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Wesley Street
post Jul 29 2008, 02:11 PM
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I'm always looking for good reads to inspire my adventure writing. Fiction only takes me so far and in the end I begin to emulate plots which is bad. I'm looking for suggestions for good reads and magazine articles about modern foreign cultures, weird pop life, hyper-consumerism, etc. All that little stuff that gives the universe of Shadowrun its edge and neon glow.

Here are some samples and perhaps some of you could share your personal favorites with the board:

Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation by Karl Taro Greenfeld - This foray into the often violent subcultures of Japan dramatically debunks the Western perception of a seemingly controlled and orderly society.

Disneyland with the Death Penalty - In this Wired article, William Gibson travels to Singapore to see whether that clean dystopia represents the West's techno future.

The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling - Discusses watershed events in the hacker subculture in the early 1990s. Among the most notable topics are the coverage of Operation Sundevil, the raid on Steve Jackson Games, the trial of "Knight Lightning," and the resulting formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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nezumi
post Jul 29 2008, 03:27 PM
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The Hacker Crackdown was released by Sterling for free distribution. You can read it here:
http://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html

It's well worth your time, however not sure how well it relates to Shadowrun.

I keep picking up books on Shamanism from the library. Unfortunately, I don't know if any easy readers on the topic. Most of them are boring studies. But still, it's good to know.
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Wesley Street
post Jul 29 2008, 04:31 PM
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Havana Nocturne by TJ English - It's 396 pages but it's large type and is a great read for anyone interested in a Mob-based or Caribbean League run. It's about how the American Mob built Havana into a Disneyland for gangsters and was planning to use it as a financial headquarters... until Castro's puritans came along and kicked them out.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser - This one had me riveted. The book lays out how fast food joints have basically built the consolidated, homogenized and rapid urban sprawls that many Americans live in today. Yeah, you can thank "McHugh's" for that Seattle sprawl, chummer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
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Eugene
post Jul 29 2008, 07:38 PM
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Try Misha Glenny's "McMafia: A Journey through the Global Criminal Underworld" for a look at developing organized crime in all parts of the world - drugs, sex, human trafficking, tax evasion, money laundering, etc.
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martindv
post Jul 29 2008, 08:08 PM
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QUOTE (Wesley Street @ Jul 29 2008, 12:31 PM) *
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser - This one had me riveted. The book lays out how fast food joints have basically built the consolidated, homogenized and rapid urban sprawls that many Americans live in today. Yeah, you can thank "McHugh's" for that Seattle sprawl, chummer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


hahahaha

You're kidding, right?

Jesus. Read a real book. The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, written almost 50 years ago about the same thing, but by an academic and not some douchebag with an agenda to push.
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Wounded Ronin
post Jul 29 2008, 08:48 PM
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Because academics are never douchebags, nor do they ever, ever have an agenda.
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martindv
post Jul 29 2008, 09:57 PM
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Real academics aren't "a little bit of knowledge" self-righteous fucksticks like he is.

Jacobs literally wrote the definitive book on urban planning, and if you actually read it you'd note that it's got zero agenda behind it.

So take your smartass comment and shove it.
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VagabondStar
post Jul 29 2008, 10:21 PM
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aaaaand it gets weird. I love anonymity, it brings out the best in all of us.


Not really non-fiction, but you can find a free copy of "the hitman's guidebook" online. It was written by a housewife, not a real hitman, but it's fun to read.

A book on intelligence - Intelligence/Counter Intelligence by C.T. White is an independently published book that is basically a "how to" for basic tradecraft.


The book "Junky" by william s. burroughs is a good perspective on drug use and low lifestyle living.

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Wounded Ronin
post Jul 29 2008, 10:58 PM
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QUOTE (martindv @ Jul 29 2008, 04:57 PM) *
Real academics aren't "a little bit of knowledge" self-righteous fucksticks like he is.

Jacobs literally wrote the definitive book on urban planning, and if you actually read it you'd note that it's got zero agenda behind it.

So take your smartass comment and shove it.


My apologies. Your academic can beat up his academic. I should have known better.
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Wounded Ronin
post Jul 29 2008, 10:59 PM
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QUOTE (VagabondStar @ Jul 29 2008, 05:21 PM) *
Not really non-fiction, but you can find a free copy of "the hitman's guidebook" online. It was written by a housewife, not a real hitman, but it's fun to read.


Ha ha, yeah, I remember Paladin Press got in trouble when someone actually tried to do a hit using the methodologies described therein.

But if you read that book you can sort of tell it was written by a housewife. It's got lots of very imaginative but minor details, while at the same time ignoring the most important issues that would come up if you were a hitman, i.e. how to get away with murder in the long term.
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Wounded Ronin
post Jul 29 2008, 11:01 PM
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As for the original intent of this thread, I must recommend in the strongest terms "The Gift Of Fear" by Gavin De Becker.
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Yoan
post Jul 30 2008, 02:27 AM
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QUOTE (nezumi @ Jul 29 2008, 10:27 AM) *
The Hacker Crackdown was released by Sterling for free distribution. You can read it here:
http://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html

It's well worth your time, however not sure how well it relates to Shadowrun.

I keep picking up books on Shamanism from the library. Unfortunately, I don't know if any easy readers on the topic. Most of them are boring studies. But still, it's good to know.


Underground Book is newer, & also good if you're into that kinda thing:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~suelette/underground...n/contents.html

[brag]I have very few degrees of separation with at least two of the protagonists. [/brag]
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nezumi
post Jul 30 2008, 01:24 PM
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And of course, kind Uncle Sam has published a number of their Field Manuals, which are a tremendous aid. They're all over the place. Very basic information on how to fire a rocket launcher or do a field dressing. Not enough to actually know how to do it, but sufficient that, if your players are idiots, you can remind them they're doin' it wrong. Some of the books on urban combat were very interesting and well worth reading.
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Wesley Street
post Jul 30 2008, 02:22 PM
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Would those be fun reads for those of us who don't know how to, say, field strip an M-16? Of course some people may find tech manuals totally enjoyable! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
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Wesley Street
post Jul 30 2008, 02:25 PM
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QUOTE (martindv @ Jul 29 2008, 03:08 PM) *
Read a real book.


I pray for the day when the moderators ban you from this board. Your hostility, insults, and holier-than-thou attitude are a real drag.
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nezumi
post Jul 30 2008, 02:49 PM
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QUOTE (Wesley Street @ Jul 30 2008, 09:22 AM) *
Would those be fun reads for those of us who don't know how to, say, field strip an M-16? Of course some people may find tech manuals totally enjoyable! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


I think so. They don't assume a lot of prior knowledge. Some parts are dry, but some are pretty neat. Of course, it assumes you're interested in knowing things like how to assault a building.
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Wesley Street
post Jul 30 2008, 03:03 PM
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Well, if it's all pretty pictures I would be down with that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Seriously, I do remember checking out a library book that had full-page, color, cutaway drawings of hostage rescue operations like the storming of the American embassy in, uh, Tehran... I think. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I'm drawing a blank...
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nezumi
post Jul 30 2008, 04:56 PM
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QUOTE (Wesley Street @ Jul 30 2008, 11:03 AM) *
Well, if it's all pretty pictures I would be down with that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Seriously, I do remember checking out a library book that had full-page, color, cutaway drawings of hostage rescue operations like the storming of the American embassy in, uh, Tehran... I think. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I'm drawing a blank...


There are some pictures, b&w. It was written for troops, so the writing style is pretty straight-forward, and if you're just looking at pics and reading section headers, you'll still learn a lot (if anything, I found that reading every line was a bit tedious, because sometimes they went into stupid stuff I don't care about.) Again though, they're free, they're online. Go find them, tell me if you like them yourself (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)
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Wounded Ronin
post Jul 30 2008, 04:59 PM
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QUOTE (Wesley Street @ Jul 30 2008, 11:03 AM) *
Well, if it's all pretty pictures I would be down with that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Seriously, I do remember checking out a library book that had full-page, color, cutaway drawings of hostage rescue operations like the storming of the American embassy in, uh, Tehran... I think. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I'm drawing a blank...


You mean that one under Carter that didn't work?
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hermit
post Jul 30 2008, 05:32 PM
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"Gangs" by Tony Thompson, gives a decent insight into modern organised crime, including money laundring. Written by a journalist, so expect more of a documentation than a scientific study, but it's a goopd read and close enough to reality to be useful to Shadowrun players, for sure.

"Mao" by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, a fascinating portrait of one of, if not THE worst of 20th century's butcher dictators. Thoroughly researched, it paints an awesome image of a sociopath villain. Yes, Mao was,a ccording to this book, a sociopath. Just read it. If only half of that is true, we hould all thank the Soviets that they kept him reigned in. Not strictly SR, but a fascinating study of a truely evil person's mind and life.

Yes, the author has a chip on her shoulder with Mao, and that shows. Still, if even half of what is in there is true, he has dethroned Hitler as evil incarnate.

QUOTE
I do remember checking out a library book that had full-page, color, cutaway drawings of hostage rescue operations like the storming of the American embassy in, uh, Tehran... I think.

Uh ... didn't that operation fail disasterously?

QUOTE
And of course, kind Uncle Sam has published a number of their Field Manuals, which are a tremendous aid. They're all over the place.

As in, available online?

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Wounded Ronin
post Jul 30 2008, 05:47 PM
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QUOTE (hermit @ Jul 30 2008, 01:32 PM) *
"Mao" by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, a fascinating portrait of one of, if not THE worst of 20th century's butcher dictators. Thoroughly researched, it paints an awesome image of a sociopath villain. Yes, Mao was,a ccording to this book, a sociopath. Just read it. If only half of that is true, we hould all thank the Soviets that they kept him reigned in. Not strictly SR, but a fascinating study of a truely evil person's mind and life.


Au sujet de academics, I always viewed Mao as the ultimate academic elevated to a position of power, and not so much a sociopath. I dunno, any book that explicitly paints a historical figure as a sociopath villain doesn't sound very scholarly to me. Even if you were reading about Hitler, would you rather read a book that goes, "mwah hwah hwah Hitler was eville", or would you rather read a book explaining his life, his frustrations, and the mindest of many Germans following the defeat in the first World War?
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Wesley Street
post Jul 30 2008, 05:50 PM
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Okay, I got my special ops with the Iranians mixed up. Desert One most definitely wasn't the one I was thinking of. D'oh! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blush.gif)

Here it is... Operation Nimrod: the SAS storming the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. Anyway, there was a book that had a very cool cutaway of the building showing each SAS operator and and what times he hit his mark, etc. etc.
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hermit
post Jul 30 2008, 05:59 PM
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QUOTE
Au sujet de academics, I always viewed Mao as the ultimate academic elevated to a position of power, and not so much a sociopath. I dunno, any book that explicitly paints a historical figure as a sociopath villain doesn't sound very scholarly to me.

Why not? Saddam was (except he wasn't gay and kept his nephews around, and wasn't *that* fat, he pretty much was dune's Vladimir Harkonnen), Hitler was, Stalin too, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, a couple of Czars, arguably Frederick William II ...

But the book never says he's a sociopath. It just details his actions, and those *are* those of a sociopath. That's my interpretation. Besides, MAo was a grade school teacher, and not much of an academic (not only according to this book).

The book is more aling the lines of the 'good' book on Hitler. Though I feel there's no better book on him than Mein Kampf.
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Wounded Ronin
post Jul 30 2008, 06:09 PM
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QUOTE (hermit @ Jul 30 2008, 01:59 PM) *
But the book never says he's a sociopath. It just details his actions, and those *are* those of a sociopath. That's my interpretation. Besides, MAo was a grade school teacher, and not much of an academic (not only according to this book).


But Mao was a thinker, and part of the reason he caused so many problems for the Chinese was his implementation of very abstract and idealistic plans for the future of the nation, i.e. the Great Leap Forward. Many of his initiatives and preoccupations (i.e. perpetual revolution) can be characterized as very academic and philosophical, rather than concrete and practical.

(Mao is one of my favorite historical figures because I think he's intruiging.)
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VagabondStar
post Jul 30 2008, 06:14 PM
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If we're talking about Mao, then "On Guerrilla Warfare" is a must read. This probably won't help shadowrunners per se... but it is probably useful raw material for any GM.

But to really understand "On Guerrilla Warfare" and why what it proposes goes beyond "common sense" then Von Clauswitz "On War" is also a must read.


And then there's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", "War in the Shadows", and an innumerable other set of books, but this is more appropriate for the insurgencies thread (blatant plug? Maybe)
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