Author Topic: books to read  (Read 431083 times)

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childhood

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3330 on: August 20, 2020, 01:35:14 PM »
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On the SF/fantasy tip, I recently got The Fifth Season/Broken Earth trilogy. Haven't started it yet though.

I don't know if I'm 100% on this author, just based off interviews I've seen, but I'm still looking forward to getting into this:
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/903554b54c0c11aa530aefff6ebeded720200706203826/b4a8cf337eb6aec8424b9ab6f87b1d7520200706203853/a55417

Who else is excited about Charlie Kaufman's book coming out tomorrow?
[close]

I’ve got Chaos on my to-listen list for my audiobook apps so let me know how it is. What makes you iffy about the author?

I'm still only like halfway through Chaos, I got sidetracked with reading Oil! by Upton Sinclair and some other stuff.

Tom O'Neill is clearly an extremely talented and dedicated investigative-journalist (honestly it sounds like he kinda ruined his life by being so focused on this book for so long), I just don't know if I always agree with the conclusions he draws from his research. It's an interesting book for sure though.


Charlie Kaufman's book is on here:
https://b-ok.cc/book/5439886/9d6f4d

Gonna try to finish that, and this:
https://b-ok.cc/book/1196749/2f63d9?dsource=recommend
before his new movie comes out in a couple weeks

oyolar

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3331 on: August 21, 2020, 11:48:25 AM »
I just finished listening to Chaos and felt it was super interesting. I definitely agree with your hesitancy on some of his conclusions, even if I broadly agree that a lot of fishy shit went on with Manson behind the scenes. Wait until the second half of the book - it gets really crazy.

I will say that while he’s a good investigative reporter, he didn’t do a lot of research into how other professions and fields conduct research. I’m not sure if you’re there yet, but he has an entire section where he tries to discredit a few people because of how they did more sociological/anthropological research. But based on his telling (and my own experience in sociological fieldwork), they followed best and standard practices for that field. He seems dismissive of “participant observation” for instance or thinks that sociologists/anthropologists studying subcultures that do illegal things (like take drugs) have an obligation to tell police about it or try to dissuade their subjects from doing illegal things. Or that it’s scandalous that they might take part in these illegal things to gain people’s trust!

Maybe some of the context of their research (like informed consent, financing it, etc.) was sketchy, but the actual fieldwork practices themselves seemed fine. His mild smear campaign left a bad taste in my mouth after that.

Alan

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3332 on: September 01, 2020, 08:33:53 AM »
I think some of you guys who are into politics might be interested in this. Pluto Press has a 90% sale on all ebooks today. Get em while you can.

https://www.plutobooks.com/books/
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botefdunn

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3333 on: September 07, 2020, 05:16:12 PM »
Several people have mentioned John Williams, Stoner on here lately. I just finished his first novel, Nothing but the Night. It was good, reads a bit like a successful reading exercise. It reminded me of Jane Bowles' novella, Two Serious Ladies (which I'd recommend over the Williams as a jazz age pov take on grimy socialite mental anguish).‎

behavioralguide

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3334 on: September 08, 2020, 07:26:27 AM »
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On the SF/fantasy tip, I recently got The Fifth Season/Broken Earth trilogy. Haven't started it yet though.

I don't know if I'm 100% on this author, just based off interviews I've seen, but I'm still looking forward to getting into this:
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/903554b54c0c11aa530aefff6ebeded720200706203826/b4a8cf337eb6aec8424b9ab6f87b1d7520200706203853/a55417

Who else is excited about Charlie Kaufman's book coming out tomorrow?
[close]

I’ve got Chaos on my to-listen list for my audiobook apps so let me know how it is. What makes you iffy about the author?
[close]

I'm still only like halfway through Chaos, I got sidetracked with reading Oil! by Upton Sinclair and some other stuff.

Tom O'Neill is clearly an extremely talented and dedicated investigative-journalist (honestly it sounds like he kinda ruined his life by being so focused on this book for so long), I just don't know if I always agree with the conclusions he draws from his research. It's an interesting book for sure though.


Charlie Kaufman's book is on here:
https://b-ok.cc/book/5439886/9d6f4d

Gonna try to finish that, and this:
https://b-ok.cc/book/1196749/2f63d9?dsource=recommend
before his new movie comes out in a couple weeks

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childhood

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3335 on: September 08, 2020, 09:34:46 AM »
Ha, I'm still not sure what I think of the book overall, but there were enough great parts in it, that I'm glad I read it.

Felt like it started to fall apart in the last act, but then by the very end I was fully back into it.
That's basically how I felt about his version of I'm Thinking of Ending Things too.


R.I.P. David Graeber

The anthropologist David Graeber, who has died suddenly aged 59, was remarkably successful in marrying research with direct action. He was influential in the Occupy Wall Street movement and is reputed to have coined the statement: “We are the 99%.”

In 2011, for instance, he wrote a classic work of anthropology, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, in between organising with Occupy Wall Street in New York. In the book Graeber called for a biblical-style “jubilee”– meaning a wiping out of sovereign and consumer debts. “Debt,” he wrote, “is the most efficient means ever created to take relations that are fundamentally based on violence and violent inequality and make them seem right and proper.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/sep/06/david-graeber-obituary

Debt: The First 5,000 Years
https://libcom.org/files/__Debt__The_First_5_000_Years.pdf

oyolar

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3336 on: September 08, 2020, 10:00:38 AM »
Debt is still on my list of books to read. Has been for years but I’ll probably dive into it soon. I’ve only done his stuff as audiobooks, but they’re fantastic. I highly recommend The Utopia of Rules, which was great and super fast for how dry of a topic it is, and the fantastic Bullshit Jobs.

Nosferatu

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3337 on: September 08, 2020, 10:27:31 AM »


Listened to this on a couple of long car rides. Great immersive fiction. All the 80s references were fun. Started watching the movie last night and wow did they bastardize it.
I thought it wasnt just him solo, shouldve stuck with my og thought.
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smellsdead

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3338 on: October 06, 2020, 06:46:08 PM »
during a chat with a homie about all things horror, the new iteration/prequel of the thing was brought up. he said it was based on a book, and i mentioned a lovecraft story of the same nature- alien creatures in antarctica

then a little search yielded this:

In 1938, several years after Lovecraft wrote At the Mountains of Madness, John W. Campbell published Who Goes There – a novella that became the basis for two famous movies, The Thing from Another World, and The Thing, released in the 1950s and 1980s, respectively. And a century earlier, in 1838, Edgar Allen Poe published The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. In this book, a ship penetrates deeper into the southern ocean than ever before: The ice eventually gives way to warm seas and subtropical islands, populated by hostile natives reminiscent of those described by early European explorers in the Pacific.

https://www.wired.com/2012/12/antarctic-gothic-horror/

i just read the poe story. i need to track down who goes there

similarly in the wintery horror realm, im re-reading the shining.


yall keep your dust jackets or ditch em?

Peter Zagreus

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3339 on: October 06, 2020, 08:01:18 PM »
yall keep your dust jackets or ditch em?

Can't stand em, but if it's an academic book or something I'm pretty sure I'm gonna sell back, I'll tuck the dust jacket away to retain the resale value.

It's been a while since I've exhausted any single author's body of work, but I'm about to read my last John Williams novel.

I'm not usually one for pre-modern period pieces, but it looks promising.

Also copped this one, and it's been a joy to read so far.

AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3340 on: October 07, 2020, 01:12:01 AM »
Just finished the German translation of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. The twist at the end came unexpected, while you should've seen it coming at the same time. I liked the novel's major theme (relationship between humans and animals), too.

Just picked up The Underground Railroad, because I've heard so many good things about Colson Whitehead. I'm really excited!

I'm about to read The Hate U Give with my upper high-school (or whatever the American equivalent is...) English students. I made them pick between that one and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, an autobiographical graphic novel about a girl's emigration after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. I was surprised they picked a real novel over a graphic novel, because foreign-language novels are really hard to read for them.

Lastly, y'all should pick up a copy of my friend Becky Mandelbaum's debut novel The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals. Animals, Kansas, antisemitism, supporters of a certain giant orange cheese puff... doesn't sound great, I know... but trust me, it is! Plus, Becky's fun and weird and has her heart in the right place and needs that money to buy more mini dolls, which she's obsessed with.

« Last Edit: October 07, 2020, 08:56:43 AM by AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice »

Jamali

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3341 on: October 07, 2020, 03:29:58 PM »
Congratulations!
By the way, next time you can do it more easily.
When I was young I also tried to translate a book, but there were no internet,information,services with tips,websites like that (https://translationreport.com/) where you can look for any tool/instrument you need for translation, regret that I didn`t born later  ;D update. I started a new book translation with the help of mentioned website  8)
Hope you will go further also!
« Last Edit: November 09, 2020, 02:32:04 PM by Jamali »

AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3342 on: October 12, 2020, 02:03:20 AM »
Congratulations!
By the way, next time you can do it more easily.
When I was young I also tried to translate a book, but there were not internet,information,articles with tips,websites like that (https://translationreport.com/) where you can look for any tool/instrument you need for translation, regret that I didn`t born later  ;D
Hope you will go further!

Wait... You translated a whole novel for the hell of it? That's incredible. Just to be clear, I read somebody else's translation of an Olga Tokarczuk novel.

smellsdead

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3343 on: October 13, 2020, 11:37:45 AM »


dont know if anyones mentioned this, but this book is fucking incredible. and its true. read it. i started reading it a second time as soon as i finished.

AnotherHardDayAtTheOffice

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3344 on: October 13, 2020, 12:28:03 PM »


dont know if anyones mentioned this, but this book is fucking incredible. and its true. read it. i started reading it a second time as soon as i finished.

Agreed. One of the best non-fictional books I've ever put my hands on. Tragic, eye-opening, gnarly.

Freelancevagrant

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3345 on: October 13, 2020, 12:49:15 PM »


dont know if anyones mentioned this, but this book is fucking incredible. and its true. read it. i started reading it a second time as soon as i finished.

I’m wrapping up god emperor of dune and I think I’m going to read this next. Thank you for the heads up.
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Peter Zagreus

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3346 on: October 13, 2020, 08:07:37 PM »
Damn, that looks good. Putting that on my to read list.

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3347 on: October 16, 2020, 10:22:40 AM »
Just finished a bit of a Cormac McCarthy bender and have been looking for something to fill the void. Did Legends of the Fall & A River Runs Through It (all 3 short stories. Revenge was great.) I’m almost done with Travels With Charley by Steinbeck for my second time. Any McCarthyesque suggestions?

Bruce Machart wrote a few books that, while perhaps not as grim, might be McCarthyesque in tone and grit. Men in the Making is a solid short story collection and his novel In the Wake of Forgiveness is worth reading.
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childhood

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3348 on: October 19, 2020, 07:50:16 AM »
I've been going through a big Charles Portis phase lately, some of his books kinda have a similar flavor as some of McCarthy's.


Also definitely gonna read Say Nothing too, sounds really interesting.

Ilya Oblomov

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3349 on: October 19, 2020, 03:22:21 PM »
I remember "Escape from Freedom" by Erich Fromme and "Destructive Generation" by Peter Collier and David Horowitz being transformative for me in the late 90s.

Anything by Immanuel Velikovsky is interesting. I got yelled at by my astronomy professor and praised by my geology professor when I asked each of them about Velikovsky.

"My Uncle Oswold" by Roald Dahl is great satire. I did not know what I was getting into with this one. He's a children's author ("James and the Giant Peach") so I was a bit surprised by how raunchy this book is.

ogvados

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3350 on: November 09, 2020, 09:07:43 PM »
Bibliography by Victor Pelevin. One of the greatest authors who are alive now. Currently reading his "Empire V"

Atiba Applebum

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3351 on: November 09, 2020, 09:59:49 PM »
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Just finished a bit of a Cormac McCarthy bender and have been looking for something to fill the void. Did Legends of the Fall & A River Runs Through It (all 3 short stories. Revenge was great.) I’m almost done with Travels With Charley by Steinbeck for my second time. Any McCarthyesque suggestions?
[close]

Bruce Machart wrote a few books that, while perhaps not as grim, might be McCarthyesque in tone and grit. Men in the Making is a solid short story collection and his novel In the Wake of Forgiveness is worth reading.

@Coldpizza
I recommend the Lonesome Dove Quartet.  Some say just read Lonesome Dove, and it is the best one, but I really enjoyed reading it chronologically and I found some of the first and second book deeply scary if you find the futility of being hunted by Comanches on a flat plain as terrifying as I do. 

They were written out of order, so the story doesn’t line up perfectly from Book 2 to 3 which was written first, but it’s easy to get past.

mi cousin juan

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3352 on: November 10, 2020, 01:08:04 AM »
As bad as it sounds, "mein kampf" is an interesting read because you get understand little bits and pieces of A.H. thoughts, which in the end influenced a whole lot on this flat earth.

MorningSesh

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3353 on: November 10, 2020, 01:42:41 AM »
As bad as it sounds, "mein kampf" is an interesting read because you get understand little bits and pieces of A.H. thoughts, which in the end influenced a whole lot on this flat earth.
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Alan

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3354 on: November 10, 2020, 05:57:21 AM »
Especially since MK is convoluted gibberish. Probably a troll. But let's see how this plays out.
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childhood

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3355 on: November 10, 2020, 06:46:49 AM »
Gonna make a new account on Slap just to post about how Lolita is actually incredibly well written


On the topic of Hitler, recently I finally read the book about how the Nazis in general, and Hitler specifically, were on super high grade medicinal amphetamines and opiates for most of WWII. Super interesting.
https://b-ok.cc/book/2774645/5f5141

Acky Jacky

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3356 on: November 10, 2020, 06:59:35 AM »
I’m almost done with Clockers with Richard Price, it’s a great read, different from the movie.



If you like Mark Kozelek or Kevin Corrigan their year long email exchange turned into two books is insightful. The Panther and the Honey Badger, and Zhao Tao.




dallou

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3357 on: November 10, 2020, 07:50:17 AM »
I am currently reading Dostoïevski's The Gambler. Very easy to read and pretty fun.

Grind King Rims

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3358 on: November 10, 2020, 02:34:26 PM »
Reading this self-help book for gay men to try and get over early life trauma/ shame, but a lot of it is written in such a self-congratulatory way that I'm really struggling to make any progress in it. A lot of it is very relatable but the author writes it as if every gay man is a workaholic fashionista who goes from dinner party to dinner party. Bro I'm broke and out of shape, I just don't wanna hate myself.


Atiba Applebum

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Re: books to read
« Reply #3359 on: November 10, 2020, 03:19:26 PM »
Reading this self-help book for gay men to try and get over early life trauma/ shame, but a lot of it is written in such a self-congratulatory way that I'm really struggling to make any progress in it. A lot of it is very relatable but the author writes it as if every gay man is a workaholic fashionista who goes from dinner party to dinner party. Bro I'm broke and out of shape, I just don't wanna hate myself.



Was it written in the mid-00s?  That’s like peak-that stereotype with Queer Eye, SaTC, and women being like “I need a gay BFF to pick out my outfits”.   I feel like Kimmy Schmitt is one of the rare shows to feature gay people (mostly Mikey) who aren’t Bravo caricatures