wsimpson3144 is not currently reading any books.
I’m 24 years old, male, from the United States. I’ve been a DailyLit member since January 29, 2009. My reading interests include classics, science fiction, and and sarcasm.
Books
- Consuelo, Tome I finished
- The Jungle Book finished
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Les Miserables finished
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Oresteia: Agamemnon finished
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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner finished
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The Count of Monte Cristo finished
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Father Goriot finished
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Candide finished
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On the Decay of the Art of Lying finished
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A Modest Proposal finished
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Dr. Heidegger's Experiment finished
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2BRO2B finished
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Walden finished
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Utopia finished
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Tartuffe finished
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Pudd'nhead Wilson finished
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Anna Karenina finished
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The Three Musketeers finished
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button finished
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3 Short Reads by Edgar Allan Poe finished
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Life on the Mississippi finished
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Robinson Crusoe finished
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Kidnapped finished
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Treasure Island finished
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The Prince and the Pauper finished
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Crome Yellow finished
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Through the Looking-Glass finished
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland finished
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The Importance of Being Earnest finished
- The Idiot suspended
Posts
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - strange...
a bit strange, but interesting at the end. overall, a good read.
The Count of Monte Cristo - exciting!
one of the first books i read that really got me into reading for pleasure, it was great to read it for a second time.
this is an absolutely incredible book.
Etc. - Title = a person's name.
eclipse0827 beat me to Ivan Denisovich, so nix that.
Etc. - Title = a person's name.
madame bovary (Flaubert)
pere goriot (Balzac)
Consuelo (George Sand)
Indiana (George Sand)
Pudd'n head Wilson (Twain)
Dr. Zhivago (Boris Pasternak)
Ivan Denisovich (Alexander Solzhenitsyn) - even though it's actually one day in the life of...
Ideas - Book length
it's definitely possible. when you're browsing a category, you can hit the drop down tab to "filter by length".
that being said, don't let the length of a book discourage you. a lot of times, it's the longer books that have the best character development and the greatest story lines. and if you'd like, you can increase the frequency/length of the installments to make it go quicker.
Arabian nights is great. and the best thing about the book is that it's a collection of shorter stories, so when you're reading, you don't get fatigued with the same plot for eight months.
Ideas - Suggestion
also, if you click on that link underneath the title that has "Wassily Kandinsky" in blue, it'll take you to all the books he's written that Amazon offers.
you can thank me by sending me some soft leather.
Ideas - Suggestion
(psst...quick search on amazon):
http://www.amazon.com/Concerning-Spiritual-Art-Wassily-Kandinsky/dp/0486234118
i'm not sure if you're willing to sacrifice the decorated paper, but i think a print version might be worth it.
Oscar Wilde - Oscar Wilde
i also stumbled upon wilde without really knowing much about who he was, or what he represented in a literary capacity. the day after i finished the importance of being earnest, i went and bought "the collected oscar wilde" from the B&N classics section (you know in that standardized B&N section) and am absolutely loving it.
i've always knew the name oscar wilde in a very vague sense, but never would i think i would enjoy his works as much as i actually do. i guess all that's left is to thank daily lit, huh?
Ideas - Production Queue?
I might be using the terminology incorrectly, but i think it would be tremendous to see the list of books in the production queue (what i'm assuming to be the list of books that you are either trying to get the copyright for, or that someone just needs to format because they are already in the public domain).
this would sort of allow everyone, me especially, to get excited about the books that are coming out, and might be cause for some clearing up of confusion over what's in the works and what's not, preventing the need for repeat requests.
Ideas - More Than Daily...
The bite sized chunks idea is great, but i think the true idea of that "get the next installment now" idea is so that if you get really into a book, like i definitely have on this website, you don't have to wait to see what's going to happen.
now if only we can get the same feature for Lost...
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #25: Memorable Mothers
Roxana from Pudd'nhead Wilson serves as both spectrums of motherhood. First, she's a great mother, because she had tried to aide her son by getting him out of slavery by switching him with a white boy of the same age. however, this eventually destroys him, because he becomes spoiled and cowardly as a result. This thrust him into a nature vs. nurture issue, highlighting the struggle between one's environment and one's innate personality, but it all stemmed from the mother's action.
regardless of the outcome, she always stood by her son, and tried her best to correct his path, which, i suppose, redeems her of the bad outcomes of her actions driven out of good intentions.
Pudd'nhead Wilson - Pudd'nhead Wilson
Great book. even though i knew how the plot would turn out half way through the book, i still thoroughly enjoyed this book. and i always enjoy the social commentary.
Anna Karenina - anna karenina
an incredibly wonderful book. getting through this, and reading diligently really paid off. the whole book was amazing in that you could not only understand who the characters are (there were almost no one dimensional characters in the book) but you could also understand, and believe in, their actions and motivations. a wonderful book that gives a great perspective into everyday life, and some of the issues dealt with outside the book.
all in all, i strongly recommend this, if you've got the time.
The Three Musketeers - greatest book...ever.
greatest book...ever.
Etc. - Question of the Week #19: Favorite Poems
for me, the red wheelbarrow by william carlos williams:
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
there's something beautiful in its simplicity, and its picturesque description of something commonplace, but beautiful in its commonness.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - big read
this was very typically fitzgerald. interesting idea, but the language was almost passionless, which is something that i find in a lot of fitzgerald works, as well as hemingway (both of whom, i'm not a fan)
Life on the Mississippi - eh...
For a Twain Piece, this was incredibly difficult to get through. i almost dreaded having to read this, especially with the entire beginning consisting of a historical account of the river that was almost written in purple prose.
Etc. - Question of the Week #17: Why do you DailyLit?
I was actually sitting in a cafe somewhere while trying to read a play by moliere on my blackberry from Project Gutenberg when someone, who is nosier than most, asks me if I'm reading that day's installment of DailyLit. Of course, I had no idea what that was, and he introduced me to it. Now, instead of the daunting task of trying to get through large works of literature on small PDA's, I've got these bite-sized chunks of managable reading that ends up working much better than trying to motivate yourself to get through x number of Blackberry Wheel Scrolls before you're done.
And because I do have more time than most, I've been able to actually increase how much I read, and put my rusted Frech major to the test with a french language book with a definite goal, and a definite plan to achieve the goal.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #14: Books You Hate
I've hated Hemingway for as long as I knew that he existed. Something about his self-congratulatory demeanor and relentless Fitzgerald reverence (another writer I'm not crazy about) really bothers me.
But in the way of books (as opposed to writers), Vonnegut's first novel - Player Piano - seemed as though it was a little juvinile and undeveloped, although I'm a diehard Vonnegut fan.
The Prince and the Pauper - "you should read it sometime"
Interesting and clever, but it seems to be a gimmick that has been overdone in recent years (which, I'm sure isn't the case during Twain's time - but still). Regardless, I love Twain, and would recommend this. But not strongly, probably like if we were having a conversation and in the middle of our conversation you just happened to notice the book on the coffee table, to which I responded, "yeah, you should read it sometime".
Book Requests - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I definitely agree on this one. This was seriously the first one I looked for as well. It seems strange that they don't have it here. I would love to see this added.
Question of the Week - Question of the Week #13: Love is in the Air (or Book)
It's a little difficult for me to choose for two reasons - first, the women in the books i have read are boring. they're devoted women who wait around at home for the hero to return for their monthly ravashing. secondly - i seem to only have read adventure novels, which makes the first point a rather obvious one.
however, upon reading Anna Karenina, i'm finding that the women in this story - the complicated emotional wrecks that they sometimes are - have some very attractive qualities, namely the seemingly immature nature of Kitty. (granted, i've only read a very tiny amount of the book, so i'm sure this will change over the length of the book).
Etc. - Question of the Week #12: Unfinished Books
undoubtedly - war and peace. the way it switches between the, strangely enough, war and peace scenes frustrated me every single time i picked this thing up. also, you need to keep a list of all the characters just to keep them all straight.
i'll get it one day though. it's in my to-read list (hopefully not forever).
The Importance of Being Earnest - great play
This was a hilariously ridiculous book, quick to read, and simply fun. highly recommended.