/lit/ - Literature

30-yo male here, how do I become literate?

What are the 15 basic books for a beginner, I want my sibling to start reading, and he has agreed to read one book per week(15 weeks left in this year). Please list out.

>Pic unrelated

Physical books > e-readers

Discuss

Can a brainlet ever become a successful author?

what are the long term benefits of getting into reading regularly

How is this done? What must I do to pour onto paper the stories in my mind? Why am I unhappy with words written? Who are these people in my stories? Where do they go? When do they enter & leave these stories? Does anyone really care? These stories must be written, but they must be written well. I don't mean the mere language; I must wrought living people from handfuls of words, people who live on in the minds of those who read these stories. How do I craft a spirit, a soul? Must I go crawling through the muck with the other people, intoxicate myself enough to not write like myself, and forget myself to create believable others? These characters -- they are not myself -- but are they my selves; or: do I merely borrow them for a bit, carefully tending them like fireflies in a jar overnight to illuminate my childhood bedroom, then releasing them on the following morning? Did you really just read all of this? Did I really just write all of this? Why?

I never really read before in my life. Recently my new job made me move far away from my small hometown to a place where I can not hook up internet. I spent 3 weeks just sleeping and eating with no clue on what to do because I'm a PC gamer and that was my main hobby. I decided to stop into Barnes & Noble and at first I got overwhelmed because I had to clue how to shop for a book. I did not know how to tell where the book is in the series, what order to buy them or what is a book I would like. But then I walked by the Dungeon and dragon books and found a section on Video game lore books such as Gears of War, Halo, Bioshock, and world of warcraft and I was in heaven. I grabbed one of each and couldnt put them down. I did not know there was so many types of books on everything. You randomly hear about thr big books pop culture books but so many sneak under a clueless guys radar. I bought a memeber ship and set goals on how many pages to read each night. Im in love with reading now I wish I started sooner. Sorry for long post I just wanted to share my new intrest with some people who could give me some pointers!

TLDR books are friends not homework

Name a book/story that made you genuinely upset, sad, or just made you feel.

Hard to decide for me, but:

Sholokhov - Fate of a Man
Dostoevsky - An Honest thief; The house of the dead; White nights
Zweig - Die unsichtbare Sammlung (The invisible collection)
Schnitzler - Der Andere (The other one)

I currently have my bachelor’s degree in English, and have just been taking a few years off before going into grad school. Now that I’m figuring out what I want to study (western horror fiction in the twentieth century), I don’t know what to do next. How do I find a good school that will have the sort of program I want? I know I have to do research before I even take the GRE, but I don’t know where to start. I do know that horror fiction is what I want to study, though, as I’ve been just about obsessed with it since I was five.

Can I get any help? Asking here because I know I’d get less grief here than anywhere else for pursuing an MFA in English.

I'm gonna write a book and it'll be a good book and get published. I'm posting this because I want to create pressure for myself to write constantly. I'm not writing as much as I can and I haven't told anyone I'm writing. I'm telling you this because one of you is going to respond and say some dumb shit, but even the dumb shit is motivational. So please, talk to me so I can tell you about how my book will be better than any idea you've ever had.

How come John Green got really popular for writing sappy YA, but women who do don't get popular? Their books are moderately successful, but the woman behind the book never is.

Are YA student teacher relationship books common? do you think it's bad to write because it could influence kids? im a 19 year old girl so i wont come off as a creep

How do I write a good YA novel?

Why do literary agents request LGBT works so much as if the most popular books aren't about straight people and most of the audience is straight?

Why does this place criticize prose so much when the authors who make it are usually very simple writers who can tell a relatable story?

I started browsing /lit/ when I was 16. I am 18 now. Is it too late for me to become /lit/?

What are the best books or this decade so far? Do you think any future classics have been written?

How many books do you have going right now?

Me personally, I have 5. 3 are genre-fiction stories, 1 is a philosophical fiction, and 1 is somewhat of an autobiography. I have general ideas for 20+ more and solid foundation for at least 3 more but I'm a little overwhelmed right now so I think I'm gonna try to finish at least one before I start writing a new one.

Is reading the greatest hobby ever?

What was the last book you read, what are you currently reading, and what's next?

Last: Inherent Vice
Current: The Brothers Karamazov
Next: The City & The City

RECOMMEND me a book which'll make my life eternally excellent

What's a good book of two people that are young that start falling in love with each other that kind of has a depressing theme to it.

literature thread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44vzMNG2fZc

I'm stuck in a library for the next few hours. Any good science fantasy novels?

yes, i read the wiki