/lit/ - Literature

>>16603830
I haven’t had too much time to do anything i enjoy recently, but I’ve started Henry Kissinger’s works in attempts to help my chances of getting into a college or two this year.

>>16603830
I’ve been on a short story binge.Reading a lot of Hemingway, Chekhov and Turgenev

>>16603835
Yo I just ordered diplomacy, we should have a thread in a week or so

I've been reading Don Juan, Moby Dick and Thucydides

>>16603835
what sort of college? If youre going for a polici degree you might be better off getting involved in a debate club or local elections rather than reading

>>16603830
Over the last week I read Pascal’s Pensees which was interesting but I would’ve gotten more out of were I a Christian; and Pierre by Melville, which showed some of the same genius as moby-dick but overall could not compete, the characters seemed a little strange but I suppose that was the point, criticising idealism. At the moment I’m reading The Malay Archipelago about Alfred Russell Wallace’s time spent their collecting huge naturalistic collections, while he was there he co-discovered natural selection, and I’m going to start reading Camus’s The First Man tomorrow, which I’m unsure of because I didn’t enjoy L’Etranger that much

>>16603846
If you liked hemmingway's shorts, you should definitely check out Saroyan, he has a collection called "48 stories", I think. I picked it up for a quarter a year ago, and I haven't stopped reading it since.

>>16603830
Blood Meridian
Kapital
Plato's Dialogues
Atlas Shrugged

Entry-level stuff, basically.

I am currently reading Thomas Robert Malthus An Essay on the Principle of Population for my university course

>>16603830
Kohut's analysis of the self alongside the first two books of the new sun. Not liking the sci fi one at all, kohut is obviously fantastic.
Just finished the pale king and I think it's probably my fave DFW and possibly my favorite book published in the last 20 years.
Next I'm trying to read some more william carlos williams prose.

>>16603876
Thanks.I know he is polarizing here but I love Hemingway’s style.Ive reread some of his novels 3 times and shorts even more.Ill have to check out your recommendation

>>16603878
>Kapital
>Atlas Shrugged
Thats like 5000 pages combined

>>16603830
I've got a few books going at the moment:
>"Street Haunting" by Virginia Woolf, a small collection of essays from Penguin's 70th anniversary - only made it through the titular so far, but it's very good, reminds me of Iain Sinclair's later stuff about psychogeography and understanding the "tone" of a place by walking through it.
>Ficciones by Borges - second time through, I seem to catch a lot more than when I read these as a teenager, not surprisingly. Funes the Memorious is underrated.
>The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway - objectively well written, but terribly depressing, couldn't really get on with all the introspective stuff about grief and the uselessness of therapists.

>>16603835
Pic related.

>>16603830
I'm reading Lonesome Dove, it's very good, there's a pinpoint balance of frontier adventurism and good humor with little flashes of very sad things.

Re-reading Gay Science and getting high off Nietzsche's enthusiasm for life.

Just finished Nicomachean Ethics, which I thought began very well in the moral virtue chapters, but got incredibly boring in the last few chapters on friendship and so on; supposedly scholars dispute these last chapters were actually written by him?

Also struggling through Russell's History of Western Philosophy, not because it's a hard read, which it is not, but because Russell himself has a very haughty perspective over all the great philosophers that seems totally undeserved, and he has very bizarre taste in terms of which works by thinkers were important. For instance in Hegel he does not even discuss the Phenomenology, in Aquinas he blows off the Summa Theologica as an irrelevance... utterly bizarre decisions. I may give him up and not finish it

Malone dies
Man without qualities
The Tunnel by Sabato
Poetics of Space
Society of the Spectacle

I just finished A Rebours and now I'm reading the bible.

>>16604007
Lonesome Dove is a masterpiece

Damascius

I started with john muir got tired, now I'm reading this.

>>16604306
how's miur? wanted to read him forever

>>16603830
montesquieu's persian letters

Almost done with Copleston's take on the presocratics, I've enjoyed it so far but some things will take a while to wrap my head around it seems. For instance Anaxagoras and the concept of Nous is defined as something that occupies space but is not necessarily corporeal, which seems like a contradiction. It's also made me wonder what the other presocratics thought about the topic of mind since it feels quite important to acknowledge. All in all I feel it's been helpful studying this since it makes some concepts in Plato clearer, like why Idealism was so transformative. Knowing that they are also referenced frequently by name in Socratic texts is a nice plus.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, its meh. I feel like I got memed

>>16604042
I've read "a rebours" this summer during my holidays.
Would advise you "in praise of shadows" by tanizaki (less than 80 pages).
There are a lot of similarities between the 2 but what is more engaging are the differences.
You would appreciete Huysmans even more.

Gravity's Rainbow
The Man Without Qualities
Postwar: a history of Europe since 1945 (by Tony Judt)

Honestly feel a bit lost in GR. I'm at around page 600 and I have yet to make any 'big' connections, apart from linking names and (literal) actions; I just feel it go over my head while reading...

>>16604312
I was reading summer in the sierra. I'm considering giving up. It's not bad, but it's extremely descriptive, like 75% of the book is him describing the landscape, not much thought, or plot. I feel like I could be reading more relevant for my life right now. maybe I'm reading E.T. Seton to give up Muir without feeling guilty

>>16603830
Complete Emily Dickinson, she's a gem. Will reread for years to come.

>>16603830
Starting picrel later today

La vida del Lazarillo de Tormes, good one so far.

I feel like I've been derailing from good long stories for some time; maybe it's time to return to modern classics. Maybe Moby Dick next, idk

>>16603830
Anna karenina
It's one of those massive titles that you don't read because you already heard so much about it . But now it's time, loving it so far like most of Tolstoy's work

>>16604549
how's your rhythm? how fast you're reading it?

>>16604549
You are becoming based anon, don't give up

The Myth of Sisyphus.
I'm pretty close to the end and my god is this book enlightening. There were some parts that left me a little confused though. I had to reread a lot of the sentences which was unusual for me but I'm studying philosophy this year so I guess I should get used to that.
Looking forward to read Kierkegaard next, among some socio-political books that even been on my list for too long.

>>16604622
tell me what you learned, please

>>16603830
I'm kind of all over the place. I'm reading the Discourses by Epictetus and the poems by Yeats. Just finished reading On the Heights of Despair. Thinking of getting the Iliad next, but /lit/ suddenly started hating Fagles, so I'm not too sure which translation to get.

I haven't touched a book since June.

>>16604388
>The Man Without Qualities
thoughts so far

>>16603830
For myself:
Portnoys Complaint
Portrait of the Artist

For School:
Frankenstein

>>16604678
Get on it, anon
>>16604687
Not too far in (~300 pages). Pretty much on the fence atm. Some passages beautifully explain some phenomena (people, feelings etc.), while others feel very dry and word-y for the sake of words. I must admit it feels pretty satisfying to re-read the notes I've taken so far and letting them linger for a while, so I do have a feeling it'll be incredibly rewarding once I've finished. So even if that were the only reason I'd continue (which isn't completely true), I'd still continue.

>>16604634
The absurdist lives through revolt and consciousness, therefore suicide is not the logical answer because it withdraws the man from what is essential to human life - the rebellion, the conflict between his intelligence and the overarching reality. Systems that try to explain life and meaning should be rejected, because they weaken him by freeing man from his revolt.
The absurdist does not care for what the afterlife beholds. He only concerns himself with things he can be certain of. He knows that his expectations do not meet the harsh reality, and he fully accepts that. Life should be lived through quantity, meaning that it's the variety and the repetition of experiences that makes life worth living.

I'm on a Sloterdjijk reading spree these few month.
Finished critique of cynical reason, Wunderbaum, Spheres 1-3, you must change your life. Next up are Zorn und Zeit and the capital one. Maybe stop for Eurotaoism.
I'm seriously considering going even further into his work since pretty much every book was quite a good experience.
Once day when I worked through big parts of his bibliography, maybe I will finally create a /lit/ chart for an author that has actual in-depth insight.
But that is still quite some time away.

>>16604386
Cheers bro, I'll check it out.

>>16604973
Im starting world of interior capital and am a bit of the way through you must change yourself anon, absolute kino

Perfume, Patrick Suskind
A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
The Fall, Albert Camus

>>16604388
By page 600 I was completely enthralled in GR's world. Crazy how you hung on for 600 pages...

A lot slower to get started than Lucky Jim
Old people behaving badly isn’t as funny as young people behaving badly.
Maybe I’ll feel differently when I’m older.

>>16604020
What do you hope to gain from reading poetics of space. What did you learn?

>>16605108
That's not what I was implying. I'm enjoying the ride, and obviously I'm not completely missing everything, it just feels like I miss way more than, say, V. or TCOL49 when I read those.

>>16605129
>What did you learn?
nothing, interesting nonetheless
Isn't seeing the world through the lens of the author enough? A fresh and new perspective is all I ask of a book

>>16603830
Art of War
The Prince
On War
A Treatise of Human Nature
Still halfway on the prince

>>16604575
Started it 2 days ago and i'm at page 163. Pretty easy and captivating read. Like War and Peace, the characters feel so alive but i don't know if it will be able to top Pierre at the execution. That is the peak of all lit i have read so far.

>>16604581
Cheers lad

Currently reading The Reluctant Adventures of Fletcher Connolly on the Interstellar Railroad. Not too interested in it so far.

>>16603830
Just an old sci-fi author or two, the history of cancer (depressing as fuck, so I switch off to the other books I'm reading), Yourcenar's Hadrian.

But these have stagnated a bit while I focus on writing

>>16603835
Reminder that the guy is a war criminal!

>>16605367
fast. how many hours ?

>>16605380
i see, u comfy

>>16605087
>You must..
It's a good one yes. P. SL. description of coordinate systems and directions for the inner soul room (or whatever it's called in english) is really quite genius and I already enjoyed that a lot in Spheres too.

>>16605584
Honestly can't say, depends on my environment. Not that i care either , to me, reading fast is not reading well.

>>16603830
Just finished reading the new DeLillo novel. I thought it was really ominous and beautiful, though far too short (mind you, the brevity definitely worked for the subject matter, I just selfishly wanted more). Felt like a strange form of sequel to Mao II, in some respects, which I very much enjoyed. Having it be released and read during the year of the plague is so surreal.

Other than that, I've kinda just been grazing off of a bunch of unrelated books, with no real thought or ordering in mind. Just finished my second collection of Millhauser shot stories — I will argue, enthusiastically, any day, that he is the greatest living short fiction author. Also been reading some Franzen essays from his new collection (they're simple yet good / enjoyable, however, all I can think while reading them is how much I wish Wallace were still alive and cataloguing his observations; this last decade would have been a treasure trove for his work, I'd imagine, had he not necked himself). Since the movie was released, I read the novel for I'm Thinking of Ending Things. It's not groundbreaking or anything, but I thought Reid did a great job of exploring what's essentially a neet at the end of his life in a way that wasn't cringy, even making me somewhat care. I'm disappointed that neither the movie or the book really explored the autonomy (or lack thereof) of an ideal partner being thought up, only to disown her creator. Maybe that would have been too meta for the book (which is, like, unbelievably grounded, compared to the movie), but the movie could have easily explored it. A missed opportunity, I think. That being said, I read it in one setting, so clearly I was enjoying it. A word to the wise: whatever you do, read the book before the movie.

I've had the fitzcarraldo copy of Fosse's "The Other Name" sitting by my bedside for a week or two now. I think I'd like to start it pretty soon — I've heard really good things about it.

Reading Chandler's Campaigns of Napoleon, super comfy book.
>>16603846
What Turgenev anon? I feel like he's generally underrated compared to the other russians, hunter's sketches are particularly good.
>>16604007
>Nicomachean ethics
What should I read before starting with Aristotle? Is Plato enough?

>>16605793
>>16603830
This post. I'm about halfway through I think.

>>16605906
>complaining about reading, on /lit/, a board dedicated to what people read

>>16604678
I’ve probably read more this year than in any other before, due to quarantines and shutdowns and the like.
Why are you having trouble, anon?

>>16606666
I’ve just been listening to audio

>>16606666
checked.
Blessed thread, OP.
CR: Nights in the lonesome October. A chapter a day.

been reading beigbeder since i finished something of mann.
beigbeder isn't a brilliant writer, but he's clever and his book is terribly funny.

>>16603830
I'm going to try to get into reading Machiavelli before the year ends. It would be my first time reading a whole book in a year, i've just been reading articles and blurbs and stories written online. I use to be a great reader before the last couple of years, don't know what happened to make me lose interest in books.

>>16608801
Loved his L'amour dure trois ans. The movie adaption is also an eye candy.

>>16603830
I finished The Phantom Of The Opera and Frankenstein. I ordered all 6 Dune books, but after a month only 1,2,4,6 have arrived, so I don’t feel like starting them. Now I’ve got Dracula, Dorian Gray, The Count Of Monte Cristo and an Edgar Allan Poe Collection, but I have no idea what to read first.

Right now I'm reading Mythology by Edith Hamilton and I'm enjoying it. I know it's just a summary of all myths, but I like her writing style, it's very motherly and comfy.

>>16608987
Based autumn reading list. I'd put Monte Christo into November, because it'll take a while.

>>16608987
Was Phantom of the Opera good? I rarely see the book mentioned much at all.

Reading Jean Baudrillard, this dude's lit as hell. How come we only talk about the bad french thinkers?

>>16604381
Have you seen the film? I liked the film quite a lot, didn't know there was a book.

Been reading If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, Dead Souls and One Hundred Years Of Solitude are up next, I'll probably read some Hungarian lit, maybe Márai after those. If they close schools I'll start reading War and Peace, trying to save the book for winter. Also have Faust and some Hungarian lit as required reading.

reading through greek tragedies. originally just picked up one of chicago's volumes per writer to get a feel for what it was like in general but i fould out i loved it by itself.

>>16608829
>>16608829
>It would be my first time reading a whole book in a year
Were you homeschooled or?

>>16610046
Is it good? Haven't read anything by Italo Calvino

Last book I finished was Narcissus and Goldmund. Incredible book. This just arrived today.

>>16610120
It's ok so far. 120 or so pages in.

Reading Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky, am about halfway in now. It's a slow read but I have found it quite rewarding

Mick Foley's 3rd book.

Reading 2666 and inherent vice right now, enjoying both of them alot

>>16603830
On a Dostoevsky kick right now, finished Notes from Underground a few weeks ago and I’m in the middle of Crime and Punishment. Also reading Jung’s collected works volume 8, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche

A collection of Andre Gide's novels

You Bright and Risen Angels by William Vollmann

Love it. Huge recommend for everyone on this board. Great mix of 100 Years of Solitude-esque epic magic realism, Pynchonesque absurdity, and Tolstoy-esque scale. 460 pages in and have loved every minute of it.

>>16610065
What the fuck does that have to do with anything?

>>16605892
A Sportsman’s Sketches actually.One of my favorite short story collections

>>16603830
Le gôut de l'immortalité.

Downloaded paris spleen by baudelaire randomly an hour ago. good as hell. remarkable clarity that sacrifices no depth.
Faves: the fool and venus, the firing range and the graveyard, loss of a halo, mademoiselle bistouri

White Noise by DeLillo

just 60 pgs in but enjoying it so far.

>>16603830
Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' and a collection of Edgar Allan Poe stories.

>>16603830
I've been reading Notes From Underground. I like it, but I guess I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would, it might be my least favorite of Russian "classics" I've read so far.

Finished The Red and the Black the other day. I read a couple Poe short stories to get in spooky mood but I didn't think they were that great. Now I'm reading Ficciones, which is actually incredible

>>16603830

>>16612260
have you read Brothers Karamazov?

>>16604549
Loved Maggie Gyllenhaal's voice in the audiobook

done with notes from the undeground (4/5) now I started platform (wellbeck) its my third book written by him so far so good

>>16603830
Also
>Gods In The Abyss by Svarte (German Heathenry and Heidegger stuff)
>The Black Ice by Connelly (90s Detective Pulp)
>Every Life Is On Fire by England (Non-equillibrium Thermodynamics theory of life)

>>16612618
I read both of those books in the span of less than 2 months, are you me?

50 pages into stoner so far. Enjoying a lot

>>16611912
Have you read other Vollman?Ive been eyeing him a while, especially The Dying Grass, but it’s a hell of a commitment

I was reading the structure of scientific revolution but it was too far removed from my interests so I just started with dead souls

>>16612650
>Every Life Is On Fire by England (Non-equillibrium Thermodynamics theory of life)
how is this?

>>16603830
This board is fucking retarded.

Currently reading Discourse on Inequality. I'm really liking it. If anyone has any reccs from the enlightenment (especially from French writers) I'll take em.

>>16613568
You're fucking retarded and you should have considered a rope or knife instead of posting like a fucking retard

>>16603830
Been trying to get through The Karamazov Brothers. University work slows down my pace significantly, though.

>>16613531
Halfway through, very good. Very Kabbalistic for a science popularization

Ive been reading Lovecraft, he really sucks

Stoner
Nietzsche & Philosophy (Deleuze's book on Nietzsche)
Thinking of going back through the poems of Yeats and adding another primary Nietzsche book to the stack

>>16603830
Madame Bovary. It's pretty good, for a book written in the 1800s her behavior still seems scandalous.

>>16603830
Complex PTSD. Its alright.

>>16603830
CIA Torture Manuals. They are fire and I feel powerful just by absorbing the text.

>>16603882
I love wcw's fiction, he's a wonderful author. In the American Grain is one of the most beautiful books I had ever read

>>16603830
Ken Liu's new collection of short stories, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. Transhumanism/singularity/spec fic

>>16603846
>Hemingway, Checkhov short stories.
Very based.

>>16605101
>Perfurme, Patrick Suskind

is this a good one? I have a copy and want something to break up Dostoevsky

>>16603830
Someone on here inspired me to have three streams of reading. Philosophy, religion and fiction, so the slow reads that I'm at are Beyond Good and Evil and a pretty nice book of the Upanishads.
For fiction, I recently read Old Man and the Sea, Brothers Karamazov, Storm of Steel (not fiction, but same stream) and a book that doesn't have an English translation.
Now going for Midnight's Children.

I´ve been reading The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Pretty fun and as long you don´t take it too seriously, there is a lot to learn and think about
I´ve also been trying to read economic papers, but that shit is hard

picked up pic related, honestly pretty interesting, a cool little curio

Been reading Pale-fire with the book-club but I’m going slow because every 10-20 or so pages I like to study more about nabokov the man and various analysis of the text and interpretations and so forth. It’s very enjoyable.

After I’m done I’m gonna tackle Ezra pound’s cantos.

>>16603846
Them feels with Turgenev’s Mumu :(

>>16603830
Reading Watership Down now, pretty comfy desu.

Before that I read No Longer Human but I don’t know what to make of it. Maybe the literary beauty was lost in translation but I don’t understand why Japan’s best selling book is about a pleb whining through whole book.

>>16613568
t. retard

I'm reading Ulysses, I want to neck myself. Blabbering nonsense but I'm kind of enjoying it.

Is Magic Mountain worth the read? Im just coming off of another 700 page novel with mystical themes, Im curious about this novel intensely, but I dont know if its worth the back to back fatigue

>>16617985
What was the other novel? Magic Mountain is great but a palate cleanser might be good.

>>16609376
I'm postponing that until next Summer. It just feels like a Summer book to me.
>>16609382
It was... eh. I'd watch the musical. I even prefer the 2004 movie. The characters are cardboard cutouts, the Phantom appears for 5 lines every other chapter and all they do is go up and down the Opera and the Cellars in every chapter. I think that a lot of those old monsters serve better as inspirations. The books themselves are hardly worth it.

Guenon's Reign of Quantity
Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and the Profane

I need to finish The Tartar Steppe but it's been hitting too close to home.

>>16617996
I got done with the Sunlight Dialogues, absolutely brilliant novel. The titular character often talks at length on mystical topics which eventually effect the main character.

Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era

>Physics and Philosophy by Werner Heisenberg
>In Search of Lost Time Vol. I
going to be busy with these for a good long time i think

i started reading the border trilogy (mccarthy) but i'm having a hard time with it. i'll glance at the book lying in the corner of my room and my heart sinks looking at that fucking 1000+ page tome. i'm considering buying the individual volumes instead, it'll be less frightening

>>16603830
Just started the map and the territory by Houellebecq. It is the only fiction book by him I haven’t read yet. Really entertaining that he himself is in the book.

>>16615052
It surprised me how humorous it was in parts.Awesome novel.Homais has a crazy character arc

I am finishing Batailles peak and starting Works and Days

>>16616706
Also reading that one currently. It's really good IMO, but much of it isn't really applicable in my life. I'm going to read his book on seduction next.

>>16603830
The Palace of Dreams by Kadare

Since early summer I read Kafka on the shore and the wind up bird chronicles. The first cause I remembered liking it, the later cause I wanted more Murakami. Don't know if I liked the wind up bird very much.
I read the entire remembrance of earths past trilogy, it was kind of a slog to read and really had its ups and and downs, but it made me think about it after the fact which is rare, so that's cool I guess.
I've been meaning to read Meditations, but have been putting it off cause it seems exhausting.
I read On earth we're briefly gorgeous because it had rave reviews, but it felt terse and forced not sure why people seem to like it that much.
Finally I'm almost finished with Norwegian wood, and boy is that a ride. It may be because I'm useless at relationships irl, but damn its hitting me hard. I feel depressed and miserable, but I want more of that feeling.
So if anyone knows any melancholic books, throw recs my way pls
Sorry for blogpost

>>16618351
Norwegian Wood definitely hits. Hard Boiled Wonderland is another good Murakami, some supplementary media for that is the anime Haibane Renmei which borrows part of he setting.

As far as other melancholy stuff Stoner is good. Also I've heard Thomas Hardy is great in that vein in general, although I've only read The Woodlanders , which was really good. Also Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, and Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

>>16612650
How’s the paper man? Lord of flies is one of my favs, so might take a look.

>>16603830
For the past month I've primarily read authors whose works relate to the black power movement:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton

Currently reading Assata, by Assata Shakur. Waiting on my shelf I have The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon which I'm excited to read. On my shelf I also have Angela Davis's Are Prisons Obsolete? which is a short read - it's probably not the end of my interest in black literature as my birthday is coming up and I want to gift myself some other books like: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa or some works by Kwame Ture, and possibly some works by James Baldwin

>>16618351
>I've been meaning to read Meditations, but have been putting it off cause it seems exhausting.

You don't read them from cover to cover. Read a bit, digest it, then go back and read a bit more, and so on... Also get an annotated version, otherwise it will be hard to understand most of his references.

Discovery of Slowness, Nadolny

>>16603830
Due to a lack of funds, i can't buy anything on paper nor can i purchase an e-reader, so i've been reading on my smartphone and lord knows how uncomfortable it is. The ADD also isn't helping, as i tend to quickly give up and jump from one task to the other.
So far i've been getting through pic related, the sickness unto death, and ariel.
I feel like i'm not processing information correctly, and if you guys have any tips on how to deal with that i would be very thankful.

>>16619248
Public Library?

>>16611983
How have you never read a book in a year?

>>16603830
Just started the Illiad, pretty excited. I remember learning greek mythology in HS English class, we covered the odyssey but not in detail. Glad to be reading this piece of history that has been studied and enjoyed for thousands of years.

>>16619367
i live in a village in the third world so i don't have any proper public library near me unfortunately. the closest one doesn't have a lot of interesting books.

>>16619398
what translation you cop?

>>16619381
No. I've just read bits and pieces but never the whole thing

>>16618381
Thanks anon, I'll be sure to check those out
>>16618573
>get an annotated version
Never knew that existed, but that seems like a good idea. Thanks!