I was in the bookstore the other day and I was looking to pick up some books. I saw some Dostoevsky and Tolstoy that I intended to get, but I realized I didn't know the best translations for them, so I ended up only buying some books that were written in English.
I'm making this thread now to clarify what the best translators are for books of all kinds, not just Russians. I always see threads for individual books but I figured why not knock any questions out in one big thread.
Invest time in learning the language. Will make the reading experience much better, as the nuance often gets translated away. Meanwhile read english literature.
>>7896564
Only read books composed in your native tongue. Anything else is treason.
Richard Peaver and Larissa Volokhonsky for Dostoevsky
Any good?
>>7896496
Yes. Maupassant is the undisputed French master of the short story.
He covers a wide range of styles, from naturalism (Boule de Suif) to strange horror stories (Le Horla).
>>7896503
Sounds great, is it a good account of France during the 19th century?
>>7896509
yes. very anti-prussian though as is typical, but also about how french people suck.
Hello all, I want to get into apocalyptic books and such. Ideally without any zombies. I've been thinking of starting with either Earth Abides or The Dog Stars, would any of you have suggestions?
Pic more or less related
>>7896485
>wants to "get into" apocalyptic books
>willing to give up some non-trivial fraction of his finite life to read contrived 2spooky4u lit
c'mon anon, it's 2016. have you read the greeks?
>>7896485
Here's what on the syllabus for the class I'm teaching on the subject come autumn:
Last Man by Mary Shelley
After London by Richard Jeffries
Endgame by Beckett
Return Journey to Swansea by Dylan Thomas
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
You could also look up:
Oryx and Crake (trilogy) by Margaret Atwood
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
Lucifer's Hammer by some guy
Canticle for Leibowitz by some other guy
>>7896492
>After London
Please, fellate me.
Can /lit/ recommend books in the vibe of French new wave films? a la Genou de Claire..
about love, but not overbearing. warm.
>>7896455
LOL WEED ;)
>>7896455
Boris Vian - L'écume des jours
...I hate this book by the way.
I just read Rohmer's screenplays
Hey /lit, I need some help and tips on how to stay focused and learn information for long hours each day for the next 2 weeks, I've stocked up on coffee and energy drinks. Any methods that have worked for you please post. Thanks
Pic unrelated, my morning pills.
wtf are u taking m8
>>7896346
you WILL get burned out if you do this
read good books my man
books like War and Peace or Count of Monte Cristo (or Moby Dick imo) are a joy to read all day every day
our memebooks like the Bible, Ulysses, IJ, GR, those will frustrate you if you aim for 10 hours a day
ITT We describe authors writing styles, but you are allowed to use only one word.
I'll start, Metronome.
>>7896340
"BAD"
blunt
Il était.
>If now I...say 'Stealing money is wrong', I produce a sentence which has no factual meaning -- that is, it expresses no proposition which can be either true or false. It is as if I had written 'Stealing money!!' -- where the shape and thickness of the exclamation marks show, by a suitable convention, that a special sort of moral disapproval is the feeling which is expressed. It is clear that there is nothing said here which can be true or false.
>>7896334
This person is just begging to be robbed
are you pro or against emotivism?
>'stealing money is wrong' expresses no proposition which can be either true or false.
what the fuck am i reading
What book should I read to learn to be a good kisser and love maker?
Daniel Rose - The Sex God Method
>>7896347
does it work?
tfw me and my gf are both garbage at sex
Are there any female authors who write in the style of Dostoevski? His bleakness, ugly realism, characters who are self-loathing, etc.
I'm tired of reading about porcelain dolls with love issues. I want existentialist angst and period blood grossness.
>>7896213
Plath?
>>7896213
Oh Patricia Highsmith
Flannery O'Connor maybe
Post obscure books. The first one I have never heard about (neither about the book nor about the author) will be the next one I'm going to read, provided I can find it online, without cluing myself up about it before.
Pic vaguely related, he is an example for an author I know of
Suttree, Cormac McCarthy.
Yes yes I know, not so obscure an author, but I rarely see anyone mention it here, or anywhere really. He spent twenty years working on it and it shows. Hilarious and harrowing.
>>7896202
Motorman by David Ohle
vurt - jeff noon
city of god - paulo lins
/lit/ humor pleaseeeee
MUST ALWAYS BE FUNNY
POST IT
Why did the chicken cross the road?
I don't know, ask Sam Harris.
What are some English books that don't translate well into any other language?
>>7896150
Shakespeare
>>7896162
That's a nice book.
>>7896171
It's alright
François Rabelais, I want to read some of his work which features the "Grotesque". Anyone got any recs / want to prove they don't just read meme auth...memes?
>Rabelais
>recs
You don't need recs, just read his work. Pantagruel, Gargantua, the five books if you want. Or are you talking translations?
If someone writes something really good but it doesn't fit into the trends of the time, it's destined to be lost innit? It'll never be canonical.
I don't mean ones that are deliberately reactionary against trends either.
no
plenty of classics get canonized after the author's lifetime
>>7896114
Nah, Moby-dick wasn't liked at the time it was wrote and only gained fame later on after Melville had died when some guy read it and realized how great it was.
You do have to be published though, so it can't be that out of the times.
>>7896114
There's always an element of contingency to it. Nevertheless there are countless examples of gems that are only really unearthed or at least rediscovered and given their due decades or even centuries after their author's death. As far as these works are concerned you could say the times have finally adapted to the author instead of the author adapting to his times.
What makes fiction worth the time? Non fiction is filled with facts, historical antidotes and clearly layed out arguements. Fiction is one really long fake story
Can provide a sense of escapism or use the fact that it's false to create a sequence of events that have a greater meaning than the parts individually
>>7895880
Good fiction portrays reality