someguest
11.13.11 | I've read Orwell. I need Hemingway recs (if you think it's worth it).
Also poetry and short story recs welcome. |
seedofnothing
11.13.11 | The Partner is good |
someguest
11.13.11 | Titles and authors would be nice. |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | Wandering: Notes and Sketches by Hermann Hesse
Complete Poems by E.E. Cummings
The Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath
(any collection of Dostoevsky short stories. He doesn't have a bad one of the bunch)
War and War by Laszlo Krasznahorkai |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | I could go all day because I hardly do anything but read in my spare time, so I have like a thousand recs I could give you. Just let me know if you want any more and I can try and rec you stuff I don't think others here will likely rec. |
seedofnothing
11.13.11 | the partner- john grisham |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | Here's a copypasta of some of my favorite classics I like to recommend:
Demian by Herman Hesse; The Stranger by Albert Camus; The Brothers Karamazov are three wonderfully philosophical novels that explore the depths of human emotion.
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (about a d&d loving, fantasy reading nerd) by Junot Diaz; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III are three mainstream books about suffering and finding answers in grief.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman; Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke; Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson (yes, THAT Craig Ferguson) are three fantasy novels that explore mythology and modern themes.
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon; Catch-22 by Joseph Heller; House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski are three postmodern must-reads. (All three are also a notoriously burrowing read)
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis; Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut are two more postmodern giants that explore paranoia. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath isn't postmodernism, but is a fantastic novel that also delves into the depths of madness.
Some other recs: Ulysses by James Joyce (also notoriously difficult to read) is a beautifully written bildungsroman (you may want to start with The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man first). The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a post-apocalyptic novel that's a quick read, but very dark and heavy emotionally. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is another must-read. |
someguest
11.13.11 | Thanks forever. I wrote them down and I'll try and find some tomorrow. |
seedofnothing
11.13.11 | hey what about me |
Recspecs
11.13.11 | Any genre specifically? |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | No problem, let me know what you end up getting. |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | "hey what about me"
You recommended the Michael Bay of authors. Opinion hereby invalid. |
Vesper
11.13.11 | The Sun Also Rises is my favorite Hemingway - one of my favorites, in general. Also, Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Anything by Neil Gaiman
If you like graphic novels - Sandman and Fables
Even if you don't like non-fiction, check out Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, Into the Wild). |
Vesper
11.13.11 | Lol at forever swooping in while I was typing that. |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | Beat you to a lot of those, Vesper! |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | SHIT ninjas all over the place |
Vesper
11.13.11 | WE JUST BOTH HAVE GREAT TASTE, FOREVER. |
Recspecs
11.13.11 | If you like biological fiction thrillers lol, read The Cobra Event by Richard Preston. It's fucking great. |
someguest
11.13.11 | Thanks Vesper. You both recommended The Road so I will be getting that one for sure. |
Vesper
11.13.11 | Should also get House of Leaves, then.
I was going to rec American Gods and Picture of Dorian Gray too, so I guess you can get those, as well, since forever already mentioned them, haha. |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | The Road is a great choice. |
liledman
11.13.11 | forever did you really just rec the kite runner? fuck that book so hard. anyway, what did you think of war and war? still havent got any of his stuff... holidays in a week though.
read this the other day, highly recommend:
notes from underground - fyodor dostoyevsky |
auberginedreams
11.13.11 | Chuck Palahniuk. Especially Invisible Monsters. |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | Love Notes From Underground (obviously)
War and War was really
I think Kite Runner is a good book. Nothing amazing, but I didn't really have anything else on my bookshelf that went with The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao so I threw it in there. |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | *really good
lol |
liledman
11.13.11 | cool. ive got heaps of new stuff on my shelf/pile next to my bed ready for the holidays... will be an especially geeky holidays.
kite runner i just found really contrived, the whole book was like watching a hollywood movie for white people; "oh look hank, feel bad for the coloured (colored*) people". the second half especially. call me cynical, but i think by including THAT scene, and setting it in afghanistan, it was basically guaranteed success at the time. |
WeepingBanana
11.13.11 | White Noise - Don Delillo (super good post-modern stuff)
as far as poetry goes, Bukowski is the man |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | Yeah, I see where you're coming from. It's definitely very "Westernized." |
foreverendeared
11.13.11 | I'll second Bukowski. I just finished his Henry Chinaski trilogy and it was really, REALLY good. Surprisingly moving in parts and extremely funny. |
WeepingBanana
11.13.11 | also if you like vonnegut and want to keep pursuing him read Cat's Cradle |
paxman
11.13.11 | I recommend Hemingway's entire body of work, especially the short stories (Hills Like White Elephants, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Big-Hearted River are all essential). Yes, The Road is a good short allegorical work, but Blood Meridian is McCarthy's best. One of my favorite novels, and one of Steinbeck's lesser-known works, is Winter of Our Discontent. Last Night At the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan is a good book. |
someguest
11.13.11 | I appreciate all the recommendations. It looks like my winter is set. |
taxidermist
11.13.11 | Get this.
http://dichosbooks.com/bmz_cache/d/de7017222e21fae5bf5b4013b557efa6.image.696x550.jpg |
Calculate
11.13.11 | forever could you rec any modern crime novels? |
Cipieron
11.13.11 | this list makes me moist |
iFghtffyrdmns
11.13.11 | yeah if I could just second some of what's been recommended so far:
Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises
Vonnegut - Anything, really (Cat's Cradle is definitely awesome)
McCarthy - The Road
Ellis - American Psycho
Plath - The Bell Jar |
someguest
11.14.11 | My funds are limited so I only purchased two books today - The Sun Also Rises and The Road. I just read about two-fifths of The Sun Also Rises, and it really reminds me of The Great Gatsby. The characters seem to be friends for the instantaneous moments and don't really see much in the relationships. And they're all alcoholics. And they all have too much time on their hands. That's all I've drawn from it so far. |
Hyperion1001
11.14.11 | silly dumbguest you actually have to be able to read to go to a bookstore |
Divine
11.14.11 | Anything by Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
americanohno
11.14.11 | "forever could you rec any modern crime novels?"
I'd highly recommend you check out Hard Case Crime's books. They have a great collection of classic and new crime novels. Plus their books covers are some of the coolest shit I've ever seen. http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books_bios.cgi
Charlie Huston does some cool stuff too, as far as modern guys go. Check out his Joe Pitt series (which starts with 'Already Dead'). It's basically hard-boiled private eye shit set in the vampire underground of modern NYC. He does a great job handling the vampire mythos within a pulpy detective story setting. |
Vesper
11.14.11 | "Plus their books covers are some of the coolest shit I've ever seen."
What, illustrations of pretty standard 1940s-50s objectification of women?
I don't know if this says more about the quality of book covers or how many book covers americanohno has seen. |
americanohno
11.14.11 | I've seen plenty, and their covers are a perfect summation of post-war pulp novels. It's certainly sleazy but the stories are pretty sleazy to so the artwork fits. And just look at the covers on most of the novels coming out these days and tell me they put in even half the effort HCC puts into their covers. |
iFghtffyrdmns
11.14.11 | "The characters seem to be friends for the instantaneous moments and don't really see much in the relationships. And they're all alcoholics. And they all have too much time on their hands. That's all I've drawn from it so far."
Yep you've pretty much fully absorbed/analyzed TSAR. what's so awesome and heralded about it is his minimalistic portrayal of the "lost generation" and the whole nobody really gives a fuck feel |
iFghtffyrdmns
11.14.11 | and the road is really good too, you can finish that in a night probably, it's pretty short and keeps you pretty into it |
foreverendeared
11.14.11 | "And just look at the covers on most of the novels coming out these days and tell me they put in even half the effort HCC puts into their covers."
wft are you talking about? Maybe compared to mass market paperback novels, but other than that, pretty much every novel I own has great artwork done on it. |
Vesper
11.14.11 | Lol, I know, I was just being a feminist bitch. :P
While there are plenty of awful book covers coming out these days (usually according to the content within), I would disagree. Even though they don't necessarily employ traditional artwork, there's a lot of interesting design work that, most importantly, fit the text.
This is fun to browse through: http://bookcoverarchive.com/ |
someguest
11.14.11 | "Yep you've pretty much fully absorbed/analyzed TSAR. what's so awesome and heralded about it is his minimalistic portrayal of the "lost generation" and the whole nobody really gives a fuck feel."
you kind of feel sorry for Jake too |
americanohno
11.14.11 | Possibly, I don't know the ones I see for new release books usually have boring covers, many new publishings of classic books have great art.
I don't know it's a taste thing, I love how HCC's covers harken back to a simplier less evolved time. They're unpretentious and straight to the point, and tastelessly exploititive but there's a kind of desperate artisticness to them, if ya know what I mean.
And yh technically HCC are mass market paperbacks so yh in comparrison to that class they really excell. |
foreverendeared
11.14.11 | Whoa, I took at look at those covers, and wow, I don't think I've ever seen a group of books with more cliche artwork done on them outside of the romance and paranormal genres. |
Vesper
11.14.11 | ^Did you not even read my initial comment on them, forever? That's all you needed to know. Haha. |
Vesper
11.14.11 | By the way, artwork that is "straight to the point" never fails to bore me after one glance. |
iFghtffyrdmns
11.14.11 | @someguest - yeah absolutely, I don't know if you picked up on it (it's sort of obvious but apparently not to me when I read it), but jake suffered from some sort of injury during the war which basically rendered him unable to use his manhood (which obviously doesn't suit a sexual deviant like Lady Brett, though she does feel charmed by him). kinda fucked up stuff |
americanohno
11.14.11 | @ Vesper
Cool link. Def. some cool design in some of those covers, and you're right that most book covers are at least pretty interesting but none (cept the two books by gay talese on the third page, those are great) hit me on the viceral level HCC's covers and the 50s pulp novels that inspired them. but that's probably cuz I'm a sleazebag who wishes he was born in the mid-30s. |
foreverendeared
11.14.11 | "^Did you not even read my initial comment on them, forever? That's all you needed to know. Haha."
Oh haha you're assessment is pretty spot on.
So, what are you currently reading, Vesper? |
Vesper
11.14.11 | "I'm a sleazebag who wishes he was born in the mid-30s."
Looool. At least you know what you want. |
Vesper
11.14.11 | "So, what are you currently reading, Vesper?"
The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature
:] |
someguest
11.14.11 | I didn't really think about it but it makes sense. |
foreverendeared
11.14.11 | "The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature"
Is that like a transcript of the debate? Because I watched an excerpt of it on YouTube a couple months ago. |
americanohno
11.14.11 | Jesus Christ you guys can't even show respect to the classics.
But even if you don't like the covers, some of that pulp shit is absolutely worth reading.
especially if it's authored by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald (haven't read anything by him but from what I know he's a must), Jim Thompson, Donald Westlake (or his pseudonym Richard Stark), or Elmore Leonard. |
iFghtffyrdmns
11.14.11 | kinda how I felt when I realized it after reading it. it just adds a whole new sort of conflict to the story
they seriously do just booze the entire novel though it's great. |
Vesper
11.14.11 | @forever - Yeah, a full transcript plus follow-up interviews and statements that elaborate upon the views presented in the original debate.
My knowledge of both of their works is pretty cursory, and this seemed like an interesting way to get a wide sampling of their views. |
foreverendeared
11.14.11 | Yeah, I only watched it because of Noam haha |
qwe3
11.14.11 | vonnegut - cats
foster wallace - infinite jest
franzen - the corrections
keneally - schindler's ark
tim winton - breath |
seedofnothing
11.14.11 | hey what about me |
Acanthus
11.14.11 | Peter F. Hamilton has some of the best (imo) space opera's around if you want a long sci-fi read |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | why do you make a ton of lists then delete them? |
someguest
02.10.12 | website has gone to shit |
Funeralopolis
02.10.12 | la la la la la |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | ah i see. well i will say you make some hilarious lists |
someguest
02.10.12 | well i'm glad the 15 year olds enjoyed them |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | im 18 actually |
someguest
02.10.12 | late bloomer huh |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | ........................................... yeah |
Acanthus
02.10.12 | Obligatory Lovecaft and Poe rec.
Peter F. Hamilton (sci-fi)
Neil Gaiman
Neal Stephenson (Snowcrash specifically) |
Funeralopolis
02.10.12 | It's okay Yuma, I pissed the bed until I was old and I couldn't go to sleep overs as a result. I know your pain! |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | actually i lied |
someguest
02.10.12 | i smell estrogen |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | noooooooooo |
someguest
02.10.12 | it makes the hairs on my testicles stand on end |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | i see well then... im going to leave you here to let you figure that whole issue out |
someguest
02.10.12 | shit's prickly |
Funeralopolis
02.10.12 | That is just crude man come on. |
someguest
02.10.12 | these belong on a beaver
O HO HO |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | crude and rude man |
someguest
02.10.12 | cruder, ruder, nuder |
Funeralopolis
02.10.12 | Oh well it is okay someguest now you know for next time! I know you have good intentions and don't want to hurt anyone so next time you'll be more cautious! |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | use protection bro |
Funeralopolis
02.10.12 | I don't see the correlation but that is never a bad message to give out. People need to be more careful in today's society they are all so reckless.
Aw, now I see how the pieces fit. Very clever Yuma I wouldn't have thought of that unless I typed it out! |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | I know I say some great things every once in awhile |
someguest
02.10.12 | i hate westerns |
Yuma310
02.10.12 | missing out on a great movie |
insomniac15
02.10.12 | Clive Barker - Imajica or Weaveworld |
Funeralopolis
02.10.12 | By that statement above he is recommending you an album to listen to. This confused me the first few times so I thought I'd help out and buff out any confusion there may have been. Thanks. |