/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7762923]

What are your personal bibles /lit/?
A book that you could read over and over again and never get tired of?
I haven't found mine yet

[Anonymous No.7762930]

I'm not religious, but Ecclesiastes is a great personal bible. It pretty much invented and perfected wistfulness.

[Anonymous No.7762961]

>>7762930
cant tell if your trolling or sincerely missed the point.

[Anonymous No.7763025]

no one?

[Anonymous No.7763036]

Gravity's Rainbow, not even meming

It's infinitely rereadable, and I discover something new about it every time. I know that's a pretty trite thing to say, but in this case it really is the truth. I've read through it in its entirety maybe three times, but there are a few passages that I've read countless times.

[Anonymous No.7763051]

>>7762923
Meditations by Aurelius I guess. Don't know anything about philosophy, have just read a couple of random works, but I found just reading some passages from it once in a while is very refreshing and inspiring.

[Anonymous No.7763103]

>>7763036
Pynchon is very daunting to me, is there any precursory literature that would better prepare me for this book?

[Anonymous No.7763126]

>>7763103
Try reading Crying of Lot 49 first. It's very short and pretty accessible.

[Anonymous No.7763128]

Ulysses and Moby Dick

They're books about everything

[Anonymous No.7763145]

>>7763036
Nice. For me it's Vineland.
Gravity's Rainbow felt very alien to me. It was great, but it didn't have very much direct bearing on my life. Vineland get's flack, but it's very precisely about the latter 20th century and the world that people today live in, which is why I love it.

[Anonymous No.7763178]

Crime and punishment

[Anonymous No.7763695]

>>7762923
Jean Baudrillard's "Transparency of Evil"

[Anonymous No.7763699]

>>7763695
“Consider Michael Jackson, for example. Michael Jackson is a solitary mutant, a precursor of a hybridization that is perfect because it is universal — the race to end all races. Today’s young people have no problem with a miscegenated society: they already inhabit such a universe, and Michael Jackson foreshadows what they see as an ideal future. Add to this the fact that Michael has had his face lifted, his hair straightened, his skin lightened — in short, he has been reconstructed with the greatest attention to detail. This is what makes him such an innocent and pure child — the artificial hermaphrodite of the fable, better able even than Christ to reign over the world and reconcile its contradictions; better than a child-god because he is a child-prosthesis, an embryo of all those dreamt-of mutations that will deliver us from race and from sex.”

[Anonymous No.7763714]

>>7762923
Pic related. I'll never tire of this book. Plus the bibliography offers great leads on additions to my reading list.

[Anonymous No.7764147]

>>7763714
I've seen this around but I'm afraid it would melt my brain.

[Anonymous No.7764176]

Gravity's Rainbow for me ... reading it for the fourth time right now, wrote a paper on it for an English course last year and will do it again if I get the chance

I'm sure I'll grow out of this book in time .. but for a certain type of young man at a certain place in his life, this book is basically as good as it gets

[Anonymous No.7764197]

>>7763145
Does a book need to have direct bearing for you to enjoy it? Honestly curious anon

[Anonymous No.7764215]

If not the actual Bible, then definitely Les Miserables. It's an examination of the roots of every social ill with a story meandering through it. I feel as though the greatness of it gets lost in popular renditions.

[Anonymous No.7764970]

>>7764197
I get where he's coming from, if you feel like you can't connect with a book on a personal level its unlikely to hit you as hard as a book that does.

[Anonymous No.7764973]

The Bible

[Anonymous No.7764999]

everything by this nigger

[Anonymous No.7765022]

>>7762923
Naked Lunch

[Anonymous No.7765046]

Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative.

Obviously I don't read all 3 volumes all the time. I just crack one open every now and then. But you can learn so much about life, politics, war, leadership, and so on from reading accounts of the most important even in our history.

[Anonymous No.7765050]

>>7762923
Discovery of heaven by Harry Mulish

No punnypun.

[Anonymous No.7765219]

Everymorning when I wake up i analyze a couple pages from The Ego and Its Own. And then proceed to make coffee and think about his philosophy. One of these days I plan to take Stirners philosophy and add my ideas to it, sort of like what focault did with Nietzches writing.

[Anonymous No.7765443]

>>7762923
montaigne essays

[Anonymous No.7765462]

>>7765219
You will probably ruin Stirner with all your spooks

[Anonymous No.7765709]

Currently ı'd say it's the Laozi.

>>7765219
Unrelated, but after reading someone say Hume was a big influence on St. Max, ı started reading his Natural History of Religion (which ı had lying around), and holy shit he's busting spooks on every page.

>One of these days I plan to take Stirners philosophy and add my ideas to it, sort of like what focault did with Nietzches writing.
I'd like to read that.

[Anonymous No.7765714]

>>7765443
honestly this, don quixote, and Huckleberry Finn. I read huck like once a year and quixote about as much. My copy of montaigne is always on my desk i go into it all the time

[Anonymous No.7765724]

>>7765714
Are you reading a translation, if so which one? I've gone through a few and have found Frame to be the most enjoyable. I'm not even competent in French, never mind the French Montaigne wrote in.

[Anonymous No.7765741]

>>7764147

MIT had a program a little while ago where it was covered for middle school students. Don't worry about it being difficult.

[Anonymous No.7765751]

>>7762923

Wise Blood. Something about O'Connor's writing is just hypnotic.

[Anonymous No.7766740]

>>7764197
No, I loved Gravity's Rainbow anyway, Vineland just has a lot of insight into a period of history that's as imperative to us today as WWII and the period immediately after was to the second half of the 20th century, for most of which I didn't exist. What you've got to understand about Gravity's Rainbow is that if you're Gen-X or later, it's not written with you in mind. Harold Bloom talks about the "wisdom" of books a lot, and the wisdom aspect of Vineland is more significant today than GR's is.
But more importantly, we're talking about personal bibles here, and in that case yeah, the book really ought to have a bearing on you.
I'm not sure what a 'direct bearing' means.

[Anonymous No.7766856]

>>7764176 see >>7766740

[Anonymous No.7766908]

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. Good story about aboriginals in WW1.

[Anonymous No.7767031]

>>7762961
what's wrong with never getting tired of ecclesiastes? maybe it's a piece that just warrants rereading? maybe you are the troll?

[Anonymous No.7767040]

it's the gift that keeps on giving

[Anonymous No.7767055]

>>7766740
I like that you like Vineland. I think Pynchon has a book for everyone. Care to elaborate on what you like about it?

I think Bleeding Edge really hits the nail on the head for 21st century culture.

>>7765751
O'Connor is great. Have you read The Violent Bear It Away?

>>7766908
Surprised you choose that. Always avoided it because I assumed, being Canadian, it was shit. But that's probably immature of me.

[Anonymous No.7767061]

Nicomachean Ethics changed my life.

The only philosophy that I would consider "must-read."

[Anonymous No.7767076]

Lolita

[Anonymous No.7767132]

>>7767055
I haven't read Bleeding Edge, but I'm looking forward to doing so.
I think Vineland shows us the history that leads up to where we are today, starting with the popularization of the beat movement and ending with the Reagan era's materialism and violence, which all leads up to our culture in the 2010's wherein we're mostly PC leftists who have become totally comfortable with capitalism and the new identity of drugs, etc. It's a book about what I consider my generation's culturally formative years (the ones that laid the groundwork for our culture before we were born), and it's a huge indulgence into the kind of broad historical analysis that Pynchon goes into sometimes, which I love.

[Anonymous No.7767152]

>>7767132
Yeah, I knew he went full "Die, Yuppie scum" in it.

Bleeding Edge is quite good, even though I've only read it once. When I see the current state of 4chan and the politicization of the internet in general...it's all in Bleeding Edge. He's trying to warn us.

Dude, is a legend. It's amazing how much our generation can connect with this guy.

[Anonymous No.7767170]

[Anonymous No.7767189]

>>7767055

Absolutely, fantastic book (that ending); I think it handled the religious aspect better but had a slightly less interesting protagonist. I'm pretty sure I've read all of her short stories, too. Still searching for another writer that's as comfy.

[Anonymous No.7767201]

>>7764215
Which rendition do you like?

[Anonymous No.7767250]

Dune... I've probably read it close to 20 times by now.

[Anonymous No.7767310]

>>7767250
Why? I found it not living to the hype at all.

[Anonymous No.7767404]

>>7767310
I think it is one of the greats of Sci-Fi, but certainly not a top 25 book of all-time like some think it is. The sequels in my opinion are mostly lackluster, and plain dogshit when the son starts writing them.

It's simply a comfort book. I first finished reading it at 11 or 12(?) and fell in love with it. I used it countless times throughout school, up to college for easy grades in English classes.

It's easy to read and it makes me happy. That's pretty much it. Whenever I get burned out on reading things I can pick it up and finish it in a day and it reinvigorates my love for reading.

Plus I'm a pretty big fa/tg/uy so I generally try and read something "good" and then will read purely for pleasure, usually some p.o.s. scifi book.

[Anonymous No.7767564]

>>7762923
The hitchiker's guide to the galaxy.
Say what you will, I vibe with the idea that nobody in the universe has any idea what's going on and everything's as absurd as everything else.

[Anonymous No.7767566]

>>7767055
It's good.

[Anonymous No.7767575]

>>7767564

Middle school treating you okay?

[Anonymous No.7767589]

>>7767564

[Anonymous No.7767597]

>>7767575
What's worse? That I still enjoy a book that's less than /lit/ core? or that you've worked yourself into a bubble of a worldview that can only see immaturity wherever you look? I don't know why I'm bothering to explain to you, but I study mostly organic chemistry. Fiction and philosophy are not priorities to me. But see, I don't come on here to go "How's escapism treating you?" Because i'm not a neckbearded dipshit with nothing to offer the world but online shit talking.

[Anonymous No.7767815]

>>7767597
your new is showing, pls dont be mad frendo

[Anonymous No.7767825]

>>7763699
he had a skin disease what the fuck
>>7763714
>>7764147
gross

[Anonymous No.7767846]

>>7763714
i think this is a great book, personal bible might be a stretch. i guess thats because what i love about it is the idea it presents, not how its presented.

[Anonymous No.7767888]

The Red Book
East of Eden
Nag Hammadi

[Anonymous No.7768339]

>>7766856
What am I supposed to see? That post is ridiculous.

[Anonymous No.7768346]

>>7765709
Hume was probably the greatest spookbuster since Pyrrho.

[Anonymous No.7768365]

I'm not memeing, The Bible, Shakespeare, Moliere, Paradise Lost and Sophocles come to mind when you refer to something you keep going back to and rereading. GR would definitely be up there but not really, though I really loved it. Borges, also.

The Book of Images by Rainer Maria Rilke, the Flowers of Evil by Baudelaire. I'm entry-tier /lit/ though; I was a poli sci major in college, I read literature purely to combat boredom. I'm not a literati. But in college I became fascinated with ancient lit and I can't put it down. Poetry I love to reread because I rediscover its merits as an art as I get older.

My true bible is probably the Bible though, just because I love reading it and about it, even though im not really Christian (or hard religious) and reading material on it sometimes blows my mind.

[Anonymous No.7769570]

dont fucking slide it

[Anonymous No.7769791]

>>7767031
Lol you missed the point again. I think the point that anon was trying to make was duh of course this post isn't about literal religion

[Anonymous No.7769803]

I don't think I'll ever grow tired of the koans and stories in this collection. The perfect mix of humour and wisdom.

[Anonymous No.7769818]

War and Peace or Anna Karenina. I always reread a lot of their passages, specially those reflecting on life.

[Anonymous No.7770494]

>>7765443
yep

[Anonymous No.7770538]

>>7769791
Ecclesiastes has nothing to do with religion other than the fact that it's in the Holy Bible. Go home pleb.

[Anonymous No.7771014]

>>7767055
u r a nice poster pls stay

[Anonymous No.7771024]

Savage Detectives atm is a book i feel compelled to return to but this is probably just me being a 20yo man and it offering escapism. Currently reading the man without qualities and can see myself returning to it again and again as i get older because i feel at the moment some of its wisdom is going over my head.

[Anonymous No.7771028]

>>7765443
this tbqh familamajam.

[Anonymous No.7771048]

Unpopular opinion, but Catcher in the Rye

I unironically believe it's deeply psychological and has volumes more to say on borderline pd than "teen angst"

[Anonymous No.7771255]

[Anonymous No.7771273]

I read John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat 6 times.
Also Bhagavad-gītā is very nice.

[Anonymous No.7771282]

Platero y yo
Don quixote de la mancha

[Anonymous No.7771295]

>>7771273
I just read the bhagavad gita and I think Im going to try a few different translations for fun. A very nice read for me.

I read the Eknath Easwaran translation and while I think it was probably the best for the first read I would like a more poetic version.

[Anonymous No.7771340]

>>7765462
>>7765709
I'm new here, what are spooks?

[Anonymous No.7771377]

>>7763145
>>7766740
I just started Vineland yesterday after years of to-be-read purgatory thanks to your comments. I'm about 100 pages in so far and I'm really enjoying it, but I can't stop noticing how similar it is to Inherent Vice. (And by extension I can't help but picture Zoyd as Joaquin Phoenix lol)

[Anonymous No.7771388]

>>7765046
Haven't read him, but Foote is easily the best part of the Ken Burns show.

[Anonymous No.7771394]

>>7767040
>monkey balls

[Anonymous No.7771412]

not even black, but his life was so compelling. even just for his account of life in the 20th century US is interesting by itself. it gets re-read every few years, either browsed or fully.

[Anonymous No.7771465]

The Gospels (especially John).

Without them; any other text I read is in vain for it is only in them that I find Truth.

Without Truth; words are meaningless.

[Anonymous No.7771473]

Anything by Henry Miller. I can open a random page of a book written by him and find something good.

[Anonymous No.7771475]

>>7771465
>It turns the universe from a meaningless chaos into a designed place in which there is justice and there is hope
Belief in Jesus as the Son of God isn't the only idea that does this.

[Anonymous No.7771479]

>>7771465
Is there any man more based than Peter Hitchens?

[Anonymous No.7771506]

>>7762923
this frankly

[Anonymous No.7771580]

>>7771340
Are you acquainted with Platonic ideals? It's that, but instead of being in another world, it's in the mind, and rather than being the true essence from which things imperfectly derive, it's an exacerbated appearance of reality, which taken as an obsession, comes to make people try to (impossibly) supplant the world with, and subordinate themselves and others to, it.

So if for example you call someone inhuman because they haven't met your quota of what it means to be human, then what you're doing is comparing them to the ideal human, to Humanity, which is a spook.

[Anonymous No.7771659]

read pic related 4 years ago and basically haven't stopped re-reading it. I own 2 copies now, 1 for marking up and 1 for my bookshelf, and I carry the former copy everywhere I go. it is like my spirit animal as a book, and there is no comfier feeling.

[Anonymous No.7771691]

>>7771412
Interesting choice. I have read it and loved it but forgot most of it. (I have horrible memory due to excessive thinking.)

>>7763714
So much this. I think this book manifests the way some people think. Patterns such as recursion, self-reference, infinity, formal language appeal to people who feed on complexity.

Pic is my personal bible. It's the upgraded version of GEB. Lakoff terms it "formal system of metaphor as cognitive model." It's about linguistics rather than math though. Someone should figure out the math of cognitive science based on this already. Lakoff also has written a book on philosophy of mathematics.

[Anonymous No.7771739]

>>7762923
Ten years later and I still pick it up every few months

[Anonymous No.7771747]

I like Simon Leys.

[Anonymous No.7771756]

>>7771747
interesting. May I ask why?

[Anonymous No.7771764]

>>7771756
His essays are insightful and entertaining. I was an American living in China for a while so I relate all the more.

[Anonymous No.7771765]

Everyone needs to read this

[Anonymous No.7771872]

>>7771580
So it's basically how existentialists view Plato's idea of forms?

[Anonymous No.7771909]

>>7771872
Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. Stirner was (maybe, perhaps, possibly) a big influence on Freddie N.

[Anonymous No.7772554]

>>7771475
read Hegel

it is

[Anonymous No.7772558]

>>7771580
"Ah, Plato, that Semite by instinct." - Friedrich Nietzsche

[Anonymous No.7772561]

Book of the New Sun honestly.

[Anonymous No.7772753]

>>7762923
mine is 2666 by Roberto Bolano
can´t really tell why but every time i read it theres a bunch oft little details i notice that give it a whole different vibe if that makes any sense

[Anonymous No.7772761]

>>7762923
iliad and odyssey

[Anonymous No.7772767]

>>7763036
post a sample of something you've read multiple times

[Anonymous No.7772770]

That James Elroy book where the policemen best up Mexicans with phone-books

[Anonymous No.7772773]

>>7772770
*beat

[Anonymous No.7772784]

>>7772773
title?

[Anonymous No.7772816]

>>7772784
I dunno lol

[Anonymous No.7772861]

>>7767170
Is it worth reading? I heard Adolf was very articulate and ingenious

[Anonymous No.7773093]

there is everything in this book. it's the funniest, saddest, truest thing i've ever read.

[Twiggy !zf/ZW7mGp6 No.7773100]

WALDEN

[Anonymous No.7773129]

[Anonymous No.7774460]

>>7772861
I heard he was addicted to speed.

[Anonymous No.7774468]

>>7763714
I had trouble understanding this while reading it a few years ago. Does anyone have any tips for reading? Or any beneficial studies or commentary going into it?

[Anonymous No.7775261]

>>7762923
ulysses

[Anonymous No.7775485]

It's absolutely biblical.

[Anonymous No.7775759]

>>7771465
>Jesus Christ was the Son of God and rose from the dead
*tips fedora*

[Anonymous No.7775789]

Like OP, I haven't found mine.

[Anonymous No.7775801]

>>7772861
I heard he was a vegitarian.

[Anonymous No.7775816]

>>7771255
>forewors by James Gandolfini

[Anonymous No.7777550]

dank thread fucking revived

[Anonymous No.7777932]

>>7771255
SHINEBOX
H
I
N
E
B
O
X

[Anonymous No.7778002]