Suggestions

[Mirabell]

Very cool idea. say, for instant recommendations, in what direction would you duirect yr hungry reader's gaze? thick book, thin book? german, british, american, estonian, etc? genre? easy, dense? any preferences? c'mon you need to feed the recommendation machine (that's my humble self).

[Irene Wilde]

Well, for instance, this humble reader tends to like books written between the wars (WWI and WWII), and is pretty well versed in the Anglo and American writers of that period, but would like to see what the rest of the world was writing during this time. Also, since these books would have to be schlepped with the rest of the luggage (the very worst part of travel), light in weight would be a consideration, but not necessarily light on ideas since 11 hours on a plane is plenty of time to be completely absorbed by the content.

But I'm sure anyone who has been reading any length of time has those two or three general recommendations they make when asked. I would guess mine would be Cosmicomics, Carry On, Jeeves, and The Crying of Lot 49.

[Sybarite]

Really nice idea, Irene.

Help ... now that's made me think. I'll get back to you.

[Stewart]

It's a good idea and something can be stuck in the profile regarding 'my recommended books'. I would also direct you to - and encourage everyone to use - the Tags feature (my quickie tutorial here) whereby we can describe the threads in as many ways as we can. Currently we are only doing tags like the writer's name, their language, their translator, and what type of literature it is (i.e. Russian Literature). But there's nothing to say we can't be sticking in descriptive tags relating to genre, theme, years, style, content, and more to say things like 1940s, weird, dystopian, feminist, non-fiction, exile, poetic, western, short stories, family saga, fantasy, romance, immigration, envy, historical, comedy, postmodern, navel-gazing, war, literary theory, translation, europe, jewish, new age, beat, unreliable narrator, and roman à clef.

The more tags we have on books as people describe them in this way the better the tag search will become. So, you want historical fiction, click historical; you want books from the 1940s, click 1940s; you want novels about war, click war; and so on. So, in Irene's case above, interested in books between the wars, she could click on 1930s, if there's a tag, and have returned all books with a 1930s tag. It's a powerful way to get recommendations - we just need to use it.

[Eric]

Irene, if you want a fairly looney, rapid-paced book about a mysterious trip to Leningrad, vampires, plus asides, cut up into short sections, you could try Mati Unt's Diary of a Blood Donor, published by Dalkey just last month. It weighs 275 grammes or 10 ounces. And has 212 pages. I'll be reviewing it here later. (No, I didn't translate it. I'm vain, but not that vain.)

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Irene Wilde

Well, for instance, this humble reader tends to like books written between the wars (WWI and WWII), and is pretty well versed in the Anglo and American writers of that period, but would like to see what the rest of the world was writing during this time. Also, since these books would have to be schlepped with the rest of the luggage (the very worst part of travel), light in weight would be a consideration, but not necessarily light on ideas since 11 hours on a plane is plenty of time to be completely absorbed by the content.

But I'm sure anyone who has been reading any length of time has those two or three general recommendations they make when asked. I would guess mine would be Cosmicomics, Carry On, Jeeves, and The Crying of Lot 49.

Henry Roth Call it sleep's one of the best 20th century novels I read. take that one. realism, theology, linguistic genius rolled up in one delicious delirious bun

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

Henry Roth Call it sleep's one of the best 20th century novels I read. take that one. realism, theology, linguistic genius rolled up in one delicious delirious bun

And there's a thread for it: Henry Roth: Call It Sleep.

[cuchulain]

I have an odd one.

A thread for do-it-yourself translations.

Meaning, we have several people here who speak several languages. I would be very interested in seeing someone take a poem or a snippet from a novel or short story . . . translate it into English without any art whatsoever. Just a straight, word for word basic translation . . . to the degree possible. Then, ask for reworkings by the various forumers.

So, again . . . post the original. Post an exact, literal translation to the degree possible. And open things up for forumers to make it into "art".

[aquablue]

In the short time I have been a member, I have found WLF highly informative; a deeply versed membership makes it so.

Great job Stewart!

This forum will continue (I hope) for a long, long time. Again, well done my friend.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by cuchulain

I have an odd one.

A thread for do-it-yourself translations.

There's nothing to stop you starting a thread, probably best in the Literary Translations forum. Of course, if it grows and proves popular, we can then expand it to an area all to itself.

[cuchulain]

Thanks, Stewart.

But I couldn't get it going at all. Don't have the translation chops. Just English. Took Spanish and French in school, but have forgotten pretty much everything.

Anyway . . . the site is excellent as is. Twas just a thought . . .

[Irene Wilde]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

Very cool idea. say, for instant recommendations, in what direction would you duirect yr hungry reader's gaze? thick book, thin book? german, british, american, estonian, etc? genre? easy, dense? any preferences? c'mon you need to feed the recommendation machine (that's my humble self).

Any feeling for Andre Breton's Nadja? Looks intriguing, written in 1928, Paris, insanity, surrealists.

[cuchulain]

I read it (Nadja) years ago, Irene. Liked it. But it didn't strike me as great. Didn't see it as essential. I like his poetry much more.

One of the best novels I've read in years is Peter Behren's The Law of Dreams. Couldn't put it down. Unique prose, a stirring story, and very well constructed.

Set in Ireland initially, during the Great Famine of the mid-1840s, it's an adventure story with much, much more to it than that.

[ions]

How about a forum theme option? As spiffy as the design is I'd really like to be using my resolution to display content rather than a gradient grey.

[spooooool]

for Irene -

Margaret Yourcenar's "memoirs of Hadrian" is a fairly short book, as are some of the novels of Celine (brilliant but disgusting) Beckett (goes without saying) you might also try the work of Mavis Gallant, the novels of Iris Murdoch (i'm just now reading them a long time after the essays/philosophy and she's lovely to come back to)

i've likely wandered hopelessy off topic, but never mind,

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by ions

How about a forum theme option? As spiffy as the design is I'd really like to be using my resolution to display content rather than a gradient grey.

I'll have a think about what can be done.

[Jayaprakash]

The 'Reading' field in the profile is a good idea for this forum. But it doesn't quite work for someone (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) who is usually working through several books at a time.

That aside, nice forum and I'm very happy with the emphasis on world literature. I'm sure having seperate sections for different geographies will help inspire people to try and explore the literature of different regions, if only not to feel left out of any of the sub-forums!

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Jayaprakash

The 'Reading' field in the profile is a good idea for this forum. But it doesn't quite work for someone (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) who is usually working through several books at a time.

That aside, nice forum and I'm very happy with the emphasis on world literature. I'm sure having seperate sections for different geographies will help inspire people to try and explore the literature of different regions, if only not to feel left out of any of the sub-forums!

Current Reads

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Jayaprakash

The 'Reading' field in the profile is a good idea for this forum. But it doesn't quite work for someone (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) who is usually working through several books at a time.

There's not much I can do, other than add more and more books into profiles, but then that will begin to take focus off the threads, what with each post listing that posters current reads. I may try and learn some more coding to perhaps get a little balloon to pop up, or something, but that will be a while off.

That aside, nice forum and I'm very happy with the emphasis on world literature. I'm sure having seperate sections for different geographies will help inspire people to try and explore the literature of different regions, if only not to feel left out of any of the sub-forums!

Thanks. Out of many book forums on the internet most seem to follow the layout of separate areas by genre: Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi, etc.- by doing so, especially in retaining the original vBulletin template, they begin to feel samey. That, and my interest in world lit necessitated a forum to talk to people about it, rather than find out what another person thinks about Stephanie Meyer, or whoever.

[Jayaprakash]

Originally Posted by Stewart

There's not much I can do, other than add more and more books into profiles, but then that will begin to take focus off the threads,

That's true. Book forums can dwindle to extensive catalogues of what everyone's read and not enough dialogue on what it all meant. People can always use Mirabell's thread or use the signature field to maintain an updated list.