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/lit/ - Literature

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2823917 No.2823917[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I'm depressed and I ran out of medicine. Could /lit/ propose a book or two that'll, uh, cheer me up, I suppose? Something with some humour will help me get distracted, surely.

>> No.2823921

Hunger by Hamsun
The Trial by Kafka
The Stranger by Camus
Stoner by Williams
Disgrace by Coetzee

>> No.2823924

>Hunger by Hamsun
>The Trial by Kafka
>The Stranger by Camus
>Stoner by Williams
>Disgrace by Coetzee

Read these once you get more medicine.

>> No.2823941

Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

>> No.2824007
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2824007

I'll second Hitchhiker's guide and The Stranger. Don Quixote is lighthearted and often funny.

I also found Hyperion pretty funny and really absorbing, so that could work.

>> No.2824015

I'm currently reading "Don Quixote" and it's definitely a good suggestion.

"Good Omens" is also fun if you enjoy "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

>> No.2824038
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2824038

>> No.2824062

>Clockwork Orange
One of the funniest I've ever read.

>> No.2825291

Very sorry for the late response, but thanks a bunch for the suggestions.

>>2823921
>>2823924
I saw a few of these floating around as "Depressing literature", haha. I HAVE been meaning to read them for a while, and I'll probably do so at some point after I get more pills, like >>2823924 suggested.

>>2823941
>>2824007
>>2824015
I've read Hitchiker's Guide a couple of years ago, I did enjoy it back then. I'll take a look at Good Omens and Don Quixote, thank you very much.

>>2824038
>>2824062
Ah, I didn't realize there were so many, thank you very much as well!

>> No.2825309

The Shipyard by Onetti.

>> No.2825325

OP, are you me???

Keeping in the spirit of the thread, I back the suggestion of Good Omens. Another one of my favorites by Terry Pratchett is The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. It's a re-imagining of the Pied Piper story, but with a cat as a conman.

>> No.2825402

Anything by PG Wodehouse is guaranteed to cheer you up. The plots are a bit formulaic, but if you're reading him for the plot, you're doing it wrong, you read him for the way he writes, he's a master of his craft. A good place to start is Right Ho, Jeeves which is arguably the best book out of the Jeeves series (it's got the 'laced orange juice' incident), but you can't go wrong with the Ukridge or Blandings Castle series either.

>> No.2825426

Catch 22. It's a ridiculously funny book, one of the few that has made me laugh out loud. You'll find your mood elevated immediately upon reading it, and that will continue all the way to the end, at which point you'll kill yourself.

>> No.2825429

>trying to cure your depression
>reading
nigga what the fuck are you doing?

>> No.2825434

>>2825429
Yeah, I found that weird as well. As a manic depressive, when I get depressed I'm completely incapable of reading anything. I just lie in bed all day and feel empty; any attempts to read literature fall flat on their fucking face.

>> No.2825448

>>2825429
>cure
Nope. Just looking for distractions.

>>2825434
Yeah, I know what you mean. I tend to lose focus and end up staying on the same page for an hour, re-reading the same sentences before I give up and then sleep for 16 hours. I start feeling sorry for myself whenever I spend day after day of not doing anything, though. I figured it was worth a shot.

>> No.2825452

>>2825434
>>2825448

When I get a really bad attack and I don't have anything to imbibe, I find that writing and reading's the only thing that can take my mind off of it.

>> No.2825454

>>2825448
I've reached that point too. I'm going to arrange to play badminton with a friend at the weekend though, just in order to take my mind off things, and I'll probably make some pasta later.

>> No.2825461

>>2825452
I know what you mean about writing, just vilely projecting all your filth onto paper or screen, but if I'm all mimsy and mopey I can't stand to read - I kind of follow this guy's suit, though I tend to get myself moving with a little bit of self-hatred:
>>2825434

>> No.2825469

>>2825461
This guy here, I have a mirror in my room and I always cover it up when I get depressed otherwise I'll get wrapped up in an insane spiral of self-loathing which only ends when I shave off all my hair and pass out in the shower after imbibing huge quantities of hard alcohol.

>Depression general

>> No.2825471

Try one fish two fish

>> No.2825519
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2825519

>Depression general

>can't read books when depressed
>can't read books when manic
>thank you, meds

The most book-tastic month in my life was when I had to be hospitalised, though. Distraction-free enviroment, apart from reading I could maybe... sleep? But I couldn't really, it obviously wasn't allowed to sleep during the day.

>> No.2825582
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2825582

The glorious thing about depression is that you realise books are kind of bullshit like anything else and you stop putting writers and people in general on a pedestal. All your idols seem like bags of shit. It's glorious in that way.

Then, if it's a mild case, you can sometimes venture out like a fragile old man and sit on a park bench and you see a little squirrel or something running along and the beauty of all hits you and you are still depressed but in a comfortable fuzzy way like a nihilist mystic.