Introduce Yourself here and say Hi.

[Ruminate]

Hello,
I was excited to find a discussion of literature with such a passionate and involved group! I have recently started volunteering as a grantwriter for with a non-profit literary and arts magazine (same name as the handle if you're interested). I am thrilled with what they do and how they do it, but it has been difficult for me to see how it fits in a larger context since my training is in the sciences, my experience is in the military, and literature, poetry and art are all a bit foreign to me. I'm looking forward to broadening my horizons though!

I read "The Count of Monte Cristo" on a whim a while ago and was absolutely shocked at how captivating the story was. I have a sneaking suspicion that there are more thrilling and thought provoking books out there and I'm am more than content to lurk, learn, and add to my reading list

Nice to meet all of you! If you have any titles that need to go on my list, I'd love to hear them.

Dune is an amazing book! I read it in eighth grade for a school project and I don't think I have stopped reading science fiction since. I adore Jo Clayton (a very different style of writing your basic adventure story in the stars) and Spider Robinson (just brilliant), find Larry Niven to be a little methodical if a great idea man, and have recently started on Gene Wolfe's Long Sun Cycle and am really enjoying it.

[Thom Holliday]

Brilliant Ruminate! I must check out all of those writers. I've just finished college for the summer, so I've finally got some time to read books that I want to read, so I'm going to make it my mission to plough through as much S.F. as humanly possible.

[minstrelbard]

I should get into science fiction again. I used to do nothing but read science fiction when I was a kid (younger than sixteen or so), but I kind of got out of that when I started reading "respectable" literature. I started raiding my dad's bookshelves, and he had Hemingway, Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley, Chekov, Gogol, and more modern stuff like Pynchon. And for a long time, as an adult, I pretty much stopped reading fiction and stuck to biography, history, popular science, and so on.

So who are the really good science fiction writers today?

[wolf23]

Hi everyone
I love to read esp.literature, and military fiction and nonfiction

[Thom Holliday]

I should get into science fiction again. I used to do nothing but read science fiction when I was a kid (younger than sixteen or so), but I kind of got out of that when I started reading "respectable" literature. I started raiding my dad's bookshelves, and he had Hemingway, Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley, Chekov, Gogol, and more modern stuff like Pynchon. And for a long time, as an adult, I pretty much stopped reading fiction and stuck to biography, history, popular science, and so on.

So who are the really good science fiction writers today?

I've not read it, but I have this on my list to read:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kraken-China...5846693&sr=8-1

I saw a favourable review for it in The Guardian, and it sounds really interesting. Quite slipstream too. I haven't heard of the author before either.

[Ruminate]

Thom - The summer between high school and college I read, went to the beach and went running, and that was all I did. It was the best summer ever - enjoy it! And of course, all those excellent titles you come across you should share them here That Kraken book looks fabulous!

MinstrelBard - Just scanning some of the more recent titles on my shelves I'd pick Orson Scott Card (the Ender's Game series, prequels, sequels and spinoffs), Philip K. Dick, Alan Dean Foster. I can't think of the author of Snow Crash, but that is an excellent book as well. There's plenty out there I'd just pick an interesting looking cover and get started

Hi Wolf23 - You mentioned military novels... I'm going to leave this here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010...-war-reporting In the course of the article he discusses some incredible books. I'd also add On Killing to that list, I don't remember seeing it in there

[kiz_paws]

Welcome, Welcome to all you newly signed up LitNetters!
You'll surely find something here that will make you so glad you signed on!
Happy Reading/Writing!
~K♥zzo

[Seeker12]

Hello, I,m new. Great to be here. You guys sound nice...... I hope you're nice. Anyway, thanks for letting me say hello. I'm a little nervous,well I'm just rambling now.

[bottlerose]

Hi everyone,

I am here to post one of my poem and I am looking forward to everyone's comments and feedbacks. I love writing but I rarely do so. Because, I feel Iam not good at it. Please pass on your sincere comments so that I can improve. Thank you so much.

Here is the poem:
Title: Life's Lessons!

When did I forget, It was not easy;
When did I forget, It was not fun,
Thought I learned this long time when I hit the mountain and I -
I hurt my knees only to blame to be blind and novice.
But Here I am, Once again - stand like an innocent child;
Simple as she can think, Mountains are way back gone!
Makes her way through the darkest clouds, tired and shattered
Thought she just learned it last time when she cried her heart out,
And secretly places the note in her life's lesson book.
When did I forget, It was not easy;
When did I forget, It was not fun,
When did I forget, It was life and all these are its learnings
And with every passing day, I get better
And with every trip, I get stronger.

[Esoteric_Muse]

Greeting and Salutations!

Like all of you, I have a passion for literature, and for most genres of it. My specific interests wax and wan with the seasons it seems and right now I am largely reading nothing but poetry, and 20 century poets in particular.

Anyway, look forward to reading and participating in some interesting discussions!

[middling]

Greetings...
I am a Tolstoy fan big time and Chekov too and Russian lit in general.....I love Dostoyevsky. Anyone out there with theories as to why Russians are such great natural-born writers????
Middling

[Wilnel]

Just when I believe I have learned the way to live, life changes and I m left the same as I started off…..... The more the things change, the more I m the same…..... It seems that my life is a constant irony of maturity and regression,..... but my perception of progress is based on the illusion that things out there are going to remain the same and that, at last, I have managed to gain a little control….. But there shall never be means to ends, only means…. And i see myself as means…. I m what I started with, and when it is all done with I shall be all that is left of me!

Theres a part of me that wants to write, a part of me that wants to theorize, a part that wants to teach, a part that want to live, a part that wants to love… To force myself into just a single role, to settle down to be just one thing in life, would kill off significant parts of me…...
rather, I recognize that I live now and only now, and I shall do what I want to do this moment and not what I had decided was the best for me yesterday.

[henslerm]

Hello greetings to all. I hold a BA in English Lit and enjoy reading more than just about anything. I enjoy all types of lit really, my favorite authors in no order or grouped by genre: Thomas Pynchon, James Joyce, Robert Silverberg, Don DeLillo, Herman Melville, William Vollman, and my favorite poet Rainer Maria Rilke. I am glad to find somewhere to discuss literature.

[Egmond Codfried]

Dears, pressed for time right now, but I like to start a friendly discussion about Jane Austen's ethnicity.

[Ulyanov]

Greetings,
A friend referred me here and I will admit that in an effort to kick start my reading habit again I am hoping that this will motivate me to make the time to do exactly that. Primary interests have evolved but are currently Nonfiction, and after spending 15 years in Russia, Russian lit as well.