Nah, I read the Odyssey first. I guess I'm more entertained by gory and gruesome war scenes, punctuated by Hektor playing with his son or Hephaistos catching Aphrodite and Ares in the act of adultery, than you are.
The Questions not worth their own thread thread VII
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Ulyaoth
Emperor
I read the Odyssey but didn't think it too great, I don't know maybe the translations wrecked it but it just didn't really seem to match what people make it out to be. On the Greek vein, Oedipus Rex and Antigone weren't too great either. Never read the Iliad. Read a few Chaucer stories and Shakespeare plays in school. Macbeth was probably my favorite. Julius Caesar definitely the least favorite.
Gilder
Deity
What do you consider classics exactly? Pre-1950? Pre-1900? Pre-1800?
Ulyaoth
Emperor
Not age really, just more, universally regarded highly generally(you know, seen as things people should read, not saying everyone has to love them) I dunno, just not really into reading new books. I don't read often and if I read a bad story I get bored of it and just stop quickly so reading random new things that might interest me isn't something I do. I find even if I don't like all too much older established stories I can at least entertain my way through them.
Gilder
Deity
Ah, okay, wasn't really sure. I suggest the following:
Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird
John Steinbeck - East of Eden and/or Of Mice and Men
John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces
Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle and/or Slaughterhouse-Five
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes and/or The Martian Chronicles
Jack Kerouac - On The Road and/or The Dharma Bums
John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany
Ulyaoth
Emperor
Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird Read a bunch of times already.
John Steinbeck - East of Eden and/or Of Mice and Men Was supposed to read these never did, read some other stuff of his though, it's good.
John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces Never heard of it
Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle and/or Slaughterhouse-Five Sounds good
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes and/or The Martian Chronicles I got the first two hanging around somewhere, never read.
Jack Kerouac - On The Road and/or The Dharma Bums
John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany
Last 2 haven't heard of.
John Steinbeck - East of Eden and/or Of Mice and Men Was supposed to read these never did, read some other stuff of his though, it's good.
John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces Never heard of it
Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle and/or Slaughterhouse-Five Sounds good
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes and/or The Martian Chronicles I got the first two hanging around somewhere, never read.
Jack Kerouac - On The Road and/or The Dharma Bums
John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany
Last 2 haven't heard of.
Gilder
Deity
Kerouac was one of the Beats who wrote a whole bunch of autobiographical-esque novels, the most well-known being On The Road. It was a fairly influential novel, but he did other stuff too. The Dharma Bums is one of the more readable ones, as opposed to something like The Subterraneans where the narrative is less clear. I've actually got another of his books sitting on my nightstand ready to read next.
Irving wrote stuff like The Cider House Rules and The World According to Garp. A Prayer for Owen Meany is the only one I've actually read, but it is an exceptionally good book, the only one my high school threw at me that I actually really liked. Or at least didn't make me resent it.
Ulyaoth
Emperor
Yeah, that's why I'm actually kinda glad that they changed all the reading lists when I went through school. If I was forced to read certain books for school I'd probably hate them. Like All Quiet on the Western Front. I hated that. Well, not hate, but it wasn't liked and I had to force myself to read it.
a_propagandist
The Light Brigadier
Bump.
Annex
Tyranny and Mutation
Grapes of Wrath?
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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What would happen if you took a battery out of battery charger and stuck a piece of metal there instead?
You would ruin the battery charger.
How copyrights work? Book isn't copyrighted after 75 years from it's author's death, right? What about facsimiles or scanned pdf:s? Am I allowed to reprint the book only if I type the thing all over again? Is there some time limit after the printing, after which I can just scan the book, and put it in the internets for example? Does it matter if it is distributed for free?
I think people should read good and entertaining books, not "necessary" ones.
I think people should read good and entertaining books, not "necessary" ones.
I was going to mention that. From a science fiction viewpoint, I'll add;
Frank Herbert - Dune. The sequels - by Frank, not the NuDune books - are optional. Soul Catcher may be his best book besides Dune, but it isn't sci-fi.
Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey, Songs From Distant Earth and the Rama books.
Isaac Asimov - I, Robot and the Foundation Trilogy. They're more designed for teenagers, but I still think you should give them a read. They're only around 200 pages each. The Rest of the Robots is optional, as are the later Foundation books.
Timothy Zahn - The Thrawn Trilogy and Outbound Flight. The Hand of Thrawn Duology and Survivor's Quest aren't must-reads in and of themselves, but should be read to improve your understanding of the others. Allegiance is optional. For non-Star Wars stuff of his, I'd go with his Conquerors Trilogy.
Robert Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Same disclaimer as Asimov.
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. He went downhill after those.
Richard Matheson - I Am Legend and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Again, same disclaimer as Asimov, with the added proviso that subsequent events make these books look like jokes. But they are still good, and I Am Legend pretty much invented the survival, scientific occult, and zombie apocalypse genres.
H.G. Wells - The War of the Worlds, First Men in the Moon and The Time Machine. For the same reason as Matheson.
I'll probably think of more later. These are all things you should read if interested in science fiction, especially if just starting out - in which case you should go for the easier stuff on the list first. You don't want to pick up a Kevin J. Anderson book thinking it's sci-fi, after all.
Ulyaoth
Emperor
No, the Pearl, and some other thing I can't remember. Definitely not grapes of wrath, though I think that's another one I was supposed to have read but never bothered.
Another question, why do my eyes always come out looking extremely bright and blue in pictures? In a mirror my eyes look like a dull blue-grey, but in pictures my eyes always seem like they're as blue as is possible and extremely bright. Would that be the picture messing up with the colors or is that how my eyes actually look? Don't have any pictures for reference though, don't have a digital camera.
PlutonianEmpire
King of the Plutonian Empire
I remember hearing a few years ago that one time, somewhere in the world, it was so cold that the snow that was falling actually seemed to stay floating in the air.
Are there any pictures of that?
Are there any pictures of that?
Like, photographs? What would be the point?
PlutonianEmpire
King of the Plutonian Empire
Yes, photographs. But I'm confused by the second question.
Yes, photographs. But I'm confused by the second question.
A photograph is not a movie. It is a still shot, and impossible to infer motion, or lack thereof, into any of the objects
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