I love collecting classics and different editions of my favourite books, does anyone have a recommendation for an edition of this that would be suitable for annotating? I'm looking for enough space between lines to underline and some space in the margins for small comments. Most bookshops only carry one edition and I've tried looking online in the past but photos can be deceptive so I thought I'd ask here ☺️

Hi Everybody!! I'm AcidicChaos and I answer to any versions/variations of it!

I don't think I have the words to explain how ridiculously excited I am to do this quest with all of you!!

About The Quest A lot of these books feel like a fever dream on the first pass and it's not until your second time through that you may see the full picture and benefits, however for this badge you only need to read the books once! So, to try and help make that first pass through as fruitful as possible, I realized that these books thrive on discussion, and I wholeheartedly encourage it in the forums!!

Please keep in mind: there is no right way to read or interpret these books. All interpretations are valid, and discussions should stay respectful.

Monthly Buddy Reading Matching Because these books are so much more rewarding when we get to talk through them, but not every book will suit everyone's tastes, instead of quest-wide readalongs I'll be organizing a monthly buddy read matching to help facilitate readalongs and buddy reads at least until the buddy reads planning features roll out for Pagebound Plans. You can find more information on the monthly buddy read matching 🔗Here.

Quest Recommendations I'm always open to recommendations, but I do have a fairly strict set of criteria for inclusion. Out of respect for other quest makers with overlapping interests, I'm keeping the full criteria close to my chest for now until those other quests drops - but I promise I take every recommendation seriously. Because of this strict criteria I may be a bit slower to adding new recommendations to the quest than other quest makers, so please have patience with me. To make sure I don't miss your recommendation, please post your recommendations 🔗Here.

Where To Start?? If you want to ease in, short story collections are a great entry point!! You get a feel for the mode without committing to a full novel (please check content warnings before diving in, some of these are dark). Below you'll find 🔗links to some great starting places on this list: Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges The Milk Bowl of Feathers: Essential Surrealist Writings by Mary Ann Caws The Houseguest and Other Stories by Amparo Davila The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms by Daniil Kharms

If you prefer a singular story, but on the shorter side so it's not as big of a commitment, some of these short novels under 200 pages could be a great place to jump in! Pig Wife by Abbey Luck Note: Don't mind the page count on PB, it's incorrect at the time of posting this, the book is around 540 pages, but it's a graphic novel so it will fly by plus it has some gorgeous surrealist artwork! The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz Lobster by Guillaume Lecasble Froth on the Daydream by Boris Vian Temporary by Hilary Leichter Nadja by Andre Breton The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon Kangaroo Notebook by Kobo Abe The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

And, of course, there's a reason the word Kafkaesque exists! If you haven't read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, that's always a perfect place to start!

A Little About Me & This Quest I've been drawn to surreal and absurd literature since I was a teenager starting with The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka! I found it after watching a documentary about the books the Nazis burned, and figured if they wanted to burn it, I needed to read it. This kickstarted my love for books that feel like a fever dream, dense with metaphor and symbolism, that no matter how strange or silly they get are ultimately revealing a (often dark) truth about raw humanity and the world we live in. That thread doesn't belong to any one genre and this quest has been such a labor of love tracing is across many different genres!

I can't wait to hear all of your theories and interpretations in the forums!!!!!

AcidicChaos

Hello everyone! I am so excited to welcome you to the Poetic Stories Quest. This has been a labor of love and I'm so glad to finally get to share it with you and start chatting more about poetry.

I started thinking about this quest after interacting with multiple users who expressed interest in poetry but shared they felt intimidated by it or that it was too challenging. These conversations, plus some books I read for the 🔗Intro to Poetry Quest, got me examining the accessibility of different types of poetry and considering how a quest dedicated to fictitious poetry might enable less confident readers to explore this genre more. Thus, the Poetic Stories Quest was born! My hope is that this quest will make new readers feel less intimidated by poetry and encourage seasoned readers to explore stories they might not have before.

This post is meant to serve as a space for you all to introduce yourselves, get to know one another, etc. (But, of course, feel free to create your own posts as well!) I'd love to learn about y'all and your motivations for joining this quest. What type of poetry is your favorite? What are you hoping to get out of this quest? Which book(s) are you most excited to check out?

I ask that you also check out the 🔗Quest Intentions and Curation and 🔗Book Recommendations posts for more info! Additionally, if any of you ever feel like putting together a small or large buddy read, please feel free to make posts about it in this forum! This forum is a space for everyone to engage with each other and read poetry, so I would love to see y’all using it and welcoming others to do the same.

Thank you all for being here; I hope you enjoy the quest💛🪶

”In order to get to community, we have to go quiet, slow down, allow ourselves to be both vulnerable and brave, and approach one another with an idea as simple as, I’m me, you’re you, we are not the same, and yet perhaps we can feel safe here together talking about something as simple as a poem, [...] If we let them, poems also encourage the more difficult notion [...] that I can only truly honor and protect myself by honoring and protecting you.” Tracy K. Smith