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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
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Loc: Center of the Universe
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Dune, Return of the King, and something else, I have not decided. Yes I'm a nerd
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
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Patlal
You ask too many questions


Registered: 10/09/10
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Loc: Ottawa
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I there was a nerdmeter in this thread, it would explode the minute you turned it on.
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PatrickKn



Registered: 07/10/11
Posts: 20,564
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Quote:
Sophistic Radiance said: Dune, Return of the King, and something else, I have not decided. Yes I'm a nerd 
I just picked up the first Dune recently. Have never read it. About two chapters in.
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Cj-B
All the same...I saw it first.



Registered: 07/16/11
Posts: 4,479
Loc: The Library of Babel
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Quote:
Bodhi of Ankou said: Half these recommendations look like they were taken from a fucking high-schools recommended reading list. The rest looks like hippydippy bullshit designed to cripple your mental acuity.
Thats pretty much how every book thread here goes.
-------------------- "I have no way of knowing whether you, who eventually will read this record, like stories or not. If you do not, no doubt you have turned these pages without attention. I confess that I love them. Indeed, it often seems to me that of all the good things in the world, the only ones humanity can claim for itself are stories and music; the rest, mercy, beauty, sleep, clean water and hot food (as the Ascian would have said) are all the work of the Increate. Thus, stories are small things indeed in the scheme of the universe, but it is hard not to love best what is our own—hard for me, at least."
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specialpeopleclub



Registered: 04/10/14
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Re: Your top 3 books? [Re: Cj-B]
#23528758 - 08/10/16 04:37 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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what is a book? It sounds like a scary noise from a forign place, because of the 'k' at the end. Im scared possibly triged
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Edited by specialpeopleclub (08/10/16 04:37 PM)
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Sophistic Radiance
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Registered: 07/11/06
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Re: Your top 3 books? [Re: PatrickKn] 1
#23528780 - 08/10/16 04:42 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
PatrickKn said:
Quote:
Sophistic Radiance said: Dune, Return of the King, and something else, I have not decided. Yes I'm a nerd 
I just picked up the first Dune recently. Have never read it. About two chapters in.
I almost never reread books, but I reread Dune. I'm glad I did, i was too young to appreciate the subtleties of the plot when I read it the first time.
The whole series is pretty good, but the original is a legitimate masterpiece.
I honestly don't enjoy fiction much though so sorry BODHI that I can't recommend any cutting-edge contemporary adult thrillrides and/or smutty adult romance novels for grownups. GEEZE.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them


Registered: 04/10/14
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Loren Eiseley. Put down whatever hippy nonsense you are currently reading and read The Night Country instead.
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Bodhi of Ankou
*alternate opinion blocks path*


Registered: 06/02/09
Posts: 24,778
Loc: Soviet Canukistan
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Dunes trash, Return of the kings trash, every-bodies already read them. Recommend something dank and relatively unknown. This is like browsing through a fucking barnes and noble.
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Cj-B
All the same...I saw it first.



Registered: 07/16/11
Posts: 4,479
Loc: The Library of Babel
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Quote:
Bodhi of Ankou said: Dunes trash, Return of the kings trash, every-bodies already read them. Recommend something dank and relatively unknown. This is like browsing through a fucking barnes and noble. 
Any genre specifically? I've got a pretty wide, eclectic collection
-------------------- "I have no way of knowing whether you, who eventually will read this record, like stories or not. If you do not, no doubt you have turned these pages without attention. I confess that I love them. Indeed, it often seems to me that of all the good things in the world, the only ones humanity can claim for itself are stories and music; the rest, mercy, beauty, sleep, clean water and hot food (as the Ascian would have said) are all the work of the Increate. Thus, stories are small things indeed in the scheme of the universe, but it is hard not to love best what is our own—hard for me, at least."
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Malcolm_Xtasy
Oh baby what Is you doin??


Registered: 04/04/12
Posts: 13,851
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Re: Your top 3 books? [Re: Cj-B]
#23528829 - 08/10/16 04:56 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Posting so I can check out recommendations later
-------------------- I'm stupid, Enlil is smart. I'm ugly, Enlil is beautiful. I'm a loser, Enlil is a winner. Someday, I hope to be like Enlil but secretly know I never will.
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Bodhi of Ankou
*alternate opinion blocks path*


Registered: 06/02/09
Posts: 24,778
Loc: Soviet Canukistan
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Re: Your top 3 books? [Re: Cj-B]
#23528837 - 08/10/16 04:59 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Throw some of your best fiction up there. Sci-fi or fantasy if you wanna narrow it down a little.
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
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Quote:
Bodhi of Ankou said: Dunes trash, Return of the kings trash, every-bodies already read them. Recommend something dank and relatively unknown. This is like browsing through a fucking barnes and noble. 
Forever War is a good one.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
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Cj-B
All the same...I saw it first.



Registered: 07/16/11
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The Book of the New Sun series + Soldier series by Gene Wolfe. Unquestionably one of the best fantasy authors out there.
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Discworld series by Terry Pratchett - I love this series. This series got me through some dark times with it's blend of slapstick humor, cynicism, and self-awareness. I honestly can't recommend it enough.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - The original cyberpunk book (along with stuff like Neuromancer by William Gibson). The original inspiration behind Google Earth. Proud title holder of most badass pizza delivery driver in any form of media.
Viriconium by John Harrison (or at least I think thats his name...something Harrison)
As Gresh said earlier, The Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch. Not exactly a literary masterpiece, but very well written and the world he builds is absolutely fucking excellent. Not to mention pretty funny.
The Half Made World by Felix Gilman
Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson. One of the better fantasy series I've ever read and I'm not even finished with it myself. I'm only on book 3 (out of 10) and it shits on the Game of Thrones series in terms of writing quality. However, should warn you that Malazan is an immense undertaking. Every single one of the books is like 800-1200 pages long. The person that introduced me to it (twighead on the boards) told me that it took him literally years of on and off reading.
The Dresden Files series or Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. Also not exactly literary masterpieces but genuinely interesting worlds and extremely charming casts of characters. I started reading these when I was like 14 and still enjoy them quite a bit now as a 21 year old, after years of my tastes maturing further. If you go for these I would recommend starting out with the 3rd Dresden Files book or the 2nd Codex Alera book, as the previous entrys in both series were Butchers very first publishings at like...age 19 or something so they're kinda hamfisted. Doesn't really hit his stride til the ones I mentioned.
The Lions of Al-Rassan or A Song For Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay. One of the very, very few authors I've encountered over the years that makes historical fantasy legitimately interesting. Most authors that try are utter garbage at it.
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Now, on the more serious business literature side of things.
literally anything by Jorge Luis Borges. His short story collections Labyrinths, The Aleph and Other Stories, and Ficciones are all absolutely incredible.
Cosmicomics, Invisible Cities, and If On a Winters Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. The man is a genius. No doubt about it. The fact that he never got a nobel prize in literature is a fucking travesty.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. A long, brutal slog of a book that may lose some of its narrative punch for a non-American audience. It's one of my all time favorites, but I still think twice (or a few dozen times) about a reread cuz of how brutal it can get at times.
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. Quite honestly one of the most inspiring tales of human goodness I've had the pleasure of reading. It's VERY Catholicism-centric (though the main character is explicitly stated many times over to be a TERRIBLE priest) so if that bothers you I might avoid this, but even a lifelong agnostic like myself found it exceptionally moving.
The Man Who Was Thursday or The Napoleon of Notting Hill by GK Chesterton - Again heavy on the Christian themes but Chesterton is an extremely charming, funny writer. Napoleon had me crying laughing at a couple of points.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy - Far and away his best work. BM shits on The Road or Child of God or No Country for Old Men. It's almost excessively violent at a lot of points though and the quality fluctuates throughout the book.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell. This one is a historical fiction about a Dutch trader for the East India Company at the trading post Japan maintained in Nagasaki in the late 18th century (IE: the only place in the entire country where European foreigners wouldn't be executed on the spot) by the same author as Cloud Atlas.
Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury - A Palestinian man relates tales of his people to his mentor who is in a coma and expected to die shortly. It can be hard reading, but I thought it shared a wonderful and often ignored perspective on the Israel/Palestine conflict. IIRC the author did a fair amount of research for this book in refugee camps, if that lends any weight to the story.
Hunger by Knut Hamsun - An extremely poor writer in Christiania (modern day Oslo) Norway slow starves to death. The prose of the book becomes increasing more disjointed and incoherent as the narrator does over the course of the narrative as his hunger worsens and his behaviour becomes increasing erratic.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Love in the Time of Cholera, and 1000 years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - straight up one of the very best authors to ever come out of South America.
Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. The Devil goes down to the Soviet Union and proceeds to troll a bunch of bureaucrats. Both genuinely funny and a vicious satire against Soviet censorship (Bulgakov had to burn his original manuscript for fear of his safety if it were ever discovered). One of the great Russian novels.
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Just for flavor I decided to add one of the only non-fiction titles I've read in the last year or so.
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 by Christopher Clark. I randomly picked up an interest in Prussia cuz I was curious as to how a tiny piss-ant province like Brandenburg with no real resources and no military or political power wound up dominating the rest of the German states (Turns out they didn't, they just got them all to agree to follow their lead through some extremely ruthless diplomacy and a few engineered wars. So the German states retained all their kings, they just answered to the Prussian ruler as the Emperor of Germany. Places like Bavaria had their own independent armies up til like the 2nd Reich) and turning into a widely feared/admired military powerhouse so I hunted down whats considered to be one of the definitive (English) texts on the subject. I realize that this kind of thing isn't really what most are interested in, but I found it an utterly fascinating and highly educational read.
-------------------- "I have no way of knowing whether you, who eventually will read this record, like stories or not. If you do not, no doubt you have turned these pages without attention. I confess that I love them. Indeed, it often seems to me that of all the good things in the world, the only ones humanity can claim for itself are stories and music; the rest, mercy, beauty, sleep, clean water and hot food (as the Ascian would have said) are all the work of the Increate. Thus, stories are small things indeed in the scheme of the universe, but it is hard not to love best what is our own—hard for me, at least."
Edited by Cj-B (08/10/16 05:58 PM)
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
Posts: 43,135
Loc: Center of the Universe
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Re: Your top 3 books? [Re: Cj-B]
#23529206 - 08/10/16 06:48 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Another one of my favorite books is Whipping Girl by Julia Serano but I'm guessing most here wouldn't be too interested in that.
I'm also way overdue to read Ursula K Le Guin's books.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
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Patlal
You ask too many questions


Registered: 10/09/10
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The Alchemist - Paolo Coelho
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deff
just love everyone



Registered: 05/01/04
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as far as fiction goes... my favourite have been Haruki Murakami's books enjoyed all of them, particularly Kafka on the Shore and IQ84, but they were all great
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Lophosaurus
suruasohpol


Registered: 08/09/07
Posts: 8,744
Loc: CA
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I don't read books for pleasure, like fiction and entertainment type books. The only time I ever has was when I was in jail for a couple days. I read almost non-stop, but its mostly textbooks, articles, and Shroomery.
I started Hitchhiker's Guide and put it down after a couple chapters even though it was good.
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
Posts: 43,135
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Same here basically. I honestly have a hard time giving a damn about fiction, I feel like most of it is basically filler, why would I bother?
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
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SonicTitan


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American Psycho The Gunslinger Wizards First Rule
-------------------- "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
 
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clock_of_omens
razzle them dazzle them


Registered: 04/10/14
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Maybe try reading actual literature that is concerned with art instead of fantasy, sci-fi, and feminist nonsense.
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