This Is About The Body The Mind The Soul The World Time And Fate Stories

A rich collection of ideas and explanations of cultures as diverse as the Greeks and the Norse, the Celts and the Jews, and the Chinese and the Romans.

Originally published in 1951, this ambitious volume constitutes an exploration into the roots of European thought. Whilst it predominantly examines Greek and Roman ideas, the text also contains allusions to Norse, Celtic, Jewish, Indian, Chinese and Christian sources. Through careful analysis a synthetic approach is developed, one which emphasises the abiding relevance of ancient thought for interpreting the fundamental questions of existence. Exhaustive notes, a large general index, and an index of translated words are included. This is a complex and fascinating book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in classics, literature, philosophy, or the history of ideas.

Thirty years of interviews that offer “a window into the minds and the writing processes of some of the world’s best practitioners of poetry and prose” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Since 1981, the quarterly magazine Bomb has been the gold standard for artist-on-artist interviews, showcasing writers, performers, actors, musicians, painters, and architects. The founders, a group of New York City–based artists, wanted a public space for art-makers to talk to each other about their work without the interference of critics or journalists. Thirty years later comes this anthology: an addictively insightful collection of thirty-five interviews with some of the world’s most thought-provoking, funny, profound, compelling authors. It includes literary luminaries such as Mary Gaitskill, Junot Díaz, Sharon Olds, Amy Hempel, Martin Amis, Jeffrey Eugenides, Sapphire, Edwidge Danticat, and Jennifer Egan, among many others, as well as an introduction by Francine Prose. These authors speak frankly about the joys and the pain that inform their work, the influence of family, ambition, criticism, and the sinking, thrilling knowledge of their own mortality. This is Bomb Magazine’s gift to readers: a glimpse into the minds that created the books which informed you, challenged you, yanked on your heartstrings and touched your soul. “Bomb: The Author Interviews brings together a selection of conversations in a handsome anthology. The book, which offers 35 of the magazine’s interviews, is both a primer on authorial strategies and a record of the evolution of an iconic literary institution.” —The Washington Post “BOMB’s author interview series, which has been going for years, is one of the most inspiring dialogues between writers available.” —Bustle “These are not your run of the mill author interviews featuring a journalist throwing canned questions at a writer, these are conversations between writers and delve into the essence of creativity . . . Essential reading for any admirer of contemporary literature.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“The ultimate literary bucket list.” —THE WASHINGTON POST Celebrate the pleasure of reading and the thrill of discovering new titles in an extraordinary book that’s as compulsively readable, entertaining, surprising, and enlightening as the 1,000-plus titles it recommends. Covering fiction, poetry, science and science fiction, memoir, travel writing, biography, children’s books, history, and more, 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die ranges across cultures and through time to offer an eclectic collection of works that each deserve to come with the recommendation, You have to read this. But it’s not a proscriptive list of the “great works”—rather, it’s a celebration of the glorious mosaic that is our literary heritage. Flip it open to any page and be transfixed by a fresh take on a very favorite book. Or come across a title you always meant to read and never got around to. Or, like browsing in the best kind of bookshop, stumble on a completely unknown author and work, and feel that tingle of discovery. There are classics, of course, and unexpected treasures, too. Lists to help pick and choose, like Offbeat Escapes, or A Long Climb, but What a View. And its alphabetical arrangement by author assures that surprises await on almost every turn of the page, with Cormac McCarthy and The Road next to Robert McCloskey and Make Way for Ducklings, Alice Walker next to Izaac Walton. There are nuts and bolts, too—best editions to read, other books by the author, “if you like this, you’ll like that” recommendations , and an interesting endnote of adaptations where appropriate. Add it all up, and in fact there are more than six thousand titles by nearly four thousand authors mentioned—a life-changing list for a lifetime of reading. “948 pages later, you still want more!” —THE WASHINGTON POST

A World of Words offers a new look at the degree to which language itself is a topic of Poe's texts. Stressing the ways his fiction reflects on the nature of its own signifying practices, Williams sheds new light on such issues as Poe's characterization of the relationship between author and reader as a struggle for authority, on his awareness of the displacement of an "authorial writing self" by a "self as it is written," and on his debunking of the redemptive properties of the romantic symbol.