/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11008775]

Did it change your life?

[Anonymous No.11008813]

>>11008775
Not really. I hate it’s formatting and the userbase is either pretentious and masturbatory or Amazon user review level. I wish it was set up more like Letterboxd.

[Anonymous No.11008861]

>>11008813
Oh ok you have a valid point here anon

[Anonymous No.11008881]

>>11008813
>I wish it was set up more like Letterboxd.
or old-school last.fm

[Anonymous No.11008903]

>>11008775
Yes, now instead of reading books for enjoyment or education I read them to increase my stats and it's much more satisfying.

[Anonymous No.11008921]

>>11008775
Cant even identify my Spanish book's bar code which came out last year. Useless.

[Anonymous No.11008964]

>>11008775
It made me more organized and made me realize that all the women around me read exclusively chick lit.

[Anonymous No.11009345]

yeah it turned reading into a competition instead of something i genuinely enjoy

>>11008903
this basically but its not satisfying

[Anonymous No.11009349]

>>11009345
You're right, I was lying.

[Anonymous No.11009352]

>>11008903
>>11009345
last.fm did this to me, but for music
this type of website really is soulsucking

[Anonymous No.11009357]

>>11009345
oh and to add to it i add every book i am even slightly interested in to my to-read list and my to-read is about 10 times longer than my already-read list and i can't focus on a book because i always think what i'm gonna read next and what i'm gonna read after that and basically it's like buying tons of books and having them on your bookshelf but not already having them read fills you with anxiety but for some reason you can't stop adding books, either physically by buying or by adding them to the to-read list in goodreads and when you finally finish a book you aren't satisfied or anything but filled with dread because you have to choose what to read next and you know you'll not be happy with it because all the other books you could have read instead are always on your mind

[Anonymous No.11009364]

>>11008775
I learn about books I would not have heard about otherwise through what others are reading, but other than that it isn't all that interesting. Almost everything has 3.6 stars so it isn't much of an indication of anything

[Anonymous No.11009368]

>>11008775
I just use it as a way of keeping me consistently reading every day. the same way I use myfitnesspal for calorie counting

[Anonymous No.11009370]

>>11009364
That's why you add people from /lit/ average rating through friends that way is a lot more accurate

[Anonymous No.11009371]

>>11008775
I just made an account yesterday because someone mentioned how you could find a girl to date through the site

So no.

[Jeff Mangum Died For Your Sins !rAl8Mz2mp2 No.11009373]

>>11008775
>let's gamify a common activity in order to generate easy ad revenue
It's evil. Best thing to do if you insist on using the site is to set your yearly reading challenge to only one book, and avoid using its social media function. If you do that the site works as a way to document and catalogue your reading history, which can be useful.

[Anonymous No.11009378]

>>11009371
Has anyone ever dated through goodreads? There are some serious qts on there

[Anonymous No.11009383]

>>11009378
>There are some serious qts on there

link some my man

[Anonymous No.11009385]

>>11008775
I just use it as some sort of catalogue of books I've read and my impressions on them, don't read reviews by other people at all. The reading challenge is okay.

[Anonymous No.11009400]

>>11009373
>>11008903
>>11009345
The reading challenge is completely optional, you know.

[Anonymous No.11009418]

>>11008775

That's why I created a custom excel sheet to track my reading. I set my own goal (10k pages this year) and it helps keep me honest and up to date on my reading.

Pic related

[Anonymous No.11009420]

>>11008775
>Did it change your life?
Before Goodreads I seldom wrote down my thoughts once finishing a book, which is something I do now. Other than that, no.

[Anonymous No.11009421]

>>11009418
autism

[Anonymous No.11009423]

>>11009418
>10,000 pages a year
you'll never make it

[Anonymous No.11009432]

>>11009423

It will get more and more difficult as the year progresses... I'm on pace for 9,000 pages and am around 250 pages behind.

[Anonymous No.11009447]

>>11009418
How long before you start checking the large print books out at the library?

[Anonymous No.11009451]

>>11009447

I use the kindle app which tells you the percentage complete of each book. I write down the total number of pages before I begin and calculate the pages i've read after every session so text size wouldn't matter. I've been doing this for 2 1/2 years and have never considered cheating since I keep these stats to myself.

[Anonymous No.11009467]

>>11009451
>>11009418
wowe

[Anonymous No.11009470]

>>11009451
how will that help you, why not just read as much as you can

[Anonymous No.11009478]

>>11009470

It's similar to tracking your calories when on a diet. When you don't keep track you tend to overestimate/lose track. By meticulously keeping track of what i'm reading and my goal, I've helped increase the amount i'm reading.

I am trying to work my way up to more and more difficult books (my one grip with 2666, it's too easy).

[Anonymous No.11009494]

>>11009418
Anyone who has a chart has no idea how to read. You're a machine obsessed with productivity, you're not imbibing art, the visions in your head from these books are flat and empty. When's the last time you felt an emotion?

[Anonymous No.11009507]

>>11009494
You know what, rereading your post, I'm sorry, I feel bad yelling at an artist. You do you buddy, keep knotchin the bedpost

[Anonymous No.11009517]

>>11009478
>Bringing in ideas of performance to the appreciation of any art form
The absolute state of post industrial societies

[Anonymous No.11009520]

>>11009517

I don't see it as "performance". I noticed I enjoy difficult reads more than "easy" reads so I try and go that route.

[Anonymous No.11009523]

>>11009517
Why aren't people ashamed of the "absolute state" meme yet?

[Anonymous No.11009539]

Its a great place to keep a to-read list and dump my thoughts after finishing a book.

[Anonymous No.11009557]

>>11009520
Why don't you just read "difficult reads" then? I don't know, your thing seems very rationalized and calculated. You even use an excel sheet, that should mean something. I'm not trying to be mean or to tell you how to live your life, I just think it shows something about our times

>>11009523
It gets better with age

[Anonymous No.11009562]

>>11009557
I understand where you're coming from. My main concern before starting this was to make sure I wasn't just "reading for the stats".

That did happen in one book (siddhartha which I had already read 10 years prior) but besides that I've been content with my method.

How do you think I should approach it? Just go with the flow and get used to always reading?

[Anonymous No.11009565]

I collect /lit/ autistic friends
Is like pokemon but more faggy

[Anonymous No.11009648]

>>11009562
Well I don't know how you should approach it, do what you want to do. I just don't see the point of having a "method" to approach art, I don't think there should be a goal when reading books or listening to music. When you rationalize something you lose authenticity and spontaneity, the sort of "here and now" of enjoying art

[Anonymous No.11009939]

>>11008775
It helped me get into reading, but now I’m noticing I’m just reading for stats ( like this guy >>11008903) and I’m not happy about it anymore.

What’s the point of reading 50+ books per year? It doesn’t give you enough time to reflect on what you’ve read.
If you are reading for stats, then you’re not reading to become more knowledgeable - you’re reading to get attention and/or to satisfy your ego.

[Anonymous No.11009946]

>>11009939
>If you are reading for stats, then you’re not reading to become more knowledgeable - you’re reading to get attention and/or to satisfy your ego.
no way, how did you arrive at this conclusion

[Anonymous No.11009950]

>>11008813
>I wish it was set up more like Letterboxd.
That would be even worse

[Anonymous No.11009963]

>>11009946
i read your reviews on goodreads

[Anonymous No.11010019]

>>11009373
>the site works as a way to document and catalogue your reading history, which can be useful.
This desu, especially for books I either lost copies of or borrowed from a friend/library.

I dont rate books, and I don't use the reading challenge stuff, but I do like reading reviews about something I just read

[Anonymous No.11010055]

I just use it to keep track of what I have read

[Anonymous No.11010068]

>>11009352
iktf
I had to quit using Lastfm altogether because it felt I was listening to the music for scrobbles instead of enjoyment

[Anonymous No.11010103]

>>11008775
I made an account, but as far as I could tell, it didn't let me list the books I owned, only the ones I've read, and that's just gonna agonize me to think of it everything, and I'm too OCD about it to not feel the pressure to list it all.

[Anonymous No.11010144]

>>11010019
I just use a document I have stored on my gdrive. It's a numbered list. When I read something I write it on that list. If much time goes by and I manage to forget a work or I feel like it has little importance I take it off the list.

[Anonymous No.11010157]

>>11010103
You don't read every book you own?

[Anonymous No.11010191]

>>11010103
You go into edit your shelves and make new exclusive shelves. You can make an owned-not-read one.

[Anonymous No.11010226]

>>11010157
I do obviously, although I have a few unread on my shelf too. Point is I've read a lot of books I don't own.
>>11010191
Well OK then.

[Anonymous No.11010301]

For a while I let it discourage me from rereading books reading bigger books like the complete works of Plato or Shakespeare because I wanted to increase my total number. I stopped using it now I'm much happier.

[Anonymous No.11010303]

>>11009565
Underrated

[Anonymous No.11010309]

>>11009373
>If you do that the site works as a way to document and catalogue your reading history, which can be useful.

Why is this something that should be done?

[Anonymous No.11010312]

>>11008903
This but without the "instead".

[Anonymous No.11010324]

>>11008775
Yeah, it made my chronic procrastination feel productive.

[Anonymous No.11010776]

>read book
>rate it
>hope that someone comments on my rating and talks to me
>its never happened

[Anonymous No.11010881]

>>11010776
Write a review, and make it in some way connected to 4chan culture. Then bask in the (You)s and likes

[Anonymous No.11010911]

>>11010881
Some /lit/ people make half decent reviews, at least much better than the average review on the site.

[Anonymous No.11010914]

I like the recommendation engine

[Anonymous No.11010920]

>>11008813
Letterboxd community isn't any better

>birth of a nation has a 2.8 rating

[Anonymous No.11010955]

>>11010776
What's your Goodreads, anon? I'll remedy that.

[Anonymous No.11011068]

>>11009383
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/41788524

[Anonymous No.11011090]

>>11009418
I used to do something similar in Excel too. I kept a bunch of graphs, stats about genres/themes/etc., I even did a fucking regression analysis in order to figure how consistently I read. After a year of doing this, my computer burned down and I was dumb enough to not keep a copy on Dropbox.

[Anonymous No.11011100]

>>11011068
>glbt (268)

[Anonymous No.11011108]

>Finish book, add book to want to read, etc
>Someone from /lit/ likes it
feels good mang

[Anonymous No.11011114]

>>11009565
i love you too

[Anonymous No.11011120]

>>11009357
This is my exact predicament anon

[Anonymous No.11011126]

>>11011100
He's some dude I found while reading reviews of A Little Life (I was trying to figure out whether I wanted to buy it). His 1-star review of it blew my mind: (just sharing an excerpt 'cause it's so long)

>Hanya Yanagihara abuses the main character maliciously, mistreats our feelings, and shows us how ugly and hurtful a single life can be. [...]

>What kind of book is this. How far does an author have to go? Why does an author have to get so disgustingly graphic, so horrific? [...]

>I’m also sick and tired of (straight and/or female) authors exploiting gay stories and lives. I’m even more tired of (straight and/or female) authors killing off gay characters for tragedy. It’s makes me incredibly mad. We’re not here for you to torture and kill us in your novels and screenplays.

>Do you want big feelings and epic life stories? Go and grab The Fault in Our Stars. Read The Help. Read Twilight for all I know. But don't read this.

[Anonymous No.11011139]

>>11011126
I'd need to look it up, but that doesn't sound too impressive. Does he go into details about the prose, the aesthetics, or is it just be nice to gay men?

[Anonymous No.11011153]

>>11011139
Just check it out yourself: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1403586140?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

[Anonymous No.11011160]

>>11009418
I do this too but without the autistic page counting. For me it's just a list of what I've read.

Fuck, I should read more.

[Anonymous No.11011164]

>>11011153
It's basically him ranting about his desire for a different outcome for the story. I understand why, but that's not a good review.

[Anonymous No.11011181]

>>11011164
Which sums up 95% of all Goodreads reviews. People rate good books 1 star because they "can't relate to 18th century Russian women" (I actually saw someone write that in a review of Anna Karenina). That dude's reviews are just examples of these ridiculously bad "reviews" that really just say "I don't like that the main character isn't just like me". It blows my mind that people are so retarded.

[Anonymous No.11011200]

>>11011153
this man does NOT like the romantics. funny reviews

[Anonymous No.11011226]

There's no point to doing this sort of a thing.... (tracking your reading in Excel). Especially if you read non-fiction

For instance, I've been reading Vilfredo Pareto's Manual of Political Economy, and it takes me one day (about) for every single chapter, no matter how long, some of these chapters are 80 pages or so....

And then I hit the Appendix, and I go through about 3-4 pages a day because it deals with partial differentials and hyperspace utility analysis.

OR for instance, Diophantus' Arithmetica. Some problems I can read no problem, like I'll spend MAYBE 30 minutes contemplating 4 problems in book IV but then I hit book V. BAM. I find myself going back and re-reading the problems I've already finished. It's logically more complex.

Or Aristotle's Metaphysics, here is an interesting book. Some books read like butter on toast, nothing to it. I could read Book Gamma or Little Alpha like nothing. But Book Delta? Holy fucking shit.

[Anonymous No.11011233]

>>11011160
thoughts on villa triste?

[Anonymous No.11011268]

>>11011233
Can't remember the story in too much detail, but the sort of melancholic, dreamy experience of reading it stuck with me. It's about a guy sort of hanging around in a Swiss provincial town meeting exciting and weird people, warm weather, no strings attached. I don't know, I thought it was comfy.

[Anonymous No.11011311]

>>11009565
Me too, my dude. Me too. I love you.

[Anonymous No.11011351]

>>11009418
>>11011160
my spreadsheet
but then i use goodreads as well, i have no idea why really

[Anonymous No.11011401]

>>11011351
Thoughts on The Size of Thoughts? I read The Mezzanine and really liked it but never went out of my way to read more by him.

I had more categories (genre, language, translated yes/no, country of origin, language) but I thought it became too bothersome and didn't reaaally give me much insight so I trimmed it down to just title/author/date finished.

[Anonymous No.11011418]

>>11011311
Nice dubs, and smile.

[Anonymous No.11011419]

>>11011401
it's a mixed bag, it's a collection of essays from across the years. some are hilarious, some thought provoking, some a bit dull. on the whole i liked it, although not as much as the mezzanine

[Anonymous No.11011420]

yes it's has encouraged me to read a lot more but I haven't convinced one person around me to use the website and it pisses me off so much, it's absurd to me that people who'd want to read more wouldn't want to use this site which really helped me

[Anonymous No.11011427]

>>11009373
You think The Force Awakens was good though.

[Anonymous No.11011515]

>>11011427
But it was, anon, and The Last Jedi was even better.

[Anonymous No.11011629]

It was good when I first started using it, it would recommend me a lot of books I wouldn't have thought about reading otherwise but now for some reason all it recommends is famous Russian author's lesser known works.

[Anonymous No.11011659]

>>11011629
Famous Russian author's lesser known works can be great. Try Dosto's "Bobok", if you haven't already. It's like a secret facet of his writerly personality, a wonderfully insane Gogol emulation.

[Anonymous No.11011770]

>>11010776
share ur account anon

i'll comment on your updates

[Anonymous No.11011809]

I only used it as a "books I've read" list but that is easily done in a text file.

Or not done since keeping tracks of the books you read is for brainlets who read to have read instead of read to read desu.

[Anonymous No.11012213]

>>11008775
Yes, I have discovered dozens of great books using the site. I went from basically reading good but very well known shit (think like Dostoevsky or Pynchon), to browsing /lit/ and more or less reading books that are memes on here, to actually branching out to lesser known authors and having my own non-basic taste in literature thanks to goodreads.

I do this-
>use it to keep track of books i've read (I've read ~350 books so yes this feature is useful)
>don't rate books or write reviews
>stalk users who write positive reviews of books I like and see what other books they like

This stalking method is much more organic than recs generated by some algorithm. I am always finding cool shit this way. Goodreads gets a lot of shit on this board for having a userbase that is pleb and obsessed with YA. While this is true, there are plenty of users with great taste. Conversely, the userbase of /lit/ is WAY more pleb than I think most of us would like to admit. Just lookat any goodreads thread on this board. Most of the people posting there have only read a couple dozen books and exclusively memes.

tl;dr goodreades will change your life by breaking you out of reading only memes

[Anonymous No.11012230]

>>11008881
>>11009352
>>11010068
tell me about las.fm please. its letterboxd/goodreads for music? it looks like you also play music on it?

[Anonymous No.11012274]

>>11012230
You download a program called a scrobbler that keeps track of the music you listen to on your music player (eg iTunes) and logs it on your last.fm profile. The main difference is that it is automated, whereas letterboxd and goodreads you must track manually. I used last.fm heavily for about a decade. Just checked my profile- I had 100k tracks scrobbled and about 4k artists, lots of which I discovered through the site. I never felt like last.fm sucked the fun out if it for me, as some other users are reporting here. I stopped using it because they made some major changes to the site that pissed me off and I left.

[Anonymous No.11012293]

I'm hearing about this website all the time, but can I get a quick rundown on it?

[Anonymous No.11012492]

>>11011090

Use google sheets anon (for non regression parts at least)

[Anonymous No.11012504]

>>11011226

I try and have a philosophy book and a fiction book going at the same time. I can take my sweet time on the philosophy book some nights and others plow through the fiction.

[Anonymous No.11012665]

>>11011311
Fetal alcohol franco

[Anonymous No.11012751]

>>11012665
Did you just bully me, my dude? It’s ok, I still love you.

[Anonymous No.11012863]

>>11012751
That’s what is all about LOVE!!

[Anonymous No.11013771]

>>11012230
rateyourmusic or allmusic is the goodreads/letterboxd equivalent

[Anonymous No.11013774]

>>11009357
the classic collector's dilemma

[Anonymous No.11013781]

>>11009357
I fixed this my literally forcing myself to read 4 books for ever 1 book I purchase/download.

[Anonymous No.11013790]

>>11012213
dunno about anyone else but my book count is low because I'm only counting what I've read after making it, that way I get go through what I already own again with fresh eyes

[Anonymous No.11013863]

>>11013790
I added hundreds of books Ive already read when I made mine to watch the numbers go up

[Anonymous No.11013869]

>>11010920

>why does the average person not enjoy a 3-hour long, obnoxiously racist silent film from 1915 that is only valued by film critics for its technical innovations

https://letterboxd.com/film/andrei-rublev/
https://letterboxd.com/film/tokyo-story/
https://letterboxd.com/film/inland-empire/
https://letterboxd.com/film/metropolis/
https://letterboxd.com/film/the-seventh-seal/
https://letterboxd.com/film/intolerance-loves-struggle-throughout-the-ages/


But obviously letterboxd users are on the same level as goodreads users.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1.Best_Books_Ever

[Anonymous No.11013875]

>>11013869
>A hobby website where people have actual good taste
Wtf

[Anonymous No.11013984]

>>11013869
This poster has a highly likelihood of being trans

[Anonymous No.11013998]

>>11013984

What did you mean by this?

[Anonymous No.11014068]

>>11011160
N e d e r l a n d s

[Anonymous No.11014181]

>>11014068
Get off that edge anon, it’s dangerous!

[Anonymous No.11014421]

no I only got creepy PMs from you guys

[Anonymous No.11014643]

>>11013869
wish there was a better alternative to goodreads. it's essentially the clusterfuck of imdb except all the adults read children's books.

worth it for the funny reviews though.

[Anonymous No.11014650]

>>11009565
i'm autistic but also illiterate though

[Anonymous No.11014683]

>>11009418

i read slow as fuck and even i crack 1000 pages a month.

[Anonymous No.11014885]

>>11010920
Funny that Letterboxd ended up going somewhere

I remember lurking on that site when it was still called The Auteurs.

[Anonymous No.11014907]

>>11009946
it was written on the massive underside of your mom's fat naked body

[Anonymous No.11014912]

>>11012293
People review books and make book lists. It's sort of like a stand alone amazon book reviews/recommendations website + imdb (goodreads and imdb are both owned by amazon).

[Anonymous No.11014951]

>>11008775
I enjoy it but mostly for the charts, recommendations and being able to chronicle my reading progress somewhere

it's also a good place to talk to /lit/ users on books recommendations, personal favourites, ratings, etc because /lit/ users behave themselves very well on goodreads (it's actually refreshing also some girls from /lit/ added me and they're qt LONDON)

[Anonymous No.11014953]

>>11009352
I left last.fm when they fucked up with a poor redesign

I don't use it for the community or anything now but some reason I still need to make sure my scrobbler is on while listening to music

somehow I have 2k plays of Drake uh oh

[Anonymous No.11014955]

>>11009378
> those crazy eyes

be careful, anon

[Anonymous No.11014956]

>>11014953
idiotic bohemian grove pedo slave detected.

[Anonymous No.11014958]

>>11014953
> idiotic bohemian grove pedo slave master detected.

[Anonymous No.11014959]

>>11010776
it depends on whether people want to read the book you've just read or if they've read it already

I got my dick sucked because I gave les miserables five stars on my second reading of it but to be honest you need a gf for that

[Anonymous No.11014962]

>>11013869
damn Tokyo Story left me feeling empty

Call your parents, anons. Make sure they're doing OK.

[Anonymous No.11014965]

>>11014958
nah jokes I;m shitposting who would believe that cannibalistic phenomena would exist in the contemporary west. Come at me you non tele idiot.

[Anonymous No.11014968]

>>11014956
>>11014958
what are you babbling about

[Anonymous No.11014969]

>>11014968
whose tower do you defend? (implying undraped athene). wank on an owl crowley

[Anonymous No.11014972]

>>11014968
btw dismiss me with insanity accusation i'll cop it.

[Anonymous No.11014976]

>>11014972
>>11014969
hey dude you're clearly on some other train of thought that nobody else bought a ticket for so you do you, boo, just please remember to take your meds

[Anonymous No.11014980]

>>11014976
do you understand contemporary ironic pros? or do i need tu reference styx for you to squirm.. ( btw these posts are eually to the spooky recorded hindden ones, no more no less (you not immortal you idiot).

[Anonymous No.11016133]

>>11014980
What are you even talking about?

[Anonymous No.11017451]

>>11008775
It's not a huge improvement, but I've been reading a little bit more seriously now that it tracks my goals, and I remember things better when I quote them in my progress updates.

[Anonymous No.11018076]

>>11017451
Nice! Keep up the good work anon.