/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymoose No.2862359]

itt:

Last Book:
Current Book:
Next Book:

And thoughts.


Last: Savages by Don Winslow (really stupid pot crime thriller. Would not suggest, though I hear his other stuff is decent)

Current: On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony (Decent fantasy, but nothing more than an easy read. I expected there to be more detail of the world, but Xanthony hasn't been delivering much more than the same shit for the past 100 pages or so.)

Next: Of Human Bondage by Maugham or Portrait of the Artist. Either way I'll be reading both within the next few books.

[Anonymous No.2862389]

Last Book: A Farewell to Arms
read this as a counter having just read Journey to the End of Night and even though I gave up on it before I had an easier time getting through it. B+
Current Book: Go Down, Moses
Faulkner always good, The Bear was great as I expected though a bit confusing when it started tying the other stories into the narrative.
Next Book: The Russian House
Spies!

[Anonymous No.2862417]

Last: Eugenics: A Reassessment by Richard Lynn. Pretty good over-all. Not sure about his prognostications on the future Chinese-run global-government.

Current: The Bible, Revised New International Version. Not religious, but since it is an important book that has influenced world history to such a great extent I figured I should finally get around to reading it. Currently at Leviticus. So far it is pretty damn boring.

Next: Intelligence: A Unifying Construct for the Social Sciences by Richard Lynn & Tatu Vanhanen. Someone uploaded the book and posted it on /pol/. Since I've found Lynn's earlier work interesting, I think I'll give it a try.

[Anonymoose No.2862470]

>>2862389
If you don't mind my asking, why'd you give up on aFtA?

[Anonymous No.2862497]

>>2862470
It was one of the first "serious" books I had tried to read and I wasn't used to the dialogue and the pacing.

[Anonymous No.2862578]

last: the heroes by joe abercrombie. loved it. fast paced and fun.

current: mistborn. im at page 170 and so far it has been "he pushed the coin and pulled. oh no somebody pushed against his push. he burned pewter and threw a coin. then he pushed.

fucking YAWN. should i finish this?

next: mistborn 2 if i can take it. if not some more abercrombie.

[Anonymous No.2862586]

>>2862389
Last Book: Doctor Jekyll and Mr.Hyde
Current Book: A farewell to arms
Next book: Hopefully Catcher in the Rye

I'm trying to catch all the classics during the summer

[Anonymous No.2864526]

>>2862586
What other classics do you like?

[Anonymous No.2864534]

Last: Count Belisarius - Graves
Current: Death in Midsummer and other Stories - Mishima
Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Rampo
Next: American Stories - Nagai

cbf typing more, in bed

[Anonymous No.2866009]

Okay

[Anonymous No.2866142]

Last: re-read The Road
Current: World War Z
Next: Fight Club

[Anonymous No.2866175]

Last book: Dubliners
>A series of short stories about residents of a city in 1910s Ireland. This was my first Joyce but not my first "Joycetoyevsky," to use a popular & common /lit/ calque.

Currently reading: The Iliad
>Long poem composed during the Dark Ages of ancient Greece, then put to paper right around the time when the Greeks rediscovered writing, ~8th c BCE. Details the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, a soldier accompanying a Mycenaean campaign to topple the capital city of an eastern realm & rescue a princess. Drama ensues.

Next Book: The Trial
>Bought for $1 at library book sale today.

[Anonymous No.2866231]

Last 5 books:
>Los detectives salvajes, Roberto Bolaño
>After Babel, George Steiner
>La musiquilla de las pobres esferas, Enrique Lihn
>Une pelleté de nuages, Michel Garneau
>Floating Life, Moez Surani

I'm reading classics now:

Current 5:
>Il deserto dei Tartari, Buzzati
>Contos, Eça de Queiroz
>Don Quijote, Cervantes
>Le rouge et le noir, Stendhal
>Tonio Kröger, Mann

Then I'm eager to read more German prose as well as discover the genius of Dunne's and Voltaire's prose. Chaucer is a remaining classic I wanted to read.

Next 5:
>Die Erzählungen, Kafka
>Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein, György Lukács
>Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
>The Completed Works, Dunne
>Romans et contes, Voltaire

[Anonymous No.2866233]

>last
Fight Club (meh, awesome prose, but it was essentially the same as the movie for deepness)
>now
The Trial (YUSSSSSSSS)
>next
Catch 22
The Brothers Karamazov
Crime and Punishment
Tender is the Night
LOTR
The Iliad & Odyssey
Animal Farm
The Sun Also Rises

Thoughts on what I should read?

[Anonymous No.2866238]

*Donne

[Anonymous No.2866240]

>>2866233
Sounds like you have the next few months planned out for you.

[Anonymous No.2866246]

>>2866233
Ditto, that's quite hefty reading. I'd add more poetry: Euripides, Moliere, Shakespeare, and swap LOTR for something apart of one of the other listed books' literary traditions.

[Anonymous No.2866251]

Last Book: The Eye of The Storm: Masterpiece of perennial mysticism.

Current Book: Delta of Venus: An easy read. Funny silly shit on it makes me overLOL from time to time.

Next Book: Post-Singular: Rudy Rucker seems like a funny smart guy to read from, I just read an article he wrote about his chats with Gödel, and I got interested in his books.

[Anonymous No.2866258]

Last Book: 2001 A Space Odyssey
Next Book: The Name of the Rose
No current book, finished 2001 this morning and haven't started Rose yet.
2001 Thoughts: At first I was like
>dat Zeerust lol
Then I was like
Damn, that was epic!

[Anonymous No.2866289]

Last Book: The Time Machine; awesome, the last pages when he travels to the end of the universe and looks at the sun getting nearer and nearer were just breath taking.
I'd like more sci-fi novels like this which makes you realize the possibilities and leave you with a sense of majesty if you guys know some.
I'm not much knowledgeable in this field.

Current Book: The Zombie Survival Guide; I'm just at the beginning, looks like a fun, light read.

Next Book: I don't know yet, I think Lolita since you guys speak about it so often I feel like giving it a try.

[Standard Toaster !TOASTxk3L. No.2866343]

Last Book: Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov (it was quite a good book. It kind of dragged a little towards the end, but the actual end made up for it. Plus, Nabokov is an excellent writer)
Current Book: Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost by Paul Hendrickson (it's pretty good, I suppose. The author isn't superb and he occasionally tries to copy Hemingway's style, but without success. It has some good information about Hemingway, though)
Next Book: I haven't fully decided yet. Either something by Ray Bradbury, or Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse.

[Anonymous No.2866392]

Last book: The Stranger by Albert Camus
It was absolutely excellent. Turns out that I've always sported an Absurd view of life, and this book helped me to put a name on that viewpoint.

Current Book: The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde.
I like it so far. I have a bit of a gay Victorian fetish, so this is right up my alley (all dat gay subtext). Furthermore, Wilde has a beautiful literary voice that makes him a pleasure to read. Admittedly, he can be a bit long-winded.

Next book: I never know.

>>2862586

I read that about a month ago. Honestly, besides the letter written by Jekyll at the end of the book, I thought the story itself was a little boring. What did you think of it?

[Anonymous No.2866418]

Last: re-read Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, and Wizard and Glass by Stephen King (they really must be listed together)

Current: Trainspotting (YES!), re-reading 'Salem's Lot (quickly losing interest due to realization that Stephen King seemed better when I was younger)

Next up: a re-read of The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough. That shit was a-maze-sing.

[Anonymous No.2866446]

L: uhh a bunch of short stories from the Serial Garden, if that counts.
C: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
N: not sure, but maybe I'll start The Black Company series.

Serial Garden has some very enjoyable stories. Also the setting makes me think of what the more childlike Harry Potter moments might be inspired from.

Tom Sawyer is incredibly funny. It is as though Twain is perfectly describing how young boys think, but in a very detailed and well-spoken way. Very interesting.

>>2866289
hmm maybe try House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds. Otherwise, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is a good read.

[Anonymous No.2866487]

Jerzy Kosiński - The Painted Bird: Nice and dark; was a fantastic read.

Walter Moers - The Alchemaster's Apprentice: Such a fun read! Little childish but he writes such an intricate world. I think so far I perfer Rumo however.

Flannery O'Conner - Wise Blood: Someone on Lit reccomended it!

[Anonymous No.2866549]

>>2866392
I thought the story was okay honestly, nothing special, it was more about the atmosphere, you know, being in the year 802701 trying to understand what the fuck was going on made me more involved in the plot but I understand your point.

[Anonymous No.2868775]

last: the experiment{strugatzky
current: some castaneda
next:?

[Anonymous No.2868807]

Last Book:

>Shoplifting From American Apparel by Tao Lin- I didn't like it as much as I liked Richard Yates but it was still an interesting book. His style here was a little bit different than Richard Yates too which is nice to know that he can stretch his skills.

Current Book:

>By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano - So far it seems typical Bolano. It seems like the story is really just a bunch of allegorical stories about literature.

>Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai - The prose are beautiful, the characters are grimey and the jokes are kafakesque, yet I still don't have a connection to this book at all. I am thinking about dropping it and reading something else, but I will definitely read it later, when it is colder.

Next Book:

>I am thinking about Dante's Inferno or Gravity's Rainbow.

[Anonymous No.2868821]

Last: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
>the best book I've ever read until I read Ulysses
Current: Savage Detectives
>only just begun but I cannot put it down, have been meaning to read it for the longest time
Next: Heart of Darkness

[Anonymous No.2868823]

Last Book: Walden and other writings by Henry David Thoreau. Interesting ideas, very very very very boring at items; especially the expenses tables in Walden. Essay entitled "Life without principle" is probably the best of his work.

Current Book: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami

Next Book: either Slaughterhouse 5 or Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut.

[Anonymous No.2868828]

>>2868823

>items

er...times is what i meant to write.

[Anonymous No.2868834]

>>2866392
>Turns out that I've always sported an Absurd view of life, and this book helped me to put a name on that viewpoint.

I know that feel. You should read The Fall, I thought it was a bit more interesting than The Stranger.

>>2866233
The Sun Also Rises is one of my favorite novels. It is nice little read.

Hope you like the Trial that is also one of my favorites.


>>2866175
What translation do you have for the Illiad?

>>2862586
Despite popular belief, Catcher in the Rye is an amazing book no matter what age you are and I hope you enjoy his voice.

>>2862417
Why aren't you reading the King James Bible?

[Anonymous No.2868857]

>>2866446
thank you for the suggestions kind anon.

[Anonymous No.2868877]

>last
Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar. A great writer who deserves to be better known, at least among literary poseurs such as yourselves. He writes about intellectuals and artists with the kind of really vicious perspicacity that can only come from ruthless self-examination of such a specimen.

>current
The Red and the Black by Stendhal. It seems a little slight, but it's a good read and I enjoy the perspective on the politics and culture of the time.

>next
Austerlitz by WG Sebald. I haven't read any of his yet, I'm expecting very great things.

[Anonymous No.2868904]

LAST: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. Blah. Just because you've read and seen these motifs and themes many times in contemporary lit.

CURRENT: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Funny and interesting details so far.

NEXT: A lot. Current book sale finds: Burroughs, Verne, Theroux, and Phillip Roth

[Anonymous No.2868908]

Last: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (brilliant writer, amazing book. Can't wait to read his fiction at some point in the future)

Current: Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (200 pages in, like his writing stye although it's a bit verbose at times and I've read elsewhere that his editor was one of the main reasons his books actually made any impact since he's submit so much fucking work to him he'd spend months cutting it down.)

Next: The Man of Mode by George Etheredge

[Anonymous No.2868920]

>Last Book:
George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia
>Current Book:
Kawakami Minoru , Kyoukainsenjou no Horizon 2
>Next Book:
Mikami En, Biblia Koshoudou no Jikentecho

[Anonymous No.2868928]

>>2868920
How did you find Homage to Catalonia?

[Anonymous No.2868931]

>>2868920

is that orwell book good? I've read a lot of his work and enjoyed it but not read that one. I think i recall seeing it in the bookshop, about his time in the spanish war?

[Anonymous No.2868939]

>>2868931
Not that guy but yes, it's an extremely good book.


It's a fairly reliable and wide-ranging account of the various political factions of the war, how they fought and how they eventually fell apart.

The writing itself is typically honest and comical as usual.

There's this great scene which I've written out somewhere, where he gets shot and recalls the various thoughts that go through his head ashe contemplates dying . It's very well written and my favourite part of the whole book.

The ending will surprise you, and it takes the shape of a thriller in latter parts

[Anonymous No.2868950]

>>2868939

sounds interesting, i'll have to pick it up

[Anonymous No.2868955]

>Last:
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercombie. It was a spectacular tale of war and revenge. It was almost oppressively dark and gritty, despite the relatively happy ending.
>Current:
Daemon by Daniel Saurez. It's a surprisingly interesting techno-thriller type book with an original, fresh concept. Sadly, the writing is rather technical and most of the characters are lacking in depth, but the story and pace make up for a bit a good bit
>Next:
Little, Big by John Crowley
I heard about it on /lit/, so I decided to order it. Might be cool
>Inb4 neckbeard genrefag

[Anonymous No.2868970]

>>2868950
What other works of his have you read?

[Anonymous No.2868982]

>>2868931
Yeah, it's just an account of the war through his own eyes, but it's really damn good, in my opinion; one of the few pieces of non-fiction that I've found exciting and interesting in a while. I originally picked it up solely because I was curious to read about what life was like in Aragon and Catalonia during the time they had been organized as anarchist collectives, but I ended up getting gripped by Orwell's great writing. I often found myself forgetting that I was reading an account of real events; whether that's because the Spanish Civil War was just fucking crazy at times, or because of the way Orwell presents it, I can't really say; it's probably both.

[Anonymous No.2868991]

>>2868955
hell yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

I love Little, Big. Such a good book. But be aware it's not at all a thriller-type thing.

[Anonymous No.2868998]

Last: Wind, Sand and Stars

it was very beautiful and poignant, thoroughly enjoyed.

Current: Naked Lunch.

Don't think much of it yet as I am not far in.

Next: Oblivion by DFW

[Anonymous No.2868999]

L: Letters To A Young Contrarian - Hitchens
Pretty good, short, quick read. Though sometimes I feel like he wants to brag about his own experiences.
C:The Hobbit(reread) - Tolkien
Not nearly as good as I remember it. The last time I read it I was in 4th grade or so.
N: Inherent Vice, Blood Meridian, or House of Leaves probably. Just depends on how I feel.

[Anonymous No.2869018]

>>2868920
>Kawakami Minoru , Kyoukainsenjou no Horizon 2
Mah nigga.
Is this in english?

[Anonymous No.2869023]

>>2869018
Nope.

[Anonymous No.2869024]

>>2869023

Only japanese? Fuck that.

[3rd No.2869045]

>>2868877
Regretting not having picked up Hopscotch the other day based on this.

>prior
Keith Waterhouse - Billy Liar [1959]
Misanthropic little jaunt ala Salinger cum British smugness. Very visually inclined, it's little surprise it went on to stage and screen. Overall it was fun but nothing more and certainly less than Amis Sr.'s Lucky Jim.

>present
Thomas Pynchon - Mason & Dixon [1997]

>post
Honoré de Balzac - Eugénie Grandet [1833]

[Anonymous No.2869050]

>>2869024
A publisher would have to be nuts to take a chance on a series like that, especially with the abysmal track records most translated Japanese YA fiction has. Trying to market it successfully would take a stroke of genius or pure luck; do you aim for weeaboos? Or fantasy/SF fans, many of whom hate weeaboo things? What about the potential for alternate history fiction fans? Not to mention that the writing in the books itself is so dependent on Japanese deixis that translating it to the point where it doesn't feel arcanely awkward to most readers would require significant rewriting, which is bound to alienate some of the misguided weeaboo fans of the adaptation who would otherwise be expected to at least be initial in-the-bag sales (see: all the bitching about alternate cover art for some other series). It would be a mess.

It totally deserves it, though.