Flashlight worthy - Really good books
May 24, 2011 9:31 PM   Subscribe

FlashlightWorthy: handpicked book recommendations on hundreds of topics. Lists of books are easy to come by. Thoughtful lists of good books are harder to find. FlashlightWorthy does a fine job of mixing classic greats along with more obscure treasures. Plain vanilla lists (e.g. Best Cooking Books, 33 Best Books on Writing Fiction, Best Graphic Novels of 2009 and 2010) are well-represented but there's also quirkier and specialized fare like... posted by storybored (10 comments total) 81 users marked this as a favorite
 
What the hell's a "Pope-Up Book"? Is that some sort of Catholic thing?
posted by orthogonality at 9:35 PM on May 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


Not all of their lists are good. The worst clunker I found was: The Fun Books of Economics followed closely by the woo-woo Got Brain? Books To Improve Your Brain.
posted by storybored at 9:36 PM on May 24, 2011


Here are some precognitive selections from the future history of this discussion:

Response 1: The [category of recommendations X] does not contain [specific work Y] thereby nullifying the usefulness and accuracy of all of these lists.

Response 2: How dare they omit Maldoror and Moravagine from 'Books That Are Creepy And French' while leaving The Painted Bird in 'Books That Are Creepy And American'. Kosiński was clearly influenced by both Lautréamont and Cendrars, not Houellebecq!

Response 3: What, no vegan pop-up cook books for kids? Nice try, US Council for Meat!

Response 4: 'Great Works By Suicides'? Yeah, so Wallace is on there like fifteen times, but where's A Confederacy of Dunces and Sombrero Fallout? This is fucking bullshit!

Response 5: Oh, you would put Hyperion in the 'Books Nominally About Spike-Monsters', wouldn't you, you smack-talking asshole?

Response 6: Couldn't possibly have a list of Irish literature without Joyce, could we? But for some reason Brian O'Nolan is under "You might also be drunk enough to read..."

Response 7: NONE OF THIS IS ON THE KINDLE!
posted by tumid dahlia at 9:55 PM on May 24, 2011 [7 favorites]


...but i've read all of these books already.
posted by OHenryPacey at 12:27 AM on May 25, 2011


Thanks!
posted by Divine_Wino at 5:25 AM on May 25, 2011


Great post. With 3 different age groups to read to, I'm always on the lookout for good books. Sure, we've read some of the ones on these lists...but that just means I have a better assurance that we'll like the others.
posted by DU at 5:39 AM on May 25, 2011


For more lists of books you can Metafilter's own ReadMe.
posted by shothotbot at 6:20 AM on May 25, 2011 [4 favorites]


The Fountainhead as a Great Book for Unconventional Living?

I guess.
posted by Trurl at 6:59 AM on May 25, 2011


Yeah. According to those lists, Ayn Rand and Malcolm Gladwell are currently the two most prominent economists.

Worse still, they might actually be right.

Be afraid.
posted by schmod at 7:07 AM on May 25, 2011


For more lists of books you can Metafilter's own ReadMe.

OMG, i didn't know about that one! Thanks!
posted by storybored at 7:16 AM on May 25, 2011


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