Reddit mentions: The best humor & satire fiction books

Yes, but it takes a long time, so I'll copy paste all my past comments here for you to trawl through yourself.

>/r/russian and /r/LANL_Russian are both good subreddits. Someone recommended http://learnrussian.rt.com/ which is great for beginners. http://www.russianlessons.net is good for lots of information, but is kind of incomplete. Definitely worth using regardless. Memrise is really good for vocab, but the courses are user-made and not perfect.

Note: LANL_Russian in particular has some great links in the sidebar.

Memrise:

>Interesting, there seems to be an influx of Russian learners lately. Take note, because I'm writing a lot, and I wouldn't do it if I didn't think that every bit was extremely important.

>Stop just trying to memorise by reading. Long story short, you're using a pretty ineffective technique. The good news is there are far better ways of doing it. Studies show that recollection, not repetition is a far effective teacher.

>As I've said to many, I can fully recommend Memrise (www.memrise.com) and the top rated Russian course there. It's great at using recollection to get you memorising a lot of words fast using mnemonics. Other than that, Anki is a useful flashcard program that does a similar thing.

>some tips for Memrise: don't use it passively; really try and think about and focus on the word you're learning. Secondly, make sure you've got a mem (their term for mnemonic) that works for you. Getting a word without a mem is harder. Memrise will really solidify your Russian-English, but if you are worried about the English-Russian part, just go though each level with a strip of paper covering the Russian words on the screen and work your way down. You will find it's really easy anyway, because Memrise has solidified the connection in your mind.

>Make use you check the course page and water all your plants EVERY DAY.

>Take note of how Memrise get's you recollecting as soon as possible after giving you a word, and then gradually spreads out the intervals at which you are prompted to recall a word, and in groups of 5 words at a time. Take this technique and use it to make yourself some flash cards. Write the English on one side and Russian on the other (you might like to include the pronunciation too). Now you can take these around with you day by day (I have some on my desk by me right now), memorising other words you've read whenever you have a spare moment. You can even have your own personal mems for them. I'd recommend buying some cards to use, because just cutting up printing paper is pretty flimsy and easy to mess up.

>I personally find I memorise better when focusing at my desk, because I'm a lot less distracted. If Memrise is done then feel free to use your flash cards at your desk. It is still more effective.

>If you ever do go back to word lists, don't just look at them, cover one side up and do a few at a time, really relying on recollection.

An extract from what I'd consider my best writeup:

>What galaxyrocker said is just as true for me. My interest in the language led me to try learning it, as opposed to wanting to learn a language and then finding one. I always thought the Cyrillic alphabet looked awesome and the Russian language sounded awesome, so I decided to try it and I've been going ever since. I was always interested in the history of eastern Europe and socialism so I guess that in some way led to it. Along the way I've discovered a completely different and interesting culture and now I am learning a way to interact with it.

>One bit of advice would be to find a buddy who is a native of your target language and get in regular contact. If you're doing this online, there are plenty of resources, but I found mine on the Skype forum. The time spent teaching him the more precise aspects of English and in turn getting a more interactive source of knowledge has been invaluable to both of us, and at the same time I've been prompted to think a little about my own language, especially regarding grammar. It helps only a small bit if you share interests, because the two languages provide such a huge range of topics and conversation. Since you're going to be a beginner, look for someone experienced but looking for regular practice, to them, teaching you WILL be the practice, and any insight into English you can offer a bonus.

>Secondly, relate your studies to subjects that interest you. No doubt you'll be different, but DotA 2 has a large scene in eastern Europe, so I often tune in there just to immerse myself. Find resources to attempt to read that are about a topic of your interest. If you don't enjoy the benefits somewhere, you'll lose interest. If you surround yourself with media relating to your language, you'll always be motivated to go back to the books and continue learning.

>Also, always go back and go over words you learned, otherwise you forget them fast. Recollection is a far better teacher than repetition, so make flash cards or use Memrise (it's amazing).

Now especially for you; Resources:

Pimsleur has an audio only course that teaches you basic conversational Russian using spaced repetition and simulated conversations. It's good for getting you speaking and pronouncing Russian, but I got bored pretty fast and didn't really have the opportunities to use it. The course itself is huge, split up into many lessons. This one does cost a lot of money, you you should PM me for a "sample" first.

Penguin Russian is like a giant grammar book. It will teach you the basics as well as the advanced. While not interesting or engaging, it does have everything you could ever need to know, and so is a good resource if you have the patience. This is another one you'll have to buy, but I have the PDF form if you'd like to "sample" that too.

Lastly, trying to read Russian books is a good way to learn once you have some words down. A heads up though, unless you have more than 1000 you'll be running into a lot of words you will be unfamiliar with, at least to begin with. One staple of language learners is Harry Potter, since its been translated to pretty much every language there is. That's the last "sample" you'll be needing to PM me about.

If you want to speak, the best way is to find a Skype (or real life) buddy who speaks both. There are huge amounts of Russians online who speak passable English who could help in return for some English help.
If you're not doing it that way, you'll need to practice speech to yourself while studying.

So, given the recent kerfluffle about people entering contests too much, feel free to disregard this one but my books are my prized possessions and I had to write this.

I love love LOVE this!

I was a rare and antique book dealer, many moons ago, and am happily wrapped in a sever case of bibliophilia so I can't agree more that books are something to be treasured.

When I was a child, back when dirt was the latest and greatest thing, I made a promise to myself that I would read at least an hour a day. For pleasure! Not just the newspaper or the like. I'm still proud to say that since the age of 12 I have done just that. I will go without sleep for an hour just so that I can read.

Good on you for this one. Good on you tea.

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The books that I want EVERY child to read are a bit. . . different.

I recently fell in love with Pat Rothfuss and have devoured his books as soon as they come out. His latest release is something of a departure. A small novela called The Slow Regard of Silent Things in which a minor character from his main series is spotlit in a unique way.

This book, in my opinion, can (and does) help children to understand that different isn't always bad. That feelings are both important and personal. That sometimes having things be just right is the right thing to do. The language isn't difficult, it's a BLAST to read out loud with someone, and can be enjoyed by just about every genre reader of any age!

My next choice is a more traditional choice for children. But not for the traditional reasons!

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!

This is one that I think is so overlooked by people of every age. And that's so sad for me. Carroll may, well. . . let's be honest here he DID, have some issues but something that I think he got spot on was his ability to make both the absurd and silly MEANINGFUL though his words and stories!

Through all the adventures and the creatures and the characters something that is telling throughout the whole of the story. . . Being a child is fun! It should be fun! Because if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong!

I have personally read these stories dozens of times. For myself, for my nieces and nephews, and more again for me!

Last choice is one that I may have to defend here.

The greatest introduction to space, sci-fi, fantasy, and. . . towels!

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Gude to the Galaxy by the amazing Douglas Adams!

In my opinion the story alone is broad enough to engage children, as well as young adults, as well as teens, due to the simplicity of characters and the variety of situations.

But!

The more often you read these books the better they get! The more you learn about the world at large the funnier the books get!

When I first read Hitchhiker's I was a mere lad of 10 and thought it was a cute book. When I read it again at age 16 I thought it was hysterical! At 21 it was a thought provoking comedy in the vein of Shakespeare! At 25 I thought 21 year old me was a tool, but thought the books were great!

The more you read them, or have them read to you, the better they get!

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I also wanted to point out this article on the front page of /r/books from the NYT that talk about one of the best things you can do for a child is to own books. Shelves full of books!

So thank you for doing this. Thank you very much.

"Being the best that you can be" is a better goal than "being better than everyone else", because it results in better outcomes.

For the vast majority of people being better than everyone else is simply not going to happen for any one thing. In order to be better than everyone else at a particular task you effectively need to dedicate your entire life to that one task. Most people are not going to be happy doing that, and so they're not going to be as effective at it as the people who are happy doing that. Because of that, having the goal of being better than everyone else leads to the things that you've noticed: an inferiority complex, stealing work (an act which adds no value to the world), giving up because you won't succeed, etc.

For the few people who are going to be world class at something, the goal of "being better than everyone else" may lead to underachieving. If the best in the world simply wants to be the best in the world, then there's no need for them to strive to improve themselves any more than necessary to keep up with their competition.

Having the goal of "being the best that you can be" deals with both of these problems. Doing the best you can is always an achievable goal, so it won't put you in the "my goals are impossible" funk, and if you're going to be the best in the world at something, it encourages you to keep getting better no matter what.

Now, an important thing about this is the value of contribution. Implicit in your view is that contribution has no value unless it's the best contribution. This shows up in your line:

> Why be the best you if there's someone out there who can run laps around your best?

The answer is that your best can still improve the world and your life. For example, I really enjoy the Magic 2.0 book series. It is definitely not the best writing out there. It's not even the best entertainment-focused fantasy fiction out there. But I'm glad that it exists. I find it fun. If the author decided it was unimportant to be their best, because other people write better, then that book series wouldn't exist.

It's kind of telling how hard it is to think of any. Fantasy/Romance hybrids tend to be very "retro" and often are used as excuses to retell the story of Cinderella or Pride & Prejudice...or to have your Big Strong Man bigger and stronger then a real human can be. Men tend to not fantasize about the strength and wealth of their lovers, and all but the most progressive women seem disconcerted by the idea of a man weaker then them.

The closest thing I can think of is the The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred. Fred is an accountant who is turned into a vampire, and falls for a badass member of a secret supernatural law enforcement agency.

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells has a male lead from a matriarchal species where women are bigger and stronger. The love interest is a Queen.

Street Cultivation is teasing a possible future relationship with a women richer and stronger then the hero. Somehow I suspect the relationship will never materialize or will materialize after the hero becomes richer and stronger. (Which interestingly are the same thing in this universe)

Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein sort of qualifies. The ending is a little bitter sweet, though.

The Matt Richter Series involves a zombie dating a vampire. It is a running joke that vampires are faster then a normal human while zombies are slower. There are scenes where he attempts to rescue someone vastly more physically powerful then him. Totally a comedy.

It's quite common in LitRPG to have female love interests who start out much stronger then the male protagonist but are later surpassed by the male lead. I can think of several if that is good enough.

In order to get anywhere with Russian, you need a invest in a good grammar book. For complete beginners, I always recommend Nicholas Brown's New Penguin Russian Course which is dirt cheap on amazon.

To help you get comfortable with the language in terms of reading, listening, and pronunciation, I'm a big fan of the Assimil series. If you're not familiar with Assimil, you can read up on their method. The Assimil Russian is a nice complement to the Penguin course and I'm actually half-way through it myself (for review purposes).

You can find lots of good learning materials on ilearnrussian.com. I've found that some of the best learning materials are made by Russians for foreigners, but those are generally more advanced.

Immerse yourself in the language as much as you can outside of your formal lessons (i.e. Penguin, Assimil, whatever). You can find tons of Russian music on youtube. If you prefer to stream music online, check out moskva.fm. Many of the Russian stations play English music, so if you just want Russian-language music, try the Russian Radio station.

You can watch tons of old Russian movies with English subtitles on Mosfilm's website for free. If you know where to look online, you can find all the latest movies for free (pretty easy to find with google). One of my favorite things to do is find a Hollywood movie that I know really well, and then watch it dubbed in Russian. The quality of Russian dubbing is generally pretty high, and the advantage to watching a movie you're already familiar with is that you can focus on the language. Once you get to a higher level, it's interesting to compare the English dialogue to the Russian translation.

Do you have an ipod? One way to tune your ear to a language is to listen to the rapid-fire delivery on news broadcasts or opinion programs. I like to listen to podcasts from the Echo of Moscow radio station. Here's an example program you could subscribe to Culture Shock with rss link.

As difficult as the alphabet and grammar seem at first, I can assure you that it's nothing compared to acquiring a good vocabulary. Everyone has their own method for learning vocabulary, but my advice is to make some flash cards and carry a stack around with you wherever you go. In any odd, spare moment that you have, review them. You should aim to get to 1000 words as quickly as possible. As others have said, that's a key threshold. If you do the Penguin Course and/or Assimil, be diligent about learning the vocabulary for each lesson.

Anyway, good luck! Удачи!

My favorite lesser known book is The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear. I read it for the first time when I was like 14, but it still appeals to me. It's just very imaginative, the worldbuilding is amazing, and it's really just the perfect book for someone in this sub. Lots of super interesting/exotic characters and places. I did read it when I was 14 for the first time, but while I wouldn't call it dostoyevsky, it's still very good. My favorite book of all time is either Leaves of Grass, fahrenheit 451, or maybe Cat's Cradle. I'm not sure.

The sub I spend the most time on is /r/smashbros. I play Melee competitively, and I've gotten pretty good at it, I guess. It started as a hobby, but it kind of became my secondary source of income (I'm in college, so I work part time at a pizza place, and then win small amounts of money from tournaments, lol). I really enjoy the game. It's such a fucking difficult game that progressing in it feels incredibly rewarding. It's really therapeutic.

Best Ice Cream flavor is sicilian orange, and if you disagree, you're a bad person.

By you don't think you are good enough for Stephen King type stories, do you mean your reading level isn't good enough or your "this is too freaking creepy for me to read anymore so I have to put it down now" level isn't good enough?

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett was one of my favorite books when I was 14. That book led me into the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett and into the Sandman graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman. Then Gaiman released Neverwhere and that's an absolutely amazing story as well!!

The Dresen files series by Jim Butcher is a great series. It starts off a bit shaky in the first book, but it's still enough of a kickass book that you are hooked and want to read the rest of the series.

Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore is a great story with a good sense of humor. He is one of my favorite authors, and most of his books are ones that you can reread and they're still as entertaining.

Also when you are looking for more suggestions, you can refer to this handy dandy flowchart for the top 100 science fiction/fantasy books of all time. There are some amazing authors and amazing books listed, so hopefully you find some more good reads on there too!

YAY! I love being an aunt! Congratulations to you and your family.

I ain't birthed no babies! But I do have stretch marks that need to be gone before my tropical vacation, and that would make me super happy. :D

Happy Birfday! I would certainly have to recommend A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! The series is super awesome. :)

Have fun at school!

If you want something a bit emotionally draining at points, Blindness by Saramago is a good one. It's about a sudden epidemic of blindness, and how the world reacts. And they don't react well. Very much worth your time, but just a forewarning, there is a part that's a bit... rapey.

If you want something very character driven, I liked Ender's Game and the following two branches. The branch that follows Ender (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind) get a bit philosophical and more and more sci-fi, so I don't know how much I'd recommend it. I kept through it for the characters though. The other branch follows a character named "Bean" from the first book (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant) and is a lot more military focused, talking about interactions between world powers and military groups. I liked that branch a bit more.

I only ask that if you read those, you get them from the library so that you don't purchase them. I don't like where he sends his money, but that's your choice. I usually don't recommend him to people solely because of that.

Last but not least, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the rest of the series (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life the Universe and Everything, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, Mostly Harmless, And Another Thing...) is FANTASTIC. I recommend this to EVERYONE. Funny, witty, clever, and well written and the guy who wrote it was a good guy too. I'd say buy the complete edition where all the books are in one. I'm not a huge book guy, but I was able to soar through this with no problem. I'm not even gonna say what it's about, but I will say the part about sandwiches is basically my life advice to anyone who asks for some.

Happy reading!

One book that i didnt see mentioned in a casual skim of the posts is Off to be the Wizard
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Off-Be-Wizard-Magic-2-0/dp/1612184715

A very silly series where a modern day guy ends up in an alternate dimension where he can do magic/control the world via programming. Super light reads, fun and funny, and pulls in your computer interest. If you enjoy the first one, you can pick up the others.

If you want something a bit meatier, check out some Douglas Hofstadter.

Le Ton Beau de Marot (it's in English) is about the process and problems of translating languages, and makes surprisingly good bathroom reading because the chapters are short. He starts the scope small, talking about whether to focus on literal meaning or the spirit of the words, and then brings in more concepts like artificial constraints (poetry, or even writing without certain letters, for one example). It is philosophical, informative, and amusing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B012HVQ1R0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_L2sgAbDYFK1XK

He also wrote Godel Escher Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0465026567/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_b3sgAbQ79TTGS better writers than I have written reviews (this one is from Amazon)

>Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel. It also looks at the prospects for computers and artificial intelligence (AI) for mimicking human thought. For the general reader and the computer techie alike, this book still sets a standard for thinking about the future of computers and their relation to the way we think.

I'm just starting to learn Russian myself. I'm using this website and this book which supposedly gets you up to an A-Level grade. I think it's a great book but found it a little tough for an absolute beginner so I also got this book which is just basic phrases really, doesn't go into grammar in any real detail but it gives you a lot more confidence to be able to speak something rather than getting completely bogged down in grammar as soon as you've learnt the alphabet imo. As soon as a got a couple of chapters into the phrase book, I started using the Russian course book I linked above to understand the grammar and handwriting better. Can't recommend the penguin one highly enough and I'm sure it will be a great help that you will have a teacher to help you with the grammar.

You're correct in thinking that the alphabet is the most important beginning. DON'T try learning a language using English phonetics, that'll just confuse you (which i can confirm) and give you a weird accent (according to my Russian speaking ex-girlfriend). Next up is where the stress goes on words, how changing stress can change the meaning of a sentence, and how some letters can change sound depending on where they are (called [un-]voicing) but this will come after you have the alphabet and some phrases under your belt.

I also found it good to listen to a few songs to pick up how words flow together, and music helps me think anyway, personal favourites of mine are traditional songs such as Kalinka, Ochi Chernye and Katyusha. Just look on youtube and you will find plenty of them even some with the lyrics in English and Russian.

This is the alphabet, the kids version for when you're more confident and want to learn it in order, and this video has some starter words and phrases.

I hope some of that helps you out, but I'm just a beginner myself so hoping to pick up some more advice myself by watching this thread closely!

The Off To Be The Wizard series is really good and funny. I caught myself smiling most of the time I was listening to it.

You can get it with a whisper sync combo for about $6 per book. $4 for the Kindle version and then $2 more to add audible version.

Also, since you are used to the podcast format, you should look into some long form fiction podcasts.

Take a look at www.podiobooks.com
I'd like to recommend The Rookie by Scott Sigler, which is a cross between star wars, Friday night lights, and the god father. A football story set 500 years in the future.
I am not a sports person, football doesn't really interest me that much, and I didn't think of it as much more than a bunch of guys throwing a ball and running into each other. This series really gave me more of an appreciation of the game and how it all works from the inside.
My brother is big into sports, and he really enjoyed it too.

Also Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell. This is an amazing series. The characters are great, the story is great, and the universe is somewhere I think I'd like to live. It just feels very alive. Definitely worth checking out.

I have a few things like that, that I love to spread the word on.

The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear was originally in German, and Wikipedia says that it was successful there and in the UK when it was translated into English, but never really made it in the US. The humor definitely has a British flavor to me, so I get that.

https://www.amazon.com/Lives-Captain-Bluebear-Walter-Moers/dp/1585678449/

Hiero's Journey is another that I don't know anyone else who's read. I really like its depiction of his struggles as a telepath.

https://www.amazon.com/Hieros-Journey-Sterling-Lanier/dp/0345308417

The Wild Cards series is one I'm always surprised that people haven't heard of, because they have made quite a few books. It's edited by George R. R. Martin, but not written by him. It's set in a version of our world where aliens who were very similar to humans genetically came here to test a biological weapon.

Of those who were exposed to the virus, 90% weren't affected. Of those who were affected, 90% died. Of those who didn't die, 90% ended up like the Morlocks from X-Men comics - mutated in ways that made them "unacceptable" in society. But that 0.1% of people left (if I'm remembering my numbers correctly) got honest to goodness superpowers.

The real strength of the series is in its creative superpowers. If you've read Worm and enjoyed that aspect of it, check out Wild Cards.

If you haven't read Worm (sometimes aka Parahumans), I definitely recommend that one as well.

Hmmm… I need to create a "Taoist Starter Kit" article…

As far as translations go… one I like is Red Pine's translation because it has commentary and the Chinese. The nice thing about the commentary is it lets you see all of the different ways each chapter can be interpreted. Political strategists see strategy and alchemists see instructions for spiritual immortality. :)

https://www.amazon.com/Lao-tzus-Taoteching-Lao-Tzu-ebook/dp/B00APD9VP2

If you want something chill and direct. I like these comics:

https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Speaks-Lao-Tzus-Whispers-Wisdom/dp/0385472595/

https://www.amazon.com/Zhuangzi-Speaks-Nature-Chih-chung-Tsai/dp/0691008825

If you wanna compare a bunch of translations…

https://ttc.tasuki.org/

I don't really think you can go "wrong" with any translation/interpretation if you're planning on reading more than one. If it was just the one, I'd go with Red Pine's.

As for meditation, I would look into Zen or Chan Buddhism close to where you are. You can also get started right away by just closing your eyes and breathing for a minute a day and build up to more as you do more research (via videos, books, seminars, teachers, etc.)

More important than any technique is developing the habit of doing it every day.

This app is awesome and it comes with a bunch of free guided meditations. I just use it for the timer. :)

https://insighttimer.com/

If you start getting serious I'd look for a teacher of some kind, but good teachers for Taoism seem kind of elusive. I think that's from the nature of the practice and it's history.

Google searches, reading reviews, talking to people, etc will take you where you want to go although in the beginning it's hard to tell the difference between "good" and "bad", but there's no way around that other than to start doing stuff and getting some experience under your belt. :) Also "bad" for you might be "good" for someone else. :P ;)

There are probably some good books for beginners as well, but I'm not familiar with those yet. I'm gonna start ordering and reading through them… (I haven't been a beginner for a long time… that said… I'm still a beginner… lol)

Oh! There's a cool Eva Wong book on Taoism that gives you a nice historical overview and breakdown of the different styles.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1590308824/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_1590308824

Hopefully you'll get some other recommendations! :)

I just read Changing Faces: New Game Minus, and the MC is a former NPC that becomes a "player", but doesn't know it's a game world. So he's dealing with nonsensical game mechanics (getting exp, getting stronger at a level up, etc.) and fully aware of how ridiculous it would be in a realistic world.

Definitely not clueless or stupid/bashful.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Changing-Faces-Game-Minus-Book-ebook/dp/B07KMMT9TX

Some other recs:

Drew Hayes' series: Spells, Swords, & Stealth - "NPCs" in a Dungeons and Dragons-esque world have to become adventurers. The main characters definitely are aware of D&D tropes and aren't stupid. This is a really good series, and it's a good time to get into it as the next book is coming out next month.

https://www.amazon.ca/NPCs-Spells-Swords-Stealth-Book-ebook/dp/B00KB2RLKO

Hero of Thera: The MC gets sucked into a new world with game-like mechanics (leveling up, picking classes, new skills, new gear, etc.). So that I guess is an Isekai book. What sets it apart is the great writing and worldbuilding.

Also a good time to get into this, as book 2 should be coming out next month.

https://www.amazon.ca/Hero-Thera-LitRPG-Eric-Nylund-ebook/dp/B0719CYNCG

Full disclosure - I edited book 4 of Spells, Swords & Stealth and book 2 of Hero of Thera. But I'd recommend them even if I hadn't.

• We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is a hilarious trilogy that is a bit cheaper to buy the kindle and then add on audio narration. Ray Porter, the narrator, makes his series amazing.
  
  
  
• Off to Be the Wizard is a great series with good humor and can be less expensive if you buy the kindle and then add on the audio narration. I liked books 1-3, with 4 and 5 being not as great. The first books is well worth the purchase though!
  
  
  
• Super Powereds Year 1. This is one of my favorite series. Kyle McCarley does an amazing job narrating this saga (4 in the main story and 1 side story that could stand alone). Probably the worst covers and really made me not want to read the series, but Drew Hayes has become my favorite author. Every series he does is pure gold.
  
  
  
• Expeditionary Force: Columbus Day. RC Bray, sci-fi and lots of hilarious dialog when Skippy shows up (about halfway through the book). The series is great, and book 6 is coming out next week. Great starter price 0.99+7.49 for the kindle and audiobook.
  
  
  There are so many more options like this, but I don’t want to overwhelm you! These may not all be your cup of tea. But they are some of my favorites for a somewhat reasonable price.

Off to Be the Wizard by Seth Meyer is my favorite comfort food book. It's very light, but engaging, and presents an intriguing premise that's fun to think about.

I listened to the audio versions of the series read by Luke Daniels, who was a great match for the material, I thought.

I want to read print if I'm sitting and relaxing, but if I have to be up and active, doing tasks like laundry or driving that leave my mind free to ruminate, audio books really save me from myself.

I was always a big reader, but Madelein L'Engle started me on my passion of reading with A Wrinkle In Time and A Wind In The Door

As a grown-up, I can enjoy books for children with a better eye.... If you ever find a copy of Walter Moers' The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear pick it up and devour it! It is endlessly entertaining, and endearingly sweet. Good as a fantastical children's book, but adults will enjoy the quick wit and humor. I've given away three copies as gifts!

The New Penguin Russian Course is quite good. The textbook I've used is Russian for Everybody (there's also an accompanying workbook that I highly recommend). Once you start getting a hang of things, Shaum's Outline of Russian Grammar is a good, clear reference for grammar.

As for free websites? I'm not very familiar with them... MasterRussian.com is a popular one. From my experience with free internet lessons, they tend to be lacking in explanations of grammar, and more about giving you "useful" phrases. Everybody learns differently, of course, but I personally find that the more grammar lessons you can integrate, the better off you'll be in the long run.

Other than all that, I definitely recommend finding an easy to read book/article/text/something to work towards understanding -- children's books are good for this. Provides more motivation that way, and it's a way to apply what you're learning. Always keep a goal in mind. :)

Random thoughts on stuff I've read or listened to in the sale:
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien - It's The Hobbit, and Rob Inglis is the perfect narrator for it. Worth every penny.

Off to Be the Wizard, Scott Meyer - Lighthearted and highly entertaining. The only caveat I'd offer is that independent of the sale, you can get the full Whispersync combo for $6, which includes what appears to be a fancy, multi-media Kindle version as well as the audio.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle - I've been slowly working my way through this one story at a time and loving it. 60 hours of Holmes with an incredible narrator for $5 is just insane.

The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley - I'm super conflicted about this one. I thought the book was phenomenal... and then I looked up MZB on wikipedia. Saying she was a horrific human being would be a gross understatement. It significantly recolored my feelings about the book, but maybe others have an easier time separating the art from the artist.

Farewell My Lovely, Raymond Chandler - Not my favorite of the Philip Marlowe detective novels I've read, but still good. Ray Porter is great. It's the second book in the series, but I've yet to find any reason why you need to read them in order. They're all pretty self-contained.

Iliad & Odyssey box set, Homer & Rouse (translator) - I've seen a lot of "Which translation of Homer should I read?" discussions and Rouse is never anyone's top pick, but Anthony Heald does a fantastic job narrating and it's $5 for the pair.

Beyond that, I've got my eye on Masters of Doom (literally the first thing I ever added to my Audible wishlist, and yet for some reason I've never gotten around to grabbing it before) and the Great Course on the Medieval World (mostly because I thought Dorsey Armstrong did a fantastic job with the King Arthur GC).

Drew Hayes. He is just amazing. He writes his books in a sort of tongue-in-cheek-yet-serious kind of way.

One of his book series is called Super Powereds, and it's better than the title might make it sound. It's set in a world where some people are born with superhuman abilities, and then some are born with superhuman abilities that they can't control. There are also humans. It's a school for those wanting to be a hero. It's full of subplots and twists and the books are quite long as well. They're also cheap in Amazon Kindle. This book is awesome.

He also has another book series called

Spells, Swords, & Stealth. It is set in a Tabletop RPG world and follows some NPCs that are forced to deal with the dead adventurers that had just appeared at their door. Great for people who love TTRPGs and great for people who don't! Seriously, it's amazing and you will love it. You will love either book!

The Cyrillic alphabet crash course videos by Mark Thomson (there's also iOS and Android apps if you prefer)

Russian Made Easy podcast / video series also by Mark Thomson

The New Penguin Russian Course by Nicholas Brown

These three materials will give you a super solid start and come out to a grand total of like $20. I suggest starting with the Cyrillic alphabet videos then going through Ch2 of the Penguin book, which teaches Cyrillic cursive. It will be best to do all writing in cursive as you practice. I'd then go through Russian Made Easy then the rest of the Penguin book. This method has been working out very well for me so far. I tried starting with the Penguin book and it's just a little dense to be a good beginner material imo. I also push the Mark Thomson materials pretty hard because he harps on contextual learning which is very important for efficiently learning a new language, yet many resources don't focus on it.

Many people like Duolingo. I wasn't super fond of it because the audio is compressed to hell and it doesn't give a good intro to the alphabet. This led to me having trouble knowing whether I pronounced something right because the example speech sounded like garbage and also taking guesses at what sounds letters made (a few of which turned out to be wrong when I changed my methods and actually learned the alphabet). I talked to a polyglot I know and he advised me that Rosetta Stone was most useful when you have a decent foundation in a language, not quite as great if you're totally new to it (and very expensive). All of this is just my two cents of course. There's many ways to go about it. Either way, welcome to the super fun hellscape that is the Russian language, and good luck getting started :)

Locke's life does get more crazy but there is a lot more humor later on. I can see how coming from Brandon's books though, how other books might appear darker in concept or tone.

The Shadow Of What Was Lost - This is very influenced by the Wheel Of Time. It only has one book so far, and it is not as slow paced or descriptive as Jordan. However I am very very much enjoying it. I think if you loved WoT you would enjoy this.

Eye Of The moonrat - So far there is 6 Books in this Series. It is a little Y.A and the Hero is a little too good at everything but it is a good pulpy read and more light hearted.

Off To Be The Wizard - A Nerdy IT Programmer discovers that nothing is real and his entire existence and everyone elses is governed by a secret file he finds on the Internet. So of course he sends himself back to Medieval Times to become a powerful wizard, just like every other nerd who found the file to his dismay. Hilarity ensues.

The Iron Druid Chronicles - A 2000 year old Druid, the last of his kind runs a Bookshop. Urban Fantasy. Very enjoayble. Lots of Irish/Celctic/Norse/Greek/Christian Mythology woven in. Has a cool dog sidekick.

Yes, I would recommend this if you aren't looking for anything too serious. Adams' presentation method is definitely comedic, but that just makes it more enjoyable. Adams is a genius when it comes to irony and he also does a pretty good job of getting his science right(when he is being serious). But like I said, if you want super serious, don't go for this. If you do go for it, I recommend getting The Ultimate Guide, which is all five books plus a bonus story.

Walter Moers

Given the massive success of Adams, Pratchett and others, the rave reviews of everything in Moers' ever-expanding Zamonia series, the fantastic illustrations and the riotous and creative writing I cannot believe so few people have read these books.

These books have some deep social and psychological analysis alongside absurdity, humor, violence, love and adventure.

Reference books, chronologically:

• The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
  
  
• Rumo
  
  
• The City of Dreaming Books
  
  
• Alchemaster's [sic] Apprentice
  
  Editorial reviews:
  
  
  >“Cheerfully insane. . . . Remains lively and inventive right through the final heroic battle between good and evil.”
  
  —The New York Times Book Review
  
  
  >“Moers’s creative mind is like J.K. Rowling’s on ecstasy; his book reads like a collision between The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the Brothers Grimm…. What a delightful book.”
  
  —Detroit News and Free Press
  
  >“An overstuffed confection… Cross The Lord of the Rings with Yellow Submarine, throw in dashes of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Shrek, and The Princess Bride…That’s the sort of alchemy in which this sprawling novel trades.”
  
  —Kirkus
  

Some of the best books I've read came from people recommending them to me. Please don't ever feel terrible for asking.

It might be a good idea to start with some fun books:

• Matthew Reilly's Ice Station is like an action movie in book form.
  
  
• Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a fun, fantastic, silly ride.
  
  
• Jim Butcher's Dresden Files is just a great series that gets better with each successive book.
  
  
• Dean Koontz Life Expectancy is one of my favorite books.

This is an oft-recommended book on Russian grammar, from what I've seen.


Order that, then get on this site and learn the alphabet. It's not too difficult to get it down on a basic level.


From there, get used to some basic vocabulary using a resource like Memrise (vocabulary practice site). Sign up on Livemocha.com and start with the basic Russian course. You'll learn some beginning phrases, get used to reading, eventually the alphabet will become second nature.


After some time with these resources (maybe a couple hours, maybe a couple of days), start listening to Russian music. You need to practice listening early and often to get the ear for words and how they sound together. Go on a Russian radio streaming site that lists the track currently playing (you can do this using a phone app, TuneIn Radio, which may also have an online site), then look up songs you like the sound of and listen to them over and over again with the lyrics in front of you. Try to sing along, even if you're sort of just mumbling Russian-sounding noises along with the singer.

At this point, start watching movies with subtitles. Search Mosfilm on Youtube. All of this studio's movies are free online, and most of them have English subtitles available.

Keep practicing like this, study the grammar using your Penguin book, and then find a penpal or something via Livemocha. It'll be scary at first, trying to communicate with someone in a language you're still making a lot of mistakes in, but people who study languages understand each other and are generally patient.


TL;DR:

1. Order grammar book
   
   
2. Before it arrives, learn alphabet, basic words / phrases
   
   
3. Listen to songs
   
   
4. Watch movies
   
   
5. Learn grammar
   
   
6. Find penpal
   
   
7. Practice, practice, practice!!!
   
   
   Good luck! If you need any other help, PM me! I absolutely love Russian and would gladly help out anyone else who's interested.

Of course you are not hopeless. Do you think everyone learning a language jumps into it with full understanding of all the terms involved? You learn as you go, just as in any discipline.

When I was an English major in college, I decided to enroll in Old English. I was unaware, somehow, that I had chosen "Old English II." The very first day of class, I show up and we are given photocopies of the first 50 lines or so of Beowulf and asked to translate to modern English with the help of the glossary in our textbook. I stared at this incomprehensible text, confounded as to how my other classmates could be busily working away. I looked up one of the words in the first line in the glossary and it had the modern English equivalent, and "Nom." next to it. I went up to the professor and told her that I had never even seen Old English before, and how was I supposed to do this? She pointed at the "Nom." and said, "This means it's nominative, see?" As if the light was supposed to dawn, and it would all be clear to me now. But for me, this just explained an incomprehensible OE word in terms of an equally incomprehensible piece of linguistic jargon, as I then saw it. Needless to say, I went straight to the registrar after that class and withdrew from it.

This was about 13 years ago. Subsequently I took some Latin and French in college, which gradually introduced me to grammatical terminology. Today, I can read Spanish and French virtually without a dictionary, have reached an upper intermediate level in Polish (grammatically similar to Russian) with the intention of becoming a translator, and am happily beginning with Japanese. But if I had judged myself linguistically hopeless after that ill-fated Old English class, I would have done none of this.

"Cases" simply describe different ways in which nouns change form based on their function in a sentence. You already know cases in English. Consider the first-person pronoun "I."

"I like dogs" - "I" is the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence, it is 'doing the liking.'

"He likes my dog." - "My" is the genitive case. We wouldn't say, "He likes I dog." This would be a case error. The genitive usually indicates possession. In Russian, it has more functions, but they can be learned in context.

"Dogs like me." - "Me" is the accusative, or direct object case. It indicates the receiver of the action (the 'liking'). In English, this is also the prepositional case. Prepositions are words indicating position or direction, e.g. to, for, by, of, behind, etc. All these words take "me": behind me, for me, to me, etc.
Think of cases like this: where meaning in English sentences is usually determined by word order, languages with more cases (Latin, Polish, Russian) can have a more free word order, because the way the noun changes, and not its position, determines the meaning.

Articles are easy - "a" (indefinite object) and "the" (definite object). Good news, Russian has no articles!

Conjugations are to verbs what cases are to nouns. They simply involve the verb changing form based on person, tense and/or aspect. In English, verbs in the present tense only conjugate in third person singular: "I walk, you walk" but 'he walkS". Likewise, verbs conjugate for past, "I walked." Russian verb behave quite differently from English, so learning how they work will give you greater insight into conjugations as a whole.

Lastly, gender is a feature many languages (including Russian) have. It is simplya means of classifying nouns based on how they because grammatically. Often people (usually native English speakers who are not used to it, though English used to have gender) complain about gender, but this is pointless. It simply exists. The good news is, there are rules defining which words have which gender, and you can simply learn as you go along.

I would recommend that you buy Nicholas J. Brown's New Penguin Russian Course. I found this book helpful during the ~3 months or so I dove into Russian, and plan to return to it when I resume studying Russian (it conflicted with my Polish!). It will introduce you to these concepts gently while also teaching you Russian.

I write comedy LitRPG that might be along the lines of what you're looking for. Definitely lighthearted, reviewers have compared it to the likes of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Monty Python.

Note there is an element of 'trapped' but only because the real world becomes the game, and the characters take it in their stride.

Here's a link for Level Up - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079JFM67F

Another book I can recommend that ticks a lot of your boxes is Orcanomics (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O2NDJ2M) It isn't strictly speaking LitRPG, but there are enough gaming terms that I'd be comfortable classifying it as gameLit. It's brilliant, extremely funny, with great characters and a very satirical take on the fantasy genre.

http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/its_more_than_a_job

Read that.

Now read it again, and focus on the significance of the essays.

Being well-read gives you a common connection or foundation with others who are similarly well-read.
Being well-read helps you develop stronger language context skills, and a more broad vocabulary which will be useful to you when you have to describe deeply meaningful topics about yourself and your dreams in 400 words or less.

Search A2C for how many interviewers or application essays asked the applicant to discuss their favorite book, or something they recently read. It's a common theme.

Ask Google how many books Bill Gates and James Mattis read in an average month.

You say you're interested in STEM. Ok, here are two books IMMENSLY popular with the nerd-crowd:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Dune

Please, don't say or think "But, I've already seen those movies..."
No movie has ever been as detailed in conveying a story as the book.

And if robots & robotics are seriously among your interests, Asimov is pretty much required reading.

I, Robot

Hey there :)

For text-books, I recommend the Penguin Russian Course. It teaches you vocab and grammar with exercises and dialogues, plus it has handy charts and a small dictionary at the back for reference. It's not for everyone, though, it's a bit wordy and not very exciting. Still, I found it very useful for setting a good foundation in the language.

For access to native speakers, iTalki is good if you want to book lessons with a teacher over Skype, or you can set up language exchanges for free with native speakers, likewise on Skype. I also use the app "HelloTalk" which also allows you to text and chat with native speakers. You can also use sites like Lang8 where you can get your writing corrected by native speakers, or you could just post it here and someone will answer.

There's a helpful list of dictionaries and other resources in the side-bar of this reddit :)

Hope that helps!!

It was actually a light novel that was later adapted into a manga and then an anime, but it obviously draws inspiration from JRPGs and such. Slime enemies are really common in JRPGs, though those usually play the adventurer story straight, with slimes just being minor enemies. The anime you are asking about is unique because it subverts that common trope in a unique way.

[Tales of Symphonia], [Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book], [Recettear: an item shop's tale] and [The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky] are all good starting points for JRPG beginners. Those play the slime enemy straight, but have interesting spins on the fantasy genre in their own rights. Recettear for example is from the perspective of an item shop owner, while Ateier Sophie has you play as an Alchemist crafting items.

As for unusually wobbly protagonists, maybe look at [Snake Pass]. It's a platformer where you play a snake.

And for unusual recommendation, check out this book. It merges fantasy storytelling with RPG-style stats and character levels to form a devilishly delightful romp. Don't be fooled by the weird name and generic description, just trust me.

Oh, and watch KonoSuba.

Former employee, linguist, and guy-who-is-pretty-ok-at-russian checking in:

It is decent, but you'll want to make sure you actually understand the concept of grammatical case, and how it works and is marked in Russian.

I would highly recommend pairing it with the New Penguin Russian Course.

Definitely use studio as much as possible, and take notes case endings. RS will show you something like на невысоком мужчине черный костюм, and it will help to know that невысоком is declined for the prepositional/locative case. Well, really, it will help to know that that form is not the "default," and how to 1)figure out what the default is and 2)transform the word as you need to when speaking.

A friend of mine did just RS, and she has a problem with basically just saying a word in whatever case she first heard it in...so she might say невысоком when trying to say невысокый, or what have you.

Finally, evaluate after 5 months, and if you're not using it, it's not working, or whatever, send it back and get a refund. Mark it on your calendar, and decide before you miss the deadline.

I've had a kindle for a month or so but have been too busy to do much reading. Anyway here's what I have (I tend to enjoy science fiction / satire)

• WIRED is the only book I've completed so far. scifi/thriller. OK story but for .79 it was a no brainer
  
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I've owned and read the hardcover a couple times now and 'acquired' the ebook version
  
• The old man and the wasteland forget where I saw it recommended, honestly haven't read a page of this yet but it's one of the next I'm reading. Another .99 one
  
• On Basilisk Station this is part of a substantial series. The first book is free and the rest cost although there are some semi-official sites to get the rest of the series if strapped for cash. Again I haven't read it yet but is supposed to be good.

There was a book that reminds me of this called Off to be the Wizard. I really enjoyed it, there's a few sequels as well which I haven't read yet but the first one at least was great, it's worth a look, seems like you'd enjoy it if you have thoughts like this!

I'm not sure if they're considered alt-comedy, but John Swartzwelder's books are hilarious. He's an old writer for the Simpsons. Most of the books are about a private detective named Frank Burly. I think this is the first one: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Machine-Did-John-Swartzwelder/dp/0975579908/

The new Norm Macdonald book, Based on a True Story, is also very funny.

I haven't heard very good things about Amy Poehler's book, to be honest, but I haven't read it. I've heard Tina Fey's book is great, but I haven't gotten to that one, either.

So ein fantastisches Buch.

/r/all: If you're looking for a fantastic book, especially if you liked The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, read The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear.

It's seriously amazing, great as a childrens book but adults will definitely enjoy it aswell. Here, check out the editorial reviews. It's great.

I recommend getting The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It contains all 5 books in the "Trilogy" + a short story "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe". Really cheap on Amazon as well. Great value for a great series from a great writer.

IQ84 - Haruki Murakami

Straight from Amazon:
"The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s—1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers"

Learn the pronunciation of the letters. Learn the difference between soft and hard consonants. Use youtube videos and various descriptions for it. This video is a good start, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsL8ZBDBNts Russian is very often pronounced just like it is spelled. You just need to know a few simple rules, and on which vowel the stress is.

The New Penguin Russian Course that covers a lot of stuff: grammar, words, idioms, phrases, culture, pronunciation, etc. and is intended for beginners. I'd say start with that and pronunciation, as I said above.

But maybe skip some words from the book that you don't think you will need, and learn words that are more useful to you instead.

The channel #russkij on FreeNode is helpful. If you don't know how to access it, this is probably the easiest way.

You may want to check out this tool I made for reading.

You probably want to use Anki for flashcards. Flashcards are very useful.

You might like this youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/vanilla167333/videos?view=0&shelf_id=0&sort=dd

Finally, try to focus on content that is relevant to you, i.e. reading about things that you like, talking about things that interest you, etc.

This one may be a little out there, but you might enjoy [Off to Be the Wizard] (http://www.amazon.com/Off-Wizard-Magic-2-0-Book-ebook/dp/B00EF8Z32I).

It's about a hacker who comes across a file which, when altered, allows reality to be altered correspondingly. I don't necessarily want to give all the details of the premise away but he ends up sending himself to the Middle Ages, where he uses his newfound access to the reality-altering file to pose as a wizard to the locals. That's sort of the "unusual occupation" part, and the book parodies a lot of the tropes of the medieval wizardry fantasy genre. It's a pretty light read, at 276 pages. It's really quite a funny and charming book.

Well, as a rule, I've absolutely fallen in love with John Scalzi's Old Man's War series, as well as his one-shots like The Android's Dream.

A favorite for the last few years is John Ringo, author of too many series to mention here, but I'm almost done with his forthcoming Under a Graveyard Sky(available as an eARC from the baen website, and it's AMAZING zombie fun.

Also, The Legend of Eli Monpress by Rachel Aaron has some of the best characters I've read in years in a fantasy book.

I've been dying to read this on my Kindle because everyone talks about it all the time! I've heard it's just great.

And for a real book? I'd say this because it's one of my absolute favorites and I hate having to wait to check out a copy from the library every time I want to re-read it.

If I were a book, I hope that I'd be a great one !!

I think this is a lovely contest idea :) I'm always a big fan of anything book-related!! Thanks!

Hi! this is a great contest thanks for holding it.
my name is kurt and my favorite book is The [Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] (http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-ebook/dp/B0043M4ZH0/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370560569&sr=1-1&keywords=the+hitchhiker%27s+guide+to+the+galaxy) it hilarious and confusing and i love it. its been forever since i read it but id love to again. id love the kindle since Ive always wanted one and every book i want i can find the e-book form but not an actual copy

Best Android app I've found yet: Russian in a Month. Best online site (for pocasts when you are driving: RussianPod101.com. Best book I've found: New Penguin Russian Course

Other then that, read children's articles, watch Cheburaska, follow the Russian subreddits /r/Russianlessons, /r/Russian101, and /r/Russian, read Russian wherever you can, and listen to Russian music. If you want any other tips or tricks I've used, just let me know. Good luck!

• Master the alphabet as soon as possible. Just hammer it in.
  
  
• Starting with numbers after that is a great way to get the alphabet solidified.
  
  
• Try Memrise for vocabulary, and this book for grammar.
  
  
• General language tip: Go hardcore until you know around 1000 words. That's the number I've found is what you need to have your grasp be stable.
  
  
• Another General tip: Discipline is everything. You need to study every single day (until the 1000 word mark) in order to get anywhere. Do not flounder.
  
  
• If you have Stalker: Clear Skies and/or Call of Pripyat on Steam, then play them in Russian. Same with Metro 2033 and The Witcher 2. You can usually change the language setting under properties in your game library.
  
  Good luck. I've definitely got a bunch more tricks, so just send me a message if you want them. These are just some good beginning ones.

Man, wasn't it so good?! I just found out it's turning into a movie, but idk how well that would work. I got the audiobook for it, and Wil Wheaton narrating it was goddamn perfect! I think that's the best medium for a story like this that's heavy on internal narration.

Also, I'm currently reading/listening to Off to be the Wizard, by Scott Meyers. Somewhat similar, but extremely enjoyable, and the narrator on this audiobook is damn good too! http://www.amazon.com/Off-Be-Wizard-Magic-2-0/dp/1612184715

http://www.russianforeveryone.com/

Not the most visually attractive site, but pretty good in regard of its contents and explanations.

They say this book is also pretty good: https://www.amazon.es/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416

I would like to add a few more things since you stated the following, as it could very well be a response you say to your parents.

>Thanks for assuming I have no self control when it comes to drugs. It's not like I'm surrounded by potheads and crack addicts all day at HS.

It is a hard argument to sell, to say that you're interested in vaping to combat urges to try drugs. Using this logic, you may eventually find yourself saying that marijuana is safer than heroin, especially if you ingest it by way of eating brownies. You might even be convinced by your friends, and their shaky evidence, that driving while drunk or high is something you can handle.

Truth of the matter is, if you're fine right now, you'll be fine without any of the other stuff. If you get into vaping, even if sanctioned by your parents, you'll still be spending money. And money, since you haven't had the full responsibilities of being an independent and self-sustaining adult thrust at you by life as of yet, is a thing that is easy to waste.

Outside of the health unkowns in vaping, we do know of one serious side effect. G.A.S. - Gear Acquisition Syndrome. You'll chase after the biggest clouds and the best flavor all at the expense of your pocket book. And as a young person nearing the point in life where you will consider getting an apartment vs buying a house, considering a gas guzzling supersweet ride or an economical hybrid, and choosing whether or not to bring your girlfriend/boyfriend on a date to a really nice restaurant where etiquette is required or bring them to Applebee's for the 2 for $20 deal... G.A.S. can wreck your daily, monthly and/or quarterly budget.

In your position, with the world as your oyster, your health in good standing, and your financial future unstarted... vaping is not the best option.

Perhaps I could suggest a good book about life, the universe and everything, like The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

No matter what though, I wish you well in your endeavor to live clean.

edit: Changed "vaping is not a good option" to "vaping is not the best option".

I can't deny that it's a pleasure to watch Hugh Laurie act like an asshole. Just as an aside, he has also authored a truly excellent and hilarious spy novel called The Gun Seller that you should check out if you enjoy reading.

I am still trying to wrap my brain around the ending. the significance etc... The writing was always good. The further you read and the older the main character gets the cleaning and easier it is to interpret. Chapter 7 where Eiji gets a job in the pizza shoppe and Yakuza's interaction with him are a bit over the top. If you think about it. Why would they spend that much time and energy bothering him and trying to make him pay his debts.
Eiji's relationship with Ai is sweet and they should of let that develop more. My faveroite character is Buntaro his landlord. But he plays such a minor role. On my goodreads I gave it 4 stars.
My next book "Off to be the Wizard" is totally random amazon buy. Hopefully it is good
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612184715/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It becomes easier once you get used to the concept of cases & case endings in general. Basically, this concept forces you to think grammatically -- which is actually a good thing. In English, we don't really think this way except when using certain pronouns (me, him, her, etc.). In English, we could say "Who are you talking to?" and sound perfectly normal, while the more proper "To whom are you talking?" sounds stilted and weird.

I studied Latin for many years (two decades, in fact) before picking up Russian; so the concept was already familiar. That was a huge help.

Anyway, stick with it, man. Repetition and drills will get you there; just be patient with yourself. At some point, this concept will "click", and you'll find yourself looking back over earlier exercises and breezing right through them. It looks like you're using the New Penguin Russian Course (like I am); so whatever answers don't appear in the key at the back of the book can be posed here in this helpful forum. ))

If you enjoyed the first three, I would wager that you will enjoy the remaining books. I would agree that they are not as amazing as the first few but they are still very funny.


You can grab the complete edition for under $15 on Amazon. I would also recommend Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and the Salmon of Doubt. It's a half completed Dirk Gently book with additional writings of Adams what was put together after he passed away.

Try Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters, Survivor or Lullaby. They aren't super long and are gory enough to keep most people grotesquely attentive. If you don't read much they might help you get back into it. Palahniuk has really gone downhill in his recent books (haven't read the newest one because the last few were so bad) but his old stuff is phenominal.
I agree that the Harry Potter books are good but they don't really capture you until the third book. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is a good choice- you can usually get all the books in one bound edition for cheap at Barnes and Noble or amazon.

For general fantasy I've enjoyed Gentleman Bastard, The Kingkiller Chronicle, and The Broken Empire. I listen to Kingkiller Chronicle fairly often due to the amount of commuting I do where I live.

For more urban/fantasy maybe try Lives of Tao, Iron Druid Chronicles, or anything by Neil Gaiman. The anniversary edition of American Gods was really excellent on audio-book. Not sure if the others have audio editions or not.

I've also really enjoyed stuff by Drew Hayes (a webnovelist). His banner series is SuperPowereds. But I though NPCs was a great take on an old fantasy trope. Neither come in audio formats unfortunately.

Good luck.

In my opinion, apps and software don't tend to be of much use; they don't let you advance quickly enough and don't expose you to enough material. If you're serious about learning Russian, grab a good book and study each text or dialogue until you understand it both in reading and aurally. There's Teach Yourself Russian, Routledge's Colloquial Russian, the FSI FAST (Familiarization and Short-Term Training) Russian, Assimil Russian (if you speak French), and I've heard good things about the New Penguin Russian Course. In all cases, be sure you get audio along with the book, or have a native speaker who is willing to help you learn. Good luck!

The Magic 2.0 series is definitely in the YA heap, but I thought all of the books were pretty entertaining. First is the best - "Off to Be the Wizard" - and it's on kindle unlimited.

I've heard good things about The New Penguin Russian Course. I also like to have plenty of reading material, like readers and parallel texts to help build my vocabulary and work on comprehension.

As others have said, there's plenty of free and usually legal stuff out there, so give those a shot too. While materials can help or hurt your motivation, the specific brand or program isn't as important as doing something every day to improve your Russian.

I just read them last year as well, as an middle-aged adult. Being a late comer to D&D, I really enjoyed the setting and fantastical adventure, but seek something more sophisticated and for an older audience. Still searching, but in the meantime have been really enjoying the Spells,Swords and Stealth books.

Well I don't listen to litrpg audiobooks much, however I can recommend a few. Orconomics is great. Currently I'm listening to Into the abyss and it's pretty good as well.

If you use the website version of Duolingo and click on the Lightbulb icon for each section, it breaks down grammar rules used in that course. The online forums also has a lot of helpful explanations for each answer.

Unfortunately the App version completely disregards this feature and isn't included for some reason. Duolingo and Memrise combined should get you pretty good understanding, maybe up to a B1 level. You can also pick up some grammar books such as the New Penguin Russian Course that goes over almost all grammar rules and is pretty easy to read compared to other grammar books.

A lot of learning is through practice and using additional resources to reinforce how to think in another language. Check out some YouTube channels or movies that are in Russian and try to follow along. Tarkovsky films are really good for this as they're really slow pacing, Stalker and Solaris being some of my favorite movies of all time.

Sex sells. You know? The books feel like some cross between a Troma film fan fiction.

In fact, Bizarro Central describes Bizarro as:

• Franz Kafka meets John Waters
  
• Dr. Suess of the post-apocalypse
  
• Takashi Miike meets William S. Burroughs
  
• Alice in Wonderland for adults
  
• Japanese animation directed by David Lynch
  
  Other great Bizarro authors include Jeff Burk, Mykle Hansen, and Cameron Pierce.
  
  It's really fun stuff, in the way that art house films and dropping acid are really fun stuff.

I'm mostly into litRPG so that's what my recommendations will focus on.

everybody loves large chests was already a great webnovel but the author also published on amazon. you can still read it for free on royal road if you want. it features a truly evil monster as primary character who was never human to begin with, so it's quite a different take on the litRPG genre.

life reset is a VR based litRPG with the focus on the MC having been turned into a monster character against his will and ending up stuck in the VR world, with emphasis on city building.

Awaken Online is also a VR based litRPG but the main character kinda turns into a big villain. sort of.

Dodge Tank combines an interesting post-apocalytpical but very futuristic 'real' world combined with a VR world.

The Land/Chaos Seeds transportation litRPG with a bit of a contentious author who has a tendency to shove every fun idea he has into the story at the expense of actual story progression, but if you like the idea of city building litRPG I'd certainly still recommend it. there are plenty of other aspects that make up for it.

Don't Use That Link! Use This Link HERE.

Name: The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks).

Price: $17.38

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1st Month Donation Proof Please Upvote This Comment so that I may comment more, and raise more.

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If you're a Neil Gaiman fan, I'd recommend Good Omens or Night watch. Good omens is a stand-alone book by both Gaiman and Pratchett, and is silly and fun- Night Watch is perhaps the darkest of the discworld novels and matches Gaiman's usual tone more (it's also my personal favorite :) ).

But any of the Discworld novels are worth a read, really. If you want to go chronologically, though, you should start with The Colour of Magic, however the order really isn't important- you won't miss much, if at all.

My first thought was The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers. It's silly and strange and awesome fantasty stuffs, but nothing that's going to make you really delve into deep thought. I definitely enjoyed it, anyway. Hope this helps!

Sorry about that. I don't have a good way of figuring out whether any price is honored in any other territory. I don't think that there are nearly as many UK Whispersync for Voice deals overall -- 90% of the titles I just checked around on didn't offer it, and some that did the combined price was actually more than the audiobook alone, e.g. Ben Winter's The Last Policeman. Did see one, Andy Weir's The Martian, for £3.49 + £3.99 which is only a little less than the £9.20 audiobook alone price, which is actually more than the £7.99 you guys pay per credit over there. The credit price rules out other titles like The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (£2.99 plus £5.99).

One area where you guys can I think still make out really well is with self-published Kindle/Podium Publishing audiobook titles, e.g.:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Harbinger-Fates-Forsaken-Book-1-ebook/dp/B008RCI29Y/

Another of my usual "go to" deal strategies only offers a small discount, that being Amazon's 47North/Brilliance Audio titles, e.g.:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Off-Wizard-Magic-2-0-Book-ebook/dp/B00EF8Z32I/

The £3.49 plus £3.49 is less than the monthly credit price, but not by too much.

Hope some of that is helpful and takes a bit of the sting of "US only? rageface!!" out of the post!

Your milage may vary in terms of what you find "weird," but off the top of my head here's a few that fall all over the weird spectrum

1)The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. Deals with drugs, conspiracy theories, and the occult blended with a strong sense of wit and cynicism. Imagine Dan Brown but with a much stronger sense of humor.

2) VALIS by Philip K. Dick. Really anything by Dick could deserve a place on here but VALIS is my personal favorite. A group of misfit adults all struggle to piece together a series of odd occurrences that just may be a message from the god of the Gnostics.

3) Spacetime Donuts by Rudy Rucker. If the above are a bit too heady for you, then this might be more up your ally. Weird theoretical math is explored through the travels of an elderly, weed and acid loving guy who lives in a world controlled by a mostly benevolent supercomputer.

Edit: Forgot a couple!

4) John Dies at the End by David Wong. A great story about two slacker guys who stumble upon a "drug" known as Soy Sauce that opens up other words both literally and figuratively. A wonderful combination of dick & fart humor and deep meditations on the horrors of our universe.

5) The Time Machine Did It by John Swartzwelder. I have never laughed so hard, so consistently at a book. John is a writer from the golden age of the Simpsons and his unique sense of humor is on display here. He's got a bunch of books out and I admittedly have only read this one so far, but based on it the rest of his works are definitely on my must-read list.

I haven't read any Sanderson, but based on your summary, perhaps the Jhereg series? Assassins, convoluted plots, lots going on behind the scenes, and as the series goes on it gets deeper and we find out why.

You might also like the Shannara series. Elfstones, the second book, in particular seems like it'd be a good fit.

My friend, if you enjoy this tidbit, you shall love the series. There should be a few good deals if you need it.

Link

The first ebook of Dante's Immortality was recently published, and should fit your criteria. Dante basically distrusts everyone all the time, but because he genuinely doesn't know a lot he ends up committing some believably naive mistakes.

You might also like Threadbare - the main character isn't naive so much as innocent, given that he's a newborn golem for most of the novel. The combat system is all about skills and skill synergies, and the dialog is great (even though the main character can't speak).

There's also Everybody Loves Large Chests. Again the main character starts out a little naive, but that's largely because it starts from more or less zero Int. It doesn't become an asshole so much as a completely amoral monster, because that's what it is.

If you're willing to read serials that aren't published as complete books, you can try out the bifecta of combat LitRPGs on Royal Road: The New World and The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound are both great.

It could make a great comedy. Have you ever read The Tales of Fred? I love books like this, it's about a vampire who is an accountant and is the most unassuming vampire ever. Next to Bill of course.

I think a lot of the best resources can be found online for free but if you really want to buy her something physical as a gift the new penguin Russian course seems to get a lot of good reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Penguin-Russian-Course/dp/0140120416

Partially. He was one of the strongest writers and has a huge amount of the best episodes under his belt.

Also, he has a bunch of self-published books that are absolutely fantastic. I read the first couple pages on Amazon and was immediately hooked.

Seconding Off to Be the Wizard (by Scott Meyer). Fantastic book, there's two out right now with a third on the way.

Amazon and Goodreads

It's two bucks for the kindle version right now. I'm not affiliated with the author in any way, just seriously love the series and want to spread the love!

The Time Machine did It by John Swartzwelder (writer of 59 episodes of The Simpsons)

The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure by Jack Handey (of SNL 'Deep Thoughts' fame)

I'm not one to make personal guarantees but you will at least crack a smile by reading either one, wish you all the best.

The 4th Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off has a winner!

And that winner with the joint highest score we've seen in 4 years & ~1200 books is....

ORCONOMICS!

Buy it: https://www.amazon.com/Orconomics-Satire-Dark-Profit-Saga-ebook/dp/B00O2NDJ2M/ref=sr_1_1 …?

See the score board: https://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2018/11/spfbo-2018-finals.html …

See the Official SPFBO page for results of all 4 years.
https://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-official-self-published-fantasy.html

And if you retweet the announcement … you might win a signed copy.
https://twitter.com/Mark__Lawrence/status/1131517883501162496

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Carson McCuller's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of my all time favorite books. If you want something more lighthearted, check out any book in P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves series. The Code of the Woosters is probably my favorite one.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy includes all 5 that were written by Douglas Adams. The one I have on my shelf has a different cover than what Amazon currently shows, but it looks like it's all there. There is another Hitchhiker's book by Eoin Colfer working on Douglas Adams' notes called And Another Thing... you might also want to check out. Though you're probably better off switching to Dirk Gently before you get to that one.

"I'm sick of these Motherfucking Polish stealing these Motherfucking jobs!"

^(please don't post to r/nocontext)

-----

Starring (à la Shatner Quake):

• Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu
  
  
• Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
  
  
• Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield
  
  
• Samuel L. Jackson as Agent Neville Flynn
  
  
• Samuel L. Jackson as Major Marquis Warren, "The Bounty Hunter"
  
  
• Samuel L. Jackson as Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard
  
  
• Samuel L. Jackson as Samuel L. Jackson.

If you're at all interested in learning about Daoism I highly suggest you check out this book. It's really easy to read plus the cartoon drawings are quite cute and fun.

A tutor is probably the best way and is mostly how I learned, though Duolingo is quite good.

This is the best resource I've found on the Russian language: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0140120416/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521760943&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=russian+course+book

You can get the complete collection (that's 5 books + a short story) from Amazon for only $13 -- do yourself a favor and check it out. It's the funniest, most insanely clever and entertaining book I've ever read.

Give a lesser known writer a try and see if you like him: Steven Brust. He has a fantasy series that's truly brilliant, for a number of reasons. His characters have a lot of depth and endearing tendencies, he's got a wicked sense of humor and colors his writing with dark moments of self reflection, and his creativity in a field overrun with mediocrity is to be appreciated.

Try Jhereg and see what you think. Another thing that makes this series so good is that he intentionally wrote it out of order to encourage people to read whatever volume they happen to find, but this one as the first really outlines the world richly.

I can't believe no one has said this one yet:

Off to Be the Wizard

Description:

>
Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.

>What could possibly go wrong?

>An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything.

It was a great read and there are two more books after (with the next in production now). The sequels are not as good as the first but I still enjoyed them very much. :)

If you're hankering for reading materials then Orconomics is a good book about the subject.

https://www.amazon.com/Orconomics-Satire-Dark-Profit-Saga-ebook/dp/B00O2NDJ2M

One way of ensuring a level of appropriate conduct from your adventurers is by making adventuring a very official thing with its own guild, rules, and enforcing membership. Adventuring would then be an actual job, with actual pay with its own rules and expectations. There would be officials who assess say the hoard at the end of a quest. Taxes, evaluations, and rankings with competing groups and bidding on quests.

It's definitely better than Rosetta Stone.

I think paired with something to really cement the grammar will be pretty effective.

Use it with the New Penguin book. (only $15 on Amazon)
https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416

I super-duper recommend this book

The reviews give a good idea of why this book is so fantastic. I started using this book casually in high school and it concisely gets a ton of vital information.

It's not afraid to mention exceptions and weird things that a lot of beginner books would let you ignore and sound stupid later. It also has accent marks on all of the words past the first few chapters.

The pronunciation guide is priceless, as well. It's clear but comprehensive. I've seen tons of pronunciation aides for Russian but so far following this book's guide on it has yielded the best accent that I know of.

Four random books from my nearest shelf: Underground Bases and Tunnels, Man's Search for Meaning, The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog, Amberville.

Can't say I have read the five books you listed, but based on what I've heard about them... Amberville would probably be something you'd enjoy. :)

Edit: Have to throw this in: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. ;)

Many people will probably recommend "Hitchhiker's Guide" to you, but I'd like to suggest another series by Adams: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. It is somewhat of a science fiction/murder mystery with plenty of British humor thrown in.

My favorite book of all time is Apathy and Other Small Victories

I know I do not qualify for the contest (I got here from /r/personalfinance of all places =) but in honor of towel day I would suggest:

Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy

or, and this one is ever better

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

Absolute favorite book is A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Jr. It's everything I love about sci-fi. Book series that I grew up with and still love are Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis.

Much too early for your purposes, but kind of interesting- There was an unofficial follow-up to Don Quixote, written by someone called Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda.
Cervantes was not amused, and when the actual second part came out, it featured Avellaneda's work as a plot point- Quixote is outraged that people were publishing slander about him, and actually encounters one of the characters from the spurious work and makes him recant his testimony. A few hundred years later, Borges would take Quixotic metatextuality and authorship questions to another level entirely in his short story "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote".


Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton series, both weave bewildering arrays of fictional works together.

Gregory Maguire's Wicked is fairly well known, but probably more for the musical adaptation than the original novel. Dunno about the public domain status of the Oz works when it was published, though.

There's an entire genre of Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and has been since the thirties or forties at least- and there are related genres devoted to Nero Wolfe and other fictional detectives from the first half of the 20th century.

There's also a book called Shatnerquake, which is exactly what it says on the tin.

I can't help you with regards to the legal status of that sort of work, or what you'd need to go through to get it published.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: Dirk Gently


|Country|Link|Charity Links|
|:-----------|:------------|:------------|
|USA|smile.amazon.com|EFF|
|UK|www.amazon.co.uk|Macmillan|
|Spain|www.amazon.es||
|France|www.amazon.fr||
|Germany|www.amazon.de||
|Japan|www.amazon.co.jp||
|Canada|www.amazon.ca||
|Italy|www.amazon.it||
|India|www.amazon.in||
|China|www.amazon.cn||




To help add charity links, please have a look at this thread.

This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.

Not really in the same tone but very well written and entertaining (some mild melancholy) is The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie. I loved it.

Hm, well if you haven't read Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy it's FANTASTIC and you should read it. It's especially good since you haven't read in a while and it doesn't really have boring moments where you would get disinterested.

This is one of the greatest books for a beginner to start learning Russian with. It's easy to understand and well organized. Starts from ground zero, so you don't need to worry about not knowing where to start.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416

I bought a book called Orconomics off of the $5 Audible sale. Looks like an interesting take on a WOW type World. Haven't listened yet though.

https://www.amazon.com/Orconomics-Satire-Dark-Profit-Saga-ebook/dp/B00O2NDJ2M

Seals with party hats! Cake! Item!

1: Honey/Mori/Kyouya/Hikaru/Kaoru from Ouran High School Host Club!

3: Jackson from Hannah Montana!

4: Sayuri from Memoirs of a Geisha

5: Ben and Mary from The Secret Garden!

10: Nicolo from Excess Baggage - Be Careful With My Heart - Their Proposal!

Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels, also To Reign in Hell a marvelous novel about the revolt in heaven.

Edit: /r/taoism hates Tao of Pooh, who knew?

If you are a westerner, do it like how many of us did and read "Tao of Pooh."

It's not the ancient text, it's not anything but one man's take on Taoism through a certain lens.

As far as introductions are concerned, it's the most accessible.

Then go find your favorite translation of the tao teh ching.

Also, this book is cool.

https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Speaks-Lao-Tzus-Whispers-Wisdom/dp/0385472595

My local library's website has the Mango Language program for free, and it has very easy to use and what I can only assume is accurate Russian phrases that would be used, so maybe that option is available for you to check out. http://www.russianlessons.net/ this is another website that proved mighty useful. While the book I have been using for my Russian studies, is the Penguin Russian Course: http://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372041401&sr=1-1&keywords=penguin+russian

I highly recommend https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Speaks-Lao-Tzus-Whispers-Wisdom/dp/0385472595 It reads like a comic book with great illustrations. It follows the TTC chapter by chapter.

Here's my list,

free online courses incl audio
----

• http://learnrussian.rt.com/lessons/
  
• http://www.russianlessons.net/
  
• http://www.russianlessons.net/articles/index.php (articles with audio)
  
• http://www.russianlessons.net/ebooks/show/1/1/1/both (crime and punishment dual book)
  
  free srs / vocab practice
  ----
  
• https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/russian
  
• http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/russian/
  
  speaking practice
  ----
  
• http://www.italki.com/?ref=1170492 - if you sign up with this link I get extra credits :)
  
  books and audio courses (library / search online)
  ----
  
• http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Penguin-Russian-Course/dp/0140120416
  
• http://fr.assimil.com/methodes?base_language=1&learn_language=8&level=
  
• http://www.pimsleur.com/Learn-Russian
  
• http://www.michelthomas.com/learn-russian.php
  
  etc.
  ----
  
• http://learnrussianstepbystep.com/about/russian-lessons-list/
  
• http://www.learnrussianweb.com/
  
• http://www.russianforfree.com/
  
• http://www.yesrussian.com/learn-russian/lesson-1-russian-alphabet-and-pronunciation-2/
  
• http://www.reddit.com/r/russian
  
• http://www.reddit.com/r/russian/wiki/full_course
  
• http://russianmadeeasy.com/

you'd be better of just searching for it yourself, but here's a thing for it on amazon and google books
http://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_New_Penguin_Russian_Course.html?id=DpAmYOS15RAC

I recommend you just search for it yourself, you might find something cool below those two links :P

You might like the Vlad Taltos novels, starting with Jhereg. They focus on a cunning, sarcastic assassin protagonist.

If you're in the mood for a magic school story, I strongly recommend Mother of Learning.

Of the two, Jhereg is grittier, but Mother of Learning is probably closer to most of the other things you liked (magic systems, magic schools, etc).

There are some cool female characters in both.

1. Да.
   
   This is a good intro book, and /r/russian's a pretty good sub.

Definitely stick with only the Cyrillic alphabet. The transliterations used on Duolingo don't really convey the sounds very accurately. To practice Cyrillic reading I used to go on a Wikipedia page with lots of celebrities' names (e.g. Best Actor Winners ) and change it to Russian and go through reading the names.

I had a look at the Duolingo course when it came out and I found that it was really lacking in explanation of grammar (cases in particular). I would strongly recommend getting a decent book to follow along with to teach you the grammar. I have found that this has quite a nice progression and explanation. YMMV but, for Russian, I have only found Duolingo helpful for practicing putting sentences together, nothing else.

> Sometimes the words end in one way and then another, but make the same sound

I'm not sure what this is referring to, could you give an example?

I really need a new book
I absolutely love to sing and I know I have a good voice.. I'm absolutely terrified to sing in front of anyone though.
Happy birthday!!!! <3
Birthday Bot

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140120416/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That one, the New Penguin Russian Course. I don't really think it was the "best" one I could buy, but it was a well-reviewed book and had recommendations from several websites I found. Plus it was only 13 bucks, so I didn't feel too bad about buying it if it happened to not be a great book.

So far the book has been pretty good. It's got exercises for handwriting and pronunciation, and thoroughly explains things that need explaining.

You are one lucky person who is about to discover The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Share and Enjoy! Share and Enjoy!

Have you ever read Off to Be the Wizard? Magic and programming is awesome! haha

The New Penguin Russian Course is amazing and includes everything you need to know about Russian grammar. A book I am reading right now for beginners is First Reader in Russian. It is a very basic Russian book that has exercises and a dictionary in the back. The only bad thing about it is the dictionary doesn't include all of the words from the book so I usually have to go to my Russian-English English-Russian Dictionary. This dictionary also lacks many important words, but it hasn't given me any problems. Another good Russian reading source is Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book. If you just look around on amazon you will find many good resources.

Maybe the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman?

The first book, The Golden Compass, was made into a film.

Also, the Lord of the Rings books?

My favorite fantasy author is Steven Brust, though. Highly recommend reading Jhereg to see if you like the world. It's a relatively quick read, compared to the tomes that more and more fantasy novels seem to be nowadays.

Also, Neal Stephenson.

I've been waiting as well. It's the one language, along with Swedish, that I've had an interest in. If you want to try and learn some on your own, I'd suggest Memrise.com along with their app. I've also heard this book is fantastic and I plan on getting it soon. Hope this helps!

I used to listen to a whole lot of Joe Rogan when I was working a temp job several years ago. He talked about simulation theory a lot.

If you're really nerdy about it like I am, there's a great fantasy series called Magic 2.0 that has a hilarious take on it.

"Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.

"What could possibly go wrong?

"An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything"

https://www.amazon.com/Off-Wizard-Magic-2-0-Book-ebook/dp/B00EF8Z32I#nav-subnav

1. Chronicle of the 20th Century: The Ultimate Record of Our Times
   Always good to know the events of the last 100 years, I think.
   
   
   
2. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
   Douglas Adams is one of the finest examples of british humor I could possible recommend, and I do so often.
   
   
3. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court By Mark Twain
   Science Fiction and Mark Twain? Sign me up.

I'm enjoying the magic 2.0 series a lot. It's not exactly deep and complex but it's a FUN read and has lots of nerdy references.

If this is the kind of thing that often turns up in your D&D campaigns, you should definitely read this book.

Its basically this scenario turned into a terrific D&D-inspired novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Orconomics-Satire-Dark-Profit-Saga-ebook/dp/B00O2NDJ2M

Note: I am neither the author, nor the publisher of this book, nor do I derive any benefit from its sales.

The Zamonia-Novels by Walter Moers:
1

2

3

4

They are funny, gruesome, surreal and simply brilliant. Look at the reviews on amazon. Especially Rumo and The City of the Dreaming Books were unputdownable.

I'd like to see the Magic 2.0 series from Scott Meyer or Spellsinger from Alan Dean Foster, but the latter would take a ton of CGI. I've always thought Thieves World would make an interesting translation to TV, a shared world, but each director gets to do their episode from a different viewpoint.

I liked NPCs by Drew Hayes.

A group of NPCs from your usual inn in a village are forced to take on the role of heroic adventurers, which they surely are not.

Geeky hilarity ensues.

NPCs

Terry Pratchett - all of them, but in particular, Night Watch

Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon I've linked to a book with the short story rather than the novel as I think the former is better.

Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series

There was a workbook called Сила that I used to get off the ground, but I can't find it anywhere on line. I used it in conjunction with

http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Penguin-Russian-Course/dp/0140120416

I'll tell you what you don't want to do though. Don't get a book that has a bunch of phrases that you need to memorize. Get a book that focuses on grammar principles and vocab.

EDIT: Join us in /r/russian as well! There is most likely more beginners there as well.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537562572&sr=8-1&keywords=russian+penguin

This was my personal favorite as a beginner book, but I used this book along with other beginner texts. It's definitely worth checking out though.

Mogworld by Yahtzee Crosshaw
I will never stop recommending this. From the bitingly sarcastic game critic of "Zero Punctuation", this story is equal parts funny, and dramatic. It focuses more on MMORPGs than traditional tabletop games, but even as a non-WOW player I understood and loved every minute of it.


NPCs by Drew Hayes This story focuses more on the aspect of traditional tabletop roleplaying, such as Dungeons and Dragons. It's about a group of NPCs - such as a bartender, a reluctant damsel in distress, and a former minion - who have to take up the roles as fake heroes in order to save their town. It starts off a little bit slow, and at first I was rolling my eyes thinking "okay, I know where this is going" but then it went off in a completely different direction. Highly recommended.


Critical Failures by Robert Bevan
I didn't like this one personally as much as the others - it was a bit too vulgar for my tastes. However, it got some really good critical feedback (heh) and it definitely is an interesting concept. It's basically about a group of players who get trapped in a tabletop game by a sadistic GM. If you play a lot of tabletop games, you can probably see a lot of your group members in the characters. It's part of a series too, (I think there's at least 3) so this one should keep you occupied for a while.

Game Night

The Merchant Adventurer


I haven't read either of these two myself, but they are both on my list, and seem somewhat similar to the kind of thing you're looking for.

About spoilers: please tag spoilers, especially significant ones. This includes spoilers associated with any source material for series that have been adapted from another work, as well as related series. (In the case of this Weekly Watch, that includes the Douglas Adams novel of the same title.) See the "On spoilers" section of the sidebar for details about how to use spoiler tags in this subreddit.

---

Ordinarily, I'd conclude with something like

• Congratulations to /u/lurking_quietly for this successful nomination of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency as /r/S01E01's latest Weekly Watch!
  
  but that's a bit unseemly. First, it would be insufferably self-congratulatory. And more to the point, this week's nomination was unopposed. Who am I, Homer Simpson?

Thanks! For me it seems that book #1 has the same special:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EF8Z32I/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

How are these books? Is it worth picking up all 3?

Everybody loves large chests
and
The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound are fun reads.

I'd suggest reading Penguin's Complete Russian Course for Beginners and then moving on to Modern Russian. But really, books can only help you understand concepts of the language on not to listen and speak the language conversationally. I'm an American, but I lived in Russia for a couple of years in my late teens to early twenties. I'd study Penguin's Complete Russian Course (and later Modern Russian) for an hour every morning and make mental notes of phrases I wanted to use and how to construct sentences and then I'd go out and talk with people. I'd be listening for what I was learning. It's so important to listen natives speak the language and you have to try to speak and make mistakes and have them correct you. I'd listen to native Russian podcast type programs as well and watch Russian movies. I started to be able to understand almost everything within the six to nine months. After a year, I could speak quite freely and then by 18 months I could understand the nuances of the language, make jokes, and almost always get my point across. So if you have the chance to speak with Russians, do so as often as possible. And make mistakes. Then learn from them. Study everyday. Practice everyday.

The Time Machine Did It by John Swartzwelder. Swartzwelder is the most prolific writer in Simpsons history and he really does do an amazing job of writing a funny story. You will be cracking up throughout the book.

I started learning russian because my ex bf was Rusian.
I bought this book, which is absolutely perfect for beginners.


I also met a Russian penpal who I help with English in exchange for Russian on penpalworld.com

Thanks for doing this! Pretty sure I haven't been gifted. If I'm wrong, somebody correct me.

Here's my link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy/dp/0345453743/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=3BV6ORTEG1H7I&coliid=I2VKFBD1WLM9QG

Used is fine, so it should be under the $10 limit, Sexy Rexy. Just make sure you unleash the dragon.

Edit: woops, forgot my intro, here it is:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon/comments/1jbcw4/intro_and_gifted_hello_there/

I cannot recommend this book enough:
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Penguin-Russian-Course/dp/0140120416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409690632&sr=8-1&keywords=penguin+russian+course

It has a very good vocab base, explains things clearly, has an entire chapter on pronunciation, includes cultural tidbits and there are stories that you progressively work up to (they are folk tales that are commonly known, similar to the 3 little pigs in the US, etc.)

And it's $11. You can find PDFs as well online.

You should check out this book. I listened to it on audible. It's sort of a sci-fi/fantasy comedy book and I really enjoyed it.

>Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program.

It's a fun book! Grunts by Mary Gentle has some similar themes.

Thanks. I've found a New Penguin one from Amazon that I am ready to order.

​

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0140120416/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

Redditing at work is AWESOME

I don't know you, but you are too!


This! Or surprise me!

I've liked the Fred series by Drew Hayes . Though that could be because I’m an accountant. It’s not quite as reality tv type, but fun and I think unique in its own way.

I like the Inspector Morse series (Colin Dexter) and I'll second matts2 Nero Wolfe mysteries. Also, Hugh Lurie's The Gun Seller was good in a fun with wordplay sort of way.

Forty Millenia of Cultivation is basically my favorite web serial to follow right now. Possibly my favorite book I'm reading, period, and I've got Orconomics and Inventing the Future for it to compete with!

IT IS THE FORTY-FIRST MILLENIUM, AND MANKIND LIVES AMONG THE STARS, CULTIVATING QI.

I'm in the same boat as you. I've been working through The New Penguin Russian Course and have found it very helpful and easy to follow.

The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140120416/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_MvtaCbFKB31BV

Especially if you're working on your own, Nicholas Brown's New Penguin Russian Course – clear, well thought-out, inexpensive. I usually recommend using that as a primary resource for structure, with Duolingo as a supplement.

I assume you mean https://www.amazon.com/NPCs-Spells-Swords-Stealth-Book-ebook/dp/B00KB2RLKO, which I agree is an excellent book (as is nearly everything else by that author).

1. Worth the Candle
   
2. NPCs (Spells, Swords & Stealth)
   
3. The Land
   
   I feel like A Practical Guide to Evil would hands-down be number one on this list if more people agree'd with me that it was a litrpg piece. The main character class development and abilities are straight out of the genre in my opinion, but there is no overt acknowledgement of this in the text. I can't recommend all four of these enough. Worth the Candle and a Practical Guide are both available free via the author's websites, so they have that going for them also.

Basically what everyone else has said...YES! I would recommend The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide--it has all 5 of the books in one, and is much more cost effective than getting them individually.

1Q84 and Damned are the most enjoyable books I've read that have come out in the past 8 months. However, if you're looking for something literary, that probably counts out Damned. Hope: A Tragedy also falls into your time frame. It's interesting; very dark and humorous. But, ehn...

That was a pretty good short story: http://www.amazon.com/The-Androids-Dream-John-Scalzi/dp/0765348284

13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear. Pretty funny book and it has pictures.

well... according to my textbook, that would be called "partitive genitive".
Here's what the Russian Penguin Course has to say about this:

A minor use of the genitive case is to express the meaning 'some' with food and drink nouns:

дайте мне воды/вина/хлеба

дайте хлеб corresponds to "Give me bread" or "Give me the bread"

A small number of nouns have a special у/ю ending for the partitive. You may hear the question:

вы хотите чаю?
чаю with a special genitive ending ю (an alternative to -я is the pratitive genitve of чай. Other nouns which may have this -у ending are сахар, мёд, сыр

Here's a really good find that not a lot of people have heard of (I think). Scott Meyer--the comedian behind the web comic Basic Instructions--started a fantasy book series called Magic 2.0 that starts with Off to Be the Wizard.

The premise is that the hero lives in a computer simulation and have found a file that allows them to change the parameters of their world. By editing the file, they can change their location, the money in their bank account, the time that they are living in, etc.

I laughed out loud at many passages. I actually listened to the audio version of the book that you can get on Audible. The narrator Luke Daniels does a tremendous job of reading the book.

Anyways, I cannot recommend this series enough. There's only two books out now, but a new one should be published in early 2015.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/20451/who-says-this-ol-cant-become-a-splendid-slime

Office Lady reincarnated as a slime. A little worried that the author's slowing down is turning into the author stopping this series.

​

https://www.amazon.com/That-Reincarnated-Slime-light-novel-ebook/dp/B076H132D2/ref=pd_cp_351_1/131-0686409-1127854?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B076H132D2&pd_rd_r=1040ec8c-2170-481c-b955-6b04dc76527e&pd_rd_w=glHS3&pd_rd_wg=hzJUj&pf_rd_p=ef4dc990-a9ca-4945-ae0b-f8d549198ed6&pf_rd_r=N3XZPC8B5H02AJQ4705Q&psc=1&refRID=N3XZPC8B5H02AJQ4705Q

Office Worker reincarnated as a slime. Really fun series, Eventually City management/politics with big battles.

​

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/20568/tree-of-aeons-an-isekai-story

Guy reincarnates as a sentient tree. Slow paced skill growth into city building/unit management.

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CQMYQT5/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

Reincarnated as a Lovecraftian horror: Yuri princess edition

​

Oh, just noticed you also said born as a monster....

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/8894/everybody-loves-large-chests

MC is a monster, one of the best litrpg monster series I've read, HOWEVER, it does have lots of raunchy NSFW content mixed in there. The Amazon versions (starting with https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076NSQ6JT/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title ) toned down the sex scenes but it does still have a lot of them.

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NNWZT9M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i3

A skeleton from an world set up like an RPG gets teleported in space and begins a Sci-Fi adventure on an abandoned spaceport.

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078KGS4V4?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_pwh_calw_&storeType=ebooks

Toy Golem leveling up and fighting to rescue his owner.

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071LHHY85/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

A goblin joins a camp of bandits.

​

So, so many reincarnated as a dungeon core novels, but not sure if that fits in with your "monster" request.

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Best if the entire series is read (you can get all 5 books in one hardcover on Amazon for about $13: http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy/dp/0345453743/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323379697&sr=1-1 )

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams - a funny book I couldn't finish when I started browsing it at a library, and by one of my favorite authors.. It's only got four or less.

It's a little dated now but I think you'd probably like the Greg Mandel series as well.

Have you tried John Scalzi

I haven't. But speaking of mind-fuck, have you read anything by Haruki Murakami? I have not read his stuff but there's a book that looks really intriguing, it's called 1Q84. Just thought I'd mention it on the off chance you've read his stuff because I'm curious as to how it is.

How about the alien from most of the book's covers? This guy. Might be good for the top bar as well.

Perhaps some delicious BisonBoar?

Ref: The Android's Dream by John Scalzi

I highly recommend The Time Machine Did It by Swartzwelder. It's a short book and if you watch the Simpsons you can visualize its inanity (is that a word) even better.

I highly recommend Off to be the Wizard, about a kid who basically discovers life is a computer simulation, and goes back to medieval times to try and pass himself off as a wizard. Much better than it sounds.