|
Franchescanado posted:Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. This is a good recommendation. Any suggestions for non-fiction books on Katrina? I'm specifically looking for something that's full of stories from people on the ground during the storm, rather than the recovery and clean-up bits. chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Jul 5, 2017 |
#
?
Jul 5, 2017 05:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2024 09:30 |
|
|
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers is great. It focuses mainly on one guy during Katrina with a few related stories.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2017 09:09
|
|
|
Had really good recommendations from the thread last time (can't remember who, but really great suggestions from Never Let Me Go), so thought I'd ask again! I am looking for something similar to Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Was a fan of the combo of some mild more thoughtful sci fi experimentation + world building + solid plot. Ofc I'll read the sequels, but anything similar would awesome.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2017 23:11
|
|
|
Fusion Restaurant posted:Had really good recommendations from the thread last time (can't remember who, but really great suggestions from Never Let Me Go), so thought I'd ask again! A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers has a similar core premise, and I liked it better than the Ancillary books.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2017 23:46
|
|
|
chernobyl kinsman posted:This is a good recommendation. Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink spends most of its time dealing with stories about how things went down at a hospital that was not promptly evacuated. It later deals with what happened in the aftermath of that, but you could just stop if you get bored/lose interest.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 00:08
|
|
|
elbow posted:This is going to sound so wanky, but I'm looking for a recommendation for a philosophy book that deals with the question of why anything exists at all. I know there are some physics books that deal with this question but I find those a little inaccessible, plus it doesn't answer the question of why physics even exists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epistemologists
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 05:14
|
|
|
I'm looking for good books that do xmen style mutants and also good books that do godzilla type monsters. Do either of these exist in good non comic form?
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 07:02
|
|
|
Doorknob Slobber posted:I'm looking for good books that do xmen style mutants and also good books that do godzilla type monsters. Do either of these exist in good non comic form?
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 08:10
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Thanks, will check it out.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 17:28
|
|
|
Ulio posted:Thanks, will check it out. It's on sale on Kindle today for $2
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 17:48
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:For the first one, maybe try The Rook by Daniel O'Malley? thank you I'll give it a try
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 21:34
|
|
|
Doorknob Slobber posted:I'm looking for good books that do xmen style mutants... Vicious by V. E. Schwab.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2017 22:48
|
|
|
Ulio posted:Any good self help books? Not with super metaphorical stuff like "find yourself" "take control of mind and soul" that stuff just turns me off whenever I read that on the cover of self help. I got through Man's search for meaning a few month ago and it is amazing. More "self help like" If you had a messed up childhood or a parent that was / is a addict. I have read a fair amount of self help and these two are very good. Toxic Parents https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SEH80I/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Adult Children of Alcoholics https://www.amazon.com/Adult-Childr...3QTY7TXBQD1Z2KB No bad childhood or lovely parents... what are you whining for? Edit: I can't forget "The war of art" by Steven Pressfield, makes me want to get off my lazy rear end and get to work every time. spandexcajun fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Jul 8, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2017 05:25
|
|
|
My nephew is interested in reading more, and has expressed interest in Fantasy, particularly fantasy dealing with Dragons. What are some recommendations for a light, easy read in this vein? He's 17, but has never really been a reader due to focus/attention issues. I'm going to give him Dragons of Autumn Twilight, but I'm woefully out of the loop when it comes to modern fantasy for young readers.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2017 03:46
|
|
|
That would have been my suggestion, although dragons don't make their way into the series until near the very end of the first book if memory serves.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2017 10:05
|
|
|
The Hobbit.
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2017 16:00
|
|
|
Jeff Smith's Bone
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2017 17:03
|
|
|
funkybottoms posted:Jeff Smith's Bone
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2017 18:59
|
|
|
spandexcajun posted:I got through Man's search for meaning a few month ago and it is amazing. Not really parental stuff but sometimes I feel like I lose motivation on a project like be it work or fitness after a few weeks. Basically, books that help you get better at getting stuff done and improving yourself/your traits. I ordered Man's Search For Meaning already thanks to all suggestions here. Never heard of it but it has lots of good reviews everywhere.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2017 03:53
|
|
|
Ulio posted:Not really parental stuff but sometimes I feel like I lose motivation on a project like be it work or fitness after a few weeks. Basically, books that help you get better at getting stuff done and improving yourself/your traits. Also add Art & Fear and The Art Spirit. While they are written with artists in mind, they are just great for motivation on any subject, really. A few pages will make you want to put the book down and immediately get to work.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2017 04:48
|
|
|
Devorum posted:My nephew is interested in reading more, and has expressed interest in Fantasy, particularly fantasy dealing with Dragons. I'm sure Diana Wynne Jones wrote something about dragons.
|
|
#
?
Jul 10, 2017 04:49
|
|
|
Can anyone recommend some serious or hard sci-fi written by a talented author? I've finished the Culture series (starts off pretty mediocre but improves tremendously by later books) and looking for something in that vein.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2017 19:08
|
|
|
Anything by Hal Clement. Read Mission of Gravity.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2017 19:58
|
|
|
Flayer posted:Can anyone recommend some serious or hard sci-fi written by a talented author? I've finished the Culture series (starts off pretty mediocre but improves tremendously by later books) and looking for something in that vein. Sorry man (or different gendered internet person), nothing matches Banks' work for me. That being said, Ursula K Le Guin is pretty awesome, Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed are both brilliant. Kim Stanley Robinson writes really good hard sci-fi and is a talented writer. Aurora is the thread favorite. CJ Cherryh is also very talented in the writing department and writes some of the best aliens. Hannu Rajaniemi wrote some great novels that will leave you scratching your head and going for rereads due to his extremely oblique style and invented far future vocabulary. But he's worth the effort IMO. Be warned that science is so advanced in his Jean le Flambeur trilogy it seems to work like magic.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2017 20:32
|
|
|
Flayer posted:Can anyone recommend some serious or hard sci-fi written by a talented author? I've finished the Culture series (starts off pretty mediocre but improves tremendously by later books) and looking for something in that vein. In addition to the others mentioned, Alastair Reynolds is your man. Revelation Space or Pushing Ice are good to start with.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2017 23:38
|
|
|
Selachian posted:In addition to the others mentioned, Alastair Reynolds is your man. Revelation Space or Pushing Ice are good to start with. I like Reynolds' novels because I'm a huge nerd, but his writing is rather poor. Not nearly in the same category as the authors I mentioned earlier. The one book that stands above the rest of his opus for me must be Chasm City, because it's an atmospheric far future noir at its core. It's a spinoff of the Revelation Space series outside the main trilogy, and can be read as a standalone work.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2017 10:22
|
|
|
Flayer posted:Can anyone recommend some serious or hard sci-fi written by a talented author? I've finished the Culture series (starts off pretty mediocre but improves tremendously by later books) and looking for something in that vein. edit: Admittedly, neither of these is a space opera.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2017 11:22
|
|
|
Flayer posted:Can anyone recommend some serious or hard sci-fi written by a talented author? I've finished the Culture series (starts off pretty mediocre but improves tremendously by later books) and looking for something in that vein. Seconding Peter Watts and Ursula K LeGuin VVV OP said serious or hard sci-fi. funkybottoms fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Jul 19, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2017 12:03
|
|
|
Le Guin is one of my fav authors of all time, I highly recommend her, though I'd call it more speculative fiction than hard sci-fi. You can just hop in pretty much anywhere, though Birthday of the World is one of my favorites of hers even though it's just a collection of short stories
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2017 17:06
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:For the first one, maybe try The Rook by Daniel O'Malley? Thanks I read Vicious first and it was good, but I'm really enjoying Rook. Its not quite mutants, more like eldritch horrors I guess, but its pretty fun.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2017 21:18
|
|
|
Stephen Baxter. His NASA trilogy (Voyage, Titan, and Moonseed) and his Xeelee series are great.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2017 21:19
|
|
|
For hard, as in scientifically correct, sci-fi, I really loved Charles Sheffield because 1) he was an actual physicist, and 2) he could still write a character. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2017 06:03
|
|
|
I want to give something sci-fi a shot too. I like the theme of humans doing new interesting things in space or just being crazy by alien standards. I like fantastical elements but I'm not opposed to hard sci-fi as Bilirubin describes it. In the distant past I got a lot of what I'm talking about from the Ender's series. In recent years I haven't read much sci-fi. The Star Trek "a time to ..." had some interesting ideas but something about the writing style could not hook me. Similarly, the Baxter-Pratchett Long Earth series had an incredible world and premise, but it was wasted with too many characters, none of whom were interesting, given time to develop, or had an impact on the overall story. I only read two books of each, so this doesn't include The Long Mars. So I'm considering checking out the Troy Rising series or the The Culture series. Both seem to have some of the crazy human in space action I'm looking for, but both seem to be written by people with uncomfortable political views that seep heavily into their writing. Which of the two series would be better to try, and if so where to start? If chronology isn't critical, I would be happy starting with some of their best. And I'm all-ears for other suggestions to get that fix.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2017 15:23
|
|
|
Heran Bago posted:So I'm considering checking out the Troy Rising series or the The Culture series. Both seem to have some of the crazy human in space action I'm looking for, but both seem to be written by people with uncomfortable political views that seep heavily into their writing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2017 03:14
|
|
|
Tiggum posted:What were Banks's political views that you don't like? (I've read several Culture novels and would recommend them but I don't know anything about the author's politics) Not me yet, only I've heard that it leans libertarian and a bit racist going on. But if goons don't think so then that's great.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2017 07:10
|
|
|
If that's true, I don't think it ever bleeds through into the novels enough that it distracts.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2017 11:44
|
|
|
The Culture novels were basically an attempt to write explicitly socialist left wing space Utopias in the way that Heinlein wrote right wing libertarian space Utopias. There are some racist, sexist, etc characters but they aren't the work (and are usually the villain). Overall there's a lot of variation in them and they're well done but they're more a set of novels loosely in the same setting than they are a "series" -- think Nivens' Known Space, not Asimo 's Foundation.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2017 12:26
|
|
|
What's a good book about Lewis & Clark?
Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Jul 24, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2017 12:56
|
|
|
Read their collected journey notes/memoirs, they're great. Lewis waxes poetic and Clark gives the technical, practical details.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2017 18:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2024 09:30 |
|
|
Looking for something fun to read in the vein of Life and Death are Wearing Me Out or Republic or Wine (both by Mo Yan) -- anything fun, sprawling, historical and Asian.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2017 20:13
|
|
