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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.
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Sep 17, 2013 02:52
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Just bought a huge crate of trade paperbacks at a yard sale, easily 100 books for $30, and I found to my surprise that it contained a good amount of books by Kurt Vonnegut. I'm ashamed to admit I've never even cracked one open even though I've had dozens of opportunities. Which should I start with? Looking through the box I've got: * Bluebeard * Breakfast of Champions * Cat's Cradle * Deadeye Dick * Galapagos * God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater * Hocus Pocus * Mother Night * Player Piano * The Sirens of Titan * Slaughterhouse 5 It's worth noting that I know basically nothing about any of his stories (or rather did know but have long since forgotten), so I'm going in as an unspoiled blank slate. Edit: Ghetto Wizard posted: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. InequalityGodzilla fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Sep 18, 2013 |
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Sep 18, 2013 02:51
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Feeble posted:Just bought a huge crate of trade paperbacks at a yard sale, easily 100 books for $30, and I found to my surprise that it contained a good amount of books by Kurt Vonnegut. I'm ashamed to admit I've never even cracked one open even though I've had dozens of opportunities. Which should I start with? Slaughterhouse Five is easily his most famous book, but I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. I'm curious, what other kinds of books were in the box?
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Sep 18, 2013 03:22
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Bunch of no-name science fiction stuff from I think the 60's-80's which I'll probably be dipping into for the rest of my life, some cookbooks that I might as well set eat because damned if I'll ever use them, couple of manuals on electrical wiring, bunch of... what do you call it? Airplane paperbacks? Y'know, the lovely things you buy at an airport to read on a long flight? It honestly seemed like they'd thrown every book they didn't want into a crate and when I offered to buy the lot (because honestly, who doesn't love grabbing some obscure stuff from decades ago?) they basically shoved it into my hands. I'll look through it a bit more right now, not like I've got anything better to do ATM. Edit: Oh poo poo, a couple of english language Strugatsky brothers stories! Just totally validated my purchase. Edit 2: How To Get a Teen-Age Boy and What To Do With Him When You Get Him 
InequalityGodzilla fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Sep 18, 2013 |
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Sep 18, 2013 03:43
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Can anyone recommend me a good book on chemistry? I was absolutely terrible at it in high school, and I wish I had a good knowledge on the subject. Preferably something engaging and thorough, easy to grasp? I was looking into The Disappearing Spoon, but I don't know if that's what I want. Thanks to anyone who can help.
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Sep 18, 2013 05:43
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Feeble posted:Just bought a huge crate of trade paperbacks at a yard sale, easily 100 books for $30, and I found to my surprise that it contained a good amount of books by Kurt Vonnegut. I'm ashamed to admit I've never even cracked one open even though I've had dozens of opportunities. Which should I start with? I used to adore Vonnegut and these are my favorites. Your mileage may vary. * Cat's Cradle - Basic Vonnegut. The one that started "it". * Mother Night - Because ?? * The Sirens of Titan - When I first read this, I remember almost wetting myself laughing so hard. * Slaughterhouse 5 - The classic.
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Sep 18, 2013 05:45
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specklebang posted:I used to adore Vonnegut and these are my favorites. Your mileage may vary. Good list and I'd concur, and roughly in that order. Cat's Cradle annoys me because of a couple basic science facts he gets completely wrong, but it's still good. The Sirens of Titan is perhaps my favorite Vonnegut, but his writing style isn't as developed as in his later works. I'd also add Bluebeard to my list of Essential Vonnegut.
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Sep 18, 2013 06:55
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Feeble posted:Edit: Oh poo poo, a couple of english language Strugatsky brothers stories! Just totally validated my purchase. Paydirt!
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Sep 18, 2013 06:56
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regulargonzalez posted:I'd also add Bluebeard to my list of Essential Vonnegut. Bluebeard doesn't get enough love. Feeble, when in doubt, start at the beginning! Most of them are pretty snappy reads, so you shouldn't have too much trouble plowing through if you're at all feeling Vonnegut.
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Sep 18, 2013 12:23
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barkingclam posted:Slaughterhouse Five is easily his most famous book, but I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. I'm curious, what other kinds of books were in the box? I personally couldn't get through SH5 as my introduction to Vonnegut. I tried reading it, didn't like it, then didn't read anything by him until a few years later when I read Cat's Cradle. That was the book that sort of eased me in to Vonnegut's style, and since then, I've loved everything I've read, including SH5.
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Sep 18, 2013 14:25
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Franchescanado posted:Can anyone recommend me a good book on chemistry? I was absolutely terrible at it in high school, and I wish I had a good knowledge on the subject. The Disappearing Spoon won't teach you any more (and probably less) than a high school introduction to chemistry course, and it does so without diagrams, which I personally think is needed when you start talking about d orbitals. Full disclosure, I did not finish the book (as outlined in the "books you couldn't get through" thread). Long story short, he describes the very least amount of chemistry necessary to understand the historical anecdotes about the elements. Again, I only got through half of it, but in that time, the extent of the actual chemistry that he spoke about was a brief description of ions, he describes d orbitals only to explain that that's the reason some of the bigger elements act differently than expected, a very basic description of radioactivity being unstable nuclei, and a paragraph about anti-matter bascially to tell you that it obliterates matter. It is much more geared towards the anthropology of elements and the politics of famous and not so famous chemists than it is about chemistry. For instance, the chapters about the radioactive elements are all about the politics in the race to create and name new elements and the lives/power struggles of the people and governments involved in creating nuclear arms. Edit: If you're looking for engaging chemistry, I might suggest watching the Periodic Table of Videos. They also have a youtube channel. Fremry fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Sep 18, 2013 |
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Sep 18, 2013 16:53
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Yeah, that doesn't sound like what I'm looking for. I'm more interested in actually learning about Chemistry in an easy-to-digest manner while still being thorough, and hopefully entertaining. Thank you for taking the time to answer me though. I'll check out those videos when I'm not at work. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
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Sep 18, 2013 19:22
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Franchescanado posted:Does anyone have any other suggestions? They're aimed at kids, but Basher Books are actually pretty awesome.
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Sep 18, 2013 19:24
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Autumn is here and winter is closing in, so I'm on the prowl for some good fantasy books. More specifically I am looking for some "dark fantasy" along the lines of Glen Cook's Black Compay series. I loved the down to earth storytelling. I also loved the ever prescent sense of dread; the badguys were mysterious and genuinely scary, (something I feel is not very common in this genre.) and the protagonists were pretty much normal people without much in the way of special powers. So yeah, basically I'm looking for Fantasy books that are similar to Glen Cooks' Black Company series. I've read 2 or was it 3 books from GRR Martins ice and fire saga, but GRR Martins ultra pessimistic and morbid storytelling made me eventually loose all interest.(seriously, he just seems to revel in human misery and pain.) Also I have read Joe Acercrombies' first law series and I thought it was quite decent.
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Sep 18, 2013 21:12
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The Black Company books have kinda carved out their own little niche; there are a number of imitators but there's nothing that's really *as* good. The most directly inspired "big name" stuff is probably the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, but it, well, it has its own set of problems, not least of them that basically every character ends up some variant of deity by the end (if not right from the beginning). The first couple of Robert Asprin's Thieve's World collected series, maybe, maybe some of the Fritz Leiber Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories (start with "Ill Met in Lankhmar"; if you like it you'll like the others), maybe some of Robert e. Howard's original Conan stories (make sure they're the original stories Howard wrote personally, not "edited by" anyone; many of the "edited" stories are two or three paragraphs of Howard's plot outlines reworked as Conan stuff by secondary writers). You'd probably also find it wortwhile to look at the Lies of Locke Lamora series if you haven't; it's about con men/thieves in a sort of fantasy Renaissance Italy -- normal dudes who happen to be smart and skilled but have no magical powers or anything apart from just being really, really good at what they do.
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Sep 18, 2013 21:21
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Feeble posted:If you've been liking Discworld have you read Good Omens by the same author and Neil Gaiman? It's a lighthearted comedy about the christian endtimes and is probably my favorite book ever. Seriously though, if you haven't read Good Omens, read Good Omens. I did read Good Omens, I liked the combination of Pratchett's story telling and the Gaiman-esque setting.
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Sep 18, 2013 21:57
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What are some classic cowboy stories? I'm looking for pulpy western adventures that really capture the essence of the genre.
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Sep 19, 2013 00:45
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Zombie Samurai posted:What are some classic cowboy stories? I'm looking for pulpy western adventures that really capture the essence of the genre. Anything by Zane Grey. Make sure you read everything he wrote. That's what my grandpa read as a kid in the 30's, anyway. Watch some Gene Autry serials, too. Edit: Anything by Louis L'Amour, too. Those are classics. Smoking Crow fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Sep 19, 2013 |
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Sep 19, 2013 00:48
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I'm not really sure what to call it, but for want of a better term can anybody recommend any good 'settlement fiction'? Something based around the establishment and early progression of a new settlement or colony. Could be historical; about the first European new-world colonies, new islands, or the norse settlement of Iceland (this would be the absolute ideal); fantasy, or even Sci-fi stories about planetary colonisation (I've read most all of Alistair Reynolds' stuff so not him). I'm looking mostly for fiction (about genuine historical settlements is fine of course) rather than actual historical accounts, although if there's anything with an especially compelling narrative in that regard I am still open to it. As a general area of avoidance I'd rather it didn't deal with the later settling of the American western frontier (bit sick of it), so something with more of a first-people-in-a-new-land-entirely sort of vibe. This is a weirdly arbitrary way to choose a book and I'm not really sure why I am so keen to read something with this kind of plot, but I guess I have a mind-boner for the idea of a small group establishing a homestead/village from nothing. If anyone has read anything like this I'd love to hear about it! Captain Mediocre fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Sep 19, 2013 |
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Sep 19, 2013 01:17
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Captain Mediocre posted:I'm not really sure what to call it, but for want of a better term can anybody recommend any good 'settlement fiction'? Something based around the establishment and early progression of a new settlement or colony. Could be historical; about the first European new-world colonies, new islands, or the norse settlement of Iceland (this would be the absolute ideal) or even Sci-fi stories about planetary colonisation (I've read most all of Alistair Reynolds' stuff so not him). Honestly, read the Icelandic Sagas. They are all really fun to read ("And Bolli ran him through with his halberd and there was much blood...") and they blend myth and reality so seamlessly that I was dumbfounded to stumble upon the actual gravesite of the heroine of my favorite saga when I was traveling around there. That favorite is The Laxdaela Saga, with Egil's Saga a close second. Also worth mentioning - the Vinland Sagas are neat accounts of the Vikings' attempts at settling in America 500 years before Columbus showed his ugly mug, and the stories are about the Vikings basically failing at everything and giving up and going back to Iceland. What's weird is I came to post a very similar request - settlement fiction OR nonfiction about Australia in particular. So anything about the penal colonies, the indigenous populations' reactions, the organizing and proclaiming themselves a new federation. Any suggestions for that?
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Sep 19, 2013 01:34
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I wanted to read The Iliad, so I blundered into a book store and bought the first copy I saw without thinking about the different translations. The copy I have is translated by Martin Hammond, but are there better translations I should be looking at instead? Assume here that 'better' means 'more poetic, more interesting to read'.
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Sep 19, 2013 01:35
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Down With People posted:I wanted to read The Iliad, so I blundered into a book store and bought the first copy I saw without thinking about the different translations. The copy I have is translated by Martin Hammond, but are there better translations I should be looking at instead? Assume here that 'better' means 'more poetic, more interesting to read'. My favourite is Penguins, where Robert Fagles handles the translation and Bernard Knox writes a huge introduction and notes. But I don't think you can go wrong with any modern translation, I tend to trust the scholarship and translation of anything Penguin Classics/Oxford puts out. Hope you enjoy it!
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Sep 19, 2013 02:31
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Zombie Samurai posted:What are some classic cowboy stories? I'm looking for pulpy western adventures that really capture the essence of the genre. The Virginian was the first Western ever written. Shane is the classic. After that, yeah, everything by Zane Grey; start with Riders of the Purple Sage. artichoke posted:Honestly, read the Icelandic Sagas. They are all really fun to read ("And Bolli ran him through with his halberd and there was much blood...") and they blend myth and reality so seamlessly that I was dumbfounded to stumble upon the actual gravesite of the heroine of my favorite saga when I was traveling around there. That favorite is The Laxdaela Saga, with Egil's Saga a close second. Also worth mentioning - the Vinland Sagas are neat accounts of the Vikings' attempts at settling in America 500 years before Columbus showed his ugly mug, and the stories are about the Vikings basically failing at everything and giving up and going back to Iceland. Yeah, seconding the Icelandic Sagas recommendation. For a neat aside see http://www.viking.ucla.edu/publications/articles/egils_bones_scientific_american_byock_paget_disease.pdf I just have been re-reading the Aubrey/Maturin series and one of the later books features a stop in early-days Australia, but it's late in the series so I wouldn't suggest it as a start. In an author's note, O'Brian references this book as his primary source for information on the Australia colony, though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fatal_Shore
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Sep 19, 2013 02:39
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Captain Mediocre posted:I'm not really sure what to call it, but for want of a better term can anybody recommend any good 'settlement fiction'? Something based around the establishment and early progression of a new settlement or colony. Could be historical; about the first European new-world colonies, new islands, or the norse settlement of Iceland (this would be the absolute ideal); fantasy, or even Sci-fi stories about planetary colonisation (I've read most all of Alistair Reynolds' stuff so not him). Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles.
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Sep 19, 2013 03:19
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Captain Mediocre posted:I'm not really sure what to call it, but for want of a better term can anybody recommend any good 'settlement fiction'? Something based around the establishment and early progression of a new settlement or colony. Could be historical; about the first European new-world colonies, new islands, or the norse settlement of Iceland (this would be the absolute ideal); fantasy, or even Sci-fi stories about planetary colonisation (I've read most all of Alistair Reynolds' stuff so not him). artichoke posted:
The Secret River by Kate Grenville is about an English convict that gets sent to an Australian frontier settlement with his family. I read it awhile ago and forget a lot of the details about it but I do remember that I liked it.
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Sep 19, 2013 03:43
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Captain Mediocre posted:I'm not really sure what to call it, but for want of a better term can anybody recommend any good 'settlement fiction'? Something based around the establishment and early progression of a new settlement or colony. Could be historical; about the first European new-world colonies, new islands, or the norse settlement of Iceland (this would be the absolute ideal); fantasy, or even Sci-fi stories about planetary colonisation (I've read most all of Alistair Reynolds' stuff so not him).
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Sep 19, 2013 03:56
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Down With People posted:I wanted to read The Iliad, so I blundered into a book store and bought the first copy I saw without thinking about the different translations. The copy I have is translated by Martin Hammond, but are there better translations I should be looking at instead? Assume here that 'better' means 'more poetic, more interesting to read'. barkingclam's recommendation for the Robert Fagles translation is a good one. Personally, I prefer the Richmond Lattimore translation from 1951; to my mind, it's somewhat more faithful to the original verse while still being poetic. The Fagles translation is more accessible in terms of modern poetry, but it loses a lot of the subtleties from the original.
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Sep 19, 2013 07:47
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Looking for time travel books, but ones that involve a person / people from another time coming to our time. Ideally the main protagonist is not the time traveller.
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Sep 19, 2013 07:50
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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? If you have access to a college library near you that has subscriptions to journals then go there, open pretty much anything about education and be prepared to read a billion critiques of US/western education. You can easily spend weeks just reading article after article about how terrible everything is. Real uplifting stuff. Also, check the original print date for books. Lots of education books have been reprinted, so keep that in mind when a book keeps referencing studies and data 30-40 years ago. It's not exactly like schools have gotten much better since then, so it's not like the books are no longer relevant. Gatto was already mentioned, and yeah, he can get sorta tinfoil hat on you, but he has some legitimate critiques. His books are short and a quick read, which is kinda nice. Instead of Education by John Holt One of my favorite Holt books. Teaching to Transgress by Bell Hooks Feminist woman of color perspective? gently caress yes. The End of Education by Neil Postman Postman is good. I'm planning on picking up Teaching As a Subversive Activity soon. Alfie Kohn also has lots of books on the subject Schooling in Capitalist America by Bowles & Gintis I have it, but haven't read it yet. Looks interesting. Democracy and Education by John Dewey If you don't know too much about Dewey then I'd recommend this book by him. If you want to read more about alternative schools then there is a TON of stuff on Waldorf education and Rudolf Steiner. Millennial Child by Eugene Schwartz Might be a decent start if you're unfamiliar with Waldorf schools. Another book I have, but haven't read yet. I forget the names of the books, but you can search for "free school" and probably find books on some of the more unique alternative schools that exist(ed). I think there's one in MA and one in Washington (the sate) that are pretty well known. Homeschooling books can be pretty hit or miss because there's legit homeschooling and there's  Not books, but the documentaries Declining by Degrees and College, Inc. are really good if you want something quick about higher education. Pretty sure both are available for free online. College, Inc. is pretty infuriating so be prepared to actually get mad. Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere by Will Richardson Just found this while looking for new books for myself. Looks great and is certainly more current than most of the books I have/suggested. Shyfted One fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Sep 20, 2013 |
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Sep 19, 2013 19:58
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I'm looking for a recommendation for some nonfiction reading in the kind of 'pop science' genre. Recently I've finished Mary Roach's books (Gulp, Bonk, Stiff, Packing for Mars) and just finished Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test. I'm interested in all kinds of science, so it doesn't need to be a specific area of study, but I'd like it to not be heavy reading.
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Sep 19, 2013 22:09
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A little less "pop," but Oliver Sacks and Carl Sagan are both pretty awesome. I can take or leave a lot of Michael Pollan, but I quite liked The Botany of Desire, and Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses is good if you want something related, but a little different. Oh, and Alan Wiseman's The World Without Us is excellent, too.
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Sep 19, 2013 22:37
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AARP LARPer fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Jan 22, 2016 |
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Sep 20, 2013 00:44
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savinhill posted:The Secret River by Kate Grenville is about an English convict that gets sent to an Australian frontier settlement with his family. I read it awhile ago and forget a lot of the details about it but I do remember that I liked it. Thanks, I'll check it out!
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Sep 20, 2013 05:02
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Hey. I'm looking for more books. I have read the unabridged history of the civil war (twice), Asimov's Foundation, all of Jared Diamond back to back (three times), War and Peace, the Dresden Files (twice), and I just burned through WoT (god help me it was a fun ending). Among other things. I want stuff that is well written, interesting or super fun, and above all else, I want it long. Like, super long. The longer the better, if it is well written. Long as in one contiguous universe. I'm tackling Conan's 75+ books (!) next, I think, without someone suggesting something. Any suggestions? Edit: Oh I also read the Gunslinger stuff. Edit2: Someone PMed me an idea: A biography of every President, in order. Fantastic idea. BigHead fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Sep 22, 2013 |
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Sep 22, 2013 11:27
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The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Then the rest of his books.
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Sep 22, 2013 11:32
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BigHead posted:I want stuff that is well written, interesting or super fun, and above all else, I want it long. Like, super long. The longer the better, if it is well written. Gene Wolfe's Sun series, Tad Williams' Otherland and Memory... series, Terry Brooks' Shannara stuff (quality varies a lot), Card's Ender Saga (quality also varies), Ringworld, Scalzi's Old Man's War... and there are some other really long ones that I have no experience with (like #1-3 and #8 here, and I can't recommend #4). I really like Le Guin's Hainish Cycle a lot, but it's not contiguous.
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Sep 22, 2013 12:31
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BigHead posted:Hey. I'm looking for more books. quote:Europe: A History by Norman Davies. It is important to check and verify, as Carlyle sometimes failed to do. But ‘telling it right’ is also important. All historians must tell their tale convincingly, or be ignored. quote:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th is a narrative history book by the American historian Barbara Tuchman, first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1978. It won a 1980 U.S. National Book Award in History. [1][a] The main title, A Distant Mirror, conveys Tuchman's idea that the death and suffering of the 14th century reflect that of the 20th century, especially the horrors of World War I. quote:The Fatal Shore. The epic of Australia's founding by Robert Hughes is a history of the birth of Australia which came out of the suffering and brutality of England's infamous convict transportation system. [1] It also focuses on the historical, political and sociological reasons that led to British settlement. It was first published in 1987 by Harvill Press. quote:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (sometimes shortened to Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) is a book of history written by the English historian Edward Gibbon, which traces the trajectory of Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to the fall of Byzantium. Published in six volumes, volume I was published in 1776 and went through six printings. The work covers the history of the Roman Empire, Europe, and the Catholic Church from 98 to 1590 and discusses the decline of the Roman Empire in the East and West. Because of its relative objectivity and heavy use of primary sources, at the time its methodology became a model for later historians. This led to Gibbon being called the first "modern historian of ancient Rome".
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Sep 22, 2013 14:14
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BigHead posted:Hey. I'm looking for more books. (it's legit good though) Also, the unabridged Gulag Archipelago. I've only read the abridged (which is still quite long) and it was really good.
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Sep 22, 2013 18:34
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BigHead posted:Hey. I'm looking for more books. When you get to Theodore Roosevelt be sure to read Edmund Morris. If you want something crazy long, look up an unabridged edition of John C. Frazier's The Golden Bough/ Make sure to get the 1922 edition in over ten volumes.
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Sep 22, 2013 19:39
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BigHead posted:I want stuff that is well written, interesting or super fun, and above all else, I want it long. Like, super long. The longer the better, if it is well written. Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series if you haven't read it already. 20 books of Napoleonic-era naval goodness.
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Sep 22, 2013 21:46
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