[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 348 KB, 1080x1440, IMG_0619-e1367367256970.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4057730 No.4057730 [Reply] [Original]

my birthday is coming up so i'm building up a book list.

here's what i have so far:

Bleeding Edge - Thomas Pynchon
The Emigrants - W. G. Sebald
Conversation in the Cathedral - Mario Vargas Llosa
Diary - Witold Gombrowicz
The Language of Passion: Selected Commentary - Mario Vargas Llosa
The War of the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa
Vertigo - W. G. Sebald
War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
Saul Bellow: Letters - Saul Bellow
Death in the Andes: A Novel - Mario Vargas Llosa
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories - Leo Tolstoy
The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa - Fernando Pessoa
The Death of Artemio Cruz: A Novel - Carlos Fuentes
Satantango - László Krasznahorkai

what you think? any more suggestions? this is $160+. parents are giving me $300 to spend.

here is my goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5644865?shelf=read

i'm looking for nonfiction too. trying to develop my criticism. i prefer nonfiction by fiction authors because they usually avoid interpretation. mostly focus on style, keep their thoughts short, and don't "add" to the work in the way that other critics do.

>> No.4057732

wow man that's one of the first shelves i've seen on this board that actually has good shit on it

>> No.4057742

>>4057730

the anatomy of melancholy

its non fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anatomy_of_Melancholy

>> No.4057744

thanks. it's an old picture too. gotten another shelf worth of books since then. plus built a wall spanning bookshelf so a lot of the books that aren't pictured here can fit too.

can't claim to have read everything.

>> No.4057761
File: 123 KB, 1361x767, nice shelf.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4057761

Hey OP, which ones are these?

>> No.4057762

Any Hermann Hesse out there? Can't see the print is too small on the picture. I'd recommend Steppenwolf.

>> No.4057767

Your bookshelf is very /lit/ which is weird because you are in the Reddit group but not the /lit/ group.

>> No.4057781

the anatomy of melancholy. looks interesting. i've been intending to go deeper into the centuries. mainly been stuck on the 20th.

the books are Herodotus, Tacitus, and Gibbon.

steppenwolf has a good first page. it won me over. never looked into hesse before. recognize his name but that's all i know.

>> No.4057787

>>4057730
Damn, that's a nice sh
>Barnes & Noble leatherbound classics

>> No.4057790

>>4057767
this is only my second time hanging around here.

expect the similarity is due to my taste for the postmodern.

>> No.4057803

>>4057781

Believe me, Hesse is worth the while. Ive read a few of his, Narciss and Goldmund is interesting and Siddhartha can be insightful. Steppenwolf is perhaps litterature though.

Voltaire's Bastards - John Ralston Saul

Has a quite eye opening and inspiring introduction.Ive gone through it in french but the point of the book is the content not its litterature.

>> No.4057806

>>4057803
*Steppenwolf is perhaps better litterature though.

>> No.4057808

>>4057767
The reddit /literature/ sub is considerably higher quality than this shithole. What do you expect.

>> No.4057817

Terra Nostra by Fuentes. It can replace Satantango if the list is too crowded.

>> No.4057821

>>4057817

>replacing Krasznahorkai

Woah, woah.
Let's not do anything too crazy now.

>> No.4057828

>>4057821
Well ok ok, I'm just saying, if I had to choose...

>> No.4057829

>>4057817

I actually had Terra Nostra on the list after heard about it here:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/06/juan-gabriel-vasquez-s-book-bag-my-favorite-books-about-latin-america.html

But then replaced it for the other Fuentes. I'll probably end up adding it back.

>> No.4057832

>>4057730
Rather nice list. It's nice to see someone interested in Gombrowicz and Krasznahorkai here! I'd rather choose Ferdydurke then Diary and replaced Satantango with The Melancholy of Resistance (Tarr made a masterpiece with this book, the book itself is rather average.), too. The rest is OK I think.

>> No.4057849
File: 15 KB, 445x445, IPP.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4057849

>not buying books from secondhand

>> No.4057858
File: 69 KB, 254x376, 1374448249739.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4057858

>>4057849
lol. All of his books look barely used or even read. It's all just empty posturing.

>mummy and daddy gave me money so I can buy litz for my collection! am I smart yet guys XDDD

Have fun forming your identity with material objects, OP.

>> No.4057861

>>4057858
To be fair, he could've just taken care of his books well. Usually if I buy a new paperback and go through it once or twice the worst that'll happen is that the front cover just sticks up a little bit when it's on its back. But that is an awful lot of new books.

>> No.4057864

>>4057858

being a bit too edge here, but "bookshelf" threads are fucking /soc/ tier cancer on this board so i agree with the sentiment

>> No.4057878

>>4057858

making a vague count, there are 70 used books out of 160 total there. i've used paperbackswap a lot. though i dont use it much anymore.

you can buy credits for $2.50. ends up being a great deal. got a lot penguin classic stuff not pictured here.

a lot of the stuff i bought new you can't regurlarly find in secondhand shops. i've used amazon marketplace a bit. but will usually spend the extra 1 to 3 for a new copy. also have prime so shipping only factors indirectly.

as for posturing, i don't know what i can say about that. already said i haven't read everything. guess i care about anon thinking im pedantic as much as i care about him thinking im smart.

>> No.4057898

>>4057878
Why are you buying new books when you haven't read the ones you already have? You probably haven't even read half of those.

You want to show off. You want to appear to have a rich, sophisticated interior life without any of the accompanying effort.

Do yourself a favor and walk over to your bookshelf, pick one of your newest acquisitions, and tear off the cover. Then dogear a few random pages and scribble on the spine.

>> No.4057918

OP, I checked out your Goodreads list. Aside from the random Harry Potter, it looks like a) stuff from school and then b) stuff to make people think you're an intellectual.

It's a bad effect. Tryhard isn't attractive. OP, seriously, just relax.

>> No.4057948

i guess i don't really see the point of reading to be systematically finishing a shelf. i follow mere whim. i get excited about a certain author, style, or time period and buy accordingly. i'll get a few books deep into that set and maybe i'll move on to another set. i really don't know what i'll want to read 3 or 4 books from now.

i can easily afford that type of habit.

half seems about right.

>> No.4057954

>>4057918

so being specifically into those type of books is out of the realm of possibility.

what you are saying is just odd. you are criticizing me for caring about what people think about me. but then you say i should change what i read because i should care that people might thing im trying too hard.

look i'm not taking offense. i just don't see your point.

>> No.4057966 [DELETED] 

>>4057898

>Why are you buying new books when you haven't read the ones you already have? You probably haven't even read half of those.

not OP but i have a fair few bought books that i've yet to read, i buy new books all the time. i like knowing that i have a bunch of great books wating to be read, and i can dip into any kind of book i feel like at the time. simply buying books at a quick rate isn't enough to make you a try hard imo

OP is a try hard because he could've made this thread without posting those shelves of his. yet he chose to anyway because he wanted to fish for comments and compliments. he is fake.

>> No.4057979

>>4057954
>but then you say i should change what i read because i should care that people might thing im trying too hard.

My point is that _I_ think you're being silly with what you're presenting. I'm smirking when I see this, but that's not important. More important is that you're not doing yourself any favors. Putting on a show like this is exhausting and not a pleasant way to live.
So that's my piece.

>> No.4058001 [SPOILER] 
File: 2.81 MB, 3072x2304, 48C7CF4A.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4058001

Please give your comment on this abstract writing style!

>> No.4058006

>>4057954
>so being specifically into those type of books is out of the realm of possibility.

Those kinds of books are fine, as part of a well-balanced breakfast, but scream _fake_ when it's such a huge percentage of what you list. Where's the non-fiction? Do you care about the real world? Comics? Sci-fi? History? Idiot's Guide to Horse Racing? Mix it up!

>> No.4058028

no one gives a shit about your life story

>> No.4058029

>>4057858
>directing this at OP and not every person on /lit/

>> No.4058031

>>4057918
>>4057979

yea man! you're supposed to want to look like you don't care.

nobody like intellectual stuff. make brain hurt.

>>4058006

like the stuff we like, you follower

>> No.4058035

>>4058028
>No one cares about anon's life story
I do. Did you lie or are you just wrong a lot when you try to say things?

>> No.4058036

>>4058006
reading a lot of similar type things seems more indicative of sincere and enthusiastic taste than reading a little of everything to me

>> No.4058038

needs more ostentatious books to display

please write another blog post when you buy more books. 10/10 would read again

>> No.4058041

>>4057730
Have you read all of the books on the shelf?

>> No.4058042

>>4058041
Why do you ask questions for which you already know the answer?

>> No.4058049

>>4058031
>nobody like intellectual stuff. make brain hurt.

"The piano intro and the accompanying interruption is a moment that gushes genius. A brushstroke that gives the defining characteristic to a masterpiece."

"My take is that each instrument is an individual strand of thought coexisting and competing for dominance in the same mind."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. "Intellectual." Come back in five years and try again, kid.

>> No.4058051

>>4058042
How many of them have you read then?
I dont know this answer.

>> No.4058059

>>4058035
My apologies. I don't account for individuals with double digit IQs when I say things so take my opinions with a grain of salt if you're a retard or are in the company of retards.

>> No.4058073

Get Spike Milligan's Puckoon in that list

>> No.4058070

Whose bookshelf is that?

They don't look read, no cracked spines or whatever. If a guy invited me back to his place and I found that bookshelf I'd go down on him right there and then. I'm a guy btw.

>> No.4058083

>>4057730
> Death of Artemio Cruz
> Death in the Andes
> Satantango
> Bleeding Edge
> The War of the End of the World
> Conversation in the Cathedral

It's like you read my list

>> No.4058087

>>4057730
Add The Green House and Feast of the goat for mastery of style and narration.

>> No.4058090

in the old days, didn't people stock their libraries with books that they specifically hadn't read? i seem to remember a modern writer cleaning out his library of books he had already read. called them cumbersome.

>> No.4058147

>>4058090
>in the old days, didn't people stock their libraries with books that they specifically hadn't read?

Yeah, very wealthy people used them as wall-coverings with identically-bound volumes.

>> No.4058219

>>4058147
I still do that

>> No.4058282

>>4058006
well you are in a recommendation thread aren't you? why don't you list some.

>> No.4058783

>>4057918

> 2013
> being this philistine
> shaggy rogers

>> No.4058808

>not making your library an actual public library and letting people check out your books

>> No.4058829

>>4058808
we can't all be andrew carnegie bro, somebody has to be the pleb

>> No.4058841

Still Life with Woodpecker

>> No.4058925

all sebald

>> No.4059026

>>4058147

I actually own an old edition of David Copperfield that a lot of middle class people used to decorate their libraries with to make them seem intellectual. The book does look pretty swag though but I promised myself I will read it this year.

OP have you read Song of Roland or Epic of Gilgamesh? I recommend both.

>> No.4059038

>>4059026
> attempting to look intellectual via Dickens

may be doin it rong

>> No.4059044

>>4059038

I just bought it because the book looked nice.

>> No.4059068

how is that shelf even organized

>> No.4059076

>>4057730
That's an alright looking list, OP, and a decent enough shelf of books, but remember to do something fun with birthday money, right? Don't blow the whole wad on fucking books. Take a mate out and drink, hit a club with a girl, something else to get you out of the parents' basement.

>> No.4059090

>>4058070
I don't treat my books like a fucking mongoloid so none of the spines of my books are creased except for the ones I've gotten used that already had em.
I can't speak for the OP however.

>> No.4059102

>>4057742
Burton is pretty bad ass. It's a good book for reading in small doses.

>> No.4059120

>>4058147
I've got a beautiful matching set of "Books That Changed Man's Thinking" (Moby Dick, the Aeneid, lots of Dickens, etc.) that I inherited from my granddad, who to the best of my knowledge never so much as touched them once they were on his shelf.

>> No.4059155

>>4058147
You can still buy "book by the yard"

http://www.hpb.com/bbty/

>> No.4060092

>>4058841
Seconded.

>> No.4060525

>>4057730
>that broken spine on Infinite Jest

I am glad.

>> No.4060548

>>4057808
why don't you stay there then?
Reddit is terribly organized, the people are cloying and their tryhards are tryharder than our tryhardest, but I don't want to change your mind, you should rightly be at home there

>> No.4060558

>>4060548
Have you even read any of the threads in this board?

>> No.4060563

>>4060548

people spend too much time calling others tryhards in here.

people enjoy literature. leave it at that.

it's not as if it still carries a large currency in the culture. who would these people be trying to impress?

i know that to my friends and family a shelf of mystery would have no practical difference than one of classics.

so that just leaves the nameless internet. do you really think that someone spends years of their time reading just so they can impress someone they don't know?

>> No.4060615

>>4060563
>do you really think that someone spends years of their time reading just so they can impress someone they don't know?
They're not actually reading. Most of their time is spent buying books, organizing bookshelves and endless shitpost posturing on social networks.

Once in a while they'll feign to read a classic they supposedly love, skim through it a bit and post another "guise, how do I unto speedreading" thread.

>> No.4060712

>>4060615
>Most of their time is spent buying books, organizing bookshelves and endless shitpost posturing on social networks.

how could anyone actually find any worth in doing this?

and from what experience do you say this? have you ever met anyone like this?

this all seems like insecurity on your part. trying to build yourself up by denying that someone else is not the true reader that you make yourself out to be.

i know that there are some people that try to appear smart but they don't go to the lengths you talk about. they buy a book and quickly lose interest.

>> No.4060732

>>4060712
>how could anyone actually find any worth in doing this?
You tell me. People spend three to four hours a day doing god knows what on Facebook and Twitter, and you're still asking this question??

>and from what experience do you say this? have you ever met anyone like this?
Yes, I meet then all the time. (But only online.)

>i know that there are some people that try to appear smart but they don't go to the lengths you talk about.
Of course they do. (That said, it's enabled by social networks. I doubt they would be doing this if it weren't for the internets. Also, 4chan is also a social network.)

>> No.4061367

>>4060563
>implying tryhards in here spend years reading

>> No.4062167

>>4057730
ooh, i just bought Hopscotch; it's coming in the mail.
How is it? I bought it purely on a whim.

>> No.4062186

>>4057761
the green ones are 3 volumes of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Gibbon (I think). Although they might not be; idk the puiblisher but i've seen the edition in a local bookstore.

>> No.4062212

>>4060732
I don't know anyone who's gone far enough to post pics of their bookshelves (outside of /lit/), but I *do* know a handful of people irl who pretended to read Infinite Jest/Gravity's Rainbow/other books they associate with smart people, simply in order to make other people feel inferior.

>> No.4062522

I buy books faster than I can read them. I think they look cool on a shelf

>> No.4064313

>>4062522
this

>> No.4064426

>>4058001
british/10, would laugh at haughtily

>> No.4064467

>>4059155
hahaha oh wow

>look smart with shelves full of books

>> No.4064498

>>4057730
Get a kobo and download the books for free. Save everyone hassle