Recommend some books that aren't "Goon Books"

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Recommend some books that aren't "Goon Books"

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Professor Shark: May 22, 2012

Sheep-Goats posted:

Ulysses

Ulysses is great for collecting dust on my shelf. I got through the first two parts before I gave up. Someday...

# ? Sep 20, 2015 23:10

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 03:50

prinneh: Jul 29, 2005; prince of denmark

I was going to post another non goon book, but there are so many in this thread already.

Pick any one of these:

Hector Beerlioz posted:

War & Peace is the best book I ever read.

Hector Beerlioz posted:

High School ruined it for most people, but I like The Great Gatsby.

squartle posted:

realtalk: invisible cities by italo calvino

drat horror queefs posted:

im reading dr zhivago again and it is extremely dope.

pevear and volokhonsky done changed the game, dogg

Ddraig posted:

Candide
The Collected Works of William Blake

Professor Shark posted:

I would add Anna Karenina , it's basically a spiritual sequel to W&P.

oncearoundaltair posted:

Pale Fire by Nabokov
Life: A User's Manual (novel) by Perec
Balcony In The Forest (Un balcon en for�t) by Gracq

Best Giraffe posted:

The Plague by Albert Camus is pretty good op hth

Blue Raider posted:

catch-22
anything by coleridge
anything by john dos passos
as i lay dying

Sheep-Goats posted:

Ulysses

# ? Sep 20, 2015 23:28

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

Professor Shark posted:

Ulysses is great for collecting dust on my shelf. I got through the first two parts before I gave up. Someday...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiXX6-iVwfw&t=12s

# ? Sep 20, 2015 23:31

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Sheep-Goats posted:

haunted house == goony as gently caress

Spoilers for a fifty year-old book:
House may not actually be haunt, narrator is definitely insane.

# ? Sep 20, 2015 23:37

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

Das Boo posted:

Spoilers for a fifty year-old book:
House may not actually be haunt, narrator is definitely insane.

Unreliable insane narrator == goony as gently caress

# ? Sep 20, 2015 23:41

GastonEatTheEggs: Nov 7, 2012

prinneh posted:

I was going to post another non goon book, but there are so many in this thread already.

Pick any one of these:

out of these i've only read gatsby, invisible cities, infinite jest, and catch-22

what's the best remaining book?

# ? Sep 20, 2015 23:47

WAY TO GO WAMPA!!: Oct 27, 2007

I'm reading 2666 by roberto bolano and its pretty cool so you should read that too

# ? Sep 21, 2015 00:04

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Sheep-Goats posted:

Unreliable insane narrator == goony as gently caress

Books == goony as gently caress

# ? Sep 21, 2015 00:37

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

Planarch posted:

out of these i've only read gatsby, invisible cities, infinite jest, and catch-22

what's the best remaining book?

If you aggregated scores from people who aren't stupid Ulysses would be the best remaining book and Lolita would be next. Ulysses is genuinely difficult though and if you're not the right kind of person you won't be able to appreciate it without some hand-holding. There aren't any even remotely bad books in that list though so it's more a question of what suits your tastes at the minute.

Das Boo posted:

Books == goony as gently caress

No, just ones with wizards, haunted houses, or computers

# ? Sep 21, 2015 00:47

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Sheep-Goats posted:

If you aggregated scores from people who aren't stupid Ulysses would be the best remaining book and Lolita would be next. Ulysses is genuinely difficult though and if you're not the right kind of person you won't be able to appreciate it without some hand-holding. There aren't any even remotely bad books in that list though so it's more a question of what suits your tastes at the minute.

No, just ones with wizards, haunted houses, or computers

Or middle-aged women who are unreliable narrators?
The Alienist is goonier than Hill House and it's got none of that poo poo.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 00:57

Professor Shark: May 22, 2012

Planarch posted:

out of these i've only read gatsby, invisible cities, infinite jest, and catch-22

what's the best remaining book?

War & Peace

It's well written and is easy to read (it's just long as gently caress so most people won't ever read it) and it has one of the gooniest characters in literature.

Also Tolstoy has an amazing ability to "write people" really well.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 00:59

Professor Shark: May 22, 2012

This thread has encouraged me to pick up The Plague again, watch out for some EN posts coming from me in the near future!

# ? Sep 21, 2015 01:00

whoflungpoop: Sep 9, 2004; With you and the constellations

Helical Nightmares posted:

A Canticle for Leibowitz

came here to post this :woop:

# ? Sep 21, 2015 01:01

praxis: Aug 1, 2003

I recommend the Bible. It's an amazing book that gives you a lot to think about in your daily life, even if you couldn't care less about God/Jesus/church/religion.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 01:24

fabergay egg: Mar 1, 2012; it's not a rhetorical question, for politely saying 'you are an idiot, you don't know what you are talking about'

Professor Shark posted:

This thread has encouraged me to pick up The Plague again, watch out for some EN posts coming from me in the near future!

godspeed professor

# ? Sep 21, 2015 01:45

RadioactiveKid: Aug 12, 2005; Gato Rebelde

The Very Hungry Caterpillar OP, I read that poo poo all the time

# ? Sep 21, 2015 01:49

whoflungpoop: Sep 9, 2004; With you and the constellations

praxis posted:

I recommend the Bible. It's an amazing book that gives you a lot to think about in your daily life, even if you couldn't care less about God/Jesus/church/religion.

i recommend the bible as well, u will never get the most out of the canon of western literature without it

also the old testament gets more interesting and digestible if u combine it with some non-religious historical readings about the history of the levant, mesopotamia, and egypt from like early iron age up thru the hasmonean dynasty in judea

it'll help u find the pieces of actual history that really are represented in the OT even if its some hosed up way, like in 2 Kings when it says that THE ANGEL OF THE LORD SMOTE 180,000 ASSYRIAN TROOPS OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM when what really happened was that Sennacherib's 20k army got a nasty case of camp shits that decimated them and they had to break off the siege but the political result was the same (jerusalem got lucky and didnt get the sacking they were expecting for withholding tribute to assyria)

# ? Sep 21, 2015 05:34

Improbable Lobster: Jan 6, 2012; What is the Matrix 🌐? We just don't know 😎.; Buglord

Dead Mountaineer's Inn is an excently Russian detective novel from the bros that did Roadside Picnic

# ? Sep 21, 2015 05:48

Berk Berkly: Apr 9, 2009; by zen death robot

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

A fun book for cool people.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 05:57

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

whoflungpoop posted:

i recommend the bible as well, u will never get the most out of the canon of western literature without it

also the old testament gets more interesting and digestible if u combine it with some non-religious historical readings about the history of the levant, mesopotamia, and egypt from like early iron age up thru the hasmonean dynasty in judea

it'll help u find the pieces of actual history that really are represented in the OT even if its some hosed up way, like in 2 Kings when it says that THE ANGEL OF THE LORD SMOTE 180,000 ASSYRIAN TROOPS OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM when what really happened was that Sennacherib's 20k army got a nasty case of camp shits that decimated them and they had to break off the siege but the political result was the same (jerusalem got lucky and didnt get the sacking they were expecting for withholding tribute to assyria)

I don't like the bible very much and don't feel it's necessary for access to the Western canon. The best part about it is learning weird old biblical words but then you're reading the KJV aka a lovely Version of the bible for scholastic purposes.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:04

Hobohemian: Sep 30, 2005; by XyloJW

Sheep-Goats posted:

I don't like the bible very much and don't feel it's necessary for access to the Western canon. The best part about it is learning weird old biblical words but then you're reading the KJV aka a lovely Version of the bible for scholastic purposes.

What about that bible with illustrations by robert crumb?

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:06

Immortan: Jun 6, 2015; by Shine

praxis posted:

I recommend the Bible. It's an amazing book that gives you a lot to think about in your daily life, even if you couldn't care less about God/Jesus/church/religion.

Such as _____________________________ ?

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:16

Nanomashoes: Aug 18, 2012

Immortan posted:

Such as _____________________________ ?

Forgiveness, redemption, the history of the israelite people, an understanding of the basis of all western literature and thought, the origin of many phrases and themes that are often repeated in our daily lives...

These things are not what goons want, I know.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:26

Immortan: Jun 6, 2015; by Shine

Nanomashoes posted:

Forgiveness, redemption, the history of the israelite people, an understanding of the basis of all western literature and thought, the origin of many phrases and themes that are often repeated in our daily lives...

These things are not what goons want, I know.

I think you're confusing the Bible with the Koran? Check your privilege.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:28

Nanomashoes: Aug 18, 2012

Immortan posted:

I think you're confusing the Bible with the Koran? Check your privilege.

Islamic literature is also interesting and good. I like Naguib Mahfouz.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:36

BravestOfTheLamps: Oct 12, 2012; by FactsAreUseless; Lipstick Apathy

Baudolino is a fatnasy book that is not a goon book

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:37

Immortan: Jun 6, 2015; by Shine

Nanomashoes posted:

Islamic literature is also interesting and good. I like Naguib Mahfouz.

I like Omar Khayyam.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:39

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Revelations is cool as gently caress, tbh.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:44

Immortan: Jun 6, 2015; by Shine

Das Boo posted:

Revelations is cool as gently caress, tbh.

Psalms was good as well.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:47

Nanomashoes: Aug 18, 2012

Immortan posted:

I like Omar Khayyam.

I don't like to read poetry unless I speak the language.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:49

BravestOfTheLamps: Oct 12, 2012; by FactsAreUseless; Lipstick Apathy

An Etymology of Latin and Greek, by Charles S. Halsey

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:50

Worlds Smuggest: Mar 13, 2010

The Works of Jerry Pournelle,
The Belgarriad series by David Eddings)may be goony),
How to Win Friends and Influence people,
the hand book about how Qi Gong cult is on gutenberg,
48 laws of Power,
Lee jenkin's Orgasm Black Book,
Casca by Barry Saddler,
LIFE Science Library on Matter,
The entire H.L. Mencken collection,
The front page of a website called SomthingAwful.com
Armor by John Steakly,
I enjoyed Anne Rice as a teenager,
A few other unique things like the Anarchist cookbooks,
various Older Science text books that actually explained how to make TNT in full process,
And the History of Hackers.

Should be a good place to start.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:56

whoflungpoop: Sep 9, 2004; With you and the constellations

Sheep-Goats posted:

I don't like the bible very much and don't feel it's necessary for access to the Western canon.

ok, here's a infinitesimally short list of poo poo ur going to miss decent chunks out of without understanding the biblical references/inspirations of the authors, starting with the most obvious:

- Inferno
- Paradise Lost
- Moby Dick
- Ulysses
- anything by: Twain, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Tolstoy
- Christ-like comparisons of characters, like Faulkner's Benjy or Dostoevsky's Myshkin
- even foo-foo poo poo like C.S. Lewis books, and the one i recced in the thread, A Canticle For Leibowitz

u dont have to like the bible to understand that its the most pervasive influence throughout almost 2k years of western literature and a defining and inseparable force in the worldview and minds of most of its authors and while u dont need to know it front to back u at least need to be able to look poo poo up and understand it enough to place it in the literary context of whatever ur reading as needed

ps. im an atheist

# ? Sep 21, 2015 06:58

Gravity Pike: Feb 8, 2009; I find this discussion incredibly bland and disinteresting.

Ah, Tao Te Ching. The first half explores the unknowable/contradictory nature of Tao. The second half is a meditation on how to rule, much like Machiavelli's The Prince, or Sun Tzu's Art of War. It's real short (unlike the bible), but will still get you a good distance in important cultural shorthand.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 07:20

extra stout: Feb 24, 2005; ISILDUR's ERR

Blue Raider posted:

a confederacy of dunces

probably the only book that i have seen talked about on these forums more than any other place, making it a 'goon book' yet the best book that will be posted in this thread, regardless of how 'goony' someone is, it's just a loving perfectly written story that will make you laugh hundreds, actual hundreds of times

# ? Sep 21, 2015 07:23

Nanomashoes: Aug 18, 2012

Notes from Underground is the book with the biggest goon. Confederacy takes #2 or #3 after The Tunnel.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 08:10

Caesar Saladin: Aug 15, 2004

BuckarooBanzai posted:

Blood Meridian is unironically the best book written in the English language

i'm reading this right now and its super hosed up

i'm sitting on the train reading about indians sodomising corpses and stuff its crazy

# ? Sep 21, 2015 09:32

Nanomashoes: Aug 18, 2012

Fonzarelli posted:

i'm reading this right now and its super hosed up

i'm sitting on the train reading about indians sodomising corpses and stuff its crazy

Wait until you read Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy, a book where a white guy sodomizes watermelons.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 09:39

Rush Limbo: Sep 5, 2005; its with a full house

Even in the relatively poo poo and hacky world of genre literature, David Eddings is the worst I've ever read.

The Redemption of Althalus is such a loving terrible book about David and his wife Leigh who is a cat who is actually an ancient goddess of immense beauty and wisdom. They're totes in love too.

e: How do you sodomize a watermelon? It doesn't have any of the required orifices.

# ? Sep 21, 2015 09:40

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 03:50

Professor Shark: May 22, 2012

Nanomashoes posted:

Wait until you read Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy, a book where a white guy sodomizes watermelons.

I like to pretend that McCarthy only wrote a trilogy of Border Crossing books: Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, and The Road

The real Border Trilogy books are pretty meh, and the others are blah

I hope his next one is better

# ? Sep 21, 2015 09:46

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Recommend some books that aren't "Goon Books"

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