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I'm looking for some new books to read but I'm not sure what to look for. The last two books I read were -A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore -American Gods by Neil Gaiman I enjoyed reading them a lot and would like to find something similar to them.
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Jul 3, 2010 19:19
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Aeon Eclipse posted:I'm looking for some new books to read but I'm not sure what to look for. The last two books I read were For A Dirty Job: On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony - Another "everyday schlub becomes death" story. Mort by Terry Pratchett - And another, only this time the schlub is Deaths apprentice. You Suckand Bite Me by Christopher Moore - parts 2 and 3 in Moores Vampire trilogy, featuring characters from A Dirty Job. Monster by A. Lee Martinez - Martinez has a very similar voice as Moore with a more fantastical edge. For American Gods: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman - The sequel to American Gods, considered by many to be a superior book due to its improved pacing. In fact, if you liked AG then anything by Neil is good. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke - Magic and Faeries in the Regency era. One issue you might have is that the book is written in a very pastiche style, so if you don't like books that were actually written in the 19th century then you might have difficulty. Elizabeth Bears Promethean Age[ books are very solid Urban Fantasy, although they're based again on more pagan concepts than AG's modern gods. The big appeal to these books is that you can read them in any order as each of them are standalone books, although I suggest you read Blood and Iron first as it was the first one and is the least spoilery of the bunch.
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Jul 3, 2010 20:23
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Renaissance Spam posted:books Thank you very much! I was looking some of those up and noticed a few are parts of a series. Would you recommend the rest of the series with those as well? Aeon fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Sep 18, 2010 |
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Jul 3, 2010 21:28
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Aeon Eclipse posted:Thank you very much! I was looking some of those up and some of them and noticed a few are parts of a series. Would you recommend the rest of the series with those as well? Definitely.
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Jul 4, 2010 01:01
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Renaissance Spam posted:Definitely. Great! Thanks again. =)
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Jul 4, 2010 02:42
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I'm looking for a good read about the intelligence community, be it CIA or NSA or whatever, but something less  and more, "I was here, I did this, it was awesome/horrifying/whatever." Preferably non-fiction.
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Jul 4, 2010 21:41
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Steiv posted:I'm looking for a good read about the intelligence community, be it CIA or NSA or whatever, but something less There's a decent CIA one called Blowing My Cover. Pretty much every NSA book is though. Its existence has only been declassified for about 16 years, so you're either going to get small mentions of it in larger tomes on security, cryptography, and signals intelligence, or else completely idiotic made-up poo poo that's about as accurate as Enemy of the State.
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Jul 4, 2010 21:59
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Steiv posted:I'm looking for a good read about the intelligence community, be it CIA or NSA or whatever, but something less That kind of sounds like Spycatcher by Peter Wright. He was part of MI-5 for a good chunk of the 20th century and memoir is an interesting look at just what spies did in the Cold War (mostly either planting bugs or trying to find bugs, from what I recall).
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Jul 4, 2010 22:57
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I'm looking for a good biography of George Washington, one that is heavy on the details regarding his personal life (and personality or psychology) and lighter on the "Washington as military strategist/politician" kind of stuff. For an example of what I don't want, this is taken from a review of Joseph Ellis' His Excellency: George Washington: quote:The book is fairly short and is written at a bird's-eye view, mostly lacking in the kind of human detail that I usually enjoy in a biography. It left me hungry for more details: I wanted to know more about his personal experience during that winter at Valley Forge; I wanted to know more about his relationship with Martha, and perhaps it's petty, but I wanted to know more about his teeth. An example of something that would fit my bill re: Washington is Horace Porter's Campaigning with Grant, which is (duh) about Ulysses S. Grant, written by his aide de camp. There's plenty of info about Grant's military decisions, but it's also a portrait of Grant as a man, with lots of detail about his relationships with his family and friends, what his personal habits and quirks were, the fact that he was tone deaf and could only recognize two songs (he said "One is 'Yankee Doodle' and the other isn't")...things of that nature. So, a book like that, but about Washington.
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Jul 5, 2010 00:00
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Steiv posted:I'm looking for a good read about the intelligence community, be it CIA or NSA or whatever, but something less Inside the Company: CIA Diary by Philip Agee is a good book written from the perspective of a CIA case officer in the 1960's. It mostly consists of his times in South America and then his experiences on the run from the CIA as he wrote his book after leaving the agency. On a different note I'm looking for some recommendations of good books on the history of medicine, I'm not particularly bothered about the period, and the more depth the better. I've been recommended The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity, and was wondering if this is any good and if there are any other books I should also read.
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Jul 5, 2010 01:39
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I'm looking for good novels dealing with time travel, preferably ones that aren't terribly cheesy.
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Jul 5, 2010 10:45
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Goldwarf posted:I'm looking for good novels dealing with time travel, preferably ones that aren't terribly cheesy. A little more information would be useful. Are you look for novels specifically about or focused on time travel or are you looking for stuff that happens to have time travel in it? I'm thinking of distinction between time travel as something to create a complex twisting plot that plays around with causality and paradoxes and things that simply use time travel as a plot devide to set up a specific (often fish-out-of-water) situation, stuff like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I really like Stephen Fry's Making History in general, it's a little of both. My favourite old school time travel story is Heinlein's By His Bootstraps (and the short story All You Zombies. This is not a "good" novel as such. It's golden age SF and thus all about the ideas above the writing and the characters. But if you like the complexity and paradox angle it's pretty much required reading. Replay by Ken Grimwood is a lot of fun. Not strictly time travel, more some kind of time loop deal. Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five has plenty of time travel in it, but I wouldn't really call it something that "deals with" time travel. That shouldn't stop anyone reading it though! For the more serious business hard-SF stuff maybe Gregory Benford's Timescape. Possibly a little dated now, but I remember enjoying it at the time. I guess that's why I was suggesting a little more information. Everything I listed there has time travel in it in some form or other. But as novels they don't really have much in common beyond that!
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Jul 5, 2010 13:09
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So I would like to get deeper into the horror genre. I would like suggestions on books that are gore ridden, gruesome, twisted, evil demonic infested and completely loving disturbing. I want to be scared shitless when I read a horror book, especially at night before I go to sleep. I've been reading the "Books of Blood 1-3" complimation by Clive Barker. I really liked the stories "The Book of Blood" and "Midnight Meat Train". I thought "Pig Blood Blues" and "In the Hills, the Cities" were okay stories but the "Yattering" and "Sex, Death, and Starshine" were loving boring. I haven't finished the entire book but I will soon. I also finished reading and liked Hellbound Heart by Clive which was good (especially the first chapter) IMHO even though I have already seen the Hell Raiser series of movies. I plan on reading some H.P Lovecraft (edit: why I wrote C.H. Lewis is beyond me.) but I want more stuff to read as well once I am done. Thanks in advance. Sweaty Palms fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jul 13, 2010 |
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Jul 5, 2010 18:07
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dokmo posted:Sounds like you need Tom Neale's An Island to Oneself in your life. I read this book over the weekend and loved it. It left me wanting for more. I'm partway into Robinson Crusoe right now, but does anyone have any more suggestions similar to An Island to Oneself?
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Jul 5, 2010 18:30
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Sweaty Palms posted:So I would like to get deeper into the horror genre. I would like suggestions on books that are gore ridden, gruesome, twisted, evil demonic infested and completely loving disturbing. I want to be scared shitless when I read a horror book, especially at night before I go to sleep. Sounds to me like you're interested in Splatterpunk. Jack Ketchum is considered one of the forerunners of the genre, so anything by him is a worthwhile read, as well as David Schow (you might remember him as the screenwriter for The Crow). Sticking with revenge-driven revenants, Norman Partridge is a good read and I heartily recommend his Crow tie-in novel, Wicked Prayer (it's more Psychobilly than Splatterpunk but believe me, it's got enough blood n' guts to keep you satisfied.) Ray Garton's Live Girls might appeal to you, it's sex n' violence amped up on Times Square neon and vampires. Very fun.
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Jul 5, 2010 18:35
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Lemons posted:I read this book over the weekend and loved it. It left me wanting for more. I'm partway into Robinson Crusoe right now, but does anyone have any more suggestions similar to An Island to Oneself? Glad you liked it. I just thought of Thor Heyerdahl's Fatu-Hiva - Back to Nature, you might also enjoy that.
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Jul 5, 2010 19:00
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quote:Fevre Dream was a pretty good vampire book as I recall. I don't think it went really in depth into vampire society or anything like that, but it was pretty cool and had a pretty heavy Heart of Darkness vibe what with the riverboats and all. Sunshine is on my Library wait-list, too.
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Jul 5, 2010 20:16
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Goldwarf posted:I'm looking for good novels dealing with time travel, preferably ones that aren't terribly cheesy. I was recommended the Anubis Gates and it is hands down one of the best novels dealing with Time Travel that I have ever read.
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Jul 6, 2010 00:26
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Goldwarf posted:I'm looking for good novels dealing with time travel, preferably ones that aren't terribly cheesy.
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Jul 6, 2010 00:27
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Sweaty Palms posted:I've been reading the "Books of Blood 1-3" complimation by Clive Barker. I really liked the stories "The Book of Blood" and "Midnight Meat Train". I thought "Pig Blood Blues" and "In the Hills, the Cities" were okay stories but the "Yattering" and "Sex, Death, and Starshine" were loving boring. I haven't finished the entire book but I will soon. I'd go ahead and stop if I were you. You've already listed the only good stories, the rest are boring and/or terrible.
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Jul 6, 2010 15:02
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Sweaty Palms posted:So I would like to get deeper into the horror genre. For the love of god, please grab some Lovecraft if you haven't already. He is as far as I can recall the only writer to have actually given me nightmares. Gravy Jones posted:(and the short story All You Zombies.) (Really, read this.) MIDWIFE CRISIS fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jul 6, 2010 |
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Jul 6, 2010 22:34
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Lovecraft doesn't particularly fit the criteria Sweaty Palms listed.
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Jul 7, 2010 02:56
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ru5tyb1ke5- I have read Running With Scissors, and it's one of my favorite books of all time. Augusten Burroughs is also a new favorite author. It's basically a memoir about his incredibly hosed-up childhood. Extremely funny and also extremely moving. He wrote a sequel called Dry about his alcoholism and working at an ad agency which was also incredibly good. ALSO: -The Autobiography of Malcolm X (self-explanatory. An excellently told and life-changing story) -Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali - the story of a woman who grew up in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya in a series of extremely repressive Muslim societies. She eventually managed to escape an arranged marriage and become a member of the Dutch parliament. This book completely opened my eyes and completely changed my opinion of Islam. I guess this one's also pretty controversial, but it's a favorite. - American Shaolin - concerning one of the first Americans to study martial arts at the Shaolin temple. Also very funny and quite memorable. - Walking Through Walls - I guess maybe if you're a scientific-materialist atheist type Chris Hitchens fan this may not appeal to you as much, but I found it a really delightful read. It's about the son of a man who claimed to be a psychic, talk with spirits, heal people with crystals, and exorcise demons. I'm not the kind of person who believes in any of that stuff, but the magic of this book is, it's so endearing, you'll forget how ridiculous and unbelievable it all is for the span that you're reading it. -Foreskin's Lament - a very amusing and funny memoir concerning growing up in an Orthodox Jewish household and the author's rebellion from and subsequent neuroses about it. -A Common Pornography by Kevin Sampsell - I recently read this book and was very impressed by it. It's arranged in little snippets of (once again) the author's incredibly hosed-up childhood and family. It's written in a very simple, concise style, but every fragment strikes an emotional chord. -The Soloist by Steve Lopez - The movie looked like it really sucked, but if you saw the trailer and thought the story looked interesting, the book is great. Oh, and they're not book-length memoirs, but almost anything by David Sedaris is utterly and completely hilarious. He writes little essays on parts of his life or things he's experienced, and he's just really talented. Sort of like Augusten Burroughs, but lighter. AND, if you're into graphic novels, both Persepolis and Blankets are pretty drat good. The former's about the author's childhood in Iran, and the latter's about the author's childhood in an oppressive and conservative Christian family up north somewhere, and a girl he falls in love with. I apologize if this is kind of a long list, but I read a shitload of books and I wanted to give you as many good choices as possible.
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Jul 7, 2010 10:41
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^^^ Is Persepolis worth reading if I've seen the movie?
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Jul 7, 2010 10:49
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appropriatemetaphor- I haven't seen the movie, so I wouldn't know. I've seen the trailer and I kind of get the impression that the art's a little cuter in the comic, but I can't say if the movie has everything the comic has in it. You could try checking it out of a library and seeing if the movie ruined it for you. That's the way I got it.
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Jul 7, 2010 11:06
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appropriatemetaphor posted:^^^ Depends, did you like the movie? The comic's the same thing, essentially, just in more depth. If you liked the movie you'll probably like the book, too, but you might want to wait a while in between to let the movie fade a bit.
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Jul 7, 2010 14:00
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Can anyone recommend me good accounts of drug use (real or imaginary) in fiction? Preferably hallucinogens, but anything interesting and well written.
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Jul 8, 2010 00:05
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delicious beef posted:Can anyone recommend me good accounts of drug use (real or imaginary) in fiction? Preferably hallucinogens, but anything interesting and well written. A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, the Red Dwarf novel, had a few subplots dealing with hallucinatory drugs and/or hallucinatory-like artificial realities that people got addicted to. A Separate Reality by Carlos Castenada, hell, anything in the "Don Juan" trilogy that is basically an account of Castenada as he experiments with mind-altering drugs with an "Indian sorcerer" in order to expand his mind, gain knowledge, etc. Altered States by Paddy Chayefsky (it's kind of 'out there' but interesting, and the movie isn't too bad, though it can get a bit silly) The Scientist by John C. Lilly
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Jul 8, 2010 00:20
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delicious beef posted:Can anyone recommend me good accounts of drug use (real or imaginary) in fiction? Preferably hallucinogens, but anything interesting and well written. Have you read Naked Lunch? That's usually the go-to book. And there's always Confessions of an Opium Eater. Which I actually need to read ...
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Jul 8, 2010 00:24
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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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delicious beef posted:Can anyone recommend me good accounts of drug use (real or imaginary) in fiction? Preferably hallucinogens, but anything interesting and well written. Burroughs is for sure more widely read but Alexander Trocchi's Cain's Book is better (I think) than Junky and different from Naked Lunch (in a way that I preferred). If you go with 7 y.o bitch's De Quincey recommendation, make sure you get an edition that includes his Suspiria de Profundis. Also, read Coleridge's Kubla Khan which was supposedly the result of an opium-dream and after enjoying the fantastical imagery, find some of his diaries where he talks about the chronic and painful constipation he suffered as a side-effect of his addiction. Samuel Taylor Coleridge posted:Wednesday Morning, May 9tha day of Horror
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Jul 8, 2010 02:18
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Thanks for the drugs recommendations, I'd read Naked Lunch and Confessions..., I've ordered a few of the others. I've just finished Flow My Tears by Philip K Dick. What else should I read by him?
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Jul 8, 2010 20:45
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delicious beef - VALIS, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, UBIK, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick and The Man in the High Castle. I'm going in order of the ones I liked the most first, but they're all really good books. And there are more books after that (he wrote 36 novels [and had an amphetamine problem at one point.]) If you like Phillip K. Dick I'd also suggest Kurt Vonnegut (Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse 5) if you haven't read him already, and Jorge Luis Borges (Ficciones, The Book of Sand, The Aleph and Other Stories.)
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Jul 8, 2010 22:07
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I'm going on a verrrryy long deployment by ship soon, and spending most of a year at sea is going to drive me nuts. I'm currently reading Darwin Slept Here, by Eric Simons, which is an awesome little travelogue of South America based loosely around the Voyage of the Beagle. It's silly and descriptive and vibrant. I'm looking for anything similar-- something like Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations in book form. I want detail and color and novelty, nothing very heavy or dark. I'd also love fiction set in the tropics-- a Hawaiian romance or something, again, preferably light-hearted. Thanks for any help!
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Jul 9, 2010 04:25
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Zinc Teeth posted:I'm looking for anything similar-- something like Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations in book form. I want detail and color and novelty, nothing very heavy or dark. You may already know this, but Anthony Bourdain's written some books and they're all awesome as hell. I haven't tried his novels so I can't speak to those, but Kitchen Confidential and his travel books are great. Edit: Also there are audiobooks of Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour, and since they're read by Bourdain I actually like them better than the books.
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Jul 9, 2010 18:27
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I'm looking for a book that tells the story of a couple meeting and falling in love, but one that is geared toward men rather than women.
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Jul 11, 2010 16:56
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How is a love story "geared toward men" exactly? http://www.amazon.com/Best-Gay-Love-Stories-2009/dp/1593500882/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278868753&sr=8-2 Like this?
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Jul 11, 2010 18:21
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ShutteredIn posted:How is a love story "geared toward men" exactly? No Fabio on the cover, probably. I'd suggest reading Lolita. It's exactly what you're looking for.
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Jul 11, 2010 18:25
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Well I really enjoyed the book The Time-Traveler's Wife, especially the parts in Henry's POV. I also read Joe Hill's [/u]Horns[/u] and really liked the subplot of the main character meeting the girl in the book.
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Jul 11, 2010 18:27
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Maybe try Michael Chabon's Mysteries of Pittsburgh. He basically writes romances for boys.
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Jul 11, 2010 20:42
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I'm looking for some science fiction that gives a believable account of an alien species. Something in the vein of The Mote in God's Eye. A first contact novel wouldn't be out the question as long as it presents an alien species and culture that I can really get interested in.
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Jul 12, 2010 04:35
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