[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 328 KB, 608x900, mann_magic.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5922651 No.5922651 [Reply] [Original]

What's the comfiest book you've ever read?
Pic very related

>> No.5922798
File: 79 KB, 409x409, 1376797465227.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5922798

pls get comfy with me

>> No.5922888

>>5922651
Most of The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig was really comfy. Got pretty depressing in the end though.
Foucault's Pendulum is the same.
Also most of Cortázar is incredibly comfy, not sure why.

>> No.5922891

parts of little big maybe
some familiar poetry
MONTAIGNE

>> No.5922903

That cover sure is comfy.
Tell me OP, does it match the story perfectly or is it one of those bait and switch things where it's just a small part of the setting.

>> No.5922952
File: 128 KB, 612x442, 201.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5922952

>>5922651

>> No.5922976
File: 14 KB, 265x400, 9809[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5922976

No other book even comes close.

>> No.5923002

100 years of solitude maybe

>> No.5923004

>>5922976
Italian here. I found that book very frustrating, like a sort of prose porn.
I say this without polemical intent.

>> No.5923035

>>5923004
I can't read Italian outside of gastronomical terms, so I had to read it in English.

I found it to be an incredibly relaxing book. Probably my favorite short-novel/novella.

>> No.5923043

>>5922651
Should I read Death in Venice before tackling The Magic Mountain? I've never read any Mann before.

>> No.5923076

>>5922976
I prefer If on a winter's night a traveler

>> No.5923085
File: 211 KB, 378x640, burns_dostoyevksy_cover.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5923085

Read it with crumpets and tea or not at all.

>> No.5923089

>>5923076
Nice opinion.

>> No.5923119

>>5923085
But there are some horrible cringe-worthy scenes and, as far as I could make out, its underlying theme or message is ultimately rather dispiriting, unlike TBK or C&P.

>> No.5923134

>>5923043
Death in Venice doesn't really prepare you for Zauberberg, so I wouldn't bother. Read Schopenhauer instead.

>> No.5923165
File: 109 KB, 1024x911, Jean-Philippe_Toussaint,_Florence_(Italie),_2013.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5923165

Toussaint's "Monsieur" is pretty comfy. It's about some cultivated but slightly asspie dude too comfy to give a shit about his environment but too refined or too polite to show it. There's this scene in the elevator where he carefully creates a situation in which, due to politeness, it is natural for the other guy, not for him, to press the button. Because he fukken hates to press elevator buttons.

>> No.5923177

>>5923119
>there are some horrible cringe-worthy scenes

Give examples plox

>as far as I could make out, its underlying theme or message is ultimately rather dispiriting, unlike TBK or C&P.

Fair enough, but I was speaking more to the delivery than anything. Even for something 19th century and Russian, it's got an exceedingly high amount of "aristocrats drinking and sharing stories" scenes, which meets my conception of 'comfy', at least. It's really not all that dark until the ending, anyway.

>> No.5923184
File: 191 KB, 1920x1080, comfy time.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5923184

>that snowstorm scene

>> No.5923187

>>5923177
>Give examples plox

I mean cringe inducing in the sense of The Office or Peep Show - not from bad writing or whatever. For example when Myshkin starts ranting about Catholicism during his engagement party. I am extremely sensitive to vicarious embarrassment and it was almost painful for me to read.

>> No.5923226

>>5923187
Oh lol. Yeah, I suppose there were quite a few aspie characters.

>that whole Hippolite arc
>literally everything Ganya did

Fortunately, I have a very weak sense of fremdschaemen.

>> No.5923286

>>5923035
>I found it to be an incredibly relaxing book.

yes, calvino has leopardi tier prose.
Read link related if you want some fun.
https://archive.org/details/dialoguebetweena00leoprich

>> No.5923304

>>5922903
99% of the novel takes place in a sanatorium in the mountains. Imagine a book set entirely on an early 20th century cruise ship, except the cruise ship is full of sick people that die and get replaced. Most of its comfy points come from the static environment of the setting.

>> No.5923307

>>5922903
No, it does match the story. The main character is sent to a hospital to treat his tuberculosis (I think, can't remember) up in the mountains.

>> No.5923323

>>5923307
The main character goes to visit his cousin at the hospital, intending to only stay three weeks. The comfy-zone is so strong that he spends 7 years there instead.

>> No.5923331

>>5923323
Right, but he himself was sick too, right? Read it many years ago, can't remember the details.

>> No.5923340

>>5923331
He says he's sick in order to stay there. It becomes ambiguous as to whether he actually is sick or not.

I think what makes it stand out as such a comfy novel is that the book itself is about Time and the strangeness of its invisible passing. It doesn't have chronological difficulties in it, but the book gradually places the reader himself at ease with Time's progression, and the static setting makes you forget about it entirely.

>> No.5923361

>>5923340
I remember the long fucking monologues and the arguing over philosophy and politics the characters endlessly engaged in, but above all, the setting.

Correct me if Im wrong, but at one point he decides to leave, and starts walking down the mountain, or riding some sort of vehicle, in the snow, and then changes his mind and goes back up?

>> No.5923373

>>5923361
I don't remember. There is a point where one of his relatives, his uncle and guardian I think, is sent up to fetch him and get him to cut out his bullshit since he's been up there for months. But he kind of condescends him (literally, calling his uncle a lowlander who can't fathom the mountain) and his uncle flees before he too gets stuck on the mountain.

>> No.5924104

>>5923043
its like a 40 page novella,

>> No.5924318

>>5923043
Death in Venice won't prepare you for Magic Mountain, but it's a great read nonetheless. Go for it, short and sweet (and just a little bit gay).

>> No.5924362

>>5924318
>>5924104
Oh alright.

Is there anything that will prepare me for it? Is there need for preparation? Most complicated books I've read so far are Gravity's Rainbow, The Sound and The Fury, etc.

>> No.5924363

Probably Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian. Some parts were extremely soothing.

>> No.5924380

>>5924362
>Is there anything that will prepare me for it?

A bit of knowledge of pre ww1 climate in europe. That is what the whole novel is about.

>> No.5924415

>>5924380
Great! I based my Contemporary European History exam around that, so I'm all set.

>> No.5924425

>>5924415
yeah, some basic european history and philosophy 101 (they do talk about philosophy quite a bit) is all you need. Not a difficult book, by any means. It's a very straightforward read.

>> No.5924444

>>5924363
>Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian

Thanks for the rec, will check it out. Btw, you can find it here

gen.lib.rus.ec/foreignfiction/?s=soul+mountain&f_lang=0&f_columns=0&f_ext=0

>> No.5924466

>>5922976
This. It tickles the neurons. Like the best of Borges stretched to novella length. If only Dunsany wrote this beautifully.

>> No.5924983

>>5924362
I read it when I was just getting into reading and thought the dream parts were a bit tricky but other than that its not too bad.

You might wanna read up on some of the things it alludes to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian_and_Dionysian

>> No.5925120

>>5923187
>Peep Show
God that show is traumatizing

>> No.5925206

>>5922651

I'm reading it right now, although it drags on a bit I really like it.

It's definitely a "philosophers" kind of novel.

>> No.5926910

City, by Clifford D Simak

>> No.5926924

The Catcher in the Rye

pls no bully

>> No.5926931

What do I need to read before I read the magic mountain?

>> No.5926934

>>5922651
Anna Karenina was awdully comfy

>> No.5926939

The Stranger

Just sitting on your balcony on a weekday in Algeria looking down below and watching your town throughout the day as you smoke a ciggar and drink .

>> No.5926941
File: 13 KB, 200x307, little, big.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5926941

>> No.5926953

>>5926941
That's a wonderful book. Magical. Wished it could have gone on forever.

>> No.5926961

>>5922903
It does. The vantage point comes from a scene when the main character, Hans Castorp, goes skiing, gets lost, but eventually finds his way back to the sanatorium. It's a magnificent book.

>> No.5927048

Star Wars books. I love spending time with that familiar cast of characters.

>> No.5927056

>>5922651
Pnin

>> No.5927065

>>5927056
that's a good one

>> No.5927068

Stoner is definitely the comfiest book so far. I just love the images of him working and studying and walking around the campus and having conversations with Gordon and the other guy before the war.

>> No.5927100

>>5926931
The Greeks, the Bible, and Schopenhauer.

>> No.5927681

>>5922651
i know this board hates murakami, but his novels are comfy as fuck.

>> No.5927699

>>5922651
good book but comfy???

>>5922888
anything by Zweig brings up the opposite of comfy for me. I like him but he's pretty intense.

for me maybe wind in the willows? reading it feels like a nice breeze while laying out on the grass in spring.

>> No.5927942 [DELETED] 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/Hobbit_cover.JPG

>> No.5927948
File: 104 KB, 245x381, Hobbit_cover[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5927948

>> No.5927951

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

it's ridiculously sublime

>> No.5927971
File: 26 KB, 261x400, Critique-of-Pure-Reason-9780140447477[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5927971

>> No.5927979

>>5922651
Proust. People will think I'm trolling. I'm not.

>> No.5927981

>>5927979
proust is pretty comfy most of the time

don't know why people would think you're trolling

>> No.5927992

>>5927981
probably because people on this board don't read

>> No.5928002

proust

>> No.5928005

IM GONNA START THE 5TH PROUST BOOK TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! hELL YEAH!!

>> No.5928151

>>5928005
The first one is pretty comfy (Marcel as a child waiting for his mother's kiss...), but the comfiest of all is the 5th, I'd say. The way it begins, describing the bedroom, the sounds coming in from the streets, him in his room listening to Albertina. That's one of my favorite tomes.

And the 2nd one is pretty comfy too, the whole Balbec part, the hotel, the long walks on the beach, meeting the girls and messing around with them.

Great book to pick up and randomly read a few pages, after you've read it once.