Introduce yourself

[Stevie B]

I have a copy of that, but haven't read it yet.

I'm guilty of the same charge. It's a 600-pager, so it will require a commitment when the time comes. I think it would be great if you started a Newfoundland literature thread. I figured Michael Crummey would make the cut, but Lisa Moore is a new name to me. I was also thinking about Riel Nason, but I can't recall if she's from Newfoundland or New Brunswick. I taught her novel The Town that Drowned to a class of high school students a few years back, and really enjoyed that one. Of course, there's always The Shipping News by Newfoundland transplant, Annie Proulx.

 

[Leseratte]

Hello....after several years of visiting this forum, I've decided to finally join and participate.

About me -- I'm 52, Canadian. I'm from Newfoundland, grew up and went to university there, and still consider it 'home' although I've lived in Toronto for 30 years now. I've always liked reading and have enjoyed literature since I was a teenager. I'm not sure how to characterize my reading habits, except to say that I never manage to read as much as I'd like to -- I guess most of would say that though. I have pretty wide-ranging tastes, I like classics as well as contemporary literary fiction, poetry, and essays. I'm the type of person who tries to take the positive from each reading experience, so while I won't hesitate to critique aspects of a book, it's not often that I truly dislike something so much that I'd give it a rating of 1 or 2 stars out of 5, for example.

I do actively seek out more obscure authors from around the world and literature in translation...probably 25-30% of the books I own are translated from another language (except French which I usually read in the original). So it's maybe unsurprising that I would find this forum intriguing .

Other interests of mine include film, sports, history, politics, geography, travel, photography, and learning foreign languages.

Since I joined after the Nobel announcement, I'll just say I haven't read anything by Annie Ernaux yet, but she seems a worthy recipient of the prize.

I likely won't be the most frequent poster, but will try to contribute a semi-intelligent comment occasionally

Kind regards,

Andrew

Welcome, Andrew!

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Also interested in Newfoundland! I often write here of my enthusiasm for CanLit and CanHistory, although I am well aware that, not having joined the Confederation until 1949, Newfoundland is somewhat of a separate proposition.

Also like what you say about taking the positive from reading experiences. I am the resident over-enthusiast here, liking pretty much everything and writing about books that probably no one else would give the time of day to. ?

 

[shipeichong]

Shipeichong from Singapore, Nice to meet you all!

 

[The Common Reader]

Shipeichong from Singapore, Nice to meet you all!

Welcome to The Forum, Shipeichong!

 

[Ben Jackson]

Hi everyone! After some months of lurking I have finally decided to join.

I am a 23 year-old from South Africa who is regrettably embroiled in articles to become a chartered accountant. While a stable, upper-middle-class life is all but guaranteed for me at this point, my true ambitions lie in the arts. I have always dreamt of being a novelist one day and nothing brings me greater pleasure than having my senses aroused by cinema, music and literature (in coming years I hope to expand that list to include ballet, opera, painting, theatre, etc). My other interests include running and chess.

I have come to the unpleasant realisation that I have done little in the past few years to further my literary ambitions and moreover to become the well-educated, refined and, dare I say, "intellectual" person I hope to be. Surrounding myself, albeit virtually, with the sort of company I look up to might help with that.

I write when I can and over the next few years I aim to pursue a self-education in literature to build the sound foundation that I am sorely lacking. I have started with the classics (Greek and then Latin works) and will move onto English literature from there. (If any of you have experience with that, please do let me know what common pitfalls I should avoid!)

See you guys around

Cheers.

You are welcome, my friend.
At least another African on the board. I'm a Nigerian, so we hope to get along well.

As for books to avoid, we've various threads where we discuss writers and their key works. Also, the most anticipated moment in the forum, the Nobel Literature Prize Speculation, where we discuss living writers from all over the world with big chances for the Nobel Literature Prize, will be around from May, so you can hang around for that. As an African like me, we've thread on African Literature to get you started with some monumental works from the continent.

 

[Benny Profane]

Hi everyone! After some months of lurking I have finally decided to join.

I am a 23 year-old from South Africa who is regrettably embroiled in articles to become a chartered accountant. While a stable, upper-middle-class life is all but guaranteed for me at this point, my true ambitions lie in the arts. I have always dreamt of being a novelist one day and nothing brings me greater pleasure than having my senses aroused by cinema, music and literature (in coming years I hope to expand that list to include ballet, opera, painting, theatre, etc). My other interests include running and chess.

I have come to the unpleasant realisation that I have done little in the past few years to further my literary ambitions and moreover to become the well-educated, refined and, dare I say, "intellectual" person I hope to be. Surrounding myself, albeit virtually, with the sort of company I look up to might help with that.

I write when I can and over the next few years I aim to pursue a self-education in literature to build the sound foundation that I am sorely lacking. I have started with the classics (Greek and then Latin works) and will move onto English literature from there. (If any of you have experience with that, please do let me know what common pitfalls I should avoid!)

See you guys around

Cheers.

Very welcome to our forum, @Gdonis!
I have an intention to be a writer and, in my case, a translator too. If you want to share your experiences with me about creative writing, please feel free to do this!

 

[Leseratte]

A warm wellcome @ Gdonis!