat and tears" bit and it's riveting reading because it's all Churchill going "look guys this Hitler dude is scary, we should prep" then "we really need to get our poo poo together" then "welp, it's war" then "we will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the landing grounds, we will never surrender" and then it just *ends* and the historical immediacy just hits you like a sock in the face. The title is, appropriately, "Blood, Sweat, and Tears." I think that may be the best way to read Churchill -- just a collection of his speeches. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Aug 11, 2013 |
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Aug 11, 2013 21:06
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Is there a Horror thread in the archives somewhere? I know there's a cosmic horror one, but I can't find one in the live threads.
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Aug 12, 2013 20:13
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tliil posted:I need some good books where the protagonist is an unapologetic murderer, scoundrel, and criminal. Anti-hero or pure villain, I'm not particular. I just wanna root for some bad guys. If not-self-aware of their terribleness, The Collector is really good.
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Aug 13, 2013 00:17
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Namirsolo posted:Does anyone have recommendations for books about the conflict in Northern Ireland? I feel like I know almost nothing about Irish history. Watching the Door by Kevin Myers is pretty great. It's a memoir of his time as a young journalist there at the height of the Troubles. He comes across as a fairly oily, neurotic guy at the time, and now he's something of a professional right wing troll, but he had some crazy experiences and he writes beautifully.
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Aug 13, 2013 00:23
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Is there a single volume or a series that collects all of Shirley Jackson's short stories? If not, what's her best short story collection? Would prefer a physical copy, but something on kindle would be ok too.
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Aug 13, 2013 02:12
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tliil posted:I need some good books where the protagonist is an unapologetic murderer, scoundrel, and criminal. Anti-hero or pure villain, I'm not particular. I just wanna root for some bad guys. Seven Days of Peter Crumb by Jonny Glynn
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Aug 13, 2013 16:19
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zoux posted:Is there a Horror thread in the archives somewhere? I know there's a cosmic horror one, but I can't find one in the live threads. I started one last October but horror threads don't last very long around here, unfortunately. Why don't you start a new one? I'll pop in.
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Aug 14, 2013 04:30
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The last several books I've read have been somewhere between mildly bleak and despair-inducing: Disgrace by Coetzee, Agota Kristof's three-book mindfuck The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie, and before that was Escape from Camp 14 which is about North Korea. I also recently plowed through the dystopian Wool series, which was interesting. All of these recent books were pretty good, (except Coetzee; gently caress that guy). So. I'm looking for something that isn't going to make me wince as I finish the last page. I'm weary of sad poo poo. Any recommendations can be literary or pulpy, fiction or non-fiction. My favorite books include ones with developed, strong female characters told with rich, well-written prose like Marilyn Robinson's Housekeeping, Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49, and Morrison's Sula and Song of Solomon. I also love sci-fi that allows women characters to be equally complex as their male counterparts, a quality that is really hard to find in that genre. The Altered Carbon books come pretty close. Hitchhiker's Guide will remain in my top 5 of all time, if only for the sheer joy it is to read them. It's a tall, vague order, I know, but any suggestions?
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Aug 14, 2013 09:29
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artichoke posted:The last several books I've read have been somewhere between mildly bleak and despair-inducing: Disgrace by Coetzee, Agota Kristof's three-book mindfuck The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie, and before that was Escape from Camp 14 which is about North Korea. I also recently plowed through the dystopian Wool series, which was interesting. All of these recent books were pretty good, (except Coetzee; gently caress that guy). The Orphan's Tales, a duology by Catherynne Valente that serves as a wonderfully imaginative fantasy pastiche of A Thousand And One Nights. Most of the viewpoint characters are women, and whilst the story (well, stories) does/do go into some quite dark places, there's usually light at the end (and if there isn't, it's probably because the protagonist has it coming).
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Aug 14, 2013 09:39
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