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Get a shelf, that looks perilous.
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Oct 4, 2013 13:44
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I've got several going. I've been meaning to build some hardwood shelves for years but at the rate I'm going I think I might just pay for someone else to do it.
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Oct 4, 2013 13:51
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Mr. Squishy posted:Get a shelf, that looks perilous.
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Oct 4, 2013 13:52
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Ugh, my book stacks are getting ridiculous. I have a shelf I could use if I clean it up and one that I could build, but I've been so busy lately I don't have the energy for it.  Maybe this weekend, I say for the tenth time.I'll take a picture when I get home. Or maybe not; it's actually embarrassingly messy.
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Oct 4, 2013 14:00
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Does this count? Why did you tell me about kindle daily deals, TBB? I don't even care if any of these are bad anymore, because they were all $0.25 - $2.00.
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Oct 5, 2013 01:22
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bowmore posted:Who else has a book stack going on? 
Stravinsky fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Oct 5, 2013 |
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Oct 5, 2013 02:09
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bowmore posted:Who else has a book stack going on? What, for unread books? gently caress no. I shelve them and keep a spreadsheet. I honestly don't think my ceilings are high enough for 'a stack'.
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Oct 5, 2013 03:41
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I used to have a stack for unread books, but I soon realized it looks much better if I shove em in the regular shelf and just let people know that I've read 90-some% of the books on those shelves.
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Oct 5, 2013 03:47
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The Mishima photo really makes it.
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Oct 5, 2013 19:10
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I picked up At the Mountains of Madness, and I know that this is not news, but holy drat does Lovecraft say absolutely nothing by saying a ton. I'm only 44 pages in and I'm not sure if I can read any more chapters filled with discussion over "desirable flight conditions" and wonders too unimaginable to be conveyed properly. Its a cool story for sure, but I don't know if I have it in me to continue...
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Oct 8, 2013 00:13
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WASDF posted:I picked up At the Mountains of Madness, and I know that this is not news, but holy drat does Lovecraft say absolutely nothing by saying a ton. I'm only 44 pages in and I'm not sure if I can read any more chapters filled with discussion over "desirable flight conditions" and wonders too unimaginable to be conveyed properly. Its a cool story for sure, but I don't know if I have it in me to continue... quote:Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, again in that chasm of stone which has shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once more, for the Vigilant sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his ministers on earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places. He must have been trapped by the sinking whilst within his black abyss, or else the world would by now be screaming with fright and frenzy. Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men. A time will come – but I must not and cannot think! Let me pray that, if I do not survive this manuscript, my executors may put caution before audacity and see that it meets no other eye. 
Qwo fucked around with this message at 08:55 on Oct 8, 2013 |
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Oct 8, 2013 08:42
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The Rats in the Walls and The Colour Out of Space are good. Edit: I never finished At the Mountains of Madness either, and I like Lovecraft. It just drags on and on. But hey, at least we got the show Ancient Aliens out of it on the History Channel 
pixelbaron fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Oct 8, 2013 |
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Oct 8, 2013 11:49
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I always dug Herbert West : Reanimator myself. I think Lovecraft is well liked because I think he was the first "big" (i.e. most notable) who had this idea that the cosmos is filled with weird poo poo and gods and other things that are way too horrible for us to conceive of, and it's not the great golden place that is just waiting for humanity to run out there and show em how it's done for God, Jesus and AMERICA and good old fashioned know how. He has his good points and his bad points, but overall he's got some decent stories. He was a crazy racist fuckwit in real life, but hell, product of the times. Not that much different than the EVIL MOOSLIM ARAB SONSBITCHES books you find in any airport fiction section nowadays.
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Oct 8, 2013 12:07
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Qwo posted:Nothing he writes is even scary. Back the gently caress up. Off the top of my head: The Rats in the Walls, Pickman's Model, and The Dunwich Horror are terrifying.
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Oct 8, 2013 13:55
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I'm pretty sure the consensus is already that Lovecraft is a poo poo writer, but he was extremely influential  At this point it'd be much more difficult to argue he was a good writer. And I actually think he kinda was, insofar as the constant use of occupatio/apophasis isn't just a crutch, but at least plays into the themes of cosmic horror/that which is literally incomprehensible and just cannot be processed by a human brain. Plus there's also the definition of "good writing." Like, in the sense that you could say Dan Brown is a good writer. It sounds crazy, at first, because on the level of the individual sentence, you're thinking, "Oh my god what the gently caress is this poo poo," and maybe on the level of the entire story you're like, "this is dumb," but jeez, let's face it: the guy knows pacing and keeps you turning the page, and if you think you can do better you're an idiot, and should maybe, I dunno, learn some humility.
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Oct 8, 2013 14:45
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DirtyRobot posted:I'm pretty sure the consensus is already that Lovecraft is a poo poo writer, but he was extremely influential Then uh I disagree with the consensus? He's obviously and unarguably influential, but if that were all then he wouldn't necessarily have the staying power in public consciousness that he does. Obviously not everything of his is great, but he's written some amazing stories.
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Oct 8, 2013 15:18
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Then uh I disagree with the consensus? He's obviously and unarguably influential, but if that were all then he wouldn't necessarily have the staying power in public consciousness that he does. Obviously not everything of his is great, but he's written some amazing stories. Well I'd agree with you. But it seems to me very fashionable right now to say, "Oh, yeah, Lovecraft. He's important and influential because of X, Y, Z, but have you actually read him? Great ideas, but absolutely horrible writer! Ugh!" And I disagree with this because the ideas only come through via the writing.
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Oct 8, 2013 15:40
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What's generally considered to be the canon for American war novels? I can name Catch 22 and A Farewell to Arms, but beyond that I'm a bit stumped.
Flappy Bert fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 8, 2013 21:33
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DerLeo posted:What's generally considered to be the canon for American war novels? I can name Catch 22 and A Farewell to Arms, but beyond that I'm a bit stumped n Red Badge of Courage I guess.
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Oct 8, 2013 22:36
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Slaughterhouse-Five and Chickenhawk. Also, don't limit yourself and read All Quiet on The Western Front.
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Oct 8, 2013 22:40
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DirtyRobot posted:Well I'd agree with you. But it seems to me very fashionable right now to say, "Oh, yeah, Lovecraft. He's important and influential because of X, Y, Z, but have you actually read him? Great ideas, but absolutely horrible writer! Ugh!" And I disagree with this because the ideas only come through via the writing. Actually its a very valid opinion though. You can be very influential and get ideas out in a way that people can understand and still be a terrible writer. John Smith (the English colonist in Jamestown) is seen as an influential American author. If you actually read the things he wrote you quickly find that he was in fact a terrible writer.
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Oct 9, 2013 00:35
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DerLeo posted:What's generally considered to be the canon for American war novels? I can name Catch 22 and A Farewell to Arms, but beyond that I'm a bit stumped n I've been reading a lot of memoirs from the Vietnam War: A Rumor of War The Things They Carried Dispatches Baptism: A Vietnam Memoir Matterhorn Father, Soldier, Son
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Oct 9, 2013 01:10
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DerLeo posted:What's generally considered to be the canon for American war novels? I can name Catch 22 and A Farewell to Arms, but beyond that I'm a bit stumped n A few big ones:
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Oct 9, 2013 04:12
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Helmacron posted:Slaughterhouse-Five and Chickenhawk. Also read the best novel/biography about WW1, Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger. Amazing book. In other news, Alice Munro just gott the Nobel Prize in literature. That's nice, and refreshingly politically uncontroversial, unlike last year.
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Oct 10, 2013 12:42
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Maybe some one here could assist me with remembering the name of a fantasy short story I once read and now need for a course I'm organizing about fictionary worlds (it might have been from the start of the 20th century): It starts with a knight on his way to slay a terrible dragon and ends shortly after with him being run over by the 'dragon' - which turns out to be a train. The driver further mentions that this happened before while some people in the neighbourhood were seeing ghostly knights in the area. Thanks a lot in advance! SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 14:09
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SavageGentleman posted:Maybe some one here could assist me with remembering the name of a fantasy short story I once read and now need for a course I'm organizing about fictionary worlds (it might have been from the start of the 20th century): You know there is a whole thread for questions like this? http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2704537
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Oct 11, 2013 05:29
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The Grey posted:You know there is a whole thread for questions like this? Dang, I'm dumb. Thanks!
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Oct 11, 2013 19:39
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Over at Grantland, there's a neat Q/A session with Don DeLillo. They ran part of Pafko at the Wall, too, which is a fun read if you've never read Underworld.
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Oct 14, 2013 04:05
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Would it be smart for me to dive into Bleeding Edge without having read any other Pynchon? I'm thinking about getting it from The Strand when I go on Wednesday.
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Oct 14, 2013 22:52
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I bought a second-hand copy of The Stand a couple of weeks ago and I've only just realised that it's the original, shorter version rather the Complete & Uncut one. Has anyone read both? Is it worth waiting to get the longer version?
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Oct 14, 2013 23:10
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DerLeo posted:What's generally considered to be the canon for American war novels? I can name Catch 22 and A Farewell to Arms, but beyond that I'm a bit stumped. I would Suggest April Morning, based on the Battles of Lexington and Concord and from the point of view of a young minuteman. pixelbaron posted:The Things They Carried I read this in my junior English class in High School. My interests in fiction are mostly detective pieces (Denis Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro novels immediately spring to mind), Techno thrillers (Though the vast majority of the authors in this genre have politics I find too conservative), plausible scifi (Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy), and historical fiction (Ken Follet's yet-to-be-completed Century Trilogy)
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Oct 14, 2013 23:33
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nefarias bredd posted:I bought a second-hand copy of The Stand a couple of weeks ago and I've only just realised that it's the original, shorter version rather the Complete & Uncut one. Has anyone read both? Is it worth waiting to get the longer version? You might wanna swing by the Stephen King thread to get a good spread of opinion on this, but I'd say it'd be worth it to read the original, unedited version just because it's a really solid book no matter the edition. Off the top of my head, there's really only one big subplot you'd end up missing, but other folks in the thread might have more to say on the matter. Then again, it's not like it's difficult to get the re-edition used, either, if you want to read both for some reason.
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Oct 14, 2013 23:44
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screenwritersblues posted:Would it be smart for me to dive into Bleeding Edge without having read any other Pynchon? I'm thinking about getting it from The Strand when I go on Wednesday. Go ahead, you don't need to have read any Pynchon to enjoy Bleeding Edge. I started with Vineland of all things and I turned out fine.
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Oct 15, 2013 00:18
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PatMarshall posted:Go ahead, you don't need to have read any Pynchon to enjoy Bleeding Edge. I started with Vineland of all things and I turned out fine. Thank you kind sir. I'm going to get it and dive head first into it on the ride home.
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Oct 15, 2013 01:56
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I have been racking my brain all morning, I am trying to think of the name of a book series that was published in the 80's and 90's I believe. It is a western series that has some of the most obscene, descriptive sex scenes I have ever read, I remember hearing the series was popular in prisons for just that reason.. I want to say it was "Strongarm" , but google turns up nothing. *edit - It's 'Longarm' Dr.Caligari fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Oct 16, 2013 |
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Oct 15, 2013 15:28
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Do we have a non fiction thread? Would it be smart to start one if we didn't? I read a ton of non fiction and am always looking for more recommendations.
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Oct 21, 2013 16:49
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There's a thread for "Essays, long form journalism, and writing about the real world" which would fit the bill.
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Oct 21, 2013 16:52
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I saw a really exciting looking book the other day at the bookstore and had to grab it, but when I got home I realized it was the 4th book of a larger series - ugh. Has anyone read The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers? Is it at all readable for people who haven't read the other books in the Zamonia series?
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Oct 29, 2013 19:51
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Flaggy posted:Do we have a non fiction thread? Would it be smart to start one if we didn't? I read a ton of non fiction and am always looking for more recommendations. There is a history book thread, http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3458502
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Oct 29, 2013 19:55
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Qwo posted:I saw a really exciting looking book the other day at the bookstore and had to grab it, but when I got home I realized it was the 4th book of a larger series - ugh. Has anyone read The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers? Is it at all readable for people who haven't read the other books in the Zamonia series? Yep, you can read all of these separately, no need to read them in order. I loved The City of Dreaming Books, hope you enjoy it!
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Oct 29, 2013 21:14
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