/lit/ - Literature

okay

Congrats.

>mostly entry level and sub-entry level sci-fi
>the zombie survival guide
You will be wasting several months you can't get back, I implore you to reconsider

Zombie Survival Guide isn't really worth it. It's not sure if it's supposed to be comedy or an honest to god guide in fighting against the un-dead, and it's really neither funny nor logically sound its counter-zombie warfare.

>>6145427
drop american psycho. its trash.

I'm reading edith hamiltons mythology. Im enjoying it.

>>6145427
Good list.

I'd suggest swapping Eco's Foucault's Pendulum with The Name of the Rose.

>>6145427
I dont think you've been on lit for more than a week. You're not gonna stick with this, are you?

>>6145449
Actually over a year easily

>>6145427
You have this weird mixture of easy as fuck to read (Catcher in the rye) and full retard complex (Ulysses). You'll probably fail on Ulysses alone. Or maybe War and Peace will be your demise.

>Moby Dick, American Psycho, Metamorphosis, Heart of Darkness, Siddhartha
These are good.

>Catcher, Don Quijote, Starship Troopers
Basic as fuck.

>Slaughterhouse Five, Infinite Jest
Are you from reddit?

>The Strain and the Zombie Survival Guide on the same line as Don Quixote and Ulysses
This is just a list of a few things you want to read mixed in with a lot of stuff you think you should read

>>6145427

> Catch-22, Metamorphoses, Ulysses, Heart of Darkness, Gravity's Rainbow, Naked Lunch, Divine Comedy

all great, HOWEVER

Consider starting with Joyce at Dubliners or Portrait, and starting with Pynchon at Crying of Lot 49

> Infinite Jest

I know /lit/ thinks DFW is a meme, but I actually really love his writing style in IJ. It's refreshing

> Vonnegut, Cloud Atlas, American Psycho

eh. but if you want to read them go ahead

as for Bret Easton Ellis I would just skim Less Than Zero and move on

> Romeo and Juliet

Read some better Shakespeare like Merchant of Venice or King Lear or Hamlet instead so you can see him at his best

> sci-fi

don't read that trash

>>6145427
>months
Alright, good luck getting through that in ''a few months''
>>6145462
>Don Quijote
>Basic as fuck
What's this supposed to mean? You're saying it's not worth reading? Not a good book? What are you trying to say here? ''basic'' because it's one of the most renowned works in literature?

>>6145490
>> sci-fi
>don't read that trash
genre snobs are the worst

>>6145462
>You have this weird mixture of easy as fuck to read (Catcher in the rye) and full retard complex (Ulysses)

So? Do you always have to read one or the other? I usually like to follow up a complex book with something simpler, like a genre book, just to keep things mixed up. Sorta to "take a break", if you will.

>>6145474
Zombie Survival was a challenge from a friend, I already read Don Quixote when I was in high school, I want to read it again.

>>6145496
It's 50 books, not 100.

>>6145462
It won't be my first book of Tolstoy.

What is the point of this thread?

>>6145462
do you think this is /mu/? just because something is entry-level or widely loved by the populace doesn't make it any less great as literature

>>6145555

to get sweet quads>>6145555
>>6145555
>>6145555

>>6145582
Hells yeah. Good on you.

>>6145496
Basic means it's a basis. This guy has according to his plan not even read Gatsby or Don Quijote and thinks he's ready to tackle Ulysses.
I'm not saying he won't be able to do it, but it won't be enjoyable.

>>6145606
Since when do you need to have read pre-requisites to enjoy something completely independant?

>>6145606
First, this:
>>6145629

Then, most who dive into literature do it this way. A good easy classic, then a challenging one. From what I guess are his/her comments, he/she has already read some challenging stuff.

>>6145629
Ulysses is not an entirely independent work. It can be enjoyed very much only reading the story, but a lot more noticing how it was constructed and why. To do the last you'll need some backgrounds.

>>6145677
which specifically?

>>6145629
Since authors use allusions? Try reading Joyce (OP plans to do this) without any prior knowledge of any work he references. If you have no idea what the Odyssey is you won't even understand the goddamn title of the book.
Of course OP knows the Odyssey (99% sure), but he might not even half the stuff contained in the book if he isn't well versed in greek tragedies. And that's just one aspect of one book. Kafka's Metamorphosis will just leave him in confusion if he isn't aware of the Prozess or at least the Urteil...
I could go on, but I think you get the point. No offense, there are literary works that can be enjoyed with minimal prior knowledge, but the "start with the greeks" - meme on here isn't as stupid as it sounds.

>>6145427
>you will read Cloud Atlas, Dune, Ulysses, The Divine Comedy, War and Peace, House of Leaves, Gravity's Rainbow, Infinite Jest, Moby Dick and a few dozen other books in 'the next few months'
Are you NEET?

>>6145677
nice dubs

>>6145687

Unless you're a well-read Irish Catholic, an annotated version of Ulysses is a necessity.

>>6145582
I never said basic is bad. I just found it odd that OP has some of the easiest and some rather hard classics on the same list.

>>6145462
How long have you been on /lit? Because I remember less than a year ago, every faggot on this board was sucking DFW's dick and praising IJ as a modern masterpiece. I wish this board would stop changing its mind as works become too popular to be considered up to the standards of some hipsters on a message board.

>>6145693
~50% yes and ~50% when I feel like it.
I also read kinda fast -understanding what I read-.