/lit/ - Literature

reading I am A Cat right now well not right now..but yeah

>>3623070
and what books before that ? :)

I was told the intro to my copy of the book had spoilers. I skipped it until I finished the book.

The Songs of Distant Earth
Childhood's End
The Shadow of the Wind

The last three books I read are
>Beyond Lies The Wub - Volume one of the collected stories
>Second Variety - Volume two of the collected stories
>The Father Thing - Volume three of the collected stories

I think Second Variety was the weakest of the three.

>>3623068
In order from most to least recent:
>On Truth and Untruth
by Friedrich Nietzsche (kindof)
It is a composite of his writings on Epistemology. So it id all his content, but he didn't organize it.
>Existentialism is a Humanism
by Jean-Paul Sartre
LET IT BE NOTED that I HATED this book and HATE Sartre.
>A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce

previous: Cheese (Elschott) and The Best of Myles na gCopaleen
currently: War With the Newts (Capek)
and re-reading Novalis' Hymn's to the Night
next: idk maybe some Simenon or Inoue. I'm in the mood for a good story.

>>3623077
You might dig "Neuromancer" by the looks of your predominantly sci-fi choices.

>>3623087
>LET IT BE NOTED that I HATED this book and HATE Sartre

did you have to read it for a class or something?

>>3623097
No. I wanted to check the dude out after having read and enjoyed "No Exit," so I bought that essay and once I heard the shit he believed I started to hate him. I read the whole thing to know it, but I disagreed with a HUGE portion of what he said. Existentialism seems to me a failure because it re-establishes the absolutes it has just removed, simply one level less-blatantly.

>>3623068
introduction to zen buddhism
food of the gods
beyond good and evil (stopped after 30 pages as I couldn't stand it)

Anyone have recommendations on new boos, doing my amazon shop atm.

>>3623068
The State in the Third Millenium
very good; if you like politics, get it
Dies the Fire
enjoyable post-apoc/fantasy story that I read on a lazy Sunday
The Servile Mind
Like the first one, get it if you like politics

>The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Much better than I expected.
>The Adventures of Augie March
Not as good as I expected, though the prose is pretty great sometimes.
>The Street of Crocodiles
Really good.

Something similar to The Street of Crocodiles would be an especially welcome recommendation.

>>3623129
is food of the gods worth reading?

>>3623189
yes, although mckenna is very big on the use of psychedelics (a bit too much for my liking), he does give a lot of useful info and an interesting viewpoint of things and life/reality in general. Definitely worth reading at some point.

>>3623213
thanks, I'll give it a go. I bought it a while ago but haven't really looked at it

>>3623237
I meant to buy it years ago when a friend recommended I bought it a few months ago, put it off then read it, and was kicking myself for not reading it earlier.

>>3623129
was that intro to zen buddhism good? who was it by?

>>3623273
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zen-Teachings-Bodhidharma/dp/0865473994

this book it is so so, much like all religious texts, it does have its good and bad. Interesting if you like this sort of thing. I am a spiritual person (if you were to describe me) so it is useful in learning more about the world and people and belief systems.Fairly easy reading to people new to the origin of buddhisms teachings.

Last three books read

I am currently reading delta of Venus by anais nin. Only about 1/3rd into it but its really good, fascinating especially the more taboo stories which are both discusting and arousing at the same time

I read the claiming of sleeping beauty by Anne Rice. It was an okay book, but was too high fantasy for me, and I found prince alexis's story to just drag and actually got boring after awhile. I also have the other two books in the sleeping beauty trilogy

Before that I read Venus in furs. I was fascinated to see this young woman go from being timid and affectionate to being corrupted by her power over the narrator.

I have my own ideas on what would be an ideal book to read next but I'm curious about what /lit/ suggests

>>3623576

> both discusting and arousing at the same time

give examples, pl0x

>>3623068
Sorry to interject but something is up. (Op's pic related)

Why doesn't anybody notice the blatant mistake?
Changing the physical letters on a keyboard doesn't change the actual typed letters.

>>3623596
The first story is about this man whose two daughters come into his room while he is aroused and has an erection. He then tries rubbing himself off on the girls and they play all these games in his state of arousal. I should be turned off but the story is so well written.

>the broom of the system by david foster wallace

>godard on godard by godard

>the outsider by camus

im a pretty big literary pleb so i wouldnt know what to recommend really

>>3623160
>The Street of Crocodiles
You might like Donald Barthelme

how did you like sculpting in time

>twelfth night
>less than zero
>all the sad young literary men

>To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Loved it loved it loved it
>Nova Express by William S Burroughs
Some of the passages were better than others. Sorry but I can't into cutup craziness.
>Dubliners by James Joyce
Not my favourite by Joyce, but nonetheless noteworthy

>Steppenwolf
>The Communist Manifesto
>On Writing (Stephen King)

On Writing:
great for the novice writer. Steve offers no-bullshit advice on how to sculpt an engaging, well paced story with a backbone of modern fundamentals. The first half was a biography which was tended to drag on at parts for non-readers of Stephen King (such as myself).

Communist Manifesto
Very eye opening, but very dry. gives the reader a new perspective on how capitalism in America, and the rest of the world, works today. Inspirational if you take an interest in politics.

Steppenwolf:
Very existential and mind-altering dialogue. Offers many outlooks on the purpose of life, the fear of death, and the nature of consciousness.
The narration, however was very hard to take in comprehensively. Many chapters needed a few rereads to fully understand. I think the book is best enjoyed by a person with little life experience who is looking to squeeze more from the world. Hermann attempts to guide the reader, presenting the depression of solitude and the happiness of retained youth and ambition. I read the translated version.

>>3623068
What's the name of this comic?

>>3623978
Super mega. Or, colloquially, yellow comic.

>the savage detectives

>the sot-weed factor

>light in august

David Copperfield (Dickens)

Great expectations (Dickens)

Around the world in 80 days (Verne)

The End of Eternity
I, Robot
The Gods Themselves

Suggestions?

Confessions, St. Augustine.
Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck.
The Robots of Dawn, Asimov.

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky

Democracy in America by de Tocqueville

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy

>>3624014
>>3624021 here

Read Asimov's Robot series, starting with caves of steel, if you haven't. It's quite good.

>>3623299
Thanks :)

Danmarks Kronike, Saxo Gramaticus
La Vita Nuova, Dante Alighieri
The Aeneid, Vergilius

>>3624024
Thanks, Will do.

The Warden, Anthony Trollope
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
Twelfth Night, Shakespeare

Been a tough semester

The Temple of My Familiar (Walker)
Animals in Translation (Grandin)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

>Notes From Underground
>Exile and the Kingdom
>The Iliad

>>3625561
If you want more Dostoevsky try The Brothers Karamazov. And at some point you have to follow up The Iliad with The Odyssey, if you have not already read that.

>Selected Stories by John O'Hara
>Mr Phillips
>Exercises in Style

>>3625568
Just started the Odyssey earlier today and I'm liking it so far. Seems like it will be better than the Iliad to me.

I have been meaning to read The Brothers Karamazov but haven't gotten around to it yet. I read the P&V translations for Notes and for Crime and Punishment. Should I stick with their translation or look for a different one when I read BK?

>>3625587
Honestly, I can't remember which translation of BK I read. So if you like P&V's work that'll probably be fine for BK too.

Rousseau's Confessions
All Quiet on the Western Front
Anna Karenina

>>3625587
I'd go with the P&V or the David McDuff translation.

Haven't read many of the books posted ITT so I can't give recommendations BUT here are mine:

>Hopscotch
Preferred the latter half of the book, after the location change, because it had more of a solid plot rather than the dialogues and stuff in the first half.

>Woman in the Dunes
I was really engaged at the beginning, but became less so as the novel went on. Definitely interesting.

>Nine Stories (current)
I like the characterizations. Having trouble in certain stories deciphering the subtext, but that's what the internet is for. I'm enjoying it.

>>3626773
Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger
>>3624014
If you haven't already, read the Foundation trilogy. Try also Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.

My own:
>At Swim-Two-Birds
>Gösta Berling's Saga
>Journey to the End of the Night

>>3626886

>reading Cortazar for the plot

A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Crews
On Writing by Stephen King
A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca*

*was fucking incredible

>Contact
>The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down
>Dream Baby
>Next up: Candide, Journey to the End of the Night, Blood Meridian

Sorta done with scifi at the moment, so I'm looking for recs similar to my "next up" list. I'm also looking at picking up Juliette, by Sade. Any suggested translations?

>>3623996
Read some H.G. Wells and Robert Louis Stevenson bro.

H.G. Wells: The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau

Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Jekyll and Hyde.

Also, check out Paris in the 20th Century by Verne. It's quite good.

You've already read my two favorite Dickens books, but maybe check out Hard Times.

>>3627585

>so I'm looking for recs similar to my "next up" list.

"The Melancholy of Resistance" by
Krasznahorkai

"La Bas" by Husymans

>>3627524

Thanks for the Storm of Steel recommendation.

A Hero of Our Time
Israel Potter
The House of the Seven Gables (Hawthorne is a wordy bitch. I do not recommend.)

Just started Devil in the Flesh. So far so good. Should only take a couple days.

>Nova Swing
>Shantaram
>Killing Pablo

>>3627742
oblomov

>>3627573
I like Harry Crews, Childhood was one of his least outrageous books. (Though it did have the part about all the kids popping hymens about three minutes after reaching puberty)

>>3627775
Will check out, I know Beckett's Guggenheim girlfriend used to call him that.

>>3623087
ready for Ulysses yet?

>>3623986
if you can find copy of Bolaño's Antwerp i'd really recommend it. 2666 is hefty, but it's even better than Savage Detectives. read it while staying in Tucson, AZ for a while this winter. dreams in the Sonoran desert got fucking weird. 2666 didn't help.