/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4785877]

Rate the last 3 books you read

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.4785880]

>>4785877
They were all very good

[Anonymous No.4785887]

3/5, 4,76/5, 5/5

[Anonymous No.4785891]

6/10
8/10
7/10

[Anonymous No.4785892]

i only read good books because there isn't enough time to stick with bad ones

[Anonymous No.4785897]

>>4785877
4/5
5/5
3/5

[Anonymous No.4785921]

t/6, 2/>, %/0

[Anonymous No.4785946]

>>4785880
>>4785887
>>4785891
>>4785897
>>4785921
Great, now rate all three in the form of a single haiku.

[Anonymous No.4785948]

>little star by John Ajvide Lindqvist
7/10 could have ended much better

>pirate latitudes by Michael Crichton
7/10 standard pirate adventure nothing to commend it but well written none the less

>5 centimeters per second by Makoto Shinkai
8/10 better ending than the film.

[Anonymous No.4785958]

8/10
9/10
11/10

[Anonymous No.4785959]

>>4785948
>8/10 better ending than the film.

How does it end?

[Anonymous No.4785978]

McCarthy, No Country For Old Men, 7/10, I want to read more of him, but I'm not as super impressed as a lot of people seem to be. The fact that he does the grumpy old man, hell in a handbasket I'm tellin ya bit very well doesn't elevate his doing it beyond its category.

Wittgenstein, On Certainty, 10/10. Here is one grade.

HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu (ST Joshi Anthology) 6/10, some really enjoyable stuff and some stinkers. This ST Joshi guy seems barely literate; his glosses and intro etc are highly skippable.

[Anonymous No.4785986]

>>4785877
Mieville, The Scar: 8/10
Hopkirk, The Great Game: 10/10
Pynchon, Bleeding Edge: 5/10

[Anonymous No.4786002]

>Hunger Games
6/10
Not bad, interesting, and I was even swooning a bit for Peeta near the end.

>Sundiver
7/10
Very interesting. I really liked some of the ideas about the unchanging nature of the state, and the environmentalist undertones. While its obvious Brin isn't a master of politics or crafting believable political systems, and a fairly conservative prediction of social evolution, he has an intense creativity when it comes to both the new species he introduced and the dolphins.

Sundiver was the first book I picked up in months, and read through it in an evening and just finished H-games now. I don't even remember the book before that.

[Anonymous No.4786186]

>>4785877
Oblomov 9/10
Picture of Dorian Gray 5/10
Fault in our Stars 2/10

[Anonymous No.4786205]

>>4785978
for mccarthy if you haven't read suttree or blood meridian you won't have an accurate opinion of his work

[Anonymous No.4786207]

>>4786205
Those are his best, but their quality isn't representative of his overall body of work.

[Anonymous No.4786212]

Brave New World
3/5, it was alright but the indian reservation part was a bit dragging
The Man Who Was Thursday
5/5, bretty gud
Nova Swing
4/5, it was nice but not as nice as Light

[Anonymous No.4786219]

>Journey to the End of the Night, Celine
8/10, great prose, plot slows down after Africa and takes a long time to pick back up, over all leaves a good taste in my mouth.

>Oblomov, Goncharov
7/10, least inspiring audiobook to listen to while working out, had to get a print copy and some cigarettes to enjoy it but enjoyed it thoroughly once I did.

>Ulysses
10/10, positively scrotum-tightening.

[Anonymous No.4786223]

10/10
6/10
3/10

[Anonymous No.4786239]

>The Outsider
8/10, was kind of disappointed with this one. Though the ending certainly made reading it worth it.

>The Catcher in the Rye
9/10, the book just managed to tap something in me that I thought was long gone. Can easily see myself rating this an 8, perhaps even a 7, if Holden wasn't so relatable.

>Lord of the Flies
8/10, was pretty good the way it was but could've been much better.

[Anonymous No.4786253]

>Dune
9/10. Understand why it's so critically acclaimed now.
>Sharpe's Eagle
7/10. Enjoyable, somewhat historically accurate, characterful and action packed.
>The Spy who came in from the Cold
8/10. Atmospheric and gripping portrayal of Western espionage.

[Anonymous No.4786286]

Poems of the Great War (an introduction to WW I poetry): 5/5 really made me feel interested and wanting to look up more on poetry from that period. Not all poems are amazing, obviously, but some are just hearbreaking diamonds of poetry.
Dead Souls: 4/5 story is a little boring sometimes and morals are painfully shoved down your throat, but I liked the characters and the humour.
Some short stories by Tourgenev, forgot the exact title: 3/5, fairly amusing, but the story about the Russian fellow meeting an Italian cutie and then kind of dumping her should've been made longer or at least feel more "complete" and published as a full length novel instead of a "short story" that's more than 100 pages long.

[Anonymous No.4786300]

>Norwegian Wood
7/10. Not my favorite thing Murakami wrote, but 10/10 comfy reading.
>Crime and Punishment
9/10, it was everything I've heard it hyped to be. I have nothing to say about it that hasn't been said a thousand times.
>If on a winter's night a traveler
10/10. Masterful, for lack of a better word. In my top 5 books for sure. I have no idea why Calvino isn't discussed more here.

[Anonymous No.4786316]

Red Country
8/10 Fun genre fiction. Just what I expected.

Growth of the Soil
8/10 comfy as fuck

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
6/10 Fun stories. Depressing to realize that I will never leave Earth.

[Anonymous No.4786429]

>>4785877

>Picture of Dorian Grey
7/10

>Don Quixote
8/10

>Heart of Darkness
8.5/10

[Anonymous No.4786438]

>>4786300
Calvino is one of the true legends, that not enough people talk about. INvisible cities and Into the war are both amazing

[Anonymous No.4786481]

The Boy On The Porch, by Sharon Creech. I read this with my 11 yo daughter. It was fun to analyze a Christ figure with her and talk about how that analogy was used in the story.
Linger Awhile, by Russel Hoban. This was fucking great. Of course Riddley Walker is one of the favorites here on /lit/, deservedly so, but Linger Awhile was a melancholy trip. I actually teared up at the last paragraph. I highly recommend this short novel.
The Hungry Bug, by Carlton Mellick III. This guy is a breakout in the Bizarro genre. Where a lot of that is just heaps of crap, like punk rock, there are a few actually talented writers out there. Not every track is a top ten hit, but Hungry Bug was fun. I'd recommend it as a good into to his work.

[Anonymous No.4786504]

>The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe (re-read)
10/10. Its few flaws cast no shadows on its strengths.

>Storm of Steel - Junger
8/10. Manly, fun, rather balanced, deliciously naive.

>By Night in Chile - Bolaño
7.5/10. A Beckettian take on priesthood (minus the absurdity and posmo stuff). Reads like any other Bolaño.

[Anonymous No.4786527]

Iliad
9/10 could hardly put it down
Odyssey
9/10 same as above
Confederacy of Dunces
6/10 I guess the humor was lost on me

[Anonymous No.4786528]

>user manual for iPhone 5
8/10, very informative

>cookbook
9/10, I enjoyed the concise style and the realism

>telephone directory
2/10, too many minor characters, very weak plot

[Anonymous No.4786552]

>After Dark
Not as good as Kafka on Shore/10

>Alice in Wonderland
Not as good as the Disney adaptation/10

>Welcome to the N.H.K.
Not as good as the anime adaptation/10

[Anonymous No.4786566]

>The Adolescent, Dostoevsky
Pretty cool. Was interesting. Typical Dostoevsky with a fairly slow-moving first part, second part where shit goes down and then a final 'showdown' towards the end. Pretty intense 50 or so last pages.
8/10

>Frankenstein, Shelley
Eh, found myself to be pretty bored at times. Things like "oh my god get on with it already" popped into my head. I read a review of it the other day and the guy said something like, "I don't know what I was expecting - 'more' comes to mind." I essentially agree with that.
5/10

>Steppenwolf, Hesse
Pretty much the same as the above, just that it started out good but came increasingly (and frustratingly) bad. The ending was, well... yawn.
4/10

Currently reading Journey to the End of the Night.

[Anonymous No.4786567]

>>4786504
>A Beckettian take on priesthood (minus the absurdity and posmo stuff). Reads like any other Bolaño.
Nope, not Beckettian in the least -- nor on Priesthood. . No wonder you only gave it a 7.5: you didn't actually understand it.

[Anonymous No.4786574]

Blood Meridian - 10/10
Just, wow.
Inherent Vice - 6/10
Can't wait for the movie. A fun romp.
Freedom - 7/10
As good as this was, I'm not as convinced as some critics are re~ it being one of 'the great american novels' or w/e. I thought it was amazing, and it dealt with contemporary issues in a very intelligent way, the stuff concerning youth didn't outright stink of a middle aged man trying to fathom the digital age, but at the same time, I couldn't relate to hardly anyone except the rock star, and he was sadly kind of 2 dimensional

[Anonymous No.4786579]

>Jitterbug Perfume
10/10, absolutely marvelous

>Franny and Zooey
9/10, gorgeously done

>The Bell Jar
8.5/10, it's easy to understand why Plath is called the female Salinger

[Anonymous No.4786582]

>>4785877
Lol she's reading 50 shades of grey isn't she

[Anonymous No.4786588]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
>7/10
Too racist for my liking.

Frankenstein 1818 text
>6/10
Too critical of incest for my liking.

A Farewell to Arms
>7/10
Not enough abortions for my liking.

[Anonymous No.4786600]

>>4786528
Can't argue with that

[Anonymous No.4786602]

>>4786567
Was being anal absolutely necessary? Do you actually believe I could've summarized a whole fucking book in under 20 words?

>Beckettian
The setting (or frame) for Beckett's trilogy is men laying in bed, dying. What would you say the frame for Nocturno de Chile is?

>Priesthood
Of course the novel is not about priesthood in itself, it was a figure of speech.
At any rate, I stand by what I said. I would say it's most about hoping can lead up to guilt, but jeez, this is 4chan, not a peer review.

Do you even know Chile or Latin American? How could you say a novel that delves in the priesthood during the 70s?


>7.5
Implying that's a bad score on my book.

Why should I 'understand' the novel the same way you did for that matter?
You silly prick. You could've asked what it was that I meant instead of spouting some insecure bullshit because you thought I didn't like a book as much as you did. I seriously hope you die in a fire.

[Anonymous No.4786606]

>>4786588
>Too racist for my liking.
you're joking, right?

[Anonymous No.4786612]

>>4786602

How could you say a novel that delves in the priesthood during the 70s?

how could they say <what> (about?) a novel that etc?

if your basis of comparison i.e. beckett vs bolano revolves simply around superficial elements (laying in bed dying/priest in the 70s) seems not at all misleading then by all means, I commend your brief and helpful comparison and the application of 'beckettian' (minus the things that make ti beckettian)

ty

[Anonymous No.4786615]

>>4786612
nice balete d00d

Anonymous 04/17/14(Thu)10:24 UTC-6 No.4786602
>>4786567
Was being anal absolutely necessary? Do you actually believe I could've summarized a whole fucking book in under 20 words?

>Beckettian
The setting (or frame) for Beckett's trilogy is men laying in bed, dying. What would you say the frame for Nocturno de Chile is?

>Priesthood
Of course the novel is not about priesthood in itself, it was a figure of speech.
At any rate, I stand by what I said. I would say it's most about hoping can lead up to guilt, but jeez, this is 4chan, not a peer review.

Do you even know Chile or Latin American? How could you say a novel that delves in the priesthood during the 70s?


>7.5
Implying that's a bad score on my book.

Why should I 'understand' the novel the same way you did for that matter?
You silly prick. You could've asked what it was that I meant instead of spouting some insecure bullshit because you thought I didn't like a book as much as you did. I seriously hope you die in a fire.

[Anonymous No.4786616]

>>4786606
You're really stupid.

[Anonymous No.4786618]

>>4786567
Was being anal absolutely necessary? Do you actually believe I could've summarized a whole book in under 20 words?

>Beckettian
The setting (or frame) for Beckett's trilogy is men laying in bed, dying. What would you say the frame for Nocturno de Chile is? ...

>Priesthood
Of course the novel is not about priesthood in itself, it was a figure of speech.
At any rate, I stand by what I said. I would say it's mostly about hope and how it can lead up to guilt, but jeez, this is 4chan, not a peer review.

Do you even know about Chile or Latin American during the 70s? How could you say a novel that's about an influential priest during the time atrocities were committed is not about priesthood during the 70s?

>only 7.5
Implying that's a bad score on MY book or that you even understand my scoring.

Why should I 'understand' the novel the same way you did for that matter?
You silly prick. You could've asked what it was that I meant instead of spouting some insecure bullshit because you thought I didn't like a book as much as you did.

This asinine attitude of being edgy and dismissive is why I don't like discussing books in /lit/. It's like some of you guys don't know what giving a break even means.

[Anonymous No.4786623]

>>4786618

Not all of us are like that anon. Don't generalise too much. There are dickheads everywhere. But there are nice people here too. I swear.

[Anonymous No.4786625]

1. Of mice and men by Steinbeck 7/10 the ending was too predictable after the dog getting killed
2. Lottery - Shirley Jackson 8/10
3. Candide - Voltaire 9/10 best one, but it was too short

[Anonymous No.4786635]

>>4786606
Naw, I'm only foolin' some. I was pleased as pie in the scene whar Huck spins a yarn about a mile wide about Jim bein' his paw with the smallbox. Really lit up my sentiments too when Tom Sawyer attends to all that fussin' over settin' Jim loose all fur the adventure like, specially considrin' he knew Jim were already free and such.

[Anonymous No.4786640]

3. The Human Reality by Peter Prew. 5/10, his summary of our historical and cultural development was excellent, but I really think he pushed his theory too far with his insane belief that reverting to a hunter-gatherer society would solve all of our problems.

2. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. Absolutely beautiful. I loved how he took us inside the mind of Stephen Dedalus, I love following the stream of consciousness in it's religious development and watching Joyce craft Stephen's intellectual progression. Fantastic book.

1. Ulysses by James Joyce. Maybe some of it went over my head but I have no idea why this book is held in such high esteem. Yeah, technically it's a great book in how it switches between different styles and whatnot but I think overall it's overhyped modernist ramblings. 5/10

[Anonymous No.4786641]

>The Ocean at the End of the Lane 5/10 It was a short story with 40 pages tacked on
>Dubliners 9/10 First I read by Joyce. I really enjoyed it. I just need to find some good analysis of it
>King Lear 8/10 One of the most engaging Shakespeare plots.

[Anonymous No.4786645]

>>4786612
>>4786615
What an insufferable bitch you seem to be. I reposted it here, >>4786618, you dummy

And yes, my analysis was superficial. Where exactly did you get an idea I was referring to its themes?
When I'm not in 'literary analysis' mode I admit to using tags and buzz words to refer to some thematic peculiarities of a book, its setting or its style.

>basis of comparison
You'd have to admit that using an adjective and inferring I meant that as a comparison is far-fetching.


Maybe if I had said "but it's about many other things as well" you wouldn't have gotten all anal. I thought the "reads like any other Bolaño" somehow conveyed my meaning that it's much more about that.

[Anonymous No.4786652]

>Enduring Love
9/10, Beautifully written literary thriller about love and obsession. I thought the movie was great when I first saw it, but watched it again immediately after reading and was far less impressed.

>Nobody Move
5/10, I've read Jesus' Son a few times and it's amazing, but Denis Johnson's prose in this one isn't anything special. This is just a standard, unimpressive crime novel.

>Make Room! Make Room!
6/10, Soylent Green is loosely based on this book (it's not people in the book). Pretty decent pulp sci-fi detective story in a severely overpopulated world. Relevant today, but it didn't really suck me and make me care that much.

[Anonymous No.4786659]

>>4786645

you're simply using those tags and buzzwords ephemerally because the themes are lost on you.

this is common. for example, if I saw a church with a steeple, and then saw another building with a steeple-like finial I could call it 'church-like' and yes, that would be a valid comparison that says nothing of the contents or actual structure of the building

[Anonymous No.4786670]

>the catcher in the rye
solid 9.5/10 i love this book
>of mice and men
i'll give it an 8/10, george and lennie are great
>tfw no alternate universe buddy cop spin off
why even live
>where are you going, where have you been
not a book but it's the last thing that i have read within recent memory. arnold friend and ellie are the best characters i have ever read about in literature, 10/10.

[Anonymous No.4786683]

>>4786659
>because the themes are lost on you.
No, I'm using those tags and buzzwords because that's exactly what I intended to do. Know the difference.

Seriously, you don't even know about my full take on the book yet your awful arrogance forced you to this sad attempt at trolling or whatever it is you are going for. I still don't know the purpose for your retorts.


Instead of this annoying grasping for straws and presumption, why don't discuss the book and its themes instead? Or are you that desperate for feeling superior?

[Anonymous No.4786685]

Hay bin Yakzan 9/10 - Lead me to think, gave me new thoughts, even though i don't agree with them. Also gave me an idea for a book but i've no experience at all so it will have to wait. All should read.
Fahrenheit 451 5/10 - Wanted a basic book and i got what i want. The language is a bit unnatural and 'pretentious', but some parts were actually nice.
Cemile 7/10 - Wonderful language full of emotions, even for me. A bit 'empty' though, that is why it's just a 7.

[Anonymous No.4786686]

>>4786683
what's your full take on the book?
I'm thinking about reading it because I loved 2666. If it's beckettian though I'm not sure if I'm interested

[Anonymous No.4786690]

>>4786683
Now I'm thinking that if I had given it a 9 and wrote the exact same line you wouldn't have jumped at me like that.

That "only 7.5" revealed a lot. Fortunately I don't have to take you too seriously now.

[Anonymous No.4786697]

in watermelon sugar - 10/10
cosmopolis - 10/10
thousand cranes - 10/10

currently reading war and peace and it's 10/10

[Anonymous No.4786701]

>>4786690
Nope, I would have still called you out for misunderstanding by night in chile by calling it beckettian. You're just wrong, accept it.

[Anonymous No.4786702]

>>4786690
i forgot what you rated it

i feel like a dick now, will you tell me your full take on the book? please?

[Anonymous No.4786704]

>>4786685
>Wanted a basic book and i got what i want. The language is a bit unnatural and 'pretentious', but some parts were actually nice.

Just read it and had pretty much the same thoughts. Some of the segments are pretty enjoyable, but i found his purple prose irritating at times.

I really don't think he built the world that well either, i couldn't get a proper picture or feel for it like i could with similar dystopian novels that seem to flesh out their world in a better way

[Anonymous No.4786735]

>>4786701
I believe I knowingly erred in good faith. You call that being mistaken. Well, I call you a nit-picking arrogant.

I've already explained what I meant by Beckettian, yet you're asking me to submit to your understanding of the term.
Why should I? At any rate, I shan't. I still believe there are many similarities to Beckett's trilogy, specifically in its setting or style.

>man dying or about to die
>single paragraph
>rambling, at times with no clear intent
>random recollections of seemingly simpler or nicer things
>past expectations vs present (i.e., guilt)
>that scathological last line

Believe me, even if I'm not much of a fan of Beckett, I got many of his themes, or at least I'm content to the conclusions I reached. Same thing for Bolaño, though I'm more fan of his than of SB.


So fuck you for not even bothering in seeing some truth in what I've explained so far. I'm not going to write a paper on Nocturno de Chile just for your sake. Nor for yours either, sorry. >>4786702

[Anonymous No.4786746]

>>4786735
hey, i'm >>4786702 (You)

I'm not the guy breaking your balls over beckettian stuff, I sincerely want to read that book and want to know more about it

can you please put this silly fight aside and tell me what you thought of the book? I don't want a damn book report or review but maybe if you could tell me something about the themes and plot/characters or your own thoughts in your own terms?

please?

not trolling here. although if I was I might point out that, in refusing to share deeper opinions/insights re~ the book, you only make the case of that ball-buster by appearing to not have any deeper thoughts on the book

not saying I think that, I really just want to know what YOU think about the book

[Anonymous No.4786804]

>>4786746
You asked nicely, so, in the end, I'll sketch something for you.

Please understand that English is not my first language so even if my command of it seems good, it's lacking in many aspects. I don't want more cunts coming after me because I'm not as accurate as they wished I was.


I'd say its major theme or its intent -which Bolaño even gave in his own words- is guilt.
The guilt of a Catholic priest. But it's not really that simple. You need to fully understand the attitude of the church during the 70s, specially a group like Opus Dei. Even after they collaborated with the military which lead to kidnapping, torture, death, among other atrocities, many priests have done nothing of a 'mea culpa' even after all this time. I can't recall if the heads of the Argentinian and Chilean's churches ever did an official mea culpa. Chile's most likely did not.

The 2nd half is about the MC somewhat reflecting on that, a lot.

So, it's about guilt (to feel it or not), Chile's identity and attitude (mostly on the intellectual class).

Those are the larger strokes, I'd say, but by no means this 'analysis' is complete, not absolutely spot-on for that matter.

I'm happy with whatever was NOT lost on me.
Having some knowledge on Catholic history, Latin America's history during the 70s and some knowledge of general 'universal' literature (it has so many references to authors, the first and easiest one to spot being Huysmans) will definitely come in handy.

[Anonymous No.4786817]

The Pillowman 10/10
V. 8/10 (two chapters really threw my interest and seemed to drag)
The Big Sleep 7/10

[Anonymous No.4786846]

>>4786746
You asked nicely, so, in the end, I'll sketch something for you.

Please understand, before anything, that English is not my first language so even if my command of it seems good, it's actually lacking in many aspects. I don't want more cunts coming after me because I'm not as accurate as they wished I was.


I'd say its major theme or its intent is guilt -which Bolaño even gave in his own words-.
Specifically, the guilt of a Catholic priest, which is not an easy thing. Catholic priests, specially in some orders, study many intellectual subjects, theology first and foremost. They are not your typical God Hates Fag type of Christian minister. So this MC doesn't just have any human's guilt triggers, but he has an intellectual understanding of guilt and if/how/why it should apply to himself.

But why guilt? Because of the events of his life he retells. You need to fully understand the attitude of the Church during the 70s, specially a group like Opus Dei. They actively collaborated with the military, which lead to kidnapping, torture and death in countless cases -among other atrocities-. Even after all that, many priests have done nothing of a 'mea culpa' even after all this time. I can't recall if the heads of the Argentinian and Chilean's churches ever did an official mea culpa. Chile's most likely did not.

The 2nd half is about the MC somewhat reflecting on that period of time, a lot. He explores said events attaching no definite answer to himself. But of course that might well be lie. The figure of a certain 'gray sad young man' reminds him of that.

The intellectual (literary mostly) scene of different eras in Chile is also present in the book. As with any other old person, he wonders if the past was not better, which leads to another subtheme: the tricks of memory.


Those are the larger strokes, I'd say, but by no means this 'analysis' is complete, not absolutely spot-on for that matter. These aspects of its style/plot (>>4786735) should also be considered.


I'm happy with whatever was NOT lost on me.
Having some knowledge on Catholic history, Latin America's history during the 70s and some knowledge of general 'universal' literature (it has so many references to authors, the first and easiest one to spot being Huysmans) will definitely come in handy.

[Anonymous No.4786861]

Stoner - 10/10. Not much needs to be said.
Dominion:The Power of Man, thee Suffering of animals, and the Call of Mercy - 8/10. Chapter on the Safari Games people dragged on a bit and I got so disgusted with their hypocrisy I had to skip it. Otherwise very good, very interesting perspective.
Auschwitz [Laurence Reen] - 7/10. Was alright for a start book, and I'm ready to read more about nazi concentration camps.

[Anonymous No.4787161]

>>4785946
>Pezoa - The Book Of Disquiet - 5.5/10
>Larkin - The Whitsun Weddings - 8/10
>Joyce - Dubliners - 9.5/10

Bored in Portugal
Masculinity shattered
Frozen and so beautiful

[Anonymous No.4787171]

>>4787161
hmm, why so low for pessoa

[Anonymous No.4787176]

>Dan Brown - Inferno
7/10

> Eiji Yoshikawa - Musashi
8.5 / 10

>Miyamoto Musashi - The Book of Five Rings
9/10

[Anonymous No.4787194]

>>4787171
I probably should've given it a 6 really, I enjoyed it more than I initially implied in that piss-poor haiku.

There were some truly beautiful and deeply moving passages in there, undoubtedly. Unfortunately, a lot of it felt quite repetitive and often very disjointed, I understand it's supposed to be a fragmented collection of poems and prose, but reading it in an English translation kinda blurs the distinction. I'm sure reading it in its original language would warrant it a far higher rating

[Anonymous No.4787207]

>A Dance with Dragons
>George R.R. Martin
>5/10

The series up until this point wasn't exactly "high literature", but it was very enjoyable - something in the vein of Stephen King, John Grisham or Michael Crichton (i.e. pure entertainment), with extra points given for excellent characters and a well-realized setting. But at this point, it feels like everything's gone sideways. Not a damn thing of import happened across hundreds upon hundreds of pages. If I'm going to invest my time in a damn soap opera, it better be an engaging one for God's sake.

> Cloud Atlas
> David Mitchell
> 7/10

Interesting concept, nice execution. It never quite reaches the heights of meaning that it so clearly wants to, but it has enough originality and spark to stand well on its own anyway.

> Mockingjay
> Suzanne Collins
> 6/10

I'm convinced the only reason the Hunger Games series is so damn popular is that, after the nightmare that was the fame of Twilight, people were so willing to jump on the first thing with a (vaguely) proactive female protagonist they all hopped on the bandwagon. Hunger Games was a hodgepodge of ideas taken from other, better sources; and Catching Fire was a test of fucking endurance as Katniss sat on a goddamn train for 200 pages and thought about boys.

Mockingjay is definitely the strongest of the three as Katniss finally DOES something... but only kind of. I think the people who are honoring this series for its use of a "strong female protagonist" are completely deluding themselves, as Katniss' central arc is based on a love triangle between two hunky young men and all of the key decisions in her life are made by older men and are outside of her control. She's basically just Bella, but with a tiny modicum more agency and a weapon. Apparently that's all you need to be gender-progressive. Who knew?

[Anonymous No.4787228]

The Things They Carried - 8.5/10 War is hell
1984 - 8/10 Big Brother is hell
The Confederacy of Dunces - 7/10 Ignatius would have been at home on /pol/

[Anonymous No.4787234]

>>4786606
That dude is a troll
lrn24chan

[Anonymous No.4787236]

>>4786640
That is exactly what Ulysses is and nothing more.

[Anonymous No.4787261]

Henry Miller, The Tropic of Cancer - 7/10
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird - 7/10
Frank Herbert, Dune - 8/10

[Anonymous No.4787264]

>>4787228

>The Things They Carried
>1984

TTTC is great, but I have a feeling you're 17 and those were assigned.

[Anonymous No.4787267]

>Malcolm X - Manning Marable
6/10 super in-depth, doesn't capture the charisma of the man
>the glass bead game - Hesse
6/10 could have been great, too damn long
>beyond good and evil - Nietzsche
?/10 can't rate, a masterpiece, the most direct and immediate "philosophy" book I have ever read. Profound, funny, Freudian. Surprisingly good relationship advice.

[Anonymous No.4787299]

>>4787264
>TTTC is great

So it's great but you can only read it at 17?

Why does /lit/ not also understand that not everyone here is an americlap so doesn't read these books in school and might not even have english as their first language so only coming to those books now

[Anonymous No.4787799]

Shadow of the Torturer: 9/10
Claw of the Conciliator: 7/10
Sword of the Lictor: 8/10

[Anonymous No.4789521]

>The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories
4/5

>Moby-Dick
3/5

>As I Lay Dying
4/5

[Anonymous No.4789527]

The Story of Art, by E.H. Gombrich - (7/10) A fine introduction to the history of visual art, with many high quality reproductions. Well worth the mere $10 I paid.

A History of Western Music by Grout, Burkholder, Palisca, others - (10/10) There's a reason this has been considered the standard Western music history text for so many years. Really an excellent experience, especially in the way it matches up with the Norton Anthology scores and the recordings. Superb!

The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle - (2/10) shit was mad gay

[Anonymous No.4789541]

>>4787267
>Profound, funny, Freudian
>Freudian

i chuckled

[Anonymous No.4789544]

House Of Leaves- 9/10
A Clockwork Orange- 9/10
Brave New World- 7/10
Kite Runner- 6/10

[Anonymous No.4789546]

>>4785877
Infinite Jest 8/10
Man's Search for Meaning 9/10
The Stranger 6/10

[Anonymous No.4789550]

>desolation angels - jack kerouac
8/10 nice to see kerouac not having fun. also imo the most /lit/ friendly book of his from those i've read
>the hobbit and the lotr trilogy
hobbit 7/10, trilogy 9/10
the hobbit is a cute story about the true meaning of christmas, the trilogy is a pretty serious commentary on human nature. both are great.

[Anonymous No.4789584]

satantango 11/10
metamorphoses and other stories 9/10
julia and the bazooka 7/10

[Anonymous No.4789585]

Rating scales are stupid.

>The Garden of Forking Paths
Loved these stories, my first prolonged exposure to Borges. I had read the Quixote one before. I especially loved the Tlor (?) one and The Circular Ruins. He reminds me of Kafka, with a different philosophical focus - yet just as parabolic. His stories are the first engagement I've really had with Berkeleyian Idealism, which I had sort of snubbed in the past, so i didn't even bothering reading too many secondary sources on it. With Borges, I'm now more open to exploring unconventional, even outmoded philosophies and utilizing them in my own writing.

>Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Not bad for an early work. I didn't find out until after finishing it that Orwell hated it and wanted to prevent it from being republished. But I really liked the prose, the humor, it was a bit overlong or perhaps not long enough to justify that final line - the ending was rushed overall. There are some worthwhile bits, it's a fun read even if Gordon is incredibly pathetic. I'll be buying a copy for home.

>Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters
Another book with shaky reception - I knew this coming in. I read Franny and Zooey about a year ago, loved Franny - don't really remember Zooey. I loved the plot on this one, the dialog and absurd moments are great as always for Salinger, but Buddy Glass is frequently insufferable as a narrator - overdescriptive, verbose in the worst way... Which makes it a bit disheartening that Salinger saw Buddy as his 'alter-ego'. Despite this, the plot prevailed. In the same collection is Seymour: An Introduction, so I'll probably read that next. I really like him even though the Eastern spirituality stuff is kind of grating, Salinger was very transparent in his attitude towards it.

[Anonymous No.4789633]

>>4787194
I read BoD slowly in parts, now and then taking a bit of the prose before putting it aside. Somehow it slowly grew into me. Certainly helps that Soares is kinda like me except more extreme, to the point of a complete negation of reality. Pessoa is one of the most craziest modernist writers out there especially if you look at the whole biographies he created for his heteronyms.

[Anonymous No.4789680]

>Fight Club
8/10
I already seen the movie and like that a lot, reading the book was a surprisingly fresher experience and I can see how the movie deviated in minor ways. Easy to read if not a bit too simplified. Wanting to read other Palahnuik stuff now.

>Nineteen Eighty Four
7/10
First act slow but sets up the world in a way I understood fine. Second act picks up pace and gets interesting. Last act is sudden yet intense and addictive. The dialogue gets really interesting toward the end.

>Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
8/10
Quite fun and witty.

[Anonymous No.4789682]

The Boys of Summer - 7/10 Great baseball book. And pretty good book about growing up in Brooklyn in the 40's and 50's. A bit sentimental and nostalgic but I guess that's to be expected in a book about a no longer existing team (Brooklyn Dodgers) and a no longer existing neighborhood of the author's youth. Pretty literary for a sports book but still just a sports book.

Banjo by Claude McKay. 7/10 Pretty convincing portrait of a makeshift African diaspora community of drifters and bums scrounging for a living in 1920's Marseilles. The author's self-insert character can be a bit much at times (sometimes his story is interesting, but he is always the voice of reason and wisdom in arguments. He begin to sound like Socrates schooling the dummies in a Plato dialogue.) The plot is a meandering one and not particularly eventful. (The guys scrounge some money. They blow it on food, wine and women. They get drunk, fight, get robbed, witness a senseless murder, run and hide.) I enjoyed it but could see how others would find it pointlessly repetitive. The use of 20's slang takes a little getting used to as well. Not a great work but a nice little slice of lives very different than my own.

Morte D' Urban by J. F. Powers 9/10
I picked this up more for who published it than anything else. It's a New York Review Books Classics Series. The same series in which they published Stoner, Butcher's Crossing, Life and Fate, Moravagine and Warlock. So I saw the NYRB imprint on the side of the book while browsing the shelves at The Strand.
I looked at the back cover and saw it won a National Book Award and decided to buy it.

I took it home and delved a little deeper and saw that it was about a middle aged Roman Catholic priest who gets transferred from his Chicago office and the preaching/fund-raising circuit to the hinterlands of rural Minnesota. "Who the fuck wants to read about a middle aged priest in Minnesota?" I foolishly asked. I think I asked myself who wants to read about an undistinguished English lit professor prior to reading Stoner.

Morte D' Urban is a great read. Fr. Urban is a great character. He's a cynical, worldly go-getter, well-suited to his job of fund-raising, who is banished to a rural retreat house run by ineffectual superiors. A setup like this could make for cute and sappy comedy but Urban reminds me a bit of Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Yes he's "a born operator" without a true friend in the world, but there is a humanist side of him that genuinely wants to be of service. He genuinely wants to improve the human condition. And like Mantel, Powers has a good ear for dialogue and a great love for the well-crafted sentence. I'd love to see Morte D' Urban have a Stoner like resurrection but that's probably too much to ask of a book about Midwestern priests. Heck,I'd settle for a small but devotedly loving cult.

[Anonymous No.4789850]

>>4789584

have you seen the movie Satantango? it's even better I think

[Anonymous No.4789854]

>>4789680
>Fight Club
>8/10
>Nineteen Eighty Four
7/10

Are you sure about that anon?

[Anonymous No.4789882]

>>4789680
Hi 13 year old me. (no offense if you're just new to reading and not actually that young. Keep at it!)

There should be an entry-level /lit/ chart around here somewhere... Maybe someone will be nice and post it for you.

As for Palahniuk, go on to Survivor, Invisible Monsters, Choke and then STOP. Those are the only memorable Palahniuk. Maybe read Rant if you want, Palahniuk veterans seem to like that one - I thought it was a crock of shit.

Go ahead and read The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, it's just as funny as Hitchhiker's Guide. The rest of the series is decent but the first 2 are gold as they were written within a year of eachother and the plots aren't salvaged from failed doctor who scripts

After Palahniuk, if you want to follow the existentialist-minus-nihilist path that I did, go read The Plague by Albert Camus (which makes The Stranger a bit redundant, although that's a fine book in its own right) and do Catch-22 as well, that is, thinkers that go beyond the hackneyed shit-eating form of post-modernism that is Chuck Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis (if you must, his books from Less Than Zero to American Psycho will do) - you can return to the more 'mature' postmodernists later (DeLillo, Pynchon, Foster Wallace) once you've properly integrated modernism and existentialism into your though process so that your engaging with pomo is more than edgy teenage sentiments

[Anonymous No.4789905]

Biography of James Joyce by Richard Ellman (current)

7/10

U.S.A. by John Dos Passos

8/10

The Golden Bowl by Henry James

8/10 Maggie Verver is one of the characters who inspired the most hate in me.

[Anonymous No.4789913]

>>4789882
I always thought that the first three Hitchhiker's were of similar quality and that the last two were really really terrible

[Anonymous No.4789924]

>>4789882
>Hi I'm going to act like a condescending prick, but no offense xD

[Anonymous No.4789955]

>Shadow of the Torturer
10/10
>Starfish
9/10, while Shadow was a much better book I enjoyed this almost as much
>Rise of Endymion
2/10, why do I keep reading Dan Simmons sequels?

[Anonymous No.4790009]

I don't do numerical rating but all three of these were pretty good.

>I, Claudius
Moments of true brilliance peppering an already compelling narrative. Claudius's "bad art" as the speaker is a bit of a gimmick (I.e., can we really call Graves a good author just because he manages to create a convincing simulation of bad writing?), but I think he's aware enough of this to make his point, highlighted in the debate between Pollio and Libby--and I really don't know with whom I agree more: I, Claudius is surely fantastically well researched, but the Libbian friendliness of the story is what makes it enjoyable.

>Spin
The beginning of a sci-do series that I'm told was relatively popular a few years ago. Surprisingly competent in terms of writing, although sometimes the characterizations raised eyebrows with me. To me it almost seemed like Tyler was more in love (or lust!) with Jason than he was with Dianne! But where this novel really shined was its atmosphere, both in terms of setting and pacing. From the opening flashback I could picture every backdrop and every character vividly, which I certainly can't say about every book.

>Naomi
Sometimes called "The Japanese Lolita," but I was skeptical of this title. Now I can see what they mean. A political allegory that is also a puzzling look at the twisted lives of modern men and women. I could hardly pity Joji, his initial ideas about keeping Naomi like a caged bird were too disgusting, and yet I certainly can't sympathize with her either, the evil little thing. Overall I was shocked by the irreverence and contemporary relatability of a story written in an alien country in 1927.

[Anonymous No.4790069]

>>4787207
I'm glad to see you can still have reasonably thoughtful opinions despite reading trash, but if you really disliked these books, why didn't you give them ratings below 5 or 6?

Glad to see you point about the false agency I'm HG, particularly. Do you think the books promote contemptible morals overall, or do you think they're giving children and young teens "the right idea" aside from the gender issues? I.e., are they just about tokenized and fake individuality, or are the anticonsumerist messages useful?

[Anonymous No.4790081]

>Oblivion
7/10

>The Trial
9/10

>The Broom of the System
7/10

[Anonymous No.4790112]

>>4789924
Sorry, I don't know what you're on but it doesn't come across that way at all. To me it looks like a thoughtful and friendly letter of good personalized advice.
It's a shame people can't even tolerate a little friendly teasing these days w.r.t. the "13 year old me" part. It clearly isn't mean-spirited or even supercilious, considering that he immediately launched into a discussion about his appreciation of the books themselves.

[Anonymous No.4790142]

Saul Bellow - Herzog
lame judeo-moaning and "lolsoooointellectual" academic name dropping. misreadings of nietzsche kierkegaard abound. p shitty

Vitezslav Nezval - Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
great, imaginative, loric story. interesting and uniquely presented, concise, doesn't fuck around with anything unnecessary. a great read.

George Berkeley - Principles of Human Knowledge
i'd talk about it, but right now i'm not perceiving it, so i'm having difficulty believing in its existence. talking about it now would just be an abstract idea.

[Anonymous No.4791449]

>moby dick
7.5/10 good
>the ass goblins of auschwitz
8/10 bretty fuggin good
>the catcher in the rye
9/10 amazing

[Anonymous No.4791461]

>Picture of Dorian Gray

7/10

>1984

5/10

>Tess of the D'urbervilles
10/10

[Anonymous No.4791467]

>Under The Skin - Michael Faber
5/10

>Shortcomings - Adrian Tomine
5.3/10

>The Pen/O.Henry Prize 2013
3/10

[Anonymous No.4792914]

>>4789633
I'm surprised more 4chan posters haven't read it actually, Soares is scarily relatable to the average user suffering from too much introspection and ennui, even if his melancholy is arguably far more intense.
But yeah, the amount of depth, background and variety he gives to his huge range of voices is pretty staggering. I really should read some more of his works when I have the time, The Book Of Disquiet really is a curious and often beautiful little book if nothing else.

[Anonymous No.4792979]

Blood Meridian: 9/10
Là-Bas by Huysmans: 6/10
Heart of Darkness: 6/10

[Anonymous No.4792996]

>>4792914
/lit/ overwhelmingly just reads anglo-american authors.

[Anonymous No.4793018]

>Choke
6/10
>Moby Dick
7/10
>A Farewell to Arms
7/10

[Anonymous No.4793030]

>The Bridge of San Luis Rey - 6/10
Nice premise, but poor execution. I remember liking the story about the twins.

>Last Evenings on Earth - 7/10
Melancholic and chill. A nice collection of stories, though fairly repetitive.

>Journey to the End of the Night - 7.5/10
At times extremely poignant and beautiful, especially when he's in America and Africa. But then there's other times when I just wanted Celine to shut up. It struck me as ranting for the sake of ranting.

I still like this book a whole lot though.

[Anonymous No.4793049]

>>4786528
noice

[Anonymous No.4793089]

>2666
4/4 one for the ages
>Satantango
3.5/4 p great not worldchanging
>Heart Of Darkness
2.5/4 overrated nice prose

[Anonymous No.4793611]

>Words of Radiance
8/10, really enjoyable with a brilliant world. Too complex at times with how the Cosmere seems to be coming to the forefront more and more. Also seems to have something against killing characters which is weird considering how many die in his other novels. Few other niggling flaws like the dialogue but I can't argue with how much I enjoyed the book. Nowhere near as good as Way of Kings though.

Heart of Darkness
3/10, I don't see why people like it so much but Conrad's writing just had a tendency to drift off on multiple tangents and then return to the original thought all within the same sentence, that bothered me. The story was dull and the only emotional or thematic idea was forced by how the protagonist kept telling me how horrible everything was instead of simply showing. Honestly I thought I missed a key plot point when I finished, but after looking into it, it doesn't seem like I did.

>Urth of the New Sun
6/10, first half is great but it quickly falls apart in the second. Not a bad book by any means, but I might be harsh on it as it's disappointing compared to the masterpiece that is the Book of the New Sun.

[Anonymous No.4793734]

>>4793089
>>4793611
>underrating HoD

damn guys, did you get a B- on your book report?

flippancy aside and on a side note, I don't understand why americans read HoD in high school. Conrad is one of those authors you need to be a bit older to really feel how incisive his understanding of life is (although his novels show this better than his novellas). Think of him as Pynchon before maximalism - coincidentally, someone who was another sailor and who was greatly influenced by the very Conradian Oakley Hall.

Also, if you spend some time in Africa... you really do end up feeling that same 'everything is complete shite here' vibe that >>4793611 thinks of as 'telling not showing'. You can't really 'show' it, because most of the shiteness is that nothing happens.

[Anonymous No.4793788]

>>4792914
alberto-caeiro.blogespot.com.br/
(Remove e from blog)

Someone translated a whole load of Caeiro poems here. I think it does not work as well in translation but the parts that are important are the foreword and the Notes in Memory of Master Caeiro at the end. The relationships he sketched out between the 'master' and his disciples (also inclusive of the 'character' Fernando Pessoa) is complex and amazing.

[Anonymous No.4793807]

>>4793734
>you need to be a bit older to really
>Think of him as Pynchon
>if you spend some time in Africa
can you be any more of a faggot please?

[Anonymous No.4793835]

>>4789882
Don't listen to this guy

My path after Salinger and Palahniuk was to jump straight into Crime and Punishment. I have become all the better for it.

[Anonymous No.4793842]

>implying i read 3 books

[Anonymous No.4794856]

george martin the 3 novelas about dunk and egg published as "a knight of the seven kingdoms" in my country - 4.5/10 didn't like it nearly as much as the first 3 books of a song and ice series and they weren't even tht great to begin with tbh
ziemianski, the statue of empress achaja, book 3 - 7/10 enjoyed the hell out of it even tho it's flawed and pretty shallow
calvino, if on a winter's night traveler - 9/10 pretty sure it's one of the best books I've ever read in my life

[Anonymous No.4794889]

> cannery row
8/10
> from a Buick 8
7/10
> the talisman
8/10

[Anonymous No.4794907]

Titus Groan -- 8/10
Gormenghast -- 8/10
Swann's Way -- 9.5/10

[Anonymous No.4795405]

>>4793734
Wouldn't the point of such a book be to show how shit Africa is to all his readers, not just the small minority that have been to Africa?

[Anonymous No.4795445]

>Roderick
Hm. 6/10, good but not that special

>God Emperor of Dune
5/10, worst one so far, not even gonna read the rest

>Children of Dune
7/10, l liked it, but not as much as the ones before it

[Anonymous No.4796180]

>World Poetry: Collected poems (published 196#) 10/10
>Arthur Rimbaud: Complete works 10/10
>Georg Christoph Lichtenburg; The Waste Books 10/10

[Anonymous No.4796189]

>>4789882
>if you want to be a great asshole like I am then please do what I did!
Don't be a dickhead all your life mate.

[Anonymous No.4796212]

>>4789882
Hi 17 year old me! (no offense if you're just new to the internet and not actually that young. Keep at it!)
There should be an entry level internet guide around here somewhere... maybe I'll be nice and try to help you.
You see tone is hard to convey in text, and if you open with something like what you did, it makes you look like a complete asshat regardless of what you meant by it but it's okay, you can always apologize!
>>4790112
Oh! Well it's a little too late for that, you have already accused the person of being wrong for misunderstanding your message or perhaps it's because you don't realize you are a condescending prick and think you are a great guy?
How embarassing! but I'm just trying to give you a thoughtful and friendly peice of good personalized advice.
get fucked

[Anonymous No.4796219]

>>4793611
>WoR
10 fucking books, I don't know if I should start reading it or wait till there is more.
How quick does sanderson pump out a book?

[Anonymous No.4796253]

Mason & Dixon 9/10 - Holy god where to start about this book... It's so fucking dense that so much of it went underappreciated. I retained about 7‰ of it.

The Road 8/10 - there is quite a bit of nothing going on, the boy and dad pushing a cart around bleak wasteland, but when stuff happens it's gripping and memorable. Probably one of the few books I've read for the plot - genuinely interesting. Prose is the work of a master, restrained, with bursts of holy shit. Also the only book that's made me tear up at the end.

Unbearable Lightness of Being (still reading) 7/10 - interesting, neat philosophical underpinnings. Some good feels. Prose unimpressive (though it's a translation). Don't feel especially motivated to finish it. Also can't shake the vibe that it's meant for housewives or the Ellen crowd.

[Anonymous No.4796263]

>>4793089
What did you like about 2666? I plan on reading it soon

[Anonymous No.4796514]

pls reply

[Anonymous No.4796581]

Handmaid's Tale: 3/10
The Big Sleep: 8/10
A Clockwork Orange: 7/10

[Anonymous No.4796596]

>Hermeneutics: An Introduction
I only read the intro. Was alright.

>The Man Without Qualities
Only read the first chapter or two. I decided I'd rather read something more contemporary.

>National Geographic Visual History of the World
Awesome for a history noob, would attempt to finish again.

[Anonymous No.4796602]

> Der Prozess 7/10

I preferred the more surreal imagery of stories like "Der Landarzt" and obviously "Die Verwandlung" and the brisk, poignant dialogue of "Hungerkuenstler," and "In Der Strafkolonie". "Der Prozess" tended to dwell too much on one particular topic: be it the process of getting lawyers or building a defence. Having said that, still a brilliant read.

> Notes From The Underground: 8/10

I really rated how it was structured: the bleak philosophical outlook of the first part sets the themes in motion for the failings of the insignificant and narcissistic protagonist of the story.

> The Double: 8/10

Despite having a concept which has been used previously: man meeting his Doppelgaenger, Dostoevsky asks many interesting questions in the text. The insanity which arises from jealousy, paranoia and insecurity is very credible and described in colourful detail. I wouldn't agree with Nabakov however and say its the only good thing he ever did.

[Anonymous No.4796900]

>>4796219
I heard he hopes to get a Stormlight book out every 18 months or so. He's one of the fastest writers out there currently.

It will probably be closer to every 2 years though considering how many other projects he's working on at any given time.

[Anonymous No.4796915]

>>4796602
call me lazy but I can't find an .epub of this ("der prozess") in german on gutenberg; can anyone point me in the right direction

[Anonymous No.4797343]

>>4796212
I was the second guy, and I do think the offended party is dumb for even reacting to perceived criticism on the internet.

[Anonymous No.4797391]

>The Catcher in the Rye
Absolutely loved it, none of my friends did though. They're a bunch of phonies. 10/10
>Their Eyes Were Watching God
Alright book, liked it from a historical POV. 8/10
>Vigroði
An Icelandic book about a strong Viking womyn, breddy good but nothing special. 7/10

[Anonymous No.4797399]

>>4797343
>stop getting offended at dumb posts
lol you're an idiot.

[Anonymous No.4797489]

>>4785877
>Thousand Years of Solitude
Absolutely amazing and heart-wrecking. Some images will be keep in my head for a long long while.

5/5

>The Knight in the Rusty Armour
Reminder to myself that I should never reread books from my childhood apart from The Little Prince.

1/5
>The Great Gatsby
Really good,some pretty good images here and there (the childhood train,for example) and felt legitimately sad at the end. Interested in Fitzgerald now.

3,5/5

[Anonymous No.4797493]

>>4797391
>>The Catcher in the Rye
>Absolutely loved it, none of my friends did though. They're a bunch of phonies. 10/10
are you me
do u wanna touch weiners

[Anonymous No.4797543]

>The Ego and It's Own
Excellent nihilistic revaluation of society and it's intellectual foundations, Stirner offers a true anarchism that still has yet to be matched. 10/10
>Notes from Underground
Postmodern before modernism was even a thing. One of Fydor's more concise works. 8/10
>1984
Really droll writing, also a blatant fictional reenactment of Soviet history. Little of Orwell's self-referential humor from Animal Farm remains to keep the narrative afloat. 4/10

[Anonymous No.4797545]

>>4797489
>A thousand years of solitude

[Anonymous No.4797550]

>>4797545
Whoops,sorry, I fucked up, I always mix hundred and thousand. Don't know why.

[Anonymous No.4797648]

From the most recent to least

>Catcher in the Rye
5/10 I can understand teenagers liking this shit, but I can never understand how someone past their adolescence can relate to a fucking angsty whiner like Holden. The only likable thing in the whole book was the wonderful Phoebe, and even so, she almost got hit by that fucking dipshit.

>Martin Eden
9/10 What a solid piece of work, I still get goosebumps when I think about it. My only complaint is that the initial romance part took a little bit too long to resolve, but other than that, so fucking well done.

>Siddhartha
7/10 Not bad, but not as enlightening as I expected. A non-religious take on spirituality and good karma would suit me better.

[Anonymous No.4797701]

>>4797648
my misreading of it turned out to be better than what the new critics were forcing. thats why i like it

[Anonymous No.4797754]

>>4790142
> Berkeley

Now you've gota read Hume. He's basically Berkeley without God.

[Anonymous No.4797814]

I posted a few days ago, >>4786652, so here's the three I've read since then.

>Harvest Home
7/10, Decent slow burning rural horror story. I love slow building horror, and I love books about menacing secret cults, but for some reason I didn't love this as much as I expected. Maybe I saw everything coming from too far away.

>Little Face
7/10, Fast paced mystery/thriller, had me anxious to see what happened next. The wrap-up causes some serious issues with the first person narrative, though, so some people will absolutely hate it. I can't say too much without spoiling it, but for me it worked because I've known people who I'm pretty sure could actually think like this.

>Never Let Me Go
9/10, Slow moving, but holy shit, I'm not even sure where to start with this one. It seems so simple on the surface, but there's so much going on here, so many questions raised about so many things. Beautiful, thought-provoking piece of work. One of my favorites in a while, I haven't stopped thinking about it since I finished.

[Anonymous No.4797826]

Lysistrata 4/5
Snow Country 3/5
No Longer Human 5/5