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Play posted:Hi goons! A human heart posted:That could possibly be Gargoyles, by Thomas Bernhard. Yeah, although some of the details are wrong but that's almost certainly Bernhard's Gargoyles. E: Damnit, new page, added quotes for context
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Oct 30, 2016 01:38
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A collection of stories, I read in school so roughly the mid 90s.. It was a collection of "creepy" stories supposedly told by country folk and handed down by word of mouth (all fiction of course that was just to sell the book) Stories were: A burnt in devils hoofprint that would not wash off a window The tale of a "water witch" that drowned people trying to cross her river A sinkhole that people throw pennies into, two brothers steal some and are tormented overnight The copy I read was hardback with a water color painted cover of figures with no faces.
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Oct 31, 2016 05:46
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504 posted:A collection of stories, I read in school so roughly the mid 90s.. I think I've read the same book. No, I don't remember the name, either. The devil's footprint sounds like a spin-off of the Jersey Devil or 'Devil's Footprints' tales, though.
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Oct 31, 2016 10:38
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A human heart posted:That could possibly be Gargoyles, by Thomas Bernhard. You sir are possibly a gentleman and most definitely a scholar. And yeah, the details were extremely muddled. It was about 8 years ago that I read it, the wear and tear on my brain since then has been considerable
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Nov 4, 2016 19:18
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froglet posted:I think I've read the same book. No, I don't remember the name, either. The devil's footprint sounds like a spin-off of the Jersey Devil or 'Devil's Footprints' tales, though. I've remembered another story, the space travelers that get stung by alien insects and try to cure the large boils with drugs/surgery. Sound like the same one? FAKE EDIT: Googled this and it seems everyone is looking but no one knows. 504 fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Nov 5, 2016 |
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Nov 5, 2016 00:46
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504 posted:A collection of stories, I read in school so roughly the mid 90s.. Could it be Strangely Enough ?
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Nov 6, 2016 06:15
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This is exactly the right type of book, but not the one im looking for.. Missed by that much!
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Nov 6, 2016 19:20
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We've got a mystery on our hands!
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Nov 7, 2016 18:46
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Australian, read it in 2000, set in the 1950's: An aboriginal girl is taken from her family to live with a white family, maybe has a baby with the father? It was a very long time ago, it's not follow the rabbit proof fence.
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Nov 11, 2016 09:09
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yaffle posted:Australian, read it in 2000, set in the 1950's: An aboriginal girl is taken from her family to live with a white family, maybe has a baby with the father? It was a very long time ago, it's not follow the rabbit proof fence. The setting's about a century off but it could be Wanting by Richard Flanigan. Otherwise it could be one of the compilations of Stolen Generation stories, like The Stolen Children: Their Stories published by the Human Rights Commission.
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Nov 11, 2016 10:23
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There's a short science fiction story about a human astronaut who lands on Mars and finds an empty village of ugly dwellings that have horrible music playing in them. As he wanders around the village he finds that the dwellings become more and more attractive and the music sounds better and better. It's implied that he turns Martian. At the end there's a line like "And he raised his eye stalks in exultation" or something to that effect. Any ideas? It was probably written more than 10 years ago.
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Nov 12, 2016 03:20
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Truck Stop Stall posted:There's a short science fiction story about a human astronaut who lands on Mars and finds an empty village of ugly dwellings that have horrible music playing in them. As he wanders around the village he finds that the dwellings become more and more attractive and the music sounds better and better. It's implied that he turns Martian. At the end there's a line like "And he raised his eye stalks in exultation" or something to that effect. Any ideas? It was probably written more than 10 years ago. I've read this but I can't remember who wrote it. I wanna say Bradbury maybe? We're back in that era, 1960 at the latest in my opinion. He's drawn to the music irresistibly, there's a horror element to it, how he cannot stop. And yeah he becomes like the Martians, transformed through the music. I think the basic plot might also have been used in an EC horror comic, which implies 1940s.
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Nov 12, 2016 03:36
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Sounds like Adaptation by AE van Vogt (AKA The Enchanted Village).
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Nov 12, 2016 11:34
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I think this would be considered a YA novel. There's a young girl and her family living in a historical reenactment of a city or village. She doesn't know it's a reenactment though. Her mom or her parents tell her one day that she needs to leave to save them. She finds out that it's not really the 1700 or 1800s. I don't farther than that. I think I was about 10 when this story was read to me.
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Nov 14, 2016 00:22
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mariooncrack posted:I think this would be considered a YA novel. This is almost certainly Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix.
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Nov 14, 2016 00:37
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wheatpuppy posted:This is almost certainly Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix. That sounds right. My teacher was reading it to us but never finished it before the school year ended. I can finally go back and find out how it ended. Thank you!
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Nov 15, 2016 16:18
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During the mid-to-late 90s, I found this hardcover in the reference section at my local library: A short occult/supernatural compendium on witches, werewolves, vampires, and the like. Each entry subject was listed in bold text, but I don't remember how they were categorized. The entry that stands out the most in my memory was The Sons of Judas- pale, red-haired vampires with three "X"s scored into their foreheads to mark their allegiance to Judas, who accepted thirty silver as compensation for his betrayal of Christ. The book had lots of fun tidbits of info: Werewolves cannot cross streams and rivers. Witches can be ferreted out by catching them lunching in outhouses as they defecate... I think the book cover was black canvas with foil embossed lettering. Been searching for this book ever since I placed it back on that shelf twenty years ago....
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Nov 17, 2016 02:33
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These two have been bothering me for a while. I would have read them / had them read to me in the mid-90s, and I think both were from New Zealand authors, which makes it harder. The first one had two kids - I think they were siblings? - who hooked up with an old man who turned out to be magical and the two kids were the chosen ones, all the usual stuff. The only concrete bit I can remember is that the 'test' for the two kids was him giving them two stones, and asking what colour they were. The girl could see the grey stone swirl and turn into a bunch of different colours, but the boy couldn't until later on, and presumably some kind of prophecy kicked in and there was some kind of portal down a bunch of stairs, deep inside the Earth? The second I have even fewer details. I think it was about a young boy and an old woman, making their way across post-apocalyptic New Zealand. I can only remember this one because the young kid called the woman a "stupid old bitch" at some point, but our teacher read it as "stupid old hag" because we were young and sensitive and totally didn't call our classmates things a million times worse than that already. There was an action scene where they were being chased across a river? Something to do with nomadic tribes in great big caravans going across the country? No-one's asked for a book like this, but just in the off chance, Bad Circuits was a book I was agonising about remembering for months this year before something finally clicked and I magically Googled the right keywords to find it, and the books I'm describing would have been a couple years either side of this one. I also remember the Fly The Unfriendly Skies one from the same series, mostly because I lent to a girl named Melissa that I had a crush on back then and she never gave it back. C'mon Melissa! Way to harsh on pre-teen me.
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Nov 20, 2016 13:04
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First one is Under the Mountain by Maurice Gee.
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Nov 20, 2016 13:39
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Fleetwood posted:During the mid-to-late 90s, I found this hardcover in the reference section at my local library: Man, Myth & Magic? https://www.amazon.com/Man-Myth-Mag...=man+myth+magic If it is, it's probably with this cover instead:  Or long shot: https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia...that+never+were
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Nov 20, 2016 14:16
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Runcible Cat posted:First one is Under the Mountain by Maurice Gee. poo poo, spot on. Thanks!
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Nov 20, 2016 21:49
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Aaronicon posted:The second I have even fewer details. I think it was about a young boy and an old woman, making their way across post-apocalyptic New Zealand. I can only remember this one because the young kid called the woman a "stupid old bitch" at some point, but our teacher read it as "stupid old hag" because we were young and sensitive and totally didn't call our classmates things a million times worse than that already. There was an action scene where they were being chased across a river? Something to do with nomadic tribes in great big caravans going across the country? Jack Lasenby's "Because We Were The Travelers" e: If you actually enjoy them, you might want to look up Ken Catran's stuff too - he adapted Under the Mountain for tv and also wrote "You're not in Guatemala any more, Dr Ropata" and got pissy about how heavily it was used in promo stuff. Big Bad Beetleborg fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Nov 21, 2016 |
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Nov 21, 2016 01:44
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Big Bad Beetleborg posted:Jack Lasenby's "Because We Were The Travelers" Haha, I still use that line on a weekly basis but classic Shortland Street episodes aren't considered prime-time material in today's Australia so the reference is lost on a lot of people. Thanks!
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Nov 21, 2016 02:54
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I saw a book in a store (new) in 1998/99 and read the first couple of pages. The scene was the execution of two(?) men in a Nazi death camp, pretty standard war story stuff but at the end the Final lines give a time and date of the camp being in one of the American states. If you know what im talking about can you tell me if its worth reading.
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Nov 23, 2016 00:21
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a friendly penguin posted:Man, Myth & Magic? This... might just be it! Thank you and bless you, sir! I've spent too much time searching for this book on my own. Next, I'm going to track down a copy. If this turns out to be the one, you'll have my eternal gratitude.
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Nov 23, 2016 00:32
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There was this book I read in college for a class that for the life of me I cannot remember the title of. The plot was presented as two supposed 'real' diaries (both actually fiction). The first 2/3 of the book was the diary of a man who supposedly (in like, 1885 or so) had an odd as hell medical genius friend who, when a woman died while heavily pregnant, managed to transplant the infant's brain into the woman's body, hence creating a 'new woman' from the two dead people, and the events that occurred after that. The last third is the diary of the self-same woman (who married the man) who basically says his diary is a ludicrous pack of lies built around a bare framework of truth (she just suffered a head injury according to her, for example), and tells the supposed 'real story' before the rest of the book recounts the woman's later life. The thing that always stuck with me beyond the plot was this terrible bit of meanness. The woman, once her husband died and her sons were reaching adulthood, started getting heavily involved in socialist causes...around the start of the 20th century. She's optimistically musing on the possibility that if the world powers try and go to war again, the workers could unite and shut down production and hence the world powers would have no one to fight or tools to fight with. Then WWI breaks out, that doesn't happen because she doesn't understand how intense nationalism was in those days, her sons join up as soldiers, and immediately die in the meat grinder. There are few harsher repudiations of one's beliefs by history (and the real world?) than THAT.
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Nov 26, 2016 03:32
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Cornwind Evil posted:There was this book I read in college for a class that for the life of me I cannot remember the title of. The plot was presented as two supposed 'real' diaries (both actually fiction). The first 2/3 of the book was the diary of a man who supposedly (in like, 1885 or so) had an odd as hell medical genius friend who, when a woman died while heavily pregnant, managed to transplant the infant's brain into the woman's body, hence creating a 'new woman' from the two dead people, and the events that occurred after that. The last third is the diary of the self-same woman (who married the man) who basically says his diary is a ludicrous pack of lies built around a bare framework of truth (she just suffered a head injury according to her, for example), and tells the supposed 'real story' before the rest of the book recounts the woman's later life. So it's a book about an adult man who has sex with a newborn infant whose mind is trapped in an adult woman's body. That's next level right there.
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Nov 26, 2016 03:57
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I know of at least 12 Japanese mangas it could be
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Nov 26, 2016 03:59
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Powaqoatse posted:So it's a book about an adult man who has sex with a newborn infant whose mind is trapped in an adult woman's body. That's actually one of the main 'problems' of the novel: it's an infant brain developing inside an already matured woman's body. And funny you should mention manga, as the book actually has a lot of drawings in it of the characters (not in manga style, I'll just say). No, nothing 'bad' is drawn. It's used to show people, areas, and in one case a letter written by the infant/woman as she expresses her overwhelming horror at discovering that not all humans are made alike or in the same circumstances.
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Nov 26, 2016 05:43
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Cornwind Evil posted:There was this book I read in college for a class that for the life of me I cannot remember the title of. The plot was presented as two supposed 'real' diaries (both actually fiction). The first 2/3 of the book was the diary of a man who supposedly (in like, 1885 or so) had an odd as hell medical genius friend who, when a woman died while heavily pregnant, managed to transplant the infant's brain into the woman's body, hence creating a 'new woman' from the two dead people, and the events that occurred after that. The last third is the diary of the self-same woman (who married the man) who basically says his diary is a ludicrous pack of lies built around a bare framework of truth (she just suffered a head injury according to her, for example), and tells the supposed 'real story' before the rest of the book recounts the woman's later life. Infinite jest
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Dec 3, 2016 16:11
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Play posted:Hi goons! David foster Walace's "Infinite JEst"
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Dec 3, 2016 16:12
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Gambrinus posted:A short story with Lovecraftian elements. I read it in the UK when I was a kid circa 1990. It was in a collection of short stories in hardboiled with a blueish cover. Pretty sure it wasn't actually by Lovecraft. Ifninite Jest.
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Dec 3, 2016 16:13
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GlenMR posted:My partner is trying to remember the name of a story about a taxi driver called Eddie who begins to receive letters in the mail. Each letter has a task for him to complete, but the tasks become more complex as the story goes on. The title of the book is Infinite Jest by D Foster Wallace.
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Dec 3, 2016 16:13
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Yellowed paperpack, probably 70s-80s, from a public library. It's called Ifinite Jest by David Wallace edit: spelling
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Dec 3, 2016 16:14
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Travic posted:I'm trying to remember a fantasy book I read in the 90's. Some guy was sent back in time and became apprenticed to a mage. I remember he was kind of a screw up and ended the book fighting a huge worm/centipede. It felt like it was part of a series. Infinite JEst.
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Dec 3, 2016 16:14
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504 posted:Name this book based on a decade old memory and piss all details. Infinite JEst. By David foster Wallace is the title of the book, I think (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Dec 3, 2016 16:15
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Hey I think that poster up there might just think they have your answer.
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Dec 3, 2016 17:56
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Short story I think. Basic plot was that some kind of disaster happened and people that were supposed to prevent it could repeat the day. Every time they woke up they would see a number that represented how many times they had repeated that day.
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Dec 7, 2016 22:19
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The XKCD Larper posted:Infinite JEst. By David foster Wallace is the title of the book, I think highly recommend reading the top probe in this guy's rap sheet
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Dec 8, 2016 01:53
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jeremiah johnson posted:Short story I think. Basic plot was that some kind of disaster happened and people that were supposed to prevent it could repeat the day. Every time they woke up they would see a number that represented how many times they had repeated that day. Sounds like something from this writing prompt: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/4s9z3x/wp_you_live_in_a_society_where_at_the_end_of_each/
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Dec 8, 2016 04:49
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