/lit/ - Literature

>>14593154

>>14593154
tldr

>>14593199
>It's very hard to read

>>14593154
>It's very hard to read
i think fine literature may not be for you, op

>>14593205
Are you really going to pretend Brave New World is perfectly fine for a beginner?

>>14593223
if your english isnt that good then i recommend reading easier books until you get better or just reading books written in your native language (if you share what that is then you can get recommendations) but if youre EFL then you have no excuse, my first books outside of school were Lolita and Pale Fire

>>14593223
also, you know what? Brave New World fuckin sucks, dystopian is the most midwit type of fiction there is
try reading something else

I’m also ESL and struggle with books /lit/ recommends.
Is there any charts/list for people like me ?

>>14593293
you can go the wiki and sort by country

>>14593257
I think my English is okay since I can easily understand pretty much everything that I'm interested in, but I was really overwhelmed by the amount of words I'd never seen in my life when I tried reading Brave New World. The way it's written makes it difficult for me to understand it in general, too.
>or just reading books written in your native language
Maybe this is weird, but I really like English and want to (((actually))) get good at it and be able to read even more advanced stuff; also, I don't really like my native language and want to move to another country as soon as I get the chance.
>>14593278
>try reading something else
I am, but I don't know where to begin. I don't even know what kind of stories I like right now. I could read books that my favorite movies or games are based on, but I kind of want to read stuff that everybody has read and experience new stories too.
I liked "Something Like Summer", it was a fun and easy to read book, and I want to read the other ones in that series, but for now I want to try something different. Maybe a good horror story?

>>14593223
...yes? It is a very simple book where the author beats you over the head with the same ideas ad nauseam. In fact, its simplicity is to its detriment. It reads like a midwit manifesto rather than a work interested in thorough psychological examination of the inhabitants of the world. You're not wrong that it is aggressively uninteresting. The whole experience is a teflon chute where nothing outside the expected can happen because the characters are stereotypes instead of humans. The ending is contrived garbage lacking any reason or motivation beyond the author's juvenile fixation on spectacle.

>>14593223
it's the perfect prep for Lot49 so yes

>>14593355
the easiest book ive ever read is Kokoro, which was translated from japanese, so you might not want to read it since it's not actually english
in my particular translation that I read, the TL stated that Kokoro was written in a very simple, straightforward way and he tried to preserve that. I dont think you'd have much trouble reading it. plus it was an okay read

>>14593154
We were assigned this in junior year of high school. Very hard to read. wtf?

>>14593223
I get what you're trying to say. Start with this instead.

>>14593378
thanks, anon, I'll check out Kokoro tonight

>>14593391
my freshman year of HS (burgerstan) we read the Odyssey, which I think was a little too much for a bunch of 14 y/os
I think we also read Frankenstein that year, which was a bit easier but still pretty hard

>>14593398
>>14593391
I'm sorry English isn't my first language, bros. I really am. There's nothing I can do about it, I'm trying my hardest to learn it, so don't be mean, thanks.

Read:
The Stranger by Camus
Post Office by Bukowski

These are newbie friendly

>>14593415
The odyssey is unironically harder than BNW since you can analyze it near indefinitely while BNW is a relatively straightforward novel of ideas.

>>14593433
>The Odyssey
>analysis
it's literally ancient capeshit

>>14593423
Thank you, I will.

>>14593419
get a dictionary and look up every word you don't know. If its something like "gene" or some other scientific term then read the wikipedia page for it. You may benefit from reading at least the beginning of the plot on wiki as well. Books like this don't lose much if at all from being spoiled

>>14593355
>I could read books that my favorite movies or games are based on
You probably wont have any problems reading these. There is a pretty big divide in how genre fiction and more /lit/ books are written. I rarely have to look up vacalulary in science fiction or fantasy books as opposed to whatever is listed in the lit starter pack

>>14593454
>needing to read the wiki page for "gene"
OP said he was ESL, not special needs

>>14593450
Another tip. If you're doing nothing but reading the blurb before starting literature you're doing it wrong. Read the wiki page for the book where it talks about its themes, its historical context. Also read the authors wiki page biography. If you don't do this all you're doing is setting yourself up for having to read the book twice.

>>14593423
These are ok, but Post Office is easily Bukowski's worst. Ham on Rye is way better.
>>14593154
I don't blame you entirely. Huxley is not a very good writer, even though his ideas are interesting. If you still want your dystopian pill, read Animal Farm then 1984. Orwell's prose is catchy as fuck.

>>14593391
probably some low iq ESL

>>14593466
It was a basic example you twat. The beginning of BNW gets somewhat deep into genealogy

>>14593472
>Read the wiki page for the book where it talks about its themes, its historical context. Also read the authors wiki page biography.
holy shit imagine doing this

Murakami is a good place to start. English translations of his books use fairly simple language and grammar and his writing certainly engages with younger adults because of its contemporary themes.

If you're not into the vibe of his writing, try anthologies of folk stories from different cultures?

Its often the case that literature in mature languages carry a great deal of 'literary tradition', Huxley in particular was part of a larger movement of English literature and very much wrote for his time, so I can understand why you didn't find it engaging.

Try Russian short stories; Russian literature is relatively young and you can follow its development from simple folktales to epics like War and Peace, and more.

>>14593480
Read this book blind and tell me what, if anything, you get out of it.

>>14593223
English is not hard, brainlet. It is disgusting and non-artistic but not hard

>>14593433
There's a novelization of the Odyssey that's a lot easier to read, I think it's meant for high school students. That could be alright for OP.

>>14593154
Try looking into young adult books, they might be a little easier until you've grown your vocabulary more. It might help to use a card as a bookmark and write down any words you're unfamiliar with.

>>14593495
lol why would I do that when I could just read its wiki page?

>>14593154
Use your kindle

>>14593378
I think generally, translations are much simpler than the original, so it might be a good idea for OP to look into more translations.

Dubliners is easy, not that it's a translation. Hard Boiled Wonderland is also good and easy too.

>>14593472
>Read the wiki page
Don't those have spoilers though? I never watch trailers for vidya and movies because I like going in blind, is that a bad thing when it comes to reading?
>>14593454
>get a dictionary and look up every word you don't know.
I have a kindle, so looking up words is easy, but I've seen a lot of people say that it's actually not that great of an idea as it ruins the flow of the story and makes the experience far from enjoyable in general. I don't understand how I'm supposed to learn new words without looking them up first though.
>>14593474
>If you still want your dystopian pill, read Animal Farm then 1984. Orwell's prose is catchy as fuck.
Thanks, anon, I'm adding those two to my "to-read" list.
>>14593487
>Murakami is a good place to start.
I read 1Q84 a couple of years ago when I was in uni, and I don't remember having any issues with that one. I think it has 3 parts though, so I may need to read the first one again before reading the other two. Thanks for replying!
>>14593507
Which language is beautiful in your opinion?
>>14593514
>Try looking into young adult books
That's what I've been reading actually.
>>14593523
I do. Word Wise is a really cool feature actually.

>>14593523
whenever i come across a word i dont know, i just ignore it and continue reading. is this the correct thing to do? i honestly dont think about whether i do or dont know each particular word in a sentence, i just read the sentence or passage as a whole and absorb what i can
besides, it's not like knowing all the words 100% guarantees that you completely understood the sentence, ya know?

>>14593551
>Don't those have spoilers though?
stop caring about spoilers thats pleb thinking. Spoilers dont lessen your enjoyment and if all there is to a book is a stupid twist it wasnt a good book in the first place.

>Don't those have spoilers though?
If you don't read the "plot" section there are no spoilers

>>14593568
Listen to this OP. Spoilers only matter for genre trash
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/spoiler-alert-spoilers-make-you-enjoy-stories-more

>>14593551
>I don't understand how I'm supposed to learn new words without looking them up first though.
finish the chapter/paragraph and go back to look up what you didnt understand

>>14593557
>whenever i come across a word i dont know, i just ignore it and continue reading
I used to look up every single word I didn't know. I think that's why I stopped reading at some point as it didn't feel very enjoyable unless I was REALLY into the book. I tried to find something about reading in a foreign language on plebbit, and pretty much all of the comments were like "you shouldn't look up every word; try to guess the meaning by the context; write the words down if necessary and look them up later". I don't get how I'm supposed to learn those words though and get better at reading in general, however I think the general idea is that you should pick books that aren't hard for you to read and look up words that you think are important for the story/appear several times in the book, and once your vocabulary is big enough, move on to more advanced stuff.
>>14593568
>>14593586
Not knowing what's going to happen and feeling genuinely surprised by a plot twist is nice too, but I see what you mean- experiencing the story again once you know everything can be very enjoyable as well.
>>14593622
Wouldn't writing the words down and looking them up later be better for that, though? But there's another problem in that case, you may not remember the right meaning of each of the words.

>>14593223
Yes, literally every 10th grader in America reads bnw

>>14593419
You'll do alright mate, try reading some Dickens instead of messing around with /lit/ lists. Great Expectations is really good along with David Copperfield and would most likely suit you better.

>>14593737
>Great Expectations
>David Copperfield
Added both to the list, thanks anon

I read and understood BNW when I was like 12. It really is very simple.

>>14593557
i do the same thing. i would occasionally look up some of the spanish spoken in blood meridian, but i dont bother looking up words i dont know

>>14593154
This is more your speed OP

OP here, I’m reading 1984 now, I’m hooked

>>14593154
>paperwhite
Should've bought the Oasis.

>>14593830
Classic Carle