It is unclear how ironically Shakespeare wants us to regard Polonius' advice to Laertes. The character is certainly treated as a foolish old man elsewhere in the play, but the content of the speech is not foolish. The contradiction is similar to what occurs when Claudius delivers his monologue later in the play and reveals himself to be conscience-ridden. Up until that point Shakespeare has presented him as a twodimensional villian. Suddenly we see new depth.
Some time back, I started reading a book by Alain de Botton which in called something like How Proust Can Change Your Life. My reading was interrupted and I just got back to it. So funny it may change my life!!
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It was reading assignment in junior high school, but it's one story that stays with me, although I've read many books since then, and forgotten most of them. c.i.
I left out a book -- or rather a whole collection of books: Calvino's Invisible Cities... and then on and on to read pretty much everything he wrote.
CI,
I enjoyed Les Miserables as well. Read it two years ago. Some of those big 19th C books are wonderful.
they are writing new 'uns in imitation of them!
I know that I am beginning to sound like a broken record, but unless something has drastically changed, this thread is about BOOKS.
I am locking this thread.
Thread is open. I have a book that made a spectacular difference in my life, but it'll have to wait for later. I have to get to the super market before it gets too zooey today!
This book has so much meaning to me and my mother. It is our book. It is one of the first books I read on my own as a 3 year old. I still pull out a copy for comfort on occasion.
There are other, more important, more serious, books that have had meaning in my life - but Eloise means reading and zest for life to me.
Tell us about Eloise.
She sounds a little familiar.....
I LOOOOOVE books like that...
oh dear tiny weenottheEaster bunny - don't ask me to talk about Eloise. I'm pretty much unstoppable on the topic. I love that room-service ordering girl.
this is from the
Eloise Website :
Quote:"I am Eloise. I am six. I am a city child. I live at the Plaza."
Thus begins our introduction to Eloise. Born circa 1949 and introduced to us in 1955, Eloise's adventures have come to life in a series of four books. We learn all about Eloise, Nanny, her "rawther" British nanny, her dog Weenie who looks like a cat, and her turtle Skipperdee who eats raisins and wears sneakers. An international traveler, Eloise has been to Paris and Moscow too!
Eloise endlessly roams the landmark hotel in search of adventure. She attends weddings, invited or not. She spies on debutantes as they dance in the Terrace Room. The morning routine includes helping the maid change the sheets, even if she doesn't ask for help.
you resemble her, said the prince, as saralinda resembles the rose!
I was very ill ( from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis ) at the age
of 8, during which time I was bedridden for an entire school
year - and I had much time to read. Some of the most
influential books for me were no doubt the earliest and I
read every book Pearl Buck ever wrote. All she ever wrote
about were the far eastern cultures where she had traveled
and spent a great deal of her life. I grew up believing in the
kind of courtesy that the far eastern cultures practice, and
was harshly surprised in life by many of the people I have
met who are brutish, ignorant, rude or unkind. I understand
that I got my sense of what is polite and well mannered
from Pearl Buck's relating her stories of the people of China,
Korea, Japan - many many years ago. What they are like
now, I have no idea. But their old cultures - like the Tibetans,
were steeped in culture, courtesy, kindness, as well as beliefs
in many silly superstitions. No doubt the greatest impact on
my life because I was so young and impressionable and my
mother was a drunk and bi polar, so I naturally wished for
& hoped for, believed in - a better state of affairs than the
conditions into which I was born in this life. A VERY good
topic dlowan!!!
:wink: Don't ask me for an explanation but the work of J.R.R. Tolkein and the book, "Shogun", by somebody, has changed my life. There are so many others that greatly influenced me; like "To Kill a Mocking Bird" and "In Cold Blood".
James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales. These include The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers and The Prairie. The description of desecration of natural areas primed me an interest in ecology and conservation. I was shocked to find it so described so long ago.
I would say the book that change my life was the Worl Of Sophia, by Jostein Gaardner, it introduced me to Philosophy & gave me a clear vision of the world & the knowledge
Sorry people, I have not been attending to this topic well.
Babs - I read Pearl S Buck's books on China avidly as a child - they had the wonderful effect of seeming to allow me to view my own culture from outside, and to view China's from inside. I say "seemed" because I wonder how accurate her views were, from the Chinese point of view? They led me on to reading lots of other books about other cultures - which hopefully allowed me to be less prejudiced and ignorant than I would otherwise have been - Australia's middle class, white culture at the time being almost unbelievably smug, ignorant and arrogant.
Dammit, Dov, an explanation is exactly what is wanted!
Interesting reason for finding those books wonderful, Bobsmyth. Hence the hawk, no?
Welcome to A2k, Dux! Has that book made any practical difference in your life, I wonder?
Thanx dlowan, & no it didn't make any practical my life, & i don't like to be practical right now, but it did gave me path to go through my life, & since that day I realized how little i was, but ironically since then I put myself above all things.
Btw, I guess i don't need to be practical since i'm only 15 years old
!
