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# ? Jun 10, 2024 17:04 |
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My printed post history, my printed rapsheet, and the book that I use to keep my table balanced.
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1. National Treasure: Book of Secrets 2. The Book of Life 3. The Secret of Kells (the hardcover novelization of the motion picture about the hardcover book)
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also star bastards, one of the best books ever written
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Saint Isaias Boner posted:also star bastards, one of the best books ever written i'll change my rapsheet for this
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Snowcrash Blood Meridian Altered Carbon
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Sheep-Goats posted:Yeah I think I'll re-read "Guards! Guards!" again, instead. There's a dragon in it.
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H.H posted:The "size and shape of a book" rule makes my War and Peace choice moot, but I see your point. Let's settle for stuff that have been published as single books, unless it was published by parts but intended to be a single book, like they used to do in printed magazines. If collections count I might replace my choices with Ficciones and Nabokov's short stories.
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i like of mice and men and the brothers karamazov equally but I shall choose to have of mice and men because size and complexity has no bearing on choosing three books for life actually goon opinions itt
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Well, I'm fifteen IRL and haven't read anything outside of lovely YA series, but I have heard that Blood Meridian is a super cool in violent book, so I say its my favorite. Also the Hobbit because I've seen the movie, so I might as well have read the book.
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1. something awful front page 2. the bible 3. the current draft of my suicide note dookifex_maximus fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Oct 10, 2016 |
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weak wrists big dick posted:Also the Hobbit because I've seen the movie, so I might as well have read the book. This is astonishingly loving wrong
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Heath posted:This is astonishingly loving wrong you tell im butch
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What about compilation sorts of books that are published? (short stories but especially poetry since I feel like its one of the most re-readable forms of writing) Because I'd go 1) Anathem (Neil Stephenson) This is the book I read slowly to ruminate over it and get a different outlook each time 2) The Robert Frost Collection for mulling over poetry 3) Gravity's Rainbow since god knows how many times i'll need to read it to really get everything in there. (Assuming can't pick poetry collection then probably something cozy like the hobbit to idle away with) Weird but slightly against the spirit of the thread pick:The Oxford English Etymology Dictionary since each word is its own story in a way and it'd be helpful in life more so than most books
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Candide by Voltaire The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky And probably something I can jerk it to. Delta of Venus or something similar idk
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Howl's Moving Castle, Parasite Rex, and How the Grinch stole Christmas
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Rush Limbo posted:Candide by Voltaire candide freaking owns bones
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Finnegans Wake, 1066 And All That, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs ![]()
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Battle Royale (I've probably had like 6 copies of this book thru my life) Lord of the Flies (read it like 16 times so far? I keep a tally on the cover of my softcover) House of leaves
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American Psycho, The Vampire Lestat, Into Thin Air
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RideTheSpiral posted:candide freaking owns bones It's probably my favourite book of all time and the gold standard by which satire should be compared to.
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weak wrists big dick posted:Well, I'm fifteen IRL and haven't read anything outside of lovely YA series, but I have heard that Blood Meridian is a super cool in violent book, so I say its my favorite. Also the Hobbit because I've seen the movie, so I might as well have read the book. Do you dislike Blood Meridian or dislike the people you imagine enjoying it? ![]()
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Rush Limbo posted:It's probably my favourite book of all time and the gold standard by which satire should be compared to. i didnt expect to be lmao at an 18th century satire but there i was
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I am currently re-reading Theodor Mommsen's "History of Rome", so that should count. I frequently re-read passages or chapters in it, because I am utterly fascinated not only by the academic work that went into it, but also by Mommsen's mid-19th century patriotic and liberal worldview. He judges everything and everyone, but I don't think Mommsen himself would have been aware that he is merely reproducing contemporary ideology. He would simply assume that his opinions spring from common sense. Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow", because everytime I read it, I focused on different things, so it felt like I was reading a different book. Sometimes I completely drift of when reading it, and instead of reading the actual content, I am just spellbound by the musical and lyrical qualities of his prose. In that aspect, Gravity's Rainbow is like a jazz album. When I was a teenager, I was a huge fan of Ray Bradbury. I think "Something Wicked This Way Comes" should make the list, too, because it is probably the book I read more often than any other. (Haven't read it in a while, though, just like I haven't watched the final sequence of "Quadrophenia" over and over and over again in a while). edit: I only now realized that I am supposed to read them for the rest of my life. I will stick to the first two, then, and remove "Something Wicked". Does a compilation of Plato's dialogues count as one book? In that case, I would take that one, since the dialogues are a perfect blend of humor, wit and insight. To this day I wonder what the monks who transcribed the "Symposium", which is largely about physical excess and gay sex, were thinking. Ibogaine fucked around with this message at 11:39 on Oct 10, 2016 |
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Ibogaine posted:I am currently re-reading Theodor Mommsen's "History of Rome", so that should count. I frequently re-read passages or chapters in it, because I am utterly fascinated not only by the academic work that went into it, but also by Mommsen's mid-19th century patriotic and liberal worldview. He judges everything and everyone, but I don't think Mommsen himself would have been aware that he is merely reproducing contemporary ideology. He would simply assume that his opinions spring from common sense. I'm 60 pages into Fahrenheit 451 and it so far it is quite dull and derivative. Also there is so little descriptive prose that I have no idea what this world is supposed to look like
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When I was a teenager, Bradbury struck a note with me. And personally, I don't think that Fahrenheit 451 is his best book. But when you are an isolated teen nerd who loves books and who's growing up around people who never read anything but TV guides and who watch stupid poo poo on TV all the time, it reads like a revelation, believe me you! I think "Something Wicked" is much more imaginative and especially his short stories, like those in the illustrated man or the Martian chronicles, are often unique and quite spellbinding, I think.
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RideTheSpiral posted:I'm 60 pages into Fahrenheit 451 and it so far it is quite dull and derivative. Also there is so little descriptive prose that I have no idea what this world is supposed to look like Yeah I didn't enjoy that book at all. It was dull and the main idea really doesn't encourage you to muddle through. People talk about like it's got something important to say about censorship, but it really doesn't. Mostly because it was never meant to be about censorship. He didn't write it for that, and it shows. It's some kind of big slam on "vapid" new forms of media coupled with some gushing nonsense about the Magic Of Reading that sounds pretty weird when it's not coming from the Reading Rainbow guy. Also, as a devoted sci-fi/fantasy fan I'll be the first to say that a sci-fi/fantasy author has exactly no business trying to call out other forms of entertainment as vapid and shallow.
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Ibogaine posted:When I was a teenager, Bradbury struck a note with me. And personally, I don't think that Fahrenheit 451 is his best book. But when you are an isolated teen nerd who loves books and who's growing up around people who never read anything but TV guides and who watch stupid poo poo on TV all the time, it reads like a revelation, believe me you! I don't dislike it. it's quite pleasant to read but what's the point. i will try those others if I see them around. i have a very love hate relationship with american literature and this is very american.
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The fountainhead Anthem Atlas shrugged *tips fedora*
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Tarnsman of Gor - good for beating off The Return of the King - lets you skip all the boring travel stuff and just get down to the good guys winning Mein Kampf - self-explanatory
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Didn't like Something Wicked This Way Comes. It leans hard on the magic of childhood friendship, and how these kids appreciate its timeless wonders. To me, that rings false in terms of how much wizened introspection children really have, and how kids make friendships, and also it's really sappy and sentimental. Meanwhile, the fantasy/horror aspect is surprisingly thin. For a book all about a magic carnival, there isn't actually that much development of the carnival itself. Various attractions pop up and then kinda float away without really affecting the story. Fahrenheit 451 was good, though. Beatty was a good character, and even if Bradbury's social criticism is a little off target, he still has a clear enough message to use as the spine of his book. Someone immersing themselves in voyeuristic media, using pills to cope, sliding toward suicide while in denial about how unfulfilling their life has become — that's solid.
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Moby-Dick Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson Malcolm C. Lyons's translations of the One Thousand and One Nights would probably hold me over for all time
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Zorodius posted:Do you dislike Blood Meridian or dislike the people you imagine enjoying it? I read it in a "higher level"/"accelerated" high school class in Texas, but everyone (including me, at the time) was more interested in reading about the tree of dead babies over and over again. In all honesty, the books I reread the most are Ender's Game (I have an older copy that I reread once about every 3 years, I refuse to read any of the guys other stuff after reading the rest of the Enders Game books, which I hated.), Prometheus Rising, and Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. Also, I may not reread it that much, but the Hitchhikers Guide series is a definite must read.
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shove me like you do posted:Weird but slightly against the spirit of the thread pick:The Oxford English Etymology Dictionary since each word is its own story in a way and it'd be helpful in life more so than most books The OED is precisely like Wikipedia and therefore against the rules. For the record, if I could I'd have picked it, too. I like the Brother's Karamazov as a book-for-life. It really gives you something new to think about with every re-read. weak wrists big dick posted:Also, I may not reread it that much, but the Hitchhikers Guide series is a definite must read. My Douglas Adams phase is long gone, but I think the Dirk Gently series is better.
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1. Catch-22, for something a bit fluffier. 2. Remembrance of Things Past, because at 30 I might actually get something out of it this time. 3. Reamde, because it's huge and awesome.
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Catch-22 is actually a very profound novel, much more so than similar anti-war books like "All Quiet on the Western Front" or "Slaughterhouse V". The last one will probably get me a lot of flak from goons, but it's true. Vonnegut is the type of writer that is a must read before you're 20, and becomes exponentially less so the later in life you read your first book of his.
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Incidentally, I also agree with anyone naming Dostoyesvky, Tolstoi or Chekhov. (Though with Chekhov, you would have to go for a compilation of short prose, I guess). I just wondered: Is there any specific reason that in the 19th century, Russian literature reached such an incredible high? Maybe it's just my ignorance, but I don't know any Russian literature before the above mentioned, so for me it is as if all of a sudden, this great literature suddenly sprang into existence out of nothing. I find that quite remarkable, yet I can not come up with an explanation. It`s even weirder when you consider that intellectuals made up a significantly smaller part of the population than they did in other European countries at the time. If anyone could point me to an explanation or a book on the subject, I would be genuinely grateful.
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Slaughterhouse 5 is merely decent as an anti-war book, but it's quite good as a dealing-with-PTSD story.
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Cat's Cradle
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 17:04 |
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Must've read mother night half a dozen times
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