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Mr. Crow posted:So I've been guilty of not reading in years and I used to be a huge reader in middle/high school and it's kind of been depressing me lately so I've decided I'm going to start reading some H.P. Lovecraft (among one or two other things) as I've never touched it and I feel there is something wrong with me for having not, can anyone recommend a good starting point/book? The Colour Out of Space, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, etc. are good starting points for Lovecraft. Project Gutenberg has Lovecraft's entire catalog available online for free if you don't mind reading them on the computer.
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Feb 24, 2011 02:59
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Thanks to whoever recommended Blindsight. Now I have legitimate existential confusion and angst. < >*edit* Actually though, I kind of need to re-read the whole thing in text, since it was a bit too smart for a "listen while you work" audiobook. *edit2* Seconding/thirding/etc recommendation. Locus fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Feb 24, 2011 |
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Feb 24, 2011 03:49
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Can anyone recommend some books that are like or combine aspects of the following art pieces? I would love to read something unconventional from a new perspective that focuses on taboo characters, situations, and organizations. Morally ambiguous and thought-provoking books- existentialist/philosophical books would be preferred. -"Requiem for a Dream" -"1984" and "Brave New World" -"Time's Arrow" -"Schindler's List" -"The Pianist" Short crappy list, I know, but its all I can think of at the moment. You can notice the WW2 interest, any books that deal with the above themes in the context of that war would be interesting. TheShrike fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Feb 24, 2011 |
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Feb 24, 2011 05:24
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Kontradaz posted:Can anyone recommend some books that are like or combine aspects of the following art pieces? I would love to read something unconventional from a new perspective that focuses on taboo characters, situations, and organizations. Morally ambiguous and thought-provoking books- existentialist/philosophical books would be preferred. you want taboo and morally ambiguous? Les Chants de Maldoror by the "Comte de Lautréamont" is probably the craziest thing i've read, period. for something unconventional and existential, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's surreal Memories of the Future might be worth checking out (and that goes for all you House of Leaves fans, too)
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Feb 24, 2011 05:37
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Encryptic posted:The Colour Out of Space, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, etc. are good starting points for Lovecraft. Project Gutenberg has Lovecraft's entire catalog available online for free if you don't mind reading them on the computer. To add to this, "The Call of Cthulhu" is probably his most iconic single work, the one that will get you most familiar with the core of his mythos the fastest.
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Feb 24, 2011 05:47
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mr. unhsib posted:Can anyone recommend me some good sci fi novels about colonization? Something along the lines of Moving Mars by Greg Bear, or the TV series Outcasts. I've read the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy, but I didn't really care for it (mostly I found the human drama element of the story to be quite juvenile). Since you haven't gotten a reply I'll go ahead and mention Dune.
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Feb 24, 2011 06:52
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Can anyone recommend some good dying earth/apocalyptic books? And another more specific thing, something that deals with the ruins and whats left from a long dead civilization (ours, a fictional one, anything). I'm in kind of a morbid mood 
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Feb 24, 2011 07:40
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Also my mom only lets me spend five bucks a month to get my cool gaga avatars back so I guess I'm stuck with this one for a while.
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Kontradaz posted:Can anyone recommend some books that are like or combine aspects of the following art pieces? I would love to read something unconventional from a new perspective that focuses on taboo characters, situations, and organizations. Morally ambiguous and thought-provoking books- existentialist/philosophical books would be preferred. You should probably read Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. WW2, taboo, thought provoking, etc.
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Feb 24, 2011 09:08
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Thanks for the recommendations!Bad Bromance posted:Can anyone recommend some good dying earth/apocalyptic books? And another more specific thing, something that deals with the ruins and whats left from a long dead civilization (ours, a fictional one, anything). I'm in kind of a morbid mood Have you read A Canticle for Leibowitz? Broadly speaking, it's about monks living in the ruins of our society centuries after nuclear war and trying to preserve the knowledge of the dead civilization. It is pretty excellent.
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Feb 24, 2011 10:00
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Bad Bromance posted:Can anyone recommend some good dying earth/apocalyptic books? And another more specific thing, something that deals with the ruins and whats left from a long dead civilization (ours, a fictional one, anything). I'm in kind of a morbid mood Read On The Beach by Neville Shufte and Death of Grass, can't remember who by.
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Feb 24, 2011 10:16
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Radio! posted:I know this has probably been asked before (but I don't think too recently?), but does anyone have any recommendations for basic overviews of recent Middle Eastern/North African history and politics? I've been trying to follow the protests/revolutions as closely as possible, but it's difficult since I have no background knowledge whatsoever of the entire region.
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Feb 24, 2011 12:02
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Bad Bromance posted:Can anyone recommend some good dying earth/apocalyptic books? And another more specific thing, something that deals with the ruins and whats left from a long dead civilization (ours, a fictional one, anything). I'm in kind of a morbid mood Earth Abides, by George R Stewart, which is a novel written in the late 1940s that puts a lot of thought into the changes that would occur if human civilization got knocked down a few pegs. Alan Weisman's recent non-fiction The World Without Us covers some of the same ground, but goes into greater detail about what would happen to the planet long-term if humans simply disappeared. Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse and The Apocalypse Reader are excellent collections of- wait for it- apocalyptic short stories. ACFL has already been mentioned, but if you want a real punch-in-the-gut sad, dark (but funny!) book, James Morrow's The is the Way the World Ends should work.
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Feb 24, 2011 13:28
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Bad Bromance posted:Can anyone recommend some good dying earth/apocalyptic books? And another more specific thing, something that deals with the ruins and whats left from a long dead civilization (ours, a fictional one, anything). I'm in kind of a morbid mood On the Beach and Canticle should be great for what you want. You could also try Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun; it takes place on an Earth so many millions of years in the future that they can't even count the number of apocalypses they've had.
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Feb 24, 2011 15:44
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:You could also try Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun; it takes place on an Earth so many millions of years in the future that they can't even count the number of apocalypses they've had. This a hundred times. There's also Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" series (big influence on Wolfe, too) Finally, the Viriconium novels and stories by M. John Harrison are highly recommended as well - they've been collected in a nice omnibus edition that came out several years ago.
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Feb 24, 2011 17:32
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I just bought one part of the Book of the New Sun from a Borders that was going out of business. All sales were final, and when I got home I cracked open the book to discover... it was part two. 
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Feb 24, 2011 19:27
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Thanks everyone, I'll check those out!
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Feb 24, 2011 20:28
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AARP LARPer fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Jan 22, 2016 |
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Feb 25, 2011 05:45
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Going on a week long camping adventure this spring break. Any ideas for novels that would fit the Appalachians? Obvious/well-known is ok. I'd kinda like a classic.
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Feb 25, 2011 06:37
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AARP LARPer fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Jan 22, 2016 |
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Feb 25, 2011 07:43
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dammitcharlie posted:Going on a week long camping adventure this spring break. Any ideas for novels that would fit the Appalachians? Obvious/well-known is ok. I'd kinda like a classic. Serena by Ron Rash. think There Will Be Blood Child of God by Cormac McCarthy. this one will help you sleep at night. The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by... Breece D'J Pancake. i've not actually read this, but the owner of my bookstore has recommended it to people on a few occasions and she's got pretty good taste.
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Feb 25, 2011 15:02
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dammitcharlie posted:Going on a week long camping adventure this spring break. Any ideas for novels that would fit the Appalachians? Obvious/well-known is ok. I'd kinda like a classic. http://www.amazon.com/Deliverance-James-Dickey/dp/038531387X is what you want. Squeal like a pig, boy!
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Feb 25, 2011 16:30
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:http://www.amazon.com/Deliverance-James-Dickey/dp/038531387X is what you want. Squeal like a pig, boy! haha, meant to include that, too!
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Feb 25, 2011 17:34
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:http://www.amazon.com/Deliverance-James-Dickey/dp/038531387X is what you want. Squeal like a pig, boy! beaten. ed: the only thing the book would miss would be 'duelling banjos'. For a moment I thought Drew was going to join the Dark Side. rasser fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Feb 25, 2011 |
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Feb 25, 2011 21:03
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dammitcharlie posted:Going on a week long camping adventure this spring break. Any ideas for novels that would fit the Appalachians? Obvious/well-known is ok. I'd kinda like a classic. Not a novel, but Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is about hiking the Appalachian Trail and it's an interesting, funny and quick read.
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Feb 25, 2011 22:21
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After teaching both of them today, I'm a little more interested in the Russian and Chinese revolutions. Can anyone recommend some easy nonfiction reading and/or novels based in that time period? I generally read more fiction than non-, so novels would be preferable. Thanks!
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Feb 27, 2011 00:11
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John Reed's Ten days that shook the world s a good account of the Russian revolution from a journalist who was on it's front lines. It's not exactly impartial - Lenin wrote an introduction to it - but it's a good read.
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Feb 27, 2011 04:28
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I read a ton of Raymond Feist's books. I liked most of them. Could anyone point me in the direction of some fantasy stuff similar to his?
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Feb 27, 2011 16:28
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I've been playing Monday Night Combat, and I really love the setting, so i really want to read about a world that's both funny and also a dystopia. I've already read Snow Crash, and I loved that, so recommend away!
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Feb 28, 2011 07:29
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Can anyone recommend a good reader-friendly version of the Koran? I'd like something a bit edited, with the Surahs put in some kind of sensible order and repitition removed. Something geared toward the intested reader rather than the scholar or the worshipper. On a similar note, does anyone know of an attractively type-set Bible? I like the idea of Books of the Bible, in that it wisely omits chapter and verse numbers and uses a one column format for text. I think that allows each book to be read in its own right, rather than looking like a legal or a technical document. My only complaint is that the entire Bible is presented in one volume, resulting in umnpleasantly tissue-like paper. I want the same kind of presentation but split into maybe five volumes. I've scoured the net but can't find anything suitable: it's pretty funny, actually, when you consider that the Bible exists in hundreds of thousands of editions, but the one I want is so elusive!
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Mar 1, 2011 15:23
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I've read some of NJ Dawood's translation and found it pretty lucid and easy to read. Penguin publishes the whole thing and it's excerpted in a Norton anthology, where I read it.
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Mar 2, 2011 01:44
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MAS Abdel Haleem's is a really good translation of the Qu'ran, too. Extremely readable, the best translation I've seen easily. I wish I could help you with the Bible, but I don't know as much about that.
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Mar 2, 2011 01:53
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I'm sure there is a million books out there on this and they are mostly all crap. But, surely there are some interesting reads out here. And at the expense of embarrassing myself, where's a good start on some books about picking up the opposite sex? (girls). I've read some interesting articles on Cracked.com lately, and just for the sake of reading up on the subject and knowing more about it, I know there has to be some pretty solid reads out there.
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Mar 2, 2011 09:43
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I would say why bother learning about something you'll never do, but then again I read books about astronaut training and stuff like that so go for it bro!
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Mar 2, 2011 10:00
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Exactly! There used to be an awesome thread about this stuff in the Ask/Tell forum (I thought), and I've searched for it for a long while before giving up.
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Mar 2, 2011 10:02
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89 posted:Exactly! However, if you really want to turn sexual and emotional interactions into the abstracted and borderline autistic hobby that is the PUA universe, I hear a good place to start is that Mystery Method book. Or whatever the first one that guy wrote is. I have no personal experience, but I've seen people say that even normal people can gain regular insight from it.
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Mar 2, 2011 11:17
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saahil92 posted:I've been playing Monday Night Combat, and I really love the setting, so i really want to read about a world that's both funny and also a dystopia. I've already read Snow Crash, and I loved that, so recommend away! Maybe Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. I'm not sure how well it's aged, and while it's not outright comedy it doesn't take itself as seriously as similar stuff that came later. I need to reread it as it's a great book. If you don't mind older science fiction you might like some of Robert Sheckley's stuff. A lot of Iain Banks science fiction has a comedic (or at least irreverent) edge to it. And while it's not nescessarily dystopic it might capture some of the stuff you're looking for. It might be worth checking out Against a Dark Background which is not part of his "Culture" universe and has a lot of outragious action and hosed up societies.
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Mar 2, 2011 14:54
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There have been some fantastic recommendations in this thread so far, and I want to thank all the goons who have contributed. Now I have a request: I'm looking for some good books about India. I think I'd prefer non-fiction, but if there are some especially great novels I will look at those, too. Anything you guys have read that just had you rapt the entire time?
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Mar 2, 2011 19:25
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89 posted:I'm sure there is a million books out there on this and they are mostly all crap. But, surely there are some interesting reads out here. No harm in starting with the basics. I'd recommend Fodor's Women and The Rough Guide to Girls: Second Edition.
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Mar 2, 2011 19:34
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89 posted:I'm sure there is a million books out there on this and they are mostly all crap. But, surely there are some interesting reads out here. Read The Game by Neil Strauss, it sort of straddles the line between novel and non-fiction but it's an interesting read and you can decide from there whether you want to do any more reading on the subject. Strauss is a very good writer and seems to have a good attitude about the subject. From there you're on your own, most of the other writing on the subject will make you ashamed to be male.
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Mar 2, 2011 21:27
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gameday posted:There have been some fantastic recommendations in this thread so far, and I want to thank all the goons who have contributed. Now I have a request: Start like 5-6 pages back and read until you hit the suggestions about Indian lit and authors, it continues for a solid page or so.
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Mar 2, 2011 21:43
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