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/lit/ - Literature

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4291412 No.4291412 [Reply] [Original]

What's the best book you've ever read?

>> No.4291414

My penis

>> No.4291418

Ulysses

>> No.4291420

Against Nature.

Just kidding, Huysmans. It's the collected works of William Shakespeare.

>> No.4291422

>>4291418

You're anonymous, you can actually say what your truly favourite book is.

>> No.4291426

>>4291420

Such a horribly translated title... "Backwards" would have been a million times closer to the mark, but anyway.

I'm like Leo Tolstoy, I failed to see Shakespeare's worth.

>> No.4291430
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4291430

*braces for butthurt and chaos*

>> No.4291429

Infinite Jesy

>> No.4291436

>>4291422
My favorite book is called Ulysses by James Joyce followed by Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

>> No.4291437
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4291437

>>4291429

Here's real sci-fi, bro. Manly, too.

>> No.4291448

>>4291426

'A Rebours' then.

'Properly speaking one cannot answer Tolstoy's attack. The interesting question is: why did he make it? But it should be noticed in passing that he uses many weak or dishonest arguments. Some of them are worth pointing out, not because they invalidate his main charge but because they are, so to speak, evidence of malice.' (Orwell)

He's right. Only a bitter rival or lame contrarian could fail to see the value in Hamlet, Lear or Richard II.

>> No.4291594 [DELETED] 

>>4291430
What? No? Its awesome as long as you tie into account its some rich bougie closeted dude bitching about first world problems for hundreds of pages, but in a really awesome way.

>> No.4291627

Best?
Huckleberry Fin

Favorite?
X-wing Rogue Squadron series. As a Star Wars fan I enjoyed reading them so much.

>> No.4291657

>>4291594

You clearly need to learn to appreciate literature.

>face value

>> No.4291679 [DELETED] 

>>4291412
Twilight: New Moon

>> No.4291692

X-Men: Legion all time #1 so siiiick
Superman: Fly Now #2
James "joyce" Ulysses #3

>> No.4291718

>>4291429

>infinite yeezy

>> No.4291729

>>4291412

Violence by Slavoj Zizek

>> No.4291733
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4291733

Return of the king.

I've read some many books and yet this book still pleases me thoroughly every time.

>> No.4291741

>>4291437
>Heinlein
>Not a steaming pile of shit, garnered with Heinlein's retarded opinions

Keep being 12.

>> No.4291753 [DELETED] 

>>4291718
Is Infinite Jest the Kanye West of the book world?

>> No.4291756

Best book I've ever read:
Absalom, Absalom!
Fondest reading experience:
first reading of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Favorite book to read/revisit:
Catch-22

>> No.4291758

>>4291741

Enjoying your Liberal tears right now.

>> No.4291764

>>4291758
:D

lemme just stroke my privileges

>> No.4291765

ask the dust

>> No.4291784

>>4291426
Shakespeare's worth lies in Thomas Middleton, who revised his plays, and the actors who wrote it down.

>> No.4292475

>>4291437
Horrible book. I love military history so I thought it would be a good step into sci fi. Never again. I don't even give a shit about the politics behind it.

>> No.4292505

The Brothers Karamazov
Blood Merridian
Moby Dick
The Illiad
East of Eden
For Whom The Bell Toll
The Hobbit
100 Years of Solitude
The Great Gatsby
Watchmen

>> No.4292514

Is Stoner really that great?

I'll order it if it is

>> No.4292560
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4292560

>>4291753
no

>> No.4292607

>>4292514
it is very emotionally jarring. that is the main strength of the book. prose is just ok. it is a very dull story that grabs you. worth a read.

>> No.4292667

>>4291753
Its the PT Anderson Magnolia of the book world.

>> No.4293221

100 Years of Solitude
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Odyssey
Othello

Come at me negroes.

>> No.4293229
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4293229

>> No.4293244
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4293244

>>4291412
Not even kidding, I can't tell you how this book literally is unbelievable.

>> No.4293246 [DELETED] 

>>4293229
Isn't the answer just to have sex with other men?

>> No.4293846

>>4292505

Example of one who wouldn't know what his favourite book was if there weren't millions of other readers out there.

Watchmen has plotholes no story should ever have.

Hemingway has better books than the one you selected, although amongst his best novels.

Agreed on Dostoyevsky here. It tops my list as well. Same with Melville.

>> No.4293848

>>4293244

It's about 9/11 right? Muh freedams and terrurasm?

>> No.4293856
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4293856

Pic related. Made me cry like a bitch.

>dem characters
>dat symbolism
>dem dialogues
>dat Owen

>> No.4293860

I have no idea. I'd have to narrow this down into different meanings of best. I guess I'll say Death on the Installment Plan because it was so broad in tone and subject, it's like he vomited on everything people could possibly hold sacred and then arranged the puke into beautiful designs.

>> No.4293859

>>4293244

I gave the book a solid Jew/10.

[spoilers]>inb4 b-but muh quirky precociousness.[/spoiler]

>> No.4293864
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4293864

>> No.4293865

Any book that made you believe in God?

>apart from the Gospel of John, of course

>> No.4293869
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4293869

>> No.4293877

>>4293869

In Our Time >everything else by Hemingway

I keep being in disbelief as to how underrated his first book is. Nothing he did after that is comparable.

>> No.4293879

>>4293864
more like tai pee amirite

>> No.4293886

>>4291430
Not the best Salinger. Best Salinger is Franny & Zooey

>> No.4293890

>>4293886

Love all he wrote, but nothing reached Catcher's intensity.

>Nine Stories is pretty good too

>> No.4293897
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4293897

>tfw portuguese

>> No.4293901
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4293901

Franny and Zooey is close though.

>> No.4293903

The Seawolf
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A rebours
Die Blendung

>> No.4293905

>>4293897


http://shrineodreams.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/good-books-rebellion-in-the-backlands-by-euclides-da-cunha/

>> No.4293961
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4293961

>> No.4293972

>>4293897
meu negão

For me it's Grande Sertões: Veredas, translated as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands

>> No.4293973

Naked Lunch

>> No.4293981

>>4293961

Pitch it to me.

>> No.4293992

>>4293981
>>4293961
I second that.

>> No.4293996 [DELETED] 

>>4291657
How would you suggest I do that?

>> No.4294002

>>4293996

Stop listening to /lit/ as if it was anything more than /b/tards with delusions of grandeur.

>> No.4294007
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4294007

>>4293886

Yes. I read F&Z annually.

>> No.4294009
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4294009

>>4293972
Sadly gringos will never know the joys of reading Guimarães Rosa's brilliant novels. The english version of Grande Sertão: Veredas has been out of print for literally decades. The translation is also quite mediocre. Shame really.

>> No.4294109

>>4293972
>>4294009

Guys, I am also Brazilian, but I honestly don’t think that GSV is that masterpiece that everyone here wants it to be. To me it seems much more some kind of need that Brazilians possess to have an author that is known as a “genius”; it is more some food to feed our vanity than a reality. I only saw real readers and fans of the book in the university; common everyday readers usually hate it. Now, if you think on a Tolstoy, a Shakespeare, a Gabriel Garcia Márquez, they all have written great works and they are read by much more people. I honestly think that Guimarães Rosa will never cease to be a writer who wrote only for writers.

I think that Guimarães Rosa actually had some great stories to tell, but the language that he invented is some artificial thing that adds nothing to it: he did not use neither the crystal-clear language of a Tolstoy or the strongly poetic and metaphorical language of a Shakespeare, but invented some philological stew that it is very hard to digest. Had he written the GSV like Tolstoy wrote his War and Peace, or Gabriel García Márquez his One Hundred Years of Solitude and he would have created perhaps the greatest book in the Portuguese language. But he, alas, let himself be inspired by Joyce and created that semi-readable book of his.

This guy could have been great. It makes me really sad that he wrote in the pretentious way he did. I actually agree with the guy who wrote this text in a literary forum some years ago:

http://forum.valinor.com.br/topico/topico-polemico-guimaraes-rosa-nao-e-um-bom-escritor.124940/

>> No.4294118

The best single book I ever read was War and Peace. The best writer I ever read was Shakespeare: he is in an order of magnitude of his own.

>> No.4294131

>>4293961
A strong contender, for sure.

>> No.4294132

LotR

Come at me

>> No.4294136

100 Years of Solitude
Factotum
On the Road
Notes from Underground

>> No.4294672

>>4291412

Ficciones
The Book Of Disquiet
A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man
Waiting For Godot
More Pricks Than Kicks
Fear And Trembling
The Plague
The Myth Of Sisyphus
Hamlet
The Aeneid

>> No.4294745

The Gambler

>> No.4294772

>>4294132
Very original.

>> No.4294778

>>4294672
Nice list, same as mine when I first started reading literature.

>> No.4294781

>>4293848
nah that's extremely loud and incredibly shitty

everything is illuminated is actually really enjoyable, kind of like an Unbearable Lightness of Being for the 21st century.

For me, hard to choose between All the King's Men and Master and Margarita

>> No.4295004

>>4291412
Crime and Punishment.

>> No.4295029
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4295029

come at me kids

>> No.4295082

I'd say De Avonden (The Evenings) by Gerard Reve

>> No.4295135

Making any "objective judgement" of quality regardless of how the books fares in your personal canon is ultimately meaningless. I suspect that the books that most marked my teenage years will always be what I consider the best books.

Borges Fictions
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Poe Selected Tales
Satyricon
Baudelaire Paris Spleen
Anthony and Cleopatra
Ligotti The Nightmare Factory
Schulz The Street of Crocodiles
The Lonely Doll series

Joyce and Bloom can suck a dick.

>> No.4295143

I didn't really read too many books but my favorite is The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse

>> No.4295189
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4295189

>>4295135
>Joyce and Bloom can suck a dick.

I respect you.

>> No.4295212
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4295212

To me, this is where the modern short story was born and it is also where it died.

>> No.4295282

>implying I read books

Art of Learning....

that's all I can come up with

>> No.4295291

>>4291594
>bougie
dick slagle pls

>> No.4295298

>>4295029

I'm on your side. Use of Weapons was the only time I didn't get mad at a twist. I was litteraly speechless at the end. Ian M. Banks earned his place in the pantheon on sci-fi gods when he wrote that book.

>> No.4295360

>>4293856
Until I Find you was pretty good for me, but don't you find that he's writing the same book over and over again?

>> No.4295367

>>4293865
Tropic of Cancer

>> No.4295401

A Hero Of Our Time

>> No.4295422

Wuthering Heights

Get some

>> No.4295434

>>4295401
If anyone hasn't read this book, I strongly recommend they do. What translation did you have?

>> No.4295442

>>4294778
Well, you are just some sort of bad-ass, aren't you?

>> No.4295450

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I'm sorry for being a Twain pleb.

>> No.4295461

>>4295401

>lermontov

most underrated russian

>> No.4295463

>>4295434

german..

>>4295401

Also Stoner by John WIlliams for anything non-russian

>> No.4295468

>>4295450
>twain
>pleb
Nah dude /lit/ loves Twain

>> No.4295471

>>4295468
I was saying sorry for picking the Twain choice which is pleb.

>> No.4295544

>>4295360

I've only read one. Maybe I should stop there... Maybe it's like The Cure or Chuck Palahniuk: the first is the best and it's downhill from there.

>> No.4295547

>>4295471

>pleb

Using that word is the plebbest you will ever be.

Just fucking stop.

>> No.4295552

>>4295468
exactly. pleb as fuck

>> No.4295579

>No Pynchon

I thought /lit/ loved him.

>> No.4295597

>>4291733
LOTR really did affect me.

>> No.4295606

>>4295579

Only people who want to show off do. Go ahead and manifest your stiffy for Gravity's Rainbow and let's move the fuck on.

>> No.4296469

Not the best but i enjoyed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, i kept smiling a lot, even got few laughs out of me.
Other than that no favorites.

>> No.4296480

I do not know about "the best" one, but Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the book that gave me more pleasure to read.

>> No.4296718
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4296718

Favourite: Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky

Runner up: The Stranger by Camus.

Book that most changed my life: 1984. (don't hate. let's get real.)

>> No.4296726

Selected Tales by Poe will always be my fav. if it wasn't for his stories i probably wouldn't have even acquired a taste for literature

not saying it's the "best" but it's certainly the one that impacted me the most

>> No.4296731

>>4291412
Goddamn Siddartha, Pedro Páramo and 100 years of Solitude, very apart from the Chtulhu mythos

>> No.4296736

>>4296731
>>4296731
oh, and Faustus of Goethe

>> No.4296741

>>4291412

Island by Aldous Huxley. Or Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut. Both favorites.

>> No.4296756
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4296756

recent favourite literature

>> No.4296772

>>4293846
>implying favourite means best

>> No.4296788

>>4295422
oh god why, fucking hated that book.

>> No.4296873

>>4296726
>not saying it's the "best"

He virtually invented both the horror story and the detective story. If you called him the best, you wouldn't be far off.

>> No.4296881
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4296881

The Prophet

>> No.4296888
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4296888

>> No.4296893
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4296893

>> No.4296894

Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison.

>> No.4296903

>>4291412
The Fall by Albert Camus

>> No.4296907
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4296907

>> No.4296909

>>4296907
Terrible taste

>> No.4296921

the red and the black by stendhal
or the silent cry by kenzaburo oe.

>> No.4296945

>>4295434
I'm interested in reading it? Anyone knows if the spanish translation is good?

>> No.4296951

>>4291412
The Great Gatsby

>> No.4296954
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4296954

>>4295029

mein negre

i compiled this pic for another thread it still stands i guess

>> No.4296956

>>4296954
> Canticle for Leibowitz

loved that. Do you know anything similiar to it?

>> No.4296959

>>4296956
>>4296954

I forgot that book when I posted my thought. A Canticle for Leibowitz is easily in my top 5, if not my absolute favorite.

>> No.4296965
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4296965

In Search of Lost Time

>> No.4296967

>>4296956
I'm not that guy, but maaaaybe Earth Abides.

>> No.4296970

>tfw no Bolaño

Seriously, everyone should read The Savage Detectives

>> No.4296971

>>4296967
'59? cool. thanks!

>> No.4296980
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4296980

Affected me and made me think in more ways than any other book has. That and Nabokov's writing is just damn beautiful.

>> No.4296983

The Brothers Karamazov /crime and punishment
The iceman / long days journey into night
the consolations of philosophy

>> No.4297078

>>4296980

I'd read that if it wasn't a book for pedos.

>> No.4297099

>>4297078
gr8 b8 m8 i'd r8 it an 8/8

>> No.4297102

>>4297078
g8 b8 m8

>> No.4297110

>>4296980
Lolita is a good book, but if it's the best you've ever read, you better start reading right now.

>> No.4297131

So far, The Red and the Black by Stendhal

>> No.4297138

Either Moby Dick or Blood Meridian.

>> No.4297140

>>4297131

That really is an exceptional novel. I also enjoyed 'The Charterhouse of Parma'.

>> No.4297158

>>4297131
>>4297140

French is my first language, and I've read this, as well as Stendhal's first novel (also pierced its naughty secret) but I don't really see why it's anything exceptional.

>> No.4297161

"Lolita" may not be the *best* book I've read in every sense of the word, but it is my favorite book.

>> No.4297168

Metro 2033

>> No.4297207

>>4295606
But anon, I'v never read Gravity's Rainbow. I'm still reading V., almost finish.

The best is...I have no ideia.

>> No.4297227

>>4293244
ehhh, it relies too heavily on gimmicks IMO

>> No.4297264
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4297264

this book changed me

>> No.4297268
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4297268

dat atmosphere

>> No.4297274

Foucault's Pendulum. What a weird fucking journey that was.

>> No.4297282

>>4293961
you can't be serious man

>> No.4297432

Ender's Game

>come at me, I'm dead serious

>> No.4297437
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4297437

one of the few books, actually the only one in my opinion, who really can say something about suicide.

>> No.4297494

>I don't read a lot story's.
>text book master race
As of now I would have to say PSYCH 101 by Paul Kienman. Though I do find it a bit false to say Freud's theory's helped psychology for more then just bringing attention to it through said theory's controversy. The only concepts of his that seems to have held merit is the concepts of the three structural models of personality and and the three level of the human psyche (though the levels are a bit debatable). Some of Klienman's definitions are unneededly complicated to the point were he has to give explanations.

>> No.4297937
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4297937

"The Book of the New Sun," by Gene Wolfe.

No other book has expanded my imagination to the extent this one has.

>> No.4297997

>>4293864
Seriously? It's 250 pages of hipsters popping pills and doing things that don't make any sense. Little, if any character development, no plot, and the sentence

>"He sensed his vicinity to a worldview -- or a temporary configuration of preferences, two or three ideas introduced to a mood -- in which double suicide would be as difficult, as illogical, to resist as a new sushi restaurant to a couple that likes sushi and trying new restaurants"

>> No.4298008

>>4291437
>Atlas Shrugged for fascists

It's a half-assed plot that serves solely as a vehicle to promote a political philosophy

>> No.4298016

Anna Karenina taught me everything I need to know about women

>> No.4298040
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4298040

The Tin Drum

>> No.4298043

>>4297937

how is the rest of the solar series?

>> No.4298277

>>4298043

How's the Fifth Head of that Dog?

>> No.4298293

>>4297268
My nigga.

>> No.4298345

The Prince probably

>> No.4298359

Moby Dick

>> No.4298401

Best: the brothers kazamarov

Favorite: don quixote

>> No.4298409

Beijing Coma by Ma Jian and Underground by Haruki Murakami.

>> No.4298428

>>4293846

What are the plotholes in Watchmen? It's been about five years since I read it and remember really liking it, until the ending which seemed like it would make everything much worse in the long run.

>> No.4299036

>>4298428

>superpowers or not?
>why not poison the Comedian instead of killing him the way only a watchman could?
>on and on

>> No.4299043

Phenomenology of Spirit.

>> No.4299073

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

>> No.4299084

The Count of Monte Cristo.

>> No.4299107

>>4296956

I haven't really found anything very similar to it ;_;

there was a sequel that was released about twenty years after canticle about the destruction of new rome, an odd book that did not have the scope of the first

>> No.4299166

>>4297997
Although I'm pretty certain the guy is trolling, your criticism of the book doesn't hold water. Reading a book just for its plot is like listening to music only for the lyrics.

That issue aside, your points about plot and character development is laughable, as the book is transparently a memoir of Tao's life with the names changed. What makes the book worth reading went completely over your head.

>> No.4300081

Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann.

>> No.4300132

"In search of lost time" by Marcel Proust.

>> No.4301055
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4301055

I guess i am just a noob.

>> No.4301058

>>4291594
When did you read Catcher in the Rye, guy I know?

>> No.4301064

Notes From The Underground, always all time.

>> No.4301257

>>4301055

I was gonna give this author a try, but then I realised he was a fedora. I just can't read fedoras. Can't.

>> No.4301265

>>4301257
are you fucking serious
god this "fedora" meme has gone way too far

>> No.4301281

>>4298043
Long Sun < New Sun = Short Sun

But you can't read Short Sun without having read Long Sun.

>> No.4301289

>>4293856
i'm reading In One Person rn
can't hold all this bisexuality

>> No.4301292

>>4296718
>Book that most changed my life: 1984
how

>> No.4301300

Nostromo by Joseph Conrad

>> No.4301309

>>4291412
À rebours is my faorite by Huysmans, and it's in my top five favorite books.

>> No.4301313

>>4301292

It's a really good book if you're a sexUally repressed teenager. It's the perfect fantasy for a high school virgin. I mean this in the best possible way. 1984 is more than a political novel.

>> No.4301318

>>4301257
YOU. Get the fuck out of this board this fucking second.

>> No.4301393

>>4301257
Even if Douglas was fedora, it doesn't mean the book he wrote has to be bad or anything.

You shouldn't judge something because of the person who made it...

>> No.4301401

>>4301292
I'm not the person you're replying to, but I lost my faith after reading 1984. Don't know why, but it happened.

>> No.4301430

>>4293865
Transcendent Unity of Religions by Frithjof Schuon.

>> No.4301435

>>4296956
Last and First Men and Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon.

>> No.4301460
File: 232 KB, 1484x475, 5books.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4301460

>>4291412
These, but if I'd had to pick one, it'd be a prayer for ownen meany

>> No.4301506

>>4301460
is it hard to read Infinite Jest?
why you liked it? what topics are discussed through it?

>> No.4301530

>>4301506
It's not a very difficult read, the most prohibitive thing about it is it's length. Also one might feel a bit lost for the first 100-200 pages at times, but once you start to see what's going on and the way all the parts make up the whole, it is really enjoyable. I reached the end of it a few weeks ago and wanted to read it again immediately. Also the book manages to be entertaining all the way through despite it's length. It deals with a variety of themes, but most generally with themes of entertainment, and drug use.
Not
>>4301460, but I'm inclined to say it's one of if not my favorite book(s).

>> No.4301614
File: 721 KB, 1006x544, vlcsnap-2012-10-27-18h38m44s154.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4301614

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1429223.Popular_Music

>> No.4301674

>>4301506
no, I think it's accessible and hilarious

I liked it because it's funny as hell and the mystery of the story is intriguing

topic:
addictions, particularly with drugs, entertainments, and beauty

>> No.4301704
File: 106 KB, 948x1433, madame-bovary_custom-s6-c30.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4301704

Madame Bovary, Lydia Davis translation.

>> No.4301768

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck and The Terror by Dan Simmons are my personal favorites.

>> No.4301785

>>4301768

Have you ever read Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons? It's pretty god damn fantastic (I thought).

>> No.4301819

>>4301785

I haven't. I looked it up and it seems pretty neat. Dan Simmons is a great author.

>> No.4303327

Breakfast of Champions

>> No.4303340

i'm only 100 pages in but lolita seems like the best book i've ever read so far.

every word feels like it has a place, i really can't even describe how perfect it is. it's sublime

>> No.4303353

>>4291412
The Cat in the Hat

>> No.4303374

>>4299036
>superpowers or not?
Huh?
>why not poison the Comedian instead of killing him the way only a watchman could?
Only a 'watchman' could throw him out a window?

>> No.4303436
File: 17 KB, 200x330, 200px-GodEmperorofDune[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4303436

>> No.4303446

Der Steppenwolf

>> No.4303450

Extension du domaine de la lutte - Michel Houllebecq

The Iliad

The Canterbury Tales

>> No.4303467

>>4301430
i always wished frithjof was a madhyamika buddhist atheist and wrote in his style about that shit instead of muh monotheism

>> No.4304343

Moominland Midwinter
Somewhat a childrens book, but I love the atmosphere it has.

>> No.4304365

>>4303450

>The Iliad

I'd like to know what about this one made it one of your favourites.

>> No.4305073

>>4301265

It's spot on, that's why it sticks.

>> No.4305079

>>4301318

>tips fedora

>> No.4305111

>>4303374

Yes. That's why Rorschach immediately assumes it's one of them that did it.

>> No.4305142
File: 17 KB, 391x640, Max-Frisch-Stiller.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4305142

Identität. Max Frisch. Stiller. Definitiv das beste Buch

>> No.4305559

Probably Don Quixote

>> No.4305571

>>4291430
I have a soft spot for this book. I read it as an angsty adolescent and it resonated like nothing else. It's not great, but it's something everyone should read as an angst ridden teenager. It's the Violent Femmes of literature.

>> No.4305584

>Heart of Darkness
Made me reconsider my Ayn Randroid beliefs
>To The Lighthouse
Best stream of consciousness in any book, hands down. Fite me irl if u disagree.

>> No.4305598
File: 32 KB, 375x550, one_liberal_tear_just_for_you.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4305598

>>4291758
mfw Heinlein also writes Stranger in a Strange Land, one of the most liberal books I've ever read in my life, in which bisexual martian Jesus saves everyone with his innocence, tolerance, superpowers, and penis before getting


splattered by fosterite rednecks with shotguns

>> No.4305616

>>4296893
Actually, yes. The story about the talking parrot (?) made me scream out loud when I was a kid. No book has done that since.

>> No.4305852

Hard to say but I guess I was moved the most when I read Yukio Mishima's Temple of the Golden Pavillion, F. A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom and Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. Well, and then there's some Finnish books unavailable in English.

>> No.4308059

>>4305571
>it's not great

Even as an adult, you can see the intense depth of this shit.

>written by 32-year-old WW2 vet
>"it's childish"

There's more depth to it than plebs know.

>"Where do the ducks go in winter?"

is really a question about where do WE go when we die. Plebs can't tell.

Catcher is a mirror. If you're a moron, you only see moronity.

>> No.4308069

>>4291430
Salinger is the master of voice. He captures inflexions and the basic thought processes amazingly. If you're at the stage where you can empathize it really has a way of penetrating your head. This is the same for things like Franny and Zooey or Raise High the Roofbeams where its heavy in narration and dialogue. The only author really which I can sense a genuine voice behind the prose is Dostoevsky, DFW and Beckett Novels.

>> No.4308089

>>4303450
Reading Atomised right now. The narration has that distanced feel that many writers take to show alienation (i.e. Ryu Murakami, Beckett, The Bell Jar, majority of Alt-Lit) but he also ties in the concepts of quantum physics and shows the events of the story as rooted with a greater historical context and a general modern condition. The distanced narration though is not really the type of thing that I go for. So I'm wondering what makes Houllebecq equal to the other literary greats like The Illiad when he seems to be pulling off the whole alienation theme like most others. Personally I think Beckett is still unmatched in this type of theme.

>> No.4308099

>>4308059
>Catcher is a mirror. If you're a moron, you only see moronity.

Jesus Christ, I think I'm gonna take a break from the internet.

>> No.4308103

>>4308099

Take a break from life, you pleb-tier piece of shit.

>> No.4308108

>>4301819
I prefer his SF to his horror. I read that Summer of Night book and it was way too much like stephen king for me.

>> No.4308110

Difficult question. My favorite has always been One Hundred Years of Solitude. If I had to choose my favorite writer sure would be Gabriel García Marquez. But it's been a while since I read that book, I should re-read it soon just to see how much my way of appreciating it has changed and current opinion about it might change...
From the recent ones I've read, Story of the Eye was p cash. Too short, but it's surrealism really, really, really well done (specially when you read the biographic notes about Bataille, then shit gets real as fuck).

>> No.4308113

>>4308110

Georges Bataille was a moron.

>death of a thousand cuts
>that paradoxal ecstasy

Actually, anyone submitted to this was fucked up on opium beforehand, thus the ecstasy. Nothing to do with the cuts and pain.

>fucking French morons

Go Montaigne and Pascal if you want good French authors.

>> No.4308118

Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry
Good Morning, Midnight - Jean Rhys
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? - Raymond Carver
Herzog - Saul Bellow
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge - Rainer Maria Rilke

>> No.4308119

>>4305584
Downloading To the Lighthouse right now. You better don't disappoint me, faget.

>> No.4308122

>>4301265
It went to far like the day after it started.

>> No.4308146

>>4308113
I didn't want a french author, i wanted a good surrealist author. And he's good. Actually, he's very good, I started reading Story of the Eye without much expectations but it was truly great. He inspired me in his way of building a coherent story from pieces of obsessive memories. Better than any other surreal book I've read. I'm planing on reading Nadja, but I don't know if it will compare to Story of the Eye.

>> No.4308148

>>4308113
Oh, btw, about the biographic notes I was talking about the ones that have related with the book: his parent's deaths, his traumas, the connection between eggs, eyes, urine, etc.. All of this linked with sex to top it all.

>> No.4308160

>>4291412
Silence of the lambs.

>> No.4308192

>>4308146

Nadja is shit. Breton is 100% crap. The real Nadja, he visted her a few times and then abandoned her forever. She was a patient in some hospital.

Do not waste your time with ANY Surrealist writings. Serious shit all the fucking way.

>> No.4308197

>>4308148

Mental masturbation, not even funny.

>> No.4308206

>>4308197
>Mental masturbation,
I don't think you know what you're talking about. Care to elaborate?
>not even funny.
It's not supposed to be funny.

>> No.4308440

>>4308206

Eggs, eyes, urine, having a connection. All that psychoanalytical bullshit is nothing but mental masturbation, cloud-reading. It's bullshit. Just because you make an artificial connection between your balls and eggs doesn't make you a chicken-fucker and urine isn't gold for the color.

That's what I consider mental masturbation. It's basically bullshit that sounds smarts but only because it was rationalised to death, in stupid ways, no matter how sophisticated this rationalisation is.

It's not supposed to be funny, but that only makes it worse. If you see anything more than a good, albeit unwanted, joke, then you've been had and you see the emperor's clothes.

>> No.4308458

>>4308192
>Do not waste your time with ANY Surrealist writings.

Oh fuck off, you bore.

>> No.4308462

I'm new to literature.
My favorite book so far is brave new world.

>> No.4308490

>>4308462
Agreed. And that world actually sounded awesome. Never got what that dude's problem was.

>> No.4308624

>>4308458

I had to study them at uni. Trust me, there's nothing to save there. That's why you never hear much about them anymore. Just pretentious cocksuckers who claimed to be revolutionaries but when it came time to fight actual threats, they fled like a bunch of pussies.

>Breton on a ship to America to avoid the war

>> No.4308626

>>4308462

It's a great novel. I teach it.

>>4308490

You're the sort of moron I warn my students about. Dipshit.

>> No.4308634
File: 1002 KB, 1456x2244, virginia woolf - the waves.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4308634

>>4305584

>>To The Lighthouse
>Best stream of consciousness in any book, hands down. Fite me irl if u disagree.

You got the author right, but the book wrong.

>> No.4308655

>>4308626
I'll take my happiness over your "meaning" and "righteous anger" every single time, thanks. No need for name calling. It's a shame people like you are teaching our children.

>> No.4308659

Not best, objectively, but most certainly my favorite book.
>Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
I reread it every two years or so.

>> No.4308674

1. The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky)
2. Tragedy of Man (Madach)
3. The Fall (Camus)

>> No.4308676

>>4308659

Make sure you've read 'Winesburg, Ohio' if you haven't already. It's even better.

>> No.4308705

>>4291412
Ilyand
Oddisey
Ficciones (Borges)
El Aleph
Otras inquisiciones

I haven't read many books, sorry /lit/ ;_;, I'm a filthy casual

>> No.4308720

>>4308676
Thanks anon. I'll hunt for it at the library next time I go.

>> No.4308728

>>4308655

It's not a shame, trust me, you punkass bitch nigger fuck.

>> No.4308731

>>4308705

You're trying so fucking hard I feel bad for you son. Have you seen your list?

>Borges
>pleb

If this whore is pleb, then who isn't? Stop trying so fucking hard. Read books you enjoy and don't be ashamed.

>> No.4308732

Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Journey to the End of the Night

>> No.4308742

>>4308731

Oh, I'm not trying to say that the books that I read were of mediocre quality. How could I say that of the two Greek works I mentioned there? And of course Borges is out of the picture too.

What I'm trying to say is that I have read so little, that I feel like I cannot make a selection of the works that I have read without including, well, the vast majority of them, as they are so little.

Sorry for the misunderstanding...

>> No.4308746

>>4308742
few*

Yes, English is not my first language...

>> No.4308756

>>4308742

Nobody has read a lot. Of all the millions of books out there, most humans don't read more than 3,000 in a lifetime.

It's not how much, it's how well.

>> No.4308764

Steps
Stoner
Oblivion
The Plague

>> No.4308775

Invisible Cities
Things Fall Apart
Infinite Jest

>> No.4308834

>>4308756
well, thanks for cheering me up, I guess, haha

>> No.4310115

The Scarlet Letter

>> No.4311213

>>4310115

Twice-Told Tales

Badassery.

>> No.4311516

>>4291430

this book was my best friend when i went through my depression period as a teenage.

>> No.4312278
File: 14 KB, 240x240, 1054275[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4312278

All of these Poems are so charming

>> No.4312398

Catch-22
Revolutionary Road
Kafka on the Shore
Mrs. Dalloway

Looking forward to reading The Waves

>> No.4312432

Wallace detested critics who characterized the novel as "funny"; if you watch/listen to interviews he gave in the 90's when the book was at the peak of its popularity, he comments that he set out to write a sad book. Although he didn't go into very specific detail, from reading it seems to me he is, in many cases, conveying a sense of alienation and isolation. Obviously that is just my nonprofessional opinion, but there it is nonetheless.

>> No.4312461

>>4291412
>What's the best book you've ever read?
Crime & Punishment

Haven't yet read TBK though...

>> No.4312501
File: 307 KB, 873x1309, image.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4312501

Underrated as fuck, ths shit is grand sci fi + cyberpunk + fantasy. Nigga if you haven't read dis shit get readin.

>> No.4314815

>>4312432
He didn't "detest" them. He was flattered by it.

>> No.4314842
File: 14 KB, 183x276, descarga.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4314842

This and Under The Dome are such a nice books

>> No.4314850

>>4312501

Hyperion series was pretty uneven in quality.
Hyperion was pretty shitty.
The Fall of Hyperion was a masterpiece.
And Endymion was again shit.
Judging by the pattern, the Rise of Endymion must be good, but I don't really feel like reading it anymore.

>> No.4314918

>>4308728

I'm thinking back to my time at school and trying to think which of my teachers would have been likely to spend their time outside of class hurling obscenities at strangers on the internet.

Hint: it isn't the good ones.

Also:

>Teaching your class what to think about literature instead of giving them the tools to draw their own damn conclusions

I'm not even the original anon, but I bet you're an awful teacher.

>> No.4314920

>>4312501
>>4314850
1 was good, a nice refreshing thing, 2 was meh, it progressed the story but nothing like 1, 3 and 4 are complete and utter crap, except if you like Messiah stories. 4 is the worst of them, if you hit the part where he just makes up names for half a page you know he is is the poet, forced by his publisher to write new parts to the series

>> No.4314927

>>4305598
its not really,
the subtext clearly pushes a second coming of christ and messiah agenda,

>> No.4314937

>>4308113
>tfw you will never have your throat slashed while violating the girl to whom you will have been able to say: you are the night.

>> No.4314938
File: 34 KB, 500x389, 1258214535224.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4314938

>>4297997
>that sentence, pic related
>>4299166
>your criticism of the book doesn't hold water. Reading a book just for its plot is like listening to music only for the lyrics.
Go to bed Tao, are you fucking retarded or something? Also pic related.

>> No.4314942

And they are dancing, the board floor slamming under the jackboots and the fiddlers grinning hideously over their canted pieces. Towering over them all is the judge and he is naked and dancing, his small feet lively and quick and now in doubletime and bowing to the ladies, huge and pale and hairless, like an enormous infant. He never sleeps, he says. He says he will never die. He bows to the fiddlers and sashays backwards and throws back his head and laughs deep in his throat and he is a great favorite, the judge. He wafts his hat and the lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two passes, dancing and fiddling at once. His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.

>> No.4315383

>>4314918

>implying you would know would do that

>my students can't even believe I play video games, let alone HURLING OBSCENITIES AT MORONS ON THE INTARBUTTSES

I'm an awesome teacher. Ask any of my students.

>> No.4315389

>>4299166
>Reading a book just for its plot is like listening to music only for the lyrics.
so what

>> No.4315419

>>4299166
>Reading a book just for its plot is like listening to music only for the lyrics.

Dead wrong, and retarded.

A novel is essentially a story just like a song is essentially music.

The heart of the novel is to be a story; if you think otherwise, why don't you read nonfiction? One of my favourite books is Moby-Dick, and it's clearly a novel where I don't care much about the story, and barely consider it a novel, because its strength, to me, lies in things that don't require a story. You can read certain chapters as stand-alone and it works great.

No matter how much I love Melville, I have zero problem saying that Moby-Dick fails a novel, as a story. It's one of the greatest books of all time, but it's not one of the best stories ever told. That's a weakness, not a strength.

FTFY
>reading a novel for the story is like listening to a song for the music, it's exactly what you're supposed to do and doing anything other is being a pomoron

>> No.4315434
File: 466 KB, 250x141, xj5KQ.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4315434

>>4314942

>> No.4315449

>>4308089
Not him, but when I read Atomised or The Elementary Particles, the thing that really stuck me was how accurately Houellebecq can convey conversation between characters and their mood/existential predicament in general. He also speaks through his characters at points you can tell in how he writes them speaking about their opinions on literature and whatnot. Thus, I think it's far more than just a book about social alienation. It's there--but try not to read too much into it with only that theme.

>> No.4315458

>>4315449

Just stop. Houellebitch is a scam and you should be ashamed of reading his money-grabbing con project.

>> No.4315464

>>4315458
>scam

wut. explain yourself anon

>> No.4315475

>>4305111
Can't we just agree that Ozymandias was a cocky son of a bitch that did things that were way too obvious? His password is a variation on his name for god sakes

>> No.4316694
File: 31 KB, 323x475, solitude.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4316694

>> No.4316893
File: 35 KB, 328x500, 51uZf2SDgFL.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4316893

A Fan's Notes by Exley. Doesn't seem to get the love it deserves from /lit/

>> No.4316904

Crime and Punishment closely followed by The Maias

>> No.4317139

>>4296741

>Island

ma nigga

>> No.4317156

>>4315475
>Can't we just agree that Ozymandias was a cocky son of a bitch that did things that were way too obvious?

he's a superhero playing it straight. The rest are good hand to hand fighters and have fancy tools but they're still just regular people, but Ozymandias really is superhuman. It's about self image - Ozymandias was cocky because he *knew* he was the best and ditching his costume identity and becoming a philantropist allowed him to live as his superhero persona 24/7. Rorschach was the only one who understood him because he had the same mindset.

remember when Nite Owl was able to pop a boner because he put on his costume? That's what Ozymandias felt - a constant sense of empowered, endless boners everywhere he went.

>> No.4317180

>>4300081
Thinking of getting into Mann. Which is best to start: The Magic Mountain, Death in Venice, Doctor Faustus or Buddenbrooks?

>> No.4317205

>>4291437
It's hard to believe the same guy wrote Stranger in a Strange Land and this shit. They have the exact opposite political philosophy, which are anarchism, and fascism.

>> No.4317220
File: 310 KB, 511x600, HomagetoCatalonia_rgb.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4317220

Eveything by Orwell really. 1984 is close second.

>> No.4317239
File: 41 KB, 386x354, duceppe.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4317239

>>4293221
>Stranger in a Strange Land

>> No.4317317

>>4301318
sounds like a fedora

>>4305073
this

>> No.4317324

>>4308059
>Catcher is a mirror. If you're a moron, you only see moronity.
that actually is a really good way to put it.

>> No.4317341
File: 38 KB, 319x500, 0140077022.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4317341

>>4291412
White Noise

>> No.4317344
File: 34 KB, 275x443, guyotat-tombeau-pour-cinq-cent-mille-soldats.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4317344

>>4291412
Tombeau pour cinq cent mille soldats by Pierre Guyotat

>> No.4317345

>>4293221
>One Hundred Years of Solitude
ma nigga

>> No.4317346

>>4317220
looks nice

>> No.4317348

>>4317341
that book was good but was so defeatist in scope I can't see how it can be the greatest of even a favourite.

>> No.4317358

>>4293886
Just finished Franny and Zooey, have to definitely agree with this statement.

God damn I love Salinger's dialogue.

>> No.4317360

>>4317348
I'm just easily corrupted by his virtuoso style and his dialogues so I didn't care about the defeatist scope, but you're right maybe "Underworld" is way more optimistic and still very good.

>> No.4317366

>>4308118
Under the Volcano is one of the favorite books of Alan Moore

>> No.4317373

>>4296980

>It's so beautifully written

Literally the only thing Lolitafags say for the book. They offer no other reason for the praise, all completely oblivious to any form of individualism.

>> No.4317438

>>4317373
You don't need any other reasons, faggit.

>> No.4317667

>>4317373

>They offer no other reason for the praise

I, for one, like the fact that it involves children having sex.

>> No.4317668

Bel Ami. Great plot, perfect length, perfect ending.

>> No.4317669
File: 173 KB, 416x500, 134485762_227fe3555e.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4317669

>>4293846
>opinons

>> No.4317676

>>4317669
>le funny renaissance man pointing at one word post face

>> No.4317844
File: 120 KB, 200x288, The_egyptian_finnish.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4317844

Waltari, The Egyptian

>> No.4317870

>>4305111
>That's why Rorschach immediately assumes it's one of them that did it.

This, and then

>no superpowers

Fans are divided about whether they have any, but this suggests they indeed fucking have.

>> No.4318347

>>4305852
Which books?

>> No.4318895

>>4295143
READ SIDDHARTHA AND NARZISS UND GOLDMUND.
NAU!