I’d like to get back into reading nonfiction, but, outside of the Titanic, I’m not sure what I want to read about. I do have other topics that interest me, but they’re so niche that I can’t find more than 2-3 books about them.
The Titanic is the only one that has a plethora of information, but I’d like to expand outside of that.
What are those interests? I’ll search Amazon for things that interest me, then check Goodreads reviews, and then see if my library has them. If they don’t, I make a Can’t Find It request for a potential Inter-Library Loan. If I know what you’re interested in, I might be able to track down some titles.
Mostly business. The bankruptcies/liquidation of companies, the failure of enterprises, private equity takeovers, or just overall drama in the C-suite. The only book I ever see suggested is “Barbarians at the Gate”. “The Keys to the Kingdom”, about Disney, also sounds appealing to me. There’s a book about Caesars Palace that is listed as being comparable to “Barbarians”, but the reviews for that are pretty middling.
I’m also into the (defunct) airline industry (Pan-Am, Trans World Airlines, Continental, Eastern etc), but out of the small number of books I have found on that subject, some have pretty middling reviews on Goodreads. I do have “Come Fly with Me” (TWA), “Come Fly The World” (Pan-Am), and “SkyGds” (Pan-Am) on my to-read list.
Thanks for offering to help!
No problem. Did some quick Amazon searches and came up with some titles. I’ll cross-reference them with Goodreads and post some links for you.
Here’s a bunch on Pan-Am and one on TWA:
Thanks again. “No Sex Please” and “TWA Book of Memories” seems like they’d be interesting.
You’re welcome. Some of the books I listed didn’t have any Goodreads reviews so I looked through the reviews on Amazon. I’ve found a few business-type stuff that I might post tomorrow, but as that’s something I really don’t know much about, it’s harder to tell what might be good or up your alley.
Finished The Two Towers and whilst I liked it a little more than Fellowship, I find that Tolkien’s prose is really not my thing, even if the worldbuilding is impressive and I appreciate what it did for the genre.
Still going to read The Return of the King because if I don’t read it now I never will.
I’ve recently started reading The Gangster We Are All Looking For by lê thi diem thúy (the author prefers to have their name spelled in all lowercase) for my English class, and it’s pretty good so far!
@CommanderBayban, here’s the business ones I found. Unfortunately most of them have no reviews. I don’t know what’s up with the previews, hopefully the links still work.
Hm, these seem to be more for those curious about bankruptcy in general instead of books chronicling the bankruptcy of specific companies. On the plus side, there are plenty of YT channels that focus on the latter topic, so it’s not as if I’m completely deficient.
Yeah, this is something I don’t anything about, so I’m not sure what to look for. But an Amazon search from you, knowing better keywords, might come up with more interesting titles, just be sure to set to book and be prepared to scroll through several pages of results to find what you’re looking for.
I finished the Beastie Boys Book. A great biography by the group themselves. An excellent read.
Next I’m going to re-read the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.
I finished The Lord of the Rings and boy oh boy do I have a new controversial opinion to rant about.
Anyway, I needed something a little lighter and a lot shorter, so I’m starting Discworld.
You’re not about to blaspheme now, are you?
No, but I totally get it. Tolkien’s writing is very dense even if his worldbuilding is amazing and his influence on the fantasy genre is uncontested
Its boring?
Post must be at least 12 rings to rule them all.
I’d enjoy it more if you cut out all the bits that don’t have hobbits or wizards in them?
Yeah, about that.
Tolkien I think, is a fantastic worldbuilder, Middle-Earth is truly one of the greatest, if not the greatest, fictional worlds ever created.
I also think Tolkien is an unmatched linguist, the languages and use of description he puts to paper is wonderfully powerful.
However, I think he is a very flawed writer.
I don’t know what it is, could be anything, but it might just be the joyless dialogue, shocking lack of depth, inability to write any scene that has moves faster than a hike, the pacing, the exposition dumps, the constant intrusive and momentum breaking songs, the tension annihilating structure, the tangents, the fact it feels more like he wanted to write a textbook than a narrative novel.
Ok, I joke. All of the above are criticisms I had whilst reading TLotR but mainly I think I’m just not particularly into Tolkien on a personal level, I am in the >1% of people who didn’t like the books after all.
I understand why so many people love it and talking about what I thought of it is just inviting animosity from anybody’s who’s ever read a work of fiction but I’m not going to pretend I didn’t find reading it painfully slow. In a shorter summary:
Yes.
I get this criticism and agree with it on a certain level. I rarely re-read LOtR exactly because it usually feels like a chore and even more so for someone whose native language isn’t English.
I actually believe that Tolkien was more interested in worldbuilding and textbookiness than he was in telling an engaging story. This is even more evident when you read his other works, such as his big passion, Silmarillion, which is even less of a story and more of a textbook.
Have you read The Hobbit? It flows much better as it’s sort of written to be a children’s fantasy novel. It’s probably my favourite Tolkien novel after The Children of Hurín.
I have not read The Hobbit and might at some point but only very far into the future; I have too many other books on my shelf that I need to read
As to what you said about Tolkien being more focused on worldbuilding than story, I totally agree and that actually might be where the books fail for me. My first priority whenever I’m critiquing something is the story, I think the actual narrative should come above anything else so maybe good ol’ Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien being more focused on the history of King Aethanfarfithórn the Eighteenth who once did a battle at some point was why I wasn’t too into them.