/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16242727]

>tfw midwit
>just started reading regularly at age 27
Am I going to make it bros? What are some basic books I need to read to not be an uncultured fag?

[Anonymous No.16242735]

>>16242727
>yeah i want to be smart and cultured
>like 4chan posters
fucking lol
what a loser. read what you like faggot.

[Anonymous No.16242736]

Read some classics that sound interesting to you and decide from there where you wanna go. This will take about a year or two to fine tune your taste

[Anonymous No.16242744]

>>16242727
Either read what you like, or read what other people throughout history have liked. The Iliad? Always a solid starting point.

[Anonymous No.16242754]

>>16242744
The iliad will bore and scare non readers away. Terrible choice. Almost no person who wants to get into reading will heartily jump into epic poetry. Reading classic novels in your language will be best

[Anonymous No.16242767]

>>16242754
But OP said he isn't a non-reader, just that he started late. Also, the Fagles translation of the Iliad is incredibly easy to read and get enraptured in

[Anonymous No.16242783]

>>16242767
You're right. My bad, I just assumed op literally began reading today. I also read that translation and liked it.

[Anonymous No.16242796]

>>16242727
read funny short shit like kafka and camus
namedrop those at people and you'll feel a bit better about yourself so that you can move to bigger and "heavier" stuff

[Anonymous No.16242807]

>start with the Greeks

Don't fall for this meme

[Anonymous No.16242829]

>>16242744
So far The Iliad, The Odyssey and Moby Dick are on my list.

[Anonymous No.16242856]

>>16242829
Moby Dick is psued garbage. Melville desperately trying to show off his lexicon for 500 pages. I suppose American authors have to try hard to catch up with the European classics, but their attempts seem so forced.

[Anonymous No.16242868]

>>16242829
Fine and dandy but don't just read "classics". Throw in some Neuromancer perhaps or some Murakami or something else.

[Anonymous No.16242908]

>>16242868
I like to read about history too. I'm wanting to get into philosophy and I've heard Kant, Jung, and Nietzsche thrown around. And I'm wanting to read the bible. Maybe not all of it, but the Gospels for sure.

[Anonymous No.16242947]

>>16242908
Nice. I recently read the Storm before the Storm. A book on the changes that Rome underwent that led directly to Caesar and Augustus.

[Anonymous No.16242972]

>>16242727
Don't worry anon, this is a normal age to start being educated. Plato himself said one should not study philosophy or similar things until they are older and have focused on things like fitness, money and friendship in their youth.

[Anonymous No.16243041]

>>16242947
I'll write that down. Thanks.

>>16242972
Thanks man but I feel like a brainlet. As an American you feel like you have less of an identity than other nations. And our culture promotes anti-intellectualism.

[Anonymous No.16243380]

>>16242972
>Plato himself said one should not study philosophy or similar things until they are older
phew
>have focused on things like fitness, money and friendship in their youth.
uh-oh

[Anonymous No.16243832]

For shorter fictional works you could start with Wilde or Hemingway (wherever you like). Then maybe peruse some translations of short story masters like Chekhov or Borges. No shortage of novelists to explore after that. Melville, Cervantes, Dostoyevsky, et al.

If you want a half-decent familiarity with poetry you can easily pick up an anthology of English language poets to see the variety and pique your interest. A complete collection of Shakespeare's works will also be of benefit for getting into drama, and give you plenty of reading in the future! Homer's Iliad is definitely worth reading at some stage, however.

For history I'd suggest Plutarch's "Parallel Lives". And Plato's dialogues would be an obvious starting point for jumping into philosophy. You might want to look at university reading lists to help deepen your understanding of either discipline, though.

Lastly, I'd recommend looking into collections like the Harvard Classics to round things out a bit. You can always supplement the much older classics with newer works that appeal to you.

[Anonymous No.16243905]

>>16243832
>university reading lists
can you be more specific about this?

[Anonymous No.16244030]

>>16242727
>just started reading regularly at age 27
I wish i started later. I am now 31 years old and have read everything of interest since i was 15. Kinda bored now.

[Anonymous No.16244075]

>>16242727
Real shit dog reading highschool classics like lord of the flies and catcher in the rye are great. There is a lot going for both the books in my opinion and they are just long enough to not make you feel overwhelmed.

Bro my advice start off with books you know you can finish, because if you read something like the iliad and get like 200 pages in and get bored then drop it, whats that gonna do to your self esteem? Think it'll be easier to pick up a book next time?

Now something like animal farm, read that shit in like a day and you feel amazing and only want to continue.

Godspeed bro

[Anonymous No.16244351]

>>16243832
>Hemingway
>Wilde
I've heard Longfellow get lumped in with these guys. Is he any good? I'm interested in reading Evangeline, due to reference Huey Long made to it in his legendary speech.
>Dostoevsky
I read Crime and Punishment. I liked it, but it became hard to read for a little while after the major event in the plot. I attribute that to me being a midwit.

>>16244030
No man be glad that you did. I have three kids, a full time job, and a wife. It's hard to fit this all in and read. I'm not in the best shape either, so I need to get fit. I barely have time to read.

>>16244075
>high school books
I'm not opposed to reading them. An easy read and solid story. I remember reading a good ww1 book in high school.
>long books
I wouldn't worry about that. My autism goes off until I finish a book. I won't pick up another one until I finish that one, except for maybe a bit of the bible.

[Anonymous No.16244360]

I started at 17, was done by 22. It only takes about 5 years.

[Anonymous No.16244851]

>>16243905
Sure. Look at the websites for top unis/colleges. Ivies like Harvard or Yale, maybe UK places like Oxford or Cambridge. Alternatively, you can search for various rankings online for specific degrees and such. You can often see the reading material for a course listed at the uni's site if you navigate through the myriad departments first. Classics, history, philosophy, what have you.

However, if you're just looking for a quick introduction to a subject you might try the Very Short Introductions series before anything else.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Short_Introductions

>>16244351
>I've heard Longfellow get lumped in with these guys. Is he any good? I'm interested in reading Evangeline, due to reference Huey Long made to it in his legendary speech.
Indeed. He's a very important poet in the American tradition. If you're fairly new to poetry you might want to start with some shorter lyrical pieces, though. Reading poetry can be an enjoyable pastime, of course; but the denser passages can often trip one up. In any case, proceed at your own leisure and you should be fine.

[Anonymous No.16244868]

>>16242796

This. The stranger by camus is a excellent start

[Anonymous No.16244883]

>>16242727
Read some of Plato's dialogues. Shorter Hippias is like 10 pages.

[Anonymous No.16245019]

>>16242727
You have to learn latin and greek before you read english

[Anonymous No.16245104]

>>16242727
>Am I going to make it bros?
You will, anon. Stick to the classics and branch out afterwards. /lit/ has a lot of charts so you won't have any problems.

[Anonymous No.16245116]

>>16242727
Plotinus didn't study philosophy until he was in his late 20s.

[Anonymous No.16245119]

>>16242856
Filtered

[Anonymous No.16245993]

>>16244883
I plan on reading the Republic soon.

[Anonymous No.16246012]

>>16242807
Don't listen to this faggot. Start with the Greeks, and don't skip.

[Anonymous No.16246026]

>>16242807
>Don't fall for this meme
not starting with the greeks is the meme

[Anonymous No.16246581]

>>16242727
We are all gonna make it OP. Start with the Greeks, but make sure you mix in some stuff that interests you personally to keep you motivated. Build up your time spent reading steadily and keep challenging yourself with new and different material. And for gods sake don't spend all your precious reading time on 4chan. Godspeed

[Anonymous No.16247439]

>>16242727
>Am I going to make it
>implying anybody ever makes it

[Anonymous No.16247628]

>>16243041
>Thanks man but I feel like a brainlet. As an American you feel like you have less of an identity than other nations. And our culture promotes anti-intellectualism.
That's not always a bad thing anon, as an Australian I see such a primitive greatness in the Rebel yell, no doubt American's are an un-intellectual people, but you must recognise this stems from the utmost moral body of honest character, though of course in contrast the Germans are honest in their highly intellectual way. America is rooted, its people are rooted, it has great culture and intellect, look at the mid-century transcendentalists or the many great American poets or writers(see Longfellow for example), though in relating back to that American honesty. The fulfilment of the simple, and honest Protestant ideal; but not to make preference for it over Catholocism necessarily.

It is rather globalism, technology, and modernity unrestrained that has given you this wrong feeling, that is not America.

[Anonymous No.16247639]

>>16243380
>uh-oh
Lmao, don't worry too much about it anon, things such as that are not the most difficult to come across, though no doubt prove to be some of the most important stepping stones and ends in the life if the individual.

Slowly pick up philosophy with things you like, try de Montaigne as everyone loves reading him.

[Anonymous No.16247723]

>>16242727
For newbies, Id recommend "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" or "The Three Musketeers". Neither are difficult reads, and though musketeers is 3x longer than jekyll and hyde, it reads quick since there is no wasted page.