Printable View
Hello, people!
Well, I'm a member of several online message boards, but I've noticed there aren't too many on the subject of literature. And, since the one I used to post in has been down for quite a while now, I'm glad to have found a new place in which to discuss the classics.
I saw there are over 500 members, so I hope I get to meet a lot of cool people here. See ya around, folks!
Well, gee, not all at once, please...
For a site with over 500 members, I must say it's dreadfully quiet.
Welcome, my friend ;) Pay to attention to the screaming bookworms here...they attack you at once anyway....as if...
Anyway, I'm Anne. Also a newbie but one who loves to read :D Hopefully, we can talk some more, discuss authors and books and poems...
Anne
Hi, Anne, and thanks for the welcome. :)
This seems like a pretty quiet place, but I suppose newbies like you and me can change that! And I'll definitely be on my guard for the screaming bookworms; I've heard how dangerous and vicious that kind of creature can be! ^^
I have to admit that poetry isn't really my strong point, but other than that, I love talking about most anything dealing with literature. What are your favorite books and authors? And are you reading anything right now?
I'm having a little break from serious reading, but I am reading "Bored of the Rings" by The Harvard Lampoon. My favourite authors would be Oscar Wilde, Stephen Fry, JRR Tolkien, D.H.Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Ben Bova and Norman Mailer. My favourite book is The Lord of the Rings. I am a huge Tolkien fantatic ;) It is almost scary, really, how many times I have read those books by JRR Tolkien.
I guess I am weak for poetry because...it's nice, short and easy to read on the bus on the way to my school. I used last year to dig into Middle Earth on my English Lit. class. You know, the classical parallels between Tolkien's Middle Earth and the 21st Century.
Hope to hear from you soon and yes, we will rock this joint ;)
Anne
That's cool, Anne. :)
I love Tolkien's works too, though I've only read The Hobbit and LotR. I have The Silmarillion on my bookshelf too, but I've been told it's kind of a complicated book, and I've been sticking to older stuff for now.
And from the other authors you mentnioned, I have to admit there are some I'm not that well acquainted, but I do love Oscar Wilde. I've read a few of his shorter stories like The Canterville Ghost, and The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorite novels. Truly excellent, I thought!
My own favorite author is Alexandre Dumas. I think if you've read The Three Musketeers and look at my username, then it should be pretty obvious. ^^; The Count of Monte-Cristo is my single favorite book, though. Let's see, other books I have greatly enjoyed...
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (Twain)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
The Secret Garden (Burnett)
Doctor Zhivago (Pasternak)
The Phantom of the Opera (Leroux)
The Pickwick Papers (Dickens)
Great Expectations (Dickens)
as well as the short stories of O Henry and Edgar Allan Poe. Those are only some of my favorites. My tastes are pretty varied, actually. ^^
Oh, and I took the liberty of adding you to my AIM contacts. If you want to add me too, go right ahead.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favourite :D I guess my favourite books/stories would be
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
Lady Chatterly's Lover - D.H.Lawrence
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Orlando - Virginia Woolf
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby
The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer
I also love The Three Musketeers and The Man with the Iron Mask. The death of D'Artagnan saddened me :( I was in love with that character....
And i've added you to my AIM list ;) Poor you...I am quite a talker
Anne
Man, I take a break from the computer for a week, and look at all the new people in here! Nice to meet you both, I am Eric, son of Chuck. As you can tell, I'm in to the epics. ) Good to hear some screaming instead of whispering for a change.
LOL! And too bad I will take a 15 days break now...going to England this summer so...miss me, please!
Anne
Aye, aye, glad to meet you too, Eric, son of Chuck! I gotta say I really like the username, with the whole "son of" thing, only with more modern names. :)
Anne, take care and have fun! Hope you don't forget about coming back to this website after your vacation. ;)
Indeed, we shall not forget you! Come back afterwards, I'm sure there will be many exciting new posts. Well, maybe not many, actually. Probably not even 10. Oh, sod that, there'll be at least one new post, THIS one.
Thanks, I'm quite proud of the name, actually. Came about as part of a writing assignment in my Lit class. We had to write a Mock Epic, so I wrote the tale of Eric, son of Chuck's struggle to write (gasp) a mock epic. My dad's name is Charles, everyone calls him Chuck. Strange, my boss's nickname is Woody, and he and my dad work together... What a weird world.
How much wood can a wood chuck chuck....
Hi, I'm also kind of a newbie. I was wondering why did you stop that discussion you had here. Hope nothing happened to you, Anne, in England. Now I see there are over 900 members, and it's still very quiet in here. I tried to post, but not a lot of people seems to notice it. And I read some of your posts, Eric, son of Chuck. You don't seem very fond of new members. But then maybe I'm wrong.
Hi Jay! Maybe we can continue the spirit in which this topic was started. I'm a newbie too (just registered last night and stayed up till 3:30 AM!).
I'm going to return to school in the fall to study to teach High School Lit. Reading is my passion and I want to inspire that in others. Besides, since taking 2 years off of studies, I sometimes get the urge to write a research paper! Weird, ain't it?! I guess that's why I'm liking this site so much.
Oh, YES! I would love that very much! So, what are your favorite books (I already know about Les Miserables and Jane Eyre)? I don't actually have the best, but I like The Catcher in the Rye a great deal, I'm re-reading it almost every year since I've been in high-school (I'm in senior year in high-school now). Now I'm reading Dubliners. I kinda like it, it's not as "strabge" as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man I'm also reading, along with Dubliners. Have you read any of these? Do you feel like sharing opinions?
Somehow I lost a reply I was just sending, ugh! :evil: But I'll make this short because it seems I'm finally on here with another member! Hi Jay!
I've never read the books you mentioned, though I tried to read Catcher in the Rye once. I was more sensitive to the profane language at the time and couldn't bring myself to finish it.
I just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray. Have you read that one? I love opinions!
Hmmm, Dorian Gray? I think I have, but it had to be a long, very long time ago. If you really like it, I could read it once more so we'll be able to have a chat about it. And now I noticed We're THREE on-line! Hi, Shea, hi Admin! This has to be my lucky day, I'm not here alone for the first time since I'm a member here.
I've been having a hard time tearing myself from the site since I found it, yesterday being my day off, I'm going to have to go to work in a few hours, but I'm glad I found people to chat with now!
Do the people in your country read books like Little Women or Gone With the Wind? These are about both sides of the American Civil War and I found them facinating.
Hmmm, let me think, I will have to look for the books, 'cause I'm not sure, okay, you got me, I don't know, their Czech names, but I'll try to found out. Promise.
If it can be of any interest, those books are rather popular in my country.
Little Women is still considered a classic for...little girls, or maybe it was 15 years ago when i first read it (damn!!!!!15, actually 16, years ago! :o :o :o It's terrible when i notice i'm so old!;)) It was actually the very first book i've ever read, before going to school cos i learnt to read very early.
Gone With the Wind is probably not so popular as a book (also because it's huge), but it is as a film/movie. I first saw that when i was 12 and was so impressed that i read the whole book...well i actually skipped some pages of long descriptions of the war cos i found them boring and hard to understand... But i really liked the book as well, and i remember i read the whole last chapter crying desperately, as i was so touched! Scarlet became a real role-model to me: maybe a too proud role model, which didn't help at some point when i was in 'trouble'...but it was surely a powerful influence to my early teenagers years.
Tomorrow is a new day. ;)
Here again...cos i noticed that you mentioned the fact that there are so many registered members. I think the reason is simple: in many forums that use exactly the same 'technology' as this one, it's possible to post as a Guest, that's to say without registering. It seems to me, that this feature is missing, and i think it would be very useful in a forum like this, cos a lot of people want only to post a question, maybe a book request, and are 'forced' to register to do that, even if they don't mean to become regular posters in the forum.
I found this site looking for a book, i wanted to try and request it at least to ask if ti was out of copyright or not, but to do that i had to register. i thought that i would have never come here again cos i spend too much time in the net even without this.... But it seems i'm still coming here from time to time (i'm so busy lately!). But i guess a lot of people who have to register just for one thing are not so extremely talkative as i am, and just dont come here anymore.
Easy, isn't it?
Hi Koa, I agree, Gone With the Wind touched me more than Little Women did, though I've read both within the last 3 years. Although I love the character Scarlett, what really got to me was learning about the strifes of the southerners after the war. I completely disapprove of the type of slavery that was generally conducted in our country at the time. There are many horror stories about how the slaves were treated in a lot of our history books that isn't really mentioned in GWtheW. But if I had been a slave at that time I would have loved to be part of the O'Hara's gentle house.
I had no idea what really started the Klu Klux Klan until I read GWtheW. Up till then I just thought the KKK were always a bunch of biggots that killed people just for the color of their skin. I thought they died out in the 60's, but was amazed to find out that they still exist. GWtheW showed me that because of the northern army's refusal to protect southern white women from freed slaves, the KKK had to be formed to keep the "trashy" slaves at bay. Unfortunately the movement didn't die as it should have, and the KKK's ideals became warped and out of hand until they were no better than the former slaves that attacked them in the first place.
I liked Scarlett's disregard for color or creed. She would do business with any one who would do buisness with her. North, South, black, or white, people are people, and if a person is profitable, who cares about prejudice? ;)
I think I don't remember much about the war theme, as i said i skipped a few pages of details about the war... I probably read it caring more of the sentimental side... I probably wasn't mature enough for that side yet...and I didn't know that much about american history (not that i know much more now, the secession war is just a couple of pages on our history books...)
Wow. Can you say, capitalist? I knew you could.Quote:
North, South, black, or white, people are people, and if a person is profitable, who cares about prejudice?
On the topic of it being quite around here, if you look at the members list, you will notice that about 80% of the registered members have made 0 or 1 post. It's sad when you think about it. I think that Admin should shut down some of those accounts.
[quote="Shuai
Wow. Can you say, capitalist? I knew you could.[/quote]
If you are inferring that I would do anything for money (such as work at Hooters) you are absolutely wrong. What I meant by my statement was that I liked the boldness of Scarlett for opposing a common view for her time. Now, if you inferred Scarlett as being a capitalist, you are absolutely correct. During the time between the war and Rhett leaving her, her drive in life was to get Ashley and get rich.
I too am new, and just looking for people to chat with about literature. This is the first site like this that I have found that I enjoy so much. This is my first time here, and I am already enjoying it thouroughly. I've read a variety of type of novels, but I'm going through a Russian phase right now. Most recently I read The Count of Monte Cristo (I know its not Russian, but I couldn't resist), I thought it was wonderful. I know he isn't quite at classic status, but I also absolutely love Kurt Vonnegut. Well, I have to continue exploring this amazing site!
Shout out to Mr. Rogers!
Count of Monte Cristo was one of the best books ever written. It had everything from love affairs to stabbings. What more can you want?
Hey Piq., have you ever read anything by Somerset Maugham? I really like him.
No, I haven't ever read anything by Somerset Maugham, I don't even know anything he wrote :oops: . I'd deffinately be interested in finding out more about him though. What type of stuff did he write, And which book of his would you recommend? I'm starving for something new!
Newbie to the site here too... :D
Shuai, I have read a number of Maughams' books! The Moon and Sixpence is based on the artist Paul Gaugins' life, and Of Human Bondage is semi-autobiographical, maybe a good start if you've never read any of his stuff.
Den, Gauguin is the one who lived with Van Gogh for a while, right? That sounds interesting; I like to read about artists, I'm not really into autobiographies, but maybe I'll make an exception. Have you ever read anything by Chaim Potok? My name is Asher Lev is a great book by him, a fictional character, but also an artist if I remember correctly. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll probably go get The Moon and Sixpense.
Yes! Vincent in a manic passion, hearing Gaugin was to leave Arles, France, where they lived and worked together, cut his ear. Gaugin was ~quite~ unconventional too, The Moon and Sixpence is great.
Hey well I'll check out Chaim Potok, I've heard of but not read any of his stuff.
Of Human Bondage really isn't an autobiography. It's true that many of the events in the book are based on Maugham's life, but it offers philosophical views on life that really get you thinking. One reason why it was so wonderfully written was because it was so realistic. Maugham's best work, in my opinion. It also talks about artists a lot.
Yes, that's why I wrote semi-autobiographical. Maugham went through many of the same coming-of-age themes of confusion, not knowing what he wanted to do in life, set out on many different avenues of study, and was also quite the loner and introvert, very much like Phillip.
I guess I 'll just have to read both of them, especially if Of Human Bondage was his best work. I think they both sound very interesting. I really don't mind autobiographical books all that much. One of my favorite books was The Bell Jar, and that was semi-autobiographical. I'll have to wait until I find the last book I got out of the library though, they won't let me get out another one until I return it. I'm always losing things!
Hey den, who's that on your avatar?
uhm, whom do you think? :oops: ;)
How am I supposed to know? Unless it's you... :D
I felt bored and took a little gaze at some of the oldest threads in the forum.
Wow! Here lie the days when few of us existed, when Shea, Jay, Koa, and den considered themselves 'newbies.'
By the way, I wonder what ever happened to Eric, son of Chuck, anyway.
I second the inquiry as to where Eric, Son of Chuck went to. Fascinating historical find Mono, kudos.
If you ever want to do some truly enlightening historical digging, familiarize yourself with a banned guy named Abdorimbo. He revolutionized this forum before getting himself ejected.
Searched for Abdorimbo and the only hit that came up was to this thread.