How old were you when you started becoming /lit/ and actually read books?
5 months ago. I'm 24. Never read anything besides school books since I was born
I started reading seriously at 16
I started browsing /lit/ at 18started browsing /b/ at 12
15. I met this crazy well-read kid, and he was only 17. He'd already read Ulysses twice. I thought I was pretty smart, but he made me feel inadequate. I had read tons of fiction as a kid, but by puberty I'd given it up. I threw myself back into it and started reading "serious literature." Now I'm 26, and I've read a fair amount, but I still haven't read Ulysses. The other kid went to Harvard, majored in English and French, and is now doing I don't know what.
20. Picked up a Saul Bellow novel. I wanted to "improve myself" or some shit like that—in the last four years I've acquired literary knowledge pretty rapidly, and I feel very far from where I started. My whole view of the world has changed. I'm happy to be reading—I'm not so much of a narcissist about it anymore, I just like it.
>>7884646
Let me guess, you went to Yale?
>>7884657
No, lol, far from it.
>>7884675
Must be a Cornell student.
Also, how do I quit vidya to read more books. Dark Souls 3 is coming up and that's probably the last and only game I will play in a while.
>>7884682
>looking forward to upcoming anything
>past the year 2004
Why are you doing this bro?
>>7884622
I've always read books. There was never some "moment" when I decided to get interested in reading
Started writing at 14, reading at 16. 21 now, and as much as I love/need reading, I can't do it for more than ~30mins before I get carried away with ideas of my own. It's weird.
>>7884682
You don't quit, you just learn to incorporate video games into the wider critical/aesthetic framework that informs your reading, i.e.: learn to read games.
Always read, but pleb shit till 17. Started with HP who made me realize prose was a thing. At uni took a break. First thing that got me really motivated was blood meridian at 22. Since then it's been meme books for 3 years.
>>7884682
Dark souls was the last game that caught my love.
I can't give any tips, but for me I just realized vidya is 99.8% trash. And by the time I quite I realize I want enjoying anything anyways, it was just a crutch.
I might watch enb do a run through of ds3 though. (Ds2 was pure shit so little hope desu)
When I started upper secondary at 16. Had to read lots of cool books such as no longer human and the sun also rises for school. Around that time dad also started recommending steppenwolf, ham on rye, on the road and the like. For someone that had only read harry potter and the hobbit prior to that it was very eye opening. Having a great Finnish teacher that inspired me to write also helped a ton.
Between 15 and 19 I read a lot of pretentious shit. Lots of Dostoevsky, Proust, Existentialists, the Greeks -- all that crap. I didn't really understand any of it.
Now I just read things that interest me. Genuinely interest me. Which means I don't read 800-page 19th century novels anymore. Or outdated works of philosophy that nobody but college freshman takes seriously.
I actually go into bookshops and buy things from new writers that appeal to me. People I've never heard of and aren't legendary writers. It's scary stuff. I know.
>>7884847
so you read genre fiction now, got it.
>>7884847
That's not nice, to call a work pretentious. The same exact type of reader will assume the persona of either a highly pretentious person, or a highly unpretentious one. But the books themselves cannot be pretentious.
See also: death of the author
>>7884622
I became an avid reader like three months ago
>>7884785
So you're saying you have read books from the age of 2/3? So why aren't you reading now?
>>7884847
How can you not understand that shit at 15?
>Dostoevskywomen will save you
>Proustwomen will rape you
>Existentialistsit's only rape/salvation because you think it's rape/salvation
>the Greeksit's only gay if you bottom
>800-page 19th century novels
>19th century
This better not be Proust.
>outdated works of philosophy
This better not be the Greeks.
>It's scary stuff. I know.
The Existentialists would like a word.It doesn't matter what the word is; you don't deserve it.
>>7884875
>Now I just read things that interest me. Genuinely interest me. Which means I don't read 800-page 19th century novels anymore. Or outdated works of philosophy that nobody but college freshman takes seriously.
I was going to say that he might've worded it poorly, but it seems he just has a really large complex over intellectual demands in general.
Oh well. His loss.
>>7884622
I read a lot of books between 15 and 18. Practically all I did.
Then I stopped until I was 24, and picked up reading again.
I am 26 now. I read maybe 20 books per year, not much.
>>7884622
>read
pffft I don't do that
I started reading when I was about 5. Didn't really understand anything until i was about 8 or 9 I think.
It was weird because I was always in the stupid classes when I was in school. Mainly just because where I was from, everyone just assumed I was a moron.
Wasn't until I was like in 9th grade that a teacher took me aside and was like, "Uh why are you in all these dumb classes? You're actually really smart, i see you reading college level books," Then they put me in all the college prep classes. I didn't do so well until I was a senior, then I got straight-As. Then I got into college and discovered drinking, pussy, and drugs, and there began my 10 year bachelors degree adventure.
>>7884622
idk when that was, i remember the book - pink cover, about a traveling cat, something about bus breaking down
i was well versed at that point in 'classics' tho as i went through things like tolkien and verne with my parents xd
then i was reading non stop for years till i got scoliosis (from weird reading positions) and fast internet
i stopped at 21 and am at steady 10-15 books per year tops from then on (not counting non-fic b/c still studying)
>>7884964
high five to 10 year bachelors deg adventure(im at 6/10 now)
Before I was 10
Because no friends and we couldnt afford videogames or anything
I was a huge pleb and just read those autistically detailed 1000 page war histories until the age of about 14 at the rate of almost one a week
>>7884847
M-M-M-a-x-i-m-u-m pleb
>>7884622
20 or so.
fuck I hope you are trolling guyz
4-5 y.o. kiddie stuff, 10 y.o. adventure/scifi stuff, 15 y.o. psychology/historical drama/epic fantasy stuff, 18. philosophy, politics, critics etc and that's not counting REQUIRED reading at school (yes, russian classics in russian school).
I can't imagine how I can speak with people being that illiterate their whole lives...
otoh, there was no internet back then, vid games were rare, and books were very cheap annd plentiful (like $5 cheap, and free access to library plus home collection)
of course, I stopped buying paper books as soon as I could save an html page on my hard drive.
>>7885037
and this is how poorer kids are smarter than rich ones. that's exactly what I always witnessed - serious kids in bad clothes arguing topics in class while rich daddies' dumbasses in top notch fashion stuff yapping about parties and booze.
I only started to read as a hobby one year ago. I regret that I wasted so much time.
>>7885167
Those are "rich" people that typically don't stay rich for long. True class means being wealthy, educated, and cultured. The ones who end up going to HYP.
I was 19 I deployed to Shitcanistan, books were sent from home and passed around. I discovered I loved reading.
>>7885165
you are insufferable
General timeline:
8-10: Harry Potter books
10-13: Simpsons books
13-16: Got interested in words and started reading pop-linguistics books along with pop non-fiction on history and politics
16-17: Read assigned books in school and started to get interested in fiction
17-19: Started reading fiction seriously, mostly "classics" (Kafka, Pynchon, Borges, Dostoevsky, Camus, Nabokov, Vonnegut and obvious stuff like 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451)
19-20: Moved on to more contemporary literary fiction (DFW, Bolaño, Mark Leyner, Sebald, Murakami, Saramago, Eco)
20-23: stopped reading as much fiction in favour of philosophy/theory, lots of Foucault, stuff on epistemology, political theory and sociology of science (Latour, Kuhn, Woolgar, Baldamus)
23-24 (now): Reading widely in architecture/planning theory+history and lots of transgressive/experimental fiction (Joyce, Alexander Theroux, Joseph McElroy, Ballard, William T. Vollman, Bukowski, Gilbert Sorrentino, Dennis Cooper and British experimentalists like B.S. Johnson, Anna Kavan, Christine Brooke-Rose, Stewart Home)
>>7885241
pleb
>>7884622
I read a lot of shit in middle school, but it wasn't until my sophomore year, when I started reading Pynchon and, a little later on, Gaddis and Hawkes, that I became a "serious" reader.
>>7885230
Eyyy milfam. Got so much fucking reading done in assganistan. Miss it.
If you don't have a blue chord you are gay though.
18
22 now. Where did the years go
All of /pol/'s ______-pill shit told me to start reading, and exercising.
>>7885261
I forgot to mention I was 17 at the time
24. About to be 25 next week. I'm reading a variety of things right now to see what I enjoy. I read a little as a kid but not that much.
>>7885241
I feel like you took several authors from the post I made about the American canon, but, on the off chance you actually have read Theroux and Sorrentino, congrats.
>>7884682
Just do it. I regret all the years I wasted on video games, they add absolutely nothing of quality to your life.
>>7885241
Check out Kenneth Patchen if you haven't already.
>>7884622
I read a lot when I was younger, but a friend of mine got me back into reading with Young Torless when I was 21
>>7884622
>implying anyone on /lit/ genuinely reads any of the classics
>implying /lit/ isn't filled with anons who just read the Wikipedia synopsis
>>7885499
Great list, thanks for sharing. Have you read Take Five by D. Keith Mano?
btw, are you on GR?
>>7884622
I was 22. And it was a last resort for entertainment. I was living in my hammock and making $150 a week. It was either books or alcoholism.
late teens/early 20's
I started at 7, so more than 30 years ago. My kid reads from 4 and now at 7 reads more than I at this age
Started reading philosophy (mostly Analytic) at 12, but that was really only in dribs and drabs, and I'm skeptical of how much I really understood. Still, I like to think it helped build my mind and character. Then I started really reading literature at 15, when I picked up Ulysses on a whim. It took me a full summer to read it, but in reading it I discovered the real value of art for the first time. The early Eliot got me into poetry.
>>7884622
>started becoming /lit/
You become /lit/ by COLLECTING books, not reading them.
>>7886217
For me art was autumn of patriarch by Marques.
Total reading orgasm
8-9: started reading superhero comics books
13-14: started reading novels for pleasure, largely thrillers and horror
15-16: abandoned thrillers and mostly read horror, sci-fi, and superhero comics, with the occasional work of literary fiction (generally stuff like my cousin lent me)
19-20: predominantly read literary fic with some occasional sci-fi. also moved away from superheroes toward indie/non-cape comics
22: took an interest in poetry, still read literary fic, indie comics, and some sci-fi
and here i am now :)
Started reading "lit" around 16, before that pleb shit, although His Dark Materials is pretty god tier for YA.
>>7884622
I read books but I'll never be /lit/. I prefer pulp and have an aversion to books of sophistication and important reputation.
>>7886315
What type of stuff do you read? I'm mostly into 'literary' fiction but lately I've been in the mood to explore some pulp
i'm not really /lit/, i don't think i ever will be. I got interested in reading at a very young age but i wasn't serious about it until around 10 or so.
i'm 27 now, can't believe how much time has passed! my physical library is pretty small, since i only really keep books with sentimental notes in them.
>>7886321
My interests are all over the map. Hero pulps like Doc Savage and The Shadow. Edgar Rice Burroughs' Carson of Venus, and the Pellucidar series. Of course Robert E Howard's Conan stories. Right now I'm starting on Doc Smith's Lensman series, but Galactic Patrol instead of Triplanetary.
19 - started reading dosto when i was in the army
>>7885563
No, but having looked it up a few minutes ago, I plan to, as I enjoy reading writing written in a painstaking way. And I used to use GR, but that was a while ago. If you haven't already, I'd check out the bookshelves of Nathan "N.R" Gaddis, which, back when I used the website, is where I discovered many of my favorite authors.
>>7884847
>Not liking 19th century Literature
This is Bait!
I liked reading as a kid. I started getting back into it 2-3 years ago. Without getting into detail I've picked up my reading immensely, especially in the last year, due to feelings of inadequacy.
So far it hasn't helped change much.
Sometime around 13 was when I got in to literature and poetry. 24 now and all I can say is life has been all the more miserable for it. I try and read UF and comics now to off set my thoughts and to dumb my ass down.
>>7886460
>life has been all the more miserable for it
That's how you know literature is working
Learned to read at 3, read kid books and genre lit for a while. In eighth grade I was going to the high school for math, and when I'd get back to Jr. High, I'd have a free period I spent in the library. Outside of reading the Odyssey when I was certainly too young to appreciate it, that was when I started reading real literature, with Welles as a great starting point. Animal Farm was fantastic at presenting ideas that were complex for me, but keeping me engaged with an interesting allegory.
35
>>7884622
im 21 and I just started browsing /lit/ a month ago because I am sick of how garbage videogames and movies are.
I have a long way to go.
i think for me it was around the time i turned 15 when i started taking more notice to what i was reading and improving the types of books i chose. then when i turned 17 i proper pitched upwards and tried to get through the classics, that was semi as a result of tryna get into uni tho
>>7885241
Spatial Planner here, what interests you?
>>7886504
Same here, anon. Except that I've been browsing lit for maybe 6 or seven months.
I don't understand how people can "not read"
what do you bring with you to the doctor's office while you wait if not a book?
I've been reading for fun since I learned how to read. I read more books for fun through my school years than I ever was assigned. My books still rarely leave my side
>>7885241
Best post in the thread desu
>>7884622
>mfw I am still pleb enough to read books that aren't /lit/-acclaimed and still enjoy them
I don't even want to become /lit/, it would completely ruin my reading behavior and I could never read a book a friend suggested.
>>7884682
Just stop. Find other hobbies. I can promise you, there is no happiness to be found in vidya anymore.
>>7886944
Well I listen to music or audiobooks or use my phone to text people I know. I only have a book with me when I bring my backpack, which I rarely have when I go to the doctor's. I do read on the train or the bus though.
17, pretty much when I started browsing /lit/
>>7884622
6, because of school. Didn't read much at first, read much more later on. Last year I haven't read anything.
>>7886944
>I don't understand how people can "not read"
>what do you bring with you to the doctor's office while you wait if not a book?
who was smartphone? the post
21. I'm 22 now. Spent my youth playing video games and my teenage years writing shitty folk songs. Now the only activity that brings me full satisfaction is reading. Working on it.
Started early on as a kid reading since I was 4 everything I could get my hands on, they even made me skip first grade cause I already knew basic math and could have a conversation with an adult about many things. Then my teens happened I started doing a lot of drugs and getting in trouble and not doing anything productive until I was like 24 and began to read again and watch films obsessively just to stay out of trouble. I lost like ten years of my life being an idiot and now I feel like I have to make up for it and it stresses me out.
I first visited lit when I was 17. I'm 23 now.
>>7884622
Tomorrow.
started reading finnegans wake when i was 9.
still reading it now, 15 years later. never read another book.
>>7887668
I started Ulyssees when I was 15, but it was too hard.
I started reading the Greeks at 15 because I was a huge faggot and nobody liked me.
Nothing has changed.
From 3-13 I read a lot.
Then at 24 I realized I had lost control of my life and if I were gonna go to law school I should start reading again.
I always read as a child, and I maintain that reading D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths is one of the formative experiences of my childhood , but mostly it's that in high school I made friends with a co-worker at the library who was extremely well read and passionate about literature who gave me a lot of direction.
Another big moment was reading the Divine Comedy for a project in high school English which had the added benefit of making me stop being an edgy fedora.
The nail in the coffin was reading Paradise Lost in my first year of university.
>>7884622
14, it's when I read my dad's copy of Gravity's Rainbow. It was also around that time I left /b/ for the rest of 4chan, GR may have given me a meme hunger.
>>7884622
16 for my interest in philosophy, 18 for literature, which I became much more invested in around 20.
>>7886944
How are you getting ill and/or injured so much that this is even a consideration? I've only been to a doctors once in my life and it took all of 10 minutes.
Was reading religious texts and esoteric literature at like 16 and before.
Much modern/contemporary philosophy seems basic in comparison so its weird watching people worship it so much.
I read fiction on and off, its fun for what it is.
Read a lot of books between 14-17 (Around 1000). Then realized reading a lot is for the average and decided to use the books to enhance my ideas, not my intellectuality. Now I don't read a lot of novels, I read a lot of history instead. Art history, science, philisophy etc... my main interest is international relations.
I never left vidya. It added so much to me.
>>7890038
0035 here, I sounded so for saying I am not reading books a lot? Explain please
>>7890038
if that makes you feel better
>>7885352
>projecting
jheeze is it that hard to believe that some people actually like reading
>>7884628
similar here. I was an english major just kinda going through the motions. My senior year in college I had two professors that made me fall in love with literature and I started reading outside of required class readings. Now I'm a fry cook who spends 3 hrs a day reading literature
ive been reading trash since i was 5 but i started reading 3-4 actual books/week when i was 16
>>7886996
i play videogames socially it's the only way i can actually compete with my peers and it kinda makes the years i spent on vidya less pointless
