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/lit/ - Literature

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2875742 No.2875742 [Reply] [Original]

Well, are you /lit/?

go through the list and cross out the ones you've read

statistically speaking, if you've read at least 1/4th of this list then you are more well read the average redditor

>> No.2875748

>>2875742
Well read?

Quite a many of them aren`t even literary in nature.

>> No.2875751

>>2875748
being well-read means you have to read non-fiction as well duh

>> No.2875754

>ishmael
>guns steel and germs

liberal propaganda

>> No.2875755

the titles of some of those books made me want to throw up.
also, no joyce? gtfo

>> No.2875757

>>2875742
8, that can't be right...

Most of those seem to be sci-fi or fantasy, whereas I don't read that genre - so there's your explanation.

Really though, Hitchhikers Guide at #1 and War and Peace at #79

....


Yes i mad

>> No.2875760
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2875760

rennaisance man polyglot patrician master race reporting in

>> No.2875763

>>2875760
oops forgot to mark huck finn

>> No.2875766

>>2875751
>implying non-fiction isn't so various in nature that putting it on the list isn't pointless
And yeah, easily more well-read, even with the piece of shit list.

>> No.2875767

>>2875755
Joyce doesn't make any sense

Here's an excerpt from Finnegan's Wake

What clashes here of wills gen wonts, oystrygods gaggin fishy-
gods! Brékkek Kékkek Kékkek Kékkek! Kóax Kóax Kóax! Ualu
Ualu Ualu! Quaouauh! Where the Baddelaries partisans are still
out to mathmaster Malachus Micgranes and the Verdons cata-
pelting the camibalistics out of the Whoyteboyce of Hoodie
Head. Assiegates and boomeringstroms. Sod's brood, be me fear!
Sanglorians, save! Arms apeal with larms, appalling. Killykill-
killy: a toll, a toll. What chance cuddleys, what cashels aired
and ventilated! What bidimetoloves sinduced by what tegotetab-
solvers! What true feeling for their's hayair with what strawng
voice of false jiccup! O here here how hoth sprowled met the
duskt the father of fornicationists but, (O my shining stars and
body!) how hath fanespanned most high heaven the skysign of
soft advertisement! But was iz? Iseut? Ere were sewers? The oaks
of ald now they lie in peat yet elms leap where askes lay. Phall if
you but will, rise you must: and none so soon either shall the
pharce for the nunce come to a setdown secular phoenish.

>> No.2875770

>>2875766
>what is general non-fiction

Books like Short History on Everything is made for the layman, if you can't understand it you need to kill yourself.

>> No.2875771

>the average redditor
Yes, this was the most amusing part of your post OP.

>go through the list and cross out the ones you've read
No.

>> No.2875777

>>2875771
>he's scared that he's not as intelligent as the average redditor

>> No.2875778

>>2875767
>being too pleb to read Finnegans Piece of Cake

>> No.2875781

>>2875778
Then explain what that excerpt is talking about idiot.

inb4 you make shit up

>> No.2875782

30/100


I'm so proud of myself.

>> No.2875783

>>2875755
Wipe all your precum of your copy of Ulysses and start reading for pleasure some more, you pretentious motherfucker.

>> No.2875785

>>2875770
>reading pop-sci
No, you need to kill yourself.

>> No.2875788

>>2875783
Because no one could actually enjoy Ulysses if you didn't? You're the pretentious cunt.

>> No.2875789

>>2875785
>doesn't understand basic science or history
>thinks Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman is pop-sci

>> No.2875792

>>2875751
Non-fiction can be literary you fuck

>> No.2875794

>>2875792
That's what I just said. Can you even read?

>> No.2875799

>>2875785
>>2875792
No it can't, non-fiction is supposed to be clearly worded and unambiguous. You don't know what you're talking about..

>> No.2875800

>>2875789
I'm not using this as proof, but it seems other people think it's pop-science too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything

Why do you think I don't know the information, just because I haven't read some shitty, presumably reductive book?

>> No.2875802

>>2875799
The Bible is non-fiction.

>> No.2875806
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2875806

>100. Mein Kampf

>> No.2875808

The 100 most popular books is not the same thing as the "average" anything. I doubt the average redditor has read 10 of those books. Fuck I bet the average redditor hasn't read 10 books in his life.

>> No.2875809

>>2875788
Just because you enjoyed Ullysses doesn't mean you have the right to herald Joyce above other writers when he clearly doesn't deserve to be.

>> No.2875810

>>2875800
Did you even read the thread? Some idiot was implying that he couldn't possibly read the non-fiction in this thread because they were so "various in nature".

I'm just pointing out that alot of these are just general science and the rest are shit like the declaration of independence or Darwin's origin of the species that anyone with half a brain should have read.

>> No.2875812

>>2875806
Looks like the jewfags are here. Time to go.

>> No.2875813

>>2875799
Autobiographical accounts can be literary.

It extends further than that too.

Think you need to look up definition of literature.

>> No.2875816
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2875816

>>2875802

>> No.2875815

>>2875742

Some of them are shit books I don't even want to read.

Like the Harry Potter series.

Also that list is not even middle-brow. It's "I just got out of high school" brow.

>> No.2875819
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2875819

>>2875809
>when he clearly doesn't deserve to be

>> No.2875820

>How to win friends and influence people

>> No.2875822

>>2875816
Non-fiction doesn't mean true, retard. The unabomber manifesto is non-fiction.

>> No.2875823

>>2875815
When I just got out of high school I've read about 20-30 books on most respectable top 100 lists, which is the same number as this list.

In fact there's alot of overlap. According to you every list would be "just gout out of high school" tier

>> No.2875828

>>2875781
The first part is about adversaries, fighting, other binaries (wills and won'ts, Ostrogths and Visigoths, natural stars vs artificial lights etc), and seemingly being seduced or corrupted by this opposition, and at the end concludes that like the Phoenix is reborn from its own end, so the opposite is born from the opposition, like the Elm (Eve/Embla) being born from or growing where there were once the Ashes (Adam/Askes).

Which is of course on of a multitude of interpretations.

>> No.2875830

>>2875810
>declaration of independence
Not everyone's American. My point was that the act of reading non-fiction in and of itself, for the most part means reading what one is interested in, and to put those works on a list of this nature is misguided. You're suggesting there's some sort of obligation to have read the primary sources of certain subjects which is ridiculous.

>> No.2875836

>>2875815
>They're shit
>I haven't read them

>> No.2875841
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2875841

27. So yes, I am. Also, most of these were/are highschool reading or I've encountered so many excerpts of it in my core humanities class. I have yet to see a list offer anything like Homage to Catalonia as part of the Orwell necessity on these things.

>> No.2875849

>>2875767
>>2875767
>joyce doesnt make any sense
Heres an excerpt from portrait of an artist as a young man:

She was alone and still, gazing out to sea; and when she felt his presence and the worship of his eyes her eyes turned to him in quiet sufferance of his gaze, without shame or wantonness. Long, long she suffered his gaze and then quietly withdrew her eyes from his and bent them towards the stream, gently stirring the water with her foot hither and thither. The first faint noise of gently moving water broke the silence, low and faint and whispering, faint as the bells of sleep; hither and thither, hither and thither: and a faint flame trembled on her cheek.
Ch. 4

Her image had passed into his soul for ever and no word had broken the holy silence of his ecstasy. Her eyes had called him and his soul had leaped at the call. To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life! A wild angel had appeared to him, the angel of mortal youth and beauty, an envoy from the fair courts of life, to throw open before him in an instant of ecstasy the gates of all the ways of error and glory. On and on and on and on!


shut your mouth and die faggot.

>> No.2875850

>>2875841
>Homage to Catalonia
This is exactly what I thought of when I rolled my eyes at the guy earlier ITT who said "non-fiction can't be literary." One of my favorite books ever, and definitely one of the best pieces of non-fiction I've ever read.

>> No.2875857

>>2875850
Whoever said that clearly hasn't read Living My Life by Emma Goldman, not only is it interesting, she made it when she was like 50ish so as to not forget a lot of details.

>> No.2875862

>>2875836

News flash: you can read a chapter or a few pages.

But besides that HP is known for being incredibly bad.

Ayn Randt is dumb and we cannot talk about her.

Mein Kampf is a boring mess that was put there just to be edgy.

1984 and Brave New World and Farenheit - I read them they are ok, but overrated,

Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's craddle- Yeah it's ok. I enjoyed it.

Surely you are joking Feynman - Not really interested in reading about physics or phycists. I find it kinda of boring. A good book I read was the life of cosmos by lee smolin.

Diamond is ok, but really "babby's first history book"

Siddharta - as deep as a puddle. A favorite of teenagers trying to look deep and spiritual.

Crime and punishment - good

Lord of the rings - Never understood the fascination. I fell asleep while trying to read it and I gave up at the end of the first book,

Lolita, the stranger, Moby dick, unbearable lightness of being, Candide, quixote, karamazov, gatzby and some others on there - Yeah supergood and super approved stuff.

The Prince, Communist Manifesto - Again books to be edgy since they are vastly out dated, out of context and not that in depth (the secon is a pamphlet). Hobbe's Leviathan, Locke's Two treaties on government and Rousseau's Discourse on inequality are much more essentials.

Then there is some more science fiction and fantasy which may be entertaining but certainly not essential reads.

And the rest I have not read it.

So yeah' it's mostly a low-brow list.

>> No.2875865
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2875865

More than 1/4, less than 1/2.

>> No.2875870
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2875870

This list is complete shit.
>John Dies At the End
>American Constitution
>Harry Potter
Jesus Christ, Reddit is a terrible place.

>> No.2875877
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2875877

Meh. If you go to reddit's literature board, I think you'll find they're pretty intelligent folks. And their literary study board is miles above /lit/.

They're book board is ass though, which is probably where most of this list came from.

>> No.2875882

>>2875877
>Going to Reddit
Fuck off.

>> No.2875885

>>2875882

Sorry. I'm too old to worry about all this secret club nonsense.

>> No.2875898

>>2875809
The fuck?
>other writers when he clearly doesn't deserve to be

go kill yourself

>> No.2875902

Reddit's book board is a fucking cesspit. It alternates between praising Stephen King, lamenting that 1984 is so similar to the United States and saying Ender's Game is one of the best books ever. It is well and truly shit.

>> No.2875907

>>2875902

You should be going to r/literature, not r/books.

>> No.2875912

Keep reddit shit on reddit, for fuck's sake.

>> No.2876185
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2876185

Not the list I would have made as a test for "well read" but here.

>> No.2876198
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2876198

45/100

Not bad

>> No.2876200

How would we go about making one of these for /lit/? It'd probably be hilarious.

>> No.2876212

>>2876200
Let me guess the top 3
>Infinite Jest
>Ulysses
>Gravity's Rainbow

>> No.2876213
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2876213

Honest answers, reporting in.

>> No.2876215

>>2875877
>hasn't read gatsby, 100 years, infinite jest, Tao Te Ching or Karamazov
>thinks his opinion matters

>> No.2876242

>>2875907
I took a look. To be honest, it's not much different from /lit/. One argument that's often given for r/lit being better than here is that go into more detail, but to me it just seems like statements of the obvious that just get implied here. Maybe it's a product of the karma system and your being more likely to get it if you go into that (to me) seemingly unnecessary detail.

In fact, it seems the same as here, without all the sometimes funny, sometimes irritating meta stuff. I'm sure they've developed their own little canon like us, as most groups of people who discuss books a lot do.

>> No.2876264
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2876264

>Starshit Troopers
>John Died at the End

>> No.2876269

>>2876200
>>2875971

I wonder what reddit would think of /lit/core.

>> No.2876271

>>2875742
Reading shitty books doesn't make you well read, moron.

>> No.2876273

>>2876269

It'd be interesting to see a top 100 for /lit/ - we'd have to make a poll or something, I guess.

>> No.2876274

>>2876269
>demigod: murakami
That's either old as fuck or a troll.

>> No.2876303

>>2876269
jean paul sartre is derping heavily on his picture

>> No.2876311

>Crime and Punishment above Brothers K.
>Odyssey not in top 10 or 20.
>Sci-fi and fantasy everywhere.
>No Wilde, Bulgakov, Kafka, Dickens,Goethe or Shakespeare.

This is why Reddit is terrible.

>> No.2876375
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2876375

I've finished 21 and read parts of 11 more.

Fuck, I feel inadequate.

>> No.2876383

>>2876375

>didn't finish Heart of Darkness

Yes, you should feel inadequate. That book can be read in one sitting.

>> No.2876392

>>2876383
I know that. I was reading it when some mates raided my dorm, and I didn't feel like picking it up again after, even though it's short. I think I even gave it away a few months ago.

>> No.2876400

39 total. 27 of the first 50.

>> No.2876428

21 or 22.

Should I commit seppuku?

>> No.2876431

>>2875862
You say
>Siddharta - as deep as a puddle.

True, but puddles reflect.

>> No.2876441

Hofstadter being so high is a pleasant surprise, but besides that it's a pretty fucking bad list.

>> No.2876445
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2876445

>>2876431

>> No.2876467

>Everyone Poop
Tell me this is a joke.

>> No.2876474
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2876474

I'm such a pleb.

>> No.2876495

>>2876467
That couldn't possibly have been the only book on that list that made you cringe.

>> No.2876555

Aside from the Bible, the top ten doesn't include one verified classic.

And we thought /lit/ was bad.

>> No.2876560

>>2876555

I see 4 verified classics other than the Bible

>> No.2876564

>>2875742
I've read all but two of these. These all seem to be somewhere between middle and high school level, and as Im in college I've read almost all of them. If you haven't read all of these works, don't sweat it, you will once you finish high school.

>> No.2876571

>>2876564
What standard are you even basing this on? My high school required at most 10 of these books.

>> No.2876572

2. 1984
10. Harry Potter

>> No.2876588

>>2875828
>>2875828
>>2875828
>>2875828
>>2875828
pleb here.. I don't even understand this guy's explanation of the Finnegan's Wake paragraph that was posted

what do?

>> No.2876597
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2876597

>> No.2876598

>>2876560
1984, catcher, brave new world and...?

>> No.2876610

>>2876588
consider castration
OR
read the bible, all major mythologies, 50-60 high quality books and you're good to go!

>> No.2876612

>>2876598

Slaughterhouse Five

>> No.2876614

>>2876588
Check out Aristophanes' The Frogs at least.

>> No.2876619

>>2876612
oh. i don't agree but okay.

>> No.2876624

>>2876610
>read the bible, all major mythologies, 50-60 high quality books and you're good to go!
You would benefit more from listening to the song it's based on and learning a second language.

>> No.2876688

I've read 23 on the list.

>> No.2876690

>>2875760

how can you read SOME of Fahrenheit 451... it's 100 pages.... really?

>> No.2876700

34 of these, but how would having read many of these books lead to a favourable comparison with a redditor? Surely the way to prove you're better read than a redditor would be to come up with a new and better list without missing out so many essentials and including so much dross?

>> No.2876729
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2876729

X means I haven't finished it. A didn't put an X for the Bible because it's not a single work.

There's a lot of shit on this list, and I doubt most redditors if any have read the US constitution in full ...

>> No.2876745

>>2876624
i totally agree, learning languages from a language group completely different from your own helps a lot too
if you're english anything slavic or east asian should do the trick
or if you decide to go hardcore - hungarian!

>> No.2876783

david foster wallave

>> No.2876834
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2876834

>Godel Escher Bach

FAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGSSSSSSSSSSS

>> No.2876843

lol why are so many of you dumbasses posting in this thread

>> No.2876895

>>2876624
>You would benefit more from listening to the song

what song?

>> No.2876918
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2876918

>The Declaration of Independence
>Atlas Shrugged
>mfw redditors clap when they make lists

>> No.2876965

>>2875742
That list appalling. The average grade level for the majority of the literature presented are below high-school level. I hope it was made as satire, and not to be taken seriously.

>> No.2876974

>>2876965
list is*

>> No.2877000

I read 27 of them, I guess that's more than 1/4th, but many of the books on here are crap.

>> No.2877002

>a song of ice and fire
>a game of thrones

>> No.2877013
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2877013

I didn't like quite a few of these books.

>> No.2877022

>>2877013
Also, Jesus Christ, 70/100 is the highest in this thread. I don't even know if that's good or bad.

>> No.2877031

>>2877022
Do you think having read any % of the books discussed on Reddit is indicative of anything? Let alone well-readedness?

Let's call it silly fun and not designate 5% or 90% or anything in between with either good nor bad.

>> No.2877039

>>2877031
This seems awful accusatory. I think it's indicative of having read those books, and whatever you'd consider each book indicative of.

I was just saying, from a personal perspective, I'm not sure whether I should see that as a good or bad thing. A lot of the books on that list are trash.

>> No.2877044

Guys do I pick the wrong books? I want to be like reddit.

>> No.2877200
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2877200

>> No.2877223

>>2876895
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YafattqPLks
He was joking.

>> No.2877226

There's so much fake, pop, supermarket-checkout pseudohistory and pseudoeconomics on this list it makes me want to puke

>Lies My Teacher Told Me
>Freakonomics

people don't actually take this shit seriously, do they?

>> No.2877243

>>2877226
Why do we care about that site again?

>> No.2877247

>>2877243
because at least 50% of /lit/'s population frequent both sites, and that's why /lit/ sucks dick now.

>> No.2877254

>>2877247
/lit/ sucks dick because the people on the board who can discuss books don't want to and the people who can't do.

>> No.2877258

31, not including ones on the queue or ones that I quit reading. Still, ashamed yo.

>> No.2877263

>>2877254
So it's like every college course discussion group ever.

>> No.2877272

>>2877226
I liked Lies My Teacher Told Me when I read it

tbf I was 15

>> No.2877280

>>2876200
>>2876212
>>2876269
>>2876273
someone already did it, and IIRC the top books i remember were dune, the stranger, brothers k,

i'm blanking out after this

fuck, i thought i had a good memory too

>> No.2877281

>>2875742
I was going to answer seriously, but I couldn't believe the shit on that list. So much sci-fi and fantasy and children's books.
I stopped at #36 and I had read over 20 of them so far.

>> No.2877323

>>2877226
While I agree that Lies my Teacher Told Me appeals to a popular audience, care to elaborate on how its "pseudohistory" or fake?

>> No.2877379

28.

But I have no plans at all to read most of the ones I haven't. Everybody Poops? House of Leaves? All the shitty sci-fi? Nah, I'm good.

>> No.2877389

>>2877323
It sucks because it's more of the negation-as-criticism junk that we've come to expect from pop sociologists masquerading as serious history writers.

>I don't like that high-school history textbooks present simplified versions of complex historical trends that took many decades to unfold! Let's teach kids every tiny detail about every event in American history so they can decide for themselves! Better yet, let's create historiographical controversies that don't really exist, because that's so post-modern and edgy!

Well, what a resounding and profound criticism! Let's start by teaching kids the complete historiography of the founding of Plymouth colony, highlighting all the relevant issues in native-colonial relations, gender theory, technohistory, religion, political organization, psychohistory, archaeology, and social organization. Oh wait, the semester is over? But we have so much more history to learn!

>> No.2878766

>>2877223
>joking
Don't be stupid, the song is the most important key to getting an understanding of Finnegans Wake. The book is an elaborate retelling of that basic narrative, Finnegan being at his own wake and awaking from the dead after being annointed. If you knew the song >>2875767
Would begin to makes sense as a whole, especially:
Phall if
you but will, rise you must: and none so soon either shall the
pharce for the nunce come to a setdown secular phoenish.

The whole point of FW is its plurality of meaning, and in order to discern meaning out of it one does not need to be a Classics scholar. You might notice more references, but reading isn't trainspotting at the end of the day. The better thing when it comes to reading it is knowing another language, because then you might notice just how much of a plurality there is.

>> No.2878784

>>2877223

More like this, amirite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdHe4c10smY

>> No.2878790 [DELETED] 

>>2875748
You don't know the definition of literature. Please look it up before posting again.

>> No.2878791 [DELETED] 

>>2875862
>Lord of the rings - Never understood the fascination. I fell asleep while trying to read it and I gave up at the end of the first book,
2deep4u

>> No.2878814

>>2877389
So...you hate these history books because they teach the kids too much? What? you prefer we just gloss over things like Imperialism and World War 1 because every topic needs to be addressed? I don't know about you but I actually appreciated the in depth look at my countries history from multiple perspectives. It allowed me to make an informed opinion about current and past policies and how it impacts/impacted different socioeconomic groups. I'd rather learn much about certain interesting topics rather just learn the spark note version of history.
>So yeah Plymouth was founded, John Smith banged Pocohantas and gave her friends and family small pox because of Jesus/White man. Da end.

Not very fulfilling.