/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.8741133]

ITT: Give a rating out of 10 for the last five book you read.

[Anonymous No.8741142]

Sorry, i don't give numbered ratings, they're pointless and arbitrary.

[Anonymous No.8741149]

>>8741142
Okay

[Anonymous No.8741153]

Savage detectives 7/10
Overrated

[Anonymous No.8741165]

>Hard Rain Falling, by Don Carpenter
6/10
>Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
8/10
>Wise Blood, by Flannery O'Connor
7/10
>The Letter Killers Club, by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
5/10
>The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
9/10

[Anonymous No.8741262]

In reverse chronological reading order:
If Not, Winter -6
Histories -8
Oresteia -5
Odyssey -9
Iliad -10

[Anonymous No.8741275]

Virginia Woolf - To The Lighthouse 9/10
Virginia Woolf - The Waves 6/10
Samuel Beckett - Mercier and Camier 8/10
Thomas Mann - Der Zauberberg 8/10
William Faulkner - Sound and The Fury 7/10

I'm a walking meme

[Anonymous No.8741297]

>>8741133
>implying i can remember the last 5 books i read
the brief and frightening reign of phil 7/10
notes from underground 10/10
portrait of the artist as a young man: 8/10
the stranger 9/10
the complete stories of flannery o'connor 10/10

[Anonymous No.8741346]

>>8741133
>La place de l'étoile - Modiano
8.5/10
>The Road - McCarthy
7.5/10
>Les filles du feu - Nerval
8/10
>A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway
7.5/10
>Collected works - Ronsard
meme/10

[Anonymous No.8741390]

Currently reading Mrs Dalloway, which so far is a 7/10, but I can't really offer a proper judgment after sixty pages.

To The Lighthouse - 9/10
Persepolis - 8/10
Revolutionary Iran - 8/10
Less Than Zero - 6/10
The Great Gatsby - 6/10

[Anonymous No.8741401]

>Wuthering Heights - Bronte
8/10

>Birdsong - Faulks
7/10

>Snow - Pamuk
7/10

>Seven Pillars of Wisdom - Lawrence
8/10

>East of Eden - Steinbeck
9/10

[Anonymous No.8741406]

>>8741401
Is Seven Pillars as difficult as I've heard?

[Anonymous No.8741416]

>>8741275
>TtL 9/10
>Waves 6/10

[Anonymous No.8741424]

>>8741133
Kafka Short Stories: 7/10, loved the more famous ones but many weren't very interesting.
Fight Club: 4/10, at least it was short
The Grapes of Wrath: 8/10, it was heavy handed but it packed a punch
The Master and Margarita: 9/10, a tour de force
100 Years of Solitude: 10/10, I couldn't put it down

[Anonymous No.8741427]

>>8741275
>Virginia Woolf - To The Lighthouse 9/10
>Virginia Woolf - The Waves 6/10

[Anonymous No.8741428]

>>8741406

Yeah, it's tough and really needs at the very least an intermediate understanding of the history and context behind it. Anyone can appreciate its literary value though, it's a beautiful book.

[Anonymous No.8741430]

>>8741424
>100 Years of Solitude: 10/10, I couldn't put it down

Leave, Reddit.

[Anonymous No.8741434]

>>8741428
Thanks.

Do you have any recommended reading before I attempt it? Aside from the film I have no knowledge of him or the things he writes about.

[Anonymous No.8741439]

>>8741416
>>8741427
smashing them plebpinions lol

[Anonymous No.8741441]

>>8741133

Mason and Dixon 10/10
Gravity's Rainbow 9/10
The Recognitions 9/10
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men 8.5/10
The Dying Grass 9/10

I've been on a fucking roll lately.

[Anonymous No.8741452]

>>8741430
Take your meds anon

[Anonymous No.8741455]

>>8741434

Sure. There's a few good books which are half-biography and half-history about Lawrence, like Lawrence in Arabia by James Barr, who also wrote A Line In The Sand which is a good book about Sykes-Picot and the making of the modern Middle East.

Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger is another desert travelogue/autobiography which is a shorter and easier read but much in the same vein as Seven Pillars

It definitely deserves to be read with a companion text, it'll help you appreciate it more and also will dispel some of the myths in Seven Pillars (Lawrence made a lot of shit up)

[Anonymous No.8741456]

>>8741424
>100 Years of Solitude: 10/10, I couldn't put it down

el oh el

[Anonymous No.8741459]

>Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
Had some cute moments, I liked the folklore-type sections about the old village. The Ukrainian kid's way of speaking was really grating. Ultimately I don't think Foer really had anything new to say. 6/10
>Confessions of a Mask, Yukio Mishima
One of the best written gay characters I've come across, but that doesn't save the book from being quite boring at times. 7/10
>It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, Robert Fulghum
Pure, unadulterated schlock. Broaches a lot of important ideas, but when the longest story is maybe five pages, it seems he was more interested in making you feel warm and fuzzy than making you think. 3/10
>Richard Yates, Tao Lin
Hot garbage. Waste of my time and an insult to my intelligence. 1/10
>Agape Agape, William Gaddis
Seemed like Gaddis had a lot more he wanted to say and might have made something really decent out of it given the time, but what we got is rambling and repetitive. 4.5/10

[Anonymous No.8741460]

>>8741455
Thanks very much. All added to my wishlist.

Something for Christmas, I think.

I'll tackle them next year.

[Anonymous No.8741475]

Kafka on the Shore. 2/10
The Status Civilisation. 4/10
La Forêt D'Iscambe. 2/10
Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaune. 5/10
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. 3/10

Maybe I should just stop reading.

[Anonymous No.8741476]

>>8741459
>>Richard Yates, Tao Lin
>Hot garbage. Waste of my time and an insult to my intelligence. 1/10

What were you expecting, honestly? It's fucking Tao Cuck

[Anonymous No.8741480]

>>8741475
>Kafka - 2/10

Why?

I know Murakami isn't that well liked on this board, but surely that's a bit harsh.

[Anonymous No.8741487]

>>8741476
I try to give the memes an honest chance and decide for myself whether they're any good. Sometimes it pays off in spades, sometimes it really fucking doesn't.

[Anonymous No.8741494]

>>8741262
Odyssey only gets a 9 chum? Not enough character development for ya chief? Contrived narrative compadre?

[Anonymous No.8741496]

>Crime and Punishment 9/10
>The Old Man and The Sea 7/10
>Franny and Zooey 8/10
>The Road 7/10
>Nine Stories 7/10

[Anonymous No.8741506]

>>8741133
Inherent Vice 8/10
House of Desires 8/10
Divine comedy 9/10
Clockwork Orange 7/10
Cosmos 7/10

[Anonymous No.8741511]

>>8741496
>the road on par with the old man and the sea

[Anonymous No.8741514]

>>8741133
I finished Crime and Punishment a couple of months ago. Will anything ever top it? So far, my answer is no.

[Anonymous No.8741528]

>>8741441
Brief Interviews 8.5/10?
I feel like it had some very good parts but some of them where pure post-modernist masturbation. What did you think of "Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to E"?

[Anonymous No.8741536]

>>8741511
They're both quite comfy, though. And they're both essentially written in the same minamilist style. Besides, that's not even Hemingway's best work.

[Anonymous No.8741552]

>>8741514
Brothers Karamazov

[Anonymous No.8741570]

>>8741528

That one was one of my least favorites. Still solid, in my opinion, but just not on the same level as some of the others. I agree that it was self-indulgent at times, but when he is on he is on like few others. Some of the stories are among my all time favorites. Could perhaps drop that rating down a bit, compared to other books I would give that rating to, but it's hard because I'm such a fan boy.

[Anonymous No.8741571]

>>8741475
Or maybe you should read actually good books.
>>8741494
My rankings were only compared to each other. Obviously it's a masterpiece. But yes, some reason I prefer Iliad are the greater depth of characters and more cohesive narrative.

[Anonymous No.8741572]

Confessions - Augustine 9.5/10
Bovary - Flaubert 8.0/10
Billiards at half past nine - Böll 6/10
Notes from the underground 7/10
Siddartha 7/10

[Anonymous No.8741581]

>>8741552
It's certainly on my to-read list. Currently reading Don Quixote, a book that's supposed to be on par or even better than C&P. Absolutely loved the first part, the second part is a bit underwhelming to be honest. Everyone is just playing tricks on him and they keep going on about the enchanters.

[Anonymous No.8741596]

>>8741133
Disgrace Coetzee 10/10
The road McCarthy 8/10
Casi nunca Sada 10/10
Crime and punishment 10/10
Don Quixote 10/20

[Anonymous No.8741606]

>Before I Go To Sleep 3/10

I will not fucking take these book suggestions from friends anymore.

[Anonymous No.8741610]

>>8741133 (OP)
Disgrace Coetzee 10/10
The road McCarthy 8/10
Casi nunca Sada 10/10
Crime and punishment 10/10
Don Quixote 10/10

[Anonymous No.8741616]

>Moby Dick
9/10
>Crime and Punishment
8/10
>Oxford's The First Philosophers
4/10
>Ulysses
9.5/10
>Infinite Jest
>5/10

[Anonymous No.8741642]

>>8741572
>St. Augustine
My nigga (and I'm an atheist).

[Anonymous No.8741664]

>>8741642
I dunno i guess in a way i am too but not that i outright dont believe in God as you probably but just because i am too cowardly to face the question. I think augustine sort of is pushing me towards theism though.

[Anonymous No.8741695]

>reading

uhh /lit/ is a satire board

[Anonymous No.8741854]

>>8741570
Yeah I agree DFw, regardless of what some people may say here, was incredible when he was at his best. That last interview still haunts me to this day, amazing.

[Anonymous No.8741886]

>Christian Kracht - 1979
7/10
>Patrick Süskind - Der Kontrabaß
8/10
>Michel Houellebecq - La carte et le territoire
7/10
>Philip Roth - The Humbling
8/10
>Franz Kafka - Das Schloß
9/10

[Anonymous No.8742215]

The Return, de la Mare - 6.5/10
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Conrad - 6/10
J R, Gaddis - 6.25/10
The Blind Owl, Hedayat - 6/10
Vermillion Sands, Ballard - 7.5/10

[Anonymous No.8742223]

>>8742215
*Conrad > Stevenson

& mistake sage

[Anonymous No.8742232]

It > 8.5/10
The Stranger > 7/10
A Clockwork Orange > 8/10
The Doors Of Perception > 5/10
Scar Tissue > 7/10

[Anonymous No.8742394]

>>8741133
7/10