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Kestral posted:I'm looking for some speculative fiction in which people or humanity as a whole confronts the profoundly, nigh-incomprehensibly alien and tries to understand it. I just recently read and enjoyed Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, which fits that description perfectly.
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Feb 15, 2010 00:30
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Regicide posted:I want a book, obviously... genre, author, fiction, non-fiction, everything but the type of story is irrelevant. The only thing that matters to be me that it is generally about a character who has everything going for him and because of something he did (or even BETTER, what I really want... something he THINKS he did that he convinces himself is so bad and he just goes away and everybody around him who cares about him is left wondering and worrying) loses it all and is alone and left with nothing. I'm not really interested in whether or not he gains it all back. I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but you could try Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. A rich, succesful bond trader's life pretty much falls apart after an incident where he accidentally strikes an inner city youth with his car.
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Feb 20, 2010 16:13
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I just finished The Lost City of Z and really enjoyed the parts about Victorian-era England, specifically some of the crazy inventors and other eccentric figures like Sir Francis Galton or Helena Blavatsky. Anyone have suggestions for further reading along those lines? Either biographies of specific people or more general books on Victorian life would be great.
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Mar 12, 2010 17:03
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inktvis posted:Have you already come across Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians? It's a not particularly flattering reconsideration of four big public figures of the Victorian age, published at the end of WWI. That's perfect, thanks for the recommendation!
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Mar 12, 2010 21:41
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I've read a lot of really serious books lately and need something light and humorous. I've heard great things about P.G. Wodehouse but haven't read anything of his yet, any suggestions on where to start?
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Mar 20, 2010 16:23
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Quantumfate posted:First: light reading (want to stress light and easy), as long as it's enjoyable and good. From high adventure and fantasy, to sci-fi, to more serious fiction. I would like it to be fiction though, preferably ~300 pages as a cap. so like 350 is fine, but yeah, ~300 pages. For light reading, you can't go wrong with Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. For something that fits both of your requests, try Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. It's sort of like Siddhartha... IN SPACE.
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Apr 24, 2010 12:04
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inktvis posted:I hear they're writing books in languages other than English now. I wonder what they're like? What do you mean? There are at least two books on that list that are translated from other languages, and since it's a list of books available in English I'm not sure what else you were expecting.
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Jun 1, 2010 01:34
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Ornamented Death posted:Childhood's End Definitely this. I read a ton of his books when I was younger, but Childhood's End is probably my favorite. I also really liked Rendezvous with Rama.
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Jul 2, 2010 04:17
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Parker Lewis posted:I've seen a few different series mentioned in TBB: A Song of Ice and Fire, Malazan, Chalion, Wheel of Time, Black Company, Dragonriders of Pern, First Law, etc. and I'm trying to figure out how to tackle them. I just started the First Law and I'm really loving it so far. Really great swords and sorcery type fantasy that doesn't take itself too seriously, probably a good place to start since it's fairly light and quick reading. I've also read and enjoyed the first Malazan book, but that's a lot more dense and doesn't have as much humor.
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Jul 20, 2010 20:04
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oceanside posted:I'm looking for some 'classics' which are also short. Here's a couple more that I read and enjoyed this year. Hunger - Knut Hamsun Notes From Underground - Dostoevsky The Awakening - Kate Chopin
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Nov 10, 2010 18:52
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I recommend this Lovecraft collection, The Road to Madness: http://www.amazon.com/Road-Madness-H-P-Lovecraft/dp/0345384229/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290011299&sr=8-4. It's got "At the Mountains of Madness", which like ShutteredIn said is probably one of his best, but also contains a lot of other good short fiction. I've also got this one, The Best of H.P. Lovecraft, which I recommend too: http://www.amazon.com/Best-H-P-Lovecraft-Bloodcurdling/dp/0345350804/ref=pd_sim_b_2. It contains "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Dunwich Horror", and a bunch of others that are good too. I haven't read all of Lovecraft's work, but from my experience I'd recommend sticking to the short stories, the novels aren't nearly as good.
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Nov 17, 2010 17:36
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Ornamented Death posted:Or you can check out some much, much higher quality Mythos stories in this volume, though it is a bit pricey. This looks awesome, but I can't bring myself to spend $50 on a single book.
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Nov 20, 2010 06:36
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