u/YellowFrogs7121

Hi, I'm a 19 year old whose 1st language is English and have a fairly standard vocabulary but am currently hitting quite the plateau. I'm at a level where I can understand almost every word in a Stephen King book, but if you hand me a James Joyce book I'd be lying if I said I wasn't struggling.

I read quite a lot and write down every word I don't understand in a notebook, after I finish a book I try to learn the new words by sorting them out by adjective/noun etc. And a couple other criteria then write out the definitions once a day until I feel confortable. This works for a while but I find I forget the words after a month or so becaise I'm not using them. Anyone know some good exercises for leaening new words after you've read them in a book? Danke schön.

Hi, I'm a 19 year old with diagnosed social anxiety and am currently suffering severe loneliness. I finished my first year in college 2 months ago and since then have been feeling my mental health wane. I'm someone who struggles greatly to connect with others and make friends and the few friends I did make this year were all international students that have gone back home until next semester and I just can't handle the isolation.

I've broke down crying the last few nights and had strong mood swings along with the most worrying suicidal ideation I've had in about 2 years. I just can't find anyone to talk to except my family but it's hard to feel in company from them when I've lived with them every day of my life.

My issues with making new friends isn't exactly talking, as I've become a lot better at socialising since college but just finding the people in the first place. I live in a very rural area and still studying for my driving test so it's so hard to actually get out abd meet people. I tried looking for events online but my area is so small I couldn't find anything. Does anyone have any advice on how to meet new people in this current age?, I'm trying I really am but I just feel that I always get nowhere.

I recently finished a collection of 10 stories by Lovecraft and it had me thinking. Are all of Lovecraft's stories actually cosmic horror?, I mean yes of course stories like call of cthulhu and dunwich horror are quintessential lovecraftian horror with very clear real and threatening monsters and gods but a few stories seem to stand out with the possibility of an unreliable narrator. For example, the statement of randolph carter is one that puzzles me and I had a conclusion about it that I was surprised to not hear from anyone else (spoilers for this story).

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In the story it's never actually said by an authority what carter is being questioned about only he himself brings up the disappereance of his friend. My theory is that Carter being fascinated with the reanimation occurences in arkham is attempting to dig up his dead friend's body and in an episode of halluciantions triggered by grief he hears the voice through the telephone, taking him back to the grim reality that his friend is really dead. I've only read the story once so sorry if my theory has a few holes, but I did find this to really change ny outlook on that story, a very macabre scene of a man trying to cope with someone's death. Other stories that I think could be victins of unreliabke narrators are the thing on the doorstep and the outsider.