Reddit mentions: The best regional & cultural poetry books

Table of Questions and Answers. Original answer linked - Please upvote the original questions and answers.
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Question | Answer | Link
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So...... what was wrong?|I think sometimes you meet someone and you see the great side of them, and they see that in you, and you overlook your differences. Then enough time passes and you learn to love so much about each other, but then those differences surface again, and this time you love each other far more...which makes the fear of losing the other one even more unbearable to think about. Eventually, those differences surface and you must acknowledge that maybe you just aren't all that happy together. Once you bring that emotion to light, there is no going back.|Here
Have you authored any other books? Sorry to hear about your situation. I'm far too familiar with loneliness myself.|I wrote and published a book for musicians years ago, but this is the first book that I wrote for me and not with big dollar signs attached to it. I just had so many things I wanted to say, and I needed an outlet to process my emotions that were hitting me like bullets. Art has always been there for me, in good times and bad, and this time I wanted to share how I felt with other people..I guess I just don't feel like wanting to do this all alone this time around.|Here
I don't acctually have a question I just wanted to ask you how you're doing and to say good job on the ama. Your doing a great job answering everyone's questions.|Thank you for your kind words. My friend told me to do the AMA and I am trying my best to be an open book. I am doing ok today. I have been processing this loss for months, but it being the wedding day and all, that's a bit rough. I am excited about the book though, and that really helps me smile today. Thank you for your comment. I hope you have a great day yourself.|Here
If you could pick a bouquet of poems (that aren’t your own) to describe what love is and what it means to you, what would you choose?|I would choose a book titled Words and Nothing More by Jonathan Lamoureux Horic . Beautiful, raw and real. https://www.amazon.ca/Words-Nothing-Jonathan-Lamoureux-Horic/dp/1727724038 Thanks for asking!|Here
I love to write poetry and I'm an aspiring author. How did you become published?|First off, keep writing! and Thank you for your question. I knew that I had a great shot at getting this one published through a company, but I wanted to have it available on the day that was supposed to be my wedding (I know, that in itself is poetic haha). I ended up opting for self-publishing through Amazon, as they have been a great success for me in the past with a previous book (not related to poetry). I would say that you should find a book the size and style that you like, use that book as a template for your own, and then add all of your poems to it. Also, create an account on Kindle publishing to get things set up through Amazon, and when you wan to convert your book to an ebook, simply use Fiverr.com to get the job done cheap. Please feel free to share some of your poetry with me, either here or my Instagram @instadonnelly|Here
Congratusorrlationsy?|Now that is a word I can get behind hahaha. And it sums up the day for me haha. Thank you.|Here
your book is called conversations with ghost: so what are the names of the ghosts?|That is one hell of a question. But being vague seems lame. Kristy Helena Dyane Crystal Michelle And a few that are in there by proxy. No last names for obvious reasons :) Thank you for your question.|Here
looking back, do you think the marriage would have worked or was breaking up for the best?|We had our near misses more than a few times. I think we weren't meant to make it forever. Even if I wanted to continue to try and make it all work, sometimes you just know that the intensity isn't there enough to last a life time. It's still love, but then it becomes about being best friends, and then you both forget to talk about things. It's the silence that kills love. But yeah, I would say that breaking up was the right answer. Time will tell though. Thank you for asking.|Here
I'm sorry you had to go through that, but at least it happened BEFORE you got married. I was married once...she left me for a coworker. But as they say, "it's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." It does get better. I am happier now and although i dont agree with what she did, I am happy our relationship is over. You shouldnt want to be with anyone who doesn't want to be with you. It isn't fair to either of you. We only have one life, let's make the best of it by making it what we want it to be! Stay strong, my friend ☺|Thank you for this. Yes, I almost called my book "Just Friends" because that's what they always say hahah. I really appreciate your comment. Make it a great day!|Here
How did you publish it?|I was under a time constraint so I opted to self publish through Kindle Direct Publishing. Since my last book has been successfully launched through them before, it was something I was comfortable with. I wrote the book. Had it edited. Created the cover myself. Then launched the book on KDP. It's a great service that lets you decide your pricing structure and where you want to sell your book. I do want to make it clear that it is still VERY important that you edit, re edit, and edit again for good measure, before you hit that publish button.|Here
Do you feel less lonely now or when you were with your partner?|I feel more lonely for sure, but I also feel empowered that I can focus on me for a while and try to get things right in my own life|Here
I’m literally going through the same thing. I’ve been writing a ton. How did you go about getting published?|First off, I'm sorry that you are going through the same thing, it's absolutely crushing. That's the point of my book though, I wanted to reach out with my heart and share that with others. I want anyone that cares to listen (or read in this case) to know that they are not completely alone. As for the book, I did this. 1) Found a poetry book the same shape and size that I wanted. I used that book as inspiration, and it became a template during the editing process. 2) Wrote book and then edited the book. 3) Uploaded the finished book and cover to Kindle Direct Publishing . 4) Published! Thank for your question.|Here
How did you go from breaking up to publishing a book in just 3 months? That's impressively fast considering all phases involved; even if the creative process and writing were part of you coping strategy is pretty fast.|I could see myself making two decisions, to grab the bottle and start a long journey down that rabbit hole...or, lean on art to see me through ( and yes, there was Whiskey still involved, and a ton of music! I even created a playlist on Spotify). I should note that I am still very much in the healing process. The book helped me a lot, but it didn't fully heal this wounded heart. I think anyone feeling something truly powerful emotionally should let that out in an art form. It really helps. It's like free therapy. Haha|Here
Well said. I admire how exact your description is of this unceasing temptation of lashing out and burning all bridges with greatest fire ever seen (even more so if you are in right and it would be so easy) and then describing the other way of containing yourself and accepting the pain that comes with loneliness. So no real question here, just wanted to tell you that I don't even like poetry that much, but I am looking forward to read your book!|I really appreciate your kind words. You sound like you really get where I am coming from. I just want to heal and I want her to heal, and I want what's best for everyone. I have seen far too many loves turn into hate because of uncontrolled emotions. Trust me. Healing takes time, and the process is far better when you don't spend all your time trying to be right about how the other person hurt you. If you end up getting my book, that would be incredible, and if you like it, or not, please feel free to leave a review. Aloe, I will be giving anyone who buys my book the ebook version for free when it's ready, so make sure to let me know on my Instagram account @instadonnelly|Here

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I think all the actual suggestions I made in this post would apply here (disregard that it's about buying a poetry gift, you're the 'they' or 'she' in this haha) so I'll paste it in and make a few additional suggestions. But #1 suggestion is to read through Poetry 180 and when you find pieces you like to search those poets in google or at poetryfoundation.com (they also have a great browse function where you can search by theme, 'school', poet, subject, occasion etc)

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There's certainly a wide variety of options, the best options are mostly more poetry to read. All good poets read lots of poetry. I mean, sure, there's probably 3 or 4 out there that don't, but outliers aside, poets read poetry. So there's a couple options, if she only started writing a couple years ago, I would suggest a workshop type text book and a subscription to a nice literary journal like American Poetry Review, Rattle, Ploughshares, Iowa Review, Georgia Review, Arts & Letters, Five Points, Gettysburg Review, Paris Review etc. Depending on the type of poets she likes, different magazines would be better.

One good tact would be to ask them for a few of their favorite poets, maybe say you're thinking about reading more poetry or something, or just ask. Do a google search for their name and "literary journal" or "literary review". If you see that name in any of the above journals I mentioned, get her that subscription. If not, consider getting her one of their collections from Amazon. For anthologies, which are great for young poets especially, because it can help introduce a reader to many similar or dissimilar voices to broaden their reading horizons, and also some of the books I'll be recommending have a strong prompt/craft component to help them continue to develop. I especially recommend the bolded titles, and Seriously Funny, while good, may be a bit complicated for a newish reader of poetry. But I could be misreading what you mean by poetry career and they could be plenty comfortable with it.

Here are a couple that are good options:

Seriously Funny is a great anthology themed after poems that bring wit to serious topics. It's edited by husband/wife poetry duo David Kirby and Barbara Hamby.

Staying Alive has a great variety of poems organized by theme. These are mostly poems published in the last 50ish years, and lean slightly toward being more accessible (easy to understand) than the first anthology.

Contemporary American Poetry: Behind the Scenes was edited by Ryan G. Van Cleave and is more of a textbook (like the next 2). It has a CD with audio recordings of many of the poets in the book and it is broken up by poet, mostly chronologically I believe. It has some craft essays as well. Being a textbook, new copies are expensive, but used are cheap cheap.

The Poet's Companion is edited by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, both tremendous poets in their own right. This one is more oriented in using poems to spark your own writing, but it does have a good amount of poetry in there, and the craft essays are brief and to the point.

In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop edited by Steve Kowit is also a great textbook for producing your own writing by looking at certain aspects of other poems. Stylistically this is similar to The Poet's Companion, and both are tremendous. Used they're each only $6 with shipping too.

Or, here are a few books that you can't go wrong with: Rose by Li-Young Lee, Tell Me by Kim Addonizio, Rail by Kai Carlson-Wee, The House of Blue Light by David Kirby, American Noise by Campbell McGrath, The Gary Snyder Reader—a huge book, but great, Some Ether by Nick Flynn

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If you find a few more specific poets you like and want to find more of feel free to message me, and if I'm familiar with them I'll shoot you some more suggestions. A couple other poets who get personal and focus on minutiae/details etc would be like Albert Goldbarth, Billy Collins, Stephen Dunn, Matthew Neinow, Nick Latz, Gaylord Brewer, Ted Kooser, Philip Levine and, a couple that do similar with a definitely stylistic approach would be like Bob Hicok, Dean Young, Alex Lemon and Emma Bolden. For other lyrics/audio you may enjoy Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Ani DiFranco, Utah Phillips, Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere/Slug, Josh Martinez...

Best of luck on your journey!

I've been reading Thich Nhat Hanh's Peaceful Action, Open Heart, which is wonderful, concurrently with A Guide to the Threefold Lotus Sutra, by Nikkyo Niwano, that gives a concise overview of each chapter. It also helps to have an introduction, in the form of a talk or short articles. There's a short chapter in Cultivating the Mind of Love on this Sutra.

I was at a retreat with TNH in the 1990's where he spoke about the Avatamsaka and Lotus Sutras, that's since been issued by Sounds True as The Ultimate Dimension.

Most of the talks were on the foundational practices for entering into the kinds of experiences described in these Sutras, and I found that his framing them in this way actually made them accessible. Remarkable!

These are good places to start.

As Thay said in his commentary, these are not so much works to be studied with the rational part of ourselves as they are to be received as inspired poetry, lived with and enjoyed. Then meaning of these sutras and the truth they speak of can reveal themselves to us gradually.

He says, in the beginning of The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching:

“When we hear a Dharma talk or study a sutra, our only job is to remain open. Usually when we hear or read something new, we just compare it to our own ideas. If it is the same, we accept it and say that it is correct. If it is not, we say it is incorrect. In either case, we learn nothing. If we read or listen with an open mind and an open heart, the rain of the Dharma will penetrate the soil of our consciousness.

“The gentle spring rain permeates the soil of my soul.
A seed has lain deeply in the earth for many years just smiles.

“When reading or listening, don’t work too hard. Be like the earth. When the rain comes, the earth only has to open herself up to the rain. Allow the rain of the Dharma to come in and penetrate the seeds that are buried deep in your consciousness.

“A teacher cannot give you the truth. The truth is already in you. You only need to open yourself - body, mind, and heart - so that his or her teachings will penetrate your own seeds of understanding and enlightenment. If you let the words enter you, the soil and the seeds will do the rest of the work.”

Best wishes to you in your practice.

Thanks for your analysis. I definitely understand what you're saying about the subconscious/surreal element, and I guess I can see where you find a personal honesty in his films, but I don't know if I can agree that understanding Lynch's films can be a "very involving and rewarding process," simply because I haven't really enjoyed the physical process of watching his films.

Again, that's not to say they aren't good. I actually love works of art that are thematically similar. Sometimes shockingly so. If anyone here is a big fan of Eraserhead and is looking for something that's difficult to read, for example, check out the Comte de Lautréamont. There is one chapter in the Comte's most famous work where our (anti-)hero, Maldoror, while staying in a brothel, converses with an enormous hair follicle fallen from the scalp of God, which goes on to explain how its master enjoys coming down from on high to flay young male prostitutes alive. There is no discernible plot to the book, and the language is incredibly dense, but it is beautiful and dark and weird and grotesque. And, most importantly, so, so very difficult to understand. But worth it. As Lynch is, I'm sure.

I certainly plan on giving him more of his due down the road. Like I said, Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway are on my list of films I really ought to see. I would actually very much like to get David Lynch the way others do. To go back to a previous analogy, it's why I keep watching Steven Soderbergh films. I've wanted to catch that something that I've been missing in others' appreciations. With Soderbergh, I came to the conclusion that I simply do not like his filmmaking. (Please no one ask to explain that one.) I know I haven't given Lynch enough of a chance yet to say with finality that I won't some day "get it."

As it stands, though, I know Eraserhead is one of the more popular releases from Criterion this year, and I felt compelled to stand up for the few (Or is it just me? Just me? Okay. Just me.) who are not fans.

The Golden Transcendence Trilogy, starting with "The Golden Age". It's fantastic and it saddens me more people haven't read it. Here is the Amazon review:

> The Golden Age is Grand Space Opera, a large-scale SF adventure novel in the tradition of A. E. Van vogt and Roger Zelazny, with perhaps a bit of Cordwainer Smith enriching the style. It is an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the excitements of SF's golden age writers.

> The Golden Age takes place 10,000 years in the future in our solar system, an interplanetary utopian society filled with immortal humans. Within the frame of a traditional tale-the one rebel who is unhappy in utopia-Wright spins an elaborate plot web filled with suspense and passion.

> Phaethon, of Radamanthus House, is attending a glorious party at his family mansion to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the High Transcendence. There he meets first an old man who accuses him of being an impostor and then a being from Neptune who claims to be an old friend. The Neptunian tells him that essential parts of his memory were removed and stored by the very government that Phaethon believes to be wholly honorable. It shakes his faith. He is an exile from himself.

> And so Phaethon embarks upon a quest across the transformed solar system--Jupiter is now a second sun, Mars and Venus terraformed, humanity immortal--among humans, intelligent machines, and bizarre life forms that are partly both, to recover his memory, and to learn what crime he planned that warranted such preemptive punishment. His quest is to regain his true identity.

> The Golden Age is one of the major, ambitious SF novels of the year and the international launch of an important new writer in the genre.

You can begin reading to understand the history of the Kashmir conflict.
So here are some suggestions, based on where I began my own reading, and drawing on easily available publications by Kashmiris.

1. The good old Tracts For The Times booklet by Bajraj Puri - http://www.amazon.in/Kashmir-Towards-Insurgenc…/…/0863113842
   
   
2. AG Noorani's volumes on Kashmir (you can also find many articles by him, from Frontline, online) http://www.amazon.in/Kashmir-Dispute-1947-2012…/…/9382381155
   
   
3. Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer - http://www.amazon.in/Curfewed-Night-Kashmiri-J…/…/1439109109
   
   
4. A Long Dream of Home - The Persecution, exile and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits by Siddhartha Gigoo and Varad Sharma http://www.amazon.in/Long-Dream-Home-persecuti…/…/9385436201
   
   
5. Until My Freedom Has Come - a collection of short fiction, reportage, essays, news reports, interviews and a rapper’s song by Kashmiris, edited by Sanjay Kak http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/…/until-my-freedom-has-com…
   
   
6. BURIED EVIDENCE: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in Indian-Administered Kashmir - a report by International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK) http://www.kashmirprocess.org/reports/graves/toc.html
   
   
7. Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora? http://www.amazon.in/Remember-Kunan-Poshpora-Z…/…/9384757667
   
   
8. You can read updates from the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) http://apdpkashmir.com/ and JKCCS http://www.jkccs.net/ - these groups post Facebook updates also, regularly
   
   
9. Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths of Peace by Sumantra Bose - https://kashmirebooks.files.wordpress.com/…/sumantra-bose-k…
   
   
10. Some other good readings are included in this list compiled by HT http://www.hindustantimes.com/…/story-PKmPCQ5WtigTwp85vvSpR…
    
    
11. An interesting article by Yoginder Sikand in EPW traced the shifts in the Kashmiri movement in the 1980s http://www.epw.in/…/…/changing-course-kashmiri-struggle.html
    
    
12. Agha Shahid Ali - The Country Without A Post Office (poetry) http://www.amazon.in/Country-Without-Post-Offi…/…/0393317617
    
    
13. Jashn-e-Azaadi - How We Celebrate Freedom - a documentary by Sanjay Kak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJnwGEk1fzQ
    
    Start where you like, these are not in any particular order. It is most encouraging that so many, ignoring the ugly trolling and hate-filled propaganda, are asking to know more on Kashmir. Yesterday's silent march also saw many come forward to ask to know more. Silence can break the media-scripted cacophony, a space of quiet can allow voices of good sense, especially Kashmiri voices, to be heard, and make for a path to empathy and solidarity.

So many! I guess it depends on the day, but I love poetry by Stephen Dunn, he had a book of poetry called "Different hours" that i loved. As for artwork, it really depends on the day. But i love Turner, I love Sergeant, I love Moore...

Here are my favourites:

Philip Larkin -- one of the greatest English poets, who uses the English language in its most elegant, plain and beautiful way. Often deals with death and love. A sample poem about the fear of death

Derek Walcott -- A poet of the Caribbean, known for epic poems. A sample poem about love

ee cummings -- a popular American poet who played with form. A sample poem

Emily Dickinson - maybe one of the most famous American poets, you can read a lot of her poetry online

Also online are the other big famous poets: Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, W.B. Yeats, Walt Whitman, Keats, William Blake, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, John Ashbery. For each of these I'd just suggest googling and seeing what you like.

But I'm going to suggest to you some poetry by some new, rising poets, who are still alive and writing.

Sam Sax -- a young queer American poet who was the winner of the National Poetry Series. His work is incredible. Here is a video of him performing one of his earlier poems

Meg Freitag -- another young American poet who writes intimately about the self, heartache, etc, with gorgeous imagery. A sample poem

Kaveh Akbar -- an Iranian-American poet who has won a ton of awards.

Claudia Rankine is not young or up-and-coming given that she won a MacArthur and a Pulitzer prize but she is one of the most important poets writing today, and her work often revolves around blackness in America. She also writes prose poetry.

Maggie Nelson is also already famous -- Bluets is the most beautiful book, a meditation of grief and the colour blue.

I would honestly just go browse through https://www.poetryfoundation.org. It's so fun, and you can read poets by theme. That's a very good way to get into both classical and contemporary English language poetry.

Formatted version:

1. The good old Tracts For The Times booklet by Bajraj Puri - http://www.amazon.in/Kashmir-Towards-Insurgency-Tracts-Times/dp/0863113842
   
2. AG Noorani's volumes on Kashmir (you can also find many articles by him, from Frontline, online) http://www.amazon.in/Kashmir-Dispute-1947-2012-1-2/dp/9382381155
   
3. Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer - http://www.amazon.in/Curfewed-Night-Kashmiri-Journalists-Frontline/dp/1439109109
   
4. A Long Dream of Home - The Persecution, exile and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits by Siddhartha Gigoo and Varad Sharma http://www.amazon.in/Long-Dream-Home-persecution-Kashmiri/dp/9385436201
   
5. Until My Freedom Has Come - a collection of short fiction, reportage, essays, news reports, interviews and a rapper’s song by Kashmiris, edited by Sanjay Kak http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/until-my-freedom-has-come%3Frate=1Jem0gUhLZKCLEzVRSto4bwhTDJWqJHs63AmYuUPQyo.html
   
6. BURIED EVIDENCE: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in Indian-Administered Kashmir - a report by International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK) http://www.kashmirprocess.org/reports/graves/toc.html
   
7. Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora? http://www.amazon.in/Remember-Kunan-Poshpora-Zubaan-Violence-Impunity/dp/9384757667
   
8. You can read updates from the Association of Parents of Displaced persons (APDP) http://apdpkashmir.com/ and JKCCS http://www.jkccs.net/ - these groups post Facebook updates also, regularly
   
9. Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths of Peace by Sumantra Bose - https://kashmirebooks.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/sumantra-bose-kashmir_-roots-of-conflict-paths-to-peace-harvard-university.pdf
   
10. Some other good readings are included in this list compiled by HT http://www.hindustantimes.com/books/the-kashmir-reading-list-11-books-to-understand-the-conflict/story-PKmPCQ5WtigTwp85vvSpRM.html
    
11. An interesting article by Yoginder Sikand in EPW traced the shifts in the Kashmiri movement in the 1980s http://www.epw.in/journal/2001/03/special-articles/changing-course-kashmiri-struggle.html
    
12. Agha Shahid Ali - The Country Without A Post Office (poetry) http://www.amazon.in/Country-Without-Post-Office-Shahid/dp/0393317617
    
13. Jashn-e-Azaadi - How We Celebrate Freedom - a documentary by Sanjay Kak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJnwGEk1fzQ
    
    >Start where you like, these are not in any particular order. It is most encouraging that so many, ignoring the ugly trolling and hate-filled propaganda, are asking to know more on Kashmir. Yesterday's silent march also saw many come forward to ask to know more. Silence can break the media-scripted cacophony, a space of quiet can allow voices of good sense, especially Kashmiri voices, to be heard, and make for a path to empathy and solidarity.

I've read most of those and LOVED them. I'll just say you're looking for fictional "good books" and go from there. I recommend:

1. Lies of Locke Lamora and its sequels by Scott Lynch. My favorite books of all time--and that's saying something. It's about a gang of con-artist thieves caught between their biggest heist and a powerful mage and his employer, who wants to use them as a cat's paw.
   
   
2. Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Excellent fantasy with a witty, resourceful, extremely intelligent protagonist. Set in two timelines, the protagonist is the only survivor of a gypsy clan that was destroyed by a powerful enemy he vows to hunt down.
   
   
3. The Orphans of Chaos trilogy by John C. Wright. Amazingly original fantasy, with 4 paradigms of power and featuring a showdown between the Titans and Olympian gods.
   
   
4. The Golden Age Trilogy also by John C. Wright. This is faaaaar-future sci-fi (think 1+ million years), it's extremely creative, and if anyone else had attempted to write it, it would have turned into gobbledygook.
   
   
5. The Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King starting with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. This is a re-imagined Sherlock Holmes series done very well, set after his official retirement, when he meets a young woman who matches his intellect and observation skills and decides to take her on as protege.
   
   
6. The Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. Pretty great YA fantasy in which trained practitioners can move beyond the gates of death...and have to battle things that come back from beyond those gates.
   
   
7. The Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathon Stroud. I had a ball with these books when they came out. Features a snarky demon and his master.
   
   
8. The Hungry City Chronicles by Phillip Reeve. Set in a post-apocalyptic type world where cities are mobile and move around, chasing smaller cities down across the landscape and cannibalizing them for resources.
   

Evan Currie's Odyssey One series is more military than pure space opera, but it is awesome.

The Golden Oecumene series by John C Wright is a Transhuman Space Opera of epic proportions. I highly recommend it.

Rachel Bach has a great series called Fortunes Pawn. Also a lil closer to military sci-fi but it has some nice Space Opera themes.

Joshua Dalzelle has a great series called the Black Fleet, again more military sci-fi than true space opera, but very good none the less.

The Reality Dysfunction series though, if you are looking for a meaty Space opera to lose yourself in is a must read series.

____

I almost forgot about the Manifold Series by Stephen Baxter and the Darwin's Radio series by Greg Bear. Both are phenomenal reads, and while technically they are set in the near future and aren't space opera per say, they are must reads for anyone into Sci-Fi.

There's probably a few ways you could go about expanding your knowledge base. The two that seem most fruitful are

1. Reading for a deeper understanding of the topics that you're already familiar with.
   
   
2. Ranging more broadly into other areas that may interest you.
   
   If (1), then I'd probably suggest one of two courses. Either, (a) read the stuff that influenced the existential thinkers that you've listed, or (b) read some literature dealing with issues related to the thinkers you've listed.
   
   For (a) I'd suggest the following:
   
   

• Anything by Kant
  
• (In the case of Kierkegaard) Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit or his Aesthetics
  
• (For Nietzsche) Emerson's essays, Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation, or Spinoza's Ethics
  
• Maybe some Freud for the later thinkers? Civilization and its Discontents is really good.
  
  For (b) it's really a mixed bag. I'd suggest going through the SEP articles on the thinkers you've listed and looking into some good secondary literature on them. If you're super interested in Nietzsche, I'd definitely suggest reading Leiter's Nietzsche on Morality. I really couldn't tell you more unless you told me something more specific about your interests.
  
  If (2), then I suppose I'd suggest one of the following:
  
  
• Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy for a good, broad introduction to Chinese Thought
  
• The Analects of Confucius. This translation is excellent
  
• A Short History of Chinese Philosophy
  
• Heidegger's Being and Time
  
• Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception
  
• Some of Rilke's work
  
• Unamuno's Tragic Sense of Life
  
  Again, it's hard to give you better directions without more information on what you're actually interested in. I've just thrown a bunch of stuff at you, and you couldn't possibly be expected to read, say, Schopenhauer's World as Will and Representation over break and be expected to really understand it.

As for reading, check out The Poetry Foundation. They have a huge archive of poetry for you to check out. Hang out in this subreddit and read the poems posted. If you like a poem, post a comment and ask which poets are similar to that style, then look them up. The OCPoetry subreddit has a wealth of original poetry content - but keep in mind that the caliber of work there will obviously be mixed. But it's good to see the contributions of ordinary people, either as a way of engaging with a community or as a barometer of your own abilities once you start writing.

And as for writing, I can't recommend this book enough: Ted Kooser's Poetry Home Repair Manual. It's worth the 10-15 bucks or whatever to order it. It contains lots of examples of poetry from many authors, and Kooser's advice is indispensable.

And always remember - with any art, you want to take in more than you put out. Read more than you write. Absorb everything you can. I get the impression that most mediocre OCpoetry that I read is probably written by people who haven't taken the time to actually read poetry. It's essential. Good luck!

I LOVE POETRY. And I sort of taught my girlfriend how to read it. Honestly, it's kind of like wine. There are things that are true and not true for sure, but your emotional interpretation of poetry is most accurate when unfiltered. Try not to judge your interpretation of the poetry (I know, easier said).

This is my favorite poetry book. The poems are grouped by theme, but cover a very broad range of time periods and are from all over the world. I just think it's so cool to see what about the human experience hasn't really changed in hundreds of years.

I taught my girlfriend to love poetry with Kay Ryan's poems. They're short, so you can read one in bed together and then sit and think about it and discuss what it could mean or how you're interpreting it. :)

I got into poetry because I took a class. It forced me to pause over poems that I otherwise probably would have read once, skipping them because I didn't understand them. But like a lot of things in life, we must linger long over things we don't understand, forcing ourselves to admit we don't get it, working though tough problems. Poetry, for me, has been an excellent way to develop the skill of lingering.

That being said, the next step is finding the poets you like. Sure, there are poets who are more accessible because of their use of conversational rhythms and minimal high-brow references and diction. Charles Bukowski is a great one for an earthy, Dionysian feel. If you want a different style, you may like Stephen Dunn, who seems more wise and contemplative in his poems (which contain less references to his anatomy than Bukowski).

But in general, you will need to read widely and drink deep. Maybe get a general anthology that would allow you to read short poems by multiple different authors, so that you can find what you like. Better still, a textbook would help explain technical aspects of a poem. Learning the technical aspects opened up worlds for me. Not knowing the technical aspects of an art is like listening to radio music and not knowing what or where the chorus is. It would hardly make sense.

Another strategy, like a class, would be to grab somebody who is interested in poetry and read poems together. That way, you can offer interpretations on poems to each other. No two people ever see a poem the same way, and learning what other people see in a poem not only enhances your own experience of the poem, but it helps build a connection between you and other people.

One last thought: it helped me to remember in the beginning that poets are just people. They are struggling with the same questions as us all. Who am I? How should I act toward my fellow humans? Where am I going when I die? Is there a God? Will I be remembered? Reading poetry is a way to discover how others have dealt with those questions.

Have fun! That's important, too. :)

Not exactly what you asked for, but you did ask what you had to read and, well, that makes things easy. Philip Larkin and W.H Auden are often thought of as the finest poets of the 20;th century. The following two books have brought me tremendous pleasure. Auden was also one of the most skilled and versatile formal poets who has ever lived.

http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Poems-Philip-Larkin/dp/0374529205

http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Poems-Auden-W-H/dp/0679731970/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1404601714&sr=8-3&keywords=w.h.auden

Hope you enjoy.
/J

My favorite post-singularity fiction is the Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright. Superintelligent AI, virtual reality, and mind uploading, and he still manages a deeply human tale of epic heroism. It's a little hard to get into for the first three or four chapters, but then it really takes off. I've read it three times.

Greg Egan's work is pretty interesting, eg. Permutation City, which is mainly about uploading etc.

For more of the near-future speculation side of Accelerando, Cory Doctorow writes a lot of good stuff. And there's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom which is post-singularity.

Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age is pretty much a classic, covering nanotech, AI-based education, and all sorts of craziness. One of my favorites.

Going off the idea you like Poe, Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Plath my recommendations (and reasons):

Olives by AE Stallings (the best new book of American poetry since Plath)
Harlot by Jill Alexander Essbaum (a fantastic and sexy collection of work)
The Restored Ariel by Sylvia Plath (the best book of American poetry after Eliot)
The Standing Wave by Gabriel Spera (lovely stuff)
60 Sonnets by Ernest Hilbert (some funny, some sad, all sonnets)
Broetry by Brian McGackin (light but funny)
I Was There For Your Somniloquy by Kelli Anne Noftle (a good intro into avante garde)
Azores by David Yezzi (a travelogue of sorts)
Omeros by Derek Walcott (best new epic in a long time)
With Rough Gods by yours truly (monologuing Greek gods)
Love, an Index by Rebecca Lindenberg (a beautiful work of loss and love)
The Waste Land and other writings by T.S. Eliot (the undisputed master of modern poetry)

Happy almost birthday 🎉
The secret to my wellness is my dog. He is literally the only thing that keeps me going. The only other thing I can think of is Bukowski because his poems are just so great. He is absolutely the best writer and his stuff is just so relatable; I'm extremely grateful my English teacher covered Bukowski instead of Shakespeare.

There's húsabœr or staðr. Both can mean "farmstead" or "farm" but húsabœr gives the connotation of the buildings that make up the farm or the dwellings for people/animals while staðr is closer to the English "-stead", meaning more of the land/location. Its also used widely to mean "place" or "spot."

There's also bú which means "farming" (like the action or business of farming) or "household" but is used for a lot of other things as well.

If you wanted to be a bit dramatic with the river bluff feature, you could use nes, which is "headland". So, for example, in Landnámabók, there's a "Herjólfsnes", which is the land taken by a man named Herjolf. I've seen a lot of personal names incorporated into geographical terms to make place names. So if your name was Aaron, say, you could then have "Aaronsnes" or "Aaron's Headland."

Edit: You could also do the same with staðr, so: "Aaronsstaðr".

You can look at Zoëga's dictionary to see more details on the terms.

In modern Icelandic, I found býli or kot (for a small cottage farm). See here and here.

Good luck and congrats on getting a farm!

First figure out what style of poetry you like. Do this by reading some sort of anthology. I would recommend Perrine's Sound & Sense, which can be on the expensive side depending on what edition you buy, but is probably the most useful book I've ever bought. It was required for one of my high school classes, but I can't count the number of times I've referred back to it since then or just sat down and reread it for the hell of it.

Two protips for reading poetry: (1) take a lot of time with each poem; read it more than once; consider the significance of all its elements, and (2) don't pause (mentally or out loud) at the end of a line unless there's punctuation there. Sorry if you think that's really basic advice; I'm just surprised at the number of people who don't know this. It improves comprehension a lot.

That said, the most recent poetry collections I've read and would recommend are Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia, The Book of Medicines by Linda Hogan, Ideal Cities by Erica Meitner, and Ariel by Sylvia Plath. If you're looking for something less contemporary, John Donne is my favorite poet of all time.

Thich Nhat Hanh: "In 1976, the communist government of Vietnam wanted to set up a government-supported Buddhist organization to replace the Unified Buddhist Church, and they spread a rumor that I had died of a heart attack in Paris. The young monks and nuns in Vietnam had strong faith in me. They knew I was doing my best to help and protect them. In Paris, through our office at the Peace Delegation of the Unified Buddhist Church, we stayed in touch with Amnesty International and other humanitarian organizations, and every time there were human rights violations by the government, such as the arrests of monks or nuns, we informed the press and others so they would intervene. That is one of the reasons the government decided to close down the Unified Buddhist Church and set up their own Buddhist organization. They had already arrested Thich Quang Do and Thich Huyen Quang, the leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church and they wanted to confuse people and undermine the support that the people felt from us in Paris." https://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Mind-Love-Thich-Nhat/dp/1888375787

Hey man, sorry for not getting back to you yesterday. Here are some recommendations.

https://www.amazon.com/Maldoror-Complete-Works-Comte-Lautréamont/dp/187897212X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2UG7IORZO7MOG&keywords=maldoror+english&qid=1563734129&s=gateway&sprefix=malodor%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-3

​

https://www.amazon.com/Exploits-Opinions-Dr-Faustroll-Pataphysician/dp/1878972073/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3FIN94ANSVCSJ&keywords=exploits+and+opinions+of+dr.+faustroll%2C+pataphysician&qid=1563734228&s=gateway&sprefix=dr+faustroll+%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1

​

https://www.amazon.com/Valerie-Week-Wonders-Vitezslav-Nezval/dp/808626419X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2MVWRWT2G7RYS&keywords=valerie+and+her+week+of+wonders+book&qid=1563734389&s=gateway&sprefix=valerie+and+her+wee%2Caps%2C126&sr=8-1

​

https://www.amazon.com/Mount-Analogue-Non-Euclidean-Symbolically-Mountaineering/dp/1585673420/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_pd_crcd__20?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1585673420&pd_rd_r=885af56e-246c-4203-b69a-3ada3d549cad&pd_rd_w=nBgvG&pd_rd_wg=D0uLp&pf_rd_p=d17c2de0-cc1d-4b09-aad8-987099a21717&pf_rd_r=MPT3RGNB79T8MX0H41BF&psc=1&refRID=MPT3RGNB79T8MX0H41BF

​

the first two are not surrealism in the sense of the authors being part of the actual movement but they were precursors for it as well as being hugely influential to all who took part within the movement; the first one specifically, was said to be, by the surrealists themselves, their bible and holy grail. Surrealism can be quite difficult to read and hard to understand if one is not acquainted with the time period and the history of their epoch but if you stick with it it will pay off in time. You may have to do a little research into the back-stories of each author but this will only benefit you in the end: the last two will be much simpler to read on their own as they are more or less, linear straight-forward fictions. Good Luck!

I just happened to end up at a university that had a professor of Old Norse. Modern Icelandic and Faroese are pretty close and there is an Old Norse dictionary (Zoega's concise dictionary - it's concise because he was going to make a larger one but died before he could). My old norse professor has two textbooks you can get on amazon (textbook 1 and textbook 2) but I don't know how good those are because he was writing them while I was taking his courses. There's also this textbook which I've never used but has good reviews.

You can also learn modern Icelandic and then study Old Norse because they very similar. It may be easier to do it that way. We also read the sagas in the original Old Norse which was very interesting.

1. Maldoror and the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont
   
2. 10/10
   
3. Classic French Literature, Misanthropic, Nihilism, Philosophic.
   
4. Anyone who recommends Journey to the End of the Night as an exemplar of misanthropic literature has obviously never read Maldoror, which isn't too much of a surprise considering this classic of French lit is criminally unknown to the majority of people. This poetic novel doesn't really have a plot, so it becomes a bit difficult to really summarize it by it's plot. If you want a character you who truly embodies amor fati, then I highly recommend this novel.
   
5. Amazon, Goodreads

If you believe your words are gospel, then just accept the feedback and move on with your life. If you want to start down the road of legitimately writing poetry that someone who actually reads poetry can appreciate, it's time to get to fucking work.

Of course, you think your "words" are special, but they aren't. This is the same thing every beginner churns out. It's cliché abstraction and it's not worth sharing with anyone. You can call it "poetry" and say it's your "art" and that poetry can't be "defined" -- whatever.

But anyone who actually reads poetry will recognize your "words" immediately for what they are and turn the page.

Read some poetry, man. Read some books about writing poetry and the tools poets use to craft their poems. If you need recommendations, I can give you some, but you'll have to do some fucking work. You might have missed the memo, but writing poetry is hard work.

***

Edit: Here some recommendations to get you started.

• A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver
  
• The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser
  
• In the Palm of Your Hand by Steve Kowit
  
• The Poet's Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux
  
  And if you insist on trying to use end rhymes:
  
  
• Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver
  
  And please, please pick up a good book of poems from multiple authors so you can get some exposure, such as the Norton Anthology of Poetry or the compilation Good Poems by Garrison Keillor. One of my favorites is A Book of Luminous Things by Czeslaw Milosz.

I have been practicing a little less than a year, so I am a relative newbie. The most important thing is support from your sangha, which is your Buddhist community. Find one and spend time with them. Learn how others react to specific situations and deal with everyday problems that way. Without the sangha, all the books, tapes etc in the world are of little use.

My teacher is Thich Nhat Hanh. My sangha is Deerpark monastery in Escondido, Ca. A good place to start reading is here

Good luck to you!

Would you be interested in my copy of Love is a Dog from Hell?

I'm interested in both of your Vonnegut books.

Edit: I also have Welcome to the Monkey House by Vonnegut to balance it out if you're interested.

I've used Hippocrene's Beginner's Icelandic as well as Complete Icelandic. I fell off the wagon and haven't devoted any time recently to learning, but both books were helpful when I was trying to learn. If I had to choose only one of them, I'd probably choose Complete Icelandic, but they were useful to me in tandem because each covered little things that the other didn't.

I've also heard that Icelandic Learning is very useful. IIRC, you have to pass the entire course before you can apply for citizenship/visas. I could be wrong on that, it's been a few years.

first replying to the topic of clarity & purple

didnt know they had a phrase for this:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_prose
  
  
• https://medium.com/@lucillemoncrief/what-is-purple-prose-beige-prose-and-blue-language-9cae7fd44ba9
  
  
• https://thewritepractice.com/purple-prose/
  
  
• https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=purple%20prose
  
  tho i understand it harms clarity tho:
  
  
• the context requires it
  
  
• & it's not meant for other minds so it wont be relevant to this context
  
  ---
  
  it seems overall that many dont like thes kinds of things,
  
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniara#Reception
  
  
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1138948.Aniara
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Aniara-Epic-Science-Fiction-Poem/dp/1885266634
  
  & overall culturally this has been the trend
  
  ---
  
  i also dont like these kinds of things tho i can understand some of the main reasons why others would think that this is the only and best that certain things could said
  
  tho i should add that i dont consider the scene/piece that poetic/purple cos it could be 1000x more so
  
  tho that's the thing with relative words like 'purple' and such, they're all just relative, and in that way, they do lose 1) clarity & 2) meaning
  
  ---
  
  

Why would you ask a question about taxes without asking what those taxes pay for? They pay for the shit everyone needs.

As for learning the language, there are two decent books I can recommend: Colloquial Icelandic and Beginner's Icelandic. But nothing is going to save you from the fuckton of grammar you have to learn within the first 40 pages or so. Spend the extra on the companion CDs.

It’s a fantastic read, by the way. The commentary is good if you’re into that sort of thing, but there’s also some other writing in their that’s a lot of fun.

Amazon link

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

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amazon.co.jp

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Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Rainier Maria Rilke

I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone

enough
to truly consecrate the hour.

I am much too small in this world, yet not small

enough

to be to you just object and thing,

dark and smart.

I want my free will and want it accompanying

the path which leads to action;

and want during times that beg questions,

where something is up,

to be among those in the know,

or else be alone.

I would choose a book titled Words and Nothing More by Jonathan Lamoureux Horic .
Beautiful, raw and real.

https://www.amazon.ca/Words-Nothing-Jonathan-Lamoureux-Horic/dp/1727724038

Thanks for asking!

Other works of fiction that contain the concept of a metaverse;

Books

• The Otherland series, by Tad Williams, beginning with City of Golden Shadow (sidenote, this series also has an MMORPG based on it, currently in closed beta, and recently (October of last year) brought back from the dead)
  
  
• The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons, beginning with Hyperion.
  
  
• The Golden Oecumene, by John C. Wright, beginning with The Golden Age.
  
  
• Accel World, by Reki Kawahara, beginning with Kuroyukihime's Return. (If you are familiar with the manganime Sword Art Online, this is by the same author, and shares the same universe)
  
  
• This Alien Shore, by Celia S. Friedman. (amazon link)
  
  
• The Sprawl Trilogy, by William Gibson, beginning with Neuromancer.
  
  
• Accelerando, by Charles Stross. (free e-book link)
  
  Anime and Manga
  
  
• The .hack series, specifically .hack//SIGN
  
  
• For a lighter feel, there's Summer Wars (available on CrunchyRoll) and the INCREDIBLY similar second Digimon movie, Our War Game!. Also I guess by extension, but not really explored as much, the entire Digimon series, as it takes place in an analogy for the internet.
  
  
• Serial Experiments Lain
  
  
• Okay fine, here's Sword Art Online (CrunchyRoll link)
  
  Film
  
  
• The Singularity is Near, a speculative documentary based on the Ray Kurzweil book of the same name.
  
  
• The Thirteenth Floor, a crime thriller about the owner of a VR simulation company getting murdered.
  
  ----
  
  I know I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the genre, because if there's one thing humans are good at, it's writing fucktons on what we like.
  
  So feel free to comment additions to this list, or opinions on what I've currently included. I have by no means read/watched all of these, so having someone with actual experience with each of these weigh in would be nice.

[Rose] (http://www.amazon.com/Rose-New-Poets-America-Li-Young/dp/0918526531) is a particularly strong collection in general.

I highly recommend it.

I know this was a month ago, but check out the Restored Edition of Ariel here: http://www.amazon.com/Ariel-Facsimile-Manuscript-Reinstating-Arrangement/dp/0060732601/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418412768&sr=1-1&keywords=ariel+plath

The original was published by Hughes, who reorganized the collection and left out a couple poems. It might have what you're looking for.

The item on my wishlist I want is this. It is the album that introduced me to punk when I was a little guy. It is just such an important album for me and the genre as a whole. It was and is revolutionary. Plus Johnny Rotten is probably your cousin or something!

The coolest thing on my wishlist is this. A little known sci-fi epic poem full of hoplessness and despair, what is cooler than that! Also, the only sci-fi book to win a nobel prize. Just all around cool-ness.

Sounds like you need something to read while you relax at home...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0803259786/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=175889210347&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16092539645369287285&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015276&hvtargid=kwd-5336653994&ref=pd_sl_54wk6f3vk6_b

Best book I've come across.

Pretty recent stuff:

John Brown's Body

The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel

Aniara

Here is a link to the hardcover version on Amazon. :)

Free ebook of gaming-themed poetry.

Lullabies for Dungeon Crawlers

This translation by Alexis Lykiard is the one I have, it's very good.

https://www.amazon.com/Maldoror-Complete-Works-Comte-Lautr%C3%A9amont/dp/187897212X/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=le+chants+de+maldoror&qid=1562627249&s=gateway&sr=8-11

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0781811910/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1397625371&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40

Beginner's Icelandic by Helga Hilmisdóttir Is a good resource. It comes with discs with examples of pronunciation. The pronunciation guide is written for Brits which it's only evident in one example. It gives a simple overview of the language.

Other than that I would say that pretty much everyone you will meet will speak English. Almost to the point of frustration if you are trying to learn icelandic.

Hi,
I have been trying to learn a bit Icelandic myself, as a Norwegian, I do see some similiarities between the two languages, but belive me when I say that Icelandic is crazy difficult. It's not to put you off, but you have to be prepeared.

I bought a nice little book to get me started, I haven't read so many "learn-languages-yourself books" so I can't really comparere, but I found this to be helpful (looks like it's sold out :( )

Icelandic have, as you pointed out, grammatical genders, wich means that you will have to learn what "gender" a noun have. Icelandic have 3 genders, masculin, feminin and neuter. You will have to learn the genders with the nouns. The difficult thing with grammatical genders is that it does not seem to follow any rules. (In Norwegian for instance, "Pike", wich means "little girl" is a masculin noun)

Some nice websites

• English - Icelandic dictionary
  
• Verb-conjugator
  
• Free online course (highly recomended)
  
• Newspaper, also video clips

That was the first and only thing that came to mind when I tried to think of one. I was thinking only of Geir T. Zoëga, the apparently quite well-known guy who compiled my Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic. (Spoiler alert: it's not very concise.)

I bought it at Barnes and Noble, but it is also available on Amazon here.

For anyone who's interested, there's a newly released translation by JRR Tolkien out. I've only read excerpts so far, but it seems more lyrical than Heaney's translation.

The Golden Age trilogy has a lot of future-law in it. The main character is essentially caught up in a legal battle which he can't remember due to his memories being erased. One of my favorites of the last 10 years or so.

buy this book if you want some formal/academic opinion on inspiration/lyric writing etc.

Cleaned up: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0803259786/

Love is a Dog from Hell by Bukowski

Also available in Canada for free!

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Icelandic-Two-Audio-CDs/dp/144410537X

https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Icelandic-Audio-CDs-Hippocrene/dp/0781811910

https://www.amazon.com/Colloquial-Icelandic-Complete-Course-Beginners/dp/1138949736

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Icelandic-idiosyncrasies-delights/dp/993592985X/

Collected writings of Rilke. Maybe this one.

A bit OT (you might already know this, other readers might not), but Tolkien was so into Beowulf he penned his own translation: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0544442784?pc_redir=1412081864&robot_redir=1

I don't read so much fantasy (the closest involves dragons in The Napoleonic Wars… alt history instead of fantasy), but for sci-fi I have one suggestion I frequently mention here. The Golden Age by John C Wright is the most densely compacted sci-fi epic I have ever read in a 300 page book. There is only one main character instead of an ensemble, but every other page introduces another element of the universe to wrap you melting noggin around that, for some, the pace of reading will be slow. I myself slammed through it for fear of forgetting or never finishing it. The second and third book of the series (the author intended it to be one doorstopper, but the publisher wanted to cut it up) ease up a lot compared to the first. READ SOME REVIEWS FIRST. Also the third book has an appendix that should have been included in the first book. If you see it on a bookstore, flip through it.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Golden-Age-John-Wright/dp/0765336693