/lit/ - Literature

Fucking Treasure Island.

I thought that book was the shit back in the day and now it's just shit.

Really, really boring shit.

That said, it did have some really great moments in it, like Silver impaling that guy through the chest with the branch. The book is kind of like a sandwich with a lot of thick, cheap bread. You keep biting through it because you know there's going to be some worthwhile meat or cheese in there somewhere and you get super excited when you hit it, but then your teeth cut through it and you're back to chewing on bread again.

Artemis Fowl.

I mean, the first book wasn't completely terrible, but ugh.

The entire series should be burned for the sake of the children of the future.

>>2792314
i read TI in my early tenties and thought it excellent

Cirque du Freak.

I don't even know why I read it in the first place. It was really popular in my middle school at the time, just like Artemis Fowl and Twishit.

Also, the ending was just nonstop garbage. Worst ending I have ever seen to anything. That includes movies and video games too. Young me did realize what a godawful ending it was, though.

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

I thought the first two books were good when I was 12.

Now I just think they're totally mediocre.

>>2792329

I did like it as a kid, just not now that I've read a ton of other books.

I'm willing to accept that people have different ideas and I will say that what I thought were the few good moments in the story were worth slogging through the rest of the story for, but only just barely and I wouldn't do it more than once nowadays.

i went back to those talking rat books, Redwall i think it was, i can't stand them now.

i have fond memories of most things though. i read kafka on the shore when i was about 15 and i really identified with it

Alice in Wonderland/ Alice Through the Looking Glass - obligatory, definitely stands up, I have loved the fuck out of these books since I was 6 years old and I still love the fuck out of them now.
Winnie the Pooh/ The House at Pooh Corner - ditto pretty much, except I've loved them even longer
Roald Dahl - badass motherfucker

Books that don't stand up... well, Goosebumps, Enid Blyton... Narnia. Sad but true, I tried to reread Narnia and got nowhere with it, too much blatant Christian allegory, boring characters and some really ponderous plotting.

>>2792353

I've never read a Redwall book. I've heard that most of them are garbage, but there's always someone who can recommend one or two specific stories and vouch that they're pretty good compared to the rest.

Uhh, books that hold up:

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

This is probably my favorite book I've ever read. I'm not entirely sure why. Barker's a competent writer and there's something about the concept of the Hood House that I find so fascinating that I keep coming back. It also (un)fortunately introduced me to the rest of Barker's work many years later.

It's unfortunate because I like the Books of Blood, but I also am aware that the same man wrote Mister B.Gone, which was terrible in every aspect but the execution. It must be some thing with aging writers. They have some early works that are brilliant, but then it just falls apart as they get older. Same thing with Stephen King and Carl Hiaasen.

>>2792356

Fucking Goosebumps man.

I read every one of those from my school library when I was a kid. I loved them. Always was the first one to check out a new one.

A year or two ago my little sister checked out some and I "appropriated" them to revisit my childhood and I realized that they're just literary junk food. They taste kinda good so you keep eating them, but you're not gaining anything of value from them.

I heard a lot of people got an inflation/giant girl fetish started because of one of them (Monster Blood, I think?), which makes me laugh a lot for some reason.

Also, I should probably go eat something, I keep making food metaphors.

Lord of the Flies. Really. It's an overrated piece of shit. All the allegories that people say about, how Piggy is Jesus and shit, I bet you $40 that the author had no intention of it.

>>2792394

I hated this book so much when I read it.

Same for when I read Pincher Martin.

William Golding is a terrible author who does not deserve to be brown-nosed by English teachers.

>>2792411
I know right? Didn't help my english teacher was all "It's pronounced "Conq"." Had to bust out a dictionary to say "Conch (as it spells)"

>>2792419
I've had the similar experiences with teachers thinking that Golding's been some god amongst authors. I'd like to believe I've shown her with two of my books being published.

>>2792433
>>2792411
>>2792394

Mah niggas.

the lord of the rings trilogy.

>no hatchet, animorphs, Tangerine
the fuck am I reading

>>2792438
Authorfag agrees. Hobbit was infinitely better.

>>2792389
>>2792356

I'm surprised Animorphs hasn't been mentioned yet. Animorphs and Goosebumps were the peanut butter and jelly of kids lit in my day.

"DID YOU READ THE NEW GOOSEBUMPS?"

"YEAH, DID YOU READ THE NEW ANIMORPHS?"

"YEAH!"

High-fives everywhere.

I didn't read it to the end, though. Our library's collection stopped in the mid-twenties. I really want to read the entire series over again.

Also, fuck the anon making food metaphors, I'm doing it now too.

>>2792447
I concur. I still read Animorphs sometimes. Fuck, I even have some VHS tapes.

>>2792298
You forgot to mention that it's written by a woman, another reason why it's a bad book.

>>2792443
Authorfag? What've you written?

>>2792439

Oh Jesus, Tangerine.

I remember that book.

I fucking remember that book and the stupid plot twist.

IT WAS HIS BROTHER AND HIS BRO'S DICKBAG FRIEND WHO BLINDED HIM AFTER ALLLLLLL!{/spoiler]

>>2792451
Well, certainly not any classics :/ I doubt if you've even heard of them - Dungeon Crawlers: Episode 1 and 2. Actually, oddly enough I read someone recommend them O.o Regardless, I'm proud of myself that they were published and am more than happy to have critics. Which, sadly, is more than I can say about most authors.

>>2792458

A major in theatre, huh?

>>2792460
Actually, minor now xD In Biology. Strange switch, but I've always been interested in both

>>2792460
Both are a study of life - one literally and one emotionally. I feel like both have contributed quite a bit to my experiences

Die Softly by Christopher Pike

Or anything by Christopher Pike.

Those books did not age well at all.

>>2792469
>mfw Christopher Pike

I reread the Hobbit last summer and was a little disappointed, probably because my expectations were too high.
>>2792314
This is discouraging. I've been meaning to reread that.

The Ga'Hoole books.

They're alright. I like that they took owls, which aren't exactly the most cute and cuddly creatures, and made a universe around them. The last one I read was volume eight, I think. Coryn had just joined up with the main flock. Then apparently the author wrote a long string of histories for the main setting before returning to the actual story.

I don't know why I just thought of this, but I heard that /co/ was collaborating on some giant bird-show project. Wonder how that's going.

>>2792478

It's not terrible, it's just not the most engaging book sometimes.

>>2792478
The Hobbit is infinitely better than LOTR. Of course take that as not saying much or a lot as you wish. And for authorfag: I've heard of dungeon crawlers before, so you're not that obscure

Meg Cabot

Specifically The Mediator series.

It truly is the saddest attempt at 'grrl powah' I ever did see.

At least other people thought it was shit and it sold badly and she could only write six books instead of the eight she planned on.

>mfw I think of these books.

>>2792489
>mfw someone knows what I feel.

The candlebook series.

I have to go find what it was called.

It starts with Blue Is for Nightmares.

Awful, every one of them.

'Salamandastron' — a book of the Redwall series, and one that I remebered enjoying so much that I purchased it over Amazon one day.

it's fine, i guess. i can tell that obviously this one stuck out in my mind because it twists the Redwall formula by having a lot of the story take place at a coastal volcano fortress, staffed by a permanent garrison of hares under the command of a badger, with the incumbent here being Urthstripe the Badass.

there are a lot of aspects to the plot that make this one somewhat more interesting. Urthstripe has a daughter, and the ferret leader of an army of bandits has a son. The ferret parent & son are both extremely handsome smooth-talking, to the extent that one of them is allowed into the fortress for an overnight stay.

and it has a good fight at the end.

there are a few other Redwall books that change the formula (e.g., taking place before the eponymous Abbey is built, or out at sea).

/rambling

I mainly read horror and macabre stories as a child, even though I was pretty sensitive. I liked the Alvin Schwartz books, but only about half the stories in them struck my fancy. I read Goosebumps a lot, not because I liked most of them but mainly because they were popular. The series did introduce me to a lot of writing tricks that I found fascinating (Like the end of The Blob that Ate Everyone where it is revealed that the story is actually being written by a blob character in an alternate universe.)

Most of my favorite books I can't remember the names of. There was this one I remember that touched me pretty deeply but I can only remember the cover. It was a painting of a girl behind a tree eavesdropping on her sister who was talking to a ghost. If any of you guys know the title I'd be very grateful.

>>2792510
Martin the Warrior is the only book of that series that I enjoy to this day.

>>2792458

Ha I just check you out. You seem like a bro. Congrats on the success Gonna check out your books.

>>2792518
Hey, really appreciate that, man! If you end up getting them, I sincerely hope that you enjoy them to the fullest!

>>2792534
goddammit KS devs. Don't even try to pretend, everybody can tell this is one of you

>>2792539
Not sure I know what you mean by that.

>>2792376

Barker's young-adult stories are quite good. I still love The Thief of Always, and even as an adult I love the Abarat series. The first one came out when I was in my early twenties, but I was mesmerized by the paintings and the story.

Apart from Barker, in my childhood I read the Redwall books and the charm of talking animals wore off quickly. The Golden Compass came out when I was in high school, and I liked it enough to read the other two books when they were released. His Dark Materials and Abarat are on my list of books that I'm reading to my son. Also, the Myst books started when I was in middle school, and I remember loving them. I'll read them again sometime and see if they still measure up.

>>2792541
Don't worry. 2792539's being a troll.

>>2792534

Looking forward to it.

>>2792547

Not at all. Just googled it and it seems interesting.

>>2792541
playing dead won't save you now you doormat how about I spit a whole load of huey from my spittoon onto your pimple-covered face to wipe away the shit and confirm that it is you

You are a KS dev. You are writing behind a fake name and publishing on amazon.com in a steampunk universe even shittier than crapawa shitstain could ever be and I bet your toothy unflossed grin is wider than the Grinch upon learning that Pinocchio got burned at the stake by the reverently religious Geppetto. Don't even try to run away you little punk I just shut the door. Your reputation? Down the toilet. Your precious little crippled girls? Getting molested over at /vg/ in KS generals. You are nothing but a speck of a dead rat being sucked up in life's great vacuum cleaner. You can't even successfully publish more than a 30 page short story designed to lure in suckers doled up as a multi-part marketing money printer no doubt created after reading "how to write a harlequin romance novel" written by Eddy T. Rippo Junior. You are scum. You are shit.

>Dungeon crawlers episodes 1 and 2 have been added to cart

The Hobbit was my favorite book when I was around 9 or 10 years old, I've been thinking about trying to reread it, should probably just reread all of LoTR since I haven't read any of them since 4th grade over 10 years ago.

>>2792564
I really don't know what you're talking about :/ But I hope that you give my works a fair shake? I could tell you that I've never been involved with said KV devs but from the sound of things, I don't think you'd believe me.

>>2792322
I fucking loved Artemis Fowl. Those books were poorly written, but I think they actually had a positive impact on me. They portrayed Artemis, an extremely intelligent young person, in a positive way, and it helped me realize that intelligence was to be valued.

I reread Animorphs a few months back, and they're really all over the place. Some are good, some are amazing, but some I read once, ever, and never felt compelled to do so again.

But it still holds up as a whole. The worlds they build, especially the ones in the Chronicles books, are amazing. And the main characters are very complex and interesting people who grow and change as the series goes on.

>>2792564
What sparked this vendetta? Lawl.

>>2792585

That's probably because of all the ghostwriters that were involved with the whole project.

I do think that all the characters were really interesting, though.

Read individually (and at the right age), the Redwall novels are wonderful, enchanting tales of heroism and treachery, the perfect literary introduction for restless preteen boys and girls alike. I absolutely devoured them when I was a child. They were the perfect blend of lighthearted action and adventure, a comfortable stepping stone between the fairy tales which I had long outgrown and the more mature fantasies that I was not yet old enough to read. I spent many a rainy afternoon lost in the wilderness of Mossflower, side by side with my furry warrior brethren, battling roving bands of treacherous vermin. When winter came round, and snowfall painted the eponymous red stones white, I could often be found gorging myself on piping hot pasties and hotroot soup in the Abbey kitchens.

Taken as a whole, the 20-plus volume series is blatantly repetitious and unforgivably racist. Each installment is a paint by numbers adventure that revolves around the same generic, black and white characters and tired plot devices. Redwall's warriors are called away from the abbey on some perilous adventure; an army of vermin seizes this opportunity to attack Redwall and claim it as their own. The seemingly defenseless children, womenfolk, and elderly/infirm band together to defend their home. They make a heroic stand, but their feeble numbers are no match for the invading army. At the last minute, when all hope seems to have deserted them, the fighting hares of Salamandastron, in tandem with the absent Redwall warriors, and perhaps a band of warrior squirrels from the forest, arrive in the nick of time to save the day. The leader of the vermin invariably shows himself for the coward he is. Our hero faces him in battle, and, more often than not, lops off his head with Martin the Warrior's fabled sword. Peace is restored to the goodfolk of Redwall Abbey (at least until the next book.)

>>2792601

Vermin are evil; mice, otters, badgers, rabbits, and squirrels are good. There is no variation to this theme. The thin veneer of anthropomorphism painted over certain species (the moles, especially, the kindhearted but dimwitted creatures who converse in ebonics and who, like the innately evil rats, lizards, and foxes, rarely rise above predisposed limitations of their species) does little to dispel the accusations of racism that have often- and accurately- been leveled against the author. I could overlook Jacques' unabashed bigotry when I was a child, but upon retrospect, I cannot in good faith recommend these novels to my own children, who are now of age to read them. I think Harry Potter or Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series would be more appropriate.

>>2792394
>>2792411
>>2792419
>>2792433

You people are idiots.

>>2792574
Just some random dick raggin' on you. Let him go crying to mommy.

>>2792606

That or The Amber Spyglass person. I always forget his name.

>>2792613

Phillip Pullman.

>>2792613

That'd be Philip Pullman.

I'm interested in hearing your feelings on his works (presumably the His Dark Materials trilogy).

>>2792633

You know what I'm going to say: it's a great series with an interesting mix of sci-fi and fantasy that reveals religion for what it is, and on top of this has some of the best children's lit characters I've ever come across, as a child or adult. For me, Phillip Pullman is the cream of children's literature. J.K. Rowling does a half-assed job at the best of times (the exception being book 4, which I think she really put all of herself into), and I don't know about Rick Riordan's books, but I suspect they're far less substantial than Pullman's.

Warriors by Erin Hunter

So much disgust. Especially after I stopped reading the books and found out about the fandom.

The other kids thought I was strange for doing a book report on this in 3rd grade.

It's not a great read today. The author describes Buddhist concepts as Christian ones and inaccurately portrays the culture. You find that kind of thing in a lot of books published around the time trying to relate to contemporary Americans.

The story isn't really special but as a kid it was mind blowing. I can trace my moral character to it, sad as that may be.

>>2792643

Riordan's books don't have a lot in the way of substance, but they're fun enough.

Also, The Goblet of Fire is the best Harry Potter book in my opinion, though perhaps I'm not the best person to judge that, seeing as I quit reading after the fifth one.

>>2792564
>troll
>on lit
>mfw

Has anyone here read The Railway Children? I think its quality is unquestionable, and even returning to it as an adult one can appreciate the quality of the book. Especially great about the book is its period nature.

Chronicles of Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander. They are just... totally generic. I thought they were great.

>>2792664

>>2792665

At first I was like I REMEMBER THAT, but then I realized that I was thinking about The Boxcar Children, which were really generic books and it turns out there's over a hundred of them now.

Never mind me.

>>2792650
...the fandom?

>>2792699

It's set during one of the world wars (can't remember which; I think 1st, though). The father goes off to war, and the mother and children hire a house out somewhere. Money's scarce. Things happen.

It sounds incredibly dull when I write a synopsis. It's very well written, though, and while it's simple, it has merit in the way it handles its characters, motifs and themes.

>>2792712: >>2792564 is a prime example of fandom gone wrong

>>2792712

Furries and people with severely underdeveloped brains. They like to make eyebleeding fan characters, which they naturally call "ORIGINAL CHARACTERS" and smear them over the internet.

Picture related, it's a fan character.

>>2792671
Aren't a few of them just stuff straight out of the odyssey?

Sherlock Holmes is less exciting, but still stands up.
The Three Muskateers and Great Expectations, at the time I was so amazed at being able to finish something above my reading level, now they hold up but there's no "wow I read a hard book" factor.
Still a fan of the neverending story and the princess bride.
still think Hitchhiker's guide is freakin awesome

The bad books of Narnia don't hold up at all, and when I was a kid I would have said "They're all great." All of the christian mythos kind of ruins the storytelling apects. I think Tolkien was right when he criticized Lewis for the straight allegory.
Oddly, Dr. Seuss is more impressive now.

>>2792770
>Oddly, Dr. Seuss is more impressive now.

This is true.

Hatchet. That book made me so fearful of the wilderness that I never did anything remotely near a forest. That's why I'm fat on 4chan.
And Gary Paulsen's other book, which can be described as "fatass gets sent to a distant alien world that is in-fact the future Earth". He succeeded in making children's fiction dark and horrifying.

>>2792814

Is it The Transall Saga?

(Asking because you can't really go "that other book by Gary Paulsen" because he's written a couple hundred of them.)

>>2792824
Yep, it's the right one. Thanks for the name. I might actually reread it some time.
I never was into children's fantasy, really. I got into reading when I was thirteen (about the time I got fat). Before I started reading more "adult" books, I had only read three series: Eragon (shit), Paulsen's books (liked them), and the Bartimeus Trilogy (first good, second shit, third average). Thinking back, I feel as if I missed something in the whole reading experience.

The motherfucking Edge Chronicles.

Yahstill good.

>>2792353
This.
Read Kafka on the Shore when I was 15, identified with main character. Loved it, read it like 3 times I think.
Several years later, I found the book in a box somewhere. I reread it, found it to be solid, and explored the rest of Murakami's works. Good times.

>>2792814

Brian's Winter is still fun to read. It's a book about cooking and sewing and it's manly as fuck.

I fucking loved Lord of the Flies and still do. But I read it on my own, and never heard of this Piggy-as-Christ-figure shit, so that may have helped. To each his own, I suppose; never read anything else by Golding.

I enjoyed Redwall but have never re-read any of them. Like others have mentioned, I remember enjoying the ones that were less formulaic and not part of the central storyline. Introduced me to fantasy, which I suppose was good because it cemented my love of reading before I moved on to tackling tougher classics outside of school.

Did anyone read The Magic Treehouse series? There's like a million of them now, and they're rather formulaic, but they got me interested in history and reading in general as a kid, which I believe was to my benefit.

Artemis Fowl I remember enjoying, but I can hardly recall any details, so they must not have been that great.

Tangerine... fuckin' A, man. Randomly picked that in the school library because it had a soccer player in it, and while I'm sure the twist would seem lame to me today, I was scarred as an elementary school kid. That spraypaint represented man's inhumanity to man.

>>2792881

Fuck Harry Potter man.

>>2792962

I remember Magic Treehouse. I would always see the books and I read the first half dozen or so before I fell off the wagon and resumed reading Goosebumps and Animorphs and The Secret of Droon.

Remnants. That shit gave me nightmares in my early teen days.

Holy fuck I remember that book OP. I also remember Yellow Eyes, though it is actually a pretty decent book.

I'm trying to remember the name of this book I read in elementary school. I can hardly remember anything about it and it's not exactly the most easily discerned premise, but I know the main character gets sucked into some kind of alternate universe while in his home, possibly with one or two of his friends, and they have all these adventures there, but then have to(?) go back to the real world, where IIRC less than a day had passed. I vaguely remember the last line, or one of the last ones, being something the boy's mother said... could be wrong about that last bit.

Any help? Not The Phantom Tollbooth, if that's what you're thinking

>>2793010

sounds like a madeleine l'engle

"LeBlanc has created an unforgettable cast of characters from the humorously over-confident and determined Lars Nokuten to a simple bouncer with hardly two pages involvement in the plot."

>>2792622
Pullman's criticisms of religion strike me as a little ham-handed. That said, I still enjoyed reading them.

>>2793019

Nah, I had A Wrinkle in Time back then, but I don't think I ever finished it.

Gordon Korman

I used to love the books he shit out, then when I was about 13 I went to see him give a talk, he was the most boring person I'd ever seen in my life.
I haven't picked up a single one of his books since then

No More Dead Dogs

It's about a kid who always tells the truth and it gets him in trouble. I don't think I've read that book in almost a decade, but damn, I have fond memories of that book.

Also, where the fuck is Beverly Cleary? She and Roald Dahl were THE top two children's authors back when I was in elementary school!

Anybody ever read "The Lost Years of Merlin" series by T.A. Barron?

Should I re-read it /lit/? Will it be just as amazing as it was to my 10 year old mind?

>>2793167

It's worth it just for that pun you missed out on. There's always at least one.

>>2793174
Totally gotta buy it now. There's a pretty sweet anniversary edition at the local Barnes and Noble. Guess I'll pick it up some time.

The cricket in times square
The mouse and the motorcycle
Grimms fairy stories
Pinnochio

-all pretty good. One of them is a little horribly Jewish.

>>2793295

The Grimms are still pretty interesting if you can get the bigass collection with all the classic stories (meaning, not watered down for the chilluns).

>>2792671
i must protest! i just reread the first two books of Prydain. the first one was very tolkienesque but the second was an improvement and there's a gentle wisdom to these books that define the series for me.

i disagree that they're generic. prydain made the template for "farmboy orphan who is more than he seems to be".

taran wanderer is anything but generic. what other fantasy book has a plot of the main character trying and failing at different professions?

>>2793144
I'm pretty sure I read all of them. I really enjoyed them when I was younger. I thought it was cool learning about Merlin's origin.

>>2793144
I had the first one but I never actually read it.

the hatchet..

and the hatchet 2 or some shit... where hes down a fucking river or something