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Smoking Crow posted:I'm looking for some happy science fiction, preferably in space, that isn't the Hitchhiker's Guide. All of the Sci-fi is depressing. Try Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books. They're all quick, fun reads - very similar feel to Hitchhiker's Guide.
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Sep 9, 2013 02:21
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I posted a few weeks ago in the Scifi/Fantasy thread for a recommendation and didn't get too many replies so I'll try again here. I'll try and keep it short and succinct - I'm looking for a sci-fi series, probably more along the lines of space opera seeing as I like space ships, multiple characters and a bigger setting. Military sci-fi is good as well. I generally would like to avoid any gimmicks, for instance space vampires or whatever in that one Hamilton series, although I enjoyed the rest of his stuff. I've read Revelation Space series, Honor series, Peter Hamilton's stuff and enjoyed those. I couldn't get through Lost Fleet, Bank's Culture stuff seemed okay from what I read, but I'm looking for a more serialized series rather than a completely separate story each book. I read the first Cordelia Vorkosigen book, I liked it, but I put the second one down since it seemed to be mostly politics on a single planet. Haven't tried Miles yet. Sorry to sound too picky, and those rules aren't set in stone or anything, just trying to get across what I like. Thanks.
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Sep 9, 2013 03:03
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BlazinLow305 posted:I posted a few weeks ago in the Scifi/Fantasy thread for a recommendation and didn't get too many replies so I'll try again here. I'll try and keep it short and succinct - I'm looking for a sci-fi series, probably more along the lines of space opera seeing as I like space ships, multiple characters and a bigger setting. Military sci-fi is good as well. I generally would like to avoid any gimmicks, for instance space vampires or whatever in that one Hamilton series, although I enjoyed the rest of his stuff. I've read Revelation Space series, Honor series, Peter Hamilton's stuff and enjoyed those. I couldn't get through Lost Fleet, Bank's Culture stuff seemed okay from what I read, but I'm looking for a more serialized series rather than a completely separate story each book. I read the first Cordelia Vorkosigen book, I liked it, but I put the second one down since it seemed to be mostly politics on a single planet. Haven't tried Miles yet. Read Dune.
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Sep 9, 2013 03:06
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Also probably watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
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Sep 9, 2013 03:30
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BlazinLow305 posted:I posted a few weeks ago in the Scifi/Fantasy thread for a recommendation and didn't get too many replies so I'll try again here. I'll try and keep it short and succinct - I'm looking for a sci-fi series, probably more along the lines of space opera seeing as I like space ships, multiple characters and a bigger setting. Military sci-fi is good as well. I generally would like to avoid any gimmicks, for instance space vampires or whatever in that one Hamilton series, although I enjoyed the rest of his stuff. I've read Revelation Space series, Honor series, Peter Hamilton's stuff and enjoyed those. I couldn't get through Lost Fleet, Bank's Culture stuff seemed okay from what I read, but I'm looking for a more serialized series rather than a completely separate story each book. I read the first Cordelia Vorkosigen book, I liked it, but I put the second one down since it seemed to be mostly politics on a single planet. Haven't tried Miles yet. I feel disgusting even recommending this, but Piers Anthony - Bio of a Space Tyrant e: slightly better: Stephen Donaldson - The Gap Cycle
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Sep 9, 2013 04:12
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BlazinLow305 posted:I posted a few weeks ago in the Scifi/Fantasy thread for a recommendation and didn't get too many replies so I'll try again here. I'll try and keep it short and succinct - I'm looking for a sci-fi series, probably more along the lines of space opera seeing as I like space ships, multiple characters and a bigger setting. Military sci-fi is good as well. I generally would like to avoid any gimmicks, for instance space vampires or whatever in that one Hamilton series, although I enjoyed the rest of his stuff. I've read Revelation Space series, Honor series, Peter Hamilton's stuff and enjoyed those. I couldn't get through Lost Fleet, Bank's Culture stuff seemed okay from what I read, but I'm looking for a more serialized series rather than a completely separate story each book. I read the first Cordelia Vorkosigen book, I liked it, but I put the second one down since it seemed to be mostly politics on a single planet. Haven't tried Miles yet. You probably want to hit John Scalzi's Old Man's War series next.
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Sep 9, 2013 04:24
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Smoking Crow posted:I'm looking for some happy science fiction, preferably in space, that isn't the Hitchhiker's Guide. All of the Sci-fi is depressing. Bujold's Vorkosigan saga. It's not always happy (how else to generate some conflict), but it generally has a positive outlook and fun characters. Tuf Voyaging is also fun, if you don't mind a crotchety old man as main character and some death here and there. Decius fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Sep 9, 2013 |
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Sep 9, 2013 07:39
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BlazinLow305 posted:I posted a few weeks ago in the Scifi/Fantasy thread for a recommendation and didn't get too many replies so I'll try again here. I'll try and keep it short and succinct - I'm looking for a sci-fi series, probably more along the lines of space opera seeing as I like space ships, multiple characters and a bigger setting. Military sci-fi is good as well. I generally would like to avoid any gimmicks, for instance space vampires or whatever in that one Hamilton series, although I enjoyed the rest of his stuff. I've read Revelation Space series, Honor series, Peter Hamilton's stuff and enjoyed those. I couldn't get through Lost Fleet, Bank's Culture stuff seemed okay from what I read, but I'm looking for a more serialized series rather than a completely separate story each book. I read the first Cordelia Vorkosigen book, I liked it, but I put the second one down since it seemed to be mostly politics on a single planet. Haven't tried Miles yet. I suggest the Neal Asher Spatterjay series, The Skinner, Voyage Of The Sable Keech and Orbus. If you like the Uinverse, there are a number of other serialized books in his Agent Cormac series but I found Spatterjay to be the best of them.
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Sep 9, 2013 23:01
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BlazinLow305 posted:I posted a few weeks ago in the Scifi/Fantasy thread for a recommendation and didn't get too many replies so I'll try again here. I'll try and keep it short and succinct - I'm looking for a sci-fi series, probably more along the lines of space opera seeing as I like space ships, multiple characters and a bigger setting. Military sci-fi is good as well. I generally would like to avoid any gimmicks, for instance space vampires or whatever in that one Hamilton series, although I enjoyed the rest of his stuff. I've read Revelation Space series, Honor series, Peter Hamilton's stuff and enjoyed those. I couldn't get through Lost Fleet, Bank's Culture stuff seemed okay from what I read, but I'm looking for a more serialized series rather than a completely separate story each book. I read the first Cordelia Vorkosigen book, I liked it, but I put the second one down since it seemed to be mostly politics on a single planet. Haven't tried Miles yet. You've already got enough recommendations to keep you busy for a year but the Foundation trilogy from Asimov holds up pretty well. I found it to be more interesting than the main Galactic Empire stuff, which does also sound right up your alley. If you haven't read them it's probably not a bad idea for the purposes of cultural literacy as far as sci-fi goes. The Speaker for the Dead arc in the Ender's Game series also does interplanetary drama quite well, especially in the later books. Having an idea of the plotline for Ender's Game will help, but this series (the three novels in question are called Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind) has little to do with the rest of the Ender's Game universe, being as it's set five thousand or so years into the future.
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Sep 10, 2013 02:37
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Robert A. Caro's books. Recommend me biographies in the same league, that are as well written, well researched, and enjoyable as Caro's.
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Sep 10, 2013 03:18
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BlazinLow305 posted:I posted a few weeks ago in the Scifi/Fantasy thread for a recommendation and didn't get too many replies so I'll try again here. I'll try and keep it short and succinct - I'm looking for a sci-fi series, probably more along the lines of space opera seeing as I like space ships, multiple characters and a bigger setting. Military sci-fi is good as well. I generally would like to avoid any gimmicks, for instance space vampires or whatever in that one Hamilton series, although I enjoyed the rest of his stuff. I've read Revelation Space series, Honor series, Peter Hamilton's stuff and enjoyed those. I couldn't get through Lost Fleet, Bank's Culture stuff seemed okay from what I read, but I'm looking for a more serialized series rather than a completely separate story each book. I read the first Cordelia Vorkosigen book, I liked it, but I put the second one down since it seemed to be mostly politics on a single planet. Haven't tried Miles yet. The thetans are whispering the following to me: L. Ron Hubbard : Mission Earth Great Art it is not, but there certainly is a great deal of it.
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Sep 10, 2013 03:23
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BodineWilson posted:The thetans are whispering the following to me: Don't read this. And that's coming from someone who recommended Piers Anthony. Mission Earth is the shittiest series of all time. Even if you like the first couple books (like I did when I was 13 or something and read them), by book 4 or 5 you loving despise the level of shittitude they embody.
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Sep 10, 2013 04:49
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regulargonzalez posted:Don't read this. And that's coming from someone who recommended Piers Anthony. Mission Earth is the shittiest series of all time. Even if you like the first couple books (like I did when I was 13 or something and read them), by book 4 or 5 you loving despise the level of shittitude they embody. He's perfectly right. I'm ashamed for even having mentioned it. I'm going to continue to blame the Thetan infestation for it though. I am not responsible for my actions!
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Sep 10, 2013 19:00
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Smoking Crow posted:I've been looking at books. Is The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon worth my time? What about Moab Is My Washpot by Stephen Fry? The Noonday Demon is totally worth your time. I had this moment in college when I realized that a bunch of people I knew were depressed and on anti-depressants. I knew I had to educate myself. The book is a great combination of several things: 1) a history 2) a report on current medications and research 3) a personal story 4) an examination of cultural representations/reactions to depression around the world
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Sep 10, 2013 20:28
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Sir John Feelgood posted:Robert A. Caro's books. Richard Ellman's biography of James Joyce immediately comes to mind. I also thought David Marianiss' When Pride Still Mattered was great. Richard Ben Cramer's biography of Joe DiMaggio is pretty good, too.
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Sep 10, 2013 21:33
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barkingclam posted:Richard Ellman's biography of James Joyce immediately comes to mind. I appreciate this recommendation. The stellar reviews on Amazon were enough to convince me to buy a hardcover copy. Looking forward to reading it. A propos of nothing, I'm interested in reading Heidegger and Lacan—the latter mostly because of his controversial standing, plus I want to see why he gets so much flak. Which of their books would you recommend? Or perhaps books about them? Adib fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 03:07
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This might be a long shot, but are there any great, modern translations of ancient Chinese, Indian, or Japanese prose literature? I've been reading Plato's Symposium, as translated by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff, and am really struck by how easy and comfortable it is to read. I'm wondering if there's any non-Greek or Latin stuff that's just as enjoyable.
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Sep 11, 2013 06:13
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/\ Irene Bloom's translation of the Mencius is top notch in terms of readability. Available here: http://www.amazon.com/Mencius-Translations-Asian-Classics/dp/0231122047 I recommended it since you mentioned Plato. Are you looking for philosophy in particular or any ancient prose? You can typically find decent translations hosted on university websites if you're looking for something in particular.
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Sep 11, 2013 07:02
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Any sort of ancient Eastern literature is fine for me, really. I just want some very readable, older Asian/Indian works that I can learn from or be entertained by. A Buddhist text would be appreciated, along with a classic or three of Chinese, Japanese and Indian fiction. Thanks for that version of Mencius, by the way. I'll check it out.
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Sep 11, 2013 07:37
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I've been looking for some books that explain history in terms of theories and ideas. Here's an excerpt from Marcuse's Essays on Critical Theory:quote:The heroizing of Man It doesn't necessarily have to be that abstract, I would be okay with reiteration of specific instances as long as it uses these to go into interpretations of larger trends.
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Sep 11, 2013 12:45
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Rollofthedice posted:Any sort of ancient Eastern literature is fine for me, really. I just want some very readable, older Asian/Indian works that I can learn from or be entertained by. A Buddhist text would be appreciated, along with a classic or three of Chinese, Japanese and Indian fiction. In the interest of full disclosure I don't know how close these are going to be to the source, so I'm recommending them based strictly on readability. Purple prose and sticking to the original translation is nice, but what's nicer is being able to digest complex philosophical ideas as light reading instead of something that requires annotation. It's hard to escape recommendations for Romance of the Three Kingdoms when talking about ancient Eastern lit. Although it was written in I believe the 1300s, it concerns itself with a dramatization of Chinese history around 200ish? BC. It may be trite to recommend at this point but the drama will be a nice change of pace from the philosphy you're reading now. As far as translations go, I've read a couple of the more popular ones cover to cover. http://www.amazon.com/Three-Kingdom...+three+kingdoms This one ^ may be what you're looking for. Has some gorgeous illustrations, is unabridged, and is a smooth read. http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Three...+three+kingdoms This one reads beautifully in English and has a real sense of almost mysticism? about it. There are several instances where the translator gets a bit licentious with English grammar structure though. I didn't find it difficult to read, exactly, but a lot of passages will require a little bit more from the reader. If you end up liking the translation of the works of the Mencius and want to continue in the vein of Chinese philosphy, the next logical step is Xunzi. One of the best works on the Xunzi is John Noblock's 'Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works.' I think it includes 5 books and will keep you busy for a long time, but copies can be hard to find. If you're not sure you want to invest ~$80 into a copy, then http://www.amazon.com/Xunzi-Basic-Writings-Translations-Classics/dp/0231129653/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378920121&sr=8-1&keywords=xunzi is also supposed to be a very good translation although I haven't touched it myself. Gay Horney fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 18:14
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Free Weedlord posted:I've been looking for some books that explain history in terms of theories and ideas. Not exactly sure if this is what you're looking for, but you may be interested in the work of Peter Watson, particularly his huge brick Ideas.
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Sep 11, 2013 19:28
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dokmo posted:Not exactly sure if this is what you're looking for, but you may be interested in the work of Peter Watson, particularly his huge brick Ideas. I'm not exactly sure either, but I'm definitely intrigued, so I'll be spending some time with Ideas it seems. Thanks! 
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Sep 11, 2013 22:06
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Sharzak posted:stuff Thanks, those all look great, especially that unabridged Romance. There's nothing better to pass a slow day with than a 2300-page Chinese epic.
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Sep 11, 2013 23:50
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Looking for some suggestions on non fiction works about the education system, it's problems, and education reform. Anything stand out?
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Sep 12, 2013 05:46
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omg chael crash posted:Looking for some suggestions on non fiction works about the education system, it's problems, and education reform. Anything stand out? I haven't read this topic extensively, but I read and loved Teachers Have it Easy. It details a lot of first-hand experiences from teachers at different types of schools and tries to figure out how to attract more and better teachers.
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Sep 12, 2013 07:16
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John Taylor Gatto wrote several scathing books on the public education system. His best work is Dumbing us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsive Schooling. His conclusions get a little  and one should take them with a grain of salt, but it is otherwise an engaging read.
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Sep 12, 2013 07:28
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What's the best starting point for someone who remembers cool stuff from highschool ancient history about Rome, but almost ten years on is finally old and wise enough to really enjoy the primary sources and not think they're boring? a) Suetonius b) Tacitus c) Pliny the Younger d) other? (main period I'm interested in would be the Triumvirate and the first bunch of emperors) Also what editions have the best translation, etc?
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Sep 12, 2013 08:07
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Hedrigall posted:What's the best starting point for someone who remembers cool stuff from highschool ancient history about Rome, but almost ten years on is finally old and wise enough to really enjoy the primary sources and not think they're boring? Penguin has a nice edition of Suetonius (translated by Robert Graves, who you may remember from I, Claudius!) and I liked their translations for Tacitus, although I haven't read their newest one, published just a few months ago. I wouldn't sleep on Livy either, he gets a bit repetitive sometimes but his books about the Second Punic War (aka: Hannibal marches through the Alps and catches Rome off guard) are great. And Plutarch is good, too: Penguin has them sorted by era, not by the pairings they were originally written in, but it's handy if you're only interested in certain periods (ie: the collapse of the Roman Republic). I've already read this collection and it's pretty good, going from Romulus to Aemilius Paullus, general at the Battle of Pydna and has a bunch of maps, introductions for each biography and footnotes. Oxford World Classics has editions that look promising, too: when I get some time, I'm going to check out their edition of Polybius' Histories, which is unabridged (unlike Penguin's). I don't care for their editions of Plutarch (they only include a few lives and none of the connecting material, which I think removes some of the context from the work), though. If you're willing to go back to Greek stuff, Landmark has a great edition of Herodotus' account of the Persian Wars, which is full of maps, diagrams and footnotes. They have one for Thucydides, but used an older 19th century translation I found dry. I don't know anything about their translations of Xenophon's account of the Peloponnesian War and Arrian's history of Alexander the Great, but I assume the scholarship is at the same level.
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Sep 13, 2013 01:11
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Hedrigall posted:What's the best starting point for someone who remembers cool stuff from highschool ancient history about Rome, but almost ten years on is finally old and wise enough to really enjoy the primary sources and not think they're boring? Non-reading but the History of Rome podcast are freakin outstanding. There are 179 episodes dealing with the rise of Rome to the fall.
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Sep 13, 2013 02:46
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barkingclam posted:Richard Ellman's biography of James Joyce immediately comes to mind. I also thought David Marianiss' When Pride Still Mattered was great. Richard Ben Cramer's biography of Joe DiMaggio is pretty good, too. Looking for more suggestions. Biographies in the same league as Caro's Lyndon Johnson series.
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Sep 13, 2013 03:44
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I've always been really into contemporary Japanese literature and I'm starting to get into some Chinese authors, but I want to expand to other parts of Asia. Any good books, either fiction or non-fiction, on Tibet or South East Asia?
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Sep 14, 2013 04:31
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Can I get a recommendation for something on the Wars of the Roses? I'm going through Shakespeare's Henriad and I'd like more context to help me out.
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Sep 16, 2013 15:42
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taco show posted:Can I get a recommendation for something on the Wars of the Roses? I have found that books that are so-called "introductions" to Wars of the Roses often assume background knowledge that maybe English people pick up through cultural osmosis, but I was often clueless about. The only true introduction that I could follow without consulting wikipedia constantly was Wars of the Roses by Charles Ross. AJ Pollard's book (also called The Wars of the Roses—they are all called The Wars of the Roses) is also good but more thorough. I would avoid Desmond Seward's and Alison Weir's popular introductions, which are confusingly laid out.
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Sep 16, 2013 16:02
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I'm nearly done reading Under the Dome and I need something new. I don't want more Stephen King for a while. I'm not interested in non-fiction currently. I would prefer something short and fun/fluffy but still fairly grounded, I have been reading a lot of Discworld so that might be an option.
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Sep 16, 2013 18:40
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Can somebody recommend me a good contemporary pulp detective book or author? I love Raymond Chandler, but I'm looking for something more current.
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Sep 16, 2013 23:59
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Benny the Snake posted:Can somebody recommend me a good contemporary pulp detective book or author? I love Raymond Chandler, but I'm looking for something more current. Ever read anything by Elmore Leonard or James Ellroy? Those guys might be right up your alley.
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Sep 17, 2013 00:20
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Talking about Ellroy, starting with any of the LA Quartet books is okay or should I begin with Black Dahlia?
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Sep 17, 2013 01:18
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I just read Sum by David Eagleman. Any other books like that thought provoking without being super dense? Different ways to picture things.
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Sep 17, 2013 01:46
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VisAbsoluta posted:Talking about Ellroy, starting with any of the LA Quartet books is okay or should I begin with Black Dahlia? You can skip Black Dahlia but you should read the rest of them in order.
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Sep 17, 2013 02:43
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