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Proffessor Rapeface posted:I need a recommendation not for books but ways to keep track of books you've read and/or own. I've really enjoyed using Criticker for movies, both in terms of keeping track of movies I've seen and its recommendation system, and wanted to know if something like that exists for books. I've been using GoodReads for a while to keep track of what I read. Free and very easy to use. I've also seen LibraryThing recommended a lot, though I understand it's only free for a certain amount of books, then you pay like $20 for a lifetime membership or something. Haven't used it myself so I can't say how good it is.
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Jun 2, 2009 21:53
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Yeah, the Chalion trilogy is pretty good and the Malazan series (what I've read of it) is good also. I'd also throw out J.V. Jones' Sword of Shadows series as a possiblity, though it's not finished (3 books out of a projected 4-5 book series, I believe). It does have the same gritty feel of Song of Ice and Fire as well as a very well-realized fantasy world. There's also the Coldfire trilogy by C.S. Friedman, for a series that's actually been finished for years. Very well-written dark fantasy with a touch of sci-fi. Edit: Also going to suggest Robin Hobb's original Farseer trilogy (Assassin's Apprentic, Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest). I'm not that fond of Hobb's later work but this trilogy is pretty solid. Just remembered one more: Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy. Is a bit slow-paced in the beginning, but it's an excellent epic fantasy trilogy once you get into it, IMHO. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Jun 11, 2009 |
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Jun 11, 2009 19:20
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Sodomy Non Sapiens posted:Horror authors that aren't Poe, Lovecraft or King? I crave horror stories lately and I have almost no idea what's out there. Dan Simmons' older horror stuff might be up your alley - Song of Kali, Summer of Night, etc. timeandtide posted:Need some non-fiction and fiction recommendations on these topics: For number one, I'd suggest Men To Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West 1840-1900 by Irving Stone. I read it some months ago and really enjoyed it. Stone's style is very engaging and covers a lot of history - Sutter's Landing, the Gold Rush, the Comstock Lode, the Mormon settlement of Utah, etc. For number two I'll just assume you've already read Blood Meridian since it gets mentioned at least once per thread in TBB, otherwise that's definitely a must-read, as are McCarthy's other Westerns. Haven't read a lot in the genre myself so I'm interested to hear what else is good. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Jun 13, 2009 |
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Jun 13, 2009 23:27
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End Of Worlds posted:I need really epic fantasy, preferably with wizards. I love the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and GRRM's neverending story, didn't dig the Malazan Book of the Fallen or Brian Ruckley's Winterbirth, and have A Wizard of Earthsea and The Blade Itself on my to-read list. I know to avoid Goodkind and I've no urge to dig into the Wheel of Time series...where to now? Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, for starters. I'd also suggest Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster trilogy. Classic fantasy trilogy that came out around the same time the original Thomas Covenant trilogy did. If you love Thomas Covenant, I'd also suggest Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths series. The final book just came out in April. Wizards galore and some of the best characterizations I've read in the genre next to the Covenant books. Same theme of characters who are interesting but flawed, though much less epic in scope. Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy is pretty highly-regarded as well, though I couldn't get into it at all. Similar premise to Covenant (people from our world get transported to a fantasy world). Personally, I'd recommend Tigana by Kay if you read anything by him, though again it's less epic fantasy and more character-driven.
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Jun 29, 2009 05:35
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Eight Is Legend posted:Also, what are some good books taking place in Japan (pretty broad, but I dunno what I'm looking for, maybe some horror or whatever)? Number9Dream by David Mitchell. Been a while since I read it, but I recall enjoying it quite a bit.
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Jul 23, 2009 04:50
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Hello Pity posted:I'm currently reading Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and am really enjoying it. Looking for some similar contemporary character driven stuff, not hard boiled detective thrillers or twisty-turny serial killer stuff. George Pelecanos is pretty good. I've read The Night Gardener and his "DC Quartet" (The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever and Shame The Devil) Edit: David Simon also wrote The Corner, a really good non-fiction read that follows a year in the lives of several residents in an Baltimore neighborhood. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 23:30
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The Aphasian posted:The aforementioned The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. He's a narcissistic, self-pitying leper. He rapes a girl in the first book. And he's the hero. Seconded. The description is pretty spot-on but it's a fantastic series if you can get past the fact that Covenant is pretty unlikeable (which is the point). One of the greatest anti-heroes ever. Also, The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe is really good as well.
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Jul 25, 2009 05:57
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appropriatemetaphor posted:I've really enjoyed most of Umberto Eco's books, are there other authors who have a similar style? I haven't read anybody quite like Eco, but you might dig Arturo Perez-Reverte's stuff. He's a Spanish writer who's gotten a reputation for writing "literary thrillers". I've read a lot of his stuff and it reminds me a lot of Eco at times since he's not afraid to write characters with a lot of depth or venture into philosophical meandering, rather than just writing a page-turner. The Club Dumas is a good read and gave me a similar feeling to The Name of the Rose. I also liked The Painter of Battles - it's pretty heavy on the philosophical side. His other books like The Nautical Chart, The Seville Communion and the Captain Alatriste series are also good, but perhaps not quite what you're after. Still, if you like the first two, then I'd recommend reading anything else by him.
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Aug 6, 2009 15:06
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appropriatemetaphor posted:The Club Dumas sounds pretty interesting, I'll snag that one. I suppose literary thrillers or "like the Da Vinci Code but not stupid" describes what I was looking for a little better. As an addendum to my previous suggestion, I just remembered that An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears is really good as well - very Name of the Rose-ish in style.
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Aug 7, 2009 23:25
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Unzip and Attack posted:I am a huge fan of Martin's SoIaF series and Martin's writing style in general. I enjoy space based Sci-Fi and loved Heinlen's Time Enough For Love as well as SPIN which won some awards a few years ago. A friend recommended Blood Meridian to me and while I wait for it to arrive I wondered if you guys might have a suggestion for someone who likes adult themed books with really good characterization. Blood Meridian is a great book, definitely. As far as fantasy genre stuff with more focus on characters, I can suggest a few: Guy Gavriel Kay's stuff is generally character-driven fantasy that reads more like historical fiction (SoIaF with much less emphasis on magic/fantasy elements). I'd recommend Tigana, A Song For Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan, The Sarantine Mosaic and The Last Light of the Sun. I'm not a huge fan of Robin Hobb's later stuff but the original Farseer trilogy (Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest) is pretty good - Hobb is pretty solid with characterizations and it has something of a SoIaF feel to it. Finally, I'll suggest the Thomas Covenant books by Stephen R. Donaldson. You may like them or hate them - I'll grant they are difficult to get into since Covenant is an intensely unlikeable (if well-done) character for much of the original trilogy.
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Aug 15, 2009 04:41
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sexual rickshaw posted:As cliché as this may sound, I really want to break into Thomas Pynchon's stuff - but I don't really know where to start. I own Against the Day, and I got about 50 pages into it before I became a little lost and gave up, but of course, I wasn't reading into it as much as I should of been. I was thinking of giving The Crying of Lot 49 a spin, since that's his shortest, and seemingly least complex book. I've also heard that V. is a good entry point for Pynchon, so what do you people suggest? Haven't read V. yet, but yes, Crying of Lot 49 is really short and easy to follow.
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Aug 26, 2009 05:11
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Shameless posted:I've read both of these already so can comment. They're both excellent. Good, at least I've got someone backing me up here. 
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Sep 18, 2009 08:52
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What are some other good books that tackle the same subject that Guns, Germs and Steel does? I remember reading on here that GG&S was pretty flawed and someone recommended a couple other books that they considered to be better-written and not logically unsound, but I didn't write them down and I can't remember for the life of me what they were called.
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Sep 28, 2009 04:35
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The Ninth Layer posted:I'm also looking for a new book about organized crime or hired killers. Anything, fiction or non-fiction, that focuses on stuff like the Mafia or Yakuza, famous hitmen or assassins, drug syndicates, or anything along those lines. The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb is a pretty solid fantasy series about a prince's bastard son who becomes an assassin. I'd also suggest Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora if you like Brust's style. Puzo's The Last Don is pretty good. He also wrote Omerta but I didn't care for it much myself that I recall. As far as non-fiction: Wiseguy and Casino by Nicholas Pileggi are both good. I also recall that The Outfit by Gus Russo was a really good look at the Chicago mob's beginnings. Finally, Blow by Bruce Porter is good - it's a bio of George Jung who was a hugely successful drug smuggler during the 70s and 80s.
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Nov 4, 2009 01:41
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Malloreon posted:Does anyone have recommendations for: Hard Drive by James Wallace and Jim Erickson is a great look at the early years of Bill Gates and Microsoft (from the beginnings in the 70s to the early 90s, when it was published). It's fairly well-balanced between portraying both the good and bad aspects of Gates/Microsoft and you get a pretty good sense of how they got where they are today, years after the book was originally published.
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Nov 20, 2009 14:20
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I just saw Frost/Nixon recently and I realized I don't know that much about Nixon aside from Watergate. Any good books? I'm planning on reading All The President's Men.isoprenaline posted:Anyone? Check Project Gutenberg - they have the complete works of Lovecraft. The Cthulhu mythos are a given, but "The Color from Out of Space" is a great one as well.
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Nov 22, 2009 04:59
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That sounds like what I'm looking for and the library has a copy. Thanks! 
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Nov 22, 2009 05:24
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Facial Fracture posted:I read Daniel J. Boorstin's The Discoverers a few years ago; it's interesting and a good read but it's not remotely challenging. As an example, the first section is on time: it deals with water clocks, the evolution of calendars, etc. There are two other books that comprise something called "The Knowledge Series," I think? I haven't read the other two. Yeah, The Discoverers is really good. I just re-read my copy of it recently and while it is geared towards the layman, it's got a shitpile of fascinating information about the various topics Boorstin covers, so you'll definitely learn something from it.
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Dec 3, 2009 06:49
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CapnAndy posted:I would like some suggestions about good narrative history books. I like history, but I like the ones that tell it like a story and try to get into the heads of the participants and explain what they were thinking and why they did those things. I've got Cicero and Augustus by Anthony Everitt, Rubicon and Persian Fire by Tom Holland, The Grand Inquisitor's Manual by Jonathan Kirsch, April 1865 by Jay Winik, American Brutus by Michael W. Kauffman, and a book each on the founding of America and the pre-reign life of Elizabeth I, which I can't remember the names of. Of all of those, Rubicon is my favorite. 1776 by David McCullough is really good - it chronicles a period from King George's speech to Parliament at the end of 1775 to Washington crossing the Delaware in Christmas 1776. It reads a bit more like a novel than a straight history book, and there's a ton of excerpts from letters and writings on both sides of the conflict to really give you a sense of what both sides were thinking.
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Dec 4, 2009 19:01
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Nipple Drainage posted:Are there any novelization (?) books about the Iliad, Odyssey and Dante's Inferno / Divine Comedy? I've read the first two, but in the poetic original style. I'd like a more novel, fiction, story based style of the stories. I've tried googling and amazon, and indigo/chapters but with no luck. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl is a historical mystery that features the Divine Comedy prominently. It's not a "novelization" per se, though.
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Dec 24, 2009 05:27
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Furious Lobster posted:Looking for some good historical fiction in the style and quality like that of Michael Shaara; I've read his son's stuff, which is decent but not up to par to The Killer Angels. Any historical period besides the Roman Ages would be literature I'd like to read since Collen McCullough and others have sapped my interest in that time period. Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield, if you're looking for another book centered around a historic battle (Thermopylae in this case).
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Dec 26, 2009 16:15
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I just read the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin, which is really good as well. Aimed at young adults but very well-written.
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Jan 7, 2010 02:19
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Yeah, what's been said about crime fiction. Diehard Ellroy fan here, so of course he comes highly recommended. The Big Nowhere is probably my favorite crime novel ever. Although - the Long Firm trilogy (The Long Firm, He Kills Coppers, Truecrime) by Jake Arnott might be sort of what you're looking for. It's a loosely connected story through the three books, set in different decades of London.
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Jan 14, 2010 05:35
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northerain posted:I'm looking for interesting horror, probably something written in the last 10 years (I'm open to old stuff, but I've mostly read everything). You didn't mention Dan Simmons, so if you haven't read him, you might check out Song of Kali and Summer of Night, to name a couple of pretty solid horror books by him.
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Jan 28, 2010 22:51
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The Wizard Knight (also by Wolfe!) is another first-person fantasy read. It's not his best stuff ever, but it's Wolfe, so it's not bad either.
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Feb 1, 2010 00:58
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appropriatemetaphor posted:I recall Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay being pretty good. Yeah, definitely read Tigana. His later stuff that diverges more into pseudo-historical fiction with a dash of fantasy is really good as well (the Sarantine Mosaic, Lions of Al-Rassan, Song for Arbonne, etc.).
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Feb 11, 2010 22:54
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unleash the unicorn posted:What are good Star Wars books for someone who has never read any before? Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy (Heir To The Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) is probably your best bet. I've read a number of others and they were all pretty sub-par by comparison.
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Feb 15, 2010 22:28
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Zahn's are actually pretty good in general, I'd say. It has been probably 10 years at least since I read them, but I can't recall anything bad about them, unlike Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy which makes the Star Wars prequel movies look like Oscar material by comparison. Edit: Fixed title error. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Feb 16, 2010 |
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Feb 15, 2010 22:46
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Bummey posted:^^^ Kevin J. Anderson wrote the Jedi Academy series. Not the New Jedi Order, which was written mostly by a different author for every book, except in certain cases of 3 book sets. Yeah, my bad - I fixed the title in my original post. I read the Jedi Academy trilogy about the same time you did and thought it was good back then, but in retrospect after reading it more recently, it's pretty crappy, especially all the stuff with Han and Leia's kids. The general ideas (the Sun Crusher, Luke trying to start a Jedi academy) are mostly decent, but Anderson's execution sucks. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Feb 16, 2010 |
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Feb 16, 2010 01:42
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BelgianSandwich posted:I want to read a Cormac McCarthy book next? The Road is probably his most accessible work, though The Border Trilogy and No Country For Old Men are also pretty easy to read from what I recall. Blood Meridian and Suttree are the best books I've read by him, though they're not the easiest to get into.
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Feb 16, 2010 19:33
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King Plum the Nth posted:It did make me wonder if you or anyone else here was familiar with Mary Stewart, who wrote an Arthur (actually, apparently a Merlin) series in the 70’s starting with The Crystal Cave. Don’t know if they’re feminist or not, I just keep seeing them around. I read the Merlin trilogy (actually, there's a 4th book as well but it focuses on Mordred and the death of Arthur, with Merlin only playing a supporting role) last summer and it was rather good - basically a retelling of the Merlin/Arthur legend with a bit more of a historical feel to it. Not really a feminist work, though. I read Mists of Avalon years ago and it was OK - interesting interpretation of the mythos, but not particularly memorable. Encryptic fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Feb 16, 2010 |
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Feb 16, 2010 21:53
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BelgianSandwich posted:Yeah, so I read The Road and thought it was terrible. Are his other works completely different, or does it reason that I probably won't like his works in general? If you didn't like The Road, you probably won't like his other stuff either. His other stuff is different plot-wise, but the same general style.
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Mar 3, 2010 02:12
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What else did Hemingway write that's good besides Old Man and the Sea? I've read For Whom The Bell Tolls, A Farewell To Arms and The Sun Also Rises so far and liked them all to varying degrees, especially FWTBT.
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Mar 13, 2010 04:49
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The Duran posted:A bit of a specific request but I only know some basics of the fantasy genre and looking for a book involving a Necromancer as the main character. Or maybe just an evil/bad character as the focus of the story, possibly leading an army. And not like Sauron from Lord of The Rings evil but an evil guy with some personality. The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells might be up your alley. There's also the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix that features necromancy prominently. It's not bad for a series aimed at young adults and has some interesting spins on the necromancy idea.
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May 25, 2010 21:42
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Jive One posted:Can anyone recommend novels or short stories with a setting and mood similar to either Bringing Out the Dead or Gangs of New York? I love the gritty and violent atmosphere of both these films so any quality literature of a similar vein would be great. Adding on to Gravy Jones' recommendations: Check out James Ellroy's work, in particular his LA Quartet series - The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz.
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May 26, 2010 16:22
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Parker Lewis posted:I have never read any fantasy series other than LOTR but I'm looking to catch up on what I've been missing. I'd avoid Song of Ice and Fire simply because it's not finished. First Law is pretty good - not my favorite by any means but Abercrombie does manage a pretty good subversion of the usual genre bullshit. Wheel of Time is pretty good but takes a nosedive in quality around Book 7, though fortunately it's nearly finished and I hear it gets better in Book 11 (Book 10 was abysmal though), so your mileage may vary. The Chalion trilogy is pretty good from what I recall. Malazan is pretty good (what I've read of it...) but a common complaint is that Book 1 (Gardens of the Moon) is tough going - Erikson drops you right into the middle of the action without a lot of context for all the poo poo going on, so it can be confusing for a while. There is a lot of other good stuff out there in the genre as well, though.
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Jul 21, 2010 04:26
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drkhrs2020 posted:Huge fan of historical fiction, mostly anything set in post Roman pre-Renaissance Europe or precolonial Asia/Africa/Americas. Just finished Shogun in 2 days and have read Bernard Cornwell extensively, but am looking for other authors/titles to pick up. I prefer writing with extensive historical accuracy and attention to detail. Just about anything by Gary Jennings is excellent. He did a shitload of research for his novels including extensive travel through the areas he wrote about, although he does take some liberties here and there for storytelling purposes. Aztec is told from the perspective of an elderly Aztec telling his life story to a group of Spanish scribes and covers about 50+ years prior to the invasion of Mexico. Jennings spent 10 years in Mexico to write the book and it's got a shitload of excellent historical detail about the period. Aztec Autumn is tangentially connected to Aztec and fictionalizes a little-known native rebellion against the Spanish about 20 years after the conquest of Mexico. Good, but not as good as Aztec. Don't bother with any other "Aztec" books with Jennings' name on them aside from those two though - Jennings' estate just slapped his name on them posthumously and brought in another writer to write them "based on his notes" (see: Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson taking a gigantic poo poo on the Dune legacy) I'd also recommend The Journeyer by Jennings - it's a fictionalized account of Marco Polo's first journey to Asia. Raptor by Jennings is also really good - it's told from the perspective of an Ostrogoth who travels through Europe during the time of the Byzantine Empire. May be hard to find as it's out of print, though I had no problem getting it from the library when I first read it. starless posted:I'm into intelligent sci-fi and fantasy along the lines of Gene Wolfe and Jack Vance. What else should I read? Viriconium by M. John Harrison immediately comes to mind.
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Aug 30, 2010 05:02
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Hedrigall posted:Can I get some recommendations for engaging non-fiction books about how archaeology meets ancient history? I'd love to know about how stuff got discovered and how it informs us about the past. Pompeii, the Rosetta Stone, the ancient wonders, these would be awesome subjects. Or surprise me with something else! It's not about archaeology per se but The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search To Know His World and Himself by Daniel J. Boorstin is a fantastic read. Covers a lot of ground including the invention of timekeeping devices, medical theories, etc.
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Sep 15, 2010 05:07
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IceNiner posted:I'm looking for some good, solid nonfiction books on the earlier times of the Mafia/Organized crime in the United States. I'm not really looking for any bio on a specific gangster but something more akin to a detailed overall view of the days when the mafia truly ruled the roost in many places. I've just added the "Boardwalk Empire" book to my list, so something along those lines would be ideal. The Outfit by Gus Russo is a really good history of the early days of the Chicago mob.
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Sep 21, 2010 16:20
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Evfedu posted:When does "The Book of the New Sun" get interesting, exactly? So far he's been given a coin after a fight, found a dogbear, met some girl in a big icy hall and wandered about his torturers building. All while giving boring interludes from where he's writing this book in the future with his perfect memory/insanity(?) getting in the way. If you're not finding it compelling at all by now, then I doubt you're going to suddenly find it gets better. Granted, the first half of Shadow of the Torturer isn't incredibly fast-paced but if you're not grabbed by the style or whatever by this time, I can't say it's going to be your cuppa tea later on either.
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Sep 22, 2010 23:03
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