2023 is Almost Over. What did you read?

[Anonymous No.22791786]

What are you reading to finish out the year, /Lit/? What was the best thing you read this year? How many books did you read? What are your goals for next year? Discuss.

>Me:
I lost count of how many books I read, but I'm currently reading Horace's, "Satires," and am halfway through. I'm also reading Aeschylus', "Agamemnon," and am slightly more than halfway though, and I read Shakespeare's, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," for the first time this year and loved it.

[Anonymous No.22792516]

>>22791786
>2023 is Almost Over. What did you read?
Nothing… again.

[Anonymous No.22792525]

>>22791786
not that much. some theology books. kaczynsky's entire bibliography. maybe five or six novels. bunch of short stories and articles. this has not been a productive year for me, literarily speaking

[Anonymous No.22792542]

33/40
I've read:
>Harry Potter (comfy reading)
>Kafka's Trial, America, Castle, collection of short stories (most likely will read again)
>Lovecraft's Dream Cycle collection (started, but didn't finish it, will try again someday)
>H.G. Wells' Time Machine, Island of dr. Mareau
>Witcher Saga + 2 short stories collection
>Stoner
>Symposium
>Atomic Habits
>Hospital of Transfiguration
>Harlan Ellison's collection (some stories were fine, most were extremely boring)
>Reymont's Peasants, The Promised Land
>Submission by Houellebecq (god awful book, never falling for this grinch looking french fag again)
>The Denial of Death (jewish gibberish)
>Battle Royale (too long, could've been four times shorter)

I'll be reading Grabiński's horror collection this december.

[Anonymous No.22792546]

>What did you read?
Palms

[Anonymous No.22792552]

>The Southern Reach Trilogy
>A Fire Upon the Deep & The Deepness in the Sky
>Proust & the Squid
>Steps to an Ecology of Mind (re-read)
>Infinite Jest (80% done)

[Anonymous No.22792555]

I've read some Hemingway (short stories and TSAR), Fitzgerald, Hunter S. Thompson, American Psycho, Atlas Shrugged, The Sailor who fell from grace with the sea, some short stories and poems by Carver, The Secret History, Fernanda Melchor - Paradais, some Sherlock Holmes stories, I believe I've read Count of Monte Cristo (not quite sure if I finished it this year or last year), Education Sentimentale, read 300 pages of infinite jest and decided to drop it (for now), I found an online forum where men write reviews about prostituties in the city I live in which I read quite regularly, a lot of stories in the Bible and a couple of non fiction about how to read, Simeon - Dirty Snow and Manchette - Fatale also come to my mind. Probably more which I'm forgetting right now.
Overall I'm satisfied with my reading year. I always read or retain too little but it is what it ist.

[Anonymous No.22793636]

bump

[Anonymous No.22793734]

>The Outsider
>In the House in the Dark of the Woods
>The Passive Vampire
>Tonguecat
>Rules for a Knight
>Revelator
>Leech

I really didn't read a whole lot this year. Not quite sure why, but I guess I just got tangled up in life crap and it was hard to get inspired. I'm really trying to bump up my numbers next year.

[Anonymous No.22793737]

>>22791786
The Collected Works of Leo Tolstoy
didn't read most of his nonfiction because he has a lot of it and it's mostly irrelevant unless you're a christian

[Anonymous No.22793743]

I read Cats cradle last week because my girlfriend wanted me to.
I just beat horizon zero dawn because my boss wanted me to.
I just watched doctor who because my family wanted me to.
All the while, my backlog of books and games goes unmoved. Reading law and biz dev for work and playing DOTA doesn’t count. It’s all trash. I am apparently only externally motivated.

[Anonymous No.22793833]

>>22791786
Thursdays

[Anonymous No.22793838]

>>22793743
>I am apparently only externally motivated.
you are literally me
frustrating, isn't it?

[Anonymous No.22793841]

>>22791786
0 b00ks yet again

[Anonymous No.22793854]

>>22791786
Got through a decent amount of stuff now that I think about it. Favorites would be Aristophanes, Pindar, book of Job (plus some parts of the prophets), some of Wang Wei’s stuff, and all the major Shakespeare plays since I read through most of his stuff for the first time. Enjoyed Keats too.

I like your picks OP, very based.

[Anonymous No.22793869]

i read far more books this year than any previous year in my life. it just became my primary form of recreation. it doesn't hurt that i've started finding the internet more boring that ever

favourites i think are testimony by reznikoff is this giant collection of court transcripts from the late 19ths/early 20th century turned into short ascetic prose poems, flannery o connor short stories and poems by anna kamienska which are incredibly pure, simple, and beautiful. i haven't gone through to determine my full top ten which i normally do at the end of the year but those are the ones that really stand out

currently reading that awful mess on the via merulana carlo emilio gadda which is very cool but kinda hard work. it's this cracked kinda detective story except it constantly goes off on wild tangents and everything is this giant tangle and seems to be somewhat about how complicated and overwhelming and impossible to figure out reality is because there's so much of it. it's also pretty funny

i aim to finish on 135 books because that's a cool beethoven number

[Anonymous No.22793872]

>>22791786
Let's see if I can remember...

>How Asia Works by Joe Studwell
>Chip War by Chris Miller
>Determined by Robert Sapolsky
>The Open Society and its Complexities by Gerald Gaus
>A Natural History of Morality by Michael Tomasello

I also skimmed some stuff by Arthur Danto sometime during the year when I wanted to read about art. Oh and I read White Noise and Pale Fire, think those two were the only fiction I read. Pale Fire was on another level.

[Anonymous No.22794387]

>>22793743
Anon, as an external force, I want you to spend time really thinking why this is. Do you lack your own identity? Are you worried about judgment? Are you looking to fit in? Perhaps a little bit of everything. If you're still young (<30), I want you to pick your next book, whichever one you've had on your mind most. If someone wants you to do something else, I want you to scrunch your face and say something like "ahhh, maybe after I'm done with what I'm in now."

Do it. Do it or this anon will be disappointed in you. I want to see you grow in your self-definition.

[Anonymous No.22794484]

>The Lime Twig
>How It Is
>Heart of Darkness
>Giles Goat-Boy
>What is Lightbody?
>VALIS
>Three Tales
>Mein Kampf
>The Passion Artist
>Magnetic Fields
>The Old Man And The Sea
>Steps
>The Plague
>Travesty
>Mason & Dixon (reread)
>Nobody Move
>The Rainbow
>The Great Cheese Conspiracy
>The Name of the Rose
>The Man With The Golden Arm
How It Is was the best of these, and Steps by far the worst.

[Anonymous No.22794505]

>>22791786
I read suttree, the plague, crime and punishment, the idiot and notes from the underground, Anna Karenina, finished the last 2/3 of as I lay dying that I never got around to, light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, master and margarita, notes from the underground, the acharnians, the clouds and lysistrata, man and his symbols, the death of Ivan Ilyich, 5 or so Chekhov stories my favourite of which being ward no 6, and Joyce's the dead. The current read read is Euripides Medea and other stories, got some good ones under my belt I reckon but Absalom Absalom has to have been my favourite, I really want to branch out to other authors next year, as Faulkner says gather the courage to lose sight of the shore, shit like junger and Proust fuck idk maybe Flaubert or something any recs would be appreciated, ill still be finishing dostos big 5 cause ive already finished 3 but after that I need to branch out desperately, considering Gogol as well he seems like a major oversight gonna be a good year boys

[Anonymous No.22794526]

>>22793869
Nice spreadsheet. There's for sure a lot of books written by women. It's probably a first on /lit/

[Anonymous No.22794673]

[Anonymous No.22794682]

>>22794673
Checked senjogahara pfp. I just finished reading season 1

[Anonymous No.22794706]

About 20 books: tons of short story collections, all of ASoIaF, a few misc. novels, working on Count of Monte Cristo.

[Anonymous No.22795153]

>>22791786
I am reading Einstein's Autobiographical Notes and I like it. About to finish it. It delves deep into the histiry of Science and how new experiments influenced his thought, but it is all well written. My favorite parts were when he talks about Philosophy or his own ideas about the world and how he describes his move away from religion, but then later on back into religious thinking.

My favorite book has to be Nahj Al-Balagha, which is a collection of sermons and letters by Imam Ali, the first imam in islam and the successor to the prophet Muhammad. My favorites were the third sermon of Al-Shaqshaqiya and the 185th and 186th sermon where he discusses God. Below is some of the 185th and 186th sermon.

>Praise be to Allah. He is such that senses cannot perceive Him, place cannot contain Him, eyes cannot see Him and veils cannot cover Him. He proves His eternity by the coming into existence of His creation, and (also) by originating His creation (He proves) His existence, and by their (mutual) similarity He proves that there is nothing similar to Him.
>He is One, but not by counting. He is everlasting without any limit. He is existent without any support. Minds admit of Him without (any activity of the) senses. Things which can be seen stand witness to Him without confronting Him. Imagination cannot encompass Him. He manifests Himself to the imagination with his help for the imagination, and refuses to be imagined by the imagination. He has made imagination the arbiter (in this matter). He is not great in the sense that volume is vast and so His body is also great. Nor is He mighty in the sense that His limits should extend to the utmost and so His frame be extensive. But He is great in position and mighty in authority.
>He who assigns to Him (different) conditions does not believe in His Oneness, nor does he who likens Him grasp His reality. He who illustrates Him does not signify Him. He who points at Him and imagines Him does not mean Him. Everything that is known through itself has been created, and everything that exists by virtue of other things is the effect (of a cause). He works but not with the help of instruments. He fixes measures but not with the activity of thinking. He is rich but not by acquisition.
Times do not keep company with Him, and implements do not help Him. His Being precedes times. His Existence precedes non-existence and His eternity precedes beginning. By His creating the senses it is known that He has no senses. By the contraries in various matters it is known that He has no contrary, and by the similarity between things it is known that there is nothing similar to Him

[Anonymous No.22795840]

>>22794505
Nice, I am currently reading through Aristophanes and Euripides as well. I will suggest that you continue with Greek poetry and check out some other more ancient/traditional poetry as well (Chinese stuff, Anglo-Saxon stuff, medieval stuff - basically anything Ezra Pound has translated or praised).

Proust and Flaubert are pretty great picks. Also check out the French poets of that time (Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé). The Nose is a great story, I haven’t read any other Gogol though.

[Anonymous No.22797078]

>>22794387
Thanks anon, while life’s context is a bit more nuanced, I will take your post to heart and find a book I want to read. Clean slate. I will push deep down the urge to play DOTA and sleep.

[Anonymous No.22797083]

>Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil
>94 books, 3 novellas
>I don't generally set goals I just read whatever and see what happens

[Anonymous No.22797166]

OP here. Got busy - ended up having to ignore my own thread.

>>22792516
>>22793841
Well, you know what your goal for January 2024 is then, don't you? Choose an easy book - a novella or short story collection, and read it! You can do it!

>>22792525
>theology
>kacynsky
Uhm, interesting comination.
>not a productive literary year
At least you're reading. That's good.

>>22792542
That's a good amount of material. Quite a mix there.

>>22792546
Stop that, silly.

>>22792552
I've never heard of any of those - save Jest. How are they?

>>22792555
I love Atlas Shrugged (and hate it). It's an important novel. All in all, your tastes are solid. Don't deprive yourself of the rest of scripture. I consider it the most important book there is, but even if you don't, there's a wealth of wisdom and material within - all levels of symbolism and diverse types of literary content. Besides, you'll be one of the few people left in Western society who can actually catch on to the plethora of refernces made to it and understand them. Too hard a sell? Yes, probably - still true.
>prostitute reviews
Fascinating and worldly in an intellectual way for certain, but I'd be careful of cluttering your mind with the thoughts of those men.

>>22793734
Another interesting list of works I'm unfamiliar with. What took you off the beaten path?

>>22793737
What did you think of his work?

>>22793743
You're a good guy. It's nice to see someone who thinks so much of others. What a blessing!

>>22793833
I'm not sure what you mean, but great.

>>22793854
Thanks. Your tastes are good too - though I'm not sure I know who Wang Wei is. Do yourself a favor and read more of the Bible - with your tastes being so similar to mine, I'm sure you'll reap a lifetime harvest. I love Keats. Thinking of him makes me feel happy and sad at the same time - as if he were an old friend. I mourn his loss from the world, and hope I'll see him in Heaven. Whereas Swinburne, whose skills remind me of Keats, burns me up! God blessed him with such amazing talent, yet he became a mere sensualite and committed himself against Christ (in truth, for him, Christ was mere idea). He's another I hope turned and I'll see in Heaven.

>>22793869
Absolutely magnificent! Impressive to the point of being inspiring! I'll try to read more in 2024 in your honor, anon!
>testimony by reznikoff; court transcripts into poems
Sounds electric. I'm going to have to get my hands on it. I've never heard of Anna Kamienska, but I'm always, ALWAYS looking for good poetry.

>>22793872
Based, based, and BASED! I don't know a single one of those books, but what incredible subject matter! Has your perspective been enriched? Are the tangles of the great yarn ball of reality a bit more in focus?

>>22794484
>How It Is
I'll have to add it to my 24 list, then. As it is, I don't think I've touched a thing by Beckett, and I can't let that stand.

[Anonymous No.22797207]

OP - con't replies.

>>22794505
Good choices. You tackled some large volumes. I'm impressed of your diligence. I bet you'll enjoy Proust. I found his style really comfy and since you enjoy larger works, but I only ever read Swann's Way, so I can't tell you how the rest of it feels. One of my most enjoyable recent reads was Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose. I don't know how far offshore that may be for you, but there you go. I read a lot of non-fiction and poems - math history, chess books, and such, so I don't have as many literary recommendations as I would like. Someone whose opinion I respect recommended to me Chekov's The Cherry Orchard and Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, so you may take those as well if you'd like.

>>22794673
Did you really? Our annointed champion! It seems we have at least two annointed knights of /Lit/ present in this thread.

>>22794706
I LOVE short story collections! Give Yiyun Li a try if you haven't.

>>22795153
I am very interested in Einstein's notes. I'll give those a look.

>>22797083
You read alot, that's good, but it seems a bit too YA for my tastes. I want my authors to be at least snobbishly-serious enough to try and tell me something about life in a grandiose manner, preferably imparting the message with subtilty (in fact, the more subtle the more grand), and YA tends to be entertainment for entertainment's sake, so I don't generally bother. Still, keep it up!

[Anonymous No.22797216]

>>22797083
OP again.

You know what? Forgive my prior reply, that was snobbish and unkind. Forgive my arrogant pretension, please. Assuming you have - thank you, quite magnanimous.

[Anonymous No.22797305]

>>22793734
based ethan hawke enjoyer

[Anonymous No.22797400]

>>22791786
I didn't read as much this year compared to the last. I played too many games.

What I've read so far:

1. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology
2. Early Buddhist Discourses by John J. Holder
3. Biocivilizations by Predrag B. Slijepčevic
4. Ludwig Klages and the Philosophy of Life: A Vitalist Toolkit by Paul Bishop
5. Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction by Todd May
6. Revolt Against the Modern World by Julius Evola
7. Metaphysics of Technology by David Skrbina
8. Patterns in Nature by Philip Ball
9. Monteverde: Science and Scientists in a Costa Rican Cloud Forest by Sneed Collard
10. Monteverde & Arenal by Maria Montero
11. Going, Going, Gone?: Animals on the Brink by Malcom Tait
12. Emerald Forest by Hiroo Isono
13. Subject & Object by Ryuto Miyake
14. MM25: Mega Man & Mega Man X Official Complete Works

What I plan to finish by the end of the year:

1. Panpsychism in the West, revised edition by David Skrbina
2. Around the World in 80 Birds by Mike Unwin
3. Elegant Life of The Chinese Literati by Zhenheng Wen
4. Wise Guys: Encounters with the Corvids of North America by Chris Petrak
5. Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries translated by Brook Ziporyn
6. MMK by Nagarjuna translated by Sideritis
7. Beware the World to Come by Christopher Jon Bjerknes
8. The Primate Family Tree: The Amazing Diversity of Our Closest Relatives by Ian Redmond
9. Mega Man Zero: Official Complete Works
10. Metroid Mission Logs

[Anonymous No.22797404]

>>22797400
Oh, and I will read The Peregrine by JA Baker too.

[Anonymous No.22797422]

>>22797400
>>22797404
Interesting choices.
>plan to finish by the end of the year
You're going to finish 11 books in like three weeks??

[Anonymous No.22797456]

>>22797422
>You're going to finish 11 books in like three weeks??
Two weeks. I am 33-50% done with most of them. I have some more games to beat before then.
I won't have time to read much next year because I start a MS in Robotic Intelligence.

[Anonymous No.22797515]

>>22791786
Ok let's see;
>Wheel of Time books 8 to 11 (first 6-7 I re-read last year)
>The first Darth Bane book (halfway through the second one right)
>Laberynth of Evil and Revenge of the Sith (couldn't find Rise of Darth Vader)
>The Chrestomanci series (and currently re-reading Lives of Christopher Chant)

Colour of Magic, Light Fantastic and Equal Rites from the Discworld series but didn't finish any of them though I was enjoying what I read.
Also; I picked up a Harry Potter book for the first time in my life, the second one; I like stuff for older kids and teenagers but HP struck me as something intended for kids younger than that (around 2nd Grade, kids around 7) I considered tossing it away after the first couple chapters but forced myself to keep going, to at least read a couple chapters set at Hogwarts because I figured out that was what actually appealed to people about this series; I read up to chapter 9 or 10, and I gave up for good when I read a paragraph like "And Harry and friends went down to the classroom. It was transformations classes, and in today's exercise they had to turn beetles into buttons... and Harry came out of the classroom holding three very nice looking buttons" or something to that effect, I said "this is for little kids" and just put it away. I can't even be angry at it.

[Anonymous No.22797569]

>>22797456
I kneel.

[Anonymous No.22797742]

>>22797166
>>22793734

Eh. Clinical depression, work, keeping my relationship afloat etc.vsgyy