Please introduce yourself~ Showing 701-750 of 1,672

[Michael]

Hi... My name is Michael, I am introducing myself in hopes that I will catch up with the Iliad or perhaps with the Odyssey. I am old enough to prefer the pleasures of reading classics to chasing novelty with more recent writing, which seems so hit-or-miss to me (emphasis on miss, in my experience). Not that I wouldn't read Franzen, finally. But the opportunity to read or re-read greater books in an intelligent setting is very appealing.

[Everyman]

Michael wrote: "Hi... My name is Michael, I am introducing myself in hopes that I will catch up with the Iliad or perhaps with the Odyssey. I am old enough to prefer the pleasures of reading classics to chasing n..."

Welcome! We would love to have you catch up with the Iliad, but it may be a challenge since we're in the next to last week.

But you're in plenty of time to join us for the Odyssey, since the discussion for that doesn't start until April 18. And in the interim, we're reading Euripides's Trojan Woman as a palate cleanser, which we will start discussing on the 28th of this month. Doesn't matter if you don't have a copy; it's available on line (as all our Interim reads are). Sometimes modern translations are better (usually only the older translations, which are out of copyright, are available for free on the Internet), but they are still fine as a basis for reading and discussing the plays. Or most libraries probably have a copy.

There's a copy of Trojan Women here:
http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/tro...

and it's also downloadable in various formats from Gutenberg here:
http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/10096

and there may be other copies out there, too.

[Michael]

I'm having fun reading the Book 1 discussion. Almost 400 posts... a lot of thought, information, speculation packed in there! Glad to be going through it, even two months behind the schedule. Btw, I probably should have added a personal fact or two to my intro -- I have background in journalism and finance. Had the fun of being in Greece last year. That's it for now; want to keep going with the Iliad but also be ready for the Odyssey discussion.

[Sarah]

Hey everyone! Probably should have introduced myself beforehand (I've been a bit busy recently, so doing that hasn't been one of my top priorities). I'm Sarah. Currently I'm in high school and training in a nursing program. At the moment, I'm reading Dante's Purgatorio when I get a few minutes and I joined this group in hope of learning about other classics. Which, if I might say, I've already heard of a lot I recognize and even more that I don't, but intend to read.

[Everyman]

Sarah wrote: "Hey everyone! Probably should have introduced myself beforehand ..."

Welcome! How lucky you are to be just starting a lifetime of enjoyment of the classics. We're pleased to have you with us, and look forward to your contributions.

[David]

Hello all. I'm a recent graduate of the Boston University business program, though I have a real passion for reading (mostly classics, but not exclusively). I've read the Odyssey and Sophocles' Theban trilogy, and am working on Ovid's Metamorphoses right now - but for the most part I tend to prefer 19th and 20th century novels over the ancient Greco-Roman stuff (though I definitely enjoy it in moderation). I'm planning on reading In Search of Lost Time in it's entirety this summer, but hopefully some of my reading will align with the schedule of this group as well, so that I may participate in the discussions.

[Everyman]

David wrote: "Hello all. I'm a recent graduate of the Boston University business program, though I have a real passion for reading (mostly classics, but not exclusively). I've read the Odyssey and Sophocles' The..."

Welcome! The Odyssey is our next book, so you're welcome to join in, either based on your recollections of the book or on re-reading (which many of us do frequently!)

We read the first book of Proust last year, but decided not to go with the rest of In Search. But I think another group took it on, and they may still be at it.

[[deleted user]]

Hi. I've always enjoyed the classics and especially classical history, although I don't have much time for it anymore (hoping to change that). I look forward to following the discussions and making the occasional pedestrian comment.

[Everyman]

Michael wrote: "Hi. I've always enjoyed the classics and especially classical history, although I don't have much time for it anymore (hoping to change that). I look forward to following the discussions and making..."

Delighted to have you with us. And I'm sure we will see beyond your assertion of pedestrianism soon enough!

[[deleted user]]

Thanks for the welcome. Now I feel challenged to prove my claim. So much dullness to share, so little time!

[Judith]

Hello! I'm a 21 year old student from the Netherlands. I take an eclectic mix of courses: my major is computer science, but I do extra courses in literature, history, philosophy, art history and math. Since high school I've been devouring classics, starting with Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde and slowly working through lists I find on the internet.
I'm always on the look-out for secondary literature about classics, since reading the context of a classic can greatly expand my understanding of the book. This group seemed like a good place to find extra information about classics and to meet like-minded people. As mentioned before in this thread: most people I know only read thrillers or chick lit.

[Everyman]

Judith wrote: "Hello! I'm a 21 year old student from the Netherlands...."

Welcome, Judith. Glad to have you with us.

[Donald]

I am a 24 year old autodidact who is entering university for the first time in the fall to study biblical Hebrew and (maybe) ancient Greek.

I always have a big stack of (non-classic) ARCs to read and review, but I would love to join y'all in a group read. I'm drawn to the classics and look forward to reading some of them in the original. Have y'all done a read of the Hebrew bible yet?

ps. To the Johnnies in the group - I'm curious if any of you were at Annapolis when Leo Strauss briefly lectured there. I've heard bits of the lectures on Thucydides he delivered at St. John's, and it's fascinating material.

[Donald]

Well, the famous connection (that you probably already know about) is Philo of Alexandria, but for the most part I see Athens and Jerusalem as equally compelling but separate traditions.

The main place where Greek and Hebrew scholars collide is biblical scholarship, though I am not very interested in the Greek bible or Christianity. I want to learn Greek to read Plato.

[Everyman]

Don wrote: "I am a 24 year old autodidact who is entering university for the first time in the fall to study biblical Hebrew and (maybe) ancient Greek.

I always have a big stack of (non-classic) ARCs to read ..."

Glad to have you join us. So far we haven't done any reading of the Bible, and I'm not sure how we would approach it, other than reading Job as a separate entity, since not that much of it stands on its own as separate discussable text.

[Donald]

760> I know a Hebrew scholar who has said to me that Hebrew was very influential on the development of the Greek language, but I do not know evidence he has for this. I will ask.

This is the sort of thing I hope to be researching over the next few years.

761> Well, there are others: Genesis, Psalms, Esther, and the Ketuvim generally. Individual stories as well, such as the revolt of Korach in the book of Numbers. Lots of good stuff to talk about there.

Might also be interesting to read Lattimore's translation of the Greek bible. I'm curious to see what it's like.

[Donald]

By all accounts, the Phioenician alphabet is very similar or the Hebrew alephbet.

[Cindy]

Hi, I'm Cindy. I teach high-school English in Houston, and therefore am looking forward to some adult discussion on these classics! I think I am joining in time to get in on The Odyssey (some of which I am familiar with, since that is a part of the 9th grade curriculum) and look forward to reading it in its entirety. I have joined several groups tonight, and am excited about the level of discussion I see exhibited in the threads. Looks like it is going to be a great summer!

[Everyman]

Cindy wrote: "Hi, I'm Cindy. I teach high-school English in Houston, and therefore am looking forward to some adult discussion on these classics! I think I am joining in time to get in on The Odyssey (some of ..."

Welcome! Yes, I think you'll find the discussion here refreshingly adult after spending a day with 9th graders! (I used to teach HS English myself, many years ago.)

[Faye]

Hello, everyone! My name is Faye, and I'm a 32-year-old Canadian who is madly in love with the classics.

In a perfect world, I would have a PhD in literature and/or linguistics by now, but sadly, due to illness I've never been able to go to university. That hasn't stopped me from getting an education, though - I've always read pretty much anything and everything I could get my hands on, from Dickens and Tolstoy to Shakespeare and Homer, and right now I'm teaching myself languages so that one day I can read all of the greatest literary masterpieces the way they were originally written.

I know so few people who are as hooked on literature as I am, so I'm looking forward to joining in on discussions with like-minded folk! Thanks for pointing me here, Everyman. :)

[Everyman]

Faye wrote: "Hello, everyone! My name is Faye, and I'm a 32-year-old Canadian who is madly in love with the classics.

In a perfect world, I would have a PhD in literature and/or linguistics by now, but sadly, ..."

Welcome! Glad to have you with us.

[[deleted user]]

I was a member of the group when we read the Oresteia and Huck Finn, but dropped out shortly afterwards. I'm back because the Oresteia has come to haunt me. In my dotage I'm studying with the Open University and have been doing an Arts Foundation course and a couple of shorter coureses, Inteoduction to Creartive Writing and Introduction to Shakespeare and so on. Over the last year or so I have been trying to decide what to do next. I think in the USA you refer to the idea of having to decide what to 'major in'. I have flip-flopped from English Literature through philosophy, history and have finally alighted on the Classics. The reading of the Oresteia was very influential in my decision, together with having read The Anger of Achilles, Robert Graves' prose version of the Iliad. Delighted to see that the group is reading the Fagels' Odyssey which I'm told is excellent. In September I will be reading the older, Lattimore version which is one of my set books.

[Everyman]

David (Dafydd) wrote: "I was a member of the group when we read the Oresteia and Huck Finn, but dropped out shortly afterwards. I'm back because the Oresteia has come to haunt me. In my dotage I'm studying with the Ope..."

Glad to have you back. And to see that Lattimore is still respected in Classics circles!

[Joshua]

Hello, all. I'm 22 and I'm from a very small town in northwest Ohio. I'm currently a full-time student at a local community college. I've been a member of this group for a little over a year, and I'm looking forward to reading and discussing The Magic Mountain in the next couple of days.

[Everyman]

Joshua wrote: "Hello, all. I'm 22 and I'm from a very small town in northwest Ohio. I'm currently a full-time student at a local community college. I've been a member of this group for a little over a year, and I..."

Glad to have you with us for our journey up the mountain.

[Cooper]

Hello. I do some writing and drawing, but a lot more reading. I was a librarian before retirement. I read Magic Mountain for the second time several months ago, and hope I'll have something worthwhile to contribute. I'm slowly reading Mann's Doctor Faustus right now.

[Everyman]

Cooper wrote: "Hello. I do some writing and drawing, but a lot more reading. I was a librarian before retirement. I read Magic Mountain for the second time several months ago, and hope I'll have something worthwh..."

I suspect that a good many of us here think that librarian, or bookseller, are the two ideal jobs in the world. To spend one's life surrounded by books. But maybe after awhile you get like the Cadbury workers who are allowed to eat all the chocolate they want to, but quite quickly get surfeited and become abstemious in their nibbling.

[Sandie]

My name is Sandie, I am 33 years old and live in Denmark. I studied Classics at the University of Southern Denmark between 2003-2007. Most of my interest lies with the greek classics, my favorite authors are Homer, Plato and Aristophanes.

I am very happy to have found this group, although it seems a lot of my favorites have already been on the menu ;-)

[Everyman]

Sandie wrote: "My name is Sandie, I am 33 years old and live in Denmark. I studied Classics at the University of Southern Denmark between 2003-2007. Most of my interest lies with the greek classics, my favorite a..."

Glad to have you! Yes, we've read some of the major Greek classics, but there are still plenty more to go.

[Paul]

Hello. I had no idea this group existed on Goodreads until Everyman invited me to join, based on my having given a 5-star rating to The Magic Mountain. I'm delighted to have been introduced to you. About three years ago I bought a set of the Britannica Great Books of the Western World and have made it a life mission to read the set and to acquire as much of a liberal education as I can.

As for The Magic Mountain, I first read it in 1982 when I was 23, and found it mesmerizing. I read it again about 2 years ago and enjoyed it even more. I won't be reading along with you, but I will be "auditing" the discussion and may join in.

I'm delighted to find a group devoted to reading great works carefully and deeply.

[Everyman]

Paul wrote: "Hello. I had no idea this group existed on Goodreads until Everyman invited me to join, based on my having given a 5-star rating to The Magic Mountain. I'm delighted to have been introduced to you...."

Glad to have you with us! And if your recollection of The Magic Mountain is still intact, feel free to join in the discussion (you might want to briefly skim the book to make sure you're not inadvertently slipping a spoiler).

If you can read the complete GBOTWW, more power to you! I have read probably 2/3 of my set, but there are some volumes I have no intention of tackling -- mostly the science volumes, such as Kepler, Huygens, Faraday, et. al., and I seriously doubt that I will go beyond re-reading those parts of Aquinas that we read in college -- I do enjoy his logic chopping, but find that a little bit of him goes a L-O-N-G way. [g]

Delighted that you found us, and if you have like minded friends on Goodreads do suggest that they give us a look.

[Everyman]

Gian wrote: "Hello to everyone. I am 22 and I live in Manila, Philippines. I recently graduated with a degree in Mathematics.

While I've been a reader since I was a child, it was only during my freshman year ..."

Great to have you with us. I'm glad you mentioned Bloom's book: it's a powerful state of support for the concept of this group, reading the books that have mattered over the centuries.

[Don]

I am a retired community mental health worker living in the Sierra Nevada's with my wife, who is an artist. I was born in Northern California, and have lived within 100 miles of my birthplace all my life. My education is all in California public schools, including a BA, UC Berkeley, 1963-1971, and MS, Clinical Counseling, CSU, Hayward. I have been an obsessive reader since the age of 4, but really started pursuing classical/canonical novels after reading War and Peace, about 1996--what a great story, and a great storyteller. I decided there was a reason these books became classics, and I have been working my way through them since (most recently Middlemarch.) I also read contemporary literary fiction (most recently 1Q84), and when I feel like I'm getting too stuffy I relax with crime or science fiction most recently A Turn of Mind.) I also am doing some reading about reading, and like to start the day reading poetry.

[Everyman]

Don wrote: "I am a retired community mental health worker living in the Sierra Nevada's with my wife, who is an artist. I was born in Northern California, and have lived within 100 miles of my birthplace all m..."

Good to have you with us. Will you be reading The Magic Mountain?

[Rika]

Hi, my name is Rika, 24. I'm originally from Estonia (northest of the Baltic states) but moved to Denmark right after high school.
I've loved reading as long as I can remember. In the good old days when the library records were on paper, my folder in the school library was so thick that it stood out amoung the rest of them. However, rebellious as I was, I never got around to reading the compulsory list (read: "classics") in literature class.
I absolutely love Jane Austen. Every once in a while I do a "Pride and Prejudice" marathon - read the book in English, then in Estonian and top it off with the latest movie version :) Also enjoy Brontë sisters, Charles Bukowski and Ernst Hemingway.
I'm looking forward to catching up on the books you've already read and discussed, and joining in with the upcoming books.

[Everyman]

Rika wrote: "Hi, my name is Rika, 24. I'm originally from Estonia (northest of the Baltic states) but moved to Denmark right after high school.
I've loved reading as long as I can remember. In the good old days..."


Welcome! I'm always impressed by those who are as fluent in English as a second language as you are. Your English is superb!

Please do come join the discussion.

[Laura]

Hello Everyone! My name is Laura and I'm a high school student in Pennsylvania with a passion for reading. Ever since I can remember I have been a book worm, preferring to become buried in a book instead of participating in other activities. I am a bit new to reading hard-core classics (I began reading more classics due to my AP english class this year) and so am hoping that this group will challenge me in my reading. I can't wait to join in on the discussions of the many amazing books we'll all read!! :)

[Lily]

Laura wrote: "Hello Everyone! My name is Laura and I'm a high school student in Pennsylvania with a passion for reading. Ever since I can remember I have been a book worm, preferring to become buried in a book i..."

Welcome! How wonderful to start this journey that can belong to a lifetime in your teens. Enjoy it, Laura. (You'll probably swear at it once in awhile, too, but I am quite sure you will find it worthy of your sweat and tears and laughter.)

[Everyman]

Laura wrote: "Hello Everyone! My name is Laura and I'm a high school student in Pennsylvania with a passion for reading. Ever since I can remember I have been a book worm, preferring to become buried in a book i..."

Welcome! You're welcome to catch up with The Magic Mountain discussion if you have time to (and can find a copy of the book quickly -- it's not on line), but if not, we'll look forward to hearing your thoughts on our next book. You can check out the available choices in our Poll section.

[Lit Bug (Foram)]

Lit Bug, India. Doing Ph.D. on feminist cyberpunk. Have read many classics, but am looking forward to reading even more and discussing them - I also love reading anything as long as it's well-written - memoirs, biographies, travel writing, poetry, plays, classics, modern, postmodern, novels, essays, academic critical works and other non-fictions.

[Everyman]

Lit Bug wrote: "Lit Bug, India. Doing Ph.D. on feminist cyberpunk. Have read many classics, but am looking forward to reading even more and discussing them - I also love reading anything as long as it's well-writt..."

Egad. Feminist cyberpunk meets Thomas Mann. The mind reels!

But we're delighted to have you join us. And I'm willing to wager that you'll be capable of relating our classic books to ideas that I, at least, not even being able to define feminist cyberpunk, let alone identify it if I ever see it, never realize existed!

[Lucas]

Hello! It has come to my attention that I've never introduced myself and I would like to amend that. My name is Lucas and I am from Patagonia, Argentina. I have read the classics from a very early age and, when I was in high school, I used to read about 1000 pages per week. As you can imagine, by the age of 16 I had already read Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Hume, Husserl, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Marx, Popper, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Sartre, and the list goes on. About that time also started my obsession with Complete Works (I have read the complete works by Sigmund Freud, Jorge Luis Borges, William Shakespeare, Juan Rulfo, Franz Kafka, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Arthur Rimbaud, John Keats, Novalis, Charles Baudelaire, Francesco Petrarch, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Albert Camus, Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, among others). I am a BA in Spanish Language and Literature, MPhil in Classics and prospective PhD in Classics. I teach both great and latin on a regular basis. Unfortunately, due to a very busy schedule, I cannot participate as much as I would like to and I apologize for it.

I would like to share some Borges, you should consider his works in a future poll:

To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death; what is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know that one is immortal. I have noted that, in spite of religions, this conviction is very rare. Israelites, Christians, and Moslems profess immortality, but the veneration they render this world proves they believe only in it, since they destine all other worlds, in infinite number, to be its reward or punishment. The wheel of certain Hindustani religions seems more reasonable to me; on this wheel, which has neither beginning nor end, each life is the effect of the preceding and engenders the following, but none determines the totality. . . Indoctrinated by a practice of centuries, the republic of immortal men had attained the perfection of tolerance and almost that of indifference. They knew that in an infinite period of time, all things happen to all men. Because of his past or future virtues, every man is worthy of all goodness, but also of all perversity, because of his infamy in the past or future. Thus, just as in games of chance the odd and even numbers tend toward equilibrium, so also wit and stolidity cancel out and correct each other and perhaps the rustic Poem of the Cid is the counterbalance demanded by one single epithet from the Eclogues or by an epigram of Heraclitus. The most fleeting thought obeys an invisible design and can crown, or inaugurate, a secret form. I know of those who have done evil so that in future centuries good would result, or would have resulted in those already past. . . Seen in this manner, all our acts are just, but they are also indifferent. There are no moral or intellectual merits. Homer composed the Odyssey; if we postulate an infinite period of time, with infinite circumstances and changes, the impossible thing is not to compose the Odyssey, at least once. No one is anyone, one single immortal man is all men. Like Cornelius Agrippa, I am god, I am hero, I am philosopher, I am demon and I am world, which is a tedius way of saying that I do not exist.

[Everyman]

Lucas wrote: "Hello! It has come to my attention that I've never introduced myself and I would like to amend that. My name is Lucas and I am from Patagonia, Argentina. I have read the classics from a very early ..."

Welcome! Delighted to have you with us. With your reading experience, I'm sure you'll have a wealth of insights to share with us.

That's a nice quote from Borges. I admit to not having read any of him -- he's a bit after the time period I tend to spend most of my time with -- but I should remedy that oversight. Which of his works do you (or anybody else who knows his work) recommend as a good introduction to his thinking?

[Susan]

Yes Lucas. Please tell us your recommendations for a good work to begin with.

[Lucas]

You could start by reading Labyrinths, that's an anthology of some of his best short fiction works. Also, Hardvard University reprinted his Norton Lectures, that is a modest introduction to his ideas on literature, and you can listen to the audio for free here. When reading Borges you should consider, as well, that he was probably the only writer that have read the entire Western Canon and it is commonplace to believe that Borges knew about what was to be discovered after his time (it is rather common to find studies considering his fiction as prophecies to later advances in mathematics, phisics, computer science, etc - here's an example from the Journal of American Science); I personally find that to be proposterous, however, it gives you an idea about the novelty of his works.

[Sarah]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Sarah and I recently located from Chicago to the Bavarian countryside south of Munich with my (German) husband and two big dogs. I guess you could say I am/was (er, trying not to be) one of those stressed out, "corporate types" with one of those jobs that kept me on an airplane away from home most of the time. Well, with our move I am taking a break, settling into our house, and trying to improve my German at the age of 40. Oh, and I'm also indulging in my love of reading and taking the time to *finally* knock off some classics that somehow I missed over the years (smile).

I am new to Goodreads as of last week and am a newbie to book clubs in general (in person or virtual). I'm figuring out how it works as I go. I am finding that I enjoy reading with others and hearing all the points of view. When I've read previously, I would read voraciously (probably like all of you) but go from one book to the next without every really stopping to think and digest the ideas. I've found that sharing the book is much more fun and I look forward to being a part of your group.

[Lily]

Welcome, Sarah! As you undoubtedly realize, we are in the midst of a German novel, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain . Hope you will be able to join the discussion! Best to you and your family in your new home.

[Everyman]

Sarah wrote: "Hi Everyone,

My name is Sarah and I recently located from Chicago to the Bavarian countryside south of Munich with my (German) husband and two big dogs. I guess you could say I am/was (er, trying..."

Delighted to have you join us! If you have any questions about how it all works, please just ask. There are lots of people here who would be delighted to help you.

[EShay]

Hello fellow classic literature lovers! I am an Air Force officer and pilot. I am currently deployed, so it is difficult to keep up with the reading schedule at times, but I am with the discussion in spirit most of the time. I enjoy readying your commentary and the different points of view you all bring to the table. I currently live in Rapid City, SD, but it is one of many places around the country I have been stationed over the last 10 years. I have an ornery poodle mix named Chewy and a wonderful boyfriend who I miss every day. When I am not reading, I enjoy weight lifting, live music (especially in Austin, TX!), podcasts, traveling, and learning new things as often as possible. I hope I can join the lively discussions more frequently in the near future. Happy reading! ~Erin

[Roger]

Erin wrote: "Hello fellow classic literature lovers! I am an Air Force officer and pilot. I am currently deployed, so it is difficult to keep up with the reading schedule at times, but I am with the discussio..."

Welcome, Erin. I retired from the AF in 1995.