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10 votes
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How I taught the Iliad to Chinese teenagers
19 votes -
Each year from 2014 to 2114, a manuscript is sealed in The Silent Room of Norway's Future Library – the goal: greater hope for humankind
13 votes -
My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
24 votes -
The Norway model: How the Scandinavian country became a literary powerhouse
8 votes -
Subversive, queer and terrifyingly relevant: six reasons why Moby-Dick is the novel for our times (2019)
23 votes -
Human, all too inhuman (2000)
7 votes -
2023 Nobel Prize – This year's Nobel Prize announcements will take place between 2nd - 9th October 2023
22 votes -
Three medieval tales about adventures to the Moon - from three different cultures
12 votes -
Death in literature: Can you really prepare for it or even understand it? Ten suggested books from Ted Gioia
13 votes -
Literature Map: The more people like an author and another author, the closer together they move
17 votes -
Josh Cook on the uses and misuses of judgement about literary quality and reflections about the process of suggesting books
5 votes -
BBC list eighteen of the best new books for 2023
17 votes -
The art of translation
29 votes -
What belongs in your "base" hard-copy library?
I finally have the space to finish a project I've been working on which is a study with 3 bookcases. So far, my idea is to have 1 with books that will always be there, such as classic reads, or...
I finally have the space to finish a project I've been working on which is a study with 3 bookcases. So far, my idea is to have 1 with books that will always be there, such as classic reads, or even an encyclopedia maybe?, or other reference material. Basically, a permanent bookcase whether or not I've read the material. The other two will be rotated in and out of stuff that I'm reading, have read recently or on my backlog before swapping or donating.
Anyways, what's in your "must have" bookcase? Reference, fiction/non-fiction, Calvin & Hobbes even! (Although that's more of a coffee table piece)
18 votes -
Michael Silverblatt interviews W. G. Sebald
5 votes -
How can I be a more spontaneous fiction writer?
When talking with my therapist, the subject of writing is a constant. My obsessive approach to writing is a source of frustration. I write well in my first language, and aspire to create short...
When talking with my therapist, the subject of writing is a constant. My obsessive approach to writing is a source of frustration.
I write well in my first language, and aspire to create short fiction . But I'm an over planner and way too critical of my own writing.
Anything longer than a single page is impossible for me because I'll obsess with editing and some misguided sense of "perfection", cutting paragraph after paragraph until I'm left with a decent micro story that you can read in two and a half minutes. Most of the time I don't even get this far.
So my question is, how can I force myself to be less self critical and obsessive, let things flow, and write longer stories? Are there any advices, books, courses, practices and exercises I can use?
18 votes -
A Gaelic-speaking warrior queen called Aud is central to an emerging theory that Scottish and Irish Celts played a far bigger role in Iceland's history than realised
6 votes -
‘The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think’ by Carolyne Larrington – from Tolkien to Marvel, the huge influence of Norse myths on modern culture
2 votes -
The emotional resonance of Microsoft Flight Simulator
3 votes -
Join the Counterforce: Thomas Pynchon’s postmodern epic Gravity’s Rainbow at fifty
6 votes -
Depression has often been blamed on low levels of serotonin in the brain. That answer is insufficient, but alternatives are coming into view and changing our understanding of the disease.
9 votes -
The first ordinary woman in English literature. The life and legacy of the Wife of Bath.
5 votes -
What kind of Angel: On Percy Shelley
4 votes -
Annie Ernaux wins the 2022 Nobel prize in literature
7 votes -
Don't blame Dostoyevsky - Culture, too, is a casualty of war
6 votes -
On being an asshole, on being a woman: In praise of female pedants
6 votes -
Interlinear Books: Learn between the lines (Subtitled books)
11 votes -
The Penguin Classics Marvel Collection breathes new life into iconic stories
3 votes -
How to be an incipit
8 votes -
How do ancient stories of talking elephants and singing birds encourage a life of truth, nonviolence and compassion?
3 votes -
The Billionaire’s Bard: On the rationalist fictions of Neal Stephenson
9 votes -
Margaret Atwood TERF Twitter controversy
7 votes -
Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel prize in literature
6 votes -
Why is young adult fiction the defining literary genre of the last two decades? What does its popularity say about modern American life?
20 votes -
Queer readings of The Lord of the Rings are not accidents
12 votes -
Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian author and women’s rights icon, dies
7 votes -
Fifty very bad book covers for literary classics
26 votes -
Hollywood's smartest teen movies
7 votes -
Louise Glück wins Nobel Prize for Literature
6 votes -
Starting a zine
Is it possible to start an indie literary (web?)zine in this part of history? Do you have any tips on marketing, gaining submissions, the publishing itself, editing and other things involved in...
Is it possible to start an indie literary (web?)zine in this part of history? Do you have any tips on marketing, gaining submissions, the publishing itself, editing and other things involved in the making of a zine?
Your own experiences, speculations and links to articles are welcome!
10 votes -
If you had to teach a class on literature, what books would you put on your syllabus?
I asked a similar question over in ~games and am interested to hear how ~books would respond to the same setup. Here's the task: pretend you're a professor! You have to do the following: Choose a...
I asked a similar question over in ~games and am interested to hear how ~books would respond to the same setup.
Here's the task: pretend you're a professor! You have to do the following:
- Choose a focus for your class on literature (with a snazzy title if you like)
- Choose the books that you, as a professor, will have your class dive into in order to convey key concepts
- Explain why each book you chose ties into your overarching exploration
Your class can have any focus, broad or specific: victorian literature, contemporary poetry, Shakespearean themes in non-Shakespearean works -- whatever you want! It can focus on any forms of literature and does not have to be explicitly limited to "books" if you want to look at some outside-of-the-box stuff (I once took a literature class where we read afternoon, a story, for example.)
After choosing your specific focus, choose what will be included on your syllabus as "required reading" and why you've chosen each item.
16 votes -
Looking for genre classics
While the latest hype-trains and the guaranteed oldies give me a reading list a few thousand books long, I like to read things which are left by the wayside. This list here is a good example. The...
While the latest hype-trains and the guaranteed oldies give me a reading list a few thousand books long, I like to read things which are left by the wayside. This list here is a good example. The author gives a list of genre classics. Books which aren't good enough to make the top 1000 books of all time, but are classics in their own genre and influenced a lot of future authors. The Princess and the Goblin is a good example. Everyone interested in Tolkien and the Inklings has read it, as well as those who like modern fairy tales, but it doesn't crop up much in recommendations lists. These are books which aren't quite as commonly discussed, but still good and important for people interested in the genre.
So, if you have a favorite genre or sub-genre I would love to read your 'genre classics' list, with maybe a sentence about why I should enjoy it. Not quite as comprehensive as a class on books, more than a bullet point.
Edit:
I just realized I didn't change the title. By the 'gap', I originally meant the gap between the books everyone suggests from the past and the mountain of dredged pulp you find in libraries and bookstores: books which are worth still reading, even if they aren't one of the 'Classics'. More like underrated recommendations.5 votes -
A small collection of novels — some great, some not so great — appeared in just the right form at just the right moment to effect lasting changes
5 votes -
What do you think of alternate history?
I tend to watch AlternateHistoryHub, WhatIfAlthist and occasionally Monsieur Z (but less so since the guy somehow got a far-right audience) so I've always been interested in the idea of alternate...
I tend to watch AlternateHistoryHub, WhatIfAlthist and occasionally Monsieur Z (but less so since the guy somehow got a far-right audience) so I've always been interested in the idea of alternate history.
However, there's more than that. There are books and writers (I.E Harry turtledove), 3 subreddits (r/historywhatif, r/historicalwhatif and r/alternatehistory), many games (HOI I, II, III and IV, civ 1-6, Vicky 1-3, etc), a forum and according to Wikipedia, people have been speculating about history since before the year 0.
So what do you think of it?
7 votes -
Eight surprising literary Easter eggs
2 votes -
Dark Deleuze
4 votes -
How Ayn Rand ruined my childhood
21 votes -
Algonquin Round Table: How the group of writers became a symbol of the roaring twenties
4 votes -
Nick Carraway is gay and in love with Gatsby
23 votes