/lit/ - Literature

Laying in my bead with my head against a pillow against the wall, though I often just read at my desk.

The position in your picture, OP, seems dreadful to me.

>>3160190
I didn't want it as an introduction. I'm making my way through a couple of anthologies on ethics/morality. I wanted this as supplementary reading, as it seemed interesting.

The Stranger by Albert Camus
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
Demian by Hermann Hessse
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

When I'm looking for textbooks I want, yes.

When I'm looking for a specific edition of something, often.

Other than that, not usually. Amazon's just often easier and cheaper.

>>3160151
What's the first? Have you read Oblivion?

Crime and Punishment was the first book I read by him, and it's the book that got me into "literary" fiction. An easier and shorter starting point, if you like, would be Notes from Underground, which doesn't have much in the way of depth or plot but is still a good, interesting read.

I would discourage you from reading The Idiot first. It is one of my favorite books, but I think it's better if one has a bit more experience with Dostoevsky before reading it since it's a lot less "thrilling" than his other books. It requires more patience.

I would also discourage you from starting with The Brothers Karamazov. If you read some stuff by Dostoevsky and find you don't like him, then go ahead and skip to The Brothers Karamazov (if you have any patience left for him). Otherwise, you might regret reading it so early. Fans of Dostoevsky tend to like leaving it as the last major works* they read. It's a sort of grand finale to all of the stuff Dostoevsky wrote about throughout his life.


*My list of his major works would probably be the following. I'm sure others will protest the inclusion of Demons and The Adolescent or the omission of Poor Folk or "The Double," but whatever.
Notes from Underground
Crime and Punishment
The Idiot
Demons
The Adolescent
The Brothers Karamazov

It's a wonderful and enjoyable introduction to philosophy and the major schools of historical thought. It's very readable. Children in middle school can read it. [I, on the other hand, never heard of it until this year.]

>It is deadly serious but also very very funny.
Sounds like Dave, all right. Have you read anything else by him?

The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies by Bryan Caplan

Excellent book. Delightfully written. [It helps if you seen a demand curve at some point in your academic life, but aside from that you certainly don't need any prerequisite knowledge going into this solid book.]

Hey, /lit/. I've recently taken up an interest in ethics. I recently stumbled upon The Myth of Morality by Richard Joyce online. This book, it seems to me, is supposed to be good. However, it is very expensive - even for used copies. [I can't find any that are under $34... inb4 paying4booxLOL]

My question for you, is, do you know anything about this book? Is it good? Is it worth it? Are the ideas in it really novel, or am I likely to encounter similar ideas in some of the anthologies I'm looking at?

>>3159354
I didn't recognize Engle.

You don't have to know what people look like to read books by them.

>>3159331
The Catcher in the Rye, I believe.

Weird, I didn't know Faulkner was that young.

>>3157561
I am a mathematics major, but that reading is stuff I'm looking at more or less for fun (though some of it will certainly come up in future coursework).

Bernhard Riemann and Pierre de Fermat

And since this is /lit/, I'll recommend a couple of books:
Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh is a great book about Fermat's Last Theorem.
Prime Obsession by John Derbyshire is a spectacular book on the Riemann Hypothesis. [Hell, it even has a blurb from John Nash.] While by no means a technical book, this may appeal to some for containing more "mathy" content than Singh ever puts into his books - which are still wonderful.

The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain

My mom recommended it, and she's a nurse (with an avid interest in nutrition). It's cool. It involves a lot of anthropology and evolutionary biology, and it's extremely insightful.

Love Is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski
The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies by Bryan Caplan
Bellocq's Ophelia by Natasha Trethewey

The Language of Mathematics by Keith Devlin
The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace

[I don't know what the next work of fiction I read will be. I tend not to decide until right after I finish what I'm currently working on.]
Concepts of Modern Mathematics by Ian Stewart
How to Think Like a Mathematician by Kevin Houston
The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer

>>3155242
I hate that >>3155223 turned out to be right.

>His style and stories are so far ahead of others its kind of scary.
His stories are creative, but his style? Really? what the fuck, OP?

I love 2112!

>>3155155
>It's about a little girl learning philosophy
Do you mean Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder? If so, I agree that would be a good choice. Though that sort of book counts (as it is not a philosophy book, but a book about philosophy books), I'd also suggest the pic-related book.

Science News is the best science-related magazine I know.

>>3155136
Whoops, only the picture I posted was in response to that post. The text was in response to the OP.

>>3155026
Maybe Bertrand Russel's The Problems of Philosophy - as that might encourage them to do more reading on their own.

>>3155102
>I don't know whether it's appropriate or not to motivate with tits.
You'd certainly get away with it and with little objection, but this board is meant to be SFW. It's also pretty slow, so you should gradually get a few more responses. But keep in mind that /lit/ does not read much contemporary poetry at all. I myself have only recently been exploring some of it. I'm really glad I found Louise Glück, in particular.