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Archived Posts from Literature

Published on July 30, 2008
Throughout the history of English literature, hundreds of writers have created fantastic worlds for their plots and characters to play out in. This is sometimes done for reasons of satire (under oppressive governments) or just for outright pleasure. This is a...
Published on July 28, 2008
Edgar Allan Poe. Can you think of a name more synonymous with spine-tingling macabre literature? A master craftsman of prose and poetry alike, Poe dwells in that dark corner of our literary consciousness, along some creaky corridor laden with dust and cobwebs...
Published on July 10, 2008
There is no doubt that Mr Shakespeare is the greatest writer of modern English to date - his plays have been made into movies, his sonnets have appeared in books and music, and his works translated in to hundreds of different languages. His contribution to the...
Published on July 6, 2008
Modern poets tend to avoid the epic style poetry of the past - but there can be no doubt that many of them were influenced greatly by these poems. This is a selection of the most well known epic poems from before the 20th century. While it is tempting to add the...
Published on June 11, 2008
Having already covered controversy in movies, it is time to move on to controversy in literature. I have intentionally left off books that have been dealt with in 590 Comments | Read more...
Published on May 14, 2008
Books are one of our greatest resources, but many times in history books have been written which are misleading or untrue. In some cases this has lead to widescale death and destruction and evil governmental regimes. This is a list of ten of the worst books of...
Published on May 12, 2008
It's hard to find great travel writing, but it's out there. Part of the reason for this is that so much travel writing is also considered nature writing or narrative non-fiction. Part of the reason is that the field is so competitive because of a lot of good...
Published on April 18, 2008
Sturgeon's Law states that "90% of science fiction is shit -- 90% of everything is shit" but, even though literally tons of crappy SF gets published every year, sometimes the absolute best gets shuffled into obscurity. Here, then, are ten novels that should...
Published on April 3, 2008
In 1762, Bishop Robert Lowth did a grave disservice to the English language when he published his Short Introduction to English Grammar. Rather than basing his grammatical rules in the usage of the best educated speakers and writers of English, he arbitrarily...
Published on March 26, 2008
Here is a sampler of various English-language poetry which, I hope, will give non-readers of poetry, in particular, the impetus to follow through and discover the joys of poetry for themselves. The samples I have included are representative of the development of...
Published on March 25, 2008
Nothing is better than finishing a brilliant science fiction novel knowing that it is only the first in a series. Some of the greatest minds in sci-fi have used the series format to create complex and thrilling universes for their story characters to exist in...
Published on March 20, 2008
There are books that are revered because of their effect on art, and there are books that are remarkable because they literally change the very society from which they came. Here is a list of ten books that radically changed or shaped American society. I've...
Published on March 12, 2008
Literature has been a defining part of culture since the beginning of language. The dangers of modern times have led to the writing of dystopian novels, novels which warn of an unhappy future. Many people think of Dystopian novels as purely science...
Published on March 3, 2008
There can be a major difference between the best authors of a genre, my favorite authors of a genre, and the most influential authors of a genre. While any top ten list like this will be somewhat controversial, here is a list of authors who have had a great and...
Published on February 15, 2008
[WARNING: This list contains images and language that may offend] I received a pleasant email from a friend this morning containing a variety of new book titles for kids. Looking through them I realized (and I am sure you will too) that none of...
Published on February 13, 2008
Nouns of Association (also sometimes called nouns of assemblage or venereal terms) are words that describe groups of similar objects. We use them all the time and you will recognize the vast majority of them, but there are also a large number that are not well...
Published on February 9, 2008
At one time people would have laughed if you had told them comic books were legitimate literature. Thankfully this narrow minded view has not only changed but reversed with modern day historians, many of whom have not only recognized comics and graphic novels as...
Published on February 7, 2008
This is a list of ten great writers that are famous for one novel and one novel alone. Some of them have written additional short stories or poetry and in a couple of cases additional novels (none of which are well known or ever rose to the prominence of their...
Published on January 28, 2008
What a daunting task it would be to write a list like this, but fortunately for us, Norton (of the Norton Anthologies) asked 125 of the greatest living writers to select their top 10, and then (using statistics) produced a final list of the ten greatest books ever...
Published on January 23, 2008
Get rich quick is a myth - building wealth is something that needs strategy and time. Get rich quick schemes tend to prey on people with the desire, but not the willingness to truly achieve financial security. This is a list of books that will truly help you to...
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