What was the last book you've read that you've actually enjoyed and have a hard time putting down?
What was the last book you've read that you've actually enjoyed and have a hard time putting down?
What was the last book you've read that you've actually enjoyed and have a hard time putting down?
Notes from Underground. I tore through it in two sittings. I thought I would like more Dostoyevsky so I tried to read The Brothers Karamazov but found it boring as frick.
Based. It's just so intense.
Based. Intense in the same pro-humanist / anti-social-determinist way. Conversations with Mond were great.
kysjbx0p
>Notes from Underground
I had to split it in a few sessions although it's pretty quick to read, just because it was a literal punch in the guts of my massive ego.
Interesting. How did it affect your ego? Have you recovered from the shock?
Made me realize I'll end up exactly like the narrator if I don't stop taking everything so seriously and behaving like I'm better than everyone. That my miserable nihilistic view of the world didn't make me better, after that I read a bit of Nietzsche but quickly jumped to Camus' writings on absurdity, I do better now.
lmao, notes from underground is supposed to come after those two, but you somehow misinterpreted it and have yet to reach the notes from the underground-stage lmao
Can you elaborate? NFU was a kickstarter for me.
Who cares what "order" you read books in or even what "interpretation" you get from them
You have your own, he has his own, big fricking deal
The point is that you're reading something that gets you feeling some kind of way about your life at all and not flashy $25 Sally Rooney paperbacks from Barnes and Noble that you'll set next to cups of coffee and put up on your Instagram story
Absolute moron
this.
You need to read Dostoevsky in order. At the very least read crime and Punishment. Get Kats or P&V and you will tear through it as notes from underground. Long monologues in c&p will set up those in brothers karamazov.
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
My answer is Island by Huxley, which I enjoyed much more than I ever did BNW
i found that book really boring
BNW is annoyingly engrossing for an interwar English book. I could not stop reading it
Also Master and Margherite, the reason I like it is mostly the fact it is an essence of Stalin's pre-WW2 Russia written on paper and it playfully satirizes the system which itself had the power to eliminate the author
I only read to appear smart
Same.
>I only read to appear smart
I only appear smart to read
Me too anon.
The Hunger Games no cap
Honestly same. Reading that first book as a kid was the shit.
I finished every single one of those in one day as a high school student.
A methodology of Possession - James Ellis, I really liked this book
At the Mountains of Madness - Lovecrafts prose really shines with this book, amd especially with the section where the MC is looking at the mural and learns about the elder things history on earth
Under the Pendulum Sun, which is about the discovery of the fae lands during the Victorian era, at which point some Christian missionaries decide to go there and have a real bad time. It's a dreary gothic novel, which is something I adore.
Honorable mention goes to Still Operational, which I picked up in a goodwill and appears to be someone's self published novel about their GURPS character who is a literal ninja working for the CIA as an assassin. Not good exactly, but I couldn't put it down.
Haven't read a book since graduating highschool. ten years ago.
Crime and punishment
Really?
Being born in the 80s, I found, by the time I got to it, that its themed and overarching plot had been reused, remixed, and overused thousands of times in thousands of things I had already read and watched that it was barely enjoyable at all for me.
It's not his fault, obviously, but it was hard to find it interesting as it was its 179th iteration if itself that I experienced.
Learn to escape your default setting and appreciate something for what it was
Project Hail May by Andy Weir
*Hail Mary
Stupid phone
The Hobbit. I like simplicity but which also has depth.
>curly side burns and beard
Looks more like a rabbi than Gandalf.
Growth of the Soil, crazy how compelling farm life can be.
Maybe it's just me, but I've been reading this one for a while now thinking I was close to the end of the story, but my kindle is saying that I'm only 37% through.
Such a good book
Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
Me too, I wanted to beat Inger with a club when she was being snobby to the only man who ever accepted her, as well as fed, sheltered, and wed her, built a life with her, helped get her sentence reduced as well as waited more than faithfully for 6 years, expanding and improving his land in every way he knows how, just to have her out partying all night and part of the day with other men a short while after her return, and then to find her in a secluded spot with one of the men, tenderly playing with his belongings like a schoolgirl.
The treacherous prostitute.
You can't really blame Inger, the city as a whole corrupted everyone in that story. Eleseus was honestly even worse than her in that regard. However, I think Oline was the worst, probably my most hated character in literature
It's not anything like Hunger except for Hamsun's (more advanced) writing style. I loved it and just liked Hunger.
Island is my least favorite book I've read this year. It could hardly be called a novel, every person from Pala was essentially the same character, and the writing was insanely repetitive. I think Huxley described Farnaby's smile as "hyena-like" at least thirty times. The obvious references to Brave New World (Rating foreigners with Greek letters, the maggot scene etc.) felt desperate.
If I didn't like Hunger, is it possible I'd enjoy Growth of the Soil? I like the plot idea.
Yeah I think of Growth as a better Hundred Years of Solitude. Very different from Hunger.
The Story of B. Sequel to Ishmael and better argued in every way.
>see replies
>look up book
>wow seems like i’ll love it
>check goodreads for the bugman reception
>”great book shame he’s literally hitler”
it’s perfect
ty anons
Stoner
Sadist?
Just the way it was written I guess. It has a page-turner quality to it, even though the story is pretty dull on the surface.
Same. Reading the novel felt like living through the memories of an actual person. Stoner's life was filled with so many interesting periods of emptiness and social anxiety, only to be broken up by rare passages where he finds happiness and self-realization, to the point where you can never find yourself bored. It's dedication to realism isn't cruel, it's neutral. The world allows you only a moment to live before it continues onward
Middlemarch, George Eliot has me wrapped around her finger.
Whatever by Houellebecq
Hey, me too
The most recent one? Uhh, looks like that would be Ending Makers
The last two I've read were glorious:
* Clèves by Marie Darrieussecq,
* The Heart is a lonely hunter by Carson McCullers
both were delicate, feminine and a great use of language.
Anyone likes them here?rmj20
I'm reading McCullers later this year.
Blessed be you, it's gorgeous. I feel like it will take many more time to me to find a books like that one.
>The Heart is a lonely hunter by Carson McCullers
read that around middle school i think, it made an impression
bap
Perversion of Normality Kerry Bolton
I absorb whatever IQfy says about books and authors, without actually reading them. Been called a pseud at gatherings, though.
It's very easy to read, but I found the narrator intriguing.
The second half of the Idiot. I was not putting down that one before I was done. Unfortunately, the ending got me enraged.
The Outlaws by Ernst Von Salomon
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
Web of Air. Pror to that, Fever Crumb
Kurkov's Death and the Penguin.
Extension du domaine de la lutte by houellebecq. I know its a 'booklet' book at only around 100 pages.
Name of pic op
I can't cope with the fact that I'll never frick a woman this young and hot.
If you frick her when she's 12, you have a chance of keeping her indoctrinated until this age.
You don't have $100?
stop posting women
It's also a really shitty scenario. She asked someone to take a picture of her ugly ass while she tries to be beautiful by doing the cliche hair adjustment pose. Frick that.
On my second read of blood meridian and I can't stop. I just love it so much bros
Sayaka murata Earthlings
whenever reading/writing begins to feel like a chore, I always go back to The Road
You might want to give up on literature and start reading movie scripts.
The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy. Read it two weeks ago.
My current book. Every book. I almost never read books that I know I will have a hard time finishing, only those I'm interested in. I find that my interests always broaden over time and I come to enjoy books I used to find boring.
Forgot to mention. Pillars of the Earth. Before that it was Five Decembers.
In Russian I'm currently reading Denikin's memoirs.
Gravity's Rainbow, The Stranger, Blood Meridian, and 100 Years of Solitude (all from this year so, I feel like i'm doing pretty good).
I want to see a parody of this book. The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo
It makes you think how good intentions in the end end up ruined by bad actors.
are you fifteen? asking oneself why good intentions lead nowhere is a question you should really answer for yourself before the age of 18 unless you want to end up heiling schmitler and watching fuentes, or cutting your wiener off to send a message to the patriarchy
Can't remember
i would never tell IQfy because they're a relatively unknown living author and i want to protect them from IQfy.
Tao Te Ching
East of Eden
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. A friend got it for me and I read it in three days. It’s a solid overview of what Christianity is after looking beyond the denominational conflicts, and gives a sturdy basis for why anyone should bother with Christ over any other god.
Very comfy
The Sailor Who Fell Out of Grace With the Sea
that is a surprisingly hard question
The Italian by Anne Radcliffe. It's so fricking fast, must have been infuriating to read as a serial. Ending was a little disappointing though, I must say.
The End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad, probably because I'm a new father of a daughter.
Resurrection by Tolstoy. Basically everything Tolstoy wrote was absolutely top tier.
>that you've actually enjoyed and have a hard time putting down
these are generally contradictory for me
I like books that I feel the need to put down and think about for a while before continuing
Never read before.
The Mayor of Casterbridge
I canceled all my plans just to finish it in one day
Bill Bryson, One Summer 1927, funny and fascinating story of Charles Lindbergh and all the failed wannabes who preceded him
I don't read but I'm planning to read some books.
An International Episode by Henry James
best short story I've read of his so far
Don Quixote
The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A season at El Bulli
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Read it in two sessions. I liked it so much I ordered the South Sea tales right away.
One flew over the cuckoo's nest I think
Just finished Altered Carbon and Post Office. Altered carbon had me completely hooked, and Bukowski is always a favourite read
jon fosse's septology
i love him so much, absolutely compulsive
2666, about a month or so ago
First half of The Brother's Karamazov especially Ivan's conversation with Alyosha. Second half was kind of meh.
2666
when is he gonna start naming names?
i just slammed through Piranesi this afternoon, did not expect it to go that quickly nor to be that enthralling.
The same happened to me. Didn't pull me in as much as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but still read it in one night.
Before that one I read East of Eden in two/three days. Really like Steinbeck's way of writing
Wuthering Heights. I'm working through classic novels and didnt know what to expect but the writing style is weirdly readable. Just started reading Farenheit 451 and it's also gripping.
Memorial by Bruce Wagner
mishima - sailor who fell from grace into the sea
What Are The Odds: From Crackhead to CEO by The MyPillow Guy.
It's actually a good book about addiction and what it does to people and communities. The last few chapters get corny and somewhat creepy with how messianic he gets after converting to Christianity. You see the premonitions to his post-2020 election meltdown.
>From Crackhead to CEO
haha, it seems he never really quit crack though, at any rate I wouldnt believe his assertions to that effect
Soon to be updated: From Crackhead, to CEO, to Trump Clown Car Driver
just read Piranesi, was very meh. nothing unusual or particularly deep.
Last AMAZING book I read was Queen of the Corpsepickers, but I don't know how invested in the Primaterre stuff you have to be to fully dig it.
The Disaster Artist, The Godfather and The Lincoln Highway
The Hunt for Red October
I don't read
amogus
Perfume made me feel like one of those morons screaming at a marvel movie, unputdownable
Call of the Crocodile
Diary of a country priest, Georges Bernanos.
Obviously not a page-turner, but those kind of books are fake and gay. Bernanos' book is slow paced but very dense and magnetic. And I'm an atheist.
Growth of the Soil
The Good Soldier Švejk but in Polish. I love it, idk if it is so good in other languages, but in Polish translation it made me bust a gut
Does soldier really translate to "wojak" in Polish? lol
yep. war is wojna and army wojsko
I always thought Poles could understand Czech and Slovak, is that wrong?
kind of. With enough determination and improvised sign language. It's like Spanish-Portuguese or Dutch-German. And Czech and Slovak sounds ridiculous funny to Poles and vice versa.
I used to work with a Pole and he claimed the Czech song Jožin z bažin became super famous in Poland for a while, clearly there's some overlap.
Because song is funny as frick and catchy. Borderlands are basically bilingual or speak some mixed lang. The Czech also have different dialects. I don't know about them, but some Czechs are easier to understand and others are harder to understand. We understand Slovaks better, but their language is similar to our highlander dialect. I think that in the Middle Ages Polish and Czech were more like Dutch-Afrikaans or Serbo-Croatian even
Cool!
the Fablehaven series, by Brandon Mull. i will never be able to get the same enjoyment out of the great pieces of literature that i can read as an adult as i did out of those simple YA novels i loved as a kid. those were better days.
'Salem's Lot.
voyage in the dark
The book has more battles of wit than the series.
My Struggle 3. Knausgard was a bubble butt boy.