Hey wonderful H/A,
I've recently decided to spend less time on games and forums and more time with books and films, just to change it up a bit. Mostly to keep my mind off of MMOs, and a little to better myself. So, anyone have any recommendations?
Favorites off the top of my head:
Books!
Vonnegut
Dark Tower Series
Harry Potter series
Into the Wild (Are Krakauer's other books good?)
Life of Pi
man, so many not coming to mind.
Movies!
Wes Anderson
Tarantino
Anything with Joseph Gordon-Levitt
" " Christian Bale
Squid and the Whale
Groundhog Day
Specifics I'm looking for:
Books!
I kind of burned out on Vonnegut's style of writing and his kind of plots. It's hard to explain but, well, the plot was kind of second to the narration in a lot of his books. Or.. the plot was kind of there as a vehicle to get across his insights into life. Which were fantastic, but I'm looking for something a little more conventional, though others will do as well.
Also, classic authors? Hemingway, Dickens, etc? I liked Tale of Two Cities, but I'm not too thrilled about jumping into heavy literature just because it's considered a classic. What are the best of the classics? Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, etc? How difficult are they?
I'm not afraid of a heavy read, but I'm looking to ease into a regular reading schedule. So working my way toward that would be good.
Movies!
I, like most other generic college kids, am a fan of Bill Murray's more recent, dramatic stuff. But I liked his humor as a kid, and am interested in some of his more traditional comedies. What should I avoid, what should I see?
Anything else is appreciated.
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Books:
Ender's Game series - genius children being trained as military commanders for a future war against aliens
Alvin Maker series - young boy learns to use magic of sorts in an alternate US history where minor magicks is the norm
Wizard of Earthsea series - following the life of a wizard in the archipelago world of Earthsea
Nightwatch series - zombies, werewolves, warlocks and witches in modern day Russia fight to maintain the balance between light and dark
World War Z - A fictional future/historical account of a war against zombies written by Mel Brooks' son
Movies:
Stripes (old school Bill Murray)
Caddyshack (more old school Bill Murray, don't bother with Caddyshack 2 as he was smart enough not to be in it)
Sunshine - astronauts are sent to reignite the dying sun with an enormous nuclear warhead. Sounds like a shitty Armageddon-esque space disaster movie but is actually fantastic.
The Fountain - A scientist struggles to find a cure for his wife's disease. It's a Darren Aronofsky film so it's very entertaing. Fun fact, he used no CGI in this movie.
Seconding the Ender's Game series (plus its Shadow counterparts) and anything else by Orson Scott Card; namely, Hart's Hope (dark fantasy), Homebody (modern ghost story), and Enchantment (modern retelling of a fairy tale).
Check out anything by Robin Hobb for excellent character-driven fantasy with great plotting and ideas, beginning with the Liveship Traders trilogy (Ship Of Magic et al).
George R.R. Martin writes amazing books; his greatest strength is plotting, and he's very, very good at it, but he's also quite good at characterization. Most people these days know him for his Song of Ice and Fire series, and it is incredible, but don't miss out on his earlier novels either.
Outside of science fiction/fantasy... Robert B. Parker writes great mysteries. Check out his Spenser novels, starting with the first one, The Godwulf Manuscript.
Anne Tyler writes modern literary books featuring some of strongest characterization you will find anywhere, period. Try A Patchwork Planet or perhaps Saint Maybe on for size.
So you like Stephen King. Good. Check out Bag of Bones, I'm of the opinion that it, not the Dark Tower series or The Stand, is his best work.
Hope that helps.
Anansi Boys
Good Omen
All by Neil Gaiman, and all very good.
For more fantasy, I love Magician by Raymond E. Feist, and the series that follows, though I haven't kept up with the more recent iterations.
The Sabriel series is great as well, and lighter, easier to read.
I've really been enjoying Neil Stephenson stuff- first I read Snow Crash, one of the seminal Cyberpunk books, and then moved on to Cryptonomicon, and his Baroque Cycle (in that order, which is important). These books are described as a "historical-sci-fi-epic-pirate-comedy-love story."
Movies: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? and Snatch too.
I'm lost on movies.
Prestige- The "other" magician movie that came out recently. Bale's in it, as is Jackman and it's great.
Name of the Wind- Good fantasy series, some say it's an adult Harry Potter, and it's a pretty good description.
Great Gatsby- Insanely good, easy to read.
Hemingway/Flannery O' Connor- Two of my favorite "literary" authors, O'Connor has a great sense of the gothic, and Hemingway, well, he's Hemingway.
Also, if you haven't seen True Romance, you owe it to yourself to do so. It's Tarantino's first script, and may be one of the best casted movies ever.
Yes. Oh yes indeedy.
Also, Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke is a fantastic read.
I can't help much with a deep read though. I've been on a "trash" fiction binge. Greg Rucka, Robert Crais, Lee Child, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child for my action fix. Tim Dorsey for my humor fix (Main character is a homicidal psychopath that just wants to help).
Ah I know. A Collection of Twentieth Century Ghost Stories - Joe Hill. Amazing stuff in there.
Movies.
Flatliners - Cult favorite of mine. Not the best movie ever made. Good though.
I second True Romance I second it so hard. Also includes Brad Pitt's best role ever.
The Music of Chance - It's got Mandy Patinkon and James Spader. You should be sold already.
Bad Lieutenant - Harvey Keitel is a freakin psycho. This proves it.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
I just read this actually; I found it really slow getting through, especially the first half, but it was still good.
My roommate has the entire Ender's series, and he's read them all multiple times, so I'll probably check those out. If not the entire series, at the very least the first. My neighbor and good friend has a ton of Pratchett books as well, so maybe I'll check some of those out.
noir_blood, I've read plenty of O'Connor (did a research paper on her use of religion), but what do you recommend for getting into Hemingway?
I've seen Brick and loved it. What suggestions do you have in the whole noir genre? (I'm assuming you're pretty well versed in that whole scene )
I'm definitely going to have to check out Stripes and True Romance, and Bad Lieutenant has been mentioned to me before so I'm gonna check that out.
As for Bag of Bones, it's sitting in my mom's bookshelf. We don't know where it came from--it's just there. So, I'll have to start on that.
Keep it coming, I'm makin a list!
I haven't finished it yet, but thus far I've really enjoyed Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. She was a Russian-born French woman writing about France during the German occupation in WWII. She died in a concentration camp, and thus it is technically incomplete, but it is still excellent. The writing style is very French, but the scope of the plot and the intricacy of the characters is very Russian; I love the combination.
Speaking of Russian literature, I'm a bigger fan of Tolstoy than Dostoevsky, but they're both great. If you're willing to commit to a heavier read, pick up Anna Karenina, preferably the Pevear/Volohonsky translation. It's simply fantastic.
As for movies... I think Bill Murray's pretty much been covered, but if you're not familiar with Christopher Guest definitely check his stuff out. Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, and A Mighty Wind are brilliant mocumentaries, and I think there is definitely something in common with Bill Murray or Wes Anderson's sense of humor. This is Spinal Tap is good, too, but a bit different from those three (Rob Reiner, not Christopher Guest, directed it). Stay away from For Your Consideration.
I would also highly recommend you sign up for Netflix if you don't have it, and spend some serious time rating movies. If you tell it what comedies you like, it'll give you some fantastic suggestions you'd never think to consider otherwise.
Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon
5 People Who Died During Sex (Non fiction)
Stiff (subtitled Something like the fascinating tales of dead bodies - nonfiction)
Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroghs (Memoir but arguably and now legally i think considered fiction)
I second Anasazi Boys as well
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker (great short fast read)
Fast Food Nation (brilliant non-fiction)
Movies:
Wristcutters a love story
Ghostdog way of the samurai
Equilibrium
By far my favorite is Double Indemnity - Fred McMurray plays an insurance salesman who falls for a trophy wife and they plot to kill her husband for the insurance money. Some other good ones:
Kiss Me Deadly
The Maltese Falcon
The Killers
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Vertigo
Shogun by James Clavell is my favorite novel of all time. It's seriously, seriously awesome, and my respect for it only improved when I learned it was based on actual events. There are actually towns named after the protagonist in Japan.
The Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal and
Hannibal Rising are all very good, the last two being much better than the movie versions.
I'm reading the original Dracula right now, and while it suffers from the same dense language as all classics, it really does invoke a wonderful sense of dread and evil.
Movies:
Leaving Las Vegas - if you want to be depressed yet feel strangely hopeful at the same time.
The Royal Tenenbaums - I walked out of the theatre and it was snowing outside, but it felt like a beautiful summer's day.
Ginger Snaps - the best werewolf movie ever made.
Kung-fu / Japanese shit you should definetly, definetly check out:
Drunken Master - Jackie Chan's original masterpiece.
Yojimbo - has been remade into westerns too many times, and none of them are close to as good as the original. I've never seen a real live person wield a sword like Toshiro Mifune does in this movie.
Iron Monkey - it's got nobody famous, but it's a great entertaining kung fu lark.
Cartoons that should get more respect:
(TV)The Venture Bros. - Seasons 1 and 2 are on DVD, and this show is hilarious genius.
(TV)Samurai Champloo - I dunno if you can buy it on DVD, but if you ever can, I will. The best animated action sequences ever. Ever.
The Secret of NIMH - an old Don Bluth movie about anthropomorphic mice and rats. Wicked.
The Incredibles - lives up to its name.
Ninja Scroll - is an anime classic.
I used to be quite the voracious reader - I'm kinda' surprised how few books I was able to come up with.
Catch-22, Moby Dick, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Snow Crash, All The King's Men, Invisible Man, The Devil's Dictionary, Neuromancer, The Mote in God's Eye, The Sun Also Rises, Julius Caesar, Sometimes a Great Notion, Atlas Shrugged, Variable Star, Closing Time, 1984, The Name of the Wind, Absurdistan, A Confederacy of Dunces, Going Postal, Night Watch, The Fountainhead, The Elements of Style, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Brave New World, Good Omens, The Great Shark Hunt, Discworld, Transmetropolitan, The Yiddish Policeman's Union, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Puppet Masters, Starship Troopers, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Those are really good choices, falling under more of the classic noir. Add Chinatown to that list.
If you're looking for modern takes, I recommend Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. In fact, everyone will probably recommend you that movie, it's so good.
You said you liked Tarantino, so you might like Lucky Number Slevin. Aside from the weird title, it mixes Tarantino and noir pretty well.
Inside Man and Departed, while maybe not being "true" noir, have a lot of ther sensibilities, and are both good movies.
Blader Runner, that's a given. I'm actually in the minority and like the narrarated version.
La Confidential/Black Dahlia- The movies are okay, but Ellroy is meant to be read.
Memento- I remember being blown away by that movie when it first came out.
Miller's Crossing-Coen's movie. Thrown in Fargo and Country for Old Me there too.
Yea, you can say I'm into the genre.
A great series that is still ongoing. Books 1 - 9 are already out.
Book 10 "Small Favors" comes out in April.
They take place in modern day Chicago. Harry Dresden is a Wizard/Private Detective for hire.
The story, characters, locations, pretty much everything about them are AWSOME.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
So far it's just the first two: Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle. However the third is coming out soon (looks on track for the end of the year) with the fourth currently in planning.
He also wrote some starwars books that I count among the best in the EU. (Shatterpoint, Traitor as well as the novelization of Episode III).
I had to read Gatsby for school. I liked it, as the teacher I had was great, but it was still kind of marred by the fact that I was forced to read at a certain pace (which was actually slower than I would've liked, but I'm not good at retaining specifics, so had to follow schedule). As for the others, I'll be sure to check them out. I've always wanted to read Fight Club as I've heard it's so much better than the movie, and I've been wanting to try my hand at Russian literature for a while now, just never really had the nerve to. As for the Guest stuff, I've also been interested in those for some time.
Wonder Boys sounds good, and I've been meaning to read up on Burroghs, especially Running With Scissors. Stiff looks good, too, and I've wanted to see Fast Food Nation but think I'd rather read it, but I forgot completely about it. Wristcutters is a new movie, right? I'd thought about picking it up a few days ago, actually--the same with Ghostdog. I'd been wanting to see that since I saw the Last King of Scotland, Whittaker is the man, as is Jarmusch. Equilibrium I've already seen Good for what it is.
No, but my friend has and I've always been interested. Added to the list!
I'll be sure to check out Double Indemnity. Sounds like a pretty sinister plot. Out of the others I've only seen Vertigo, though I loved it. I'll have to read up on the others you recommended, as this list is becoming rather formidable.
Shogun is something I've heard a ton about and seen many people reading. I figure all the attention probably warrants a read, and, like so many others (apparently, I seem to have been "wanting to check out" everything on this list) I've been meaning to look it up.
As for the Hannibal series (excuse my paraphrasing), I could entertain the idea of reading those--never thought about it, actually. Are they that much better than the film versions? I noticed you left out Red Dragon, that bad?
I've read and loved Dracula, but have been too intimidated to pick up any of the similar books-- Frankenstein, etc. Any of those worth a read? I heard Frankenstein is very, very dense, even compared to Dracula.
I own The Royal Tenenbaums Criterion Collection, actually. I recommend it to anyone who likes the movie. The stuff that is included is really interesting, and, unlike the other SEs of Anderson's films, it isn't very much more than the standard.
The other two (Gingersnaps, Leaving Las Vegas [for reference]) I'll have to see about. All I know about Gingersnaps is that it's about werewolves (ie, haven't wiki'd it) but that's good enough for me. And Vegas, I've always heard good things about.
As for the Kung-Fu/Japanese stuff, I've heard a bunch about Yojimbo, so I'll probably get that out soon. I'll be sure to add the others as well. All of your cartoons/etc I've seen and loved, excluding NIMH, which sounds good for a rainy day.
Thank you for that. (Not sarcasm). Even though it's lax on the info, still good to have big piles of stuff to check out, and a lot of those titles ring a bell so I know what's up. One of my good friends is a big fan of For Whom the Bell Tolls--is that a tough read?
Always wanted to see Chinatown, as I fuckin' love Nicholson, and also like Polanski. Gotta be sure to get it. Everything else you listed aside from Blade Runner I've seen, and I've wanted to see that for a while now, though I've heard mixed things. And the film version of Dahlia looked interesting, so I'll definitely have to check out the book.
It sounds really quirky, or at least unconventional. Aka good.
Thanks for all the replies! I'm gonna make this into a neat list and maybe post that here for the benefit of others. Feel free to keep contributing!
Question: I've seen The Shining, Dr. Strangelove, and A Clockwork Orange, are all of Kubrick's films good or are there a few I should avoid?
Oh, after previewing this the formatting got fucked somewhere, but there are just too many brackets. Plus, it's probably better that it turned out to make the post a little tidier.
Sorry if it's kind of nonsensical to reply to each one individually, but just wanted to show my appreciation.
I didn't think Red Dragon was a bad book per se, but my fascination with the series has always been about the good Dr. Lecter himself, and he's really more of an ancillary character in that one. It's like the writer, while telling this other story, stumbled upon this much more awesome and interesting character - he just didn't use him correctly 'till Silence of the Lambs.
Frankenstein is really quite good, but yes it is indeed denser than Dracula. If you haven't seen it, I have to recommend the Kenneth Branaugh (or however you spell his last name) movie version. It won't scare you, but it is slavishly loyal to the source material - and Robert De Niro is awesome as the Monster.
Leaving Las Vegas is the movie that got Nick Cage his Oscar. Also nominated was Elizabeth Shue (Adventures in Babysitting, The Saint) for her performance as the love interest. I don't think it's much of a spoiler if I tell you he's come to Vegas to drink himself to death, she's a prostitute, and they fall in love. Very sweet and depressing. Also, nudity!
Ginger Snaps held a place as my favorite movie for a while. It's seriously the scariest werewolf movie I've ever seen, and thematically it puts a really cool spin on the werewolf legend, tying the curse of the wolf to the 'curse' of puberty. Plus it's Canadian, eh?
Yojimbo needs no further explanation, but I should mention if you get your hands on NIMH, watch it under the covers with someone worth kissing. There's nothing particularly romantic about it, but it's a total date movie. Or at least it's served me well in that regard.
I dunno about the others who responded, but I thought it was rather polite and I appreciated the time it took you to do so ^.^ /salute!
Anyway,
I'm reading Cormac McCarthy's The Orchard Keeper, and it's pretty good. I wanted to read The Road next. Anyone know anything about his other stuff? Is No Country worth reading if I've seen the movie?
Lamb is a really funny book.
Also good: World War Z, older stuff by Michael Crichton, Chris Bunch's sci-fi is pretty entertaining, I Am Legend, anything by Chuck Palahniuk
Movies: Lucky Number SLeven, Children of Men,
God, I'm blanking. I'll come back later.