Reddit mentions: The best essays & correspondence books
We found 809 Reddit comments discussing the best essays & correspondence books. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 366 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.
1. Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
- ABRAMS
Features:
Specs:
Height | 9.99998 Inches |
Length | 6.999986 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | October 2013 |
Weight | 2.3809924296 Pounds |
Width | 0.999998 Inches |
2. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers
Vintage
Specs:
Color | Silver |
Height | 7.97 Inches |
Length | 5.22 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | June 1991 |
Weight | 0.49 Pounds |
Width | 0.61 Inches |
3. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
Vintage
Specs:
Height | 8 Inches |
Length | 5.2 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | May 1991 |
Weight | 0.5401325419 Pounds |
Width | 0.6 Inches |
4. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.)
- Trade paperback
Features:
Specs:
Height | 8 Inches |
Length | 5.31 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | April 2007 |
Weight | 0.55 Pounds |
Width | 0.72 Inches |
5. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
- Scribner
Features:
Specs:
Height | 8.4375 Inches |
Length | 5.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | July 2004 |
Weight | 0.55776952286 Pounds |
Width | 0.68 Inches |
6. The Portable Nietzsche (Portable Library)
- Penguin Books
Features:
Specs:
Color | Grey |
Height | 7.71 Inches |
Length | 5.06 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | January 1977 |
Weight | 1.04499112188 Pounds |
Width | 1.2 Inches |
7. In Praise of Shadows
- Independent Pub Group
Features:
Specs:
Height | 8.5 Inches |
Length | 5.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 0.49824471212 Pounds |
Width | 0.2 Inches |
8. Essays and Aphorisms (Penguin Classics)
- Penguin Classics
Features:
Specs:
Color | Black |
Height | 0.6 Inches |
Length | 7.74 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | May 1973 |
Weight | 0.42108292042 Pounds |
Width | 5.06 Inches |
9. Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, From A Game of Thrones to A Dance with Dragons
- Product Type: Vehicle Bumper
- Package Quantity: 1
- Package Dimensions: 109.474 cms (L) x 14.478 cms (W) x 3.81 cms (H)
- Country of Origin: China
Features:
Specs:
Color | White |
Height | 8.25 Inches |
Length | 5.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | June 2012 |
Weight | 0.5621787681 Pounds |
Width | 0.68 Inches |
10. Tao Te Ching
- Penguin Classics)
- Tao Te Ching (
- Classic
- Penguin
- Classics)
Features:
Specs:
Color | Multicolor |
Height | 7.75 Inches |
Length | 5.1 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | May 1964 |
Weight | 0.3196702799 Pounds |
Width | 0.45 Inches |
11. To My Trans Sisters
- Designed to fit men
- Flattens the crotch area for a realistically smooth look
- Exclusive design for comfort
- Strong satin material to smooth and flatten
- Thong back style
Features:
Specs:
Height | 7.83463 Inches |
Length | 6.10235 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | October 2017 |
Weight | 0.661386786 Pounds |
Width | 1.10236 Inches |
12. The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century
- Holt McDougal
Features:
Specs:
Height | 2.15 Inches |
Length | 5.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | May 2002 |
Weight | 0.65 Pounds |
Width | 1 Inches |
13. Lectures on Literature
Specs:
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | December 2002 |
Weight | 0.75 Pounds |
14. Reflections on the Revolution in France (Oxford World's Classics)
- Oxford University Press USA
Features:
Specs:
Height | 7.6 Inches |
Length | 5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 0.55 Pounds |
Width | 0.7 Inches |
15. Essays (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series)
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
Specs:
Color | Tan |
Height | 8.29 Inches |
Length | 5.68 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | October 2002 |
Weight | 2.76 Pounds |
Width | 2.55 Inches |
16. Uncommon Carriers
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
Specs:
Height | 8.3299046 Inches |
Length | 5.44 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | April 2007 |
Weight | 0.65 Pounds |
Width | 0.68 Inches |
17. Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium (Classics)
Specs:
Release date | August 2004 |
18. Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity
Joshua Odell Editions
Specs:
Height | 8 Inches |
Length | 5.75 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | August 1993 |
Weight | 0.45 Pounds |
Width | 0.75 Inches |
19. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
Back Bay Books
Specs:
Height | 8.5 Inches |
Length | 5.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | July 2007 |
Weight | 0.68 Pounds |
Width | 1 Inches |
20. Arguably
Used Book in Good Condition
Specs:
Height | 9.5 Inches |
Length | 6.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | September 2011 |
Weight | 2.45 Pounds |
Width | 2.75 Inches |
🎓 Reddit experts on essays & correspondence books
The comments and opinions expressed on this page are written exclusively by redditors. To provide you with the most relevant data, we sourced opinions from the most knowledgeable Reddit users based the total number of upvotes and downvotes received across comments on subreddits where essays & correspondence books are discussed. For your reference and for the sake of transparency, here are the specialists whose opinions mattered the most in our ranking.
Fun, thanks for hosting the scavenger hunt!
Edit: Finished! I love scavenger hunts; it always reminds me what a weirdo I am.
Yeah as /u/engesaurus says, small manageable bits. Don't try and conquer everything all at once. Your transition is your own, and will be unique to you. You can choose to follow how others have chosen to go through their own when it gives you strength, and ignore where it doesn't feel right for you. Feel free to ignore anything I say, its just there if you want it.
Youtube Trans Personalities can be pretty helpful as there are several people who are currently still going through their own transitions and are really up on modern transition issues. Chase Ross and Aaron Ansuini are great for a Transmasculine/Man perspective (I love to watch them even though I am a Trans woman myself, as its great to see how similar the experience is, while being different. I find it very validating and informative, but also relaxing as it means I can stop thinking about my own troubles for a while) and Stef Sanjati is fantastic for a Trans Woman perspective, hands down, she has the best advice I know. There are videos out there to cover almost any topic you can imagine and give you advice and similar experiences to learn from. I personally don't have a Non Binary youtuber I follow so I don't want to recommend any without experience of them, but im sure there are plenty out there.
There are several big boulders that you probably already know are lurking on the horizon. Legal Document Name change stuff, NHS/Private doctor transition stuff, Hormones (If you want them), Gender Therapy, Surgery options (If you want them). Each one can be huge topics to research, and there is a wealth of good info out there that the trans community has gathered, but each one can be pretty scary to start with, so its good to space these out and only approach them one by one when you are collected together enough to deal with the anxiety and stress that getting into them might cause. Once you get into one, break it down into chunks and figure out plans of how you're going to get to where you want. Some things can be done super quickly, some things take steps that will need to be planned out over the next 2-3 years. You choose the pace, and how fast or slow you want to go.
If you are Trans fem, [To My Trans Sisters]
(https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Trans-Sisters-Charlie-Craggs/dp/1785923439) is an amazing resource for starting out. So much inspiring stuff in there for a new girl on the block. I can not recommend it enough. Seriously feel free to ignore everything else I say, and just get tihs book. It has 100 letters written by the top trans women in their respective careers, including atleast one in the UK Military - Caroline Paige who served as an out Transgender woman for 15 years (and 20 before that in the closet) in the RAF flying Helis in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its filled with their own advice to you, the reader, their new younger sister.
Speaking of siblings. By coming out, you have just joined a giant family of sisters, brothers and siblings. You will never be alone. We all are here to support you and each other. If you ever need help or advice, you only need to ask, we've all been there in some form or another, we were all baby trans once. The trans community has had to forage for itself for so long that it has so much strength and solidarity. There are a lot of different trans specific subreddits which are also worth checking out if you want to find communities to engage with.
Getting together a support network is probably the biggest thing I'd advise, over the internet is good, but real face to face contact is best. People who you can hug, who can hug you back and go on a walk with you in the park. By coming out, you are starting a new page. New rules. It might surprise you who suddenly becomes the strongest friend to you. Reach out to people from your past, or from the present and forge bonds if you can. Now you're able to be yourself properly, you can truly be honest with yourself, and with others, and that can be a huge difference. There will come days where its all a bit much and you need to lean on someone briefly for emotional support. You don't need to shoulder this burden entirely in the dark. The bigger your support team, the more you can accomplish. Finding a big Trans sibling who can give advice and check on you in the early days can also be great.
Be kind to yourself. Don't expect things to be fixed right away, and don't hate yourself when things go slower than youd like. Baby steps every day, and concentrate on survival. Expect yourself to have bad days, build safety nets in advance, safe coping mechanisms, no matter how silly or short term, are still important. Early on, I would bribe myself with a nice item of clothing each time I did something big and scary. Some days you might not be prepared enough to leave your bed, be gentle, don't force yourself if something feels bad. Your mind and body take years to adjust away from the lifetime of institutionalized gender that has been forced on you. I found it helpful to do one thing everyday, so if I couldnt progress with things like legal documents or medical woes, I would do exercises that would specifically target my hips, thighs, and butt.. anything that allows you to show yourself "I'm working on it".
Know that the aware, awake part of you, that you consider you, is generally like a third of you. There is an silent two thirds which is communicating to you through dysphoria (if you suffer from it), through dreams, through general feelings, through subconscious actions. Try to listen to what those parts of your body want as well. The subconcious side of you is generally a better guide of your gender identity as it doesn't try to explain things away. But it does require patience to hear.
Read up on [Dissociativeness and Depersonalization] (https://genderanalysis.net/2017/09/themes-of-depersonalization-in-transgender-autobiographies-jan-morris/) as mental conditions. They are super super common for trans people to do with their subconcious minds being unable to process their physical bodies. As you come out and accept yourself as your real gender, you may find a lot of things suddenly pop up out of no where. Intense emotions may run wild on your ass, and it can be beautiful (support network!)
Quit smoking, hard drugs and alcohol, anything that stresses your liver. These are normally big coping mechanisms that a lot of late appearing trans people use before they come out, but afterwards those things are going to show up heavily in medical tests and delay transition (or endanger it entirely).
Finally, know that things are going to change. Sexuality, dress sense, gender presentation, gender identity.. give yourself time and space to explore things. You don't have to pin anything down right away, and you're allowed to change your mind as you go. Go with what feels right now. If it changes, in the future, then go with what feels right then.
You are starting a beautiful journey. It can be scary, and anxious, and who knows where its going, but it can also at times be exciting and make you feel more alive than youve ever felt before. Physical changes are only one part, there is so much more to enjoy and explore. There is a lot of power to be gained from your transition and what it teaches you. You've already proven yourself to have personal strength by simply figuring out you're trans, and pulling your ass up, out of the fires by yourself. That is no small task and a badge of honour. Right now you're in baby trans phase, ask questions, read current blogs, find role models, stay open, don't feel you have to jump into arguments with transphobes right away. Sit on the sidelines for now, and let other Trans folk take up that fight for now. See the links and articles they refer to. See how they handle the bigots and figure out what works and what doesnt.
If you are a Trans Man, you are a man. If you are Trans Female, you are a woman. If you are Non Binary then you are a Non Binary person. You don't need to do a single thing, change a single thing about yourself to prove that to anyone. You don't owe anyone anything. You don't have to answer any question you don't want to. You don't have to change the world if you don't want to, just figure out who the best you you can possibly be, that you possibly would want to be, and work towards that, day by day.
Good luck lovely. If you ever want to chat I'm just a PM away.
❄️🌸⚪️🌸❄️
Hmm there's a few ways to go about writing and publishing, and the way you choose is up to you.
I was always told the same thing about my creations, but decided I wanted to take it further, same thing with art. I see natural talent like having a knife, one that separates you from most people. But it's a dull knife, maybe it can take you to a certain point, but it can only cut so much, therefore limiting your potential. You need to sharpen and hone it through learning and practice, or it will be blunt forever. It's not easy or fast, but possible, as long as you have a genuine interest and vision. Cheap metaphor, but that's the concept I'm talking about. Take advantage of it, and you'll go far.
So you can begin by doing it "instinctually", by writing the way you would when at school for a teacher or assignment, by picking up a pencil and just going for it, relying on subconscious experience and inborn talent.
On the other hand, you can go about it more "intellectually" and make it more of a learning process through external sources, the way I prefer. I find this way is more tedious but also stimulating, more interesting, and fun. For example, if you wanted to write a short fiction story, you could begin with the basics of writing in general, then once you've absorbed that information, narrow down your interest.
When it comes to learning new skills, theories, or subjects, my general process is determine why I want to learn it/decide its importance to me -> determine how I will best learn it, (for example, I generally learn things best with reading and visuals) -> find where I can acquire resources, such as through the Internet or library -> begin with the basics -> practice -> go deeper in the subject -> practice more and more -> repeat the last two steps again and again.
When it comes to putting your stuff out there, it can be a complicated and long process, (I can't give any personal experience with that, as I've never considered sending my stuff for publishing or anything), and there's a ton of resources out there for that, books and articles.
Also, learning from the "masters" is important too, of course. Identify what inspires you, who inspires you, and go from there. A book that has helped me with this: http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Like-Writer-Guide-People/dp/0060777052
If you're looking for a more direct method (that costs money), a less common approach to book-selling is getting a booth at a local convention, like Comic Con, where you can sell your book(s). It will likely sell better if you have eye-catching visuals to go with it and maybe even illustrations by a commissioned artist. Also check out your local book store (not Barnes and Noble, a privately owned one), or public library, and see if you can put up cheap copies of your book in there. Not all libraries and businesses do the same thing, so I can't say if yours has this. But all that generally won't come until later, of course. If you're starting, getting feedback from as many people as possible, whether thru an Internet platform or people you know, practicing, and learning are the first steps. In terms of careers, there's editing, writing for comic books, writing for magazines or websites. These jobs will likely take a solid portfolio and education in writing/editing, etc. to get, though, if they're not independent companies.
Since you said not for the mainstream - I'm in my last year of high school, and with my best friend have a monthly printed chapbook (a little independent magazine type thing) that we send around our friend groups, and over time it has spread to many people and all over school. It contains various short stories students (myself included) have submitted. It also contains art from various talented artists in the school. It really is a great way to get many people's work out there to an audience. If you're at a uni or college, you could begin one of those with friends with mutual interests. You could also approach people who may be interested in submitting their work. All of that printing, writing, decision-making, and compiling will likely take your time and some money, but it's worth the gradual acknowledgement from an audience you will get if the magazine/chapbook is truly good and interesting. For example, it could contain student's poetry, short stories, recipes, local concerts, recommendations, reviews of books and films, photography, etc. It could also have a monthly theme that fellow writers and artists could submit their content for. I began the magazine because I wanted to take action, and was not going to just sit around dreaming all day that maybe someone will want to publish me - I can do it myself. Dreams and desires are cool, but I hate it when they just lay there stagnant in my mind. I stepped out of my comfort zone with it - I wasn't used to and don't enjoy initiating contact like that with so many people (whether it was offering them a copy, or asking a writer if they'd like their writing published in it) but I got used to it, and it's been worth it. And getting involved in a writing community, whether online (like /r/writingprompts for example) or writing forums, or in real life by taking a creative writing class, helps too, I think.
When it finally comes time to try and get published, the most unanimous advice authors have given is don't give up. I'm sure you've heard how many times prevalent writers such as J.K. Rowling (12 times) and Dr. Seuss (27 times) were rejected by publishing houses, but they didn't stop.
Also, writing competitions. Look them up, there's plenty of them. Sorry this was so long. I don't know how to write short responses for some topics, it's embarrassing.
This week I finished the first book in the Hyperion series. Solid reading experience was loving all the stories that the travelers were telling. The only thing is now I don't really know if I want to continue the series right away, which is fine maybe I will later. As a stand alone story it isn't the strongest which makes me want to continue because everything in this book is basically background information for the series ahead. I don't really know why I picked it up because I already knew I didn't want to be wrapped up in a long series, but I did and I'm glad I did. But I gotta say I love the exotic planets in this book there is a lot beauty in these words.
Another little note is that this was the longest book I have read on my kindle I have only been using the thing for shorter books because I was still getting used to it. But gotta say I love that damn device.
O.K. on to the book I finished this morning just so I could talk about it at length Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. Alright I stumbled along this book on amazon and was drawn in by the names of the chapters, take a look inside the book on the amazon page and look at the table of contents. Simple concepts like words and sentences start the thing off and it moves into the bigger concepts of literature later. This really drew me in I thought about how in my high school AP English class we talked about the more "hidden meanings" in the books we were reading and just thinking how I would have never have picked up on that and how much I must miss in literature.
So I bought the book and gotta say I feel like a better reader now, well I haven't read anything since I finished it but still. She goes in detail about the subject of each chapter and looks at lots and lots of examples so be prepared to read lots passages from lots of books....lots. Then she dissects them and brings to light those things I would have missed. After doing this time and time again I feel like I now know what to look for. Really if you want to make your reading comprehension better or feel like you are missing something when it comes to reading I recommend the shit out of this book. Just be ready to learn when you pick it up it isn't dense by any means but you do have to get into a bit of a student mindset to get into it. Also there is a little list at the back of "books to read immediately" I indulged myself and bought three of them in the physical format, I can't wait to read them.
I didn't get this book for the writing insights, not my thing, I do feel that it would have benefited me if I was a writer but I'm sure there are better things to learn from for writers. But as a non-writer I feel like if I started now I would have a better idea of what to do with my words then I would have before I read this book.
Your friend is not wrong, but he's only half right. He's also framing how one deals with the negative aspects of life poorly. One should do their best to minimize the bad in life, or at least its effects. And, when possible, turn allegedly negative things to one's advantage. One should also do their best to maximize the positive aspects. A lot of it has to do with your perspective and what you focus on.
Everyone has to support themselves somehow. If the only available work is something unpleasant or undesirable, focus on what it affords you and put effort toward getting into a line of work you appreciate more. You can't prevent yourself from ever getting sick, but you can do everything in your power to stay healthy. Healthy eating, an active lifestyle, and getting regular medical checkups all have their benefits. If someone assaults you and you are permanently injured, you're going to have to cope with that, yes. But I'm sure any school worth attending will make accommodations for a student who was assaulted presuming they were made aware of the circumstances.
So, yes, you will have to learn how to cope with the bad things. But you also need to learn how to maximize the positive. Work towards a career you enjoy. Build friendships. Chase your dreams. All that. People tend to write off encouragement and positive thinking, and focus on the negative. But life is what you focus on.
If you struggle with this, I have a few recommended reads for you.
I know this was an overly long response to your question, but I hope it helps. Learning how to cope well with life is one of the most important things a person can learn. I wish you, and your friend, well.
You can also enjoy listening to audio lectures through things like The Great Courses or the Modern Scholar series from Recorded Books.
I have listened to a lot of professors break down works of literature, talk about genre, discuss authors, etc., just by borrowing CDs from the library or through Audible. I listen on my way to work.
In fact, (just as an aside) I really enjoyed a particular professor's work through the Modern Scholar series, and this past summer (after saving money a long time, lol) I took a trip through Scholarly Sojourns that was led by the professor. (A tour Anglo-Saxon Britain) He has courses on Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry, Oral Tradition, Viking Sagas, Tolkien, Science Fiction, Fantasy Literature... Michael Drout is his name.
You can also take free online classes in tons of different areas, including literature from places like Coursera. I happen to have saved in my bookmarks (in the "learn" folder, lol) this little list of 60 free online literature courses...there are courses from lesser known schools, all the way up to UC Berkeley, Oxford, and Yale.
I think that, yes, you should continue to read on your own. Read novels, read for fun, read the classics. Read hard stuff. Read easy stuff and think critically about ALL of it. But expose yourself to teachers and the influence of others to help you build your toolbox and expand your comfort zone. There's some good lit-crit out there that you can read to help guide you. I enjoyed reading through Nabokov's Lectures on Literature.
There is so much out there for the self-taught learner. We live in a GREAT age, if you're motivated, you can learn anything you want from your back garden, how frigging exciting is that?!...but it can be hard to know where to start.
I recently read an article in Psychology Today about autodidacts and what makes the self-taught learner successful. Maybe you'll find it helpful or enlightening, some how.
Hope you find something helpful here :)
Hi Summer!
Good luck!
I heard someone say once that you need to understand the rules before you can break them the right way. Anyway, I found these books helpful. I would never adhere to their advice exactly, but I did learn a lot from all of them and combine it with my own personal style:
John Gardner - The Art of Fiction
A bit dated, but it still does a good job of laying out what it means to write fiction. He has some good suggestions for exercises at the end.
Anne LaMott - Bird By Bird
Half craft, half inspirational. I'm not usually big on sappy, inspirational shit, but I loved this book and found it very helpful.
James Bonnet - Stealing Fire From the Gods
Focuses on the elements of great stories in film and books.
John Trimble - Writing With Style
This is a great overview of the technical side of writing well. The best I have found.
The main thing though: READ A LOT OF FICTION. You should read much more than you write. No one ever became a great writer by sitting around and reading about writing, but it can help you zero in on what to look for in the fiction of others.
Hope that helps.
Beyond the obvious choices, Watts' The Book, Ram Dass' Be Here Now, Huxley's Doors of Perception, Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience, and of course Fear and Loathing (all of these should be on the list without question; they’re classics), here are a some others from a few different perspectives:
From a Secular Contemporary Perspective
Godel Escher Bach by Douglass Hofstadter -- This is a classic for anyone, but man is it food for psychedelic thought. It's a giant book, but even just reading the dialogues in between chapters is worth it.
The Mind’s Eye edited by Douglass Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett – This is an anthology with a bunch of great essays and short fictional works on the self.
From an Eastern Religious Perspective
The Tao is Silent by Raymond Smullyan -- This is a very fun and amusing exploration of Taoist thought from one of the best living logicians (he's 94 and still writing logic books!).
Religion and Nothingness by Keiji Nishitani – This one is a bit dense, but it is full of some of the most exciting philosophical and theological thought I’ve ever come across. Nishitani, an Eastern Buddhist brings together thought from Buddhist thinkers, Christian mystics, and the existentialists like Neitzsche and Heidegger to try to bridge some of the philosophical gaps between the east and the west.
The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by Nagarjuna (and Garfield's translation/commentary is very good as well) -- This is the classic work from Nagarjuna, who lived around the turn of the millennium and is arguably the most important Buddhist thinker after the Buddha himself.
From a Western Religious Perspective
I and Thou by Martin Buber – Buber wouldn’t approve of this book being on this list, but it’s a profound book, and there’s not much quite like it. Buber is a mystical Jewish Philosopher who argues, in beautiful and poetic prose, that we get glimpses of the Divine from interpersonal moments with others which transcend what he calls “I-it” experience.
The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila – this is an old book (from the 1500s) and it is very steeped in Christian language, so it might not be everyone’s favorite, but it is perhaps the seminal work of medieval Christian mysticism.
From an Existentialist Perspective
Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre – Not for the light of heart, this existential novel talks about existential nausea a strange perception of the absurdity of existence.
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus – a classic essay that discusses the struggle one faces in a world inherently devoid of meaning.
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I’ll add more if I think of anything else that needs to be thrown in there!
Hi Remett, glad you're interested in writing! I'll work on answering your questions as best as I can. Before I get started, just know that there is by no means a set answer for any of the questions you ask. The beauty of writing is everybody figures out their own way to tell their story! Here's what I've learned since studying writing in school and dabbling in long form fiction since graduating in 2014.
A book I'd also recommend you checking out: "Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them". This book was great for teaching me what to look for in other people's writing when I read books.
Let me know if you have any questions. Happy writing!
First, let me say I really admire your dedication, especially at your age. Wanting to improve for yourself and not just for a grade is something I see rarely in people, and I'm very impressed by it. I will do my best to give you places to look.
Short stories can be tricky. You could start by focusing on Edgar Allen Poe's idea of the "Singular Effect" - as explained in his essay "The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale". Basically, in a short story, you only have time for one effect, and everything should be used to support this. You can make someone laugh, or cry, or reflect, or feel dread, etc., but you don't have the space of a novel, where you need to do more than one of these things.
I would also encourage looking into John Gardner's advice - The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers is an amazing read, but also a full book, which maybe you don't want for a single assignment. In short, he encourages the "Fictional Dream", which is to say that, to some extent, the reader should forget that he is reading. He should be sucked into the story and the writing so completely (because the writing is so flawless) that it is like he is dreaming. Anything that pulls the reader out of the story, due to inconsistency, or factual error, or poor execution, etc. needs to be improved.
In terms of putting stuff together: the class Three Act Structure might be a good place to start. A lot of traditional stories follow this pattern.
Short Story Collections / Short Stories to Read (In absolutely no particular order)
Where I'm Calling From - Short story collection by Raymond Carver (Especially "Cathedral")
"A&P" - John Updike
"In the Cemetery Where Al Jolsen is Buried" - Amy Hempel
The Things They Carried - Short story collection by Tim O'Brien
"The Gift of the Magi" - O. Henry
"The Swimmer" - John Cheever
"Big Two-Hearted River" - Ernest Hemingway
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" - Ernest Hemingway
"A Rose for Emily" - William Faulkner
*A Good Man is Hard to Find" - Short story collection by Flannery O'Connor
There's literally hundreds more, but I feel like if I keep going, this will just get out of hand.
Best of luck with your endeavor.
Books: I like Dr. Tatiana's Sex advice to all Creation, The lady Tasting Tea http://www.amazon.com/Lady-Tasting-Tea-Statistics-Revolutionized/dp/0805071342, Cod, and Big Questions in Ecology and Evolution.
It will be critical to be familiar with the marine environment & critters but really matters is if you have a solid training in Ecology, evolution, biology, and biostatistics.
The other comment by u/notmadeinamerica, is very good advice. Regardless of what books you read, what will make the most (more than good grades in some respects) is what research experiences you obtain and if they lead to publications.
The earlier you can get in and do research or volunteer, the better.
This is important because Marine biology (and many life sciences) is flooded with people wanting to do it, but few opportunities. So make sure you start planning early to ensure you get the skills you need to be at or near the top. Back up plans are also a good idea (ex. GIS training opens many doors, Fisheries work, data analysis/coding, Wetland training, etc). It can be done, but don't this expect someone to hand you a job...Good luck!
Sartre presented a lecture called "Existentialism and Humanism," which can now be found in print as Existentialism is a Humanism. It's almost like an Existentialism manefesto, per se. The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus is a good treatise on existentialism (Absurdism, really, but it'll do).
I would not hesitate to start reading fiction novels that have Existentialist themes. Camus' The Stranger, Sartre's Nausea, and Dostyevsky's Notes From the Underground are just a few that will find your studies well.
As for secondary literature, the only text I can knowledgeably recommend is Existentialism For Dummies, as I'm currently working my way through it. It's actually not as bad as you might think coming from the "For Dummies" series. It doesn't go too in-depth, and ideas are very concise and oftentimes humorous.
I have also heard good things about David Cogswell's Existentialism For Beginners, though I have never read it myself.
If your niece feels comfortable with this level of writing and philosophical examination, it is almost imperative to read Kierkegaard's Either/Or and Fear and Trembling, Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, and Sartre's Being and Nothingness, among others. It is good to have some background understanding of Kant and perhaps have a few essays by Schopenhauer under your belt leading up to the more rigorous academics like Heidegger and Hegel.
Good luck, and happy reading!
Okay, so I'm not home so these are the few off the top of my head that I can remember I've read and loved.
I hope one of these can help out!
It probably isn't truly mine, but something I've cobbled together from greater minds than my own into something useful to me. I suggest you do the same. Rather than asking to be my disciple, you are welcome to simply take from my attempt at philosophy whatever you find useful.
Rather than adopting my philosophy as a package deal, you should also do your own reading and thinking, consider your own experiences, and reach your own conclusions. I would suggest, however, that you ask yourself a couple of basic questions:
If you decide to do some philosophica reading, I would suggest starting with Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus and Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I found both of these useful and influential as a young man.
The gist of Camus' and Nietzsche's works, respectively, are is that existence has no inherent meaning or purpose and that God is dead in the sense that we can no longer depend on God for moral guidance, meaning, or a sense of purpose. Humanity as a whole is on its own, and every one of us is on their own. If our lives are to have any meaning, it is up to each and every one of us to make our own lives meaningful. It is up to each and every one of us to decide for ourselves the purpose of our own lives.
When you get done with Camus and Nietzsche, check out The Ego and His Own by Max Stirner. He doesn't get much credit, but his rejection of all ideologies, ethics, morals, religions, and beliefs as "spooks" and his strident defense of egoism make him a forerunner of both nihilism and existentialist philosophy.
At the very least, reading Max Stirner will allow you to see through Ayn Rand's bullshit. :)
Finally, if you want to dig deeper and can handle academic English, you might find the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy useful. Good luck!
The ancient world faced the question of meaning and purpose as much as us. In Marcus Aurelius' writings, I found the perseverance, nobility, and applicable philosophy that I craved after leaving the comfort of Mormonism.
For those who have suicidal thoughts, my primary advice would be to seek out a professional who can assist in working through this very serious time. You can work through it, and you owe it to your future self to persevere.
But as a supplement and a guiding life philosophy, I think Stoicism is a tremendously powerful tool. Perhaps it's not the only tool, but it certainly is one which can form a sturdy basis for weathering the existential stress and anxiety that is common to us all. We must deal with meaninglessness where we once had it clearly spelled out for us. Working through the transitory period of nihilism to something more stable and healthy is possible even within a non-theistic framework. Nature does not require our misery, so why should we be miserable in our existence?
I loved the maxims that are to be found in "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius and the other Stoic philosophers. Stoicism is a close kin to modern Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is used by therapists today, and the richness of the philosophical tradition lends a kind of poetic frame for a full life without self delusion. The stoic concepts are simple, seemingly obvious and easy to become familiar with, but the challenge is in applying them to your life.
If you're truly destitute of meaning and hope, try Stoicism. It helped Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale through his time as a POW in Hanoi, Vietnam for 7 1/2 years - where he was tortured 15 times, placed in solitary confinement for over 4 years, and in leg irons for 2 years. If anyone had a reason for hopelessness, it was him. He later wrote about his experience in "The Stoic Warrior's Triad" and "Master of my Fate", along with "Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus' Doctrines in a Labratory of Human Behavior". Imagine facing a seemingly interminable future of misery, but even in this darkness finding something so powerful that you survived and even thrived. That's the power of Stoicism.
In addition to getting a real therapist to work with, and not as a substitute mind you, read "Man's Search for Meaning" and go through the following links, starting at the top and working your way down. By the time you're done, I think you'll have a ready tool to use as you continue on with life outside Mormonism.
The Obstacle is The Way, by Ryan Holiday (a good entry text - don’t skip the reading recommendations at the back)
Letters from a Stoic, by Seneca
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius (Gregory Hays translation)
The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch (video)
“On the Shortness of Life" Four Hour Blog, Translated by John W. Basore, highlighted by Tim Ferriss
A long podcast conversation with Ryan and Tim Ferriss discussing Stoicism
Achieving Apatheia (slideshare), Ryan Holiday
A lecture series, Marcus Aurelius
The Stoic Life (website about stoicism)
Man in the Arena - Teddy Roosevelt
I think you're embracing the fallacy that pop culture is bad.
May I suggest reading Everything Bad is Good For You by Steven Johnson or Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman for an alternative perspective?
Just because popular culture includes stuff like The Jersey Shore and P. Reign doesn't mean that it is without value. The value in it may be different than the value some people THINK is in it, but value there is.
People like Johnson make the argument that the increasing social complexity of our popular culture actually makes us smarter. To answer against the usual critique that literary theorists don't engage "actual science," he takes a neurological approach to the argument using elements of an indisputably "hard science" to support his argument.
Klosterman takes an admittedly more theoretical route, engaging semiotics and post-modern theory to make a similar argument -- that popular culture has value, and the recent backlash against what many consider "valueless" pop culture is actually rather short sighted.
Anyhow, I agree with both of them (and many others) that pop culture intelligence is now a social currency with inherent value. Whether or not pop culture consists largely of morons like the Kardashians is actually beside the point. It doesn't matter what the pop culture is, it still contains millions shared references for humanity.
I didn't get too far into it, but I really liked what little I read of Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing. Yes, the title is cheesy, but his advice is anything but.
He doesn't just give straight "writing tips"; he invests within his readers the inspiration and passion necessary to pen stories which pop with artistic vitality. It is very evident that he enjoys and indulges in a craft which he has, in my opinion, mastered. You can tell that he loved writing this book. I highly recommend it.
Nietzsche sees that civilization is in the process of ditching divinity while still clinging to religious values, and that this egregious act of bad faith must not go uncontested. You cannot kick away the foundations and expect the building still to stand. The death of God is the most momentous event of human history, yet men and women are behaving as though it were no more than a minor readjustment. Of the various artificial respirators on which God has been kept alive, one of the most effective is morality. It does not follow, that goodness, justice and wisdom are chimeras because the existence of God is a chimera. Perhaps not; but in Nietzsche’s view it does not follow either that we can dispense with divine authority and continue to conduct our moral business as usual. Our conceptions of truth, virtue, identity, and autonomy, our sense of history as shapely and coherent, all have deep-seated theological roots. It is idle to imagine that they could be torn from these origins and remain intact. Morality must therefore either rethink itself from the ground up, or live on in the chronic bad faith of appealing to sources it knows to be spurious. In the wake of the death of God, there are those who continue to hold that morality is about duty, conscience, and obligation, but who now find themselves bemused about the source of such beliefs. This is not a problem for Christianity—not only because it has faith in such a source, but because it does not believe that morality is primarily about duty, conscience, or obligation in the first place.
>If atheism is true, it is far from being good news. Learning that we’re alone in the universe, that no one hears or answers our prayers, that humanity is entirely the product of random events, that we have no more intrinsic dignity than non-human and even non-animate clumps of matter, that we face certain annihilation in death, that our sufferings are ultimately pointless, that our lives and loves do not at all matter in a larger sense, that those who commit horrific evils and elude human punishment get away with their crimes scot free — all of this (and much more) is utterly tragic.
Honest atheists understand this. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God, but he called it an “awe-inspiring catastrophe” for humanity, which now faced the monumental task of avoiding a descent into nihilism. Essayist Albert Camus likewise recognized that when the longing for a satisfying answer to the question of “why?” confronts the “unreasonable silence of the world,” the goodness of human life appears to dissolve and must be reconstructed from the ground up.
Nietzsche hated Christianity, of course, but he also hated post-Christian sentimentality. The corrosive power of his critique, is not necessarily a bad thing for Christianity. In fact, by forcing people to face the implications of what they already believe (or, more precisely, what they fail to believe), this has the effect of shearing away the last vestiges of Christianity as a religious ideology for the bourgeois social order. In so doing, it may reveal the orthodox Christian faith in its true radicalism:
>If religious faith were to be released from the burden of furnishing social orders with a set of rationales for their existence, it might be free to rediscover its true purpose as a critique of all such politics. In this sense, its superfluity might prove its salvation. The New Testament has little or nothing to say of responsible citizenship. It is not a “civilized” document at all. It shows no enthusiasm for social consensus.
After giving this a lot of thought over the years I've come to the conclusion that the key to what we call "confidence" is really satisfaction. Now, what I mean by satisfaction is a complete acceptance and embrace of all the things that are outside of your control, this is a very hard thing to do because it means that you MUST abandon ALL hope that you can ever change these.
Epictetus said it best:
>Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.
You can ONLY find "confidence" through complete acceptance of these things! you MUST abandon ALL hope, hope that you will grow taller, hope that other people will like you, hope that you will have good fortune. Relinquish this hope from your mind, recognize that you are powerless and thus there is no point in "hoping" or grieving about these thing. Put your mind and efforts into the things you can fully control and be the best you can be, embrace the discipline to be true to yourself! you owe it to yourself, consider this your purpose in life, to be in absolute control of all the things you can control.
Once you realize this you will find satisfaction because you are no longer bound by the things you have no control over!.
I absolutely hate the common fake it till you make it advice! I say do not fake anything, be true to yourself, because only you can and you owe it to yourself, it is your purpose.
Do not waste effort and time being envious of the fortune of others, they may have been blessed by the gods, the universe, whatever, It doesn't matter you have no control over it!. Do not waste effort and time being angry at your misfortune, recognize that the world is not "fair" or "unfair", that the world has no concept of "owing" someone anything, but that the world is absurd and that you must not give up the struggle! you MUST face it because its the only way to live life to the fullest.
Camus says that we must accept that life is devoid of meaning and purpose, but I challenge that assertion. Our purpose is to recognize that which we can control and be masters of everything in our domain, by striving for greatness in these things we will find satisfaction, and no one or anything will ever be able to take that away from you.
Keep in mind that all of this is definitely more easily said that done. This is an incredibly hard thing to do, it will take a lot from you, believe me I am still going through it. There will be relapses and moments of weakness but you must embrace this and keep going.
As a side note I recommend everyone here to read up on stoicism and taoism.
Start here:
http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient-Stoic/dp/0195374614 (I cannot recommend this book enough!)
and here:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Tao-Pooh-Benjamin-Hoff/dp/0140067477
Then move on to the classics: Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Lao Zhu.
And finally, whenever you feel like giving up read this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Myth-Sisyphus-Other-Essays/dp/0679733736
Thanks! I just wish I could say there were more good things on the list.
And thanks for the Patton recommendation, I'll check that out.
I do recommend anything by John McPhee in the strongest possible terms. It's all non-fiction, and always interesting and often very funny, and about a tremendous range of topics.
Like fishing? Read The Founding Fish, which is all about the American Shad, and I mentioned before.
Like boats? Looking For a Ship is about the merchant marine.
Planes, trains, and automobiles (and more boats)? Uncommon Carriers deals with all of them, and why almost all lobster eaten in the US comes from Kentucky.
Care for tales about why New Orleans is doomed, pissing on lava , and debris flows in LA? The Control of Nature covers those.
Fruit? How about Oranges?
Geology? The Annals of the Former World is a compilation of several shorter books more or less following I-80 across the US.
Sports? Tennis (and basketball to a lesser extent). He's also written about lacrosse in various magazines.
...And a ton of other stuff, ranging from bears to farmers markets to nuclear energy to lifting body airplanes to Switzerland.
Best happy ending yet. I'm a huge proponent of the comparison of architecture, it's writing and theory, and graphic/web design. Christopher Alexander is fantastic. I recommend going back to his earlier work before the three you mentioned called "Notes on the Synthesis of Form."
A few other great architecture books to consider:
Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi —
The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses by Juhani Pallasmaa
I just found about him this year, but reading him (specially his essays on "arguably" or stuff edited by him, like "the portable atheist") has inspired me not only to be more foursquare and vocal in my stance against the religion I apostatized from, but to rekindle my lukewarm, dormant and forlorn love for poetry and literature, he was an eloquent man, and he has inspired me to be eloquent (and proud of being circumloquent) again, despite my engineering degree and technical day-job.
Adieu, Hitch.
Here's some further reading!
The best and most academically accepted translation of the Dao De Jing
Here, A.C. Graham is an intensely clever and erudite Sinologist - Disupters is definitely a "classic" in the literature of early Eastern philosophy.
Great book on a lesser known section of the Zhuangzi, which Roth shows to be the origin of meditative practice in Daoism. Roth is also my Prof!
A great translation by the same A.C. Graham of most of the chapters of the Zhuangzi. The Zhuangzi, different from the Laozi, uses narratives and short essays in deeply stratified, humorous, and incredibly profound ways well ahead of its time.
Source: I've been studying contemplative practices, cultural anthropology, and Chinese philosophy for most of my undergrad
Very much so! From the blackened teeth to Noh plays, he describes the ideas of hiding the flaws in the dark and blackness to highlight the beauty and art. In short, the essay/book details and reminisces about a time before electricity when all the Japanese arts were perhaps more elegant and pure (in his reasoning). Ranging from architecture to the performing arts, he even details the lacquer-ware in candlelit restaurants which were all created to fill a low-light shadow filled world which the gold flecks would create subtle flickers of beauty, only to be later ruined in a light soaked world of the light bulb. It is an incredibly fascinating read and highlights artistic choices across all Japanese culture that were influenced by the world of shadow.
I highly recommend reading the full In Praise of Shadows essay which is here in pdf form or you can purchase it on Amazon here.
Here's Noah Lukeman on the semicolon in A Dash of Style:
> The primary function of the semicolon is to connect two complete (and thematically similar) sentences, thereby making them one. . .[G]rammatically the semicolon is never necessary; two short sentences can always coexist without being connected. Artistically, though, the semicolon opens a world of possibilities, and can lend a huge impact. In this sense, it is the punctuation mark best suited for creative writers.
Lukeman quotes John Trimble:
> The semicolon is efficient: it allows you to eliminate most of those conjunctions or prepositions that are obligatory with the comma--words like whereas, because, for, or, but, while, and.
And he quotes Lewis Thomas:
> Sometimes you get a glimpse of a semicolon coming, a few lines farther on, and it is like seeing a wooden bench just at a bend in the road ahead, a place where you can expect to sit for a moment, catching your breath.
John Gardner is a master of punctuation. He uses the em dash, parentheses and semicolons like a champ. To me it evokes a voice that's closer to how thoughts emerge than does the simple declarative statement, which makes my brain happy. One man's luscious thought is another's tortured prose. Here's an excerpt from The Art of Fiction:
> Thus it appears that to make us see and feel vividly what his characters see and feel--to draw us into the characters' world as if we were born to it--the writer must do more than simply make up characters and then somehow explain and authenticate them (giving them the right kinds of motorcycles and beards, exactly the right memories and jargon). He must shape simultaneously (in an expanding creative moment) his characters, plot, and setting, each inextricably connected to the others; he must make his whole world in a single, coherent gesture, as a potter makes a pot; or, as Coleridge puts it, he must copy, with his finite mind, the process of the infinite "I AM."
I got this a while ago. I talks about worldbuilding, but also a load of other things.
The chapters are:
It's 360 pages and features loads of different perspectives and guest writers who give their opinion on topics and their way of handling them. There is also a lot of artwork. Almost every page has art on it to support the subject at hand. I think it's really good.
Honestly, the hardest part of him is where to start. Ask five people and you'll get six answers.
But as a general recommendation, stick primarily to Walter Kaufmann's books, and you can't go wrong. He was one of the leading scholars on the school of his thought, and I find his translations of Nietzsche to capture the dramatic emphasis of his prose the best.
For a brief introduction I'd start with his Biography by Kaufmann, this is useful for understanding the time in which he lived, the philosophical climate, and debunking myths about him, followed by Basic Writings, and then The Portable Nietzsche which contains his more complex works, Twilight and Zarathustra. Each of these contain complete texts, as well as discussion and expositions to give them more context, and are extremely helpful in understanding the work.
Also, If you're a materialist already, an Atheist or an agnostic, start with The Antichrist and you'll fall in love with him in the first pages. Its a summary of his view on Christian morality, and it doesn't hold back at all, a quick read at about a hundred or so pages. If you want an appetizer, peruse The Will To Power, his book of aphorisms, to whet your palate (this is also where most of the romance quotes live). These were my introductions, and I never looked back.
The Elements of Eloquence is neat. It basically a compendium of rhetorical tools you can use to make better sentences.
You might also be interested in free verse poetry, which, if we're being honest, is nothing but very carefully written prose. I'm currently going through this book and enjoying it.
I also want to second Francine Prose's Reading like a Writer, which someone else already mentioned. It's fantastic.
I know I am late to the party but I figured I'd ask anyway.
I love all forms of transportation infrastructure. One of my favorite non-fiction books is Uncommon Carriers (except that boring part about canoes). Are there any other good resources where I can get a good narrative description of what your life is like?
And, if you read that book, what did you think of it?
A nice carpal tunnel glove? =D
I'm only sort of kidding.
What does she like to write on? People always seem to default to pens and notebooks, but really, a quality bluetooth keyboard might be even better. If she has a tablet, she can take it to B&N and write on it without having to deal with that awful screen-tapping.
A novel in her preferred genre that she hasn't read yet: also nice.
Or even a book about writing, or worldbuilding. I found this one quite inspirational. But I don't know what sort of thing she likes to write.
For lay readers, "The Lady Tasting Tea" gives a nice non-technical overview of the development of the field of statistics.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Lady-Tasting-Tea-David-Salsburg/0805071342
Econometrics and statistics classes are probably the most useful. I think more economics students would benefit from how economists and social scientists actually work with data. Try to read as many academic papers as possible. Most will be too difficult for first-year students, but some, especially in applied fields like labour economics might be clear enough for you gain a high-level understanding of how the authors approached a particular problem.
Much of what we do is just very applied social science. "Mastering 'Metrics" provides a nice overview of some the techniques used by social-science researchers, and is a good complement to traditional econometrics/statistics textbooks.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Metrics-Path-Cause-Effect/dp/0691152845
It's available free online, but I've def got a hard cover copy on my bookshelf. I can't really deal with digital versions of things, I need physical books.
A conservative/reactionary reading list:
Jean Bodin - Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576)
Robert Filmer - Patriarcha, or The Natural Power of Kings (1680)
Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Joseph de Maistre - Considerations on France (1797) and Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions and other Human Institutions (1809)
Thomas Carlyle - The French Revolution: A History (1837) and On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History (1841)
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil (1886) and Genealogy of Morals (1887)
Oswald Spengler - Decline of the West (1918)
Ernst Jünger - Storm of Steel (1920)
Jose Ortega y Gassett - Revolt of the Masses (1929)
Julius Evola - Revolt Against the Modern World (1934) and Men Among the Ruins (1953)
Bertrand de Jouvenal - On Power: The Natural History of Its Growth (1949)
Leo Strauss - Natural Right and History (1953)
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn - The Menace of the Herd (1943) and Liberty or Equality (1952)
Good advice by all.
Two essential books - in my opinion:
The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner. Most libraries/library consortia should have a copy. Even if you don't read the whole book, jump to the chapter near the end titled "Exercises". Pure gold. It's about building your chops and doing your scales. When you're ready, you'll have more tools in your toolkit. OK, enough of my crappy metaphors...
For pure inspiration/support, I haven't seen anyone beat Brenda Ueland's If You Want To Write. I used to think Writing Down the Bones was the best, but so far Ueland's book - although older-fashioned - seems to stand the test of time better.
I just discovered Joy Writing by Kenn Amdahl. I love everything he writes - such as There Are No Electrons, Algebra Unplugged, and Calculus for Cats - so I figure he has some good info on writing. This might become a classic.
For Nietzsche, or for life in general?
I'll assume the first one. Read these in the order given:
Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist, Walter Kaufman.
Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
On the Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good & Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche
I would highly recommend getting the Kaufman translations. Thus Spake Zarathustra is collected in The Portable Nietzsche and Genealogy of Morals is collected together with Ecce Homo. Once you've read the ones I've listed, you'll already have his other important books if you want to read them. I'd read the Kaufman book first for two reasons: Understanding Nietzsche life and times helps to contextualize his philosophy, and Kaufman is terrific biographer, plus Kaufman gives a thorough overview of Nietzsche's ideas. And sometime it really helps to have a map of the territory before you plunge into the abyss. Nietzsche can be very challenging, especially to the 21st century reader.
I agree with this! Russian literature has been my main focus for years and I bought Nabokov's Lectures on Russian Literature to see what he had to say about my favorite authors. It was so mindblowing that I ended up buying his Lectures on Literature, which covers a wide variety of proper literature, and since I didn't want spoilers, I just worked my way through most of them. It widened my scope a lot and I felt more safe to just enjoy and experience the novels because I knew I'd get a proper analysis immediately afterwards.
In the longer-term, reading both of those books and the books they were about, significantly improved my ability to understand literature.
The Harlot By the Side of the Road: Really good read about sexuality, feminism, and power in the bible. Highly recommended and quite entertaining. The author translates stories like what happened with Lot's daughters into modern language, then gives as much historical context as possible. He then talks about similar themes in other biblical books and talks about current and old interpretations and sometimes translations.
Starship Troopers: Loved it! I'd heard it was different than the movie, and it really is. Most of the themes are the same, and you get a ton more context and history on the world/society. This is the first Heinlein book I've read that didn't require mindset adjustment time to deal with the way women are portrayed and treated.
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A bunch of random essays. Some I've liked, some I thought were dumb. I like the book of essays format, I don't feel as completionist with each one as I do with a normal book.
Conflict Communication (ConCom): A New Paradigm in Conscious Communication: I picked this up after the safety pin discussion came out. The discussions I had at the time made me realize that I have no deescalation skills, and I realized that I'd feel more secure in general if I learned some. I'm still on the theory of the book and am really enjoying how it's making me look at things differently.
Example: When you call someone a racist and ignore everything they have to say about anything, even unrelated stuff, are you then using the same mindset as a racist that does the same thing with a slur? Both are actions that other a person via name calling, and reduce that person's entire being down to a single trait.
He does talk about lizard and monkey brain, which maybe isn't super scientific, but I find the logic pretty easy to follow.
For stuff by Schopenhauer, start with Essays and Aphorisms. It's a good starter because it presents Schopenhauer's thoughts on a wide variety of topics, and it also has a solid Introduction by R.J. Hollingdale.
For stuff about Schopenhauer, start with Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction. In addition to being a great short reference, the VSI books have good "Further Reading" sections at the end with more scholarly books that delve further into the topic.
Happy reading!
History
True History of the American Revolution – Sydney George Fisher
Life and Liberty in America – Charles Mackay
Land of the Dollar – George Steevens
Outre-Mer – Paul Bourget
Shall Cromwell Have a Statue? – Charles Francis Adams Jr.
Memoirs of Service Afloat – Adm. Raphael Semmes
The Roving Editor – James Redpath
Democracy and the Party System in the United States – Moisei Ostrogorskiy
A South-Side View of Slavery – Nehemiah Adams
The Origin of the Late War – Lunt
Reflection on the Revolution in France – Edmund Burke
Origins of English Individualism – Alan MacFarlane
The Shortest-Way With The Dissenters – Daniel Defoe
While you Slept – John T. Flynn
The Road Ahead; America’s Creeping Revolution – John T. Flynn
America’s Retreat from Victory – Joseph R. McCarthy
****
Fiction/Poetry
Complete Verse – Rudyard Kipling*
Harrison Bergeron – Kurt Vonnegut*
Camp of the Saints – Jean Raspail
Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler
****
Other Related Reading Lists
A reactionary library
The Neoreactionary Canon
Derbyshire’s list of Dark Enlightenment blogs
The Great Books of The Aristocracy
Library of the Dark Enlightenment
Great Books for Men’s reading list
Foseti’s “Books that influenced me”
Moldbug’s Slow History
The Patrician’s Library
Great quote. Orwell was a commie but he was redpilled on most social issues. One of the few honest men. I have a fantastic book of all his essays in chronological order https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Everymans-Library-Contemporary-Classics/dp/0375415033 Really worth it
Haha its ok, i feel i say sorry too much day to day as well, habit i suppose. Well some good things to start you off might be "the portable nietzche" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Portable-Nietzsche-Library/dp/0140150625) or maybe, :"The basic writings of nietzche" (http://www.amazon.com/Writings-Nietzsche-Modern-Library-Classics/dp/0679783393)
these should keep you going for a bit :), sorry (sorry for saying sorry) about the delay, been a bit too busy to reddit. :) enjoy!
You went to the Queen's palace in England to do stand up comedy... and made one of the security guards laugh out loud... and then got him fired. But then you gave an amazing speech to the queen and she loved it so much that she made you a Dame and gave the guard his job back. And everyone lived happily ever after THE END!
This book is being sold used for a penny! =)
Some of my favorites:
My Asian Religions professor liked to use original texts only in her syllabi. Her reasoning was along the lines of: "why would you read someone else's interpretation when you could read the texts themselves and draw your own conclusions?" I tend to agree with that line of logic (I do understand that books such as the one mentioned can provide a good primer, but you've already that, why not move into the "meat" of the matter?). So, my suggestion would be:
And that should cover a broad range of the "philosophical" side of Taoism. As for the alchemies and the more, shall we say, "eccentric" branches, well, that's a whole different animal. Personally, I haven't delved too much into that side, since there is such an overwhelming amount of texts and practices and schools and etc. However, The Secret of the Golden Flower and Yellow Court Classic are two "big" ones. I'd start there and branch out accordingly.
Just finished reading The Facebook Effect, an account of the beginnings of Facebook, focusing on the startup's path to web fame and specifically noting the choices made that helped make the company successful. Overall, very interesting.
Just moved on to Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs based on a recommendation. Supposed to be very funny, so I'm interested to get into it.
There's a Penguin Edition of Schopenhauer's Essay's and Aphorisms which is a great sample of his thought.
A bit more on the technical side, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason is a key text that has the epistemic cornerstone for the rest of his philosophy.
Happy readings! Schopenhauer is one of those rare philosophers with a knack for writing beautifully.
This noir anthology kept me entertained while I was bedbound with a broken leg.
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace. Very fun to read, funny, insightful. He was pretty great.
This book is creeeepy but fascinating.
Also, try r/books. It's what they're about over there, after all.
HUGS love you sis! Hang in there!
I found a book that really helps me when I feel down. Its letters from our "big" sisters who have already transitioned and done great things to us younger trans women just starting out.
It’s a bit eccentric, but Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer is a fun read and has a ton of great writing advice geared towards fantasy and speculative fiction.
Sure thing. If you want an online overview, here is a great place to start. If you want a book, his seminal work is The World as Will and Representation but it is extremely long, so I'd highly recommend this collection of influential writings
Feedback is so important, so I love to hear it. But of course I reserve the right to respectfully ignore it at times :)
I have not read Shape of Stories but I did read Wonderbook (https://www.amazon.com/Wonderbook-Illustrated-Creating-Imaginative-Fiction/dp/1419704427) which I found to be very helpful as I was starting out.
I'm a plotter so I have definite thoughts at the outset what the beginning and end of each story is. Then I come up with the characters and what I want their arcs to be like. And then I plot out the major way points from beginning to end. And if the events don't move the plot forward then they don't make the book. But I also like to think about what has happened to the characters off the page. So, that's how I came up with the idea of having these collections of short stories so I could tell different kinds of stories, explore existing and new characters, create more threads for the reader to pick up on, without encumbering the plot too much.
You mentioned that Kingshold could have done with a longer page count, but 500 page books already put some people off, and when you're a new unknown author you want to limit the reasons for why someone won't read your book. So instead I'm releasing a 300 page collection of short stories :). It will be interesting to see if this works or is publishing suicide. And that comes back to reader feedback too; if folks don't want to buy Tales of Kingshold then I'll rethink this approach.
You may not want to read an entire book to answer this question, but on the off-chance that you do, I'd recommend Francine Prose's "Reading Like a Writer." Sometimes it's easy to get so caught up in the magic of the story--savoring the beauty of a sentence, flipping frantically to find out what happens next--that you forget to look for where the rabbit is hidden! But this book helps you figure out what to look for, if that makes sense.
The best book I've read about fiction storytelling is The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner.
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fiction-Notes-Craft-Writers/dp/0679734031/ref=pd_sim_14_4/181-9489318-3098806?ie=UTF8&dpID=512pUzVt5EL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL320_SR206%2C320_&refRID=00V0DM1NAD4BBQB3C05P
Gardner was a legendary, I think, writing teacher and author. The short story-writer Raymond Carver used to credit his old professor with his understanding of writing, the discipline and the whole approach to the task of being a writer. Anyway, it's great!
I'm a much bigger fan of the Everyman collection of his essays. Nearly 1500 pages of sweet Orwellian goodness in lovely hardcover.
Translations to english: anything by Walter Kaufmann, and/or R. J. Hollingdale. Those two cats are your best bets as far as I know (with a strong preference towards Kaufmann).
As for read order: I would imagine that Beyond Good and Evil will get you the most mileage. It is an attempt at expressing the philosophy drawn out in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but without the parable-type format that nowadays is a bit obnoxious.
Next, I would suggest reading The Gay Science, and possibly snatching up a copy of The Portable Nietzsche.
I am not of the opinion that going over Nietzsche's works in chronological order before you're into the way he operates really is the most user-friendly way of exploring his ideas--if you hold yourself strictly to something like that, you may get turned off early and never get to the some of the best stuff... but don't take my word for it!
Good luck to you! Finding a consistent voice is one of the hardest parts of writing, but there's nothing to be done except practice. This is a book I find myself recommending a lot, despite the fact that I don't edit much fiction. It's got a wealth of practical, everyday advice on how to make readable, engaging writing.
For Conservatism at its best, you'll want to check out The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk. Another book you may want to check out is Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke. Edmund Burke was the founder of modern conservatism, and Russell Kirk helped to revive conservatism in the United States.
You can do it, but do it for yourself first; others will benefit from your strength indirectly.
Also, Albert Camus was French and so his work is available in French foremost, but has been widely translated around the planet so you can probably find translations for your native language. Perhaps starting with "The Myth of Sisyphus" might be a better choice since it's not a work of fiction that needs interpretation by the reader, but is instead a collection of essays which are much less allegorical, which can become muddled and lost in translations.
Just remember that a warrior's attitude towards life is a valiant one.
He's a culture writer/critic, gained popularity in the early 2000's with this book, which if memory serves is where I first saw him make the comparison.
He and I don't always see eye to eye about American pop-culture at large, but I absolutely love the chapters in the book where he breaks down sports--as I believe he got his start as a local sports writer before getting picked up at ESPN Magazine, and then going on to other national publications (and I'm an aspiring sports writer so....heh)
The Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide To Creating Imaginative Fiction had some great tips, and keeps you engaged in reading it. There were a lot of things pointed out to me that I've never noticed before and it helped me find what I think is my current level of writing. Worth the read.
It's not a book. This is an excerpt from a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College. If you like this, you should definitely check out the full speech or check out one of his three collection of essays. He's also got a number of short story collections, including a particularly famous work Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. He's probably most famous for Infinite Jest, a novel well over a thousand pages in length.
The collection of his essays is really good. Covers a broad range of topics, very interesting writing, and you'll feel extraordinarily well-rounded after reading it. I haven't even finished it yet, but I'd definitely recommend it.
Overly simplified response, borrowed from Nabokov: Joyce's supposed achievements in Ulysses are entirely stylistic [as you rightly say] and considered novel, but anything supposedly 'new' and worthwhile about Ulysses had already been achieved by Flaubert in Madame Bovary.
I encourage everyone to read the compiled Lectures on Literature: http://www.amazon.com/Lectures-Literature-Vladimir-Nabokov/dp/0156027755
Nabokov's smarm is second-to-none and his masterful language makes it hard to disagree with him. But it's fun to try.
Concerning plotholes … do you know how many of them are in JKR’s novels? Yes, you know. Is she one of the most successful writers of all times? Yes, she is. Case closed.
What really matters is the story. Yes, it should be consistent, but reader will survive even Remus Lupin forgetting it is a full moon night (think about it; how probable it is?), if the story is captivating enough.
When you have an idea, sit down write it down. Let it stew for two weeks (so you mostly forget what it is about), then read it again. Do you like it as it is? Publish it! Do you know how to correct it? Do so! Are you bored? Drop it! Lather, rinse, repeat.
Read this. Morale of the essay is: write, write, write. Don't correct yourself and produce more stories. If you write 52 stories a year, one of them should be readable (that's for professional writers, of course, if it is your hobby you do along The Real Life, numbers are smaller, i.e. you need more years to write that one good story).
If anyone is interested, Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee is a pretty good book. It talks about moving freight by train, truck and, barge and those moving it.
Wonderbook is fantastic and seems like exactly what you're looking for. It's less about the mechanics of writing than jumpstarting creativity, and thinking of really wild things that will resonate with imaginative readers.
Or, another step removed, flip through books on myth or architecture or geography and find one with a lot of really wild photos that make you think of ideas. That's what I've been doing lately.
Ohhhh, I now see you wanted a workbook about filmmaking, sorry!
I don't know, but if you don't find any then you should make one! Something like Wonderbook for film :)
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandermeer is a fantastic read and cannot be recommended enough.
It really gets the creative juices flowing and the input Vandermeer has gotten from other authors (there are tens of essays/comments/workshops from authors including Neil Gaiman, GRRM, Joe Abercrombie, and Lev Grossman) is quite insightful. Also, it doesn't read like a textbook, as many other books in the instructive writing genre tend to do.
/thread^^
But it really depends on how you value your time and what you chose your higher values to be. If you look at it in a non-anthroprocentric way everything is really pointless/absurd.
Here. Good read.
Schopenhaur is my favorite philosopher/writer. His writings are genius. I read http://www.amazon.com/Essays-Aphorisms-Penguin-Classics-Schopenhauer/dp/0140442278/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410879540&sr=1-1&keywords=schopenhauer after a suggestion here on TRP and I plan to read his main work, http://www.amazon.com/World-Will-Representation-Vol/dp/0486217612/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410879540&sr=1-3&keywords=schopenhauer when I find the time. My recommendations to everyone: read him, it is very, very pleasant literature.
South of the Frostfangs, you have "The Gorge"
This is essentially a Grand Canyon-style gorge with a river at the bottom. In short, climbing the wall would be easier than repelling down the gorge, sailing across the river, and then climbing up the other side.
Westwatch-By-The-Bridge is not named so for shits and giggles. It is the site of the Bridge of Skulls. The Bridge of Skulls has a long history of being the source of many wildling vs. Night's Watch battles (and where the Lord of Bones began his famous uniform). For years, the NW has held off the wildlings in this funnel of a bridge that crosses the gorge.
As far as sailing goes, it becomes a bit tricky, logistically, for White Walkers (Others). The Others have minions called "Wights". These are people who have been turned to the Others' cause via death and reanimation. They're semi-intelligent zombies with no recollection of their past. In order to sail a fleet across the Bay of Ice, they'd expose themselves to those northern waters that are very treacherous, as well as risking a landing among the Mountain Clans of the North (landing on Mountains is not fun). They would need to sail much further south in order to make it worth while, putting them very near to Winterfell loyalists and again, being met with opposition.
Finally, you have the Bay of Seals. This bay is notoriously awful to cross. The waters are choppy and sink ships brave enough to conquer it more often than not, and there are rumors of beasts living in the waters there. If anyone were to brave the waters of The Bay of Seals, they would be seen by the towers at Eastwatch and met on shore with forces.
In short, The Wall works in conjunction with several "natural" barriers preventing Wights, White Walkers, and Wildlings from going around it. The only sure-fire way into Westeros is to go through The Wall.
EDIT: For more in-depth looks into the geography, literary context, and connections in the books, check out Beyond the Wall. It's an excellent read that can answer a lot of questions you might have about the series/lore.
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060777052/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_b7szDbY7MJ13P
Great points here. Chuck Klosterman's early work (Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, for example) may contain some good examples for you, OP. Particularly as I could see him writing a headline similar to yours, so you may dig his style even more.
I just restarted it and am about 200 pages in right now. I started it a couple months ago and felt very bored with it, so I quit. Then I checked out "Consider the Lobster" from the library, and that really helped me get used to Wallace's overpopulated writing style. Then I read "Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself", which is a five-day-long interview of DFW conducted by David Lipsky for Rolling Stone about "Infinite Jest" (among other things). Now I feel like not reading this book would be doing his memory a disservice. Seems like DFW was a true pioneer, his talent never really appreciated until his time had long passed.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/1936661748/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
It's a collection of essays that discuss several themes and ideas that emerge in ASOIAF. They are just brain food really. Not totally necessary but they are good if you want to take in several analyses of the work. For instance Romanticism in GoT, or PTSD in soldiers that have witnessed gruesome battles or feminism within Westeros, etc.
I was about to buy it, but the customer reviews on amazon made me change my mind. People seem disappointed by a lack of good content. Hopefully this isn't true, let us know if you enjoy it!
Design school is going to cost way more than 10 Grand, I guess you're going to have to start by teaching yourself. I recommend starting here for a modest investment of ten dollars.
Using this translation https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Sisyphus-Other-Essays/dp/0679733736/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0679733736&pd_rd_r=PV1V58TVTT6EWTX5K8CA&pd_rd_w=gjqRH&pd_rd_wg=x4I1x&psc=1&refRID=PV1V58TVTT6EWTX5K8CA
Is it the best?
Last year I picked up a meaty collection of – I'm pretty sure – all of his essays.
https://www.amazon.ca/Essays-George-Orwell/dp/0375415033/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1492432792&sr=8-4&keywords=george+orwell+essays
I was interested in the following with regards to my Nietzche reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Writings-Nietzsche-Modern-Library-Classics/dp/0679783393/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2
http://www.amazon.com/The-Portable-Nietzsche-Library/dp/0140150625/ref=pd_sim_b_1
As for the religious stuff, I'm actually agnostic, it's just that religion and theology have always sort of fascinated me. I plan on reading St. Augustine's Confessions and City of God.
Everybody should read as much as possible of his Essays. That's where his real insights lie. You will find the volumes (there are several) in your local library. For the best collection in one volume see this.
Welcome back!!!!
The used one, it won't link
The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki
The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard
First off, it's really awesome that you're starting at a young age!
For grammar and style, this is the go-to for me and most of the writers I know: https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481432677&sr=8-1&keywords=elements+of+style
For prose and fiction writing in general, check this one out: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Fiction-Notes-Craft-Writers/dp/0679734031/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481432751&sr=8-1&keywords=the+art+of+fiction
I will say that there are moments in The Art of Fiction where the writer, John Gardner, has some very snobby opinions about types of fiction he doesn't like (genre fiction, mostly). But, ignoring those moments, it's a great resource.
A reading list...
The Myth of Sisyphus
Fight Club
The 7 habits of Highly Effective People
The games people play
In honor of Christopher Hitchen's passing, read "Arguably" and see how he did this.
For an introduction to Political Philosophy, I found Introduction to Political Philosophy by Jonathan Wolff a nice read. It references some primary sources like Hobbes and Locke to introduce the basic problems of Political Philosophy.
If at some point you get into reading primary sources, check out Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke. Edmund Burke is the father of Conservatism and an important figure in political philosophy.
It’s a Penguin Classic, originally published in 1963. This is a newer printing but definitely an out-of-print title.
https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Lao-Tzu/dp/014044131X
Try The Portable Nietzsche, it's basically an overview of what he wrote, with four unabridged works, and excerpts from the rest.
You can also find The Antichrist online for free, it's one of his polemics against Christianity.
Consider the Lobster, by DFW, which I'd even say I prefer to his novels.
It's a great collection, but it doesn't include my two favorite non-fiction works by DFW: his post-9/11 reflections in Rolling Stone, and his vicious tale of a less-than-bourgeois cruise.
It doesn't deal with just one book, but Reading like a Writer tells how to analyze books yourself.
SHITE... TOTAL HIGHSCHOOL SHITE
way more useful
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fiction-Notes-Craft-Writers/dp/0679734031/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314005849&sr=8-1
There is an exceptionally good book about statistical practice and the history of statistics by the same name.
Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity is probably my favorite.
The Stoics would say pick a few books and master those first, before jumping into a whole bunch of different topics.
So start with the Enchiridion and Discourses and really sink your teeth into it. There's enough in there to last a long time. Read a discourse, think about it, write a summary, pick it apart with examples from your own life, and so on.
Seneca's letters would also be a good read for you at this age:
https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Stoic-Epistulae-Lucilium-Classics-ebook/dp/B002RI99KK/
The two that always get mentioned are 'Writing Fiction: A guide to Narrative Craft' http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Fiction-Guide-Narrative-Craft/dp/B003IG7P1K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313794096&sr=8-2 and 'Reading Like a Writer' http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Like-Writer-Guide-People/dp/0060777052/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313794216&sr=1-1 .
I would recommend you start by reading these rather than "The world as will and representation".
https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Aphorisms-Penguin-Classics-Schopenhauer/dp/0140442278/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501014218&sr=8-1&keywords=schopenhauer+essays
https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Life-Counsels-Maxims/dp/1541028953/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501014265&sr=8-2&keywords=schopenhauer+wisdom+of+life
Would you recommend the modern library version of the book (this ) or the penguin one (here )
I read Essays and Aphorisms last year and I think it is a readable introduction to a reasonably broad array of his thought. I only have working knowledge of Kant, Hume, etc. but I understood most of what he was trying to get across.
Be prepared, he is known as a cantankerous writer and there are some laughably prickly moments in his writing.
You might be interested in https://www.amazon.com/Praise-Shadows-Junichiro-Tanizaki/dp/0918172020?ie=UTF8&ref_=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top
>Adam is the creator of The Wertzone, a ten-year-old blog dedicated to all things Science Fiction and Fantasy. He is also a moderator at Westeros.org, is the retired founder of the Game of Thrones Wiki and has worked with HarperCollins on their Song of Ice and Fire website and mobile apps. He is the author of "An Unreliable World", an essay in the "Beyond the Wall" collection, and is currently writing "A History of Epic Fantasy". As well as A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones he writes widely about science fiction and fantasy in print, on TV, in film and in video games.
>Some of you all from /r/asoiaf might know Adam from some of his work on ASOIAF such as:
In Praise of Shadows, "An essay on aesthetics by the Japanese novelist, this book explores architecture, jade, food, and even toilets, combining an acute sense of the use of space in buildings. The book also includes descriptions of laquerware under candlelight and women in the darkness of the house of pleasure."
It's as real a book as any of the other related/companion texts, like the cookbook, atlas, show production guide, art book, etc.
Chuck Klosterman writes a lot of pop culture related stuff. I recommend starting off with Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs and then follow it up with IV
I recommend to you Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus
The myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus
in pdf or at amazon
I read this book after high school in a very strange part of my life. Pay particular attention to the absurd man. One part had a huge impact on me and how I view the world.
At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This must not be forgotten. This must be clung to because the whole consequence of a life can depend on it. The irrational, the human nostalgia, and the absurd that is born of their encounter — these are the three characters in the drama that must necessarily end with all the logic of which an existence is capable.
John Gardner's The Art of Fiction gets technical in ways that hurt my brain. He doesn't get into the motivation-reaction units, but if you're into right-branching sentences and all that, there's plenty in there. Personally, I write by ear, so parts of that book were like algebra to me.
Alright, so this seems like a sort of a summary of the book? Will probably buy this then next
The Wikipedia description of The Myth of Sisyphus is what got me interested in Camus first. Then I read The Stranger, but haven't read anything else by him.
You should read "Beyond The Wall" by James Lowder. It's a collection of work analyzing the ASOIAF universe, one of the essays covers PTSD in the book series. I highly suggest it to any fan.
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Wall-Exploring-Martins-Thrones/dp/1936661748/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375998654&sr=8-1&keywords=beyond+the+wall
Edit: added a link
What about: Sex, Drugs & Coco Puffs: http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Cocoa-Puffs-Manifesto/dp/0743236017/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269230180&sr=8-1
But in all truth, it is mostly about The Real World
http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Cocoa-Puffs-Manifesto/dp/0743236017/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=29OH72GY4MPT7&coliid=I1NMQG8DEDXSBF
;)
Yeah so supposedly GRRM was working on a companion book with the guy that runs westeros.org.
But apparently it ended up being an anthology of sorts with essays about ASOIAF from various writers. The reviews don't look that good.
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Wall-Exploring-Martins-Thrones/dp/1936661748/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1345217859&sr=8-17&keywords=a+song+of+ice+and+fire
There's also a map book coming out this Fall.
But really, most things about the series including a lot of the background info can be found in the wikis.
I interpret it along the lines of John Gardner's idea being the narrative dream. Here is something from The Paris Review that digs into it, but he also covers it in The Art of Fiction.
I suggest you see a therapist and read The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus wrote about this exact problem. See what conclusions he came to.
https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Sisyphus-Other-Essays/dp/0679733736
Tämä pikku kirja kertoo hauskoja tarinoita tilastotieteilijöiden elämästä
https://www.amazon.com/Lady-Tasting-Tea-Statistics-Revolutionized/dp/0805071342
Could your username have anything to do with the book Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman?
You should buy him this for his birthday or next appropriate gifting ritual.
http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Cocoa-Puffs-Manifesto/dp/0743236017
source of this question
He's releasing a book of his essays. It's called Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens.
Here ya go buddeh
https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Aphorisms-Penguin-Classics-Schopenhauer/dp/0140442278
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Nietzsche-Library/dp/0140150625
It used to be standard practice to buy the following two volumes ed. and trans. by Kaufmann:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Portable-Nietzsche-Viking-Library/dp/0140150625
http://www.amazon.com/Writings-Nietzsche-Modern-Library-Classics/dp/0679783393
Together, they contain almost all of Nietzsche's works.
Edit: Notable absences are The Gay Science and Will to Power.
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus.
Seems likely.
The Portable Nietzsche
Contains '...complete and unabridged texts of Nietzsche's four major works: "Twilight of the Idols", "The Antichrist", "Nietzsche Contra Wagner" and "Thus Spoke Zarathustra". In addition, Kaufmann brings together selections from his other books, notes, and letters, to give a full picture of Nietzsche's development, versatility, and inexhaustibility.'
Check out The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century.
Read some Camus.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Myth-Sisyphus-Other-Essays/dp/0679733736
Same Sisyphus. https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Sisyphus-Other-Essays/dp/0679733736
Wonder book
The Myth of Sisyphus.
I didn't invent it. Over the past few years I've read a stack of books on craft about as tall as myself. It begins to get hard to remember who says what. If you had asked me where I should go to find out more about "psychic distance", I would have guessed Words Overflown By Stars. But I just picked my copy of The Art of Fiction by Gardner from the shelf, and you're right, he talks about psychic distance. Maybe he invented the term (I don't know).
That's the big question, isn't it?
I find that the best response to the pointlessness so far has been reading The Myth of Sisyphus. The book by that name is worth reading, but that's a lot to ask of a stranger. The essay by that name, from the book is about a 10-15 minute read, and very poetic.
Camus makes a compelling argument that there is no point to life, that everything we do is ultimately meaningless once we die, and that this point of view liberates us to try and make the most of our lives anyway.
>The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Of course, feeling the way you do is also just part of being in your early 20's and in college.
I haven't read it myself, but I suggest Beyond The Wall. It isn't a narrative or anything, just critical analysis of themes and characters within the ASOIAF universe. It's on my list of things to read. Though I guess if you come to this subreddit enough, you could get critical analysis for free!
If you're familiar with Orwell at all, the Everyman's Library has a beautiful tome of his essays.
Pic stolen from Amazon reviews
https://imgur.com/cX82y4h
Essays (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375415033/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_dZPTAbVF24M6Y https://imgur.com/hpYh0aU
Something you want: The Wildwood Tarot
Something you need: A cat scratcher lounge thing, because my couch is looking pretty sad
Something to wear: Gloves for my poor frozen hands
Something to read: Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction, by Jeff VanderMeer
Something to watch: Season 1 of Hana Yori Dango
Something to listen to: Sonic Highways by the Foo Fighters
I can't decide between two of the items, so here's two riddle haiku (riddle-ku?).
First: Fingers hide in sleeves / But the cold makes them clumsy / Wrap them up in wool
Second: Evoking nature / Divining secret meanings / Tell me my fortune
Here's a list of some of my favorite books on writing:
Some good nonfiction: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
This debate is older than time, and kin of your finest kind, Sir R.A. Fisher settled this debate centuries ago... scientifically!!! You cannot tell the difference in a double blind study.
Hmm...
http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Cocoa-Puffs-Manifesto/dp/0743236017
Is that what you're looking for? It's all pop-culture related. I'd go to a local bookstore and browse the sociology or pop-culture shelves.
I've read about half of it and unfortunately missed out on the pop-culture bandwagon of the 90's, so most of it doesn't have much appeal to me.
/u/setofelements beating me to it twice! Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France would be a must read from a historical standpoint and for something different I would add Kirk's The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot.
No preference, except I like thinking about it because it's one of the reasons that we have statistics today. https://www.amazon.com/Lady-Tasting-Tea-Statistics-Revolutionized/dp/0805071342
That and the racist genius Sir Ronald Fisher.
I would go with Essays and Aphorisms (Penguin Classics) first. It's a decent dose of different topics. You don't need to know a bunch of technical metaphysics to understand it. You could probably find it online for free if you know where to look.
Contents:
ESSAYS
On the Suffering of the World
On the Vanity of Existence
On the Antithesis of Thing in Itself and Appearance
On Affirmation and Denial of the Will to Live
On the Indestructibility of our Essential Being by Death
On Suicide
On Women
On Thinking for Yourself
On Religion: a Dialogue
APHORISMS
On Philosophy and the Intellect
On Ethics
On Law and Politics
On Aesthetics
On Psychology
On Religion
On Books and Writing
On Various Subjects
You might get something out of this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Sisyphus-Other-Essays/dp/0679733736/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1291401881&sr=8-2
"According to Camus, suicide was a sign that one lacked the strength to face "nothing." Life is an adventure without final meaning, but still, in Camus' eyes, worth experiencing. Since there is nothing else, life should be lived to its fullest and we should derive meaning from our very existence. For Camus, people were what gave life meaning. However, in the moments following the realization that one will die, that one's descendants will die...in fact, that the earth will die, one senses a deep anxiety. And, as an atheist, Camus doubted meaning beyond this life."