(Part 2) Best short stories & anthology books according to redditors
We found 4,620 Reddit comments discussing the best short stories & anthology books. We ranked the 1,519 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
27. Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book (English and Russian Edition)
12 mentions
Dover Publications
Labyrinths, by JL Borges.
From Amazon:
> If Jorge Luis Borges had been a computer scientist, he probably would have invented hypertext and the World Wide Web.
Instead, being a librarian and one of the world's most widely read people, he became the leading practitioner of a densely layered imaginistic writing style that has been imitated throughout this century, but has no peer (although Umberto Eco sometimes comes close, especially in "Name of the Rose").
Borges's stories are redolent with an intelligence, wealth of invention, and a tight, almost mathematically formal style that challenge with mysteries and paradoxes revealed only slowly after several readings. Highly recommended to anyone who wants their imagination and intellect to be aswarm with philosophical plots, compelling conundrums, and a wealth of real and imagined literary references derived from an infinitely imaginary library.
Reviews
“Borges is arguably the great bridge between modernism and post-modernism in world literature.” (David Foster Wallace - The New York Times )
“Borges anticipated postmodernism (deconstruction and so on) and picked up credit as founding father of Latin American magical realism.” (Colin Waters - The Washington Times )
Labyrinths - Jorge Luis Borges
Arcanum Unbounded is a collection of short stories/novellas. It's the one that has Edgedancer in it.
​
If you meant the letters, they're found in the epigraphs before some of the chapters in the Stormlight Archive. We know, through deduction and Brandon's confirmation, that they're letters to and from Hoid.
A lot of the other things we know about him are from Words of Brandon, aka WoB (annotations to his early works, AMAs on reddit, things said at signings, etc) and some of his unpublished works, like Dragonsteel and Liar of Partinel, which aren't canon, but some people have read.
r/1984
The tldr is: old book on totalitarianism.
Could also pick it up from a library...
It's like how Hitchhikers Guide is so big.
... wait what 14 CDs? BBC Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy BBC Radio Show (Amazon).
The Trilogy of Five is a good book too... I'd rec it.
The accounts of Ibn Fadlan's travels are a quick and fascinating read--he's remarkably dispassionate and non-judgmental about the exotic customs he observes for a travel writer of his time. This Penguin edition includes a ton of other little scraps from various other Arab and Persian travelers about encountering tribes and nomadic peoples from around Central Asia down to southeastern Europe.
Central Asian history is so absolutely weird and wild and bewildering and fun. It's so strange to think about what were basically the same bunch of folks being gawked at and talked about by Chinese commentators and by Arabs and Franks, thousands and thousands of miles away. I'd also recommend this really nice brief history of the Silk Road.
Welcome! Enjoy!
Don't forget Edgedancer! Here or, even better, here.
Library Links
>Dunk & Egg 1 (Hedge Knight)
>Legends Anthology: http://www.worldcat.org/title/legends-short-novels-by-the-masters-of-modern-fantasy/oclc/39013842
>Hedge Knight Only: http://www.worldcat.org/title/hedge-knight/oclc/56053466&referer=brief_results
>
>
> Dunk & Egg 2 (Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword)
> Legends Anthology II: http://www.worldcat.org/title/legends-ii-dragon-sword-and-king/oclc/630937186
> Sworn Sword Only: http://www.worldcat.org/title/hedge-knight-ii-sworn-sword/oclc/269578007
> Dunk & Egg 3 (Mystery Knight)
> Warriors Anthology: http://www.worldcat.org/title/warriors/oclc/428026868
Amazon (from /r/asoiaf wiki)
>1.
> http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Dreamsongs-Volume-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0553385690
>
>2.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Masters-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B000FC0Y0Y/
> 3.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765320487/
>
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765360268/
I couldn't recommend Steven Brust's The Book of Jhereg enough. It's the first collection of books in a series he's been writing since 1983. Every book is a great read, and the characters will really grow on you. I believe any fan of Zelazny will like Brust.
Steven Brust's Jhereg books hold up very well. The series is still going (after over a dozen books), but he started in the late 70s or early 80s, I believe.
Yes all of them are available as e-books on the Kindle. They are all linked in our FAQ and our sidebar.
You can buy the collections they're in. Not separately, unfortunately.
EDIT: Links for the lazy.
"Legends" has "The Hedge Knight." $8 on Kindle.
"Legends II" has "The Sworn Sword." $6 on Kindle.
"Warriors" has "The Mystery Knight." $9 on Kindle.
It's the graphic novel of The Hedge Knight that sells for stupid prices.
The actual novella is available in this book or this one. (Kindle edition).
The Sworn Sword is in Legends II. Alternatively, it's in this book which only contains part of the original Legends II anthology.
The Mystery Knight is in Warriors, or in paperback, this volume.
This is discussed pretty much weekly in this subreddit and really ought to be in the sidebar. For anyone from the future who is reading this thread, all the deleted comments are below were links to pirated versions of the books.
They haven't been released individually but rather as parts of short story collections that Martin edits or has some other part in.
All of his Dunk & Egg short stories are published as part of a set of short stories by several fantasy writers combined into one book. The one you linked is so expensive because the stories were never officially published as standalone books. I wouldn't pay more than a couple bucks for each (book 3 is new so it's a little more expensive). Here they are on amazon:
Book 1 - The Hedge Knight
Book 2 - The Sworn Sword
Book 3 - The Mystery Knight
Sounds like Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling; Wikipedia article about the Shaper/Mechanist universe here.
The Strike at Shayol Ghul details Lews Therins attempt to shut the bore.
Speaking of the Strike at Shayol Ghul, there is The World of Robert Jordan's a Wheel of Time also known affectionetly as the Big White Book (BWB) or Big Book of Bad Art (BBBA). It delves into a lot about cultures, features write ups of each forsaken, pokes fun at the covers and includes the entire text of Strike.
There was a short story called New Spring included in Robert Silverberg's Legends, this was later expanded into the novella New Spring
The short story about Bao is not considered connanical and is included in the short story collection Unfettered
Eye of the world was re-released for a YA market in two parts with a new prologue Ravens
The Interview Database, just click a topic that looks intresting and prepare to lose a day or two
The Wheel of Time FAQ back in the mists of time (late 90's early aughts) this was the best resource for all things WoT related. It hasn't been significantly updated since about book 10 (i mean, yes there were updates, but nothing on the scale and detail that it used to get). Gives great insight into what the fandom was pulling its hair out about during the two years+ between books. Also, some of the info is evergreen like historical references etc.
There was a terrible video game that has almost zero to do with the series.
There was a d20 based D&D rule set released and a adventure that explained how Taim got to Rand in time to rescue himat Dumai's Wells. RJ later came out and said that this was completely made up by the authors of the module and had nothing to do with the series, which was a BIG clue about Taim's allegiance.
I feel like im missing something, but I can't put my finger on it, so I will leave you with a random fact that you should know
Tar Valon is a vagina
I highly recommend reading The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. It's definitely biased, but it was based on the account of a man who was actually there when Cortez invaded the Aztecs. One of the most interesting books I've ever read.
https://www.amazon.com/Conquest-New-Spain-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441239
Most things from the past will be unknown to most people - usually people know of the major stuff - not the minor details.
You might consider reading original material from scholar/travelers from China to India (the advantage of reading original material - esp. for a writer - is that you get loads of detailed material which is relevant for you and you may notice it - although it may not be relevant for the wider picture a historian maybe painting - so there will be details which will be valuable to get a sense of the environment).
For example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faxian
and his accounts of visit to Taxila (Greco-Buddhist university - in present day Pakistan - which was part of the greater India in pre-1947 era):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila
Or this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanzang
another link for him:
http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Xuanzang_or_Hsüan-tsang
There are many other original travelogues you can read to get an idea of that period and region.
You can read Al Biruni's India - which chronicles India as he experienced it in 1000 AD - the variations in Hinduism as were apparent to him. He bitterly criticizes one of his contemporary Muslim conquerors for being brutal (Mahmud Ghaznavi who is remembered by both Muslims and Hindus for his aggressive actions against hindus and their temples).
And these are all modern looking books - i.e. since the people/scholars who wrote these were perceptive etc. So Al Biruni's India includes some details about variations and the types of people.
https://www.amazon.com/Alberunis-Abridged-Library-Al-Biruni-1993-05-01/dp/B017POL2C8/
As aid to Al Biruni's critical recounting of the state of India around 1000 AD (much of the book is very technical examination of things) - you may consider reading some of the British journals of the people of India - where they documented for each region the tribes and their oral history (as an effort to understand them so they could rule them).
There are many books about history - Ibn Khaldun's Preface to his history of the world is one of the most famous books of science/observation (The Muqaddimah) - but you could peruse his voluminous history of the world - which would be somewhat fanciful - and this again would be around 1000 AD.
https://www.amazon.com/Muqaddimah-Introduction-History-Princeton-Classics/dp/0691166285
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Biruni
If you have interest in the European region from 900AD - there are some travelogues by Muslim scholars/travelers who went north into european lands (the inspiration for the movie starring "The 13th Warrior" starring Antonio Banderas):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120657/
The 13th Warrior
https://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlan-Land-Darkness-Travellers/dp/0140455078/
Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North
Again these books come across as very contemporary - as their writers analyze each group of different (to their eyes) people they meet. It also gives secondary insight into the details of those periods.
Although slightly later than your time period - from the 1300s - you can read Ibn Battuta and his travels all over - and his fanciful descriptions of the people he meets:
https://www.amazon.com/Travels-Ibn-Battutah/dp/0330418793/
I'm glad I could introduce someone to it :) It's a really great distopian sci-fi book, but it's also really depressing. https://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0553273817
Hedge Knight
Sworn Sword
Mystery Knight
Not D&E but related
Princess & Queen
Per Amazon:
Product Description
An all-new Stormlight Archive novella, "Edgedancer," will be the crown jewel of Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection, the first book of short fiction by #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.
The collection will include nine works in all. The first eight are:
“The Hope of Elantris” (Elantris)
“The Eleventh Metal” (Mistborn)
“The Emperor's Soul” (Elantris)
“Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes 28 through 30” (Mistborn)
“White Sand" (excerpt; Taldain)
"Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” (Threnody)
“Sixth of Dusk” (First of the Sun)
“Mistborn: Secret History” (Mistborn)
These wonderful works, originally published on Tor.com and elsewhere individually, convey the expanse of the Cosmere and tell exciting tales of adventure Sanderson fans have come to expect, including the Hugo Award-winning novella, “The Emperor's Soul” and an excerpt from the graphic novel "White Sand."
Arcanum Unbounded will also contain the Stormlight Archive novella "Edgedancer," which will appear in this book for the first time anywhere. It is a story of Lift, taking place between Words of Radiance and the forthcoming Oathbringer.
Finally, this collection includes essays and illustrations for the various planetary systems in which the stories are set.
The anthologies aren't random - he edited them.
The anthologies aren't expensive:
Also, they're full of short stories from other great authors.
If you're willing to pay $7.00 for the graphic novel, why would you complain about shelling out an extra $0.99 for text with bonus stories? Digital piracy is not paying the iron price. It's more like the Sorefoot King price - stumbling along whining about what you're entitled to but haven't earned.
Edit - Corrected "Heroes" to "Warriors", "print" to "text", and added links to Amazon for the Kindle versions
It's in Warriors I
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AEBUPSM/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o01_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Michael Swanwick, The Iron Dragon's Daughter. Yes it has elves and dragons and whatnot. On the other hand those dragons are massive sentient war machines, made by changeling slave labor. This was "steampunk" before that label ossified into "British colonialism with cool gadgets"; there are Dickensian orphans, student riots, strange Elven politics, and the raw animal lust of being mind-linked to a sleek black death-machine. It's a beautiful book. I also really love Swanwick's "Stations of the Tide", which straddles SF and fantasy in the last days of a planet of islands about to be engulfed by rising tides; a nameless bureaucrat from the Bureau of Technology Transfer chases a mysterious magician through the most lyrical apocalypse ever written.
David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks - a few groups of secret immortals war through the ages. Beautifully written, and delightfully coy in how it dances around the magical happenings for most of its length.
Russel Hoban, The Medusa Frequency, an unsettling little story about a writer looking for inspiration and getting lost.
And perhaps you are ready for Jorge Luis Borges. Short stories that are more about the concepts than the worlds: a near-endless library that contains every text that could ever be written, a cabal of rebel historians creating an alternative history that begins to swallow up the world... very fantastic, very not something a D&D campaign would be based on.
Jack Vance, Tales of the Dying Earth. And here is something that was an explicit influence on D&D - the 'forget a spell the moment you cast it' system comes from Vance. A thief named Cugel steals from the wrong target - a wizard - who sends him halfway across the world. Cugel's quest for vengeance drags him back, twice, and ends horribly, but really what the story's about is the weird people and places he encounters along the way. (Originally a series of short stories.)
And while I am talking about stories of Self-Serving Bastards Who Inspired D&D (and quite possibly Locke Lamora), how about the first of Fritz Lieber's books about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser? A blonde mountain of a swordsman teams up with a little weasel of a thief (with a few bits of half-remembered cantrips); they wander the mean streets of the rotting city of Lankhmar, getting in and out of trouble. There's a bunch of stories about these two guys, with varied emotional tones. Also I liked his Our Lady Of Darkness a lot; it's about a person who stumbles into a skyscraper built with very particular magical proportions.
Oooh yes, also. Zelazny. Let's go right to the most wild and experimental, Creatures of Light and Darkness. Technomagical Egyptian gods war with each other through time and space. The story is told in a dream-like kaleidoscope of styles, but builds up to a beautifully strange whole. It is broken and difficult and short and rewarding.
Tim Powers. Would you like to read a story about pirates and voodoo magic? (A certain series of Disney movies owes a lot to this, not the other way around.) Or a story about time travel to Dickensian England and a disastrous attempt to resurrect dead gods? Or how about the secret history of how Byron, Shelley, and other consumptive poets were beset by vampires?
(And any mention of Powers should also include his buddy James Blaylock; I recommend "The Last Coin" and "Land of Dreams" in particular. The former is a madcap chase for thirty silver coins; the latter is an elliptical story about a Magical Carnival of Dubious Morality.)
Also if you are bored with traditional fantasy try reading some Lord Dunsanay. His work may rekindle the 'standard' fantasy for you; 'King of Elfland's Daughter' is melancholic, magical, and beautiful to read aloud; 'Idle Days on the Yann' is a wonderfully elliptic bit of world-building.
And finally, an extra-weird one. Larry Marder's Beanworld, an 'ecological romance' that I think is one of the best things to come out of the 80s B&W comics boom. It is gorgeous, alien, and familiar, all at once.
(Spoiler: The fate of the world hangs in the balance in one of these books. The protagonist, however, intends to destroy it. And succeeds. Despite this, there is a sequel to that book.)
The aspects of Clarke's style that you seem to enjoy really shine in the short story format. You said you've read everything, does that include his short fiction? There's a great anthology which collects them all.
Asimov was also great at writing short fiction, and I like this collection of his works.
Many of the stories curated in those anthologies were published 50 or so years ago in weekly/monthly science fiction magazines, you might see if any one has created 'best of science fiction weekly' collections.
Tor publishes short fiction for free on its website regularly. It's fairly hit or miss, but it's a good way to window shop authors.
A novel you might enjoy is Leviathan Wakes. It's a hard sci-fi novel in which humanity has colonized Mars and the Asteroid Belt. At this point all have their own unique cultures because it takes so long to travel between them. Not a lot of character development, which you don't seem to be into anyway, just fun ride in a cool setting. First in a series, but I haven't read the sequels yet so I can't comment on those.
You also might like The Martian, by Andy Weir. An astronaut is stranded by himself on Mars and has to survive. Weir wrote a short story called "The Egg" which gets posted to reddit on a regular basis.
If you're interested in them, the stories are all in the process of being translated to english. There are two books of short stories, and 5 books in a saga. The 2nd to last book is coming out this month, and the final book is due next year.
Here are the two short story collections: The Last Wish, and Sword of Destiny.
The US covers are kind of crap compared to the UK covers, but it's probably cheaper/faster for people in the US.
Whole lotta reading recommendations in this thread. May as well throw my two cents in.
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. If you're into Guts' introspective-man-of-violence-looking-for-his-place-in-the-world-thing I'd think you find Logen Ninefingers to be an interesting character. If you're into audiobooks then I highly recommend checking out the audiobook versions. The guy reading them is practically a voice-actor.
The original trilogy:
The standalone novels (available as a single volume in The Great Leveller):
And the most recent Sharp Ends (short story collection).
The Witcher books by Andrezj Sapkowski. Already spawned a popular video game franchise (I've only played the third one and enjoyed it tremendously, but still prefer the books). They're planning to adapt the books into a Netflix series within the next few years.
Short story collections:
The novels:
If anyone wants to start reading The Witcher novels I made a guide over on the "Featured Character" comment section that I'll repost here:
Short stories:
Novels:
Overall:
The short stories are a must-read before the novels because they introduce many characters and plot points for the main saga. There is also a prequel story called Season of Storms which hasn't been officially translated into English yet, but there are fan translations if you can't wait. I haven't read it myself, but I hear that it is best read after the others. If you want to know more about The Witcher lore there is always The World of the Witcher^UK which will give you more backstory and details.
Non-fiction:
Fiction
Yes, you have to get the books containing all these short stories (these books are called Anthologies). For the Hedge Knight, you can get it in an anthology called Legends I - this has a bunch of stories from a bunch of authors you've never heard of. Kindle version is $8, and hardcover is $16. OR you can get the Dreamsongs Volume 2 anthology for $11 kindle or $15 paperback. This is full of George R R Martin short stories that you'll probably really like.
For Sworn Sword, your only choice, unfortunately, is Legends 2. It's $6 for a digital version, and $7 for a paperback at Barnes and Noble.
The third story is only in Warriors which is unfortunately another nobody-anthology. $10 for kindle, $13 for paperback.
They don't print any new stand alone copies of the novellas, but they are available in different compilations. Who knows, maybe you'll be turned onto other authors/series.
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
I suppose the official word is that it can be read prior to the series (based on the spoiler scope message in Arcanum Unbounded) however I'd recommend waiting until at least after finishing Book 1 or 2.
Absolutely. The tourney scenes in the Hedge Night alone are worth shelling out for.
You can get the e-versions on Amazon for $8 bucks each.
Here is the order
The first two links are graphics novels of the short stories. The Mystery Knight hasn't been published as a graphics novel yet. The Mystery Knight is found in this book [Warriors ] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AEBUPSM/) and this [Epic: Legends of Fantasy] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009QTFX3K)
Ray Bradbury
Here is a quote from one of Hernan Cortes soldiers when they aproached Tenochtitlan: "When we saw all those cities and villages build in the water, and other great towns on dry land, and that straight and level causeway leading to Mexico, we were astounded. Indeed some of our soldiers asked wheter or not it was all a dream" - Bernal Diaz del Castillo
Bernal Diaz del Castillo also wrote detailed accounts of the expeditions to the New World. The Conquest of New Spain is also a great book. It's amazing how well documented these expeditions are. We are very fortunate.
These are my must-see episodes of the 1980s Twilight Zone series, in no particular order. Some are classic.
Season 1.
Children's Zoo.
Nightcrawlers -- based on the classic short story by Robert M. McCammon, available in Blue World, the Complete Collection.
Examination Day.
Paladin of the Last Hour -- based on a story by Harlan Ellison.
One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty -- based on Harlan Ellison's short story.
Her Pilgrim Soul.
I of Newton -- based on Joe Haldeman's short story, available in Cosmic Laughter, Science Fiction for the Fun of It.
But She Can Type?.
The Star -- based on Arthur C. Clarke's excellent story, available in The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.
The Misfortune Cookie.
A Small Talent for War.
A Matter of Minutes.
To See the Invisible Man.
Gramma -- based on the classic short story by Stephen King, available in Skeleton Crew.
Dead Run -- based on Greg Bear's short story, available in The Collected Stories of Greg Bear.
The Last Defender of Camelot, based on a short story by Roger Zelazny and teleplay by George R. R. Martin, available in Last Defender of Camelot short story collection.
Season 2.
A Saucer of Loneliness -- based on Theodore Sturgeon's excellent short story, available in The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume VII.
The Storyteller.
Toys of Caliban -- Teleplay by George R. R. Martin.
The Road Less Traveled -- by George R. R. Martin; memories of Martin's experience working on the Twilight Zone writing staff, and two teleplays, this one and an unproduced one, are available in Dreamsongs: Volume II.
Season 3 -- This season is worth a look, but none of them are my favorites.
--edited for formatting--
They're kind of hard to come across because well, they're always included in collections. The Mystery Knight is in a collection called Warriors. I've read all the Novellas since the Hedge Knight was originally published in the first Legends collection. Luckily there is a paperback available for Legends 1 but I think it's out of print. Also to be more confusing, the paperback it's contained in is called Legends 2 because it's the second part of the hardcover or something? But Legends II collection is where you get the Sworn Sword. Well here's a handy list though some might not be in stock (PB = Paperback/HC = Hardcover):
Anne Rice wrote under the pen name A. N. Roquelaure called The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty it could explain the vampire connection?
> the Kushiel saga
Yes!!!!
and honestly ladies if you want to read a kinky trilogy [sleeping beauty] (http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Beauty-Trilogy-Box-Set/dp/0452294754/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1376431269&sr=8-2&keywords=the+claiming+of+sleeping+beauty)
Try this , it has Russian stories printed on English on one page and in Russian on the other
You could try something like this
http://www.memrise.com/course/86069/intermediate-russian-bookbox-stories/
Also Amazon have a book with stories where the left page is in Russian and the right in English. I prefer Duolingo at the beginner stage, but you sound more disciplined than me so maybe it works better for you
Edit: Amazon link for the book http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0486262448/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1463390139
And now you can pre-order the physical hardcover book on Amazon, which collects all Cosmere novellas and short stories published before and more, including Emperor's Soul, Secret History, and 1 or 2 Stormlight stories.
http://www.amazon.com/Arcanum-Unbounded-Collection-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/0765391163/
Buy it, it is worth it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1602834792/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new
> memoirs of conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo
Is that this book?
https://www.amazon.ca/Conquest-Spain-Bernal-Diaz-Castillo/dp/0140441239/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539103814&sr=8-1&keywords=Bernal+Diaz+del+Castillo+memoir
The Last Wish: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0010SIPT4/
Sword of Destiny:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316389706/
The last story in SoD describes how has Gerald and Ciri met, and there's one about her parents.
Also, short stories are better IMHO.
I've been reading the Witcher Saga. Seven books in total; the English translation of the final one is out next month. They aren't the best books ever written, but they are solid fantasy stories with a lot of variety. There are elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, shapeshifting metallic dragons, a wilderness full of monsters, and roughly the same level of magic as the Forgotten Realms. It could easily be somebody's D&D campaign setting.
The first two books are short story collections, and after that a long story arc begins that delves more deeply into politics, with multiple character viewpoints. I'd recommend the first two (The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny). They're fun, witty, self-contained that slowly develop the main plot in the background.
Dual text or dual language, most likely. Here is an example, a good collection of short stories I read for a class last year. Wonderful stuff. Good luck!
Find books written for children or foreigners. One is here: https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Stories-Dual-Language-Book-English/dp/0486262448.
Чехов считается одним из лучших писателей рассказов в русской литературе. И, что плюс, его можно взять в двуязычном издании. Еще двуязычный сборник. И еще
Try A Canticle for Liebiwitz by Walter M. Miller.
These are the ones you need:
Legends: Discworld, Pern, Song of Ice and Fire, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, Wheel of Time https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0006483941/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_8pelub008MMTJ
Legends 2: Eleven New Works by the Masters of Modern Fantasy: v. 2 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0007154364/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_Gqelub1W29M2S
Warriors https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0765334771/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_3qelub19F8HB3
Yep. It's in Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection.
It's in the recently released short story collection https://www.amazon.com/Arcanum-Unbounded-Collection-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/0765391163 all of em take place in the Cosmere.
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
Ambrose Bierce- The Devil's Dictionary.
Don't really read it as much as browse through it from time to time. It's an old book but much of its cynicism is as relevant and as funny today as when written.
Something a bit longer try Post Office by Charles Bukowski. That's semi-autobiographical, easily accessible and there's not really that much of a plot to it- so it doesn't really matter too much if you lose your place.
edit: Would you consider collections of short stories? I often find them the best thing to read if I'm unsure as to when I'll get the chance. Most definitely not light but short would be a collection of Jorge Luis Borges stories. Some of them are complete mind-fucks a few pages long. I have a copy of Labyrinths and it's pretty damn good, but there are many similar collections about. It's the only book that I've lent out, not had returned, and then replaced- usually I don't bother if it's something I've already read.
further edit: Both non-fiction and short- Anton Chekhov- A Journey to Sakhalin. Truly remarkable book, especially the letters to his family.
A lot of historical / historical adventure / Western novels that I've really enjoyed feel like genre SF adventure novels exploring unfamiliar settings but with no actual SF elements:
See also actual historical narratives, particularly of contact between different cultures:
A library and interlibrary loans (if you can find a place that does those) are going to be your best friends if you're looking at getting basically anything in print. A lot of the resources we rely on are very rare.
I've never seen a book about modern slavic paganism by a pagan that is reliable.
The historical books I recommend which can be found online are Chronicle of the Slavs and The Russian Primary Chronicle. One that is on amazon and not too expensive is Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. These texts are the closest we get to primary texts, and are all really important histories that talk about Slavic pagans. More obscure historical texts and chronicles can be found in excepts on this page.
The Song of Igor's Campaign is an ancient epic poem which has a bit of information contained about Slavic paganism. It's not too expensive on Amazon, and I have a this copy on my altar right now that I read from sometimes during ritual. It has some good commentary. A barebones pdf can be found here.
The Mythology of All Races (Celtic and Slavic) is pretty valuable because Jan Machal synthesized a lot of not-English and disparate sources, including rural folk practices, into a digestible resource. It's afterword about Baltic paganism is also really important because of its close relation to Slavic mythology. Like /u/trebuchetfight said, Eliade's A History of Religious Ideas Volume III is pretty good (even though its section on Slavic religion is only ~20 pages iirc).
Similar secondary sources include Russian Folk Belief by Ivantis, Russian Fairy Tales by Afanasyev and Perun: God of Thunder.
----
None of these sources are really going to tell you what Slavic neopaganism is or how to practice it, though. These are sources from which we can collect small details and weave together an actual religious practice. An example of this is a ritual format I wrote about here, based largely on the sources above.
Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness is something you should look in to, it deals with Fadlan's accounts of the Volga Vikings among other observations. As for people who were raided not many spring to mind aside from historical accounts after said raids(Such as the Frankish Annals.) The problem with these is they aren't always accurate and are usually biased but that doesn't mean there isn't some truth to them! Sorry I couldn't turn up more but best of luck finding what you're after.
I'll be quite frank in saying that I haven't read Ibn Fadlan in either the original or in translation, but after looking into the question, as is so often true of Arabic texts, you don't have a lot of choices.
Unless you speak something other than English, there are basically three translations in print:
https://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlan-Land-Darkness-Travellers/dp/0140455078/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503110083&sr=1-1&keywords=ibn+fadlan
and:
https://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlans-Journey-Russia-Tenth-Century/dp/155876366X
and:
https://nyupress.org/books/9781479899890/
In his introduction to the last one, which is also the most recent chronologically published, Montgomery notes in regard to the other two translations:
> My translation aspires to
lucidity and legibility. James E. McKeithen’s excellent PhD thesis
(Indiana University, 1979) will satisfy the reader in search of a crib
of the Arabic. There are two other translations into English, by
Richard N. Frye (2005) and by the late Paul Lunde and Caroline
Stone (2012). They are both admirable: Frye’s is very useful for the
studies he provides alongside the translation, and Lunde and Stone
have produced a nicely readable version of the work. Both, however,
effectively promote a version of Ibn Faḍlān’s text dominated
by Yāqūt’s quotations.
Which is to say the commentary of the compiler from which Ibn Fadlan's text is recorded (i.e. we don't actually have Ibn Fadlan's tex to translate from.)
Montgomery's introduction is worth reading in full as I think it will explain some of the problems in preparing a translation from such a source:
https://nyupress.org/webchapters/Montgomery_Mission_Introduction.pdf
In particular, Montgomery is trying to shave off the outside commentary, as a result his work is considerably shorter.
Frankly, to a lay reader, I'm not sure it would make much of a difference.
If you have any other languages, particularly German, there may be other translations that are worthwhile.
Close. Start on PP. 55.
Me too! I love that collection. Is it this one?
Go with short story anthologies for a while. Here are a couple you might like:
You might also find the Years Best series to your liking:
I was without internet entirely for a week, just got back at 6am Saturday, played games most of the day then fell asleep for 12 hours at 5pm. I've just played games all day today and have yet to study still. Since I'm doing only my courses I have a reasonable 169 words to review on memrise but I've just been putting it off.
I just bought Recettear on recommendation from /u/Uraisamu since it's $5 on Steam right now. It's downloaded but unplayed.
I got the new 水曜日のカンパネラ album UMA but I'm feeling kind of meh about it. It's only seven songs and the only song I really like is チュパカブラ and it doesn't include COLORHOLIC even though the music video came out before ツチノコ which is on it. I'm sure I'll grow to like it though.
Tonight I'll do my reviews and either play some Recettear, watch some let's plays or read the second part of いじめられっこの俺がクラスごと異世界移転した.
Over the last week I spent pretty much all my free time reading the second Witcher book instead of doing any internet-related things. Man it's made me want to read more of those and play the DLC for 3. I'm becoming more interested in Witcher lore than Warcraft lore.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that I'll be in NYC for a work conference I've been dreading for months this Saturday to next Wednesday. I might have time to do memrise reviews, but I won't stress over it too much if I don't. After that I'll be done with trips and I'll be back to normal life for the foreseeable future, hooray!
Based on her liking the Auel books, I'd bet she'd dig the trilogy: Namaah's Kiss, Namaah's Curse, Namaah's Blessing by Jacqueline Carey. They're all pretty thick and interesing in world-building, female-centered fantasy type.
Has she read the Dunk & Egg stories (a.k.a. The Hedge Knight series) and other prequel stories to ASOIAF? That would be a nice treat for a big fan of the series, if she doesn't have them all yet. It's tricky, because the stories are currently broken up and scattered across a few books, haven't been compiled into one (yet). And, bonus, she'd get a bunch of other stories by other great sci-fi/fantasy writers in those, that may make her discover and fall in love with another series.
Legends I
Legends II
Warriors
...and not directly the 3 main Dunk and Egg stories, but other ASOIAF prequels in these:
Dangerous Women
Rogues
Beware: with the "Legends" ones, if you get PBs instead of the HC edition, the first "Legends I" was broken into three books for PB release, Legends 1, Legends 2, etc., which can get confusing considering they later put out a "Legends II". So, if you get the mass market PBs on those, you could wind up with a shorter version that doesn't include the right stories ASOIAF fan is looking for.
The standalone versions are expensive because they're rare / collector items.
The stories pretty affordable when you get them in the anthologies they originally were published in. The Hedge Knight is in Legends and also Dreamsongs Volume II. The Sworn Sword is in Legends II. The Mystery Knight is in Warriors.
Not superheroes, but if you read her stories, she might enjoy these folk tale collections: 1, 2. My daughter likes them a lot.
Again not superheroes, but the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has lots of excellent cartoons with female leads who don’t exist just to be rescued by males.
Schismatrix Plus, that is Schismatrix and all related short stories, is only somewhat opera-ish but it might be interesting nevertheless. It's very short and condensed, establishes a universe with several factions, covers a big period of time.
One suggestion that may be worth your time is The Vlad Taltos Series by Steven Brust
Although they are never explicitly called Elves, the Dragaeran culture is an entertaining spin on the Elven civilization.
No Taltos can be hard to start because the order he wrote the series in is not chronological with in the Taltos series, and it gets confusing where to start. Here is a collection of the first 3 books he wrote. Here is the earliest book in universe. I read them in published order and there was no confusion, but I also reread them in the chronological order, which was enjoyable. Sorry for the long response, but I really love this series, they are light and enjoyable and always fun to go back to, and it makes me sad when people can't figure out where to start.
A quick warning first - this genre tends towards long-running series, and these are no exception (nor are many of them yet complete). However, they're well worth trying:
PC Hodgell's Godstalk series. This is a sadly underappreciated series, but is IMHO one of the best fantasy series ever. The worldbuilding is phenomenal, and the protagonist, Jame, is one of my favourite characters in any novel.
GRR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire been mentioned (and is excellent), but in a similar vein (dark and gritty high fantasy) check out Joe Abercrombie's First Law series. This is similar Martin with the cynicism turned up even further. Where Tolkein is more or less black and white, this is very dark grey vs black (and it's not entirely clear which side is which)
Thirdly, check out Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series. Vlad is (initially) an assassin and later mob boss in a fantasy empire where magic is commonplace. Unlike the others I've mentioned, you can probably start with any book as they're mostly self-contained (though there's an ongoing story), and the chronology tends to jump around a lot anyway. The one exception is Teckla, which is much weaker than the rest.
If you like The Dresden Files I'm pretty sure you'll like Steven Brust's novels featuring assassin Vlad Taltos. I'm in love with Vlad. He's smart and troubled and extremely funny, and he has a smartass familiar. Awesome books, and I've been following along in that universe since the 80s. It's arguably fantasy, but has the grit of SF.
Start with the first three published, which are in an omnibus called The Book of Jhereg.
http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Beauty-Trilogy-Box-Set/dp/0452294754/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368414295&sr=8-1&keywords=The+taming+of+sleeping+beauty
This trilogy is a classic one hand read. I've had them in one form or another for ten years, and they still work. :)
I have used this book in my Russian classes. It has the English translation on one page and the original Russian on the facing page.
http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Stories-Dual-Language-English-Edition/dp/0486262448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411531020&sr=8-1&keywords=russian+stories
I used this book when learning:
http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Stories-Dual-Language-English-Edition/dp/0486262448/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1374777073&sr=8-2&keywords=dual+russian+reader
It's got good stories and has stress marks.
A Canticle For Leibowitz
Confermo sul fatto che sia un gran bel libro!
Io personalmente l'avevo acquistato in inglese a meno di dieci euro (precisamente da Amazon, ma eventualmente si trova pure su ebay).
Se invece preferisci un'edizione più vecchiotta c'è su Amazon a pochi euro in più.
It's in the Dreamsongs books.
I forget if it's in Volume 1 or Volume 2, but it is in there. Wierd thing is, I swear he says that the story has nothing to do with Westeros or ASOIAF, but maybe I'm wrong.
http://www.amazon.com/Dreamsongs-Volume-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0553385682
http://www.amazon.com/Dreamsongs-Volume-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0553385690
On more than one occasion, Mike's brought up Layrinths. I think he even named it as a 'desert island' book.
Sorry, here, check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(radio_series)
You can either get it from Amazon for $85 (ouch!) or find it elsewhere. I think it's really great and actually enjoyed it more than the book (having read the book first.)
The first three were released as part of a larger collection of novellas from other popular fantasy writers. I'll break it down for you, since I have all 3 of them on my kindle...
The Hedge Knight is included in this book: Legends
The Sworn Sword is in this book: Legends II
The Mystery Knight is in this book: Warriors
The other novellas that are included in these collections are also pretty good, so if you're in to fantasy you might as well check them out. Maybe you'll discover a writer you really like and decide to read more of their stuff.
If you have some kind of eReader, then the Kindle editions of the anthologies are reasonably priced.
Legends (The Hedge Knight, D&E 1) $12.43
Legends II (The Sworn Sword, D&E 2) $8.88
Warriors (The Mystery Knight, D&E 3) $12.47
Young and new to reading, you probably want something more exciting, not too slow or drawn out. Maybe Sci-Fi? Maybe Adventure?
Ray Bradbury was an excellent Science Fiction and short story writer. He wrote tons of stuff other than Fahrenheit 451.
http://www.amazon.com/Bradbury-Stories-Most-Celebrated-Tales/dp/0060544880/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416108681&sr=1-10
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote lots of action packed adventure novels, if that is more your thing. Two of my favorites are The Black Arrow and Treasure Island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson#Bibliography
Feeling the urge for a bit of mystery? Try Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes stories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle_bibliography
Want a bit of horror instead? You could always give Edgar Allen Poe a try. Amazon is selling his complete works for like $10
http://www.amazon.com/Edgar-Allan-Poe-Complete-Tales/dp/0785814531/ref=la_B000APVRP2_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416109099&sr=1-1
Hyperspace by Michio Kaku.
Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy by Kip Thorne.
A Sound Of Thunder by Ray Bradbury.
The Green Futures of Tycho by William Sleator.
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
I have it, it's great, get it. Read by the fire for hours.
now you can
Soldier - by Anthony B. Herbert
The Conquest of New Spain - by Bernal Diaz
I'm surprised this book hasn't been mentioned..
http://www.amazon.com/The-Conquest-Spain-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441239
A first person account from someone who was there with Cortez. Awesome read.
You absolutely need to read The Conquest of New Spain by Castillo. As mentioned in another post, it's a first hand account of one of the most epic adventures of all history.
The Penguin Classics book has a fantastic translation, is very readable and I cannot recommend it enough. I read it last year.
http://www.amazon.com/Conquest-New-Spain-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441239/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452103250&sr=8-1&keywords=conquest+of+new+spain
What kinda of history you feeling? Broad histories of empires/states or more specific accounts?
I was mentioning this the other day as one of the best adventures I've read: https://www.amazon.com/Discovery-Conquest-Mexico-Bernal-Castillo/dp/030681319X
First hand account of Diaz's conquest.
This might be the same book but cheaper: https://www.amazon.com/Conquest-New-Spain-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441239
Idk I found mine in a goodwill and it's one of my favorite books.
You should read Ibn Fadlan's The Land of Darkness.
Jack Vance!
Specifically, The Dying Earth.
It's completely different from everything else out there.
How about some Fantasy and SciFi combined?
If so, Jack Vance's omnibus "Tales of The Dying Earth" is a great one to read. It contains all 4 books (each with its own stories) and is about 750 odd pages long. Some of my very favourite F&SF material. Jack Vance was just such a great storyteller in general.
The Dying Earth series is
>Set in a far distant future, the setting is marked by the presence of unaccountably ancient ruins and other fragments of now-decayed civilizations [....] many people make use of technology or magic which was created long ago, but which they no longer understand.
That seems to meet at least your main criteria?
More info on Wikipedia: http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Dying_Earth
I've got about 600 hours in all three games. 300 hours in witcher 3 alone.
Yes, you can play it without having played 1 and 2. The Witcher games from minute one are sequels to the books by Andrzej Sapkowski. So even in the first game you're introduced to characters for the first time, but they react to Geralt as if they've known him for years, so you're just kind of thrown into this already running legacy of a character.
Honestly, if you wanted the backstory before playing witcher 3. I'd read the books (or listen to them in audiobook form), it gives you A TON of context to the game and you'll constantly recognize characters and names from Geralt's early adventures in the books.
Books are:
The Last Wish
Blood of Elves
Sword of Destiny
There's this animation which covers the events of the books, The Witcher 1 and The Witcher 2, so you could watch this after reading the books to prepare yourself for witcher 3's world state.
Recap (NSFW! Boobs and decapitation)
Green man gaming is sold out of the expansion pass codes, but you can get the base game for $22 here.
Witcher 3 on GMG
If you like it, you can buy the expansion pass on steam for 25 bucks, which is two expansions, the first is about 8-12 hours of content, the second is almost an entirely new game, easily with 25-40 hours content.
I can't explain to people how much I love this world and The Witcher 3 especially. If you like fantasy settings, this is a must play, and I bet that if you get into the game, you'll want to explore the books, and potentially play through the first two games as well.
Sure, a couple notes while I'm downloading BaW :)
The book order is thus:
The Last Wish
Sword of Destiny
Blood of Elves
The Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire
The Tower of the Swallows
The Lady of the Lake
There's no official english translation of the last book yet, but the one I've linked is the best fan translation I've found. It's the one I read, and I honestly would have had no idea it wasn't a "real" edition if I didn't know better. Fantastic work.
There's also A Season of Storms, which is sort of a midquel for the series. But it was written in the last two years, has no bearing on any of the game's canon, and contain some minor potential spoilers for later books since he expected his readers had finished the series at this point. I recommend you ignore it for now, and if you decide you want to read it down the road pick it up after the series.
The first two books are a short story collections. The series is in chronological order, but the actual novel arc doesn't begin until the third book. Definitely don't skip the first two though, they set up important characters and events in Geralt's life prior to the novel arc beginning.
Lastly, if you really can't be bothered to spend a bit on the amazon paperbacks here's a link to all of them in epub format. I can't vouch for the quality of the fan translations in this pack, nor do I recommend this format. Buying the books supports the author and reading a book is still easier than reading on a tablet in my opinion.
Good luck on your journey into the Witcher!
P.S. - Oh, here is the Witcher 1 recap video I mentioned. DO NOT WATCH THIS until after you finish the books. It will spoil the climax of the series and ruin your reading. You can buy the game dirt cheap if you can handle a playthrough on PC, but you really won't miss a ton of important info if you skip it. I don't want to spoil the end of the books either, but essentially the second and third game don't rely on the first one at all aside from knowing cursory details of the first game.
Then read them in English? Assuming you're American:
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Wish-Introducing-Witcher/dp/0316029181/
http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Destiny-Witcher-Andrzej-Sapkowski/dp/0316389706/
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Elves-Andrzej-Sapkowski/dp/031602919X/
http://www.amazon.com/Time-Contempt-Witcher-Andrzej-Sapkowski/dp/0316219134/
http://www.amazon.com/Baptism-Fire-Witcher-Andrzej-Sapkowski/dp/0316219185/
http://www.amazon.com/Tower-Swallows-Witcher-Andrzej-Sapkowski/dp/0316273716/
Or
http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/The-Last-Wish-Audiobook/B00HWBTIFI/ etc.
The Sworn Sword
According to Wikipedia regarding Legends II: "A hardback edition was published by Voyager on September 1, 2003 in the UK" and "An eBook edition was published by Random House as a Del Rey edition on December 30, 2003 in the United States and Canada".
According to Amazon, the hardback version of Legends II was published by Del Rey / Ballantine Books on December 30, 2003.
So two different dates, depending on location, with September 1 as the earliest.
The Mystery Knight
GRRM gives the date as March 16, 2010: http://grrm.livejournal.com/128433.html
[Legends] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/)-Featuring The Hedge Knight-$18.20
[Legends II] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0345456440/)-Featuring The Sworn Sword-$
Warriors-Featuring The Mystery Knight-$11.17
Dangerous Women-Featuring The Princess and the Queen-$21.52
Just so you know, the last one is not a Tale of Dunk and Egg, but a story about the Dance of the Dragons. The next one is The She-Wolves of Winterfell, which has been delayed. Also, Legends II doesn't seem to be available new, so I didn't include a price. Finally, the graphic novels have been announced for a re-release, so the price for those should go down soon, as new copies are printed.
I also just want to say, it's really insane how far Martin has come. A decade ago, no one would have thought that he would be the selling point of those books. Now, his stories are the most popular of the anthologies.
Just so you know, the Dunk and Egg stories are available really cheap online in various anthologies; the latest one I bought at Barnes and Noble.
EDIT: Here are amazon links to the said anthologies
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
Yeah I noticed that too :/ You can get them cheaper though
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_5 Contains The first story.
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0345456440/ref=pd_sim_b_5 Has the second story
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765334771
has the last story.
It can be a bit tricky to find them. The stand alone books are absurd expensive. The full anthologies are the cheaper option.
For The Hedge Knight
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382118790&sr=1-2&keywords=legends
Sworn Sword http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0345456440/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382118960&sr=1-1&keywords=legends+II
Mystery Knight http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765334771/ref=pd_sim_b_5
Hope this helps.
The first three are contained in separate collections of short stories, and there are also the graphic novels, which are expensive. I got books on Amazon for around $30 total US.
Warriors I
Legends
Legends II
Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters?
https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Girls-Women-Beloved-Sisters/dp/0393320464/ref=asc_df_0393320464/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312065522531&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5436919316565481038&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029145&hvtargid=pla-431994358942&psc=1
Women's mythology is taking off in really great ways right now, so I recommend you follow this thread. I expect it will prove to be very important in the coming years and there's a lot out there. The problem is a lot of these women's stories especially coming out of Hollywood aren't women's mythology, but instead a form of men's stories with women characters shoehorned in.
So for example, many men's myths particularly those involving quests can be understood as an inflated version of hunting. Whereas when you read older folktales involving women, they seem to involve much more of the ideas of gathering (various objects to later help on the journey). Of course these two things are not mutually exclusive and so you get a lot of hybrids where there are both quests but side stories where you're gathering components. Harry Potter is an good example of this. But the problem I find with a lot of these news stories, especially applying Campbell's idea of the hero which is very masculine, to feminine characters is it demonstrates most people haven't read enough folktales, especially not ones with women in them.
Another example might be that women in myths and folktales rarely have mentors, instead they usually depend on a smaller animal character helper who acts as a personification of internal guidance or intuition. So you might look at Toto in the Wizard of Oz this way. I find that the new Star Wars completely ignored these forms of things, and while the cornerstone of the original trilogy is the being force sensitive or an intuitive, this means listening to yourself. So you actually have a pivot point known as the internal mentor as opposed to the external mentor, the new stories lack any mention of intuition of this almost entirely.
All that said, I'd highly highly recommend you try your hand at formulating some of your own mythic theories by reading a lot of original folktales. Kathleen Ragan's book Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World is a wonderful resource beyond Women who Run with the Wolves.
Some possibilities,
Fearless Girls, Wise Women
Wise Women
Not one damsel in distress
Irigaray did some work on mythological and religious representations of mother-daughter relationships. From the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
>According to Irigaray, while it is necessary to alter cultural norms, it is equally as important to address the problematic nature of individual relationships between women-especially the mother/daughter relationship. To emphasize how mother/daughter relationships are sundered in contemporary Western culture, Irigaray turns to Greek mythology. For example, she discusses the myth of Demeter, the goddess of the earth (agriculture), and her daughter Persephone. In the myth, Zeus, Persephone's father, aids his brother Hades, king of the underworld, to abduct the young Perspephone. Hades has fallen in love with Persephone and wants her to be queen of the underworld. When Demeter learns that her daughter is missing, she is devastated and abandons her role as goddess of the earth. The earth becomes barren. To reestablish harmony in the world, Zeus needs Demeter to return to her divine responsibilities. Zeus orders Hades to return Persephone. However, Persephone is tricked into eating a pomegranate seed that binds her to Hades forever. Under the persuasion of Zeus, Hades agrees to release Persephone from the underworld for half of each year. Irigaray reads this myth as an example of both a positive mother/daughter relationship, and the success of men at breaking it apart. Demeter and Persephone love each other and Demeter strives to protect her daughter. However, in this myth they are ultimately at the mercy of the more powerful males. The myth is also an example of men exchanging women as if they were commodities. Zeus conspires with his brother and, in effect, gives his daughter away without consulting either Persephone or Demeter. Irigaray believes that myths tell us something about the deterioration of the mother/daughter relationship and the manner in which men have traditionally controlled the fate of women-whether they are wives, daughters, sisters, or mothers. Irigaray utilizes myth to suggest that mothers and daughters need to protect their relationships and strengthen their bonds to one another.
>The need to alter the mother/daughter relationship is a constant theme in Irigaray's work. While she believes that women's social and political situation has to be addressed on a global level, she also thinks that change begins in individual relationships between women. Thus she stresses the need for mothers to represent themselves differently to their daughters, and to emphasize their daughter's subjectivity. For example, in je, tu, nous, Irigaray offers suggestions for developing mother-daughter relationships such as displaying images of the mother-daughter couple, or consciously emphasizing that the daughter and the mother are both subjects in their own right.
I remember reading Irigaray on encountering a representation of Mary and her mother Anne, and lamenting how rare such representations (Mother-Daughter) are compared to representations of Mary and Christ (Mother-Son). Here's the image as well as some analysis of her religious work.
As an elementary school teacher, I really value Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World as a resource for legends and myths that feature female protagonists.
For Sci fi, Ian M. Banks: His Player of Games is the most accessable in my opinion.- Since he is one of my favorite authors I'd probably try and push Player of games, hoping the person would feel inspired after reading and wanting to read more of the culture novels.
(Player of Games is NOT (in my humble opinion) the best sci fi out there, but it can help you get into one of the best sci fi series ever written; The culture novels, by the same author - so its like reading something so so, to hook you to something great!)
For shorter easier access to the genre, I highly recommend trying to read Bruce Sterlings collection of short stories; http://www.amazon.com/Schismatrix-Plus-Complete-Shapers-Mechanists-Universe/dp/0441003702
These stories give a nice introduction to not only sci fi in general but in particular to Bruce Sterlings Shaper/mechanist universe which is just one of the most riveting things Ive ever read in sci fi.
For Cyber punk: This genre is just strange to the uninitiated. You probably want to read mainstream sci fi first.
If you read bruce Sterlings character driven sci fi first, and then try on cyber punk you might get a lot more out of it: Reading order - (im not sure if this is an official trilogy, but this is the order I recommend)
Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona lisa Overdrive - Think of them as one large novel, and dont read other things in between for the best experience.
Then there is pulp sci fi. The easily consumed run of the mill, often very good sci fi. - Try Neal Asher, or Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon is awesome) - Reading books by these two is a bit like reading James Bond, beamed into the future in his underpants and just kicking ass and taking names. - I love it, but its not brainy sci fi in any way. Pure entertainment.
And then we should talk about space operas. - I dont like them. - There is one exception to every rule, and so my exception here is Peter Hamilton: http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Dysfunction-Nights-trilogy-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B003GK21DA (Im not sure if Im wrong in labelling these books space operas - maybe I head that somewhere, not sure if Im wrong) - However, I recommend reading this series AFTER taking on something like the bruce sterling suggestion I mentioned. Unless you want a brick of a book to be your introduction to the genre.
Honorable mentions: 1984 (dystopean sci fi is a whole sub genre in itself - Its not all Hungergames) - Do androids dream of electric sheep. (thats what Bladerunner the movie is based on)
For the easily consumed: Enders Game, and really anything by Orson Scott Card (his sci fi is really easy to read and he does great storylines and good character building).
Dune probably needs to be on the list. (I know the movies sucked, but the books are great)
Old Mans War was mentioned elsewhere and in that line, I recommend also : The Forever War - by Joe Haldman.
Snow Crash (cyberpunkish - but he is an author you'd want to check out for alot of his work besides this one)
2001 a space odyssey. And why not A hitchikers guide to the galaxy.
I love Schismatrix and I'm thrilled someone else mentioned it. Bruce Sterling is a genuine visionary.
There is a lot of crap erotica out there, for sure. Finding good ones are hit or miss.
I tried a regency romance once. Super cheesy and cliche. Not for me.
I like Literotica because there are lots of stories to browse. There good stories and there are a lot of bad stories. Sometimes I will open a story, read a paragraph or two, and go right back to searching for a new one.
I've been trying to find good erotica books and series. Every other book is a Shades of grey clone. There are times in most of them where I end up rolling my eyes at some of the dialogue and descriptions. Sometimes, I will skip over parts if I'm just not into it.
A lot of erotica on Amazon for the kindle is free. It will often be the first book in a series to try to convince you to continue reading the rest. I read lots of these free ones and if I like the author/style then I will consider reading more. I haven't found any I like enough yet but I keep trying. Sometimes I can read enough of a bad erotica to do the trick. There are definitely some that I just quit reading.
Not erotica but I will also /r/gonewildstories. Nothing like stories that can actually happen.
The best erotica I have read is the Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A. N. Roquelaure, which is a pseudonym for for Anne Rice. But be warned, this is very, very heavy BDSM. It might be too much for many and at times it was a little heavy for me and I consider myself to be relatively kinky.
The best romance novel I have read was Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. It is a time-travel, historical romance to be exact. From what I remember it was actually a pretty good read. If you are going to read a romance, I think this is a good one to start with.
Though not erotica, Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey is a fantasy novel with some romance/erotic elements. I read it several years ago before my libido bottomed out but I'm pretty sure it turned me on. Interesting read as well. Definitely has a theme of sado-masochism, but compared to the Sleeping Beauty Trilogy it is nothing. If you already enjoy fantasy novels you should give it a go.
Hope that helps. You really have to dig to find anything good. That being said, often the act of searching alone is enough to get my engines revving.
Though the majority of it is straight material, The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy isn't bad. There are a few good lesbian scenes sprinkled throughout the series to keep us interested, but far more straight and gay male scenes. I will not lie and tell you that during the straight scenes - most, not all - I looked at each situation through the eyes of the dommes, be they male or female, and didn't just associate with the female lead. It's VERY deep into the BDSM lifestyle, involving a great deal of humiliation and public degradation - which I'm not into; our BDSM stays private, intimate, a subtle rippling just below the surface meant to produce an almost secret response, something that is only noted by your instincts, we're reduced to animals sensing pheromones and reacting to those - so take that with a grain of salt.
I'm still looking for a good lesbian domme/sub story that actually piques my interest and is something with which I can relate; maybe I'll just write my own, until then I'll keep you updated if I find anything worthwhile :)
The New Penguin Russian Course is amazing and includes everything you need to know about Russian grammar. A book I am reading right now for beginners is First Reader in Russian. It is a very basic Russian book that has exercises and a dictionary in the back. The only bad thing about it is the dictionary doesn't include all of the words from the book so I usually have to go to my Russian-English English-Russian Dictionary. This dictionary also lacks many important words, but it hasn't given me any problems. Another good Russian reading source is Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book. If you just look around on amazon you will find many good resources.
I own this book and it has gotten good reviews on Amazon. I think this is what you are looking for.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0486262448/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1459022403&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=russian+stories&dpPl=1&dpID=5199t8ch4ZL&ref=plSrch
You will enjoy the hell out of that book. Next, you should read "A Canticle for Liebowitz".
In A Canticle for Leibowitz when paper is one of the most precious things there is, all the church has to go on is a shopping list. lol.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller.
An incredible book about a post apocalyptic America. Kind of talks about the human condition.
Also, I just recommended A Canticle for Liebowitz by Miller in another thread, and noticed in an Amazon review someone pointing out that he is very similar to McCarthy. Thinking about it I think that's about right.
http://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0553273817
For me, A Canticle for Leibowitz is one of the best.
I'm fairly terrible at giving good synopses, so I'll let Amazon's summary do the work for me:
> In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes.
It's a seriously devastating book. You should be able to find a used copy of it somewhere fairly easy, it's considered a bit of a classic. Also, the Amazon link I provided isn't even the cheapest (new) edition you can get, that would be the mass-market paperback, but I linked to the trade paperback one first because it has the best cover-art.
I would recommend Dreamsongs for the hedge knight as all the other short stories are from GRRM and they're great. Especially the Haviland Tuff ones. Also I found this was an easier book to find in my bookstore.
So like Sanderson did then.
Some Borges for you:
Consider every book possible.
Princess Bride:
You killed my father.
Alternatively, Star Wars:
I am your father.
Or the Da Vinci Code:
Murder, murder, murder, Pope.
If you're in the UK, there's a CD box-set for £40.
If you're in the US, the whole set is nearly $87.
But "season one" (Guide and Restaurant) are on CD for about $20.
Nothing that you can stream, that I can find, but Amazon does have all five parts in one CD set, if you're interested.
Dunno if you can buy the individually as an e-book, but I read 'em in different anthologies.
The Hedge Knight was in Legends.
The Sworn Sword was in Legends II.
The Mystery Knight was in Warriors
Here's the bad news about D&E.. Each book of D&E is in a separate anthology, so you need to buy 3 different books to read them. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most of us download the PDFs with the intention on buying the D&Es when they get released as a single book (which will happen after the 4th story is released).
Here's the books you'd need to buy to read the three released D&E stories:
Legends, Legends 2, and Warriors.
I couldn't find the first one...I think that's the first one.more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Dunk_and_Egg
I would try his short stories.
The Illustrated Man would be a good place to start, but he has many collections. Another choice might be to try a career overview collection, like Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales.
I really like the short story suggestion, and wanted to add Ray Bradbury to the list! He has a compilation of all of his short stories (except for the stories in The Martian Chronicles, which I also recommend!) and it's MARVELOUS. Some stories are sci-fi, some are spooky, some are sweet and thoughtful. He's a very talented author.
You might like Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales.
The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a book about Cortez and his soldiers and their invasion of the Aztec empire, from the point of view of a regretful old soldier. Actual historical account by an actual conquistador.
Books by Peter Fleming, like "Brazillian Adventure"-- in fact, practically any book published by Marlboro Travel
And Eothen: Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East by Kingslake, a weird story about a wealthy young dilettant's trip into the middle east during the late 18th or early 19th centurey (I forget which). Again, written by the dude himself.
The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. Amazing first person account of Cortes and the conquering of Mexico, better than any action movie you'll ever see.
The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz
and
The War of Conquest: How it was Waged here in Mexico
Reading these two concurrently was absolutely fascinating. One was written by a man in the Spanish party, while the other is the Aztec account. Highly recommended.
The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. The ultimate adventure novel, all the more amazing because it's all true. Diaz was a Conquistador with Cortez's expedition that conquered the Aztec Empire, and his retelling of the story is absolutely amazing. More exciting than any fiction. You can't make this stuff up, as they say.
I also recommend reading this, which is what Crichton based the premise of his book on:
http://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlan-Land-Darkness-Travellers/dp/0140455078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419520500&sr=8-1&keywords=ibn+fadlan
Ibn Fadlan, a real person, wrote about traveling north from Baghdad and meeting vikings. He didn't go on an adventure with them but he described their rituals.
Well the Poetic Edda would be where you start. It's all the stories of the norse mythology. I bought two transcripts of two texts that were written in old icelandic and in arabic. Book 1 was about the discovery of Vinland (North America) by the vikings. Book 2 one is about an Arab who wrote down what he saw when he met Vikings. This is the only detailed account that we have about a viking burial.
I recommend them very highly, but the Poetic Edda would be what you're looking for ;)
Don’t force it. Keep your heart open and listening to God, explore other ideas, relax, read John as if it were the only gospel you had in a world that idolizes physical and psychological domination of others, treats life as cheap and places hedonism above all. Read this and understand that the world honestly described is the natural state of man before the gospel. And maybe then try reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I was a teenager when I started to drift away, I read the Upanishads, Lao Tzu, French and German philosophers, stoics, all sorts of stuff. I also went through a period in my life where I saw a lot of the bad nature of humans, almost in a banal way in hindsight. Christ really did bring something special and unique to humanity, and it took me a long time and exposure to appreciate that. I was lucky in the sense that I was able to step aside from the Church but God never let me go from his hand. I’m not sure it would have helped me to hear this back then, but I was unable to appreciate Christ’s revolutionary message because I was jaded living in a very secure and peaceful world as a very young man. I was very, very lucky for that but the irony was that I couldn’t see how bereft the world was from that vantage point. Like I couldn’t appreciate why the world needed Christ because I confused the truly good things as being the product of man’s doing rather than God’s. I’m not the most eloquent about that, just speaking off the cuff, but I hope it helps a little bit. Keep your heart open to God and listen to the Holy Spirit always - you’re allowed to do that no matter what else you read, do, or believe, and I found after many years that it ended up being my lifeline. Now I’m truly grateful for Jesus, fear the Lord and my personal relationship with Him is very real.
That plus some others in one volume
Alright. The other rec is Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance. It's not technical or complex at all in terms of how science-y it gets. There's really no science in it all and is actually probably closer to fantasy than it is science fiction. Science-fantasy maybe.
It's weird though. The writing is wordy and formal, the dialogue is strangely unnatural (though awesome and the biggest reason I read it) and "mannered," and the characters are jerks. It has a very subtle and dry humour. Sometimes not so easily picked up on, but the way the characters interact give it a certain tone I haven't found in any other book. It can be kind of a dark sometimes cynical humour, but witty and ironic.
I don't know if you can find an audio version of it though so here is a link to a paperback with all his Dying Earth stories in case you wanted to look for it somewhere. Actually, because of how wordy the prose is it might be better to read it rather than listen.
Sorry for the long reply for such a simple question. I just like to rec Vance wherever I go because many people don't know him and it's one of my favourites.
Hope you enjoy Hitchhikers Guide by the way!
PG Wodehouse is great. Terry Pratchett, IMO, is rubbish compared to the early comedy/adventure stuff by Jack Vance. Check out "The Eyes of the Overworld," which you can get in this omnibus.
Cugel's Saga is included in this compilation:
http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Dying-Earth-Jack-Vance/dp/0312874561/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311963411&sr=8-1
Songs of the dying Earth.
Its a book with a collection of writers writing a story within the Dying Earth universe.
It's really worth the read.
The Dying Earth is probably my first recommendation, but there are many good entry points to Vance's work. He was primarily a scifi writer, but his few fantasy works have received great praise. His writing style is his best quality, and I've always said he wrote literature at a time when scifi and pulp fantasy paid the bills.
Part one of the Dying Earth collection is a series of short stories, grim and wonderous in tonality- depicting adventurers and magicians on an Earth so old the Sun is dying. Gary Gygax of Dungeons and Dragons quoted these stories as part of his inspiration for the original DnD. Ignore the spaceship on the cover, it literally has nothing whatsoever to do with anything inside that book.
Books 2 and 3 of The Dying Earth collection retain the setting, but focuses on the exploits of a singular character, Cugel the Clever. He is a rogue/thief, and the stories are very, very funny, following him from one mishap to the next.
Book 4 is about Rhialto the Marvellous, one of the few Arch-Magicians left alive on the Dying Earth. Nearly omnipotent, with otherworldly demon servants at his command, he and his Arch-Magician cabal of "peers" are likely the inspiration for the Tel'Vanni of Elder Scrolls fame. These last stories (books 3&4) were written when Vance was in his prime, and his comedy here is so good I still laugh when rereading it. His other works retain his style of wit and humor but few large works are comedic in focus.
Edited- clarification and more words
A lot of the quotes (particularly the ones illustrating his use of language) in the articles are from the Dying Earth series. There is an omnibus volume with all the stories in it. When I read it -- considerably later than adolescence -- it blew me away. I was further fascinated to find out how much it influenced the creation of D&D (if you're a gaming fan).
So my vote is for the Dying Earth series.
Anything by Arthur C Clarke is great.
If you've read Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy, then you should also read his related volume of stories called A Second Chance at Eden.
> can you suggest some less known sci fi authors?
I can't be sure who is "less known" in any given time. Sometimes people are baffled when I mention someone, sometimes they're offended that I think they haven't read that person.
Here's what I know for certain that people need to read:
Beyond that, I don't have strong feelings. Except this - Philip K. Dick is freaking terrifying. He does not explore humanity, he dissects it.
I don't recall the name, and details would ruin the story, but you can find it, along with every other short story he had written up to its publication date in The Collected Stories of Arthur C. clarke. It's worth every penny of the price. I have the hardcover in my library somewhere.
Edit: I just noticed--the hardcover is under $5 used. Definitely worth the price.
Don't miss out on short fiction! :-) The nice thing about multi-author anthologies is, you discover which authors you will want to read and invest in more thoroughly:
Here are some definitive single-author collections arranged approximately in the order the stories were written:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/0312878605/R3MU4HD4Y28792/ref=mw_dp_cr?cursor=1&sort=rd
I believe you need to buy the set and then the other two separately. The set is here and then the other two are here and here.
If you want to know about witchers and world in general then read this and this first
If you want to know more about events and characters present in games (Ciri, Zoltan, journey mentions in B&W) read Witcher saga from Blood of the Eles onward as said here
Behold.
If you're interested, here's the chronollogical order of the books (with links to buy them on Amazon):
--------
Season of Storms is an upcoming book set in between the short stories of The Last Wish. It will be released in English on March 2018.
Got them individually off of Amazon Prime:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316029181/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316219185/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316219134/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031602919X/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316273716/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316389706/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The Hedge Knight is in Legends and The Sworn Sword in Legends 2
I'd say you could give them books by Dianna Wynne Jones Vivian Van Verde, Ursula LeGuin, or Jane Yolen.
but there's all kinds of folktakes and fairytales they might like with legitimately strong women and girls.
When I was little kid I loved Diamonds and Toads, although I think it may have been because of my early obsession with reptiles and the idea that live snakes could fall from my mouth was pretty neat.
When I was ~11 my mom gave me a copy of Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters and I love, Love, LOVE this book. It has a bunch of folktales from around the world in it and my favorite really depends on my mood. Though I have to say that the Story of the Princess and the Mountain Dweller (Pacific Northwest) and Yousif Al-Saffani (Sudan) are among my favs.
Both involve women getting shit done, which I have always appreciated.
The Schizmatrix by Bruce Sterling.
It is an epic space opera that spans an incredibly long period of time, but characters develop through the whole thing.
Why did it blow my mind? Because when I read it in college, it was the book that first caused me to truly realize the scale of what it means to be human, and how trivial and irrelevant we all are. It also made me truly question what it meant to be human in that genetic modifications start out small, but at what point do you draw the line as to whether something is human or not?
At the end of the day it made me much more appreciative of my individual life, but it also made me much more selfish in getting everything I could out of it because my time is short, there is no god, etc.
Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling is the best space novel I've ever read. It really gets into what life would be like for future humans who must stay on the bleeding edge of technology and ideology or be out-competed.
for a truly mind-bending set of short stories with a central thread i'd recommend schismatrix by bruce sterling...really well-written and extremely creative thinking about humanity's future from a genetic-vs-technological modification perspective.
This is a pretty good overview of the world that the books are set in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragaera
If you can find a copy of this book, it has a compilation of the first three novels in a usually supercheap paperback.
That's actually not the premise of the story, it's just a little side note of the world's history. Here's the first three books in the series.
I'd check if you'd read any of Steven Brust's books, and if you hadn't, I'd send you The Book of Jherg and The Book of Taltos, as well as instructions on reading them. (He didn't write them in chronological order, which I prefer to read them in.)
Steven Brust's Draegera series are (mostly) caper-crime novels set in a fantasy city with magic and mafiosi. A little more High Fantasy than Lynch, but he pushes a lot of the same buttons.
Start with Jhereg.
Also, Lynch is channeling Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories a lot—you can start reading these from just about anywhere, but the first collection is Swords against Deviltry
Here's my list of standard recommendations:
Yellow Silk, a compilation of stories from a now-defunct erotica magazine.
Delta of Venus, stories by Anaïs Nin. (The story goes that she and Henry Miller and some of their friends were paid by the page to write erotic stories for a private collector.)
The nice thing about the two collections above (and short story collections in general) is that there are a variety of topics. It's a good way to figure out what your wife might like.
And I second the recommendation for the Sleeping Beauty series—these might be too kinky for your wife, though. Not vanilla at all, by any stretch of the imagination.
Sleeping Beauty, by Anne Rice - formerly written under the pen-name of A. N. Roquelaure.
The Marketplace, by Laura Antoniou.
Possibly The Story of O, by Pauline Reage. It's kind of a classic, but I didn't care for it much. It's a lot more about the headspace of the slave than kinky shenanigans.
There's also the movie Secretary with a very young James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal. It's pretty tame but makes a good starting point to gauge the reaction of a potential partner.
I think you might enjoy these books. Seems to be right up your alley.
http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Beauty-Trilogy-Box-Set/dp/0452294754
Anne Rampling
I've heard good things about The New Penguin Russian Course. I also like to have plenty of reading material, like readers and parallel texts to help build my vocabulary and work on comprehension.
As others have said, there's plenty of free and usually legal stuff out there, so give those a shot too. While materials can help or hurt your motivation, the specific brand or program isn't as important as doing something every day to improve your Russian.
Thanks. Damn it. I read somewhere that the Russian language has not changed that much in the last few hundred years, so I figured Dostoevsky would be fine...does that mean that Chekhov, Tolstoy, Bunin, Gogol are all no-gos too? i.e. the authors in this highly rated book
Thing is, I really prefer to learn from online parallel texts, and so far at least, I can only find a few instances which don't use what you guys are telling me is archaic Russian. Mostly short stories. I'll switch to them now, but once I run out of those I'll be going back to Crime & Punishment. I'm only learning as a hobbie anyway, as an offshoot from my interest in opera singing (I like Russian romance/sang poetry & operas, which I believe are mostly archaic language anyway) so fuck it!
[Would you say learning from a parallel text version of the bible is bad too?]
(https://www.wordproject.org/bibles/parallel/e/russian.htm)
It seems mad to me though that knowing the vocabulary of, and being exposed to the grammar of a few chapters of Crime & Punishment will do NOTHING for my Russian language skills...oh well...
There are a number of dual english-russian books out there:
Amazon link
I have specifically used this one. It might be a good way to review the same text from two different perspectives and then talk about it together. As a bonus you could hash out the differences in how a sentence gets translated one way or the other.
Alternatively I would suggest modern fairy tales and childrens books. Simple stories, simple grammar. Easy to glom onto. There are three or four Dr Seuss books that have been translated into Russian. Likewise, she could send you russian books for children. I found kids books really helpful. They are, after all, designed to help build grammar.
http://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0553273817
That's written. There's also a free audiobook/radioplay here:
https://archive.org/details/ACanticleForLiebowitz
Not zombie related, but A Canticle for Leibowitz is an interesting take on society carrying on after the earth is destroyed.
And SeveNeves by Stephenson is about a group of people that left earth before a cosmic event made it uninhabitable, coming back thousands of years later to start over.
Have you read this?
If not, it's really great and I couldn't stop thinking about this while reading Anathem.
J'ai lu Un cantique pour Leibowitz.
J'avais envie d'un truc post apo qui ne soit pas pour ado, qui ne soit pas un power trip pour un héro sans peur et sans reproche, se battant contre un monde devenu hostile et fou.
C'est l'histoire d'un ordre de moine qui dévouent leur vie à la préservation d'un savoir devenu impie pour la population (alors que les scientifiques furent brulés vifs et martyrisés au lendemain de l'holocauste nucléaire).
On sent bien la lassitude de l'auteur vis à vis des batailles d'égo des hommes, combien leurs petites lâchetés n'ont rien d'extraordinaire et que dans le grand schéma certains principes comptent plus.
C'est de plus un vétéran de la guerre du Vietnam qui a vécu dans le sud des état-unis. Il a été choqué après avoir dû lors d'une mission bombarder un ordre de moine.
Je ne suis pas complètement d'accord avec ses idées, mais c'est quelqu'un d'honnête. Il ne se moque pas des idéologies qu'il ne défend pas. Ce bouquin m'a permis de me retirer un peu du monde ambiant et de réfléchir sur des questions plus profondes.
C'est un beau bouquin, je vous le conseille, en anglais si possible (je ne connais pas la traduction française, je ne sais pas si elle est bien).
Sinon là je lis Lolita de Nabokov. En anglais c'est très impressionant, la maîtrise pour un mec pour qui c'est la seconde langue. C'est aussi assez bizarre de se sentir dégueulasse et écoeuré par le héro en le lisant, tout en s'y identifiant simplement en le lisant.
And those are adaptations actually. The original novellas were in anthology collections.
[Hedge] (http://www.amazon.com/Dreamsongs-Volume-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0553385690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406332567&sr=8-1&keywords=dreamsongs+vol+ii)
[Sword] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B000FC0Y0Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406332645&sr=8-2&keywords=legends+ii)
[Mystery] (http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-1-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765360268/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406333756&sr=8-1&keywords=warriors+1)
You might also consider the anthology "Warriors" edited by Martin.
The Warriors anthology put together by GRRM and Gardner Dozois.
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-Martin/dp/0765334771/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449948720&sr=8-1&keywords=dozois+martin+warriors
https://www.amazon.com/Arcanum-Unbounded-Collection-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/0765391163
Can not recommend it enough
https://www.amazon.com/Arcanum-Unbounded-Collection-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/0765391163
It looks like the only new material on that list are the Stormlight Novella and the Allomancer Jak Mistborn story, although that might already have been published elsewhere...
I'm guessing you mean this https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0765391163?SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0765391163&linkCode=as2&pc_redir=T1&redirect=true&tag=x_gr_mw_bb_sout_a-20
Anything by the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. After reading his short stories, I would always have to sit and think about what I had read for a while. Here's one of his more famous stories, The Zahir. I highly recommend the book Labyrinths, which is an English-language collection of his short stories.
To this day there is still no greater book for opening up the world of thought than Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy. This book is indispensable.
Aside from that the best advice, as many here have noted, is to simply read widely and often. Here are some other books I can personally recommend as being particularly insightful:
	
	
	
> # A New Refutation of Time: Borges on the Most Paradoxical Dimension of Existence - Brain Pickings - Pocket
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> “If our heart were large enough to love life in all its detail, we would see that every instant is at once a giver and a plunderer,” the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard wrote in contemplating our paradoxical experience of time in the early 1930s. “It is the insertion of man with his limited life span that transforms the continuously flowing stream of sheer change … into time as we know it,” Hannah Arendt wrote half a century later in her brilliant inquiry into time, space, and our thinking ego. Time, in other words — particularly our experience of it as a continuity of successive moments — is a cognitive illusion rather than an inherent feature of the universe, a construction of human consciousness and perhaps the very hallmark of human consciousness.
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> Wedged between Bachelard and Arendt was Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899–June 14, 1986), that muscular wrangler of paradox and grand poet-laureate of time, who addressed this perplexity in his 1946 essay “A New Refutation of Time,” which remains the most elegant, erudite, and pleasurable meditation on the subject yet. It was later included in Labyrinths (public library) — the 1962 collection of Borges’s stories, essays, parables, and other writings, which gave us his terrific and timeless parable of the divided self.
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> Borges begins by noting the deliberate paradox of his title, a contrast to his central thesis that the continuity of time is an illusion, that time exists without succession and each moment contains all eternity, which negates the very notion of “new.” The “slight mockery” of the title, he notes, is his way of illustrating that “our language is so saturated and animated by time.” With his characteristic self-effacing warmth, Borges cautions that his essay might be “the anachronistic reductio ad absurdum of a preterite system or, what is worse, the feeble artifice of an Argentine lost in the maze of metaphysics” — and then he proceeds to deliver a masterwork of rhetoric and reason, carried on the wings of uncommon poetic beauty.
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> Writing in the mid-1940s — a quarter century after Einstein defeated Bergson in their landmark debate, in which science (“the clarity of metaphysics,” per Borges) finally won the contested territory of time from the dictatorship of metaphysics, and just a few years after Bergson himself made his exit into eternity — Borges reflects on his lifelong tussle with time, which he considers the basis for all of his books:
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> > In the course of a life dedicated to letters and (at times) to metaphysical perplexity, I have glimpsed or foreseen a refutation of time, in which I myself do not believe, but which regularly visits me at night and in the weary twilight with the illusory force of an axiom.
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> Time, Borges notes, is the foundation of our experience of personal identity — something philosophers took up most notably in the 17th century, poets picked up in the 19th, scientists set down in the 20th, and psychologists picked back up in the 21st.
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> Borges compares the ideas of the 18th-century Anglo-Irish Empiricist philosopher George Berkeley, chief champion of idealist metaphysics, and his Scottish peer and contemporary, David Hume. The two diverged on the existence of personal identity — Berkeley endorsed it as the “thinking active principle that perceives” at the center of each self, while Hume negated it, arguing that each person is “a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity” — but they both affirmed the existence of time.
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> Making his way through the maze of philosophy, Borges maps what he calls “this unstable world of the mind” in relation to time:
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> > A world of evanescent impressions; a world without matter or spirit, neither objective nor subjective, a world without the ideal architecture of space; a world made of time, of the absolute uniform time of [Newton’s] Principia; a tireless labyrinth, a chaos, a dream.
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> Illustration by Lisbeth Zwerger for a special edition of Alice in Wonderland.
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> Returning to Hume’s notion of the illusory self — an idea advanced by Eastern philosophy millennia earlier — Borges considers how this dismantles the very notion of time as we know it:
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> > Behind our faces there is no secret self which governs our acts and receives our impressions; we are, solely, the series of these imaginary acts and these errant impressions.
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> But even the notion of a “series” of acts and impressions, Borges suggest, is misleading because time is inseparable from matter, spirit, and space:
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> > Once matter and spirit — which are continuities — are negated, once space too is negated, I do not know with what right we retain that continuity which is time. Outside each perception (real or conjectural) matter does not exist; outside each mental state spirit does not exist; neither does time exist outside the present moment.
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> He illustrates this paradox of the present moment — a paradox found in every present moment — by guiding us along one particular moment familiar from literature:
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> > During one of his nights on the Mississippi, Huckleberry Finn awakens; the raft, lost in partial darkness, continues downstream; it is perhaps a bit cold. Huckleberry Finn recognizes the soft indefatigable sound of the water; he negligently opens his eyes; he sees a vague number of stars, an indistinct line of trees; then, he sinks back into his immemorable sleep as into the dark waters. Idealist metaphysics declares that to add a material substance (the object) and a spiritual substance (the subject) to those perceptions is venturesome and useless; I maintain that it is no less illogical to think that such perceptions are terms in a series whose beginning is as inconceivable as its end. To add to the river and the bank, Huck perceives the notion of another substantive river and another bank, to add another perception to that immediate network of perceptions, is, for idealism, unjustifiable; for myself, it is no less unjustifiable to add a chronological precision: the fact, for example, that the foregoing event took place on the night of the seventh of June, 1849, between ten and eleven minutes past four. In other words: I denny, with the arguments of idealism, the vast temporal series which idealism admits. Hume denied the existence of an absolute space, in which all things have their place; I deny the existence of one single time, in which all things are linked as in a chain. The denial of coexistence is no less arduous than the denial of succession.
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> One of Norman Rockwell’s rare illustrations for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
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> This simultaneity of all events has immense implications as a sort of humanitarian manifesto for the commonness of human experience, which Borges captures beautifully:
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> > The vociferous catastrophes of a general order — fires, wars, epidemics — are one single pain, illusorily multiplied in many mirrors.
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> (continues in next comment)
Resumen de la noticia
>> The essay, as everything in Labyrinths, is an exceptional read in its continuous entirety; excerpting, fragmenting, and annotating it here fails to dignify the agile integrity of Borges’s rhetoric and the sheer joy of his immersive prose.
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I listened to the BBC radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy over and over in middle school and high school, mostly on the way to Girl Scout camp every summer.
Let the geekyness of that sentence sink in.
At one point, the entire station wagon of girls could recite long passages of this at the top of our lungs together, much to the chagrin of the poor mother who got shanghai'd into driving us. (It's a Vogon Constructor FLEET dammit, not a ship!)
Those cassettes are long gone I'm sure, and I don't even think I have anything that would play them anymore anyways. I've been trying to save up for these, but REAL LIFE keeps getting in the way.
And even if you were rude to mystery Facebook person, 'Girlsplaywow is a jerk' is a lie. :-)
For me...Marvin will always be Stephen Moore and Ford will always be Geoffrey McGivern, as in the original radio plays (actually, all the radio plays, for that matter).
Back before it was available in the US, I ordered the complete set of all the radio plays from amazon.co.uk. Worth every penny (EDIT: and yes, £0.01 is still called a "penny", at least since they switched to decimal currency).
The Complete BBC Radio Series was recently (2008) released, too. Includes the original Primary and Secondary phases, as well as extended versions of the Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential phases which were produced by Dirk Maggs and released starting in 2004.
They say your first H2G2 will be your favorite, and the radio series was mine. It holds a special place in my heart.
The Deluxe Version is awesome
And the BBC Radio series is not too shabby either.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Complete BBC Radio Series. It is a full cast dramatization complete with sound effects. It's funny as hell and very long. Plus you can listen to it multiple times and it doesn't get old. It is rather expensive ($100 used) but worth it for the length and overall badassery.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1602834792/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
The Dunk & Egg novellas aren't available for sale anywhere individually or as a collection (yet). They are available only in anthologies combined with the work of other authors, as they were originally published. These anthologies are available for kindle:
GRRM plans on publishing a collection of all the Dunk & Egg stories eventually (after he has published the 4th story IIRC), but no word on when that will be.
Legends
Looks like it.
Link here:
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin-ebook/dp/B00AEBUPSM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=
In that regard, the WASPs were pretty awesome too. I had read about them in a historical fiction short "The Girls From Avenger" by Carrie Vaughn, and had to look them up afterwards. You can find the story in the Warriors anthology.
While "All Summer in a Day" is a great one from Bradbury, it's also overplayed. Check out the recent (2003) publication Bradbury Stories. Loads of good stuff in there.
In general, Bradbury is a master at creepy young adult topics. Off the top of my head:
"The Veldt" (downright spooky)
"The Small Assassin" (a baby plots to kill his parents)
"Summer in the Air" (not creepy, but a great story highlighting persuasive rhetoric)
Links, just in case he has trouble with "the Google".
Legends,
Legends II,
Warriors I
Not a real life example but as they are in year 4 there's a book called 'Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters' it's a collection of fairy tales and folklore from around the world featuring women. There may even be some from Kuwait or around the region. My dad read it to me when I was young and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393320464
Alfred Bester, an early sci-fi author who was very influential but perhaps overlooked because he mixed in some supernatural with his sci-fi. The Stars My Destination.
Bruce Sterling, whose career has been overshadowed by and his contributions to the genre largely attributed to William Gibson or even Neal Stephenson. Schizmatrix Plus.
Available in omnibus form!
edit: he had a falling out some years ago with Tor Books which is why a lot of his older material is out of print in single edition and only in omnibus from Ace.
the scenario does, not the writing. a good spell check will help
http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Beauty-Trilogy-Box-Set/dp/0452294754