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Comfy Fleece Sweater posted:Anyone know good/entertaining book podcasts or YouTubes? I really like the Sean McTiernan podcasting universe and he's been doing a great Science Fiction podcast focused on more obscure books called SF Ultra https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sfultra/id1241776225 His patreon episodes on True Crime books and queer fiction are great as well
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Aug 30, 2023 08:58
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Sean McTiernan’s good stuff, it’s fun to see someone come to Delaney (and be extremely passionate about Delaney) through his autobiographical gay fiction rather than his science fiction. I quite enjoyed the Canonical podcast, though they stopped rather abruptly a while back. It had a nice themed approach, like here’s a short series on contemporary Korean fiction, on utopian books, on postmodern books from the South, on campus novels, etc. They always have them the time and detail they deserved. Death//Sentence and Spine Crackers are fun too, if less detailed in some ways.
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Aug 31, 2023 04:50
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I mismanaged my Libby queue and now I’m stuck without a book and everything is multiple weeks until available  Also, I’m ashamed to admit this but the gamification on the Kindle app is very effective on me. I’ve read 24 books this year and number go up has been effective at keeping me reading. (FWIW many of those were Murderbot books which are very short and very quick reads)
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Sep 1, 2023 18:24
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Awkward Davies posted:I mismanaged my Libby queue and now I’m stuck without a book and everything is multiple weeks until available Archive.org has a library system, you can borrow books from there
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Sep 1, 2023 18:28
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StrixNebulosa posted:Archive.org has a library system, you can borrow books from there Oh hell yeah, didn’t know that. Thank you!
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Sep 1, 2023 18:32
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Awkward Davies posted:Also, I’m ashamed to admit this but the gamification on the Kindle app is very effective on me. I’ve read 24 books this year and number go up has been effective at keeping me reading. when i first signed up on goodreads some 10 years ago i set a challenge at 25 books, but then i kept reupping it and ended up reading 60 books in that year. got about 25 books into the second year and then i stopped using any kind of book tracking software since i actually liked registering my stuff but the gamification just entirely hit the wrong spot and now i get annoyed just by search engines suggesting the site lol be careful i guess
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Sep 1, 2023 18:55
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Carthag Tuek posted:when i first signed up on goodreads some 10 years ago i set a challenge at 25 books, but then i kept reupping it and ended up reading 60 books in that year. got about 25 books into the second year and then i stopped using any kind of book tracking software since I did something similar to that, failed a "read 100 books in a year" challenge and got mad, so what I do now is set the challenge to 10 books every year and see if I can beat that and by how much. This year I've read 14 books  ps if you ever need to really game this thing, read (or reread) the Animorph series
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Sep 1, 2023 19:05
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lol now i use ibooks/books.app which notoriously resets everything once in a while so i honestly have no idea. as a guess im gonna say i read around 25-30 books a year? its annoying when i want to look up a thing like "that quote from the book with the other thing i read i think last summer?", but ultimately its kind of liberating to not really have that info
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Sep 1, 2023 19:30
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Yeah I understand that the pursuit of higher numbers can result in bad things. One aspect I like about it right now is that it motivates me to pick up a new book after finishing one. However, one thing I’ve noticed is that it does make it harder to dig into big complicated books. For example, I started the Dawn of Humanity by David’s Graeber and Wengrow in the beginning of the year and then got stuck a little over half way through. I’ve got 250 ish pages to go and it’s going to be a heavy lift. I want to finish it, but I also could go off and read another five Inspector Montalbano mystery novels in the same amount of time, and then number go up. My goal for the year is 26 books so I should probably just finish Dawn of Humanity.
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Sep 1, 2023 19:39
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i set my goodreads to one (1) book a year so i get the confetti and the congratulations messages and other gameified rewards but also feel like i'm getting away with a minor computer crime, which feels good as well
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Sep 1, 2023 19:40
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Awkward Davies posted:However, one thing I’ve noticed is that it does make it harder to dig into big complicated books. For example, I started the Dawn of Humanity by David’s Graeber and Wengrow in the beginning of the year and then got stuck a little over half way through. I’ve got 250 ish pages to go and it’s going to be a heavy lift. I want to finish it, but I also could go off and read another five Inspector Montalbano mystery novels in the same amount of time, and then number go up. i say give it an honest go but taking breaks is fine, reading shouldnt be a chore. theres no shame in putting a book aside and trying it again later. the first time i tried alexievich it was a danish translation that didnt work for me. a couple years later i read the english translation and loved it. possibly because its so intense that it needs to be a foreign language for me to stand it? idk but im glad i waited for the right circumstance
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Sep 1, 2023 21:42
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Tree Goat posted:i set my goodreads to one (1) book a year so i get the confetti and the congratulations messages and other gameified rewards but also feel like i'm getting away with a minor computer crime, which feels good as well Goodreads agent reading this: Captain, we found him! Dispatch GoodSWAT team now now now I also failed the 100 books challenge lol, I can do it but I’d have to give up movies and video games, or internet browsing, so that’s a no
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Sep 2, 2023 19:50
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Mr. Difficult is a funny podcast about Jonathan Franzen. The hosts, who are relatively young NYC literary figures, read and discuss every book by Jonathan Franzen, with guests. The premise is that Jonathan Franzen is a good and even important writer, but also bad and annoying in various ways. They have been threatening a follow-up focused on David Foster Wallace for a year now.
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Sep 2, 2023 21:42
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Tree Goat posted:i set my goodreads to one (1) book a year so i get the confetti and the congratulations messages and other gameified rewards but also feel like i'm getting away with a minor computer crime, which feels good as well inspired by you saying this last year this year I set mine to 5, much less psychologically demanding to have it done early for sure
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Sep 2, 2023 21:51
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That essay is one of the worst things I've ever read. I even partially agree with him regarding JR, but his case is so poorly constructed you lose all sympathy with him before you even get to his point.
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Sep 2, 2023 21:53
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I tried setting reading challenges years ago, but it didn't really do anything for me, so I stopped. I do still like keeping track of what I read, though, and being able to look at long-term trends in amount read, genre mix, favourite authors, etc. I do all of that offline, though. I did prefer the old Booklord Challenge ones that were prompts to read specific books/authors/genres/styles, or more generally things that encouraged mixing up your reading some, rather than just "read X books in Y time", but in the end I decided I didn't enjoy either.
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Sep 2, 2023 23:19
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Is Goodreads broken for anyone else. I was looking at political books and half of the books that I was recommended where vampire romance novels. I like a romance novel as much as the next person but while I’m looking for politics. This will be the first year I won’t make my Goodreads challenge as I got stuck on a couple of lovely books. I did break 1000 books in 9 years this year however.
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Sep 3, 2023 22:41
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I've switched over to Storygraph to track my reading, and I like it a lot more than Goodreads. I don't use it for much more than just tracking what I've read, but the graphs and suchlike are pretty neat.
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Sep 3, 2023 22:57
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I can't imagine trying to use Goodreads to find a book to read, their recommendations are either horrible, pushing anything that has the same or similar title or author rather than any actual connection to anything, or other editions of works you've already read, I can assure you my first inclination on finishing The Red and The Black was not to read the same tale told again but translated differently.
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Sep 4, 2023 03:37
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I use the site to see the reads of the few dozen people whose taste I find interesting.
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Sep 4, 2023 03:44
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cptn_dr posted:I've switched over to Storygraph to track my reading, and I like it a lot more than Goodreads. I don't use it for much more than just tracking what I've read, but the graphs and suchlike are pretty neat. Yeah I started using Storygraph this year, and it's great to just track what you read. I also really like the graphs. The recommendation function actually managed to recommend a couple books that I've really enjoyed, which is a surprising bonus.
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Sep 4, 2023 09:34
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it's great that the social aspect on storygraph is really toned down from what goodreads are doing, and at the same time you still have all the nonsensical 1 star reviews of classics to lol at if you want
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Sep 4, 2023 14:39
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Where do you guys get recommendations for new books? Specifically new non-fiction books, could be about any topic. I remember the Economist having a good selection, but that was like decades ago that I checked.
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Sep 6, 2023 14:18
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busalover posted:Where do you guys get recommendations for new books? Specifically new non-fiction books, could be about any topic. I remember the Economist having a good selection, but that was like decades ago that I checked. Here, in the history book thread.
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Sep 6, 2023 16:02
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On the subject of history books, what are some books that would be recommended if I wanted to just generally improve my knowledge of history, assuming most of what I know is based on vague recollections of poorly taught high school history classes? I'd be happy with books on specific subjects, I'm just looking for what would be the "everybody should read this/know these things" kind of history books.
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Sep 6, 2023 19:14
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MockingQuantum posted:On the subject of history books, what are some books that would be recommended if I wanted to just generally improve my knowledge of history, assuming most of what I know is based on vague recollections of poorly taught high school history classes? I'd be happy with books on specific subjects, I'm just looking for what would be the "everybody should read this/know these things" kind of history books. The Evans Third Reich trilogy If you want to really know what nazism was, how it took over the entire German society and did everything it did. Adam Tooze’s The Wages of Destruction to learn how the Nazi economy was not even close to the usual myths of Hitler giving jobs to everyone and putting a car in every garage etc. Eric Hobsbawm’s Ages tetralogy to cover the 1798-1990 era that gave us the modern world. Both Evans and Hobsbawm are also very good writers, so reading them is a joy. The Best and the Brightest to understand why America bungled Vietnam, A Bright Shining Lie to understand how they did it. The Great War for Civilization: the Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk for all your middle eastern needs. These are some of my all time favorites. Let us know if you want something more specific based on period or area.
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Sep 6, 2023 19:54
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:The Evans Third Reich trilogy If you want to really know what nazism was, how it took over the entire German society and did everything it did. Adam Tooze’s The Wages of Destruction to learn how the Nazi economy was not even close to the usual myths of Hitler giving jobs to everyone and putting a car in every garage etc. These are great, thank you! I don't have any particular goal with this, my thought was to start with books that are generally recommended as just good reads, and kind of follow where that leads me as I inevitably encounter something that makes me think "oh hey I'd like to know more about that too" I think the only specific subjects I would like to hit at some point are: -General US history (though I have Howard Zinn's A People's History of the US which seems to be generally recommended) -The Roman empire -Japanese history (especially around the Sengoku era) -Chinese history, though I know nothing at all about it so I don't have a specific era in mind -General European history (kind of anything, but in particular the exploration age, the Napoleonic era, French Revolution era though not exclusively French history, and whatever you'd call Shakespeare's era up until the French Revolution)
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Sep 6, 2023 20:10
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I think at some point we should do a book bracket or ranking because sometimes I see a "greatest books of so-and-so decade" list and it bums me out
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Sep 6, 2023 20:55
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Doc Fission posted:I think at some point we should do a book bracket or ranking because sometimes I see a "greatest books of so-and-so decade" list and it bums me out https://thegreatestbooks.org/ 1 . In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust <--- never heard of it 2 . Ulysses by James Joyce <---- tried reading it once, not for me 3 . Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes <---- OK valid this one can stay 4 . One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez <----- haven't read 5 . The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald <------ I will invent a time machine to go back to fitzgerald and stop him from writing this to save me from the most interminably boring high school semester (followed by preventing mark twain from writing huck finn. he may write everything else but not that one)
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Sep 6, 2023 20:58
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That said if we did do a book barn-wide "greatest books" I'd be honestly curious about the spread of sci-fi/fantasy vs fiction vs history novels vs the aubrey-maturin brigade. Goons have varied tastes but they fuckin' love boat books.
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Sep 6, 2023 21:03
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By Duverger's Law, a majoritarian book election will inevitably diverge into a two party system of SFF vs Boats
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Sep 6, 2023 21:06
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StrixNebulosa posted:https://thegreatestbooks.org/ Great Gatsby is pretty good, just read it a couple years ago. Holds up well? 100 years of solitude fuckin sucks imo The rest I haven’t read, but definitely heard about. probably essential books for “serious readers” whatever that means
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Sep 6, 2023 21:15
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Comfy Fleece Sweater posted:Great Gatsby is pretty good, just read it a couple years ago. Holds up well? I honestly might like Gatsby now, I'm down for reading about a bunch of people in the 1920s struggling with life... but boy o boy high school me did not appreciate it at all. 
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Sep 6, 2023 21:27
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StrixNebulosa posted:I honestly might like Gatsby now, I'm down for reading about a bunch of people in the 1920s struggling with life... but boy o boy high school me did not appreciate it at all. if anything it's more about a bunch of people in the 1920s very much not struggling with life but convincing themselves they are
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Sep 6, 2023 21:44
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MockingQuantum posted:On the subject of history books, what are some books that would be recommended if I wanted to just generally improve my knowledge of history, assuming most of what I know is based on vague recollections of poorly taught high school history classes? I'd be happy with books on specific subjects, I'm just looking for what would be the "everybody should read this/know these things" kind of history books. Cartoon History of the Universe, parts 1-3, for the broadest and most entertaining overview.
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Sep 6, 2023 21:45
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StrixNebulosa posted:https://thegreatestbooks.org/ You probably have, it used to be called by a different translation of the title, Remembrance of Things Past.
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Sep 6, 2023 21:46
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StrixNebulosa posted:https://thegreatestbooks.org/ Let's fix this list What it should be: Remove Great Gatsby Moby Dick higher Remove Hamlet, plays aren't books Remove The Odyssey, poetry is not books Swap Madame Bovary with Sentimental Education, Bovary is more incisive, but SE is funnier and speaks more to both the unstable political times it was set and to our own times. Remove Dante, Poetry is not books Swap Lolita with Pale Fire, move Pale Fire Higher Brothers K and C&P need to be seperated because having two of an authors works together is unaesthetic. Swap Catcher in the Rye with Franny and Zooey, but keep Catcher on the list higher up. Swap Pride and Prejudice with Emma, and then remove it, boring novel Remove Huck Finn Remove Illiad, Poetry is not books Replace Catch 22 with Gravity's Rainbow Swap Sound and Fury with Absalom, Absalom!, and move it into the top ten Replace Grapes of Wrath with East of Eden Replace The Trial with The Castle and remove the rest of Kafka, too much Red and Black should be moved down on the list, I love Stendhal but he's sloppy as hell as a writer, likewise Charterhouse of Parma should be removed. Remove Jane Eyre, worst Bronte Remove Aeneid, poetry is not books Ficciones should be in the top ten Remove all Hemingway, mf cannot write for poo poo Remove Leaves of Grass, poetry is not books I feel like the Rushdie doesn't actually belong but I haven't read it so I cannot say for certain. Remove Candide, for the best of all possible lists Remove the two Sophocles, plays are not books Dead Souls should be Higher Remove Kerouac, that poo poo sucks I've never even heard of The Good Soldier, I assume it's trash Remove Animal Farm Remove Vanity Fair, seriously nobodies read this in a hundred years Remove The Waste Land, poetry is not books Journey to the End of Night should be higher Replace Slaughterhouse Five with Cat's Cradle or Breakfast of Champions Remove Charlotte's Web, what the gently caress are we even doing here Remove Paradise Lost, Poetry is not books Remove The Poetry of Emily Dickinson, not a book Faust should be much, much higher Remove Flowers of Evil, poetry is not books Remove The Decameron, the film adaption sucked Luckily they left off a bunch of better novels to make up for all the non books, and bizarre decisions in ranking. Master and Margarita, Fathers and Sons, Ada, Eugene Onegin, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich need to be added from Russia. American fiction is also woefully underrepresented. Gravity's Rainbow, Against the Day, Blood Meridian, Wise Blood, JR should be added. Maybe Libra too. They also have like zero Asian authors, throw some Mishima, Soseki, Kawabata, Three Kingdoms is a little boring despite the impact, but Water Margin should be there. Definitely more that would make it but I haven't read them.
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Sep 6, 2023 21:50
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Gasp - now you put Pride and Prejudice back!
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Sep 6, 2023 21:55
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List Gets demented the farther you go, Harry Potter is 209 and Atlas Shrugged is 212. The Stand is just below Plato's Republic at 201 and 202 respectively, and both are higher, along with Atlas Shrugged than The Book of Disquiet, Gravity's Rainbow, Steppenwolf, and Salinger's Nine Stories.
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Sep 6, 2023 22:01
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StrixNebulosa posted:I honestly might like Gatsby now, I'm down for reading about a bunch of people in the 1920s struggling with life... but boy o boy high school me did not appreciate it at all. I hated it in high school and loved it in my 20s. Not sure how it holds up, but I have a really nice letterpress copy of it so I should do a reread.
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Sep 6, 2023 22:12
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