Book Thread? What have you been reading recently. 48 Laws of

>>731301263
bump

>>731301263
bump.

>>731301263
You should read the book "House of Leaves"

>>731301452
Oh yea, whats it like? I think i heard of it before

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just started this. so far its been pretty good. also a short read which im starting to prefer

>>731301263
I just finished the Malazan Book of the Fallen, i'm kinda burned out on reading

>>731301263
i just finished this. It's sort of "sword and planet" sci-fi. Really good, like most of Simmons' stuff.

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>>731301671
>forgot pic

>>731301263
Good book choice OP.

>>731301591
I just searched it and didn't realize Rambo was based off a book, thats pretty cool.

>>731301263
Brandon Sandersons world building and magic systems are great, good call. If you're not opposed to used books you should check out thriftbooks.com you can get that shit cheap as hell

>>731301671
Oh yea? I haven't read any of his other books but i've heard some amazing things about this series.

>>731301774
my dad always said the film was shit in comparison. gonna find out if there was any truth in that

>>731301847
Yea Awesomebooks has great deals as well, though I'm kinda broke atm so im gunna wait a little bit before i get some new books.

>>731301979
Interesting. Never took rambo for a plot heavy movie, figured people just watched it for the action.

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the Revelation Space series by Alistair Rynolds. The author was an astrophysicist for the ESA, so it's distant future space opera with a lot of attention paid to technical accuracy (really hard sci-fi). (also significant portions of the plot were "borrowed" for Mass Effect 1-3)

>>731301979
Illiam and Olympos are more historically based and set on earth and mars (in the distant future) where the Hyperion Cantos are straight up fantasy in space. Both amazing series.

>>731302335
I've never really read any hard sci fi, would you recommend this for a beginner? Like i enjoy and do watch some sci fi and enjoy it I just haven't read any.

>>731302715
Rendezvous with Rama by Author C. Clark is a good choice, because it's so foundational to the genre. The Revelation Space series is a good start too, a lot of really neat scenes that feel really plausible.

>>731301525
Not the guy who suggested it, but I also suggest reading house of leaves. It's a weird meta-meta narrative trying to tell a horror story. I'd say primary themes would be the fear of the unknown, conflict between lust for adventure and finding satisfaction within, and the horror of darkness, and claustrophobia. It's written in multiple fonts with black ink and some special words written in blue or red ink with no apparent explanation other than that assumed by the reader. It also has an unusual text arrangement, sometimes only a single word a page for several pages, sometimes written upside down, scrawled around the borders, shrinking and growing, lots of footnotes, headnotes, and subnotes in multiple fonts. I'll spoil the beginning because it doesn't really tell you what the main content of the book is but actually makes it an easier to understand the read. It's a story written by a kid in a tattoo parlor about a non-fiction style book written by dead shut in who is wrote it about a movie that doesn't exist. It's pretty weird.

>>731302989
Cool, I'll add those to my list.

>>731302715
Kim Stanley Robinson 2312

>>731303267
That is very very weird, but sounds really interesting.

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>>731301525
I'll post some images of pages to convey the weirdness. Even that retarded sounding sentence trying to explain it wasn't quite correct.

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Titan by John Varley. Psychedelic 70s sci-fi. Really out-there shit.

>>731303830
Interesting. I wonder what it would be like in an audiobook format.

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>>731303830
Keep in mind most pages are like a normal novel, albeit some font changes and the aforementioned footnotes.

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>>731303998
I think the authors intention was to use his use of space on the page to also try and convey the sense of claustrophobia and space. Believe it or not it works. It's the only horror story that ever really gave me the heebie jeebies.

>>731304217
This looks so cool.

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>>731304217
Here are some of the annotated pages.

>>731303732
It's a chore to read but worth the work. When I read it I intentionally read it in dim light or by candlelight, I even considered buying some red bulbs to enhance the experience. I've never been wrapped up in horror like that.
>>731303980
Probably terrible. I think alot of what you feel when you read the book comes from its bizarre style. In a horror novel I think the feelings it's trying to invoke are the most important part.

>>731302335
Hmm, a series.

I read the first but did not know there were others. Will add them to the list.

>>731301452
An Absolutely Amazing Book. The Best Book of the 20th century

>>731304979
Yea i would definitely read this by a dim light.

>>731304478
Don't get your hopes up too much. It's probably too weird for alot of readers and constantly having to consult crossrefrences in the book like "For further information see page 186" and when you flip to page 186 you realize there is no page 186 in the book. Like I said, difficult read. The actual text of the book isn't that hard to parse, it's just the organization and format the author chose to present it in. Kinda pretentious but I liked it.

>>731305299
I think it's pretty cool to come across something that you look at and say "This needs the right atmosphere to be enjoyed properly and I'm willing to go to the effort"

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Just started this, fantastic fiction so far

>>731306136
Cool cover art. Whats it like/whats it similar to.

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While we are still recommending books, I'll throw this out. It's about a lunar prison colony kinda like the UK used Australia. The people get sick of authority and stage a libertarian moon revolution.

As an aspiring author gotta say love me some 1984 by George Orwell

>>731306413
Really cool premise, but it sounds like a cheesy young adult novel/The 100 type thing. Please tell me it isn't.

>>731301263
I WOULD LITERALLY GIVE MY DICK FOR A SUIT OF SHARD ARMOR

FUGGGGGG

this book is good btw

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>>731306413
This is about a farmer planting an illegal beanfield in a dying new mexican town. Better story than it sounds. It's just good damn writing.

Keys to the kingdom series is pretty good. Granted its for slightly younger audiences but the imagery is awesome. Trippy as all hell.

>>731306489
An absolute Gem. I'm so happy we had to read it while in school, it opened me up to so many cool ideas and genres of books.

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I'm re-reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. definitely recommend

>>731306560
Heinlen wrote alot of cheap ass books for money. This one he completely poured his heart into. It was his sci-fi attempt at explaining his own political beliefs. Some parts might seem immature but he wasn't writing for a young audience.

>>731306275
An island nation of 7 countries gets made into an empire by one of the countries by way of a decade long war, then after 30 years of Imperial rule revolution is sparked. It seems to be following all the possible future rulers so far, I'm into it

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>>731306613
This one is about a Tanuki that parachutes from heaven with his scrotum to drink sake and fuck japanese farmgirls. Also three vietnam war deserters start manufacturing heroine in a cambodian villiage founded by circus performers. I always consider Tom Robbins books the opposite of a dry read. Wet. Pulpy. Magical. Confusing. Semi-erotic. Clearly Erotic.

Greg Egan is probably the hardest of hard sci-fi authors. Schild's Ladder plays around with advanced physics in the distant future. He's also an Aussie

>>731306838
Very cool. I'll take a look into it.

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>>731307286

Just finished The Broken Empire trilogy.
Any recommendations along the anti hero fantasy lines?
Like The First Law trilogy?

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>>731307129
This one is a horror story about two young boys figuring out the mystery of the creepy carnival that comes to town. Alarmingly adult and poetic. Not a book for children. Captures the innocence of boyhood and the creepyness of the uncanny.

I'm too stuck in a cycle of instant gratification to "read books"

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Another oldy but goody.

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This is probably the scariest book i've ever read. It's a historical horror about a lost 19th century expedition into the arctic. I think it's being made into a TV series soon.

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just finished the stand by SK and currently reading 1984 cause i've been putting it off since high school. borrows some of the themes from brave new world but it's a lot more relatable to today's society.

also started watching the 90's miniseries of the stand. it's not the best acting (they definitely could have picked a different person for the dark man), but they pretty near included every single character from a 1400 page book so it's still fun to watch.

>>731307731
you never had to read 1984 in school? Damn

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>>731307447
The titan, wizard, and demon trilogy by John Varley is to fucking hard to explain. I'll just say things. God rings around saturn. Stranded astronauts. Centaurs and angels at war. The apocalypse. 50 foot marlyn monroe fighting and raping king kong then giving birth to a dead fullsize camel she feeds through the eye of a needle. Panaflex camera birds that only can be tempted out by spectacle so you dance and they creep out to take pictures of you, then you pounce and pull the film out of its anus so you can see the things it has seen. It goes on.

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>>731307887
Can't really explain this either. Don't read Murakami if you like understanding things.

>>731301263
Crime and Punishment, The Fountainhead, The Road Less Traveled, Isaiah, A Tour of the Calculus, Double Deuce, A Confederacy of Dunces, Moby Dick, Gulag Archipelago v.1.

>>731307887
beat you too it.
>>731303899
yep. the whole series is great. there are literally diagrams explaining lesbian centaur fucking rituals. Bind blowing stuff.

>>731307854
they gave us animal farm instead

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>>731308033
This is the book that invented cyberpunk

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>>731308214
This is the book that killed it.

>>731307854
we read that in 8th and 1984 in 10th, but i graduated in 2001 and am old as fuck.

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>>731308288
This is the book that got stuck inbetween and was better than both. Way better.

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<------ This

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>>731308406
This book invented steampunk.

>>731308491
Bait.

>>731303899
>>731308130
I am undone. Good fucking read though. Varley is my goddamn hero. His short stories are unbelievable.

>>731308591
why b8?

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Sadly, the last book in an amazing series.

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posted a lot of sci-fi stuff, but this is my absolute favorite book. It's an absolutely brutal western that becomes so surreal that is may as well be a dark fantasy like Dark Tower. Some of the best literature of the 20th century.

They have been trying to make a movie out of it for a long time, but you would have to remove major plot points just to get an R rating.

>>731306838
His books can be divided by the juvenile and the adult stories. Good writer most of the time

>>731308799
Have you read that fucking piece of shit. I like libertarians and even then it was a boring self centered masturbation fest by an author who couldn't string two words together without a bottle of pills in one hand and a whip to beat herself with. Pure trash.

>>731308491
4/10

>>731307731
the stand is a great book

>>731308928
Read this bleak masterpiece if you hate happiness and believe that there is no such thing as human goodwill. 10/10 would smash babies together again.

>>731309043
lool, I never even heard of that book but it seems it's not very popular.

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>>731308526
this is my favorite steam punk series (the only good one i've read actually). Would make an amazing TV series.

>>731308928
Oh shit I fucking looooved the Road. It was so good. I'm definitely going to check this out.

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Just finished pic related. Pretty interesting read that will require another reading to fully digest

>>731308214
say thank you gibson or you'll never get to watch your Johnny Mnemonic VHS ever again

>>731309339
Blood Meridian makes The Road look like Lazy Town

>>731309428
Im hyped.

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>>731309207
It's a philosophic manifesto where the whole point is to be a dick and it's okay as long as it feels good doing it. Also the writing is incredibly boring. If you want to read a book with a main character who is a completely unrelatable bitch of a human being read this. It's fucking amazing. Floating pirate cities and such.

>>731309413
Thank you gibson. Also I really do own johnny mneumonic on vhs. It's practically the only vhs I own that I care about. That and willow.

>>731301263

The Aeronaut's Windlass
- Okay Steampunk pirates adventure, but features very well done characters.

>>731309254
This. I just wish he knew how to end a fucking book. All three bas-lag books ended with "Then they all got tired and went home" It's fucking frustrating.

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>>731309043
Is it really that bad? The only thing I've read by rand was the fountainhead and I thought it was great.

>>731309499
It's so fucking violent and depressing it actually gets boring. Halfway through I was sarcastically like "Ohhh, more indiscriminate murder and nihilism? You don't say." Still gud tho.

>>731309941
I never knew you but you are already dead to me.

>>731308928
This was an epic for sure, I also really loved "Outer Dark" by Cormak McCarthy, that and "Suttree" are my 3 favorite by McCarthy

>>731310043
that gets my dick hard.

>>731309686
muh nigga

i also have my Hardware and Total Recall vhs tapes

i know they'll eventually demagnetize but i'll hoard them until i die

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Try the Sword of Truth series. The first 4 books are good, 5th one not so good, 6th on rivals the first as the best, and then the rest of them pretty much suck after that. Still an interesting read though, you might like it.

Just read this and the first sequel. It's space opera that isn't fucking Star Wars.

https://www.amazon.com/Fusion-Heart-STAR-EPIC-Book-ebook/dp/B01G0TOU14

>>731310413
Whatever floats your boat man. If that's true Blood Meridian is an ocean of it.

>>731310608
We are of one soul. Now don't let me get to know you more lest I find something to hate.

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>>731309510
Intelligent space dolphins.

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>>731311681
I'm not going to bother to justify why I liked this, I just did. Interstellar getaways might just be my thing.

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this is also a incredibly good space opera, it's a trilogy also being made into a movie in the distant future.

Anybody here read the witcher books? how are they?

>>731311969
To hunger gamey for me. Don't be a pussy and read battle royale and the moon is a harsh mistress separately.

>>731308830
Fuck you buddy. I read everyone of those goddamn book and didn't have fun for one second. I kept on thinking at some point it will get good. You and every other asshole who recommends Ian m. Banks owes me 5$ and an hour of my life back. I accept payment in blowjobs too.

>>731311969
I don't know if you're trolling, but I actually did enjoy this trilogy, maybe because the main character just never loses it makes it easy to like, plus I thought it was a cool design for society, with the color base and genetic mods.