/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11822771]

I just graduated college and want to get into reading for "fun" and general knowledge. I majored in engineering so I didn't read much literature. I literally have not read a single book in my adult life for fun other than pic related. What books should I try reading?

[Anonymous No.11822775]

>>11822771

[Anonymous No.11822778]

Good read start to finish.

[Anonymous No.11822783]

>>11822775
>>11822778
Will I "gain" any "world knowledge" by reading these books?

[Anonymous No.11822785]

Are you into sci-fi/fantasy like most Engineering chodes? If so then start there, if you want to read "literature" read Reddit-core novels like 1984 and Slaughterhouse 5.

[Anonymous No.11822787]

>>11822783
of course, faggot

[Anonymous No.11822791]

>>11822771
I think you might enjoy reading the work of Hans-Herman Hoppe.

[Anonymous No.11822792]

>>11822771
Schild's Ladder

[Anonymous No.11822800]

>>11822785
I enjoy isekai anime and I really liked Battlestar Galactica.

>>11822791
If this isn't a troll post, any specific recommendation?

[Anonymous No.11822841]

>>11822800
Not trolling, completely serious. Pic related is a pretty good start.

[Anonymous No.11822860]

>>11822771
East of Eden by John Steinbeck is always a good starter. Also, Of Mice and Men.

Joyce’s short story collection Dubliners.

Murakami is pretty readable and has some literary merit. Try Kafka on the Shore.

Also the normie-tier shit mentioned like 1984 is pretty legit.

Read the synopses of the above and pick one that sounds up your alley. If none sound up your alley you are either beyond saving or somehow have an aesthetic taste already elevated beyond the limits of what even most readers consider good literature. If you’re in the latter state already, let’s set you up with some Plato, Shakespeare and Faulkner.

[Anonymous No.11822864]

>>11822783
I thought you said you were reading for fun.

[Anonymous No.11823108]

>>11822771
cringe

[Anonymous No.11823112]

>>11822771
Infinite Jest, Gravity's Rainbow, Ulysses

[Anonymous No.11823349]

>>11822775
shiet nigguh good call

>>11822771
Lot 49

[Anonymous No.11824396]

>>11822841
>>11822792
>>11822860
>>11823112
>>11823349

ty

>>11822864
I want to gain some knowledge from reading

[Anonymous No.11824448]

>>11822791
>>11822841
>Hoppe
You gotta start somewhere, I suppose.

[Anonymous No.11824605]

>>11824396
You are welcome. I'll be back latter to post more. suggestions.
>>11824448
Agreed

[Anonymous No.11825295]

You also might want to look into Carl Schmitt.

[Anonymous No.11826234]

>>11824396
what kind of knowledge?

[Anonymous No.11827445]

>>11826234
Any knowledge that will help me in life

[Anonymous No.11827480]

>>11827445
Reading literature is not an efficient means of gaining useful knowledge.

[Anonymous No.11827485]

Start with the Greeks, stemfag

[Anonymous No.11827487]

I don't know if your shit posting or are being sincere (hopefully the former) but if you want you should check out the /biz/ reading guide then.

[Anonymous No.11827506]

>>11822771
So this is clearly a troll, no?

>>11822783
Definitely a troll.

So look, OP, if you want to read a good, interesting work of literature that is funny and will challenge your likely very poorly thought out worldview, try JR by William Gaddis.

It's a book that follows the dueling tales of a middle aged composer that struggles to make a living as a musician and an 11 year old boy that makes a fortune using a series of obfuscated assets to create a large multinational corporation and become the darling of the business community.

[Anonymous No.11827509]

why would you recommend faulkner to someone who has only read a book by trump? i mean it's probably a joke but don't meme faulkner :(

[Anonymous No.11827592]

>>11827506
I am not trolling. Great Again was actually pretty interesting and extremely easy to read.

[Anonymous No.11827601]

>>11827592
The man sure knows how to hire ghostwriters, eh?

Well, what are you looking to get out of books. I'm assuming you won't be capable of reading more challenging books. Why don't you name a movie you like. That will give me a sense of your narrative tastes that will make giving a real recommendation easier.

[Anonymous No.11827614]

>>11827601
I know he didn't write it himself. I'm looking to just gain more knowledge about the world (economics, politics, etc). Movies for me are 2 hours of turning off my brain so I don't think listing movies I enjoyed will help.

[Anonymous No.11827630]

>>11822860
>Dubliners

Dubliners is too boring for literature noobs desu

[Anonymous No.11827642]

>>11827614
>I know he didn't write it himself.
I doubt Trump actually wrote any of the books with his name on them. The man doesn't strike me as a reader let alone a writer. Trump probably articulates some generalized vision of what he might want to say in a book and then the ghostwriter gets to work.

>I'm looking to just gain more knowledge about the world (economics, politics, etc).
You want to get these things from fiction books? I mean fiction is mainly good at illustrating general concepts and worldviews or unique experiences. If you want to learn about economics you should literally just learn about statistical analysis and how to understand economic models. As I said, if you want a book that might provide a challenge to what I am assuming your worldview is, then JR is pretty good (though probably too hard for you to read.)

>Movies for me are 2 hours of turning off my brain so I don't think listing movies I enjoyed will help.
You have never in your life liked a movie that was more than merely mindless entertainment? I really doubt this.

[Anonymous No.11827663]

>>11827642
I never specified fiction. Is /lit/ fiction only?

[Anonymous No.11827672]

>>11827663
No. See recommendations like >>11822791
>>11822841 and >>11825295
I think lurking here some too and looking at various threads that might interest you would do some good. Feel free to post with additional questions though.

[Anonymous No.11827709]

>>11827663
Strictly speaking we don't really talk about Econ, History, or Politics. Non-fiction is at best a minor topic on this board. /his/ is probably more appropriate for your questions but it's also a lot worse than here (though its pretty bad here now too).

Like I said with Econ, if you want a better understanding, I would recommend looking at modeling and statistics. The technical aspects are what you should focus on. I'd recommend avoiding wasting your time with the alt-econ threads of thought like the Austrian School or Market Anarchism entirely or at the very least until you have a good understanding of mainstream economics.

For Politics, you probably aren't going to want to read anything I'm going to recommend but if I had to recommend a few really important books I'd go for The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, World-systems Analysis: An Introduction by Immanuel Wallerstein and something by Foucault (Not that reading any of his books would be particularly helpful as, again, you probably won't really get what he's trying to say. It's really just important to understand a non-strawman post-modern, post-structuralist worldview)

I don't know how helpful these recommendations will be, but again, and I can't stress this enough, don't waste your time reading 90% of the books recommended by people on /pol/ or /his/. The few books that are actually good that they recommend, they probably are recommending for the wrong reasons.

[Anonymous No.11827770]

>>11827445
You are retarded. No wonder you read Trump shit.

[Anonymous No.11827785]

>>11827663
> Is /lit/ fiction only?
For the most part yes, the other part is philosophy which given you're a Trump supporter you wont enjoy.

[Anonymous No.11827787]

>>11827770
*snap*

[Anonymous No.11827792]

>>11822771
Killing Hope by William Blum
The Politics of Heroin by Alfred W. McCoy
Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill
Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky

[Anonymous No.11828520]

>>11822771
Read anything by Bill Bryson

[Anonymous No.11828714]

>>11824396
>>11822783
>>11822771

are you an autist?

[Anonymous No.11828889]

>>11822771
Similar position for me, go to the wiki and read just getting started /lit/, then start with the Greeks, resume with the romans, and then just go from there

[Anonymous No.11830123]

>>11828714
Who isn't?

[Anonymous No.11830339]

>>11822771
you're clearly pathetic and hopeless don't bother. take the red pill and acknowledge that if you haven't read the canon by the time you are done with high school/or at least studied them in your first two tiers at uni (that being if it's a world class uni) you will probably never be able to appreciate literature. stick to your trump meme books lol

[Anonymous No.11830354]

>>11830123
The vast majority of the population.

[Anonymous No.11830516]

>>11822771
>stem faggot
>I literally have not read a single book in my adult life for fun
Why are you all so stereotypically pleb?

[Anonymous No.11830534]

>engineering major
>Trump book
You're not gonna fit in on this board man

[Anonymous No.11830604]

>>11827445
lmao lit is not self-help coaching

[Anonymous No.11830715]

Godel Escher Bach is an easy recommendation to anyone not on the extremes of the humanities-STEM spectrum. It may seem intimidating at first glance but it's actually very entertaining and hard to put down

[Anonymous No.11830725]

>>11830516
t.
You are not welcome on this board.

[Anonymous No.11830873]

>some guy's job was to aibrush around Trump's hair for the cover