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Hey TL, I thought I would make a blog about this. Nothing too serious this time.
Summer Reading
Let me start out by saying this isn't for school, this is for me. I thought about doing this, and though I'm not original in doing so, I can say this is something I want to do for me and not anyone else. I want to write better, in every facet, in every conceivable way. I'm reading as much as I can because I've been told that the only real way to become a better writer is to write and read even more. With that said, here is my game plan, and I want advice from you guys on it.
The plan so far is to read a bunch of books and I'm around 6 in, I'm not going in actual order because my library doesn't have all of the books. Unfortunate for linearity, but hey, life is rarely linear. I read about 100 pages a day because I find that is all I can really get through while doing other things I need to; sometimes I read more, sometimes less, but it averages out to be 100 pages. So far I've read L'etranger, The Trial, The Little Prince, Man's Fate, Journey to the End of the Night, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, and I've really enjoyed the experience so far. I'm about to read One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is looking to be a great experience too. So far the general trend is for the first 100 pages to leave me totally lost, the next 100 to be better, and the last 100 to be extraordinary; this wasn't the case for L'etranger, The Trial, or The Little Prince only because they weren't 300 pages long and were all gripping from the beginning. L'etranger might be the best book I've ever read in my life, while Man's Fate comes in second and Journey to the End of the Night is firmly in third. I think that I enjoy these books all the more because I'm doing this out of my own want, rather than for any class.
While all of this is fine and good, I want to get something out of this. I want to become a better writer, and I want to become a more learned person before college starts. Most of this is because I have a dream that I'm going to realize in writing a book before I turn 30, and I don't want to be a shit writer by then (or at least be better than me now). I'm going to be taking History, Philosophy, and Composition (writing not music) classes in college, which should help with this goal also. I'm going to accomplish this, but I'd like to not run in circles in doing so, which is part of the reason I'm writing this blog. I don't want to delay any progress I can make in the present.
I've been reading, I see how the great writers of the modernist movement write, and now I want to know how to proceed from here; I'm going to continue reading, and I'm going to add a few books to that 100 book list since I'm not reading all of them due to the fact that some aren't translated or aren't even novels (like Gulag Archipelago, which was a Samizdat book about the gulags and is enormous). One of the books I'm adding is Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, and I'm adding various bits of poetry since I want to learn how to write poetry. So far this is my general plan, and I'm following through with it, but I guess I just don't want to get lost. Have any of you guys attempted something like this? If you guys have any advice for becoming a better writer or accomplishing this goal, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks for reading guys  .
  
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if you liked the stranger try tao lin, his new book comes out next week
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I can only give you a big fat thumbs up on this. And side with everyone who´s every told you that the only way to improve your writing is to write. Reading of course helps a great deal, too, increasing your vocabulary and subconsciously learning how to use idioms and whatnot.
But in my own experience I find it best to limit yourself to only a couple of "influences" at a time (Or my own writing tends to get all jumbled) and work on devoloping your own style of writing by slowly adding to it and adopting phrasing-techniques from your favorite inspiring authors.
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Learn french or pick another list.
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If you're going by a list(which is a tricky thing to do), I think this one is better:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_Best_Books_of_All_Time
LeMonde's list is way too french centric(not that french literature doesn't deserve it), but I find this like World Library list more varied. Also by limiting yourself to the 20th century you miss a lot of great authors.
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On June 02 2013 05:26 AiurZ wrote:
if you liked the stranger try tao lin, his new book comes out next week
this book? I'll definitely look into it.
On June 02 2013 06:27 Glaive wrote:
I can only give you a big fat thumbs up on this. And side with everyone who´s every told you that the only way to improve your writing is to write. Reading of course helps a great deal, too, increasing your vocabulary and subconsciously learning how to use idioms and whatnot.
But in my own experience I find it best to limit yourself to only a couple of "influences" at a time (Or my own writing tends to get all jumbled) and work on devoloping your own style of writing by slowly adding to it and adopting phrasing-techniques from your favorite inspiring authors.
I'm working on learning from modernists and writers like Marquez who use magical hallucinatory realism. Post-Modernism is cool, but I need to read Wallace for me to totally grasp that.
On June 02 2013 08:00 dmnum wrote:If you're going by a list(which is a tricky thing to do), I think this one is better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_Best_Books_of_All_TimeLeMonde's list is way too french centric(not that french literature doesn't deserve it), but I find this like World Library list more varied. Also by limiting yourself to the 20th century you miss a lot of great authors.
The reason I picke Le Monde was because it is focused on this century and modernism + post-modernism rather than the ones before. Though its french centric nature can be an issue, and actually it was written about. I am really enjoying the french writing though. I actually did look at that list also, and I'll pick out the modernist and post-modernist books from it too to read.
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yea im rly excited about taipei, everything ive read from it so far is rly good.
you can find richard yeats online, i really liked that book too, really inspiring in terms of writing
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Dante's Divina Commedia - translation by Mark Musa - is one of the best books I've ever read. The imagery is amazing. I'm surprised to find it not on the list.
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Im really curious as to what drives you to read so much fictional work. I say that because I have always been fascinated by everything that is non-fiction, history of the world, psychology experiments and terms, science, but never really had a yearning for fiction like you do
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On June 02 2013 11:22 Azera wrote:
Do a book blog!
Haha that sounds like a great idea, I'll do it.
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On June 02 2013 11:53 docvoc wrote:Haha that sounds like a great idea, I'll do it.
FUCKING AWESOME! I can't wait to read it. Don't let me down!
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On June 02 2013 11:50 Race is Terran wrote:
Im really curious as to what drives you to read so much fictional work. I say that because I have always been fascinated by everything that is non-fiction, history of the world, psychology experiments and terms, science, but never really had a yearning for fiction like you do
I'm starting to feel a lot like you. I used to read fiction exclusively, and although I still find the writing and the technicalities of it all fascinating, I find that I can't immerse myself in a fictional world. I feel as if every work of fiction that I've read are just unnecessarily long didactic stories. Many people will think I'm a huge idiot because of this though, and I'm inclined to believe so too.
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Baa?21247 Posts
In non-fiction there are facts; in fiction there is truth.
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On June 02 2013 12:51 Azera wrote:Show nested quote +On June 02 2013 11:50 Race is Terran wrote:
Im really curious as to what drives you to read so much fictional work. I say that because I have always been fascinated by everything that is non-fiction, history of the world, psychology experiments and terms, science, but never really had a yearning for fiction like you do I'm starting to feel a lot like you. I used to read fiction exclusively, and although I still find the writing and the technicalities of it all fascinating, I find that I can't immerse myself in a fictional world. I feel as if every work of fiction that I've read are just unnecessarily long didactic stories. Many people will think I'm a huge idiot because of this though, and I'm inclined to believe so too.
I used to read loads of fiction, every series that I could get my hands on. I read the harry potter series (books 1-4) throughout first-second grade, but I slowly started to notice a pattern. After I was done reading the series, the series would always end, and that would be the end of the characters of the book. After finishing the star wars books (new republic, yuuzhan vong and the lotr fiction), I just lost interest in reading, now everytime I read fiction it feels like a waste of MY time
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On June 02 2013 12:58 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
In non-fiction there are facts; in fiction there is truth.
Who said that one? That is definitely one of the best quotes I've ever seen.
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I don't get it 
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On June 02 2013 09:52 docvoc wrote:Show nested quote +On June 02 2013 06:27 Glaive wrote:
I can only give you a big fat thumbs up on this. And side with everyone who´s every told you that the only way to improve your writing is to write. Reading of course helps a great deal, too, increasing your vocabulary and subconsciously learning how to use idioms and whatnot.
But in my own experience I find it best to limit yourself to only a couple of "influences" at a time (Or my own writing tends to get all jumbled) and work on devoloping your own style of writing by slowly adding to it and adopting phrasing-techniques from your favorite inspiring authors.
I'm working on learning from modernists and writers like Marquez who use magical hallucinatory realism. Post-Modernism is cool, but I need to read Wallace for me to totally grasp that.
Wow, very specific and learned choices
I think that´s way more advanced english than I´ll ever learn - since I´m primarily a blogger in english. Although I write pretty seriously in my native tongue and have a book about eSports in the works. And I love reading poetry "at that level" in swedish. I never read a lot of books myself, but I thorougly enjoy writing. It would be pretty neat to be able to translate the book myself, and not have someone "butcher my thoughts" in order to fix all the errors. Apparently that happens alot.
But those are some pretty damn good things you´ve picked there to be working on if you want to improve your writing by learning from example. That is for sure.
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Baa?21247 Posts
On June 02 2013 13:20 docvoc wrote:Show nested quote +On June 02 2013 12:58 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
In non-fiction there are facts; in fiction there is truth. Who said that one? That is definitely one of the best quotes I've ever seen.
afaik i made it up
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To the op, remember to enjoy reading!
On June 02 2013 12:58 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
In non-fiction there are facts; in fiction there is truth.
deep sheep
On June 02 2013 11:50 Race is Terran wrote:
Im really curious as to what drives you to read so much fictional work. I say that because I have always been fascinated by everything that is non-fiction, history of the world, psychology experiments and terms, science, but never really had a yearning for fiction like you do
On June 02 2013 13:24 Azera wrote:I don't get it
Here is how I interpreted it. Heidegger in his "Question Concerning Technology" talks about how our current (mis)understanding of the word truth as only facts comes from the roman word veritas. Heidegger then argues that veritas is a misunderstanding of the Greek word alethia which meant revealing, as in truth is how the world shows itself to a person. So the quote is that non-fiction focuses on facts but in fiction there is truth which focuses on how the world appears to people. From this it follows that there are different "truths" in the Greek sense while in the Roman/our sense there is only one truth which is the facts of logic/science.
Fiction can be criticized as something made up so that its a lie which is why some don't find the appeal in it. I like the quote because it explains what fiction can do that non-fiction can't do as well. Fiction allows you to see another person's world. You can enjoy immersing yourself into the story/relate to the characters or enjoy learning about other people's lives. Also I am not putting down science, math and logic. They are beautiful things themselves but what I would say is that Western thought puts such an emphasis on them that it puts down any other way to understand the world. Even when the subjective side is recognized it is considered lower than the objective. I don't think one is better than the other. They are both ways the world we live in reveals itself to us.
To sum up, I enjoy fiction which I would say have "depth" (really allows you to understand the characters) in that it teaches me how other people can view the world. I also enjoy shallower stuff because I just get really immersed in the world/story that the author creates or just relate to the characters.
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ilikestarcraft, I really enjoyed your post about translating the word truth from Greek to Roman. It makes sense. Really there is a lot more Greek truth than Roman truth in fiction, a la Carnivorous Sheep.
Sometimes I feel like reading fiction is a waste of time. But then I come across some amazing quote that gives me a life lesson to be remembered and followed forever. And really, which character gives and receives the quote makes a difference, because the words could be perceived differently otherwise. I always either write down the quote itself or the page number it's on in my little notebook. I also keep this for vocabulary; when I see a word I don't know I jot down the page number and word and continue. At the end of the chapter I look them up, and if I need context I'll have it.
Here's one of those quotes.
But if hope should not fail, then I say to you, Gimli son of Glóin, that your hands shall flow with gold, and yet over you gold shall have no dominion.
~The Lady Galadriel, The Lord of the Rings
And another:
The mind can go either direction under stress--toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training.
~Jessica Atreides, Dune
Take of them what you may.
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EPT
