Books only you read

[Anonymous No.5104758]

ITT: Books you never see discussed on /lit/ and nobody ever reacts when you post them.

[Anonymous No.5104769]

>>5104758

I'm posting in reaction to that picture op, what is that book about and is it worth reading ?

[Anonymous No.5104771]

This whole series really.

[Anonymous No.5104772]

>>5104758

For those wondering what it's about the premise is kind of similar to the Tom Hank's film The Terminal with a lot of Kafka stuff thrown in there.

[Anonymous No.5104780]

>>5104772
i read that last week
it was pretty good!
>tfw no qt lift waifu

[Anonymous No.5104787]

>>5104769
Its gothic horror story (1820) about man who made pact with the devil for 150 additional years of youth because he wanted knowledge. He spends those years trying to get desperate people to take over his pact so he can die in peace. He often creates desperate circumstances for those people.

>Honoré de Balzac wrote a follow-up story (Melmoth Reconciled) and considered Maturin's novel worthy of a place among Molière's Don Juan, Goethe's Faust and Lord Byron's Manfred as one of the supreme icons of modern European literature

>Oscar Wilde, during his travels after release from prison, called himself Sebastian Melmoth, deriving this pseudonym from the title character in his great-uncle's novel and from Saint Sebastian

>In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, Professor Humbert Humbert calls his automobile "Melmoth."

Its very long and challenging read. But its worth it. Its story that stays with you.

[Anonymous No.5104788]

>>5104780

I feel like Karinthy could've done endless sequels to Metropole and it could've been like a Hungarian version of Kino's Jouney from the ending.

[Anonymous No.5104795]

>>5104771
Whats it about and what are its strenghts?

[Anonymous No.5105287]

inspired by Rimbaud's poem Après le Déluge
now reading Splendide-Hôtel by Gilbert Sorrentino

[Anonymous No.5105291]

>>5104758

[Anonymous No.5105305]

[Anonymous No.5105315]

>>5105305
I have pic related edition
Yours looks nicer :/

[Anonymous No.5105336]

In Germany you get Reclam versions of books, which have a shitton of footnotes and an essay at the back. They usually only print genuine classics though, so when I saw this it piqued my interest.
Was pretty damn good too.

[Anonymous No.5105356]

>>5105305
>>5105315
this is next up on my reading list, just waiting for it to arrive

[Anonymous No.5105365]

I don't think I've ever heard Guy Wetmore Carryl mentioned. "The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven" is one of my favorite poems

[Anonymous No.5105378]

[Anonymous No.5105428]

[Anonymous No.5105439]

Best book I've ever read, and I've read quite a few of them

[Anonymous No.5105445]

>>5105428
True story: I read this in one sitting in the Abu Dhabi airport. Amusing read (reminded me of Illuminatus!, a fun crazy romp born out of the counter-culture movement that doesn't take itself seriously), terrible, terrible airport (let's put gold on stuff because we have too much money for style)

[Anonymous No.5105446]

/lit/ is way too Euro-centric

[Anonymous No.5105456]

>>5105446
This is popular Chinese classic. I actually have this on my to-reads list. Not sure when I'll get around to reading it though....

But you're right, Lit is quite Euro-centric. But what do you expect from a board where the majority of its users are racist NEET's who have never left their small little cul-du-sac of shit.

[Anonymous No.5105467]

>>5105456
It's quite a big investment, especially if you go for the unabridged version and holy shit there are so many different characters. I've only really scratched the surface of Chinese literature but this was the best of the (8 or so) books I've read.

[Anonymous No.5105468]

>>5105456

>racist

how racist.

[Anonymous No.5105472]

>>5104772
I've read that, and seen it discussed a couple times.

>>5105446
This is also frequently discussed, though mostly for the sake of asking "what's the best translation?" (Moss), and then I'm sure they drop it after reading a couple hundred pages and realizing how disjointed the text is (this thing happened, and then this thing happened, and then this thing happened, ad infinitum).

[Anonymous No.5105474]

>>5105446
>>5105456

[Anonymous No.5105487]

>>5104758
>The catcher in the rye

[Anonymous No.5105488]

I rarely see Ajvaz talked about, which is a shame because he's excellent.

On the other hand, props to /lit/ for mentioning László Krasznahorkai pretty frequently, his stuff is great and he deserves wider exposure than he gets from the reading public.

[Anonymous No.5105494]

Infinite Jest

I see it posted all the time but never discussed

[Anonymous No.5105504]

>>5105494
Well if you're requiring actual discussion, then the only books that /lit/ ever talks about are Stoner and The Book of the New Sun.

[Anonymous No.5105574]

hey, this seems like an active thread, looking for a title- basic premise is a poor barely adolescent boy becomes friends with the barely adolescent granddaughter(?) or Daughter of this old lady who is quite wealthy. The old lady herself is something of a shut in as a result of being romantically jilted earlier on in her life. Effectively she allows the relationship of the boy and the girl to continue and grow the intention of the boy falling hopelessly in love with her daughter/granddaughter who in herself is quite sweet. This happens, and the old lady who is so bitter with her own heartache orchestrates that the end game is the little boy being crushed- her revenge on her own heartache. I know it was adapted as a film in probably the 50's- it's in black and white- the setting is perhaps in the time of the industrial revolution- can't think of the name for the life of me, thanks in advance. I figure you folks would know it?

[Anonymous No.5105581]

>>5105574
that's great expectations, bro

[Anonymous No.5105589]

One of the first books I ever read, owned by my grandfather.

[Anonymous No.5105590]

Ha! it is indeed- thanks heaps. Pip and whatnot-

[Anonymous No.5105597]

[Anonymous No.5105751]

>>5105597
>>5105597
We talk about that all the time (har har).

[Anonymous No.5105807]

>>5104758
I have a copy anon.

I have to be honest though, I gave up on it.

[Anonymous No.5105817]

And the sequel Indecent Exposure.

Two of the funniest books I've ever read. The South African government kicked him out of the country because of them.

[Anonymous No.5105826]

>>5105807
On which part did you gave up? Was it Spaniard´s story in monastery?

[Anonymous No.5106576]

[Anonymous No.5106695]

nobody reads Romain Gary here
>muh french litterature

[Anonymous No.5106697]

>>5106695
Not true.
Promesse de l'aube made me cry like a baby.

[Anonymous No.5106746]

>>5104758
The collected speeches of Petroleum V. Nasby. Cussed be Canaan!

[Anonymous No.5106789]

>>5106695
I don't like Gary, his books are superficial and inauthentic. A very "writery" writer.

[Anonymous No.5106795]

>>5106789
You know what superficial don't go along with "writery", whatever that means

[Anonymous No.5106807]

[Anonymous No.5106819]

Herzgewächse

[Anonymous No.5106820]

still a good read

[Anonymous No.5106828]

the book seems much less popular than the movie

[Anonymous No.5106906]

I've seen this pop up now and then but nobody ever discusses it.

[Anonymous No.5106911]

Why does /lit/ have no love for Malraux?

[Anonymous No.5107201]

[Anonymous No.5107203]

>>5106906
That's because it's a shit book.

[Anonymous No.5107210]

>>5107203
Everyone I know liked it.

[Anonymous No.5107237]

I think it takes a lot of flack because Nick Cave wrote it. I but I really enjoyed it.

[Anonymous No.5107257]

>>5107210
Everyone you know is a faggot.

[Anonymous No.5107411]

>>5107257
faggot detected

[Anonymous No.5107466]

>>5104758
a-anyone?

[Anonymous No.5107478]

I found this book so poignant and beautiful that I quit reading fiction forever because of my absolute faith that nothing could ever top it.

[Anonymous No.5107513]

>>5105807
I have that same copy. I also gave up on it in order to read this book (which I've never seen discussed on /lit/).

[Anonymous No.5107518]

The most ive seen here is a namedrop for this book but id love to see a discussion. It and the sequel Gormenghast have the most beautiful prose, the guy paints with words.

[Anonymous No.5107522]

>>5107518
Forgot pic

[guy who knows nothing No.5107573]

>>5106828
Is it better than the movie? Is there more dialogue than the movie?

[Anonymous No.5107666]

>>5107466

Has anyone encountered a mediocre title published by NYRB? They seem like a goldmine in terms of publishing worthwhile books.

[Anonymous No.5107673]

I'm a bit of a pleb I guess, but you guys liked Gardner's Grendel?

[Anonymous No.5107677]

>>5107666
They're all interesting, even if they aren't all good. That's a far higher compliment than I can give to any other publisher based on content alone.

[Anonymous No.5107812]

[Anonymous No.5107819]

>>5107812
My 2nd favorite book.
Tfw Stendhal is forever not mentinoed

[Anonymous No.5107826]

>>5107819
I try to shoehorn Stendhal every other time but it's not always easy.

[Anonymous No.5107843]

>>5107819

I need to revisit this. I read it like twenty years ago.

[Anonymous No.5107884]

>>5107819
Is he worth reading in translation?

[Anonymous No.5107919]

I don't know many people who are interested in Ba'athism or Iraqi politics in general. 4chan in general is fucking awful for this sort of thing.

[Anonymous No.5107970]

>>5107884
As I haven't read the French but loved the English I can only say yes.
I read the cheap ass penguin edition first which is adequate and is indeed a good read but then stumbled upon a Folio copy which has a different translation and enjoyed that even more.
So yes, do read, do enjoy the tumultuous romantic passions of julien sorel.

[Anonymous No.5107983]

>>5107466
What's that one about?

[Anonymous No.5107995]

>>5107884
Yes, specifically the Burton Raffel translation is very good if you want to read it in English.

[Anonymous No.5108057]

[Anonymous No.5108074]

L'Algarabie by Jorge Semprun

>>5106819
Wie ist es? Wollte ich schon seit längerem lesen.

[Anonymous No.5108084]

Surprising since DFW mentions it specifically in an essay (His review of "Wittgenstein's Mistress" I believe).

Under-appreciated for obvious reasons: he makes an absolute farce out of academia.

[Anonymous No.5108128]

This is as obscure as it gets

[Anonymous No.5108229]

>>5108128
Interesting. Have a pdf?

[Anonymous No.5108242]

>>5108229
I highly doubt a pdf or an English translation exists. It's an obscure Bulgarian sci-fi author. They have him on imdb, I guess he did some movie work for a while

most I can give you is a link to a site that has the book text in Bulgarian

http://chitanka.info/text/25384#textstart

[Anonymous No.5108247]

>>5108242
Damn, thought it might be Russian from the cover.

Doing some work on comparing Soviet/Nazi/American sci-fi.

[Anonymous No.5108265]

>>5105467
reading it right now, i'm at the part where yian shu starts his attempts for the throne

the most interesting character so far is lu bu, who goes from brutal cutthroat to crafty bastard to dumb clod in everything he's in

rip dian wei

[Anonymous No.5108266]

>>5108247
well shit what do you know I found a link in Russian

http://www dot e-reading dot ws/book dot php?book=42785

it has download links at the bottom

I still doubt there's an English translation
sorry for shitty link 4chan is a bitch

[Anonymous No.5108273]

>>5107513
I read the new translation

it's a fun read and it really does go from spooky to hilarious in every page, but i'm annoyed the second part hasn't been translated yet (even if it's speculated it was written by someone, or suffers from a disjointed narrative and drop in quality as they say)

[Anonymous No.5108284]

>>5107666
I'd agree, but the only books i'm not interested in are all the post-WW2 fluff which seems to consist of over half their catalog

anyone read Night and Chaos? The author himself seems quite interesting

[Anonymous No.5108302]

>>5104758
Is that Goya on the cover ?

[Sebastian Cuello No.5108321]

Anyone Charles Ferdinand Ramuz?

I don't know the english tittle, maybe Fear on mountain.

[Anonymous No.5108322]

trying to discuss contemporary literature is like pulling teeth

[Anonymous No.5108340]

>>5108322
There's contemporary literature?

[Anonymous No.5108345]

>>5108340
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_literature#2000s

[Anonymous No.5108355]

>>5108345
No 2010s section hombre

[Anonymous No.5108356]

>>5108355
i'm not your hombre, essay

[Anonymous No.5108358]

Under the Volcano.

Rarely mentioned and topically related threads slide by and die rapidly.

Was also going to give Ultramarine a go. I don't recall it ever being mentioned.

[Anonymous No.5108412]

>>5108356
You are a midget, paragraph

[Anonymous No.5108428]

>>5108412
you're a non rhyming poem about feminism

[Anonymous No.5108429]

>>5104758
We read a chunk of this in my Irish Prose class. It was pretty good from what I remember. I'm not big into gothic/ghosty stuff, but may be I'll go back to it. Thanks for reminding me OP.

[Anonymous No.5108432]

Bumping for Böll

[Anonymous No.5108438]

Nothing too special about it, but it is well written and has driven me to tears a couple of times with the detailed accounts of death since it's non-fiction.

I think this is one of those cases where you CAN judge a book by its cover. If you think you'll like it, you'll probably like it. The title is self explanatory.

[Anonymous No.5108458]

>>5108432
Ahhh that is a great book.

Sometimes I think about the kid who blew himself up with an anti-tank rocket.

[Anonymous No.5108521]

>>5108428
You're a slam-poem about ableism.

[Anonymous No.5108574]

This children's picture book I read when I was really young, with a Harry Clarke kind of artstyle. IIRC some kid was going through a castle or something talking to different kinds of traditional mythological creatures, the only two of which I remember being a manticore and a vampire. I can't find that book anywhere online, no matter how hard I search for it. Don't have it anymore either.

[Anonymous No.5108583]

>>5104772
Honest, I just bought this on my Kindle as per your suggestion. Good sell

[Anonymous No.5108593]

>>5107522
I've heard this is good, does it require a full reading of the series? The Cure mentions it in a couple of their songs and it piqued my interest.

[Anonymous No.5108612]

>>5105467
I don't think it makes you racist to grow up in a Western environment were one would naturally find western works much more appealing to them personally.

[Anonymous No.5108674]

>>5108593
Each book is stand alone although they share characters. By titus alone peake's mind has started to go so only groan and gormenghast are top quality. There also a short story called boy in darkness.
Its definitely worth it.

[Anonymous No.5108690]

>>5108074
>Wie ist es? Wollte ich schon seit längerem lesen
Absolut lesenswert. Das Format erinnert (natürlich) an Arno Schmidt; aber Wollschlägers Prosa ist weitaus ernster und zu keiner Zeit so humoristisch wie die seines Lehrmeisters.

Leider betrüblich, dass er nie den zweiten Teil vollendete.

[Anonymous No.5108774]

Kobo Abe
Paul Auster
DH Lawrence
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy

[Anonymous No.5108792]

>>5108774
I dig your style, dude

[Anonymous No.5108816]

>>5108432
I have three copies of this book. Never read it

[Anonymous No.5108835]

>>5108792
Well, I dig your style too, man.

[Anonymous No.5108852]

[None !r.2aDxSqco No.5108862]

>>5107201
I've read this one my dad has a copy of it, so good
>>5108432
shit I was going to post this, The Clown is definitely in my top five favourite books of all time. Group Portrait is also fantastic.

[Anonymous No.5108892]

>>5108247
>Nazi sci-fi
Sounds really interesting! Mind telling me about what Nazi sci-fi was like?

[Anonymous No.5108896]

>>5108892
It was mostly burnt, I thought?

[Anonymous No.5109012]

>>5108521
You are a cliche statement about love restructured into verse and labeled a poem by it's author

[Anonymous No.5109161]

>>5109012
You are the freshmen creative writing student blubbering, in greeting card cadence and rhyme, through tears, a poem about your father missing your graduation.

[Anonymous No.5109185]

>>5108892
Ernst Junger got away with being subversive beneath the Nazis due to his incredible popularity (even Hitler was an admirer of his WWI memoir).

>On the Marble Cliffs
If you can get a copy (I luckily have access to Harvard libraries), is critical of the regime.

>Glass Bees
Is an incredible novella which predicts much of what we deal with today regarding technology (how it changes our interaction with reality)

>Eumeswil
Learn to become the Anarch

[Anonymous No.5109431]

>>5108612
people seem to jump from ethnocentric to racist really quick. I think there are distinctions but they're worth overcoming in order to have a more culturally rounded view of literature.

[Anonymous No.5109740]

>>5104758
I've never seen anyone talk about vonnegut

[Anonymous No.5110117]

>>5108432
How do you think his novels compare with his short stories? He's one of my all-time favorite short story writers, but I haven't got around to reading his longer works yet.

[Anonymous No.5110162]

>>5109185
Junger is pretty cool, I enjoy how On the Marble Cliffs basically had a segment where they essentially round up a posse to go kill Hitler. I'd classify it as more fantasy than science fiction though.

>an incredible novella which predicts much of what we deal with today regarding technology
I mean, kind of? It's no The Machine Stops, but I guess there are a couple passages where he talks about nature being replaced by the artificial and the perfection of mechanisms as counter to the perfection of humanity that might be seen as predictive of today's attitude toward technology, but only in the broadest sense.

[Anonymous No.5110198]

>>5109740
0/10.

[Anonymous No.5110450]

>>5106807
I would unhesitatingly say this is one of the best books I've ever read.

A brilliant piece of english language and a superb work of imagination

[Anonymous No.5110456]

>>5107812
Read this (same edition) earlier this year and loved it.

[Anonymous No.5110524]

>>5107237
I'm reading that edition. Very good.

[Anonymous No.5110661]

>>5104772

read this a couple weeks back, thought it was shitty, repetitive, and the ending sucked. just a lot of tension and disorienting feels

[Anonymous No.5110868]

>>5107812
I read this a couple of weeks ago.
It's just funny how Sorel has no fucking clue whatsoever and still manages succeed based on nothing but dumb luck and his magical penis.

Also, that last part in the jailhouse was really similar to The Stranger.

Is the Charterhouse of Parma as good as this?

[Anonymous No.5110878]

>>5105439
Tell me about your “special edition“…

[Anonymous No.5110913]

>>5105597
Ah, that was a delight of a book! I still think about it sometimes.

[Anonymous No.5110923]

>>5104787
>>In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, Professor Humbert Humbert calls his automobile "Melmoth."

no dude, sorry to be a dickhead, but the model of his car is melmoth, one of several fictional brands in lolita, for example gas stations are called pegusus bc that used to be the mobil logo. but humbert is damned like melmoth..

also duchamp considered it (melmoth) to be the first modern novel.

[Anonymous No.5110938]

This book was phenomenal. I have Agapê Agape and JR as well and I cannot wait to read them.

[Anonymous No.5110953]

>>5105456
There's far too many european classics to read, and asian stuff is hard to get into for cultural reasons
I'm fine just enjoying Japan's superior video games and animation without delving into the literature honestly

[Anonymous No.5111022]

>>5105291
my nigga

[Anonymous No.5111103]

>>5104758
I always try to talk about this book on here. I loved it. Read it 3 times now. The story of the Indian alone on her Island is one of the best in all of classic Gothic literature.

Have you read The Monk? Zofloya (or The Moor)?

[Anonymous No.5111115]

>>5107812
This was a surprisingly great book.

[Anonymous No.5111137]

>>5107237
I think he's a better writer than musician.
>>5107522
>>5107518
There's a thread up here >>5106222

I tried opening a discussion on Richard Flanagan the other day. All it got was one shitpost. Anyone into Dickens should read his 'Wanting', and possibly his other output as well.

[Anonymous No.5111151]

>>5107573
I heard the book was written by the wife of the guy who made the movie so it's probably about the same

[Anonymous No.5111646]

>>5110938
I have this book

[Anonymous No.5111650]

>>5111022
This is the book that made me want to move to iceland and become a fisherman