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I tried out Stephen King as a palate cleanser and decided to try out Under The Dome and so far it's been shockingly graphic but also darkly hilarious at the same time. This is my first stephen king novel and I'm curious how someone sane and healthy can write something this gruesome yet somehow have it be incredibly funny. Picking up my library card tomorrow.
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Sep 21, 2018 04:38
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under the dome is not bad but its def not where i'd recommend starting with king. try the stand or salems lot imoAnonymousNarcotics posted:I have a genre that I like and then basically read everything in that genre. im deeply concerned that out of all of this you call stephen king the guilty pleasure
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Sep 21, 2018 04:52
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buglord posted:Throw em here then! You can also go to a small, local bookstore and check out their staff picks section or simply ask for a recommendation. Just like a bartender, if they have an idea of what you prefer, they should know their own stock/ingredients well enough to come up with something you'll like. I worked in a small indie for years and I could hand-sell the gently caress out of stuff I'd never read because I knew our inventory so well (and could better contribute to the thread if I remembered more). As for Under the Dome, I thought it was something of a return to form and a pretty easy read despite the size- it pretty much puts the pedal to the floor in the first few pages and never lets up. If you want something else big that lasts for a long time (I know, I know), you could try tackling King's Dark Tower series, but be warned that a bunch of goons will give you poo poo if you say that it's good (it's mostly good, but, uh, maybe a little self-indulging at times).
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Sep 21, 2018 12:10
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funkybottoms posted:You can also go to a small, local bookstore and check out their staff picks section or simply ask for a recommendation. Just like a bartender, if they have an idea of what you prefer, they should know their own stock/ingredients well enough to come up with something you'll like. I worked in a small indie for years and I could hand-sell the gently caress out of stuff I'd never read because I knew our inventory so well (and could better contribute to the thread if I remembered more). Depending on where you live, most or all of the local bookstores may have died. Amazon's killed off that whole industry./
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Sep 21, 2018 13:37
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Bookstores aren't doing as bad as everyone seems to think, it's just that you need a level of expertise to make a profit and the traditional model of focusing on expensive new hardbacks is dead (thank god). And of course you need a clientele so yeah video game stores are probably doing better than bookstores in Chittanook, Omaha, or wherever
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Sep 21, 2018 13:46
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Depending on where you live, most or all of the local bookstores may have died. Amazon's killed off that whole industry./ Oh, I'm supremely aware of that, but I also have no idea where the poster lives, so... Ras Het posted:Bookstores aren't doing as bad as everyone seems to think, it's just that you need a level of expertise to make a profit and the traditional model of focusing on expensive new hardbacks is dead (thank god). And of course you need a clientele so yeah video game stores are probably doing better than bookstores in Chittanook, Omaha, or wherever Yes. I live in a good-sized city with a big literary community and we've got at least seven independent stores (two of which are very niche) that seem to be doing pretty well. We actually lost a couple a few years back when e-readers got big and print sales went into the shitter, but for the most part it seems like things have stabilized here.
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Sep 21, 2018 14:48
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I'm lucky to have a used bookstore around here that's doing alright.... ....but it's run by the town gossip. She will talk to you the entire time you're in there, tell you terrible things, and is just generally unpleasant to be around. It makes it hard for me to go in there. 
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Sep 21, 2018 14:58
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We have a second and Charles which gives you the soulless corporate lack of intimacy of a barnes and noble with the selection of a used book store
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Sep 21, 2018 15:04
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I read a couple of the Parker novels on a lark and really enjoyed them for what they were. Anyone have suggestions for a more modern hardboiled noir? I'm curious now if anyone's done a good job moving the genre away from the early-to-mid 20th century setting. Bonus points for characters who are hard to root for.
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Sep 21, 2018 17:43
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Lockback posted:I read a couple of the Parker novels on a lark and really enjoyed them for what they were. Anyone have suggestions for a more modern hardboiled noir? I'm curious now if anyone's done a good job moving the genre away from the early-to-mid 20th century setting. I like Quarry by Max Allan Collins; I think it's good right from the first book. Mack Bolan might be a good bet but I'm less familiar with the character so I can't recommend any book in particular. I also enjoy the Rebus novels by Ian Rankin but they might be a bit too different. Of course I like James Ellroy as well, but I'm not sure if he's hardboiled.
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Sep 21, 2018 19:56
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Wheat Loaf posted:Mack Bolan might be a good bet but I'm less familiar with the character so I can't recommend any book in particular. Bolan is what's called "men's adventure," which generally means wish fulfillment for NRA members. (If you're familiar with comics, the Punisher was ripped off straight from Bolan.) For hardboiled noir with difficult-to-like characters, Ellroy would be my first recommendation. If you want a modern setting, though, he's not for you -- his best known books range from the 40s to the 70s. If that sounds appealing, though, you probably want to start with the "L.A. Quartet": The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz.
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Sep 22, 2018 02:43
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How about John D. MacDonald's, Travis McGee series?
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Sep 22, 2018 15:12
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:How about John D. MacDonald's, Travis McGee series? I'm a fan of those. They have a marvelous sense of place (coastal Florida in mid-twentieth-century America). Each book is set approximately in "year before publication year," in a specific area and time, and since the books were published every year or two for a decade or two, as you read the books you get to watch that region and culture change over time. It's a really neat effect if you read them in order and you only see it in that kind of contemporaneously-written "detective" fiction (the other series that achieves the same effect is the Nero Wolfe books, which start in depression-era Manhattan and move through year on year up through to the 1970's).
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Sep 22, 2018 16:03
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I'm looking for a sword and sorcery book. I love the original Conan novels and I'm looking for a more modern take on that type of book.
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Sep 22, 2018 18:22
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walruscat posted:I'm looking for a sword and sorcery book. I love the original Conan novels and I'm looking for a more modern take on that type of book. Do you know Robert Jordan wrote three Conan novels? They used to be available as a single volume.
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Sep 22, 2018 18:26
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walruscat posted:I'm looking for a sword and sorcery book. I love the original Conan novels and I'm looking for a more modern take on that type of book. Try Legend by David Gemell, pretty much everything he did is like that.
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Sep 22, 2018 18:34
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walruscat posted:I'm looking for a sword and sorcery book. I love the original Conan novels and I'm looking for a more modern take on that type of book.
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Sep 22, 2018 20:25
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All my friends got me to read "The Name of the Wind" and I'm not having a good time
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Sep 23, 2018 01:50
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Junkie Disease posted:All my friends got me to read "The Name of the Wind" and I'm not having a good time Try getting new friends, and finding new books. Rothfuss is notorious for being a bad writer.
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Sep 23, 2018 01:58
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Junkie Disease posted:All my friends got me to read "The Name of the Wind" and I'm not having a good time Those people aren't your friends.
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Sep 23, 2018 01:59
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Junkie Disease posted:All my friends got me to read "The Name of the Wind" and I'm not having a good time 
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Sep 23, 2018 04:46
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I feel like people in the book can only talk in similes
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Sep 23, 2018 04:52
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Junkie Disease posted:I feel like people in the book can only talk in similes I actually can’t remember what the book was about or how it was bad specifically, I just remember constantly cringing and being angry at the main character and the whole world for letting this book be successful. I should read it again to renew my anger.
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Sep 23, 2018 05:05
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well an old man would say "Never remember a book for its cover but for the weight of its pages!"
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Sep 23, 2018 05:24
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tuyop posted:I actually can’t remember what the book was about or how it was bad specifically, I just remember constantly cringing and being angry at the main character and the whole world for letting this book be successful. Succubus becomes addicted to virgin protagonist's cock.
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Sep 23, 2018 13:16
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buglord posted:I tried out Stephen King as a palate cleanser and decided to try out Under The Dome and so far it's been shockingly graphic but also darkly hilarious at the same time. This is my first stephen king novel and I'm curious how someone sane and healthy can write something this gruesome yet somehow have it be incredibly funny. Picking up my library card tomorrow. I read this and after living in a small town in rural oregon for a while, I can say it is creepy how right he gets a corrupt county commissioner type character. A book like this that you should totally check out, that’s much better, is 11/22/63. That was a great romp.
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Sep 24, 2018 18:02
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I wouldn't be surprised if Stephen King hates small-town culture. These characters in here are just as dimwitted and power-hungry like the people in my hometown. It's funny, and a little more than cathartic.
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Sep 24, 2018 19:28
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When Stephen King is on he's really, really on. We have a long-running general Stephen King thread too.
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Sep 24, 2018 19:34
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Stephen King is 98% awesome. The 2% is always his endings and they are really bad.
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Sep 25, 2018 00:05
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TommyGun85 posted:Stephen King is 98% awesome. The 2% is always his endings and they are really bad. I don’t know, I don’t really like his tropes. Like broken families, swearing precocious kids, small town northeast. poo poo like that is just kind of annoying after the 80th book, you know? I just read From A Buick 8 and I really liked it but the framing device was a little distracting compared to the other Lovecraftian horror I’ve enjoyed recently like The Ballad of Black Tom, The Croning and American Elsewhere (huge rec there btw). That being said, Pet Semetary is one of the best horror novels I’ve ever read and I think The Stand holds up and The Long Walk is really loving good YA fiction and I love discussing it with students. tuyop fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Sep 25, 2018 |
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Sep 25, 2018 00:14
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The Shining is av good horror novel.
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Sep 25, 2018 03:25
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Speaking of horror, are there any legitimately horrifying books out there? Like the type that have you keep all the lights on when you're home alone? I've been chasing a horror high that I haven't gotten since the videogame Stalker Call of Pripyat. I could read roadside picnic but apparently it's not really scary, nor does it try to be.
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Sep 25, 2018 04:24
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buglord posted:Speaking of horror, are there any legitimately horrifying books out there? Like the type that have you keep all the lights on when you're home alone? I've been chasing a horror high that I haven't gotten since the videogame Stalker Call of Pripyat. The Elementals, and Blackwater trillogy, Im about the read the Amulet unless someone stops my McDowell chain
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Sep 25, 2018 05:03
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Not really that scary but I liked Night Film by Marisha Pessl
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Sep 25, 2018 06:18
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buglord posted:Speaking of horror, are there any legitimately horrifying books out there? Like the type that have you keep all the lights on when you're home alone? I've been chasing a horror high that I haven't gotten since the videogame Stalker Call of Pripyat. Yeah, I think I’ve read about a dozen books that legitimately frightened or disturbed me like good horror is supposed to: Pet Sematary legitimately frightened me when I was a teenager. Annihilation sort of gave me nightmares. It’s hard to explain. The Terror is a slow burn but it’s quite horrifying in a visceral, hopeless kind of way. The Song of Kali was very unsettling. I Am Legend was pretty scary for me, but not quite like any other horror I’ve read before. Blood Meridian slowly made me disgusted and confused and hopeless over time in a fairly horrifying way. The Road was kind of like Blood Meridian mixed with I Am Legend mixed with, I don’t know, Firestarter for me and it was horrifying but not scary. I think Beloved is actually a horror novel.
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Sep 25, 2018 10:21
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American Psycho is legit horrifying.
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Sep 25, 2018 12:14
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Junkie Disease posted:The Elementals, and Blackwater trillogy, Im about the read the Amulet unless someone stops my McDowell chain I love Blackwater but there was nothing in it that I'd call "legitimately horrifying" or even that scary, but I also don't think it's supposed to be. It's southern gothic family drama first and foremost, with some horror/traditional gothic trappings. Though I guess I can think of a couple of scenes I'd call at least unsettling. But most of it I wouldn't call scary. The Elementals creeped me right the gently caress out though. To add to the list, I personally found A Head Full of Ghosts and The Haunting of Hill House frightening... but having said that, I actually think that whether a horror novel is "scary" is a terrible metric by which to judge its quality. It's one thing to look at movies or video games in that light, since visual media often does a better job of delivering visceral, emotional scares, but even the best book can't keep you 100% emotionally engaged every moment it needs you to be. Some of the worst horror novels I've read are the ones that work very hard to scare the pants off you, some of the best never try that hard to actually scare the reader. Plus, no two people will be scared by the same book. I personally found American Psycho kind of funny but not remotely scary or really all that disturbing, I thought Pet Sematary was good but it never once actually scared me, I thought The Terror was a tedious mess with a dumb monster and a terrible ending, but actually think of a few really good moments in the book from time to time.
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Sep 25, 2018 16:16
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Junkie Disease posted:The Elementals, and Blackwater trillogy, Im about the read the Amulet unless someone stops my McDowell chain Yeah my boi
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Sep 25, 2018 16:35
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Yeah the only horror I've ever found genuinely scary was the first third of The Stand because it had a very "this could happen very easily" feel. Maybe some Lo vecraft if you read it at the right time.
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Sep 25, 2018 18:07
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Yeah that’s a good point, I was trying to express that those books frightened me but you might find them funny or boring or whatever. People are weird and all. Like I think The Descent is one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen, but it’s probably just because I have a deep fear of caves.
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Sep 25, 2018 20:11
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