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mcustic posted:I'm kind of itching to get it since it's just 5.99 for the omnibus. It's not YA, I hope? Don't recall seeing anything of the sort called out in any way, no. It's really not gory or vulgar. It's definitely not a typical storyline (at least so far into the 3rd book). I don't get the vibe that it is targeted at YA, but it easily could be read by a younger audience. But yeah, that price really sealed the deal. I think I am enjoying it (as I did Hunger Games) because I am going into the read with no concept of what the story is about. All I am going on is the 1500+ 5-star ratings on Amazon, truth be told. I saw this eve that book 6 is available, and I will probably grab that as well when I finish the Omnibus. It's just a relaxing read.
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Aug 10, 2012 05:18
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I've been looking for books that are centered around alternate universes. Simply fiction books that aren't too out there or odd, but contain some sort of adventure bled within the pages.
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Aug 10, 2012 06:56
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Trickey Dickey posted:I'm going to be travelling in the States for the first time in a few months, going to Nevada, Arizona and Texas among others. I recently finished Blood Meridian, and I would love to travel to some of the areas mentioned there. Tony Hillerman for descriptions of the Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah area, esp his Joe Leaphorn, Sgt Jim Chee series. Apparently his daughter has also published a photo book of of the areas he describes in the series in case that is of use to you.
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Aug 10, 2012 11:56
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Doomsayer posted:I was hoping more bad content-wise than writing-wise. I teach English and get more than my fair share of poor writing, haha! It's that sort of "my god how did this trash get published?" goodness that I'm after. Atlanta Nights comes to mind
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Aug 10, 2012 18:36
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Any recommendations for a good nonfiction book on American manifest destiny, preferably for a person without a lot of American history knowledge? Something that will spoon feed me, but still presents an in depth story?
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Aug 10, 2012 19:21
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Seizing Destiny: The Relentless Expansion of American Territory by Richard Kluger may be a bit too scholarly for you, but I thought is was pretty well written and had enough exciting narrative for a compulsive read.
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Aug 10, 2012 21:43
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I'm a really bad reader when it comes to authors beating me to death with their thesaurus, so can anyone recommend me a book where they do exactly that, extremely poorly, so I can practice figuring out what the hell is going on?
Raneman fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Aug 11, 2012 |
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Aug 11, 2012 02:49
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Raneman posted:I'm a really bad reader when it comes to authors beating me to death with their thesaurus, so can anyone recommend me a book where they do exactly that, extremely poorly, so I can practice figuring out what the hell is going on? Anything by China Mieville. He's a really brilliant fantasy author in a lot of ways but he writes like he's paid by the syllable.
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Aug 11, 2012 03:02
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Can anyone recommend a good starting place for Slavoj Zizek?
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Aug 11, 2012 03:43
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Raneman posted:I'm a really bad reader when it comes to authors beating me to death with their thesaurus, so can anyone recommend me a book where they do exactly that, extremely poorly, so I can practice figuring out what the hell is going on? Lovecraft loved his thesaurus. So did Jack Vance. Their stylistic flaws are very obvious, but their stories are still enjoyable, so your project won't be a total chore.
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Aug 11, 2012 07:39
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barkingclam posted:Can anyone recommend a good starting place for Slavoj Zizek? This might depend on which of the following you are interested in, or more or less familiar with, or want to be familiar with: - Marxism, commodity fetishism, etc. - Lacan, psychoanalysis, desire, object a - Hegel, Kant, German Idealism, metaphysics - Film criticism The Sublime Object of Ideology is what put him on the map, and gets to some of the core ideas of his thought. It's kind of a look at commodity fetishism vis-a-vis Lacan and things like desire and the object a. When I took a grad course that was half Zizek readings, we re-read the first chapter of Marx's Capital before starting, in order to refresh ourselves on surplus value and commodity fetishism. The Lacan stuff is... well, it's easier to read Zizek than to read Lacan for that stuff. He even wrote a book called How to Read Lacan. His new book, Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism, reads Hegel through Lacan (he says, in some interview, "Lacan is just a tool for me to read Hegel"). It's dense, and massive, but contains a lot of the stuff he's written over the past 20 years. Like, it literally contains the same words. He often just copies and pastes some of what he considers his most important or best work (he does this a lot). If you're interested in Hegel and German Idealism and even ontology or metaphysics, this is what you want, but, uh, it'll take awhile (I'm only a third through it. I just got to the bits on Hegel after reading about Kant and Fichte and so on). If you're interested in the film criticism stuff, How to Read Lacan, linked above, might be good. Also, Everything You Wanted to Know About Lacan But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock is fun. He also has The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, which I think is on YouTube... or large parts of it are. It's really fun. It's edited such that he just sits in on scenes from movies and talks about them. I find a lot of the videos with him are quite useful, because he has to break his concepts down in really easy to understand ways. His faculty web page has links to a bunch of that, which you can explore depending on your interests and/or what you find confusing in his written work. There's also a great video somewhere of him sparring with Avital Ronell when she introduces him to some talk he's about to give. There is also, of course, Zizek! on YouTube, which introduces some of his concepts but is mostly biography. It's much like the Derrida movie. For reference, I think he considers Sublime Object, Less Than Nothing, and The Parallax View his best/most important works. I might be wrong about The Parallax View (I have not read it).
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Aug 11, 2012 17:21
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I want to read something like The Looming Tower. Easily engaging but also informative about a historical event everyone should know something about. edit: picked up Swerve Winszton fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Aug 11, 2012 |
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Aug 11, 2012 20:12
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I love books with unreliable narrators and a story that describes multiple realities as seen by different characters. I want to question whether what I just read actually happened or not, and then question whether "actually happened" has any meaning in a work of fiction, and so on. Even better if the theme is dreadful or horrible in some way. Examples I have are House of Leaves and The Watcher by Charles Maclean. I also remember a short story by Stephen King (I think) about an elementary teacher who is forced to defend herself against her students when they turn one by one into monsters, and kills them all. Only there were never any monsters outside of her mind, and she just slaughtered a room full of schoolchildren. This one was a bit predictable, but this kind of questioning what is real and what is not is exactly what I'm looking for.
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Aug 12, 2012 03:39
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I want something fantasy or sci-fi that's an easy read but has some bite into it. Shades of Grey has been really hard to top, and I tried reading Fforde's Nursrey Crime and Thursday Next, but I never really got into it. Alternatively, His Dark Materials without all of the pretension. I picked up Melville's The City & The City, but it didn't really do anything for me either.
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Aug 12, 2012 04:21
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I need a horror novel. I'm actually thinking of starting a horror book megathread, if anyone's interested. I love House of Leaves, The Raw Shark Texts, and Ligotti - stories that are great at inserting the totally unnatural into the mundane, are heavily atmospheric and steer away from body horror. Something creeping and unsettling. Any suggestions?
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Aug 12, 2012 06:03
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End Of Worlds posted:I need a horror novel. I'm actually thinking of starting a horror book megathread, if anyone's interested. Beneath the Surface by Simon Strantzas (the style of stories here are very reminiscent of Ligotti) and pretty much anything by Laird Barron are good places to start. Actually, those aren't novels. I guess the problem is that the vast majority of work that meets your criteria are short stories and novellas. Laird Barron does have a novel, The Croning, but you'd be well-served reading his short stories first because a lot of them tie in to what's happening in the novel. The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan is a very good atmospheric horror novel, though Kiernan has a very distinct style that isn't for everyone. Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs is pretty good, too, though it's more Lovecraftian than Ligottian. Along a similar line, I can't recommend Mask of the Other by Greg Stolze enough - I was blown away by how good it is. And I'm down for a horror megathread. I keep meaning to make one but I get distracted by other stuff.
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Aug 12, 2012 16:17
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Ornamented Death posted:Beneath the Surface by Simon Strantzas (the style of stories here are very reminiscent of Ligotti) and pretty much anything by Laird Barron are good places to start. These look right up my alley, thanks. I should've mentioned that short stories and novellas are great as well. e: actually, probably even preferable. chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Aug 12, 2012 |
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Aug 12, 2012 16:34
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Having a real hard time finding anything on the War of the Roses  I tried Alison Weir's but her writing style's always been too dry. Nonfiction or fiction, looking for something leaning more towards the politics than battlefield, though battlefield works too!
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Aug 12, 2012 18:19
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noirstronaut posted:I've been looking for books that are centered around alternate universes. Simply fiction books that aren't too out there or odd, but contain some sort of adventure bled within the pages. There's always the classic His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman, but it is a YA series. Alternativly, The Long Earth by coauthors Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett is a recent book about alternate earths.
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Aug 12, 2012 22:02
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I know this has been probably asked a hundred times since House of Leaves is a goon favorite (I've checked ~the last 5 pages for this and the questions on House of Leaves on this page aren't related). I want something like The Navidson Record in House of Leaves, I want to read about exploring the unknown, I don't really care if it's horror (and I might actually rather it not).
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Aug 13, 2012 05:46
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Evil Vin posted:I want something like The Navidson Record in House of Leaves, I want to read about exploring the unknown, I don't really care if it's horror (and I might actually rather it not). I think the next time I read HoL, I will simply tear out the parts that are not part of the Navidson line.
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Aug 14, 2012 00:25
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Reading Contact by Carl Sagan is making me want a good book about the entire history of astronomy and astrophysics. Not books on individual people or moments in the history of the science, but a well-written and compelling overview. It should cover topics as broad as the ancient Greeks, Gallileo, Copernicus, NASA, Hertzsprung and Russel, Kepler, Einstein, Hawking, discovery of black holes/quasars/pulsars/etc, SETI, and so on. Any recommendations? (PS: yes I've read Bill Bryson) Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Aug 14, 2012 |
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Aug 14, 2012 15:00
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Hedrigall posted:Reading Contact by Carl Sagan is making me want a good book about the entire history of astronomy and astrophysics. Not books on individual people or moments in the history of the science, but a well-written and compelling overview. Would Cosmos and Pale Blue Dot cover what you are looking for? In any event, they'd certainly be worth a read followup of Contact. edit: Why the gently caress is the Kindle edition of Pale Blue Dot more expensive than the paper version?
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Aug 14, 2012 17:15
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DirtyRobot posted:This might depend on which of the following you are interested in, or more or less familiar with, or want to be familiar with... Awesome, thanks for this, it helps narrow down the choices a lot. I'm mostly looking for one as a gift to my sister who's pretty big into Derrida, Lacan and film criticism/deconstruction right now. Somehow, she's never even heard of Zizek, but going on everything I've heard about him, he sounds like he'd be right up her alley. I'm thinking I'll pick up Everything You Wanted to Know About Lacan But Were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock for her.
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Aug 15, 2012 01:51
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I'm interested in something similar to Cloud Atlas compelling human drama tense but not a traditional thriller.
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Aug 15, 2012 05:03
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This Cracked article makes me want to read on some pulp sci-fi of the old. Particularly those regarding space travel. Not 'aliens attack Earth' kind, but 'humans visit aliens' kind of thing. edit: any recommendations? toanoradian fucked around with this message at 09:50 on Aug 15, 2012 |
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Aug 15, 2012 08:20
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toanoradian posted:This Cracked article makes me want to read on some pulp sci-fi of the old. Particularly those regarding space travel. Not 'aliens attack Earth' kind, but 'humans visit aliens' kind of thing. EE 'Doc' Smith's Lensman series is probably the gold standard for this sort of thing. You might also be interested in AE van Vogt, Jack Williamson, and H. Beam Piper.
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Aug 15, 2012 10:53
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I'm dumb when it comes to politics. I have opinions of course, but ask me to back them up with facts and I'm dead in the water. Could anyone recommend any books on the current political climate in America? Or any informative book about politics that would make me less of a retard? I'm not really sure what to ask for, since I'm, as I said, completely dumbfounded when it comes to politics.
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Aug 15, 2012 15:03
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Puttblug posted:I'm dumb when it comes to politics. I have opinions of course, but ask me to back them up with facts and I'm dead in the water. There are two views of politics, top-down and bottom-up: abstract and empirical. Abstract would be something like a description of contemporary conservationism and its roots. Empirical would be something like "which groups of people vote for which political parties?" If you like graphs, the statistician Andrew Gelman wrote a book a few years ago called Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State, a purely empirical tour through political opinions in the USA and the various groups that hold them, and which factors are correlated with which opinions. This is a great book, but not everybody gets something out of the empirical approach. Gelman has a blog where he posts much of his polisci research--if you like stuff like this I can't recommend his book enough.
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Aug 15, 2012 15:29
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Right now I'm reading my third Murakami book and I love how weird and engaging his writing is. Can anybody recommend me some more authors/books with that flavor of surrealism?
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Aug 15, 2012 23:18
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slardel posted:Right now I'm reading my third Murakami book and I love how weird and engaging his writing is. Can anybody recommend me some more authors/books with that flavor of surrealism? I'm looking for the same thing. Any genre is fine. If any author can compare to Murakami, I'm ready to read it like a saxophone.
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Aug 16, 2012 04:28
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Can somebody recommend me some books that go in to detail about the civil rights movements and it's most important activists. Can you give the most essential ones to buy because I don't have that much money to spend. Any that include some info on Stokely Carmichael would be good because I saw him in the Black Power Mix-tape and it got me interested in him. Also should I buy Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, someone recommended it here I'm wondering if it's the best biography on him.
Hipsteresque fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 22:15
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I need some research material on viruses, specifically influenza. My Google-Fu is failing me, and I'd like something more meaty to read anyway. I'm doing a writing project where an H1N1 flu plays a major part, but I basically need this question answered: "what would be the deadliest flu possible, and what particular deadly symptoms would it manifest and under what circumstances would it be the most contagious?" It doesn't play a huge part in the project, but I want the information I use as a premise to be sound to anyone reading it, like, I don't want pre-med people to roll their eyes or something.
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Aug 17, 2012 01:47
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Could anyone suggest some contemporary short stories that capture the general uneasiness of "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?" it's definitely my favorite story and I would love some not so obvious but similar complements.
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Aug 17, 2012 01:55
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Loving Life Partner posted:I need some research material on viruses, specifically influenza. My Google-Fu is failing me, and I'd like something more meaty to read anyway. John M. Barry's The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History covers everything about the 1918-19 one, from its probable origin in Kansas, to how it was likely a mutated strain, to its worldwide spread. It's been a long time since I've read it, but it also touches on SARS at the end, I think.
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Aug 17, 2012 02:41
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Royal Navy - Napoleonic Wars fiction, and anything similar? I'm a huge Aubrey/Maturin fan, also read the Lord Ramage series through multiple times. I've read some Horatio, but I always end up with bad quality ebook files. Anyways, any other series, or standalone recommendations would be welcome, it is one of my favorite genres.
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Aug 19, 2012 20:40
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My partner has recently got into reading for fun in a big way. She is, self-admittedly, not particularly well read in terms of the classics, but she is a capable reader and enjoys the same things that most people do - good plot, interesting setting, clippy dialogue, rich characterisation etc. She is looking particularly for books which feature sassy female protagonists. She greatly enjoyed the early Laurel K. Hamilton Anita novels, devoured The Hunger Games, and has just finished the latest Stephanie Plum book. She likes plucky, capable female protagonists and doesn't mind romantic or sexual subplots, but is not looking for anything where that is the sole focus of the novel (which is how she feels the latest Anita Blake novels have become). Any ideas - individual books are great, but a series or trilogy would be a bonus. Thanks.
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Aug 20, 2012 17:36
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Captain_Indigo posted:She is looking particularly for books which feature sassy female protagonists. From your examples, she can get down with YA, so my suggestions there would be Cashore's Graceling and Malinda Lo's Huntress and Ash. YA has been experiencing a boom of stories centered on strong female characters, though, so that's not even the tip of the iceberg. For non-YA, Zoe Sharp's Charlie Fox series might be of interest and Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce stories are excellent. Wikipedia has a list of female detective characters that might be worth scrolling through. That's all off the top of my head- I'm at work, so I'll post other suggestions if I get a chance.
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Aug 20, 2012 18:07
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Captain_Indigo posted:My partner has recently got into reading for fun in a big way. She is, self-admittedly, not particularly well read in terms of the classics, but she is a capable reader and enjoys the same things that most people do - good plot, interesting setting, clippy dialogue, rich characterisation etc. Your partner is in luck, because that's the big thing right now. Seriously, a lot of urban fantasy suits exactly what your partner is looking for, and most of it is nowhere near as terrible as the last few Laurell K Hamilton books. Some good ones are: Kim Harrison - The Hollows series (starts with Dead Witch Walking) Patricia Briggs - Mercedes Thompson series (starts with Moon Called) Gail Carriger - The Parasol Protectorate Series (starts with Soulless) - this one is particularly good and fun As the poster above me mentioned, there are also a lot of YA novels like Hunger Games that have strong female protagonists. One of the latest I read that I really enjoyed was Blood Red Road by Moira Young.
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Aug 20, 2012 23:41
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Honestly, if she hasn't already done so, she should read a couple Austen novels. Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse are basically the archetypes upon which all YA and urban fantasy heroines are based.
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Aug 21, 2012 05:32
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