/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.19716548]

What's the best book you've read that you've never seen posted on /lit/?

[Anonymous No.19716664]

[Anonymous No.19716766]

[Anonymous No.19716781]

>>19716766
What is this? I've never heard of it before.

[Anonymous No.19716783]

>>19716548
As far as I know, I am the only person who has ever posted about this book.

[Anonymous No.19716882]

Call of the Crocodile

[Anonymous No.19717166]

Call of the Crocodile

[Anonymous No.19718524]

>>19716548

[Anonymous No.19718532]

[Anonymous No.19719154]

>>19716548
The Will to Power

[Anonymous No.19719211]

>>19716783
I enjoyed Carlos storyline.

[Anonymous No.19719218]

>>19716548
I only read books recommended by /lit/. That's how I avoid pozzed shit.

[Anonymous No.19719241]

>>19716664
this looks cool.
>>19716548
I found this book on /lit/ but it was a single comment in a suggestion thread with no replies and I've never seen anyone else mention it besides me once in my other thread. It's nothing less than the best book of cultural criticism I've ever read and really the only one I've ever attempted that seemed worth it besides like anthropology textbooks which are usually pretty worth it. But yea, I'm going to keep spamming The Use and Abuse of Art by Jacques Barzun until it becomes a meme on this board because the more popular it gets the better off we will all be for it.
Just as one example of how relevant it is too today - there is an entire chapter devoted to explaining Scientism its causes and solutions. Its not just about Art it gets into every aspect of culture its problems and most importantly potential solutions. You want philosophy thats actually insightful and doesn't make you just go "well duh thats obvious" then this is the book for you.

[Anonymous No.19719250]

>>19716783
I wrote down that book the last time you posted it and I will get to it at some point this year. Looks quite good

[Anonymous No.19719284]

>>19716783
>>19719250
I did the same when they posted it a while back. I should get to it after the several dozen books I plan to read next.

[Anonymous No.19719439]

>>19716548
I've posted this one a time or two, but never seen anyone else mention it. For those that love WW2 history. A literal David vs. Goliath.

[Anonymous No.19719522]

>>19719241
>>19719439
both noted; these threads have to be the last ones left on this dumb board that are any good

[Anonymous No.19719568]

[Anonymous No.19719677]

>>19719522
I'm the guy who made the thread about how shit /lit/ is for only talking about canonical works and got told that if I didn't have such an attitude my thread would probably be fine. Well here is yet another perfect example of how false that is.
Such a simple idea for a thread that any actual reader should be interested in and it nearly dies in an hour while the millionth thread about Schopenhauer or whatever the fuck these normies talk about nears the bump limit for them umpteenth time.
God its so lame. How rotten is society that we can't even have interesting discussions about books on 4chan of all places. I'm starting to think social media has really and truly destroyed most peoples brains. It's black-pilling as fuck

[Anonymous No.19719707]

[Anonymous No.19719724]

>>19719677
yes indeed my anonymous brethren. But at least there is hope in us: the more intelligent and reflective anons of 4chan. You single handedly maintain this board from turning into complete and utter shit. this bud's for you.

[Anonymous No.19719746]

>>19719241
Yes indeed the book about spirit posession does indeed look cool. I will look further into it. I do believe spirit possession is possible by means of screens connected to the internet so be aware of what you read and watch on the internet including here on 4chan. Spiritual technologies have been known to be supplemented by electronic technologies so as to appear benign, but in fact they subtly influence on unwitting victims by means subliminal techniques not in circulation amongst most people. So be cautious.

[Anonymous No.19719756]

>>19719677
Glad you see the best in people but I only made this thread to mine my reading list. There won't be much good discussion here because it's a big pile of books nobody's heard of.

[Anonymous No.19719765]

Maybe not the best but the first that popped to my mind

[Anonymous No.19719771]

I suspect this book is decently known in Canada because from what Google tells me the author is well known there, but I'd never heard of it and found it on an 'obscure books' thread here and bought it purely based off the cover. I really enjoyed it.

[Anonymous No.19719774]

>>19716548
John Taylor Gatto, The Underground History of American Public Education

[Anonymous No.19719775]

>>19716548
Not obscure, but I’ve never seen it posted
>Shadow Country by Matthiessen

Most people know him for his nonfiction. This book centers around leader/outlaw in the wild lawless Everglades right before Florida was populated. It’s a Faulknerian tale where different perspectives are shown, and the reader must make out the truth about this mysterious man, if it even exists at all

[Anonymous No.19719779]

>>19716548
The Prince of Tides

[Anonymous No.19719796]

>>19719250
>>19719284
I'd actually found it in a dump cart outside my university's library. It was in rough shape, but it actually looked like a decent read, apart from most of the other chaff which was mostly outdated textbooks, surveys, and stuff like that. Reading it was a delight. Such a pleasant surprise. Apparently it's one of the most beloved novels in Britain.

[Anonymous No.19719807]

I read a lot of travelogues which unsurprisingly don't really get posted here given their relatively niche nature. Pic related.

[Anonymous No.19719814]

>>19719807
Eric Newby is a goated author who /lit/ never discusses. The Last Grain Race, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush and this one are all absolutely fantastic. I wish more anons just made threads about whatever cool books they were reading so that they'd get more exposure and recognition. Rather than posting about the same books over and over and over again.

[Anonymous No.19719833]

>>19719814
I see /lit/ books like Call of the Crocodile and Waldun talked about all the time here. Haven’t heard of that guy but il look it up. Thx

[Anonymous No.19719862]

>>19719796
I think part of it might be the title. Maybe, once you've read the book, the title becomes brilliant but on first impression a book called "Corelli's Mandolin" doesn't really excite and certainly doesn't give the impression it is a war novel.

[Anonymous No.19719868]

[Anonymous No.19719952]

>>19716783
Isn't there a movie with Nic Cage about this?

[Anonymous No.19719961]

>>19719724
If by "bud" you mean marijuana I'll just reply that I too partake when I can but mostly use that brown boy half out of necessity to treat chronic pain and half out the knowledge that at least it stops me from essentially being an alcoholic like literally everyone else I know over the age of 21. Cirrhosis sounds painful and if its not that its some other organ fucked by that liquid poison. Opioids are one of the least toxic substances people abuse. There is an epidemic of suicides being labeled accidental overdoses.
https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/noras-blog/2019/09/suicide-deaths-are-major-component-opioid-crisis-must-be-addressed
Weed is still the best though, it just doesn't treat my pain very effectively.
--I'm about to start the next story in "Alcina and Other Stories by Guido Gozzano". It's really good like most of Snuggly Books Catalog. I honestly don't think I'd use substances this much if I lived at a time when people wrote and talked about stuff like this book. Times when people actually cared about discussing the ills of society and there causes/solutions. We always cycle back I guess but it seems like the cycle is staying on the good times less and less as we move forward and the shit times more and more.
--I'm just so thankful that thanks to sheer force of will I managed to suck everything I wanted out of this life. I tried every substance I wanted (used nearly 100 chemicals recreationally), lost my virginity to a girl I loved more than anyone else in this world and maybe just as important I split with her on good terms, keeping her memory unspoiled, read as many amazing books as I wanted to, hiked atop as many beautiful mountains as any man can hope to (completed 3/4ths of the Appalachian trail, (only missing the shit states like Pennsylvania and Virginia lame states like that) and much more out west in Montana/Colorado/Wyoming) and all this before I turned 25 (nearing 30 now). The knowledge that I could learn I will die of Cancer in a year and it wouldn't phase me much if at all because I finished everything I wanted to do that early is incredibly liberating. Thank god for the internet , thank god for books, thank god for women, thank god for drugs and nature and life and thank god for the sweet release of death.

We'll meet in the end friend. All those who're worthy will

[Anonymous No.19719969]

>>19716548
Blood Meridian

[Anonymous No.19719973]

>>19716548
Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte

[Anonymous No.19719974]

>>19719961
Godspeed anon fren

[Anonymous No.19719976]

[Anonymous No.19720008]

Niels Lyhne; Bruno Schulz; Trakl, Heym, Benn; medieval German poetry; most lesser known French novels; generally everything that’s not popular, religious, hilariously obscure or crazy, a meme, highschool lit or notorious in some way. lit is pretty educated compared to the average internet dweller and almost a library compared to your average person but the average lit poster doesn’t really stand a chance to someone who actually reads—not that anything I’ve put up above is that challenging or enlightened or whatever. Actually reading means being broadly yet well read in literature, and preferably bringing something not literature but related to the table.

[Anonymous No.19720155]

>>19719756
You can talk about the merits and beauty of books only you've read. I was about to make a thread about your favorite quotes. In those threads reading the books doesn't mean much since the quotes are all succinct enough to fit in a post
>“What I want is to live of that initial and primordial something that was what made some things reach the point of aspiring to be human.” ― Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G.H.
This book is mentioned fairly often but I rarely if ever see it actually discussed. And I'm probably the only person to post this one of the my all time favorite quotes.

[Anonymous No.19720190]

Never seen Salman Rushdie or Heinrich Böll discussed here, which I consider very odd. Top10 post-war writers in my opinion. Mario Vargas Llosa is also never talked about here aside from the occasional latin american lit thread.

[Anonymous No.19720214]

>>19720155
I don’t know if it’s a translation thing but I’ve often thought Lispector does kitschy surrealism. Maybe I’ve widely mistaken as I’ve just read a few stories and I started The Beseiged City. She’s just not my cup of tea unfortunately right now. I’ll revisit her later as my taste changes. Anyway, I think she suffers here for being a woman, being unmemeable, and being hard to discuss in general as surrealism often is

[Anonymous No.19720254]

>>19719775
>Matthiessen has another book that I refuse to mention on lit. It has been mentioned I think 3 times total in the archives by an anon several years ago. You should read that one if you liked Snow Leopard

Just wondering if you're the same anon who said this, I've always wondered what book that anon was mentioning

[Anonymous No.19720270]

>>19720254
No, I’ve never held books back. I doubt he was referring to Shadow Country as it was very different from what I’ve seen of TSL. I’d guess he’s talking about one of his nonfiction books. Maybe the Leonard Peltier one or the shark one

[Anonymous No.19720279]

>>19719862
Ironically, it was actually the title which drew me in. I didn't realize that the book was actually from the 90s. With the author's French-sounding name, and that title which made me think of early European post-war novels, I was drawn in.

[Anonymous No.19720285]

>>19720270
Scratch that, I bet it’s African Silences

[Anonymous No.19720337]

>>19719241
I must have been you, that made me read it. Thank you, anon, the book was quite worth, though I will have to read it again to really understand it.

[Anonymous No.19721461]

>>19720214
Oh I definitely think the translation of her work is lacking. I constantly found myself rewording sentences when reading this book including that very quote I posted. I have tried to read other works by her but none of them seemed even half as worth it as The Passion desu.

[Anonymous No.19721471]

>>19719952
yes

[Anonymous No.19721485]

>>19720008
Schulz is a poor imitation of many who came before him imo. Street of Crocodiles was just boring to me, maybe it's because I don't know shit about Poland but I doubt it. Other works about small eastern euro countries managed to draw me in much more successfully.
Try Paul Leppin's Other's Paradise for a similar but better book.
It's annoying I have to keep marking up these covers in paint because I already posted them in my other thread lmao.

[Anonymous No.19722913]

>>19719218
/lit/ loves pozzed lit

[Anonymous No.19723072]

>>19719677
You should have a libthing or goodreads account or post lists somewhere. I would and a few good anons would see it annd appreciate it. But talking about even slightly rare books is tough. Better make a McCarthy, Pynchon, Dosto, Foster Wallace, Rupi, Rooney, and other checkbox threads. Negativity and familiarity is what they all seek.

[Anonymous No.19723124]

[Anonymous No.19723271]

I'm surprised this isn't /lit/ canon when it has everything they want from a book. A girl even sucks off a stray dog. It's also a total mindfuck by the end but that's not how you get anyone to read anything.

[Anonymous No.19723282]

Pic related is extremely based and can save western civilization if used as a primer for every child's moral and philosophical education. You won't know until you read it.

[Anonymous No.19723362]

>>19716548
Seven pillars of wisdom. I only see it mentioned in bits and there

[Anonymous No.19723892]

>>19719154
based

[Anonymous No.19723909]

>>19716548
El Árbol de la Ciencia, by Spain's best pessimist.

[Anonymous No.19724616]

>>19716548
Cosmic Consciousness by Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke
http://djm.cc/library/Cosmic_Consciousness_edited02.pdf
(First time I saw it posted is when I did earlier this morning)

[Anonymous No.19725604]

The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch, to me it's comparable to Musil's The Man Without Qualities yet nobody ever mentions it. Absolute masterpiece

[Anonymous No.19725630]

>>19716548

[Anonymous No.19725645]

>>19725604
I read an English translation and while I enjoyed it, it was completely forgettable. Nothing really to discuss unless you’re familiar with the German zeitgeist then. I haven’t read Musil, but Broch is probably my least favorite German writer from what I’ve read. I’m not saying he’s bad. If you could elaborate, I’m definitely open to rereading it in a different perspective

[Anonymous No.19726556]

>>19723072
I posted my goodreads in my other thread.
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/63651680-toran

[Anonymous No.19726716]

>>19725645
I rrather like these reviews/commentaries found online:
https://www.commentary.org/articles/stephen-spender/the-sleepwalkers-by-hermann-broch/
http://www.williamgaddis.org/jr/brochsleeptimesrev.shtml
Milan Kundera has also written very nice essays on The Sleepwalkers (and Musil, Kafka etc.) in his books "The Curtain", "The Art Of The Novel" and "Testaments betrayed". I also wholeheartedly recommend The Man Without Qualities by Musil.