/lit/ - Literature

>>14366831
Depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Usually, just read what you want and avoid falling into stuff you dislike because of this place's No True Scotsman culture

>>14366831

It both is and isn't a meme.

>>14366845
I want to read for entertainment while at the same time learning/exploring philosophy

>>14366858
I suggest starting with simple stuff like 1984, Brave New World, and various fables. If you want more philosophy than entertainment, I suggest the introductory works to major philosophies and ideologies, like Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spake Zarathustra, Plato's works, unironically the Bible, Marx's Das Kapital, and various founding documents from the U.S.'s birth, like the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. It's important to read a variety of conflicting topics so you can formulate your own opinions and unique thoughts. At some point during that process, you'll also learn for yourself what is and isn't worth reading.

>>14366948
>It's important to read a variety of conflicting topics so you can formulate your own opinions and unique thoughts
That's gay as fuck don't do it op. Instead do as he said up until then and just pick anything that has come up on your radar since then that you deem enjoyable for its own sake.

>>14366831
Read what you want, then you'll go back and read the greeks so you can better understand what you read.

>>14367037
agreed that’s gay, and naive to assume you will understand all those writings enough to have a ‘unique opinion’. read what interests you as the great Taleb has said before.

It's a vague statement. You could spend a lifetime on the Greeks. It's not just a route you suddenly finish with a couple books. There are some foundational texts like Plato and Aristotle but even with them you could spend years on them. Sorry I don't have a solution.

>>14367091
would you suggest to start with Plato, then Iliad and Odyssey? I havent even read those yet

>>14367076
who knows, he will probably get curious about the greeks anyway

>>14366831
ah-bloo-bloo

>>14367103
This is pretty good. I did this minus the plays and histories although I do plan on reading them later. I'm on Plato.
I did Mythology, Homer, Presocratics, Plato

>>14367037
I think that it depends if he's reading more for entertainment or more for philosophy. OP only really specifies that he wants to do both, but doesn't mention a priority. If for entertainment, then yeah, it really doesn't matter what is read. If for philosophy, developing your own thoughts and opinions will grant further nuanced perspective, which in turn encourages even greater philosophy. Though, that's just my opinion on it, and I can see how some would be opposed to it.

You have to read backwards. Read whatever interests you then read whomever inspired that writer and follow it backwards until you get to The Greeks.

>>14367194
philosophy should be read for entertainment

>>14366831
There is no best path because every textual experience is unique based on what you read before it. If you start with the Greeks, then you will interpret contemporary works in the Greek shadow. Otherwise, you could interpret the Greeks in the contemporary shadow. Either case may yield an interesting result.

But if you're just trying to "get it over with," then

Mandatory: Plato, Aristotle
Semi-important: Homer, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, Sophocles