(Part 2) Best literary genre history & criticism books according to redditors
We found 612 Reddit comments discussing the best literary genre history & criticism books. We ranked the 153 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
It's interesting of how you're using this idea that somehow since the book is for kids, it can't have significant implications in it as well. If we actually choose to look beyond the first 3 inches, one can find an awful lot to examine.
Minerva McGonagal? Minerva is the Roman Goddess of wisdom. Fluffy, or cerberus, happens to guard the place which contains the key to eternal life? I'm sure Orpheus would be Jealous. All the latin, describing the function of spells (and a mirror)? But I mean all kids know latin, right?
Steven King:
> The fantasy writer's job is to conduct the willing reader from mundanity to magic. This is a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable, and Rowling possesses such equipment. She has said repeatedly that the Potter novels are not consciously aimed at any particular audience or age. The reader may reasonably question that assertion after reading the first book in the series, but by the time he or she has reached ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,'' it becomes increasingly clear that the lady means what she says. Nor can there be any question that her stated refusal to dumb down the language of the books (the current one is presented with such British terms as petrol, pub and cuppa unchanged) has lent the stories an attraction to adults that most children's novels simply don't have.
ofLiterature written about Harry Potter for a series that's only 3 inches deep.
That's my two cents anyways.
I thought it was passable until I read the chapter on it in Simone Caroti's book on the culture series. Now, I realize how totally brilliant it is. I'd highly recommend checking that book out.
edit: Here's a link to it: https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Iain-Banks-Critical-Introduction/dp/0786494476 It's a little pricey, but totally worth it.
As I play, I like to look up every name I come acress to see if it is canonical. Or, at least find out what it means. For example, there's a Malledhrim by the name of Goldagnir (http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Goldagnir). The word "dagnir" means bane, so, this person is the bane of Gol. Which makes me start thinking about who Gol is, or what it pertains to.
Just yesterday I was playing through the Enedwaith quests, and came across "The Huntsmen". He spoke of his Lord from the uttermost West, which is clearly Orome. Which makes this particular entity a Maiar, or at least that was my assumption. The game can't say that, since SSG doesn't have the rights to the Silmarillion, but they can certainly allude to the fact. The lotRo wiki agrees with me, as they have the race listed as Maia: https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/The_Huntsman_(NPC)
I also follow along with the Tolkien Companion (https://smile.amazon.com/Complete-Tolkien-Companion-J-Tyler/dp/1250023556/) and the Atlas of Middle Earth (https://smile.amazon.com/Atlas-Middle-Earth-Revised-Karen-Fonstad/dp/0618126996/). Lots of interesting information from those source that makes me see things in the game world I might otherwise disregard.
/u/AncientHistory gonn' give it to ya!
He wrote this. It is the book you don't just want but need in your life right now.
I just got into LOTR LCG, picked up the core set in January and at first I thought "this will be a cute little game". Shortly after things escalated quickly and I fell in love, it was my own. I begun to reread LOTR, I bought the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle but that wasn't enough precious! So I went to the amazon and got Dwarrowdelf and Against the Shadow cycles at the same time, we needs it.
After that came the deckbuilding and they wanted to touch the cards! With their filthy fat hobbitses hands, we must protect it!
So having suddenly 1500+ cards to sleeve I needed to go cheap. So I went to mordor and bought a few pack's the quality is quite good BUT some packs happen to be 2mm longer wich is annoying but easily fixed with a metal ruler and x acto knife.
Also I made a my own custom playmat and cause I am crazy like that I bought this book it's epic!
TLDR;
I sleeve..
If you go to Amazon and sort prices by low to high, searching for "minimalism", there's usually 1 or 2 books that are free. "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" really is the best book I've ever read on the subject. It's got the powerful ideas of organizing by category, choosing what to keep instead of what to discard, as well as the key concept of "sparks joy" which distinguishes it from most of the decluttering books that came before. The Manga version is a pretty good cliff notes version of it in comic book form. I'm quite fond of "Thrift" written by Samuel Smiles, which was written in 1875, as well as "How to Live on 24 hours a Day" by Arnold Bennett, written in 1908. Both are in the public domain, and you can find them free on Amazon or Google Play.
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering-Organizing-ebook/dp/B00KK0PICK/
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Manga-Tidying-Up-Magical-ebook/dp/B01N6W2W5M/
https://www.amazon.com/Thrift-Samuel-Smiles-ebook/dp/B01C9FDRYO/
https://www.amazon.com/How-Live-24-Hours-Day-ebook/dp/B0084AHN6C/
I quite enjoy the "Messy Minimalist" on Youtube, who's so far in the middle of a six month journey to declutter her hoard that she's gathered as the owner of an Inn and large garden, is really handy with tools, doing the Walden thing by moving from Manhattan to the country, and occasionally talks about things like her former World of Warcraft addiction.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf84Fp1X-CpcXQ-8rw2xRmE3_QC5T1O7H
If you haven't already, you should check out my friend Marc Aramini's book on Wolfe called Between Light and Shadow. In the book he breaks down all of Wolfe's work up until the early 80's (I think). His interpretation of T5oC is the best I have ever read and probably closest to Wolfe's actual intentions. His theories about the book also involve the things you mentioned. Marc's book is only the first half of a massive work; part two will be out pretty soon. I can't wait to read it.
Here's a list of sources, in English translation, for the stories I discussed in this video. All of them are public domain, and readily available in at least one edition on Wikisource. All of these stories can be found in their original languages as well.
Grimm's Cinderella, from a 1952 edition translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Grimm%27s_Household_Tales_(Edwardes)/Ashputtel
Grimm's Hansel and Gretel, from a 1952 edition translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Grimm%27s_Household_Tales_(Edwardes)/Hansel_and_Grethel
Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, from a 1952 edition translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Grimm%27s_Household_Tales_(Edwardes)/Briar_Rose
Perault's Cinderella, from a 1901 translation by Charles Welsh:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tales_of_Mother_Goose/Cinderella,_or_the_Little_Glass_Slipper
Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, from a 1901 translation by Charles Welsh:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tales_of_Mother_Goose/The_Sleeping_Beauty_in_the_Wood
Giambattista Basile's Sun, Moon, and Talia, from an 1850 translation of the Pentamerone by John Edward Taylor:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Pentamerone,_or_The_Story_of_Stories/Sun,_Moon_and_Talia
I had a much harder time tracking down the original, 1812 edition of the Grimm's stories along with the original introduction. The best I could find digitally was an edition translated by Oliver Loo and published in 2014. It's currently available on Amazon for just $3.00:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MMX1Z5W/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
If anyone would like a hand finding alternate translations of the sources, other versions of the stories, or the medieval art that inspired my drawings, feel free to send me a PM.
As If - Michael Saler
The Atlas of Middle-Earth, an essential for anyone looking to expand their Middle-Earth collection and IMO an almost required necessity companion when reading The Silmarillion.
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
A few I haven't read, but have heard good things about here and elsewhere:
If you search for "minimalism" in the Amazon Kindle store and sort by price from low to high, there are usually 2 to 3 books being offered for free at any given time.
I think showing anyone an episode of Hoarders or Hoarding: Buried Alive has a much more visceral impact, and some of these are available on Netflix. I do enjoy the public domain book, "How to Live in 24 hours a Day" which was written in the early 20th century.
Still, if they're comfortable with their clutter, and it's not really a problem, why try to change them?
I would want that handsome annotated bicentennial edition.
Any of them that say "complete" will have all of the tales. Some of them are broken into volumes. Get her any complete edition. Like this one.
Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun: A Chapter Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947614096/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_rC6WDb32X6Q7V
This one and this atlas are really good. The atlas would easily be worth it as a read on its own. The guide is kind of an encyclopedia with pretty much every name or place you could want to look up.
>There's also a great little book that's dedicated to using the books to make a full atlas of Middle-earth, and the author's very knowledgeable about geography and geology. She even explains the theories pertinent to Middle-earth's shift from flat to round.
To add on to this a bit, the book you would be looking for is called The Atlas of Middle Earth (revised edition) by Karen Wynn Fonstad.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KEWAP1I/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Under NO circumstances should you ever buy, look at, or read An Atlas of Tolkien by David Day.
Not at all difficult, people who understand how languages work do it all the time: Klingon, Dothraki, and so on. People have written books on the topic.
Esperanto was invented as a universal language in the late 19th century, and while it never caught on, there are still groups who speak it for grins. William Shatner did a whole movie in it.
Norse mythology is also free.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01BMHMD40/ref=pd_aw_sim_351_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=ND6TGD1PRJBXA6ETJDP9&dpPl=1&dpID=81fp1rvUEYL
Anyone know anything about the "Oliver Loo" version which is also out?
http://www.amazon.com/Original-1812-Grimm-Fairy-Tales-ebook/dp/B00MMX1Z5W/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416438807&sr=1-1&keywords=grimm+oliver+loo
Buy your mum a copy of one of my favorite nerd books:
The Atlas of Middle Earth
It’s so gratifying that someone else enjoys it. If Ultan corrects you, just keep moving forward!
Amazon assures me that you can buy the print version here:
Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun: A Chapter Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947614096/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NZcXDbWF7F1R4
>But Tolkien's most important contribution by far, and what is at the heart of the real revolution he effected in literature, was his construction of a systematic secondary world. There had been plenty of invented worlds in fantasy before, but they were vague and ad hoc, defined moment to moment by the needs of the story. Tolkien reversed that. He started with the world, plotted it obsessively, delineating its history, geography and mythology before writing the stories. He introduced an extraordinary element of rigour to the genre.
>This type of project is often mocked by those critical of fantasy. However, it allows for a unique and - at least potentially - uniquely engaged kind of reading. Readers can inhabit these worlds, and become collaborators in the process of constantly creating them, suspending their disbelief.
I'm glad that Mieville, a former Dungeons & Dragons nerd who's talked about his love of reading role-playing guidebooks like the Monster Manual, thought to focus on this as Tolkien's biggest innovation. I'd also recommend the book As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary PreHistory of Virtual Reality to anyone interested in the history of how "world building" caught on in genre fiction, it focuses on the trio of Tolkien, Lovecraft and Arthur Conan Doyle (and their early fandom).
i also highly recommend david foster wallace's excellent profile of mccain from rolling stone: up simba!.
Well worth the $4, but i could swear i found a free version on the rolling stone site a few years ago.
What you're talking about is more or less in line with a psychoanalytic / Jungian interpretation. There's a lot of history and some disagreement^1, but generally the idea is that religion was instituted to codify morality into an easy-to-digest way (ie, making up stories that teach us how to behave morally) and to give a general model of human behavior and interaction, a sort of primitive social science.
I'm coming mostly from Carl Jung (Text 1 / Text 2 / Wiki), Jacques Lacan (Text / Wiki), Joseph Campbell (Text / Wiki), and Erich Fromm (Text / Wiki), but these anthologies give a decent scope of study: Ways of Being Religious and Religion, Society and Psychoanalysis.
There's also an entire sub-genre of what amount to self-help books based on mythology, interpreting myths to teach you how to be a better person: Myths to Live By, Iron John.
^1 One of the big disagreements between Freud and Jung was the role of religion in the mind of a subject. Freud believed it was a fantasy we use to bolster our own sense of importance and impart some sense of order onto the world that isn't there. Jung believed, while that may be true of fundamentalists or the neurotic/pathological, generally speaking it was a positive thing, that it created or strengthened social bonds, that it taught us things about ourselves and humanity.
Up, Simba!
https://www.amazon.com/Between-Light-Shadow-Exploration-Fiction-ebook/dp/B011YTDGY2 This includes a long essay on New Sun. Though some theories in New Sun are explained in round about ways in the Long and Short Sun books.
Cool find!
If you're into the Science of Dune, you owe yourself a read of - literally - The Science of Dune, a compilation of essays by notable, credentialed authors on various aspects of Dune's biology, ecology, technology, culture, astronomy and more. Genetic memory, stillsuits, the physical location of Dune (which is a real planet!), anti-gravity... It's a great read.
For getting upt to speed with the old books without re-reading them, I highly recommend Larry Ketchersid's re-read. It's a 10th of lenght and you'll know everything necessary. It is a self published ebook on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Re-reading-Williams-Memory-Sorrow-Thorn-ebook/dp/B01I8GIWQ6/
I know it is unpopular around here, but I would recommend reading the Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson books a read. Borrow em from your library if you are nervous.
Nothing as cerebral as Dune but I am a big fan of John Ringo's stuff. He had a collaboration with David Weber that was good "The Empire of Man" which begins with "March Upcountry".
I also started The Horus Heresy series and am on book 9 and cannot get enough.
There is The Road to Dune which sheds some more light on Frank and the development of the original novel.
There is Dreamer of Dune which is a biography of Frank.
Last but not least, this book is kind of cool: The Science of Dune. It is a collection of essays by scientists and philosophers about different aspects of Dune and their scientific foundation (i.e. could Arrakis exist). Disclosure, the links I provide might be an affiliate link.
I'm a pretty well-confirmed athiest at this point. I tend to view the current manifestations of religion as following in a long tradition of mythmaking by human cultures.
With that in mind, you might look into some psychology in addition to your religious research. I'm a writer, which is how I came by Jung and Campbell and Booker -- but I think the idea of underlying patterns of thought that guide our own mythmaking is of broader use than simply helping me understand storytelling better.
I've read the following, and suggest you do as well!
Jung
The Basic Writings of CG Jung
Man and His Symbols
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
Psychology and Religion
Campbell
The Hero With A Thousand Faces
The Masks of God (Vols. 1 - 3)
Myths to Live By
Booker
The Seven Basic Plots
There are a lot more, but those are the ones I'd start with. As an undergrad, I majored in English and Rhetoric, and minored in both Religion and Poetry -- this cultural storytelling stuff is important to me.
As a library science graduate student, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that you can get all of these books from your local library -- and can enlist the aid of the reference desk in finding more material for your research. Believe me, there's nothing a reference worker likes more than an interesting topic -- i.e. something that doesn't involve directing people to the bathroom, or helping people find books on filing their taxes. We're trained to help with real research! Use us!
I'll start with an author whose work in comparative mythology is exceptional and deeply spiritual in a way that's very conscious of the difference between organized religion and spirituality. He's got a lot of books, some more scholarly and others much more approachable. Two examples here:
"Since lies are what the world lives on...those who can face the challenge of a truth and build their lives to accord are finally not many, but the very few"
--Joseph Campbell, [Myths to live By] (http://www.amazon.com/Myths-Live-Joseph-Campbell/dp/0140194614/)
“Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.”
― Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
Next, if you really want to stretch there's a remarkable series of books created from first-hand accounts from hundreds of individuals under hypnosis to map out the nature of what might be termed our spiritual home or "life between lives" - I find this to be more credibly presented and much more consistent with the many well-documented near-death experiences that are continuously being studied by groups like NDERF and IANDS and Dr. Newton's methodology makes these books a compelling read:
Michael Newton, Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives
Michael Newton, Destiny of Souls: More Case Studies of Life Between Lives
These aren't for everyone, and the idea that there is a proper place for spirituality can be hard to swallow for those who feel scarred by organized religion, but they've been helpful in my own personal journey to stay grounded while I escape a church that's obsessed with sexuality, the pursuit of money for itself above even the welfare of its members, and even the smallest perceived deviation from its accepted belief system and practices.
For fairy tales, I recommend the following:
For mythology and classical studies, there are a couple that are basically required reading for any Mythology or Classics class. Since several people have already recommended anthologies of Greek myths, I'm going to err more on the "Classics" side of the conversation:
Green Planets has a bunch of very good essays on ecology & world building in science fiction.
Narrower focus, but if you are a fan of Iain M Banks' Culture, Simone Caroti's book is very good.
Too late for your course, but a book of critical essays on Adam Roberts' science fiction is being released next year. He's the best "1 big idea per novel" writer right now.
If you want a city map, there's this monstrosity
Available for pre-order: Re-reading Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is the fantasy series cited as a major influencer of George R. R. Martin, Christopher Paolini, Patrick Rothfuss and many others. With the publication of The Last King of Osten Ard, the new series set in the same world, readers of the original series may need a re-read or a refresher.
This eBook goes through each chapter in all three massive books, and includes additional chapters on the series place in fantasy genre history, the three great swords, conjecture on the new Last King series (and the additional new books set in Osten Ard) and a list of additional resources for information about this deep and expanding place.
Get ready for The Heart of What Was Lost (which takes place immediately after the end of To Green Angel Tower) and The Witchwood Crown (occurring 30 years after To Green Angel Tower) with this thorough and sometimes humorous re-read notes.
Many thanks to Deborah Beale and Tad Williams for their support on this project.
If you're familiar with those systems, why not just grab a world book about Shannara, (http://www.amazon.com/The-World-Shannara-Terry-Brooks/dp/0345480686) use say Pathfinder, and tweak stuff as needed?
Shannara is essentially heroic fantasy, and that's the one thing Pathfinder and 3.5 do well. Use the world as is, set up characters based on Shannara archetypes, and chance the particulars to fit the fiction (together with your players). Should work fine!
Although this isn't an rpg system, this book is The Shannara companion book which could serve as a guide to the setting and the background information that you could use to build a campaign from:
Shannara Book
Just to add some Potter stuff here...
The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us about Moral Choices by Edmund Kern
There are 3 critical studies of Banks' writing that can be ordered from Amazon, and might be suitable?
Not read any of them personally, but I think the Kincaid one is the highest profile one - Hugo Award finalist last year, and IIRC Kincaid knew Banks personally. Both Kincaid and Hubble live in the UK, so you might be able to contact them to get a copy signed?
https://www.amazon.com/Compleat-Ankh-Morpork-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0385538235/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=guide+to+Ankh+morpork&qid=1563332828&s=books&sr=1-1
I got this for 5 bucks at a meijer a year or two ago. I plan on using this as plot city for a city campaign. It has an awesome map of the city.
Well reading the books is the best and fullest way to learn about the world, but if you want something more concise and organized, there is the World of Shannara book that is a guide to the setting.
There is also a wiki
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.
This should keep you busy a while....personally I would start with newer stuff and not really worry about reading Asimov, Stapledon, etc. Current authors have built on the work of others, plus they're writing for the current times we're in, so I think some newer stories might have more meaning and relevance.
That's not to say these old stories aren't good, Ted Sturgeon is awesome. There are so many great authors, Gregory Benford, M. John Harrison, Fritz Leiber, Ted Sturgeon. You'll just have to start reading and see what you like.
https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/bookshop/?bauthor=STURGEON,%20THEODORE
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Annotated-Brothers-Grimm-Bicentennial/dp/0393088863/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1411078972&sr=8-15&keywords=grimms+fairy+tales+original
This is the one I currently own.