I read, "Death of Ivan Ilych" pretty recently. You

>>7775559
checked

yeah it was pretty grand

I had wanted to write a story about someone having a successful American life who then has to contend with death and the realization that his life was meaningless, but Tolstoy fucking nailed it like nothing I could hope to aspire to.

> the curtains did him in

File: 1453979777214.png (262KB, 686x377px) Image search: [Google]

262KB, 686x377px

>>7775559
It made me go out and purchase a couple packs of cigarettes mid-way through. I would go out to smoke one periodically as I finished it that day. Would recommend.

After reading W&P this one felt recycled and weak. Always a joy to read Tolstoy's prose tho.

>>7775623
I had a cigarette and tea today (one spoonful of sugar, no milk) it was fucking delicious.

>>7775668
>one spoonful of sugar
I'm going to throw up

>>7775598
>Tolstoy fucking nailed it like nothing I could hope to aspire to.
IKTF

>>7775673
this desu

regular tea without milk is trash, if it's a flavoured tea it's trash with milk

putting sugar in any tea apart from iced is shit tier

>>7776300
>anon wants to discuss literature on /lit/
>is told to go to reddit

is this what post-post-modernism is?

>>7775559
Sure. I don't think it presented one idea about death I hadn't already thought of on my own, so I didn't gain any new insight by reading it. I do, however, admire its singular focus on death and nothing else.

>>7776318
It's good at anchoring your thoughts though, most of the ideas you cook up by yourself need some sustenance to cling onto and give weight to them

that's why writing and art are such good mediums for expressions

reading is just a way of doing that without having to create something yourself

>>7776300
>>>/trash/

>>7776332
An interesting perspective, but if anything I find that I operate in the exact opposite way- writing and art are media that can communicate ideas that I haven't had before, and I can then absorb those ideas and have them in my life independent of the substance of the work itself. Ideas don't need sustenance and weight, ideas are the sustenance and weight. It's a work without new or insightful ideas that feels insubstantial to me, not vice-versa.

This was the book that got me into books in the first place. Before I almost never read any literature. Now I do nothing else.

>>7776362
that's cool, brother, everyone's brain works differently