Literary confession thread

I haven't read anything by a woman in 4 years

I didn't start with the Greeks.

The idea for a novel I'm in love with at the moment is literally just Blood Meridian and I know it

i read exactly 0 books last year (2016) .

I unironically love Infinite Jest.

>>8893227

im an atheist and I browse reddit

>>8893227
This is my first day on this board

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I made it a third of the way through Dhalgren before giving up in disgust. That book is shit

I stopped reading The Story of The Eye because I was super disgusted with it
I know that makes me a pussy but it's true

I read less than a hundred pages a day

I like a lot of Borges' stories but in a large number of his fictions I feel like he is trying far too hard to be intellectual and profound. Also, a lot of his ideas are reused over and over.

I've never read Infinite Jest. I don't even own the book.

>>8893456
>I've never read Infinite Jest. I don't even own the book
You are the same as like 60% of this board to be honest senpai.
>>8893390
You too.

I worry I've started too late. I'm 22, and only for a year now have I finally lost interest in all video games. I read about Nabokov starting at 12, and Bloom saying he, like every other twelve year old in the nation, read Julius Caesar when he was twelve. Fuck.

I've read ~120 books this year, including bigguns like Ulysses, IJ (reread), Moby Dick, Brothers K, C&P, Bible, Blood Meridian, Histories, Peloponnesian War, and then the entirety of the Greek tragedians, and Aristophanes, half of Shakespeare, half of Plato, and then some pick and choose.

I've made progress but I wonder if I'll ever be able to articulate myself like Bloom or some of my professors or even some of you fogeys.

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I've read more visual novels than actual novels this year.

>>8893508

You're only a few years behind. Use that anxiety to motivate yourself to put in a few extra hours everyday.

>>8893390
anyone who reads more than 40 is a virgin

>>8893508
You've read more books in a year than most il/lit/erates will read in 5
You're doing fine my bud

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i like erotic novels

>>8893508
this post made me feel anxious

I havnt finished a book in my entire life. Considering some cioran though.

>>8893227
I used to write elaborate greentexts about seeing John Green around Indianapolis, plus some other writers. Only one of them about John Meme was true. The only other true one was about seeing Houellebecq in a Carrefour.

>>8893579
Do share

>>8893227
I idolize Hitler and aspire to revive National Socialism.

Today I was foolish enough to think I would find a writing thread on /lit/.

>>8893599
I aspire to revive socialism in general.

>>8893508
i would really like to know your list of 120 books that you've read.

how about a list of ALL the books you've ever read?

>>8893227
I always prefer the movie cuz I didn't read the book lol too many wurdz n sheit

>>8893227
I enjoy buying/collecting books and building up my personal library more than I enjoy reading.

I'm incredibly embarrassed while my wife and I are socializing with our friends because most of them have literary degrees, while she hasn't so much as finished a book for any higher reading level than a 13 year old.
I love her endlessly, but I wish she would take interest in more intellectually stimulating literature

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I love all of big boy malcolm's books

>>8893260
>>8893563
Well, yeah. That's what I expect for the typical user of the board who ridicules any book that isn't strictly dry philosophy or some 1000-page novel written hundreds of years ago.

>>8893263
You can't not fall in love with a book that takes that long to read. It's practically Stockholm Syndrome.

>>8893508
How do you have so much free time?

>>8893593
>go to the giant carrefour near me
>in the wine aisle
>see a guy in a huge parka even though it's a pretty mild September
>could it be?
>it is
>try not to drop my spaghetti
>don't say anything
>continue shopping
>see him at a few other spots in the store
>at one point he brushes past me and says "pardon"
That's the extent of the interaction. I was too shy/self-concious about my French to approach him. Also, if I were him, I would hate to be bothered in my neighborhood supermarket.

>>8893559
same. Who the fuck am I

>>8893508
It's not about the amount of books you've read, it's your level of understanding and ability to critically think about them. If you find yourself having to search up every idea about a book because you missed it while reading, you need to slow down.

>>8893366
Nothing to be ashamed about. Even as a faggot myself this book was shit.

I read a lot of romance books. I know lit doesn't approve, but I'm addicted.

>>8893235
I haven't read anything by a woman since I read Harry Potter in middle school.

>>8894942
Now share the John Meme story

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I once read Bolo! and I don't even like sci-fi.

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All the cashiers at one of my local bookstore are cute girls.

>tfw always make sure to stick around a bit after paying
>tfw they never comment on the books I buy

>>8896257
you made me laugh, keep it tight!

I steal all my opinions about books from other people

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>>8896257

>>8893235
>>8896149
This isn't anything to be ashamed of.

Sometimes I keep on reading although I don't have the feeling I fully understand what is going on in the book or in a scene.

>>8893508
Nice work, anon.

And I'm not talking about the books you read.

>>8896302
IKTF
Especially when tired, its just like you're reading the individual words but not putting them together with the rest of the words in a sentence and learning absolutely fucking nothing. I did this for almost the entirety of Dante's Inferno and I feel like I wasted several hours of my life staring at words that I didn't understand.

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>Be me
>Be 16
>Get into literature
>Start with the memes
>Sophocles, Homer, Ovid, all the good stuff
>Read the entire bible
>Tackle the 19th century
>Gogol, Dosto, Melville, Twain
>I'm becoming better and faster at reading
>Can tell the quality of a book objectively
>Go into 20th century
>Joyce, Pynchon, Faulkner, Hemingway
>All the greats
>I finally come to the magnum opus
>I've heard so much about it
>Infinite Jest
>I crack it open and read a hundred pages
>2,3,4, 500 pages
>I reach the end
>I feel confused
>Quickly skim the book again
>I couldn't find any discernible talent
>It made Steven King looks like Cervantes
>mfw

>>8893381

It's worth finishing and thinking back on. Trust me, the disgust fades when you reread. I loved that book for its philosophical prowess, but it's also one of the raunchiest reads.

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>>8896343
kek

>>8896264
Hey, give me back my opinion about Voltaire's Candide, I'm gonna need it in a couple of days.

>>8896343
quality

I feel I won't apprehend/grasp truly any book that is not written in my native language or in any romantic one.

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I only read because I lost interest in everything else.

I guess it technically means reading interests me more than anything else, but it is just the tallest dwarf.

>>8896343
10/10

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>>8893254
Eh, this isn't as much of a problem as you think.

From a certain perspective, Dante's Inferno is just Book 6 of The Aenied. Of course, we in posterity know that this isn't the case, because we know how Dante diverged and developed from his obvious source of inspiration, and it's worth at least trying to write your novel, to see if in the unraveling a similar development takes place, and your work in the end becomes something other than "literally Blood Meridian".

It took me over a month to get just half way through Last and First Men, at which l point I gave up and returned it

I have been reading The Recognitions 6 months ago.

I gave up 200 pages into The Brothers Karamazov. I found it painfully boring.

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>>8896343

>>8896537
Did you at least read the grand inquisitor?

I haven't read a single page in 2 days. I spend my free time reading about romantic affairs, something I'll never have in my life, and I think suicide every day.

>>8896606
By 'affairs' I don't extramarital though, just relationships in general.

>>8896606
you have never been in a relationship?

I read nothing but genre fiction and I read over 80 books this year.

>>8896343
underage b& delicious

>>8896632
No, I was too ugly in my teenage years, and now I'm too inexperienced and clueless. Up until a few months I never cared that much as I was too busy reading.

>>8896640
What happened now that makes you suddenly care about?

>>8896649
I'm not sure, some part of me feels like now, in my twenties, I'm supposed to experiment and find love, sleep around even, as it would be inappropriate later.

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>>8896682

>tfw you're 20 and you realize you only have a bit of time left before you can experience having your first love experiences at a young age

>>8896691
>at a young age
>20

it's too late for you

>>8893227
I never read the last 10-20 pages of War and Peace where Tolstoy goes on to explain history in his own view. Yeah, I'm a bad a person.

>>8896710
Me neither.

>>8893246
Came here to post this.

>>8896691
It's pretty fucking sweet bruh, id get on it if I were you
Every great writer had a young love who it didn't work out with

>>8896710
The entire second part of the epilogue was a waste of time. He'd already made his point many times by then and it was disappointing to get so little information on the characters in the last 100 or so pages.

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>>8896733
So you are telling me there is a chance I get to become a great writer one day, partially inspired by those two horrible years with that certain girl.
Oh boy

>>8893540
I read less than 40 and i'm virgin ;_;

>>8893227
I unironically love Stephen King

>>8896160
Bolo in italian is the chewed food mixed with saliva. hih.

>>8896763
anon thats so sad

>>8896763
There are numerous options, lets talk about two easy ones:
1, Install tinder, like everyone, chat up everyone, lose virginity or acquire potential romantic partner in a matter of weeks.
2,Try talking to women.
If there seems to some chemistry, ask them out
If no, become good friends and ask them to introduce you to friends looking for romantic partners.
Other factors include your attractiveness and perceived social standing.
Godspeed anon, fuck the world like it is meant to be fucked by men. Remember that you have roughly twice as much female ancestors as males, you were born to make it!

>>8893411
no wonder pickard drew inspiration from him

overly intellectual and pretentious

>>8896763
desu im a virgin too but i like shitposting

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My favorite fantasy novel is Mistborn

I skipped part of John Galt's monologue in atlas shrugged, desu

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>>8896806
>talking to strangers

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I take /lit/s consensus opinions on literature as fact even though I haven't read the vast majority of works discussed here.

I think I'm too stupid to read difficult philosophical texts, or behemoth novels like GR and IJ

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>>8893275
Me too, I also pick fights with both Trump supporters and SJWs. I pick apart their arguments and revel in the downvotes they give me.

>>8896806
I'm averagely attractive but too young to make the usage of tinder-like-stuff socially acceptable. I'll have to do it the old way.
Thanks anon, your support gave me straight!

I unironically love Bukowski and Ken Kesey. They are my favorite

>>8896745
Yep
Hardship breeds creativity, turn that hurt into a true literary novel

ASOIAF was the first book series to actually intrigue me as a teenager, that then pushed me to start reading an abnormal (by my degree) amount of books.

Thanks GRRM.

>>8896838
Everyone who's not part of the Ayn Rand society skipped part of that shit

I can only read spanish literature.
I know that spanish lit is one of the most solid lit canons but I am really ashamed of not being able to appreciate foreign works.

>>8896823
No fucking shit!? I always try to talk to people about it but nobody knows what it is or its too pleb

I haven't read any major books by any russian classic. Reason being, they were shoving that shit down our throats in highschool(russia) and everyone pretty much grew to hate the authors

>>8896910
What do they teach in lit classes in Russia?

>>8896910
Everyone hates Tolstoy and Dosty in Russia?

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Sometimes I worry that my antisocial tendencies and inability to understand other people will prevent me from ever being able to write interesting, complex characters that aren't just transparent reflections of myself.

>>8896544
Nope. I've heard that's the best part though.

>>8896918
Tolstoy is a huge meme because of how big W&P are, Dosto is fine, but considering how they make schoolkids read his books - most dont understand shit and drop them.

>>8896922
On the bright side you can always write The Stranger 2: Electric Boogaloo

>>8896981
I can't blame them, I remember that there was another fucking War and Peace adaptation last year by the BBC as if there aren't countless English and Russian movies on it already.

>>8896980
you can read it on its own merit its an interesting story

>>8896852
/r/iamverysmart

I think El Aleph is better than Ficciones

>>8893599
This. I started as a normie Trump supporter who actually hoped that he wasn't racist or sexist. Now I get more and more fascist everyday,

Anna Karenina was boring despite being interesting.

>>8893381
>disgusted by The Story Of The Eye
>browses 4chan

I thought everyone starts with /b/ or the porn boards when they first find out about this place

>>8893599
What a sad and lonely person you must be.

>>8893508
You are doing fine anon
I started at 18 (19 now) and feel the same way
You read more than me, even tho im NEET, and more important works, well done

>>8896699
I did have a short relationship with a bipolar crazy girl when i was 17 (she was 20), it lasted only 3 months but it was a fun ride, didnt have sex with her, but had my first sexual experience at 18 with other chick, it was pretty meh, then a week later i got my dick sucked for the first time, it was pretty meh, since then, nothing.
Before any of this I fell in love with sevelar girls during my teen years, used to think about them all day and it hurted like hell, but it was really platonic, all those girls had bf's so i didnt stand a chance
I hope that counts
Did I made it

>>8896806
thanks for the inspo
feels nice to not get called a loser
good luck to all the losers ITT, you are gonna make it, just dont kill yourself and hide your power level

>>8896895
literature from spain? or literature in spanish?
whats your favorite Borges, bro?

I have read over 40 Stephen King books, liking the vast majority.

>>8897214
I think I started with tg?

>>8896640
You and I seem unbelievably similar, was the only woman you've ever loved an 8 pushing 9/10 who appeared in your life out of the blue then vanished like so much smoke when you tried to hold on to her as well?

>>8897323
Literature in spanish.

My favorite Borges short story is El Evangelio según Marcos. Herbert Quain is pretty great too.

>>8897369
I shouldn't say I loved her because we never got together and I knew her for a few months only.

>>8897392
And what do you think of bolaño?

I avoid buying heavy literature in person because i don't want to look like a pseud i avoid buying vagina fiction in person because i don't want to look like a fig

>>8897474
I feel the same way on the way to the bookstore, but when im there i try to break the ice with the booksellers and make some jokes about bad writers or whatever, then i buy something and everything works out fine
no one really cares about what you read anon, but they will look you weird if they sense you are all worked up inside

I was worried about abusing the general status updates on Goodreads.

But after I had gotten one like for being dramatic about reading a Beatrice small novel, I decided to shrug and not worry about it. As long as I have a point to them, I should be fine.

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>>8893599
>mfw there are ideologues on /lit/

>>8897461
Los Detectives Salvajes is the pinnacle of spanish literature and the perfect mix of Arlt and Borges.

for the last 2 months my backlog got fucking massive and i've been picking and droppin books in you or two days
im not gonna make it

>>8896537
t. I find YA interesting

>>8897522
2666 was better, is GOAT
Bolaño is great but really overrated imo

>>8893227
i always like the OP pics of these thread
i dont know why they always fit so well
these threads are like a comfy version of r9k inside /lit/

>>8897528

t. YA

>>8893227

I am literally autistic and I don't understand the point of most novesl. It seems like they are using a story to communicate ideas that they could get across in only a few pages.

i read a lot but i fear that i don't think critically about any of it

I've read and reread George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series over and over (with breaks) for the past 3 years. I'm about to start my 6th reread. Help.

>>8897687
The ideas are secondary. The point of most novels is escapism -- feeling like you are experiencing the lives of other people.

>>8897786
?
just read another book nigga

I left my history PhD program to go work a marketing job in tech. Published a short story and some stuff in the LA Review of Books, but now I just indulge in bourgeois comforts. The literary life was too tough, man

>>8897531
2666 was great too, but I prefer Los Detectives Salvajes.
I think Bolaño deserves to be so acclaimed, he was exactly what spanish lit needed to broke away from magic realism.

>>8897829
My mindset is "GRRM will come out with the sixth book soon whenever I start." Good luck with that. There's something comforting about seeing the same vast crowd of characters again - like seeing old friends.

I've read about 60 books this year separate from the series, so it's not like I'm drowning myself in it.

>>8893227
I love Atlas Shrugged. I think it might be my favourite novel

>>8897666
t. you don't make any fucking sense
BK is one of the best novels of the 19th century, if not the best. Fucking pleb.

>>8893508
I feel you. I was really getting into books at 10 or so, progressed from kids books into /lit/ adult novels. Then we got windows xp, ps2, etc. and I spent a decade playing 60 hours of vidya a week. Now my brain is mush, ggnore. There's always next life, r-right?

>>8897687
the medium is the message

>>8897937
>novel

It's an epic novel, mate.

>>8898187
Yeah it is pretty cool

>>8893263

I sometimes dream about rereading it, but I know it wouldn't be the same experience

>>8893533
They could have been light novels!

>>8893556
>>8896145
Have someone read them to you. It's hilarious. Also try to make them use different voices.

>>8893599
Trotsky would have been so disappointed in you desu

>>8896537
The best part is verdict of the trial at the end of the book. Try again pls. It picks up post-Fyodor beating

>>8896875
You're still a teen aren't you

>>8897525
Just ignore it for a bit. Read what you want to read and after you've hit a steady pace then start going through your backlog. Maybe alternate between heavy and light books

>>Im pretty sure im not smart enough to thoroughly analyze anything that I read

>>8898079
>t. you don't make any fucking sense

1. You implied that a person finding BK boring meant that they would [only] find Young Adult novels interesting.
2. I implied that you were a young adult based on your reductive accusation.

>BK is one of the best novels of the 19th century, if not the best.

Based on what standards?

>Fucking pleb.

You.

I basically only read genre fiction because it is more interesting to me.

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>>8893235
I recently read The Vegetarian and Han Kang. I highly recommend it. It's extremely erotic, but it's not a romance novel.

>>8897019
keeeeek

>>8893366
You've got to get to the end. It's not about enjoying it; it's the cure for nihilism. Eccentric repetition of the same mood, until it's been seen from every possible angle.

Since Bob Dylan won the Nobel, I've realised that literature's about to die and is irrelevant to modern life, but I've kind of made it into the meaning of my life; I want to find a different career, but I've just now gotten to a point where I can seriously take up lit as my career, and I'm getting into my mid-twenties and people are expecting me to start my productive, adult life - so I'm caving to the pressure to wilfully enter a dying and very low income profession, just because it's, apparently, the dignified move.

>>8899076
BEST KOREA

I can read 200 pages a day

It took me most my life, thus far, to start reading properly. I've never had trouble reading or comprehending text, but I am a slow reader and often get lost in thought whilst reading. I've recently become better at maintaining my concentration. I've been properly reading now for three months and have really enjoyed it.

>>8897195
/lit/

>>8899472
If you use an e-reader, try the Open Dyslexic font. I seem to be able to concentrate better when I use it.

>>8899484
I never thought I was dyslexic, but I will try it out none the less. Thank you for the advice!

>>8893508
>parent was an artist
>used to love reading
>dyslexic to the point of illiterate
>artist parent realized I had worth
>pushed me everyday, dedicated years to get me at a normal level
>suddenly, aged 9, I was ahead
>way ahead
>used to walk around with these huge books feeling so proud
>kept reading
>kept reading
>then pokemon ruby came out

It's been a slow recovery.

I'm 35 now.

I read a lot of classics in high school and college, like great Gatsby, scarlet letter, notes from underground, etc.

However, I don't remember a goddamn thing from them. Not a single thing.

I could read them now and it would probably be like reading a book I've never read before.

>>8899076
shiiiieeet glad to see korean lit getting some love

I've never read Infinite Death.

>>8893235
>Choosing a book by the gender of its writer
wew

>>8893540
>tfw when havent got laid since Easter when I stepped up to 200 a day

>>8896922
Fuck. Are you me? I've been noticing that shit in my writing currently. I need to get out more, but I hate everyone that knows my name.

The only thing I'm able to do well and now I'm worried I've already lost it. I want to vomit.

>>8893227
The only thing I've enjoyed reading lately are quest threads I've converted into ebook form.

I just lay around, play some tunes, and read 'em. It's so easy and fun, I can't help it.

Also, my writing style has been tainted by Jap light novels, but I don't care because I've never had more fun writing before. I know it's really bad because I let my weeb friends read it, all of them degenerate losers, and they fucking loved what I wrote.

I'm ashamed.

>>8896420
>but it is just the tallest dwarf

Too real.

>>8893227

In the winter I usually end up reading more fanfiction than anything. This year is no exception.

Call me pleb, but I can't seem to enjoy anything written pre-18th century or later. I completely dismiss all recommendations of some older literature, perhaps except some Bible books and Shakespeare.
However I immensely enjoy 19th and 20th centuries, as well as some contemporary lit

>>8899199
reminder that actual literature has always been almost exclusively a passion of the elite and will remain that way
ignore all the pleb genrefags

>>8898350
>Based on what standards?
The Western motherfucking CANON.

>>8904049
P L E B
L
E
B

>>8893349
you better get out now as you can cause later it will be too late

I fell asleep multiple times trying to read Dostoyevsky.All I really want out of literature is metaphysical musings and vividly described gay sex.

>>8893533
M-me too senpai
At least they were realdeal ones

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>>8893227
I think "it the current year" posts are more funny when you read them 3 years later

>>8903273
I don't but it just so happens that I haven't read a book by a woman in 4 years

I find The Unvanquished to be the single most irritating and mind numbing piece of western fiction I've ever read, which sucks because a Reconstruction era story SHOULD be motivating to me but Faulkner writes like goddamn paint drying.
His short form gothic horror was unimpressive as well but horror literature was never my thing anyways.