/lit/ - Literature

I'm reading real literature, quite unlike yourself.

This arrived on friday; haven't sit down to read a lot, will do tonight.

Tits pls.

>>2896847
Hey baby, give us a little something something.

Come on, don't be prudish.

>>2896843

>>2896859
>so ashamed of her family guy reference she deletes it

captcha: crucified. ityize

>>2896849
>>2896855
Stop being assholes
>>2896847
Did you buy The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr? I really wanted to see people's opinions on it before I buy it.

I'm reading Invisible Cities by my nigger Calvino

>>2896871
In fact I plan to soon, but not yet. Sounds really interesting.

>>2896871

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

dis

So much better than the first one.

>>2896849
Who?

>>2896883
>>>/b/
>>>/soc/

Pic related

>>2896847

I plan to read him once i'm done with Spring Snow.

>>2896879
Is it good? I love IOAWNAT but I haven't read this.

>COVER OF A BOOK IS A PHOTOGRAPH FROM AN ACTOR/A "STILL" FROM THE "MOVIE ADAPTATION" OF THE NOVEL.

I SCOOBY DOOBY DOO, WHERE ARE YOU?

>>2896942
Only 20 pages in. Seems pretty decent so far.

>>2896944

>>2896944
?

His Masters Voice by Stanislaw Lem

Its really good

>>2896885
Outlaws of the Marsh or Yoshikawas translation of Heike next?

>>2896896
The xenophon meets hussein at karbala chain of dogs plotline is the best thing in the series

I'm very close to finishing Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse.

>>2896942
It's great in Calvino's way. If you liked If on a winter night you will probably enjoy it. Or anything else from him for that matter.

>>2897007
How is it?

>>2896970
Yoshikawa's prose is too, how do I say, basic for my enjoyment?

It is too dialogue driven, focusing on "This happened, then this, then some dialogue, then this happened"

I know it was serialised, and written to be an easy read for the masses, but does his translation of the Heike differ from Taiko and Musashi? If not, I doubt I will bother reading it.

Not the guy you replied to by the way

the only book worth reading.

About a third of the way through this, picked it up today and really enjoying his style.

Should I jump straight into Cosmocomics next or stick with Night or Citiies?

>>2897007
Do you like it ? What else have you read of Hesse ? I would recommend Sidharta, Narcisse and Goldmund, and the Last Summer of Klingsor (at least).

The Power Broker - Caro

Recommended if you like biography, (urban) history, politics, or New York.

>>2897031
Oh god, the robot series. Such fantastic fucking nostalgia associated with those books.

>>2897027
Definitely read The Baron in the Trees first, if you haven't already.

>>2896879
Oh shit. I'm this guy:
>>2897027

How is it, and have you read any other Calvinos?

>>2897026
I've read that one.

>>2897042
Will do, looks hilarious as usual

>>2897017
I'm really enjoying it. Like top 5 books enjoying it.
At first it kind of "freaked me out" a little bit because I relate a little too well to the Steppenwolf, but I just got used to that.
>>2897037
This is my first Hesse. Siddhartha is his most popular work, so I was probably going to check that out after this. I've never heard of the others, but, based on Steppenwolf, I'd probably enjoy them and will check them out. Thanks.

>>2897043
I have not. This is babbies first Calvino, but so far I'm really enjoying it. I'm only a handful of pages in though, so my opinion at this point is hardly based on any real experience.

mfw I come downstairs and my parents are sitting quietly in the living room watching a slow, quiet movie sex scene.
mfw the house was built on an "open" design and the kitchen where I get food is basically a room contiguous with the living room.
mfw when the woman is wimpering
mfw I have no face but am eating a watermelon

>>2897027
Any of them. Let's Cities so that you leave Nights (probably his more achieved work) for the end. You could also try Cosmicomics. Or Marcovaldo. It sounded less deep than the others to me, but still very imaginative and funny. But you should probably finish the trilogy of Knight and Viscount (with the Baron) first, if you haven't yet.

>>2896980

I can't wait. I have no idea what any of those things mean, though haha. I'm about 330 pages in.

>>2897017
Not that guy, but I really loved it. The protagonist's character and development are fascinating.

>>2897037
I related a lot to the Steppenwolf to. I guess that's because I was an angsty teenager back then, but I also had a taste for non-angsty teenager things at that time, so Hesse being a great writer probably plays a part.
Just to give you a more accurate review of Hesse's novels:
Demian somehow looks like a pre-Steppenwolf. Enjoyed it a lot, but not as much as the later. Sidharta sounds a lot like Budhist spiritualism (at least to the uneducated westerner I am) but is deeply heartfelt and beautifully written. Narcisse and Goldmund is a story of friendship, discovery, life and death, self-fulfillment and art. It's great and probably Hesse most beautiful work (in terms of writing) along with Sidharta. The Glass Bead Game is his last and more achieved (on the philosophical point of view) novel. Last Summer of Klingsor is a collection of short stories linked with one another in some strange way (by the name of Klingsor, by the feeling of incoming death, by the intensity of the questionement about the meaning of art). Really a striking work. Overall, Hesse's novel are vivid, intense sometimes on the point of looking surrealist. But always very heartfelt and tasteful as a prose.

Can this just remain 'let's discuss Calvino and Hesse: The Thread'? I do love Calvino and Hesse.

I finished Narcissus and Goldmund today, I liked it a lot. I thought it was quite odd, though, how it was written straight after Steppenwolf, and a big part of Steppenwolf is the idea that a man is much more complex than just some abstraction like "the man and the wolf are at war within me", and actually people are much more complicated than that -- but then in N&G the main characters are pretty much the epitome of the thinker/artist or Apollonian/Dionysian archetypes; in other words, they ARE being reduced to a simple abstraction. I don't see this as a flaw (it's made clear that people like Narcissus and Goldmund are exceptionally rare), it was just a bit curious and interesting. Am I wrong here?

>>2897127
NO, BECAUSE THEY'RE TWO OF THE MOST DISCUSSED AUTHORS HERE

FUCKING READ SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR ONCE, YOU STUPID FUCKS.

>>2897124
Excellent, I'm much looking forward to his other works.
I'm going to write those all down so I can order them next time I have work. Thanks for the breakdowns and recommendations.

>>2897130

Shit makes no fucking sense but I have a bad feeling about this.

>>2897127
It's a bit like after dealing with the struggle of the inner self, Hesse is trying to deal with companionship and what you learn from others (I put it very rudely). There is some kind of discernible evolution in his last work, toward a more tempered and nuanced relation to the self and to art. It's all very conflicted and painful in Steppenwolf, more neatly divided in Narcisse and Goldmund, and completetly integrated in an articulate and mature interrogation in the Glass Bead Game. I'm using "mature" because, for all my love for Steppenwolf, it can't help thinking it's a lot about the narrator dealing with some kind of immaturity.

>>2897130
From what I read, the most discussed authors on /lit are Nabokov, Vonnegut, DFW and Tao Lin. But if you are still mad, why not start writing like normal people (i.e. not in capital letters) and suggesting another author ? For instance, I'm currently reading Anna Karenin. Want to call me a moron for not reading it in the original Russian ? I'm okay with it if it makes you feel better.

>>2897160
How are you liking that?
I'm going to read that one after I finish Steppenwolf, Ada/Ardor, and King, Queen, Knave.

>>2897161
I have tried countless times to recommend other authors.

>>2897167
It seems pretty good but for the most part I can't get if the author is just trying to fuck around with my head or if it's me that can't grasp a deep symbolism.
Never happened with a book and that's also why I'm liking it.

>>2897178
Cool. I'm looking forward to it. I only have a few more of Nabokov's works until I'm all out, though, so I'm also kind of dreading it.

>>2897174
Sorry about that, then. This anonymity thing is sometimes inconvenient. Well, let's go on talking about Tolstoy, if you want (I recognisize I'm responsible for a good part of the Calvino/Hesse post).

>>2896970
The Taylor translation of Lo Kuan-chung. Don't know if that's what you meant. got it off barnes and noble website for my nook.

>>2897161
>for all my love for Steppenwolf, it can't help thinking it's a lot about the narrator dealing with some kind of immaturity.
I agree. That's not a bad thing though.

México conquistada, "a long and worthless so-called epic on the conquest of Mexico." - wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Escoiquiz

(seriously though, recommend alternatives please. Any good epic Spanish poems? or is everything besides Cantar de Mio Cid a waste of time?)

Jane Eyre. So good. So so good.

>>2897130

I like you. I think we should become friends.

Just finished Nonexistent Knight

dat ending :(

Nothing, I'm waiting for my book to be delivered :(

>>2897380
Man, I remember it.
So depressing.

>>2897343
Also, I apologize for my retarded misplacing of noko. You can see I spend a bit more time on forced_anon boards.

>>2897343
If you weren't aware, noko is automatic now, no need to type it anymore!

Yesterday I finished Hunger Games and now I'm halfway through Catching Fire. They're ok.

In before "liberal propaganda bullshit"

Reading Taleb's "The Black Swan". As someone with a stats background, I wish he'd go into further detail on some technical aspects, but alas, this is a general audience work. This guy is a known polyglot, and it's amusing how he calls so many domains of knowledge bullshit: economics, statistics, history.

>>2897175
Beautiful, man; what's a poem of his you like alot?

>>2897453
420 read the duino elegies errday

>>2897438
I have that and have wanted to for ages,
but I what is holding me back is the feeling that all the info in it has been accepted as by most scholars/people,
thus it's all intuitive and I already sort of know it.

What do you think of it?

>>2897456
the duino elegies change lives

Just started on Lyndon.

>dat titular story.

>>2897457
Dry, as anthropology tends to be, but a fairly good overview of the field for those who don't know much about it. I mean, the book sets a task for itself to try to discredit racism, and I feel that that creates a particular bias when interpreting certain facts that maybe slightly compromises the integrity of certain hypotheses (like in the beginning where he tries to argue that people from New Guinea are smarter than Europeans because they've been living in harsh environments for longer), but it's worth reading nonetheless.

>>2897175
i've only read requiem for a friend but holy shit it's good. really need mo rilke

>>2897478
Lyndon's the best story in there. Made me fall in love with the president.

>>2897478
last story is a total
letdown

<---- +1000 winrars

>>2897593
...heh, seriously, its incredibly good.

>>2896824
Why does a pedo casual want to know?

>>2897595
God that cover is hideous...

oh look. im falling in love with another female character in a sk book.

>>2897595
Yes, it's very enjoyable

>>2897616
That cover is almost as bad.

However, both books are great examples of how superb Russian literature is. Pity I can never re-read them for the first time

I can't read only one thing at once. Here's the list:

Aristotle: The Desire to Understand --Dr. Lear
History of Philosophy Vol. I --WT Jones
History of Philosophy Vol. I --Copleston
Brothers Karamazov
Fellowship of the Ring
The Sickness Unto Death --Kierkegaard.

I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts: Drive-by Essays on American Dread, American Dreams

>>2896824
I wish I had that edition of Lolita

>>2897616
>>2897616

>>2897616
>>2897712

that's what I want next. -guy reading oblomov

I ought to be finished with this by tomorrow. Has anyone else read it?

Look at the Motherfucking Birdie

>>2897759
I've read it.

It's such an abomination of stupidity, isn't it? Just wait until you get to the final chapter. It made me burst out laughing with how terribly sappy it was.

>>2897769
Barbra Kingsolver is an awful writer and I am surprised that she even has a readership

This book is blowing my mind. So fucking good

>>2897783
Ditto.

I read The Bean Trees in high school and couldn't remember a single thing about it, so I went to wikipedia and read the summary. I was awestruck at how uneventful, pointless, and forgettable the story was.

There was one point in the story where a female character wanted to baptize her baby with water from a certain river, and the deadbeat boyfriend came and not knowing the "significance" of the water poured it down the drain. And that was an entire fucking chapter. Jesus Christ. If you're going to play the old "men are all evil assholes" card at least make the character do something intentionally malicious, you hack.

>>2897806
I read that book when I was high school too. It made me hate female writers until I started to read more. I couldn't even finish the book because it ended up being a victims novel with the merit. Same reason why I didn't finish or care for Night

>>2897825
*without the merit

Dexter is Delicious, Game of Thrones, and Flow: The Psychology... Very modest compared to all of you, but I'm satisfied with my reading.

>>2897832
Is the books as cheesy as the show?

>>2897858
Whoops I meant for Dexter

The Dr. Impossible chapters are great.

The Fatale chapters are okay, but sometimes boring.

>>2897858
It's a bit darker, but I enjoy the wit. I'd recommend it if you don't mind a bit of repetitiveness.

Also, it gets into cannibalism, Dexter cheating, the kiddos growing into killers, and things of that sort.

reading for school. I am not good at focusing and remembering .-.

Much Ado About Nothing
Sailing to Byzantium
Death of a Salesman
As I Lay Dying


first test on much ado about nothing on tuesday. :(