/lit/ - Literature

I don't know.

I really liked The Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

That book that I tried to send Bjork.

Leaves of Grass

>>3072695
The Best of You.

Les Misérables

Do you want novels or self help books?

But that's all of them...

The Prince.

Notes from Underground
The Stranger
Infinite Jest
Pale Fire/Lolita (quality of life improved from experiencing Nabokov)


Usually any book that has a character I can ID with will have me reading just for the sake of seeing that character's fate/transformation, and then I apply those lessons to my own life.

It really does improve the quality of my life, as it's lead me to notice how sad some of the people were around me. Often times, they worry about really trivial things. If only they'd read more and could see their mistakes from another perspective.

I suppose the Alice books made me love the little absurdities of life.
The Deathgate Cycle, while not exactly perfect in it's execution of the story, did teach me one important lesson: having more power just makes your problems different, and often bigger in scale.

Tao Te Ching

Not OP, but I'll hijack.

I overthink things too much about the future. Sometimes I anticipate 1 year ahead. May be anxiety. Is there a book that can help/teach me not pay attention to the future and appreciate the present? Any buddhist books?

Thanks.

Name of the Wind
Wise Mans' Fear

>>3072761

As much as many Westerners would like to believe otherwise, reading about Buddhism isn't a cure-all for every generic personal problem/existential crisis.

I'm not sure I can point to any one book, it's been a cumulative effect. I'll say that books in general have made me a more positive, happier person.

>>3072768
nietzsche helped me with this sort of thing better than any buddhist text, eg "eternal return"

i understand the western tradition more easily than eastern philosophy, given that i have been raised in the western way.

secondly though i caution against reading nietzsche too far for personal inspiration. his ideas also work in metaphysics of course if youre into philosophy

>>3072773
What are some of his works that you recommend?

>>3072768
May be true. I will get helped more extensively on my issues, although I am looking for any options that can help me on this.

>>3072761
Novels:
L'etranger
Atlas Shrugged
Any book really on Aristotelian Ethics.
Critique of Pure Reason (Kant)

Self Help
The Game (very entertaining, and insightful into the interplay between the sexes).
Continuing with the game, books on NLP. Some of it may be bullshit, but some of the basic principles of organizing your thought are extremely helpful.
Books on body language (seems odd, but if you emulate the body language of a confident person, you will be a confident person.)
Convict Conditioning (good introduction to calisthenics. Good for people like me who don't want to spill sphagetti in the gym).

>>3072780
>Atlas Shrugged

How's your first year of uni?

>>3072793
1L here actually. Enjoying life. You?

>>3072780
I read the stranger. I'm not sure about you guys but it made me think that everything can be meaningless. I may have obtained the wrong moral.

Regarding body language, that is true. I read a few book about it and basically tells me that if I have a good posture, I look and feel confident. And it actually does.

>>3072796
You got half the message. The idea is basically life is meaningless, which allows you to make your own meaning. That last bit is the powerful part of the message.

>>3072780
>novels
>Kant, Ethics, Rand
Do you have a pleb tattoo on your forehead, too?

>>3072780

>>3072804
I suppose that was a poor choice of words for Kant and Aristotle. But Rand, no.

Are you one of the idiots who actually hasn't read or understood Rand, but complains anyways because their pundit masters said so?

Silence: Lectures and Writings by John Cage revolutionized the way I perceive sounds.

>>3072815
No. I grew up.

>>3072835
Oh, so have I.
>my point is just as valid as yours!

a hundred years of solitude.

the lion the witch and the wardrobe

three cornered world

the island of the day before

uncle tom's cabin

naked lunch

Candide

>>3072886
I forgot this one OP, but this guy knows what's up.

Voltaire is pretty awesome.

Notes from Underground

The Wisdom of Insecurity

I could argue all of them but primarily The Plague, helped me get over a big fear of death that I developed after I actually begun to think about life and what not believing in a god meant for me.

>>3072815

>A.D. 2012
>Still reading Ayn Rant

A Picture Of Dorian Grey

You do get lost in Henry's suggestions.

>>3072780
The "novels" you listed are in complete philosophical opposition.

>>3072934
It's an obvious troll post, if Atlas Shrugged wasn't enough of a hint The Game is

>>3072780
I found your le reddit account.

http://www.reddit.com/user/Wise-Cracker

>>3072953
I felt my brain cells wither away as I kept reading.

How in blue hell did you come across this?

Gravity's Rainbow (still makes me giggle like a retard when I remember parts from it, helped me take myself less seriously, the list can go on)
The Brothers Karamazov( helped blunt my edges wen I was 15)
Spinoza's Ethics

>>3072953
>http://www.reddit.com/user/Wise-Cracker
Nice. Actually I don't use reddit.

>>3072934
And you can't read things that are philosophically opposed and take value from each of them? Is every issue in your mind black and white?

Also, Rand totally gets Kant wrong.

>>3072962
Nice try, Wise-Cracker.

>>3072973
No Anon. You are the wise-cracker.

This is just a nifty viral marketing scheme to become internet famous.

The Art of Living by Epictetus
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume
Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil