Origin of the Matrix relating to a Science Fictional setting... [more inside]
posted by madmamasmith on Dec 24, 2009 - 19 answers

I'm interested in getting a print copy of Zhuangzi to read. What's a good translation or edition?
posted by Arturus on Dec 14, 2009 - 7 answers

Can you recommend a good book about the WPA artists program, or a great book that came out of the Federal Writers' Program? Bonus points if you know of a fictional story that uses it as the main theme. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Nov 30, 2009 - 12 answers

Which books can a physicist and a liberal arts type trade to gain a deeper appreciation of literature and science, respectively? Ideally, these would be books we could both read and enjoy. [more inside]
posted by Diagonalize on Nov 2, 2009 - 40 answers

Innovative Books: I am looking to compile a list of the most innovative uses of the book format. Books that break the mould in their layout and design, perhaps books that use online systems to extend their content value or push their form into new places. I am most interested in narrative and theory, but any book that is interesting (artist books etc.) would be really appreciated. [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Nov 1, 2009 - 29 answers

I am looking for recommendations for a sequence of novels that might lead an adult fan of very trashy action to the real gold. [more inside]
posted by hifimofo on Oct 29, 2009 - 11 answers

Recommend some great literature in the Steinbeck tradition. [more inside]
posted by Go Banana on Oct 14, 2009 - 18 answers

Bookfilter: I have searched everywhere, I have exhausted all resources. You are my last hope. I had a book as a child, it was in Russian, but the stories in it were middle-eastern/Arabic/Persian... I know that the name of the book was Three Oranges (Tri Apelsina in Russian) [more inside]
posted by icarus on Oct 5, 2009 - 13 answers

I like biographies of ordinary/non-famous people with interesting stories to tell, or stories from before they became notable. Can anyone recommend any? [more inside]
posted by mippy on Oct 5, 2009 - 40 answers

What are the great patterning works of literature? In Book by Book, Michael Dirda presents a list of what he calls “patterning works” which he describes as books that “. . later authors regularly build on, allude to, work against.” and which he says “ . . . ought to lie at the heart of any structured reading program.” [more inside]
posted by jason's_planet on Sep 17, 2009 - 73 answers

I've taken responsibility for a very small children's library and I'd love your ideas for making it awesome. [more inside]
posted by serazin on Sep 3, 2009 - 14 answers

I like mind-blowing books. Please give me your best suggestions. [more inside]
posted by aheckler on Aug 11, 2009 - 75 answers

Having recently discovered Anais Nin's Delta of Venus and Little Birds, I'm looking for classy, somewhat highbrow, non-amateur, published erotic literature along the same lines. [more inside]
posted by Lush on Aug 7, 2009 - 16 answers

Recommendations for erotica [more inside]
posted by ninebelow on Aug 6, 2009 - 8 answers

My uncle recently mentioned to me that he's never read any book written by a woman. Apparently this is because he doesn't think they'll be any good - he seems to think women can only write romance novels. I find this both horrific and hard to believe, but he seemed serious. So, Hive Mind, I need your help in drafting a list of the very best books written by female authors. Help me teach him the error of his ways! [more inside]
posted by badmoonrising on Jul 29, 2009 - 92 answers

Is there any kind of critical consensus about the claim made by Henry Binder and Hershel Parker in the 1980s that previous editions of Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage were prepared with cuts demanded mostly by the original publisher and that the edition most people have read is thus much less darkly ironic than it should be, and that Binder's new presentation is a more accurate representation of Crane's original intent?
posted by mediareport on Jun 23, 2009 - 2 answers

I demand to know your favorite short story anthologies. [more inside]
posted by zoomorphic on Jun 23, 2009 - 30 answers

People talk about "writing the Great American Novel." What do you think are valid examples of the G.A.N.? What novels, American or otherwise, did you enjoy reading and wish you had written?
posted by Busoni on Jun 20, 2009 - 70 answers

What are some books that people are particularly likely to be assholes about? [more inside]
posted by I Foody on Jun 2, 2009 - 140 answers

"The sunrise is a strip-tease between night and day." Is this a Tom Robbins quote (or similar to one)? [more inside]
posted by prwnkle02 on Apr 27, 2009 - 3 answers

What should I read to my 6 year old? What should she read to herself? [more inside]
posted by serazin on Apr 7, 2009 - 51 answers

Looking for sci-fi/speculative fiction that deals with the issue of colonization, immigration, and refugees. The more details the better! Specifically looking for stories that deal (at least partly) with the stories of the immigrants themselves, and not just the abstract idea. [more inside]
posted by sarahkeebs on Apr 4, 2009 - 40 answers

Help me keep her reading filter: My wife is tearing through the Twilight series right now, and I'd love to keep her swamped in books once she finishes. But the vampire-ness of the series is the least interesting part to her. [more inside]
posted by ekstasis23 on Mar 24, 2009 - 47 answers

I'd like recommendations for short stories that are strange, humorous, or have a surprising twist. [more inside]
posted by Rinku on Mar 8, 2009 - 56 answers

LitFilter: Who are the American Gothic Novelists? [more inside]
posted by Edelweiss on Feb 25, 2009 - 21 answers

Help me find just the right book for a week spent rebuilding the Appalachian trail... [more inside]
posted by WidgetAlley on Feb 21, 2009 - 13 answers

I am looking for writings on mimesis in regards new, digital, hypertext and hypermedial technologies and cultures. [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Feb 16, 2009 - 7 answers

Help me identity this 1910s/20s/30s British poet (from precious little information). [more inside]
posted by taramosalata on Feb 14, 2009 - 3 answers

Seeking relatively well-known, canon-caliber fictional accounts of imaginary encounters between actual, historically significant figures -- especially encounters that could well have taken place, but which we know did not or remain undocumented. Philip Levine's poem "On the Meeting of Garcia Lorca and Hart Crane" typifies what I'm looking for. Mark Twain's _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ does not (respectable evidence out there of a historical Arthur notwithstanding). The literary field is rife with examples, I know -- say, some novel casting Charles Lindbergh and Adolf Hitler into a tete-a-tete. But, ack, I'm drawing a blank. [more inside]
posted by taramosalata on Feb 5, 2009 - 31 answers

I'm looking for recommendations on some must-read/classic literature from the social and environmental fields of science. [more inside]
posted by jofuu on Jan 20, 2009 - 9 answers

How does one sell a (mystery) novel? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Jan 13, 2009 - 7 answers

San Francisco filter: Help me find a good book club for 20-30-somethings? [more inside]
posted by mingodingo on Jan 11, 2009 - 13 answers

Looking for recommendations: Contemporary Latin American literature, in translation. (more inside) [more inside]
posted by barjo on Jan 9, 2009 - 12 answers

I'm looking for readable accounts of revolutionary movements. [more inside]
posted by serazin on Dec 18, 2008 - 13 answers

Books for a Young Gamer: My (American) nephew is eight years old, and I want to buy him a book/some books for Christmas. He's *really* into gaming, but I would to find a book which will entice him away from the machine. [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on Nov 26, 2008 - 24 answers

Help me find this book! It's about a family, possibly from the North of the UK / Scotland, but the thing I remember most is one of the brothers travelling through South America. He washes up on a riverbank, plants almost grow up around him. Local indigenous people save him and he becomes a medicine man. [more inside]
posted by pipstar on Nov 18, 2008 - 0 answers

Help me find the first book I hated. When I was about 12 years old (IIRC, it may have been a couple of years later) I read a fantasy novel that I absolutely hated. It was the first time I disliked a book for aesthetic reasons. It was a fantasy novel set in a largely magic-less faux-medieval world with a princess as the main protagonist. What I remember best is that there were a lot of completely inappropriate descriptions from the point of the view of the princess. The one that's really stayed in my memory was that the protagonist likened marching soldiers to plastic soldiers (the world of the novel had no plastics).
posted by Kattullus on Nov 13, 2008 - 14 answers

I'm looking for both films, books, and short stories where the story of a girl or a woman is told solely through the perspective of a male narrator. [more inside]
posted by zoomorphic on Nov 13, 2008 - 31 answers

Are there any reasonably well-known (or even famous) writers who are truly multi-genre? [more inside]
posted by wackybrit on Nov 10, 2008 - 54 answers

Why do publishers slap on "A Novel" to the titles and/or covers of, well, novels? [more inside]
posted by CKmtl on Oct 16, 2008 - 22 answers

I'm looking for good novels/short stories for my wonderful husband to read out loud to me. [more inside]
posted by thebrokedown on Oct 13, 2008 - 51 answers

I'm trying to find incredibly boring books. The kind of books that you'll try to read, and can't help but space out. Bonus points if its in the public domain. [more inside]
posted by daboo on Sep 25, 2008 - 80 answers

Short Story Askme: I read a short dystopian story many years ago set in a run-down, post apocalyptic future. A queue of people line up on a street to spit at a painting. The painting represents all the problems of the past. It is implied that the painting is The Mona Lisa. What is the story?
posted by bollockovnikov on Sep 25, 2008 - 2 answers

The phenomenology / ontology of text: has anyone examined this issue directly in philosophical, literary and/or critical terms? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Sep 18, 2008 - 26 answers

ProseFilter: Nabokov's Lolita was once hailed as "a love letter to the English language." I'm looking for modern and contemporary authors with similar aspirations. [more inside]
posted by zoomorphic on Sep 12, 2008 - 43 answers

How do I meet other bookish people in New York City? [more inside]
posted by zoomorphic on Aug 15, 2008 - 8 answers

Why do novelists use "________" in place of a character's name? [more inside]
posted by serazin on Aug 11, 2008 - 10 answers

Can you all help me with some summer vacation reading recommendations? I trust your tastes implicitly. Helpful guidelines inside. [more inside]
posted by Otis on Jul 17, 2008 - 25 answers

In Salmon Rushdie's Midnight's Children, is the character of Nadir Khan a muslim or a hindu?
posted by MrMerlot on Jul 13, 2008 - 4 answers

What specific qualities make for a truly good bookstore other than the content on the shelves?
posted by MrMerlot on Jul 4, 2008 - 32 answers