/lit/ - Literature

A Meaningful Life - L. J. Davies
Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

Read Hamlet

>>7351825
seconding shakespeare.
(altho i prefer the tempest)

>>7351791

Tolstoy can be a tad heavy - 1500 pages of historical fiction can wear one out. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is excellent, short, and showcases his massive talent.

Dostoevsky is fine. Honestly, he's not difficult to access at all. The Brothers Karamazov is his greatest work, so I'd advise you save it for last.

Nausea isn't particularly hard, and is quite good. I much prefer Sartre's plays though, in particular No Exit.

As for entry level but good, my go to is either Herman Hesse or John Steinbeck.

>>7351825

I think OP should save Shakespeare for later. Hamlet is among the greatest works I've ever read, but for a person who just started reading a few weeks ago, the archaic language might be too much. That would be a tragedy.

Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Plague

I can't speak to Nausea, but friends who have read it and generally like Sartre found it unreadable. No Exit is pretty fun and readable if you want to try Sartre.

>>7351791
Vonnegut's stuff is particularly entry level.
It's pretty liberal, but he's a funny guy and his books are fun to read.

>>7351864

>I can't speak to Nausea, but friends who have read it and generally like Sartre found it unreadable.

It reads like a mescaline trip report at times, but I think it's quite lucid. If anything, he repeats his points to redundancy - also the reason I prefer No Exit. Concision.

>>7351870

Agreed, depending on age.

>>7351859
>>7351864
>>7351870
>>7351821

Thank you all for the responses, i will get some of these tomorrow

>>7351791
You thought Norwegian Wood was bad but you liked Brave New World?
What?

>>7351989
Brave new world is shit, but way better than NW.

>>7351859
>that would be a tragedy

>>7351791
Read Lolita. Here, check out the first page and see what you think.

>>7352616
dank, he even brags about his prose

>>7351791
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? You'll like it.
If you're German or Dutch I'd recommend reading Goethe.

>>7351791
Read The Fall by Camus, it's actually my favorite book.

>>7351825
>>7351859
Shakespeare is fantastic, but I didn't find my love for him without giving it due time and attention, and experiencing it on my English Literature university course was fantastic (although, this is completely unnecessary for just enjoyment of it).

I would suggest watching the play before you read it if you're new to Shakespeare - it helps to give it a bit more context and can provide you with the general feel and reading of the play which can be difficult to come by if you're new to it and getting lost in the words.
Also, make sure you're reading a copy with glosses and footnotes so you're not constantly reading words, phrases and allusions you're not understanding. Understanding them will add immensely to your enjoyment of the play.
When you come to understand Shakespeare, you'll probably be surprised by the amount of wit and humour in his plays - not much of them are made up of high-minded difficult stuff in truth.

My personal favourite is 'Much Ado About Nothing'.

>>7351791

Op here, thank you all for the responses, got pic related today

What can you tell me about Hadji Murad?

>>7353132
this

>>7352093
shit taste fag

>>7352616
kek

Good entry level reading that will make you a patrician:
>Edgar Allan Poe - short stories
>The Iliad/Odyssey - Fagles translation
>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carrol (w/illustrations by John Tenniel)
>Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis

>>7355985
>not pope's translation.

>>7355988
We read the Fagles translation in middle school and the book design is comfy as fuck.