Metamorphosis by Kafka.
He's a whiny little snot and just plane miserable throughout the entire book. So much so that even when he turns into an insect, I was still thinking "dude, quit being a little bitch."
And knowing that Kafka was equally whiny and miserable... He basically wrote a book with himself as a main character.
I have a hard time not finishing things, yet I was still unable to complete this short book. It was just too much. I stopped reading near the end, and a college classmate filled me in on the conclusion.
I just started Angels & Demons because I wanted a comfy adventure mystery but I didn't expect it to be filled with cliches right from the very beginning. But I'll enjoy it anyway. Because I want to.
I guess /lit/ is just bait now.
>>8087589
I read that and then the Da Vinci code when I was in high or intermediate school and enjoyed them.
>>8087604
I'll probably end up reading all 4.
>>8087573
if we're going by bad books we've finished, snow crash. I read neuromancer and got excited by the possibilities of cyber punk.
i picked up snow crash because it's on many cyber punk lists. it's a book for juggalos. i've not read any cyber punk since.
Since I started reading literary fiction, I don't read a lot of bad books anymore. But...
1. I gave Stephen King a shot and read The Shining, and that stands out.
2. The Missionary by Lady Morgan is a nineteenth-century romance I read for a class, thought it was notably bad.
3. Had to read some recent novels by Asian-Americans (Bich Minh Nguyen, Lan Cao, Chang-Rae Lee, et al.) for a class, and none of them was outstanding.
4. Was surprised by how much I didn't like Brave New World, and then Island was worse. Huxley's nonfiction is better.
5. I thought Dune was bad because it's corny and unsubtle sometimes and the prose is workmanlike, but by the end of it I liked it, wanted to read the sequels and buy the Folio Society edition. Better than Brave New World as far as science fiction goes.
I also can't tell whether Infinite Jest is pretty good or embarrassingly terrible. Depends on my mood.
>>8087662
Real talk? It's literally a meme. You're effectively deleting system 32 from your brain.
>>8087573
Can't see how you didn't understand the symbolism and feels of Kafka. It's not about him crying over every little thing OP, it's about how he feels in a cold environment without family love.
Anyway the worst book I read was some piece of shit I read about some kind of magic laptop that had access to the super galactic alien space internet or something. That hurt to read when I thought star wars was deep.
>>8087784
He complains the entire time about his family, but had never done a single thing to address what he was complaining about.
That is pretty much the definition of whiny.
>>8087800
Did you read it? Honestly, did you?
His family doesn't really care about him, not many people do, kind of like an insect. He turns into a bug, and if turned into a bug, I'd expect to be able to tell my family and they'd care. If I worked my ass off everyday and then suddenly I don't want to leave my room, they'd ask if something was wrong.
Maybe you have a cold family life too, idk.
>>8087814
He was already miserable when he turned into a bug because of his family. He was whiny and annoying, complaining about how they'd always used him, even though it was his own fault for being an enabler.
He was a miserable wretch of a character.
>>8087822
Your argument can be summed up into "he should have stopped being a pussy."
This was life for a lot of folks at the time it was written, except that many of them had loving families. He feels such a sense of responsibility that he tries to help out even as a bug. Hes a touching tragic character who is locked in tradition and abuse.
You dont have to agree with a character or even like him for that character to be a good one.
>>8087573
I believe its meant as satire. Embodying the opposite of the original concept; illuminating and understandable by initiates of mystery schools.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Ass
>>8087573
This fucking piece of shit. Dickens' worst attributes contrived into one pile of absurdist, sentimentalist crock. Fuck Dickens.
A Wrinkle in Time. Simpering, pseudo-intellectual garbage.
>>8087573
>"dude, quit being a little bitch."
And do what? Should he just play the new FIFA on his Xbox One? Go lift some weights? Drink some Vegas bombs?
He's a fucking insect. It's a book for anyone who's felt like an insect in real life. If you've never thought "why the hell even get out of bed today", I envy you but at the same time I kind of don't because Kafka's works kind of predict/set the precedent for modern literature.
>>8087573
>Just plane miserable
Walden
go build a cabin up your own ass! build it deep and Thoreau!
>>8087858
What about Pickwick Papers? There are some really funny moments in it. Hard Times is rather prudish and preachy, from what I remember, and there was a lot of sentimentality but that's also true for Oliver Twist. He's was writing to a huge Victorian audience who wanted lovable, likeable rogues and bad, insufferable villains. It may be a bit trite to write so, but he was very good at it and his works are a remarkable documentation of Victorian England.
>>8087624
Neuromancer sucked and was severely disappointing.
>>8088190
I'm inclined to disagree. I think that book is fascinating and fucked up in some interesting ways.
Don Quixote, though, is grueling and cancerous, imo.
>>8088260
keke
Worst book I ever read? Either American Gods by Neil Gaimen or The Scarlet Letter, both which are widely liked which makes me feel insecure about my reading tastes. But my favorite books are The Catcher in the Rye/ A Portrait...The Great Gatsby, and a Tale of Two Cities. Make of me what you will.
>>8088249
You take that back you Cucklord.
The Knight of Sorrowful Countenance will have none of it.
Brave New World was pretty obnoxious. Not the worst, but it left a really bad impression on me.
>obnoxious attempts to make it seem like a authoritarian nightmare (LOLZ THEY ALL HAVE THE NAMES OF COMMUNISTS AND INDUSTRIALISTS)
>an attempt to criticize hedonism (everyone has sex all the time) which just comes off a spooked Christian morality and doesn't even make sense in the context of the universe (it is a bad thing that children engage in exploration of their bodies, or adults engage in polygamy, the evil people say its a good thing!)
>people are soulless automations! (like Marx who ends up only caring for sex) Superior people have different opinions (like Watson. who is basically superman) or read literature (like John, who naturally has a problem with sexual relationships because he's spooked by Christian morality)
>people take drugs all the time and thats a bad thing because it keeps them sedated, but Huxley wrote a book after taking drugs, soo.....
>religion is restricted by the evil State because they want to keep people controlled, but Huxley criticized organized religion all the time, so....
>science and scientism is bad, but no great alternatives are given by the book, because the native Americans they come across live like shit and are superstitious. The state has a togetherness program that provides a similarly helpful bonding experience for its members to engage in, so what the fuck is the problem?
If there is subtly between all this hypocritical presentation of different points, I woouldn't know it because he just beats you over the head with one idea or another and keeps hitting you, until he realises one might not be so bad and just prevent the exact view with reconciliation. I can see why people might like it back in the day but now I see where all the anti-science, new age crap of the modern comes from.
Its like those dickheads on the internet that read 1984 and then try and interpret its themes of authoritarianism, loss of individuality, and technology, the book
>>8088288
You really shouldn't feel bad about disliking American Gods. I'm a Gaiman fan but you aren't about to hear me say it's high lit.
>>8087822
>he's being a pussy
To be fair
A) Lots of people feel this way. Have shit family lives, dead end jobs, can barely get out of bed in the morning, all they want to do is eat breakfast and not think or feel about anything
B) Considering Kafka's history of family abuse and shit personal life, its probably just "my memoirs if I was a cockroach".
>>8088297
I agree with most of this.
I haven't read it since 9th grade but I remember it being the first book I absolutely hated.
That being said I actually enjoyed all the other famous Dystopian stories.
>>8088297
I'm addition to all of this Huxley was a proponent of eugenics and was trying to support the Caste system in the book according to various interviews.
But the Soma though.
>>8087822
I agree.
The book is not that deep, sure it has symbolism and a kind of unique metaphor to being a bug, but it still is only a masterpiece to those who sniff their own farts and wouldn't know true depth of a reading experience.
>>8088297
most of that is your interpretation, which seems to ironically revolve around a christian morality hangup. nowhere in the book does it say "scientism is bad" or "sex all the time is bad." brave new world isn't the greatest book ever, but any halfway sophisticated reader can see that it's a more nuanced work than that.
>>8088321
>nowhere in the book does it say "scientism is bad" or "sex all the time is bad."
>more nuanced work than that
I'd like to agree with that, but I just can't. He presents ideas in the most simplistic and obnoxious manner possible. He makes the state and their almost industrial eugenics program out to be the bad guys with graphic illustrations of alienation, unconsciousness and borderline body horror. Yet he seems to agree with a lot of it in external sources, and the alternative he presents (a superstitious Native American tribe) seems really shitty, except for John.
He fails to achieve any kind of nuisance. As I said before he just beats you over the head with one idea or the other, and makes the likable characters seem up themselves. Oh John is noble because he has deep connection with religion and read Shakespeare. He's the only one not duped by the lifestyle the state is created. Yet he's also crazy and judgmental. Watson is the same but can only achieve this state of knowledge by being a literal super human because he does everything perfectly. Pretty easy to take a step back when you aren't the bullied, ismasculnated Marx or a beta.
>>8088312
Why does everything have to be a "masterpiece"? It's not a fucking masterpiece, or 2deep4u, or anything. It's a story told in an interesting way, about a topic personal to the author, and also incredibly relatable and understandable to a lot of people.
>>8088289
If I wanted to read boring and witless drivel for hours on end I'd read an accounting textbook.
>>8088311
Whats the difference between Soma and the drugs he took? One makes you unconscious and easier to control, but apparently when Huxley does it it gives him deeper meaning of life?
Whats the difference between the practice of personal spirituality and the group demonstrations in the book?
>>8088249
Its a very funny book, but long as fuck, and you kind of get the idea after the first chapter
>>8088349
I am not in Huxley's side of this fight friendo.
I was attempting to point out the ridiculousness of supporting eugenics and caste systems and writing an entire book about how you don't like drugs. (Apparently was his intent, which is only relevant since we're actually talking about the author himself at the moment.)
>>8088348
>Cervantes
>witless
I see your comprehension level is pretty low there friendo.
Would you have preferred the comedy stylings of Seth MacFarlane, perhaps?
I read some meme books from /pol/. The way of men and generation identity. The way of men was particularly bad. That was last year.
This year I reread the chrysalids, having first read it sometime 10 years ago, and was severely disappointed. The themes are capricious and contradictory... It seems like the author had little to actually say, and came up with a poorly formed story based on an excellent concept. I am surprised they made us read it in high school.
>>8087573
you're a dolt with no ability for critical thinking
http://www.kafka.org/index.php?aid=220
read this, if it doesn't help, leave lit and never come back
>>8088301
Yeah but everyone loves it
>>8088384
Grown men were obsessed with a show about magical cartoon ponies for quite some time there, I wouldn't bank to much on the appeal to the masses fallacy
>>8088395
>to
Committing sudoku, brb
>>8088384
That's not true at all, I don't think I've seen literally anyone else on this board who actually liked it.
>>8088371
I see you've been convinced that parody and meta-parody are something you should be impressed over and are obviously butthurt that I'm not impressed over them. I believe >>8088357 got it right. The book doesn't need to be so fucking drawn out, and the second volume is just too much auto-fellatio for my taste.
But you know, people fawn over extensive pieces of mildly witty literature all the time; so don't stop on my account.
>>8088408
I meant everyone in the normie sense. Check good reads.
>>8088395
OK what about Le Scurlet Lettur :D
>much symbols and ancestry and stronk femule
>>8088384
I like it, and it seems to be on a lot of "Top 25 must read fucking whatever" lists, but if its not your thing who cares? Even this board have conflicting opinions over must reads like Don Quixote or Metamorphises
American Gods isn't even on our radar.
>>8088415
>witless
>mildly witty
Pick one.
God yes the book is too drawn out and has at least 100 descriptions of Sancho and Don Quixote eating lunch for no specific reason.
I wouldn't say that makes a pile of witless drivel.
Sancho's period as the governor of the island was one of my favorite comedic moments in literature, and I do regret that you did not enjoy this classic. I don't think it's hung around for 500 years by virtue of it being garbage, but I won't lean too heavily on that fallacy.
>>8087658
>5. I thought Dune[...]
Fucking this. Dune shouldn't be considered a literary classic by any measure but it's the first kind of "low-tier" sf novel I've read and it blows Huxley out of the water. Brave New World and especially Island are just bad, misguided, disdainful and painfully British pieces of junk. The part in Island where the islanders rewrite Oedipus Rex into a self-help novel is just painful. I read Angels and Demons, Da Vinci Code, and Cujo, and Island is worse than all of them.
>>8088376
The thing about the apple is genesis is wrong. It's never explicitly stated the fruit is an apple. It only started being thought of as an apple by puritans in the 1600s or something like that.
>>8088420
Okay, why the fuck do you care about that? Normies like Stephen King and YA shit.
>>8088432
Thanks for the replies. I expected everyone on here to be snarky, sarcastic snobs from all the lurking I do.
>>8088458
I read Stephen King for pleasure sometimes =| need a break once in a while from meme books
>>8088460
Well you didn't think wrong, but no really cares, and people are up for a debate over books they like.
I mean, its a book, what kind of piss fight after you going to have? Like if I say "I can really relate to Shadow as a character" and you disagree, is that really going to set off my autism?
Just don't talk shit about Dostoevsky and you should be fine. This isn't like tumblr where you mildly encroach upon those nerd's fandoms.
What did you dislike about it now that you are here?
>>8088451
but kafka probably didn't know that though, so the interpretation still holds up
but thanks for that info, interesting...
>>8088483
Reading "Shadow" and "Autism" so close together has now changed the main character into Shadow the Hedgehog for me mentally.
>>8088483
Trying to figure out whether you guys are sincere about the books you like. Getting into Ulysses right now since I liked portrait so much. Also, who guys constantly recycle authors and books in your converations.
>>8088492
FAAAAAARRRRRKKKKKKKKK
I guess no is going to read that book now, lol
>>8088503
I dunno, if we we're shit posting it would be more obvious I think. I like American Gods and I recommend it too all my friends. Its defiantly a step up to the usual diet of random shit people I know read, and even "patricians" I know don't dislike it.
I am not going to say its high art, but I don't think anyone ever did.
>>8088512
Psh, nothin' puhsonnel kid
>>8088512
Good night anon. Nice talking to you, man.
There are a lot of bad books out there that exist simply because people THINK they're good books, and either don't understand what they're reading, or have it on their shelves to impress others. (pic related).
>durrhurr lets do drugs and bang our heads on a typewriter, it's the 70's, man.
>gonzo cover
>appeal to approaching-middle-age Boomers who hated Nixon
I stood in the store and read a few pages of "50 Shades of Grey" when it was all the rage. I just couldn't believe a badly-written book could get such hype -- even making the talk-show circuit and women's book club events. What the fuck?
Some women didn't even understand when I insisted "It's BAD. It's a BAD BOOK" thinking I was against the subject matter, and not the lack of skill the author shat onto the pages. They think I just "didn't get it", or something. Depressing.
>>8088569
the book did what it was supposed to do for readers
if u went into it expecting good prose or a meaningful resolution, then you're being deliberately hard headed and should reevaluate your priorities
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Not "bad" per se in that he's obviously not illiterate. He's just pretentious, self-important and overrated to the point where it really irritates me. I obtained nothing of value reading about his account of a road trip and nothing in this book could be described as transgressive. It's life through an instagram filter, albeit in the 50s. Every time he tries to say something "deep" it just falls flat.
Other than Burroughs, everyone associated with the "beat generation" (really just a clique of self-appointed hipsters) is just a pseud.
>>8088362
>I am not in Huxley's side of this fight friendo
I know, but i'm geniunally asking why there is this clear contradiction between what he wrote and what he actually does in real life.
>>8088297
>but Huxley wrote a book after taking drugs
A person did X so he may not criticize X
Memes!
>, soo.....
Stop that.
>>8087624
Snow Crash tries so hard to be cool but it just comes off as nerd power fantasy #63479. And the pacing is unbearable towards the end.
>>8087822
Yes, that's the point. Kafka's protagonists are all deeply flawed and the pain they endure is of their own making.
Worst book I ever read was probably The Alchemist. Paolo Coelho is an evil, evil man for putting such a piece of shit out there to be read and forced on schoolchildren.
>>8087624
Neuromancer is even worse.
>>8089018
>Worst book I ever read was probably The Alchemist. Paolo Coelho is an evil, evil man for putting such a piece of shit out there to be read and forced on schoolchildren.
>schoolchildren
don't tell me they teach coelho
>>8089033
Had to read it in 10th grade right between the Odyssey and Romeo and Juliet.
>>8088408
I liked it 3.5/5
>>8088962
>A person did X so he may not criticize X
Well when he is literally demonsising it and claiming people who engage it are someone unconscious to their surroundings and emotions, and are lesser creatures as a result (John's mother went into a fucking coma after being deprived for so long) then its a little weird that he is using it for perosnal reasons.
You could argue that he is against the excessive intake of drugs, but then you have attractive and likable characters like Watson and Mond whom we are supposed to emulate that don't engage in drug use and are bored by the en-devour.
>>8087573
Taipei. Absolute tripe.
>Hurr durr I'm such a degenerate drug addict
>Oh but it's ok because I'm just trying to separate from the world maaaaan
Literally nothing but the musings of a petulant child.
>>8087658
That's because Asian Americans can't into creativity. Same thing with most American minorities. They only ever write about 'the struggle,' which is total bullshit anyway.
>Oh man life is so hard/difficult/different for me in this arbitrary way because I'm Asian/black/Mexican/Irish
No, you're life is just fine. Stop writing mundane and pedestrian novels about mundane and pedestrian events. Just because you lived in Flushing/Bronx/Williamsburg doesn't make you interesting, different, or deep. It just means you lived in an ethnocentric neighborhood and nothing more. You aren't oppressed, you're just a retard and a hack who can't write and should fuck off and die.
That or they write about the homeland which is just as cringy because they have no actual connection to it any longer. It would be like me writing a book about Prussia.
>>8088070
Basically he wrote the book for betas about what it's like to be a beta. Get the fuck over it and yourself. Yes, go out and do those things. Stop being a whiny bitch and fix your station in life.
Steppenwolf, didn't even get halfway.
>CRAWLING IN MY SKIN
*disjointed pseudo-intellectual rambling about goethe and the bourgeois*
>THESE WOUNDS THEY WILL NOT HEAL
>>8088297
>Hedonism and sexual deviance is in any way acceptable
>Christian morality is bad
Wew lad.
The only book I regret spending time on.
>>8088348
>Cervantes
>Witless
Wew lad...
>Accounting
>Drivel
WEW LAD... Guess you don't like regulation that keeps companies accountable to the benefit of the individual investor and the public eye. Off to Somalia with you.
>>8089797
Another example of why the unintelligent shouldn't be allowed to be literate
Ceremony by Silko, nonstop Indian wanking, half-baked environmentalism, and shit poems, I read it in one night for a class and wanted nothing more than death by the end of it.
>>8088372
>The way of men
Literally, WHY CAN'T I BEAT MY WIFE!? the book. I've heard good things about Generation Identity though, why didn't you care for it?
>>8089785
Almost every single one of them had an obligatory scene in which the protagonist enters an American school and has to change her name to something Americans can pronounce, and this was always supposed to be extremely sad.
>>8088460
You'll get that here, but you have to remember /lit/ is also the smartest board on 4chan (hue hue) so you should still expect reasonable discussion so long as it's not a meme topic, like DFW, and even then you can still discuss it in most cases. We just actually expect you to be able to defend your points rationally here and don't give though to people whose arguments amount to 'I'm right because I said so' or 'faggot.' We're happy to have a back and forth if you're cordial and show signs of intelligence.
>>8088475
If you don't enjoy the meme books then don't read them. Not everyone is cut out for reading advanced texts. Unless you're an actual academic there's no point in reading if you don't get enjoyment out of it. Just read what makes you happy and that you enjoy. Just because I like Joyce and Dostoevsky doesn't mean you can't like Stephen King and George Orwell.
>>8088503
Yes, but definitely read Dubliners and the Greeks before starting Ulysses. You really need to in order to form a complete understanding.
>>8088816
This but I also apply it to Borroughs as well. They're so annoying.
>>8089828
>/lit/ is also the smartest board on 4chan
>>8089819
>Thinking people should stop complaining about things they can easily remedy is unintelligent
Hmm, really makes you think.
>>8089825
Of course they did, just like every black author has a line about how the white kids all wanted to touch the black girls hair. It's so obnoxious. Minority writers really are the worst.
>>8089852
>not noting the (hue hue) following this statement that implies that the proceeding remark has little value in the face of its own proclaimed importance
>>8088297
Found the bourgeois bohemian & hedonistic libertine.
>>8088362
There's nothing wrong with eugenics or caste systems, you utopian dweeb.
God help this Child
No longer Human
Eat When You feel sad
that poetry collection by Mira Gonzalez
>>8089855
You're unintelligent because you lack even the basic ability to empathize with another human being. You are too stupid to understand anything that is not yourself.
>>8089864
I had this discussion with my wife the other day. Being Korean she was inundated with books like these as a kid. She grew up in a white area of town and was one of only a few Asians so the teachers felt as if she needed to 'connect' with her fellow Asian Americans and offered them up as did her church and parents. She saw right through all of them as complete nonsense written by people clutching for 15 minutes of fame based on their minority status.
>>8089880
>Having empathy for people in changeable situations
I think you're the idiot here, friend. You ought to feel empathetic towards people with real issues.
>>8089887
Again, you lack the ability to understand anything that is not yourself.
>>8089880
Empathy and intelligence are unrelated.
>>8089884
Strive to reduce imperfection is not the same as striving for perfection.
There's a world of difference between aspiring to "perfect Humans" and "Humans devoid of at least a few crippling conditions that could easily be eliminated from the gene pool."
>>8089880
>because I am extremely emotional, I am intelligent
Slave moralists, everybody
>>8089897
If anything, you're the one being emotional. You can't read a short book without getting angry about someone doing something differently than you would.
>>8089884
>Why do you say that? I'm halfway through so far and loving it. He really captures the feeling of depression perfectly.
I felt nothing. It read more like "/r9k/ the book" rather than a story about an actual person's misery. Also the writing was uninteresting an annoying to me, but that might just be the translation.
>>8089892
I don't disagree, but I am still in the corner that the end-game of eugenics is to create the perfect human.
>>8089922
>2016
>Seeing anything wrong with this
>Not being beyond Good and Evil already
>>8089901
I'm told the translation is fairly good but I can't say for myself since I don't speak or write Japanese. The writing is meant to mimic the melancholy within the character's own emotional state. It's hardly /r9k/ but I can see where you would draw the comparison given the general themes. But from experience I will tell you that the way he deals with the depression and how it affects his life is spot on. Given how short it is I'd suggest you reread it to see if you don't understand it in that context.
>>8089855
What exactly about his situation was changeable?
He loved his family, but they didn't love him. Because he loved his family, he worked a job he hated to support them, in the hopes that they would appreciate him. But they never did.
Is your suggestion "stop loving your family"?
>>8089882
>my uncle tom wife agrees with me!
>>8089933
>The writing is meant to mimic the melancholy within the character's own emotional state.
Well that's my issue, it didn't feel melancholic, just completely dead and flat and therefor (to me) uninteresting. I was also diagnosed with clinical depression, but I couldn't relate in any way. I don't meant to imply any use of buzzwords, but I was more reminded of autism.
That being said, if it works for you, that's kool, I don't wanna shit on the book. However, in relation to me, my expectations and experiences, it failed.
ok
![dragons.den.ca.s08e07.hdtv.x264-2hd.mp4_snapshot_16.58_[2014.06.08_23.46.13].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/dEvlxHw.jpg "dragons.den.ca.s08e07.hdtv.x264-2hd.mp4_snapshot_16.58_[2014.06.08_23.46.13].jpg")
>>8089951
You can stop now.
Stephen King - CUJO. There's stream of consciouness. Of a dog.
"the consumer" by michael gira
>>8088948
Was not the original poster critiquing his life vs his authorial... Well, authority.
Was just pointing out that the reason Huxley wrote the book was to criticize drug use, which seems a mite ridiculous in the scheme of all the shit that happens in BNW.
' What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.'
I thought the setting was great, but the book ended up being about a whole lot of nothing, with some meta wanking by PKD in the end. The whole I-ching shit made it all even worse.
>>8090245
I agree, but I think the show is fun as hell
I ordered Don Quixote once and it was a completely different book about a radical feminist that blamed society for her abortion
>>8090462
Forgot the pic
>>8090245
He1l H1tler
I would rather actually fucking kill myself - by slitting my wrists, even - than read this shit again. If you think opera is sometimes melodramatic, take a look at this fucking abyss of a 'book' for perspective.
>>8090471
top kek
>>8090471
A true classic
>>8090471
Woooooow
I gave up on a tale of two cities twice and also great expectations. Dickens's trick is to write in a wry and knowing way about the characters. He repeats this trick 9001 times by page 10. Now drag everything out for 20 times longer than you thought possible and that's all there is.
Apart from that, I've read books I disliked and gave up on but nothing that was so bad that it had zero merit and I'm usually willing to try stuff again.
>>8090471
did you not notice the cover says Kathy Acker not Cervantes
>>8088141
Underrated
Two books stand out in my memory as the worst books ive ever read
The Maze Runner
Ringworld
Maze runner I expected to be shit, I only read it because I stole it from a bargain bin
Ringworld was supposed to be a sci-fi masterpiece. Which is why I was so dissapointed to find it was garbage. Hitchikers Guide was better written, and its filled with Reddit level maymays
>>8090679
I was pretty drunk when I bought it. It's a pretty good laugh though, as it really doesn't have a plot and is basically the author writing down any sort of symbolism that she deemed deep. Expect lots of Alice in wonderland, three little pig, etc. references
>>8088299
>taught how to read
Moot point. Anyone who has not figured out how to read on his or her own before school is a hopelessly dim pleb who needs not apply. I'm serious.
>>8088816
I totally understand people's hate for the beats but for some reason I love em.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
From the first the first page I knew it would be shit, but I hoped to find something valuable enough to explain its posterity. I did not.
>>8090663
My favorite chapter was the wine barrel one.
>>8089033
Read it for theology and English, catholic schools..
>>8089828
Thanks for the intro but what about /his aren't they smarter actually?
>>8090832
>smart
>4chan
Pick one
>>8089852
I'm pretty sure the avg IQ here is 103
>>8088512
All of the Greeks? Can't believe I'm falling for this meme. I'll read Dubliners first though.
>>8090841
To understand the Greeks you need to read Sumerian texts in the original cuneiform since they invented writing.
>>8089841
All of the Greeks? Memery don't fail me now. I'll check out Dubliners
>>8090846
Stop.
Don't know about worst book ever, but I wasn't able to finish The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The guy is so far up his own arse it's unbelievable.
>>8089990
No you're joking
>>8087858
>dickens
>absurdist
>>8088141
>drawfagging to make a shitty joke about someone's poor english
The Man Who Was Thursday manages to go from armchair-philosophy to wacky hijinks :^) to masturbatory religious vagueness to the revelation that it was all a dream. I don't think I've ever read something else that covers so many varieties of bullshit.
>>8087836
More correct than anyone up to this point. Typical of /lit/, a slew of thrash opinions with one interesting post in a hundred - the reason you come back.
>>8089797
I'm sure you live an exceptional social life which you choose to brag about on 4chan.
>>8090487
agreed. had to read this in high school. while i admire the emotional connections it tries to making with coming of age and jealousy, it could have at least made those connections without also making me wish to jump into oncoming traffic.
this book is just so fucking boring.
>>8087598
It was never anything else.
Only now do you finally understand.
Steppenwolf is utter rubbish
>>8090832
Don't know yet, they're still too new. But I'm going to guess not because it's a lot of /pol/ people there. But since it's only a mix the average probably falls somewhere in the middle of the boards.
>>8090851
No really. At the VERY least read the works from Homer and at least one primer about general Greek literature, THEN read Dubliners. You may also want to read some of the Saints as well. THEN read Ulysses. Not even memeing you.
>>8091121
I don't remember bragging in any of those posts. My life is fairly average. I just said you need to stop being a bitch about things you can easily fix.
>wahh I can't even lift up a fork for my ramen without going out of breath
So start lifting
>No that's dumb
This is how you sound.
>>8091480
Jesus fucking Christ Gregor, stop being a fucking Cockroach.
What a bitch.
Behead All Satans for the simple fact the faggot author keeps shill spamming
cities of the red night, by burroughs.
>>8092300
did you get the ebook? if yes, upload it somewhere so we can take a look at it
>>8087573
>He's a whiny little snot and just plane miserable throughout the entire book
ok this b8 is too much
>>8090838
more like 110. around the 60-70th percentile. Most people here are university students, which means they'd be higher than the average. It should be noted that 110 isn't remarkably intelligent.
>>8091480
>The cure to all of life's problems is to become more attractive through lifting
Do you ever think upon things besides how other people view you? Do other things matter in your life?
>>8091473
Just give me an exhaustive list and I'll do whatever it takes to understand this book. I wanna enjoy it as much as you guys
>>8087573 The Alchemyst by Paulo Cohelo.
>>8091480
Dont you understand that not being able to "just go and do those htings" is part of it?
The problem is exactly that a person has no motivation togo do those things...
Telling him to do them is absurd.
Well, in real life someone might force him to or persuade him to but surely not someone spewing nonesense on 4chan..
It is not only about knowing what to do but also about actually doing it.
>>8087573
>even when he turns into an insect
this happens literally in the first sentence you idiot
>>8092897
>Lifting is only about how others view you and in no way helps your self-image and your body both on the physical and mental levels
Nerd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E9aOuf6eI8
>>8087858
I thought Hard Times was shit because it never 'went' anywhere. Nothing of importance happens throughout the entire book and none of anything is even remotely interesting
>Only read Stephen King in past years
Needful things was the worst one I've read. The ending was a giant "Fuck you" to the reader.
There's a strange man who opens up a shop of knick knacks in a small town in Maine (you guessed it). He seems to have the exact item each of his customers needs, the items have effects over customers and he uses that to pit them against each-other. Throughout the whole book it's implied that he may be hypnotizing them and that the items aren't actually special in any way, no mention of supernatural aspects.
Anyway, the ending is "hurr use the power of love and hope to send him back to hell" and he flies away on his demonic carriage.
>>8096090
>The ending was a giant "Fuck you" to the reader.
All of his post-addiction books end like that.
>>8087784
MY NIGGA THAT'S OUTERNET
read it when I was in grade school or middle school I think
>>8087573
WORST?
That's very hard to say, to be honest.
I'm very, very picky about what I read.
When I was in High School, I'd spend a lot of my free time in the library just trying to find SOMETHING to read.
Very often leaving with nothing
(funny, story, I remember once I found a book online I wanted to read and ask the librarian if she could order it from another school for me. The only school that had it was in D.C.
Needless to say, they wouldn't send it.)
Anyway, worst book I've ever read...
I'm going to say Hunger Games: Catching Fire
>>8088158
This shit is so dry and excruciating. It has good parts but I had to start listening to the audiobook for it to pass faster (I don't like leaving books unfinished).
>>8089811
I wouldn't say any of hemingway's books are the worst, but they are kind of boring and mediocre
>>8087784
Fuck you Outernet was great.
>>8088297
Read Island and you will see the alternative Huxley gives.
>>8096750
Agreed
>>8087858
Yeah broseph, hard times sucks
>>8087624
>Silverberg
>Silver
>berg
>just a junkies journal
>curses way too much and in a mundane dialog that would not even interest the people he's targeting towards
>shittly written
>wanted to puke before I got to 100 pages, just because of how shitty it was
>>8096750
hemingway is a great character / dialogue writer IMO, but yea as far as storytelling he drags quite a bit.
characters / interactions like Bill, the count, Mike vs. Robert, etc make books like The Sun Also Rises worth reading.
>>8087573
this was pretty goddamn terrible
