/lit/ - Literature

Had this with The Da Vinci Code

Harry Potter mainly. It's GOOD, but not the greatest thing evar.

I'm sure I annoy my friends to death with Hemingway. None of them read, which probably only exacerbates the problem.

There is only one who does read, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he exclusively reads and re-reads the Stranger by Camus. He is learning French for that one book. Which is all well and good, but I do not need frequent updates.

on the road pissed me off. it was just some dudes getting in cars; driving back and forth for a couple hundred pages.

>BEST BOOK EVAH

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=228
relevant to OP's post, as it's the only other place I've heard of the book 'On the Road'.

Also, my friends used to mention Twilight a lot, when the first two books were out. Then hey realized it was trash. Also, some of my friends tried to shove WAY too much Jane Austen down my throat! I think it's because they wanted to look classy and cultured and knowledgeable?

All the time:
>THE GOD DELUSION
>BRAVE NEW WORLD/ FAHRENHEIT 451/ 1984
>ANYTHING BY AYN RAND (Although to be fair her essays aren't totally horseshit writing like her novels are).

What is up with people being at university level and not being more widely read? Or at least no acknowledging the possibility of better things out there than what you read in high school?

Also one friend went on and on about how amazing The Road was for about 8 months, but at least that led him reading Blood Meridian and then more literature.

I still don't get the hate for On The Road. Its a book with beautiful prose, it might not be perfect, and Kerouac was very naive, but srsly, y'all fags sound bitter idiots bashing a guy who lived life the way he liked, and wrote a damn fine book out of it

>>1939986

>it was just some dudes getting in cars; driving back and forth for a couple hundred pages.

Did you miss all the parts where Kerouac tries to find a meaning or a purpose to his life, and the life of others, or when he talks about death, childhood, marriage etc?

My friends don't read.

>>1940116
I put it down at page 260 because I realized that it was a chore to read and I didn't give any fucks at all about anyone in the book.

I'm not one to dis books that aren't much for plot and focus more on philosophical questions or lie in the strength and beauty of the prose - fuck, those are my favorite types; I just finished To The Lighthouse and that was almost a 9/10 book - but On The Rode was just beyond unenjoyable.

>>1940102

It seems there is a female in our midst.

>>1940116
on the road was about old school hipsters. i know the book is much more than this but it's all i remember. i remember a few lines from it that people quote a lot. maybe it was because i read it later in my life. i think i read it at age 25-26. should've read it in late high school early college. like catcher in the rye. it never sat well with me either. i much prefer demian by hesse or sanshiro by soseki for a coming of age novel. but i respect catcher's impact on lit when it came out. the narrative voice is convincing i'll give it that.

I just finished reading On The Road and I thought it was a good book, but for some reason it made me very depressed. Maybe it's because I'm foreveralone and will never be like Dean.

>1940135

your grammer sucks

>>1940102
>Then they realized it was trash

Lucky you, I'm still waiting. Can you fucking believe it.

>>1940172
:'(

so sad

>>1939877
Oh fuck, same here. Of course he's a fucking lazy bum 'artist' who is all about being 2deep4u while not actually reading anything else and thinks 'not watching tv' means you're a genius surrounded by morons. It's fucking embarrassing.

friend who is physics whore- Feynaman
friend into fungus- that one fungus guy
friend into cinema- zone of enders guy or Ebert
me-->philosophy fag- myth of Sisyphus

> literature comes up in coversation
> "hunter s. thompson lolol drugs he was amazing hurr durr"
> mfw I like the novel but what the hell is this

My sister, for a period of about four months, would not shut up about Swann's Way and how Proust was the best author ever even though she'd only read that one book of his and I was an idiot for not reading him and why was I reading all those shitty fantasy novels all the time it's like I don't want people to think I'm oh-so-smart or something. It was worse than her post-Bible camp Christian craze, but better than that two-year period she treated me and our mom like shit for no goddamn reason.

Swann's Way is now in a tiny box in the corner of her old room, along with the ten or so other books she owns.

>genius

>>1942548
is she hot?

>>1942553
I love that book, but I can see that fanbase being pretty terrible.

>>1942548
The saddest thing about this is that your sister was correct about Proust and his superiority over your fantasy.

>>1940116
The hate comes from the novel cycling in and out of being considered 'cool.'

Most opinions concerning On The Road are one of five things:

1. Didn't read the book, but think it is cool.
2. Didn't read the book, but heard it wasn't cool and decide to bash it.
3. Read the book and enjoyed it.
4. Read the book and didn't enjoy it.
5. Read the book and desparately tried to hate it the whole way through because it would be 'cool' to not like something that so many like.

Currently, On The Road is cool to bash. This will cycle back in a few years.

When I was still in school, On The Road was all the rage, every burgeoning hipster (the beginning of modern-day hipsters) loved it.

>>1942544
same thing as On The Road, dumbasses don't read it and decide to claim it. Hunter Thompson will be gauche in less than ten years.

>>1942544
>>1942544
>>1942544
>>1942544
>>1942544
Forever this. Hopefully when I'm 40+ I'll stop hearing it.

I just find that On The Road, for all its well meaning soul-searching, ends up being not much better than Eat, Pray, Love in that it justifies lazy selfish behavior in those that read it in the name of 'self discovery'

I don't hate it, I mean, for a person to write about their journey like that is a good thing, and can make for a great read... but the problem is how many shitty people come away from it with a bad message.

>>1942632
Is that what you got from reading the book? "It justifies lazy selfish behavior in the name of self discovery?"

I suggest reading it again.

"Gardner inspired, and according to Raymond Carver, also intimidated, his writing students. At Chico State University, when Carver, who was almost 5-years younger, mentioned to Gardner that he had read, but not liked, the assigned short story, Robert Penn Warren's "Blackberry Winter", Gardner said, "You'd better read it again." "And he wasn't joking."

This, a thousand times this.

I used to know this chick who would constantly talk about how great The Picture of Dorian Gray is and about how deeply it touched her.. Practically the only thing she's read, other than this and books that were required high school reading, is Twilight, and she only read Dorian Gray because some asshole she was into liked it.

>>1942736
>>1942735

lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WosA7AZCpNc

>>1942736
A shitty Twilightesque movie version of Dorian Gray was made, leading to a lot of sales among that horrid crowd

On The Road
The God Delusion
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The holy trinity of the pseudo-intellectual.
It never ceases to amaze me how people can go on an ego trip with no more than two or three books read.

>>1942782
especially the god delusion. jesus christ

Everything by this guy. Had to listen to some stoner asshole blather on for half an hour about how he only reads Palaahahlkalkaik because 'he's the best writer out there'

>>1942789
>>1942789
i know that feel. I have a friend who only reads fucking Palahniuk and Bukowski. I felt myself growing increasingly angered as I watched him sheepishly read Post Office at the speed of about 1 page per 2 minutes. Seriously, the type was like 18 font, double spaced.

Game of Thrones

I'm just not interested, please leave me alone

>>1943310
>that feel when you try to be as polite as possible when turning down a suggestion but they're such rabid fanboys they still think you're an asshole for not wanting to read their favourite book

If I had a dollar every time one of my try-hard friends talk about this book, I'd be maybe twenty dollars richer. That's still a lot.

>>1943344

Ugh, seriously? You're missing nothing.

It's like Palahniuk throws a bunch of disconnected ideas into a hat, draws three, and goes "Yeah, that'll do. Let's write these three separate novels and then combine them."

I don't get all the love for Palahniuk. My crazy bitch ex lent me a copy of Choke, I got through it in a few hours and felt like I wanted my money back, even though I didn't pay a cent for it. Pointless smut, the lot of it. Now whenever anyone tells me how awesome Palahniuk is I lose a bit of respect for them.

>>1943367

The only thing he wrote that's even remotely worth checking out is Rant, and even that's just a scattershot hailstorm of disconnected ideas that falls apart halfway through.

Classic example: THE HOLY BIBLE.

>>1943396

Except from a literary standpoint alone, much less a cultural or social one, if you haven't actually read the bible by 2011 you're just being ridiculous.

>This book is alluded to in one way or another in damn near every great work of western literature ever composed, to say the least of art and film, and has been a or the major influence on society for millennia

>I better not read it, or nothin'!

>>1943423

This thread wasn't about "books you don't want to read," you fucking faggot. I've read the Bible. The thread was about "that douchebag that always talks about one book because it's the only one they've ever read." In a lot of peoples' cases, that's the fucking bible.

Jesus, why can you not comprehend what other people are saying? Are you retarded or have autism or something? I mean, fuck.

>>1943433
>faggot
>retarded
>autism

Level-headed, buzzword-free persuasive writing from the linguistic champions at /lit/

>>1943395

I couldn't even finish that book. It just seemed like he was trying way too hard to be vulgar. Which, I'm fine with vulgarity, but it was just really off putting for some reason in that book.

>>1943433

The only people who constantly talk about the bible are religious nuts. They're not talking about it because it's a book they read, they're talking about it because they believe in it with all their soul dand it's the word of god, in their eyes. This thread was supposed to be about people who are not well read, talking about shitty books from a literary standpoint.

>>1943423

Asking you since I think you would know the answer. Is the KJV Bible pretty much the one that most/all references are made to? I'm looking for a copy for my personal library.

>>1943439
>mocking others for using buzzwords while greentexting and using a reaction image

But seriously, he is right. He chose his words poorly, but he was still right, and you were wrong. Don't pull the 'he writes like the lowliest swine' card out just because he called you out on being a retarded faggot with autism

>>1943455
If you are interested in reading the Bible for its literary cornerstone-ness, KJV is the only option.

It is true that more accurate translations have been made, but writers weren't using nor referring to those texts for centuries.

>>1943455
Not the person you're asking, but I suggest getting a KJV and also an Oxford.

The first for literary references, and the second for actual accuracy if you ever want to study it. The KJV is rife with inaccuracies and bullshit.

>>1943458

>I'm going to write like a third party observing the discussion and then tell the other person how right I was

The post wasn't an attack on the poster that said the bible, brah, I made an abstract point and he took it personally and overreacted like a huge aspie with downs' syndrome.

The diagnosis is reactionary neckbeard and I prescribe you a dose of get over it nigga.

>>1943455

Also, yes, I always used the KJV for purposes like that and to the extent I'm familiar with literary study of it in a formal setting I'm pretty sure they do the same.

Like other people have told you, if you're looking to study it from a more theological standpoint there are a variety of more accurate productions; the really hardcore people, of course, read the Greek or Latin or whatever language texts closer to the original are available in.

>moderately interesting thread turns into another bullshit religion parade of fuckery

Thanks again, /lit/

Jane Austen. A thousand times, Jane Austen. I've never read any of her stuff, literally because of them. I'm so tired of hearing about her and how great her shit is.

I hate rich people, I hate happy endings, I hate romance novels. I hate Jane Austen, just because of them.

>>1944869

Bump. But fucking this. In terms of vague semi-feminist try hard only the Bell Jar comes close...

At high school I used to be that guy with 1984.

Man, did I annoy people.

Fucking Orwell's '1984'... At least three of my friends have the same obsession.

Atonement.

Never Let Me Go.

The Book Thief.

>>1945361

Never Let Me Go is actually really good, though.

>>1944869
Jane Austen is pretty good though.

My friends aren't psuedo-intellectuals.

just as according to keikaku.

>>1942806
Surely we've all gone through a Bukowski phase.

When I happen upon some young man who swears by Bukowski, I just let it go and understand that it will pass and hopefully he'll move on to greener pastures.

you guys have friends that read?

>>1943448

People who say 'vulgar' when they mean salty talk are themselves massively vulgar.

I have a friend who never reads, but watches Californication and treats it like a book. He tells people he loves literature just because he watches Californication. He tells people his favorite writer is Hank Moody and is dead serious about it. He is considering trying to be a writer. He thinks he would be good at it because he believes he shares personality traits with Hank Moody. He hates reading. Someone gave him the God Hates Us All promotional tie-in book for Californication. He couldn't get through 10 pages of it because he said it was "too dense" for him and Hank Moody would never write like that.

This guy is my best friend.