/lit/ - Literature

>>861860

Oh, you'd be surprised how quickly you can do that on a Kindle, at least. A lot of the books you buy are already indexed in their own way with hotlinks, but you can always "search" for text in a book and it will let you hop to any page that contains it. It's pretty handy.

>>861824

It does that really well. The only thing I don't like about my Kindle is honestly how white the actual device is (not the screen, the screen itself is more of a light grey). The problem is that it just looks really bright when it's really bright outside, lol.

Also, a Kindle uses no power to keep a page up. It only uses power to switch pages. Makes the battery life really long. I only have to charge my kindle about once every week or two, and I use it a lot.

>>861795

No... actually that's the main selling point of them, as far as most consumers are concerned. E-ink looks like paper, so it's easier to read and doesn't glare in direct light.

So it's more for people who like, actually read books, and would know the difference.

>>861756

A backlit screen? Seriously?

Get an iPad, in that case. No backlighting is the major advantage of kindle/nook/sony.

>>861707

Free wireless access to Wikipedia, and you don't need to pay a monthly fee for it or anything.

It comes with the OED installed. Actually, you can look up the definition of a word on-screen just by moving your cursor to the word. So if you're reading a book and come across a word you don't know, you don't need to leave the page just to look it up in a dictionary. It's pretty nifty and really comes in handy.

25

>>770460
>>770460
>>770460

25

>>761064
>The only difference now is people don't present their lyrics for reading, and there's no substantial audience in the academy or in general for song lyric analysis.

This was far from true in the middle ages. It wasn't until the printing press that "sitting down to read poems" became commonplace. Certainly nobody took them all that seriously.

Modern songs have more meter & form than modern poetry, I thought?

You guys are faggots. What's wrong with wanting to know how long a book is?

I usually do that when I'm getting a recommendation from someone I don't particularly trust. I don't want to invest over 9000 hours in something I may not even like. A lot of the time I'll pick a shorter book by the same author, or even a short story, and read that to get an idea of their style, before committing to a longer read.

I find it hard to believe nobody here does the same?

Modern singer/songwriters are closer to what would have been meant by "poetry" in older times. It wasn't until Gutenberg that people started sitting down to "read" poems, really.

I got 25. Not that I've read a lot of those, but I've started a lot and knew the first lines. I was surprised, too. A lot of them just roll off the tongue. The start of Lolita was something I used to say to my ex to creep her out (hence, ex). The first line of Notes from the Underground is dear to my heart, though it's a bit incomplete, there. "I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased." Let it get worse, motherfucker. XD

So anyways, yeah, 25. A modest victory, especially considering the list is so Anglo-American biased.

>>760953

never did read the book, but the movie is amazing.

>>760942

Aw yeah. The whole series!

Bruce Coville was one bad motherfucker. "Aliens ate my homework" was a great series too.

>>760855

I tried to lol but I just raged.

Also...

>Friend lends you a copy of "Fight Club" because you'd wanted to read it
>The cover has pictures of the actors from the movie
>Lists the names of the actors in big letters
>"Oh wow, this book's got Brad Pitt in it!"
>reaction.jpg

>>759786
I didn't say I agree with him. I just said he's essential.

>>759762

I want to add one more text here. An absolute -must- for anyone studying theory if Northrop Frye's "The Anatomy of Criticism." It's absolutely essential for literary theory.

>>759763
yeah, the word you're looking for in this context is "post-structuralist."

Step 1:

It's not "deconstructionism." It's just "deconstruction." Sorry.

Second, read do tons of backreading. I really, really, really strongly suggest Jonathan Culler. He writes in a very lucid style and is great at explaining the finer points of structuralism, post-structuralism and deconstruction. Find books by him. Best ones are "The Pursuit of Signs" and "Structuralist Poetics."

Then move onto the actual canonical texts, once you have a rudimentary understanding of the ideas from a secondary perspective. I know this is counter-intuitive, but it's necessary if you plan on actually understanding it. Move onto Derrida, Barthes and Foucault. Read "Of Grammatology" in particular.

Also, read general "theory" texts.

Just trying to get a feel for /lit/'s identity...

hmm okay, so I guess using bookmarks isn't cool as far as we're concerned... good to know.

Does /lit/ use bookmarks? Or do you just pick up from where you remember leaving off?

I find the more immersed I am, the faster I read.

Also, I think your post probably belongs in /tg/, since it's not exactly a "video" game. "Video" is arguably the only thing it doesn't have in common with video games. ;)

I used to play one of these years ago. It was called "Dawn of Time." Anyone heard of it?

Since DOT I had only been playing Dawn-based MUDs just because I couldn't be bothered to re-learn. Honestly I prefer muds that have about 20-40 players, it's just easier to get to know everyone that way and have some meaningful RP. Otherwise I find it just too hard to get your foot in the door.

Also, I find it hard to find RP-required muds, a lot of them are just people going "lol i pkill u."

>>757031
>>755489
>>757003
>>756981

I agree with all of these. Man, hard to choose.

I'm gonna say Milton, though.

oh hi, Mr. McCartney. Nice of you to join us.

You read War and Peace? Wow. How long did it take you? Was it difficult? Did you use a study guide, take notes, etc? I heard it's hard to read without at least taking notes.

Anyways I'll answer your question.

>last three books
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton (utter shit)
The Glass Bead Game by Hesse (amazing)
Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel (quite good)

>next three books
Ancient Wisdom, Modern World by the Dalai Lama (buddhism)
Goodbye 20th Century by David Browne (Sonic Youth biography)
Ravelstein by Saul Bellow