/lit/ - Literature

Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie

The God Delusion

The Qu'ran
Get out of my face infidel

>>5178428
Whenever I go outside, I always spend a very long time thinking about how to answer this question should someone inquire about what I'm reading on my e-reader. It's always very difficult, and a lot of the time I'm too scared to go outside so I just stay inside, which isn't too bad, because being inside at home is nice and comfortable. It's just so worrying. I don't know how people handle strangers talking to them and saying all sorts of things out of the blue so suddenly. And what if they asked to see my e-reader? Then I would have to disinfect it when I got home, and everything that it touched, including my hands, before I disinfected it would be contaminated as well, and I would need to wipe down my coat and my pockets and my fingers with alcohol wipes.

>but what's it about

oh, its like, a journey, full of experimentation

>>5178456
>but a journey where anon
>but, like, what kind of experimentation

I should actually finish reading Fahrenheit 451

>>5178465
this kind of shit is why I always make the conversation completely about them

>>5178428
The picture of Dorian Gray
You can be my muse m'lady ;^)

>>5178441

In Arabic? I've read that no other language can capture it correctly, not even close.

>>5178486
of course in arabic infidel what kind of muslim do you think I am

Codex Alera, it's not great, but I'm a sucker for crazy zerg abominations.

>>5178495
Inta batuta ya a5i.

Anaa asef, anaa be7ki 3arabi shawiy

>>5178506
sorry i dont read moon speak

>>5178534

And you say you know Arabic. Any 2nd grader would be able to read what I wrote

The Elements of Journalism

While I'm well aware that much of what passes for NEWS is worthless, this book properly articulates why that is the case in a concrete and straightforward manner.

Everything but the book I should be reading.

>Real thing that happened last week at work

College graduate, English major: "What book are you reading, anon?"

Me: "The Sound and the Fury. I know that it's highschool literature but I'm trying to catch up on the classics, hehe..."

College graduate, English major: "Sound and the what?"

Me: "You know, by Faulkner."

College graduate, English major: "Who?"

God Bless America!

>>5178465
the kind where I find out your number bby

>>5178686
What do you expect from someone who majors in English when it's their first language?

>>5178686
yeah I knew someone who claimed to have read Joyce but didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned stream of consciousness

people cheat in class

>>5178686

S&F is not highschool lit, other than that, yeah, pretty baffling story.

>>5178686
>Me: "The Sound and the Fury. I know that it's highschool literature but I'm trying to catch up on the classics, hehe..."
>having an inbuilt defense of what you're reading

lol some of you are so self conscious

>>5178710
I promise I am. That's why you always see me with at least one of my watches.

>>5178436
lel

>>5178686
>God Bless America!

Lord love a duck...

>>5178710
>lol some of you are so self conscious

That's nothing. I honestly think if a normal person was forced to think like me they would kill themselves. I'm almost completely devoid of self-esteem. Insecurity and fear run my life.

Dilation Sleep by Alastair Reynolds. It's a short story but oh well. I was going to finish it when I got home but the exhaustion of being an introvert and interaction with others got to me.

>>5178754
Heh.

I hate when people ask this while you're reading, it makes me mad to no end. I usually just show them the cover and go back to reading. If they ask what it's about I always reply the same way "Gay porn".

>>5178792
> If they ask what it's about I always reply the same way "Gay porn"
I did the exact same thing until one friend seriously believed me and then she told everybody Hemingway was gay because I told her Death in the Afternoon was about homo matadors.

Anyway I'm currently reading "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham.

>>5178792
One of my philosophy professors told me a story about how he was on a flight and, being a curmudgeon, had no desire to make small talk to the person sitting next to him.

When this poor unsuspecting lady asked him what he did for a living, he told her he wrote gay erotica. She then asked him to show her some of his work, so he proceeded to spend the rest of the flight drinking martinis and writing some vile gay porn story.

Sometime that can backfire on you is my point, I guess.

>>5178800
>she told everybody Hemingway was gay because I told her Death in the Afternoon was about homo matadors
brilliant

>>5178792
Same here. It'd be different if the person was actually interested in literature but 10 times out of 10 they don't read at all so it makes no difference to them what I'm reading, there's 0 percent probability that it will lead to any worthwhile conversation. If someone interrupted me because they're genuinely interested I wouldn't mind nearly as much.

>>5178805
>so he proceeded to spend the rest of the flight drinking martinis and writing some vile gay porn story.

doesn't sound like it backfired at all

>>5178805
I wouldn't mind that so much.

>>5178810
I'm pretty sure he just wanted to be left alone and read a book, so in that sense, it did.

>>5178805
I'm convinced that philosophy tenures do something to your mind, every philosophy prof I've ever spoken to was crazy in some way.

>>5178792
>If they ask what it's about I always reply the same way "Gay porn".

Why are some of you so hostile to basic social interaction? God forbid somebody tries to engage another human being.

>>5178820
>God forbid somebody tries to engage another human being.

Indeed

>"Oh, I'm reading *insert YA novel with an upcoming movie adaptation*."

Wet panties, guaranteed.

>>5178825
>And I can also really relate to the attractive, witty guy with the puppy eyes who has a dark past and/or will die soon

>>5178820
Because they don't really care they just wanna make awkward small talk. If they pursue further then I would most likely tell them and recommend further books but that hardly ever happens.

>>5178450
been kinda bored since your show ended Mr. Monk?

>>5178838
Sorry, but I don't understand the reference.

>>5178825
>wanting a freshman's wet panties
m8

>>5178805

Don't think that backfired - sounds like a blast.

Also, who knows? Mighta given him some ideas, just needs an authorial pseudonym now.

>>5178840
that makes me a little sad.
it was a TV show called Monk, about a former detective who had a neurosis similar to yours

Nice old lady on the train, several years ago ...

Granny: "What are you reading dearie?'

Me: "The City and the Pillar."

Granny: "Sounds heavenly, or a bit with Lot in it. What is it about?"

Me: "Um ... er ... it's about world war two?"

Someday, when I get to be that age, I'm gonna carry along a copy of "The Smithsonian Institution: A Novel" with me everywhere and along with a premeditated, and vivid, answer.

>Card carrying member of the old enough for ultraporn club.

>>5178437
Obligatory *tips fedora*

>>5178844
Better than a dirtyman's wet panties.

Well I'm currently finishing up volume 5 of 6 of Winston Churchill's chronology of the second world war, in addition to reading a bit of the last books of the old testament. I just finished Zephaniah. Same old same old, really.

I'm currently also on book 4 of the Wealth of Nations. I thought Adam Smith's delineation of bank money and receipts of real money (in chapter III) was a very interesting, now defunct, system of arranging commerce.

And to top it all off, I'm also reading 'How to Read a Book' by Mortimer J. Adler.

Does any of that interest you, darling?

>>5178844
Did you forget where you were? There's at least 5 threads about Lolita a day on here. Why do you think that is?

>>5178428
The Zen Teaching of Huang Po

>>5178950
pic related

>>5178950
>Huang Po
>Chinese
>"Zen"

It's called Ch'an if it's Chinese. Zen is the Japanese equivalent.

>>5178930
no

>>5178695

i-it's 517-8465

>>5178993

we speak murican here and its called zen, whatever kind of ching chong man is doing the talking

>>5178996
well I guess it's back to my right hand then.

>>5178428
Just started Side Effects by Woody Allen

Inherent Vice, because I've seen it hanging around here and it looks like easy prey.

>>5178686
>hehe I-I-I-I k-know it's highschool li...*mumbles, shifts eyes to feet*
he was fucking with you because you're an insecure faggot
>I know that it's highschool literature
just die

>>5179092
ur mom was easy prey

Something beyond your very comprehension

>>5178428

Reading Young Torless at the behest of a friend...haven't had much time because of summer school, but I hope to get more into it in the coming days. I like the first 30 pages or so, although it's very, almost irritatingly, florid and verbose...could just be the translation I have, though.

>>5179130
You too?

>whatcha readin?
Man and His Symbols
>what's it about?
Man
and
His Symbols

Jane Eyre.
And then the Eyre Affair because I was told it was good by exactly one source and no other sources.
I regret not getting The Real Thing to join my Arcadia purchase instead

>>5178436
Isn't everyone, in their hearts?

>>5178428
Lord of the Flies

Ada or Ardor


and Umineko if it's considered like a book

>>5179308
What does it mean to become 'greenpilled' and what's the value of that?

>>5181322
It is a corruption of the "red pill" meme, which itself is a reference to The Matrix.

Red pill refers to a revealing of the truth about the hidden nature of things. It's been adopted by the sorts of people who dwell in /pol/ as referring to being aware of various agendas out to oppress and/or weaken white males. Typical puppetmasters for them are Jews, feminists, "liberals", and "cultural Marxists".

Green pill is similar but the esoteric knowledge differs. It seems more oriented around gnostic religious traditions and self actualization ubermensch type shit.

Basically it's conspiracy and self help bullshit wrapped in some sort of magical riddle.

Huck Finn

>>5178428

wow who's that fluid druid m8

>>5181219
How do you like Ada? It's been a favourite of mine for a long time, and now I'd like to try and read it in english -first time I read it, years ago, I had a spanish edition.

1983 + 1

>>5178428
The State, de Jesay

Cosmic Banditos by Allan Weisbecker.

It's about a former drug smuggler hiding in a shack with his dog in the middle of a rainforest. His only friends are a group of 'Banditos', and his money supply is running low. One of the Banditos mugs a group of American tourists, and in the haul is a book on quantum mechanics. The protagonist reads this daily, and becomes obsessed with the author, to the point that he convinces himself that he needs to meet him. He then embarks on a drug-fueled rampage across south America and the Caribbean islands, chased by the CIA, destroying hotel rooms, boats, airplanes; in an manic escapade that rivals Fear and Loathing, all in an attempt to get to America and meet this author.

Now eat my pussy.

>>5181345
Judging by the required reading, it's more about being aware of the form and limits of perception, nature, and the human condition to better be able to understand the world. The esoteric practice would be the method for actually obtaining free thought and action as opposed to an intellectual understanding of the subject that ultimately does nothing about it.

Or to go back to the shitty matrix metaphor, 'red pills' know something ain't right, green pills are Neo.

Mrs. Dalloway.

>>5182244
Red pill
>There is an objective hidden reality (typically far right or far left)
Green pill
>Reality is subjective (spacial metaphors are inadequate)

The Book of Dave

>>5182262
This was the best thing to ever come out of /x/.

>>5182277
/pol/'s taking it to hilarious extremes

>>5182311
They need a reading list.

>>5182382

>overcoming paranoid and suspicious thoughts
>TV guide
>Liber null
>astrology/astral projection
this is fantastic.

Rainbow pill reading list plz

>>5182851
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

>>5178835
>Because they don't really care they just wanna make awkward small talk
Well no shit nigger. What's wrong with that?

>>5182261
how far along are you?

>>5182851
Equus by Peter Schaffer

Napoleon buttons. How 17 molecules changed history.

>>5179308
If someone were to read only this list and this list; forget about Finnegans Wake, they wouldn't be able to make sense of Ulysses.

>>5183644
Ideally (not that that means much), one should already have a foundation in myth, history and language. The list, and especially Joyce, is where everything comes together as a single system that acts upon every other part at once. It's supposed to prepare you to see Indra's Net, comprehension is a matter of study on your own.

Don Quixote, almost finished about 200 pages left. Amazing read can't believe this is 400 and whatever years old.

>>5183729
Exactly what I thought when I began reading it in Spanish. I've read historic files of that era and Don Quixote wasn't even near in terms of obscurity.

>>5178428

>>5178428
"Gas the kikes, race war now."

>>5184045
Based Zyklon-Ben

Its an in-depth look into the digestion and feeding patterns of cattle, its called Cud Meridian.

>>5178438
cool guy ^

>>5178428
L'Etranger as a way to practice my French.

>>5178428
I finished ten minutes ago The Foundation Trilogy

I really liked it

>>5184091
whewhehhwhehhehwhewhewhehwe

>Oh, I haven't heard of it
every time

>>5184307
I'm reading a commentated compilation of all of Asimov's early works. I love it so far. How does Foundation stack up?

>>5185563
Can you give the ISBN/a link to the Amazon page?

>>5185587
http://www.amazon.com/The-Early-Asimov-Book-I/dp/0345325907

Hearing Asimov's retrospective on what worked/didn't work and on how his career got rolling is fascinating. It's amazing how long it took him to find his voice and style. He even made several early attempts at sci-fi comedy.

>>5179105
>>5179092
fuckin rekt

>>5178428
Made To Stick

>"Well, I'm reading I Am a Cat, by Soseki Natsume right now."
>Everyone starts tittering about the title and passes it off as some kid' book.

Well, fuck you too then.

>>5185921
well maybe you ought to start reading serious /lit/, then

>>5178428
Kokoro.

what should i read next though? I don't want anything too long because i don't read often and lose interest quickly.

>>5187798
Snow Country

>>5185954
It is serious! *punches you in the face*

war and war
so this is nothing like war and peace at all and pierre hasn't showed up yet. i feel gypped

>>5178686

Maybe he's only seen the movie adaptation, the Sound and the Furious.

>>5189121
I saw that. I really liked Paul Walker as Quentin, but I was unimpressed with Michelle Rodriguez as Ms. Quentin

Virginia Woolf's The Waves. Beautiful romanctic style of writing.

I Wear the Black Hat - Chuck Klosterman
Situation Matters - too lazy to check
King Dork - Frank Portman
KIng Dork is like a better more modern Catcher in the Rye, -with a better taste in music- and a little less mopey bullshit. Would suggest you all have a look.

I'm currently reading:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius-Dave Eggers
White Noise-Don DeLillo
Of Mice and Men-John Steinbeck

>>5178428
What? Nothing, of course. You really think that /lit/ reads?

>>5178428
Grapes of Wrath. East of Eden and Myth of Sisyphus next.

>>5178754
/mu/ is leaking

>>5178686
>real thing that happened at work

me: "What are you reading, anon?"

some pretentious idiot: "t-the s-sound and, uh... the s-sound and t-the f-f-fury. I k-know it's high school lit... b-but I'm trying to c-catch up on the classics so I don't l-look like a f-fucking pleb."

me: "The Sound and the what?" (couldn't really make out what he was saying cause he was stuttering and mumbling his words)

him: "b-by folk-ner y-you fucking p-plebeian"

me: "Uh, who? Do you mean Faulker?"

him: "F-fucking plebs I gotta tell /lit/ about this"

>>5191283
HUEHUEHUE SO FONNAY

Right now I'm reading the collected short stories of Eudora Welty. I don't usually care for female authots, but the psychology in her characters is pretty great. That's just my bathroom book at the moment, though. Do you have any novels you'd let me borrow?

Ideally I would say that. In reality I would say: some short stories by some southern cunt. I need something better. Any ideas?

Usually works out well enough.

Gargantua and Pantagruel.
Just finishing third section, about Panurge's deliberations over marriage, which has been a veru dull read. First two pars were good though.

>>5178428
The Picture of Dorian Grey

>>5182311
>Emerald the Pillhog
hehehehehhhe

Brothers Karamazov

>>5178428
babyfucker by urs allemann

>>5191283
>Faulker
atleastyoutried.jpg

This is the reason I have a list in my mind about books plebs would know and think are patrician.

If someone asks I can just say "1984" or "War and Peace" and get some smart guy cred.

>>5192020
isn't 1984 mandatory reading material in most western schools?

This classic.

Confessions by St Augustine

>>5192171
I read that. It was beyond retarded.

it's getting a little tiresome but I've started and stopped reading too many books recently so I promised myself I'd finish it. I don't think I've ever read such inconsistent writing in all my life

>>5192220
Parts of it are funny, but I was pretty displeased with the book in general. My love for Russian lit is the only thing that made me finish.

>>5192248
>>5192220
I wasn't really a big fan of all the revenge fantasy going on - like when Wotan's friends destroy the writers' "guild" place, boring and obviously there just because they didn't Bulgakov wasn't accepted and he was mad about it. The Yeshua stuff was great though.

>>5192248
Maybe i'm biased then because I dont really enjoy comedy in general. so far I really liked the initial pontius pilate chapter (beautifully written at points) and the bit where the master's talking about his gf but so much of it just feels clunky to me and borderline pointless at times. i'm powering through it though.. hoping to go on to pale fire once i'm finished, which I expect to like a lot more

Vineland by Pynchon

the bible

>>5178486

>People "read" the quran
>Not even in classical arabic

That's like going to a bar and ordering cranberry juice.

>>5192220
Will never understand why this is considered a classic

>>5192704
All Russian literature is in a dialogue with itself. If you haven't read previously published Russian lit, you aren't going to get much out of what came afterward.

For example, "Notes From Underground" is attacking the ideas of "What Is To Be Done" by Nikolai Chernyshevsky, which itself is a response to "Fathers and Sons".

>>5192735
I see. Where do I start then?

>>5192752
With the Holy Bible, and I'm not kidding.

It's a poetic novella about incest in an easterm european immigrant family in rural Brazil.

>mfw I had that conversation with a girl this week

It went fine, she thought it was cool.

>>5192735
Notes From Underground is more Dostoevsky attacking himself than What Is To Be Done. All the cool kids at the time were reading Chernyshevsky, and the underground man is an neurotic autist who spends the first 1/2 of the book arguing popular opinion and being antisocial. In other words, Dostoevsky. If you czech out his biography you will find that most of that story is right out of his life.

the death cure

what a piece of shit

I've been reading books written by contemporary women authors (don't ask). Has anyone else noticed the trend of all these books having semi-ironic, cutesy titles? Literally, the last three books I've read have been named:
I Was Told There'd Be Cake
This Book Will Change Your Life
How Should a Person Be?

>>5178779
I'm curious. Describe your thought process, anon. Give me your delicious insecurities. Post a link to your blog.

>>5178428
Currently reading Atlas Shr-...

>>5178710
I-It's not like I agree with Rand or anything I was bored and I picked the first book I could find on my shelf and it's giving me insight into how some of *those* people think. I'm not one of those people or anything. It's just kinda neat. I'm not a libertarian or whatever, ha ha. The book is so bad. I'm taking a break from reading Pynchon.

>>5181569
How is it even possible to translate Ada? Are you trolling me? I feel like you are trolling me.

I mean fully a third of the book is tri-lingual puns between English, French, and Russian.

>>5183460
That sounds pretty good actually, how do you like it?

>>5192823

Give us the score, Anon.
How concussion-inducing are these books?

>>5185921
Then just say you're reading a classic Japanese social commentary called "Wagahai wa neko de aru."

>>5178437
le fnny maymay <|:^)

>>5178820
Fuck off, I don't give a fuck about you so just leave me the fuck alone you cunt.

>>5192884
>Wagahai wa neko de aru

Wouldn't it be Watashi wa neko desu?

>>5193049
You miss all the nuance. Point your rikai at this
我輩は猫である。

It's tenth degree pompous and righteously formal.

>>5193072
This. Cat speaks like a sir, as all cats do. The translations miss this entirely.

>>5193049
You are now aware that this scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UucITQR0SrQ
is a reference to classic literature. (Listen for when he says "I'm not a bird, I am a cat.")

>>5183306
How about you fuck off and leave me the fuck alone?
If you want to socialize then go to a fucking club you bastard.

Heretics of Dune. Trying to get through the entire series before the end of the year. Gotta say that I seriously considered giving up the entire thing once I got Children of Dune and the entire story was just non-stop court dramas that didn't seem to go fucking anywhere.

I'm so fucking glad I sticked around for based Leto II

This is the most horrifying thing I have ever read, and I'm almost certain that Junji Ito has an autographed hardcopy of it somewhere in his library.

>>5194386
Embrace the future.

>>5192764
What is it called?

Now Wait for Last Year - Philip K Dick

>>5194386
I have a copy of that,

Crime and Punishment. Shit is good

>Man After Man
Holy shit I saw all of that stuff about vacuumorphs and everything on /x/ like 7 years ago and I always wondered if it was a book. As a bonus I have wondered forever where this image came from and never searched it because I figured it was a one-off or something. Thank you based /lit/!
>$65 used
Selling The Nightmare Factory confirmed.