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Looking for a book where a pawn shop owner is feeding books to demonic dogs that he keeps and there is one character who is buying up the books in town to save them.
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Jul 29, 2009 05:44
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Incitatus posted:Looking for a book where a pawn shop owner is feeding books to demonic dogs that he keeps and there is one character who is buying up the books in town to save them. For a second I thought this was the recommendation thread and was all, drat, that's pretty specific.
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Jul 29, 2009 16:31
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Adam Bowen posted:I've been trying to remember the name of a short story I read in high school and I just can't figure it out. I remember that this scientist builds a machine of some sort and points it at some object in the sky which causes the machine to give out this sound or some other emanation that makes people insanely euphoric. So euphoric that they cease eating or doing anything else and basically will just listen to it until they die. Somehow the inventor escapes the machine and goes to congress or some other political body to try to stop the machine from being mass-produced but the person trying to market them turns on the machine and dooms everybody I guess. That's a Kurt Vonnegut story called The Euphio Question. It's in the Welcome to the Monkey House collection. dee eight fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Jul 29, 2009 |
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Jul 29, 2009 17:55
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I remember a short story from high school that was in one of those Little Bit of Everything lit readers. It was a post-apocalyptic story about a guy who safeguarded his collection of books and vinyl and would share it with other scavengers every night. I think it ended with some guy beating him to death with a pipe.
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Aug 1, 2009 05:50
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ImJasonH posted:I vaguely remember a short story (or maybe it was a short film?) that focused around the night-time murders of some people in San Francisco (or somewhere else?). Before they were killed they always heard a loud rhythmic crash coming down the street, and it turned out that someone was dropping a bowling ball down the street from the top of the hill, killing people below. For the record I found out what this was, after some more searching. It's one of the short stories from Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk. Anyway, carry on!
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Aug 3, 2009 17:25
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This is a story I remember from the long ago days of 5 grade English class. Basically the plot goes that there is a supercomputer that is running an allied space war. But the scientist in charge of the computer doesn't trust it so he takes the results the machine gets and replaces them with new results he makes up by flipping a coin.
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Aug 3, 2009 22:19
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urger posted:This is a story I remember from the long ago days of 5 grade English class. It's an Asimov short story. Couldn't tell you which one though. Ninja edit: I lied, it's The Machine that Won the War
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Aug 4, 2009 00:01
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:I remember a short story from high school that was in one of those Little Bit of Everything lit readers. It was a post-apocalyptic story about a guy who safeguarded his collection of books and vinyl and would share it with other scavengers every night. I think it ended with some guy beating him to death with a pipe. Sounds a bit like "The Visitor", from Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. From Wikipedia, "This story takes place on Mars, which is used as a quarantine for people with deadly illnesses. One day, the planet is visited by a young man of eighteen who has the ability to perform thought transference and telepathy. The exiles on the planet are thrilled with his ability and a violent fight breaks out over who will get to spend the most time with their visitor and enjoy the illusionary paradises he can transmit. In the struggle, the young man is killed and the escape he provided is lost forever." While it doesn't quite match your description, it's seems close enough that it might be your vaguely remembered short. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Aug 4, 2009 |
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Aug 4, 2009 02:44
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Been occasionally seeking this book out over the years. Read it when I was around 9 or 10, so 1991-92. Horror book, the author was popular back then, I remember waiting a couple weeks to get the book. There's possession (demonic perhaps), a possessed house, a young student and maybe an older professor. it was a friend of the student that was possessed. I wish I had more details. I remember the book creeping me out. Want to figure out who the author is. Like I said, popular kids author, late 80s- early 90s. not rl stine goddammit.
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Aug 4, 2009 08:30
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Looking for a YA book I read probably five or so years ago. It was about either aliens or some sort of parasite that would give people a cyst, and then after some amount of time they would believe that the real world was a dream and would act as such, e.g. a boy jumped out of a second story window and died because he thought he could fly, or a girl that walked around her high school naked (she said things like "it's okay, it's just a dream" to the people that were freaking out. I think another person thought they were covered in bugs (nightmare) and ran into oncoming traffic on a busy road. There also might've been some sort of scene near the beginning or middle of the book where the main character was hallucinating from the main parasite/alien thing and thought she was in an elf kingdom and had this great feast and the king wanted to adopt her or something, but one of his daughters was being really passive aggressive and then after eating she confronted the daughter who then became hostile and turned out to be the alien/parasite. Or maybe that's an entirely different book and I just added in the "turned out to be the alien/parasite part" because I remembered it at the same time, I don't know! v  v
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Aug 4, 2009 09:17
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Found this image online a few days ago. I curious as to where it's from, I thought someone here might recognize it. I've searched Google Books and A9. I'm hoping it's from a book, but I suppose it could be from a newspaper, the column width is very short. If it is I'm out of luck I guess.
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Aug 5, 2009 04:14
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I'm looking for a reference; something about a certain number of anonymous men who, unbeknownst to all, carry the world on their backs, never receiving any recognition, but if they were to give up the world would end. Maybe some old Jewish story, something from the Talmud? Maybe something Neil Gaiman said? Sorry for being so vague.
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Aug 5, 2009 04:51
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Maha posted:I'm looking for a reference; something about a certain number of anonymous men who, unbeknownst to all, carry the world on their backs, never receiving any recognition, but if they were to give up the world would end. Maybe some old Jewish story, something from the Talmud? Maybe something Neil Gaiman said? Sorry for being so vague. You're probably thinking of the Lamed Vav (two letters in Hebrew that represent the number 36). It's a Jewish legend that says there are 36 men born in each generation who bear the sins of mankind on their shoulders.
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Aug 5, 2009 05:03
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Encryptic posted:You're probably thinking of the Lamed Vav (two letters in Hebrew that represent the number 36). It's a Jewish legend that says there are 36 men born in each generation who bear the sins of mankind on their shoulders. I think that's exactly it, I googled around and Gaiman mentions the "36 Tzaddikim" in The Sandman, "Three Septembers and a January". drat, that was fast. Thanks!
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Aug 5, 2009 05:13
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Trying to recall thid story my class in like 5th grade read about this girl who has no family outside of her father, and wonders why she doesn't have a TV or anythinh until her father breaks down and explains that he was AMish and exiled from his villiage when he married her mother. She writes her maternal grandmother, who threatens to take her away and I think she decides to stay. It was lovely but it bugs me. There's another story too about this girl who is convinced that her dad died fighting a fire but really he just suffered horrible burns and shot himself out of grief. After she realizes this she goes a bit psycho and starts cutting off her hair. As I recall it all happened in the deep south, too. The other class got to read The Giver, Oh, well.
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Aug 5, 2009 06:28
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This is an extremely specific request but I'm hopeful someone can help me out. I remember a short story from READ magazine (freebie "literary" mag given to middle and grade schools) that I read around '91. It was essentially the 1970 Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button", which was then made into a mid-Eighties Twilight Zone episode, also called "Button, Button" and is now being made as the new Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko guy) film "The Box". I'm basically trying to figure out if the version that was in READ magazine was the full, unabridged Matheson short story or if it was a re-write that was used in the mag. If the latter, I'd really like to find a copy of the re-write. READ mag's website doesn't seem to offer archives unless you're a teacher and Google has failed me. Can anyone help out?
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Aug 5, 2009 15:35
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screwtape posted:Been occasionally seeking this book out over the years. Read it when I was around 9 or 10, so 1991-92. Horror book, the author was popular back then, I remember waiting a couple weeks to get the book. There's possession (demonic perhaps), a possessed house, a young student and maybe an older professor. it was a friend of the student that was possessed. John Bellairs! I can't remember which one that is specifically, but it's one of the Johnny Dixon novels, possibly The Spell of the Sorceror's Skull or The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost.
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Aug 5, 2009 16:54
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Ballsworthy posted:John Bellairs! I can't remember which one that is specifically, but it's one of the Johnny Dixon novels, possibly The Spell of the Sorceror's Skull or The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost. Sounds like it's probably The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost. That was the one where Johnny gets possessed by Warren Windrow's ghost. The professor and Fergie go to the old Windrow estate to find something to drive the ghost out. Sorcerer's Skull was the one where the professor disappears and Fergie, Johnny and Father Higgins have to go find him, IIRC.
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Aug 5, 2009 23:42
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This was a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called. All I remember is that there was some guy who got carried to the moon on thousands of cats  I'm sure there's someone here who remembers it.
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Aug 6, 2009 14:42
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The foster posted:This was a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called. All I remember is that there was some guy who got carried to the moon on thousands of cats Pretty sure this is Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.
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Aug 6, 2009 14:47
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I'm looking for information on a series of 3 books I read about 15 years ago. It was a sci fi series set in the near future, where the 3 super-powers on earth at the time (US, Communist Brazil, and maybe Russia or China) discover FTL travel, and the US builds a big colony ship that has to cruise outside the solar system before engaging its FTL drive. It eventually gets to a colonizable planet, but it's got some bio-warfare bug on it, and it destroys a small lander, and they settle on another planet nearby. The planet already has some big bug folks on it, and they inevitably clash. There's also brief snippets about the other ships built by the other 3 powers. The US then has a private group build another colony ship to follow the first one, only it's much smaller because they discover they can use the FTL drive within the solar system. I remember all that detail, but can't remember who the author was or what the heck the books were called... and googling for the above details doesn't reveal anything useful.
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Aug 6, 2009 22:07
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Dioscuri posted:There's another story too about this girl who is convinced that her dad died fighting a fire but really he just suffered horrible burns and shot himself out of grief. After she realizes this she goes a bit psycho and starts cutting off her hair. As I recall it all happened in the deep south, too. This one is "Belle Prater's Boy"
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Aug 6, 2009 22:53
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I'm trying to remember a short story/prose poem about two brothers growing up. I believe it was called "Boys". It follows them from birth until their father dies. Its ending line is something like "They crossed the threshold Boys and came back Men". I'm around 95% sure about the title but google only brings up the Hardy boys and some other story called "Two boys", so I really need the author more than anything.
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Aug 7, 2009 18:51
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Many moons ago, a friend lent me a book and I was so horrified by the first few chapters that I threw it away, told him I lost it, and gave him the cover price. Now I can't remember what the book was called, and would dearly like to be able to see whether it's as vile as I remember. I believe the story involved a soldier in Vietnam[?] being transported into a magical kingdom where he almost immediately rapes an elf. That's as far as I got--anyone know what I'm talking about?
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Aug 7, 2009 22:14
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Susan B. Antimony posted:Many moons ago, a friend lent me a book and I was so horrified by the first few chapters that I threw it away, told him I lost it, and gave him the cover price. Now I can't remember what the book was called, and would dearly like to be able to see whether it's as vile as I remember. I believe the story involved a soldier in Vietnam[?] being transported into a magical kingdom where he almost immediately rapes an elf. That's as far as I got--anyone know what I'm talking about?
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Aug 7, 2009 23:22
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Naw, I've read the Covenant books [and hated them]--that wasn't it. Definitely elf, definitely soldier in warzone: probably Vietnam, but possibly Korea. That era. Thanks for taking a shot, tho.
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Aug 8, 2009 00:21
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I want to remember a book I read in the 8th grade, its about a rich guy dying and he holds a contest to see who gets his estate, and then some kid wins it through some weird means, and then it turns out the butler character or something was the rich guy all along, and he tries some shady things. Its something about a mansion or something....God I don't remember too many details but I wish I knew what it was...
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Aug 11, 2009 01:53
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That's The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin. It was one of my favorites as a kid.
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Aug 11, 2009 02:28
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I'm looking for a science fiction novel or possibly a short story about a group of apes who inherit knowledge through heredity. The novel was described to me by my grade eight English teacher, I think he mentioned something about how the brains of these apes eventually could not hold any useful or productive information after a few generations and the apes became extinct. The teacher (one Mr. Raymond) was a genius, so it wouldn't astonish me if the novel was obscure as all hell.
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Aug 11, 2009 22:59
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There's this children's book I remember reading (or having read to me) as a child and for some reason I've often thought back to it, wondering what it was. I think it was about a group of kids who find an entrance to some fantastic land with magical creatures or whatever, and the biggest thing I remember about it was how they got there: I think it was by planting some sort of nuts or seeds. Also, I think if you ever left the magical land then you could never return? At the end of the story I think the kids bury a bag of the magic nuts somewhere and the area gets paved over. Does anyone have any idea what this book is?
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Aug 11, 2009 23:07
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There are a couple of stories I read as a child that I can't remember the title of. The first one was about a boy and a girl who lived with their (aunt? grandma?) who didn't treat them very well. Their school had a trip to the seaside and because she wouldn't let them go, they secretly saved the money to go themselves. When their grandma/aunt/whatever found out she was really annoyed, I think she might have beaten them or something. They ended up running away to this huge hollow tree they had found in the woods and played in sometimes. They snuck out during the night with all their possessions and ended up living inside it whilst one of their richer friends helped them by bringing supplies, until one day she got lost in the woods in the rain whilst trying to find the tree and became really ill. (Edit: this was Hollow Tree House by Enid Blyton) The other one, I can't remember as much about it...it was in some kind of garden and I think the character might have been shrunk down somehow because everying seemed to be giant. They used some kind of flower as a plate and used a pencil sharpener to get shavings off a huge nut to eat. I think he was attacked by a giant bird as well. Does anyone have any idea what I'm talking about? Monkey Trouble fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Aug 15, 2009 |
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Aug 15, 2009 13:36
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I'm looking for the author of a series of books that were in the fighting-fantasty/choose your own adventure style; but the type you played with a pencil and dice in addition to trying to hold open the book on seven different pages so you didn't die. For clarification, it wasn't the fighting-fantasy series, or the lone-wolf series. It was typical fantasy fare - swords and monsters and medieval towns et al; the aspects that distinguished this series were the following: * Roughly A4-landscape layout, with 2 columns per page. Columns/pages were broken up into numbered 'sections' that acted as guides for your decisions - for example "if you go east, turn to section 18; to go north, turn to section 134". * Black and white sketches/illustrations throughout the pages/columns. * Each book in the series represented a region in the gameworld - and you could move between books if you hit the border - this allowed for one long play-through if you had all the books (I think there was something like four or six in total?). This was the big difference - the books all linked together and you could travel back and forth between them; because of this I can't remember if there was actually a main "quest" or not - it was basically a sandbox choose your own adventure. Anyhow, it was great fun - and I'd love to track the series down again. Thanks!
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Aug 21, 2009 09:57
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If all else fails you could have a look through http://www.gamebooks.org/show_language.php?id=1 and see if any names ring a bell.
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Aug 21, 2009 11:21
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buildmorefarms posted:I'm looking for the author of a series of books that were in the fighting-fantasty/choose your own adventure style; but the type you played with a pencil and dice in addition to trying to hold open the book on seven different pages so you didn't die. For clarification, it wasn't the fighting-fantasy series, or the lone-wolf series. Fabled Lands. It's pretty much the only CYOA series I enjoyed. There's a Fabled Lands yahoo group, a program that contains all the published books and a Let's Play thread on SA.
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Aug 21, 2009 20:08
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Incredible! I actually picked the name out of the list, but hadn't stumbled across the program yet; thank you both - time to revisit my childhood 
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Aug 22, 2009 02:27
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These are two childrens books i read up to about 25 years ago. The first one was a story about these mechanicaly endowed peoples whos huts looked like baba yoga's hut, but with a mechanical bent, and on much taller stilt-like legs. the second book i vaguely remember was a city that was slowly being filled with different sized orange colored balls, and crowding them out. Bleh. I remember reading through both books really quickly and not thinking very much of them, but i can't remember the details of either of them.
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Aug 26, 2009 20:57
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Monocular posted:There's this children's book I remember reading (or having read to me) as a child and for some reason I've often thought back to it, wondering what it was. I think it was about a group of kids who find an entrance to some fantastic land with magical creatures or whatever, and the biggest thing I remember about it was how they got there: I think it was by planting some sort of nuts or seeds. Also, I think if you ever left the magical land then you could never return? At the end of the story I think the kids bury a bag of the magic nuts somewhere and the area gets paved over. Does anyone have any idea what this book is? Could it be The Faraway Tree? I actually only know of it from reading V for Vendetta, but it sounds similar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faraway_Tree
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Aug 26, 2009 21:13
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Also on the children's book kick: A story about a lonely Aardvark or Armadillo or A-oriented creature who finds an insanely rare coin on the street one day. He manages to parlay this into fabulous wealth and eventually the presidency of the United States, all the while on a quest for true companionship. The book ends with him alone in the oval office, reading a letter that asks, "What's it like to have the loneliest job in the world?"
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Aug 26, 2009 21:24
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fahrvergnugen posted:Also on the children's book kick: A story about a lonely Aardvark or Armadillo or A-oriented creature who finds an insanely rare coin on the street one day. He manages to parlay this into fabulous wealth and eventually the presidency of the United States, all the while on a quest for true companionship. The book ends with him alone in the oval office, reading a letter that asks, "What's it like to have the loneliest job in the world?" I have this book, It's "J.D. Polson and the liberty head dime" by Micheal Bond (the Paddington Bear guy) http://www.amazon.com/J-Polson-Liberty-Head-Dime/dp/0706413814/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251336918&sr=1-4
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Aug 27, 2009 02:36
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yaffle posted:I have this book, It's "J.D. Polson and the liberty head dime" by Micheal Bond (the Paddington Bear guy) That is definitely it. You are a hero!
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Aug 27, 2009 06:57
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