Your all time favorite books

[Taomeow]

1 minute ago, Kojiro said:

I will let you know if I finally decide to read it By the way, if you are a true ponerologist then I guess you love Dostoievski

 

Sorry to say I don't.  

19th century Russian literature, to me personally, is primarily about poetry, vast, superb, effortlessly masterful, and barely translatable without losing 95% of its poetic impact.  The mastodons of prose of that century are, to me, like mastodons in a museum of natural history -- impressive but somewhat dusty...  besides, I'm a bit rusty, read "it all" too long ago.  

[forestofclarity]

I read about half of Brothers Karamazov. I thought it was going to be long, slow reading but strangely it pulled me in like a novel. I think it appeals to a certain type of person who feels pulled between heaven and earth, so to speak. A good reminder that I should probably continue it. 

 

The problem of evil is probably the strongest (and some say only) formal argument against the existence of a higher power. I would suggest it can be dissolved by reframing what action is and what God is. 

[Sir Darius the Clairvoyent]

Id like to mention the Eddas as well. Here are a few stanzas from Voluspa, the creation story:

Quote

1. Hearing I ask | from the holy races,
From Heimdall's sons, | both high and low;
Thou wilt, Valfather, | that well I relate
Old tales I remember | of men long ago.

2. I remember yet | the giants of yore,
Who gave me bread | in the days gone by;
Nine worlds I knew, | the nine in the tree
With mighty roots | beneath the mold.

3. Of old was the age | when Ymir lived;
Sea nor cool waves | nor sand there were;
Earth had not been, | nor heaven above,
But a yawning gap, | and grass nowhere.

4. Then Bur's sons lifted | the level land,
Mithgarth the mighty | there they made;
The sun from the south | warmed the stones of earth,
And green was the ground | with growing leeks.

5. The sun, the sister | of the moon, from the south
Her right hand cast | over heaven's rim;
No knowledge she had | where her home should be,
The moon knew not | what might was his,
The stars knew not | where their stations were.

Same verses in Old norse, english subs in bottom left corner:

 

Edited July 17, 2024 by NaturaNaturans

[Kojiro]

and what about Thomas Pynchon? any fan of him here?

[rocala]

Summerhill - A.S. Neil

1984 - George Orwell

Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

How the World Works - Noam Chomsky

The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell

Soil and Soul - Alastair McIntosh

[manitou]

When I was a kid, I couldn't get enough of East of the Sun and West of the Moon.  Strange things about books, they have a way of laying your life out for you.  I must have really internalized this book, because my entire life seemed to reenact over and over the love relationship she had with the troll.

I wish I were kidding.

[silent thunder]

@manitou That is one of my all time favorites as well. 

I love this version...

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2024 by silent thunder