/lit/ - Literature

Bad, five books up to this moment. I have no energy to pick up something and read.

>>17781480
Just started my reading journey this year, so absolute newfag here.
I've read Plato's Apology, Crito, Symposium, Charmides and Republic.
I'm now reading Iliad.

>>17781480
Wanted to read 75 but had to readjust to 50. It's been a mostly mediocre reading year thus far.

It might look like a lot but most of these books are pretty short. I've been trying to spend more time on Greek because progress is slow.

only just got back into it in the last week of january, so feels pretty good for only 2 months of reading.

>>17781656
Based

a few of these were greek plays, a couple other shorter things. So the number is inflated. I consider myself to have read 6-8 books as far as moving towards my goal for the year of 24 -- so still on track.

It is what it is.

>>17781656
make a goodreads son

>>17781670
Thucydides is not an easy read at least

>>17781719
I also have ~800 more pages read that aren't accounted for here because they books are in progress. I started reading more in December and made a new year's resolution to read more. It's been going really well so far.

>>17781723
I'm completely clueless about it. It helps me tracking what I've read? It's like a personal catalog?

Not like I have a goal or purpose. Just plenty of free time.

>>17781747
Lol what books are you reading?

>>17781739
yeh it's basically a way of keeping a log of what you've read, what you're reading, and what you want to read. It's a common concept even before the internet, eg my dad has a log of all the books he's read past 25 years, and when he got on goodreads he just entered all that info in. You don't need to add dates and stuff though if you don't want, it's not required. The site works pretty well for both extremely minimal usage (just click read on books you've read) to more detailed management, like tracking what page you're on in in-progress books, the start and end dates of reading a book, details of re-reads, which exact edition of the work you read, and so on. It also just generally does a pretty good job, in my opinion, of making you feel good about reading. Things like setting a goal for the year, showing you how many pages you've read, all of that just entices me to read even more. It's like the thing Facebook and YouTube do to make you want to consoom, except Goodreads makes me want to consoom books, which is way better. I'm not actually a con-zoomer, I'm not just speed reading through books to mark them as done, it's just that goodreads has inspired me to spend more time reading than I probably would otherwise.

>>17781480
It's been alright.

>>17781757
Mostly history and genre fiction.

Why, yes, I do count every single Greek play I read as an individual book even though I'm actually reading them from one single book. How could you tell?
>tfw still have 22 left
Damn, I might actually hit like 75 books this year

>>17781819
retarded. The only valid way to do it is to count it at 3 books (one for each writer)

>>17781819
wew, even lower average page count than me >>17781719

>>17781768
Thanks for the tip, will create an account. Seems pretty useful.

I read about 3-4 hours almost every day.

>>17781843
What books bro

>>17781885
It's nothing deep or spectacular. I read a lot of non-fiction on sexual evolutionary behavior, persuasion, psychopathy/sociopathy. Every once in a while I'll read fiction for fun like something by Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk or Michel Houellebecq.

The reason I read so much is because if I don't wear out my mind, I am prone to overthinking which causes problems. So, it's more like a compulsion.

>>17781480
Almost done with the recognitions :,)
It’s a mammoth book kind of year this year.

>>17781819
How cringe is that account picture, lord

>>17781838
Yeah, reading plays does that to you
>>17781997
What's wrong? It's literally me

>>17781950
>lot of non-fiction on sexual evolutionary behavior, persuasion, psychopathy/sociopathy
excellent choice, you should read some actual biology too and write down your ideas. search them up, and if they have been discovered, you can know for certain that you are intelligent.

5 bookies

Very well. Jim Corbett and Cormac McCarthy were both pleasant surprises, hadn't read anything from either before and they're both quickly becoming favourites, and I managed to break the rut losing the commute in 2020 put me in. I read like 3 books from March-December last year without it.

>>17781480
Only reading poetry but just going back and forth about a dozen collections so I'm not really done with any of them but regardless am reading.

>>17781480

I think I will get professional help

>>17782802
Yes
YES

>>17781980
I just finished Recognitions yesterday anon it was incredible. williamgaddis.org is a nice resource if you aren't already using it

5 books, didn't read for all of february because i was distracted by business. should probably get back to it.

Pretty good

>>17781480
currently 6690 pages in completed books, about 70% through vollmann's europe central in addition.
>best book so far
leviathan and it's enemies - samuel t francis
>worst book so far
a methodology of posession - james ellis

>>17782935
What's it about? Why is everyone reading it

40/50

4/12
1600 pages or so
>faust
>napoleon: a life
>the stranger
>no exit

>>17783471
How was the Napoleon book? I've been wanting to read a Napoleon biography.

But I thought /lit/ doesn't actually read??

>>17783557
its nice but the author does apologia for non-pc opinions like his misogyny or reinstituting slavery twice. also during the russian section he gives his opinion on "how nappy could have won," which is just as stupid as "how hitler could have won" takes. the first 300 pages are very well written though

>>17781480
the underground railroad
the master of atlantis
wise blood
bastard out of carolina

working on the moor's last sigh

>>17783574
Sounds like it would piss me off

>>17783574
Thanks, I'll give it a try.

>>17783596
its only every hundred pages or so, as he did a lot of things

>>17781670
Are you a feudalist, anon?

i need to read more

>>17781480

20 so far, decent mix of stuff as well. Pretty happy with it all things considered.

>>17783575
nice

>>17784042
post the list so we can judge you

Finally finished Capital. Finished For Whom the Bell Tolls. Finished this Spanish book I was reading.

Fuck, it's March and only 3 books? I know Capital is long but still feels bad man. That said, getting started on The Old Man and the Sea and The Iliad now, hopefully I don't take forever to finish them as well.

>>17784342
Drive your plow over the bones of the dead - Olga Tokarczuk
Patrick White - Voss
The End of Policing - Alex S. Vitale
The Art of Thought of Heraclitus - Charles H. Kahn
Deleuze - a Guide for the perplexed - Claire Colebrook
Spinoza - Ethics
Spinoza's Ethics - Beth Lord (read alongside the above)
The Sailor who Fell From Grace with the Sea - Yukio Mishima
Difference and Repetition - Deleuze
Deleuze's 'Difference and Repetition' - Joe Hughes
Death in Midsummer - Yukio Mishima
The Ye of the Sibyl and other Stories -Phillip K Dick
Do Androids Dream of electric Sheep - Phillip K Dick
Human Rights - Illusory Freedom - Luke Gittos
Runaway Horses - Yukio mishima
The Temple of Dawn - Yukio Mishima
The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima
Freshwater - Akwaeke Emezi
Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler.

how do you do fellow /lit/-izens

I wanted to read 12 books but so far I only read half of one book (450 pages)

I feel bad for basically having an extended mental breakdown for two weeks where I stopped reading everything, but I just finished my tenth book a few minutes ago so it’s nice to feel back on track.

>>17784413
>Drive your plow over the bones of the dead
is this one
is this one good? it sounds interesting

>>17781480
finishing my 9th book later today

>>17781480
It was my intention to read two books each month, but I've been slacking off in February.

>>17781480
How many reviews have you written for those books?

How the hell have you guys read so many books. I'm barely on the 3rd one

>>17786071
Chill, everyone reads at their own pace! Not a competition

>>17781480
i have beencome retraded and it makes me angry.

>>17786071
Just take your time. You can clearly tell some people blatantly speed read to go through books so their stats can go up. They probably don't even remember what they've read after the fact.

>>17786071
Learn to speedread.

>Wikipedia the plot beforehand so you already know the gist of it - things will fall into place much more smoothly, won't need to backtrack (waste of time).
>Skim for key points. You can skip most descriptions of things and focus on the dialogue.
>Don't subvocalise, slows you down about 80% I figure.
>Set reading targets and meet them everyday. I try and read at least 150 pages.
>A lot of people will say it's "not allowed", but audiobooks on 2x speed during downtime.

I've read 32 books this year already, all works in the Western Canon.

I'm on the third book of war and peace so it's taken a while
I do need to generally read more as I'm a NEET and reading somehow makes me feel more sane.

>>17786121
is this some new form of bait?

>intentionally spoil yourself with summaries
>skip most of the work and just read the dialog

why even bother reading at that point? might as well stick to wikipedia you started out with.

it's going good

>>17786154
>t. jealous double-digit IQ

I read to absorb the Western Canon and preserve the Western tradition. Reading for pleasure is for women.

>>17786193
> reading for pleasure is for women
All of this could have been prevented if your mom loved you

>>17786223
>Why yes, I do read for pleasure. I love China!

Reading a lot of early modern philosophy, poetry, and nonfiction this year. Pic related is just stuff I finished; I have the horrible habit of reading like 6-7 books at once, a lot of which I'm nearly done. Favorite book I finished is Spinoza's Ethics.

>>17786108
Do you think you're going to remember everything if you limit yourself to one book per year?

>>17786121
great advice

>>17786154
cringe

>>17786121
>Skim for key points. You can skip most descriptions of things and focus on the dialogue.
Is this how bugmen are born?

>>17786456
I'm more cultured than you are.

>>17784413
>The Temple of Dawn - Yukio Mishima
>The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

I've read first two, how are these?

>>17786121
Do bugmen really?

>>17784497
lol

22 books so far. Mostly Japanese novels.

>>17786108
Gignatic cope

>>17783993
I wouldn't describe myself that way but I'm certainly sympathetic. I'm sure there's a lot of variance but I know there were periods and places under feudalism where peasants effectively owned their own land and were able to pass it on to their children and as far as that's true and I could support it.

>>17781480
29 git good plebs

Technically I have only finished 3 books so far this year, but I am most of the way through a 2000 page book and halfway through a 1000 page book. So that should count for something

>>17786460
I don't doubt it.

So far I have read the entirety of In Search of Lost Time, The Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man, By Night In Chile and Reading Proust. Right now, I am reading Heinrich Böll's Billiards at half past nine.

Since mid Dec 2020. some 220 titles I've gone through. 80--110 of which not fully, bc unworthy.

>>17786755
nice

>>17786793
glsnumbers won't go away, stop laughing

>>17783206
NYRB just brought it back into publication which is why so many people are now reading it. It's about art and what it means to be original, among many many other things. It's American Postmodern, a doorstopper, and it's very subtle, so not getting filtered is a bit of a challenge

I'm still reading Meditations.

>>17781480
>have a number of omnibus and other collected editions
>everyone's raving about "X number of read individual books"
So system is geared against me?

>>17781480
Can you faggots stop with these threads.
Seriously, nobody gives a shit how many books you vain retards read.
Imagine going up to someone and saying I have a goal of reading 50 books this year.

>>17787094
I care

>>17787094
Booklet detected

>>17787094
I enjoy these threads because it never fails to make certain people insecure.

>>17787143
>I enjoy shitting in the streets because it never fails to make certain people disgusted.

>>17787094
I enjoy these threads because it dispells the r*ddit cliche that /lit/ doesn't read, which is mostly perpetuated by projecting pseuds who want to feel better about their laziness

>>17787180
I don't think posting a thread is equivalent to shitting in the street or causing people to be insecure is equivalent to causing people to be disgusted. You probably wouldn't make such bad equivocations if you read a little more.

>>17787199
>You probably wouldn't make such bad equivocations if you read a little more.
To be fair, it was obvious anon above was a brainlet when he made an equivocation between making this thread on a literature community and going up to strangers telling them about your reading goals for no reason.

>>17783993
He’s a hiki NEET

>>17786716
>reading the entire of proust in probably 8 weeks

jesus i feel sorry for you. akin to listening to beethovens 9th on 1.5x speed.

>>17787243
kek

>>17786583
It would've been an very nice image if the story teller wore clothes but, as it is, it's just too pedo

Novels and short-stories

Barbey d’Aurevilly - The She-Devils
Bataille - Blue of the noon
Bataille - Story of the eye / Lady Edwarda / The dead
Bloy - The Desperate Man
Bobin - Prisonnier au berceau
Bobin - The Very Lowly: A Meditation on Francis of Assisi
Bulgakov - The Life of Monsieur de Molière
Flaubert - Three Tales
Queneau - We always treat women too well
Rabelais - Complete works

Non-Fiction

Bataille - The tears of Eros
Bonnefoy - L’improbable et autres essais
Girard - Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
Gracq - La littérature à l'estomac
Groupe μ - Rhétorique de la poésie
Polo - The travels

Poetry

Anonymous - Roman de Fauvel
Char - Le Nu perdu
Claudel - Cinq grandes odes / La cantate à trois voix
Coleridge - Selected poems

>>17787182
>I enjoy these threads because it dispells the r*ddit cliche that /lit/ doesn't read, which is mostly perpetuated by projecting pseuds who want to feel better about their laziness
yup this is your average poster in these types of threads

>>17787267
People ITT read so I like them

>>17787243
Did not feel rushed to me, it took eight weeks of reading 2-3h per day, a lot more on weekends. I was totally immersed in the books. I am planning on rereading it in a few months to even better my enjoyment.

>>17787336
See, you went about it all wrong. You have to arbitrarily limit yourself to 30 minutes of reading every day and I'm not just saying this because I strongly identify myself as a reader while not actually reading anything.

>>17787258
>Queneau
I wonder if this is related to Keneau

>>17781480
What kind of dumb retard book hater do they have doing their clip art? That spine is upside down

>>17787413
>Keneau
what's that?

>>17787424
kek

>>17781480
Holy...

>>17787465
Based

15 books, 5000 pages

It could have been more but I've been reading heavier books this year

>>17781843
You must be a slow reader.

>>17784351
All three parts of Capital?

>>17786286
Impressive, very nice.

>>17787094
I are right, these threads, and shelf threads, are all consoomer bugmen threads. I will admit to having indulged this time though, as shameful as it is.

>>17787429
Mea culpa, Keanu, the given name of a Canadian actor.

>>17787508
>Queneau Reeves
Kek I could see it

>>17784351
Reading long books is not an issue. Reading marxist propaganda is.

>>17787267
There are always people complaining that no one here reads, if these threads can dispel that notion, I'm all for it.

>>17787611
based

As someone who loses motivation to read sometimes, I like these threads because they're motivating me to try harder

>>17787630
You shouldn't have to try harder. Adopt a better schedule and live by it. That's all there is to it. It's like with dieting and weight loss, if you have to try and eat less you will always be fat because willpower is limited. You simply need to adopt a new diet in order to lose weight.

Saw a post about the blindpill, re-read Brave New World for the first time as an adult. Realized I hate the direction the world is going in and made me re-prioritize my life. The upside being trivial things no longer bother me because we are living in a clown world. Looking forward to more blindpill/doomer lit this year, all suggestions welcome.

Total newfag and back in school.
Pls only constructive bullying.

>>17787688
2>0, keep at it fella. Plus good choices

>>17781480
I started dropping books left and right. I started War and Gold by Kwasi Kwarteng but holy shit what a fucking slog it has been. There's no fucking unifying thread, just an endless chronology of events and facts. I have like 3 books I'm currently reading but not really. I'll eventually finish them but in the meantime focus on what's actually interesting.

>>17787667
>live by it.
Well you have to try hard to live by it

>>17788177
You really don't. If you set aside a period of the day for reading every single day and only give yourself the option of actually reading or sitting there and staring at the wall, reading comes easy.

>>17788234
I still have to try hard to live by this instead of just disregarding it and wasting time

>>17788276
Go be an animal then

>>17788299
Well I try not to but that doesn't mean it's not hard. Maybe you have less strong impulses or stronger self-control.

>>17781670
do you enjoy this?

>>17788320
I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it.

>>17786071
We read on purpose

>>17787143
This. It makes all the tourists who don’t belong in this board seethe. They can’t resist posting their displeasure in any thread with lots of actual readers. Every shelf thread, every goodreads thread, all of them. They can’t just skip them in the catalog. Have to hop into each one and say “YOURE LYING!!!!”

>>17787243
that's not even a book a week, not so bad

>>17788234
>>17788299
You're horrible.

>it's hard
>no it's not, just try
>it's hard to try
>try harder

Useless wanker.

>>17788276
You need to get hooked. Anon was right about willpower being limited. If you're hooked, you'll feel actual regret for missing out. And it's easy to trigger. For me it's enough to watch a documentary on an interesting subject to experience that regret of having missed out on obviously good books on the subject. And then reading becomes almost a compulsion.

Sometimes there's still some forcing involved, but it's a huge shift from driving on pure willpower (good luck not getting burned out if you do that).

Find what's especially interesting for you and start reading exactly that. Over time you'll be able to read any stinking garbage without blinking an eye.

>>17788694
This kek

>>17789234
Fag

>>17781480
>First Fifth of the Year is Over