(Part 3) Best literary movements & periods books according to redditors
We found 948 Reddit comments discussing the best literary movements & periods books. We ranked the 443 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
Which brings me to my third point: no, children were not originally the target audience of fairy tales. Children were often included in the audience, but they were not the primary audience. As such, the tales had lots of violence, lots of sex, lots of bawdy jokes and references, and lots of frank discussion about issues that impacted the storytellers’ worlds. For some context on when these stories might have been told, women often told such tales to each other while doing domestic work, chores, and other activities, or together with men around the fire after the children had gone to bed. They were chiefly for entertainment purposes, though there were often lessons embedded in them (because most tales do, after all). Writers, editors, and storytellers began to utilize fairy tales in 18th and 19th-century Europe in the moral and cultural education of children. Before that, they were chiefly for adults, whether for the teaching of lessons or entertainment purposes, which is why so many of the tales are particularly gruesome or filled with sexual exploits: they are not sanitized for children.
The Grimm brothers were trying to please two different audiences. Their first edition was not meant for children at all, and was instead a scholarly pursuit with them trying to record the tales faithfully, even down to colloquial language; they did this largely for nationalist reasons to create a unified German cultural story, at least partially based on Johann Herder’s fundamental philosophy centered around the idea that the only way for Germany (and thus, any nation) to revitalize its sense of self was through the collection and distribution of folklore, which Herder saw as “the summation of the national soul expressed in the poems of the folk”. It was only when people began buying the book and telling the stories to their children, complaining that the stories were too graphic in nature, that the Grimm brothers started extensively editing and sanitizing the tales. Many of the Christian references were added because of harsh criticism that they weren't Christian enough, for example. In Wilhelm’s later versions, he was bending to the will of middle-class parents and the church who wanted the stories to be made suitable for children. The Grimm brothers were poor (they were eating one meal a day at one point because they couldn't afford enough food), and so to maximize financial success when the collection began to get popular, they began to sanitize and edit them to make them more suitable. Disney is not the first to sanitize fairy tales, and the supposedly "dark original versions" are themselves sanitized or changed to fit with the desires of their primary audience.
Ultimately, fairy tales get changed because fairy tales occupy a unique space in the literary landscape: as a genre, they (along with other types of folklore) provide a culture with a single unifying collection of tales the population can claim as “theirs”. This unifying cultural story narrates the life of the people, complete with specific geographical landmarks, cultural/regional issues, and identifying characteristics that mark a tale as coming from “our culture”. It is tribal in nature: the differences between tales help distinguish “us” from the collective “them” by identifying and changing aspects of a cultural/oral narrative. Additionally, they give any particular population a romanticized national narrative of their history and cultural geography, assist in the education of new members (such as children/young adults or immigrants) of the cultural identity of the group, and address issues uniquely important to that culture.
For further reading, I recommend the following books and articles:
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
Fox News is - more than anything in living memory a propaganda station.
It's NOT conservative - in the historical sense, if that were the case, Ron Paul would actually be allowed on from time to time, - instead he has to get interviews from the "liberals" over at MSNBC and CNN because the guys at Fox HATE Dr. Paul, and until the Paul support team threatened a lawsuit then they got this appology - Ron Paul -- and I'm not even a Ron Paul supporter per se.
Similarly, they did not - interview conservative thinkers in the past, William F. Buckley for a generation was a standard bearer, and only when a news item directly involved him would Fox grudgingly interview him and certainly bury his dissenting views on - say Iraq
So it is, the case that Fox isn't just a propagandist station, nor a conservative viewpoint station, but that peculiar Neoconservative view of the world, that has gotten us into 2 major wars, and lead us perilously close to at least 4 others.
Before 9/11 our neoconservative buddies were keen to provoke China and in the tradition of the political movement, at the same time they were making available to the Chinese covert US information, (how the fuck would we have fought a war against China) - how does that play out?
Then of course after 9/11 and the 19 of 21 terrorists being Saudi somehow means Iraq could become the fetish item; so what was not good policy in 1991 and was denied the AIPAC and our neocon buddies in the late 1990's was all good to go.
Now of course, we are told that Iran is the threat to our national security, this isn't true, but fuck it, Lockheed Martin likes making drones, and Northrop hasn't had a good quarter since the Iraq thing started winding down....and that isn't very good now is it.
Halliburton is fully invested in the region and even does work with the Iranian state presently, so they probably don't give a shit either way.
But probably my favorite bit of "news" regarding Fox was when statisticians recently found that Fox viewers are less informed than people who are NOT informed - that tells you something.
Prepare to be blown away.
Perhaps others can comment on how good the actual resources are. I haven't used many of them, except the grammar books.
Gaeilge!
So, this post is probably going to be long. Just bear with me.
If you want web resources, there's a few good things floating about out there. First is [Erin's Web] (http://www.erinsweb.com/gae_index.html). She offers lessons, which seem to be decent. I haven't used them, because I have the good fortune to have classes, but perusing them doesn't lead to any glaring errors. I would suggest you start there, as it also has the approximate English pronunciation equivalents.
If you want books, there's a few that could be helpful. [Briathra na Gaeilge] (http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=795) and [Leabhar Mór Bhriathra na Gaeilge] (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6407961-leabhar-m-r-bhriathra-na-gaeilge) are excellent books for verbs. The first smaller, and has a smaller index, and is easy to carry around and study. The second is huge (Literally titled "Big Book of Irish Verbs"). It contains 112 sample conjugations, as well as a history of the language. On top of that, the index is near inexhaustible, contain over 3,000 verbs, along with their verbal noun, verbal adjective, and a reference to which one they are conjugated similar to.
For general grammar, you have several options. The one my school recommends is [Irish Grammar Book] (http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Grammar-Book-Nollaig-MacCongail/dp/1902420497/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504088&sr=8-1&keywords=irish+grammar+book) by Nollaig Mac Congáil. It's a good overview of the grammar. However, I would suggest the series of [Basic Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Irish-Grammar-Workbook-Workbooks/dp/041541041X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504147&sr=8-1&keywords=basic+irish) and [Intermediate Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Intermediate-Irish-Grammar-Workbook-Workbooks/dp/0415410428/ref=pd_sim_b_4) both by Nancy Stenson. They're part of Routledge's series (Essential Grammar, Comprehensive Grammar, etc.), and I really like how that series, as a whole, is laid out.
For nouns, there's [Irish Nouns: A Reference Guide] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Nouns-Reference-Oxford-Linguistics/dp/0199213755/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504256&sr=8-1). This books is immense, and awesome. It contains a shit ton of nouns. And also a lot of verbal nouns as well as describing how to decline them and when to decline them. It's an amazing book. I wish I had a physical copy.
For courses, there's the simple [Teach Yourself Complete Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Complete-Irish-Audio/dp/0071758984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504328&sr=8-1&keywords=teach+yourself+irish) and [Colloquial Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Colloquial-Irish-Complete-Course-Beginners/dp/0415381304/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363504346&sr=1-1&keywords=colloquial+irish), however one that's used a lot in Ireland is [Búntus Cainte] (http://www.amazon.com/Buntus-Cainte-Ceim-hAon-Edition/dp/1857910656/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504385&sr=8-1&keywords=buntus+cainte). There are three levels of it, if I'm not mistaken. There's also [Gaeilge Gan Stró] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gaeilge-Gan-Stro-Beginners-Multimedia/dp/0956361447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504420&sr=8-1). I haven't used it, but supposedly it's good.
There's also immersion courses, if you have the time and money. One is offered by [Oideas Gael] (http://www.oideas-gael.com/en/), in Donegal. [Another] (http://www.nuigalway.ie/acadamh/cursai/dianchursai_gaeilge/neachtrannaigh_irish.html) is offered in the town called Carraroe, by NUIG. It's the one I've done, and I prefer that dialect.
Which reminds me. That's another thing you're going to need to know: there are three main dialects, one for each province minus Leinster, and the standard official. A brief glance at the [Wikipedia] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language) page will help explain some of the differences.
If you want to practice speaking, there's a Facebook group called [GaelSkype] (http://www.facebook.com/groups/GaelSkype/) which does Skype sessions. Don't worry; you don't have to show your face if you don't want to.
I forgot dictionaries! [Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla] (http://www.amazon.com/Focloir-Gaeilge-Bearla-Irish-English-Dictionary-ODonaill/dp/1857910370/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1363505112&sr=8-9&keywords=irish+dictionary) is one of the most respected dictionaries out there, and most comprehensive. However, it only goes Irish -> English. [Foclóir Póca] (http://www.amazon.com/Focloir-Poca-English-Dictionary-Gaeilge/dp/0828817081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363505172&sr=8-1&keywords=focloir+p%C3%B3ca) is a smaller one (pocket dictionary), which goes both ways. Very useful! Then there's a few websites that help. [Irish Dictionary] (http://www.irishdictionary.ie/home) is a good one, though it can get really, really annoying at times. The same can be said about [Focal] (http://focal.ie/Home.aspx). It's more official, but is really only good for technical terms (like Libertarian, something I looked up the other day.). Google Translate can be helpful, if searching for one word, but I'd check around other places first. [An Focloír Beag] (http://193.1.97.44/focloir/) is a nice one as well, but it's solely in Irish. However, it will conjugate verbs for you, and can find the root based on any conjugation. There's also an [English-Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/English-Irish-Dictionary-Terminological-Additions-Corrections/dp/1857910354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368104543&sr=8-1&keywords=english-irish+dictionary) dictionary that is the equivalent of Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla.
Whew! I think that should keep you covered. PM me if you have any more questions.
PS: [This] (http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7577625/Irish_Gaelic_(Gaeilge) is an amazing torrent, if you're into that stuff. I personally like physical copes, but here ya go, and in no way advocate pirating.
Academic/bodybuilder here.
Must Read: Paul Morrison's essay "Muscles" in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Explanation-Everything-Essays-Subjectivity-Cultures/dp/0814756743/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453961661&sr=1-1&keywords=the+explanation+for+everything+morrison
"Sportsex:" http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1571_reg.html
Below find some other titles that might be of interest to you, just from poking around. The fat studies volumes will have a lot of citations that direct you to sources with statistics and qualitative analyses of benefits that those who are normatively attractive receive that fat people do not.
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Sports-Studies-Jay-Coakley/dp/0761949496/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453961740&sr=1-3&keywords=Sexing+the+Athlete
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Sports-Studies-Jay-Coakley/dp/0761949496/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453961715&sr=1-3&keywords=Sexing+the+Athlete
http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Anthropology-Obsession-Don-Kulick/dp/1585423866/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=41aO9pm4UnL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR105%2C160_&refRID=1FEQQPNTHTKQNR8C432B
http://www.amazon.com/The-Studies-Reader-Esther-Rothblum/dp/0814776310
http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Shame-Stigma-American-Culture/dp/0814727697/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0QZSPEB6ZP13399RS2DC
http://www.amazon.com/The-Body-Key-Concepts/dp/1845205901/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=31xCL-of-wL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=1FEQQPNTHTKQNR8C432B
Indeed. Must read.
Well, if you just want art(and want to know what the characters OFFICIALLY look like) there's The Art Of Discworld by Pterry and Paul Kidby.
This wikipedia page about chapter and verses in the Bible gives some context about when the modern numbering system came to be, and the different systems that were used before.
If you are looking for how people used to cite the Bible before the Stephanus numbers...well, citations as we know them were not really a thing in the middle ages (see C.S. Lewis' The Discarded Image for a fairly accessible look at how medieval scholars used previous works). If you look at the writings of the early church fathers (Augustine etc.), you can see how people used to quote the Bible. Many times it's just "As John says..." or a more specific "When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus he said..." No chapters or verses, but someone familiar with the text could find the spot. Here's a website where you can see early church father allusions/quotations of the NT.
You can even look at the New Testament and see how they "cited" the Old Testament to see this in action. Usually your English translation will give you the cross reference notes so you can look back to the OT verses to compare. Look at the place where Jesus says "you have heard...but I tell you", or where Paul is quoting the Law. They didn't even cite the book usually! I suppose people must have just been more familiar with the texts and knew where to look. Or more likely, people didn't have access to the scrolls as much as we have access to Bibles on our own nightstands today and had lots of the text memorized.
When I was in seventh grade my math teacher lent me some books to read:
I credit these books for sparking my interest in math.
Other books I'd recommend include Imaginary Numbers by William Frucht, Flatland/Sphereland by Edwin A. Abbott/Dionys Burger (and Flatterland by Ian Stewart), The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers by David Wells, A Passion for Mathematics by Clifford A. Pickover, The Mathematical Tourist by Ivars Peterson, and any book by Martin Gardner or Raymond Smullyan. Also most books by Ian Stewart would be good, but he also writes higher-level math textbooks, so watch out for that.
Characters, I guess. Maybe the Watch. If you don't have The Art Of Discworld, buy it.
I personally have DEATH and The Death Of Rats on my leg.
It kind of entirely depends on your favourite parts of the Discworld series. I love DEATH and The Watch, so I would go with them. I also like the Witches, so Granny Weatherwax would probably feature and there would have to be a Feegle or two.
If you want to know more about Greek myths in general, I wouldn't recommend translations of old Greek texts, but rather classical mythologists summaries along with the possible interpretations, common motifs, themes, etc. For this, I recommend Edith Hamilton's Mythology.
Another way to go is to check out mythology textbooks. They still retell the stories, give insights, common interpretations and what not (albeit in a drier tone), but they also include archaeological finds that might have contributed to the development of the myths, religious ceremonies and cults that arose from the myths. For this, the only one I've read is Morford's Classical Mythology.
I think that going these two routes are better than just stepping into translations of say, Homer or Hesiod, without context of the culture that these myths arise from . And if like me, people just like crazy stories that have been passed down to us, seeing a long list of descendants and an entire book of armies gathering to set sail for Troy doesn't make for the most exciting read.
A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe.
&
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Basho
I would have never learned it if I didnt have a teacher. Honestly your best bet is to sign up for greek class at a local Bible College.
However if you do want to learn it alone, you have several options.
The best option is to buy Logos software THis has countless tools to help you learn Koine.
If you are looking for a text book, start with this book
THis book will help you with words, grammar of Koine, and interpreting sentences. All the basics you need to start translating the Bible. If you can successfully work your way through this book. You will be able to get the gist of most Bible passages.
In addition to all of this, Koine Greek is to common day greek as Shakespere english is to us but it still may help you to subscribe to the Greek subreddit here. If you can read that, you can read anything.
I would read these three to get started:
Bill Dever:
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Texts-Archaeological-Portrait-Ancient/dp/0884142183/
Israel Finkelstein:
https://www.amazon.com/Quest-Historical-Israel-Archaeology-Biblical/dp/1589832779/
Philip Davies:
https://www.amazon.com/Search-Ancient-Israel-Biblical-Cornerstones/dp/0567662977/
Dever is the most "maximalist" of this group, and Davies the most "minimalist." There are other scholars further on the edges, such as this from a more conservative evangelical position: https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-History-Israel-Second/dp/0664239137/ (Provan, Long, Longman).
For a general overview before diving into particular scholars, I would recommend this survey from Megan Bishop Moore and Brad Kelle:
https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-History-Israels-Past-Changing/dp/0802862608
Good on you!
Unfortunately, there's a lot of atrocious shite on the internet in terms of Irish language "learning" - so be careful. Sealbhach recommended Daltaí na Gaeilge. I second this - it's overall a good site, with some solid grammar review.
I recommend getting a solid beginner's text, preferably one with audio, because you really want to be able to speak the language. Try either Teach Yourself Irish by Diarmuid Ó Sé or Colloquial Irish by Thomas Ihde.
While you're doing this, watch some news programs and whatnot on TG4 (Tee-Gee-Ceathair). Even if you don't understand anything, make a point of listening as often as possible, so that you get used to the rhythm of the language, and how it should sound.
Finally, if you can, try to attend a course in the Gaeltacht. The Acadaimh in Carraroe has courses of varying levels of difficulty and length.
Anne Groton a great recommendation, but don't forget about Donald Mastronarde's brilliant Introduction to Attic Greek. One piece of advice that I would offer from my own experience is to go really far out of your way to learn the different forms of the definite article early on. Knowing them will allow you to parse the basic grammatical structure of a sentence quite easily.
Color of Magic was a decent movie, still too bad they cut huge chunks from the books (always the thing that disappoint me) but I guess if one's only watches the movie, that wouldn't do any justice to the story.
Same goes for "Hogfather", don't remember exactly but lots of parts have been cut out and some things didn't make any sense to me anymore.
I, personally, read them in publication order. Hope you'll fall in love with the City Watch as much as I did.
One thing that could totally ruin the way you pictures things in your head is : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Discworld-GOLLANCZ-S-F/dp/0575077123
I love Paul Kirby's art and glad I bought this book.
Anyway, don't know if you're into video games but I've played Discworld 2 as a teenager (without ever knowing of Pratchett or that it was based on books) and loved it. But now that I think back, I would have enjoyed more if I had read at least a solid dozen of Discworld books before.
I also played "Discworld Noir" but didn't finish it.
If you're reviewing something you learned a while ago, brushing up on fundamentals, might I recommend using Mastronarde's intro to Attic Greek? You can pick it up for under $10.
As I mentioned in a previous thread:
I came into second year Attic with shaky Greek. I was supposed to be reading Xenophon - a good place to start, by the way, with straightforward Attic syntax, and a good learning edition - but I'd come into second year Attic with some problems, namely:
My prof recommended Mastronarde, in her words "the best second intro Greek book." It has some negative reviews on Amazon, for being "like a firehose" for someone just starting out; it probably is. But for someone who already has some grasp of Greek, it's almost miraculously lucid and systematic. My Greek improved exponentially from studying it: I've got Smyth's grammar for detailed specific questions of study, but when I want to just brush up my Greek, that's where I go. You can skim some of the earlier chapters, and start digging in more deeply once you get to some of the tougher stuff: subjunctive, optative. And it's got guidance on what you should prioritize learning.
A classics scholar's review if you want more info.
You might find this edX course interesting: Biblical Archaeology: The archaeology of ancient Israel and Judah. I am just a layperson myself, but I found this to be a fantastic introduction to biblical archaeology, and I thought the professor did an amazing job of exploiting the online technology: He visited numerous sites, he walked you through the process of dig, he did a session where they cooked ancient recipes, he showed carbon dating step-by-step. A really, really top-notch production! (If you scroll down far enough, you can follow this summer's dig season day-by-day on his blog!)
> any good reads
I've not read it yet, but next up on my bookshelf is William Dever's Beyond the Texts. It is a nice, fat book, that looks a little on the dense side, but I find his goal of figuring out what we'd know about Israel and Judah if we didn't have the Bible to rely on intriguing:
> William G. Dever offers a welcome perspective on ancient Israel and Judah that prioritizes the archaeological remains to render history as it was, not as the biblical writers argue it should have been. Drawing from the most recent archaeological data as interpreted from a nontheological point of view and supplementing that data with biblical material only when it converges with the archaeological record, Dever analyzes all the evidence at hand to provide a new history of ancient Israel and Judah that is accessible to all interested readers.
A few thoughts:
At one point Lewis and Tolkien were going to write companion novels about space and time. You can see echoes of this in the last chapter of Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in CSL's Space Trilogy when he mentions that space has been cut off from human travel and now any future voyages would be through time. There's also echoes of what might have been in JRRT's Notion Club Papers, which has a time-travel element, but was never published.
In addition, JRRT did not care for the Narnia series because he felt it lacked a coherent theme. However, in the controversial Planet Narnia, Michael Ward posits that CSL actually did have a theme: the medieval view of the planets (The Seven Heavens). There are definitely intriguing arguments made in the book, especially as he combines information from Narnia and the Space Trilogy into his thesis. I wouldn't say it's iron-clad, but if I was still in education, or had the luxury to write papers, this is an area I'd love to explore in depth - specifically the influence of Charles Williams on the evolution of CSL's thought.
If you're interested in aspects of their backgrounds that influenced their worldviews, I would recommend The Discarded Image from CSL (on medieval literature - my favorite CSL book) and The Road to Middle-Earth by Tom Shippey (on the philological undergirding of Middle-Earth). The Humprey Carpenter books are also good (JRRT Letters, Tolkien bio, Inklings bio) as are CSL's letters.
Chase and Phillips is pretty decent (though definitely reflects the period when it was written):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0674616006/ref=mw_dp_olp?ie=UTF8&condition=all
Hansen and Quinn is also good:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0823216632/ref=mw_dp_olp?ie=UTF8&condition=all
I’ve taught with H&Q and used C&P as a supplement when I started to learn Greek.
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Link: On Duties
|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|
This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting).
> Neoconservative is worse as a definition, although is very rarely used compared with the other two. Although literally translates to "New conservative", it's definition is mixed up in a variety of things. Imperialist attitudes + a desire for traditionalism could be the definition, however at no point does any major political movement fall under this very narrow category.
???????
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism#Administration_of_George_W._Bush
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Perle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Kristol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
I genuinely don't know how you can claim that there has been no major political movement when they served in a major capacity in 3 US administrations and openly refer to themselves as 'neoconservatives'. See:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neoconservatism-Autobiography-Idea-Irvin-Kristol/dp/1566632285/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523401108&sr=1-3&keywords=neoconservatism
https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Engine-William-Gibson/dp/0440423627
This is a bit too vague to provoke a good answer. Are you asking about physical beauty, artistic beauty, natural beauty, philosophical/theological beauty, architectural beauty...? Are you asking about all of Europe, or France, or Britain, or the Germanic nations? For the landed classes or the peasants? Are you really asking about the entire Middle Ages period, from the 5th through the 15th centuries — a thousand years? Good answers require good questions; this is very vague. (And a lot of doing the work of history, and thinking seriously about history, is about asking the right questions.)
That being said, if you are interested in understanding the intellectual, aesthetic, and philosophical worldview of this period, one of my favorite books is C.S. Lewis' _The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature_ (1964). I have been reassured by my medievalist friends that it is still held in high regard as an introduction to the medieval worldview, with an emphasis on how people back then saw the universe as being ordered. It has some relevance to your question, depending on how one interprets it.
If I want to read this what version should I buy? Is this one good?
https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486272745
>Just like the entire tree was there while the 2D world saw only circles, perhaps the entire history of the universe exists "now," but appears to change over time because we only see a cross section of it at once.
Perhaps you have heard of Eternalism, a modern incarnation of an earlier idea noted by Parmenides.
Edit: I also read a short story in Fantasia Mathematica called "The Captured Cross-Section" by Miles J. Breuer, M.D. about something similar. I can't find a copy of it online. It's a short story about a scientist who loses
a lab assistant (or some other important character)his fiancé in a 4-dimensional parallel universe, and he can only capture 3D cross-sections of creatures from this universe in his lab.this one - 45 pounds, I am offering 10 of my premades
book- 20 pounds - 5 premadespayment: amazon.co.uk gc, giftrocket, many vids tip or crypto
premades lists here!
Dangerous Men, Adventurous Women
Read this. Explains appeal of romance lit. Rife with RP truths.
"You've Got to Read This" is great. Lots of good stories with short introductions by other writers. There's good variety and most of the classic stories are in there.
The only downside is it's hard to find: http://www.amazon.com/Youve-Got-Read-This-Contemporary/dp/0060982020
Why not just go for Attic Greek, and use Mastronarde. I'm using it, and am about on chapter 20 so far.
In addition to seconding the Martin Gardner books, I'll add the two anthologies by Clifton Fadiman:
Fantasia Mathematica
The Mathematical Magpie
Each has some wonderful essays, excerpts from longer works and various miscellany - he turned me on to Borges among other things
Here's Egil's saga in old Norse
And here's a series of dual-language sagas
That's all I've found so far, the second link has about 10 sagas but you might wanna be careful with them, most don't have reviews and some that do are pretty bad (I don't have any of those so I couldn't say personally, the first link is nice though.)
Also, Jesse L. Byock has an old Norse reader coming out in September that will have at least large exerts if not full sagas.
Amazon page here where it's up for pre-order
I just happened to end up at a university that had a professor of Old Norse. Modern Icelandic and Faroese are pretty close and there is an Old Norse dictionary (Zoega's concise dictionary - it's concise because he was going to make a larger one but died before he could). My old norse professor has two textbooks you can get on amazon (textbook 1 and textbook 2) but I don't know how good those are because he was writing them while I was taking his courses. There's also this textbook which I've never used but has good reviews.
You can also learn modern Icelandic and then study Old Norse because they very similar. It may be easier to do it that way. We also read the sagas in the original Old Norse which was very interesting.
Found it
Jesus, $85 for a hardcover?
Though I've only read a few romance novels (I had read this book about romance novels...
https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Men-Adventurous-Women-Cultural/dp/0812214110
and wanted to read some of the authors in it), I also get annoyed when writers throw babies into books (either as plot points or epilogues) when there's no real reason other than, well:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BabiesEverAfter
I think that one of the novels I read ended with the woman not (yet) pregnant... I can't recall... did you read this one?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004GNFG56/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Anyway, yeah, agreed. They do it in movies, on tv, in books... feh.
I have that same Penguin version of de rerum natura, but I'll check out the Loeb one. I see that the new Penguin version is done by A.E. Stallings, who seems to be well regarded, so I might check that out as well. This seems to be a reliable versed translation, or so reviewers ranked highly by google tell me. Alas, I've read the wikipedia and many random articles on sexuality in Rome, I'll just have to use the google to find further resources. Thanks for the recommendations.
https://www.amazon.com/Difference-Engine-Novel-William-Gibson/dp/0440423627
Hi, throwing in my two cents that the best way to improve your reading/grammar and literary knowledge is to dive deep into anthologies and collections. Think of it as a sampling of the 'best of the best' and you are getting a taste of what is considered to be great. Also don't be afraid to pick up a piece of classic literature and think, "Good god, this was considered awesome?" That's ok. Some people don't like premodern literature. Some people LOVE it. Some people HATE it. Some people are all about cyberpunk angsty lit that's a product of our super modern society. Some love poetry...well, you get the picture. The beauty of an anthology is you can survey the goods -- and if you love something you read, odds are it's only a small selection taken from a much bigger book OR the writer is pretty prolific and if you like his style of writing, odds are you are going to LOVE the rest of his work.
Don't know where to begin? I recommend checking out some classics from overseas (which I use as a required book in my courses):
This will take you from the world origin myth right up to Tokugawa period (from 794 to 1868) I'm partial to world origin myths and the Kamakura period. It's not easy to read but it's a good way to develop critical thinking skills and will broaden your world view!
http://www.amazon.com/Anthology-Japanese-Literature-Mid-Nineteenth-Representative/dp/0802150586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397829264&sr=8-1&keywords=Anthology+of+Japanese+Literature
http://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Travel-Sketches-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140441859/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1397829577&sr=8-2&keywords=Matsuo+Basho
Ok, so I don't like premodern literature? ^Then ^check ^out ^the ^modern ^stuff!
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Japanese-Literature-From-Present/dp/0802150950/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=04S84RFJ5BQ76B3N06QT
Also, to make yourself super cultured, start reading opera summaries and plays. That's right. Read them. Then go see them.
Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Operas-Their-Stories-Act-/dp/0385054483/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397830047&sr=1-1&keywords=Operas
TL;DR: Start reading! Collections and Anthologies are a great place to start.
First of all, I'm thrilled that you're committed to continue learning Gaeilge! Like you, I picked mine up from the library also. I've actually had fairly good luck with libraries being willing to do an inter-library loan for materials not in their own system, so even if your local library doesn't have these discs for example, they may be able to acquire them from an affiliated library.
A quick note on the Pimsleur program. One thing you may have encountered is that Irish has a number of unique dialects which are not always mutually intelligible. If I recall correctly, the Pimsleur course exposes you to the Munster dialect (think, Cork for example). As a result, you'll learn Conas tánn tú? for "How are you?" as opposed to Cad é mar atá tú?, Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú?, or Conas atá tú?. Michael O Siadhail's 'Learning Irish' uses a dialect spoken in and around Connemara, for example, so you'll want to check beforehand if it makes a difference to you.
Now, personally I quite enjoy Michael O Siadhail's 'Learning Irish', but I'm hesitant to recommend it as a beginner's book. Routledge puts out the 'Colloquial Irish' CD/Book set focusing on the same dialect, but it's supposed to be a bit more accessible.
Have you seen any of the Living Language courses before? They recently updated their 'Living Language Irish' course. While I've heard good things about this one as an introductory course, I haven't used it, and thus cannot vouch for this one. At ~$35 though, the price certainly seems right. 'Teach Yourself Irish' is an old standby for a lot of folks too, but it might not be what you're looking for if you're primarily interested in speaking.
On the side, I suggest watching programming online via TG4's site. They have a good selection of shows across a wide variety of genres. Ros na Rún is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine...
I haven't tried Rosetta Stone's Irish offering yet, primarily because it's still prohibitively expensive (at least for my tastes), but that's always an option as well. Is it the best? I cannot say, perhaps someone else here has tried it though and could offer their opinion.
Hopefully this helps somewhat. I've found the most frustrating aspect of trying to learn Irish to be the dearth of other students of the language, or even native speakers, near me. The Gaeilge subreddit is a help of course, and there are plenty of Gaeilgeoirí on the net these days, so hopefully if you stick with it you'll be able to eventually arrange some further speaking practice opportunities.
Go n-éirí an bóthar leat!
I had to get You've Got To Read This for a college class and remember liking it. It's contemporary authors sharing their favorite classic short stories.
Red Sorghum by Mo Yan - brutal Marquez-esque magical realism during WWII-era China.
Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado - a gang of children and adolescents run rampant on the streets of Bahia, Brazil.
Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui - a really odd novel involving machines that can invade people's dreams. Very weird and fun.
Tombstone by Yeng Jisheng - the most thorough and brutal account you'll ever read of the Chinese Famine of 1958-62. Much talk of cannibalism and insect-nutrition charts.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Matsuo Basho - it's both a collection of haiku by one of the medium's acknowledged masters and an idiosyncratic travel narrative of 1600s Japan.
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - a great first Marquez to recommend to people who don't yet want to take the One Hundred Years of Solitude plunge.
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - one of the few books I've read more than twice.
The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie by Agota Kristof - a trilogy of short novels about distance and isolation in Europe during and after World War II. The three books form a narrative that contradicts itself, doubles back and retells events, and generally messes with your head until you're not sure what to believe.
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino - my favorite of Calvino's works. This is a collection of short stories about and narrated by heavenly bodies, mathematical formulae, supreme beings. They're basically cosmic fairy tales.
One good source of creative nonfiction is back issues of Granta - there are bound to be some in your library.
I'm not positive, but you might also be able to get the whole class out of You've Got To Read This, an anthology in which writers introduce the pieces that inspired them to write. (I remember John Irving picked Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," for instance.) Styles run the gamut, but it leans heavily toward short stories.
I vaguely recall one or two things in there being really near poems, though. I think Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" was in there... if not, that one might be worth digging up on its own. It's short enough to xerox without breaking the bank, and is practically a poem disguised as a short-short.
>Thanks for explaining, I just find it interesting why people believe the way they do, particularly when it - to my untrained eye - appears to contradict the text.
Same boat. I like to see how and why people come to their conclusions. And my eye is untrained as well. Armchair scholar is truthfully more of an aspiration for me than a current title. Lol
Yes i am familiar with the J, E, D, P view. Not intimately mind you, but i am familiar. And yes it could easily clean up that specific inconsistency but it fails to reconcile the context of judgement which usually allowed a length of time for repentance to occur.
I tend to lean more towards its predecessor of suplimentarianism. It is very similar but i guess less rigid in its sources.
>I would agree with you there. I just started reading archaeologist William Dever's Beyond the Texts just a few days ago. In the book, he attempts to set out what we can know about Israel and Judah without relying on the biblical texts, using just the historical and archaeological record. He starts out on Page 1 by dispelling the idea that the texts are history as we understand the term:
oooo i will look into that one. I can appreciate the quote you provided from it. I think there are some more nuances to it but you also only provided a thesis statement in the form of a paragraph so i am sure he expands greatly on these ideas.
I find Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes to be a good read for a more summary-based approach. HERE
Beyond that, I would suggest the Iliad and the Odyssey as good starting points. Personally, I find the Odyssey to be a much better read, so I'd start with the and then read the Iliad to fill in the larger scope of information.
I'm not an ME, but these are some of my (more computery-ish) favorites that might have general engineering appeal:
The Difference Engine - proto-steampunk!
Gödel, Escher, Bach - essays on logicians' wet dreams.
Anathem - mathy and fantastic.
House of Leaves - you'll either love it or it will just piss you off...
Also, anything by Phillip K Dick or Kurt Vonnegut. And Feynman's (first) autobiography is definitely a must.
It's on amazon if you want to check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Fairy-Tale-Tradition-Straparola/dp/039397636X
Zipes is a pretty strong authority on pre-grimms fairy tales, so if that's the area you are looking into then he would definitely be a good starting place.
https://www.amazon.com/Viking-Language-Learn-Norse-Icelandic/dp/1480216445
https://www.amazon.com/Viking-Language-Old-Norse-Reader/dp/1481175262
Folk tales - preferably from non-Western traditions like :
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Fairy-Tale-Tradition-Straparola/dp/039397636X/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RR4X6Y2X4TETCFG0YXEH
or
https://www.amazon.com/Folk-Fairy-Tales-Martin-Hallett/dp/155111898X/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1504822416&sr=8-14&keywords=folk+tales
I see you've already been swayed, but I'm going to add a few comments anyway :)
>I think being fat is unnatural. It is unnatural and very unhealthy. It's a crime against your own body.
As others have already mentioned, it's not unnatural. Our bodies have the ability to store fat for a reason - a very natural reason. As a species, we are still largely adapted to a hunter/gatherer lifestyle. We haven't been out of the stone age for more than about 5000 years, and evolution doesn't work that fast.
As hunter/gatherers we would experience a cycle of abundance and starvation. Our bodies needed to store fat to get us safely through the lean periods.
Today we (at least in the Western World) only experience abundance, but most peoples bodies haven't changed. That's why we have an obesity "epidemic". The cost of healthy living is also an issue. Most morbidly obese people belong in the low-income group. The tables have turned quite dramatically - 100 years ago poor people were skinny and the rich were fat. Today it's the opposite. This didn't happen because half the population suddenly decided to be lazy and stuff their faces with fatty foods. There's a really good book, debating the body image issue in a historical context.
Also, the negative health effects of body fat have been grossly exaggerated. True, morbid obesity is - well, morbid. But people who, by aestetic standards, are 20 or 30 pounds overweight, may very well be perfectly healthy.
>It is a very selfish act. Being fat may cause inconveniences to others. Like when you are carpooling, there isn't enough space for another person because the fat one is taking a lot of space. Speaking about space, most of the time you get squished sitting next to a fat person in an airplane
Yes, this happens because there are many fat people :)
Depending on your definition of "fat", you will meet quite a few in your lifetime. Going around hating them will only cause you enormous amounts of aggravation for no reason. No matter how much it bothers you to look at a fat person, as someone who has been there, I can tell you with absolute certainty that it's worse for them than it is for you.
ooc: I have:
This one
this one
This one!
Yes. This one. There may be a better one, but that's the Classical Greek grammar that was recommended to me and that I have.
Despite your lack of success the first time, I would think your prior exposure would make things a bit easier this time through.
I recommend Classical Mythology. It's expensive but I still go back and read it from time to time.
Ah, oh well.
I'm looking to pick up The Nature of the Gods for Christmas or whatnot since Oxford World Classics has a translation. From everything I've read that was published by them, they've tended to be the best, as well as safest, bet when it comes to translations. They've also got a great looking translation of Lucretius.