I accidentally spent an hour and a half writing this. Excuse the length, it got a bit out of hand.

First of all take formal lessons. Doesn't matter where or how, learning is considerably easier through assistance and interactions with people. Anyone can learn to read moon runes but a teacher can help with conversation and pronunciation especially which is the most important aspect. I started with weekly out of school classes and for a year I had a family friend tutor who would help me weekly and I can't emphasise how helpful learning through a teacher is.

My total class time was a little unorthodox with 5 years of extra studies in England during secondary school followed by 3 years of Japanese in Australia during high school. The rest has been self studies of kanji and overall reading and listening. I'll go through everything.

Second is to get the Japanese writing system down; hiragana and katakana. Kanji is also important and an absolute must if you plan to read light novels, manga and especially visual novels. My personal preference for a digital kanji dictionary is Japanese which comes with useful features like a touch screen writing kanji search, stroke order for kanji writing, JLPT kanji learning and sorting and most importantly sentence usage examples.

Visual novels are rough because they have sometimes have the unique blend of every day kanji and words before throwing terms like large hadron particle collider and anti gravity particles, (I'm looking at you Aokana.) My personal method for learning kanji has been to get a book and manually create my own list in Anki.

Third is books. Again, the standards you'll find are Japanese for Busy People and the Genki series. I live in Australia, mind, resources may be different in other countries. Other helpful texts down the line include: Read Real Japanese, 日本語擬態語辞典 (A Japanese Onomatopoeia Book, though I'm sure Jazz Up Your Japanese with Onomatopoeia would work just as well) and the last one I'll mention below.

The Japanese Shonen JUMP is an exceptionally useful source if you're able to get a hold of it. Weekly, reasonably prices, recyclable books with pictures to deduce words from context, furigana to help with kanji and a decent art resource if you like drawing. I get a cop of JUMP weekly from Kinokuniya in Sydney if anyone from NSW happens to read this.

Fourth, use the internet! Don't use the net as your primary resource, text books exist and are pricey for a reason. However, there's a ton of great side content online that you can use. One alternative to JUMP is Pocket Shonen Magazine with all sorts of manga in Japanese that provides the lastest chapters for free. It's also home to the rather unique read Nagatoro-san.

You also have options like Japanese podcasts, (I like Anime Cafe Latte), Visual Novels with Japanese subs as well such as Little Busters English Edition and Go Go Nippon!* and Japanese news websites.

Additionally once you get better at reading and writing you can lurk on Japanese forums, YouTube pages and Nico Nico if you want casual chats with fans. When I played through Persona 5, it was nice to talk to other Japanese players in the early days of release and discuss it. It was also helpful that players created a walkthrough website for P5 and various move and frame data for Dissidia which were helpful. Again there are many ways you can learn and utilise Japanese so never underestimate when, where or how you can use the language.

Fifth is Japanese Media. Anime, manga, animation, live action films, books, music, podcasts, anything! Constant and consistent exposure to the language is an incredibly useful method to get down pronunciation and fluency. Anime and manga won't help with casual conversation but will keep the language fresh in your mind and help with pronunciation. An example of difference between representation of pronunciation can be shown in the Chihayafuru live action films, (which are very good!) Kansai certainly has its own quirks that isn't present in your bog standard Tokyo dialect, but the more realistic live action take on kansai, compared to the sporadic and higher pitched anime take is a shocking juxtaposition.

This is getting very long so I'll just through out two YouTuber I haven't put in the text above and a few small useful FAQs I see around.

Abroad in Japan presented by Chris Board is a very fun and insightful series of videos looking into places in Japan off the beaten path. He also has a podcast.

That Japanese Man Yuta interviews various people in Japan about various topics. The interviews are generally subbed and are great for hearing natural speech patterns and word choices.

Q: Do I need to know a lot of Japanese when I go to Japan? A: Not if you're travelling around Tokyo. Anywhere outside train transport and the city is a lot harder to navigate when reading signs. This has been improving over recent years. Tokyo locals can manage a little English but you'll have a far easier time if you know the language.

When I went near Kobe for a Haruhi anime pilgrimage there was a distinct lack of any English whatsoever outside of the train station. Nobody spoke English and all communication was Japanese. You also get to hear some amusing side comments from people in the Japanese if you look foreign enough.

Q: How vital is learning Japanese for games nowadays considering the increasing speed and frequency of translations? A: Recently games I've played or want to play in Japanese such as Persona 5, Gintama Rumble and Girls und Panzer have had English subs in their Asia edition on sites such as Play Asia. Better yet is that some of these games get same date releases. However, sometimes translations can be wonky depending on who was contracted for the translation such as the infamously awful Sword Art Hollow Fragment translation.

Some games like Ao no Kiseki and Zero no Kiseki are only now receiving translations despite being popular games. Did you know there's a PS3 visual novel about using a smartphone to read girls' current emotions? I didn't until my little sister brought it back from Japan for $10 from my favourite store Trader, (it's not that good.) Even larger titles such as Summer Pockets are also left in the wind as to whether or not it'll be translated officially or by fans reasonably soon. There are also an exorbitant amount of games that don't get official or fan translations.

Q: Do I have to become a sub elitist because I know Japanese? A: Nope, contrary to popular belief you can still enjoy dubs but you may find you appreciate the subtext in Japanese that isn't heard in English more often. Playing Square Enix games can be especially frustrating in sub when you realise just how much text can be abridged, (you may actually prefer this in some games however.)

Q: Is there a 2,000 word essay you're avoiding writing? A: Yes and that concludes this post.

Hope this helps, hit me up if there's anything else you want to ask.

Post Genki II Stuff

1. Watch Shirokuma Cafe on this website. Animelon is beautiful because all of its anime have subtitles available in English, romaji (latinized Japanese), hiragana, and normal Japanese -- start with English & normal Japanese for a few episodes to get used to how people talk, then turn off English and begin ganbatte'ing (doing your best). This anime is about a panda bear working in a cafe owned by a polar bear where they make food for guests and go on various adventures. It's great because the vocabulary is almost entirely every day (minus the polar bear's obnoxious puns), and it also has a variety of accents, so you'll begin getting used to Japanese sounds. If you like dry humor, you'll even enjoy the anime. I personally laughed so hard that I cried, twice.
   
   
2. Begin going through the N3 grammar videos from Nihongo no Mori, also feel free to check out their Dangerous Japanese (slang), and move on to N2 and N1 grammar as you feel ready. Their videos are great because they all have subtitles, they circumlocate to simpler Japanese to explain difficult words in the example sentenecs (explaining Japanese with simpler Japanese), and they have fun. These videos were personally the first "all Japanese" content that I consumed, and after I had been watching for a week or so I began with Shirokuma Cafe.
   
   
3. Buy Read Real Japanese Contemporary Fiction and Essays. These books are great: they present 7 short stories or essays that are 100% unaltered (except for adding readings to Kanji that appear for the first time in a given article), as a native speaker would see them. That's on the right page. The left page has a running gloss into English -- it's just enough to help you understand the meanings of parts you didn't quite understand, but not so much that you'd understand what was going on by only reading it. The real gem is that the 2nd half of the book is a running grammatical dictionary, as in the author devotes like ~130 pages to explaining all of the grammar that was contained in every single article that is more advanced than ~Late Genki II stuff. These are the holy grail of Japanese learning content for me; they're literally training wheels for reading read Japanese stuff. I read each one with a notebook: I went one sentence at a time, reading every grammar explanation, and writing down any grammar that I didn't know. Sounds time consuming, but I still went through a story in 1-2 days (2-4 hours? per story on average). After finishing the book I waited 2 weeks then read it again, highlighting the sentences that I still struggled with, double checking that grammar. Then I read it again a month later, not checking the grammar, and added any sentences i still didn't explain into Anki as Clozed Deletion Card.
   
   
4. I say again -- Read Real Japanese is training wheels to Reading Real Japanese. Written Japanese is quite different than Spoken Japanese, and this book really helps to iron out everything that might have not quite gotten through your system yet. When you finish the two books, begin looking for native books you can read on an e-reader/the computer. Just pick whatever you're interested in that has been written in the last 20 years. It's important to do it on a Kindle/computer because this enables you to highlight words to search them in the dictionary, rather than having to draw the characters out to search by hand in your phone dictionary. The Kindle is a pair of stilts that makes reading tolerable at a fluency level where it would normally be unbearable -- and I think this goes for any language, but particularly for languages like Japanese/Chinese where the primary writing system isn't necessarily phonetic.
   
   
5. In addition to reading, listen to lots of stuff. Find something that is interesting to you -- ie, something you find entertaining enough that you're willing to slodge through the beginning phase where it's not-pleasantly-difficult -- and stick to it. I personally liked/like Taigu Channel; a Buddhist monk here in Japan takes in letters from people struggling with life problems (what is happiness? what is freedom? How can I show the people around me that I appreciate them?) and then he answers them from a Buddhist perspective. Objectively speaking I think it's super for a first listening resource because he speaks clearly, somewhat slowly, a lot of the videos have subtitles, and he's talking about everyday-life problems meaning that the vocabulary is limited to practical things. If you're interested in Buddhism, I personally find the videos to be really enlightening. This is the ultimate goal of language learning, in my opinion -- to find a way to make your target language a medium; a gateway to knowledge or entertainment that you want, which just happens to be only in your target language... meaning that just by enjoying yourself and consuming content you want to consume, you naturally improve your language.
   
   
6. Check out Flowverlapping, find some music you like, and work at it to help you (a) learn the sounds of Japanese, (b) work into a more natural sounding rhythm/intonation, and (c) to (hopefully) get something of a feel for Japanese's two pitch accents. This is basically not necessary for being understood, but will definitely help you to sound more pleasant on the ears, and figured I might as well leave the link just in case you happen to be interested in pronunciation. Since it can be difficult to break into music in a new language, I'll also leave a few songs that I like in different genres. Yonedzu Kenshi-AiNekutai (indie), Mucc-Heide (visual kei), King Giddra-Bullet of Truth(uhh, hard? rap), Kohh-Don't Care If I'm Broke(uhh, soft? rap), Perfume-Flash(J-pop),Urashima Tarou - Voice of the Sea(makes me think of Japan) Kobasolo - Far, Far away (a playlist of soft music I gathered). Music is important to me, personally -- so if you enjoy music, I hope there's something you like here somewhere.
   

You could read novels, but I personally think you're going to get a better intro to SF and more enjoyment, and a better chance of finding "your thing" if you read short stories. You can then read the novels you know you'll enjoy. I love SF anthologies, not only because you get a collection of pre-selected awesome pieces, but also you get to sample a ton of different authors with different styles in the same number of pages as reading a novel would get you just a single story and a single author. Also, many consider the short story the ultimate and best form for science fiction.

I suggest anthologies that collect stories over multiple years instead of just "best of the year" collection. For obvious reasons, you get better stories. Here are the best I know of:

• The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy
  
• The Hard SF Renaissance (One or two stories from this will answer the question of whether you like Hard SF.)
  
• The Science Fiction Century
  
• Twenty-First Century Science Fiction (sort of a sequel to the previous one)
  
• Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1, 2a, and 2b (This is kind of a survey of historical SF, ranging from the '20s to the '60s.)
  
  So you could go historically starting with old stories and working your way more contemporary, in which case you'd start with SF Hall of Fame. But it might be a better idea to start with the most contemporary stuff and go backwards. In that case, you'd start with Locus Awards and start in the back of the book.
  
  In terms of specific authors, I would be amiss not to encourage you to read Ted Chiang. He has written only 13 short stories between 1992 and now, but he's won more awards for them than most SF authors do in their lifetime including the prestigious Nebula, Locus and Hugo awards, among others! READ. HIS. STORIES. He has an awesome anthology Stories of Your Life and Others plus you can buy his more recent stories on amazon.
  
  You should also read Greg Egan. And Enders Game if you somehow missed it. There's also the classic Arthur C. Clarke, either his short stories, or a novel like City and the Stars.
  

I passed N2 last year. Copying my comment from the last time I saw this question.

> 1) The 新完全マスター I recognized a few things on the test that I had picked up from these books. They've also been highly recommended by basically all my Japanese teachers, and everybody I know who has taken the test. In my opinion they are as close to accurately reflecting the test as you can get.
2) This Japanese app, which is simply called "Japanese." (App Store, Google Play). This app has been incredible for me. It's free, offline, very comprehensive, and allows you to make vocab lists and gives you the option to study them in order or through SRS (Spaced Repetition System). I used it together with the 新完全マスター books. At the beginning of each chapter of 漢字, 文法, or 語彙, I'd scan for any word I wasn't familiar with, and create a vocab list of them. Then I'd use the app's SRS function to familiarize myself with all the words from the chapter. Once I'd completed it, I'd tackle the chapter, rinse, and repeat. This method was very effective for me.
3) Japanese news podcasts. This one features commentary and some back and forth between the announcers, and this one is just straight up news. Both are updated daily. I know these aren't made for the N2, but for me, I listen to them whenever I go out for walks, or am commuting somewhere. I find myself surprised, and a little satisfied, that words I have recently studied seem to pop up, and that feeling really helps to motivate me to continue to study.
4) I didn't use this quite as much, but I've seen this YouTube series posted here before. I think it's helpful for a lot of people, so I'm including it here

One thing I hadn’t mentioned last time is reading. My boss got me this book recently, which I think would have further improved my score had I incorporated it into my study before the test. It has short stories and essays from some of Japan’s most famous authors. All kanji has furigana, and as you look at the book you have Japanese on the right page with English definitions or colloquial explanations on the right. It also comes with a cd on which a professional voice actor reads the stories at native speed, which can further help with listening. I’ve heard people say “furigana won’t help you learn kanji,” but I’d say this book is not for kanji practice. It’s for reading practice, which is another important part of the test. You can practice kanji separately, using items 1 and 2 in this comment. be sure to read the “How to use this book” bit at the beginning so you can understand how to take full advantage of it.

Also just wanna say: Fuck anybody who laughs at you for expressing your ambitions. You sound like you’re committed to working hard to achieve your goal. If you do, even if you fail, I’m sure you’ll have improved your ability a great deal, and that’s the most important thing. Don’t let others tell you that the finish line is too far away, Just keep moving in the same direction and you’ll get to where you’ll want to be.

Other make sure you get lots of quality sleep for at least a few days leading up to the test. Stay hydrated, but don’t drink too much beforehand. It’s a long test, and you don’t want to be thinking about how much you want to piss while you’re taking it. Eat a good breakfast that won’t give you gas. Bring extra pencils and a high-quality eraser. Dress comfortably, knowing that even if the weather is hot, the test room air conditioning could make the room chilly. Bring a snack in case you get hungry between the kanji/vocab/grammar/reading portion and the listening portion. Stay relaxed, and understand that regardless of the outcome, you’ve worked hard to get to where you are, which is something you deserve to be proud of.

Good luck!

Mike Underwood's Shield and Crocus – Fantasy as superheoes. Why don't more powerful protagonists turn into outright superheroes? Discounting Peter Brett's The Warded Man, who is essentially Magical Batman by the end of his first book, these feel like the exception. Here, the supervillains won and have turned into Fantasy tyrants, leaving the heroes operating almost as an underground cult. It's a neat angle on the Fantasy novel, though eventually all the fight scenes wore on me. The big problem is that the heroes feel more like archetypes than individuals – I kept referring to two of them as Rodimus Prime and The Flash all the way to the end. Still a fun book.

Jo Walton's My Real Children – After Tooth & Claw and Among Others, this cemented Walton as one of my favorite authors. She makes hard pitches into great books. In this case I don't even know the novel's genre – Patricia Cowan is a senile woman, but she remembers two distinct lives in high detail and swears children from both still visit her. At first you think it's just a Butterfly Flaps Its Wings plot, her lives diverging over whether she got married or not, but gradually you realize neither world is ours in some really interesting Alternate History choices. I can't remember the last book I read that nailed being a citizen amid current events like that, that level of distance, and then terror when something global actually touches your life. Both lives have a wealth of intimate developments, and it's fascinating to see how both lives could possibly end up in the same place.

Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns – I think I would have dug this at 13, but not at 33. Jorg is this cynical, uber-capable kid on a revenge kick and forms no interesting relationships despite gathering a crew of raiders. He's an obvious power fantasy character who is also a crappy person, leaving me with no desire to see him succeed, and yet his path to revenge/triumph is the point, so there wasn't anything else in the book to appeal.

Saladin Ahmed's Engraved in the Eye – A free short story collection by the author of Throne of the Crescent Moon. It's a mixed bag, but completely worth the download for Ahmed's take on the Western in "Mister Hadj's Sunset Ride" and a great take on depression in "General Akmed's Revenge?" The question mark is part of that title. I love that.

Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½ Books 5 & 6 – I'm so glad I gave this series a chance. It's absolutely nuts in great ways. The point at which Ranma's dad and his old teacher both turn into giant monsters, then are so tired out by the transformation that they call off the fight? Sublime.

Robert Asprin's Another Fine Myth – My first exposure to Asprin. Cute, breezy, cheesy, and a pretty good hit/miss ratio on the humor. My favorite part was Aahz convincing a demon hunter that the gems on the crappy sword weren't garbage – they were precious magical stones enchanted to look like garbage to protect them. That’s good stuff.

Naoki Urasawa 20th Century Boys Book 6 – Still a great series, but I'm not sure what I can say at this point that won't spoil it. I'll link to my review if anyone is interested.

I'm looking forward to October. I just started Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven (heavy stuff so far), and have the next two books of 20th Century Boys and the last two books of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy waiting. I'm thinking of trying out Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon. Has anyone read that yet?

> Also of course the language I'm most interested in is literally the most difficult one categorised, lol; looks like you're currently studying it (Japanese), how have you found it so far?

So it took me about 2 years to get to N3 in Japanese, entirely self-studying, and I've been studying it for about 2 and a half years now. I honestly don't find it too bad. Obviously learning all of the kanji takes time. I've chosen to learn them as I go along rather than memorise them all at the start and I know and can write about 600 but I can probably recognise and read ~800. The grammar is very different from English but it's difficult in a different way to some other languages. When I studied Russian that was difficult because you're trying to internalise all these case endings and perfective and imperfective forms of verbs and it just felt like a slog to me, whereas in Japanese most grammatical constructions are simple to construct, no complex conjugation rules or anything, but there are a lot of subtleties to meanings and usages that take time to really get familiar with.

I am a big fan of textbooks, so I did Genki I, then Genki II, then studied for N4 using textbook specifically geared for that, then Tobira, then textbooks specifically for N3. Now I'm using a combination of Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course (KKLC) for Kanji, Authentic Japanese: Progressing From Intermediate to Advanced, various materials that I'm reading (some native like manga, online news and a high school history textbook, and some geared for learners like this, this and NHK Easy News) and various stuff I'm watching/listening to.

Obviously the ability to actually speak is what gets neglected the most in self-study. I was pretty religiously having Skype lessons through iTalki for a while and that helped enormously but I have let that slip a bit. I went to Japan shortly after passing N4 and I was really surprised with how well I was able to communicate. My partner is a wheelchair user so we did have to communicate with Japanese people way more than the average tourist and it all went really smoothly.

What I'd say about Japanese is less that it's super super hard, but more that it's going to take a long time, especially if you don't already know how language-learning works best for you. If it's something you want to do, you probably can, but you have to know that it is a marathon, not a sprint. Going in, my idea was that if I'm not competent in Japanese until a decade into studying, that was OK. It was a long-term hobby I was taking up.

> How long did it take you to get to B2 in French?

That's a more complicated story. Technically I started studying French in 2006 but that was some really terrible teaching in a UK secondary school and I didn't put much effort in and dropped it after the first year with very little ability. I started seriously studying French at school in 2009 when I did a GCSE in it in one year (they're usually 2 years but they teach very little). I'd say I was a solid A1 after that. Then I did an A Level over 2 years finishing in 2012. After that I'd say I was probably a solid B1 or a weak B2. Then I was at university for 4 years and completely dropped all language study. After that my reading was probably at a B1 level but everything else had suffered a lot from lack of use. Then in 2016 I picked it back up again, got it back up to standard (it came back really quickly) and passed the actual B2 exam in December 2016. I've been intending to take C1 for ages and I'm fairly confident I'd pass it right now, but at this point I think I'll hold out for C2 which I'm debating taking later in the year. So I expect I was at B2 after 3 serious years in the British schooling system. I actually passed B2 after that plus 4 years of nothing plus about 6 months of self-study. It can be done way quicker than that if you self-study from the start though.

> Do you have time for other hobbies?

Language learning is definitely my primary hobby, but I do really enjoy it and it's not like I come home from work every day and do nothing else. I'm not a big gamer but when something comes out that catches my fancy I'll play it. I live with my partner so I spend time with him every day just watching TV and movies, spending time together, going out at the weekends etc. I cook every day and occasionally dedicate a whole day to cooking something special or baking. I do a lot of coding (which is also my job, but I do my own personal projects for fun). I read a lot. I am going back to university to get another Master's next year so that will definitely test out my time management.

For me, I think the best thing is to think of language study as a lifestyle change. If you want to get strong and fit, you make the change to go to the gym every day or 4 times a week or whatever, and if you keep on track and don't miss days too often, you'll eventually get there. And then once you're where you want to be, you keep going to maintain it. That's how I see language learning. It's something you'll have to find time for and incorporate into your lifestyle.

Phew, sorry about that essay.

1. The Heritage of Shannara - The Wishsong of Shannara was the book that brought me into reading at the age of 10 thanks to a truly amazing 4th grade teacher. The Heritage series cemented my interest in Epic Fantasy and lead me to multiple amazing authors. This quadrilogy has a special place in my heart for many reasons, I'd be hard pressed to pick something else if I had to pick only one book. I love that the ultimate weapon against evil is literally a two edged sword that makes you accept the naked truth about yourself to wield it, and undoes evil by that same principle. Hard to beat four books for the price of one with this collection. I've read them countless times and would happily do so again at any time.
   
2. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Shakespeare's works are the basis for so much literature and culture (good and bad) that a complete volume of his works would be enjoyable in its own right while providing memories for the many offshoot works that have their roots here which I have already consumed.
   
3. The Stories of Ray Bradbury - A few have mentioned Fahrenheit 451 here already, but Bradbury was an amazing author beyond the confines of his popular works, and a collection such as this offers a decent variety from an amazing writer.
   
4. Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1 - Azimov is another author who was a prodigious writer with a wealth of amazing concepts and stories. I've enjoyed most of his popular fiction and a collection as large as this would seem a godsend should I be as limited as this challenge proposes in my reading.
   
5. Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson is probably my favorite author right now, and if I had the option I would pick the complete Mistborn series or the whole of the as yet to be finished Stormlight Archive, but with 1 book left in my 5, I would have to limit myself to his one offs, and of those I think Warbreaker speaks to me most. It's a great story and having read it a couple of times already, I don't think I would tire of it easily.

For Sci fi, Ian M. Banks: His Player of Games is the most accessable in my opinion.- Since he is one of my favorite authors I'd probably try and push Player of games, hoping the person would feel inspired after reading and wanting to read more of the culture novels.
(Player of Games is NOT (in my humble opinion) the best sci fi out there, but it can help you get into one of the best sci fi series ever written; The culture novels, by the same author - so its like reading something so so, to hook you to something great!)

For shorter easier access to the genre, I highly recommend trying to read Bruce Sterlings collection of short stories; http://www.amazon.com/Schismatrix-Plus-Complete-Shapers-Mechanists-Universe/dp/0441003702

These stories give a nice introduction to not only sci fi in general but in particular to Bruce Sterlings Shaper/mechanist universe which is just one of the most riveting things Ive ever read in sci fi.

For Cyber punk: This genre is just strange to the uninitiated. You probably want to read mainstream sci fi first.
If you read bruce Sterlings character driven sci fi first, and then try on cyber punk you might get a lot more out of it: Reading order - (im not sure if this is an official trilogy, but this is the order I recommend)
Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona lisa Overdrive - Think of them as one large novel, and dont read other things in between for the best experience.

Then there is pulp sci fi. The easily consumed run of the mill, often very good sci fi. - Try Neal Asher, or Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon is awesome) - Reading books by these two is a bit like reading James Bond, beamed into the future in his underpants and just kicking ass and taking names. - I love it, but its not brainy sci fi in any way. Pure entertainment.

And then we should talk about space operas. - I dont like them. - There is one exception to every rule, and so my exception here is Peter Hamilton: http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Dysfunction-Nights-trilogy-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B003GK21DA (Im not sure if Im wrong in labelling these books space operas - maybe I head that somewhere, not sure if Im wrong) - However, I recommend reading this series AFTER taking on something like the bruce sterling suggestion I mentioned. Unless you want a brick of a book to be your introduction to the genre.

Honorable mentions: 1984 (dystopean sci fi is a whole sub genre in itself - Its not all Hungergames) - Do androids dream of electric sheep. (thats what Bladerunner the movie is based on)
For the easily consumed: Enders Game, and really anything by Orson Scott Card (his sci fi is really easy to read and he does great storylines and good character building).
Dune probably needs to be on the list. (I know the movies sucked, but the books are great)
Old Mans War was mentioned elsewhere and in that line, I recommend also : The Forever War - by Joe Haldman.
Snow Crash (cyberpunkish - but he is an author you'd want to check out for alot of his work besides this one)
2001 a space odyssey. And why not A hitchikers guide to the galaxy.

I would like to provide some input here regarding JpPlayer. I have been subscribed to the service for 3 years now and it is hands down one of the best study tools I have at my disposal. It does have one major flaw however so I want to make sure people are aware of it before they purchase it, or at least to make sure they try the 3 day trial to make sure they won't have any issues.

The video stream itself is in high-definition. Unlike normal HD streaming services however it doesn't do well scaling quality to accommodate for hardware and connection issues. This means if you have a laptop with a low-grade video card using shared VRAM with the system memory you can run into all sorts of frustrating problems. I've only seen this problem with integrated cards like this though and have never had issues on any system running a stand-alone dedicated card.

The other problem is one that most people will never have to worry about but it is still worth mentioning. JPPlayer will not run properly on an accessory monitor. This means if you run a multi-monitor gaming system with an additional display for watching TV or surfing the net for example, the player has problems for some reason playing anything if it's moved to the accessory screen. It will run just fine on the main monitors however. This is a very minor bug and affects a very small percentage of possible users, but better to know it exists than to pull your hair out like I did trying to find the reason.

Finally I will say that the guy that distributes and cares for the program is absolutely amazing. He has always answered any technical questions I have had on the program and has worked with me on trying to fix that accessory bug from time to time when I try new fixes. When the satellite provider stopped broadcasting the stream a few years back he actually sent me a refund for my remaining time as I'd paid for a year in advance. They have of course long since reintroduced the feed and it's been running strong since. He is a very trustworthy and honest businessman so rest assured your money will be well spent.

JPPlayer aside I would like to also concur with OP regarding the Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar. I dropped traditional grammar methods and started just using those books to look up grammar when I came across it and found it a far more efficient method. They are a bit expensive but again the are worth every penny.

I would only add one thing to the original list. There is a book out there written entirely in English called "Making Sense of Japanese". It's an absolutely amazing short little piece that covers some of the most confusing topics that most learners struggle with and explains them using clear, concise English. It's fairly inexpensive and as with the rest completely worth it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156836492X/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hello! Hello! Thank you for re-posting. It's always fun when someone finished ADWD. That moment of relief... that feeling that there's nothing else out there... but THERE TOTALLY IS!

Novellas, Novellettes, a Re-Read and TWOW Sample Chapters

You finished the 5 ASOIAF books. Great! But there's more ASOIAF-universe material out there. Have you read Dunk & Egg, The Princess and the Queen or the Rogue Prince? And do you know about The World of Ice and Fire: GRRM's History of Planetos? Furthermore, it's a universally accepted fact that your re-read will be much, much better than your first read. Here's some links!

• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: All 3 Dunk & Egg tales in one book!
  
• The Princess & the Queen is in the Dangerous Women Anthology
  
• The Rogue Prince is in the Rogues Anthology
  
• The World of Ice and Fire
  
• Thinking of doing a re-read? Try /r/asoiafreread!
  
  Also, if you're inclined, there are 10 chapters from The Winds of Winter currently in existence (some have been released, some read). Check out /r/asoiaf's TWOW page if interested!
  
  

  ASOIAF News, Forums & Information
  

  
  

• George RR Martin's website
  
• George RR Martin's personal Blog
  
• /r/asoiaf
  
• A Wiki of Ice and Fire
  
• A Forum of Ice and Fire
  
• The Citadel - Westeros.org's resource for all things ASOIAF to include:
  
• FAQ
  
• So Spake Martin
  
• Articles
  
• Concodrance
  
• Gallery
  
• Heraldry
  
• Prophecies
  
• Tower of the Hand
  
  

  A Best-Of GRRM's Media Interviews
  

  
  GRRM gives some fantastic interviews. Here are some of my favorites!
  
  

• George RR Martin teases 'Winds of Winter': More deaths, betrayals, weddings
  
• Complete Unedited Interview with GRRM
  
• GRRM Goes Deep on the future of his books at the TV series they begat
  
• George R.R. Martin on Sex, Fantasy, and 'A Dance With Dragons'
  
• Bernard Cornwell interviews GRRM
  
  

  Favorite Posts & Mysteries
  

  
  So, you just finished ADWD. How about a best-of for theories out there! Here's my favorites:
  
  

• Southron Ambitions - Theory that the Starks, Arryns & Tullys were uniting through marriage in order to oppose and possibly depose Aerys II Targaryen. (This is my favorite ASOIAF theory of all time)
  
• The Shavepate Poisoned the Locusts - Theory by /u/feldman10 that Skahaz mo Kandaq poisoned the locusts that nearly killed Belwas towards the end of ADWD.
  
• R+L=J - Rhaegar Targaryen bedded Lyanna Stark and the offspring of their union was Jon Snow.
  
• The Blackfyre Theory - Theory that Aegon VI Targaryen is not the son of Rhaegar Targaryen, but is in fact a Blackfyre pretender.
  
• Sandor Clegane is the Gravedigger - Theory that Sandor Clegane did not die, but is instead the gravedigger that Brienne encountered at the Quiet Isle in AFFC.
  
• Lyanna Stark is the Knight of the Laughing Tree - Theory that the KoLT is Lyanna Stark who defended the High Spa... uh... Howland Reed's honor against the Freys and rode in tourney against the Freys.
  
• The Night Lamp: an alternate theory on how Stannis will wreck the Freys in TWOW - /u/cantuse posits that Stannis will use a false beacon to lure the Freys to their deaths at the Crofters' Village.
  
• The Grand Northern Conspiracy - I appreciate the depth of research that went into it even as I don't subscribe to it. It's the theory that the northmen are playing Roose and Stannis against each other in order to seat Rickon Stark or Jon Snow as the new King in the North.
  
• The Grand Tyrell Theory - Theory that Cersei isn't as crazy as she seems. The Tyrells are working against her. Loras Tyrell's injuries are not as extensive as reported to Cersei at the end of AFFC.
  
  

  Favorite ASOIAF pages
  

  
  Analysis, theories, great fan-blogs. These bring the series together in magnificent ways. My picks:
  
  

• Race for the Iron Throne by /u/vikingkingq: Political analysis going chapter-by-chapter. Currently in ACOK.
  
• The Meereense Blot by /u/feldman10: Re-evaluating disliked storylines from AFFC/ADWD in essay format and uncovering the literary/story values from these plotlines
  
• The Nerdstream Era by /u/stefansasse: ASOIAF Theory discussion and general "nerd" topics by Stefan Sasse.
  
• Boiled Leather: ASOIAF analysis/theory page of Sean T. Collins
  
• ASOIAF University: Tumblr aggregate ASOIAF page with tons and tons of tumblr posts.
  
• Meditations on a Song of Ice and Fire by /u/cantuse: Unorthodox (and awesome) examinations of ASOIAF.
  
• Watchers on the Wall: All news, rumors, casting of GoT.
  
• The Winterfell Huis Clos: Bran Vras's insanely detailed look at the Northern storylines from ADWD.
  
• The Wertzone: Adam Whitehead, personal friend of GRRM, has a blog that examines ASOIAF and other "nerd" topics.
  
• Stormsongs Remy Verhoeve's (Slynt) ASOIAF re-read blog
  
• A Read of Ice and Fire: Leigh Butler's first-time read of ASOIAF, currently in ADWD.
  
• Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire.: Political and military analysis and speculation of ASOIAF by /u/nfriel /u/somethinglikealawyer, /u/militant_penguin and me.
  
  

  Podcasts
  

  
  Like podcasts? Me too! Here are my favorites!
  
  

• History of Westeros
  
• Radio Westeros
  
• Davos Fingers Podcast
  
• Boiled Leather Audio Hour
  
• Unspoiled
  
• Game of Owns
  
• Podcast Winterfell
  
• A Podcast of Ice and Fire
  
• Vassals of Kingsgrave
  
• Lawyers, Guns and Money GoT Episode Podcasts
  
• Boars, Gore & Swords
  
• Fat Pink Cast
  
• Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things
  
  

  Social Media Worth Following
  

  
  Social media is good and fun. These are some of the ones I like a lot!
  
  Twitter Accounts
  
  

• @GRRMSpeaking - GRRM's personal Twitter account
  
• @AnneGroelle - US Editor of ASOIAF
  
• @JaneJohnsonBakr - UK Editor of ASOIAF
  
• @BWBers - The official George R.R. Martin fan club
  
• @westerosorg - Twitter account run by Elio & Linda from Westeros.org
  
• @WatchersOTWall - Tracks/reports any/all news on the TV series.
  
• @iontrone - Tracks all ASOIAF/GoT media (Special emphasis on podcasts)
  
• @WarsofASOIAF - Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire Podcast's official tiwtter.
  
• @ByndenBFish: Oh hi, I'm on twitter too if you wanted to stop by to say hi!
  
  Facebook Accounts
  
  
• ASOIAF Facebook
  
• Roose Bolton
  
• A Discussion of Ice and Fire
  
  Tumblr Accounts
  
  
• No One Suspects the Butterfly
  
• Bloodraven's List of Theories
  
• ASOIAF University
  
• WarsofASOIAF
  
  This should tide you over for the time being! Let me know if you want more!

Don’t force it. Keep your heart open and listening to God, explore other ideas, relax, read John as if it were the only gospel you had in a world that idolizes physical and psychological domination of others, treats life as cheap and places hedonism above all. Read this and understand that the world honestly described is the natural state of man before the gospel. And maybe then try reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I was a teenager when I started to drift away, I read the Upanishads, Lao Tzu, French and German philosophers, stoics, all sorts of stuff. I also went through a period in my life where I saw a lot of the bad nature of humans, almost in a banal way in hindsight. Christ really did bring something special and unique to humanity, and it took me a long time and exposure to appreciate that. I was lucky in the sense that I was able to step aside from the Church but God never let me go from his hand. I’m not sure it would have helped me to hear this back then, but I was unable to appreciate Christ’s revolutionary message because I was jaded living in a very secure and peaceful world as a very young man. I was very, very lucky for that but the irony was that I couldn’t see how bereft the world was from that vantage point. Like I couldn’t appreciate why the world needed Christ because I confused the truly good things as being the product of man’s doing rather than God’s. I’m not the most eloquent about that, just speaking off the cuff, but I hope it helps a little bit. Keep your heart open to God and listen to the Holy Spirit always - you’re allowed to do that no matter what else you read, do, or believe, and I found after many years that it ended up being my lifeline. Now I’m truly grateful for Jesus, fear the Lord and my personal relationship with Him is very real.

I've bought a fair amount of ebooks on Amazon recently and I think most of them are books that a lot of people here would enjoy (heck I heard about most of them through here!).

The Preorders:

Underlord - The sixth book in the Cradle series which is described as a Western Xianxia series. A lot of people here don't really like the Xianxia genre and I agree with their criticisms of how many main characters are very villainous, under-developed enemies and female characters, the economies of cultivation aren't logical, poor scaling in conflict as you go from one city to interstellar in scope, and awkward prose. But I bring up all of these flaws to say that the Cradle series completely avoids all of the typical flaws in Xianxia and has a very smart character who sets out to cultivate smartly instead of bullheadedly.

And the sixth book is coming out in March! (Get the box set. It has the first three books and is cheaper!)

Exhalation - Who here hasn't heard of Ted Chiang, the master of short stories that perfectly appeal to the r/rational crowd? The same guy that we literally use as an introduction to rational fiction. Well, if you enjoyed his first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, you'll love hearing that the second collection is coming out in....May! (Ugh....really May? I don't think I can wait that long!)

The books you can read right now!:

The Beginner's Guide to Magical Licensing - Has a similar start to Unsong where a magical college-graduate, minimum-wage, sweat-shop worker stumbles on a powerful spell and sets out to start his own business competing with the powerful. The parts of the story that follows afterward makes a whole lot more logical sense than Unsong however. (Used to be online for free, but now you'll have to pay the price for your ignorance if you want to read it! (Nah, I lied.))

Six Sacred Swords - If you liked the Arcane Ascension series, but wished there was more dungeonnering and less of school shenanigans, then look no further! In some ways it's a lot like reading a very good DnD session played by really savvy players who never follow the 'standard' way to solve problems.

The author of Six Sacred Swords made a recommendation for The Ruin of Kings. He said that it reads like a Locke Lamora-esque rogue protagonist, telling the story in a style similar to Kvothe, in a setting similar to Game of Thrones. I haven't bought the book yet, but the review was interesting enough that I wanted to include it in my list of recommendations.

Senlin Ascends - I haven't read this yet either, but skimming through it, I see some fair bit of social manipulation/combat that I think people here would like. Plus the Tower of Babel setting is something that appeals very strongly to me.

Polyglot: NPC REVOLUTION - A lot of people here seem to really like LitRPG and Artificial Intelligence, but almost no one seem to ever question the implications of the NPCs in LitRPG stories having human-level intelligence.

Small Medium: Big Trouble - It's by the same author who wrote Threadbare that people here really liked. Similar to Polygot where the NPC is the main character who needs to deal with players, but smaller scale in scope. There's a lot of fast-talking to convince selfish sociopaths to do what you say.

Q is for Quantum - I was going through my older ebook orders when I found this one. It's the single best introduction for quantum mechanics that I have ever read (not that I've read too many of those). It focuses on building an intuition for the subject and once you've read through the book, you will understand on a gut level what superposition means. Note that it's meant as an introduction for the subject, so don't expect it to cover everything, just what's need to get started learning about quantum mechanics. But I'd still recommend it to experts if only for a better way to explain their subject to their peers and laypeople.

Hi! Congratulations and welcome to the Watch!

You might be wondering right now about what to do next while waiting for the 6th book to come out, so here are some suggestions.

GRRM already published some sample chapters from TWOW over the years. Here's some information about them and links to most chapters.

There are additional novellas that take place in this world. The Dunk & Egg stories take place about 100 years before the main series and are about a hedge knight and his companion. The Princess and the Queen and The Rogue Prince are historical retellings of the Dance of the Dragons event. They're somewhat drier reads than D&E because they're from the POV of a Maester chronicling these events but I really liked them personally.

My favorites, on the other hand, are the amazing analyses and essays being written about these characters and their stories:

• This 5 parter is about Dany's arc in ADWD, about how she's actually a really good and successful diplomat and ruler and about how her character is changing by the end of the book.
  
  
• A Dragon Dawn: A Complete Analysis of the Upcoming Battle of Fire is a comprehensive dissection of the various factions and subfactions converging in Meereen by the end of ADWD and a prediction about how the battle will go down in TWOW. These two essays about Meereen completely changed my perspective on the last book, on Dany and generally about how insanely complex this plotline really is. Made me respect Martin even more.
  
  
• Blood of the Conqueror is currently being written by the same author as the previous one I mentioned and it's about Aegon's invasion. I saw you didn't like the Jon Connington arc, so I suggest you give this a read (especially parts 2 and 3), it might shed some light on how much it really fits the narrative and it's not that out of place.
  
  There are many, many more of these if you liked them. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Have fun!

I've got about 600 hours in all three games. 300 hours in witcher 3 alone.

Yes, you can play it without having played 1 and 2. The Witcher games from minute one are sequels to the books by Andrzej Sapkowski. So even in the first game you're introduced to characters for the first time, but they react to Geralt as if they've known him for years, so you're just kind of thrown into this already running legacy of a character.

Honestly, if you wanted the backstory before playing witcher 3. I'd read the books (or listen to them in audiobook form), it gives you A TON of context to the game and you'll constantly recognize characters and names from Geralt's early adventures in the books.

Books are:

The Last Wish

Blood of Elves

Sword of Destiny

There's this animation which covers the events of the books, The Witcher 1 and The Witcher 2, so you could watch this after reading the books to prepare yourself for witcher 3's world state.

Recap (NSFW! Boobs and decapitation)

Green man gaming is sold out of the expansion pass codes, but you can get the base game for $22 here.

Witcher 3 on GMG

If you like it, you can buy the expansion pass on steam for 25 bucks, which is two expansions, the first is about 8-12 hours of content, the second is almost an entirely new game, easily with 25-40 hours content.

I can't explain to people how much I love this world and The Witcher 3 especially. If you like fantasy settings, this is a must play, and I bet that if you get into the game, you'll want to explore the books, and potentially play through the first two games as well.

Spider Robinson's excellent Callahan series has the first 3 books (Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, Time Travelers Strictly Cash, and Callahan's Secret; it's NOT a trilogy) in omnibus format: The Callahan Chronicals. Well worth the read, especially if you're a fan of humor and/or Heinlein. His Lifehouse trilogy, a slightly more serious set of works, and the Stardance trilogy that he and his wife wrote together made an appearance in omnibus formats awhile back.

Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series has been done in omnibus numerous times. If you like the dark anti-hero Black Company you may enjoy the tales of Elric, Corum, et al.

Plenty of the classic/golden age/proto/what have you authors have omnibus editions of their works. H.G. Wells and Jules Verne both have numerous partial and complete anthologies. I grabbed the Leather Bound Classics editions at the warehouse store awhile back but you can find cheaper editions and free or cheap ebook editions as well. Knowing the classics makes reading the following generations works a bit more interesting, imo, but the writing styles and primitive technological knowledge/guess work of the authors can be off putting to some. The three book set of Robert E. Howard's collected Conan of Cimmeria were excellent reads, you have to have a taste for pulp though. Asimov's Robot Trilogy (The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn) is really, really, good. That Del Rey omnibus edition is excellent by the by. You can also find the Foundation trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) in one of several omnibus forms.

There's plenty more out there. I tend to find a lot of omnibus editions at used bookstores.

Women's mythology is taking off in really great ways right now, so I recommend you follow this thread. I expect it will prove to be very important in the coming years and there's a lot out there. The problem is a lot of these women's stories especially coming out of Hollywood aren't women's mythology, but instead a form of men's stories with women characters shoehorned in.

So for example, many men's myths particularly those involving quests can be understood as an inflated version of hunting. Whereas when you read older folktales involving women, they seem to involve much more of the ideas of gathering (various objects to later help on the journey). Of course these two things are not mutually exclusive and so you get a lot of hybrids where there are both quests but side stories where you're gathering components. Harry Potter is an good example of this. But the problem I find with a lot of these news stories, especially applying Campbell's idea of the hero which is very masculine, to feminine characters is it demonstrates most people haven't read enough folktales, especially not ones with women in them.

Another example might be that women in myths and folktales rarely have mentors, instead they usually depend on a smaller animal character helper who acts as a personification of internal guidance or intuition. So you might look at Toto in the Wizard of Oz this way. I find that the new Star Wars completely ignored these forms of things, and while the cornerstone of the original trilogy is the being force sensitive or an intuitive, this means listening to yourself. So you actually have a pivot point known as the internal mentor as opposed to the external mentor, the new stories lack any mention of intuition of this almost entirely.

All that said, I'd highly highly recommend you try your hand at formulating some of your own mythic theories by reading a lot of original folktales. Kathleen Ragan's book Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World is a wonderful resource beyond Women who Run with the Wolves.

The aspects of Clarke's style that you seem to enjoy really shine in the short story format. You said you've read everything, does that include his short fiction? There's a great anthology which collects them all.

Asimov was also great at writing short fiction, and I like this collection of his works.

Many of the stories curated in those anthologies were published 50 or so years ago in weekly/monthly science fiction magazines, you might see if any one has created 'best of science fiction weekly' collections.

Tor publishes short fiction for free on its website regularly. It's fairly hit or miss, but it's a good way to window shop authors.

A novel you might enjoy is Leviathan Wakes. It's a hard sci-fi novel in which humanity has colonized Mars and the Asteroid Belt. At this point all have their own unique cultures because it takes so long to travel between them. Not a lot of character development, which you don't seem to be into anyway, just fun ride in a cool setting. First in a series, but I haven't read the sequels yet so I can't comment on those.


You also might like The Martian, by Andy Weir. An astronaut is stranded by himself on Mars and has to survive. Weir wrote a short story called "The Egg" which gets posted to reddit on a regular basis.

Read. Find authors whose work you respect, authors whom other people recommend to you as being really good at storytelling and prose, and read, read, read. Study what they do, and how and why they do it. If you particularly like a turn of phrase, ask yourself why. If there's a sentence that makes you laugh out loud, ask yourself why. Try writing a pastiche in their style, and see what you learn.

For example, Neil Gaiman is known for his lyrical prose and immediately gripping storytelling style.

I also got a lot of value out of Story Engineering by Larry Brooks. It breaks down the components of a story, and what makes stories work or not work, and gives you a lot of great foundational building blocks for how to tell a good (novel-length) tale.

As for improving a specific story in a specific fandom, you could try writing to other fanfic authors in that fandom and asking if they'd be willing to be beta readers, editors, or writing coaches for you. Make sure to tell them what you like about their work and why you think they'd be great at giving you tips and feedback.

I'm happy to announce that Engraved on the Eye debuted on Amazon nicely:

Books:

• 2 Best Sellers in Fantasy Anthologies
  

• 13 Best Sellers in Short Stories
  

• 8 Best Sellers in Anthologies & Literary Collections
  

• 3 Best Sellers in Short Stories Anthologies
  

• 8 Best Sellers in Genre Fiction Anthologies
  

• 73 Hot New Releases in Science Fiction & Fantasy
  

• 42 Hot New Release in Fantasy
  

• 2 Hot New Release in Fantasy Anthologies
  

• 4 Hot New Releases in Short Stories
  

• 1 Hot New Releases in Anthologies & Literary Collections
  

• 1 Hot New Releases in Short Stories Anthologies
  

  1 Hot New Releases in Genre Fiction Anthologies
  

  
  Kindle:
  
  

• 9 Best Sellers in Fiction Anthologies
  

• 33 Hot New Releases in Fantasy
  

• 1 Hot New Releases in Fiction Anthologies

The Hedge Knight in Legends 1 paperback - 13.59 and less
The Sworn Sword in Legends 2 paperback - 7.99
The Mystery Knight in Warriors 1 paperback - 7.99

I have posted these before. Can we get a mod to add these to the sidebar so we can end these questions and people's links to torrents and PDFs. Also, these are available as graphic novels/comics as well, but I think they are pretty limited in quantity and quite expensive.

This may seem unreasonable for a couple of novellas, but they are actually good collections. Some of the stories are really good. If its really too much, they are generally available at your local library.

EDIT: If you really love ASOIAF, please buy these. More money will hopefully encourage GRRM to keep writing!

I'll be quite frank in saying that I haven't read Ibn Fadlan in either the original or in translation, but after looking into the question, as is so often true of Arabic texts, you don't have a lot of choices.

Unless you speak something other than English, there are basically three translations in print:

https://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlan-Land-Darkness-Travellers/dp/0140455078/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503110083&sr=1-1&keywords=ibn+fadlan

and:

https://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlans-Journey-Russia-Tenth-Century/dp/155876366X

and:

https://nyupress.org/books/9781479899890/

In his introduction to the last one, which is also the most recent chronologically published, Montgomery notes in regard to the other two translations:

> My translation aspires to
lucidity and legibility. James E. McKeithen’s excellent PhD thesis
(Indiana University, 1979) will satisfy the reader in search of a crib
of the Arabic. There are two other translations into English, by
Richard N. Frye (2005) and by the late Paul Lunde and Caroline
Stone (2012). They are both admirable: Frye’s is very useful for the
studies he provides alongside the translation, and Lunde and Stone
have produced a nicely readable version of the work. Both, however,
effectively promote a version of Ibn Faḍlān’s text dominated
by Yāqūt’s quotations.

Which is to say the commentary of the compiler from which Ibn Fadlan's text is recorded (i.e. we don't actually have Ibn Fadlan's tex to translate from.)

Montgomery's introduction is worth reading in full as I think it will explain some of the problems in preparing a translation from such a source:

https://nyupress.org/webchapters/Montgomery_Mission_Introduction.pdf

In particular, Montgomery is trying to shave off the outside commentary, as a result his work is considerably shorter.

Frankly, to a lay reader, I'm not sure it would make much of a difference.

If you have any other languages, particularly German, there may be other translations that are worthwhile.

I was without internet entirely for a week, just got back at 6am Saturday, played games most of the day then fell asleep for 12 hours at 5pm. I've just played games all day today and have yet to study still. Since I'm doing only my courses I have a reasonable 169 words to review on memrise but I've just been putting it off.

I just bought Recettear on recommendation from /u/Uraisamu since it's $5 on Steam right now. It's downloaded but unplayed.

I got the new 水曜日のカンパネラ album UMA but I'm feeling kind of meh about it. It's only seven songs and the only song I really like is チュパカブラ and it doesn't include COLORHOLIC even though the music video came out before ツチノコ which is on it. I'm sure I'll grow to like it though.

Tonight I'll do my reviews and either play some Recettear, watch some let's plays or read the second part of いじめられっこの俺がクラスごと異世界移転した.

Over the last week I spent pretty much all my free time reading the second Witcher book instead of doing any internet-related things. Man it's made me want to read more of those and play the DLC for 3. I'm becoming more interested in Witcher lore than Warcraft lore.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I'll be in NYC for a work conference I've been dreading for months this Saturday to next Wednesday. I might have time to do memrise reviews, but I won't stress over it too much if I don't. After that I'll be done with trips and I'll be back to normal life for the foreseeable future, hooray!

A library and interlibrary loans (if you can find a place that does those) are going to be your best friends if you're looking at getting basically anything in print. A lot of the resources we rely on are very rare.

I've never seen a book about modern slavic paganism by a pagan that is reliable.

The historical books I recommend which can be found online are Chronicle of the Slavs and The Russian Primary Chronicle. One that is on amazon and not too expensive is Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North. These texts are the closest we get to primary texts, and are all really important histories that talk about Slavic pagans. More obscure historical texts and chronicles can be found in excepts on this page.

The Song of Igor's Campaign is an ancient epic poem which has a bit of information contained about Slavic paganism. It's not too expensive on Amazon, and I have a this copy on my altar right now that I read from sometimes during ritual. It has some good commentary. A barebones pdf can be found here.

The Mythology of All Races (Celtic and Slavic) is pretty valuable because Jan Machal synthesized a lot of not-English and disparate sources, including rural folk practices, into a digestible resource. It's afterword about Baltic paganism is also really important because of its close relation to Slavic mythology. Like /u/trebuchetfight said, Eliade's A History of Religious Ideas Volume III is pretty good (even though its section on Slavic religion is only ~20 pages iirc).

Similar secondary sources include Russian Folk Belief by Ivantis, Russian Fairy Tales by Afanasyev and Perun: God of Thunder.

----

None of these sources are really going to tell you what Slavic neopaganism is or how to practice it, though. These are sources from which we can collect small details and weave together an actual religious practice. An example of this is a ritual format I wrote about here, based largely on the sources above.

When I was little kid I loved Diamonds and Toads, although I think it may have been because of my early obsession with reptiles and the idea that live snakes could fall from my mouth was pretty neat.

When I was ~11 my mom gave me a copy of Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters and I love, Love, LOVE this book. It has a bunch of folktales from around the world in it and my favorite really depends on my mood. Though I have to say that the Story of the Princess and the Mountain Dweller (Pacific Northwest) and Yousif Al-Saffani (Sudan) are among my favs.

Both involve women getting shit done, which I have always appreciated.

This is going to sound like really flippant advice, but I swear it's not: buy this book. There is a lot of basic stuff you need to know - how to build character and setting and plot, how to outline, and yes, how to market and publish - and this will spell it all out a lot better than any of us could do in a short post on Reddit. It is definitely an intro book, so it's not like this is all you'll ever need, but it's a good place to start, get your bearings, and figure out what you need to focus on next.

When you do figure that out, there are tons of books dedicated to everything from plot structure and scene structure to dialogue and character arcs; buy those too. Use them to improve your craft and fill in your gaps.

Also, read! Read a lot. Pay attention to how the authors you love set a scene, how they describe things (and to what extent), how they structure their chapters and scenes, how they write dialogue. All books contain real, solid examples for you to study and learn from. Figure out what you admire, and mimic it. Figure out what you hate, and avoid it.

And last, keep in mind that your writing probably won't be amazing right away, and you might have to rethink and rewrite your book a few times as you're learning (or maybe even start a new one) before you really feel like you've gotten the hang of it. Don't give up, just keep learning and keep working.

Sure, a couple notes while I'm downloading BaW :)

The book order is thus:

The Last Wish

Sword of Destiny

Blood of Elves

The Time of Contempt

Baptism of Fire

The Tower of the Swallows

The Lady of the Lake

There's no official english translation of the last book yet, but the one I've linked is the best fan translation I've found. It's the one I read, and I honestly would have had no idea it wasn't a "real" edition if I didn't know better. Fantastic work.

There's also A Season of Storms, which is sort of a midquel for the series. But it was written in the last two years, has no bearing on any of the game's canon, and contain some minor potential spoilers for later books since he expected his readers had finished the series at this point. I recommend you ignore it for now, and if you decide you want to read it down the road pick it up after the series.

The first two books are a short story collections. The series is in chronological order, but the actual novel arc doesn't begin until the third book. Definitely don't skip the first two though, they set up important characters and events in Geralt's life prior to the novel arc beginning.

Lastly, if you really can't be bothered to spend a bit on the amazon paperbacks here's a link to all of them in epub format. I can't vouch for the quality of the fan translations in this pack, nor do I recommend this format. Buying the books supports the author and reading a book is still easier than reading on a tablet in my opinion.

Good luck on your journey into the Witcher!

P.S. - Oh, here is the Witcher 1 recap video I mentioned. DO NOT WATCH THIS until after you finish the books. It will spoil the climax of the series and ruin your reading. You can buy the game dirt cheap if you can handle a playthrough on PC, but you really won't miss a ton of important info if you skip it. I don't want to spoil the end of the books either, but essentially the second and third game don't rely on the first one at all aside from knowing cursory details of the first game.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Japanese-Diversity-Lifestyles-Conversations/dp/030010958X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162331&sr=8-2&keywords=living+japanese

I think that is an amazing recourse. Natural, REAL conversations with people of all ages and topics. Its really good for getting exposure you can learn from easily to native speaking that isn't "dramatized" or too over the top like most anime and Japanese TV acting in general.


LingQ.com (is also a great recourse. and its free if you don't use the in site word marking tools)

https://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162459&sr=8-1&keywords=read+real+japanese

https://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162459&sr=8-2&keywords=read+real+japanese

https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568364156/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162459&sr=8-3&keywords=read+real+japanese

the last three are good for written japanese, which is more polished and different than real "spoken" japanese (like any language). But they all 3 come with audio, grammar and vocab explanations and are an amazing recourse IMO.

Irigaray did some work on mythological and religious representations of mother-daughter relationships. From the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

>According to Irigaray, while it is necessary to alter cultural norms, it is equally as important to address the problematic nature of individual relationships between women-especially the mother/daughter relationship. To emphasize how mother/daughter relationships are sundered in contemporary Western culture, Irigaray turns to Greek mythology. For example, she discusses the myth of Demeter, the goddess of the earth (agriculture), and her daughter Persephone. In the myth, Zeus, Persephone's father, aids his brother Hades, king of the underworld, to abduct the young Perspephone. Hades has fallen in love with Persephone and wants her to be queen of the underworld. When Demeter learns that her daughter is missing, she is devastated and abandons her role as goddess of the earth. The earth becomes barren. To reestablish harmony in the world, Zeus needs Demeter to return to her divine responsibilities. Zeus orders Hades to return Persephone. However, Persephone is tricked into eating a pomegranate seed that binds her to Hades forever. Under the persuasion of Zeus, Hades agrees to release Persephone from the underworld for half of each year. Irigaray reads this myth as an example of both a positive mother/daughter relationship, and the success of men at breaking it apart. Demeter and Persephone love each other and Demeter strives to protect her daughter. However, in this myth they are ultimately at the mercy of the more powerful males. The myth is also an example of men exchanging women as if they were commodities. Zeus conspires with his brother and, in effect, gives his daughter away without consulting either Persephone or Demeter. Irigaray believes that myths tell us something about the deterioration of the mother/daughter relationship and the manner in which men have traditionally controlled the fate of women-whether they are wives, daughters, sisters, or mothers. Irigaray utilizes myth to suggest that mothers and daughters need to protect their relationships and strengthen their bonds to one another.

>The need to alter the mother/daughter relationship is a constant theme in Irigaray's work. While she believes that women's social and political situation has to be addressed on a global level, she also thinks that change begins in individual relationships between women. Thus she stresses the need for mothers to represent themselves differently to their daughters, and to emphasize their daughter's subjectivity. For example, in je, tu, nous, Irigaray offers suggestions for developing mother-daughter relationships such as displaying images of the mother-daughter couple, or consciously emphasizing that the daughter and the mother are both subjects in their own right.

I remember reading Irigaray on encountering a representation of Mary and her mother Anne, and lamenting how rare such representations (Mother-Daughter) are compared to representations of Mary and Christ (Mother-Son). Here's the image as well as some analysis of her religious work.

As an elementary school teacher, I really value Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World as a resource for legends and myths that feature female protagonists.

Japansepod101 is great! But they are super spammers its true. Great product made to look terrible. Why???? Not as good as JFZ though.

George, I guess the reason people want you to recommend books is they trust you. You should be proud of that.

Books I'd recommend (even in you won't!) are:

Making Sense of Japanese by Jay Rubin (very funny and lots on interesting bits even if some of it was beyond me)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486317692&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=don%27t+tell+you+about+japanese

Japanese the Manga Way by Wayne Lammers (Really terrific and great practice on your kanji too.)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Japanese-Manga-Way-Illustrated-Guide-Grammar-Structure/1880656906/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486317895&sr=1-1&keywords=japanese+the+manga+way

Actually I don't think these books compete with your ones in any case.

And finally I recommend this explanation of when to use wa and ga. Its a video thing and you can throw away all textbooks after watching this. (I suppose it is just barely possible there is more to it than this guy says but surely not).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU9rjYZe2P4

Oh, just realised George did a video on this subject I haven't seen. Well, I am sure they are both equally good . . .

I would recommend reading the book "On the shortness of life" by Roman stoic philosopher Seneca.

http://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327


In this short book, Seneca shows us that if we take a step back and look at how we live our lives, we will see that we waste A LOT of it doing useless activities. By the end of our lives, we are saddened by the fact that we have little time left to live, and are regretful of things that we chose not to do. The point of the book, in my opinion, is to wake up the reader and to show him/her that they should live everyday like it's their last because we are never 100% certain that we will be alive the next day! Having this knowledge about the fickleness of our lives gives many of us MOTIVATION to get up and do something! It's kinda like when people say YOLO (or at least, used to say :D) You will be more motivated to do something if you know that the clock is ticking and that your time on this planet is quickly coming to an end. Think about the potential uses of this knowledge: Afraid of taking to that cute boy or girl? If you know that you're time is limited on this planet, this might give you a bit more of a reason to talk to that person, right?

In regards to your recent case of loneliness and boredom, I would recommend that you improve yourself (your character) by reading as much helpful information as you can about how to live the best life possible. I think a great place to start is to read some Stoic philosophers and understand their ideas (go to the subreddit /r/stoicism for more info). Self-help books are always nice too.


Hope this helps, message me if you ever need someone to talk to, i'd be glad to do so!

Though they're not encyclopedia-type books, there are a couple of books that have collections of all the original Conan the Barbarian stories written by Robert E. Howard. They have the original stories along with notes and and other annotations, drawings, and rough drafts from Howard. There's also some cool fantasy art illustrations. Here's a link to the first one:

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478270314&sr=1-1&keywords=the+coming+of+conan+the+cimmerian

While these aren't encyclopedias that cover the entire breadth of the fantasy genre, I do think they are important.

First of all, the world of Conan was created in the 1930's, roughly two decades before LotR. We constantly jerk off to Tolkien on this sub as the creator of modern fantasy, but Howard was doing his thing before that. Not saying that Tolkien and LotR were't revolutionary, but I am saying that looking at fantasy before he came along can be very helpful.

Second, Howard wrote short stories. He gives an excellent demonstration of how to worldbuild in under 50 pages. I find that the modern worldbuilders focus on quantity. 800 page books, 3 hour movies, etc. But he shows that that is not always necessary. Howard could write a rich Conan story without using a ton of words.

Third, Howard did not write high fantasy. He wrote sword and sorcery. Some might argue he wrote low fantasy. I think a lot of the books about the fantasy genre focus on high fantasy and the works that exist there: LotR, The Wheel of Time, etc. The Conan stories are a more down to earth, dirty stories. I don't want to say that they are more mature, but they are certainly less innocent. They follow a big dude with a sword, not a hobbit or farm boy.

I think it's important that these stories stay in the minds of worldbuilders and fans of sci-fi/fantasy. I think when most people think of Conan, they think of the Schwarzenegger movies or maybe the comics. I don't know how many people realize that he has been around for what's now close to a century. Yes, Tolkien, Martin, Jordan, Pratchett, Sanderson, etc. are all important, but I also think it's good to remember there was a guy out in the American West writing this stuff in the 1930's.

Fair warning though to anyone interested in these books. They are a product of the 1930's and these are the original works. They still still feature the racism and misogyny of that era. While I have not noticed anything too bad (there are certainly some lines that made me raise my eyebrows) I just wanted to forewarn anyone who may be sensitive to those things.

This doesn't answer your question regarding Murakami, but if you're interested in contemporary writers as well then maybe check out this book? I just bought it last week and it's actually really cool because of how thorough it is.

The book's got the original prose on one page, a line by line translation on the opposite page, a J-E dictionary of every word in every story in the back and a section for culture/grammar notes sorted by story as well.

It also comes with readings by a native speaker. I've been slowly working through 川上弘美's 神様 and it's been a lot of fun so far. Highly recommend it for anyone who's completed Genki 1+2 and some Tobira like myself.

The Hedge Knight is available in this book or this one. (Kindle edition)

I don't think the prices are ridiculous. Are you perhaps looking at the graphic novel version? That's out of print and expensive, but not really the canonical telling of the tale.

The Tales of Dunk and Egg are definitely worth reading. The titular characters are my favourites in all of GRRM's writing, and seeing what Westeros was like under the Targaryens is neat background for ASOIAF. They're light-hearted and more fun than ASOIAF, but at the same time they show more of how the actions of all these fancy princes and nobles affect the smallfolk than do the other books. If you found those parts of A Feast For Crows poignant, you'll love Dunk and Egg.

One thing that grinds my gears about this whole thread is that just because an idea is similar doesn't mean its plagiarism.

I'm a writer myself, and one book that really helped me when I was in college is called "Steal Like An Artist" which essentially explains how nothing is original, so whatever you think you're crazy cool idea is, it's probably been done before. So with that in mind, it asks you to explore the idea of taking what you love and enjoy, and using that as inspiration for your own work to make it unique.

I would actually not be surprised if Charlie Brooker read this story at some point in his life and thought "Wow! What a cool story! This would make a great screenplay!" And kept that in mind when digging for ideas. That's just how artists work, and so rather than criticize it for plagiarism, looking at it as inspired by the original material and it's own, unique, modern take on it.

As a sort of side example-- one of my favorite movies of all time is Arrival, which is based on a short story from 2002 called "The Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang (which I actually only just realized was published in 1998 and that kinda blows my mind). The short story is way different than the movie, yet it still executes the same idea. I'd check out the short story collection by him if you get a chance cause there's a lot of really neat stories (I've got some basic scripts written for "Hell is the Abscence if God" and "Liking What You See: A Documentary", the latter of which could totally be a Black Mirror episode)

Syntax as Style by Tufte is the best for sentence level mechanics. By far.

On Writing Well by Zinsser is the best for non-fiction.

If you're interested in fiction, Story Engineering by Brooks is the one I usually recommend for structure. But you might use Knight's Creating Short Fiction for that purpose. Or Save the Cat by Snyder.

People often recommend Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It has the benefit of being very short and direct. It will make your writing better, if you're a beginner. Your essays will read more smoothly. But I don't like recommending this book because it lacks nuance and is sometimes wrong. If you just want to improve your writing as quickly as possible, get this book. If you actually care about language, get Virginia Tufte's book instead.

Hmm, I’ve never read that, but I would assume it’s easier than one would probably think. After all, the Japanese have been navigating this ambiguous terrain of zero pronouns and particle confusion their whole lives. If they can understand it, then it has to be possible.

If you think about it, we do really weird stuff like that, as well. For example, in the sentence “He gave him his keys,” we technically could have three different people here. Perhaps Tom grabbed his dad’s keys from the dresser and gave them to his brother, Mike—in which case Tom=he; Dad=his; Mike=him. If we know that beforehand, then the sentence makes perfect sense. Yes, it’s a bit odd, but it’s not like we’d really have any trouble understanding it at that point. I can only imagine how difficult that is for Japanese learners of English, though.

Since you’ve given me a book recommendation, I’ll give you mine. It’s Jay Rubin’s “Making Sense of Japanese.” It’s a series of short essays that demystify some of the toughest-to-grasp concepts for English learners of Japanese. He covers the type of scenario which you mentioned having trouble with (don’t we all?) extensively and intuitively, and I think it’d help anyone at any level of fluency. It’s pretty short, pretty cheap, and immensely enlightening. I read it again at least once a year. I truly cannot recommend anything better to a fellow 日本語の学生!

Here’s the Amazon (US) link, if you wanted to check it out:
Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You https://www.amazon.com/dp/156836492X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_A3IQDb6Y5TTXV

I don't know if you want basic structure stuff or more advanced things, but here are a bunch (only one of which is a book, sorry).

The most basic you can get is three act structure. This and this summarize it fairly well.

The Snowflake Method is a good method for developing plot.

Story Engineering is a book that does a fairly good job at explaining the elements of plot structure.

The lectures from Brandon Sanderson's class at BYU are online, and two of them (2012 #7 and 2013 #8) focus specifically on plot structure.

Writing Excuses has a good episode about the Hollywood Formula (here's a TV Tropes page that basically summarizes it). Writing Excuses has a bunch of other episodes on plot structure as well.

This is a good presentation about basic story structure, and here you can download the actual powerpoint.

The state of Conan ebooks is REALLY iffy. Anyone can rip the text from Project Gutenberg, run it through Calibri and add it to Amazon. (Well, not exactly--but you get the idea.)

Compounding the problem is that these things get pulled all the time, usually for formatting issues. I have two different versions of the same Conan collection in my Kindle library, neither of which is for sale anymore.

My advice is: Either stick with free resources like Project Gutenberg, or shell out for the superb three-volume Del Rey Conan collection. These are the primo, A#1, fully guaranteed versions. The price is steep, but it brings a certain peace of mind that you're getting the real thing edited by actual humans, and not some machine generated nightmare riddled with mistakes. If you like turning pages, used physical copies are considerably less.

They also come packed with cool artwork.

But yeah, either go big, or go free (so you have nothing to lose). Anything in between is probably a cash grab.

Yes, it is a book. Just about 400 pages in hardback. I've read so much science fiction that at this point it's become about finding newness despite the oldness of it all - sorry if that comes off sounding superior, or trite; I could never write a book!

I'm just a third of the way through, but I do recommend it. If you've ever read this collection: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Hall-Fame-Vol/dp/0765305372 it's got a quality to it that reminds me somehow of some of these short stories. And fwiw that's truly an excellent anthology.

For example (not a spoiler), there's a scene that takes place during Mao's Cultural Revolution where a Physics professor is being forcefully, and publicly, interrogated by his students. It seems some of the theories he taught didn't match doctrine... But there's a point where the scenario is likened to parallel processing in a computer; that the same events are taking place across the city at the same time. It's quite effective the way he simply uses the term "parallel processing", and how it reflects the societal implications of how policy was (or is) implemented.

The style, backdrop, personalities, and overall care with the way the book was written are refreshing to say the least. You know how much of a standout Scalzi is in his writing? From this book I'd say Liu is just as distinctive.

Here is a quote from one of Hernan Cortes soldiers when they aproached Tenochtitlan: "When we saw all those cities and villages build in the water, and other great towns on dry land, and that straight and level causeway leading to Mexico, we were astounded. Indeed some of our soldiers asked wheter or not it was all a dream" - Bernal Diaz del Castillo

Bernal Diaz del Castillo also wrote detailed accounts of the expeditions to the New World. The Conquest of New Spain is also a great book. It's amazing how well documented these expeditions are. We are very fortunate.

Been away for my girlfriends graduation this weekend so I'm about to catch up to a huge load of anki reviews, which I can hopefully get done before tomorrow.

This week was really good. I didn't do any Tobira work outside of what was needed for class, but it was a good thing. I took the plunge for native material and found myself understanding a ton of youtube videos from LPers or bloggers. I watched a lot of videos from this channel. She makes some interesting videos along with longer lessons I have yet to check out. I also read up on some stuff on famitsu because that's close to my interests and it was no problem at all using a vocab helping extension. Every night before bed I would read more of this book which has been fun.

I have recently developed an awful habit because my classes start late. I grab my phone and scroll facebook mindlessly for about 20 minutes. I decided to substitute it with random Japanese LP videos which has been a nice little help and better start to my day.

I will continue to weave native material into my daily schedule more!

Not a real life example but as they are in year 4 there's a book called 'Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters' it's a collection of fairy tales and folklore from around the world featuring women. There may even be some from Kuwait or around the region. My dad read it to me when I was young and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393320464

This one isn't very well known but it's fun:

Fredrik Pohl - The Voices of Heaven

And Ted Chiang's short story collection Stories of Your Life and Others has a really cool story about angel visitations. Actually all the stories are excellent, and two others deal with ideas from religious mythologies.

In addition to his Stranger in a Strange Land already mentioned, Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice is neat.

As expected, my N5 didn't go well for me, as I only seriously started practicing like a few days ago. Although, listening part went well (or so I think) for me, as I'm watching Japanese stuff on a regular basis for ~7 years now.

In any case, I'm more determined now. I'm following KLC book, KLC Anki deck, JLPT N5 Vocabulary Anki deck, and An Introduction to Japanese - Syntax, Grammar, & Language. Also, I have Making Sense of Japanese but haven't started reading it yet.

I tried Memrise too but didn't go well for me. I found Anki better. Now just have to devote some time off Anki to study grammar too.

Hope this helps, and all the best!

That's a deep rabbit hole, if you allow it.

There are different books for different parts of writing. Some focus on plot [Story Engineering], others talk you out of blocks [Bird by Bird]. Some deal with immersion [Wired for Story], others warn you of newbie errors [edit yourself]. Some only talk about the first page. [Hooked]

If you specify what you want the most, I can probably get more specific. The best way to deal with grammar, other than the dry "Elements of Style", is to take a free Cousera course, or OWLs online and test yourself. I also love this blog for crazy awesome advice both current and in her backlog.


Edit: Also too: Might as well hang out at /r/writing and pop in from time to time at /r/grammar

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Fantasy.

Engraved on the Eye by Saladin Ahmed. Fantasy stories. Free.

Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos. SF.

Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey. SF. (Part One, free.)

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. SF.

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Fantasy.

----

You also can check in at /r/FreeEBOOKS, /r/freekindle, /r/KindleFreebies and /r/kindlebookdeals occasionally. There are lots of self-published ebooks nowadays, and lots of them are offered free or very cheap, especially if the writer is a new author. Lots of them aren't very good, but there's also some hidden gold. Some writers will offer their ebook for free for a limited time (like, a week or less) in hope of encouraging some people to write them a good review.

I've enjoyed everything I read this month.

Blood Song by Anthony Ryan

I've been disappointed by a few popular books recently, so I was afraid that it wouldn't live up to the hype. But I was quickly drawn into the world and devoured this book.

Deadline and Blackout by Mira Grant

Finishing off the zombie blogging trilogy I started an earlier month.

Dust by Hugh Howey

Finishing off the Wool series. A satisfying conclusion.

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Young adult, but still enjoyable. I loved the two worlds separated by the wall.

Engraved on the Eye by Saladin Ahmed

Free Book Alert

Throne of the Crescent Moon has been on my to-read list, so when the author offered a collection of his short stories for free, I grabbed it quickly. And so should you.

The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. The ultimate adventure novel, all the more amazing because it's all true. Diaz was a Conquistador with Cortez's expedition that conquered the Aztec Empire, and his retelling of the story is absolutely amazing. More exciting than any fiction. You can't make this stuff up, as they say.

Generally not my cup of tea. I had to help edit quite a few for a previous job and they were rather difficult to get through (I wanted to set one of them on fire but the senior editor said it was tempting but no). For me the romance is often the least interesting part of a book or film, so there needs to be a bit more going on to keep my attention.

So I don't mind stuff that has a strong romantic streak but it's got to be unconventional or interesting in some way. Recent example, I picked up a collection of short stories by Saladin Ahmed, and the story "Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela", though probably more fantasy-horror, I found to also be very romantic.

As far as his novels go, my opinion has been that The Gods Themselves is the peak of his career. Asimov himself described it as his favorite novel.

While I absolutely love that book, I think I like his short stories a little bit better -- I basically grew up with my dad's copy of Asimov's Complete Stories Vol. 1. I can go through the list and pick out my favorites (as the collection is pretty large) if you want.

Not superheroes, but if you read her stories, she might enjoy these folk tale collections: 1, 2. My daughter likes them a lot.

Again not superheroes, but the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has lots of excellent cartoons with female leads who don’t exist just to be rescued by males.

Glad this could help you! The smallest things can make a big difference, I think. Stephen King says he always writes early in the morning and he blasts rock music when he writes. I didn't think it could make much difference but it actually seemed to help me get started.

He said to read every day, too. And to not go to the empty page lightly. You have to have a determined attitude, he said.

Also, this book helped me tremendously as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987

It really simplified the writing process for me. It helps you build a framework for your story and shows you the basic elements that good stories need to be complete.

If you do, I highly suggest picking up the recent Del Rey collections. You can find them on Amazon for cheap.

I bought these a while back, and I absolutely love them because they're the original and unedited texts. After Howard died, his stories were frequently re-written and republished by other authors for various reasons (such as to make them fit into a specific chronology or to remove Cthulhu references).

Also, you should totally re-read the Kull collection. I personally think the writing is better than Conan (which can be a bit formulaic) since it was the first stuff Howard wrote. Also, his version of the Serpent People is pretty much 100% identical to how Serpent People are depicted in Pathfinder. And Aroden is basically a more sophisticated version of Kull.

Short story about Bast in Newarre. It's part of the Rogues Anthology. So you not only get an awesome look at what Bast does in his spare time when he's not at the Inn, but you also get a lot of other really great short stories from other authors as well. :)

Rogues https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345537262/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_nKKCzbJGVVY08

I really loved those newer ones you mentioned too! It Comes at Night was an especially fun approach to a zombie movie. The Sicario director, Denis Villeneuve, did a great job adapting the short story by Ted Chiang called Story of your Life into his movie Arrival.

The last movie that really gripped me as something different and interesting was the new South Korean movie Parasite. The director is always really interesting in the way he weaves horror, comedy, and drama together. The Host was another one of his that really got me hooked on his films. The VVitch was another recent scary movie that my partner and I really like for how heavy and dark its atmosphere is.

I'd recommend every Conan story, though there are some weaker ones. Del Rey put out a fantastic three-volume set a few years ago. This is the first one: http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517

If you're more interested in a good mix of some of Howard's best stuff, check out this best-of anthology: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Robert-E-Howard-Crimson/dp/0345490185/

I've mentioned some good stories above; I'd also recommend "Pigeons from Hell" (don't judge it on the title!), a chilling story about voodoo and hate in the Deep South. If you're interested in Conan, check out "The Tower of the Elephant" and "Queen of the Black Coast." If you enjoy those, also have a look at the Kull stories, such as "The Shadow Kingdom" and "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune."

the book describes it as "when you go to a wedding, you already know whats going to happen, but there is value in going through the process". So it was mentioned that the aliens perhaps lack free will, but that it doesn't take away from the experience of actually experiencing those things. Her ability to change course or not wasn't specifically addressed i think. The short story is only like 20 pages, you should read it. The other stories in the book are equally as interesting, read them all!

https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486663622&sr=8-1&keywords=story+of+your+life

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame will introduce you to a butt-ton of excellent sci-fi authors, as well as re-affirm your respect for those already know. If you're looking for something newer, look up who/what has won the Nebula/Hugo awards.

Children of Time and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovksy both have strong sociological themes. If you enjoy these books you might also want to check out Semiosis: A Novel by Susan Burke.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov is about the fall and rise of a galactic empire. It is a bit dated in terms of science fiction but a classic in the genre.

Exhalation and Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang are collections of short stories and some of them contain strong sociological themes around communication and intersubjective understanding.

A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge also have some interesting speculative sociology.

Hominids: Volume One of The Neanderthal Parallax by Robert J. Sawyer also contains interesting speculative anthropology and sociology (but not a very interesting plot IMO) and is also worth a read.

i read these two books, hugely helpful:


link 1

link 2

i know everyone has their opinions about the best books but i really enjoyed both and they're very motivating

Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others is great and includes the short story that The Arrival was based off of.

I keep seeing Ken Liu's name pop up everywhere and I've read The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. I didn't like all of the short stories but The Paper Menagerie was definitely the best.

I also think Greg Egan's Axiomatic is worth reading too.

All of these books are categorized under science fiction.

I have three to recommend.

First is a pocket sized [Enchiridion and Meditations book.](https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Handbook-Pocket-Marc-Libre/dp/1329257359/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481901672&sr=1-3&keywords=meditations+and+handbook"Amazon Page"). It's not my favorite translation, but it is pocket-sized.

Second is [On the Shortness of Life](https://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481902012&sr=1-1&keywords=on+the+shortness+of+life"Amazon Link") which is about the same size (11x18 cm) and fits in your back or coat pocket. It contains [On the Shortness of Life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Brevitate_Vitae_(Seneca), Consolation to Helvia, and On Tranquility of Mind.

The third isn't a physical book. A [Practical Stocism Book](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/4bz797/practical_stoicism/"Reddit Page"), compiled and written by u/GreyFreeman, has been a very handy book to peruse whether you've got a few minutes or an hour.

Take care and enjoy.

Dunk and Egg are not as easy to get as I would like. They appear in anthologies: Legends, Legends II, and Warriors.

I saw them on Amazon, where you can buy the standalone graphic novels, but on Amazon, The Hedge Knight costs > $60 used. Better to get Legends for like $10.

I can give you links, might help:

Legends

Legends 2

Warriors

Currently reading "The Story of Your Life and Others", and enjoying every page. Each short story is beautifully written and reads like a Black Mirror episode. One of the best books I've read this year.

Honestly, in my opinion, unless it's a very specialised language institution, don't even bother with traditional classes. The majority of them will do little more than go through the beginner textbooks at a pace 10x slower than you could on your own. All the information you need to learn the language is freely available as long as you have the discipline to go through it without being forced to.

The first step will be to learn hiragana, then katakana. After that you'll want to tackle grammar basics, beginner vocabulary and kanji, and then begin getting exposure to simple native content while exploring the more intermediate and advanced material.

---

For kana:

Use mnemonics to familiarise yourself with hiragana and katakana.

Then drill yourself with a tool like DJT Kana until they are burned into your brain.

-

For grammar:

The single free resource I most recommend in the beginning would be Wasabi's online reference, but there are plenty of other resources out there, including Tae Kim, Imabi, Maggie Sensei, Cure Dolly, etc...

For paid resources the most commonly recommended beginner textbook would be Genki. And then Tobira for more intermediate material. My most recommended resources to purchase would be a book called Making Sense of Japanese and the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series, with emphasis placed on the first volume.

-

For kanji and vocab:

Wanikani will automate the process for you if you have the cash to pay for a yearly subscription.

If not you can use Anki with either Kodansha's Kanji Learner's Course or with Remembering The Kanji.

---

All my Japanese knowledge was acquired through self-study, starting with resources similar to these. After I had sufficient experience with the basics I went on to learn primarily through reading native material and using native linguistic resources.

It took around 3 years before I was able to begin reading light novels.

Two great books I recommend:

Story Engineering by Larry Brooks and Book Architecture by Stuart Horwitz.

You'll find that writing a story isn't too different from what you're used to in journalism. These two books offer the knowledge and skills to build a strong backbone. Once you understand how a story works, the rest is all you. If you have the basics down, you can focus on the art much more easily. And when you're done, a) you won't need to do nearly as many edits/rewrites, b) you'll have a damn fine story, and c) you have a better shot at getting published.

Try satori reader, from the guys who made human japanese.

If you really need a textbook you should probably go with Tobira, it covers more advanced stuff than genki but you can probably handle it since you finished Human Japanese.

I can also recommend ["Making Sense of Japanese"] (https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X) by Jay Rubin, it's a short read but gives you a deeper understanding of a few different topics.

Imabi is probably the most complete japanese resource in english and it's free, definitely give it a try.

Does anyone know of some good Jewish science fiction or fantasy?

I've recently read Engraved on the Eye by Saladin Ahmed, which was a collection of sci-fi and fantasy short stories from a distinctly Arab and Islamic angle. I was actually very, very surprised how much of both fantasy and sci-fi is inherently western (and thus Christian) so it was pretty mind-blowing to have all those tropes and expectations replaced from the ground up.

Remembering that the Jewish people gave us both Kubric and Cronenberg, I am certain there is some great books out there I've yet to discover. I have read Planet of the Jews by Phillip Graubart which was good but only half sci-fi since it was a story within a story. But I'm very curious if anyone knows of any stories, movies, comics etc. that take the usual magic and monsters or swords and spaceships and approach them from a decidedly Jewish perspective?

I highly recommend getting Story Engineering by Larry Brooks. He talks about the 6 "Core competencies" for a publishable novel that will stand out.

I think this plot has promise. The issue isn't plot holes, but I just don't feel the concept and theme is strong enough, which are 2 of the main core competencies Brooks talks about. I am not sure what the main conflict of the story is supposed to be? Maria's death is a good hook, but it seems like you use it just as a catalyst to explore two teenagers in love on the cusp of going to college.

This could work, but maybe you can tell me more about what about this story compels you.

Dunk & Egg is entirely told from the point of view of Ser Duncan the Tall, a young knight out for adventure in Westeros, and since they're short stories they're far more action packed than any book of ASoIaF.

The first three Dunk & Egg tales are only available in anthologies.

The Hedge Knight

The Sworn Sword

The Mystery Knight

Combined they would cost more than ADwD, regardless of what format you buy it in. I would definitely recommend reading them at some point (and they provide at least 2 big reveals in ASoIaF), they are not necessary to read before Dance. There will be a second Warriors anthology coming out in the fall/winter I believe, containing the fourth Dunk & Egg story. Shortly after that release all 4 stories will be released in a volume together. That said, there are other great short stories in these anthologies, so you may find it worth it to get them.

Great - I'm really glad to hear that when you bought the books on Amazon yesterday morning, you paid $28. Can you please check your Amazon order history and give us the link to the listing for how you bought Sworn Sword?

All I could find is this one which is only Kindle and marketplace, and this one which is only Kindle, and this one which again is only Kindle and marketplace. Is there another one I'm not seeing?

Go with short story anthologies for a while. Here are a couple you might like:

• Asimov (This was a series of books, no longer in print--there are other Asimov anthologies out there.)
  
  
• Clarke
  
  You might also find the Years Best series to your liking:
  
  
• Years Best Science Fiction

In terms of books in Japanese, probably not at your level.

If you're willing to expand to books about Japanese (written in English or another language you're fluent in), you can probably find some stuff that isn't too dry. Something like this book: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X which is a collection of essays about Japanese by a well known translator.

There are also some bilingual books which contain Japanese and English (sometimes with a dictionary), but I think they'll still be too complex at your level of grammar to get the most out of, and you'll just end up reading the English. And honestly, by the time I felt comfortable getting through those, I could just read stuff in pure Japanese anyway.

Was about to post the following, then I decided to see if anyone had already mentioned them. Posting for the links in case they help out:

I'm going through my second read now, and after this I plan to gather all miscellaneous stories. First, the Dunk and Egg stories in Legends I Volume 2, Legends II, and Warriors. Then the Princess and the Queen from Dangerous Women, and Everybody Loves a Rogue from Rogues. I'm hoping this will last me until World of Ice and Fire in October (I'll read the entire anthologies, not just the ASOIAF material). I also have other things to read in the meantime, Peter Watts has a new one coming out, and I want to check out some of the other stuff mentioned here, like the Abercrombie books, Rothfuss, and Sanderson.

Well, this is the one my buddies and I passed around when we were younger. I am not sure how diffinitive it is. I also downloaded this one a few years ago and enjoyed it. This one appears to be $1 if you have a kindle. I think they are all original Robert E. Howard works. Expect excellently written combat, some racism and sexism, and overall just fun reading. Enjoy!

Stories of Your Life and Others

Really amazing collection of sci-fi short stories. Thought-provoking and intelligent, but also entertaining and easy to read. Ted Chiang writes female characters really well

https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/

The Read Real Japanese series might be a good bridge into native material. The particular editions I linked have furigana and English translations on opposing pages. It should be intelligible if you've finished Tobira. Shounen and Shoujo manga should also be a good next step.

Honestly I'm surprised you got as far as Tobira without going outside of a textbook. You should be able to digest some native material by now.

The complete Isaac Asimov collection.

It's great if you have a short attention span because they are short stories, and they're fantastic. He was a visionary writer.

Yeah there's a pretty recent trilogy which compiles all the REH Conan stories in the order they were written (and featuring some beautiful interior art too).

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371861991&sr=1-1&keywords=coming+of+conan+the+cimmerian

The same publisher also compiled the Kull of Atlantis stories and Brak Mak Morn if you're interested in those too.

• A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.
  
  
• Any of the following by Larry Niven: World of Ptaavs, Neutron Star, Protector. (I'm not recommending the Ringworld Trilogy because I consider that more of a commitment from a SF reader who is not a new initiate.)
  
  
• Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle — either of these two novels specifically: Lucifer's Hammer or The Mote in God's Eye. (In my humble opinion all their other collaborative works are inferior to these two.)
  
  
• Larry Niven's novel The Integral Trees and its sequel, The Smoke Ring. Both are excellent.
  
  All that said, the original Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov and Dune by Frank Herbert are absolute must-reads. So is The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. I, Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human, A. E. Van Vogt's The Weapon Shops of Isher, and Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves. Pebble in the Sky and The Stars, Like Dust by Asimov are also compelling reads.
  
  Then there's Robert A. Heinlein: The Door into Summer; The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress; Revolt in 2100; The Past Through Tomorrow and its sequel, Time Enough for Love; all excellent reading.

Not like this, no. Still, you can put in the work, build your own, and share it with others if you're feeling generous.

The closest example would be to get some of the Japanese readers out there like "Read Real Japanese", "Breaking Into Japanese Literature", and "Exploring Japanese Literature". These are aimed at people still learning so they're chosen to be notable, but still easy to read. More relevantly they typically have vocabulary at the bottom of each page to help you. Admittedly, there are other features present (full parallel text in English, Japanese audio for each, etc.), but that's why they're specifically sold as teaching tools.

I loved Arrival and I've been meaning to read the short story it's based on (as well as the others in the collection, obviously)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0048EKOP0/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_img?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2N41JHWV5GDQ1&coliid=I39WE33O5CM301

Ninja edit: thanks for the contest :)

As far as I can tell, she borrows a lot of inspiration from this really fantastic book which I would recommend everyone to read as well. It's available online if you know where to look.

Check out the Rogues anthology. Short stories (quicker to digest than full novels) with a variety of different types of rogues. A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Scott Lynch is a personal favorite, and a good showcase of his style since you haven't yet read Locke Lamora. Tough Times All Over by Joe Abercrombie is really fun as well.

edit: names

This is the first I'm hearing of that book, but from what I can tell they split the anthology into 3 paperbacks but originally it was one hardcover, which you can buy here:

http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Women-George-R-Martin/dp/076533206X

Honestly I'm surprised with how much you keep up with Brandon's work that you didn't grab this one up when it first came out. =)

I love Schismatrix and I'm thrilled someone else mentioned it. Bruce Sterling is a genuine visionary.

You could try something like books that have Japanese on one side and English on the other. I found those sorts of texts pretty helpful. And because it's literature it might be more interesting to you than manga.

Another option is to get a text online, so that when you run across an unknown word it's just a mouseover away with rikaichan/kun.

They haven't been released individually but rather as parts of short story collections that Martin edits or has some other part in.

• The first "Dunk & Egg" tale ("The Hedge Knight") is in the collection "Legends: Stories by the Masters of Modern Fantasy" (AMAZON LINK) as well as the more recent collection "Dreamsongs: Volume II" (AMAZON LINK)
  
  
• The second Dunk & Egg tale ("The Sworn Sword") is in the collection "LEGENDS II: DRAGONS, SWORDS AND KINGS" (AMAZON LINK)
  
  
• The third "Dunk & Egg" tale ("The Mystery Knight" is in the collection "Warriors 1" (AMAZON LINK)
  
  
• The first and second "Dunk & Egg" tales ("The Hedge Knight" and "The Sworn Sword") were also adapted into graphic novels which are now sadly out of print; you will spend over $50 for them used, or up to $250+ for new copies. This is how I was introduced to "Dunk & Egg" and if you can get your hand on copies, I can't recommend them highly enough. The art is incredible, depicting Martin's world before HBO did, and the action is spot on; the dialogue and voice-overs and descriptions are all taken directly from the page...Martin's wording nearly perfectly transposed. (AMAZON LINK for THE HEDGE KNIGHT and ANOTHER EDITION and AMAZON LINK for THE SWORN SWORD and ANOTHER EDITION)

There's a short story about Bast in the "Rogues" anthology edited/released by George RR Martin. I think it's called "The Lightning Tree" but it's written more like KKC is. Slow Regard is a totally different writing style, but also great.

I've been reading the Witcher Saga. Seven books in total; the English translation of the final one is out next month. They aren't the best books ever written, but they are solid fantasy stories with a lot of variety. There are elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, shapeshifting metallic dragons, a wilderness full of monsters, and roughly the same level of magic as the Forgotten Realms. It could easily be somebody's D&D campaign setting.

The first two books are short story collections, and after that a long story arc begins that delves more deeply into politics, with multiple character viewpoints. I'd recommend the first two (The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny). They're fun, witty, self-contained that slowly develop the main plot in the background.

1. Nope. But some socializing is healthy.
   
2. Eh. The music one could go, unless you have a link there to your Soundcloud or whatever kids use these days. But it wouldn't be a problem.
   
3. Yes, it's fine.
   
   If you don't have it already, I HIGHLY recommend getting https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X/ . I studied Japanese in college. That book was invaluable for me.

I know you are joking but if anyone is curious where I got this from it's this book: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493839717&sr=8-1&keywords=jay+rubin


It's written by Haruki Murakami's English translator and is a great read if you are learning Japanese.

A Canticle For Leibowitz is remarkably deep, more in the spec-fic vein than sci-fi, but an undeniable classic nonetheless.

I've also really enjoyed the "Hall of Fame" short story collections. You really get a sense of the inspirations behind the genre.

There are three volumes in Issac Asimov The complete stories
While Heinlein excelled in the novel, Asimov did better in short stories in my opinion. Also I recommend the Azazel stories.

Anyone ever read the "Read Real Japanese" books?

http://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292 Fiction

http://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148 Essays

I was looking at them in the bookstore, and they seem to have interesting authors. But I couldn't tell if it is really any help in learning, or if it is something you need to be pretty advanced to get anything out of.

The story is called "Story of Your Life" and it is in a semi-eponymous collection titled "Stories of Your Life and Others". The book is fantastic; there a couple other stories within ("Hell is the Absence of God" and "Tower of Babylon") that would also make for great movies.

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen


Not a list of incorrect facts in textbooks, but a look into how & why history is taught like it is in America. I'm not involved in education in any way, yet I found this book fascinating. How history is taught vs how it occured.

Shogun by James Clavell

Conan by Robert E Howard


REH was a great writer. Not necessarily in content, but the poetry of his prose. When he's 'on' he's unmatched. Especially stories like The Frost Giant's Daughter & Beyond the Black River. Everyone's heard of Conan The Barbarian, but if you haven't read the original books, you're missing out.

edit: how do you get a 'return' to show up in your post...so the lines don't run together?

The Schizmatrix by Bruce Sterling.

It is an epic space opera that spans an incredibly long period of time, but characters develop through the whole thing.

Why did it blow my mind? Because when I read it in college, it was the book that first caused me to truly realize the scale of what it means to be human, and how trivial and irrelevant we all are. It also made me truly question what it meant to be human in that genetic modifications start out small, but at what point do you draw the line as to whether something is human or not?

At the end of the day it made me much more appreciative of my individual life, but it also made me much more selfish in getting everything I could out of it because my time is short, there is no god, etc.

The accounts of Ibn Fadlan's travels are a quick and fascinating read--he's remarkably dispassionate and non-judgmental about the exotic customs he observes for a travel writer of his time. This Penguin edition includes a ton of other little scraps from various other Arab and Persian travelers about encountering tribes and nomadic peoples from around Central Asia down to southeastern Europe.

Central Asian history is so absolutely weird and wild and bewildering and fun. It's so strange to think about what were basically the same bunch of folks being gawked at and talked about by Chinese commentators and by Arabs and Franks, thousands and thousands of miles away. I'd also recommend this really nice brief history of the Silk Road.

Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters?
https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Girls-Women-Beloved-Sisters/dp/0393320464/ref=asc_df_0393320464/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312065522531&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5436919316565481038&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029145&hvtargid=pla-431994358942&psc=1

I got my kids an Xbox about 3 years ago. I found myself playing Halo for 3-4 hours a few times per week. I thought about what I could accomplish if I had actually used the time for something productive.

Now I'm half way through a master degree in a top 5 program and am in the best shape of my life.

But this is nothing new

It was my birthday last week! Happy IRL cakeday!

I've been doing so much writing lately that I think this book would probably send me right into orbit. Or surprises, I like surprises.

Very cool. Sounds like my kind of reader. You should get him some Robert E. Howard I bet he would love him.
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517

I haven't read either of those, but similar sounding Read Real Japanese Fiction one I did enjoy. The stories are contemporary and though I wasn't a fan of all of them, there was a good variety of styles. I just got the Essay version of the book, but haven't started it yet (I have a bad habit of buying more books than I have time to read). Once I have caught up on my pile may check out the ones you listed. I am trying to just read native material more, but sometimes I want a bit more hand holding and not having to look up things on my phone.

What kinda of history you feeling? Broad histories of empires/states or more specific accounts?

I was mentioning this the other day as one of the best adventures I've read: https://www.amazon.com/Discovery-Conquest-Mexico-Bernal-Castillo/dp/030681319X

First hand account of Diaz's conquest.

This might be the same book but cheaper: https://www.amazon.com/Conquest-New-Spain-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441239

Idk I found mine in a goodwill and it's one of my favorite books.

Great advice. This is from a book called Story Engineering by Larry Brooks (link below). The Harry Potter image comes directly from chp 3 I think. Best book on writing I ever read.

https://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987

Do you like science fiction? I recently reread Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1. It's great, especially if you are commuting since you can dip in out and very easily on account of them being short stories.

Also go and get yourself The Earthsea Quartet and Uncle Stories.

Saladin Ahmed's Engraved on the Eye is free on Amazon and one of the best short fantasy collections I've read in recent years.

Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness is something you should look in to, it deals with Fadlan's accounts of the Volga Vikings among other observations. As for people who were raided not many spring to mind aside from historical accounts after said raids(Such as the Frankish Annals.) The problem with these is they aren't always accurate and are usually biased but that doesn't mean there isn't some truth to them! Sorry I couldn't turn up more but best of luck finding what you're after.

You absolutely need to read The Conquest of New Spain by Castillo. As mentioned in another post, it's a first hand account of one of the most epic adventures of all history.

The Penguin Classics book has a fantastic translation, is very readable and I cannot recommend it enough. I read it last year.

http://www.amazon.com/Conquest-New-Spain-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441239/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452103250&sr=8-1&keywords=conquest+of+new+spain

My girlfriend actually tracked down all three of the anthologies they originally appeared in and got them for me off Amazon as a Christmas present. She ended up putting a fair amount of work into getting them (we watch the show together, but she's never read the books, and this was a surprise, so piecing them together and differentiating them from The Rogue Prince and the Princess and the Queen and whatnot was tough, but she nailed it), and I was super psyched.

Here are the three anthologies on Amazon. Each has one Dunk & Egg tale:

http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354

http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Dragon-Sword-King/dp/034547578X/ref=pd_sim_b_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=13WQN95SWXMD5VZC4SNC

http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-1-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765360268/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=13WQN95SWXMD5VZC4SNC

Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling is the best space novel I've ever read. It really gets into what life would be like for future humans who must stay on the bleeding edge of technology and ideology or be out-competed.

Alright, it's like this: books are like food. Start with something addictive, and probably bad for you (Conan The Barbarian for instance). Eventually you'll go looking for something more, but still delicious (the Harry Potter books are notorious for this). Eventually you'll order something heavier (For Whom the Bell Tolls is a good one), knowing that it's going to take a long time to digest.
TR;DR: Don't eat Thanksgiving dinner without an appetizer.

I recommend, if I may, Ted Chiang's novella Seventy-Two Letters. It deals with the old hypothesis of the homunculus, which argued that inside each spermatozoa there exists a tiny human being, fully formed and only needing the ovum to develop. And that inside the testicles of that homunculus, there were spermatozoa containing an even smaller fully formed human being, and so on all the way... where? Where does it stops? That's one of the plot points. In the style of Ted Chiang, he fully develops the idea and creates a scientific framework (that's one of the things he does in some of his stories, he takes a ridiculous idea, a superstition, a myth, a debunked pre-scientific notion, and posits how things would be if they where real). It's a very fascinating novella, also dealing in jewish mysticism and the concept of the Golem, and framed as a mystery story.

You can find it in his collection "Stories of your Life and Others", which also contains the novella on which Arrial was based, and the breathtaking Tower of Babylon (which in my opinion has stronger cinematic bones). Or you can read it here.

Seneca : On the Shortness of Life

The Stoic writings of the philosopher Seneca offer powerful insights into the art of living, the importance of reason and morality, and continue to provide profound guidance to many through their eloquence, lucidity and timeless wisdom.

http://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97412.On_the_Shortness_of_Life

Whole lotta reading recommendations in this thread. May as well throw my two cents in.

The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. If you're into Guts' introspective-man-of-violence-looking-for-his-place-in-the-world-thing I'd think you find Logen Ninefingers to be an interesting character. If you're into audiobooks then I highly recommend checking out the audiobook versions. The guy reading them is practically a voice-actor.


The original trilogy:

• The Blade Itself.
  
• Before They are Hanged.
  
• The Last Argument of Kings.
  
  The standalone novels (available as a single volume in The Great Leveller):
  
  
• Best Served Cold (my own personal favorite. Imagine the mercenary-army warring states stuff from the Golden Age meets Kill Bill/Lady Snowblood).
  
• The Heroes.
  
• Red Country.
  
  And the most recent Sharp Ends (short story collection).
  
  The Witcher books by Andrezj Sapkowski. Already spawned a popular video game franchise (I've only played the third one and enjoyed it tremendously, but still prefer the books). They're planning to adapt the books into a Netflix series within the next few years.
  
  Short story collections:
  
  
• The Last Wish.
  
• Sword of Destiny.
  
  The novels:
  
  
• The Blood of Elves.
  
• The Time of Contempt.
  
• Baptism of Fire.
  
• The Tower of Swallows.
  
• The Lady of the Lake.

"The Most Dangerous Game," Richard Connell

"By the Waters of Babylon," Stephen Vincent Benet

"A Sound of Thunder," Ray Bradbury

My favorite collection is the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. It contains many of the best authors' best works from the formative years, and shows you what and who to look for. If you want weird, see "Mimsy were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett.

Based on her liking the Auel books, I'd bet she'd dig the trilogy: Namaah's Kiss, Namaah's Curse, Namaah's Blessing by Jacqueline Carey. They're all pretty thick and interesing in world-building, female-centered fantasy type.

Has she read the Dunk & Egg stories (a.k.a. The Hedge Knight series) and other prequel stories to ASOIAF? That would be a nice treat for a big fan of the series, if she doesn't have them all yet. It's tricky, because the stories are currently broken up and scattered across a few books, haven't been compiled into one (yet). And, bonus, she'd get a bunch of other stories by other great sci-fi/fantasy writers in those, that may make her discover and fall in love with another series.

Legends I

Legends II

Warriors

...and not directly the 3 main Dunk and Egg stories, but other ASOIAF prequels in these:

Dangerous Women

Rogues

Beware: with the "Legends" ones, if you get PBs instead of the HC edition, the first "Legends I" was broken into three books for PB release, Legends 1, Legends 2, etc., which can get confusing considering they later put out a "Legends II". So, if you get the mass market PBs on those, you could wind up with a shorter version that doesn't include the right stories ASOIAF fan is looking for.

I think On the Shortness of Life is pretty accessible.

You can read the first paragraph of the Basore public domain translation here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_shortness_of_life/Chapter_I

and compare it to a more modern translation like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327#reader_0143036327

You can judge yourself if you think the older translation is clear enough or if you'd prefer the modern one.

for a truly mind-bending set of short stories with a central thread i'd recommend schismatrix by bruce sterling...really well-written and extremely creative thinking about humanity's future from a genetic-vs-technological modification perspective.

They're kind of hard to come across because well, they're always included in collections. The Mystery Knight is in a collection called Warriors. I've read all the Novellas since the Hedge Knight was originally published in the first Legends collection. Luckily there is a paperback available for Legends 1 but I think it's out of print. Also to be more confusing, the paperback it's contained in is called Legends 2 because it's the second part of the hardcover or something? But Legends II collection is where you get the Sworn Sword. Well here's a handy list though some might not be in stock (PB = Paperback/HC = Hardcover):

• The Hedge Knight - Legends 1 PB HC
  
• The Hedge Knight - Graphic Novel PB HC
  
• The Sworn Sword - Legends II PB HC
  
• The Sworn Sword - Graphic Novel - PB HC
  
• The Mystery Knight - Warriors I PB HC

Aye, mastering keigo is like learning a secret hand-shake. It's really amazing the kinds of reactions you can get to utterly ridiculous requests if you just ask politely.

Reminds me of part of Jay Rubin's book Making Sense of Japanese (which I highly recommend and have read several times): he talks about a sign he purchased at a department store that says "本日お休みさせていただきます". This sentence is amazing. It's subjectless, is in polite-form, and has a causative. It's literally something like, "Today I am humbly receiving the favor of resting/taking off".

Point being, that's such common grammar but very complicated and essential to master.

Stories of Your Life is the original title before the film.

Really good! For me it was like discovering Arthur C Clarke all over again.

By far the best explanation of this topic I've seen is in the book Making Sense of Japanese by Jay Rubin. It also discusses some other tricky aspects of Japanese grammar, and is fun to read as well. The succinct tip from /u/EvanGRogers is consistent with the book, but the book obviously goes into much greater depth.

Most things from the past will be unknown to most people - usually people know of the major stuff - not the minor details.

You might consider reading original material from scholar/travelers from China to India (the advantage of reading original material - esp. for a writer - is that you get loads of detailed material which is relevant for you and you may notice it - although it may not be relevant for the wider picture a historian maybe painting - so there will be details which will be valuable to get a sense of the environment).

For example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faxian

and his accounts of visit to Taxila (Greco-Buddhist university - in present day Pakistan - which was part of the greater India in pre-1947 era):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila

Or this guy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanzang

another link for him:

http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Xuanzang_or_Hsüan-tsang

There are many other original travelogues you can read to get an idea of that period and region.

You can read Al Biruni's India - which chronicles India as he experienced it in 1000 AD - the variations in Hinduism as were apparent to him. He bitterly criticizes one of his contemporary Muslim conquerors for being brutal (Mahmud Ghaznavi who is remembered by both Muslims and Hindus for his aggressive actions against hindus and their temples).

And these are all modern looking books - i.e. since the people/scholars who wrote these were perceptive etc. So Al Biruni's India includes some details about variations and the types of people.

https://www.amazon.com/Alberunis-Abridged-Library-Al-Biruni-1993-05-01/dp/B017POL2C8/

As aid to Al Biruni's critical recounting of the state of India around 1000 AD (much of the book is very technical examination of things) - you may consider reading some of the British journals of the people of India - where they documented for each region the tribes and their oral history (as an effort to understand them so they could rule them).


There are many books about history - Ibn Khaldun's Preface to his history of the world is one of the most famous books of science/observation (The Muqaddimah) - but you could peruse his voluminous history of the world - which would be somewhat fanciful - and this again would be around 1000 AD.

https://www.amazon.com/Muqaddimah-Introduction-History-Princeton-Classics/dp/0691166285

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Biruni

If you have interest in the European region from 900AD - there are some travelogues by Muslim scholars/travelers who went north into european lands (the inspiration for the movie starring "The 13th Warrior" starring Antonio Banderas):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120657/

The 13th Warrior

https://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlan-Land-Darkness-Travellers/dp/0140455078/

Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North

Again these books come across as very contemporary - as their writers analyze each group of different (to their eyes) people they meet. It also gives secondary insight into the details of those periods.



Although slightly later than your time period - from the 1300s - you can read Ibn Battuta and his travels all over - and his fanciful descriptions of the people he meets:

https://www.amazon.com/Travels-Ibn-Battutah/dp/0330418793/

I remember reading through a lot of Ben Bova books from the library in elementary school. But it was this book my dad put under the Christmas tree around that time that cemented my love of this genre:


The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1: 1929-1964 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0765305372

The best motivation I found was a book by Seneca, if you read it and do nothing then really there is no help!

https://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468273956&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=seneca+shortness+of+lide

Otherwise, nootropics won't do much imho, Amphetamine, Ritalin, Adderall should have biggest motivation/focus effect.

i really like Story Engineering by Larry Brooks.

Really interesting and informative ideas about the structure for a mainstream/commercial novel: http://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987

If anyone wants to start reading The Witcher novels I made a guide over on the "Featured Character" comment section that I'll repost here:

Short stories:

1. [The Last Wish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Wish_(book) - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
2. Sword of Destiny - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   Novels:
   
   
3. Blood of Elves - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
4. Time of Contempt - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
5. [Baptism of Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism_of_Fire_(novel) - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
6. The Tower of the Swallow - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
7. [The Lady of the Lake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_the_Lake_(novel) - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   Overall:
   
   
8. The Last Wish
   
   
9. Sword of Destiny
   
   
10. Blood of Elves
    
    
11. Time of Contempt
    
    
12. Baptism of Fire
    
    
13. The Tower of the Swallow
    
    
14. The Lady of the Lake
    
    The short stories are a must-read before the novels because they introduce many characters and plot points for the main saga. There is also a prequel story called Season of Storms which hasn't been officially translated into English yet, but there are fan translations if you can't wait. I haven't read it myself, but I hear that it is best read after the others. If you want to know more about The Witcher lore there is always The World of the Witcher^UK which will give you more backstory and details.

You can actually buy Legends 1, Legends 2, and Warriors 1 on Amazon which contain the Dunk and Egg stories :) For reference the titles are The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight.

Both Legends have Kindle versions. Hope this helps!

Well so much depends on everything. Some basic suggestions:.

Contemporary Science Fiction:
Ted Chaing, Stories of Your Life and Others his short stories are science fiction gems. https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122.

Classical: Vladimir Nabokov Short Stories, amazing prose. Though English was his second language he wrote a good number, especially the later half, in English, often challenging themes from dubious narrators.
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Vladimir-Nabokov/dp/0679729976.

International Fiction: Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore, reductionist, clean prose, with symbolic/metaphorical imagery that blends hard-boiled noir, Japanese animism, and surrealism. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400079276/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_RxntybB7PYK93

Post Modern: Roberto Bolano, 2666: A Novel, perhaps the odd relative of Murakami in structure if not style. Sometimes rambling, though powerful prose with surrealist moments within graphic and "visceral" scenes. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312429215/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ZAntybTW2XXJX.

Deconstructionism: Mark Danieleski, House of Leaves, carefully crafted entangled adventure horror of a story, explained in the footnotes of an essay, edited by a tattoo artist, written by a blind man of a homemade video of a house gone awry. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375703764/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_XMntyb3RT3RKQ

A start

You'll probably get a lot of people saying 'On Writing', but for me that was too abstract for what I wanted. The best thing I've read has to be, hands down, 'Story Engineering' by Larry Brooks.

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987

When you searched for the novellas did you happen to search by the specific titles (The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight? If you did then I can see why you would think they'd be too expensive. The stories are part of three separate collections of short stories that are pretty cheap. They are Legends, Legends II, and Warriors. You can pick up all three on Amazon for like $30 total.

Excellent! It's in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame collection of short stories. I highly recommend this collection.

I recommend buying Ted Chiang's anthology
or the movie tie-in edition

Fantastic book!

The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. Amazing first person account of Cortes and the conquering of Mexico, better than any action movie you'll ever see.

Ted Chiang and his book of shorts - Stories of your Life, and others was simply fantastic. The story is much better than the movie, Arrival.

You can get short story collections that contain them through Amazon (Here, here, and here), but that'll add up price wise. I think GRRM is putting together an anthology of the Dunk and Egg novels, so you may want to hold off until then.

If you're interested, here's the chronollogical order of the books (with links to buy them on Amazon):

1. The Last Wish
   
2. Sword of Destiny
   
3. Blood of Elves
   
4. Time of Contempt
   
5. Baptism of Fire
   
6. Tower of Swallows
   
7. Lady of the Lake
   
   --------
   
   Season of Storms is an upcoming book set in between the short stories of The Last Wish. It will be released in English on March 2018.

you might be looking at the graphic novel version of the hedgeknight and thats why its so expensive look them up in the anthology forms and you might have more success:
Legends 1 (contains the Hedgeknight) Legends 2 (contains The Sworn Sword), and Warriors 1 (Contains the Mystery Knight)

I highly recommend reading The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. It's definitely biased, but it was based on the account of a man who was actually there when Cortez invaded the Aztecs. One of the most interesting books I've ever read.

https://www.amazon.com/Conquest-New-Spain-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441239

Short story by Ted Chiang - story of your life.

You can find it here. The whole collection is worth a read. It's the best short stories collection I've read, maybe ever.

For those who liked Throne of the Crescent Moon as much as I did, Ahmed also has a collection of short stories for free on Kindle called "Engraved on the Eye."

Link here:https://www.amazon.com/Engraved-Eye-Saladin-Ahmed-ebook/dp/B009CVYQG2

I'm surprised this book hasn't been mentioned..
http://www.amazon.com/The-Conquest-Spain-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441239

A first person account from someone who was there with Cortez. Awesome read.

There's three great books out there that I can think of off the top of my head.

[Read Real Japanese: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers] (http://www.amazon.co.jp/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292)

and

[Read Real Japanese Essays: Contemporary Writings by Popular Authors] (http://www.amazon.co.jp/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148)

and

[Breaking into Japanese literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text] (http://www.amazon.co.jp/Breaking-into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568364156)

PS: if you are "fresh out of Genki 2" level, I'd say these books may be fairly advanced for you, but to each their own. Some people don't mind. There are english translations after all.

My favorite short story collection ever!

https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang-ebook/dp/B0048EKOP0

"Liking What You See" is the particular story.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143036327/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I had a friend once who wasnt exceptionally bright but he was tall and handsome. Dude kept track of everything he wanted to do and goals. Even if it was just to buy a cd he wrote it on a dry erase board. Despite not being incredibly bright he's successful and gets shit done.

On a cool note, GRRM is releasing a 35,000 word novella focusing on the Blackfyre Rebellion in a compilation book due out in December. As well if you haven't read the The Hedge Knight series of Novellas (Super good, so check them out if you haven't) they explain it in that a little.

http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Women-George-R-R-Martin/dp/076533206X

They are such short novellas (I think the Rogue Prince is like 30 pages?) that I just took them from my school's inter-library loan system. You probably know this already, but for anyone else, The Rogue Prince is printed in Rogues and the Princess and the Queen is published in Dangerous Women.

Both are good, but only if you're a die-hard asoiaf fan. The P&Q especially gets confusing despite its very short length.

You can buy it Here it's really long, but you can read some stories and leave others, personally, I think the whole book is worth it, one of my favorites of all time