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/lit/ - Literature

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Anonymous Wed Mar 17 19:55:19 2021 No.17808171 [Reply] [Original]

What should i give my fifteen year old son to read? I unironically know nothing about books, but I want to get him reading because he seems depressed lately and I’ve heard that can help. He’s read a few books before, mostly Steinbeck. Thanks for all serious suggestions.

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 19:56:12 2021 No.17808182 either you are 15 and you want recs, or you are old, like, 40?

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 19:57:58 2021 No.17808195 >>17808171 Give him some Philip K. Dick to read. It blew my little mind at 15 even though I didn’t understand it all that much, I just thought it was wild

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 19:59:01 2021 No.17808203 >>17808182 Guess, I am curious to see what people think.

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 19:59:34 2021 No.17808206 >>17808203 40

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:01:21 2021 No.17808219 >>17808171 His Dark Materials. That should push him over the edge

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:01:47 2021 No.17808224 >>17808171 readsettlers.org

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:02:06 2021 No.17808229 lolita

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:02:07 2021 No.17808230 >>17808195 Ubik and androids dream would have been based at that age

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:04:47 2021 No.17808247 >>17808171 City of thieves, its a fun read and actually not that bad

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:07:04 2021 No.17808260 >>17808171 Is he bright? I'd try to get him on some hard science fiction such as The Mote in God's Eye. It might awaken and interest in the science or in some deeper pursuit in future.

Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:07:12 2021 No.17808262
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>>17808171
I really liked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at 15, you could watch the movie together afterwards. You could try the same with The Hobbit. It would be a nice bonding moment. Please give him hugs and don't force him to talk, no judgement just warmth, that's all a boy really needs somedays

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:08:29 2021 No.17808273 >>17808230 I was thinking Ubik, too. A Scanner Darkly was also very good, but I thought androids dream was kinda boring desu

>>	Anynomous Wed Mar 17 20:08:35 2021 No.17808274 >>17808171 I don't know if zoomers are into this kind of book, but I really liked Shogun by James Clavell when I was 14 or 15.

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:12:30 2021 No.17808310 File: 418 KB, 747x1417, 64A32EBF-4F22-45E1-BF72-D1F8B16B23F7.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>17808171 This stuff. It will wet his feet.

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:13:00 2021 No.17808315 >>17808171 Catcher in the Rye desu, though it might turn him into an incel

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:15:16 2021 No.17808333 >>17808203 Since you're curious I assume you were probably a teenage father. I guess you impregnated your girl when you were 16-21 and that would mean you're in your 30s

Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:24:12 2021 No.17808407

>>17808171
It disturbs me that someone posting on /lit/ has a teenage son. I would recommend Slaughter-House Five, I really liked that when I was 15/16. Also what >>17808274 said, Shogun is good. When he's about to go to college give him The Secret History.

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:36:10 2021 No.17808492 >>17808262 good post at that age he can probably handle Tolkien outright but Hobbit is good to toe the water

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:45:41 2021 No.17808546 >>17808171 if he is truly depressed then he probably won't have the motivation to read anything

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:48:12 2021 No.17808562 give him some Houellebecq

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:49:37 2021 No.17808574 >>17808310 I read Catch-22 when I was about that age, and it blew my tiny mind. Great suggestion

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:50:37 2021 No.17808580 4chan poster’s kid is depressed, color me shocked. Think about that the next time you post have sex

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 20:50:55 2021 No.17808582 >>17808310 Gatsby and Fahrenheit are both fantastic reads Dunno about 1984. It's "important" I guess, but it's a miserable slog.

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 21:13:32 2021 No.17808721 >>17808171 It is not possible to convince me OP is someone's father and not in fact a 15 year old son

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 21:15:14 2021 No.17808730 >>17808171 Lovecraft

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 21:16:09 2021 No.17808733 >>17808582 The first act or so is a solid little love story, but god damn that Goldstein double think bullshit.

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 21:51:17 2021 No.17808903 >>17808171 Storm of Steel and Degrelle's The Eastern Front will snap him out of being a fucking pussy.

Anonymous Wed Mar 17 21:53:45 2021 No.17808918

>>17808171
When I was that old I had a crush on a girl who had a crush on the English teacher. In a bizarre train of thought I read a bunch of books that /lit/ recommended to me thinking it would get me laid. I eventually fucked her but this was probably independent of me reading Gravity's Rainbow and Homer. Give him something like Neuromancer or Discworld.
>>17808721
I post of a forum with a ton of 35+ Opie and Anthony fans. They're more common on the internet than you think.

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 21:54:13 2021 No.17808924 a hooker

>>	Anonymous Wed Mar 17 21:59:40 2021 No.17808952 >>17808171 Great gatsby.

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 05:23:35 2021 No.17810715 15? I would say Snow Crash by Neal Stevenson It's science fiction and quite a ride. Sort of a comic book novel. I remember staying up late and racing through it's pages at his age.

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 05:31:39 2021 No.17810730 >>17808171 Give him the Fagles translation of Homer. That’ll give him a foundation in western lit and that particular translation isn’t difficult.

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 08:15:00 2021 No.17811164 Catcher in the Rye

Anonymous Thu Mar 18 10:45:19 2021 No.17811994

>>17808171
When I was a depressed teenager, and swallowing loads of anxiety every day from school, I spent most of my time reading fantasy novels, and a healthy dose of sci-fi too. Song of Ice and Fire, Lord of the Rings, Kingkiller Chronicles, His Dark Materials, Hyperion Cantos, Snow Crash as another anon said. Escapist genre fiction is probably seen as a waste of time by most people here, but for melancholy people, especially young people, I think it's important to have an opportunity to retreat into another world.
Giving teenagers more challenging texts is important too, obviously, but I think it's important to start them reading more immediately enjoyable pieces of fiction so they can develop a habit of reading, and associate reading with feelings of relief and pleasure. If he likes Steinbeck that's a good sign he may soon be ready for more mature authors, give him Hemingway and see how he reacts.

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 12:21:58 2021 No.17812719 >>17808310 Thanks, I have a few of these lying around somewhere. I’m ordering Brave New World right now.

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 12:22:41 2021 No.17812727 >>17808171 Jack London

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 13:28:06 2021 No.17813271 >>17808171 Herman Hesse - Siddhartha Short and easy to read but some powerful ideas about dealing with ego and suffering. Might inspire him to read actual eastern philosophy that would also be helpful

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 13:31:14 2021 No.17813297 >>17808310 read all of these from this list a few years ago when I was still in high school and it was perfect. They're all great examples of accessible literature. He should start with vonnegut or salinger

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 13:33:01 2021 No.17813315 >>17812727 This

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 13:42:44 2021 No.17813380 >>17808171 The Chronicles of Amber

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 13:54:43 2021 No.17813468 >>17808171 The Bible

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 15:54:28 2021 No.17814455 Slaughterhouse 5

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 16:04:25 2021 No.17814539 I was so enthralled with Catcher in the Rye when I was 16 I stayed up all night to read it in one sitting and bunked off of school the next day, so probably that

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 16:08:20 2021 No.17814569 >>17808171 Thus Spoke Zarathustra

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 16:15:46 2021 No.17814641 >>17808310 Lord of the flies is mediocre and was a semi deterrance towards reading.

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 16:15:57 2021 No.17814644 >>17808171 >Have a tonne of scenes and scenarios >Have no idea how to connect them into a story

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 16:19:13 2021 No.17814667 >>17814644 write the scenes. move on and return to them if the proper connective tissue presents itself.

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 16:28:00 2021 No.17814745 >>17808171 Barankine be a man . Rly good book btw . or give him some Countess of Ségur .

Anonymous Thu Mar 18 19:57:51 2021 No.17816215

>>17808171
What are some of his interests? Hard to make a recommendation based on nothing (though I’m sure 80% of /lit/, myself included, will gladly try anyway)

I remember liking Lonesome Dove and Monte Cristo at that age, and have re-read many times since. There are also great sci-fi/escapist novels. In general at 15, avoid the pretentious stuff...focus on substance (plot) over form (prose). It takes more reading experience to appreciate most of the great stuff, but building the foundation, experiencing all these stories for the first time, is something I wish I could do again.

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 20:39:42 2021 No.17816473 >>17808247 Seconded, I loved that book in highschool.

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 20:44:19 2021 No.17816495 >>17808171 The once and future king by T.H. White. Arthurian legend

Anonymous Thu Mar 18 21:22:27 2021 No.17816741

When I was about that age I ate up historical adventure stuff
GA Henty, Sharpe, Hornblower, Alan Lewrie....
It may not be his taste idk but it was interesting enough to literally inspire me to attend a federal service academy and have a great career path. Def something that can motivate a kid to get off his ass and be fun at the same time

Oh and Lewrie is straight horndog erotica at times so a 15 yo will def enjoy that at least

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 21:23:59 2021 No.17816754 >>17808918 >Discworld Good suggestion, very accessible and fun but still some “adult humor”

>>	Anonymous Thu Mar 18 21:29:03 2021 No.17816793 Lolita, so he knows to get some prime pussy before it's too late

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