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bizarro fiction is great if you're an adolescent male who thinks titles like The Baby Jesus Butt Plug are at all interesting or edgy
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Aug 11, 2016 14:50
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Fiction is great if you're an adolescent male who thinks stories about people who don't exist are at all interesting or edgy.
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Aug 11, 2016 16:42
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You sure got him there
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Aug 11, 2016 16:46
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WickedHate posted:I crave sci and fantasy that's straight up weird. Or maybe not weird per say, but definitely different. Like Planescape Torment different. I want chrono vessels powered by that look like pirate ships which travel diagonal through time and are powered by exploding stars, dig? Moorecock-like, maybe. Quantum Thief Orthogonal by Greg Egan
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Aug 11, 2016 20:25
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Weird sci fi guy should read Cyclonopedia, which is a cool book for cool teens
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Aug 12, 2016 05:19
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Some fiction is about people who did exist.
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Aug 12, 2016 08:19
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Mr. Squishy posted:Some fiction is about people who did exist. some "non-fiction" is about people who did not exist.
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Aug 12, 2016 16:35
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A human heart posted:Weird sci fi guy should read Cyclonopedia, which is a cool book for cool teens
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Aug 12, 2016 16:46
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I'm looking for a book on ornithology for a layperson. My ~girlfriend~ is trying to get into it but doesn't have a good starting point text-wise. Is there anything straightforward and not dry that I can get her, that she will be able to read casually, and make her want to kiss me? It needs to not be on birdwatching, she's lookin for more on the biology and mechanics of flight and especially behavior.
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Aug 13, 2016 04:30
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SEX HAVER 40000 posted:I'm looking for a book on ornithology for a layperson. My ~girlfriend~ is trying to get into it but doesn't have a good starting point text-wise. Is there anything straightforward and not dry that I can get her, that she will be able to read casually, and make her want to kiss me? I want to say one of the Sibley Guide to Birds - aha, found it on amazon: The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior! It's big and dense with information, but it's an excellent guide and I felt it was decently approachable for a layperson. I mean, I enjoyed it and I'm no expert on birds.
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Aug 13, 2016 05:03
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anilEhilated posted:Irony aside this is actually a pretty good recommendation; if you can stomach pages and pages of academic nonsense, there are some wonderfully weird ideas in there. Everything I post in this forum is free of irony.
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Aug 13, 2016 06:19
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Does anybody have a recommendation for a book about Chinese history? Preferably looking for something more narrative than textbooky (though still non-fiction, not historical fiction--my favorite history author is Tom Holland to give a point of comparison). Ideally it would also be focused on a specific period of history rather than trying to cover 4 millenia in a single volume, but I don't even know enough about the subject to identify a period that especially interests me.
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Aug 17, 2016 01:27
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cheetah7071 posted:Does anybody have a recommendation for a book about Chinese history? Preferably looking for something more narrative than textbooky (though still non-fiction, not historical fiction--my favorite history author is Tom Holland to give a point of comparison). Ideally it would also be focused on a specific period of history rather than trying to cover 4 millenia in a single volume, but I don't even know enough about the subject to identify a period that especially interests me. try The Water Margin (Outlaws of the Marsh) or Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Both are historical novels and considered two of the best works of chinese literature. The translations of each vary wildly.
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Aug 17, 2016 02:49
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TommyGun85 posted:try The Water Margin (Outlaws of the Marsh) or Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Both are historical novels and considered two of the best works of chinese literature. The translations of each vary wildly. The dude just asked for non fiction and you give him fiction cheetah7071 posted:Does anybody have a recommendation for a book about Chinese history? Preferably looking for something more narrative than textbooky (though still non-fiction, not historical fiction--my favorite history author is Tom Holland to give a point of comparison). Ideally it would also be focused on a specific period of history rather than trying to cover 4 millenia in a single volume, but I don't even know enough about the subject to identify a period that especially interests me. The ultimate is probably the 15 volume cambridge history of china but that's not ideal if you just want an idea of what happened broadly, a guy who contributed to that wrote some of that also wrote a relatively short book called China: A New History which is supposed to be pretty good. A human heart fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Aug 17, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 06:17
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A human heart posted:The dude just asked for non fiction and you give him fiction oops, I am guilty of skimming and thought he wanted historical fiction.
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Aug 17, 2016 12:18
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cheetah7071 posted:Does anybody have a recommendation for a book about Chinese history? Preferably looking for something more narrative than textbooky (though still non-fiction, not historical fiction--my favorite history author is Tom Holland to give a point of comparison). Ideally it would also be focused on a specific period of history rather than trying to cover 4 millenia in a single volume, but I don't even know enough about the subject to identify a period that especially interests me. A Concise History of China by J.A.G. Roberts. It's not the Cambridge set but it hits the important stuff.
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Aug 17, 2016 15:06
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cheetah7071 posted:Does anybody have a recommendation for a book about Chinese history? Preferably looking for something more narrative than textbooky (though still non-fiction, not historical fiction--my favorite history author is Tom Holland to give a point of comparison). Ideally it would also be focused on a specific period of history rather than trying to cover 4 millenia in a single volume, but I don't even know enough about the subject to identify a period that especially interests me. How narrative-y are you willing to go? Wild Swans is excellent and covers some of the more modern upheavals in the 20th century. If anything it's good for a dip into the context.
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Aug 18, 2016 13:13
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What would a big Tolkien fan like that's nothing at all like Tolkien? You know, if you wanted to broaden their horizons.
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Aug 20, 2016 02:29
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WickedHate posted:What would a big Tolkien fan like that's nothing at all like Tolkien? You know, if you wanted to broaden their horizons. Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun
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Aug 20, 2016 05:19
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WickedHate posted:What would a big Tolkien fan like that's nothing at all like Tolkien? You know, if you wanted to broaden their horizons. The Nibelungenlied
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Aug 20, 2016 05:22
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funkybottoms posted:Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun Huh, that's what I got recommended last time I came to this thread too. Good call. Looks like I know what I'm getting this person for Christmas.
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Aug 20, 2016 05:23
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What about Tolkien do they like in particular?
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Aug 20, 2016 07:08
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anilEhilated posted:What about Tolkien do they like in particular? Their an author and Tolkien is their main inspiration. The project their doing is a little...typically epic fantasy. A lot like this, actually. Not that they aren't a talented writer, I just wanna introduce them to stuff that shake up their ideas and style a little.
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Aug 20, 2016 07:24
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Get them a fedora and a pipe, they'll love it.
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Aug 20, 2016 08:43
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WickedHate posted:Their an author and Tolkien is their main inspiration. The project their doing is a little...typically epic fantasy. A lot like this, actually. Not that they aren't a talented writer, I just wanna introduce them to stuff that shake up their ideas and style a little. Please force them to read Norse sagas and epic poetry. Tolkien is a great writer but terrible as inspiration. Here you can find Icelandic Sagas for totally free.
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Aug 20, 2016 11:14
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If it's the subversion of the high fantasy genre you're after, I recommend Discworld. Guards Guards is a good place to start imho, but there's a lot of answers to that question
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Aug 20, 2016 11:24
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Please force them to read Norse sagas and epic poetry. Tolkien is a great writer but terrible as inspiration. Here you can find Icelandic Sagas for totally free. Hey, thanks, this'll help a lot.
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Aug 20, 2016 13:08
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WickedHate posted:Their an author and Tolkien is their main inspiration. The project their doing is a little...typically epic fantasy. A lot like this, actually. Not that they aren't a talented writer, I just wanna introduce them to stuff that shake up their ideas and style a little. If we want slavish Tolkien imitation, we've already got Dennis McKiernan, thanks.
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Aug 20, 2016 14:33
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'recommend my friend something thats different from tolkien' *several million recommendations for slightly different fantasy books appear from the aether*
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Aug 20, 2016 14:58
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WickedHate posted:What would a big Tolkien fan like that's nothing at all like Tolkien? You know, if you wanted to broaden their horizons. You should get them to read something like a Calvino book or Dictionary of the Khazars, a book that just has a lot of cool imaginative things in it but also isn't written for adult 12 year olds.
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Aug 20, 2016 15:01
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i wasn't kidding about the nibelungenlied
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Aug 20, 2016 20:10
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A human heart posted:'recommend my friend something thats different from tolkien' *several million recommendations for slightly different fantasy books appear from the aether* To be fair, I also said "that a Tolkien fan would like". A human heart posted:You should get them to read something like a Calvino book or Dictionary of the Khazars, a book that just has a lot of cool imaginative things in it but also isn't written for adult 12 year olds. Okay~!
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Aug 20, 2016 23:10
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Seconding the rec for the Dictionary of the Khazars. Honestly one of my favorite strange books. It feels like nothing else, I think, and I like to pull it out and reread it every few years.
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Aug 21, 2016 02:03
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A human heart posted:'recommend my friend something thats different from tolkien' *several million recommendations for slightly different fantasy books appear from the aether* I'm actually half tempted to suggest you give him McKiernan or The Sword of Shannara or Urshurak so he can see how bad cheap Tolkien knockoffs without Professor T's talents look. Or hell, point him at Michael Moorcock's "Epic Pooh" essay.
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Aug 21, 2016 03:46
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WickedHate posted:What would a big Tolkien fan like that's nothing at all like Tolkien? You know, if you wanted to broaden their horizons. The Big Sleep
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Aug 21, 2016 06:10
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Selachian posted:I'm actually half tempted to suggest you give him McKiernan or The Sword of Shannara or Urshurak so he can see how bad cheap Tolkien knockoffs without Professor T's talents look. Or hell, point him at Michael Moorcock's "Epic Pooh" essay. The Epic poo poo essay is half-right; it's correct about how derivative fantasy can get in Tolkein's wake, but it is so hilariously wrong about the themes and messages of The Lord of the Rings that I'm half-convinced Moorcock never read the drat thing.
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Aug 21, 2016 08:15
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So I'm staring at my Audible credit hoping it will speak to me. Maybe someone here can guide me. I recently tried doing The Dark Tower...made it to The Waste Lands before it just dragged too much. I'm looking for some weird nexus of cyberpunk horror. I recently did 3 of William Hertling's Singularity Series, and thought the first two were ok. Stephenson's Seveneves was one of my favorite recent reads. David Wong's Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is on my deck, but I'm still looking for something I can't place. Any ideas?
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Aug 21, 2016 18:27
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Not sure if it qualifies as cyberpunk but if you want sci-fi horror, you could do worse than Blindsight.
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Aug 21, 2016 18:36
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WickedHate posted:What would a big Tolkien fan like that's nothing at all like Tolkien? You know, if you wanted to broaden their horizons.
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Aug 21, 2016 20:08
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Doctor_Acula posted:So I'm staring at my Audible credit hoping it will speak to me. Maybe someone here can guide me. Maybe some PKD? It's not cyberpunk per se but stuff like VALIS or Ubik or A Scanner Darkly can bring the weird and unsettling.
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Aug 21, 2016 20:48
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