/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12099999]

ITT:books that you couldnt put down after you started reading, or stayed up late just to keep going

Pic related
Looking back, i dont even think its a good book, but there was something about it that wouldnt let me stop reading

[Anonymous No.12100010]

>>12099999
>I don’t even think it’s a good book
What? Why?

[Anonymous No.12100036]

>>12099999
It was the same for me. I stayed up way too late some days to just finish *one more chapter*.

I think it's a great book though. John Williams might not be a great stylist, but he's nonetheless a great writer.

[Anonymous No.12100063]

>>12100036
Shame there's only three books. Loved them all though.

[Anonymous No.12100076]

>>12100010
Plot is too linear. Characters dont evolve, its like theyre made of wax. Stoner is the only one that feels alive, the rest all exist in relation to him, for individually.
But i cant deby the feels.

[Anonymous No.12100081]

>>12100076
Not* instead of the last for

[Anonymous No.12100106]

>>12100076
Retard

[Anonymous No.12100112]

>>12100076
>plot

[Anonymous No.12100116]

>>12100076
>the rest all exist in relation to him
The book is entirely written from his perspective.

[Anonymous No.12100140]

>>12100076
>Plot is too linear

Genuinely one of the most retarded and pretentious comments I’ve read on /lit/

The whole book is about Stoner’s life from start to finish, how could it not be linear and about people only ‘existing in relation’ to Stoner?

[Anonymous No.12100145]

C H E C K E M
H
E
C
K
E
M

[Anonymous No.12101349]

>>12099999
Fucking based get

[Anonymous No.12101362]

>>12100063
I've been meaning to read his other two novels. How do they compare to Stoner? Are they also that brand of page-turner?

[Anonymous No.12101374]

The Loser by Thomas Bernhard.
Reignited my love for literature.

[Anonymous No.12101379]

[Anonymous No.12101403]

>>12101362
augustus is amazing but i had a hard time keeping track of people and places, constantly googling their wikis to remind myself who and where they were in regards to augustus himself. butchers crossing is extremely comfy to read, i preferred that.

[Anonymous No.12101417]

>>12101403
Sounds good, anon. Couldn't find any english versions in libraries near me, so I guess I'll just order both.

[Anonymous No.12101431]

same thing happened with stoner for me too
it's not my favourite book, but it is one i devoured in a single night and stayed up later than i should have to do so

another book i did that with that IS one of my favourites is skylark

[Anonymous No.12101439]

That is probably the best edition of Stoner

[Anonymous No.12102542]

>>12100140
What im trying ti say is once youre about halfway through, you can see everything coming from a mile away.
By characters existing only in relation to stoner i meant to say that it feels like everyone else except for him is set in stone.
Of course characters are supposed to gravitate around the main one, but there is no liveliness to them at all. Their roles never change from beginning to end(edith is the best example). I take that as a defect of the novel, but it could be a way to express the monotony of his life.i dunno

[Anonymous No.12102746]

No bulli but this would be assassin's apprentice by robin hobb

[Anonymous No.12102789]

>>12101362
I liked Augustus more but I have a hard on for the Roman Empire

[Anonymous No.12102813]

>>12102542
>Edith's role never changes
lmao did we read the same book

[Anonymous No.12102939]

dis

[Anonymous No.12102964]

>>12102789
I'm more of a hellonophile if we're talking ancient times, but Rome's certainly of great interest to me.

[Anonymous No.12102985]

Anything by James Ellroy, but it's crime fiction.

Delillo's Libra and Underworld.

[Anonymous No.12103062]

>>12100076
yikes
>plot is too linear
It's about a guys life, what else do you expect than linearity? Life is all linear

[Anonymous No.12103234]

what size was stoner's cock? I am in utter disbelief that in all the time the book spends on his sex life his pee pee size and his ability to pleasure women did not come up once

[Anonymous No.12103258]

>>12102542
No way you actually read the book. Are you one of those speedreader faggots?

[Anonymous No.12103268]

>>12103234
It was probably average, like most of his life.

[Anonymous No.12103304]

>>12102542
>characters don’t change
Edith’s arc was beautiful. She started off as this pure maiden that Stoner believed would save him, turned into an eccentric psycho then a calculated bitch and then in the end Stoner and Edith both developed a love for each other that they didn’t know was possible. The ending is super bittersweet because they both realize what could have been. Edith very much makes an effort to be there for Stoner later in his life, maybe as some sort of penance for her earlier actions or maybe just because she, like Stoner, realizes how much she actually values her partner. The other characters all change too. Finch is initially shown to be a kind of arrogant know it all, then he becomes a bit more stiff and distant person when he goes off to war and then in his later years him and Stoner share a very special and deep friendship. Finch’s humor and deep sense of compassion really comes through in the later parts of the book and that isn’t really revealed earlier on. Even Grace has a huge arc where she starts off as this innocent little bookworm, Stoner’s idealized angel, and then is forced away from him and transformed into Edith’s image of a socialite, culminating in her becoming a depressed alcoholic absentee mother. Even Lomax has his whole arc where he starts off as this mysterious intellectual figure, turns into a distant friend and then a rival. I don’t think there’s a single character in the book who is static. Even the ghost of Dave Masters grows and changes.

[Anonymous No.12103321]

>>12099999

[Anonymous No.12103344]

>>12101379
I agree for the first quarter and last quarter of the book but the middle parts, the Rome setting in particular, was a bit of a slog for me.

[Anonymous No.12104023]

It's the most widely read English novel of all time for a reason

[Anonymous No.12105345]

[Anonymous No.12106381]

[Anonymous No.12106385]

>>12102939
I didn't like it the first time. Waited a couple years. Really is a great novel.