Books

I'm looking for book recommendations in the topics mentioned in title.

I often find myself feeling down and not being able to accomplish anything, and the tendency has been increasing.

I cannot even work on my hobby projects, because I'm just staring at the screen and my brain is not functioning, which leads to launching a game or watching YouTube videos and waste time.

I cannot find the way out of this madness, and my last resort is to find some books that might help with my issue.

I don't wanna rely on search results on the internet, because I don't trust random compilations of "read these 10 books to be productive".

Well, this is optional, but in case the book you recommend indeed helped you, I'd be curious how permanent the impact was for you, if that makes sense. I know mostly it depends on the person; it's me who has to make the effort, not the book. But I'd be curious how easy it is for you to consistently maintain what you learned from the book.

Regarding the format, it has to be in epub. And I'd very much prefer DRM-free books, price doesn't matter. If the only good books are all DRM-enshittified, that sucks, but I'll consider that too if I have no other choice.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help with recommendations!

Any Arabic folks around here? I'm looking for Arabic books that are similar to Stephen King's style. Doesn't have to be 100%, horror or some fantasy. I've found some of his books translated, but I'd like to read those genres written by actual Arabic writers. I've been away from that part of the planet for around 15 years and I haven't been following our modern writing to be honest. I've read many books for older novelists like نجيب محفوظ and طه حسين and some others, but I'd like to catch up on any new ones.
Thanks in advance.

Isobel: I’ve been working on a lot of stories about tech elites, the technopoly and so on. And something I’ve come across again and again is a “bunker mentality.” This idea that the tech bros have that they want to create their own jurisdictions, their own walled-off communities that will protect them from government regulation — but maybe in the future will also protect them from apocalyptic climate chaos, or the ravages of societal breakdown. Can you explain this mentality?

Atossa: I think these tech leaders have convinced themselves that they’re victims, that everyone hates them and they need to protect themselves at all costs. It’s a classic persecution complex seen throughout history among monarchs and dictators. With power comes paranoia.

Hello, fellow readers!!!
Any suggestions on books for an 11 year old little guy? Preferably books with very little number of pictures or not at all.
Thank you

Edit:
I'm reading all of your comments. Thank you so very much, everyone. I really appreciate. Please keep them coming. I'm saving every single one of them <3

Finished The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King.

It was a nice book. Kind of YA, but fun to read. Pretty much a typical story of good vs bad, where good characters are super good and bad characters are super bad, with very few gray in between. Worth a read if you want a standalone fantasy novel that's quick to read.

Read The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. My first Scalzi novel and I loved it. A very light and easy to read sci-fi, with Kaiju in them. Going to get other Scalzi novels, may start with Old Man's War.

Finally got my order my Dresden Files comics / graphic novels. So read the first omnibus, which has the original Welcome to the Jungle and graphic adaptation of first two Dresden Files novels, Storm Front and Fool Mon.

Second omnibus has all original graphic novels novels though, but will get to them later.

Just started Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I have read it before, but it has been quite a while, so re-reading it before starting on the sequel series.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

Covers One Less (Hard Mode), Older than You, Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie, and It takes two Bingo squares

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There's a Midyear Bingo check-in post, do take a look. Even if you haven't started this year's Book Bingo, you can still join, as there are still 6 months remaining!

For details, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and it's Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.___

Apart from the Warm Bodies series by Isaac Marion because I tried reading that and the zombie named R started getting drunk.

Caught up to side stories in Side Jobs by Jim Butcher. It's a short stories collection in Dresden Files universe. Only 1 short story and 1 novella remaining in the book. Short story is after next the book and the novella is after the book after that.

Now reading The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. I have this book in my library for over 15 years. Bought it a long time ago just by looking at King's name, but then assumed it must be a part of a series (at that time all fantasy I had read were part of series), so left it for later and then forgot. Someone mentioned the book somewhat recently, and I looked it up again and found out it's a standalone book, so finally reading it now.

It's written in very different style from King's usual work, like a tale told orally. It's also a medieval fantasy, with kings, magic and dragons. Also, not as long, less than 400 pages. I am about halfway done, and enjoying the book. Should finish it soon-ish.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

There's a Midyear Bingo check-in post, do take a look. Even if you haven't started this year's Book Bingo, you can still join, as there are still 6 months remaining!

For details, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and it's Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.

One of my favorite places to go when I lived in L.A. was The Museum of Jurassic Technology. It’s an almost impossible to describe museum of just weird stuff (unfortunately only open by appointment these days). One example is an exhibit of the parts of the late magician Ricky Jay’s dice collection that were disintegrating because of the material they were made of.

But one of my favorite exhibits was a collection of letters cranks had sent to Mount Wilson observatory from its opening in 1915 until 1935. Happily, I discovered recently that the whole thing was transcribed and I can now read it and, even just flipping through it, I forgot how hilariously funny it is. The addition of photos of the original letters and telegrams along with the transcriptions adds to how much fun it is. The transcriptions are as accurate as possible, including misspellings and sometimes a total lack of punctuation.

Basically, it's what insane people used to do before there was an internet and they could amass a following who would go out and harass anyone who dares to suggest that Saturn is not, in fact, a chili cheese burrito. They just bothered the poor scientists directly.

At least they had to buy stamps.

My favorite so far has been a long screed which begins with, in all caps, "I HAVE THE KEY TO ALL EXISTENCE," and a Christmas card from a Jewish person who stated that Jews would rule the world because of people like Einstein was a real head scratcher.

I'm too lazy to type in what's in the book, but someone on a website transcribed this telegram:

GENTLEMEN. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SEPARATING VALUABLE CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS FROM THE SUNSHINE RAY? WORTH BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. APPRECIATE AN AIRMAIL REPLY.

The link is to buy it directly from the museum, which is one of the coolest places you can go in Los Angeles, but it's available elsewhere.

Where did the Tuesday go? Well, as the power vested in me as a mod of this community, I am declaring today a Tuesday! So, without further ado:

Finished The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore. First book of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Legend of Drizzt / Forgotten Realms series (publication order).

Loved the book. A quick and very enjoyable read. If rest of the trilogy is similar, going to get the whole series.

Read Small Favor by Jim Butcher, 10th book in the Dresden Files series. Liked in much better than the previous book White Night. Full of action, without much dull moments. Stakes keep getting higher and higher, but we are starting to see some bigger picture.

Currently reading Side Jobs by Jim Butcher. It's short stories in Dresden Files universe. I started it after White Night, but only reading stories that are before the book I have read, so this will not be completed for quite a while.

These don't cover any Bingo squares, except maybe Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

There's a Midyear Bingo check-in post, do take a look. Even if you haven't started this year's Book Bingo, you can still join, as there are still 6 months remaining!

For details, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and it's Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.

Hey everyone!

We're about six months into our first books@lemmy.world Book Bingo challenge. If you didn't know about it, or if you've been debating joining, there's still plenty of time to participate! You do not need to fill a whole card to complete the challenge: 'bingo' is only five squares in a line.

If you're already working on bingo, how's it going so far? Doing any fun challenges? Having trouble with any squares or rules? Any and all feedback is welcome and appreciated!

We'll be doing another post in a few months for 2025 bingo suggestions, and a turn-in post at the beginning of April.

On behalf of myself, Dresden, and JaymesRS, thank you for being here, and happy reading!

Two soldiers declare a fight to the death, and give each other a year to plan. One starts a mercenary troupe, the other starts a domestic terrorism cell.

Meanwhile, a paralyzed billionaire invents robot bodies and becomes a cyborg. He tries to share this technology with disabled people everywhere, but instead his tech becomes a global arms race between those two soldiers.

https://terranomicon.com/

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21506018

Literary Arts’ Portland Book Festival, presented by Wells Fargo, returns Saturday, November 2 to ten stages at six partner venues in downtown Portland’s south Park Blocks. The festival will feature on-stage author discussions with over 100 authors and interviewers, drop-in writing workshops, pop-up readings, an extensive book fair, and local food trucks in this city-wide celebration of books and stories.

One doesn't simply "walk into Powell's for one book..."

$550 later...

("They come in SETS?")

After my grandfather passed, my grandmother decided to move to an apartment and so wanted to downsize. She asked the family to take whatever they wanted.

I went for the old and the odd. Some books are over 200 years old.

This one is maybe 100 and odd.

Still reading The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore. First book of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Legend of Drizzt / Forgotten Realms series (publication order).

Book is pretty fast paced and full of action. Really enjoying it.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

A regular reminder about our Book Bingo, and it's Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.

Beyond just marking up an e-book, are there any devices that would also allow you to edit the file itself?

Does this book ever pick up? I’m about a quarter of the way in and so far ‘The Adventures of Mary Sue As She Looks For A Date’ is just not doing anything for me. I remember tears ago hearing of it and thought it’s political world building, but so far it seems to be nothing more than ‘theater kids rule the world but- no touching.’ It seems like it wants to dive into the politics, but then again very other page it derails itself itself with ‘those damn eyes.’

Idk, I guess I’ve probably already made up my mind, but would be interested to know if it ever gets out of its own way.

More info on their About page. But essentially, they take a small cut to cover operating expenses, and the rest of the profit from the book sale goes to whatever local bookshop you choose, as long as it's participating.

They also operate in the UK here.

They appear to be pretty legit, though one downside I've read is returns are more clumsy than other storefronts.

Finished The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Book 2 of The Passage trilogy! Finally!

It was interesting read, but too long. Too much back story and details that could have been condensed quite a bit. As it is, I didn't like the fist quarter, second quarter was okay, third was interesting, and really enjoyed the last one.

Still one book remaining in the trilogy, but need a break, will come back to after a little while.

Read some more stories from The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft.

Now reading The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore. First book of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Legend of Drizzt / Forgotten Realms series (publication order).

It's my first Drizzt, and first D&D novel and has been on my wishlist for a very long time. Just started it so can't really say much about it, but enjoying it so far.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

A regular reminder about our Book Bingo, and it's Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.

She is the first South Korean winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Vegetarian is her best known novel.

Internet culture loves nothing more than adopting half-understood academic jargon. And more and more I'm seeing the phrase "media literacy" to mean: being smart enough to come to the correct interpretation, or even worse: being able to decipher authorial intent.

I'm a 'death of the author' kind of guy, but we all should agree that any text will have multiple valid interpretations, so long as you can back it up with the text.

I wanna stress that I'm not gatekeeping the phrase, I just want to promote the idea of media education over the smug notion that one person reads books better than another.