this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
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Science Fiction

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December book club canceled. Short stories instead!

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Lemmy World Rules

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Book recommendations that play with what it means to be a book (lemmynsfw.com)
submitted 10 months ago by Worx@lemmynsfw.com to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
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I really love sci-fi novels and I read a lot of books. I read 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson a while back and that book is particularly interesting to me. Rather than each chapter advancing the narrative of the story, there were occasional breaks where a chapter would have a list of semi-random words which just gave the vibe of what's happening, or some history of a scene, or a recipe for how to build an asteroid.

There's another book that I have heard of but neglected to write the name down, where the reader of the book is a character within the book, and the narrator speaks directly to you (but not a choose-your-adventure style book).

All of this got me interested in finding other books, preferably sci-fi or maybe fantasy, where the concept of being a book is played with and new ideas are tried. Any recommendations?

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[–] yum_burnt_toast@reddthat.com 2 points 10 months ago

another older recommendation is jacques the fatalist, where jacques is attempting to tell the story of his lovelife but is constantly interrupted by other people telling their own stories, there is a "reader" who interrupts the narrator to ask questions, and the narrator at times gets bored of telling the story and asks the reader to fill in their own details. it also has an entire section directly from tristam shandy near the end.

not sci fi or fantasy but worth a read if you have the patience.