>read a book
>enjoy it
>someone asks me what I think about last book I've read
>mind blank
I don't know, brethren, whether I should read on
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You can understand a piece of art intuitively without being able to explain why
(Plato's version of) Socrates btfo
It really is this simple, folks
Why not reply "I enjoyed it"? If they're actaully interested they'll further ask more specific questions.
Most people don't understand why they like the things they enjoy. Look at videogames, people genuinely have no idea why they like or dislike a given game, since it requires training and practise to work out how to analyse the design of a game. It's the same for anything. We find we enjoy certain things and then come up with theories to explain why. The enjoyment is legitimate even without a theory
Have you tried reading for yourself instead of reading to have something to say when asked about books?
Failed English teachers are going to be the death of this board
When you're actually enjoying a book, you'll find things to highlight or underline all over the place, and sometimes those passages you've underlined happen to also be passages which you know you have something to say about. From now on, instead of just seeing something you like in a book and thinking, "Wow, that's incredible," or "Yeah, that's absolute bullshit", mark those passages down as something you'd like to write about after your reading session. Start elaborating on those feelings you get when you read a book. With this, you'll not only retain much more about each book you read, but also form a much better understanding of them and even yourself. A physical journal is preferable, but digital will be just fine to start off with.
today i finished chapter about grandma's death in Guermantes Way and i have highlighted ending sentence of chapter where he describes how woman in death looked more beatiful and youthful than when she was still alive, because there was no pain anymore that was reflected on her face, instead face of dead person was like the most beautiful ancient statue
This reminds me, I really need to get around to reading more Proust.
Job interviewer asked me “what’s the last random act of kindness you did” my mind blanked to am I evil? I remember giving money to a homeless dude a while ago but I must’ve did something else between then and now.
You'd think the type of person who tallies every random act of kindness is not very kind. Someone who does it habitually would no more be able to recall it than the sensation of their last poop.
Not him, but that was my difficulty with the question. I was not able to pinpoint a specific act and found myself wandering into general habits. The dialectic is not simple, though. Charity loses its fundamental principle if it damages a third party more than it benefits a second party. An example being churches that distribute free food to the homeless, thus drawing the homeless people into the neighborhoods of innocent parties, subjecting them to the crime associated with the vagrants being invited into where they do not belong. There is also the argument of ''feeding for a day rather than teaching them to fish''.
This happens to me a lot.
>someone asks me what I think about last book I've read
The first thing I say is either I enjoyed it or I didn’t like it. If the latter, then this often comes with the admission that I didn’t finish (DNF on Goodreads, which I don’t use). I’ve read enough now (by no means well-read) to know what I like, what I don’t like.
I like style and being able to relate to the characters and themes. I like to wrap the story around my own experience (or vice versa?) and thus learn something about myself, or other people. I don’t like novels about systems, or ideas of people. I don’t like allegory.
I need things to feel real, characters and situations. Not like the hysterical realism that James Wood describes
> https://newrepublic.com/article/61361/human-inhuman
Not like the "main stumbling-block" in Howards End, where "Nothing in the exhibition of Margaret's or Henry Wilcox's character makes [their] marriage credible or acceptable."
If someone asks me to elaborate on my comments on the language/style, I can try to talk about imagery, rhythm etc. But I’m never forensic about it, because I don’t really know what makes great prose great.
Whenever I read a bad bit of writing in a novel, I always make a note of it, for example, this is Breakfast at Tiffany’s:> 80 bottom, ‘waves of wind splashed us’ - that is a horrible metaphor (it wasn’t raining in the scene)> And again with the water metaphors! 94 bottom ‘Sharks might have swum through the air’ (during a downpour)Sharks might have swum through the air? That is terrible.
It feels easier to explain out why bad writing is bad, than to explain why good writing is good.
Make you and your friend read the same book. Then discuss. Ask questions. If the characters are real and the novel is “true,” why do they do the things they do? Why do the sometimes behave irrationally? What is the author trying to express? What is the main theme?
Resonate! I need characters to resonate, I need to resonate with them. They need to feel real for this to happen.
I agree
>I need to resonate with them
You sound wrapped up in ideology and lacking in empathy.
Completely the opposite, it is my capacity for empathy that precludes me from ideology
Perhaps your use of ''resonate'' allows a permutation.
?
Perhaps I misunderstood the original comment because I inferred a nuance for ''resonate'' that was not intended.
What was the nuance?
''Resonate'' might only mean that the character makes logical sense, but it also might mean that the reader finds the character agreeable to his personal sensibilities.
‘If an experience or memory resonates, it makes you feel an emotional connection:
>Her experiences resonate powerfully with me, living, as I do, in a similar family situation.
>What exactly is it about that music that resonates with you?
If you resonate with something, it feels true or has meaning for you:
>She spoke about both doubting herself and believing in herself, and I definitely resonate with that.
>The thing that I resonated with as a kid was that you always had special protection from your parents.’
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/resonate
This is how I take it to mean
>This is how I take it to mean
As do I. Again, the original comment [ I need to resonate with them. ] implied to me that the reader needed to personally identify with the character, be it in a shared value set or other characteristics. Consider the case where the reader dislikes a novel because they dislike the villain opposed to the protagonist.
lmfao
You shouldn’t.
At this rate, an anon could give you the heartfelt answer to your dilemma but your eroded brain would lose it the instant you blink.
>read book
>want to talk about it later on
>LITERALLY read the name of a specific place 20 times because I keep forgetting it
I must have some type of brain damage, it cannot be.
I often have this problem on the first pass. One must understand the importance of a place before one commits memory to it. On a second pass, I tend to remember a lot more of the details because their significance is more clear. Is remembering the location of ''Manor Farm, Dingly Dell'' important, or do I just need to remember that Mr. Wardle is the proprietor thereof?
I just go to goodreads and base my thoughts on their reviews. That way I can skim tons of books while still giving the illusion im a smartie
I remember arguing a point with someone about ''The Man in the High Castle'' and then realizing that the other party had only watched the TV series.
The more I enjoy something the more trouble I have putting into words what made me enjoy it so much, and it's not just with books I have the same problem with video games, movies, music, whatever. If I mildly enjoyed something I'm able to talk for hours about it but when I truly love something I'll need literal years to digest it until I'm able to answer the most basic questions about it, people will ask me the most innocent questions like "what's the book about?" and I freeze up because it feels like any description I can give of the book does it major disservice so all I can say is "just read it, trust me".
getting absorbed in a work is the best feeling. i know what i'm reading is great when all i can think and talk about is whatever im reading. recent examples for me are invisible man by ralph ellison in october, one flew over the cuckoos nest by ken kesey in march, capital and ideology by thomas piketty in april, and currently paradise lost by john milton. i love writing my thoughts on, and then looking at other peoples criticisms of the work, just to see how it compares.
Novice. I always try to have a pre-formulated answer for if this scenario were to arise.