Hey /lit/, I need some help. I like to read to my children before I they and I go to bed. Recently, I've been reading books from my childhood growing up that I've enjoyed (pic related). However, there was one book that I immensely enjoyed that I forgot the name of. To me, it felt like it portrayed hope in a bleak world perfectly. I remember some things about it, but I can't remember the title. I was hoping you guys can help me remember it and/or recommended your personal favorites growing up. Thank you for your time.
What I remember from about this particular book:
>Pretty sure it was based off a true story.
>Set in the Holocaust.
>MC separates from his mother during the winter when trying to escape via train.
>Flees to the Middle East on his own (I think, Idk for sure and where exactly).
>Survives for a while.
>Joins a band of kids/teenagers that work together to survive.
>Band enjoys riding trains and I think they act like the world is theirs?
>Leader is a male teenager who becomes a mentor for the MC, firm but kind and compassionate.
>Leader has a close female friend that acts sorta like a big caring sister to the MC.
>Heavily implied female was raped and impregnated by sinister chef for scraps of food.
>It's implied Leader killed the chef for revenge and fled with female.
>MC's life goes on: occasionally thinks about them (imagines them riding trains enjoying the world) and at this point has developed into a kindly realistic surviving vagrant.
>Eventually reunites with his family after traveling the world for a while.
>Epilogue states he tried to live a normal life again with his family, but he has severe wanderlust and occasionally goes on minor journeys because school is too boring for him.
>In the beginning of the book, he had a childish fear of growing up short (especially with the circumstances trying to survive the Holocaust) but in the epilogue the book ends (I think) with it stating he grew up into a tall man.
>reading Holocaust books to your children
wew lad
>>7664656
I just wanted help getting my kids into reading.
How DEEP is Pynchon, on a scale from Bret Easton Ellis to Phillip K. Dick?
Extremely. One of the best writers you can read, if not THE best. I don't read fiction that much anymore, but I've thought about buying another Pynchon every now and then. Very technical engineering/mathematical knowledge, in depth philosophical vistas and a general appreciation for mystery and detective-esque tension.
>>7662546
The Pinecone will go further up your ass than Dick, who was rather flaccid on the whole.
>>7662556
If you think Pynchon has technical material, you most likely haven't taken a mathematics course beyond Derivatives. His tech knowledge is pedestrian at best, and only introduced to make plebs nod and stare.
His philosophical approach to life is pretty awesome and his satire is top notch, however.
t. Math phd
I want to learn philosophy, /lit/ but I don't know how to start.
Recommend me a book that would be suitable for a complete beginner.
*I checked the wiki but I found nothing useful.
>>7664616
>I want to learn philosophy but I don't know how to start.
Gain a fundamental understanding of the concept of good and evil first. Read a religious text like the Bible. Or just the Ten Commandments.
>>7664619
I have already read the bible.
start with the greeks
Questions that don't deserve their own thread
Could someone help me in identifying a literary device? It's a scene in which a man is discouraging girls from wearing beautiful clothes and cult hair so that they may keep their minds on God, but when he is saying this he is interrupted by his daughters coming into the room, who are wearing beautiful clothes and have curly hair.
I know this shows the man is a hypocrite, but would this scene be ironic? Or something else?
Why is Stoner so popular on /lit/?
>>7657445
This is a literature board and Stoner is a great piece of literature.
I want to start reading Vox Day but don't know where to start. What is your favorite book by Day?
Internet is no help and I've been getting different answers from different people so I thought I'd ask here.
If I'm writing a story in first person, would I write my narration exactly like the main character's dialogue, or would I write the narration with better grammar spelling?
For example if my character has the following dialect
>"We went shoppin' and then went ridin' 'round town"
would the narration be
>Chase went 'round the corner before bringin' back a book
or
>Chase went around the corner before bringing back a book
pic unrelated
>>7666122
I'd poke her hontas if you catch my drift.
the former
you dumb fucking idiot
read some first person stuff next time
you know what i'm doing *wink* :^)
Is it fine to read pic related before the greeks?
If you read it in Portuguese
>>7666025
Why not the original Spanish?
Of course it is
I'm trying to find an accurate order (not necessarily chronological) to read the Arthurian Legend (I'm complete new to this), what would you recommend?
>>7665732
Just save yourself some time and listen to the original Broadway cast recording of Spamalot.
>>7665743
Read something else and save this for bathroom/beach reading
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -> Le Morte D'Arthur -> De Troye's Arthurian Romances.
I also liked the Once and Future King, a smart YA retelling of Le Morte, the 15th or 16th century British novel that makes up the bulk of Arthurian legend around today. It was started in 1939 and finished in the 50s. It's quite good, but the last book went out the window a bit.
Is it any good?
>>7665675
It's Gass, so of course it is good. I wouldn't read it before Omensetter's Luck, though.
>>7665675
Not his best, but I didn't consider it a waste of time.
Is The Tunnel a good place to start with Gass?
Alright /lit/
Which book(s) hasthe cutest / best female characterin it?
post grushenka
Sinuhe The Egyptian
I always liked Dors
I have a quick question about writing, /lit/.
So I was recently corrected by an instructor on the use of the pronouns "one" with "they". It was stated "one" cannot be used with anything but "one" as it would be considered a pronoun disagreement.
Example:
"One can do as they wish."
As opposed to:
"One can do as one wishes."
I understand "one" shouldn't be used with pronouns such as "he, him, her, she", but thought it was acceptable to use it with "they" and "their" because they were also neutral.
Am I wrong on this? Is using "one" with "they, their" still acceptable in less formal writing?
"One may do as they wish" can refer to 'one' doing something some other people want him to do
"One can do as one wishes" means that 'one' is doing what that same 'one' wants, so it's better to use that and more correct
>>7664631
>One can do as they wish
Technically, if you're referring to one person throughout the sentence, this is improper grammar because using "they" to refer to one person isn't correct, you actually have to say "his or her"
It's a fucking stupid rule that needs to be changed, the English language doesn't have a gender neutral pronoun even though there are many situations that call for it.
>>7664631
No, of course you can't. "One " refers to a single individual and "they " refers to multiple people. This is a very simple concept.
So I just read Benjy's section with no background info all in one sitting. I got through As I Lay Dying with no problem but I have no idea what the fuck is going on. All I grasped so far is
>Caddy and Quentin are rebellious, but Caddy has a soft spot for Benjy. Maybe she molested him? Something weird's going on
>All the white adults are dying
>Benjy has an attraction to fire and Quentin seems to be associated with it
>Nobody likes dealing with Benjy's downie self except Caddy and the mother, but the mother is a whiny entitled bitch
>TP, Luster, Dilsey, and Roskus are black servants that may or may not be related. I feel like Damuddy probably is too but can't really tell
>Caddy and Benjy are both strangely posessive if each other. She grew up and is gone in the present scene, so Benjy tard strengths and grabs a girl
Was Uncle Maury the one that died, and that's why they changed the narrator's name to Benjy?
Am I supposed to have pieced together whatever's happening with the parents when the kids are trying to eavesdrop or will I understand that later?
How old, relatively, are all these siblings? Jason seems older in one scene then he randomly starts crying in scenes where Benjy is like ten.
Will things start to make sense in the next narrator's section or will the scenes continue to be 90% "I'm gonna whip you" followed by crying?
Quentin rapes his sister, Caddy.
>>7664640
Am I stupid or is Quentin alternately described as male and female? Someone calls him/her "young lady," then I'm looking at the part where Quentin tried to hit jason with the glass and there are clearly female pronouns used for Quentin.
>my mother just spoiled me Hamlet
the meaning always comes from re-reading
spoiler means nothing in shakespeare
>>7664558
fuck off, stupid frog-faggot
Macbeth is killed by Macduff.
>He smoked a cigarette, standing in the dark and listening to her undress. She made sea sounds; something flapped like a sail; there was the creak of ropes; then he heard the wave-against-a-wharf smack of rubber on flesh. Her call for him to hurry was a sea-moan, and when he lay beside her, she heaved, tidal, moondriven.
Isn't it great? Looking for underrated stuff, not Nabokov and the usual gang. Can anyone guess what this is, btw?
>Her cunt became the moon.
Seriously?
>>7664313
Is it from Paper Towns by John Greene?
>>7664390
One of my favorite sentences from The Tunnel:
"She put her hand on my head/neck/back--tip, tip, tap--sanding my skin with glass.
>desperately married a sleazy whore to lose virginity in his thirties
>impotence issues
>get cucked by said whore with Bertrand Russell
JUST
>>7664066
At least you dont have William Burroughs girl problems son
>>7664066
>implying he didn't marry Viv for a reason to stay in England (therefore saving his future poetry career)
>lost virginity at 28, not in thirties.
You you so salty OP?
>>7664099
How did staying in England 'save' his poetry career?
Apologize in advance if I break the dubs chain.
What's his best book?
What's his worst book?And which one did you enjoy the most?
Kraken doesn't have his best writing but it's the only one with an even halfway decent ending. Perdido street station read like he wrote it when he was 14. Never went near Bas Lag after that.
>>7664016
The Scar is fucking fantastic and in my opinion superior to PDSS. During Perdido he was trying too hard, I think. The Scar features the same level of crazy originality and inventiveness without being as upfront about it. It's a bit more fantasy, a bit more common adventure, but it has the best fucking city in all of genre fiction in it. And the best sword after Dragnipur.
Highly recommended.
>>7664038
The city in Perdido reminded me of a kid's drawing of a pirate island: it has to have ALL THE THINGS, all neatly spaced out. Here's the buried treasure, here's the little cove, here's the sea monster etc etc only with him it was Here's the bug people district, and here's the frog people district, and here's the district that's inside a huge skeleton, and the politicians commune with demons from hell because we satire now, but there are also pan-dimensional spider monsters that made the universe or something but they can't even kill a hypnotic supermoth in a straight fight.
It's like dota, the book.
![China-Mieville--009[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/qwrswyu.jpg "China-Mieville 009[1]")