/lit/ - Literature

I rarely finish books. Most get to the half or 3/4th mark

>>12815032
I tried reading Moby Dick on my phone and with my physical book but it got too confusing where I left off since I kept switching to and fro that I gave up.
I'm about a third way in.

I read only to gratify my carnal desires.

>>12815032
I love the nab meme format but never read a single page of his actual books.

>>12815081
you should really read Lolita. It's not a meme the way he writes is almost unbelievable

I've tried to read Moby Dick but even though i liked the story i don't like the writting style and i lefted it. i usually do this like

Never finished a book more than 2/3

I won't read works that I think will "look" bad if someone were to go through my goodreads.

I refuse to read Infinite Jest because passages I've seen read like pretentious blowhard and the culture around the book is cringe.

>>12815179
It’s worse than ulysses. The first fucking sentence of ulysess chapter 1 is a pretentious shit show, you can only imagine the entire book

>>12815084
My only gripe with Lolita was the random french he threw in. Unnecessary, but did add to the character. Ultimately didn't care for it though.

I accidentally came on a hardcover edition of Wilhelm Reich's Character Analysis.

>>12815032
I thought the ending to crime and punishment was so beautiful that I cried.

>>12815032
I have a specific notebook dedicated exclusively for the recording of new words I learn, yet despite this, and despite my constant revisitation of it, my bank of vocabulary is no larger than before this notepad. I feel so utterly ashamed of myself. All I wanted was to be able to know and use new words that looked cool in my sentences and expanded my expressive range in writing, and all I've learnt is that I really am quite terrible at learning vocabulary.

:'(

>>12815073
Go back to your grave Freud

>>12815392
That really is sinful.

The only writing I have done this year is keeping track of how many times I've fapped this year.

>>12815392
I didn’t cry, but i was overcome with emotion. I have yet to find a book with such a beautiful ending.

>>12815055
>I'm about a third way in
That's just about where I am in Moby Dick right now. Anything I can clear up?

I dropped the Brothers Karamazov about 2/3rds in and I still go on /lit/ and pretend I read all the book.

>>12815032
this, my english is good, but not good enough to understand all the words even in harry potter. i can't be arsed to get a fucking dictionary so i just rely on context, which usually fails because im a brainlet, but then i just glaze over it like a zombie consuming pop literature. i just read like an addict, just waiting for the next hit, even if it is in fucking harry potter, where you read a sentence and then you suddenly get that insane literary high, like a perfect linguistic moment

>>12815032
i havent paid for a book since 2014
its ok because all the authors i read are either dead or hacks

>>12815596

Try One Hundred Years of Solitude

I consistently read Stephen King. And I enjoy it

>>12815583
It's alright, Anon. I myself am pretty equally horrible to incorporating new vocabulary into my personal bank. But I think it's still worth my time to try to re-learn and practice using a word I don't know every time I come across it, even if I'm re-learning it for the millionth time.

No matter how futile it seems, even if I learn one word out of the thousand I come across, that's one more avenue for me to describe my world to others, and so I think it's worth my time. Best of luck.

e ink only

>>12815583
I also have a notebook dedicated to vocabulary and I find it pretty useful. Do you use the words you learned in your writing, or even in your 4chan posts? Sometimes when I'm offline I play around with the words I learned and try to integrate them in my thoughts, which helps me memorize them. The key for me has been to make the words as relevant as possible to me. If I didn't find any use for them I'll probably immediately forget them.

I didn't start with the Greeks
I also read moderately slowly

>>12815032
I come to class 10 minutes early or just earlier than anyone to show off what I'm reading. After completing the book I'll pretend to be taking notes on it as if it was the first time I went through that passage and haven't read any notes/essays on it. All to impress some redhead.

I'm good looking but I just have no character or substance. I also have mild aphasia.

Ive bought and red 3 Warhammer books now and I liked them all the qt at the Barnes and nobles gave me a weird look when I picked up the last batch

>>12816122
Only three? I've probably read several dozen at this point.

I don't look up words I don't know.
I don't write things down when I probably should. I only read when I can't shit post on 4chan.

>>12815081
what's the meme format?

>>12816187
I just started last week, I have 2 more before I need to go buy the next batch

>>12816199
Try to also buy something high brow when purchasing your next batch to confuse the cashier

If someone doesn’t read fiction or poetry because they believe it’s below them then I will immediately disregard any of their opinions and stop talking with them

>>12816215
It's a confession thread, not a virtue signaling thread. Retard.

>>12815257
That’s my main issue with it, and some Russian literature in general. I’d rather not have to know French to read a book in English. Just annoying, that’s all. Google translate helps.

Lolita might not be for you, but I recommend reading it again. It’s a novel fit for rereading.

>>12816008
Same. I’m going back to the Greeks now. You read more quickly the more you read though. It was in relation to foreign language reading, but reading outloud helps you learn to read well. Worked for me.

>>12816219
How is judging the character of a person off of a trivial element of their personality considered virtue? It’s a confession you dumb nigger. Imagine thinking that what I do is normal

>>12816231
Oh wow, how cool, he used “nigger”, I’m impressed. Fuck off.

>>12816231
Even posting about it is you signaling your virtue to the anons in this thread. You only posted that in the hopes that the anons itt would validate you with positive replies.

>>12816233
Oh wow, he used “retard” I’m so impressed. Oh wow, he can’t refute my point, so impressive.

>>12816243
Stop ignoring my post.
>>12816240

>>12816240
>>12816260
Your post is literally just projecting though. How can you know what I thought posting that? You can’t.
>inb4 I get psychoanalyzed
Psychoanalysis is a meme

>>12816274
>Get seen right the fuck through
>>Y-y-you're projecting!
What a pathetic "rebuttal."

>>12816280
>he can’t come up with a logical rebuttal so he’ll just be abrasive and project again
Like pottery

>>12816281
>I'll just completely misuse the term "projecting" again, maybe that way he'll think I'm retarded and let me win the argument of pity!
Bold strategy but it's not gonna work on me. Sorry anon.

>>12816288
You type like a faggot lol

>>12816293
SEETHING

>>12815800
this is a joke, right?

>>12816296
You type like a newfriend

>>12815032
my favourite african author is white

>>12816304
SEETHING

>>12815916
Thanks anon, appreciate the kind words. You're right, even if we learn just a few new words in the end, it should be considered a worthwhile effort. But I get pretty saddened at myself, and especially in reading other pieces of writing, observing such an effortless usage of a spectrum of language, that my own efforts can't seem to achieve.

>>12816007
I don't, typically. That's not a bad idea, and I've heard that a word needs to be used around 7 times or so before it's added to one's linguistic library. But my problem, that frustrates me the most, is that even when I do learn the meanings of new vocabulary, I forget previous words I knew. It's like I have a quota of how many words I can know and properly use at once, and this memory deficiency will always keep me from ever "growing" as a user of language.

I read Black Dagger Brotherhood #5 because I downloaded the wrong book.
...and then I read the 1st book from that series. They both sucked.

>>12815583
https://ankiweb.net/about

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition

Here you go Anon.

>>12815032
I own the Kamasutra but have no gf to try it with.

I'm a speedreader. I don't know if it's actually a sin, since I can kill a novel in 2-3 hours instead of 2-3 days and still retain 100% comprehension rate. But /lit/ thinks I'm satan in the flesh.
Can't do it for heavy nonfiction, though. Pop-[nonfiction] is fine to speedread, and I can do it easily for most fiction. I can read a page in about 8-12 seconds.
If something is particularly poignant I'll stop and reread it a few times to get the full impact. I often stop and think about parts for several minutes, too, if it's something really good.
>>12815733
>its ok because all the authors i read are either dead
feels bad man. this is why I don't feel the least bit bad about pirating stuff--the author is dead, he can't benefit from the money, and everyone else is just a rentseeker.

>>12816198
Last, first. Dislike him. A slapdash (x) and claptrash (y).

>>12815800
dubs of truth

>>12815032

Actually, being unafraid to skip parts of a book that you're uninterested in reading is a positive trait.

>>12815032
I read with music in the background

>PRO-ANTI
>PRO-ANTI
>PRO-ANTI
Even if it said Pro-Vaccine, this is NPC tier. Not science.

>>12817409
I have never read an erotic book before. Is it just porn or is there more?

I’ve read less than ten decent books in my whole life.

>>12817694
It's sex moves mixed with antiquated cultural stuff (puppet theater, ancient Indian mating habits). I would recommend it for the sexual section.

I never read prefaces, forewords, introductions etc.

>>12815032
Rather than look up words you're better off trying to infer meaning from the text. I usually always at least guess before looking up a word.

>>12815583
Sometimes learning another language can help unlock that part of your brain. Becasue when you're learning a new lang you're always trying to infer meaning from what you do recognize. Besides that if you're really serious you may need to do >>12817402 and maybe forcibly try using those words in your writing.

>>12816081
oh god dude

>>12815084
So true. Reading lolita with the Jeremy Irons audiobook playing was an experience

>>12817629
fucking kys, sensory overload much

>>12816243
He used "retard" because you were being a retard, retard.

>>12817776
First off, rude. :(

Second off, it’s classical music if that makes it any better.

>>12817708
based

I only read books by people with obviously European names except for works by top oriental writers that have been translated like Murakami. In particular I avoid African-sounding or Muslim-sounding names.
I will not read any "diversity" author.
I will not read any books with "diversity" themes.
I will not read books with a character who is a tranny or a PoC.
And no I do not care that Alexandre Dumas was black, I like his books anyway, but those withstood the test of time.

i only read nonfiction

>>12815032
O pretty much just read fanfiction

>>12817986
>I will not read any "diversity" author.
>I will not read any books with "diversity" themes.
>I will not read books with a character who is a tranny or a PoC.
these are not 'confessions'

>>12818315
Same.
>tfw my brain is still in 2009 so I only read fanfics from fandoms that were popular then
>tfw they all suck

>>12818333
Ahh, my condolences. At least I'm lucky to read from fandoms that actually have been able to produce good works.

"speed read" shit I don't like

Whether I like the book or not, I have a tendency to stop and count how many pages are left of a chapter.

>>12818315
>>12818333
same guys. I read a lot of real stuff too, but I read an insane amount of harry potter and naruto fanfiction. I honestly think I've probably read almost everything there is in the genre. I've read a decent amount of bleach and a little game of thrones and attack on titan too. Do you guys have any favorite fandoms?

>>12817423
speed reading has it's place, I speedread everything unless it has prose I like or it's really dense.

>>12815045
This once I see what a book getting at I play with and discern the idea myself and usually arrive at the same conclusion without wasting all the time mentally pulling one out.

>>12817986
>top oriental writers that have been translated like Murakami.
absolute state of racists these days

>>12817986
>And no I do not care that Alexandre Dumas was black, I like his books anyway, but those withstood the test of time.
He was like one quarter black what are you smoking.

>>12815179
I can get behind that

>>12815032
I think forcing yourself to trudge through "classics" is retarded

>>12819663
But at the same time, if there isn't at least some subset of the classics that you genuinely enjoy reading, you're probably the retarded one.

>>12818315
me too. up until recently, all i read in my spare time was anime porn on fanfiction.net and ao3. i’m getting back into reading actual books again, but i still feel ashamed

>>12819145
Honestly for me it's pretty much just >>>/mlp/ so it's not like I really can discuss it in any detail without invoking the wrath of mods and janitors.

That said, I respect your dedication. I couldn't ever work through all the good shit on Fimfiction if I ground away at it for a decade, let alone almost everything in the whole damn genre.

>>12819730
Are you me?

>>12817377
It's funny how you talk about this issue of one word replacing another. I can experience this problem with forgetting words from my main language, so I end up having to switch around my words when I talk so it becomes this weird Swenglish mix. I forget my Swedish, while I feel much more comfortable speaking English. I guess I'm just not reading enough Swedish literature or maybe I am turning into a Brit. Oh well...

I rarely read anything in my native tongue. I do most of my reading in English and at this point I think I can read better in English than in my language.

>>12820320
That is pretty sad.

>>12815191
Yeah, (you) can ONLY imagine the entire book

I have mostly given up on contemporary poetry.

Would rather read a stuffy formalist than some nonsense in poetry magazine or whatever the fuck.

>>12819145
Happy Tree Friends, creepy pasta, and Super Smash Bros Brawl fucking kill me

>>12819844
>>12820628
too bad we don't share any fandoms. Anyway, I think there is some literary worth to fanfiction. Besides the blatant porn (which no one on 4chan should shit on), there's some interesting styles that are particularly unique to fanfiction. I'm pretty good at spotting when ya is written by someone who cut their teeth writing fanfiction at this point (it helps that I've been reading it since like 2006 wtf where has my youth gone). Some kinds of oneshots have developed their own very specific literary conventions that I think are objectively interesting as well.

Anyway, just remember that Ovid was technically writing fanfiction. It's not the genre that makes something a waste of time

>>12820818
>Anyway, I think there is some literary worth to fanfiction.
Oh, for sure, there are quite a few works out there that if it weren't for copyright and the public perception of derivative works would be instant classics. Really it gets a bad rap, which is really unfortunate because despite the whole larger medium being full of shit there is a lot of stellar stuff if you're willing to look for it.

>>12820841
>there are quite a few works out there that if it weren't for copyright and the public perception of derivative works would be instant classics
Name one.

>>12820851
Well 50 Shades was originally Twilight fanfic.

>>12820851
I still remember reading The Other Side of the Heart because of how bullshit it was.

>>12820855
You think 50 Shades of Grey is an instant classic?

>>12820855
>>12820851
cassandra clare also rebranded her fanfic and sold millions. i can think of a few other hp writers that rewrote their stuff as books that got pretty popular in the ya scene. That said, fanfic is written very differently from normal novels, much more like old serialized works were, so any given fanfic would need a fair amount of reworking to be its stand-alone novel even discounting the derivative aspect

>>12820868
Was it not?
Women love it. Men tolerate it. Children are amused by it. They'll be teaching it in sex-ed classes in 50 years, trust me.

>>12820851
To name a couple of in progress series Austraeoh & A Soot-Covered World since I never heard a bad word against either besides, "These are amazing, but why are they horse?"

>>12815032
im worse bro I just read like random chapters from suttree and say I have read it. reading books in order is a little overrated

>>12820851
occupation

I read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
and liked it
In my defense it was years ago but still,

>>12816274
>psychoanalysis is a meme
>accuses someone of projecting, a phenomena coined by Freud

>>12815032
I’ve read “the road” a few times and a recent re-read made me burst into tears.

>>12820603
What would be a sin is actually reading and enjoying contemporary poetry.

>>12817423
can you give some examples of nonfiction you can speedread and enjoy a high level of comprehension of?
speedreading seems like it may be useful to me but im a bit worried aboutbtaking the time to learn it only to find the stuff i need to read wont benefit from it as i dont read fiction

the first one is bad, but i imagine everyone does the second one, and it's perfectly fine imo. it would ruin your enjoyable of many older novels if you had to stop to look up every single word. i only stop to look something up if it seems important or keeps coming up, like for example in tolstoy i had to look up muzhik, though i could pretty much guess based on the context that it meant peasant or something like that.

>>12820988
>enjoyable

*enjoyment

>>12820988
i don't understnad why you were reading a version of tolstoy that does not translate the word muzhik

not sure if it's bad, but i sometimes read multiple books at once, though usually only one work of fiction at a time. i'm currently reading faust i&ii (don't like part ii), a book on writing/grammar, a book on the russian revolution, and when i finish faust, i'll start on the odyssey or moby dick.

i also sometimes put off reading something if i get bored or would rather read something else and don't feel like juggling both of them. if i think i can pull it off, i'll even start from where i left it off when i pick it up later, even if several months or longer have elapsed.

ultimately, i do inevitably finish every thing i start, even if it's +1000 pages, and sometimes, if i'm really engrossed by the work, as with dostoevsky and tolstoy, i can breeze through what i'm reading fairly quickly, but even still, i have a shit attention span, and my mind wanders constantly. malaptive day dreaming is a big issue for me, so it's hard for me to turn it off.

>>12819344
>once I see what a book getting at I play with and discern the idea myself and usually arrive at the same conclusion without wasting all the time mentally pulling one out.

>>12815116
>lefted it

>>12821016
i was reading p&v. i'm not sure why they don't translate it. i assume they have their reasons, but it seems to me that it would be better to translate it as "peasant". i do like that they kept the french in with annotations. overall, i'm not anti-p&v, but i can see why some people have issues with them. when i decide to re-read tolstoy, i think i'll try the maude translation.

>>12815032
My favorite novel is Slaughterhouse-Five.

>>12819684
True

>>12815392
Although that ending, too, provided such rapture in me, I did not cry. My eyes got watery during the dad and dying son dialogue in Brothers K

>>12821087
wow, i wasn't trying to anti-p&v meme you, that's a little ridiculous. I mean, obviously it's not an exact equivalent, but it's really not some sort of special russian only thing to have the idea of a man's man peasant. I reviewed maude's translation of Ivan Ilyich for a translation class once, and I remember it being quite good, so i think that's a better choice

>>12821087
Try Miriam Schwartz's Anna Karenina

Absolutely the best and I've read AK 3 times in full

>>12815032
I read Neuromancer once a year

>>12821705
>Miriam Schwartz
>Miriam
>Schwartz
Nah.

I read books once and hardly ever revisit them. Whatever I learn or reflect on is forgotten months later. I’m a slow reader and it takes me weeks to finish 230+ pages. And I suffer the same problem as this anon >>12815583

I cannot read more than 15 page per hour.
Usually read about 10.

>>12815084
Nabokov is one of few people who has made me laugh in joy at his prose

>>12820910
Why would anyone be ashamed of that?

I google the meaning of books after I'm done with them.

>>12822247
Honestly, HGttG was the lol so random spork xD of the pre-Internet world. I liked it too, back when I was 15, but it's a little embarrassing to remember that now.

>>12815166
why don't you just not add them to your goodreads?

>>12815280
Once I threw up some boulgour and I think a couple grains hit my copy of Dante's complete works. Still feels bad about it seven yers after.

>>12816081
>All to impress some redhead.

Impressing redheads is absolutely /lit/ and also literally patrician. Carry on anon.

>>12820876
>They'll be teaching it in sex-ed classes in 50 years, trust me.

It's been widely reviled by BDSM practitioner for its inaccuracy. It might survive as some dumbd-down contemporary Lady Chatterley's Lover but I doubt it will ever be taken as a realistic account of sex (but again sex ed is often retarded in practice so who knows).

>>12821732
What do you have against Germans ?

>>12815032
A lot of things similar to other anon itt.

I have less and less time to read because of work and I still shitpost on 4chan.
I read very slowly, slower than when I was a child, and not only because I like to reread sentences to really immerse myself in the atmosphere of the book.
I discuss philosophy all the times despite having read less than 10 serious works of philosophy and having read no Greek philosophe besides Heraclitus.
I memorized thousands of verse but I haven't recited them in a while so I'm starting to forget them and I'm too lazy to recite them again in full.
I often adopt an authoritative tone on subject I've read only one book (or sometimes just a Wikipedia article) about.
I pretend to be a lover of language but I've never learnt one besides the one I was taught at school.
I scarcely take time to reread books anymore. It's very difficult for me to even read a middle-sized book a week now.

>>12816081
Visiting /lit/ today has already paid off, thanks anon.

I sometimes try to be strategic with the books I read at campus too but never results in anything since I'm too autistic to begin with.

>>12815032
some of my favourite books have been left unfinished :/ like i stopped reading sisyphus when i found the quotes that i needed to reach the next step in my life and just didn't feel any compulsion to finish it

>>12817708
same

>>12822512
how are they your favorite books if you haven't finished them? if they're your favorites, wouldn't you want to re-read them?

I read to justify my own lack of life experience by using literature as a surrogate for my own
I’ve also started the Book of Disquiet 4 times and not finished it, but still call it my favourite book. My new attempt started 2 weeks ago and I haven’t touched it since Wednesday

>>12822539
>>12822512
>favourite book is something you haven't actually read
absolutely /lit/

>>12822535
they're my favourite when at one period in time i found meaning in them or they provided a piece of information which resolved some kind of conflict in my real life. for example i was depressed for the longest time but then read the fountainhead/sisyphus and realised my search for existential meaning was futile and that working for the sake of work was a perfectly noble thing to pursue and that no matter how dire my circumstances were at the time, i always had the power to change that. like fountainhead really turned around my deterministic pov and shed led on the power of the individual. just little snippets from various literature which helped me surpass certain hardships. but once i overcame them i didn't feel a need to finish those books? instead i went on to read nonfiction and acquire other helpful knowledge to further this new found momentum & motivation to propel myself upwards idk.

and i rarely re-read books just because i like to have my initial impressions of them imprinted in my brain (unless it was non fiction) also the time could be reserved to discover other (potentially better?) books imo.

>>12822577
ok maybe not snippets, bear in mind i will have read more than 2/3 of any favourite book but there are some which i haven't completely finished. although all my favourite non fic have been completed.

I skip sex scenes because i cant relate to them

>>12818411
I make motor sounds when I speed read

>>12820444
It really isnt. Most of small country writers are just bad.

>>12817708
same, if those aren't by author him/herself. i don't need someone's 23 page analysis of author's life.

>>12819971
you should start reading translations

>I can read a page in about 8-12 seconds
Doubt that, the competetive speed reading upper tiers get around 1000-2000 wpm, which is about 2-4 pages per minute, which means a page every 30-15 seconds.
>lying to impress your non-friends on an internet board

I sometimes space away for a few seconds while reading, but I don't go back to re-read what I missed.

>>12817708
>>12817986
based and bookpilled

WoW and Halo books during college

Never read in public, at leat

I bought an ereader with the justification that I can't sustain buying physical books due to cost, the fact that I live in a non-english speaking country so I have to buy all my books new, and that I live in a dorm so I don't necessarily have all that much space. E-readers are also much more convenient with built in lighting and comfort in the hand. But now I kinda regret getting one. It feels like it was just a frivolous impulsive purchase and a waste of money just to larp like some well-read intellectual.

I've also been trying to pry myself away from shallow, vacuous entertainment and similarly, technology as I feel like it has made me dumber. Despite that, I bought this. I feel stupid. Reading should just be you and the material with as little barriers or distractions as possible.

I wish I wasn't so insecure and wouldn't second guess myself so much. My feelings about trivial things like this change on almost a weekly basis. I guess I'm just a brainlet.

>>12817776
there's no shame in listening to instrumental
>>12817855
sometimes I read along with sounds of nature ambient youtube shit

>>12815032
The only reason I read books is I can shitpost about them later

>>12822771
>sometimes I read along with sounds of nature ambient youtube shit
I do to
The silence can be madening to me sometimes, makes bad thoughts come out

>>12822795
i like reading in silence, but if there are some noises where i'm reading, i usually put on headphones with vaporwave shit or sometimes calm classic music

>>12822734
nothing wrong with though desu. imo is good to relax and "watch tv" with your brain sometimes and read trash. sometimes I get burnt out

>>12822838
>listening to vaporwave while reading
based 30 year old boomer

>>12822838
Vaporwave and smooth jazz are the best reading music.

like a few other ppl have said it's embarrassing how rarely i actually finish a book.

>>12822734
what's the appeal of books like that? not criticising just curious. cause i feel you could read some fantasy/sci-fi and it'd do the job better, instead of some fan fic level writing

I won't read anything over 300 pages long.

>>12815032
everytime I enter a library I feel humbled and dumb.
everytime I leave a libraray I feel overpowered and smart.

Sometimes i pick a book from library just to return it after couple of weeks without actually reading it. This might repeat several times until i get in the mood to read it.

I enjoyed reading the road more then blood meridian

I buy cheap books to save money, even if the quality is sub-par. I'll also buy cheap foreign books with an old/unfavorible translations to save a few bucks.
I'm reading wrodsworth's edition of Huck Finn right now and the cover makes tom sawyer look like a lesbian, google it for a quick laugh.

>>12815032
I never read nonfiction and literally only know anything about philosophy from /lit/ and dumb memes

>>12820818
>Ovid was technically writing fanfiction

Right now I only read on the bus and it makes me forget fairly large portions of the plot.

>>12822539
>I read to justify my own lack of life experience by using literature as a surrogate for my own
This.

I can't remember what I've read. After 5 months almost like I never read the book. If you were to "cue" a part of the book (like a fill-in-the-blank question) I would be able to answer, but if you were to ask me what a book is about that I've read, I'll be at a loss for words. For instance, I read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow, and if you were to ask me about it, it would be probably take me 30 minutes to develop an answer that doesn't sound like I'm retarded.

I think it's because I read so much but talk about it so little that all that knowledge is inefficiently stored. I rarely if ever transfer book knowledge to conversational knowledge because I've never had anyone in my life that I could talk about interesting ideas with. So it's all there, just difficult to access.

>>12816081
based

>>12816243
why this nigga so mad lmao

>>12822377
Redheads are not /lit/

>>12823737
although a trope in failed literary attempts, redheads really do exist both in reality and high-brow literature

>>12823892
Wrong.

Critique of pure reason waits beside me in a table, but i just keep lurking /lit/

My new years resolution was to read 10 books. I haven't read a single thing.
I was supposed to read at least 2 passages on the bible this lent; nothing.

>>12817708
based

>>12817986
Khalil Gibran, Ibn Rushd and /lit/ sweetheart Nasim Taleb. idk anon I think you're missing out, the right arabs really do have something to say.

>>12817708
neither do i they always contain spoilers in my experience, or explain the sub plots and connections to the reader like they're a retard

>>12823953
Why would you start with the Bible lmao
If you don't manage to read a single book in 3 months you should probably start with something less demanding, just to get started.

I listen to audiobooks

I unironically like Hesse's works.

I actually prefer to think about something, even if it's shit than to read.

Reading is just there to feed my own thoughts. I don't like to read that much. I tire easily. I can barely manage to finish a book. I have been reading Fear and Trembling for more than a month now. I don't read most of the days. It doesn't seem to give me what I seek. Maybe it's my choice of books. I should maybe look for some more practical and accessible stuff.

>>12816274
>pic
that's an impressive chin strap

I'm like most of you in that I restrict myself to reading primarily classics. At the same time it's a cop out to just say that everything written now is shit. I think we have a responsibility to future generations to sift through the garbage and find what's valuable, I just can't motivate myself to do it.

>>12824173
I do this too. My library doesn't have many and I don't want to buy stuff I can get online for free.

>>12819971
I'm going to be very honest, anon - mixing English with your native language sounds absolutely terrible. I know many people who do it in my country and they invariably sound like dumb idiots who spend too much time consuming (anglophonic) pop culture and browsing Reddit, to the extent that their grasp of their native language starts to fade. I already spend a lot of time on the Internet, mostly reading text (as in, shitposts on this website) and try to balance that out by only reading books in English if that's the language they were written in - anything else, I read translations in my first language, if they exist.

books that are boring:
most greek oldies (iliad)
moby dick
infinite jest

also cormac mccarthy is overrated, and reading excessive violence doesn't make you cool.

tolstoy's resurrection made me a leftist

>>12815191
How is the first sentence of Ulysses pretentious?

>>12815032
Me too, I rarely look up words I don't know.

>>12821235
cringe. Please, elaborate?

i'm reading the idiot and not familiarizing myself with each character's name completely, leading to confusion and lost context/points sometimes
its just they change which name they are referred to, and they are all such similar names, and there is a shit ton of them, and just fuck

>>12815032
I can't be bothered to read, but when I do I love it. I don't get such a mindset. Probably autism or something. I also went straight to Cormac McCarthy for my first book.

>>12815032
>>12825415
If you can figure out the meaning from context, why would you look it up?

>>12819971
hi pewds

>>12815257
You are expected to know basic French well enough to roughly grasp those passages. Do you also complain about the Latin in Ulysses? Learn.

I pretty much only read Japanese light novels. I am trying to branch out though, I started Gravity's Rainbow and I like it a lot so far.

i'm very slow at reading and sometimes i have to read a paragraph several times to get it

>>12827358
Homosexuality doesn’t really belong there. Probably ago or maybe “bisexuality”

>>12817986
And you sir are a bigot

>>12815032
I buy books and never read them.

>>12824095
My copy of blood meridian was like this. First thing it said was "Mccarthy made this a ride from tart to finish, from the moment [X character appears] to the final moments of [Y characters life, where X character killed him]"

Fucking garbage and I hate it. Haven't read a foreword since unless they're written by the author, and even then I wait until I've finished the book.

I own almost a hundred books and have only read a dozen of them so far.

>>12815032
I ony read summaries kek

>>12825812
I had the same problem with the idiot. What i did to solve this was i wrote each characters name and a short discription on a blank page. That way i had a quick refrence to look at whenever i felt lost.

>>12821731
is that armitage in the space station window?

i read, but i don't really even enjoy it. I don't own a television, never leave the house, no friends, try to get off computer and do something else and that's reading

strangely i read 29 books this way last year including C&P and american psycho and the unrevised vision of On the Road. I'm already up to five books this year cons"sting of "consider phlebas", PDKs Valis, Neuromancer

but Im still not enjoying reading

>>12815602
I don't quite understand the scene where Captain Ahab hires a local dominatrix to shit in his mouth. I understand that it's supposed to be transgressive against our morality and add grittiness to the story, but it seems like Melville very seriously played up how much the captain enjoyed the smells and tastes, and how he had intentionally been neglecting to take his antibiotics so he could finally have his secret exposed when the e.coli killed him.

I haven't read a proper book since October, instead I've read 25 j novels.

>>12815032
Occasionally someone will try to showcase their knowledge in a subject I have read of in detail and I will accidentally show them up. I feel bad every time

i like reading the books in morrowind more than a lot of books i've tried to read but never was able to finish

I'm dyslexic so I often listen to an audiobook and read along to it

>>12816233
Kys nigger

>>12824221
Is this a sin? What's wrong with Hesse?

I open softcover books too much/too far. By the time I'm done with one it'll be ajar if I lay it down. I've noticed that other people do not do this when they return brand-new books to me that I haven't yet read.

>anons confess their sins
>butthurt faggots attack
So much onions in this board.

>anons confess their sins
>butthurt faggots attack
So much soi in this board.

>>12815032
I read translations

>>12827102
I mean this is mostly why I do it rarely unless I feel like doing it.

>>12829917
>What's wrong with Hesse?
He's hated here.

>>12825132
>mixing english with your native language sounds absoluteley terrible
mixing languages in general is absoluteley terrible, i recently read dostoyevsky's demons and stepan trofimovich annoyed me so much with his constant, pretentious french injections. as for non anglos inserting english vocabulary and phrases into their normal speech, it''s as you've written, and i tend to apply the same measures as you did.

>>12815032
I'm reading increasingly obscure political books and whenever i get drunk i enthusiastically talk about the recent ideas i've read about to my mostly non-reading friends.

I'm never going to read Greeks or anything political related. It kills all the enthusiasm for reading.

i barely even read at all.

>>12830897
You only read what’s is pleasurable to you?

Are you some kind of fucking retard? :3

>>12830940
Seems like it :(

My internal reading voice is Jean Luc Picard's

>>12815032
I hate most books I read. I find they have no meaning. They are just meh or trash. I only pretend to come to the same conclusion normal people do so I can carry on conversations and look intelligent.

>>12825672
Just love the book. Love the plot, I think it's hilarious. Really got me into reading in high school. Also the "God give me the serenity..." poem really impacted me growing up. Became a life motto of mine, and repeating it to myself in hard situations has helped tremendously.

>>12831566
Mine is Sean Bean. Too much Civ6.

>>12822539
I LOVE HT EBOOK OF DISQUIET IT'S ALSO ONE OF MY FAVOURITES

>>12817986
>top oriental writers that have been translated like Murakami
yikes

The only real reason I read books is to look more intelligent, educated and interesting.

>>12815032
I keep telling myself to read 5 pages a day but just keep browsing social media left and right, its like a drug

>>12815032
90% of what i read is sci-fi and cosmic horror
i can count on both of my hands the little non fiction i've read

I burn books after I finish them

>>12817986
>top orienral writers
>murakami
kys brainlet

>>12815032
Thus spake Zarathustra is currently my toiletbook, the short chapters are perfect when taking a dump

>>12835431
am I supposed to imagine you a lord in his armchair who throws read books into the fire place or rather a bum in front of a burning steel barrel?

>>12833310
Kit Harrington (if male)
Ygritte from GoT (if female)

>>12822247
It's reddit as fuck. Might as well confess to enjoying the Deadpool movies.

I like the konosuba light novels

>>12815032
I assume the meaning of words I don’t know based on their context, and can go years before I catch myself using the word wrong.

I only ever read books on my phone when I don't have access to wi-fi, other times I always end up distracted by other things.

>>12815055
This but I got two translations of the Illiad and tried reading both at once.

>>12819344
Fucking casual. I just use the dictionary to come up with my own books, then I don’t write them because I already know the ending.

i cant read

The reason I got into reading was because [Spoiler]I had an incest fetish and I liked reading fictional situations about it[/Spoiler] It's both a good and a bad thing.

>>12828540
I’ve never read moby dick does this actually happen

>>12822621

>>12837514
based

I read the novelizations of the assassin's creed games books when I was in high school.
They were pretty much just straight retellings of the games so I don't know why I bothered. The third one was kinda cool though since most of it was from the perspective of the main villain instead of his shitty son.

>>12835968
>female reading voice
fag

>>12815583
Ever since I was young I’ve always had an interest in word derivatives. Whenever I learn a new word I almost always instinctually connect it with other words I know (whether it’s an English root word, or another more common word that derived from the new word I’m learning, or perhaps a Latin origin that I’m somewhat familiar with), and this has always helped me integrate words into my vocabulary almost as soon as I discover them. It might just be something I do but if it’s a method that works it might be helpful.

>>12816288
That’s not a misuse of the term projecting.

>>12817423
I feel like my reading speed is way too slow. As a kid I used to read books at the pace at which I’d imagine the words being spoken in real time. I can read faster than that but I worry I’ve severely inhibited my ability to read quickly and effectively.

>>12815032
I buy a lot o books, like 5 per month or more, but i read less that i like to admit

I bought the same book twice bcs I forgot that I already had it

>>12815032
I can't read

>>12815166
This is embarrassing.

>>12817708
>>12822539
>>12822621
Holy...BASED

I lied about reading 1984 for a long time

>>12815032
i always read the posts with the most replies

my undergrad thesis (100 pages) is due in two weeks and i haven't started

>>12843861
I thought 1984 was fahrenheit 451 because they both have numbers in their title and it confused me
t. IQlet

I read Forgotten Realms novels (and warhammer too)

>>12815032
I'm reading Underwold and Wuthering Heights. I can't get into them. underworld is just delillo jacking off to his own prose. wuthering heights is just dickens without the humor.

>>12815032
My favorite book is The International Jew by Henry Ford.

>>12843886
writing under education is only for practice when you grow older and wish to pursue an argument if you dont wish to do that there isnt a problem with not writing it and failing but if you decide to change your mind you can always write a thesis on your own time

>>12817708
based

>>12822539
based

>>12815032
I'm reading the Blood Meridian and I can't stand the way he writes, I've been stuck trying to read it for the past month.

>>12837419

i got a boner while reading lolita :(

>>12844061
My confession is I listened to the audiobook of blood meridian.
It's pretty good, if you're honestly struggling that much give it a go, his style works read out loud.

>>12844301
It really does, which is the worse part about reading it. It feels like I am reading someone telling me a story, which is super weird to me, which is why I am struggling so much with this book.

>>12844320
https://www.audible.com/pd/Blood-Meridian-Audiobook/B002V8N2UE
this is the one i listened to, the narrator was great, you could probably find a rip of it somewhere pretty easily but i think audible is a good deal.

>>12844329
thanks bro

>>12843886
write your thesis brainlet

>>12815179
>>12815191
>>12819649
Successfully buzzfed.

>>12844061
I'm reading a different book by him. Same.

>>12824010
Taleb is not Muslim. Or Arab. He makes that very clear in his tweets.

>>12845287
thx it helps. 1000 words in now. I will try

I feel like I'm too stupid to read books and also lack motivation to make reading become a habit.

>>12815045
this

>>12837361
me

>>12815032
Anyone else read a great deal and never seem to remember anything they read after a month or so?

I've tried making notes, discussing the books, and so on but nothing sticks.

t. brainlet

>>12845638
Yeah, depends on the books. If I thought about it a lot after the fact then I may remember anecdotes, how I felt, and certain captivating events. Otherwise I sometimes forget I read a book at all.

>>12815392
As for me, I struggled to finish crime and punishment. It was tedious and boring. I can't enjoy fiction desu I start to think it's a waste of time and get nervous

Most books I read don't really leave an impression on me. I enjoy researching books more than reading.

>>12821563
Oh it's you, dad and dyings son dialogue in Brothers K. guy.

>>12837560
Yes, it's Melville shot about the captain's perception of the futility of life. It was amazing.

>>12834575
>keep telling myself to read 5 pages a day
Fucking casual piece of shit.

>>12815032
I keep looking for erotic lit that caters to my very specific weight gain fetish but I can never find anything good

>>12830027
>soi
i don't know what this means

>>12815032 I force myself to cry in the stalls in public restrooms so that I can feel some kind of emotion and, I pretended to be depressed and upset to gain sympathy from someone because I'm a social autist who doesn't know how to talk to people

>>12817629
same

I read the Gears of War novelizations in high school and in early college as well. >>12839345

onto confessions:
I can't get into fiction (especially science fiction) like I used to back in the day. To put in reference, I bought a 500 page sci-fi novel and it's taken me close to 2 years to finish, and I'm still not done.

I have a bad habit of buying foreign language books, but not actually reading them.

I hate Anglo-American Literature and have avoided it for a long time since high school.

I can't get into poetry, and don't know how to approach it.

>>12815032
I've never read Crime & Punishment but I've made at least 200 posts on /lit/ where I pretend I have

I give up on books once I'm near the end. It's been months since I started on Dracula. I am right at the end, no more notes (Oxford edition) but can't bring myself to finish it.
>>12845638
Me, that's why I reread a lot.

>>12828431
>read 29 books last year
>but Im still not enjoying reading
What level of self-denial is this?

>>12848923
Despicable. The book is so introductory to read and if you picked up the penguin classics translation one, it should even be easier. Your punishment should be simple and that is to be called a fraud for the rest of your life.

>>12815055
It starts out really good but devolves into Melville talking about whaling horseshit until the end. I feel your pain.