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Idaholy Roller posted:I’m comparing it to France and the UK mostly. All are Western European countries but France and the UK have contributed more to global literature (in my opinion) despite being smaller. define “contribution”, because Germany has for sure had authors and works that have been influential and important globally
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Jun 29, 2020 22:50
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and no one has punched more above their weight than Norway. some random piss-poor puppet nation that suddenly produced Ibsen who went on to shape the theatre and influence feminist movements in freaking China
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Jun 29, 2020 22:55
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The bible? They should call it the babble talk talk talk talk talk hahaha
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Jun 29, 2020 23:32
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cda posted:I was just thinking this morning about how insanely good so many Afro-Caribbean writers and theorists of the 20th century were and how and why it is that literary talent doesn't seem to be evenly distributed. I'm not saying it isn't evenly distributed, I'm saying that there are maybe structural and material factors that cause it to be visible in certain locations. Like...the population of the Carribean isn't that big an you've got CLR James and V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott and Jamaica Kincaid and Kamau Brathwaite and Franz Fanon and Stuart Hall and Aime Cesaire and Edwidge Danticat and Sam Selvon and on and on, just this crazy rich vibrant history. Anyway they're all so good, that's all I've really got to say about that. Wilson Harris seems cool although every interview I've read with him is too dense to really get what he's talking about in much detail.
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Jun 30, 2020 01:39
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Sorry to interrupt the current discussion, but does anyone have recommendations for kid-lit books for 8-9 year olds that are currently reading everything they can find and asking to read things off my bookshelf that are way too advanced for them?
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Jun 30, 2020 04:40
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Let them read. They're probably smarter than you.
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Jun 30, 2020 04:50
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Sandwolf posted:Could you recommend me something specific to get started with these authors? Yeah for sure! As far as "getting started" goes, my preference is for short and entertaining, so some of these recs might not be the most renowned works by the authors but you can read them and get a sense if you'd like to read more and also kind of get a sense of the overall aesthetic. The 20s and 30s were an important time in Caribbean literature because you start to see the first strong local newspapers and fledgling literary magazines. A lot of the writers who came up in the 30s-50s started out as journalists, and you can see it particularly in their early works. An important early kind of writing was known as the "barracks yard" story -- barracks yards were these apartment spaces with an interior courtyard which had been built on the grounds of colonial barracks, and they were common features of urban life. They were imbued with a strong sense of place and character. If you have read John Steinbeck's Cannery Row, it is essentially a barracks yard story in every particular. I would be very interested in if he was aware of and reading those stories from the Caribbean -- I could definitely seem him doing it, especially because many of the writers were also active socialists. Anyway, one of the first barracks yard novels is CLR James, Minty Alley James went on to be one of the most important Marxist theorists of the 20th century (Black Jacobins is his most famous work, and his book about cricket, Beyond a Boundary is unbelievably good and a classic of cultural studies), but this is just an entertaining novel about a middle-class educated young man who starts out slumming it in a barracks yard and ends up deeply involved with the people there. In a subtle but critical way it's a story about political awakening, but it's also just fun to read. It was the first book by a black West Indian to be published in the UK. V.S. Naipaul, Miguel Street. V.S. Naipaul imo is one of the best writers to ever write in English. This is his first book, a collection of short stories about the lives of the inhabitants a Trinidadian street. It is his funniest and least pessimistic book -- basically, you can tell exactly how cynical a Naipaul book is going to be by where it falls chronologically -- and compared to his later books it's a little bit lightweight in scope and theme, but the writing is still wonderful and unlike some of his other books you won't end up hating humanity. The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon. Selvon was a journalist who came to England as part of the "Windrush Generation" after WWII, and I believe this is generally considered his best book. It's an interesting update of the barracks yard story in that the characterizations and episodic nature are precisely what you would expect, but the sense of place that stabilizes the narrative has been replaced by a restless circulation that typified the West Indian immigrant experience in England in the 50s and 60s, and the book is written in a decidedly more modernist style of free indirect discourse. It is also super funny and super sad in bits but mostly a pretty lighthearted book with an appealing narrative voice. Moving to the nonfiction... Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place. Kincaid is an exceptional writer and a lot of her work is fictional or semi-autobiographical and worth checking out (Annie John for instance), but A Small Place is a nonfiction account of Antigua and its colonial and contemporary history. Kincaid has a razor-sharp sense of humor that she wields to satirize and criticize tourists, colonists, and local politicians. The opening section, about white tourists, is an often-excerpted section but the book as a whole is good and it's a quick read. Franz Fanon...doesn't really have an "easy" mode, and he's also probably the most influential nonfiction writer in Caribbean history so you gotta read him. I would be really interested on what other people think is a good starting point. I read Black Skin, White Masks first and then The Wretched of the Earth and found BSWM more accessible. Maybe reading Aime Cesaire's Discourse on Colonialism might be good first step before Fanon. It's in the same ballpark, is real smart, but it's shorter and since it doesn't rest on psychoanalytic theory it's easier going. Stuart Hall is one of my favorite writers ever and I think you should read everything he ever wrote, multiple times. But maybe his essay "Cultural Identity and Diaspora" is where you should start if you want your reading to connect directly with the other stuff I've posted here. Walcott and Brathwaite are poets. Walcott also wrote plays. I like his collection Sea Grapes and his play Dream on Monkey Mountain. Brathwaite is a total wacko in a really good way but I don't even know where to start with him because no matter where you start you're going to leave out something massive and massively different. Here's the thing with him -- he had this very serious connection to a specific computer (a Mac he called "The Eagle") and printer, and he printed his poems out on this printer, including, like, clip art and icons he created and stuff in what he called his "Sycorax Video Style." But even before the Mac you can see him playing with that stuff. I guess his collection Black + Blue. Did I leave anyone out? Oh yeah, Edwidge Danticat. The Dew Breaker is a collection of interconnected short stories, so that seems like a pretty good place to start since you can dip in and out. Good stuff. Ok sorry this is so long.
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Jun 30, 2020 05:19
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Memento posted:Sorry to interrupt the current discussion, but does anyone have recommendations for kid-lit books for 8-9 year olds that are currently reading everything they can find and asking to read things off my bookshelf that are way too advanced for them? Do they have particular interests? And heck, letting them read advanced stuff won't kill them. One of my favorite books when I was a kid was The Complete Medical Guide. Used it to diagnose myself with diphtheria once. And I still have it.
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Jun 30, 2020 05:54
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Selachian posted:Do they have particular interests? at this point you should really go to a doctor, that sounds serious
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Jun 30, 2020 06:08
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CITIZENS OF THE BOOK BARN! I COME TO YOU WITH WONDERFUL NEWS! Your forums IK, Safety Biscuits, has reached the Final Four of the Official 2020 Something Awful Hunger Games! Biscuits has fought a very, very grueling road to get here and represent your district, District 11: ADTRW & The Book Barn. In fact, your district has TWO Tributes in the Final Four, as Julias is also alive and present! However, Safety Biscuits isn't merely alive at the end. Safety Biscuits is in fact the current point leader, with a whopping total of SIX kills to their name! Momentum always carries strongly in the Hunger Games, and tomorrow we will be crowning a CHAMPION! Come cheer and support your Tribute! STING 64 fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Jun 30, 2020 |
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Jun 30, 2020 11:02
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Memento posted:Sorry to interrupt the current discussion, but does anyone have recommendations for kid-lit books for 8-9 year olds that are currently reading everything they can find and asking to read things off my bookshelf that are way too advanced for them? Yes for sure, but it would help to know a little bit more about your particular kid. What books are they currently enjoying? What is your/their tolerance for difficult stuff, because 9-ish is about when books start really dealing with things cda fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Jun 30, 2020 |
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Jun 30, 2020 16:11
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As an aside, I did make a children's lit thread a while back but it wasn't a recommendation thread and it kind of died out, but there have got to be a ton of parent goons who might be able to swap recommendations for different age groups/interests/topics. My daughter is 9 and it is definitely getting difficult to find stuff for her because she's read a lot. She really likes graphic novels and she's read just about every single one that's in any way age-appropriate and it's becoming a problem and she's starting to eye our collections of The Walking Dead and stuff lol
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Jun 30, 2020 16:13
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I really wish I hadn't read It when I was ten. e: Or at all but for different reasons 
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Jun 30, 2020 16:19
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Selachian posted:Do they have particular interests? Goondolences on your chronic diphtheria
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Jun 30, 2020 16:30
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cda posted:She really likes graphic novels and she's read just about every single one that's in any way age-appropriate and it's becoming a problem and she's starting to eye our collections of The Walking Dead and stuff lol What has she read so far, and did she feel strongly about any of them? Has she shown interest in any specific genres?
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Jun 30, 2020 19:02
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ruinous orchid posted:What has she read so far, and did she feel strongly about any of them? Has she shown interest in any specific genres? yeah, I mean, not surprising, she likes books where the protagonists are girls and/or people of color, since that's what she is. it's easier to find the girls part than the of color part. she doesn't like serious Life Problems stuff although she's slowly getting more ok with that, but books where the main struggle is like...civil rights or things, she is not currently into. she much prefers funny and cute. However, she loves history, especially the gross or terrible things. One of her favorites is this book about the Donner Party (https://www.amazon.com/Nathan-Hales-Hazardous-Tales-Donner/dp/1419708562). So I guess it's less about serious stuff and more about the treatment of that stuff. She's also read through like every Horrible Histories book that there is. She really likes Raina Telgemeier's books, which I hear is pretty common for her age/gender bracket. She's been interested in mysteries a lot after reading and loving The Westing Game. Right now she is reading The Unteachables and enjoying it a lot, which is surprising because it does have more serious themes. I guess she's starting to grow into that. She also really, really liked The First Rule of Punk. Those last three aren't graphic novels, obviously. Getting her to read non-graphic novels is always a bit of a wrangle, even when (as with those three) she ends up liking them, but she won't seek them out by herself, whereas she will if it has a visual component. I should say she is really into art and cartooning and is a pretty drat good artist for a 9 year old, and her dream job right is working for Pixar doing character art, so that's probably why she likes the visual aspect.
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Jun 30, 2020 19:19
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I always thought His Dark Materials was really good children’s literature.
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Jun 30, 2020 19:50
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Memento posted:Sorry to interrupt the current discussion, but does anyone have recommendations for kid-lit books for 8-9 year olds that are currently reading everything they can find and asking to read things off my bookshelf that are way too advanced for them? I think I read Siddhartha when I was a precocious neonate and while I definitely didn't understand it, it certainly opened my eyes with it's poetry and made me excited to read more adult literature what I'm saying is, I see no reason to limit kids if they are stretching. Idaholy Roller posted:I always thought His Dark Materials was really good children’s literature. yes! for a genre book it really has some heady themes. e: apparently "t.ween" is word filtered to neonate with my goofy extension and that is fascinating to learn. neonate Famethrowa fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Jun 30, 2020 |
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Jun 30, 2020 20:59
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Memento posted:Sorry to interrupt the current discussion, but does anyone have recommendations for kid-lit books for 8-9 year olds that are currently reading everything they can find and asking to read things off my bookshelf that are way too advanced for them? I was a pretty advanced reader at that age and thinking back, I got really into Hardy Boys around then and the Oz books. Fun mystery/puzzle books were my jam too, like Encyclopedia Brown and T.A.C.K.
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Jun 30, 2020 21:04
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cda posted:She's been interested in mysteries a lot after reading and loving The Westing Game. There are some classic books have been reinterpreted into graphic novels. I know Sherlock Holmes has been done a few times, and these aren't new Sherlock Holmes stories, it's The Sign of Four or Hound of the Baskervilles. Recently, I even saw one for To Kill a Mockingbird. I wouldn't be surprised if there were Shakespeare graphic novels as well. A graphic novel version might ease her into reading the non-graphic novel version, but you may want to preview or flip through these versions to see how faithful they are to the source material. Not to get too off topic from books, but I've heard good buzz around this series and it seems like it fits some of the criteria (female leads, mystery, distinct art style): https://www.boom-studios.com/series/lumberjanes/
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Jul 1, 2020 17:24
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Memento posted:Sorry to interrupt the current discussion, but does anyone have recommendations for kid-lit books for 8-9 year olds that are currently reading everything they can find and asking to read things off my bookshelf that are way too advanced for them? From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Harriet the Spy, Goosebumps series, Matilda, Hatchet, Nancy Drew series. I forget if the Wayside School books are meant for slightly older kids. Would The Hobbit be good at that age? I want to recommend Harry Potter but I don't know if that's a good recommendation considering recent events.
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Jul 1, 2020 17:40
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Memento posted:Sorry to interrupt the current discussion, but does anyone have recommendations for kid-lit books for 8-9 year olds that are currently reading everything they can find and asking to read things off my bookshelf that are way too advanced for them? At that age I devoured the James Herriot books (veterinarian in Post WWI Yorkshire, reads like a collection of short stories with a few through lines and characters (think like a procedural tv show). Really good stories and lots of animals, nothing too scary but talking about death, birth, etc
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Jul 1, 2020 18:12
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What was y'all's first "adult" book? I was 8 or 9 when I read Call of the Wild because it was on my grandma's bookshelf. I still kept to more age appropriate/YA stuff mostly for a while but it kinda broke the barrier for reading non-children stuff for me.
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Jul 1, 2020 18:24
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TheAardvark posted:What was y'all's first "adult" book? I was 8 or 9 when I read Call of the Wild because it was on my grandma's bookshelf. I still kept to more age appropriate/YA stuff mostly for a while but it kinda broke the barrier for reading non-children stuff for me. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay because I was into comic books and wanted to read a “real” book about comic books. Or maybe “Misery.”
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Jul 1, 2020 18:27
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ruinous orchid posted:There are some classic books have been reinterpreted into graphic novels. I know Sherlock Holmes has been done a few times, and these aren't new Sherlock Holmes stories, it's The Sign of Four or Hound of the Baskervilles. Recently, I even saw one for To Kill a Mockingbird. I wouldn't be surprised if there were Shakespeare graphic novels as well. A graphic novel version might ease her into reading the non-graphic novel version, but you may want to preview or flip through these versions to see how faithful they are to the source material. She's read all the Lumberjanes that have come out so far. I wouldn't say they were her favorites but obviously she enjoyed them enough to keep up with them. Thanks for the recommendations, I hadn't considered adaptations.
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Jul 1, 2020 18:30
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There is also _Persepolis_ by Marjane Satrapi but it may have too many adult themes.
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Jul 1, 2020 18:43
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TheAardvark posted:What was y'all's first "adult" book? I was 8 or 9 when I read Call of the Wild because it was on my grandma's bookshelf. I still kept to more age appropriate/YA stuff mostly for a while but it kinda broke the barrier for reading non-children stuff for me. I grabbed a copy of Dragonriders of Pern off the shelf in first or second grade because it had a cool dragon on it. From there I just kept getting into more sci fi/fantasy stuff (especially Bradbury and le Guin, which I'm grateful to my dad for pushing on me) and also random book of the month club stuff that my parents had lying around, like A Prayer for Owen Meany.
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Jul 1, 2020 19:00
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TheAardvark posted:What was y'all's first "adult" book? I was 8 or 9 when I read Call of the Wild because it was on my grandma's bookshelf. I still kept to more age appropriate/YA stuff mostly for a while but it kinda broke the barrier for reading non-children stuff for me. Jurassic Park, because it was about dinosaurs.
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Jul 1, 2020 20:40
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TheAardvark posted:What was y'all's first "adult" book? I was 8 or 9 when I read Call of the Wild because it was on my grandma's bookshelf. I still kept to more age appropriate/YA stuff mostly for a while but it kinda broke the barrier for reading non-children stuff for me. Lord of the Flies, age 9 or 10. I thought it was a Boys Adventure book, which, technically... Would LOTR count? I read that earlier than LOTF. xcheopis fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jul 1, 2020 |
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Jul 1, 2020 21:16
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Technically my first “adult” lit book was Flowers for Algernon, that poo poo completely reframed the way I looked at reading for a long time. Dash of postmodernism in there and everything.
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Jul 1, 2020 21:17
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John Gardner's Grendel. I read The Hobbit, and dad told me about how Tolkien was a beowulf scholar, and I tried to read Beowulf and it was hard, and Grendel was next to it on the shelf and written in clear English prose. So, yeah
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Jul 1, 2020 21:20
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Sandwolf posted:Technically my first “adult” lit book was Flowers for Algernon, that poo poo completely reframed the way I looked at reading for a long time. Dash of postmodernism in there and everything. I feel like I was irreparably shaped by Jack London when I was young. Reading To Build a Fire (the short story) may have single handedly jaded me on life forever.
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Jul 1, 2020 21:28
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There are a few series of graphic novel adaptations that are interesting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_Classics http://www.classicalcomics.com/ https://www.greatillustratedclassics.com/Default.asp https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/215175/the-graphic-canon-vol-1-3-by-russ-kick/ I like seeing how artists adapt novels I've already read. The selection from Emerson Hunt's Inferno in the Graphic Canon convinced me to buy two of his books. Lance Tooks adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Bottle Imp put him on my "list of authors whose works I must own in their entirety as soon as I have some money".
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Jul 1, 2020 21:49
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I'm not 100% certain it was my first adult book, but I do remember taking The Return of the King out of the library when I was still too short to see over the circulation counter. I have no idea how I picked it, and I certainly didn't know it was part of a series. I didn't finish it, though. As for books for girls, my daughter also prefers graphic novels. She really liked Victoria Jamieson's Roller Girl, as well as the Amulet series. Her absolute favorites, though, are the Dork Diaries series, which are a step between graphic novels and regular novels. I can also recommend Catherynne Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and its sequels.
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Jul 1, 2020 21:52
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TheAardvark posted:What was y'all's first "adult" book? I was 8 or 9 when I read Call of the Wild because it was on my grandma's bookshelf. I still kept to more age appropriate/YA stuff mostly for a while but it kinda broke the barrier for reading non-children stuff for me. the dice man by luke reinhardt which is incidentally not a book you should leave within reach of children
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Jul 1, 2020 22:13
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I still don't real adult books. Apparently I read Silmarillion (for the first time) when I was 12. I never could get very far in LotR because it's a really bad novel. E: I don't think either of them count.
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Jul 1, 2020 22:30
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ruinous orchid posted:I forget if the Wayside School books are meant for slightly older kids. I was into the Wayside School books as a smartass 9-year-old; I think they're fine for that age. Your other recommendations are also good, and I'd say the whole Roald Dahl kidlit canon is worth a shot if she enjoys the grotesque.
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Jul 1, 2020 23:44
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I read Scarlett, the awful unauthorized 1991 sequel to Gone with the Wind, as a 7 year old boy. I'd never read Gone with the Wind or seen the movie. And it didn't warp me at all, I tell you! At all!
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Jul 2, 2020 00:11
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Selachian posted:Her absolute favorites, though, are the Dork Diaries series, which are a step between graphic novels and regular novels. Dear Dumb Diary is good. It predates Dork Diaries and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, though it's not nearly as successful. cda posted:My daughter is 9 and it is definitely getting difficult to find stuff for her because she's read a lot. She really likes graphic novels and she's read just about every single one that's in any way age-appropriate and it's becoming a problem and she's starting to eye our collections of The Walking Dead and stuff lol Don Rosa's Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge stuff is good; it ranges from science fiction to historical (you can actually learn a lot of history from the stories, even though historical figures are drawn as ducks and dogs). Carl Barks is really good but his stuff can be racist. You might consider the recent Slott/Allred Silver Surfer or Alan Moore's Tom Strong, though they aren't specifically meant for young readers.
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Jul 2, 2020 00:27
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Is there a thread just for eReader chat? I'm getting into reading (I haven't really since high school) and just got a Kindle Oasis and I love it, but it seems really drat small. Are eReader usually this size?
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Jul 2, 2020 07:44
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