Welcome to the Book Nook! The weekly thread for all book nerds on The Avocado. This is the place to talk about books you’re currently reading, discuss genres, ask for recommendations, and post serious literary criticism.
This week’s prompt: What memorable books have you picked up at random? Thanks to Mongo Only Pawn for the prompt idea!
Ideas for prompts are always welcome!
Today’s literary birthdays:
Ibn Taymayyah (1263), Syrian theologian (RIP 1328)
Walter Raleigh (1553), English poet (RIP 1618)
Francis Bacon (1561), English philosopher (RIP 1626)
Robert Cotton (1570), English historian and founder of the Cotton library, which was responsible for the preservation of several medieval manuscripts (RIP 1631)
John Donne(1573), English poet (RIP 1631)
Pierre Gassendi (1592), French philosopher (RIP 1655)
Richard Blackmore (1654), English poet (RIP 1729)
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729), German philosopher and playwright (RIP 1781)
Lord Byron (1788), British poet and playwright (RIP 1824)
August Strindberg (1849), Swedish playwright, novelist, poet and essayist (RIP 1912)
Beatrice Webb (1858), English sociologist and economist, coined the term “collective bargaining” (RIP 1943)
Francis Picabia (1879), French poet (RIP 1953)
Helen Hoyt (1887), American poet (RIP 1972)
Antonio Gramsci (1891), Italian philosopher and political theorist (RIP 1937)
Dilipkumar Roy (1897), Bengali musicologist, novelist, poet and essayist (RIP 1980)
Martti Haavio (1899), Finnish poet and folklorist (RIP 1973)
Arkady Gaidar (1904), Russian author of stories for children (RIP 1943)
Robert E. Howard (1906), American pulp fiction short story writer and novelist, creator of Conan the Barbarian (RIP 1936)
Harilal Upadhyay (1916), Gujarti novelist and poet (RIP 1994)
Howard Moss (1922), American poet and playwright (RIP 1987)
Yoshihiko Amino (1928), Japanese historian (RIP 2004)
Joseph Wambaugh (1937), American crime fiction and nonfiction writer, winner of three Edgar Awards and named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America
Joe Esposito (1938), American author of books about Elvis Presley (RIP 2016)
Jaan Kaplinski (1941), Estonian poet and philosopher (RIP 2021)
Khosrow Golsorkhi (1944), Iranian poet (RIP 1974)
Paul Bew (1950), British historian
Francis Wheen (1957), British nonfiction author
All information courtesy of Wikipedia
Posting pictures is fine as long as they are book related, but I would like this thread to continue to be a NO GIF/YouTube/social media embed zone. Thanks, and happy commenting!