Literacy Nerds's topics - tribe.net

The way to Christ is simple

2008-05-09T21:16:18Z

God's Blessings often benefit all people. But many of His promises are only for His own children. If you're not sure that you're a part of God's family, He offers you this invitation. The way to Christ is simple:

1. Admit that you have a need.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23

2. Believe that Jesus is God, the Son, who paid the wages of your sin.

For the wages of sin is death [eternal separation from God]; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23

3. Call upon God.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Romans 10:9

King James Version

The Holy Bible

ISBN 978-1-58660-198-0

Barbour Publishing

www.barbourbooks.com

posted in Literacy Nerds - 23 replies

if you could kill off or get rid of any major character from any book/books/stories, who would you get rid of?

2008-04-29T01:22:40Z

Well, I was thinking about this the other day and wanted to know what other people thought. Usually I hear people talking about characters that they really love and admire, so I wanted to know who were the characters that people really despised. Here are some of my picks:

Daisy and Tom Buchanan from "The Great Gatsby"

Charles and Lucie Darnay from "A Tale of Two Cities"

Kitty Fane from "The Painted Veil"

Rosemary Hoyt from "Tender is the Night"

Fermina Daza from "Love in the Time of Cholera"

pretty much everyone from "Our Town"

pretty much everyone from "The Scarlet Letter"

pretty much everyone from "Kristin Lavransdatter" except for Lavrans

Jewel from "As I Lay Dying"

Scarlett, Melanie, and Ashley from "Gone With the Wind"

*I would name some people from Shakespeare but most of them die on their own*

and there are some others too but that's just to get the thread started

posted in Literacy Nerds - 16 replies

Which character deaths made you cry?

2008-04-28T12:04:43Z

My top few are (warning some spoilers):
Beth in Little Women
Dumbledore in the The Half-Blood Prince
The anti-hero in A Tale of Two Cities
Lenny in Of Mice and Men
Charlotte in Charlotte's Web
Dora in Time Enough for Love

posted in Literacy Nerds - 35 replies

A book with no changes

2008-04-28T11:30:47Z

Can anyone think of a book that ends exactly where it began for all the characters?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 5 replies

What book would you take to a desert island?

2008-04-28T11:16:17Z

posted in Literacy Nerds - 20 replies

"Kierkegaard" quote

2008-04-26T22:14:56Z

I don't even know how to begin looking for this...
Once upon a time, I was reading the paperback Folio French translation of "Diary of a Seducer," and fell in love with the little German poem used as an epigram:

Gehe, Verschmahe die treue
Die Reue kommt nach.

But I can't remember who actually wrote the epigram, or if it's even noted.

I don't have the book anymore, and amazon.fr doesn't have that nice "Look Inside!" function.

Is this line familiar to anyone?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 9 replies

Literature is the keystone of the arch of culture.

2008-04-18T04:50:56Z

I noted that line from an essay ("The Redefinition of Man") by Richard Weaver that I enjoyed reading this morning.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 3 replies

literacy nerds not nerdy enough!!!

2008-04-17T10:49:44Z

none of you know fernando pessoa?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 11 replies

fleshy literaryness

2008-03-29T15:05:23Z

hello, im here the slaugther the english tongue sorry all....
just kiding...im the anthithesis of the intelectual type, that is, i dont suffer from any of the symptomology, however I do suffer from a deep love of Fernando pessoa`s poetry, namely his heteronyms Alvaro de Campos and Alberto Caeiro. There are many great ones I could mention, but let`s start slowly...
waiting

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Shakespeare goes digital (X-post)

2008-03-26T20:01:33Z

Why x-posted? It's Shake-freakin-speare!!!

From Reuters via Yahoo news: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080326/tc_nm/britain_shakespeare_digital_dc

A U.S. and British library plan to reproduce online all 75 editions of William Shakespeare's plays printed in the quarto format before the year 1641.

The Bodleian Library in Oxford and Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC have joined forces to download their collections, building on the work of the British Library which digitized its collection of quarto editions in 2004.

In the absence of surviving manuscripts, the quartos -- Shakespeare's earliest printed editions -- offer the closest known evidence of what Shakespeare might actually have written, and what appeared on the early modern English stage.

The project is designed to make all of the quartos, many of which are only accessible to scholars, available to the wider public.

The process of downloading the quartos will begin next month and take a year to complete.

Online visitors will be able to compare images side-by-side, lay one facsimile on top of the other, search plays and mark and tag the texts.

As well as highlighting more minor differences between copies of the same quarto, the digital database will also make it easier to study the often wide discrepancies between quartos, including some of Shakespeare's most famous lines.

"There will be countless new ways for scholars, teachers, and students to examine the quarto texts, particularly of 'Hamlet'," said Folger director Gail Kern Paster.

"You find out all sorts of things -- about how the copies went through the press, and also about the printing process," she added.

Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more between about 1590 and 1613. He died in 1616.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Early American fiction set in 'foreign' places

2008-02-13T07:52:47Z

Can anyone think of early American stories or novels or poems set in non-American settings?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 12 replies

Canonical classics that secretly suck

2008-02-01T13:46:26Z

Shannon cleverly suggested this topic in an earlier thread, so I'm stealing it.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 94 replies

Terry Pratchett

2007-12-12T19:12:22Z

FYI

http://www.paulkidby.com/news/index.html

:(

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

Study: Americans Reading A Lot Less

2007-11-22T08:16:18Z

Reading Skills On The Decline Across Almost All Education Levels, Government Report Says

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/19/national/main3520163.shtml

(CBS/AP) The latest National Endowment for the Arts report draws on a variety of sources, public and private, and essentially reaches one conclusion:

Americans are reading a lot less.

That's according to a 99-page study, "To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consquence," released Monday by the National Endowment for the Arts as a follow-up to a 2004 NEA survey, "Reading at Risk," that found an increasing number of adult Americans were not even reading one book a year.

The new study examined data on everything from how many 9-year-olds read every day for "fun" (54 percent) to the percentage of high school graduates deemed by employers as "deficient" in writing in English (72 percent).

"I've done a lot of work in statistics in my career and I've never seen a situation where so much data was pulled from so many places and absolutely everything is so consistent," NEA chairman Dana Gioia said.

The report by the NEA, a taxpayer-funded independent federal agency, is based on reading trends data collected from more than 40 sources, including other federal agencies, universities, foundations, and associations.

Among the findings:

# On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.

# Reading scores for American adults of almost all education levels have deteriorated, notably among the best-educated groups. From 1992 to 2003, the percentage of adults with graduate school experience who were rated proficient in prose reading dropped by 10 points, a 20 percent rate of decline.

# In 2002, only 52 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24, the college years, read a book voluntarily, down from 59 percent in 1992.

# American 15-year-olds ranked fifteenth in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France, and Canada, among others.

# Money spent on books, adjusted for inflation, dropped 14 percent from 1985 to 2005 and has fallen dramatically since the mid-1990s.

# The number of adults with bachelor's degrees and "proficient in reading prose" dropped from 40 percent in 1992 to 31 percent in 2003.

Some news is good, notably among 9-year-olds, whose reading comprehension scores have soared since the early 1990s.

But at the same time, the number of 17-year-olds who "never or hardly ever" read for pleasure has doubled, to 19 percent, and their comprehension scores have fallen.

"I think there's been an enormous investment in teaching kids to read in elementary school," Gioia said. "Kids are doing better at 9, and at 11. At 13, they're doing no worse, but then you see this catastrophic falloff. ... If kids are put into this electronic culture without any counterbalancing efforts, they will stop reading."

Publishers and booksellers have noted that teen fiction is a rapidly expanding category in an otherwise flat market, but the NEA's director of research, Sunil Iyengar, wondered how much of that growth has been caused by the Harry Potter books, the last of which came out in July.

"It's great that millions of kids are reading these long, intricate novels, but reading one such book every 18 months doesn't make up for daily reading," Gioia said.

Doug Whiteman, president of the Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA), said sales of teen books were the strongest part of his business. But he added that a couple of factors could explain why scores were dropping: Adults are also buying the Potter books, thus making the teen market seem bigger on paper, and some sales are for non-English language books.

"There are so many nuances," Whiteman said. "Reading scores don't necessarily have any relevance to today's sales."

The head of Simon & Schuster's children's publishing division, Rick Richter, saw another reason why sales could rise even as scores go down: A growing gap between those who read and those who do not. Richter considers it "very possible" that the market is driven by a relatively small number of young people who buy large numbers of books. Test scores, meanwhile, are lowered by the larger population of teens who do not read.

"A divide like that is really a cause for concern," Richter said.

The report emphasizes the social benefits of reading: "Literary readers" are more likely to exercise, visit art museums, keep up with current events, vote in presidential elections and perform volunteer work.

"This should explode the notion that reading is somehow a passive activity," Gioia said. "Reading creates people who are more active by any measure... People who don't read, who spend more of their time watching TV or on the Internet, playing video games, seem to be significantly more passive."

Gioia called the decline in reading "perhaps the most important socio-economic issue in the United States," and called for changes "in the way we're educating kids, especially in high school and college. We need to reconnect reading with pleasure and enlightenment."

"`To Read or Not to Read' suggests we are losing the majority of the new generation," Gioia said. "The majority of young Americans will not realize their individual, economic or social potential."

© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

For Halloween: "Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story"

2007-11-01T16:55:45Z

Was Boo Radley a real person?

Why didn't Harper Lee ever write another book, after TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD?

What did she see in Kansas, when she was with Truman Capote writing IN COLD BLOOD, that changed her life forever?

Did the ghosts of the murdered Clutters ever visit the very people who brought them back to life?

What made Truman Capote pick up the phone, in the final year of his life, and make one last call to his childhood best friend, now his almost bitter enemy? What does he say that sends her to a cemetery in the middle of the night -- where her family -- and their childhood secrets --are buried?

If those questions intrigue you, then you'll want to read the new novel by Kim Powers, CAPOTE IN KANSAS: A GHOST STORY. It's a sort of "fantasia" about two of our greatest and most mysterious writers, and the inescapable memories that bind them together. But more than just a book about Capote and Lee, it's about all our childhoods: when you played barefoot outside, late into the night, or pretended there was a haunted house in the neighborhood, and didn't understand the grown-up world of adults and death -- or understood it all too well.

Entertainment Weekly says: "Powers astutely summons the intense sorrow behind a life-long friendship gone awry."

Publishers Weekly calls it "welcome", "offbeat" and intriguing."

The Advocate calls it "dark and captivating."

Pulitzer Prize winner Oscar Hijuelos writes: “I thought I knew the story of Truman Capote and Harper Lee. I was wrong. Kim Powers brilliantly brings their strange relationship alive in a way a standard-issue biography never could. Weaving together fact, speculation and fantasy, he creates a sort of emotional biography that will haunt you long after the last page...just as the ghosts of the slain Clutters must have haunted them.”

Maybe best of all, Library Journal, in a starred review, has this to say:
"In his exceptional first novel, Emmy and Peabody Award winner Powers presents us with Truman Capote in the last year of his life. Addled by drugs and alcohol and despairing the wreck his shining life has become, he is plagued by the ghosts of the people whose deaths he chronicled in his greatest book, In Cold Blood. The now-old Harper Lee, or Nelle as she calls herself, is the only one who has a shot at understanding Truman—his childhood friend, she served as companion and researcher on the trip to Kansas that produced In Cold Blood. But Nelle has her own ghosts to exorcise having to do with why she never wrote a second book. In Kansas, Powers speculates, Truman exposed Nelle to her own sexuality, which she continues to suppress. And at his famous 1966 Black and White Ball, green with envy over Nelle's having won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Truman spreads the rumor that it was he who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, not she. Powers, whose 2006 memoir, The History of Swimming, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, succeeds brilliantly in blending fact and fiction to produce a sensitive portrait of two lost souls. Heartily recommended for public collections."

VISIT KIMPOWERSBOOKS.COM

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Dinesen, "The Dreaming Child"

2007-10-04T07:08:18Z

Has anyone here read this short story recently?
I totally could not figure out the ending.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 1 reply

A "Jumbled" poet

2007-09-21T15:42:45Z

Today's Jumble words are

Brook
Agile
Oblong
Queasy

Using them, I composed the following.

A nightingale's song stirred in the poet memories of his agile youth, so he leapt over the brook, then leapt back, and leapt over a third time, landing queasy. His stomach soon settled in an oblong box.

What can you make of them?

Fans of such playfulness are invited to join Jumble Bums; we do this every day.

http://tribes.tribe.net/jumblebums

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Favorite poets/poem?

2007-08-31T13:40:23Z

So who's yours? Is there a poet among the sea of talent that you've picked to be your favorite? Or maybe there's a poem that grabbed you the first time you read it and it's been your favorite ever since? Let us know :-)

My favorite poet is a classic: Walt Whitman.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 89 replies

Library book request - Dynamic Belly Dance

2007-08-24T23:53:56Z

Would you like to read a book about the art of belly dancing filled with beautiful photos and illustrations?

If yes, please ask your public library to add to their collection:

Dynamic Belly Dance, The Joyful Journey of Dancemaking and Performing by Ramona
ISBN 978-0-615-13326-3

This book is available to library distributors. If your librarian has questions about availability or needs further info/excerpt/details, go to www.DynamicBellyDance.com

Thanks so much! I'm the author of this new book, and need your help in getting it into libraries.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Somerset Maugham

2007-08-20T16:10:24Z

Maugham is my latest fascination.

I'm a huge classic movie fan, so I've seen classic film versions of many of his works -- best known are probably "Of Human Bondage", "The Letter", "The Painted Veil", "Rain" (aka "Sadie Thompson"), and "The Razor's Edge".

Like many writers of his era, I find it so easy to get lost in his dreamy, romantic, adventurous world. He's the kind of writer that makes me wish I has been born a couple of generations earlier.

His short stories are wonderful temporary escapes when I don't feel like making a full novel-length committment. I'm reading "Up at the Villa" right now.

Do any of you have any Maugham favorites?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 7 replies

one in a million

2007-08-07T23:48:17Z

i am one of those who have not read a word of Harry Potter... with so many wonderful books to read and a very satisfied reader without them... am I really missing something?

also, should I just nod and smile (and therefore pretend by omission) when people assume I have read them... it seems like stating the above in a crowded room just creates an unnecessary ruckus...

or should I take this to the Free Advice tribe?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 12 replies

Gravity's Rainbow

2007-07-19T07:58:50Z

Alright, I am curious if anyone here has actually completed this book. I have been trying to finish the book for almost ten years now. No joke. I really want to complete it. I've gotten about halfway through it. I always tendto stop somewhere there and get sidetracked. A big problem with this book is that there is no way for me to put it down for awhile and then pick it up later, starting where I left off. Someone I know, who taught Pynchon, says that I got further with that book than he ever did. He recommended to just read The Crying Lot. It's a goal, though. I've got to finish this book....one day.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 30 replies

Esotouric's new John Fante and Charles Bukowski LA tours

2007-05-19T16:29:59Z

Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose offbeat tours expose L.A.'s secret history, is thrilled to announce that this August 16-19, we'll be organizing a gala downtown celebration for what would have been Charles Bukowski's 87th birthday. Stay tuned to www.esotouric.com for much more news about Bukday.

Since June 16 sees the debut of our tour of John Fante's Bunker Hill, and Fante and Bukowski are so deeply entwined in the city's literary legacy, we're extending this special, limited time offer: Purchase one seat on the 6/16 Fante tour and one on the Saturday 8/18 debut of Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles, and save $20 on the combined fare. Interested? Visit www.esotouric.com/fante for more info.

Our tours include Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, The Real Black Dahlia, Weird West Adams, Blood & Dumplings, Pasadena Confidential and Hallowe'en Horrors. Coming soon: Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles.

best regards,
Kim
Esotouric

Upcoming Esotouric tour and event schedule:
Sat May 26 - Pasadena Confidential
Sat June 16- John Fante's Dreams of Bunker Hill
Sat June 23 –Weird West Adams
Sat July 21 – Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place
Fri Aug 17 – Charles Bukowski's Birthday Party event
Sat Aug 18 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Where do you store the words you learn as you read?

2007-05-15T20:18:15Z

I was just thinking today that it would be handy to find a website in existence that allows one to create his or her own web-based personal dictionary online. I'm a real word fanatic, and although I consider myself well-read, I often come across words, (esp. with recently moving here to work in the District and dealing with Congress, the Senate and such), with which I am unfamiliar. I definitely did not retain much from my high school government or college political science classes -- because who knew I would actually need to call that to memory again one day? So I'm constantly scribbling, looking up and saving the words and their definitions in a small pocket-size notebook.

Do you currently use a site to compile your own personal dictionary or repository of lingo, jargon, slang, words, etc? It would definitely need to be a website that provides the functionality to search or attach tags to the definitions or put them in alphabetical order or labeled groups, so that they could easily be accessed at a later date.

For now, I use my Blinklist at http://www.blinklist.com, which is the best Web 2.0 social bookmarking site, IMHO. But I'm curious to see what other methods others may be using.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 8 replies

Review in New Yorker

2007-04-25T05:40:13Z

Read a review in a New Yorker from a couple weeks back on an author whose name begins with a "B". He lived in Chile and Mexico was addicted to heroin. Wore glasses. Does anyone remember his name? I can't find the New Yorker and can't remember the names of his books. They sounded good and I want to get one. If anyone knows about whom I am speaking can you please tell me.

Thanks

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

American fiction set in Rome

2007-03-13T20:03:14Z

Can you think of any?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 5 replies

Michel Houellebecq.

2007-03-03T12:26:15Z

What did / do people think?

Atomised if you have time, if not try Lanzarote.

Also: I just read Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Dunker. Very simple book, I dont know why but this affected me, is an update of a classical form/theme. Anyone else read it?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 4 replies

What about a Faulkner tribe?

2007-02-12T04:17:06Z

Would anyone feel entitled to moderate a Faulkner tribe, because I don't: I'm in the middle of "Absalom! Absalom! and find it amazing and would love to discuss this stuff with people who know more about it than I do...

posted in Literacy Nerds - 7 replies

Ulysses

2007-02-08T22:40:01Z

I'm pleased that I've finally found a way to read Ulysses (pron. OO lis ayz) after all these many years of letting it sit on the shelf unread.

When Joyce first made it available for reading and publishing, it was considered unreadable even by his best artist friends and supporters. It took a good fifty years of hard study, research, and explication by some very good and dedicated people to make it intelligible, interesting, and engaging. Thus, I've found that I can read it as long as I have a series of keys to guide me through it... including a good synopsis of each book of Homer's Odyssey; Cliff Note summaries of each chapter and the characters; and some very elucidating essays by Guy Davenport, the most helpful being those on the Daedalus myth and the way Joyce used each symbol of the ancient Irish alphabet as a way of setting up each of the 18 chapters. It's also essential to have a good grasp of what a Catholic education meant in those days, along with a knowledge of both the classic literature and the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. Joyce's alter-ego in the book, Stephen Dedalus, is considered an expert Aristotelian and logician. Joyce portrays him struggling between two choices as an artist: the back to the Irish movement, seeking authenticity in the ancient and pagan past, and the ultra modern European movement (which he finally sees as move viable for the future of art). Thus, as more and more keys become available, so the novel opens up more of its many layers and resonances.

A piece of good reading advice that I found at a Joyce site is to read this ultra-realistic novel with an mpresioniist's eyes.. i.e., let the words, scenes, and images make impressions instead of trying to get meaning and import out of every litle word, phrase, chapter, or detail. It's also made me think that perhaps it's best to view an impressionistic work with the eyes of the realist.

Another plus is the way that other strands of art stand in conjunction with Ulysses as artists have taken ancient myths and stories and interpolated them into their works. Davenport has very helpfully shown how parallel and interwoven these works are, as he explicates the importance of the Daedalus myth and its many permutations throughout the history of art and literature.. in the nursery rhyme "The House that Jack Built," echoes of which appear in Ulysses; in Picasso's Minatauromachy and other of his art; in the art of Pavel Tchelitchew; and elsewhere. This extra-textual and visual art helps the reader to see the way that these images, symbols, and themes take relevance in our changing modern world and, at the same time, resonate in the psyche and the way that people act in the great metropolis of living labyrinth of life.. not just in the square mile of Dublin on June 16, 1904.

I've read seven chapters now, and I believe that I can finish the book without too much trouble. Each chapter, remember, has a title given to it by a critic, while at the same time representing the symbolic meaning of that place in the Irish alphabet.

Part One consistes of three chapters: the first is called "Telemachus," the second "Nestor," and the third "Proteus"; these three chapters introduce and establish Stephen Daedalus as both the Telemachus and Icarus of the novel and the man who triumphs humanly as a sensitive thinker, his challenge being dealing with extroverted doers and bullies.

Part Two introduces and establishes Leopold Bloom as the Ulysses of the novel and the Wandering Jew, the christlike man of sensuality and the world.. the bee gatherning nectar in order to build out of the labyrinth the golden honeycomb of love.. whose struggle is to complete himself through relationships with others, especially with his troublesome wife Molly, the queen-bee, the nymph, and the Penelope of the novel. As you can see there are parallel myths working intricately through the characters as they move through Dublin.. the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus; Homer's Odyssey; and the Judeo-Christian Bible, including the Catholic gospels and the way the Irish conduct rituals, often at odds with the way they actually think about the religion. The main tone of the novel, however, is one of bitterness at the socio-political climate and attitudes of the people, emphasizing their twin bondage to the English and the Pope. Joyce didn't approve of the back to the old Irish movement in art, theater, and literature .. spearheaded by Yeats and Lady Gregory.. and that was why he expatriated himself from the country, in order to involve himself in European art and thinking as a way of moving forward instead of backwards. He was a very angry man, and it shows in the novel through the character of Stephen Daedalus and the way the Irish Catholics treat the central character, Leopold Bloom, a man of Hungarian Jewish origins. Even so, there is much love and humor in the way that Bloom thinks and deals with the world.. and that redeems the novel in a big way.

Also interesting is that Ulysses is a work of poetry embedded in the prose of everyday thoughts, words, movements, actions, and events. As I have been reading, my observing mind has been remarking on how much like poetry many of the lines read. Yes, the syntax and stream-of-consciousness thought processes can be very difficult to parse out, but the key-guides generally make most of it intelligible and meaningful.

Sue

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

The Romantics and ... those other guys

2007-02-01T15:10:50Z

I'm trying to explain Romantic poetry to this class.
And you know how it goes. You do Goethe, Rousseau, Sturm und Drang, the French Revolution, the Rise of the Individual, nature and feelings, and contrast all that with ....
.... you know.
The stuff that happened before they had nature and feelings. Classicism. Those guys who wrote poems playing by the rules. Like.... you know.... well, those Classical guys. Pope. Alexander. Um... yeah. And ... well... them.
Am I the only person around here with this problem? My knowledge of English poetry kind of sandwiches a big nothing between the Metaphysical poets, Milton, and Blake.

If I wanted to give my students one - let's say just one - pre-Romantic poem to contrast to, say, Shelley or Wordsworth - what would it BE?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 8 replies

New England Bookstores (X-Posted)

2007-01-17T18:13:57Z

Hey Literacy Nerds, I'm suffering from a bibliophilic drought. I recently moved to Southern Vermont and have yet to find a great bookstore. I really miss the bookstores I had back home in the Bay Area. Tell me what your favorite used bookstores are in New England. Thanks!

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Any Toronto peeps here?

2006-12-13T01:01:54Z

Calling fellow Toronto-area literary peeps - reveal thyselves! Interested in establishing connections with local bibliophiles and like minded word loving freaks!

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Chapbook Contest/Call For Submissions

2006-11-14T18:10:22Z

Gertrude Press, a literary and visual arts organization serving the LGBTQ community, is pleased to announce a call for submissions for our annual poetry and fiction chapbook contest.

Winners will be selected in both categories and will receive a $50 cash prize plus fifty copies of the chapbook. All entries will also be considered for publication in the biannual literary and arts journal, Gertrude.

Submissions should be postmarked by January 15, 2007. Submission fee of $12 includes a one-year subscription to Gertrude. Full contest rules, past winners, and information on subscribing can be found at www.gertrudepress.org.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Podcasting and Scripting

2006-11-13T04:34:09Z

I have a podcast called A Kiwi Songwriter, which you can listen to at http://luigicappel.libsyn.com

So what has this to do with literacy nerds? Well I am a songwriter and have also written a book, loads of magazine articles etc and when I started on this podcast series I did what comes naturaly and scripted it. The problem was that I am not a DJ or a broadcaster and felt that it sounded scripted. So my challenge now is to make it sound unscripted, otherwise I migt as well just stick with my ordinary blogs that people can read. The suggestion I was given was to just use notes and talk to them. I've done that in my latest podcast and would welcome your feedback. I think it's pretty good and it will improve as I get used to ad libbing more.

Also I have recently written and published on my page at Music Forte a new song called Mr Bush Why Can't We Be Friends about New Zealand's relationship with the US. But we are friends you will be thinking, why would you write something like that? Well we sort of are friends, at least people to people we are, but because we democratically voted to have no nuclear powered or armed ships (of any nationality) in our parts, we were suspended from the ANZUS Treaty as well as from most military training exercises and denied a free trade agreement. So I wrote this song to protest about it and it has shot to Number One on the Music Forte Top 20 Country songs. I would be very grateful if you have a listen and tell your friends about the song and the situation so we can go back to being totally friends:)

posted in Literacy Nerds - 1 reply

Whatever happened to...

2006-10-30T22:46:37Z

Hadley Hemingway?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

Looking for words - research question

2006-10-13T21:29:48Z

Thanks for the Morrison suggestions.

Here's another thing.
I need to start collecting texts with, say, the letter "x" in them, or the word "igloo." Not texts necessarily ABOUT igloos (although that would be fine, too). Abut also texts that just mention them.
I'm looking for literary texts from any period, in English.

Is there any ONE big, searchable online datebase I can run just ONE search on?
Or something offline I've overlooked?
I know this kind of thing exists for, say the complete works of Shakespeare... but does it exist for a collection of writers?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 3 replies

Toni Morrisson - suggestions?

2006-10-05T06:38:19Z

Want to teach one of her novels to a class of 4th year undergraduates.
Anyone have a recommendation?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 9 replies

Recommendations Please!

2006-10-05T06:23:02Z

I am in a reading slump. Help! Please recommend something to get me excited again. Here's a truncated list of previously digested and enjoyed material to give you an idea what I like.

Richard Brautigan
Tibor Fischer
Paul Auster
Philip K. Dick
Flannery O'Connor
Jim Dodge
Haruki Murakami

Thanks!

posted in Literacy Nerds - 27 replies

Celebrate your freedom to read (Xposted)

2006-09-13T17:48:39Z

From: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/celebrate-your-freedom-to-read.html:

What was your favorite book when you were in school? Did F. Scott Fitzgerald give you an inside look at a world of glamorous parties where the wealthy fell in love and went home with their feelings hurt? Did Holden Caulfield speak directly to your inner misanthrope? For decades, literary classics such as The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye have had a profound impact on millions of readers. Yet every year, there are hundreds of attempts to remove great books from schools and libraries nationwide. Fortunately, the American Library Association and many other organizations are fighting back with Banned Books Week, taking place this year Sept. 23-30.

For 25 years, libraries and bookstores nationwide have been celebrating the freedom to read during Banned Books Week, which is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the National Association of College Stores, and endorsed by the Library of Congress Center for the Book.

Now Google has joined the party. At google.com/bannedbooks, you can use Google Book Search to explore some of the best novels of the 20th century which have been challenged or banned. And while libraries and bookstores around the country celebrate the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week with special readings, displays, and more, you just might end up with a visit to your local library or bookstore and an old favorite or a new banned book in hand.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

I just want to rant for a moment

2006-07-17T19:27:24Z

I'm a member of several tribes and I really enjoy the interaction. Sometimes, however, it's just too difficult to read the people's posts because of all the spelling and grammar errors. This drives me absolutely crazy! If you can't spell the word "piece", you need to be using a dictionary at all times!

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

QUEER INK - a new writing group for queers

2006-07-07T02:55:55Z

[please excuse the cross-posting, but I thought members might be interested in this (or know folks who might be) - please pass it on!]

QUEER INK - a new writing group for queers

Queer? Do you write, or are you interested in writing? Would you like to talk with other people who write? Would you like to get together with others who understand what it’s like to struggle with writer’s block, and who want to know how to get published (like you)? Would you like help with critiquing your work and exploring your writing?

Queer Ink is a new writing group for queers who like to write, whether you call yourself a writer or not. We welcome anyone who identifies as queer and writes. We welcome folks of any gender or sexuality.

Interested? Check us out!

Come join us on the web at
au.groups.yahoo.com/group/queer_ink/

posted in Literacy Nerds - 1 reply

Walter Abish

2006-06-28T12:39:57Z

Same question, but for Abish.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

what authors are you obsessed with their work?

2006-06-23T05:41:29Z

i have a friend who lives for Bret Easton Ellis and when i was in high school i was SO all about Shakespeare and Jane Austen but are there any authors that you guys are really into all their work? be it Will Self or Vonnegut or F. Scott Fitzgerald--who's your author of choice?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 167 replies

"Radical" Conservatives

2006-06-22T21:26:35Z

This has been annoying me lately. In my history classes in high school, they taught us about the political spectrum, which was defined something like this:

Radical <-- Liberal <-- Centrist --> Conservative --> Reactionary

And yet everywhere I look, I see references to 'radical' conservativism. What is up with that? The dictionary definitions of radical can serviceably be applied to conservativism, but 'reactionary' is both more specific and, IMHO, fits the conservative philosophy more closely, indicating a resistance to change:

"Characterized by reaction, especially opposition to progress or liberalism; extremely conservative."

or

"An opponent of progress or liberalism; an extreme conservative."

posted in Literacy Nerds - 7 replies

palahniuk's haunted

2006-06-21T15:50:38Z

anyone have anything to say on this one. i'm all about it at the moment.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Where do you place yourself in relation to the light you read by?

2006-06-18T10:23:01Z

I always heard that 'you should have the light come over your left shoulder.' I don't know if that's a common saying or just much-repeated by a few people I know. My left eye's "lazy" and I prefer the light on my right side.

Do you mind overhead lighting? Some loathe it. I can honestly say it's caused me no heartache.

At a desk, I enjoy a banker's light, but I haven't been at a desk to read in nearly a year (-long story), so I don't much think about that.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 4 replies

Literary small towns on I-80?

2006-06-13T04:35:35Z

Two literary nerds and two small children will soon be embarking on a journey across country via I-80. Where should we stop? Tell us of the best bookstores (used prefered) and the coolest coffee shops. Tell us what downtowns made your nerdy, arty inards tingle. Where should we stop...you tell us.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

The Rainbow

2006-05-31T18:53:08Z

I finally found a copy of The Rainbow in a used bookstore. I finished reading it this morning. What an amazing, weird, powerful, disturbing book. I can't believe it was written almost 100 years ago. I don't really like his kind of stream-of-consciousness method of depicting the internal process of the main characters but I'm not sure why I dislike it. While reading it felt tedious, but maybe it was just too raw. And the anger, the love-hate power struggles between the couples; I can't believe this was written so long ago, it feels so edgy...what's at the edge of writing today? We can write about sex openly but who describes the subconscious dynamics, the darkness of love? Lawrence was really exploring new territory both in his style of writing and his subject matter. Who is doing that now? What writers are currently pushing the edges not only of literature but of our understanding of ourselves?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 12 replies

Site for book recommendations?

2006-05-30T05:38:26Z

I’ve done a bit of searching for a site that will provide recommendations on the next book I should read (besides the obvious, mainstream, top sellers). My Amazon picks are all over the place since I’ve bought stuff for my parents, my kids, school, etc. No Amazon I don’t want to read another book about accounting ever.

What have people had luck with? A few sites seem promising, like whatshouldireadnext.com, nextfavorite.com and librarything, but I’m not sur how valid the recommendations are

posted in Literacy Nerds - 1 reply

Change One Letter

2006-05-26T19:12:05Z

Change one letter of a book title, and create a new story!

Example: The Drapes of Wrath--concerns the exploits of a depression-era Okie who goes to Hollywood, becomes an interior designer and ends up in a brutal class conflict over a set of frilly checkered curtains.

The Old Man and the Pea: Several hundred pages of allegory about a lonely old farmer attempting to plant the last pea of his failed harvest. While he broods, a rat comes and eats his pea.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 42 replies

Are Latin and Greek important to you?

2006-05-26T16:45:42Z

I'm reading CLIMBING PARNASSUS, an apologia for Greek and Latin. I've had a semester of Greek and two of Latin. A pittance, I know. Working through a Latin grammar on my own these days.
I wish I had received a classical education. It's a slog catching up in mid-life!

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

collaborative writing

2006-05-25T00:54:53Z

Hello everone, I have just completed my website, relaywrite.com. I really beleive that it can have a very positive impact on people's lives. Relay Write is a collaborative writing project. A user starts a story and other users add on to the story until it is completed. I thought the members of this tribe might be interested. You can check it out here www.relaywrite.com. If you like my website please contribute to help me get it off the ground.

Thanks,
Josh

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

New Dark Fiction Available Now

2006-05-22T21:08:54Z

I am very pleased to announce that my short story Collection, "Shaytan Rising" is now available from Lulu Press.

From the press release:

"Shaytan Rising is a collection of five short stories which examine the dark sides of the self. Kyle Sennett wrote Shaytan Rising , compiling five of his best short works. The title story SHAYTAN RISING tells the tale of a man who finds himself inexorably drawn to a dark force that he cannot identify until he becomes that dark force himself. SHE is the tale of the Old Gift and the terrifying creature who is its keeper. CONFESSIONS OF A DJINI takes a more humorous tone, exposing the secrets of the wish-granting spirits eternally tied to their lamps. In BACKLASH we meet Jessica, who has returned to her family home and her family's secrets. And finally in THE CIRCLE we meet a coterie of magicians who are plagued by an urge demon, Abraxas, and the machinations of their own superiors within their secret Order."

PLEASE SUPPORT A NEW AUTHOR AND BUY MY BOOK. IT'S ONLY $14.99

http://www.lulu.com/content/311163

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Man Interrupted book reviews

2006-05-19T21:13:46Z

hi everyone here is a review that a reader of my book posted of my new book Man, Interrupted at www.amazon.co.uk if you can please try reading my book I think it will inspire you. best jim it cost about 29.00 dollars which includes shipping to america. p.s. i also have two oscar winners on the cover.

This book has you gripped from the start, it is descriptive, facinating and humerous and tells how the author recovered at an American clinic. His fears and obsessions were centered around drugs and their effects, and his treatment was to face his fears without asking for reassurance.

I also have OCD which centres around fears of contamination from germs and a fear of drugs so I really identify with the book, but anyone would enjoy reading this as it is so well written and gives the reader an insight into OCD in a humerous and interesting way.

I found it very theraputic to read because if I was in an OCD spiral of fear I would go and read a bit more of the book and it was so absorbing to read it took my mind off my fears for a while (which is quite an acomplishment as any one who suffers from panic attacks will realise)

I would highly recommend this book to anyone.an

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Shakespeare and dirty talk

2006-05-19T18:13:36Z

Yes, the Bard could be bawdy but I'm not thinking of that. I'm wondering, how is that this mild-mannered fellow (-that would be me) who is learning Latin and loves Shakespeare also melts for dirty talk, which is of substantially less literary value. Yet at the time I don't mind.
Is that common among literacy nerds? Or not?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

GORE VIDAL 101 / 411 tribe.

2006-05-16T12:21:48Z

http://tribes.tribe.net/gorevidal101411

If you like Gore Vidal you might like this tribe. : )

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Time's Top 100 Novels

2006-05-14T17:54:43Z

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html

Thoughts? I thought it was a surpisingly good list--much better than others I've seen. I've actually read and enjoyed many of the ones listed.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 26 replies

Can't Go Home Again

2006-05-10T23:35:47Z

I love rereading books. I have some I've reread every few years since I was in high school. Often, I wait long enough so I forget the plot, so I can enjoy the story all over again. It's also interesting to pick up a book I loved several years ago and haven't read since, to see how my perceptions have changed.

Most of the time, I still love the book for the same reasons I once did. But every now and again, I just can't go home again, and I wince upon reread, wondering what I ever saw in it.

One such example: Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls. I loved that book in the early '90s: the edgy eroticism, the rich dank atmosphere she evoked, and her quirky, sympathetic portrayals of youth subculture. It suited my mood and the atmosphere of the time.

So I just started to reread it and man, her prose sucks. She really adores some favorite stupid phrases, like "smelled like blood and altars," and she takes clove cigarettes seriously. How could anybody have ever thought that there was anything appealing or sexy about vampires and the dreary children who wanted to be like them? Gah. It was kind of a shock, actually.

Anybody have a similar experience with a recent reread?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

Paul and Jane Bowles - comments / quotes.

2006-04-20T17:02:52Z

I see on the obsession topic that there are a few of us that are.
I havent met that many people who know of him or them so would be interested to hear what you think - like about them.
I like them both equally. I read them while I was living in the middle east Paul first and then hunted out Jane - was Bahrain and loved the descriptions of the words and the cultures within. Both eastern and western, the vast spaces and gaps in understanding. Love 2 serious ladies and the fox by Jane. Any other comments / quotes?

I love this from Paul - excuse the grammer as i transcribed this from a recording of his reading a while ago for myself:

'Immediately when you arrive in the Sahara, for the first of the tenth time, you notice the stillness. An incredible absolute silence prevails outside the towns and within, even in busy places like the markets, there’s a hushed quality in the air. As if the quiet were a conscious force, which resenting the intrusion of sound, minimises and disperses sound straight away. Then there is the sky, compared to which all other skies seem faint hearted efforts, solid and luminous, it is always the focal point of the landscape. At sunset the precise curved shadow of the earth, rises into it swiftly, cutting it into light sect and dark section. When all daylight is gone and the space is thick with stars, it is still of an intense and burning blue. Darkest directly overhead and paling toward the earth, so that the night never really grows dark. You leave the gate of the fort, or the town behind, past the camels lying out side, go up into the dunes, or out on the hard stony plain and stand awhile alone. Presently you will either shiver and hurry back inside the walls, or you will go on standing there until something very peculiar happened to you. Something that everyone who lives there has undergone, and which the French call le bapteme de la solitude. It is a unique sensation, and has nothing to do with loneliness, for loneliness presupposes memory. Here in this wholly mineral landscape, lighted by stars like flares, even memory disappears. Nothing is left but your own breathing, and the sound of your heart beating, a strange and by no means pleasant process of reintegration begins inside you, and you have the choice of fighting against it and insisting on remaining the person you have always been, or letting it take its course, for no one who has stayed in the Sahara for a while, is quite the same as when he came. Perhaps the logical question to ask at this point is ‘why go?’ the answer is that when a man has been there and undergone the bapteme de la solitude, he cant help himself, once he has been under the spell of the vast luminous silent country, no other place is quite strong enough for him, no other surroundings can provide the supremely satisfying sensation of existing in the midst of something that is absolute. He will go back, whatever the cost in comfort in money for the absolute has no price. @

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

ambiguous endings

2006-03-29T22:27:00Z

Can anyone think of novels or short stories with completely ambiguous endings?
Not unfinished works. I'm thinking of stories where the writer brings you right up to a climactic turning point - and then makes it unclear what happened.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 16 replies

Mark Twain

2006-03-28T00:59:05Z

So I finally read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and then Huckleberry Finn, and I wasn't bowled over by them. I've always heard of Mark Twain as being a cultural icon, who wrote incredible literature.

I think the best thing I can say about these books is that they're quaint. I don't think of them as timeless classics so much as (unintentional) period pieces that allow a glimpse of an earlier time.

I was expecting too much, perhaps. I'm wondering if my experience is atypical or not?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 15 replies

eBooks?

2006-02-24T16:04:04Z

Can anyone recommend places to download free eBooks?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

miniature village

2006-02-21T06:52:42Z

hi, I came across a definative word in Gore Vidal's book '1876' for a miniature village but I can't remember it now or find it again, it is driving me nuts! Does any-one possibly know the word I'm looking for?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 5 replies

The Proust Challenge

2006-02-10T12:04:07Z

A recent article in Salon suggested that it was entirely feasible, even desirable, to read all seven volumes of "In Search of Lost Time" from beginning to end in seventy days or less. I love Proust, but I tend to skip around and take long breaks when I read him, so this sounded like a good challenge to me. For all others who'd like to give it a try, I've started a new community:

http://tribes.tribe.net/proustchallenge

posted in Literacy Nerds - 6 replies

Looking for feedback - Plot Hinge Serials

2006-02-03T03:48:23Z

Hi everyone,
I just joined this group and wanted to say hello and invite you to check out my new serial novel, Murkworld, at www.plothinge.com . It's a new storytelling concept that uses the outcome of real life events to determine how the plot unfolds. Starting Feb 6, a new chapter will be posted every week and the story's prologue is now available on the website. Just click on any one of the participating community names to access it. It's a new project so your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

seduction

2006-01-24T20:11:48Z

Can anybody think of a book about the experience of being seduced? Willfully, manipulatively seduced, I mean.

I want to read something like Kierkegaard's Journal of a Seducer, but from the seducee's POV.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 5 replies

I wanna translate an interesting book into Chinese

2006-01-15T04:55:16Z

I have some sparetime now,so wanna translate an English book into Chinese,but the book must at least have these conditions as following(otherwise the publishing houses in China won't be willing to publish it or you have pay the publish money by youself):
1.the book hasn't been translated into Chinese yet.
2.it's popular or welcomed by many people.
3.I don't have money to pay for the author,but if the publish house is willing to pay for the author then it is ok,but I guess it's impossibe now 'cause the severe publishing competition in China now.
4.the book isn't too thick.
5.seems we can preview the good selling in China.
6.novels are hard now 'cause too many,seems a book about culture,science,music,pets,celebs,pop singers,immigrants....would be better.
7.I can co-operate with the author or the recommeder.
in a word,I can't pay money to the publishing house for this book 'cause I say honestly I dont have money to risk now.I wanna earn a little from this book at least I don't lose money.
many thanks!^_^
from"American English" small potato

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Kundera

2006-01-14T13:00:45Z

Anyone else have this situation - I can't picture his characters' faces. Not like I go around picturing faces of other novelists' characters - but with him, I'm just so aware of it.
What's up with that? Any ideas?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 6 replies

Pride and Prejudice

2006-01-12T21:52:46Z

OK, I may be a hopeless romantic but I adored it. I book marked any discrepencies but did not let them spoil my experience. I only pick things apart later in retrospect.
I think Keira did a good job as a very different Lizzie then in the BBC production where Lizzie seemed more mature and settled.
The one time I thought she seemed fake was in the bedroom scenes with her sister Mary where the giggling seemed forced. It seemed fake to me and too immature for girls their age. Mary hardly had any development in character at all, which was disappointing.
The clothes were too plain and lower class to me but perhaps more realistic? The different scenes where Lizzie was featured reading, walking or over looking a canyon seemed hard for me to imagine all being in the same area having been in England several times. I would have liked to have seen more character development ... but it was a Hollywood production after all
Matthew Macfadyen who played Mr Darcy was beyond beautiful and I was in love with him at first sight. Does anyone remember him in anything before? I will do a google search but just asking. This movie worked for me because I have read the book, know the story and all the details and have seen and own the longer BBC version. I guess people who haven't might be missing out and would encourage them to read the book and learn more.
I love anything that is made from the Austen novels and only hope it encourages people to read. I have sat down to read it once more as my desire for all things Austen was not quenched but once more rekindled.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 5 replies

Faust and Marguerite

2006-01-03T06:56:41Z

Whatever happened to Marguerite?

(me being lazy again)

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Hemingway quote wanted

2005-12-10T05:04:45Z

This is my own (grammatically incorrect?) translation of a Danish translation so there is every reason to expect that it is unprecise, but here goes:

"Let those who want to, save the world, if only the rest of us are allowed to describe it as it is."

Does anyone happen to know the exact wording of what Hemingway wrote? And where?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 4 replies

The Sun Also Rises

2005-12-03T21:12:52Z

I just read this again. Every time I read it, I seem to have empathy for a different character.

This time it was Mike, Brett's drunken Scotch fiance.

I'm missing my reading group, so I'm going to ask:

What would YOU do if your fiancee's ex-lover were following the two of you around on your vacation?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 7 replies

A forum for literature enthusiasts and writers

2005-12-02T11:27:41Z

DROP (http://www.dropmag.com) is something that you may be interested in. Not only is it a place to discuss literature, it's also a place to submit and see your work published. Check it out!

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

"Charm for Attracting Wild Money" by Marge Piercy

2005-12-01T06:39:24Z

Hello everyone !
I'm currently enmored of Piercy's work and I am furiously trying to find the poem above. It was quoted in a Caroline Casey broadcast and now I'm dying to read it in its entirety.
Internet searches have proven futile.
Can any Piercy afficinados tell me which of her collections features this poem ?
thanks !
Michelle

posted in Literacy Nerds - 3 replies

a story...

2005-11-21T17:30:58Z

go to zoetrope.com and sign up (free, 2 seconds) and review my novella if you have some time and the inclination. it's called "sic" and it's about an 11 yearold who gets lured out to a fight where bad things happen but a first kiss awaits. fairly catcher in the ryeish, but i'd be very interested to see what you'd make of it and i'd really like to get in the esteemed TOP 3 over at their website so as to have a better chance of getting the damn thing published by them.

thanks,

jefe

posted in Literacy Nerds - 1 reply

What is this?

2005-11-16T03:26:30Z

Anyone know this story and can tell me what it is and who it's by? :

A young couple in love. Partner A, however, has sex outside the relationship. B finds out, and it heartbroken. A explains that sex for him has nothing to do with love. B can't understand this. For her, sex is love. B leaves A, and decides that to be able to be with him again, she has to break this idea of hers. So she begins to try finding sex without love. A accepts this, and decides to wait for her. She writes him letters describing her experiences.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 1 reply

Audio Books

2005-11-12T04:18:19Z

Lately I have had a hard time finding the time to read and I am jonesing for a good book on tape (cd or audio file). I think I would like to try it out considering how much time I spend in my car. Does anyone have an suggestions on any good books on tape they've heard and really enjoyed?

This audio-book thing is new to me but I'd like to give it a go and start with something good.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 5 replies

you guys see this?

2005-11-10T02:16:57Z

http://www.online-literature.com/author_index.php

Lots of stuff there.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 5 replies

William S. Burroughs tribe.

2005-10-31T17:45:08Z

hello,

I've created a tribe for anything and everything related to William S. Burroughs. Check it out if you're interested.
http://tribes.tribe.net/burroughsinterzone

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

finding an author

2005-10-27T22:34:34Z

Ok, this is kind of cheesy...

I just read this guy whose book blew me away, ripped out all the old, and opened a whole new everything. He's still alive, he lives in the same city as me, honestly I don't usually feel this way or do things like this, but I need to meet him, to talk to him. I feel half in love already, though this guy is twice my age, and he writes these really postmodern stories that are really only outlines for potential stories to be written by someone else, and they're so much like what I'm trying to do myself, and besides that, the way he describes his lovers, it's just... me. Any advice? Anyone ever met an author they had feelings for? What happened?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 6 replies

Giving away the ending

2005-10-24T03:43:25Z

Have you ever read anything that gives the ending away at the beginning, but that keeps your attention anyway?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

books to travel with

2005-10-21T18:18:51Z

so i'm about to leave for japan and wondered if anyone had any recommendations for books to read while traveling. i never leave home without Walden, but have room for a second book...anyone?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

Drinks with Richard Hell

2005-10-19T04:50:49Z

Richard Hell was our special guest on last week's Drinks with Tony radio show.

He discusses his music career as well as his novels GODLIKE and GO NOW.

to download the show, go to the <a href=http://www.drinkswithtony.com/richardhell.html>Drinks with Tony website</a>

enjoy

posted in Literacy Nerds - 1 reply

Henry James and Modernism

2005-10-12T00:51:37Z

James is accepted as a Modern, right?
Or is the debate still on?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 11 replies

Hamlet

2005-10-09T13:58:44Z

I'm lazy...
Does Hamlet finally kill his mother, or does someone else do it?
Does he finally kill Claudius, or does someone else do it?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 13 replies

A Favorite Song as poetry...

2005-10-07T13:46:29Z

Shannon once again cleverly suggested a great topic, so I'm stealing this one as well.

Off the top of my head, I'm choosing Bob Marley's "Redemption Song"

Lyrics

http://www.bobmarley.com/songs/songs.cgi?redemption

posted in Literacy Nerds - 20 replies

For Some Reason I Just Couldn't Get Through It

2005-10-07T13:39:11Z

The GR thread called up an interesting topic. What are some of the books you couldn't get through and thought you could? The scenario is that you have a genre, author, etc. that you love and you pick up the next book and you just can't finish it b/c of indifference, poorly written, any number of reasons.

Me, I will finish almost any book I start just to play it to the end. But rarely that doesn't happen.

My best example is my partial reading of "The Island of the Day Before." I love Uberto Eco. I was so enthralled with "The Name of the Rose" I read it in about one sitting. Reading the synopsis of "The Island of the Day Before" I thought I would be 'all over it like stink on rice.' Much to my disappointment, that was far from the case. I kept on starting it and getting deathly bored. I finally gave up when I was choosing to read Val-u-pack coupons rather than trudge another page in book.

Are you picking up what I am putting down? Has anyone else had this experience? What books, authors, genres were involved?

This could be a fun thread! :)

posted in Literacy Nerds - 51 replies

My turn to choose bookclub read

2005-10-05T17:52:34Z

Help! I need to bring a book, I haven't read, to suggest for bookclub. Suggestions?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 8 replies

The Plague. by Albert Camus

2005-10-03T11:29:09Z

I read this book in the 8th grade. It was the first social commentary type book I'd ever read. It was a turning point in interests. Do you remember a specific book that suddenly "grew you up" a bit?

posted in Literacy Nerds - 4 replies

Acclaimed Irish novelist Edna O'Brien opens Magic Theatre season

2005-09-30T16:58:57Z

American Premiere of "Family Butchers"

Family Butchers is a depiction of an Irish family trying to hold onto their family farm through changing times in the 1970s. In the play, a woman returns home to the heart of rural Ireland to forgive and be forgiven. Times have changed, but the shadow of a domineering patriarch continues to loom over the family. Observing this time of social change through a minutely personal lens, Edna O'Brien approaches the complicated relationships of this large clan with the brutal honesty and incisive humor that has become a trademark throughout her successful writing career.

Edna O'Brien is most well-known for her controversial novels, such as the award-winning The Country Girls Trilogy (1960), which was banned in Ireland for its frank depiction of female sexuality. A prolific chronicler of life in Ireland, Ms. O'Brien has won multitudes of admirers for her explorations of sex, women, marriage, religious upbringing, predatory relationships, and personal redemption. Philip Roth calls her "the most gifted woman now writing fiction in English." Her seventeen books include many best-sellers, also among them A Fanatic Heart, Time and Tide, Down By The River, House of Splendid Isolation, and In the Forest.

Also a writer of plays, screenplays and non-fiction work, Ms. O'Brien has received many awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Lantern Slides. In addition to Magic Theatre's 2003 extended-run hit Triptych, her plays include Iphigenia Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, UK); A Pagan Place (Royal Court Theatre); and Virginia, about the life of Virginia Woolf (New York's Public Theatre, 1985, and Haymarket Theatre). She is an honorary member of the American Academy of Letters.

Post-performance events include Friday Night "Talkbacks" with artists and staff on October 7, 14 and 21; and "In Context," a panel discussion about issues raised in the play, following the 2:30pm Sunday matinee on October 23

Opening Night on Saturday, October 1 and the play is scheduled to run through October 23, 2005. All performances are at Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco.

For more information, call (415) 441-8822, or visit the Magic Theatre website at www.magictheatre.org.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 0 replies

Cat's Eye

2005-09-25T17:42:27Z

Has anyone read this book by Magaret Atwood. It's about bullying among girls as children. It really played with my head - just sort of developed on so many layers after I had finished reading it.

posted in Literacy Nerds - 2 replies

Which childhood books stuck with you?

2005-09-23T19:36:29Z

Some of mine are:
Anne of Green Gables
The Giving Tree
The Velveteen Rabbit
The Phantom Tollbooth
A Wrinkle in Time
Are You there God, it's Me, Margaret?
Harriet the Spy
Jane's Blanket
Where the Wild Things Are
Free to Be You and Me

posted in Literacy Nerds - 13 replies

Favourite modern poet

2005-09-23T15:22:03Z

Who is your favourite modern poet? Mine is the sublime Wendy Cope.

One of my favourites:

I can't forgive you
And even if I could
You would not pardon me
For seeing through you

And yet
I cannot cure myself of love
For who I thought you were
Before I knew you

posted in Literacy Nerds - 28 replies