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Charles Bukowski is pretty great.
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Oct 17, 2013 22:58
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Charles Bukowski, Henry Miller, John Fante
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Oct 17, 2013 23:14
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sleepness posted:Hi book goons, As others have said, Bukowski (start with Post Office imo) Bleak and depressing (and funny) sans drug / alcohol abuse would net you Kurt Vonnegut Alternatively, Dostoyevsky (which are free for your kindle!), Celine, Zola (these two may or may not be for free on Kindle, haven't checked). Though as a warning, they will be rather more literary in style than Palahniuk. e: Thomas Wolfe's 'Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test' reads a bit like a proto-Hunter S. Thompson e2: maybe Jack Kerouac, but he might be a bit too hippy in outlook for what you're aiming for regulargonzalez fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Oct 17, 2013 |
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Oct 17, 2013 23:22
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sleepness posted:Hi book goons, Hubert Selby Jr. (Requiem for a Dream, Last Exit to Brooklyn) William Burroughs (Junky) Jim Carroll (The Basketball Diaries) Jay McInerney (Bright Lights, Big City and The Story of My Life)
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Oct 17, 2013 23:36
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Wow, thanks so much guys. Have tons of things on my amazon wish list now!
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Oct 18, 2013 00:58
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mcustic posted:Laura Silber's The Death of Yugoslavia is, I think, still the best and most accessible overall view on the Yugoslav wars. It is also available as a BBC TV series. Thanks a lot - I very much appreciate it.
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Oct 18, 2013 01:54
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I have the attention span of a bug, so I have liked reading short stories recently. I generally like realistic fiction, stories about ordinary people. I've liked Ray Carver, Richard Ford, and Thomas Wolff. The library didn't have any Bukowski collections so I didn't pick up one yet, but he's on the list. Perhaps varying this a bit with some women authors might be interesting, but not necessary. I did like what little I've read from Joan Didion. Anyone have a suggestion for a short story collection in this regard?
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Oct 18, 2013 05:52
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big business sloth posted:I have the attention span of a bug, so I have liked reading short stories recently. I generally like realistic fiction, stories about ordinary people. I've liked Ray Carver, Richard Ford, and Thomas Wolff. The library didn't have any Bukowski collections so I didn't pick up one yet, but he's on the list. Perhaps varying this a bit with some women authors might be interesting, but not necessary. I did like what little I've read from Joan Didion. Anyone have a suggestion for a short story collection in this regard? Amy Hempel, get this/ http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stories-Amy-Hempel-ebook/dp/B000N0WTAQ/ref=la_B000AP7GRU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382075081&sr=1-1
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Oct 18, 2013 06:45
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^^^ Forgot about Hempel, she's great as well. big business sloth posted:short stories Short stories are great, they're so underrated. Female authors: Joyce Carol Oates, Flannery O'Connor. Kelly Link is fantastic but is probably not what you're looking for in terms of realism. Carver and Wolff are fantastic, I'd also recommend Richard Yates and Hemingway. George Saunders is arguably the king of short stories at the moment, but again he strays away from realism. The nice thing about short stories is that you can easily find one or two stories from each of these recommended authors online, so you can see whether you like their style before you try and track down their books 
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Oct 18, 2013 06:47
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After I posted that I started to read the thread from the first page, just scanning to see if any familiar names were brought up, and I saw George Saunders and I knew he was the guy whose name I couldn't remember who wrote some stories that I liked a while back. Yeah, he does get weird occasionally, but he is very good. Requested Tenth of December from the library. Thanks for the other names too, I'll get on 'em.
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Oct 18, 2013 06:52
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big business sloth posted:I have the attention span of a bug, so I have liked reading short stories recently. I generally like realistic fiction, stories about ordinary people... Perhaps varying this a bit with some women authors might be interesting I'm not much of a literary fiction reader, but I enjoyed Megan Bergman's Birds of a Lesser Paradise. A lot of people really love Claire Watkins' Battleborn, although I personally didn't dig the author's style too much. I would also suggest Stewart O'Nan's Last Night at the Lobster, which is a very short novel, and the Neil Gaiman-edited Stories from a few years ago. If you get in the mood for something more fantastical, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, and Philip K Dick are some of my favorite authors and have a fair number of of short stories between them.
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Oct 18, 2013 13:43
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big business sloth posted:I have the attention span of a bug, so I have liked reading short stories recently. I generally like realistic fiction, stories about ordinary people. I've liked Ray Carver, Richard Ford, and Thomas Wolff. The library didn't have any Bukowski collections so I didn't pick up one yet, but he's on the list. Perhaps varying this a bit with some women authors might be interesting, but not necessary. I did like what little I've read from Joan Didion. Anyone have a suggestion for a short story collection in this regard? Andre Dubus II's stories are pretty good, he reminded me a bit of Ford and Carver. Selected Stories is a nice collection of his stuff. Flannery O'Connor rules, too. You can't go wrong with either of her story collections.
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Oct 18, 2013 16:48
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Can anyone recommend nonfiction (heh) books that deal with paranormal/alien stuff? I don't know how to explain it, but I'm looking into something that feels similar to Coast to Coast AM. Perhaps stuff like this, I don't know.
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Oct 19, 2013 03:38
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artichoke posted:I'm currently looking for books - fiction or non - about the Yugoslav wars. I knew many refugees growing up because they fled to places in the Midwest where the Catholic Church had set up havens for them. My high school had a ton of these folks, but most of them didn't really talk about what they'd left behind. So anything about the refugees, or the politics of the territories over there, or really anything that's well-written would be great. - Misha Glenny: The Fall of Yugoslavia, which is pretty interchangeable with Laura Silber's book. - Mihailo Crnobrnja: The Yugoslav Drama. The author was Yugoslavia's ambassador to the European Communities during the early days of the disintegration. It's a decent overview of the politics behind the break up from somebody who was fairly close to the actors. The writing can get a bit dense at times. - John Lampe: Yugoslavia As History: Twice There Was A Country. An academic overview of how the first and second Yugoslavia came about, and what a clusterfuck Tito's Yugoslavia was on the political level. - Roger Cohen: Hearts Grown Brutal - Sagas of Sarajevo. A good look on how the wars broke up families and communities by tracing the stories of a few families from Sarajevo and what happend to them.
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Oct 21, 2013 10:11
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Looking for interesting non fiction books to read, I like to read books when I get to the end I feel I have learned something. Some recent examples of stuff I have read: Monster of Florence Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil Of Dice and Men Anti Fragile The Black Swan Most Oliver Sacks books I know its kind of a broad subject to give recommendations for. But I am hoping to find cool interesting non fiction books. That list above is pretty short and I could add probably a hundred more to it.
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Oct 21, 2013 17:27
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Flaggy posted:I know its kind of a broad subject to give recommendations for. But I am hoping to find cool interesting non fiction books. That list above is pretty short and I could add probably a hundred more to it. If you have any interest in crime non-fiction, I highly suggest Columbine by Dave Cullen. What you saw in the media and the narrative that is still reported on today is pretty much the opposite of the truth. Also, Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt is an incredibly important book about how wrong the justice system can go when public opinion and fear are allowed to influence it.
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Oct 21, 2013 17:38
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Flaggy posted:Looking for interesting non fiction books to read, I like to read books when I get to the end I feel I have learned something. Some recent examples of stuff I have read: I always say this when people ask for non-fiction recs: try something by John McPhee. Any of his books, really: he makes the most boring topics (Oranges! The Colorado River! Geology!) interesting and fun to read about.
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Oct 21, 2013 17:58
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Flaggy posted:But I am hoping to find cool interesting non fiction books. Kind of the big names, so you might be familiar with them, but between Simon Winchester, Alan Weisman, Mary Roach, Naomi Klein, Steven Johnson, and Eric Schlosser, you should find something good. Oh, and The Tiger by John Vaillant, it's grrreat.
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Oct 21, 2013 18:10
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Fremry posted:If you have any interest in crime non-fiction, I highly suggest Columbine by Dave Cullen. What you saw in the media and the narrative that is still reported on today is pretty much the opposite of the truth. I have read both of those books and I agree they are awesome. Especially Columbine.
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Oct 21, 2013 18:10
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I'm looking for a book, or a series of books that I don't know the name of, or the author. The book appeared to be about many people, and their stories. I want to say it was set in France, maybe even Paris. It appeared the author was attempting to write a really complex collection of characters and put them in a book, or maybe multiple books. I don't think it was a modern author, but I may be wrong. I'm kicking myself for not buying it, when I went back it was sold. I want to say that the reason I didn't get it was because it was the second volume or maybe I was just overwhelmed with the fact that I had War & Peace staring at me.
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Oct 22, 2013 21:53
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Philthy posted:I'm looking for a book, or a series of books that I don't know the name of, or the author. Is it Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar? Edit: I'm stupid, it's In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.
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Oct 22, 2013 22:09
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I need two different kinds of recommendations if anyone can help me out. First, I borrowed John Dies at the End from a friend and really enjoyed it. What else is like it? Second, I'm also looking for political writing in the same vein as Rick Perlstein's Nixonland. Not necessarily about that time period, but a similar style, and if there was one about the 1980s/Thatcher I would especially love to read it.
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Oct 23, 2013 00:17
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Dopilsya posted:I need two different kinds of recommendations if anyone can help me out. There's a sequel to it. It's called This Book is Full of Spiders.
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Oct 23, 2013 02:10
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Radio! posted:There's a sequel to it. It's called This Book is Full of Spiders. And it's a real let down. I'd suggest the Laundry series by Charles Stross. The protagonist is a bit more competent than John and David (he's a mid-level bureaucrat in a government department that deals with Lovecraftian horrors), but the series has a similar mix of funny poo poo and scary poo poo, and adds a dash of workplace humour. First book is The Atrocity Archives but I can recommend the novella Equoid as a great, terrifying and, importantly, free place to start: http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/09/equoid - You will not look at My Little Pony in the same way again 
Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Oct 23, 2013 |
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Oct 23, 2013 04:06
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Hedrigall posted:And it's a real let down. Agreed, and I'll also second the Laundry Files recommendation. A Lee Martinez works a nice balance of funny and fantasy/horror/sci-fi, but it's a bit more... gentle? You might also try Charles Yu's How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, which I found incredibly funny, but it's also way poignant, like maybe a Vonnegut-penned episode of Futurama, and a bit less on the funny end of the spectrum would be Scott Sigler's Infected (I read JDATE around the same time as the latter two, so I could be exaggerating the connection a bit).
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Oct 23, 2013 11:59
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Smoking Crow posted:Is it Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar? It may have been Proust, but the book itself was a quite small paperback. Around 200-300 pages, in a smaller format. That entire Proust series is made up of huge volumes. It does look tempting to dive into, though. Oh god. Philthy fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Oct 23, 2013 |
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Oct 23, 2013 22:26
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I can only add my recommendation for Columbine to all the others. Great book! In the last few days I've been rediscovering my appreciation for early 90s hip hop. Now I'm curious if there's a good book on the rise and fall of Death Row Records? I'm looking for something that's reasonably factually accurate and well-researched and not some sensationalist conspiracy theory "the CIA killed Tupac"-style work. In an ideal world, it would be like Columbine, except about Death Row Records.
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Oct 24, 2013 10:23
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Philthy posted:It may have been Proust, but the book itself was a quite small paperback. Around 200-300 pages, in a smaller format. That entire Proust series is made up of huge volumes. It could have been a Zola Les Rougon-Macquart book, there are 20 of those that are all sort of related: http://www.amazon.com/Fortune-Rougons-Oxford-Classics-ebook/dp/B0090K58V2/ref=la_B000AQ092I_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382641255&sr=1-6
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Oct 24, 2013 20:04
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ShutteredIn posted:It could have been a Zola Les Rougon-Macquart book, there are 20 of those that are all sort of related: http://www.amazon.com/Fortune-Rougons-Oxford-Classics-ebook/dp/B0090K58V2/ref=la_B000AQ092I_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382641255&sr=1-6 This is it. Wow, thank you so much! My reading list probably extends beyond my life time at this point.
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Oct 25, 2013 18:17
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Philthy posted:This is it. Wow, thank you so much! My reading list probably extends beyond my life time at this point. You don't have to read these in any order by the way. The first one introduces a bunch of characters but then the books are all really different. And some of them are a pain in the rear end to find in English.
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Oct 25, 2013 19:44
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This is gonna sound pretty loving insane but lately I've been interested in reading about the causes of suicide and what, how and why a person decides to end their own life. I've already read Veronica Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho, but even if it was somewhat good I am not fond at all of his writing type. But I would love recommendations for the more emotional part of suicide like that novel brought up. I am also considering ordering Suicide by Émile Durkheim. I know it's a sociological view on suicide, but from what I've read it seems quite interesting. Is it worth it, and are there more books about it? Searched a bit around and most things I found were either about statistics, "seek help" stuff or "LIFE IS PRECIOUS  "(not that I mind that last category as Veronica Decides to Die was pretty much that, but I'd like.. Hard to explain, but something more? Something deeper?), so if anyone has any good recommendations for this particular field, that would be lovely.
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Oct 26, 2013 04:41
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I wouldn't recommend Suicide because it is very dry seeing as it is a 19th century sociological work. Also it isn't so much a work on suicide as it is a case study of Durkheim's social facts in suicide. I mean, you can read it if you want, just be aware that you would have to do some prior research on Durkheim before you read it. I would also recommend some philosophy. The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus is a good work about suicide. Be sure to read The Stranger, also by him at the same time for maximum enjoyment. (I believe Sartre said that this was the best way to enjoy both books.) For other books, I would recommend stuff not about suicide but mental illness. The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon is a very good but very draining book about the history of depression. Another good one is any of the autobiographical fiction of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. Akutagawa actually ended up killing himself and if you read his short story Spinning Gears, you can see the actual moment he gives up on life as he writes it.
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Oct 26, 2013 05:06
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This is hard to articulate, but are there any books with mysteries that are never solved by the characters or overtly explained to the reader, but where enough of the pieces of the puzzle are contained in the text for the reader to figure them out? I don't even necessarily mean mystery novels, but simply major unknowns that a close reading could actually deduce the truth with enough critical thought. This question was inspired a bit by that cracked article about crazy fan theories that actually make sense more than anything. I like the idea of authors giving enough evidential material in there but making the reader work for it more than just uber-creative fanwank.
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Oct 26, 2013 05:24
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Smoking Crow posted:I wouldn't recommend Suicide because it is very dry seeing as it is a 19th century sociological work. Also it isn't so much a work on suicide as it is a case study of Durkheim's social facts in suicide. I mean, you can read it if you want, just be aware that you would have to do some prior research on Durkheim before you read it. Thank you so much for this!  One point I didn't emphasize enough(I can't write for poo poo due it being 06.27 AM and I just can't loving sleep) is that I would absolutely love to have more deep and thoughtful philosophy about life and suicide. I am tired of being fed "LIFE IS PRECIOUS " or some stoner stuff. Those books you recommended sounds very good from what I read about them just now, so I'd love more recommendations similar to it!
Stalins Moustache fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 05:29
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Transistor Rhythm posted:This is hard to articulate, but are there any books with mysteries that are never solved by the characters or overtly explained to the reader, but where enough of the pieces of the puzzle are contained in the text for the reader to figure them out? I don't even necessarily mean mystery novels, but simply major unknowns that a close reading could actually deduce the truth with enough critical thought. This question was inspired a bit by that cracked article about crazy fan theories that actually make sense more than anything. I like the idea of authors giving enough evidential material in there but making the reader work for it more than just uber-creative fanwank. The classic in this is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Too bad it's been spoiled to hell by pop culture. Another good one I would recommend is Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. It's a collection of short stories that are interconnected, and it's very subtle. Everyone seems to have something going on under the surface of their lives. The best short stories in it are Hands, Godliness and Sophistication.
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Oct 26, 2013 05:45
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Stalins Moustache posted:Thank you so much for this! Seconding the Akutagawa suggestion. Beyond that: Correction by Thomas Bernhard has more pages than paragraphs, but if you're willing to put in the work it is one of my all time favorites. If you're interested in more general melancholy even though it's lacking suicide, The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa is also excellent. edit: These are fiction rather than sociological work, but, well, they're also better than any sociological work I've seen so read them anyway.
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Oct 26, 2013 06:45
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Transistor Rhythm posted:This is hard to articulate, but are there any books with mysteries that are never solved by the characters or overtly explained to the reader, but where enough of the pieces of the puzzle are contained in the text for the reader to figure them out? I don't even necessarily mean mystery novels, but simply major unknowns that a close reading could actually deduce the truth with enough critical thought. This question was inspired a bit by that cracked article about crazy fan theories that actually make sense more than anything. I like the idea of authors giving enough evidential material in there but making the reader work for it more than just uber-creative fanwank. The Magus by John Fowles, although not only is the answer to the mystery an example of fridge logic, so is a question central to the purpose of the book's conflict. Being intentionally vague here as discovering the book through reading it is one of its great pleasures. Don't spoil yourself on any of it by looking it up ahead of time.
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Oct 26, 2013 07:15
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Transistor Rhythm posted:This is hard to articulate, but are there any books with mysteries that are never solved by the characters or overtly explained to the reader, but where enough of the pieces of the puzzle are contained in the text for the reader to figure them out? I don't even necessarily mean mystery novels, but simply major unknowns that a close reading could actually deduce the truth with enough critical thought. This question was inspired a bit by that cracked article about crazy fan theories that actually make sense more than anything. I like the idea of authors giving enough evidential material in there but making the reader work for it more than just uber-creative fanwank. William Gaddis liked to do that in his later books. Carpenters Gothic and A Frolic of his Own have plot elements that are never explained but were meant to be obvious to the reader. I'd go for CG as one to recommend as it was designed to "reach the man in the airport" though it's still not very accessible.
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Oct 26, 2013 10:36
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Smoking Crow posted:The classic in this is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Too bad it's been spoiled to hell by pop culture. Another good one I would recommend is Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. It's a collection of short stories that are interconnected, and it's very subtle. Everyone seems to have something going on under the surface of their lives. The best short stories in it are Hands, Godliness and Sophistication. A lot of Nabokov's books don't explain everything to their readers, especially the first time around. I think Pale Fire is the best example of this, especially w/r/t Kinbote's commentary. Make sure you read the whole book, even the index!
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Oct 26, 2013 22:34
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Stalins Moustache posted:Thank you so much for this! It may be way more than you feel like taking on, but Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace has some of the most heartfelt and incisive writing on depression and suicide I've ever read. Be warned, though, it's a monster of a book. On another track: I started Dennis Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro books ("A Drink Before the War") but I don't have the full series, just a couple of them. Would it ruin the books at all to read them out of order? The only other one I have is "Gone Baby Gone".
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Oct 27, 2013 18:13
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