Borges learned German by reading Heine's Buch der Lieder, do you think this is a good tactic to emulate?
Not really. At least also complete a basic grammar textbook and find some way to train your spoken comprehension. Reading is a good source of vocabulary though (add the new words to an Anki deck).
Leider, nein.
>>7415063
No. Enroll in a Sprachkurs with an absolute minimum of 2 hours a day 5 days a week. Then in the evenings work through a grammar book.
How do I into poetry? Is there a point in reading translated verses or should I stick with the languages I know well?
>>7414760
Poetry loses much much more than prose in translation.
There are several books that cover meter, rhyme, poeteic structures, figures of speech, rhetoric, etc. Read one of these to understand the basic building blocks of poetry.
Then read lots of poems. Harold blooms best poems of the English language gives a good range of poets (assuming you want to read in English). If you find someone you particularly like, get some more of their poems.
If you know English then you have access to a wealth of Poetry.
Read a book on poetry and metre and form, such as Rhyme's Reason, or, The Oad Less Travelled.
Then read an Anthology such as Bloom's The Best Poems of The English Language. After that, you should have a great foundation for independent choice.
>>7414760
>Is there a point in reading translated verses
Yes.
>should I stick with the languages I know well?
Yes.
DUDE ALIENS LMAO
>>7414759
what if... like you could travel through time?
>I think that's been done before, Mr. Vonnegut
okay but what if like you didn't get to pick where you went, and knew how you were going to die?
>But couldn't you affect your past and future by using knowledge gained time traveling?
ookay but what if you were like a weirdo and maybe a little bit retarded
>who'd want to read a story about a loser retard who doesn't do anything to change his life
okay, hm. okay what if you were still a retard but also had a big dick?
>>7414944
okay what if you could travel through time
>mr. vonnegut you wrote that a while ago
no no, but you didn't choose where you went
>yes sir that's the plot of Slaughterhouse--
no but, you were everywhere at once all the time
>how would character develop?
i dunno, at the end you could get angry at your space friend despite the fact you've slowly cultivated a friendship though he sees shit in the same way you do
>how would that even work
well i would just explain all the sci fi elements, but then ignore it and write it like a relationship between any two non time traveling characters
>>7414759
Hate him as much as you like, but I'd have smoked weed with Vonnegut.
>tfw found out you can freestyle rap to Mf Doom backing tracks spontaneously for around two minutes, using an irregular rhythm scheme, surrealist imagery and occasionally a rough iambic pentameter
What is the darkest book in existence.
>>7414731
Your mother's diary.
>>7414731
Dankest book is IJ tbqh fami
Catcher in the Rye
Incestuous pedophilic rape? Doesn't get much more edgy than that
I've suddenly got the drive to research philosophy. I have little to no prior knowledge and therefore have no idea what I'm looking for when it comes to authors, or categories. I'm thinking I'd enjoy stuff on existentialism, things like that. I was wondering, could any of you recommend any good authors, books or categories? It'd be much appreciated.
start with the greeks
Bryan Maggee - The Story of Philosophy
>>7414684
Read the Aztecs. If you start with the Greeks you'll feel like you haven't finished unless you read all western philosophy. Aztec philosophy actually has an end.
What would I need to read beforehand to get this book?
>inb4 SWTG
>>7414652
The Iliad and The Odyssey, Shakespeare, Dubliners, Portrait
>>7414652
Either read Dubliners then A Portait Of The Artist first, or JUST skip to Ulysses and make sure you have a copy of The New Bloomsday Book
>reading Ulysses
You don't
What's your favorite passage of prose from any book you've read, /lit/?
>inb4 openings to Lolita or 100 years of solitude
Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.
>>7414582
pleb af
Not sure if my favorite, but I liked it a lot.
Is this hardcover any good to put on my shelf. Aesthetically speaking, they've other books too.
>tfw all your book covers have to be aesthetic
No. That's like the self-help middle aged business man version. Especially with the non-scholarly Self-help introduction, and lack of good secondary material. Probably a shit translation too.
Get the Everyman Edition.
>>7414491
>Machiavelli
Just read his wiki page and move on to someone better and less spook'd.
All memes and jokes aside, is this viable?
As a writer, would you be tempted to do this?
As a reader, whould this make you go Allahu Akbar on the writer's house?
>Is this viable
They'd figure out they have different editions way before you told them.
I've often though about his humourous it would be to release a video game, where in a few select copies of hundreds of thousands, creepy glitches happen, you can find Bigfoot, etc.
People would go on the Internet and no one would believe them. Like imagine if a few select copies of Sam Andreas actually did have Bigfoot and nobody believed the people who claimed they saw it?
>>7414489
I don't think it would work b/c it would mean 90% of the book would have to be vague and ambiguous enough for all the different endings to work.
hey /lit/
im curious to see what you guys are currently reading. behind /fa/ and /mu/ this is my most visited board (probably my favorite actually) but it seems there isnt much attention paid to what were currently reading, so lets hear it. pic related for me, first Franzen book, bout 150 pages in and digging it so far
>>7414431
some sonnets from Sir Philip Sidney
>>7414431My diary desu
Joyce's a portrait of the artist as a young man
It's the first Joyce I've ever read and I'm loving it
So why is this considered his best work when most of his other books are much better?
Ok.
Poetry is dead.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... interesting OP. VERY interesting.
Hey /lit. After reading for about 30~40 minutes, I started to get extremely tired (regardless of how well rested I am). It gets to the point that I'm too tired to continue reading. Any tips on combating this?
(Forgot to add this to original post). Or will this get better as I continue to read more often?
>>7414291
What are you reading? Is it a very dry text? Are you enjoying it?
>>7414335
LoTR, and yes i am enjoying.
Why do people like this again?
It can be used to attack political ideologies like other dystopian novels
Because they read it in 7th grade
>>7414275
Despite the lack of subtlety at times, Orwell tries to make a point and delivers it in an unoriginal -he admitted Zamiatin's We was his main reference- yet convincing and fresh fashion. Even if you don't share his political views, it's still an interesting reading when you're young. It's overrated, and people still talk about it because it's a high school tier reading, but it doesn't need a superb style or flourish prose in order to be an interesting novel. Besides, plebs thinking they're "literate" for reading it are hilarious.
![41T8Z0-gwjL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Igumdn8.jpg "41T8Z0-gwjL. SY344 BO1,204,203,200 [1]")
>qt muslim girl where I work comes over a lot to speak to my colleague
>sees pic related on my desk
>"Can I borrow that when you're done with it? I'm looking for something to read"
>she just finished The Fault in Our Stars
>"S-sure. I'm on the last couple of pages so you can have it at the end of the week"
>Give it to her
>Start fretting about whether its an appropriate book to lend to a non-literary stranger
>Go home and remember it has loads of "nigger" in it etc
>monday say to her "it's a bit chauvinistic and remember its from a old time etc" she says don't worry about it
>by Wednesday she has finished
>find the book on my desk with a chocolate bar and a note saying Thank you x
>she probably doesn't like me but isn't it pretty to think so?
>>7414243
I liked that book, just read it a couple of weeks ago. I don't remember anything about 'niggers' in it though, there was more jew bashing as I recall.
>>7414243
This is like a better Brownbear post.
>>7414243
>monday say to her "it's a bit chauvinistic and remember its from a old time etc" she says don't worry about it
Holy shit you fucked up.
/lit/ so, one of my friends wants me to write a 8 page philosophy paper for her. And this is gonna be my first time writing a paper for someone else, so i was wondering how much i should charge?
>>7414034
however much she's willing to pay, junior. start high, say 300$, go from there. don't leave out the option of carnal persuasion. but don't be too obvious about it. something like
>i don't want any money from you..i care about you too much to do that..
and then just like casually push her head down to your crotch.
godspeed
>>7414034
Depends on how much you like your friend, how difficult the content is, whether or not you need to do a lot of extra research, and several other factors.
My standard rate varies between $15 and $25 per double-spaced page. I tend to charge more money if I'm being asked to do an assignment at the last minute or if I have my own exams and schoolwork to deal with first. Likewise, I always let my customers know that I'll charge some additional fee if I wind up spending an inordinate amount of time creating charts or learning course material. I'm always fair about these charges and don't normally end up adding any.
You might consider charging more if you're not knowledgeable about philosophy or if you type slowly. I write for a lot of people on a regular basis and can type upwards of 150 words per minute, so I usually earn between $20 and $50 per hour, depending on the essay's difficulty.
If your friend's paper is single-spaced then my minimum charge would be around $240 and might be more in the neighborhood of $320 around this time of year.
>>7414044
Lol wtf. Nah i don't wanna charge her too much. Im not trying to milk her for money
