PKD top hits:

Do Androids
UBIK
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
VALIS
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
A Scanner Darkly
The Man in the High Castle
Time out of Joint
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

in no particular order

if, on the other hand, you want to get a taste of the dregs at the bottom of the PKD barrel, I highly recommend _The Cosmic Puppets_

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21242 Posts

January 16 2015 16:30 GMT

#124

Thoughts on Solar Lottery? Someone gifted it to me and I haven't had a chance to read it yet, what should I be expecting?

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

January 16 2015 16:39 GMT

#125

I looove Ubik and A Scanner Darkly. I second those.
Solar Lottery is quite good if I remember well. I haven't read an uninteresting PKD novel yet though^^

SwizzY

United States1549 Posts

January 16 2015 17:49 GMT

#126

I've been reading Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (same guy who wrote Outliers) and it's an interesting read. However it sort of feels like pseudo-science that merely attempts at an explanation the reasons for why fashion, social, or disease epidemics occur rather than an actual scientific model for controllably replicating a real trend. I mean, I can understand that such a model would probably be outlined in an actual scientific article rather than a book for the layman, but some of the extrapolations that he makes are a little too self-serving for my tastes.. I like Outliers alot better since the scope of the book seemed much more empirically measurable (individuals) as opposed to trying to attribute the fall of 90s NYC crime almost solely to regular subway maintenance.

Read the intro/first chapter of BJ Novak's new book One More Thing and thought it was pretty hilarious. Probably will read that next.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

January 16 2015 18:20 GMT

#127

Solar Lottery falls into the second tier of PKD novels - important to his ouevre as a variation on one of his themes, not the best as a novel in itself. But certainly worth reading. There are only a couple that are not worth reading.

lungic

Sweden123 Posts

January 16 2015 20:22 GMT

#128

I curious, with so many PKD fans here, what are your opinon on Frederick Pohl?
I just read the second Gateway (Beyond the blue event horizon) book, and prior to that "The Space merchants", and even though they're not equivalent I find them to be very similar to each other. Perhaps from the dystopia setting.

123Gurke

France154 Posts

January 16 2015 20:30 GMT

#129

My favorite book by PKD is by far The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I also like Martian Time-Slip quite a lot, although that may well be because it was my first book by him. I would actually not recommend A Scanner Darkly. Sure, it is a great book. But it is very different from most other PKD books. So if you want to get to know typical PKD go for something else. I do not like VALIS at all. I tried several times and did not finish it, because it is plain boring.

IgnE

United States7681 Posts

January 17 2015 00:40 GMT

#130

On January 17 2015 02:49 SwizzY wrote:
I've been reading Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (same guy who wrote Outliers) and it's an interesting read. However it sort of feels like pseudo-science that merely attempts at an explanation the reasons for why fashion, social, or disease epidemics occur rather than an actual scientific model for controllably replicating a real trend. I mean, I can understand that such a model would probably be outlined in an actual scientific article rather than a book for the layman, but some of the extrapolations that he makes are a little too self-serving for my tastes.. I like Outliers alot better since the scope of the book seemed much more empirically measurable (individuals) as opposed to trying to attribute the fall of 90s NYC crime almost solely to regular subway maintenance.

Read the intro/first chapter of BJ Novak's new book One More Thing and thought it was pretty hilarious. Probably will read that next.

Malcolm Gladwell is a complete hack. Bourgeois propagandist and state hero.

Doublemint

Austria8455 Posts

January 17 2015 18:02 GMT

#131

reread palahniuk's fight club.

gets me everytime

Sub40APM

6336 Posts

January 17 2015 19:56 GMT

#132

nothing smells better than opening a new book that just arrived. Mmmmmmmmmm

Zergneedsfood

United States10671 Posts

January 19 2015 00:18 GMT

#133

I just finished Jose Saramago's Seeing.

T_T;

I've lost my will to live. I don't even know what to say. That ending....T_T;;;;

Shiragaku

Hong Kong4308 Posts

January 19 2015 20:42 GMT

#134

Plan on starting this pretty soon.
[image loading]

KtJ

United States3514 Posts

January 19 2015 22:12 GMT

#135

The year in starcraft 2 2011
I came in to the scene a bit late and this book is an amazing way to learn about sc2.
It has a player data base of over 250 players,
A section on the meta back then, the defining players and so much more awesome stuff.

Zergneedsfood

United States10671 Posts

January 20 2015 02:00 GMT

#136

After needing to pick up something a bit more joyful, I picked up Turgunev's Fathers and Sons. I really liked the characters. Almost all of them actually. It was strange kind of agreeing with almost everyone was saying, even though they were arguing for essentially diametrically opposed things. Definitely worth a read, and I'd encourage others to pick it up if they haven't.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

January 20 2015 04:22 GMT

#137

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

January 21 2015 02:02 GMT

#138

Zergneedsfood

United States10671 Posts

January 21 2015 02:39 GMT

#139

Just finished Yasunari Kawabata's Thousand Cranes:

[image loading]

For a while I thought the book was kind of just okay/whatever, but then I thought some of the complex and subtle things in the novel really uplifted my initial impressions of it.

It's really hard to read Kawabata's "lesser" works and think positively about them when he has just phenomenal masterpieces like Snow Country and Master of Go. It's hard to give credit to the other two books that I've read from him Sound of the Mountain and now Thousand Cranes when the former two were just....on a whole other level.