/lit/ - Literature

I fold the corners of my pages so then when I pick the book up again, I check where the corner was folded to and continue reading from that exact sentence/paragraph.

I've never read anything by a Russian author. How much am i missing out on?

I use too many commas

>>6912573
don't do it, existential crisis ensues

>>6912573
Just read Tolstoy you dolt

My dick is 8 inches long.

>>6912573
They did the whole hikikomori thing 200 years before the weebs.

>>6912603

I can see that. Daddy gave you good advice.

i once read phenomenology of spirit on the train
i tell myself it was because it had just arrived in the mail and i was eager to start, but deep down i know the real reason

/4chanlit

You know where to go.

---Omni

>>6912589
me, too

>>6912569
I hope you die a painful death.

I have always disliked pleb stuff like YA, but after browsing /lit/, I legitimately hate plebs. Seeing any prose from the last century praised aside from Joyce and a few select works sends me into a blind rage.

I haven't read a novel in almost a year.

>>6912655
What the fuck are you doing here then?

>>6912675
Got bored of /tv/.

Always skim read, reporting in

I buy novels that I see recommended here. Sometimes I read the first 20 or so pages and like it but eventually I just stop and once again focus all my free time to browsing 4chan or watching films.

American Psycho is the only novel I've finished in like 2 years, and that's probably because I'm very familiar with the movie so I had more motivation

I have never read a book by a faggot, a woman, or a nigger. And I never will.

I genuinely and thoroughly enjoyed Catch-22

>>6912634
To better feel the phenomenon of your spirit unfolding alongside the movement of the train ?

After reading three novels by him, I've decided I don't like Pynchon.

I have dreams of becoming a writer.
I've written less than 70 pages (in pocket fomat) over the past 5 years. About 30 of them are remotely readable if you really have low standards. None of them are enjoyable.

>>6912700
>missing out on burroughs, woolf, and, ellison
go back to /pol/, dingus

>>6912703
What's wrong with that? It's a classic novel and a good one at that.

>>6912709
You've read more by him than most who just dismiss his work so I don't see a problem with that - at least you gave his work a chance. What books did you read by him?

>>6912700
You're an idiot - many faggots, women and negroes have contributed with some of the world's greatest literature and your own personal prejudices shouldn't deter you from reading them, you fucking mong.

>I have only stopped reading about two novels and feel bad about it: Street of Crocodiles and Our Lady of the Flowers. Just couldn't finish them.
>I suffered though Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" and while I admire her I don't find her particularly engaging. It feels like technique over all else
>I'd rather read books of essays or short stories than novels and that makes me feel like an idiot

>>6912567
I like some books by white women, some books by men of color, but I just have not found a book by a woman of color that I wanted to read all the way to the end. In fact, trying to read them in college helped make me way more prejudiced than I was when I started. So much for that librul indoctrination machine.

>>6912716
Are you muh feels hurt?
>>>/tumblr/
>>6912727
>many faggots, women and negroes have contributed with some of the world's greatest literature
No they haven't. They're mentally ill and/or intellectually inferior

>>6912700
>>6912655
>>6912699

Why do people hate reading so much, on a literature board of all places?

>>6912718
Mason & Dixon, Against the Day (twice!) and Inherent Vice.

>>6912737
I suspect you're goofing, but you're still a dummy

i hopelessly wish i could forgo all dignity and become a successful alt lit writer that spends all night writing poems about people i argued with on twitter in a delirium of benzos, and then being admired for it the following day

>>6912737
> Burroughs
> Marcel Proust
> Chinua Achebe
> Alexandre Dumas
> W. E. B. Dubois
> Virginia Woolfe
> Elizabeth Gaskell
> George Eliot

Dunno about you, anon, but these faggots, women and negroes have contributed pretty significant pieces of work to the world of literature.

Of course, you're trying to bait. Why else would you be pretending to be retarded?

>>6912747
None of the people you are replying to expressed overall distaste for reading

>>6912749
That's pretty fair then, man. I wouldn't worry about not liking Pynchon - we won't all enjoy the same authors, that's for sure. Have a nice day, anon.

>>6912765
>>6912774
>if you don't agree with my brainwashed libcuck ideas, then you must be trolling!

Leftist 'logic', everyone

>>6912737
Trying too hard, 2/10 made me reply

>>6912793
Nice strawman, anon. You've still yet to disprove their significant contributions to literature as being significant.

I do, from time to time, enjoy some light YA novels. I own the Harry Potter books, a couple of Gaiman novels and those Scott Pilgrim books.

I'd like to think I read a wide variety (and I'm always broadening my tastes) but sometimes it's fine to just sit down with something that requires very little thought when reading it.

>>6912793
but those writers have actually contributed important pieces of writing and novels to the world of literature, anon. you don't have to like their writings but ignoring their existence and their influence is just idiotic.

The Da Vinci Code was a wild ride.

>>6912634

THE INTERNAL LIFE

IS A LIE

TO MAKE UP

FOR A EXTERNAL ONE

Penguin might be my favourite publisher.

i havent even started half the books i have marked as read and rated on goodreads

>>6912591
>don't do it, existential crisis ensues
Really? Does it make you a better person at all?

The Martian was a fun book.

>>6912713
>I've written less than 70 pages (in pocket fomat) over the past 5 years. About 30 of them are remotely readable if you really have low standards. None of them are enjoyable.
I do. Share them with me, anon.

>>6912850
They're in French, written in a notebook, and it'd take me some time to type (not to mention translate) them. You'd probably have to wait until tomorrow at least. Still interested ? I can make a thread for this if you like.

(Dunno if I want you to say yes or no)

>>6912836
not that guy but I guess it depends on the book but honestly, sometimes it feels like it's just that the author completely understands your depression and anxieties. It's quite refreshing to have an author that's going through the same shit you feel but 200 years before.

>>6912847
Was it meant to be a bad book? I've only heard good things about it.

>>6912861
YES!

>>6912824
worst sin in this thread

fuck you my man

>>6912866
>not that guy but I guess it depends on the book but honestly, sometimes it feels like it's just that the author completely understands your depression and anxieties. It's quite refreshing to have an author that's going through the same shit you feel but 200 years before.
But if you WEREN'T feeling depressed before hand, will they just make you feel worse?

I've only finished two or three books this year.
Hey, at least I'm not as bad as the other shitlords here.

>>6912824

Absolutelydisgusting.jpg

>>6912833

You are an evil man. Repent for you have sinned.

/lit/ is the only 4chan board I frequent.

I read all commentaries in /lit/ with omni voice

fuck you omni you patrician shit

i'm a published poet and have taught poetry but i just come here to shitpost instead of contributing because everybody here thinks they're experts and have nothing to learn from someone who's been doing this since they were born

>>6912870
>>6912888
not him but what's wrong with penguin?

>>6912873
probably, yes. i only say it's really somewhat reassuring if you're already in a bout of anxiety and self-loathing - those guys know just how you feel and probably spilled more spaghetti than you too (Notes from Underground comes to mind when the narrator gets suspicious of his manservant)

>>6912866
There was a cringethread about it on /lit recently. Excerpt were posted and people despaired.

From the excerpts I've read it seems it had a fun potential made annoying by the internet-y writing.

>>6912868

What a resounding answer. I don't think I've ever made a girl say "yes" like that. I have no choice now. Will start typing it today, normally I should have the first fragments translated for tomorrow. Will try to spare you most of the more shitty stuff.

Get ready for "Anon: Collected Fragments" (this will be the title of the thread).

>>6912824
Ooooh, sorry! The correct answer should have been Oxford!

Vintage is also acceptable.

>>6912734
Try Woolf's essays and short stories then. "Letters to a Young Poet", "What strikes a contemporary", "Is it poetry ?" (not sure about that last title), "An Association", "On Bad Writers". Pretty clever and engaging reads most of them. Enlighteing even, if you're into writing.

>>6912735
What authors have you read? There are authors like Octavia Butler and Audre Lorde who write terrible cringe shit, but there are also some redeeming authors. Gloria Naylor can be heavy handed at times, but "Mama Day" might be one of the best books I've ever read. She does a lot of interesting things with language and imagery, and while there are a lot of the common themes found in negro novels (muh roots), it never takes the tone of "you don't know what its like to be a black woman." I'd at least give the opening section a go; that shit hooked me pretty quick, and it gets better with each time I read it, knowing more intricacies of the story.

>>6912906
any educational poetry book recs?

>>6912774
Proust's faggotry is apocryphal and Dumas wasn't really balck tbh (okay, perhaps by Murilard standards, but for actual skin color he was mixed at most). If you really want to go the "one drop of blood" route, however, Pushkin was also black in that sense.

>>6912906
That's not true, because here just like to shit on things. Do contribute, people will shit on you but hopefully a few will thank you.

>>6912929
edward hirsch - a poet's glossary
rainer maria rilke - letters to a young poet
a defense of poetry - percy shelley
john hollander - rhyme's reason
mary oliver - a poetry handbook
stephen fry - the ode less traveled
ezra pound - ABC of reading
harold bloom - the best poems of the english language

Some of these accomplish different things but if you were to read them all you'd have a decent understanding of poetry.

>>6912861
I'd like to read them in French

im a schizoid and i think its a blessing

>>6912988
>>6912861
by this i meant you should post both translated and untranslated

my English isn't too good but I'm interested in reading them

>>6912870
What's actually wrong with Penguin Publishing? They have a good range of classics.

I shun reading so I can watch old samurai serials

It takes me about two hours to read 25-50 pages.

Even when I really like the book, I just space out all the time without realizing it — and since I never skim anything, if there's a passage I don't get I will read it again and again, re-read the previous passages to see if I've missed anything (then probably space out again). I read V. a few weeks ago, I liked it a lot but some of the Stencil chapters took me a while.

>>6912703
I liked it a lot.

>>6912793
...What? That strawman doesn't even look like the original.

I can't read Homeric, Attic, Koiné or any other form of the Greek language.

I have never read Saramago's The Cave.

I played video games today for five hours

>>6913072
Terrible quality of their materials
Alleged terrible quality of some translations

>>6912866
Problem is many people here don't like as it doesn't meet their elitist needs, aka no fun allowed.

>>6913637
Which ones?

>>6912734
Street of crocodiles is amazing Anon, give it another try in some time.

>>6912567
I worry that LSD has inhibited my ability to write even a year after my last trip.

I haven't read anything by Dostoevsky and Huxley.

>>6914015
Brave New World and The Double are amazing and not exactly difficult to read, you'll probably enjoy them, my man.

>>6913637
That's fine as long as they were video games were playing 5 hours on.

>>6914070
>they were video games were playing 5 hours on.
Wat

I've never teleologically suspended the ethical.

>>6912994
Okay. To be fair it's past midnight in France, and I haven't started yet, but I'll translate and type at least one fragment within the next 24 hours.

Might aswell write a new one while I'm at it.

>>6912567
I replace the words in the book that I do not understand or I simply ignore those words.
Am I a bad reader?

>>6913398
Not even Ionian ?

But then, how can you start with the Greeks ?
Don't tell me..

>translations

>>6914104
My bad, I meant "as long as they were video games worth playing 5 hours on"

It's pretty late where I am, I should get to bed

>>6914150
yeah it's very late I must sleep now too

take your time! I am interested

I enjoy Stephen King
I enjoyed ASOIAF (up till book 4)
I read Moby Dick and thought it was shit (it really is, /lit/)
I read fan fictions
I write fan fictions
I'm still 10x more cultured than at least 90% of the bitches on this board

>>6914331
>trip
>culure

>>6914337
Bitch, you don't know me!

>>6912622
any particular ones besides Notes From the Underground?

>>6912703
You're not alone, and in any case that's nothing to be ashamed of, Catch 22 is one of those few novels which is both genuinely good and unabashedly fun.>>6912718

If a book can't hold my interest for more than about 50-100 pages, I drop it faster than a retarded baby.

>>6912603
Sometimes i pull so hard, i rip the skin

>>6916097
CRAAAWLIIIN

>>6912806
I feel you. Sometimes after something difficult or dense i just like to relax with some Pratchett.

>literally stealing my thread

>>6912567

I murdered a man so I could write about the experience in my novel

>>6912653
I'm glad you let 4chan dictate your personality. I'm sure you're a very likeable person and are not at all pretentious.

>>6913996
ive tripped about 20 times this year
i wrote about a 100 page novel too
stop being a lazy fucker

Kafka sucks, but Kafka on the shore was good

>>6916256
hohoho

>>6913871

I like reading poorly made paperbacks. I feel like less of a fucker than I would reading some fancy expensive hardback or someshit

I used 3 books as toilet paper last year,

the life of pi, a prayer for owen meany, and a copy of the quaran

not out of any edgeyness or political reasoning we just never had toilet paper in our flat and i had to take some mean hungover beer shits at times

>>6916626

>not out of any edgeyness

hahah yeah okay m8 sure

>>6916626
this reminds me of someone who used to be my friend, that used pages from the bible as rollies to smoke weed

>>6912567
I look down on people who don't read.

I want to write a book, but I have read only 20 something books in my entire life. I am 26.

This is embarrassing.

>>6916655

lol what a fucking cornball

I once inquired about a random /lit/izen's self-published novel, he sent me a link, and I thought he could be the Joyce of our generation in about thirty years

>>6916829
what was it about?

>>6916829
I still don't get it. The guy's neck is photoshopped, right?

>>6916831
Really wasn't about much. Some intentionally pseudo intellectual kid in college goes through some revelations via obscure applications of philosophy/literature. Big point is when he spills spaghetti in front of a girl and just cuts her off for the rest of the book even though she was a huge chunk of the story for a while (spoiler- like you'll ever read it)

>>6916831
Also he talks about being addicted to porn a lot

>>6912699
hahaha shit nigger this is too real

My pal bullied me into reading The Maze Runner and it's fairly decent.

>>6916973
Oh yeah, and I enjoy reading fanfic. I also write it solely because it helps me reach a wider audience.
>tfw no-one will ever care about your experimental hazy nonsense unless you change the characters names to Harry and Louis or Dan and Phil

>>6916833
A long neck is a great sign of a natural leader

>>6912567
> I like Allen Ginsberg
> The dialogue in the novel I'm writing is atrocious and is an area I really need to work on
> I rarely buy a book I've heard of or know about, I just select them randomly and buy them if the blurb remotely interests me
> I think fiction for children is one of the hardest media when it comes to writing

I went to a top-tier university to do English Literature (tried to get into Oxford, but got into Bristol instead) and still haven't found a job a year after graduation.

Someone fucking kill me now.

>>6912567
GR has taken me 5 months

I only read To Kill a Mocking Bird because the sequel came out and it was all the rage.

>>6917471
About to start mine...

Kinda worried about that ;(

>>6917499
Where you going to m8? I must admit that quite a lot of my joblessness is my fault.

Many of my peers have got jobs in journalism, libraries, etc and a few have continued onto teaching. I was just a lazy fuck in non-curricular areas and I really should have networked more.

As long as you aren't going to a shit-tier uni (or even a mid-tier) you should be fine.

i read slow as fuck and abandon a lot of books midway through

>>6917515
Liverpool.

I could have gone for something 'safer' than English, but decided to go for something I enjoy. I'm pretty outgoing so I think i'll be alright with networking.

>>6917521
Good luck with life then, fellow Brit. I don't believe English Literature is as much of a death sentence as it is in the US (although shit like Film Studies, BTECs, etc still are) but it definitely makes things that much tougher.

Not like our country's going to last that much longer before going to complete shit in my opinion so it doesn't really matter.

>>6917527
Haha, funny you say that, i'm doing a joint honors with English Literature and Film/creative writing.

I feel, probably naively, that going to a good uni outbalances the 'death sentence'

>>6916726
Most authors don't really get going until the latter stages of their lives; you've got plenty of time brother.

>>6917527
I'm looking forward to the breakdown of society, so I can murder my neighbours, shit on their lawn and sell their children into white slavery, tbh.

I struggle to read every word. I'll sometimes do this Z pattern and have to force myself to go back and read from the start.

>>6917591
I really hate when I read and my mind starts to drift off

Sometimes I can't recall half of what I read and have to go back half a page or more

>>6917517

I think Worm, the web serial, is the best thing I've read all year.its a deconstruction of capeshit

>>6916242
>particular substances, even those with such intense effects as LSD, impact everyone the same

I take awful care of library books I loan. I'll get it in crisp condition and bybtye time I return it it looks like a hobo used it as a pillow. My own books look brand new in comparison.

>>6912747
They aren't reading because this is 4chan, full of self loathing pseudo intellectuals who are horrible people to communicate with in person.

>>6912737
Moron.

>>6914150
im waiting

>>6912567

I claim to love James Joyce but I've only read Dubliners, albeit multiple times, never managed to finish Portrait or Ulysses, let alone Exiles and Finnegans.

>>6912569

That's pretty smart

I fold the corners of the pages too, but I had never thought to use this technique to mark paragraphs and sentences as well as pages

>>6912567
I am Thomas Pynchon

my next book will be published after i die

>>6918390
Prob the only thing of his worth reading tbh

>>6917604
Glad I'm not the only one. Usually I make a story in my own head from what I've just read and completely lose where I was. Sometimes it is fun, most of the time it is just distracting.

>>6918390
I've only read Dubliners, too. I don't tell anyone I'm a Joyce fan like some kind of sycophantic fag, though.

An extraordinary book. Maybe I'll tackle Ulysses one day, but pretty sure I can do without Finnegan's.

I'm the most inconsistent 'writer' ever. If in a particular moment I am not electrified by some new amazing idea, I will write a few words, get cereal, write some more, get a coffee, (...) go to the WC, (...) and so on. You get the pattern.

I keep convincing myself that I can start writing whenever I want but never do.

>>6918612
Just do it anon.

I started and, 80,000 words later, it's been a blast. My depression has dissipated as well.

>>6914152
Get a kindle, so you have a dictionary available at the touch of your fingertip
It's been really helpful for me as ESL, especially when reading more challenging stuff like Infinite Jest.

>>6916349
I never buy hardcovers, they feel pretentious and like a waste of money.

I dont know how to read

>I mark the book's page with it's ear and I'm not guilty in the slightest (only if it's mine tho)
>I love me some Bizarro Fiction and God only knows how much of it I have read during this life
>I've never read a whole book written by a woman, ever.
>I think DFW was retarded in some way.
>I like Pynchon a lot
>Most, if not all of what I read other than Bizarro Fiction is Transgressive Fiction.
>My favorite novel is Will Self's "My Idea of Fun"

>spend more time with comics than novels
>I also enjoy short stories more than novels
>I started reading Stoner the other day because of /lit/ but I'm always fucked up when reading it so I couldn't tell you shit about it
>I did at least 75% of my reading this year drunk
>want to become a writer but I don't have the ambition or the intelligence
>I started drinking daily three years ago because I thought it would make me a better writer. So far its just turned me into an alcoholic that sometimes writes poetry

>>6914532

Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I've read more manga than fiction, but more non-fiction than either manga or fiction.

>>6918855
>I've never read a whole book written by a woman, ever.
You should check out "The Manipulated Man" by Esther Vilar. She got a lot of flack for it and still is.

I've only read 1 or 2 books. I just read SparkNotes for the summary and pretend to have read books. Most people would know me as the most well-read person they know. But it's all a lie and I need to keep up appearances so I buy 100s of books just to keep on display. I actually hate reading, but it's gotten to the point where the illusion has become such an central aspect of personality I'm too scared to give it up. Hell, I got exclusively books for my birthday earlier in the year. Little do the givers know, I have no intention of ever even opening them, they'll sit on shelf as worthless, hollow, trophies.

I'm a lie.

my two primary interests are reading and professional wrestling

>>6917132
in giraffes maybe

I'm an intelligent person. I read novels and poetry which will not enable me to have a conversation with 'cool' people. I take myself seriously and dislike 4chan irony. I would respect myself if I saw myself at an intellectual meeting. Despite all of this, I am attracted to Black men.

>>6919187
niggotfagger

>>6919193
To be fair to myself, I love black people in general. I have known for a long time that I am bisexual. I just have an insatiable desire to be fucked by a nubian god at the moment.

>>6919202
The irony of you considering yourself so "intellectual" is that you're sexually attracted to subhuman monkeys with a collective IQ of 80

>>6919209
My girlfriend is black and went to Oxford. Wheras you stew in your own juices and post /pol/ infographics. Never mind though, you'll always be the white master race.

>>6919231
>He lies on the internet to make his point
>He still supports his retarded dishonest position

top lmao

At least four times daily, i rub my dick on Oliver Twist. Doesn't have anything to do with the book, i just like the texture.

And yes, I am a registered sex offender.

>>6919231
cool, she must belong to the Talanted tenth.

That still makes 90% of niggers borderline retarded. Even WEB Dubois thinks so.

My Twisted World by Elliot Rodger is the book of our generation. You'd have to be a pretentious fuck to say it doesn't have huge value, including the first time that YouTube videos have been of artistic worth.

I'm bored as shit of dracula right now. I got bored of oblomov.

Most philosophers are posturing obscurantist fucks.

>>6919260
Kill yourself.

>>6912692
laugh'd harder at this than it warranted. thanks, m8.

>>6919260
heres your reply faggot

>>6919264
>thinking rogers doesnt have a valid point, about females in our society being vapid brainless whores

>top kek

>>6919274
>that sams hackenyed opinion from a guy who couldn't even talk to girls

Smh fuccbois exposing themselves

>>6919281
You dont have to be a psychopathic murderer to dislike women

>>6918373
Fuck man, overslept and forgot about that. Gotta straighten up my sleep pattern. I'll go to sleep in about two hours, if I'm quick enough I might have a first draft before that.

>>6919003
Most /lit post of the year.

Alos, read excerpts: open page at random and scan it until something gets your attention. You'll pick mad rare quotes like that and the illusion will be perfect. On top of that you'll have some of the benefit of books without the hard work.

>>6912567
I was talking to this girl i met off okcupid
got to the point where we both was losing interest in each other. (well her taste in art sucked ass)
but she was super hot and I was horny.
and on her profile she mentioned harry potter and u guessed it John green

so I asked her whats her fav john green book and she started msging me back again like crazy.
then the next day I went to barnes and nobles bought the fault in our stars then snapchatted her that I <3 this book

after that she came over to my house that weekend. ended up getting a blowjob from her before she left


and I've been dating her for the last 4 months :(

got her into reading noah cicero and sam pink if that counts for something


still have not told her how i lied about john green.

forgive me brothers i have sinned for the pussy

>>6919003
I do this too. Most of the books in my collection creak loudly when opened, they are so unread.

>>6919294
You have to be a psychopathic murderer or a psychopathic murderer waiting to happen.

>>6919331
kill yourself my man

>>6919340
or an internet troll

>>6919301
Not that anon but I want to read it now as well; post the link here when you make the thread

>>6916134
Found the YA/genre pleb.

How is /r/books? Any good threads today?

>>6919331
>sam pink
You are forgiven.

>>6919331
Phenomenal story from start to finish. 10 stars would buy a Penguins edition of.

>>6912861
Do it Anon. Show the world your art.

>>6916128
No you didn't.

>>6916726
I'm on the same boat as you and only wrote like 30 pages or something.

I'm still winning since I turn 26 in two monthsand never had a gf

>>6919331
Don't worry. You're not surrendering to her, you're saving her. Have her drift slowly from fantasy to fantastical and sf, and from that to epic tales, and then from epic tales to mythology. Once she reached mythology, there's no going back.

>>6912700
no oscar wilde?
you're missing out.

humbert humbert did nothing wrong.

>>6912567
i don't read fiction

I think Ayn Rand is really cool.

>>6919561
Currently translating the first fragment. Way more painful than I imagined. Translation really exposes the flaws of the writing.

Will keep on, for your sake.

>>6919968
I ued to hate her after reading Atlas Shrugged, but then I saw this, and now I can't help but love her.
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/ayn_rand_objectively_explains_to_cat_fancy_that_cats_are_awesome_1966

I'm failing my college composition class. Shit sucks.

>>6920018
lol she wanted to look at cat pictures. She was truly ahead of her time.

Books i've abandoned middway:

War and Peace
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Crime and Punishment
And I might give up on Gravity's Rainbow tbh

woops

Even if I really like the book, I can't read more than 20 pages at a time

>>6912861
Yes! I'll keep an eye out for them.

>>6916672
This tbh

I don't really enjoy the act of reading itself, but I love the knowlege it gives me.

I still like The Great Gatsby

>>6920088
I vehemently second this. Let me guess, you have some sort of job?

It took me about two years to read Crime and Punishment. I went on a cruise some years back and took Less Than Zero and Crime and Punishment, finished Less Than Zero in a short while, then began C&P but it was far more dense than LTZ and I was more interested in chasing tail because there was like 2 days left of the cruise, so I only made it like 80 pages in. When I got back home, I just kept getting shit from the library, weak lit like more Ellis and some Murakami. When I finally got back to C&P, I just stopped after another 300 pages, feeling like it didn't matter to finish the novel because I started it so long ago, so I just looked up the plot on SparkNotes. I have since told several people it's my favorite novel, because it was the most 'literary' thing I had read up to that point.

Luckily, my failure to finish C&P prompted me to dive deep into the western canon, and I feel good about myself now

I download all my books and read them on my phone before I go to bed or when I have some spare time elsewhere. I've read a few hundred books doing that I wouldn't have read otherwise.

I used to read physical books, but then I got pretty hard up for money and started that. I feel bad, honestly. I like books.

>>6919590
I confess, I did.

>>6919022
brother...

I couldn't remember what books I read in 2012.
I keep a list every year. I can usually remember but early part of 2012 was a blank to me.
I dug out the old kindle I had been using then that I've since replaced. I found my list of 2012 books.
It turns out I spent a long time reading a single my little pony fanfiction.
I was basically having a nervous breakdown then and visited /mlp/ a lot. I had mostly forgotten.

I just wanted to tell someone. I feel pretty gross. I haven't watched any of that shit in years.

I think most of lit reads what they do because they were told to

So instead of being more learned and cultured its just a collection of dank memesters with inflated egos

>>6921221
Yup.

Genre readers are more genuine than most people here.

>>6918413
i believe it

>>6921221
>I think most of lit reads what they do because they were told to
How do you get recommendations?

>>6912569
1. Get a bookmark, and get a little piece of paper - like a tiny receipt, or a ripped square from a notebook.
2. Read.
3. Finish reading.
4. Put the bookmark into the book. (Careful, this step is pretty tough)
5. Put the little square of paper into the book, in between the bookmark and the page that you're reading so that the top of the square marks the paragraph/sentence you've just stopped at.

Don't fold your corners, ya dolt.

>>6921255
Theres a difference between being receptive to reccomendation and reading something merely because its considered good taste, which is what /lit/ is given to.

The first involves you actually having an interest and wanting to meet them with people of similar mind, the other is based off petty and useless ideas of sophistication.

>>6921255
Not him, but I browse book stores and wikipedia and just generally keep my eye out for books that's similar to other stuff I like.
Of course this strategy ends up with me reading pretty much whatever /lit/ would have wanted me to read anyway.
I read Inifinite Jest and V. before ever coming on /lit/, as well as a lot of the other memes.

>>6912567
I'm addicted to buying books, but I get too distracted by the internet to read as much as I would have liked to. I can really only concentrate when travelling to places without internet coverage.

So far this year I've bought more than 50 books, and I don't think I've read more than 10 of them.

>>6912567
I browse 4chan for more hours than I read each day.

>>6921280
Can't you see that you're just feeling superior because you don't feel superior for the reasons that we feel superior?

>>6912589
this, but I've learned to do it ironically

I have trouble understanding modernist poetry.

>>6912567
I shamelessly bump my own threads.

>>6919274
>implying we aren't all being vapid brainless whores, one way or another

>>6916123
Fuck off, these are a regular occurrence because they're entertaining. You weren't the first ever to inhale oxygen either.

>>6916994
Don't know any of those people you just mentioned. I assume Harry is Harry Potter.

>>6917471
England is in a bad situation for employment. A degree doesn't really mean much nowadays, it's rather a foundation in which you should do some unpaid internships or develop your own personal skills. This is why more and more people seem to return to do a Masters.

>>6917474
No shame in this. It took me about 4 months - partly because I started reading it on my commutes and partly because of how mentally exhausted it would leave me.

I feel I must finish books if I have gotten past halfways, even if they no longer interest me at that point.

>>6918413
I doubt you're Pynchon but I bet he will have something published posthumously.

>>6918855
We'd probably bond well.

>>6919003
Most people you know probably don't read for shit either, anon. If you met a well-read person they would realise very quickly that you're full of shit.

But, just curious, if you knew someone who was really interested in reading and you had no interest in reading yourself, would you let people borrow your books or would you potentially give some books away?

>>6912774
>> Marcel Proust
>not on green text
WHAT
H
A
T

>>6921027
Go to a library.

>>6921916

This. Tons of males and females are insufferable in slightly different ways.
>Select all images with prams
What in the monkey fuck is a pram? Those are strollers.

>>6922846
I honestly don't know, dude. I wish I could share such secrets.

>>6922846
>not on green text
>doesn't know hot to blacktext
pleb

>>6918848
underrated post

Both The Great Gatsby and Ulysses was fucking terrible but I'm too afraid to say it in other threads

>>6923876
they was terrible?

>>6912567
I think the beats were all decent writers

I read books without reading preliminary and influential works. I feel like I don't have context in life.

I want to read The Master and the Margarita in the near future: What are the essentials I need for context? I have read Dostoevsky's early works and Homer. I remember the common parts of the Bible and the Divine Comedy.

I just started reading real books a few months ago. The three years before that i was exclusively reading my little pony fanfiction.

I wish i was joking.

>>6923876
>Great Gatsby and Ulysses was

mongoloid

I used to love reading, but I'm finding it to be a hobby that is very hard to pick up again.

>>6921259
OR... finish between pages.

>>6926368
>>6921259
Why does it bother people so much to fold the corners of their books? As long as the paper the page is made of is thin, I don't see an issue with it, as long as the book is actually yours and not borrowed from a library or a friend. It's not harming anybody.

>>6912569
why would you ever stop reading at any point that wasnt the end of a chapter or section or a logical stopping point that was easily found on the page. makes no sense

>>6926661
Stopping after a paragraph has always made sense to me - if it's late and I'm too tired, I'm not going to force myself to read the rest of the chapter because then nothing is going to stick. I'd rather return to the exact paragraph I left off at because then I can read the rest of the chapter with a refreshed mind.

Plus, what if you're reading on the morning commute and you need to get off at your stop? You're not going to stay sat on the train until the chapter is finished - you'll probably finish the paragraph and then just continue reading it when you get back on the train later.

>>6926661
> "why would you ever stop reading at any point that wasn't the end of a chapter"
> he hasn't read books like Gravity's Rainbow where there's over 800 pages but only 4 chapters

>>6926931
there's not numbered chapters but there are sections like every few pages. and those aren't chapters, sensible people call those "parts." in the zone is a "part," part 3 specifically

>>6914331
Mobydick, shit

That triggered me. Dropped it off the first time I tried because it was too hard for my english level, but tried it a second time and loved the prose.

>>6927015
dumb people dont like moby dick you just have to get used to it

I read for plot

>>6927090
Depending on the book this is completely fine. Harry Potter or Death Of A Salesman for example.

>>6926245
good god. glad you're back on the path of righteousness, brother

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is infinitely better than Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. I've only read the former, but as I read Portrait, I realize that Ulysses was just Joyce deciding to be pretentious about his work.

Ulysses is beautiful, don't get me wrong, but I think Portrait shows much more restraint, restraint that only brilliant authors can show.

>>6916655
people just do that because bibles usually use cheaper, thinner paper. Better for rolling.

I don't really read a lot, I own and know of a lot of books and have absorbed a lot of knowledge from english literature courses- but I don't really read much. I enjoy reading, but most of the week I just go on the internet or spend time with friends. I'm not even sure if I want to read, it doesn't make me happier or anything.

>>6912636
stop

WHERE IS FRENCHGUY I HAVE BEEN WAITING DAYS NOW

I fucking hate the Fagles translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey. I thought I hated the Iliad and the Odyssey but then I read Lattimore's Iliad and adored it, so now I blame it on the translator.

Stupid question that doesn't deserve it's own thread.

What's a good book made of short and/or very-short stories?

>>6927342
Agreed. But my not reading that much is because of attention span.

My attention span is really fucked these days. I can't even watch a movie without my mind trailing off into whatever.

>>6928374
Dubliners
Vineland
Uzumaki (if you're open to a manga body horror)
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream (most editions include the short story with a bunch of Harlan's other short stories)
Dangerous Visions

Also if you're open to standalone short stories, you can pick up those Penguin little black classics for about 80p (or your country's equivalent) - there's 80 of them to celebrate 80 years of Penguin Publishing and they've published shorts like The Yellow Wallpaper, The Communist Manifesto and Dostoevsky's The Meek One. Certainly worth checking out if you're interested in picking up some very short stories/books dirt cheap.

Also anon, that's not a stupid question and it would fairly warrant its own thread. Don't be hesitant next time, my man.

>>6921325
I'm not feeling superior, I was merely telling him how I discover new books.

If all you ever do is read the books /lit/ tells you to, you're still going to end up reading a lot of good books.
/lit/'s taste is the least of its problems as far I see it.

>>6928508
Thank you very much.

I know it's not a stupid question though, it's just a way of saying.

>>6921325
People like you are so fucking exhausting...

I used to be a smart Person, but for the last few years I have been jerking off atleast 5hours a day, Km fucking doomed.

I don't understand anything I read

I actually liked the book The Catcher in the Rye.

I love literary classics that they make you read in High school minus that faggot book Lorde of the Flies.

I haven't read the bibke, fully.

>>6928934
>the book The Catcher in the Rye
>the book

What else would it be? An audiobook? A comic book? Anime?

>>6921280
I also buy books and haven't read them.

I started Moby Dick twice, but haven't gotten passed page 3 of the novel ;(

>>6928951
Shut the fuck up faggot.
Just because I like being clear doesn't mean I'm retarded.
You're the autistic because you actually care about that type of thing.

>>6928959
ur not being clear ur being redundant tbh
smh

>>6912735

Sorta know that feel, the only female author I read that I enjoyed also happened to be back which I didn't expect( Octavia Butler)
I read her book where she time travels. Despite most of the book being set in the antebellum south there were hardly any "muh oppression" elements.

>>6928951
c'mon anon that's petty

>>6928985
It's not redundant if others don't know what I mean.
And shame on you for using those hick abbreviations.