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Well I just started reading a few Wodehouse books. I've always wanted to get into his work but I just never had the opportunity. Browsing the local library I managed to pick up Cocktail Time and Uncle Dynamite and loved both. I want to read more of his work but he has a pretty extensive bibliography so it seems a bit daunting. Are there any absolute must-reads? I can see myself getting through most of his material but I'm really spoilt for choice and not sure where to really start.
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Jun 3, 2009 02:10
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Fame Throwa posted:Okay, which book of Terry Pratchett's should I read next? I decided to start at the very beginning, and I'm half-done with Color of Magic and it is awesome. I absolutely love Pyramids and Sourcery. They're both pretty standalone stories that don't really have any of the vast character lists like the later books and still retain that early Discworld charm that is sort of dampened in the later books.
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Jun 24, 2009 21:40
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ExCruceLeo posted:I've been looking for stuff that is shorter to read (on the train, etc.) I just finished I am Legend and really enjoyed it. Anyone have an recommendations for something about that length? Non-fiction is fine as long as it isn't boring. There's quite a few decent novellas. Two of the more famous ones are The Old Man and the Sea and The Stranger, both really good if you haven't read either of them yet. There's actually a whole website dedicated to books of that length so you might want to check it out to see if there's anything you like the sounds of
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Jun 25, 2009 17:48
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Anyone know of any good books on cults? I've always had a strange fascination with them and how people usually get roped into them (Reading about Heaven's Gate it almost seems absurd how people could actually get dragged into this) but I've never really read any decent books on them. I guess it's a bit of a rough topic and there's lots of books with bias in either direction, but what do people consider to be the best, generally? I'm open to books about specific cults or just cults in general.
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Feb 24, 2010 18:02
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So I recently decided to do some reading about Rasputin. Obviously he's a very contentious figure so there's a hell of a lot of misinformation about him. What would be a good book, or a good pairing to get the full story? Obviously the sensational demonisation makes for entertaining reading but I'd also like to know about him as an actual person.
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May 12, 2014 18:25
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I was looking at that but unfortunately my library doesn't have it and I'm strapped for cash at the moment. They do have Rasputin: The Last Word, though. It's by the same author. Is it just an alternate title or a different work?
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May 12, 2014 18:43
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Adib posted:I guess it is the same book according to dokmo—but for the future, you might want to see if your library does interlibrary loans. That way, even if they don't have the book you're looking for, they may be able to borrow it from another library. Yeah they do interlibrary loans, I did a search for it on their website which crosslinks all their libraries. I'll go for Last Word, then. Thanks for the recommendation people.
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May 12, 2014 19:15
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Libraries are pretty much the best things ever, but interlibrary loans are the icing on the cake. Ever since my laptop blew the gently caress up I'm pretty much on first name terms with the staff of at least two libraries nearby.
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May 12, 2014 21:08
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All of Vonnegut's short stories are worth reading. I'm particularly fond of Look At The Birdie.
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May 17, 2014 00:12
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Sucrose posted:Anyone have any horror recommendations? Preferably something recent, either long or short is fine. I'm thinking something that's more psychological horror-ish and less about serial killers, but I'll take anything that's good. I guess it's quite hard to find his stuff but Thomas Ligotti is a very good horror writer. My Work Is Not Yet Done is a brilliant and unusual piece of horror fiction.
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May 19, 2014 18:35
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So a bit of an odd one, but I'm doing some research and I'm looking for some good books dealing with the lifestyle/culture of people who are in an isolated community for periods of time. My first two thoughts were people who work on oil rigs or are at sea for long periods of time. I guess extended military service might be good aswell, but I'm looking for stuff more along the lines of how people deal with the situation where they're with a bunch of people for a long period of time with very little link to the outside world, usually after being in a situation where this isn't the case.
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Jul 23, 2015 19:04
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Kurt Vonnegut wrote some beautiful stuff but his prose isn't very ornate. He is quite terse at times and manages to get to the point fairly quickly, but the point he gets to is quite beautiful. Cat's Cradle is probably his most 'beautiful' book, which is quite a feat considering the subject matter. The concept of Bokonism is something that I wish was real.
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Sep 30, 2016 10:43
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If they liked Mouse Guard they'd probably love Bone. It's very much a classic that has wide age appeal so doesn't tend to insult people's intelligence like a lot of stuff designed for that age bracket can. Another classic that might be worth looking into is Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It does get significantly more heavy as it goes on though, so that might be a concern maybe.
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Oct 12, 2016 20:47
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The Phantom Tollbooth is fantastic. I seem to remember that age is when I got into the Discworld books. The Tiffany Aching stuff was written for a younger audience but honestly the main books don't have anything particularly objectionable in them, even if they are a bit naughty at times.
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Oct 12, 2016 21:19
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Neuromancer is probably the novel people think of when they think of Cyberpunk. It's kind of archaic now though as in a lot of ways tech has passed it and it feels weird because of that. Snow Crash is definitely a good choice too, and definitely touches on the social aspects more. Plus you can see where Google got the inspiration for some of their stuff. Earth and Glass are pretty much ripped directly from Snow Crash.
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Oct 14, 2016 07:48
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Russian Remoulade posted:As Halloween approaches I've been of a mind to read a bit of supernatural horror, but I'm not sure where to start looking. Ghosts and zombies bore me to tears so I guess what I'm really looking for is some crunchy monster fiction. Bonus points if said it takes a deep dive on the lore of said beastie. That said, I've read fairly little horror since a brief infatuation with King in highschool and I'm open to recent titles outside my narrow parameters if there's something viscerally satisfying. J. F. Gonzalez wrote a series of gory monster horror books that are sort of an ode to 1950s creature feature films. They're called 'Clickers'. They're basically about giant crab monsters that come from the sea and slaughter people. I'd also recommend Edward Lee's City Infernal series, which is about Hell and its various denizens. They're all pretty good but I do have a soft spot for Lucifer's Lottery as its styled after Dante's Inferno with H.P. Lovecraft giving a guided tour of Hell to the winner of the 'Lottery'.
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Oct 24, 2016 23:43
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xtal posted:I really liked Fight Club, and Dietland which is Fight Club minus the plot twist. Does anyone have any recommendations for authors like Chuck Palahniuk minus the M. Night Shyamalan? You could go back to the source of that style of writing, which is Knut Hamsun's Hunger. Not a hell of a lot actually happens, but it was probably one of the first to be written from that voice. The Lyngstad translation is probably the best. Hamsun was also a pretty hardcore Nazi supporter, too, if that would influence your judgment.
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Oct 29, 2016 12:51
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Cat's Cradle is a pro choice. I'd also go for Mother Night, which is another short read and probably his best alongside Cat's Cradle.
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Oct 29, 2016 13:35
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lifts cats over head posted:I've been rotating in some non-fiction lately and I'm looking for something on humor and comedy. Not something humorous or comical, rather something about humor, such as the cultural differences, history of, or the process of writing comedy. I'm finding it hard to find a book about a genre without being bombarded by a bunch of books within that genre. Any suggestions? Getting the Joke by Oliver Double is a sort of guide of the craft of stand up comedy. There's also 'The Naked Jape' by Jimmy Carr and another author who I can't quite remember the name of. This is about how comedy itself works, with some cultural context of historic jokes etc. If you want something more historical, Mary Beard wrote a wonderful book about humour in Ancient Rome. It's called, appropriately, 'Laughter in Ancient Rome'. She's a bona fide good classicist too, so she knows her stuff.
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Oct 31, 2016 22:05
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kedo posted:Hello thread! A bit of an odd question – can anyone recommend either a great western or mystery novel in which a cave plays an important or recurring role? My dad is a big fan of both genres and I'd like to get him a book as a gift. The cave is a bit of an inside joke. Child of God
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Nov 20, 2016 13:14
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Ian Fleming's Bond stuff is still good. Bond is an absolute rear end in a top hat, it's wonderful.
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Nov 26, 2016 16:05
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Iain Bank's Culture series is right up your alley. Dune is also a classic and ticks that box, although be weary delving into stuff post Dune, as it's of dubious quality.
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Dec 2, 2016 21:32
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