Help! Guidance Required!

[SpirosGyrosAU]

Hi,

I'm wondering if someone can offer some advise on how i can enter the land of literature.

I seem to have fallen from grace for a long time and I can't seem to read heavy texts on certain aspects such as 'A Short History of the World' or 'Guns, Germs and Steel' to name a few.

I seem interested in a piece of literature only for a few chapters and then I find another book and I go over the same process again.

I've always wanted to learn about Greek and Egyptian mythology, politics, the world, war, and economics but I'm just not sure where to begin.

I also want to increase my vocabulary as I seem to have a limited set of words in my mental 'compendium'. I find that I spent too much time searching the dictionary with heavy books that I loose the meaning on what's being said in a book.

I also wanted to improve my spoken English (as English is my first language) and foreigners seem to speak it better than I can and I was hoping that reading literature would help in my quest.

I was heavily immersed into the I.T. field as I was growing up and didn't really care about anything else and now it's coming back to haunt me as I can't seem to give proper insight on history, politics, economics, etc.

Please help an unguided soul!

SG.

[kasie]

Is there a library in the town where you live? If so, go and make friends with the librarian - tell him/her of your requirements, an introduction to the Greek Myths, for example, and ask for advice and guidance. Most professionals love to help beginners, busy though they are, and will show you how the library is laid out, how the catalogue system works, etc and will be able to point you in the direction of a good book to introduce you to a subject.

Then, take it slowly. Read little and often until you have the feel of the subject. Work out when is the best time for you personally to take in new information. For me, morning is the best for new subjects, not first thing, I have to wake my brain up with a crossword puzzle or the like before taking in new material. A chapter after lunch usually goes down well but later in the day my reading matter has to be on more familiar ground. If a book has so many words that you need to look up, maybe you need an easier introduction which your librarian could help you find. If the words are specialist terms in a new subjest there may be a glossary somewhere in the book to help you or you may need to construct a glossary of your own (on a postcard that I can use as a bookmark works for me, especially reading Russian novels with unfamiliar names and complex family relationships to remember!)

Then, when you return the book to the library, make a point of thanking the librarian for the suggestion and if he/she has time, discuss it a little. (Then you can ask for further guidance. ;))

Good luck - and Enjoy! :)

[stlukesguild]

Reading well is a skill that only improves with experience... assuming you choose some good books to read. No one can jump into poetry (older or more recent) without some experience and fully "get it" from the onset. No one can pick up an older book that undoubtedly will include archaic words and sentence structures without some effort. I would advise beginning with shorter works: tales of Checkoff, Edgar Alan Poe, Turgenev, Maupassant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, Sherwood Anderson, Charles Dickins, Robert Louis Stevenson, etc... I would also check into that body of literature that was often read as a child... but that certainly maintains merit for the adult as well: the science fiction tales of H.G. Wells, various examples of Victorian gothic literature and ghost stories such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Stevenson's Dr, Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, the tales of J.S. LeFanu, the tales of Lord Dunsany (which can be found on-line), C.K. Chesterton, etc... Other obvious examples would include Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books and Kipling's tales. To get into bigger works I might suggest works which are essentially constructed of smaller individual tales where you might break off and return to them later. Ovid's Metamorphoses would give you an introduction into mythology. Boccaccio's Decameron and the Arabian Nights would be other solid examples of these "frame stories". To begin exploring poetry I would probably suggest an antholgy... or perhaps slim volumes of selected poems, such as those inexpensive volumes published by Dover books, by key poets: William Blake, Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, Byron, Dickinson, Whitman, Donne, even Shakespeare. Especially before jumping into poetry I might suggest an easy book offering some critical idea as to how poetry is structured and works. You might wish to ask member JBI for a recommendation of such because I think that most of what I have are a bit too complex for an initial jump into poetry. Good Luck.

[JBI]

Let's not forget La Fontaine's Fables. That is probably the best introduction to literary thinking I can think of.

[RogerL]

Dear SGAU,

You can't imagine how it warms the heart of a humanities geek to see that someone from the scientific field has decided that he is missing something I love. If it makes you feel any better, I am so non-scientific in my background that I don't even know what I.T. means! (Is it information technology? I looked it up and that was the closest I could find.)

The advice you have already been given looks really good to me. The one thing that I would like to urge you to be is patient with yourself. I can't resist adding my own two cents, so here is just a bit of an idea.

In regard to Greek Mythology, the two pretty standard texts of my era are still in pretty good repute today. They are Edith Hamilton's book on Mythology and Bullfinch's Mythology. The primary difference in the two works is the style of the writers. Where Hamilton writes in bite sized chunks within each chapter and is constantly making it clear where she got her information, Bullfinch is a more flowing narrative that requires a longer attention span. When I led students through the Hamilton, I would have the first few chapters studied pretty thoroughly. They give a great basis for the outlook of the Greek thinkers and their attitude towards creation myths and the relationship of the deities to humankind. The chapters that follow each center on a particular family of related myths and can be used as springboards for diving into the Classic Greek literature, for example the Theban Plays of Sophocles or the Illiad and Odyssey.

The important thing is to take small bites at first and to trust your intelligence and curiosity to bring about a positive result which will make you feel that your life has been enriched. Very late here. Will muse again in the near future.

[Etienne]

I find that I spent too much time searching the dictionary with heavy books that I loose the meaning on what's being said in a book.

I suggest that you do not waste your time looking for the definition of words in dictionnary unless it is absolutely essential to understand the meaning. Most of the time, from the rest of the sentence you can make out the approximate meaning of the word, and get the right meaning of what is being said anyways. You will increase your knowledge of the language better than simply knowing definitions that way because after repeated exposures to the word you will understand not just what it means, but also possible connotations it might have. Most importantly, it will not interfere with your reading and will make the whole process more enjoyable.

Also you should read a book and not start another book until you've finished the first. Make it a rule.