Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with books and stories

Looking for some good sf pulp fiction

Ritchie — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:41:34 -0800

Looking for suggestions for stories, novels, or comics in the vein of Mervyn Peake and China Mieville. I read Peake's Gormenghast novels years ago, and loved them. I've also read Perdido Street Station, and am aiming to pick up The Scar and Iron Council by Mieville.

I guess I'm looking for stories which have that unique crossover of fantasy, technology, and maybe elements of grand guignol body horror.

I'm open to stories in any format, including graphic novels and comic books. I'm even interested in non-English stories.

Short stories like this are the only stories here.

zoomorphic — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:42:08 -0800

I demand to know your favorite short story anthologies. I recently realized that my brain isn't cut out to read novels on the subway, so I've made a left turn to short stories. Single author collections of short stories are great, but I'm looking for anthologies that include various authors to keep things lively. I love the Best American Non-Required Reading series, as well as My Mistress' Sparrow Is Dead. I've also got Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules on my list.

My favorite short story authors are Lorrie Moore, Amy Bloom, Chekov and Flannery O'Connor, but I'm looking to expand.

What else should I pick up?

readingvaluefilter

SinisterPurpose — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:08:46 -0800

Have any of these books changed your life? I am preparing to take part again in that most loathesome of tasks, moving. In preparation for this horror, I am culling my collection of “stuff”. My subjectively useless English degree has caused an incursion on my physical space which I intend to reclaim. My collection of unread books is much larger than the list I have provided. This abbreviated list will help me make better decisions about the whole of the crush of books I find myself under. (Note to English majors: always give plenty of non-book related ideas to friends and relatives for the purposes of gift-giving. You will thank me.)

I am not at all interested in the relative intellectual value of these books. Surely, all books have some value. I want to know if any of these books have altered your perception in that way that we all have experienced, but is at the same time, so very rare. (The Sorrows of Young Werther and Snow Crash both changed my life.) Please do not direct me to tepid reviews and bibliocentric social networking websites.

I process my emotions through art. Movies, music, books, museums, and video games are how I deal. I do not want to miss out on some valuable emotional experiences, but also want to know the possibility for value exists. In short, if you have read one of the books listed below, what was the emotional value of the read?

If I receive little to no response on this question these books will be filtered back into the thrift stores from whence most of them came.

Thanks in advance.

These are books I have never read. Books I might not ever read. They appear in the order they are piled on my bed:

The Golden Bough – Sir James Frazer
Empire – Gore Vidal
Hollywood - Gore Vidal
Visions – Michio Kaku
The Tin Drum – Gunter Grass
Black Ajax – George Mcdonald Fraser
On The Road – Jack Kerouac
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
Maximum Bob – Elmore Leonard
City of Illusions – Ursula K. Leguin
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Leguin
The October Country - Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
The Man Who Loved Mars – Lin Carter
Merlin – Robert Nye
Nine Stories – J.D. Salinger
Red Planet Run – Dana Stabenow
The Supreme Identity – Alan Watts
Orlando Furioso – Ariosto
Sword Of The Demon – Richard A. Lupoff
Gravity's Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon

Please scare me.

Addlepated — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:35:23 -0800

I want a book that I have to put into the freezer. I've read this question, which was looking for thrillers, and this post looking for short stories, but I can't seem to find a thread looking for scary, engrossing novels where supernatural is okay. I read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova a few months ago and was positively enchanted with it. Not only was it creepy as hell, the descriptions were so well-drawn that I felt like I was there and ended up buying Bulgarian folk music on iTunes and looking up pictures of the locations for days after. Similarly, Scott Smith's The Ruins also really stuck with me and put me in a pensive mood for a couple of days after reading - it was just so, so awful, what happened. I want more books like these.

Things I've read (most of it recently): everything by Stephen King, Matheson's I Am Legend and Hell House, Straub's Floating Dragon and Julia, everything by Ellis except for Lunar Park, House of Leaves, Relic, Joe Hill's short stories and Heart Shaped Box, Sebastian Fitzek's Therapy, all Thomas Harris, Barker's Sacrament, all Shirley Jackson, and The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons.

Honestly, I liked The Historian and The Ruins so very much that I've been avoiding reading anything since then because I feel it will be hard to find anything to measure up! Heart-Shaped Box was close, but not dark enough; Therapy was dark, but went by too fast; The House Next Door was great but I thought it was more sad than scary. Help?

Odd tales

Rinku — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:21:43 -0800

I'd like recommendations for short stories that are strange, humorous, or have a surprising twist. I'm in an english class where we're reading long, kind of dull, "straight" novels, one after the other. I'm enjoying the class but I need some antidotes - stories that are off the wall, exotic, mysterious, or... something like that. They need to be short enough that I can read them in one sitting.

My favorite short story ever, which definitely qualifies, is Borges' The Secret Miracle. Donald Barthelme's short stories, which I've been reading recently (and enjoying very much), would also count. Recommendations for genre short stories - fantasy, science fiction, horror, whatever - would be very much appreciated as well.

Recommendations for specific short stories, rather than collections or authors, would be appreciated - but if everything an author's done is amazing, well... go for it.

"No longer alive to obstruct the process."

ocherdraco — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:24:23 -0800

John Updike's death reminded me that I have a book of his short stories. Which ones should I read first? I have The Early Stories: 1953-1975. In the introduction, Updike says "This is a collection. A selection, surely, is best left to others, when the writer is no longer alive to obstruct the process." Well, he's, um, no longer alive, so if you don't mind, Hive Mind, I'd appreciate your considerable skills in pointing out the best of what's here.

Here's a link to the Table of Contents on Amazon.

I know you've got good taste. What do you like best?

Bookfilter: Name that sci-fi story.

judge.mentok.the.mindtaker — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:28:59 -0800

Bookfilter: I am trying to remember a story. It is either a short story, or the epilogue of a book. I am 90% certain it was written by Isaac Asimov. Here is the key plot element I remember: The tale posits that the ultimate evolution of the universe is a robot, and the story ends by the robot simultaneously disabling itself while also basically restarting the big bang for the next oscillation of the universe. It's sort of a story about what Asimov thinks it would be like to be the the thing that /is/ the twist in the mobius strip.

Help me remember what it was, or what short story collection it was in!!

TIA.

Good books for the Non-Ham to read to small children

nomnomnom — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:59:11 -0800

This post reminded me of something I needed to ask. -> What are some good books to read to kids, for those of us who are not very good at (or comfortable with) being characters or using different voices? Surely there are some librarians on Ask Mefi that have experience with storytime? Basically, I need a list of books that are suitable for a more shy/reserved person who has to read to a group of children — I am not overly shy, I can project confidence; but I will definitely become shy upon being faced with having to do voices, sing, or make kiddy jokes about farts or something. :)

Stories about or featuring werewolves

Ritchie — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:36:14 -0800

I'm looking for werewolf literature. Any fiction with a halfway decent plot. Novels, short stories, folklore. Comics or graphic novels also okay. So far I already know about The Howling, Angua von Überwald (and others) from the Discworld novels, and Lupin from Prisoner of Azkaban, but I'd love to know of other sources.

Robot-themed sci fi recommendations?

olinerd — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:25:31 -0800

What are some good sci fi novels/short stories that focus on robots? Difficulty: no Asimov. I'd love to read some recent sci-fi -- books or short stories -- centered around the theme of robots and AI. I'm less interested in Asimov or Philip K. Dick and more interested in more modern stuff that hasn't been made into movies. For reference, "classic" authors I like are Asimov, Niven, and Vonnegut. More recent types I like are Octavia Butler, Neal Stephenson, and Douglas Adams. I'd like to stay away from Crichton-esque beach reading unless it comes highly highly recommended.

So what have you got? I need some reading material!

Books on India

hadjiboy — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:32:20 -0800

If you please—I urgently require a few good recommendations of novels that have India as a backdrop. It should be set up in India, so that a foreigner can understand a bit about Indian Society, their traditions, and customs. I’m asking this so that I can gift the book to a friend of mine, who is a foreigner, and will be leaving shortly. So I would appreciate it if you could reply as soon as possible. Thanking you very much in advance!

My god, it's full of Stars

Artw — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:27:24 -0800

I'm looking for a series of hardback science fiction anthologies I dimly remember from childhood (sometime in the mid 80s). I think it had a one word title with a number, and the series went up to at least number five. I remember two stories in particular... In one a childs home starmaking experiment goes wrong when he puts too much matter into his simulated universe, creating a spinning cylindrical black hole which escapes and destroys the earth.

In another two creatures, essentially sentient stars, play a game in which they throw their cores at each other. The cores are of different colors, and the color difference is analogous to a gender difference. In the end the "male" star impregnates the "female" star but loses it's core. As a dying act it creates life on an earth like planet and then flings the planet out into space.

Any ideas?

Stories about healthy, "normal" marriages?

callmejay — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:29:41 -0800

Stories about healthy, "normal" marriages? I'm interested in reading, watching, or hearing stories about healthy, relatively "normal" marriages. Understandably, fiction and nonfiction often focus on unusual and/or unhealthy relationships. By (I'm not criticizing open/poly marriages or quirky people or whomever, but that's just not what I'm interested in.)

I remember being struck by the movie The Matador (otherwise unremarkable) which had a middle aged, long-married couple that was depicted as regularly having very satisfying, plain-old vanilla sex. That must happen all the time in real life, but in books and movies it's often about affairs or fights or kinks or what have you.

There are sitcoms like The Cosby Show and Mad About You which sort of fit the bill, but I know the hive mind can come up with more and better examples.

Meth stories?

dersins — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 05:47:52 -0800

Realistic accounts of meth use? I'm interested in reading (or watching) some realistic accounts of the use and effects of meth.

Not glorifying, drugs-are-awesome-dude! crap, or sensationalizing OMG-meth-is-the-devil-incarnate! crap, but real (or at least realistic) accounts of the use and effects of methamphetamine, either on an ongoing basis or an occasional recreational basis.

Books (fiction or non-), movies (fiction or non-), web sites, magazine articles, and so on (even personal stories, I suppose, although this probably isn't the right place for that) would all aid me in my research.

Looking for a specific children's book

comfortinsound — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:10:27 -0800

i am looking for a children's book that my friend read when she was in elementary school (5-10 years ago.) the book is about a boy and a girl who go on an adventure through a magical world and save the people from a monster. then, the girl dies, and the boy has to boil her in a pot to bring her back to life. my friend and i are despretely searching for this book. she can remember a lot of its details: the main character lives a normal life until creatures come out from behind his stove and tell him that he needs to go on a mission in his (dead, i think) father's place. he and his friend encounter all of these magical beings, but then she dies. he somehow knows that he needs to climb up this mountain using her bones, sort of like icepicks, and then he defeats a horrible monster and saves the people. then he boils her dead body in a pot to bring her back to life.
i know the plot sounds strange, but i have been helping my friend look for this book for a long time, and any information you have about it would be much appriciated.

Stories that involve shadows?

largecorp — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 10:57:36 -0800

Novels, short stories, movies--all are welcome. I find shadow stories spooky and interesting. My fave was a kid book called "The Shades" which explains how the shadows of people live their own lives. Know of any others?

An Apple a day

kidsleepy — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:55:56 -0800

Children's Story Filter: Help me find a story about the Apple family. The story is about a family with the last name Apple. The father names all the children after types of apples, so there is son Macintosh Apple, daughter Snow Apple, son Braeburn Apple, etc. The mother has a new baby, a girl, and wants to name her a conventional name. The parents compromise and name her Ann (An Apple). This may have been in a Golden Books short story anthology from around 1990.

Does anyone know the story and the author?

I'd like a little Christmas tripe with my Christmas trifle, please...

orange swan — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 06:40:05 -0800

I want to write a Christmas-themed essay for my book review blog, and I'm trying to come up with some Christmas lit to review. It might be fun, for instance, to gather together a selection of Christmas tripe such as Santa's Christmas Prayer (link not safe for those who have any literary sensibilities and have just eaten) and go to town on it. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, to write something about Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Which Christmas novels/stories/poems do you love and loathe? I don't review movies, so text only please...

Children's stories

peep — Fri, 05 May 2006 21:07:30 -0800

Can you help me identify two children's stories/books? They aren't related, just two stories from my childhood that I can't quite remember. I hope it isn't cheating to get two askme answers at once!

The first is a story about a boat/ship that gets shipwrecked at night - it runs aground somewhere with (exotic?) animals, and it turns out (SPOILER!) that it's a zoo not far from where the boat launched.

The second is a rather twisted fairy tale-type story that may have been in some type of treasury or collection. A young woman is in a kitchen cooking or baking something, and her cat keeps asking her for a taste of what she's preparing, or maybe some milk. She keeps refusing. A man comes to the door to kidnap her and she appeals to the cat for help. The cat refuses, the woman is taken, and the cat helps itself to whatever it wanted from the kitchen.

I would guess that I read these in the early- to mid-80s, but I have no idea when they would have been written.

2-minute childrens book

dstrouse91 — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 08:52:27 -0800

my favorite book when i was a kid was a book with a series of 2-minute or so short stories. inside the front cover there were pictures that symbolized the stories and i would point to the one i wanted my dad to read. i remember some of the stories. one story was of a little girl who wanted a yellow raincoat. a second story was about a boy named Pele or something. a third story had to do with Couscous the detective. i have a 1 yr old son and i wanted to get that book for him but i can't find it. anyone have any ideas what this book might be called or how to get it? thanks

Identify this science fiction story?

deliriouscool — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 11:34:48 -0800

Can you identify this science fiction story? My friend's been looking for a copy for years...[more inside]