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Though I did like what we were doing before we went goony. i.e., exploring books from different cultures.
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Sep 14, 2010 14:05
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| # ? May 9, 2024 23:07 |
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ideas for poll themes: -cool books about dicks -musician tell-all books (written by former body guard level or higher ONLY, no tour bus driver memoirs!!) -books with just pictures (maybe two because it'll only take two weeks to read one???) -newest issue of newsweek and time
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Sep 14, 2010 14:59
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maxnmona posted:ideas for poll themes: If you do the books about dicks one, you should include "Accidental Billionaires".
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Sep 14, 2010 21:43
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Let's Read: Ragged Dick
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Sep 14, 2010 22:01
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ONE TWO THREE TIMES TWO TO THE SIX/JONESING FOR YOUR FIX OF THAT LIMP BIZKIT MIX|
Hey Looschanj, would it be okay to start a high-level chat thread here, because all of the non-anime threads here get really constrained by their topics, and they almost all end up becoming just pyf threads. I'd like some sort of happy medium between "So, has anyone heard of F. Scott Fitzgerald?" and the minutiae of fruit symbolism in GRR8 Martin's A Ballet with Balrog. I know that there are a pretty good number of TBB and phiz posters who would appreciate such a thing.
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Sep 14, 2010 22:21
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Yeah, people always bitch about all the threads being grrm and sci-fi, but no one ever makes a thread for "real" literature. Well, one that's serious and doesn't belong in EW.
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Sep 14, 2010 23:15
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LooseChanj posted:Yeah, people always bitch about all the threads being grrm and sci-fi, but no one ever makes a thread for "real" literature. Well, one that's serious and doesn't belong in EW. Yep, and it's one of the reasons that TBB continues to not achieve some perceived "higher standard", because nobody wants to put in any actual effort to do something besides bitch about it. The complainers should just find another community that might be more inline with their particular tastes or STFU. Or maybe if there should be an actual incentive to do so, like getting a probation or ban for bitching about content without making an effort to improve. Shitposting is cracked down elsewhere on SA - I'm not sure why TBB seems to get a free pass.
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Sep 15, 2010 04:36
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Encryptic posted:Yep, and it's one of the reasons that TBB continues to not achieve some perceived "higher standard", because nobody wants to put in any actual effort to do something besides bitch about it. The complainers should just find another community that might be more inline with their particular tastes or STFU. BOOM! HEADSHOT!
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Sep 15, 2010 06:25
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7 y.o. bitch posted:BOOM! HEADSHOT!  I gotta get my smoking jacket back from the cleaners then I'll join you fine fellows.
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Sep 15, 2010 07:07
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I'm going to meet an author next week and I'd like to get a book signed. I have to buy one there to have it signed, but I really want another book signed too (the website says that's cool). I've only ever had one book signed, which was a hardcover. The book I really want signed is a paperback. Is getting a paperback book signed a bad idea? Will people glare at me?
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Sep 16, 2010 17:40
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What? No. Authors are going to be stoked you are there at all.
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Sep 16, 2010 18:13
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angrylinuxgeek posted:I'm going to meet an author next week and I'd like to get a book signed. I have to buy one there to have it signed, but I really want another book signed too (the website says that's cool). I've only ever had one book signed, which was a hardcover. If your target author is of the very senior kind, you could do what Martin Amis did; take a third (hardcover) book along to be signed "To my dear, dear friend Keith Richards and all the stories we shouldn't tell". Wait a few years till both are dead and hit eBay.
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Sep 16, 2010 20:59
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Underflow posted:If your target author is of the very senior kind, you could do what Martin Amis did; take a third (hardcover) book along to be signed "To my dear, dear friend Keith Richards and all the stories we shouldn't tell". Wait a few years till both are dead and hit eBay. Keith Richards died years ago, but he's never gonna stop rockin'.
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Sep 16, 2010 21:54
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Encryptic posted:Yep, and it's one of the reasons that TBB continues to not achieve some perceived "higher standard", because nobody wants to put in any actual effort to do something besides bitch about it. The complainers should just find another community that might be more inline with their particular tastes or STFU. Well most of the criticism of TBB I've seen focusses on the predominance of SF/Fantasy, and it's hard to argue against when you have this type of thread http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3345499 which consists of recommending all the named threads in the forum.
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Sep 16, 2010 22:17
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angrylinuxgeek posted:The book I really want signed is a paperback. Is getting a paperback book signed a bad idea? Will people glare at me? Nobody cares what sort of book you bring to get signed so long as it is somehow tied to the person doing the signing. That said, I silently judge people that bring paperbacks (unless paperback is the only edition) because I'm kind of a dick.
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Sep 17, 2010 02:45
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LooseChanj posted:Keith Richards died years ago, but he's never gonna stop rockin'. Let's hope so.
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Sep 17, 2010 11:49
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Ornamented Death posted:That said, I silently judge people that bring paperbacks (unless paperback is the only edition) because I'm kind of a dick. The only time I've ever gotten something signed by the author it was a paperback.  But it was a sorta-local's genre novel and the guy just happened to be there. (The book was decent, but nothing spectacular.)
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Sep 17, 2010 14:12
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Thanks guys, I'll get my paperback signed. I don't think anyone is going to be more impressed if I have a hardcover Neuromancer signed anyway, it's purely personal since it's one of my favorite novels.
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Sep 17, 2010 14:32
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knees of putty posted:Well most of the criticism of TBB I've seen focusses on the predominance of SF/Fantasy, and it's hard to argue against when you have this type of thread http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3345499 which consists of recommending all the named threads in the forum. And that's the problem I'm getting at - people complain about those threads but they don't do anything to counterbalance those threads. Either the complainers need to start contributing more useful threads, find another forum that attracts a demographic more in line with their taste in fiction or just suck it up. By the same token, the quality of posting is pretty lovely at times in TBB, but that would seem to be more of a moderation problem and not a problem specifically with fantasy threads in general. It might also help if there was just a sticky thread at the top that lists the most frequently recommended fantasy/sci-fi series with a brief synopsis - and people got probated/banned for posting what basically amounts to PYF fantasy series wankfests, which I grant are pretty loving dull and repeat the same recommendations over and over with very little new content - like the thread you posted. I mostly drop in to look for good recommendations in the Just Finished thread and don't really follow the fantasy discussion threads much myself, admittedly.
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Sep 17, 2010 16:29
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Encryptic posted:It might also help if there was just a sticky thread at the top that lists the most frequently recommended fantasy/sci-fi series with a brief synopsis. Didn't there used to be something like this, only not sci-fi specific? It was a list of goon-beloved stuff--Borges, Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, etc. Couldn't we do something like that again? Maybe have one by/for sci-fi people and one for others?
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Sep 17, 2010 21:16
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Facial Fracture posted:Didn't there used to be something like this, only not sci-fi specific? It was a list of goon-beloved stuff--Borges, Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, etc. That li'l bitch with the acid tongue has something going right now at http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3348309, no? Or isn't that what this is about?
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Sep 17, 2010 22:05
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Underflow posted:That li'l bitch with the acid tongue has something going right now at http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3348309, no? Or isn't that what this is about? No, there was a "Book Barn Hall of Fame" awhile ago. I'll try to find and resurrect it when I get some time. (Hopefully soonish.)
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Sep 18, 2010 00:09
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LooseChanj posted:No, there was a "Book Barn Hall of Fame" awhile ago. I'll try to find and resurrect it when I get some time. (Hopefully soonish.) Nice, thanks.
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Sep 18, 2010 00:18
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Well, here it is (archives required). Looks like it was a reaction to the rash of recommendation threads, and we've got a "megathread" for those now.
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Sep 18, 2010 01:54
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Has anyone read Jules Verne in his native French? According to this article, his writing is actually far better than English translations would have us believe.
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Sep 18, 2010 05:46
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Jive One posted:Has anyone read Jules Verne in his native French? According to this article, his writing is actually far better than English translations would have us believe. I read the most popular ones in French when I was a kid (grew up tri-lingual), but never really compared them to translations. I think that, as a kid, you'd kill for a balloon, a submarine, and a cannon to shoot you to the moon no matter what language the stories are in. It's best to read them when you're young anyway; same as with Rice-Burroughs stuff. Translation differences don't really matter when the content is man-apes, Martian cities, mysterious captains, and so on. [*] In general, translations are easily perceived as bad; in the sense that if you speak both languages, you always come away with the idea (realistic or not) that you could have done better yourself. Some are pretty flagrant, though. English and German versions of Du Côté De Chez Swann are decidedly leaking. And Goethe or Schiller in any other language than German is even worse. [*] e: translated Biggles sucks, though. Underflow fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Sep 18, 2010 |
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Sep 18, 2010 08:36
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LooseChanj posted:Well, here it is (archives required). Looks like it was a reaction to the rash of recommendation threads, and we've got a "megathread" for those now. Ah yes, I think I remember seeing that one. But LooseChanj, really, is that list diverse enough to be resurrected in this day and age? It lacks Rosa Luxemburg, Sappho, Shireen Lewis, and Nikolai Gogol (funny name minority).
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Sep 18, 2010 08:53
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Underflow posted:Ah yes, I think I remember seeing that one. But LooseChanj, really, is that list diverse enough to be resurrected in this day and age? It lacks Rosa Luxemburg, Sappho, Shireen Lewis, and Nikolai Gogol (funny name minority). The OP should be edited to just show an enormous image of House of Leaves with the sound of everyone clapping in a background loop.
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Sep 18, 2010 09:57
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7 y.o. bitch posted:The OP should be edited to just show an enormous image of House of Leaves with the sound of everyone clapping in a background loop. I would certainly hope that that little chose would be off all the right sort of people's minds by now, dahlin'. I could live with a compromise of just Borges with a twirling Fliege, but that terrible man never had the good sense to wear one, as far as I can, or even care to remember. How about that scary clown from that book? Oh, what the heck; it's always the same this time of year. A nice jumper and a pair of rollerskates will do j u s t fine.
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Sep 18, 2010 12:55
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I'm a fan of Isaac Amimov and I've been re-reading his Foundation series, I still love the original trilogy, but the two books written after that don't seem so great to me anymore. I couldn't even finish Foundation and Earth because it just seems to be the standard sci-fi/fantasy stuff about a small group of people having a series of short adventures one after another, also there are the parts where Asimov ties all of his stories into one universe which is pretty annoying. I moved on to a collection of his short stories instead which is much better. Did his old age start having an effect on his later work or am I just jaded?
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Sep 20, 2010 05:33
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FRAZZLED JOHNSON posted:I'm a fan of Isaac Amimov and I've been re-reading his Foundation series, I still love the original trilogy, but the two books written after that don't seem so great to me anymore. I couldn't even finish Foundation and Earth because it just seems to be the standard sci-fi/fantasy stuff about a small group of people having a series of short adventures one after another, also there are the parts where Asimov ties all of his stories into one universe which is pretty annoying. I moved on to a collection of his short stories instead which is much better. Is he the one whose hatred of gay people becomes increasingly pronounced in his space operas?
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Sep 20, 2010 05:37
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7 y.o. bitch posted:Is he the one whose hatred of gay people becomes increasingly pronounced in his space operas?
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Sep 20, 2010 06:10
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7 y.o. bitch posted:Is he the one whose hatred of gay people becomes increasingly pronounced in his space operas? Wow. Whatever this book is, I want to read it 
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Sep 20, 2010 06:20
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Hedrigall posted:Wow. Whatever this book is, I want to read it Apparently it's Orson Scott Card?
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Sep 20, 2010 06:47
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Ah yes, OSC and his vitriolic hatred of the gays. I don't need to read his books to see that sort of stuff though, it's all over his website.
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Sep 20, 2010 07:00
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Substitue nigers/jews/whatever for gays and sleeping elder evil gods for space opera, and you're describing HP Lovecraft.
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Sep 20, 2010 13:18
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Underflow posted:Ah yes, I think I remember seeing that one. But LooseChanj, really, is that list diverse enough to be resurrected in this day and age? It lacks Rosa Luxemburg, Sappho, Shireen Lewis, and Nikolai Gogol (funny name minority). It was never meant to be a list of good books, just books people wouldn't stop recommending so they could finally shut up about them.
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Sep 20, 2010 13:42
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I'm starting an English Lit degree this month and would love to chat about the books and theories I'm studying with TBB folks without being accused of soliciting homework help.  Is this subforum the place for literary student chat, or should I get myself over to the academics subforum?
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Sep 20, 2010 14:00
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maxnmona posted:It was never meant to be a list of good books, just books people wouldn't stop recommending so they could finally shut up about them. No worries, I wasn't serious.
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Sep 20, 2010 14:08
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Dr Scoofles posted:Is this subforum the place for literary student chat We could use more of that, so yes.
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Sep 20, 2010 15:42
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