If you were to go back in time and tell your 18-year-old self

>>9626551
My diary desu

>>9626551
The bible

Unironically the Greeks and even moreso the Romans. I don't think I would have been ready for some of the more literary or philosophical works, but the histories could have done me a lot of good I think. Besides the general "literary foundation" cited by lit users as a reason for starting with the Greeks, on a personal level as someone growing up with either an absent or a very negative father figure in my life, I learned a lot about masculinity from the Greeks and Romans that I think people with more healthy family situations naturally learned as kids. They helped me (and continue to do so) to get at least some grasp on what life looks like as a man, and have done a lot to lead me in the right direction.

I'm 24 now and started reading them at 22, but I just wish I had read them earlier. I went through college and my most tenderly formative years with no guidance, and almost totally stagnated as a person until after graduation, which is when I started reading some Greeks. I've grown a lot since then, but that growth would have come easier and gone further in an "easy" environment like a college campus, with so many opportunities to meet new people and try new things.

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>>9626551

This. I can't really say whether it's amazing or not, I'm not that well read yet, but I had long held a sort of blind faith that 'my country' was the good guys, encouraged by my father. This book helped me to understand the much more amoral existence of governments, or at least see them in a completely different light. It made me stop wasting my time concerning myself with meaningless propaganda politics and instead focusing on improving my awareness of things.

>>9626551
Read and reread Milton. Read until you know him completely. Read until he is a dead fish in the water, as DH Lawrence would say.

>>9626654
How much background in the bible would you recommend having for reading Milton? Obviously it's biblical in content, but from my mere passing knowledge of his topic, it seems like a Thomas Mann sort of mass-extrapolation of source material that's very brief in the actual bible.

i just would have told myself to manage my time better and read more instead of fucking around so much on the internet

if i could convert all the time i wasted shitposting and playing videogames as a teenager i would be fluent in another language, or have read another 150/200 books easy

>>9626551
I was well on the way to discovering what I needed to be reading by 18.
13, on the other hand... we could have been a contender...

>>9626551
If I could go back in time and see my 18 year old self I would just beat the shit out of him. He'll figure it out when he's older.

>>9626551
That cunt is gonna knock everything over. Not that I care about the condition and care of books, it's just that's a load of work to clean up.

Fuck that guy.

I am 18 and am reading the Odyssey now after having finished the Iliad, guess I'm on the right course desu

I'm 19 and I've been watching tos and tng so I guess I'm on the right track d e s u

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the top 100

the greeks, the bible, the divine comedy, paradise lost and ulysses

>>9626551
I'm not sure I would tell myself to read anything different. I'd only have the appreciation for my favorite books now if I'd read those other books then

>>9627482
how is there not a single Delillo on here

>>9627482
>>9627858
because it's a fake list.

>>9627965
your face is a fake list

Some IT related stuff

I think at 18 I got lucky with what I chose to read despite my lack of wider knowledge and I wouldn't really alter it much.

>>9628100
What did you read?

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I will only tell him that i am his only chance of stop being a virgin, i know that he will submit his chubby boipussi to me.

>>9626640
Almost precisely this.

No rush mate. Still slogging through at 26, feeling reinvigorated even at such an old, decrepit age.

Keep your nose to the page anon

>back in time
>18

You overestimate this board

>>9628463
W-who's the artist of that image.

>>9626551
i wouldnt change anything

>>9626551
I would tell him how to write poetry. (I am 18 and am just now trying to write verse. It's so difficult.)