Can you guess these classic books by their one-line spoilers? Alanna Okun asks at BuzzFeed.
She gets hit by a train
He never shows up
The dogs die
She was lying
Everything was predetermined
She doesn’t live forever
The dog dies. So some other folk
There’s a hurricane, a rabid dog, a shooting, and an acquital
She buys the flowers herself
& more
Here’s one book; can you match it to the spoiler? Do you want to?
Spoiler alert
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Poems Everyone Should Read
Krystie Lee Yandoli and the BuzzFeed staff have some suggestions:
“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
“The first time I read this poem I was still a young girl, trying to figure out who I was and frankly what the hell was happening to my body. Maya Angelou made me feel like who I was becoming — a woman — was something very special, ancient, and wonderful. I physically remember breathing out and sitting up just a little bit taller because of her words.” —Ashley Perez
“The Guest House” by Jelaluddin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
“I heard this poem at the end of a yoga class a couple years ago. I had just moved to New York, on a whim, after a failed six-year relationship and dealing with a lot of sadness and thought, Fuck, now what? My uncle was also losing his battle to cancer and my family and I were dealing with the inevitable. This poem helped me through that time and still continues to resonate in my life today. I hope it brings peace to some else out there.” —Chris Ritter
Life Changing Poems
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50 Essential Books of Poetry
Emily Temple of Flavorwire weighs in with this selection of whole books of poetry “that everyone should read.”
Metamorphoses, Ovid
Despite him being like, so old, Ovid is funnier and sexier than you think. Plus, he’s the original architect of surreal, mythic ch-ch-ch-changes. Can’t beat him.
There’s something for everybody here, from the deeply established canonical works to riveting, important books by newer poets, from the Romantics to the post-modernists, from the goofy to the staid. This list can only reflect personal taste, chance meetings, and wild subjectivity.
My Life, Lyn Hejinian
Hejinian has the uncanny ability to turn the ordinary observation or idle musing into the profound. Her landmark work is a poetic autobiography, a gorgeous, funny tableau of experiences and memories, a life in fragments. After all, “only fragments are accurate. Break it up into single words, charge them to combination.”
Do you have anything to add?
50 poetry books
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An Imaginary Town Becomes Real, Then …
Robert Krulwich reports on the town that wasn’t, then was, then wasn’t again.
The vanishing town
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Daily Routines
“In the right-hands, daily routines can be a finely calibrated mechanism for taking advantage of limited resources… a solid routine foster a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies…” Mason Currey, author of the inspiring book Daily Rituals
Created by RJ Andrews, infowetrust.com
Creative routines
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Quote of the Day
“Of all the things which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the things we call books.” ~ Thomas Carlyle
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Alma Alexander
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