/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.17384777]

It scares me that the best book ever written is probably sitting unread in some dusty back shelf of the Bodleian or the Bibiotheque Nationale. Genius is never appreciated and understood in their own time, and it makes me wonder how many Prousts and Joyces slipped through the cracks.

Have you ever stumbled across an old book that no one has ever heard of but you are convinced is a masterpiece? Tell me about it.

[Anonymous No.17384845]

Even worse, maybe some of the best books haven't even been published

[Anonymous No.17384873]

>>17384845
Definitely not in our lifetimes. Clown world only publishes women and brown people. The answers are in the past, not the future.

[Anonymous No.17384882]

>>17384777
what if i told you all books are shit?

[Anonymous No.17384897]

>>17384777
or under my bed.

just like my diary desu

[Anonymous No.17385023]

>>17384777
even scarier: the best book ever written has been lost in history, buried or destroyed perhaps

[Anonymous No.17385050]

>>17384845
Thank god for self published authors.

[Anonymous No.17385060]

>>17384777
>Have you ever stumbled across an old book that no one has ever heard of but you are convinced is a masterpiece?
Yes
>Tell me about it.
No

[Anonymous No.17385166]

>>17385060
Please do

[Anonymous No.17385432]

>>17385023
think of all the library fires

[Anonymous No.17385459]

>>17385432
>>17385023
Then we simply assume that it wasn't the best book.

[Anonymous No.17385472]

>>17384777
Ireland has some gorgeous museums and collections. The Book of Kells and Old Library exhibition is amazing.

[Anonymous No.17385626]

im convinced this is a masterpiece but im one of the five people who have probably read it. and its extremely niche and its very hard to describe why its good or what it is. so im cursed with shilling it here

[Anonymous No.17385659]

F. Gardner’s books. They’re dismissed for his abundance of commas. The actual content of these books? Really unique.

[Anonymous No.17385733]

>>17384777
The Encyclopedia of engineering and allied trades from 1912 by Joseph G Horner. Maybe it's just because I haven't read many encylopedias, but it's a 10 volume series that goes over everything you may think of: from the poor reputation of university graduates of engineering as compared to apprentices, to lengthy lessons in Roman history to better understand the production of animal charcoal. Not quite a literary masterpiece, but given that there's 0 mention of it online, it's definitely a hidden gem

[Anonymous No.17385788]

This here is an unheard-of masterpiece

[Anonymous No.17385868]

>>17385659
Why do people keep mentioning these books? Not many seems to have read them, they are hard to get a hold of, and the reviews aren't very positive. Is it just one person who loves them or the author shilling maybe?

[Anonymous No.17385886]

>>17385659
have to agree, can't go wrong with F. Gardner. They can even be read in any order! available for 99 cents on Amazon.

[Anonymous No.17385901]

>>17385868
They have a cult following on this board because the writer used to post about them in the Writing Generals. This was back when he was writing them. They've kind of become memes since then.
The negative reviews are trolls reviews, because the author decided to give them away for free on this site. It backfired- because they were able to leave reviews since they owned the books.
I've only read Call of the Crocodile and Arcade. They're pretty interesting if you like weird shit. Better than /lit gives the guy credit for.

[Anonymous No.17385908]

>>17385733
You're so fuckin autistic you're not even in the slightest bit aware that reading that is weird as fuck. If you think an engineering encyclopedia is a hidden gem it's safe to assume you've never felt a woman's touch and certainly never will. absurd waste of time just like your life.

[Anonymous No.17385913]

>>17385626
thx anon, since he was the editor of raymond carver, i'll try the recommendation.

tor ulven is very recommendable. i have read burial gifts/gravgaver in danish, it's dry, melancholic and organic but with a razorsharp clarity of language.

[Anonymous No.17385983]

>>17385733
Based
>>17385788
I've seen this cover before on /lit/.

[Anonymous No.17386071]

>>17385983
Yes because I and only I post it all the time.

[Anonymous No.17386162]

>>17384873
Anyone can publish now. This is a good thing if we want there to be many good books available.

[Anonymous No.17386205]

>>17385901
I see, thanks for the explanation!

[Anonymous No.17386440]

>>17385908
Who's more autistic, the fellow enjoying an interesting book or the one seething over someone enjoying a book? I don't waste my time on women anon, I broke up with the last one that wanted sex - look at this cool ropeway

[Anonymous No.17386541]

>>17384777
Thank god I have almost all of them.
B A S E D CONDE LAI

[Anonymous No.17387320]

>>17386162
None of it will be preserved or known though

[Anonymous No.17387343]

>>17384777
What about that janitor guy who wrote like a 15,000 page high-fantasy story and never told anybody about it until he died?

[Anonymous No.17387357]

>>17385788
What do you mean? This was heralded as a masterpiece on publication

[Anonymous No.17387715]

>>17385626
Lush sucks a worse arno schmidt in every way

[Anonymous No.17387729]

>>17384777
>it makes me wonder how many Prousts and Joyces slipped through the cracks

Many, dozens. Probably hundreds. And you guys let others decide for you which contemporary authors are worth reading.

[Anonymous No.17387757]

>>17384873
>Clown world only publishes women and brown people

This gets posted way too often here. Cis white guys still get published in large numbers, and I don't know where this assertion is coming from. Is it a cope because your poorly-written slop got rejected? "I bet if I were a woman I'd be published, waa waa"? Waa.

[Anonymous No.17387838]

>>17385908
kek, cringe beta cuck seethes and makes his world all about the vagina

[Anonymous No.17387857]

>>17387757
It's a legitimate complaint because there is unironically no good book ever written that wasn't written by a white man. So pretending that minorities need to be overly represented is why so much shit is getting published and people are turning away from literature.

[Anonymous No.17387882]

>>17387757
>Cis white guys still get published
Only if they tow the line and submit to the woke neoliberal feminist nigger cattle dogma.

[Anonymous No.17388853]

>>17384777
I have been here :)

[Anonymous No.17389180]

>>17385908
you sound bitter