recommendations
Jun. 15th, 2003 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
egypturnashA thought I had whilst browsing through one of the several local used bookstores.
What, dear observer of my life through the window of this journal, do you think I should read?
To make things more interesting, we'll add some rules: You get to offer one book. It doesn't have to be in print. It doesn't have to be easy to find. It does have to be in a language I can read, which is to say, English, and only English. If there's a really good translation that's okay, but don't forget to note who translated the version you read. Graphic novels are okay too; individual issues of comics, or whole series, aren't. But bound collections of a story originally told in serial form are.
Maybe something you just found well worth the time of reading, maybe something that changed something important about the way you think of something, maybe something you think that I in particular need to read. One book. Just one.
What, dear observer of my life through the window of this journal, do you think I should read?
To make things more interesting, we'll add some rules: You get to offer one book. It doesn't have to be in print. It doesn't have to be easy to find. It does have to be in a language I can read, which is to say, English, and only English. If there's a really good translation that's okay, but don't forget to note who translated the version you read. Graphic novels are okay too; individual issues of comics, or whole series, aren't. But bound collections of a story originally told in serial form are.
Maybe something you just found well worth the time of reading, maybe something that changed something important about the way you think of something, maybe something you think that I in particular need to read. One book. Just one.
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Date: 2003-06-15 06:41 pm (UTC)because I swear I can remember reading them as a kid and I can't find them anywhere. Maybe you can.
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Date: 2003-06-15 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 07:31 pm (UTC)In fact, I'd recently re-read them for no real reason, and thus, one of the books I picked up while at the used book store was one of Pullman's other books, 'The Ruby in the Smoke'.
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Date: 2003-06-15 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 07:29 pm (UTC)It was interesting, but it really just seemed to be lacking something. I think this is a fault I have with Gaiman's writing rather than the particular book; I've read that, 'Neverwhere', 'Coraline' and um, one other book whose name I can't recall that was really trying hard to be Lord Dunsanay.
The Sandman stuff I've read is intruiging, but his prose novels just... I dunno. I can't put my finger on it. They're entertaining while I'm reading them, but there's an emptiness deep down in their cores.
(If you enjoyed the subject of 'American Gods' you might enjoy some of Roger Zelazny's books; mutations of divinity and legend are a theme that runs through many of his books, especially 'Creatures of Light and Darkness' [Egyptian gods] and 'Lord of Light' [Hindu gods].)
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Date: 2003-06-15 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 08:07 pm (UTC)Dark Cities Underground- Lisa Goldstein- a reporter tracks down the son of a famous author who wrote widely popular series of children's books based on the boy's trips to the land of NeverWas (think like Winnie the Pooh), who wants nothing to do with it. However, as they delve into the past they discover the truth behind boyhood experience and the land where the gods still live...and its not nearly as nice and sanitary as the kids book made it out to be.
Someplace to be Flying- Charles DeLint- a cab driver picks up an unusual late night fare and finds himself drawn into an encounter with the 'animal people' straight out of myth, given new form and purpose in the modern age
Coyote Blue- Christopher Moore- alright, this is not at all serious. Coyote decides to meddle in the life of his chosen one... a life insurence salesman. For all the tricks and pranks in this, there's a serious reason why Coyote makes someone's life hell, he's dying. No one tells the old tales anymore and the safe sanitized coyote (sold on dreamcatchers everywhere!) is killing him. He needs to make some new stories for people to tell. anubis makes a guest appearance.
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Date: 2003-06-15 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 10:29 pm (UTC)I'll give you a very basic summary of each (but there's so much more to the plots than this):
Satanic Verses: A plane explodes over the english channel. Two Indian men drop from it and land on earth as the archangel and the antichrist. They go through several changes and experience dreams that give them eye witness accounts of miracles and events that are in the Quran. Apparently it's considered a blasphemous book, and got the author's name on several hitlists. He's still in hiding, but shows up at talk shows and booksignings on occassion...
House of Leaves: It's a "horror/suspense" (thought you'll most likely just find it in the regular fiction section) novel written about a house that changes its own dimensions on the inside, but the coolest thing about this book is the way it's printed...it gets to points where a character will be walking down a spiraling staircase, so the text will spiral, or at a particularly suspenseful scene there's only one word per page so you're turning pages like a madperson. It's great, because it's the ultimate puzzle within a book...it's got plot, yet there's so many subplots and side puzzles you can solve or get involved in.
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Date: 2003-06-15 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 01:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 07:58 pm (UTC)-T'
The one true Book
Date: 2003-06-15 08:20 pm (UTC)Why 2.5 hateful conventions? Its written in first person, which I hate reading. There's one. It also does the book within a book thing. The outer frame of the story describes the main character and then sets you into reading his journal. Within the journal he then reads another book, which describes himself. Thus the other 1.5.
basic plot: harry Holler sees himself as two people, the somewhat dull rational human self and the wild beast that drives him away from his fellow men. To succumb to either is disaster, one would force him to give up his humanity, the other would make him become part of the dull safe bourgeoisie he despises. Harry thinks about ending it all until he runs into wild carefree Hermoine and discovers the route the magic theatre which is meant for madmen only.
It is a trip and a half. I normally find most "find yourself" type works horrible pretentious, and it had the 2.5 literary conventions I hated, and yet I loved it anyway. That means it must be a damn good book to overcome those marks against it.
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Date: 2003-06-15 09:43 pm (UTC)I'd go with "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins, but I'm sure you've read it.
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Date: 2003-06-15 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 10:09 pm (UTC)ooooh read it!
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Date: 2003-06-15 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 09:43 pm (UTC)(I found your journal through the art_challenge (http://www.livejournal.com/~art_challenge) community.)
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Date: 2003-06-15 10:20 pm (UTC)And if by some weird quirk you have not read it, even though you will doubtless find it shallow and the ending apalling, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, 'cause, I mean, c'mon.
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Date: 2003-06-15 10:39 pm (UTC)I don't have a first edition paperback of Snow Crash because it vanished somewhere along the way. I think I loaned it to someone and never got it back. Which reminds me that I need to get Goodwin's copy of Tomoe Gozen back to him someday!
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Date: 2003-06-15 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-15 11:05 pm (UTC)I would suggest Cities of the Red Night, but you have voiced some concern over Mr. Burroughs in the past, so I will say no more.
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Date: 2003-06-15 11:36 pm (UTC)What an amazing spectrum of neurological phenomena.
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Date: 2003-06-15 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 10:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 01:29 am (UTC)This was before 'cyberpunk' was a movement. It was also quite early for the speculation on genetic manipulation of humans affecting how society operates. I recommend it because, at the time I read it some years ago, I found it brilliantly written.
It's out of print but can be acquired by a 'print on demand' bookservice these days. I picked one up and will be happy to lend it to you next time our paths cross. Some of the imagery the book creates would mesh very well with your future-city/dark-city artwork I've seen you do.
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Date: 2003-06-16 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 05:07 am (UTC)My dad got me a copy, which has since been loaned out and lost track of. I think
Anyway, it's interesting social analysis: a mix of history about the fast food industry, theories about shifting American ideals/habits, with some nice gruesome descriptions of just how abysmal working conditions and standards can be even in this, our "modernized" country. (Boiling chlorine mist and severed limbs... yee.) I do still eat fast food after reading it, but this could be because I don't ever eat the meat at these places!
...what, am I the only person who likes nonfiction?
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Date: 2003-06-16 10:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 07:36 am (UTC)The empire never ended
Date: 2003-06-16 10:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 10:52 am (UTC)The best retelling of Arthurian legend EVER.
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Date: 2003-06-16 11:38 am (UTC)-smurfwreck
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Date: 2003-06-16 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-16 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-06-17 12:55 am (UTC)If I must recommend ONLY ONE book...
Date: 2003-06-20 09:31 am (UTC)It has the drawback of having once been a New York Times best-seller, but despite that it's actually very, very good.
If you've already read it, I've got a couple of alternates.
--Retardosperm
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Date: 2003-06-20 01:19 pm (UTC)Hugs to All,
A Certain Doebear
Bookses... My precious......
Date: 2003-07-08 12:52 am (UTC)Oh well. It probably doesn't matter. You'll never read this post because the thread is so old.
Re: Bookses... My precious......
Date: 2003-07-08 08:55 am (UTC)You forgot to reckon with the fact that I have LJ set to e-mail me every reply to a post. Even if it's on my very first entry ever back a little more than a year ago.