/lit/ - Literature

>wordsworth classics

I know they are really cheap but every time I've bought one of those, it's started falling apart before I finished reading it.

that's a damn nice blanket

>nausea
>dubliners

just got both of these too

I bought The Crying Lot of 49 at a Value Village my girl dragged me to today. Also The Corrections which I think I'll try because it was only 2.99

>>3325401
Enjoy it, I loved Freedom.

Copped em all for about 40 dollars. Well, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the Chekhov stories were like 9 bucks apiece but the other book, which is a very difficult read for someone who is not very well-read in the philosophy of mind, was about 20.

Genuinely curious why do you buy all your books at once and not as you finish them?

i feel poor

cost 2e and it's already breaking apart

>>3325447

I just like to bulk buy. I bulk buy everything from food, to books to toiletries. It works out cheaper and I spend less time going to and from shops.

I got a 10% discount on these books because I bought more than most people buy at a time.

>tfw you simply cannot bring yourself to buy used copies and spend way more than necessary

I know it's dumb, but I can't help it. my books must be pristine

>>3325460
I know that feeling. I have a few books I got from the flea market and a used book store, but when I order books from amazon I always get new ones.

I'm waiting to read it until I finish my assigned reading over break, too bad the assigned reading sucks and feels like it's taking forever.

The Dharma Bums - Kerouac
The Maimed - Ungar
Lucky Jim - Amis
Letters - Vonnegut
Tale of Genji - Shikibu
Pierre - Melville
Blow Up and Other Stories - Cortázar
Eugénie Grandet - Balzac
Confessions of Zeno - Svevo
Blood Meridian - McCarthy

The Vonnegut one was fucking expensive.

>>3325491
>The Vonnegut one was fucking expensive.

How expensive are we talking?

>>3325491
Wow that copy of Genji is pretty. I saw some today and they were hideous.

ITT:consumer whores who will never read what they buy.

>>3325497
Like 35 dollars, which I guess isn't an insane price but still a lot for me.

>>3325506
As opposed to download whores who never read what they download?

>>3325506
the poor are getting uppity

>>3325504
Yeah, Everyman's Library, they make good stuff.

>>3325508
Yeah that's up there for me too. I saw a really nice leather bound copy of all of H.P.Lovecrafts stories but it was $39. Ummed and ahhed over it for a while but decided against it. I'll pick it up for my birthday.

>>3325506
what makes you say something like that?

>>3325510
>>3325514
Did I hit a nerve?

>>3325525

>>3325525
Do you feel like you did?

>>3325530
>>3325531

I really need to get an E-Reader cause I'm sick of paying for books. Not because I'm poor, but because they're so easily available online that I think it's pretty foolish to buy every book you want to read. The same way I'm not going to buy an album without having heard it first.

Gravity's Rainbow. I don't think I can handle it.

>>3325546
E-reader user here. I think I lose some of the visceral experience of reading without having the actual book in my hands. Don't ask me why.

You're reading a book not basejumping

>>3325401
We had a great thread about The Corrections a few days ago. Keep a look-out for the infamous Stanley Tucci cameo.

>>3325590
because you're a commodity fetishist interested in status symbols more than you are in the contents of the books you read

>>3325609
I don't think you understand what commodity fetishism is.

>>3325460
>tfw glorious full shelf of uncracked spines, no folded pages or frayed edges.
>tfw people assume you haven't read the books, but you're actually just super fastidious when it comes to book care.

>>3325612
this is true, i don't.

>>3325609
Hahaha, holy shit. Do you really believe you can glean that much information from one post?

>>3325491
Goddamn, those new Cormac McCarthy cover designs are awful. So glad I got the anniversary edition and the photo cover edition before they stopped printing them.

>>3325619
do you think that's a lot of information?

Great haul o.p!

western civilization

>>3325625
Assuming I'm a commodity fetishist (which you already stated you don't understand), I'm interested in status symbols (I took this kindle off my brother because it was unwanted Christmas gift he got from his girlfriend) and assuming I don't care about the content of the stuff I read is a big leap.

>>3325546
I've also downloaded so many shitty e-books, it's not funny. Bad formatting. Typos. The worst translations. Just go to any amazon reviews page and see how many damn reviews say, "the book itself is amazing, but with that out the way, let me spend 3 paragraphs explaining why the kindle version is terrible."

>>3325546
>>3325590
I have an ereader but I'm too cheap to pay for ebooks (what's the point when you could buy the physical copy for the same price or less) so I end up pirating them. I've quit using the ereader though because most of the pirated copies of books I found had formatting errors or spelling errors, and sometimes it was hard to tell if uncommon formatting (e.g. no paragraph breaks for pages and pages on the regular) was intentional or a formatting error.

IMO used books are where it's at because they're usually cheap as shit. Libraries are cool but the one in my town doesn't carry much good, despite being huge (I guess most of the people around here are really into Dan Brown and Fifty Shades of Grey). Come to think of it, there's only one small bookstore in my town, population 100 000 some, and even it only caries the same popular trash as the library.

But I digress.

>>3325632
i don't understand commodity fetishism, a term i stole off marxist discourse for its naive literal meaning. what's your excuse?

>Assuming [...] I'm interested in status symbols

all humans are, pretending not to is either disingenuous or ignorant.

>>3325645
>all humans are, pretending not to is either disingenuous or ignorant.

If you actually believe that what is the point of identifying me as one in a pejorative sense in your post? It isn't even worth arguing about because I know what you say is so far from the truth and you're rambling at this sttage.

>>3325644
why does /lit/ hate Dan Brown?

>>3325386
>The Lost World
I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn't. It was boring.

>>3325651
>If you actually believe that

it's not a matter of belief.

>what is the point of identifying me as one in a pejorative sense in your post

you said "don't ask me why", so i assumed you didn't know why you felt that way. so i explained it.

>>3325654
are you kidding

>>3325654
Because his books are entertaining and aren't prose masturbation. Lethal combination on this board.

Hey OP I'm reading that edition of 'Dubliners' right now. Nice feel to it. The pages are a bit too shiny for my taste however but in troth I bought it for that overwhelming picture of Joyce in his handsomest behind the cover.

Those were my Christmas gifts but they're the last books I received.

>>3325660
Not discounting the fact that the rest of your post was utterly wrong.

In fact your assumption was wrong anyway because I didn't even buy the damn thing myself and had no intention to get one.

>>3325615
A cracked spine is infinitely more sexy than a perfectly preserved one.

>>3325666
>>3325665
no i'm not kidding, i don't understand. i didn't hate the Da Vinci code.

last week or sometime i bought

the book of sand and shakespeare's memory
of love and other demons
blood meridian
bade/parkin ap economics
the game - penetrating the secret society of pickup artists

>>3325668
>Far Cry 3

Fuck yeah that was the best game of 2012

>>3325668
Nice going on The Odyssey, the Robert Fagles translation is my favorite.

Recent buys:

>The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You
>Freedom from the Known
>The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories
>Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
>The Pale King

>>3325668
>Collectors edition Rolling Stone

wat

>>3325672
Funny joke, pal. I can see my fucking reflection in my bookcase the spines are so pristine. How could ugly lines and creases be better than perfection?

>>3325708
it adds character

do you have ocd by the way?

>>3325708
Character,

>>3325668

>Rolling Stone

lol eww

>>3325717
I get what you're saying. I can see that perspective.
But I don't care about the "character" of an individual book. I care about my own character. My collection of books say enough about my character, I don't need to treat them poorly to add to that. The great thing about clean, uncracked spines is that you can actually read the titles decades later as well.

I don't have OCD. I just take care of my possessions. I don't buy things very often, so when I do I make sure it lasts a life-time. Maybe it's a side effect of growing up poor.

>>3325729
We're not saying to purposefully crack the spines or damage books, that's stupid. But things deteriorate after extended use, and that's what adds the character.

I see a bookshelf full of cracked spines and I wonder about how many years that person has spent reading and so on. I see a pristine bookshelf and I think that person is buying to books just for the sake of having them on the shelf.

>>3325729
I see.

I just can't help but ravage books when I read them. I purposefully crack the spin of smaller paperbacks so I can fold the book in half while I read, I fold the pages to mark my spot, I stuff books recklessly in my backpack. The only exceptions are textbooks because I resell those.

>>3325731
Yes, I knew what you meant. I don't think you understand just how careful I am though. Extended use will only cause damage if you're careless (I have records from 2 generations back that still work, all my childhood toys are somewhere in the garage in perfect condition, I have books that are over 30 years old that have only slightly browned).
I've seen what happens, so I'll warn you. If you crack a spine on a paperback with a glue binding, it's pretty much guaranteed to fall apart within 10 years.

The blind judgements you make about a person's motivations by simply looking at their bookcase are you own business.

>>3325753
You sound like a very, very dull person.

>>3325753

>I don't think you understand just how careful I am though.

I don't think you understand the difference between paperbacks and hardcovers. You're buying paperbacks and treating them like hardcovers.

Paperbacks are meant to be read more easily. They are going to wear sooner. Stop being so anal and just accept this, or shell out cash for hardcovers of your favourites. Bragging about how overly pedantic you are isn't impressing anyone.

>>3325753
did you mom scold you often as a child?

>>3325753
Theree's theese funnny litttle thingggs callled harrd baccks.

Loook inttto theeem.

At the used book store:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Lord of the Flies

Recently pdf:
John Greens preTFIOS short stories
Steal!This Book
All of Banksy's books

>>3325786
Banksy has books?!

>>3325789

HE WENT CORPORATE
I DON'T BELIEVE THIS SHIT

BANKSY IS DEAD TO ME NOW

I WAS JUST GONNA DELETE MY FOLDER OF BANKSY PICTURES THAT I SAVED IN PROTEST BUT I'M SO PISSED I'M GONNA THROW MY MACBOOK OUT THA FUCKIN WINDOW INSTEAD

It's called 'Psychological Fiction' compiled by Morris Belja.

I found it in a free book pile at my school. The cover is rather generic so here's the table of contents instead.

I will say it's the best translation of 'The Diary of a Madman' that I've read.

>>3325819

>>3325821
That looks incredibly interesting.

>>3325809
graffiti sold out years ago bud

>>3325824
I know, right. I found it by chance when I got off on the wrong floor. Lucky me.

>>3325830

>taking a joke post in caps literally

>>3325869
>being so autistic you point out you're autistic on the cover of a book

How fucking autistic can you get.

>>3325390

Thats odd cause I have the badass War and Peace one with this on the cover and its holding together quite nicely.

>>3325873

>letting me know I hit a nerve

lol rile more bud

>>3325883
I wasn't even talking about you you dim witted fuckbat.

Arrived in the post yesterday and read the whole thing within a couple of hours. Not quite sure it all went in though.

>>3325886

this is entirely too much water works you need a time out asap

>>3325894
When I cry, crops pop up in Africa. Deal with it.

>>3325875

Napoleon's propoganda on 'War and Peace'? Do these people even read?

>>3325897
you're a bit of a duffer aren't you?

>>3325897

>Also, dat 'Hannibal' in the right corner.
>Dat earlier campaign.

>>3325901

Yeah, because the book is about how great Napoleon was, thus matching propoganda.

Fuck off Wordsworth.

>last chance to see - douglas adams
>between pacific tides - ed rickettes
> kafka on the shore - murakami
> tao of travel - paul thoreaux

I bought the black company chronicles, the blade itself, and gardens of the moon. Expecting great things.

I have no idea what I'm doing. Please rate my purchases.

>>3326007

white as fuck / 10

>buying books
>not utilizing the library, or reading free legal books in the public domain

>>3326007
you're an entry-leveler trying to read upper-leveler work

bad/10 read other things

Should I /lit/? Has anyone read any of the Icelandic sagas or the Edda? I am interested in Norse mythology and I heard Edda is the place to start. The Icelandic sagas sound kinda interesting are they worth reading?

>>3326018
...how is any of that upper-level?

>>3326035
>>3326018

Oh snap these niggas epenis is HUGE

>>3326035
because it is
that's besides the point

>>3325760
>Has a rich history that he cares about and maintains.
>Must be dull.

>>3326025
Yes, they are worth reading.

Reading up on some /lit/core. And some other stuff.

>>3326018

That Emerson collection is a good buy don't hate on him that much.

Yesterday's purchases (mixture of new and second hand):

Aldous Huxley - Island
Naguib Mahfouz - Palace Walk
Georges Perec - Life: A Users Manual
Marcel Proust - The Guermantes Way
Bruno Schlick - Collected Works
Jorge Luis Borges - The Book of Sand, Shakespeare's Memory
Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire

The gf also bought me William Goldman - The Princess Bride.

Got a first edition copy of the english printing steppenwolf for $15

I'm proud of myself

>>3326478

>the gf

Vomited a bucketful of tenderloin all over my basement

>>3326074
Please don't call that /lit/core. Ever... don't do that. You are ruining this board.

>>3326497

sweet, from where?

>>3326571
Obviously I was being facetious. I know Harold Bloom isn't popular here.

Baudrillard - Cool Memories IV, 1995-2000
Burroughs - Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader
Lin - Shoplifting from American Apparel
Beckett - How It Is
Merleau-Ponty - Phenomenology of Perception

Bought manga as well:

Urasawa - Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Vol. 1
Otsuka/Tajima - MPD-Psycho, Vol. 1 (v. 1)

Other day went used book shopping with a bro. I picked up:

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
The Doors of Perception/Heaven and Hell - Aldous Huxley
Those Barren Leaves - Aldous Huxley
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - Goerge Orwell
Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
The Blackwater Lightship - Colm Toibin
The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt

Spent about £30 in all. Opinions?

These arrived a week ago.
Since then I've read the Faulkner and currently reading Vineland.
Excited to get into Sebald since I really liked Vertigo.

>>3326760

>>3326725
>The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
Probably the worst book I've read in the past two years.

>Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Good. Don't let this be your only Conrad though.

>Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
Best of the bunch. Read it now.

>Keep the Aspidistra Flying - Goerge Orwell
>Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
Nice, need to be read by more people. Don't forget to get Homage to Catalonia.

I was going to read Sartre until I found out that he was a Marxist.

>>3326774

>making shit reading choices
>taking them back for shittier reasons

>>3326774
Everything about this post is retarded.

>>3325491
Lucky Jim is a fucking great book

>>3326007
I'm not this silly cunt, but this reminded me of a pressing query. /lit/, after reading "This Side of Paradise", did anyone else think Amory Blaine and Holden Caulfield should fuck?

Plus the two Library of America Vonnegut collection (which I'm disappointed by) and a first edition of Infinite Jest.

Sorry about the quality. The bottom one is East of Eden.

>>3325775
>>3325785

Not the person from above, but I'm also very pristine and careful with my books, whether they're hard covers or paperbacks, but not every book has a hard cover edition, and also not every paperback is cheap. Definitely not where I live (The Netherlands). I do not discriminate between my books, I treat all versions like treasures - which is what they are. Doesn't mean I enjoy them less or are less of a reader than you are.

Also, my last purchases:
The Sign - Thomas de Wesselow (already read, loved it. Made me think)
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
A History of Christianity - Diarmaid McCulloch
Paula - Isabel Allende

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFWhwdA1fMw

>>3326982
Two awesome books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I ¿f you get to like the author try reading 100 years of solitude, it's magic realism at it's best

>>3327396
Already got it, love it. I've read those two as well but I couldn't resist the hardcovers. He's one of my favourite authors.

>>3325386
Finished Dorian Gray yesterday and downloaded The Secret Garden for my Kindle (I somehow never read this one, it is charming so far, am 1/3 of the way through).

Purchased in stores in the last week:
The Paris Wife - Paula McLain
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (never read)
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. LeGuin
Science Fiction SFRA Anthology
Great American Short Stories

The last 3 are for classes.

>>3327400
It's interesting that he's suffering from alzheimer's syndrome. I don't know why but I really want him to write a book in that state.

>>3327426
I read a while ago that he'd finished a book and it was with the publisher, but it was ages ago. Hope it's true but it's been so long I'm starting to think it's not.

>>3326044
>because it is
you didn't answer my question. How is it upper-level?
>that's besides the point
no that was your whole point.
I'm beginning to think that you're stupid.

These will be the first books i have read since probably goosebumps, pretty keen to get back on track.. Really looking forward to diving in..

Travelling boyfriends and fathers are practical.

>>3330841
>Only Revolutions

Oh god, have fun bro.

recently purchased:

Slow Learner
V
Crying of Lot 49
Gravity's Rainbow
Vinland
Mason & Dixon
Against the Day

Basically everything by Pynchon apart from Inherent Vice.

What I plan to purchase next:

Tale of Genji
Tale of Heike
The Pillow Book
The Gossamer Years
Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World
Journey to the West
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Outlaws of the Marsh
The Story of Stone
The Arabian Nights

>>3326725
The Sisters Brothers is great, loved it.

Got these from my sister for my birthday:

The Sickness Unto Death by Kierkebro
Simulacra and Simulation by Brodrillard

>>3330841
make sure you start five threads about GR when you stop 30 pages in

>>3331678
Very nice, are you in the process of learning French or already fluent in it?

just bought "Flow my tears, the policeman said" and "Dr. bloodmoney" by PKD. i fucking love PKD.

i shouldntve though since ive got about 8 other books to read, which since i havnt read them yet technically count as recent purchases:
gullivers travels
the earthsea quartet
demons
the count of monte christo
rendevous with rama
1Q84 book 3
collective works of edgar allen poe
the gormenghast trilogy
monkey
the last 3/4's of romance of hte three kingdoms.

its not like im normally even a non-finisher, its just between my obsession with bookbuying, how busy ive been lately, and how little time ive had to read, its caught up with me.
i still feel i need to buy more books though.

curently reading flow my tears, gna read dr bloodmoney after that. if anyones got some suggestions as to what to read next out of htat list, itd be greatly appreciated. i feel like im neglecting the other books when i choose one, so its damned difficult for me.

>>3326007
good luck with heart of darkness. i found it thick and unreadable. im a pleb by /lit/ standards though.

>>3325386
wordsworth editions suck

>>3325622
It's pretty godawful, even the spine is ugly but I'd been looking for a copy and that's the one they had.

>>3326791
I've heard people say its amazing on here so I got real excited when I came across it.

>>3331740
I'm already fluent in it, it's my second language. But I'm trying to improve my english (with The Room, and I'm actually reading The Great Gatsby in english aswell)

Oh and the white on is Alexandre Soljenitsyne's Cance Ward.

>>3331745

You suck

>>3331747
>It's pretty godawful, even the spine is ugly but I'd been looking for a copy and that's the one they had.

Should've just ordered a used copy, dude.

>>3331769

But I like finding books I want irl. Its like being on. A treasure hunt.

Just bought Atlas Shrugged.
I'm 3 pages in and I can't find anything controversial. I don't understand all the buzz about this book

>>3331789
It's not controversial at all. It's just hated because of it's pro-libertarianism, as /lit/ is a bunch of teenage champagne-socialists.

>purchasing books
>not having an ereader and pirating everything

>>3331796
>accusing socialists of being juvenile while defending ayn rand

How times have changed.

>>3331804
Try to pirate a text in Ancient Greek.
I dare you. ;_;

>>3330841
Going from Goosebumps to Pynchon? lel

>>3331820
>How times have changed.

Since when, 1920's Russia? The majority of hate towards Rand comes from students still in their Das Kapital phase.

>>3331804
Recently purchased the ebook of Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Paid for it because I love her stuff and I want to support her and see more. Also, because I'm not a total douche that thins $7 is too much to pay for a book.

The Outsider from Albert Camus

Vineland
Mason & Dixon
Inherent Vice
Against the Day
Parasite Eve
The Minotaur Tanes a Cigarette Break
and The Trial
Also, I've heard that the Penguin Deluxe edition of Gravity's Rainbow edited a lot of shit out, and I was wondering which edition I should get.

>>3331870
just call it the stranger you twat

>>3325887
Where did you get that?!?

>>3332033
yeah, ya ruddy silly bell whiff! just hark him the stranger! me snatch is sound as a pound! ten sniffets for one goosewhippet, guvnor!

Dubliners is shit.

Plato's good shit.

Also, I've heard that the Penguin Deluxe edition of Gravity's Rainbow edited a lot of shit out, and I was wondering which edition I should get. me2

wtf? stealth bump?

Libra and Underworld HC for 2.50 each.

The picture on The Best Of Sherlock Holmes is fucking hilarious.

Books of poetry by Frost, Basho, and T.S. Eliot
Hardcover Complete Grimm's fairy tales
The Arabian Nights
and The Man Who Was Thursday

A good haul from yesterday, all covered with B&N gift cards.

>buying Penguin Classics

MAN I LOVE SHIT TRANSLATIONS

>>3332804
What? They're not always the best translations but they're usually close, and they're good quality editions.

Picked it up a couple days ago. It's great.

>>3332781
Sweet haul, you should check out Basho's Narrow Road to the North.

>>3333037
>>>/g/

>>3333406

Thank you, I've been wanting to get into reading some of his works, I vaguely remember having heard something about him in Snyder's work...

Anywho! thanks for the recommendation :)

>>3332819
>Fagles
>most of them don't even list the translations prominently, clearly not aimed at the discerning reader
>Fagles

Eat my shit

Liberalism - Ludwig
The Theory of Money and Credit - Ludwig
The Road to Serfdom - Hayek
The Economics of Prohibition - Thornton