/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.10981110]

Personal 10/10s thread. Which books - fiction or non-fiction - are just perfect in your eyes? It doesn't matter if it's a popular classic or if it's a book it seems you've only read and it's pulpy as fuck, let's just vent about our favourite books and reading experiences.

(Going to post one of my 10/10s in my next post)

[Anonymous No.10981119]

>>10981110
Too lazy to grab a cover, but it's a novel by the name of "Cain at Gettysburg". Does a good job of character building and then destroying. Showed me a lot about the nature of war.

[Anonymous No.10981126]

>>10981110
(OP here)
I initially picked this book up thinking it would be an atmospheric and slow-burning romance tale that would bore the fuck out of me but it was cheap and most people I know who enjoyed reading said it was one of their personal favourites.

I get why now. It's so immensely moody and intense, drenched in oppressive atmosphere that really feels authentic (coming from a Yorkshire boy who had trips to the Yorkshire moors for "fun").

The amount of psychological manipulation at play in this novel is amazing. My impression of it being a romantic novel went out of the window when the tensions between Earnshaw and Heathcliffe intensified, when Heathcliffe's hatred for the Lintons grows to not just encompass Isabelle (who he marries) and Edgar (her brother) but also their children. This book becomes pure misanthropy and it's genuinely uncomfortable.

Really not sure how Emily Bronte wrote this at 19 being as introverted as she was and why she never wrote another novel kind of annoys me (to my understanding she thought writing novels was silly - this book is basically a "fuck off get off my back bitches" to her sisters). She clearly had some skills with observing the ulterior motives behind every action and the passive aggressive manipulation in every word because this book is a fucking masterful play with psychological turmoil.

[Anonymous No.10981142]

Les Miserables
Anna Karenina
The Idiot
Doctor Zhivago
Jane Eyre
Moby Dick
(really cant go wrong with 19th century long boi books to be honest)

[Anonymous No.10981158]

>>10981110
that is the nicest .gif I've seen

[Anonymous No.10981184]

>>10981110
a brief history of seven killings is one of my favourite reads this year. marlon james shows a mastery of rhythm in the Jamaican patois prose as well as ambition to develop a wide cast of characters through three decades between Jamaica and crack-epidemic America. The fact that most of the chapters are stream-of-consciousness monologues offers an intimate, personal and often disturbing insight into the character's motivations, experiences, fears, lack of regret, poverty, struggle, etc.

This isn't any "we wuz kangs" shit either. marlon james is very apparent with his dislike for Jamaica and how ugly the country can be. All of this surrounding a fictional account of an attempted assassination of Bob Marley which each character having connections with others no matter how trace is just impressive.

hopefully you don't mind the hardcore gay sex, the intense torture involving cables and electrocuting dicks, rape, forcing a man to give a blowjob in front of his son and brutal depictions of murder. shock value isn't necessarily the focus of the book but fucking hell it's pretty shocking.

keep an eye on marlon james, he's probably got even better books in him still

[Anonymous No.10981205]

>>10981184
i've heard a lot about marlon james so i picked up the book of night women a while ago but my reaction to it was fairly meh. I felt he was a bit too heavy handed at times.

How similar in style is a brief history? If my reaction to night women was luke warm will i enjoy a brief history?

[Anonymous No.10981219]

Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon
Balzac - Lost Illusions
Ashley - Perfect Lives
Rulfo - Pedro Páramo
Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
Ballard - The Atrocity Exhibition

[Anonymous No.10981247]

>>10981205
I didn't feel brief history was as heavy handed, but a book that long does have some flaws (multiple characters seem to refer to starsky and hutch which although would've been popular at the time the book is set, it does feel a little repetitive when multiple characters refer to it), but other than that I think it is a better book altogether. It flows very easily and feels like a genuine cohesive read.

[Anonymous No.10981284]

I don't know if I would go so far as to call it 10/10, but Moldbug's "Gentle Introduction" was the most fun I had since reading Kierkegaard:
>If you actually read all this, yet remain a damn’d Whig — congratulations Sir! You are poffeffed of an unusually thick Skull — not unlike yr. ancestor, the Pithecanthropus. Indeed Samuel Johnson put it best: the Devil was the first Whig. And to him with you Sir! For the Remedy hath failed.

My real 10/10s are Kierkegaard's "Concluding Unscientific Postscript," "Either/Or," and "The Sickness Unto Death." Mint!

[Anonymous No.10981287]

Blood Meridian
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Der Prozeß/Amerika (one of either, maybe even Das Schloss)

[Anonymous No.10981292]

>>10981219
>Rulfo - Pedro Páramo

This sounds great.

[Anonymous No.10981294]

tal era io a quella vista nova:
veder voleva come si convenne
l’imago al cerchio e come vi s’indova;

ma non eran da ciò le proprie penne:
se non che la mia mente fu percossa
da un fulgore in che sua voglia venne.

A l’alta fantasia qui mancò possa;
ma già volgeva il mio disio e ‘l velle,
sì come rota ch’igualmente è mossa,

l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.

[Anonymous No.10981301]

>>10981284
How political is Gentle Introduction? Not too interested in neoreactionaries, but that excerpt seems cool

[Anonymous No.10981306]

>>10981301
It's very political, but Moldbug's stated goal is as follows:
>Our chemical interest is solely in the political lobe.
>Unfortunately, this organ is unusually large and proliferating fast. After the treatment, it will return to its normal marble-like size, and you may hear a hollow sound if you knock your fist hard on the back of your head. That's because now you know the truth, and you never need to think about any of that crap ever, ever again. Since the shape of your skull is unchanged, the resulting void is percussive.

[Anonymous No.10981331]

>>10981284
not heard someone on /lit/ say "mint" before, always felt it was a britbong lads-lads bit of idiolect that never really quite got the ironic appropriations that "lads" and "mate" got

if I wanted to read Kierkegaard, I know I shouldn't dive straight in but I should have a foundation of understanding philosophy right? Who should I be reading before him?

[Anonymous No.10981340]

>>10981287
who is this bit of tit

[Anonymous No.10981347]

>>10981142
>Anna Karenina
It is a tragedy this book isn't a /lit/ meme.
>everyone thinks they're a Levin when they're really an Alexei

[Anonymous No.10981349]

>>10981126
I love this book.

My other personal 10 is Beowulf.

[Anonymous No.10981370]

>>10981184
Agreed, this is a great book, and honestly 'the' postcolonial novel in my mind. And it's the kind of thing SJWs would hate as well because it's not self-pitying or moralizing.

>>10981205
Not very heavy-handed, when he wants to make a point he just says it. There's actually not much symbolism if I recall, it reminds me more of nineteenth century realism like Dickens

[Anonymous No.10981377]

>>10981331
You don't need to read other philosophers before reading "Either/Or," which is a fairly self-contained literary work. (Of course, it helps if you've read your Shakespeare, Schiller, and Greek tragedy.)

"The Sickness Unto Death" is very confusing at first (intentionally so) because K is responding to and superseding Hegelianism (a very esoteric doctrine to begin with). Despite the nature of that reply, you don't even need to read Hegel before; as long as you have the fortitude to slog through the bits that seem dense, it's an amazingly relevant and beautiful little book. It is very Christian, but not in the namby-pamby "Why was there only one set of footprints in the sand?" way.

"Concluding Unscientific Postscript" is another response to German idealism, and I don't know if I would tell you that you *need* to read the German idealists before it. It's helpful and puts everything in proper context, sure, but you can still get a lot out of it without such a background.

Really, the only philosophy you need to read before K. is Plato's Socratic dialogues. K. idolizes Socrates and takes a lot of ironic cues from him.

>>10981347
>tfw you're really a Kitty

[Anonymous No.10981382]

>>10981377
Thanks anon, will look him up now, very encouraging words. I'm reading quite a lot of Shakespeare and Greek tragedy at the moment

[Anonymous No.10981424]

>>10981382
No worries! While I've got you, is it really out-of-place for a damn Yank to say "mint!" aloud?

[Anonymous No.10981446]

>>10981110
My personal top five, all 10/10 imho:
>Ulysses, James Joyce
>Hamlet, William Shakespeare
>L’Étranger, Albert Camus
>The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
>Catch-22, Joseph Heller

[Anonymous No.10981463]

>>10981110
Italo Calvino's "If on a winter's night..." is one of the most magical books I have ever read. From the very first line, the book starts devouring itself and you (the Reader) along with it. I have never had such a strange and wonderful experience.

[Anonymous No.10981466]

>>10981424
I just haven't really seen americans use it so much, I don't mind dude, I kinda dig that americans have a thing for ironically saying "mate" and "lads" hah

all the best dude

[Anonymous No.10981482]

>>10981466
>I kinda dig that americans have a thing for ironically saying "mate" and "lads" hah
I don't.

[Anonymous No.10981486]

>>10981446
> Albert Camus

I also loved The Stranger and would unironically give it a 10/10. I don't get to sing my praises about that book much but I really did thoroughly enjoy it. If anything, I see it as a sort of cautionary tale like Notes from Underground and Confederacy of Dunces about the importance of having some empathy and not just being completely nihilistic. I don't want to become like Ignatius, the Underground man or Meursault, despite how frustrated, angry or depressed I might feel like, I know that I don't want to become like those characters.

I also felt The Stranger had a very dry sense of humour throughout it, especially regarding the mother's funeral. "My mother died today or maybe yesterday, I don't know" but also the line about not wanting to visit his mother on Sundays because it would likely take up his whole Sunday. Maybe it's a little morbid but I laughed at that audibly, like I saw the absurdity in having little to no empathy like that. It was funny but it's quite tragic that the mother's only son doesn't feel much of anything about her passing.

Genuinely great book and I know it's an accessible entry-level classic but I feel it's hard to dislike.

[Anonymous No.10981505]

>>10981446
is catch 22 a challenge to read? when it's posted on /lit/ it seems like it polarises readers, some love it and find it hilarious/depressing and others seem to really struggle with it

is there any advice you would give before reading it? anything specific to keep in mind (no spoilers or anything like that)? or should I just let it wash over me?

[Anonymous No.10981512]

>>10981466
>i kinda dig
>dude
i hate when other brits do this. please don't use these words ever again.

[Anonymous No.10981533]

>>10981377
German idealism is basically 'The strongest will is not always the good will', right? Or am I reducing a century long philosophic tradition to the writings of Nietzsche?

[Anonymous No.10981548]

moby dick
pedro paramo
don quixote
the leopard
ulysses
the adventures of huckleberry finn
flashman
tintin
johnny quest

[Anonymous No.10981553]

>>10981533
Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the earth much?
Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the
spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

[Anonymous No.10981561]

>>10981505
Honestly I'd just say let it wash over you. The book is purposefully very bipolar with the emotions it wants you to feel, and the way it switches from being laugh-out-loud funny to really fucking depressing is brilliant. And no it really isn't that difficult to read.

[Anonymous No.10981564]

>>10981533
>>10981553
Damn!—wrong reply!

[Anonymous No.10981568]

>>10981486
Yeah I completely agree. Despite /lit/'s constant bashing of Camus I still love his books and his philosophy to an extent. And I definitely agree with the idea that this book has a very dry sense of humour: I'd compare it to films like 'The Lobster' and 'Killing of a Sacred Deer' in its hilariously absurd humor. Some of the things mersault thinks are great, especially when they're juxtaposed with the horrific events that are going on around him. Love it.

[Anonymous No.10981654]

>>10981512
calm down pal how about take a chill pill do you cry when yoghurt is spelt without the H

[Anonymous No.10981659]

>>10981561
Thanks anon, really want to read it so will plan on doing so over the summer

[Anonymous No.10981778]

>>10981184

is A Brief History of Seven Killings post-modern? It reminded me of Pynchon at times

[Anonymous No.10981867]

>>10981331
>>10981377
I'd recommend to start Kierkegaard with "Fear and Trembling". It's short and very clean and precise at making a certain point, and while this point in no way outlines the whole Kierkegaard philosophy, it's still a very good way to understand where he comes from as well as his style.

[Anonymous No.10981883]

>>10981867
Thanks anon, will look it up

[Anonymous No.10982060]

>>10981126
Sounds like a great read. Will definitely pick it up.
Being the illiterate I am, I had only ever heard of the Kate Bush song of the same name.

[Anonymous No.10982281]

>>10981548
>Flashman
Get the fuck off my /lit/

[Anonymous No.10982288]

The World as Will and Representation.

I believe I've wrote it myself to my future self.

[Anonymous No.10982291]

>>10981110
Meditations
Letters from a Stoic
Epictetus Dialogues
illiad
Dune
the soul of man under socialism
the human condition

[Anonymous No.10982313]

the ego and its own
phenomenology of spirit
thus spoke zarathustra
the sacred and the profane
philosophical investigations
the multiple states of the being
the dialogic imagination
parmenides (dialogue)

[Anonymous No.10982320]

>>10982313
>phenomenology of spirit

t. pseud

[Anonymous No.10982341]

>>10981126
I've read plenty and this is still my favourite.
Also she's the manliest female writer I've ever read.

[Anonymous No.10983323]

>>10982060
Yeah but that song is great, i love kate bush. Hope you enjoy the book dude

[Anonymous No.10983339]

>>10981347
Barely anyone has read it, anon. Same with the glorious War and Peace

[Anonymous No.10983559]

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Infinite Jest was really good, can't give it a 10 because dude made me read about telecommunication or whatever and some other fuck you passages but loved it.

[Anonymous No.10984166]

>>10983339
Anna Karenina is a much easier read than War and Peace though. For it's length, I read it in under a week. There's never a dull moment. I'm just surprised so few /lit/izens have read it

[Anonymous No.10984771]

>>10981883
Wait—no! Don't look it up! 99% of people's misunderstanding Kierkegaard comes from beginning with "Fear and Trembling" and not understanding terms like the "teleological suspension of the ethical." (btw, the "ethical" is defined by Hegel, not common sense)

If you want to read "Fear and Trembling," you MUST understand Hegel first. No-one understands Hegel, so don't read it! No offense to (>>10981867), but if you think that "Fear and Trembling" is a clean and precise introduction, something was lost in translation.

I'm (>>10981377), and I recommend starting with Either/Or. It's a funny, accessible way to become familiar with K.'s thought. Also, he's putting on characters and having a conversation with himself, so you aren't tempted to read too deeply.

[Anonymous No.10985119]

>>10981284
The hell is a Whig?

[Anonymous No.10985168]

I don’t think anyone else shares this opinion but I think 2666 is basically perfect.

[Anonymous No.10985206]

>>10981654
I'm laughing

[Anonymous No.10985553]

Not sure I would call it anything special, but the story is tragic and spoke to me and probably you too, considering it is about a guy who thought he was hot shit until life beat him down.
Also there is some cock chopping, but that's all I will say on that

[Anonymous No.10985557]

>Dislikes Flashman
Get the fuck off your lit, and leave your keys on the mat

[Anonymous No.10985563]

>>10981370
>SJWs hate
evidently not

[Anonymous No.10985602]

Don Quixote
Ulysses
The Catcher in the Rye
Crime and Punishment
Heart of Darkness
Winesburg, Ohio
Gulliver's Travels
The Sound and the Fury
Blood Meridian
Mason & Dixon

[Anonymous No.10985610]

>>10981463
Got my girlfriend to check out more literary fiction because of how soothing of a read Calvino wrote

[Anonymous No.10985624]

>>10981126
Yorkshire crew checking in. Yes lad

[Anonymous No.10985627]

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

[Anonymous No.10986068]

>>10984166
>>10984166
I suppose the length of the book can feel daunting, I usually feel a little intimidated by a long book before I start reading it but afterwards you definitely appreciate the level of immersion at play in the book. Felt this same way about Les Miserables and Don Quixote too, I just wanted to soak up the most mundane of details I was that engrossed.

[Anonymous No.10986071]

>>10984771
Fair enough, anon, thank you for clarifying. Hegel always seemed intimidating so if Fear and Trembling is similar then I'm certainly not ready for that yet.

[Anonymous No.10986073]

>>10981654
> do you cry when yoghurt is spelt without the H

[Anonymous No.10986075]

>>10985553
never heard of it, thanks for sharing dude, sounds good

[Anonymous No.10986077]

>>10985624
ey up pal 'ow is ur ole da hope 'es well n all that

[Anonymous No.10986078]

>>10984771
Aren't those parts of Hegel it's using clear from the context, the in-text explanations, and the general understanding one may have of Hegel? Unless I have a very big misunderstanding of something, "Fear and Trembling" can be used to actually clarify the Hegel, if anything. Though I of course have not read the latter.

[Anonymous No.10986112]

>>10986073
>>10985206
but it isn't funny ???

[Anonymous No.10986136]

billy and the clown

[Anonymous No.10986150]

>>10986112
It is when you meet people who care too much about certain idioms being more common in the UK. One of my mates went fucking red because someone said "gas" instead of "petrol" despite both being valid

[Anonymous No.10986246]

Any Aristophanes is a 10/10 for me, not necessarily because they're brilliant stories (although Lysistrata, The Clouds and The Birds are all brilliant) but because they're like campy Monty Python-esque pantomimes that have surprisingly aged very well and still remain immensely funny albeit in a campy school playground kind of way (like in Lysistrata when one of the women's husband is left with a massive boner as she leaves before they have sex and a sparta soldier comes in with a massive boner too trying to deny it - everyone suffering from erections they can't lose because the wives are protesting their going to war by upholding sex).

I kinda wish Aristophanes was talked about more here, I think he would deserve a meme status if he was.

[Anonymous No.10986594]

>>10981778
Pynchon is post modern (at least The Crying of Lot 49 (only one I've read so far)).

[Anonymous No.10986737]

Celine's "Journey to the end of the night"

[Anonymous No.10988226]

>>10986594
Aye mate, Pynchon is but I was wondering if Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings was because, to me anyway, it felt Pynchonesque at times. The references to music, the setting and some of the characters feel a bit like Inherent Vice and some of the monologues wouldn't feel out of place in Gravity's Rainbow (like when Bam Bam is buried alive and in his last moments of breath he reverts to childhood memories with his father).

Just kinda glad i'm not the only person here who loves this book, glad to see other anons enjoy it as well

[Anonymous No.10988253]

>>10981110
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
Nichomachean Ethics

[Anonymous No.10988255]

>>10986246
Dunno if i would say he was 10 out of 10 myself, I like his work but it's so crude that I struggle to see it more than just dick jokes

I don't know if his work has aged as well as Sophocles, Aeschylus or Euripides though. It is interesting to see how anti Socrates he was though

[Anonymous No.10988260]

>>10986112
it is a little tbqh

[Anonymous No.10988446]

I love lurkin in these threads, its like /lit/ on their best behaviour and is actually discussing literature. Glad to see these threads more often.

My 10/10s:
Gravity's Rainbow
Watership Down
Don Quixote
The Sound of Waves
The Trial, The Metamorphosis
The Metamorphoses
Canterbury Tales
Decameron

[Anonymous No.10988511]

Moby Dick
Portrait of an Artist
Hamlet.

Honourable mention: Leviathan.

I don't really care to delve into why they are my favs, but they are just so good.

[Anonymous No.10988530]

>>10988511
Every time I see someone mention Portrait I assume they're shying away from Ulysses. Go to her lad, she's calling ye.

[Anonymous No.10988631]

Eristische Dialektik by Arthur Schopenhauer. It truly opened my eyes on just how often people try to manipulate others

[Anonymous No.10988662]

Pnin is a flawless novel

[Anonymous No.10988669]

>>10988530
Portrait is a much better book than Ulysses, which is a catastrophe

[Anonymous No.10988684]

This is my personal 10 outta 10, shame I've never seen anyone on here talk about it and every review I've read missed the point hard.

[Anonymous No.10988730]

A Hero of Our Time
Lost in the Cosmos
2666
The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm

[Anonymous No.10990203]

Absolutely love it and it was mesmerizing to turn every page so I could connect all the dots and let the real story unfold in front of me.
Beautiful prose, also

[Anonymous No.10990221]

It touches every fiber of my heart and no other book has made such an impact in my life

[Anonymous No.10990228]

[Anonymous No.10990231]

>>10988669

[Anonymous No.10990240]

>>10981110
>All time favorite work of fiction
Lord of the Rings. Nothing else comes close, really.
>Favorite poet
Ogden Nash
>Favorite poem
Paradise Lost. Milton's description of the Garden of Eden is my favorite piece of English writing.
>>10988446
>Watership Down
My Black Rabbit of Inle

[Anonymous No.10990364]

>>10981347
tfw Count Vronsky

[Anonymous No.10990497]

>>10988684
Tell us about it

[Anonymous No.10990553]

>>10981347
>tfw he doesn't realize they're all the same character, simply from different time periods
it's all aspects of Tolstoy's personality. both Alexeis, at that.
Also Oblonsky is the same character as well, and arguably the most important character in the book.

[Anonymous No.10990605]

>>10981126
Patrician
>>10981142
Patrician
>>10981219
Pleb
>>10981284
Patrician
>>10981287
Pleb
>>10981349
Pleb
>>10981446
Worst pleb in thread
>>10981463
Pleb
>>10981548
Pleb
>>10982291
Pleb
>>10982313
Pleb
>>10983559
Pleb
>>10985553
Pleb
>>10985602
Pleb
>>10986246
Pleb
>>10986737
Pleb
>>10988253
Normie
>>10988446
Pleb
>>10988511
Murrican Pleb
>>10988730
Patrician
>>10990203
Patrician
>>10990221
Pleb
>>10990228
Pleb
>>10990240
Pleb

[Anonymous No.10990874]

>>10988669
> he wasn't well-versed in the Greeks, the Sumerians, Dante, The Bible, Milton or The Epic of Gilgamesh

[Anonymous No.10990880]

>>10990240
> my Black Rabbit of Inle

Glad to see other people here love this book too. I wish it was talked about more here, it's near perfect in my opinion

[Anonymous No.10991351]

I genuinely think Dracula is great. It's not talked about here much unfortunately - maybe everyone already covered it in school or maybe people are disappointed that it's not much of a horror novel. I mean, the horror elements of it are pretty unnerving, eerie and atmospheric, very enjoyable especially with the parts about trying to cure people from the side effects of vampirism, but it's definitely more about loyalty, friendship and love with a fun adventure of hunting down a vampire as its backdrop.

Mina Harker is great and you'll probably fall head over heels for her like everyone else does in the book. Anyone else like Dracula here?

[Anonymous No.10991373]

Suttree
Invisible Cities
The Iliad
The Divine Comedy
Butcher's Crossing
Stoner
The Golden Ass