|
Hi everyone! I really enjoy long-form articles, like the sort you'd find in The New Yorker. At the moment, I have the eligibility to get academic/student discounts, as well as a credit card bonus offer that I'd like to burn through. So, I'd like to get back into my old habit of reading literary magazines, which I haven't had the chance to do for about a decade now. I don't really know what's out there currently, so what are some suggestions that don't suck? Not sure if this is the best place to ask, but it seemed the closest. Apologies if I'm in the wrong thread! (I do also want to discuss book recommendations, that'll come later this month when I figure out my book budget)
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 02:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 09:41 |
|
|
Picayune posted:I've never read any of Charles Dickens's books and I feel like I ought to try some. Where's a good place to start? To ping off everything above, the short answers to this are either 1) Christmas Carol if you haven't read it and haven't been overwhelmed with preconceptions from watching a thousand adaptations 2) the first third of David Copperfield is the best thing he ever wrote that doesn't have three ghosts in it Everything else either isn't up to his best writing, or you're going to have accessibility issues because he was writing for a different type of reader than most people are today. He seems deceptively modern because he's not Austen but he's still centuries in the past and his stuff just doesn't always convey until you're familiar with it. The first third of David Copperfield though . . Read until you meet Mr. Dick. If you don't like Dickens by then you never will, there's no point.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 16:58
|
|
|
I'm 40% of the way through David Copperfield and it is unfortunately starting to flag in narrative intrigue and writing quality after a blazingly wonderful start.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2024 06:32
|
|
|
Anyone have recommendations for British boarding school fiction that is NOT cozy. Anti-cozy, even. Hazing, bullying, nasty teachers, neglectful parents, etc. Will also accept recommendations for memoirs/non-fiction on the same topic.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2024 22:44
|
|
|
Jimbozig posted:Anyone have recommendations for British boarding school fiction that is NOT cozy. Anti-cozy, even. Hazing, bullying, nasty teachers, neglectful parents, etc. My one defining memory of Stalky & Co by Rudyard Kipling is that they shoot a cat and then play with its corpse. So maybe that?
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2024 23:00
|
|
|
Jimbozig posted:Anyone have recommendations for British boarding school fiction that is NOT cozy. Anti-cozy, even. Hazing, bullying, nasty teachers, neglectful parents, etc. Roald Dahl's Boy The Nigel Molesworth series by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2024 23:48
|
|
|
Jimbozig posted:Anyone have recommendations for British boarding school fiction that is NOT cozy. Anti-cozy, even. Hazing, bullying, nasty teachers, neglectful parents, etc. The Scholomance, if you're fine with fantasy. I know, I know, that's pretty unlikely.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2024 00:02
|
|
|
Jimbozig posted:Anyone have recommendations for British boarding school fiction that is NOT cozy. Anti-cozy, even. Hazing, bullying, nasty teachers, neglectful parents, etc. Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones, for sure. It's also fantasy ofc.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2024 00:10
|
|
|
Jimbozig posted:Anyone have recommendations for British boarding school fiction that is NOT cozy. Anti-cozy, even. Hazing, bullying, nasty teachers, neglectful parents, etc. A Separate Peace might be slightly on the cozy side in general but I remember the "twist" really impacting me as a young teen and it overall is very uncozy just below the surface. I should revisit it at some point.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2024 00:34
|
|
|
Jimbozig posted:Anyone have recommendations for British boarding school fiction that is NOT cozy. Anti-cozy, even. Hazing, bullying, nasty teachers, neglectful parents, etc. I mean it’s gotta be Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, right?
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2024 13:22
|
|
|
Jimbozig posted:Anyone have recommendations for British boarding school fiction that is NOT cozy. Anti-cozy, even. Hazing, bullying, nasty teachers, neglectful parents, etc. Tom Brown's school days, but only as a prequel to Flashman. To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield. Delderfield seems to be a bit of a forgotten author, but I've really enjoyed reading my parents copies of his books. Vintage Stuff, by Tom Sharpe
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2024 13:29
|
|
|
I want to read stuff with the themes of impermanence and accepting change. I know it's an important concept in buddhism and I was exposed to it in the Tale of the Heike a long time ago:Helen Craig McCullough's translation of The Tale of the Heike posted:The sound of the Gion Shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind. I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for, except perhaps to solidify a vague feeling that I should become more comfortable with the idea that everything is transient, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Could be fiction that explores these themes or an accessible philosophical primer.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2024 23:11
|
|
|
Chas McGill posted:I want to read stuff with the themes of impermanence and accepting change. I know it's an important concept in buddhism and I was exposed to it in the Tale of the Heike a long time ago: read Stoner by John Williams
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2024 23:25
|
|
|
Chas McGill posted:I want to read stuff with the themes of impermanence and accepting change. I know it's an important concept in buddhism and I was exposed to it in the Tale of the Heike a long time ago: Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2024 23:35
|
|
|
yaffle posted:Vintage Stuff, by Tom Sharpe Does Sharpe's groan-worthy unwit not appear in that one?
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2024 00:10
|
|
|
No, it's pretty bad and barely features a boarding school
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2024 00:44
|
|
|
Thanks for all the Dickens recs (and un-recs as well, honestly)! I bounced off Pickwick Papers pretty hard, but I'll try David Copperfield next. And then I'll know that I tried and can go back to less Dickens-y books if I want to.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2024 06:55
|
|
|
Thanks for the boarding school recs! I have put a hold on Never Let Me Go, since I liked Remains of the Day, and I'll check out the others after that.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2024 23:16
|
|
|
Can anyone recommend historical fiction that updates the Fenian Cycle into modern language? Or at least is also set during that time period of medieval Irish banditry? I would also take a non-fiction book on the real-world inspirations for the Fenian Cycle. Triple points if any of these turn out to be on audiobook at the Los Angeles public library
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 02:25
|
|
|
Historical fiction reminds me I read the flashman papers in college and those books are a goddamn delight. I remember my dad telling me about Flashman as a kid and how to fell rear end-first into glory through every major event in history and he goes “he even wound up fighting in the Civil War” and like a dumb naive kid I walked right into it and asks “on which side” because it’s flashman so the answer is both. I’m thinking about it they are probably Problematic as hell though because the books themselves are a kind of half parody of the British exoticism exploitation of their times
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 02:51
|
|
|
Tom Tucker posted:Historical fiction reminds me I read the flashman papers in college and those books are a goddamn delight. There's a read-through of them on these very forums: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3894423. And yeah, they're kind of incredible and various types of problematic. Your memory has probably edited out how rapey Flashman was, for instance.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 12:18
|
|
|
Something Else posted:Can anyone recommend historical fiction that updates the Fenian Cycle into modern language? Or at least is also set during that time period of medieval Irish banditry? I would also take a non-fiction book on the real-world inspirations for the Fenian Cycle. Triple points if any of these turn out to be on audiobook at the Los Angeles public library Lady Gregory's Gods and Fighting Men includes a bunch of Fenian Cycle stories, although it isn't exhaustive.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 15:23
|
|
|
FPyat posted:I'm 40% of the way through David Copperfield and it is unfortunately starting to flag in narrative intrigue and writing quality after a blazingly wonderful start. Yeah it does that. What a start though! You've read the important part. There are still good moments scattered through the rest of the book but it's like finding a mother lode at the start then picking up the scattered trails of loose ore after that. There's still gold in there but you have to sort through more to find it.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 15:33
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah it does that. What a start though! You've read the important part. Outside of his novellas this seems like Dickens's m.o.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 16:13
|
|
|
This is an extremely niche ask. I want to learn about the nitty gritty of agriculture. How do farms decide where and what to plant? What are you looking at in dirt? What things do you need to do to get soil in a good state? What problems do you try to get ahead of? I have zero background on this so I'm hoping something that makes it kind of accessible. I have no idea if what I'm looking for exists.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 17:02
|
|
|
TheCog posted:This is an extremely niche ask. I want to learn about the nitty gritty of agriculture. How do farms decide where and what to plant? What are you looking at in dirt? What things do you need to do to get soil in a good state? What problems do you try to get ahead of? My friend is a professor on this exact subject anr I see her Reading things along this line all the time, I'll ask her next time we hang out and report back
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 17:15
|
|
|
TheCog posted:This is an extremely niche ask. I want to learn about the nitty gritty of agriculture. How do farms decide where and what to plant? What are you looking at in dirt? What things do you need to do to get soil in a good state? What problems do you try to get ahead of? There are master gardeners manuals that cover this subject for horticulture, here’s Penn State’s. Very comprehensive deep dive into everything from assessing compost to how to prune a fruit tree. I don’t know what would be inside an equivalent agriculture manual or textbook that’d be different other than discussing the various machines and chemicals necessary for mechanized agriculture. That’s interesting as hell on its own imo so I’m looking forward to what turns up.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2024 11:49
|
|
|
I recently re-read The Stand, and holy poo poo, it's just so fuckin good. The first half is a classic and I love it to no end. What's something similar? Not necessarily from King, but just something in that style, capturing the minds and dialogs of people, you know? I don't know how to describe what I really dig about King, but I think you guys might know what I'm trying to get at
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2024 13:06
|
|
|
More Stephen King maybe? The Dark Tower series does what you're looking for, as does IT (though that problematic scene...) Other options: The Count of Monte Cristo A Song of Ice and Fire series The Stormlight Archive series Shogun
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2024 16:02
|
|
|
Last Exit by Max Gladstone I feel has a pretty similar vibe to the stand
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2024 16:41
|
|
|
regulargonzalez posted:Other options:
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2024 03:35
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:Last Exit by Max Gladstone I feel has a pretty similar vibe to the stand I'm really enjoying this one right now, it's got some claws in me. regulargonzalez posted:More Stephen King maybe? The Dark Tower series does what you're looking for, as does IT (though that I've read most of his output, and I should mention, I'm looking for horror. That's my jam.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2024 04:50
|
|
|
Leave posted:
I'm not sure if it's horror per se but Cloud Cuckoo Land is probably worth a look And one of my top 5 all time, Oryx & Crake, has a similar post-apocalyptic setting to The Stand. It has a very precise tone that I always describe as the bleakness beyond despair, how one would feel when all hope is lost but life keeps going on. regulargonzalez fucked around with this message at 05:20 on May 10, 2024 |
|
#
?
May 10, 2024 05:15
|
|
|
regulargonzalez posted:I'm not sure if it's horror per se but Cloud Cuckoo Land is probably worth a look Yeah if you’re going for that particular tone, Doggerland by Ben Smith is probably my favourite book about despair in the collapse. It’s about a pair of maintenance workers on an offshore wind farm as things get worse from climate change. It could easily be happening during The Stand if The Stand was about global warming.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2024 13:12
|
|
|
Looking for hard sci-fi where a prominent theme is making first contact with a non-humanoid species. Especially if a complex language needs to be deciphered, or if the aliens think strangely. I enjoyed how it was handled in Pushing Ice, and I'd really like to read more. Any suggestions?
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2024 17:25
|
|
|
I need me some frontier stories, with an emphasis on authors like O. Henry and Willa Cather and the like. I just finished a western short story collection and loved it.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2024 17:35
|
|
|
two fish posted:Looking for hard sci-fi where a prominent theme is making first contact with a non-humanoid species. Especially if a complex language needs to be deciphered, or if the aliens think strangely. Story of Your Life (Arrival) by Ted Chiang is the big one if you haven’t read it already. Embassytown is close, not exactly first contact but it’s the best book about alien language and language as meaning I’ve ever read
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2024 17:46
|
|
|
two fish posted:Looking for hard sci-fi where a prominent theme is making first contact with a non-humanoid species. Especially if a complex language needs to be deciphered, or if the aliens think strangely. Blindsight probably qualifies, for thinking strangely anyway.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2024 18:09
|
|
|
Project Hail Mary?
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2024 18:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 09:41 |
|
|
two fish posted:Looking for hard sci-fi where a prominent theme is making first contact with a non-humanoid species. Especially if a complex language needs to be deciphered, or if the aliens think strangely. You might like the Foreigner series. They do the whole "aliens look like humans but _____" thing but flip it around by having the aliens think in a genuinely very different way from humans. Which really fucks the humans up because they keep subconsciously thinking they should be able to relate to the aliens normally but always eventually hit this brick wall
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2024 01:36
|
|
