/lit/ - Literature

Flowers for Algernon, but maybe that's just me

War and Peace

I recently read True Grit in one afternoon

Simple language, ~200 pages, good story, humor, wrongs being righted etc. pp.

>>6028323
>>6028335
I'll check them out, thanks.

>>6028329
Serious?

>>6028338

Not that guy, but yes, War and Peace is incredibly readable. Definitely the fasted I've got through a big book for you.

>>6028313
Good books are rarely instant pleasure, at least for me. It's more of a satisfaction of having read them and the thoughts they pass onto you.
Damn,
But as far as page turners go I'd chek out Horus Heresy stuff and Helsreach.

I read Steps by Jerzy Kosinski in under 3 hours.

>>6028313
Well, honestly no you aren't. You're doing it pretty right. "Harder" lit being in more questions than your page turner "now the monkey's the killer!" You want to read and digest it. Read and digest.

Not to be fedora, but I pity people that plow through very well written things and think that's an accomplishment. You miss most of the joy of reading and the small nuances that are earthquakes if that's what you do.

>>6028313
I like both "arty" stuff and genre-y page-turner stuff. I don't draw much of a distinction in my head because they overlap enough. Pynchon, DeLillo, Mieville, Le Carre, and Le Guin have all kept me up until 3 AM and they're all genuinely good writers. Try pic related, it's the last thing that I picked up and couldn't put down until it was over.

I get that way with Dostoevsky. I think long winded authors can tend to be more digestible for some reason.

I read The Martian last month, in one day (two sittings).

In general it's not very frequent that I read that type of thing though.

>>6028313
The Brothers Karamazov
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Count of Monte Cristo
Anna Karenina
East of Eden

Only a few books have been page turners for me, these that I named and a few more I can't remember.

Thanks for the tips and help everyone.

>>6028313

>>6028313
>"page turning" experience
Naked Lunch. Just never stops, but I'm not sure that counts...

Fear and Loathing. Just don't want the movie.

A Confederacy of Dunces was one of those reads that you could finish in a day and then for the remainder of that day (and maybe a couple days after it) your conscious thoughts would flow like pages from that book in one of those dull-headachey-stream-of-consciousness/out-of-body hazes induced by intense eye strain over a long period of time.

>>6028313
Jules Verne is good if you just want to plow through books.

Most proper literature just takes a bit longer to read, though. Sometimes you find a sentence that you just want to sing in your head a couple of times, etc.

It's comparable to a conversation, I suppose. You can chat about petty things for hours, and it's great fun, but it's a lot harder to talk about serious topics for that long without losing concentration along the way.

As long as you're enjoying all of it, you're fine.

>>6028804
I kinda wanna read it but I can't get the imagine of it being some kind of /v/ tier book with fart jokes and that kind of stuff

>>6028313
The Road was a pretty page-turny experience for me. Apart from that, uh, ASoIaF?
I developed an averse reaction to that tho, like when a book doesn't force to read it slowly and methodically, I feel cheated of the challenge.

>>6028313
Read I, Claudius if you have any interest in history or politics. Best page turner I have read in a long, long time

I read The Great Gatsby in one sitting. I wouldn't call it a "page turner", though. Rather, it has the sort of prose that flows along so well it seems like it would be a shame to interrupt it.

>>6028845
It has, pretty much bar none, the best far and masturbation jokes ever committed to paper. Not sure which way that will push you.

>>6028313
The Count of Monte Cristo

>>6028932
It pushed me the right way.

>>6028837
>Sometimes you find a sentence that you just want to sing in your head a couple of times
goddamn you are such a faggot

>>6029045
>stop enjoying things I don't enjoy!
fight me

>>6029075
I enjoy books too, I'm just not a faggot about it.

>>6029083
Well, you went out of your way to insult someone, it seems to me you are being quite a faggot about it, mate.

Also, do you read poetry or any lyrical literature? Because some sentences are genuinely very pleasant sounding.

>>6029116
>replying to 12yo

>>6029132
Meh, I finished reading for a bit. Just waiting to get a little bit more tired, might as well reply.
He might reconsider or something, could make his reading more enjoyable in the future, you never know.

>>6029083
In case you're still here
<----

>>6029179
I should've just said ''pic related''

A Clockwork Orange for me, read the whole thing in one sitting. I had no idea what I was getting into and once I started I was hooked

Inherent Vice was a bit of a page turner for me. Though I think the most recent page turner was Mick Foley's first autobio.

World War Z. I finished it in 2 days. I love how global and geopolitical the story was in comparison to the usual bunch of dudes shooting zombies in the face over and over. The more intimate bits were amazing.

Gravity's Rainbow. Dead serious.

>>6031083
I had a ver similar experience. Finished it in 21 days which put me close to DFW's finishing time.

I'm trying to stick with Borges on reading stuff I love but the last thing I read that kept me up nights, etc. was The Savage Detectives by Bolano. I know I'm late to the party.

Bulgakov, his writing is just so fun.

>>6028313

Read Underworld by DeLillo. It's endlessly amazing and you won't want to put it down. The second time I read it I did it in 4 days (it's 850 pages). I imagine I'll read it again this year too. Right now I still have so much love for it that I hope I never go a year in my life without reading it

>>6028313
>>6028313

Imajica by Clive Barker

It's heavy fantasy and horror so if you don't like reading invented multi-syllabic names, stay away, but much of it is set on earth and written beautifully. I feel like this is one of the few books I can say truly "flows". There are a bunch of characters and each one is exciting and fun to read about. There's no groaning about swapping perspectives, it's actually a great way to keep it fresh.

I don't like to turn pages I like to dwell on them. page turning for me means the book is lacking in profundity.

>>6031139
I've never agreed more with something so pompous in my life.

I've always found it's less /lit/ type books that are page turners, other stuff I prefer to read at a calmer pace and think about it more.

I really like the Dresden Files for just mindless enjoyable reading, and I reread The Hogfather at least once a year because damn I love that book.

>>6031139
That's a bit narrow in my opinion, I mean, I dont read philosophical books expecting to swift through the pages, but for some prose literature it is completely legitimate to be a "page turner".
Simply being able to create a true "page turning" reading experience is quite the achievement in terms of writing. The artform of writing is, in itself, meaningful - Not just the ideas conveyed through the medium.

The savage detectives
If on a winter's night a traveller
Madame Bovary
The adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Flowers for Algernon

Just off the top of my head

>>6028313
last page turner i read was old man and the sea, also some chapters in dorian gray had that same feeling but other parts I had to force myself to keep reading

>>6028313
1984 is probably the most profound page-turner I can think of (unless you consider the previously mentioned War and Peace, which I don't consider to be a page-turner)

Last two books I've read would probably count, Blood Meridian and Shark. Other than them, probably Catch-22 and Money (a Suicide Note) were both entertaining and had me reading far longer than I intended.

>>6028313
Just like >>6028875 I found The Road to be quite an experience. I started reading it one friday and I just stopped to eat and shower until I finished it on saturday morning. I must admit though that I felt a bit of despair for a couple of days after reading it.

Hemingway

>>6031994
>but other parts I had to force myself to keep reading
Like the whole chapter dedicated to describe everything Dorian collected over his years? I almost quis the book right there in fear of the rest of it being just as boring

>>6032152
yep, i didn't finish that chapter until my fourth attempt at reading it because it was so inane

Gargantua and Pantagruel
don't get why it gets no attention

The sot weed factor

Stoner was quite the page turner as was L'estranger and On the road. I guess neither of them are large books, I tend not to try and smash through larger books (The brothers karamazov, war and peace, etc) I usually work on a frame of say, 2-3 chapters a day. Sometimes 4-5 if they're really absorbing, I tend not to go over that because i like to reflect on where the story is headed and the events that unfolded in the previous chapters etc.. Reading a 1000+ page book to fast results in alot of it being missed and the point being overlooked!!

Anyone with me on this?

>>6032118
>Shark
The new Will Self? How is it?

I read that he wanted to write about a the interaction of a bunch of heroin addicts with contemporary western society, but strip away all reference to heroin.

Heart of a Dog by Bulgakov. Read the entire thing in one sitting.

Most genre fiction bestsellers are page turners. It's all style and no substance, so they're both easy to digest and interesting enough to keep your attention.

After coming back from Afghanistan, I read the Forever war. It really burned because i knew the feeling, although I doubt to the same extent.

>>6032244
That's probably a good way to describe a chunk of it, I found it really engaging, but at times a little tryhard I guess. Worth checking out, its just that the experimentation could at times feel forced or reptetive, and parts became quite monotonous.

Still enjoyed it though, and if the concept interests you you'd probably like it

>>6032251
This. Read it while in a semi-lucid state due to flu.


I read pretty much 100~ or so pages of Nazi Literatures of the Americas one night before an exam.

>>6028313

Is the joke here that by becoming an astronaut and going to Mars he failed his dream of becoming a loser, or that only a total fucking loser would go to go to Mars and reaching his goal was worse than he thought?

>>6030149
That book was awful. I put it down after the first chapter.

>>6032349
the former

>>6032331
I actually thought of 2666 aswell.
The language is pretty straight forward, but it's so well written, and you just want to understand, which pushes you forward all the time.

>>6031101
This!

I finished Annihilation in one go, it's so good. I mean it's not very long, probably more of a novella, but I couldn't stop reading it.

other books I've powered through
-Crime and Punishment
-The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
-Group Portrait with Lady by Heinrich Boll

>>6032251
I love Bulgakov. That one reminded me of that episode of Futurama where Bender gets turned into a human and just goes on a hedonistic rampage

>>6032802
Hehehe, yeah! And--ahahahaa-what about that episode of Family Guy--hahahahaha--where Stewie is like--ahahahaha--hey brian you can't pass here there's a toll, eh, a little toll. just kidding, hahahahaaha, but seriously there's a toll to pass. eh

fucking greatest shit

>>6032799
oh yeah and I just finished Through the Narrow Gate by Karen Armstrong, a memoir about her seven years as a catholic nun (she joined at 17) during the last years of Vatican I, probably one of the most engaging books I've ever read

>>6032806
Jesus dude

>>6032806
he mad

>>6032808
Hello there, for the sake of being open, I really want you to appreciate the kind of spiritual link your dad and I enjoy. It's not just that we are romantic companions, rather our souls are merged like two wandering clouds on an otherwise clear, spring afternoon. So profound and magical is our bond that time appears to grind to a halt every time we part, and his musky aroma is my oxygen. It's not unusual for us to spend several days in bed entwined around one another like weeds, tangled up and tense with sexual tension. By the end of these magical days we have undoubtedly achieved a marriage of pheromones. He smells like me, I smell like him. Though that my friend, that is the smell of love. There is not an inch of one another's bodies that goes unappreciated, without worship, and we are both so aware of how comfortable we are with one another that it's just the most beautiful relationship ever,

>>6028313
Portrait of the Artist As a Young man was a page turner for me. I can't wait to read Ulysses.

Is there any book that is completely unputdownable?

>>6032921
not even if I tried

>>6032932
CAUSE OF ALL THE GLUE!!!!! kek.

>>6028313

the final 100 pages of Moby Dick.

I hope this isn't autistic fedora tier, but when the action really started happening I listened to Ride of the Valkyries on repeat while reading faster and faster on the edge of my seat.

>>6028313
Crime and Punishment
Les Miserables

>>6032980
I'm going to say all of Moby Dick. Time flies when I'm reading it, and even the cetology chapters are interesting.

>>6028897
Also made me laugh out loud a couple of times. Really great book.

Parick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles had that smooth, compelling effect on me.