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Can anyone recommend me some good books about baseball? I already read Moneyball from a recommendation here and loved it. I'm particularly interested in understanding sabermetrics better. I'd also enjoy just general baseball history.
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May 5, 2010 03:48
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Namirsolo posted:Can anyone recommend me some good books about baseball? I already read Moneyball from a recommendation here and loved it. I'm particularly interested in understanding sabermetrics better. I'd also enjoy just general baseball history. Bill James is the answer to your query. He is not only the "father" of sabermetrics, but a terrific writer as well. I loved "Politics of Glory" (AKA "Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame") and the "New Historical Baseball Abstract". Real baseball guys say the original historical abstract was better, but it is hard to find. There are other books I like, although none by writers as good as Bill James. As an intro to baseball analytics, I thought "Curve Ball" by Jim Albert and Jay Bennett was excellent. Similarly, Wayne Winston's "Mathletics" is a really good intro to sports analytics, focusing mostly on basketball, but aslo has large sections on baseball and football.
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May 5, 2010 04:12
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Namirsolo posted:Can anyone recommend me some good books about baseball? I already read Moneyball from a recommendation here and loved it. I'm particularly interested in understanding sabermetrics better. I'd also enjoy just general baseball history. I just posted this in the "Books you just started" thread, but Kahn's The Boys of Summer is great (so far). The focus is more on the people of the game (Kahn was the beat writer covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers of the early 1950's) but I have a hard time imagining a baseball enthusiast not enjoying this one. The prose is superb, by the way.
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May 5, 2010 04:43
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Namirsolo posted:Can anyone recommend me some good books about baseball? I already read Moneyball from a recommendation here and loved it. I'm particularly interested in understanding sabermetrics better. I'd also enjoy just general baseball history. As far as sabermetrics go, you can't go wrong with Baseball Between The Numbers. I'd also recommend Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball by Norman Macht, it's a pretty comprehensive history of the Deadball era.
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May 5, 2010 05:17
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Namirsolo posted:Can anyone recommend me some good books about baseball? I already read Moneyball from a recommendation here and loved it. I'm particularly interested in understanding sabermetrics better. I'd also enjoy just general baseball history. As Dokmo pointed out, you can't go wrong with Bill James' Abstracts for learning about sabremetrics. There's an out of print collection of his, Let's Not Eat the Bones, that's a really good sampling of his stuff from all the abstracts and assorted magazine pieces. If you can find it online, that's the one to go for. Otherwise, go for the Historical one. If you want something more conventional, you can't go wrong with David Halberstam's Summer of 49, Roger Kahn's Boys of Summer, Jim Bouton's Ball Four or Richard Ben Cramer's amazing biography on Joe DiMaggio, The Heros Life.
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May 6, 2010 03:14
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I just finished Tropic of Capricorn one year after finishing Tropic of Cancer. So I'm looking for things that are somewhat similar to Henry Miller's style of writing. It shouldn't be too similar, and maybe something with a more cohesive plot. Just something a Henry Miller fan HAS to read. It cannot be a translated novel because I'm mostly doing it to improve my own writing(I'm a bit tired so don't worry, I write better than I post).
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May 6, 2010 19:55
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I am looking for some more avante garde fiction similar to Becketts Malloy ; I have read House of Leaves and The Raw Shark texts both of which i really enjoyed.
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May 7, 2010 03:37
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King Plum the Nth posted:You might like Tom Holt or Christopher Moore. I haven't read any Holt I didn't like. Moore less so. Thanks for this  Will definitely check out both. Though I'm leaning more towards.. uhhh... Moore. I enjoyed HHG far more than DG, myself. Something about the Gently books I just didn't really like. I guess it felt a bit too tight, compared to the slight more random events of HHG, which managed to come together in the end completely effortlessly, in my eyes. On that note, has anyone read the 'new' HHG book that's just recently come out, written by Eoin Colfer?
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May 7, 2010 04:14
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Has anyone read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins? It's piqued my interest, but I'm curious as to whether it's worthwhile for ideas or if it's just a novel long rant.
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May 7, 2010 18:30
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It's pretty good. At times it does feel like a rant, but in those spots I just put it down and came back to it later. I haven't read any of his biology books but I bought The Greatest Show on Earth after reading, and enjoying the writing of, The God Delusion.
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May 7, 2010 20:26
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Boon posted:It's just a novel long rant. There are so many better books on athiesm and religion, and Dawkins obviously doesn't know his material very well. I think William James's "The Varieties of Religious Experience" is one of the best books there is on religion, and Diderot's, Voltaire's and de Sade's stuff make our "militant atheists" look like child's play.
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May 8, 2010 04:13
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ONE TWO THREE TIMES TWO TO THE SIX/JONESING FOR YOUR FIX OF THAT LIMP BIZKIT MIX
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I've read through the thread and nothing yet really captures my attention for a proper spaceship battle novel/series like Steve White's "Starfire" series with enormous capital ships and support fighter ships... I'm just finishing the series right now with Exodus and I'm looking for more similar to this. The "Bugs" and the Federation are such an awesome matchup, I'm so pissed that the series has ended at that and they're moving on in foes - at least until the next novel when I hope the Bugs have returned... Are there any awesome series' such as the Starfire/Stars At War series?
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May 8, 2010 06:34
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Buck Lodestar posted:Have you read any of Cormac McCarthy's novels? No Country for Old Men is a very accessible read and would more or less fit your particular bill. Blood Meridian is fantastic, but difficult and rather dense - not what I'd call an "entertaining" novel, but a brilliant, American classic. I'm reading Blood Meridian right now. I like it so far. I don't seem to mind its weird grammar. I've steered clear of any type of spoiler for the book so I don't know if theres revenge or anything. But if he wrote something with revenge then I'd like to know. Also, of course, any other good/great revenge books by anyone
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May 9, 2010 21:21
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Boon posted:Has anyone read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins? It's piqued my interest, but I'm curious as to whether it's worthwhile for ideas or if it's just a novel long rant. Some of it is a fairly competent exposition of the ideas behind a lot of modern atheism. A lot of it is Dawkins ranting on about politics, which is aggravating. It appears he intended the book as a sort of modern atheist manifesto: instead, it's full of political and social nonsense which has no relevance to the existence or non existence of God. He also repeats himself a lot. For all that though, it is still quite an enjoyable read.
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May 10, 2010 15:08
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Has the info in this thread been posted anywhere for non-archives people to view?
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May 11, 2010 01:35
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Klungar posted:Has the info in this thread been posted anywhere for non-archives people to view? archive.org
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May 11, 2010 03:09
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Prof_Beatnuts posted:ok i have been trying to figure out what book i want to read and i finally have decided on a western with revenge or justice as the theme. I was thinking something like the count of monte cristo but with guns and in texas. Or if there arent any good books like that, then book equivalents of sergio leone films like once upon a time in the old west, or for a few dollars more, etc. Have you read Brules by Harry Combs?
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May 11, 2010 14:55
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thecallahan posted:Have you read Brules by Harry Combs? no but i will for sure. looks awesome.
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May 11, 2010 19:18
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Please recommend me some good that involve road trips around the US, preferably through small towns, deserts, etc. I just dig that sort of thing. For instance, I really liked all the traveling through various towns and roadside attractions that went on in American Gods.
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May 11, 2010 19:36
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Bonus posted:Please recommend me some good that involve road trips around the US, preferably through small towns, deserts, etc. I just dig that sort of thing. For instance, I really liked all the traveling through various towns and roadside attractions that went on in American Gods. I enjoyed Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent. It's pretty much what you're describing, a road trip through American small towns and backwaters. It's pretty funny, too.
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May 11, 2010 19:43
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Bonus posted:Please recommend me some good that involve road trips around the US, preferably through small towns, deserts, etc. I just dig that sort of thing. For instance, I really liked all the traveling through various towns and roadside attractions that went on in American Gods. It's not exactly what you're looking for, but I'd recommend US Guys by Charlie LeDuff. There's no actual travelling but the author does visit a lot of small towns and what you could call roadside attractions, mostly in middle America. LeDuff is basically looking at different people's perception of manliness. He hangs out with a Detroit cop, some Little Big Horn reenactors, and a biker gang, among others. It's pretty interesting, and though it sounds like you really want the travel aspect I still think it would be worth checking out.
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May 11, 2010 20:11
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I'll check those two out, thanks! Any more suggestions are also welcome. It doesn't really have to have traveling, I guess I'm just looking for books with that sort of American atmosphere.
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May 12, 2010 00:19
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Bonus posted:I'll check those two out, thanks! Any more suggestions are also welcome. It doesn't really have to have traveling, I guess I'm just looking for books with that sort of American atmosphere. On the Road is not only about travelling and American atmosphere (The West, at least) it's a great novel too. A lot of people say it'll change your life, which is a funny way to read it, but it definitely captures the spirit of the west the way Kerouac intended to.
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May 12, 2010 03:25
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I'm a big fan of books in the vein of Blink, The Tipping Point, and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow, and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. I suppose it's mathematical, statistical, economical non-fiction. Does anyone have anything interesting on their bookshelf that is in the line of these?
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May 12, 2010 05:04
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Teddybear posted:I suppose it's mathematical, statistical, economical non-fiction. Does anyone have anything interesting on their bookshelf that is in the line of these? Yes. Yes I do. Numbers Rule Your World SJ Gould's Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin Once Upon a Number Moneyball Gerd Gigerenzer's Gut Feelings And my personal fave, Gilovich's How we know what isn't so And this one is a little different, but really good: Andrew Gelman's Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do, which is full of really cool graphs and transparent statistical analysis. I thought it would have been a much bigger hit.
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May 12, 2010 05:32
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dokmo posted:Yes. Yes I do. ...I... I think I love you. You've literally established my reading queue on my Kindle now. Thank you many times over!
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May 12, 2010 05:37
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Teddybear posted:I'm a big fan of books in the vein of Blink, The Tipping Point, and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow, and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. I suppose it's mathematical, statistical, economical non-fiction. Does anyone have anything interesting on their bookshelf that is in the line of these? Nurture Shock by Po Bronson was along those lines, and quite interesting (especially, but I think not only, for parents or those interested in childrearing). The Undercover Economist was also good, and generally with anything by Tyler Cowen you can't go wrong (including his blog).
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May 12, 2010 05:59
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I'm looking for a big dumb sci-fi/space opera book or series somewhat akin to Star Wars, or to a lesser extent Avatar, featuring lots of different, cool alien races (I loved the universe of Mass Effect for this reason, and am looking for the equivalent in novel form) and different planets and adventure and danger and spaceships. I'm not looking for "hard" sci-fi at the moment as I'm inundated with university assignments and I don't want the reading to be a chore — I really want something brainless I can escape into. Also, I'm a fast enough reader but with the amount of free time I have lately I can manage about 30-40 pages a day. So I'd prefer a shorter more plot-driven book of about 300-400 pages than some huge 1200 page brick, which will take me forfuckingever to get through. Doesn't matter if it's a series though, because I'll likely read one now and the next ones later in the year. I haven't read much sci-fi so I can't give examples of stuff I liked, but I did get about halfway through Peter F Hamilton's Pandora's Star last year before getting too busy to continue. It was great and I would pick that up again but like I said I want something a bit shorter and more digestible. A fantasy equivalent of the book I am yearning for would be The Scar by China Miéville: cool races, lots of adventure, etc. Oh, and I must say I'm not too into military stuff, especially books that focus on endless descriptions of weapons, but if there's a series which fits all my specific tastes which just happens to have military characters, then I won't really mind. I should also note I'm looking for something fairly modern, IE the last 20-30 years or so. I'm sure there's lots of classic sci-fi out there that's great but I just want something a little more in tune with our current view of future technology. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 08:26 on May 12, 2010 |
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May 12, 2010 08:23
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Teddybear posted:I'm a big fan of books in the vein of Blink, The Tipping Point, and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow, and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. I suppose it's mathematical, statistical, economical non-fiction. Does anyone have anything interesting on their bookshelf that is in the line of these? I rather enjoyed The Logic of Life by Tim Harford. It explains how a lot of common behaviour that seems absurd is actually based on reason. The book tries to show how people genuinely behave like the rational actor feted by economics. Each chapter is a neat little slice of numerically supported argument. A nice optimistic book. Reassuring.
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May 12, 2010 15:18
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Hedrigall posted:I'm looking for a big dumb sci-fi/space opera book or series somewhat akin to Star Wars, or to a lesser extent Avatar, featuring lots of different, cool alien races I recently read and liked Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and its sequel, A Deepness in the Sky. Fire has many more races, while Deepness concentrates on a single, very foreign alien race. Both are longer, page wise, than you requested. Though both books are considered "space opera," Vinge accomplishes sci-fi with some literary merit, thanks to his characterizations and themes. He manages not to insult your intelligence with the kind of pap writing that dominates this genre. I think these fit the bill because neither book is going to tax your brain, but will give you enough to keep your interest.
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May 12, 2010 22:01
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Ok, I'm switching pace a little bit. I'm going from one field to the other, and it seems that in the past couple years, all of the reading that I've done has been towards my research and work. In fact, 80-90% of the books I own are related to that. I've never been much of one to read for pleasure once I started grad school. Now that I'm leaving grad school, I'd like to be able to do a bit of reading on the side when I have a chance. So far, the only real series of books I've read has been the Allan Quatermain series by H.Rider Haggard. Aside from that, the only other fiction I've really read have been humor books, comics, the book "Lamb" by Christoper Moore, and a little bit of Hemingway. Frankly, aside from my work, I'm interested in ancient history, mythology, adventure, some humor stuff. Basically, I need some good suggestions of books that I should read. Fiction is a little touch and go with me for the most part though as I really have to be interested in the book if I want to keep up with it. I need a really good story, or something interesting in terms of history or one of those other interesting topics.
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May 13, 2010 02:41
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I have a strange request. It is not for a novel. For any goons that have any business experience, or experience with starting a company/business from scratch, I am looking for that one book that taught you something. I am in the middle of my undergraduate studies, and I go to a good school and am studying Business. However, I feel I am at the point where I would rather flip burgers and sell weed forever than attempt a life of climbing the corporate ladder. I am going to go for broke, and I am looking for a book that will direct me toward the steps I need to take and the mindset I need to shape in order to start a business. If this gets no responses, I won't take it personally. This may not be the place for it. But if any goon has any book with sagely general advice geared toward what I am asking, whether it be specifically business oriented, or more general advice toward putting plans into fruition, I would be appreciative. Thanks,
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May 13, 2010 10:00
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I met a guy who couldn't stop talking about Timothy Ferriss's The 4 Hour Workweek. Said it gave him all kinds of epiphanies about his career and life path in general. I haven't read it, but I'm throwing it out there.
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May 13, 2010 17:31
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barkingclam posted:I enjoyed Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent. It's pretty much what you're describing, a road trip through American small towns and backwaters. It's pretty funny, too. Seconding anything Bill Bryson. Probably my favorite author.
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May 13, 2010 19:35
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Bonus posted:I'll check those two out, thanks! Any more suggestions are also welcome. It doesn't really have to have traveling, I guess I'm just looking for books with that sort of American atmosphere. I think Travels with Charley by Steinbeck counts. If you haven’t read it you really should. It's a beautiful short travelogue Steinbeck wrote about a cross country trip he took to get back in touch with America near the end of his life. It's a good read, interesting, entertaining poignant and prescient.  Actually now, nearly 50 years after his journey, some of his wistful observations about the direction the world/country were heading have become positively crushing. But first and foremost, it's a great road trip; it practically defines American atmosphere.
King Plum the Nth fucked around with this message at 03:51 on May 14, 2010 |
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May 14, 2010 01:14
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Namirsolo posted:Can anyone recommend me some good books about baseball? I already read Moneyball from a recommendation here and loved it. I'm particularly interested in understanding sabermetrics better. I'd also enjoy just general baseball history. I'll have to second Bill James' The New Historical Baseball Abstract, I had a lot of fun reading it, but really anything from him is good. However, as you mentioned you're more interested in Sabermetrics, and I'll recommend Thorn & Palmer's The Hidden Game of Baseball which is more or less statistical analysis, although take the book with a grain of salt, it has some odd weights in terms of measurements.
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May 14, 2010 10:13
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Can anyone recommend me where to start with Wendell Berry's non-fiction works?
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May 14, 2010 15:42
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I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan. Have read everything by him. I'd love a recommendation for a similar style of author i.e. someone who does really messed up fantasy that is uses reality, and then darkens it a bit, flips it over, and gives it a hosed up twist.
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May 18, 2010 03:27
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What's a good biography of Stalin?
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May 18, 2010 04:08
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PotatoManJack posted:I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan. Have read everything by him. I'd love a recommendation for a similar style of author i.e. someone who does really messed up fantasy that is uses reality, and then darkens it a bit, flips it over, and gives it a hosed up twist. You could try some Clive Barker. His short stories and shorter novels tend to be straight up horror. But his chunkier books tend more towards fantasy. I think there is a lot of similarities with Gaiman both in tone and content. Things are dark and grotesque but with a sense of wonder rather than just trying to be edgey or gritty. The fantasy tends to be secrets groups and places that exist in the cracks between an otherwise mundane reality that we're just not aware of. He shares Gaiman's obsession with Americana as well, must be a Brit thing. Weaveworld or The Great and Secret Show are probably good starting places. Like Gaiman he's also done some well recieved young adult fiction as well.
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May 19, 2010 09:35
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