Are bookdepository books new? I don't see anything written on the site to suggest otherwise but considering how low some of the prices are I thought I ought to check.
>>8655146
no faggot they only sell 1970 editions
my roommates ordered physics textbooks that were new
the waiting time is fucking long, so keep that in mind
>>8655604
This. It does depend on where you live, but if you're ordering from the US, then it WILL take the 5-8 business days (more like 8 from my experience) to get your stuff, after the 1-2 days to get dispatched.
what are the essential mexican books?
Probably Terra Nostra Carlos by Fuentes but shit I've actually read that I'd recommend: Down The Rabbit Hole and Quesadillas by Juan Pablo Villalobos.
>>8654975
Pedro Paramo
>>8654975
Taco by Enchiladas Sopa
Post your favorite books that shivered your timbies.
I am readingTthe Monk right now.
>>8656495
*reading The Monk
>>8654890
I do a performance of the Raven ala The Simpsons every year for my kids.
Also pic related.
Are there any more like this?
Never seen another one. But hey, might as well make some, for fun.
Schopenhauer
>Study philosophy and metaphysics extensively, elaborating a great critique on Kant's Tanscedental Idealism and a following metaphysical theory that posited that without life, the universe does not exist, alongside many other great ideas.
>"Schopenhauer? Oh, he's depressive and mysoginistic hur dur get on with the time"
>>8654888
nice
>>8654888
>be young naive artist
>work tirelessly in a corrupted and degenerate society to try to bring beauty in to the world
>see your country and people slowly die
>began to give passionate speeches to crowds, convincing them of their greatness and by extension making them great
>give your people a reason to live, clean up the streets and the airwaves
>attain power and make Germany great again
>be attacked by the Jew and his cronies, the Anglos and Amerifats for your rejection of a slow death
>70 years later people use you as a personification of Evil while a fat lady gives away your country to niggers
What is it? You have to pick the one you most want to see recovered but you can name some honorable mentions. Mention specific works or authors rather than general stuff like the Library of Alexandria or burning of Mayan manuscripts.
Most famous examples for reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_work
I'm studying the ancients really hard right now, so I'm focused mostly there. I'd probably pick the poems of Sappho just due to how influential she was, even though Hipponax is my personal favorite of the lyric poets. And as a lover of obscure and dead religions, the Manichean Arzhang would have to be high up there too.
>>8654827
I'd go with Melville's "Isle of the Cross," assuming it was a novel.
Gilgamesh completely restored with no missing lines desu
The restoration of Sappho is a very good choice, and perhaps the most responsible, but for me it's Cardenio, assuming the information passed down to us about it is correct. Shakespeare meets Cervantes is just too good to pass up.
Josef Stalin was the most /lit/ world leader of the 20th century. Here re some of his poems (translated of course) which are still considered minor classics in Georgia irrespective of their author (they were published anonymously)
Sail on, as tirelessly as ever,
Above an earth obscured by clouds,
And with your shining glow of silver
Dispel the fog that now abounds.
With languor, bend your lovely neck,
Lean down to earth with tender smile.
Sing lullabies to Mount Kazbek,
Whose glaciers reach for you on high.
But know for certain, he who had
Once been oppressed and cast below,
Can scale the heights of Mount Mtatsminda,
Exalted by undying hope.
Shine on, up in the darkened sky,
Frolic and play with pallid rays,
And, as before, with even light,
Illuminate my fatherland.
I’ll bare my breast to you, extend
My arm in joyous greeting, too.
My spirit trembling, once again
I’ll glimpse before me the bright moon.
Iveria, No. 123 (1895)
He knocked on strangers’ doors,
Going from house to house,
With an old oaken panduri
And that simple song of his.
But in his song, his song—
Pure as the sun’s own gleam—
Resounded a truth profound,
Resounded a lofty dream.
Hearts that had turned to stone
Were made to beat once more;
In many, he’d rouse a mind
That slumbered in deepest murk.
But instead of the laurels he’d earned,
The people of his land
Fed the outcast poison,
Placing a cup in his hand.
They told him: “Damned one, you must
Drink it, drain the cup dry…
Your song is foreign to us,
We prefer to live in a lie!”
Iveria, no. 218 (1895)
The bud has blossomed; now the rose
Touches the tender violet.
The lily, bent above the grass
By gentle breezes, slumbers not.
The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds:
“Break forth in bloom, Iberian land!
Let joy within you reign.
While you must study, little friend,
And please your motherland!”
Iveria, no. 280 (1895)
He worked as a Platonic philosopher king and selectively censored poetry to keep plebshit out of the schools. He didn't even want the fact that he wrote these poems to be revealed because he didn't feel they were up to par. He loved reading Shakespeare, Byron and Pushkin and he frequently requested meetings of Georgian scholars of poetry, in particular the Georgian national epic, to debate with him. He didn't even gulag them for disagreeing with him, such was his respect for non-pleb literature.
>>8654723
>He didn't even gulag them for disagreeing with him, such was his respect for non-pleb literature.
and we should praise him for this
>BBBUT MUH CULT OF PERSONALITY!!!
Stalin did not make such a thing nor did he want it.
>I am decidedly against the publication of Tales of Stalin’s Childhood.
>The book teems with a mass of factual inaccuracies, distortions, exaggerations, and undue praise. The author was led astray by hunters of fairy tales, fibbers (though perhaps “conscientious” fibbers), and bootlickers. I pity the author, but facts are facts.
>But that isn’t the main point. The main point is that this book has a tendency to plant the cult of the chief’s, the infallible hero’s personality in the consciousness of Soviet children (and of people in general). This is dangerous, harmful. The theory of “heroes” and the “crowd” is not a Bolshevik, but an SR theory. Heroes make the people, transform them from a crowd into a people—say the SRs. The people make heroes—the Bolsheviks reply to the SRs. This book adds grist to the SRs’ mill. Any such book will add grist to the SRs’ mill, will harm our common Bolshevik cause.
>I advise you to burn the book.
>J. Stalin, 1938
As you can see Stalin was opposed to building the cult of personality and only allowed it to happen during the great patriotic war because he felt it helped the war effort.
>>8654723
True. The comrade we needed but not the comrade we deserved.
Noob here, love sci-fi and fantasy, so far I have read:
>all of tolkien
>lovecraft
>asoiaf
>do androids dream of electric sheep?
>neuromancer
>a scanner darkly
recommend me some bitchin sci-fi you fucking nerds
just use Google
I have been reading SF for forty years, and I think my favourite under-appreciated writer is Neal Asher. I particularly loved his Spatterjay trilogy.
read Dune you faggot
its THE sci-fi book
Hoppin' With Flavor!
i had hops growing outside in pots but then wallabies ate the sprouts and they died
is this book good
What is the BEST book ever written?
>>8654282
my diary to be dishonest
>>8654282
my twitter, to be sincere
Gravity's Jest
What a overrated fuck
Prem ejac? Tell us about better fucks you've had.
>>8654129
blame dads across america who eat this shit up.
>>8654129
These kinds of books are for idiots who have never served in the military and see stuff like Transformers and American Sniper as what it's like to be in a military unit. It's basically the same people that watch "bushcraft" videos on Youtube or let's plays. It's living vicariously through someone else.
That said, the only good war memoirs are One Bullet Away, Storm of Steel, David Kenyan Webster's book about being in the 101st (along with the addition of Beyond Band of Brothers), and Helmet For My Pillow.
Honourable mentions are Rifleman Harris's book about the rifle brigade, and a book I can't remember the name of about a Bavarian in Napoleon's army.
Who is the greatest author in human history?
My top 3:
>JK Rowling
>Edgar Allan Poe
>Stephen King
>Hitler
>Nietszche
>Stefan Molyneux
>John Green
>Homer
>that guy who wrote Undertale
>>8654108
viper x3
WTF is his problem? Why is he being so ungrateful to the Nobel Prize Committee? He is giving all of us Americans a bad name.
>Per Wastberg, who chairs the Nobel Committee for Literature 2016, described Dylan's lack of response to the accolade as "rude and arrogant."
> Bob Dylan angers Nobel authorities for being silent Bob Dylan angers Nobel authorities for being silent
6 Hours Ago | 00:38
Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan is known for being uncomfortable in the spotlight. But, following his elusiveness after being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature earlier this month, the authority behind the award may now be having second thoughts on their decision.
Speaking late last week to Swedish television channel SVT, Per Wastberg, who chairs the Nobel Committee for Literature 2016, described Dylan's lack of response to the accolade as "rude and arrogant."
Last week, the musician's website removed its mention of the prize. Wastberg commented to SVT that the news was "hardly surprising. He seems to be a very grumpy and reluctant man, and I didn't find it surprising at all."
>>8653989
It's the respectful thing to do.
This is what happens when you give prestigious literary awards to artless hippie rock stars.
>>8653989
Silence equates to humility to us Americans.
>ambiguity=creative laziness
Been seeing this as a response to a lot of modern and post-modern literature and art as a whole.
Is this a valid criticism of art? It seems to occur as the mainstream opinion on modern art, but isn't it quite the vulgar display of intentional fallacy?
Is Finnegan's Wake a surreal masterpiece tapping into the unconscious mind of readers or a big fat word diarrhoea?
Ambiguity isnt always creative laziness, but its a common way for poor art to hide itself.
>Somebody takes a shit on a canvas with the word "Love" written underneath
>"You just dont get it, man!"
>if it has one meaning it's not lazy
>if it has two or more it's lazy
Finnegans Wake is often lazy because it has two bland meanings where it could easily have several more if Joyce had spoken Irish well.
>>8653985
Its funny because often I see it the other way around. People who are incapable or too lazy to examine a piece of art will chop it up to ambiguity. A good example is Birdman, a great film but one of my friends said it lacked because "it meant nothing." When I tried to address some of his issues by referring to parts of the film that i thought were full of meaning he would just pass me off with his tired replies.
I do think the line is very thin between ambiguity and artistic merit, and for a piece of art to mean something the artist shouldn't have to directly speak it in the work. Its suiting that you used 2001 as your example; the ending is so open to interpretation that its hard to say what Kubrick really meant. However, if we pay attention to the rest of the film and try and define all its parts together we can reach something which "makes sense" ; reoccurring themes and motifs can give us more insight. In other words, if a piece of art is worth its merit it has to have some sort of structure, it doesnt need to shout out what its trying to say, it doesnt need to be obvious, but if you pay attention and know what to look for you can be confident in your analysis. A good artist who wants to say something has to have some way of directing us there.
A whole lot of art falls into the ambiguity category, where what is presented is so unstructured that the artist has done a poor job at directing us anywhere. A good example for this is 'Sirens of Titan' by Vonnegut, a funny book but in the end it meant nothing because of how highly ambiguous each part was. In college a professor of mine taught this and you could tell the entire class was uncertain how to interpret it in any personal way. I mean there's so much presented in it, its like everything is a symbol or a metaphor and you know this but since the book is unstructured you don't know what they are symbols and metaphors for.
I just read this book and I am a bit underwhelmed. /lit/ always talk about how Nabokov is one of the greats but this just felt okay.
General Nabokov thread I guess
Here is what I have read from him in order of preference:
Ada
Lolita
Invitation to a Beheading
Pnin
Transparent Things
The Enchanter
Ada and Invitation are the big standouts in my mind. Lolita is brilliant but a lot of the techniques it uses (Unreliable narrator, conflicting perspectives, temporal/sensory relationships) were implemented more robustly in Ada. Ada also gave Nabokov a greater variety of characters, settings, and subjects, which allowed the book a greater emotional range. I also think he strikes a more satisfying balance between uneventful stretches of time, and what he refers to as the novelistic elements of the story.
For those who have read his early work, which of his Russian books should I prioritize? A friend told me I would like The Eye so I was going to read that next.
>>8653942
I haven't read Pale Fire, or else I would ask why you felt underwhelmed. I will recommend that you don't give up on cornkov, and when you are ready for another of his books try Invitation to a Beheading. It is a short book and its machinations occur much closer to the surface, although there is no lack of discussable material.
Did anyone pick up the Nabokov chart that was posted a few days ago? It was pretty lame but still, something to work on
pale fire is absolutely stunning
Was he a good person?
>>8653877
>was he good
>was he a person
How come his dick is so small
>>8653981
>was