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spandexcajun posted:If modern is not so much a requirement Journey to the end of the night - Céline is about as bleak as a book gets and it's awesome. Also seconding this.
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Oct 12, 2018 06:56
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Celine bleak? I thought it was a hilarious, if somewhat grotesque, romp through the early 20th century. Is something wrong with me?
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Oct 12, 2018 08:09
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You're trying too hard?
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Oct 12, 2018 09:00
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Celine is very funny
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Oct 12, 2018 10:15
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Kvlt! posted:Looking for some books on anarchism for someone who doesn't know a whole lot about it but is interested in the subject. Any good essential readings or places to start? murray bookchin
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Oct 12, 2018 13:27
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Meldonox posted:Can someone recommend me some good downers? I'm looking for something bleak and lonely, preferably in an everyday modern setting. Frederick Exley's A Fan's Notes, which is all about alcoholism, depression, failure, and trying to escape your lovely life through sports fandom.
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Oct 12, 2018 17:55
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A human heart posted:Celine is very funny
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Oct 13, 2018 05:11
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My brother is a fan of historical fiction, like some real events and people but fleshed out into a novel type idea. I recall there being a good book on Alexander but I can't seem to remember who it was by. edit: didn't realize there was another thread for this. If anyone has historical fiction recommendations I would also like those SSJ_naruto_2003 fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Oct 13, 2018 |
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Oct 13, 2018 09:14
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SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:My brother is a fan of historical fiction, like some real events and people but fleshed out into a novel type idea. I recall there being a good book on Alexander but I can't seem to remember who it was by. Fire From Heaven and The Persian Boy by Mary Renault. Edit: anything by Mary Renault, actually. Also I, Claudius. For 18th century, the Sharpe series or the Aubrey - Maturing series. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Oct 13, 2018 |
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Oct 13, 2018 13:35
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Virtues of War is really good too. Pressfield goes into pretty good detail on unit tactics and the psychology of the soldiers. Agincourt by Cornwell is also pretty good historical fiction .
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Oct 13, 2018 15:53
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I really liked Pressfield’s Thermopylae book too, Gates of Fire. I, Cladius is one of the grandaddies of the genre and it holds up well.
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Oct 13, 2018 21:46
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I found Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman to be extremely depressing. I was expecting a murder mystery and not a melancholy tale of lonely middle aged people leading dull lives in some dumpy Swedish forest.
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Oct 14, 2018 02:10
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Lawen posted:I, Cladius is one of the grandaddies of the genre and it holds up well. I read this not too long ago and wasn't impressed. Wasn't bad, but it never really went anywhere.
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Oct 14, 2018 02:18
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Meldonox posted:Can someone recommend me some good downers? I'm looking for something bleak and lonely, preferably in an everyday modern setting. I'm not good with modern settings, but if you don't mind overlooking that: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey) Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck) There Will Come Soft Rains (Ray Bradbury) If you don't mind reading about rich people problems, lots of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
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Oct 14, 2018 06:10
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Human Tornada posted:I found Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman to be extremely depressing. I was expecting a murder mystery and not a melancholy tale of lonely middle aged people leading dull lives in some dumpy Swedish forest. That's the wrong blackwater. You wanted blackwater by Michael McDowell.
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Oct 14, 2018 06:40
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Meldonox posted:Can someone recommend me some good downers? I'm looking for something bleak and lonely, preferably in an everyday modern setting. Stewart O'Nan's Songs For the Missing edit- or Last Night at the Lobster funkybottoms fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Oct 14, 2018 |
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Oct 14, 2018 12:18
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Does The Road count? It’s kinda modern
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Oct 14, 2018 13:29
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Stringent posted:The Pale King
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Oct 14, 2018 14:54
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Meldonox posted:Can someone recommend me some good downers? I'm looking for something bleak and lonely, preferably in an everyday modern setting. if you can accept that neither are really that modern: The Clown by Heinrich Böll, No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, Contempt by Moravia, The Class by Hermann Ungar if you want funny and bleak at the same time, try Satantango or just about anything Thomas Bernhard
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Oct 14, 2018 15:23
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Thanks folks! I'm making a list and checking into all this, but I think I cast a narrower net than I meant to. I probably should have been clearer about what I mean by modern, sorry about that. I was thinking modern as in not sci fi or fantasy. I'm far better read in Eastern lit than Western, so what I was considering modern probably extends back a bit farther than, say, post-WW2 or Cold War or whatever.ulvir posted:No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai I've read this before and love it and it's a good example of what I had in mind. Haruki Murakami also does what I'm looking for reasonably well. I know there's a fair bit of magical realism involved most of the time, but it kinda hits the nail on the head when he's writing about dudes in their thirties dealing with ennui and detachment.
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Oct 14, 2018 16:02
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I'm looking for a particular type of horror, where it starts off fairly by the numbers (and doesn't even have to be horror) but turns into insanity, where the narration of the novel or even its structure are thrown into chaos. Not sure how to better describe it. Stephen King's story 1408 is an ok example, where the narrator is so infected by the room that his stream of consciousness becomes increasingly unhinged. I feel like a lot of meta-fictional horror may fall into this category but it's certainly not a requirement and though I think House of Leaves will be recommended I don't think it's a precise fit. Essentially, a book that starts off more or less normally and eventually you're saying "wtf is going on this feels insane". A movie equivalent might be In the Mouth of Madness, Lost Highway, or especially Inland Empire.
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Oct 15, 2018 03:41
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regulargonzalez posted:I'm looking for a particular type of horror, where it starts off fairly by the numbers (and doesn't even have to be horror) but turns into insanity, where the narration of the novel or even its structure are thrown into chaos. Not sure how to better describe it. Stephen King's story 1408 is an ok example, where the narrator is so infected by the room that his stream of consciousness becomes increasingly unhinged. I feel like a lot of meta-fictional horror may fall into this category but it's certainly not a requirement and though I think House of Leaves will be recommended I don't think it's a precise fit. Essentially, a book that starts off more or less normally and eventually you're saying "wtf is going on this feels insane". Possibly The Library at Mount Char, though it doesn't get explicitly metafictional, just massively off the rails.
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Oct 15, 2018 03:48
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regulargonzalez posted:I'm looking for a particular type of horror, where it starts off fairly by the numbers (and doesn't even have to be horror) but turns into insanity, where the narration of the novel or even its structure are thrown into chaos. Not sure how to better describe it. Stephen King's story 1408 is an ok example, where the narrator is so infected by the room that his stream of consciousness becomes increasingly unhinged. I feel like a lot of meta-fictional horror may fall into this category but it's certainly not a requirement and though I think House of Leaves will be recommended I don't think it's a precise fit. Essentially, a book that starts off more or less normally and eventually you're saying "wtf is going on this feels insane". you've watched the cabin in the woods, right
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Oct 15, 2018 03:49
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chernobyl kinsman posted:you've watched the cabin in the woods, right That’s what I was thinking of, that movie is so good when you go in blind.
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Oct 15, 2018 04:47
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Meldonox posted:Can someone recommend me some good downers? I'm looking for something bleak and lonely, preferably in an everyday modern setting.
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Oct 16, 2018 05:25
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Do you know of any good books that end as a different kind of story than what they started as, either gradually or through a swerve?
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Oct 16, 2018 05:42
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Solitair posted:Do you know of any good books that end as a different kind of story than what they started as, either gradually or through a swerve?
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Oct 16, 2018 06:19
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What’re some good books on the CIA? It could include info about its founding, history, organization etc. But I am particularly interested in its activities in foreign countries. I was given a copy of Legacy of Ashes, but it’s quite a long read at 700+ pages and would like to know if it’s worth it and still relevant, considering it was published over ten years ago.
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Oct 16, 2018 20:19
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I enjoyed Shadow Warrior by Randall Woods, but these sort of books are well outside my usual fare so I don't know with what regard serious intelligence historians view it.
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Oct 16, 2018 20:52
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Ornamented Death posted:I enjoyed Shadow Warrior by Randall Woods, but these sort of books are well outside my usual fare so I don't know with what regard serious intelligence historians view it. For a second I thought you were referring to Rogue Warrior and got very concerned
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Oct 16, 2018 21:02
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Solitair posted:Do you know of any good books that end as a different kind of story than what they started as, either gradually or through a swerve? Ubik by Philip K. Dick
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Oct 17, 2018 01:17
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Kevin DuBrow posted:What’re some good books on the CIA? It could include info about its founding, history, organization etc. But I am particularly interested in its activities in foreign countries. I was given a copy of Legacy of Ashes, but it’s quite a long read at 700+ pages and would like to know if it’s worth it and still relevant, considering it was published over ten years ago. killing hope by william blum
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Oct 17, 2018 02:28
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Solitair posted:Do you know of any good books that end as a different kind of story than what they started as, either gradually or through a swerve? Lanark by Alaisdair Grey and The Green Child by Herbert Read.
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Oct 17, 2018 03:01
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Solitair posted:Do you know of any good books that end as a different kind of story than what they started as, either gradually or through a swerve? I suppose Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler is one of the more extreme examples
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Oct 17, 2018 04:17
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Mover posted:I suppose Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler is one of the more extreme examples Solitair posted:Do you know of any good books that end as a different kind of story than what they started as, either gradually or through a swerve? minidracula posted:The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
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Oct 17, 2018 05:27
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Well, poo poo, I've run out of my queue of sci fi. Recently, I read: House of Suns (pretty good), Dragon's Egg (very good), A World Out of Time (good, but obviously dated), All Systems Red (surprisingly good), Use of Weapons (maybe good as a book but poo poo as an audiobook), The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (poo poo, I actually stopped reading this one because life is too short). I'm looking for good hard SF, FTL and dumb dogfighty space battles are pretty much right out for me. I loved Chasing Ice, Children of Time, and Rendezvous With Rama, among others. Any ideas?
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Oct 19, 2018 22:42
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There are three novella sequels to All Systems Red and they're all as good or better. They're priced as novels for novella length though. I love murderbot so much, want to hug murderbot, but cannot hug murderbot because I respect murderbot's choices
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Oct 19, 2018 22:49
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tuyop posted:Well, poo poo, I've run out of my queue of sci fi. You might enjoy Robert Charles Wilson's Spin and its sequels.
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Oct 20, 2018 00:05
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tuyop posted:Well, poo poo, I've run out of my queue of sci fi. The audio book for Player of Games is quite good.
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Oct 20, 2018 04:28
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I’ll give those a go, thanks!
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Oct 20, 2018 11:10
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