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/lit/ - Literature

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2343039 No.2343039 [Reply] [Original]

post some books that changed your life, need some inspiration.

pic probly unrelated.

>> No.2343041
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2343041

inb4 catcher in the rye

>> No.2343043

I cannot say the following novels changed my life, but they sure helped me to define it better and influenced what it was already alike

Notes from underground
No longer human
American Psycho

>> No.2343044

twilight

>> No.2343045

dantes inferno

the original version, not that translated bullshit

>> No.2343046

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged
The Bible
The Koran
The Torah

In ascending order.

>> No.2343047
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2343047

The Bible.

I was a well adjusted little toddler before I found out my parents believed in fantasy lands and gods.

"Change" isn't always good.

>> No.2343048

>>2343043
Cool, actually got a bunch of dostoyevsky ata second-hand bookstore while back, but found it hard top get into. (started with crime and punishment). Will give notes from underground a go.

Is it worth reading American Psycho if I've seen the movie?

>> No.2343049

>>2343047
>atheists analyze the bible literally
>think they proved anything beyond how stupid and autistic they are

>> No.2343050

Short story: Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff. Wouldn't say it changed anything in my life, but definitely thought provoking.

>> No.2343054

>>2343049
>The Bible: The literal histories and words of God(s)
I think that contradiction may already be on there, so you're just being redundant.

>> No.2343053

>>2343039
Aldous Huxleys The Perennial Philosophy, kickstarted an entire new chapter of my life.
Kinda like how Atlas Shrugged did, but much further teaching.

>> No.2343052

Most things I read.
I can't think of a single book that left me completely the same as I was beforehand.

>> No.2343055

Harry Potter - the Prisoner of Azkaban
sincerely, this book made me read more and more.

>> No.2343056

>>2343053
*reaching

>> No.2343058

Sister Carrie. Really gave me some insight into human nature, or at least put it into perspective.

>> No.2343061

>>2343058
tell me more about that book.

>> No.2343062

Musashi. Only 1000+ page book I've ever managed to see through the end and one of the greatest reading experiences of my life. It's not perfect (it can be a bit too melodramatic at times) but it's nothing short of an epic tale

>> No.2343064

>>2343062
you might want to try Peter the Great, by Alexei Tolstoi, another epic book. Look into it, you might be pleased.

>> No.2343072

>>2343058
Turn of the century American novel, thick, juicy layers of realism. Follows the story of a girl who moves from a small town to Chicago and gets completely engrossed in the materialistic culture. Lots of excellent narrative and a relatively unconventional plot. Also perfectly paced storyline.

“She did not grow in knowledge so much as she awakened in the matter of desire”

“When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse”

>> No.2343073

>>2343072
Do you think it's worth mentioning that the mayor of chicago is a communist terrorist in illustrating how SHIT that place is?

>> No.2343853

I think Lolita is traditionally the first book people read wherein the plot is secondary to the interests -you focus on the writing either 'cos it's dazzling or merely as a distraction from the horror of the plot.

>> No.2343857

the stranger

>> No.2343879
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2343879

Will You Please Be Quiet Please? by Raymond Carver. The first book I read by Carver, which sparked my real interest in literature and led to Gordon Lish and many more.

Pic related: the cover I read.

>> No.2343898

>>2343048
Oh god yes. The book is fantastic. The movie is shit.

>> No.2343910
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2343910

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
Siddhartha - Hermann Hess
Society Of The Spectacle - Guy Debord

Read all of them books and your life will never be the same again.

>> No.2343913

>>2343062
I agree.

>> No.2343919

change your own life instead of filling your personality-vacuum with other people's ideas you fucking drone

>> No.2343927
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2343927

>>2343919
>you fucking drone

>> No.2344635

A Clockwork Orange
Brave New World
Animal Farm
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

>> No.2344642

>>2344635
same person also
The Motorcycle Diaries
>INB4 pretentious faggot Che was a failure in life but the journey he went on in his youth was extremely interesting if you didn't apply his later life to his younger self

>> No.2344646
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2344646

>> No.2344832

Atlas Shrugged (turned me into a libertard for a while; it's still useful for perspective), Road to Wigan Pier, Down and Out in Paris and London, Dead Ground (by Raymond Gilmour).

>> No.2344859
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2344859

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Anonymous, 1824) (James Hogg)

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, (Full title, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself: With a detail of curious traditionary facts and other evidence by the editor) is a novel by the Scottish author James Hogg, published anonymously in 1824.

Considered by turns part-gothic novel, part-psychological mystery, part-metafiction, part-satire, part-case study of totalitarian thought, it can also be thought of as an early example of modern crime fiction in which the story is told, for the most part, from the point of view of its criminal anti-hero. The action of the novel is located in a historically definable Scotland with accurately observed settings, and simultaneously infers a pseudo-Christian world of angels, devils, and demonic possession.

>> No.2344863

Either / Or

Various parts of books by various philosophers, I'd be lying if I said I read most of their books in their entirety.

>> No.2344868

Papyrus of Ani; Egyptian Book of the Dead [Budge]

Seeing the original religious ideas of the past allows a unique perspective on the development of belief over millenia.

It is an original source that can be seen copied through out future cultures. Religions and cultures change but the method of manipulation remains the same.

>> No.2344876

I haven't read anything that inspired me significantly

>> No.2344887

>>2343879
Does anyone have a link to an ebook version of this? It seems very interesting.

>> No.2344896

>>2343898
I'm near halfway through the book and I agree. I loved the movie, now it's okay. The book is fantastic so far.

>> No.2344902

>>2344887
You can get Carver cheap online or in most used bookstores, any of his short stories are worth having around.

>> No.2344905

>>2344902
Where can I pick it up DRM free?

>> No.2344915

Books change me but I can't change my life.