BOOKS! Need recommendations

[jetpack_monkey]

I'm traveling on a train to Vividon in August -- 43 hours there and 43 hours back. Exciting! I have some stuff planned to occupy my time. I'm going to put a few choice movies on the iPad and I've downloaded some board games to play with echan. However, I also want to do some reading!

I know my friends' list is fully of savvy book lovers and I want to get some recommendations from you folks. Novels, non-fiction, etc. If it's available for Kindle or in the iBook store, all the better.

Fiction I like: Hitchhiker's Guide (only read the Adams books -- are the later ones any good?), Discworld, Vorkosigan, Dresden Files, Game of Thrones (halfway through book 2 now), 1984, Brave New World, The Running Man, the first Hunger Games book (yes I like dystopia, what of it), Frankenstein, Edgar Allan Poe, Rebecca (du Maurier), Ender's Game, Flannery O'Connor.

Tried getting into Honor Harrington and the military strategy/tech stuff just went right over my head. Might give it another shot.

Non-fiction I like: Books on movies, mostly. More toward the academic/analytical end of things, but given my vidding, I want to start looking at technical stuff related to editing as well. Most of my books are horror-related for obvious reasons and I'd like to branch out from that, although I am still obsessed with genre as a concept and its eternal chicken/egg struggle.

Also, John Green's Crash Course series on Youtube is making me more interested in world history, so if there's any really great reads there, let me know. Ooh and anything on the War of the Roses. I want to compare and contrast it with Game of Thrones.

Comics: Marvel tends to have more deals in the Comics app on the iPad, so I've been reading a metric ton of their stuff lately. I'd like to switch to DC and get some digital trades from the Kindle store. Any really good DC comics or independent series/storylines lately (by lately, I mean in the last eight years)?

Comments

[rhivolution]

In DC stories, I heartily recommend Manhunter to all and sundry, because Kate Spencer is amazing.

[adalger]

Neil Gaiman - anything. A good entry book is Good Omens, with Pratchett.
Asimov's Chronology of the World
Possibly Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, which is an excellent piece of historical perspective.

[jetpack_monkey]

Love Good Omens. I've worn through my copy. However, your comment reminded me that I still haven't read American Gods, so I went and bought that.

[thirdblindmouse]

I'm currently reading the latest in Charles Stross's Lovecraftian spy novels on my boyfriend's Kindle. The first in the series is "The Atrocity Archives". They're a nice mix of funny and terrifying.

See you at VividCon!

[lizbetann]

Ooh and anything on the War of the Roses. I want to compare and contrast it with Game of Thrones.

Oh, my.

I'm lending you my e-copy of Sunne in Splendour.

[lizbetann]

Not to mention that any comparison between Game of Thrones A Song of Ice and Fire and the War of the Roses is sharply cut off by the end of book 1. Rather... terminally.

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

43 hours?? Where is Vividcon? The moon?

I'd definitely recommend picking up the other two Hunger Games books. Also, Graceling by Kristin Cashore is really good and has a similar vibe. I also really enjoyed Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series which is dystopian YA.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Trains are slow and it's a LA to Chicago journey. :)

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

Most of the fiction I read is more ~~literary fiction~~ but you might really enjoy Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers. For super-hero-y stuff, Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman is enjoyable, and probably just right for a train ride! Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts is good if you're looking for something more experimental.

Nonfiction I mostly read science books? Why Evolution is True is exceptionally well put together, but if you've read a lot of Dawkins it'll mostly be retread. Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is always enjoyable. Mary Roach's Packing for Mars is about the challenges we'd face in space, and is super interesting. I have Bad Science and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (about the woman they took the HeLa cell line from, without her knowledge) on deck; the later is supposed to be gorgeous. I've heard really good things about The Disappearing Spoon as well.

Comics I'll admit I mostly read Marvel as well, but some things you should check out if you haven't: Marvel Adventures: The Avengers is made of joy and sunshine and awesomeness, NEXTWAVE is hilarious and satirical and amazing, Y: The Last Man is just all around fantastic storytelling (post-apocalyptic story about the actual last man on earth), and Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men gives THE BEST Emma Frost. I assume you've already read the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels?

Sorry! I have A LOT OF THOUGHTS about books, but I managed to restrain myself somewhat!

EDIT: I missed the part where you were looking for academic/technical books about movies, not in general! Sorry!

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I like literary fiction as well! See above, re Rebecca by du Maurier (although there's some horror-y aspects on the fringes if you squint).

My mom raves about Bill Bryson. I should pick up some of his stuff. He's a fellow Iowan and has a particular insight on my state of birth.

Y: The Last Man is one of those series that I want to read, like Sandman, where there's so much of it that it feels a little... overwhelming. I have the first issue and it's quite good, so I may pick up the rest.

And yes, I've read Scott Pilgrim and I totally still owe you a Scott Pilgrim vid.

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

LOL, I was trying to think of books with a bit of a horror bent and then I got distracted by how this was possibly the least useful set of recs ever.

I like some Bryson! Not all of it, but some of it is really great! I remember reading his one about Australia in high school and giggling like mad.

Y is good! It's not perfect by any means, but I really think that overall it's incredibly strong. Brian K Vaughan is just really, really good, and it's an excellent take on what might happen on a global scale if all the dudes dropped off. He also did the first few volumes of The Runaways if you're looking for something a little lighter -- its' about a group of teenagers who discover their parents are supervillians and, well, run away. It has an excellent cast.

As for Scott Pilgrim: I haven't forgotten (and am still excited!), but I figure that you're probably pretty busy, and will get around to it when you have time!

OH MY GOD I JUST THOUGHT OF THE PERFECT BOOK REC FOR YOU.

of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It is one of my favourites. It's about a young man, developing some serious mental problems, who discovers a manuscript written by a dead blind man, about a subculture that sprang up around a series of documentaries that never existed, about a family who discovers that their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It's the story of the young man as he goes a bit mad, the family as their life descends into horror, the young man's mother, told in letters from an asylum, and so much more. It skips around and is foot-noted and missing pages and impossible to read linearly and it is fantastic.

It would be pretty impossible to read on an eReader, though, with the skipping around, so you'd want to pick up a hard copy.

SRSLY. READ THIS BOOK.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Karen Pearlman's Cutting Rhythms: Shaping the Film Edit

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

That's been on my list. I'll probably pick it up soon.

[shannonsequitur.livejournal.com]

Dunno if you've already read them, but if you like Adams and Pratchett, there's a good chance you'll like the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I tried the first one and, other than a memorable conversation about Bacon and Shakespeare, it really made no impression on me. Which was disappointing, because it seems like it would be just my thing.

[coltsbane.livejournal.com]

I just picked up the 7th book in the series. The second is better than the first. But if you want to give another of his series a shot, I'm seconding yoshimi below - try Shades of Grey (you may also find it as Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron). It's a bit overwhelming at first but it's pretty damned epic and worth the read.

[kiki-miserychic.livejournal.com]

Comment posted before I actually finished... In addition to that book (thuviaptarth and laurashapiro rec too) I'm reading Octavia Butler’s Parables book series. It sounds like it'd be right up your alley. It didn't grab in with the first chapters, but I'm really into now. For comics, I always suggest Fell, even though the series is unfinished.

That's cool. Will the train have plugs for an iPad? I've never thought about that.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Trains have electricity, according to Echan, but no Internet. So I'm loading up so I don't have to go "Oh wait... I wanted x". The nice thing about living in a digital world is that, in years past, this would've meant a duffel bag of books, games, and other sundry entertainments. Now it's all in one device.

[airawyn.livejournal.com]

Trains might have wifi. The LA-San Diego one does. If it's Amtrak, check the website and it may tell you if your train has wifi. However, the LA-SD one blocks streaming video and large downloads (for bandwidth reasons) and drops out in some places. So it's good for tweeting, reading and possibly chatting but you don't want to depend on it to keep you entertained for the whole trip.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Echan took this particular train last year and it did not have Internet then, so I'm not going to be counting on it.

[yoshimi.livejournal.com]

Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Thanks for providing the author. Looking up just Shades of Grey on Amazon resulted in many, many books I have no interest in.

[yoshimi.livejournal.com]

i actually started the book right before all the "50" madness hit. timing is everything.

thanks largely to the hunger games, i've read so much dystopian fiction lately that i've started to get my dystopias confused! shades of gray is one of the better, less romance novel-y, ones.

[lizbetann]

Fantasy novels:
Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series -- may squick you, but some lush, GORGEOUS worldbuilding.

Bujold's Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls

[airawyn.livejournal.com]

DC Books:
Blue Beetle (2006-2009 series.) Don't bother with the Nu 52 version, but the previous run is AMAZING. Also, pretty self-contained.
Batgirl - My favorite is the 2009-2011 series (Stephanie Brown), but the 2000-2006 series (Cassandra Cain) is also very good. (The Nu 52 series is Barbara Gordon in one of the most ableist and sexist retcons I've ever seen. Don't go near it.)
I love the Young Justice classic series, which may be older than eight years, actually, but it's still quite fun.
Look for the "Under the Red Hood" storyline, if you haven't read it yet, and pick up "Red Hood: Lost Days" as well.
GOTHAM CENTRAL. Absolute must-read. There's five TPBs.
Gotham Knights through about issue 50 is generally a good read. (And it's where my icon is from.) After around 50, the focus shifts from the Batfamily to the Gotham villains. Not terrible, but not as much fun.

You are reading Wolverine and the X-Men, right? I swear it's a Marvelized Fandom High.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Looks like I'll have to pick up individual issues for those -- it doesn't look like DC's made any of them available as digital trades.

Haven't been reading Wolverine and the X-Men. I tend to give comics a good couple years, so they're cheaper and I can do proper research on surrounding events so I don't have to feel lost without needing to buy books I don't need.

[anoel.livejournal.com]

I didn't love the first book (I had issues) but a lot of people love them more than I: the Chaos Walking series is good dystopian YA fiction. Just be sure to get all three books, there's a cliffhanger.

FINISH GAME OF THRONES!!!

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I plan on finishing GoT. I have the first four books and I'll pick up the fifth when I'm done with them.

[sol-se.livejournal.com]

Monster by A. Lee Martinez! I think you'd like it.



It's been a few years, but on the dystopian front, I remember really liking Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.

I read one of the non-Adams Hitchhiker books a while back (And Another Thing...). It was ok, but kind of meh. Definitely not Adams.

Also, I'm still a newbie just getting into comics, but I'm looking forward to where the current Army of Darkness run is going after reading #1.

(Don't mind me, I'll just be over here stalking your comments and taking notes on all the recs you get.)

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Stalk away! Based on the description alone, I picked up Monster. I'll look into the Miéville book, but I've heard mixed things about the author.

[yoshimi.livejournal.com]

i've never read anything else by him, but perdido street station did rule.

[qkellie.livejournal.com]

Perdido is AMAZING!

one more bit of literary prosthelytization

[yoshimi.livejournal.com]

i'm also fairly obsessed with kazuo ishiguro's 'never let me go.' i loved it. a lot.