• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

A Good Read: Book Suggestions & Recommendations

This -

41of1TO783L._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Just superb. Ballard is always superb.
 
This may sound a bit old, but it's surprisingly good. There's a lot of political shenanigans in there, like keeping spreadsheets with who helped and opposed you during an election, so you can take revenge later :) There are a lot of negative comments about the book, but I'm still enjoying it half way in. I goes together well with the (excellent) Machiavelli course:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18077874-hrc?from_search=true

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2523655.Machiavelli_in_Context?ac=1&from_search=true

Finally, after this I'm starting with this book. A lot of China weirdness in there:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36912593-china-s-great-wall-of-debt?from_search=true
 
Just got Jack Kerouac's 'The sea is my brother'.

I think I have read most of his stuff back in the seventies. I missed this one.

INT21
 
Coastaljames said:
Just started this, one of the few of his I've not read -

Click to expand...

A much more fitting cover that the main one available for years. I think it was a silhouette of a woman in a zebra-print dress or swimsuit--far too literal.
 
A most embarrassing situation in my local library yesterday.

I decided it was time to re-read '1984' by George Orwell.

It wasn't on the shelves, so I approached the (relatively) ancient librarian at the information desk.

Problem was, you see, I had been thinking about Orsen Wells radio broadcast of War of the Worlds.

So I said the this guy, who was probably around at the time..

Have you got a copy of Orsen Wells '1984' ?

The moment I said it I started to retract, but it was too late.

'Don't you mean George Orwell' ? he asked, giving me a pitying glance.

It turned out they didn't have a copy and had to order it in. I suppose I could have come back with 'What, no 1984. Call yourself a library'. But no doubt he would have replied along the lines of 'Orsen Well, Hah. Call yourself a reader.

It spoiled the whole day.

INT21
 
INT21 said:
A most embarrassing situation in my local library yesterday.

I decided it was time to re-read '1984' by George Orwell.

It wasn't on the shelves, so I approached the (relatively) ancient librarian at the information desk.

Problem was, you see, I had been thinking about Orsen Wells radio broadcast of War of the Worlds.

So I said the this guy, who was probably around at the time..

Have you got a copy of Orsen Wells '1984' ?

The moment I said it I started to retract, but it was too late.

'Don't you mean George Orwell' ? he asked, giving me a pitying glance.

It turned out they didn't have a copy and had to order it in. I suppose I could have come back with 'What, no 1984. Call yourself a library'. But no doubt he would have replied along the lines of 'Orsen Well, Hah. Call yourself a reader.

It spoiled the whole day.

INT21
Click to expand...
I have brain misfires like that myself. Relax.
 
Old Venus, a "retro Venus science fiction"-themed anthology edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. All of the stories are set on the planet Venus as styled in the pre-space probe pulp magazines of the 1930s through the 1950s, in which it is a planet where humans could live.

You get a mostly water-world with a few volcanic islands, Venus with 85% water but two big continents, marshy Venus, a tide locked Venus where only a narrow strip is habitable. Nazis, winged men, Edgar Rice Burroughs style, Cold War continued on Venus, even a Jeeves & Wooster pastice.

Great stuff.

The anthology includes 17 stories
https://www.tor.com/2018/07/19/reki...ited-by-george-r-r-martin-and-gardner-dozois/
 
Just starting 'White Corridor' by Fowler...a Bryant and May novel...I have recently become a fan...
That Ballard novel above looks interesting...might try that next since I haven't read any Ballard in years.
 
He's always a pleasure mate.

I think my favourite British modern writer.
 
On March 25, 2017, a black Cadillac with a white-domed surveillance camera attached to its trunk departed Brooklyn for New Orleans. An old GPS unit was fastened atop the roof. Inside, a microphone dangled from the ceiling. Wires from all three devices fed into Ross Goodwin’s Razer Blade laptop, itself hooked up to a humble receipt printer. This, Goodwin hoped, was the apparatus that was going to produce the next American road-trip novel.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/automated-on-the-road/571345/
 
There can be few things more annoying that clicking on a link and immediately it is covered by...

We value your privacy
When you visit TheAtlantic.com, The Atlantic and our partners use cookies and other methods to process your personal data in order to customize content and your site experience, provide social media features, analyze our traffic, and personalize advertising on both our family of websites and our partners' platforms.

Sure, you value our privacy. Just want to sell it to every man and his dog.

INT21
 
Has anyone ever read Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers? I discovered it recently and thought that it looked like a really interesting story.

The novel deviates from the myth by concentrating on the issues of artificial insemination and individuality: genetics versus environment. A scientist, Professor Jakob ten Brinken, interested in the laws of heredity, impregnates a prostitute in a laboratory with the semen of a hanged murderer. The prostitute conceives a female child who has no concept of love, whom the professor adopts. The girl, Alraune, suffers from obsessive sexuality and perverse relationships throughout her life. She learns of her unnatural origins and she avenges herself against the professor.
Click to expand...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alraune
 
ramonmercado said:
Old Venus, a "retro Venus science fiction"-themed anthology edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. All of the stories are set on the planet Venus as styled in the pre-space probe pulp magazines of the 1930s through the 1950s, in which it is a planet where humans could live.
Click to expand...

I found an interesting website about 'the old solar system': https://www.solarsystemheritage.com/
 
Last edited:
ramonmercado said:
Reading Old mars at the moment, another Retro Anthology, wonderful. Martian pirates on seas of sand! Terran pirates transported to Mars battling giant sentient spiders, even a Michael Moorcock story which reprises some of his old Martian sword epics with pulp SF.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Mars
Click to expand...
I love that stuff. The website mentioned they were putting together an anthology too, though I wouldn't be able to vouch for the quality.
 
Yeah, I really liked that old stuff. It was an age of naivety in many ways.
 
I think many here would enjoy SPACE ODYSSEY: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson.

This book brings back many memories of what was the major formative cinematic experience of my youth. It delves elbow-deep into the sausage-making that is the production of a major feature film: the politics, the legal maneuvering, the interplay of personalities and egos, special effects, fascinating stuff. The main characters don't always come off well, but, somehow, everything comes right in the end.

It was a little disconcerting to discover how often in the production of "2001: A Space Odyssey" Kubrick made choices (plot points, pacing, whether or not to include a particular scene, etc.) that would have drastically diminished the final product. Although Kubrick had the reputation of being an authoritarian director, the production team was filled with talented people (not always high-ranking people) who had the vision and pressed for changes.

A very enjoyable read.
 
Anything by Jon Ronson is good. I've just been recommending his The Psychopath Test to a colleague. May have to reread it myself.
 
escargot said:
Anything by Jon Ronson is good. I've just been recommending his The Psychopath Test to a colleague. May have to reread it myself.
Click to expand...

I've lost count of the number of interviews/podcasts of his I've listened. He's one of those chaps whose voice and slightly ramshackle delivery I find soothing--being generally interesting is simply a bonus.
 
I just found my childhood favourite, the Reader's Digest 'Strange Stories, Amazing Facts' on the internet archive
https://archive.org/details/strangestoriesamalwa00alwa
So many of the pictures are thoroughly familiar to me X decades later, which is rather strange in itself :)
And so many things of Fortean interest, things that I've been interested in ever since. Screaming skulls, fire walking, giant octopuses, those freaky faces on the floor in Spain (shiver), the Money Pit, Springheeled Jack etc. etc. etc.
Thanks, Dad, for buying that. It was on the shelf and in my consciousness from as long back as I can remember.
 
Eponastill said:
I just found my childhood favourite, the Reader's Digest 'Strange Stories, Amazing Facts' on the internet archive
https://archive.org/details/strangestoriesamalwa00alwa
So many of the pictures are thoroughly familiar to me X decades later, which is rather strange in itself :)
And so many things of Fortean interest, things that I've been interested in ever since. Screaming skulls, fire walking, giant octopuses, those freaky faces on the floor in Spain (shiver), the Money Pit, Springheeled Jack etc. etc. etc.
Thanks, Dad, for buying that. It was on the shelf and in my consciousness from as long back as I can remember.
Click to expand...

This was the book that started me on Forteana.... that and my enduring interest in Anastasia and the Romanovs. I remember it being delivered - I was nine or ten, dad opened it and had to go to work. I spent the whole day reading it, and it’s now on the shelf behind me - a bit battered but still fab. Thanks for the link!!
 
I don't want to start a new thread without reason so i thought that i would suggest something here. I sometimes look at a site called Hot Deals where members post great bargains in categories. It may be an idea to have a thread of Fortean bargains, be they books, t shirts, DVD's... it may be a silly idea but just thought that I'd mention it.
 
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King. Three short novels and a 30 page story. Dark indeed. Two, 1922 and A Good Marriage have been filmed. Big Driver would make a great film and Fair Extension an interesting short.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top