Renee’s New Year’s resolution: read more classics.
Anonymous asked:
What are the prettiest books you've read?
More you might like
antigonick answered:
I’m pretty sure you didn’t mean it that way, but you’re giving me an excuse to advertise some of the prettiest (literally) books I own, and that’s exactly what I’ll do.
So, here are editions of beautiful, supple, leather-bound, cloth-bound or heavily illustrated books. I can’t show you my second-hand (and very repetitive), old and pretty books, but these are still available for buying :
Romeo and Juliet, published by Barnes & Noble Collectible
Far From the Madding Crowd, published by Penguin (Clothbound Classics Series)
Wuthering Heights, published by The Folio Society
Anna Karénine, published by La Pleïade
House of Leaves, published by Pantheon
Islandic Sagas, published by Anacharsis
The Complete Wreck (a Series of Unfortunate Events), published by Harper Collins
L'Album du Graal, published by La Pleïade
Nox, published by New Directions
Antigonick, published by New Directions…
Anonymous asked:
a dumb question, maybe, but: what's one of your favorite parts about studying classics?
argonauticae answered:
probably the constant reminders that throughout time and regardless of time, place, language, religion, ideology, system of governance or dominant school of thought, people remain fundamentally people
like i know that sounds really glib but it’s like - when i was doing this after alexander course last year, right, we looked at this thing called the zenon papyri, a huge stash of administrative documents from greek-ruled egypt addressed to an official called zenon, which was preserved because the winds changed and the building they were kept in was buried under a massive sand dune. and there’s one which we called the krotos papyri, which is a letter from a native egyptian writing to zenon telling him how he had been mistreated by greeks, who laugh at him because he doesn’t know how to “act like a greek” and call him a barbarian and refuse to pay him his proper wages. which is very familiar. and when you look at the actual papyrus fragment, the writing at the top is big and clear and spaced-out, but as it gets towards the bottom of the page it gets smaller and more cramped and the lines are all squint, because this nameless egyptian guy who does something with camels in the 250s BC hadn’t worked out how long his letter was going to be and he’s realised halfway through that he’s going to run out of space
and in first year i went on this trip to hadrian’s wall, and it started snowing while we were standing on it and the wind was blowing a gale right into our faces, and afterwards we heard a lecture about the vindolanda tablets, and there’s one, tablet 346, a letter to a soldier stationed there - and the soldiers stationed there could come from anywhere in the empire, rome or egypt or north africa, hot places, basically, and the wall is fucking cold - which is maybe from his wife or mother or sister, which reads as follows:
“… I have sent (?) you … pairs of socks from Sattua, two pairs of sandals and two pairs of underpants, two pairs of sandals … Greet …ndes, Elpis, Iu…, …enus, Tetricus and all your messmates with whom I pray that you live in the greatest good fortune.“
and that’s not some kind of “people don’t change” idea. people do change, have changed. you read the stuff these civilisations produced and some of it is so, so alien to us, so hard to understand, so strange. but then in amongst it you find things like people running out of space on their last bit of paper, or sending their son more socks because he’s got a job somewhere cold. and we remember it, these weird small human things, by total random chance! no-one sat down and thought ‘let’s keep this’ - the wind changes and an entire archive of papyri is preserved under a sand dune for 2000 years. the excavators who found the vindolanda tablets thought they were wood shavings. there’s a pot of roman face cream in the museum of london which still has fingerprints in the cream, which was found hidden in a ditch outside a temple. and in the meantime, we have no firsthand accounts of the campaigns of alexander, one of the most influential series of events in western history, because… we just don’t. they existed, but they’re lost. for some reason, somehow, presumably though some kind of enormous cosmic joke, we have a fragmentary letter from an anonymous person sent to an anonymous soldier telling him his pants are in the post and to say hello to his friends, but we don’t have callisthene’s deeds of alexander or ptolemy’s memoirs. isn’t that infuriating? isn’t that great?
There is this website called Thrift Books and I just got $66.90 worth of books for $19.93 (five books). Shipping was free. You’re welcome.
Yes! I just bought $82 worth of books for $17.85!
!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is this website called Thrift Books and I just got $66.90 worth of books for $19.93 (five books). Shipping was free. You’re welcome.
THANK YOU
I just got four books worth $92.94 (two are hardcovers) for $16.42 SHIPPING IS FREE. THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE THING.
IT HAS TEXTBOOKS REPEAT
IT
HAS
TEXTBOOKS
reblog to save a wallet
There is this website called Thrift Books and I just got $66.90 worth of books for $19.93 (five books). Shipping was free. You’re welcome.
Yes! I just bought $82 worth of books for $17.85!
!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is this website called Thrift Books and I just got $66.90 worth of books for $19.93 (five books). Shipping was free. You’re welcome.
THANK YOU
I just got four books worth $92.94 (two are hardcovers) for $16.42 SHIPPING IS FREE. THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE THING.
IT HAS TEXTBOOKS REPEAT
IT
HAS
TEXTBOOKS
IT HAS FOREIGN LANGUAGE BOOKS
There is this website called Thrift Books and I just got $66.90 worth of books for $19.93 (five books). Shipping was free. You’re welcome.
THANK YOU
I just got four books worth $92.94 (two are hardcovers) for $16.42 SHIPPING IS FREE. THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE THING.
IT HAS TEXTBOOKS REPEAT
IT
HAS
TEXTBOOKS
Does anyone else remember that time Zuko went on a date with a girl because his uncle forced him too. And then she wanted to take him to her favorite spot. But then they got there and the lights weren’t lit to reflect in the water and she got pretty sad. So then even though he was supposed to be undercover and not using his bending, he told her to close her eyes and lit the lamps for her just so he could see her happy.
God Dammit he was a good character
Anonymous asked:
Do you have any book recommendations?
feyrhys answered:
Omg anon how can you ask me this question? Lol everyone knows how hard it is for a bookworm to give out a specific list. But I’ll try (I’m assuming since you’re on my blog that I don’t need to include the ToG/ACoTAR books here because, let’s face it, those books are love, those books are life.)!
Let’s start with some fantasy because we all know how much we (who love ToG) are suckers for those.
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (A Torch against the Night is coming soon and I am absolutely DYING OVER HERE. Also Sabaa’s been picked up for two more books in the series, so AHH.)
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (Hated how the Grisha trilogy ended with Ruin & Rising–I will never be over that, but SoC is amazing!)
The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas (I cannot say enough good things–great characters, plot, might take a while to get into but it’s worth it! The world Sherry Thomas created is breathtaking.)
The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare (Just, just read it. If you’ve read TMI and didn’t like it, this is much better, at least in my opinion!)
Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore (These books remind me of SJM’s world building and her awesome, kick-ass heroines.)
The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski (Smart and cunning heroine. Heartbreaking, tragic, and too blind for his own good hero. Did I mention a lot–and I mean, A LOT–of angst?)
Poison Princess by Kresley Cole (Even though the love triangle in this series is absolutely the I-will-tear-my-hair-out kind, the premise is super interesting! And as long as Aric ends up happy, Haley and I will be okay with this series as a whole. I got my eyes on you, Kresley.)
If you’re in the mood for mystery/thrillers…
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
(Both of these gave me chills okay? Although BIGTS took me a while to get into.)
Here are some awesome contemporaries!
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (So well-written! T_T)
The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic (Actually, read all the books in the series. Thanks Michelle for this. Heartbreaking and tragic and deep and ANDREIL I DIE.)
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz (I just cry for this book.)
Landline by Rainbow Rowell (I’m in love with reconciliation stories, so! This had to be included.)
I read historical romances too, so here are some as well!
The Bronze Horseman (It’s quite a long read, but I’m also a sucker for history, and this provided an intense look into life during war, when it’s right outside your door and you’re doing everything to survive and still keep a positive outlook. I have to admit that after reading this I was on a WW2 phase for a long time. Searching articles, watching vids. Yeah it was a blast.)
Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas (This book had so much angst–I’m warning you. All throughout my heart was clenching real hard for the characters. They love each other, but they have to find their way back.)
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat (Praise bless Talia for this. And Prince’s Gambit and Kings Rising–just a word of caution it’s pretty graphic and involves rape, but I really enjoyed it!)
And this wouldn’t be a rec list if I didn’t include my favorite book, Doctors by Erich Segal. Hope you find something good to read, anon! <3
Anonymous asked:
How do you read so many books in one year? Can you tell us a bit about yourself? What you do for a living, whether you write, what your favourite books or favourite kinds of books are, who some of your favourite authors are, and anything else you'd like to share.
lifeinpoetry answered:
I answered your questions after the read-more. This ask kind of got away with me.
Favorite Authors
Sandra Cisneros (queen)
Dorothy Allison
Margaret Atwood
Anne Carson
Angela Carter
Hélène Cixous
Sierra DeMulder
Natalie Díaz
Joy Harjo
Sarah Kane
Jamaica Kincaid
Dorianne Laux
Li-Young Lee
Audre Lorde
Maggie Nelson
Sylvia Plath
Adrienne Rich
Rainer Maria Rilke
Anne Sexton
Warsan Shire
Richard Siken
Rebecca Solnit
Marina Tsvetaeva
Catherynne M. Valente
Jeanann Verlee
Edith Wharton
Jeanette Winterson
Favorite Books
Poetry
Selected Poems: 1965-1975 – Margaret Atwood
Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson
Loose Woman: Poems – Sandra Cisneros
bone – Yrsa Daley-Ward
Letters from Medea – Salma Deera
The Bones Below – Sierra DeMulder
New Shoes On A Dead Horse – Sierra DeMulder
When My Brother Was an Aztec – Natalie Díaz
The Waste Land – T.S. Eliot
Blue Hour – Carolyn Forché
Kingdom Animalia – Aracelis Girmay
Erosion – Jorie Graham
How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems 1975-2002 – Joy Harjo
She Had Some Horses – Joy Harjo
What the Living Do: Poems – Marie Howe
What We Carry – Dorianne Laux
The Black Unicorn: Poems – Audre Lorde
Bluets – Maggie Nelson
Pelican – Emily O’Neill
Lunch Poems – Frank O’Hara
Ariel: The Restored Edition – Sylvia Plath
Citizen: An American Lyric – Claudia Rankine
Diving into the Wreck – Adrienne Rich
The Dream of a Common Language – Adrienne Rich
The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho – Sappho (tr. Anne Carson)
Love Poems – Anne Sexton
Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth – Warsan Shire
Crush – Richard Siken
Bride of Ice: New Selected Poems – Marina Tsvetaeva
Said the Manic to the Muse – Jeanann Verlee
salt. – Nayyirah Waheed
Essays
Decreation – Anne Carson
Plainwater: Essays and Poetry – Anne Carson
Coming to Writing and Other Essays – Hélène Cixous
The Laugh of the Medusa – Hélène Cixous
Stigmata: Escaping Texts – Hélène Cixous
A Field Guide to Getting Lost – Rebecca Solnit
Fragments/Diary
A Lover’s Dictionary: Fragments – Roland Barthes
Mourning Diary – Roland Barthes
Letters
Letters to Milena – Franz Kafka
Memoirs
The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
Wasted – Marya Hornbacher
Girl, Interrupted – Susanna Kaysen
The Woman Warrior – Maxine Hong Kingston
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? – Jeanette Winterson
Novels
Bastard Out of Carolina – Dorothy Allison
Persuasion – Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood
The Last Unicorn – Peter S. Beagle
The Hours – Michael Cunningham
The Lover – Marguerite Duras
As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner
Ordinary People – Judith Guest
Notes on a Scandal – Zoë Heller
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez
Last Words from Montmartre – Qiu Miaojin
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
Deathless – Catherynne M. Valente
The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Written on the Body – Jeanette Winterson
Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
Short Stories
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven – Sherman Alexie
Trash: Stories – Dorothy Allison
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories – Angela Carter
Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories – Sandra Cisneros
At the Bottom of a River – Jamaica Kincaid
Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri
The Bread We Eat in Dreams – Catherynne M. Valente
Plays
Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett
4.48 Psychosis – Sarah Kane
Crave – Sarah Kane
Hamletmachine – Heiner Müller
No Exit – Jean-Paul Sartre
The Clean House and Other Plays – Sarah Ruhl
The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
