/lit/ - Literature

2/3

3/3 any criticism is welcome

Having a bookshelf full of contemporary fantasy won't get you pussy, that's for sure.

>Fantasy books
>ASOIAF
>Comic books
>Watchmen
>The Bible

Alright. Toasting.

>not having a room in your house lined with rich mahogany bookshelves, each one filled with leather-bound from centuries ago

>>4659808
>Carl Sagan
>Christopher Hitchens
>Penguin Classics
>Anarchism

All this euphoria.

Jesus fuck you fags are pretentious. Just let people read what they enjoy.

>>4659815
>Being a fat autistic faggot with nothing to contribute

>>4659840

>>4659828
The God Delusion and The Quran to show off his diversity.

>>4659840
Why are you even on 4chan? What do you think these threads are for? Go away.

>>4659815
>Caring about the appearance of books and not the content
1/10 try harder

>>4659808
Nice

>>4659808
pretty impressive, you have a lot of physics/science books, are you physicist or just a hobby?

>>4659847

Actually, I read the Quran because of my Muslim neighbour, who I have a good relationship with and discussed it with. That being said, I'm still an atheist, but not everyone who reads Hitchens/Dawkins is a fedora-tipping antitheist, you know?

Also, it's nice that you think I read books with different ideas because I want to 'show off' the diversity and not for the sake of diverse ideas in and of itself. Shows what sort of mindset you're in: that's probably the kind of person you are. Post your shelf, and let's see.

>>4659879
also not all antitheists are fedora tippers

>>4659782
+ Good quality Collins Bible
- Upside down 1984
- Not sorted by Series, Publisher, Author, Chronology
>>4659784
+ Cloth bound Dorian Grey
- Wordsworth The Idiot
- Artemis Fedora
>>4659787
- George

But I hate high fantasy and things of a similar ilk. I'd recommend the rest of Salinger's work if you liked Catcher, starting with For Emsé.

>>4659885
They sure are when you put it that way

>>4659875
>he thinks he's read all that shit
Half the books don't even have a crease in the spine.

>>4659899
?

>>4659828

I'm not the guy you're judging, but would you care to explain what could possibly be wrong with Penguin classics? They're universally available, inexpensive in new condition, often redeemable in like-new condition at used bookstores, read and referenced by many, good-looking, constructed well enough if you aren't a spine-breaking savage... they're good editions. What are you on about?

>>4659879
I'm just joshing you, brah! If anything, I would think you're collection is more interesting for being diverse.

>>4659904
Their covers also aren't glossy. I like Penguin.

>>4659904
See >>4659815
some people believe books sole purpose is to look impressive and decorative on a shelf.

>>4659902
Do you open/read your books like a five year old

>>4659875
Most of the physics books are some years old and I was for a pretty long period very interested in it when I was 15 to about 18. It's just a hobby. This popscience stuff was really what got me into reading so that's why I have a lot of it. The last two years I haven't really bought a lot of them, but my interest in physics and science in general is still there.
Lately I've read a lot of biology-stuff. I picked up two books by Dawkins on biology and they were excellent, and I ordered Ernst Mayr's "What Is Evolution?" the other day.

>>4659885
Yep, true.

>>4659902
I'm not going to lie and say I read all of those. My backlog is so big because of my aforementioned pop-sci phase where I also ordered a lot of other books that I wasn't really interested in at the time but that I tried to force myself to read (and didn't). It wasn't until last year thIat I really got into reading quite a lot, so your observation that about half of those books are unread is a correct one and not something I'm trying to deny. But I'll get to them. I read 96 books last year and I'm at 17 this year so I'm slowly catching up.

>>4659912

Some Penguins are glossy depending on their publish date. Oxford World's Classics are never glossy.

My friend who works at Amazon told me that they have got a printing press in their shipping warehouse. Instead of having mass market paperbacks printed elsewhere and shipped to Amazon, they just bind new ones right there at the facility. Maybe somebody can confirm whether this is done with Penguins.

>>4659917

Yeah, they do look good, but that seems like a silly reason to criticize somebody for buying them.

>>4659782
you used "albeit" incorrectly there - it means "although". doesn't work if there's not an adjective before it

>>4659956
while we're on the topic of being autistic faggots, that's a hyphen you used there. you should instead have used an em dash or just ended the sentence outright.

I couldn't be bothered taking pictures of the shelves.

>>4659977
are you a faggot or can you not see that he's using the dash as a convenient replacement for an em dash faggot?

>>4659840
Trust me, being in /lit/ and being irritated by literary pretentiousness is like not liking hot weather and then going on vacation to the Sahara.

>>4659977
good call. it's a lazy habit of mine. in my defense, using two dashes looks silly.

unless you're saying that i actually don't understand the difference between the two, in which case >>4659997

>>4659977

Not the guy, but this is a good place to point out people's errors in usage and mechanics. In my opinion, the hyphen works well convey everyday speech, which is very much the tone of a forum like this.

>>4659981

Absolutely awesome. Man, I wish we were friends IRL.

>>4659981
>penguin classics and Oxford
>all bought new

I'm embarrassed for you. What lack of character. You are everything that is wrong with the literary world.

>>4660018
because he actually reads?
i would say that you're what's wrong with the literary world. literature is not about pretty drawings, it's about a collection of fucking words.

>>4660008

Edit: now I see that you were distinguishing between the hyphen, en dash, and em dash. Well, I learn something new every day.

>>4659808

Woah. I just realised a whole shelf is missing. Here's the missing shelf.

>>4660018

1. The most recent editions are the ones required by classes and often referenced
2. The most recent editions have a long shelf-life, whereas editions from the 70's are cracked at the spine from the type of glue
3. "You are everything that's wrong with the literary world" is a hell of a bold claim without really explaining what you mean. That somebody buying books new is a noob or something? I don't get it.

>>4659828
dislike of penguin is, by extension, a dislike for mass market paperbacks as a whole, and an act of class war.

I decided to take a pic of my "serious" shelf; the one with books that are more "literary", (asoiaf excluded) and that aren't just fantasy/YA (I know the giver is there but I love that book)
I also have the divine comedy and the count of monte Cristo; they wouldn't fit on this shelf.

>>4659981
10/10 for the black/white divide and the cool looking oxford editions (I need that divine comedy)

>>4659845
>>4659856
ugh
do you lot read what you write? Or, for that matter, do you read at all?
Is the content of this post not obvious to you?

>>4660076
>calling any of that literary
heh

>>4660094
*tips Dostoevsky*

>>4660076
Please make sure you never attempt to give an opinion on anything lit-related

>>4660018
I actually have all the original manuscripts to these texts as well, but I keep them under my bed because they're ugly.

>>4660113
That's not very nice, my good sir
*tips Dostoevsky*

>>4660127
9/10

>>4659808
>Dose sexy Everyman's Libraries

Seriously, what's the catch? Are the materials super cheap? Are the translations horrible? How can other publishers compete when you've got such beautiful hardcovers for such a low price?

>>4660175
>prize-winning translations
>great introductions
>pretty comprehensive timelines
>look beautiful
>comfortable to read with

As far as I know, there are no real drawbacks.

I posted mine the other week, but now I took updated photos with the several dozen new books I added in this year. Out of shelf space again now, so Latin American literature is relegated to sitting up top.

Also, left in some of my manga this time.

>>4660295
2/4

>>4660301
Split it into four parts instead of two this time, so the pictures could be larger. Unfortunately, I also took mostly blurry pictures.

I posted mine in the last thread and got some compliments and accusations of being a drug addict. Which is fine.
I've added two books to the collection since; Laird Barron's Imago Sequence which I haven't read yet and Paul Di Fillipo's Wikiworld which is awful.
1/2

>>4660306
2/2

>>4660305
The top two on the right are what I keep out in the living room, in the really rare case I might ever have guests over and maybe they want to borrow a book or look at one or something.

>>4660307
And here's a cat picture. I really need to vacuum.

>>4660306
I complimented your Angela Carter and folklore love last time! I've since ordered that Book of Welsh Short Stories because I saw it on your shelf too. I don't think I've ever read any Welsh authors.

>>4660314
and I forgot picture

>>4660320
:3

>>4660110
>>4660130

are you seriously implying that reading at higher than a high school level is neckbeardy? because if you are past 12th grade you'd realize that your bookshelf would get laughed out of any conversation about literature

>>4660310
Why stack them like that and not in a way that makes them easier to get out?

George RR Martin is the voice of a generation. Face facts. He's the best author alive. He relates to the population through the written word better than dead French people with books about how looking at a cardboard box made them go insane.

>>4660334
>reading at higher than a high school level
get aload of this pleb

>>4660314
I think I complimented your collection, too.
The Tales from Wales book is a bit infantile, if you're interested in that sort of thing then The Mabinogion is far superior, and Sioned Davies' translation (pictured) is very good.
Nice cat, too.

>>4660342
Because I've read most of them and storing them horizontally means there's less stress on their spines so they last longer.

>>4660361
HBO is the voice of a generation. Face facts. It's the best channel on air. It relates to the population though the motion picture better than dead German people with films about a little boy running away from a blind man made him have a heart attack.

>>4660361
HBO is the voice of a generation. Face facts. It's the best channel on air. It relates to the population through motion picture better than dead German people with films about how an old blind man losing a little boy made him have a heart attack.

>>4660365
I meant the Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories one, didn't see that other one!

Thanks for the translation advice, I've been planning to pick up The Mabinogion and The Tain for a while. Do you happen to recommend a translation of the later (not Welsh, but still)?

>>4660388
I've heard a lot of people talk about how watching people rape each other on Oz or watching black people shoot each other on the Wire was really enlightening and intellectual so you're probably right.

>>4660396
I guess I don't even know my own collection that well.
I'm not familiar enough with The Tain to say which is best, sorry.

>>4660403
That's a very reductive thing for someone on a literature board to say.

>>4660410
Kinsella's

these threads are always fucking stupid.

you all have shitty collections for one reason or another: either too much or too little fantasy, too few cracked spines, to many stacked together, too aesthetic or not aesthetic enough, etc etc.

the point being: either develop some kind of standard by which to actually judge one another, or accept the inevitable cacophony of asshole posts all linked by the telling fact that they aren't reading the books they are taking and posting pictures of.

>>4660942
Why?

>>4660942
Nobody cares tripfag.

>>4660942
Can you take time out of your busy reading schedule to actually critique the ones posted? There aren't many.

>>4659784
Is that Mr. Y edition the one with the cool black pages? Fuck. I want that.

>>4659782
>>4659784
>>4659787

Normalfag teenager, fun to hang out with.

>>4659808

>>4660034


Average /lit/ poster, starting to get into left-wing politics.

Not interested in Social Justice, just interested in the intellectual discussion.

Atheist who is getting into edgy political ideas, will eventually go right-wing or just get into Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek.

Probably owns a fedora and found his way here through Reddit.

>>4659981

Lives and breaths classic books, doesn't bother with others.

>>4660076

New to /lit/, buys whatever book the /lit/ hivemind recommends.

>>4660295
>>4660301
>>4660305
>>4660307
>>4660320

Weaboo turned into Japanese poet.

Owns a cute cat.

If this is a girl, you would want to date her.

>>4660306
>>4660310


Into basic classics and philosophy, has been on /lit/ for some time now.

>>4660949

/lit/ newfag who buys off of hype.

>>4659808
have you read critique of pure reason

>>4660949

you ought to care: your collection is pathetic, and discloses aspects of your identity that anyone with half a brain would find...regrettable.

what do you hope to accomplish by posting your collection? /lit is composed of two dominant groups: those who seek intellectual validation (you) and those who, having none themselves, obnoxiously post shitty little jabs here and there.

these threads, i've found, are a privileged site where these two groups come together and comingle. review this thread: is there any worthwhile conversation? of course not.

>>4660986
Says the guy who frequently makes threads completely dedicated to his own collection.

Or rather, his "dead brother's" collection that he was just left because his brother killed himself.

>>4660949
Oh it's just a box of rain.

>>4660301

>modern jap. culture

why do you all have such shit libraries? Honestly you could find better shit rummaging through the trash bin of a library or a garage sale.

>>4659891
>george
>a minus

>>4660320

vacuum your fucking carpet, jesus christ

>>4660997
What specifically do you hate about all of those modern Japanese authors? Particularly the ones like Akutagawa, Miyazawa, Okamoto and Taruho. There are a few there I don't really care that much for myself (both Murakamis, Tsushima, Suzuki), but they're not representative of all of modern Japanese literature.

>>4660986
woa...burn...ya got him, dude

>>4661010
Having a personal library and a Kindle aren't exclusive.

They're both useful for different things.

>>4661008

I just think its strange to waste time reading up on such a random uninteresting topic, and its not specific to modern Japanese culture. I just meant in general, the quality of books and bookshelves in general posted here are absolute shit. Its all random paperback texts from unknown authors on random topics.

You guys should take more pride in your library, don't just read what your siblings and parents have laying around. Build a library that you can be proud of, one that's worth more than $10 at a garage sale where the books are sold by the box.

>>4661023
In no way is my collection "random." It doesn't have to do with what my parents or siblings read, since none of them read at all.

I study Japanese literature in university, so two of my bookshelves are dedicated to it. I don't find it uninteresting at all.

If you're talking about the physical books, then yeah I always go for the $2 used paperbacks because I "ruin" them all with my notes anyway. They're worthless once I finish marking them up.

>>4660320
So gorgeous
>>4660307
That zoom is very satisfying

Small I know, I've been getting big into epubs and most of the real books I buy I buy cheap from a tiny bookstore near my uni. Ignore The Hunger Games, somebody loaned it to me and I didn't read. Don't ignore Adventures Beyond the Body, if you don't think that's the tightest shit you can get out of my face

>>4660034
This is the hardest tipping of a fedora I have seen in a long time, and in a stunning twist you're the classical leftist variant from before MRA's stole your image.

Also does Vonnegut ever get any better? I honestly hated Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse V but was thinking about maybe trying Galapagos or Jailbird.

>>4660988

eh, that's honestly just to troll. i don't have a brother; it's just my collection. it's difficult to take this board seriously, so my thought process often is: who cares? but i've tried to alter that frame of mind, refrain from doing such things anymore, etc.

i dunno, i'm getting better. the point still stands, though: these threads are particularly cancerous to this board.

>>4661071
Holy christ you're an asshole.

>>4661071

Talking about books is just unacceptable on /lit/

>>4661071
>it's okay if I make these threads just to troll /lit/!
>but if anyone besides me makes them, they're the cancer killing /lit/

>>4660980
Yea, the pynchon and taipei and DFW is definitely on /lit/ recommendation. You got me. I haven't read much fiction in a few years and most of the books I have read were from university libraries or at my parents house or "lent" to people.
>>4660986
I'm slain. Thanks for your paragraph. I'm gonna go buy 20 more books and not read any of them and post about them all day.

>>4660320
I simply adore him/her. Love that gaze.

>>4661111
Thanks, anon. He does weird rolls all over the bed when I read instead of pay attention to him.

>>4660980
If only I actually were a Japanese poet. It would make translations so much easier.

>>4660361
>George RR Martin is the voice of a generation.
No, but he's still infinitely better than most of /lit/ will ever recognize him to be, and that's a fact.

>>4661131
If I was going to read fantasy I would honestly rather read Discworld or Xanth than some heavy bullshit about incest and diarrhea

>>4661128
lol that body position just doesn't make sense

>>4661134
>incest and diarrhea
I'm sure even you could do better than that.
0/10, see me after class

>>4661134
>all his books aren't about diarrhea
>yet all his books are shit
>>>/amazon.com/

>>4659782
>TI-84 manual
>tfw I have that in my shelf too. Never touched it.

>>4661151
>>4661157
I think you guys missed the point of the post due to your current autistic fixation.

>>4660990
Look out of any window, any morning, any evening, any day.
Maybe the sun is shining, birds are singing,
No rain is falling from a heavy sky.
What do you want me to do, to do for you to see you through?
For this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago.

Walk out of any doorway, feel your way, feel your way like the day before.
Maybe you'll find direction,
Around some corner where it's been waiting to meet you.
What do you want me to do, to watch for you while you are sleeping?
The please don't be surprised when you find me dreaming too.

Look into any eyes you find by you, you can see clear to another day,
Maybe been seen before, through other eyes on other days while going home.
What do you want me to do, to do for you to see you through?
It's all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago.

Walk into splintered sunlight,
Inch your way through dead dreams to another land.
Maybe you're tired and broken,
Your tongue is twisted with words half spoken and thoughts unclear

What do you want me to do, to do for you to see you through?
A box of rain will ease the pain, and love will see you through.

Just a box of rain, wind and water
Believe it if you need it, if you don't, just pass it on
Sun and shower, wind and rain
In and out the window like a moth before a flame

And it's just a box of rain, I don't know who put it there,
Believe it if you need it, or leave it if you dare.
And it's just a box of rain, or a ribbon for your hair;
Such a long long time to be gone, and a short time to be there.

>>4661172
?
I think you might have been the one to have missed the point, but no hard feelings.

>>4661186
>NOU
>Being serious

Like I said, you mis-interpreted the joke and are autistic. It's okay little guy.

philosophy shelves [pic 1 of 8]

history shelves [pic 2 of 8]

Children/YA shelf [pic 3 of 8]

Religion/Poetry/Drama/Comedy/random shelves [pic 4 of 8]

>>4661229
I'm so sorry for your ceiling

Sociology/Anthropology/Memoirs/Pop-fiction/mystery/horror [pic 5 of 8]

>>4661241
Fuck me, pic [5 of 8]

Fiction, alpha by author letters A through H, [pic 6 of 8]

>>4661243
Interesting bucket full of playboys there

Fiction, alpha by author letters H through S, [pic 7 of 8]

>>4661221
>>4661226
>>4661229
>>4661231
>>4661243
>>4661248
>>4661256
Age? Or at least age by closest decade?

Fiction, alpha by author letters T through Z, [8 of 8]

>>4661258
25

>>4661239
yeah, it's my girlfriend's house, I only just finished moving in. the roof is going to need a patching within the next couple years. I hope we can get it before leakage/major damage to the library ever becomes an issue.

>>4661254
they are a fine purveyor of articles, plus you know...tits.

>not organising your home library by Dewey number
It's the perfect system: it keeps books on similar subjects together and to the untrained eye looks considerably less autistic than arranging them alphabetically or by cover design.

>>4661270
This post on the other hand, looks significantly more autistic than anything mentioned within.

>>4661270
I arrange from what I like the most to what I like the least. I'll make a shelf full of my favorites and other shelves with the ones I like less.

>>4661268
leaking won't be the main issue, damp will.

I hope you like moldy books

>>4661393
That's an enjoyable mix.

What's your favorite one there?

>>4661393
>penguins translation of Dostoyevsky
Those are notoriously bad translations. Unfortunately, I learned this after buying the brothers karamazov penguin version. I read it anyway but I'll probably get another translation if I decide to reread it.

>>4661489
>Those are notoriously bad translations
Are they really? I have The Brother Karamazov and The Idiot from Penguin. What would be a preferred translation?

>>4661393
Very similar to my collection, what is your thoughts on "the plague"?

>>4661489
I read and enjoyed them.
have i really missed out on everything great about dosto?

>>4661527

Pavear and Volokhonsky are generally the go-to translation for a work they've translated.

>>4661270
>not using library of congress number

dewey is shit, do you even library

Most of the books in my collection are shitty paperbacks I find at goodwill and the dump (for free). The amount of books I have is getting to be somewhat unwieldy, so I may start getting rid of the crummy paperbacks once I've read them (unless it is a book I really liked).

I might also start making more of a point to get nice hardcover editions when I do decide to shell out for a book I want, because I get so FRUSTRATED by how easily paperbacks get damaged. If I'm going to be spending money on new books, they may as well last, I guess...

3000 books/art cat etc at last count....

>>4661409
Probably the Gogol book on the far left. I love all the stories he has based on Ukrainian folklore. Honourable mentions to The Idiot and Master & Margarita.

>>4661489
They seem fine to me, but then again I haven't read any other translation to compare them to. I do intend to buy a better translation of C&P when I re-read it (current version is Garnett)

>>4661531
I prefer it to The Stranger, I felt like I understood Camus' views much better after reading it.

>>4659808

Dat pop science

Since you can't see shit on this photograph i'll tell you what's on.

Edgar Allen Poe's Complete Works
Paradise Lost
Varney the Vampire
Infinite Jest
Falling Man
Underworld
Leviathan
Ulysses
The Plays of Dario Fo book one
Utopia by Thomas Moore
Ghostwritten-David Mitchell
The Big Show-Pierre Clostermann
Flames in the Sky-Pierre Clostermann
I Am A Cat
The Book of Five Rings
To Kill a Mockinbird
Filth
Trainspotting
Great Expectations
David Copperfield
Unfinished Tales
Understanding Shinto
The Complete works of Shakespeare
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Across the River and Into the Trees
4 Plays by Eugine O'Neil(Signet classics)
A Biography of Rommel by Desmond Young

>>4662322

Second bookshelf, I forgot I missed out The Mystery of Edwin Drood from the first one that's tucked away in the corner.

American Psycho
Faust
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
No Longer Human
Something Wicked this Way Comes
All Quiet on the Western Front
Lord of the Rings trilogy collection
The Hobbit
Lives of the Twelve Caesars
Titus Groan
Gormenghast
The Sound and the Fury
As I Lay Dying
Light in August
Sanctuary
Brideshead Revisited
A Clockwork Orange
Shelley's The Last Man
Master and the Margarita
HP Lovecraft: The Whispers in the Dark
Gulliver's Travels
The Screwtape Letters
Chronicles of Narnia
The Great Gatsby
Tender is the Night
The Brothers Karamazov
The Idiot
Crime and Punishment
Demons
House of the Dead
Notes from Underground
Catcher in the Rye
The Communist Manifesto
The Complete Plays of Sophocles
The Prince
EM Forester's The Machine Stops
Valerie and her Week of Wonders
Jude the Obscure
A Study in Scarlet
Mother Night
Slaughterhouse 5
Spring Snow
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
The Sailor Who Fell From Grave with the Sea

The silver tin is Assam tea if anyone is wondering.
The Epic of Gilgamesh

>>4662302
Hey, ain't nothing wrong with pop science

>>4662345

Silly me I missed out Brave New World, Thus Spake Zarathustra and The Odyssey on that one too. Anyway here's shelf 3. Hopefully I won't miss out anymore books this time, third times the charm.

House Of Leaves
War and Peace
Atlas Shrugged
Fight Club
I Am Legend
Dracula
The Trial
The Castle
The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka
The Republic
The Last Days of Socrates
Discourse on Inequality
Confessions
Snow Crash
Surely You're Joking My Feynman
A Brief History of Time
Guns, Germs and Steel
The Luzhin Defence
An Invitation to a Beheading
Vineland
Homage to Catalonia
1984
The Complete poems of Arthur Rimbaud
Albert Camus Everyman omnibus
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
Valis
Martian Time-Slip
The Man in the High Castle
Swann's Way
Lolita
Man and his Symbols
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
For Whom the Bells Toll
The Nicomanthean Ethics
In Search of Schridinger's Cat
Rights of Man, Common Sense and other Political Writings-Thomas Paine

Here's mine. Mostly russian lit and history books

>>4662418
Are you a history major, or just generally interested? Do you recommend all of those history books you have?

>>4662345
>Assam
>Dazai
>Nezval

You're a worthwhile person, anon.

For a while I was trying to pair tea terroir with the area of origin for the author I was reading. It worked great with Japanese and Chinese teas, not so much with others.

>>4662638

Thank you for your praise, speaking of tea I was actually drinking green tea myself while reading the last chapter of The Sailor Who Fell From Grace. Here's the last shelf. I have updated my shelf since I moved all my /co/ related stuff onto my other one. I will list some books that aren't picture here too.

The Gunslinger
The Drawing of the Three
The Wastelands
Wizard and Glass
The Wolves of the Callah
The Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower
The Wasp Factory
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Dice Man
In Cold Blood
Nausea
Steppenwolf
The Flowers of Evil
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
A Wild Sheep Chase
Underground
The Real Blue Beard
Piano Guided Sight Reading
Memories, Dreams and Reflections
Catch 22
Metropole
His Dark Materials Trilogy
Dune
The Japanese Brain
The Unconsoled
Journey to the End of the Night
Salem's Lot.

NOT PICTURED BUT I HAVE THEM ON MY OTHER SHELF(too lazy to grab my laptop and take a photo of it).

The Chronicles of Jazz
Gulag Archipelago Volume 2
Une semaine de bonté(A Week of Kindness art book)
The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrel
Yeager: An Autobiography
A Game of Thones
A Clash Of Kings
A Storm Of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance With Dragons
It
The Stand
The Talisman
Black House
Hearts in Atlantis
The King James version of The Bible
The Silmarilion(it's actually on my table)

>>4662624
I'm a history major, but I developed interest in the subject long before college.

It's hard to recommend the history books in the piles. Some, like Young Michelangelo, The Days of the French Revolution or Warfare in the 17th century, are layman histories that aren't well written. But you can still learn something from them.
'Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling' by Ross King is also similar, but it was a very quick and enjoyable read. If you haven't guessed, it's about Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in its political and cultural context.

The two 19th century Oxford books (one on italy one on the uk) were interesting to read because they gave me a good introduction to those two countries. The writers are competent, but there is a variation in quality as there is a different historian writing every chapter.
The Italian one was written in a chronological format. On the contrary, the authors of the British survey compiled the book thematically, so there are overlaps in time.

I highly recommend the 'Origins of the modern World' by Robert Marks (the bottom left book). It's a terrific introduction to world history and very convincingly shows that the West wasn't necessarily destined to surge ahead of Africa and Asia in the nineteenth century. It also presents a way of looking at world history environmentally, which I can elaborate upon if your interested.
Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities is also good. It is about the origins of nationalism in the modern world. It started off a slow in the beginning, but I'm enjoying it now.

I've only read a bit of the my Roman survey book, The Gracchi to Nero. I'm really interested in Ancient Rome and I love books that talk try to incorporate all social/political/economic/military topics because I feel as though it gives the bigger picture. From what I've read this book seems to fulfill my aspirations, so I'm willing to look over its density.
I haven't read the book on Roman culture. I'm curious to get to it.

bookshelf bump

mostly Michel Folco, Camus, Romain Gary, some Maupassant, some Boris Vian.

>>4660295
all these dinosaurs on top of the shelves

>>4659795
>stop liking things I don't like

>>4665301
why did you mirror it?

>>4660295
doe, can we get a pic of the three kingdoms?

>>4667002
just google
7119005901
and check images

>>4666992
LE LE LE

>>4659808
>Gerrard
I seriously hope this was a give your too polite to throw away.

>>4659787
>>4659784
>>4659782

bro, do you even read??

>>4660986
>/lit is composed of two dominant groups: those who seek intellectual validation (me)

FTFY.

>It's cool not to like certain things and try to shit on those who do isn't it. Someone please validate my opinions.

>>4660980
Autism.

>>4659808

Why would you read Kafka in English when you're from Norway? Norwegian is closer linguistically and capture the original prose much better.

>>4661393
>War and peace
My ass hurts, as far as I am russian and know that it's more likely war and world. Though I'm glad to see that amount of our literature, mate.

>>4662418
>used stickers
Where are you from? Where do you buy used books? Are there special shops or something? Wish I had something like that in my country.

>>4668436
College bookstores use those stickers so they can easily discern the price. (Used books cost less than new ones, obviously.)

>>4668346
>War and Peace
>I am russian and know that it's more likely war and world
What makes you think the meaning of мир here is 'world' instead of 'peace'? Sure, the word can take on either meaning, but are you not aware of the role of Proudhon's La Guerre et la Paix on Tolstoy? ('Paix' being French for 'peace', of course)

>>4660956
The edges of the pages are Black if Thats what you mean.

I just started reading seriously a few months ago ago so please excuse my turbopleb shelf.

>>4668599
>atlas
How did you find it?

>>4661393
Up your Orwell please. I just get so frustrated seeing people reading nothing but Animal Farm and 1984.

>>4668650
Pretty dull and didn't agree with the philosophy at all. I thought the circle jerk about how bad it was might have just been another epic me-me but it wasn't.

>>4668650
lol for a minute i thought this post was about how did you literally find atlas shrugged (like in a bookstore) and i was just like wtf

>>4668681
Are you me?

>>4668684
>>4668681
He must have some super rare platinum edition of it.

>>4668684
>>4668688
>>4668681
Damn english. So simple yet so hard to master. Pardon me.

>>4668670
>Pretty dull and didn't agree with the philosophy at all.
Finally I've found someone who shares my opinion. I'm pretty tired of all those mommy's businessmen who are hyped about the whole idea. Just hope you are not one of those all-denying young mans, so I can count your review.

>>4668729
I like the idiotic assumption in Individualists that if everyone was pitted against everyone else they'd come out on top. Or maybe they realised that if they'd live in a society that denies them the headstart they got by the success of their ancestors and make them equals (how that success came into being is also a matter for debate), they'd be the exact people they otherwise like to shame for failing.

DYER

>>4659808
The shelves of Everyman's Library and Penguin Classsics are so sexy.

>>4660175
They're like $25-$30. Do you think that's a good price?

>>4668882
For living authors yes. For dead authors no.

>>4659782
>Politikens dansk/tysk-tysk/dansk
>Politikens dansk/engelsk-engelsk/dansk
>all that fantasy
>Yahya Hassan

Danefag high school/10
Also
>getting an English translation of The Idiot
>not getting a perfectly fine if not better Danish one

>>4660949
>That Mein Kampf

I am thinking of reading it, how was it?

>>4669044
largely shit but my friend with aspergers (lel) lent it to me. It is sort of funny to read the portions that say "the jew" a bunch of times rapid-fire whilst drunk with a couple of buddies but it's not a great read overall.

>>4669044

You might be interested in reading werner maser's book on that book as well, he basically shows how poorly it was written (and how it was edited in the various publications) and talks about its context and the historical inaccuracies etc.

>>4668986
> >Yahya Hassan
As you said, im in high school and had to read it, not that i didn't find it interesting, so take from that what you want.
As for the idiot, im in the IB programme, so i need the english version for my English lit class.

>>4669309
You weren't forced to read it. Don't lie.

>>4669048
Having a friend with aspergers who reads Mein Kampf and getting drunk with your friends while reading from Mein Kampf. You sound retarded.

>>4668261
Are you talking from experience or are you just guessing?

>>4662302
Yes, because trying to understand science without a degree in it is somehow a bad thing. Idiot.

>>4668008
No, actually, I've played football all my life and Liverpool is my favourite team and so I read it. If it makes you feel any better I read it was one of the first books (perhaps the first, I don't remember) that I ever read all the way through.

>>4668261
You have a point. But in any case I can read them both, and I plan on learning german once my Russian is okay.

>>4661049
*le fedora tippy*

If you didn't like SH5 and CC then you might as well just kill yourself. Well, read Mother Night before you give any serious verdict. It's his best in my opinion.

>>4668008
Settle down Manure cunt, you got creamed hard today
>>4669537
Never feel ashamed of supporting your favourite club. Ever.

>>4669505
Oh no a scary mean book!

>>4669578

I read the Torres book too but I threw that one away. What a dick.
Nice game today. Can't think of anyone who deserves to lift that trophy more than Gerrard.

>>4669578
>Never feel ashamed of supporting your favourite club. Ever.
Especially when we beat Man U 0-3

>>4659782
/lit/ is not /fit/ or /k/. Keep the crappy visuals to yourself.

>>4669582
if you're interested in reading footballer biographies I can warmly recommend the one by Jens Lehmann. "Der Wahnsinn liegt auf dem Platz" (very roughly translated into "(All the) Madness lies on the pitch"). It gives you some insight into the actual man that he is, not the kung-fu fighter the media made him out to be. I'm not sure it actually exists in an English translation though.

>>4661008
>There are a few there I don't really care that much for myself
Then why keep them? Do you spend a lot of time not reading them?

>>4669591
I bet you're the kind of faggot who doesn't judge a book by its cover.
I BET you're the kind of faggot who thinks it's OK to buy a book whose cover is a movie poster.

>>4671043

>>4659808
Respect for Достоевского. Думал на западе его мало кто читает. I am from Russia.
This is my bookshelf.

>>4671043
>too hipster to buy a kindle
>too stupid to buy something where you don't have to smudge the screen to turn the page

every time, my sides

>>4671196
Спасибо. Я пытаюсь учить русский язык. :)

I should like to get more modern Russian writers. Perhaps I'll use your shelf as a reference!

>>4671042
I do read them anyway. Most people who've read any Japanese literature at all have only read Haruki Murakami, so in order to have the little conversation I can about Jap lit, I go ahead and read him. I don't hate his books, they're just not really my thing. And it's not like I liked every single book I've ever used in research.

>>4669309
Since when does Dostoevsky count as English literature
The fuck

Broke college kid with high school AP /lit/ level books. What do I add next, suggestions?

>>4671500
I'm not sure if you're American, but what that other anon meant was probably his "English" class. "English" is generally a blanket term used for literature and grammatical classes. Or at least in my high school, everyone called it "English" even though the actual name may be something like "AP Literature and Composition." It really just stems from grade school when there were generally two classes (reading and English) and then the two get lumped together and still colloquially called "English." Now I'm assuming that he's American, but he may not be, and that's how it is here at least.

>>4659981
omg so cool, bet you wear polo-necks like hemongway.
pint?

>>4671574
No I'm a danefag as well and I see now that my question had to do with my ignorance of the IB programme.
Not sure what you're on about.

>>4671646
>Not sure what you're on about.
I was trying to explain that in certain areas, it's common for people to refer to literature in general as "English" because of their past. But yea, it sounds like you have a shitty IB program from.

>>4671649
>from
Whooops, don't know where that came from.

>>4671649
But then it'd still be weird that he's reading a Russian book because where I'm from we never got any translations like that.
Well, aside from Old English and stuff like that.

>>4659981

They look well read. Would love to see some of your shelves.

Going full digital was the best thing.

Massive storage and easily created notes/bookmarks.

I actually sold off all my physical books.

>>4660076
dude, that's not serious.

>>4671702
see the second part of
>>4671211

>>4668261
although that speaks nothing to the quality of translation. It just says it can be done better

>>4671723
That would apply if I had didn't have these nice buttons here.

Don't know what you are talking about huh?

>>4671723
>>4671211
>having dirty/greasy fingers

Disgusting.

I'm thinking about starting to collect books, but ever since I moved into a new house I've noticed that everything here gets dusty fast as hell and there's a bit of a silverfish problem. How do I keep my books protected from dust and insects?

>>4672068
Do an initial bug bombing/consult your local pest guy to get rid of the silverfish first.

The only solution to the dust problem is to dust often.

>>4671500

>>4671574 could have been right but no, i'm a Danefag here.
As for Dostoevsky, well, we have to read at least 1 (or2 can't remember) translated works in our english class

>>4671655
>>4671649
>>4671646

See>>4672230

>>4672230
That's weird as shit.

>>4672230
oh lel w0w. Y u so mad, Yuropoooor? lol omg no literachur 4 u. 'Mericuh is literat more than yurope = very yes