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Tin Miss posted:I'm looking for stories about obsessive love, preferrably set in the 19th or early 20th century. Something along the lines of The Forsyte Saga, but less boring. The Four Feathers contains some of this kind of stuff. I read it last year and it was great.
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Jan 14, 2011 11:38
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I was never a big fan of it, but you just described Wuthering Heights to a tee.
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Jan 14, 2011 16:23
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Have you considered Twilight?
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Jan 14, 2011 17:28
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Tin Miss posted:I'm looking for stories about obsessive love, preferrably set in the 19th or early 20th century. Something along the lines of The Forsyte Saga, but less boring. The Great Gatsby fits this pretty well, could also check out Mary by Nabokov because you've already ruled out Lolita. The novel I'm writing fits this too, actually. If you wanted to proof read it or something.
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Jan 14, 2011 20:53
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Lord Solitare posted:Is there a version of Don Quixote that is considered the best English translation? I've been wanting to read the book really badly ever since I saw Man of La Mancha, but googling brings up a bunch of different versions. Grossman's is good, but I also liked JM Cohen's too (while it's showing it's age, I thought it was part of the charm). Here's a site that compares several translations (with examples!) you may find useful.
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Jan 15, 2011 04:58
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EDIT: Nevermind, found a better thread for my question.
Shachi fucked around with this message at 09:25 on Jan 15, 2011 |
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Jan 15, 2011 09:12
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barkingclam posted:Grossman's is good, but I also liked JM Cohen's too (while it's showing it's age, I thought it was part of the charm). Here's a site that compares several translations (with examples!) you may find useful. caught a story on NPR about translators of DQ that might be relevant: http://www.wbur.org/npr/132366841/when-done-right-little-gets-lost-in-translation i believe i also heard a discussion of Grossman's translation on NPR a few months back.
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Jan 15, 2011 15:19
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teraflame posted:I'm looking for good books on the general history of the middle east. I've been recommended The Great War for Civilisation by Robert Fisk. Is that a good place to start? Fisk is great if you've got a misanthropic concept of the world as a place that continues to nurture mass murderers and the CIA agents supplying them with weapons money and targets. I think The Age of the Warrior by Fisk is a bit more like what you want and if you enjoy him you can always read The Great War for Civilization afterwards. Otherwise, the general history of the Middle East is a wide concept. Unlike for Europe, where you have Norman Davies' Europe-A History I can't recall any single book on everything in Middle East history. Some have recommended Peter Mansfield - A General History of the Middle East. For a somewhat imperialist point of view, T.E. Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom should be good. For older history try reading Amin Maalouf - The Crusades through Arab Eyes. If you need perspective on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict I have read several recommendations of Ilan Pappe - The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. For modern politics and recent events Bitterlemons.org have published a book free online, The Best of Bitterlemons. They have a focus on Arab-Israeli conflict and make sure to hear 4 people on each issue, a moderate and a hawk on each side of the conflict. Some general thoughts of Middle Eastern history and why you probably won't find it covered in one book (sorry for spam - no books in this part but hopefully inspiration for finding them): You might actually do better if you choose a focal point: Arab? Persia? Turkey? Maghreb? The Hebrew tribe? A lot of people tend to think of the Arabia when they think of the Middle East. This would be a safe bet if you want to know what goes on in most of the region but might also give you a perception of Turks, Persians, Kurds, Moors, Westerners and later Jews as somewhat on the border of the region whereas in reality all of these have contributed heavily to the history shape and culture of the region. Using this definition, for some hundred years the Mongols were Middle Eastern as well. If you want some quick and dirty action with real heroes, download the movie Kingdom of Heaven and see the great Muslim general and leader Saladin, a Kurd of Armenian origin born in Iraq who invaded Jerusalem, Egypt, Damaskus etc. Before or after this read these two wikipedia articles on Saladin and on the Northern Syrian city of Aleppo and see that the Middle East has a history as rich and confusing and diverse as Europe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo If you selected Persia as your focal point you would get a whole different story, one that stretches up towards Russia, out in Afghanistan, Central Asia and India and still had all the appeal glamour and might that any good popular history book could hope for. The Persian cities of Samarkand and Bokhara in modern day Uzbekistan are situated in Tajik areas and hence build by Persian people. From this same area came Avicenna, a founder of medicine and by that time nothing less than Persian. Turkey is still another culture which has had different faces over time, stretching up into Central Europe and forming the only European Muslim culture after the Moors left Spain - a culture that was deliberately targeted for destruction during the Balkan War in 1991-1995 by nationalist Serbs and opportunistic Kroat fascists. In many ways, Turkey has always been the European Muslim nation (but please don't rub it in their faces) that shared the lands of the ancient Greek civilizations after they waned and which took over from the Romans after the Eastern Roman Empire collapsed and it's capital Byzantium was won over and became Istanbul. In the other end of Eurasia the Turkish tribes settled in Western China and also in Central Asia., such as in the modern nation Turkmenistan. and so on, and so on.
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Jan 16, 2011 15:28
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I'm looking for sci-fi horror recommendations. Something in the vein of the superlative Blindsight by Peter Watts or the very solid Unto Leviathan (also called Ship of Fools) by Richard Paul Russo. I'm fairly picky about my prose, so if at all possible I'd like recommendations to steer away from trashy sci-fi. Yes, I am completely aware of how silly that may sound given the subject matter. I particularly liked the claustrophobic atmosphere present in both those books aboard spacecraft, and the first contact aspects of the stories.
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Jan 16, 2011 22:53
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Neurosis: This may be a longshot, but if you haven't read Hyperion by Dan Simmons, it's probably exactly what you're looking for. There's a part of the book somewhat near the beginning that scared the poo poo out of me. Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is perhaps the creepiest book I've ever read, but it's not exactly "spaceship" scifi. Oh, and how about Stephen King's The Stand? That's a classic too. FewtureMD: It's not realistic at all in the sense of "this feels like it could happen," but the prose, character development, dialog, and internal monologue in Lev Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible are all really well done.
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Jan 17, 2011 01:06
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Read The Stand and Hyperion. I'll check out The Three Stigmata, thanks.
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Jan 17, 2011 01:11
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I'm looking for more books like this (most are from this thread so thank you  ):Scott Lynch - Gentleman Bastard series Brent Weeks - The Black Prism & The Night Angel Trilogy Eric Nylund - The Fall of Reach Peter V. Brett - The Warded Man & The Desert Spear Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game Frank Herbert - Dune But not like this, spoilers for why not: Lian Hearn - Across the Nightingale Floor. Too short, the kid became a master assassin in a couple of months, lackbuster ending. Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy. I read the first book and 2/3 of the second. Castle, zombies, castle, talking to animals, zombies, castle, animals, road trip, zombies. So sci-fi, fantasy and anything set in modern time is fine too with thieves/assassins/spies/warriors/soldiers/tacticians/detectives/wizards or anything else like that. Heroes, antiheroes or just all around badasses in interesting settings.
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Jan 17, 2011 05:24
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dvl- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colins. The style is a little "young adult" especially within about the first 50 pages, but I swear to you after that it literally keeps getting better and better. It's like Ender's Game plus Battle Royale plus Lord of the Flies. And it's the beginning of a trilogy!
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Jan 17, 2011 07:47
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Falls Down Stairs posted:I got an interesting assignment in one of my computer science classes; I have to comment on a fictional non-humanoid artificial intelligence. What are some good hard science fiction stories that deal with such a subject? I was originally just going to look for an Asimov story involving a non-humanoid robot or something but then thought maybe it would be more interesting to find someone more modern than Asimov or at least different from him (since I read a lot of Asimov as a kid).
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Jan 17, 2011 11:24
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Neurosis posted:I'm looking for sci-fi horror recommendations. Something in the vein of the superlative Blindsight by Peter Watts or the very solid Unto Leviathan (also called Ship of Fools) by Richard Paul Russo. I haven't read it yet myself, but Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear might interest you.
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Jan 17, 2011 22:41
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I'm looking for a book with a con artist as a protagonist. Something like Going Postal or Making Money by Terry Pratchett.
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Jan 17, 2011 23:15
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Is there a good popular history of the Soviet Union out there? I've read Orlando Figes and the Simon Sebag Montifore books, and was moderately impressed with them and would like to get my teeth into something about the post Stalin era as I'm pretty burned out on the Revolutionary period. I was browsing in a store recently and it seems like this subject tends to attract long winded sperglords writing these huge, and very dull, brick-like tomes. So something, relatively, short and snappy would be awesome.
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Jan 18, 2011 02:58
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Forge_Pharaoh posted:dvl- Thanks for the suggestion, this seems exactly what I'm looking for. I'm open for more suggestions if anyone has any so I don't have to come asking again in a week or two
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Jan 18, 2011 09:38
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I'm reading about how the indians lived before America was discovered way back in the 15th and 16th century. I am sure there are some good books about this, are there any you could recommend? Preferably about how it was before the Spanish discovered the land, but movies around that entire period will do.
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Jan 18, 2011 18:48
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csidle posted:I'm reading about how the indians lived before America was discovered way back in the 15th and 16th century. I am sure there are some good books about this, are there any you could recommend? Preferably about how it was before the Spanish discovered the land, but movies around that entire period will do. This was one of those big popular history books that came out a few years ago, I think? -- http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Columbus/dp/1400032059/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1295395314&sr=8-3 . I don't know how much you've read already, but it seems like a good enough survey to start off with.
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Jan 19, 2011 01:04
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dvl posted:I'm looking for more books like this (most are from this thread so thank you I like those kinda books myself, I'm a sucker for pauper to prince, rise of the hero crap. I'll give you a list of similar-ish books, may be hit or miss: Abercombie, Joe - The First Law Trilogy Abraham, Daniel - The Long Prince Quartet Butcher, Jim - Codex Alera Cashore, Kristin - Seven Kingdoms Trilogy Cook, Glen - The Chronicles of the Black Company Duncan, Dave - The King's Blades Erikson, Steven - The Malazan Book of the Fallen Farland, David - The Runelords Feist, Raymond E - Riftwar Saga Modesitt Jr, L E - The Corean Chronicles Sanderson, Brandon - Mistborn & Stormlight Archive Tchaikovsky, Adrian - Shadows of the Apt
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Jan 19, 2011 04:31
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About to finish Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. Haven't read a book in such a long time (kindle on my android is awesome!) and really enjoyed this one. Recommend me some dark humor/satire that isn't too lengthy, not too keen on 1000+ pages.
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Jan 20, 2011 20:45
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Coldharbour posted:About to finish Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. Haven't read a book in such a long time (kindle on my android is awesome!) and really enjoyed this one. Recommend me some dark humor/satire that isn't too lengthy, not too keen on 1000+ pages. Catch-22. Let me repeat. Catch-22. The Devil's Dictionary, although it isn't a novel. I'm not very fond of Vonnegut but most of his works will fit your bill. I'd start with Slaughterhouse-Five and The Sirens of Titan. For a dark and macabre sense of humor I'd also recommend some of Roald Dahl's short stories, including The Landlady, Skin, and Man From the South.
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Jan 21, 2011 03:21
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ShutteredIn posted:Serious Men by Manu Joseph came out last year, it's a really interesting look at caste relations in modern India. It's also a satire on the science and technology boom in India, with the powerful wealthy classes pushing to establish India more on the global stage while completing ignoring most of their problems at home. And it's loving hilarious. And to Coldharbour, have you read any of the Dexter novels by Jeff Lindsey? They're not comedies per se, but Dexter has such a dark, dry sense of humor that I've actually laughed out loud at some point in each of them. Except the third one, don't read that. Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Jan 21, 2011 |
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Jan 21, 2011 07:52
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:I know this was from weeks ago, but I just finished this a couple hours ago and wanted to thank you again for the recommendation--it was fantastic and I never would have heard of it if it weren't for your post. Awesome, glad you liked it! I only heard about it from Anis Shivani mentioning a bunch on his blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/manu-joseph-india_b_674544.html
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Jan 21, 2011 20:48
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I'm interested in learning about Dali. Is there a biography that's considered to be definitive?
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Jan 23, 2011 17:17
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I really enjoy Jurassic Park and The Lost World (as well as several other Crichton novels) because of the way they mix fascinating scientific concepts with a fun story and great characters. Is there anything else out there that does the same thing while not having a completely awful underlying story? I would prefer something similar in scope, as I'm sure there is plenty of sci-fi by the great authors that include plenty of science, but I'm "thinking man's trash" rather than "high concept science fiction." "Technothrillers," perhaps?
feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Jan 23, 2011 |
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Jan 23, 2011 18:05
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feedmyleg posted:I really enjoy Jurassic Park and The Lost World (as well as several other Crichton novels) because of the way they mix fascinating scientific concepts with a fun story and great characters. Is there anything else out there that does the same thing while not having a completely awful underlying story? I would prefer something similar in scope, as I'm sure there is plenty of sci-fi by the great authors that include plenty of science, but I'm "thinking man's trash" rather than "high concept science fiction." "Technothrillers," perhaps? You might want to check out The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes. It explores some similar man versus nature themes and has a similar balance between science and page turning action/suspense and "oh poo poo" moments as Crichton's stuff. It's not exactly what you're asking for as it is overtly science fiction (set on a colony on another planet) but it is fun and I can't think of any other book that reminded me of Jurassic Park as much as this did. Beyond that there's stuff like Darwin's Radio/Darwin's Children by Greg Bear, maybe some other Greg Bear stuff as well. Maybe give some Ira Levin a shot?
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Jan 24, 2011 11:20
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I'm looking for some books about werewolves. The vast majority of books involving werewolves seem to be some crazy woman's sex fantasy so its hard to find something decent. Anyone have any good suggestions?
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Jan 25, 2011 06:14
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I just finished The Magicians, and I'm looking for something similar. I loved the book. The plot seemed disjointed at times, or at least just the plot transitions, but the characters were unbelievably good. Flawed and real and unique and completely awesome. The imagery was impressive and usually immersive, and it had the usual mark of a good book for me, which is leaving me sort of bummed out afterwards.
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Jan 25, 2011 10:56
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Hypnolobster posted:I just finished The Magicians, and I'm looking for something similar. Does it need to be fantasy? If not, here's a recommendation I posted in the Magicians thread a while back: Hedrigall posted:I love a book when it deals deeply with the emotional state of a character, to the point where a book could have literally no plot and I would still find it fascinating. Basic plot info: a fictional New England college campus, 6 students all with hosed up lives, studying Ancient Greek under a flamboyant and enigmatic instructor, murder and paranoia ensues.
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Jan 25, 2011 11:22
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Fame Throwa posted:I'm looking for some books about werewolves. The vast majority of books involving werewolves seem to be some crazy woman's sex fantasy so its hard to find something decent. Anyone have any good suggestions? I have not read it, but The Mammoth Book of Wolf Men has two things going for it: 1) it's a reprint of a book from the mid-90s, before the paranormal romance craze started, and 2) it's edited by Stephen Jones, and if his comments in his annual year's best horror anthologies are anything to go by, he hates paranormal romance.
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Jan 25, 2011 14:51
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Fame Throwa posted:I'm looking for some books about werewolves. The vast majority of books involving werewolves seem to be some crazy woman's sex fantasy so its hard to find something decent. Anyone have any good suggestions? Toby Barlow's Sharp Teeth- it's a free-verse novel set in modern LA featuring gangs of shape-shifting werewolves with a surprisingly affecting love story. it's also way less ridiculous than it sounds.
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Jan 25, 2011 21:11
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feedmyleg posted:I really enjoy Jurassic Park and The Lost World (as well as several other Crichton novels) because of the way they mix fascinating scientific concepts with a fun story and great characters. Is there anything else out there that does the same thing while not having a completely awful underlying story? I would prefer something similar in scope, as I'm sure there is plenty of sci-fi by the great authors that include plenty of science, but I'm "thinking man's trash" rather than "high concept science fiction." "Technothrillers," perhaps? Warren Fahy's Fragment is JP-like to the point of being derivative, but it's an easy read and contains some neat evolutionary ideas. Preston and Child's Relic is the last book of this type i read, and while it doesn't do anything new for the genre, either, it does its job quite well. have you read The Andromeda Strain? if you enjoyed it, keep an eye out for the pulpy Mutant 59: the Plastic Eaters.
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Jan 26, 2011 00:10
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Okay, guys, I've got a pretty weird one for you. I may need to pretend to be Catholic for a while. Possibly forever. Is there a comprehensive...'how-to' guide, in essence? Like a Catholicism for Dummies, that would teach the basics of being Catholic. Now that I look at it, there is literally a Catholicism For Dummies book that seems pretty well regarded, do you think a book like that would help? I certainly wouldn't mind a history of the Church or anything like that but I'm primarily looking for something that would help me keep my cover. 
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Jan 26, 2011 00:53
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:Okay, guys, I've got a pretty weird one for you. I may need to pretend to be Catholic for a while. Possibly forever. I think Walter would prefer you just convert.
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Jan 26, 2011 03:14
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Fame Throwa posted:I'm looking for some books about werewolves. The vast majority of books involving werewolves seem to be some crazy woman's sex fantasy so its hard to find something decent. Anyone have any good suggestions? Bareback aka Benighted by Kit Whitfield is fairly solid. I like the Kitty series by Carrie Vaughn as well, but that's probably a little more chick-lit than you were looking for.
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Jan 26, 2011 03:31
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:Like a Catholicism for Dummies, that would teach the basics of being Catholic. Have you considered The Bible? Seriously, I was raised Roman Catholic and if you can at least remember the 10 commandments and most of the new testament, you're probably okay.
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Jan 26, 2011 05:11
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:Okay, guys, I've got a pretty weird one for you. I may need to pretend to be Catholic for a while. Possibly forever. Try to pick up a Catechism book? They're what people who are converting need to read before they can convert, so you should be covered.
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Jan 26, 2011 05:40
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barkingclam posted:Have you considered The Bible? Radio! posted:Try to pick up a Catechism book? They're what people who are converting need to read before they can convert, so you should be covered. DrGonzo90 posted:I think Walter would prefer you just convert.
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Jan 26, 2011 05:54
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