[OFF TOPIC] Βooks Thread

[Agger 1,662]

3 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Since we’re a bit low on sports right now (thanks Coronavirus), I thought I’d ask what everyone’s favorite pieces of literature are? 
 

Here’s a few of mine:

Favorite Book: Things Fall Apart

Favorite Poem: A Flor e a Nausea

Favorite Myth: Ragnarok 

 

Book: The Shining

Poem (I really don't read much poetry): In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]

Favorite Myth: No idea

But as a major part of my book collection are history books (both popular and more academic), I would also add favorite history book:

Stalingrad  (Anthony Beevor)

[dcro 10,210]

I don't have a favorite book. Most recent thing I've read was The White Album, which I started in September and finished last month.

 

Spoiler

In my defense, that book was a collection of essays.

 

[Olympian1010 7,973]

I remember reading (and loving) this story in elementary school.

[heywoodu 15,135]

I'm reading Stephen King's The Long Walk, there's sort of an athletic element in it so that's cool.

[Wanderer 1,726]

I don't have favourite book, it is impossible to choose cause there are so many which left great impact on me. Currently I am reading The Buried Giant from Kazuo Ishiguro and I can say I like it very much and plan to read some of his other books I have in my collection. After that, it is Jorge Luis Borges time <3 

Edited March 31, 2020 by Wanderer

[phelps 7,674]

nice thread...

 

I must admit that I'm not a big reader...

 

but my favourite books are definitely Edgar Allan Poe's "Tales Of Terror" and the endless collection of the Andrea Camilleri's books (Camilleri is the author of all the "Il Commissario Montalbano" tales)...

 

meanwhile I never liked those "stones" of the classic Russian writers, which were so "fashionable" in the past years here in Italy (for instance, Fëdor Dostoevskij's "The Idiot" has always been considered a cult book among all the Italian actors)...

 

if we talk about Poems and Myths, my favourite ones are surely Dante's Inferno and Homer's Odyssey...but that's not my most beloved genre, as I'm rather into academical books, especially those about History of Economics and Sociology...

 

however, there's no need to say that the only book truly in my heart is called "Milano: il Trionfo dell'Hockey", dedicated to the magical night of March 2nd, 1991, when the Italian Hockey title came back to Milan after more than 50 years thanks to the only team I've ever been a true hardcore fan of, the Hockey Club Milano...

[Olympian1010 7,973]

8 hours ago, heywoodu said:

I'm reading Stephen King's The Long Walk, there's sort of an athletic element in it so that's cool.

Ooh, I love the concept of that book. I’m not the biggest Stephen King fan, but the concept is really fun (though reminiscent of the Hunger Games).

[Olympian1010 7,973]

5 hours ago, phelps said:

nice thread...

 

I must admit that I'm not a big reader...

 

but my favourite books are definitely Edgar Allan Poe's "Tales Of Terror" and the endless collection of the Andrea Camilleri's books (Camilleri is the author of all the "Il Commissario Montalbano" tales)...

 

meanwhile I never liked those "stones" of the classic Russian writers, which were so "fashionable" in the past years here in Italy (for instance, Fëdor Dostoevskij's "The Idiot" has always been considered a cult book among all the Italian actors)...

 

if we talk about Poems and Myths, my favourite ones are surely Dante's Inferno and Homer's Odyssey...but that's not my most beloved genre, as I'm rather into academical books, especially those about History of Economics and Sociology...

 

however, there's no need to say that the only book truly in my heart is called "Milano: il Trionfo dell'Hockey", dedicated to the magical night of March 2nd, 1991, when the Italian Hockey title came back to Milan after more than 50 years thanks to the only team I've ever been a true hardcore fan of, the Hockey Club Milano...

I actually read they Inferno. I really loved the ideas it presented, even if my own views of the subject conflict with Dante’s. The Iliad/Odessey I read when I was 12 (I think). I enjoyed them too, but I really enjoyed Greek mythology, so that wasn’t a surprise to people that knew me. 
 

I haven’t really heard of the other books you mentioned, but I should checkout some Russian literature at one point.

[phelps 7,674]

1 hour ago, Olympian1010 said:

I actually read they Inferno. I really loved the ideas it presented, even if my own views of the subject conflict with Dante’s. The Iliad/Odessey I read when I was 12 (I think). I enjoyed them too, but I really enjoyed Greek mythology, so that wasn’t a surprise to people that knew me. 
 

I haven’t really heard of the other books you mentioned, but I should checkout some Russian literature at one point.

 

in Italy all those mythological poems/books are basic part of our literature studies at high school level (all sort of schools, also those with a more scientifc disciplines oriented program)...

 

so, we normally read all of them from 14 to 18 years of age...and most times the teachers do whatever it takes to make us hate them...

 

but if you have the chance to read them once again in the following years, with no "evaluation pressure" and when you're supposed to be more mature and have a more qualified background, it's easy to discover they are actually a lot more interesting and entertaining than you thought when you were younger...

 

E.A. Poe's Tales of Terror isn't actually a single book, it's the translation of the Italian name given to the whole pack of his Tales, like the Pit and the Pendulum, the Murders in the Rue Morgue, Ligeia, the Tell-Tale Heart, the Black Cat and many, many more...

 

Camilleri's books (especially those based on the Il Commissario Montalbano character) are the absolute bestseller in Italy...and the TV movies based on those books are the only fictional programs which normally have a rating comparable to the Sanremo Song Festival and the Italian National Soccer Team official matches...

 

unfortunately the author died less than a year ago (2 months before turning 94), but he's supposed to have left many more books still to be published (he was still working when he got heavily sick a few months before his death)...

[OlympicsFan 858]

On 11/03/2020 at 06:49, Olympian1010 said:

Since we’re a bit low on sports right now (thanks Coronavirus), I thought I’d ask what everyone’s favorite pieces of literature are? 
 

Here’s a few of mine:

Favorite Book: Things Fall Apart

Favorite Poem: A Flor e a Nausea

Favorite Myth: Ragnarok 

If we are only talking about novels and not poetry/philosophy/science, then my two favorite books are:

The Trial (Franz Kafka) and Notes from Underground (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Sadly i haven't read too many of Dostoevsky's books so far, so maybe some of his other works will join that list later on. I also haven't read those books in english, so i can't say how good they are in that version. Unfortunately i haven't read a lot over the past couple of years, since i have become pretty "lazy" in that regard (nowadays i prefer watching documentaries). It is also absolutely impossible to read all the great books (or even a significant fraction of it) in only one lifetime, so you have to chose very wisely ...