>Have you read anything good recently?
The last truly good thing I read was Roadside Picnic. But more recently I've just been consuming American slop for the lack of a better choice, which actually demotivated me a fair bit, so I don't want to read anything any longer. I really bought into high fantasy because of how much soul Tokien put in the genre, but it turns out that Americans are just disgusting pigs who raped the genre in every possible way filling it with cheap narrative devices so that the whole thing doesn't even feel like it's been written by a human being. 80s and early 90s are the only period of American literature worth checking out at all. Everything goes downhill from there. To my knowledge, people on imageboards tend to read either some self help or political shit, so I never even bothered to ask to be honest. But if you read something decent lately you could mention it here of course.
>>5470If you liked that novel then you really should try reading Jane Eyre. It's a strange, but very unique experience.
>>5476Is it good? I will read it then.
>>5483I don't know what you personally consider good, but I liked it. Unfortunately I don't remember much about the actual contents, because I read it very long ago, but it really held my attention from the get go.
Perhaps this is too off topic, but I've been digging into
https://www.poetryintranslation.com/index.php . On the surface of it, this website doesn't seem that odd, until you realize it's only one guy, who goes by A. S. Kline, who's doing all of it. One guy who can apparently speak eleven languages, quite the ridiculous polyglot! Kline identifies himself as a translator and says he specifically translates the works, so if there is any kind of machine help here, it's being hidden. I find the translations (I have sampled Russian, French & Italian ones) can be very dry at times, but I can't tell if they're machine based or not, even though the fact that he claims eleven languages makes machine-help seem very likely. For what it's worth, Kline also hosts his original English poetry on the site, and it seems legitimate. This website would be a wonderful bounty if it is legitimate.
I'm inclined to push past my skepticism, though, because (perhaps unfortunately) this place has some of the only translations into English of these works. That's what introduced me to the website to begin with, as it has the only verse translation of "Orlando Innamorato" in English, it seems. I'm still having trouble figuring out what of Roland's works to read and in what order, for what that's worth.
>>5515I don't get poetry and it bothers me. I tried reading some anthologies hoping that I just need to find something to like but I am starting to suspect that I am doing something wrong. Maybe I should read them out loud or something to hear the rhythm? Or maybe it's just lingering bad experiences from my schooldays where I hated memorizing poetry and absolutely dreaded reciting them in front of the class.
>>5599poetry is just boring, let it go
>>5599Poetry is like rap in that if you don't feel or resonate with the reasons why someone is saying something then you won't understand what is being said and why it's been said in this way. I don't understand rap at all because it's meant to portray a value system that I never felt.
GOD I LOVE YOMIKO READMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I haven't been reading much lately, was much too busy playing video games so I've been easing myself back into with some short stories.
What I'm reading currently:
>Nabokov's dozen
I really love Nabokov's writing, Spring in Fialta and Signs and Symbols are by far my favorites so far
>Selected Stories - Anton Chekhov
A Nincompoop left a pretty big impression on me, in this un/kind/ world I simply wish to be like this woman who smiles in the face of it all :)
Tried reading The Book of the New Sun. Read 90% of The Shadow of the Torturer. Didn't understand 3/4 of the symbolism, didn't relate to the remaining 1/4, I think I won't continue it.
I desperately need some just-above-cheesy adventure with an above average quality of plot and characters. At this rate I might end up reading Harry Potter.
> Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves
This is a self-help book that I have read because I got fed up that I can't seem to talk with anyone. I see all these people around me having fun talking with each other for hours but anytime I try to talk with anyone, it fizzles out after around five minutes and I feel like a failure and an outsider that does not belong in society. I found the title to be a little misleading, it does not really say anything about "being ourselves" and, while it supports its advice with research (done in the USA, mostly on university students…), it does not really propose any scientific theory about conversations either. Otherwise, it was a good book. It is organized around the acronym TALK, which stands for: Topics, Asking, Levity and Kindness.
My main takeaways from topics is that it is okay to talk about pretty much anything, people are more accepting of topics than most would suspect, but they also like to switch topics around a lot more than you would expect, so you shouldn't get stuck with a single topic. I don't think I am good with topics and one of the advices of the book was to keep a mental list (or not just a mental one) of random topics to talk about, and just throw one in when conversation starts to lull. Admittedly this sounds weird but apparently it works. I know that I always feel like I need a reason to talk about things, like I can't just ask someone if they like yuri without it somehow coming up before but their research says otherwise.
Asking is about asking questions, which is apparently something that most people don't do enough. The general advice is to ask more questions, try to ask follow-up questions, and that questions are also a good way to switch topics, which is a desirable thing. I think I ask enough questions…
The next is levity, which is the funnies, and the advice here wasn't that convincing. But yeah if you are funny, be funny, and if you are not funny, at least enjoy other people being funny.
Kindness, I guess everyone here is an expert on /kind/ness and will agree that being /kind/ is great. Apparently it also helps if you are kind while talking, or at least not rude. But you should listen actively and things like that.
There was also some stuff on talking in groups, having difficult conversations and apologizing, that did not interest me that much, but the content seemed sensible.
At the end there are some actual exercises to try and some topics to talk about, I did not try them yet but I am planning to.
I've decided to go through the Chinese Classics this year. I'm starting with the Daxue and Zhongyong. These two books were beginner level for anyone getting a basic education in China, Japan, Korea, and the rest of the Sinosphere before the 19th century. What we have here is a very different moral and ethical structure from liberal modernity, one that modern people would find very challenging. Both books are fairly short and there's a solid amount of commentary which makes reading a lot easier. I also picked up a copy of Baudrillard's Symbolic Exchange and Death. On imageboards, he's typically associated with the idea of simulation, but really this book was his magnum opus and symbolic exchange is most important idea. I get the sneaky suspicion that his theories of sacrifice and gift exchange aren't right but I want to finish the whole book first and I'll have to go back and read Marcel Mauss. This book also has a clearer layout of his ideas of simulation and simulacra.
>>5935>like I can't just ask someone if they like yuri without it somehow coming up before but their research says otherwise.I don't think I could do that. "Hey, have you ever heard of eroguro?" That wouldn't work I think.
>if you are funny, be funny, and if you are not funny, at least enjoy other people being funny.I really struggle with this because I've spent so much time on esfores and VIP type boards that I have a really warped and disturbing sense of humor. Other times, I find other peoples sense of humor unfunny or just weird. Like they'll bring up some talk show thing or a stand up comedian and I just don't get what's so funny.
>>5977Anon!! Thank you for this, I didn't know. I'm interested in China too, I was reading the Sanzijing to learn it.