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1Duggan_Phillips
reading V.Lavelle's new one, and feeling like his protagonist re this overall site. The electronic equivalent of being overwhelmed during my first excursions into the university's 3rd floor stacks of literature as a freshman. The multiple paths before one and the corresponding Vertigo. I have the feeling I need to first list and document all the books and essays I have read this year, purge this listing into the swell and listen for echoes. What it comes down to is I am a monk-ish young man who never really left gradschool, at least not figuratively speaking. The problem has been a decade of being a lone reader in Tulsa, Oklahoma, no bastion for the bookish. All I have is the various scraps of the would-be intellectual: issues of new yorkers, New York Reviews of Books, london review of books, book forums, et al. I am not really a dedicated computer person but am thinking maybe there are 'forums' of others like me out there, discussing Anne Carson and Mark Greif, Benjamin and Colson whitehead, etc, etc. Along with the other things aesthetic: cinema ('Get Out' & 'Au Hazard Balthusar'); art; music, the only common theme being an emphasis on things both past and present, both Melville and Murakami, etc.
I am no doubt going about all this wrong, needing to be in some 'introductory' forum for beginners FAQing, the latter pretty much the intended purpose of this post i suppose. It feels like sending a message in a bottle all while being on the wrong side of the island (who knew?)
I am no doubt going about all this wrong, needing to be in some 'introductory' forum for beginners FAQing, the latter pretty much the intended purpose of this post i suppose. It feels like sending a message in a bottle all while being on the wrong side of the island (who knew?)
2CliffBurns
Well, you're citing all the right names and allusions so I think you'll fit in quite well here.
Many readers are loners at heart; night hawks, mutants, insomniac loonies and prickly autodidacts. Some of those weirdos have gathered here, either participating directly or lurking at the margins, scribbling down titles and authors that sound interesting. Moochers (I don't use emoticons so I'd better make it clear that's a joke).
Personally, I'd like to see more of our members (there are 870+ of us, after all) wading in with their recommendations and pans; right now, it seems like 10 or 20 people post regularly and others drift in and out.
The more books we discuss, the more good authors get discovered. I'm always looking for new writers to seek out. I live in an isolated, rather non-literate community and discovering a scribe previously unknown to me provides a thrill like no other.
Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy your time here.
Many readers are loners at heart; night hawks, mutants, insomniac loonies and prickly autodidacts. Some of those weirdos have gathered here, either participating directly or lurking at the margins, scribbling down titles and authors that sound interesting. Moochers (I don't use emoticons so I'd better make it clear that's a joke).
Personally, I'd like to see more of our members (there are 870+ of us, after all) wading in with their recommendations and pans; right now, it seems like 10 or 20 people post regularly and others drift in and out.
The more books we discuss, the more good authors get discovered. I'm always looking for new writers to seek out. I live in an isolated, rather non-literate community and discovering a scribe previously unknown to me provides a thrill like no other.
Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy your time here.
3anna_in_pdx
Welcome to the lit snobs list! There is no right way to go about joining LT. I joined many years ago and one of the first things I did was enter books I owned or remembered that I used to own. If you have a free membership you can enter up to 200 of them. If you want to enter more than that you have to pay a one time fee.
Once you have entered some books, it makes connections easier, since then you can see libraries that have books similar to yours which is really interesting, and get recommendations from LT based on what you already like. Many people use the catalog for their personal libraries but I use it as more of a reading history (using tags to tell myself whether I own the book or borrowed it from the library or someone else, or sold it, or lost it, etc.) The "talk" section is to find like minded people to discuss particular topics that interest you. This group mostly shares our current reading projects with each other and talks about various topics including politics and literary magazine finds (looks like that is right up your alley), but it does not usually do group reads, for example, which other groups do.
When I found LibraryThing it was amazing for me. Even though I live in a reading oriented city I am an introvert and didn't really have a circle of friends who are interested in books the way I am, and that is a great connection to make. Just hanging out here and reading the conversation threads always makes me feel very fortunate and gives me ideas for further reading or reminds me about an author I read long ago.
Welcome to LibraryThing and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Once you have entered some books, it makes connections easier, since then you can see libraries that have books similar to yours which is really interesting, and get recommendations from LT based on what you already like. Many people use the catalog for their personal libraries but I use it as more of a reading history (using tags to tell myself whether I own the book or borrowed it from the library or someone else, or sold it, or lost it, etc.) The "talk" section is to find like minded people to discuss particular topics that interest you. This group mostly shares our current reading projects with each other and talks about various topics including politics and literary magazine finds (looks like that is right up your alley), but it does not usually do group reads, for example, which other groups do.
When I found LibraryThing it was amazing for me. Even though I live in a reading oriented city I am an introvert and didn't really have a circle of friends who are interested in books the way I am, and that is a great connection to make. Just hanging out here and reading the conversation threads always makes me feel very fortunate and gives me ideas for further reading or reminds me about an author I read long ago.
Welcome to LibraryThing and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
4Limelite
Like you, I'm in a reading lull. Lots of god advice here. I side with reading something humorous and undemanding, which I'm doing with The Rosie Project in which an Asperger affected psychological genealogist decides he (like Jane Austen tells us) needs a wife. It's working!
Here are two more suggestions to transport you out of your funk:
If you want to spend an idyll afloat with a group of young men from more than 100 years ago, then Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) is the ageless tale that will lift you out of your ennui.
But if you want to meddle a little bit with extremely quirky characters' lives and become -- as one can only "become" in books -- someone you can't be but wish that you might, then I suggest Cold Comfort Farm. Advisory: Read this book only when sitting lest you fall down laughing.
Happy reading!
Here are two more suggestions to transport you out of your funk:
If you want to spend an idyll afloat with a group of young men from more than 100 years ago, then Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) is the ageless tale that will lift you out of your ennui.
But if you want to meddle a little bit with extremely quirky characters' lives and become -- as one can only "become" in books -- someone you can't be but wish that you might, then I suggest Cold Comfort Farm. Advisory: Read this book only when sitting lest you fall down laughing.
Happy reading!
5RobertDay
I think I'm right in saying that most of us in this group have our personal libraris set to 'publicly visible', so you can always get a sense of the others in this Group by clicking on their name and following through to their own page to see what their reading tastes are. You might be surprised how close to your own they are!
6justifiedsinner
Might help if the op added some books otherwise it's a bit like going to a nudist colony in a burka.
