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Blurred posted:Can someone recommend a book that just explains how everyday poo poo works? I've just ordered the nat geo "big book of why" for my son, and I'd love something similar for myself. Could be focused on scientific questions, or focused on how everyday social institutions function, or anything really. I consider myself pretty well read, but i think i'd draw a blank if asked to explain how aeroplanes fly or how credit cards work. It's sadly out of print but "Almost Everything There Is To Know" by Tim Hunkin is great, your son will enjoy it too. When I was a kid my grandfather gave us a bound collection of "The way things work" magazine which was fascinating. (This is impossible to get and very out of date).
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Jun 19, 2022 02:55
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Transformed by Bill Slavin is a great complement to the Macaulay book.
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Jun 19, 2022 20:09
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Other than Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment, I want books about misanthropes, that transfix me with how strongly and convincingly the main characters express their disdain for other people.
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Jun 19, 2022 20:12
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Guy A. Person posted:How to Invent Everything isn’t exactly that but the conceit is that it’s a guide book for a time traveler who gets stranded at some point in the past in order to reinvent all of our modern conveniences. It’s pretty neat. I found How to Invent Everything to be fairly useless. It tries to provide both historical background and surface level mechanics, and in the process does neither particularly well. I felt the history elements were stronger than the mechanical.
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Jun 19, 2022 20:18
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FPyat posted:Other than Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment, I want books about misanthropes, that transfix me with how strongly and convincingly the main characters express their disdain for other people. Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Ligotti
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Jun 19, 2022 20:24
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Not nearly as literary but Joe Abercrombie's books are all dripping with cynicism and disdain.Kvlt! posted:Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Ligotti lol
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Jun 19, 2022 21:26
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FPyat posted:Other than Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment, I want books about misanthropes, that transfix me with how strongly and convincingly the main characters express their disdain for other people. Catcher in the Rye obviously Camus - The Stranger which in my mind is basically Holden Caulfield ten years later
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Jun 19, 2022 21:33
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Journey to the End of the Night by Celine fits if youre okay with the distasteful and often racist nature of the authors views
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Jun 19, 2022 21:50
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FPyat posted:Other than Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment, I want books about misanthropes, that transfix me with how strongly and convincingly the main characters express their disdain for other people. Literally just read through the Stop Being A Child thread and you'll find tonnes of recs Celine has already been mentioned, but there's William Gaddis, William Gass, Mishima, Thomas Bernhard etc etc etc.
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Jun 19, 2022 23:42
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FPyat posted:Other than Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment, I want books about misanthropes, that transfix me with how strongly and convincingly the main characters express their disdain for other people. Woodcutters by Thomas Bernhard
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Jun 23, 2022 16:53
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Kvlt! posted:Journey to the End of the Night by Celine fits if youre okay with the distasteful and often racist nature of the authors views smh at the distasteful nature of celine's views
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Jun 25, 2022 03:24
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FPyat posted:Other than Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment, I want books about misanthropes, that transfix me with how strongly and convincingly the main characters express their disdain for other people. Roadside Picnic
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Jun 26, 2022 15:36
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Anyone got some history recommendations about how interesting things got built? I just finished Disney's Land and Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution, and both of them disappointed me for the same failings -- a bad reliance on "a thing had to be done and nobody knew how and it looked really hard, but then it got done" narrative without covering the interesting bit of how they overcame those challenges, and in failing to include really obviously important bits (Disney's Land skips right from the monorail in 1959 to Walt Disney dying without mentioning the 1964 New York World's Fair at all, like inventing audio-animatronics and motherfucking It's a Small World isn't pertinent somehow, and Dogfight gets apparently distracted or something and veers off its narrative to discuss media moving to digital distribution, which is a)completely not the loving point and b)hilariously dated given that the book was written in 2013). By contrast, I really loved Losing the Signal, and Devil in the White City is one of my all-time favorite books.
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Jun 30, 2022 20:40
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CapnAndy posted:Anyone got some history recommendations about how interesting things got built? If you’ve not read them already - Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben Rich and Leo Janos The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder The former is about how Lockheed developed the U2 and SR-71 spy planes and the F-117 stealth fighter. The later is about Data General developed and built a new 32 bit minicomputer in the late ‘70s. Both are fantastic and wonderful insights into the culture of the companies at the time and the sheer technical work that went into developing all the above.
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Jun 30, 2022 21:38
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Well I don't know if cryptography is a thing, per se, but it is interesting. The Code Breakers by David Kahn is a history of cryptography that really gets into the details of how people wrote in code and how secret police went about trying to break them.
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Jul 2, 2022 16:04
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CapnAndy posted:Anyone got some history recommendations about how interesting things got built? I just finished Disney's Land and Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution, and both of them disappointed me for the same failings -- a bad reliance on "a thing had to be done and nobody knew how and it looked really hard, but then it got done" narrative without covering the interesting bit of how they overcame those challenges, and in failing to include really obviously important bits (Disney's Land skips right from the monorail in 1959 to Walt Disney dying without mentioning the 1964 New York World's Fair at all, like inventing audio-animatronics and motherfucking It's a Small World isn't pertinent somehow, and Dogfight gets apparently distracted or something and veers off its narrative to discuss media moving to digital distribution, which is a)completely not the loving point and b)hilariously dated given that the book was written in 2013). By contrast, I really loved Losing the Signal, and Devil in the White City is one of my all-time favorite books.  https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3950347
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Jul 2, 2022 16:07
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lol god that book
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Jul 2, 2022 18:07
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Despite being about a fascinating subject, this is one of the most boring books I’ve finished. It even manages to make explosions boring.
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Jul 3, 2022 02:58
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CapnAndy posted:Anyone got some history recommendations about how interesting things got built? I just finished Disney's Land and Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution, and both of them disappointed me for the same failings -- a bad reliance on "a thing had to be done and nobody knew how and it looked really hard, but then it got done" narrative without covering the interesting bit of how they overcame those challenges, and in failing to include really obviously important bits (Disney's Land skips right from the monorail in 1959 to Walt Disney dying without mentioning the 1964 New York World's Fair at all, like inventing audio-animatronics and motherfucking It's a Small World isn't pertinent somehow, and Dogfight gets apparently distracted or something and veers off its narrative to discuss media moving to digital distribution, which is a)completely not the loving point and b)hilariously dated given that the book was written in 2013). By contrast, I really loved Losing the Signal, and Devil in the White City is one of my all-time favorite books. I've recommended it before in this thread but "First Light" by Richard Preston is a fascinating look at the history of telescopes and how they are built.
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Jul 3, 2022 06:04
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CapnAndy posted:Anyone got some history recommendations about how interesting things got built? I just finished Disney's Land and Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution, and both of them disappointed me for the same failings -- a bad reliance on "a thing had to be done and nobody knew how and it looked really hard, but then it got done" narrative without covering the interesting bit of how they overcame those challenges, and in failing to include really obviously important bits (Disney's Land skips right from the monorail in 1959 to Walt Disney dying without mentioning the 1964 New York World's Fair at all, like inventing audio-animatronics and motherfucking It's a Small World isn't pertinent somehow, and Dogfight gets apparently distracted or something and veers off its narrative to discuss media moving to digital distribution, which is a)completely not the loving point and b)hilariously dated given that the book was written in 2013). By contrast, I really loved Losing the Signal, and Devil in the White City is one of my all-time favorite books. Backroom Boys by Francis Spufford is a collection of essays where each one is focused on one feat of British engineering -- building a Mars probe, building Concorde, building the first cellular phone network. There's one chapter about programming the game Elite : an abridged version is online here. The whole book is like that, only more so.
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Jul 4, 2022 18:51
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Just finished reading Anathem, and I'd like more SF/F with a similar kind of anthropological / philosophical, theory-laden subject. I've already read and loved most of everything Le Guin ever wrote, if that helps.
Music Theory fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Jul 8, 2022 |
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Jul 8, 2022 14:20
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Music Theory posted:Just finished reading Anathem, and I'd like more SF/F with a similar kind of anthropological / philosophical, theory-laden subject. I've already read and loved most of everything Le Guin ever wrote, if that helps. red mars
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Jul 8, 2022 15:49
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Music Theory posted:Just finished reading Anathem, and I'd like more SF/F with a similar kind of anthropological / philosophical, theory-laden subject. I've already read and loved most of everything Le Guin ever wrote, if that helps. red mars as mentioned is pretty good, even more so I think Years of Rice and Salt Consider Phlebas is good for this, first book of the culture series and I think one of the more philosophical Ice by Anna Kavan is some poo poo Frankenstein is a different pace but it really is a very cerebral book Matthew Stover gets really into in his Caine series but tbh the first book is just a really good pulp action book, he doesn't really get into the philosophy until the 2nd and (especially) 4th book, but also the first book is kind of necessary so y'know
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Jul 8, 2022 15:54
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I'm looking for non-fiction books on the cold war. Specifically I'm interested in the political maneuvering and general diplomatic efforts, and big picture stuff.
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Jul 9, 2022 06:26
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Music Theory posted:Just finished reading Anathem, and I'd like more SF/F with a similar kind of anthropological / philosophical, theory-laden subject. I've already read and loved most of everything Le Guin ever wrote, if that helps. Greg Egan scratches that itch for me as well. Check out Diaspora and Quarantine. Heads by Greg Bear is great for that, and short! And I think The Diamond Age and Anathem have a lot in common if you’re cool with more Stephenson.
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Jul 9, 2022 06:35
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FPyat posted:Other than Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment, I want books about misanthropes, that transfix me with how strongly and convincingly the main characters express their disdain for other people. Roadside Picnic
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Jul 9, 2022 06:37
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Tulip posted:Consider Phlebas is good for this, first book of the culture series and I think one of the more philosophical personal preference, but i think player of games is a better pick for this
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Jul 9, 2022 07:13
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TheCog posted:I'm looking for non-fiction books on the cold war. Specifically I'm interested in the political maneuvering and general diplomatic efforts, and big picture stuff. Odd Arne Westad’s The Cold War is a great starting point.
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Jul 9, 2022 07:34
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CapnAndy posted:Anyone got some history recommendations about how interesting things got built? I just finished Disney's Land and Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution, and both of them disappointed me for the same failings -- a bad reliance on "a thing had to be done and nobody knew how and it looked really hard, but then it got done" narrative without covering the interesting bit of how they overcame those challenges, and in failing to include really obviously important bits (Disney's Land skips right from the monorail in 1959 to Walt Disney dying without mentioning the 1964 New York World's Fair at all, like inventing audio-animatronics and motherfucking It's a Small World isn't pertinent somehow, and Dogfight gets apparently distracted or something and veers off its narrative to discuss media moving to digital distribution, which is a)completely not the loving point and b)hilariously dated given that the book was written in 2013). By contrast, I really loved Losing the Signal, and Devil in the White City is one of my all-time favorite books. The Great Bridge, David McCullough
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Jul 9, 2022 10:55
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I want to know about everyday life in communist Eastern Europe outside of the Soviet Union and East Germany between 1960 and 1990. Oral history, personal memoir, sociological study, all are good.
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Jul 11, 2022 23:05
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I've been re-reading Marko Kloos' Frontline and Palladium Wars books, but I'm nearly out and need some suggestions of similar works. I've read Weber, Drake, the Vorkosigan books, all kinds of military SF but it'd be nice to read more that isn't taking itself too seriously. Or like, some newer 40k stuff (outside of the 4 dawn of fire books).
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Jul 12, 2022 06:21
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Halman posted:I've been re-reading Marko Kloos' Frontline and Palladium Wars books, but I'm nearly out and need some suggestions of similar works. I've read Weber, Drake, the Vorkosigan books, all kinds of military SF but it'd be nice to read more that isn't taking itself too seriously. Or like, some newer 40k stuff (outside of the 4 dawn of fire books). Have you read any of Dan Abnett's 40k stuff? I'm thinking Gaunt's Ghosts might be your speed here. (forgive me if you already know it)
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Jul 14, 2022 16:43
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Halman posted:I've been re-reading Marko Kloos' Frontline and Palladium Wars books, but I'm nearly out and need some suggestions of similar works. I've read Weber, Drake, the Vorkosigan books, all kinds of military SF but it'd be nice to read more that isn't taking itself too seriously. Or like, some newer 40k stuff (outside of the 4 dawn of fire books). I enjoyed the Starship's Mage series, other than it being written by Khan and having no concept that there are three dimensions in space
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Jul 14, 2022 20:36
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Halman posted:I've been re-reading Marko Kloos' Frontline and Palladium Wars books, but I'm nearly out and need some suggestions of similar works. I've read Weber, Drake, the Vorkosigan books, all kinds of military SF but it'd be nice to read more that isn't taking itself too seriously. Or like, some newer 40k stuff (outside of the 4 dawn of fire books). James Nicoll has a category of reviews for military SF that doesn't suck. Might be worth browsing.
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Jul 16, 2022 07:47
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If someone read House of Leaves and loved the Navidson Record part but rolled their eyes to the point of injury at the Johnny parts, what other books should they read?
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Jul 22, 2022 22:27
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Lovecraft in general Stephen King - The Shining Stephen King - 1408 (story story, maybe his best written piece) Jose Saramago - All the Words (not horror but a similarly creepy, undefined space) Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose (ditto the above) Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum (can't say why exactly but maybe a similar feeling of forces moving just outside the scope of vision) E: also, I kind of think you read the book wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ E2: thinking about it, I'm kind of surprised that the Navidson Record portion hasn't been made into a movie or one season tv show. I wonder if offers have been made but Danielewski refuses to chop up the story or something regulargonzalez fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jul 22, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 23:08
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Thanks! I very well may have read the book wrong! The "real world" parts of the book felt disjointed in an unintentional way with a smidge too much 90s tragicool. I probably should give it another chance with a read-through without me impatiently waiting for the weird house parts
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Jul 22, 2022 23:37
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Didn't mean to be harsh or anything but there's cool stuff going on especially if you pay close attention to details and such. There's at least one other layer going on in Johnny's story that isn't immediately obvious.
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Jul 23, 2022 00:33
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I have a lot of thoughts about the book but probably can't express them well in my current inebriated state. Here's an except from a review that gets close to my thoughts Coming full circle, House of Leaves is, in fact, a labyrinth, a perfect paper-based example of what it’s describing right down to its title (the ‘leaves’ most often assumed to be a reference to pages: thus a house of leaves is a house of pages, or a book). It is a descent into psychosis, a physical and mental challenge. The labyrinth at the heart of the Ash Tree Lane home of the Navidsons is as much a psychological representation of the state of mind of the Navidsons themselves as it will come to be about your state of mind as you try reading it. From https://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/04/the-weirdness-in-house-of-leaves/
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Jul 23, 2022 00:50
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Manager Hoyden posted:If someone read House of Leaves and loved the Navidson Record part but rolled their eyes to the point of injury at the Johnny parts, what other books should they read? Read literary criticism of books you like. There's some compiled in books, such as in Norton Critical Editions, but most of it you'll have to search for on JSTOR.
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Jul 23, 2022 01:35
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