/fa/ books

>>10978894
>>>/lit/
murakami a pleb

>>10978973

ty for the contribution

Ancient Greek and Roman literature exclusively

Pynchon, Wallace, the list goes on.

>>10978894
Nigga I read real books I ain't no homo

>>10978894
I wish I was kidding but I exclusively read Murakami. I own all of them

>>10978894

Murakami is twinkly queerbait literature for limp-wristed cuckolds

>>10978984

where would you recommend i start with Pynchon?

>>10978998

you could write a biography on my life

>>10978894
start with the greeks

>>10978999
it's a /lit/ meme

>tfw slow as fuck reader

Checked out Brothers Karamozov over a month ago and I'm only about 100 pages in. When I was in middle school I could go 500 pages in a night. desu I probably still could except now my attention span is about 15 minutes.

>>10979035
thats weird i find it the exact opposite scenario for myself. my adhd fucked me over in school, now im able to focus enough to finish a book (if i like it). dostoevsky is a difficult read for people with short attention spans, especially since brothers focuses on minute details and banalities

>>10978894
The Master and Margarita

>>10979045

already read. thought the allusions were on point and the opening decapitation scene was some good shit

>>10979043

I'm just glad the chapters are short. When I was reading All the Kings Men I kept having to stop at the end of a paragraph.

As far as the attention span thing it's probably how we adjusted as adults. When I was young books were basically like binge watching a show on netflix for me. Now I'm able to have some self control and keep it to one or two chapters at a time. I think I get more enjoyment out of books that way too since I can actually digest what I read.

I just read this too friend. What did you think? I enjoyed it but can see the validity of the criticisms levied against it.

Now I'm onto Steppenwolf. I would appreciate hearing what you're onto now too.

Cheers!

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300 pages into pic related. No one tells you how funny this is, especially the first 200 pages or so. It's getting a bit rough, I just read a chapter entirely about the line that's used to pull in whales, but the author still manages to make it funny about half the time.

Also I think Bateman has said this is his favourite book, so it's definitely effay.

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been going through this
nothing really groundbreaking but some good ideas anyways

>>10979242
AI spooks me
we all know it's coming but have no idea what it will be like
will this book help with these spooks?

>>10978999
Gravity's Rainbow or V

>>10979247
if you're more interested in the societal mechanics of AI give some Asimov stories like The Last Question a read. most scientific literature on AI focuses on the mechanics of simplistic "learning" systems and evolutionary computation rather than trying to give you a picture of a finished product. of course if you learn where we've been going you can form a better picture of where we're headed so sure, by all means, it's an easy read.

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>>10979247
here's an example of the sort of stuff it talks about - lots of high-level theory. sorry for rotato

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Just finished this book. It's pretty disturbing, but well written. It's one of the first books in a while I can remember anticipating coming back to. It's got a kind of magnetism stemming from the perversity of the subject matter.

>>10978894

I'm reading Norwegian Wood atm. Enjoying it

I really want to get a couple of books by Noam Chomsky also. Anyone read anything by him?

>>10979263
disturbing in what way?

>>10979262
ok i dont think i understand this
>>10979259
I read some asimov robot stories years ago when I was in HS, remember liking his ideas but can't remember the plots of any of the stories. I might reread those.

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This book captures the feeling of how it is to be in Beijing, one second you're marveling at the architecture of the financial district then once you walk around the buildings you see houton merchants and people dismantling electronics for scrap parts. You see people selling obviously pirated goods for a low price, if you talk to them a bit they'll show you the closer to real pirated goods for a midrange price and lastly the real product for a premium. It's about a man that's a pirate dvd salesman and his struggle in trying to get by as an honest rep dealer.

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>>10979274

Well if it has anything to do with the Rape of Nanking then it's going to be disturbing as fuck.

The Japanese were ruthless.

>>10979282
read The Last Question for sure. asimov is more interested with the picture of a world with AI than the mechanics of the artificial consciousness itself

(also, if you wanna read it, my pet theory of AI that I'm working on is that there will be a sort of symbiotic relationship between an environmental overlord (god) and simple creatures that he needs to protect and teach (lemmings.) the lemmings live initially in a simple world and act eratically and self-destructively to find food. god is, somehow, encouraged to manipulate the environment in such a way that the lemmings are made safer and more productive. "productive" in the sense that the lemmings would be the processes running the actual computational work to solve increasingly difficult problems. you can conceptualize the basic end result of this as a machine where you can feed the "god of lemmings" a question, his minion processes answer it, and he translates their answer to an acceptable format and gives it to you. there's a lot more to it than that but that's the basic procedure. to get to the i, robot sort of AI you might be thinking of, give the lemmings cameras and heat sensors and train the "god of lemmings" process to deduce its own questions about the environment. that's my vision at least, hope you like it 8))))

>>10978984
About to read the crying of lot 49
>>10978999

>>10979226
Steppenwolf is a great book, although Demian was my favorite by Hesse.

>>10978894
Just finished Island by Aldous Huxley and a short history of gin. Next up are the crying of lot 49 and einstein's universe

>>10979242
nice choice, really want to read this after playing FO4

>>10978894
This exact same book

Is 1Q84 worth finishing, i'm a couple hundo in and i'm losing interest. Wondering if I should put it down or power through a little further and see where it goes.

>>10979347
I feel like I kinda get what you're saying, but also I don't comprehend it at all. And the Last Question sounds good, I'll check it out. :)
>>10979320
This sounds nice, also you pretty much just described Beijing based on the ~4 days I was there once. I loved being in the hutongs in winter, it was so comfy for some reason.

>>10978999
>>10979256
Don't start with Gravity's Rainbow.
Start with V., or The Crying of Lot 49 if you must

>>10979456
What is so difficult about Gravity's Rainbow? I've never read Pynchon but I'm interested, and heard from some people on /lit/ that you can throw yourself in the deep end with him if you want. hey might have just been trolling though,

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>>10978894
>babies first Japanese author
Cute.

>>10979460
There are over 400 characters with significance to the plot;
The writing style changes in different sections;
There is lots of reference to scientific and metaphysical knowledge;
As with all Pynchon books (that I have read) the timeline jumps around and spirals and there are tons of fast-forwards and flashbacks;
Many things are revealed to you, and they don't have any meaning until some 100 pages later

>>10978978
his coverage of sexuality always comes off as childish to me but it could be a botched japanese-to-american cultural translation

>>10978999
col49 is a short read and would serve as a pretty good introductory work. i had trouble reading it though, it's pretty dense

>>10979035
dude i have been feeling this so hard, i am 300 pages into atlas shrugged over like a month of having the copy

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>>10978894 (OP)
>>10978995
>>10978998
>>10979418

1Q84 is one of the worst books of 'serious /lit/' i have read, full stop.
I couldn't even get through the last 100 pages of Wind-Up Bird.

I do like Murakami, in contrast to 1Q84, Norwegian Wood and especially After Dark are among my favourite casual reads.
Murakami is a good short storyteller. Yet his way of storytelling is NOT AT ALL suited to long novels (+300ish). He simply does not have the structure and stamina to write long format lit.
1Q84 fell apart and at the end lost almost all traces of cohesion (the little amount it had to begin with). I only finished it because i was in hospital at the time.

Murakami is good in small controlled doses.
All his books are to all intents and purposes very samey, especially when read back to back.
He is not a nobel prize worth literary genius, just a dude who can tell decent and intriguing stories with some weird comparisons and imagery thrown in to create a sense of artificial 'weirdness and mystique'.
He uses similar protagonists (lonely, sad guy), weird girls, cats, deep wells, small children, (imo) unfitting musical references, people disappearing...) - and turned all of these into trademarks as a excuse to keep to what he knows.

Murakami makes his stories up as he goes, which is why his books don't hold up to closer inspection and also why 1Q84 and Wind Up (to a lesser degree) make virtually no sense when reflected upon.

I am not bashing Murakami, as I do like his work and I find his work very well suited for plane trips and rainy days. He is just not the genius some people make him out to be. There are worse authors out there, but also much better authors more worthy to receive honors from Princeton University.

The pic is my Murakami collection. Without 1Q84 - it fell part during the tedious reading process.
Considering rereading Norwegian Wood soon.

>>10979737
congrats on managing to make it 300 pages into that awful book, you have far more willpower than I.

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i read mainly fantasy and scifi
some favorites;
>kingkiller chronicles
>ice&fire
>lotr
>dune
>ready player one
>metro 2033
>roadside picnic
>mistborn
probably forgetting a few

>>10979816
ungghhh sexy memes there sensei

>>10979816
metro 2033 is my fav fantasy/scifi/wahteve book and i can seriously recommend the silo-saga, especially the first book wool desu

>>10979859
>>>/s4s/
>>10979893
thanks for the rec i'll check it out
shame metro 2034 was crap

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Look past the stigma and bad reputation.

One of the best written English books i have ever read. Especially as it isn't from an native speaker.

A story of absolute passion and self justification. Truly one of the best books of a century.

>>10979930
>Look past the stigma and bad reputation.

fucking kek are you an american in the 60s

>>10979940
mention that you are reading Lolita / sit in a public place reading Lolita and people start asking questions / giving you weird looks.

>>10979943
lmao lad what kind of shithole do you live in

>>10979945
Frequent traveler between Central Europe and South East Asia. Currently predominately Central Europe.

It is true that in Asia there still is a stronger stigma attached to this work.
>> I know a woman called Lolita and she avoids being called by that first name.

But also in Central Europe it is a book which will get noticed by people who read / watch movies. You won't be called out for it, but still people do notice (especially older people).
Mentioning it in a casual conversation with people you don't know all to well will create questions and/or puzzled/confused/wtf faces.

>>10979965
Which is why you read it - attention. And then to promptly and smugly lecture people on not judging a book by its cover, while pointing out the irony like you're some enlightened literary connoisseur, when in reality you're a 17 year old who's taken a handful of English Lit classes.

It's an ok book, but Ada or Ardor is his magnum opus.

>>10980051
1. I am not saying that it ever was his best book. In fact it his first book I read, there is no shame in admitting that. Yet this first read has intrigued me and I am going to read future books by him.
I was simply pointing out that the book (in my experience) still has certain amounts of stigma attached to it.

2. As a psychologist (NOT therapist) by study, I have an intrinsic interest in the human condition even when conveyed through fictional means.
And no I have never taken an English lit class in my life.

3. Yes I (like many others) read to talk and discuss them with others. Therefore it is logical to read controversial books as they are (at least) interesting to talk about.

>>10980063
1. Ada or Ardor is arguably the more taboo book of the two, with themes just as, if not more so, confronting than those found in Lolita. Perhaps if you didn't judge a book by it's cover, or, more aptly, it's title - you'd know this. But again, if the book didn't advertise its "stigma", I doubt you'd pay attention to it, because then others won't when you carry it around with you.

What is a "conversational" book, exactly? If you're reading a book so that you can broadcast and engage with people about it, stick to shit like twilight and 50 shades. I'm sure they'll nourish you're psychological interest in the human condition, too. See; need for attention.

>>10979793
i know what you mean, although i really have enjoyed some parts of it. but god the supposed intrinsic misogyny rand associates with sex is so gross, i have to skip through most of dagny and hank's sexual interactions

why can't she comprehend that submissiveness in sex is not inherent by gender but by character?

there are a lot of dull moments but there are some good ones as well so i'll probably keep trudging through it

>>10980082
dear sir please take a few breaths to calm yourself.

I was only stating that I read Lolita as my first Nabokov book, liked it and I think that it deserves the praise it gets (see Time for example).

I chose Lolita because it was is the most well known of his works and I do think it stands to reason to start with the most well known book of an author. Ada could also have become as controversial at its time as Lolita but (for some reason I do not know) did not. Lolita is just more well known to the general public, that just happens to be the reality.
I can not comment on Ada as i simply have not yet read it.

I have difficulties comprehending what it is that bothers you so immensely that you get so worked up. Please rest assured that I am not bashing you Ada or any other of your reading preferences.
And yes I do read in public (cafe, park, etc.) because I prefer to do so than just sitting at home in my bed/balcony. And as I travel a lot I do take my reading into public places across the globe.
---
To your second concern, I am a conversationalist. I am (and always have been) of the opinion that knowledge, whatever it may be, is useless when kept to oneself.
Therefore I converse with people I meet about the things I (and the conversational partner) like.

Please rest assured that I do not openly and actively advocate my reading preferences. I only elaborate on them should I be asked or when I meet a person also interested in a particular book.
Through exchanges like this I learn and gain new perspectives on any given topic (especially books) and the partner may or may not experience the same.

>>10979240
This is my favorite book as well, and in my opinion it is the greatest novel ever written.

Sounds like the point your at is about to get even more in-depth about whaling facts. The encyclopedic stuff is all fantastic though. It's when he is the most humorous and also the most philosophical.

>>10979729
It's not. Murakami writes bad sex scenes. Granted, most male authors seem to write about sex terribly.

>>10980555
is this worth the price, i'd have to buy it to read it as i can't into pdf's. but its so short and pricey

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>>10978894

>>10979781
How did you like Kafka on the Shore? It's my favorite of his novels. Maybe it is due to the translation but all of his work strikes me as very surreal which is one of the major reasons I enjoy them.

>>10979930
I just finished this yesterday, amazing novel.

just finished the bell jar by sylvia plath, now reading her journals
she's the best

>>10981310
I'd say its worth it for the price - even if you end up not liking it its still a very unique book and probably one that'd be cool to own if it ends up lasting the test of time.

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>>10981928
all i needed to know mang
will order when i've fnished pic related

ik garcia is murakami-tier, but I'm really enjoying it. also i think it's got one of the best book titles

>>10978894
I broke down and got Evola's Ride the Tiger, though I secretly suspect I'm going to hate it like all other philosophy books.

>>10979240
Not sure if I'm the /fa/ stamp of quality, but:

The chapter you're referring to is Cetology, which sucks.

The core themes of the book - monomania, etc. - are rad as fuck. Also the fact that the book starts with a man who does shit because he'd otherwise kill himself

/fa/ books:

- Any collection of aphorisms by Emil Cioran, such as _The Trouble With Being Born_.
- Dostoyevsky's _Notes from the Underground_.
- Stig Larsson's _Nyår_.
- Camus' _The Stranger_.
- Kafka's _The Trial_.

Everything else is too happy to be /fa/.

Infinite Jest /fa/m

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>>10980677
Murakami brings it to a new level. It is very clear that he has an ear fetish which he elaborates on greatly in many of his scenes.

>>10981384
It is one of the books I have not read. As it is a longer Murakami book I never felt really motivated to read Kafka (for the reasons i mentioned in my rant).
Even using the name Kafka as one of the main protagonists seemed suspect to me (try hard?) .
But again, it might be good, I cannot really tell.
How did you find it?

Please note that the English translations were done by Jay Rubins and some other people. Rubins has shown himself to be a very 'liberal translator' and not very faithful to the originals at all.
I am currently also trying to track down the Birnbaum translations of Norwegian Wood, which are very very different in style from the Rubin translations and said to be much more faithful in style and tone.
From the extracts I have read from the Birnbaum version I tend to agree with this statement, basing my knowledge on other Japanese authors and their subdued and minimalist prose.

This is why I have become quite wary of calling Murakami himself 'surreal'. His stories are without a doubt 'mysterious', yet I am coming to believe that the style of writing and word choice which greatly amplifies these feelings do not in fact come from Murakami himself but from his translators.

>>10982191
it's true, birnbaum is a much better translator. rubin a shit. the version of nw you posted is the only one worth reading in english

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Mostly books on how to be successful. You're doing yourself an injustice by not reading think and grow rich

>>10981959
>like all other philosophy books
what philosophy books have you read, and why did you dislike them?

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>>10982241
this is one of the saddest posts i've ever read on here

I like Baudelaire, is he effay?

>>10982313
I also love Baudelaire. I hope he is.

>>10979781
Totally agree, iq84 was a mess.

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>>10979478
heh, just finished this not too long ago was p. good. Reading confessions of a mask now.

>>10982261
Not even gonna lie, I don't even remember. Read a ton back in college and remember all of them being a universal slog.

What I don't like: sweeping statements about society and about life without any sort of evidence whatsoever. The obvious attempt at alluding to other prominent authors' works (pretty standard for liberal arts writing, though). The inability to reduce complex concepts into simple language (same). That sort of thing.

The last bit is what usually frustrates me the most, though it applies to all writing. I've read WAY too many engineering books that read like they were written by rambling into a text-to-speech machine.

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Just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and it was fucking amazing.
The novel is aesthetic as fuck. talks about narcissism, hedonism, classism, and self-destruction.
pic not related

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>>10979793
This a book I am going to read in the future. I partially read The Virtue Of Selfishness.
Why the hate?

>>10982238
When it comes to translators there is the age-old discussion of accuracy vs. adaptation.

I have never read Rubin in a non-Murakami context so I am ignorant to his other translation works.
Rubin is not accurate yet I personally do like what he adds to Murakami's work. I always had a weakness for the stories Japanese authors tell, yet their minimalist writing style tends to lack emotion and feeling, making the story less engaging (pic related).
This is where translators like Rubin adapt it to a more western writing style and audience. In the case of Murakami it enhances my overall enjoyment. (The other translators of Murakami are not as good at creating the reading flow Rubin does)

I plan on getting the Birnbaum versions just to be able better evaluate Murakami on his own merits.

>>10982717
Yes it was. It really is a story which could be told in 300 pages. Just padded out with A LOT of filler. Despite of this I must admit that I really enjoyed the very last chapter of 1Q84 as a mini short story (just the image it draws of them looking at the moon).

I think that in some respects Wind Up is even worse in some respect. By page 400 and onward I literally lost all sense of what the story way about, switching between letters, action, dreamy metaphors almost at random.
And it is considered Murakami's magnum opus. I don't understand why (even 1Q84 was more memorable).

Godel, Escher, Bach

a book about fucking everything apparently

>>10982191
I thought the ear thing was specifically the girl from the Trilogy of the Rat? Unless it's been brought up in other books

What are some /lit/ essentials? Who's the Rick Owens of /lit/? What's the MBDTF of /lit/?

>>10982753
>inability to reduce complex concepts into simple language
That is hard as fuck with philosophy though, it's easier to break down and explain complicated physics than philosophy to someone who knows little of them.
>sweeping statements about society and about life without any sort of evidence whatsoever
I think you are reading philosophy wrong, and I don't mean that in any offensive way. Really the way to read philosophy is to start reading from the start and just work your way through history as new things were introduced to the field. If you don't understand the basics that's how everything will probably feel like.

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>>10984011
Just a passage from Norwegian Wood.
Not the best of examples (1Q84 has some very memorable ones) but shoul illustrate his fetish.

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>>10984016
Pic related is mandatory 4chan reading. MC is the incarnation of the average poster of /lit/, /pol/, /tv/, and /r9k/.

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"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness." -Vladimir Nabokov

Currently in the works of reading.

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>>10982740
I've already read confessions twice and loved it. Sailor and confessions are pretty similar in themes and visuals. Compared to something like the Sound of Waves or Forbidden Colours that is.

>>10984604
That seems to be an aesthetic preference rather than a fetish unless he writes about sexual acts involving ears.

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This.

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A friend recommended this to me. Not a bad read desu

>>10983765
did you read iq84 and then wind up bird or the other way around?

Honestly I enjoyed wind up bird for it's imagery even if it didn't make much sense. I read iq84 afterward which felt like wind up bird stretched to 3 times its length. While windup bird could have been shorter, i found iq84's meandering plot that went nowhere and extremely anticlimactic ending extremely frustrating.

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Just started this

>>10981955
>garcia is murakami tier

Have you actually read anything by gabo?

>>10982753
sounds like you were reading continental philosophy, which while it's my area of study, is definitely not for everyone. check out people in the analytic school (aka everyone from a major US/UK university since like 1930). try the gettier problems (only like 6 pages long) or kripke's naming and necessity.

i do find what you said about sweeping statements interesting, as i see that far, far more in literature than in even the most high-minded continental stuff. and in literature, it comes with the double whammy of the guy writing it likely having no idea wtf he's talking about.

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>>10984016
>Who's the Rick Owens of /lit/?
David Foster Wallace
>What's the MBDTF of /lit/?
Gravity's Rainbow

>>10979781

You don't even have Dance Dance Dance or Wild Sheep Chase? Murakami pleb.