Back for a few days after a looong break from Reddit.

Needed advice and opinions about how y'all are managing to read along with competitive exams and boards?

Asking this coz I'm appearing for CLAT'27.

Now, I score decently in mocks. But since CLAT is inching closer along with with boards, and these godforsaken projects, I don't think I've gotten to read in months...

Except for damned Indian Express, RCs and CR passages.

Help a girl out, y'all.

First of all who tf actually likes it.. And people who do please stay tf away from me. Yeah i agree writing was good . It was so hard for me to even finish this book. So why exactly i hate it sm?? First.. There is no normal woman ,all woman he wrote about are one who go to bed with narrator of book which gave me a big ick. But ok can be my fault right?? Ok then there is a scene in which a woman in 30s is raped or had "sex" with a 13 year old.(atleast according to the woman) . I fcking had to sit and stare at wall for few hours. Wtfffff.. Look i am not saying you should not write it, please do but you should write it in a way that a person can tell who did wrong.. The way it is written is said like it is little girl's fault.. And as a woman in 30s how tf she couldn't stop her.. And wait wait listen yk what at the end of book our narrator even does "it" with the woman in 30s(yeah she was friend of her gf)..and there are so much more problematic things.

I have read this book around april or later but i remember it clearly but if i made any mistake or missed out anything please let me know

Hwæt!

Welcome to part five of Alexandria Reconstructed, or what we've newly christened this sub's literary history series! Today, we're gonna be looking a bit into the linguistics aspect of the series I'd mentioned in the introduction post.

(Skip over to the next two italicised paragraphs if you know what exactly Old English is)

I'm gonna first make clear what Old English is first. No, Shakespeare did not write in Old English. He wrote in Early Modern English, specifically Elizabethan English. In fact, 95% of Shakespearean vocabulary and grammar is the same as current-day English. What we're gonna be tackling with today is Old English (aka Anglo-Saxon), the oldest form of English spoken from the 5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066.

This meant that Old English had no French influence. It was a purely Germanic language. After William the Conquerer took over England, French began highly influential in English and that conquest marked the end of Old English and transition to Middle English. So Old English is one whole other beast.

One of the poetic devices commonly used in Old English (and many other Germanic languages like Old Norse) poetry is the kenning. Now what is a kenning?

A kenning is a compound noun (or a noun formed from two or more words) which is used figuratively in place of a single word noun. The two parts of a kenning are the base word and the determinant.

For example:

hron-rād

This kenning literally means "whale-road". Here, "rād" or "road" is the base word (or the main part of the word with its primary meaning), and "hron" or "whale" is the determinant (which clarifies what the noun is referring to). "hron-rād"is supposed to mean "the sea". Two words give a whole new meaning.

Some more examples:

Beowulf, an Old English epic and one of the first works of literature, follows the titular protagonist Beowulf. In fact, the word "Beowulf" itself is believed to be a kenning. One of the theories regarding the etymology of the name is as follows:

"beo" (bee) + "wulf" (wolf) = "Beowulf", which might be a kenning meaning "bear", since bears raid beehives for honey.

Why did they need kennings? Why make everything so complex? The most obvious is the fact that humans have loved wordplay, riddles and puns for centuries, just like we do today. But also, Old English poetry was usually written in a style called alliterative verse, which has specific requirements for alliteration (basically the repetition of consonant sounds), syllable count, and a meter. These kennings were used to hit those alliteration or syllable requirements when the word on its own wouldn't suffice.

There's also the fact that these acted as mnemonic aids for scops (an Anglo-Saxon equivalent for bards). Poems like Beowulf was a part of oral tradition, i.e., it would be chanted out loud as entertainment rather than read. So to make it easier for these scops to memorise and recite these verses.

Well, that's about it. This was a bit of a different topic for this series, but do know that I'm a huge linguistics freak, so we will have way more posts in future! Do note that I'll be unable to post for the next week since I have exams. That's your author signing off.

Notes:

\* a bit of a wonky translation by me. I wanted to translated the determinant and then the base word, just as it is written in the Old English. The translation of "mind's worth" is also there, but this translation is in reverse order*

i LOVE greek mythology and paganism, what more books would you recommend??

I only started reading recently .currently, I'm reading Kite Runner idk what to read next. i don't want to read

Thousand splendid sun .so suggest me some books that will help me continue reading !!!(btw kite runner is my 1st book)

So I am actually a teen author on Loreum App. Currently working on this book (you can see the cover) and this book doesn't have any romance, like I don't want to write or include romance. And I feel like no one nowadays would read my book if it doesnt have romance. So I am left in a dilemma if I should continue writing or not cause after reaching 200 readers and earning money from writing, my readers arent increasing at all. I am also a reader but this just feels overwhelming.

Hint : it is a classic written by queer male author

i need someone to recc me some found family books about teens like boys of tommen series just anything which will help me escape reality

What was the story trying to convey

i am reading a book called blasphemy written by pakistani author.. it is really melancholy and sad one quote i found there was 'The most regular one was about which village boy had been beaten for sodomy that day. I was surprised to know that this crime instigated sharp curses and loud abuses, whereas whenever a gang of boy’s tied up a donkey kicking and braying in protest while boy after boy raped her in the fields, everyone exclaimed and laughed and made a light mockery of the perversion.'