Book Recommendations - Ask, recommend, comment

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Kitlen

Kitlen

Back from the dead... sort of.
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Jun 21, 2013
I looked through the pages and didn't seem to find a thread for this, so I figured I'd start one. Figure we can all post recommendations, ask for recommendations from authors or genres, and comment on books people recommend.

I'm actually looking for recommendations on the DCI Banks series by Peter Robinson. My father and I enjoy the show immensely and I am thinking of buying him a book from the series. Any recommendations as to which book of his is the best?

In return, I recommend books and other shit.
Anything by Lovecraft, I highly recommend the short story The Rats in the Walls (it's free online to read).
I highly recommend The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Stories by Lu Xun. Good introduction to Modern Chinese literature and great commentary.
My Lobotomy by Howard Dully. Yes, as the title reads he received a lobotomy during the "icepick lobotomy" craze. It details his childhood and how it affected his life, and then how he went back to research what really happened to him and other recipients of the procedure.
Blindness by Jose Saramago. Holy shit. This book. Fucked me up, man.
 
I recommend the book starship troopers by Robert A Heinlein it is a very good and inspirational book and it made me question everything that I was taught when I was younger
 
Books I have read and recommend are:

Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe.
Greenmantle by John Buchan.
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (read this one before Greenmantle - those two books are part of a series of 5 books, Thirty-Nine Steps being the first in the series and Greenmantle being the second).
 
Do you guys know about any good traditionalist philosophical books? I'm curious in hearing the opinion of the philosophical/metaphysical far right. Also, what Nietzsche would you recommend starting out with?
I'd also like to recommend Seven Taoist Masters, which I am currently reading. It's very engaging and has some interesting supernatural elements.
 
A Wild Sheep Chase and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami are two of my all-time favorites; they're really great examples of how to make surrealism work in literature. They've got this whimsical, dream-like quality to them which is my favorite kind of 'mood' when it comes to books.

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafòn is a really great mystery/adventure novel with fleshed-out, three-dimensional characters.

Outside of Fiction, there's this book on the history and application of cryptography called The Code Book by Simon Singh that has a really comprehensive, balanced look into cryptography and how it was/still is used and how its shaped the world around us. It goes from the first encryption techniques to the quantum cryptography used today and is just really fascinating.
 
i thought we had a thread on this bumped recently but i guess not so im bumping this bitch

im looking for some interesting cyberpunk stories that arent just snow crash, neurorunner, or the one that inspired blade runner
 
Deadwaste said:
i thought we had a thread on this bumped recently but i guess not so im bumping this bitch

im looking for some interesting cyberpunk stories that arent just snow crash, neurorunner, or the one that inspired blade runner
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Accelerando by Charles Stross is really good.

If manga is your thing, can’t go wrong with classics like Akira or Ghost in the Shell
 
If dystopian fiction is your thing then Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is a good read. I can't say anything about it without spoiling the plot twist, it's a gut puncher. My recommendation is just read it, don't look at reviews or anything like that, they might spoil big parts of the plot - and a lot of the impact from the story comes from realizing what is going on on your own. They made a movie out of this book and actually stuck to the storyline, so maybe that will convince you the book is worth reading.

The Saint of Steel series by T. Kingfisher. It's a series in progress, but each book is pretty self-contained. These are dark fantasy romances. Very very very funny, very sweet and wholesome, slow burning, and just a little naughty. Even if romance isn't your thing, I recommend these books because the plot is good beyond the smooching. There is some woke gender stuff in these, but it's subtle enough that it isn't unpleasant. One of the books in this series is a homo relationship, but it's very tastefully done, nothing gross or detailed. I don't normally read homo books, but I'll read anything she writes.

Anything by T. Kingfisher, actually. She's a skilled author and very humorous. I just read Nine Goblins and my only regret was that it was too short.

If you like space military fiction I recommend Terry Mixon. His series' are unfinished so far, but they are well done. The Imperial Marines Saga takes place about ten thousand years before his other, longer series does and is directly connected to that one. I think the other series is The Terran Empire? Anyway, no gender special nonsense, just science fiction and military stuff. Available through Kindle Unlimited, so free if you subscribe to that.
 
I'll recommend two of my favorites. Most people have probably heard of Lonesome Dove. It's a great western epic with lots of memorable characters and a powerful journey. It takes place in Texas after the civil war and follows a group leading a cattle drive north to be first to settle in Montana. I know that it's a long page count but I've read it twice and I think most people would enjoy it enough that it doesn't feel daunting. All the characters leave an impression on you even if they have a smaller presence in the book.
I don't know if I've come across villains as good as this. Whenever Blue Duck appears I had this sense of dread. He was a great villain

The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh is my favorite book. This is a dark comedy. It takes place in Los Angeles and follows police officers that work the night shift. The time period is after the Watts Riots and either during or after Vietnam. The book is broken up into pairings of the cops and their partners. They all participate in Choir Practice which entails them getting together after work to drink, run a train on fat cocktail waitresses, and blow off steam in a park. After a great comedic scene there'd be a tragic sucker punch to bring you back down to the harsh environment these guys are in. I also read the Last Centurions by Wambaugh. That felt more like a prototype to Choir Boys. It wasn't bad, but Choirboys hit the same beats and did a lot more with them. I think it's a great book for guys to read. I don't think women would really like it.
My favorite character is Baxter Slate. If you make it to the night Father Willie becomes a legend let me know
 
The Vampire Hunter D series by Hideyuki Kikuchi. Fun, pulpy adventure book that the anime was based on. A lot are out of print but the first three just got reprinted in an omnibus collection. Worth seeking out.
 
Battle Royale and Watership Down are my 2 favs that come to mind. Children killing children and animals killing animals in a desperate attempt to survive because of a situation they were forced into by a corrupt government. Viewing a violent dystopia through the innocent eyes of a virgin Japanese teenager or a British rabbit with ESP is a pretty unique experience outside of video games (or at least it was when the books came out in 1999 and 1972 respectively). Bonus points for having amazing movie adaptations too.
 
IDanceonTrannyGraves said:
The Vampire Hunter D series by Hideyuki Kikuchi. Fun, pulpy adventure book that the anime was based on. A lot are out of print but the first three just got reprinted in an omnibus collection. Worth seeking out.
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I really liked the Bloodlust movie and thought the first movie was a bit worse but alright. I did check out those three in the omnibus and didn't really care for them.
The third book in particular I hated. Saw Bloodlust and loved it so I wanted to check the books out. Biggest change that I hated was it's the Marcus brothers in the movie and in the book it's the Marcus clan. Everyone takes turns raping Leila in the book. Even Grove the sick one. I thought that was too much and overall, there's a lot of rape or attempted rape in the books. Not a male feminist or anything but it happened too often for me. Also, movie added that ending castle, the ship launching, and the funeral for Leila which to me was the best scene in the movie so I liked it more.

I haven't read the book versions yet but I liked the Elric comics, which I guess is more pulpy. Also, I thought the Black Company by Glen Cook was a good dark fantasy book but not really pulpy. It follows a mercenary unit employed by the dark lord of the land.
 
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