What is the best book you have ever read?
>>6398614
Infinite Jest
>>6398614
My Struggle, call me a pleb if you must, but a book that is so relatable and beautifully written has yet to be challenged.
>>6398614
Moby dick
I'll admit I didn't understand what reading 300 pages about very specific whale parts had to do with the story, or what it symbolized.
>>6398679
>has yet to be challenged
Oh anon, I think you need to read up on your history. Especially the latter half of 1945.
>>6398614
Infinite Jest
>>6398614
Infinite Jest
>>6398834
>implying he didn't mean "Min Kamp" by Knausgard
>>6398614
The Name of the Wind, because I mostly read fantasy, not the pretentious shit /lit/ shitposts about. Solaris was pretty up there too.
>>6398614
I chuckled consistently throughout Catch-22. The imagery in Lolita was real good. The Stranger kept my attention best. Boy I just don't know, I'll probably insult other people's taste rather than introspecting and considering my own.
GR
Island- Aldous Huxley
Man that book is so thought provoking.
Philosophy of History
G W F Hegel
>>6399056
Schopenhauer should have outclassed Hegel but Hegel was too good of a speaker
>>6398614
Ulysses
Gravity's Rainbow
2666
Hamlet
Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Not even kidding.
>>6399070
>Hamlet
>Book
sǝʌɐǝן ɟo ǝsnoɥ
>>6399032
People who aren't well-read usually hate Infinite Jest, I don't really see your reasoning here.
>>6399056
>tfw reading The Science of Logic
>>6399044
lmao
>>6399076
>Hamlet
>Play
A play is not a book
>>6398614
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Probably read it at the perfect stage in my life.
>>6399400
Care to elaborate?
The best book would be Madame Bovary, but my favourite is The Savage Detectives
>>6398614
Arthur C. Clarke's Rama.
Infinite Jest
>>6398614
Dante's Inferno
The tin drum
The Magic Mountain.
J R by William Gaddis
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Once and Future King
infinite jest by david foster wallace
probably the greatest novel of all time
The Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra
The Holy Quran
Paradife Loft
>>6398892
At least you had enough introspection to realize that, which is more than can be said for a lot of people on this board.
I'm not that well read, but I'll say Lolita. I'll probably change my mind in a year's time, when I've read more.
>>6398614
Gravity's Rainbow or Underworld.
The Stranger
Ulysses
Gravity's Rainbow
Infinite Jest
The Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra
Go Dog Go
>>6398614
the moon and the bonfires
>>6398897
mah boi
>>6398614
>ever
I won't answer that because I can't. But here's one I've been fascinated with recently.
>>6399406
19, impressionable, desperately looking for validation as an intellectual being
Absalom, Absalom!
Faulkner
The Divine Comedy is the eternal GOAT.
>>6398614
My 745 pages novel. Still unpublished but surely the best book of this century.
Blood Meridian has gotten continually better as I return to it. I think it has one of the most beautiful opening pages I've ever read.
Literally nothing beats Ulysses
>>6400797
hell yes. i just read it and was fuckin stunned.
>tfw you must sleep, but i must dance
>>6400392
Ah, I just finished reading Sound and the Fury and I thought it was incredible, terribly confusing at parts but such a pleasure to read. Is Absalom, Absalom! good? I was about to put it on my next purchase list.
>>6398679
kek
>>6399414
same
Madame Bovary
IJ. though the pale king is pretty close...
>>6400088
nice oprah core m8
>>6400929
>sound and fury
>oprah core
Top kek. Most people wouldnt even be able to get past the first chapter without giving up in frustration
>>6398614
I really enjoyed Temeraire.
I know its YA shit and to be honest it's not even a good book and the rest of the series is shit, but that was the book I enjoyed most and so it is the best book I have read.
ITT: pseudo intellectuals with terrible taste.
>>6400942
yeah, that's why it's one of her favorite books of all time... lmao you're just angry at your entry level shit homie.
Divina Commedia, King Lear, The Cantos.
>>6400947
>hurrr some celebrity likes this book that means its shit!!
Quit reading now.
>>6400940
Who cares how many fried sandwiches there are? Only in Amerifat.
>>6400957
i'm not saying that dude, i'm just saying it's basic. literature has gone a lot further since the sound and the fury and if that's your favorite book then you clearly haven't read enough.
Book of the New Sun
>>6399128
>A "Book" consisting of nothing but dialogue and brief scene descriptions
It's a play you autist.
I won't say the best, but my favorite is A Canticle for Leibowitz by far
>>6398690
Even as you come to understand the constituent parts of the whale, do you ever come truly closer to understanding the insurmountable mystery that is Moby Dick?
Buzz Aldrin, What Happened To You In All The Confusion? - Johan Harstad
It's like Jonathan Safran Foer without the cloying sentimentality.
I use audible and average a book a week, sometimes two books/week
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Favorite plays instead:
The Misunderstanding, Camus
Dirty Hands, Sartre
>>6401215
I average a book a week because I read on public transportation.
>>6398892
the Stranger is great and probably my favorite as well. His other book, The Plague, is up there as well
>>6398614
I don´t think there´s a book I have read that can classify as the best I read, damn I got so tangled up in literature that I just can´t pick one specific book. However, I recently re-read Faust by Goethe (I know... it´s a play) and everytime I read this play I found it more overwhelming and satisfactory.
>>6399076
Can't tell if b8 or genuine retard
Undoubtedly Infinite Jest.
Undoubtedly the best novel of the '90s, and maybe of the 20th c. (if we're being honest)
The Egyptian
>>6402108
Undoubtedly
>>6399071
Woolf guide
>God Tier
The Waves
Dalloway
Lighthouse
>Top Tier
Jacob's Room
Room of One's Own
>Mid Tier
Orlando
Three Guins
everything else is great
>>6402245
"Your opinions are shit" Nice compassion. Sounds like you need to remind yourself that this is just water.
>mfw the people who think they don't need dfw need him the most smh
>>6398614
single work: Gödel, Escher, Bach
>>6400223
really? that book was so mediocre for me
Absalom, Absalom!
>>6402310
How do people listen to wallace's speech and still remain this angry about life
The Demons
Dom Quixote
The Death of Ivan Ilich
>>6398614
The Bible.
>>6402525
Stop this meme already.
Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann.
The War for Civilization by Robert Fisk.
100 Years of Solitude
>>6398614
novel: TBK
short story collection: Ficciones
essay collection: ASFTINDA
nonfiction (not essays): GEB
The Brothers K. I can only point to one scene in its 700-something pages that bored me, and that was the prosecutor's speech, but then it picked up again immediately after. Other than that, I loved every page of it
Mrs. Dalloway
>>6403108
>the prosecutor's speech
Oooh, you mean The Brothers Karamazov, not The Brothers K.
>>6402525
It sure sold well
>>6403108
The characters are so archetypical that even today you can identify with them.
>this whole board is full of smerdyakov's
>>6399044
Could never get into it, really loved ape and essence though
>>6399507
Mein Niggur
>>6402842
true
>>6400994
I believe the word you are looking for is "novel", friendo.
>>6398614
The Madeleine Chronicles, by Marcel Proust.
In a distopic near future, young Marcel is out of cereals and milk for breakfast so he takes some madeleines and tea.
But what Marcel doesn't know is that eating those madeleines will change France's future since he's gonna lost a lot of time that will allow nazis to invade his country or whatever after 3000 pages.
In the meantime he'll become a NEET and an edgy gaylord, constantly whining for everything.
10/10 would read again.
The Confidence-Man
>>6403862
It's like Orwell with madeleines 10/10 IGN
>>6400972
>literature has gone a lot further since the sound and the fury
Please give examples
Objectively? The king james bible.
All books are nothing to me
>>6402249
I think youre being hard on orlando
and eveything that daffy posh bint wrote is Goddess Tier
>>6399032
Underworldbro. Love every bit of it, what a book.
Second might be Lord of the Flies but I guess /lit/-san will now disapprove of me.
>>6400972
>you clearly haven't read enough.
welcome to /lit/ where everyone is reading the same ten books all the time and nobody can discuss them.
>>6398614
The Gospel according to John is probably mine. I am a lukewarm catholic with serious reservations about the historicity of the Bible, and moreover I am rather skeptical of christian eschatology. Nevertheless, John's Gospel too me is sublime. Even if you aren't a christian, I recommend at least reading this. Exodus is probably a close second followed by Genesis. Good stuff.
>>6399032
>>these people have probably read less than 100 books
fewer, not less.
>>6404406
Why is less wrong?
>>6404415
I think few goes with things you can count.
>I have fewer than ten apples
>I have less of an aptitude for math than English
Also I think fewer goes with plurals generally. I'm not the guy who corrected you by the way.
>>6404403
>Exodus
Maybe the first half. The second half is dreadful since it's almost entirely God telling Moses exactly how the Tabernacle is to be constructed, which is then repeated verbatim later on.
I don't know why you guys don't take these threads more seriously...if you're going to troll, might as well make it funny, which, news flash, none of these posts are. All they are are recondite jokes that contain dry to no humor at best. AT BEST.
Thus, let me proclaim;
the only real answer here is Light in August.
>>6404458
Very true. I forgot that was in it, although the Exodus "story" itself is great. The minutia is exceedingly tedious.
The Bible by God
>>6404574
>by God
That guy has an uncanny acumen for seeming like several different people.
>>6404574
God hired a ghost writer for most of that, and the publishes have reworked it to the point that it's really hard to say it's still his work anymore.
>>6404599
did you forget that god is everything
>>6400863
not op, but I'm reading it now (80% done). It's more of a slog than either Sound and the Fury or As I Lay Dying. It feels more dense, and is kind of tough to read. Though the story is still pretty good and the prose is typical Faulkner great
1985 by Orson Welles, best book ever so far.
>>6405310
lol sophist
>>6403379
Pfff. I'm an Ivan.
*walks away into shadows*
Niels lyhne
Mason & Dixon
War & War
Infinite Jest
>>6398614
I'm not well read, but Tao Te Ching.
>>6405769
>War & War
confirmed good taste
>>6400940
mein neeg. i have the exact same edition too
>>6398614
Fellowship of the Ring and Treasure Island.
>>6398887
Fuck I hate kotes or kvothe's apprentice and his character is well over done, must admit I enjoyed it.
>>6399424
My man
i hated all the books i have read
>>6398614
120 Days of Sodom
>>6407255
>>6398614
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
>>6398614
War and Peace
Anna Karenina
The Death of Ivan Ilich
Kholstomer
Lolita
Hamlet
Macbeth
A Midsummer Night Dream
Henry IV
>>6399504
Mien neger
>>6398614
Infinite Jest
>>6400768
tell me about it
>>6398614
Divine Comedy, The Brothers Karamazov, Stoner, The Republic, Fear and Trembling, Book of the New Sun.
>>6411301
I know right
>>6398614
What is so polarizing about Infinite Jest? The only criticism of it comes from people what don't understand it, it seems.
>>6411522
I think it's because Wallace has a passionate fanbase, which naturally invites a backlash. Also I suppose his style is just not for everyone. It took me a little while to warm up to what he was doing with his writing--I found it somewhat offputting at first even; others don't get past that hump I suppose. A lot of the criticism of him is pretty empty though, like when the autism label gets memed at him (ridiculous given how deeply empathetic and insightful his writing is).
>>6411348
heehee
The Savage Detectives
>>6411547
Way to kill the discussion with actual discussion.
>>6398679
You didn't continue your original sentence after that restrictive clause...
Plus by Joseph McElroy
Seriously everyone go read it it's damn amazing.
Brothers Karamazov
>>6398614
>What is the best book you have ever read?
The next one. :^)
>>6404403
I thought Ecclesiastes was the most sublime book in the Bible.
>>6404403
have you never read Ecclesiastes?
>>6413691
>bible
Best book not best tranquilizer.
>>6398614
Gide
So be it
>>6399044
Hickeys essays in revisited were great. I just found two paperbacks like that in my collection.
A Sport and a Pastime.
>>6413691
You think that because it is.
>first existentialist lit
>before Christ
Kierk and Sartre BTFO
>>6400972
You sound like you're from /mu/
>>6414246
Typo meant bnw revisited. Some great hux essays if you like that style of writing.
>>6399032
nice bait
try harder
>>6401185
The Faith prevails, friend.
>>6398614
>quantifiable
From what I've read?
For imagery, Blood Meridian.
For absolutely flawless prose that is beautiful in every line, probably Lolita (maybe something else by Nabokov)
For prose that shoots past beauty into the otherwise unreachable firmament of insanity-genius, Ulysses
For thematic complexity, Moby Dick (not counting Finnegan's Wake as it is a Rorschach test)
For grand story development and character study/development, the Brothers Karamazov
But my favorite book has to be either Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, or The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.
>>6398614
Crime and Punishment
>>6402301
Are you italian?
Being born and having lived near where it takes place, it resonates with me on a deep, personal level. It's not about the deepness of thoughts expressed, or the extreme floweriness of its prose, it's about the passionate nostalgia of a sentimental, compassionate human being; it's humble, earnest and as close to what truly makes life as it gets.
My second favourite would have been in search of lost time, so maybe it's just my bias
if I'm being completely honest
>>6415475
My fucking nigger.
The King James Bible.
I don't understand why everyone writes the same titles. You do not have personal tastes /lit/? You base only on the popularity of a work?
Onestly, i love fantasy and science fiction, so my favorite books are H. P. Lovecraft complete works and Walter Moers The city of dreaming books. Also The Naked Sun of Asimov.
>>6417046
You can only read a limited number of books, why would you read some hipsterish authors you know nothing about when you can read the books that many people say are good.
>>6400945
I've never read that. What's it about
>>6407252
Then you're in the right place.
>>6400797
Yes.
Blood Meridian is the answer.
>>6399400
>pick up this book at age 19
>read first page
>moocow moocow tralalala etc
>drop it and walk away
should i try again?
>>6417432
lol it changes style a lot really quickly
"He climbed to the crest of the sandhill and gazed about him. Evening had fallen. A rim of the young moon cleft the pale waste of skyline, the rim of a silver hoop embedded in grey sand; and the tide was flowing in fast to the land with a low whisper of her waves, islanding a few last figures in distant pools."
"With a sudden movement she bowed his head and joined her lips to his and he read the meaning of her movements in her frank uplifted eyes. It was too much for him. He closed his eyes, surrendering himself to her, body and mind, conscious of nothing in the world but the dark pressure of her softly parting lips. They pressed upon his brain as upon his lips as though they were the vehicle of a vague speech; and between them he felt an unknown and timid pressure, darker than the swoon of sin, softer than sound or odour."
middle school.
probably anna karenina.
>>6417423
If I read Blood Meridian will it ruin his other books for me? I have all the pretty horses but I've been really wanting to read BM lately
>>6417486
it wont ruin them because it's different than anything he wrote after, and most of what he wrote before
but it is better
>>6417486
I still love No Country for Old Men
Ask me on the right day and it might be my favorite. But Blood Meridian is sometimes surreal in how good it can be.
>>6417525
no country for old men fucking blows
and by blows i mean it's just not that good 7/10 etc
>>6417529
I can understand why people would say that.
But personally, you know...etc.
>>6417464
i like both passages you posted, anon. i will buy and read on the strength of your recommendation, so thanks
>>6398614
to the lighthouse, probably
Voice of the Fire
East of Eden
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Rumo and all other books by walter moers
harry potter
the time maschine
>>6419525
Just finished Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath and think i'm gonna pick this up next. honestly find it hard to believe that Steinbeck could write something more powerful than Grapes of Wrath...
>>6417478
>Levin
>>6420796
levin is the homie
Rabbit is Rich
I love all the Rabbit books but that one is my favorite
People who arent saying the bible havent read it in a decentvtranslation
>>6404472
Why is Faulkner so GOAT?
