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Invisible Ted posted:So recently I've been interested in Friedrich Nietzsche, and have been listening to librivox recordings of Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Gay Science, as it's easier for me to listen to that particular style of prose than to read it. I feel like the ideas and philosophical concepts are really interesting and his prose is rather beautiful. However, I'm wondering if there is other literature that is a bit less dense that still deals with the concepts of eternal recurrence, the superman and other Nietzsche-esque ideas. I've already read and enjoyed much of Thomas Ligotti's nonfiction book The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, which is what originally turned me on to Nietzsche. Alfred Hitchcock's Rope deals with the superman concept and is excellent viewing besides, if a film recommendation is okay. regulargonzalez posted:Looking for good fish-out-of-water books, where a character is faced with a huge difference in culture. POV can be the protagonist or not, genre not terribly important. Some examples would be things as varied as Shogun, I'm A Stranger Here Myself, Stranger in a Strange Land, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, if you haven't already read it, and PKD's Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said both have something of this.
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Dec 29, 2013 17:34
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terrorist plumber posted:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, if you haven't already read it, and PKD's Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said both have something of this. Read the former but not the latter. Thanks for the recommendation!
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Dec 29, 2013 18:01
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skrath posted:Seconding this request; I just finished Spillover and it was one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read, hands down. Not epidemiology, but if you're looking for general biology written in an interesting way Genome by Matt Ridley is good.
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Dec 29, 2013 18:30
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Bazanga posted:It's funny you mention that because that was one of those books I read as a teenager and couldn't put it down until I finished it. A book I read a long time ago that was a total page-turner is The Descent by Jeff Long. It has a crazy premise and has a lot of dumb thriller novel type stuff in it, but it was a great read and you can just fly right through it. Describing the book's plot is hard because it's so crazy, so just check out the Amazon page to see if you'd be interested: http://www.amazon.com/Descent-Jeff-Long/dp/051513175X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388473195&sr=1-1&keywords=descent
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Dec 31, 2013 08:43
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I'm looking for a book (or series) that is about a gigantic wall (not ASoIaF) and a bunch of civilizations that live on it or something like that. I heard about it a while back and cant remember the name.
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Jan 2, 2014 22:26
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TommyGun85 posted:I'm looking for a book (or series) that is about a gigantic wall (not ASoIaF) and a bunch of civilizations that live on it or something like that. I heard about it a while back and cant remember the name. This is a stretch given your description, but perhaps Kingdoms of the Wall?
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Jan 2, 2014 22:48
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snooman posted:This is a stretch given your description, but perhaps Kingdoms of the Wall? Likely _Stone and Sky_.
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Jan 3, 2014 01:14
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Likely _Stone and Sky_. That's the one. Thanks. Is it any good?
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Jan 3, 2014 03:39
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Looking for any books with villains as the protagonist, or something along those lines. For reference, I just finished Villains by Necessity. It was okay, felt like it could've used a rewrite at times, but it left me wanting to read more books that focus on the bad guys instead of the heroes. Preferably fantasy or sci-fi.
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Jan 3, 2014 19:39
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Brainamp posted:Looking for any books with villains as the protagonist, or something along those lines. For reference, I just finished Villains by Necessity. It was okay, felt like it could've used a rewrite at times, but it left me wanting to read more books that focus on the bad guys instead of the heroes. Preferably fantasy or sci-fi. I highly recommend Tanith Lee's The Flat-Earth Cycle, which can be found in a print omnibus edition called Tales From the Flat Earth. (e: There are two omnibus books: Lords of Darkness and Night's Mistress) My only collector's item is a signed, limited edition of Night's Master. The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock - If you haven't read that already. Orcs - by Stan Nichols (I think - I'll check the book and revise if that's wrong.) The Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence. another edit: http://www.newcitylibrary.org/node/1656 snooman fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Jan 3, 2014 |
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Jan 3, 2014 22:39
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TommyGun85 posted:That's the one. Thanks. Is it any good? I haven't actually read my copy yet. The third volume was very hard to find, though I did get it eventually.
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Jan 4, 2014 00:40
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Brainamp posted:Looking for any books with villains as the protagonist, or something along those lines. For reference, I just finished Villains by Necessity. It was okay, felt like it could've used a rewrite at times, but it left me wanting to read more books that focus on the bad guys instead of the heroes. Preferably fantasy or sci-fi. The Sundering by Jacqueline Carey.
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Jan 4, 2014 12:36
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RCarr posted:Are there any must-read fantasy books? I'm looking along the lines of The Hobbit, LoTR, aSoIaF, Raymond Feist (I read these when I was like 13, don't judge me). I don't know if that's considered high fantasy or what, I just know I like to read good stories about swords and dragons and magic and elves. My first proper introduction to fantasy was David Eddings' Belgariad and the Sparhawk books.
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Jan 4, 2014 14:51
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Im in the mood for an adventurous, life-affirming, enlightening book. Fiction or non. World travel, the beauty of life and whatnot. Thanks.
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Jan 4, 2014 23:35
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jimcunningham posted:Im in the mood for an adventurous, life-affirming, enlightening book. Fiction or non. World travel, the beauty of life and whatnot. Thanks. Have you read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse?
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Jan 5, 2014 00:21
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Jabronie posted:Have you read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse? No. I heard its incredibly hard to read.
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Jan 5, 2014 01:18
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Can anyone recommended books from Amazon's "Kindle Owners Lending Library"? I'm cheap, so I like to utilize the free book you get each month with your prime membership. There's a lot of crappy self-published erotica to sort through, but there appear to be some hidden gems. I tend to prefer books about nature/adventure (Steinbeck, Krakauer, Thoreau etc), but I'm open to pretty much all genres (except crappy self-published erotica). I'm not sure if a lending library specific thread would be useful, so for now I'll just post this here. To get the ball rolling, here are the last few free books I've read out of the lending library: -"Sky of Red Poppies" by Zohreh Ghahremani -"Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street " by Michael Lewis -"Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen -"AWOL on the Appalachian Trail" by David Miller
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Jan 5, 2014 05:39
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Brainamp posted:Looking for any books with villains as the protagonist, or something along those lines. For reference, I just finished Villains by Necessity. It was okay, felt like it could've used a rewrite at times, but it left me wanting to read more books that focus on the bad guys instead of the heroes. Preferably fantasy or sci-fi. I'm into this also and I was happy with the trilogy http://www.amazon.com/Heresy-Within-Book-Ties-that-ebook/dp/B00CCWWTYY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1388906486&sr=1-1
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Jan 5, 2014 08:22
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Whoever I talked with on here a little while back about Connie Willis and To Say Nothing of the Dog, thanks a bunch for getting me to try it again; it was great, especially for a reformed english major like me, and Doomsday Book was the single best science fiction novel I've read in at least the past year if not longer.
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Jan 5, 2014 08:30
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jimcunningham posted:No. I heard its incredibly hard to read. It isn't, but it didn't work for me. I guess I'm not the type of romantic for this kind of book. I would go for Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami. It's basically a magical realist (in the way only Murakami does it) love story. It is the first book I think of when someone asks for something sweet and life-affirming.
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Jan 5, 2014 11:51
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Brainamp posted:Looking for any books with villains as the protagonist, or something along those lines. For reference, I just finished Villains by Necessity. It was okay, felt like it could've used a rewrite at times, but it left me wanting to read more books that focus on the bad guys instead of the heroes. Preferably fantasy or sci-fi. I wouldn't call them great, rereadable books but KJ Parker's Engineer Trilogy is kind of along these lines. The protagonist (and every single other character but one) is such an incredible rear end in a top hat throughout but you keep reading out of a sort of morbid fascination. And I'll say this for KJ - nobody escapes their proper karmic retribution in the end. Nohearum posted:Can anyone recommended books from Amazon's "Kindle Owners Lending Library"? I'm cheap, so I like to utilize the free book you get each month with your prime membership. There's a lot of crappy self-published erotica to sort through, but there appear to be some hidden gems. I tend to prefer books about nature/adventure (Steinbeck, Krakauer, Thoreau etc), but I'm open to pretty much all genres (except crappy self-published erotica). I'm not sure if a lending library specific thread would be useful, so for now I'll just post this here. Hey I have crappy self-published non-erotica! I'm looking through the books I own though and weirdly few of them seem to be in the lending library (read: none so far). Edit: BBCode is hard Daetrin fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Jan 5, 2014 |
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Jan 5, 2014 15:39
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Nohearum posted:Can anyone recommended books from Amazon's "Kindle Owners Lending Library"? I'm cheap, so I like to utilize the free book you get each month with your prime membership. Aurthur C. Clarke and Kurt Vonnegut. I think their whole libraries are on there, and you can't go wrong with either. I currently have "The Deep Range", but I bought "Childrenhood's end" and liked it. Rendezvous for Rama has also been recommended to me.
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Jan 5, 2014 17:20
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Fremry posted:I think their whole libraries are on there You mean oeuvres
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Jan 5, 2014 17:29
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Joramun posted:You mean oeuvres Yeah, that thing.
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Jan 5, 2014 19:48
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I just finished Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie and very much enjoyed it even if it took some getting used to the fact the main character, at times, was a single "consciousness" spread throughout a great number of "individuals". I've read all of Iain M Banks, Alastair Reynolds, and Peter F Hamilton but I'm wondering if there are any other good novels which deal with advanced humanity, AI and political/alien intrigue?
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Jan 6, 2014 13:23
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WastedJoker posted:I just finished Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie and very much enjoyed it even if it took some getting used to the fact the main character, at times, was a single "consciousness" spread throughout a great number of "individuals". You should probably check out Robert J. Sawyer, although his stuff sometimes feels like it should've been cut off at novella length. The best AI themed novel, in my opinion, is Ian McDonald's River of Gods, although it's more cyberpunk than the type of sci-fi you're looking for.
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Jan 6, 2014 15:19
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WastedJoker posted:I just finished Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie and very much enjoyed it even if it took some getting used to the fact the main character, at times, was a single "consciousness" spread throughout a great number of "individuals". I loved the idea and thought it was very well-executed- imagine reading an advance copy with no idea about what was going on, though! As for the request, I know I bring him up all the time, but check out David Marusek. No aliens, but lots to do with AI, advanced humanity, and cloning.
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Jan 6, 2014 15:39
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I am reading Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, and What's Not To Love by Jonathan Ames I love both of these books. I am reading most of Ames's stuff and loving it and this is the first book I have read by David Foster Wallace. What else would you guys recommend in this same vein. Ames is a little more personal where as the Wallace stuff seems like interesting essays. Thanks!
Flaggy fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Jan 7, 2014 |
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Jan 6, 2014 19:50
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Any recommendations for a book set in the D&D universe and available as a Kindle ebook? I loved the Drizzt books as a teenager and although I'm sure I'd find those books awful now I recently found the idea of reading an actual good book in that setting very appealing.
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Jan 7, 2014 05:16
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Does anyone know of any good fiction (heck, any good non-fiction, even) about Roman/Eastern Roman chariot racing? I feel like there's some HIGH OCTANE THRILL-RIDE CHARIOT RACING out there that I just haven't found yet. Ben-Hur is not allowed to this party.
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Jan 7, 2014 11:09
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funkybottoms posted:I loved the idea and thought it was very well-executed- imagine reading an advance copy with no idea about what was going on, though! As for the request, I know I bring him up all the time, but check out David Marusek. No aliens, but lots to do with AI, advanced humanity, and cloning. Oh it would've been a nightmare. I found it a little weird because I thought I was seeing things through a female protagonist for most of the book then I realised the AI was effectively genderless. I can't say for sure whether that was author design or simply my stupid lizard brain making assumptions. mcustic posted:You should probably check out Robert J. Sawyer, although his stuff sometimes feels like it should've been cut off at novella length. The best AI themed novel, in my opinion, is Ian McDonald's River of Gods, although it's more cyberpunk than the type of sci-fi you're looking for. river of Gods rings a bell so it might be on my goodreads recommendation list. Cheers both, will give them a look.
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Jan 7, 2014 11:50
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terre packet posted:Any recommendations for a book set in the D&D universe and available as a Kindle ebook? I loved the Drizzt books as a teenager and although I'm sure I'd find those books awful now I recently found the idea of reading an actual good book in that setting very appealing. I read a bunch of that sort of stuff as a young gamer nerd 20+ years ago but I'm sure it was all horrible. (The only official gaming tie-in books I read back in the day which I would still recommend were some of those published by Games Workshop, i.e. the Warhammer/40K people; especially anything written by "Jack Yeovil" because that's a pen name for Kim Newman and he rules. But that's not exactly D&D anymore.) Maybe your best bet would be The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon, unless memory is playing tricks on me that's still pretty well-written and it's basically D&D with the serial numbers badly filed off.
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Jan 8, 2014 14:17
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Brainamp posted:Looking for any books with villains as the protagonist, or something along those lines. For reference, I just finished Villains by Necessity. It was okay, felt like it could've used a rewrite at times, but it left me wanting to read more books that focus on the bad guys instead of the heroes. Preferably fantasy or sci-fi. I've probably recommended this before, but Soon I Will Be Invincible is about 50/50 written from the villain's perspective. It's a bespoke 'comic book / superhero' setting, and the villain really should get his own TV series - think The Monarch from Venture Bros, but more realistic. I wouldn't call him the protagonist per se, but neither he is a completely obvious Hitler-level clone to be despised.
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Jan 8, 2014 14:56
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Groke posted:I read a bunch of that sort of stuff as a young gamer nerd 20+ years ago but I'm sure it was all horrible. (The only official gaming tie-in books I read back in the day which I would still recommend were some of those published by Games Workshop, i.e. the Warhammer/40K people; especially anything written by "Jack Yeovil" because that's a pen name for Kim Newman and he rules. But that's not exactly D&D anymore.) Yeah, the Paksenarrion books are basically the story of Elizabeth Moon's 1st Edition AD&D Paladin, just without the words "__ cast Featherfall" ever explicitly showing up. For explicit licensed AD&D fiction, the Dragonlance / Krynn series by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman might be your best bet.
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Jan 8, 2014 15:43
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:For explicit licensed AD&D fiction, the Dragonlance / Krynn series by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman might be your best bet. I have fond memories of those from when I was 15 but I don't really want to find out if those memories would survive a reread.
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Jan 8, 2014 15:53
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Groke posted:I have fond memories of those from when I was 15 but I don't really want to find out if those memories would survive a reread. Yeaaaah in that case don't. Hrm, ok, alternate tactic(s): You could try the first three Deryni books by Katherine Kurtz. They're not AD&D themed, but they're good 1970's pulp fantasy and (as best I can tell) based pretty heavily on Kurtz's activities with LARP and the Society for Creative Anachronism, and they have a similar sort of feel to a good low-fantasy D&D setting -- no orcs, but knights and heraldry and priests and magic and excommunication. If you don't mind something less serious, the Jig the Goblin series by Jim C. Hines is a wonderful and affectionate parody of the AD&D setting; the first book, Goblin Quest, is summarized thusly on Amazon: quote:When Jig's patrol is ambushed by a group of adventurers, he does what goblins do best: throws down his weapon and surrenders. Thus begins Jig's quest, as the adventurers force him to serve as their guide through the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the mountain. Led by Prince Barius Wendelson, their goal is an ancient magical artifact, hidden here ages past. It's a really fun romp with two sequels and there are lots of jokes that are aimed dead straight on at AD&D veterans. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Jan 8, 2014 |
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Jan 8, 2014 15:56
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On the other hand if you want mean-spirited and nasty parody of a typical (not specifically D&D but definitey D&D-ish) setting, try Mary Gentle's Grunts.
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Jan 8, 2014 16:00
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Qwo posted:Does anyone know of any good fiction (heck, any good non-fiction, even) about Roman/Eastern Roman chariot racing? I feel like there's some HIGH OCTANE THRILL-RIDE CHARIOT RACING out there that I just haven't found yet. Guy Gavriel Kay's Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors take place in a fantasy analogue of the Byzantine Empire, and while chariot racing isn't the central focus of the series, it does play a prominent role featuring some great race sequences.
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Jan 9, 2014 02:39
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I'm looking for a good modern history of Iran, something encompassing the 1953 coup, the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Specific books on the said subjects would also be welcome.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:31
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mcustic posted:I'm looking for a good modern history of Iran, something encompassing the 1953 coup, the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Specific books on the said subjects would also be welcome. I read and enjoyed Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution by Nikki Keddie. But you may look at the works of Ervand Abrahamian, who is a specialist in modern Iranian history and has a bunch of books on the topic.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:52
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man