/lit/ - Literature

Anna Karenina, why?

>>15062760
Just curious

>>15062760
I've been reading it too. About to finish it actually. And it will become one of my favorites for sure. I absolutely adore Anna and her tragic journey is heartbreaking. She was a true feminist heroine and I'm surprised a moralist like Tolstoy could have written such a complex and admirable woman.
The Levin sections are a bit dull though but his romance with Kitty is lovely I guess. He's not Vronsky though. That's for sure. Vronsky is the perfect man. I was so sad when Levin's brother meets him at the train at the end and he was a shadow of his former self. He loved Anna so much. He's just so perfect and he was perfect for Anna too and it's just so devastating they couldn't work it out. Fuck Karenin for denying her the divorce. Okay, rant over. Great novel.

>>15062998
>Vronsky is the perfect man
Not really. He was a coward in things which mattered the most.

So far, Catch-22. It's one of the few books where I wanted to keep reading it because reading it was so enjoyable. It wasn't for the plot or character development, which are normally the reasons I get interested in books. It's not the best prose, but every line is amusing and I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

>>15062998
you must be a woman

>>15062752
blood meridian, i just finished stoner and its definitely a close second

Stoner means a lot to me. I actually won a short story competition a few years ago thanks to the book, since I read it as I was writing and pretty much changed how I was writing in terms of my writing style. It's a shame he was so overlooked, underappreciated etc during his life although I think Augustus won an National Award or something in literature.

>>15062752
Seymour: an introduction.

That or Ulysses

doktor glas. it is sleek and minimalistic while still having vivid prose, themes and characters. the story itself is terrifying
>>15063737
based, im reading blood meridian atm. the writer really likes writing prose tho and sometimes it gets overwhelming, the book could definitely have been thinner

A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

>>15064248
Have you read Ulysses? If so, what makes portrait stand out for you when compared to it?

>>15063737
>blood meridian isnt translated in my language
sucks

>>15064281
what language? i just found out that blood meridian exists in swedish, might read it in the future

>>15064303
lithuanian

>>15062752
How is stoner? I must have been twelve when I read this and John Williams other novel, Buther's Crossing; I don't remember anything about them really

>>15064345
4chan splurges over it, but it's just a good book. Not great. Just good.

>>15064303
Läs den på engelska för fan.

>>15064370
knip igen neger och svär ALDRIG IGEN i min eller Herrens närvaro, jag sa tidigare att jag läser den på engelska just nu

>>15062752
I know it’s a popular book here but I’m not going to pretend it isn’t my favourite just to be contrarian. The combination of beauty in Melville’s prose with the depth of his meaning is like nothing else I’ve yet read. It really saddens me that people read it abridged, they miss out on many of the key themes of the book just because they’re too lazy to read perceptively for something other than narrative.

Don Quixote
or maybe this >>15064423

>>15062752
honestly? maybe gravitys rainbow. i think its famous for a reason, and i dont think theres been a better time to ever read it. everything now feels so surreal and outrageous. entropy is worsening , naturally..... time to scatter...

i havent read much but TBK

>>15062998
>Vronsky is the perfect man
Lol, what?
>Fuck Karenin for denying her the divorce.
Ah, I see, you are a western woman in her 20s.

i havent read much but TBK tied with LIBRA from DeLillo

Stoner

Followed by No Longer Human and Brave New World. Can someone reccomend me more alienation core? I also really enjoyed Atomised by Houllebecq.

>>15064923
>you should be enslaved in a relationship for which you feel no passion for and if you leave you'll lose your children
how dumb are you

>>15065002
book of disquietude

>>15065014
You should control your passions instead of letting them to destroy your whole life, figuratively and literally. Why is it so hard for westerners to understand what the book is about? All you perverted brainlets are capable of is declaring Karenin some sort of a villain.

>>15065057
cringe. you've obviously never been in love and been in a relationship you were dissatisfied with. kys

>>15065018
Nothing has topped Ulysses for me yet, though Stoner is really good and is the only other book that has made me cry. I'm reading War and Peace right now and it's really good too so far.

>>15065078
>you've obviously never been in love
Says some western woman in her 20s whose idea of what love is comes from her 2 month long romances which she considers an example of long lasting relationships.

Gravity's Rainbow

>>15065115
lol grow up

Between Flowers for Algernon, Sorrows of Young Werther, and Frankenstein

>>15062752
that depends; how do you pick your favorite book?

>>15065089
I just started Dubliners and it just seems quaint and comfy, is there anything more to it?

>>15065136
I did, that's why I'm able to point out how flawed your perception of Tolstoy is.

>>15065149
I didn't personally connect with Dubliners in the same way as I did with Ulysses. It's much more grounded, not just stylistically but thematically too. Parts of it are definitely good, but I don't think anything except maybe The Dead even comes close to later Joyce.

>>15064423
This book can give similar feels to moby dick.

>>15065234
What the fuck... how? Just cause there was a boat and sea? They're as tonally different as books can be.

>>15062752
Probably Confederacy of Dunces, although GR or M&D are pretty close for me.
>>15063716
Just finished that book this morning, really good desu.
>>15063737
Gonna read BM pretty soon, seems hyped but is probably really good.
>>15065089
I liked Ulysses but felt a lot went over my head at the time I read it due to not having a broad enough knowledge of the classics.

>>15065149
Dubliners and Portrait are good but not even close to the genius of Ulysses. You should still read both to get acquainted with Joyce's style of narration and because Portrait is pretty much a prequel to to Ulysses.

>>15065275
Please elaborate. I didn't get it at all. Is it because I'm a wizard?

>>15065264
I think a lot of Ulysses will always go over everyone's head, but that's part of the point and part of why I think it's so good. It's a book you can read over and over again and find something new each time, and understand it differently at different times in your life. I've read it twice and I plan to keep reading it every few years.

definitely not stoner

>>15065373
Dazai does an incredible job of getting you into the headspace of the main character. if you can relate to the experiences and emotions of said main character on some level (like I can) then this book becomes both incredibly depressing and incredibly cathartic at the same time. No other author has done as good a job of conveying how alien and illogical human beings appear to outsiders or the pain of needing to put on an act for people because you know that they would not accept your true self. it sounds like it would come off as melodramatic but instead, it feels very personal and grounded

>>15065257
Well the protagonist in both stories kinda despair over their own situations and the marlin that the old man is wrestling against seems like a metaphor to a white whale. And of course it's totally different, hemingway's writing style is very distinct.

Don Quixote

Oryx and Crake

>>15065057
Lmao the womanhating midwits on this board have the worst interpretation of this book I've ever seen. I always wonder how people who (claim to) read so much can have such little empathy for any character that isn't a self-insert. And no I'm not a 20 year old woman. I'm 26 year old white male faggot

>>15063543
What things? He was a romantic and was willing to give up everything for Anna.
>>15063733
>>15064923
So what if I am? That doesn't make my reading invalid. I get that Tolstoy was trying to make an example out of Anna but undeliberately he wrote one of the best feminist characters ever written. Anna's only flaw was wanting to be happy. Is that such a sin?

>>15062752
I still think Ulysses, though now that Ive gone through the necessary cycles of ownership and disavowal, I recognize The Sound and the Fury and On the Road had an insurmountable impact on my youth.

>>15062752
wind up bird

>>15065057
Who cares what "the book is about"? People are free to get whatever they want from the book and I've never met anyone who wasn't rooting for Anna. I don't know about when the novel came out, but nowadays Karenin is clearly a bad person. What right has he to deny Anna's happiness? Why should Anna be forced to spend her life with a cold, boring, repulsive man? He deserved all the shame he got.

>>15065511
It doesn't make you reading invalid, it makes your perception flawed. Like for instance you claiming that Anna Karenina was in any way shape or form a feminist or followed something even vaguely resembling feminist ideology. Honestly I have no idea how modern brainwashed westerners can read Tolstoy or Dostoyevskiy without throwing a tantrum every 10 pages or so about their "obsolete" and "backwards" perception of what are healthy relations between sexes. Westerners are the type of people who will read about Natasha Rostova suffering from "cheating" on the prince Andrey and actually non-ironically advocate that she did nothing wrong and should feel empowered.
>Anna's only flaw was wanting to be happy.
And yet she found herself unable to be happy through the entire story from the moment she subdues to her passion, which ultimately leads to her death.

>>15062998
choo choo! all aboard!

>>15065554
>Who cares what "the book is about"?
Ah, the post-modernist tantrum has arrived.
>I've never met anyone who wasn't rooting for Anna
The very fact that you view the book as a confrontation or contradistinction between "good Anna" and "evil Karenin" is exposing you as a westerner millennial or any other miscarriage of XX century sexual revolution.
>nowadays Karenin is clearly a bad person
Maybe among your kind.
>What right has he to deny Anna's happiness?
Anna denies her happiness herself.

>>15065606
Stiwa was more than happy, even though he frequently subdued to his passions in a much filthier way. So what was it that really lead to her death?

>>15065665
Stiva was still slowly heading towards misery, not as hard as Anna, but his style of life was clearly not sustainable. Also Stiva still loved Dolly and while he was a shitty husband he wasn't nearly as petty as Anna with Karenin, who wasn't a bad man and didn't deserve Anna's hate. And I guess Stiva was just lucky he had Levin as a friend to take care of his wife and kids while Anna only had shallow relationships with people that turned their back on her very quickly.

>>15065769
No ultimately it wasn't that she had shit friends, it simply comes down to societal doublestandards. I don't think Tolstoi would have made Oblonsky the way he is if he didn't want to hint at this aspect as well

>>15065665
Stiwa loved his wife and family. He was in control of his life and his wife chose to make a sacrifice and forgive him, which saved their family. Anna's life in controlled by her passion and she is unable to be happy with anyone or anything. Unlike Levin, who despises his passions and after the initial rejection directs all his strength on self-improvement, for which he is rewarded with true happiness, pure love and revelation.

>>15064345
Love Stoner; Butcher's Crossing was just dreadfully boring to me

>>15065769
>Anna only had shallow relationships with people that turned their back on her very quickly
Mostly, but not all of them. In the end Dolly very much tries to help her and pull her out of her insanity and jealousy, but Anna essentially runs away from this last helping hand that could save her and never opens up to Dolly.

Infinite Jest. Of course.

>>15065527
Why Wind-Up? I feel like there are so many other better Murakami novels out there

>>15065799
You're right the parallel between Anna and Stiva was deliberate, but so was Anna's shallowness. It's not casual that the same friends who celebrated and covered her affair later turned their back on her. And Anna instead was bitter and petty with the people who could have actually helped her, like Karenin when he had a momentary change of heart and was willing to grant her the divorce, or Dolly at the end. Anna was such a shitty person that always surprises me that people root for her. Her only redeeming quality was her natural charm and yet instead of developing it in a healthy way she only used it in selfish and shallow ways like when she flirts with Levin for no reason. Even her love for her son was selfish and her only concern was not having him with her, not if he was okay or not. And she didn't even love her daughter.

>>15065823
Clearly she could have been happy if she wasn't denied a) her son and b) participation in society. You simply go easier on Stiwa because you can relate to him more and he's a based character. Objectively risking your family life for carnal pleasures (which signifies a lack of control) is much worse than leaving someone for a person you love. In my view you are simply unwilling or unable to put yourself in Karenina's shoes in the same way you do with stiwa

>>15064423
Yes same. Absolutely nothing I've ever read from another author can compare with Melville's prose. The passion put into every single section blows me away each time I read it. There's this incredible flow when I'm reading Moby Dick that nothing else can compare to. The only other author to make me feel slightly similar is Proust, and even that's not the same.

I will say though, anyone who loves Moby Dick because of Melville's prose is doing themselves a disservice if they haven't also read The Confidence Man. I don't like it as much as Moby Dick personally, because it does feel a bit more detached and satirical, whereas Moby Dick felt more genuine and passionate, but the prose in here is just unreal. Completely over the top and way more inaccessible in many ways than Moby Dick, but if you loved that, you'll love this as well.

>>15065930
>participation in society
Personally her last few chapters with Vronsky made me think things would have turned awry for them regardless. Doesn't she even realize it herself at the end after she leaves Dolly's house?

>>15065373
>Is it because I'm a wizard?
So am I and it didn't stop me from understanding the book. You don't have to relate to every aspect of the protagonist, do you? If your wizardhood bothers you, the book should have at least helped you understand that getting women isn't going to solve your problems or make you happy.

>>15065930
I don't "go easier" in Stiwa, he simply never sacrificed his family and his love for Dolly and kids for his passion. Anna sacrificed both her family and her socialite life, which turned out to be too large of a sacrifice for her to bear, leading to her descent into the madness of jealousy and suspiciousness.
>You simply go easier on Stiwa because you can relate to him
I can't. If anything, I relate the most to prince Myshkin from The Idiot, surely not the fucking Stiwa of all people. You just wish to precept it this way because it's then easier and clearer for you to view what I say as "evil men rooting for each other while a poor innocent woman suffers" or something along the line.

>>15065954
It's clear that by the end all the happenings have taken a heavy psychological toll on her, she was abusing drugs etc. so yes by that time they were fucked. But if the story had taken place in a society with more modern views on marriage or even if karenin would have acted differently this wouldn't have been a tragic (or interesting) story

>>15066010
>But if the story had taken place in a society with more modern views on marriage or even if karenin would have acted differently this wouldn't have been a tragic (or interesting) story
I present you the depth of perception of a western zoomer female: "Anna Karenina could be happy if he husband wasn't so evil". Based The Twilight Saga tier analysis, no less.

>>15065930
>You simply go easier on Stiwa because you can relate to him more
I don't relate to him at all but it's easier to sympathize with Stiva over Anna because he in spite his flaws still has good qualities. He's a good friend, a loyal brother, even if he cheats he still loves his wife and knows his family should be his priority and would never leave them to pursue a passion. I can't remember a single time in the entire novel where Anna genuinely cared about anyone else but her own needs. Vronsky even calls her out for taking a girl under her wing when she didn't really care for her. Most, if not all, of the positive descriptions of Anna through the novel comes from other characters thinking she's charming and that's it, while what we can infer from her actions is that she's shallow, selfish and petty. She doesn't care about her daughter. Has an unreasonable hate for Karenin. Thinks the painter who disliked them for being shallow was jealous of them. Mocks Kitty on her mind for marrying Levin while she got Vronsky. There are just so many moments of Anna being shallow and shitty through the novel it's really hard not to see how she was ultimately the source of all her suffering.

>>15066043
What's your analysis? Anna is a stupid femanoid whore for not staying in her loveless marriage and pursuing another monogamous relation. Meanwhile based Oblonsky is doing based things like cheating on his wife xD

>>15062752
Houellebecq’s The Elementary Particles. But I know that’s only because I just recently started to read seriously and have barely scratched the surface. It’s still a damn great book to me.

>>15066092
>I can't remember a single time in the entire novel where Anna genuinely cared about anyone else but her own needs
Why should she care about other people when she lives in a patriarchal society where women are forced to be submissive to men? A woman willing to be selfish in such a backward society is a revolutionary act.

>>15066092
Who was the cause of stiwa making up with his wifey? Refresh my memory.

>>15066120
>What's your analysis?
I told you above. The other anon told you essentially the same thing as me. Anna's obsessive passion, egoism, disregard of love for family, son and later daughter and in the very end disregard of even the last people loyal to her who tried to help - all of this was her undoing. Not "evil husband".
>Anna is a stupid femanoid whore for not staying in her loveless marriage and pursuing another monogamous relation. Meanwhile based Oblonsky is doing based things like cheating on his wife xD
No, that's what you wish I was saying because then it would fit into your brainwashed picture of the world.

>>15066141
Oh. You're right. Anna did something good through the novel. And I guess at the beginning her love for his son did come off as genuine and not as an obsession. That being said there's still the big difference between the siblings that Stiva wanted to reconcile with his wife. Anna instead sacrificed everything for Vronsky, knowing what would happen, rejecting any chance she got to make her situation better, and then she couldn't bear the weight of her decisions. Even her death was more of an impulse of pettiness and bitterness than sadness.

>>15066141
It's sad to remember how good and kind was Anna at the beginning and how rotten she was by the end.

>>15065606
Anna is a feminist icon for daring to pursue her own happiness in a time in which women were expected to be little good slaves

>>15066185
I just simplified and distorted your point much like you did with mine since that is the level you want to take it to as it seems.

>>15066228
>Anna is a feminist icon
Feminists are dumb, more news at 11.

>>15066234
>much like you did with mine
No, not really, since your whole point from the beginning has been literally "Fuck Karenin for denying her the divorce".

>>15066235
>/lit/ machito hating on women
More news at 12

>>15062752
A canticle for leibowitz. The end of that book makes me feel physical pain.

>>15066243
What right had he to deny her the divorce? He wasn't her owner, he didn't love her, he made her unhappy. It's so terrible that Anna found happiness with someone else, someone better? Seriously, fuck Karenin.

>>15062752
If we're counting single books, Brekkukotsannálar is the best.
If we're talking series, the Silmarillion and adjacent materials are my favourite. There's just so much content to go through, and its total brilliance is unequalled.

>>15062752
Remains of the day. I picked it up and couldn't stop reading, even though I was just waiting for a friend to pick up some stuff inside his parent's house. They noticed and said I could keep the book.

Favorite book ever. I love the selfless duty displayed, even if it is in service to a bumbling fool.

>>15066243
Your interpretation is that Anna is essentially an immoral "asshole character" who got what she deserved. I pointed out that there were circumstances that made her actions a much bigger sacrifice than they would have to be. Sure it was an egoistical act to pursue her passion but it didn't have to be and it shouldn't have been.

>Blood Meridian
>Moby Dick
>The Exorcist
>Macbeth
>The Colour out of Space
>Roadside Picnic
I think for most people favorites change back and forth anyway.

>>15062752
>Mfw the whole thread is flavor of the month shit from /lit/

>>15066337
Such as?

>>15066319
She didn't deserve to die, although it was her own decision and there's no way of knowing if she wouldn't still have killed herself even if things had been different, but she was never going to be happy because she didn't know how to love. Her situation put pressure on her and undoubtedly played a part in how quickly everything went to shit, but she was an undeveloped person defined by her unhealthy obsession with Vronsky and her son. Perhaps if she could have married Vronsky and kept her son she would have lived to an old age, but the problem with her relationship with Vronsky went beyond just the complications of their situation, but that they had little to give each other than their passion, and Anna wouldn't have been less obsessive, and Vronsky wouldn't have grown less tired even if they could have gotten married. It would have just taken longer. I guess the point Tolstoy is trying to make is that the means define the ends and their relationship was doomed because it started as a passion instead of genuine love like Levin and Kitty.

>>15066235
Please, explain me, how is she not a feminist icon? If not her then who? Dolly, Kitty? Don't make me laugh

>>15066408
No one. Are you implying there's supposed to be one, is this how they teach literature in the west nowadays? No wonder you have such an obnoxious perception of Tolstoy. I mean, feminists can declare whoever they want as their icon, but it's not the fault of the character itself.

>>15066470
You still haven't explained me how she isn't a feminist icon

>>15066408
Anna isn't a feminist icon. She kills herself. She's a warning to women. Of the limitations of society, of what happens with a paucity of imagination: of both herself and the man who wrote her as that because he couldn't imagine a women like her deserving happiness alive.

>>15062752
War & Bees

As I Lay Dying probably

>>15063740
why? looks interesting

Things Fall Apart

>>15066361
I literally just got off the phone with my friend an hour ago and we were talking books and he said he read this a few years ago and it's probably his all time favorite book. Will be ordering it tonight and am very excited to get started on it.

Good timing, anon.

As for my favorite book.... I'm such a readlet :( Just getting into the classics now, so I'll stick with a nonfiction book I just read and loved.

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard. I find Teddy absolutely fascinating though, so it's not for everyone. Nonfiction that reads like a fiction adventure. Back when men were men.

>>15065136
roastie toastie

>>15066640
It immersed me in its claustrophobic atmosphere like no other book had before, made me occupy the mind of the narrator and the guy the narrator is narrating about

>>15065149
Dubliners is grounded in the political and intellectual climate of early 20th century Dublin. "The Sisters", for instance, is a cutting commentary on the relationship between the Church and the intellectually inclined youth of the time, but without knowledge about that dynamic it comes off as quaint or pedophilic. Likewise, "Araby" is a commentary on the Irish's instinctive Catholic Platonism, but it comes off as a kid being stupid if you don't understand the intellectual climate and context. Joyce is the sort of author that you need a good class or companion text to read well.

>>15066667
My "American Lit" teacher in high school 12 years ago taught no American lit and instead broke curriculum to make us read Middle Easter and African novels. No shit. I vaguely remember really liking this one and would read it again. Isn't the author a nog who was constantly complaining about raciss words? Wasn't he known for hating on Heart of Darkness? Or am I mixing up authors?

Why have you guys all read the same five books

>>15066861
i dont read books

>>15064423
People would appreciate more if it wasn't shoved down your throat in school

>>15065435
good post, this anon gets it

>>15062752
It's probably a tie between Crime and Punishment or No Longer Human for me

>>15066861
>visit a site that mostly attracts a few specific types of people
>go to a niche board about a specific interest
>favorites thread reveals visitors have largely similar tastes
Do you want people to fucking lie?

>>15066765
im a 22-year-old dude, faggot

>>15066902
this "niche" "specific" interest is the written word that spans millennia and continents. the fact that it's the same 10 or so books speaks to how much groupthink this board suffers from.

>>15066947
>this "niche" "specific" interest is the written word that spans millennia and continents
The readers you're pulling from don't.
>it's the same 10 or so books
You'll get similar results in most places. You think Moby Dick wouldn't be popular on Reddit?
>groupthink
Often, yes. That's the nature of online communities. They form around an interest and then fracture off into more and more specific groups. Sometimes it's useful, sometimes it's a problem. Do you want somebody to jerk you off over this brilliant observation?

>>15065503
Interesting, I really enjoyed O&C even with the whole child porn subplot as disturbing as it was, have you read the rest of the series

>>15062752
I don't deal in favorites

>>15066877
That's a good school that does that.

>>15064423
>people read it abridged
Wait... WHAT?

>>15066520
>suicidal
>cautionary tale for women

Sounds like a feminist icon to me.

>>15067025
I have and I enjoyed reading them. They didn't have what fascinated me in Oryx and Crake but the religious concepts were interesting. The idea to be accepted into a religious group because of your actions not because of a shared belief in one god and one truth is nice.
There are several new characters or ones that weren't important in the first book you learn about. Their background and time before the pandemic was interesting but I didn't really care for what happened to them afterwards.

>>15062760
fpbp
>>15062998
>Vronsky is the perfect man
>Vronsky and Anna were perfect for each other
I can't tell if this is bait? Hating Karenin for his indifference to Anna and later rupturing her relationship with their son for person gain I can understand.
>>15066520
I think this is a very narrow reading. Anna isn't a warning to women but a warning to anyone about being consumed by the self. Anna's flaw isn't that she can't be happy but that she can't find happiness (or anything) beyond herself. Levin struggles with the same thing and constantly rejects anything 'true' beyond his own subjective experience. Ultimately, Levin triumphs over this in his crisis of faith monologue where, even if he can't justify/explain it, he finds meaning beyond himself (similar to Tolstoy's struggle with Christianity/religion, who Levin is modeled after). Otherwise, Levin's end would have been similar to Anna's in the form of suicide.

at the moment

>>15064435
I'm reading Don Quixote right now, liking it a lot. It's interesting how it manages to be funny without any sort of slapstick.

If I had to pick a single favorite, I'd go Gravity's Rainbow.

>>15065089
I loved War and Peace. One of my favorites for sure.

>>15067712
>without any sort of slapstick
How much of it have you read? There’s quite a lot of slapstick

>>15067640
good taste brother

>>15067840
it's so good

>>15067640
>>15067871
It's one of my favourite books of all time, and it's one of my only favourite books where I'd feel comfortable recommending to almost anyone I know who reads. It's incredibly well written, but also a totally accessible page turner.

But have you ever noticed how often he uses the words grins/grinning/grinned? I noticed it like halfway through my initial read and it drove me crazy, it's in there constantly.

>>15062998
Karenin was a Chad for denying her divorce.

>>15068293
I hadn't noticed the grin thing at all. you ever read anything else of hall's? I'm sure there's nothing as good but wondering if there's anything worthwhile

>>15062752
Do poems count? If so, the faerie queene. If you want a novel then The Sound and the Fury.

>>15066137
why expect others to care about you if you don't care about them

>>15066525
me too bro, when Andrei dies I got a dose of chills that's enough for the rest of my life.

The fountainhead

>>15068313
I read the first book in his Ambrose Bierce series and thought it was awful, honestly. Just felt like cheesy, bland, garbage. I've heard good things about The Adelita, but I haven't found a copy yet. Might have to just buy it online.

>>15062752
Either Gargantua or The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

I don't have a favorite, but I particularly like:
Book of Disquiet
The Man Without Qualities
War and Peace
The Idiot
Hopscotch

might reread W&P soon, and I come back to some passages on BoD very often

>>15068467
maybe I will wait some time before I give another a chance. thanks anon

My favorite books are all meme books because I take /lit/ top 100 lists very serious

1. Blood Meridian
2. Infinite Jest
3. The Andalite Chronicles

>>15066856
You are correct about him hating heart of darkness. I also think HS American lit classes are a meme and only ever include maybe 1 legitimately great American novel, although I read TFA in another like 10th grade english class.

>>15065503
Responding for the best atwood book. Strangely her least popular these days.

>>15068454
Mother of god

>>15066361
This book will always stay with me

ALSO

SPRACH

ZARATHUSTRA

>>15063716

>So far, Catch-22.

This was my favourite novel for quite a while. I have an old copy and on the last page someone wrote "THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ" and it's my handwriting. I must have been about 13 or something. I don't rate it so highly now but it still does what it sets out to do stupendously well.

>>15066314

>Remains of the day. I picked it up and couldn't stop reading, even though I was just waiting for a friend to pick up some stuff inside his parent's house. They noticed and said I could keep the book.

A possible book categorization scheme: "What do you do if you start this book at a friend's house and have to leave before you finish it?"

a) Leave the book behind, never bother to find another copy to see how it ends

b) Leave the book behind, but make mental note to get hold of it to finish it

c) Take the book home with you to finish it

d) Take the book home with you to finish it AND KEEP IT

I chose option (d) with The Sound And The Fury some years ago, and that got me into Faulkner in a big way.

>>15067866
what so good about it?

>>15066314
How does it compare to the movie?

>>15065275
>be rich
>be good looking
>maid has sex with you at a young age
>get laid all the time
>spend life drinking and having fun
>still feels depressed and tries to off himself
Pretty sure most of us here have a worse life. I liked NLH but I enjoyed the setting sun more. The Moonflower Journal chapter is my fav in the book. I highly recommend it.

>>15068431
Agreed, fucking kills me how he had already "left" the world of the living, but Natasha brought him back, which just made it even harder.

>>15067685
read libra if you haven't it's absolutely brilliant

>>15062752
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield

Either 'The obscene bird of night' by José Donoso or Suttree by Cormac McCarthy.

Cloud Atlas. Hooked from the first line.

>>15070469
I plan to read this book soon, so I can't yet comment on which I prefer but I will say that for me the fact that his life appeared great to an outsider only enhances the book for me. It strengths the contrast between his outer persona and inner turmoil imo.

>>15070520
i need to get around to re-reading this, read it about 6-7 years ago and remember really liking it

Most favorite ones would have to be Black Obelisk by Remarque, King, Queen, Knave by Nabokov, and Stoner.

>>15071337

Suttree is really, really good. I think it gets overlooked because of Blood Meridian, which he wrote straight afterwards.

It's also a good rigorous vocabulary work-out. I had to look up quite a lot of words when I read it the first time (and that's not something I have to do very often).

>>15066856
Things Fall Apart was at least partially written as a rebuttal to to Heart of Darkness. Correct order of reading is HoD->TFA->King Leopold's Ghost

enders game

Stoner was a frighteningly beautiful book. I haven't found a better example of the modern condition of man and society. The book signals the rot of American culture and the modern man in many ways.

>>15067076
faggot

>>15064423
I just started reading this because of this post. Half way through chapter 3 and there are no lies present. The prose is amazing.

>>15065234
fav short story

>>15065914
i've read a bunch of them but wind up is the one that checks the most boxes of what i find enjoyable. kafka on the shore is second, 1q84 is third, but there are other novels i would put above them not by murakami

Dante's Inferno
Augustus
Solaris
Do androids dream of electric sheeps
Memoirs of Hadrian

Not in particular order. Also I'm reading the Research by Proust and in some points is boring but others amazing, something I've never read before

>>15062752
The Fall by Camus. Absolutely blows the rest of his work out of the water.

>>15075229
>Do androids dream of electric sheeps
ahahaha...oh no no no...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHHAHAHAHHWHAHAHHAHAHWAHAHAHWHAHAHAHWHAHAHAWAHAHAHAWAHAHAHAHAHAHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHWAHAHHAHWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHHAHAHAHHWHAHAHHAHAHWAHAHAHWHAHAHAHWHAHAHAWAHAHAHAWAHAHAHAHAHAHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHWAHAHHAHWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHHAHAHAHHWHAHAHHAHAHWAHAHAHWHAHAHAHWHAHAHAWAHAHAHAWAHAHAHAHAHAHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHWAHAHHAHWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHHAHAHAHHWHAHAHHAHAHWAHAHAHWHAHAHAHWHAHAHAWAHAHAHAWAHAHAHAHAHAHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHWAHAHHAHWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHHAHAHAHHWHAHAHHAHAHWAHAHAHWHAHAHAHWHAHAHAWAHAHAHAWAHAHAHAHAHAHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHWAHAHHAHWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHHAHAHAHHWHAHAHHAHAHWAHAHAHWHAHAHAHWHAHAHAWAHAHAHAWAHAHAHAHAHAHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHWAHAHHAHW

>>15065505
>no I'm not a 20 year old woman. I'm 26 year old white male faggot
Same thing.

Ulysses. I read the meme trilogy because of /lit/ and I'm glad I did, this book is just unreal. I felt like my own thoughts were revealed, interrogated, annihilated, and celebrated all at the same time. Is there anything more kino than the last two chapters of Ulysses? Jesus I want to cry just thinking about it again.

>>15066611
What's your favorite chapter? The dead mom's narration was so beautiful and memorable for me

>>15062760

What are the odds, I just started reading this book today.

>>15062752
The New York Trilogy. I read the third story in one sitting, it was an amazing experience.

>>15075229
Solaris was amazing. I recommend you check out Lem's other works. Tales of Pirx the Pilot and The Invincible were really comfy too.

>>15077262
I read Solaris and The Astronauts. Will check out the others you mentioned

>>15077262
>>15077352
I would also like to chime in and recommend more of Lem's work: The Star Diaries and Space Memoirs, both featuring Ijon Tichy as the main character and where every chapter is a new "journey" he undertakes.

>>15065511
>he was a perfect man because he was a romantic and was willing to give up everything for Anna.
why are women so shallow?

>>15077426
>self-sacrificing
>shallow
choose one

>>15077262
Thank you, I've also read "His Master voice" and "Golem XIV". I appreciated the first while the second was incomprehensible. Anyway, I like how his books are the highest level of "hard" sci-fi. Sadly Lem's works are somewhat difficult to find in my country

>>15077536

I'm not him, but this isn't a valid criticism. The point isn't that self-sacrifice is shallow, but rather that women are shallow because their only idea of a "perfect man" is one who is willing to sacrifice everything for a woman.

>>15076268

Are you laughing because of the plural of "sheep". I rather like it myself. "One sheep, two sheeps." Well done, anon.

>>15077616
sure, I was teasing, but I also had a point. of course the whole truth is seen in the bigger picture of both sides. no partner can demand an all-in and bring nothing to the table.

>>15077620
I don't know what's happening lmao. I only know that I wrote the name of the book in a wrong way (the title is a bit different in my language's translation)

>>15072052
>the fact that his life appeared great to an outsider only enhances the book for me
I didn’t say his life is great I just said that it’s not the worse out there. For example, people in 3rd world countries would love to have his miserable life.

>>15077262
>>15077567
I have "His Master Voice" and "Eden" standing on my shelf waiting for their moment. Lem is definitely my favorite sci-fi author. Read Solaris practically in one sitting.

>>15062760
>read it expecting it to be about Anna Karenina
>instead is about some guy called Levin and his long journey into faith and a meaningful life
What did Tolstoy mean by it?

>>15077822
>Watch Archenemy and Hero, expecting it to be about tits and magic battles
>Instead it's about agriculture and an effort to civilize feudal society
Tolstoy meant that true love and faith and rewards for those who try to live a meaningful life in humility instead of subjugating themselves to passions.

>>15077755
I know. my point is that I think that him having a great life besides his mental turmoil is part of what makes the book great. if he lived in a 3rd world shithole it wouldn't have been as effective.

>>15062752
The Count of Monte Cristo.

Moby Dick

>>15076831
Probably pretty high, considering the fact that AK is one of the most lauded works in the history of literature.

>>15062752
tbod by pessoa

>>15077620
>>15077651
I'm laughing cause the book sucks

>>15079466

I discovered that Leo Tolstoy read Arthur Schopenhauer, so I immediately bought AK. So far, so great. I imagine I will buy War and Peace next, the title of which at a glance already has the philosophical structure of Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Representation", with 'Will' being 'peace' and 'Representation' being 'war.'

>>15079798
>t. Asimov's fan

>Heart of Darkness
>Invisible Man
>The Sun Also Rises

Can't pick because I'm an indecisive bitch.

one hundred years of solitude

>>15069303
Based

>>15066861
Because they all get reading recommendations from this board and then recommend those same books to other anons. Factor in the desire many have here to work through the classics or “great” works in general, and you see the same novels reappearing quite a bit. It happens on every 4chan board I visit

Musashi.

>>15080379
Are you a Kurtz yourself, or more like the Russian guy?

>>15062752
>Arthur Schopenhauer Essay on women