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wearing a 30s gumshoe style outfit while attempting to work out if there's anything noteworthy about the ideology and fandom of one Ezra Pound
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Apr 28, 2023 13:25
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There's a profile of Dean Koontz in the Washington Post that includes this picture of his main library: He also has a second library just for 9,000 copies of his own books: 
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May 5, 2023 19:17
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that first library is pretty neat
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May 5, 2023 21:27
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rollick posted:There's a profile of Dean Koontz in the Washington Post that includes this picture of his main library: I liked this article. Thanks!
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May 5, 2023 22:04
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On a scale of Brandon Sanderson to China Miéville, how dense is the writing in the Dune books?
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May 8, 2023 20:34
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Mordiceius posted:On a scale of Brandon Sanderson to China Miéville, how dense is the writing in the Dune books? More than Sanderson, but not nearly as bad as its reputation. It's not close to same ballpark as, say, Umberto Eco or Thomas Pynchon.
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May 8, 2023 23:02
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Tolkien's level, maybe? I read both Dune and LOTR for the first time as an ESL teen and they were of about equal complexity, IMO.
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May 8, 2023 23:07
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regulargonzalez posted:More than Sanderson, but not nearly as bad as its reputation. It's not close to same ballpark as, say, Umberto Eco or Thomas Pynchon. Interesting you mention Eco. I've read "The Name of the Rose" and found it to be a complete page-turner. Meanwhile I found "Perdido Street Station" to be impenetrable. I have zero experience with Dune. All I know is that there are deserts, drugs, sand worms, jihad, and a dude is a worm. I've never seen the movies or played any games based on it. Debating whether I want to pick up a physical book or give the audiobook a shot.
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May 8, 2023 23:12
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Dune isn't very good honestly way over rated Baby's first door stopper science fiction. It's mainly political intrigue and not very interesting political intrigue at that.
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May 8, 2023 23:37
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Mordiceius posted:Interesting you mention Eco. I've read "The Name of the Rose" and found it to be a complete page-turner. Meanwhile I found "Perdido Street Station" to be impenetrable. I don’t think there’s an easily accessible unabridged audiobook. When I’ve looked, they all seem to be dramatized and performed with a cast, rather than the full text of the novel. You’d probably have to find a tape or CD to get an unabridged version.
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May 9, 2023 12:02
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Franchescanado posted:dramatized and performed with a cast, rather than the full text of the novel What's the English term for kuunnelma, anyway? e: Oh, "
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May 9, 2023 12:07
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3D Megadoodoo posted:What's the English term for kuunnelma, anyway? e: Oh, " "Radio drama", also.
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May 9, 2023 20:54
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Franchescanado posted:"Radio drama", also. Yeah checks out, most of it was on radio I think. But a lot of it is/was comedy or farce! (Yeah I know but still.)
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May 9, 2023 20:56
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So, I'm taking a trip to the UK and France this year, and trying to figure out exactly what steps I need to take to purchase all the Audible audiobooks that I can only buy from the UK, while I'm in the UK. Also trying to figure out which audiobooks those are, although I noticed Lud-in-the-mist, Excession, the Dirk Gently books, two mysteries by Richard Hull from the British Library, the first Wodehouse collection (but not the second for some reason), and several from John Dickson Carr. It looks like all the new Terry Pratchett audiobooks that used to be unavailable in the USA are now for sale here, although as much as I was okay with the new narrators I really can't listen to them because of how badly the footnotes murder the comic timing.
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May 18, 2023 07:17
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Weird request time! I'm looking for unnerving novels like House of Leaves. Specifically, I want one or two elements: 1) books involving weird architecture. Places that change, shouldn't exist, etc. The titular house, the myhouse.wad thing from Doom, backrooms, etc. and 2) Puzzle books that make you go back and forth with pages and thinking and so on. My favorite example here is Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic, as it's literally a dictionary, and going through it requires jumping around. A small bonus 3) books with large amounts of footnotes, e.g. Discworld, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Is there anything out there containing this stuff? I'd prefer horror or mystery but any genre will do, if it features that stuff strongly.
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May 19, 2023 19:10
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Pale Fire.
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May 19, 2023 19:14
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wait poo poo this is the general chat I'm sorry! e: Pale Fire really is the best response to this question, but I already know of it 
StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 19:19 on May 19, 2023 |
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May 19, 2023 19:16
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StrixNebulosa posted:wait poo poo this is the general chat I'm sorry! Pick up a collection of Borges. Ficciones or Labyrinths. Also Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities.
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May 19, 2023 19:19
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seconding borges maybe piranesi by susanna clarke
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May 19, 2023 19:20
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The Invention of Morel as well.
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May 19, 2023 19:26
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Rand Brittain posted:So, I'm taking a trip to the UK and France this year, and trying to figure out exactly what steps I need to take to purchase all the Audible audiobooks that I can only buy from the UK, while I'm in the UK. Afaik, you cannot buy UK titles on a US account, even even in the UK (or vice versa). You need a UK account. You'll need to create an audible UK account (you can use the same email as your US one though). You'll need a UK address for the account but can then buy the titles. It's annoying because you have to log out to switch between accounts, but if you download the titles on one account, they'll still be on that device when you log into the other account.
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May 19, 2023 19:29
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Gene Wolfes "The Sorceror's House" though it's not on the same level.
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May 19, 2023 19:50
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Everyone has already mentioned Borges, so… I haven’t read it yet, but S by JJ Abrams is a puzzle book. Illuminatus Trilogy, if you want to read what not-really-edgy teenagers read. Sheep Look Up had a lot of elements hidden in the newspaper clippings, that added up explains why things are happening to the world. But someone else here called it out for old fashion gender roles.
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May 19, 2023 19:52
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Enfys posted:Afaik, you cannot buy UK titles on a US account, even even in the UK (or vice versa). You need a UK account. Ah, and it doesn't care if I use a US credit card?
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May 19, 2023 20:32
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StrixNebulosa posted:Weird request time! I'm looking for unnerving novels like House of Leaves. Specifically, I want one or two elements: 1) books involving weird architecture. Places that change, shouldn't exist, etc. The titular house, the myhouse.wad thing from Doom, backrooms, etc. and 2) Puzzle books that make you go back and forth with pages and thinking and so on. My favorite example here is Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic, as it's literally a dictionary, and going through it requires jumping around. A small bonus 3) books with large amounts of footnotes, e.g. Discworld, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Cortazar's Hopscotch is the classic 'jump around to different pages' book. You probably want to read some Arno Schmidt too, a lot of his books have text in columns adjacent to the main text and similar things. Bottom's Dream is the furthest development of this but it's a 1600 page long folio so maybe don't start with that one lol. Kenneth Patchen's The Journal of Albion Moonlight has some cool stuff with auxiliary text in columns although they're not really notes as such.
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May 20, 2023 01:53
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Imagine if Kriss Kross had written a book...
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May 21, 2023 23:45
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We currently need a mod for your fine forum, so I'm coming to the general thread to ask if anyone wants to volunteer or wants to suggest anyone. You may do so in my PM box by clicking Message at the bottom of this post, or dropping me an email at athanatos@somethingawful.com I don't want to disrupt/derail your thread too much with nominations and such. I can answer whatever questions you have! Someone who can read would probably be a plus, but no judgement. You all have selected, it is done. (Can always PM/Email me if you need something!)
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Jun 1, 2023 22:43
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Promote the people moderating The Scholastic Book Fair to be mods/IK's of the Book Barn. Or comedy option, give a mod star to whatever alt account BravestOfTheLamps is using and watch the fireworks happen?
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Jun 3, 2023 13:42
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I'm very pleased with our new mod 
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Jun 5, 2023 21:15
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Who is it? I don’t see any announcements?
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Jun 5, 2023 21:44
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Iä! Iä! No mods no masters!
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Jun 5, 2023 21:54
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:Who is it? I don’t see any announcements? bilirubin is listed at the top in the subforum when you're on a browser
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Jun 5, 2023 22:04
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Iä! Iä! You are really going to enjoy this aren't you?  Its true, for whatever reason I volunteered to help out and ensure HA got away at the beginning of June like planned, and even stranger this offer was accepted. Seriously, I'm really happy to be able to help out with things and keep The Book Barn moving forward. Firstly though, profuse thanks to HA for his tireless work over the years in making this place a chill corner for talking about books! No one should expect any immediate changes while I get situated and figure out what things folks wish to see (or not, things might already be perfect). Please PM me with any thoughts comments or suggestions. HA left us with an excellent BotM suggestion, one that I have been meaning to read for a long while. I'll also be reaching out to my counterpart(s) in the Scholastic Book Fair once they get sorted to ensure the character of both fora remain true to their respective readerships (go check it out if you have not yet!), but collaborate where our interests converge (books?).
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Jun 5, 2023 23:38
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Bilirubin posted:Firstly though, profuse thanks to HA for his tireless work over the years in making this place a chill corner for talking about books! I'd also like to offer special thanks for introducing me to Bridge of Brids, a book that has cheered me up in some pretty bad times and has become one of my favorites since.
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Jun 5, 2023 23:51
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Congrats to Bilirubin! A surprisingly unsurprising and good choice for mod by the admin team or whatever arcane body decides on these things. I am not even able to produce a snide remark.
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Jun 6, 2023 06:37
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The list of the most popular books on Project Gutenberg is kind of surprising. Here's the top 20 from the last month: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (83750) Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville (75562) A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (68476) Middlemarch by George Eliot (67132) The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (63706) Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott (63257) The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim (60730) The Blue Castle: a novel by L. M. Montgomery (60364) The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. Smollett (57379) Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (57194) The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. Smollett (56597) History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding (56161) The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. Smollett (55895) Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas (54468) My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner (53444) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (48831) Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (38143) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (28273) Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal (21674) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (20757) No Dickens, nothing Russian, three books by Tobias Smollett (who he?), and Richard Wagner's autobiography. Is it just random what happens to end up top in a month or what.
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Jun 16, 2023 21:49
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Most surprised by the lack of The Count of Monte Cristo. Completely anecdotal but it's surprising how often I've run into someone who has read it, far more than most of that list.
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Jun 16, 2023 23:14
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rollick posted:The list of the most popular books on Project Gutenberg is kind of surprising. Here's the top 20 from the last month: Interesting . . .compare with the top 100 free books on kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Store/s?k=top+100+free+kindle+books+best+sellers&rh=n%3A133140011 When the kindle first came out, the top 100 free list was all classics everyone has heard of -- dracula, jane austen, etc. My guess is that the free ebook market may be "maturing," in that everyone who was going to buy an e-reader and finally crack open Dracula or Pride and Prejudice has done so, and now it's more the people who are finally getting around to reading Tobias Smollett
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Jun 16, 2023 23:19
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regulargonzalez posted:Most surprised by the lack of The Count of Monte Cristo. Completely anecdotal but it's surprising how often I've run into someone who has read it, far more than most of that list. Free versions of Count of Monte Cristo are poo poo; the only good english translation is the modern one, victorian era translations are heavily bowdlerized.
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Jun 16, 2023 23:20
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The Damon Runyon Omnibus should be number one; one of the best and most underrated books I've read.
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Jun 16, 2023 23:27
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