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deety posted:This one?
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May 31, 2011 01:54
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Yond Cassius posted:Hi Book Barn, Dregan found it! It's What Do The Simple Folk Do?... by Alan Dean Foster, part of his ...Who Needs Enemies? anthology.
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May 31, 2011 02:53
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Yond Cassius posted:Dregan found it! It's What Do The Simple Folk Do?... by Alan Dean Foster, part of his ...Who Needs Enemies? anthology. Beaten, but you may also enjoy 'The Prize of Peril' by Robert Sheckley, which is a little less dark from memory. http://arthursclassicnovels.com/sheckley/prizep10.html
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May 31, 2011 09:15
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Starblind posted:That sounds like the Gears' People of the Wolf. There's a whole series of them. Thank you so much!
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May 31, 2011 14:39
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The main character was a gullible, greedy sort of idiot. His boss convinced him he was a detective/super spy and sent him on a wild goose chase so (I think) the boss could bang his wife. Like a really dark version of "The Man Who Knew Too Little" Things I remember: He was injected with a "super serum" which was really just a blend of uppers and narcotics. There was a passage about specially trained guard dogs, responded to German commands, I think they had laryngectomies. The author of the book is well respected, but hates "New Yorker" literary types and hangs out in blue collar bars in a rural/mining community. I thought it was called "The Warlock" but that's returning a bunch of fantasy and YA novels.
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Jun 1, 2011 01:16
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WAs taking with a few people a work about books during grade school and I couldn't remember the title (or find anything with quick googling) of one that I do remember reading a couple times back then. The main scene that I can remember is a kid in his house that ends up getting put into some kind of turn based real life board game with a bunch of aliens. I think the house ends up getting blown up by some ability a person draws from a card. It wasn't Zathura either. Any ideas?
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Jun 1, 2011 08:32
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DKWildz posted:WAs taking with a few people a work about books during grade school and I couldn't remember the title (or find anything with quick googling) of one that I do remember reading a couple times back then. Interstellar Pig edit- which is fantastic funkybottoms fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Jun 1, 2011 |
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Jun 1, 2011 14:45
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Gorbash posted:Beaten, but you may also enjoy 'The Prize of Peril' by Robert Sheckley, which is a little less dark from memory. This is much, much less dark than the Alan Dean Foster story. It's a good read, though! Thanks!
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Jun 2, 2011 08:46
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Whilst listening to the commentaries for 'The Armando Ianucci Shows' Armando mentions a short story in which a scientist is able to make people live longer, but when they live to be over 130 years old they turn into angels. That's pretty much all the info I have on it. There was also a collection of short stories I read years ago, and all I can remember was that one the of the stories was called 'The dead language teacher' or some variation on it, and another story featured a gang of thieves trying trying to open a voice activated door with the words 'Lancashire Hotpot'. Sorry I can't be more specific.
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Jun 2, 2011 12:00
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funkybottoms posted:Interstellar Pig YES! Awesome, thank you  Time to go grab a copy for myself.EDIT: After looking it up it's funny how over the years and changing the cover of a book I could walk right past something and not recognize it. The cover I remember vs the current (I think)  
DKWildz fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Jun 3, 2011 |
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Jun 3, 2011 02:19
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This one is fairly obscure but maybe it will jog someones memory. My sister and I were traveling through upstate New York the other week looking at all the grand old houses. We both almost simultaneously remembered a book from our childhood that had a lot of descriptions of wooden shutters - the sort that you see on old houses. The book wasn't specifically about shutters, but there was a story running through the book about taking these old shutters off the house and repainting them. At one point the shutters were banging during a storm and the protagonist needed to remove them. It was a bit difficult to remove and they eventually worked out how to unlatch them and bring them inside. I seem to remember an air of mystery or supernatural about the story. Maybe some young people were staying at a relatives spooky house for the summer or something. Does this ring any bells? First we thought it may have been a Trixie Belden book, but my sister knows them all practically by heart and was sure it wasn't.
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Jun 5, 2011 01:03
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fritz posted:Sewer, Gas, Electric That's the one, thanks!
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Jun 5, 2011 06:56
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DKWildz posted:YES! Awesome, thank you glad to help and yes, that cover threw me, too
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Jun 5, 2011 12:23
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I recall reading about (but not actually reading) a sci fi book which involved a Catholic mission sent to the first aliens we come across. When they arrive, after some interactions with local aliens, another group of aliens seizes the mission. The protagonist becomes the slave of one of the aggressive group of aliens; his hands are mutilated because dependence on others is seen as some sort of mark of esteem and he is raped. I would have thought with my fairly decent recollection of the plot some google key word searching would yield up the title, but I've got nothing. Edit: Ah! The Sparrow! I remember the title being bird related.
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Jun 5, 2011 13:25
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Ror posted:I just started thinking of a book I read in high school but I'm realizing how vague it all sounds. This is a shot in the dark, but is it The Ginger Man?
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Jun 5, 2011 19:31
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Ror posted:I just started thinking of a book I read in high school but I'm realizing how vague it all sounds. Is it Ironweed?
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Jun 6, 2011 12:11
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Bookish posted:Is it Ironweed? Yes!! Thank you! Now I feel like a lovely kid for being bored by it though, it won the Pulitzer. 
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Jun 6, 2011 20:41
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Children's book that I would have read in the late 80s. I have so little info here but this thread has not let me down yet. - Main character is called Philip. Human boy from the regular world. - Secondary character, which I think was a humanoid hamster or guinea pig or something, couldn't pronounce Philip correctly and called him "Flipip". - There was a bird, I think a robin, involved. Maybe it died, or was seriously injured. - In the end, some evil character (a witch?) is trying to persuade Philip to do something. The robin states "Flipip knows the word. Flying, flying" causing the main character to remember a dream(?) where he was flying and saw two islands that spelled "NO" when seen from above. He says no to the witch and wins the story, or saves the day, or whatever. I think this final scene happened in a library. - There may have been a sequel. Or this was a sequel. Or not. As always, some, none or all of these details may be incorrect! The only bit I definitely remember is "Flipip knows the word. Flying, flying" but given the time since I read it, that is highly unreliable. Thanks for any insights offered.
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Jun 8, 2011 15:48
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Apparently it's this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beaver-Towers-Nigel-Hinton/dp/0140370609
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Jun 8, 2011 17:16
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Here's some I asked about years ago in this thread but were never answered: ---- I haven't actually read this, just heard about it: Mankind develops some kind of portal through which they can (inexplicably) see through the eyes of a member of an alien race. Can't communicate or travel through it, just observe. The plot probably develops from there, but that basic premise is all I know. (I thought maybe Arthur C. Clarke's "Light of Other Days" but, reading the synopsis on Wikipedia, that doesn't sound like it.) ---- A children's scifi novel I saw often in my primary school library, but for some reason never read, even though it looked awesome. It was called "Virtual ____" (I can't remember the second word, I don't think it was "reality"), and had a big neon dinosaur on the front. It also had a sequel or two. Other than that I don't know anything about it, not even what it was about. Edit: It might have been called "______ Virtuality". ---- A book of weird short stories. I think they were illustrated. Wasn't Roald Dahl or Paul Jennings. Some of them I remember include: a) A story about three princes who want to get a wish granted, and to do so they need to climb to the top of a huge tower. One tries to take the elevator and dies, the next starts using the stairs but is mean to a woman he meets cleaning the stairs and never progresses, the third helps the cleaning woman and reaches the top in no time. b) A really poor kid finds a button/badge that says "Kick Me" and thinking it's stupid, kicks it over a fence. He then goes home to discover his family has become really rich and live in a nice house. But they end up more miserable than when they were poor.
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Jun 8, 2011 17:20
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Hedrigall posted:Here's some I asked about years ago in this thread but were never answered: Sounds like Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson.
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Jun 8, 2011 17:51
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Hedrigall posted:
Oh gently caress me, I had that! Now there's two of us suffering!
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Jun 9, 2011 12:54
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A series where aliens attack us by slowly terraforming the planet; the aliens themselves are never seen. Their species out-compete the domestic species furiously. Help!
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Jun 10, 2011 19:51
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Neurosis posted:A series where aliens attack us by slowly terraforming the planet; the aliens themselves are never seen. Their species out-compete the domestic species furiously. Help!
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Jun 10, 2011 21:08
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Neurosis posted:A series where aliens attack us by slowly terraforming the planet; the aliens themselves are never seen. Their species out-compete the domestic species furiously. Help! If it wasn't a series, it could well be "The Genocides" by Thomas Disch (though there's only one alien species in that, a fast growing plant)
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Jun 11, 2011 13:05
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Two books: 1. A children's book about a kid who lives in a house where all the appliances suddenly turn not monsters. I distinctly remember there being an alligator. 2. Slight chance that this is a movie instead of a book, but I don't think so: I can't remember anything about the plot but it's a thriller/sic-fi story in the not too distant future. A man is in a room (possibly a hotel room?) using some technological device that lets him live in someone else's body, or something like that. I think there were electrodes or wires involved, and here was another person in the room. Possibly a Stephen King story, definitely quite eerie.
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Jun 11, 2011 15:32
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Engelbrecht posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Against_the_Chtorr ? Holy poo poo, the guy who wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles" did his own SF series? Is it any good?
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Jun 11, 2011 15:37
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Holy poo poo, the guy who wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles" did his own SF series? Is it any good?
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Jun 11, 2011 16:41
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Hello, I am looking for a book. I remember my Honors English teacher tried to make my class read it in 11th or 12th grade, and most of us didn't because it was pretty retarded and way below our reading level. I would like to find it to see if it was really as ridiculous as I remember. It was a story about a boy, which starts on his birthday. What he doesn't know though is that he's some magic race, and when they turn *insert age here* their powers activate. So, he's like running around his neighborhood and he says 'hi' to his neighbor who is talking to some guy, but what he doesn't realize is he said 'hi' in a super-secret magic race language that he now magically knows without him knowing (this is the worst sentence I have ever typed). But, as luck would have it his neighbor and this random guy are ALSO super-double-secret magicians so they understand him and answer him back, and the boy notes that the other man has an accent. When that man leaves the neighbor explains that he was talking in super-secret-magic-speak without knowing it and so they responded in super-magic-secret-speak, and the reason that guy had an accent is because he was a bad guy and bad guys have accents in double-magic-secret-speak. There also may have been a flood(?), or threat of a flood(?), or talking animals(?) at some point. I really don't think I finished it. I don't know what the gently caress. High school was kinda a blur so maybe this was just a hosed-up dream. Saint Freak fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Jun 11, 2011 |
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Jun 11, 2011 19:02
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Saint Freak posted:Hello, I am looking for a book. I remember my Honors English teacher tried to make my class read it in 11th or 12th grade, and most of us didn't because it was pretty retarded and way below our reading level. I would like to find it to see if it was really as ridiculous as I remember.
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Jun 11, 2011 19:14
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Engelbrecht posted:I think you're looking for The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. (2nd book in a series also called The Dark is Rising and published as an omnibus, just to confuse things more.) Thank you. I don't recognize any of the covers GIS pulls, but that has to be it. Truly a book for high school students with honors to follow Vonnegut or Orwell.
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Jun 11, 2011 19:20
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Saint Freak posted:Thank you. I don't recognize any of the covers GIS pulls, but that has to be it.
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Jun 11, 2011 19:33
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Engelbrecht posted:Yeah, I can't imagine anyone dim enough to try and get a class of 16-year-olds to read it either, but from the description it's pretty much got to be that. It'd be great stuff if you were all 10, but it's not the kind of kids' book that older people will appreciate for any other reason than nostalgia. Yeah, that one was all kinds of awesome in 8th grade, but if you're reading it later, you're reading it as a children's book or you aren't going to enjoy it. Absolutely bizzare assignment for an honors level high school course.
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Jun 11, 2011 19:56
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Holy poo poo, the guy who wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles" did his own SF series? Is it any good? No. (It's also unfinished and will likely never be finished).
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Jun 12, 2011 04:16
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I'm looking for a teen fiction type novel - possibly set in the 50s/60s that focuses on a girl moving in with extended family - possibly set in California with orange trees/groves involved - the star might be named Katie, and one of the boys she likes might be a Neil. Pretty sure it's one of those teen girl coming of age type stories - I need it for research.
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Jun 13, 2011 00:19
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I've got a few that I loved but really can't remember the names or authors of. The first is a book with two books? Kinda? Part of it takes place in the real world where a couple kids visit an out of work author and make a story with him, and the other part is the actual book they're writing which is a little darker. It involved a girl being lethally injected? That's pretty much all I can remember. The second's a two-parter set in a sort of alternate Britain, maybe? It feels kind of Victorian, but with a couple steampunkish elements. It's about an orphan who's adopted father is a magician and makes him help with the illusions. There's something about a deal with the devil, travelling with fairies and an Emperor whose 'empire' is pretty much just his bedroom. The third is about an alternate Britain where the Soviets bombed London so bad that peoples' nightmares became real. Finally, one I read when I was around 9, so I can pretty much only remember the final scene. Basically, a drug-addicted narcotics agent picks up a blue flower? Also something about aphids. That's quite a few, but thanks if you can help me.
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Jun 13, 2011 00:24
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Last one sounds like a Philip K Dick story, A Scanner Darkly. No idea on the others though.
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Jun 13, 2011 01:35
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Last one sounds like a Philip K Dick story, A Scanner Darkly. Bloody hell, you're right. Ta. 
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Jun 13, 2011 02:09
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evil spiff posted:I'm looking for a teen fiction type novel - possibly set in the 50s/60s that focuses on a girl moving in with extended family - possibly set in California with orange trees/groves involved - the star might be named Katie, and one of the boys she likes might be a Neil. It's a long shot, but could it be "The Luckiest Girl" by Beverly Cleary? The teens' names don't fit, but the rest of your description does (set in the 50's, moves in with someone other than immediate family, set in California), except that it's a friend of her mother's rather than family she moves in with. The cover was different when I read it as a kid: http://www.carlytown.com/maltshop/images/luckiestlg.jpg
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Jun 13, 2011 06:20
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Fire In The Disco posted:It's a long shot, but could it be "The Luckiest Girl" by Beverly Cleary? The teens' names don't fit, but the rest of your description does (set in the 50's, moves in with someone other than immediate family, set in California), except that it's a friend of her mother's rather than family she moves in with. The cover was different when I read it as a kid: You got it! Amazing... Seriously, MY WIFE thanks you - she had been trying to remember for days.
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Jun 13, 2011 06:45
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