General TBB Chat/questions thread - I'm on Earth in 2023.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > General TBB Chat/questions thread - I'm on Earth in 2023.

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anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

writing=wit/weight

# ¿ Jan 31, 2015 09:28

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 08:18

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Welp, there goes Illuminatus!.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2015 12:06

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Chamberk posted:

I just finished reading the first two Hyperion books, and they scratched that epic scifi space opera itch something good. I may take some time off before I read the next two (Endymion and Rise of Endymion) but I'll definitely be coming back to that one. Good poo poo.

Take all the time you want, the other two are a lot worse. And I mean a lot.

ToxicFrog posted:

Is it worth having a go at Kraken if I found the Bas-Lag books really disappointing? They kind of put me off Mieville.

By all means, it's pretty different. It's still got the classic Mi�ville descriptions and love of long words, but it's a lot more action-packed and lighter. It's probably his easiest novel to get into and still very much worth it.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2015 12:54

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Mythology is reality's Expanded Universe?

# ¿ Mar 31, 2015 21:51

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Ornamented Death posted:

If you really want to know everything about the situation surrounding the Hugos, Mike Glyer has kept an exhaustive archive of postings by various people involved on both sides.

I really had no idea that Wright was such a raging rear end in a top hat before this one.

# ¿ May 3, 2015 16:21

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

It's GRRM, I bet his mobile phone text messages are split into three parts.

# ¿ May 23, 2015 08:46

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Most people I hear talking about it as a good book are folks who don't read SF in general; I guess it's a great science fiction for non-science fiction readers. Honestly found it rather boring myself.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2015 16:38

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

pakman posted:

So having played The Witcher games on the pc, I knew they were based off some Polish fantasy novels, and I put one of them on my Amazon wishlist ages ago hearing that the novels were really quite good. Has anyone actually read them? Are they just generic fantasy? How much gets lost in translation? Also, what order do the books go in as it seems that when I look on Wikipedia it says one thing, but on Amazon it seems to say another?

I don't know anything about the English translation, but they're pretty good. It's a low fantasy written before grimdark became the standard for the genre, and it draws heavily from fairy tales and Slavic folklore, as well as subverting a lot of fantasy tropes. The first short stories are a bit rough around the edges but it gets better and there's a lot of surprises along the way.

edit: The writing and the humor remind me a fair bit of Joe Abercrombie, if it helps.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 13:30

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

I think Calibre takes them too.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2015 20:05

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Lost of Circes in folklore.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2015 19:43

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

blue squares posted:

What the gently caress mailman where are you why are you over two hours behind the usual time?????????????

Chilling at the post office with his feet up on the table and nose in the book you ordered.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2016 13:01

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

boom boom boom posted:

Ursula k Leguin
Anne Mccafrey
Joan Vinge

Nnedi Okorafor

Really, shouldn't poo poo like this be taken care of by the death of the author?

# ¿ Feb 15, 2016 17:25

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

MonsieurChoc posted:

My favorite's The Island of the Day Before.

I always felt that one was a bit too bloated. The idea behind the fantastic turn it takes near the end and its execution are utterly amazing but getting there always felt like a chore. My favorite is Foucault's Pendulum and while it starts slowly as well, you always have hints and omens of things to come to think over as opposed to just Roberto's Shipwreck'd Adventure.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2016 18:53

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Earwicker posted:

AND NOW I HAVE TO BUY A "MOUSE WHEEL" TO USE THIS WEB-SITE. I GOOGLED THE "MOUSE WHEEL" AND I DO NOT HAVE THAT TYPE OF MOUSE!! YOU SHOULD NOT ASK YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS TO HAVE TO BUY A NEW MOUSE AND WE ARE DEMANDING AGAIN THAT YOU CHANGE THE FONT SIZE BACK TO BEING READABLE. I AM GOING TO RETURN THE BOOK I GAVE TO MY DAUGHTER WHICH I LOYALLY PURCHASED AT YOUR STORE IN APRIL OF 1994.

Google's got you covered.

e: Wait what

quote:

This book is so bad it has two epilogues.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Mar 11, 2016

# ¿ Mar 11, 2016 18:00

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Snapchat A Titty posted:

Vagina vacuum goddess is supposed to be a fertility goddess, I think, but I don't remember if it's spelled out which one she is.

In case anyone actually cares past UGH FANTASY, she's the Queen of Sheba of Biblical fame, who in Islamic legends is related to the djinn, hence the lethal seduction - dealing with genies generally tends to lead in characters' deaths by hidden catch. The book refers to her as Bilquis, which is what she's called (okay, that's wikiknowledge) in commentaries on Quran.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 13:40 on Mar 16, 2016

# ¿ Mar 16, 2016 13:36

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

It probably counts as one of the classics but just to make sure: have you tried the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust? They're very entertaining adventurous fantasy and the gradual worldbuilding is pretty great.

# ¿ May 4, 2016 12:10

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Sort of - Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Warning: may contain aliens and/or wizards. Plus he might not be actually confessing his sins...

e: VVV That's a very good one, yeah.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Jul 17, 2016

# ¿ Jul 17, 2016 20:41

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Well, if we interpreted it as first person past tense narrative with emphasis on a critical approach to the events related, then, uh...

...Look, the real recommendation thread is right under this one.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2016 17:01

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

1001 Lines To Seem Intellectual At Parties?

# ¿ Aug 18, 2016 11:33

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Depends on how much you like airport fiction?

# ¿ Oct 17, 2016 21:32

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

The real question is whether it's supposed to be goofy camp or the author writes like that in earnest. I admit I've only read one JR book but never quite managed to settle on one of the options.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2016 19:16

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Short sentences. Accentuate the drama. Of waiting in a queue.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2016 09:48

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

It's Ishiguro.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 12:13

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

The subgenre classification feels pretty artificial but there's good stuff in there.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2017 16:31

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Alaan posted:

Funny you should mention that because an author I legit like has a Mass Effect novel coming out soon. Catherynne Valente.

What.
Was she in a "payment or kneecaps" situation?

I mean, Peter Watts wrote a Crysis book but this is... A level further, I guess.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Oct 31, 2017

# ¿ Oct 31, 2017 17:54

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

StrixNebulosa posted:

Of course, this is one of the Shakespeare things we never touched. Hamlet, MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet were the big ones that we studied.

Seems odd to focus just on the tragedies and ignore everything else the man wrote.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2018 21:06

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

With Captain Nemo at least there is a heavy implication that he's Indian royalty abused by British colonialism and that's why he's taken to the seas, but a lot of the sections alluding to that were excised from most early English language translations, most of which are still the most common translations. Good set of quotes here on the translation differences: http://jv.gilead.org.il/evans/VerneTrans(article).html

This is actually explicitly confirmed in another one of Verne's novels, The Mysterious Island, which has an old and dying Nemo recount his life's story.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 14:24

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

I suppose illustrations depend on the publisher, but I really only remember only one plot that involved incest, the one set in Canton.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2020 23:54

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Jerry Cotton posted:

https://imgur.com/klywLOr

The Haunted Monastery?

I should really re-read those.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2020 17:13

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

There's also a cosmic horror thread but the threads are more or less interchangeable and He is everywhere.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2020 19:36

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

quantumfoam posted:

And if anyone wants to discuss racism and and capitalism gone wild, Karel Capek's War with the Newts is a fantastic read, despite being very dated dialogue wise.

Well, it can't really be not dated, seeing as it's an allegory for the rise of Nazism in Germany. Never really thought Capek as too concerned with capitalism, honestly - he was as middle-class city liberal as they come; even if he did realize that oppressing workers is A Bad Thing, he was also a very vocal anti-communist.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Jun 12, 2020

# ¿ Jun 12, 2020 09:51

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

TheAardvark posted:

What was y'all's first "adult" book? I was 8 or 9 when I read Call of the Wild because it was on my grandma's bookshelf. I still kept to more age appropriate/YA stuff mostly for a while but it kinda broke the barrier for reading non-children stuff for me.

Something by Jules Verne, around the time I was in first grade. Of course, he's basically considered boy's literature here.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2020 23:33

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Any recommendations for book podcasts, ideally focused on terrible genre literature?

# ¿ Mar 18, 2021 16:12

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

I honestly think the book club does a pretty good job even if it doesn't generate discussion (I quite frequently find myself in the "read it, but don't quite know how to formulate what I think" position) - I doubt I would have read stuff like Cellini, 1491, Blackwater or A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear otherwise and I loved all of those; I just don't really want to pop into the thread to say something really obvious and stupid.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2022 16:08

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Grundulum posted:

Where is the Let�s Read of the Sword of Truth series? I have a hankering to watch someone else suffer through that mess, preferably pulling entertaining quotes for discussion and commiseration.

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3668845

# ¿ Jul 6, 2022 10:45

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

No idea, haven't got that far in reading the thread yet.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2022 11:19

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

I'm looking to get a replacement e-reader for my ancient Kindle. It would probably have to be anothe4r Kindle because I've bought quite a few e-books at Jeff Bezos' Evil Emporium since it's by far the most convenient way of getting them where I live. Anyhow, any tips on good ones or what features are good/useless? Basically all I need is for it to not hurt my eyes and last for a decent while.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2022 19:57

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Gertrude Perkins posted:

I have encountered a cow orker who to date has recommended I read Paolo Coelho about forty times. I have osmosed mostly bad-to-bland things about his work from people whose tastes align with mine - should I just bite the bullet and read the Alchemist or something?

No, it's really bad.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2022 22:04

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

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!

Yeah.

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.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2023 23:51

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 08:18

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

So who is y'all's tip for this year's Nobel prize? I've seen some betting odds that seemed to claim the surefire bet is Murakami, which is a choice I'm honestly not a fan of.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2023 17:29

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > General TBB Chat/questions thread - I'm on Earth in 2023.

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