/lit/ - Literature

>>19496467
I'm currently wading through War and Peace. It's my challenge for the rest of the year. Enjoying so far but so much fucking French in the first 50 pages.

>>19496500
Yes lad. Also reading this, I've only got twenty pages and then the epilogue left, so I'll be done with it tomorrow, though I'm very sad to be finishing, what a beauty of a book this is. I can tell it's one I'll be coming back to a lot ove the course of my life.

>>19496467
The Idiot
Enjoying it, but it’s definitely the worst of the Dosto I’ve read so far.

>>19496548
Yep, the only Dosto novel I actively disliked while reading.

>>19496548
>>19496768
It was my next planned read :(

>>19496467
Getty Museum book about the History of the Church as it has been depicted in Art. Lot of great images and detail into liturgical practices of various eras.

>>19496786
it varies greatly... a lot of people really liked it. I won't really go into why I disliked it so much so I won't affect your biases.

>>19496805
Nice.

>>19496467
I'm not that far into it but he made some good points. Really should be read if you're tired of all this covid bullshit.

>>19496768
>>19496786
The Idiot is great. It was my first Dostoevsky book and I really really enjoyed it. The part about the guillotine was probably my favorite.

It's dreadful. I liked Normal People so I gave it a go, but I'm finding it so hard to be interested in anything going on. I think with Normal People I had some relation to the characters- Marianne reminded me a lot of someone I used to know and Connell is literally me (except I'm not popular, handsome or sociable). And when that formula is applied to a demographic I have nothing to do with I simply don't care. It might just be a reading slump though, the ending of Jane Eyre moved me quite a bit, and in comparison Rooney just seems so lifeless. I did have a similar experience a while back after I finished The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, I read The Great Gatsby following it and absolutely hated it every page, presumably because the emotional after shocks were still going through my mind. I fixed it then by falling back into McCullers and I read The Member of the Wedding next which seemed to cure me; so now I'm thinking it's time to commit to a reread of her works to revive myself.

I'm only 150 pages into Beautiful World, Where Are You and even though it's tough I think I'm going to push through just so it won't be left unfinished. I am understanding how American non-zoomers felt when reading Normal People though.

Imitation of Christ.
everything, a masterpiece.
>>19496824
Reminds me of The Masque of Red Death from the concept.
Onto fiction, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. Delightful read, as Doyle always is.

Dropped it a few years ago because I just couldn't get into it. Now on my 2nd try and I'm really enjoying it so far.

reading faust, pretty fun

>>19496467
Twenty Thousand Leabues under the Sea by Jules Verne.

A reread, since the first translation I read as a child was pretty bad.

This Oxford one is supposedly the complete translation and fixes a lot of error.

I haven't noticed much difference but I'm only about 50 pages in.

>>19496873
Are you British? I just want to know what accent to read your post in in my head.

Reminder for anons to get back to school mandated readings now that they arent being forced down your throat. Most are delightful.

>>19497025
The only school mandated reading I liked was Hatchet... everything else sucked.

>>19497036
was that while you were in school? I thought every book was awful before i came back to them, now own most of them.

>>19497011
Hmm I don't want to dox myself too hard, but I'll just say southern middle class British. I've also been accused of being gay a few times, so you could improvise a feminine affect to the voice if you wanted, and maybe a slight stutter as well for accuracy.

>>19496467
The Ballad Of The FlimFlam Man by Guy Owen, it's pretty comfy, if you're into old-timey adventure books

>>19497058
>assume i'm gay
didn't you already say you were british?

>>19497069
Whaat? I don't get it.. :(

>>19497082
i'm poking fun at the idea that british people are inherently gay, and pointing that out by saying you telling him to read with a feminine affect is needless repetition.
Also, terrible writing. I cannot imagine you sipping tea while asking me that.

>>19496824
>The part about the guillotine was probably my favorite.
That’s kinda my issue with the novel - the best parts are completely separate from the actual characters and plot going on.
The story about the ugly girl in his hometown, the man about to be hung, (some of) Ippolit’s Note, Myshkin’s seizure. These are good bits trapped in a long-winded Russian soap-opera (which is true of most Dostoevsky, granted, but felt particularly egregious in the Idiot).

>Story of the Eye
really liking all the piss

>>19496500
Glad I read the Briggs translation where he just translates all the French for you.

>>19496988
Generally the difference between translations is not enough to have any real effect, there are exceptions but for the vast majority of people any well respected translation will do. Translation is compromise, if you want to avoid the compromises either read multiple translations and/or learn the language it is written in. Reading and comparing multiple translations is an interesting exercise and each translation takes on the effect of a word by word critique of the original work, but it is largely academic and reading a single translation multiple times would probably get you to the same conclusions.

Private Memoirs and Leaves of Grass. The former is alright, but the written accents is pretty annoying. Leaves of Grass is my first contact with Whitman, and I'm thoroughly enjoying his work, but it being poetry I'm going at a very leisurely pace.

>>19497040
Both during school and after.
I hated Cather in the Rye, Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby, Scarlet Letter, The Outsider, The Giver, Death of Salesman, Song of Solomon etc etc.

I liked Hatchet and also MacBeth, These were the only school mandated one.

If my teacher didn't catch on I hated the mandated books, I would have given up on reading forever. She let me read what I liked that wasn't mandated.
School days I read The Good Earth, Neverending Story, The Little Prince, and such.

They were not school mandated.

>>19497099
One of my favourites. I reread it about once a year.

>>19497090
>british people are inherently gay
Oh I've never heard that one before lol. I don't actually drink tea either and I have nice straight teeth as well believe it or not.

>>19496467
A Farewell to Arms
it's better than the old man and the sea; it might be better than the sun also rises, but idk yet.

dead souls by gogol.
i am a good part in but it seems most action is yet to come. Contrary to my expectations its been good kek and i cant recall recently making audible chuckle while reading. Sans heavy stuff like Tolstoy or Dosto yet.

>>19497113
I don't like it because the French has a purpose, or at least it tells us something about the characters using it, when they use it and when they stop using it later in the story.

>>19497321
Briggs mentions when they switch between French/Russian. Maybe it's clunkier than just directly including the French, but only marginally slow. But certainly less clunky than using Google or some shit to translate if you can't read French.

>>19496500
just learn french bro.

>>19497303
Beautiful book. Don't understand how some people hate Hemingway so much.

The Unique and its property.
It is getting tiring reading Stirners bullshit, but I cant lie, the book resonated a lot with me. His description of the "creative nothing" feels like it was at the tip of my tongue all my life.
I feel freer, as edgy as it sounds.

>>19497420
Not that anon, but I agree. I finally read it recently and I'd consider it one of my favorites, though I've always had a soft spot for literature with war as a theme.

>>19496500

I just started this yesterday and I plan to read it for the rest of this year, the first 50 pages have been very enjoyable and it's very easy to read. I've seen multiple anons planning to do the same. Good luck OP

>>19496467
Help your husband get some head?

>>19496500
>>19496545
I read War and Peace through a December a couple years ago. Very comfy

>>19496467
At last, Moby Dick. Hell, now Ibsee why you fags keep memeing this book. It really is great in so many regards

>>19497848
This is funny but not remotely accurate kek

>>19496824
I want nothing to do with disease and illness thanks to the (((pandemic)))

>>19496467
Reading Milton's minor poems such as On The Morning Of Christ's Nativity, Samson Agoniste. Looking forward to Paradise Lost.

Started reading a couple days after actually being in Cuernavaca. I was worried I was in over my head, but it’s getting more accessible by the chapter. Glad to check this one out

>>19497118
This is pretty true if you're looking at translations from french to english, or something like that, since the word order is pretty much the same and you basically just have to plug in words from a dictionary and translate a few idioms, but the gaps between translations definitely get wider in a lot of cases, cf. Loeb Latin translations vs. the mostly literal ones that you'll find on Perseus, Homer translations, even Russian-English translations can differ quite a lot

>>19496467
2/3's of the way through pic rel which was made available in English just late last week (it's very interesting), Maupassant's Bel Ami, and John Ciardi's How Does a Poem Mean?
Also almost through Chesterton's first volume of Father Brown stories The Innocence of Father Brown.

>>19496467
I'm an ADHD Sperg, so I'm reading three books right now and listening to one on tape (I know it doesn't count as reading, but I'm putting it on the list.)
1. For Whom the Bell Tolls: I like it so far, the characters are interesting and the build up about that bridge have me hooked. The best part so far was Pilar's story about the day they clubbed the wealthy men in the town and tossed them over the cliff, that whole monologue is haunting and beautiful in some very morbid way, I couldn't put the book down when reading that section.
2. Boxing: a Cultural History: I'm not too deep in the book so I can't say much, but I'm very interested by the psychological aspects of the sport that are put forth in the text and I found the differences in how the Romans and Ancient Greeks viewed the sport of boxing to very interesting.
3. Black Spring: I'm just getting back into Henry Miller and I only just started the book, but I think Black Spring is far superior to Tropic of Cancer. While I liked Tropic of Cancer, I felt that he was far to long winded at times and I think Miller found the perfect balance in Black Spring.
4. You Can't Win: This is my book on tape, it's an autobiography of a small time burglar and hobo named Jack (no relation) Black. A very interesting insight into the underworld of late 19th early 20th century America, and I'm surprised that a man of Black's upbringing could write so well.

>>19497303
One of my favorites, the first book of Hemingway's I ever read. I disagree about the Old Man and the Sea though, to date the only book that's gotten an emotional reaction out of me.

The Futurist by Othmer, one of the worst books I have ever read and I will burn it when I am done with it.

The Trial

I haven't formed an opinion because I'm still on the first chapter.

>>19497099
My man.

First DL Lawrence I've read. I'm only two chapters in but fuck could this man write. Every page so far has been beautiful and true. I'm surprised he isn't mentioned more on /lit/.

>>19499091
His blood philosophy is pretty kino

Thomas Hardy - Selected Poems
the best poems are little vignettes of town and country life, everything Hardy writes seems haunted by Ecclesiastes: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance

Llewelyn Powys - Thirteen Worthies
the Powys's were the inheritors of the Hardy spirit. What makes Powys such a good writer on literature is his enthusiasm, as a master of prose himself he has none of the anxiety and self-esteem issues professional critics have, desperate to poke holes in classics and pull giants down to their level. The enthusiasm of Powys is so infectious, you feel you have to immediately go out and buy their entire works of everyone he writes about in this volume (and Rats in the Sacristy, which I read last month). I really think Hardy & the Powys's saved me from a rut, stuck for years reading meme crap. It's such a good feeling discovering kindred spirits in literature. That probably sounds very corny and way too earnest for /lit/, but it's true!

>>19496467
The Goldfinch.
It's alright. I'm about halfway through. A lot of the literary references are just nods to the in-crowd who have read / watched / listened to things.
Everyone the character meets is either a) garbage or b) super into reading. It's not subtle.

Anyone have any recommendations for dark, witty, tragic novels that won't kill my last functioning brain cells? (I just finished Kant and now I'm permanently crosseyed).

>>19496805
Looks based. Is it worth a getting in physical form for the art alone?

the little by sotos avaiable through libgen (underway bookz has fuckall, archive as well, gutenberg needs like 50 more years, torrents have nothing), david deutsch's shit book, the soverign individual, some john douglas mark olshaker books hopefully they aren't all shit, and maybe a few more little novels by matt shaw and edward lee before i get back to mises and other shit, gotta the illuminatus! 2 - the golden apple before ny in any case

On book 21 of the Iliad and three quarters through Knausgårds latest

>>19499571
Where should I start with Knausgard if I want to read Min Kamp later?

>>19496467
We posting pics of art girls reading?

>>19500115
source on the grill?

>>19500115
>Art "Girl"
>Reading
No, anon. Such things do not exist.

>>19496467
oh my god bare female legs AAA I'M GOING INSANE

Blood Meridian. I like that this is just a pure adventure. It pulls no punches on violence. It doesn’t really have a story nor tropes so far. Just the journey of some kid.

>>19496467
Moby dick, not far enough in to give an opinion but seems alright

>>19499482
Wow, all but 5 posts got filtered. I really do despise all of you cosmicly stupid, naive, inane, complacent, comformist, predictable cunts.

>>19497113
>>19496500
>Can't even read a few sentences of French in an already translated book
nu/lit/ everyone. Back in the day everyone could at the least speak fluent English, German, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish and Russian.

>>19500115
SEX

>>19501500
Piss off you pseud

>>19501478
What filters do you have on? Most of those posts you filtered are fine lol.

>>19497312
I didn't like it very much
in my opinion, dosto>>>>

>>19501500
b8

>>19501513
I just realised he's probably filtered that one as well.

>>19496467
Pic related. Nothing, Taleb is self important and long winded

>>19496467
I picked up the lit annotated Moby Dick, thank you anons for making me laugh and getting me through it, I'm starting to really enjoy it even if I don't have much time to read these days.

>>19496467
So I guess people (incels predominantly it seems) are not clued in to what this picture represents. Housewives since the 1950s (while the husband's away how the cat will play) have been engaged in a lot of self-pleasuring to while away the hours, especially the mornings. There's of course the classic example of the housewife sitting on the dryer. The other somewhat relatively well known method is the housewife using the shower head as a sort of water jet vibrator. The method represented here is a little kinkier: it involves the wife using the bathtub as a containment unit for sexual exploration, masturbation, messy play, including self-wetting through pantyhose and panties. Sad that no one's picked up on the hidden subtext of this bored housewife picture.

Necroscope. Fucking love the mix of gory horror and Cold War intrigue, did not expect to like it this much. Excited to start on the second book.

>>19502423
get a life

Unfinished as of now, the short stories are interesting. At the very least it's good to read new writing.

I went through some shit to get ahold of the Siratori novel, and kinda feel like I got meme'd on. Still trying to figure out how to approach his work.

>>19497058
you're absolutely a tranny. no question in my mind about that one.

>>19497058
You're like that boy Tazo from Death in Venice, cool!

>>19502708
Uh oh, I think someone is projecting some gender dysphoria on to me!

>>19502726
I haven't read that one, but I always thought of myself as more of a Mick Kelly desu.

>>19496467
Just read the intro to the second part of Don Quixote by Heine and am about to start the book. Really excited

>>19502726
thats acutaly a good comparison

>>19497142
>>19498950
May I ask why do you like it? I just finished it. The ending is really out there, like nothing I've read before. Anyway, can't help but see some moral intention in this book since all the unrestrained desire brings about destruction and decay. The scene of the priest's eye in Simone's vagina while she was pissing was honestly amazing imagery. Also my edition had some drawings (don't know if all editions have them), if you want to see more I can post them.

>>19502813
German? Which version do you have?

>>19496467
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. I'm not an American but it's enjoyable to me from the get go, love the straightforward and rustic tone as well

I'm really enjoyable, I'm assuming it's mostly autobiographical? but in a fun whimsical way that doesn't preclude flights of fancy and silliness
I like how most of the stories are either "when I was a kid I went hunting" or "man I'm horny for hippy chicks with big tits wearing sweaters" lol

>>19496500
Also reading this. It's good, but I've read 10 other books since starting it.

>>19502912
Please post some more drawings. No drawings in mine :( What edition is this?

>>19502767
You are cute, therefore you must be mentally ill if you are here. The nose ring confirms my suspicion. What have you been diagnosed with?

>>19505033
sure, my edition is in spanish (tusquets)

>>19505606
drawings are by a guy called Hans Bellmer

>>19505609
they are for a 1947 edition of story of the eye, still under the pseudonym of Lord Auch

>>19505615
and the last one

>>19501682
For lit, it's big. I am simultaneously overshooting, and undershooting (if that's not a verb, now it is).

>>19505576
Sorry to disappoint you lol, but that pic isn't me.

Reading a "racist" book

>>19505606
>>19505609
>>19505609
>>19505615
>>19505618
Thanks anon. These are very interesting. Beautiful edition. Now if someone could only make a serious movie adaptation.

Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller. I’ve read some other Miller this year which I liked so I decided to give this a shot. It’s just like Cancer except in New York and the beginning of Miller’s life. It’s really good so far

>>19496805
I have this one you might like as well - lots of great glossy pics + commentary