Is this list just a meme?
So far read Mockingbird and Catcher In The Rye, both were really kind of boring.
Refuse to believe they are must read books.
Really want to get into reading - is the rest of the list that bad?
>>7383806
>Refuse to believe they are must read books
Because they aren't. This is the pleb intro kit.
Siddhartha was good, I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't say it's one of those life changing books, but it was enjoyable and did a good job of weaving philosophy into the story
Why do you want to get into reading, for fun or to be well read or to be able to act pretentious?
>>7383811
For fun.
I thought these were the best books of all time.
>>7383806
This is just the entry-level list. Lolita is a must-read btw. If you want to just jump into literature, check out the meme trilogy.
>>7383806
First of all the first you mentioned I can understand not liking but the second just shows your fullness of plebitity.
Wait till you get to the actual awful books like Gatsby and Fahrenheit.
Lolita, Catch-22 are super. Lord of the Flies, Clockwork orange are alright. Vonnegut is juvenile but not disenjoyable. Orwell has written betetr books that that one. Steinbeck is absolute shit. Dick is overhyped but not all that bad. Huckleberry Fin is decent. Kessey is a delight.
Read Lolita. And stop basing your reading on stupid /lit/ lists, they are awful most of the time, fuck it, all of the time.
>>7383815
Bruh, you think a starter kit contains the best books of all time?
>>7383816
the meme trilogy?
Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, Picture of Dorian Gray and Lolita are the 8/10 or greater books on the list
>>7383815
They aren't, but a lot of them are good entries into genres. Many of them are on the shorter side (<300 pages) yet are classics, which is rare. Most of these are the types of books one might read in middle or high school english classes.
I've read 18 out of 20 of them, and I'd say my favorite of those is Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. someone else mentioned Siddhartha which is also great. I have a strong emotional connection to it. Overall it's a pretty cookie-cutter list and most people who enjoy reading literature will probably get around to reading all or most of these eventually, but please don't use this list as your template. Get a variety of recommendations from a variety of sources, not just /lit/ charts which are about as generic as it gets.
>>7383823
When people say what their favourite book is, its usually on this list.
I would highly endorse reading
Catch 22
1984
Slaughterhouse 5
Catcher in The Rye
Invisible Man
Great Gatsby
Lolita
Huck Finn
all very good novels that serve a good foundation for further reading.
Clockwork Orange and Fear and Loathing are fun too, for the right types of people, but I'd consider them less necessary reads.
Mockingbird is not great but Catcher is a masterpiece. If you didn't like it at all you're probably still to young and pretty much Holden Caulfield yourself right now. I know when I was 15 I was needlessly cynical reading Catcher, ironically thinking myself mature for dismissing the book as a pointless look at "teen angst" which I was obviously above. kek
>>7383839
Most people don't read much. A lot of the people you've spoken to probably don't read much. People who have only read <100 books in their lives have probably read a lot of the books on this list, because these are the books everybody reads. Hence you hear about these books being "the greatest" a lot
>>7383839
This is maybe true for people who don't read much? Like if you've read 50 books in your life chances are pretty decent you might name one of the books on that list.
Anyway OP, they're on that list because they're both easy to read and either have literary value or are written by Bret Easton Ellis. I would try Slaughterhouse-Five or Catch-22 if you're looking for something a little more exciting and weird than the realistic first-person novels you started with.
>>7383806
They duped you. This is the real one.
>>7383843
The Sot Weed Factor
You want to start with that? Go for it. I don't suspect you'll enjoy yourself very much.
>>7383844
I'm 27.
I somewhat enjoyed it. But on the most part it was kind of just depressing.
>>7383843
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy, only because Infinite Jest is a meme answer (probably my actual favorite book).
>>7383850
Elliot Roger...
>>7383815
if you feel like you should read books just for the sake of having read them, you are try-hard and need to kill self
>>7383852
And?
I suggest you go watch movies if you're only looking for lighthearted fun.
>>7383848
Ok thanks!
>>7383843
Being and Nothingness.
But for fiction I'd go with Auto-da-Fe.
>>7383806
Catch-22 and Lolita are the two best books to start with if you want to get into reading, the rest are all just optional. Its mostly just a high school tier list.
>>7383843
More importantly what are their favourite films?
>>7383863
If that's the extent to which you've read, I'd definitely recommend to kill a mockingbird or 1984 or gatsby to start. all at least good books (gatsby is great), and all very easy to read.
this starter kit is pretty stupid because it ranges from practical kids books (to kill a mockingbird) to pretty difficult stuff that happens to be popular (catch-22)
>>7383852
>I'm 27
Doesn't mean anything. You're on 4chan.
Chances are you've still got a glint of manchild in you.
>>7383870
DO NOT FALL FOR THE GATSBY MEME
Read a bit of Chuck Palahniuk
some of his books are pretty bants
(however some are pretty awful)
>>7383850
This. You can't be patrician if you don't understand them.
>>7383815
>I thought these were the best books of all time.
How's high school?
>>7383870
>gatsby
He wants to enjoy reading....
And that's honestly middle school tier.
>>7383870
Catch 22 is easy though. Read it as a flunking 9th Grader as my first real piece of literary fiction and absolutely loved it.
Lolita's the only one there that might pose some real difficulty to a newcomer, and even then it's not particularly hard, only that Nabokov's prose can be kindof exhaustive sometimes.
>>7383850
>totalitarianism
Nice navel gazing
>>7383882
>Nabokov's prose can be kindof exhaustive sometimes.
No such thing bruv.
>>7383876
Palahniuk is fun if you haven't read much so I support this, but OP if you follow this advice just read one of his books since they're all pretty much the same
>>7383885
>Stan Brakhage
Where do I even start with this guy?
>>7383881
>>7383874
Not sure if I'm responding to one of /lit/s ongoing jokes, i don't spend enough time here to know what's meme literature and what isn't. What the fuck is wrong with Gatsby? Just because it's easy to read it's bad? It might be middle school lit but the book is loaded with themes I bet you never picked up on yet you're already trying to take a shit on it.
>>7383894
it's just boring as shit is all
>>7383884
>Nice navel gazing
It's a sign of wasted college years and futile potential.
>>7383843
Against the Day, its a good read for beginners I'd highly recommend you start with this
>>7383850
>Elliot Rodger
>Penguin classic
That made me laugh
>>7383894
>loaded with themes I bet you never picked up on yet you're already trying to take a shit on it.
Themes are from my grandparent's zeitgeist, they are in reach of any navel gazing high schooler.
>>7383893
Start with his shorter works like the Dante Quartet. You can find most of his stuff on youtube.
>>7383850
>Omensetter's Luck
Really?
>>7383894
The themes in Gatsby are blatant and basic. It's only worth lies int its critique on American society. Pls stop acting like its not one of the most obvious books ever.
>>7383843
The Divine Comedy
Moby Dick
Paradise Lost
The Waste Land
The Sound and The Fury
Underworld
>>7383843
Favorites are probably 1984, 100 years of solitude, and/or Lolita.
1984 for content, 100 years of solitude for style/structure, Lolita for prose and just being fucking incredible.
>>7383829
fuck off new bitch
>>7383843
Ficciones.
They're not the best, they're books you're expected to have read by age 19.
You should really read 1984
The 1st book that brought me the passion to read.
>>7383860
Why is the book called Auto-da-Fé? Do you know the story behind that?
>>7383843
Either Confederacy of Dunces or Youth In Revolt
>>7383843
Gravity's Rainbow
If you're a new reader try Slaughterhouse 5, Catch 22, One Flew Over the Kekoo's Nest, Notes From the Underground, and Dubliners.
>>7383850
>industrial society and its future
actually pretty good stuff
>>7383868
Hard to decide as there are several films which I consider equally perfect: Wings of Desire, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, The Seventh Seal, Breathless, probably done others I'm forgetting right now
>>7383806
>I didn't like waffles and shrimp
>should I stop eating food?
Honestly, if you're this stupid do us a favor and don't read.
>>7383890
yep. i'd recommend Haunted as this, if anything, is his true masterpiece
>>7384079
kekked and chekked
basically, this
>>7383843
If on a winter's night a traveler
It's also the book that got me into reading, but it's got a very unique style that might be off-putting to some.
>>7384346
>book about books for people that live books
>good for getting people into reading
>>7383918
Waste Land isn't a book
>inb4 you link some obscure novella that happens to also be called The Waste Land
>>7383843
The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai.
>>7384045
>Kekoo's nest
>>7383843
Augustine's Confessions.
>>7383821
>Ray Bradbury
>awful
>>7383806
out of this list I've read 1984, lolita, and the adventures of huckleberry finn. Loved all three, lolita was the best by far. What should i read next?
>>7383843
This.
>>7384696
I-I'm sorry, anon. Bradbury isn't that good, not bad, but definitely not good.
>>7384386
>he hasn't read based Vincenz
>>7384878
Ray Bradbury was a master short story writer. My favorite of his is "The Rocket." Read it if you have a few minutes to spare.
http://raybradbury.ru/library/story/50/4/0/
>>7384877
What is this about? Is it just some girly book?
Those books are just things people read in high school. Everyone on /lit/ has read those just as a sort of background in going through the English speaking education system.
If you talk to someone about books odds are at least one of those will come up.
>>7383806
/LIT/'S JUST A MEME MY FRAND. EVERYONE HERE IS LYING TO THEMSELF BECAUSE THERE'S ONLY ONE GUY HERE WHO JUST KEEPS REPLYING TO HIMSELF LIKE SOME SORT OF very well-mannered psych patient.
>>7383843
Bramble Beater's, or maybe Secret Sauces
never can decide
>>7384935
This is me. I am right.
Just fucking read Lolita
>>7384944
You're not clever and your mom tried to abort you with a turkey baster.
>>7384957
If I had to put money on it? 50/50 odds? I'd say, yeah: your parents probably love you a little bit but also superimplausibly didn't intend to create such a genetic abomination such as ye yore-fucked-face self.
You guys just don't fucking get it. Jesus. I mean, how can so many people posing to be so many things get so much so wrong so often and so completely implausibly? I just can't even begin to grasp the grease soaked truth that is all of your undeniable pads of intellectual shoulder meat that you braise in the overly reductive bourdelaise sauce stirred by nature's nefarious specter of gloom and his sommelier buddy George who's just here for the weekend.
I mean, FUCK. You guys just think that you're all the tartest in the smarties bag don't cha? Just the shiniest scalp at the old people's home? Just the wettest pair of panties at church, huh? The deadest joke ITT, yeah?
Well You've got at least one other thing coming your way from my way that you didn't see coming your way cuz they call me Nighthawk.
Remember that name.
Nighthawk will strike with his [my] tumescent talons, my scalpael sharp talons of justice and pugnity, forged from Haepheastean steel and made with the finest oils made from God's most delicous of fish in the clearest sea on the shore with the most beautiful Brazilian women who you can't even really tell have had kids because for some reason that skin just snaps back like a fresh leathercowhide rubber band made of the freshes mozambiquean rubber (that's where they get the gest rubber).
NIGHTHAWK: prowler of truth and sanctifier of deliverance.
>>7384868
Either Catcher in the Rye or Catch-22. Catch-22 is my personal favorite from the list, but Rye can help you step your meme game up while still being a pretty good book.
>>7385015
I rate this shitpost: Palahniuk/10
Don't try to publish that novel you're working on
>>7383843
Speaker for the Dead
>>7385033
If I decided to respond to you seriously, which I'm patently not doing right now because I take myself too seriously to legitimately respond to "people" who communicate in memes and don't even realize "it," this is how it would go:
kek
>infinite kek
I read
>lol no u dont
yes I do
>yeah, mountain dew pffft
Whatever NEET
>Normie
go back to /r9pol/
>go back to r/le reddit where u belong, this is badassess only
wutever man i read ulysses wake
>cantread.pdf
[REDACTED]
>i'm intelectually superior ro in every way conceivable by your puny walnut you can't even call a brain because its so small that you don't have speech functions and also cant read kant
fightme.gloves
What's /lit/'s opinion on BNW?
>>7385087
How do you sit with such unwieldy testicles 4chanfriend? You must have a very impressively sized penis that women (or men, I don't like to presume one's sexual orientation as to not offend or promote outdated societal standards regarding personal choices that should have no bearing on anyone else's desired route of ideological administration, no matter how heterogenized) really enjoy putting in their mouths and other holes that denote deep deluges of pleasure known as orgasms that are a result of the copulation process that has enabled our persistently prosperous race to continue its long stint here on our lovely planned parenthood housing planet Earth. Yeah, you must have a real big dick. A nice meaty cock that oozes juice–fucking grape juice. Grapefruit sized grapes. Fuckin' white Zinf. Yeah, let that grape juice ferment for all those ladies that love your hippo-leg sized manhood. I totally want to fucking let you use my bed for whatever your salami smelling meatjuice dispensing roll of cockdog desires for the ladies. Yeah, you have a real sexy sex organ I bet. A real fuckable fuckstick. Yeah, I'm getting stiff just jokin' about it. Yeah, fucking turgid.
You want me to send pics of my thick, red, throbbing thumb. It fucking hurts and I think I need to see a doctor or maybe just your juicy prostate examiner known as the Phurious Phallus Phrom Phucking Philadelphia's Phinest Pho Phrestaurant. Yeah so hot. Fuck. Let me watch you get fucked by some chick holding a camera filming me jerking it to you and the other dude in the corner with the other chick who, fuck yeah, so hot.
>>7385124
>turgid
This is very lucid and it has discernible talent.
>>7385137
Hey man, I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your comment. Out here where I am, even the slightest gesture of kindness can really inch away that barrel of cold steel from my lip thirsty face. Hahah...jk. But really, I just wanted to thank you again man. You can't imagine what it's like to be sitting here alone in the dark where I am just hoping that one of your family member will remember to call you for your birthday from Oslo but know that to them you're already dead because of what you did to your little cousin three summers again in St. Barthe. Anyway thanks again man, you're really a great guy. I can tell you must have very moral, but not overly moralistic, parents who knew how to rear 'em good, yessir. And gee, I just, well, I'm just so thankful for everything and just wanted you to know that what you did meant a lot to me like that time my uncle decided for once just to put the wrench down and pass out on the floor because of the rat poison that I *didn't* put in his beer.
Anyway man, I really appreciate it. Thanks again for the words of encouragement. I really hope you do the best in life and I'm being completely serious. You have love in my heart for you and I just really am glad there's someone out there who gets me, you know? Yeah, of course you do. Anyway, I'm kind of embarrassing myself here but I'm just really appreciative and wanted to thank you again. Have a good one man! and Godspeed!
p.s. Keep it real, man. I know you will.
>>7385165
y-you too :)
>>7385082
terrible
one of the worst-written 'classics'
>>7385179
Don't listen to this doltish philistine who incorrectly calls himself anonymous; no idiot is anonymous but in his own solitude.
Anyway, yeah, it's pretty poorly written; all of its main thematic elements you've probably heard or read elsewhere; the plot structure leaves one generally wanting; and compared to other dystopian novels Zamyatin's 'We,' it's not very good.
THAT being said: it's still worth Sparknotesing. Otherwise, maybe spend your time on something else.
Also, you shouldn't make the same mistake the first anon made which is to think about books solely in terms of their reputations, or even the reputation of their authors. Popular opinion is a good compass for global literary navigability, but a horrible metal detector for teeny tiny treasures that only you might love.
>>7385179
ENCEPHALITIS MOTHERFUCKER.
>>7383829
>James Joyce - Ulysses
>David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest
>Thomas Pynchon - either V. or Gravity's Rainbow idr
>>7383806
>1984
>Brave New World
>To kill a mocking bird
When will Americans learn
>>7383806
These are mostly must-reads because a lot of people have read them.
Meaning, if you're interested in TALKING about books with people, this is a good place to start.
If you want to get into reading, read stuff you actually care about. Not stuff strangers on the internet tell you to care about.
So what ARE you into?
>>7385275
Whats wrong with the first 2. Theyre amazing reads.
>>7383806
They aren't necessarily the best books, but they're books that are widely read and discussed, so they give you a good grounding to discuss books, and to then go on and read other books.
If you try to jump straight into reading only very complex books, it's like trying to sprint before you can walk or run, and if you read only little-known books, there'll be no one else to discuss books with.
>>7383843
Lolita. Meme book dream book.
>>7383821
>Fahrenheit
But it was great.
>>7383806
The novels that literary critic and Yale professor Howard Bloom believes will instate a life long love of reading:
>Don Quixote by Cervantes
>Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
>Emma by Austen
>Great Expectations by Dickens
>Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
>The Portrait of a Lady by James
>In Search of Lost Time by Proust
>The Magic Mountain by Mann
Read them in the listed order. Bloom also recommends starting with short stories from Hemingway, Chekhov and Borges. Short stories are much easier to read analytically.
Keep your mind that translation can be important; a poor translation can ruin a book, so choose carefully.
Have fun.
>>7385823
I would have never gotten into literature if I had followed this.
>>7385836
Why not?
>>7383806
This is a horrible selection of books.
Sure there are few good ones in there, but this is /mu/ tier of pleb.
>>7385840
Because at the point where I was getting into literature I couldn't see why most of these were any good.
Also if it took Austen to like literature I would still fucking hate it.
I got into literature through Poe, Tolstoy, Lovecraft, Dick. Also Orwell who I have completely forgotten as an author, I almost never remember him in a way that I remember the others, too juvenile really. Good or even great authors (aside Orwell) that are easy to follow, but not too complex.
Dostoevsky is way too heavy, Proust too reliant on prose (not a bad thing, just not easy to appreciate), Borges is too abstract, Cervantes too subtle, Austen just shit.
>>7383806
>all those anglo books
>>7385863
Oh please. I followed the list and loved it. Not everybody is as slow as yourself.
>>7385872
Great, mister superior patrician who instantly fell in love with great literature. I'm so happy for you.
>>7383809
No. It's the initial stage of de-plebbing. Still pretty plebeian, but moving in the right direction. Get your terminology straight.
>>7384469
God damn it.
>>7385022
true. Halfway through notes from the underground at the moment then ill check out Catch-22 prob. Thanks bruv
>>7383898
against the day is the worst pynchon novel, it's length also doesn't help it either
>>7385801
omega shin pleb detected.
>>7383821
>Steinbeck is absolute shit
I though you knew what you were talking about until this.
>>7383852
If you are looking for Literature which isn't a painful analysis of an individual and his relation to society, you're going to have a hard time. Going through Under the Volcano by Lowry now. Can't find much positivity in it (there is some).
>>7385823
Ha ha no way man am I reading all that dead people shit fuck no
People act angry when shit is just a modernized version of other shit but that's all history is the same shit with fresh masks and we need that to progress to get somewhere slowly inch by inch constantly updating then innovating
lit is a living, evolving thing.
>>7387944
wow man u r so hip and alternative ain't got time for dat old shit yo let'sjust smoke a blunt and read harry potter it's so nerdy XD language chaaaanges
>>7387990
its not even hip and alternative its just that the language is so dead and outdated i cannot get into it and also you're mixing insults with hip/alt but then nerdy?
i dont smoke weed either
and you are gay
>>7387999
it's hip to be square
nice trips
check these
>>7383806
i read 80% of these in high school (as in they were assigned readings)
most sucked
mockingbird especially is one of the most boring books ive ever read
id rather read an article about paint drying
>>7383821
What a try hard faggot
>>7383993
the worst advice in this thread
1984 is sleep-tier for the first 200 pages and then starts getting really good, slow starts for books are bad for starting readers
>>7385863
Orwell is hardly more juvenile than any of the other authors you named, barring Tolstoy. I'm guessing you only read Animal Farm.
Is this the most retarded lit thread this month?
I'm 25 and I've never read To Kill a Mockingbird or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Should I bother or have I already passed the point where I would have enjoyed them?
I haven't read Invisible Man either, but I do intend to at some point.
>>7383806
read Don Quixote
Just my two cents , I have not red 'How to Kill a Mockingbird' but i have the "Australian how to kill a mocking bird" named 'Jasper Jones' and i loved it, keep in mind I don't read often. I read it when i was 17 if that means anything.
>>7383855
Good think thats not what was said at all dumbass.
Self projecting at all there?
>>7383843
Walden by Thoreou
