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Sham bam bamina!
Nov 6, 2012

ƨtupid cat

Franchescanado posted:

There's also Book Club For Masochists. The hosts are all librarians, and each episode they pick a (sub)genre or subject of books, and discuss the terrible books they picked for it. They also sometimes discuss good books, library culture/community, etc.
I gotta hear this.

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Chamberk
Jan 11, 2004

when there is nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire
Yeah, IDEOTV is probably my favorite book podcast.

buffalo all day
Mar 13, 2019

Anywhere in this forum where people talk about how much Jack Reacher books own? I've read like 10 in the last couple of months and they are way better than they have any right to be.

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go

Franchescanado posted:

There's also Book Club For Masochists. The hosts are all librarians, and each episode they pick a (sub)genre or subject of books, and discuss the terrible books they picked for it. They also sometimes discuss good books, library culture/community, etc.

Listened to an episode of this today and really enjoyed it

buffalo all day
Mar 13, 2019

buffalo all day posted:

Anywhere in this forum where people talk about how much Jack Reacher books own? I've read like 10 in the last couple of months and they are way better than they have any right to be.

the best one i've read so far is Without Fail which involves the secret service and badass snipers and is so loving good its absolutely wild.

Cheese Thief
Oct 30, 2020
Anyone ever have problems with the actual physical dimensions of a book? I have a huge Lovecraft softcover book that is just very uncomfortable to hold while laying down. I also have a giant Asimov tome "Asimov's Chronology of the World," and it's a struggle to comfortably hold. I'm wondering if these type of large books were meant to be read at a table, and I should find a smaller book.

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Cheese Thief posted:

Anyone ever have problems with the actual physical dimensions of a book? I have a huge Lovecraft softcover book that is just very uncomfortable to hold while laying down. I also have a giant Asimov tome "Asimov's Chronology of the World," and it's a struggle to comfortably hold. I'm wondering if these type of large books were meant to be read at a table, and I should find a smaller book.

The Books of Earthsea: Complete Illustrated Cycle will break your wrists if you try to lift it. It's specifically for reading at a table.

Humerus
Jul 7, 2009

Rule of acquisition #111:
Treat people in your debt like family...exploit them.


Cheese Thief posted:

Anyone ever have problems with the actual physical dimensions of a book? I have a huge Lovecraft softcover book that is just very uncomfortable to hold while laying down. I also have a giant Asimov tome "Asimov's Chronology of the World," and it's a struggle to comfortably hold. I'm wondering if these type of large books were meant to be read at a table, and I should find a smaller book.

You should find an ereader, I think.

Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.


These things exist, they're cheap, and they work. This picture was stolen from the listing of the first random one I found on Amazon. $23.99

rollick
Mar 20, 2009
I had some problems with Hilary Mantel's book The Mirror and the Light last year, so I had to resort to this:

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
https://twitter.com/File_770/status/1374419234256654338?s=20

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go


:unsmith:

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

I'm reading Helen Keller's autobiography and I think it's really loving stupid that she keeps describing how things look.

Apparatchik Magnet
Sep 25, 2019

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

3D Megadoodoo posted:

I'm reading Helen Keller's autobiography and I think it's really loving stupid that she keeps describing how things look.

I feel this way about authors describing character's internal thoughts. How would they know?

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

I just finished Nevil Shute's An Old Captivity and it's a 20-page novella written to be a 300-page novel. Now I get why the book was free, and also why he's practically forgotten nowadays, except for On the Beach. (I haven't actually read that one, but I've seen both movies, which were OK.)

The man loves his ultra-boring aeroplane sequences like C.S. Forester loved his ultra-boring ship poo poo. (But at least something actually happened in the Hornblower novels.)

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
https://twitter.com/HarperCollins/status/1375554229729918980?s=20

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1375824850430869504?s=20

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

"this audiobook is unabridged", says the narrator, as he proceeds to read the entirety of the copyright page

BigRed0427
Mar 23, 2007

There's no one I'd rather be than me.

Since I dont read a lot of fantasy fiction, something I wanna fix, I decided I'm gonna work my way through the fantasy half of that NPR scifi/fantasy flow chart of their 100 top books. Starting with llthe lord of the rings trilogy.

All audiobooks BTW since hour long car rides are a part of my life for the foreseeable future.

In other news, im currently working through Dracula. It's ok if a bit stright forward. "Dracula comes to London, our heros hunt him down to find him in order to avenge their fallen friend. Complaints: I think I missed how they figured out Renfeild's Master is Dracula. Twice we have the actions of people who are not characters thwart our heros efforts to save Lucy to keep the plot going. And I think this all could have been avoided if Van Hellsing just explained what a vampire is MUCH sooner.

BigRed0427 fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Mar 30, 2021

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

BigRed0427 posted:

Since I dont read a lot of fantasy fiction, something I wanna fix, I decided I'm gonna work my way through the fantasy half of that NPR scifi/fantasy flow chart of their 100 top books. Starting with llthe lord of the rings trilogy.

All audiobooks BTW since hour long car rides are a part of my life for the foreseeable future.

Enjoy! We have a dedicated Tolkien thread also if you want to do a deeper dive.

The main advice I give people starting Tolkien for the first time is to try to throw away as many preconceptions as possible. Tolkien was a weird dude and the Lord of the Rings was a weird project: half fever dream born out of the horrors of the Somme, half a professor of ancient languages attempting to reject most of modernity in general and modern fiction in specific.

A lot of it can seem strange or even outright bad writing to people who've read a lot of modern fiction, but that's usually because Tolkien isn't trying to do the same things as modern fiction. He's not missing the mark, he's aiming at a different target. So it pays to just read it at let the book show you where it leads.

Also, don't feel bad skipping over the songs. You can come back to them later if you want. If you get bogged down or don't feel like reading three pages describing trees, it's ok to skip ahead and come back for it later or on a re-read.

Reading Tolkien in audiobook format might be weird since it'll be harder to skim parts.

Here's a recording of Tolkien reading parts of the Fellowship of the Ring (mostly the songs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLJ9z2bzAdQ

Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Mar 30, 2021

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

BigRed0427 posted:

Since I dont read a lot of fantasy fiction, something I wanna fix, I decided I'm gonna work my way through the fantasy half of that NPR scifi/fantasy flow chart of their 100 top books. Starting with llthe lord of the rings trilogy.


That list doesn't have A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, a fantasy that was published 14 years after Lord of the Rings, and is an influential novel for the genre. It's ten chapters at less than 200 pages, so it's a quick read (or a quick listen as an audiobook). I'm not really into Fantasy, but I started reading it after rewatching LotR on 4k, and really enjoyed it.

edit: She cites Lord Dunsany as an influence on her prose, and King of Elfland's Daughter has been recommended in TBB as well.

Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Mar 30, 2021

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

Franchescanado posted:

That list doesn't have A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, a fantasy that was published 14 years after Lord of the Rings, and is an influential novel for the genre. It's ten chapters at less than 200 pages, so it's a quick read (or a quick listen as an audiobook). I'm not really into Fantasy, but I started reading it after rewatching LotR on 4k, and really enjoyed it.

Yeah, they seem to have gone with a (rough) "one book per author" theme, and they included The Dispossessed which is a better pick overall for showcasing her SF work and her politics but excludes her work in fantasy.

Franchescanado
Feb 23, 2013

If it wasn't for disappointment
I wouldn't have any appointment

Grimey Drawer

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Yeah, they seem to have gone with a (rough) "one book per author" theme, and they included The Dispossessed which is a better pick overall for showcasing her SF work and her politics but excludes her work in fantasy.

I just noticed they put Left Hand of Darkness on there too.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

Franchescanado posted:

I just noticed they put Left Hand of Darkness on there too.

Yeah the problem with Le Guin is she wrote too many books that were too good. She'd overwhelm the list !

buffalo all day
Mar 13, 2019

NPR's list includes "the shannara series" but not earthsea...
NPR's list includes the belgariad but not earthsea...
NPR's list includes animal farm (???) but not earthsea...

buffalo all day
Mar 13, 2019

gonna start recommending animal farm more in the SF thread because the animals can talk :rolleye:

PeterWeller
Apr 21, 2003

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Yeah the problem with Le Guin is she wrote too many books that were too good. She'd overwhelm the list !

The trick is to just put down Hainish Novels and Stories and link to the wonderful Library of America collection.

Mrenda
Mar 14, 2012

buffalo all day posted:

gonna start recommending animal farm more in the SF thread because the animals can talk :rolleye:

I once asked a fella what he thought of Brave New World and he disdainfully told me, "I don't read sci-fi."

Humerus
Jul 7, 2009

Rule of acquisition #111:
Treat people in your debt like family...exploit them.


buffalo all day posted:

gonna start recommending animal farm more in the SF thread because the animals can talk :rolleye:

not really related but I just saw this like a week ago



so make sure to only recommend it for children's SF

regulargonzalez
Aug 18, 2006
UNGH LET ME LICK THOSE BOOTS DADDY HULU ;-* ;-* ;-* YES YES GIVE ME ALL THE CORPORATE CUMMIES :shepspends: :shepspends: :shepspends: ADBLOCK USERS DESERVE THE DEATH PENALTY, DON'T THEY DADDY?
WHEN THE RICH GET RICHER I GET HORNIER :a2m::a2m::a2m::a2m:

buffalo all day posted:

NPR's list includes "the shannara series" but not earthsea...
NPR's list includes the belgariad but not earthsea...


Christ.

I mean, Belgariad is fine but very slight. It's LoTR for tweens and it's fine.

Shannara is almost literally a straight rewrite of Tolkien, it's embarrassingly obvious. I think Terry Brooks was like 18 when he wrote the first one and it's about as good as you would expect from an 18 year old plagiarizing Lord of the Rings.

Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.
Ugh don't read the Belgariad. Just don't.

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

The Eddingses were hacks. They were also child-abusers but they were also hacks. So you may as well read some garbage that wasn't written by child-abusers, instead. I picked up a random free Dragonlance paperback from a box in the vestibule of a K-market and enjoyed it despite it being poo poo.

If Don Perrin and/or Margaret Weis are monsters, I don't want to hear about it.

e: I was a fool and looked them up. Apparently (according to Wikipedia) Margaret Weis lives in a barn!

BigRed0427
Mar 23, 2007

There's no one I'd rather be than me.

And I think I'm gonna tap out of Dracula. I'm up to the men storming Dracula's home the first time in London and the book just isn't grabbing me.

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


BigRed0427 posted:

And I think I'm gonna tap out of Dracula. I'm up to the men storming Dracula's home the first time in London and the book just isn't grabbing me.

OTOH, you have intrigued me about this book and I just might read it myself

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

I'm reading both Balzac's Le Cousin Pons and Gautier's Contes humoristiques. Multi-book reading!! The latter is much better because it has the footnotes, while the former has endnotes, which is always mega fail IMHO.

One day I hope to see a French classic that doesn't have or need foot- or endnotes.

regulargonzalez
Aug 18, 2006
UNGH LET ME LICK THOSE BOOTS DADDY HULU ;-* ;-* ;-* YES YES GIVE ME ALL THE CORPORATE CUMMIES :shepspends: :shepspends: :shepspends: ADBLOCK USERS DESERVE THE DEATH PENALTY, DON'T THEY DADDY?
WHEN THE RICH GET RICHER I GET HORNIER :a2m::a2m::a2m::a2m:

3D Megadoodoo posted:

I'm reading both Balzac's Le Cousin Pons and Gautier's Contes humoristiques. Multi-book reading!! The latter is much better because it has the footnotes, while the former has endnotes, which is always mega fail IMHO.

One day I hope to see a French classic that doesn't have or need foot- or endnotes.

Le Petit Prince has you covered

Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.

3D Megadoodoo posted:

The Eddingses were hacks. They were also child-abusers but they were also hacks. So you may as well read some garbage that wasn't written by child-abusers, instead. I picked up a random free Dragonlance paperback from a box in the vestibule of a K-market and enjoyed it despite it being poo poo.

If Don Perrin and/or Margaret Weis are monsters, I don't want to hear about it.

e: I was a fool and looked them up. Apparently (according to Wikipedia) Margaret Weis lives in a barn!

Dragonlance is bad it's way less bad than any Eddings books. The original Dragonlance trilogy is perfectly readable and fine.

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

regulargonzalez posted:

Le Petit Prince has you covered

My major gripe with that book is that the spine is printed the wrong way around.

Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:

Dragonlance is bad it's way less bad than any Eddings books. The original Dragonlance trilogy is perfectly readable and fine.

It was more than 20 years ago that I read either so could be :shrug: Sometimes I feel like reading the only swords & sorcery -type book serieses from my childhood that I still have, just to see if I'd still like them (The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper and Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin), but then I remember I have like 1 000 unread books and decide against it.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
Earthsea still holds up. Dark is Rising your mileage may vary. Dragonlance imho doesn't hold up at all but I guess there's a place for it for people who really enjoy licensed fiction.

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Sarern
Nov 4, 2008

:toot:
Won't you take me to
Bomertown?
Won't you take me to
BONERTOWN?

:toot:

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Earthsea still holds up. Dark is Rising your mileage may vary. Dragonlance imho doesn't hold up at all but I guess there's a place for it for people who really enjoy licensed fiction.

Trying Dragonlance again as an adult I had the same impression as Heironymous, but I forgot all about Dark is Rising. I'll have to give those another try one of these days. Earthsea obviously owns.

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