en-US Tue, 04 Mar 2025 20:13:47 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 2794 The Crying of Lot 49 opens as Oedipa Maas discovers that she has been made executrix of a former lover's estate. The performance of her duties sets her on a strange trail of detection, in which bizarre characters crowd in to help or confuse her. But gradually, death, drugs, madness, and marriage combine to leave Oedipa in isolation on the threshold of revelation, awaiting the Crying of Lot 49.]]> 152 Thomas Pynchon 006091307X glambient 5 favorites 3.70 1966
author: Thomas Pynchon
name: glambient
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
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]]> 1150390 Empire Star is the story of Comet Jo's journey to deliver the message, as narrated by Jewel.]]> 132 Samuel R. Delany 0553234250 glambient 5 favorites 3.90 1966
author: Samuel R. Delany
name: glambient
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/02
date added: 2024/08/03
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]]> 5130 Island, his last novel, Huxley transports us to a Pacific island where, for 120 years, an ideal society has flourished. Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala, and events begin to move when an agent of the conspirators, a newspaperman named Faranby, is shipwrecked there. What Faranby doesn't expect is how his time with the people of Pala will revolutionize all his values and—to his amazement—give him hope.]]> 354 Aldous Huxley 0060085495 glambient 0 favorites 3.87 1962
author: Aldous Huxley
name: glambient
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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]]> 44767458
When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.]]> 658 Frank Herbert 059309932X glambient 5 favorites 4.33 1965
author: Frank Herbert
name: glambient
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/04/09
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]]> 57913
Filled with sex and violence—in and out of time and space—the three books of The Illuminatus! Trilogy are only partly works of the imagination. They tackle all the cover-ups of our time—from who really shot the Kennedys to why there's a pyramid on a one-dollar bill—and suggest a mind-blowing truth.]]> 805 Robert Shea 0440539811 glambient 5 favorites 4.02 1983
author: Robert Shea
name: glambient
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1983
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/01/03
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]]> 26218192
Words: 69,882, online conversion: 156]]> 156 nostalgebraist glambient 5 favorites 3.77 2015
author: nostalgebraist
name: glambient
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2015
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/01/03
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this shit makes "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" look like Elmo's World
]]> 59989719 How much do you want to know? 1112 Edward Teach 1734460830 glambient 5 favorites
This is who Alone assumes you are, likewise he assumes that you know who he is, so he does not want to be who you think he is. You thought he was "the narcissism guy" when he was The Last Psychiatrist and so you organized your life to avoid this superego potentially calling out your narcissism from beyond the veil of anonymity. Surprise � God is always watching, and he knows what you did.

Most people who haven't actually read it like to decry its "misanthropic" style. Maybe the style is misanthropic, but it is misanthropic in the way that the Zen master thwacking you with his shit-wiping stick is misanthropic: he is only trying to enlighten you, whatever it takes. And usually it takes a lot.

What is takes is insults, profanity, obscenity, psychoanalysis, logic puzzles, Lacanian thought-loops, Deleuzian obfuscation, Ancient Greek plays, invented primary sources, repetitive demands that you read primary sources, more insults, smut lit, and blackpills. And if you can stomach it, even if you can't digest it all, then there is presumably hope for you.

You are the protagonist of Sadly, Porn. You are a modern creature, seeking knowledge to mask that you have no power, seeking resentment to mask that you have no charisma, and clinging to envy to mask that you are incapable of love. Whether this is broadly true for you or not, there is always that shadow in you, something repressed, for which this is true.

This is the part that Alone is writing for, the part he berates continuously, attempting to get past every defense. Every book and film and play and dream, every Bible passage and porn scenario picked apart in this massive tome is an attempt to come at this shadow from a different angle, to name it in all its shapes and forms. It is not something that can easily be named, even the great Jesus Christ could only allude to it. This is why it takes Alone 1000+ pages.

Are the insults directed at me? says the unintegrated self who is afraid that the master is right. Certainly I seek knowledge but doesn't that knowledge inherently grant me some power, can't my maps of meaning bring about God's Kingdom on Earth? And the master, having switched from rum to 1:4 diluted wine (because he's not a barbarian), says that knowledge is all about you but power is not, because power is the means by which knowledge is shared. The power of one is tyranny, but the power of many, literally, is a democracy.

Alone ends the book with a blackpill because he knows you won't believe him. He knows that you are going to reject the verdict having heard the evidence. And this renders you free � free of the system, of the Ledger, free from impotence and narcissism, from Lysander and Thucydides and Edward Teach, from suffering and ill-will � free from porn.
]]> 4.21 2021
author: Edward Teach
name: glambient
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/12/22
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Imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever � and you like it. No matter what your politics are or who you vote for, no matter what books you've read or movies you've seen, when the boot comes crashing down upon thee you will get on your knees and lick it and call it daddy.

This is who Alone assumes you are, likewise he assumes that you know who he is, so he does not want to be who you think he is. You thought he was "the narcissism guy" when he was The Last Psychiatrist and so you organized your life to avoid this superego potentially calling out your narcissism from beyond the veil of anonymity. Surprise � God is always watching, and he knows what you did.

Most people who haven't actually read it like to decry its "misanthropic" style. Maybe the style is misanthropic, but it is misanthropic in the way that the Zen master thwacking you with his shit-wiping stick is misanthropic: he is only trying to enlighten you, whatever it takes. And usually it takes a lot.

What is takes is insults, profanity, obscenity, psychoanalysis, logic puzzles, Lacanian thought-loops, Deleuzian obfuscation, Ancient Greek plays, invented primary sources, repetitive demands that you read primary sources, more insults, smut lit, and blackpills. And if you can stomach it, even if you can't digest it all, then there is presumably hope for you.

You are the protagonist of Sadly, Porn. You are a modern creature, seeking knowledge to mask that you have no power, seeking resentment to mask that you have no charisma, and clinging to envy to mask that you are incapable of love. Whether this is broadly true for you or not, there is always that shadow in you, something repressed, for which this is true.

This is the part that Alone is writing for, the part he berates continuously, attempting to get past every defense. Every book and film and play and dream, every Bible passage and porn scenario picked apart in this massive tome is an attempt to come at this shadow from a different angle, to name it in all its shapes and forms. It is not something that can easily be named, even the great Jesus Christ could only allude to it. This is why it takes Alone 1000+ pages.

Are the insults directed at me? says the unintegrated self who is afraid that the master is right. Certainly I seek knowledge but doesn't that knowledge inherently grant me some power, can't my maps of meaning bring about God's Kingdom on Earth? And the master, having switched from rum to 1:4 diluted wine (because he's not a barbarian), says that knowledge is all about you but power is not, because power is the means by which knowledge is shared. The power of one is tyranny, but the power of many, literally, is a democracy.

Alone ends the book with a blackpill because he knows you won't believe him. He knows that you are going to reject the verdict having heard the evidence. And this renders you free � free of the system, of the Ledger, free from impotence and narcissism, from Lysander and Thucydides and Edward Teach, from suffering and ill-will � free from porn.

]]> 219376
Deathbird Stories is a collection of 19 of Harlan Ellison's best stories, including Edgar and Hugo winners, originally published between 1960 and 1974. The collection contains some of Ellison's best stories from earlier collections and is judged by some to be his most consistently high quality collection of short fiction. The theme of the collection can be loosely defined as God, or Gods. Sometimes they're dead or dying, some of them are as brand-new as today's technology. Unlike some of Ellison's collections, the introductory notes to each story can be as short as a phrase and rarely run more than a sentence or two. One story took a Locus Poll Award, the two final ones both garnered Hugo Awards and Locus Poll awards, and the final one also received a Jupiter Award from the Instructors of Science Fiction in Higher Education (discontinued in 1979). When the collection was published in Britain, it won the 1979 British Science Fiction Award for Short Fiction.

His stories will rivet you to the floor and change your heartbeat...as unforgettable a chamber of horror, fantasy and reality as you'll ever experience.
-Gallery

"Brutally and flamboyantly shocking, frequently brilliant, and always irresistibly mesmerizing."
-Richmond Times-Dispatch]]> 288 Harlan Ellison 0739462288 glambient 0 favorites 4.17 1975
author: Harlan Ellison
name: glambient
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1975
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]]> 402259
R.D. Laing is at his most wickedly iconoclastic in this eloquent assault on conventional morality. Compelling, unsettling, consistently absorbing, The Politics of Experience is a classic of genuine importance that will "excite, enthrall, and disturb. No one who reads it will remain unaffected." (Rollo May, Saturday Review )]]> 192 R.D. Laing 039471475X glambient 0 favorites 4.15 1967
author: R.D. Laing
name: glambient
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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]]> 216398 The Divine Invasion, Philip K. Dick asks: What if God � or a being called Yah � were alive and in exile on a distant planet? How could a second coming succeed against the high technology and finely tuned rationalized evil of the modern police state?

The Divine Invasion "blends Judaism, Kabalah, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity into a fascinating fable of human existence"
--West Coast Review of Books

]]> 238 Philip K. Dick 0679734457 glambient 0 favorites 3.83 1981
author: Philip K. Dick
name: glambient
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1981
rating: 0
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]]> 22590
Esta mordaz comedia metafísica de muerte y salvación (que podrá llevar un cómodo envase) es un tour de force de amenaza paranoica y comedia absurda, en la cual los muertos ofrecen consejos comerciales, compran su siguiente reencarnación y corren el riesgo continuo de volver a morir.]]> 288 Philip K. Dick 8498000831 glambient 0 favorites 4.11 1969
author: Philip K. Dick
name: glambient
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1969
rating: 0
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]]> 28589297
Aaron doesn't care about any of this. He and his not-quite-girlfriend Ana are engaged in something far more important � griping about magical intellectual property law. But when a chance discovery brings them into conflict with mysterious international magic-intellectual-property watchdog UNSONG, they find themselves caught in a web of plots, crusades, and prophecies leading inexorably to the end of the world.]]> 795 Scott Alexander glambient 0 favorites 4.40 2017
author: Scott Alexander
name: glambient
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> 529626 The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...

Following the astonishing success of his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey wrote what Charles Bowden calls "one of the few essential books written by an American in the last half century." This wild-spirited tale tells of a bitter strike that rages through a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers. Out of the Stamper family's rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy.]]> 628 Ken Kesey 0140045295 glambient 0 favorites 4.26 1964
author: Ken Kesey
name: glambient
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1964
rating: 0
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]]> 40651883 Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous� you'll recognize it immediately.]]> 559 Neal Stephenson glambient 0 favorites 4.02 1992
author: Neal Stephenson
name: glambient
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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]]> 38825876 286 Peter Schranz 1547169095 glambient 5 favorites 5.00
author: Peter Schranz
name: glambient
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
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]]> 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 glambient 0 favorites 3.99 1961
author: Joseph Heller
name: glambient
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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]]> 42771901 232 Jenny Odell 1612197493 glambient 0 favorites 3.68 2019
author: Jenny Odell
name: glambient
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> 95558
When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he finds a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the living physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others examining the planet, Kelvin learns, are plagued with their own repressed and newly corporeal memories. The Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates these incarnate memories, though its purpose in doing so is unknown, forcing the scientists to shift the focus of their quest and wonder if they can truly understand the universe without first understanding what lies within their hearts.]]> 204 Stanisław Lem glambient 0 favorites 4.00 1961
author: Stanisław Lem
name: glambient
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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]]> 16142053 the Looming Tower. Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with both current and former Scientologists--both famous and less well known--and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative skills to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology: its origins in the imagination of science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard; its struggles to find acceptance as a legitimate (and legally acknowledged) religion; its vast, secret campaign to infiltrate the U.S. government; and its dramatic efforts to grow and prevail after the death of Hubbard.

At the book's center, two men whom Wright brings vividly to life, showing how they have made Scientology what it is today: The darkly brilliant L. Ron Hubbard--whose restless, expansive mind invented a new religion tailor-made to prosper in the spiritually troubled post-World War II era. And his successor, David Miscavige--tough and driven, with the unenviable task of preserving the church in the face of ongoing scandals and continual legal assaults.

We learn about Scientology's esoteric cosmology; about the auditing process that determines an inductee's state of being; about the Bridge to Total Freedom, through which members gain eternal life. We see the ways in which the church pursues celebrities, such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and how young idealists who joined the Sea Org, the church's clergy, whose members often enter as children, signing up with a billion-year contract and working with little pay in poor conditions. We meet men and women "disconnected" from friends and family by the church's policy of shunning critical voices. And we discover, through many firsthand stories, the violence that has long permeated the inner sanctum of the church.

In Going Clear, Wright examines what fundamentally makes a religion a religion, and whether Scientology is, in fact, deserving of the constitutional protections achieved in its victory over the IRS. Employing all his exceptional journalistic skills of observations, understanding, and synthesis, and his ability to shape a story into a compelling narrative, Lawrence Wright has given us an evenhanded yet keenly incisive book that goes far beyond an immediate exposé and uncovers the very essence of what makes Scientology the institution it is.]]> 430 Lawrence Wright 0307700666 glambient 0 favorites 4.02 2013
author: Lawrence Wright
name: glambient
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]>