/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.8402315]

Literary Confession Thread:

[Anonymous No.8402325]

I don't read

[Anonymous No.8402327]

>>8402315
Ulysses is a horrible book

[Anonymous No.8402328]

>>8402315
I have never read a single book by Thomas Pynchon.

[Anonymous No.8402331]

>>8402327
no it isn't

[Anonymous No.8402342]

I don't read books, but I take very strong opinions on them on /lit/ and argue by googling sophisticated books and I parrot other peoples' words

[Anonymous No.8402344]

>>8402331
Wrong

[Anonymous No.8402345]

>>8402344
you're wrong

[Anonymous No.8402351]

>>8402315
Rodia was an hero.

[Anonymous No.8402357]

I'm completely illiterate

[Anonymous No.8402360]

I think ive read everything i needed to read in this reencarnation.

[Anonymous No.8402361]

>>8402345
no u

[Anonymous No.8402362]

Ever since I read Stirner, I have been treating my property how I want to treat them, the "golden rule" be damned.

It's been going as expected thus far.

[Anonymous No.8402367]

I find Shakespeare's plays boring to read, and mildly entertaining to watch.

[Anonymous No.8402369]

>>8402342
you must have a lot time

[Anonymous No.8402372]

>>8402315
Literature has become some kind of toxic addiction for me. I hate it, I hate what I write, I hate what I read, and I cannot stop because of some compulsion to understand everything and find perfection

[Anonymous No.8402374]

>>8402315

I almost never read and barely know about anything about the content posted here.

I like to write but I feel all my drive die when I am faced with an empty page

[Anonymous No.8402376]

Literature is the tool of idiots.

[Anonymous No.8402380]

I'm Clifford Le Sargent

[Anonymous No.8402382]

>>8402376
you mean the tool of the elite

[Anonymous No.8402388]

>>8402372
sounds pretty awesome desu

[Anonymous No.8402391]

>>8402342

Most of us know this already. Usually when you confess something, the information is new.

[Anonymous No.8402393]

>>8402362
How did you expect it to go?

[Anonymous No.8402396]

>>8402315
I was Kafka in the past life.

[Anonymous No.8402414]

>>8402374
Think the actual sentences and words out in your head. This will happen if you read. Mature another year or two. Post at a time other than summer. Read. Don't just rely on abstractions of stories you want to tell. Imagine those stories told. Think big-picture. Do you want to die unwritten?

[Anonymous No.8402416]

>>8402315
I like books as well as literature.

Finnegan's Wake is gibberish.

[Anonymous No.8402423]

>>8402388
You might think so but it's shit. I wanted to be a businessman or something practical instead i have wasted nearing on 8 years of my life obsessing over shit that doesn't actually matter. I can't focus my energies on anything practical beyond the most basic necessities of living because of this retarded obsession with knowing the absolute truth of reality and expressing it however possible, a goal which is not only impossible but far beyond my specific capabilities as an individual. I realize this, that I will fail, that I can't do it, but I cannot stop, it never leaves, I never even feel like I'm properly awake unless I'm thinking about these things, the rest of my life is just some blur i am half aware of.

It is most shit because I can see, vaguely below the surface of the constant confusion, the normal patterns that should be occurring. I will get a job, or start some relationship, and there is a very muted sense of fulfillment that should be much stronger, that should animate me to pursue those ends to better places, but they are always like little mutters below a thick white fog, and above the fog the only thing I can ever feel is this desperately urgent need to find these answers to questions I don't even really understand.

[Anonymous No.8402435]

>>8402423
Sleep more.
Read less.
See a doc. See a shrink.
Maybe go Into the Wild if you can. At the least, go on some hikes. Someplace really fucking cool. Appalachians or Grand Canyon or whatever.

[Anonymous No.8402438]

Holy shit /lit/ I don't know how to apply myself.

Can't even think of self-imposed goals that won't look ridiculous a day after I think of them.

[Anonymous No.8402440]

I'm writing a book about a gay prostitute, and the first chapter starts off with him wiping cum off his face.

[Anonymous No.8402467]

>>8402423
>>8402435
lol fuck that kill urself

[Anonymous No.8402471]

I decided to start reading books and i got myself A Clockwork Orange.
I can't make it through the first 10 pages.
Did I pick up something too hard? Should I stay with the cereal boxes descriptions?

[Anonymous No.8402472]

>>8402435
I don't mean to simply complain but I have done those things, there is a kind of fundamental arrogance in me that won't accept any answer because it isn't good enough, and I feel that there is a better one to be found.

What you say makes sense, and is true, but there is like a corruscating venom in me that doesn't allow for anything like that, I hate everything except moments of ecstasy and insight.

I feel like on some fundamental level God completely fucked up, and we were left to deal with this utter bullshit which we can only trick ourselves into liking, and it is hard to trick yourself when nothing works, when nothing affords real satisfaction because of its inherent filth.

I have had periods of brief respite and happiness which are always ruined as soon as I open my eyes and see what is going on, that it is only an intoxication of love, power, comfort, whatever it might be, below that there is an awareness of a much more real reality that can't be held back, it is like a beast growling under a blanket, and it is so much more intense that its awful character doesn't stop its being so much more attractive, so much more necessary and urgent and real.

But I realize that is also bullshit, and the fact that I feel that way is bullshit, and that is the entire problem

[Anonymous No.8402473]

I actually haven't read THAT many books.

[Anonymous No.8402476]

>>8402440
Sounds pretty gay, desu.

[Anonymous No.8402478]

>>8402327
Why

[Anonymous No.8402481]

>>8402380
I'm almost certain that's true.

[Anonymous No.8402489]

>>8402471
ACO is really simple once you realize all the funny words are just a meme

[Anonymous No.8402497]

>>8402489
So the whole book is a meme?

[Anonymous No.8402499]

>>8402471
Go one book to the left

[Anonymous No.8402502]

>>8402471
A Clockwork Orange is one of the most frustrating things to start, then it turns fun. As a rule, hunt down a glossary (don't most editions have one in the back?) and stop and look up EVERY word you aren't 100% sure you recognize. It will come naturally too you sooner or later. (This holds true for real-life words, too - get a nice dictionary if you're going to read for real. If not, get the fug out now.) Here's some defense on the silliness of the words: real-world language mergers look like this, with random snippets of language A inflecting language B; and the goo-goo-ga-ga talk reflects the psyche of the main characters and of teenagers at large to boot. It's no less irritating (or mimetic), but those realizations made me understand why they're there.

[Anonymous No.8402509]

>>8402497
It's kinda shit imo.

[Anonymous No.8402534]

>>8402472
You can't, at once, think pleasure is bullshit and pain is not. They are the same, if you will either.

You lack self-control, and, I imagine, you have too much self-pride yet express too little of it. There's energy pent up inside you and you aren't doing a good job of leveraging it. "I can't leverage it" is an excuse, and if it's excuses you want, then there's nothing in the world that can save you.

Try writing. It's my rule to write anything I wish had been written. Any answer made by you ought to be perfect on your terms, no? Or, if you haven't come up with that answer, try some different forms of meditation.

You sound really derealized; look into medication for that.

Obviously the things you like drive you; my advice is to try treating your neurosis the same way you'd get into a workout routine. Think big-picture. What will make you happy five years from now? Whatever it is, strive for it. Deep happiness is all that's worth chasing in life.

[Anonymous No.8402558]

>>8402499
Wanted to get Brave New World but there was no stock in the bookshop
>>8402502
Thanks for the advice. I guess I should've read the preface. The dialog like that is something I can get, similar stuff happened in Martin Fierro IIRC (made us read it in HS, argentinian here, pretty good book).
Although I should also keep in mind that English not being my main language could be a big kick in the nuts. I'll keep these in mind though, thank you.
>>8402509
Aw :(
Well at least I'll try to find out why is it and why is it not?

[Anonymous No.8402562]

>>8402558
Goddamn I can't even reply well, and I want to start reading books >>8402509

[Anonymous No.8402571]

>>8402534
>You can't, at once, think pleasure is bullshit and pain is not. They are the same, if you will either.
I don't mean that pain is more real, pain is equally unimportant I agree with you. It is an awareness of reality I am talking about, actually looking at the world as it is, and the twin streams of euphoria and terror that tend to appear when you do so.
>You lack self-control, and, I imagine, you have too much self-pride yet express too little of it.
Fairly intuitive analysis given how little you had to work with, I have a complete lack of self control but I don't have self pride, I don't have a cogent conception of myself at all
>There's energy pent up inside you and you aren't doing a good job of leveraging it. "I can't leverage it" is an excuse, and if it's excuses you want, then there's nothing in the world that can save you.
When I 'leverage my energy' it is just pure violence, there is no sense in it, i restrain myself because abandon leads to complete destruction, I think all people are like this
>Try writing. It's my rule to write anything I wish had been written. Any answer made by you ought to be perfect on your terms, no? Or, if you haven't come up with that answer, try some different forms of meditation.
I write constantly, I have written thousands of words a day for years on a completely diverse set of topics, it is like adding wood to a fire, it accomplishes nothing but further inflamation
>You sound really derealized; look into medication for that.
How can you expect a concept like derealization to matter if the entire question is one of finding what reality actually is,that is the entire problem itself
>Obviously the things you like drive you; my advice is to try treating your neurosis the same way you'd get into a workout routine. Think big-picture. What will make you happy five years from now? Whatever it is, strive for it. Deep happiness is all that's worth chasing in life.
5 years from now I would like the same thing I have always wanted, to be normal, to just participate in life like other people do, i dont even care how it is, but I have absolutely no expectation that that will happen because nothing ever works, it is a pathology of motive


I disagree fundamentally that happiness is the goal of life, when you look at reality it cares very little about harmony, about things being calm, about niceness,it functions in very different ways, and we are a part of it and to deny our inherent violence and wrongness is to be totally blind

[Anonymous No.8402578]

A guy who looks like James Joyce fucked my girlfriend and now I hate James Joyce.

[Anonymous No.8402580]

I once had a marathon masturbation session fueled by a fantasy whose central character was Martin Luther.

[Anonymous No.8402583]

>>8402396
is that your excuse for being a NEET?

[Anonymous No.8402589]

The picture of dorian Grey is my favorite book

[Anonymous No.8402627]

>>8402578
did he sniff her farts?

[Anonymous No.8402632]

>>8402571
>twin streams of euphoria and terror tend to appear when you do so
So why don't you focus on the euphoric? Your perfectionism is being the death of you (doubtless an insight for you). It's important to reconcile the bad in the universe - and remember, reconciliation doesn't mean a way of upping complacency.

>I don't have self pride
Get some.
>"I don't have a cogent conception of myself at all"
Get one.

>abandon leads to complete destruction
This is not leveraging, this is letting lose. You need self-control, fast.

>I think all people are like this
All people who can't control themselves, sure. A Freudian would go nuts on you, you know.

>I write constantly, it accomplishes nothing but further inflammation
I'm sorry to hear that.

>derealization
Actually my bullshit diagnosis now makes me think you have OCD or something. I should bite my tongue on that end, but I'd look into either of those tangents.

>to be normal, to just participate in life like other people do, I don't even care how it is
Are you so sure? It sounds to me like your problem comes from a desire to live your own way, but an inability to do so - one that stems from your ability, again, to assert yourself, take self-control, all that. Were you in a rational state of mind, I can't imagine you would want to live like everybody else.

I disagree fundamentally that happiness is the goal of life from a universal perspective. From a human's perspective - and that is the perspective that usually matters to me - I care about what brings me pleasure, and so that is my goal. The goals of life and the universe run against one another. Pick your side. Reality is not nice, and not-nice times are what make men.

You sound like a person who never grew up inside, but you also sound read enough to find a way to grow the rest up.

You empathize with Raskolnikov a lot, don't you?

[Anonymous No.8402722]

I don't really see the point in reading regular non-genre fiction that's supposed to be true to life and relatable. I already know what normal boring life is like, I don't need someone else describing it to me as well.

[Anonymous No.8402742]

>>8402722
What if that person is smarter than you, anon? What if that person sees a different world than you, anon? experiences a different world? lives a different life?

[Anonymous No.8402944]

I hate reading but love audiobooks. Kill my self?

[Anonymous No.8402987]

>>8402315
I loved The Myth of Sisyphus but I didn't really get The Stranger

[Anonymous No.8403020]

>>8402376
It'd be true if being an idiot wasn't relative. There's a lot of annoying things about cutivated people, but I've never found the other side of the fence to be any better. Though there is and will be exceptions.

[Anonymous No.8403032]

>>8402325
t. /lit/

[Anonymous No.8403591]

>>8402360
>believing in reincarnation, yet can't even spell it
Someone needs to read more

[Anonymous No.8403593]

i love murakami (the pleb murakami)

[Anonymous No.8403618]

i mostly read nonfiction and feel guilty reading fiction even though i know i can get more from a fiction work than a nonfiction work

[Anonymous No.8403790]

>>8402380
I'm Clifford Le Sargent

[Anonymous No.8404001]

My entire knowledge of philosophy consists of my high school ethics class, some wikipedia articles and the first ten pages of Bertrand Russel's history of western philosophy.

[Anonymous No.8404033]

I just spoke to an Irishman who was giving me a job interview for an hour about Dubliners but haven't actually read it. I only used references that I memorized from /lit/ posts, even reciting quotes as well as stealing from goodreads reviews.

[Anonymous No.8404081]

I've only read one book so far this year.

[Anonymous No.8404123]

>>8402315
I've read barely any Shakespeare even though I'm an English student.

[Anonymous No.8404135]

i debate books on /lit ive never even heard of, nevermind read

[Anonymous No.8404137]

>>8404123
Also I'm addicted to detective/crime fiction. I've even tried fooling myself into believing it has literary value.

[Anonymous No.8404153]

I write fan faction for my Chinese cartoons series. Am I going to pleb hell?

[Anonymous No.8404176]

>>8402423
>>8402472
Here is a song written about you, I hope it makes you feel better :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuGRbPK8ySk

[Anonymous No.8404193]

>>8402423
once you have doubt about your hedonism, switch to the dhamma

[Anonymous No.8404654]

I started reading Infinite Jest and got about a fifth of the way through the book before realizing that I hadn't been reading the endnotes, and that in fact the ebook version I was reading did not even have the endnotes to begin with. I put the book down right then and haven't picked it up since, even after finding a version with the endnotes and hyperlinks to them within the text.

[Anonymous No.8405204]

>>8404033
How? I've read Dubliners and I'm not sure I could speak about it for that long.
Also, why haven't you read it? It's an easy read and quite enjoyable, you obviously spent much more time learning about and it and memorising what was said about it than it would have taken you reading the actual book...

[Anonymous No.8405270]

I've been putting off reading King Lear for like three months. I don't know why. I love Shakespeare, and in my defense I've been reading other good stuff in the meantime. But every time I sit down to read it, I get distracted by something else. I don't know what my problem is.

[Anonymous No.8405284]

I don't know what to gain from reading anymore. When I was in high school everything blew my mind. Not to say that I understand everything now, but when I read something new, I don't get that revelation, that spark. It's more or less so and so said that thing. Does anybody else experience this? I still love to read it's just it seems to be something I do because I'm used to doing it. Talked with a buddy of mine about this and told be I'm probably depressed. I dunno, I don't really feel it, but I have noticed that things I used to really enjoy in my youth are kind of fizzling out. New hobbies, perhaps?

[Anonymous No.8406575]

Confessions #1
I bought "Being and Nothingness" by Sartre when I was 14 and it took me almost 10 years to make it through the introduction.
#2 I read most of Dostoyevsky's work by the time I was 28, except for "brothers karamazov," tried it at 34...I aint got time for that shit. You gotta use all six names for somebody every time they are mentioned? C'mon Nigga.
#3 I could care less about dfw, Lerner and all of the new yorkers favorite "stunt authors." I used to, then my nuts dropped.

[Anonymous No.8407055]

>>8405270

safest confession ever

you are the ned flanders of anonymous confessions

[Anonymous No.8407058]

I'm developing a scat fetish, just like Joyce!

[Anonymous No.8407075]

>>8402325
>I dont read I only meme about reading
>my life

[Anonymous No.8407292]

The Book of the New Sun affected me more than Ulysses

[Anonymous No.8407295]

>>8407292
You became Catholic?

[Anonymous No.8407338]

I read translated poetry
Also I've read the whole meme trilogy not in english
Mason&Dixon is among the best things I have ever read, this books was magical

[Anonymous No.8407349]

>>8403591
No that was a purposeful nod to the Pepeist religion. They believe that they leave this putrid existence and eventually turn back into frogs by reee-ncarnation.

[Anonymous No.8407387]

I really like Ayn Rand even though I find her writing subpar. I've argued many times in her defense and have come to the conclusion that most people can only think of witty quotes or her failings as a person rather than argue anything about her philosophy.
It's like telling someone you're a Nietzschean and everyone endlessly tries to remind you that the nazi were influenced by Nietzsche and he caused the Holocaust.
Her philosophy isn't perfect but I feel like nearly everyone turns their brain off when they want to just dismiss why she's wrong, often only resorting to memes and nothing more.

[Anonymous No.8407414]

>>8407387
>I've argued many times in her defense and have come to the conclusion that most people can only think of witty quotes or her failings as a person rather than argue anything about her philosophy.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Objectivism

knock yourself out

[Anonymous No.8407432]

>>8407414
>open page
>first thing is a quote about how Objectivism is evil
Fucking kill me.

[Anonymous No.8407444]

>>8407432
your cog.dis. is showing

[Anonymous No.8407454]

>>8407444
I knew that Rationalwiki was bad but I didn't expect complete slander.

[Anonymous No.8407566]

>>8407454
You are spooked the fuck out

[Anonymous No.8407595]

>>8407566
Meaningless term. If anything, most of what Striner bitched about concerning spooks is the same things Ayn Rand bitched about on collectivism.

[Anonymous No.8407611]

I would rather gouge my eyes out than read Shakespeare.

[Anonymous No.8407620]

>>8407611
Please do so.

[Anonymous No.8407621]

>>8407620
I refuse to do either.

[Anonymous No.8407625]

>>8407621
It's okay, I was 13 once.

[Anonymous No.8407629]

>>8407432
but objectivism is evil
this is a fact

1) morality is real
2) objectivism is opposed to morality
3) u.s.

[Anonymous No.8407657]

>>8407629
>objectivism is opposed to morality
Wut? Objectivism is heavily in favor of morality.

[Anonymous No.8407658]

I don't know what to write, trying to read the needs of the collective unconscious is so difficult. I realize my methods are possibly mistaken, and my motives might be nothing but a fear of the inevitable (death), but this longing for something new doesn't stop? Is it a matter of legitimacy? I don't know what to do, what anyone wants.

[Anonymous No.8407716]

>>8407387
To be fair Nietzsche was actually banned in Nazi Germany so it wouldn't be like that.

[Anonymous No.8407773]

>>8407716
BUT HER SISTER WAS A NAZI AND FORCE OF WILL YO~

[Anonymous No.8407780]

>>8406575
>could care less
kys

[Anonymous No.8407894]

I actually like women and veiw a few of them as equal to men

[Anonymous No.8407908]

>>8407894
*view

[Anonymous No.8407911]

>>8407894
>I like some individuals in this collective and view some of those individuals as equal to my collective

[Anonymous No.8407919]

>>8407894
>I like this collective and view some individuals in that collective as equal to to this other collective

[Anonymous No.8407939]

For all my posturing on this forum, I've never actually read a book.

[Anonymous No.8408530]

>>8407908
*wew

[Anonymous No.8408702]

>>8402328
These confessions are nothing because you always COULD read x book. There's lots of books I've never read.

[Anonymous No.8408704]

I honestly try to be new sincerity and think a lot of people on this forum are really insecure and aggressive to a point that is not endearing or warranted. But you're all humans so I understand the reasons.

[Anonymous No.8408727]

Anyperson who takes the time to make a snide remark at a post that mentions positive things about Murukami is a total tool, apart of the /lit/ hivemind collective.

This is hardly a confession.

[Anonymous No.8408751]

>>8402558
I finished A Clockwork Orange recently.
This glossary (http://soomka.com/nadsat.html)) is the most comprehensive one, I recommend you read with your phone displaying it on your lap.

It's a wonderful book and once you get to the very end it feels like it gets a completely new meaning. The only criticism I have towards it is the too fast if a pace of some of the events in the book.

[Anonymous No.8408757]

Confession: the pace at which I read is average or even below average, finishing books takes ages for me as the result.

After finishing a book and briefly thinking about the authors message and key themes, I read about them on the internet anyway.

I spend more time browsing this board than reading, because I'm too tired to read an actual book whenever I have time.

[Anonymous No.8408762]

>>8408757
I'm just finishing the same 800 page book I've been reading for three months and I do the same thing you do afterwords, reading online about the author and the book itself.

[Anonymous No.8408777]

>>8408762
What book?

It took me about 6-7 hours to read half of a clockwork orange. Can you guys tell me is that really bad?

[Anonymous No.8408780]

>>8402423
Are you me? Jesus.

What are you supposed to do when you're obsessed with figuring something out that you can't even imagine what the whole spectrum of it looks like or even is.

It's such a blockade when I'm trying to get anything out of me that doesn't come out inherently perfect to my delusional mind.

[Anonymous No.8408782]

>>8402578
A guy who looks like David Foster Wallace fucked my ass and now I hate David Foster Wallace.

[Anonymous No.8408796]

>>8402473
I only read 2 books in my entire life. :/

[Anonymous No.8408800]

>>8408777
Underworld by Don DeLillo.

>>8408796
Hope you decide to read more.

[Anonymous No.8408825]

>>8408800
I mean, out of the 2 books I've read, one was fantastic and one was a huge disappointment.
Metro 2033 was so good and the sequel was utter trash and just.. meh.
I kinda would like to read 2035, but it's still not translated yet into english/german and I also couldn't get ahold of some spin off metro books by other authors.
Books are expensive and I can simply find no time to read.

[Anonymous No.8408828]

>>8408825
Strange that you're on a literature board then.

[Anonymous No.8408837]

>>8408825
To be honest, I was on the 4chan homepage thingy and only clicked on this thread because I liked OP's thumbnail.

[Anonymous No.8408840]

>>8408828
i replied to myself, im too tired for this.
>>8408837

[Anonymous No.8408841]

>>8408840
gotcha

[Anonymous No.8408867]

>>8402471
I tried learning Russian a while before hand so the nadsat (was that what it was called? I haven't read it in while) was pretty easy to understand. Tbh a clockwork orange isn't that hard. Took me a week to read and another one to understand it. Burgess wrote it in just a few weeks too so it really isn't overly complicated. What i guess I'm trying to say is what the fuck is wrong with you, like mentally.

[Anonymous No.8408896]

>>8408704
This sub and /fa/ are the worst for it.

[Anonymous No.8408898]

Almost all my writing has been FanFiction. I feel I can channel things much better this way.

[Anonymous No.8408989]

>>8407625

[Anonymous No.8409093]

>>8407919
TRAP

[Anonymous No.8409121]

>>8402351
C&P?

[Anonymous No.8410193]

>>8402369
Everybody has a lot of time.

[Anonymous No.8410199]

>>8410193
seconded

[Anonymous No.8410208]

>>8408727
>being this butthurt that you're a pleb with pleb tastes

[Anonymous No.8410209]

I have written horrible erotic fiction in the past. I swore it off, and haven't written anything since, but the stuff I did write was awful.

[Anonymous No.8410235]

I enjoy Song of Ice and Fire.

[Anonymous No.8410243]

I read many things but Stoner is the only novel I am confident enough to say I understand it.

[Anonymous No.8410253]

>>8410209
same, plus ive written quite a few fanfics that have gotten a decent amount of attention in their domains

[Anonymous No.8410261]

I want to kill myself because I can never make up my mind on what I want to do in life. It changes from week to week or day to day. One day I will see something interesting and go, "I want to do this," but three days later I may say that about a completely different subject or one I have said it about before.

I'm 26 in four days and have nothing. I am virtually unemployable if I am not lying on my applications or resume sending, and even when I do lie I don't get anything either.

I really just want to shoot myself.

[Anonymous No.8410262]

>>8410208
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous No.8410266]

>>8410261
Just do what you like to do. This isn't really a /lit/ confession, but that doesn't matter I bet in your kind of funk atm. But really, why bother to think about what you "wanna do", when you can just do? As stupid and bohemian of an idea as that may sound if you like stuffing pringles into your ass crack and showering twice a month then maybe you'll be happier doing that than thinking of what you should be doing.

[Sangburd No.8410267]

>>8408777
Stop caring about how others read. Just open a book and start.

[Anonymous No.8410318]

>>8410266

Because I don't really have that luxury and I feeling that even though I am young I am wasting my life. Other people my age are successful and I have nothing.

[Anonymous No.8410326]

I started with the Greeks over a year ago and have been stuck in the ancient world ever since. I think it will take me another year to emerge, and that's if I skip a ton of minor works.

I can't even bring myself to start my copy of Gibbon until I've read every significant primary source for history. I want to read Dante but can't bring myself to skip even minor epic poetry from the ancient world. I want to read Shakespeare but can't bring myself to skip any ancient drama. Basically for anything I want to read I feel like I have to wait until I've read a ton more ancient content first.

My ancient world books now take up like 60% of my shelf space, and the proportion is only growing.

[Anonymous No.8410334]

I thoroughly enjoyed Infinite Jest and don't understand why it gets memed so hard

[Anonymous No.8410368]

I'm a huge Stephen King fan.

[Anonymous No.8410369]

>>8410334
Every board has its memes that aren't bad. Consider that they wouldn't be memes if they were bad. /mu/, for example, has in the aeroplane over the sea, which is not a bad album. This board has Infinite Jest, which is not a bad book.

[Anonymous No.8410451]

I read all the Twilight books

when the fourth book came out I stood in a line at barnes and noble waiting for the book to be released at midnight

[Anonymous No.8410466]

>>8402380
I'm Sgt, Clifford Lee

[Anonymous No.8410615]

>>8410334
Infinite Jest is considered both a masterpiece and a very inaccessible book. It is also the favourite book of /lit/. This makes it the best target for anti-consensus memeing that has always been the core of 4chans art-related boards.

I

[Anonymous No.8410618]

>>8410451
Meh, just say you did it for all the young, insecure chicks, and you're off the hook

[Anonymous No.8410683]

I have probably read more subtitles from chinese cartoons than actual books.

[Anonymous No.8410994]

>>8402414
>implying /lit/ is a board any newfag wants to visit

[Anonymous No.8411014]

i own a copy of tuesdays with morrie

[Anonymous No.8411015]

>>8410615
>infinite jest is a master piece
>infinite jest is hard to read
>he fell for the memes so hard he has to rationalize it to himself after th efact

top kek. dfw is like a slightly more difficult than usual YA book.

[Anonymous No.8411023]

I buy books to display in my bookshelf

I sparknotes them in case anyone asks about the plot, but nobody ever visits

[Anonymous No.8411035]

>>8402315
I use rhymer websites to write my poems.

[Anonymous No.8411113]

I bought about 20 books about 8 months ago and have read only half of them

[Anonymous No.8411736]

>>8402367

[Anonymous No.8411743]

>>8410193

[Anonymous No.8411753]

this board is a joke s m h.

[Anonymous No.8411797]

>>8410368
Which book should I read first?

[Anonymous No.8411895]

>>8411113
10 books is good dog

[Anonymous No.8411898]

I haven't finished a book since December

[Anonymous No.8411914]

>>8404654
On my first reading I did the same, about 50~ endnotes in. I still ended up reading it, re-reading it, and loving it both times.

My ilterary confession: This semester marks my fifth year in college. I've switched majors once before, and after I get my current degree, I'll start working on an English major.

[Anonymous No.8411919]

I haven't really enjoyed anything I've read since The Caine Mutiny a few months ago

[Anonymous No.8411924]

I haven't read a book in 7 months.

The last book I read was when I got half way through Kaputt by Curizo Malaparte. There was a part where he was in Poland talking to the same people for like 5 chapters and it repeated the same damn points over and over. I got so frustrated that I put the book down and decided "I'll go read something else" Then I never did.

I feel like I'm going mad or losing my capacity for higher thought. Sometimes I blank out and think of nothing. Simply nothing. This happens at work and often when I'm at home. I had problems spacing out before, but I usually was thinking of something, anything. It's kinda worrying me.

[Anonymous No.8411963]

I post here for four Fs:

* Fishing for literary fiction insights. Sometimes contributing in that direction.
* Finding genuinely world class modern Chinese literature, diasporan or otherwise (give it ~20 years?).
* ƒcience fiction and the occasional non garbo fantasy.
* ƒhitposting. Sometimes counter-ƒhitposting.

[Anonymous No.8412547]

yesterday i finished reading the first book ive read in 6 years

it was Mike Fallopian's Wild Ride

[Anonymous No.8412571]

>>8411797
Misery.

[Anonymous No.8412643]

sometimes I wish I had the courage to make a YT channel, just so I can respond to tags with Whitman, Svevo and Proust, and make patrician book hauls

[Anonymous No.8412937]

>>8404033
Do the majority of Irish people actually read Joyce ? If so, I've found the country where I want to live. But I have a hard time picturing Ulysses as a book that's commonly read by a large portion of any population.

[Anonymous No.8413045]

>>8402315
I read solely for entertainment. I use it as an escape from the mundane in the world, and stick to fiction. Anyone wanna recommend me a good entertaining book they've enjoyed?
Fiction preferably, genre doesn't really matter. Just give me what you've personally enjoyed

[Anonymous No.8413049]

>>8413045
Jurassic Park and Ice by Anna Kavan

[Anonymous No.8413051]

>>8413045
A hero of our time was very entertaining

[Anonymous No.8413072]

>>8402435
>Maybe go Into the Wild if you can. At the least, go on some hikes. Someplace really fucking cool. Appalachians or Grand Canyon or whatever.

Into the Wild but with a NEET from 4chan is such a great idea.

I mean, he inevitably dies on the 2nd day of his adventure but still.

[Anonymous No.8413095]

>>8412937
No, like anywhere else the majority of people don't read at all. Safe to say that an Irish reader is more likely to have read Joyce than a non-Irish reader.

[Anonymous No.8413132]

do you guys realize that we aren't using our legs?

[Anonymous No.8413137]

>>8413132
I'm tapping my toes and I sometimes cross a leg over another.

[Anonymous No.8413147]

>>8413137
we are like internet centaurs

[Anonymous No.8413153]

>>8413147
lmao, it's kind of true.

[Anonymous No.8413164]

>>8410615
>It is also the favourite book of /lit/.
I've read maybe two posts on /lit/ that said something good about the book. It's pretty much the consensus on here that it isn't worth reading (though I don't have an opinion on it myself).

[Anonymous No.8413170]

>>8413164
that's a real bad post man....

[Anonymous No.8413171]

>>8410615
my dad stopped reading infinite jest half way through not because he found it difficult but because 'I don't like how it seems that he's making excuses for why these people fucked up their lives instead of taking responsibility'

[Anonymous No.8413182]

>>8413170
not as bad as infinite jest :D

[Anonymous No.8413188]

>>8413164
>>8413171
ij isn't difficult at all. all the hard weird are spread out, and many aren't essential for understanding.

[Anonymous No.8413189]

I read fantasy and scifi all the time and I enjoy it.

[Anonymous No.8413194]

>>8413045
2033

[Anonymous No.8413209]

>>8413189
remember, it's only ok if it's gene wolfe

[Anonymous No.8413218]

>>8413189
I like genre fiction in itself, but since Bloom approves of many genre titles, that's really enough to shut up the anti genre autists.

[Anonymous No.8413243]

>>8413194
Just finished 2034, looking forward to futu.re. Any other recommendations?

>>8413049
Ice seems interesting, I'll look into that, thanks

>>8413051
Will look into

Thanks guys, appreciate it. Any more suggestions are welcome and appreciated

[Anonymous No.8413248]

>>8402315
I never understood the appeal of Kafka.

[Anonymous No.8413252]

>>8413051
Are you talking about the Lermontov book, because it is one of the greatest masterpieces of literature ever written and I am sort of angry to see it described as 'entertaining'

[Anonymous No.8413271]

>>8408757
This is me to a t
I've been on Ulysses for almost a month and I'm exactly halfway through

[Anonymous No.8413276]

>>8413271
Ulysses is big though! Don't be ashamed for taking your time. Better you take forever and understand what you read than take a minute and just get the gist.

If you can do both, damn holy shit, but it's not a realistic standard for readers.

[Anonymous No.8413294]

>>8413271
Ulysses is fucking retarded though. Reading it in a couple months is not that weird. I sped through it in a week when I was 17 because I felt i was supposed to read it and understood basically nothing. I revisited it years later when I could properly appreciate it and all I felt was anger that someone so talented and capable of producing so much beauty wrote that fucking book. And then I looked at Finnegan's Wake and decided Joyce is just a monumental asshole

I feel this way about Salvador Dali as well, he was so fucking talented and what did he do he painted a bunch of psychedelic memes because of passing fad

[Anonymous No.8413616]

I not know haw good whrite

[Anonymous No.8413618]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GpT6ycHoMA

[Anonymous No.8413640]

Im reading The infinite jest and think its absolute shit.

[Anonymous No.8413662]

I said "Cay-mus" for the longest time

[Anonymous No.8413669]

I only read a book if the synopsis interests me. I'm not going to read something just because it's considered a classic

[Anonymous No.8413688]

Stoner is mediocre and quite frankly overrated

[Anonymous No.8413804]

Are we pretending to like Tolstoy, Hugo, Plato? Is this like drinking black coffee? It's bitter as shit yet some people insist that it's delicious. What the hell it's like we live our entire lives just doing things because they're done.

[Anonymous No.8413825]

>>8402315
I don't mind Darren Shan

[Anonymous No.8414128]

>>8413804
>It's bitter as shit
come back to these authors after you are 25 and have a decent baggage and understanding of culture and aesthetics

[Anonymous No.8414147]

>>8402423
Nice theatre, fuckboi

[Anonymous No.8414165]

I skipped the chapter on Money in Capital. I read Engels's summary of it instead.

[Anonymous No.8414186]

>>8402472

you should lift

keep doing everything you do, you're fine, but also lift

[Anonymous No.8414188]

>>8414128

not plato though, 25 is late for plato

[Anonymous No.8414209]

I have had periods of literary activity

I wrote poems, stories

I wrote a play, it got selected for a local festival, I've actually seen my play on stage, well received

That was two years ago, I haven't written anything tangible since

I feel 'unable'

I can only write what can be very euphemistically called 'poem fragments'

Nothing's going anywhere, I sit down to write and nothing happens

I feel like I have experienced things akin to 'writer's block' before, but now it's different

Before I was a writer and something called 'writer's block' was happening to me

Now I'm not a writer, I have nothing to do with writing

Like it's over, I'm over etc.

[Anonymous No.8414242]

>>8402315
I'm a giant Hemingway fan but I hated A Farewell to Arms so much

[Anonymous No.8414261]

I was reading Moby Dick up until yesterday and got to the chapter Ahab and the Carpenter. I could sense another chapter of encyclopedic like descriptions coming and just stopped reading.
I don't give a shit anymore, I don't care what angle bevel the Carpenter used to file the lower jaw bone of the whole, I don't car what type of wood and rope he used for the fittings, I don't care if he used brass or steal pins to hold, I don't care about the noise the fake leg made when Ahab walked on a very specific part of the deck and I don't care about how the new leg effected his gait. I especially don't care for the clumsy illusions and allegory. Fuck off

Ahab couldn't possibly have hated Whales anymore than I do today, I just spent 2 weeks reading this shite because it's supposed to be a 'must read'....fucking whales, I'm genuinely not going to bother finishing it I'm so frustrated now and if it ever comes up in conversation I'll lambaste it out of spite and try and convince as many people as possible to never read it.

An old Irish author once told me that there are too many good books in the world to waste your time reading books by American authors. I used to think he was being facetious but now I couldn't agree with him any more.

I'm now going to spend the day watching re-runs of Sea Shepherd and masturbating to clips of dead whales.

[Anonymous No.8414298]

>>8402502
why waste money on a dictionary when you can just search for a definition? Genuinely curious

[Anonymous No.8414329]

>>8414188
Lolno after 25 you might finally get Plato. Children read Plato be like "Oh no censorship! Oh no noble lying! Oh no criticism of democracy!" Only adults, for the most part, can appreciate what he was doing with the political shit.

[Anonymous No.8414793]

>>8414209
What is your definition of a 'writer'?

If it is simply 'one who writes', that is something you still do. Fragments or not, at least you are still writing.

Past success is irrelevant in this instance.

[Anonymous No.8414807]

Anyone else ever feel like your thoughts are going (gone) haywire? I've been feeling like my thoughts are becoming whirling mass of chatter, increasingly difficult to streamline.

I've attempted to note this vortex down, bullet point by bullet point, in order to achieve a sublimation, or at least """fluidity""" of mind.

The first words will not come. I fear that I may be going mad.

[Anonymous No.8414840]

The Turner Diaries is the most fun book I've ever read.

[Anonymous No.8414899]

>>8402328
No time like the present my friend

[Anonymous No.8414909]

>>8414298
I think by "dictionary," anon includes electronic sources as well.

[Anonymous No.8415009]

I don't "get" satires like Candide, The Prince or even Animal Farm. (How could any modern day reader that isn't a frickin historian?)

>>8405270
Watch the BBC one with Ian McKellan.
Also I always had a hard time with the opening scene until I saw an NYC production (with Frank fucking Langella) they used a big lighted map of Britain to explain the kingdom divisions thing.

...Not even that important of a thing to grasp in terms of plot now that I think of it.

[Anonymous No.8415015]

>>8414840

I like that video, it's sort of calming. Tell me though, what is a neo nazi doing in Chile?

[Anonymous No.8415048]

I regularly read and enjoy young adult fiction

[Anonymous No.8415059]

>>8414261
What about the prose? What about, at the end of almost every whaling chapter, Melville pulls it through and it ends up being waaaaaaaaaay more than just facts on whaling?

[Anonymous No.8415064]

>>8414261
I'm willing to bet that your lovable, old Irish writer was not all talking about Melville when he warned against American authors.

[Anonymous dl No.8415141]

>>8414261
>He doesn't prep for long novels with supplementary material.
>He didn't read Moby Dick with an outline that noted the core 1/3rd to 2/3rd of the chapters.
>Complains about wasting his time.

Cuck.

[Anonymous No.8415184]

>>8415009
this has to be b8

high school history is enought to get them

[Anonymous No.8415266]

I've read every Murakami book and enjoyed them all.
Infinite Jest is boring.
I like fantasy.
I once gave a copy of The Stranger to a girl I liked.
I haven't read many of the books I've claimed to have read.

[Anonymous No.8415271]

>>8411797
The Stand. Dark Tower if you're into fantasy and long reads.

[Anonymous No.8415286]

>>8414261
>t. Ahab

[Anonymous No.8415490]

>>8414261
>whole
>steal
>effected
>illusions
You're not ready for literature of this caliber.

[Anonymous No.8415863]

Took me over 100 pages to realise that "obscenity" in For whom the bell tolls was censorship rather than some strange insult.

[Anonymous No.8416381]

>>8402325
/\lit\

[Anonymous No.8416390]

>>8414261
pleb as fuck. Moby-Dick's entire appeal is that it blurs the categorical line between fiction and non-fiction.

[Anonymous No.8416397]

I like Townes Van Zandt's lyrics more than any proper works of poetry I've read.

[Anonymous No.8416405]

>>8416397
Truly pathetic.

[Anonymous No.8416406]

>>8407387
You're looking for Heidegger, not Nietzche

[Anonymous No.8416464]

>>8416405
Why?

[Anonymous No.8416473]

>>8407387
The struggles are real, mate. Just "shrug" them off.

[Anonymous No.8416500]

>>8402315
I don't like reading. Most of the books I push myself to read are some form of nonfiction. Some are about psychology, some political, some about alchemy/hermeticism, some religious books. I also have some youth fiction from my time in highschool. The only other piece of fiction I have is Necronomicon, but I haven't started reading. I don't really have any LITERATURE.

Currently I'm reading "The Axe and the Oath" and I'm so bored but I need to finish it so I can writing down in my iPhone in my list of "Books I've reading in 2016" so I can feel good about myself.

[Anonymous No.8416505]

>>8402380
When are you gonna do a review on Nick Land?

[Anonymous No.8416510]

>>8402471
What's my /lit/ power level?

[Anonymous No.8416513]

>>8402578

That's weird because I sucked the cock of a guy who looks like James Joyce.

[Anonymous No.8416525]

>>8402361
ʇobbɐɟ n ou

[Anonymous No.8416528]

>>8402722

Read "The Death of Ivan Ilych" by Tolstoy.

[Anonymous No.8416529]

Still haven't read over half the books I own

[Anonymous No.8416530]

>>8406575
>except for "brothers karamazov," tried it at 34...I aint got time for that shit.

It's his best book. So much better than The Idiot and marginally better than Crime and Punishment.

[Anonymous No.8416531]

I didn't go to school, i'm illiterate as fugg. How do i /lit/. i'm new i swear i will not shitpost

[Anonymous No.8416550]

>>8416531

Just read the wikipedia articles on authors you see mentioned on here and copy paste text here. That's what most people do anyway.

[Anonymous No.8416553]

>>8402571
learn physics if you want to know what reality is

[Anonymous No.8416572]

>>8416550
Y-yeah but idon'tcareaboutthat. How do i take the most from a book or somecoolsoundingshit like that. How do i smartz. no bullies allowed

[Anonymous No.8416610]

>>8416572
Read more if you want to get better at reading. If that doesn't work, frogposting seems popular these days.

[Anonymous No.8416630]

>>8402315
I like worldbuilding more than reading or writing.

[Anonymous No.8416918]

I'm majoring Comparative Literature in university despite it being useless.

I haven't read a book in 4 years.

[Anonymous No.8416922]

>>8416572
Stop typing like a 12 year old, for starters.

[Anonymous No.8416924]

I got like 1/3rd of the way through 2666 and dropped it.

[Anonymous No.8416933]

>>8402722
Are you Jerry Seinfeld?

[Anonymous No.8416934]

I don't understand the animosity /lit/ seems to have for The Beats. I don't think they're great by any means, but they're all okay-to-good from what I've read.

[Anonymous No.8416952]

>>8414209
Have you ever tried to go as long as possible without fapping? Try this, but with writing. Only keep the writing in your head, for as long as possible. When you feel the urge to write you don't have to act on it. Just let everything build up, then you will know which ideas and words are worthwhile. Not every burst of creativity is worth your time. Pace yourself- you aren't dead yet. You still have time.

[Anonymous No.8417512]

>>8413045
John Swartzwelder's books, shit's hilarious, being the greatest simpsons writer and all

[Anonymous No.8417524]

>>8413804
You must be drinking the cheap ass brands if you think black coffee sucks, try some real coffee

[Anonymous No.8417535]

>>8413189
awf cover

[Anonymous No.8417580]

I don't understand the word "pretentious". I don't know what it means.

[Anonymous No.8417610]

>>8402472
Try meditation. That will teach you intuitively, beyond mere intellectual recognition, that you are a non-self and you shouldn't give a shit about reality anymore. As long as you keep at it of course.

Read an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book.