ATTENTION

[Anonymous No.21619356]

Tell me about the book you're reading right now, and what you think about it so far.

[Anonymous No.21619373]

>>21619356
You first

[Anonymous No.21619398]

>>21619373
Ok. Right now, in order to get better at German, I'm reading my favorite children's story in German- the Wild Magic series by Tamora Pierce. I love the series, and I really appreciate how hard work is so highlighted in her works. Though If I had to pick one, the next quartet (protector of the small) is something every girl (and boy) should read- the message is that you need hard work to achieve your dreams. Sometimes people won't believe in you, and sometimes people will actively try to sabotage you, but if you don't give up, and keep going, then you can achieve your dream. It's such an important message, and it's so well conveyed.

[Anonymous No.21619520]

Nixonland by Rick Perlstein... it's pretty amazing honestly. It's about the patheticness of the middle class, how the reactionary right actually shapes both parties since liberals are so paralyzed that all they know how to do is react to them. How fucking dumb this country is on both sides basically, and yeah we already know that, but this book actually tells you how that came to be and it's really well done.

[Anonymous No.21619590]

The Bible, New Revised Standard Version.
Leviticus was fucking schizo.
Numbers is fucking boring.

[Anonymous No.21619667]

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

I really like it

[Anonymous No.21619680]

>>21619667
what do you like about it?

[Anonymous No.21619743]

The Odyssey, Lattimore translation. It's taken me a while and I think my perception has suffered slightly as a result - I need to maintain a certain momentum when I read old texts like this.
It's a better story than I was expecting. Lattimore says in his introduction that the pace of the second half (after Odysseus arrives home) is trudging compared to the journey prior, but I disagree. The simmering tension of Odysseus and Telemachos getting more and more frustrated by the suitors is really fun to read and leads to some great moment. Theoklymenos' schizo outburst/portent and the suitors laughing at him and telling Telemachos that he needs better company was hilarious. Eumaios is great too. The blinding of Polyphemus was brutal and the Laestrygonians felt exactly like the Brobdingnagians.
All in all, I've enjoyed it in ways that I didn't think I would, which is to say that I appreciate the pensive moments a lot more than the adventure itself.

[Anonymous No.21619803]

>>21619356
I don't read books.

[Anonymous No.21619847]

The Man Without Qualities.
It's pretty good, I haven't gotten bored yet.

[Anonymous No.21619868]

>>21619680
It's an easy read just to relax.
The world building is pretty cool and original. Everything takes place in a world shrouded in mist and ash. The story is a heist so the main characters form a team to overthrow the ruler, which I haven't seen in a fantasy setting before.
The magic system is very well thought out. There are two hard magic systems that sort of work together.
There is some cheesy romance too which I can appreciate.
Of the fantasy series I've read I do like the wheel of time and the kingkiller chronicle better overall. But maybe this will get better as it develops I'm now at the end of the first book.

[Anonymous No.21619882]

>>21619743
I just started the Illiad yesterday, about to start canto IV.
I'm reading the E. Crespo spanish translation and so far so good, I've never read a great epic except for Gilgamesh's but that one was way more accesible as Crespo tried to keep the metric as accurate as possible so the vocabulary is pretty challenging although considering the amount of repetition it has, after the first Canto things started to sail more smoothly and I don't have to look up for words 12 times a page.

[Anonymous No.21619921]

>>21619356
A cyborg manifesto. I was hoping it would be more about cyborgs/transhumanism, and less about feminism, but it's great nonetheless. It's hard to believe that it was written in the 80's because it still seems extremely relevant and modern. Only problem is that it's a bit hard to understand as Haraway uses rather complicated language, and I'm not a native speaker

[Anonymous No.21619929]

>>21619667
I also enjoyed it, very comfy read. Sadly it kinda fell apart when I re-read it, too many plotholes and predictable storytelling

[Anonymous No.21619938]

>>21619356
My own book. Im too close to my own work. I'm sure there are mistakes but I can't see them myself

[Anonymous No.21620082]

>>21619356
Lord o the rings
Tom Bombadil is the best caracter.
He is absent in the movie :(.

[Anonymous No.21620260]

>>21619356
Winesburg, Ohio. I don't want it to end

[Anonymous No.21620277]

>>21619938
>My own book.
Must be terrible.

[Anonymous No.21620341]

>>21619520
Good picks.

[Anonymous No.21620404]

>>21619356
I'm reading The Evenings by Gerard Reve and it had it's funny moments until now but I'm still getting into it.

[Anonymous No.21620412]

>>21619398
Oh you're the anon from last time :)
Funny I'm also learning German right now by reading some comfy fairy tales.

[Anonymous No.21620439]

>>21619356
I just finished the Brothers Karamazov and was rather moved by it.
I came here after two years or so, either looking to talk about Dostoievsky or just prospecting for the next book to read, but I see this place has only gotten worse with the time.

[Anonymous No.21620486]

>>21620439
The quality of posts ebbs and flows but always smells, do lurk around anon as there are many of Fyodor's readers around.
I've read the Idiot a couple of months ago and Brothers a few years ago and been meaning to read more of his work of go back to Brothers for some time but alas my time is occupied with more /lit/kino.
What did you thing of it anon? did you like it?

[Anonymous No.21620602]

>>21620439
>I just finished the Brothers Karamazov and was rather moved by it.
People keep saying this, but I just don't get it.

[Anonymous No.21620616]

>>21620486
>What did you thing of it anon? did you like it?
As I said, I was moved by it. It may be an apocryphal quote, but I think it was Hesse who said that, when we're crippled by misery ourselves, we are no longer outlookers of Dostoievsky's work, but sort of a participant in the narration itself, you get to understand the character's suffering and the longing for beauty and goodness, even in the bleakness of it all. When the book started I didn't expect to relate to the characters in the same level as Raskolnikov on Crime and Punishment, but I ended up finding a lot more in common with the three brothers. Also, as an Orthodox Christian, I can't remember of a piece of fiction that encapsulates this well the ethos I personally developed towards my spiritual life.
I plan on reading notes from the house of the dead next, and though I doubt this can be topped, I'm still eager.
>I've read the Idiot a couple of months ago and Brothers a few years ago
I still have to read the Idiot. What did you think of both?

[Anonymous No.21620669]

>>21619356
At the moment I find myself absolutely captivated and exhilarated nigh almost intoxicated with the genius and intellectual brilliance if this most magnificent tome at the moment my fellow esteem brilliant minds who read a lot of course https://www.amazon.com/Depth-Guide-Why-Communism-Works/dp/1096203634

[Anonymous No.21620697]

>>21619356
Picrel is a fascinating tour through many philosophies before, of, and after the Enlightenment, using mostly their own words. The references and bibliography alone take up 144 pages.

Since I'm just getting into philosophy and history, this book (alongside Mortimer J. Adler's list of the Western canon) has been very elucidating in understanding the timeline of not only events but of thoughts that have had such consequences for the human race. I feel so lucky to get to read about it.

My favorite part so far (I'm just getting to the Scientific Revolution) has been about the revival of Stoicism in the early 17th century and how it countered the predominant view of Augustine's affirmations of Original Sin. I wonder if there is a parallel to the current rediscovery of Stoicism (i.e. Ryan Holliday) with the decline of organized religion. I get the sense that Stoicism, with its focus on practical self-control, is one of the more electrifying philosophies that appears when the theoretical, paralyzing philosophies become overwhelming or intolerable to people. The secular nihilism of today seems just as much a sedative as Original Sin; in both cases, it's like you're just waiting to die because either nothing you do in life matters, or because you're born so bad all you can do is spend your life repenting for a sliver of a chance to get into Heaven.

Anyway, it's a really good book so far and I would recommend to others (especially other Americans) who are interested in history.

>>21619520
Nixon seems like one of the most secretly consequential presidents we've had. Every time I hear about him I wonder why I never hear about him. Thanks for the recommendation.

>>21619921
I'm interested in feminism (for the purpose of critiquing it) so thanks for the recommendation.

[Anonymous No.21620728]

I was very tepid about this through the opening section, but I've warmed up to it. Faulkner writes some really beautiful sentences, and I admire the audacity of the structure.

[Anonymous No.21620748]

>>21619356
I’m reading the republic by Plato, when I first bought the book when I was 17 I couldn’t read it for shit but now it is not difficult for me to understand.
If you are young and get filtered, don’t give up. return to the book after you’ve trained your mind a little more.

[Anonymous No.21620826]

The Scar, by China Mieville.
Almost finished, less than a hundred pages left. I really like it. I have read other novels by him too and I always have a good time with Mieville. Not a big fan of his style but I am totally enraptured by his imagination and the concepts he develops in his novels.

[Anonymous No.21620864]

I just finished Confessions of a Mask and loved it. My favorite of his with sailor and temple following. Can't wait to read more of Mishima's stuff, definitely one of my favorite authors.
I bought The Kindly Ones by Littel and Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash but neither really strike me at the moment.
>>21620728
I remember reading this and being enthralled by the first part. Loved every sentence and stayed up late until I got to Quentin's part. Each section got weaker imo but still very very good. Never had any inclination to read Faulkner after that though

[Anonymous No.21620873]

>>21620728
Better than me.
The first time I tried to read it, I think I was 16, I got so confused I ended up with a headache and had to desist....
Funny how years later Faulkner would become one of my favorite authors and Absalom one of my favorite novels...
But that first time with sound and fury? It didn't leave me tepid, it almost gave me an aneurysm. I feel so retarded when I look back at it.

[Anonymous No.21620882]

George Mallory disappeared on Mount Everest because the Abominable Snowman ate him.
At least that’s my prediction
Screen save my post lads.

Pleasant enough prose so far by the monster has yet to make an appearance and that might very well ruin everything, so we shall see.

[Anonymous No.21620930]

>>21620873
I read As I Lay Dying as a teen and felt much the same way, which is part of why I was hesitant going into Sound and the Fury now. But I'm glad I did.

[Anonymous No.21621088]

Molloy by Beckett
A little more than halfway through. I don’t think I’ve had as much fun reading something as I have with Molloy.

[Anonymous No.21621184]

>>21620616
>As I said, I was moved by it.
ah yes, sorry. Sometimes people throw those phrases around as cliques without being actually moved at all or having any lasting impressions on the work the delve into, quite nice to see the work have that effect on you and once you delve into those characters and their stories man it's just unbeatable. Where could you find this level of nuanced characterization and that misery, as you called it, that just reads so sincere and gripping.
>What did you think of both?
I'm not as well read as I would like but both works are personal favorites. I'm in no way Christian but do agree and quite like this idea of the perfect Christian with its optimism and naivete, and find it quite refreshing to mere cinical moralizing or strawmanning atheism.
The main character of The Idiot, Mishkin is a perfect encapsulation of this ideal to the point that he doesn't quite fit into the real world of the changing century and the machinations of its people and is seen as a poor sick child or a... well an idiot.
I'm glad that the Idiot is a little bit shorter than Brothers while still keeping those dozen pages long conversations over a dinner where aristrocrats expose their worldviews and such and a lot of ramblings about death and will are stuff I keep coming back to mentally.

[Anonymous No.21621236]

>>21619356
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Only 2 chapters in but it's incredible so far.

I'm not reading it for the political leanings so much as I am for the portrait of urban-immigrant-factory life. That's how my ancestors lived. Thankfully they came a little later so there were more labor laws in place, but same tenement subsistence lifestyle (especially on my mom's side)

>>21619743
The Odyssey's story is better than the Iliad. The Iliad is great but it being better than The Odyssey is just a /lit/ meme.

>>21620260
Nice, that's on my list

[Anonymous No.21621342]

I’m reading more books than I usually do at the moment
>The Last of the Mohicans by JF Cooper
I recently got The Leatherstocking Tales box set so I decided to start with his most famous work, and also because I loved the movie. So far I like it, it is an easy read, a little cheesy at times, but I love the historical setting and environment. I wish there were more pre Revolutionary war or even Revolutionary War books. Cooper puts in more historical backdrop than the movie.
>The Pickwick Papers by Dickens
A delightful book. It’s my first Dickens and I’m already thinking about my second. There isn’t much of a plot but a great cast of characters going places and getting into various situations. It is very funny at times
>Thoreau’s journal
I’m familiar with his books and essays so I figured I’d go to the source. I’m only reading a handful of pages a day, in the morning and at night. What’s there to say? I loved Thoreau before and still love him.
>Decline of the West by Spengler
Not a chud but I’ve been interested in this book since Henry Miller dedicated a good chunk of a chapter in, I believe, Nexus raving about Spengler being a changing influence in his life. I’m not that deep into it yet, but I’m impressed with the scope of the work. Spengler definitely had an ambitious, impressive mind. I’ve been reading it apolitically, and seeing what I can get out of it as an individual, staying an individual. There’s been quite a few times Spengler hits on profound truths. I have an abridged version and I’m already debating getting the 2 book set in the future.

[Anonymous No.21621359]

>>21619356
Fall of Hyperion. It's complete shit, 17 chapters in I'm going to drop it. Hyperion was also not too great and the cliffhanger was a complete douchebag move, so I had to pick up the next one but it shit. Fuck this faggot dan simmons. I'm done with sci fi

[Anonymous No.21621400]

>>21619356
Lolita. I don't think I will finish it. The language is beautiful and descriptions of lust are wonderful, but the story is not very engaging.

[Anonymous No.21621410]

>>21620602
Same, to be honest. Didn't finish it either. I start Dostoyevsky, but only like rare books of his. Only one actually moved me - "Idiot".

[Anonymous No.21621581]

>>21619356
The Man Who Was Thursday

I was expecting a weird thriller, so far it's more like a comedy. Really looking forward to reading more of it

[Anonymous No.21621596]

>>21619520
>how the reactionary right actually shapes both parties since liberals

[Anonymous No.21621633]

>>21620728
you got some pubes on your book anon

[Anonymous No.21621705]

>>21621184
>The main character of The Idiot, Mishkin is a perfect encapsulation of this ideal to the point that he doesn't quite fit into the real world of the changing century and the machinations of its people and is seen as a poor sick child or a... well an idiot.
Definetly worth of checking out then. I was thinking about reading The Devils at some point in the near future, but I believe that piece may be too cynical and I'm not in the mood for it right now, so I think I'll try with The Idiot instead. Thanks for the recommendation, is more that what I expected to find by coming here today. Maybe this place isn't as bad as I remember.

[Anonymous No.21621719]

>>21621342
How does his journal compare to his essays and books? Walden was the first book I ever loved.

[Anonymous No.21621763]

>>21621719
I like it a lot. You can see the pieces come together. Thoreau’s interest and expertise as a naturalist really shines through. There are some amusing anecdotes and things I have trouble picture Thoreau doing, like him enjoying ice skating a lot, collecting driftwood and why he loves the process, and him catching animals, reptiles and birds with his bare hands, even if he gets bit or scratched. I posted this passage yesterday about Thoreau’s encounter with a woodchuck that I found amusing. I would recommend it to Thoreau fans

[Anonymous No.21621776]

>>21621763
To add, even though Thoreau is known as more of a loner, that attribute is emphasized. He really comes across as unsociable, maybe even borderline autistic. Lots of entries are about him just going out in the woods and looking at animals, trees, plants, the weather, etc and feeling fulfilled

[Anonymous No.21622275]

>>21620748
>If you are young and get filtered, don’t give up. return to the book after you’ve trained your mind a little more.
Wholesome.

[Anonymous No.21622624]

>>21621776
>going out in the woods and looking at animals, trees, plants, the weather, etc and feeling fulfilled
Literally me, I like watching clouds as well the natural world is truly beautiful

[Anonymous No.21623552]

>>21620882
I loved Terror but I hate bigfeet and yetis. Is Abominable good?

[Anonymous No.21625033]

>>21619356
Frankenstein
It's nicely written, beautiful in parts. And the central idea is great
But you can tell that the author is a young woman who at the time writing had a sort of limited perspective on life and not much contact with "real shit"

[Anonymous No.21625040]

>>21625033
oh also she fucked up by not giving the monster a name

[Anonymous No.21625118]

Lolita.
The beginning of the book with Humbert living in the house was slightly boring, but it really gets good after the mom dies. The ending of Part 1 is simply kino. I just started Part 2, the travel stuff is comfy but I fear that the plot loses its direction. Anyways, Nabokov's writing maims me.

[Anonymous No.21625330]

>>21625033
remember reading that and dracula for school and we all just agreed that frankenstein was the superior one while the other just dragged and dragged for ever.
I still vaguely remember those chases around the world always one step behind of the monster, man that was great.

[Anonymous No.21625353]

>>21619356
Titus Andronicus

I just want it to be over. I think ole Bill Shakes went a little too far with this one. (Also... I'm wondering why the fuck my daughter's classmate is named Lavinia, not the best name for a kid after reading this)

[Anonymous No.21625366]

Tesla's autobiography. /x/'s fags would enjoy the part about his childhood and how saw things. It's kinda of a natural law of manifestation.

[Anonymous No.21625371]

>>21623552
So far alright but we’re still into the history of mountain climbing and George Mallory. We’ll see when yetis make their entrance how it’s handled

[Anonymous No.21625765]

>>21619356
Been working my way through Thomas Paine by Craig Nelson. Pretty decent biography, lots of interesting tidbits about life at the time. The writer is fond of diversions and so far I haven't learned too much about Paine but I'm still enjoying it. There weren't really any other books about his rather interesting life story so this one suffices well enough if you're interested in him.

>>21625033
Which version are you reading? The 1818 text has some notable differences from the revised 1831 text, most of which were the result of Shelley's life philsophy changing after a series of personal tragedies. The original is generally less limited in its perspective on life, in my opinion.

[Anonymous No.21625848]

>>21619356
Stoner by John Williams. It has been a heart-wretching experience knowing that for every ounce of happiness lived by our protagonist, gallons and gallons of humiliation, sadness and painful silence will surely follow. Let me note how beautifully written Chapter 13 was. A prose of rare delicacy, especially for the moment it describes.

[Anonymous No.21626822]

>>21625353
damn what happened to her?

[Anonymous No.21626851]

>>21619356
Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb. I want to read about the fantasy adventures with dragons but instead I'm getting faggots, faggots and more faggots. Big burly faggots, thin twinky faggots and even underage kid faggots. All faggots recognize each other instantly as faggots and begin to proposition one another as soon as they say hello.
I wish there was less of this faggotry and more of the dragons and magic and stuff

[Anonymous No.21626861]

>>21626851

[Anonymous No.21626922]

The Decline of the German Mandarins. It's about how Germany's late industrialization furnished a class of highly educated aristocrats, wherein family name or background was almost totally irrelevant, and merely acquiring the Abitur (secondary school certificate) placed you in the upper echelon of society. Professors were equivalent to state ministers, and most members of the civil service came from university. Unlike in France or England, there was no esteem granted towards merchants or entrepreneurs or even technicians. Until around 1890, any person who mattered in Germany had to pass gymnasium, which was a 9 year classics education, and which itself sort of required preparatory school to enter. Further, since gymnasium overlapped the last years of primary school, almost no primary school attendees went to gymnasium.

Anyway, you all know the rest of the story. It was the last great era of Western thought, a whole society modeled after the Platonic notion of truth-seeking, going so far as to scorn the material world and uplifting personal development (bildung). These were not just some guys, either -- they were high ranking bureaucrats who steered the government. Germany of this time was a state wholly founded around learning, basically, and we'll never in our lifetimes see something like it again.

[Anonymous No.21627336]

>>21619356
I don't know exactly if it counts as a "Book" but im reading that VIRGIN TERRITORY mermoir (Yeah, this PDF https://www.love-shy.net/book%20pdf.pdf).). Up to around 67 pages in. At the beginning i understood his failures at early life, but the more i go on, the more makes sense why this guy ended up like that. And also makes me glad that i never did any of the sort of that shit past my 17 years, this guy just never learned a better way man.

[Anonymous No.21628387]

>>21619938
Absolutely based.
I, too, read only my own novels and personal manifestos.
My latest is a pulp science fiction that is in the same vein as Star Trek. Now, I have never watched any Star Trek series or read any of the novels that I assume exist, but I was happy to hear some gay old boomer writer from teh series talking about the new season of Picard and mentioning the very same words that I have been using to describe my book: namely, the pulp science fiction. He also said something about a wagontrain of events from people colonizing new planets, and that is basically what the second novel is all about. It is a book about an actual homesteader caravan moving across the western lands to a new areas opened up for the new arrivals.

[Anonymous No.21628393]

>>21621359
read my sci fi instead. It is fun escapism, where only white people are colonizing new worlds in space because we ran a pogrom on the jews in the next few decades.

[Anonymous No.21628506]

>>21626861
kek, quite insightful ain't it?

[Anonymous No.21628910]

The turn of the screw. Very nice prose, cool characters and scene-setting. The scenarii are very simple, not much is happening but it's very comfy.

I'll probably finish it tomorrow and start the Kreutzer Sonata.

[Anonymous No.21628954]

>>21621400
I'm about 20pct in (insert dirty pun here(no pun intended)). Kind of agree with you.

[Anonymous No.21629014]

>>21619356
Human Condition from Hannah Arendt.
Really insightful book about neoliberalism and totalitarianism. I'm surprised how easy it is to understand it and she did a great job explaining higher-level concepts. I'm slowly chipping through it, and it's easily one of my favorites now.

[Anonymous No.21629082]

>>21619356
Where is this image from?
/mu/ released an album last year with cover art in the same same style

[Anonymous No.21629091]

>>21619356
Ecology, Community and Lifestyle.
Arne Naess is a retard who didn't understand Spinoza or pretended to not grasp him so he can interpret him in a way that suits his deep ecology.

[Anonymous No.21629095]

>>21628910
Listen to infant kiss by kate bush, inspired by that novella
Cool song

[Anonymous No.21629162]

>>21621236
Having just read them back to back I feel like the Iliad raised stronger emotions in me with better characters. Especially the ending with Priam coming to Achilles.
The Odyssey is a more interesting story that fails to raise quite the same level of emotional engagement.

[Anonymous No.21629177]

>>21619356
About halfway through House of Leaves. Really liking it. It did a good job getting me used to the style then SOS chapter was cool. The pair of chapters of incredibly dense and lost feeling followed by rushing to the end with large blanks was very awesome. Chapter 13 is the first part where I'm not exactly sure how to look at it with the small numbers on the side which I feel somehow parallel Holloway's 13 part video somehow. I just then finished the following Karen and mineral dating chapters which were alright but obviously not as wild as the chapter 13 before with Tom of course.

[Anonymous No.21629204]

>>21621581
>I was expecting a weird thriller, so far it's more like a comedy. Really looking forward to reading more of it
It gets real weird by the end just wait.
It is kind of comedic but also reflects a real sense of horror and deep uncertainty about the (modern) world that young Chesterton must have felt. A topsy turvy world continuously turned on its head.
I find it interesting how despite being a traditional Catholic, the novel is similar to other works of literary modernism.

[Anonymous No.21629260]

>>21620864
>Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
I recall liking the ambience of this, but in retrospect also recalls motifs of the movies Donnie Darko (malevolent "imaginary friend") and Foxcatcher (tortured soul / college wrestling). There's a line from the book that stayed with me, from the character's journal (?) "My anus is the dark zero."

[Anonymous No.21629281]

Im reading "KA!!!!! Dar Oakley in the ruin of Ymr." Its by John crowley who wrote "Little, Big: Or, The Fairies’ Parliament". Its about a crow who's immortal and his experiences with man from early celtic times to the end of mankind. Dar has the ability to talk with certain mystical people; a shaman, a monk, a native american.... and others.
Shits cash.
i've been reading "Crow" by Ted Hughes also.