# Book recommendations for someone who doesnt read much?



## TedEH (May 9, 2018)

Yeah, so it's a weird thread title. tl;dr: Looking for book recommendations. Long version: I used to read lots of fiction in high school (so nothing particularly heavy), but in my adult life I've not done much reading outside of textbooks that I've needed for work or education. Recently, I've started to get back into reading for the sake of it. I've got a sort of routine going where the week ends with a jam day on Sundays, which lasts a good part of the day (jamming with two bands), then I spend some time in a cafe I like, basically relaxing, decompressing, drinking coffee, appreciating the quiet to balance out the rest of the stress and volume of the week. Generally, this has become reading time. Also, I've realized that a book is a good way to pass time when you're a passenger for a long drive.

This pattern started when I got a copy of the Pragmatic Programmer, which was relevant for work, but the writing is almost conversational, and reading it was more relaxing than I had expected. I then picked up some game design books (there's an MIT series I'm going through slowly, but I only have hard copies of one or two, the rest are e-books, which aren't quite as relaxing for whatever reason). I then picked up the Devin Townsend bio, and enjoyed that quite a bit. I've got a textbook about rendering pipelines that I borrowed from work, but it's suuuuuuuuuper dry to read. Next, I went through Ready Player One, which was more or less what I expected. Now.... I've run out of books and have no idea what to dive into next. So when I get to Sunday, I'll have nothing to read. I can't decide if I want to dive into more fiction, or try to learn some new junk, or what. There's a part of my brain that says "just get whatever looks entertaining" and another part that goes "what can you find that will add some real value to your life for having experienced it".

Stuff I'm considering getting:
- Game Engine Black Book: Wolf 3D (good for more work learnings)
- Infinite Jest (was mentioned in another book thread - I liked the description that was given)
- I wouldn't mind giving graphic novels a shot. But not manga. I'm not generally an anime fan, and I'm not big into the standard "comic book" fare of superheros and the like.... so I feel like this one's a challenge to find something I'd like, but who knows.
- I'm also down for, I dunno how to describe it, but like self-help-ish kind of books? Lifestyle advice? Not so much in the I-need-some-help kind of way, but more that I have a bit of curiosity about the way people approach different aspects of their life and how some elements of that could be applied to mine.
- I'm down to learn new skills. Could be game dev, or programming, or completely unrelated?

So.................. Given all of that rambly nonsense, throw some book recommendations at me!


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## Lemonbaby (May 9, 2018)

Kahnemann - “Thinking, fast and slow“
Palahniuk - “Fight Club“, “Invisible Monsters“, “Survivor“

Kahnemann get's a little lengthy in the second half, but even just the first is a very interesting read. Palahniuk is an insanely entertaining read as well as life-advice (sort of)...


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## TedEH (May 9, 2018)

Thinking, Fast and Slow looks like a good one to add to the list.

I was in a Chapters the other day and came across another Ernest Cline book, but it kinda sounded like it's just Ready Player One all over again.


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## R34CH (May 9, 2018)

Not sure if you're into Sci Fi / Fantasy but here are a couple of my recommendations for stuff that's quick and easy:

The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (first in the series is Storm Front)


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## Edika (May 9, 2018)

I'm reading and enjoying some classic stuff lately but due to kids and work it's going slowly. I'd recommend the novels from Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes. Quite interesting and some of them are excellent.

Another that comes to mind which is really entairtening is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's 4 books and it's hilarious with a lot of imagination put into it.

If you like fiction you can check out Ursula Le Guin's books. Really really nice and well written books especially the Earthsea saga.

I'm more of a nobel/fiction/fantasy type of reader for down time and relaxation. Skill type books usually uprev my brain and that's the opposite of what I want to do when relaxing.


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## Demiurge (May 9, 2018)

If you want a decent challenge, definitely give Infinite Jest a go. The first few chapters are incredibly obtuse at first read (if you re-read them after finishing they make sense) but then a fairly steady and easier-to-follow narrative is established. You will need two bookmarks because there are endnotes that you need to read along with the main text.

I'm not really a likes-tough-books person, but I made it through with little frustration. Someone mentioned Chuck Palahniuk above- I think it helped that I'm a fan of his and DFW in this book kind of reads like an over-clocked Palahniuk with kind of a surreal tone that can be corny, funny, and devastating in a snap, with signs of endless research in very strange, obscure things.


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## M3CHK1LLA (May 10, 2018)

i don't have time to read....way too busy, but one i've read 5-6 times is 'white fang' by jack london. he is best known for 'call of the wild' but, 'white fang' is a far better imho.

also, the movies don't even come close...


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## TedEH (May 10, 2018)

R34CH said:


> Not sure if you're into Sci Fi / Fantasy


Sci-fi, sure, but not so much fantasy. I used to read some of those X-Wing novels, and got into those pretty easy. I've realized more and more though as I get older that fantasy settings (as in your sort of standard D&D, WoW, LotR, type stuff with wizards and orcs and everyone has swords, and there's more back-story than actual story) usually don't appeal to me much. At least as far as video games go, there's usually just too much going on that's too detached from reality (but somehow still follows some kind of common fantasy-settings rules that I don't understand) and my brain checks out. I was able to handle Harry Potter books when I was younger, so maybe I can handle fantasy as books but not as games. I dunno, it's just not.... appealing. I don't think I have that sense of "wouldn't it be cool to be a whole other race and species and if animals could talk and magic was real and and and".... yeh, nah, I don't care about that stuff. Not that I wouldn't give those things a shot at all, but they don't have the same immediate appeal.

The Hitchhikers Guide books sound like something I could appreciate the humor of though. I saw the movie that came out a while back, but I assume the books are a whole different thing.



Edika said:


> Skill type books usually uprev my brain and that's the opposite of what I want to do when relaxing.


I find I kinda of like the idea of books that get my brain going -> When I read both the game design books, but also the Devin Townsend book, they would leave me in a very sort of engaged mood. I would go back home with ideas and things I wanted to try and a sense of purpose to the rest of the day or weekend, etc., and I really like being in that frame of mind. I'm all for the kind of reading that activates that "lets go do something now" feeling.


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## Edika (May 10, 2018)

The specific novels by Le Guin are a bit of a different story than the typical fantasy books. It's been a while since I read them but they leave a different type of feeling than something like D&D and the LOTR books. 

The movie didn't even scratch the surface of what is The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy let me tell you that.

When I mean upreving I mostly mean that textbook and skill books usually require a lot more of attention and concentration to understand the subject material. It's about real world applications or if we're discussing philosophy or mathematics quite a bit of abstract thinking tied with the real world. It engages imagination in a different level than a novel that tries to create a world, a setting, an atmosphere if you will to tell a story. I feel that my brain reacts differently to those two types of reading and that is why I mentioned it. I mean reading a C++ or Python or Labview book will not get you in the England of the early 1900's where a gruesome murder has been commited with seemingly random clues and misleading information. Only if you use the above skills to program a game to tell the story .


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## TedEH (May 10, 2018)

Edika said:


> The specific novels by Le Guin are a bit of a different story than the typical fantasy books.


Sounds like a selling point to me.



Edika said:


> The movie didn't even scratch the surface of what is The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy let me tell you that.


Also sounds like a selling point. 



Edika said:


> When I mean upreving I mostly mean that textbook and skill books usually require a lot more of attention and concentration to understand the subject material.


Yeah, I get what you mean. I can handle that in some ways, but I find that if I try to read in a "relaxed" frame of mind, a lot of the details don't sink in. I started going through a book about the rendering pipeline, 'cause it's relevant for work, but I got about a quarter through and gave up and grabbed some fiction instead. I might go back to it.



Edika said:


> Only if you use the above skills to program a game to tell the story .


To be fair, that's part of the intention.  I do work in games programming, and have an indie-game side project that can both benefit from reading more technical junk.


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## Mathemagician (May 10, 2018)

Comics: Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman”
Sci-fi: The Expanse, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (All 5 books of the Trilogy)
Finance: King of Capital (written like a story commodities traders)

Short list but can maybe fill some niches in your reading.


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## TedEH (May 10, 2018)

Thanks for the suggestions -> think I'm gonna compile a list and hit up a chapters on Saturday maybe, see which of them I can find.


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## Edika (May 10, 2018)

Oh yes the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman are a fine example of comic books. The art is a matter of taste as it's not the usual straight clean lines but it does lend to the whole atmosphere.

I've also enjoyed the graphic novels by Alan Moore. Moat of them have been turned to movies with questionable results like "V for Vendetta", "From Hell" and "Watchmen" even though the last one wasn't that bad.


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## TedEH (May 10, 2018)

I think there's something about the format of some comic books that are a bit of a turn off as well, and maybe a part of why I never got into them - the ones I've seen (given that I don't normally go looking for them) seem to be short, I'm guessing sort of episodic, almost tv-episode-y feeling drama built try to to hook you into buying more issues. I think I'd need to get an anthology or a longer-form standalone book in order to get into it. I don't doubt that I have super inaccurate preconceptions about comics in general though. I'm sure I'd enjoy them if I took the time, but it's almost like I need to do some mental gymnastics to convince myself to commit to it.


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## Edika (May 10, 2018)

The Sandman comic books were 75 issues and have been published as books that contain the issues that form a chapter. Like every several issues were a specific story within the Sandman "universe". It's been a while since I read them but it made a big impact in terms of comic books and storytelling. It was like a complete departure from the usual super hero stuff and episodic tv dinner, soap opera type of thing.


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## Mathemagician (May 10, 2018)

I agree and have avoided comics until very recently. Started reading green lantern. You can often buy whole series in many cases, but at the very least you can buy what are called trade books that have the 5-8 comics in a story arc all in order together. Works very well to see if you like a character/series without getting like 30 pages and an abrupt cut off. 

But Sandman is also not exactly a “superhero saves the day” type of story. So you should pick it up no matter what, lo.


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## Drew (May 10, 2018)

TedEH said:


> - Infinite Jest (was mentioned in another book thread - I liked the description that was given)



I LOVE that novel, but if you're not a heavy reader, it's kind of like learning to ski by going backcountry heliskiing. Wallace writes with helaciously complex prose, has a massive vocabulary, is smarter than you and knows it, and, well, it's more than a thousand pages long, including footnotes. It also definitely is a novel that fucks with your expectations, in ways that are sometimes frustrating (though, I'd say, this one is more cohesive than his first novel, The Broom of the System). 

If it sounds like a really good book, well, Wallace is in many ways a successor to Thomas Pynchon, and his "The Crying of Lot 49" is a pretty accessible - for him - read that clocks in around 150 pages, as I recall. Pynchon is a little more of a whirling madhouse while Wallace writes more explicitly about the human need for connection, so thematically they're very different, but if you can get through Lot 49 without becoming angry at the book, then you'll probably do well with Infinite Jest. 

Alternately, Wallace has written a few collections of short fiction, which are more accessible simply because they clock in at 50-100 pages per story rather than 900. My favorite is Oblivion. 

Other guy I tend to recommend is Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-5, a sci-fi take on the firebombing of Dresden (which Vonnegut himself actually survived), is a great place to start.


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## TedEH (May 10, 2018)

Drew said:


> if you're not a heavy reader, it's kind of like learning to ski by going backcountry heliskiing


I'd say I haven't been a heavy reader recently, but used to be up until the end of high school. Page count isn't so much intimidating, I got through Ready Player One in about two days worth of reading time, but it's also probably super light reading in comparison (talking vocabulary, etc). Maybe I can find a sample online and see if it strikes me as too much. Worse case, I can always come back to that idea another time. I'd add Lot 49 to the list as well.


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## TedEH (May 10, 2018)

Mathemagician said:


> Sandman is also not exactly a “superhero saves the day” type of story


Again, more comments that are doing a good job of selling me on stuff.


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## TedEH (May 11, 2018)

I had a quick chance to run into a book store yesterday and found a copy of Thinking Fast and Slow. But I aaaaaaalso found The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy: I Link Therefor I Am, which sounds both dumb and amazing at the same time, so I grabbed both of those. I'm gonna keep the list around though, cause I imagine I'll be revisiting this topic shortly once these books are done.


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## Drew (May 11, 2018)

TedEH said:


> I'd say I haven't been a heavy reader recently, but used to be up until the end of high school. Page count isn't so much intimidating, I got through Ready Player One in about two days worth of reading time, but it's also probably super light reading in comparison (talking vocabulary, etc). Maybe I can find a sample online and see if it strikes me as too much. Worse case, I can always come back to that idea another time. I'd add Lot 49 to the list as well.


Here, years and years and years ago, I took the time to type up a chapter from Infinite Jest what a friend of mine handed me the book and told me to read, which convinced me I needed to read it. 

http://www.sevenstring.org/threads/why-you-need-to-read-david-foster-wallaces-infinite-jest.14368/ 

This is one of my favorite sentences I've ever read: "So tonight to shush you how about I say I have an administrative bone to pick with God, Boo. I'll say God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I'm not crazy about. I'm pretty much anti-death. God looks by all accounts to be pro death. I'm not seeing how we can get together on this issue, he and I, Boo."


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## TedEH (May 11, 2018)

^ Based on that thread, I'm more tempted to go back to the store and get that (or wait until the ones I got now are done). Website says they have copies. Could do the fast and slow book first, throw that Zelda thing in the middle as something lighter, then this book, then maybe after that look for something completely different, like that Sandman recommendation. Consume all the media. Read all the books. Hear all the albums. Play all the games. Social life be damned.


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## Drew (May 14, 2018)

TedEH said:


> Consume all the media. Read all the books. Hear all the albums. Play all the games. Social life be damned.



 My kind of life. 

Yeah, if you enjoy that (especially without enough context to know who the fuck all these characters are) then you're probably good to go.  

I guess, one other thing I'll say, is that there's a lot going on behind the scenes in this one that you as a reader eventually learn as you go on, and not for nothing I'll mention that the book is loaded with Hamlet references, right down to its very title ("Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy..."), and that Hal is a pretty bright guy and most likely knew about as much as anyone in the novel about the undercurrent here, whereas Mario almost certainly did _not_, which makes this scene even more poignant than it is when you first read it and is one you should think back to after finishing the novel. Also, after finishing the novel, reread the first chapter, because there are one or two details in there that I'm pretty sure you'll miss on first pass, but not on a second.


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## TedEH (May 14, 2018)

Nice. I have put this on the to-do list for sure. I've got a couple of long-ish trips coming up that will have time to kill, so I don't imagine it will be long before I get to this one.


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## LiveOVErdrive (May 30, 2018)

*Ready Player One* if you haven't read it. Very fun.

*Reamde* by Neil Stephenson. Long, excellent action thriller.


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## TedEH (May 30, 2018)

LiveOVErdrive said:


> *Ready Player One* if you haven't read it. Very fun.
> 
> *Reamde* by Neil Stephenson. Long, excellent action thriller.


Definitely went through Player One already - fun is a good word for it. Doesn't get super deep or heavy or anything, it's just some simple entertainment. Enjoyed it on that level. Haven't heard of the other one, will look it up.


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## TedEH (May 30, 2018)

I got maybe a third of the way through that Zelda and Philosophy book and its.... a bit on the disappointing side of things. The connections being drawn between basic philosophy concepts and Zelda games are pretty thin, and kinda forced sometimes. Some sections are decent, others are pretty dry, really depends on the author of that particular bit. I've been debating putting it down and moving on, or whether it's worth finishing it just to say that I did.


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## LiveOVErdrive (May 30, 2018)

If you're at all interested in fiction story structure, take a look at "Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story" by John Yorke. I haven't finished the whole thing but it is pretty well done.

For a lighter look at screenplays, "Save The Cat" is a great read. Talks about screenplay structure and thus makes watching movies more fun (because you notice the structure)


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## fps (Jun 1, 2018)

Terry Pratchett - Mort. Death gets an apprentice. Really funny. Deceptively clever.


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## TedEH (Jun 4, 2018)

I had an interesting thought the other day and I don't know where else to post it, so I'll put it here.
Something about the Zelda book sort of turned me off of reading it, and in order to avoid losing my enthusiasm for decompressing with a book at the end of the week, I moved on to Thinking Fast and Slow. The huge contrast in writing styles left me thinking about what it is I appreciated about certain authors.

The Zelda book was trying really hard to be "smart". Lots of big words. Lots of quoting other authors, sometimes in ways that were only very loosely connected to the point. Lots of sort of pseudo-intellectual stretches. It sort of felt like reading a collection of school essays that had to fit a format but didn't really know what to say, or have much of a point. They were trying to impress the reader by saying "look at all the things I know." The book tries so hard to be "smart" that it ultimately defeats it's own attempt to get anything across.

I was expecting the Fast and Slow book would have been a more "challenging" read, but it's not. The author strikes me as a very smart guy, but a lot of that comes from being able to get a point across without having to "try to sound smart", which is something I'm realizing that a hugely appreciate. The book is smart not because they throw all the biggest words they can find at you in an attempt to wow you with their intelligence, but because the material is actually very accessibly written, with a clear goal of trying to make you understand the statement being made. What's smart about the book is the content of the message. It's important to the author that nothing impedes that message getting across. The book has a point. It has direction. It very clearly states its intentions. And it's sort of conversational.

I've realized that a lot of the book I've been enjoying lately have a very conversational tone to them. The author has something - a story, some knowledge, an idea, whatever - and the very clear intention or goal is to share that information in a way that makes it easy to take in, while also sharing the sentiment (enthusiasm) the author has for that message. It's like sitting down and having a conversation with the author. I tend to think of video games in this way as well - or music, or any media you take in - it's a sort of conversation between the creator and the consumer. In a lot of cases, the author might be able to predict how you'll react to a certain statement, and then respond to it as if you actually reacted to them - and it creates the illusion of dialog, even though it only really goes one way.

I actually quite like this aspect of video games, because you *do* get the opportunity to respond. A game really does become a dialog between the author and the gamer in the sense that you make a statement (present a challenge), the consumer responds (with their input), and you can respond back to that, and you get that feedback loop that makes up the core of a lot of gameplay.

I dunno, I probably sound like someone who just figured out how books work, but still. I just currently have an odd appreciation for when a book wants to just have a conversation with you rather than try to beat you over the head with how "smart" they are.


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## KnightBrolaire (Jun 4, 2018)

I really enjoyed Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. It's a grimdark fantasy kind of like game of thrones, but it moves at a pretty quick pace unlike most of the GoT books.
Forever War by Joe Halderman is a classic sci fi war book that's supposed to be a metaphor for the vietnam war. It's relatively short and moves at good clip.
Starship Troopers is another classic sci fi book that I'd recommend but it's pretty light on the actual space combat compared to forever war, though it delves more into world building.
Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card is excellent, especially the side stories with bean (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow of the Giant).

If you're looking for a solid quick thriller to read, Velocity by Dean Koontz is really fun.


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## DilanWilliams (Jun 19, 2018)




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## TedEH (Jun 19, 2018)

^ Been through that one before. And a couple of other Dan Brown novels - my ex had a collection that I went through on slow days at work at the time.


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## TedEH (Jun 19, 2018)

I saw an ad yesterday where someone was selling a bunch of Star Wars extended universe stuff - I had one or two of the XWing books but never finished them. I dunno if they really are any good, but was tempting to grab those.


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## KnightBrolaire (Jun 19, 2018)

TedEH said:


> I saw an ad yesterday where someone was selling a bunch of Star Wars extended universe stuff - I had one or two of the XWing books but never finished them. I dunno if they really are any good, but was tempting to grab those.


the thrawn trilogy and the books revolving around jacen/jaina solo are pretty good.


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## MFB (Jun 19, 2018)

TedEH said:


> I saw an ad yesterday where someone was selling a bunch of Star Wars extended universe stuff - I had one or two of the XWing books but never finished them. I dunno if they really are any good, but was tempting to grab those.



I breezed through the first one not long ago, maybe December, and bought the other 3 to finish out the series that what's his name did; haven't picked them back up since I fall in and out of reading habits pretty quickly, but I enjoyed them for what they were - light fun reads that show an actual emphasis on the WAR part of Star Wars.


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## Drew (Jun 20, 2018)

TedEH said:


> I've realized that a lot of the book I've been enjoying lately have a very conversational tone to them. The author has something - a story, some knowledge, an idea, whatever - and the very clear intention or goal is to share that information in a way that makes it easy to take in, while also sharing the sentiment (enthusiasm) the author has for that message. It's like sitting down and having a conversation with the author. I tend to think of video games in this way as well - or music, or any media you take in - it's a sort of conversation between the creator and the consumer. In a lot of cases, the author might be able to predict how you'll react to a certain statement, and then respond to it as if you actually reacted to them - and it creates the illusion of dialog, even though it only really goes one way.



Ok, a couple more recommendations, then.  

The Fall - Albert Camus. A fascinating, short novella that's basically a 200-page monologue, of a character telling a story over the course of a couple days to two guys he meets in a bar who are just there as listeners. No back and forth, no action, just one long monologue. And, it's fascinating. 

Oxherding Tale - Charles Johnson. One of my favorite novels coming out of college, Johnson took the traditional slave narrative and flips it on its head and in turn uses is as a metaphor for the ten ox herding pictures, a buddhist metaphor for the search for enlightenment. All that makes it SOUND pretty heavy... Except, it's delivered in an awesome narrative voice, and the "bad guy," Horace Bannon the Soulcatcher, the bounty hunter chasing Andrew down, is hands down one of the best villians I've ever run across in any medium. 

I guess, thinking to other novels that are really carried by the strength of their narrator, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita comes to mind - it's a story whose main character is a pedophile, yet Nabokov actually manages to humanize him. I know, doesn't sound like much of a recommendation, but trust me here.  And, there's a couple Italo Calvino novels and collections that come to mind (he's been on my mind lately, a quote from a collection of short stories of his I'd shared on facebook came up as a memory the other week - "Lots of rubble piled up makes a skyscraper. Lots of skyscrapers piled up makes rubble.") But, while it's SUPER post modern (it's a novel about reading Italo Calvino's new novel, "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler..."), "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler..." is a great story, and a lot of fun. And Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises," come to think of it, also has a great narrator and great tone. Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" sounds silly, but is pretty clearly an an analogy on race (honestly I could never figure out why I ran into Huck Finn a couple times in class to talk about racial attitudes in his writing, while I think he was far more scathing in the latter) and is a fun read. 

Idunno. I'll pop back in if I think of something else where I really felt like the narrator was critical to the story.


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## LiveOVErdrive (Jul 18, 2018)

If you want a fun fantasy adventure story with great character development, "Magician" by Raymond E Feist is one of my faves.


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## TedEH (Jul 18, 2018)

I've been a bit slow on the reading side lately just from being really busy, but I'll still take recommendations. 
I'm like 97% of the way done Thinking Fast and Slow. I have a copy of Infinite Jest sitting on my desk at home in waiting, but there's no rush to dive into it per-se. I've got too many things on the go - a game I'm finishing playing, a game I'm working on, the three bands, trying to finish this book, I bought a cello I want to learn to play. I'm glad I've got some vacation coming up soon where I can start wrapping stuff up and just relaxing. Not that those things aren't relaxing. I guess having too much stuff to do that I wanted to do in the first place is a very first-world problem.


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## TedEH (Sep 24, 2018)

Oh I read all of those already. Yes, ALL of them. I wish they made a movie of it so that I could say "the book was way better".


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## jaxadam (Sep 24, 2018)

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - Carlo Rovelli

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399184414/?tag=sevenstringorg-20

Extremely easy prose and written for the layperson if you enjoy scientific things.


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## fps (Nov 25, 2018)

Drew said:


> Here, years and years and years ago, I took the time to type up a chapter from Infinite Jest what a friend of mine handed me the book and told me to read, which convinced me I needed to read it.
> 
> http://www.sevenstring.org/threads/why-you-need-to-read-david-foster-wallaces-infinite-jest.14368/
> 
> This is one of my favorite sentences I've ever read: "So tonight to shush you how about I say I have an administrative bone to pick with God, Boo. I'll say God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I'm not crazy about. I'm pretty much anti-death. God looks by all accounts to be pro death. I'm not seeing how we can get together on this issue, he and I, Boo."



Infinite Jest is my favourite book of all time. And no, I don't like Pynchon.


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## fps (Nov 25, 2018)

Drew said:


> Ok, a couple more recommendations, then.
> 
> The Fall - Albert Camus. A fascinating, short novella that's basically a 200-page monologue, of a character telling a story over the course of a couple days to two guys he meets in a bar who are just there as listeners. No back and forth, no action, just one long monologue. And, it's fascinating.
> 
> I guess, thinking to other novels that are really carried by the strength of their narrator, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita comes to mind - it's a story whose main character is a pedophile, yet Nabokov actually manages to humanize him. I know, doesn't sound like much of a recommendation, but trust me here.



Great shouts. Lolita is a love letter to a language.


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## AirForbes1 (Nov 25, 2018)

For comics, Saga by Brian K Vaughn is probably the best series I've read recently. If you like his writing, an older title called Y: The Last Man is what made him popular. The comic that got me in to non-spandex type comics was a title called Preacher. It's been made in to an AMC series now, but it doesn't and won't touch the books.

In non-fiction; Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond isn't new, but I can't recommend it enough to anyone who hasn't read it.


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## KnightBrolaire (Nov 25, 2018)

AirForbes1 said:


> For comics, Saga by Brian K Vaughn is probably the best series I've read recently. If you like his writing, an older title called Y: The Last Man is what made him popular. The comic that got me in to non-spandex type comics was a title called Preacher. It's been made in to an AMC series now, but it doesn't and won't touch the books.
> 
> In non-fiction; Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond isn't new, but I can't recommend it enough to anyone who hasn't read it.


those are all excellent series. I vastly prefer saga to Y (largely because the ending was very disapppointing imo). If you like preacher you should check out Garth Ennis's run on the Punisher or his series Crossed (which is hands down one of the gnarliest comics ever made). Matt Millar's Nemesis and Super series are also really great if you like messed up dark humor.
Revival is another series that doesn't get enough love. It's a really great neo-noir/horror comic.


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## AirForbes1 (Nov 25, 2018)

KnightBrolaire said:


> those are all excellent series. I vastly prefer saga to Y (largely because the ending was very disapppointing imo). If you like preacher you should check out Garth Ennis's run on the Punisher or his series Crossed (which is hands down one of the gnarliest comics ever made). Matt Millar's Nemesis and Super series are also really great if you like messed up dark humor.
> Revival is another series that doesn't get enough love. It's a really great neo-noir/horror comic.



I've got all of those Punishers. I collected Punisher from the start of Ennis' first limited series (which they turned in to that god awful Thomas Jane film) to the Jason Aaron/Steve Dillon Max series.

Crossed, Nemisis, Super Series I will check out. I like quite a lot of Mark Millar's other work (including his superhero stuff).

I was okay with the ending of Y. I really enjoyed it as a whole. But, I'd say that Saga is maybe one of the best series that I've read. It's certainly my favourite current ongoing title.

I haven't been reading that many comics lately, but I used to have quite a good little collection.


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## KnightBrolaire (Nov 25, 2018)

AirForbes1 said:


> I've got all of those Punishers. I collected Punisher from the start of Ennis' first limited series (which they turned in to that god awful Thomas Jane film) to the Jason Aaron/Steve Dillon Max series.
> 
> Crossed, Nemisis, Super Series I will check out. I like quite a lot of Mark Millar's other work (including his superhero stuff).
> 
> ...


The only good newer punisher series imo is the war machine series. It's a lot of fun to see frank get the war machine suit and rip through baddies even easier. Ennis did a recent return to punisher with punisher platoon, but it feels like a retread of his work with punisher born (which is a cool look into the character's past). 
American Vampire is another series well worth checking out imo. Think Interview with the Vampire but much meaner spirited (like 30 days of night, which is also a great book).


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## AirForbes1 (Nov 25, 2018)

KnightBrolaire said:


> The only good newer punisher series imo is the war machine series. It's a lot of fun to see frank get the war machine suit and rip through baddies even easier. Ennis did a recent return to punisher with punisher platoon, but it feels like a retread of his work with punisher born (which is a cool look into the character's past).
> American Vampire is another series well worth checking out imo. Think Interview with the Vampire but much meaner spirited (like 30 days of night, which is also a great book).



Didn't get in to American Vampire. I liked King's work on Batman when it got re-booted, but couldn't get in to American Vampire. As for Punisher, I pretty much stopped after Aaron's Max series. I didn't know where they could go after that. But that was some time ago. I have Born. I also have The Boys by Ennis which I enjoyed.

Really, these days I'm only really reading Saga, Sex Criminals, and Southern Bastards with the odd Brubaker Phillips series here and there. I've been really lax about finding new stuff. I get an email from my comic shop every few months asking me to come in and grab my pull file.


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## KnightBrolaire (Nov 25, 2018)

AirForbes1 said:


> Didn't get in to American Vampire. I liked King's work on Batman when it got re-booted, but couldn't get in to American Vampire. As for Punisher, I pretty much stopped after Aaron's Max series. I didn't know where they could go after that. But that was some time ago. I have Born. I also have The Boys by Ennis which I enjoyed.
> 
> Really, these days I'm only really reading Saga, Sex Criminals, and Southern Bastards with the odd Brubaker Phillips series here and there. I've been really lax about finding new stuff. I get an email from my comic shop every few months asking me to come in and grab my pull file.


sex criminals, southern bastards and Fatale/Kill or be Killed are some of my favorite series i've read in the last few years besides saga or revival. if you dig brubaker's stuff like Fatale you might dig jason aaron's series Scalped. it's basically a western noir/crime drama set on an indian reservation.


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## AirForbes1 (Nov 25, 2018)

KnightBrolaire said:


> sex criminals, southern bastards and Fatale/Kill or be Killed are some of my favorite series i've read in the last few years besides saga or revival. if you dig brubaker's stuff like Fatale you might dig jason aaron's series Scalped. it's basically a western noir/crime drama set on an indian reservation.



I did Scalped back when it came out. That's how I got in to Aaron. I'm old. So, I know most of the old stuff, but haven't been up to date on the new shit that the kids have been reading.


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## KnightBrolaire (Nov 25, 2018)

AirForbes1 said:


> I did Scalped back when it came out. That's how I got in to Aaron. I'm old. So, I know most of the old stuff, but haven't been up to date on the new shit that the kids have been reading.


Yeah I'm not super up to snuff on newer stuff besides Southern Bastards/Sex Criminals. I've heard Monstress is a really good series. Same with Nailbiter.


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## AirForbes1 (Nov 25, 2018)

KnightBrolaire said:


> Yeah I'm not super up to snuff on newer stuff besides Southern Bastards/Sex Criminals. I've heard Monstress is a really good series. Same with Nailbiter.



I'll check out Monstress and Nailbiter. I haven't heard of those. Cheers.


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## Drew (Nov 26, 2018)

fps said:


> Infinite Jest is my favourite book of all time. And no, I don't like Pynchon.


Honestly, Gravity's Rainbow might be worth a second look. I won't deny it was kind of a slog to get through the first time I read it - there's a lot of pieces to keep straight, for one, and the narrative sort of (intentionally, I'd argue) self-destructs as the book goes on. At a minimum, it's weird as hell, with all the weird sex and song and dance routines and whatnot. 

The second time through, though... It blew my mind. There are some truly amazing passages in there - the lengthy passage comparing the two parallel tunnels where Germany was building rockets to the double integral sign to the SS logo to two lovers lying next to each other, Tchitcherine and Slothrop finally meeting, unaware, in the Zone, one bumming a cigarette off the other before they go their separate ways, Slothrop finding Bianca's body and the narration shifting from third to second person, Narrish's final stand described as an equation approaching its limit... There's some pretty staggeringly powerful writing in there. Even the Proverbs for Paranoids are just a cool as hell touch.


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## MickD7 (Dec 19, 2018)

I’ve been on a fairly long book binge to avoid both Social Media and the lure of video games and binge watching Netflix. 

It’s a pretty extensive list but needless to say I feel much better for reading then doing the alternative. I got put onto a few of these by friends, family and some podcasts. 

War. 
Chickenhawk 
Black Hawk Down
We Were Soldiers 
Ordinary Men- Jesus this book is jaw dropping 
The Gulag Archipelago- Intially recommended by a friend about a month or so ago that loaned it to me. Horrific book that takes you to a bit of time to read. 

Fiction. Some I’ve read before and revisit some are new and very enjoyable 

Fight Club 
American Psycho 
In the Heart of the Sea
Moby Dick 
One flew over the cuckoos nest
1984
Animal Farm
Brave New World
Children of Men
Of Mice and men
Catcher in the rye 


Ernest Hemingway- this is the first time I’ve ever read Hemingway and I feel I have done myself a huge disservice in not doing so before. I think the old man and the sea has become one of my favourite books ever. 
A farewell to arms
The old man and the sea 

Sigmund Freud and Jung 

Course work books. I’ve been digging deeply into these lately preparing for Feb
Crtical Thinking In Psychology- this might be my favourite book. The study and application of critical thinking. Absolutely brilliant 
Basic Personal Counseling 
An introduction to the history of psychology 

The Revenant- wasn’t sure what to place this under but it’s an excellent read. A great way to immerse yourself in the story that’s very engaging with its characters. Different from the movie but still great 

Jocko Willink 
Discipline Equals Freedom- A friend of mine got this for me to help me curb a lot of my ADHD related stuff and it’s really helped improve my focus and attitude, probably plays a big part in avoiding social media now as well. It essentially screams instructions at you to be a better person by exercising your discipline. It actually complements the next book really well, as you get some of the things in both of them drilled in by two completely different people. 

Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules For Life. 

Now I know some are for and some are against with this guy. What I will say is that I went through some pretty brutal shit in my life over the last 4 years. I lost people in some horrible ways, my wife and I have spent most of the year fighting to keep our mental health together, food on he table and much more because of that stuff. I was diagnosed with Bipolar I and ADHD this year and placed on some pretty heavy medications and one event which was so damn heart breaking and traumatic had me stood at the sink unpacking pills by the handful and throwing them down the sink. I had given up on getting ontop of my Mental health. 

I stuck it out on the meds and spoke with a close friend who has been going down the same road. Same guy who recommended some of these books on this list end he nudged me in the direction of this book. 

Again say what you want and I’m not selling this book or forcing it on anyone. But it helped me get my act together so much it wasn’t even funny. 

I quit drinking, I quit smoking, I started running my business better, I formulated a better work ethic and structure, I’ve saved an absolutely absurd amount of money, learnt how to manage my time and put together my application for University and got accepted. I dropped from 120 kilos to 94 kilos. It helped me get my act together in preparation of being a dad next year, it made me set my goals and I got together the money to reward myself with an Ormsby Goliath. 

Most important to me is I have a much better relationship with my family which means the world to me, as I’d done some pretty damaging stuff and got it back together and worked hard to earn that back. 

I was tethered to a very dangerous path in life and making the choice to read this book added some pretty brutal truths to getting of that path and being on the right one. 

Stephen Hawking A brief history of time and The Grand Design. After his death I decided it was time to reread these books. What a loss to science but given what he achieved in such a condition it’s pretty inspiring. 

Grit and a True Girt. Jesus what a great read into the research, history and fact over “romance based fiction of Australia”. Odly enough it was my wife who put me onto these and she’s English 

I tried some a Dawkins but I’m having a hard time getting into it, maybe I’ll return some time later. 

I’m sure that I have more but I can really recall at the moment. 

No real reason to pursue much fantasy stuff as I’m kind of just over it a bit. I’m open to suggestions though.


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## GatherTheArsenal (Dec 22, 2018)

First book I picked up in years just a few weeks ago is The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson. I'm about 75% through and I really like that it's not one of those self-help books that talks down to you or reads like it's drinking it's own coolaid on every page. It's just a blunt straightforward honest read that's delivering a good message to me so far. Strongly recommend it 

On a side note: Not sure if this happened to you guys as well, but I noticed _immediately_ that my attention span just absolutely went down the drain in recent years... had a good deal of trouble getting through a single page of reading without stopping at first but it's much better now. Clearly i've been spent way more time knee-deep in media reading quick articles and snippets rather than a full-on read of anything...


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## MickD7 (Dec 22, 2018)

^ yep that’s why I try my hardest to absolutely avoid those platforms. Books or Podcasts are the way to go


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## TedEH (Dec 24, 2018)

I got a good chunk of the way through Infinite Jest. I like it so far, but I think I've been in the wrong headspace for it lately, so I've just not been going back to pick it up again. Progress on that one is slow. I ended up reading through Fabian Sanglard's Game Engine Black Book: Wolf 3D though, and plan on reading the Doom book that came after it. Gets kind of technical, but in a "isn't it interesting the kind of junk they had to deal with at the time" kind of way, rather than reading like a textbook or something.


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## Chris Bowsman (Apr 25, 2019)

Anything by Jeff Strand is great. Lite-ish horror with a lot of comedy typically. 

Have been and always will be a huge Stephen King fan. My favorites are Pet Sematary and Bag of Bones. 

Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Cormac McCarthy. His writing style is weird (very little punctuation), but The Road and No Country for Old Men are pretty easy to get into.


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## Drew (Apr 25, 2019)

MickD7 said:


> Ernest Hemingway- this is the first time I’ve ever read Hemingway and I feel I have done myself a huge disservice in not doing so before. I think the old man and the sea has become one of my favourite books ever.
> A farewell to arms
> The old man and the sea


I LOVE Hemingway, but "The Old Man and the Sea" reads like a parody of Hemingway, probably because he was busy drinking himself to death on double frozen strawberry daquiris down in the Keys at the time he wrote it. "A Farewell to Arms" was good, as was "For Whom the Bell Tolls," but IMO "The Sun Also Rises," his first, was his best, by a long shot. His short fiction is great, too. 

I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier and I'm too lazy to check, but while it's a little meta in the way it intentionally fucks with the conventions of the slave narrative, Charles Johnson's "Oxherding Tale" is awesome. Great narrative voice, and Horace Bannon the Soulcatcher is one of my favorite villains I've ever read.


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## 777timesgod (May 7, 2019)

Drew said:


> I LOVE Hemingway, but "The Old Man and the Sea" reads like a parody of Hemingway, probably because he was busy drinking himself to death on double frozen strawberry daquiris down in the Keys at the time he wrote it. "A Farewell to Arms" was good, as was "For Whom the Bell Tolls," but IMO "The Sun Also Rises," his first, was his best, by a long shot. His short fiction is great, too.



A Farewell to arms really captures the horror of war similar to "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Remarque which is the granddaddy of frontline horror, no wonder the Nazis freaked out and burned the copies of it. It showed the ugliest side of war imaginable. Definitely a great read that should be in any library. Other writers that I would recommend are Dostoyevsky, Kazantzakis, Wells , Tolstoy, Voltaire, Gunter Grass among many others who are considered big names of the past. 
Present writers are hard to value due to the hype for each one by the publishing houses.


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