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Fossidarity wrote

I recently read A Psalm for the Wild Built. It's a refreshing short cute solarpunk read which gave me a little hope for the future, something which is very rare these days for me.

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Tequilx_Wolf OP wrote (edited )

Being more specific about me, though this question can be general and for everyone. I've struggled with finding stuff to read for a while. Frankenstein is my favourite book, though I barely remember it now.

I tried Samuel R Delaney and wasn't super taken by it. I got through Babel-17 but just couldn't get into that long book of his.

When I was younger I liked magical realist stuff.

I fee like I would enjoy something something sharp and witty, but I don't even know where to begin.

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[deleted] wrote (edited )

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fortmis wrote

have you heard the original bbc broadcast of it?? SPLENDID!

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Ennui wrote

I recommend reading the whole series as if it's one book. Then it's like an 800 page novel, but still somehow light reading.

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mr_wrong wrote

Some bookstores even sell the whole collection compiled into one book to make this easier!

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moonlune wrote

Frankenstein is my favourite book

Have you read edgar allan poe? He does the same genre of gothic horror iirc

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indeedbutwhy wrote

“War and Peace” by Tolstoy

When I finished reading this book, I was stuck for words to describe the experience. It had just beent a lot of everything, as Tolstoy usually is.

Starting at around halfway, the author has interspersed some essays forming a critique of how history was perceived in his day (the emphasis on the choices made by “great figures” as primary determining factors). The essays are typical Tolstoy: wordy and polemic, but also quite sharp and sometimes witty.

Adding these to a work of historically informed narrative fiction was a brilliant move.

As for the narrative fiction itself, it’s just in a class of its own. I picked it up in English after having had to read some 19th-century classics in French and German at the university. Balzac, Hugo, Raabe, and Schiller were all fine but did not speak to me the same way Tolstoy did.

Would absolutely read this book a second time one day. Might actually do it soon now that you remined me of it.

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flingwingin wrote

I always love John Conrad books. They're just good old fashioned fiction with hints of philosophy throughout, but what's special is his way with words and storytelling and his views on shit. I'm reading Nostromo and it's like an ayn rand book, but class conscious. It's set in south america in a fictional country situated where colombia is, and there's always stories about bandits and revolutions in the background that gives it such a good vibe.

Ray Bradbury is also consistently good with all his stuff, but on re-reading some of his stuff it seems a little niche and hamfisted on the morals or something. I mean I guess thats also kind of the selling point idk.

Anyone ever read The Conformist? I remember reading that when I was young and looking for books like it (and thats how I found John Conrad's Heart of Darkness). These are all just kind of chill vibes fiction I guess.

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flingwingin wrote

yo btw this isnt a novel but i loved the shiiiiiit out of these

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1857074W/Moderns_and_Contemporaries?edition=ia%3Amodernsandcontem0000unse

"Moderns and Contemporaries: nine masters of the short story"

It was like 1 or 2 dollars from the library's discards or whatever. Idk why though except that it's not an original work and just an anthology. But it's great shit. Those fucks fill the shelves with pop psychology and weird shit but won't keep this... smdh

there's this italian illegalist story in there and its wacky. The guy comes up with a silly limmerick. It went smth like:

Whilst Titian was mixing rose madder
his model sat crouched on a ladder.
Her position to Titian suggested coition
so he stopped mixing madder and had'er

i can't forget it

A tip to you though, go to local used book stores and see if there are cheapies or go to a library and see if there's books theyre selling

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fortmis wrote

Jeanette Winterson -- fantastical queer novels with magic and love and depth. challenges conventional ideas of romance and gender in a pretty serious way. I'd start with "The Passion" or "Sexing the Cherry"

John Berger -- radical and poetic novels bursting with life! I'd start with "G." a story about a real romantic cassanova-type traveling through Italy in the late 1800s during the Milanese worker's revolution.

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Odonian wrote

The Dispossessed: an ambiguous utopia, is a wonderful work of fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin. It follows Shevek, a physicist born on the anarchist world of Annares as he journeys to Its sister planet Urras. Basically modern day earth with advanced technology. It explores the way both cultures find each other totally alien, and how they navigate a relationship with each other. It has a lot of insights on a practical application of syndicalism, with a few flaws. Highly recommend.

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torrylane wrote

Have you read 'The Martian'.

I really loved it.

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