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Hi. I'm usually bored at work (I don't really do any real job and literally 90% of my workday is free time) and like to read books to pass the time. I'm out of ideas about which book to read next and, against my better judgment, decided to consult you. Yes, you! I actually trust GBS more in these matters than the book barn, for some reason. So post your recommendations. I will pick one (maybe more after I finish the first one) and post my thoughts about it throughout my reading. A few ground rules: 1. Short stories are encouraged. Either collections or single stories. 2.Non-fiction is also encouraged. 3. No graphic novels/comics/manga. 4. No genre fiction. Let's hear it! H.H fucked around with this message at 09:50 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 09:36
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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami.
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Sep 1, 2016 09:40
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about 90% of the books i read are histories and current event books about the relationship between North and South Korea or testimonials and memoirs from people who have escaped/defected from North Korea. if that sounds good to you, i can recommend a few really good books on the subject. edit: The Dennis System posted:The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami. this is a solid one, too
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Sep 1, 2016 09:42
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Iron Prince posted:about 90% of the books i read are histories and current event books about the relationship between North and South Korea or testimonials and memoirs from people who have escaped/defected from North Korea. if that sounds good to you, i can recommend a few really good books on the subject. I've read Escape from Camp 14 and liked it, and I'm a big fan of Solzhenitsyn, so that sounds good.
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Sep 1, 2016 09:49
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Angry White Pyjamas - it's a story of a poet from Oxford who teaches English in Japan and ends up studying aikido with the Tokyo Riot Police on a really intense (several hours every day) course.
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Sep 1, 2016 10:02
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I just read The Raw Shark Texts which was pretty good apart from the dumb angsty romance bit that comes out of nowhere It's about a man being attacked by a shark made of memes No seriously
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Sep 1, 2016 10:06
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H.H posted:I've read Escape from Camp 14 and liked it, and I'm a big fan of Solzhenitsyn, so that sounds good. Escape from Camp 14 was good, I agree. If you liked books about DPRK in that vein, I recommend checking out the following: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick which compiles stories from several different people living in DPRK throughout the 90s and 2000s. The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Chol-hwan Kang, which the title basically says it all. His family were a wealthy merchant type family living in Japan and returned to North Korea when it really first established itself after WWII and the US-Korean war in the 1950s out of a sense of duty. It ended poorly for them. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park. Again kind of what it says on the title. The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee. Again another great life tale told by a defector. One thing I noticed after reading so many stories and testimonies from DPRK defectors is that they all sound so outrageous. But they are consistent. Consistently outrageous. For histories/overviews of the DPRK I recommend the following: Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley Martin. This is basically a definitive English language history of modern North Korea starting with Kim Il-Sung's rise to power starting roughly around the WWII time period and tracks his impact as well as that of his offspring. The edition I have stops with Kim Jong-Il's reign over the country, because he hadn't died yet as of the publication of the book. As I understand it, the author is actively researching and writing a new update to the book currently. North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors by Daniel Tudor and James Pearson. This book is fairly short, but provides some very current and up to date look into the daily lives and underground economy of current DPRK citizens. Sometimes it is hard to get new information and data from the DPRK for obvious reasons, but this book provides a pretty current and brief overview of the state of things within the past 5 years or so. Sorry, I don't mean to hijack this thread to be the DPRK BOOKS THREAD, but if anyone's really interested in the subject feel free to PM me for more recommendations. My career and studies have always been focused on DPRK and PRC issues, so I have more than a few recommendations on those subjects. Iron Prince fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 10:08
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anything by mishima
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Sep 1, 2016 10:11
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I enjoyed Escape From Camp 14 but apparently he lied about things that he said happened. If you are interested in other books about North Korea I recommend: Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol Hwan Pyongyang - A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle These books by Tobias Wolff I can recommend as pretty quick reads: This Boy's Life (autobiographical - his adolescence) In Pharaoh's Army (autobiographical - his Vietnam War experiences) Our Story Begins (short story collection) E: I second Iron Prince's recommendation of Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader. Cat Hassler fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 10:21
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Poorly Made in China (https://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077). It's basically a story of a fixer working with companies who want things made in china and teh pitfalls therein. In short: Unless you have a person on-site at a factory to assure quality you will be hosed. Pretty great and surprisingly non-racist and the author is surprisingly neutral even though every plant owner he meets wants to screw him over.
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Sep 1, 2016 10:23
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Read this story: It Feels Better Biting Down, Livia Llewellyn, Nightmare Magazine edit: oh, no genre fiction? eh, get hosed Zorodius fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Sep 1, 2016 |
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Sep 1, 2016 10:31
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"No genre fiction"? I got a book for you it's called "get off your high horse, OP" by Applewhite.
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Sep 1, 2016 10:33
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Quote-Unquote posted:I just read The Raw Shark Texts which was pretty good apart from the dumb angsty romance bit that comes out of nowhere OK, this premise sounds just stupid enough to work. Also, I see that it has good reviews. A strong contender. Iron Prince posted:Escape from Camp 14 was good, I agree. If you liked books about DPRK in that vein, I recommend checking out the following: These all seem really interesting. I've always been fascinated by totalitarian regimes and my knowledge of the DPRK is sorely lacking. I will go over them and probably put some of them in my reading queue.
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Sep 1, 2016 10:33
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Dr. Dogballs Jr. posted:anything by mishima Yeah, I remember reading about this crazy dude's suicide. I'll look into it. Boiled Water posted:Poorly Made in China (https://www.amazon.com/Poorly-Made-China-Insiders-Production/dp/0470928077). It's basically a story of a fixer working with companies who want things made in china and teh pitfalls therein. In short: Unless you have a person on-site at a factory to assure quality you will be hosed. Pretty great and surprisingly non-racist and the author is surprisingly neutral even though every plant owner he meets wants to screw him over. This looks really good as well. Applewhite posted:"No genre fiction"? I will unironically read any short story/novella/full length novel you publish, Applewhite. Unless you make it about spaceships or wizards or some bullshit like that, I'm not a manchild.
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Sep 1, 2016 10:39
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H.H posted:Yeah, I remember reading about this crazy dude's suicide. I'll look into it. It's about wizards who do battle on spaceships.
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Sep 1, 2016 10:40
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The short story collection "Orientation" by Daniel Orozco is extremely good if you want short fiction. I'm also reading Joan Didion's "The Last Thing He Wanted" right now and enjoying it.
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Sep 1, 2016 11:02
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H.H posted:OK, this premise sounds just stupid enough to work. Also, I see that it has good reviews. I made it sound more stupid than it actually is. It's actually kind of interesting how it goes on about ideas being able to exist independently of humans and they literally take on lives of their own, which can potentially be dangerous It has a kind of House of Leaves-esque "what the gently caress is even going on" thing but nowhere near as good as HoL imo (though also a much lighter read).
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Sep 1, 2016 11:06
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Also if you're going to read Murakami don't take that guy's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle recommendation, instead read "Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World." Margaret Atwood's "Good Bones" is a cool collection of microfiction. You can find some solid stuff in those Best American Short Fiction collections, although obviously that's more hit-and-miss. Alice Munro is a short fiction writer who won the Nobel Prize, although I've never gotten into her stuff as much. A lot of people love her, and she's very skilled. "The View From Castle Rock" is a good starting place. "The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao" might hit a bit too close to home for a goon, but it's good. Junot Diaz has written a bunch of stuff since but I haven't read it.
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Sep 1, 2016 11:10
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A Line in the Sand is a very good non-fiction book about the British and French partition of the Levant after world war one and the political fallout from that for the Arabs, Jews, French, British and others. Goes from the 1910s to the foundation of Israel. Very readable.
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Sep 1, 2016 11:15
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The Round House by Louise Erdrich. It's a novel about a boy with an elderly father and a young mother who is brutally attacked and how he processes it and also a mystery from his father's past that led to the attack.
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Sep 1, 2016 11:17
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The Hot Zone It's about ebola and is a mix of non fiction and dramatizations. Good read.
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Sep 1, 2016 11:25
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Iron Prince posted:about 90% of the books i read are histories and current event books about the relationship between North and South Korea or testimonials and memoirs from people who have escaped/defected from North Korea. if that sounds good to you, i can recommend a few really good books on the subject. What the
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Sep 1, 2016 11:27
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the true confessions of jean jacques rousseau the parable of the beast by john n. bleibtreu the mission of art by alex grey
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Sep 1, 2016 11:47
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FactsAreUseless posted:Also if you're going to read Murakami don't take that guy's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle recommendation, instead read "Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World." Why do you consider "Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World" better than "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"? I'm getting a strong Confederacy of Dunces/Confessions of a Crap Artist (Philip K. Dick) vibe off "The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao". Would you say it is similar in style to either of those?
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Sep 1, 2016 12:00
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H.H posted:Why do you consider "Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World" better than "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"? Hard-Boiled Wonderland is more focused and better plotted, although I don't know if it's a better book. Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is just a much more ambitious, unfocused, sometimes under-edited novel. It's also way bigger. I don't recommend it as a starting place with Murakami, I'd read Wonderland and then Kafka On The Shore.
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Sep 1, 2016 12:05
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blood meridian or the evening redness in the west
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Sep 1, 2016 12:13
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redm posted:the true confessions of jean jacques rousseau Yes
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Sep 1, 2016 12:16
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I'm slowly reading the Aubrey-Maturin series. It's a jolly good tale of friendship and adventure
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Sep 1, 2016 12:22
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Non-fiction Quite an easy to digest book about colonialism and modernity in Asia. Very good stuff. https://www.amazon.com/Ruins-Empire-Revolt-Against-Remaking/dp/1250037719
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Sep 1, 2016 12:34
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Okay, I have read the short story "Orientation" that FactsAreUseless recommended, since it is short and I found it online for free. It's really good, straddling the line between dark office monotony and bizarre humour. Thanks, FactsAreUseless, I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it!
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Sep 1, 2016 12:41
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H.H posted:Okay, I have read the short story "Orientation" that FactsAreUseless recommended, since it is short and I found it online for free.
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Sep 1, 2016 13:26
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Justian's Flea is a very engaging history of the early Easten Roman Empire and the beginnings of the black death in Europe. Would defiantly recommend.
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Sep 1, 2016 13:33
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I'm reading Black Boy by Richard Wright right now. It's a memoir of the author's childhood living in the Jim Crow-era South and subsequent escape to Chicago where he joins the Communist Party. Absolutely gorgeous prose.
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Sep 1, 2016 13:43
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the death of ivan ilyich
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Sep 1, 2016 13:45
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For non fiction I really like Nathaniel Philbrick books. In the Heart of the Sea, Sea of Glory, and Mayflower.
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Sep 1, 2016 13:53
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the death of ivan ilyich is by tolstoy, its short like a novella, and is profound meditation upon the stages of awareness leading to death
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Sep 1, 2016 13:54
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Orkin Mang posted:the death of ivan ilyich is by tolstoy, its short like a novella, and is profound meditation upon the stages of awareness leading to death
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Sep 1, 2016 13:55
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FactsAreUseless posted:Likewise, Nabokov's Pale Fire. There's a ton of good shorter works by authors known for their larger novels. flauberts a simple heart
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Sep 1, 2016 13:56
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I've been re-reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (probably go through the whole series again) and also House of Leaves- both highly recommended by me
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Sep 1, 2016 13:58
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For non fiction I recommend King Leopold's Ghost. It's a light hearted romp through Africa!
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Sep 1, 2016 13:59
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