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/lit/ - Literature


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5188206 No.5188206 [Reply] [Original]

Decribe your outlook / attitudes with FOUR BOOKS
--- TWO FICTION AND TWO NON-FICTION.

>i.e. what books did you connect with the most when reading them on an intellectual / comedic / sociological / philosophical / emotional level.

You can add explanations or not. I'm doing this so we can find out what kind of people are on /lit/ and if we can find any interesting books in the process.

FICTION
>Flann O'Brien - At Swim-Two-Birds
I'm Irish, so the sense of humour clicked with me, and I read it when I was quite poor in college (it's free to attend in Ireland, so anyone from any class background can go) and it described my life at that point in tim.
>James Joyce - Ulysses
Before the accusations of pretentiousness - I don't see myself as some grand thinker. As I said, I'm Irish, and it was a bizarre experience reading Ulysses living in Dublin over 100 years later, but feeling as if it could've been written yesterday. When asked about the surrealism in his novels Joyce said that if you wanted to hear real surrealism, just listen in to a conversation in any Dublin pub. I spent much of my time in Dublin in working-class pubs and early-houses frequented by older people and it felt like a window to a past that's ending, due to the Celtic tiger and its legacy. The humour and weirdness of the book felt very familiar and it felt like reading the journal of an eccentric uncle you get along very well with. I can connect intellectually and emotionally to all sorts of novels, but Ulysses was something I lived in for weeks and months. I've re-read it. I don't pretend to get all the references and allusions, but I still love it. Also, I would never admit in public that it's one of my favourite books, as I would sound like a pretentious twat.

NON-FICTION
>George Orwell - Down and Out in Paris and London
It's a bleaker picture of expat life. I am an expat, and while it's not the drudgery that Orwell experienced here, expat life is certainly not Lord Byron-esque. I also agree with Orwell in most things, apart from the tendencies towards jingoism and creeping-conservatism you can see in his work sometimes.
>Antonio Gramsci - Selections from the Prison Notebooks
It's hard to believe one guy wrote this. His level of insight is overwhelmingly impressive. I would give both testicles to be able to think like him.

>> No.5188218

This sounds gay as hell

>> No.5188247
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5188247

I'm the type of person who doesn't base his ideals and attitude on the works of others

>> No.5188254
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5188254

>>5188218
Delicious value judgements.
>>5188247
>I'm a free thinker guyz!
Good parody of a smug bastard.

>> No.5188318

Bump so more people can see the thread.

>> No.5188419

fiction
THE CRYING OF LOT 49 - Pynchon has better books but this one seems like the tightest articulation of a worldview: life is absurd nonsense and you might have to be a conspiracy theorist to make sense of it all and stay sane.
THE SIRENS OF TITAN - Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself.

non-fiction
THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS - Life is an struggle against unbeatable forces to achieve something impossible, but it's worthwhile anyway.
DEBT - This did more than any other book to influence my thinking about politics and economics.

>> No.5188437

>>5188206
sage

>> No.5188474

>>5188419
>The Myth of Sisyphus

OP here. I nearly added this to my list. One of those life-changing texts.

>> No.5188501

I'm reading thus spake zarathustra currently and so far I've loved it

>> No.5188510

>>5188419

Who wrote 'DEBT'?

>> No.5188520

>>5188247
In other words, you're illiterate and/or intellectually stunted.

>> No.5188665

>>5188510
David Graeber

>> No.5189210

Bump

>> No.5190952

I think I'm smarter than everybody I know but I'm probably just average, I'm also drunk.
I don't read non fiction because I'm too entry level
Frans Kafka- the castle Because its sums up how i feel about almost any organization
Herman Hesse - Demian because its gooder than fuck

>> No.5190965
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5190965

>>5188419
>THE CRYING OF LOT 49

>Pynchon has better books

>> No.5190972

>>5188206

I'm smarter than most people. I'm great at manipulating others and getting what I want. I also have an idea if how the world works and don't rely on CNN to tell me how to think and feel.

kek

>> No.5190977

>>5190972

of*

I am also drunk

>> No.5191000

Hiroshima - John Hersey
Letters to a Young Contrarian - Christopher Hitchens

I'm very down-to-earth. I enjoy thinking about mortality and the passage of time. I am intellectually honest with myself and vocal about my beliefs.
> entry-level
The Plague - Albert Camus
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

Although I am not spiritual, the spirituality and willingness of people to see hope in the bleakest situations always amazes me.

>> No.5191423

>>5190965
idgi