Decided to read the starter kit. With the 21st chapter or without?

With, obviously. The author put it in for a reason.

Movie > book imo

Obviously with the 21st chapter. Why would you go against what the author intended? The whole work is meaningless without his intention.

>>8038378
Because there's a great number of people that still believe the book is meaningless WITH the final chapter.

But alright. I probably would've read it either way.

>>8038382
Who exactly holds that retarded opinion? The theme and message of the book is pretty damn straightforward. That's why it's a "starter-kit" novel.

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>>8038363
Fuck. Just wrote a long post and my browser crashed. I'm in the middle of it as well, pic related.

>>8038391
>>8038377
I'm kind of getting tired of the formula of dystopias where the greatest virtue throughout the books is the enlightenment endowed by literature. I've watched A Clockwork Orange, but I feel as if Kubrik did a sufficient enough job relaying the central message of the novel. Unless this is of an exception, most of the books feel like they have a unique world and maybe a max of half a dozen of memorable characters, then a single driving message they try to make. Obviously they hold several layers and I can glean into them, but they don't feel as rewarding as other works I've read that truly challenge me (these I can read about one a day during the work week).

Should I just watch the movie of movie of Fear and Loathing, then finish reading the remaining books I did not see in film?

>>8038414
Reading Fear and Loathing before watching the movie is kind of essential to enjoying the latter. I think one of the reason that the movie got such poor reviews was the fact that the style of it was too unprecedented and weird for the uninitiated viewer, having the book in your mind as context diminishes a lot of that. Also, it's a fun and relatively short read.

Furthermore, I think it's safe to say that watching Cuckoo's nest and American Psycho is preferable to actually reading those books, while at the same time you would be doing a blatant disservice to yourself by not reading Lolita and Gatsby.

>>8038448
Scratch the Gatsby part, for some reason I assumed it wasn't crossed off.

>>8038448
Oh crap, I didn't cross off Lolita. So far, that book has felt the most respectable of all of them. The prose was almost half of the pleasure since the actual objective viewing of Humbert Humbert's actions would be painfully morally corrupt to view. Lolita and Dorian Grey have thus far been my favorites.

As for the other recommendations, thank you.

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>>8038479
wtf, an anon actually making progress through the starter kit?? keep it up, bro

Read it with. Then it's more practical and realistic, unless you like jerking off to the absurd.