Literature

Has anyone read this book? What did you think of it?

I've been studying this book a lot recently and a few things have consistently come up:

• Stay open.
• Remove the parts of you that get unhappy/bothered.
• Be unconditionally happy.
• Deal with the stored Samskaras inside of you through conscious relaxing and releasing.

This has got me feeling very zen, though it's also made me realise how many people are walking around with both sensitivities and damage inside that they are storing within them. It's a perspective-changer for sure.

Myself personally I get most of my reading done on my 45 minute commute to work on the bus/train. I also enjoy reading in the mornings on weekends and occasionally in the evening on weekdays.

Another thing I like to do with my wife on the weekend is pick up some lunch and coffee and then read at the park.

Generally carrying my ereader around constantly means that idle moments in public end up getting used to advance in the book I’m reading, instead of purposelessly checking my phone or using social media. I think I read a post on here in another thread where someone else has had the same experience.

What about y'all? Any rituals? Do you play music?

A tale of Beowulf, Bairn of Ecgthew aethling of the Geats, firey focus of fable. Victories many, bought with bounty of blood. Twin monsters, Grendel's mother and her child in the Scylding's land, brought low by sin Time's riverbed, flows fleetingly fast Until old king Beowulf, Bairn of Ecgthew starcross'd lord, dreaded day of his death faced a dragon, and greatest of god's Geats slew it quickly, protecting his land.

Ancient tale, fable of forefathers of ancient prose, dense deep and dire. Modern readers, ancient knowledge gone will struggle much, History held in the heorot cannot help them, since a heorot they lack. thus unendowed, no strength for sound struggle Will then fail, no meaning to them.

Knowledge of the past, if that ye seek so ye desire, long lost lore read knowing well, a challenging battle Hazy and difficult, to enlighten yourself but expect not, golden rings from the lord facing the challenge, of this ancient tale.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/561669

The product of a decade of research, this landmark collection … seeks to document and map the extraordinary and diverse landscape of African women’s oral and written literatures. Presenting voices rarely heard outside Africa, some recorded as early as the mid-nineteenth century, as well as rediscovered gems by such well-known authors as Bessie Head and Doris Lessing, this volume reveals a living cultural legacy that will revolutionize the understanding of African women’s literary and cultural production.

Each text is accompanied by a scholarly headnote that provides detailed historical background. An introduction by the editors sets the broader historical stage and explores the many issues involved in collecting and combining orature and literature from diverse cultures in one volume. Unprecedented in its scope and achievement, this volume will be an essential resource for anyone interested in women’s history, culture, and literature in Africa, and worldwide.

1.
Why should I have been surprised?
Hunters walk the forest
without a sound.
The hunter, strapped to his rifle,
the fox on his feet of silk,
the serpent on his empire of muscles—
all move in a stillness,
hungry, careful, intent.
Just as the cancer
entered the forest of my body,
without a sound.

2.
The question is,
what will it be like
after the last day?
Will I float
into the sky
or will I fray
within the earth or a river—
remembering nothing?
How desperate I would be
if I couldn’t remember
the sun rising, if I couldn’t
remember trees, rivers; if I couldn’t
even remember, beloved,
your beloved name.

3.
I know, you never intended to be in this world.
But you’re in it all the same.

so why not get started immediately.

I mean, belonging to it.
There is so much to admire, to weep over.

And to write music or poems about.

Bless the feet that take you to and fro.
Bless the eyes and the listening ears.
Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.
Bless touching.

You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.
Or not.
I am speaking from the fortunate platform
of many years,
none of which, I think, I ever wasted.
Do you need a prod?
Do you need a little darkness to get you going?
Let me be urgent as a knife, then,
and remind you of Keats,
so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,
he had a lifetime.

4.
Late yesterday afternoon, in the heat,
all the fragile blue flowers in bloom
in the shrubs in the yard next door had
tumbled from the shrubs and lay
wrinkled and fading in the grass. But
this morning the shrubs were full of
the blue flowers again. There wasn’t
a single one on the grass. How, I
wondered, did they roll back up to
the branches, that fiercely wanting,
as we all do, just a little more of
life?

I recently finished Moon Witch, Spider King, the second novel of James' fantasy trilogy after reading the first novel, Black Leopard, Red Wolf earlier this year. I'd love to hear if anyone else has any thoughts on these two books.

I was drawn into Jame's world building. The epic fantasy world he creates draws primarily from African folklore and culture. From the perspective of someone used to the ideology of Western fantasy, I was engrossed in the lore. The prose can be meandering--I had to go back and re-read paragraphs regularly ("wait, what did I just miss?"), but it's masterfully written.

The book is vulgar and incredibly violent. There are numerous scenes of graphic sexual violence, some of which was bad enough my immersion and had me questioning "does this really need to be in the book?". If you're sensitive about that, I would definitely avoid this one. I still feel uncomfortable about some of the scenes I read.

The plot of the books is centered around the same series of events (more or less), from different characters' perspectives. The first novel is narrated by Tracker--a mercenary with a supernatural 'scent', and the second by Sogolon, a misandrist with her own mysterious abilities. Both are unreliable narrators, and sometimes recount their stories in non-chronological order. By the end of the second book I was re-evaluating what I thought had happened from reading Tracker's tale in the first. I am sure the upcoming third novel will continue that trend.

Both books were fairly long, and dense reading, but they felt like only a short glimpse into the world of the North and South Kingdoms. I really want to learn more about that world, so I will probably pick up the third book when it arrives, even if I'm also still a little apprehensive about some of the more extreme scenes.

In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in   
to fill the spaces
where my body’s been.

We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.

You are the port I’m bound for,

unless I drown in transit.

Fears beset me, though.

Full of fear I grow

that the shore might take you in its folds and retreat

before I hit land;

that all my heavy clouds of dreams

might go astray with the wind

and disperse away.

With so many books being published every day, how do you find a book you want to read?

I usually go through recommendations on Goodreads, and I keep track of what books my favourite authors are publishing.

I'm just re-discovering the 2015 Kindle paper white I bought years ago and had stopped using...because overall I had started reading less. I'm using it with a new appreciation for how great of a form factor it is for my hands + a pop socket. Carry it with me everywhere, tucks into my jacket pocket or backpack when I'm heading to work.

I'm not the biggest fan of Amazon, but I load it with Calibre so where possible I try to get my ebooks from elsewhere.

Anyway Im wondering what you all are reading on and why. What're the latest advances in ereader technology since 2015? Am I missing out on something?

I try to make a list of the best things I read at the end of each year. This was what I came up with last january.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/42666

I recently discovered Bookwyrm and am really liking it. It's not quite as full-featured as The Storygraph or Goodreads but it covers all of the most important functionalities and it's federated which I appreciate. Something that it is missing Vs either The Storygraph or Goodreads at the moment is volume of reviews (ie. Volume of users.) However, your review won't get lost in the sea so much and I've found that it's been quite easy to find readers with similar interests.

Anyway, who here is using Bookwyrm? What's your account so we can all follow each other? (Mine is Unfreeze4257@books.theunseen)

@hybridhavoc@darkfriend.social Keeping a promise to share my thoughts on wheel of time periodically!

If anyone reading this hasn't read it, there will be spoilers up to where I am in the books!

According to my audiobook app I am 42% through the great hunt, the second wheel of time book.

So far I am enjoying it a lot more than the eye of the world. Having time with the characters has helped a lot. I often found myself getting annoyed by the 3 main boys in the first book and the decisions they made. However, when the audio of the first book finished, there was an interview with Robert Jordan I listened to. I began to understand kind of the whole point of the books (at least as he said when this was recorded) was that the "chosen ones" really just had 0 interest in being any of that. With that in mind, I began to be less annoyed by the decisions Rand and the others would make.

I do have to say, I got very apprehensive when the concept of parallel universe things got introduced. Where I'm at Rand and the others just got back to their world, so I still don't know a ton. But with so much media these days having multiverses and parallel universes, my knee jerk reaction was definitely an eye roll. But we'll see how it plays out. I know the books are beloved, and I've really enjoyed them so far, so I'm optimistic.

Excited to keep listening!

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey audiobook for $7.99

If you are a #scifi fan and haven't read #TheExpanse yet do yourself a favor and pick this up. $7.99 is a tough price to beat, and it's a great series.

https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/leviathan-wakes-by-james-s-a-corey

#bookstodon @literature

I’m using LibraryThing, after fleeing GoodReads a few years back, and I just learned about BookWyrm. I’m interested in what others apps and sites are out there for keeping track of your books and/or to-read list, and/or reviewing and/or discussing them, and what folks think about them.

So I recently finished the audiobook version of Knight's Bane by Kirk Mason . A fantasy romance featuring a vampire lady and a farmer turned knight.

A quite enjoyed it, though I've enjoyed much of Kirks other books which are mostly fantasy romances, mostly non monogamous ones.

The narrator, Savannah Thomas, was pretty good. First time I'd heard her narrate anything.

Obviously, they don't have to slide into the cozy genre. But what books do you cuddle up with during a thunderstorm, or your variable weather of choice? Personally, Becky Chambers has become one of my favorites. I also read LOTR when I need a "good guys doing the right thing just because it's the right thing to do".

List as many or as few as you like!

[...] Eco separated his visitors into two categories: “those who react with ‘Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have. How many of these books have you read’ and the others — a very small minority — who get the point is that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendages but a research tool.”

Cross-posted from !lgbtq_plus@beehaw.org, original post by @alex@beehaw.org

I'm an old reader who loved older books even when I was young. As such, I was horrified to discover that older books are almost totally unknown to younger readers. As best I understand it, Amazon and the remaining booksellers of the world focus mainly on new books; perhaps they don't make as much money on older literature.

But there are so many great older books out there. And I love those books. So I started recommending them over on Reddit. In the field of fantasy, for example, there are a million people recommending Brian Sanderson and nobody recommending the works of Lord Dunsany, Michael Moorcock, or Barry Hughart - among many other wonderful older fantasy authors.

Lord Dunsany in particular wrote a short piece that touches on this point:

THE RAFT-BUILDERS

All we who write put me in mind of sailors hastily making rafts upon doomed ships.

When we break up under the heavy years and go down into eternity with all that is ours our thoughts like small lost rafts float on awhile upon Oblivion's sea. They will not carry much over those tides, our names and a phrase or two and little else.

They that write as a trade to please the whim of the day, they are like sailors that work at the rafts only to warm their hands and to distract their thoughts from their certain doom; their rafts go all to pieces before the ship breaks up.

See now Oblivion shimmering all around us, its very tranquility deadlier than tempest. How little all our keels have troubled it. Time in its deeps swims like a monstrous whale; and, like a whale, feeds on the littlest things—small tunes and little unskilled songs of the olden, golden evenings—and anon turneth whale-like to overthrow whole ships.

See now the wreckage of Babylon floating idly, and something there that once was Nineveh; already their kings and queens are in the deeps among the weedy masses of old centuries that hide the sodden bulk of sunken Tyre and make a darkness round Persepolis.

For the rest I dimly see the forms of foundered ships on the sea-floor strewn with crowns.

Our ships were all unseaworthy from the first.

There goes the raft that Homer made for Helen.

The way I see it, recommending an older book to a new reader is helping a raft to float a little longer. What great old books do you like to recommend?