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Hedrigall posted:Recommendations for travel writing/travelogues about China please? I'm thinking of reading Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar and Jan Wong's Beijing Confidential but was wondering what other good stuff there is. I'm more interested in modern China, especially Beijing and Shanghai (because I went there last year). China Underground is a fascinating read for some of the seedier sides of the megacities. It's a must if you're at all interested in the rock in China scene: http://www.amazon.com/China-Underground-Zachary-Mexico/dp/1593762232 Peter Hessler's work is pretty interesting and I've been meaning to check out his newest one: http://www.amazon.com/Country-Driving-Journey-Through-Factory/dp/0061804096/ ShutteredIn fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Oct 11, 2010 |
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Oct 11, 2010 07:20
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vlack posted:If you were going to a party like that, what kind of short story would you bring to read to other people?
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Oct 11, 2010 09:21
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I tried to create a thread about it, but it failed terribly, I want to read books (both fiction and non fiction) and shot works that are set in New York City. I have a list if anyone wants to see it of the recomandations that I have from other goons here if you want to see it.
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Oct 11, 2010 16:42
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Edit: It did not fail. I gave you like five awesome suggestions. You fail.  vlack posted:If you were going to a party like that, what kind of short story would you bring to read to other people?  So, yeah, if your sister's a delicate little flower, maybe read 'The Nightmare Box' instead of 'Guts'. Because 'Guts' is gross. It's one of the more theatrical stories (hold your breath...), though. I'm in the middle of adapting Haunted for the stage, because there isn't enough horrible theatre around. ... Wait. OMG or go on BDSM Library and try to find a snuff or furry story. Or a FURRY SNUFF STORY. gently caress Palahniuk, do that. igby fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Oct 11, 2010 |
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Oct 11, 2010 16:50
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Hedrigall posted:Recommendations for travel writing/travelogues about China please? I'm thinking of reading Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar and Jan Wong's Beijing Confidential but was wondering what other good stuff there is. I'm more interested in modern China, especially Beijing and Shanghai (because I went there last year). Did you consider Theroux' Down the Yangtse?
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Oct 11, 2010 17:17
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Can anyone recommend books where exploration of some alien world/space/whatever is the theme? Even exploring an interesting fantasy setting would be great. I loved the exploration parts of House of Leaves even if anyone can recommend anything similar to that.
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Oct 11, 2010 17:31
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Hedrigall posted:Recommendations for travel writing/travelogues about China please? I'm thinking of reading Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar and Jan Wong's Beijing Confidential but was wondering what other good stuff there is. I'm more interested in modern China, especially Beijing and Shanghai (because I went there last year). China Road by Rob Gifford was great. It starts in Shanghai and follows the Chinese equivalent of Route 66 all the way to the Kazakh border.
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Oct 11, 2010 17:52
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REQUEST: Every time someone got close enough to be in a relationship with someone, I would push them away due to fear. By the time I have someone, I don't want them anymore. So I push them away, and over time, wind up being lonely again. I was talking with a friend about my issues with relationships, and he recommend I read a book on the topic. If you feel you could provide a good recommendation, I would greatly appreciate it.
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Oct 11, 2010 18:03
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I like the concept and scope of books like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and other Chinese classics - empire dramas, I guess you could say. Is there anything contemporary that's like that?
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Oct 11, 2010 18:10
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Reason posted:Can anyone recommend books where exploration of some alien world/space/whatever is the theme? Even exploring an interesting fantasy setting would be great. I loved the exploration parts of House of Leaves even if anyone can recommend anything similar to that. Never read House of leaves, but you could try the following:- Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke (actually a lot of his books would qualify), Larry Niven's Ringworld, Buzz Aldrin's Encounters with Tiber, Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, Eon by Greg Bear, Voyage by Stephen Baxter, Salt by Adam Roberts. Can't remember the titles, but a lot of books by Ben Bova. All those are sci-fi (guess who is a sci-fi geek at heart?). No idea if there is anything out there in a fantasy setting.
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Oct 11, 2010 18:40
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Otach posted:REQUEST:
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Oct 11, 2010 18:53
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screenwritersblues posted:I tried to create a thread about it, but it failed terribly, I want to read books (both fiction and non fiction) and shot works that are set in New York City. I have a list if anyone wants to see it of the recomandations that I have from other goons here if you want to see it. If you like crime fiction, both Donald Westlake and Lawrence Block wrote series set almost exclusively in NYC. Westlake's Dortmunder are comic-tinged caper books, Block's Scudder are modern hardboiled crime mystery/thrillers. Both of these writers use locations so much in their books that you can't imagine them being set anywhere else.
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Oct 11, 2010 19:27
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dokmo posted:If you like crime fiction, both Donald Westlake and Lawrence Block wrote series set almost exclusively in NYC. Westlake's Dortmunder are comic-tinged caper books, Block's Scudder are modern hardboiled crime mystery/thrillers. Both of these writers use locations so much in their books that you can't imagine them being set anywhere else. In addition to these, try the Andrew Vachss 'Burke' novels, except for the last two or three, they are all set in New York. Hideous, crime-ridden Taxi Driver-like awful New York.
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Oct 11, 2010 19:43
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screenwritersblues posted:I tried to create a thread about it, but it failed terribly, I want to read books (both fiction and non fiction) and shot works that are set in New York City. I have a list if anyone wants to see it of the recomandations that I have from other goons here if you want to see it. I thought Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City was a cool (if odd - it's written entirely in the second person) read. It's about a guy who does fact checking for a magazine and him/his girlfriend's involvement in New York's nightlife. I've also heard David McCullough's The Great Bridge is a good read and it's been on my to-read list for a while, but technically it's about Brooklyn.
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Oct 11, 2010 20:38
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Reason posted:Can anyone recommend books where exploration of some alien world/space/whatever is the theme? Even exploring an interesting fantasy setting would be great. I loved the exploration parts of House of Leaves even if anyone can recommend anything similar to that. I like these too. Give Freedom's Landing by Anne McCaffrey a try.
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Oct 12, 2010 04:34
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Otach posted:REQUEST: Learn to appreciate other people. Read some love poetry, perhaps Spenser's Amoretti, or some Pablo Neruda, or some Ovid. Whatever you do, don't take advice from self-help/relationship books.
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Oct 12, 2010 06:59
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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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Seriously, 7 yob? Neruda lets you bypass your angst or social phobia? You have to be kidding. I may have learned a lot from reading all kinds of books but the only one that promised to change my life was The Dice Man, and it didn't. Anyway, self help books are dangerous and probably evil. I just don't think the proposed books will help you grow longer lasting relationships, but while you work on your issues Ovid and Neruda are great companions. Take Dante along. Read some Kundera too, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is good and it taught me a few tricks (like, washing my hair...). Hesse's Steppenwolf is another novel I think I learned a bit from. Dostoyevski should be even better than those two. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass might make you love life and love itself. Literature is for me about aesthetics, reflections on life, cocooning and daydreaming - you get a few insights but in the end you're the same person. Relationships only started going better with citalopram, good Italian wine and a Jewish therapist.
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Oct 12, 2010 15:47
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7 y.o. bitch posted:Learn to appreciate other people. Read some love poetry, perhaps Spenser's Amoretti, or some Pablo Neruda, or some Ovid. Whatever you do, don't take advice from self-help/relationship books. rasser posted:Anyway, self help books are dangerous and probably evil. I just don't think the proposed books will help you grow longer lasting relationships, but while you work on your issues Ovid and Neruda are great companions. Take Dante along. Read some Kundera too, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is good and it taught me a few tricks (like, washing my hair...). Hesse's Steppenwolf is another novel I think I learned a bit from. Dostoyevski should be even better than those two. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass might make you love life and love itself. [edited to remove snarky comments re: above posts] (S)he doesn't need a John Gray "self-help" book, but there are plenty of intelligent, well-researched and highly-regarded books that give definitive adivce aimed at helping capable individuals become better people, particularly when it comes to loving relationships. I would suggest Love and Will by Rollo May, but that's because I'm particularly inclined to the humanistic perspective. If that doesn't jive with the original requester, then it's probably not the right book, but at least it's an actual book meant to deal with his/her particular problem. Fly Ricky fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Oct 13, 2010 |
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Oct 12, 2010 17:11
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Anything similar to The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things by J. T. Leroy and horror similar to the style of Edward Lee? Thanks for the help!
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Oct 14, 2010 06:57
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I got around to reading Dune and I liked it question is: are the rest of the books worth reading too?
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Oct 14, 2010 13:44
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Flannelette posted:I got around to reading Dune and I liked it question is: are the rest of the books worth reading too? Depends on why you liked it and how willing you are to read books that are "interesting" rather than "good," if that distinction makes sense. You can certainly stop where you are without missing anything that's going to change your life. My personal favorite in the series is God Emperor, but more because it's such a well-executed work of bizarre characterization than because it's a good story in and of itself.
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Oct 14, 2010 14:13
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I read Donna Tartt's The Secret History a few months ago and enjoyed the premise a lot. What are some other quality books about boarding/prep/private school students getting into "adult" adventures with sex, drugs, and maybe murders?
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Oct 14, 2010 19:04
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Quantify! posted:I read Donna Tartt's The Secret History a few months ago and enjoyed the premise a lot. What are some other quality books about boarding/prep/private school students getting into "adult" adventures with sex, drugs, and maybe murders? If you're not averse to some weirdness in your erotic books, I highly suggest Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille.
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Oct 14, 2010 20:01
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IceNiner posted:If you're not averse to some weirdness in your erotic books, I highly suggest Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille.
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Oct 14, 2010 20:47
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Double request for recommendations; First a repeat: fiction or nonfiction about historical Oxford. Next: books on evolution on nearly every scale, nonfiction obviously, that covers theories like Aquatic Ape, Eve Theory, Snowball Earth - the slightly bizarre but still plausible theories.
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Oct 14, 2010 20:59
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Quantify! posted:This seems to be pornography. I'm not sure if you're joking with me or not, but I will give it a try. Oh, it is pornography, but well written, classic porn, written in France at about the Turn of the Twentieth Century. I thought that's what you were looking for when you said "Adult" adventures with sex and murders and so forth. If you take offense easily, then you should skip it. If not, its good.
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Oct 14, 2010 21:12
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rasser posted:Next: books on evolution on nearly every scale, nonfiction obviously, that covers theories like Aquatic Ape, Eve Theory, Snowball Earth - the slightly bizarre but still plausible theories. I can't remember ever reading a book-length treatment of crackpot evolutionary theories. These things are typically best dispensed of in an essay format. However, google returns a book that may be what you wanted: Strange Creations: Aberrant Ideas of Human Origins from Ancient Astronauts to Aquatic Apes (2001): wikipedia posted:In 2001, Feral House published Kossy's second full-length book, Strange Creations: Aberrant Ideas of Human Origins from Ancient Astronauts to Aquatic Apes (right after reprinting Kooks in an expanded edition). As of August 1998, Kossy had already announced the manuscript for her second book as being finished (with a tentative title balancing between "Aberrant Anthropology" and "Nazis, Saucers and Aquatic Apes")[1] and its publication at Feral House scheduled for "Fall, 1999";[1] it would however be two more years before the actual release.
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Oct 14, 2010 21:40
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What would be best to read to educate myself about the Renaissance period in Italy? Not bothered about the art it produced, more the politics and conflicts and motivations that drove that period to be what it was. fiction or non would be fine as long as the fiction sticks close to the facts (i.e. Tim Powers).
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Oct 14, 2010 23:05
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Franz Kafka! What's good? Where does one start? The Metamorphosis? Some short stories? I turn to the devotees of this science, the SA literary elite, for help.
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Oct 14, 2010 23:09
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Maxwell K. posted:Franz Kafka! What's good? Where does one start? The Metamorphosis? Some short stories? I turn to the devotees of this science, the SA literary elite, for help. http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Kafka-David-Zane-Mairowitz/dp/1874166099 for beginners, or http://www.amazon.com/R-Crumbs-Kafka-Robert-Crumb/dp/0743493443 Actually somewhat serious response. Crumb's illustrations are brilliant.
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Oct 14, 2010 23:14
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Maxwell K. posted:Franz Kafka! What's good? Where does one start? The Metamorphosis? Some short stories? I turn to the devotees of this science, the SA literary elite, for help. Most people read Metamorphosis and The Trial, and then go on if they want to to everything else (the parables are great).
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Oct 15, 2010 00:21
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Maxwell K. posted:Franz Kafka! What's good? Where does one start? The Metamorphosis? Some short stories? I turn to the devotees of this science, the SA literary elite, for help. I picked up a used copy of this at a book fair a while back. I thought it was a decent collection of his shorter works - In The Penal Colony, Metamorphosis, The Hunger Artist and more. It doesn't include The Trial, though. Can anybody recommend a book about how ancient literature has survived to present day? I've been reading The Iliad and I want to learn about how it (and other works) survived from antiquity while others haven't.
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Oct 15, 2010 02:50
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barkingclam posted:Can anybody recommend a book about how ancient literature has survived to present day? I've been reading The Iliad and I want to learn about how it (and other works) survived from antiquity while others haven't. I was looking for something like this a few years ago. Though I never got around to reading it, this is the book that looked best to me: http://www.amazon.com/Scribes-Scholars-Guide-Transmission-Literature/dp/0198721463/ref=pd_sim_b_4 edit: Oh, wow. I clicked back to the page thinking "maybe I'll just buy this now..." and it's $85! I can't find any other options. You can try searching "paleography" and "papyrology" and see what you get, but I don't think you'll get quite what you want out of either. Facial Fracture fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Oct 15, 2010 |
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Oct 15, 2010 03:58
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barkingclam posted:Can anybody recommend a book about how ancient literature has survived to present day? I've been reading The Iliad and I want to learn about how it (and other works) survived from antiquity while others haven't. There is a long wikipedia page that I can't vouch for that has also a bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_of_the_Classics
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Oct 15, 2010 04:28
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Evfedu posted:What would be best to read to educate myself about the Renaissance period in Italy? Not bothered about the art it produced, more the politics and conflicts and motivations that drove that period to be what it was. fiction or non would be fine as long as the fiction sticks close to the facts (i.e. Tim Powers). The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt is considered pretty foundational, I think, and makes at least for a good start.
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Oct 15, 2010 08:15
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rasser posted:Double request for recommendations; Print off this list and go to a university library or big city library and browse the titles. That's what I do when I want to look at random stuff. Eg, if I want to learn more about physiognomy and phrenology, I go to the stacks holding the 138 and 139 books. If I want to look at evolution, I browse the 567 stacks. If anything catches my eye, I take it. If you're in a research library, you should be able to find exactly what you want.* *Unless you're in the University of Sydney's main library and looking for a copy of Mein Kampf. 
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Oct 15, 2010 15:50
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There's never anything filed under 999. 
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Oct 15, 2010 15:53
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Facial Fracture posted:I was looking for something like this a few years ago. Though I never got around to reading it, this is the book that looked best to me: http://www.amazon.com/Scribes-Scholars-Guide-Transmission-Literature/dp/0198721463/ref=pd_sim_b_4 Thanks, but this isn't really what I'm looking for, I think. I'm not so much interested in translating (or even reading in the original languages) the stories as I am in how they've been passed down - in how something like Ovid managed to survive the dark ages, for instance. Although I suppose that's more a matter of luck then anything. I'll check out some of that stuff on the wikipedia page, though.
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Oct 15, 2010 17:04
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I assume if you've been reading about how the Iliad survived, you've already heard of Lord's Singer of Tales? Seems like that's pretty much the acknowledged classic in its field.
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Oct 15, 2010 18:48
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Singer of Tales is a good book and it's got a lot of interesting stuff on oral tradition and the epic. It connects that with the medieval era through the similarities between Homeric oral epic and the medieval bard tradition. But it doesn't focus on how the Homeric stories passed, through time, into the hands of people in later times. Its aim isn't to explain how particular stories were transmitted--through oral tradition, recording, conservation, etc.--over centuries. That is the aim of Scribes and Scholars (which isn't about translating or reading anything in its original language) and it's the only "general text" on the subject that's cited on that wikipedia page.
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Oct 15, 2010 23:31
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