|
Selachian posted:David Wong might be to your taste. For older stuff, perhaps James Branch Cabell, or Alexei Panshin's Anthony Villiers books. And, of course, Bridge of Birds. spandexcajun posted:I just finished the 3rd Murderbot , I would say "The Murderbot Diaries" are a perfect fit for "incidentally comedic sci-fi". I am sad I only have one more short story to go. Thanks, I’ll take a look at these!
|
#
?
May 16, 2019 22:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 18:12 |
|
|
Can anyone recommend a book that captures the feeling of a harmony? I'm not talking about a book that's about harmony, or living in harmony with something, but has the feeling of being written in or is written with a voice in harmony with itself. Something that has the feel of both the duality and simultaneity of a harmony. I'm listening to a song that's made up of a harmony. On top of that a male singer is backed by the harmony of a female singer, slightly out-of-step at points, echoing their words. The turning point of the song is realising that the two singers may not be singing individually, or even at or about each other, but the one person singing about themselves as both people the one (despite being two separate performers.)
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2019 23:31
|
|
|
Mrenda posted:Can anyone recommend a book that captures the feeling of a harmony? I'm not talking about a book that's about harmony, or living in harmony with something, but has the feeling of being written in or is written with a voice in harmony with itself. Something that has the feel of both the duality and simultaneity of a harmony. Ishmael by David Quinn... is what I was told when I brought up this request with a friend who is more well-read than I am.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 00:30
|
|
|
Mrenda posted:Can anyone recommend a book that captures the feeling of a harmony? I'm not talking about a book that's about harmony, or living in harmony with something, but has the feeling of being written in or is written with a voice in harmony with itself. Something that has the feel of both the duality and simultaneity of a harmony. thru by christine brooke-rose
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 00:51
|
|
|
Mrenda posted:Can anyone recommend a book that captures the feeling of a harmony? I'm not talking about a book that's about harmony, or living in harmony with something, but has the feeling of being written in or is written with a voice in harmony with itself. Something that has the feel of both the duality and simultaneity of a harmony.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 02:30
|
|
|
I need an audiobook to listen to. Are there any Dan Carlin Hardcore History type books out there that fit the bill? Entertaining but still kind of meaty. Especially Ancient-Medieval period.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 15:20
|
|
|
The Dregs posted:I need an audiobook to listen to. Are there any Dan Carlin Hardcore History type books out there that fit the bill? Entertaining but still kind of meaty. Especially Ancient-Medieval period. You might enjoy Debt: The First 5000 Years. It's not character-driven like a lot of Carlin's stuff but it's still kind of fun(?). Or: Guns, Germs, and Steel At Home: A Short History of Private Life A Short History of Nearly Everything Tom's River Any Malcolm Gladwell book I think of this genre as Dad Pop-Sci or Dad Pop-Sociology. Not to be confused with Dad Military Fiction or Dad History.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 15:31
|
|
|
tuyop posted:You might enjoy Debt: The First 5000 Years. It's not character-driven like a lot of Carlin's stuff but it's still kind of fun(?). Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari is right along these lines and was a great fun listen. It's not Medieval but it is history, like all of it.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 16:55
|
|
|
spandexcajun posted:Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari I just looked up the blurb for this book: Starting from this provocative idea, Sapiens goes on to retell the history of our species from a completely fresh perspective. It explains that money is the most pluralistic system of mutual trust ever devised; that capitalism is the most successful religion ever invented; that the treatment of animals in modern agriculture is probably the worst crime in history; and that even though we are far more powerful than our ancient ancestors, we aren’t much happier. Is it as politically charged as that makes it seem to be?
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 17:40
|
|
|
The Dregs posted:I just looked up the blurb for this book: Not really, but all the arguments are well fleshed out. His argument about how the need for large conscript armies of literate and healthy men gave birth to liberalism, social democracy and modern health care is really interesting. The weird bit is (I’m not sure whether this is Sapiens or Deus but w/e) the author refutes the only logical conclusion to his premises, and that is that it makes sense for the elites to automate everything and terminate the poor. In other words, good analysis, poor synthesis. I would argue the book is not political enough.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 18:03
|
|
|
The Dregs posted:I just looked up the blurb for this book: I certainly did not take that away from it. But, looking at some of the Amazon reviews people sure are fired up (on both sides) I though it much more like a long Dan Calin / Joe Rogen podcast but with a smarter person having a more scientifically grounded version of those types of conversations, I guess. I never checked out the sequel / follow up it sounded less interesting. But then, I don't think any of the ideas in that blurb are even mildly "provocative" Heck, most of them are just self evident to me.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 18:12
|
|
|
The Dregs posted:I just looked up the blurb for this book: I’m interested in how you would characterize those concepts, uh, apolitically.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 18:17
|
|
|
tuyop posted:I’m interested in how you would characterize those concepts, uh, apolitically. I don't. I just didn't feel like reading anything shoring up someone's political opinions, valid as they may be. I think I'll check it out.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2019 18:41
|
|
|
I was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations for vampire horror (explicitly not vampire romance)? I've read and enjoyed Dracula, The Passage series and Salem's Lot, so something along those lines would be a good start. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2019 15:39
|
|
|
CottonWolf posted:I was wondering if anyone had any good recommendations for vampire horror (explicitly not vampire romance)? I've read and enjoyed Dracula, The Passage series and Salem's Lot, so something along those lines would be a good start. Empire of Fear by Brian Stableford Sonja Blue series, starting with Sunglasses After Dark by Nancy A Collins.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2019 15:45
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Empire of Fear by Brian Stableford Empire of Fear looks like exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2019 15:54
|
|
|
The last two fantasy series that I have enjoyed the most are Jack Vance's Lyoness books, and The Book of the New Sun. Based on that I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for me. I'm not put off by things that are weird or somewhat wordy, some degree of surrealism and/or historical accuracy can be of interest. I realize this is really general, but I've been running through my bookcases looking for something to pick up and I'm coming up blank. I also read Pratchett/Baxter's Long Earth books in the past couple years and basically enjoyed them even if I found parts of them pretty weak. So, I am also not put off by things that are a little silly, but I am more looking for serious fantasy or historical sword porn of some kind.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 13:28
|
|
|
Tim Raines IRL posted:The last two fantasy series that I have enjoyed the most are Jack Vance's Lyoness books, and The Book of the New Sun. Check out Vance's Dying Earth series. It's basically combining the two series you enjoyed.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 14:03
|
|
|
I need some supernatural horror. Ghosts or aliens or stuff like that. Doesn’t have to be a novel necessarily. Short story collections, non-fiction stuff, hell even stuff on some random website. I’ve read King, Lovecraft and Barker, most of the decent stuff on nosleep and the big creepypastas, my favorite spooky book is Poltergeist: a Study in Destructive Haunting with Mysteries of the Unexplained as a close second. No zombie or vampire stories. Nothing with human killers or psychopaths as the monster. I’m also not looking for the drawn out creepiness of older stuff. I want visceral, shocking horror. Gross out or body horror is fine/great as long as it’s not the main focus of the work.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 15:03
|
|
|
Getsuya posted:I need some supernatural horror. Ghosts or aliens or stuff like that. Doesn’t have to be a novel necessarily. Short story collections, non-fiction stuff, hell even stuff on some random website. I’ve read King, Lovecraft and Barker, most of the decent stuff on nosleep and the big creepypastas, my favorite spooky book is Poltergeist: a Study in Destructive Haunting with Mysteries of the Unexplained as a close second. Check out Adam Cesare; everything he's written, with the exception of The Summer Job, fits those criteria. Ditto for Tim Curran.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 16:26
|
|
|
Those appear to be right up my alley, thanks! Actually, looking up Adam Cesare lead me to find the Year's Best Horror anthologies and some things like that so I'm going to try those too and maybe find some new authors I like through that. Great recommend.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 23:45
|
|
|
Are there any history books about the San Diego area that are recommended? Failing that, recommendations for books about the greater SoCal & Baja area would be greatly appreciated.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 17:41
|
|
|
I read Anna Karenina on a whim about 5 years ago. I burned through it because it had everything. Literally everything. I decided maybe I was missing out on the whole Russian lit thing, and read Crime and Punishment. I found it to be good, but not great. I moved on to War & Peace. I've tried reading this about 6 times since. I just cannot get into it, and it feels like it was written by someone else entirely. It's dry. I've made it maybe 250 pages in at the most. It feels like I'm reading a history book instead of a fantastic novel that has emotions, characters you cheer for and hate, social arguments that feel like actual conversations, on and on. Basically, I am looking for something as great as AK. This might be too big of an ask. How about just half as great? Keep slogging through W&P? Anyone?
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2019 19:57
|
|
|
Philthy posted:I read Anna Karenina on a whim about 5 years ago. I burned through it because it had everything. Literally everything. I decided maybe I was missing out on the whole Russian lit thing, and read Crime and Punishment. I found it to be good, but not great. I moved on to War & Peace. I've tried reading this about 6 times since. I just cannot get into it, and it feels like it was written by someone else entirely. It's dry. I've made it maybe 250 pages in at the most. It feels like I'm reading a history book instead of a fantastic novel that has emotions, characters you cheer for and hate, social arguments that feel like actual conversations, on and on. Basically, I am looking for something as great as AK. This might be too big of an ask. How about just half as great? Keep slogging through W&P? Maybe check out The Portable Nineteenth-Century Russian Reader 600+ pages with shorter works from all the great Russian authors. edit: What translation are you reading for War & Peace? Who translated the version of Crime & Punishment you liked? That might be a part of why W&P isn't working for you. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 20:12 on May 23, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 23, 2019 20:09
|
|
|
Yeah I was going to say Chekhov short stories.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2019 20:11
|
|
|
In a book rut at the moment. Any suggestions for someone who just read Lincoln on the Bardo and enjoyed the hell out of it?
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2019 05:13
|
|
|
Philthy posted:I read Anna Karenina on a whim about 5 years ago. I burned through it because it had everything. Literally everything. I decided maybe I was missing out on the whole Russian lit thing, and read Crime and Punishment. I found it to be good, but not great. I moved on to War & Peace. I've tried reading this about 6 times since. I just cannot get into it, and it feels like it was written by someone else entirely. It's dry. I've made it maybe 250 pages in at the most. It feels like I'm reading a history book instead of a fantastic novel that has emotions, characters you cheer for and hate, social arguments that feel like actual conversations, on and on. Basically, I am looking for something as great as AK. This might be too big of an ask. How about just half as great? Keep slogging through W&P? The Idiot is fantastic. I read the translation that's available on Project Gutenberg and it hit just the right note. It's one of my favorite books and I recommend it frequently and not just as a Russian Lit suggestion.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2019 05:46
|
|
|
brothers karamazov has "emotions, characters you cheer for and hate, social arguments that feel like actual conversations, on and on" and is just wildly good. maybe eugene onegin too? there's some nice translations of that. dead souls
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2019 13:08
|
|
|
Philthy posted:I read Anna Karenina on a whim about 5 years ago. I burned through it because it had everything. Literally everything. I decided maybe I was missing out on the whole Russian lit thing, and read Crime and Punishment. I found it to be good, but not great. I moved on to War & Peace. I've tried reading this about 6 times since. I just cannot get into it, and it feels like it was written by someone else entirely. It's dry. I've made it maybe 250 pages in at the most. It feels like I'm reading a history book instead of a fantastic novel that has emotions, characters you cheer for and hate, social arguments that feel like actual conversations, on and on. Basically, I am looking for something as great as AK. This might be too big of an ask. How about just half as great? Keep slogging through W&P? Chekhov's late stories, Dead Souls and Gogol's Petersburg stories, A Hero of Our Time, Master & Margarita, The Foundation Pit, Eugene Onegin & Pushkin's short stories, Fathers & Sons. You don't have to start with the gigantic tomes and then burn yourself out like you did
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2019 13:30
|
|
|
The Master and Margarita barely counts on one level since it is a colorful romp in a way that the others really aren't. It is truly great though, so top of the list anyway.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2019 15:11
|
|
|
i had the same problem with war and peace. it is the only book ive never finished. dostoyevsky on the other hand is insanely good and if you want to convince someone to read him, make them read notes from the underground. its short so if they hate it, no big loss of time
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2019 20:52
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:edit: What translation are you reading for War & Peace? Who translated the version of Crime & Punishment you liked? That might be a part of why W&P isn't working for you. Philthy posted:I read Anna Karenina on a whim about 5 years ago. I burned through it because it had everything. Literally everything. I decided maybe I was missing out on the whole Russian lit thing, and read Crime and Punishment. I found it to be good, but not great. I moved on to War & Peace. I've tried reading this about 6 times since. I just cannot get into it, and it feels like it was written by someone else entirely. It's dry. I've made it maybe 250 pages in at the most. It feels like I'm reading a history book instead of a fantastic novel that has emotions, characters you cheer for and hate, social arguments that feel like actual conversations, on and on. Basically, I am looking for something as great as AK. This might be too big of an ask. How about just half as great? Keep slogging through W&P? In addition to the other Russian books recommended, I'll offer Andrey Bely's Petersburg (Elsworth's translation if you're not committed to reading all three major ones or learning Russian to read the original) and Vasily Aksyonov's The Burn, which don't really convince you of their authors' worldviews like Anna Karenina does (especially not Petersburg, which was written by a crazy-pants Theosophist who believed that the color blue was evil) but are full of enough nightmarish psychedelia and kaleidoscopic prose tricks that it's beside the point. Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 07:42 on May 28, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 28, 2019 07:24
|
|
|
I'm looking for two recommends. 1 - A mystery/thriller/ set in Hawaii or South Pacific Islands with lots of good local color, think John D MacDonald for Florida or A Brief History of Seven Killings for Jamaica. Can be breezy or meaty, but nothing super depressing. 2 - A good non-fiction account of the Golden Age of Piracy with a heavy dose of the personalities and the nitty-gritty of piracy. Empire of Blue Water, The Republic of Pirates, and Under the Black Flag are three that I'm looking at.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2019 23:53
|
|
|
Human Tornada posted:2 - A good non-fiction account of the Golden Age of Piracy with a heavy dose of the personalities and the nitty-gritty of piracy. Empire of Blue Water, The Republic of Pirates, and Under the Black Flag are three that I'm looking at.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2019 00:21
|
|
|
Under the Black Flag is pretty much definitive as far as I'm aware.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2019 00:23
|
|
|
I listened to War and Peace as an audiobook over like six months and even though i kept forgetting who the characters were it didn't really seem to matter that much. Each chapter is relatively short and self contained, probably because it was originally written as a serial. It keeps coming back to the same themes so I found it easy to keep track of what the book was about even though I wasn't paying close attention, and the plots play out like a soap opera. To be honest I liked the philosophical and historical asides more than the main plot. I found most of the characters unlikable and the story was kinda, puffy? It was light listening in the manner of a long television drama, not something that demanded much attention. I was probably listening/reading to at least three other things concurrently and I think that's the best way to enjoy it, rather than consuming it all in one go. Just fit chapters in here or there before dinner or on the bus but have something else for your literary main course, so to speak.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2019 02:42
|
|
|
Seconding Under the Black Flag. I also like Captain Johnson's The Most Noted Pirates, with the caveat that it's not entirely non-fiction. As for mystery novels set in Hawaii ... well, the first Charlie Chan novel, The House Without a Key, is set in Honolulu and does have quite a bit of local color (for the 1920s, that is). But while it's less racist than Fu Manchu and the other Yellow Peril novels, it's still pretty racist in the "1920s white guy attempting to write about Those Inscrutable Orientals" manner. Selachian fucked around with this message at 07:44 on May 29, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 29, 2019 07:32
|
|
|
Selachian posted:
Yeah, it's "1920's white author trying to be race-positive" racist. The only author I really associate with hawaii or the south pacific is Michener but I've only read a few things by him and it was a long time ago. His short story collection Rascals in Paradise is great but it's nonfiction.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2019 13:24
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, it's "1920's white author trying to be race-positive" racist. I'm sure there are some Magnum PI novelizations out there somewhere
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2019 15:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 18:12 |
|
|
Hrm. Yeah, I'm thinking either Michener's Hawaii or as a long shot a book I've never actually read, From Here to Eternity. Here's a list of mystery novels set in Hawaii, don't think I've read any of them other than the Charlie Chan: http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2009/hawaii_books.html
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2019 15:24
|
|