So, /lit/, I have an unironic challenge for you today: what

>>9705561
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky

Homer, if u read it a certain way

>>9705564

how?

Middlemarch made me strive for greater sympathy/empathy, which has made me more optimistic in general.

>>9705570
Seconded. Also asking "how" to any other book suggestions.

>>9705570
Did you read it?

>>9705615

i have.

The Old Man and the Sea

Really demonstrates the value and honor of struggle in one's life.

the bible

>>9705565
What certain way? I just started Iliad.

>>9705561
I should think you're asking us to speak from experience then?

I found the Magic Mountain put me in full contact with my mortality in a very direct way, which is something I think a lot of fiction does, by Mann has a way with words and I began to feel terrified and physically sick in intense ways while reading, and I think I'm now (after having read it) in a more congenial relationship with my own mortality

>>9705703
*a lot of fiction does, but* Mann*

>>9705561
The Death of Ivan Ilich might have that effect.

>>9705716
I can second this

and so can Norm Macdonald heh

Hadji Murat

Siddhartha.

>>9705561
The Bible

>>9705779
shows over boys

>>9705677
Fuck, I was about to type that. The Old Man and the Sea was Papa's closest flirtation with the Divine. "Man can be destroyed, but not defeated", that always stuck with me. His idea of duty, and upholding it as the highest virtue, and relentless pursuit of it in the face of struggle, man, it is honestly one of the greatest books ever written. Recently, I came across a thread where Anons were hating on him, comparing his prose with Faulkner's, claiming the latter's is superior because of complexity.
I felt a little sad, not for Papa, though, but anyone who interpreted the simplicity of his writing to be without substance. And in terms of it, how heavy it is! The boy's love for a teacher, his master, a quiet, devotional reverence. I wish I could write like him. Alas, truly inimitable, Papa. Rest in peace.

>>9705779
>>9705692
Pave the path clear of the blinded zealots! Men of rationale have arrived! Shower with feathers, for the one atop their fedora shudders in deference. I cannot see their faces, for the trench coats hide their objectively blemished faces, but I know that there rests pride, for they have defeated "le god"! I tip my hat to you good sirs.

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First one that comes to mind is Talks with a Devil by PD Ouspensky

>>9705570

Accept suffering and gain atonement through it.

>>9705716
SUPERIOR POST HERE

I Am A Cat

>>9705570
its really long so it must be good

the qu'ran

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>>9705561
Faust is you.

John Gardner's Grendel, but only if you read analysis or are taught the book alongside reading it. And, of course, are familiar with Beowulf.

Crime & Punishment is a good second, but I feel like it only reinforces certain patterns of thinking that plague modern readers. Not that its a criticism of Dostoevsky's work itself.

No work read in a vacuum is going to be revelatory in and of itself.

>>9706055
Good post.