Literary Confession Thread

>>8478011
I mostly read because I think it will make me more knowledgeable and wise. I'm more interested in film as a medium.

>>8478011
I only to read to write. Reading is a literal mind exercise, so my writing would despite the influence of other narratives.

I browse /lit/ even though I've only read one book in the past year and it was Life of Pi. I feel stupid and reading often bores me.

>>8478017
this is me also

>>8478011
I dislike the act of reading itself. I only derive any pleasure from a novel after finishing it.

>>8478011
I don't have the patience for long prose. I like short books because they get to the point quickly.

>>8478062
And this, to a certain degree.

>>8478017

i think reading heavily is conducive to success in many things other than just writing or further reading. akira kurosawa said any young director should both read and write as much as they can.

I only read because I like it

>>8478011
i smoke cigs because i'd like to kill myself but would also like to be a prolific author

They think I read a lot,but the truth is,that I read maybe 15 books a year.

I read more for prose and style than content- or anything else.

>>8478109

What an asshole

>>8478011
I find Charles Dickens to be harder than Joyce

>>8478295
Joyce gets to his point eventually, Dickens skirts around it like it's got the pox.

>>8478312
It sometimes does.

>>8478312
It's just all those old english, over-complicated words he uses.

>>8478029
I second this. I have over 1,000 books. Never read one all the way through, just cull. My plagiarism is so piecemeal that nobody can finger my influence. I'm everyone and no one.

>>8478368
You are the most autistic person I have ever seen

>>8478391
u caint see dis niqqa

>>8478011
I enjoy collecting books and building up my library more than I enjoy reading.

>>8478011
I bought 40 books on a whim last year and I've only read 6 of them.

I read fanfiction.

>>8478017
literally me.

I only have a small and vague desire to write, I only do it occasionally when I'm drunk and then it's only short little poems about being drunk.
I like talking about things I read a lot, but I usually don't have much to say.

>>8478011
I don't know if it's because I'm a depressed autist but I derive no pleasure from reading and struggle with reading comprehension (I'm a twenty pages per hour kind of guy). Maybe it's all linked, I dunno.

It's immensely pleasurable when I write something and I'm proud of it, though. It's equally as disheartening when I wake up the next day and realize what I wrote the other day was trash.

i'm an english literature major that started his career with enthusiasm but now that i'm about to finish i've realised that i'm very disenchanted with literature in general and have lost complete interest

I actually read a lot and enjoy it, much more than I did 2-3 years ago.

>>8478674
the worst confession of all

>>8478011
The only book I've read out of high school is Lolita. I've read it probably 40times. If it gets boring, I'll find a different version of it.

I unironically enjoy romantic YA and light novel because they fill the void in my soul.

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I love to read partly for the experience of losing myself in stories. When it's strong enough, everything melds away, reading becomes automatic, and I'll be fully immersed in the scenes playing out in my head.

For the most part, though, it's because it helps me deal with depression and hope the stories I read lend me some direction, identity, or at least provide some kind of cathartic experience.

I enjoyed the Spice and Wolf light novel series more than I enjoyed Vineland, which is my favorite book that actually counts as literature.

If I don't autistically take notes on what I'm reading I'll eventually forget about it, but if I do autistically take notes on what I'm reading I'll enjoy it less and it takes me forever

>>8478011
style without plot is unbearable

my favorite book was hatchet when I was in 6th grade

I only read for entertainment and don't care if a book makes me a better person or teaches me anything.

>>8478011
I've set my cause on nothing mostly because I'm shit at everything desu.
Also, my diary is purely a rhetorical device.
I'm not a massive fan of the novel as a genre (though Don Quijote is GOAT and there are plenty of them in my top books list).

I write in my diary as if someone were going to read it

>>8478119
Brother

>>8478719
>Pic
Pessoa?

>>8478017
>>8478062
>>8478467
me

>>8478853
>Also, my diary is purely a rhetorical device.
I understand, bro.

I think Borges is variable in quality and i'm not so keen on him as everyone seems to think I should be.

There's a very finite limit on the number of stories about Argentinian knife fights I want to read.

Novels about women tend to be more interesting than novels about men.

>>8478939
Not even trolling give me some recommendations of novels about women.

I'm reading the Iliad right now and in my head I picture Athena as a qt anime girl. I don't do this with any other characters, it wasn't a decision, just happened.
I like it.

>>8478925
To be fair, even he said the knife fights were the other side of the coin of his writtings, that and the poems are only really meant for people from buenos aires, Argentina and were him writing his guilty pleasures, ignore them.

>>8478949
The Death of the Heart
Play It as It Lays
Mrs. Dalloway
To The Lighthouse
The Age of Innocence

>>8478951
To be honest Athena is my waifu.

>>8478368
imitation has always been seen as the pathway to greatness in art- just ask harold bloom or johann winckelmann

I really like this kind of thread on /lit/, aways reminds me why people's opinions on books and subjects related to literature are aways so goddamn shitty

>>8478976
You probably have the shittiest

>>8478011
>hated all modern literature I've read
Mainly read lots of Pratchett.

>>8478981
see, thats what I'm talking about, so easy to trigger the plebs
thanks OP

>>8478939
?
In my experience novels about women tend to be tedious and pretentious.

>>8478939
If you're a woman, that's okay.
If you're a man, that's okay, but not that okay.

>>8478957
the weight is lifted

>>8478987
Sounds right up your ally.

>>8478976

I agree

It takes little effort to acquire Great Taste in literature, but also great dedication to justify it

- I never understood how Roland sacrificed the kid to get to the man in black in Gunslinger. Like literally can't recall what happened and why he was forced to make a choice.
- I thought that Louis and Claudia had implied sex after leaving Lestat. I was surprised that in the movie wasn't mentioned. Then I read book 2 and realized that wasn't possible.
- I have never been triggered by NTR until book 2 of the demon cycle. Although I love the world the warded man built, I couldn't keep up with the "clever twists" the author made.

>>8479171
>Literary Confession Thread
>Literary

>>8478668
Think alot of us can relate. Had amazing teachers in high school but couldn't stand the forced Marxist interpretations of literally EVERYTHING we read in college. Now I read only every now and then and I normally have to force myself to finish when I'm halfway done.

I buy books way quicker than I read them. Sometimes I won't even open a book I've bought before going out and getting more.

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>>8479200
>alot

Poetry is nothing but word wankery and only pretentious pseuds like it

>>8478740
yea..

>>8478668
I think this is common for many who study the Liberal Arts. The subject may interest you but after 3 years of studying within the confines of whatever your department offers it can get very stale.

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>>8478011
Man, do I really dislike the tweeness associated with books. People read not out of passion for reading, but because they like the identity of being a reader. It's why people say shit like "I would read more if I had time" which is literally the same excuse fat people use to avoid the gym. Even then, a lot of people read only because it makes them better writers. People only want the abstraction of the thing.

Plus people act like reading is so good for you. Like it's going to change your life, but it's just another artistic medium. The idea that one is supposed to get you more brownie points over another is fucking stupid.

Like yeah make fun of Tumblr all you want but at least they genuinely think about, analyze, and corroborate over their ideas/feelings. Book reviewers only do shit like that to hear themselves talk. Very few genuinely interesting/creative things come out of it.

YA, while shitty, is a step in the right direction I think. It tears away at the pretension associated with reading. It's trash, it's garbage, it's disposable and that's what's so revolutionary about it.

The whole literary culture needs to be ripped apart from the ground up if it's going to survive, or even worse, worth surviving.

>>8479332
Good commentary desu, 'i would if i had more time' is both the truest and falsest excuse; you love something enough, you make time for it.
And while I agree that you should curate your interests if you're looking to somehow 'refine' thoughts, ideas, etc, but at the same time, reading YA sort of either immunizes you to its pure badness or encompasses your taste indefinitely.

Reading 'good' literature can be tedious sometimes, if for lack of diffusion of idea and antiquated phrasings in general, but I think struggling through a work is necessary just for drawing comparison sometimes. Just for understanding why it's acclaimed, why it's considered a staple of culture. Not solely due to its difficulty; though you can juxtapose that with enjoyment for some people, or bragging rights, literary merit, etc.

In all honestly though, reading can change your life; not usually one work, or one axiom, but as you expose yourself to entirely ~new~ ideologies and thoughts and settings, your paradigms could easily begin to shift alongside what you've read. The reader is thirsty for change, however diluted, filthy or brief, and some works quench all throats. Others just a few.

Sometimes it isn't that deep, but you're right about the shittiness of book reviewers nowadays; they're all looking for that new thing they can profess as the next coming of christ, or at least something so obscure they seem the ultimate patrician just for knowing about it.

I started with pomoshit and worked backwards to the Greeks.

Can anyone guess what this did to me politically?

>>8479501
Please tell me you found the truth and gave up pomoshit left wing politics as you read further into history and didn't apply pomoshit social theories to Plato and St Augustine...

>>8479501
You became an apolitical Tao-Epicurean-Stirnerian as it belongs?

>>8479501
Made you indulge in the wondrous pastime of butt burglary?

>>8478719
This, plus spending my time reading makes me feel better about myself, instead of wasting that time in front of the computer

>>8478119
Consider riding a motorcycle. More fun and will probably kill you faster.

>>8479332

>YA, while shitty, is a step in the right direction I think. It tears away at the pretension associated with reading. It's trash, it's garbage, it's disposable and that's what's so revolutionary about it.

That implies that there has never been, in any other time period, books that are purely for entertainment and similar to today's YA books which is just plain wrong. Every time period has that shit. It doesn't stand out now anymore than it would have 100 years ago. It isn't a step in any direction at all. Literature just hasn't changed much in like 400 years as far as presentation.

I agree with everything else you said though.

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>>8478627
I bought 40 40k books last year and read them all

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Jack of all trades, master of none, yet I still long to leave a literary mark on the world in some way. I have found myself comfortable with an authoritative, almost encyclopedic tone in writing, but lack the background in any field or profession to write about anything in any confidence. I do research on topics from time to time, but why write about something you learned solely from other authors? It feels shameful and secondary to me.

I don't seem to have any substantial real-world experience to draw upon to write anything meaningful. I fear I was born too late to write the 'first' substantial work on any topic, and don't have anyone to share my literary ambitions with, as no one around me reads.

I would rather write non-fiction

>>8479793
So you know what you have to do. Now do it.

I do genuinely love reading, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a sort of smug satisfaction out of being better read than most of the people I interact with.

Jane Austen is every bit as good as Joyce and the only reason /lit/ doesn't like her is that she's a woman who writes about women.

I scratch my arse crack while reading and some of my books smell like arse

I respect romanticism as a movement and I enjoy the work that eventually came about due to romance's influences, but I don't really care for romantic prose at all, especially Frankenstein. I hate that book.

>>8479209
I'm pretty sure that everyone here, who isn't a poorfag, is guilty of this.

I just ordered If on a Winter's Night a Traveler last night, while having four other books on the way, and while currently reading four books, and while having 10 books on my desk that I still need to get through

>>8479332
>Reading is just another artistic medium
Poor retard.
Im dead serious.

Im a real nihilist.

Meaning: i dont read almost anything.

>>8480344
I'm a poorfag and I'm still guilty of this. I just do it at goodwill with .50-1.00 books.

Much, much worse if you count books pirated online.

I don't like short stories

I read poetry but I've only liked Walt Whitman and epics

I've never re-read a book

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>>8478211
I have only read 9 books this year. 4 of them are by Jules Verne.

I hate reading, because once I start reading an interesting story I have a hard time stopping. I will start reading a story, but then I want to read more and more though not for curiosity, but not wanting to be disrespectful towards the writer by not reading what he poured his heart into.
Also most often I find myself analyzing the content of the book that sometimes I will read10-20 pages for hours before moving forward with the content.
That being said I must also confess that I am very intimidated by /lit/ since I know that/lit/ is very well versed in their knowledge about literature itself.

>>8480629
You sound like a tryhard anon, no one fucking feels guilty about not "respecting the author"

I haven't read a novel published after 1996, yet i frequently post that A Brief History of 7 Killings is the greatest novel published in the last 20 years.

>>8478119
this tbqh familia. + anorexia, so i'm nearly dead anyway

Almost everything I read is meme books I see posted on /lit/ all the time, and most of them are pretty good.

Gravity's Rainbow is unironically my favorite book ever.

>>8480649
Marlon James is pretty good, so maybe there's a chance you're correct.

Russians write the best novels.

I haven't read in a month.

>>8478011
I am reading Ulysses with no notes and I am enjoying it immensely.

What are the best editions with notes? (for my second reading).

I'm currently writing a novel where the main character is Bjork.

>>8481465
They're memes for a reason, but try to branch out eventually.

Read Tristram Shandy if you haven't already.

>>8480629
>I am very intimidated by /lit/ since I know that/lit/ is very well versed in their knowledge about literature itself.

Hahaha, what, you are talking about this /lit/? 4chan's /lit/? Hahahahaha come on man are you trying to trigger people, bait, what? Whats the endgame here? Whats the punchline? People on this board can't talk for 5 minutes about books they supposedly love, mostly can't even write short reviews for goodreads, just try to talk about translations and your topic will become a shitfest, try to talk about a female author and I doubt you will get more than 2 or 3 serious answers.

This place is trash, sadly its the only place I know in the internet to talk about books

>>8478652
;_;

I believe poetry is the superior form of literature and that there is at most twenty english-language novels that can be considered masterpieces.

I have nightmares almost every night about my decision to major in english instead of getting a more "practical" degree.

I know i could force myself to read like 100 pages a day, but just about twenty give me enough to spend the rest of the day looking at the ceiling with tears in my eyes

>>8478011
I can't read

I get very anxious about finishing a book or if I read the daily number of pages I plan to read. I feel like I want the book to finish so I can read another one, sometimes cuting the flow of enjoyment.

>>8478011
I am Thomas Pynchon.

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I enjoy reading literature but I'm terrible at picking out all of that shit they taught in school.
>what did he mean by this
>this symbolizes x
>this was a metaphor for thing
>this character served as a narrative device for
Whenever I finish a book I look at the wikipedia article to see what was going on and feel retarded in how I miss so many basic things. When people say things like, "He didn't describe the curtain as blue just to set a scene" I have no idea what they're getting at.

I read slow as shit; about 10-20 pages an hour and only enjoy books after I finish them and read analysis because I tend to not really understand things on my own.

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>>8482285
The worst thing was that 'alternative' girl who'd always take the most banal sentence and derive at a completly unrelated conclusion, and jack her ego off, making it seem as if she's the most brilliant mind, next to /lit/'s big three.
As if it isn't most important to get the idea behind the books, they rather get the book behind the idea, that is, they expand on basic ideas that should tie to the grand idea, instead of tieing these ideas to the grand idea.
The life of the author is also something that can have big and obvious influence on a writer (Kafka, for example) but sometimes a single event is maginfied to the point of absurdity, making it seem that a coffee stain was the grand idea behind Rimbaud or something.
That's why I always kept quiet during analysis, and write my interpertation as if I never wanted to have anything with the others.

Off tanget here, and /lit/'s probably say I'm doing a humble brag, but I once ended an essay with an argument for suicide and my classmates were horrified, 'How could you?' -- 'That is really offensive.' -- 'Why do you need to be so bleak.' but the teacher gave me the best grade.

I don't know where this is going, I just never spoke to anyone that truly had passion for literature, that wasn't superficial.

I'm gay

I've been stuck on Claudius The God for several months because it's so dry and boring, especially after Herod Agrippa dies, but I don't like giving up on books.

>>8482316
I didn't finish reading this and I don't have a good reply, but I'll say I agree with what I read.

I read the first sentence of every paragraph, decide whether it's interesting, and if it's not, I skip the rest of the paragraph. I keep doing this until I find something interesting, or I'm done with the book.

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>>8478368

>>8478467
>>8478627
i relate.

>>8478630
>>8479777
haram

I enjoy reading shitty weeb light novels even though I spend a lot of time greentexting about genrefiction

i would rather re-read the books that everyone forces themselves to read before ulysses over ulysses anyday

>>8478011
I honestly believe DFW is a faggot.
I love Milan Kundera to death.
I don't enjoy reading Hemmingway.

I pretty much only read Science Fiction.
The main reason is that I'm obsessed by future and technology (I'm an engineering student BTW)

>>8478368
Pentagon: HACKED
Book: WRITTEN


I am anon E. Mouse and I'm everyone and nobody.

Who do you plagiarize, the other fat steampunk kids you know?

>>8482812
>I pretty much only read bloo bloo bleh
> brrt, braaah, THPPTPHTPHPHHPH. phhhhhhrt, PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP, pff, prtrtrtrgurtrufnasutututut, prrrt, PFFT!, PHHhhhh..., SPLPLPLLLP, WHOooooffff, poot, prrrrrrrvt, scraeft, ppppppwwarrrrppppp, pllllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooaaa..., RRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPP, fuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrt (I'm a STEM-lord btw)

>>8478059
>/lit/

>>8482926
Ehmmmm sorry but what the fuck are you saying?

>>8479171
see
>>8479186

Sometimes I feel like I'm more interested in having a book than actually reading it. I'll search for a book on ebay or flea markets and be excited when I find it... then it just sits there on the bookshelf, unread. Same with my ebook collection, but times a hundred. I have thousands of books and no idea when I intend to read any of them, if at all.

Also I'm more prone to re-read things I enjoyed than discover something new.

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>>8482926
kek

i get tired and go to sleep after read fucking firts page of novels, so fucking long, like its like listen to my mom talk :/
just enjoy short stories
i just want books with nice cover arts
i hate buying books so i have a kindle
i havent read the meme trilogy

I always skip introductions. I know it's not always the case, but it just feels like most introductions are just some no-name's literary wanking of their knowledge of the author/book. I just want to read the actual damn book.

>>8478719
>>8479664
I'm joining this pity party too.

I spent all of 2015 reading Anna Karenina. I would only read a chapter or two per night before bed when I was already exhausted and couldn't get through more than that before falling asleep.

I just started W&P and if I go at this rate it could take me two years.

>>8478862
Still trying to work my way out this habit. I've started writing for my future self instead of a future audience and that's helped.

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I read difficult books I don't like to enhance my vocabulary and my ability to focus and comprehend long and boring texts. Wannabe politician here.

I've never read an Ayn Rand novel completely but I still shitpost about her and call her a bad writer

>>8483599

Impressive... Very nice

I read most of the books mentioned here as a kid, because my mom just gave them to me and I had nothing better to do, so I just read for hours. I probably didn't even understand half of it.
Now I can barely finish 2 books a year and can't read for more than 1 hour straight.

>>8483617
she's not a really good writer honestly
I haven't read her one whole book too

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>>8483599

>>8478949
The Voyage Out is pretty good in so many ways that it's great overall. Underrated desu

>>8478974
>imitation
>always
Absolutely impossible. There had to be an original greatness for this argument to have merit. Probably the skald who wrote the Epic of Gilgamesh

>>8478939
nigga you gay

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>>8478674
>he enjoys reading

hahahaha

>>8481512
this

>>8478011
I identify strongly with the Underground Man.

Also, I can no longer enjoy the works I used to enjoy. I haven't read any schlocky 40k novels, or any fantasy -- not even the good fantasy, like Wolfe. Just Don Quixote and Essays. This is...sad.

>>8482926
>>8482956
He's trying to insult the poster by making fun of Science Fiction in some way. I think by making machine noises possibly implying that Sci-fi lit is not very good since it isn't all that complex when it comes to being literature. He then says that he is jealous of the poster’s major or rather the practicality of his major. He is most likely in an art or history major that causes him to not find work and the words of his parents encouraging him to go into a practical field reverberate in his brain causing him to project that the poster’s explanation of the poster's interest through stating his major was an attack on this guy's failure shown by how retardedly he brings up STEM. I think.

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>>8484162
>I think by making machine noises possibly implying that Sci-fi lit is not very good since it isn't all that complex
>machine noises
I thought they were fart noises.

>>8479777
What's a good place to start?
The setting and overall universe looks great but I've never played any board game, videogame nor read any book about 40k

I don't have any purpose in life, I have friends, study what i want, tried drugs, have a gf but nothing seems to satisfy me, I feel empty and depressed all the time and books are the only thing that helps me cope with this and even that is starting to lose meaning to me

I also think Pynchon is overrated

>>8480480
THIS, it's an addiction

>>8481883
>looking at the ceiling with tears in my eyes
what kind of books do you read to get so emotional?

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>>8482365

>>8482316
I agree, most people miss the big picture by looking at the most irrelevant detail in the most superfluous way
>I don't know where this is going
Do it because it's something you feel passionate about, not the opinion of some nobody
>That is really offensive.
I fucking hate that as a critique, people are so over sensitive and politically correct about the smallest shit that either doesn't concern them or affect them in any shape or form

>>8482768
are you a girl?
I mean it because if a girl has read Kundera, most of the time it ends up being their fav. author

>>8485019
i am completely serious.

>>8478011
I sometimes read film novelizations if I want to see how a certain scene or character was implemented.

I frequently jump from novels, to manga, to video games, and even American comics for entertainment and inspiration. Video games probably take up most of my time, however, whether it's reading lore, actually playing, watching no-commentary playthroughs, or shitposting on /v/

I don't get what makes Rimbaud so special other than the age he wrote his poems.

I've never read a book.

>>8485043
Cuckndera is an author for girls

I have nothing serious to confess. I read with the pretension that it makes me better than others. And also that what I read makes me better than other "readers". I'm not ashamed of my pretentiousness because it implies a certain aspiration.

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>>8484162
I'm the Stem guy.
Yes I know it was an attack on the complexity of Sci-fi, which I know isn't as elevated as the works of writers like Alighieri or Dostoyevsky, but I wonder if he thinks that all Sci-fi is as simple as Hunger Games or Star Wars. Also

>falling for the humanistic studies meme

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>>8478011
I mostly read erotica aimed at middle age women and teenage girls

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>>8485815
Any recommendations?

>>8485815
That's a boy

>>8478949
Nana

>>8482365
>>8485078
No, you are not. There is no way.

>>8484162
>most high paying jobs are not STEM related
>and yet, if you want a high paying job, you must go STEM
And yes, I understand that it is more truly TE than STEM.

>>8486281
S -> E
and
M -> T

>>8478064
>I don't have the patience for long prose. I like short books because they get to the point quickly.

So much this.

Also, I'm actually thoroughly convinced that Marx and his 20th century descendants are absolutely right about everything.

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I don't see what's so great about Don Quixote.

I read everything as slow as possible, like a kid.

>>8486600
In my experience, kids read everything as fast as possible.

>>8486594
Have you read any chivalric romances?

>>8486645
Yes.

I don't see what that's got to do with DQ, though -- obviously it's a big part of the plot, but when people go on about DQ they don't usually talk about the plot.

I find every History book at least moderately interesting, but not every classic novel entertains me.

>>8486657
Well, no shit. Every history book is concerned with history, so if you like history every history book will be at least moderately interesting. Meanwhile, classic novels are about anything at all, so if you just aren't interested in the subject it won't "entertain" you.

>>8486649
It's the narration style (I don't know if this is the correct English term). Cervantes imitates the kind of style you'd find in a chivalric romance but of course very ironically. Personally I absolutely loved Don Quijote.

>>8486668
Yes, I know and picked up on that. I like Don Quixote too, I just don't see what makes it THAT good.

>>8478011
I don't even read, I'm just here for the memes.

>>8486681
But the memes are shit unless you read.

I didn't read at all during my childhood and most of my adolescence. I was that "reading is boring" faggot kid.

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I got into literature when I was 15 because I wanted to fuck my q3.14 lit teacher. I liked it so much that I've ignored every subject but humanities. I ended up being terrible at STEM subjects so I'll major in lit. this year. I'm afraid I won't find a job.

Also, I tell people that I write, but I keep the results to myself. In reality I stopped writing when I was 18 because I no longer had an excuse to turn them in to my teacher, I was left with no one to impress with it. I realized I'm going nowhere as a writer or a poet. I can write articles and criticism, but I don't have the necessary creativity to write my own literature. The last time I wrote was months ago, and it was because I saw the pic related and was reminded of the shit I fantasized about when I was 16ish.


Fuck you, Miss S, you ruined my life! (literally pls she's still under 35 and a cutie, we still keep in touch)

>>8483006
Hi, Me.
How am I doing?
Great, and me?
Good, thx for asking.
No problem Me.

>>8486684
I'm only enjoying them ironically.

>>8481567
I only read this become storm of steel is shilled so hard by /pol/acks and he mentioned Tristam Shandy multiple times in the book

Both were good, worth it

>>8485338
his boipussy

I'm really not interested in reading Faust or anything by Shakespeare except for Hamlet.

>>8486962
you're actually a pleb
probably the biggest one to have posted itt.

>>8485512

You've come to the right place, friendo

>>8486206
Why not? I got shit to do, and I don't care to waste time and effort on shit that's not stimulating.

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>>8487000

>>8486673
I'm in the same boat as you.
I read it, found it boring and finished it disappointed that it was so boring. The humor wasn't even that great.

I unironically listen to Vaporwave

>I unironically enjoy Iain M Banks

>>8487000

trips speak the truth

>>8487266
Me too

The only books that I've read within the last year have been Kurt vonnegut books and short stories. I have no idea what to read next, any suggestions for writers with similar styles?

>>8485799
>>8485799
>elevated
>Dostoevsky

hahahahahahahhaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

fucking pleb.

just stick to scifi faggot

>>8487485
is this the face of autism?

>>8487506
i might be autistic but insure as fuck am not a 'le dostoevsky was a genious' reddit tier pleb.

suck my small penis

>>8487510
it is. it is the face of autism.

>>8487485
Christ, I'm sorry if that author triggers your autism that much, I cited him because he's considered by many one of the best writers of its era.
Personally I don't know, I' ve never read anything made by him unlike Alighieri's works)

>>8487569
he is amazing

ignore tolstoyshiller threads; ignore tolstoyshiller posts

read bakhtin

I often feel there are so many books I ought to read, and ought to have read, that I shut down, don't read anything, and binge watch The Nanny for the umpteenth time.

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>>8478011
What do you guys think is Mike Stoklasa's favorite book?

>inb4 Mein Kampf

>>8478011

I think that people who read less than an hour or two a day should fuck off of /lit/ and reevaluate their priorities. They're the essence of pseudotrash, who prefer the idea of reading and the ""literary lifestyle"" to reading itself.

>>8487735
>implying it's cool to not have a real job
>implying quantity over quality
>implying anyone gives a fuck what you think

>>8487756
>he can't read 2 hours a day with a job
>has no problem shit posting and watching Netflix for hours
>claims to like literature

kek

>>8487042
List your impressions of various classic works literature that you gleaned based on this method.

>>8486845
lurk more, we're at post irony already, we don't even enjoy the memes but we understand them deeply

>>8487835
After post-irony comes metamodernism, then postpostmodernism, then meta-ironic pre-sincerity, then new sincerity, then pre-ironic post-sincerity, then metasincere demi-irony, then irony, and then the cycle repeats.

>>8487880
Is this post post-irony?

>>8478312
i know what you give, you give em all the pox spread it around until they end up in a box.

>>8487902
It is pseudo-ironic meta-post neosincerity, and like this post is itself a neosincere pseudo-ironic meta-post.

>>8486750
I believe in you

>>8486750
>I can write articles and criticism
Play to your strengths, if this is what you excel at then focus on it. Also,
>>8487955

>>8487797
Moby Dick is genius. (I read most of this.)

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is fun. (Read most of this.)

Dracula has a lot of uninteresting details, but maybe it was supposed to be written like that.

I assume HP Lovecraft isn't classic literature, but he tends to have the same problem as Dracula.

>>8487990
You might actually be serious about >>8482365.

You are the very worst person on /lit/. Yet your reading habit is inimitably appalling, and I am glad that someone like you exists just for my horrid awe at your practice.

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>>8479332
>Plus people act like reading is so good for you. Like it's going to change your life, but it's just another artistic medium.
>Like yeah make fun of Tumblr all you want but at least they genuinely think about, analyze, and corroborate over their ideas/feelings.
>YA, while shitty, is a step in the right direction I think. It tears away at the pretension associated with reading.

10/10

>>8478029
Looks like you need a lot of more reading to do because what you wrote is nigh incomprehensible.

>>8488040
There's literally nothing wrong with it. This is just your subjective opinion.

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."

I've read very few books despite spending most of my time reading. In actuality I spend about 99% of my time reading wikipedia articles and short digestible secondary literature regarding philosophers for the sole purpose of coopting their language and the essence of their ideas into my life. Its much more for vanity than to effect actual fundamental change.

>>8478011
I hate this board. I hate this board, everything it represents and every single person who browses it.
Yes, if you're reading this it means I really seriously fucking hate you and I wish you nothing but the absolute worst.

And yet I still come here too often

>>8488168
self-loathing at its finest

I read because I love beautiful language, any philosophical gains are secondary

I have a bad habit of setting daily reading quotas for myself, and I also get slightly less motivated to read further when I reach a page number ending in 0.

Also, I always feel the need to read through every book as quickly as possible so I can read something else, but then I never know what I want to read next. I can never enjoy a good book while it lasts as much as I wish I could. It's like books are women and I'm George Costanza.

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>>8484959
There's a lot of books, I'd suggest trying one of them to see if you like it. My personal favorites are
Armageddon - A Space Marine is sent to fight a doomed battle to defend some humans, and has to find meaning in destroying the Emperor's enemies again
Daemon World - Tribal battles on a planet of Chaos. A lake of blood turns into a dragon, there's a city built around a skull mine, good stuff.
Kharn The Betrayer - a group of traitor Space Marines desperately try to avoid sliding into madness and savagery

>>8488040
not that guy, but i'll say I too do the "read first line, skip paragraph if not interesting" strategy. It's best imployed in works where plot > prose (sci fi and fanatsy in general)

>>8482285
same

>>8488327
That's kind of weird. I bet you read poetry more than anything and listen to rap music.

I took a break from literature after reading 45 books this year to catch up on Pokemon games, check out Yo-Kai Watch, and read manga. I've bought more translated manga for full retail price at a physical Books-a-Million store since July than I have ever bought actual literature from a brick-and-mortar place.

>>8487506
Yes.

>>8487709
This.
Not the last part tho

>>8487735
Youre sad anon.

>>8488638
Weak and gay way of reading ya know.

>>8478011
I don't read.
>>8486750
>I was left with no one to impress with it.
go to a book club or something, maybe you will find a new qt you want to impress with your /lit/ dick
>>8485990
pic is a girl
>>8485815
I have done that. women really have no leg to stand on when they talk about objectification and other nonsense

>>8479332
>Man, do I really dislike the tweeness associated with books.
yep I have seen too many "I saw someone reading a book on the bus, there is still hope for humanity" posts
>Plus people act like reading is so good for you. Like it's going to change your life, but it's just another artistic medium.
True, you can get the same info without destroying your eyes.
>they genuinely think about
you and all of them can boil in piss.
>Book reviewers only do shit like that to hear themselves talk.
kind of true but also a correct thing to do. you can talk about basic structure of a book but books are a very subjective experience, you may like drivel because it captured your spirit for few days and took you on a spiritual journey or you maybe bored with with the most technically prefect book ever made. its impossible to accuratly review a book, you can only ballpark your personal experience and write in a way that tells the reader more about you so they can see how likely they are to have the same experience
>it's disposable and that's what's so revolutionary about it
babies first book? What is it with some people and thinking something is happening for the first time ever.harlequin romance and disposable books have excited from the day print was born.
>the whole literary culture needs to be ripped apart
The world is too focused on destroying the old without having anything new to offer. In the end all you are destroying is class and I don't mean social class I mean good reserved behavior

>>8489193
Pathetic.

>>8486750
rimbaud fuck off

A coworker in her late 20s admitted to loving Harry Potter so I shot a big load of cum in her lunch and stirred it in and watched her eat it with pleasure.

>>8479962

You've earned it, just like fit people should feel they have superior bodies compared to fats.

>>8484978

I think this is the case for most relatively intelligent people.

>>8489308
>Relatively
Are you implying that youre more intelligent than people in that situation? If thats the case, and Im not saying it isnt, then what is the difference of situation between a 'relatively intelligent' man and a really intelligent one?
That a really intelligent one doesnt really have friends? And specially not gf?

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>>8485858
Anne Rice really gets me. Sorry for slow response, doggi

I can't force myself to write, because I write the way authors whose prose I've enjoyed write. I'll write a few sentences and realize it's unique in no apparent way, which brings disappointment. I hope after I've read a lot more than I have now I'll be able to write in a way that does not blatantly imitate the style of other authors.

Also, I can't be fully honest with myself.

>>8487000
Well, bummer. I'll happily continue reading what I personally enjoy.

Down and out in Paris and London was one of the funniest books I've have ever read

>>8482173
literally me pham
>start a book
>20 pages in but I can't wait to finish it to start the next one
>repeat

>>8486673
>>8487253
Did you read it in Spanish? His prose flows extremely well, something similar to Shakespeare in English. He writes some great stuff with no apparent effort or pretension

>>8490377
Different anon here.
I did and youre right.
I honestly dont think it is possible to translate Cervantes.

Blood Meridian should be an anime.

>>8490377
>Did you read it in Spanish?
Of course not. And, of course I expect the prose to be better in Spanish. But I also expect it to be great even under translation, because literature is about a lot more than simple prose.

>>8490467
It is.
But youre the one who read it and didnt understand shit.

Whos the idiot here, anon.

I like stats too much.
Before I start a book I make sure to find an edition with the same number of pages on Goodreads.
Every time I finish a book I check my number of pages read this year, and my most read authors.
I only started 2666 because I didn't like Infinite Jest and I don't want it to be my longest book of 2016.

I read horror to laugh at the characters when they do stupid things.

At the start of every semester I am overly anxious that I am not smart enough or ready for the type of discussion involved in a graduate level seminar.

Every class is full of the most obvious and boring topics of debate and I often leave wondering why I bothered showing up to class and feeling as if something was left out and there had to of been more to the topic discussed

I unironically and completely seriously believe that people are just pretending to like the incredibly long and notoriously difficult to read classics (Ulysses the prime example) out of fear for appearing a pleb and sunk cost fallacy. They spend so long reading the books, likely several months, trudging through the boredom, having to stop and reread pages after realizing you understood/remember nothing of what you just read - that when they finally get to the end they're overwhelmed by an enormous sense of accomplishment. They actually made it through, it was months but they finished the behemoth that everyone raises up as the best literature of all time. Are they really gonna sit there and say after all those months of going trudging through that it wasn't good or they didn't like it, essentially saying they wasted all their time and effort? Are they really gonna say it wasn't good when its regarded so highly? Of course not

I'm not saying there's no literary merit to these books, rather I think that only 1% are actually at the level where they can truly get it. And because that 1% are usually made up of influential people (other writers, university professors, top regarded critics) the books are held up as this pinnacle and the other 99% just try to fit in and continue the myth even if they don't believe (or more accurately, understand) it

>>8480011
jane austen isnt even the best female writer, chump.

>>8490573
Nice post.
Ur second paragraph, tho.
Would you prefer for idiots to not bow under the authority of critics and suppossed 'experts in literature'?

Laugh it out, drink it out
Let it be

>>8490573
no shit

>>8490491
Not an argument.

Why is it good?

I'm beginning to unironically develop the notion that straight men and women in general are unable to fully comprehend literature

>>8490666
HA! faggot

>>8478368
did you make this post just so you could type piecemeal?

wtf does that even mean?

>>8490666
Behold!

Was it not written? Was it not written in the holy scripture, that the devil would come and tempt thee, and his form would be homosexual and mildly uncomforting?

>>8490700
It (mildly humorously) refers to the poor knight's system of purchasing his armour "piece maille", or piece of maille by piece of maille.

No idea what that's got to do with anon's post though.

>>8478011
I have a dislike for what is considered the 'mainstream' part of the literary canon and always go for the lesser known and niche books. I secretly worry that I only do this to inflate my ego and that I'm missing out on some good literature because of this habit.

>>8490620
>Asking for anon to summarize Cervantes in 4 words on a fucking imageboard

Pathetic.
>Still not an argument
I know. But why would any anon need to argue with you, anon.

>>8491040
yeah, you're a faggot

>I know better than the collective conscious of humans today and of humans past.

>>8490700
>>8490713
Are you two really this stupid?

>>8491076
>Asking for anon to summarize Cervantes in 4 words
What.

>>8491112
Yes.

>>8491115
Why would you use four words to summarise Cervantes?

That seems needlessly difficult, anon.

>>8491084
Come to think of it, it was massively wrong sometimes. Also, define the collective consciousness of the totality of humanity at one moment in time. Spoiler alert: you can't. But thanks for the reality check anyway.

>>8491116
Oh.

>>8483716
Divine Inspiration. God is the wellspring of all artistry.

>>8483716
Nature motherfucker.

And if you want to keep playing this game, we end up with the Unmoved Mover.

>>8489157
damn anti-Semites

>>8481805
Just go to graduates school with your English degree

>>8488705
woah, im not that guy, but i relate to both posts. why did you say that? howd you guess?

>>8492613
Due to historical oppression, faggots have erected a tight-knit culture.

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i'm entirely resistant to diagnosing myself with anything so i'm not going to go into depression this adhd that, but i think i have a markedly low attention span and a seriously indolent, avoidant strain in myself; and it's only gotten worse from years and years of half-skimming and clicking around on the computer. ironically, i have 'the shallows' marked on some backlog somewhere.

i've read only 20 or so books in the past 2 or 3 years. even though i have multiple bookshelves full of them. i think of myself as someone who reads, even presenting myself as that, but i can barely get myself off the computer... off the anxious internet donuts... to just sit quietly with a book, a pen and a notepad, and focus. in those brief moments that i do, i feel better than i ever have.

('feeling better' isn't the end i'm looking for, i should say. i'm not reading for happiness or pleasure, but because it brings me outside of myself momentarily. it reshapes me. it's an activity that requires attention and resolve, with joys and insights television and the stupid shit i lazily consume can barely come close to. -- my attention span is so low i can barely sit through movies, of which i've probably watched 4 of in the past year or two; if i'm watching tv i have to be doing something on top of it -- instead of feeling myself decompose and slide out of view like i do when i lie in bed with my laptop on my stomach for 12 hours, i feel myself, still decomposing, recompose and change in relation to the text. there's nothing inert in a book.)

i'm getting better slowly but most of the time i feel that i'll be this weak forever, that it's part of my constitution. that an oven bag and some halcion may be the only way out; some horrid my chemical romance shit that would make my mummy sad. i want to get myself out of this mess, but it seems like the path there is full of snake oil self help on the one side, and gross youtube YA john green tumblr full of pictures of ugly clean desks and faux-victorian book covers with no names fuckery reading fetish shit.

apologies for such a long post tear me to shreds

>>8492686
should read 'on the other' after 'fuckery reading fetish shit'..

at least i quit smoking weed... but it's only been 3 days so far

Jesus christ, how the fuck did /lit/ become so fucking pseudo and casual?

>people praising Dostoyevski
>not having read Greeks

I will never open /lit/ ever again jesus.

>>8492738
P S E U D

>>8492738
Agreed. This place is a shithole now.

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>>8492686
beg my pards

>>8492764
tl;dr im lazy n can't pay attention to dick im sad lol etc etc reading is cool but hard etc etc

thank u for reading though

>>8492686
>>8492782
I have diagnosed ADHD (and, I suspect, undiagnosed—other problems which I will never admit to in case I get denied ADHD medication) and I read all the time. It's easy enough, as long as you're engaged by the subject matter. It absolutely helps to shut down your computer and just spend a solid hour reading. It is in fact possible to do.

Besides, one book every ~two months isn't THAT bad, depending on the size of the book and the free time you actually have. Although I usually read about twenty books at a time, so I probably am not a good judge of such things (as I usually finish lots of books all at the same time, after lots of time reading).

>>8492686
Nice post.