/lit/ - Literature

45
Midway through Book 5 of pic related so should be 46 by the end of the weekend

>>22992796
8, currently reading 4 from there.

>>22992796
39

>>22992796
Post the alt list instead.

>>22992859
What alt list?

>>22992796
60 so far and I've got a couple more from this list in my 'to be read' pile.

18

>>22992868
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BERqUB0PQuIm_MpXny1znVHHo54qnC5MNxaGTrD60sA/edit?usp=sharing

>>22992894
>The Cantos
No one has read that.

>>22992796
45

>>22993067
It's only 700 or so pages.
If you're used to Pound's style it's not that much.
Too bad I don't give a damn about early American history.

>>22993067
I've read it. Not sure I understood all of it, but I definitely read the whole damn thing

>>22993108
You didn't understand shit.

>>22992796
6, and I consider myself more intelligent than all of you.

>>22994363
Which ones?

>>22992796
25ish. But of the books that are truly important within the realm of literature that interests me, there are only ~15 on the list, of which I've read 9.

>>22994323
Pound is pretty straightforward about what he's actually getting at, he just has somewhat indirect methods of getting there. I don't care much about his original work though and I've only read a few of the Cantos.

>>22994451
Which ones?

>>22994457
The ones I consider important?
>Homer
>Shakespeare
>Dante
>Bible
>Milton
>Proust
>Kafka
>Rabelais
>Gita
>Beckett
>Montaigne
>Spenser
>Gilgamesh
>Flaubert
Tbf there are others that are obviously "important" but just aren't to my taste in one way or another (e.g. Joyce, Cervantes).

>>22992796
29. Maybe 30; I can't remember if I've read The Waves.

>>22994505
The ones you read.

>>22992894
Why is Plato's Republic repeated?

>>22994645
Because it's just THAT good yeah

>>22994645
The alternate top 100 did not allow you to vote for books that had been in the main top 100 for 5 of the last 5 years (or was it 3 of 5? Or 3 of 3? I disremember.)
The Republic wasn’t one of the excluded books.

>>22992796
1. guess which.

>>22994668
lolita

>>22994668
The Hobbit.

>>22994668
Mein Kampf

>>22994505
Of those:
>Homer
>all of Shakespeare's major works minus Lear, the Tempest, and Richard III
>La Commedia
>the OT
>PL/PR
>Metamorphosis
>Beckett's Trilogy and Godot
>Faerie Queene
>the Sumerian Gilgamesh poems
So the only ones I still have to check off are the Shakespeares, Proust, Rabelais, Montaigne, the Gita, the Babylonian Gilgamesh and Bovary (I did read Sentimental Education and Bouvard and Pecuchet). Except for the Gita and Shakespeare none of these are particularly high on my list, relatively speaking.
The other ones I've read:
>DQ
>W&P
>The Stranger
>Celine
>Pale Fire
>Werther
>Portrait
>Hesse x2
>NLH
>Calvino
>Wuthering Heights
>BNW
In addition to other stuff by Borges, Nietzsche, McCarthy, Bolano, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Orwell - so I'm not evaluating or dismissing those authors out of hand.
How about you?

>>22994692
replied to wrong post, meant for >>22994631

61 of this

dont think theres more than six more i would care to read

>>22994715
Why not?

>>22994692
>Sentimental Education and Bouvard and Pecuchet
Thoughts on them?

>>22994670
>>22994675
>>22994679
bzzt!

>>22994755
Brave New World
1984
Frankenstein
American Psycho
Alice's Adventure in Wonderland
The Lord of the Rings

Has to be one of those, they're the only memes on the list.

>>22994722
Sentimental Education has a lot of detail, some of it rather hard to parse without contemporary context, which can make it drag at times. But it's superlatively great, the best 19th c. novel I've read.
B&P is a little weird because the characters are quite burlesque and the method necessarily consists of a lot of technical details about sciences which are of course now long outdated (though if anything the fact that they're outdated is a huge boost to the book's actual effect and purpose). It's a lot less completely drawn than Education imo, most elements are not truly fleshed out, but it's a very fine caricature-sketch with tons of fun and unique little touches and incidents, and it's pretty effective at doing for the world of science and academics what Education did for politics, society and love. It's also genuinely touching in a way that you won't get from a lot of more overtly serious books. Definitely a bit of Quixote in this one.

>>22994781
>It's a lot less completely drawn than Education imo
Should specify that this isn't actually just "imo", it was unfinished and in fact lacks much of the intended story, but what's there can already come across as repetitive so it's certainly enough to get the point across.

>>22994770
since when are Frankenstein and Alice's Adventure in Wonderland memes?

>>22994823
They're for children.

>>22994852
Frankenstein?

>>22994873
Careful or the big bad monster is gonna get you, child

>>22992796
>steppenwolf
>siddhartha
>the stranger
>the metamorphosis
>the old man & the sea

>>22992796
very little from that list. i also don't finish things

>>22992796
That list is dogshit made by fart sniffing pseuds

>>22994962
Why is it dogshit?

>>22992796
24RXV

>>22994966
>One of the top 3 books of all time is a compilation of ancient Hebrew lies
>Dosto has 5 works despite being a cheap hack
>A further 1/3 of the books are extremely overrated
>Includes the incoherent ramblings of an egotistical serial killer
>Does not include On the Origin of Species which is unquestionably one of the most important books of all time in advancing human understanding
>Includes nonsense like One Hundred Years of Solitude and Wuthering Heights
I could go on

>>22995013
>>One of the top 3 books of all time is a compilation of ancient Hebrew lies
Atheism is so 2013.
>>Dosto has 5 works despite being a cheap hack
If you're gonna call one of the greatest writers of western literature and a major influence on most great writer that came after him a "cheap hack" you should back that up with actual arguements.
>>A further 1/3 of the books are extremely overrated
You didn't even bother to mention which ones.
>>Includes the incoherent ramblings of an egotistical serial killer
Yeah, that's a meme book.
>>Does not include On the Origin of Species which is unquestionably one of the most important books of all time in advancing human understanding
Lmao, but alright, that's personal opinion.
>>Includes nonsense like One Hundred Years of Solitude and Wuthering Heights
Ok, another personal opinion.
>I could go on
Please do.

>>22992796
Grim, I'll make sure to vote in December.

>>22994651
Not even close to the best of the dialogues, only online idiots obsessed with politics read it, and they always skip everything else.

>>22992796
Not enough nonfiction. Lord of the Rings is way too high. Stuff like Faust and Wagner’s Ring Cycle has almost certainly not been read by 99% of this board so I’m not sure how they’re on there.

>>22995278
> Faust and Wagner’s Ring Cycle has almost certainly not been read by 99% of this board
Why do you think that?

>>22995289
Because they barely even read entry-level normie books

>>22992810
Absolutely based

>>22994873
Nta but I guess he found out

>>22992796
93

>>22992796
35, in part. But I didn't even try to finish a lot of them. I read only 10 in their entirety. Including Gilgamesh since I read all there is. Also I would very much recommend it.
Iliad - ok
Odyssey - better
Siddhartha - good
Old Man and the Sea - not for me
And some genre ones.

There's about 21 on the list I still want to read, including a bunch from the 35 from above that I didn't read all of.

>>22995042
>If you're gonna call one of the greatest writers of western literature and a major influence on most great writer that came after him a "cheap hack" you should back that up with actual arguements.
If you are alluding to Dostoevsky’s worst novels, then, indeed, I dislike intensely The Brothers Karamazov and the ghastly Crime and Punishment rigamarole. No, I do not object to soul-searching and self-revelation, but in those books the soul, and the sins, and the sentimentality, and the journalese, hardly warrant the tedious and muddled search. Dostoyevsky’s lack of taste, his monotonous dealings with persons suffering with pre-Freudian complexes, the way he has of wallowing in the tragic misadventures of human dignity – all this is difficult to admire. I do not like this trick his characters have of ”sinning their way to Jesus” or, as a Russian author, Ivan Bunin, put it more bluntly, ”spilling Jesus all over the place." Crime and Punishment’s plot did not seem as incredibly banal in 1866 when the book was written as it does now when noble prostitutes are apt to be received a little cynically by experienced readers. Dostoyevsky never really got over the influence which the European mystery novel and the sentimental novel made upon him. The sentimental influence implied that kind of conflict he liked—placing virtuous people in pathetic situations and then extracting from these situations the last ounce of pathos. Non-Russian readers do not realize two things: that not all Russians love Dostoevsky as much as Americans do, and that most of those Russians who do, venerate him as a mystic and not as an artist. He was a prophet, a claptrap journalist and a slapdash comedian. I admit that some of his scenes, some of his tremendous farcical rows are extraordinarily amusing. But his sensitive murderers and soulful prostitutes are not to be endured for one moment—by this reader anyway. Dostoyevsky seems to have been chosen by the destiny of Russian letters to become Russia’s greatest playwright, but he took the wrong turning and wrote novels.

>>22992796
I've read:
>Moby Dick
>The Bible
>Blood Meridian
>More than half of Shakespeare's plays, so I guess I'll count the folio
>Lolita
>The Iliad
>Ulysses
>Crime and Punishment
>Faust
>The Divine Comedy
>Thus Spake Zarathustra (why is this on the list?)
>Paradise Lost
>Lord of the Rings
>The Stranger
>The Odyssey
>In Search of Lost Time
>The Republic
>The Metamorphosis
>The Trial
>The Old Man and the Sea
>Notes from Underground
>The Hobbit
>The Sorrows of Young Werther
>Critique of Pure Reason
>Catcher in the Rye
>Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
>Alice in Wonderland
>Confessions
>Dubliners
>The Faerie Queene
>American Psycho
>Mein Kampf
>Frankenstein
>The World as Will and Representation
>Walden
>Anabasis
>Brave New World
>Industrial Society and Its Future
I think that's 38/100

>>22992870
My count

>>22992796
ok, to make up a fake insta post i have read all of these but i can't find the likeness because the anon just isn't that good at what he does

>>22992796
Zero, I only read good books.

>>22992796
>out of all of these the only truly great ones are Tolstoy and Dostoevsky

huh, it ain't so bad being Russian after all

by the way, you should all read Quiet Flows the Don, don't sleep on one of the greatest literary works of all time

>>22995791
Easy on the vodka, Dmitry.

>>22995791
>Quiet Flows the Don

I read that about ten years ago because I was dating a qt Russian redhead and that was her favourite book, in hindsight the book was probably better than her pussy

>>22995791
Tolstoy mogs almost every other artist so hard it’s absurd

>>22992796
Moby Dick, Alice in wonderland, the hobbit, lord of the rings, lolita, frankenstein, the old man and the sea

>>22995968
>four volumes
Yeesh

>>22995968
How do I get a qt russian gf?

>>22992796
Like 4 I guess. But I wanted to ask should I read 1984? I've read animal farm.

>>22996472
I mean if you want to yeah lol

>>22994692
So you deem them important without even reading them? That's fucking stupid.

>>22996472
only if you remember it's a warning not an instruction manual

>>22996503
A warning to what?

>>22996491
Once you reach a high enough level of artistic sensibility it becomes easy to differentiate between important works and trash on sight, if you can’t do that it just means you’re not there yet.

26

>>22996519
a warning to not read it like an instruction manual

>>22992796
41. There's a few on there that I doubt I'll read (Book of the New Sun) and others that I've read some of but aren't supposed to be read cover to cover (Montaigne).

>>22996548
Why don’t you wanna read the book of the new sun?

>>22995430
you are taking advice from a woman on productivity

>>22992796
29

>>22996526
You talk big for your absolute NPC list.

>>22992796
in 2023:
>Bible (re-read)
>Divine Comedy (re-read)
>Zarathustra (re-read)
>Paradise Lost
>The Republic
>Critique of Pure Reason
>Bhagavad Gita (re-read)
>Storm of Steel
>Mein Kampf (re-read)

Best 2: Bible and Divine Comedy
Worst 2: Paradise Lost and Critique of Pure Reason
2024 wishlist:
>Blood Meridian
>Confessions
>Anabasis
>probably a few re-reads

>>22996566
So what?

>>22996588
>Best 2: Bible and Divine Comedy
>Worst 2: Paradise Lost and Critique of Pure Reason
lmao of course its a catholicuck

>>22996604
>t. seething heretic

>>22992796
9

>>22996610
go worship the antichrist, you cuck

>>22996629
>Novus Ordo Antipope
>Catholic
stupid ass heretic

>>22996491
>>22996579
The other reply wasn’t me.
“Important” is pretty obviously a statement about influence and place in history, which can definitely be judged without reading the book itself. I’ve never read or seen LOTR but I know it’s very important to the fantasy genre. And anyway I already couched everything I was saying as being just my opinion/taste so idk what you’re bothered about.
Not that I care about being le special but it’s only a generic list for the first half or so, the latter half of the (only 15) books I picked out were in the lower 50 of the main list. If you think rating Homer, Shakespeare and Dante is “NPC” then you’ve taken the contrarian train way, way off the deep end.

>>22996566
Oh I didn't actually read that chart. I was just making a joke because I haven't finished 25/35 books I started.


>>22996595
Don't you think it would be healthier for you to go back?

>>22996610
Divine comedy is quite good.

>>22996588
Cringe

I got into reading through the 2016 chart so I've ended up reading too many of these throughout the years.
Listing them out so it's easier for me to count. Adding a star to what I loved.
TOTAL COUNT: 51
>Moby-Dick*
>The Brothers Karamazov*
>The Holy Bible*
>Blood Meridian*
>Stoner
>First Folio(?) I've read a good portion of his plays.
>Lolita*
>The Illiad
>Ulysses*
>Crime and Punishment*
>Anna Karenina
>Faust*
>War and Peace
>The Divine Comedy*
>Thus Spoke Zarathustra*
>Paradise Lost*
>Lord of the Rings*
>The Stranger
>The Odyssey*
>Infinite Jest*
>Gravity's Rainbow*
>Republic
>2666*
>The Elementary Particles*
>The Metamorphosis*
>The Trial*
>The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea*
>East of Eden*
>Spring Snow*
>Notes From Underground
>Pale Fire*
>The Sound and the Fury*
>The Hobbit
>The Idiot
>Critique of Pure Reason—KANT MENTTIOIOOONNNED
>The Catcher in the Rye
>Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man*
>The Picture of Dorian Gray
>No Longer Human
>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
>1984
>One Hundred Years of Solitude*
>Storm of Steel*
>Dubliners
>Catch-22
>American Psycho
>As I Lay Dying*
>Mein Kampf
>Frankenstein
>Brave New World*
>Industrial Society and Its Future

2,01

>>22992796
38. Plus 13 started but abandoned

>>22992796
Frankenstein might be the worst book I've ever read

>>22995013
ur obviously a reddit expat fedora-man and you have not read On the Origin of Species despite claiming it as a quasi-religious book, but yes this list is /mu/ cult meme-tier mostly informed by required highschool reading and it always has been so this criticism is nothing groundbreaking

still interesting as a /lit/ cultural experiment

There should really be a separate list for philosophy/non-fiction. /lit/ doesn't read philosophy, so the list wouldn't be as interesting.

>>22998652
why

>>22999022
it was just weird. It's awkwardly written and there's all these weird things that happen like the monster spends a long time spying on a family to learn english. I don't know the whole thing was just an uncomfortable read. Maybe it's just dated or something. Not a good time

>>22998883
Redditers would never name the Jew, whereas /lit/ fart sniffers worship them. You have no idea what you're talking about.

>>22999192
I think you just aren't used to 19th century prose.

>>22993067
Most of this list just seems to be books that /lit/ would like but have never actually read. I would bet money that less than 10 regular posters on here have read Faust, the Cantos, The Ring Cycle, Balzac, etc

>>22992894
I'm very surprised that some of these are not in the normal top 100. No Ivan Ilyich? The Road?

>>22992796
what a dogshit list

>>22999591
What are your favorite books?

>>22999483
>I would bet money that less than 10 regular posters on here have read Faust, the Cantos, The Ring Cycle, Balzac, etc
Well, that would be easy money because each of these works got much less than 10 votes on average.

>>22999483
Faust ist literally mandatory Reading in German schools. Everyone hast ready it

I've listened to the ring cycle many times, sometimes following along with a libretto. is that what the chart means or does someone literally just read it written down in a book?

>>22999475
maybe. I know I dont like old english stuff, but I like other older books. I love the classic Russian and old Greek books

>>23000015
On The Origin of Species

>>23000015
none that i'd share here. I AINT HURLIN MY PEARLS BEFORE YOU, HOG

>>22992796
91sh
I have only read the major Shakespeare plays and only excerpts from montaigne's essays and selcted cantos from pound

>>23000279
Yeah, I thought so.

I really wanted to enjoy Moby Dick because of what I heard about it, but when I got started it was way too homo. Tried to read Berserk for the same reasons and ran into the same problem.

30.5

At least three fiddy

>>22992796
56, boring list
>>22992894
35, the true 2023 list

>>22992796
5. (the ones I voted for)

>>23000042
It’s just the translated libretto. Wagnerfag almost certainly voted for it 200 times to get it on this list

>>23000035
Only part 1 though, no? Few people read part 2

>>22992796
>Moby-Dick
>finished the Old Testament, haven't finished the New Testament
>variety of the most famous Shakespeare plays, not his complete works
>Faust Part I, not Part II
>Lord of the Rings
>The Stranger
>The Odyssey
>Euthyphro, Crito, Phaedo, Apology but not Republic
>The Metamorphosis
>The Trial
>The Old Man and the Sea
>East of Eden
>Notes from Underground
>The Hobbit
>The Catcher in the Rye
>The Picture of Dorian Gray
>No Longer Human
>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
>1984
>Mrs. Dalloway, but not To the Lighthouse or The Waves
>The Epic of Gilgamesh
>Les Miserables
>Frankenstein
>Brave New World

>>23002194
You can see the amount of votes each book has.

I've only read Moby Dick. One chapter every night before bed. But there was simply too much gay shit in it for me not to start jerking off, so I did. Took me half a chapter to get rock solid and then for the remainder of it for me to cum. Took some time, but the satisfaction was rather nice because of it. Made for a good goon sesh. 10/10, don't remember much, however. Something about sperm or some shit.

22
My three favourite are the brothers karamazov, war and peace, and faust

>>22992796
8, 3 partially(2 I gave up on but plan on trying again, 1 I'm currently 3/4 through, will finish, and it's Thus Spoke Zarathustra if you're wondering)