/lit/ - Literature

>>7227423
You're kidding?

>>7227423
Great taste, sir.

>>7227423
How is high school?

>>7227423
choke's better. the only reason people don't rate it more highly is that they went into it having read fight club first. that being said fight club is shit, and choke isn't that great.

Yay or nay?

>>7227689
>fight club is shit

kek

>>7227423
2/10 if sincere
1/10 if troll

>>7227432
Truly, he is the most patrician of us all.

Better than Jest On. So not a bad modern choice.

Yeah, not very patrician; it was just a massive influence on me in Freshman year of high school and I fucking adore the bizarre, alien narration. It was his first and last *great* book in my opinion. After it it seems like he tries too hard to be witty and puts his persona at the forefront. Here, it's subtle and elegant, and even if the characters and plot were shit, just the prose itself would carry it. Every time I reread it, I go as slowly as possible because I don't want it to end. But that's very difficult, because it totally sucks you in and it's hard to put it down.

This book is one of my favorites from all time. The whole Wallander series is awesome.
Too bad Mankell died last week.

>>7227689
Survivor beats both

>>7227423
Pic related.

>>7230376
Was gonna post this tbh.

Fite me irl

>>7230384
I'm half way through, so far is fucking great.

>>7230400
Bruhhh the ending was the most emotional thing I've gone through in a long time, and my uncle died last month, so you know it's good.

Not completely sure about this. I read it about 6 years ago when I was in my late teens and ever since then I thought it of as my favourite book without ever really challenging when I read something new. I've since read lots of very good books, and I don't know if there is any such thing as one favourite book.

Close contenders are Brave New World, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and For Whom The Bell Tolls. Willing to be judged on any of these really, because they're all indisputably very good.

>>7227423
Not bad, but if this is your favorite book, please read some more experimental stuff.

>>7227699
I didn't like it first time around, but I'd like to reread it. It was my first exposure to both Pynchon and PoMo, both of which I have grown to love.

>>7230384
Spooky book. I dug it. Would actually be a really cool miniseries if they had the balls to go in-universe and make it like a documentary.

>>7230473
One of my least favorite McCarthys, but still a smashing book.

>>7230491
I dunno man, I think House of Leaves should be let alone and should be enjoyed in the format it was intended to be enjoyed.

>>7230491
Which McCarthys did you prefer? I've heard lots of people say Blood Meridian is his best, but I couldn't really get into it. I might have to give it another go sometime.

>>7230505
I think it could succeed in another medium if they were loose in adapting the book - in a way that adds something to the material rather than just copies it.

I imagine a five-episode series with four different plotlines interspliced:

1. Johnny Truant's video journal

2. Navidson's footage

3. People trying to prove, disprove, and examine the footage after it's released

4. A COPS-style recording of the investigation into the disappearance of Johnny Truant

>>7230517
BM was pretty good, but not my favorite. Incredibly well-written, but a little one-note.

My favorites are The Border Trilogy (in particular The Crossing and Cities of the Plain) and Suttree.

>>7230551
Sounds like you're on to something here, anon! It would have to be on HBO or some other paid service a la Game of Thrones to be successful, however.

It's not the most complex or philosophical novel, but I thought the writing was beautiful and the story and themes really emotionally resonant.

>>7227699
Gravity's Rainbow was a fucking trip and is easily one of my favorite novels. The "Meme Trilogy," books are all similar in the sense of dragging you in and taking you for a long, intense ride, which I don't think is a bad thing at all.

Pic related, my personal all-time favorite.

>>7230376
>>7227702
>>7227689
Rant was his best work. His style works best in dialogue, which Rant consists entirely of. That isn't saying much, but I enjoyed it.

>>7229515
Super comfy read. I love anything dealing with clues and detective work.

>>7229569
Strangely enough this is the only Vonnegut I've yet to read. Though I adore his other work, Mother Night being one of my favourites.

>>7230388
I really like Will Self

>>7230616
I read Fight Club, Survivor, Choke, and Haunted, but when I was reading Rant there was something about it that I just couldn't do with. I know he is a flawed writer on the sense that all of the protagonists in his novels have the exact same voice. But that is not inherently terrible, I mean, I like the guy so I can ignore that and jump to the next novel. The thing is that in Rant we have a bunch of characters narrating in first person, many different people with different lifestyles, but all with the same exact nihilistic-wannabe-domestic-terrorist voice that the narrator in Fight Club had, Victor Mancini had, Tender Branson had, so on and so forth. The characters in Haunted had little (sometimes poorly scrapped) backstories that justified they all being a bit downer and hateful, but on Rant it was just an obstacle for me to enjoy the novel, which sucks because the plot line and the sci-fi stuff he brings in there is very entertaining.

>>7227699
Currently reading, halfway in. I'm digging it so far, I'd rate it a 4/5. Sometimes the plot drags on a little but then all of a sudden some amazingly good part comes. It's my first Pynchon book, I'm really liking his unusal narration style.

My favorite Author is Mishima, but since I cannot choose which of his books I like the most I chosse to post pic realted instead, which is one of my all time favs.

Won't post GR, won't do it

>pic related, fav collection

Judge me niggers

>>7230657
>Mother Night being one of my favourites.
I've always been partial to cats cradle my self

>>7230657
that's nice man, people around here tend to hate on Will Self

>>7230905
Holy shit. I had no idea Brave New World was available in this format. Gonna go look for it on discogs now. Thanks anon.

>>7230905
>narrated by the author

The Crossing - McCarthy

>>7231036
I still haven't actually read him but around the time of his last book people kept posting one excerpt from it and frequently mocking it but it was genuinely great, made want to read the book.

I've read A hundred years of Solitude too but I like this one better.

Strange Pilgrims is a close second.

All around best novel

>tfw your favorite author is pleb-tier

skylark

>>7231246
I just read that one this year and I think I may like it even better than 100YOS as well. Amazing novel.

I would sincerely love to post something other than Pynchon but I think I am lying to myself if I put anything above Mason & Dixon. Pale Fire a distant second, maybe.

The more I read the Recognitions, the more beauty I find in it.

Still, Paradise Lost remains my favorite due to its influence and individual merit.

>>7230613
lmao

>>7230613
What background do I need to read this? Someone said you need to have knowledge of 18th century literature/culture.

>>7230905
Here's a link for anyone interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1etUD_AE59g

>>7231559
Nah. I mean, if you've read whatever the heck pulp novels "The Ghastly Fop" is a parody of (I honestly have no clue) it would probably help, but really like AP US History has probably already given you about all the background you could need for it.

>>7231575
Are you telling me the whole fucking book can be narrated in les than an hour?

>>7231600
Abridged, yes.

>>7231609
If a book can get shortened without losing important content it means the book wasn't that good to begin with.

>>7231634
Not really. I mean, at least Huxley was involved with that production.

>>7227433
9/10 patrician as fuck

I never seem to be able to find others that have heard of my favorite, let alone enjoy it : C

fight club is a good book

>>7230663
It just the character in choke was one of the most fun I've ever read. While a good writer, there is little redeemable about his novels, they're a solid meh. But the guy from choke was the type of guy I could watch ruin their own life quite pleasently.
The one about the models though. I never put down a book, that one joined a very small pile only a chapter or two in

The ideas expressed in fight club left a big influence on me and actually changed me in a good way. i started not to worry about my materialistic needs (which I dont really need) and try to pursue my dreams without caring about what other people think. I am a lit pleb. Can some one give me a book with similar concepts to fight club?

>>7233147
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea is very different but at the same time deals with similar concepts. The main characters deal with the choice of living a life outside of the ordinary, rejecting the corruption and moral weakness of society, living adventures and being brave (what most of us dream as kids) or living a happy life with a family in society and conforming with it (what most of us end up doing when we grow up).

>>7229569
>tfw rumfoord and kazak get separated into different parts of the universe

>>7230657
>Strangely enough this is the only Vonnegut I've yet to read. Though I adore his other work, Mother Night being one of my favourites.
I highly recommend it then. Expect a lot less ironic distance from the plot and characters which is present in a lot of his later stuff, though there is a healthy, amusing amount of it present.
Mother Night is definitely great one as well, it's really solid and feels like it's written by a playwright, as it's supposed to be.

>>7233470
We're all separated into different parts of the universe.

>>7229515

Eco's works are so comfy. I like foucault's pendulum better though.

>>7230657

I read 2666 a while ago, but is there a connection between the murders in juarez and the other stories?

>>7230657
>Super comfy read. I love anything dealing with clues and detective work.
Agreed, i keep going back to it for this reason.
>>7234527
>foucault's pendulum
starting this on now actualy, feels a bit more fast passed than The Name of the Rose for some reason.

>>7229569
I don't think anyone ought to be ashamed of liking Vonnegut.

The man himself was more hardcore than any french writer or philosopher you'd care to name.

As for his writing—I think it's authentic is a way that's kinda rare for American fiction, imo. Not aping euros or just degenerating into pure vernacular.

Passages like the one where he shuts the canary into the cage (forget which book, maybe breakfast of champions?) so it would have something to wish for... that's enough to get you into the patrish canon, imo.

just for the end

the perks of being a wallflower

>>7235244
john green tier

>>7235294
no it's better and not gay

>>7230384
Great taste, this was fucking fabulous.

Also, pic related, I'm a huge Murakami fan.

> <

I don't like literature generally.

>>7230473
Just ordered new copies of this for the English class I teach. You should definitely read anything else by McCarthy.

>>7236668
ey bby u want some fuk

>>7231257
I'm actually reading this right now, it's the first of his novels that I've properly enjoyed, though I loved A Movable Feast.

>tfw your favorite book is really and truly Ulysses just because it's such a triumph of one man's command and understanding of the medium and his language
>tfw it's just a meme here

>>7230517
Blood Meridian is pretty much indisputably his best, but it's not as accessible as his later work. It is quite dense and even more brutal.

If you are looking for something with a style closer to the Road, try No Country for Old Men.

If you are looking for something in-between, the Border Trilogy this anon >>7230551 recommended is excellent. Suttree would be in the same category as Blood Meridian in terms of accessibility, but many McCarthy fans site it as their favorite. It's a good book to return to for more than one read as there is a lot to get out of it.

>>7236668
That's my favourite, along with Nabokov's 'Laughter In The Darkness', Fante's 'Ask The Dust', and Kate Holden's 'In My Skin'.

I'm the ultimate pleb.