Question for English wizards

[_Imwashingmypirate]

Um, Read the Bible. My language skills suck, but they have changed rapidly over this past year, simpley because I have allowed peope to point out where I am going wrong and have took more notice of what I am writing or saying. However, I do enjoy reading. I think talking on these forums helps. Pretend you are writing to the president and are writing as formal as you possibly can. Often it can help just by visualising to whom one is talking.

[_Bond...James Bond]

That said, Bond's idea of tackling dense prose is not a bad idea...

It's quite difficult at first...and having someone explain the basics really helps. To take the Foucault example, I first read a section from Discipline and Punish for class and was like..."Wtf?" and needed to have it outlined to me before I got it. But that first time is like getting a key to a code. Once you understand the code you can figure out the basic ideas in a dense set of material. It's quite Enlightening. It really makes you a more educated reader though to read dense material. Understanding dense material allows you to better enjoy light reading because you can read into it. You might think...oh yeah whatever, but it'll help you when reading newspapers or message boards or even in expanding the way you think by being exposed to new ideas and perceptions.

To use math...if you understand perhaps dense number theory then you will get more out of 2 + 2 = 4 because not only do you know a sum is taking place, you know what the numbers fundamentally mean and that the numbers show fundamental worth being combined. In the same way, you can read certain sections in a given book and learn how to add it to the larger story. Using these skills you start picking up continuing patterns, foreshadowing, character duality, symbolism, and on and on and on. In my own mind it allows me to more fully enjoy material because I not only look at the surface of the house, I have X ray vision and can see the beams and the bricks and the mortar that holds it together. Before you know it you're doing it in real life. I think it's made me more introspective as a person, but also helps me see people as multi faceted and not caricatures.

[_Yoda]

Abman, have you tried reading any of Michael Crichton's stuff? He wrote the "Jurassic Park" series. All of his books discuss computer technology, science, and incorporate it into fiction. You also
might enjoy Tom Clancy. His Jack Ryan series is really exciting.

[_moksha]

Hey Ab, you might try reading some books by Gene Wolfe as an exercise in making it through the aforementioned dense writing. Specifically:

The Book of the New Sun
The Shadow of the Torturer (1980)
The Claw of the Conciliator (1981)
The Sword of the Lictor (1982)
The Citadel of the Autarch (1983)
The Urth of the New Sun (1987)

One you do this then you will have achieved mission accomplished status.

[_asbestosman]

Um, Read the Bible.

I think I'm actually pretty good at reading the Bible. Biblical vocabulary and grammar seems to be somewhere between Dutch and French. I'm fluent in Dutch, and I took French in high school.

Read Foucault. Crazy dense prose and you'll go "whoa" alot.

I'll give it a shot.

Abman, have you tried reading any of Michael Crichton's stuff?

I read Jurrasic Park before the movie came out and did it in 3 days. Of course, I had a book report due in 4, so that was my motivation. I enjoyed it, but not enough to read the next one. You'd think I'd love science fiction, but I don't. The last bit of science fiction I read willingly that wasn't by Douglas Adams was something on Intelligent Design by Dembski.

Hey Ab, you might try reading some books by Gene Wolfe as an exercise in making it through the aforementioned dense writing.

We'll have to see if I can last through it.

[_ludwigm]

Hey Ab, you might try reading some books by ... <any writer>

Please, never read products of a certain writer after each other.

I am a readaholic (is there such word?) so You may believe me.
Read five book of another writer then You may return again.

May I suggest titles ?
Foxes in the Vineyard (Lion Feuchtwanger)
Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
Joseph and His Brothers (Thomas Mann)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
Forsyte Saga (John Galsworthy)

May I suggest authors in general?
Victor Hugo, Thomas Mann, Émile Zola, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens
Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Joseph Heller, (don't say I'm neglecting the New World)
Wolfgang Jeschke, Isaac Asimow, Stanislaw Lem (mainly sci-fi writers but they are good writers in general)
Umberto Eco (Bond doesn't like but You shouldn't believe him)
last but not least, Mór Jókai (best of hungarian, it will be difficult to find him in english)

It is worth to look up these writers and their works in Wiki or Answers.