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/lit/ - Literature

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3240930 No.3240930 [Reply] [Original]

What have you read this year?


I think I liked Notes from Underground best. Either that or The Star Rover by Jack London which really surprised me. Brief Interviews With Hideous Men was also intense, the stories were a bit hit or miss though, but the ones that hit, hit really hard.

>> No.3240941

fuck yeah, finally someone who's read swartzwelder. I love the frank burly books!

>> No.3240948

>>3240941
It was a lot of fun, I really can't wait to start "How I Conquered Your Planet". Is the entire series as enjoyable as the first book?

>> No.3240986

>>3240948
yeah. The only books I haven't read are the Frank Burly book that came out this year and 'Double Wonderful', which, from the reviews, seems like it might have been a miss.

The Burly books probably shouldn't be read right in a row, because you might start to get sick of them due to their lack of any substance or really quality writing. But they all have the same level of comedy as 'The Time Machine Did It'. The later books start to get kind of silly because Swartzwelder injects his libertarian rants into them at inappropriate times. But that's kind of funny in a meta way if you know about swartzwelder and his idiosyncrasies

>> No.3241049

>>3240930
I'm curious what your age is, not implying anything on your choice of reading.

>> No.3241070

>>3241049
I recently turned 22, but I only started getting into reading at age 20. In High School I never read even so much as the assigned literature.

>> No.3241101

The only fiction books i've read this year are:

Cat's Cradle
Norwegian Wood
Slaughterhouse 5
Girlfriend In A Coma (awful)
Going After Cacciato
Metamorphosis
Acts of Worship

Not really a big reader I guess.

>> No.3241120

OP I want your honest opinion

Is Shoplifting from American Apparel worth reading? I saw an excerpt from Richard Yates and was kind of puzzled. Maybe I'm missing something.

>> No.3241134

i've been meaning to get my hands on a few of those, op.
what did you think of solaris & the time machine did it? best of the sci-fi you might recommend?

>> No.3241695

>>3241120
'Shoplifting' is his most accessible book in my opinion. 'Richard Yates' is probably Tao's worst effort. Just try 'Shoplifting', it's really short anyways.

>>3241134
Both were a lot of fun! I wouldn't say best, but the Science Fiction books that really surprised me positively were The Space Merchants and The Dispossessed.

>> No.3241746

>>3241695
>The Space Merchants
holy shit. looks great. can't believe i've never heard of this.
>The Dispossessed
oh hey, read this a number of years back. nice recommend.
you are wonderful, op. thank you

>> No.3241778
File: 756 KB, 1158x2300, 2012.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3241778

Just under 60 books... Not too bad going.

The real stand outs have been "The Doll" and "Catch 22".

Worst: a couple of the SF ones were really trash ("Super Flat Times" and "Speed of Dark"). Hopscotch was super disappointing as well.

>> No.3241878

Stuff I read this year I liked:
War & Peace
The Man in the High Castle
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Brothers Karamazov

Stuff I didn't like:
The Satanic Verses
The Handmaid's Tale
Cosmopolis

>> No.3241909
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3241909

Some (many) of these were for different classes.

>> No.3241920
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3241920

>> No.3241964

>>3241746
>you are wonderful, op. thank you
you're welcome, have fun.

>> No.3241967

>>3240930
>Jack London
Please say you've read 'White Fang' ? That book is fantastic and very well written.

>> No.3242019

"Pan" Knut Hamsun
"The War of the End of the World" Mario Vargas Llosa
"The Savage Detectives" Roberto Bolano
"Mother Night" Vonneguht
"The Dwarf" Par Lagenkvist
"The Shadow Line, Youth and Typhoon" Joseph Conrad
"Roscoe" William Kennedy
"The Captain" Jan De Hartog
"The Astonished Man" Blaise Cendrars
"A Walk in the Woods" Bill Bryson
"The Coming of the Third Reich" Richard Evans
"The Threepenny Opera" Bertolt Brecht
"A Touch of the Poet" Eugene O'Neill
"Henry and June" Anais Nin
"Wolf Hall" Hilary Mantel

>> No.3242032
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3242032

Okay bros here's what I read this year.

>> No.3242034

>>3241909
That reads like first year uni student

>> No.3242043
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3242043

>>3240930

>> No.3242053

are we allowed to count any graphic novels or manga that we read towards our book list?
I wanted to have that listed on my goodreads as read but I felt it was a little cheating if it counted towards my goal....

Thoughts?

>> No.3242057

>>3240930
Lol my memory's far too shit to be able to remember what I've read over the past twelve months.

>> No.3242058

>>3242034
that's what I am

>> No.3242059

>>3242032
cloud atlas any good?

>> No.3242104

>>3242053
Go ahead man. I usually just add the first manga/graphic novel of a series if there's a lot of them, then rate that as my rating for the whole series. If I added all my manga I've read it'd be ridiculously high, because they're quick reads. So just the first volume works imo.

>> No.3242115

>>3242059

It's alright. Some sections were better than others.

>> No.3242127 [DELETED] 

Chemistry, the central Science. Brown.

Totally worth it.

>> No.3242147
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3242147

Huysmans - Against Nature (really liked it)
Baudelaire - Paris Spleen (liked it a bunch)
Thich Nhat Hanh - Breath! You Are Alive ("meh")
Proust - Swann's Way (disliked it)
Borges - Ficciones (liked it)
Nabokov - Lolita (liked it a lot)
Celine - Death on the Installment Plan (loved it)
Bataille - Story of the Eye (hated it)
Hamsun - Hunger (liked it a great deal)
Rimbaud - Illuminations (liked it)
Pessoa - The Book of Disquiet (thoroughly enjoyed it)
Bukowski - Post Office (it was entertaining, my first Bukowski)
Ligotti - The Conspiracy Against the Human Race (loved it)
H.P. Lovecraft - Buncha Stories (really liked all of them)

decent year, hoping to read more in 2013

>> No.3242156

Haven't been keeping track and it would be too much effort to look back and compile something now, but I think I'll do this for the upcoming year.
Probably my favourite fictional book this year was IJ, but it's hard to say overall. I re-read Lolita, too, which was a great experience.

>> No.3242165
File: 611 KB, 1229x437, Screenshot from 2012-12-08 23:29:57.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3242165

>> No.3242196

>>3242165

How is Seinfeld and What Every Body is Saying?

>> No.3242205

>>3242196
just a transcription of the stand up bits from the show and mediocre but mildly interesting.

>> No.3242320
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3242320

>mfw people actually count the number of books they read this year and made a picture to go with it.

>> No.3242321

>>3242320
i knew you were new to /lit/ but i didn't guess this new

>> No.3242340

>>3242320
Yeah, it's been happening for years.

It takes about five seconds to screencap the cover view of the books you have listed as read in 2012 on Goodreads. A lot of /lit/ is on Goodreads - we have two groups there, one of them a failed book club that did go on a couple of months.

>> No.3242355

>>3242321
>>3242340
New? I've been here before Stagolee. I just tripped recently.

Besides, I'm doing my daily trip duties. Rustling some jimmies, like yours, pointing out the obvious, etc.

>> No.3242435

>>3242320
I don't make a photo but I do make a list, it's good for keeping track.

>> No.3242452

>>3242435
I like the chart, because as I look over the covers this wave of remembrance hits me as I see each one. I remember where I was when reading it, what strong emotions I felt, my thoughts as I progressed through it, etc. It's a nice feeling.

>> No.3242455

what's the book 2 to the right of Eeee eeeee eeeeee?

>> No.3242471

>>3242455

>Frank Kafka - Contemplation

I think

>> No.3242470

>>3242455
Franz Kafka's Contemplation. It's his very short stories. It's published by Twisted Spoon Press.

>> No.3242489

>>3242470
>>3242471

thanks guys. I generally pick books based on their covers and it looks interesting.

>> No.3242505
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3242505

>>3242489
TSP usually has some pretty neat covers. They put out two other Kafka books too, if you're interested in those.

>> No.3242531

Dumb questions, but is there a program to organize the books, or do you guys just use Paint?

>> No.3242535

>>3242531

I think everyone takes screenshots of their goodreads and then edits it in Photoshop.
Pretty fucking autismal when you think about it.

>> No.3242540

>>3242535
I use Paint.

Does that make me less autismal?

>> No.3242541
File: 450 KB, 900x1256, 2012Reads.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3242541

>>3240930
Had some really good reads this year, especially as my first year really reading. My goal was 52 and I should hit it in the next week or two.

Standouts were: V., Notes From Underground, The Brothers Karamazov, Infinite Jest, Gravity's Rainbow

>> No.3242544

>>3242540

That's some Rain Man level shit.

>> No.3242554

I can't be arsed to make a picture, but I do have a list:

Paradise Lost by John Milton
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Professor by Charlotte Brontë
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas de Quincey
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Middlemarch by George Wliot
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Queer by William S Burroughs
Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs
The Victim by Saul Bellow
Everyman by Philip Roth
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by DFW

And then a bunch of poetry, but I didn't read through any full books of poems.

>> No.3242587

>>3242541

> Letters to a young contrarian

What did you think of this book? It was honestly one of my favorite reads this year.

>> No.3242618

A Song of Ice and Fire (all of it.)
Doctor Zhivago
Stiller
some of Hemingways short stories
High Fidelity
Snuff
Good Omens
American Gods
The Day of the Jackal
The Medicus
Neuromancer
To your shattered bodies go
Tried reading the Bible. Failed to finish. Again.

>> No.3242637

Ernest Cline - Ready Player One
Alex Garland - The Beach
Richard Henry Dana - Two Years Before the Mast
Max Brooks - World War Z
George Orwell - Animal Farm
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Stephen King - The Stand
Stephen King - 11/22/63
Neal Stephenson - Anathem

yea, I'm a pleb

>> No.3242673

>>3242637

That's ok. At least you read King's two best novels.

>> No.3242688

>>3242587
I really liked it, a very sincere honest look into Hitchens's ideas. Overall though Mortality goes for my favorite Hitchens. That was really damn good. The ending was extremely heartbreaking, especially if cancer is close to you.

>> No.3243008

>>3242688

Sounds interesting. I'll definitely check it out!

>> No.3243019

>>3240930
What did you think of Eeeee Eee Eeee?

>> No.3243040

Didn't end up reading much this year

A Season in Hell - Rimbaud
Prometheus Unbound - Percy Shelly
Lady of the Shroud - Stoker
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Bradbury
Rats in the Walls - Lovecraft

>> No.3243048
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3243048

>>3242355

>> No.3243379

>>3241967
I have, I read it last year, as well as Call of the Wild. Should start Martin Eden soon.

>>3242032
>>3242059
I honestly liked Ghostwritten better than Cloud Atlas.

>>3242043
What's up?

>>3243019
It had its moments, most of the time I was annoyed by it.

>> No.3243448
File: 224 KB, 1315x1111, books 2012.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3243448

Favorites:

The Cyberiad
The Lathe of Heaven
We
Childhood's End
The Forever War
Everything by Asimov

>> No.3243709

Alamut
Lost To the West
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
Call For The Dead
A Murder Of Quality
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Honourable Schoolboy
Smiley's People
The Rum Diaries
White Nights

I think that's it. I'm reading The Night Manager right now. I guess you could say I like Le Carre.

I have an entire queue of classic Russians in my kindle for once I get throw my spy fiction kick, but I have no idea when that will be since every time I get close to finishing a book I'm like "I'll read Notes From Underground next" and then I get to the end of the Le Carre book and the endings are always so good that I'm like "welp, guess it's time for the next Le Carre book I want to read."

Someday, Dostoevsky, someday.

>> No.3243711

>>3243709

>get throw

get through*

>> No.3243789

>>3240930
>Willem Elschot
>Bas Haring
Doet mij goed een Nederlander/Vlaming hier te zien.

>> No.3243835
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3243835

I've posted this before a couple of days ago, but here it is again (see pic). I aimed for 100 books and I easily surpassed that, and this list is even missing a few titles.

For the sake of brevity I've excluded all of the comics, graphic novels, short stories, literary journals, and other things. Plus it excludes all of the essays and excerpts I've read online like Derrida's "Structure, Sign, and Play" among other things.

Also, this list includes some re-reads like Plato's Republic, Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, Gilgamesh, some of the Nietzsche, and the Mark Twain.

>> No.3243847

>>3243835
Also, some of the Shakespeare plays were re-reads for me, and I actually read Faulkner's Sound and the Fury three times in the past year.

>> No.3243872

>>3243847
>>3243835
Gosh that sounds like a very productive year. Congrats.

>> No.3243893

I'm deeply ashamed that I haven't really had time to read much of anything this year, except few short stories by Lovecraft and some such. I've been neck deep in work, university projects and graduating that I haven't had really time or energy to read anything. I guess on the holidays now I'll just stuff my face and read all day long.

>> No.3243899

>>3243835
That's pretty impressive. I'm glad I don't read that much.

>> No.3243935

>>3243899
There were some weeks where I'd actually read one book a day. I managed to read a lot, but I ended up getting out of shape living such a sedentary lifestyle. After some time browsing /fit/ I've started balancing my time differently. In 2013 I still plan on reading a lot of lit.

>> No.3244023

>>3240930
I read the title of those books at the top as "Lost Feel."

>> No.3244035
File: 404 KB, 1777x2244, 2012 visual book list online version.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3244035

I feel very bad about how little I've read this year. Plus over half of it sucked to some degree. Fuck. What's happening?

>> No.3244056

>>3244035
you spend too much time making inane threads on /lit/

>> No.3244067

>>3244056

Well.

>> No.3244071

>>3244035
Were those Zadie Smith books any good? I keep wondering if I should read her.

>> No.3244080

>>3240930
>Notes from Underground best
We are of the same taste.

>> No.3244102

>>3244071

People here always ask me about Smith.

White Teeth - quite good
NW - decent
On beauty - bad

>> No.3244108

All of Thomas Pynchon's bibliography sans Inherent Vice
The Recognitions and J R by William Gaddis
Miss MacIntosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Pafko at the Wall and White Noise by Don DeLillo (I may read Underworld soon)
Мы by Евге́ний Замя́тин
Chimera by John Barth
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski (disappointed)
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk (disappointed)
Something Happened by Joseph Heller
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (disappointed)
Lots of poetry
I re-read Das Glasperlenspiel by Hermann Hesse and Братья Карамазовы by Фёдор Достое́вский
I'm taking some time off to work on my own writing but will soon start Women and Men by Joseph McElroy
I'm a rather speedy reader and only began focussing on post-modern literature as a genre after reading Finnegans Wake by James Joyce last year, I found it difficult to get immersed in the material as I read it in layers, analysing it the first 2 times and only then letting it wash over me.

>> No.3244117

>>3243379
>>3242043
youtube.com watch?v=nOuBG9povEY

How'd you like it?

>> No.3244120

1. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
2. No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
3. 2666 - Roberto Bolaño
4. Cartel - Sylvia Longmire
5. Neuromancer - William Gibson
6. The Epic of Gilgamesh
7. Hyperion - Dan Simmons
8. Earth Abides - George R. Stewart

Not much, had a shitload of school readings I haven't listed and that stopped me from reading much non-academic stuff. Most of it I enjoyed immensely, better than most of the stuff I read last year save Blood Meridian. 2666 was particularly frightening

>> No.3244132

Didn't read much till the end of the year. I did get to read the Dark tower series by Stephen King

>> No.3244142

>>3244117
I liked the anime better and it was nothing new. Still quite confrontational for people on 4chan I guess, I'd recommend watching Dark Horse instead of reading Welcome to the N.H.K.