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How many books did you read last year? Also, what was the best book you read?
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday December 24 2016, @05:08AM
Thanks a lot, school. 3-4 chapters of a text doesn't count.
Best book, that's an easy one. Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. By far the best analysis of the human condition I've read, in fact, it renders Shakespeare utterly useless. If you can cut through it's 840-ish pages of extremely verbose journies through human nature, God, the Devil, the legal system, and archetypes, and at-the-time radical narrative techniques; you'll emerge a better person.
Apples and oranges. War and peace is a worthy read, especially the epilogue, but is of the tone of a single omniscient narrator. The Brothers Karamazov is written by an omniscient narrator but emphasizes character dialogue much more than narrator dialogue, thus, with TBK you feel as if you are sitting and listening into the conversations of the characters themselves rather than having them explained by the narrator. There are other techniques used in the latter, like the side-narration of a part of the book representing the diary of a monk in a monastery.
An interesting fact about both books is that there is mention of infinitesimal calculus, and in the case of War and Peace comparing that to historical developments. Lowly book-writing Russians knowing more math than most Americans of the same age. Imagine that!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 25 2016, @02:26AM
Yeah the dog shit I scraped off my shoe last week that still sits by my front walk knows more math than most Americans, of any age.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 25 2016, @05:06PM
Tolstoy was of nobility with independent wealth, and Dosty was a city intellectual, though often suffering financial difficulty, and both were the preeminent writers in their own lifetime.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday December 27 2016, @11:43AM
"renders Shakespeare utterly useless"
I sorta somewhat agree with the sentiment. Dostoevsky is superior to Shakey. But, a great author doesn't render a good author useless - merely less useful. And, IMHO, Shake isn't nearly as good as he is touted to be. I just never got into his stuff. Maybe all the silly women teachers who gushed over him turned me off to him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 27 2016, @02:17PM
They are of melodramatic theatre format diminishing a certain sense of gravita, so less appealing to male readers I think.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Wednesday December 28 2016, @10:23PM
The big triumph of Shakespeare is not really the story, but the format, that is ALOT of Iambic pentameter, even if half the content is utter garbage. I am still not convinced Shakespeare was not a group think.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @09:01PM
> Thanks a lot, school. 3-4 chapters of a text doesn't count
Especially if you didn't finish coloring all of them.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday January 03 2017, @01:01PM
I take it you never read it then.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday January 09 2017, @08:23AM
I take you don't know how he was before being the better person he is now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday January 09 2017, @04:49PM
Until he relapses as he does from time to time.