/lit/ - Literature

Last five:
>Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
Fun science fiction book. Nice take on the first contact thing, nothing special, but fun.
>Night by Elie Wiesel
It was alright, didn't get the emotional load and some stuff was just over the top. (The guy playing the violin while being crushed by others, come on)
>Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
Pretty bad, it started of nicely but the narrator switching didn't always work well.
>Help! A Bear Is Eating Me! by Mykle Hansen
Nice, I liked it. I know it's not literature, but it was funny. Ending was.. Unexpected
>Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
Heinlein doesn't always deliver, but this was a lot of fun. It's different from a lot of other Heinlein books. A tad bit predictable, but good.

Currently reading:
>Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Yeah, this is gonna take a while. Pretty amusing so far.
>Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Surprising. Really liking it so far.
>A Fraction Of The Whole by Steve Toltz
I think it's awesome, and great entertainment.

Next five:
>Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
>Point Omega by Don Delillo
>One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
>The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
>Night of the Crabs by Guy N. Smith

last five:
the restaurant of many orders - miyazawa

humorous short story for children detailing the lesson that one should not be over trusting on what appears to be good, as it could be anything but.

night on the milky way railway - miyazawa

another story by the same author although this one is more likely to be enjoyed by adults, especially with the transient dream state that has themes of death and life. very vivid imagery, two friends thrown into a surreal environment on a train choo-choo-chooing down the milky way.

the old capital - yasunari

one of the three books cited for his nobel prize win. a beautiful novel with lightness and happiness foreshadowing sadness. yasunari's prose cannot help but have the reader feel as if he is there in the forests, festivals, and towns even if you are completely foreign to kyoto/japan. i definitely recommend checking out yasunari but perhaps this is not the best work to start with.

spring snow - mishima
as many of you may be aware, mishima is dead-set one of my favourite authors. his personal life aside, i have fallen in love with his prose, his characters always come off as believable and i cannot help but smile as he still believed in a hero in the capitalist age. spring snow has a lot of metaphors that mishima is well-known for using (temple of the golden pavilion, the sailor who fell from grace with the sea, his treatment of homosexuality in his books etc) i loved the discussions and thought-processing that delved in many topics from buddhism, love, and the duties of man in pre ww-ii japan. undoubtedly mishima would have been a great essay writer as well. regardless, plot-wise, forbidden love causes havoc. insight into aristocratic japan and their duties, ceremonies and relationships is actually pretty interesting. Can't really say much more about the plot itself without giving anything away, with the book being the first in a teratology.

ten night's dreams - soseki
A selection of 10 short dreams that is unknown if they were soseki's actual dreams or concocted but they make for a great afternoon read as they can be taken in small bites and aren't really related to each other. Very early surrealism is evident throughout most of the 'dreams' as well.

I was going to post this in all caps but since this post is kind of long I thought in my best judgement to convert back to lower case for ease of reading.

CURRENTLY READING:
NAOMI - TANIZAKI

ONLY AROUND 1/10TH THROUGH BUT FROM WHAT I'VE READ THIS IS TO BE ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AN OLDER MAN AND YOUNGER GIRL WHO BOTH APPRECIATE WESTERN CULTURE, JUST NOT IN THE SAME WAY. SUBSERVIENT MASOCHISM TO THE YOUNGER FEMALE RESULTS. PRETTY MODERN STUFF CONSIDERING IT WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE 20'S.

NEXT FIVE:
DEATH IN MIDSUMMER - MISHIMA
RUNAWAY HORSES - MISHIMA
PALM-OF-THE-HAND STORIES - YASUNARI
QUICKSAND - TANIZAKI
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND - DICKENS (ALTHOUGH IF I READ THE ABOVE FOUR BOOKS BEFORE ONE MONTH IS THROUGH THIS WILL BE REPLACED WITH SOMETHING ELSE AS I'M PLANNING ON USING IT AS A TRAVEL READ)

LAST FIVE:
>My Tired Father by Gellu Naum
Surrealist poetry, very much recommended if you're into that. Like the intro says, it's a kind of "enhanced collage, with randomized clippings from all manner of source material improved and improvised on by the poetic imagination." If I were to be /mu/ about it, the whole thing kind of reminded me of an album by The Avalanches. It was amazing.
>The Black Sheep and Other Fables by Augusto Monterroso
>Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett
>Blues for a Black Cat and Other Stories by Boris Vian
>A Winter Book: Stories by Tove Jansson

CURRENTLY READING
>A Tomb For Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kis
>Howling at the Moon and Blue by Hagiwara Sakutaro
>Imperial Messages: 100 Modern Parables

NEXT FIVE
>The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai
>Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk
>Six Yuan Plays
>Nostalgia by Mircea Cartarescu
>Aurelia and Other Writings by Gerard de Nerval

LAST FIVE

>C.J. Koch - The Year of Living Dangerously

Deals with a bunch of journalists and cameramen the closing days of Sukarno's regime in Indonesia. One of the characters, Billy Kwan is arguably one of the most fascinating characters in fiction I've encountered. Truly.

>Miles Franklin - My Brilliant Career

Franklin's talent is that she managed to take a fictionalised version of her life and elevate it to something that's simultaneously charming and yet there's a lot of intriguing underlying elements to what should be a straightforward Aussie country girl's bildungsroman. Alot better than I thought it was going to be.

>Frank Hardy - But The Dead Are Many

Post-modern novel with a Rashomon bent that's obsessed with the vocabulary of Communists, Christianity and most importantly - Freudian psychology. Deals with the authors fictionalised account of the suicide of his friend/aftermath of that suicide, as well as the Australian Communist party's internal dispute about dealing with the excesses of Stalin. Hated it at first, but once it clicked what Hardy was trying to achieve my opinion changed dramatically. Helps that Hardy actually addresses his own bloody novel's flaws at one point.

>Kurt Vonnegut - God Bless You Dr Kevorkian

Ridiculously short and honestly could have been thrown in with some essays or something. Basically a series of 60 second radio monologues that Vonnegut did with the premise of being put to death by Dr Kevorkian temporarily (ala Flatliners) and interviewing various celebrities. Liked it, but it's REALLY FUCKING SHORT.

>Natsume Soseki - Ten Night's Dream

Essentially a fictionalised dream diary that has a rather mysterious allure to it that won me over. Very short.

>>2151466
CURRENTLY READING

>Timothy Mo - The Redundancy of Courage

I kind of like to think of it as a sequel to the movie Balibo and to Year of Living Dangerously. Except all the proper nouns fictionalised which is a lot of fun when you actually have a working knowledge of East Timorese history. I'm liking it so far, though it's taking me ages to read.


NEXT FIVE

Eric Ambler - A Cause for Alarm
David Malouf - Fly Away Peter
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
Tim Winton - Cloudstreet
Thomas Hardy - Return of the Native

I need to stop going to libraries and screwing up my "shit I bought ages ago for cheap when I was employed and I still haven't read" pile.

Last Five

>Dreaming of Babylon by Richard Brautigan
This was a re-read and man was this book so much worse the second time around. It's still good but there was a point that I thought this was in my top 10...

>The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
enjoying this book was entirely contingent on the ending, loved it.

>The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I know, I know I'm really behind the times, this was really emotionally engaging though.

>Hamlet by William Shakespeare
read for uni, kinda disappointing, wish I hadn't already knew what was happening.

>Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuccheli
This was really pretty and engaging, but also really forgettable.

Current

>World War Z by Max Brooks
loving this, it's the little details that make this one really engrossing.

>King Lear by William Shakespeare
again for Uni, surprising in a way that Hamlet couldn't be.

Next Five
>Othello
>Guards! Guards!
>The Man Who Was Thursday
>Les Miserables
>Probably gonna re-read something...

I am pleased with the diversity in this thread.

Last five:
Cannery Row
>loved it, my favorite from Steinbeck (i've only read OMaM, EoE, GoW, Tortilla Flat)
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
>the odyssey from penelope's point of view. needlessly facetious, ruining what could have been an interesting book
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris
>interesting use of perspective (plural first person), but poor ending in my opinion. i felt like that indian chick from the office was reading it to me sometimes which was abrasive
Old Man's War by Scalzi
>mary sue low tier sci-fi. main character always wins. it almost read like harry potter with old people in the beginning.
Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite by Moliere
>fun and short and has a few good passages

Now:
War and Peace
>fucking love it, wish it would go on forever (and it seemingly does). the writing is masterful how he seamlessly changes scale, from epic to diary entries. i may get hate for even making the comparison, but i've read all of GRRM and i can't understand how people could like GRRM and not read W&P which has the same amount of intrigue and war and shit and be 1000000x more real/better

Next five:
Embassytown by Mieville
Hadji Murad by Tolstoy
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
- as of yet unchosen Napoleon biography (suggestions welcome)
Aztec by Gary Jennings

Last five:
>Mrs. Dalloway
It's so fabulous and decadent and mournful.
>Jane Eyre
The beginning was dull, but when Rochester is introduced everything becomes awesome. Then he's absent for the last hundred pages. FUCK.
>Birthday Letters
Fuck you, Ted Hughes. You abstruse bastard.
>1919
All cool except for the stream-of-consciousness chapters dispersed throughout the novel.
>The Old Man and the Sea
I shed manly tears.

Currently reading:
>God Bless You, Mr Rosewater
Only ten pages in. Seems pretty Vonnegut, seems pretty good.

Next five:
>The Crying of Lot 49
>The Book of the New Sun: Volume Two
>Cloud Atlas
>The Grapes of Wrath
>The Blind Assassin

>>2151468

>King Lear
>Surprising in a way that Hamlet couldn't be

I can't speak for Hamlet because I've neither read it or managed to sit through an entire production yet (I do have the Tennant/Stewart version on my HD though) but Lear was fucking astounding.

That last scene, through decent acting on my teacher's and my fellow students part and a degree of exhaustion from all and sundry, ended up with a sizeable portion of the class quite teary and not people I'd expect to get emotional over a freakin' 17th Century play.

Also fun times: re-read the start of the play with the notion that the word "nothing" was also a slang term for vagina.

>>2151472

>Jane Eyre
>last 100 pages

I'd recommend reading Miles Franklin - My Brilliant Career because part of it works as an antidote to the bullshit moralising reason Jane leaves that riles my modern sensibilities even if it works with the internal logic of the text.

last five:
>Dispatches from Berlin 1933-1936 by Antoni Graf Sobanski
polish gentleman discovers mysterious nazi soul during first years of the reich. very interesting.

>Soldier Protocols by Sönke Neitzel
conversations of german POWs were recorded by the british intelligence. this is the real deal, no journalism filter or media propaganda.

>auto-da-fe by elias canetti
very depressing novel, stopped halfway through because it depends a lot on stylized stream of consciousness and an artificial parable-like plot. gonna try to read it again in winter.

>memoirs of hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
poetic pseudo-memoirs of a roman emperor during the time of transition towards christianity. dont expect any action or battles. it's more about philosophy and politics.

>Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs by Morton A. Meyers
interesting book, not just about anecdotes from medicine but also about philosophy of science and progress

currently reading
>Tristes Tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss (philosopher turned anthropologist meets south american tribes, interesting but not easy to read)
>"Illuminations"... collected essays by Walter Benjamin (very hard to read)
>Mythologies by Roland Barthes (entertaining thoughts of a structuralist about pop-culture of the 50s, still relevant today, easy to read)

next 5:
The Grand Meaulnes, Aithiopica, Dream Novella, 100 years of solitude, The Unquiet Grave

>>2151468
>contingent on the ending

Um. I think not. Even Chandler himself didn't think much to the solution of a mystery. The Big Sleep is about atmosphere, dialogue, and establishing Marlowe. The end is nice, but forgettable.

Last five:

The Narrow Corner – W Somerset Maugham
A Scanner, Darkly – Philip K Dick
Black Rain – Ibuse Masuji
Nazi Literature in the Americas – Roberto Bolano
The Progical Daughter – Jeffrey Archer

Current: Labyrinths - Borges

Next, uh, one:

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

After that, no more $$$ to buy books for the rest of the year. Or probably ever.

Last five:
>The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
Was kind of interesting, and later on kind of digressive in a pomo kind of way. One minute he's talking about Quakers in a local government and the next he's starting a fire dept.
>Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition by Cabeza de Vaca
Kind of surreal, I enjoyed it. It starts off with the Spanish invading Florida and ends with Spanish Jesus and his Indian disciples.
>Dubliners by James Joyce
Was okay. I appreciate Joyce's genius, but for some reason that doesn't translate into enjoyment for me in any significant way.
>Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Enjoyable, don't have much to say about it really, but enjoyable.
>A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Absolutely amazing. Has become one of my favorite books after reading it. The whole message about communication between individuals being nearly impossible due to a myriad of divides between them was very appealing to me, not to mention all the other fascinating themes the book had. If anyone knows anything comparable to this, I'd love to hear some recommendations.

Currently reading:
>Hard Times by Charles Dickens
I'm about halfway into book 2 right now. It's okay so far, though I think his caricatures of utilitarianism get kind of silly at times and it kind of hurts his point.
>Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster
Surprisingly funny for a series of academic lectures on what makes a novel. I find Forster's ideas agreeable, and the lectures are entertaining to read so far.

Next five:
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald
Maybe something else by Forster, not sure yet.

LAST SIX
dracula
defending sacred ground
how to do things with words
thrawn wars heir to the empire
stranger in a strange land
duncan the wonder dog

CURRENT
isis unveiled vol. 1

NEXT
working: people talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do

Ayn Lin

>last five
Don Quixote
Crime and Punishment
Meiji Kaika Ango Torimonochou
Virtual Light
Shin Honkaku Mahou Shoujo Risuka 1

>currently reading
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 1

>next three
Horizon 2
Horizon 3
Horizon 4

LAST FIVE:
1. The Trial of Henry Kissinger - Christopher Hitchens.
Good Halloween reading, a real horror story. One has to wonder why Kissinger is still a free man while the author seems to be dying. Only Hitch could make this subject palatable.
2. Tocqueville: A Very Short Introduction - Harvey C. Mansfield.
Perfect, compact little book. Every paragraph filled with deep meaning. Now I know why Tocqueville is still considered one of the greatest sociopolitical thinkers of all time. I now want his books.
3.The End of War - Captain Paul K. Chappell.
Young writer, feels like a seminar transcript, but very good ideas. You'll believe in the possibility of world peace -or at least far more stability.
4. Permanently Blue - Dylan Loewe.
A perhaps overly optimistic pollsters prediction/encouragements. Written in 2009, its first forecasts fall flat, but that doesn't mean his theory is going to turn out wrong.
5. The Basque History of the World - Mark Kurlansky.
Fun, vaulting account of a unique people. Too bad it was written before the recent genetic testing results, that could have been another chapter right there.

CURRENTLY READING:
Currently still on Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction.
Reading/read the prefaces and introductions to The Odyssey, The Portable Hannah Arendt, Byzantine Slavery and the Mediterranean World, The Road to Wigan Pier, Black Lamb & Grey Falcon, Letters and Sayings of Epicurus, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Rules for Radicals.

NEXT FIVE:
One of the above ...or another. Its a secret.

capsguy! i thought you dead.

Im not a super ardent reader, but since it's paramount to being an intellectual and becoming a polymath i consider it worthwhile. so here we go.

1. Tibetan book o' the dead -padma sambhava
Overview of 'death science', practices and preparations for death, tantric methodology and so forth.
2. Jesus and buddha as brothers -thich nhat hanh
Very simplified introduction to buddhism pretty much.
3. Thoughts out of season -Nietzsche
a very interesting series of discourses about the social schizophrenias of 19th century germany, which i think was intended by old friedrich to be an introduction to his idea of 'eternal recurrence.'
4. Thus spake zarathustra -nietzsche
a very unique, mind blowing book for those who will themselves to gain understanding of it (im still trying to figure it out)
5. The Dhammapada -Transcribed from the words of Shakyamuni buddha
A series of discourses summarizing the insights of the historical buddha.

<L5:
1.Grimoires, A history of magic books - Owen Davies
2. On Liberty - John Stuart Mill
3. Last argument of kings - Joe Abercrombie
4. Before they are hanged - Joe Abercrombie
5. My big toe - Thomas Campbell

>RN:
Best served cold - Joe Abercrombie
Seduction - Jean Baudrillard
General system theory - Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Lucid Dreaming - Robert Waggoner
The nature of personal reality - Jane Roberts

>N5:
1. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
2. Simulacra and simulation - Jean Baudrillard
3. The glass bead game - Herman Hesse
4. Brave new world - Aldous Huxley

Previous 5:
The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels
Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler
The Art Of War - Sun Tzu
The Catcher In The Rye - J. D Salinger
They Fuck You Up - Oliver James

Currently reading:
The Satanic Bible - Anton Szander LaVey

Next 5 to read:
The Necronomicon - ?
Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
Hard Landing - Stephen Leather
The Odessa File - Frederick Forsyth
Sinatra Biography - Tom Santopietro

>>2151440

What are your thoughts on Monterroso?

Let's see. Last five

>L'étrange - A Camus
5/5 Funny, touchful (?) sadfrog inducing.
>The Manipulated Man - Esther Vilar
I picked up knowing the attitude of the writer in it, and the obvious polemic it was intended to rise. Still an entertaining book. 3/5
>Ética para Amador - Fernando Savater
5/5 One of my favourite books ever. Deal with ethics in a style and prose that makes it beautiful.
And a pair of national literature books

Now:
Dante Club - Matthew Pearl
A couple of books about classical philosophy

Next:
>Brothers Karamazov - Dosto
>Informe Brodie or El hacedor - J. L. Borges
>2666 - R. Bolaño

How you guys manage to read on a travel?
It's impossible to me.

>>2151802

Prepare to be disappointed by the Odessa File, I read it after Day of the Jackal by Forsyth. Odessa is 50% a historical recount of the second world war and the other half is a half-assed spy novel.

LAST 5:
La Divina Commedia
L'Hôte, Albert Camus
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Letter Killers Club, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
Women, Charles Bukowski (We writer-types put up with too much crap that seems to stop us from writing, yet provides material)

CURRENT:
Volkswagen Blues, Jacques Poulin
The Canadian Postmodern, Linda Hutcheon
Meter in English, David Baker
20th Century Poetry & Poetics, edited by Gary Geddes
The Songs of Sappho, Miller & Robinson
(After reading however many words in my life, my eyes witness the beauty of one in this collection that changes my life, αχαχος, meaning 'one who is without experience of ill', commonly translated as 'good-natured'; I think I'm an αχαχος, and need to study more verse before I write any more garbage)

NEXT 5:
Ficciones, Borges
Los detectives salvajes, Bolaño
Yeats' poetry
Dickens' biography
German poetry (shall translate Goethe, and enjoy Walter Bauer and Brecht; selected 'cos 'Wandrers Nachtlied' is easy to translate, and Bauer wrote a poem called 'Canada' where I live)

I'll take questions; my next 5 are kinda random cos I wanna teach myself Greek and Russian before I read much more of anything.

>>2151856
Oh, I forgot to add that La Divina Commedia made me want to die because it allowed me to witness beatitude and beauty.

>>2151506
>Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster
I have this an would like to read it, perhaps you could give me your email and we could discuss it sometime in a month or two? Perhaps I should just make a thread after I read it and you could join in?

last notable works I read was a book on quantum physics and nietzsche and 'A Thirst for Love' by Mishima

currently reading Goethe's 'Faust', Deleuze's 'Nietzsche and Philosophy', Spinoza's 'Ethics', Nishitani's 'Self-Overcoming of Nihilism', etc etc.

>>2151872
Wait, did you read a book that dealt with both quantum physics and nietzsche, or are those two separate books that you have read?

If that is a single book, please give me the title, because that sounds awesome.

Excluding short stories:

>Last five
Kingsolver-The Lacuna (OK, but long)
Wilde-Dorian Gray (Meh)
Martell-Life of Pi (Excellent)
Camus-The Stranger (Only read it so I could understand extestentialism, but I still don't understand)
Huxley-Brave New World (Excellent, but oddly prophetic)

Currently reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Good as a reference book.

>Next reads:
Hamlet
Joyce-Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Something by Wilde (I want to see if he gets better)
Other classics (or recommendations, I guess)

>>2151902
Something by Wilde in hopes his writing is better? Read his poetry, watch his plays, burn his novel.

>>2151886
'The Quantum Nietzsche: The Will to Power and the Nature of Dissipative Systems' by William Plank

'Remapping Reality: Chaos and Creativity in Science and Literature (Goethe - Nietzsche - Grass)' might be of similar interest although I haven't read it.

There's also an article on like jstor or muse or something if you have access, called 'Nietzschean Geometry' that deals with similar issues, it's short and worth a read

>>2151907

>>2151907
I'm the guy who requested the info.
Thanks!
I'm reading "Nietzschean Geometry" right now.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENED, BUT /LIT/'S READING HAS GOT BETTER!

IS IT BECAUSE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE'S SUMMER IS OVER?

>>2152113
Possibly. Maybe more people have just hit that point where they're trying to form their own tastes too.

Last five:

>Brave New World
very interesting book, really liked it
>Fahrenheit 451
also interesting, not as good as BNW though
>Slaughterhouse 5
strange book, but I liked it, might have to reread it though
>Picture of Dorian Gray
Damn, that one was awesome, had a completely different idea about the book (apart from the portrait of course) so I was somewhat surprised at it
>Goethe - Faust 1
reread it because we discussed this in school (I am German), loved it, its one of the most awesome things in German literature I ever read

Currently reading:

>Clockwork Orange
Have seen the movie, so I pretty much know the story already, but I like the authors style and all his 'strange' words he is using. Overall would recommend it to anyone. Not far in yet though.

Next reading:

>Catcher in the Rye
Well its a small book and its often talked about on /lit/ so I thought lest read it)
>Hesse - Steppenwolf
Well I am German, so Hesse is pretty much a duty to read.
>War and Peace
Started reading this month ago and took a break from it to read some other stuff, still want to end it, since it is really damn awesome. Although its pretty damn long.

Last 5:

Dubliners: It was OK. Was expecting better with The Dead. It's a nice painting of Dublin, but it left me with the impression that Dublin wasn't a terribly interesting place.

Eugene Onegin: Loved it. Instant top five. Yes, it was a translation

The Master and Margarita: Overrated. Some parts were enjoyable, but most of it seemed like lolwackyadventuresinmoscow!.

Ham On Rye: It was fun. Not very memorable, but deliciously bukowski.

For Whom the Bell Tolls: I want to read The Sun Also Rises or A Farewell To Arms before giving up on Hemingway, but I was dissapointed.

Current:

Re-reading Inherent Vice while the amazon elfs get me my new books. I have Titus Groan, but I'm not in the mood for picking that up.

Next five:
junky, burroughs
great jones street, delillo
brief interviews with hideous men, david foster walrus
chess story, some zweig
you don't love me yet, lethem

(i was going to have ready player one and perdido street station but amazon fucked the order up, they were going to ship next year :|)

>>2152151
high school fag

>>2152158

Nope. Just went into classic literature recently and startet with the entry level stuff. I find the whole dystopian stuff interesting, so I just read them.

1. Neuromancer
2. A Scanner Darkly
3. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
4. Fahrenheit 451
5. Breakfast of Champions

-Starship Troopers

1. 1984
2. Minority Report and other short stories
3. The Man in the High Castle
4. Solar Lottery
5. No clue. Suggestions are appreciated.

>>2152168
VALIS, snow crash, we. just to fill out the dystopian/dick theme.

Last five:

>Thomas R. Nevin, Irving Babbitt: An Intellectual Study
Biography of an interesting neglected thinker from the early 20th century, best remembered as one of T.S. Eliot's early mentors.

>Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
About 19th-century hippies trying to start a commune in rural New England. (Spoilers: it turns out about as well as they always do.)

>Walter Laqueur & George L. Moore, eds., International Fascism 1920-1945
A collection of historical essays. Most interesting was a long piece on Jacques Doriot, a charismatic Frenchman who went from the extreme left to the extreme right after falling out with the Communists and took most of his local followers with him.

>Steven Marcus, The Other Victorians
Hilarious and well-written study of 19th-century pr0n novels, written too early to be bogged down with "gender theory" jargon.

>Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life
Some guy who was well-known in his day discusses his philosophy of life. Had a couple good moments but mostly meh. I picked this up from a pile of books that someone was throwing out and read it as part of my "read some of the books on my shelves before I buy any more" program.

>>2152177

Currently reading:

>The Odyssey, Robert Fagles translation
What is there to say, it's the Odyssey. Feels a little anticlimactic to me so far, but that's probably because the plot is so familiar from cultural references. It's odd that the stuff everyone thinks of when they think of the Odyssey (Odysseus fighting crazy monsters) is only about 1/3rd of the book.

>Mark Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603-1714
Book on the English Civil War and the events surrounding it. I didn't know much about the period and am finding it fascinating -- the author doesn't mention this, but it's clear how much the King vs. Parliament struggle created the cultural and intellectual background that would lead to the American Revolution a century later.

>>2152181


Next up:
>Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down
More on the English Civil War, this one's about the radical religious sects that sprang up during the war years (Diggers, Levellers, etc.)

>James P. Cannon, Socialism On Trial
Trotskyist pamphlet from the '40s that I picked up at a used bookstore. Long story.

>John Christopher, The Sword of the Spirits trilogy
Post-apocalyptic YA fantasy. I loved these books as a kid and found them cheap in a used bookstore, so I'm curious to see if they hold up.

>William J. Newman, The Futilitarian Society
Another used bookstore find, this one a 1963 analysis by a liberal journalist of the (then-)contemporary conservative movement.

>Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art
Yet another used bookstore find (see above on trying to read more of the books I own before I buy any new ones.) Camille Paglia big-ups this book all the time.

>>2152185

Not related, but where is OP's pic from? I know I read that book as a kid but I can't remember what it was called.

>>2152187
I LOVE HOW THIS GETS ASKED EVERY TIME I POST THAT IMAGE AND I NEVER ANSWER IT.

Last 5:

>The Time Machine - H.G Wells
Brilliant story by Wells, has aged surprisingly well considering it was written over a century ago.

>The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G Wells
Fascinating if unbelievable story of the "mad scientist," in this case using vivisection to turn animals into vaguely human half beast creatures. Most interesting is the society these beasts build and the laws they impose upon themselves to try and keep the beast like nature they all have inside them in check.

>Watership Down - Richard Adams
Classic heroic adventure story focusing on the journey of a small group of Rabbits as they split from their current burrow following a premonition from a Rabbit named Fiver. It follows their adventures as they risk life and limb to find a new home, and then the hardships they face to keep it as well as the struggle to find does to breed with before it's too late. It's also surprisingly dark with Rabbit's dying from snares, guns, Foxes and other Rabbit's. This is like the 6th time I've read this.

>South of the Border, West of the Sun - Murakami
Short novel about some fag who can't get over a girl he liked when he was 12. I'm more of a fan of Murakami's surreal works though to be fair so this one wasn't that interesting too me, yet it's still fairly enjoyable to read over an afternoon. It's just disappointing in a way as it ends with everything being more or less the same as when it started. Still, Norweigan Wood sold like crack over in Japan so I guess they eat up this coming of age stuff over there.

>American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
Another novel I've read many times. Bateman's fantastically written in this, however the sub plot is easier to see through than rice paper. It amazes me that some people still think that he actually committed the murders.

>>2152285

Currently Reading (just starting):

After Dark - Haruki Murakami
The Earthsea Quartet - Ursula Le Guin

Next 5:

The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
Dune - Frank Herbert
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
Nausea - Jean-Paul Sartre

>>2152285
>It amazes me that some people still think that he actually committed the murders.

It amazes me that you think it matters to the text.

>>2152289
Did you read it just for the gory murderypoos? Or because he's dubbywubs guy?

Does anyone really care about these threads?

The last five books read by some people I don't even know? These threads are always made by Capsfag just about every week--probably in a really sad bid to show everyone how he reads 14 books every 2 days.

Sorry, I can't bring myself to give a shit.

>>2152187
CAPS CAPS CAPS FOR SALE

FIFTY CENTS A CAP

>>2152292
When I say "text" I don't mean the story. I mean "text" as in the meaning, the disentangling of meaning from the signs in the text. I read it because it's a clever satire. I read it because I appreciate Ellis' style. I read it because I am going academic work in grad studies on post-war American literature

>>2152299
Have fun schnookums

>>2152302
This makes me think you read it because of the allure of sociopaths. Or you're 15 and you read it to appear deep and edgy. Plus, you claim you've read it multiple times, yet you cannot spell the author's name right.

Last five:
>Down & Out - tony wilkinson
a 1980 version of orwell's book, done by some reporter for nationwide (only london). it was interesting, things actually seemed worse since the 30s (much more dangerous, dirtier, more drink, less attentive staff) but it's hard to say whether that's just because one or both authors weren't accurate enough
>sophie's world - jostein gaardner
babby's first philosophy guide, someone considerably more well-read than i am told me it was "surprisingly not terrible" so i gave it a whirl. wasn't disappointed, the story side was pretty weak but it served its purpose, would recommend to others
>Frankenstein - mary shelley
for some reason i had the preconception that gothic horror would be terrible trash but this was great, short/sharp/high drama etc etc and i need to get on reading some essays on it or w/e. maybe i'll see if the library has the norton critical edition
>the thirty-nine steps - john buchan
didn't like this much, glad it was only 100 pages or so. spy thriller that i think helped popularise the genre? despite constant action it managed to seem incredibly slow, slower than books twice its age and length, and wasn't open to fun+cool interpretation either
>In search of schrodinger's cat - john gribbins
interesting but i can't judge its accuracy since i havent read any other books on early 20th c. science, except one on special relativity. someone recommend me something that isn't a 2k page textbook (small textbook is ok though, i'm in roughly that field at uni)

Currently reading:
>The Aeneid - Virgil
awesome so far, fagles translation so much better than the shitty penguin prose ones i had for homer (which i need to reread in verse)

Next five: war of the worlds (wells), tales of unrest (conrad), something by f scott fitzgerald, lolita, gulliver's travels? i dont plan far ahead

>>2152308
Oh dear I added an extra T to a name that's not commonly used in the UK. Woe betide me.

I bought before I went on holiday in 2002 as I'd like Rules of Attractions. That's all there was to it. Sorry I can't explain myself with an air of pretentiousness like yourself. I'll have to try harder next time to use books as an expression of intelligence and self worth rather than an enjoyable past-time. :3

>>2152293

I don't mind them. I usually just skim through looking for (1) books I've read, to see what other people thought of them and (2) books I haven't read, to get good recommendations.

The posts that say "American Psycho / A Dance With Dragons / Terry Pratchett" I just skim right on past

>>2152333

Books I haven't heard of, rather. There's plenty I've heard of that I have no interest in reading or reading about.

>>2152328
John Gribbins is a respected historian of science and his texts are commonly taught in courses on the history of science, or at least they are in the universities in my city. If that assuages your fears of his credibility.

>>2152328 here
>>2152285
yeah the is he a killer/isn't he thing isn't definitely resolved. it isn't even really a 'cliffhanger' or 'open ending' or anything, not in the sense that a fantasy book might be. at least that's the impression i got from the writing and someone doing some /lit/ studies seems to be saying although i can't really articulate it well

>>2152187
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caps_for_Sale
enjoy

>>2152336

thanks, it does. i looked him up a little after reading it and on the plus side he'd written loads in new scientist etc but on the negative side he'd made some pretty outlandish claims about, like, the world ending or something. was a little worried he was just some published wingnut of science despite the solid warning of "this is just, like, my opinion, man" before he starts the chapter on many worlds

>>2152339
Then let me articulate it for you. The ambiguity of the reality of the crimes is irrelevant to the "text" (as in literary criticism). In fact, by avoiding resolution on the murders, Ellis is highlighting the ambiguity of the social class that he is lampooning.

American Psycho has grown a bad reputation on /lit/ because 15 year old boys read it, come onto the messageboard and miss the satire entirely. Wiser /lit/ posters have conflated American Psycho with the 15 year old mentality, forgetting that there is a clever and decent book buried under all those irritating fans.

I like the book, but I don't love it. I merely defend it out of justice, justice to the reading of the text.

>>2152293
i like finding stuff from people who are reading totally different stuff from me but equally interesting, like this guy
>>2151474
>>Soldier Protocols by Sönke Neitzel
>conversations of german POWs were recorded by the british intelligence. this is the real deal, no journalism filter or media propaganda.

>>2151903
Never knew how much people hated the novel. Huh.

Washington Square
Wuthering Heights
Butterfield 8 (John O'Hara)
The Granite Pail (Lorine Niedecker)
Stories of God (Rilke)

Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
The Pure and the Impure (Colette)
Virgin Soil

Moravagine
The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes
Ficciones (Borges)
ZOO or Letters not About Love (Shklovsky)
House of Leaves

>>2152385

how was wuthering heights? i have it on my shelf but i'm a little apprehensive what with women being weak-minded, cattle, etc

>>2152395
Sucked. You need to be choosy with the edition you read, however. This was like the cheapest used paperback available.

>>2152399

it's an old norton critical edition so i guess i'm in luck. what changes based on edition in the actual text though?

>>2152395
Don't listen to that fool, it's brilliant. Don't read it as a romantic novel, instead read it as a parody of that genre. Get yourself familiar with Jane Eyre or the works of Jane Austen and then read Wuthering Heights. It mocks them mercilessly.

>>2152410
I think it's discussed on Amazon a lot.

>>2152395
Wuthering Heights is a terrific book.

It's really not like Jane Austen's horseshit. In fact, it's quite masculine and moody. If you liked Monte Cristo, you'll almost assuredly like Wuthering Heights.

Robinson Crusoe - Defoe
Cakes and Ale - Maugham
No Exit - Sartre
War is Kind and other poems - Crane
Hunger - Hamsun

Currently:

Tess of the d'Uerbervills - Hardy

Next:

Bleak House - Dickens
Pierre, or the Ambiguties - Melville
The Secret Agent - Conrad
Something by Shakespeare
The Garden of Eden - Hemingway

IF AMERICAN PSYCHO DID NOT HAVE THE OVER-THE-TOP GORE SCENES DO YOU THINK IT WOULD HAVE RECEIVED AS MUCH LITERARY ACCLAIM AND RECOGNITION THAT IT DID? I DOUBT IT.

THE SHOCK FACTOR WAS PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT IN GAINING RECOGNITION FOR THAT BOOK.

>>2152445

Austen isn't horseshit. She wrote at an early stage in the novel's development as it was just getting out of being primarily the domain of the Gothic, so one has to bear that in mind when it comes to the limited scope of her novels. Most people that also dislike her miss her irony and subtlety of her social criticism (although that element of her work is misinterpreted a lot, since they forget that she was a freakin' Tory with a social conservative bent and was more concerned with individual characters and segments that make up society than the social structure itself). There's also all fun times to be had in the likes of Northanger Abbey where Austen mocks the temperament of Gothic novels (though not to the same degree motherfucking Thomas Love Peacock does).

She has her flaws yes (that padding and moralising in Mansfield Park; the increasingly cliche endings etc.), but she's not shit and I'm still disgusted about how she's been co-opted by publishers selling Jodi Picoult novels and the pigeon-hole her work has been pushed into.

I agree with you on Wuthering Heights although to be honest as much as I can see what Emily was doing, I just ended up feeling rather nonplussed, with a dash maybe of that anger you get when someone tells you a joke you already know and as a result, don't find funny.

I'll admit though, I'm in that weird minority that actually thinks Anne Bronte's (poor neglected Anne) "Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is the most interesting of all the Bronte sisters primary works mostly thanks to the refreshing frankness in regards to the nature of marriages of the era, screwing with elements of her sister's work in a realist setting and of course, some very clever structuring.

I ought to give Wuthering Heights a re-read though. Maybe I won't be as iffy on it.

>>2152520
If you're a woman, you should come marry me. I don't even care what your face looks like.

>>2152520
BUT CAN YOU SAY AN AUTHOR IS ANY BETTER BECAUSE OF THE INFLUENCES OF THE TIMES IN WHICH IT WAS WRITTEN?

FURTHERMORE, A FRIEND ON GOODREADS ADDED SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ BY LEVI TO THEIR SHELF SO I DECIDED I'LL CHECK IT OUT SINCE IT WAS WRITTEN PRE-1950. AM I TO EXPECT FARFETCHEDNESS THAT 'NIGHT' GAVE ME THAT I COULD SMELL EVEN WHEN I WAS 14/15?

>>2152528
"If This is a Man" is great. You'll like it.

It is descriptive as hell. He even describes the graffiti on the bathroom walls. Very important work.

>>2152533
SURPRISED I NEVER READ IT WHEN I WENT THROUGH MY WW II READING PHASE IN HIGH SCHOOL (WOULD BE JUNIOR HIGH IN THE US)

HAVE ANY OTHER SHORTER LITERATURE TO RECOMMEND? ANYTHING IS FINE BUT I ONLY READ PRE-1950, BUT IF YOU WANT TO RECOMMEND POST, THAT'S COOL TOO. MIGHT HELP OUT SOMEONE ELSE FIND SOMETHING.

>>2152543
Sinclair Lewis is a must, if you haven't.

"Arrowsmith," "Babbitt," and "Main Street."

I'd also like to recommend "It Can't Happen Here," where Lewis shows how fascism can come to America, but I realise it's not for everyone.

>>2152543
Still not reading female authors?

>>2152543
Primo Levi's entire catalogue is a remarkable capsule for all of humanity.

>>2152550
UNFORTUNATELY THAT'S THE CASE. BUT PLEASE DON'T LET IT INHIBIT YOU FROM RECOMMENDING FEMALE AUTHORED WORKS IN THIS THREAD.

Last Five:
>Ulysses
Amazing piece of literature. I won't pretend like I understood everything, and I look forward to re-reading it, but just for the style and the plot, it deserves its praise. Great read to end the summer.
>Macbeth
Started college so I decided to read short books or plays. Overall, this was pretty good, but a bit too predictable. Great language from Shakespeare as usual.
>A Breakfast of Champions
This was a fun read, but I took to long to read it so it was a bit underwhelming and didn't feel as good as Slaughterhouse Five. I'll probably re-read it in the future and make sure I read it quick, that's when I find I enjoy Vonnegut the most.
>King Lear
Favorite Shakespeare play thus far. The plot was surprisingly different and good, and the Shakespeare language here was some of the best I've ever read.
>Of Mice and Men
This was a great short story, manly tears were shed. Looking forward to reading more from Steinbeck.

Currently reading:
>A Game of Thrones
Decided to go ahead and read this already, and I'm really liking it. I enjoyed the 1st season of the tv series, so reading this is very nice.

Next Five:
>American Psycho
>Othello
>The Tempest
>As I Lay Dying
>A Clash of Kings

>>2152548
MANY THANKS BUT A BIT TOO LONG. I'M JUST LOOKING FOR SOME THINGS TO READ IN BETWEEN MY JAPANESE LITERATURE BINGE AND DICKENS AND OTHER ESSENTIAL CLASSICS I'LL BE CATCHING UP ON ONCE MY HOLIDAYS START

Last Five: I, Claudius, Claudius the God, Norwegian Wood, The Savage in Judaism, Utopia
Currently Reading: On Liberty
Next Five: Re-read On Liberty, Frankenstein, The Iliad, Lives of the Caesars (Seutonius), and I dunno lol.

>>2152561
One has to wonder how your retention of these books is. I mean, you read so many books and so quickly, do you remember them at all? Or do they all start to blend together?

Can you remember which Dickens had Dianel Quilp, for example? Or is it just "oh, that Dickens baddie from that one book I read." ?

>>2152577
ONLY DICKENS I READ WAS OLIVER TWIST AND A CHRISTMAS CAROL, AND THAT WAS WHEN I WAS A KID.

MY READING HAS SLOWED RIGHT DOWN, YOU CAN CHECK ON MY GOODREADS ACCOUNT. I DON'T HAVE AS MUCH TIME TO READ AS I DID BEFORE.

SURE, I DON'T RETAIN EVERYTHING, BUT I FULLY INTEND ON RE-READING THE BEST BOOKS I ENJOYED (AND THE NUMBER IS GROWING) SOMETIME IN MY LIFE.

>>2152592
In that case, allow me to rec. "The Old Curiousity Shop"

Probably my favorite Dickens (which has Daniel Quilp as the baddie.)

>>2152526

Sorry, I'm a guy and a relatively straight and mildly masculine one (not being mutually exclusive in my experience) at that.

Which unfortunately in this day and age raises eyebrows when I say I've read everything of Austens sans Sanditon/The Watsons, and also means we couldn't marry thanks to the Fascist social conservatives who have the kind of autistic shitfit about the definition of marriage the Chinese have over territorial disputes. But, I digress.

>>2152528

>BUT CAN YOU SAY AN AUTHOR IS ANY BETTER BECAUSE OF THE INFLUENCES OF THE TIMES IN WHICH IT WAS WRITTEN?

Not necessarily better because of the influences, but I honestly think one gets a more accurate assessment of an author and a greater appreciation of their work when taking into account the historical context, both in literary history and in general. Making value judgements in ignorance of these things is, I reckon, to make somewhat flawed ones.

Then again I'm also partial to the idea of the importance of look at an authors work within the context of the rest of their work and the development of their own writing, and not just writing in general. Which I'm sure most people accidentally dabble in when they've read a lot of an author's work (I'm sure you've done it with Tolstoy et. al.)

>>2152605

looking at*

>>2152602
BUT WHICH IS THE BEST TO START WITH?

>>2152520

I studied Tenant earlier this year. It seems to me that Anne develops her main character from helplessly naive to still-pretty-naive, and is absurdly unaware of the latter.

ANY RECOMMENDATIONS?

>>2152949

That's the point. If I had time I'd get really into but I'll just leave it at the fact we're supposed to worry in the end about Helen marrying Gilbert (who, if you'll note at times, echoes Huntingdon in things like his narration being as domineering over Helen's story as Huntingdon is over Helen herself etc. etc.)

In fact the entire novel is a refutation of marriage as the endgame in the novel and in 19th Century life, which I believe, is half of what pissed off the more conservative-minded Charlotte who shat on Anne's critical reputation after she died stating the novel was a "mistake". The ending is the punch-line of ambiguity.

>>2152946

Just start with A Tale of Two Cities like I did. You've read a bit of French literature concerning so you'd be most familiar with a lot of what's spoken about, and it's apparently his least serial-minded.

Also try to get Jaan Kross' The Czar's Madman. As a Russophile, I'd think you'd find it interesting especially since it deals with the Russian empire with a dash of obvious comparisons to the Soviet year. Admittedly it's a pain in the arse to get and not pre-1950 (according to NLA's Trove site, no library in Queensland has it and I doubt you can get an ebook) but I think it's worth getting a hold of.

Actually now that I think of it - I think I've realised why you do pre-1950...

>>2153002

(Not sure if I've linked this before)
http://www.jlpp.go.jp/jp/published/published_titles_e.pdf


I have a few names you probably don't have as well that I gathered when I was trawling a few forums and whatnot.

Takeshi Kaiko -

Into a Black Sun, (English language edition: Kodansha America (1981). ISBN 0-87011-428-X
Five Thousand Runaways Dodd, Mead (1987)
Darkness in Summer (with Cecilia Segawa Seigle), Peter Owen (1989). ISBN 0-7206-0725-6
Giants and Toys, in: Made in Japan and Other Japanese Business Novels, transl.: Tamae K. Prindle. (1990). ISBN 0-87332-772-1
A Certain Voice in: Mother of Dreams and Other Short Stories, ed. by Makoto Ueda


Shusaku Endo - Deep River
Naoya Shiga - A Dark Night's Passing
Yoko Ogawa - The Housekeeper and the Professor
Kanehara Hitomi: Snakes & Earrings
Kono Taeko: Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories

>>2153010

A Tale of Two Cities is a terrible place to start, it's not representative of his work at all.

>>2153070
OUR MUTUAL FRIEND IT IS?

>>2153071
Great Expectations would be the perfect place to start. Oliver Twist and David Copperfield would be good places to start. But I prefer his later more socially aware novels like Our Mutual Friend, Little Dorritt and Bleak House.

>>2153114
I MIGHT JUST START WITH OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, MOVES PRETTY FAST APPARENTLY.

>>2152605

When I was in college I took a Jane Austen seminar to pick up girls... but they all assumed I was gay since I was the only guy in the class

>>2153210
You were the only guy and still couldn't pick up? Wow...

>>2153124

>capsguy asks for /lit/ advice
>/lit/ gives capsguy advice
>capsguy does whatever the fuck he wants anyway

I swear to god you do this shit every time. Why do you even ask for recommendations?

WHEN I GET CONFLICTING OPINIONS I USUALLY GO WITH THE FORMER IF IT'S WELL ESTABLISHED AND STILL SEEMS VIABLE.

WHAT'S TO SAY I'M NOT GOING TO HAVE GREAT EXPECTATIONS AS MY SECOND MAJOR DICKENS READ PARTLY BECAUSE OF THAT ADVICE?

>>2153776

>implying CAPS GUY isn't one of the best tripfags on this board
>implying other things
>really, just implying

CAPS GUY 4 LYFE.

Last five:

>:59 Seconds by Prof. Richard Wiseman
This is a great read.

>Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Innovative for the period it was written in but otherwise awful. Victor is the original emo.

>In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Wonderful, a really good book.

>Haunted by James Herbert
Fantastic!

>Assassins by Shaun Hutson
Fair. Not thoroughly enjoyable but not bad, either.

Current:

>Superstitious by R. L. Stine
So far, so good. A few things bug me such as the strong emphasis on sex and the sun always being red from behind a tree, but hey, it doesn't detract from the story too much.

Next:

>Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are by Daniel Nettle
After that, no idea.

>>2153802
>wow
>just wow

>>2153817

>implying you don't want to suck off CAPS GUY

These topics are always fun. Anyone could do them, but CAPS GUY does them with style.

>>2153824
This sucking-up is just a bid to get SOMEONE on this board who likes you.

>>2153831
I like him, I am a sucker for sucking up, and that sucks. Suck it.

Last five:

>A Season in Hell- Arthur Rimbaud
Pretty stellar, Rimbaud's an... angel? Great poetry, at least.

>Illuminations- Arthur Rimbaud
Same old stuff. I don't think it's as good as A Season in Hell, but it's still pretty interesting.

>A Brave New World Revisited- Aldous Huxley
Really weird. Huxley had some really prophetic stuff to say in a Brave New World, and he recaps on that. Made me think much more critically about the novel, and the way it portrays society.

>Count Zero- William Gibson
Honestly wasn't that impressed. Future steam-punk something that I read for the ideas (fell a little flat honestly). Makes my dreams really interesting though, I will admit that.

>The Trial- Franz Kafka
Sadly, this made me realize that I haven't finished a novel in a while... fuck school. A little dry, but really stellar... Kafka is brilliant for sure. He does give me nightmares whenever I read his work though.

Currently Reading:
>The Flowers of Evil
Re-reading actually, I was/ am on a surrealist kick.
>The Complete Poems of e.e. cummings ('13-'62)
Not really tooling through this one, actually sitting down and trying to appreciate each poem's syntax and stuff.
>The Animal That Therefore I Am-Derrida
Derrida talks about being naked before cats, and naming animals.

Up Next:
>Don Quixote
(like 350 pages into it, might as well give it a run for its money)
>The Castle
I want to read everything Kafka
>Harry Potter
I have resisted my whole life and am considering stooping to reading it now that I'm 19
>The Lord of the Rings Triolgy/ The Hobbit
Fantasy strikes again, another bit of fiction I am too good to read

I would literally open my ass for capsguy. He's so cool, sexy, and hip. I would kill my cat for just one hour with him. That little slut.

>>2153886
WHAT

BUMP

monitoring this thread

Last 5...

-White Noise [Don DeLillo] - the pomo irony is kind of played out now, but I liked its humor. Some lines reminded me of J.G. Ballard: “The scene of injured people, medics, smoking steel, all washed in a strong and eerie light, took on the eloquence of a formal composition.”

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses [Laclos] - not for everyone but witty & evil: “...she has devised the plan of praying God to make her forget him; and since she renews this prayer at every moment of the day she finds a way of constantly thinking about him.”

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again [DFW] - everyone knew about this book but me

On Love [Stendhal] - cool part about "crystallization" but otherwise very disorganized and unclear

Cousin Bette [Balzac] - fucking awesome. Nobody on /lit/ reads Balzac

Currently working on:
Yukikaze [Chohei Kambayashi] - japanese military sf
Ilium [Dan Simmons] - cool sf, lit stuff kind of annoying

Possible reads...

The Girl With The Flammable Skirt - Aimee Bender
The Meloncholy of Resistance - some Eastern European guy

Thoughts?

>>2155405

I'm thinking i should go downstairs and clean that bird egg off my car, before it permanently fucks up the paint job

>>2155426

Why is there a bird egg on your car?

>>2155426

That's not an egg, bro

stfu satan

>>2155442

i think a bird shat it while i was parked under a tree.
or someone threw it to get some petty revenge over some hurt feelings or something
either way, each moment i waste here is caking the fucking on there...

>>2155456

what's up buddy?!?!?!

how was saturday night for you??...did we have a great night out with the lads?!!??

stay down or i'll do to you what I did to gadaffi

>>2155484
YOU DIDN'T DO IT LOL

>>2151902
Forgot to add that I'm also going to read the Metamorphosis (Kafka), The Death of Ivan Ilych (Tolstoy), and Penelopiad (Atwood).

Any other recommendations are appreciated.

last:
Foundation (Asimov)
Leviathan (Auster)
Blood Meridian (McCarthy)
Animal Farm (Orwell)

Really liked all of them actually.

current:
L'étranger (Camus)

next:
La Nausée (Sartre)
Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)

>>2155484
>LAST FIVE
Kafka's shorts, Romeo & Juliet, Kafka on the Shore, Rimbaud comp(need to return to when im less retarded),, Dr.Faustus Marlowe

>CURRENTLY READING
School stuff, maybe Anthony & Cleopatra, Poe poems

>NEXT FIVE (Possibilities)
I know D&E recommended the road couple months ago but something really pissed me off there when tried to read the first couple paragraphs,. too drunk to remember right now lol.

Borges'' short stories(if I do a bit more research on translation issues/the shortlist of best that is), Frankenstein(dont wanna be disapointed with draculaa ) , Candide, maybe more camus, siddartha, lovecraft cthulu collectiont hing, midsummers nigt drem. impoortence of being widle, rabbie burns(yeah this will bne fun :DDDDd), maybe treasure island i remember someone cool here likes it,. maytbe some more Dicklens, Sun Also Rises, Onen flew over Cuckloo nest._

>>2157552
the irony of that pic is she unveils her own vacuousness by defining herself by who she is not.

>>2157552
why does adele date all these chumps when all i want out of life is a pretty fat girlfriend with an artistic talent of some kid

she could still write mopey records about how i don't have a drivers license and get takeout food too often but id never break her heart!!

>>2157559
>implying that you do not do this on a higher level

>>2157552

shame her music is so fucking fat and ugly as well

>>2157559
What are you going about, Truman? The irony is that "RARARAR BAD WUMMIN STANDARS, I NO HAV TO B SKINNY" but then she still looks much prettier (and skinnier) in that pic than she actually is.
then again, all this emphasis on one's looks are just retarded. Wanna be fat? Be fat, just don't go on a tirade about it like you're better than the cocaine addicted anorexics.
Adele should suck your dick, Truman.

>>2157579
>has never heard true fat and ugly music
hehe

>>2157583
>true fat and ugly music
like dem Generic Dubstep Beats? I mean, the "drops" are already dirty, they might as well be fat and ugly.

>Importance of Being Ernest
>Hard Times
>Middlemarch
>Maude
>In Memoriam

These were for school. Before that I was reading Clash of Kings. Haters proceed to hate.

>>2157582

you're right, by engaging at all in such a nonsense issue you have already conceded intellectual defeat, let alone defining your life's goal by it. but that's the low hanging fruit from the irony tree.

maybe i'd let her suck my dick, but after she'd put on a bit of weight.

>>2157612

holy shit, sauce?

>Previous five:
Finnegans wake

Finnegans wake

Finnegans wake

Finnegans wake

Finnegnas wake

>Current book: Finnegans wake

>Next five:
Finnegans wake
Finnegans wake
Finnegans wake
Finnegans wake
Green eggs and ham

>>2157922
well done

>>2157655
It's a male.

>>2157949
sauce?

>>2151423
The Kite Runner.
1984.
Brave New World.
The Girl with the Dragon tattoo.
Super sad true love story.
//////////////////////////////////////////////
The lord of the rings(all 3 books)
dante's inferno
???
???
???

Can't Remember

Death in Venice / The Brothers

Dunno

Siri Hustvedt "The Summer Without Men"
Siri Hustvedt "Yonder"
Kurt Vonnegut "Galapagos"
Siri Hustvedt "What I Loved"
Joan Didion "The Year of Magical Thinking"

Andre Breton "Mad Love"

Paul Auster "Sunset Park"
Joan Didion "Sloaching Towards Bethlehem"
Asti Hustvedt "Medical Muses"
Joan Didion "Play It As It Lays"
Thomas Pynchon "V."


What I Loved is the greatest thing I've ever read. Really.

>>2151440
me again.

LAST FIVE:
>Crime and Punishment in Medieval Chinese Drama: Three Judge Pao Plays
>The Lover by Marguerite Duras
>A Tomb for Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kis
>My Tired Father by Gellu Naum
>The Black Sheep and Other Fables by Augusto Monterroso

CURRENTLY READING
>Selected Plays of Kuan Han-Ch'ing
>Howling at the Moon and Blue by Hagiwara Sakutaro
>Imperial Messages: 100 Modern Parables

NEXT FIVE
>Six Yuan Plays
>Monks, Bandits, Lovers, and Immortals : Eleven Early Chinese Plays
>Eight Chinese Plays from the Thirteenth Century to the Present
>The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai
>Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk

Suddenly on bit of a medieval Chinese theatre kick. Recommendations very welcome for that.

Last five:

The Sound and The Fury - Faulkner
>Great book, first 2 chapters are some of the best prose I've read.

A Portrait Of The Artist as a Young Man - Joyce
>Probably the best thing I've ever read. So beautiful and it sorta hit home quite hard as to how much my life is like Dedalus'.

Dubliners - Joyce
>Joyce is again, brilliant. While I prefer the novel style to his short stories, it really does paint a great picture of Dublin and a good introduction to Joyce and Modernism. (Probably should have read it before A Portrait though).

Collected Stories - Kafka
>I read The Metamorphosis when I was younger (15 I think) but I didn't quite "get" it. I thought it was a comedy. After re-reading and his other stories I really loved his writing style. The way the emphasis is at the end of each long sentence etc.

L'Etranger - Camus
>I liked the book, but I really didn't get the whole "existential crisis" deal. Maybe if I'd read it when I was younger (when I read 1984 when I was 14 it had a profound impact on me) it would have taken hold better. I still loved the story though.

Currently reading:

Lolita - Nabokov
The Return of Depression Economics - Krugman
The Bottom Billion - Collier

Next Five:

To The Lighthouse - Woolf
Ulysses - Joyce (3rd attempt)
Something else by Faulkner
A Farewell To Arms - Hemingway
The Waste Land - T S Eliot

>>2158653
You did get it. It IS a comedy.

>>2158657

Yeah that's what I thought at first, the fact that he's all "oh dear I'm going to miss my train" even though he's a goddamn bug thing made me think so.

But then when I look online and see that Kafka was meant to be sort of confusingly unsettling and complex etc. just made me think I was wrong.

Plus the last part of The Metamorphosis was kinda sad.

>>2158667

http://www.badgerinternet.com/~bobkat/kafka.html

It IS comedy, and it IS disturbing and confusing.

>>2158674

Oh well, perhaps I shouldn't analyse literature based solely on interpretations online.

Oh god the irony.

I haven't done these in a while. I always get angry at people blatantly reading to look intelligent but whatevs.

Last Five:
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
Loaded - Christos Tsiolkas
A Difficult Young Man - Martin Boyd
The Getting of Wisdom - H. H. Richardson
Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe

Now: Nothing, too much coursework. I haven't read for fun in a while. In the middle of The Brothers Karamazov, haven't picked it up in months.

Gonna read:
The Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy
Father and Son - Edmund Gosse
The Glass Bead Game - Hermann Hesse

No prizes for figuring out where I study.

>Prior
Jerzy Kosiński, Being There (1971)
Cutesy novella about an imbecile being raised in a secret garden by a wealthy business tycoon, becoming his heir apparent, and leading and enlightening those around him. Feels dated and gimmicky with its focus on the TV as education. Not at all as good as the prior work I'd read by him, Steps. Kosiński is a surface writer and my impression is the value of his work relies on the memorability his surfaces create.

Stanley Elkin, Searches and Seizures (1973)
Collection of three longer stories by a relatively well-regarded but unpopular writer which move through themes of lust, success(ion), and death. Found myself rather impressed with them, and overall it reminded me of a Saul Bellow with more of a taste for delving into the interior than schlepping around the old Yiddish comedy routine (although there is a lot of comedy in it).

Don DeLillo, Point Omega (2010)
>Boo hoo, the novel is dead. Here's thirty pages of my interpretation of a contemporary film installation I saw at the museum. Oh yeah, I guess there's a murder/suicide mystery too.

>Present
Christina Stead, The Man Who Loved Children [1940]
Riveting so far, I'll let you know when I get the whole thing finished.

John Barth, The Floating Opera / The End of the Road [1956, 1958]
Funnier than I expected but not as funny as he's been given credit as being. We'll see how it winds up.

>>2158694

> I always get angry at people blatantly reading to look intelligent but whatevs.

Please show examples of this.

Last five:
Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon
Count Zero by William Gibson
Dispatches by Michael Herr
Cock & Bull by Will Self
God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian by Kurt Vonnegut

Currently:
The Adventures of Lucky Pierre by Robert Coover

Next:
If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien

LAST:
1.The Crippled God by Steven Erikson (a great conclusion to the Malazan series)
2.Midnight Riot aka Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (in some aspects better than Dresden Files)
3. Three seconds by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström (oh god I want more like this)
4.No Good Deed by M.P McDonald (the torture/prison scenes were well written but the book as a whole was not thought trough)
5.The Religion by Tim Willocks (very anti-religious)

NOW: nothing yet

NEXT:
1.The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith
2.The Terror by Dan Simmons
3.The Long Ships by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson
4.Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton
5.Testament by Valerie J. Freireich (if i find it)

>>2151472
>Fuck you, Ted Hughes. You abstruse bastard.
mfw

>>2151506
>Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster
Big sell for me, thank you.

Last Five
Heart of Darkness-Joseph Conrad
>everyone has read it, it's a good text to gain insight into 'past-western-human-value'
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
>Stunningly well written with proper amounts of adult inflection into a child's mind. Commentary on the interdependence of women on men-- and men on a society that limits the education of women.
Anna Karenina-Tolstoy
> Beautifully told story of disaster within upper society that still manages to provide a glance into a decaying class system. Interesting insight into jealousy, and the impact it can have on the human mind.
Tale of Two Cities-Dickens
>Flowery language kept me content with the linear story and limited characters.
Discourse on the Origins of Inequality-Rousseau
>Opinionated writing on the source of mans corruption. The discourse blames private property, language, and labor for the pains of mankind. It's hard to get past the stories i've heard about Rousseau--writing feverishly with shaky hand--and his free-flow thought process; his points are eventually ironed out and fairly impressive.

Currently Reading
Keats's odes and contemporary criticism
> Puzzling odes provide lots of fun in deciphering
Ralph Emerson-Nature
>I can't make up my mind about it yet, as i have not had time to figure out his style. It seems, however, to be romantic lectures on his perception of nature.


Next Five
Bleak House-Dickens
Wide Sargasso Sea-Jean Rhys
Utopia- Thomas More

I can't remember what else is on my shelf to be read. I'm reading a lot of research material right now so it's hard for me to distinguish what is real.

>>2151434

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByD5ORT6Mcw

Check out this audio composition of the events of Night On The Milky Way Railway.

It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.

It's off the album Program Music 1

last 5:
A Clash Of Kings
Haunted
Wyrd Sisters
Carrie
The Big Sleep

Current:
The Stand
Witches Abroad

Next 5:
Carpe Jugulum
The Godfather
IT
A Storm of Swords
LOTR