/lit/ - Literature

For novels, start with Ham on Rye.

For poetry, go for Love Is a Dog from Hell.

For novels, start with Ham on Rye.

For poetry, go for Love Is a Dog from Hell.

Oh, and Seamus Heaney is the obvious recommendation.

Louise Glück is one of my favorites.
Natasha Trethewey is also extremely talented, and she has a distinctly American voice.
I also like the pic-related poem which was in The New Yorker a few months ago, I believe. [Just incase the filename gets cut off, it's "Culture" by Robert Pinsky.]

>>3155057
Without the comma, it just sounds like you're requesting bitches - as if in a brothel with a waiter.

>>3155042
Coleman Barks translates Rumi gorgeously. I'm sure he's taking liberties, but I've never read an account of someone describing their own experiences reading Rumi's poetry in the original language (e.g., Elif Shafak) and felt that something of great significance (other than the gorgeousness of the tongue in which it was written) was lost.

>>3154905
I think Crime and Punishment is the obvious answer - unless the extent of his "evil" is too ambiguous to qualify as a valid response.

The Dyer's Hand by W. H. Auden
How to Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace

>>3152063
And then, because of OP's failure to learn anything in English class, OP thought that "Sure, all you have to do is open the book, flip to a page, and scan. I can, you can, anyone can!" was actually a quote from the book and used it in his paper.

Either OP is hysterically pretentious, or this is the most reading that has ever gone into a troll (in which case: 7.5/10).

>>3150519
I love The Puppet Master by King Diamond

Don Juan
Prometheus Unbound
Paradise Lost
The Rape of Lucrece

>>3150129
I'm quite fond of Arabic, Sanskrit, and Japanese, though I'm not fluent in any of them.

>>3150061
But the burden of proof is on you.

The Torrents of Spring by Ivan Turgenev is sadder, though I probably welled up more when I read "Mumu" by him.

The only book I have by him is The Ode Less Travelled.

>>3148728
Not really related to this thread, but I had a similar experience when I read Malcolm X's autobiography and realized that the man had an incredible sense of humor.

I don't think Nikolai Gogol's exactly what you're looking for, but his humor is mixed in some grizzly shit.

Follow the advice of Earnest J. Gaines: "Read. Read. Read. Write. Write. Write."

I fucking love that man.
I'm always amazed by how readable his poetry is. I think it's gorgeously written and has aged very well.

Louis CK, probably

Honorable mentions to:
Frankie Boyle
Rob Brydon
Ed Byrne
Jimmy Carr
Miranda Hart
Mitch Hedberg
Jonathan Katz
Sarah Millican
Dylon Moran
Dara Ó Briain
Emo Philips
Steven Wright

>>3145895
I don't have GoodReads, but I'd be down to participate if the selected books were posted on /lit/ ahead of time.

>>3144478
Those people tend not to read actual poetry.

Bob Dylan was a talented musician and songwriter. He was not a poet. The same is true for Roger Waters, Paul Simon, etc.

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson