/lit/ - Literature

New Pynchon book = yay!

Oh, and Inherent Vice is a decent book, one of his best. Relatively simple, but enjoyable and a cool setting, i.e. the late 60s. Wish it had been a bit longer though, and the ending was anti-climatic.

Hopefully this new book will be somewhere inbetween Pynchon Lite and Pynchon Classic. ATD was just right, complex and long, but not too much soon (or at least, not too complex).

Obviously not for the whole year, but just a rough idea of the first few months. For me, I'm going to carry over some stuff from 2012 I never got around to reading (but listed as to read), then add in some extra stuff.

Have you made your list yet? Post it?

I'd say they're usually comedy, postmodern, or both, but how do you feel about them? OTT, unrealistic characters, silly plots, geuinely farfetched stuff, but (maybe) it's okay because of the drama and comedy it generates?

Examples: Catch-22, One Day, The Trial, etc.

Is this a good or bad type of book?

Best: The War of the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa
Worst: The Narrow Corner - W Somerset Maugham
Random: The Broom of the System - David Foster Wallace

I want some new books to read, since I finished my last (pretty good) batch, but I don't have ANY idea what to read. Okay. These new books can be anything at all, as long as modern, and also no genre fiction (fantasy and sci-fi) please. I don't like fantasy that much, and I recently remembered why I hate sci-fi. A brief overview would be super helpful. Funny...I had this problem back in about June, when I had a mini-meltdown over a complete lack of inspiration of things to buy. Please help me.

High Tier

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

Good Tier

Kafka on the Shore

Middle Tier

Dance Dance Dance
A Wild Sheep Chase
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Sputnik Sweetheart
The Elephant Vanishes
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
South of the Border, West of the Sun

Bad Tier

Norwegian Wood

Get The Fuck Out / I'm A Lazy Fucking Writer Tier

after the quake
After Dark

Come at me bro. I'll defend any book in a tier. Most likely complaints will be against Norwegian Wood, I know that's popular. And yeah, I consider most of his books fairly average, BUT enjoyable and worth reading. At a guess, I'd say 1Q84 will be High Tier or Good Tier. Looks pretty sweet. I hope the hardcover has a white cover like his other books.

I was bored earlier, as if often the case, and put all the books I've read this year (57), into the usual tiers, high tier, terrible tier, etc. I was shocked how many were in the bad or terrible tier, maybe 15 or more. I pick my books VERY carefully, with guidance from friends, people here, and my own memory, yet I still read some bad stuff. It's not like I'm losing interest in lit, I still enjoy it a lot. How do I get all this bad stuff?