Thread 24653860

>age
>current book
>your thoughts on it

28
Inherent Vice
What the hell is going on?

>>24653860 (OP)
33
Nicholas Nickleby
Lovely, as usual for Dickens.

27
the stars our destination
loved the beginning, got bored 40 pages in but it's my fault so I'll keep pushing, fuck Vorga kill Vorga

>>24653860 (OP)
imagine touching her

24;
Mundos Mortos by Octavio de Farias;
It's good.

>>24653860 (OP)
damn /lit/ is old

>27
>The Gay Science
>Many wonderful quotes in it. Look up Star Friendship by Nietzsche

>>24653905
fr fr, i thought this place was gon be bussin but is a bunch of uncs

>>24653860 (OP)
what is data mining?

>>24653860 (OP)
44

Spiderlight

Loving it so far, I would say it should be mandatory for any sff-fag. It reminds me of Pratchett's works

>>24653860 (OP)
>32
>The Deep, by Nick Cutter
>As most modern horror, too reddit.

>>24653860 (OP)
25
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata
Is this seriously the best contemporary female author /lit/ has to recommend??

>>24653860 (OP)
23
The Sea-Wolf by Jack London
I feel for Humphrey Van Weyden at times, but this nigga's philosophical takes suck. Wolf Larsen is essentially a proto-/lit/ user. I liked a lot of the digressions into Nietzschean and Social Darwinian/Spencerian philosophy. Granted, I'm little more than about 25% through the novel, but I am really enjoying it so far.

40
Ovid's Ars Amatoria
It's hilarious and the first PUA book; The Mystery Method, 2 AD edition. He's right though you gotta work over her girl friends with pieces of cheese to get all the crucial deets. Don't want to make your move when she's distemperous from her period.
>>24653879
Just picked up an early printing for $1 at thrift shop, add it to the backlog
>>24653920
Flood them with bad info instead of no info

>>24653915
>uncs
I misread this as "eunuchs."

>>24653860 (OP)
Ageless, Timeless
Grant's Memoirs, just finished Jean Edward Smith's bio
Also reading Joyce Carol Oates' Blonde, and rereading Wallace Stevens

>>24653860 (OP)
25
Complete Sherlock Holmes Canon
Sincerely classic stuff, I grew up watching those whacky RDJ sherlock movies, so that was my first impression of Sherlock holmes going into this, its amazing how you can see the tropes form/crystallize in real time just by reading the first novel

>>24653860 (OP)
27
The Trial
The first third bored me, the middle was interesting, the last third was good too except for the end. It felt really obvious how unfinished it was by then. I've decided not to dwell too much on it.

23
confession of a mask
I'm hitting the gym soon. More seriously I was having higher expectations on it, kinda make me wish I could read Japanese because the translated sentences seem involuntarily convoluted

>>24653862
>Inherent Vice
>What the hell is going on?
classic

>>24653905
Fucking zoomers, you're going to have a suicidal crisis once you realise that you, too, age, and TikTok isn't actually an unbiased sample of reality.

25
Don Carlos and Mary Stuart by Schiller
I've been reading a lot of german literature recently and I'm getting tired of german aesthetics might finish it if I don't lose the will to live.

feet

>>24653860 (OP)
28
Pnin
Kind of boring but humorous. I don’t like Nabokovs style though, it’s too exaggerated.

>>24654198
Thought the same thing

>38
>Travels With Charley
Not certain if it’s fact or fiction but Steinbeck has a profoundly human way of perceiving connecting and writing and he’s criminally under appreciated I bought tortilla flat also and I’m looking forward to it too

>>24653860 (OP)
>26
>Don Quixote
>Jesus fucking christ I just want to finish it. I've been reading it on and off for two months in between other books. I'm tired. Let me off the ride.

>>24653860 (OP)
Giles Goat Boy
John Barth
Barth can't create a bad story.

30
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
It's nice. Not really read any philosophy books, but I like this baby version for my small brain.

27.
Re-reading Justine.
It's better on a second read. This English translation is so great - I assume the original is even better.
It's a story about a 12 year old girl facing adversities and getting her faith tested in the most brutal ways. It's a philosophical novel too. There's nothing important Stirner and Nietzsche said that hadn't already been said in this novel by Sade through his characters.

why do women like to read without shoes on

>>24654400
To enhance the smell of books.

>>24654221
The mark of a gentleman.

>17
>The Phenomenology of Spirit
>extremely overrated

>>24653860 (OP)
Plato's Dialogues.
Socrates is a sophistic twat.

>>24654478
You're too young to understand it.

>>24654400
i think i'm turning asexual, this disgusts me

>>24654570
Dilate boomer. You're on your way out. At least be quiet about it.

>>24654957
>tp

28

Philokalia

I love it

>>24654957
Come on. 17-year-olds have little to no life experience. You know this. Have zoomers gotten so mind-raped by TikTok that they think life really does end at 20 or whatever? Incredible.

>>24653860 (OP)
18
tamburlaine by marlowe
It’s pretty cool so far, just started it though.

boomer
listened to fairy tales over the weekend, including bluebeard
my thoughts are people's interpretations of bluebeard are retarded

31.
Almost finished Childhood's End.
I read 2001: A Space Odyssey in July. I read both of these in my teens so these are technically rereads but I've forgotten a lot. I thought I enjoyed 2001 a lot but CE is potentially even better. There's definitely more characterization when compared to 2001. Next I'll read Rendezvous With Rama and after that maybe The Time Machine (another reread from my teens) if I'm not too burnt out on science fiction.

>>24653860 (OP)
22
The Road
Loving it. My dad told me the only time he ever felt scared reading a book was when he read it and I know what he means now.

>>24655381
Pet Sematary by Stephen King made me shit my pants.

36
Dark Gods by T.E.D. Klein
Black Man with a Horn is the best Lovecraft story written

>>24653901
Never heard of the book or author, qrd?

>age
22
>current book
haven't really committed to a new book yet since school is coming up soon but I just finished Empire of Liberty
>your thoughts on it
Brilliantly written for such a broad topic. I am proud to be American

>>24653860 (OP)
24
In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts
Slightly interesting, thought it would bring me an epiphany about my porn addiction and I would quit cold turkey

Over 9000
William Blake poetic anthology
It's a relatively big book so I'm taking my time. Currently reading the Songs of Innocence, I'm afraid they're too nursery rhyme-like and cheesy for my taste, but some of the poems give glances of Blake's subtle theological considerations, which is interesting, I guess it's all connected somehow to the latter schizo prophecies, but I haven't gotten there yet

>>24653860 (OP)
26
Return of the King
I only read the Hobbit as a kid but I'm glad I'm taking the time to read it now at least. Been a great escape from my stressful life.

39
Against the Day
Fun and interesting, but tinged with melancholy.

>>24653860 (OP)
31
Why the nations fail?
Interesting but it's too pro-america.

22
bronze age mindset
why does he write like that?

>>24653898
Lol

29
Slaughterhouse Five
So it goes.

30
La Bas (Down There)
Complete slop so far
First book by Huysmans and can't say I'm impressed, about 190 pages in. The fact it inevitably turns into a conversion story in the books after based on Huysmans own experience is even funnier.

>>24653860 (OP)
>25
>animal farm
>I don't remember it being this funny the last time I read it

>>24653860 (OP)
32
2666
Beautiful writing and it's holding my interest, but the structure seems so chaotic.

5
la fontaine's fables
this shit bussin fr fr

>>24653860 (OP)
30
Matthew
A classic and good morals.

>>24654582
Fag

28
The Iliad
I just read the first two chapters, felt like an anime

>>24654232
>Don Quixote
>Sunken Cost Fallacy
classic

20
Martin Eden
I think he's too pretentious but I kinda understand the essence of his thought and its relation to Nietzscheism

22
Trifles for a massacre
Already a thousand times better than Journey and War (the only two others by Celine I read). I didn't expect the book to have more than 30 pages of ballets at the beginning but they were beautiful. I now understand Houellebecq when he said Celine was a better pamphleteer than novelist. His power levels are also much higher than mine

23
Goethe Faust
This is so relatable it's insane.

28
Horus Rising
Just started

>>24653862
desu this could describe my reaction throughout most of the book
>>24654002
Read Fernanda Melchor

28
The Haunting of Hill House
I like it but it's funny how I'm halfway through and the whole thing is still chill. At most the characters say "oh boy, this house sure is spooky ain't it" to each other every couple of pages.

24
Empire of The Sun
Im only 10 pages in but i will kill and maim in the name of J.G. Ballard

>>24657576
which translation anon im interested in reading this further than undegrad level

>>24657776
Based, the Black Library has some absolute bangers, the next book in the Horus Heresy series (False Gods) is gonna keep you glued trust me. Be wary of the Primarchs series though, most of them are shit.

>>24653860 (OP)
29
Permutation City
This must have been a lot more interesting in 1994, now the descriptions and philosophizing about replicas and simulated realities and what consciousness is sound quite trite (but I'm a doc in psychology so I've probably heard more about it than the next person)

>>24653860 (OP)
23
The Sun Also Rises
It's been ok so far. Honestly, aside from some scenes here and there, the book didn't seem to get really good until they all meet up in Spain and Mike insults Robert.

>>24654206
This is more or less how I felt about it but I liked it overall. Particularly toward the end.

24
The Late Middle Ages
The fall of the roman empire really did a number on european civilization, people went back to building with wood instead of stone until the X-XI century! I wish I could see the Golden Age of Al-Andalus and the Levantine civilization in whole.

>>24654232
Recently finished this one. I really liked it, but I understand the feeling. It did start to feel a little repetitive. What translation are you reading?

>>24653860 (OP)
Mid 20s
Maths textbooks. The DK micro creatures book. Letters from a Deadhouse (with my sister). BL short stories.
In order: getting through it.
Very disturbing: these tiny things are really quite hideous, though being able to understand and see such tiny things causing the macro phenomena we experience is incredible.
Great , like all of Dostoevsky. This is such a different vignettey style compared to novels. I really appreciate how the episodic nature of the tales mirrors how life would be lived in prison: in bursts. I’m only a little bit in, but I’m looking forward to my favourite bits: the escape, the play, and the maudlin/irreverent Jew.
Cute. I’m reading the Acolyte collection; quite naughty. Very split between sordid and sentimental; I prefer the latter. Alan Edward’s a great writer, and a lot of Jews are blers.

>>24655381
One of my all time favorites. I love how bleak and oddly beautiful the story is. Even though the language is somewhat pared down in this compared to his earlier works like Suttree, he still finds a way to weave in some of his older style. I particularly love his use of the word "salitter". Is this your first Cormac McCarthy novel?

>>24654232
I've been stuck with it for months too. Just kill me

Late 20s
Revelation Space

Enjoying it. Haven’t read Reynolds before — he’s got a good sense of style. Not the best sci fi I’ve read, but definitely not the worst. Neither too smart nor too dumb — nice mid-August read

>>24658155
https://youtu.be/zQtP3ZHRA3Q

>cute feet wonder what shes reading god that hair seems soft softer than the sweater
28
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Only a couple chapters in but really liking it so far. It's got a warmth to it that I didn't expect of such a recent book, pleasantly surprised me.

24
Light in August by Faulkner
Trying desperately to finish this before August ends. Book is interesting and the prose is beautiful but this is my first Faulkner and I am reading a lot slower than I expected.

>>24657574
Funniest book I’ve ever read by far

36
To Kill A Mockingbird
Haven't read it since high school, remembered it being about a white dude trying to save a negro but the negro tried to escape so they killed him. Instead it's just about a little girl in the 30s learning how racist the world is. 10/10 just because it has a little white girl casually saying nigger and nobody bats an eye.

22
Crying of Lot 49

Not gonna lie, I don't think I understood the message. It definitely feels very 60s with its themes. I found its humor enjoyable and the prose was very dense with meaning, even though I probably didn't pick up on a lot of it. I did like this portrayal of descending into a rabbit hole and how wacky it was, but it was hard to tell which details were there for flavour and which were hidden insights and clues.

What I had particular trouble with was those drawn out metaphorical descriptions of Oedipa's feelings and state of mind, which I barely understood, like how she felt about her past with Inveriarity and the effect it had on her. Would love to hear your interpretations.

Also I don't know if the part where every guy she interacted with undergoes a drastic change of personality near the end is supposed to mean something about life or if it's just random conspiracy stuff.

All in all, I don't know if I'm too esl or low IQ for literature like this, or if it's normal for novices. I'll read something more straightforward next.

27
Myths of Ancient Greece and Rome
Its alright

30
The eminence in shadow light novel series
Needs more drawings, lewd ones particularly

>>24655907
Shit tier opinion

>>24657545
29
The Iliad, Prosaic Translation
Reminds me a lot of the OT for some reason

>>24653860 (OP)
23
The Time Traveler’s Wife
It’s alright but what’s with authors who write novels for women. Why do they feel the need to shoehorn all their pretentious qualities onto every character they write

>>24653860 (OP)
25
proven guilty by jim butcher
i love my dresden files slop, past few have been incredible

>>24659333
Gay
>>24657776
The Black Library rules, don’t feel the need to read every book in the Horus Heresy series as some are both useless to the plot and horrible in writing
>>24654046
Bring back Ovidposting

>>24653860 (OP)
22
Light in August
I like and hate him and its making me depressed but it pulls me in still

>>24653860 (OP)
22
Clockwork Orange (with the original ending)
Man, people REALLY didn't understand how brown and negrified everything would get in the future even in a shitty dystopian crime world

>>24653860 (OP)
29
Rereading Jane Eyre
Still my favorite book, some of the best atmosphere ever written

>>24653860 (OP)
27
1001 Nights
Man this is so fucking good, but why is every other story about interracial cucking? This must be what libtards feel like when they watch Birth of a Nation.

>>24653860 (OP)
29
Shadow of the torturer
Pretty great so far, Severian just got the flower. Its a very mysterious book, I have no clue what the author is trying to say or where hes going with it but im having a good time. Definitely more than I expected from a scifi/fantasy work.

>>24653860 (OP)
19
Great Dialogues of Plato, and Harvard Classics "The Five Foot Shelf of Books" Essays English and American. I'm alternating between reading the two.
I've begun with Plato following the advice to "start with the Greeks," as I've harbored a great interest in the matters of philosophy and formal logic. I am enjoying the dialogues thoroughly, and the Platonic dialectic is making well and good sense to me so far.
As for the Harvard collection of essays, I like to read one every once in a while between the Dialogues. I've only read a few of the essays, but I've liked what I've read so far. Though, I must say, I found G. K. Chesterson's essays much more colorful and exciting.

12 (actually. Not only oldfags go on 4chan).

Mein Kampf

Many valid points, but points deducted for turgid prose.

30, A History of The Arab Peoples, it's dense af and good and making me sleepy

>>24660479
Based child. I take it you're reading the Ford translation? Hitler's prose wasn't all that good, regardless.

>>24660488
Yes, Ford

>34
>Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

Having never watched The Wire, I wasn't sure what to expect. I don't mind the prose but it tends to shift between eloquent to janky in the same paragraph. Not a bad read so far though

>>24660491
I actually haven't gotten around to reading Mein Kampf yet, but it's on the reading list. I recently purchased "National Socialism and the Laws of Nature" by Martin Kerr. I think it will serve as a good metapoltical precursor to studying Hitler's ideology, and for considering how the ideology could be applied internationally. Speaking of internationally, you can buy Henry Ford's "The International Jew" off of the Cosmotheist church website. That, too, is on my reading list.

>38
>A House For Mr Biswas

He's literally me (the pathetic middle aged loser part, not the Trinidadian jeet with a huge family part).

>26
>The secret life of Ted Kaczynski
Finishing this one tomorrow. One of the best books I've read all year. It tells Ted's story from his neighbor's POV. I'm obsessed with cabins and self-sustenance now

>>24653860 (OP)
22
Metamorphoses (Garth)
Maybe I should've read Sandys's instead

>31
>Sufferings in Africa
It's good. I wish people had the level of loquaciousness of a random 18th century sailor today.
And I like telling people it's an account of a slave's life in Africa and America and then revealing that he's white.

28

2666, pretty good. but wondering why this one part is so long...

>>24660387
cursed image

25
Blood Meridian
Complete slog. Pages 180 to like 220 had me getting dizzy from boredom. Thankfully I will be done with it tomorrow. My review will not be positive. Became obvious it was vastly overrated when even normies started getting super into it.

>>24661006
Just ponder it
That’s all I ask

>>24658113
>Is this your first Cormac McCarthy novel?
Not at all. Read Child of God, Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men. I just finished it tonight actually and I found the ending very moving especially considering my dad, who really loved the book, has passed on so I shed some tears after finishing it

32
Thérèse Raquin by Zola
It's like if Crime and Punishment was good

>>24661067
I spend my whole life pondering it

>>24657576
How so

>>24661052
You're responsible for your own boredom. A book being boring isn't a sign of quality

>27
>The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
Im afraid popsci, might be my world. Im an engineer so I know fuck all about biology and its fun to draw parallels.

The problem is that are a lot of books where base concepts are explained super simply, (sometimes to the point of being watered down so much that you barely gain a grasp on the subject) and there are also a lot of university-level textbooks, but I feel like there is a missing link between them.

>>24653860 (OP)
>32
>Winesburg, Ohio
>I'm terrible at conveying my inner thoughts on books, all I know is that I love it so far

31
Magic's Mantle
Interesting magic system. The conflict feels a little flat. It feels like I was duped into reading a romance where the male and female lead dance around each other for the whole book.

>31
>Europe Central

This book is taking me so long to read. Some parts are great some parts really drag though

>>24660488
Did a mod delete his post because he said he was reading Mein Kampf?

>>24660476
I posted that I'm reading the dialogues. What are your thoughts on Socrates? I find how he argues to be incredibly sophistic.

34
Butcher's Crossing
I enjoy it quite a bit

>>24653860 (OP)
39
Taming of the Shrew
My first play with an Induction which I find a novel although odd idea. I'm wondering if the Induction characters will show up again or not.

>31
I’m reading through Charles Olson’s work after I read about him in Davenport’s Geography of the Imagination. I’m enjoying his poems and Mayan letters. As Davenport suggests, he is the Anti-Whitman who sees “troubled waters ahead” for humanity. That said, I absolutely struggled to understand “Equal, That Is, To The Real Itself.” It has defeated me.

>>24653860 (OP)
>age
38
>current book
Ice (Anna Kavan)
>thoughts
need to find a porcelain-skinned teen princess that I can chase to exhaustion through the chaos of our imminently collapsing world

>>24662647
Yes im well aware of that. Half the book being landscape descriptions is not my cup of tea.

>>24653860 (OP)
>22 in a month exactly
>Eugene Onegin
>Idk I haven't made a post yet asking what I thought of it

>19
>Der Tod in Venedig
>Sufficiently gay for me

>>24653860 (OP)
32
Suttree
He's literally me. I'm amazed I've survived this long without a job.

>>24653860 (OP)
35
Lolita
Pretentious but I keep reading it

>>24653860 (OP)
>31
>Signposts in a Strange Land by Walker Percy

How have I not found this man before? It’s like reading a great conversation I’ve wanted to have for years. He’s fantastic. Books is great. Smart but not dull or overly intellectual. He has interesting opinions. Makes me want to move to Louisiana.

>30
>Dune

I'm really enjoying it. I think Herbert does a great job delivering just enough exposition for you to fill in the blanks with context. I wish I had started the series sooner.

28
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
I'm liking it so far. It's my fourth Mishima novel.

>>24653860 (OP)
30
Gambling With Armageddon by Martin Sherwin
It's a compelling book that largely focuses on close call nuclear incidents during the Cold War and very relevant to today given the rapidly shifting geopolitical order. I think we are closer to nuclear war than ever before.

>>24660476
Cute doggy

>>24654232
22
War and Peace
Same. 20 pages left of a fucking 1500 pages book and that autist Tolstoi slaps me in the face with an essay about the le meaning of history. Will just have to get through it.

>>24653860 (OP)
>22
>The Metamorphosis (Kafka) and Men Without Women (Murakami Haruki)
>The Metamorphosis
I'm happy this reading made me uncomfortable. I could see a parallel between Samsa's transformation into a bug and a person becoming disabled.
>Men Without Women
My favorite stories were "Kino", "Drive my Car" and "An Independent Organ".

>>24664550
>I could see a parallel between Samsa's transformation into a bug and a person becoming disabled.
That's how you interpreted the story?
lol

20
How to read a book my Mortimer Adler
Ugh uga buga uga uoooo

>>24661087
Damn I’m not sure how long it’s been but I’m sorry for your loss OP. The power of literature really shows when those connections to our real lives happen. Where do you think you’ll go next? I’d recommend choosing Outer Dark as your next McCarthy novel. I think a lot of the themes that he explored in that book are realized in The Road, particularly the sense of the apocalyptic.

27
Cities of the red night by William S Burroughs
So tired of reading about gay sex and half-assed supernatural plot lines

>>24664526
yeah I read W&P a month ago and it was a huge disappointment

28
to have and have not
pretty enjoyable, but not quite as good as the sun also rises.

>>24653860 (OP)
21
Crime and Punishment | Not as good as the brothers K. The murder is pure comedy though
A Grief Observed | another C.S. Lewis banger

>>24664526
>>24664679
Imagine getting filtered by W&P

32
Fat City
It's capturing the vibe of my shitty Central Valley nicely and I'm liking it, but I'm worried it's going to me more depressing than I hoped. Which to be fair, also captures the vibe

30
The Cataline Conspiracy by John Maddox Roberts

Its a historical fiction detective novel set in the late Roman Republic. A young minor government official from an important family solves mysteries involving the major figures of the era. It’s very comfy, much lighter fare than other similar Roman detective series, such as Roma Sub Rosa or Didius Falco.

>>24655486
Brazilian author from the 20th century that fell into relative obscurity despite being celebrated in his time. The novel is the first volume of the "Tragédia Burguesa" antology. This first novel is about schoolboys in an elite Catholic school deciding whether they want to be proper Catholics or degenerates, which is in line with the overall spirit of the anthology, a study on bourgeois moral and spiritual decadence.

The writing style is very intimate and psychological, if you're into that type of thing.

>>24662968
i've tried reading the maximus poems a couples times, but it never connects with me. what attracts you to his poetry, what makes you keep trying to understand him ?

>>24653860 (OP)
18
The king in yellow
I'm only one chapter in and it's pretty interesting so far, I read bits of it while no customers are around at work.
I also ditched sartre's nausea for it cuz the start of nausea wad kinda ass does it get good?

>>24653860 (OP)
26
Letters of a Stoic
Good tidbits of philosophy & history but the format (letters) make's it kind of a slog to read. I enjoyed Meditations more. I'm yet to read Epictetus.

>>24665137
His Maximus poems do less for me than his earlier work. His Mayan letters are hypnotic, and I like moving between his images. While I admittedly didn’t grasp the essay I mentioned, I did, for the most, get his essay Projective Verse. Olson is, it seems to me, a poet obsessed with keeping the energy up between poet and audience—he’s very eager to keep the vitality of the poem strong via images that shift line to line. Sometimes, it really works. His obsession with history + how contemporary history interlaces with myth is something I’m working through, and I like it the more I unravel it. “The Kingfishers” and Mao + the people’s revolution + the Oracle of Delphi is a good example of this. Davenport puts it much better than I can, but I admire what he’s trying to do.


When the attentions change / the jungle leaps in / even the stones are split

>>24663396
>need to find a porcelain-skinned teen princess that I can chase to exhaustion through the chaos of our imminently collapsing world
If I had a nickel for every time...

>>24653860 (OP)
27
Heaven Looks Like Us
Devastating, it's hard to read more than a few poems in one sitting

>>24663396
>Ice
The plot summary and image reminded me of Belladonna of Sadness for some reason but no one asked.

>>24653860 (OP)
21
Anna Karenina
Obscenely good, just chapter after chapter of immaculate artistry, and I’m not even halfway done with it

>>24653860 (OP)
39
How to read a tree
Delightful, can't wait to go on a nature hike after finishing

>>24664786
I didn't get filtered. I read it through and didn't like it. What I'm interested in is what (you) got out of the book? What themes or messages did you get out of it?

>>24665270
Nuslavs aren't the most complicated bunch

>31
>Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
>Good but not nearly as good as Childhood's End. I'm rereading it (first time I read it was as a teenager) and I totally forgot the explorers totally do discover extraterrestrial life on Rama. 178/282 pages in right now. I'm absolutely incredulous tho that Rama won the Hugo and Nebula awards while Childhood didn't.

1. 32.
2. Just finished reading Buddenbrooks, started The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq.
3. Well, as far as Buddenbrooks go, it's objectively good prose written by skillful author, my only nitpicks would be that sometimes when Mann tries to write "beautifully" it comes off as forced and awkward, and that the book would've benefited from more "show, don't tell" approach. I believe the best parts were near the end: Thomas Buddenbrook's Schopenhauer epiphany (and how realistically it actually was treated, with him quickly slipping back to his established beliefs; because just reading some book by itself doesn't change lives), one day from Hanno's life (I think it's the most lively and relatable part of the book) and typhoid fever chapter (which felt like something that came straight from Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz; it also made me cry a bit). I didn't particularly like the ending though, it seemed underwhelming to me. But also, for some reason I have to literally force myself to read Thomas Mann's works, there's always this underlying dread of anticipated tediousness, it was the same with Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain (which I hadn't finished, even though I didn't have a single coherent criticism at the time of reading), and now this, even though when push actually comes to shove pages just fly by; I think he just isn't "mine" author.
As for Barry Lyndon, while it's clearly not Thackeray's strongest work, I still believe it's simply delightful: I enjoy the era and I enjoy the unabashed shamelessness of the main character. I actually think Thackeray is severely underrated, back in the day he was considered second only to Dickens, and frankly, it should've stayed that way, instead of him falling into relative obscurity, where everyone just read (or heard of) Vanity Fair and that's about it.

BTW, speaking of family sagas, in a foreseeable I'm thinking of reading either The Forsyte Saga (but I haven't read anything by Galsworthy, so I don't quite know what to expect) or The Maias by Eça de Queiroz (now, I've read The Crime of Father Amaro a while ago, and I've found it absolutely terrific; in fact, by merits of that book alone I came to believe that the only reason Queiroz isn't hailed as the great master by mainstream is simply because he wasn't born British, French or Russian, but merely Portuguese). What would you recommend?

~50
the cenci by p b shelley
its breddy gud

>>24653860 (OP)
23
"Hopscotch" - Cortazar
Love it for the same reasons I love Nabokov. Endless wit and inventiveness, diabolical plot, clever references, unconventional metaphysics and at times a real brain scratcher. A touch of solitude, an overabundance of consciousness etc.
For some reason I identify with the main character's monstrous lack of pity, his feelings of unreality, his inability to embrace the present, his resentments and his hope that he will find his crown among the shit gathered in the gutter.
> And too much pity underneath it all, me, who thought I was pitiless. It’s impossible to want what I want and in the shape I want it, and share life with others besides.
...
>“It’s funny,” he thought, as he watched the lasso go over her head. “Everything really falls into place piece by piece if you really want it to. The only thing untrue about all this is the analysis of it.”
>>24665942
Not that anon but I've got a love-hate relationship with War and Peace (read it twice now) and I have some suggestions on what people find in it.
The Russians, naturally, have their national epic. Female readers often glance over the war parts but love the social intrigue and relationship drama. Some appreciate Tolstoy's insights into the inner life of people, some enjoy being transported to a different era in history, some marvel at the immensity of the epic (perhaps the first literary project of this type and scale) and finally some even take seriously the author's points about the nature of war and history, the order of the family, religion, compassion, the role of the Russian peasantry, the (dys)function of the state, political responsibility and so forth.
At times it is an unbearable melodrama but it made literature much more ambitious.

>>24653860 (OP)
25
No longer human
Not too bad but lots of beta-faggotry; no wonder y'all like it so much

>>24667561
I really liked Hopscotch, but I still don't know what to think of Cortazar, whether he's a master craftsman or a great charlatan. Probably a bit of both.
>The Russians, naturally, have their national epic.
The Russians mostly hate it because their high schools force feed them with it.

>>24665942
Pierre's journey is superbly crafted, his original naivete and lack of discipline gradually growing into ambition and finally a maturing into an appreciation of the quiet family life after all he had experienced. Similarly, Andrei's unusual friendship is a perfect double for Pierre, as Andrei is well respected and successful early on, but with a certain inner listlessness and dissatisfaction (especially when he is wronged personally) which then beautifully culminates in his battlefield experience and subsequent epiphany while lying wounded. Even the parts which are more "melodrama" are handled astonishingly well, paining the motivations and turns of the Natasha with insight and authenticity. It's been many years since I've read it and the characters all seem so real still, it stands as a supreme accomplishment of literature, and I only touched on a few points in this post.

>>24665942
Pierre's journey is superbly crafted, his original naivete and lack of discipline gradually growing into ambition and finally a maturing into an appreciation of the quiet family life after all he had experienced. Similarly, Andrei's unusual friendship is a perfect double for Pierre, as Andrei is well respected and successful early on, but with a certain inner listlessness and dissatisfaction (especially when he is wronged personally) which then beautifully culminates in his battlefield experience and subsequent epiphany while lying wounded. Even the parts which are more "melodrama" are handled astonishingly well, painting the motivations and turns of the Natasha with insight and authenticity. It's been many years since I've read it and the characters all seem so real still, it stands as a supreme accomplishment of literature, and I only touched on a few points in this post.

>>24665942
Pierre's journey is superbly crafted, his original naivete and lack of discipline gradually growing into ambition and finally a maturing into an appreciation of the quiet family life after all he had experienced. Similarly, Andrei's unusual friendship is a perfect double for Pierre, as Andrei is well respected and successful early on, but with a certain inner listlessness and dissatisfaction (especially when he is wronged personally) which then beautifully culminates in his battlefield experience and subsequent epiphany while lying wounded. Even the parts which are more "melodrama" are handled astonishingly well, painting the motivations and turns of Natasha with insight and authenticity. It's been many years since I've read it and the characters all seem so real still, it stands as a supreme accomplishment of literature, and I only touched on a few points in this post.

23
The Party's Interests Come First
The CCP's story is incredible. The relationship between each member and the party, how it gave them everything: glory, power, wealth, status, and then took it all away, damaging their lives forever. Before reading this, I thought the CCP was a party, but now I believe it's something more than a cult, at least until the 1980s.

>>24658582
which ones do you find particularly interesting?
have you read the tragedies?

24
House of Leaves
pretty cool so far, hope nothing bad happens

26
Frankenstein
Just finished it, I empathized with the beast's desire to fit inside a society that has no need for someone like him. Not because I have lived it, but because it reminded me of Enkidu from Gilgamesh's Epic. The mere fact that the beast understood that there was his inherent nature was not something that would provide value alongside the fact that he learned and changed
(could have done a bit more) proved entertaining for me.

25
Antigone.
Much better than the two previous tragedies.

>>24667660
Anyone who says they found nothing of worth in War and Peace is not worth taking seriously. Although Tolstoy himself would agree that his novels had too much melodrama.

27
Bible
Anything I write would be ridiculous, I'm not in the business of evaluating the Bible

29
Tender Is the Flesh
Sometimes I feel like a retard for not picking up on themes or symbols in books but this one's so obvious it feels like it's suffocating to read it.

>>24653860 (OP)
I'm 25 and reading the Wheel of Time series for the 8th time. It's become something like my security blanket, or a comfort food. The great length allows me to escape the trappings of my own life for hours out of a day, whole days out of a week. I know every plot point by heart. My real life hasn't been going so well over the last few years but when I forget myself in reading I don't have to remember it.

>>24664786
Love me some WAP

23
None
Nothing

>>24653860 (OP)
34
Kitchen
Sweet and simple so far

29
The Idiot
Loved the first and third books. Have to be in the mood for it. Dostoy does killer dream sequences.

>>24653860 (OP)
29
Collected short stories of H.P Lovecraft
Honestly, its not my cup of tea. Style is good, structure is good etc. But I personslly don't like it. So far Dunwich Horror is my favorite story.

>>24668320
Only honest post ITT

25

Heart of Darkness

Third or fourth time I've come back to it and each time I feel like I'm getting sucked deeper into the tangled depths of the jungle. What really struck me on this read was the extent to which the book is about language itself. Through Marlow misremembering and misrepresenting his encounter with Kurtz, Conrad is really showing us how language becomes complicit. It's a mask which distorts reality and flattens the visceral and horrible into euphemism and abstraction. Find me a portrait of self-abnegation this rich and chilling:


[The wilderness] had caressed him, and—lo!—he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation.

Marlow admits, at one point, that he's trying to tell the reader a dream and make them believe it. And it confirms this idea that our most profound experiences are unspeakable and language itself is a translation device left wanting. Yet, at the same time, it's a stark warning to beware of grandiosity and false eloquence because mastery of language grants mastery of how reality itself is communicated and conceived.

>30
>Kejsarn av Portugallien (The Emperor of Portugallia) by Selma Lagerlöf
So far its super comfy and i like it a lot. First chapter hit me kinda hard and it had me hooked.

>>24658155
do you have a link to this thread? I'd love to see the reactions?

>>24669186
more like worst post ever

24

In search of lost time: Swann's way

Slow and not that interesting desu. Really enjoying My struggle by Knausgård and was hoping that this would be similar but in an older setting. Not really. Mostly ramblings about dinners and other aristocrats.

>>24665264
can you elaborate on the connections to mythology?

>>24667527
i tried a chapter or two of galsworthy and it struck me as a bit silly and heavy-handed, but it might make for comfy reading nonetheless.

>>24669269
https://warosu.org/lit/thread/16556202

>>24653860 (OP)
>33
>Anna Karenina, The Gnostic Gospels
>great, written in a simple straight-forward prose, engaging, I expect it to be more dense but it's a page-turner; also good, but only of enjoyable for people who have an interest in the history of christianity

>>24653908
"I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati [love of fate]: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: someday I wish to be only a Yes-sayer."

>>24664526
Abridged versions hoss. Anyone who doesn't respect your time enough to edit for brevity cries out to be thoughtfully abridged. (e.g Heidegger)

>>24655560
>I'm afraid they're too nursery rhyme-like and cheesy for my taste
“A man’s maturity: that is to have rediscovered the seriousness he possessed as a child at play.”

Go into The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, connect it with the mystical tradition. See the symmetries.

>>24656816
Home in on the Sermon on the Mount. Entire practice/lifestyle revolution given in simplest terms. Blueprint for elevation to the highest possible human state.

>>24658062
Germoids were a blessing and a curse. Rome was overextended and destitute of cohering institutions by the 200s. Barbs came in and easily overpowered sophisticated niggas who were debating the differences between jots and tittles.

24
The Histories by Herodotus.
Pretty hilarious, and also pretty fun.
>Dude, you HAVE to see my wife naked.
Would've loved the cuck chair
>The winds push the sun around, I don't know any rivers called Ocean
lel
>The Greeks copied their gods from the Egyptians
Interesting...

I love the greeks.

>>24664790
I'm this poster and I finished this this morning and now I started The Tunnel by William Gass, and it's gonna be a doozy

>>24660476
For niggas born to Skepticism, reading Plato's Socrates can be difficult. It's obvious Socrates is a genius, but shit he's saying has no real logical basis. It's actually experiential. Skepticism niggas have to go all the way through Skept and into Nihilism in order to finally wrap back around to where Plato's Socrates was: an experiential stance beyond philosophy - awakened. Shorn of thinking and jumped into Knowing (cf. Neoplatonism).

>>24653860 (OP)
25
Serotonin
at one point the narrator says something like 'modern society is a machine that destroys love', which is true

>>24665204
Assume you mean Meditations by M.A. It's the main one to read over and over like a scripture because of the expositors of the philosophies/religions on offer, only the awakened niggas are worth listening to. Every single one of their works rhymes with each other. Zoroaster, Socrates, Buddha, Christ, Aurelius, Laozi, many others (like countless unknown shamans and yogis), and lots of people walking the earth right now.

34
the ghost brigades (book 2 of old man's war)
much slower paced and way more technobabble than the first book. jared dirac is a much more interesting protagonist than john perry was.

>>24669214
What about Nostromo & Lord Jim?

>>24653860 (OP)
>21
>Beyond Good and Evil
>Nietzsche is mostly right but I can't not disagree with his arguments for free will.

>32
>Homer's Odyssey; Kant's Groundwork on Metaphysics; Chittick's Love in Islamic Philosophy; Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
all really good 2bh

>>24670684
Painted Nietzsche

>23
>Middlemarch
Maybe I’m getting filtered hard but I don’t enjoy Eliot’s writing at all. 240 pages in, so about the length of Silas Marner, which also sucks, and this novel doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I shall continue to push on

>>24653860 (OP)
26
The temptation of Saint Anthony
One of the most masterful works I have ever read.

>>24672807
I read Middlemarch a few years ago and thought it was dreadful. The prose was awful, the situations contrived, and the characters poorly drawn and their interactions artificial. Not sure why so many people seem to love that novel.

>21
>Das Kapital
I promised myself i'd read some non-fiction since I haven't in a while. It was between this and Jung, since I don't want to get more books until I finish what I already own.

I'm finding it hard to follow and I've heard it's not a good place to start with Marx. Maybe i'll drop it

>>24672860
I highly recommend you skip to the chapter on The Working Day, read it, and then drop the book. Maybe then read via online pdf the much shorter Eighteenth Brumaire (plus the wikipedia on Napoleon III, for context) if you want to feel you've 'read some Marx'. Kapital is a swamp only the most determined can traverse.