Dubs decides what book I buy myself for Christmas.
Last digit is how many days I have to read it.
pro tip: [spolier] no women and men :^) [/spoiler]
>>7481132
The Fault in our Stars.
Dying Grass by Vollmann
also what happens if the dubs are 0
>>7481138
Then I have to finish it on Christmas.
I'm thinking about buying this. Has anyone read it? What did you think about it?
avoid all pop sci books that have to do with rationality or happiness
>>7481033
But Kahneman is a real economist.
>>7481043
>economists ever being right
Howdy, I am a very young man in the military who is interested in majoring in the fields of linguistics and anthropology in my civilian life. I am interested in getting a pretty firm grasp on how Latin and Greek work, more or less an elementary level introduction to these languages, and I suppose just understanding Linguistics in general. I come to you today to ask this: where do I start? Pic completely unrelated, I have no relevant pictures on my laptop.
Language: The Basics by R. L. Trask is a decent, short introduction to Linguistics. Are there any subfields in particular you find interesting?
>>7480915
There's so so much.
Ethnolinguistics, Applied Linguistics, Historical Linguistics... Phonology, Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis and Stylistics are the things that have appealed to me the most, which I know is quite a bit so that might not help any. What first interested me in the field was English poetry, and how the structure and metre could affect the mood and "feel," for lack of a better term, of a poem if that helps any.
>>7480902
As far as learn Latin and Greek go, pick up Mastronarde's textbook for Greek and Keller and Russell's for Latin. Easily the two best out there.
Did exist a more based philosopher than Diogenes?
>the "haha diogenes is the COOLEST philosopher!!! he jerked off in public what an absolute madman!" meme
if he's so "based" why don't you follow any of his teachings whatsoever?
go be a homeless chump and wallow in the mud, gratified in your self-superiority, faggot.
>le witty hobo man
Yeah, Epictetus.
Stop trying to make a meme of my /his/bando
just found this book at the library, have not opened it's contents, what do you guys think /lit/?
do you think it's possible God created the world and us and then determined it would be best for us to be evolutionary biologists?
http://www.amazon.com/God-creationist-religious-against-creation-science/dp/0684179938/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450540861&sr=8-2&keywords=is+god+a+creationist
>>7480810
How the hell should we know what God thinks. He sends us Bibles but then we fuck around with them mistranslating and misinterpreting that shit and it seems like he doesn't give a fuck what we do with them.
>>7480810
>God
Who is this again?
>>7480870
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Day of the Triffids: Everyone's going blind and killer plants are on the loose.
There are some books with great concepts which can be boiled down to one sentence and drag you in. It doesn't have to be just sci-fi; The Great Gatsby, in my opinion, has a great premise.
The execution may not always be perfect, but they have something unique. I've been reading books with very similar concepts for a while, and I'd like to read other books with more interesting ideas behind the conception. Is there any suggestions?
A dude dies and one of his sons might have killed him
Gravity's rainbow: a man's erections precipitate V2 bombings, also bananas
Infinite Jest: a movie so good you die, also legless quebecanuck assassins, failed tennis prodigies, and square-headed halfway-housers
The Tunnel: a historian frets over being unable to write an introduction and muses about cucking his wife and being a charlatan for 650 pages
Blindness - Everyone's going blind
what is phenomenology?
>>7480673
In non-technical parlance, the felt first-person experience of something.
In technical parlance, a transcendental idealist philosophy developed by Edmund Husserl in the early twentieth century, which ranks among the greatest human intellectual achievements of all time (later phenomenology is a bit squishy and boring).
>>7480673
It's reality as perceived from the inside
>>7480680
care to elaborate a bit more? seems interesting.
Hey, Lits!
So we have this chinese exchange student wo is eager to get into german culture via literature.
Does not have to be BY a german or IN german but more like about german/european mentality/ culture at core.
A clear kind language would be preferable since he is not on native speaker never yet.
What would you recommend?
Pic probably not related...
never=niveau
fuck autocorrect
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
![418w1vnfA6L._SX306_BO1,204,203,200_[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/JV8RjOE.jpg "418w1vnfA6L. SX306 BO1,204,203,200 [1]")
i wanted to gift my gf with a book related to physics, but not something technical like you would find on uni modules' reading lists.
I was browsing the physics section of a local library when i came across pic related.
Has anyone here on /lit/ read it already? is it any good? would it be appealing to a physics major student?
I've heard that the maths is dodgy.
>>7480560
but the author kinda says in the beginning that the math is dumbed down
>>7480564
It's not only dumbed down, but inaccurate in parts. Check the reviews on its wikipedia page for more info. I'd only recommend it to your gf is she's already a big DFW, because if she isn't, she'll probably get frustrated with his style regardless of the inacurracies.
When it comes to pop science books, there are plenty of other better choices. Some physics related ones I like: James Gleick's Genius is a great biography of Richard Feynman, Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos is a great intro to cosmology, Lisa Randall's Warped Passages is a very acessible intro to string theory, and anything by Michio Kaku should be fun.
Do you write friendly or love notes in the empty pages at the beginning of a book when you give it to someone as a gift?
>>7480520
I prefer the unmarked cards with nice pastel or season appropriate florals, just because not everyone likes their books marked, and people always seem to like opening up a note and reading it quietly and not letting anyone else do so.
>>7480520
Only if I'm tryna bust my nuts up in they guts 2bhwu famm. Otherwise no.
> summer 2014
> parents divorcing
> pick up White Noise
> note in front cover from my Dad to Mom saying he hopes she enjoys it
> note from my Mom to a friend saying she's so excited to get married
Just poetry my shit up.
We>1984
>>7480498
Said everyone ever.
>translations
>penguin translations
>I'll take Who Says It? for a thousand, Alex.
>"We > 1984," or "Vinyl > MP3."
Is this the best translation?
the japanese
>>7480483
Fagles and Lattimore are fine, stay away from Lombardo.
>>7480551
What about Rieu?
Daily reminder to read your bibles, Jesus' birthday is almost upon us friends.
>Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. -Matthew 18:3
what did he mean by this?
That he knew he was a con man and was basically making fun of his own followers
>>7480435
the date is symbolic and part of tradition.
>>7480436
peace be with you
>>7480435
What's the date of His birth, then?
I read a book that argued if white people never interfered with Africa in the 14th century then Africa today would be the most advanced and prosperous continent. Africans would be leading the way in arts, science and engineering, writing the best poetry and philosophy. But the white men stole their secrets and enslaved them. I can't recall the title...
Anyone know the name? It also said something about how they were kings a long time ago
>>7480111
wow she's so beautiful. Where did you get this photo from?
>>7480111
The Kings of Korinthia: The Black Planet
What's the best translation of Crime and Punishment?
P&V, and I don't even normally like their translations. But they did a very good job with Crime and Punishment.
>>7480110
What does P&V stand for?
>>7480137
Pevear and Volkhonsky; I think they're shite. McDuff is my recommendation.
