Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley Hello italki. Frankenstein is the next book that I will be reading. The goals are simple. First goal is obviously to read the book. Second goal is to summarize it, section by section. The third goal is to study the teacher's guide and possibly write some comments about it. I hope that the Notebook readers will enjoy the summaries a lot more than I will enjoy writing them. That being said, I expect this endeavor to take me some time to complete, since the book is 352 pages long, and let's face it, I am not that skilled in summarizing books. Back cover of the book. "Obsessed with the idea of creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material with which to fashion a new being, shocking his creation to life with electricity. But this botched creature, rejected by its creator and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy Frankenstein and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Lord Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of Gothic horror, and Frankenstein's monster an instantly-recognizable symbol of the limits of human creativity. Based on the third edition of 1831, this volume contains all the revisions Mary Shelley made to her story, as well as her 1831 introduction and Percy Shelley's preface to the first edition. This revised edition includes as appendices a select collation of the texts of 1818 and 1831 together with 'A Fragment' by Lord Byron and Dr. John Polidori's 'The Vampire: A Tale'."

The Time Machine by H.G.Wells. Chapters 10-Epilogue Chapter 10. The time traveller after a lot of trouble manages to get back to the sphinx structure. He examines the pedestal again because he feels that his time machine is hidden inside. He is ready to break the panel open with his crowbar, when he realizes that the pedestal panel is open. He is certain it is a trap, but he is determined to get back to the time machine and escape. He gets in the structure, and although he is attacked by Morlocks, he still manages to climb on the time machine. He activates it, and escapes. Chapter 11. The time traveller travels into the future once again. The land formation has changed now and the time machine appears to be standing under a scorching sun, on what appears to be a desolate beach. He soon discovers that the beach is actually the home of gigantic crab like creatures. The huge crabs are very eager to feed on him, and he does not spend a lot of time pondering about it. He immediately activates the time machine again and travels further into the future. The time travelller is now far into the future, into what appears to be the very end of time. The environment seems pretty much devoid of life, and the sun has grown weak. Everything around him is cold and depressing, therefore he decides to travel back to his time. Chapter 12. The time traveller is glad to return back to his time now. The time machine seems to re-appear at the far corner of his lab, its initial position having changed, since it was moved by the Morlocks. The time traveller recounts the details of his adventure to his group of friends, but he does not seem to be convincing enough. They hardly believe any of this. The time traveller however is not phased by their disbelief. He prepares again for one more trip. As he starts his trip into the future, for one more time, the narrator witnesses the time machine and the time traveller slowly vanishing out of existence, and into nowhere. Three years later and the time traveller has not yet returned. Epilogue The narrator wonders about the timer traveller's fate, and ponders about the fate of the human race. He looks at a few flowers that the time traveller has left behind, a gift from Weena, that might symbolize the beauty of human nature that can never be lost.

The Time Machine by H.G.Wells. Chapters 7-9 Chapter 7 In one of his excursions the time traveller notices what appears to be a green porcelain like building in the distance. With Weena by his side, he decides to adventure, and figure out what this structure is all about. Chapter 8 The green porcelain looking building is actually a long abandoned museum. The time traveller proceeds to explore it. Most things are useless in there, and of little practical interest. They provide little knowledge to him about the course of human evolution. He does manage to find a box of matches, some pieces of camphor, and a crowbar. He also has the intense feeling that in the dark corners of the museum, he is been watched and followed by Morlocks. Chapter 9 The time traveller starts to head back home. He needs to go through the forest and back to the Eloi. However he decides to camp in the forest, fearing he will get lost at night. He builds a campfire hoping it will keep the Morlocks away. This does not prove to be effective, so he still gets attacked. He abandons the campfire and in the middle of the night tries to escape.. With the help of a box of matches, the camphor pieces set on fire and used as projectiles, and a crowbar, he runs like crazy with Weena in his arms. He manages to escape and decides to stop and make a second campfire. Completely exhausted now, he falls asleep. He wakes up being attacked by Morlocks again. The campfire has gone out, and Weena is nowhere to be seen,. He tries to find her and furiously fights for his life. Weena however is nowhere to be seen and the Morlocks are just too many for him to handle. He suddenly observes though that the Morlocks stop attacking. He realizes that he has set the whole forest on fire by mistake. The Morlocks get blind by the bright light of the forest flames, and also have no idea how to react to the fire. Many get burned alive.

The Time Machine by H.G.Wells. Chapters 5-6 Chapter 5. The Time Traveller proceeds to go back to check on his Time Machine, and discovers that it is missing. He tries to examine the area and he fails to find any clues. Initially he thinks that the humanoid creatures probably moved it to another location, but he soon realizes that this is a wrong conclusion. He questions a couple of them and they point him to the sphinx like statue. He examines the base of the structure and feels that it is actually hollow with a sliding panel which only opens from the inside. He has the feeling that his Time Machine is in there. During his search around the environment he observes also a number of what appears to be wells without water, at a number of different locations around the land. These wells seem to form a sort of an underground ventilation system, but he finds it impossible to logically explain their purpose. As he is thinking about all this and he is standing close to a river, he observes one of the creatures that are swimming but suddenly taken by a strong river current, and is in danger of drowning. She is too weak to face the current and no other creature is able to help her, so he proceeds to get in the river and save her. He names her Weena and she gradually become his new close friend. One of the evenings he goes outside and for the first time he observes a new type of humanoid creature, white and ape like, with strange eyes very sensitive to light. A creature that dwells in the dark. He calls the ape like creatures the Murlocks, and the elf like fragile creatures the Eloi. He believes the Murlocks live in the underground tunnel like complex, and he re-examines his evolution theory to include now the two species. The Murlocks who he feels are the ones that belonged to the lower class and were the workers of the society, and the Eloi who he feels belonged to the upper class and were they elite of the society. Chapter 6 The Time Traveller has a very close encounter with a number of Murlocks as he descends for the first time in one of the wells and discovers the tunnel like underground structure. He observes that the Morcloks, in contrast to the Eloi, are carnivorous, and also seem very aggressive, attacking him constantly. With the help of a box of matches and courage, he manages to escape back to the surface a bit beat up and tired but generally speaking in a good condition. Weena is there to greet him, and full of joy to see him again.

The Time Machine by H.G.Wells. Chapters 3-4 Chapter 3. The Time traveller travels in the future and the whole natural environment is altered as he travels trough time. He observes the alternation of night and day, the changes in weather conditions, the changes in the landscape formation. At some point during his travel, he is amazed by the landscape and decides to stop. The environment now is altered. He is not in his office any more, but rather in a garden with rhododendrons and a large sphinx made of stone on a bronze pedestal. As soon as he lands he notices in the distance, some small human like creatures approaching. Chapter 4. The Time traveller encounters the small humanoid creatures, who look like elves for the first time. They are very frivolous, happy, singing and playing all the time. They seem to have no care and no worries. They are all dressed in the same way and it is practically hard to determine the gender from their body structure. They all wear robes, have a small body frame, and look very fragile and weak. They greet the Time traveller and lead him to the main building where they live. It is an old large building structure with a large room. The room has many low stone tables and cushions, and it is used as a dinning and sleeping area. The creatures only diet consists of a number of exotic fruits, that the Time traveller has never seen before. He sits, dines with them, and also makes an effort to understand their language which is a very simplistic form of communication. The creatures seem to lack higher intellect. He also starts forming his theory of evolution, of how this new form of humanoids are in essence the evolved human species.

I visit your home and …

in your home you have this magical library.  In this magical library you collected <em>all of your country’s amazing literature</em>.  You reach out, pick one book and gift it to me. (I like gifts).

<em>
</em>

<em>Which book is it ?</em>

 

I proceed to kindly thank you for your gift afterwards.

 

P.S I know we have variants of this discussion thread all over, but I want to get some ideas about literature from countries that their literature is not "advertized" so much.  I will be thankful for any input.  My goal is to make a list and do some reseach, and hopefuly start selecting some books with the hope that they have been translated to English, so I can read them.

Thanks.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Hello italki members.

I was going through the Wikipedia looking at all time best selling books and was surprised to see Fifty Shades of Grey there with 125 million copies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books

 

The list.  Notice how very few books have broken the 100 million barrier.

More than 100 million copies

A Tale Of Two Cities                                   Charles Dickens                     200 million
The Lord of the Rings                                  J. R. R. Tolkien                      150 million
The Hobbit                                                J. R. R. Tolkien                      140.6 million
Le Petit Prince                                           Antoine de Saint-Exupéry        140 million
Fifty Shades of Grey                                   EL James                              125 million
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone         J. K. Rowling                         107 million
And Then There Were None                           Agatha Christie                     100 million
紅樓夢/红楼梦                                               Cao Xueqin                           100 million
She: A History of Adventure                           H. Rider Haggard                   100 million

 

So my questions to the readers of the book are:

Question one   : Why did you buy/decide to read the specific book?
Question two   : Did you like or dislike the book ?

Question three : Did you urge others to buy it, discouraged others from buying it, or neither of the two.

 

I would like to get an idea from the readers about why that specific book got 125 million sales.

What do you think ?

 

Thanks.

Mål 1 Lärobok 9 Hur stavas det? EVA: Hej! Jag heter Eva. Vad heter du? AHMED: Ahmed EVA: Hur staves det? AHMED: A-H-M-E-D EVA: A-M-H AHMED: Nej, det är fel, A-H-M-E-D. EVA: A-H-M-E-D? AHMED: Ja, det är rätt. Ahmed. stavas jag jag heter nej fel ja rätt

Mål 1 Lärobok 8 Alfabetet A A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Å Ä Ö a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z å ä ö B JONAS LINDA LISA EMIL HASSAN KLARA JOCKE