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Pooperscooper posted:What would be nice if this forum had a general recommendation OP for every genre instead of weaving through pages of poo poo. Well it is called the book barn not the book emporium.
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Sep 17, 2010 05:10
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dokmo posted:A friend warns that there are thousands of lovely books on this topic, but recommends Richard English's Armed Struggle: a history of the IRA and Tim Pat Coogan's The IRA. Both are long and really detailed (particularly the latter) and are not particularly easy casual reads, but are about as evenhanded as can be expected. Thanks! 
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Sep 17, 2010 20:00
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Anybody recommend any good books on (illegal) drugs? I've just read The Candy Machine and Shrooms, I'm looking for things along those veins - cultural histories or books about the trade flows and general use, or any good books about experiences of taking drugs (stuff like Doors of Perception, or Confessions of an English Opium Eater).
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Sep 17, 2010 23:41
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Can anyone recommend any non-fiction books on how the brain (or any living thing really) responds to music? Personal interest stuff, and I'm not really picky.
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Sep 18, 2010 01:00
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I've not read it yet, but sounds like you want Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
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Sep 18, 2010 01:05
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delicious beef posted:Anybody recommend any good books on (illegal) drugs? I've just read The Candy Machine and Shrooms, I'm looking for things along those veins - cultural histories or books about the trade flows and general use, or any good books about experiences of taking drugs (stuff like Doors of Perception, or Confessions of an English Opium Eater). You could try Rick Strassman's DMT: The Spirit Molecule. It focusses on clinical observation and experimentation under supervision. He comes up with some interesting suggestions. I think it is available as a freely downloadable PDF either on his site or on that of one of the institutes mentioned there.
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Sep 18, 2010 17:52
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Burroughs' Junky is a classic read. Also his Yage Letters John Allegro's The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross is a different sort of classic - speculative history of drugs and the origins of Christianity.
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Sep 19, 2010 15:09
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Thalamus posted:You might want to check out Joseph Campbell's The Masks of God, which I think is along the lines you're looking for, as long as you're interested in analysis, not just reading the actual mythology. It is made up of four different volumes: This series is really good, but they're a little outdated Does anyone know of any other books similar to Campbell? I haven't been able to find anything that really examines myths for deeper meaning and similarity.
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Sep 20, 2010 00:21
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Quills posted:I'm looking for books similar to Matt Taibbi's The Great Derangement, Spanking the Donkey, or Smells Like Dead Elephants. Seconding this, though I'd be quick to say that Taibbi is rather unique as far as modern writers go.
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Sep 20, 2010 16:48
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The Backslasher posted:I'm looking for either retold fairy tales/myths/folk stories (along the lines of Till We Have Faces or Deerskin) or, failing that, novels with that sort of mythical feel to their setting (like Bridge of Birds). I'm particularly interested in Finnish and Russian folklore, but the quality of the retelling is more important to me than the origin story. You might want to check out The Stolen Child, by Keith Donahue, which is a modern retelling of the classic changeling myth. Argali fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Sep 20, 2010 |
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Sep 20, 2010 17:22
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Nostratic posted:Looking for some good nonfiction books on 9/11. It's hard to separate the good ones from the crap. I have a couple of novels lined up (Delillo's The Falling Man and one other I can't remember), so I guess fiction as well. This may seem a bit obvious, but have you read the official 9/11 Report?
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Sep 20, 2010 17:33
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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.
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Sep 21, 2010 02:32
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mistermojo posted:This series is really good, but they're a little outdated I recommended Jaan Puhvel's Comparative Mythology on the previous page, I think. It's good, though pretty introductory stuff (and certainly not as exhaustive as Masks of Gods series). Puhvel's style is more "academic" than Campbell's maybe, and he leans less on Jung's work than Campbell does (so it doesn't read like a retread if you've already read Campbell). If I owned a copy I'd suggest more stuff because it's got a bunch of "further reading" ideas--but that's another thing that makes it worth checking out. The other book that I kept coming across when I was looking for something similar was J.F. Bierlin's Parallel Myths, but it didn't appeal to me so I didn't read it. Maybe it's good, but the cover looks like a pastiche of gilded fantasy novel crap. edit: I've also recommended it before, but the edition of Hesiod's works translated and annotated by Apostolos N. Athanassakis is cool (particularly if you like Greek myth and/or haven't read Hesiod's Theogony) because his intro and notes repeatedly draw parallels between Hesiod's Greek Gods and myths and (particularly preexisting/coexisting) Gods and myths of other cultures. Facial Fracture fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Sep 21, 2010 |
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Sep 21, 2010 03:21
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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.
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Sep 21, 2010 12:56
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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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Hey guys, I'm looking to buy a gift for my girlfriend and I was wondering if anyone can recommend a coffee table style book of photos from the 50s and 60s, specifically films of that time. She's a huge fan of Breakfast at Tiffanys, Marilyn Monroe, that kind of thing.
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Sep 21, 2010 23:01
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Argali posted:This may seem a bit obvious, but have you read the official 9/11 Report? You know, I actually haven't! Thanks!
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Sep 22, 2010 07:00
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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. That sounds like it should be pretty compelling but honestly it's written in such a static and bland fashion. The only interesting bits are the allusions to the bizarre world around them. Is it worth sticking with or what?
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Sep 22, 2010 16:12
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schoenfelder posted:I have Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons and Gangster Dreams by Rich Cohen sitting on my shelf. It is a solid account of the Jewish gangsters in Brooklyn in the late 1920s, their "Murder Inc." hitman group and their influence in the building of organized crime in the US. Big names featured are Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. Seconding this. I think I saw it in the shop at the Lower East Side Tenenment Museum, and a friend let me read her copy soon afterward. It was quite a quick read and I enjoyed it at least as much as I would have enjoyed a good novel on the subject. E: my iphone has strange ideas of what I want to communicate so lots of pseudo-typos. I claim responsibility for the remaining ones. rasser fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Sep 22, 2010 |
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Sep 22, 2010 16:26
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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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delicious beef posted:Anybody recommend any good books on (illegal) drugs? I've just read The Candy Machine and Shrooms, I'm looking for things along those veins - cultural histories or books about the trade flows and general use, or any good books about experiences of taking drugs (stuff like Doors of Perception, or Confessions of an English Opium Eater). I liked Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography by Dominic Streatfeild (yes, that spelling is correct; his ancestors must have hosed it up at some point). It's a little bit gonzo-journalism, which I think is appropriate for the subject matter, and quite enjoyable to read. If I recall correctly, the very opening chapter hooks the reader quite well and sets the tone for the book -- pick it up in a bookstore and read the first ten or fifteen pages, and you'll know whether it's for you.
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Sep 23, 2010 19:11
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I just saw The Shining for the first time, and I'm currently in love with the isolated and cosy-but-creepy feeling of the hotel. Basically, I'd like to read some horror books that have a feeling of isolation, and/or where it starts out pretty normal but it turns stranger and stranger.
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Sep 23, 2010 20:46
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Regular_John posted:Hey guys, I'm looking to buy a gift for my girlfriend and I was wondering if anyone can recommend a coffee table style book of photos from the 50s and 60s, specifically films of that time. She's a huge fan of Breakfast at Tiffanys, Marilyn Monroe, that kind of thing. Anything from Taschen. They have a huge line of nice and affordable photo art books in various sizes.
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Sep 24, 2010 01:04
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Is there anything like a Sci Fi version of Black Company? I adore that series, and I'd love to find some good sci-fi that is really character centric. Really sick of the high concept crap in the genre that has characters with no personality.
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Sep 24, 2010 01:58
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I think it's about time I went and finished Norrell and Strange. I've re-read the first few chapters twice already about a year or two apart, but never could get far. I blame the lack of interest on my part to the time period. Now after finishing the 6 books in Temeraire series, which takes place at the same period, I can get past my one hurdle; the fantasy portions were beautiful I think.
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Sep 24, 2010 01:59
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Looking for some good Noir/"hardboiled" detective stuff. The classic kinda thing, with gangsters and everything. I've not really read anything in the genre, but it interests me, so consider me a blank slate.Silvergun1000 posted:Is there anything like a Sci Fi version of Black Company? I adore that series, and I'd love to find some good sci-fi that is really character centric. Really sick of the high concept crap in the genre that has characters with no personality. I haven't read it yet, but Glen Cook does have a sci-fi series he's working on called the Starfishers, so I'd give that a try.
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Sep 24, 2010 02:09
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Casao posted:Looking for some good Noir/"hardboiled" detective stuff. The classic kinda thing, with gangsters and everything. I've not really read anything in the genre, but it interests me, so consider me a blank slate. There's a whole thread devoted to this, but if you've never read anything, why not start with Dashiell Hammett's collection of Contential Op stories?
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Sep 24, 2010 03:33
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Casao posted:Looking for some good Noir/"hardboiled" detective stuff. The classic kinda thing, with gangsters and everything. I've not really read anything in the genre, but it interests me, so consider me a blank slate. Chandler and Hammett for where it all started, of course. James Ellroy's LA Quartet is a must-read as well. I just turned my brother onto Ellroy recently and he's plowed through almost all of the Ellroy books I loaned him.
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Sep 24, 2010 03:35
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Are there any Fantasy/sci-fi books with a James Bond type character in them? Like a suave bad rear end character? There also has to be awesome chessmaster type villian/bad asses for him to fight. Is there anything like that? I read some James Bond knock off where the guy goes into other dimensions and has sex with the princess/queen there and fights the system or whatever of that world, and I am not looking for something like that. I want intricate plots, moves, counter-moves, the hero is in constant danger but it never gets to him, because he is bad-rear end.
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Sep 24, 2010 05:30
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I need a book that thoroughly details prohibition in the United States.
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Sep 24, 2010 08:06
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akrob posted:I need a book that thoroughly details prohibition in the United States. You are in luck: Daniel Okrent’s Last Call was recently published and is excellent. dokmo fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Sep 24, 2010 |
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Sep 24, 2010 08:33
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Whoever wanted the photobook of 50/60s film stars, there's a brilliant book of Audrey Hepburn photos by Bob Willoughby. It's quite expensive, but huge and gorgeous, and I really recommend it.
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Sep 24, 2010 14:53
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Femur posted:Are there any Fantasy/sci-fi books with a James Bond type character in them? Like a suave bad rear end character? There also has to be awesome chessmaster type villian/bad asses for him to fight. Is there anything like that? I've been pondering this for the last little while, because it feels like there should be something out there that's exactly what you want. The closest I can come up with so far is Keith Laumer's Retief books. Jame Retief is a relatively minor diplomat who regularly defeats Terra's expansionist enemy the Groaci, by being smarter, tougher, and cooler than everybody in the room. Mostly, though, his enemies are not really what you'd call chessmasters. A lot of the conflict comes from him defying his cowardly, greedy, superiors to uphold justice.
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Sep 25, 2010 08:41
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wheatpuppy posted:I've been pondering this for the last little while, because it feels like there should be something out there that's exactly what you want. The closest I can come up with so far is Keith Laumer's Retief books. Jame Retief is a relatively minor diplomat who regularly defeats Terra's expansionist enemy the Groaci, by being smarter, tougher, and cooler than everybody in the room. Mostly, though, his enemies are not really what you'd call chessmasters. A lot of the conflict comes from him defying his cowardly, greedy, superiors to uphold justice. Thanks, I will definitely track one of his book down. I am having a difficult time finding stuff too. Like a stoic hero who is unshakable, no matter the plots going around him, even against him. He dissects all situations 2-3 steps further than normal people. And the Villains might be thinking 4-5 steps ahead of him. Bond and Sherlock Holmes are two of the closest archetypes to what I am looking fore.
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Sep 25, 2010 18:45
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Has anyone read a really good biography of King Lugwig II of Bavaria? I'm spoiled for choice on Amazon, but I don't really trust amazon reviews. I'm leaning towards The Swan King by Christopher McIntosh and The Dream King by Wilfrid Blunt. Edit: I'm interested in pretty much all areas of his life and reign; his 'eccentricity', aesthetics, frustrations of Bavarian politicians and advisors with his reticence, his homosexuality, relationship with Wagner, etc. I'm also broadly interested in the German monarchies, personal politics in the courts, monarchy & architecture, random stuff. If you know of good books tangentially related to Ludwig, that'd be cool too. I speak and read German well, but would prefer to read in English because it's my native language. igby fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Sep 25, 2010 |
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Sep 25, 2010 22:56
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Does anyone know of any good books about the historical Judas? Specifically non-fiction stuff. The more academic the better, really. Most of the stuff I've been turning up is either crazy or ridiculously outdated. Recommendations as to the best translation of the Gospel of Judas would also be awesome.
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Sep 27, 2010 06:52
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Can anyone recommend a complete collection of Plato's Dialogues? Either a single respected translation or a mish-mash of translations?
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Sep 27, 2010 17:41
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Jive One posted:Can anyone recommend a complete collection of Plato's Dialogues? Either a single respected translation or a mish-mash of translations? Not Jowett, is the first thing I can say. That's the traditional English translation you see everywhere but it's very Victorian and tends to paraphrase. The translations in the Loeb Classical Library series are the ones I would recommend first. Other translations I've used in school and found good to work with are The Republic by CDC Reeve and Meno by RW Sharples.
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Sep 28, 2010 14:03
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Radio! posted:Does anyone know of any good books about the historical Judas? Specifically non-fiction stuff. The more academic the better, really. Most of the stuff I've been turning up is either crazy or ridiculously outdated. Most of the stuff that's come out in the last few years has been reaction to the discovery of that "Gospel of Judas," but it seems like you're looking for something biographical. And you're probably having trouble finding something good because Judas (unlike, for example, Paul) doesn't have a ton of historical documentation to describe his life. Your best bet is probably this: http://www.amazon.com/Judas-Betrayer-Friend-William-Klassen/dp/0800637348/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285683631&sr=8-1 I'd go for the version of the Gospel put out by National Geographic. It aims at a popular audience but it's bound to be competent; also, it's in its second edition and it's $10.
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Sep 28, 2010 15:30
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I've just finished reading Charlie Huston's Hank Thompson trilogy and Joe Pitt series and I was curious if there's anything else like this out there. Not just noir, but with well developed characters that have depth and dialogue that's just outstanding. Huston's a master at it. I also like the whole detective with a bit of magic/supernatural added to it. The ruthlessness of the protagonists in each of the series was also a big draw for me. I've already read Butcher's Dresden books and Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels, so I'm not sure if there's much else. Oh yeah, I tried Simon R. Green, but couldn't get into it.
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Oct 2, 2010 00:41
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