/lit/ - Literature

>>13246637
You aren't going to listen to any of this. You'll read it, but you'll open MTG Arena or DOTA or whatever and keep doing your own shit without changing any habits and continue to sulk.

1. set aside a small amount of time to start. Google search the Pomodoro Technique. Setting an arbitrary first goal of ACTUALLY FUCKING READING SOMETHING is a great idea!
2. set aside a place to read in your house or room. There's an idea of the 20 second rule when building habits. Making something accessible in less than 20 seconds makes the activity MUCH easier to start, while making something take longer than 20 seconds helps dectract from negative habits. I uninstalled 90% of my steam library and removed it from boot up. Doing this makes me have to go out of the way to play games, sometimes even reinstall things. I also have books all over my house. My bed, my desk, my couch, my bathroom. At any point in time I have easy access to a book. Then you have the problem of cellphones. I'd start keeping your cellphone at its charger unless you need to make a call or text someone for something. Removing it as a distraction is important too.
3. find something to read that is easy to build a habit with. You know how in games when the tutorial is built into the first level and you don't even know it's happening? How you learn everything incrementally and its exciting? You should do that with books. You aren't going to sit down and read a complicated 1000 page book with old language. You start with easier, shorter works. You did a great thing when you got a collection of short stories. Short stories give you a feeling of accomplishment. There was a quick resolution to the story. From there many great novels are less than 300 pages. These can be finished in a few days, many of them are easier to read than you think.
4. Find something you connect with. As a piece of shit that plays video games all the time and wasted your youth away, its really easy to get into science fiction and fantasy. The wiki on the sticky has some great charts of the top books in those genres over time eg: ubik, LOTR, neuromancer, Dune, etc. Books that are fun to get into because they are familiar subjects and they are good quality.
5. Do it often. Start thinking of yourself as a reader, not as someone that wants to read. What does a reader do? He reads. What does someone who wants to read do? Shitpost on 4chan about how they don't read.
6. Start meditating. I posted in the autodidact thread about it. Go to the catalog and read that thread. It's pretty good resources on learning and reading etc.
7. Learn to research on your own. Posting on 4chan only gets you so far because people like me get tired of posters like you that don't listen to anything he says. Like, I should just save this in a txt file and pasta it at this point. Learn to google things, learn to ask questions and find the answers yourself.
8. Remember, part of the fun is talking about it with others. <3

>>11572511
that's a sweet cover, I love that it still uses clouds. looks great.

my biggest rec would have to be The Recognitions

>>11247910
good answer.

>>11247940
>>11247956
complex and trolling, you won't be ready for these.

>>11247951
perfect entry level novel.

>>11247985
this person speaks truths.

For other summerfags I recommend East of Eden, Zooey and Franny, Demian, Slaughterhouse 5, The Death of Ivan Illyich, Notes from Underground, and Stoner.

>>10996051
It's his memoir, I'm keen to sink into it

>>10996056
It's not bad, though I'm only some 200 pages into it. Some parts come off as him wishing he was DFW though, and sometimes he just rambles about video games and it starts to feel like Ready Player One or something. Besides that, relatively decent (as far as contemporary fiction goes)

>presume to know ideals
>intuition points to their truth
>accept that as a proxy to the experience
>realize deep down that is disingenuous
>too afraid and weak to actualize personal ideals

>>9744834
(top 5 favorite NOT top 5 most notable)

Joyce
Steinbeck
Hesse
Dosto
Faulkner

21

I went to a computer nerd magnet school, so we just irl shitposted at each other and played on the computer. Just a bunch of slackers. I picked up video games full time while completely dropping reading as a hobby. This was a bad idea but it was the only way to be in with the antisocialites. Everyone outside of the program was a jerk to me.


I grew a foot, cut off my hair, and learned to dress. I went to undergrad, finished by 21, worked a few different jobs, and now I'm in law school.


I regret not reading as much. Even my video game time was spent on multiplayer games with friends, I didn't even play all the classics that have real value. I regret not playing guitar or piano as much, I can barely get through a song. I regret not learning to lift in college. I regret making friends with so many people that a small handful always seem to stab me in the back. I regret not putting my full effort into school before Law School. I regret not using my health insurance when I had it at my old job.
I learned that writing is hard.
I learned legal writing is simpler than APA, but much more meticulous and time consuming.
I learned that visual rhetoric is just as important as the content of the message.
I learned that its much easier to edit other peoples work than your own.
I learned printing out what you want to edit and using a red pen is WAY easier than staring at a screen.

Should I quit my 9-to-5 and dedicate my life to writing? I'm scared to pursue my dreams.

>>9351517