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/lit/ - Literature

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1018711 No.1018711 [Reply] [Original]

/Lit/ is very shit recently. To many fag threads with there best book ever threads. So here is an idea; to stop this clutter, post the best book you have ever read. Only one- not two,not three, only one fucking book. Include the title and author of the book (given). Here is something that would help with organization. Copy paste this and fill it out.

Title:
Author:
Brief Summary:
Your age:

I'll start. My favorite book is "I have no mouth and I must scream". Its about a post-apocalyptic world were a super computer tortures humans. The author is Harlan Ellison. I am 18 years old.

Pic related.

>> No.1018719

okay, I see what you did tharr.

Title: Ender's Shadow
Author: Orson Scott
Brief Summary: um.. Sort of hard to describe. Its a sci-fi.
Your age: 16

>> No.1018743

no one will post here because /lit/ is a bunch of lazy niggers.

>> No.1018750

>>1018711

>To many fag threads with there best book ever thread
> post the best book you have ever read

what is this I don't even

>> No.1018756
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1018756

I'm going to do a best book ever thread again, only this time, I'll make it so meta.

>> No.1018758

christ dont ruin a good thread so soon. lets keep this up for alap.

>> No.1018761

this is a bad thread you should feel bad
sage for unoriginal topic

>> No.1018763

It's somewhat difficult to say which is the "best book" I've ever read. "Best" is hard to define, not to mention, hard to narrow down. "Favorite" would've been a better choice.

>> No.1018766

alap? I think OP meant for this thread to stop the amount of best book threads. I think it might work but 4chan is incapable of doing anything good.

>> No.1018776

OP here.fine, favorite. I don't give a fuck. So many trolls on nowadays.

>> No.1018781

alap = as long as possible

>> No.1018786

Title: Nine Stories
Author: J.D. Salinger
Brief Summary: Short story collection or a labyrinth of madness and genius? You decide...
Your age: 27

>> No.1018788
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1018788

Title: Hot Zone
Author: Richard Preston
Brief Summary: A non-fiction account of how Ebola rose to the top of one of the most infamous viruses in history. Extremely eye opening book.
Your age: 17

>> No.1018792

Title: The Nigger
Author: Nigger P. Nigger
Brief Summary: A nigger and his nigger nigger a nigger.
Your age: Niggerty-nigger

>> No.1018798

Title: 1984
Author: ...
Summary: ...
Age: 19

>> No.1018800

>>1018792
I think I read that in a lit class some years back.

>> No.1018806
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1018806

Author: Nobody
Title: Gives Me
Brief Summary: Orders
Your age: 25

>> No.1018831
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1018831

>> No.1018839
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1018839

>> No.1018843

Title: Notes From Underground
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Brief Summary: One man's musings about the horrible things that he causes to happen to himself. I read it on a whim when I stole it from my high school's library in 10th grade. I've never related to a character like I relate to the narrator. It was eye opening, to say the least.
Your age: 25.

>> No.1018853

TItle: Book of the New Sun
Author: Gene Wolfe
Summary: Set on an Earth so far in the future that the sun is dying the first-person tale of Severian the Torturer. The writing is sublime and the story is like a puzzle in a riddle in an enigma. And yeah its four books, five if you want the whole story, fuck your one book rule.
Age: 21

>> No.1018862

>>1018798
>>A huge Orson Welles

>> No.1018881

>>1018853
I've only read Shadow of the torturer so far. Are the rest any good?

Can't pick a favourite, so I'll just post about the last good book I remember reading.

Title: Baudolino
Author: Umberto Eco
Summary: A boy peasant somehow manages to get adopted by emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Awesome story. Fact and middle-age myths blend perfectly.
My age: 21.

>> No.1018888

Title: Walden
Author: Henry David Thoreau
Brief Summary: Life
Your Age: ...Wait my age or your age?
I'm 17

>> No.1018914
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1018914

Title: Song of Solomon
Author: Toni Morrison
Brief Summary: The story revolves around the character Milkman and his growth from a boy to a man. And him discovering things about his ancestors and his family which may harm him and his family.
Your age:17

>> No.1018916

TITLE: THE MASTER AND MARGARITA
AUTHOR: MIKHAIL BULGAKOV
SUMMARY: SATAN AND HIS PALS VISIT THE USSR, HILARITY AND MAYHEM ENSUES.
AGE: 19

>> No.1018919

>>1018916
Hell yeah caps lock guy

>> No.1018930

>>1018881

>Umberto Eco

Wow.....that is terrible....

>> No.1018932

>>1018930
How is that terrible?

>> No.1018936

Title: A Farewell to Arms
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Brief Summary: Ernest Hemingway hates rain.
Your Age: 15

>> No.1018938

>>1018936

Pretty clever summary for a 15 year old...

>> No.1018939
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1018939

Title: Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
Author: Raymond Carver
Brief Summary: Collected short stories by Raymond Carver.
Your age: 20

>> No.1018947
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1018947

Title: Cutter and Bone
Author: Newton Thornburg
Brief Summary: Vietnam veteran - crippled and deranged - obsesses over a murder that his deeply apathetic gigolo friend claims not to have witnessed one night. Part detective story in a similar misanthropic vein to Chinatown, it's also about Malibu in the mid-70s and the great counter-culture washout. It was made into a pretty good movie starring Jeff Bridges as the original Lebowski. Basically a forgotten classic.
Your age: 28

>> No.1018951

>>1018947

Not so much misamthropic as grouchy. It's also quite funny.

>> No.1018956

>>1018938
Well, I try.
Funny story, actually. I did a literary analysis of A Farewell to Arms for an English class, but I go to a feminazi all girls school and the teacher was angry because Ernest Hemingway was... well, Ernest Hemingway. I ended up getting a C. Sad story.

>> No.1018991

>>1018956
Oh wow, really sorry.

>> No.1018994

>>1018956

If you weren't a shitty little fascist, I'm sure she wouldn't have seen it like that.

>> No.1019059

Title: The Discovery of Heaven
Author: Harry Mulisch
Brief Summary: The lives of 3 people are influenced by an angel in order to return the Ten Commandments to heaven.Excellent description of friendship.
Your age: 19

>> No.1019072

Title: The Master and Margarita
Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Brief Summary: Devils trolls Soviet Russia.
Age: 21

>> No.1019086

>>1019072
My favourite book as well
age 18

>> No.1019092

Title: On the Road
Author: Jack Kerouac
Brief Summary: Dude goes on a road trip, writes about it.
Your age: 23

>> No.1019120
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1019120

Chimera; John Barth; three more or less interrelated novellas that are post-modern revisions of old mythologies (1,001 Nights, Perseus and Bellerophon, respectively); 19.

(Only because I was too afraid to post Lolita.)

>> No.1019129

Title: Ravenor Omnibus
Author: Dan Abnett
Brief Summary: Follows and Imperial Inquisitor on his quest to purge heresy in the name of the God-Emperor.
Your age: 19

>> No.1019150
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1019150

My favorite book is The Satyricon.

It's about a student intellectual in Ancient Rome who accidentally arouses the wrath of Priapus, the Roman god of erect penises, and is forced into a picaresque adventure in which he encounters vulgar billionaires, pederastic poets, and plenty of other freaks in a broad social satire on literature, sex, and society in the reign of Nero in the first century A.D.

The book only survives in fragments because it was so obscene that it was burnt by Christians in the Middle Ages, so it's remarkable that we have as much of it as we do.

The author is Petronius, commonly known as Petronius Arbiter, after his role in Nero's court as "arbiter elegantiarum", or the "Arbiter of Elegance".

I am in my 30s.

>> No.1020089

bumping epic thread

>> No.1020126

Title: Battlefield Earth
Author: L Ron Hubbard
Age: 43

>> No.1020143

Infinite Jest

Old enough.

>> No.1020151

>/Lit/ is very shit recently
>very shit recently
>recently

>> No.1020153

book: f**k it: the ultimate spiritual way
author: john c. parkin
summary, a guide to doing what you want, care free, wether its not doing something that annoys you, or doing something you shouldnt. also, it helped me accept myself for who i am.
age: 17

>> No.1020195

>>1019072
I'm definitely getting this book. Thanks for posting with it.

I can't just choose a favorite, so I'll just put the one most influential to me:
Title: Siddhartha
Author: Hermann Hesse
Brief Summary: Brahmin's perfect son goes on a journey to find truth.
Age: 26

>> No.1020197

>>1019150
I bought this book after reading A Rebours by Huysmans. He describes it as an awesome book and it pricked my curiosity. I haven't read it yet though.

>> No.1020219
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1020219

OP here, I am very happy to see that this thread is going in a good direction. I will definitely getting some of these books.

For those of you that are confused about the age, Its just for a demographic sense. A teenager might have a different taste then someone in there late thirties etc..etc..

>> No.1020220

Title: Paranoia
Author: Joseph Finder
Brief Summary: Guy gets caught stealing money from a company and they turn him into a company spy. Ending rocks and you kind of change with the character. Although it can be long winded in parts.
Your age: 20

I don't know whether this is the best book I've read, it was recent though and I remember it well for some reason.

>> No.1020223

>>1020195

So, you're me 10 years in the future?

I'm 16 and that book is the best I've ever read, per recommendation from my 26 brother with a master's in literature

>> No.1020239

Title: The Denial of Death
Author: Ernest Becker
Brief Summary: Non-fiction. Argues that the struggle for "immortality" (through the artistic legacy, children, religions' promise of afterlife, nationalism, etc.) is the ultimate in human motivation.
Your age: 21

>> No.1020244

>>1018711
Title: Less Than Zero
Author: Bret Easton Ellis
Brief Summary: It follows a wealthy, alienated, apathetic twenty something on his christmas in LA from his East Coast uni. It tells the tale of him coming to terms with the real world and his friends self-destruction. It's also better than American Psycho
Your age: 22

>> No.1020250

Title: As far as I know, the american title is "Rumo and his miraculouy adventures".
Author: Walter Moers.
Brief Summary: It's about a young Wolpertinger who endures and overcomes many obstacles in his path to get to the love of his life.
Your age: 19

>> No.1020260

>>1020244
he's 18, and that's clearly said...

>> No.1020282

>>1020260
It's been a while since I read it.

>> No.1020305

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce
Stephen Dedalus acts as the young Joyce (presumably) and takes the reader through school, church and sin. The prose goes from simple to philosophical as the book ends. By the end, Stephen is explaining a theory of Aesthetics that he has about art and beauty.

i am 20 years old

>> No.1020315

>>1018939
i love raymond carver, though he mkes me sad

>> No.1020409

White Oleander
Janet Finch
A young girl lives with her single mother.
The mother is arrogant, falls for a man, man dumps her, she murders him.
She gets arrested and sent to prison and the daughter, Astrid, goes through a series of foster homes.
It was such a beautiful and heartbreaking story.

>> No.1020413

bumping for great justice

>> No.1020449

Title: The Kindly Ones
Author: Jonathan Littell
Brief Summary: The life of a gay nazi officer.
Your age: 22

>> No.1020471

title: Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

author: Haruki Murakami

brief summary: about a typical anonymous jazz loving murakami guy, with elements of hard boiled detective fiction and also a wonderful, heartbreaking counter-narrative involving alternate reality and the subconscious mind.

age:21

>> No.1020484

>>1020223
Haha, I actually read Siddhartha at around 16. Just found it in a bookstore and was on an Eastern philosophy kick so I bought it. Sure it's not incredibly accurate, but it's a great book and starting point for Hesse's works. Think I've read six of his novels now. Good times.

Just to make this a bit more weird, I'm earning my Masters in English right now.

>> No.1020485

>>1018719
>>1018888
>>1018788
>>1018936
>>1020153

Jesus, you guys realize that the blue boards are still 18+, right?

No wonder /lit/ has gone to shit.

>> No.1020496

>>1020485
People online following age restrictions. Ha ha, that's a good one. I started my own account on eBay when I was fourteen.

>> No.1020512

Contributing to shit thread.

Title: Grendel
Author: John Gardner
Brief Summary: It's the Beowulf story told from the monster's point of view. But really, it's about my deadbeat dad, my habit of dissociating emotionally when confronted with social situations, and my crippling sex addiction.
Your age: 36

>> No.1020802

>>1020512
Sorry, I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of Grendel pulling apart Wealhtheow's legs in a rape like fashion and making fun of her vagina as a "crippling sex addiction."

>> No.1020810
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1020810

>>1020802
Exactly the scene I was thinking of.

>> No.1020828

Title: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Author: Friedrich Neitzsche
Brief Summary: logical checkmate against religion and mass society
Your age:17

>> No.1022315

bump

>> No.1022329

Title: A Scientific Romance
Author: Ronald Wright
Brief Summary: A heartbroken and possibly dying highly-educated narrator takes H.G. Wells' time machine (yeah, in this he actually had one) to London in the year 2500 and tries to piece together the political and ecological catastrophes that destroyed our civilization. Possibly the most allusive book I've encountered.
Your age: 20

>> No.1022397

Les Confessions
Rousseau
I haven't actually read most of it.
b&

>> No.1022403

Ive litteraly only read like 4 books in my life.
Curious incedent of the dog in the nighttime. I think that's what it was called.

>> No.1022539

DON'T MIND ME, JUST BUMPING THIS THREAD.

>> No.1022562

Title: The Third Policeman
Author: Flann O'Brien
Brief Summary: After a botched robbery and a murder, a one legged man is held in a two dimensional police station by rambling officers spewing malapropisms and non sequitor. Infinity is visited down the street. Bicycles are discussed at length.
Your age: 21

>> No.1022568

Title: Blood Meridian
Author: Cormac McCarthy
Brief Summary: America
Your Age: 33

>> No.1022574

>>1020512

Mine was the previous Blood Meridan, but I must agree with you on the excellence of Gardner.

And I don't feel as weird for being in my thirties now.

>> No.1022577

>>1020484

You ever been in the middle of reading Hesse and thought, "goddamn, this guy writes the same book over and over?"

>> No.1022586

Title: Temple
Author: Matthew Reilly
Summary: An incan idol made of space rock is chased after by the US army, US navy, and a bunch of other interested parties. This space rock can be used to create a powerful explosion which can destroy 1/3 of the earth's mass.
My age: 18

Basically a story with guns, explosions and shit like that.

>> No.1022599

bamp

>> No.1022601

Title: The Sirens of Titan
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Brief Summary: A rich dude is sent all over the Solar System against his will. Hijinks and 'aww'ing ensue.
Your age: 16

>> No.1022621

Title: The Great Gatsby
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Brief Summary: Rich guy attempts to reunite with the love of his life.
Age: 20

>> No.1022736

Microserfs

Douglas Coupland

Microsoft employees leave to form their own company

>> No.1022760

Title: The Trial
Author: Franz Kafka
Summary: A trial is held against a man who doesn't know what he is being accused of. Parabol for life in general.
My age: 18

>> No.1023266

bumping for awesome

>scorpion bilissah

>> No.1023465

>>1022403
Love that book.

Title: if had to recommend a book anyone could pick up and read, no matter what, that one is still hilarious.

>> No.1023486

>"I have no mouth and I must scream"

This was hyped by about a billion people and so I read it a couple years ago and the prose was so bad and the story so devoid of ideas that I couldn't enjoy it at all, not even for sadistic reasons.

Plus it's like 10 pages long. It's seriously the best thing you've read? What other sci-fi do you like?

>> No.1023505

Title: Nana
Author: Emile Zola
Brief Summary: A chronicle of a French courtesan's social rise in society of the Second French Empire, and the various men she destroys.
Your age: 28

>> No.1023530

>>1023486
gbck2/mu/, CLT

The Drought
J.G. Ballard
a melancholic and surreal novel about a strange man who lives before, during and after the world entering a permanent drought thanks to pollution of the oceans.
18

>> No.1023542

OP i've wanted to read that book for a long fucking time but i cant find it in libraries or borders

>> No.1023545

>>1023530
*enters

>> No.1023552

>>1023530
/mu/ sucks today, but so far /lit/ is even worse.

>>1023542
It's on the internet, man.

>> No.1023612

Title: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Summary: All gods and religions are real, but they have been starved of belief and worship. In this modern age, new gods are rising, accumulating the worship of mankind, and a conflict between the old and new is coming.
My Age: 24

>> No.1023650

Title: Crime and Punishment
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Brief Summary: Destitute student plots to kill a worthless pawnbroker over a theory he has that great men are above conventional morality. Then he goes Delerius and starts to give himself away and badass detective Porfiry is onto his ass. Throw in a drunkards family, a prostitute and lercherous old man and you have C&P.
Your age: 21

>> No.1023657

>>1023650

And yes that is riddled with awful spelling because I just got out of bed.

>> No.1023696
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1023696

Tales from the city
Maupin
a book dedicated to tthe 1970s in san francisco dealing with relationships, suspence, GLBT history, pot culture, and the funnest cast of characters I have ever encountered.
22 and a bookseller by trade

>> No.1023705

I haven't read any of these. Damn.

>> No.1023728

>>1023696
YYYYYeeeeeeeesssss!

Sorry. It's just that I'd actually forgotten that book even existed. I loved it so much in high school.

>> No.1023729

Title: Hyperion Cantos (yes it's two books, but fuck you I bought them in one volume)
Author: Dan Simmons
Brief Summary: 7 pilgrims make the journey to a planet near where a war is about to start to try to get their wishes granted and hopefully not die.
Your Age: 21

>> No.1025170

Title: The Pillars of the Earth
Author: Ken Follet
Brief Summary: The building of a cathedral and the lives of those involved with it
Your age: 16

>> No.1025183

My Lecturer at university knew Harlan Ellison. He told me some stories.

Anyway,

Title: Naked Lunch
Author: William S. Burroughs
Brief Summary: Shit happens
Age: 23

>> No.1025188

Title: Absalom, Absalom!
Author: William Faulkner
Brief Summary: Thomas Supten, representing the South, wants to establish a dynasty but has too many sons. Charles Bon, his wayward octoroon child, inadvertently destroys the family.
Your age: 22

>> No.1025200

>>1018711
dude, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is a short story not a book. It's like 15 pages long.

>> No.1025211

>>1018711

Let me explain this post.

The whole thing is a joke, the punchline being that the author of the post is eighteen years old. Presumably the point of this joke is that the author considers Ellison fit only for immature readers. The description of the story ("Its about ... tortures humans) is written to make the apparent author fit this punchline (emphasizing their focus on the sensational) and thus to make the story fit it as well.

>> No.1025294

Title: Tao Te Ching
Author: "Lao Tzu" (could be argued that the second book was written by someone else, or the original MS was compromised by editor)
Brief Summary: Something and nothing produce each other
Your Age: 27

>> No.1025456

>>1018711
The Lost World
Arthur Conan Doyle
Jurassic Park before they made Jurassic Park