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kaesarsosei posted:I have a few requests which might seem all over the place. asimov robot novels Cheese Thief posted:Talk to me about Dostoyevsky. Which should I read?? Which Translation as well? I've read Crime and Punishment, the Coulson Translation, a long time ago and just loved it. I had been trying to read Neuromancer but I just don't care about the setting or the characters, maybe someday it will grab me. I've read a bit of The Possessed which I really liked. People say bad things about P&V translations, like it's not accurate and a dumber version. Constance Garnett is just a little old timey for me, I'd rather get something more modern. karamazov for me
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Feb 27, 2021 12:12
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Kerro posted:This sounds amazing and I too greatly enjoy reading about other people having a terrible time (as long as it's not an outright traumatising time) Skip the third one then, I read it, and it is amazing, but also very traumatic.
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Feb 27, 2021 13:53
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I just finished "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry. Anything similar? Something with endearing characters struggling through hardship.
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Feb 28, 2021 06:27
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I assume you’ve read the similar-ish The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy?
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Feb 28, 2021 07:55
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Where would one go next with Ishiguro after Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day?
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Feb 28, 2021 20:00
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I dont remember if it was this thread that recommended to me the Songs of a dead dreamer and grimscribe but thank you. I am blown away. Started off as merely "yeah not bad" but now in the middle of Masquerade of a Dead Sword and this is cool as gently caress. To give you a quote: And the voices from their lacerated mouths, so clear, so precise to my ears that every word is a bright flash in my dreaming brain, brilliant new coin minted for the treasure house of hell. And other: I am an offspring of the dead. I am descended from the deceased. I am the progeny of phantoms. My ancestors are the illustrious multitudes of the defunct, grand and innumerable. My lineage is longer than time. My name is written in embalming fluid in the book of death. A noble race is mine. Sekenr fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Mar 2, 2021 |
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Mar 2, 2021 08:49
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https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1366723717502533634?s=20
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Mar 2, 2021 13:26
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A couple weeks ago I asked for recommendations about "creative" book formats, books that work better in a phyiscal format than in a Kindel. I got some good recomendations. I discovered Goodreads (i know) user lists function. And found quite a few more. Here's one example of a list, there were a couple others like it, but shorter: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7176.Books_with_Innovative_Book_Design_Structure#24800 Not all the books are good mind you, or even fit the criteria, but it was a good source. I also found this best covers list lmao: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/101.Best_Book_Cover_Art?page=1 Twilight has 2 spots in the top 5.
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Mar 17, 2021 02:54
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I'd like to read the One Thousand and One Nights this year. Does anyone have a favourite version? The Burton has this criticism in the Wikipedia article: quote:It has, however, been criticized for its "archaic language and extravagant idiom" and "obsessive focus on sexuality" (and has even been called an "eccentric ego-trip" and a "highly personal reworking of the text").[49] which I guess is a bad thing. It would be nice to get an attractive physical version, maybe with illustrations.
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Mar 19, 2021 19:43
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rollick posted:I'd like to read the One Thousand and One Nights this year. Does anyone have a favourite version? I think there may be some posts on this exact topic away up-thread in the mists of time, it's osmething I know we've talked about before. My personal favorite edition is the translation by Edward Powys Mathers, based on the french translation of Mardrus. I like it for a few reasons. The first is Powys Mathers was a skilled poet in in his own right and he does a really good job of expressing everything in a wonderfully lush style (Steinbeck quotes some of Powys Mather's poetry in his novel Cannery Row). It's still heavily orientalized and eroticized but it's more poetic and just better written than Burton's and I think gives more of what the typical reader of the 1001 nights is looking for. The second reason is that it's structured better (imho) than the Burton version, with clear breaks every "night" where Scheherazade "saw the approach of dawn and discreetly fell silent. . . . but on the four hundred and fifty fourth night she began again . . . " One thing to be aware of is that if you're reading a traditional version there's a lot of racism and a lot of sex and a lot of stuff that's not at all remotely ok especially to modern audiences and that's just part of the landscape with these stories. edit: here's where we last discussed this, in 2011: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=1&threadid=3147139&pagenumber=82&perpage=40#post395024192 The takeaway is probably Mathers for prose style, Haddawy for accuracy. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Mar 19, 2021 |
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Mar 19, 2021 20:02
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Thanks man  . I keep forgetting we can search within threads now.
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Mar 19, 2021 21:54
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rollick posted:Thanks man Oh no it was good to ask again. Ten years ago I wouldn't have thought to give the "be aware, these versions are *absurdly* problematic in every way imaginable" warning.
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Mar 20, 2021 11:54
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Looking for investigative journalism book, like I really enjoyed Bad Blood, Super Pumped, and Bottle of Lies.
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Mar 26, 2021 14:41
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Looking for investigative journalism book, like I really enjoyed Bad Blood, Super Pumped, and Bottle of Lies. Have you read Tom’s River yet?
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Mar 26, 2021 15:22
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Looking for investigative journalism book, like I really enjoyed Bad Blood, Super Pumped, and Bottle of Lies. Flash Boys by Lewis
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Mar 26, 2021 15:26
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tuyop posted:Have you read Tom’s River yet? Walh Hara posted:Flash Boys by Lewis These both look great, thanks!
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Mar 26, 2021 16:01
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The Paperboy by Pete Dexter
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Mar 26, 2021 16:48
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Been on a pre-history kick lately and would love some suggestions of fiction books about ancient peoples. Reading The Inheritors right now and digging it. It would be great to have something with more of an adventure tone to it, though. Anything pre-bronze age would be ideal—neolithic, megalithic, cave people, etc. I'm even good with slightly fantastical takes with magic or whatnot as long as it fits the vibe. Pre-civilization is more what I'm after, but also good with following people living, say, a hunter-gatherer or nomadic lifestyle outside of an existing civilization. Or just anything that's really good adjacent to those ideas (Raptor Red comes to mind).
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Mar 27, 2021 18:15
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feedmyleg posted:Been on a pre-history kick lately and would love some suggestions of fiction books about ancient peoples. Reading The Inheritors right now and digging it. It would be great to have something with more of an adventure tone to it, though. Anything pre-bronze age would be ideal—neolithic, megalithic, cave people, etc. I'm even good with slightly fantastical takes with magic or whatnot as long as it fits the vibe. Pre-civilization is more what I'm after, but also good with following people living, say, a hunter-gatherer or nomadic lifestyle outside of an existing civilization. Or just anything that's really good adjacent to those ideas (Raptor Red comes to mind). "Raptor Red" and "real good" don't belong in the same sentence. The Clan of the Cave Bear series immediately springs to mind. Its not high literature or anything nor terribly accurate with the latest archaeology but you are looking for a fairly narrow niche e. honestly, the best I can think of is Cundiff's Britain Begins, which is history not fiction but its really interesting and hews with the latest (at the time of publication) scholarship Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Mar 27, 2021 |
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Mar 27, 2021 19:48
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Haha fair, I haven't read Raptor Red since I was 11 so I might have some rose-tinted glasses there. Cave Bear is what I saw on a handful of lists so I'll pop it on next. Non-fiction isn't really what I'm looking for since I have plenty of that in documentary and podcast form at the moment. Thanks!
feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Mar 27, 2021 |
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Mar 27, 2021 20:07
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That’s a tricky one but both Sarum and Russka have maybe 10-20% of the books take place in prehistoric times and might scratch your itch.
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Mar 27, 2021 21:18
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feedmyleg posted:Been on a pre-history kick lately and would love some suggestions of fiction books about ancient peoples. Reading The Inheritors right now and digging it. It would be great to have something with more of an adventure tone to it, though. Anything pre-bronze age would be ideal—neolithic, megalithic, cave people, etc. I'm even good with slightly fantastical takes with magic or whatnot as long as it fits the vibe. Pre-civilization is more what I'm after, but also good with following people living, say, a hunter-gatherer or nomadic lifestyle outside of an existing civilization. Or just anything that's really good adjacent to those ideas (Raptor Red comes to mind). I really liked "Shamen" by Kim Stanley Robinson. Edit: "To the ice age" by Rien Poortvliet is sort of fiction, an illustrated history of The Netherlands starting at the present day and going back to the ice age, by the guy who illustrated the Gnomes book. yaffle fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 13:15
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Bilirubin posted:The Clan of the Cave Bear series immediately springs to mind. Its not high literature or anything ...The "Fifty Shades of Grey" erotica-adjacent series of an earlier generation, is more how I'd describe The Clan of the Cave Bear series.
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Mar 29, 2021 14:37
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Are there any fiction books that discuss DMT trips?
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Mar 30, 2021 14:11
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FPyat posted:Are there any fiction books that discuss DMT trips? Threshold by Rob Doyle. It's also really well written. Edit: It's a book about a dude wandering around Europe (and further afield,) thinking about writing and reading, fantasizing and wanking over his (adult) students, taking drugs and thinking about them, going on spiritual voyages, pissing in fetishists mouths in German night clubs, etc. Mrenda fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Mar 30, 2021 |
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Mar 30, 2021 15:23
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I have never read Jane Austen and I want to rectify that. Should I just start with Sense and Sensibility and go on from there with publication order?
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Mar 30, 2021 21:52
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schwein11 posted:I have never read Jane Austen and I want to rectify that. Should I just start with Sense and Sensibility and go on from there with publication order? No, start here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3662001&pagenumber=1&perpage=40 Reading Austen is deceptively challenging. It seems like her prose is easy to read, and each word by itself is, but there’s a massive amount of background information that you need for the humor and story to make sense -- imagine trying to show Avengers:Endgame to someone from 200 years ago with no explanation. That thread will get you over the hard part of acclimating to the world of her books and once you've done that you can read any of them.
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Mar 30, 2021 23:22
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schwein11 posted:I have never read Jane Austen and I want to rectify that. Should I just start with Sense and Sensibility and go on from there with publication order? Pride & Prejudice rules and has a lot of humor.
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Mar 31, 2021 00:45
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Franchescanado posted:Pride & Prejudice rules and has a lot of humor.  I don't know they make a compelling case (I've never read any Austen)
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Mar 31, 2021 00:52
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What’s the best way to get into the works of Carl Jung? I wanna understand this subconscious poo poo, what exactly it means for something to be ‘jungian’ straight from the horses mouth.
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Apr 1, 2021 04:47
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Kart Barfunkel posted:What’s the best way to get into the works of Carl Jung? I wanna understand this subconscious poo poo, what exactly it means for something to be ‘jungian’ straight from the horses mouth. Modern Man in Search of a Soul or Man and His Symbols.
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Apr 1, 2021 12:17
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I studied literature in college a couple years ago, and--after a period of burnout--I've just started getting back on the quality reading horse, but I would love more recommendations. My favorite author is Nathaneal West with Miss Lonelyhearts being my favorite novella of his (though Day of the Locust is great as well). Can anyone recommend cutting, satiric works with an economic edge like that to me? I love his prose as well, so if that is similar, but the topics are different, I'm okay with that as well.
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Apr 3, 2021 08:55
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Humerus posted:
It also seems like a fine starting point, but I haven't read any other Austen to compare.
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Apr 3, 2021 12:58
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AngusPodgorny posted:I'm reading Pride and Prejudice right now and it's just going to each other's houses, but it also rules. Every Austen book ends the same way: they get married
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Apr 3, 2021 13:58
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Blue Labrador posted:I studied literature in college a couple years ago, and--after a period of burnout--I've just started getting back on the quality reading horse, but I would love more recommendations. My favorite author is Nathaneal West with Miss Lonelyhearts being my favorite novella of his (though Day of the Locust is great as well). Can anyone recommend cutting, satiric works with an economic edge like that to me? I love his prose as well, so if that is similar, but the topics are different, I'm okay with that as well. If you liked Day of the Locust I think you'd also like Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run?
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Apr 3, 2021 20:32
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Blue Labrador posted:I studied literature in college a couple years ago, and--after a period of burnout--I've just started getting back on the quality reading horse, but I would love more recommendations. My favorite author is Nathaneal West with Miss Lonelyhearts being my favorite novella of his (though Day of the Locust is great as well). Can anyone recommend cutting, satiric works with an economic edge like that to me? I love his prose as well, so if that is similar, but the topics are different, I'm okay with that as well. John Fante hits a lot of the same points as West IMO. His four Bandini books are very good, and the main character does move to LA in search of success eventually. Not that much satire in Fante, but there definitely are similarities in prose.
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Apr 3, 2021 22:05
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Books for understanding evangelicalism in the US? For what it's worth, I didn't grow up in a Christian household and can't tell one Protestant denomination from another. 
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Apr 6, 2021 14:23
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If you're interested in the intersection of evangelicism and American politics Jeff Sharlet's The Family is great, also good is Blumenthal's Republican Gomorrah. For something more historical Frances Fitzgerald The Evamgicals, but I haven't finished it yet.
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Apr 7, 2021 04:25
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Looking for a thriller or mystery recommendation that has as heavy of an emphasis on realistic finance/accounting/banking/etc. as possible, if anyone has any! I have read The Social Climber's Handbook which was thoroughly enjoyable, but more of a lighthearted "fun" read and not quite in-the-weeds enough for what I'm looking for.
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Apr 10, 2021 17:53
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I don't know of any fictional thrillers in that vein, but there are plenty of true crime style accounts of business scandals that could work. Try Liar' Poker by Michael Lewis about his days on the bond trading desk in the 80's, Barbarians at the Gate, about the biggest levereged buyout to date (at the time) when management tried to take RJR Nabisco private, and of course the Smartest Guys in the Room about Enron. More recently, Bad Blood about Theranos was really good.
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Apr 14, 2021 00:56
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