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/lit/ - Literature

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5588675 No.5588675 [Reply] [Original]

Sup guys, I haven't been on /lit/ for too long, but I'm a few years out of college with an English major, still read a couple books a week, got a lot of stuff on the backlog, etc.

I took a look at the Starter Kit (pic related), expecting it would be all or almost all stuff I've already read. But it's not! There are 6 books on there I haven't touched:

A Clockwork Orange
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Invisible Man
American Psycho
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Siddhartha

Are they all still worth reading even if you're not an entry-level reader? I'll probably make my way around to all of them eventually but I'd like to have some priorities--for instance, I'm pretty confident Invisible Man will be good, but I doubt I'll like the HST book...I've read a few of his more famous journalistic dispatches and didn't care much for them. If it helps, my favorite authors are Nabokov, DeLillo, Le Guin and Pynchon.

Also, some more topics of conversation so this thread isn't all about me: which books from the Starter Kit have you not gotten around to reading? What do you think the best one on there is? I think it's a tight race between Lolita, Catch-22, and Huck Finn with an honorable mention to Slaughterhouse-Five as the best gateway book to get people into literature.

>> No.5588680

Have you read Les Miserables?

If not, there's your starting place.

>> No.5588708

>A Clockwork Orange
Watch the film

>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Film

>American Psycho
Film x1000

>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Read it and film

>Invisible Man
>Siddhartha
Can't say

>> No.5588710

I think you're fine ignoring everything but invisible man and maybe siddhartha. The others are very high school macho-dullness imo.

>> No.5588727

read for class- to kill a mb, catcher and the rye, great gatsby, of mice and men, lord of the flies, huck finn, siddhartha (tbh I heavily skimmed siddgartha, huck, and to kill a mocking bird)

read outside of class (all in high school or middle school)- brave new world, 1984, slaughterhouse v, lolita, picture of dg

The only books on the list I might still want to read are Invisible Man and Androids.

>> No.5588798

>>5588680
Tried it years ago but couldn't get into it. I'll put it back on the to-read, thanks anon.
>>5588708
I've watched 3/4 of those films but I haven't seen the One Flew movie so I'll check it out, thanks.
>>5588710
That's what I was wondering, but I didn't want to say it so bluntly and sound like I was accusing the reserved, reasonable, patrician /lit/ posters of being angry teenagers. More likely whoever made the chart was recommending literature for angry teenagers, which is actually totally reasonable.
>>5588727
Androids is pretty good and Catch-22 is like an all-time top 10 for me but if the first ~20 pages of it doesn't do it for you Heller probably just isn't your thing.

>> No.5588816

Invisible Man is awesome

>> No.5588851

>>5588675
>>5588816
This. Invisible Man is in my top 3 all time fav books OP

>> No.5588917

>>5588816
>>5588851
Thanks anons, will browse the book places for Ellison next time I'm in one

>> No.5588932

Fear and Loathing is the only one where the film is almost identical to the point where I couldn't stand reading the book because I watched the film tripping sack so many times. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and A Clockwork Orange both deviate significantly from their source material in film. BEE is trash so only a film version of American Psycho could validate his existence as a writer.

>> No.5589117

>>5588675
>Are they all still worth reading even if you're not an entry-level reader
holy shit you're a retard.

>> No.5589439

i usually seem to be in the minority, but i don't like that Kubrick didn't include the 21st chapter of A Clockwork Orange in the film. read the book. i recommend reading the first chapter twice before moving to chapter 2, it will get you used to the slang. it doesn't take long to read anyways.

i heard from a friend that Invisible Man is pretty awesome.

i watched the movie of Fear and Loathing before reading the book, and, although they're very very similar, there are a few things in the book that changed my perspective of the project. but, you'll likely get enough out of just the movie, if you don't care enough to read it.

>> No.5589499

>>5588932
Thanks
>>5589117
Why? There are plenty of books (The Catcher in the Rye for instance) which are great if you're in the right age range but thoroughly unimpressive once you're too mature for them.
>>5589439
I've seen the Fear and Loathing movie, thought it was okay but kinda subpar Gilliam to be honest. I've seen the Kubrick Clockwork too but I'll put that on my to-read too, thanks.

>> No.5589508

>>5588708
God, you're a lazy fucker.

>> No.5589516

>>5589499
>Why? There are plenty of books (The Catcher in the Rye for instance) which are great if you're in the right age range but thoroughly unimpressive once you're too mature for them.
yea you're a retard. just stick to whatever pleb shit you like. this thread is idiotic

>> No.5589517

Why is TKAM even on there? It's the quintessential 'so deep' novel for teenagers, and its anti-racism theme is nothing more than a bourgeois savior complex.

>> No.5589539

there are still 8 on there I haven't read

>> No.5589548

>>5588708
>>American Psycho
>Film x1000
oh fuck no. The film is alright but if you dropped bale for someone else and touched nothing else about the movie it would be shit.

>> No.5589556

>>5589517
because everyone's expected to have read it
>quintessential 'so deep'
no, not really.

>> No.5589573

>>5589556
>taking everything literally
But unless you read me right and don't think it's for teens who think not being racist is a complex and intellectual pastime, you must be joking.

>> No.5589586

>>5589573
I'm not sure if you're saying that people don't know what it's actually about or that you don't actually know what it's about because the book obviously isn't just "racism is bad, mmkay".

>> No.5589590

>>5589586
Wow, it also says to not be mean to people you don't understand. SOO DEEEEEEP

>> No.5589613

Gatsby is GOAT

(didn't even read OP's post)

>> No.5589626

>>5589590
yeah I'm leaning toward the latter of my theory. the main theme of the book is about adults who cowardly go along with what everyone else is doing because they're afraid of being singled out and shunned and whatnot which can allow these people to be implicit in heinous injustices they otherwise wouldn't be okay with. This really could have worked with any number of things other than racism but that's what they went with because it was topical. Again nothing profoundly "deep" but it's not even trying to be.

>> No.5589649

>>5588675
>American Psycho
>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
>Siddhartha
read these first, and you should be okay

>> No.5589683

>>5589626
shit, wrote implicit instead of complicit.

>> No.5590198

>>5589117
if i had only read american psycho / fear and loathing / lord of the flies / 1984 whatever combination of the above i would be asking the exact same thing

>> No.5590215

>>5588675
Invisible Man and Huck Finn are the only great novels on that list

The rest are either really influential or intriguing, but only those two are both

>> No.5590266
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5590266

>>5590215
i think you forgot one

>> No.5590287

>>5590266
I thought Cuckoo's Nest was better than Lolita, but I recognize I'm in the minority here

Either way, all these books are worth reading

>> No.5590349

Ive never been into sci-fi, would I still enjoy Do Androids Dream of Electic Sheep?

>> No.5590372

>>5588675
>haven't read
A Clockwork Orange*
Catch-22*
Invisible Man
American Psycho
Fear and Loathing*
Picture of Dorian Grey
Lolita*
DADoES*
Siddhartha*

*plan on reading