What are some must read cowboy books, samurai books, noir/cynical detective books and spy thriller books?
Nothing against philosophising and moralising and politics and all that, but I would appreciate entertainment value more in this case.
Also looking for something at least not obscure, so I can actually discuss these books. Also assume I am a bit of a newfriend and havent even read the classics outside McCarthy, Crichton, some Ellroy and Chandler etc.
I need some escapism. I am stuck living in extremely corrupt environment constantly bouncing between lose-lose situations that are outside of my control. But I am able to read like 10+ hours a day, so I need the material to take my mind off things.
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Jim Thompson: start with The Killer Inside Me
Anything written by Robert E Howard, honestly
>What are some must read cowboy books
All the pretty horses
The crossing
Cities of the plain
No Country for Old Men
Cities of the red night
>Noir
Neuromancer
>Cities of the red night
That's the pirate book, The Place of Dead Roads is the cowboy book.
You forget when the pirates become cowboys and attack the town directly. Its also a spaceman book, a detective book, an imperialist book, a communist cadre shock worker book, a smut book. Narrative transmigration allows it to occupy all the genres.
alright that's the first thing im looking up next then
Samurai book would be
Shogun by James Clavell
Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
Vagabond Manga by Takehiko Inoue
However Vagabond might never be finished even if it is the greatest manga of all time.
i am only familiar with berserk, how does vagabond compare? low fantasy version?
It's historical fiction, there is no fantastical elements in it.
Vagabond is an adaptation of the Musashi book centred around a romantic retelling of Japans most famous sword dualist and philosopher Miyamoto Musashi. Its art is very beautiful and I personally found the story very moving in places. However it’s incomplete and will likely never be finished although the Author said he theoretically only needed about another year. He put it on hiatus like eight years ago but occasionally hints he will eventually finish it.
What makes Shogun worth reading
It’s a very entertaining story of a shipwrecked British sailor fighting for his life in a foreign land. He has to learn the ways of the Japanese while trying to maneuver between various political factions from the Jesuits to local Daimyo. It doesn’t have any great literary value but it’s like a very cool samurai movie.
>cynical detective
The Last Good Kiss
Miami Blues
Nobody Move
The Glass Key
The Long Goodbye
Lonesome Dove
>spy thriller
Everything by Eric Ambler
Frederick Forsyth:
The Devil's Alternative
The Fourth Protocol
The Dogs of War
Desmond Bagley:
Flyaway
Windfall
is it just me or did noir completely fade away from popularity? or did it all get inherited into stuff like cyberpunk? i guess cyberpunk is noir with computers
is the ideal stupid as frick?
what?
Shogun and musashi