/lit/ - Literature

>>12158478
I didn’t finish the Iliad and haven’t read the Odyssey. I read Moby Dick all on my iPhone in the book app, Heart of Darkness too.

>>12158483
Why didn't you finish it, anon? Yes, it's dull at times, but there are some brilliant moments.

>>12158478
>I believe medieval literature, philosophy, and art is better than the Greeks and Romans.

>I self insert

>I've read more pages talking about the bible than there are pages in the bible. I never read the bible

>I like boccaccio more than Dante

>I've never read any post ww2 literature yet still shitpost about it

>I only read english

>I don't like shakespeare

I wrote cringey ff7 fanfiction when I was 13

this image is my life

>>12158496
:anger:

>>12158478
i can't focus when i read so i often reread even simple sentences a couple of times before i understand the meaning

>>12158588
Me too, anon.

>>12158588
Get rid of your smart phone

>>12158588
and I though I was alone... my double! my brother!

I think due to /lit/'s anglocentricity everyone should read their national essential /lit/ and then /lit/ from other countries of the same language and only then go on to the books recurrently memed around here

>>12158496
>>I only read english
Actually triggered.

Mine is: I've never actually read 1984, only got bored after a few chapters and skimmed through it around the age of 13. Never went back to it, too much shit I'd rather read. I'll get to it someday. Maybe after finishing Proust.

>>12158588
This happens to me most often in the first few pages of reading, when I'm still getting my head there, or when I need a break.

With some writers like Kafka, I find myself doing this constantly though. I feel I read every sentence twice with his work.

I PREFER TURGENEV TO TOLSTOYEVSKY

>>12158634
I'm trying to do this.

I skipped pretty much the entire time Humbert was seperated from Dolores is Lolita.
It was so fucking boring.

>>12158678
in Lolita*

>>12158634
Nah, too much good lit from Russia and France alone. Not waiting to read fucking Paradise Lost first.
You should go in the order of difficulty of comprehension. A lot of foreign translated literature is more beginner/intermediate friendly. A lot of Realist and Romanticist works I think are better read before most Modernist works, for example, because it's easier to get. And almost all of the best realist work at least is not anglo.

Yes, meaning is lost in translation, but that doesn't matter much for most writers that get memed around here (aside from a few like Proust), as they wouldn't be so memed if their strengths didn't survive translation.

I don't read books, I write them

>>12158478
Back in my teens I liked to read South Park fanfic. I'm a straight guy.
I still go back to it every now and then

>>12158478
I don't remember having read it, but I guess I did.

I secretly took pride in having literary taste when I read a /his/ thread or post I can't refute

I secretly take pride in having some knowledge in history when I am on /Lit/ and noticed that there are many essentials I didn't read

>>12158702
Must write shitty books if you don't read.

>Haven’t read any lit from my country
>Didn’t start with the greeks

>>12158678
So you didn't read the best part of the novel where Humbert has a slapstick wrestling match with the guy who kidnapped Lo?

>>12158706
I still listen to Harry Potter audiobooks whenever I get anxiety. Sometimes I even curl up and pretend I'm 13 again. I'm OP btw.

I don't know where to start reading, but I still shitpost

>>12158723
anon why'd you have to call me out like that

I got to the Oxen of the Sun chapter of Ulysses and stopped right there.

I believe books are a Zionist conspiracy and as such I don't read

I write poetry but I’ve never read the Odyssey or the Iliad. Or any Dante.

>>12158588
>>12158592
>>12158627
There should be a sticky that says ACTIVE READING YOU MOTHER FUCK

>>12159479
shut up cuck

>>12158683
Unironically Pope is harder to read than Milton, you fall in with the iambs. And Shakespeare’s Sonnets are way harder to parse than a narrative like Paradise Lost

>>12158661
It's a very quick read. An afternoon at most.

>>12158478
i haven't read a book from start to finish since 10th grade

i'm in my 3rd year of undergrad

Over the years I wrote a total of 280k words of what should only have beena 10k fantasy coming-of-age story that started out as an online roleplay idea. 65% of it is dubcon sex scenes turned murder btw.

I self insert into my sex scenes. would be fine to an extent desu if it weren't for the fact I almost exclusively write thriller/horror genreshit with lots and I do mean lots of graphic rape these days.

i jerked off over the eve of st agnes by keats. the bit where he was writing about eating quince and dates made m hard as diamonds

>>12158723
I only secretly take pride in those things because I know if I actually post something I will get my ass kicked

i've read gravitys rainbow twice and still don't really "get" parts of it

>>12158723
This has been the core of my identity for some years now. I used to browse a fiction forum in a time I felt I need an identity. Back then I had a strong urge to be a special person. And I had this anxiety that when I see people whom I can't agree with.

So when I read a story with heavy historical reference and setting I criticized its style. When I was on another forum I began to refer to things I learned from that forum.

This anxiety and experience actually affected my majoring choice and led to expulsion from school.

Some years later I began to have more stable reading habit and actually did some reading. It's still basically the same. I read much more history than I read literature, but I don't study either of them systematically. I let literature to be my guide to read more history.
The only difference is that I have less anxiety about identity crisis. For now.

>>12158752
>Haven’t read any lit from my country
No biggie if you're american

>>12158496
>I read biography of and commentary about a writer without actually reading his works

My favourite thing to read is romantic Zelda fan fics on fanfiction.net when I'm a bit tipsy. Good fun.

>>12158634
Then we will have nothing to talk about.
Books memed here are the books people have a common ground with

The past few books I've read I skipped a bunch of shit cause it was all boring
I also skip a shit ton in philosophy too cause it's also boring

>>12158769
Yes, that happens after he's reunited with her.

>>12158478
I don't know what book 23 of the Iliad is

>>12161104
Why even read it in the first place then?

>>12161296
mind you're own binnus

>>12161307
:(

>>12158478
I'm a slow reader

My thoughts are often more interesting than reading - my mind can cook soup on nearly any single page of a book for about forty minutes if i allow it. So i often forget to read...

Every time I start writing a story I begin with great ideas then make them too complex and give up.

>>12158478
Faulkner is bad, this isn’t a confession, i just wanted to say that his works are insipid and fanbase universally underachieving english majors and /fitlit/ subhumans. The most famous passages associated with his works are inferior to passing remarks older /lit/ users have graced us with. Fuck you if you read Faulkner

>>12161219
Funeral games for Patroclus.

>>12161438
I hate that I'm wasting my time replying to you. I'm seething right now.

>>12161431
I also do this with writing and with life. :^)
ithurts.jpg

>>12158478
I fell short of my goal in Nano this year by 10,000 words. I said I was only participating for a lark, but it still hurts. If only because I wanted to WIN so badly.
Still gonna finish my shitty novel, though.

Skipped the final few chapters of War and Peace. Loved the book, but couldn't stand Tolstoy's deterministic rant

>>12161438
You are wrong.

I pretend to know what I am talking about

>>12160991

I think there are multiple guides from academics that admit themselves as incomplete. So this isn't a sin.

>>12158496
>I only read english
In all honesty, are there people here that really go through the effort of learning another language to the point of being fluent in it just in order to read one book or two?

>>12158478
I haven't written a thing worth a damn in years. I've let everyone who believed in me down. All I can do is write lyrics for my stupid band. I wanted more than this, dammit.

>>12158678
I quit the book when she confessed she was not a virgin anymore

I read quite a few books at once because I love starting them

I posted this in another thread before it got archived, but I stopped reading C&P at around page 125. That was over 7 years ago.

>>12162599
me too that shit was boring as hell, maybe my cheap dover tranny was just ass tho idk

>>12162599
>>12162604
At that point the novel is basically just Raskolnikov murdering some woman. How is that boring?

>>12158483
I read all books on phone lmao

I feel intellectually intimidated by big brains

>>12162604
I didn't see it as boring, I thought it was interesting as hell. life got in the way.

I actually worked at the job instead of read more for like 12 minutes.

>>12158483
There's nothing wrong with reading books on your phone. Particularly for fiction, I find it really nice to download samples from Amazon before purchasing anything.

I do not like anything the Greeks have written, and think epics like Eddas and Sagas and other Western European tales have more substance than Homeric epics.
I also find Greek mythology fundamentally profane, and the basis for lots of contemporary pathologies of thought and culture.

>>12162631
I didn't see it as boring though. Life got in the way to the point that I couldn't finish it.

>>12162666
>i am a dumb fucking nigger insulting our Lord Satan by wasting these trips

>>12162406
if the language is widely used, why not?

>>12162667
Fair enough. I'd recommend giving it another go, Dostoyevsky is an immensely entertaining author

>>12160904
Yeah, but I start it and get bored and think "I'd rather spend this time reading 'x' book", and it's not challenging in a way that would feel satisfying to complete and understand like a difficult book.
Same problem with A Clockwork Orange. It's even shorter, being half the size, but I can't seem to make it past chapter 3. I just don't care about reading it other than just to say "I've read it"

>>12162925
This, Dosto was what started my interest in lit. Read a lot in my younger teens, but mainly sci-fi/fantasy-esque work, and lost interest in reading by the time I was an adult.
At around 21, I went from reading like 4 books in 2 years to reading most of his canonical work in a month because I got so absorbed. Read a lot of other shit after/since then, but his work gave me the momentum.

>>12158478
I skipped the roll-call portion of the Iliad, but not in the Aeneid

>>12160941
i really want to read this

>>12161431
oh, i know this feel. i always start with a simple ideia and then ended up with some abstract shit who doesn't even make sense most of the time.

>>>12160941
>tfw feel unable to type out my depraved ideas because of paranoia about them being read by someone.

>>12161431
Everytime I start a story, I have solid ideas about specific scenes and characters and words, but seem unable to build the basic setting stuff that barely matters.
Thing is, given a prompt and purpose I have no issue and like to play with it to stretch the prompt further than was probably meant to suit my needs.
Given complete choice, I'm paralysed.

>>12162653
How big is your phone?
I only do it when I really want to immediately read something I don't have on hand. For some reason I find it really uncomfortable reading books that way even though I've been reading other shit on my phone for years.

>>12163536
you probably never will, but thanks

>>12163542
pro tip: truecrypt and a dedicated netbook for writing

>>12164990
>dedicated netbook for writing
This is what I already do as no one seems to be able to read my handwriting except me

>look up truecrypt
>"truecrypt is discontinued..."
Thanks though anon - I'll consider it, but I think it's more an irrational aversion.

>>12165004
I'm a programmer and hide my despicable smut under eight layers of weirdly named database folders. if someone manages to actually find it they arguably earned the right to read it lmao

>>12158478
I haven't read Shakespeare, aside from some of his sonnets

>>12165118
You are only hurting yourself anon

>>12165118
Watch some adaptions of Shakespeare. Will only take a few hours, and it's meant to be watched anyway.

>>12165114
>if someone manages to actually find it they arguably earned the right to read it lmao
File>Recently opened

>>12165193
Got any recs?

>>12165196
>automated deletion of editing history on closing

>>12165210
Just making sure you were covered, anon.

I read books but I don't actually think about them.

>>12165114
link me a copy of "rocking remy" bbc porn im trying to download it off some gay filesharing site but theres 7 hours left and my wifi will crap out before then

>>12158478
sometimes i will read an entire book and realise i got nothing out of it at all. usually a novel. recently it was the trial, all i thought at the end was 'bureaucracy bad'.

Only read in English and I'm not really ashamed about it

100% believe that Stephen King and a lot of mass thriller, airport paperback writers have more literary merit than academic postmodern giants. Salem's Lot is a smarter and more beautiful book than anything Donald Barthelme has ever written. Character, conflict, narrative, and dialogue are essential to compelling writing, and the good postmodern writers like Pynchon knew this

Have fairly racist views about literary culture. Sincerely believe it's controlled by Jews who reward mediocrities because their last name begins with "Gold," sincerely believe that black people struggle to tell interesting and thoughtful stories. Not sure why anybody pretends to enjoy James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. Find the poetry of Maya Angelou hilariously bad

>>12165524
I don't think I've ever read a book written by a black person.

I only started reading anything other than thrillers a year ago. I read literature now but don't have any opinions of my own, I let other people decide for me which books are good.

I have Infinite Jest, Gravity's Rainbow, Finnegan's Wake, among others on my book backlog. Am I just a meme?[/spoilers]

>>12160924
Why are you posting here then?

>>12165581
also, as you can see, i lurk a lot and don't post very much...

>>12165566
>but don't have any opinions of my own, I let other people decide for me which books are good.
You should listen to both the judgement of others with more experience AND your own likes.
The art that will stay with you over the years is that which you truly enjoyed and/or found something in. Even if you later think it's not all that, you can defend your original opinion with what you felt at the time. While you'll look back with embarrassment at the time you pretended to love "x" which didn't really do that much for you but you liked the idea of being a fan of it.

But while you can have your own opinions on works, should defer judgement on great works in the canon, or you'll sound pretty silly when you say "x" is a hack/for pseuds. Straight up not liking something that has gone down as a true classic by the best literary minds is almost a sign of not getting it. Thinking it's merely not as great as it's reputation is different and fine, imo. There will works that you won't "get", but if you keep reading and expanding your tastes, you'll likely find will click someday. It's okay to leave something and come back to it later.

>>12161083
We all do that, that's why this is a pseudpool anon

>>12158478

>I have been accumulating a collection of classic books and poems that I want to read, but I haven't had time to read them

>The Fabliau is one of my favorite forms of writing

>Old and Middle English is superior to Greek and Roman

>American Lit is fucking garbage except for a handful of writers

>Why no one has done a true to book adaptation of the Divine Comedy or Canterbury Tales is beyond me

>Chaucer is the greatest English writer

>>12165612
Thanks for the response, anon. I will admit that it's sometimes hard for me to "get" some literature, Shakespeare for example. Just a matter of me not being a very skilled reader yet I suppose.

I have mild dyslexia and my job consists of writing everyday. I spend too much time googling common words to ensure they are spelled right.

>>12165681
>Why no one has done a true to book adaptation of the Divine Comedy
I bet it's all the protestants fault

>>12165702
Keep coming back to it. I think for Shakespeare the barrier is mainly just Elizabethan English - once you get past that, he's very entertaining. Remember, Shakespeare wrote for the masses.
But yeah, my rule of thumb is to reach for what appeals to me while still striving to challenge myself and expand my tastes.
You've got years to learn to appreciate more "difficult" literature.

>>12165004
>truecrypt is discontinued
yeah so what? its not a super complex javascript interpreter prone to exploits.
besides, corrupt politicians, paedophiles, and terrorists have twarted investigators with it, it should be enough for things you just don't want friends to read.

just download TC 7.1 from different places and compare them all to hashes posted in some renowed blogs, steve gibson's for one, i could tell me the hashes from the EXE i have since before the original site took them down, but why should you trust me anyway.

i used to write self-insert pornography about my favorite anime characters raping me when i was 14-16 years old

I read the pre-socratics, then skipped past Plato to the 18th century. Needless to say I crawled back to Plato.

I'm writing my first novel. It's a fantasy romance novel about a young knight and a tsundere warrior princess. I'm about 25k words into it and think I'll wrap it up at 50k.

I find sexuality repulsive. I find literary descriptions of sex particularly get under my skin, even vague allusions irk me.

>>12158478

>>12165207
Not him, but IMO start with A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, and The Winter's Tale

>>12158478
I don't read books, I read /lit/ threads and boards and shitpost about authors' foreheads rather than the content of books

I refuse to read any fiction released after 1995.

I keep a legitimate diary, and have a bookshelf full of books I don't think I'll actually read.

>>12165566
The biggest fault you can do is reading for other people like to impress them or something related. The same counts if you impose yourself standards that are influenced by other people. Instead find stuff that you truly enjoy by yourself or which gives you something that you can relate to personally and contemplative. It's not a sin to skim through stuff early on to find the right material.

>>12158501
there's nothing cringy about that

>>12158478
i don't read. i've read like 15 books in my life and several of them were audiobooks

>>12158501
now that i've admitted what i am, i can't be a key witness in your cringy fanfic trial :(

>>12158661
i just tried 1984 and tapped out about halfway through. holy shit that book sucks.

>>12167556
It's an okay book, nothing really terrible about it. The problem is that the most 'important' part of the book is also the most boring and dry part.

>>12158478
I am the very definition of a pseudo-intellectual, I take almost every piece of literature at second hand value because I can't be arsed to read it. I don't read books anymore, I simply listen to them on audiobook, I listened to the brothers karamazov and Master and Margarita this way. What's worse, I fancy myself a writer and have written 66% of a novel. However, the plot got too complex and I never made a written outline, so none of it makes sense and it jumps around from scene to scene.

>>12158501
I dare you to repurpose it into the next huge YA hit.

>>12162666
Yes, that story of the person who was ordered not to turn around while escaping death, but they did any way and was then punished, that sure was a profane story.

>>12167154
I meant specific adaptations

>>12168113
Kenneth Branagh's adaptations

>>12158478
I'm the laziest fuckwit to ever exist on /lit/. I cannot be bothered to finish the books I own and the more books I buy, the more gets added to that unfinished pile.

>>12168141
I do the exact same thing, anon. I spent probably $300 in books on Amazon last month which will take me years to get to.

>>12168146
Feelsbadman, only recently have I actually started to nearly finish one book from my unfinished pile, but that's if I'm not procrastinating my ass off.

>>12158478
I rarely read less than 10 books at the same time and I don't care.