This site looks interesting, though I have not looked into it at any depth

whytoread

#1 recommendation is Joe Hill's short story collection 20th Century Ghosts. Some of the finest short stories I have ever read, and each one is exactly the kind of flavor you've described.

Also recommend a time travel novel called Replay by Ken Grimwood.

Given your readings tastes, you might also truly adore The Thirteenth Tale. Not quite like Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. Every moment is not a "wtf is going on" experience. And you have to stick with it. But when light bulbs start turning on, some good WTFs will be uttered.

There was a huge bidding war for that book, iirc. My wife had it in manuscript form before it came out and it seemed like everyone in publishing was reading it.

thanks!

It deserved all of that, the huge advance, and the tremendous success the book saw upon release. It's truly one of the best books I've ever read. The writing itself is hypnotic. And the original cover is gorgeous.



Does your wife work in publishing?

You should make a movie out of it ;-)

BBC beat me to the punch.

Reading The Stone Diaries By Carol Shields. It is a very well crafted novel and despite nothing much actually happening in the novel it moves along at a good pace.

She used to, but not any more

http://m.bbc.com/news/magazine-30846163

How In Cold Blood changed Steve Earles life

Cosign on Replay. Highly underrated.

hey, the great Steve Earle itt!

Yeah I didn't end up reading this for like three years after having it recommended to me. Definitely was worth reading.

Abut 5 months ago someone noticed that I was reading Sinclair Lewis' Main Street which I thoroughly enjoyed and suggested Babbit which was another great read.

I asked him where do I go from here and he gave me The Financier by Theodore Dreiser. Being involved in markets my whole life I found the subject and history lesson fascinating. The prose and description of the writing so different than anything today or anything I had read before, not to mention what we take as given today did not exist in the last 1800's early 1900's. The narcissism of the main character was probably unlike many characters at the time. Gordon Gekko 100 years ahead of himself.

I followed up with Sister Carrie, The Titan which was the sequel to The Financier and in my opinion the best of the 4 Dreiser's I read and finally An American Tragedy. An American Tragedy is what put Dreiser on the map and it wasn't until that acclaim did his
earlier work get another look.

The subjects he took up, such as abortion, women's rights or liberation were so far ahead of his time, he really had to circumvent what he could easily write today but must have shocked society back then.

If you are interested in finance or what it was like 100 years ago I highly recommend The Financier and the Titan

Just started A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens is such a treat. Kind of like what Douglas Adams would have come up with if he wrote about 18th Century Britain and enjoyed writing.

By pure coincidence I'm also reading Foucault's Discipline and Punishment and Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. A wonderful trifecta, all set in the same time period.

If you're reading Phenomenology of Spirit, you might be interested in Dr Sadler's ongoing Hegel lecture series on his youtube channel where he is going through the book doing about a half hour discussion of each paragraph. It took him months just to get through the preface. You also might be interested in psychological counseling.

On the other hand Simon Critchley recommends better comprehension comes from reading the book as fast as possible. I can't imagine what he means by this but people pay him to talk about philosophy and I'm working uncompensated.

Discipline and Punish is completely opposite, one of the most readable books of Philosophy published in the 20th century.

Redeployment by Phil Klay is powerful

I only just came across this. Flannery O’Connor, in a letter to a friend, wrote:

I put Ayn Rand alongside L Ron Hubbard

Am about 80% through Wildcat Currency by Edward Castranova.

The author talks about the myriad types of virtual currencies being used, everything from frequent flier miles, to gold farming, or Bitcoin.

The book is light on Bitcoin discussion and fairly heavy in the use of alternative currencies in the gaming world. The author talks about the behavioral impacts of alternative currencies, the place it has legally, inflation and deflation and the impact of future regulation.

I only read the Fountainhead. Wouldnt call it a great novel, but I think its effective in what it tries to do and there are some scenes/quotes that I like.

Definitely would not blindly recommend it to someone as it is probably truly enjoyable for only some readers.

Sounds like the first line of a losing entry in a meta-author fanfic contest.

Both have elite levels of cult readership

Thank you. I'll check out the videos.

I would never consider to read Ayn Rand - it has dreadful reputation. Also, its adherents have a somewhat odious reputation.

Currently half-way through Rebecca, I am having a distinct deja vu experience when reading it although I am quite positive I have not read it before. It must be intertextuality farking with my brain.