So... are there any actual adults on /lit/? I mean no disrespect, but most "recommended" lists I've seen lately kinda look like mandatory highschool reading and stuff college sophomores read in order to appear cool. So if you're 25+, what do you read?

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Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:12:21 2010 No.873586 [Reply] [Original]

So... are there any actual adults on /lit/? I mean no disrespect, but most "recommended" lists I've seen lately kinda look like mandatory highschool reading and stuff college sophomores read in order to appear cool.

So if you're 25+, what do you read?

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:15:21 2010 No.873598

hopefully, whatever the fuck you want. i'm 28, lately i've been Adorno (right now i'm in the middle of Dialectic of Enlightenment), nonfiction works about Roman literature and politics, and various warhammer 40k books (just finished the first of the Gaunt's Ghost series)

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:16:21 2010 No.873600 I'm 24 and I suggest that you read...I don't know....Baudelaire's poetry

>>	Guybrarian Mon Jul 5 18:17:21 2010 No.873609 >>873598 How's Gaunt's Ghosts? Was sorta looking into it(fa/tg/uy here).

>>	Holmlock_Shears Mon Jul 5 18:17:21 2010 No.873605 22, and I read whatever catches my interest at any given moment.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:17:21 2010 No.873610 19, obviously you mad.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:18:21 2010 No.873614 and yes, all the threads about obvious high-school assigned books (i'm looking at you, endless 1984, Catcher in the Rye) depress me and make me feel old as hell.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:18:21 2010 No.873616 20 year old high school dropout. Currently reading the Arabian Nights and SexCulture.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:19:21 2010 No.873620 >>873586 27. With fiction I tend to stick with genre books and outside of that a few writes whose prose I enjoy (e.g. Murakami and Kurkov). With non-fiction I cycle through art and history.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:20:21 2010 No.873626 >>873614 I honestly don't know if all those books are still mandatory reading, they were when I was in highschool but that was a century ago, so maybe they're all reading them on their own?

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:20:21 2010 No.873628

I'm 25, and there is certainly nothing wrong with Catcher in the Rye. I've read it a dozen times.
Just finished Justine, by De Sade. Mostly, I read classic novels, and philosophical treatises (Hume, Chomsky, whatever). I used to be into SciFi/Fantasy, but I haven't read any fantasy in years. I read a lot of Vonnegut here and there, tho. That's SciFi.

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:23:21 2010 No.873646

>>873609
I've only read the first, but it was good enough to make me want to read more. It was more gritty (by that i don't mean "grimdark" or "edgy") and realistic than a lot of the fluff i've read. it did a good job of portraying what it's like to fight down and dirty in the trenches with the Imperial Guard. The characters were well drawn and entertaining without being caricatures, the plot held my interest as was nicely paced, no long irrelevant passages. The fact that they were IG instead of Space Marines helps to humanize them (ps /lit/ is my home board but /tg/ also rules)

>>	Guybrarian Mon Jul 5 18:24:21 2010 No.873649 >>873646 Awesome. How's the "FUCK YEA" factor, compared to something like Ciaphas Cain?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:24:21 2010 No.873654 I'm 43 and I just finished Stardust by Neil Gaiman...and I'm starting Game of Thrones. Age is relative.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:25:21 2010 No.873656 lol @ this thread. OP demands mature suggestions, receives nothing but infantile escapist ''genre fiction''. also, i think that is what op wanted which makes the premise of this thread even more lulzy.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:25:21 2010 No.873657 28. Currently Literature and Revolution and some JG Ballard shorts.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:25:21 2010 No.873663 >in order to appear cool It couldn't possibly be the case that we actually really like those books, right?

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:26:21 2010 No.873668

>>873586
Basically exclusively non-fiction, but I love mythology. I'm slowly working my way through epics that I have yet to read. Last one I read was the Mahabharata, on recommendation from Anonymous. Enjoyed it very much.

I'm currently reading the Republic by Plato and listening to the Audio Book of the Omnivore's Dilemma.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:26:21 2010 No.873671 >adults >reading Catcher in the rye, crappy sf and Warhammer fanfiction Bullet, meet forehead.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:26:21 2010 No.873674 >adults >25 You can't just arbitrarily designate some age to be the true mark of "adulthood".

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:28:21 2010 No.873680 Way too old. Just finished Money by Martin Amis.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:28:21 2010 No.873681 >>873614 >obvious high-school assigned books (i'm looking at you, endless 1984, Catcher in the Rye) I never read any of those in high school, and they're all awesome. I feel sad.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:29:21 2010 No.873688 >>873671 Catcher in the Rye is just as much an adult's book as any other. I read it for the first time when I was 23, and I loved it.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:29:21 2010 No.873690 File: 43 KB, 375x495, goosebumps_wave1.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>873586

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:32:21 2010 No.873705 >>873690 I'm reading them all, if only for the nostalgia factor. Turns out Stein was a terrible writer.

>>	Guybrarian Mon Jul 5 18:32:21 2010 No.873712 >>873705 Those always creeped me out as a kid.

>>	Holmlock_Shears Mon Jul 5 18:33:21 2010 No.873715 >>873681 Don't feel bad, I only managed to read 1984 because it was in 7th grade English Teacher's classroom 'library'. Good stuff.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:34:21 2010 No.873726 >>873712 None really creeped me out except for the Halloween book/episode. Really Stein, what the fuck? They tv episodes are great streaming material.

>>	Guybrarian Mon Jul 5 18:35:21 2010 No.873729 >>873726 Eh, I was a very easily-scared child. When I was five, I hid in my room for a day because Jabba the Hutt scared the fucking shit out of me.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:36:21 2010 No.873735 >>873729 I read IT when I was kid, couldn't make it to the second chapter. Fucking sewer monsters. The BEST series I read when I was a kid had to have been Animorphs.

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:37:21 2010 No.873737

>>873681
>>873715
There's nothing wrong with any of those books. The Americans here are just pissed off at having had to be forced to read certain books when they were in high school, and it just so happens that those books are absolute classics. The Catcher in the Rye is a fucking great book, no matter what any sour 19 year old douchebag says.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:38:21 2010 No.873746 If you're 25 you'd better have all the classics under your belt.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:38:21 2010 No.873748 >>873737 >The Americans here are just pissed off at having had to be forced to read certain books when they were in high school - not an American - read all those books way before high school

Guybrarian Mon Jul 5 18:39:21 2010 No.873753

>>873735

Redwall for me. Lots of blood and gore in a kids' series. Loved it.

>>873737

Yea...It sucks when you're forced to read Crime and Punishment in two weeks. I'm very sure that when I go back and reread it, I'm going to love it, but right now all I have is the memory of "MUST CRAM."

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:39:21 2010 No.873756

27. I mostly read poetry books now these days. So far (from the start of summer [end of May]) I have read poetry books from the following authors:

*Collected Poems
Catullus
Yosa Buson
Kobayashi Issa
Li Po
Tu Fu
Gerard Manley Hopkins
William Blake
John Donne

Freely Espousing by James Schuyler
The Anonymous Lover by John Logan
The Rose by Li Young-Lee
The Love Poems by Harold Norse
All My Thoughts are the Same by Bill Knott
Sun by Michael Palmer
Work and Days by Edward Kliendshmidt Mayes.

My next venture is In the Financial District by Ralph Pomeroy.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:41:21 2010 No.873773 >>873746 Or what?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:42:21 2010 No.873778 >>873773 or else you risk being a fucktwad

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:42:21 2010 No.873777 >>873748 And do you like those books?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:43:21 2010 No.873790 >>873778 In the eyes of pretentious, basement dwelling e/lit/ists? I think I can live with that.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:44:21 2010 No.873797 >>873790 go read about spaceships and elves you fag

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:44:21 2010 No.873793
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29 here. Currently checked out from the library:

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Amazingly good. I'd guess that scholarship has passed beyond Gibbon, but he's an historian after my own heart.)

The Concise Dictionary of Oxford Proverbs (Good advice, fun with metaphors, etc.)

The Qur'an (Figured I see what all the fuss is about. The Qur'an tells me that God made me an unbeliever, but it's my fault anyway.)

A "great books" collection of selected essays by Locke, Berkeley, and Hume (Pretty dry, but I like to challenge myself from time to time.)

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:47:21 2010 No.873811 >>873797 >implying there's something wrong with that

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 18:58:21 2010 No.873863 >>873649 i've only read the first half of the first Cain book, but i'd have to say they have similar levels of FUCK YEAH

>>	Guybrarian Mon Jul 5 19:01:21 2010 No.873871 >>873863 Awesome. I've heard really good things about Abnett.

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:02:21 2010 No.873873

>>873656
you see, once you get older you start to care less about what other people think, especially what they think about you. i also think it's funny how you ignore Baudelaire, history, and Adorno, but I guess to you they'd just be "pretentious wanna-be intellectual bullshit", right? tell us, Arbiter of Taste, which books do you consider to be acceptable? What do you like to read?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:03:21 2010 No.873876 >>873811 >implying there's not

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:03:21 2010 No.873882
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>>873793
Gibbon has great style. I enjoyed it more as a study of Enlightenment thought than a history of Rome, too.

His assertion that the weak doctrines of Christianity fatally crippled the Roman character is always amusing.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:04:21 2010 No.873888 >>873715 holy shit, me too. i ended up stealing it, though. : (

>>	Croaker !!DDgOIlOdqYI Mon Jul 5 19:06:21 2010 No.873893 An adult is a person who has stopped trying to impress other people and has realised it doesn't matter what they read so long as they enjoy it. I read my literary fiction, I read my fantasy and sci-fi. It really doesn't matter though.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:06:21 2010 No.873898 >>873876 Big words.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:07:21 2010 No.873905 >>873737 i'm 28 btw, and I don't have a problem with the book, it was just a book on my high school reading list, so i tend to (probably erroneously, i know) associate it with that "era"

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:08:21 2010 No.873912 would love to see the kind of "recommended" list OP comes out but, oh wait, he'll just criticise others without proposing a potential alternative himself

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:09:21 2010 No.873916 >>873656 this person will never state which books he enjoys reading, because he is too concerned about appearing to look cool.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:10:21 2010 No.873924 >>873893 Indeed. I find pulp sci-fi to be boring and ultimately un-fulfilling. Plenty of smart people my age enjoy, it, however.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:11:21 2010 No.873929 >>873882 >His assertion that the weak doctrines of Christianity fatally crippled the Roman character is always amusing. Use spoilers please!

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:14:21 2010 No.873943 >>873873 I was the one who suggested Baudelaire. And my image has nothing to do with why I do not like genre fiction.

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:18:21 2010 No.873964

>>873943
samefag here I would also like to state that the thread got better since I voiced my sentiment. And in some ways, I was unfair. I'm not dissing fantasy and sci-fi to look cool I'm doing so because those genres are piled with bullshit and I'm at a loss for why they would be considered more ''mature'' than Catcher in the Rye. Inb4 shitstorm I don't like that book either.

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:20:21 2010 No.873970

>>873943
you go beyond not liking it, you actually think it's Rage-worthy and you clearly have some sort of problem with people who do like it. why do you care so much about what other people read? what's wrong with me liking both Adorno and warhammer fiction?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:26:21 2010 No.873993 Fuck off.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:29:21 2010 No.874001 >>873964 "The Man in the High Castle" trumps "Catcher in the Rye".

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:32:21 2010 No.874019

>>873970
I just think that it is odd that in a thread supposedly about refined tastes and maturity, there was such a glut of genre-fiction. I guess I was being a bit of a prick about it, and I have never read warhammer fiction, although the game looks cool when I see people play it. Either way, I retract the sentiment. I just realized how much I love Burroughs, who wrote sci-fi pretty much exclusively.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 19:45:21 2010 No.874060 Gotta love the "NOW I AM AN ADULT LET ME DINE ON SOME FINE FECES AND DRINK SOME FINE URINE" logic...

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:20:21 2010 No.874454 Oryx and Crake

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:25:21 2010 No.874472 I'm 967, and I'm dead. Read my memoirs when they get published.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:27:21 2010 No.874481 28, Read Jasper Fforde. Really great author. Start with The Eyre Affair.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:31:21 2010 No.874493 28 here. I'm reading a lot of pulp stuff.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:38:21 2010 No.874512 26 Currently reading The Conformist and the Alexandria Quartet (one more to go)

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:39:21 2010 No.874513 >>874493 Like what? The Shadow? The Spider?

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:45:21 2010 No.874534 File: 47 KB, 450x274, the_spider_01_blog.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>874513 HA! The Spider actually.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:54:21 2010 No.874566 >>874534 Is it any good?

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:58:21 2010 No.874573
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>>874566
It's such an odd mix. Considering "pulp" stories were viewed as disposable and pretty trashy in literary standards, it holds up very well. It has a lot to do with the phrasing I think.
But, yes, I'm enjoying it very much.

>>	Anonymous Mon Jul 5 21:58:21 2010 No.874574 25 here, currently reading Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

Anonymous Mon Jul 5 22:00:21 2010 No.874577

I'm 38. I just finished reading Cronin's The Passage, and Bryson's At Home. I'm currently reading Alabama: The History of a Deep South State, The Delighted States by Thirlwell (I think that's right), and am re-reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. I recently tried to read Shakespeare By Another Name (a book about De Vere), but I just couldn't make it through the British history stuff.

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/lit/ - Literature