/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18614642]

What you guys been reading? What do you think about it? I'm genuinely curious.

[Anonymous No.18614686]

>>18614642
The Heart of a Lonely Hunter. It is really quite good but her youth and inexperience is starting to show. For the first half of the book she wonderfully lays out the theme through the story but she seemed to not trust her ability and one of the characters is being used to explain some things. It still may work well, it depends where she takes it, this character's realizations could just be setup and not strictly her preaching the message, 100 pages to go. Amazing she was only 23 when it was published, few people have such awareness of others at that age. Highly recommend it.

[Anonymous No.18614700]

>>18614642
The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley - which pairs really well with Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow by Daniel Kahneman and The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt.

Particularly Haidt's description that we're 90% chimp, but 10% bee -- and our bee gets triggered when group action is required, during a crisis for example. Using it to frame some of the actions and reasoning in the stories in Ripley's book

[Anonymous No.18614712]

If anything at all, Emerson is underrated.

[Anonymous No.18614742]

>>18614642
finishing up Anna Karenin right now. the part where she has a mental breakdown and kills herself affected me way more than I thought it would. as faggy as it sounds I almost cried reading it. Tolstoy paints such realistic characters it's hard to forget they aren't real. he did a particularly good job potraying both Anna's and Vronsky's resentment, jealousy, and disillusionment with each other. the falling apart of their relationship reminded me a lot of my own relationships. although characters in the novel see Anna as a rationalist, driven by intellect, I think she's fundamentally a classical romantic. she wanted to receive love that was freely given, not given to her just because someone was socially obligated to "love" her. I think that's what every romantic wants. after her final scene I felt very empty. im glad Tolstoy included the Levin/Kitty story too; that story was also emotionally powerful but in a much more positive, life affirming way.

[Anonymous No.18614778]

Discourse on Method - really interesting and makes me think

The Problems of Philosophy- fun high level look at the issues that philosophers are trying to get at

The Recognitions - started off strong but I am just over 300 pages in and it’s in a really dull place. I am trying to power through. I hope it picks back up

The Collector - fun, easy read about an autist who kidnaps a cute girl and keeps her in his basement. Just over half done. It is in 2 parts. Part 1 is from the POV of the autismo, part 2 which I am now reading os sort of epistolary consisting of daily journal entries from the POV of the girl

Just recently finished Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy and it was fantastic despite what Berchad Russell-hating Hegelian trannies will tell you

I have a cluttered mind which leads to cluttered reading habits

[Anonymous No.18614792]

>>18614742
Anna Karenina is utterly sublime. Top 5 favorite novel for sure.
The segment where Levin works the fields with his peasants is the comfiest thing ever written.

[Anonymous No.18615166]

>>18614792
hell ya I loved that scene. he really captured what a bitch of a time it is to do manual labor, while at the same time showing how "losing oneself" in one's work can be rewarding. the scene where Levin goes bird hunting was also a favorite of mine. he's for sure one of my new favorite /lit/ characters.

[Anonymous No.18615177]

just marathoned the preface of Leave Society

[Anonymous No.18615193]

>>18614642
Fear and Loathing
shit feels like I'm doing drugs as I'm reading it

[Anonymous No.18615203]

rereading the pretty feet book

[Anonymous No.18615263]

>>18614642
it good

[Anonymous No.18615272]

>>18614642
I just finished the Dune audiobook and it was pretty great. excited for the movie. I'm trying to reintroduce myself to scifi and fantasy, cause I was having trouble and missed it.
Reading West of Eden by Harry Harrison right now. It's kinda meh. not alot happened in the first half so I put it down for a while. We'll see what happens.

[Anonymous No.18615280]

Embassytown
Reading first quarter or so was a struggle because it felt kind of disconnected and unfocused, so I often put it away, but later the plot picked up and it became really engaging, the pacing suddenly became just perfect, and I started feeling actually invested in the world and characters, I really enjoy the atmosphere and the plot so far.
Not entirely my sort of thing, since I usually prefer slightly more character/psychology-based stories, but it is a nice deviation from what I usually read, and helps me broaden my horizons a little. I now know that I can, indeed, actually enjoy stuff like this, and might try tap into that more in the future.