/lit/ - Literature

My friend said Sorokin's book on Altruism saved him

>>16279717

dont do it fren

>>16279717
Read Matthew Chapters 5,6,7.

>>16279717
Yes and no.

>>16279717
Hope this chart helps

House of Leaves saved me from a dark place by simply making that dark place more literal and real. It’s still a horrifying concept but I suppose knowing your enemy makes it much easier to face. I still get lost in the labyrinthian pages of that book...

I was in Africa and I don't like N at the best of times but over there they were really pissing me off. Constant aggressive begging while behind them is a pile of rubbish but behind that is beautiful countryside they're just trashing. If you've never been to Africa you won't understand what I mean.
Anyway, I started reading American psycho out there and something just switched in my psyche. I was basically fantasizing about ways to hurt them and was on the verge of hiring a prostitute so I could beat the absolute shit out of her. One of the guys talked me out of it. I kept thinking burning them. They're pretty much literal NPC's so I didn't really give a fuck. Wide open spaces with lots of animals and pretty much 0 chance of getting caught. I'm not trying to say that it influenced me or brainwashed me, it just clicked with my mindset out there. When I came home it wore off but I kept rereading the book. It was probably the worst book to read out there. The opposite of what you asked. It didn't save me, it made me much worse I think.
In the middle east I read the biography of Nathan Bedford Forrest. It was truly inspiring. Really changed my mindset.
Inb4 edgelord or whatever I'm just being honest. Never really told anyone how close I came to going postal over there.

>>16279717
The Swiss family Robinson. Never mind that the old Disney edition was the first book I ever read, but the original is just so fucking comfy. It's really hard to be bitter or sad or angry when you're reading a comfy book like that.

The first time I read the original I was really surprised how religious it was, and as an American growing up with American religious teaching, I was really dreading what I would read- but it's not an American book.

The MC is just a really sweet, smart, good-natured pious man that teaches his sons to be resourceful and kind with a gentle hand and wise words. I love the original just as much as the version I read for the first time when I was six years old.

God, I love this book, and it drives me crazy that no one else seems to have read it.

>>16279717
>>16279992
and of course, the story is of them becoming shipwrecked on a deserted island, but the point is, is that they never give up, or despair. It's just... so comfy.

A book probably won't turn your life around, but it'll make you feel better.

Houquellebeq’s The Elementary Particles did that for me

Cien años de soledad pulled me in and made me forget about depression while reading it. The intertwining of time there was just enchanting and made me want to read more, thus stop thinking sad shit all the time.

>>16279803
Think The Dream of a Ridiculous Man would fit better for that chart than The Brothers Karmazov.
Don't get me wrong I love BK but the former is more uplifting.

>>16279717
I don't know if any book has ever 'rescued" me, but there are some books that are so engrossing it's easy to lose yourself. Recently read The Stranger and despite being kind of dark, there was something strangely cathartic and funny about it.

denial of death
meditations
the stranger
crime and punishment

>>16279817

>>16279717
Reading VALIS by Philip K. Dick marked the end of my suicidal materialist pessimist years.
I then read the gospels and was filled light and hope. Later on I started to experiment with psychedelics that assured me of the sacredness of life.

>>16279896
I hope you'll slit your throat sooner or later

>>16279801
old dead white men