General TBB Chat/questions thread - I'm on Earth in 2023.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > General TBB Chat/questions thread - I'm on Earth in 2023.

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Jerry Cotton posted:

Where can I find a copy of Butt Smell for my Book Barn Secret Santee?

# ¿ Dec 4, 2019 03:47

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 20:21

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Mel Mudkiper posted:

So today I learned two things

1. Johnathan Livingston Seagull was not written in the 1700s

2. It is about an actual Seagull

My father owns a book that is a contemporary philosophical refutation of JLS, and it is about pelicans

I don't remember the title and cannot in good faith recommend you seek it out, but I wanted to infect you with the knowledge that it exists

# ¿ Feb 18, 2020 05:15

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

I've just started reading James Tate. His prose poetry is of a good length to feel like you're reading something substantial without taking much time. Also it's extremely good!

# ¿ Mar 18, 2020 00:36

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

TheAardvark, if you want a rec given to you high-school assigned-reading style: go read Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop. It's a novel that's not plot-focused (things happen, but the focus is on the characters and historical setting) and has clear, beautiful prose. It's an excellent introduction to Serious Lit, and it's also just an excellent book.

BotM chat is reminding me that I never finished Bear. I should... maybe do that? Not sure how I failed to finish a book that short, but I think I put it down halfway through and just never picked it back up.

# ¿ May 31, 2020 16:37

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

ruinous orchid posted:

I forget if the Wayside School books are meant for slightly older kids.

I was into the Wayside School books as a smartass 9-year-old; I think they're fine for that age. Your other recommendations are also good, and I'd say the whole Roald Dahl kidlit canon is worth a shot if she enjoys the grotesque.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2020 23:44

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

3D Megadoodoo posted:

Unless I somehow get a kid, I don't think I'll be looking for new reading material of that type. Especially considering how many I already have.

Anyway, just finished Nobi by Shōhei Ōoka and it was pretty hosed up. It's about a Japanese soldier in the Philippines getting separated from his company and wandering around an island while the Yanks are taking it and have taken it, slowly going insane and maybe getting religion of some kind IDK I'm really stupid?. The author fought in the Philippines and became a POW there himself. Apparently - according to Wikipedia anyway - the English translator (I read it in Finnish) just cut out all the weird bits so I'd imagine it's a really short read in English.

I've read this in English (as Fires on the Plain), and it's still got plenty of weird poo poo going on. I don't remember what it does with the narrative stuff, unfortunately -- it's been a while.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2021 12:09

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Rolo posted:

Do we have a poetry thread? Where do I start with poetry if my knowledge is bound to the big names I learned in middle school? I went to a Christian school so my range in authors was stunted at a young age.

Looking for shorter (1 page or less) poetry about love, nature, whatever evokes emotion, but I’m unfamiliar with anything less than a century ago so modern stuff is very welcome.

Look for anthologies? Good way to get a sample of a lot of poets at once, and the ones intended for academic use will have good supplementary information.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2021 04:26

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Take the plunge! Okay! posted:

One of the best examples of outsider art novels I’d ever seen was a manuscript submitted to the media company I used to work for. The company didn’t publish books and didn’t accept manuscripts, but somehow we got one in the mail. My boss asked me to take a look and see what it was about. It was, possibly, a spy novel, featuring a character that was supposed to be a version of James Bond. However, it was several hundred pages of that character lounging by the pool and reminiscing on his past successes in espionage and womanizing. None of the successes were ever described in detail nor were there any flashback scenes. Just a dude going in his head “yeah, that time I saved the Queen of England from the Russian assassin and screwed her niece was amazing” and skipping to the next, equally dumb thought. Like a moron’s Tristram Shandy. But there was a certain disturbing quality to the text, something hypnotic. Still unsure whether I chucked a future classic in the bin.

I deeply regret not being able to read this novel

# ¿ Jun 26, 2021 01:04

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

lifg posted:

Holy poo poo http://gutenberg.ca/index.html looks like a geocities rant.

It's absolutely surreal to read a website formatted like this, but making a reality-based argument instead of pure Thoughts From Mars

# ¿ Aug 1, 2021 22:32

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

I keep meaning to read the Books of the Month and then not doing it. I did finish Arcadia, but didn't particularly enjoy it or have much to say, so why post? Life is difficult.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2022 02:53

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

This discussion is making me want to reread Pale Fire, especially since I forgot Botkin existed (and the concept of Zembla being confabulated by a Russian expatriate instead of an American is kind of interesting, even above and beyond the fact that it was obviously written by a Russian expatriate in the real world).

# ¿ Jul 19, 2022 03:27

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

I think I got to the sex scene where the author clearly didn't know what "mono no aware" means and decided I'd gotten as much hate-reading comedy value as I was gonna get

# ¿ Oct 11, 2022 00:41

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Book's still there, give it another shot

# ¿ Jan 5, 2023 03:19

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Carthag Tuek posted:

Sure but using the boxes we've had in the family for five decades is free

I'm glad someone other than my mom does this, and I fully expect to use that sacred inheritance for the rest of my life

# ¿ Mar 7, 2023 09:45

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

That dude owns, let him get the full experience

# ¿ Feb 16, 2024 00:25

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Cyrano4747 posted:

Telling someone over the age of 12 to read the Hobbit first is just cruel.

???

The Hobbit is great and reads fine as an adult

# ¿ Feb 18, 2024 06:41

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 20:21

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

SniperWoreConverse posted:

But did you read the dark and gritty sequel?

Tolkien preempted the whole d&d satanic panic era with a sequel he basically dumpstered after 13 pages or something, when there was 1 last old man who remembered orcs & the "tree of evil" had juuuuuust barely begun to begin to grow new fruit, in the form of a secret cult.

His own verdict: "eh not worth it"

Do you have a source on this? I'm fascinated by the image of Tolkien sitting at his desk being like "this Middle-Earth conspiracy thriller idea is boring as poo poo"

# ¿ Feb 20, 2024 00:27

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > General TBB Chat/questions thread - I'm on Earth in 2023.