Best genre literature & fiction books according to redditors
We found 32,740 Reddit comments discussing the best genre literature & fiction books. We ranked the 9,654 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Penpal. Originally published on /r/nosleep by /u/1000vultures. Absolutely terrifying.
Footsteps
Balloons
Boxes
Maps
Screens
Friends
*Edit: Holy cow this is easily my most upvoted comment ever. Glad you guys are enjoying the creepiness. As several other people have pointed out, /u/1000vultures has actually published this as a full-length book, with some new stuff added in and edits as well to make it all flow better. If you enjoyed his stories for free, please consider buying them!
Ha, depends on the type of zombie. Check out the World War Z books, where zombies can't drown and just walk over the sea bed..
Great stories. In response to the response he got from the r/nosleep community, he's published a book.
Penpal on Amazon.com
Use of Weapons and, everything else by Iain M. Banks. Amazing stuff. Trust me.
The Blade Itself and the rest of that series by Joe Abercrombie.
Altered Carbon and the rest of that series as well as Thirteen and The Steel Remains, and it's sequel (still waiting on book 3) by Richard K. Morgan. He's pretty amazing.
That would keep you busy for a long time and are all pretty amazing. Seconding Dune, which is amazing, and the Name of the Wind which is great but very popcorn.
But really, if you were to read everything by Iain M. Banks you would be a better person.
Edit: The Sparrow
Here are my personal favorite head-fucks, each one of them did something strange to my whole world when I read them:
But yeah, by far my favorite is the one at the top of the list, The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. There's just so goddamn much going on in that book, it's one helluva wonderful ride.
House of Leaves, baby. More of a mind-fuck than fucked up, but still a hell of good time!
Because I looked up each of these, here are links for reference:
^ these are Amazon links, no referrals!
That first map is a fan-made version inspired by HBO's map for the TV series.
The second map is the canon map designed by Jonathan Roberts for the books and approved by GRRM. It was first published in The Lands of Ice and Fire.
If you're interested check out Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Kinda similar to the WP.
On the other hand, if it measures larger on the inside than on the outside, you've got an entirely different problem with your house.
What about his best friend Biff?
The blueprint for this effort appears to cost $14.
Diamond Age
Hello, Cracked writer here.
I understand some of the frustration you feel, but I don't fully agree with your conclusions. I have done the Cracked list and it is a great launching off point for writing.
The format may be similar, but because it is popular and smarter than Buzzfeed or the many Buzzfeed knock-offs, it opens a lot of doors. I used my Cracked resume to get into contact with Fox Studios, and as a result I have had two seasons of a college sports web series called Suit Up, the second season now airing on DirecTV's Audience Channel.
There are several writers for the site who have gone on to be published. Among them
In addition, if you go into the Lounge section of the forum you will find threads about other sites that pay and offer other types of writing. I wrote for Playboy's The Smoking Jacket for a while.
Overall Cracked has made me a much better writer and prepared me for receiving feedback, collaborating with other authors and building credentials. It's not the end all, be all of crafting great writers, but it is a rare gem that it is a site that allows anyone to sign up, contribute whatever weird or obscure knowledge and get an article before hundreds of thousands to millions of readers, all while giving far more attention to developing writing far more than other sites.
If you think it ends too soon, read "This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It" which is the sequel to the original book John Dies at the End
If you love maps and GoT, you need this http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
These pics don't do them justice and I think its worth the buy, heres a couple that are included (the OP is too)
Braavos
Kings Landing
"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal," by Christopher Moore. Accessible and hilarious, without being blasphemous (unless you're incredibly thin-skinned. In which case you're likely not on Reddit in the first place).
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416072856&sr=8-1&keywords=lamb+the+gospel+according+to+biff&pebp=1416072862219
Edited to add link.
I have 1 hard back for reading and 1 paperback for drawing/doodling/playing around with of the Necronomicon
Amazing!
I once did Reddit's book swap like 5 years ago and I sent away House of Leaves and received some hentai. Sigh.
Yes it is.
Normal link
Kindle Edition
Try Frank Herbert's Dune for starters. A more modern author would be Neal Stephenson, maybe start with his Cryptonomicon.
I really enjoyed Nancy Kress' Beggars in Spain as well, though I haven't read anything else by her.
Just so you know, You can buy that in poster form from amazon.
Click here to actually buy the posters
Incoming wall of text! Sorry in advance, look at the bolded words to kind of do a TLDR of my reply :P
Read "Annihilation", the first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy, by Jeff VanderMeer. It'll ruin Tanis for you, because you'll see where they got a lot of their content from (to put it nicely).
The two last books in that series are okay, but I wasn't completely on board for them. Loved the first one, though. You could also just watch the movie version that's on Netflix, but know this: while well-made in some aspects, the director chose not to re-read the book OR read its sequels, so it diverges from the original book / book series quite a lot in some unfortunate ways.
I'm currently (still) trying to get through [House of Leaves](https://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536787331&sr=1-1&keywords=House+of+LEaves) by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's a fantastically weird story about a house...And about other things. It's probably the weirdest book I've ever read, in that it plays a lot with the format. There's at least two stories being told simultaneously most of the time, which can get kind of overwhelming. Think of it like if a regular horror movie and a found footage horror movie had a bastard child together. And that bastard child was this book.
If you're looking for weird fiction in the form of podcasts, I'd direct your attention to Archive 81. For my money, it's the absolute BEST in weird fiction podcasts. It's currently 3 seasons, and each season the podcast changes. It's still the same overarching story / world, but the settings are way different.
Other notable podcasts include King Falls AM which has sort of a goofy x-files-if-they-were-a-radio-station vibe to it, featuring both a lot of good comedy, good songs (when they happen) and the occasional gutwrenching drama. The writing is good, the performance is amazing. You could also go for Darkest Night if you're into the idea of podcasts as a horror medium. They do excellent stuff, and their new season starts this October! They feature a few cameos from Michelle Visage and RuPaul if that's your thing (and these two amazing people feature more heavily in the other podcast by this company, Deadly Manners.
Going back to books, I suggest Laird Barron to anyone who likes horror and short stories. He has mixes of gritty noir and cosmic horror, and he's an absolute blast. The Imago Sequence is my favorite collection of his, but The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All is great as well. Laird Barron has also appeared in compilations outside his own, and was part of compiling the excellent modern Cthulhu short story collection, Autumn Cthulhu. This book is great if you like the idea of cosmic H.P. Lovecraft-esque horror, but don't so much like the gross racism that HPL had (and showed in his work).
If you like Slenderman and have time to burn, I'd suggest looking at Marble Hornets on YouTube. It has 87 "main" entries of varying (but mostly short) length, with a bunch of cryptic in-between shorts. It's one of the first Slenderman pieces of media, though they don't call him that. In Marble Hornets, he's called "The Operator". TBH it's sort of varying in quality (especially in the beginning), as I'm fairly sure the people who made it were film students at the time. As they go along, they have some amazing moments where they show off some really, really great editing skills. Of course, you could also buy the whole series on BluRay if that's your thing, but it's available for free on their YouTube channel.
If you want to break your mind into tiny, little, mostly mad pieces, I recommend pairing House of Leaves with Haunted.
The author and musician, respectively, are brother and sister. Both projects stemmed out of dealing with the death of their father.
map book called, The Lands of Ice and Fire.... make sure you frame your favorite before it rips into a million pieces
I actually physically own this map ( as well as many others), and it's from the Lands of Ice and Fire map collection, which predates WOIAF by a year.
I don't own WOIAF, so I can't comment on that. Perhaps it reproduced the maps and made them canon.
If you like that kind of thing.
Buy this book : http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642
It's a fictional book written by a mysterious author, then checked out by two readers at a library who write correspondence to each other in handwritten notes throughout the book.
House of Leaves was my first thought, followed by Ship of Theseus.
You need to have someone doing something interesting with the media in order to really lose something going to e-book.
At end of each book there is a list of all the characters involved in the books, and their brief one-sentence descriptions. I think in the later books the list is like 20~30 pages.
There is an actual atlas of Westeros and The Known World, that was published back in 2012, The Lands of Ice and Fire.
The Wikipedia article about the world's geography is quite extensive and interesting too
If you haven't already, read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff
There is a book I think every person who enjoys reading should take a chance on. It's called "The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" by Neal Stephenson. It was written before we had smart phones and tablets, but predicted the use of similar things using nanotechnology. There is a "book" (tablet) that is a prototype and falls into the hands of a poor little girl. A little animated mouse on the page teaches her all kinds of fun things and leads her on an adventure very similar to what is described here.
It's for sale on Amazon
Five star ratings also apply to anything that hasn't properly been consumed yet but is idolised by the community. See here.
(I'm sure it's a good book, but half the reviews admit to not actually reading it yet).
Thanks to an ordering mistake, I read a novel about this called The Cloud Atlas, not to be confused with that somewhat more famous book.
They were both pretty great.
Ahh, real life House of Leaves.
Surprised I have seen NO mention of David Mitchell in this subreddit! I am about halfway through Black Swan Green, will have finished his complete collection this summer, his writing is unbelievable! New favourite author hands down..
they have made it into a movie! Here is the TRAILER
If you're going to provide pirated material, at least give people the source so they can purchase it if they'd like to support the creators!
They are from the official Lands of Ice and Fire map book, which you can buy on amazon https://www.amazon.com/Lands-Ice-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
Check the bottom left corner. It's by George. Also, this map was the main piece in a set of official maps that he released in late October 2012.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
Coiling Dragon has a total of 806 chapters if WW charges 3c/ch then if we multiply that by 806 we get U$ 24.18.
Now If we compare it with some blockbuster novels we can see the difference in price
|Novel|Word Count|Complete novel price (Amazon)|Price per Word|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|Harry Potter| 1,085,000|U$ 68.17|0.00006|
|Game of Thrones| 1,736,000|U$ 34.49|0.00002|
The total word count of Coiling Dragon is approximately 1,874,000. If we do the same calculation but using the price of 3c/ch then we get this:
|Novel|Word Count|Complete novel price (Aprox)|Price per Word|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|Coilin Dragon|1,874,000|U$ 24.18|0.00001|
So from my point of view, that price is completely acceptable.
House of Leaves.
You have so many good stories on your list, I'm excited to read the ones I haven't heard of! May I also recommend a few stories? /r/nosleep was my first subreddit and I spent a long time here before making a reddit account. These are just a few off the top of my head. Not sure if this is appropriate for this post (maybe you're trying to bring attention to posts which others may not have read, some in my list were/are very popular) but these stories are just amazing imo. I don't remember enough details from each to do a good job summarizing them (it's been years for the first two), but all these stories left lasting impressions on me and I would definitely read each one again.
You should probably read Cryptonomicon
Turing has a minor, and very gay, role at the start of the book.
Also, it's a great book.
Asia, mostly. https://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill is pretty creepy. Also, Horns - it's not really scary, but it is slightly disturbing, and very good to boot.
I think The Painted Man by Peter V Brett might actually be a pretty great book for reading around Halloween time.
Obviously, Stephen King must be mentioned: one of his lesser knowns, From a Buick 8, certainly had its moments for me. Probably, Pet Cemetary is scarier, but I haven't read that one yet.
HP Lovecraft's Necronomicon has some weird and disturbing stuff in it.
I haven't read it myself, but the TV show is turning out pretty good: Guillermo del Toro's The Strain.
And of course Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Bram Stoker's Dracula, the classics. Perhaps something from Edgar Allen Poe (The Raven?), or Charles Dickens' Ghost Stories.
>I LOOOVE having this power
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0345535529/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1395539202&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40
Students: The source of his power! All we have to do is read and he will be powerless!
Teacher: Ha! Made them read! I'm a genius! Now for my next diabolical plan to educate young minds.
The First Law Trilogy
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
It's a book about a book about a documentary about a house that is a labyrinth. It also appears inside itself twice and is title-dropped in a poem, sort of. In short, it is a labyrinth.
John dies at the end
It has developed a bit of a cult following.
The Lands of Ice and Fire.
AFAIK, this map is from the media of which we do not speak, as evidenced by the eastern portion which isn’t canon since the release of the TLOIAF maps. The Lands of Ice and Fire is what you’re looking for if you want beautiful and accurate maps.
Here’s a reddit post of the HQ world map from TLOIAF.
Penpal was so good (I've read it like 3 or 4 times now) that is was published as a novel.
Day by Day armageddon http://www.amazon.com/Day-Armageddon-J-L-Bourne/dp/1439176671
The Remaining http://www.amazon.com/Remaining-D-J-Molles-ebook/dp/B00H25FGBO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396612863&sr=1-1&keywords=the+remaining (kind of zombie, not undead but similar vein)
Surviving the dead series http://www.amazon.com/No-Easy-Hope-Surviving-Dead-ebook/dp/B0064VVR0Q/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396612906&sr=1-4&keywords=surviving+the+dead
A new World series http://www.amazon.com/New-World-Chaos-John-OBrien-ebook/dp/B004W0CL2Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396612991&sr=1-1&keywords=a+new+world+series
I have enjoyed all of them, Day by Day, rushed the ending, and A New World has been up and down.
Edit: spelling
Only authorized book in the Bioshock universe
Check out the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Not to give it away or anything, but I found the ending to be a bit of a suckerpunch to the gut. Definitely worth looking into I'd think.
What no one wants to say
I'd highly suggest you read the book Ishmael, as much of the book is spent suggesting that nothing "inherent" leads to our fucked up society as it stands. Only Human choice is what leads us to the fucked-up-ness of today.
got you covered https://www.amazon.com/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351
Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne
and
Day by Day Armagedon: Out of Exile J.L. Bourne
Both really good reads I can't wait for the third installment.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
No one knows, but Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal is a bit of fun irreverent speculation about it (and it entertains your friend's theory quite a bit).
The only book I've read that fits that description is ["Lamb"] (http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815) but it's entirely fictional and a comedy so I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for.
I'm talking about "The Lands of Ice and Fire" book that was a map compendium released detailing the maps of the world. I was pretty sure when I thumbed through that, that it contained full maps of Essos? Maybe I'm mistaken.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382643364&sr=8-1&keywords=the+lands+of+ice+and+fire
Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen
Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn
Brandon Sanderson - The Stormlight Archive
Peter Brett - The Demon Cycle
R. Scott Bakker - The Second Apocalypse
Joe Abercrombie - The First Law
Scott Lynch - The Gentleman Bastard
Patrick Rothfuss - The Kingkiller Chronicle
All excellent. Some slightly more excellent than others.
(On mobile so hopefully my formatting isn't borked!)
Everyone's nightmare fuel is different, of course, but here are a couple that gave me some freaked out nights for very different reasons:
COWS by Matthew Stokoe
This book is sick. But it's also well written, which is what takes it beyond shock value. Pretty much everyone who has read it can recite a scene that really messed them up.
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Ketchum
I took this out of the library several years ago. I had to renew it multiple times because I could only read it in small sections. It made me cry more than once and I definitely had nightmares. I've never read any other Ketchum, but I've seen folks around here saying he's got other books that will mess you up. I know OFF SEASON and THE WOMAN get mentioned quite a bit; maybe someone who's read those can chime in.
HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Z Danielewski
This one is divisive, but it's one of my favourites. I buddy-read it with several long distance friends in various time zones (I'm in Toronto, and they were in Ohio, California, Washington State, Colorado and Australia!), so we spent many nights texting about how creeped out we felt being home alone while reading it. We likened it to a long, terrifying drug trip.
HAUNTED by Chuck Palahniuk
A collection of short stories that have a through line narrative. Each story is about/written by one of the characters, and each is its own kind of disturbing, creepy, or upsetting.
I used to moderate a massive book club on Livejournal (!!) that was devoted to the most disturbing books in the world; I wish we could've migrated all of the 4,000 members to Reddit successfully, because we had a hell of a list! (ETA: here are a few posts about books with a captivity theme - THE GIRL NEXT DOOR is mentioned a couple of entries down. I'm amazed our massive archive is all still intact! You can search it by tag, too.)
Sounds a bit like House of Leaves. Talk about a weird, non-linear book with footnotes galore.
House of Leaves is a modern classic for highly imaganitive horror. Everything from the book's strange plot to its even stranger composition. The only way to really read the book is to get the physical copy since you have to do crazy shit to read it.
I just finished Salem's Lot by Stephen King; it was a good read and totally changed the way I feel about strange dark rooms. Just don't research the storyline. I went in not knowing what it was about and was pleasantly surprised about halfway through. If you do plan on getting this book, I suggest the illustrated edition, it is beautiful.
I'm waiting for House of Leaves to arrive in the mail, from what I'v heard, this will do the trick.
House of Leaves freaked me out pretty good recently.
I don't know the original reference from the picture, but just from what you wrote, this comes pretty close:
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
And it's awesome.
It's based on the book of the same name. It's awesome and I would highly recommend buying and reading the book.
http://www.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong/dp/0312659148
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff
It's more fictionalized (and satirical) than precisely what you're describing, but it's one of the best books I've ever read, as well as one of the most hilarious.
Just as an aside OP, he's also compiled the story into a real book that you can buy from Amazon here.
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
or
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Depends on what sort of stuff you like, Blindsight is darker and pretty philosophical, focusing especially on consciousness and perception, while Pushing Ice is more classical sci-fi on a grander scale with a good helping of technical stuff and character drama/politics.
Just ordered it for $5.72 on Amazon with 2-day prime shipping! My wife absolutely loves both reading and bioshock, so I can't wait to see the look on her face when this arrives.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0765367351/ref=sxts1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473618451&sr=1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65
Really? It's a pretty good read.
John Dies at the End by David Wong. By far.
I'm sure you mean House of Leaves.
Depends on who your audience is too. House of Leaves has a huge cult following and its' "inferface" is designed to be as visible and intrusive as possible.
House of Leaves –
by Mark Z. Danielewski
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Blindsight:
> Blindsight is the Hugo Award–nominated novel by Peter Watts, "a hard science fiction writer through and through and one of the very best alive" (The Globe and Mail).
>
> Two months have past since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since―until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us. Who should we send to meet the alien, when the alien doesn't want to meet?
>
> Send a linguist with multiple-personality disorder and a biologist so spliced with machinery that he can't feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his mind gone since childhood. Send them to the edge of the solar system, praying you can trust such freaks and monsters with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find―but you'd give anything for that to be true, if you knew what was waiting for them. . . .
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is a fantastic read addressing the exact same topic. It challenges our assumptions on society and humanity's place in this world.
Ishmael on Amazon
I spend more time trying to figure out what to read than reading. I have been addicted to amazon reviews for over a decade. I love reading book reviews and people's opinions. If I ever buy a book, and I lose interest after one or two chapter's - I ditch it. If I like it....I'll devour the book and read reviews as I go along.
After reading the first few chapter's if The Diamond Age, I wanted to throw it away...I was so bored, but since Neil Stephenson wrote it I pushed on. One of the best books I've ever read.
I tend to enjoy non-fiction more, and even science/text based books I tend to use for self-study. I guess you could say I'm on some kind of quest for knowledge...what kind of knowledge, I'm still looking. I guess I'm still searching for something.
The cryptonomicon was good
http://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0060512806/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290365107&sr=8-1
That's because you are doing it wrong!
Buy The Alchemist™ to learn more.
Ship of Theseus by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams (yeah, that JJ) seems like it might fit your interests - it's not aesthetically wild from the outside, but the main story takes place in marginalia, post-cards, written letters, and I think at one point a napkin that all happen around the grounding typed text. There are literally papers stuffed into the book that fall out as you read, which is a really fun experience and aesthetically different than anything I've encountered before or since!
The official world map is coming out in October. You may want to wait for that if you can, because according to GRRM, this speculative portions of this map are inaccurate.
specifically the cover for the book: Bioshock:Rapture
House of Leaves
If you liked the Tower, I highly suggest you read House of Leaves. The Tower reminded me a lot of a claustrophobic version of the House.
House of Leaves.
Algunas fotos para tener una idea de qué esperar al abrir el libro:
http://www.intotheabyss.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/house-of-leaves-sample.jpg
http://www.mottodistribution.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/House_Of_Leaves_Motto_1468.jpg
https://kzamanis.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/house-of-leaves-001.jpg
http://knowledgelost.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/617248_337175679713675_1178480927_o.jpg
I would check out The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It starts out historical moves forward into sci-fi and then goes backwards to historical again. It's hard to explain but it is a very rewarding read and one I pick up periodically just to reread again.
I also liked Girl In Landscape by Jonathon Lethem and Dune by Frank Herbert a lot and both have been good rereads.
Oh! And The Nightrunner Series by Lynn Flewelling which I inhaled.
The Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
and always some George Carlin stuff
Shallow: Deep Storm by Lincoln Child
Deep: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
I've never read Crichton, but you might try some Michael Crichton, such as Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, even if they're "outdated."
Edit: For really shallow thriller fun, you need to read Deception Point by Dan Brown. I swear it's every episode of X Files thrown together with Jaws, Red October, and a volcano. Stupidly awesome.
Sure!
Cryptonomicon
Snow Crash
The Electric Church
Neuromancer
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
That should get you started. :)
Have you ever read the chapter in World War Z told from the perspective of a military contractor? You can also listen to the audiobook part 1 and part 2.
World War Z
The other recommendations in this thread are very good, I just chose WWZ because of the action aspect that you mentioned
Ship of Theseus by JJ Abrams seems similar to HoL in it is a physical reading experience. If that makes sense.
Also if you like footnotes & meandering you could try Infinite Jest.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Very enjoyable book.
Start here for some cool entry-level stuff. There are many more sites like it. Do some research on what skills you need to also score some jobs that are work from home, or that give you lots of free time, or that generally just seem like a "wow I can get paid to do that?" type job. And just assign yourself homework. Even if it takes years, eventually you'll be competent enough to apply to some things from self education, or otherwise maybe find a more traditional educational path the get you where you want to be. You have your entire life to find a niche to fill in this thing we call society, and you may find some niches where people are just like you--doing what they do, but living for life more than anything. It's about the journey, and maybe you'll find that niche at age 59, but between now and then you'll have some awesome memories about all the trial and error, experimentation, exploration, and realizations. Just poke around, see what happens!
EDIT: I'd totally recommend some fun, INFP fitting books also--not work related, but more "how to fit into the world related". The first one I finished last week and it makes me think about how society can be all a game, and extremely hard to escape from, even if you go to the fringe. The second two I read one summer, 8 years ago, and they completely shaped my worldview and decision-making about who I want to be.
My suggestions:
>Hackworth got all the news that was appropriate to his station in life, plus a few optional services: the latest from his favorite cartoonists and columnists around the world...
>A gentleman of higher rank and more far-reaching responsibilities would probably get different information written in a different way, and the top stratum of New Chusan actually got the Times on paper, printed out by a big antique press that did a run of a hundred or so, every morning at about three a.m....
>Now nanotechnology had made nearly anything possible, and so the cultural role in deciding what should be done with it had become far more important than imagining what could be done with it.
>One of the insights of the Victorian Revival was that it was not necessarily a good thing for everyone to read a completely different newspaper in the morning; so the higher one rose in the society, the more similar one's Times became to one's peers.
-The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
Blindsight by Peter Watts
http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1407747083&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Blindsight+by+Peter+Watts
Awesome first-contact story, a small crew in deep space, all heavily-modded with augmentations, captained by a DNA-reconstructed vampire...making contact with an alien species that's even more bizarre.
In case anyone is interested, this is the cover to "Bioshock: Rapture" by John Shirley. Great book. Link: http://www.amazon.com/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351
https://www.amazon.com/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474436789&sr=8-1&keywords=bioshock+rapture
I’m a big fan of the series and lore. Have you read Rapture ? It is the prequel Bioshock. Its a fantastic read, even for those who aren’t into video games.
The book is called Penpal. The series starts here and has no title, but you should read the entire thing, then start over and read it all again as soon as possible.
Joe Abercrombie. His style and the philosophy of his writing are similar to Martin. There are no good guys and bad guys in the sense that everybody has their own motives and act on them yet there are still clear protagonists and antagonists. They books focus on a smaller cast of characters and the world is less enormous but the characters are very well realized and the entire series is about 1 and a half times the size of a aSoIaF book. What really made it great for me is that Abercrombie is great at writing intrigue as well as humor that doesn't compromise the narrative.
Here is the link to the The Blade Itself, first book in Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy, and for a bonus here's an video of Joe Abercrombie interviewing GRRM about the Game of Thrones TV series.
If you want a longer review here's a pretty good one from Amazon.
>
>I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I read the blurb from the back and nearly turned away after reading only half of the summary. But something made me open it up and try the first few pages--and I was hooked. It starts with an action scene--like most fantasy novels--and it is described so well. It is realistic without splattering gore in your face. I can't think of any other author who treads that line so well as Joe Abercrombie does in The Blade Itself.
>
>I didn't find this a funny book, overall. It's not a comedy at all. But there are several moments where I did laugh out loud as I read some clever description or a reaction of one of the characters. In fact I think I found more to smile at in this book than most other novels that are specifically tagged as being funny or humourous. The humour here isn't forced. I didn't feel like the author was trying to be funny. It was more like the humour you might find in casual conversation with a friend.
>
>This book moves along at a good pace. It is one of those books where you want to keep reading to find out what happens, but, unlike many other page-turners, things actually happen in this one! I hate books that promise action or resolution just over the next page, just another page, one more page, and before you know it you've read half the book and still nothing's happened. This is definitely not a one-trick pony of a book. Each character is well developed and the plots intertwine naturally.
>
>What this book doesn't contain are tired old writing techniques. Well, it's not perfect, but it's as close as I've come across in 15 years. Anyway, there are no stereotypical cliched fantasy characters. The author doesn't end each chapter on a contrived cliff-hanger and then talk about another character's life for ten chapters before returning to the cliff-hanger. He doesn't especially dwell on the gruesome details of battle, but he writes it as realistically as you'd want. Perhaps not super-realistic--this is a fantasy, after all--but it's not nearly as predictable as many.
>
>Something else I noticed about the writing style is that Joe will change his writing a little to suit each character. So each time he changes the perspective to a new character, the way he describes the scenes changes, too. It's like he's letting us look through each of their eyes, rather than just giving us a homogenous narration throughout. They're not jarring transitions by any means, though. For me they really added to the story and made it all the more absorbing.
>
>This is by far the most absorbing novel I have read for many years. And this is the most glowing review I have given any book on Amazon!
I have a couple guesses.
This #1: The Last Man
This #2: Tau Zero
This #3: Cryptonomicon
Absolutely 100% The Alchemist!
If this doesn't teach you how to live your life to the fullest, I don't know what can, and it's a spectacular piece of travel literature as well!
Not printable but the best map out there.
House of Leaves is that kind of thing, but more-so.
book: house of leaves
http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764
Yeah. The novel House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski includes a fictionalized version of the photographer, Kevin Carter. That photo is an important part of the story. It's a really good book, very different and "postmodern" in a lot of ways, and very morbid in its own way, really messes with your mind. I recommend it to anybody.
I have three books that I love to loan out (or just strongly recommend to those weirdos out there who refuse a loaner):
The first two books have in some ways shaped my life over the years. The last book is just the funniest I've ever read.
Biff wasn't the devil's cousin, he was Jesus' best friend!
Have you read Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer? I have a feeling you will like it.
I find it pretty unlikely to confuse Lovecraft with some pseudo-new-age bullshit but just to make sure here's the one I mean http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft-Commemorative/dp/0575081570
http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Commemorative-Edition/dp/0575081570
What other reddits do you surf?
I moderate /r/RATS, /r/Louisiana and /r/OpenChristian. I also read a lot in /r/SquaredCircle, /r/SRSBusiness, /r/SRSDiscussion, /r/polyamory, /r/woahdude and I've been dipping back into /r/Christianity a bit lately as well.
What do you do in your free time?
I read. I reddit. I smoke my pipe and drink my cocktails. I watch pro wrestling. I cuddle. I toy around with making jewelry (trying hammered wire recently) or playing with polymer clay. I'm considering this thing they call "ex ur size" or some such. It involves riding on a bike that goes nowhere. I understand I can read or watch TV while I do it, so I figured what the heck.
What do you read?
Right now I'm going back and forth between The History of White People and A Canticle for Leibowitz. Before that I read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. the most powerful book I've read in the last few months was Silence by Shusaku Endo. You should read it. And then you should read Lamb because you'll need something a bit more jovial. But not until after you've sat with it a while.
What do you watch?
Ring of Honor Wrestling, WWE, Leverage, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother.
Do you Blog?
Yup, though not regularly enough to develop any sort of readership.
Do you game?
I just got my first console since the original NES when I was in junior high. It's a Wii. Every once in a while I'll play Mario Kart of do something on the Wii Fit.
Do you play a musical instrument/sing?
I make noise periodically. I want to do more.
What are your favorite movies?
Absolute number one favorite? Hedwig And the Angry Inch. The only tattoo I have is from that movie. Other favorites include The Big Lebowski, Pump Up The Volume, The Wrestler, Shortbus, Dangerous Beauty, Walk The Line.
What is some favorite music?
My absolute favorite band is Over the Rhine. Behind them, tied for second place, you'll find Boris, the Cure, Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash. Also up there are Kris Kristofferson, Mischief Brew, the CrimethInc band called Requiem (there are lots of bands called Requiem), The New Orleans Bingo Show. The list goes on for days.
Ishmael
Ishmael - If you ever wondered what it would be like to be a telepathic gorilla, this will probably give you the closest answer.
The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking - The INTP Toolbox.
The Willpower Instinct - Because we all know we could use a bit more of it around here...
Emotional Vampires - A survival guide to protect your Fe
How To Create A Mind - Since it's ultimately the only thing we really seem to care about, it's interesting to think how we could theoretically create a 'backup' for it eventually
The Talent Code - In case you haven't quite figured out how to go about mastering skills yet.
Sounds like you might enjoy Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. I think Snow Crash is meant to be in the same universe - it's hilarious but not as dense. You might also like his Cryptonomicon, though it's not technically Sci Fi.
Tad Willams' Otherland Series is Epic Sci Fi with a huge amount of detail. Might be right up your alley.
Dune, Neuromancer and The Enderverse if you haven't already read those.
For fiction:
Tons more here: http://www.arsgratialibertatis.com/book-list
I know I must be missing some, but these are all that I can think of at the moment.
Fiction:
Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
White Noise by Don Delilo
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by DFW
Infinite Jest by DFW
Of these, you can't go wrong with Infinite Jest and the Collected Fictions of Borges. His Dark Materials is an easy and classic read, probably the lightest fare on this list.
Non-Fiction:
The Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy
Chaos by James Gleick
How to be Gay by David Halperin
Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
Secret Historian by Justin Spring
Of these, Secret Historian was definitely the most interesting, though How to be Gay was a good intro to queer theory.
A Game of Thrones / A Clash of Kings / A Storm of Swords / A Feast of Crows / A Dance with Dragons https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345535529/
I had bought this same version a while ago for around $50 but I think it’s on sale.
It is always best to approach any kind of activity with a “moderation” mind set, including video games. If you are concerned that your child is spending too many hours sat in front of a screen playing video games during their free time, you could try to find some inspiration from the games that they play for other kinds of activities. For example, if they like playing sports games maybe they would like to join a team sport? Or attend a live sporting event? If your children like fantasy games, maybe they would like to work on a costume for Halloween next year inspired by their favorite character? Or perhaps they could be enticed to delve in to some fantasy novels such as The Hobbit or A Song of Ice and Fire?
The two main continents in the known world of ASOIAF are Westeros and Essos. There are two more, Sothoryos and Ulthos, but not much is known about them (Sothoryos is mentioned a few times in the books, and is south of Essos, Ulthos is south of Essos as well and is in the grey area between large islands and small continents).
Anyways, as this map shows, Essos, while much wider than Westeros, is not as tall and does not reach as far north. Braavos, the northernmost Free City, is at about the same latitude as the Vale.
Now, the Others come from the lands beyond the Wall, lands that are cold and foreboding. Essos does not seem to have such problems, which is why the people of Essos don't really seem to worry or know about the Others or even winter in general.
This is not to say, however, that the Others may not have an impact on the world beyond Westeros. They may very well, but that is yet to be seen.
*map from The Lands of Ice and Fire by GRRM.
Here's "the most complete" fan-made world map to date. GRRM said that, with the information we have from the books that are out, this is most likely the best a fan could come up with.
Looking for an official world map? George is releasing one this October!
Information dug up from this thread that was posted about 5 days ago. Hope that helps.
Interesting - but a "strong sign" of what? A strong sign that it is not a good book, or worthy of award recognition? There is a strong horror element to the book that would turn off those who dislike disturbing reading. Maybe 20%? Regardless, whatever we might suppose "worthy" to be, I think we can agree that it means something other than popular.
For comparison, Blindsight by Peter Watts is often trotted out as one of the best in the sci-fi horror genre. It has a similar profile - arguably slightly less positive, with 29% at 3 stars or fewer.
I'd say they are somewhat similar novels - well written, imaginative, original takes, genre-bending, and just not everyone's cup of tea.
I'll add my two cents since this is something I've put some thought into, and will point to some other works you can check out.
I'll go a step beyond McCarthy here by saying I'm a fan of Zapffe's idea that self-awareness might be a mistake, a evolutionary trap:
>Such a ‘feeling of cosmic panic’ is pivotal to every human mind. Indeed, the race appears destined to perish in so far as any effective preservation and continuation of life is ruled out when all of the individual’s attention and energy goes to endure, or relay, the catastrophic high tension within.
>The tragedy of a species becoming unfit for life by overevolving one ability is not confined to humankind. Thus it is thought, for instance, that certain deer in paleontological times succumbed as they acquired overly-heavy horns. The mutations must be considered blind, they work, are thrown forth, without any contact of interest with their environment.
>In depressive states, the mind may be seen in the image of such an antler, in all its fantastic splendour pinning its bearer to the ground.
I am very interested in the historical cases of feral children, and the reports of the attempts to re-integrate them after years away from other people. It seems there is a age past which the mind loses a certain plasticity of infancy and learning speech is no longer possible. Though of course the cases are rare and the reports often hobbled by the perceptions of their time, it is also of great interest to me that these children appear to stay at about the same general level of intelligence as the animals that raised them for the rest of their lives (if they were rescued after a certain developmental period). I wonder about the relationship between language and self-awareness and to what degree they depend upon each other. You could learn so much with just a handful of EXTREMELY UNETHICAL experiments.
Other fun notes:
Peter Watt's Blindsight is a recent sci-fi novel with aliens who work entirely "subconsciously" (without self-awareness) and are able to be much more efficient as a result.
People who speak languages with more colors are able to distingush more colors
There is a ton of interesting work out there that has been done about the ways that limited language can lead to limited thought, if you're interested.
I also recommend The Spell Of The Sensuous if this is interesting to you. One of my favorite books. Hopefully we can get to it in the book club some day.
Bioshock Book
Bioshock Book on tape Pt 1
Bioshock Book on tape Pt 2
might I recommend the excellent bioshock rapture by john shirley?! believe it or not, the audiobook is quite good as well; narrator seems to shift his accent to mold to each decade the chapters take place in. i truly enjoyed both mediums. great prequel story to jump into, as long as you've played some of the games.
BioShock: Rapture https://www.amazon.com/dp/0765367351/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_FH-hyb6A5ADWP
I enjoyed it.
Actually if you're interested there is a book that is suppose to pertain to leading up to rapture. How it was built and what not.
Check it out
The Blade Itself
Start here. Better than Game of Thrones, IMO.
I would suggest giving Joe Abercrombie a try, he writes witty, dark humor, and his books are light on the magic. There is no clear "hero" in his story, all the characters have flaws in the traditional heroic sense. I'm suggesting this due to you liking Game of Thrones and Neil Gaiman, it is like a odd mix between the two.
He did a AMA here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/oaxpd/i_am_fantasy_author_joe_abercrombie_ask_me/ and the first book in his trilogy is here http://www.amazon.com/The-Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/159102594X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1344611006&sr=8-3&keywords=joe+abercrombie
Also David Gemmell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gemmell is more pulpy, but he has written several stand alone novels.
Spooky! I just picked it up just last week because the book store had Cosmicomics and not if on a winter's night a traveler
a good friend of mine recommended it to me. I got him reading House of Leaves and this is what he responded with.
So far I'm really digging the galactic scope of his stories. He writes so elegantly about the time before anything was describable. Astounding!
Some paperbacks have the formatting in them.
It's a fantastic book. Well worth owning a copy of.
I've been reading a lot of horror recently, so I can suggest a few off the top of my head.
Hell House by Richard Matheson
Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
The Shining by Steven King
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (You might hate this one.)
Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Also, I'm not sure if you're into comics, but there's a bunch of great horror there. I recommend Locke and Key, Colder, and Wytches.
Everyone reading/responding to this without catching the reference should educate themselves post-haste
Don't you mean House of Leaves?
I actually gave up a few of the books I absolutely adored on the mindset that I knew people who would also love them - and have trouble getting access to them. (Like friends from highly religious families that need a little humor in their lives)
I may regret it a little, but in the end, someone else got to read something cool, and my shelf space can only grow.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.
(or pretty much anything else by Chris Moore)
Please see Lamb, https://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
Watership Down
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Looks like a page out of House of Leaves
House of Leaves?
If you'd like to know more...
Lamb, by Christopher Moore will answer all your questions.
His childhood buddy's name was Biff.. Funny book, BTW.
In the book Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson described the Solitaire Cipher, a way of encrypting messages using an ordinary pack of playing cards as the key.
Not compression, but interesting nonetheless I think.
Here are some quick recommendations from my list of favorites for those who are interested (I hope mods are OK with links to make looking easier, otherwise I'll happily remove them). These books engaged and inspired me and my imagination:
The Alchemist:
>The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho continues to change the lives of its readers forever. With more than two million copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has established itself as a modern classic, universally admired.
>Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.
The Three Body Problem is a Chinese Science Fiction novel that has recently become popular in the West thanks to a good translation (I recommend reading my synopsis and not the Amazon one, to avoid spoilers):
>Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project looks for signals in space from alien civilizations. Meanwhile, in the present day, a physicist joins a grizzled detective to investigate why famous scientists are all committing suicide.
Fahrenheit 451:
>Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.
The Art of Happiness (by the Dalai Lama):
>Nearly every time you see him, he's laughing, or at least smiling. And he makes everyone else around him feel like smiling. He's the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, a Nobel Prize winner, and a hugely sought-after speaker and statesman. Why is he so popular? Even after spending only a few minutes in his presence you can't help feeling happier.
Snow Crash:
>Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse.
World War Z by Max Brooks. Don't be put off by the movie by the same title; the title was literally the only thing they have in common. I found the book to be a great read, and very thoughtful in how it examines the collapse and subsequent recovery of global society.
Sounds like S by Doug Dorst. JJ Abrams is involved somehow too.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316201642/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_Ko.ttb1709JJ3
(Edit) P.S. If it didn't have the box, the book looks like an old library book called "Ship of Theseus" by VM Straka
S., perhaps? I'm actually in the middle of it right now -- definitely fits the bill.
http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396324187&sr=8-1&keywords=s
Probably not a big help to you, but for the record, the high resolution version of the map is contained in the World of Ice and Fire App as well as in the "The Lands of Ice and Fire" Map collection.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
It's a whole set of maps. There are many of just different regions of Westeros, city maps of Braavos and King's Landing, different sections of Essos, and then one of the entire known world (pictured).
Hello, my name is Levi who is called Biff, Joshua's childhood friend, whatever you need to know can be found in the book I wrote:
https://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
(Seriously, both a funny and very well written book, I recommend it to anyone of any religion who knows about Christianity)
Personally I like Josh. =)
(Obligatory plug for Lamb)
You should read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
I would have to say without a doubt it would be Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It is a very short but unforgettable novel that puts the fall of man into such a precise perspective its nearly impossible to contend it.
Quinn is an amazing writer and I really would recommend anything by him.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
This book has some interesting ideas on Genesis, Cain and Able, and Adam and Eve.
(I tried to link to wikipedia and it broke the Reddit markup)
I wouldn't go with Snow Crash, but The Diamond Age is one of the most beautiful novels you'll ever read with a solid nanotech foundation.
The only flaw is the ending. It isn't bad per say. It just ends like a kung-fu movie where they roll credits as soon as the hero delivers the death blow to the villain.
I would suggest The Music of Erich Zann. (you might guess that's one of my faves.)
Also: Beyond the Wall of Sleep is a good one that I don't see mentioned enough.
There are a bunch of his works here. Read at your leisure.
Here are some print collections of his work that you might like if you prefer reading paper instead of a screen.
(and as you noted, the ones in the sidebar are indeed a perfect place to start, they are some of the best.)
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft (Commemorative Edition)
I've read it a few times through, and it's still great every read. As a bonus, the book looks cool too.
I will upvote you for knowing your lore but I disagree with you.
Peter Watts writes a lot about the possibility of intelligence without consciousness. I.e., something doesn't have to be conscious in order to react and manipulate it's environment at a high level. In a hyper-evolved creature, what can look like "marshaling troops", "laying plans", etc, is actually just completely mindless behavior, but at an order of magnitude that mimics conscious thought.
I'm explaining that rather badly, but what I'm trying to say is that the spawn are indeed a strategy, but simply an evolved strategy. We know that these Eldrazi have never been stopped, but pay attention to what Ugin said:
>"Worlds are dying," said Nahiri. She rested her hand on the hilt of her sword. "What wisdom could there be in leaving these things alive?"
>"Do you know what they are, Nahiri of Zendikar?" asked the dragon. He lowered his enormous head to look her in the eye. "Do you know if they inhabit some unseen ecology, or what will happen if they are destroyed? Do they deserve death? Does your moral judgment extend only to beings you understand? Can you answer any of these questions?"
The eldrazi are Apex Predators when it comes to our universe, but who knows how long it took for them to get that way. Billions of years? If so, they would have time to create multiple strategies to feed as quickly as possible. Hell, the eldrazi could just be 4 dimensional trees and their spawn are root systems.
So the reason I mention the spawn in connection with the Phyrexians, Nicol Bolas, and Theros: The spawn are a hyper-effiecient, proven way to take down any opposition from a plane.The phyrexians not only can become a willing army for the right "god", but their ability to quickly evolve puts them miles ahead of the Eldrazi spawn.
OK, it's 1AM where I live. I look forward to your response!
I think 'Penpal' is a great book, and it's quite dark & scary. It was written for /r/NoSleep and became so popular that the guy decided to publish it.
Good luck with your chemotherapy!
It was turned into a book if anyone is interested.
There is a list of authors with Amazon pages on the NoSleep authors' non-nosleep pages.
If it needs to be updated, then just let /u/ALooc know.
Also, I was just looking at buying a bunch of these to support the nosleep community. I know the following authors have pages as well (links go to amazon, not their reddit profiles):
/u/bloodworthOOC
/u/1000Vultures
/u/theworldisgrim
/u/AsForClass
/u/The_Dalek_Emperor
Anybody wanna sign a copy for me? :)
If you're looking for something really dark I'd suggest Harry Connolly's Twenty Palaces series. The first one is Child of Fire. I really enjoyed it and Jim Butcher has also recommend it. Keep in mind there are only 3 books and 1 prequel that Harry self published due to his publisher dropping him.
If you're looking for something stupid and funny I recommend John Dies at the End and it's sequel This Books is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It. I have to admit I'm a bit biased on those though, I won a free signed copy of TBiFoS by participating in an alternate reality game around the time of its release.
I haven't read much of it, but I bet you'd like the Dresden Files series. The plot and characters are compelling and evocative, but the series doesn't take itself too seriously. There are lighthearted moments, and humor that doesn't break your immersion or seem out of place. I hear similarly good things about John Dies at the End.
You might like John Dies at the End. It's about a guy whose crazy friend takes a 'drug' that reaches into another dimension, kind of. It's really interesting.
You should seriously read John Dies at the End and This Book is Full of Spiders, Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It, both by David Wong (Jason Pargin.) They're funny and extremely readable.
(Straight Amazon links, no affiliate bullshit.)
It sounds like the Day by Day Armageddon series, the second book ends with the protagonist being dragooned into attacking China.
Day by Day Armageddon
Joe Abercrombie came out with a decent series (First Law Trilogy) that managed to keep my attention for a few months. It was the first fantasy I had read since ASOIAF and it took me a bit to get into them because I'm soo attached to the ASOIAF characters... I got over that and ended up really enjoying these.
Well since you've read the Night Angel Trilogy you should definately read Brent Weeks next book 'The Black Prism'. I Absolutely loved it! Its the first book in the Lightbringer Series, only catch is he's only written one so far.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Prism-Lightbringer-Brent-Weeks/dp/0316068136/ref=pd_sim_b_3
Another awesome series is Peter Bretts Demon Cycle series, check out book 1 'The Warded Man' again awesome read.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Warded-Man-Peter-Brett/dp/0345518705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331693550&sr=8-1
And lastly since
both the series ive suggested so far are incomplete thought id at least suggest a completed trilogy for you to check out, Joe Abercrombie's First Law series are an excellent read as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law-Book/dp/159102594X/ref=pd_sim_b_5
hope that helps
Bioshock: Rapture by John Shirley
Penpal.
Not really a shit yourself scary book, but it's the kind of book that makes you go "WHAT?! HOLY HECK?! THAT'S MESSED UP!" I found it pretty scary though.
(It was also originally a r/nosleep series!)
Penpal by Dathan Auerbach is pretty perfect for you.
John Dies at the End
John Dies at the End by David Wong is a very funny, light-hearted book. Might be right down your alley. If you end up liking it, there's also a sequel titled This Book is Full of Spiders, which carries the same tone and writing style.
The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Starting with "The Blade Itself".
To me it was a nice departure from the DnD fantasy with some grit, lethality, and hard characters in a hard setting. Loved it.
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is a classic. Takes in Bletchley Park, among much more. It is a novel, not a text book, so it won't actually teach you anything as such - but crypto is running through the book, along with much other tech stuff, plus it is a brilliant story. Not really "light" but I wish it took me longer to read I enjoyed it so much.
Or Cryptonomicon. Or any Neal Stephenson book. Also I highly recommend the Otherland series of books by Tad Williams. And if you want more fantasy from Tad, look at The Dragonbone Chair.
Although not strictly about math, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon includes a fair bit of math, and even has an appendix including more detail on a code used in the book. It's also a great read!
Your heart speaks loud so you can hear it. (Check out The Alchemist.)
Sci Fi, ok cool. Here are a few very entertaining Sci-Fi audiobooks (you can actually find some of these free).
Infected by Scott Sigler, with a sequel titled 'Contagious'. If you search for Scott Sigler online, you will be directed to his website, and can go through itunes to get the free podiocast.
http://www.amazon.com/Infected-Novel-Scott-Sigler/dp/030740630X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1311807514&sr=8-3
Robopocalypse
http://www.amazon.com/Robopocalypse-Novel-Daniel-H-Wilson/dp/0385533853/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311807626&sr=1-1
For fantasy, I highly recommend 'The Name of the Wind' by patrick Rothfuss
http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311807743&sr=1-1
The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
http://www.amazon.com/Warded-Man-Peter-V-Brett/dp/0345518705/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311807801&sr=1-1
For Horror I recommend
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
http://www.amazon.com/Darkly-Dreaming-Dexter-Vintage-Lizard/dp/0307473708/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311807869&sr=1-1
Serial Uncut
http://www.amazon.com/Serial-Uncut-J-Konrath/dp/1456401580/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311808020&sr=1-1
For the taste of apocalyptic greatness I recommend
World War Z
http://www.amazon.com/World-War-Oral-History-Zombie/dp/0307346617/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311808107&sr=1-1
One Second After
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765356864/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311808128&sr=1-1
I have other audiobooks that touches multiple categories. For a nice series, there are two I really love. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King, and The Dresden Files series.
World War Z
Bitch, you best be joking.
Have an upvote for your John Dies at the End reference. :)
S. By J.J. Abrams
[](S. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316201642/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_uIzYxb89GM2A9)
http://www.amazon.com/George-Martins-Thrones-5-Book-Boxed/dp/0345535529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394553163&sr=8-1&keywords=a+song+of+ice+and+fire
The book covers don't have any HBO art. Only the box itself has it.
Here's a link to a box set of all 5, also on Amazon.
There's also this book, which is a little on the pricey side but filled with awesome maps like the one you're looking for.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&qid=1371156474&sr=8-26&keywords=game+of+thrones
You can find a lower-quality scan of the "Known World" map from the Land of Ice and Fire map book over thisaway. I recommend buying the collection on Amazon -- it's well worth it. I've spent hours pouring over the maps.
Sounds like you're being excessively fixated on accuracy of a world purposefully written to be vague. Westeros is approximately the length of South America, per Martin's statements and this is generally accepted by the community.
If you want more info, feel free to check out the official book of maps.
Perhaps The Life of Pi, or this magnificent bastard, or maybe Lamb. Maybe, if you are up for a challenge, you could try either [Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World] and/or Cloud Atlas. Careful with Cloud Atlas, there is another book by the same title. The one you're looking for is written by David Mitchell. If that doesn't work, report back and we'll figure something else out.
Anyone reading this who enjoys thinking about the above analogy, should try to read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Similar concept, but it's happening to his house.
The selection this month is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, but I'm not sure anyone got through the whole thing. Usually we just talk about any books that anyone has recently read, any shows or movies that are any good, and advanced spatchcocking techniques. It's a very loose agenda.
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Title: \<span style="color\: #0000ED"\>House\<\/span\> of Pancakes
Title-text: Fuck it. I'm just going to Waffle House.
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Stats: This comic has been referenced 13 times, representing 0.0116% of referenced xkcds.
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House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves
http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764
This. This is what I felt the whole way through the album. I’ve read House of Leaves. I know how this ends!
Amazon has the "Look Inside" for HoL, which lets you do a text search: https://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764/
The book House of Leaves is great if you really liked the Dionaea House
http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764
IMO you can never go wrong with Thomas Ligotti.
ETA--after reading your link, I'd also like to recommend this book: House Of Leaves
[House](http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1269194984&amp;sr=8-1 "Editor's Note: Buy this book") of Leaves.
House of Leaves can be somewhat hit or miss with people, but I found it to be one of the few books that actually creeped me out. Also, both its content, a story within a story within a story, as well as it's style ("Danielewski packs in poems, scientific lists, collages, Polaroids, appendices of fake correspondence and "various quotes," single lines of prose placed any which way on the page, crossed-out passages, etc") are rather unique.
https://www.amazon.com/Lamb\-Gospel\-According\-Christs\-Childhood/dp/0380813815
"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal", by Christopher Moore.
This book is a novel that addresses the title issue specifically. Some of our subscribers would definitely not enjoy it but I think it's wonderful.
Nobody mentioning the excellent, hilarious Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0553375407?pc_redir=T1
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Greatly illustrates the "fuck up the planet", and is told from a Gorilla's point of view.
In no particular order:
Gollancz's leatherbound Necronomicon and Eldritch Tales collect everything in two beautiful matching editions.
I got the Gollancz collection (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0575081562). It's not a complete anthology, but does include a map of Arkham, a biography, and by far looks the best in my shelves, and the few stories that are missing are not the best. For a complete set of works, you can either get another book to complete the Gollancz set (Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre), or as I got for general use, the Red Skull Publishing HP Lovecraft Complete Collection. The end of story facts in that one are short but interesting, shedding some light on inspiration and setting.
Yep, I enjoy looking for unique editions -especially for horror and weird fiction. Here are some cool editions in the basic price range shown above:
Edit: trying to get format correct.
Man, there are about a million collections of Lovecraft stories, from selected tales in a certain theme to the entirety of his work in a single volume. These collections are easily found on Amazon. Here is a book that I have. You can also find all of Lovecraft's work online here.
it's explained in "Lamb - The Gospel According to Biff" http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore
The funniest book you'll ever read.
It reminds me of the Ishmael series by Daniel Quinn
I feel you. I'm twenty and in college and often wonder what I'm doing in life. Don't worry though, it's completely normal to feel this way. Here are a few suggestions that have helped me:
Whether you take those two points to heart or not, (I really hope you read the book,) just try to remember this: the fact that you were born was an astronomically unlikely event. That being said, why waste it doing anything that doesn't, in the short or long run, make you happy? Look at everyday as a gift; I know, it is easier to say that than to do it. Don't be too worried about the stage you are in right now, you're just questioning, just remember that you're looking for answers, and when you find the answers to your questions, use them.
Ishmael
http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-An-Adventure-Mind-Spirit/dp/0553375407
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Leguin.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
While we are on the topic of books that got us back on track - this was the one for me - ishmael . Find something bigger than yourself like helping others and changing the world around you for good, and you will find an inner strength you may not have known is in you.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Some reviews here call it 'difficult' to read but I couldn't put it down! If you're more technically-oriented than I, you will derive yet another layer of joy from this little masterpiece, as if it needed one.
That's the only book of his I have read.
You can look at basically anything by Gibson if you want the same general setting.
And of course Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are heavily inspired by KWC's culture but the locations are very different.
I've got this one.
There's really no contest, IMO. Blindsight by Peter Watts.
Peter Watts' Blindsight and *Echopraxia are among the best philosophically-oriented novels I've ever read. As long as you're comfortable with fairly hard-core science fiction, they're very worth reading. They touch on issues in everything from ethics and political philosophy to artificial intelligence and philosophy of mind. They're great fun, and very, very smartly written. Blindsight is up for free here.
I've posted this before but I'll repost it here:
Now in terms of the question that you ask in the title - this is what I recommend:
Job Interview Prep
Junior Software Engineer Reading List
Read This First
Fundementals
Understanding Professional Software Environments
Mentality
History
Mid Level Software Engineer Reading List
Read This First
Fundementals
Software Design
Software Engineering Skill Sets
Databases
User Experience
Mentality
History
Specialist Skills
In spite of the fact that many of these won't apply to your specific job I still recommend reading them for the insight, they'll give you into programming language and technology design.
Books
I agree, David Wong needs to be working somewhere with a little more prestige that will give him some breathing room. Barring that, he should be writing a book.
EDIT: Make that another book.
You might like S. by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst.
http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642
It has a similar feel to House of Leaves in terms of reading experience with notes written on the pages in different colors and other such things.
The book S. by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. Its a book that is about two people communicating through a book. So you are reading what they are writing in the book. I haven't read too far into it but it's really interesting.
http://smile.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1411962881&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=s.+book
I too am poor, but I do work at a bookstore and you can get a solid price on the books by buying the mass market box set. Amazon sells it for $30 online.
[Egyptian cat necklace] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003V0XV20/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=1EQQ739RBKHKV&amp;coliid=I3DAD3VKICPQ6Z) 29.00
[game of thrones box set] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0345535529/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=1EQQ739RBKHKV&amp;coliid=IHCDEZY3PUH6D) 28.86
I’m gonna ask a question, hopefully it’s not dumb. I just bought a set on amazon but it was only 5 books. Am I getting the whole story here?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345535529/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QvE5CbR72FNC9
Reading the books is maybe too obvious of a suggestion here, but, you know, they have even more world building in them. Although right now the books end at book 5 which is roughly season 4 or season 5 of the show I believe.
https://www.amazon.com/Thrones-Clash-Kings-Swords-Dragons/dp/0345535529/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=book+game+of+thrones&amp;qid=1558396283&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1
Thanks, I'm looking. Problem is, that the cheap versions are some HBO edition crap with pictures from the show on the cover.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345535529/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1N0NR3TR3OML6&amp;psc=1
It is coming
Ask me again on October 30th.
Here
The results had a p<0.05 so they are statistically significant.
The study has a citation index of 90 so it's been peer-reviewed.
Related links:
https://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640
https://thebrainbank.scienceblog.com/2015/10/10/whats-going-on-in-your-head-the-science-behind-our-inner-voice/
Blindsight by Peter Watts. Fantastic book, genre is sci-fi.
>Canadian author Watts (Starfish) explores the nature of consciousness in this stimulating hard SF novel, which combines riveting action with a fascinating alien environment. In the late 21st century, when something alien is discovered beyond the edge of the solar system, the spaceship Theseus sets out to make contact. Led by an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire, the crew includes a biologist who's more machine than human, a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder, a professional soldier who's a pacifist, and Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain. Keeton is virtually incapable of empathy, but he has a savant's ability to model and predict the actions of others without understanding them. Once the Theseus arrives at the gigantic and hideously dangerous alien artifact (which has tellingly self-named itself Rorschach), the crew must deal with beings who speak English fluently but who may, paradoxically, not even be sentient, at least as we understand the term. Watts puts a terrifying and original spin on the familiar alien contact story.
Tried reading the book?
It's pretty good if you're super into the lore, even if the writing isn't top notch. Ken Levine gave it his blessing...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Bioshock-Rapture-John-Shirley/0765367351/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1497403795&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=bioshock+rapture
Penpal. It's super creepy and was written by a redditor. I'm pretty sure it's in the Kindle store.
ETA: Here's a link.
http://www.amazon.com/Penpal-Dathan-Auerbach/dp/098554550X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1418248266&amp;sr=8-5&amp;keywords=pen+pals+book&amp;pebp=1418248248997
You're welcome, funny how things work out sometimes. And actually, it is a published book! Penpal by Dathan Auerbach
Its available on Amazon, Paperback and ebook
Please Read: John Dies At The End.
It is a book where completely insane things happen to two guys, and a lot of it just doesn't make sense. It is still a great book, and an inspirational example of successful self-publishing. (He started out by publishing chapters online. It went viral, and has sense been made into a movie.)
Don't discount your work because it's weird. Some people like weird.
you need to get John Dies at the End or maybe [Daemon] (http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1377281217&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=daemon+by+daniel+suarez).
What about them do you like? The creatures? The humor? You might like John Dies at the End. It's got goo, monsters, laughs and scares.
A coupleSome of the selections from r/SF Book Club that deal predominantly with the day to day lives of the characters spring to mind:The structure sounds like Cloud Atlas, although the plot doesn't.
El mundo luego del petróleo quedó algo así como una mezcla de Steam punk con rastros de hiper tecnología, todo basado en las calorías, la nueva fuente de energía.
Muy buena novela.
No tiene nada que ver con la (BOSTA de) película, olvídense de la peli, lean el libro, buenísimo, incluso conceptualmente, cómo está escrito.
La historia de cómo y porqué Intel es lo que es. Muy, muy interesante.
La historia del diseño, la creación y de las misiones Voyager, idealmente, se podría leer antes o después de ver The Farthest.
Una ucronia o historia alternativa.
Europa no sobrevive a La Peste Negra, y Oriente termina "invadiendo las ruinas". Muere el cristianismo, y el mundo avanza basándose en las religiones orientales, fundamentalmente el islamismo y el budismo.
Lenta, pero muy interesante.
I can't recommend Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves enough.
You'll probably hear House of Leaves thrown around quite a bit. While it's pretty good, it's also as equally daunting, and sometimes hard to stay absorbed in.
House of leaves, one of my favorite books in the horror genre.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. It changed the way I look at history, both American history and the subject in general. It, for lack of a better phrase, blew my mind. There's an entire history of this country that I was just never taught and never knew about until I read this book. If I could pick one book that everyone, in America at least, had to read it would be this one. It's nonfiction though, if you're specifically looking for fiction then the first thing that comes to mind is House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski.
Don't you mean House of Leaves?
A room existing outside of time and space reminds me of the House of Leaves
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1252098456&amp;sr=8-1
comedic fiction. Tells the story of Christ during his growing up years. I love this book. Even though it was fiction I can see how his philosophy grew and accepted other religions into his own. It is how Christ would have acted.
Try reading Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore. It's a book about Jesus Christ told through the viewpoint of his childhood friend, Biff. The book contains the wisdom and the intelligence of a true coming of age novel while simultaneously using crude and sacrilegious humor to keep you laughing through the whole thing. This book is light-hearted, but also deals in some serious, even dark emotions.
Both the book and Christopher Moore are highly acclaimed by readers so if recommend looking up other reviews for this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1411261257&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=lamb+the+gospel+according+to+biff
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1331678560&amp;sr=8-1
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff. One of my favorites.
GRRM is supposed to release an official map/poster book in October with the known world. Whether these land masses will be included is not known, but it's confirmed to have more information than we currently have on Essos and Sothoyos including geography and scale.
Here is the link to pre-order it on Amazon.
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There are so many great books! The Brontes' work, Jane Austen, War and Peace, everything by Dostoyevsky....Sometimes it takes a while to get into certain of the great books, but they always pay off.
Also, in case you haven't read them, check out David Mitchell's early work--Ghostwritten, Number9Dream, and Cloud Atlas all are brilliant.
It's been a while since I've checked in. Last week I finally finished the Chaos Walking trilogy by getting around to reading the third book Monsters of Men. I absolutely loved this series and I seriously hope the author is planning on writing more. It was nice, he wrapped up the storyline but also left it a point that was basically the starting of another story. I really wanted to find out what happens next. This series is definitely one of my favorites of the year so far.
I've started on Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I'm trying really hard with this one but it just doesn't seem to be working for me so far. It isn't calling me to keep going back to it. I've had it on my shelf for quite some time now, and have been meaning to get to it, but haven't. When I saw the trailer for the movie, I got re-interested in it again and want to read it before the movie comes out. I've only gotten like 50 or 60 pages in though after a couple of days, so I am worried I might give up on it. It's definitely more difficult than some of the other books I have been reading so I think that might be giving me some trouble.
I am also working on Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I've been wanting to get into this one for a few months. I've been in a steam punk kind of mood and this one seemed interesting. It's a alternative version of the events leading up to and during World War I in Europe. It's fun but it's a lot more simple and easier than I was expecting. Shouldn't take long to finish this. I attempted to set a to-be-read list for the next couple of months to get to ones I really wanted to but already this one is making me deviate from it...
which one?
http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0375507256/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1347455200&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=cloud+atlas
or
http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Liam-Callanan/dp/0385336950/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1347455200&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=cloud+atlas
I've seen this book recommended so many times and I was just about to download it when whoops....
Since Ghost Story was already mentioned, I'd like to recommend House of Leave It's strange and winding, and has a Blair Witch Project kind of feel to it.
I want this [book!] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375703764/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=1O0XRVYITTYGN&amp;coliid=I2SWTQUCGLVMWB)
My favorite desert is that mud pie stuff. You know the chocolate pudding with crushed up oreos and gummi worms?! But I could totally eat cheesecake all day everyday! ;)
C'mon...gimme. I've wanted this book for a while now, haha.
As for the dream gift, these would be pretty awesome.
You two look absolutely amazing! :D But really, you two are just simply amazing anyways!
If you can get through it House of Leaves might fit that description pretty well. I definitely got a Palahniuk feel from it. Its hard to really say I "enjoyed" the book, but I recommend the fuck out of it every chance I get. It had a far greater and longer lasting emotional impact than anything I can think of reading since I was a kid. But its a bitch to read, and it screws with you any chance it gets.
A more tenuous connection would be Vonnegut, maybe its because I spent a whole summer reading almost only Palahniuk and Vonnegut, so they are forever entwined, occupying the same brain cubby.
He found Will Navidson's house
I'm in the middle of House of Leaves.
I'm also reading More Than Two.
And I'm about to start Wonder. My son is reading it at school and I want to read along.
AHHH we should both get House of Leaves because it's been on my wishlist tooo... We can talk about how weird it is as we read it. Make it a mini book club. Also everything on your wishlist looks awesome btw. Why are we not friends. How did I not know you before.
If she's into horror novels, such as Paranormal Activity, I recommend you buy her House of Leaves. It's something that's bound to keep her up at night. http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764
House of Leaves. When I first heard about the book I didn't know anything about the plot - just that people who'd read it would report feeling that the walls around them started to shift and move as they were reading it, while others claimed to have weird dreams about the house even months after they'd finished the novel. Not a scary book, necessarily - but it will give you the creeps.
The typography is also insane, but it's thankfully not used in a gimmicky way, and serves the story very well as a narrative device. So far I've never read anything like it.
I find Neil Gaiman is good at a show, don't tell story. I tend to reach the end of American Gods or Coraline wondering what the heck just happened and just knowing it was a ride.
Also House of Leaves does that too. I'd probably have to pick them up again to check if that's consistent on a details level.
The other thing is just practice. You can sometimes find prompts on here to "Describe a colour without using the colour" or "Describe a place without using any proper names." or "Write a story that all happens in less than 5 seconds." Things like that are really good for practicing showing because they force you to stretch your writing muscles.
Well, in that case, you must check out House of Leaves. It plays with that fear of the dark, claustrophobia and sense of being trapped incredibly well.
House of Leaves?
Yes, House of Leaves should be read in a physical version. This book has tons of little quirks which just don't translate to an ebook. For example, the cover is too small, which means that the book is bigger on the inside!
I've got a solution for your problem. Make an account on amazon.de and use this link to buy the book. Shipping from Germany to Poland should be far quicker than overseas.
By now, I've got accounts on amazon.com, amazon.de and amazon.co.uk, because sometimes the prices on another site are cheaper even when postage is taken into account.
If that doesn't work for whatever reason, send me a private message here on reddit, and we'll find some kind of solution. If necessary, I'll buy the book and ship it to you personally :)
A few books I read recently (within the last couple of years) that really stand out for me:
Non-fiction:
Fiction:
Unfortunately the two fictional books aren't easy reads. Not difficult, mind you, but not as straightforwardly easy as, say, The Road. But I think they're engrossing enough that you'll get sucked in nevertheless.
I hope this helps!
Don't know what you like to read so I'm going to go a few ways, but these are good ''stuck in bed'' books. By Author (because thats how i like to read):
Haruki Murakami:
Hunter S Thompson (and related):*
Manuel Puig (these are shorter):
Not by same authors, but would be good together:
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YES!!! I cannot stress Christopher Moore's books enough. Lamb is the greatest book of all time! I re-read it annually.
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins (which probably inspired Lamb) is also great as well.
Lamb. Too bad it'll never happen.
Book recommendations: [Lamb] (http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=undefined&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=lamb)
Anything by Christopher Moore if you want a fast-reading comedy. Especially this.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. I just finished this book, and it is probably the funniest book I've ever read (and I'm saying this after having read Hitchhikers, a lot of Vonnegut and Confederacy of Dunces).
I don't know your religious background, but I have confidence that whether you are a Jew, Christian, or atheist/agnostic, you will really enjoy this book (if you're none of those, you may miss some references). It's like Hitchhiker's Guide for the ancient world, with a little of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha (also a good read) mixed in.
Also, John Dies at the End by David Wong is great if you like action/sci-fi/horror but want a lot of comedy mixed in. It was the first comedy book I've read that really felt like it was written by someone from my generation (I'm in my early 20s). Wong is one of the editors of cracked and definitely has the internet-age nerdy pop-culture sense of humor that pervades reddit.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal is a really great read, one of the most clever and funny stories that i’ve read.
Exactly. On a slightly related note, I still think that Christopher Moore's book, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal has the best explanation for the creation of the Easter Bunny.
Lamb by Christopher Moore is a fictional retelling of Jesus' life from the point of view of his childhood friend Biff. Parts of it are very funny, others are much more serious, and it pokes fun at the Bible without ever being disrespectful.
For fiction, you MUST read Daemon and Freedom(TM)
I also enjoyed Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon, though in my opinion the latter was a little bit of a difficult read. Worth it though.
Cryptonomicon is this awesome cyberpunk book I'm almost done with
What are your top five must-own books?
Mine, in no real order are:
(I'll put in links when I get home)
edit: with amazon links
Because, like the internet, nearly all early computers/languages were originally funded by the military.
Check out Stephenson's book Cryptonomicon
It's engaging fiction, and for the most part it's historically accurate.
*ever
FYI,
Cryptonomicon on amazon
PS,
My second favorite chapter is basically an instruction manual on how to eat Captain Crunch Cereal.
http://www.euskalnet.net/larraorma/crypto/slide58.html
The Road Less Traveled
I think parents would find more useful information here, but I read it when I was 20(no kids) and found it pretty interesting.
The Alchemist
A quick read, I have felt more at ease and optimistic about life since I read it. Both actually have religious themes--didn't bother a godless man such as myself though.
Motivation to be more creative? Poke the Box by Seth Godin
I have quite a few business-related recommendations, but watching or reading Seth gets my brain going everytime.
The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho maybe?
A quick browse of my bookshelf and the ones that jumped out at me... some nonfiction, some fiction... some light, some heavy...
The Culture of Contentment by John Galbraith
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Pimp by Iceberg Slim
The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris
Bloom County Babylon by Berkeley Breathed
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
Turned On: A Biography of Henry Rollins by James Parker
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Beyond that, my most prized book is my hardback Norton Anthology of English Lit (2nd vol - the 'modern' stuff).
Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I'm def curling up with a good one when I hit the hay!
This
0-5: Owl Magnetic Page Markers. These are great for marking either the page you are reading in a book or various pages if you are keeping places in textbooks. Plus, they are super cute.
5-10: Vegetable Steamer because steamed vegetables are yummy!
10-20: The Alchemist-Paulo Coelho. This is a book that everyone, male or female, should read and would likely enjoy reading.
20-50: The Big Bang Theory-Season 5 Pre-Order. Everyone loves to laugh!
World War Z.
>(i actually read The Walking Dead graphic novels before i even knew the show was going to exist. But i've gone off zombies now).
Even if you're over zombies, you might want to take a look at Max Brooks' World War Z--the movie had basically nothing to do with the book, so don't worry if you've seen it already.
It is very well done. I'm not a zombie fan and still enjoyed the hell out of the book. Taking place ten years after the end of the zombie apocalypse, it's a collection of vignettes in the form of interviews with survivors and what they did during the apocalypse.
The interviews take place chronologically, so you first hear about the beginning of the outbreak, the middle, and finally the end--the story itself spans (I believe?) ten years but, due to the short-story style nature of the book, it isn't super long.
I'd recommend the book to anyone, even if they dislike zombies, because it's an easy read and very satisfying. The author very easily could've written a full novel from each chapter of the book, but didn't. Keeping it short like that is a little frustrating (wait! what happened next!?) but also ensures that the book doesn't drag or feel slow. You're getting the most exciting period in a survivor's story, and once that's over, you move on to the next.
I'm gonna forego all the other threads about good books and best books because, on reddit, the list always seems to be the same. Not knocking it, as I've contributed to it, and because I agree with most of the choices I find each time. But I'm going to list a few books I read in the past ten years of so that don't fit the reddit norm, and because they struck a chord with me.
A great drunk writer.
I've been working to cook from scratch, and this book has helped me understand the beauty and satisfaction to be had in working all day to create one meal.
As a teacher, this has been instrumental to my work. Learning how we learn and learning how to teach others to learn is succinctly broken down into necessary parts.
By far the best book I've read in ten years.
Just plain, good storytelling, and with a narrator who'll question your capacity to understand other narrators.
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Very different from the movie, this is actually an insightful look at society's needs and functions when luxuries are taken away. Reads like a documentary.
If any one here hasn't read World War Z, I highly recommend it http://www.amazon.com/World-War-Oral-History-Zombie/dp/0307346617/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1292246033&amp;sr=8-1
If you're looking for fairly light, escapist type lit, you might try Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Quick, humorous reads, similar in style to Douglas Adams, but more fantasy than sci-fi.
I'd also suggest the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. The Napoleonic Wars + dragons. Again, fairly quick reads and not super heavy, but they're just enjoyable books to escape into for a bit.
World War Z by Max Brooks: Oral history of the zombie war, and surprisingly more thoughtful than you might expect.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Gorgeous book about a German girl during WWII, narrated by Death.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler: Dana has also become unstuck in time. She's a modern black woman who finds herself suddenly transported, over and over, into the time of slavery.
Kushiel's Dart (and the rest of the Kushiel series) by Jacqueline Carey: I don't know if this would be up your alley or not, but it's definitely one of my "islands," as you put it. Be forewarnd that there is explicit BDSM sex within.
Peter S. Beagle's works are another of my "islands." He's one of the most often underrated and overlooked living fantasy authors, IMO. The Last Unicorn is his best known, and it's a thing of beauty. I also really like A Fine and Private Place.
You need to read everything ever written by Max Brooks. Start with World War Z, and end with The Zombie Survival Guide
He addresses this exact issue in depth
I'm smack in the middle of World War Z right now, and at the end of every chapter I can see the film adaptation in my head. It would be epic, and might need to be a miniseries.
Where's craigatsyfy when you really need him?
I bet this was the book he was doing the report on
http://www.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong/dp/0312659148
Are you a book guy? This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It comes out in 3 days. Its predecessor, John Dies at the End, is hands-down the funniest book I have ever read, and it's solidly in my top 5 favorite books of all time.
The shadow people remind me of the ones from John Dies at the End. I consider myself a skeptic but I've seen a shadow man too. He would stand waiting for me to go into my room. He had a dog too...
S. (www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/) would be a good example. It's a story about two people who read a book and they tell their story by means of annotations. It also comes with tons of inserts that add to the story, like postcards and maps. Here's a picture:
http://i.imgur.com/Qm4Tmje.jpg
There was a picture, which had watermark illustrations, not sure of the name anymore. There are also tons of cool up-market editions by publishers. I'd say the folio society would be a good example, being a publisher who specializes in such editions. Look at their limited editions - they are beautiful.
http://www.foliosociety.com/limitededitions
Mass Market Paperback is probably your best bet if you want a physical copy. As for e-reader, that link has poor reviews because all 5 books are combined into 1.
I ordered the set off amazon for $30 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345535529/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_iPeTzbPSV7CBS
All five books currently out for ≈$30
There's a large map (poster sized) of the entire world in this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
edit: here it is for cheaper than $300: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lands-of-ice-and-fire-george-rr-martin/1109483352?ean=9780345538543
Here ya go!
If you like Game of Thrones and maps, you should check out "the Lands of Ice and Fire". It's an official map pack and they look great on walls. Amazon link (just 23,43$ right now)
Great collection btw!
This is a really great scan from "The Lands of Ice and Fire". If you like this map I would highly suggest getting the whole physical set. I plan to laminate some of them and maybe get one framed.
The Lands of Ice and Fire. Highly recommended if you like Game of Thrones. and maps.
https://www.amazon.com/Lands-Ice-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
There is one more, the map folio
You could pick the one you like the most from The Lands Of Ice & Fire, scan it at a copy shop and then convert it to B&W digitally.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1341501044&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=maps+game+of+thrones
Four more months...
I didn't find that to be true in what I read. And as for being "really light on world-building," I'm not sure that's true if you can charge $40 for maps: http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544/
Christopher Moore gave a fantastic account of those years
I didn't experience that. My transition was a sort of long drive downhill. During the height of my Christianity, I would have the occasional, frightening flashes of disbelief (usually while studying apologetics), but never did atheism happen rapidly.
Over the course of three years (2005-2008), I slowly stopped praying (it seemed stupid, since prayer had done no good for me or anyone I'd ever prayed for), read the Bible only during sermons at church (I was formerly the top member of my "church-team" in Bible Bowl contests), and then began to elucidate what I actually believed.
When 2008 came and I found myself at the point of stating, "If there is a god, that being has not made any noteworthy or worship-worthy interventions since the beginning of time, if even then." From there, it's just a matter of stepping over the line and calling it atheism.
The book that started me on this route? Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.
Made me think of The Gospel According to Biff.
Probably not it.
Catholic here too.
Read this. It's my favorite book and deals with Joshua's teen phase. Fiction, but it does kinda make sense.
There was a satirical book that I really enjoyed in high school, that details exactly this. Hilarity ensues.
https://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
A truly awesome fictional account of this has been written in the novel "Lamb" by Christopher Moore
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore
Yes, it's comedy; yes, it's heresy, but it inspired more thinking and discussions about the personhood, divinity, and life of Christ than a lot of the serious books.
Whenever anyone asks me to recommend a book, I always suggest Lamb by Christopher Moore. It's about the missing years of Jesus and his best friend Biff. It's hilarious.
Christopher Moore's book Lamb.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0380813815/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
Ishmael (and the rest of the series) by Daniel Quinn opened my eyes in my senior year of high school.
It's about a Gorilla, who has lived beside man for a number of decades and teaches a pupil through stories and analogies about how we are already at the cusp of civilization collapse. It's about a lot more than just that, namely the relationship of humans, animals, the planet, and how humans have a unique, egotistical view of themselves where we deemed ourselves rulers of the planet.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins is an eye opener as well.
Other great reads:
Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock.
Necronomicon
UFO's by Leslie Keen
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
I also really enjoyed the Myst series by Rand & Robin Miller (the books the game is based on). It's about worlds within worlds and an ancient race of authors creating worlds through magical ink and books (sci-fi/fantasy).
It's not related to tripping per se, but Ishmael is one of the best expressions of a psychonautic spirit that I've seen yet.
Ishmael. Not strictly minimal but certainly covers it.
Yeah that's what I was thinking about too.
For those who don't know, this book : http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-An-Adventure-Mind-Spirit/dp/0553375407
It's pretty good and will make you think a little at least.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It was written a few years ago, but is still extremely relevant.
Reading some of your replies, already, and thinking about the book Ishmael that I recently read, I think I may have already come to an answer.
&nbsp;
Confronting my parents and telling them the church, their way of life, is wrong and a cult, is in a similar way no different than them telling me that my way of life is wrong, or missionaries telling everyone around the world their ways of life are wrong. This is especially true if TSCC is what brings my parents happiness and peace; in their case, TSCC is not a destructive cult for them until there are signs of destruction in their own personal lives. As /u/jgslcut mentioned below, ...it's a fairly benign cult. It brings some people happiness...
&nbsp;
It seems the correct action is to find a way to live in harmony with my parents in such a way that our difference in beliefs are not a topic of segregation (which is a difficult challenge), but, what else is there? There is not, and never will be, just "one way" for everyone and everything.
Ishmael and My Ishmael.
Ishmael completely changed my view of culture and religion and My Ishmael completely changed my view of education.
According to Daniel Quinn, it was the people our ancestors killed.
Ishmael
It's an interesting perspective, even if to this day I'm not sure I agree with all of it.
Basically, what is amounts to is that the stories told by the people we wiped out when we were becoming agriculturalists were the basis for the stories in the first part of Genesis. For example, why did God favor Abel (the shepherd/nomadic gatherer) as opposed to Cain (the agriculturist upon which our culture is based)? If the story was written by our ancestors, wouldn't the farmer come out victorious? After all, that's what allowed us to win over all the nomadic humans still wandering around.
Instead, you have this sort of... backwards resentment about humanity. Like the things we believe in, God didn't particularly like. Who would feel that God felt that way?
The people that were getting their asses handed to them, that's who.
And obviously, that wasn't us, because here we are.
Yes, Diamond Age is such a great spiritual successor to Snow Crash. Where Snow Crash has that frantic pace and hyper compressed events, Diamond Age takes its time and describes every molecule of the beauty in the book's events. These two works are such great testaments to Stephenson's skill because it's obvious he worked really hard to make them describe similar themes, but also compliment each other.
Have you seen the new covers? I like them, they do a good job of presenting them as companion pieces.
Snow Crash
Diamond Age
Snow Crash and Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson talk about it some, but it's not the libertarianism that most libertarians are familiar with. It's more a "freedom to choose your own society and its rules" than a "government does not interfere with choices" liberty. The Common Economic Protocol of SC/DA is technically a government, but the only thing it regulates are the formation of new phyles (societies, etc) and the use of nanorobots for warfare (Nell's foster father, at one point, has to go off to combat against some rebels that violate the terms of the Protocol, IIRC).
Diamond Age has a lot of what you're looking for, though in a very high-technology environment that enables the lifestyle, and with different implementations of libertarianism. Sea-steading is not done by building a colony and floating off into the sunset, but by building new landmasses off the coast of Shanghai and connecting them to the mainland with a large bridge. The phyles with the expertise to do this (Neo-Victorians (stuffy Brits), Japanese engineers, and
the GermansHindus, IIRC) are fabulously wealthy for their ability to create new housing zones, commercial areas, and industrial zones more-or-less on demand for the overpopulated cities of China. On the other hand, in the American Southwest you have small (in population) phyles that dominate the landscape: homesteaders whose only duty to the phyle is to mind their own land, and provide for the common defense. There are plenty of other systems described however: a Zulu phyle that protects its own by hunting down and bringing to justice anyone who harms one of theirs, a communist phyle that requires you to give up your possessions and live as if you're in a reeducation camp 24/7, a Hidu phyle that is mostly a bank for anyone who wants to borrow, with collection policies in the form of indentured service, etc, etc.It's an excellent character study for societies: you see the good and the bad of every one of them, where they work and they don't, and why. It's all enabled by technology that makes it possible (more or less) to provide everything to the masses at little or no cost, with money being exchanged only for premium design, service, or honest-to-god handmade goods (which are astonishingly expensive - entire phyles live a pastoral existence and create them for wealthier societies - the "Amish"/Luddites are billionaires). People do what they want to: become hackers, live in drum circles, homestead, work for Software Kahns, join theatrical troupes, work as scenario writers for a bordello, or in the semi-feudal administrative system of the Middle Kingdom. Most of this is implied, not explicit, which only makes it better reading, if you ask me: Stephenson may hit you over the head with the details of nanotechnology and ponderously describe encryption services (which personally I like anyway), but the wonder and cleverness of how the whole society works is rarely stated directly, meaning you can tease it out slowly and marvel at the way it all fits together.
TL;DR Yeah, Snow Crash. Also the Diamond Age. And I probably should write some sort of critical analysis of the Diamond Age to get something out of my system.
*edited for clarity and accuracy.
For sheer 'play in the virtual world' stuff, you MUST read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. You'll blaze through that, so follow it up with Stephenson's The Diamond Age
Good YA dystopic future stuff:
The Windup Girl
Station Eleven
Finally, get into Neuromancer, by William Gibson. It's a fantastic--some would say genre-defining--cyberpunk novel.
Then go devour everything Stephenson and Gibson put out there. That should get you through at least the first half of the summer. Happy reading!
Take a look at the list of past Hugo winners and look for easily accessible ones. A few jump out at me:
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold, or maybe the omnibus Cordelia's Honor
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
Since searching wikipedia turned up the Timeline of Non-Sexual Social Nudity(TIL) I'm just going to guess you're you're looking for a more techie true to life rendition of the hacker archetype based on the amazon synopsis.
Based on that I'd recommend:
Cryptonomicon
just.go.read.it.right.now.
It may take a little effort to get into, damn thing is a tomb, but give it a chance. You will not be disappoint.
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Stealing the Network Series
How to Own a Box
How to Own a Continent
How to Own an Identity
How to Own a Shadow
comments
These are told in a chapter/viewpoint style, each chapter is usually written by a different knowledgeable, and sometimes security famous, security dude. Out of those I've only read How to Own an Identity so far, but it was pretty good and and my guess is that the rest hold up to that standard, so dive in. They are a series from what I understand so reading them in order is probably a good idea, but not completely necessary.
_____
And then for flair (these are more scifi/cyberpunk-ish; so if that's not your thing avoid):
Snowcrash
comments
The main character's name is Hiro Protagonist. No seriously. He's a ninja, he's a hacker, he lives in a U-Store-it container, and he delivers pizza for the Mob in a post-collapse USA, can you really not read this book now?
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The Diamond Age
comments
All about the practical social implications of nanotechnolgy told through the eyes of a young girl, her father, and an assortment of disposable associates.
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The Sprawl Trilogy
Neuromancer
Count Zero
Mona Lisa Overdrive
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I've only read Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive, which were both great, so I'm guessing Count Zero is probably good too.
Similar to Snowcrash in the lone gun hacker sense, except with more drugs a little bit more of a scattered tone.
And if all else fails there's always the DEF CON reading list.
ninja edits because I suck at markdown
Maybe one day, Diamond Age style.
Long before that, though, we'll be 3d-printing tiny glass tubes that we attach to circuit boards that do the synthesis for us a la Lab on a Chip. Precursors in, apply power to chip, desired chemical out.
Lovecraft's works is public domain now, so sites like hplovecraft.com should have most of his works, if you want something physical try https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Best-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/0575081562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1509947794&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=lovecraft+necronomicon
And as for other short stories I can recommend The Outsider and Rats in the Walls, both are equally bone-chilling.
This is an idea that is dear to my heart and I'm looking forward to running a pirate/naval adventure myself. I've got some inspiration ideas for you!
Books
These books should need no introduction. These are the books that will truly inspire your game.
TV Shows
Tabletop Books
I can't recommend all of this enough. A lot of this will give you ideas and inspiration for all of your campaigns, naval/pirate or otherwise. Have fun!
Have a look at this
There is a collection of Lovecraft Stories called Necronomicon. I nearly bought it myself, it's a great looking tome. I actually have the Conan Books in the same series.
&#x200B;
This is the one I ended up buying I found it was a more complete collection and in chronological order of when they were written.
&#x200B;
Amazing stories from an amazing writer. Enjoy!
I've got the [necronomicon] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Necronomicon-Fiction-Lovecraft-GollanczF/dp/0575081570/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1397135823&amp;sr=8-10&amp;keywords=Nekronomikon). It has a lot (if not all) of lovecrafts stories.
does it have more content than Necronomicon? that's the largest collection of his I have. It has 36 stories and some of his poems, about 850 pages.
Got this bad boy a few years back, brilliant book.
The really sad part about Lovecraft is that there is no complete volume of his works. Wikipedia has links to everyone of his stories. Yet for a printed form of his works your options are limited. The "Necronomicon" collection is incomplete and the binding is not worth the price. The best almost complete edition is An H.P. Lovecraft Anthology: More Than 50 Weird Tales but it is still incomplete and people complain over the size of the print. Your best bet as was mentioned was the Del Ray editions. Between "Dreams of Terror and Death" and "The Road to Madness" you can have the most important stories in a readable and cheap edition. I recommend starting with the novellas, especially the ones in the Cthulu Mythos, and then branching out to the short stories of the Dream Cycle.
The Necronomicon by
Abdul AlhazredH.P. LovecraftI am currently reading the Necronomicon and plan on following it up with Dune (as per thecutout's suggestion :D)
Favorite smokespot? Probably my room since I haven't smoked outdoors in months. The ideal would be a cabin in the middle of nowhere next to a lake surrounded by redwoods, looking up would leave you speechless, the lack of light pollution alone could get you high ;o)
Best advice I have gotten: Probably something along the lines of the work you put in will be the work you get out; it's like conservation of energy but with life and shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitt
Advice I have to give? Adults don't know everything, the younger you are at heart, the further you will go in life. The ability to suspend yourself in a plane of illimitable creativity, the way a 5 year old can, not only opens your mind to more obscure possibilities, but flexes it in a manner few other activities can.
What sort of illustrations/notes are you looking for? Annotations and drawings from other artists/authors? Or correspondences/notes and drawings from Lovecraft himself?
I have Necronomicon and Eldritch Tales that together cover the complete works. Necronomicon has all of the main fiction, and Eldritch Tales has some of the less popular/well-known stuff as well as some correspondence and notes. The hardcover editions have a very nice look and feel to them... although it looks like the hardcover of Eldritch Tales might be a bit hard to come by these days.
Well, if we're talking This Necronomicon that's a dang good deal.
Sure I've read it. Don't think its the Necronomicon you are referring to. The book written by Abdul Al-Hazred is not real, this one is and I would recommend it.
Go pick up a book full of Lovecraft stories. For reference, I have this one, but there's plenty of similar books out there.
Blindsight by Peter Watts, and its sequel Echopraxia.
If you like the theme of Consciousness try 'Blindsight' by Peter Watts
https://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640
A little offtopic, but you might find the book Blindsight, by Peter Watts, interesting. It mostly features augmented humans, and engages with their different though processes. There are also just a bunch of really interesting ideas in the book.
Try Peter Watts' Blindsight. It's fairly short but an excellent read. Also the next book in the series Echopraxia just came out in october.
http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640
http://www.amazon.com/Echopraxia-Peter-Watts/dp/076532802X
Sounds like you might enjoy reading Watts' Blindsight. It's a sci-fi novel whose plot-driver is humanity trying to decide how to interact with an extra-solar alien species, evaluate their intentions, etc., after aliens make unexpected first contact with Earth.
https://www.amazon.com/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351
I personally consider the Bioshock series my favorite, and I absolutely loved Metro 2033 and Last Light, and I recommend you play both. The game isn't all that similar to Bioshock, but it shares a claustrophobic feel and the constant dangers that lurk around each corner. Metro 2033 does have a stealth element to it, while Bioshock doesn't really, so if you don't like stealth to some extent, I would stay away. Either way, both of the metro games are amazing and have good stories.
Also, you said you wanted to learn more about Bioshock. If you haven't already, I highly recommend the book Bioshock: Rapture. It gives some more insight to what went into building Rapture, and I found it very interesting because I also wanted to learn more about the games.
EDIT: I also would recommend Singularity to people who like the Bioshock games. It is heavily inspired by it and is in a very similar vein.
Just so you guys know, this is a cover from the book Rapture. Not a bad read.
Oh! I love that. Rapture by John Shirley is a really neat read into the rise and demise of an underwater utopia-turned-dystopia. It really hits the nail on the head for your genre, and, you're right, I'd love to read more like it.
On a side note to anyone who really likes the Bioshock series, the book is really good.
It's probably worth mentioning Bioshock: Rapture. A book that details more about the first game.
Penpal - https://www.amazon.com/Penpal-Dathan-Auerbach/dp/098554550X
Part 1 - "Footsteps"
Edit: And a link to the novel on Amazon.
Penpal was written by a Redditor based on some of his stories from /r/nosleep . It's good, check it out. I also recommend 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz.
For me it really reminded me of this (Great book btw, written by a guy from /r/nosleep)
I cheated and picked three...I couldn't stop I'm sorry, please forgive me.
Have fun on your trip! Hope you find a fantastic book to get you through the flight!
It's from this book John Dies at the end Very good read :)
http://www.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong/dp/1250035953
John Dies at the End by David Wong
Internet history time: David Wong used to run pointlesswasteoftime.com, where the monkeysphere article was originally posted. David Wong also co-wrote/edited John Dies at The End, which I highly recommend.
John Dies at the End - by David Wong
you'll laugh, cry, cringe and shake your head in wonderment
and when you turn that last page- run out and buy the sequel This Book is Full of Spiders
Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection
Don Roff, Chris Lane
Day by Day Armageddon
J. L. Bourne
Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile
J. L. Bourne
Earth Abides
George R. Stewart
Swan Song
Robert McCammon
The Road
Cormac McCarthy
edit: This covers a good array of subjects on different ways the world might perish. All fiction also.
More information on Day by Day Armageddon?
EDIT: Amazon link I'd love to hear from some zeditors who've read it.
You've already read two of the better ones.
Try Brian Keene - The Rising and City of the Dead. - a different take on zombies but you may like it
Joe Mckinney - Dead City
J.L. Bourne - Day by Day Armegeddon - it's self published, but it's not bad
Jeff Long - Year Zero - sort of zombies, plus it's really good
This one has some cool short stories - The book of the Dead
And I haven't read this one yet so I can't recommend it:
Z. A. Recht - Plague of the Dead
Thanks. :-)
And here you go:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/159102594X
Trust me, you won't regret it.
I can't give you "titles of the chapters are the characters' names", but Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy is one often recommended here, and for good reason. It shares an epic, wide-ranging, and (usually) tautly-paced plot advanced through multiple viewpoints and characters painted entirely in grey, along with exposing the harder edges of the world its characters populate.
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.
Try The First Law series. Great characters, fun adventures, and it's not too fantastical. I'm just finishing up book 3 now, and I'll be sad not to be reading it.
ugh i've finished everything worthwhile in my local library been reading e-books but running low on those as well
heres some off the top of my head.. be warned these are more character driven then anything else... I hate books with a giant cast of characters ( though malazan was an exception )
Old Shit:
The Fionavar Tapestry (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Tree-Fionavar-Tapestry-Book/dp/0451458222/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1279523697&amp;sr=1-2
Farseer Trilogy (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Apprentice-Farseer-Trilogy-Book/dp/055357339X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1279523843&amp;sr=1-1
New Shit:
First Law Trilogy (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law-Book/dp/159102594X/ref=pd_sim_b_1
The Name of the Wind (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1257193424&amp;sr=1-1
Codex Alera (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Furies-Calderon-Codex-Alera-Book/dp/044101268X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1279524012&amp;sr=1-1
Glad you liked it. Echopraxia is the sequal to his book Blindsight, which is a story about aliens, vampires and post singularity humans. Because Peter Watts is a biologist and only a somewhat recent author his sci fi writings reflect that. His perspective as a biologist yields impressive insights, and surprisingly beautiful prose, often philosophical in nature yet somehow not preachy.
Starfish is also highly enjoyable if you like deep ocean stuff. Peter Watts does what great sci fi authors are capable of, they take known concepts turn them on their head and allow you to look at them from a completely new perspective.
Such a concept is part of the setting in the novel Blindsight. I recommend it.
The book. Not the scary cult where you jack your brain into a hedonism machine with religious overtones, having granted the institution all your worldly goods, until your body atrophies away and die. That bit I don't particularly recommend. But...to each their own, I suppose.
Estou lendo o Echopraxia, a "sidequel" do Blindsight, a ficção científica mais depressiva de todos os tempos.
What very interesting questions you ask. Fascinating, truly! If we are to take the scientific view, logic dictates that all the personalities are equal. The problem is that human societies also have instincts, emotions, and other irrational things for which logic can’t always account for.
As for myself, I tend to be a logical person. The problem is logic doesn't work very well with evolution. What I mean to say is, new things happen all the time, unknown things, unknown until the time of learning that is. Until then logic cannot account for them. Maybe multiple-personality disorders will play a part in our evolution and will be heralded as the next big adaptation to our environment in the next 100,000 years, maybe not. But one thing we do know is: We do not know. Until we figure it out we must remain open to any possibilities and tweak our behavior as needed.
I can't help but give a knowing smile at the last paragraph, because it is something most humans share. Or at least I feel we do. An irrational thought as to how we see people. Science has well thought of positions on these matters (most of the time), because of the imperatives of science. Humans on the other hand tend to be more sentimental about it. I'll try to explain how I see a person in front of me.
A person is a body, but a body is only a tool of the mind. It has tugs and pulls, no doubt about it. But with a sufficiently trained mind (and I don't know many people which do not share the capability of this affliction) one can control his/her body within reasonable limits. A person is his/her actions, feelings, and thoughts (the body never comes into view unless the relationship requires it: a touch of skin to increase bonding and feelings of warmth, etc.) So what happens when the new set of actions/feelings/thoughts intrude as a new persona? If my friend were to die in a similar fashion which you've described, I'd probably mourn my friend, and feel loss. A selfish personality interrupted the growth of another one. I would probably feel sad for my friend too if (s)he had to watch another personality do that to him/her. Alas, I think such consequences can only be dealt emotionally, because logic sees nothing wrong with an individual dying and the species continuing. The selfish gene is with all of us, and most likely everyone has their own semi-unique way in which they handle such situations.
Now, let us meld society irrationalities with logical thought. A “sufferer” of MPD will be given two options if his/her personalities have been deemed disruptive (this concept is so fucked up it sickens me sometimes). They can choose to live with it, or try to merge the personalities into the dominant one. I don’t know if the dominant one is the original, but I assume (big if) that if one can pinpoint the “original” personality they will, and consider it “original”, and the others insignificant byproducts. I put original in quotations because I have no idea how you’d make such a judgment. Also, society will react as it sees things best for it. If one of the personalities threatens to kill itself, doctors will take steps to stop this: Suicide watch. Any threat which is perceived from this entity will be dealt with in the best interest of the tribe. The word has significance because we delve deep into our survival instinct to make these decisions.
Notice how my own thought patterns change. It is no longer a single person acting under a single will. We must change our approach to that entity in a way to take account for the extra unknowns. Maybe that entity is never human the way we understand humans: Predictable from the high viewpoint but individually unpredictable. What happens when you increase the unpredictability factor? A new theory of the mind will have to be developed to account for the new psyches present in the same physical space? One second’s ally can be the next second’s enemy. How would you know? I think this might go beyond the realm of human. My own feel for it. I couldn’t bring any convincing arguments to bypass our first instinct: looks like a person, talks like a person but isn’t a single person. I must be weary of that one. Unless you’ve come to appreciate each person and there is a finite number of them.
Some of these questions are put in a sci-fi book called Blindsight. In it we had a character which had multiple personalities that were in contact with each other and had a sort of consensus as to how they shared the body. Never going beyond the metaphor of 4 distinct people having to share the same body.
I must admit, reading the above paragraphs again, it feels like I’m trying to grip something with oil on my hands. Very slippery. Sorry for the wall of text.
It is discussed in some detail in the novel Blindsight by Peter Watts (as /u/cmfg said), and also in the short story I, Row Boat by Cory Doctorow. Those are the ones that immediately come to mind at least…
Amazon one-star reviews. There you go.
But it really is a fantastic book, so give it a shot.
NO SPOILERS, PROMISE:
EVERYONE WHO READ THE BOOK:
Did you know there's a Bioshock: Infinite tie-in in the Rapture book? Page 153, first paragraph refers to "Comstock Mines"! Pretty stinking creative of the author if you ask me.
Edited to pretty-up the link.
Happy Zambambo!
Thanks! Happy birthday!
BioShock: Rapture https://www.amazon.com/dp/0765367351/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ilmcAbFX6STZZ
http://www.amazon.com/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1377149222&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=rapture+bioshock
It was this one, been a while since I read it but I remember really enjoying it. It explains the story of how Rapture was made and how it became the place you see in the games. https://www.amazon.com/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1520981054&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=bioshock+book
Ayyyyy glad to hear it! Bioshock 2 is very, very good. Don't pay heed to any revisionists you may hear from. The mechanics are all around much better and the DLC, Minerva's Den, is top ten in DLC history. Brilliantly done. The story is also great as are the characters. Makes the first game even better.
Whatever you do, save Infinite for last and its story DLC for after you beat it. Massive series spoilers.
Novels? Yo: https://www.amazon.ca/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351
Phenomenal book. It's set before the first game, really gets you into what Rapture was like in peace times. If you want a similar kind of game, I recommend Soma. It's a one and done thing but a massive mind fuck and terrifying.
Definitely, after playing the whole series its nice to see it all come together as a whole! Don't worry I got you on the book info! Here's a actual link and what not : [Rapture the book] ( http://www.amazon.com/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351 ) its fantastic book during the creation of rapture with all your favourite characters. You get to see alot of the universe in the book, also it uses alot of the dialogue that was used audio diaries within it. All of it is in written from Bill McDonagh's pov from the creation of rapture as a city to the fall of rapture as a city.
There is. Link
Cool, thanks! I wish more games had book companions. I read Bioshock: Rapture and thought it was very well written. And of course there's the F:NV graphic novel and the Witcher series. Are there any other good examples of books expanding on a VG universe?
For a good creepy short novel, check out Penpal from /r/nosleep 's own Dathan Auerbach
Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal
I need this book because it was written by a fellow redditor!
I just found/added this one to my list! Its a bunch of short stories that are actually going to become a MOVIE, and all from a /r/nosleep poster. So awesome!
He kept the same title for the book.
Yup, getting the weird view here too.
Here's the link
Penpal got expanded into a novel now too!
1000Vultures from the /r/nosleep community published his short story series into a book titled "Penpal"
If you have the time sit down and give it a read. If you enjoy it, buy it and support the author.
The Penpal series, that is still the best thing I've ever read there. I remember reading the whole series in one go, they actually talked him into trying to get it published, he succeeded, you can buy it on Amazon. Apparently the book is a little different but mainly the same.
Way beyond legit. Head editor wrote a book (and became a movie) called John Dies At The End.
It even has it's own Youtube channel.
Signup at the Writer's Workshop and ask around, especially on payment and what to write.
City Infernal - Edward Lee
John Dies at the End - David Wong
Two books I found extremely entertaining.
John Dies at the End, without a doubt. And the sequel, This Book Is Full of Spiders, is just as amazing. The deadpan narration that accompanies the batshit crazy events just makes them so entertaining to read.
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I'm a fan of time-travel, and history, and I was completely sucked into it. She's got a number of books in the same universe- some comedic, some very dramatic, but The Doomsday Book is my favourite.
If you're at all interested in high fantasy, I'd recommend either Tigana or The Fionovar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. You either love his prose style or hate it, but if you love it, it will definitely take you away.
If you like SF and haven't read them, I'd try either Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, or David Brin's Uplift Series (I'd skip Sundiver until later, and start with Startide Rising.)
If you're looking for more light-hearted/quirky, I'd try Christopher Moore- either Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal , or The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. If you're into a mix of horror/sf/comedy, try John Dies at the End. They're not deep, but they're fun.
Non-fiction- if you haven't read it yet, Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is very difficult to put down. If you're travelling with someone who doesn't mind you looking up every few pages and saying "did you know this, this is awesome, wow-how interesting", I'd go for Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants or Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life. They're all very informative, fun, interesting books, but they're even better if you can share them while you're reading them.
DBDA is one of the best zombie anythings, ever. I loved the series!
World War Z was good, but I found Day by Day Armageddon (and its sequel) and Ex-Heroes to draw me in a bit more. I don't read very often at all, but I could not put down those last two books.
I liked Day by Day because it was somewhat of a first person, diary type book. The second was pretty good too.
Ex-Heroes was good because it was a bit different. It revolved around super heroes trying to deal with the zombie apocalypse and protecting the last of the normal people. Of course, not all super heroes are immune to the zombie disease. A new one called Ex-Patriots just came out, which I'm going to start soon.
Day By Day Armageddon.
Nothing like some post-apocalyptic zombie survival. No really, it's actually a quite entertaining read.
My favorite zombie book is-Day by Day Armageddon by J. L. Bourne
and, of course, the films of George Romero. Night of the Living Dead, which can be seen for free online now. legally! and the best- Dawn of the Dead. and finally Day of the Dead.
Day by Day Armageddon is a pretty interesting story that is done in the style of a journal. It's not a masterpiece by any standards but it's pretty decent for what it is. Except the 3rd one. That one is not good.
https://www.amazon.com/Day-Armageddon-J-L-Bourne/dp/1439176671
&#x200B;
Used to be online in a kind of "blog" or journal format, but since been made into books (haven't really had a chance to read the sequels). If I had to guess, the author is either ex military or did a ton of research because he seems to know a lot about small arms and flying planes. Very detailed and methodical approach to surviving a zombie apocalypse. Loved every second of it!
I love the Day by Day Armageddon series By J.L. Bourne. Here's a link. http://www.amazon.com/Day-Armageddon-J-L-Bourne/dp/1439176671/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1456816843&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=day+by+day+armageddon
Day by Day is the best hands down.
I also really like the First book in The Stain trilogy.
If he enjoys comedy books then you should definitely go with Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore.
Else, Ender's Game and The Dresden Files were already mentioned. If he likes zombies go with Day by Day Armageddon. Try out Storm of Iron if he likes Warhammer 40k or in general awesome fantasy warfare in the distance and wicked future.
My ultimate vote goes to The Dresden Files. Harry Dresden is an awesome character.
Day by Day Armageddon by JL Bourne. Journal style writing about a Naval Pilot surviving the zombie apocalypse.
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Armageddon-J-L-Bourne/dp/1439176671
You want a military science fiction? Here you go! :3
I'm Horrible -ly in love with that book! :D And I'd love to have a CAH game night!
The Blade Itself (The First Law trilogy) - Joe Abercrombie
7.5/10
Low Fantasy
Exciting and fast paced with strong character building. Lacks the world building of other longer fantasy books, but it's very intriguing. Can't speak for the rest of the trilogy.
Amazon
Richard K. Morgan: A land fit for heroes
It's a pretty damn good fantasy series. I got into it because his cyberpunk noir novels were so damn good. Altered Carbon and the rest of the Takeshi Kovacs novels were excellent.
Also, I was lucky enough to have friends immediately recommend Joe Abercrombie post asoiaf. The First Law Trilogy is absolutely gripping. Personally, I think it's better than asoiaf.
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.
Phil Kessel, thou art a flesh-monger and a cream-faced loon.
The Blade Itself
Twelve Monkeys
The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
Incredibly resourceful! I think I would like to take this opportunity to also provide some "fun" crypto reading as well. For when you get tired of the hard stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0060512806
In the modern literature category
Dave Eggers - What is the What. Or A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius by him is also pretty good.
A.S. Byatt - Possession
Also, someone else mentioned Neal Stephenson, I cannot second this recommendation strongly enough! Very fun reads that don't shy away from intellectual engagement. I read Cryptonomicon by him recently and loved it.
I also note you don't mention Don DeLillo although you mention many of his contemporaries. Check out White Noise by him and go from there.
I could probably make some more suggestions, but it depends what genre's and styles you're really into? Do you want hugely post-modern? Do you enjoy the classics? (I notice your list had no Shakespeare, his tragedies are as famous as they are for good reason)
At around 1000 pages&mdash;give or take a few, depending on the binding&mdash;I'd say it's unwieldy. The MMPB has 1168 pages, for instance. :)
Cryptonomicon or for that matter any of Neal Stephenson's early work like In the Beginning ... was the Command Line
"Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. A fantastic book; one of those that you hate when it ends!
You may also enjoy "the Baroque Cycle" by the same author. It does not go back and forth to modern times (Crypt. does), but is another great story about science, the beginnings of physics, and the start of money, among other things
Yes. Loved that one as well. I would say that Anathem is far more philosophical and cerebral than Cryptonomicon.
I tried in vain to get my brother to read it who says he only likes non-fiction.
I was particularly enamored by the passages where he charts masturbation/prostitution/creativity. That hit close to home. ;)
EDIT: Found the section in Amazon's Look Inside, start on page 679.
I fully share your interest in trying to find stories, narrative or scenarios featuring cryptocurrency. My personal conclusion is that the future got bigger and different after bitcoin, in ways that were considered practically impossible before, and we will need a new generation of science fiction.
While Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which I have only skimmed, deals with crypto-currency it is NOT the descentralized kind, which is in my opinion the truly revolutionary aspect of bitcoin.
The more suggestive work I can think of is Daniel Suarez's Daemon and the sequel, Freedom, which don't deal directly with cryptocurrency, but the whole conceit of the books --a self-sustaining civilization-altering program unleashed after the death of its author-- is curiously homomorphic to bitcoin.
It's not fiction, but I like David Friedman e-money scenarios in his 2008 Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World. He writes just before bitcoin was unleashed unto the world!
Cory Doctorow's Down and out in the magic kingdom deals with Whuffie, a reputation-based "ambient" currency for a post-scarcity economy. The interesting part is that with colored coins, it could be very much implemented with bitcoins.
I should also mention that Eric Whitacre spent nearly half his lecture preaching about how great the Cryptonomicon is and turned me into a huge Neal Stephenson fan.
He was also (this is 10+ years ago...) really excited about his opera. If it ever opens in NYC, I'll go see it!
I LOVE your penny book contests!!! Cryptonomicon is the book I'll choose for this one. Looks super interesting. Thanks so much for the contest! Gimme a book, Pancakes!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1332723261&amp;sr=8-1
Now that you mention it, he is an amateur alchemist and physician. jk, but i should mention a [book] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416) that he recommends of minor relevance.
It's by Paulo Coehlo.
I doubt this is what you're looking for, but the first thing that came to my mind was The Alchemist.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1344976866&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+alchemist
I'm reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho right now. It has so many wise bits to it and and I am thoroughly enjoying it!
http://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1239306118&amp;sr=8-1
1.) Something that is grey.
Silver is grey, right? ;)
2.) Something reminiscent of rain.
When I think of rain I think of cuddling up with a good cup of coffee.
3.) Something food related that is unusual.
Coffee chocolate Not that weird... but pretty amazing.
4.) Something on your list that is for someone other than yourself. Tell me who it's for and why. (Yes, pets count!)
Bones for my dog because he hates being alone!
5.) A book I should read! I am an avid reader, so take your best shot and tell me why I need to read it!
I haven't read this yet, but it's supposed to be amazing!
6.) An item that is less than a dollar, including shipping... that is not jewelry, nail polish, and or hair related!
This book
7.) Something related to cats. I love cats! (keep this SFW, you know who you are...)
meow.
8.) Something that is not useful, but so beautiful you must have it.
I don't think any nail polish is useful, but I love this color
9.) A movie everyone should watch at least once in their life. Why?
Shawshank Redemption Come on, it's amazing. And sad. And Stephen King.
10.) Something that would be useful when the zombies attack. Explain.
These would be particularly useful because I could keep my hair out of my face so I can see zombies better to kill them!
11.) Something that would have a profound impact on your life and help you to achieve your current goals.
skip for now
12.) One of those pesky Add-On items.
Apparently you can straighten your nose with this interesting little item Ohhhh, China.
13.) The most expensive thing on your list. Your dream item. Why?
This book is the most expensive item on my list. Dream item? Nah. A kindle would be my dream item, but not feasible to have on list right now.
14.) Something bigger than a bread box.
This big enough?
15.) Something smaller than a golf ball.
This ring is itty bitty!
16.) Something that smells wonderful.
This air freshener. Mmmm
17.) A (SFW) toy.
Amazon lists this as a toy, so I'm going to have to go with that!
18.) Something that would be helpful for going back to school.
These would be great to hang papers and reminders up on the fridge.
19.) Something related to your current obsession, whatever that may be.
I'm obsessed with books, so uh... most of my wish list. Or this bookmark that symbolizes all that is books.
20.) Something that is just so amazing and awe-inspiring that I simply must see it. Explain why it is so grand.
I'm sure you've seen this but come on! It's John Snuhhhh!
Bonus! Oregon Fruit
Fear cuts deeper thank swords! Thanks for the contest. =)
The Alchemist is something you might be interested in!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416
Listed below is a list of resources that help me get started with entrepreneurship, I recommend that you start listening to podcast first and then migrate to the books; if you can do both. Indulge!
Business Podcast-
http://www.tropicalmba.com
http://fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
http://www.entrepreneuronfire.com
https://www.stansberryradio.com/James-Altucher
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com
http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com
http://mixergy.com
http://freedomfastlane.com
Business books-
http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Napoleon-Hill/dp/1453670114
http://www.amazon.com/The-50th-Law-50-Cent/dp/006177460X
http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded/dp/0307465357
http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416
http://www.amazon.com/Choose-Yourself-James-Altucher-ebook/dp/B00CO8D3G4
http://www.amazon.com/MONEY-Master-Game-Financial-Freedom-ebook/dp/B00MZAIU4G
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/dp/0743277465
Internet blogs/resources-
http://www.reddit.com
http://www.quora.com
https://growthhackers.com
http://www.tropicalmba.com
All of the sites listed above will give you an idea of how the game is played if you want to learn more in-depth I recommend https://www.udemy.com/courses/ . If you have any questions just hit me up! hope this helps or at least give you an idea.
GOOD LUCK!!!
you won't be dissappointed I promise.
If you do buy it, and are disappointed and can tell me exactly why, I will buy you a month of reddit gold.
if you buy it and are not disappointed I will upvote as many of your post and comments I possibly can.
Either way you win, buy it and love it!
Write awesome stuff about zombies including a book entitled "The Zombie Survival Guide". I haven't read that one, but I suggest you check out "World War Z." It approaches a zombie war as it happens on a global level rather than just 8 or so survivors, addressing many sociopolitical issues and showing how different cultures would theoretically react to the outbreak.
World War Z
Just in time for Halloween... "Brooks tells the story of the world's desperate battle against the zombie threat with a series of first-person accounts "as told to the author" by various characters around the world. A Chinese doctor encounters one of the earliest zombie cases at a time when the Chinese government is ruthlessly suppressing any information about the outbreak that will soon spread across the globe. The tale then follows the outbreak via testimony of smugglers, intelligence officials, military personnel and many others who struggle to defeat the zombie menace. Despite its implausible premise and choppy delivery, the novel is surprisingly hard to put down. The subtle, and not so subtle, jabs at various contemporary politicians and policies are an added bonus."
This is one of my favorite books and I reread it about once year, but I think it would be amazing to do discussions with because the POV changes every chapter!
read World War Z. It's such a dark and bleak book, but if you're a zombie enthusiast you will thoroughly enjoy it. Of course, this is assuming you aren't driving. If so, audiobooks.
World War Z, by Max Brooks
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson -- fair warning: it's actually more of a short story/novelette. But even if you've seen the Will Smith movie, the book is different (and, in my opinion, better) so you'll still want to read this one.
The Last Policeman, by Ben Winters -- sort of fits. It's not exactly post-apocalyptic. It's more pre-apocalyptic. It's a sort of noir detective novel, except the government has announced that an asteroid is going to collide with the earth, probably ending life as we know it. So it's kind of a murder mystery while the world breaks down around the hero. The first book in this trilogy won an Edgar Award in 2013 for Best Paperback Original.
Parasites Like Us, by Adam Johnson -- This one's more light-hearted. The hero is a 2nd rate anthropologist working at a 2nd rate university. He illegally conducts a dig at the site of an early American settlement, and gets thrown in jail. Turns out that the dig unleashed a virus that threatens to wipe out civilization. It focuses more on the human elements of the story -- life, love, etc. -- and less on the apocalypse, and it's filled with dark humor and satire.
I want to read World War Z!
I'm assuming you've read World War Z, right?
You should also check out the Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant. Kind of a fresh take on the way it handles zombies, in my opinion.
You should also read The Passage: A Novel, by Justin Cronin - which I just found out is going to be a trilogy and that the second one comes out October 16th!
This is the default answer everyone should recommend when this question is asked:
World War Z by Max Brooks
If you liked John Dies at the End you might enjoy this, this, this or this.
Happy reading!
Amusing! This book is supposed to be really funny. The list price is $14 CAD, but there are other options from $2 CAD :)
That's the "first edition." From what I heard, he posted the story online, and it took off so he got a book publishing deal for a couple thousand copies. They all sold out, so now people are selling them for thousands of dollars as they can be considered a collectible item.
Here you go, 10-20$
I'm in the block of acknowledgements at the end of John Dies at the End and I'm mentioned in the album liner of In Evening Air by Future Islands. Also, I'm in a picture in Look at this Fucking Hipster (technically in the background, but it's an iconic picture that the author wrote a paragraph about).
It's nice (although a bit narcissistic) to be able to walk around a book store and point out random things with my name or image in them. Also, I've been recognized on the street several times for various reasons.
EDIT: Oh, and I wrote a song that has over 31,000 YouTube views. However, I don't think anybody actually watched the video for the song. And the "song" is actually a minute long clip looped several times.
EDIT EDIT: I also sent in a correction to Mental Floss's daily fact newsletter thing. I'm not sure how many people actually subscribe to Watercooler Ammo, but I got mentioned by name.
I know a book you might like.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312659148/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_0cUpzbNGBC113
If you've read "John Dies at the End" this will not come as a surprise.
I'm going to second, House Of Leaves (Goodreads). It's a challenging read, but it tells such a fantastic story. You can get lost in it. It took me about a month and I spent that month completely paranoid, afraid of the dark and nervous about opening doors. If you go with this one make sure you get the physical book the eBook version does not cut it.
John Dies At The End (Goodreads) is a comedy horror book that's also really great. It's not terribly heavy on the disgusting side but it's worth checking out none the less. The sequel is coming out in a month or so.
I haven't read Misery (Goodreads) but it's a King novel that's been recommended to me for all the reasons you've mentioned above. It's on my list and I hope to get around to it soon.
I was reading John Dies at the End last night in bed and had a few moments of... horrorterror
Here are a few books I'm reading right now:
Clearly this one..
John Dies at the End by David Wong. It's a horror/comedy book written by one of the writers at Cracked.
John Dies at the End by David Wong
Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein <- This one I actually got shushed on the subway for laughing too hard while reading it.
Edit: Links
John Dies at the End started with one of these, but I never knew what it was called. Thanks
Oh neat! Seems fun. Fear cuts deeper than swords.
BONUS
Anything that has my real name on it.I don't know your real name, sadly. ): Maybe someday!Any of the things I have noted being on Private lists
I would be happy to send you the link to for proofcan be seen here. :) Also your wishlist names made me chuckle. :DAlso also Happy Birthday to my dad! <3
This?
http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642
That promo was for a book entitled S. It's a book that JJ Abrams co-wrote with Doug Dorst. Really, really great multi-layered experience beyond just a great read.
http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1409957588&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=s
Yes. The book S. is made to smell like an older library book, too, so that was fun. Brand new book, old school smell.
S by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst is all about the footnotes (and the effluvia - it includes tons of letters, notes, maps, whathaveyou).
http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1408996926&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=s+book
Very fun book to read, I can't imagine writing anything like it, personally.
Could it be “S.” by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams?
Edit: found it on Amazon as “Ship of Theseus”.
You really, really need to purchase this book, today, and study it top and bottom:
https://www.amazon.com/Ship-Theseus-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1539921615&sr=8-7&keywords=S
Maybe that's where you got the idea. If not, buy the book and then read about how it works. It's basically exactly what you describe.
Also - don't be like "oh this was already done, I should quit." No one will care, your story actually sounds good.
I just stumbled upon S. by Doug Durst and JJ Abrams which sort of falls into this category as well. There's a "people who viewed this also liked..." rabbit hole to venture on from there. I should've thought of that first!
Edit: Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker, from what limited preview is available, also seems to use a footnote format that could be appropriated.
Thank you for your help. You seem to always be dispensing quality advice in general for a single upvote.
S. By J.J. Abrams. A mysterious book within a book with margin notes and loose sheets tucked between the pages. It seems to be a non frightening cross between House of Leaves and Griffin and Sabine.
It's the book "S." , which was conceived by JJ Abrams and written by Doug Dorst. Haven't gotten to open it yet, but it looks like a library book titled "Book of Thesus" , and it's 2 stories involving the actual book and someone who I think buys/rents the book. It is a mystery that you solve as you go, it is supposed to have clues and such in it. People who've read it say it's super fun, as long as you go into believing the book is real. I may be making this up, but I think there may be other things in the book that tie in to Lost, like the numbers, but again, I haven't read it. Can't wait to get home and give it a whirl. Here's the Amazon link.
http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642
I think this kind of material is awesome! I'm more of a fantasy reader myself, but the type of immersion content I like to see is stuff like...
I'm largely unpublished at the moment, but I do a lot of side-projects and I also enjoy developing a story from multiple angles :D I think that's a great way not only to entertain existing fans, but to draw people to your book/product. Despite the fact that my novel is unpublished, I got quite a lot of attention to a "which character are you?" quiz that I made for my blog.
This is a big unrelated, but you might also like checking out the Raw Shark Texts (allegedly there are real-world places you can travel to to "discover" more things about the book content) and/or The Ship of Theseus (/"Book of S"), which is sold with a bunch of "extraneous" material like newspaper clippings, and the whole book is filled with notes written back and forth from "previous readers"; it's a pretty interesting experience.
S. by J.J. Abrams is a wonderful book with a bit of a cult following.
It's actually a book-within-a-book, but is filled with handwritten conversations between readers in the margins, as well as mementos and inserts that go along with the multiple storylines and mysteries being solved. It's thrilling, fun, and very interesting.
Seems like a strange ad for his book.
http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642
This may be a little outside of what you're looking for, but I found it pretty interesting. Have you seen S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst? Hard to describe, but it's like a story in a story. There's the main book, and then two people talking about it and to each other in the margins... Ha, it sounds weird, but it was unique if nothing else.
If you're the bookish type, this book is very much worth reading. https://www.amazon.com/Ship-Theseus-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642
I know how you feel :[ but upbeat music helps.. usually this one works for me. Oh, and cats and snuggles.
What makes me feel better
this
The Narnia series. I read this series over and over as a child. Its the reason I read so much today. I had read books before that series but I wansnt into reading untill I read this series. It just had everything I was into at the time, Travel, adventure, danger, fictional characters. It also paved the way for me to be into book series more than single books. I think they can go into more detail and make you feel like your part of the story more than one book can and when they are over you almost feel as if a part of you is over. Like its a part of your past life.
a few of my favorite series are:
LOTR
The earths childrens series which is my favorite
The song of ice and fire
The touchstone trilogy
I did the Audiobooks first but I was so hooked I read them too. Cheap on Amazon for the paperback collection
Great for referencing
Starting on the 29th they're also going to include ADWD in a box set as well.
https://www.amazon.com/Thrones-Clash-Kings-Swords-Dragons/dp/0345535529/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1502094091&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=a+song+of+ice+and+fire+leather
Just get this. They're cheap and you'll tear through the books without caring what they look like. They're fine to read. When the series is over, buy a box set.
You can get the entire set for $30 shipped.
Kindle for only $20.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345535529/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d6_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_s=center-2&amp;pf_rd_r=13J5570MWCMZVK54F30Y&amp;pf_rd_t=101&amp;pf_rd_p=1688200382&amp;pf_rd_i=507846
The box has Peter, but not the individual books
Large poster-sized maps of various lands are available for purchase via the Lands of Ice and Fire. Thus, you won't find any large images of them online (legally).
There is a whole book of maps called [Lands of Ice and Fire]
(http://www.amazon.com/Lands-Ice-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544)
https://www.amazon.com/Lands-Ice-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
But you can just copy them; I'm sure the original artist wouldn't mind the loss of income!
Already happened.
http://www.amazon.com/Lands-Ice-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1407305394&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=lands+of+ice+and+fire
There is a history book I listened to in audiobook form while at work. It has no real main characters, but is instead much a history book from school. All told to Tommen by a Maester (I forget who specifically) as a history lesson. It can be a bit boring and fascinating at the same time. Some chapters/histories are so many steps removed from show/books that it got a little slow at times. Definatly worth it though. Made my re-watch of the show VERY different because I knew so much more about the world.
While it doesn't cover everything, it covers everything that is known to the Citidel. Entire histories of small islands north of the Dothraki Sea called Ib, and the islands between Valyria and Sothoros called the Basilisk Isles. But it's all accumulated knowledge, and so even in the book, there is doubt cast on a lot of it as well acknowledging the missing pieces.
There is also an official atlas that has very detailed maps. I would suggest finding one or on the internet to glance at at the same time. It helped me A LOT in understanding what was going on in these histories.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned The World of Ice and Fire, it's essentially a collection of the history of the world in which A Song of Ice and Fire takes place. It's also only recently been released. I haven't read it myself, but it's apparently a very good-looking book.
Along those lines are also The Land of Ice and Fire, which is a collection of maps for the same world and A Feast of Ice and Fire which is a companion cookbook to the series (is she likes to cook.)
Edit: you did mention that you're looking for something more substantial than just a book, so this may fall under that category, but it feels a little more substantial than getting her the next book in a series she's reading or something.
It's as real a book as any of the other related/companion texts, like the cookbook, atlas, show production guide, art book, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
If you decide to get real nerdy, there's a book that came out that has poster size maps of every area. The Known World, Westeros, The Free Cities, Bravos, King's Landing, Beyond the Wall, Slaver's Bay, The Dothraki Sea, The West, The East, Central Essos, and Journeys (Which shows the travels of major characters).
http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
They have a similar warning on the Cloud Atlas novel.
Does anyone know any other times Amazon has had to put those warnings on their products?
Strong recommendation for David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Dutch clerk in late 18th/early 19th century Dejima, lots of depth, gorgeous prose) and for Walter Moers's Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures (fantastical but oddly profound; I'd pick it up even if it doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy). I finished both of these very recently and they were amazing. They hopped right on my list of favourite books, if I'm honest.
Otherwise, I'd very much recommend my all-time favourites: Le Petit Prince (in French or English), Under Milk Wood, Cloud Atlas, and To Kill a Mockingbird (which is always worth a re-read, too).
I included Amazon links so that you know exactly which books I'm talking about, but please consider buying from local bookshops!
It's a book.
The book is highly worth reading, it's easily my favourite.
http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0375507256
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Amazon
The book is six separate yet interwoven stories. I actually got more out of it in my second reading than the first. It spans times & places; each of the stories has a unique style that clearly distinguishes each. The change from one story to another can seem a little jarring until the second half of the book.
I do! The Marriage Plot is on its way to me via Amazon. To balance out the highbrow, I also ordered Messy by the Go Fug Yourself girls.
The last book I finished was Cloud Atlas.
And I just remembered I have Steve Jobs' bio waiting for me in the Nook. Dammit, keep forgetting about that.
Anyone else forget about books because they're on an e-reader instead of sitting on the table, reminding you to be read?
I'll be your buddy! :D <3
House of Leaves is written in a weird format, and is a horror and love story together, apparently. I really want to read it because as Wikipedia says about it:
The format and structure of House of Leaves is unconventional, with unusual page layout and style, making it a prime example of ergodic literature. It contains copious footnotes, many of which contain footnotes themselves, including references to fictional books, films or articles. Some pages contain only a few words or lines of text, arranged in strange ways to mirror the events in the story, often creating both an agoraphobic and a claustrophobic effect. The novel is also distinctive for its multiple narrators, who interact with each other in elaborate and disorienting ways.
While some have attempted to describe the book as a horror story, many readers, as well as the author, define the book as a love story.
a book. https://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764
House of Leaves: The Remastered Full-Color Edition https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0375703764/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Mo7jDb892BHGN
That's the version I bought, it was decently large print but still, I also wouldn't have minded a larger print copy haha
OK. I don't want to argue about this with you, because I'd rather have an interesting conversation with you than just shouting back and forth across each other. :) (also, I haven't read/seen The Giver, so I'm not really equipped for that fight anyway)
I read a book a couple of weeks ago and I want to know if you've read it. It seems like it might be right up your alley: House of Leaves. Have you read it? If so, what did you think? If not, it might be worth a read sometime. I know when I read it I had several moments where I felt a real sense of "spooky dread".
I wonder if you'd read The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It's a different from Tolkein kind of fantasy book, more in the vein of Conan, or early DnD stories people like Gygax were playing, where the main characters aren't necessarily "good" people, just people. It's pulpy, gritty adventure while still being quite epic in scope.
I also wonder if you'd ever read house of leaves. That book is great inspiration for creating suspense and drama inside of a dungeon without ever seeing an enemy to swing a sword into.
Viral Nation by Shaunta Grimes is what I recommend for you!
I would quite like House Of Leaves if you happen to dig the idea of Viral Nation.
Get yourself an Apple TV
Dang girl.
I really want House of Leaves I was going to recommend you buy it also, but your budget was 50-500 so it was way less than that.
Normally I'd post a Stephen King book, but... something's telling me that my usual is too usual...
For the most terrifying book I ever read, try House of Leaves. It's up there as one of my favorites.
But my favorite book (s) and series of all time lies with Harry Dresden. I had this set actually. Signed. Now, it's mysteriously missing like most of my Dresden collection :/ All e-books now. The 15th book (of a planned 23) comes out this year, in about a month. Maybe you'll catch up on time ;)
If you do read, or have read, any of these books, I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT THEM, so feel free to message me about them WHENEVER. (Especially Dresden, I'm rereading them to get ready for the new one)
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski is the single most fucked up book I've ever read. It's also one of the best books I've ever read. It completely made me question reality and left me with the most creeped out, twisted feeling for at least a week after I read it. I immediately wanted to read it again. And the typography for the book is ridiculously insane. It's basically AHS in paper form.
Oh man. I've been waiting for a thread like this to pop up. I loved Neuromancer to no end, along with House of Leaves. Containment was good shit too, very interesting read, but relies on easy plot fixes. It doesn't ruin the story, in my opinion.
You also can't go wrong with anything by Kurt Vonnegut and Phillip K. Dick.
I normally support e-readers (I have a Nook) because they are light-weight, carry thousands of books, and are better for the environment than countless trees being used to print books. However, House Of Leaves is one that you should really have a physical copy of to fully appreciate the experience of the read.
House of Leaves. Written by Poe's brother. It's about a labyrinth in a house and as you're reading it, the words and pages begin to echo the labyrinth. Poe's album "Haunted" goes with it hand-in-hand. It's a very strange experience to read it and know the album.
http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764/
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Doesn't appear to be a kindle version at the moment, but the formatting of the novel doesn't really lend itself to digital. Still worth a read even if you must lug around a dead tree.
The Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card.
A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin.
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin. My favorite sci-fi short story. Couldn't find a link to a kindle version, but it's in a lot of sci-fi short story collections. You can probably find it in your local library (if it still exists).
That book exists! It's called House of Leaves and is really good!
http://www.amazon.ca/House-Leaves-Remastered-Mark-Danielewski/dp/0375703764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1309532601&amp;sr=8-1
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and The Lilies of the Field by William Barrett. Both made me want to give up writing.
Grave encounters is really scary if you've ever read House of Leaves
If you want a straightforward page-turner, try The Descent by Jeff Long. Turns out, a species of hominid diverged from homo sapiens a long time ago, and continued to evolve deep below the earth, in underground caves and tunnels. All of a sudden they seem to be coming to the surface to attack people, and we've got to stop 'em. To paraphrase one of the characters, "we've declared war on hell".
If you want something more challenging, how about House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. It's hard to describe this book, but if you get a chance to pick it up in the bookstore, flip through the pages and look at how it's laid out. The fonts and layout change, some pages only have a couple of words on them, some pages are printed diagonally, others reversed. The book itself is a mystery about a mystery. It may be a horror story, or it may not be, but it will definitely give you an uneasy feeling when you're out there in the woods.
If you want a book that may inspire you while you're out there, pretty much anything by John Muir would do, but how about The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures. I haven't read this book, but it's a compilation of his writing and I'm sure I've read many of the stories that go into it. Muir is a great lover of and writer about nature, and had a lot of adventures to draw from.
Have fun on your trip!
Check out house of leaves
by Julia Cameron is one of my favorite books on creative unblocking for both writers AND artists! I go back to it whenever Im in a slump!
Funny thing happened to me when I read this book. One night my roommates and I had some friends over to hang out. A few people were still there but it was getting kind of late so I decided to get to bed. I shut my door to block out the noise and read a bit of House of Leaves. As it happened I was in a terrifying part of the book [Spoiler](/s "The part where the narrator spills black tattoo ink on himself and is, metaphorically at least, nearly drowned by darkness"). Freaked out, I turned off my light and after some effort, fell asleep.
I jolt awake and there is a tremendous pressure on my chest. it hurt. There was also something hot at my face. My mind short circuited. There was something in the room with me. something alive. I started screaming. Loudly. As far as I was concerned I was seconds away from my mortal end with a very real possibility of eternal torment.
No one came to my rescue. No one heard or cared. I pushed the weight off my chest and lunged off my bed and towards my bedroom door. I tore it open, but before I fled, I had to know. What horror had nearly slaughtered me?
I turned around and there was my black labrador retriever wagging his tail happily at me. My roommate had brought him into my room to keep me company. . .
Got to recommend:
House of Leaves, Mezzanine and Nadja. The Raw Shark Texts, Astronomical
Just a few that came to mind:
JPOD by Douglas Coupland
Lying by Lauren Slater
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski.
I read this book years ago and it still haunts me. I love it but I still don't have it all figured out.I would really love to see a film adaptation, as difficult as that sounds, because of how nontraditional the narrative/film would be. In the right hands it could be pulled off really well (like say, Fincher, Aronofsky or maybe Lynch could really turn up the horrific/suspenseful elements). I wish someone would adapt it because it is such an intense mindfuck of a story.
I would also really love to see Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik made into a movie.
Someone's going to recommend House of Leaves, and it might as well be me.
Hi There!
Its actually an entire book. You're in for a treat.
https://www.amazon.ca/House-Leaves-Remastered-Mark-Danielewski/dp/0375703764
It can be pricey so I borrowed it from the library. It's like high quality long form creepypasta.
The word ^house is always blue and off-kilter in the book
The Raw Shark Texts was ridiculous the first time I read it. More so the second time. Ended up loaning my copy out a dozen times, eventually losing track of it. But it's probably in a better place now. Also, House of Leaves is phenomenal. If you haven't read it yet, you need to correct that as soon as possible.
Used books are fine. They're still books. Smell more like books, too.
Bookworms rule!
Weirder than House of Leaves?
House of Leaves by Mark. Z Danielewski.
Don't read anything about it. Block out a few days of time, buy the book, and prepared to get fucking creeped out.
I'm not getting any presents this year, but if you want to give something. Then i'd like something like this. But thats just selfish thinking of me expecting that 1. You'd wanna pay so much. and 2. That you're going to choose me over that Clean water well idea. But if you don't want to buy me a wacom, i'd also be happy with just a good book or something. I heard House of leaves is good.
Even if you dont pick me or something, I just want to say you are a great guy and props to you for this kind of christmas spirit. This song is for you.
Songs:
Movies:
Books:
Shows:
UGH I JUST REMEMBERED TO FINISH THIS BRB
EDIT: Okay here it izzzz.
These are the items you are looking for... (everything listed is from my wishlists here! )
1.) Something that is grey. – The bike lock on my wishlist (that was already gifted (: ) This one’s grey!
2.) Something reminiscent of rain. These leggings are Doctor Who Cosmic Tardis Leggings are cosmic… as in galaxy… as in the universe… in which there is a water cycle…. Which is reminiscent of rain…. Yup. ;)
3.) Something food related that is unusual. – It’s not every day you get to have jagermeister infused gummy bears....... Freaking nom.
4.) Something on your list that is for someone other than yourself. Tell me who it's for and why. (Yes, pets count!) – A dog bed for my puppy!! He really, really needs a new one.
5.) A book I should read! I am an avid reader, so take your best shot and tell me why I need to read it! – YOU NEED TO READ THE HOUSE OF LEAVES IT’S SO CRAZY AND I LOVE IT AND … AT SOME POINTS… YOU READ IT UPSIDE DOWN AND CRAZY AND INSIDE OUT AND OMFG WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING READING THIS GO READ THIS NOW
6.) An item that is less than a dollar, including shipping... that is not jewelry, nail polish, and or hair related! This with the value of 95 cents ;) hehehe I’m sneaky.
7.) Something related to cats. I love cats! (Keep this SFW; you know who you are...) -- This cat bed, even though I don’t have a cat, was on my puppy’s list! My puppy (who’s really a 9 year old dog but I call him puppy cause he looks/acts/is one) is a 6lb pup who’s basically a cat ;)
8.) Something that is not useful, but so beautiful you must have it. – The Chuck Complete Series Collector Blu-ray is not necessarily useful to my life…But the show’s so gorgeous, the cast so beautiful, the plot so delicious…I love it and need it! :P
9.) A movie everyone should watch at least once in their life. Why? – TANGLED!! (OK, one of the only movie related pieces on my list :P) But really, Tangled is PERFECT, SO adorable, a real winner.
10.) Something that would be useful when the zombies attack. Explain. – Okay this may seem crazy but stick with me here. these bones would be super helpful once whittled down. You could use it to double tap those stanky ass zombies
11.) Something that would have a profound impact on your life and help you to achieve your current goals. I have lots of stuff for fitness and school and all my goals likes that, but I thought I'd use something a little different for this one. This skin corrective cream would allow me to cover up my stupid little burn marks on my leg that make me really self conscious in skirts and shorts. This would be a good step in my goal of being happy with myself and gaining self confidence for the first time in my life.
12.) One of those pesky Add-On items.– One of those pesky add-ons… The MSC Joie Simply Slice Strawberry Slicer on my WL is one of them pesky add-ons.
13.) The most expensive thing on your list. Your dream item, why? – A Bike. Why? Mine was stolen and its extremely hindered my mobility as I need it for transportation to school /:
14.) Something bigger than a bread box. – The puppy bed on my puppy’s wishlist within my own wishlist is most definitely bigger than a breadbox.
15.) Something smaller than a golf ball. -- These cable organizers HOLLAH at me, Tiger Woods.
16.) Something that smells wonderful. -- French Vanilla Green Mountain Coffee Portion Packs for Keurig Mmmmmmmmm, delicious.
17.) A (SFW) toy. -- Crock Pot COOKING IS LIFE AND HAVING A CROCK POT WOULD BE THE BEST OF TOYS. For something more traditional, I have hedgehog toys etc on my puppy's list.
18.) Something that would be helpful for going back to school. -- This beautiful backpack! Mine is shot to hell and I'm dreading buying a new one.
19.) Something related to your current obsession, whatever that may be. This Friends Milkshake Poster Print from my wishlist OMFG I AM OBSESSED WITH FRIENDS RIGHT NOW. IDK WHY BUT I AM. Also with the Chuck DVD on my dreams list xD
20.) Something that is just so amazing and awe-inspiring that I simply must see it. Explain why it is so grand.– The New York Window Print Poster on my wishlist is pretty awe-inspiring. Looking into the city "where dreams are made of" in whatever town your in.... In a place that's essentially the culmination of all your dreams and desires.... At least for me.
-------
BONUS ITEMS
Finally, some people say that fear cuts deeper than swords but does it? Who knows.
My blue canary,
You were writing your in depth description as I was writing my greeting from Vallejo. :) Oh, your descriptions make me feel like a drive. You may have heard Poe's Hey Pretty at some point but there is a version with her brother (who wrote House Of Leaves ) reading a segment of his book about a woman driving on Mullholland Drive. This will have to be a My Addiction deal. Look it up under "Drive By 2001" Mix If you would like.
>Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
Delivered just like your "love, love, love", right?
So we parked in the garage at Anchorage shopping center right at Fisherman's Wharf. The professor decided he wanted to be sure of his lunch and chose to stop in at the Subway restaurant to get a picnic sandwich. Every instinct of mine revolted at the very thought of going to a Subway in The City! Couldn't we score countless hard to find treats by tripping over our own feet?! I tried to share this feeling, but it wasn't happening.
Since I was going to see, even a tiny bit, some of the most advanced race boats in the world today out racing and I would be doing so in
SAN
FRAN
CISCO,
where I've not been for far too long,
I'd already decided to go wherever the people with opinions and desires wanted to go for the race view, so instead of trying to locate something else for my own, different, edibles I decided to embrace the adventure, or lack of it as it presented itself. Tuna on "9-grain honey oat" with all the salad went into my backpack and away we went.
Right along Jefferson street realising I'd not done the wharf in many years. We walked through Aquatic park where I saw swimmers (I wonder if Annie has swum there?) and a woman carrying a camera (Annie told me about a day of taking pictures along this route-- oh! don't stare at this woman). Up to Fort Mason with us. I could have walked so much more today....
Anyway, I'm there watching the big cats prepare for the race and check reddit:
>At the end of the AC pier, looking toward you
That I would somehow be able to see the look on my own face when reading that line. Annie, I started and looked that direction! Turned out you'd written an hour before. It seemed unlikely that you would still be standing there.
To share even brief thoughts with you during the race was almost as good as sharing race with you directly. Sometimes I don't know if I let you know how good to me you are. To get your description of your experience over there photographing a boat, sharing your sense of it was another gift of smile for me!
You write while I'm composing this?!
>Okay, heading off into the water!
I've my own happy-overload over you getting out there in the water.
You say you won't be home until really late. Enjoy a gorgeous night drive, just do it defensively. I'm all selfish and want more of your time.
One note, spelled l-i-t-E
Edit: Repeated a reapeat thought thought
oh this book gave me nightmares.. like it's not the best piece of literature BUT once i finished it i had to think about this book day and night... it was so creepy and weird and crazy!
House Of Laves by Mark Z. Danielewsky just for those who are interested...
really good read for Creepypasta fans!
If it's not too late, you can go here:
http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764/
And search for relevant words like "failed" and find the pages and see them.
I'm not sure if it counts as a thriller, but if you want an excellently written book that will severely screw with your head:
[House](http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764 "This is not for you.") of Leaves
Happy birthday!! What are you doing to celebrate?
I've already mentioned this today, but I took 4 years of Latin in high school. The only sentence I can say is Aqua bona est, which means water is good. Even though this is grammatically incorrect, we learned that semper ubi sub ubi kinda translates to always wear your underwear.
I would love a used paperback copy of House of Leaves. Thanks for the contest and I hope you have a fantastic, fun-filled day! :)
Birthday bot
Impossible to read in a digital format:
Not quite as impossible, but still difficult or not the same experience:
Similarly, this author took newspaper articles and blacked out most of the words, leaving poetry.
by Mark Z. Danielewski — Insane formatting, colored words, and many footnotes and appendices.
I love my Kindle 3. The keyboard is super handy. I'm extremely prone to migraines, so while I still love physical copies of books, I can't read them in bright light or in the sun. The reflection triggers migraines 75% of the time.
It's nice to have options.
Every month Amazon lists 100 ebooks for 3.99 or less. Pretty much every month you can find winners there. This month there's "I Am Legend," "The Sirens of Titan," and "John Dies at the End" among others (I heartily recommend them ALL).
A great non-Kindle book is House of Leaves. Creepy and satisfying, that one.
Good luck with your Kindle endeavor!
House of Leaves. Just saw it in the book store one day, and that gorgeous cover and strange size drew me in, and the weird layouts within grabbed me, and than they called it Horror. There was no way I wouldn't buy it.
So the main problem is that these arguments are just bullshit. Islam isn't true. None of the apologetics are correct, it's all just a way that people rationalize an irrational belief to themselves and sanitize its flaws for others.
> The first argument was that Islam is misinterpreted by the majority of Muslims, because the Quran is being taken literally and out of context.
Bruv, that's what the Qur'an tells you to do. This is the Book about which there is no doubt and such. It is correct that not every verse can be taken at face value -- for example, most of the "kill the disbelievers" verses actually do have "but also seek terms of peace" clauses nearby, and where they don't, it's an honest reading of the text to say that they were speaking only to specific battles conducted in Muhammad's lifetime. For the most part, though, the Qur'an intends itself to be read literally.
> The second was that there are many laws that cannot be practiced in a modern society (i.e. cutting hands of thieves, killing apostates, women's testimonial's being half of a man), and that they were only meant for their time.
Total bullshit. The cutting hands verse is followed immediately by "and if you don't actually use this, you are a disbeliever". The occasion of revelation for the "those who don't judge by what Allah has revealed" verses was a time when the Jews decided to "adapt to the times" by not stoning adulterers anymore. Muhammad got mad at them for not taking the Torah literally enough and made them stone her. That story is in Muslim (previous reference) and in Bukhari. Also, 'Umar says that he fears a day when Muslims will quit stoning. Hell yes, Muslims are supposed to support that stuff, according to the Qur'an and the sunnah. Unambiguously.
> The third argument was that the Quran has been preserved and we still have a full copy of the first ever Quran, and it's the same as a modern Quran with the exception of the addition of diacritics.
Not really. There was disagreement between Abu Bakr and 'Umar about whether the Qur'an should be collected at all. Muhammad himself used to forget some verses, so it's unlikely that the verbal transmission of Qur'an (and hadith, for that matter) was as solid as Muslims would like to think. There were many differences among the early copies, so 'Uthman fixed it by standardizing to one language and burning the rest of them. Perhaps the Arabic Qur'an hasn't changed since then, but it's most unlikely that that revision was actually exact.
> The fourth arguments was that the Quran had many scientific facts that could never have been realized by people back then (i.e. water gives life to beings, the earth is round), and this proves that the Quran was written by something divine.
This is the bullest of all the shit. The Qur'an also says that God uses shooting stars to fight space demons. Mountains don't keep the earth from shaking, they are just the earth lumping up when the plates collide -- Muhammad's people thought the earth was flat (like a carpet!) so it needed mountains to keep it from blowing away. While there's not a smoking gun of a scientific statement that's like... only wrong, these "scientific miracles" are always super vague, and if God wanted to prove Himself correct, He could have.
None of these scientific statements were unknown at the time -- they were either (1) immediately observable (2) repeated from the knowledge of ancient Greeks or (3) "written in" by later people. Like "oh man, the Qur'an says iron was 'sent down!' And iron can only come from nuclear fusion in stars! It's a miracle!" Nah. They didn't know about nuclear fusion.
If you think about how a man who did believe in a flat earth with the sun revolving around it would explain things... He'd explain things the way they're explained in the Qur'an. This guy breaks it down pretty well -- I started it at a point where he discusses a hysterical pair of commentaries on the "rising-place of the sun" verse.
> The fifth argument was the Quran was written in such a way that no way a human (the prophet specifically, since he was illiterate) could have done it, only a modern computer would have been able to make in its structure.
This is really dumb. First off, poetry battles between illiterates was like. A big thing that the Arabs of the time did around campfires and stuff. Think about how much beautiful gospel music (and lyrics) was written by American slaves during the 1800's.
Even then, any author's style is mostly inimitable, and these stylistic fingerprints are fairly precise. This is how biblical scholars have cast doubt on the authorship of books of the bible traditionally attributed to the apostle Paul. So whether the Qur'an was written by God or Muhammad, it would be hard to convincingly reconstruct its style...
...Not to mention that this is such a subjective claim. What the hell does it mean to "produce something like" the Qur'an? What would it mean to produce something like Shakespeare? Who would measure it?
This is an untestable hypothesis, and can't be given real consideration.Either way, I've roundly disproved this claim with my own construction.Also... I'd argue that William Faulkner's writings show a brilliance of composition far beyond that of the Qur'an. House of Leaves, by Mark Danielewski, is also a masterpiece of form far more sophisticated than the Qur'an.
Like yeah... The Qur'an has poetic bits, interesting arguments, some chunks of good moral teaching, but... Overall, it just doesn't get the Nobel Prize for literature. Thousands of people have memorized the Qur'an, either because they were forced to or because they thought it would get them mad pussy in heaven. How many more thousands have memorized Shakespeare's works purely because they thought it was well-written and interesting? I like Abdullah Sameer's reflection on this.
the book house of leaves addresses this. it's not the biggest part of the story, but one character gets famous for a picture of a starving child who dies.
it's a horror book... maybe. every horror fan should check it out.
was recently recommended to read The House of Leaves
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375703764/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
If you can get through it, House of Leaves. The comments can summarize it a lot better than I could here. It's, well.. indescribable. Not for all people, but I liked it.
amazon/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764
Got your back friENT.
(.ca for my Canadian brethren.)
This is the edition I have…
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/0375703764/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&amp;index=0&amp;isremote=0
… which has all coloring, including the ultra-rare purple. It’s a large paperback with the front cover smaller, as seen in the pic. Alas that seems to be the more expensive one (library binding). On the 5th or 6th page of the ‘look inside’ preview, it tells what version of book it is.
Read House of Leaves.
I took a long time to get back to you, which means I need to delete my reddit account and hide forever. I mean apologize. That one.
Anyway. Junji Ito is awesome. Not sure which of his stuff you've seen, but I think his best works are the short The Enigma of Amigara Fault (not for the claustrophobic!) and the longer series Uzumaki.
Thomas Ligotti is sort of the best-kept secret of modern horror - he's very reclusive due to severe anxiety and bipolar disorders. It gives his work a grounding in the sort of horror that comes from inside your own mind, and a sense that reality is a weird, broken place, or maybe something even worse. There's a couple of his stories online here if you want to check him out. "Nethescurial" is one of the creepiest things I've ever read.
One of my favorite books is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's sort of experimental with how the text is laid out in parts, which can make it kind of weird to try to read, but the overlapping narratives are really strong and chilling in a number of different ways.
Are you familiar with the SCP Foundation? If you like /u/ParanormalAdvisor's posts it should be right up your alley. There's so many different kinds of scary there, plus all kinds of awesome.
I am Jewish also, but I read "Lamb" by Christopher Moore, so allow me to explain:
Jesus was scheduled to preach. A bunch of people showed up to hear him. For some reason, those people failed to bring any food and were hungry. All the disciples had was, like, one fish and a loaf of bread. Jesus performed a miracle and transformed the single fish and loaf into many - enough to feed the masses of people that had come to hear him preach.
The end.
How about Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years -- except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams"
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
My linking on mobile is wonky tonight, so I'm just going to leave the link like I'm not ashamed of my inability to use a phone right...
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
I also really liked Christopher Moore - lamb, the bible according to biff was his best so far, although I have enjoyed his other novels as well.
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart Ehrman
It's been a few years but I recall it being pretty enlightening at the time. I never really bought most of the critisism of Aslan's book. It might be because both this book and Aslan's had kind of the same take - Jesus as a figure far outside of the mainstream and more a Revolutionary than a Shepherd. (Speaking of Shepherds - if you want to enjoy a completely non-Historical but insanely funny story of Jesus, try Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.)
If you like the concept but not delivery, you may like Christopher Moore's comedic book Lamb, about Jesus lost years in which he visits & learns in China and India.
Christopher Moore's Lamb explains this hilariously.
You sure you're not thinking of the Gospel according to Biff?
I can't stress this enough, This entire book is pure satire. Again, satire. That being said it is also very well informed and rather witty.
You've asked for basically something akin to a bible textbook it sounds like and not an entertaining story, I'm only suggesting this because it's the book responsible for me actually going on and finally reading the bible. Much like you said, I also found the bible itself to be a pretty difficult read by today's standards.
Anyways. If you'd like something light and honestly really good to read in your downtime check out Lamb, by Christopher Moore.
https://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
You're welcome. It is one of the funniest books ever written IMO.
That theory makes a great book.
All of his books are hilarious. I actually came here to suggest Lamb, which is slightly heavier, but is mostly just hilarious.
Was it this? http://www.amazon.ca/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1449894211&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=lamb
Because I LOVE this book!
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. So funny!
Have you read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal?
I highly recommend you get/acquire/borrow and read a copy of "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore...
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
On a sort of related note, here's a hilarious fiction/comedy novel involving cargo cults:
http://www.amazon.com/Island-Sequined-Love-Christopher-Moore/dp/0060735449
A bunch of this author's other (old) stuff is good too, like "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal":
http://www.amazon.ca/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
Buddha and Christ not going off and having weird adventures? I think Christopher Moore and Osamu Tezuka would like a word with you.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. First book to ever truly brake down the world paradigm for me. Wouldn't be in this sub without it. Fair warning though, it's got a lot of earthy, ecology stuff in there. Might be too much for people further to the right. If that is your thing though I'd also recomend Last hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann. Good thread, BWT. Refreshing to see this.
If you haven't already, check out Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Offers a rather compelling anthropological explanation of the early bible.
Ishmael, I sometimes hate recommending this book because of the tag "adventure of mind and spirit" but it's a very good and fascinating take on the anthropological origins of our civilization.
http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-Adventure-Spirit-Daniel-Quinn/dp/0553375407
My assertions are axiomatic, and quite obviously so, at that. This is not a wise battle for you to pursue, unless you wish to descend into colonial European notions of manifest destiny and the white man's burden.
>>Those people are just as advanced as any other
>
>No, they're not.
Tell me, then: in a contest of using indigenous medicinal plants, who would prove "more advanced" - you, or these tribespeople? In determining who has superior herding techniques, which party would be the victor? In a comparison of familial kinship and relations? Spearcraft? Long-distance hiking? Animal husbandry?
There simply does not exist any way to declare any of these criteria "unimportant" without making a subjective assertion of your own personal values. And the people we're talking about would most certainly have a different class of values about those things. Why would your values be "more objective" than theirs - or anyone's? The answer is that they cannot be. It is your own opinion, and with any degree of humility, all genuinely reasonable people recoginze that, as I hope that you will, too.
>>Civilization and technology are specific types of advancements, but they are not objectively superior to any others
>
>Yes, they are.
Funny - there sure seem to be a great many very well-reasoned arguments against civilization and technology, even from those who have experienced the very height of their "advancement".
I certainly see no evidence for an objective declaration, even just by examing the meta-issue of the debate itself, which is undeniably still open.
>>to add "culture" in there is frankly just plain racist.
>
>No, it isn't.
Yes, it is. You have virtualy no notions of these people's culture. The very definition of "culture" practically prohibits the very idea of it being declared "advanced" or otherwise. It is simply the collection of common and traditional practices of a given group. I would even go so far as to say that if one were to make judgments of "advancement," surely a culture that has been largely uninterrupted and un-usurped for a period of thousands of years has matured and "advanced" far more than a culture which is ever-shifting and highly dependent on technological advances that didn't even exist a generation prior. But even to make an assertion such as that is meaningless, because the criterion "advancement" simply does not make sense when applied to culture - any culture. The only role that such a declaration can fulfill is to demean and devalue another group of people completely arbitrarily, as to support a racist or otherwise xenophobic worldview.
>By what standard are modern Western civilization, technology, and culture objectively superior to barefoot African tribesmen? By the only objective standard of value: their success at meeting the requirements of human life.
And just what are those "requirements of human life?" These tribespeople might tell you some very different things than what you would tell them. Would either of you be "right?" Absolutely not.
As for the rest of your points, they are all similarly obvious - and highly subjective, though largely incontroversial in our demographic - subjective and personal value judgments. Adding the word "objectively" to your statements does not make it so. Even such criteria as you have mentioned - lifespan, "individualism," property rights (lol), etc., are not objectively "advanced." After all, what are the "objective" benefits of a long lifespan if it is filled with ennui, alienation and oppression? What is the value of "individualism" to a person who cherishes deep bonds and shared struggle with others? How can one declare "property rights" to be an objective good when the very concept of such has only existed for a few hundred years, and has arguably led to the greatest ongoing extinction of species in millions of years?
You see? Value judgments, all of it. And for someone who might call themself a "libertarian," you certainly seem not to understand the true spirit of the credo, "live and let live."
One of the rare books I go back to re-read now and again is Ishmael - An adventure of mind and spirit. If you read it, let me know what you think.
Read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
> Hate it when people make an argument they know is flawed.
Me too.
>> Interesting. But, doesn't that imply that 80% of us actively want back pain? Or, does it imply that God didn't give us an owner's manual for our bodies?
>> God took the time to tell us not to sleep with sheep. Why not also tell us correct posture and job options for a healthy back?
> HAHA I never thought I'd see back pain compared to sheep sodomy...
A) To be fair to the Bible, I am not aware of any specification of exactly which sex acts are and are not allowed. It's more of a sheepskin blanket statement that "baa" means "no". It's a sentiment I agree with. But, I do think it means that the authors of the Bible, either were sleeping with sheep or enough people around them were doing so, that they felt the need to state this explicitly. Compare to cannibalism, which as far as I know has no mention in the Bible, but might have if the Bible had been written on Fiji. I think my ancestors were sheepshaggers, not cannibals.
B) I think/hope I was comparing what is and is not in the Bible rather than comparing the experience of back pain with the experience of having sex with a sheep. Since I've only experienced back pain, I think I'd be bad at actually comparing the two.
> Though the christian God is more concerned with moral health than physical health. I get the vibe he probably could have given this information on health and lifestyle (and probably might have, pre fall) but that now it would only serve as confusion and distraction from his main concern, eternity. An important point to remember when debating religion I think!
I'll keep this in mind. It is interesting. But, to say that God is more concerned about our moral health than our physical health might imply that there is a limit as to how much time God can/will spend on the other. I'm not sure I see why God would have limited resources and need to prioritize or triage our health concerns.
> Though you'd probably question the morality of that in itself - suffering and all. But he would have to draw the line of intervention somewhere no? Possibly, that's at the finite as a whole! With a few miraculous exceptions to bump people in the right moral direction perhaps.
Possibly. I'm not sure I'm the best to argue this point since I don't actually understand what would drive God to create in the first place.
>> That would be interesting. But, I would love to know why God would want us to live as hunters and gatherers but give us all of those instructions for sacrificing animals that we'd have only with animal husbandry.
> From what I understand animal sacrifice was less to do with the animal and more to do with the sacrifice. Sacrifices of grain, fine oils and other valuable commodities were also common in Judaism as a demonstration of prioritizing God over the short term.
True. But, none of that would apply to hunters and gathers. Nor was the Bible written by (or revealed to) hunters and gatherers. My ancestors were a mix of nomadic shepherds and city dwellers. The Bible is clearly written by and for that culture and time.
So, the way we lived for ~190,000 years prior to agriculture may indeed have been healthier for us. But, the authors were so far removed from that time that there is no mention of it at all in the Bible.
Though, I did read an interesting book that suggested that the story of the fall of man may actually be one of the few very vaguely remembered stories from the people who were not agrarian but lived side by side with agrarians and saw the lifestyle as a fall from the grace of hunting and gathering.
I'm not saying I agree or that the book was in any way scientific about it. But, it was an interesting take on the story of the fall. The book is Ishmael (part of a trilogy) by Daniel Quinn. If you haven't already read it, you might find it has some interesting thinking behind it.
> So it's more about morality and giving up what you value than what that sacrifice actually is. If we were hunter gatherers, the sacrifice might have been 10% of our berries and pelts or something.
True enough.
Though the scapegoating bit always bothered me. I don't personally think that one can put their sins on an animal, kill that animal, and waste the food as a means of absolution. In fact, I think this results in increasing their sins rather than decreasing them. For, now they have added needlessly killing an animal. And, while I'm not a vegetarian, I think we should't kill animals without at least the purpose of eating them.
>> We are a young species. We've only been on the planet for 200,000 years. Our bipedalism evolved and has been improving since Ardipithecus, a genus of two species that were likely partially bipedal 4.4 and 5.6 million years ago. This is not a long time in evolution. We've been improving but likely still don't have all of the kinks worked out.
>
> So considering how incredibly effective our bodies are in every other aspect of bipedalism, the idea of our backs being left behind in this development to me, make the causes of late onset chronic pain seem more like a result of societal lifestyle changes than not.
Actually, there are other pains as well that we get from bipedalism. Back pain is not alone. It is in good company with knee and neck pain. And, numerous people have problems with their feet such as flat feet. My own go splat, meaning that I have an arch but it doesn't hold when I stand up. So I need orthotics to keep my arch while walking because otherwise, my knees tip inward and I get knee pain from my bad feet.
> I hear you saying backs just had no reason to be better for our survival sake, but you know, I think they would have been.
Maybe they will be if we can survive the next couple of hundred years. Maybe when the great human die-off happens (because we're way over sustainable numbers right now) that will give us the small population(s) required for speciation to occur. And, maybe we'll get the next incremental improvement, which may be stronger backs or going back to knuckle-walking. Or, it could be letting our legs atrophy altogether and getting around with wheels. Maybe the so-called singularity where we ?download/upload/crossload? our very selves into robot bodies will be our next evolutionary step.
I'm not optimistic. I'm betting extinction of us and a great many other species with us is the next step for us.
> (Only way to have any clue would be by that study we spoke about though). Also, would the argument of aging be reasonable, given all creatures ache towards the end of their lives? Dogs' hips for example, they often go when they get old, so we'd be saying they're an imperfect design too?
I once did read a book on philosophy of engineering that said that perfect engineering would have the whole unit fail at once.
>> Unfortunately, it does not look to me as if we'll survive long enough for that next step.......
> Wellllll that's a terrifying thought! I'll just go crawl back into my confirmation bias shell now, thank you. ;)
Oops. I was responding and reading at the same time. Maybe I should go back and delete some of the more depressing stuff I wrote above. But, I already typed it and still agree with what I typed. So, I'm going to let it stand.
If you believe our lives our eternal, why worry if our physical species is not?
BTW, I personally would not want eternity in heaven or hell. Both are equally scary to me. They'd only differ for the portion of time that I'd be adjusting to my new surroundings. Once I'm used to heaven or abused to hell, I'd go through an OK period (finite) in either and then just be bored out of my soul for the rest of eternity (infinite). I'm not built for eternity and want no part of it. But, that's just me.
Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner is about water infrastructure in the American West and its politics.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is fiction but talks about human-nature relations.
I've read that.. It's just Ishmael.. Good book.
Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
I wouldn't say it's classic philosophy but it help me with thinking in a different way and challenging common knowledge more.
you might enjoy this book
One of them, at least, was reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn in 11th grade. The book has a lot of flaws, but it was eye-opening for me - and helped me see (and analyze) the myths and constructs of the human existence. Some of these myths are good, helpful, etc, but in the end it's all made up.
It works locally but it can never work globally. Populations tend to increase when there is enough food for everyone until there is no longer enough sustenance, then you have hungry people again. The only way we can ever feed everyone is if we have an ever increasing food source and ever increasing land source, of which we have neither.
Daniel Quinn wrote a very good book discussing this called Ishmael. I'm not saying it's as cut and dry as that, but you can't really believe that if everyone has enough money and everyone has enough food, we won't be in the same situation all over again in just a couple of years. It's much more complicated than that.
Going to try and post books that are related, but not actually "atheist".
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
The first one for obvious reasons. Sagan is the secular Jesus, and I'd say the second is an interesting read for anyone religious or otherwise, but I feel like it would be better received if you don't actually believe in Christianity. It's a great read though
I highly recommend [Ishmael by Daniel Quinn] (https://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-Novel-Daniel-Quinn/dp/0553375407/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1505685091&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=ishmael+daniel+quinn) and [Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac] (https://www.amazon.com/Dharma-Bums-Jack-Kerouac/dp/0140042520/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1505685168&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=dharma+bums+by+jack+kerouac).
The narrators of both books are looking to understand life, or to put their existence in some sort of context. Over the course of their adventures, they find out how to exist in the world in a way that empowers them and celebrates their uniqueness.
http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-Adventure-Spirit-Daniel-Quinn/dp/0553375407
Ismael by Daniel Quinn. Everything about what is wrong with our civilization through a talking gorilla. Great stuff
I had to hit the dictionary often for The Diamond Age.
the Diamond Age
Friday
the Sparrow
the Blind Assasin
Parable of the Sower
Diamond Age
>John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.
Right, I have a bit of a terrible memory so here are some... not all of them have a woman as the main but generally more than just 'supporting' or 'girlfriend' roles :)
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear. This is part of a series and I'm pretty sure this is the first in that series with Darwin's Children the next one.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
Ender's Game.
Mainly my favourite authors are Greg Bear, Greg Egan, Neal Stephenson, Stephen Baxter, Philip K Dick - the usual crowd. Do you have any recommendations?
My favorite post-singularity fiction is the Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright. Superintelligent AI, virtual reality, and mind uploading, and he still manages a deeply human tale of epic heroism. It's a little hard to get into for the first three or four chapters, but then it really takes off. I've read it three times.
Greg Egan's work is pretty interesting, eg. Permutation City, which is mainly about uploading etc.
For more of the near-future speculation side of Accelerando, Cory Doctorow writes a lot of good stuff. And there's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom which is post-singularity.
Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age is pretty much a classic, covering nanotech, AI-based education, and all sorts of craziness. One of my favorites.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562 is what I have, and really, I could do with a slightly more abridged version, there are a bunch of stories inside I don't really care to reread. His work is fairly uneven I would say and certainly his genius doesn't show in all stories.
Which by no mean means you shouldn't get as complete set of his stories if this is what you want. Just pointing out that it might not be worth it.
I bought the two big Gollancz Lovecraft books, Necronomicon and Eldritch Tales, a year or two back. Does anyone know how this stacks up against those in terms of completeness? Eldritch Tales includes many of the collaborations, the poetry and The Supernatural in Horror Fiction (which I think should be a part of every really good Lovecraft collection).
And if you feel like dropping some coin, Gollancz has put out a couple of really sharp looking collections.
Hi tmhodge, I got the book rather cheaply from Amazon (here) and, well, the picture is from my study room ;)
I highly recommend this edition, it's a ridiculously massive (880 pages!) & luxuriously bound book with dozens of HPL's stories and fantastic woodcut illustrations.
[Edit: Official 3Quarks4MasterMark endorsement & woodcut scan added]
So, you can pretty much disregard u/Independent_Skeptic's contribution here...
HP Lovecraft never wrote a Necronomicon. He only wrote stories about a fictional book he called the Necronomicon. There was also a posthumous collection of HP Lovecraft stories gathered together under the title Necronomicon but that's something else altogether. The same collection of stuff has been assembled by many publishers under many titles.
Ist Ausgabe vergleichbar mit dem was ich habe? Link
Oder lohnt sich die Anschaffung des anderen?
I have this.
Hi, I do custom orders, yes. Would you like for the Necronomicon this one: https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Best-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/0575081562/ref=sr_1_2?crid=110CH0S77DOPG&keywords=necronomicon&qid=1569028294&s=books&sprefix=necronomicon%2Caps%2C216&sr=1-2
If so, I'll dm you a price quote/turnaround time. Then if you approve, I'd send you an online listing via my website secretsafebooks dot com or my etsy page.
If not, please send me a link to the specific edition you would like, and I'll dm you a price quote/turnaround time.
Thank you!
It's not complete, it is missing the poems, and a few stories he did as collaborations. This and this, contain more than the one you've given.
I have all three, the complete fiction is a much, much nicer edition than the two I linked, and while it is missing the poems, it is still a great buy for the price. Also, you should buy the one directly from amazon, not the third party.
there you go
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1500847926&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=necronomicon
Well Amazon has all of them. Yeah sure it's pricy but still. It does have them.
https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Best-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/0575081562
I know you already picked one, but I got the hardcover version of the Necronomicon compilation, and I absolutely love it. It's beautifully bound and embossed. I got into Lovecraft not too long ago, and I'm still working my way through it.
I might have to pick that up. I have the Necronomicon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562 (gorgeous book) which has more stories than the one you mentioned but each is missing some tales that the other has when you compare contents.
Get Necronomicon: the Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft , it's pretty much the only one you'll have to buy for a good while!
If you really enjoy CoC, you might like the Necronomicon, which is a collection of the cthulhu mythos stories by Lovecraft. Also the name of the bible/spell book in the mythos. I found my copy in a used book store, well worth it.
edit: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0575081562/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1383257186&amp;sr=8-2&amp;pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70
Like other people said, Call of Cthulhu is the only one with Cthulhu. It's a great read, but kinda fun to save for when you've read more.
The first story I read was Shadow over Innsmouth, which is fantastic but long. The Hound isn't his best, but it's my favorite. /u/Zaldarr said Dagon, which I agree with. I'd wait a while before Mountains of Madness, as it does kind of take some of the mystery out.
His most famous, outside of CoC, is The Music of Eric Zann and Pickman's Model.
This edition of his short stories is neat because it has a lot of his stories and just looks cool. I use it as a coffee table book.
There's also a collection of Lovecraft's work called The Necronomicon that lethaltech may have been referencing, here: https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft-Commemorative/dp/0575081570
Anything by H.P. Lovecraft <3 I absolutely adore the shadow over innsmouth and the colour out of space... If youre into video games they have one based on the shadow over innsmouth with themes from the call of cthulhu and its just amazing... Its called "Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth"
Edit: I bought a lovely volume of almost every story by him from barnes and noble for 40$ AND it doubles as a weapon ;) (http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Commemorative-Edition/dp/0575081570/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1397318203&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=necronomicon) I just realized you could find it on amazon for thirty... ;-; sadness...
Devil in the White City- By Erik Larson A fantastic nonfiction that reads like fiction.
Anything by HP Lovecraft for a dose of Horror. I think the story, "Horror at Red Hook" and "Lurker in Darkness" have more of an adventurer GM theme to them than others. Fair bit of warning, when reading his stuff have a dictonary pulled up on your phone. Since it's older material there are a lot of anitquated words in there. Don't worry about learning every new word for future reference. Your brain will pick a couple.
My favorite collection.
I have used some history books about WWI and WWII to make campigns for Iron Kingdoms.
I'm a fan of varied mediums, if you haven't done graphic novels before, maybe look into one that could strike your fancy. Hellboy, Batman-The Long Halloween, most titles by Allen Moore, Superman-Red Son.
Also sneak some poetry in there. Even light stuff like Shel Silverstein was helpful to me. It helps you think of how to use words in new ways.
Edit: Formatting
Very cool collection. The hardback of Rock'n'Roll Necronomicon was limited to 75 copies, very cool that you have #0. Here's a couple I didn't see in your collection: Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft and the rare hardback of the Simon Necronomicon which I stupidly sold years ago for pennies on the dollar.
This it's not the complete collection of HP Lovecradt. But it has all of his best works. And that paper quality is great
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft (Commemorative Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0575081570/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_aFYDAb4MPCH1J
https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft-Commemorative/dp/0575081570
Honestly you should just get the Necronomicon and read a bunch of Lovecraft. It's one of the best "I should randomly read this" decisions I ever made.
I got it from here.
Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre (published in 2011) is what I got, and Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft (Commemorative Edition) (2008) has all his other stuff.
I started with the "collection of best stories" book called Necronomicon (http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Commemorative-Edition/dp/0575081570/ amazon link so you know the book cover).
It starts off a bit slow and the early stories are all relatively short but by the middle of it I couldn't put it down anymore.
I recommend this: http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Commemorative-Edition/dp/0575081570
it is a good collection of some of his stories and is a good jumping off point.
Start with his story 'The Call of Cthulhu'. It's fairly short, gives you a good feel for his style, and is most closely related with the stuff you probably already know about him.
All of his stuff is available for free online. My favorite print collection is the Necronomicon, possibly the same thing you previously owned. Link: http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Commemorative-Edition/dp/0575081570
Gender Identity Disorder is still listed in the DSM as a mental disorder. I think there are arguments to be made both ways about whether that's more a good thing or more a bad thing (realistically it's probably some of both).
As far as I understand, it's not at all a disorder in the sense that most psychological disorders are. The issue is that the "disorder" (the dysphoria - a sense of overwhelming wrongness and badness, contrast with "euphoria") is generally caused by a mismatch between a psychological property (the individual's gender) and a set of physical properties (the individual primary and/or secondary sex characteristics) as well as a social property (how the individual is seen and treated by society at large).
So, there is a disorder in the sense that, and to the extent that, this mismatch causes a great deal of suffering in someone's life. But let's take a hypothetical person who was assigned male at birth, who has a penis and male secondary sex characteristics, but who has a female gender. Again, the psychological component of this "disorder" is the female gender - but can we really call having a female gender a mental illness? (Of course, as sexist as our culture can be, perhaps some would like to.. but that's sort of tangential.) And the difference between this "disorder" and at least the vast majority of psychological disorders is that it is, I believe, largely fixable - my understanding is that most trans folks who transition experience are much, much happier afterward; the "disorder" is pretty much solved. And it's important to note that the fix for this is a physical fix, not a mental one - from what I've seen, if you asked most trans people "Hey, if you had a magic wand that would allow you to live your life comfortably as the gender you were assigned at birth, would you use it?" the most common answer would probably be something like "No - why would I want to change who I am?".
Further factors of course include the fact that "mental disorder" is a pretty stigmatizing term, and has a set of connotations that don't really make sense for this issue, and the history of access to hormones and surgery being contingent on the diagnoses of psychologists, some of whom would (and in some places still do) dick people around if they don't hear exactly the narrative they're expecting to hear. On the other hand, I've heard concerns voiced that were it removed from the DSM, it might be harder for trans individuals to get the treatments that they needed, for insurance reasons.
(You can read more on this subject here.)
> Anyway, I was hoping maybe someone could shed a light on what exactly it means to be a "girl" or a "boy"? Is it based on likes/interests/personality/tendencies? I mean, personhood is pretty hard to define already, so how do you define a female person?
That's a tough one to get at, because I think you pretty much have to rely on people's own self-reported experiences, and nobody can get at what other people's experiences are. I can't really answer this one clearly (shit, I'm struggling with my own gender identity as it is), but I can highly recommend to you, if you're interested in reading further on the subject, the book Whipping Girl by Julia Serano. It gets into a lot of stuff about trans issues, the way our culture defines and interacts with gender, the "scapegoating of femininity" (as she puts it), etc. It's also available in Kindle form if you want to pay a little bit less or if you're worried about people asking awkward questions about what you're reading (I read it on my phone, personally, for that reason).
> Will we eventually be recognizing people with multiple personality disorder as multiple people stuck in one body in society?
I doubt it. As far as I've heard, psychology in general isn't even really sure that Dissociative Identity Disorder is a thing at all - it's sort of elusive and hard to demonstrate, and some (maybe a lot?) of people who ostensibly had it turned out to be faking it (see Wikipedia).. On the other hand, if it is a legit thing? Yeah, I think that would be a fair way to treat it. (If that's a subject that interests you, and if you're into hard, gritty sci-fi, allow me to recommend Peter Watts's excellent book Blindsight, which features among other things a character who does indeed have multiple personalities, who are pretty much distinct people.)
Blindsight by Peter Watts
COUNTER!
By the way, his name is Joshua. I have no idea what the H stands for.
You should check out the book by Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. It's fantastic.
Have you read the book Lamb:The Gospel According to Biff? Did you love it too?
I totally understand the fear of the unknown after death. I was raised atheist so I often battle with those fears. It led to anxiety, which I now take medication for, but I also found a few things to help me. I love cats and animals, so I read icanhascheezburger.com and cuteoverload.com every day, or when I feel like I need a pick me up, I also read a lot and do crafts, which can help my mood. It sounds all very cheesy, but honestly these things help me when I'm feeling anxious.
If you want a humorous book to read, I highly recommend "The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal".... it's pretty hilarious, and thought provoking. find it here
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1220456465&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
No, I couldn't finish them. Too heavy handed, and too obvious. If I want to go on a ride where I know where I will go, but still have a fun time I'll ride a roller coaster.
You should check out Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. If you are a fan of Christopher Moore, it is a rather entertaining read. It is a nice satire based off of some of the stories told in the Bible.
Agreed, this is an absolutely hilarious book.
Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore if you like some fictitious humor!
It's a definitely fluffy humorous take on the missing years of Jesus that's unlikely to be offensive regardless of your religion. It might be a bit touchy for a staunch Christian, but it doesn't paint anything in a bad light. There's some fun and hilarious philosophizing, too, including Jesus's time as a Buddhist monk and the invention of milk + coffee.
He was the main character in one of the sequels to a very popular book. See: http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815
Read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Great book. My favorite part is that it's a stand alone book. No need to wait 10 years between the books. Lamb by Christopher Moore. Another phenominal stand alone book.
Edited for spelling.
Points Tally Complete for TheO-ne-ders
4 - So what you are saying, is your boyfriend needs a sippy cup? lol
5 - Have you read Lamb? If not, you should. It is amazing.
6 - Counting this as valid, but not too clever as many people came to the same conclusion. Although I suppose that doesn't negate the original cleverness.
7 - I kid you not, this exact Beany Babie is sitting no less than five feet away from me. :)
11 - I know that feel. For a long time my main goal in life was to be able to fill my cart at the grocery store without have to count every single penny. It took time and effort but we are finally there. Hoping you get there soon as well.
13 - Are you sure you aren't me from the past? I was so excited when we finally got a good HEPA vacuum cleaner.
14 - And it's Prime eligible!
17 - Video Games are absolutely toys! And this one is sooo good!
18 - Hard to argue with a classic.
20 - The only way I grill. :)
Oregon Bonus - Marionberry jam is very tasty. I can vouch for the tastiness of this brand. My parent's get their CSA box from this family.
So glad you had fun filling this out, as I had fun reading your answers. :) I will update the original post as soon as I have a winner.
This is because during the 15-20 years of Jesus' life that isn't documented in the Bible, he went on a soul searching mission to find the 3 wise men, which ended up being a magician, a Buddhist and a Hindu Yogi. He learned from their religious interpretations and ended up modifying their terminology slightly so that his people could better understand the concepts. So, for example, the Buddhist version of the "inner light" because the "holy ghost" of which he speaks. He also learned Kung Fu and fought a demon. [Source] (http://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815)
"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff"
Reference for all who are downvoting or wondering. Hilarious book on the missing years of ol' JC's life. Well played gent.
Reminds me of a scene from this book...
READ IT.
Everybody forgets about Biff
I doubt the cited source is a scholarly source.
The [more reliable etymology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_H._Christ#Etymology
) suggests a misreading of the divine monogram, though the "Hallowed" thing is a pretty common claim.
Personally, I like "haploid."
If you want to get really frustrated with this idea of "forward progress", read The Big Ratchet.
If you want to read something more insightful and interesting, you might want to check out Daniel Quinn's books: Ishmael, My Ishmael and The Story of B. All 3 books contain the same ideas but within a slightly different story. I think my favorite is My Ishmael but they're all great.
Thanks for this exchange. This made my morning a little brighter.
this?
Read Ishmael and if your mind isn't at least somewhat changed, you're probably a strong embodiment of evil.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
AND
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance By Robert Prsing
Both books have ideas that influence the way I think since I have read them. Zen Art also is a character with a mental illness and how it influences his really deep thoughts about life.
"There's nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act like lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now." - Daniel Quinn, Ishmael
If you really care about preserving the environment even for self serving reasons read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. See why our current mindset in fact puts us at odds with the environment a community and something we absolutely depend on.
I'd also say don't merely discount people as crazy because they disagree or hold a radical world view.
Jules Verne - The Mysterious Island -> It's amazing how well the author is able to keep your attention throughout the book, when it's just 4 people trapped on a uninhabited island.
Daniel Quinn - Ishmael -> It raises some incredible viewpoints and questions. Very recommended.
Michael Crichton - Sphere -> A very entertaining read.
Clive Cussler - Atlantis Found -> I enjoyed his NUMA series a lot. It got me into reading.
Ira Levin - The Boys from Brazil -> This is kind of a historical fiction. I liked this book because I've always enjoyed reading about the WWII era.
Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy -> Very fun read
Ishmael
My Ishmael
The Story of B
Here is one guy's answer to that. The book is fun and my paraphrase is spoilery, but we have no spoiler formating options here. The gist of it is that the Genesis myth is a prohibition of agrarian society. It is an observation that peoples proximal to the myth author became warlike upon adopting agriculture whereas subsistence cultures do not have the means to sustain armies capable of significant warfare. Since war is immoral, and mankind (having just recently evolved from monkeys) exhibits a generally impaired political decision making, agriculture is best avoided.
While you referenced orangutans, your comment reminded me of Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.
>...
>
>Because it was backed by darkness, the glass in this window was black -- opaque, reflective. I made no attempt to see beyond it as I approached; I was the spectacle under observation. On arrival, I continued to gaze into my own eyes for a moment, then rolled the focus forward beyond the glass -- and found myself looking into another pair of eyes.
>
>I fell back, startled. Then, recognizing what I'd seen, I fell back again, now a little frightened.
>
>The creature on the other side of the glass was a full-grown gorilla.
>
>Full-grown says nothing, of course. He was terrifyingly enormous, a boulder, a sarsen of Stonehenge. His sheer mass was alarming in itself, even though he wasn't using it in any menacing way. On the contrary, he was half-sitting, half-reclining most placidily, nibbling delicately on a slender branch he carired in his left hand like a wand.
>
>...
>
>I said to myself that the teacher was plainly not on hand, that there was nothing to keep me there, that I should go home. But I didn't like to leave with the feeling that I'd accomplished nothing at all. I looked around, thinking I'd leave a note, if I could find something to write on (and with), but there was nothing. Nevertheless, this search, with the thought of written communication in mind, brought to my attention something I'd overlooked in the room that lay beyond the glass, it was a sign or poster hanging on the wall behind the gorilla. It read:
>
>WITH MAN GONE,
>
>WILL THERE
>
>BE HOPE
>
>FOR GORILLA?
I recommend the book Ishmael ( http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-Adventure-Spirit-Daniel-Quinn/dp/0553375407 ). It gives an interesting perspective on the origin of the Adam and Eve story.
In essence, the people who adopted the Adam and Eve story as 'their story' didn't write the story to begin with. They didn't understand the story, but coopted it anyway. The story was used to describe them by their cultural enemies, the "fall of Adam and Eve" was what nomadic people used to describe their farmer enemies who were slowing taking land away from them in the Meospotamic region. The nomads saw that those people misunderstood the knowledge of the gods, that they believed in the concepts of good and evil. By thinking they understood the knowledge of good and evil they began a dark path of justifying murder, rape, pillaging, genocide, etc.
History is littered with examples of religious people who thought what they were doing was good and others were evil. However, what in nature is good and what is evil? Find a single example of good and evil in nature, I dare you. The truth is, its a made up concept.
The telepathic ape book?
http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-Adventure-Spirit-Daniel-Quinn/dp/0553375407
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. A quick, though-provoking read perfect for a few layin' on da beach sessions.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Ishmael
also,
The Master and Margarita
Read Ishmael, sell everything, and then go subsistence farm for yourself.
All we need to do is pedal faster!
read the book ishmael. Explains how we got to here, and what we need to do to reverse the problems that have to do with man in (or not in) nature.
My ex once argued that it's not overpopulation that's the issue, but rather lack of resources. One answer to your question is that those two things are the exact same thing worded differently.
Overpopulation is an issue I take very, very seriously. I have a pet theory that everything we've so far failed at on a human rights front would be significantly less of a problem if we had lower population. I've heard many people argue that population is on the decline now and so the concern is unnecessary, but my opinion is that the difference these people are referring to is not substantial enough.
Check out this book to read an argument that really looks at this question as a spiritual and moral issue. The TL;DR of the book is "it is wrong to take more than you need." Bonus: my dad is responsible for the publication of the book, with the only other responsible party being Ted Turner.
https://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-Novel-Daniel-Quinn/dp/0553375407
Probably cheaper on eBay. This book is important.
Looks like someone's been reading Ishmael.
Damn, so the hotfix didn't work?
>So basically you? You grant legitimacy to the system by voting. You are part of "the will of the people". You voted so you consent to the killing of children in the middle east.
Seems you don't even know who I vote for.
>How do i opt out? How do I not pay for the death of children?
By fighting for it simple as that. This book might help http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-An-Adventure-Mind-Spirit/dp/0553375407
Ishmael:A Novel https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553375407/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_k5BMAbJAHTB50
Maybe this is it
Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-An-Adventure-Mind-Spirit/dp/0553375407
Just because.
This is definitely a philosophical question, so there is no certain answer. Clearly we don't know where we're going, but some argue that we're not the end goal of anything, just a piece of the path that will continue until humans are gone. I suggest you check out Ishmael by Daniel Quinn if you haven't read it before; pretty easy read and is driven by many of the questions you ask.
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Ishmael-An-Adventure-Mind-Spirit/dp/0553375407
read Ishmael!
Sounds like part of the premise of Ishmael
binjinpurj: ^^original ^^reddit ^^link
I would have to say without a doubt it would be Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It is a very short but unforgettable novel that puts the fall of man into such a precise perspective its nearly impossible to contend it.
Quinn is an amazing writer and I really would recommend anything by him.
Also, a work of fiction that brilliantly addresses the topics your looking to focus on is Ishmael - more than anything, it really just helps prime your mind for understanding these concepts without the clouding of our own cultural perspective.
She... she was talkin'... 'bout Ishmael. That's a little bit awesome, I have to say.
Ishmael
The Diamond Age By Neal Stephenson is a top contender.
One of my favorite books is The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
I've read it twice now since 2008; the first time I was captivated by the world he created. The second time, I began to understand what he was trying to explore with culture and what it means to "belong" to something or to subscribe to a belief system.
An entertaining read set in a fantastic world that you will not forget :)
Neal Stephenson's [The Diamond Age](http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Age-Illustrated-Primer-Spectra/dp/0553380966/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1314797352&amp;sr=8-1 "fuckin great book") has an interesting situation. It's not a post-collapse world, but it is a semi-anarchic "not-so-far-future" world where governments don't have very much power. In this world, people have separated into "philes" (same root as in "audiophiles like sound equipment"), some of which are based on religion, or ideology, others are based on habits, values and aesthetics (for example some groups choose to live like Victorian-era Britons with steam-punk technology).
Nice. I've been trying to think of a good automata book. Diamond Age just popped into my head. Hehe.
You may be interested in this novel - it starts a bit slow and cryptic so you have to be a little patient before it gets good.
When the Lights go out Tanith Lee was a book that made a very strong impression on me.
The tombs of Atuan by LeGuin was another book I kept on rereading as a teen.
The Woman who Loved Reindeer by M.A. Pierce I only read once as it got knicked from my library. Over 15 years later I still carry it with me, or at least the feeling I got from from it.
I'm also slightly thinking The Darkangel trilogy by Pierce as well. Another series that got read, re-read and re-re-read.
Come to think of it, I think a lot of the books that really got to me as a teen were the fantasy starring alienated but strong teens and women.
Nowadays I think one of my favourite books are The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, which, aside from being absolutely awesome scifi, I guess also touches on the topic of strong but misfitted women.
Have you read "The Diamond Age," by Neil Stephenson?
You may also enjoy The Madness Season by C. S. Friedman.
If you can give me more examples of stuff you like, I may be able to offer more suggestions.
Neal Stephenson covers this pretty well in Diamond Age
http://www.amazon.com/The-Diamond-Age-Illustrated-Spectra/dp/0553380966
>John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book) Paperback – May 2, 2000
by Neal Stephenson
Ever read The Diamond Age? They did it, and ended up using diamonds for everything (i.e. windows, buildings, etc.).
You should read the Diamond Age.
Excellent. Good writers, all! Have you tried out Neal Stephenson? If no, I highly recommend A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer and The Baroque Cycle, although almost all of his books are excellent (except his first :P).
Science Technology Engineering and math education by whatever means. http://www.amazon.com/The-Diamond-Age-Illustrated-Spectra/dp/0553380966/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1346894433&amp;sr=8-1-spell&amp;keywords=young+laides+illistrated+primer
I haven't read that myself, but based on the description and notes elsewhere in the thread I might recommend these:
I started reading Lovecraft with
this.
I'd just start with this.
This has a lot of his short stories, and working through this would give you a great starting point (and would set you through the vast majority of his work tbh)
In my experience, horror works best with short stories. And even if you disagree, anthologies are brilliant for exploring the genre in manageable pieces.
The Dark Descent is a very good compilation.
I also have a Penguin Book of Ghost Stories which I'm very fond of -given to me by a now-dead grandmother when I was but a wee lad, and all that-; its sister Book of Horror Stories is not quite as good but worth the read, if only to round out your sojourn with some more obscure stories.
If you want to look into H.P. Lovecraft, Necronomicon is a very high quality book for its price.
Is this it? I'd never heard of that particular collection before. Anyone can republish his stories that are in the public domain, which is pretty much all of them.
Check out the sidebar for suggestions on where to begin ------>
Many people have already answered but I’ll just chime in that the Necronomicon is what I have and it’s great. Haven’t read all the stories yet though. Also Barnes and Noble have multiple (faux) leather bound Lovecraft collections.
Someone elsewhere in the thread recommended Uzumaki by Junji Ito. I’d also recommend Tomie by the same author. It’s not necessarily cosmic horror but it’s definitely an interesting take on horror and it was his first work. Both Uzumaki and Tomie can be found on amazon in a full hardback collection as well as some of his other works.
I found myself asking the same question not too long ago! His best writing is the series of short stories he wrote for magazines that we collectively know as the Cthulu Mythos. You'll want to check out Necronomicon, which is the compilation of the best and most famous stories.
https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Best-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/0575081562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537458514&sr=8-1&keywords=necronomicon&dpID=51We1j8PEkL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
&#x200B;
Personally, I got myself the audio book version which is fantastic if you love scary stories. I listen to it in my kitchen while doing dishes. Great stuff. :)
https://www.audible.com/pd/Necronomicon-Audiobook/B00MNQKYNC
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Oh.....and fair warning. H.P. Lovecraft was kinda racist and it shows in some of his writing. =/
I was in the same position last year, i didn't know where to start. So i bought this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1341264327&amp;sr=8-1
It's a collection of most of his works and contains all of his more famous stories. It starts with a few of his short stories and as the book progresses the material gets longer. It was a really easy way to ease myself into his works.
> LOL. Wait, when was it published?
>
>
>
> December 14,1988
um... I don't know where you got that date, but it was published in 1946, not 1988
>"A magnificent job of theoretical exposition."
>—Ayn Rand
She's not wrong.
>So to clarify, you recommend two books, one of which is thirty years old
No. much older. The age of a book does not correspond to the quality of said book.
>another which is by man who died in 1937
Yes.
>was virulently racist even by the standards of his own time
True, but that doesn't mean his fiction is any less spectacular. Lots of people back then were racist. It doesn't mean that they can't also be good authors of good fiction. If you're worried that buying a book of his would be financially supporting a racist, he's been dead for 80 years, so you don't have to worry about that. He's not going to get any of the money you may spend on his fiction.
>Gollancz published a compendium of the Mythos and some of his other tales in 2008, called Necromicon : the Best Wierd Tales of HP Lovecraft
Yes, that's the one.
>but Lovecraft never published a book called The Necronomicon
If you want to get technical, Lovecraft never published a single book. He wrote mostly short stories and the longest story he wrote was a novella, not even a full novel, and most of his stuff was published in old pulp magazines.
>Certainly not an 1000+ page one.
Well, it's 900 pages so close enough.
I prefer Howard over Lovecraft, however they were actually quite good friends when it came to writing, exchanging letters and admiration between each other. However both died a tragic death, strange?
Anyways for those who are keen on reading the works of these two authors there is a book series that collected their short stories into a book and provided them.
I will simply link to Amazon so you guys can take a look on the books there.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Fiction-GOLLANCZ/dp/0575081562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1377609248&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=lovecraft
I mean this Necronomicon
I'm not sure how complete it is... I did manage to pick up the Necronomicon from a local bookshop, which has his best work in it and trawl through that a few years ago. It looks like they still publish it...
http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Best-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft/dp/0575081562/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;sr=8-5&amp;qid=1372721219
this ones got a bunch of his short stories and novellas:
https://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Tales-Lovecraft-Commemorative/dp/0575081570/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1472723496&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=necronomicon
Awesome! If it's your first Lovecraft story you're in for a treat. No one captures the fear of the unknown like Lovecraft did. He writes of entities unnameable and indescribable, hidden horrors so far beyond our comprehension that we are left to imagine (if we even can) what grotesque forms they could take. Expect to encounter ancient forgotten civilizations, cosmic monstrosities, alternative planes of existence, extradimensional deities, all of the above.
Lovecraft never wrote any novels, mostly poems, short stories and a novella. A great thing about them is that they are all interconnected. You would be best off buying an anthology. I highly recommend these two:
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre
I started on Lovecraft with the Necronomicon and never looked back.
Way better.
I bought The Necronomicon because it said it was "illustrated", but most of the pictures have nothing to do with the stories anyway (besides that, the drawings are few and far between and oft repeated). It's a very solid collection -- I'd say all of HPL's best stuff -- but there are quite a few annoying typos in it.
Still, it's fun when someone asks "what are you reading?" and I get to respond with "the Necronomicon."
This is what I started with. Everything is in an order that makes it so you can just read through the book.
We have this, if it counts.
I've only really been reading politics, economics and philosophy (particularly Marx and Engels), but I recently bought a copy of the Necronomicon which has some good stories by Lovecraft if you haven't read them before.
do you mean this one?
http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Weird-Lovecraft-Commemorative-Edition/dp/0575081570
This is the one I was recently bought.. I think it has all the stories and a little map of arkham as well as a few illustrations. Plus pulling it out on the tube guarantees a free seat ;) https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0575081570/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1465775146&amp;sr=8-2&amp;pi=SY200_QL40&amp;keywords=necronomicon
I know what it is and what adaptation it has had in the literary world. This is what i was referring to. A simple compilation of his work, turns out its a sexy ass hardcover called the.. You guessed it. Any horror fanatic would be proud to have this in their library
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0575081570?cache=502569dbe72d33cba6415b94164f8873&amp;pi=SY200_QL40&amp;qid=1412944380&amp;sr=8-2#ref=mp_s_a_1_2
Check out Blindsight by Peter Watts—it's very much in this vein of "spacetravel to a new planet" but (1) it's hard SF, which can turn some people off, and (2) the writing is a bit strange. Not bad, though—I honestly find the writing to be impeccable, but I feel like it could be off-putting to people who are more used to traditional writing styles.
Another very good book addressing this topic is Blindsight by Peter Watts.
Book:
Blindsight + Echopraxia by Peter Watts!
Deep, dark, Sci-fi. The only two books that I've ever read more than once in a year. (Re-reading the two for a 4th time currently).
Snippet from amazon:
>^^Send ^^a ^^linguist ^^with ^^multiple-personality ^^disorder ^^and ^^a ^^biologist ^^so ^^spliced ^^with ^^machinery ^^that ^^he ^^can't ^^feel ^^his ^^own ^^flesh. ^^Send ^^a ^^pacifist ^^warrior ^^and ^^a ^^vampire ^^recalled ^^from ^^the ^^grave ^^by ^^the ^^voodoo ^^of ^^paleogenetics. ^^Send ^^a ^^man ^^with ^^half ^^his ^^mind ^^gone ^^since ^^childhood. ^^Send ^^them ^^to ^^the ^^edge ^^of ^^the ^^solar ^^system, ^^praying ^^you ^^can ^^trust ^^such ^^freaks ^^and ^^monsters ^^with ^^the ^^fate ^^of ^^a ^^world. ^^You ^^fear ^^they ^^may ^^be ^^more ^^alien ^^than ^^the ^^thing ^^they've ^^been ^^sent ^^to ^^find―but ^^you'd ^^give ^^anything ^^for ^^that ^^to ^^be ^^true, ^^if ^^you ^^knew ^^what ^^was ^^waiting ^^for ^^them. ^^. ^^. ^^.
They contain tons of memorable (and quotable) quotes, such as:
>^“Not ^even ^the ^most ^heavily-armed ^police ^state ^can ^exert ^brute ^force ^to ^all ^of ^its ^citizens ^all ^of ^the ^time. ^Meme ^management ^is ^so ^much ^subtler; ^the ^rose-tinted ^refraction ^of ^perceived ^reality, ^the ^contagious ^fear ^of ^threatening ^alternatives.”
^― ^Peter ^Watts, ^Blindsight
or...
>^“Fifty ^thousand ^years ^ago ^there ^were ^these ^three ^guys ^spread ^out ^across ^the ^plain ^and ^they ^each ^heard ^something ^rustling ^in ^the ^grass. ^The ^first ^one ^thought ^it ^was ^a ^tiger, ^and ^he ^ran ^like ^hell, ^and ^it ^was ^a ^tiger ^but ^the ^guy ^got ^away. ^The ^second ^one ^thought ^the ^rustling ^was ^a ^tiger ^and ^he ^ran ^like ^hell, ^but ^it ^was ^only ^the ^wind ^and ^his ^friends ^all ^laughed ^at ^him ^for ^being ^such ^a ^chickenshit. ^But ^the ^third ^guy ^thought ^it ^was ^only ^the ^wind, ^so ^he ^shrugged ^it ^off ^and ^the ^tiger ^had ^him ^for ^dinner. ^And ^the ^same ^thing ^happened ^a ^million ^times ^across ^ten ^thousand ^generations ^- ^and ^after ^a ^while ^everyone ^was ^seeing ^tigers ^in ^the ^grass ^even ^when ^there ^were`t ^any ^tigers, ^because ^even ^chickenshits ^have ^more ^kids ^than ^corpses ^do. ^And ^from ^those ^humble ^beginnings ^we ^learn ^to ^see ^faces ^in ^the ^clouds ^and ^portents ^in ^the ^stars, ^to ^see ^agency ^in ^randomness, ^because ^natural ^selection ^favours ^the ^paranoid. ^Even ^here ^in ^the ^21st ^century ^we ^can ^make ^people ^more ^honest ^just ^by ^scribbling ^a ^pair ^of ^eyes ^on ^the ^wall ^with ^a ^Sharpie. ^Even ^now ^we ^are ^wired ^to ^believe ^that ^unseen ^things ^are ^watching ^us.”
^― ^Peter ^Watts, ^Echopraxia
Or perhaps one that might resonate with many INTPs...
>^“I ^really ^wanted ^to ^talk ^to ^her.
^I ^just ^couldn't ^find ^an ^algorithm ^that ^fit.”
^― ^Peter ^Watts, ^Blindsight
In fact... Here is a repository of some fun Watts quotes. I have this page bookmarked since I read it so often. If any of these appeal to you, read the books! Blindsight is even free on his website.
_
Anime:
Shinsekai Yori (From the new world)
The link has a nice description, but the entry into this universe was a strange one for me. It starts as so calm and Utopian, but everyone has cool powers (which is based on science so advanced that it appears as magic)! More is revealed about the world, interesting details and insights, but eventually something dark is slowly realized. My favorite anime series of all time - With art design as beautiful as any Miyazaki film and a storyline as fascinating as a science fiction novel, I would recommend this to anyone.
_
Music:
Dryft - No vocals, but rich stories. Complex but ambient, like relaxing by a waterfall on an artificial habitat in outer space as you watch the stars through the dome above you.
If you read hard scifi at all I HIGHLY recommend Peter Watt's Blindsight.
It dives deep into ideas of self identity and consciousness and would be very topical to your post. Can't recommend it enough if you enjoy the genre.
Definitely "Blindsight" by Peter Watts. It's about as hard as sci-fi can get, but it's one of those rare books that can completely blow your mind. It's a First Contact story with a really fascinating take on the evolution of consciousness, with profound implications for human cognition. Watts just released a sequel, "Echopraxia," which is equally great.
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
http://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0060512806
The book Cryptonomicon (historical sci-fi) by Neal Stephenson has an entire chapter describing productivity before and after ejaculation. A manual override just doesn't have the same affect. Complete with chart.
It also has a chapter on the proper way to eat Captain Crunch cereal.
I have been unable to find a good exert online but just read the damn book, it is worth the money and time.
I would recommend Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson if you are interested in WWII/signals/math/awesomeness
Oh okay. In any case I really enjoyed Cryptonomicon. I'm doubting you'd like it though. It's over a thousand pages and in one section the author went on for several pages describing the proper technique for eating Cap'n Crunch.
For fiction, check out some stuff by Neal stephenson like Cryptonomicon or Anathem
For non-fiction, maybe Hyperspace by Michio Kaku or Chaos by James Gleick.
My list(s) are currently lacking. I have two on my ebooks list and just this one on my "normal" wish list.
Thanks for the contest.
The Alchemist -- Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist
http://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1310882769&amp;sr=8-1
I got your list right here:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - great story about finding your way in life, destiny, etc. One of my personal favorites and a real life changer for me personally (read it when I was 14, very impressionable)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominigue Bauby - memoirs of a magazine editor who has a stroke and goes from being a hot shot playboy to being paralyzed. He loses all motor function and the whole book is written by him blinking out the letters. Despite it all he has a razor wit and such a positive outlook it really makes you think about your own life and what is important to appreciate.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig - kind of an interesting book that gives you a historical breakdown of philosophy all through a somewhat biographical story about a motorcycle trip with his son. Has some really insightful views on what is quality and what is the point of education. Highly recommend for anyone just starting college.
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P Feynman - Autobiography/memoir of one of the greatest minds to ever live. From learning how to pick locks while working on the manhattan project, experimenting with acid, and learning the bongos. Dr. Feynman has such a passion for life, science, and learning it's contagious. Seriously, just see how excited he gets about rubberbands.
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
I think this is why i asked in the beginning what you're expecting. Especially if you're comparing yourself to others, you may be expecting more than is reality. Just because people say they have a relationship, doesn't mean it's anything more than their own feelings or imagination playing tricks on them. So, don't rely too heavily on 'mountaintop moments' or the right 'feeling' to come along.
Do you like to read? If so, I know an awesome book that goes through a man's experience as he begins to unlearn all he'd learned about what life is truly 'all about'. It's sharing a Taoist, or Buddhist thought of seeing the trip, the present moment, as what's important rather than the destination. A relationship with God looks much the same. If you focus on the feelings or the enlightened moments, you'll miss the whole experience of going through life with Him!
The book is called "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman It's kind of an autobiography of sorts.
If that doesn't tickle your fancy, another book that helped me quite a bit with my relationship with God was a rather popular one: "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho
Most people either love it or hate it, but perhaps the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho?
Two more life changing books to read:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416
http://www.amazon.com/Warrior-Light-Manual-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0060527986/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373578304&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=warrior+of+the+light
The Alchemist, could be a good read.
World War Z by Max Brooks - An awesome read that tells the story of a world war against zombies as a series of interviews from different perspectives (military, doctors, political leaders, average people)
Definitely. You have the form and writing style for a book, where I've thought about it, and I just don't think my stories will convert well into a book.
I've just finished World War Z by Max Brooks, and now I'm on "I Heard You Paint Houses" on Audible.com (Audible has been great because I can "read" books while I work (web development)).
The north would also be a great place to hide from zombies. I like to think they'd just freeze out there in the cold, and we could go out popping heads every once in a while, a la World War Z.
right here
Devil in the White City
World War Z
Easy, just get him a Zombie survival guide from Dymocks/Kinokuniya. What you have to watch out for is that you don't get him a shit one, of which there are many. IMO, The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks is the best one out there. If he hasn't read it, World War Z also by Max Brooks is excellent reading. It's not so much a guide as a collection of individual recounts, reports and stuff from different people over the course of a zombie breakout. It reads realistically which is more than I can say for the majority of Zombie related "survival guides" and books that are just stupid. They're making a movie out of it with Brad Pitt starring - just to show it's popularity.
If he hasn't seen The Walking Dead, getting him the seasons on DVD might be a good idea. Awesome TV show - again, realistic. If he's seen them, don't bother. I mean, he can just download them anyway so I guess this would be a crap gift unless he really likes the show. There are graphic novels that the show is based on which might be good.
If he's a gamer, might be good to get him ARMA II: Combined Operations. The reason I say that there's a great zombie survival mod for it called Day Z which is basically an online multiplayer open-world zombie survival like game. Trust me, he'll like it. Steam summer sale is on right now so ARMA II is 20% - if you can wait, don't buy it yet as it may go on sale for more (possibly up to 75%) if it goes up as a daily deal/flash sale/community choice. There's also a The Walking Dead game which I've heard is good. It's already been a daily deal so 25% is as good as it will get now.
Last of all, making him a kit might be cool. I put together this for a redditor last year. You can probably make a better one than me - I'll admit I cheaped out a little. Get a box or a backpack (you can cheap out on the backpack) and fill it up with things like a flashlight, a med kit (bandaids, bandages, surgical scissors, sports tape etc. things you can buy from a pharmacy), water purification tablets (this especially adds to it IMO), food (canned, power bars or, if you want to go the extra mile, MREs), thick army socks, a compass, etc. Basically just shit you'd take with you if you were going camping. Make it as compact/lightweight as possible.
Well, fuck, that turned out to be a lot longer than I intended. Anyway, good luck.
EDIT: Oh yeah, one more thing. What I did for that same redditor last year was that I wrote a survival plan for him. Basically, if you get him that Max Brooks Survival Guide, one of the things they suggest is hiding out in a prison (fortification, food, water, exercise yard, accommodation, weapons, remote etc.) - what I did was that I researched prisons in the walkable/bikable vicinity of his house and I mapped out routes to them from his house on a map I printed of his house from google maps.
Man I hope the swine flu victims start trying to eat other people. I'm soo looking forward to a global zombie war ala WWZ.
Obligatory wiki links: Dystopian Literature. Although, some of the titles listed don't seem to fit (The Dispossessed?). Nuclear holocaust fiction, and your general apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction.
Some of the better/more popular ones:
Zombies: World War Z, Raise the Dead, Marvel Zombies, Zombie Survival Guide, Day By Day Armageddon, I Am Legend.
Also, just for kicks, some of my favorite dystopian movies:
Brazil, Soylent Green, 12 Monkeys, Blade Runner, Akira, Children of Men, Dark City, A Boy and His Dog, Logan's Run, Idiocracy, Equillibrium.
The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
http://www.amazon.com/The-Zombie-Survival-Guide-Protection/dp/1400049628
World War Z also by Max Brooks
http://www.amazon.com/World-War-Oral-History-Zombie/dp/0307346617/ref=pd_sim_b_2
And if you are open to graphic novels/comics
The Walking Dead series (It is significantly different from the TV series which is based on this series)
http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Dead-Compendium-One/dp/1607060760/ref=sr_1_1
World War Z asserts that zombies do not need to breathe and continue to survive underwater.
$0.01 + $3.99
$0.01 + $3.99
$0.01 + $3.99
= $12 ... Math hurt my brain :)
Don't Sue People Panda!
This is what I recommend every time someone asks this question: World War Z
It's a New York Times best seller because of it's non-stop insanely-paced action, while still having extremely intelligent writing and geo-political allegory undertones, with macroeconomic implications
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0307346617?aaxitk=9u-ErXWB34XqOccYJiSXKg&amp;pd_rd_i=0307346617&amp;pf_rd_p=cf7302b1-b7d2-4ce3-851b-40f21d43fb7e&amp;hsa_cr_id=2003098870501&amp;sb-ci-n=productDescription&amp;sb-ci-v=World%20War%20Z%3A%20An%20Oral%20History%20of%20the%20Zombie%20War&amp;sb-ci-a=0307346617
It’s one of my all time favourite books.
I liked the Ashfall trilogy though it did get a bit tedious at times (it was the YA version of One Second After). World War Z is always a good read. Z for Zachariah is a quick read, kind of a children's book, really, but is one of my favorites.
John Dies at the End. It is actually the funniest, most witty book I've ever read.
I'm a defender of my genre, so here's my two recent picks:
John Dies @ the End
And, even though I've only gotten through the first fourth of this, the beginning was so intense and cinematic that it's the most excited I've been while reading in a great while (and I'm psyched to finish it!): American Elsewhere
John dies at the end
That was one of the earlier editions, I guess. This one costs $10.
And his book's title is "S."
No, but this has actually been sort-of-done. Check out this. I'm not a big romance reader but holy shit, this book was amazing.
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1468533325&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=S+in+books
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._(Dorst_novel)
Another recent non-traditional is S by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst. It takes the form of an old library book that was passed back and forth between two people making notes in the margins as they attempt to unravel the mystery of the author's identity. Comes complete with various prop items stuck between the pages of the book-postcards, photos, news clippings, etc.
Aside from a few instances with web ARGs [EMH, Ackerly Green] most games that involve physical items I've come across are paid for experiences.
The Mysterious Package Company has some experiences that vary in story type as well as number of mailings you get. They're on the pricier end of things, but the artifacts they send reflect the price. They also have a quarterly subscription called Curios and Conundrums that involve a newspaper with stories, riddles, and puzzles as well as some ephemera and objects that all wrap up in a yearly story. The Weeping Book is a good starter point for people who don't want to spend a whole lot on an unknown company. Also, they've got a holiday sale going on right now to knock off a bit of the price tag: https://www.mysteriouspackage.com/
The Mysterious Experience Company is a monthly crate box experience where you get some items and notes on a murder usually. It's up to you to read through it all, investigate online, and determine who from a list of suspects committed the crime. I've only had one box from them so far, but I am impressed so far by it: https://mysteryexperiences.cratejoy.com/
Forgotten Folios is another monthly subscription through Patreon. The letters and artifacts you receive, depending on which level you support at, are more story driven than puzzle oriented but I think they're well worth checking out for their attention to detail: https://www.patreon.com/forgottenfolios
The Haunted Dollhouse is an experience offered by Lady Delaney. You receive a series of boxes through the mail that allows you to put together a small dollhouse and piece together a story of betrayal and murder from the early 1900's. This experience happens a few times a year. Right now the next time it'll start going out is January. The creator also has a monthly subscription called Letters From the Dead where you get letters and other ephemera mailed to you, but I don't know a whole lot about that: https://www.lettersfromdeadpeople.com/about
On the less pricier side of things there are a few books you may be interested in checking out. The Ship of Theseus tells several stories. Some overt and some only apparent when you read into the puzzle. There are artifacts inside the book that add to the stories and help with the puzzles. It may be hard to find at times but I recommend buying the book new so that you know you have all the pieces: https://www.amazon.com/Ship-Theseus-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642
"S" by Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams
This is the most imaginative concept I've ever seen for a novel. This work comes in a box. Upon opening it, you find a novel called 'the Ship of Theseus bu V. M. Straka, the last work of an enigmatic writer from the early 20th century. The intriguing part is that in the margins of the yellowed pages, two university students take turns writing notes to each other. Together they begin to unravel a sixty year old mystery.
I've never seen anything this innovative before, and it's incredibly well executed!
"S." by J.J. Abrams & Doug Dorst
Others have covered this well, but I wanted to throw in some thoughts. You absolutely MUST read if you plan on writing a novel. Just... required.
But don't force yourself to read things you don't like. Have you tried graphic novels? They are chock full of story but are more dynamic than your typical novel. Harry Potter may not have clicked for you because you saw the movies, but have you tried other young adult novels that don't have movie tie-ins? A lot of YA is imminently readable because they're usually in first person, fast-paced and very hook driven. There are some fun sci-fi/timey-wimey YA books out there you could try.
On the adult side, have you tried to read Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde? It's surrealist fantasy with a very fun time travel element, though they are very heavily rooted in bibliophilia--it's all tongue-in-cheek love of books stuff (the main character can jump into fiction). But he's my favorite writer on the planet and a great example of having fun with language/writing.
So I haven't actually read it but one of my BFFs loved this book to pieces: S by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst. http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642. It's apparently a very bizarre "book" that is not quite a book and is supposed to be an experience unto itself. Sounds a bit like what you maybe have in mind.
I'll just leave this here...
https://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642
Sometimes you can get it cheaper off B&N.
Example: "S" by JJ Abrams.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/s-j-j-abrams/1115192310?ean=9780316201643
http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1404307853&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=j+j+abrams+s
People automatically go to Amazon b/c they overall have lower prices. But sometimes they jack up the prices of certain items b/c they know this. Always shop around.
That being said, $15 or more for even a new ebook is absurd.
EDIT: My example only reflects print copies.
I'm looking forward to reading S. by Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams. It's a book called Ship of Theseus by a mysterious (fictional) author named V.M. Straka. The real story is the correspondence in the margins between a grad student specializing in Straka and an undergrad lit major as they try to uncover the secrets of his life and disappearance. The book comes with all kinds of inserts of things they find during their investigation, like post cards and newspaper clippings. It even includes a decoder ring to decipher one of the chapters of Ship of Theseus.
I can't wait to start it. I've been saving it for vacation.
Happy birthday! I hope you've been having a fantastic day!
I have so many books on my wish lists, it's hard for me to pick just one, but I can narrow it down to the top 3 I've really been wanting to read:
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
I love Norse mythology, history, language, religion and learning more about it, and from what I've read of Gaiman's, I enjoy his writing style.
S. / Ship of Theseus by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams
From the reviews it seems like a great book. There's the book Ship of Theseus, but in the margins and inserts there's a whole different story between two people trying discover the identity of the author of Ship of Theseus. It just looks like a fun book.
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Another book I've heard great things about. I've heard it can be a difficult read with the unconventional format and footnotes etc.. But that just makes me want to read it even more.
All 3 are on my Most Wanted list.
Thanks for the contest!
That's a tall order!
Some books that similarly acknowledge the book you're holding as complicit in the story, or bring in multimedia elements, might include Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer, Night Film by Marisha Pessl, A Humument by Tom Phillips, or S by J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. The Raw Shark Texts also plays with words on the page in an interesting way.
I also liked Danielewski's Only Revolutions. It's not on par with House of Leaves but it is a unique read: two protagonists tell the same story from their own perspective. As the book progresses, each chapter gets shorter and the font gets smaller, like the tale is spiraling in on itself. And when you've finished one character's story you literally flip the book upside down to start the other's. (Danielewski recommends reading one chapter from one side, then the corresponding chapter from the other, as you go. The hardcover includes two bookmarks for this purpose.)
Or try reading S.?
If this story interests you, then my all means take a look at the book "S" by Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams. A very imaginative homage to the written word. Quite entertaining. http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1417745191&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=%22S%22+in+books
S. By J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst came out today. It is EXTREMELY gimmicky, kind of like House Of Leaves. So far it is Awesome.
Huh... well, I'll take a few shots at this, although I doubt I have any better idea what he means than you do. Still, support the troops...
The ultimate would be S., J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst but only if you can get him the printed copy, not the ebook. The print version is just a phenomenal experience. It is definitely high-concept: in fact, it's best just to read the description in the link. It's a mystery/thriller/geopolitical/surrealist experience, but the object itself is just amazing. Check out the images of the book on Amazon-- normally I don't link to Amazon, but the images give you a sense of it. It's not just that one of the two major parallel stories unfolds in the margin-notes of the other novel; it's that the other novel is stuffed full of odds-and-ends of things the two correspondents shared with each other-- maps written on hotel napkins (and damn if they don't print the thing on an actual napkin), postcards from other countries, etc. It's just amazing.
How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe, Charles Yu, is the epitome of a high-concept novel. It's 'meta' to the core-- the execution doesn't quite live up to the concept, but it's still a decent read, and it might be what he's after. The premise is that the son of the man who invented the first time-travel machine, but was screwed out of the credit for it, works as a time-machine repairman and travels the... well, multiverse? multi-time?... looking for his father, who eventually disappeared. In the end it's as much a family drama as a sci-fi novel, but I found the premise irresistible.
Another idea would be You Shall Know Our Velocity!, Dave Eggers, It's certainly another "meta" or "high concept" novel; at first it seems like it'll be a standard travelogue, but then it takes a decidedly Eggers-ish turn. Not a lot to say about it without disclosing spoilers. As with How to Live Safely... I don't know that the execution lived up to the concept... or maybe the concept didn't live up to the execution, I'm never sure how I feel about Eggers.
You are right! But do you honestly think that "they" could, or even should, invent a device for such a small pool of books?
There are many experimental books - this is one of them - S. and it will only ever be possible in paper. You know? Because books such as this exist doesn't mean that a device needs to be invented so that I can enjoy it on an ereader.
There is no absolutely pressing need to invent a color ereader as long as there are still paper books and color tablets.
For a while I was waiting for that one to drop in price on Amazon, but it never happened. It went up, in fact.
There was a time when it was 50% cheaper than it is now. I really wish I had known about it then.
I highly recommend:
I have to recommend A Song of Ice and Fire! They'll keep you busy forever.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345535529/
the full 5 book collection is only 30 dollars on amazon.ca
http://www.amazon.ca/George-Martins-Thrones-5-Book-Boxed/dp/0345535529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1405464941&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=game+of+thrones
^^^^^Bee!
Read them!!! Even if it doesn't get finished, its still debatably some of the best literature of our generation and gives SO much insight into the story and the characters. Especially in the fifth book, there is a ton of plot points and awesome characters that never made it to the show. I imagine reading it now would be a nice bit of healing/closure after the catastrophe of S8
Only $35 for all five on Amazon -
I can recommend:
You can get the mass paper back editions in a set on amazon fairly cheap, unless you’re a hardback junkie (totally understandable).GoT series on Amazon
The twitter link you posted has an amazon link that contains affiliate tags. That means the person who created the link makes money on each purchase. You may resubmit your post but use a clean amazon link instead:
https://www.amazon.com/Thrones-Clash-Kings-Swords-Dragons/dp/0345535529/
Full program here:
https://www.amazon.com/Thrones-Clash-Kings-Swords-Dragons/dp/0345535529/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=game+of+thrones+books&qid=1571108202&sr=8-1
I haven't read anything good in years and the things I have read are usually due to finding new books for my kids or reading the books that have been adapted to tv/film.
One of my all time favorite series was from Robin Hobb. Starting with Assassin's Apprentice. This was a difficult read for me at the time, but I loved the story behind the characters.
I started reading less fantasy after reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Millennial Series. I read these after watching the original films. It is fantastic. Just don't buy the fourth book, it wasn't even written by him as he has been dead for a while now.
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I didn't start reading those until Game of Thrones premiered on HBO.
Now for some really old school, Dragonlance by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The fourth book came out years later and was fantastic. I have read more than a few of the side stories, but the main books are the best in my opinion, probably would not hold up well today.
Currently, I have The Martian by Andy Weir and Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan waiting for me to read.
The Five People You meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom is a book that I consider a must read. I don't consider it a spiritual book, but it did change my perspective on how I view my life in this world.
I only have 3 suggestions:
https://www.amazon.com/Thrones-Clash-Kings-Swords-Dragons/dp/0345535529
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Blood-Thrones-Targaryen-History/dp/152479628X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2DQWE4ERVXNM2&amp;keywords=dunk+and+egg&amp;qid=1556622006&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=dunk+%2Cstripbooks%2C126&amp;sr=1-3
https://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2DQWE4ERVXNM2&amp;keywords=dunk+and+egg&amp;qid=1556622024&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=dunk+%2Cstripbooks%2C126&amp;sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/World-Ice-Fire-History-Westeros/dp/0553805444/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2DQWE4ERVXNM2&amp;keywords=dunk+and+egg&amp;qid=1556622024&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=dunk+%2Cstripbooks%2C126&amp;sr=1-2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0DhLQqsZQw&amp;list=PLCsx_OFEYH6uDx4PBx6uAH_Pbfc5Sg1EQ
Leather Bound here
Paperback
Like I said in reply to someone who has now deleted their post, the map I posted is not the speculative one. It's an official map released as part of the atlas "The Lands of Ice and Fire", as seen here. It's the map labeled "The Known World" and is the largest in the set. It differs from the speculative map in that it contains areas much further east.
There's a whole book of them!
http://www.amazon.com/Lands-Ice-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
I have that big poster in my room, as well as a Braavos map and another one of the whole world.
They came in an awesome pack, I have like another 4 - 5 that didn't fit on my walls :)
EDIT: I think it's this one http://www.amazon.com/Lands-Ice-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544
Like an actual physical copy, you mean? If so, then here.
Its in the lands of ice and fire map book. You can see it in the video at around the 2:00 mark.
The Lands of Ice and Fire
Yes, it is. It's in Bastards.
Here
Or Here
I am not aware of a place where you can get it for free (legally)...but there may be a place and I just don't know it.
John Howe's maps of Middle-earth (available in a big box set) are pretty good, and his map of Middle-earth is definitive as far as I'm concerned.
Jonathan Roberts created a set of maps for A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones called The Lands of Ice and Fire which are excellent. I have the big map of the entire world on my wall.
Terry Pratchett has a whole set of maps for his Discworld books, including the entire Discworld itself and the city of Ankh-Morpork (both twice, in fact, in The Streets of Ankh-Morpork, The Compleat Ankh-Morpork, The Discworld Mapp and The Compleat Discworld Atlas).
You can buy a map of Roshar from Brandon Sanderson's website and one of Temerant from the Worldbuilders Store.
I feel like this would be a little cooler, but it doesn't ship until Halloween.
Nope it is out. http://www.amazon.com/Lands-Ice-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1425402946&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+lands+of+ice+and+fire
I enjoy the graphic novels that have been put out, but haven't felt they really affected the story much. Related, but not really, I was given the big map book as a present ( http://www.amazon.com/The-Lands-Fire-Game-Thrones/dp/0345538544 ) It has helped a lot with figuring out the story.
Things to Buy
http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Years-Hanna-Schissler/dp/0691058202
http://www.amazon.com/Redneck-Manifesto-Hillbillies-Americas-Scapegoats/dp/0684838648
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/039332169X/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&amp;showViewpoints=1
http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Everyone-Darwins-Theory-Change/dp/0385340214
http://www.amazon.com/Andromeda-Strain-Michael-Crichton/dp/006170315X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1225932164&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Primates-Classroom-Evolutionary-Perspective-Childrens/dp/0870236113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261589323&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Paleolithic-Prescription-Program-Exercise-Design/dp/0060916354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261589224&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Exiles-Eden-Psychotherapy-Evolutionary-Perspective/dp/0393700739/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261589294&amp;sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Chimpanzee-Politics-Power-among-Apes/dp/0801886562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261589183&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/YOU-Updated-Expanded-Insiders-Healthier/dp/0061473677/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1263303625&amp;sr=1-5
http://www.amazon.com/YOU-Updated-Expanded-Insiders-Healthier/dp/0061473677/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1263303625&amp;sr=1-5
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Science/dp/1400033462/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1297305735&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/New-Sugar-Busters-Cut-Trim/dp/0345469585/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1297305615&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/0143038583/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1297305420&amp;sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Skinny-Bastard-Kick-Ass-Getting/product-reviews/0762435402/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&amp;showViewpoints=1&amp;sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Everyone-Darwins-Theory-Change/dp/0385340214
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Rules-Eaters-Michael-Pollan/dp/014311638X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1297305420&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Primates-Classroom-Evolutionary-Perspective-Childrens/dp/0870236113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261589323&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Exiles-Eden-Psychotherapy-Evolutionary-Perspective/dp/0393700739/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261589294&amp;sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Paleolithic-Prescription-Program-Exercise-Design/dp/0060916354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261589224&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Chimpanzee-Politics-Power-among-Apes/dp/0801886562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261589183&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Strange-Land-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441788386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1258348123&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Full-Plate-Diet-Great-Healthy/dp/1885167717/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1266199288&amp;sr=1-13
http://www.amazon.com/Religion-War-Scott-Adams/dp/0740747886/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_9
http://www.amazon.com/Full-Plate-Diet-Great-Healthy/dp/1885167717/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1266199288&amp;sr=1-13
http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640/
http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Years-Hanna-Schissler/dp/0691058202
http://www.amazon.com/Redneck-Manifesto-Hillbillies-Americas-Scapegoats/dp/0684838648
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/039332169X/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&amp;showViewpoints=1
http://www.amazon.com/Andromeda-Strain-Michael-Crichton/dp/006170315X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1225932164&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Atheist-Manifesto-Against-Christianity-Judaism/dp/1559708204
http://www.amazon.com/Mayo-Clinic-Family-Health-Book/dp/1603200770/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1267299889&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Body-Sculpting-Bible-Men-Revised/dp/1578262380/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1298573232&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Mens-Health-Big-Book-Exercises/dp/1605295507
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594866279/ref=asc_df_15948662791442125?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;tag=pg-1583-01-20&amp;linkCode=asn&amp;creative=395093&amp;creativeASIN=1594866279
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0345498461/ref=asc_df_03454984611442018?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;tag=pg-1583-01-20&amp;linkCode=asn&amp;creative=395093&amp;creativeASIN=0345498461
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Runners-Handbook-13-Week-Walk-Run/dp/1553650875/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1298575384&amp;sr=8-1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703558004574581891694514228.html
http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-Foods-Adventure/dp/1423601505
http://www.amazon.com/Shoppers-Guide-Organic-Food/dp/1857028406/ref=sr_1_16?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1308213453&amp;sr=1-16
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Portrait_of_the_Artist_as_a_Young_Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness_writing
http://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/30/all-time-100-best-nonfiction-books/#fast-food-nation-by-eric-schlosser
http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Strange-Land-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441788386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1258348123&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-apnea/continuous-positive-airway-pressure-cpap-for-obstructive-sleep-apnea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye
http://www.amazon.com/Catch-22-Joseph-Heller/dp/0684833395
http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-2nd-Mark-Rippetoe/dp/0976805421/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1253993543&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Aero-Speed-Hyperformance-Jump-Rope/dp/B00017XHO8
http://www.invisibleshoe.com/#ecwid:category=135066&amp;mode=product&amp;product=278983
http://view.exacttarget.com/?j=fe621670756c0575741d&amp;m=fe7215707561047d7315&amp;ls=fde817797d6d037977177974&amp;l=fe9215717260007a70&amp;s=fe2d13707d600478751c72&amp;jb=ffcf14&amp;ju=fe2e167375640d75711576&amp;r=0
http://www.amazon.com/Element-Surprise-Navy-Seals-Vietnam/dp/0804105812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1304634342&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Survivor-Eyewitness-Account-Operation/dp/0316067598
http://www.amazon.com/Diving-Bell-Butterfly-Memoir-Death/dp/0375701214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1312848167&amp;sr=8-1
Political
Iraq Research
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Tawhid_Wal-Jihad
http://www.ontheissues.org/Drugs.htm#Barack_Obama
Congress Related
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r110query.html
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_110_1.htm
http://www.usdoj.gov/
http://www.issuedictionary.com/Barack_Obama.cgi
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?r110:75:./temp/~r110y7HfAa::
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists
/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237
http://allafrica.com/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/??
Health & Exercise
Green Tea
http://www.teatrekker.com/store/tea/green/green+-+japan.php
http://www.o-cha.com/brew.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_2080066_steep-loose-leaf-tea.html
http://cooksshophere.com/products/tea/green_tea.htm
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&amp;dbid=146
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tea
http://blackdragonteabar.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html
http://blackdragonteabar.blogspot.com/
https://www.itoen.com/leaf/index.cfm
http://www.maiko.ne.jp/english/
http://www.mellowmonk.com/buyGreenTea.htm
http://www.o-cha.com/home.php
http://www.denstea.com/
http://www.theteaavenue.com/chgrtea.html
http://www.teafrog.com/teas/finum-tea-brewing-basket.html
SF horror is an important subgenre because it's been the source of so many movies. Hollywood loves science fiction with horror elements. Hell, look at VanderMeer's Annihilation.
One of the best SF horror novels is Peter Watts' Blindsight; terrific fun. Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo, I think you could include Legacy of Heorot by Niven, a lot of Stephen King's novels are SF horror, such as Tommyknockers and Dreamcatcher. Dan Simmon's Carrion Comfort is horror, but it has strong SF elements, etc.
Recently I read Blindsight by Peter Watts. This is some worldview-changing stuff. No cheap tropes or cliches in it. Also, I really did like Arrival based on a Ted Chiang story not to mention the all around super-hit Stranger Things (it is a mash-up of cliches, but it's done so tastefully).
I would highly recommend a book I'm currently reading, Echopraxia
Even though it's 2nd in a series to another (equally great) book of Peter Watts' called BlindSight
some of the best Hard Science Fiction in recent decades, IMHO..
and it goes into precisely those speculations that stimulated your post.
If you like SciFi, do yourself a favor and pick it up right now..
If you're not that into SciFi, this might just get you into it more.
The debate lies mainly in what you consider consciousness. If you describe it as being consciously aware of your stream of thought, then you are actually not conscious throughout lots of your day (we slip into flow-like states all the time).
But there isn't much of a debate anymore about "where" consciousness is in the brain. This used to be a big deal in neuroscience, but we've learned it's not really how consciousness probably comes about, because even centers of the brain that are integral to who your are, your memories, your personality--even if those are shut down selectively, you are still going to be conscious, even if just altered, unable to recall certain things, or having a vastly different personality.
Here is a Ted Talk Dan Dennett gives about it. Dennett is a much more science-based philosopher, and his take on this isn't super controversial any more I don't think (speaking strictly about consciousness as an emergent property--his whole "free will" stuff I think is totally up for debate and depends on interpretation). I have heard Dr. Steve Novella (Skeptics Guide to the Universe host, practicing neuroscientist, and president of the New England Skeptical Society) say pretty much verbatim the things Dan Dennett says about our modern understanding of what consciousness is and isn't.
Fascinating stuff. If you're into hard sci-fi, I recommend Blindsight by Peter Watts, a first-contact story that really gets to the bones of what is and isn't consciousness. A weird, fascinating sci-fi story that will change the way you think about consciousness forever, probably.
Blindsight by Peter Watts for a very gritty, and sometimes challenging, take on "First Contact", the nature of consciousness and an unusual scientific explanation for a very common horror trope. Highly recommended.
I agree. That said, I highly recommend Peter Watts's book Blindsight to anyone who's interested in the subject of aliens that are more truly alien (and also people who like dark sci-fi in general, or explorations of the theme that humans are basically just really smart animals, but no less nasty for it).
Guy's background is marine biology, so he's definitely got some perspective on the "life can look and act in really bizarre ways" thing. :)
Absolutely. And worth the price to have a durable, re-readable hardcover copy on the shelf. This book turned me on to neuropsychology.
How many SF books come with a bibliography?
Já leu Gaiman? Pratchett?
Aleatórios, talvez tenha alguma coisa que te interesse:
https://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640/
https://www.amazon.com/Ninefox-Gambit-Yoon-Ha-Lee/dp/1781084491
https://www.amazon.com/Rivers-of-London/dp/1407243160
If you like video games and delving into backstories...
Bioshock: Rapture by John Shirley
Sci-Fi / Horror(?)
I particularly like it because it was able to capture the feel of the Bioshock series - dark, mysterious, dramatic and sometimes creepy. I love the fact that radical political ideologies come into play, and the story line is much deeper than most common video games out there. It enriches your experience for the series, and John's writing is easy to read.
Hi there! I'm Sierra and welcome to RAoA! I just learned how to sew so I would love any of the sewing patterns I have on my wishlist, you can only have so many of the same skirt in different fabrics lol. I also love Bioshock and Fallout 3 and if you haven't read Rapture by John Shirley you should! It gives you an awesome insight into what Rapture was like before the fall.
Start with shorter stories - much like running or anything else, there's an element of having to build yourself up to reading something longer like a novel. You could also try reading books that connect to the video games/movies/shows/etc that you like. It can be hard to get into a book if you don't care about the characters - but if they're from something you're already familiar with, it can be easier. If you're a fan of Bioshock, for example, there's a great book about how Rapture came to be.
Good luck! :)
It's very well done, and follows the novelization very closely.
Enjoy!
If you get a chance to read the rapture book they sort of talk about rapture when it was running. I would absolutely love to explore it
It's actually called "Bioshock: Rapture." You can order it on Amazon!
http://www.amazon.com/BioShock-Rapture-John-Shirley/dp/0765367351/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1408742784&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=bioshock+rapture
Jealous that you're enjoying them for the first time! When you finish the game, i highly recommend picking up the book it serves as a prequel to the first game and it's really great stuff.
Giving a link to where to find it might help dude!
Also, can anyone recommend these two?