/lit/ - Literature

weird, I've been reading seriously for over a decade and have never asked this kind of question about anything. Guess I'm a maverick.

>>14521997
I’d recommend “the Color Out Of Space” to start. It’s pretty relatable and easy to read.
But I’ve never felt that his works require much of an order.

>>14521979
Chronologically.

It doesn't matter

>>14522007
Don't do this.

>>14521979
Start with reading the book that contains the greatest quantity of the letter "z", then slowly working your way back to "a", at which point everything will start to glow, while crossing the event horizon and reaching neckbeard nirvana.

I followed pic related. It’s up to you really, but
If you start with the Cthulhu mythos or the dream cycle or any short story that’s part of a group, it’s better to read them all together.

>>14521979
Read this front to back

>>14522127
Lol this is bad. The Complete Fiction doesn't have spelling errors, it retains the alternate spellings of the time. The book is wonderfully sturdy and designed beautifully.

>>14522144
>The Complete Fiction doesn't have spelling errors, it retains the alternate spellings of the time. The book is wonderfully sturdy and designed beautifully.
I'll take your word for it. I didn't make write that. Someone else posted it a while ago. I'm only a messenger.

>>14522158
I know =^)

>AAAAARGH ITALIANS I'M GOING INSAAAANEE

>>14522285
lol

>>14522127
>Some of his best
>Dagon

God, going through At the mountains of madness is such a slog, he's already described the exact same landscape like ten times... He really shines a lot more with his medium length stuff like Colour and Dunwich.

>>14521979
idk I started with his poem "On the Creation of Niggers" then read "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family"

>>14521979
I was going to reccommend some introductory work of his but >>14522127 pretty much sums up where to start.
The rats in the walls and the music of erich zann are probably what I would state are the best introductry stories to get the general appeal of Lovecraft.

>>14522127
I have not had this experience with the B&N leatherbound

I recommend starting with HPLs Library of America edition. That or the penguin collection for a more inexpensive option.

>>14522308
Based Bjork brandishing a Black Sun tattoo

>>14522466
The rats in the walls is probably one of my favourite Lovecraft story but I found the music of erich zann underwhelming. The rats in the wall was one of the first story I read though.

Houellebecq says these are the best:

"Finally, we can draw a definitive fourth circle, at the absolute heart of HPL's myth, that contains what most rabid Lovecraftians continue to call, almost in spite of themselves, the "great texts". I will cite them here for the pleasure of it alone, along with the date of their composition:

The Call of Cthulhu (1926)
The Colour Out of Space (1927)
The Dunwich Horror (1928)
The Whisperer in Darkness (1930)
At the Mountains of Madness (1931)
The Dreams in the Witch House (1932)
The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1932)
The Shadow Out of Time (1934)"

>>14522009
THIS
anything else is wrong

>>14522009
IN ORDER OF WRITING.

If you go by publish order, you'll be reading things that were up to 10 years old on average.

>>14521979
The whisper in darkness is a pretty good and balanced Lovecraft work to start out with in my personal opinion. You have SciFi elements, minor cuthulu mythos stuff, very light racial elements, wonderfully building tension, and even a "frightingly ironic" bit where readers who are paying attention will realize something the MC doesn't which, if you're suitably engaged, will feel like a gut punch, and a lot of "lovecraft self inserting again" you'll need to get used to.

>>14523483
I will also caution anyone starting here to not read the notes by ST Joshi until the end as they contain spoilers. I've not seen him do this in any of his other notes, but it can dump cold water on you three fourths of the way through.

>>14521979
Dagon
The Call of Cthulhu
The Music of Erich Zann
The Doom That Came to Sarnath
The Dunwhich Horror
Celephais
The Colour Out of Space
The Quest of Iranon
The Ulthar
The Rats in the Walls
The Silver Key
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Tomb
The Whisperer in Darkness
The Thing on the Doorstep
The Curse of Yig
Pickman's Model
The White Ship
Cool Air
Hypnos

http://www.hplovecraft.com

>>14521979
Doesn't matter.

They are merely entertaining. They don't have some psylosophical system underlying them.

When, long ago, the gods created Earth
In Jove's fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th'Olympian host conceiv'd a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a Nigger.

Color of Space is my favorite, the only one that legitimately freaked me out.
Thing on the Doorstep probably second favorite.
I also like the Horror at Redhook even though that one gets shit on a lot.