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/lit/ - Literature

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19993667 No.19993667 [Reply] [Original]

What are some good books for a complete beginner. The only books I've probably read are the harry potter ones.

>> No.19993699

What interests you?

>> No.19993737

>>19993667
Julius Caesar
Robinson Crusoe
Gulliver's Travels
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Frankenstein
A Christmas Carol
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Great Gatsby
The Sun Also Rises
The Hobbit and LOTR
The Grapes of Wrath
The Diary of a Young Girl
1984
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Catcher in the Rye
Things Fall Apart
To Kill a Mockingbird
Dune
A Wizard of Earthsea
It
A Song of Ice and Fire

>> No.19993749

>>19993667
Just look up a typical middle school or high school syllabus in Language Arts, assuming you live in America. Typically different countries emphasize different literature.
If you live in Russia, you'd certainly be reading Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, even if you were in Middle School.

>> No.19993759

>>19993667
Start with the Greeks

>> No.19993770

>>19993667
Start with a light read: The Phenomenology of the Spirit by Heigel

>> No.19993771

>>19993759

This read the Iliad

>> No.19993775
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19993775

>>19993667
Pic related > Harry Potter

>> No.19993872

>>19993667
Read the Redwall books

They were written for kids of the 1980s but they have adult themes like courage and self-sacrifice

>> No.19995046

>>19993667
I would say start with easy novels like YA and fantasy stuff. If you start with difficult classic novels, you might lose interest and give up on reading books.
Then when you get pretty used to reading books(even shitty ones) try out different genres and acclaimed classics.

>> No.19995103

>probably read

>> No.19995106

Ulysses

>> No.19995482
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19995482

OP Here
So many recommendations it's all confusing me.
But probably I'll start with the greeks

>> No.19995619

>>19993667
Crime and Punishmnent by Warren Peace

>> No.19995876

>>19993737
Those first few will be difficult for a complete beginner with the way they're written.

>> No.19996774

>>19995619
Odyssey by Ulysses

>> No.19996957

Do you like scifi?
Start with Farenheit 451, HG Wells. HG Wells has really short novels that are awesome and the prose flows really smoothly. When I first got back into reading, I read one of his novels every day.

Do you like horror?
Try HP Lovecraft, Frankenstein, Dracula, Kafka, Ambrose Bierce.

Do you like fantasy?
Try Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E Howard, maybe try a collection of greek myths.

Those are all pretty easy to read books that range from more advanced to actual literature, all of them are either short stories or pretty short books too. 1984, Brave New World, We by Zamyatin, Crime and Punishment, The Gambler by Dostoevsky, really anything on the various /lit/ starter packs. Then start with the greeks unironically, try the Illiad, Odyssey, Plato and the greek tragedies.
I started reading the classics like four years ago and haven't touched genre fiction other than horror ever since. For me, not much compares to the Greek tragedies and epic poems.

>> No.19996969

>>19996957
This is some good advice. Easy to read books that are still classics.

>> No.19996995
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19996995

This goofy shlock is hilarious if you like fantasy and puns
It's hardly "real literature," but it is fun

>> No.19998418
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19998418

Of you like word play this is good.

>> No.19998429

Titus Groan

>> No.19998483

>>19993667
some stuff i've had fun with:

Pre-Disney Star Wars novels
Flameweaver by Margaret Ball
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer and Johannes Cabal the Detective
The Leviathan Trilogy
Spellfire by Ed Greenwood
The Netheril Trilogy by Clayton Emery
Animorphs
The Wizardry series by Rick Cook
Necroscope
The Monster Hunter International and Grimnoir series' by Larry Correia
the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks

you can tell a lot about the kind of stuff i read from this list, but any of these are probably good for beginners if you're into sci-fi and fantasy

>> No.19998558

>>19993667
The great tree of Avalon series. The bartimeaus trilogy. Those two were my favorites as a kid. If you feel like looking up every second word, read some Lovecraft. It's actually really good.

>> No.19998605

Pick up any book that looks interesting and try reading it. Curiosity is all you need. I'll go out on a limb and assume that you have enough reading comprehesion to digest anything as long as it isn't Kant. Reading YA novels just to gain EXP is abysmal advice in my opinion. Just try reading anything that interests you.