Book

I know there's a lot of smut out there for every sexual fantasy.

I'm always interested in reading stories that make you feel on a deeper level. Here are some that I know of/like in the LGBT category:

Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim (very dark)
Fear of Falling by Hannah Goodman ( part of a young adult series)
Angel: A Short Story by Erica Christian (Kindle ebook involves unrequited love and a near death encounter)
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx (the short story)
Becoming Nicole (true story about a transgender youth)

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novels:
all six "Tales of the City" novels - Armistead Maupin
The Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall
Maurice - E.M. Forster
El beso de la mujer araña - Manuel Puig
No se lo digas a nadie - Jaime Bayly
Elvira auf Gran Canaria - Elvira Klöppelschuh
M. Butterfly - Serge Grünberg
Savage Nights - Cyril Collard
Una mala noche la tiene cualquiera - Eduardo Mendicutti

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None. None at all.

Emma Donoghue has several: I enjoyed Frog Music.

literally none.

>>19
/this/

So I've been thinking about writing a novel, here's a super quick summary of the plot, just tell me what you think.

So the protagonist is an intelligent, sensitive, young man, about 20, (somewhat resembling me but only slightly) who has recently begun to question the purpose of life. Then because of a family incident he has to make a trip to his hometown which is in another state but because he's afraid of flying he chooses to drive all the way.

On the way he picks up a cute redheaded full-breasted hitchhiker about his age, maybe better one or two years younger, who then shows him on the road trip why life is still worth living and leads him on a journey of self-exploration. They also totally get it on. Later we find out that she only has a short time to live and wanted to see the ocean before it was all over. The protagonist is of course saddened by her death but understands that her last act of kindness was her leading him on the right path.

The missing sections are filled with eating ice cream and looking at the stars at night wondering how strange it is to be anything at all.

So, opinions?

Ive read a lot of extremely similar books. You will have to find a way to set yours apart for it to gain traction. Unless you arent doing it for money or popularity and are doing it just to do it. In which case do whatever you want.

this is the dumbest fucking thing i've ever heard... you sound like you should be teaming up with wes anderson to write the porn version of little miss sunshine.

>>1
fuck off outta here m8 /book/ aint for your type

>>1
I barely got through the first paragraph without falling asleep. It's a lousy plot--what I could force myself to read of it.

Writing, in addition to talent, also requires writing skills, like an understanding of sentence structure and punctuation. Go back to school and learn those skills, then think up a plot that is not mind numbingly boring, then submit another draft for evaluation--assuming that 4ct's /book/ still exists a year from now.

What anime is this?

This depressing thought just came to me. When you think about it, centuries from now due to evolution our bodies will be very different. So as our ears change the way we perceive music will change and the greatest classical compositions will eventually just sound like gibberish. Same goes with our eyes and our perception of visual arts.

Books on the other hand are just words on a page and the rest is all up to the reader's imagination so humans will always be able to enjoy them.

Language changes far more rapidly than biological changes, so I imagine literature will be first before music and movies.

It's funny, I distinctly remember saying quite a while ago that literature is a far superior artform to film, and you cracked it and went on a rant about how it's not.

It has nothing to do with which form is superior. Rather which humans will be able to enjoy for longer.

I think you're incorrect with that, then. Language and words change far more frequently and far more quickly than sound does. Humans are able to enjoy music that is in another language, whereas they cannot do that with literature.

Yes, but the book can be translated. Even if English, or language as we know it dies out, as long as we still have a way to convey ideas to one another, we will still tell stories.
The art of storytelling existed long before the invention of paper or even writing. The essence of a book is the story, which can be told in any way you can think of.
Physical books as we know them may die out soon, but the stories they tell will remain.

Why can't I remember the 347,923rd letter of the last book I read instantly?

You might want to see a doctor about that. I can remember every letter of every book I have ever read.

reading this one now. 30 pages into it. a really interesting mix of characters - vegetarians, a hotel owner, pharmaceutical company agent, ex-soldiers, all of them on a ship headed towards haiti. anyone else read this? its really entertaining so far.

the action has shifted to a hotel in haiti - a land of uncertainty. really good book so far.

It's pretty terrifying in parts. Very entertaining. As always with Greene.

its slowly turning into terrifying now.

Today I begun to read some of her stories. I read the Lottery, the Witch, and the Renegade, creepy but good, I also ordered some other collection stories. I tried reading the Baby Bootie Circuit (anyone read that one? Please, please tell me what it is about if you did), I tried reading it on the Herald, but you need to sign up, give your home address and credit card, but I did not bother, and I cannot find any information about it online anywhere, perhaps it is included in a story collection or any biographies. Have any of you read this story or any other stories by her?

You're welcome. Glad you liked it.

I'm just starting The Road Through the Wall and I may get to Hangsaman in a little while. I wouldn't recommend either for a noob, though -- among the novels, start out with The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Be cautious of the ending of the Road through the Wall. It is a good story, but not uplifting. Not the most chilling book I have ever read though, a little unnerving, but not as immense as the Lottery.

I'm actually listening to We Have Always Lived In The Castle at the moment.

I've read The Lottery and Other Stories, The Haunting of Hill House and only recently, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I don't know how I'd missed the last one before now.

Where do you stand on the Brontë classic?

Emily Brontë

classic

Hell no!

a splendid yarn. begins in 19th century london when the british empire was at its peak but was also being challenged. and in the middle, out of nowhere, the action shifts to frontier america with some really evil and badass mormon characters who are out to keep all the women to themselves. it is a great police/detective procedural as well as an awesome dystopian action adventure. obviously the two scotland yard policemen are there just to make HOLMES look good and the plot a little more complicated.

i read the penguin annotated version. the exchanges between HOLMES and WATSON were pretty deep. like the stuff about genius being the ability to withstand pain and hardship, darwn and music etc.

i read some SHERLOCK HOLMES as a kid. but dont remember much of it. really liked this one. THE SIGN OF FOUR is next up.

You may like "The Valley of Fear", the last Holmes novel with a similar structure. In VOF, the American gang, the Scowrers are loosely based on the Molly Maguires.

There was a pretty decent film of The Sign of Four done some time in the 80s, starring Ian Richardson as Holmes. I don't know if it's available on DVD or a streaming option.

Hound of the Baskervilles is the only one of those novels I really enjoyed. I'm just not a fan of that 'Part I: Homes stuff; part II: long ass backstory' structure, Valley of Fear being the worst example. Basically a non-Holmes novel with a Holmes short story grafted on to the beginning.

I find Hound of the Baskervilles a little overrated. Holmes worked best in shorter stories.

One critic of Doyle felt that his greatest weakness was in characterizing women and Americans. I tend to agree with his assessment. I love "Hound..." but it's the only novelette that I enjoy. Of the other three, I always felt that "Study..." is the best.

I think Doyle did better with women who were morally compromised - Isadora Klein (despite the serious issues I have with The Three Gables), Irene Adler, Kitty Winter are all very colorful, three-dimensional characters.

The most successful novella, as a Sherlock Holmes story, IMHO is The Sign of Four, because Holmes remains in the story. A Study in Scarlet and The Valley of Fear have that "mystery/back story/conclusion" structure with Holmes absent for most of the second half, and in Hound, there is that large central gap, predominated by Watson's letters, where Holmes is not on the scene. One reason I think there has never been a really successful film of Hound - hard to sell it when Sherlock is absent for much of the tale.
I do think that The Valley of Fear has a very interesting parallel narrative, where the same character (Douglas/Edwards) disappears and then reappears.

Has anybody read this book by a black liberal activist? It's about coercing women into having sex when they don't want to.

Isn't that nice?

Are you questioning his motives, you racist?

Or do all of you pea brains just "read" on the web?

Discuss.

Me: Yes. Fiction and non-fiction.

You sound awful smart, I_Watch_Movies. I've been reading almost exclusively non-fiction for the last decade or so. I've also been reading some poetry recently (last few years...). Ironically, when I was younger I basically read exclusively fiction.

The last book I read was Uncivil Rites. What was the last book you've read?

I read two or three books a week. I buy 6 to 12 books a month.

Your home library must be a thing to behold.

Are libraries rare or hard to find in Texas?

I used to buy a lot of books, but since I'm paying [property taxes] to get them for free, I've become fond of using that option.

Yes, mainly on Kindle nowadays. I'm currently reading 'The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted'.

Here is a short fiction project you all can do your takes on. The genre is fantasy. A human woman is dating a vampire. One of her girlfriends was a prostitute and is trying to go straight, her pimp won't let her. The human girlfriend gets her vampire boyfriend to straighten him out and...that's where you step in.

Good luck! I look forward to seeing what you come up with, and feel free to screw around with the genders as you see fit. Maybe it's a human man with a girl vampire, both are girls, both are males, it's a female pimp and male hooker, whatever you want. Have fun!

A human woman is dating a vampire.

Stopped reading there.

No.

Fuck you.

I feel like this would be the equivalent of the Bible transposed into cinematic terms.

I'm sure some here have read it, anon.

No, but it's now at the top of my Amazon wishlist.

I have read some excerpts on the web. I'd love to read it but have never gotten around to getting it. Could be a good idea for Christmas.

I started reading it back in the 90s. Read about 60 pages then gave up, it bored me to tears. Like other film theory books I tried to read it's really for people who are seriously interested in film theory, and it helps to have the Oxford dictionary close at hand as well. The Bible is a roller coaster ride in comparison. I'll stick to the films, well some of them.

Yes. It's hardly the bible though it is revealing.

Is it any good?

It's not what I'd hoped for.

What is your favorite book? Books that have changed your veiw on things, or life in general. Gimme some good reads :^)

Maybe Stephen King's IT.

To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf. I cried a good couple of times reading that.

Harry Potter

book vook

please help. I like my stepbrother and respect him. But recently he has been delving into "esoteric knowledge" or "secret knowledge" w/e the fuck you want to call it. Some of the things he talks about include the "New World Order, Ancient Aliens, Chem trails, Lizzard Men" and things of that nature. Most of them being crazy baseless conspiracy theories with no evidence to back them up. I feel like it is just a bunch of fear and paranoia which drives him to believe such things. The worst part is my best friend is collaborating with him as well. It seems like it is turning into a cult like obsession for my step bro. I would't really care under normal circumstances but i seems like its affecting his every day life. He doesn't drink tap water anymore because he thinks the govt puts chemicals in it to kill us. He won't eat meat because for fear that it will damage his soul. Essentially he thinks that everything we understand in this world is fake. A book called "That Code to the Matrix" from the author James Evans Bomar or "Sevan Bomar" is a text filled with nothing but conspiracy theories, aliens, mythology, religion, cults etc. There is absolutely not a shred of evidence in it at all. I think its a crock of shit. I like to call it the Tinfoil Manifesto. This book is essentially his bible. Does anyone know anything about this kind of thing? Sevan Bomar? Esoteric knowledge? Is there any relevance to it? It seems like hes gone too far down the rabbit hole to come out. Please help. Thanks.

I've known people that went through a short phase of this strange thinking. It's not always permanent, especially if he's an adolescent. Teenage brains just think strange thoughts and have weird beliefs and sometimes people lose them in adulthood. Other times it takes a great deal of humility to examine whether or not the beliefs are actually true, and in the case that they are false or do not hold up to scrutiny, have the guts to admit that your beliefs were wrong.

>>11
I pretend to be mildy interested in it when hes trying to convert me. I propose intelligent counter arguments to him. Nothing seems to work. Like most religions i think that HE thinks if you cant prove it doesnt exist than it must be true. Its hard to make someone who is delusional see reason.

>>11
Spartans are essentially space marines with 37 thousand years less genetic snd technological innovation.

>>16
Maybe it's time to be blunt, then. Just tell him you think his beliefs are weird and you think they're conspiracy theories, but that you are ok hanging out as long as he keeps it contained in conversations with his peers.

Once you see the truth you won't be able to go back to normal. It's too late.

I found this picture of Marlon Brando reading a book.

http://marshallmatlock.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/marlon-brando-sweater-porch-banner.jpg

It got me thinking about when I see people in public reading books and it makes me so angry. I am not very good at reading and I think people who read in public are just showing off and trying to intimidate me with their literacy. But this picture of Marlon Brando has got me thinking. Brando was not the type of person to show off so maybe I've been overreacting about it.

What do you think? Do any of you read in public? Do you do it to intimidate people?

i read ayn rand on public transport

>>2
No you don't.

What do you guys think of Yukio Mishima?

Patriotism is a great short story
http://ptchanculto.binhoster.com/books/-Lit-%20Recommended%20Reading/Japanese%20Literature/Mishima,%20Yukio/Mishima,%20Yukio%20-%20Patriotism.rtf

Sun and Steel is my favourite work of his

Favorite Tom Clancy book and why?

Red October because I've always been fascinated by a possible American-Soviet conflict of major proportions. Cold War history is fascinating.

Did you ever read it? What are your opinions of it? Is it even legal? How many things on it are legit?

General discussion

/bijou/ would reject this immediately, so this is the second best place.

>>6
Yeah the only thing i ever made was the smoke bombs. Was going through an edgy fight club phase so doing that made me feel good

I have a copy that I got in the early '90. I personally like the quotes in the book.

>>14
Shut the fuck up mongoloid. You dumb fucking cunts can't stop tonguing that sore. Fuck off back to /pol/

>>1
http://www.angelfire.com/oh/kewlkewlkewl/cookbook.html
here its outdated as fuck

It's an antique full of half-jokes (smoking peanut shells to get high) and legit directions on bomb making which you can now discover on Wikipedia.

As a reference for its time, yeah, it's a nice little artifact. Don't pretend it's some sort of holy text.

Will reading tons of philosophy really get you anywhere? What gave you that idea?

Check 'em