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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

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3209706 No.3209706 [Reply] [Original]

Can we post pictures of our book collections?

>> No.3209720

>>3209706
>that feel when Inbox (0)

>> No.3209726

go ahead OP

>> No.3209770
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3209770

>>3209706
I feel like doing a 'books read this year' thread instead, OP, so be quiet while I do that.

What's /lit/ been reading this shiny, electrical, 2012?

>> No.3209775

lol 95% of /lit/ has their books in the format of pdf..u want to see kindles? LLolOLolol!

>> No.3209782

>>3209775
i like to download the covers so I have feeling like it's on the shelf. Same with books from library

>> No.3209784

>>3209770
Make the fucking thread then

>> No.3209795
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3209795

>>3209784
How do you know I'm not the OP?

>> No.3209811
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3209811

>>3209770
How did you like the Charles Yu book? Personally, I loved it--I found it really touching, funny, and I guess depressing as all hell. The metafictional aspects were fun, too, but it's been a long time since I read Barth, Barthelme, Calvino, etc., so I have a good sense of whether Yu's were particularly well done or not.

>> No.3209814

>>3209811
Oh yeah, and those are most of my shelves, from a couple of years ago. I probably have another hundred or so books.

>> No.3209815

>>3209811
How does one even read so many books? How old are you?

Also, I lol'd at the Second Life book. Never played the "game" but it still seems out of place.

>> No.3209823

>>3209815
One doesn't read that many. One mourns the passage of time and the shortness of life. But I try--and I'm never at a loss for the next book to read. And I'm 38.

Also, this is the combined collections of an avid reader (myself) and a philosophy professor (my wife). Oh yeah, that reminds me, this includes virtually none of her philo books, so I guess you have to add another 60-70% to get the real size.

The Second Life book was actually pretty interesting--it's by Peter Ludlow, a respected philo prof who was at the center of some controversies both of The Sims Online and Second Life. We had it because my wife was working on a paper on identity formation in virtual worlds.

>> No.3209825

>>3209795
Because I'm the OP of this thread

>> No.3209835

>>3209811
I felt the same, although the ending was a tad naive - I mean, one knows that, at their essence, the narrator's problems were irreparable. At the conclusion, though, I felt as though I was being asked to forget that. On the whole, though, a terrific novel.

I described it to a friend of mine as Notes From Underground meets Doctor Who, if Doctor Who weren't awful.

>> No.3209856

>>3209823
Interesting. I guess you could have read all of them, it should not be a problem if you have a lot of time/are unemployed/etc. I always feel I don't read enough, and when I have time I always find something else to do. Shame.

>> No.3209864

>>3209856
Thanks, pal. You've reminded me to get back onto my reading-writing cycle. Danke schoen.

>> No.3209879

>>3209835
Interesting. I don't have the book in front of me to re-read the ending, but I remember thinking it was desperate and sad, not that I was being asked to forget anything. Could you say more about what punches were pulled, specifically?

>>3209856
I've often pondered how little income I could get by on--but I suspect being married to a moocher who lives in his books would not sit well with my wife. I do read a fair amount for a working man who also is cursed with other hobbies, but it never feels like enough. I will say, though, that time management does wonders. You have about 112 waking hours every week. Especially if 40-50 are not going to a job or other obligation, that's a lot of time with which to do something you love.

>> No.3209914 [DELETED] 

>>3209879
Hmph. Having educated myself, Wikipedia-style, I see that meter is not considered to be a requirement. Fuck that, I still think it would be better with it.

>> No.3209924

>>3209879
It wasn't inconsistent with the tone, but it was a kind of psychological deus ex: he has a near-death experience, and then achieves enlightenment, in the simplest definition of it.

As he puts it, he learns to live inside 'the elastic present' and notes that the capacity of this Buddhistic 'Now' is infinite and all-containing. One thing which I thought summarized, somewhat, the depressive energy of the novel was that notion of an incomplete universe, where a person's feeling of emptiness was insoluble. That really emphasized the futility of certain hopes - this ending, though, rejects the premise that gave those science fictional hypotheticals their pulling power (the premise of irreparable maladies; psychological and otherwise)

>> No.3209942

>>3209924
Wow man, I didn't get that DEM at the end at all. I'd better re-read it. I agree with everything else you said about it, and I think I'll be sad if it turns out you're right.

I did think that he achieved a sort of psychological "integration". But there was no near-death about it. He is dying. That only adds to the futility of his experience, I think. If there was any comfort, it was cold.

>> No.3209949

>>3209942
Do you mean dying in the Taoist sense, of being always within the process of dying, or do you mean that he was mortally wounded? Because he gets out of the shot fine, and lives, and I think it's mentioned that people have wildly extended lives in his time so he's liable to be living for quite a while longer, I thought. Regardless, he's liable for an average lifespan at the least. Unless, of course, you meant it in the Taoist sense, in which event I totally agree and there's no cause for you to read my post at all.

>> No.3209955

>>3209949
Goddammit, I may have just rewritten the ending in my mind.

>> No.3209990

>>3209955
Sorry to have soiled the memory, but it was, nevertheless, a very good novel. I think ignoring contrary endings might be part of the reader's duty, nowadays, when it comes to new literature, as there's definitely some pressure for writers to roll out the positive endings. Just like you're made to look past certain details that are clearly shoehorned for their appeal to fans of the genre (the science fiction genre, in this case, though not especially in this case). I can happily say that it compared well against the other short novels I've read this year.

>> No.3210004

>>3209990
That's okay, we can still be friends. I appreciate your insights.

>> No.3210122

>>3209990
Hey, if you're still around, I finally found an ebook version so I could re-read the end. Here's the last paragraph:

>When it happens, this is what happens: I still shoot myself. When it happens, I still jump into my time machine, and the memories come flooding back and I still open that package and find what I’m looking for. The moment of all of this is the moment I open that package, and now I understand that what’s happened, that’s all that’s happened, that’s why it happens today. I still get shot in the stomach, but as it turns out I don’t die from it after all. It all works out just right, and it turns out that you can get shot in the stomach and live, if you do it just right, and it turns out that I’m okay, it just happens to be the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my entire life, and it feels really good.

So, yeah. I think I didn't read "It turns out I don't die from it after all" literally--I took it to mean that he "doesn't die" in the sense that his time loop continues eternally, and that doing it "just right" means exactly that...you can live through being shot in the stomach if you do it in the way that permits an eternal recurrence of being shot by your earlier self. I also suspect, though I'd have to re-read the whole thing to prove it, that there are earlier gestures towards a notion of eternal life through repetition, which would strengthen the case my reading. I can certainly your way of reading it, and in fact I suppose it's more straightforward than mine--but I don't think mine is a stretch either.

>> No.3210124

>>3210122
Sorry, I left out some words there. I hope you see my meaning though.

Also, this is the worst bookshelf thread ever.