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/lit/ - Literature

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[ERROR] No.2027158 [Reply] [Original]

I haven't read much in my life and I want to start reading. Everyone tells me to start off reading Harry Potter or books like it. What are some classic/fantasy books out there that I could read that are easy but don't make me feel like a retard when reading them and are over all good.

>> No.2027163

That's a really bad place to start, OP.

>> No.2027166

>>2027163
Where is a good place to start?

>> No.2027169

go for high school reading list stuff

>> No.2027172

You could read Harry Potter if you want. There's nothing wrong with that. I read a lot of YA fantasy.

>> No.2027174

>>2027169
Thank you.

>> No.2027178
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>>2027166
Fuck me in the butt and call me Susan.

Well OP, I started this quest half a year ago and have read a shit ton since then. I basically started off with this list and read whatever I could buy from the book store at the time whether I was going to like the story or not. After that, I had a better idea of what I might actually want to read and I've moved up in comprehension and feel pretty awesome reading everyday. So try a nice novella or two or three and see where it takes you.

Sorry that I wrote all over it. As you can see though, I haven't even read that many "classic novellas" but it's a nice place to start.

>> No.2027184

>>2027178
Ty

>> No.2027194

>>2027169

to elaborate, i have no idea what you've already read so i'll just list the more common high school stuff. semicolon separates titles for same authors

great expectations; tale of two cities - dickens
fahrenheit 451 - bradbury
animal farm; 1984 - orwell
lord of the flies - golding
to kill a mockingbird - lee
of mice and men; grapes of wrath - steinbeck
catcher in the rye - salinger
huck finn - twain
catch-22 - heller
the stranger - camus
slaughterhouse-five; cat's cradle - vonnegut
hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy - adams
one flew over the cuckoo's nest - kesey

all very accessible and not too 'hard'

>> No.2027202

Are Sherlock Holmes Stories with in that level?

>> No.2027206

Here's the list I used back in high school that got me reading stuff besides kids books. It has lots of stuff people get assigned in schools and nothing insanely difficult like Ulysses.
http://als.lib.wi.us/Collegebound.html

There are plenty of good book lists, but don't be afraid to read stuff might be bad. Make sure to read stuff sometimes for the cover or because the description sounds interesting.

>> No.2027212
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>Everyone tells me to start off reading Harry Potter

>> No.2027214

>>2027202
certainly

>> No.2027218

Start with the 50 greatest novels of all time:

Don Quixote
War and Peace
Ulysses
In Search of Lost Time
The Brothers Karamazov
Moby-Dick
Madame Bovary
Middlemarch
The Magic Mountain
The Tale of Genji
Emma
Bleak House
Anna Karenina
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Tom Jones
Great Expectations
The Ambassadors
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Great Gatsby
To The Lighthouse
Crime and Punishment
The Sound and the Fury
Vanity Fair
Finnegans Wake
Gravity's Rainbow
Of Human Bondage
The Portrait of a Lady
Women in Love
The Red and the Black
Tristram Shandy
Dead Souls
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Les Miserables
Buddenbrooks
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Wuthering Heights
The Tin Drum
As I Lay Dying
The Scarlet Letter
Le Pere Goriot
Fathers and Sons
Nostromo
An American Tragedy
Lolita
The Trial
Jane Eyre
The Red Badge of Courage
East of Eden
Absalom, Absalom!
Germinal

>> No.2027219

>>2027206
Cool list. Saved.

Personally I'm reading Harvard Classics for now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics
It's all available as a package of free ebooks (dl links below the list), so it's kinda neat.

>> No.2027220

>>2027202
If you aren't going to read them in order, don't start with A Study in Scarlet or The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet is an obvious first attempt and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes was written after Doyle got tired of the character. The other books are much better.

>> No.2027231

>>2027220
>don't start with A Study in Scarlet or The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet is an obvious first attempt and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes was written after Doyle got tired of the character.

Neat, I don't usually see people saying to avoid STUD. cool opinion bro, fo real.

I love Casebook. Vampires, gelatinous villains, ape men, stories narrated by Holmes and a story in third person--What the fuck am I reading? Sir Doyle clearly gave no fucks at this point, you're right, and Casebook would be a bad place to start. but got dam it makes me lol

also, the villain of ILLU is pretty ace

>> No.2027252
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I only watched a few TV episodes but, as much as I like the British culture, Sherlock Holmes always seemed to me as a pseudo-intellectual wankfest. Well, maybe I'll give it a try some day.

>> No.2027257

You could try Brave New would. It's a popular book, very good and not hard at all

>> No.2027289

The first non YA books I read out of my own free will were Brave New World and 1984. Then I moved into Booker prize winners and novels by authors I liked from the HS reading list, but weren't required. Then I walked the dinosaur.

>> No.2027328

>>2027178
THANKS FOR REINVIGORATING MY GOAL TO READ ALL THE PRE 1950 MALE AUTHORED WORKS ON THAT LIST.

THANKFULLY I HAVE ALSO READ (FROM LONG AGO) MANY OF THE POST 1950 ONES