I have tried Calibre & SumatraPDF, I was so excited for Calibre until it never worked properly on the one textbook I needed. For example, whenever I went to the next page it would stall on loading forever, and this is apparently a known issue that's [according to the posts I read from the owner] caused by a graphics driver that I'm not interested in delving into just to read an ebook.

The ebook itself is pretty large with a lot of mathematical equations and images, but nothing my computer should be stalling on. The issue with SumatraPDF is that it can't seem to render the mathematical equations properly, and I couldn't find any simple way to load them without having to do more work.

So, I had this chat with a friend about verious topics. It made me realize how much I love engaging in discussions, but I also noticed that I struggle to articulate my thoughts logically and effectively frame my arguments. I want to improve my reasoning and argument skills so that I can confidently present my ideas in such conversations. So I'm seeking a book recommendation that can help me develop my logical thinking and persuasive abilities. I'm looking for a book that explains things in a straightforward way, with fun examples to practice with, covering diverse topics to make logical thinking enjoyable. If you have any suggestions, I'd be super grateful

So, I’ve recently remodeled my home office and added a big Murphy bed and bookcase wall unit. It is massive, amazing, and not nearly full enough for my literary standards. :)

I’ve been hunting for older, good condition, hardbacks from some of my favorite authors. I’m a massive Clive Barker fan (Imajica, Weaveworld, The Great and Secret Show, etc) and have been trying to track down good editions on eBay. I find it’s really hit or miss, and Amazon is really no better. Short of exploring Etsy for stuff (and my local thrift stores, which have not been remotely useful) are there any good places on the internet I should check out?

There was a time when googling for this worked, now it’s rather useless.

Thanks, all!

I'm currently reading The Priory of the Orange Tree, and really enjoying it, but I've got to confess I'm a bit disappointed by how predictable the world is. There's an obvious pseudo-medieval European culture, a vaguely Eastern culture of respect and honour, a wise Southern Arabic-flavoured culture, and so on.

It's making me long for some fantasy that feels genuinely different - as far away as possible from this vision of monotheistic courts, swordsman's honour and mysterious wisdom from far away. Something that feels refreshing in trying to portray a world that I have never seen before.

I recently read C.T. Rwizi's Scarlet Odyssey series, and while that definitely involves analogues to a lot of our cultures, it was told from an African perspective, which was very refreshing. So I'd welcome suggestions for fantasy books that approach the typical enemies from a perspective that I don't often see as an English-speaking European reader. But is there much in the way of fantasy that truly tries to explore places and people that are completely out there and away from any of our experiences?

Hey folks! I’m looking for some audiobook ideas (preferably fantasy and science-fiction). I want them to have a TV series or Movie about them though I could watch before listening to them.

All ideas welcome!

I'm part of an IRL bookclub, and we choose books based on themes each month. Our upcoming theme is "short story collection", and I'm looking for suggestions.

Don't worry about specific genres or catering your recommendations to our group's tastes. I'll filter that myself and nominate the one that I best think fits the group's interest (we all nominate books to the group and then everyone votes to determine what we actually read). I want the topic here to be general so that anyone looking for short story recommendations across any genre can get them.

Hi all. As the title says, I'm looking for recommendations on books about African American history. I'm Irish and I know the basics about the civil rights movement and some other bits through documentaries like 13th . Outside of that I've realized that my understanding of what African Americans have been though over the last couple of hundred years is pretty piss poor. I'd really like to educate myself a bit more, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Some of my favorite books are nonfiction, so I'm looking for more. These could be from your field of expertise, but could also just be books you have enjoyed. They just need to be comprehensible to a moderately intelligent reader with little to no background in the subject matter.

Here a few I have enjoyed.
A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr,
Being Wrong Adventures on the Margin of Error,
Cadillac Desert,
Facing the Mountain by Daniel Brown,
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah,
The Day the World Came to Town,
Travels With Charley by Steinbeck

Edit, a couple more,
Flow the Psychology of Optimal Experience,
Bowling Alone by Putnam,
Because Internet by McCulloch

Books that make you want to side eye the author, because why....would you come up with that?

For example, Frank Herbert, you know, the guy that came up with a beloved series that examines philosophy, religion, human nature, and the dangers of power, also wrote The Whipping Star - a book about a noirish, twice-divorced space detective who has to free a star from being contractually obligated to be whipped to death by a notorious, billionare dominatrix.

I'm looking for books where the premise is played straight, like the author doesn't know what a little weirdo they're being.

I appreciate Goodreads for its pretty extensive catalogue of books, the ability to see reviews from other readers, and the social aspect of following what my friends are reading. However, I find both the website and the app very slow and not very well designed. Plus, I liked to minimize my interactions with Amazon. Has anyone used or built any alternatives? While the features I listed above are nice, the only ones I would really want are:

• The ability to quickly look up and add a book to my "want to read", and to keep track of books I have read
• The ability to leave notes or reviews on books (not necessarily visible to others).

I've started to keep a reading log in Notion which satisfies the second point above, but there's no easy way to search through a data base of books and add a book to one of my lists. It would be nice to be able to do so on the fly as I browse books at the store. So Tildeños, what solutions have you all come up with to track your reading?

I'm in need of "the next" great Sci-Fi / action series to binge on. I've currently gone through read most / all of:

• Craig Alanson
• Andy Weir
• Jeremy Robinson
• John Scalzi
• Jonathan Maberry
• Timothy Zahn (all his Star Wars works)
• Max Brooks (WWZ)
• Earnest Cline (RP1/2)

I like Star Trekky plots and plucky nerd protagonists.

Also, I'm finding that I'm getting a bit tired of R.C. Bray (I think he narrates the majority of the above. At some point every snarky AI sounds like Skippy). Marc Thompson of the Star Wars series is an amazing narrator.

Side comment: I'm inclined to listen to a good audiobook just for the narrator's performance alone.

New to Tildes, so I wanted to kick things off by asking—do you have any sci-fi horror recs you reckon I might be interested in? Here's some of what I've read:

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

• Solid read, but definitely more about the weird vibes than anything else. Sequels didn't hook me as much.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

• I generally try not to DNF my reads. But this was one of them. I'm sorry, I just can't buy vampires in a sci-fi world that's trying to take itself seriously, without proper grounding. It's also incredibly dry.

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

• A pretty solid read, I like how the narrative is told via flashbacks and then suddenly terminates in a way that makes you want to know more, in the most tantalizing of ways. Unfortunately I thought the reveal of the lurking horror was incredibly meh, and it went mostly downhill from there.

Diamond Dogs by Alistair Reynolds

• Fantastic novella with a mysterious locale functioning as the backdrop of the setting, and the horror elements being both external (as in the setting) and internal (how far our characters are willing to go to crack the mystery).

Paradise-1 by David Wellington

• A really solid space horror novel, with a pretty interesting protagonist trio (including a self-aware robot with plastic bodies) and it has some genuinely uncomfortable moments of horror that I can absolutely get behind. My main issue though, is that it ends in a cliffhanger and I'm still mad about it.

Salvaged by Madeleine Roux

• Decent read, but the horror reveal came super early and in reality, it's less space horror than it is human drama involving horror elements which is basically the Protomolecule from the Expanse. Fun read though, if you're okay with that.

Salvation Day by Kali Wallace

• I thought this was somewhat bland, the concept and initial plot were interesting, but it trails off and overall, overstays its welcome with some scenes that pacing-wise, feel like they belong in the middle part of the book. Some solid moments of horror though.

Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo

• Probably the quintessential space horror book for me. A fantastic setting, an intriguing protagonist narrative interspersed with religious themes and a genuinely solid pacing, horror-wise.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

• This would have been an interesting murder mystery in space... if it actually had good and compelling characters. It does not. Everyone feels like a cardboard cutout with One Defining Trait and that's it.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

• This was... a disappointment. I still rank it amongst the worst books I've read, simply because the protagonist is unbelievable. I can buy a protagonist doing things under duress or from being manipulated, but I cannot buy a protagonist who constantly flip flops 5 minutes after making a decision and then
  hooks up with the person who was manipulating her, because yay fucked up sexytimes! Look, I want queer representation in my books too, but this came off too much as just doing it for the vibes. Queer rep deserves better than stupid protagonists.

Walking to Aldebaraan by Adrian Tchaikovsky

• A great novella; it's a retelling of a really well-known story but reframed in sci-fi terms, and I love that approach.

We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen

• A really haphazard book I think; I like some things about it, but others just don't make sense, or contradict it. E.g. the protagonist is a psychologist, but is absolutely horrible at reading human emotion and speech, and a loner who prefers robots. Throw in some Michio Kaku-esque pseudoscience and while it's not a horrible read, it feels like a book that could have been better with a rewrite. The setting and suspense are pretty neat though.

So, as you can see, I have met the good, the bad and the ugly of sci-fi horror. I'd love to find more! For non-book horror or horror adjacent works I've enjoyed, those include Alien, The Thing, Event Horizon, Sunshine, Underwater and Dead Space. Please don't recommend tie-in novels though; I can find those myself and generally I've found that they're not really up to par.

I usually just read ebooks on my phone using ReadEra, but I'm going to the beach in a few weeks and I'd like to buy a dedicated eReader so I don't burn through my phone charge (I usually stay on the beach from as close to sunup as I can manage to sundown). I'd like something that handles multiple file types, especially ePub, or at least doesn't require a proprietary file type or have RDM. I'd also like it to have a long-lasting battery (I frequently read for several hours at a time), and be sturdy/waterproof (because beach). I guess backlighting might be nice, togglable if possible, and if I could get on the internet to download files directly to the Reader that'd be nice too so I don't have to plan ahead. It doesn't need to be huge, in fact smaller is probably better. Price is definitely a factor, but I'm open to refurb if available for a higher-priced model.

Needs: Inexpensive, waterproof/sturdy, strong battery, ePub/open file types/no DRM

Wants: Backlighting, internet

I've done some comparison shopping but I'm waffling so I want other people's opinions. TIA!

From what I have seen discussions here seem mostly about published books but I had figured I will try posting here and see if anyone is interested. They have both positives and negatives compared to published/or even just completed fiction but mostly I am interested in them for the higher variance which also means that it is harder to find something good.

Just listing some I liked over the years, both more and less known:

• The Gods are bastards by DD Webb (on hiatus, extremely long) - set in a world in a magical industrial revolution where adventuring as career is all but over it follows a class of students in the University. Contains several other viewpoint characters and ever expanding cast.

• Fall of Doc Future trilogy(and extras) by WD Rieder (on hiatus, very long) - a story about superhumans where the abilities and their effects are treated seriously. Contains some social commentary and several polyamorous relationships in later parts.

• Time to Orbit: Unknown by Derin Edala (ongoing, long) - a psychological mystery/horror set on a colony ship. A colonist wakes five years early to find that the crew is missing and things are wrong. The mysteries so far constantly escalate but in way that mostly makes sense. The culture of this future is detailed and interesting.

• Mother of Learning by nobody103 (complete, extremely long) - a time loop progression fantasy following Zorian - a student mage from a minor merchant family.

• This Used to be About Dungeons by Alexander Wales (complete except epilogues, very/extremely long) - a slice of slice comfy story(at the beginning it slightly escalates later) containing extremely light litrpg elements. Focuses on the group dynamics of a party going to dungeons(sometimes).

What are some good ones that you would recommend?

The title pretty much says it all. The "evil" could be just switching sides to what was initially thought as the antagonizing force, or could be giving in to what we as the reader know is evil. Thanks in advance!

I would like to get slightly more educated in mathematics again - I took some basic calculus and linear algebra classes while doing my degree, but most likely forgot what I learned for the most part. Are there any good books that you guys would recommend for someone who wants to learn math again?

Hi! Growing up a boy, I was always too afraid to read Romance. I didn't want to get made fun of or give anyone clues about the way I felt about my gender and sexuality.

Besides the fact I identify as transfemme, I'm also much older and don't give a shit what anyone thinks now.

Can anyone recommend me a romance novel? I wanna add the genre to my reading. Fantasy/sci-fi splashed in would be cool but not required at all.

Please tell me your FAVORITE romance novel as opposed to the "classes" or "the best". I wanna know what you like. I think that will end up with more unique and specific vibes.

Ty xoxo

I haven't read through a book in a while, and I've been trying to get back into it! I used to read like a fiend, and I've bought many books recently but could never actually fully sit down and read them, I'm always too distracted or fall asleep. The last book I read was Simu Liu's Autobiography, because it was super easy to get into and it's super relevant to me in general, but every other book I've tried to pick up doesn't seem to grip me as much.

Are there any interesting books that are easily digestible that pulled you in? Or any tips for me to try to get through my backlog of books?

Parents of young kids: Who are your favorite authors for reading to your young kids? I have a soon-to-be 4 year old who loves books and I'm always looking for new ideas. I'll start off with a few of her favorite authors, with a good title from each (not in rank order).

Alice and Martin Provensen - Our Animal Friends on Maple Hill Farm
Julia Donaldson - Room on the Broom
Kaya Doi - Chirri and Chirra
Margaret Mahy - Dashing Dog
Anne Hunter - Possum's Harvest Moon
Paul Goble - The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

I'll single out the Chirri and Chirra books with an explanation because they're very different from the others. They are translated from Japanese, and despite having super simple plot lines, the drawings are a lot of fun and a wonderful complement to the text.

I read "Legends and Lattes" recently and liked the premise of the entire book. Does anyone know any other books that have a laid back and chill adventure story with little to no violence, gore, and stuff like that?

Thanks in advance.

I'm always looking recommendations for my next read. I haven't read many "pure" horror books this year, but I would like to recommend The Raw Shark Texts and The Library at Mt. Char. The former especially leads to some great discussions between readers.

I’m always looking for a good new book or, on lesser occasions, a good documentary. I love reading about “how stuff works”, astrophysics (space and its sheer size are insane to me), and oddly, random fantasy stuff like wizarding worlds, etc.
Judgements aside I like reading Harry Potter and some of the books by Neil Degrasse Tyson as well as watching Cosmos (Carl and Neil both).

What hidden gems do you have?

I'm big on audiobooks and trying to move away from the Audible monopoly starting with the book "Chokepoint Capitalism" (which is about monopolies like that).

Unfortunately, the smaller library is hampered even more by the dodgy search (I just finished two books in a trilogy, why are you showing me the spanish translations of the author's other books?) and I'm struggling to fill my wishlist which has never been a problem on Audible.

So far I'm really liking Chokepoint Capitalism but looking for any suggestions once that's done. I've read a decent amount of mainstream fantasy (Stormlight archive, Wheel of Time, Robin Hobb, Tolkien), some popular scifi (Aasimov, w40k stuff, recently enjoyed "Armor" by Steakly), a lot of light nonfiction about finance, history and pop psychology ("The Big Short" or anything by Michael Lewis, "Debt: The first 5000 years", "Girt", "The man who mistook his wife for a hat") and have recently been on a big Ken Follett kick (historical fantasy?)

Any good listens that I should give a go?

PS. sorry for sounding like a shill post for audiobooks.com. I swear I'm not trying to drive clicks that's just the name of the company and recent Brandon Sanderson drama has made me aware of how much power Amazon has over the only way I consume literature nowadays

I currently have a hankering for diving into a really long book series, so was hoping to get some recommendations from fellow Tildes users.

The genres I enjoy most are scifi and fantasy, especially darkly themed ones with deep lore, but I'm open to trying anything. The only caveat is that I have absolutely no interest in starting to read a series that hasn't actually finished yet, since at this point I am honestly quite sick of waiting for the next ASOIAF and Kingkiller.

I was considering listing all the longest series I have already read in order to avoid them getting recommended to me again, but I decided against doing that so other people can use this as a resource in case they're also looking for similar recommendations.

p.s. Malazan Book of the Fallen would be my biggest recommendation, BTW. It's by far my favorite dark fantasy series, is a whopping ~3M words, ~11k pages, with hundreds of unique/memorable characters, and an insanely deep lore spanning thousands of years.

Hello! I do a fair bit of my reading via Libby (I have memberships at the NYPL and Brooklyn Public Library) but I like to pick up some physical copies as well. I've spent some time in a couple of NYC bookstores but I'm curious about online portals folks here use to buy books. I've switched to bookshop.org for new books but what's the go to for used books?

Thanks!

So I'm reading Asimov's short-story anthology The Complete Robot, which contains stories written between 1939 and 1977, and I'm fascinated by several instances in which Asimov tries to predict the future of robotics.

When he gets it right is just as interesting as when he gets it wrong, as even when he's wrong, he's wrong in very interesting ways.

For example, it's very interesting how Asimov seems to think that everything must have a positronic brain (which often produces something either identical or very close consciousness), when in reality we now have numerous useful robots that have nothing of the sort.

So this made me thinking, I think I'd like to write a story that was just like that, an exploration of universal themes that is facilitated by simplified technology. A form of retrofuturism. And since I had the idea, obviously someone else had it before. I wanna read it! More recent stories, especially those with old-school robots and artificial intelligence. Any suggestions?

Also open to other medias, but books would be particularly helpful.

Hoping to generate discussion and have a few books recommended that have some of the following characteristics:

• foreboding discovery of a main character’s past
• a plot conflict that with a focus other than war or physical/political fighting
• preferable plot conflict examples: exploration, escape, grand heist, obtaining wisdom, treasure hunt
• undercurrent of a great unused power or magic that has been long lost

btw, I’m borrowing this format from r/Fantasy

Books I have liked:
Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series
Samantha Shannon The Priory of the Orange Tree
Michael Crichton The Eaters of the Dead
Lara Prior-Palmer (non-fiction) Rough Magic
Arthur C. Clarke (sci-fi) Rendezvous with Rama
Neal Stephenson (sci-fi) Anathem
Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive series

Traits like prose, characters, or settings you most enjoy:
Settings within the wilderness, crypts, large buildings/structures, caverns are all great.

Series vs. standalone preference:
No real preference, but longer is better I suppose.

Tone preference (lighthearted, grimdark, etc):
No strong preference, but mystical, ancient, and dark comes to mind.

Complexity/depth level:
Preferably on the more intricate side.

Thank you, let’s chat!

I often re-read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow around Halloween time. If you haven't read the original (published in 1819), it's a really fun read, with great descriptions of (obviously somewhat fictionalized) life in a town on the banks of the Hudson River in 1790.

What other short stories or books would you recommend for the Halloween season?

I'm interested in reading some books with good plot twists and would love some recommendations.

BUT WAIT THERE'S A TWIST

Knowing that a twist is coming can inhibit its effectiveness, so I also want some recommendations in this thread that do not have twists. This means that I or anyone else consulting this thread for recommendations won't necessarily know if the given book we've chosen has a twist or not, which helps keep us on our toes.

Speculative fiction contains elements that don't exist in reality. It includes genres such as science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror.

A producer friend is looking for stories with a focus on LGBT issues. As someone with a predilection for speculative fiction, it would be great to read/watch some speculative stories that deal with issues in that area. I am aware of some stories with LGBT characters, but gender and LGBT issues are generally not the main themes. I'd love to get suggestions for movies, TV shows, and books (especially short stories) that deal with those issues in a proper and inventive way.

As usual, Wikipedia has an extensive list on the subject, but I was hoping to get some more personal suggestions from the Tildes crowd.

Thanks!

It seems incredibly common in works of science fiction that touch upon technological immortality to focus on every possible way that such a technology could go wrong, create problems, or worsen social dynamics.

Among the negative outcomes that have attained trope levels of frequency, off the top of my head, I can name the following:

1. Immortality becomes available only to the ultra-wealthy, allowing them even more power to abuse everyone else, leading immortal people to be antagonists in a pretty generic dystopian plot.

2. Immortality subtly twists the morality of its beneficiaries, causing them to lose sight of "the real meaning of life" according to the author's worldview, and the protagonist usually fights for society to recognize how important death and endings are

3. Immortality causes people to go insane, become monsters, or otherwise utterly lose their humanity (this is more of an extreme version of case #2, but I feel it's distinct in the way a story plays out)

4. Immortality ultimately leads to the extinction of the human species due either to biological effects of the immortality technology in question, or due to cultural/societal shifts that lead people to stop reproducing

I'm sure there are many others that I'd recall if prompted, but my point is that I don't think I can name any science fiction that involves immortality technology that doesn't also decry it as ultimately a harmful development.

Are there any works of science fiction that any of you can think of that do more to celebrate the idea or look forward to it with some optimism?

When I was a kid I loved the stories of ancient Greek mythology and I think my daughter would enjoy them too. What are some good collections for a 7-year-old? Her name is Ariadne, so I’d be especially interested in ones that feature that character as more than a footnote (though preferably the less traumatizing versions of those particular stories).

What are some of the best, most influential, memorable, or otherwise impactful short stories that you've read throughout your life? If possible, please link to a PDF or other text so that we can enjoy it too.

Just wanted to preface this by saying that I don't know much about self-help lit and do not mean to offend anyone who enjoys it as a genre.

I've been talking to a friend of mine who primarily reads self-help literature (a genre I've never really delved into), and what struck me was the highly materialistic/individualistic focus that a number of these books seem to have (most being focused on becoming an entrepreneur who drives a Lamborghini and retires by 40 living off of their crypto/stocks/real estate investments). The failure of the individual to achieve these goals can apparently be overcome through positive thinking, changing one's mindset, etc, and the focus seems to be largely on material goods and the general definition of "American-style" success. My general feeling is that a large part of self-help as a genre is focused on the failings of the individual rather than societal ills (or, the Jordan Peterson style of motivational thinking), and that got me wondering if anybody had some books that differ from the mold somewhat, possibly talking about improving yourself not only as an individual but also as part of the community, perhaps offering some sort of a leftist perspective that touches upon commodity fetishism, etc.

If anyone had any suggestions, I'd love to take a look at them.

I need to read some fiction children books about death (for research) -- any age group preferably for young children.

Stories both realistic and fantasy/fantastical that doesn't gloss over the suffering and pain children can experience, possibly with dark overtones.

Stories featuring Death as a character would be great too.

Thanks!

If a friend who never reads came to you and asked for book recommendations that'll grab them, what would you recommend? Furthermore, what makes those ideal choices for a habitual non-reader?

I'm not asking because I'm trying to convince someone to read something -- I'm just curious to see what some of the suggestions and reasoning will be.

I'm not looking to gain any practical skills from these recommendations (ex: not "Clean Code", "The Pragmatic Programmer"). Last year I read through the two books in Fabien Sanglard's Game Engine Black Book series and would love to get my hands on more books like them. Books that focus on history, arcane details and secrets once thought lost to time. Sadly it appears I've already worked through Sanglard's entire bibliography. But I'm sure there's more stuff out there like it.

While the latest hype-trains and the guaranteed oldies give me a reading list a few thousand books long, I like to read things which are left by the wayside. This list here is a good example. The author gives a list of genre classics. Books which aren't good enough to make the top 1000 books of all time, but are classics in their own genre and influenced a lot of future authors. The Princess and the Goblin is a good example. Everyone interested in Tolkien and the Inklings has read it, as well as those who like modern fairy tales, but it doesn't crop up much in recommendations lists. These are books which aren't quite as commonly discussed, but still good and important for people interested in the genre.

So, if you have a favorite genre or sub-genre I would love to read your 'genre classics' list, with maybe a sentence about why I should enjoy it. Not quite as comprehensive as a class on books, more than a bullet point.

Edit:
I just realized I didn't change the title. By the 'gap', I originally meant the gap between the books everyone suggests from the past and the mountain of dredged pulp you find in libraries and bookstores: books which are worth still reading, even if they aren't one of the 'Classics'. More like underrated recommendations.

Just finished (re-)watching the Friends TV series ... End of the last episode, sitting in the empty apartment (Joey: "Has it always been purple?" Phoebe: "Do you realize that at one time or another, we've all lived in this apartment?")

Got me thinking, more as a plot contrivance than the actual plot, a story about an apartment, spanning a century or more, and the various people that lived in it, jumping back and forth across time, linking them together through history ... perhaps even, a la "Ship of Theseus", spanning multiple centuries and multiple homes/dwellings that occupied the same space.

So specifically, I'm wondering if anyone can think of any novels that adopt this idea, or anything similar, as a primary vehicle for their storytelling?

I have a vague recollection of a short story or novella in 2ndary school, about the life of a redwood, and the various people and animals that lived in and around it over the centuries ... and also I recall reading "A Winter Tale" by Mark Helperin -- a semi-fantastical novel about the city of New York ... oh look, apparently, they made it into a movie, too.

But those two are the only examples I can think of that come close to this idea.

PS: I love to write fiction, and someday I may even finish a novel ... but generally, I get about halfway through, figure out how it's going to end, and then lose interest ... so if anyone with more ambition likes the idea, you're welcome to it.

ETA: I'm not looking for the 10,000 variations of "oooh, haunted by the ghost of a person that died here 20 years ago". Broader, covering a longer timeframe, multiple substories interwoven into the same living space, you get the idea.

There are a ton of recommendation lists out there right now, each with a ton of titles. While it's nice to see that the topic is being addressed by so many different voices and from so many different angles, it can also make it so that it's difficult to know where to start or where to go next.

I'm curious as to which books about racism people here would recommend. Please share not only what the books you've chosen are about specifically, but why you are choosing to recommend them.

Here's a fresh new thread for book recommendations! The last thread from a year ago got bumped and saw some new top-level activity but few votes or responses on the new requests. I think it's probably not visible in a lot of people's feeds due to its age, and I was planning on rebooting it anyway, so here's a fresh topic we can use for new recommendations that will be visible to all.

Top level comments should fill in the blank with some sort of descriptor identifying a kind of book you would like suggestions for.

Replies can then recommend books to that individual.

Examples of what top level posts might be are below. Get as generic, specific, abstract, or out there as you want!

• Recommend me a book that will make me cry.
• Recommend me a book with a great twist.
• Recommend me a book that deals with loss.
• Recommend me a book about the fall of the Roman Empire.
• Recommend me a book with a main character in her 80s.
• Recommend me a book to help me learn PHP.

Thread reading tip: use the "collapse replies" button to see only top-level requests.

I eventually recommend Neil Postman's writing to anyone I can. These books are absolutely fantastic, especially Technopoly, though I'd also recommend Amusing Ourselves to Death and The End of Education (pun in the title intended).

One of Neil Postman's big contributions to how I think was by explaining an extended notion of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Instead of trying to insist that different human languages have different ways of communication, Neil Postman makes the assertion that different media, books, oral communication, TV, radio, the internet, have world-views embedded into them. So, you will (almost) never find a serious philosophical discussion in a film. Books, being linear can afford to give a cursory examination, and the person reading can follow at their own pace, while film can't do that. However, films are better at communicating emotion, so the stories in film are more experience/emotion/in-the-moment driven. Postman's argument was better, so ignore the weaknesses in my summary. I'm just trying to give some flavor to the type of things he wrote, like he also predicted how people would communicate on the internet.

The thing which really stands out to me is how Neil Postman was just a good thinker. He wasn't a one hit wonder for ideas. I'd be willing to read his thoughts on just about anything, even if I disagree. So anyway, read him! You won't have any regerts.

I've been on a long and steady roll reading classic literature, both fiction and non-fiction. I think it's important to get a perspective from earlier times that influenced our current culture and also because many of these works have withstood the test of time.

However, I'm having real trouble reading some of the non-fiction e.g. Plato's Republic and Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals. With both fiction and non-fiction I accompany my readings with Sparknotes to make sure I'm not missing anything important. In the case of non-fiction I often can barely get a cohesive thought out of the original text. In some cases the text is too old to be understood on it's own and in others the author has great ideas but poor writing (e.g. Nietzsche, famously). But Sparknote's is much too brief—I'd like a more involved experience.

My request is this: I'm looking for books (or resources to find such books) about classic non-fiction that

1. distill the concepts without watering them down
2. provide context with either modern culture and/or other works that are related
3. are written for an intelligent layman; prose meant to communicate to a non-expert audience but with scholarly rigor

Basically, I read at a high level but I am not a professional scholar of literature, philosophy or history, yet I would like to have a bridge to such an understanding.

EDIT: I found this site to be exactly what I was looking for: https://plato.stanford.edu/index.html

EDIT: This is an old thread that's fallen off many people's feeds. See a current version here.

Top level comments should fill in the blank with some sort of descriptor identifying a kind of book you would like suggestions for. Be as generic or specific as you want.

Replies can then recommend books to that individual.

Examples of what I'm thinking for top level posts, in case my description was unclear:

• Recommend me a book that will make me cry.
• Recommend me a book with a great twist.
• Recommend me a book that deals with loss.
• Recommend me a book about the fall of the Roman Empire.
• Recommend me a book with a main character in her 80s.
• Recommend me a book to help me learn PHP.