The Reading Room

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11:46 AM

Suggestion! If we're going to reboot the topic challenges, following the most popular proposal of @ChristopheStrobbe, that means we should be announcing the topic of an Oct-Nov 2019 challenge around now, presumably either Lin Yutang or The Epic of Gilgamesh (please vote to break the tie!) How about, at the same time, creating a new rebooted meta thread for suggestions to replace @Aza's?

The old one is getting long and clogged with many answers, while stagnating in votes - maybe not just because our meta audience is decreasing but because people aren't bothering to check back to the same thread again and again? Also, a new thread might be a way to refresh votes according to some of the principles outlined in the recent meta discussion (e.g. preference for shorter works available online). Of course we could port across lots of answers from the old thread if we still like them.

CinCout

12:12 PM

also, now that I reflect on it, author challenges are too wide in the sense that any work by that author is possible to be considered. We should prefer shorter works available online first for any author, and if it is readily accepted by the community, we can consider going for author challenges for that specific writer.

Basically once the community is familiar to a particular author (as a result of the specific read picked up for the (bi)monthly challenge) can then we go for a wider author-based challenge. Thoughts?

Rand al'Thor

12:22 PM

@CinCout Is it a bad thing to be wide though? Someone might be familiar with one of an author's works but not with another, so making the challenge about all of that author's works might make it possible for more people to participate.

2 hours later…

CinCout

1:58 PM

when the chosen challenge topic is that wide and the author is new to me, personally I prefer not to participate. Somehow I feel like I will have to choose from a list I am not familiar with. So I prefer a specific book which I can just dive right in if the blurb is interesting.

6 hours later…

Bookworm

8:00 PM

Q: Is there specific mythological significance to the Dingli Cliffs?

The poem "Cliffs" ("Irdumijiet") is part of a collection available online by the Maltese-Canadian writer, poet, and academic professor John P. Portelli. Written in 1973, and found on pages 40-41 (page 21 of the PDF) in the book linked above, it goes as follows (English translation from the origin...