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Rusty posted:Can someone recommend some books they really liked? I am in kind of a rut and not able to find anything I want to read. I am open to any genre besides fantasy and sci-fi unless it is really good. Sorry for the vague request, but I always tend to find good books when people just talk about their favorites. I'll give you My List of poo poo That Knocked Me On My rear end over the past couple years. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway Grass Dancer by Susan Power Edit: a link to my goodreads favorites page with all of those on it: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1770123?shelf=favorites a kitten fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Mar 2, 2015 |
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Mar 2, 2015 03:13
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a kitten posted:I'll give you My List of poo poo That Knocked Me On My rear end over the past couple years.
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Mar 2, 2015 05:10
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trigonsareNOThomo posted:I'm looking for any kind of book that will help me not give a gently caress about what others think of me. Even if the book isn't about that specifically, I'm just struggling with that so if there's any book, novel or self-help or whatever that's helped you with that, please let me know Atlas Shrugged. Of course, this is the pinnacle of "be careful what you wish for; you just might get it". But it certainly satisfies your request.
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Mar 2, 2015 06:05
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Rusty posted:Thanks, I loved Cloud Atlas, Never Let Me Go, and the Gone Away World, so I will definitely be ready the other two. Have you read Angelmaker (by Harkaway) or The Bone Clocks (by Mitchell)? I've got both and am torn about which one to read once I finish my current book. Also, you'd probably also enjoy anything else by David Mitchell and/or Ishiguro, assuming of course that you haven't already read all their previous work. a kitten fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Mar 2, 2015 |
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Mar 2, 2015 06:05
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a kitten posted:Have you read Angelmaker (by Harkaway) or The Bone Clocks (by Mitchell)? I've got both and am torn about which one to read once I finish my current book. Also, you'd probably also enjoy anything else by David Mitchell and/or Ishiguro, assuming of course that you haven't already read all their previous work.
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Mar 2, 2015 06:14
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Kvlt! posted:What are some books that are about isolation/loneliness and sadness? There's a current bestseller named "The Girl on the Train" that got all of this
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Mar 3, 2015 02:21
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Hello Book Barn. In my 10+ years of posting on these forums I don't think I've ever been here, or maybe once or twice for some Palahniuk discussion. Anyway. I've resolved to read at least a book a month this year, I'm already on track with 2 for 2 which is more reading than I've done in years. I'm here for recommendations for books in the vein of Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman, or How to Piss in Public by Gavin McInnes (which is, admittedly, pretty low-brow). Another book I've read that is somewhat similar but takes a different approach is Dharma Punx by Noah Levine. Basically I guess what I'm looking for are memoirs or autobiographical stuff by people who lived interesting lives in a punk rock, gently caress the world kinda way. Get in the Van has sat unfinished on my Kindle for years now and while that is somewhat up the same alley, it's way too repetitive and boring to keep me going. Also, anything that really makes you contemplate your life in an existential, life is too short, what it means to lead a "real" life, sort of way. The closest I can think of to a story like that isn't a book, but the film The Visitor by Thomas McCarthy captures that whole "reevaluate what the hell it means to live and what have you been doing with your life anyway" type of vibe that I really gravitate towards. I don't know if that's too vague, or too specific, or what. I'm excited to get through as many books as I can this year and getting some solid recommendations will play a big part in that. Appreciated!
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Mar 3, 2015 06:32
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ShoogaSlim posted:Hello Book Barn. In my 10+ years of posting on these forums I don't think I've ever been here, or maybe once or twice for some Palahniuk discussion. Anyway. I've resolved to read at least a book a month this year, I'm already on track with 2 for 2 which is more reading than I've done in years. I'd suggest looking at _Junkie_ by William s. Burroughs, maybe _You can't Win_ by Jack Black (not the one you're thinking of; this Jack Black was a 1920's-era career criminal). For something more upbeat, look up Kerouac's _On the Road_ or maybe Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. Those should be a good starting point but if you've already read all those let us know and we'll try for something more esoteric. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 06:36
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'd suggest looking at _Junkie_ by William s. Burroughs, maybe _You can't Win_ by Jack Black (not the one you're thinking of; this Jack Black was a 1920's-era career criminal). This American Life recently syndicated a show about Burroughs that piqued my interest. Naked Lunch is in my list of books to check out but only really because it was mentioned so much on the program. If you say Junkie is more of what I'm looking for then I'll consider that one instead/first, as well as the other books you've mentioned. Oddly enough I wrote a paper on On the Road in college without actually having read it and got an A. It's laying around here somewhere, I'll have to give it another shot. Thanks for the recommendations!
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Mar 3, 2015 07:04
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ShoogaSlim posted:Basically I guess what I'm looking for are memoirs or autobiographical stuff by people who lived interesting lives in a punk rock, gently caress the world kinda way. This line immediately brought Charles Bukowski to mind. He's an interesting writer if only because you can track your progress through becoming a mature adult by your reaction to it. I went through phases of thinking it romantic, then juvenile, and now as a compelling look at a life I could never otherwise know or experience. I'd recommend starting with Post Office.
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Mar 3, 2015 07:39
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regulargonzalez posted:This line immediately brought Charles Bukowski to mind. He's an interesting writer if only because you can track your progress through becoming a mature adult by your reaction to it. I went through phases of thinking it romantic, then juvenile, and now as a compelling look at a life I could never otherwise know or experience. I'd recommend starting with Post Office. I was going to recommend this as well. Bukowski is also something you can read in public without people thinking you're a moron.
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Mar 3, 2015 14:35
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ShoogaSlim posted:This American Life recently syndicated a show about Burroughs that piqued my interest. Naked Lunch is in my list of books to check out but only really because it was mentioned so much on the program. If you say Junkie is more of what I'm looking for then I'll consider that one instead/first, as well as the other books you've mentioned. Naked Lunch is a great book but Junkie is a LOT more accessible and less experimental while still having that primal scream quality.
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Mar 3, 2015 15:08
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Naked Lunch is a great book but Junkie is a LOT more accessible and less experimental while still having that primal scream quality. Agreed on all counts. Naked Lunch is more of a thing about a state of mind. Junky is an actual narrative. Also casting a vote for Bukowski. You might want to try some John Fante, who influenced him.
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Mar 3, 2015 16:31
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ShoogaSlim posted:Hello Book Barn. In my 10+ years of posting on these forums I don't think I've ever been here, or maybe once or twice for some Palahniuk discussion. Anyway. I've resolved to read at least a book a month this year, I'm already on track with 2 for 2 which is more reading than I've done in years. http://www.amazon.com/Despite-Everything-A-Cometbus-Omnibus/dp/0867195614 Go nuts, bruh. This is literally exactly what you're looking for. Transistor Rhythm fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 18:46
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Transistor Rhythm posted:http://www.amazon.com/Despite-Everything-A-Cometbus-Omnibus/dp/0867195614 This looks rad as hell, my dude. Hopefully it will inspire me to live in a dumpster.
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Mar 3, 2015 19:29
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ShoogaSlim posted:This looks rad as hell, my dude. Hopefully it will inspire me to live in a dumpster. It's great. Aaron Cometbus is basically the Jack Kerouac of the modern world, via the East Bay punk scene. New issues of "Cometbus" still come out around once a year - a recent one just came out about a month ago. A few issues back, he did an entire issue about being on tour with Green Day in China (he's known those guys since they were literal children) and how surreal the entire thing was, and how it's weird when friends get that famous, and how getting older is weird, and etc. It was amazing. http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/3501/
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Mar 3, 2015 20:18
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Need recs for crime novels with...I was going to say 'sympathetic' view of the perpetrator, but I guess what I want is in-depth characterisation. A good example of this would be the Devotion on Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. I guess I'm more interested in the circumstances that caused the crime than the solving of a crime itself.
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Mar 4, 2015 11:51
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Might be a tad obvious, but have you tried In Cold Blood?
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Mar 4, 2015 12:14
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Chas McGill posted:Need recs for crime novels with...I was going to say 'sympathetic' view of the perpetrator, but I guess what I want is in-depth characterisation. A good example of this would be the Devotion on Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. I guess I'm more interested in the circumstances that caused the crime than the solving of a crime itself.
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Mar 4, 2015 13:33
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Mars4523 posted:I just read a counterterrorism thriller that does that. Does that count? anilEhilated posted:Might be a tad obvious, but have you tried In Cold Blood?
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Mar 4, 2015 13:51
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Chas McGill posted:Yes, what is it?
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Mar 4, 2015 14:44
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People Who Eat Darkness is good true crime that not only goes very in depth on the murderer, but also on just about every other important person and institution related to the case it covers. Red Dragon is good for giving the killer tons of characterization if you haven't already read it or watched one of it's adaptions
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Mar 4, 2015 21:59
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nedlardsail posted:I'm looking for something to read with one of my best friends, whose birthday is coming up. I want something that will really speak to her. I haven't read the books you listed, so a couple of other books your friend might also like are the novel The Vagabond by Colette (1910, about a French music-hall performer, there are also a couple of lesbian/bisexual characters if that matters) and short story collection The Inland Ice and other stories by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (1997, mostly about Irish career women who travel). I don't remember anything about mental illness in either book, but both have major themes of independence and personal identity in women who balance these issues with their jobs and relationships. ShoogaSlim posted:Also, anything that really makes you contemplate your life in an existential, life is too short, what it means to lead a "real" life, sort of way. The closest I can think of to a story like that isn't a book, but the film The Visitor by Thomas McCarthy captures that whole "reevaluate what the hell it means to live and what have you been doing with your life anyway" type of vibe that I really gravitate towards. I don't know about Thomas McCarthy, but I thought Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince is good for "what's truly important in life" if you would like something short and relatively simple, but meaningful.
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Mar 5, 2015 05:10
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I'm looking preferably for a novella or short story (collection) as she's so busy. Also, it's preferably written by a woman, but it at least has to center on a woman (or women). The top contenders so far, from Wikipedia-type summaries, include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Bonjour Tristesse, Dancing Girls, and Lives of Girls and Women, but they all feel to me as though they're missing something. I'm pretty unfamiliar with women's literature, unfortunately, and I'm weary of reading much until then because our reading it together is supposed to be part of the gift. Can anyone vouch for any of those works? Can anyone recommend something sort of in this vein?
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nedlardsail posted:I'm looking for something to read with one of my best friends, whose birthday is coming up. I want something that will really speak to her. Have you considered The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir? She pretty much wrote the book (literally) on feminism and strong women. Downsides are that it's pretty long and your friend may find it too explicitly feminist. It is, though, very good.
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Mar 5, 2015 15:45
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You could theorethically always try The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo pleasedon'tstoneme...
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Mar 5, 2015 16:06
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I'd be interested in a couple of things. First, recommendations for Mafia/mob/organized crime history, focusing on Las Vegas and Bugsy Siegel and so on, and the Havana Conference, etc. Sort of an overview of that whole scene. Second, and completely unrelated, something on MKUltra. Not paranoid conspiracy stuff, but just material that's been documented with what would appear to be a reasonable degree of objectivity. There are lots of books out there on both subjects, of course, but what's been written by writers who actually know their stuff and get it right and produced something worthwhile?
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Mar 5, 2015 17:06
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Fedelm posted:I don't know about Thomas McCarthy, but I thought Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince is good for "what's truly important in life" if you would like something short and relatively simple, but meaningful. This seems like a nice, quick read that I could fit in as an additional title under my one-book-a-month resolution. I'll check it out, thanks. e: BTW, I started reading Bukowski's Post Office. I'd wager I'm about 30% into it so far. At times it feels a bit monotonous, but I guess that helps to solidify the experience of the narrator, though there are definitely some standout moments interspersed where I can't help but smirk, or even laugh, while reading. Definitely a fun read so far and it's just starting to get more interesting. ShoogaSlim fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Mar 7, 2015 |
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Mar 7, 2015 05:04
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ShoogaSlim posted:This seems like a nice, quick read that I could fit in as an additional title under my one-book-a-month resolution. I'll check it out, thanks. That's a fair analysis. I'm sure the life of being a barely employed, barely employable bum is itself often monotonous. There is one scene in the book that had me in tears from laughing the first time I read it. "The mail must go through!" If you get into Bukowski at all, I strongly recommend the movie Barfly, which features Mickey Rourke's finest acting (with the possible exception of The Wrestler) and is several orders of magnitude superior to the Matt Dillon portrayal in Factotum. Dillon comes across as a pretty boy slumming it, Rourke is a loving bum.
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Mar 7, 2015 13:45
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I am looking for any good horror/thrillers based on someone from modern day earth who somehow wakes up/ends up in a alien civilization and is trying to desperately find his/her way back home. I'll prefer the aliens not to be completely hostile, just having totally different cultures.
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Mar 7, 2015 22:56
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nedlardsail posted:I'm looking for something to read with one of my best friends, whose birthday is coming up. I want something that will really speak to her. Perhaps The Beautiful Indifference, by Sarah Hall? It's a short book, comprised of seven stories centered on women in differing stages of their lives. She's very forthright and evocative concerning their lives and loves. It's not necessarily an uplifting collection, mind, but it's really great. She's one of my favorite authors.
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Mar 7, 2015 23:49
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BillBear posted:I am looking for any good horror/thrillers based on someone from modern day earth who somehow wakes up/ends up in a alien civilization and is trying to desperately find his/her way back home. I'll prefer the aliens not to be completely hostile, just having totally different cultures. Nightbreed is like that, but with monsters. It's fun, has aged a bit, but I like the ideas. I wouldn't call it a thriller, though.
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Mar 8, 2015 01:16
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I'm looking for books about casual racism in our day to day vocabulary, and just casual racism in communication in general. Any pointers? I'm not from the USA, but anything works.
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Mar 8, 2015 13:32
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Azran posted:I'm looking for books about casual racism in our day to day vocabulary, and just casual racism in communication in general. Any pointers? I'm not from the USA, but anything works. If it was a book, I'd direct you to GBS, but... I really enjoyed Baratunde Thurston's How to Be Black. It's about what it's like to be a black person in the US and doesn't focus solely on language, but it's a good read and actually really funny (Thurston is a comedian and is associated with The Onion). A little further down that road is John Griffin's Black Like Me, but that has even less to do with the actual nuts and bolts of communication.
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Mar 8, 2015 14:32
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I want to get started reading Conan, but I'm running into the usual "Which book(s)?" problem. Far as I can tell, the stories should just be read from beginning to end, but as for the editions, do I get the Gollancz edition or the Del Rey edition?
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Mar 8, 2015 21:14
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ufarn posted:I want to get started reading Conan, but I'm running into the usual "Which book(s)?" problem. Far as I can tell, the stories should just be read from beginning to end, but as for the editions, do I get the Gollancz edition or the Del Rey edition? Either of those are good choices but the Gollancz is a complete collection in one volume while for the Del Rey editions you need to buy three books. The Del Rey editions are also *slightly* more accurate for some of the stories, but not in a way anyone but a purist is going to notice -- it's as-first-published vs original-manuscript-as-first-written type issues and those differences are relatively trivial compared to differences with later published versions that made huge cuts, etc.
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Mar 8, 2015 21:19
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Azran posted:I'm looking for books about casual racism in our day to day vocabulary, and just casual racism in communication in general. Any pointers? I'm not from the USA, but anything works. You could have a look at Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations by bell hooks. It's not specifically about communication, but it might be a worthwhile read in relation to what you're looking for.
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Mar 8, 2015 21:43
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Either of those are good choices but the Gollancz is a complete collection in one volume while for the Del Rey editions you need to buy three books. The Del Rey editions are also *slightly* more accurate for some of the stories, but not in a way anyone but a purist is going to notice -- it's as-first-published vs original-manuscript-as-first-written type issues and those differences are relatively trivial compared to differences with later published versions that made huge cuts, etc. Is there a place to see - some of - the differences? Just curious. On that note, there is apparently some British publication that sounds like the History of Middle-Earth for Conan the Cymmerian, but it appears to have already gone out of print, and is not available on iTunes. Was that ever something worth getting, or is it not as interesting as HoME? Oh, one more: what of this publication of short stories? I take it they aren't included in Gollancz. ufarn fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Mar 8, 2015 |
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Mar 8, 2015 22:31
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I'm looking for some novels similar in tone to Michael Mann's crime movies. Cops and criminals who are smart and capable but not superhuman, stories that are believable and small-ish in scope, and maybe some well researched technical details thrown in there. Airport novels are fine but I'm looking for career criminal type stuff rather than serial killers and nuts.
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Mar 9, 2015 22:53
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ufarn posted:Awesome, the Del Ray looked like it has a weird format aside from the three volumes, but some grognards recommended it first, so I had to see whether that was because their FAQ hadn't been updated since the publication of Gollancz's. AS far as I know the differences are minimal but I don't know specifically what they are. Any other collection of "conan stories" that contains stories that aren't in the gollancz edition / del rey edition are going to be stories published (and usually at least mostly written) by L. Sprague deCamp. There are a few different levels of these, ranging from "taking stories by Howard about other non-Conan characters and rewriting them to be Conan stories" to pure inventions. Not all of those are bad stories but the Gollancz and Del Rey have all the actual written-by-howard-as-conan-stories conan stories.
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Mar 9, 2015 23:54
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Human Tornada posted:I'm looking for some novels similar in tone to Michael Mann's crime movies. Cops and criminals who are smart and capable but not superhuman, stories that are believable and small-ish in scope, and maybe some well researched technical details thrown in there. Airport novels are fine but I'm looking for career criminal type stuff rather than serial killers and nuts. Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" books are pretty good for this. There are a billion of them but they mostly stand on their own, plus they're quick reads, so you can grab whatever looks good.
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Mar 10, 2015 01:04
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