General Book Recommendations

[sig]

  GIVE ME YOUR BOOKS 

I'm in the mood for some New Reading Material, what are your favourite books that you can't recommend enough? I'll be sure to post some of mine later as well!

Anything goes!

[Frost Sheridan]

i don’t read books all that much, but my personal favorite would have to be Racing the Beam by Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost. this is an excellent book that covers all of the issues and troubles that developers encountered while making games for the Atari 2600, with a focus on technical limitations of the console and crazy tricks that the developers pulled to overcome them.

the title “racing the beam” is a term that refers to the style of programming required on this console due to its primitive graphics chip and lack of VRAM. the CPU itself basically had to draw the graphics to the screen at the exact same time that the TV was displaying them, so your program had to be timed perfectly or it would get out of sync with the TV and mess up the video signal.

even though the topics covered are very technical, the authors do a great job of describing them in a way that is still understandable even if you don’t have a lot of Atari or computing background knowledge. the book also touches on legal/business/societal issues that arose when the very first licensed games were being developed for the platform, because no one had ever done licensed video games before!

[Guest]

I have a few, and I'll link to my reviews posted on one of my tumblrs just in case others would like to read more! (they're spoiler free, and including trigger warnings involved in each book). In order of favourability.

• Earthlings by Sayaka Murata: Honestly my number one most favourite book ever, mostly because of how much I relate to the main protagonist, so I'm not sure how much others would love it considering. However, the book is an overall wild ride, touching on several deep and oftentimes dark themes surrounding society that seem to prevail regardless of where you are in the world. Stolen from my review linked: "If I had to condense this story into one word it would be “alienation”, both in the literal and metaphorical sense, but doing so would be a grave injustice to the books many overarching themes."
• I'm Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid: An overall confusing and distressing and comfortable mundane experience all wrapped into one clustered ending that really threw my through a loop. It was as terrifying as it was comforting to read, and though I saw many reviews claiming that the story was predictable— it certainly wasn't for me. Also, if you've seen the movie, I still recommend reading the book. They're different, and I think the book ending is much better than the movie one.
• Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom: This is probably the one I recommend least, but I hold it very very close to my heart. It's just a retelling of someone's life, but the man it's discussing suffers from ASL, and my grandpa had MND, so I took to the retelling very personally. It's emotional, and funny, and sincere, and I appreciate reading about this little old mans positivity and life lessons throughout this book. From my review: "I found the whole book terribly relatable, and it broke my heart. perhaps my review is rose tinted due to experiencing a very close loved on with this disease, but I cannot hold back just how much fun and laughter I had with this book. how much I cried and wished it was longer, how I yearned for more time with Morrie."

[SilkSkull]

Neuromancer, it's some of the founding pieces of the cyberpunk genre and a really solid read (if you can get past the fluff)

[Lyonid]

It's very very hard for me to read long books because I literally fall asleep reading them! I usually stick to very short and small classics because they are so concise and clear. They don't overwhelm me. An English book I have been in love with is The Day Dreamer by Ian McEwan. It's a collection of shortstories about a the thoughts of a daydreaming child. He fades away in many situations in his life to fight dinosaurs or go on adventures as a cat. It's very endearing, but I found it so comforting. The people around him are very supportive and help him learn about life in a very humane and reflective way. It reads so well as it's a children's book, but I feel like we all should read more of those.

In case you are not looking for anything endearing and happy, I will always recommend one of my absolute favourites: Passing by Nella Larsen. Absolute Must of a read for every person alive right now, I belive. It's about the lives of two black women who by the public are read as white. It had me gasping in a crowded train multiple times and is great literature when thinking about intersectional identities and how our perception shapes them. Please read <3

[Guest]

GIVE ME YOUR BOOKS 

HISSSSSSSSSSSS

NEVER!!!!!!

[Commodorn]

Misery
A Stephen King novel about a writer (shocker!) who finds himself under the care of one of his "biggest fans" after suffering some disabling injuries in the middle of nowhere. Sounds goofy from that description, but it could be a good choice if you like horror that feels more grounded in the realm of possibility than anything that's more fantastical or paranormal. The Dark Half might also be fun to read if you'd prefer to have something with more weird.. uh.. mindfuck elements and symbolism. I like both equally in all of their horrific nastiness, but I don't really know how to start with The Dark Half without revealing too much.

I've only read Carrie by him so far, and while I appreciate that it was his first published novel, it left me a bit wanting. Is Misery a bit more polished?

I actually have not gotten the chance to read Carrie yet, but I would consider Misery more polished compared to some of the less fantastic books I've read and the complaints I've heard about some of his other (much longer) novels. Misery is detailed, but it doesn't really go completely off the rails from what I remember of it. It was also written more than a decade after Carrie. I hope that helps some <:O)

[Guest]

Misery
A Stephen King novel about a writer

This one has been on my TBR for so long! My mom is a huge fan of Stephen King and has read all of his books thus far AFAIK! I've only read Carrie by him so far, and while I appreciate that it was his first published novel, it left me a bit wanting. Is Misery a bit more polished?

[creaturefeature]

i just started reading the Vampire Hunter D light novel series, its an interesting experience so far, also I found this hilarious book called an Eldery Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten.
You know those mystery solving novels? What if instead of having an old lady solving crimes, she commits them?

[devils]

Interesting that I happen to find this thread as I start reading more, eh?

Anyways, I've been reading a collection of short stories by Olga Tokarczuk called Bizarre Stories, and I've been enjoying it a lot. I generally recommend checking out the winners of the Literature Nobel Prize every once in a while, you're always bound to find something unique among them.

Besides that, I can't not recommend the works of Fernando Pessoa. He's my favorite poet!

[Guest]

I have quite a few book recommendations that I'd make to anyone:


• The Journey Home, as well as Edward Abbey's other books in general. He's one of the main inspirations for me in regards to environmental activism. Combined with his humor and writing style I've found his books to be some of my favorite ones, though sadly The Journey Home doesn't get as much attention unlike Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang.
• New Roman Times, which is named after and written as an alternative take on the Camper Van Beethoven album of the same name. I enjoyed its deconstruction of various political actions and the tactics pundits and activists use. Though like the album, it might take some time to understand given both are surreal alt-history stories.
• The Surrogates, a comic that I read for my introduction into fiction class for college that I enjoyed. I connected to it mostly because when I read it I saw parallels of how some people live completely different lives digitally compared to what they really are like in the comic and in the real world.