/lit/ - Literature

[Anon No.587102]

/lit/
Picture is of an ideal list of books I want stacked upon my bookshelf some time in the future. When I leave school, I will take with me any books on this list, and any books I buy will be from the list. I wish the non-fiction books to improve my knowledge about the environment, science, religion, business, investing, politics, philosophy, etc. I wish the fiction books to either be pinnacles of literature, or make me think, or both.

So. Help me improve the list. What should I keep in? What should I take out? What should I replace (eg I'm looking to replace Kapital with a more concise book that deals with the same subject matter)? Have I missed an important subject in non-fiction? Etc. Help me, /lit/. You're my only hope.

[Anonymous No.587105]

I don't believe you.

[Anonymous No.587107]

Instead of trying to make a bookshelf why don't you just try to read them? You know, like use a library.

[Anonymous No.587115]

The latter part of your fiction section sucks ass. First off you've got the Zombie Survival Guide, which is just plain dull and not near remotely funny as you think. Then you count 3 James Bond novels as 1 number but 7 HP books as 7. And it seems as if you ran out of ideas at the end anyway, because there's way more than 50 fiction books that are must-haves.

[Anonymous No.587111]

Calculus for Dummies is on your ideal bookshelp? Three books from Dawkins? Ayn Rand's philosophy books? The Art of Manliness? $1,000,00 in Property in One Year?

You. Are. Stupid. I'm not going to read the fiction list. I'm scared at what I might find.

[Anonymous No.587116]

You might consider getting a complete Milton instead of just Paradise Lost. His works are pretty good, especially Samson Agonistes and the poems from his 1645 book.

There are better books to buy than the Zombie Survival Guide. If you receive it as a present sometime, cool, but don't spend money on it, at least not full price.

Why Harry Potter? That's a lot of books. Haven't we all read it already? Do you really want to read it again?

As for non-fiction, enjoy your self-help and business books, but meanwhile, Ian Plimer, like most global warming 'skeptics' (wrong word for what they do) is full of shit and not to be trusted.

[Anon No.587129]

>>587107
>>587105
>>587111
Thanks for being unconstructive!
>>587115
Yes, because I have all of those novels in one, whereas I don't have an equivalent for HP. Will take out Zombie guide, cheers.
>>587116
Thanks for constructiveness. Will consider.

[Organic !!YRzJMvRd4eg No.587136]

Just read it, don't make a chart. YOU decide.

[Anonymous No.587143]

>>587129

Faggot. Why don't you read some shit before you try to make your own personal library.

[Anon No.587145]

>>587136
I don't think there's a problem with asking /lit/ if books are good or bad.

[Anon No.587184]

>>587143
Yay! Elitism!

But seriously. I've put together a list of books I'd like to purchase and read. I'm asking /lit/ if I've made good choices for some books I haven't read, and if they could advise better ones. I have made no statement regarding any of those books, I have pushed no point of view, I am merely asking questions. If you think I'm a faggot, fine. But don't pretend it's justified because I asked for help.

[Anon No.587185]

>>587143
Oh and btw if you're >>587107, I apologise, that link was meant to go to >>587105. I had no comment regarding that statement.

[Anonymous No.587224]

First off, the Bible and the Koran are fiction. But that doesn't really matter I guess. Next, drop The God Delusion, Rand, Marx, Friedman and Chomsky. You probably don't need 2 Greene book either, keep Fabric. Mein Kampf, while historical and written by Hitler... is crap. Drop the Jared Diamond works too. Drop How to Win Friends and Influence people.. or just any kind of books like that, they are mainly bullshit. Books on how to get rich quick are mostly bull crap too.

Ok, now what to add:

Endless Forms Most Beautiful
Before The Dawn
Anarchism and Other Essays
The Ego and His Own
The Prince
The Road to Serfdom
The Feynman Lectures on Physics

[Anonymous No.587229]

>>587224
The Bible and Koran are historical up to a point. They belong in a religious text category

[Anonymous No.587236]

Alright, now fiction.

Drop, I Robot.. If you have to get an Asimov, get Foundation. Drop Cat's Cradle, it's crap. Drop Starship Troopers, it's not very good even as far as Heinlein goes. Drop Harry Potter. Drop an Ayn Rand, no reason to have 2 books about the same thing. Plus, they are fucking long and kind of shitty. Drop Robinson Crusoe. Drop Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Drop Zombie Survival guide.

Ok, now add:
Since I took out a horror Book, Necronomicon.
Replace the sci-fi I removed with A Scanner Darkly, The Forever War and The Demolished Man.
And then toss in Lolita, The Stranger, Siddhartha, The Trail and why fuck not, Naked Lunch.

[Anon No.587255]

>>587224
>>587236
Thank you!

[Anonymous No.587259]

the whole concept is retarded.

but you will realize that soon enough, little fella

[Anonymous No.587264]

utter, utter faggotry

[Anon No.587265]

>>587259
Yeah, I'd forgotten there were right and wrong ways to amass a literature collection. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.587294]

>>587265
100 books are hardly a literature collection to be proud of. especially not with those titles in there.

If you wanna feel smug, its too pedestrian to achieve that successfully.
If you want to be well read, its not enough.
If you want to form your personality, its too planned out.

why draw a map of a country you have never been to? just enjoy the exploration, let your taste and curiosity guide you step for step and take a break to take in the view from time to time.

[Anon No.587304]

>>587294
Can we agree to disagree?

[Anonymous No.587312]

>>587304
no BECAUSE YOU ARE WRONG!

WRONG
WRONG
WRONG

now add Herodotus Histories to that list.

[Anonymous No.587319]

Wanting to have books simply for the sake of having them seems a little stupid, OP.

1. A list like this would probably take a few years to get through (if you're like most people, there's a good chance that you have a short attention span, and there's an even greater chance that you simply can't devote the amount of time required to read this much in just a year).

2. Your list reeks of ignorant vanity--I mean, where's your taste? Your own personal taste that is? A lot of these books are on high school reading lists, and a lot of others are on the New York Times bestsellers list.

3. If you do this, you'll most likely simply be wasting your money--trust me. Anyone on /lit/ can tell you this: most of the time when you buy four or five books--just four or five--you only end up reading two or perhaps three of them and the others end up sitting on a shelf collecting dust. This may not be the result of laziness but simply disinterest (you might open a book and hate it--then you've wasted your money). Take my advice: if you_really_want to buy these books, go to a bookstore first and read the first chapter or so, that will probably get rid of half of your list.

[Anonymous No.587326]

the fact that you have already planned out the fiction department shows you don't want to read these books because you like them, but because they're famous. at best because they had an influence on mankind (which is not such a bad reason), but if it's the sole reason, maybe you don't really like reading fiction

[Anon No.587330]

>>587319
1) Yeah, I'm aware.
2) This IS my personal taste :/ I didn't go off bestseller lists, I found lists of great books and read about ones that sounded interesting. My high school has a crap English curriculum, so I've been left to read this sort of stuff for myself. I would read this sort of stuff without a list (and have been doing so).
3) Thanks, will do.

[Anon No.587336]

>>587326
WRONG. :)

[Anonymous No.587339]

This is such a waste.

[Organic !!YRzJMvRd4eg No.587356]

hay guise what books look best on a shelf? hay guise what books will make me look intelektual? hay guise

[Organic !!YRzJMvRd4eg No.587362]

>>587356
>>587356
does this copy of catcher in the rye go good with this starbucks cup? it's like a metaphor for society or something

[Anonymous No.587364]

OP needs a good old encyclopedia collection, that will make him look like an intellectual.

[Anon No.587380]

>>587364
>>587362
>>587356
I don't want to appear intellectual. I want to be intellectual. Suggest books that will help make me an intellectual.

Anybody ever heard of assuming good faith? Start doing it.

[Anonymous No.587434]

>>587380
books alone do not make you an intellectual.

just listing titles here is pointless, but I will give you some hints how to get yourself a bibliography (working on that is an essential step to achieve your goal).
get introductory books for history, philosophy, literature science, cultural science, social sciences, economical sciences, psychology, biology, chemistry, physics (just for starters, and you might just wanna check them out at the library and copy whatever you wanna keep or take notes).

just by reading them you should stumble across a couple of hundred titles that will be considered essential. you can also kind of see what interests you most (nobody is an expert in all those fields). those books also contain essential bibliographies themselves.

(note that being a intellectual is more of a habitus than a state of education, even though education is necessary for that)

[Anonymous No.587435]

>>587380

How many of these books do you have an honest-to-god interest in reading? Anyone whose read or even heard of these will see right through you. You have Ulysses on there, for fuck sake.

[Anonymous No.587458]

>>587115
>>587115
Seriously? This is a must have for survival of the future apocalypse.

[Anonymous No.587459]

>>587435

I tried reading a bit of it. Have to say I am not a fan.

[Anonymous No.587462]

Read some King. Has no moral messages or real point but damn is it a good read. I'd start with IT for a quick read. The Stand or Under The Dome for a longer one.

I love me some King :)

[Anon No.587487]

>>587435
All of them. Guys - I'm on /lit/. I like to read.

[Anonymous No.587494]

I can see plenty worth removing, but I'm sure they have already been mentioned by others

Add:
Plato - The Republic
Samuel P. Huntington - The Clash of Civilization

[Anonymous No.587510]

>>587494
don't bother with the Huntington - it's garbage

There is no clash of civilizations. It's the Cold War reheated.

[Anonymous No.587547]

>>587380
>I want to be intellectual.
>Zombie Survival Guide

[Anonymous No.587558]

>>587101
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[Anonymous No.587565]

>look briefly over OP's list
>Harry Potter, Ayn Rand
>no Philip K. Dick

Best be trolling OP.

[Anonymous No.587593]

You should read books like >>587107 said instead of worrying about making the perfect list for the perfect bookshelf. Letting yourself discover books as you go is better. Why waste all this time compiling lists to be approved by /lit/ when you won't even read all of these books anyway?

[Anonymous No.587618]

>no great science fiction apart from one book by Heinlein
>get rich quick books and beginner-level philosophy books in non fiction
I hate you so much, OP

[Anonymous No.587642]

>>587100
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[Anonymous No.587650]

>>587101
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[Anonymous No.588479]

Listen, man, I think this is a fool's errand. You can have no idea whether or not you'll believe these books any good once you've read more of them. Why not start with a much smaller core of 'must-have' books - say, 10 fiction, 10 non-fiction - and not with the view that they must be the TEN BEST BOOKS EVER but with the idea that they should be ten good books to start with, and that they should lead you on to other things? Then you could expand from there, moving outward gradually, making a list of 20 more, then upping your list to 50, and so on...

[Anonymous No.588506]

QJTKWDBHHYOZVIXNBIKQLDUCUWASOHCHCCIETPHZXSQAXUZFTNGBHYWM

[Anonymous No.588520]

>>588479
This right here sounds a lot better to me.

Sure, I have a list of my own, but it's not a road map I'm following. It's more to remind me of things I saw I was interested in or intend to read at some point. I don't limit myself to a list, and I know there's shit on it I'll change my mind about later.

Taking time to think about what you are reading and why is more important than just blasting through the Western Canon.

[Anonymous No.588530]

>>587487

If you really liked to read, you'd have read all this entry level shit in your list already. Pretentious faggot.

[Anonymous No.588531]

>>587510
Don't bother with Plato either. Just get a more general philosophy book.

[Anonymous No.588547]

You seem to have an interest in physics and science, and also in interest in atheism. Add some Carl Sagan ("Billions and Billions" and "The Demon Haunted World" would be very good for you).

Also, you seem to have some business books, and books on money. Get The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. I'm sure somebody will object to that, but it really is one of the best books in that genre.

[Anonymous No.588551]

DKQENOHRVEDCQETTUOYLZLAAITPONWFOWTEWQLKXJNIBARMQYVATWNRSJQVUZTDYYOFXZXDJEBCMCYARGYQRWLSJCMMZP

[Anonymous No.588822]

>>588531
It's probably the basicest of basicest in western philosophy and I think if OP wants to boggle his mind, then it would be suitable. But yeah, it's highly irrelevant today and might as well be skipped if he doesn't care for it.

[Anonymous No.588831]

>>588822
>basicest

[Loving Girlfriend !!okQV6vrs+me No.588866]

>>588822

Basicest. You dun learned you sum good English, aintcha?

[Anonymous No.588873]

>>588866
>>588831
Second language and I'm half drunk, fuck off.

[Anonymous No.588880]

>>588873
>drinking alone and posting on 4chan
D'aww

[Loving Girlfriend !!okQV6vrs+me No.588944]

>>588873

Try again, my boyfriend and best friend are both native German speakers, and I've seen them both smashed, neither losing ability to speak English.

[Anonymous No.588946]

>>588944
not this shit again...

[Anonymous No.588950]

>>588944
dann haben die nich genug getrunken

[Anonymous No.588954]

>>588880
I do this all the time.

[Anonymous No.588956]

>>588954
BROFIST!

[Loving Girlfriend !!okQV6vrs+me No.588963]

>>588950

Glaub mir, sie trinken genug. Vielleicht verträgst du nur nicht so viel.

[Anonymous No.588970]

>>588963
das wage ich zu bezweifeln.

Ich und die klinische medizin.

[noko No.588977]

i agree w/ most of the posters here:
drop rand. her fiction is just are shitty novels about her bs philosophy.
Add Beneath the Wheel by Hesse, Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. Orwell's Coming up For Air or even better Burmese Days is more interesting than Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
Drop any old philosophical work and replace it with Dialectic of Enlightenment by Adorno and Horkheimer to understand how the modern world that surrounds us influences our choices and our behaviour.

[Loving Girlfriend !!okQV6vrs+me No.588981]

>>588970

Tja nicht jeder ist von einem Schnapps gleich betrunken.

[Anonymous No.588998]

>>588981
Du zeigst nicht grade originelle Varianz bezüglich deiner Retourkutschen.

[Anonymous No.589000]

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FÓr morE inFÒRmáTíóN OR ÁNY <ÓMpLÀIn+s, càlL Thi$ NÙmB3r; [phone]

[Loving Girlfriend !!okQV6vrs+me No.589019]

>>588998
Hey, zumindest benutze ich meine Trunkenheit nicht als Ausrede für meine Tippfehler.
Und zweifellos ist mein Deutsch schlechter ist als dein Englisch.

[Anonymous No.589041]

Needs more Steinbeck

Grapes of Wrath
East of Eden
The Pearl

[Anonymous No.589048]

>>589019
Ich war nicht derjenige mit den Tippfehlern. Das nur so nebenbei.

But we were talking this topic once before. In that thread about people making fun of or annoying readers in public.

[Anonymous No.589056]

>>589041
the pearl was a very nice little book

[Anonymous No.589062]

You need some Conrad. 'Secret Agent' or 'Lord Jim' or 'Nostromo' would do. You need a book of T.S. Eliot's poetry, including 'The Waste Land' and 'J. Alfred Prufock'. You need some Chaucer in the original middle english but with good footnotes (the RIverside edition is the best complete works). You should probably really have a Complete Works of Shakespeare. Christopher Marlowe is really lovely. Thomas Pynchon. Get 'The Travels of John Mandeville', preferably in original middle english but you might miss a lot and the Penguin Classics translation is pretty good. Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne and Living by Henry Green are also brilliant, if rather specialised. But what's the point of having taste if none of it is your own? of course, plenty of htis post is just my taste (it starts with stuff you MUST have and grades down through SHOULD to COULD), and preferably you should ~*discover your own*~, but you don't see to have much confidence in that option.

[Loving Girlfriend !!okQV6vrs+me No.589086]

>>589048

Oh das warst du? Gut dich wieder zu sehen.
Aber ernsthaft, vergiss Rand. Wenn ich mich richtig erinnere bist du besser als die Schlampe.

[Anonymous No.589089]

Haz 2 much ayn rand. is suspicious

[Anonymous No.589109]

>Casino royale

I lol'd

[Anonymous No.589295]

>The Bible-God