(Part 2) Best literature & fiction books according to redditors
We found 87,456 Reddit comments discussing the best literature & fiction books. We ranked the 28,164 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.
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..
Author of Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt
and it's sequel Pounded In The Butt By My Book "Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt"
Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt
this is difficult choice i would say and probably it changes very much i would say i have always had kind heart towards REAMED BY MY REACTION TO THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK because it was first big meta tingler that i was proud of in this way. also SPACE RAPTOR BUTT INVASION because it made me a big timer. and last i would say NOT POUNDED BY ANYTHING AND THAT'S OKAY because i think this is important message of love that you can have a pounding way but sometimes its okay for our preferred pound to be 'no thanks' and i think this is important message and supports lifestyle of asexual way that is sometimes overlooked but VERY VALID AND IMPORTANT and also way of consent that its okay to say you are not interested of ANY REASON. you do not owe scoundrels anything when it comes to your boundaries buckaroo
Because I looked up each of these, here are links for reference:
^ these are Amazon links, no referrals!
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ
But that's where you're wrong. On one end of the spectrum, we've got classics like "Pounded in the Butt by my Own Butt", while on the other end we've got exciting titles like "A Billionaire Dinosaur Forced me Gay." And there's a whole world in between. "All the same," you say. To that, I respond "Ha!"
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
Sorry...had to
Ever been somewhere completely foreign? The people talk strange, dress strange and act strange. Toilets flush the wrong direction, cars on the wrong side of the road. People on the street will stand too close to you or get angry if you point with one finger. All kinds of shit that leaves you with a vaguely uncomfortable feeling. You can communicate with people, although misinterpretations are common, and you can interact enough to get by, but you can never really get your point across when needed, and you just plain don't have a grap of their social norms. Pretend this never gets better. That's kind of how we think an autistic feels.
It depends, of course, on where one lands on the aforementioned "autistic spectrum", but holds true to some extent with all autistics. It's hard to get your point across or to get someone else's point, others emotions or reactions to events make no sense, and are unpredictable to an autistic. It is honestly surprising to a person with autism that the neighbor would get mad at you for smashing his car windows with a hammer. You'd be confused if he liked his windows, or just hates that hammer. A lot of folks with autism cling to things like math for comfort. They like patterns, predictable things that always have a familiar outcome.
Check out The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Amazing story told from the point of view of an autistic child.
Naaaw. Nobody got pounded in the butt. Now if it were Gay T-Rex Law Firm: Executive Boner, Space Raptor Butt Invasion or even Professor T-Rex Teaches me Gayness then you'd have a Tingler.
She obviously has not been introduced to Chuck Tingle and his bestseller 'Space Raptor Butt Invasion'.
David Day has a bad reputation for just making things up without any basis in Tolkien's work. I tend to not recommend them.
If you want an atlas the gold standard is The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen-Anne Fonstad
If you want to enhance his reading of LotR, Hammond and Scull's LotR Reader's Companion is the way to go.
If you want an encyclopedia style book, Forster's Complete Guide to Middle-earth is best.
The blueprint for this effort appears to cost $14.
Diamond Age
Suggestions: Find yourself a map of Beleriand (Fonstad's "Atlas of Middle-Earth is the best thing ever), also consult the family tree of Finwë when needed.
Dont forget Space Raptor Butt Invasion which was nominated for the prestigious Hugo award.
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 there is a book called "Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt" on Amazon, there is a novel for your kink; or you haven't written it yet.
I'm reading this book for the second time right now. It's amazing. Don't think. Just buy it right now! The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
I have 1 hard back for reading and 1 paperback for drawing/doodling/playing around with of the Necronomicon
May be Replay, by Ken Grimwood. Loved that book, and thank you for not spoiling the fun for those who haven't read it.
Check out "The Martian" by Andy Weir! It's a phenomenal novel about what would happen if we had missions to Mars in the near future....... And what would happen if someone got left behind.
Texts and Reference Books
Days in the Lives of Social Workers
DSM-5
Child Development, Third Edition: A Practitioner's Guide
Racial and Ethnic Groups
Social Work Documentation: A Guide to Strengthening Your Case Recording
Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond
[Thoughts and Feelings: Taking Control of Your Moods and Your Life]
(https://www.amazon.com/Thoughts-Feelings-Harbinger-Self-Help-Workbook/dp/1608822087/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3ZW7PRW5TK2PB0MDR9R3)
Interpersonal Process in Therapy: An Integrative Model
[The Clinical Assessment Workbook: Balancing Strengths and Differential Diagnosis]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534578438/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_38?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ARCO1HGQTQFT8)
Helping Abused and Traumatized Children
Essential Research Methods for Social Work
Navigating Human Service Organizations
Privilege: A Reader
Play Therapy with Children in Crisis
The Color of Hope: People of Color Mental Health Narratives
The School Counseling and School Social Work Treatment Planner
Streets of Hope : The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood
Deviant Behavior
Social Work with Older Adults
The Aging Networks: A Guide to Programs and Services
[Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society: Bridging Research and Practice]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415884810/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy
Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change
Ethnicity and Family Therapy
Human Behavior in the Social Environment: Perspectives on Development and the Life Course
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
Generalist Social Work Practice: An Empowering Approach
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook
DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents
DBT Skills Manual
DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets
Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need
Novels
[A People’s History of the United States]
(https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0062397346/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511070674&sr=1-1&keywords=howard+zinn&dpID=51pps1C9%252BGL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Life For Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Tuesdays with Morrie
The Death Class <- This one is based off of a course I took at my undergrad university
The Quiet Room
Girl, Interrupted
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Flowers for Algernon
Of Mice and Men
A Child Called It
Go Ask Alice
Under the Udala Trees
Prozac Nation
It's Kind of a Funny Story
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Bell Jar
The Outsiders
To Kill a Mockingbird
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.
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
Think again!
Check out the Atlas of Middle-Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad! It's Tolkien Estate-approved and is absolutely fantastic. Besides maps, there's routes of journeys, battle formations, thematic maps and demographic information. It's one of my favourite book investments of all time.
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.
Redirect them to Chuck Tingle, Pounded in the butt by my own butt
It's genius
He's on Amazon: "Pounded in the butt by my own butt" There is even a sequel: " Pounded in the Butt by My Book "Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt" "
He also does IAmA some times https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8i7e7f/im_chuck_tingle_two_time_hugo_award_finalist_and/
One time he poped into a IAmA with jeff goldblum to ask him who the most handsome dinosaur was/
https://twitter.com/chucktingle/status/1003768324205867008?lang=en
&#x200B;
Looks like he has a new book: https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/bbo5na/dear_marvels_buckaroos_this_is_for_you_revengers/
This is my personal fave
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU#nav-subnav
Replay by Ken Grimwood.
Pretty dang good book, with pretty much this premise.
My personal favourites are;
Links to the aforementioned books;
>I LOOOVE having this power
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0345535529/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1395539202&amp;sr=8-1&amp;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 body is already familiar with it, so it gets metabolized extremely quickly. Thus, the trips only last 5-10 minutes and you are left feeling like you just woke from a dream; memories of the trip fading quickly unless you dwell on them, also much like a dream. It's ironic that the strongest hallucinogen known to man is also the safest.
I truly believe it shows you higher mathematical dimensions similar to what the circle experienced in the book Flatland.
Not sure if it has photos, but I think if a print version exists of Space Raptor Butt Invasion, it could be a worthy contender to something to make the TSA agent raise an eyebrow or three.
As far as I know, there is no way to buy digital copies of these yet. The only way I was able to find them was via the fantasy compilations:
Legends I,
Legends II,
Warriors I
Btw, I have no affiliation with Amazon, it was just easy to find on their site.
I almost enjoyed them more than asoiaf because there's there's no shifting POV characters for all 3 "novellas." Everything is always from the POV of Ser Duncan the Tall.
Christopher Tolkien actually drew the map based on his father's map, so there are at least two versions, the father's and the son's. And then there's this version from Tolkien-approved illustrator Pauline Baynes, which is essentially Christopher's with little illustrations added by Baynes. Karen Wynn Fonstad also published The Atlas if Middle-Earth, in which she created close-up maps of places like Helm's Deep or Minas Tirith, as well as maps of the entirety of Arda. I disagree with some of her maps, but she had to make choices based on incomplete and sometimes contradictory information from Tolkien. Finally, in Unfinished Tales Christopher Tolkien published a revised map of Middle-earth in the Third Age, correcting some of the errors in the original. I believe that replaced the original map in subsequent editions of The Lord of the Rings.
Read The Martian it is surprisingly accurate and super entertaining.
That's not the only one. Though not a supervolcano, I've been talking about Mt. Vesuvius for months now. There's been increased earthquake activity in the region and several years ago experts gave that one an 85% chance of a major eruption within this century. It last erupted (minor) in 1944 during WWII. Yet, people keep building there. Not good building either. They toss up cheap structures in "the red zone" (of roughly 800k people) as if they are taunting the damn thing. Not good. That eruption would kill or displace millions.
Yellowstone is quite another beast. That right there is a global event. Everyone, and everything on Earth would be affected in some way, however measurable.
We're not prepared for anything like that. Our short-sighted society isn't adequately tracking meteors, we're not prepared for supervolcanos, we're not prepared for a 2" rise in sea level. Nothing. Anything like this happens, we're screwed. Time is ticking towards the inevitable.
There's three main power grids in the US, all with old infrastructure and overwhelming demands placed upon them. Just knocking one of those out for a month would be catastrophic. No fuel pumps, no sewage pumps, no clean water, no heat, no trucks moving freight into stores. Things would go south quickly. We're far too comfy. No one can really survive without modernity anymore. The rich knows what's up. "Spez", the head of this very website, is building bunkers--along with thousands of other people doing the same. He's smart for doing it too.
I'd go so far as to say if Yellowstone erupted, societal collapse would be almost a certainty for the survivors. You know what, though? However morbid it sounds, I think society almost needs an event like this. The video OP didn't have much of anything notable to say, but one thing did stand out. In that they want to be sure people keep going to Walmart. Sounds about right to me..
Anyways, here's two great books I read last year with similar themes. Disregard the causation, and pay attention to the aftermath:
Ted Koppels "Lights Out" (cyberattack on the grid)
One Second After by John Matherson(EMP attack)
Library Links
>Dunk & Egg 1 (Hedge Knight)
>Legends Anthology: http://www.worldcat.org/title/legends-short-novels-by-the-masters-of-modern-fantasy/oclc/39013842
>Hedge Knight Only: http://www.worldcat.org/title/hedge-knight/oclc/56053466&amp;referer=brief_results
>
>
> Dunk & Egg 2 (Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword)
> Legends Anthology II: http://www.worldcat.org/title/legends-ii-dragon-sword-and-king/oclc/630937186
> Sworn Sword Only: http://www.worldcat.org/title/hedge-knight-ii-sworn-sword/oclc/269578007
> Dunk & Egg 3 (Mystery Knight)
> Warriors Anthology: http://www.worldcat.org/title/warriors/oclc/428026868
Amazon (from /r/asoiaf wiki)
>1.
> http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Dreamsongs-Volume-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0553385690
>
>2.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Masters-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B000FC0Y0Y/
> 3.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765320487/
>
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765360268/
Atlas of Middle Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. Buy it.
Disappointed they didn't check out Space Raptor Butt Invasion and the other similar Dinosaur Romance novels
https://www.amazon.ca/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
Might want an EVA suit. Also, good like starting a fire in near vacuum. :D
Also, if you're feeling the Mars vibe, read this book.
It's available free online, but I've def got a hard cover copy on my bookshelf. I can't really deal with digital versions of things, I need physical books.
Upvote for having the same problem as me!! I recently started on "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. I believe it has two books so far; I usually look for series since I get so wrapped up in the stories. So far, I'm completely entertained and enthralled with the story.
Amazon Description
The link /u/LittleLuthien posted is great, I would also highly recommend Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth. It's really helpful to keep track of what's going on especially for the battles.
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.
Sagan didn't create Flatland, it was a book written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey.
I thought it might be nice to try some near future space opera set within our solar system, it seems to have some great reviews.
Oh I hope Leviathan Wakes wins best novel. If anyone hasn't heard of it now's the best time to start. Quite a great read and the sequel comes out this summer.
Flatland describes this situation in a more "romantic" fashion.
Have you read Flatland?
It's a novella, so it's less than half the length of a novel. It's about a 2D world and its reaction to the introduction of a three-dimensional object. Lots of math and philosophical stuff.
I've never read it, since I'm not into those topics, but I've heard plenty of people say that it's good. It's in the public domain, so you should be able to find it free online.
It's the graphic novel of The Hedge Knight that sells for stupid prices.
The actual novella is available in this book or this one. (Kindle edition).
The Sworn Sword is in Legends II. Alternatively, it's in this book which only contains part of the original Legends II anthology.
The Mystery Knight is in Warriors, or in paperback, this volume.
This is discussed pretty much weekly in this subreddit and really ought to be in the sidebar. For anyone from the future who is reading this thread, all the deleted comments are below were links to pirated versions of the books.
The main character of the fictional book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time could be classified as an intuitive atheist.
As an autistic 15-year old, he holds many beliefs that are wildly irrational. The color of cars he notices on the way to school each day inform him if it will be a good day or a bad day.
So when he declares God does not exist, it's fairly possible (as much as one can read into fictional characters) that his method for deciding that a God does not exist is based on intuition alone.
***
The classic example may be the Pirahã people, but their rejection of Jesus via lack of evidence may only be part of their innate stubbornness to holding conservatively within their own culture above all else, since they still believe in their own spirits.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
A great series of books https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010SKUYM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1
!! Warning, the series isn't finished and all who've read the first 2 books are anxiously pulling our eyes out, waiting for the final book !!
I'm a big fan of the series:
Source: https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU/
( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
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.
Oh, those are great posters. I visited the Bodelian years ago but didn't even think to check and see if they had a gift shop!
My gift recommendation would be The Atlas of Middle Earth, by Karen Wynn Fonstad. It's comprehensive, covering all of the books (I found the Silmarillion maps particularly helpful), and it is large, physically, probably at least 10"x14" so the maps are pretty easy to read. I received it as a gift myself, and it has become the non-Tolkien work I reference most when reading him.
Replay by Ken Grimwood.
They haven't been released individually but rather as parts of short story collections that Martin edits or has some other part in.
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. . . .
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.
On My Shelf:
Nonfiction:
[where there is no doctor] (https://www.amazon.com/Where-There-No-Doctor-Handbook/dp/0942364155)
[where there is no dentist] (https://www.amazon.com/Where-There-Dentist-Murray-Dickson/dp/0942364058/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=0942364058&amp;pd_rd_r=P7QG34TNRGWWJ4VG3CES&amp;pd_rd_w=zUT5r&amp;pd_rd_wg=bQSPa&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=P7QG34TNRGWWJ4VG3CES)
[emergency war surgery] (https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-War-Surgery-Survivalists-Reference-ebook/dp/B007FH3S8C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492111178&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=war+surgery)
[Seed to Seed, a seed saving book] (https://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492111210&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=seed+saving)
[mini farming] (https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Farming-Self-Sufficiency-Brett-Markham/dp/1602399840/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=1602399840&amp;pd_rd_r=QYQGAKY6D2PJX21W5DBC&amp;pd_rd_w=ZSjVd&amp;pd_rd_wg=MKw9N&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=QYQGAKY6D2PJX21W5DBC)
[square foot gardening] (https://www.amazon.com/All-Square-Foot-Gardening-Revolutionary/dp/1591865484/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=1591865484&amp;pd_rd_r=NW7HBPKNFJ2J8JYTR22M&amp;pd_rd_w=kMSVD&amp;pd_rd_wg=v6qzT&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=NW7HBPKNFJ2J8JYTR22M)
[Ball Canning Guide] (https://www.amazon.com/All-Ball-Book-Canning-Preserving/dp/0848746783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492111296&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=ball+canning)
[Steve Rinella's Big Game] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Hunting-Butchering-Cooking/dp/081299406X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492111322&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=rinella+guide)
[Steve Rinella's Small Game] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Hunting-Butchering-Cooking/dp/0812987055/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=0812987055&amp;pd_rd_r=HSSM813BSWTXN5Q77P1R&amp;pd_rd_w=j1UjP&amp;pd_rd_wg=OWNY6&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=HSSM813BSWTXN5Q77P1R)
[root cellaring] (https://www.amazon.com/Root-Cellaring-Natural-Storage-Vegetables/dp/0882667033/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492111429&amp;sr=1-1-spell&amp;keywords=root+cellarig)
[country wisdom and know how] (https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Wisdom-Know-How-Everything-Harvest/dp/1579128378/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492111470&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=country+wisdom)
[timberframe construction] (https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Timber-Frame-Craftsmanship-Simplicity/dp/1612126685/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492111553&amp;sr=1-9&amp;keywords=cabin+construction)
[Ham radio -tech] (https://www.amazon.com/ARRL-Ham-Radio-License-Manual/dp/1625950136/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492111593&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=ham+radio)
[ham radio general] (https://www.amazon.com/General-Class-License-Manual-Amateur/dp/1625950306/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=1625950306&amp;pd_rd_r=12TE98J0V80PC5Z8PMNJ&amp;pd_rd_w=EfgM9&amp;pd_rd_wg=jqqg2&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=12TE98J0V80PC5Z8PMNJ)
[The FoxFire Series ] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Collection-Anniversary-Editions-Anniversay/dp/B00MRH3RYU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492879953&amp;sr=8-4&amp;keywords=foxfire)
Also pickup up books on useful skills: raising rabbits, welding, different random construction books.
Fiction:
[Lucifer's Hammer] (https://www.amazon.com/Lucifers-Hammer-Larry-Niven/dp/0449208133/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492880068&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=lucifers+hammer)
[One second After] (https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492880115&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=one+second+after)
[the martian] (https://www.amazon.com/Martian-Andy-Weir/dp/0553418025/ref=pd_sim_14_41?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=0553418025&amp;pd_rd_r=D4JHG0ERDKJXA7NYCZHX&amp;pd_rd_w=vAle5&amp;pd_rd_wg=9wBYx&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=D4JHG0ERDKJXA7NYCZHX)
[the road] (https://www.amazon.com/Road-Cormac-McCarthy/dp/0307387895/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492880272&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+road0)
[alas babylon] (https://www.amazon.com/Alas-Babylon-Pat-Frank/dp/0060741872/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492880316&amp;sr=1-10&amp;keywords=babylon)
I guess a little list couldn't hurt. Some of my favorites:
I could go on forever, it's an addiction. The sub-genres go on forever it really just depends on what you're into: pandemic, nuclear war, environmental, alien invasion, natural disaster, etc...
Really? It's a pretty good read.
I've just finished Leviathan Wakes, an excellent hard sci-fi space opera. A sequel should come out this summer
Leviathan Wakes
Cool book, old school hard sci-fi, features Ceres heavily.
The 1st book is Leviathan Wakes - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316129089
Description stolen from Amazon:
Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.
Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.
Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
I just finished Leviathan Wakes by James Corey and thought it was an enjoyable read.
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!
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.
Such a good book.
&#x200B;
For those who haven't read it: https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864
No, you're probably seeing the out-of-print graphic novels (EDIT: Which I might add are going to be coming back into print along with a new graphic novel of The Mystery Knight in the near future).
The three novellas can be found in the Legends (contains the first story, The Hedge Knight), Legends II (contains the second story, The Sworn Sword), and Warriors I (contains the third story, The Mystery Knight) anthologies for pretty cheap - I got all three brand new for around thirty bucks.
Kingkiller Chronicles, Book 1: The Name of the Wind
Yes, came in to advocate Replay as well. It's definitely one of my favorite books that I read this year.
Most of the time I am "in the mood" for a certain genre or type of book. I will recommend some of my favorites that are easy to read and enjoyable. With a super short summary to see if it sparks your interest.
Fantasy:
Scifi:
Awesome! Have you read One Second After? If you liked Earth Abides, definitely check that out.
Oryx and Crake was a bit of a grind to be honest. I felt like she wrote the book sitting next to a thesaurus, and intentionally used the most obscure word possible to describe something. The overall story was amazing however.
Especially when they come from space
so more like Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt then?
I also feel like it's my duty to inform everyone that "Pounded In The Butt By My Book 'Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt'" also exists
right here but honestly everything Chuck Tingle writes is gold
Amazon links for books mentioned in this thread:
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\/u/frothysasquatch:
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All of his Dunk & Egg short stories are published as part of a set of short stories by several fantasy writers combined into one book. The one you linked is so expensive because the stories were never officially published as standalone books. I wouldn't pay more than a couple bucks for each (book 3 is new so it's a little more expensive). Here they are on amazon:
Book 1 - The Hedge Knight
Book 2 - The Sworn Sword
Book 3 - The Mystery Knight
Dresden Files really caught my attention. They start off as decent stand alone, but Jim Butcher just keeps building on himself, and once they get really rolling a couple in, I couldn't stop reading them. I went through them 5+ at a time.
The Alex Verus novels were also ones that once I picked up, I didn't put them down until I was done. Unfortunately, they're all quite short.
Name of the Wind I read in one sitting. Its sequel... meh... it was ok. By no means was it a bad book, just nowhere near as good as the first one, in my opinion.
Escaping Heaven. This book. I picked it up on some free kindle deal. I wasn't expecting much, but it was just so damn good. Excellent writing, very funny, well developed. I can't recommend this one enough.
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.
you got ripped off,
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0345535529/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1406658670&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=asoiaf&amp;condition=new
Read Flatland. It's the book Sagan was referencing in his demonstration. On top of the 2D world of the protagonist it also visits a line world and a 1D world. It even gives them primitive social hierarchies.
It's really short, you can read through it in a few hours.
$2.00 on Amazon.
>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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1407747083&amp;sr=1-1-catcorr&amp;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.
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
His atlas is worthless, and his "lung map" is widely agreed to be the worst Tolkien-related map ever made. There's a lot of fun artwork in some of his books, and that's their value. Don't read them for the lore, history or descriptions of anything -- he'll steer you wrong. Hammond & Scull are a much better resource for lore and background. Robert Forster's a good source too.
Fonstad is the gold standard and the only source you need for maps, other than JRRT's and Christopher's own drawings, obviously. Her book is also the cheapest, so that's a good deal! As a bonus, it contains not just geography and locations, but also maps of many battles and journeys.
Try The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It filled the ASOIF spot in my life for a while, and it is also written by a bigger bearded guy who is probably not publishing the next book this year either.
on the side bar, or for the lazy:
for some reason the link thing isnt working?
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
The USA loses power[edit; read: electricity], as told from one small town in North Carolina.
The Kingkiller Chronicles!
The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear
http://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ
I would like to see some original cover art for the book "Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt" by Dr. Chuck Tingle.
^^^Yes ^^^it's ^^^a ^^^real ^^^book
Have you read Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer? I have a feeling you will like it.
Sort of off the top of my head:
Not Supernatural:
Supernatural:
Often times books about survival don't need to be fiction to be amazingly interesting, so I'll add these:
Buy about three cartons of organic heavy whipping cream. Use an electric mixer to whip it until it becomes butter. Use a cloth to squeeze all the skim milk out, leaving you with butterfat granules. Form the granules together. Put it in a jar, cramming the large yellow mass in with all your strength.
You know have a jar of delicious homemade butter.
More detailed instructions-- http://www.instructables.com/id/How_To_Make_Butter_1/
Also--HAS SHE READ WORLD WAR Z!! IF NOT--BUY THAT FUCKING BOOK FOR HER, IF SHE ACTUALLY LIKES ZOMBIES, IT WILL BLOW HER FUCKING MIND.
I apologize for that outburst, I just freaking love that book
http://www.amazon.com/World-War-Oral-History-Zombie/dp/0307346617/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1261589547&amp;sr=8-1
Available in softcover at all fine retailers.
cough I'll just leave this right here
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?
just in case some readers aren't aware... there is a really cool (and short) book called Flatland about 2D creatures that can only conceive of the world in 2D. One of them starts understanding 3 dimensions and things get interesting. Here is a link (normal) for the book I mean:
http://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X
most of those books looked like they were $2-$4. Go get a copy if you haven't read it 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
Hedge Knight
Sworn Sword
Mystery Knight
Not D&E but related
Princess & Queen
They can also be bought here, here, aaanndd here.
I am officially back stateside, and in the last 24 hours I have successfully fixed the water softener, shoveled a fine collection of oak logs, leaves, live plants, and raccoon shit off the roof, made bank tutoring o-chem, and taught the Verizon employee how to connect to their own 4G network. I was unaware the name of their APN was such a secret. Also, that 4 tiers of escalation would be so damn useless. I ended up guessing the name like some sort of movie cracking and then went back and made the guy write it down because I can't be the only person ever to have that problem and it was seriously a 10 second fix. See also: was feeling smug.
I also got a lot of reading done in the past month, apparently. Finished The Lies of Locke Lamora, The Name of the Wind, Matched, Graceling, Sapphique, Assassin's Apprentice, the first Circle of Magic book, and started a bunch of others.
If we're running out of discussion ideas, another book recommendation/rant/rambling thoughts thread might be fun.
Friends still have my MS and are being slow readers and I can't bug them about it because they have real work to do. Argh. I'm planning to cover my office in sticky notes and reorder some scenes that way while I wait on them.
Kingkiller Chronicles is great, unfortunately at this point i gave up any hope of the final piece of the trilogy ever coming out.
https://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle-Book-ebook/dp/B0010SKUYM/ref=sr_es_i_1_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1499996840&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=kingkiller+chronicles
I spotted this image from NASA website when I searched "are there sandstorms on Mars" after reading The Martian by Andy Weir. That NASA article was written in 2015 and updated in 2017.
However I did a reverse search with that photo, and yes it seems to date back all the way to 2011.
I’d recommend buying Karen Wynn Fonstad’s Atlas of Middle-Earth
Do you have The Atlas of Middle-Earth? It's a great book, full of maps from all four ages.
You might enjoy this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
Good book, too.
I only have one:
Replay by Ken Grimwood. A thoughtful book about a man stuck in a groundhog-dayish temporal loop.
Replay is a bit different, but I love this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
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.
for anyone who doesn't get the reference
I believe so, yes. I googled 'pounded in the butt' (risky, I know) and this came up as the top result by the same guy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UYC1ASU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_L8u.ybDQK4J8T
He also wrote "Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt". How meta can you get?
http://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
He also fancies himself as "The Greatest Author of our Generation". I don't know him, butt I already love him. http://www.chucktingle.com/
Please read The Martian by Andy Weir.
This guy is faced with impossible odds and complete loneliness. The situation would have left me totally crushed. In the face of near certain death his attitude and work ethic are truly inspiring.
Literally the whole of Earth unites in an effort to save him. It's humorous, cathartic, inspiring, and a smooth read.
As soon as you've finished you'll think of someone you know that needs to read this book.
Edit: silly grammars.
Short version:
First, go look at Dr. Tingle's amazon page. (Really. It's a thing of beauty.) Dr. Tingle has been bringing his own particular brand of love to the reading public for years now.
Fast forward to 2016.
There's an award in science fiction and fantasy called the Hugo. For the last three or four years, the award has become politicized, in a social-conservatives-vs-liberals way. The butthurt is flowing like a river on both sides of whatever the controversy was initially about.
Last year, a guy on the conservative side noticed that he could game the voting. One of the moves he made was to encourage his followers to vote for Dr. Tingle's work Space Raptor Butt Invasion. This book ended up on the Hugo ballot for Best Related Work.
The ironic twist is that Tingle is in fact a genius in the Mister Rogers vein (well...sort of...) and, as a result of these shenanigans, his message of Buckaroohood is finally getting the broader recognition it deserves.
This reminds me of coming across a book on Amazon and I lost it at the title. (I didn't read it though) I didn't know getting screwed by a raptor was a common fantasy. Even worse it's apparently a trilogy
https://www.amazon.ca/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1520304933&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=space+raptor&amp;dpID=51XR3M4I5UL&amp;preST=_SY445_QL70_&amp;dpSrc=srch
I expected to hear about the famous book Pounded in the Butt by my own Butt
There is actually a book called 'One Second After' regarding this exact scenario. Good / easy read.
The stories are in separate Anthologies, search for "Legends Anthology" which contains "The Hedge Knight".. "Legends II" which contains "The Sworn Sword", and finally "Warriors Anthology" which has "The Mystery Knight"
additionally the "Dangerous Women" anthology contains "The Princess and the Queen".. not part of Dunk and Egg, but another novella taking place in the World of Ice and Fire.
I can't think of any reasons you shouldn't be able to get these in the UK.
EDIT: Logged onto the U.K amazon... here are the links to purchase...., The links will show the anthology the novellas are in, they are not available individually.
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
The Princess and the Queen
No they aren't free. They're short stories among other short stories in three anthology sets.
They are cheap to buy online.
Sword Sword
Mystery Knight
And it's cool because they are only part of the bigger anthology, so if you buy these, you get a whole bunch of cool stories!
These are the ones I bought. They are all paperback not hardcover. Legends is the most expensive since its a bigger book than the rest of them and the other two are mass produced paperback. I don't know if there is a mass produced paperback version of Legends 1 or not.
Legends 1: ~$15
Legends 2: ~$7
Warriors 1: ~$7
Total: ~$30 plus shipping on amazon
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.)
You might get your friends to read this book. It's about an autistic kid and the story is told through his voice. The book tears your heart out and shows it to you. But it makes you understand. It's a good read too.
http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717
Is there anything in particular you're leaning to?
Author Cherie Priest has a couple excellent books.
The Dresden Files series, by Jim Butcher, is a wonderful series. It's about a wizard-for-hire in the modern world, and delves into the wonderful magic environment that Jim has created. Jim likes to put his characters through trouble and turmoil, and it's good for character development! The series starts off with Storm Front.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is another great series. It's a post-apocalyptic/oppressed setting, centering around something called 'The Hunger Games' - an annual battle that captivates the capitol and all twelve remaining districts. There is a movie releasing next year, as well.
The Name of the Wind is a terrific book by Patrick Rothfuss, the first entry into his series The Kingkiller Chronicles. It's a fantasy setting, and is about a character named Kvothe recounting his life. The writing style has an absolutely artistic writing style that is captivating to read, and such interesting and progressing events that make you eagerly turn the page. I have not yet read the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear, but I'm told it's even better in every way.
Terry Pratchett is an amazing and renowned author. He has been knighted, an event for which he created his own sword for by hand, battles against Alzheimer's in a most respectable and commendable way, and has created such an interesting and provoking world that provides a lot of laughs and curious perspectives on matters. Where you start is a more difficult choice. A couple choice options might be as follows (I haven't read others yet, so I can't attest to others, but there are many!).
I haven't started this book yet, nor looked into it, but I have heard terrific reviews. The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, is his first book in his Gentleman Bastard Sequence series.
And of course, if you haven't entered George RR Martin's world of Westeros, the series A Song of Ice and Fire could be a wonderful read. It's very complex and very long and not yet complete (five books so far). It starts off with Game of Thrones, which is what the recently-aired HBO series was based upon.
In the science fiction sphere, I would recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's the first in his Ender's series, and there are quite a few books set in the world. I have only read the first one, and it was an excellent read, insightful and thought-provoking.
...anyway, that should be a few to peek at!
If we start our experiment when Earth and Mars are at their most distant points (i.e. 180^o out of phase around the sun) from each other, very little will ever happen. Our rope will go slack and float in space for the rest of the planets' orbits, and will be pulled taught again whenever they're very far apart. You might get some cool wave motion along the length of the rope as it flops around in zero-g.
But that's pretty boring. If we instead start our mad experiment when Earth and Mars are not at their most distant points from each other, bad things are going to happen. In all likelihood, the rope would snap. But that's also pretty boring, and I'm guessing this isn't the answer you want.
Let's assume the rope is made of some magical material which can withstand any amount of tension without stretching or breaking, but somehow still behaves like a rope when not under tension. So it's completely immune to the effects of stress and strain, except when we need it to act like a rope. Wonder Woman's magical lasso might have us covered here.
Eventually, Mars and Earth are going to want to get farther apart than our rope wants to allow. Keeping them connected is going to require decellerating one planet and accelerating the other (in inverse proportion to their masses, since F=ma must be the same for both). Now we run into the issue that it takes a lot of force to accelerate a planet. The rope has to provide this force, and it's providing it over a relatively small area of each planet's surface. Planets don't like that^[citation ^needed] . Since we've required that our rope can't break, Earth and Mars soon will. The rope will begin cutting through both planets until it frees itself from one and remains embedded in the other. The pressure exerted on Mars' surface will be about twice as high as the pressure exerted on Earth's, and Mars is half as thick, so I'd wager Mars would be cut in half long before the rope reached Earth's core.
But that's only slightly less boring than the rope snapping. Yes, I just called "cutting Mars in half" boring. Let's make Earth and Mars infinitely durable like our rope. The various mining industries on Earth and the budding potato farming industry on Mars will likely be displeased by this, but we'll carry on without them.
Now's where I have to speculate a bit. Earth and Mars' orbits are now a coupled system. By necessity, they will now orbit at a common radius, and I think they'll likely end up like a pair of moons that co-orbit each other while orbiting the sun as a pair. Thanks to energy conservation, we can calculate the average radius of this new orbit. I got 1.035 AU, which is only 3.5% further from the sun than Earth already is. The combination of Earth being much more massive than mars and closer to the sun means that Earth is heavily favored in the gravitational binding energy equation. Earth's moon will remain gravitationally bound to this new system, but I'm pretty sure Deimos and Phobos will be left behind to co-orbit the sun and each other at pretty much the radius of Mars' original orbit (assuming neither of them slams into Mars while it travels inwards).
The three-body system of Mars, Earth, and the Moon, will almost certainly be unstable, so at least two of these bodies should expect a catastrophic impact in their near future. Fortunately, we already made Mars and Earth invincible to get here, so only the secret Nazi colony on the dark side of the Moon has to worry.
The aspects of Clarke's style that you seem to enjoy really shine in the short story format. You said you've read everything, does that include his short fiction? There's a great anthology which collects them all.
Asimov was also great at writing short fiction, and I like this collection of his works.
Many of the stories curated in those anthologies were published 50 or so years ago in weekly/monthly science fiction magazines, you might see if any one has created 'best of science fiction weekly' collections.
Tor publishes short fiction for free on its website regularly. It's fairly hit or miss, but it's a good way to window shop authors.
A novel you might enjoy is Leviathan Wakes. It's a hard sci-fi novel in which humanity has colonized Mars and the Asteroid Belt. At this point all have their own unique cultures because it takes so long to travel between them. Not a lot of character development, which you don't seem to be into anyway, just fun ride in a cool setting. First in a series, but I haven't read the sequels yet so I can't comment on those.
You also might like The Martian, by Andy Weir. An astronaut is stranded by himself on Mars and has to survive. Weir wrote a short story called "The Egg" which gets posted to reddit on a regular basis.
For anyone who would like to know, the following books I've read are my favorite and I'd really recommend them to anyone: The Martian by Andy Weir, Gerald's Game by Stephen King, The Panther by Nelson DeMille, Unflinching by Jodi Mitic, American Sniper by Chris Kyle, and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
EDIT: Oh, and Blackwater - The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill.
EDDIT 2: Oh, and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card which is so much better than the movie. The movie does not do this novel justice. And Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly.
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.
Oh, and also check out Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey. It's really good.
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&amp;qid=1396324187&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=s
I'm not sure about an article per se, but maybe some excerpts from Flatland (or the whole thing, since it's less than 100 pages) might fit the bill.
It's a pity they don't know any calculus; my old professor Carolyn Gordon's article "You Can't Hear the Shape of a Drum" is a fantastic read, and a wonderfully intuitive introduction to the ideas of spectral geometry.
My suggestion, if you need a true article, is to paw around online for a while for something on basic graph theory. Little tidbits like the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg are fun; or maybe an article about the four-color theorem. Graph theory is great for people with no formal math training, since it's easily visualized.
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.
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.
Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-Earth is a great companion read to the Silmarillion. It covers much of the history as well and is a great read for anyone who loves maps.
https://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Middle-Earth-Revised-Karen-Fonstad/dp/0618126996
The Atlas of Middle-earth is highly recommended; the detail in the maps varies depending on the scale, of course.
I believe that only the first edition was available in hardcover, and I strongly suggest getting the second edition as it makes use of information from The History of Middle-earth that was not available for the first edition.
Changeling Space Program (My Little Pony) - the changelings are attempting to be the first on the moon. It has realistic depictions of rocket research and the author is basing the characters' progress on his ability to build a rocket on the Kerbal space game. It's a great read and hilarious. But the updates are on the order of months in between.
Replay (Original) - it involves a man repeating his life with the repeats getting closer to his death date each time. It's not what I consider rational in the character's investigation and use of the power, but his emotional struggles were very vivid and well written.
The Red Knight (Harry Potter) - A great story where Ron goes back in time to his birth, but the world he is reborn into is an AU so he has no idea of what to expect from the future.
Forged Destiny (RWBY) - It's a re-imagining of RWBY as an RPG-like world where everyone is a gamer character and the plot of RWBY is dramatically different as a result. I would recommend anything written by Couer Al'aran. He's a brilliant writer.
Auburn (RWBY) - RWBY with Jaune, Weiss, Blake, and Ruby on a team together. The author Super Saiyan Syndaquil has written some other good fanfics, but Auburn's my favorite.
Replay by Ken Grimwood.
https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
If you haven't read it, you really shouldn't be here. 😉
Patrick Rothfuss.
I can highly recommend:
I am also currently reading the Wheel of Time, but there are just too many books....
Finished A Song of Ice and Fire a year ago and I'm eagerly waiting for the next book.
Yes, you have to get the books containing all these short stories (these books are called Anthologies). For the Hedge Knight, you can get it in an anthology called Legends I - this has a bunch of stories from a bunch of authors you've never heard of. Kindle version is $8, and hardcover is $16. OR you can get the Dreamsongs Volume 2 anthology for $11 kindle or $15 paperback. This is full of George R R Martin short stories that you'll probably really like.
For Sworn Sword, your only choice, unfortunately, is Legends 2. It's $6 for a digital version, and $7 for a paperback at Barnes and Noble.
The third story is only in Warriors which is unfortunately another nobody-anthology. $10 for kindle, $13 for paperback.
They're each in a different anthology.
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
Mystery Knight
Although, they seem to have gone up a considerable amount in price since I bought them.
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!
You should read "One Second After". Its a fantastic book that is both critically acclaimed and considered a must read for preppers. It is based on the premise of a nuclear EMP But the effect of a large enough solar flare would be the same, just global...
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765356864
over 3k reviews on amazon with a 4.5 star rating.
My assumption is a high altitude nuclear induced EMP. A solar EMP would have lesser effects. The overall premise of One Second After is accurate but the specifics aren't. An EMP would drastically alter all of our lives and a majority of us would likely die in the first year. I have done a lot of research in this area and below is my current understanding.
What is likey safe:
What is likely not safe:
Unknown:
Notes:
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.
Atlas of Middle Earth
Unfinished Tales - Extra info on Gondor, Arnor, Rohan, Numenorean history, the Wizards, the Nazgul, Galadriel and Celeborn, etc. NB - This is actual Tolkien writing, not some amateur summary.
The Silmarillion - The complete history of setting, from the Creation, to the 'gods', Morgoth (Sauron's boss), the origins of the Elves, Humans and Dwarves. Has a great chapter called "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, which is basically the major points of the 3000 years leading up to LotR. NB - Actual Tolkien writing, but edited by Christopher Tolkien.
and of course:
The Lord of the Rings ! - Check out the appendices at the back of RotK for a bunch of extra lore material.
Thought I'd provide some Amazon links to these fine suggestions, along with a few of my own.
J.R.R. Tolkien Companion & Guide US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0008214549/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Jc.DCb1A3J8V6
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Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/000755690X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Qe.DCbHG7HWXM
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Art of the Lord of the Rings US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544636341/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_3f.DCbB8Y2ZNZ
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Art of the Hobbit US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0547928254/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ng.DCbCX2CT65
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Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1851244859/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Vg.DCbSEH99RE
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Rateliff's History of the Hobbit US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CF6AZWK/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Dj.DCbGWY7970
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Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-Earth US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618126996/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_Kk.DCbC2XF6NT
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Letters of JRR Tolkien US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618056998/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ml.DCbREBRZH4
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Carpenter's Tolkien: A Biography US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618057021/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_xm.DCbY976PAE
No problem!
I'm guessing you have, but have you seen The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad?
In addition to what /u/Willie9 said, I highly recommend Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-Earth. It's got all of the maps in that post as well as many others detailing various battles, journeys, and other historical events in Tolkien.
I just looked this up and here was the top result, Ken Grimwood
Here are two of my favorites. both are great reads.
Replay by Ken Grimwood is kinda like Groundhog Day writ large. It's about a guy who relives the 60s, 70s, and 80s over and over again.
11/22/63 by Stephen King is about a guy who finds a portal that takes him from the present to 1958. He decides to live for a few years in the past and try to prevent the JFK assassination.
And if you like the idea of a dinosaur time-travel thriller, look up my book and see if it interests you.
Replay by Ken Grimwood
A bit of an older book, but one of my favorites. Shares similarities with the movies Groundhog Day or Edge of Tomorrow, but published in 1986, this was before either of those.
>Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn't know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again -- in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle -- each time starting from scratch at the age of eighteen to reclaim lost loves, remedy past mistakes, or make a fortune in the stock market. A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: "What if you could live your life over again?"
Replay
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&amp;qid=1311807514&amp;sr=8-3
Robopocalypse
http://www.amazon.com/Robopocalypse-Novel-Daniel-H-Wilson/dp/0385533853/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1311807626&amp;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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1311807743&amp;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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1311807801&amp;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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1311807869&amp;sr=1-1
Serial Uncut
http://www.amazon.com/Serial-Uncut-J-Konrath/dp/1456401580/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1311808020&amp;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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1311808107&amp;sr=1-1
One Second After
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765356864/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1311808128&amp;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.
Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfus (fantasy-ish)
[The Shadow of the Wind] (http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zaf%C3%B3n/dp/0143034901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374006329&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=shadow+of+the+wind) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (hard to describe, but really engaging)
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (cool historical fiction)
Dhalgren is an insane look at a dystopian future. Very long, often hard to read, but quite good. If he liked House of Leaves and also likes Sci-fi, I think he would enjoy Dhalgren. It is hard to read in places but that adds to its appeal.
Treason by Orson Scott Card was quite good, and I'd never heard of it before my boyfriend recommended it.
These are both sci-fi and sociological in nature.
I would second Murakami novels in general.
The Name of the Wind is a fantasy novel that I liked a lot. It was recommended to me by my brother, who then gave it to me last year for xmas.
Read this, and its sequel. ;)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. One of the best written fantasy books ever IMO. It's the first in a trilogy that's not quite finished.
The character who said this quote is actually the subject of the short story The Lightning Tree in the Rogues anthology that George RR Martin edited in case anyone is familiar with that book.
I definitely recommend these books to anyone, including people who have never enjoyed fantasy. They are universally great literature.
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
For those that are interested or having trouble finding them, these are the anthologies where each individual story is contained.
One Second After mentions cannibalism being practiced by a roving gang as does the book Survivors
Both are good books but not particularly gritty so I don't know if they stand up to Blood Meridian (still on my reading list).
I like your idea though. Perhaps the main character could begin the book as an average joe with no survival gear and have to start as a looter and refugee instead of beginning the story as a bad ass like a lot of these other novels do.
They're kind of hard to come across because well, they're always included in collections. The Mystery Knight is in a collection called Warriors. I've read all the Novellas since the Hedge Knight was originally published in the first Legends collection. Luckily there is a paperback available for Legends 1 but I think it's out of print. Also to be more confusing, the paperback it's contained in is called Legends 2 because it's the second part of the hardcover or something? But Legends II collection is where you get the Sworn Sword. Well here's a handy list though some might not be in stock (PB = Paperback/HC = Hardcover):
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 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Narrator/main character is an atheist, although not atheist for the usual skeptical reasons. He has nearly debilitating autism.
I find things like About a Boy by Nick Hornby or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time nice uplifting books. I think the innocence of children is always loveable. I would prefer the latter, so if you haven't read it give it a read.
http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1292773290&amp;sr=1-1
You'll enjoy this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400032717
i mean, i say give the books another shot because i can't imagine enjoying the movies but not the books. but to each their own. if you don't want to go down that road, what do you mean things that might interest you? do you mean in the harry potter universe? if so, the other stuff is fun but the original seven are her magnum opus IMO and to get my fix, i had to go outside the Harry Potter universe.
some books that I just inhaled and read in one sitting will sound super corny, but...
If you just want some good fantasy that isn't just Lord of the Rings rip offs, these are the ones I like.
I recently finished "Name of the wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear" both by Patrick Rothfuss. I don't think I am in any way over hyping these to by saying they are the greatest novel's I've ever read. Fair warning, this is a trilogy and the third book is no where in sight.
On the nonfiction side, I am working my way through "Waking the Dead" by John Eldredge. This has been a really difficult read for me, as I have to stop every few paragraphs to recollect my emotions.
I think everyone wants to like the idea of what Gravity is - SurvivorMan in space.
If you want that, but in a more technical and hard sci-fi kinda way I have got to recommend you read the Martian by Andy Weir. Really very well done!
If these are the type of things you think about, you will love The Martian by Andy Weir.
The Martian is VERY mathematical, and awesome. Ive recommended it to 6 friends and they each read it in 48 hours. Seriously, check this out - http://www.amazon.com/The-Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA
Not in any particular order.
Publishing on amazon is great. So much inovation that could never have been achieved otherwise. Like the classic Space Raptor Butt Invasion https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00S4B95RQ?pc_redir=T1
Also, u/warlizard makes a lot of money off it. I don't know if the two are related, but I have my suspicions.
It's already been done.
So, in other words, a Chuck Tingle book.
World War Z
Yep, definitely. Here's a link to the first book!
Leviathan Wakes by James Corey
>Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.
>Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.
>Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.
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&amp;qid=1394553163&amp;sr=8-1&amp;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.
In no particular order:
Books
The Expanse series is the closest I've been able to find.
It follows a small scrappy crew and their struggles to stay flying amid civil war and lots, lots more. I don't want to spoil anything. It's a great read.
The best sci-fi book series to come out in a very long time! The first book is Leviathan Wakes; five more have been written so far, and three more are scheduled to come out over the next three years (and the authors have been pretty good about keeping to that schedule, unlike a certain fantasy author we all know and love).
If reading books isn't your jam or you don't have time, there are also audiobooks some fans swear by. There's also a TV show which just wrapped up its second season, which you can get on Amazon Prime in the US and Netflix everywhere else.
If you like sci-fi that does its best to stick to actual science, space battles, political intrigue, and likeable characters who grow more complex with every book, I highly reccommend it!
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
I've been exploring this recently. I'm not an expert, but I'll do my best to explain it.
The shape or object represented in the gif you posted is called a tesseract or a hypercube. You can search for these terms for more information.
To explain this, some basics about 2D and 3D must first be established to understand how to continue the explanation to 4D.
A super-brief explanation of the gif above as the four dimension object (spatially) is that it is a representation or projection of viewing a 4D object/shape in a 2D view. (That gif as displayed on our computer screens is 2D because our screens are 2D and it's not encoded as 3D to be viewed with 3D glasses) and a 4-D object or shape actually appears to us to be 3D objects inside of 3D objects, just as if we look at a 2D object - say a square drawn on a piece of paper - we are able to see inside of the 2D object and see additional objects drawn inside of it and just as we are only able to draw a 3D object on a piece of paper if it is drawn as a transparent outline, this gif shows the 4D object drawn as a transparent outline in which we only see the many sides folding in and outside of itself. A being that is capable of seeing four spatial dimensions would be able to look at you and see inside of you. The following demonstrates this concept pretty well:
Fourth Spatial Dimension 101 (video, 6:27)
To better understand the concept of the fourth dimension, read on. I also included more videos below, including an excellent one by Carl Sagan.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
First, some facts / definitions:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Conceptualizing the limitations and advantages of dimensional perception:
We are able to perceive objects spatially in 3 dimensions (3D). By spatially, we mean that we're interpreting the environment or world's space, and not considering the fourth dimension as something other than space, such as time. (The gif linked above is of a four-dimensional object of which the fourth dimension is also space.) When we look at a drawing of a square on a piece of paper, we are able to see not only its length and width, but also inside of it because we are viewing it from above - from height. If we look down at it and draw a triangle inside of it, we can see both at the same time. We are able to see inside of 2D objects. A 3D object is comprised of several layers of 2D objects stacked upon one another. So imagine the 2D drawing, and stacking many papers on top of each other until it's several inches or centimeters tall. That's a 3D object now. Then, shape it into a square at each sheet of paper (so cut through all sheets) and you will end up with a cube of paper. Shape it into a triangle and it will be a triangular, pie-like shape. Angle it more narrow on the way up and it will be a pyramid-like shape. With any of these shapes, we cannot see inside of it. But now imagine this: just as we in the 3rd dimension looking at a shape in the 2nd dimension can see inside of it, a being in the 4th dimension looking at a shape in the 3rd dimension can see inside of the 3D object. That is because just like there is only length and width in the 2nd dimension, but no height; in the third dimension we have length width and height, but no __. I'm unaware of whether there is a name for the additional direction that would exist in the fourth dimension.
I also don't know whether a 4th spatial dimension actually exists or is just an abstract concept, nor do I know whether it is possible or known to be possible to detect. As far as I am aware, the fourth spacial dimension is only known of abstractly, meaning that there is no evidence for it actually existing.
------------------------------------
These videos explain how to understand what the 4th dimension would look like:
Dr. Quantum explains the 4th dimension (video, 5:09)
An oversimplified explanation from the movie "What the bleep do we know: down the rabbit hole" in which the character, Dr.Quantum, first explains what an (imagined) 2D world (flatland) would look like to us - who are able to see the 3D world, as a way of understanding (or extrapolating) how a being that could see in the 4D world would be able to see through and inside of 3D objects. (note: I've been warned that this is part of a video that goes on to some cult-like recruiting, so please be forewarned about the video's conclusion and entirety.)
Cosmos - Carl Sagan - 4th Dimension (video, 7:24)
Carl Sagan explains how to imagine what the 4th dimension looks if we were able to see it and how it would allow us to see inside 3D objects. An important part of this video is explaining and showing exactly how and why we can only see a distorted version of 4D objects since we only see in 3D
4th Dimension Explained By A High-School Student (video, 9:05)
An excellent description of the first through fourth dimension and how we can perceive them.
Unwrapping a tesseract (4d cube aka hypercube) (video, 1:39)
Hypercube (video, 3:18)
Watch the above two videos to see how we can conceptualize a 4D object in 3D space.
Videos mentioned elsewhere in this comment:
Fourth Spatial Dimension 101 (video, 6:27)
Flatland (video, 1:39:56)
--------------------------------------
Videos, Books and Links mentioned by other redditors:
Flatland: a romance of many dimensions (Illustrated) by Edwin Abbott Abbott (book, free, ~230kb)
Amazon description & reviews
hat-tip to /u/X3TIT
"Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions" by Lisa Randall (Amazon book page)"
Looks interesting.
hat-tip to /u/karoyamaro
-----------------------------------
(Edited: 1- to add video lengths; 2- added book links, 3 - readability more videos, 4 - a warning about the Dr. Quantum video.)
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.
One Second After is very good. It stays very grounded the whole time and deals with the aftermath of a nationwide EMP attack (not entirely accurate) on the US.
https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864
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.
I feel like if your daughter and I were the same age we would be best friends, she sounds exactly like how I was at her age.
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen is wonderful, I read it at about her age. No sex.
John Green's books are amazing, but Looking For Alaska has a blow job part, and The Fault In Our Stars has sex. They are in no way explicit however, and I really would recommend that she read them, at least eventually, maybe at 12, because they're beautifully written and, I think, teach really valuable lessons (in fact, the blow job scene is awkward and uncomfortable and juxtaposed with a conversation that is emotionally intimate to demonstrate that you don't need sex and physical contact for emotional connection.)
I also remember reading Artemis Fowl when I was her age.
Other recommendations:
A Face in Every Window by Han Nolan
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Cul de Sac Moon by Kimberley Clarke (my high school English Lit, Creative Writing and English AP teacher)
And when I was your daughter's age I was really, REALLY into The Royal Diaries series, my favourite being The Lady of Ch'iao Kuo and Elizabeth I.
EDIT: OH! And if she liked The Hunger Games I think she will LOVE The Giver series by Lois Lowry. And Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events might keep her occupied for a week or two, as well as the Chronicles of Narnia.
A lot of people will suggest The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which is a fine book, but the author didn't do enough research and was just writing a novel.
I'd recommend John Elder Robison's books. He has wrote multiple memoirs and lives a very vivid life; he, his son, and possibly (don't remember if she was diagnosed) his son's mother are all autistic. I loved the books, and I've never seen myself or connected with a book like I did with his. His books aren't hard to read and I believe there are four in total.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time:
https://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717
Look Me in the Eye:
https://www.amazon.com/Look-Me-Eye-Life-Aspergers/dp/0307396185
Rothfuss' Name of the Wind seems to be the series most commonly suggested as "what to read next." It's reportedly not as dark, but just as detailed/complex. I've not read it yet, so make of that what you will.
name of the wind is on sale for 2 bucks if you like anime but dont want to admit it this is the book for you
In letzter Zeit lese ich eigentlich nur Fachbücher, wer sich für das Thema Reverse Engineering interessiert: Practical Reverse Engineering ist echt gut.
Das letzte an Unterhaltungsliteratur, was ich gelesen habe, waren die Kingkiller Chronicle Bücher (Day 1, Day 2). In meinen Augen die so ziemlich beste Fantasy aller Zeiten. Ich könnte Stunden darüber schreiben, aber es lässt sich tatsächlich auf die so ziemlich beste Fantasy aller Zeiten reduzieren.
Unbedingt lesen. Es fängt relativ langsam an und man muss sich viele Namen merken, aber es lohnt sich. Die University, Tarbean, Fae, Ademre, das Underthing, das Eolian, Kvothe, Bast, Felurian, Tempi, Auri, Master Elodin, die Chandrian, die Performance von The Lay of Sir Savien Traliard, alles so wunderbare Dinge.
Shit, jetzt will (und werde) ich die Bücher nochmal lesen, so kurz vor der Klausurphase natürlich geschickt, danke. :(
Lest die Bücher!
Habe ich schon erwähnt, dass die Bücher einfach nur unglaublich gut sind?
Yeah. It was good, but triple crown good?
Popular sci-fi seems to have generally gone the way of social. Everything is all about the social implications of technology, rather than the technology itself.
Personally, I would have liked to see The Martian be nominated and win, but I'm a hard sci-fi kind of guy. (Does the fact that Andy Weir is/was self-published work against him?)
Andy Weir's The Martian largely follows a single character fighting against the Martian environment and I think provides proof that Man vs Nature can carry the bulk of the story.
You've provided your characters with a near-earth planet, so put yourself in the meanest mindset possible and set up the environment so that it lashes out at the colonists at every opportunity. Differently mirrored amino acids of the wildlife that makes eating it toxic. Diseases that spread through vectors never before encountered on Earth. Random geologic processes that release lethal gasses onto the surface.
Unforeseen environmental interactions would be good tools to create problems. Rhea's high altitude trees could actually be megacolonies of coral-like fungi that have adapted to consume the rock and reproduce by releasing spores during the storms. These spores could have a protective razor-tipped shell that is shaped to catch the wind such that they will either 1) Be driven into virgin rock to grow new megacolonies or 2) Rain down as razor storms on the land below.
In short: Rhea should be a harsh mistress.
I've got this one.
I'll toss in Replay by Ken Grimwood. Guy dies of a heart attack to find that he's back in college, with all his previous memories. And then it gets weird. Started reading it in bed one night, wound up reading the whole book in one sitting.
Glaxnor, I almost always agree with you, but here we part ways. It may be true of certain types of SciFi, or even the entire Fantasy genre, but not all. Replay and Altered Carbon are two that disprove this, for me.
Read the Kingkiller Chronicles(Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear) by Patrick Rothfuss. You'll still have to wait a bit, but only for one more book. It's fantastic stuff. I've read the first two books at least three times each in the past year and a half.
The Hedge Knight
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354
The Sworn Sword
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Dragon-Sword-King/dp/034547578X
The Mystery Knight
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-Martin/dp/1469259338
Why are you reading Spoiler All threads!!!???!!! :-)
Yeah, there are four prequel novellas right now. Unfortunately, they aren't available together - you have to buy them in anthologies that include a bunch of other stuff (although some have standalone graphic novel adaptations). It's enough of a hassle that a lot of people don't bother. Hopefully eventually at least the Tales of Runk & Egg will be published in one volume.
Their titles are:
The Hedge Knight, published in the Legends anthology
The Sworn Sword, published in the Legends II anthology
The Mystery Knight, published in the Warriors anthology
The Princess and the Queen, published in the Dangerous Women anthology
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.
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.
This is from 2014, but it's being made into a 2015 movie.
The Martian
>Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
>Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt
Buy 6 copies of this.
There is apparently an entire series of these:
Pounded in my butt by my own butt
Cheesy Puff came to life and pimped my gay ass
I Seduced Bigfoot to Save Broadway from the Homophobic Sasquatches...And I Liked it!
But the prize has to go to :Pounded by The Biker Rainbow Come to Life!
Lately I've been listening to the audiobook of "The Martian". It works great while flying, not so great while designing. It's difficult to make something spaceworthy in RSS while simultaneously concentrating on a book.
When designing in the VAB I prefer to have some game or series soundtrack running. Favorites include but are not limited to Xenosaga, Nagi no Asukara and Kara no Kyoukai.
Believe it or not, that's one of the results Google gave me on a keyword search: https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ
I could not possibly make this shit up
Can't wait to see what new features they bring in the Tingle update.
Chuck Tingle is that you?
Excuse me sir, but there are several visionaries in the MLP FanFic community that have gone on to great things. One brony went on to sell 50 copies of his autobiography on Amazon's self-published platform. He may become the next Chuck Tingle!!!
You'd be surprised.
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Book-Own-ebook/dp/B00VDRUI5Q
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Book-Own-ebook/dp/B018ZZQKJQ
Oh
my
god.
Are
these
all
actual
books?
Idk
why,
but
I
love
this.
This will make your week then.
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
I just read a good apocalypse/prepper novel (and boy, those are hard to find.) - Anyhow, seems to hit some of your sweet spots, and the author is a military history professor. https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1481885962&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=one+second+after
Read/Listen 'One Second After' (http://amzn.com/0765356864)
For your EMP dramatization pleasure.
Warriors I is the anthology that has the story. The link is for Amazon. If you're outside the U.S., I can't really help you.
They're not currently released as stand-alones, apart from an illustrated edition, IIRC.
Your best bet to find them is in the collections they were published in:
Here, here, and here (Links taken from the sidebar).
You can actually buy Legends 1, Legends 2, and Warriors 1 on Amazon which contain the Dunk and Egg stories :) For reference the titles are The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight.
Both Legends have Kindle versions. Hope this helps!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765300354
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034547578X
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765360268
These are what I just bought. The later two are the cheap smaller paperback, but they work.
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 :)
Despite the fact that it's got comedic elements, there are plenty of parts in John Dies At The End that are pretty wonderfully creepy.
House of Leaves always needs mentioning, it works its magic on numerous levels.
The absolute scariest ghost story I've ever read, and I never hear anyone talking about it, is Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel.
You can't go wrong with Stephen King, but if you haven't cracked into his books yet it can be a daunting task, he has a huge bibliography. For me, IT, The Shining, Salem's Lot, and Pet Sematary are some of the scariest, plus pretty much any of his short story collections are golden. In fact, any one of his short story collections might be the best place to start with King, I would recommend Skeleton Crew.
And while I wouldn't necessarily categorize it as strict "horror", one of the books that's scared me the most is Alan Moore's graphic novel From Hell. It's an absolute beast (and it's pretty much nothing like the film adaptation with Johnny Depp, so don't let that color your perceptions).
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
both of these books are great reads:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717
http://www.amazon.com/This-Boys-Life-A-Memoir/dp/B001KZI7RW
and are about young individuals struggling with life's harships.
take a step back from the drugs, if only for a little. Exercise daily, read, cook a few meals.
be safe, feel better
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.
A great book that expresses this topic a bit is 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime'. It's written from the point of view of an autistic boy and it really gives you some insight into how people with autism experience love and caring and how it effects their relationship with others.
Link to amazon for the interested: http://www.amazon.com/The-Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717
I don't know what you're into, but here's some suggestions:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
My Name is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare
Running with Scissors
Hell Bent for Leather
If she was just diagnosed, I'm thinking it's probably more likely that she's high-functioning since you probably would've noticed earlier on if she was low-functioning. And the fact that she doesn't resist affection is a really wonderful sign! My brother wasn't very affectionate when he was her age but he did have some of those same behaviours - not responding to commands, self-focused etc. The word Autism itself comes from 'auto', so naturally a huge component of Autism is a focus on oneself rather than others which makes for more difficulties in social situations. Like I said, our situations are very different because my brother is 3 years older than me but going back to my 5 year old mindset, how I managed to communicate with my brother was through his common interest which is music. He'd play piano and I'd sit with him, we'd talk about our favourite artists etc. Since your sister is still pretty young, it might be difficult to establish a common interest right now but my advice would be interest yourself in whatever she finds interesting, getting her to talk about what she's doing, what she likes. And I hope that as she gets older, she's put in 'typical' child environments so that she doesn't miss out. I'm really happy to say that my brother had a lot of support when he was younger and now he's 23 and extremely well-adjusted and living in his own apartment and has a job that he loves. I wish I could offer you some reference books or something but all of the ones that I read were for younger siblings of Autistic children. If you're interested though here are a few that helped me:
Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome <-- it's about Aspergers but a lot of the characteristics are similar and more importantly, it provides a lot of information for siblings
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime <-- fictional but takes place completely inside the mind of an Autistic person! And it's an amazing read!
The Reason I Jump
This one is a little bit more advanced
http://www.amazon.com/curioso-incidente-medianoche-Letras-Bolsillo/dp/8498383730
But I still thinking is a good reading for an adult. It's like is written by a child with Asperger so everything is extremely well explained and I think it's easy to understand. But the concept and the story is quite profound and interesting to keep an adult hooked. It's not a book for children.
You can find the original version in English as well
http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The entire Dresden Files series, by Jim Butcher
Oh if you like dystopian, then check out Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Awesome fantasy - Patrick Rothfuss The Name of the Wind. And a really cool non-fiction survival story is The Tiger by John Vaillant, about a man-eating tiger terrorizing a village in Russia.
Totally check out the library, most these days do inter-library loans within counties or regions, so if they don't have any of the above, you can request them for free. Enjoy!
These definitely aren't the worst-case-scenario, but I still wouldn't pick them up if I saw them on a shelf. They just don't spark my interest.
THAT being said, two of my favorite books - Theft of Swords and The Name of the Wind - are books that I would NEVER have picked up if a friend didn't recommend them. I don't think your examples are bad because (1) it looks like art rather than a photo, and (2) enough of the character's face is hidden (or their back is turned) to still let the reader imagine what the character looks like.
The first is on my mp3 and ebooks list. Here's the link.
Thanks for the contest!
Good decision. I wanted to just go straight through and I ended up burning myself out on the series.
Have you ever read anything by Patrick Rothfuss? The Name of the Wind was one of my favorite books of all time.
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.
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 really enjoyed the Expanse series, by James SA Corey (Pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) so far. There's a trilogy and two novellas out now, with three more novels expected.
EDIT: Should mention the first book in the series is Leviathan Wakes. Picked it up because of the GRRM blurb on the cover but absolutely loved it.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
From Amazon.com:
>Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.
>Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.
>Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.
>Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
Swan Song - Robert McCammon Of the books I read last year this was my favorite.
Old Man's War - John Scazi - It's a pretty fun Military Sci-fi series
Leviathan Wakes - S. A. Corey - Near space, space opera.
Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson - Epic Fantasy with an interesting magic system, good place to start with a popular author
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie - "Grimm Dark" fantasy, he does an interesting thing by playing with a LotR style quest.
The Black Prism - Brent Weeks - Interesting Magic system, one of my favorite ongoing fantasy series. Much better than his first trilogy IMHO
Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch - Funny urban fantasy series that takes place in London
His Majesty's Dragon - Namoi Novik - Napoleonic* war + dragon's, fun quick reads.
Sevenes - Neal Stephenson - Stand Alone sci-fi novel about human's trying to survive in space as the world ends.
I can suggest more if you want, and I assume you've probably read at least some of these. Hope you enjoy some of them at least though.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey!! It's the first book in The Expanse series and it has seriously every thing you're looking for, and is a great, well written space opera.
How about The Expanse trilogy by James S.A. Corey? First book is Leviathan Wakes.
It is completely sci-fi, but has a lot of horror elements.
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
Gödel, Escher, Bach is a popular one. If you're looking for fiction, then I highly recommend Flatland.
Anything by Simon Singh is worth reading. In addition to what others have recommended, these books are good:
[The man who loved only numbers](http://www.amazon.com/MAN-WHO-LOVED-ONLY-NUMBERS/dp/0786884061/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1254333710&amp;sr=8-1
)
Flatland
Prisoner's Dilemma
A mathematician reads the newspaper
A mathematician plays the stock market
Innumeracy: mathematical illiteracy and its consequences
Also, while not exactly about Maths:
Surely you are joking, Mr Feynman
What do you care what other people think?
The Art of Computer Programming
It's literally called 'Flatland': https://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X. It had a sequel too, about higher dimensions. It illustrates the way in which one might comprehend things at are not directly observable from your current presepective- obviously using geometry- but it isn't really a math book, it's a story. Carl is paraphrasing the central plot in this video.
Edit: for the lazy: "This masterpiece of science (and mathematical) fiction is a delightfully unique and highly entertaining satire that has charmed readers for more than 100 years. The work of English clergyman, educator and Shakespearean scholar Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926), it describes the journeys of A. Square, a mathematician and resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, where women-thin, straight lines-are the lowliest of shapes, and where men may have any number of sides, depending on their social status.
Through strange occurrences that bring him into contact with a host of geometric forms, Square has adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions) and ultimately entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions—a revolutionary idea for which he is returned to his two-dimensional world. Charmingly illustrated by the author, Flatland is not only fascinating reading, it is still a first-rate fictional introduction to the concept of the multiple dimensions of space. "Instructive, entertaining, and stimulating to the imagination." — Mathematics Teacher."
> fuck it, I'm gonna write a story about polygons. there, you happy?
Too late: http://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X
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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.
--------------
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?
--------------
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.
--------------
The Sprawl Trilogy
Neuromancer
Count Zero
Mona Lisa Overdrive
comments
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.
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.
You might want to use Karen Wynn Fonstad's [Atlas of Middle Earth] (https://www.amazon.ca/Atlas-Middle-earth-Karen-Wynn-Fonstad/dp/0618126996/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1510527162&amp;sr=1-1&amp;dpID=51OtLVeyEmL&amp;preST=_SX198_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&amp;dpSrc=srch) to do your research. Maps of the earlier Ages and of regions outside the Western portions of the continent are sketchier than that of the Third Age, but there is still some good information to be gathered and that book is a major reference in that field. Wish you good luck in your endeavour. Your map is truly gorgeous!
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.
Well, there are already a couple of concordances, plus Fonstad's atlas, Christopher Tolkiens' books, and countless others, some more scholarly, some less so. I really like the idea of an iOS app, but what sources are you going to draw from?
I would like one that shows the paths of the characters and battles. Similar to this but for ASoIaF. However I wouldn't want this till the series is finished.
I believe many of these graphics are from the Atlas of Middle Earth. It is a great book if you want to geek out on maps.
Any one who is a fan of the LOTR maps should check out The Atlas of Middle-Earth.
Not traditional time travel I guess, but one I've read half a dozen times, Replay by Ken Grimwood. A guy lives his whole life, dies, wakes up back in college, lives another life, wakes up back in college, etc., with a whole over arching story about why and how it's. happening.
Apparently the author had a sequel planned, but he died before it was written. Still a really great read.
Edit: added link once I got back to a keyboard.
For interesting time travel concepts that are like the Butterfly Effect or Inception....then:
This was taken with on of my favorite authors Patrick Rothfuss, so it was pretty amazing just getting to meet him. Then when I come back home I see that he ended up posting this pic on his person facebook page. Which was just amazing.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1377262476&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=patrick+rothfuss
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
[Legends / Dunk & Egg I for $18 on Amazon] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373049726&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Legends)
which are found in the anthologies Legends, Legends II, and Warriors. in that order. here's the first one.
The Hedge Knight is also a short story. Originally printed in a Fantasy Anthology called Legends. It's got a bunch of really great authors and stories in it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0765300354?pc_redir=1396635801&amp;robot_redir=1
This the Legends anthology which it was originally published in. Would that work or did you want the stand alone? I believe the stand alone is so expensive because of GoT and it originally not having a huge printing. I believe that they are spose to be reprinting but can't remember if that was for the novella or graphic novel.
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.
Forget a few days.
Read One Second After to get a real perspective on what to expect (plus it's an interesting read.)
If you want to read about what might happen if an EMP took out the US electrical grid I highly recommend the book "One Second After." It's a great read, although a bit disturbing and depressing.
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
It's from Karen Wynn Fonstad's wonderful The Atlas of Middle-earth. Highly recommended! It's not strictly canon, but very faithful and almost entirely free of conjecture.
They are as accurate as you want them to be. Personally, I like having this book by Karen Wynn Fonstad inform my headcanon.
The mysteries of Tolkien's universe are what make it so special. For example, I don't want to know where the Blue Wizards went. But I like to speculate that Oromë sent them to Middle Earth to find the Elves that remained at Cuivienen.
If he's a big fan of the books he might enjoy the Readers Companion:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lord-Rings-Readers-Companion/dp/0007270607
The Atlas of Middle Earth:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atlas-Middle-Earth-Karen-Fonstad/dp/0618126996
or the LOTR related volumes of The History of Middle Earth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Middle-earth
You may be interested in this Atlas of Middle-Earth
I can't get enough of the maps. Last time reading through LOTR i broke down and bought The Atlas of Middle Earth. I refer to the maps in any book both before I begin and constantly as I read.
Not in medical school so I suppose I'm "normal".
My best advise would be to skip the Ainulindalë and Valaquenta, the first part of the book. This is the section that reads like The Bible, and move onto The Quenta Silmarillion. After the Quenta Silmarillion, you may find Ainulindalë and Valaquenta easier to follow. As well as the encyclopedia that coolaswhitebread recommended, I found The Atlas of Middle-Earth to be both fascinating and essential to understanding where everything was taking place.
The books should include Tolkien's maps.
This is also a good book.
As for the characters it probably won't be as complicated as you think for The Hobbit and LotR. Both stories are travelling narratives so the relevant characters kinda come and go, such that when they're not around, you don't need to worry about them.
For maps and characters both it's really only The Silmarillion that's very complex. The others are novels, but the Sil is a history book.
Yes, this is the immensely researched (and Tolkien estate-approved) Karen Fonstad map from the Atlas of Middle Earth. The other map of Arda that sal30 linked to is actually derived from J.R.R. Tolkien's own early conception sketches, but Karen's maps can be consided the most up-to-date 'canon' representations.
As others have said recommended I'd start with Silmarillion first, though I'd also recommend picking up The Atlas of Middle-Earth to have close by so you can reference as needed when reading.
"The Atlas of Middle Earth" has literally every LotR map you could want. http://www.amazon.com/The-Atlas-Middle-Earth-Revised-Edition/dp/0618126996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1346212024&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=atlas+of+middle+earth
At a 24-hour-long party that my friends throw every year, a gorgeous woman walks in on crutches and I'm thinking "holy crap, she'd never be in my league if she didn't walk funny". I offer to bring her a plate of food and we start talking. She wants to teach French and learn Basque; my BA was in linguistics. She has more favorite books than favorite movies; we discover we have a mutual top-ten favorite other than HHGTTG. We talk all night, crash on adjacent parts of the living room (if anyone stayed up past 3am, they were quieter than our exhaustion would wake us to), continue the conversation during breakfast, and I blurt out something like "You're smart, you love languages, you love books... this may be a bit premature but will you marry me?" >><<recordscratch>><<
...a pin drops and everyone hears it... and the living room was carpeted...
She handles it like a champ, says "Well, we just met, you should probably wait at least a year."
We keep in touch by email. I drive a few hours across the state to pick her up for a weekend (because she doesn't know how to drive) and show her my city. Within a few months she moves in and we're loving it.
At the same party, one year later... well, would YOU have waited any longer than necessary?
TLDR: Later this month we'll celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. If I can afford it, her anniversary present is going to be hand controls for our car so that she can learn to drive. Life is sweet.
There's a great book called Replay that explores these ideas from a first-person perspective.
In a nutshell, the main character dies at 43 years old (not a spoiler; it happens on the first page) but then "wakes up" and he's 19 again, with all the knowledge he accumulated over the next 24 years.
So he basically gets to live his life again but make different decisions.
Not only that, but it happens multiple times and he makes different decisions each time.
As an older guy, it really made me think about my own history.
This is basically the plot of Ken Grimwood's "Replay"
http://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
(Though I don't think the protagonist ever went quite that far back into childhood)
If this thread interested you, I'd highly recommend reading Replay
This is a really good book on the theme
First thing he does is bet on horses in a big way!
Replay, by Ken Grimwood
We can never anticipate the consequences of what we do today.
But I know what you mean. It would be strange returning to the present and discovering things have drastically changed. A past you don't remember. I'd prefer to live from that past moment forward, ala Grimwood's Replay.
I second the Ready Player One rec, and I also strongly suggest Replay by Ken Grimwood.
I'm a Stephen King fanatic, and I do agree that the endings are generally disappointing. The thing about King is that his style is incredibly engaging. The short stories have much better endings than the longer works. If you're going to try King, as a tech addict - I suggest you start out with the short story UR.
“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
And on a more serious note: “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
It's just such a creepy yet beautiful (very long) quote.
READ
this book please
It's on the under five list
43, less than I would like (oh... sorry, M), hard science fiction, Iain M. Banks, any of the Culture series (favorites in that are Use of Weapons, Matter, and Surface Detail)
For recommendations, I have a soft spot (because he earned it) for Charles De Lint. One of the best urban fantasy authors out there. Some others are The Name of the Wind, and the Mistborn cycle (first book here).
By the way, I'm currently reading this book after absolutely devouring the first.
I've just finished The Windup Girl, which I had been putting off for some time. It was, quite simply, the most astounding and breath-taking science fiction book I've ever read. I loved it.
However, my problem is that I buy books compulsively. Mostly hard copies, but recently I bought a Kindle and buy the odd e-book or two. I have literally hundreds of books on my "to read" list.
One near the top is A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. I recently read her phenomenal Wolf Hall and was blown away by her skills as a story teller. I'm a bit of an armchair historian, and I'm particularly interested in the French Revolution (amongst other things), so I'm very excited by the prospects this book holds. If it's anything like Wolf Hall then I'm in for a very particular treat.
Also near the top lies Quantum - Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality, Manjit Kumar's much lauded recent history of the emergence of quantum mechanics. I very much enjoyed other tangentially related books on this topic, including the wonderful The Making of the Atomic Bomb and The Fly in the Cathedral, so this should be good fun and educational to boot.
Having read and loved Everitt's biography of Cicero, I'm very much looking forward to his biographies of Augustus and Hadrian.
I'm listening to an audio-book version of The Count of Monte Cristo on my iPod, which I find rather enjoyable. I've only got through the first half dozen chapters and it's already taken a few hours, so this looks to be a nice, long-term and periodic treat for when I have time alone in the car.
Cronin's The Passage keeps piquing my interest, but I was foolish enough to buy it in that lamentable format, the much cursed "trade paperback", so the thing is a behemoth. The size puts me off. I wish I had waited for a regular paper-back edition. As it is, it sits there on my bookshelf, flanked by the collected works of Alan Furst (what a wonderfully evocative writer of WWII espionage!!) and a bunch of much recommended, but as yet unread, fantasy including The Darkness that Comes Before by Bakker, The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss and Physiognomy by Ford.
Books I have ordered and am eagerly awaiting, and which shall go straight to the top of the TBR list (no doubt to be replaced by next month's purchases) include Orlando Figes's highly regarded history of The Crimean War, Rosen's history of steam The Most Powerful Idea in the World and Stacy Schiff's contentious biography of Cleopatra.
A bit of a mixed bunch, all up, I'd say.
I cannot say enough good things about The Name of the Wind. it's the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicles.
If you love fantasy and strong female characters, the Eye of the World is the first book in the just recently finished Wheel of time series. Amazing series, long, deep, complicated, but amazing.
If you don't want to get tied up too long (this series isn't complete yet), I definitely recommend the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss:
These are extremely well written. I really look forward to the next book in the saga.
[Edit: woops, just saw that someone else mentioned this further down in the comments. I'm sure the links will be appreciated.]
if you find a good recomendation, let me know, i would be interested as well.
Try the Kingkiller chronicles, MC goes to magic college and all.
https://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1480879260&amp;sr=8-1
I have this one.
Hello and welcome!
As for magic, are we talking harry potter magic or Ice and fire magic?
Seeing as for the reason why you like Suits and your love of magic, I suggest reading "Name of the wind"
Book six? You're stronger than me - I got through the first three before giving up. I've not heard anything that makes me want to go back and try again. A couple of other fantasy series suggestions (with links to the first books):
That polish looks AMAZING! So gorgeous!
My favorite book of all time is "Name of the Wind" by Pat Rothfuss. I know the author, but that doesn't affect my opinion of the book, it stands on its own! The sequel is nearly as amazing, but the final book of the trilogy is out yet, which is a little painful!
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Incredible book.
The Hedge Knight in Legends 1 paperback - 13.59 and less
The Sworn Sword in Legends 2 paperback - 7.99
The Mystery Knight in Warriors 1 paperback - 7.99
I have posted these before. Can we get a mod to add these to the sidebar so we can end these questions and people's links to torrents and PDFs. Also, these are available as graphic novels/comics as well, but I think they are pretty limited in quantity and quite expensive.
This may seem unreasonable for a couple of novellas, but they are actually good collections. Some of the stories are really good. If its really too much, they are generally available at your local library.
EDIT: If you really love ASOIAF, please buy these. More money will hopefully encourage GRRM to keep writing!
[Legends] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/)-Featuring The Hedge Knight-$18.20
[Legends II] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0345456440/)-Featuring The Sworn Sword-$
Warriors-Featuring The Mystery Knight-$11.17
Dangerous Women-Featuring The Princess and the Queen-$21.52
Just so you know, the last one is not a Tale of Dunk and Egg, but a story about the Dance of the Dragons. The next one is The She-Wolves of Winterfell, which has been delayed. Also, Legends II doesn't seem to be available new, so I didn't include a price. Finally, the graphic novels have been announced for a re-release, so the price for those should go down soon, as new copies are printed.
I also just want to say, it's really insane how far Martin has come. A decade ago, no one would have thought that he would be the selling point of those books. Now, his stories are the most popular of the anthologies.
Some of them were re-released individually as graphic novels, but other than that they're only available as part of collections:
The Hedge Knight - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765300354/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
The Sworn Sword - http://www.amazon.com/dp/034547578X/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
The Mystery Knight - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765360268/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
The UK paperback is already out, but it was split into two volumes. The US paperback was due out in August, but it was delayed until early next year. The only US release so far is the hardcover. I feel like I've seen pics of a one volume paperback ADWD though...
tl;dr - The $35 hardcover that both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have for $21 or the eBook version that both have for $15.
> I'm supposed to wait some 3-4 years after ADWD for the next book? Rough, since I started the series this June.
Yes :( You can try to find the Tales of Dunk & Egg in the anthologies each one comes in (Legends, Legends II, and Warriors). A fourth Dunk & Egg novella is coming out soon, and all four will be released in one volume afterwards.
Yeah I noticed that too :/ You can get them cheaper though
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_5 Contains The first story.
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0345456440/ref=pd_sim_b_5 Has the second story
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765334771
has the last story.
It can be a bit tricky to find them. The stand alone books are absurd expensive. The full anthologies are the cheaper option.
For The Hedge Knight
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1382118790&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=legends
Sworn Sword http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0345456440/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1382118960&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=legends+II
Mystery Knight http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765334771/ref=pd_sim_b_5
Hope this helps.
https://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354
This?
Paperback editions.
the hedge knight for $13.59
The sworn sword for $7.99
the mystery knight for $7.99
There is both a comic/graphic novel and short stories.
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
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.
Favorite book? As of recently it would have to be Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's a fictional book, but the author, Watts, uses the situation of fist contact to explore many ideas of philosophy of mind, such as what makes a conscious being conscious? And the impact of transhumanism upon our culture/ lifestyle.
Series: The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. I've never read a book series so fun and adventerous, with the story taking the reader along with the characters into strange twists right when you think you've begun to follow the story. It's a story about a gunslinger named Roland, and his quest to get to an ominous tower known as The Dark Tower, or simply The Tower. Along the way he has to jump universes, save small towns from mysterious robots on mechanical horses, and encounter the god of their worlds himself. It's a fun adventure series that never gets boring, and if you ask me the opening line of the first book, The Gunslinger, is the best opening line of all times: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
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.
One Second After seems pertinent
One moment after by William Forsyth.
EDIT: It's called "One Second After."
> 5 seconds later
https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864
link for the lazy
One Second After. https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864
Well researched and the need for insulin is a critical issue. Plus, this is such a likely scenario it is scary.
Read One Second After by William Forstchen for a pretty reasonable description of EMP devastation
These aren't under $5, but definitely worth getting and HAVING. I've been increasingly interested in surivalism (as a result of hanging out with my paranoid dad), so definitely get these books:
http://www.amazon.com/SAS-Survival-Handbook-Revised-Situation/dp/0061733199/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363171748&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=wilderness+survival
http://www.amazon.com/98-6-Degrees-Keeping-Your-Alive/dp/1586852345/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363172088&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=98.6+degrees+the+art+of+keeping+your+as+-+cody+lundin
http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Alive-John-D-McCann/dp/1440218307/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363172163&amp;sr=1-1-spell&amp;keywords=stayalive
http://www.amazon.com/Build-Perfect-Bug-Out-Bag/dp/1440318743/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363172312&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=bug+out+bag
http://www.amazon.com/Preppers-Instruction-Manual-Disaster-ebook/dp/B008OXF0BY/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1
http://www.amazon.com/31-Days-Survival-Emergency-Preparedness/dp/161004648X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363172535&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=31+days+to+survival
http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Doomsday-Guide-Disaster-ebook/dp/B00B020FKC/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765356864/ref=la_B000APZ9N8_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1363173072&amp;sr=1-1
One Second After. About the US after a high altitude EMP destroys everything in the country that is electronic. Makes you wish for a plague or zombie apocalypse. Ugh, more brutal than The Road because of the detailed description of exactly how society breaks down and how long it (doesnt) take
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765356864
One Second After is about a modern EMP attack on the US and has government response. The response is mostly at the city level. Good read.
On the Beach is after a nuclear exchange using salted nuclear bombs. Salted bombs kill the world (we no longer use them due to this). The government involvement is the Navy and the use of a submarine though that is only a part of the story. Classic.
Lucifer's Hammer speaks to government when there are only a few key people left like a mayor and a senator. Asteroid hit. Starts dry but ends well. Also a classic.
I really disliked One Second After. It's a hardcore right-wing fantasy scenario. The author..I mean the characters constantly preach at you. I tried to give it a chance, but after about 25%, I gave up. Read some of the 1 star reviews on Amazon.
Scroll down to "frequently bought together".
Just so you know, the Dunk and Egg stories are available really cheap online in various anthologies; the latest one I bought at Barnes and Noble.
EDIT: Here are amazon links to the said anthologies
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
Dunno if you can buy the individually as an e-book, but I read 'em in different anthologies.
The Hedge Knight was in Legends.
The Sworn Sword was in Legends II.
The Mystery Knight was in Warriors
Here's the bad news about D&E.. Each book of D&E is in a separate anthology, so you need to buy 3 different books to read them. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most of us download the PDFs with the intention on buying the D&Es when they get released as a single book (which will happen after the 4th story is released).
Here's the books you'd need to buy to read the three released D&E stories:
Legends, Legends 2, and Warriors.
I couldn't find the first one...I think that's the first one.more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Dunk_and_Egg
The first three are contained in separate collections of short stories, and there are also the graphic novels, which are expensive. I got books on Amazon for around $30 total US.
Warriors I
Legends
Legends II
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.
Definitely not fantasy but the first thing that came to mind was "The Curious incident of the dog in the night-time"
https://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717
Get those kids some books!
oh lawd, this is going to be LONG
for advanced readers,
Enders Game
The Giver
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
The Harry Potter Series
The Heir Apparent
Farenheit 451
A lot of these books can be read young and then reread when older to get more meaning
For younger beginning readers
Dr Seuss, I really remember Green Eggs and Ham, Go Dog go, and One Fish two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Oh and surprise me, i really like SciFi/Fantasy and have read the Dune Series and ASoIaF, but the Modern High Power Rocketry Book would be very very appreciated.
Did anyone else learn about the Monty Hall problem from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?
I usually have at least two, one being fiction and the other nonfiction. Currently reading The Ethical Brain and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Totally different genre, but Keiko reminded of the protagonist from this book: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Not sure if these are appropriate, or if she's read these already but here's a few off the top of my head:
Am I on the right track?
I recommend reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Its written from the POV of a 15 year old autistic boy. I found it to be a compelling read precisely because the author does an excellent job putting you in the boys head and showing us how he sees the world.
Happy anniversary!!!!!
[Book] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400032717/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=3UHSOLHAJ6508&amp;coliid=I25C227ICVUGMC).
Thank you for being a good person!
This book will give you some insight from an autistic child's point of view, it was a great book.
If you're looking for non-clinical, there's a fictional book called the the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400032717).
I would also recommend checking out some of the many wonderful blogs, by parents of autistic children but especially autistic adults themselves.
I would really love The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time! It looks so awesome and I really, really want to read it. So many people have recommended it to me and I'd love to follow through with the recommendation! Plus, really, it has 2222 reviews right now and that's just awesome. Thank you so much for this contest!! I love used books!
Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal.
The curious incident of the dog in the night Time
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1400032717?pc_redir=1396408200&amp;robot_redir=1
It was my first book in English; a great story, really easy to read.
I'm currently reading Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, and am LOVING it. I'm pretty close to the end, though, and I'm worried that not much is going to be wrapped up in this volume. D-:
The book before that was The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian and...I didn't finish it. One of my few 'abandoned' books. Had to read it for a book club, even, and couldn't bring myself to finish.
Before that was...I think Alif the Unseen? AMAZING book. Won the World Fantasy Award the year it came out, and is an amazing fantasy book that takes place in current-day 'unspecified middle-eastern country.' Highly recommended to any fantasy readers out there.
Oh, and Suki: A Like Story was adorable for the manga folk out there.
I'm a SAHM, so I'm always on. My daughter is having reflux issues right now, which woke her in pain at 2:30am. There's no time off. She's worth it, though.
I've heard good things about this book. Glitter all the things!
I've been trying to get my hands on a kindle for a very long time. Personally, I LOVE reading (my mom's an english teacher) and frankly my list of books-to-read is never less than a dozen books long. However, after having to pay a lot of money for recent unfortunate unforseen circumstances, I can't afford to buy all the physical books I want to read anymore. I can buy one or two a month from the secondhand store but that's all. The reason I want a Kindle is because in the long run it would be a lot cheaper and allow me to get back into my passion for reading. For instance, I've been wanting to read The Name of the Wind forever. Everyone on reddit keeps talking about how amazing it is but I haven't been able to buy it. Anyway, thank you so much for the contest and the opportunity and happy gifting! :)
Here is a link to the book Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.
I'd toss in a few plus add links for those who have Kindles
Unfortunately seems to be UK only :(. US Version is still $9.
Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind. I haven't personally read it, but I know that it is high up there on the lists! :)
My wife loves her kindle, it's alot easier for her to take places where she would normally take 2 or 3 different books with her. Plus, if she manages to finish one and still has time to kill or whatever, it's super easy to start another.
As for books, I've got 2 recommendations if you're into fantasy at all. One and two.
Among Others by Jo Walton
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I think the Dark Tower series is a must read. It starts off with The Gunslinger and continues. I think it is the best series I have ever read.
If you want to look other than fantasy/sci-fi...
Lamb by Christopher Moore is very funny, makes you think, and breaks your heart. I love it.
A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorite books ever written. Everyone that I have given this book to has read it and bought it for someone else to read.
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins is Tom Robbins at his best. It's also one of the most polarizing books I have suggested to friends and people online. You will either love it and buy the rest of Tom Robbins's books or you will hate it and never listen to me again. I hope it's the first reaction.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an amazing book about life in high school. I haven't seen the movie yet because I enjoy this book so much that I don't want to get pissed off at a director ruining one of my favorite books.
Good Omens by Pratchett/Gaiman is certainly a pretty rockin book.
Hopefully this helps you find some new authors to enjoy!
Edited for: I will never forgive myself if I don't put in what I consider one of the best fantasy coming of age stories ever. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is the first of the series. Read it. Do it!
Honestly I am going off my coworkers recommendation that this series is great. He won't stop talking about it.
When I saw "Sol 585" I instantly thought about the Martian. Amazing book. http://www.amazon.com/The-Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA
It's a lot more realistic science fiction (similar to The Martian) than a lot of books that I've read and, like Heinlein, explores some social issues / what ifs. That's kind of vague... but it's so good I don't want to go into too much detail and ruin it
What's up?
Started reading/listening to The Martian. It's wicked funny and filled with enough F-Bombs to make a sailor nervous. Has anyone else read this?
Oh, well now I feel silly. I thought you were quoting The Martian but I guess they were quoting Apollo 13 too.
I just read The Martian by Andy Weir. Follows the story of a stranded astronaut on Mars, from the point of view of his journal. Funny, intense, and smart.
I don't just go about randomly recommending books, but anyone that reads this comment, please, read this book.
It is one of the best things I have ever read. I finished it in one 10 hour sitting the first time. Also, the audiobook is very good.
I love listening to audiobooks while sanding and finishing projects.
I actually bought this book off of Audible. I can't recommend it enough. For me, it's one of the best books ever written. In case anyone's interested, it's also coming out in hardcover tomorrow (October 15th).
Never been there, but I recently read a great book about living on Mars. Seriously, pick up a copy.
I'm with you and to keep your mind off drinking I highly recommend this book. Simply awesome.
The audio version is available too and the narrator is great. I got in to talking books in early sobriety when my mind was racing and found it hard to concentrate.
I've been embracing my non-student status and reading for pleasure once again for the past two years. Finally got caught up on the years of Michael Connelly I'd missed, and I just finished up The Martian.
I did just start Ghettoside, which is my first toe into non-fictional waters in quite some time.
Pretty soon I'll get to start studying for licensure . . .
Just finished [The Martian] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA) by Andy Weir, it's a phenomenal book that is essentially space MacGyver. It puts the hilarious main character alone on mars for an extended period of time, and explores how one might survive if stranded on mars.
That's already a thing. A quite good thing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EMXBDMA?ie=UTF8&amp;redirectFromSS=1&amp;pc_redir=T1&amp;noEncodingTag=1&amp;fp=1
If you haven't read The Martian, you should. It's basically MacGyver meets Apollo 13 on Mars, and it's fantastic.
The cover is a hard one, artists are not that cheap. I sometimes feel good Indie books can be hiding behind a stick figure! (But I don't have time to find out ;3).
Spacefaring Dino Erotica is where it's at ;3.
start writing about a sex topic? that sounds worse than the date to the Museum of
bachelorBroken Relationships.Hopefully some wag in the group is a fan of author Chuck Tingle - no windmills, just good ol fashioned Dinosaur erotica (amazon link: Space Raptor Butt Invasion, or the important piece of literature "Dressed Up Handsome And Not Pounded Because Cosplay Is Not Consent"
And thus I give you the following Hugo nominated work:
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ/
Let's be honest THIS is why you use a Kindle.
Haha, no. =) But I thought this book was really helpful, I bet you could get a lot out of it: A Drunks Guide to Managing Expectations and Being Decent
I've gone on a bit of a rant so skip if you like... recovering from a really bad cold has left me with too much time on my hands.
I think what shocked people was killing Sean Bean (one of the only characters with mainstream name recognition)... also viewers versus readers.
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SF/F is mainstream--I don't understand why people buy into it being niche. Everything from Harry Potter (main characters die left and right, morally ambiguous characters abound), the True Blood/Twilight series, Tolkien (main characters die left and right, morally ambiguous characters abound). The problem is the fantasy readership who want to gatekeep what fantasy is--namely epic fantasy. If you haven't read the modern classics of epic fantasy then you aren't a fantasy reader (which excludes a lot of very good fantasy coming out that isn't written in pseudo-medieval England). The reason these tropes aren't surprising is because there is a glut in the market. It is the same in the romance genre where stories are reused because readers want a quick escapist read with easy to follow stories and recognisable landmarks.
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As for mainstream/non-genre fiction, everything from American Psycho to Gone Girl, not to mention classics like The Great Gatsby, have problematic protagonists and/or main characters dying. YA fiction is full of this kind of thing as well -- 13 Reasons Why for instance.
Sorry for the rant but it really pisses me off when people (general, not you specifically so this isn't an attack just a vent) say that SF/F is niche. Ok, yes, so I've been reading SF/F since I was a little kid, but I pretty much read everything that isn't biography. I've yet to meet anyone who hasn't read some fantasy whereas there are loads of people who haven't read science fiction or romance or graphic novels. But there is still this rigid gatekeeping about what fantasy is (for example someone told me True Blood was women's fiction and not fantasy). There is this idea that ASOIAF was the first big cross-over as if adaptations of Tolkien, Rowling, Myers (barf), and Charlaine Harris weren't wildly popular years before.
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Sanderson (btw, I love Sanderson and have been following him since Elantris first came out) is fundamentally wrong. Sure anything can happen in fantasy but anything can happen in any genre--Space Raptor Butt Invasion and Chuck Tingle's work, in general, is a very good example. Sanderson's comment reduces fantasy to a setting/background--which it isn't and shouldn't be. I'll say this though: most epic fantasy is just a backdrop to the hero-makes good story. So in that sense he is correct. Swift's Gulliver's Travels is probably the best use of fantasy as a genre ever--because it uses the 'anything can happen' attitude and uses it as a critique of society. So I'd modify Sanderson's point to say that SF/F is a genre that provides the distance between the reader and society to better critique and understand the world we live in. Otherwise, it is just background and a sandbox for wish fulfillment--which is totally valid it just shouldn't be treated as the definition of what fantasy is.
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Rant over. I'm going to make myself some tea and reflect on just spewing a bunch of thoughts on the internet as opposed to considered responses. TGIF
>but I'm not sure if it does in western media, like I've never heard of stuff like this before
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1488046851&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=dinosaur+butt
No movie yet, but here's the book Space Raptor Butt Invasion.
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
https://www.amazon.ca/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU/ref=nodl_
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.
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!
The Expanse books are amazing. The first one is called Leviathan Wakes
In case you haven't seen the TV show, the story is allllllmost hard scifi and takes place in an era where we've colonized mars and the asteroid belt along with some Jovian moons. It reflects on what happens to society when humanity is spread so far... both physically (belters are taller, skinnier, and have developed an entirely different kind of body language that can be easily seen through a space suit) and politically.
For a little more 'out there' sci fi, give the Long Earth series a try.
The conceit is this: Someone develops a device called a "Stepper". The stepper lets you step "right" or "left" into a parallel universe, only so slightly different from our own. If you step left, then right, you'll be back where you started. The major difference: Our universe seems to be the only one inhabited.
This starts a gold rush of sorts. We now have infinite resources, as you can just step a few paces to the left or right and find an entire world worth of raw material that can be brought back. The worlds get progressively more different the farther out you go. At one point there's a gap, where the earth itself was blown up by some unknown force. We wind up using this to cheaply launch space craft. Build it in one universe, step to the gap, and you're immediately out of the gravity well.
The book plays very hard on the "What if" scenario here.
Oh my, yes you are right. I didn't look it up as I thought I could trust my memory. But I guess not haha.
Here's an Amazon link to the book
Is this the listing you're referring to? No Kindle version... :-(
https://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-James-S-Corey/dp/0316129089/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1488179647&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=expanse+book+1
James S. A. Corey reminds me of Crichton in a lot of ways. I strongly recommend Leviathan Wakes. STRONGLY RECOMMEND.
For a newish, highly entertaining read, I'd recommend Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. Do it soon, Syfy is making a TV series out of it next year, and you don't want the crappy photo reprint cover with the embossed "NOW A HIT TV SERIES" burst.
Leviathan Wakes
I've fallen on a deep sci-fi binge, so I'm going to recommend what I've read so far (lately) and loved:
Ender Series: The sequels to "Ender's Game" are not on par with the first, but they're compelling nonetheless (except maybe Childrens of the Mind), and the Bean series (Ender's Shadow and the sequels) is GREAT. I would recommend reading the sequels, and if not, to stay with the same Ender's Game vibe, then at least read Ender's Shadow, as it opens up the story a lot more.
Foundation (Isaac Asimov): One of the groundbreaking sci-fi series. I've currently read only the first one (Foundation) and absolutely loved it. It takes up several character's point of view over the course of a lot of years. But don't worry, each character get their spot lights and they shine in it. And the universe he creates is one I'm anxious to get back once I finish with...
Leviathan Wakes (James S.A. Corey): This one I'm still reading, so I won't jump up and say: READ IT, IT'S AMAZING! But I will say this, it's long and full of twists, but it's two central characters are fun and interesting. Someone said it's like reading the best sci-fi movie there is. And it kind of is. It's full of action, suspense, some horror and fun writing. I would check it out if I were you.
Spin: I enjoyed this one. Not fanatical about it, but still enjoyable. It's a little bit too long, but the mystery around the event that occurs in the book is interesting and compelling enough to continue. The characters feel real, and the drama around it is fun.
A while ago I also read: The Forever War which I liked a lot. I like seeing humanity evolve, so this book was awesome. I hear it's a lot like Old Man's War, but I've heard better things from Forever War than Old Man's. Might be worth checking out.
Hope I was helpful!
Leviathan Wakes by James Corey was the best space sci fi I've read in awhile. It starts as an intersolar detective story, quickly turns epic. The political intrigue is a ton of fun, and the characters are top notch.
http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-James-S-A-Corey/dp/0316129089
If you like the show, I recommend you check out the book series it's based on, by James S.A. Corey. The first book is Leviathan Wakes.
The show looks like it will be good. The books have already proven themselves to be good.
I flew through the book series for The Expanse quicker than anything I have in a while (I listened to them on audiobooks). The first one Leviathan Wakes is some of the best sci-fi I've 'read' in a while. There are 4 books(and a few short stories) out so far with another 5 planned.
This book had a little Space Jiu Jitsu in it... also space pirates and puke zombies, pretty good stuff.
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
Flatland! I fucking love this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X
http://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X
"moist"
Oops, First Contest!
And if I win, either this book or this hair thingy would be ideal.
I love music, so my favourite one was Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. A history of electronic music which gave me a real in-depth appreciation of the electronic music scene now.
I also really liked A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Flatland (not exactly non-fiction, but extremely interesting).
I am 33 pages into this right now!
I've read 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 within the past year, and so far I'd say this compares very favorably. The tone, for some reason, reminds me a lot of Flatland.
And! I just bought Player Piano, which is mentioned in the article as being a derivative, so my next couple of weeks are looking pretty solid.
I'm in!
Linking a book because I have too many books!
I suggest reading Flatland. It really helps to grasp the concept of higher dimensions. It is an easy read and not long at all.
Close enough:
http://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X
Do you think they come from flatland ?
I recommend the book Flatland by Edwin Abbott. The Kindle edition is only a buck. The dead tree version is less than three bucks.
The main characters of this book are two dimensional creatures that live in a plane. There are some neat visualizations on how we in our 3 spatial dimensions interact with the plane dwellers. Tyson uses some of these. For example a sphere passing through the plane would, from a plane creature's point of view, first be a dot that appears, then a growing circle, then a shrinking circle, then a dot again, then it disappears.
Flatland also takes a look at 4 dimensions.
In Monster's Inc, there are two three dimensional spaces that share a plane (the door). A two dimensional analogy would be two planes intersecting along a line. 2D creatures moving about these planes would still perceive themselves as being in 2 dimensions. So I disagree with Tyson that the movie is a good portrayal of 4 dimensional space.
You might benefit from reading Flatland: a Romance of Many Dimensions, if you haven't already.
I could say the same about you. Politics does not consist of a spectrum between two points because that only determines one dimension, whereas there are actually at least four points (liberal, conservative, statist, and libertarian) that form a field of political beliefs rather than a one dimensional spectrum with infinite gradations. To help you understand dimensionality you might pick up a copy of Flatland.
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.
Compare Veracity cover with The Diamond Age cover. Same designer/artist, or a copycat.
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
$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.
I really liked Dead Space Martyr (Catalyst was horrible).
I wish there were better sci-fi horror books out there.
Currently reading the third book of Leviathan wakes.
http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-James-S-A-Corey/dp/0316129089
Check out The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey. Excellent space opera series that combines a bit of BSG with a crew like Serenity.
Leviathan Wakes should be mentioned.
The Night Circus has gotten a lot of praise. I haven't read it yet, but I'm aware of it's growing fan base.
I'm sure 'The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making' is a great story but it's a pet peeve of mine to include Children and Young adult books in a 'best of' list. This is probably a result of seeing Harry Potter Book 4 win a Hugo award.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey.
Check this book out http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-James-S-A-Corey/dp/0316129089/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1414424976&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=leviathan+wakes
I had a larger post but I accidentally pressed backspace. Doh.
Getting details in is the hardest part about sci-fi/fantasy by far. It's a balancing act that you just have to figure out on your own. I've done a larger post specifically geared towards openings in the two generas, but it also contains some ways to avoid getting in the info-dump dumps (after much help from this sub as well). On a personal note I'm still mostly figuring it out through trial and error. Typically this sub will be vocal about details that I don't need; ensuring that I only have the stuff that matters. On the topic of flashbacks, I highly recommend reading the opening to Levithan wakes (hit the look inside button), which uses a flashback effectively. I think I don't mind it in Wakes, because the details pertain to the situation at hand, and thus it doesn't feel like I'm just getting random facts about the situation. I haven't done much analysis on the book other than 'hurr space opera noir', since I'm pretty busy with school.
Here's my post on sci-fi fantasy openings. link skip past the specific stuff to the review.
I think the epitome of a good world building detail is in the Game of Thrones series. There isn't a moon in his world, but George R. Martin never says it. He weaves in the detail by having the characters authentically look up at the sky, the complete removal of anything moon related, and the lack of light at night. The fans who really care about those types of details will notice, and the rest of plebians will just breeze over that fact.
> "Leviathon Series"
acktchually
Or book series. Leviathan Wakes https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316129089/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fY8RAbB7EV87E
Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Corey (pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). This was originally a d20 Modern game run by Ty Franck as a play-by-post game called 2350.
There are some differences, obviously, but most of the original crew and a good amount of the plot are pretty much taken straight from the original game.
For a more sci-fi feel check out the expanse series by James S.A Corey,
also the long price quartet by Daniel Abraham, is pretty neat as it is fantasy that isn't centered around Europe.
I would also recommend checking out the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie
the links are in order
Leviathan Wakes has the most realistic space battles I've ever read, albeit in a near-future setting. It's nothing like submarine warfare, though.
EDIT: dirty_res wrote up a more complete treatment of the entire series. I wasn't aware it's being made into a TV show!
I've really been looking forward to Leviathan Wakes. No good reason beside that I hear it's awesome and I'm a sucker for a good space opera.
I would say Leviathan Wakes would be right up your street. Well written, keeps you interested and wanting to turn pages. Praised by George R. R. Martin no less.
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 -
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
Just read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1474906134&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=flatland
and extrapolate to 3 dimensions. You'll have a great understanding, I promise, and it's fun to read. I'm assuming here you're wanting an expression of a 4th SPACIAL dimension, and not an exposition on "time as a 4th dimension of spacetime."
Think of a safe in 2 dimensions...a 3 dimensional person can hover OVER the safe and see everything that's in it. That same person could pluck an item out of the safe with ease. The 2 dimensional person would crap themselves when they opened the safe only to find that object mysteriously missing.
I doubt there are 4 dimensional people who can look into our safes and steal stuff, because, well, they haven't so far. Unless you count my socks that are constantly being stolen out of my dryer.
I heartily recommend the book Flatland on the subject. Make sure you get the edition with illustrations as the others are rubbish. You can also read it for free on Project Guttenberg.
$4
$3
$2
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Link: $2
|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|
This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting).
I'm always very unsure about the positioning of adverbs in a sentence, especially those of time and, in some cases, of frequency and manner. Do they go at the beginning of a sentence, at the end, in the middle, whatever?
http://www.amazon.it/Flatland-A-Romance-Many-Dimensions/dp/048627263X/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&amp;m=AUD0XHRTXJ1N9
EDIT: As a non native speaker, there's an even worse one: those particles, I don't remember their name, after verbs that are part of the verb, like throw up, flip out, take off etc. Some verbs can take a lot of them, and often it seems to me that there's no apparent logic behind the particle and the meaning
That depends on what you're interested in. There's a bunch of philosophy, psych books I could recommend but I'll go for some more general but still amazing books.
http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567
And
http://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X
I can't imagine many people picking:
Square (Flatland)
but he got it.
The Carl Sagan video below is also pretty good. In fact, he and I used the same reference Edwin Abbott's Flatland, a book written in 1884. When Sagan cuts the apple, that's the same as the cheese slicing conveyor belt.
You can pick up a copy of Abbott's Flatland for pretty cheap. It's easy to read and is pretty short.
https://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X
Further to this, perhaps the most well-known analogy was neatly illustrated in the book Flatland.
Check it out if you haven’t. The book considers the perspective a two-dimensional object on a two-dimensional plane surrounded by three dimensional space and objects. From that perspective, objects in z-space that do not intersect the xy-plane cannot be “seen” on the plane. Moreover, their intersection with the plane, while perceptible, is not perceived as a fully three-dimensional object. So, for example, a sphere that intersects the plane is perceived on the plane as a circle with a diameter equal to that of the sphere’s great circle at the intersection.
Further down I linked this video which explains some pretty complicated concepts in a manner easy to understand.
The video uses the comparison of 2D and 3D universes as a parallel to 3D and 4D. If a 3D object enters a 2D world then it appears in that world as a 2D object. It is only as the object moves orthogonally (perpendicular but generalised for n dimensions) to the 2D plane that you can see all of the 3D object, but only in 2D "slices" at any time. In the video above the guy uses his finger, and the observers would see 2D slices of the finger.
This is significantly harder to wrap your head around when thinking about 3D and 4D, but the same principles apply.
If you want to read more on the subject then the book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is highly regarded. The video uses the same concepts, but this book was written in 1884 which is just mad in my opinion; it was very forward and abstract thinking at the time, and still is today.
Is this the book you're talking about: http://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X ?
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Amazing fictional novel about imagining dimensions in a funny way. The main character is named "A Square". I want a copy for the purposes of lending to my friends! :)
I just wrote a super long response and accidentally the tab and whole textbox. Anyway, it consisted of a few points,
I'm still drunk, probably moreso than before, but I hope at least some of this makes sense. I have no authority in any aspect of physics, but I do enjoy reading and thinking about the nature of our existence. Two books - Flatland and In Search of Schrödinger's Cat have probably had an undue impact on my beliefs and theories. But fuck it, this is a minecraft server subreddit and I can ramble about half-baked cosmological perspectives if I feel like it.
For anyone interested, it's only $2 on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1367608608&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=flatland
China Miéville's Un Lun Dun. It's a kids' book, but it's fantastic. Miéville turns a lot of the standard fantasy tropes on their heads, with thoroughly enjoyable results.
Dathan Auerbach's Penpal. Horror/suspense, written by a redditor, and debuted on reddit. The Kindle version is less than $4. Seriously creepy but totally worth it.
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. I have never laughed so much while reading. It's phenomenal.
Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. What happens to poor people once nanotechnology can be used to make anything? It's my favorite of the Stephensons I've read, but it still ends like a Neal Stephenson novel. :|
Cory Doctorow's Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. It's about the first-born son of a mountain and a washing machine. It's also about setting up wireless networks. Also: it's FREE.
Hope you enjoy some of these! :)
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:
This, this, or this probably. If that worries you, head over to r/collapse.
Highly recommend One Second After. Post apocalyptic, EMP related.
One Second After
It has the added bonus of being based on a pentagon study about what would happen to the US if an EMP were detonated. Author is former
Military. Really cool and fun read. There’s three in the series.
I recommend One Second After by John Matherson. I really liked it!
One Second After?
https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864
I read One Second After. A sobering read :(
https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864
Both disasters would be shockingly similar results
Nuclear EMP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse
A fantastic novel on life after a nuclear EMP: http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765356864
One Second After by William R. Forstchen is really good (despite having a forward by Newt Gingrich).
it's honestly like, over 90% of the population. like i said, i'm no fearmongerer, but i have a wife and cats and ZERO plans of leaving if SHTF (i live in a pretty rural woodsy area), so i like being prepared. we have peace of mind.
it's not even just SHTF kinda stuff. in the mountains, we lose power a lot during stormy seasons (like, summer, fall, winter, and spring lol), and sometimes for days at a time. we only have a small generator, but it's sufficient for running the fridge, though not our well pump. we take care of what we can with what we have.
there's a real negative connotation with preppers, well...cuz a lot of them are dicks about it, and most of them are completely unrealistic. the majority are the super right-wing 'THUR COMIN TO GIT UR GUNNNSSS' kinda folk, who weigh 300lb, haven't physically walked or run further than their mailbox in 30 years, and just prep to have something to do. in a real situation, they'd probably be an easy target for the guy down the street who's in shape, has guns, and knows how to use them. it's why people laugh at them.
thus my seatbelt analogy. i'm not fearful. i honestly DO think we're due for 'something'. russia? china? EMP? nukes? i dunno. and frankly i don't care. if we're gonna die we're gonna die. i only do this so i don't HAVE to run to the store the minute the minute disaster strikes. most people can't even fathom the chaos that will ensue if something serious, and nationwide happens. this isn't the 50's where everyone will 'head on over to the town hall and see what the mayor has to say' lol.
it'll be chaos guaranteed. so why not stay home and avoid it all?
if you've never read One Second After, you should. i can't recommend this book enough. i know a ton about prepping and survival skills, but this book brought a lot of stuff i never thought about before to light. it's a fantastic (and pretty quick) read. it's about someone who lives in a small town, and his experience when the US gets hit by an EMP. the whole country goes down, and no one has any idea what to do, or even what happened, and how that all works out. it's so good.
I once read a Newt Gingrich-approved scifi novel about EMPs called 'one second after'. Gingrich had written the foreword so I knew I was in for a fun ride. Surprise surprise the hero turns out to be a white, conservative straight man whose hunting and gunplay skills got him through the worst of society's downfall, all while sneering at liberal ideas and people. In the end he wins and becomes the leader of a glorious right-wing gun society.
It's a must-read if you ask me. Chuffing hilarious. Check it
Yes. The most likly scenario would be the use of an EMP over the US to disable the infrastructure.
The invaders wouldn't even need to be in a hurry. They could basically take their time while the country tears itself apart trying to simply survive.
Check out the book "One Second After". It does a pretty good job imagining how the US would react if that occured.
And those are adaptations actually. The original novellas were in anthology collections.
[Hedge] (http://www.amazon.com/Dreamsongs-Volume-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0553385690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1406332567&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=dreamsongs+vol+ii)
[Sword] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B000FC0Y0Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1406332645&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=legends+ii)
[Mystery] (http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-1-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765360268/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1406333756&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=warriors+1)
This question is ask a lot but I'll answer it anyway, the Dunk & Eggs novella are available in 3 different anthologies: The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight
What are you talking about? The current Amazon prices are $13.59, $7.99, and $7.99, with free shipping if you buy them together. Used is even cheaper.
Dunk & Egg is entirely told from the point of view of Ser Duncan the Tall, a young knight out for adventure in Westeros, and since they're short stories they're far more action packed than any book of ASoIaF.
The first three Dunk & Egg tales are only available in anthologies.
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
Combined they would cost more than ADwD, regardless of what format you buy it in. I would definitely recommend reading them at some point (and they provide at least 2 big reveals in ASoIaF), they are not necessary to read before Dance. There will be a second Warriors anthology coming out in the fall/winter I believe, containing the fourth Dunk & Egg story. Shortly after that release all 4 stories will be released in a volume together. That said, there are other great short stories in these anthologies, so you may find it worth it to get them.
you might be looking at the graphic novel version of the hedgeknight and thats why its so expensive look them up in the anthology forms and you might have more success:
Legends 1 (contains the Hedgeknight) Legends 2 (contains The Sworn Sword), and Warriors 1 (Contains the Mystery Knight)
When you searched for the novellas did you happen to search by the specific titles (The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight? If you did then I can see why you would think they'd be too expensive. The stories are part of three separate collections of short stories that are pretty cheap. They are Legends, Legends II, and Warriors. You can pick up all three on Amazon for like $30 total.
I have to comment on this, just to stress it further.
I know reading is difficult, so I'll go ahead and relink them here here and here
TL;DR: LINK 1... LINK 2... LINK 3
still TL;DR?! 1... 2... 3
there is a compilation being released with the next tale though, soon (it was sent to the publisher a few months ago) so I'd wait.
2.The Sworn Sword http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Dragon-Sword-King/dp/034547578X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1368313751&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=legends+anthology
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Dragon-Sword-King/dp/034547578X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1369360965&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=legends+ii+anthology
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-1-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765360268/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1369361010&amp;sr=1-2-spell&amp;keywords=Warriorsi+anthology
You can buy them as a part of compendiums
The Hedge Night can be ound here - http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1347277911&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=legends
The Sworn Sword can be found here - http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Dragon-Sword-King/dp/034547578X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
And The Mystery Night can be found here -
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-1-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765360268/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z
You can get all 3 for about $30 and free shipping. You can also check your local library since each is only about 100 or so pages.
Warriors 1 : Mystery Knight
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765360268/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Legends II : The Sworn Sword
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034547578X/ref=gno_cart_title_2?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Your milage may vary in terms of what you find "weird," but off the top of my head here's a few that fall all over the weird spectrum
1)The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. Deals with drugs, conspiracy theories, and the occult blended with a strong sense of wit and cynicism. Imagine Dan Brown but with a much stronger sense of humor.
2) VALIS by Philip K. Dick. Really anything by Dick could deserve a place on here but VALIS is my personal favorite. A group of misfit adults all struggle to piece together a series of odd occurrences that just may be a message from the god of the Gnostics.
3) Spacetime Donuts by Rudy Rucker. If the above are a bit too heady for you, then this might be more up your ally. Weird theoretical math is explored through the travels of an elderly, weed and acid loving guy who lives in a world controlled by a mostly benevolent supercomputer.
Edit: Forgot a couple!
4) John Dies at the End by David Wong. A great story about two slacker guys who stumble upon a "drug" known as Soy Sauce that opens up other words both literally and figuratively. A wonderful combination of dick & fart humor and deep meditations on the horrors of our universe.
5) The Time Machine Did It by John Swartzwelder. I have never laughed so hard, so consistently at a book. John is a writer from the golden age of the Simpsons and his unique sense of humor is on display here. He's got a bunch of books out and I admittedly have only read this one so far, but based on it the rest of his works are definitely on my must-read list.
Cool book, check it out here
http://smile.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong/dp/1250035953/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;sr=8-1&amp;qid=1394759026
John Dies at the End. I've wanted to read it since watching the movie. Also, used books are always welcome. Thank you for the contest!
Well, I'm pretty sure we all know how this book ends.
Seconding the Laundry Files series that Horrabin suggested and adding John Dies At The End and its sequel This Book is Full of Spiders to your list of potentials.
John Dies at the End and it's sequel This Book is Full of Spiders.
Ah I've seen your comment below. read maybe:
Joe Abercrombie - Best Served Cold
Max Berry - lexicon
Dürrenmatt - Suspicion
Gaiman - Good Omens
Kafka - The Trial
Sillitoe - The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner
Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide ( no way you haven't read that - but who knows )
Branderson - Way Of Kings
Libba Bray - The Diviners
Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra ( there is a really ugly bible style translation - beware!!! )
Lynn Kurland - Star Of The Morning ( your sex and age is of interest )
Schwab - Vicious
Bakker - The Darkness That Comes Before
Robert Thier - Storm and Silence
Eco - Name Of The Rose ( no way you haven't read it but u know the drill ) + Foucault's Pendulum
Lord Of The Rings ( duh )
Sanderson - Mistborn
Sanderson - Alloy of Law
Harris - Hannibal
Rothfuss - The Name Of The Wind
Bukowski -Ham on Rye
Burroughs - Running With Scissors
Wong - John Dies at the End
I would also suggest John Dies At The End. Totally unrelated but just a fun read. My husband got me to read it a while back.
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Comment in /r/AskReddit on 2018-08-22 07:07 under "What book would you recommend to someone who thinks books are boring?" (1 pts):
> John Dies at the End https://www.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong/dp/1250035953
> I read it when he was posting chapters of the book for free on the internet, and I've since bought everything he's e...
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American Gods by Neil Gaiman... gawsh just anything by him is really good, but this book is the best match that I've read at least. You know he does good graphic novels, but his books are excellent as well. Stardust, in constrast, takes a more light hearted, fantasy side.
Greywalker by Kat Richardson is about a modern day private investigator who gets dragged into the world of the bizarre. Well written and suspenseful, I think it'd keep you on the edge of your seat.
If you like absurd, check out John Dies at the End by David Wong... before a movie ruins it.
If you want a classic, check out Ferenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I was skeptical of reading sci fi in high school. Well, this book changed my mind.
I'm not going to call any of them "literature", but I've read and enjoyed a bunch of new-ish books recently.
here ya go buddy. One of my alltime favorites. Had me scared as shit some pages, laughing my ass off the next page.
http://www.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong/dp/1250035953/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376803123&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=john+dies+at+the+end
Congrats you met a shadow man. You may read about it here:
http://www.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong/dp/1250035953/ref=pd_bxgy_74_img_2?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=1B813TV1CT5XF82JKXXG
Pretty much reality was irrevocably altered by the constantly growing forces of eternal darkness directed by a giant drain-hair-sausage computer.
It's just a book, it's not a spoiler unless you make it one. It is actually a pretty good book, from what I have heard, and at the very least a fairly popular one.
Proof
Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Novel about a muslim growing up in america.
John Dies at the End. Horror fantasy novel with a lot of philisophical aspects. Also, lots of dick jokes. It's written by a guy that went on to write for Cracked.com. It also recently came out as a movie.
Ender's Game. Futuristic scifi about a kid that goes up to space-school to learn how to save the world from an alien invasion. Soon to be a major motion picture.
13 Reasons Why. Novel about the aftermath of a high school suicide. Good if you want lots of feels.
John Dies at the End
Kamikaze Girls
Skippy Dies
Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk
Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil
The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers
John Dies at the End by David Wong
Yes. I read a lot of books at the same time. Yes, I regularly finish books. Doomed I just finished about a week ago, and I am currently in the middle of all the other books. So far I've enjoyed all of these books immensely.
The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime by Mark Haddon. You're welcome... about Shadow.. It's mystery someones burning copies of a book and the kid in the bookstore tries to figure out who's behind it. It's soooo goooood. For the other request maybe Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Its a variant of OCD. We all have it to some degree. My sister has to check all the door twice to make sure they are locked. Sometimes she gets out of bed to double check that she didn't leave the stove on, etc.
There a great book called:
https://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1510025077&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=curious+case+of+the+dog+in+the+nighttime
Here are some suggestions that might work:
Eleanor & Park
The 100-Year-Old-Man Who...
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
It really depends on where your taste overlaps.
10 or under
I would really love this book! Thanks for hosting, you rule! =D
I'm sure you've read it before, because (at least here) everybody has to read it in school multiple times, but To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite novel ever, and one of the only books I have read more than twice.
Also, Sarah Dessen is my favorite author. All of her books are YA and most include some sort of summer romance. They're total chick-flick-esque though. So if you're not into that, then steer clear.
I can't really think of much else because lately I have been reading much longer, denser, novels that take me a while to chew through and really digest because I have so much free time, otherwise I can just pick over those little things in a matter of hours. So, it's been a while since I've read a fun, light, book. && I have an awful memory anyways. lol
It looks like you have gotten a TON of suggestions on here. I'm going to bookmark this page for myself, because I am always looking for more reading material. So thanks for that :P "I love reading books!"
Thanks for the contest! If I win, I have a "books" wishlist. Surprise me :)
Edit: I was reading through some of the replies, and something somebody else mentioned reminded me of a book I have sitting on my bookshelf at home. It is dog-eared, stained from drops of coffee spilled on it, folded into a curve (you know, how a good paperback book gets so that it's kind of rounded and doesn't sit flat/closed). It's probably one of the most well-written novels I've ever read, and it's very short, although not necessarily light. But SO GOOD. It's called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and it's written in first person perspective of a 15 year old boy with Asperger Syndrome. I HIGHLY suggest checking it out!!
> On my way to school I watch the cars going past the bus and remember their colours.
> 3 red cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Quite Good Day. 4 red cars mean that it is going to be a Good Day. 5 red cars mean that it is going to be a Super Good Day. And 4 yellow cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Black Day, which is a day when I don't speak to anyone and don't eat my lunch and Take No Risks, because yellow is the colour of custard and double yellow lines and Yellow Fever which is a deadly disease.
from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Just finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Interesting perspective, but the lack of emotion made it hard for me to really invest my own emotions and kept me from really loving the book.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I tried. I really did. But it's dull and condescending and really, the author is not autistic.
If you like the Mezzanine, you may also like the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Similar stream of consciousness style.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, written by an author
with Autism.any thing like this?
I really enjoyed this. IS that sort of thing appropriate?
How did you get it diagnosed / what made you (or whoever) realize that it might be an issue?
Have you read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time? It's for sure one of my favorites. http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717
Boyfriend bought me The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime that I have been trying to finish between coursework and readings for months. Really good!
I think he might enjoy The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The teenaged protagonist has Asperger Syndrome and I think his sometimes frightening experiences in the story will resonate with anyone who has ever felt themselves to be different, or a member of a minority.
Also this book looked good I have it but haven't read it yet.
The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One by Patrick Rothfuss http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010SKUYM/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_0H1ttb0WMM1YG
I have read this book and it was really good.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC130E/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_IJ1ttb0Z1SXWV
So I have the kindle AND audible version of Kingkiller Chronicles (amazon link).
When I click Whispersync, it takes me to another page where it starts populating with kindle books I own that I dont own the audiobooks yet.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/ebookdeals using the top posts of the year!
#1: 'The Name of the Wind' (The Kingkiller Chronicle Book 1) by Patrick Rothfuss - $1.99 (Kindle) | 9 comments
#2: Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson - Kindle ($2.99) | 5 comments
#3: Hyperion by Dan Simmons - Kindle ($1.99) | 1 comment
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Book one
Book two
Absolutely incredible short story
Book one had such an uncomfortable start for me, felt too tropey and overdone, but I'm glad I stuck around and got into it because it really picks up into an amazing couple of books.
I just really hope book three is released during my lifetime.
One of the character's names is Ambrose.
Fiction: The Kingkiller Chronicle. /r/Fantasy has a hateboner for it, but it's one of the best selling fantasy books of all time for a reason.
Non-Fiction: American Progressivism: A Reader. It's a collection of speeches, essays, and letters outlining a Progressive vision for society, from the Progressive Era. These ideas formed the basis for modern American society.
I'd like to give it a try. Good reviews, looks interesting. link
Here it is.
Thank you and happy holidays.
It's on my digital list!
Thanks for the contest!
The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss Kvothe is one of the most overpowered, got the answers to everything, character.
Book 1 The Name of the Wind kindle link.
Book 2 The Wise Man's Fear kindle link.
King's Dark Tidings by Kel Kade. Rezkin suffers from the same blight as the previously mention Kvothe, BUT he has social awkwardness, which is great through the first 2 books.
Book 1 Free the Darkness kindle link.
Book 2 Reign of Madness kindle link.
Book 3 Legends of Ahn kindle link.
Here is one of my favorite books. Urban Fantasy.
MC is OP, but doesn't realize it. Manages to survive things he shouldn't.
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
The fist book is free from the Baen website.
I'm halfway through this! It was skeptical at first, and A Song of Ice and Fire has made me just want to reread that for the rest of my life, BUT it's good and you should most certainly give it a try!
Where do sheep go to get haircuts?
At the baa-baa shop.
I hear so many good things about this book.
Great book. I actually picked it up back when the author made it available digitally for free. So psyched that he finally got it published this year AND it got optioned for a movie (fingers crossed). Brilliant, well-researched, and funny! I would encourage anyone to buy a copy.
I'm just gonna leave this here. One of the best books I've read this year.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA
Haven't heard of it will do, good timing as I am just about to finish a book tonight [The Martian] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA) a really fun read.
For me, I would like to see The Martian made into a movie. It's an awesome story of a manned mission to Mars where some one gets left behind. The opening line is "Well, I'm fucked."
The Martian has been getting rave reviews and has me deeply intrigued!
From Amazon: "Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there."
The Kindle edition is $9.99
In case you don't have a kindle, [Into the Darkest Corner] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062239422/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=2PIVS4L8SLPH9&amp;coliid=I613ZEGVLIXOO) is another one that's been on my goodreads "to read" list for a while based on multiple recommendations.
The Egg is such a great story. It's not by Stephen King, though - it's by Andy Weir, who also wrote the excellent, excellent book The Martian
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
If you ever decide to read Tolkien's Silmarillion, I'd heartily recommend getting The Atlas of Middle Earth to accompany it. A well-researched and comprehensive, it really helps to visualize the places Tolkien describes so eloquently. The Atlas is rather plain and straightforward, and tends to understate the mythic grandeur that Tolkien describes, but for me it renders the geography concrete and in a fairly realistic manner.
Take it in small steps and re-read if you have the time. I'm someone who always comprehends better when I re-read things. Also having some maps handy is always a good thing. Plenty of maps available online but I also recommend getting The Atlas of Middle Earth.
I think as far as maps go the Atlas of Middle-Earth is a good reference.
http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Middle-Earth-Karen-Wynn-Fonstad/dp/0618126996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372237375&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+atlas+of+middle+earth
Even the "well known" part of middle earth doesn't look right on this map.
Maybe:
http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Middle-Earth-Revised-Karen-Fonstad/dp/0618126996
My first instinct was a volume of This Histories of Middle Earth (I think one is even pink), but it could also be something like The Complete Guide to Middle Earth or The Atlas of Middle Earth.
Here is a link.
The Silmarillion Primer is an excellent blog that summarizes each chapter in a humorous way and puts everything in context with what you learned in other chapters.
The Atlas of Middle-Earth has great maps that show the movement of characters.
My first time reading through it (I was 13 a the time) I couldn't follow what was happening. I then read this and the maps and summaries helped a lot. Alternatively there is Tolkien Gateway for more specific questions.
Highly recommended and one of the most accurate atlas's out there!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Atlas-Middle-Earth-Revised-Edition/dp/0618126996?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;redirect=true&amp;ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00
There are a few good books about on specific subjects. I'd recommend the Atlas of Middle Earth, I found it an excellent geographical companion a longside the Silmarillion, Hobbit and LotR.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atlas-Middle-Earth-Karen-Fonstad/dp/0618126996
If you like this, you'll love this. Even more maps!
The Looming Tower and The Atlas of Middle Earth
Actually it's from The Atlas of Middle Earth.
It's called The Atlas of Middle-Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad (Revised Edition). [See here] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618126996/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687722&amp;pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&amp;pf_rd_t=201&amp;pf_rd_i=026110277X&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_r=1BFD9T9QP2679T2QKX4Q) looking inside should give you a taste. Thank you again though as I realized I should be using mine in my Fellowship of the Ring read.
One of my favorite books deals with this topic. (Not going all the way back to a newborn, but in his college years)
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Just read a book about this (written back in the 80s) called "Replay." Basically, a guy has a heart attack at 40 and gets put back in his 18 year-old body with all knowledge of the next decades. Really good read, check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1302060545&amp;sr=8-1
Lately I've been loaning out Replay a lot. It's a page turner that really makes you think about what you're doing with your life.
You should read the book Replay. It's basically some guy's fantasy about re-doing his own life multiple times.
I really enjoyed it, and based on its high ratings (4.5 stars with over 700 reviews) so did many others:
https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
Hope you enjoy it!
Replay by Ken Grimwood. I mostly read sci-fi and this is one of my favorites.
Replay It's like a cross between Back to the Future and Groundhog Day. One of my favorite books!
There's this great book by Ken Grimwood called "Replay" that is like, this exact same scenario.
http://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
Basically, I'd just try to correct past mistakes and try to get a high paying tech job way earlier using my existing skillset and not squander everything.
although, doing that stuff would be harder without the google. hmmm...
Anyone interested in this kind of concept should read the utterly fantastic Replay by Ken Grimwood.
Short version: Middle-aged guy has heart attack, then all of a sudden he wakes up and holy shit he's back in college. He gets to relive everything over again, from betting on the World Series to how he met his wife. And it gets much more interesting -- and thought-provoking -- from there.
You would enjoy the book Replay. It's essentially that story.
Agent Washington.
That said, you'd like this: http://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
It's awesome.
Replay by Ken Grimwood. Science Fiction (time travel) with more emotional content than teenage me could handle. Not all Sci-Fi communicates emotion very effectively, but Replay absolutely nails it. No other Sci-Fi story I've read since even comes close.
This is the plot of "Replay' by Ken Grimwood. Wonderful book, also served as the inspiration for Groundhogs Day.
http://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
This book is exactly that story, in multiple threads of time. I thought it a good read, although it hovers between Sci-Fi and romance, it was an amazing thought experiment.
Basically, he takes one life and becomes an amazing investor and gambler-millionaire (a la "Grey's sports almanac-style prediction). He ends up repeating another life and swoons the girl that got away. In his third life he retires to the farms of Oregon and lives in solitude. Then, he begins to notice that the history he remembers is not what seems to be happening, someone else is changing history alongside him - and that's when it becomes really fascinating.
Replay by Ken Grimwood.
I really enjoy time travel movies in general, and this book has a fairly interesting twist on that premise. I definitely recommend the book, and would love to see it as a movie.
D&D campaigns can be great starting points, so don't let that stop you. It's about what you do with it after that.
As far as the subject matter alienating readers: Are you more worried about alienating "mainstream" readers with fantastical content or alienating fantasy readers with "mainstream" content? It actually doesn't matter, because neither one should concern you, but I'll address them both anyway.
One of last year's most well-received novels was a post-apocalyptic vampire story, and R. Scott Bakker demonstrated that you can write a series that's really about politics, ideology, and self-deception, even if it stars a wizard. Hell, The Name of the Wind dedicates whole sections to getting drunk and playing the guitar.
Personally, I find the mixing of content far more interesting than anything that's stalwartly dedicated to some kind of genre "purity".
Here are some fantasy/sci-fi books that I liked at that age, or would have liked had they been published. A couple of them have some sexual content, but nothing overly detailed.
DEFINITELY "The Dark is Rising" series. They're short, but excellent. Also The Hunger Games is a good bet (never read the sequels, but that first book is great). Other suggestions: The Name of the Wind, Waylander, Rose of the Prophet, 1984, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Strain, any of the Dragonlance books (I would start at the beginning, with Dragons of Autumn Twilight), or nearly anything by Stephen King.
I recently started reading "The Name of the Wind". It honestly gripped my unlike any book has in a very long time. I have been so busy the past week though I haven't gotten a chance to read it. It makes me sad! I really recommend it!
Two great books.
If you like fantasy, this is an amazing book -- one of the best I've ever read.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
This one is quoted a lot (Big Brother is watching) and a great book that I often think about.
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
For you: this and this
Together they are just under $25. I see you're a GoT fan and you will 100% enjoy these books.
For me: This
Just above $25 but it's the only thing I have on there that's in that range.
I have two books which I always tell people to read if they haven't. All Book lovers will enjoy them, so I hope you get to them even if I don't win (BTW: Thanks!).
First is: A Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It has a great magical realism vibe, and is told backwards in time. Short, interesting and downright awesome.
Second is: The first book of the Kingkiller Chronicles, The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's the beginning of a fantasy series that you will get sucked into. If you think fantasy is all rainbows, magic and faeries, this book will show you an entirely new dimension.
What a great reading list you have created so far, my book club will be happy to see all of this! Happy reading!
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1404660782&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=legends+I
Scroll down a little ways and there should be a link to buy all 3.
You can find them in the FAQ.
Dunk & Egg:
Histories of Westeros:
Edit: I see you may want just the one hedge knight book? Sorry if this was extraneous. :(
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0765300354/ref=mp_s_a_31?pi=49x75&amp;amp;qid=1345532540&amp;amp;sr=8-31
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/034547578X/ref=mp_bxgy_p_dp_y?qid=1345532540&amp;amp;sr=8-31
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004F9OV7U/ref=mp_s_a_22?pi=49x75&amp;amp;qid=1345533235&amp;amp;sr=8-22
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.
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.
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
Not sure but I found your post interesting considering I just read this book
Yes, promotion of EMP as The Current Danger a bit of a right-wing thing, though it seems to have reached its peak popularity a couple years back. Newt Gingrich was/is a prominent promoter of the idea.
There was even at least one significant speculative fiction book on the subject: One Second After, by William Fortschen, with a foreword by the aforementioned Newt Gingrich. If you look at the Amazon-suggested similar books, you'll probably notice a common ideological thread.
[The Martian] (http://www.amazon.com/Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1417752082&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+martian)
This is currently the top seller on amazon. It sounds like it has an apollo 13, survival feel to it.
Try Ready Player One. It's about a world that's become obsessed with this virtual game, but there's a conspiracy and an interesting dynamic between online personas and real life. If you like audiobooks, Wil Wheaton narrates. (BONUS! The ebook is on sale for $2.80!) and if you have any passing interest in SF, definitely read The Martian. It has math in it AND I DIDN'T EVEN CARE IT WAS THAT GOOD. Basically, an astronaut gets left behind on a mission to Mars and must survive on his own...
What I did was I started looking at short story collections. A short story lets you see how an author writes without needing to read an entire book of theirs. I have two favorite short story collection "series".
Dark Beyond the Stars, which is a Sci-fi, space opera collection. There are other Beyond the Stars books as well if you liked the first.
And Samuel Peralta's The Future Chronicles. The Future chronicles typically does some sort of sci-fi, but there are others as well. The great part about The Future Chronicles, is that you get to pick your flavor. In the mood for alternate history? Pick Alt. History 101, in the mood for spaceships and star ships? Pick The Galaxy Chronicles. In the mood for time travel? Pick the Time Travel Chronicles, ect.
Also, The Martian is a fantastic book. As well as xkcd's What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.
Andy is a great writer, I really enjoys his work. I have already pre-ordered my hardback copy of The Martian. he did an AMA a little over a year ago.
also, as you can tell from the "other discussions" tab, this story gets submitted a lot (not that I am complaining, and excuse to re-read it is good enough for me).
I'm currently reading "The Martian" by Andy Weir:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B00EMXBDMA
Reminds me of hatchet in a way, which takes me back to being a kid.
Non-mobile: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EMXBDMA?ie=UTF8&redirectFromSS=1&pc_redir=T1&noEncodingTag=1&fp=1
^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?
Check out this book. It's great!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EMXBDMA?pc_redir=1404990704&amp;robot_redir=1
Trashy romance novels... buddy who rides dinosaurs...
Space Raptor Butt Invasion?
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ
If Space Raptor Butt Invasion can get at least 40 readers to buy it, anything is possible.
Edit: oh my god, there’s a trilogy
Edit 2: ....apparently it’s actually pretty good? Disturbed and fascinated.
I kind of want to buy this book now
Edit: This book
> Where is the place to share this sort of information? Asking for a friend.
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ/
Space Raptor Butt Invasion
Personally I think Space Raptor Butt Invasion is better.
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ
The rest of the script leaked.
Hammer boyGendry still wants to bang her in dragon form, the rest of the script can be found hereGreat fantasy
lol sassysquach doesn't have anything on space raptor butt invasion
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ/
Amazon lists nearly 600 books classified as "Dinosaur Erotica", including this beauty, Space Raptor Butt Invasion. So yeah, 60 for Illuminati Self Help doesn't sound as weird in the context of knowing that...
It will be. [Specifically this one.] (http://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1450322497&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=pounded+in+the+butt+by+my+own+butt)
http://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Is this a joke or does he really have a PhD from DeVry in holistic massage? It is actually believable...
thank you very good tips from a good writer. maybe more books about dinosaurs?
http://www.amazon.com/Space-Raptor-Invasion-Chuck-Tingle-ebook/dp/B00S4B95RQ/
didnt know this was a hit hollywood book until my son edited it for me thanks
As someone who's subscribed to /r/amazonwtf and /r/pieceofshitbookclub, trust me when I say that there's way weirder stuff out there
INDEED.
https://www.amazon.ca/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
This Chuck Tingle book is basically a documentary on the topic.
Further reading.
several copies of this book.
Perhaps this? https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
Relevant e-book [Slightly? NSFW]
Dr. Chuck Tingle would like to have a word with you. ^read ^^the ^^^discription
Clearly these people aren't familiar with the works of Chuck Tingle.
I bet you guys don't even read Chuck Tingle.
This: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00TLXWVRM
Maybe this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00UYC1ASU
Unfortunately, this one is out of your budget: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005MR3IVO
Re: Mars
If you've not taken the time to read The Martian by Andy Weir, do it. Now. I mean right now.
It's fantastic, beginning to end. You can read the first chapter at the author's website, and it should hook you instantly.
The audio book version, read by R.C. Bray, is fantastic. There is a movie version coming in November staring Matt Damon, directed by Ridley Scott.
One of my favorite books I've read as of late. Accurate, fun, harrowing, interesting, and just technical enough to make it feel entirely real beginning to end.
Weir's talk at Google about the novel goes into depth about it; he actually researched and wrote programs to help him keep the book as accurate and realistic as possible.
Tanks and The Modern Army, by J.S. Woulden, is a highly regarded source
> Just want someone to talk about space and dinosaurs with
> I don't want a sexual thing
Not even Space Raptor Butt Sex?
"Kirk is a scientific researcher on the leading edge of cloning technology, but his team has reached a standstill. In an effort to stabilize rapid clone growth, researchers have been taking DNA from various parts of their bodies and combining it with small amounts of animal DNA.
But when the scientists combine samples from Kirk’s butt, brain, and a hawk, the resulting effect is a handsome, living ass who immediately sweeps Kirk off of his feet over a candlelit dinner for two.
Kirk has finally found a lover that truly understands him at his very core… his own gay ass!
This erotic tale is 4,000 words of sizzling human on gay ass action, including anal, blowjobs, rough sex, cream pies and sentient butt love."
Kirk's book
If you like the series enough to follow and contribute to its subreddit, why would you encourage others to pirate it? Why not encourage contributing to the author by linking to the purchase page instead?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0010SKUYM/
Here
Also a longer version: WWZ.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316129089
http://www.amazon.com/George-Martins-Thrones-5-Book-Boxed/dp/0345535529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1421040129&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=song+of+ice+and+fire
I'm pretty sure that it's this one, got the same paperback set but from a different online vendor.
For the love of... we had to take tests. I'm jealous. You wouldn't be able to really appreciate most of them without some mathematical training, though. I'd go for the Monty Hall problem or "Set theory and different 'size' infinities". Flatland is certainly still worth reading, though, and there are fun videos about the type of person who sells Klein bottles.
If you're honestly interested in the Set Theory stuff, I'll try to find you some better resources. The Wikipedia articles are probably far too technical.
Not sure what your point is. It can still be the point of repetitive, stagnant discussion if it's a fictional book.
Moreso, it does exist as a collection, and the title of a collection is absolutely a way of referring to it.
Or you can get Leviathan Wakes (the book) for about $7.
And since season 1 doesn't cover all of Leviathan Wakes, you'll read some of the story that will be in season 2
www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0316129089/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_1_olp?ie=UTF8&sr=8-1&keywords=leviathan+wakes
N-dimensional space. I literally just now started reading Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. I highly recommend this book if this type of dimensional thinking intrigues you.
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Butt-My-Own-ebook/dp/B00UYC1ASU
I'm pretty sure they are published. I've read them all numerous times. Here's a link to Amazon. Really good deal for the book set.
https://www.amazon.com/Thrones-Clash-Kings-Swords-Dragons/dp/0345535529
link
There’s also a movie, BuT tHe BoOk Is BeTtEr ThAn ThE mOvIe
If by all the credit you mean JJ's name above Doug's on everything about the book including the book itself.
http://www.amazon.com/S-J-Abrams/dp/0316201642
JJ loves to have his name on shit, always has, and he loves taking the shared glory when it succeeds.