/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11926673]

List your top three favorite books. Then post what you're reading now and what you think of it. Recommendations and insults to follow.

>Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse
>Grendel, John Gardner
>House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski

>Narcissus and Goldmund, Hermann Hesse
So far it's pretty good, but nowhere near as great / nuanced as Demian or Steppenwolf. I feel like he writes best from the first person.

[Anonymous No.11926728]

>>11926673
>the stranger by camus
>slapstick by vonnegut
>frankenstein by mary shelley

currently reading
>the bible
i'm only on leviticus after growing up in a strict catholic household and now finally exploring it for my own in college
p good but leviticus drags on

[Anonymous No.11926915]

>>11926673
>Duma - Count of Monte Cristo
>Herodot - Histories
>Jones - Jewish Revlutionary Spirit

>Hancock - Fingerprints of the Gods
Really comfy, slightly X-Files nostalgia mixed up with heordotian short stories and real mindblwoing Klaus Schmidt-tier titbits. 8/10 would recommend so far. Only downside, it's a softcover and the text is far to near the binding to be read without breaking the spine.

[Anonymous No.11926945]

>>11926673
Try At the Mountains of Madness. It's not directly related to your 3 picks, but for some reason i feel it fits
>>11926728
Chaos and Night by Montherlant
>>11926915
Idk what to rec you but I also love reading Fingerprints of the Gods as a sort of faux-historical fiction. Blavatsky has similar stuff in some of her books

top 3 for me are
>Moby Dick
>The Brothers Karamazov
>The Bible

[Anonymous No.11926981]

>>11926945
oh and im reading a poetry collection by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, he is very good

[Anonymous No.11927257]

>>11926945
Funny you mention that, At The Mountains Of Madness would probably be in my top seven or so. Idk what gave it away but good rec.

I'm pretty pleb so I don't know what to suggest with such titanic classics as your favorites, honestly. The Magic Mountain, maybe?

>>11926728
Anytime someone tells me they liked The Stranger I tell them to read Nausea by Sartre next.

[Anonymous No.11928166]

>>11926673
Favourites:
>Moby Dick, by Melville
>The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Wilde
>The Lady With The Dog and Other Stories, by Chekov


I'm trying to decide what to read next, but I'm currently on a female author marathon. Just got finished up with Virginia Woolf's The Waves, I absolutely adored it in every way. I'm hoping to find prose and philosophical insight as beautiful as that again.


Also OP, have you read Siddartha? It's far better than Demian IMO.

[Anonymous No.11928190]

>the wretched of the screen - hito steyerl
>the letter killers club - sigizmund krzhizhanovsky
>on the heights of despair - emil cioran

>infinite resignation - eugene thacker
pretty bad imo, ur better off reading cioran, nietzche, or kafka's aphorisms

[Anonymous No.11928193]

>>11927257
I felt a little bit ridiculous picking those three, but they are genuinely my favorite books, theones i come back to again and again, that felt literallly revelatory when I first read them.

At the mountains is also in my top 10ish id say, i have never read any other Lovecraft though.

[Anonymous No.11928200]

>>11928166
>The Lady With The Dog a
this is my absolute favorite short story, good pick anon.

you might like A hero of our times, if you havent read that yet

[Anonymous No.11928288]

Remains of the day
Iliad
L'etranger

Silk Roads
History of ths silk road empires, pretty comfy

[Anonymous No.11928316]

>>11926673
>Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
>Norwegian Wood by Huraki Murakami
>Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
I feel this was shakily determined, but there you go.

>Hound of the Baskervilles
It's comfy. I'm frustrated 'cause I took a long hiatus amid it and of course I'm going to go back a few chapters to re-read and catch up but I wonder if I should just restart the whole book considering it's so short anyway.

want to read before October is done for maximum spook-factor

[Anonymous No.11928327]

>>11928166
You sound kinda gay

[Anonymous No.11928339]

>>11926673
>notes from the underground
>no longer human
>Flowers for Algernon
Currently reading 100 years of solitude. I really love the writing and the prose is beautiful but the story is kinda wearing on me. It’s hard to keep track of all the characters and just when I connect with a character, their time is up and he moves on to another. I.E. I loved the OG Beunida but then the story focused on his sons, The Colonol finally grew on me but then the focus shifted again. The author does have a crazy talent for making the reader connect with the environment and new characters so hopefully it’ll recapture my attention again soon.
Also I’ve got Oblomov, Stoner and Whatever up next.

[Anonymous No.11928390]

>>11928200
>A Hero of Our Time
I haven't read it yet, but judging from the description of the book and the main character, you have my tastes down to a t.

Will definitely read it.

>>11928327
Nah, I'm not a homo. Just admittely quite effeminate.

[Anonymous No.11928445]

book of disquiet, montaigne essays, moby dick

im not reading anything right now would like some recs preferably a novel

[Anonymous No.11928455]

>>11926673
>Beyond the Curve by Kobo Abe
>The Power Broker by Robert Caro
>The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

>The Spanish Anarchists by Murray Bookchin
I haven't read much about the era, but I like that it spends a lot of time on the movement and political scene of Spain in the late 1800s. When I see the Spainish Anarchists mentioned elsewhere it's often just interested in the CNT. I find the Andalusian movement to be interesting in particular.

[Anonymous No.11928472]

Top 3:
>Moby Dick
>The Trial
>Dubliners

Currently read Mythology by Hamilton. I am really enjoying it, super light read which is nice.

[Anonymous No.11928476]

>>11928472
I recommend Hamilton's Curse.

[Anonymous No.11928502]

>The Magic Mountain
>Hopscotch
>War and Peace

>The Sun Also Rises
First Hemingway I read. I’ve read mostly bad things about him but I wanted to practice reading something in english (I’m esl). Turns out it is very very good, it is simple but engaging and satisfying. It’s like the kind of novel I’d like to write. Filled with those sincere moments of comfort like when they are fishing and then fall asleep under the trees. Enjoying it a lot so far. Gonna finish it on monday probably and will definitely read more Hemingway.

[Anonymous No.11928665]

>The Aeneid
>The Divine Comedy
>Paradise Lost

[Anonymous No.11928680]

>>11928665
i guess the Odyssey but im going to guess youve already read that

[Anonymous No.11929440]

>>11928166
Have read Siddhartha. Maybe it's just because I had to read it for high school, but I enjoyed Demian more. I think Hesse's anguish is more believable or has more impact in first person.

[Anonymous No.11930815]

>Blade of Tyshalle (Acts of Caine book 2), Matthew Stover
>Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
>Amadeus, Peter Schaffer

>The Green Mile, Stephen King
Pretty comfy desu, but the framing device limits that good juicy SK stream of consciousness

[Anonymous No.11930829]

>>11926915
Break the spine you faggot

[Anonymous No.11930847]

>>11928502
what's so good about the Magic Mountain?

[Anonymous No.11930863]

>>11928339
OH yeah 100 years of solitude was impossible to read, I read about half before I gave up because I had no idea what tf was going on anymore

[Anonymous No.11931027]

>>11930847
It’s just a very good bildungsroman and it grows massively time after you read it.

[Anonymous No.11931313]

>>11931027
I really want to start it, but I'm scared that 700 pages of bildungsroman is going to end up boring me at some parts and then take up a massive chunk of my reading time. Is it worth?

[Anonymous No.11931346]

>>11931313
Yes, it’s worth it. Throughout they talk about many different themes and in different and original ways: you get a good deal of death, sickness, theology, politics, morals, art, etc. And it isn’t dense so you won’t be clueless and it also has humor and fun parts. Just remembering some scenes I get nostalgic and want to reread it. Go ahead I say.

[Anonymous No.11931363]

>>11926673
>Demian
>nuanced
Care to elaborate? To me Demian was painfully didactic while still being purposely unclear. It felt like a very linear initiation scattered with elementary symbolism, and finally its substance (from what I remember) was nothing more than some Nietzsche mixed with formulaic gnosticism.
Can you tell me what I missed?

I agree with you about the 'anguish' though.

[Anonymous No.11931439]

>>11926673
>Moby Dick, Melville
>Civilisation and its Discontents, Freud
>Being and Time, Heidegger

>Irrational Man, Barrett
It is one of the best books I've read so far, has very lucidly opened my eyes to roots of existentialist philosophy throughout the entire tradition, the prose is excellent.

[Anonymous No.11931446]

>>11931439
so far this year*

[Anonymous No.11931511]

>>11931363
Sure. This is my reading and its a book that I wish I had read a few short years ago when I was around 17 and still trying to figure myself out, I could have really used it then. But I can see how people might think it was a jumble of psychoanalysis, Nietzsche, spirituality.

I felt that Frau Eva was Sinclair's ultimate fate or destiny. He has weird visions of her starting with Beatrice but ultimately only realizes her as he develops a stronger sense of self. She gave birth to Demian, the person Sinclair could become if he were to live in accordance with his own individual fate and abandon the world of illusion. No easy task for a youth, when you're so prone to influence from family, friends, religious teachers. That's why Frau Eva says she will be his when he makes a move and is completely confident in doing so; you can't just be partially sure before trying to reach your destiny. In the end when Demian disappears but Sinclair says he's within him, I think that indicates that he has finally accepted his fate and is ready to live in harmony with himself. Whether this sort of symbolism and conclusion is valuable or worthless is up to you, but I think it's a good message for any teenager / young adult, it's like a deconstruction of teen angst.

100 pages into Narcissus and Goldmund and I feel like I've already figured out the book. It's the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy portrayed as two men who become unlikely friends. And while that's a cool concept, it's a bit easy, and he didn't elaborate too much on how they actually built their friendship, which I thought would have been more interesting.

Neither are as good as Steppenwolf though, in my opinion.

[Anonymous No.11932445]

Bartleby the Scrivener
The Children of Hurin
American Psycho