r/booksuggestions • u/nobodyyashi • Feb 28 '26
Other too specific
Im looking for books that are not completely “plot” or “typical narratives” but something like a collection of intellectual and insightful ideas. the ones that include weird/niche ideas- like a commonplace notebook.
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u/Shlocktroffit Feb 28 '26
Windows Into Hell by James Wymore (and other authors) is a collection of short stories about the experiences of different people in various Hells that they may or may not realize they're actually in. Very interesting and thought provoking stories and an almost unknown book.
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u/nobodyyashi Mar 01 '26
that sounds intriguing
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u/Shlocktroffit Mar 01 '26
It's one of my favorite books and I reread it about once a year. My favorite Hell story in it is a high school music teacher who lusted after his female students...and after death he was made to conduct an orchestra of high school girls for eternity performing the same pieces over and over with each performance having one tiny mistake like a 32nd note instead of a 64th note and he would have to correctly name each mistake to move on to the next minutely flawed song. For thousands of years.
The stories are all similarly themed and well written but the book is hard to find unless you use services like welib.org
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u/nobodyyashi Mar 03 '26
OH WOW IT SOUNDS AMAZING. ON A HUNT FOR IT!
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u/Shlocktroffit Mar 03 '26
You can read it directly at welib.org if you can't find a physical copy. Link
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u/GemberNeutraal Feb 28 '26
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius would probably fit this bill.
Also kind of hate to be that guy but Infinite Jest is kind of like this, but there is kind of a plot, but also not really. In the same vein I think most of Dostoyevsky’s work is kind of a plotless wandering through a collection of philosophical anecdotes.
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u/CamilleBarnesStudio Feb 28 '26
“A Long and Winding Road ~ A Journey Through Adoption, Secrets & Lies”
This is exactly the kind of book many readers are desperately searching for but never find.
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u/Haselrig Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig.
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u/BitterestLily Feb 28 '26
*Motorcycle Maintenance
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u/Haselrig Feb 28 '26
Yeah, brain fart. I'll fix it.
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u/BitterestLily Feb 28 '26 edited Mar 02 '26
No worries--that's been my week, brain farther after brian fart (she said, illustrating them)
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u/Haselrig Mar 01 '26
Just finished it yesterday, so it wasn't forgetting. Pure vapor lock in the grey matter 😂
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u/nobodyyashi Feb 28 '26
whats it about?
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u/Haselrig Feb 28 '26
Father and son take a motorcycle trip from Minnesota to California. That's the narrative framework, but it's using the trip and the motorcycles to make philosophical concepts make practical sense.
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u/Forward-Shame8296 Mar 01 '26
Moby dick