help me get into /lit/

>>9064438
Whatever you do, don't get tricked into reading meme shit like Infinite Jest

>>9064455
Are greeks books easy enough to read? I might be interesed in them.
>>9064458
Ye I downloaded it and it had like one thousand pages holy fuck

>>9064438

Listen to audiobooks while you go to work or your'e at work. It's what I do.

If you don't work that's the first thing you should do instead of being retarded and worrying about reading a book.

>>9064438

Just find the /lit/ starter kit in the wiki. Most people here hate it because it's all "pleb" books, but that's the point. They're books commonly assigned to high school English classes because they're great books for introducing plebs into reading for deeper purposes. They're all very accessible and should get you thinking about character development, themes, and prose style.

However if you don't care about that and just want to read for the sake of reading, just get a Harry Potter or a Stephen King and stop visiting /lit/.

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>>9064438
God speed anon, I wish you the best of luck.

Keep in mind that if you don't understand something, reread it. Hell, annotate in the margins if you have to.. I do it with non-fiction that I own.

Read things that interest you, if you find the greeks too hard to read after a few tries, don't feel bad moving to a paperback fiction.

>What interests you?
There are books about everything, from drug addled adventures to typical fantasy.
Don't worry about big words man, chances are if you don't understand a word you can infer its meaning from the passage. If you want a more concrete idea of what the word means it's a few fucking clicks away.

Supplement starting with the Greeks with some comfy yet still redeemable novels like:

East of Eden, Cannery Row, or anything Steinbeck, really
Watership Down
Stoner

>>9064467
Easy enough, the translator plays a role Too and there are translations that sacrifice prose for accuracy and vice versa. I would recommend starting the the Fagles translation of the Odyssey if you want to jump into Greek lit.

Writers like James Joyce use tons of allusions to classic literature including Shakespeare and it's prevalent enough that you can start to see your blind spots. If you start there you may be able to get an idea of where you should begin by the end, but you'll miss a lot by virtue of not having the background.

The period from 1900 - 1950 has some amazing authors: James Joyce, Hemingway, Fitzgerald. Of them I've found Hemingway knows how to tell an excellent story while not leaning too heavily on allusion. If you want to start with him, I really enjoyed "the Sun Also Rises" which is where I started. he is quite prolific and has a very distinct (and addictive) style.

Start with the normie stuff
Great gatsby
1984
Slaughterhouse 5
Etc.

Don't get tricked into starting with difficult stuff by the poseurs on this board.

>>9064438

The only thing you can and should do is start with the greeks. Otherwise you won't understand what you are reading (unless you're reading shitty fiction but then you should just kys). After you've spent a year or two reading and seriously contemplating the Greeks I recommend you to spend atleast another year with roman literature + rigorous Bible studies.

After this you are ready for babbys first literature: I recommend Harry Potter when it comes to literary fiction and for poetry you should read Rupi Kaur's poems, they're short but wonderful and contain some splendid imagery -- Kaur truly is a masterful poet, probably the best for the last 300 years or so (at the very least).

In about 3-4 years I'd say you could start to tackle the literary end bosses which would be works from authors like Harper Lee, George Orwell, Suzanne Collins (whose dystopian world is far more developed and profound than say Orwell's -- although his 1984 is still very much relevant to todays society [just look at Trump after you've read 1984, it's an eye opener to say the least) and Jane Austen.

It's a long and arduous path for the individual who wants to become /lit/ - but it is definitely possible if you are intelligent and persistent. I've come a long way myself, currrently reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- which although a heavy read because of it's dense prose and subtle allusions, I find I can sort of enjoy and understand, and that mostly thanks to the very serious background training I explained earlier.

Good luck and god speed, Anon! I believe in you!

Just go back to your fames and anime, my dude. It's ok. We can't all make it.

>>9065795
>>9064458

this

just read JR or The Recognitions

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I understand the sentiment of there being too many books. This list we voted on last year is highly inconsistent in difficulty and quality with some poetry and philosophy scattered throughout. Basically just a glorified popularity contest. But for beginners I'll suggest 10 from that list from a variety of genres from easiest to most difficult (not Ulysses tier difficult even):

1984 (highschool, pleb, etc., recommended start anyways), The Master and Margarita, The Metamorphosis, The Stranger, Dubliners, Madame Bovary, Crime and Punishment, Stoner, Don Quixote, The Divine Comedy. Before The Divine Comedy you should read some other poetry of course. But don't neglect poetry despite any possible preconceptions towards it, it's an essential part of literature that's not to be missed

And of course don't listen to anything this guy says :} >>9065755

>>9066125

>Using the yearly meme list to recommend books

Sure, read The Divine Comedy while having read 0 books at all first or after having only ever read 1984 and Stoner. It sure will be not-pointless. :^)

>>9064438
Don't ask /lit/

Just grab a book that looks good and read it, you mong. You've been doing it every day since you were four, hopefully, it's just a little longer.

>>9066283
I did call it a glorified popularity contest and used books from it and would do so again. It wouldn't have made a smidgen of difference whether I included the chart in my post I suppose, but I wanted it to be a reference for OP as my post was entirely at his pleasure. You will not be so good to understand this. I can reasonably assume that OP has not read the Bible before. I did not include it in my recommendations and would do so again due to its plodding nature for a beginner. But for someone who has never read a poem of force or conviction before, how can they NOT be unaffected by the Divine Comedy? How can someone just shrug their shoulders in indifference to the lake of ice and dead souls at the center of hell or the horrific imagery in purgatory?

No, it won't be pointless and I could have included poems by Blake or Shelley or Horace or Herbert before, but as a beginner, I believe the Divine Comedy is something of a much more intriguing subject matter that OP might actually WANT to read instead of just struggling through. The chart is really only a gate and a guideline to more books than you or I or anyone using this God-forsaken website can imagine :}