21 Books You Don’t Have to Read

[Anonymous No.15886049]

"7. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Instead: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt"

"I'm a great admirer of Cormac McCarthy's sparer masterpieces, but I'm ambivalent about Blood Meridian, the historical epic often cited as his greatest work. Set in the Old West and written in an impenetrable style that combines Faulkner and the King James Bible, Blood Meridian is a big, forbidding book that earns the reader bragging rights but provides scant pleasure. If you're looking for a more human-scaled, emotionally engaging novel set in the same time period, I'd recommend The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. It's a dark, funny, brutal Western about a pair of hired killers, at least one of whom has a conscience. It covers some of the same ground as Blood Meridian and has a lot more fun along the way. —Tom Perrotta, 'Mrs. Fletcher'"

https://www.gq.com/story/21-books-you-dont-have-to-read

I thought this list was interesting. /lit/ btfo

[Anonymous No.15886100]

that list gave me cancer

[Anonymous No.15886106]

>>15886049
If you thought the list was interesting on its own merits, you're an ignorant fool. If you thought it was politcally interesting as an example of cutting-edge "find respected works by white men and replace them with crap" wokeness, you're closer to the mark, but still overrating it. It's not that interesting. Note it and pass on.

[Anonymous No.15886207]

A few of these seem fair, a few more if you accept a certain political outlook, but most are flatly ridiculous. There are recommendations to read non fiction rather than novels for no good reason, some completely change genre, others dismiss classics with blithe disregard for established critical and popular acclaim (Catch-22 apparently "fails to capture the absurdity of war" despite decades of veterans attesting to its accuracy. No further explanation is rendered).

[Anonymous No.15886237]

DeWitt is abysmal btw. Still not clicking that link though.

[Anonymous No.15886296]

>>15886049
>Don't read the adventures of huckleberry finn
>Read an autobiography of Frederick Douglass instead
Fucking genre jump of the century.

[Anonymous No.15886308]

>>15886237
DeWitt, Zadie Smith, Sally Rooney, Rupi Kaur, and Donna Tart are among the worst writers memed as "deep" that I have ever read. Why does contemporary anglo literature suck so much?

>>15886207
"Instead of Catch-22 read Good Soldier Svejk" would have been giga based though. The superior war comedy.

[Anonymous No.15886315]

>>15886049
>Mark Twain was a racist
Good to know the kind of calibre of reader we're dealing with here.

[Anonymous No.15886319]

>>15886049
Why, OP? why would you make this travesty of a thread?

[Anonymous No.15886327]

>>15886308
what do you think about Teju Cole?

[Anonymous No.15886337]

>12. The Bible
>Instead: The Notebook by Agota Kristof
Wew, lad.

[Anonymous No.15886355]

>>15886106
Did you ever consider I was being satirical for the sake of humour, you autist? I thought we coud have a grand old time discussing this abysmal list so I decided to stick some tongue in cheek jesting to lighten the mood.
>>15886319
funny

[Anonymous No.15886366]

>>15886327
Never read him but
>American-Nigerian writer
>45 years old
>first photo is in an Adidas jumper
>lives in Brooklyn
>Cole's innovative use of social media (particularly Twitter and Instagram) as a creative platform has been widely acknowledged
almost certainly garbage pushed by the american consumerist machine

[Anonymous No.15886373]

>>15886308
>"Instead of Catch-22 read Good Soldier Svejk" would have been giga based though.
Catch-22 is more accesible to west-of-Rhein audiences, though.

[Anonymous No.15886375]

>>15886049
This list is mostly an embarrassing display of milquetoast neoliberal values, but nonetheless, recommending Sterne over Swift and Lispector over Coelho was very based of them.

[Anonymous No.15886381]

>>15886373
Good thing I am east-of-Rhein then, many read Svejk as children here, and together with Twelve Chairs it is top-tier lightweight humor fiction. Nostalgia inducing even now.

[Anonymous No.15886597]

>>15886049
>Tove Jansson
>Willia Cather
>Laurence Sterne
>Clarice Lispector
>Ursula Le Guin
>Bohumil Hrabal
Actually quite a based list.

[Anonymous No.15886607]

>>15886049
>Blood Meridian
>a big, forbidding book that earns the reader bragging rights
Wat

[Anonymous No.15886649]

>>15886049
Like half of these are literally just "the women aren't treated well"

[Anonymous No.15886654]

>>15886649
No, half of these are literally "I just couldn't understand this entry-level midwit book, also look at me, I, I, I".

[Anonymous No.15886662]

This list is bizarre. Why is the Bible on this list? Christcucks btfo, but the Bible merits reading aimply because of its profound influence on our culture. Catcher in the Rye is another, obviously, controversial choice. Many people have professed that novel as a source of inspiration. Likewise for Blood Meridian.

Other than that, i dont care. Vonnegut and Coehlo belong in the trashcan, and they do not merit reading.

[Anonymous No.15886712]

>>15886049
What exactly are the similarities between Huckleberry Finn and the autobiography of Frederick Douglass?

[Anonymous No.15886862]

>>15886337
No one should read the standard anglo bible (KJV) it is the worst translation ever made

[Anonymous No.15886936]

>My father loved The Old Man and the Sea, so I tried to love it. It left me unmoved. Mostly, I kept hoping the fish would get away without too much damage. (When my grandpa pushed me to catch a trout at a fish farm, I threw the rod into the pond.)
What a cunt

[Anonymous No.15886963]

>>15886936
I hope he slapped the shit out of that little cunt

[Anonymous No.15887003]

>>15886607
I think they were actually talking about Infinite Jest.

[Anonymous No.15887007]

>>15886607
Seriously, my copy is less than 400 pages.

[Anonymous No.15887012]

>>15886049
You don’t have to read anything ever. You can be retarded of you want. It’s up to you.

[Anonymous No.15887032]

>>15886049
Blood Meridian is super easy to read you have to be a goddamn moron not to follow it. It's like a more poetic dimestore western

[Anonymous No.15887482]

>>15886662
Because Christianity is racist and homophobic

[Anonymous No.15887603]

>>15887032
I can understand why the average person would think it's hard to read

[Anonymous No.15887605]

I saw this list before. It inspired me to read Goodbye to All That. It was great.
Egyptians suck.

[Anonymous No.15887663]

>>15886963
>I hope he slapped the shit out of that little cunt
No, he just looked at her with slightly sad and watery eyes, when he saw her smug smirk and realised he would never have a normal relationship with his granddaughter, just a formal collection of greetings and placids discussions.

[Anonymous No.15887681]

>>15886049
That may have been the worst thing I have read in quite some time. Whining about masculinity, racism and misogyny. Being just plain filtered by mid-tier books. Mark Twain painstakingly researches the way these people speak throughout the south
>Mark Twain was a racist
This is so fucking depressing

[Anonymous No.15887724]

>>15886712
Nigger slaves obviously. Whoever made that list is a cryptoracist.

[Anonymous No.15887987]

>Instead of reading Dracula or Frankenstein, read a thriller about a woman who leaves her abusive husband
Jesus christ, women have no taste at all, huh?

[Anonymous No.15888005]

>>15887663
I don't understand her. Going fishing with my father and grandfather when I was a kid was the comfiest.

[Anonymous No.15888006]

>>15887987
It's the Harry Potter influence

[Anonymous No.15889462]

What annoys me is that the proposed list has some good books, so just ignoring it completely will not work too.

[Anonymous No.15890384]

>>15886712
she's read neither

[Anonymous No.15890421]

There's no such thing as a "replacement" for another book.

[Anonymous No.15890457]

>>15890421
Sure there is. I replace any book written by a women with one written by a man

[Anonymous No.15890535]

>>15886049
>I actually love Lonesome Dove, but I'm convinced that the cowboy mythos, with its rigid masculine emotional landscape, glorification of guns and destruction, and misogynistic gender roles, is a major factor in the degradation of America. Rather than perpetuate this myth, I'd love for everyone, but particularly American men, to read The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford. It's a wicked, brilliant, dark book set largely on a ranch in Colorado, but it acts in many ways as a strong rebuttal to all the old toxic western stereotypes we all need to explode. —Lauren Groff, 'Florida'

[Anonymous No.15891909]

>>15886049

Instead of recommending a different John Adams biography, he recommends one about an entirely different person...?

I WOULDN'T BE READING ABOUT JOHN ADAMS IF I HAD A CHOICE, DREW!

[Anonymous No.15892315]

>>15886862
So says the person who prefers cucked translations that leave tons of verses truncated or deleted entirely.

[Anonymous No.15892593]

The great books. Criticizing the great books believing the alchemist is in the canon. Oh God.

[Anonymous No.15892614]

>>15892315
Better verses be omitted than added

[Anonymous No.15892625]

>>15886862
>one of the most accurate translations we have
>worst translation

You really don't have any idea what you're talking about, do you? That said, what you should really be looking for is good annotations anyways

[Anonymous No.15892636]

>>15886337
Liberal athiests really can't miss an opportunity to tell everyone how much they hate the bible, despite never having actually read more than a few verses

[Anonymous No.15892655]

>>15886049
im fucking retarded and Blood Meridian is phenomenal with a dictionary

[Anonymous No.15892661]

Well, I mean, you don't have to read any books if you don't want to.

[Anonymous No.15892671]

>>15886308
>>15886237
the last samurai is one of the best books of the past 40 years

[Anonymous No.15892677]

>>15887482
>:o

[Anonymous No.15892680]

Imagine this article being written in the days of the good old America.

[Anonymous No.15892683]

Ah, time for a nice relaxing afternoon. I think I will sit on the porch (perhaps in the yard or on the balcony) and have a drink of my preference. What publication should I read /lit/?

>GQ
pozzed shit
>Men's health
Meme tier advertising
>The Atlantic
Some quality articles still, but largely political crap to appeal to "intellectuals"
>National Geographic
Pretty good, but usually not anything standout
>The New yorker
Lmao I would rather read Martha Stewart

[Anonymous No.15892688]

>>15886049

Huh, an interesting concept, let's check it out.

>omg don't read this white male bigot guise, read this obscure book that sold 1000 copies max by a black lesbian disabled person instead.

I should have known.

[Anonymous No.15892693]

>>15892614
>Better verses be omitted
You're a fucking retard

[Anonymous No.15892694]

>>15886049

ive never met one of these people in my life. are they confined to cities and universities?

articles like this remind me of the student Stoner exposes for not having a basic knowledge of literature.

[Anonymous No.15892698]

>>15892680
I'm actually reading Moby Dick right now and I thought it was interesting how a few of the passages in it that were deemed "blasphemous" caused people when it was published to flip out and Melville's reputation went to shit afterwards to the point where he quit writing. I'd say I'm glad we're past that point but people have just moved onto complaining about other things. But yeah, she'd probably be killed in the 1800s if she said this back then.

[Anonymous No.15892703]

some of these suggestions are good, even if the reasoning for them and the very premise of their 'replacing' another work is not
everyone here should read too loud a solitude, for instance.

[Anonymous No.15892706]

>>15886049

>Gender roles
>Mark Twain was a racist

Good lord these people are retarded.

[Anonymous No.15892736]

>>15892693
Yeah, later additions ought to be omitted to preserve the word of God.

[Anonymous No.15892754]

these people suck

>Several people described The Ambassadors by Henry James in such a way as to make me impatient to read it, but between those descriptions and my experience of the book lay a chasm of such yawningness that it will never be crossed. Alternatively, I recommend The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer.

I don't know what's more retarded, the recommendation of Shirer as an alternative to Henry James of all people or the use of "yawningness" as an adjective - and I don't even like Henry James...

[Anonymous No.15892780]

>>15888005
Like most farleftists she no doubt has narcist, borderline or sociopathic traits. Lefties care about abstract moral rules which they then break, not peoples individual feelings.

[Anonymous No.15892795]

>>15892754
Rise and Fall isn't even a bad book either. The reasoning behind the choices is where the crime lies

[Anonymous No.15892891]

>>15892671
You are just an insufferable midwit, anon. Sounds like you got filtered by actually good writers.

[Anonymous No.15892950]

>>15886308
>DeWitt
Wrote Lightning Rods, so she must be okay.

[Anonymous No.15892958]

>>15886049
Fuck him, I'm going to read it anyway. Stupid list, not even going to bother read the other stuff. This is probably some merchandising bs.

[Anonymous No.15893068]

>>15886049
>written in an impenetrable style that combines Faulkner and the King James Bible, Blood Meridian is a big, forbidding book that earns the reader bragging rights but provides scant pleasure
Jesus what a fucking smoothbrained shit take

[Anonymous No.15893074]

>>15886936
>tfw you're a grandpa in 2060 and your grandkid is a faggot like this

[Anonymous No.15893077]

>>15886049
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_considered_the_worst

Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.15893411]

>>15886049
Tristram Shandy in place of Gulliver's Travels is the only one I can even sort of agree with.
More to the point, when did GQ (gentlemen's quarterly) become so infused with women? I've never read the magazine, but I'm assuming at some point it wasn't so fucking gay? 90% of the list was some homo telling me to read a woman instead of a man or a woman telling me to read a gayer man. This would be like if I wrote "Top 5 Best Shoes of the Season" or something for Vogue, and every entry was "those shoes you already own and never wore."

[Anonymous No.15893702]

>>15892694
I am somewhat convinced that these are purely for clicks and outrage. No normal well read person can be so stupid as to not understand the historical context of racist and misogynistic overtones.

[Anonymous No.15893742]

I despise women.

[Anonymous No.15893773]

>>15893077
>THE December sun had hidden its dull rays behind the huge rocks that rose monstrously high west of Dunfern mansion, and ceased to gladden the superb apartment Sir John occupied most part of the day. They had withdrawn their faint reflection from within the mirrored walls of this solitary chamber to brighten other homes with their never-dying sheen.

>As the dull, grey evening advanced to such a degree as to render a look of brightness imperative to the surroundings of its sole occupant, Sir John requested that his favourite apartment should be made bright as possible by adding more fuel to the smouldering ashes within the glistening bars which guarded their remains. This being done, three huge lamps were lighted, and placed at respectable distances from each other, when Sir John, with his 14accustomed grace, began to peruse some of his evening papers.
Kek. This is Lovecraft on steroids.

[Anonymous No.15893791]

>>15893077
>Worlds of Power: Metal Gear
I had no idea this existed, but between that and Raymond Benson's laughable novelization of MGS1, I feel really sorry that someone even tried to turn these games into books.

[Anonymous No.15893894]

More like Patrick deMidwitt

[Anonymous No.15893907]

>>15892671
PATRICK dewitt you massive fucking pseud. Not Helen. Last Samurai is still formalist trash btw, pure college rubbish.

[Anonymous No.15894224]

>>15893907
Dude, if you provide a list of female authors, largely unrelated to OPs article obviously people are going to think it's the female DeWitt you're talking about, especially as her audience has much more in common with Smith, Rooney etc.

[Anonymous No.15894353]

>>15886049
Blood meridian is indeed a middling minor work of McCarthy.

[Anonymous No.15894386]

>>15890457
Based

[Anonymous No.15894674]

>nyrb!!
>Basedjack_shakinghands.png

[Anonymous No.15895785]

>>15893894
More like Patrick DimWitt

[Anonymous No.15895808]

>>15886327
>>15886366
I've read Open City. Like the vast majority of contemporary literary fiction, it is perfectly fine but far from great literature.

[Anonymous No.15895827]

>>15886106
BASED
>>15886049
cringe

[Anonymous No.15895851]

>>15886049
The only good replacement was the Coelho one lol but that's because he's a worthless meme.

[Anonymous No.15895870]

?????????

[Anonymous No.15895943]

Halfway through I began to think the list was parody