what are some good and easy to read books to introduce myself to the buddhist philosophy?
Siddhartha
Easwaran's translation of the Dhammapada breaks it up into sections and gives each a short helpful introduction
Holder's collection Early Buddhist Discourses is a bit tougher, but after the Dhammapada you should be able to get a lot out of it.
alguien tiene esto en formato digital?
Che habla en ingles
Che
Te fijaste en bookzz?
>>7687883
isnt there
che
Am I too dumb to read Philosophy?
I had never read any before, but I found myself interested in 'The Myth of Sisyphus' by Camus, not really knowing what it would be like to read. I am struggling a lot.
Did I pick the wrong book for my level? Am I too dumb? For a complete beginner philosophy seems really overwhelming to get into. Do I really need to start right at the beginning with greeks?
I guess I would ask for a good book on absurdism for someone like me, but looking it up it seems like 'Sisyphus' is THE book.
Yes you must start with the Greeks
>>7687735
philosophers build on each other. its as if you skipped to book 5 and had trouble understanding what was going on. however, the myth of sisyphus is special in that camus' reference of other philosophers is so shallow that you could easily read it with a guide.
You don't need to read the Greeks to get into absurdism. What specifically is giving you trouble?
What are the best military strategy books?
Check the archive
>>7687434
Something not written by russians
Lit's recommendations for someone whose native language isn't English? My girlfriend has shown an interest in reading novels written in English, but the book which she chose based on the cover, Lolita, was too difficult. I gave her McCarthy's The Road and she loves that so far. She's already asking me what she should read next. ASOIF? She likes the shows...
Hemmmingway
>>7687200
I'm not a native speaker and these are all pretty readable, with Lolita being the hardest (but should be manageable after reading the others).
>>7687200
>ASOIF? She likes the shows...
>She likes the shows
Give her that, and Harry Potter, and so on and so on. Then when she has a grasp on the language, better books.
So I'm halfway through this faggot's poetry oeuvre and it fucking blows. Jesus, how pretentious can you get? Why write poetry if your purpose in it is to make it obscure and difficult to understand? So you can feel better about your miserable virgin life by thinking yourself more intellectually sophisticated?
I hope his litcrit and Christian works are somewhat better. Jee-zus.
pleb detected
back to r/books
>>7686416
>Why write poetry if your purpose in it is to make it obscure and difficult to understand?
If you think Eliot is esoteric holy shit you are a pleb
>>7686452
>references to esoteric arboreal rituals
>needless lines in other languages
>not esoteric
What does /lit/ think of Mary Shelley?
>>7685828
who is this sex fiend?
I think her husband was a great poet laureate. isnt it weird that she never wrote anything before shitting out an entire novel suddenly when he had a long and illustrious career?
>>7685868
Everybody thought it was Percy who wrote it as well, but I guess if they it wasnt written by him it wouldnt have sold any copies. Besides, what is ro actually gain from lying about writing a book?
Looking for authors who specialize in urban settings, miserable characters and plots centered around crime. Preferably modern stuff
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.
Dosto - Crime and Punishment
But I guess you've read it already
>>7685157
Ryu Murakami if you're up for urban Japan, grisly murders of women / committed by women and some pulpy, yet interesting mind games.
post 'em
Reposting some shelves I guess.
Hey /lit/, how does Aristotle reconcile the idea of fate with his Nichomachean Ethics? The Nichomachean Ethics being practical philosophy. I ask because I was reading The Metaphysics of Morals and Kant tells us that to have practical philosophy we must have free will. The Greeks believed in the power of fate, which conflicts with free will. I just don't get how practical philosophy can exist if the fates control our actions, like the Greeks believed.
Aristotle is so boring
>>7687753
Yeah Nichomachean Ethics is boring. I think Poetics is great, though.
>>7687730
If you look at fate as our innate moral programming then it makes more sense. Idk if that's how the Greeks actually saw it that's just the only sensible explanation I can think of.
http://pastebin.com/yADW26KN
Can I get some reviews for the first chapter of my novel, Short Change? It's about a homeless, drunken dwarf who wins the Mega Millions lottery & has his life change almost overnight.
I'd value 4Chan opinions more than anywhere else frankly. I can take a hit if that's what's honest to you. It'll only make me stronger. Of course I do love compliments too :)
honestly i don't even know what to say.
what the fuck made you decide on a drunken midget millionaire? i tried to read it, but your sylistic eccentricities are very hit-and-miss, and i just can't get over the fact that it's about a drunk midget millionaire. you fucked up mayne.
>>7687713
Thanks for taking the time to read.
This project started as my ode to Bukowski before developing into something much different. But the formula is similar. You have the exploits of a no good drunk but beneath the surface is an exploration of nihilism, existentialism, the struggle of men to understand women, etc.
The first chapter is only about the life of a poor midget in the badlands. I ease the reader into the larger arc after several chapters of poverty & suffering. So of course judge the actual work in the chapter, not my one sentence description of a 72,000 word novel.
Just awful, frankly. Every single attempt at humor falls flat. Your characters are stock characters, reacting in predictable ways to predictable situations. You don't do much to build sympathy for Jean (like blue jean (ugh)), and so far it mostly reads as "lol a drunk midget." I can't offer advice, except to say you should scrap this idea and forget you ever had it. At the very least, read A Confederacy of Dunces or something first if you want to see a HI-larious one-ridiculous-blunder-after-another comedy done right.
Also, I really hope you didn't pay for that cover.
What are the best physical editions I can get of Shakespeare's plays? Complete editions or individual books? I'm interested in getting one with the original text or as close as possible, without excessive extra commentary or comparative text in modern English.
letterpress shakespeare :)
>>7687578
I've preordered the C011ectd W3rkz.
>>7687582
Just looked this up and it's saying £295 for EACH play. That can't be right, can it? Surely it's 295 for the whole set.
I'm an 18 y.o. guy, fresh out of highschool. I am looking to raise my knowledge of good narrative as I hope to, in the future, go out into the world and start writing, myself. The only novels readily available to me are either a) stupid teen fiction (b) things I've already read and comprehend or (c) cookbooks.
Can you guys help me out by posting some good classics as well as not calling me names please? Thanks it helps a lot.
>in this thread post novels that are higher than 1000 on the lexile scale, yet still worth my time.
Pic semi-related, another young mind with a desire to learn.
Heart of Darkness
Obligatory.
>>7685496
Read the sticky damn it.
>>7685496
The Fault in Our Stars.
Is the Bible required reading before tackling most Western literature?
I've read Genesis, Exodus and Revelation but I feel like there's a lot of references I'm missing.
Sort of. But the problem is that, unlike works such as the Iliad, trying to read the Bible just as literature makes you miss a lot of the point.
>>7685388
You have to read the Gospels too.
>see a book
>find out if it's heavily influenced by the bible
>find out which passages
>read those relevant sections
does that cure your autism?
I loved Dubliners, but only enjoyed the first half of Portrait of the Artist.
Would I like Ulysses?
prolly
