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Hey lit thread, I need help. My partner got me a scratch off poster of 100 "essential" novels from Pop Chart Labs. I'm excited because it combines two of my favorite pastimes, reading and scratching foil off of poo poo. The poster is laid out chronologically, and I'd like to sort of tackle the books chronologically, except the first novel is Don Quixote and it's gonna take me a while to get through a 900 page novel and I'm sure I'll actually end up jumping around a bunch based on what books interest me the most. Here's the list: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/104049.100_Essential_Novels_from_Pop_Chart_Lab_poster_ The thing I need help with is figuring out if there are any instances where I should definitely read one specific book before another for the sake of context. For example, both Ulysses and Mrs. Dalloway are on there so I figure I should read Ulysses first. Same with Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. Also throw some hot takes at me on what I should definitely read right the hell now or not at all. I've read a good number of the books on the poster, but I'll probably re-read a lot of those. With some exceptions, because drat if I don't ever want to read Catcher in the Rye again.
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Apr 30, 2018 00:50
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 19:51 |
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Thanks for the translation suggestions, and the hot takes! I've been reading the Edith Grossman translation of Quixote and so far it's my favorite of the ones I've tried, though I don't think I've run into the Jervas/Jarvis one. And yeah, CS Lewis... hm. I've kind of softly decided that with the poster, I may not re-read some of them I've read before and instead just grab another book from the same author. I've read Lord of the Rings enough times in my life that I don't really want to slog through it again, and have been meaning to read Children of Hurin (which I know doesn't really qualify as high literature or "essential", don't stone me to death). But man, I do not really care for Lewis at all. I don't have a lot of patience for his writing, Narnia or otherwise. I guess I might do Screwtape Letters? I've never finished it but enjoyed it when I started reading it at age 15. Also as my next book I picked Robinson Crusoe and why did I do that, that was dumb. I might do Moby-Dick instead because I've never gotten very far in the book, but have always really enjoyed it.
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Apr 30, 2018 16:32
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chernobyl kinsman posted:i havent read more than a couple of stories from the NYRB edition so I can't vouch for its strength, but dark entries and cold hand in mine are great places to start. the only editions in which theyre available have kind of cheesy covers but c'est la vie I actually really like the covers but I came here from the horror thread so yeah they're probably bad If anybody is digging around for Aickman stories in other collections or whatever, I'll warn you that the most likely one you'll stumble across is Ringing the Changes, which is... fine. It's not really representative of his best work though, and is much more of a boilerplate horror story than is normal for him.
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Jun 6, 2018 17:30
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Tree Goat posted:not quite marginalia, but my wilfred owens collection has a big coffee stain right smack dab in the middle of dulce et decorum est, so it reads: It's: "Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!--An ecstasy of fumbling"
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Jun 7, 2018 05:45
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I wasn't clever enough to say anything funny about it, but at least we now have a literary in-joke way to point out when the thread has gone to poo poo.
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Jun 7, 2018 06:31
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Nooo don't do it, this is apparently the only place on the internet where I can ask for recommendations of good lit and not have anyone suggest anything by Ayn Rand!
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Jun 7, 2018 16:40
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I am now going to work the phrase "but in the world that is a very real thing that occurs" into any discussion of books.
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Jun 7, 2018 19:43
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What would be the recommendation for babby's first literary theory? Seems like Barthes comes up the most in those sort of discussions but I've never touched any writing on literary criticism so I have no frame of reference. Or for that matter, how do I go about... I don't know, appreciating literature better? That may be a dumb question, but I really enjoy reading and would probably enjoy engaging with it a little more actively. I think I'm lucky, by US standards, that I never really had a lit teacher that found a way to ruin reading for me by insisting on overly oppressive close-reading techniques or anything, so I don't have that bias hanging around in my back pocket. I've found that just slowing down and reflecting on what I'm reading and how I relate to it has enriched my reading experience but I'd be open to other ideas.
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Jun 8, 2018 02:07
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I always recommend Barthes' Mythologies to beginners. Cool, I'm interested to check it out, I really have no context for what I'm getting into.
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Jun 8, 2018 03:15
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I am The Sickness, but dream of being The Butterfly Trap
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Jul 11, 2018 17:52
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What are some good translations of The Count of Monte Cristo? Alternatively, which ones should be avoided entirely?
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Oct 30, 2018 19:52
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Speaking of schlock fantasy (and horror) novels, I've read a fuckload of them lately and really need to get back to something more substantial. Recommend me an excellent book that would appeal to a horror nerd, please. If Blackwater counts, I've already read that and it was great.
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Jan 3, 2019 17:54
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Doctor Faustine posted:Maybe a bit of a stretch, but have you read Beloved by Toni Morrison? It’s extremely good, very powerful, but it’s also deeply unsettling at points. I have not read Beloved, but I've been meaning to, thanks for the reminder! I've also never read any Hawthorne, so I'll track some down as well. Though I remember being forced to read some bizarre excerpt (but by no means much) of The Scarlet Letter in junior high and dissect it because the way American schools teach literature is bullshit
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Jan 3, 2019 18:13
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Sham bam bamina! posted:The most horror-y book on my shelves that isn't by Stephen King is The Master and Margarita, which is about demons coming to Moscow and loving with everyone. It's more lurid and frantic than scary, but it's some excellent Real Literature. I absolutely love Master and Margarita. Blew my mind when I was a teenager and was one of the few non-assigned books I found time for in my junior year of college. I'm well overdue for a re-read though. Who's the preferred translation these days? I think when I got my copy, there was only one translation I could find, but that was over 15 years ago now. CestMoi posted:the sailor who fell from grace with the sea Excellent, also been meaning to read some Mishima forever.
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Jan 3, 2019 18:26
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Guy A. Person posted:I like White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi Oh my gosh I started that one and then completely failed to finish it before I had to return it to the library, I will definitely do that one soon, I remember liking what I read of it. Franchescanado posted:Stephen Crane's collection The Monster and Other Stories is also good and spooky. Excellent, will check it out. Thanks! Sham bam bamina! posted:The Burgin/O'Connor (which is from 1995). Cool, I'll see if I can track that one down. I'm 90% sure my copy is a Pevear/Volokhonsky, but I have no idea where it is.
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Jan 3, 2019 19:24
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I'm doing the SA reading challenge this year, and I want to be a little better about not just churning through genre novels all year long like I did last year. Can somebody give me a wildcard book recommendation for the challenge?
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Jan 7, 2019 06:14
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Excellent, thanks for the recommendations everyone. I'll probably hit all of them, and I've been meaning to re-read Foucault's Pendulum or Name of the Rose now that I'm no longer a dumb teenager (though still a dumb adult). I also have a long list of books that I've always felt like I "should" read but have never gotten around to, so we'll see how that goes...
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Jan 7, 2019 17:36
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goddamn, Crying of Lot 49 is funny. I can't have been that young when I read it the first time, but I think so much of the humor still sailed over my head. It makes me wonder what other good books I read in high school/early college I should revisit now that I am not quite so juvenile.
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Jan 8, 2019 20:29
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ulvir posted:(re-)visit inherent vice, my dude Oh definitely, I was planning on Inherent Vice, V., and Gravity's Rainbow all in the near future, moreso now that I'm enjoying this re-read so much. Lot 49 is the only Pynchon I've read to date and I feel like I've wasted a lot of time.
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Jan 8, 2019 23:38
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derp posted:I just finished reading Hill House, which I picked up because I really enjoyed a lot of the Netflix series. I liked that the show--compared to most of the trash out there--showed a fair amount of restraint and subtlety and thought. Now I'm glad I watched the show first, because if I'd read this gem of a book first I think I'd have been severely annoyed with what they came up with for the show. yes, yes you would have derp posted:Anyway, really enjoyed the book and wonder what other creepy, unsettling books about mental weirdness or mental illness the thread has to recommend. If you were happy with Hill House, Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle is excellent too.
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Jan 16, 2019 21:54
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derp posted:Thanks! added to my list. I also noticed Bird's Nest by her, which also looks like just the thing I'm after. I'm not the most refined of tastes in this thread, but I'd rate Exorcist as a decent horror novel, but trashy, and Rosemary's Baby as bad/dated by horror standards, nowhere near "real lit". If you want unsettling/weird fiction with literary aspirations, check out Robert Aickman. I'm sure others can give you better recommendations than me though
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Jan 16, 2019 22:46
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chernobyl kinsman posted:aickman rules. start with whichever of the reprint editions of his stories has ringing the changes in it I think that's Dark Entries. For what it's worth, though, Ringing the Changes is both his most accessible/genre story and one of his weaker stories as a result. Still good, but it's a little more boilerplate ghost story than his usual work.
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Jan 19, 2019 20:07
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Doctor Faustine posted:I’m reading Beowulf for the first time since I never had to read it in high school and somehow managed to get through a bachelor’s and master’s in English without having to read it in college either and honestly I’m kinda pissed it’s taken me this long. Which translation are you reading? I've been meaning to read it for ages myself and I want a good one. Paging chernobyl kinsman too. (bonus points if it still starts with "Hwæt!")
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Mar 6, 2019 21:17
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How is Wieland? It sounds interesting but I'm not familiar with Brockden Brown, and I don't always get along well with late 18th century lit for some reason
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Mar 13, 2019 17:36
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What are some of the must-reads of Japanese lit? I've been reading some Mishima and Yoko Ogawa and I think I'd like to check out some more.
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Mar 14, 2019 16:13
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CestMoi posted:The Good Murakami Reading this thread has made me assume that anybody who recommends Murakami is either doing it ironically or is trying to hurt me in some way
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Mar 14, 2019 18:23
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Tree Goat posted:he means ryu murakami Ahh I was unfamiliar with Ryu Murakami, this looks very much up my alley. I retract my suspicion.
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Mar 14, 2019 18:28
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Franchescanado posted:I honestly love it and appreciate everyone taking the time for their recommendations. Yeah, this. There are so many classic works that I bounced off of before and have since enjoyed because I tried a different translation, usually one recommended here. I'm a dummy so it's something I never really considered before it was brought up in discussion.
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Mar 14, 2019 19:27
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Tree Goat posted:whenever i talk about which translations i liked or didn't like i try to make it a priori obvious that i am dumb as poo poo same, but with all my posts about books
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Mar 14, 2019 19:48
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Bilirubin posted:Something from the bottle wake in QQCS that struck me was both a comment on Marxist vs. post-structuralist criticism and a mention Franchescanado made of a basic film criticism thread in CineD. Whereas I don't watch much film but do read I was wondering if there was a similar "how to lit crit" thread somewhere around here, or if we could post some links to help STEM ignoramuses like me out when approaching literary criticism. I'd be interested in this as well, I'm not formally educated about lit crit at all but generally enjoy digging deeper into works than the surface level I tend to read them at. I know Franchescanado had a "good prose vs. bad prose" thread for a bit that I lost track of, I couldn't find it on my phone but maybe it's still around.
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Mar 14, 2019 22:05
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I can't add much beyond saying thanks for the info and that I'd definitely be in favor of a welcoming lit crit thread, though I'm too unschooled to contribute much to it.
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Mar 15, 2019 04:38
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Bilirubin posted:That book that Hieronymus recommended just above a few posts would be a good place to start--I'm into the preface (having read the ANniversary and 2nd edition prefaces first) and its a good introduction to those of us with no background in theory. A thread would be a good place for us to ask questions about what we encounter too. I'd absolutely be in favor of a Let's Read sort of thing, though I'm having trouble finding a copy of the book at my various libraries. Used copies seem to be pretty affordable though.
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Mar 15, 2019 05:11
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I've never read anything by Harold Bloom (except for maybe an excerpt of some Shakespearean analysis when I was getting my degree). What's a good intro?
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Mar 16, 2019 01:19
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I have no problem with audiobooks in general, though I can usually tell in the first 10 minutes whether I'd rather read it than listen to it. Usually the more unremarkable the language, the more I'm okay with audiobooks, though if it's a great performance I'll stick with it. so yeah I mostly do audiobooks for sci fi or fantasy or mystery stuff where I don't care enough about the prose to take it in at my own speed.
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Apr 17, 2019 19:06
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WatermelonGun posted:i read some book recently where a main character was really disappointed his son just read Three Men in a Boat over and over. are you sure the book wasn't Three Men in a Boat and the disappointed man was your dad?
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Jan 23, 2020 22:57
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Just make it black text on white background that says "Actually some fascists were really good writers"
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Mar 18, 2020 06:26
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J_RBG posted:gently caress!! gently caress!!!! I for one am excited to read this modern-day rendition of the epic of Ecgtheow's large adult son
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Aug 28, 2020 17:08
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Hi thread, give me your opinions on Inferno translations. I've never read it before, if that matters. Most of the recommendations I've seen through casual googling seem to point to Pinsky or Ciardi, but I'd like to hear some informed goon opinions too.
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Sep 9, 2020 20:41
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mdemone posted:*slams through door, gasping* Thank you for this! I imagine the Musa should be pretty easy to track down, so I'll grab that one.
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Sep 11, 2020 18:23
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 19:51 |
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I finally read Moby Dick and absolutely loved it. Now I'm reading Blood Meridian. I figured it was time to finally get around to reading some of these books that I've kind of put off forever for no reason. I feel like I only really absorbed about a quarter of what was going on in Moby Dick but honestly I'm fine with that, I had tried picking it up two or three other times in the past few years and I think I was too focused on trying to "get" it and just got mentally bogged down in the process of reading it, while this time I just went into it with less expectations and just set out to let it kind of wash over me. I think a lot of the Whale Facts sections, as interesting as they were, didn't really stick with me in any way but there are other bits of the book that will probably hang around in my memory for a long time. The sperm bucket scene really is striking, lol
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Aug 31, 2023 17:08
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