ALL MEMES ASIDE

Seriously, where the fuck do I start? What are the first five books to read and in what order?

Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, The Recognitions

Just read Mein Kampf

Start with the bible

The four Gospels, then the Iliad

Thomas De Quincey: Revolt of the Tartars
Herman Melville: Billy Budd
Samuel Beckett: Watt
William Trevor: The Children of Dynmouth
Anonymous: The Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra

Dubliners
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Ulysses
Finnegans Wake
my diary desu

The Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra
The Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra 2: Miami Vice
The Legacy of Totalitarianism in a Tundra 3: Tokyo Drift
Hypersphere
Dreamscape; Or, My Diary Desu

T H E G R E E K S

What books have you read and enjoyed?
What are you trying to gain by reading? Like what do you want the books we give you to impart on you, what understanding do you want to gain?

Iliad
Odyssey
Theban plays
Oresteia

Phenomenology of Spirit
Critique of Pure Reason
Finnegans Wake
Bottom's Dream
Gravity's Rainbow

Neuromancer

One Day In The Live Of Ivan Denisovich

Nine Man Eaters And One Rogue

Snow Crash

The Call Of The Wild, White Fang and Other Stories

Come at me.

...

lol i have only read Billy Budd and Watt but I can tell from those two alone that this list is E N D G A M E as fuck

This would be great for us to help you.

Here's a list of five random entry level books that I particularly like:

>Hearts in Atantis by Stephen King
>Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
>Pretty, Rooster by Clay Matthews
>Lysistrata by Aristophanes
>The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard

There. That contains everything from modern popular fiction to Greek drama. You're bound to enjoy at least one of them and you can move on from there.

If only 5
In this order
>Iliad
>Plato's 5 trial dialogues (Republic would be better)
>Bible (genesis, exodus, eccl., st mark atleast)
>Hamlet
>Dubliners (b/c Joyce is memed hard here)
Congrats you now have the fundamentals of western lit

Yes
Meme
No
Meme
Meme
Yes
Yes
Meme... but yes
NO
No, unless you want softball highschool lit
No
Yes ofc

If you want to read books that are actually good, Confederacy of Dunces, Catch-22, Slaughterhouse Five, Stoner, Of Mice and Men, The Old Man and the Sea, 1984, any of Dickens' popular tales (Tale of Two Cities is my favourite). Probably plenty I've missed.

Then, once your mind is supple enough, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy through to Smiley's people. It's not genre slop- LeCarre was actually in the MI6, briefly.

This is assuming you're getting into reading for pleasure, and not scholarship.

I fucking hate 'where do I start' threads. How about you go to the library and pick up a random book, something that catches your eye and build from there like the rest of us when we started reading.

ding ding ding
There's really no way around it.

Keep a structured rotation. Start with two books, fun ones. Then move on to something between 1950-1990. Then nonfiction. Fun book. A book that would be on Jeopardy under classic literature. Nonfiction. Every 10 or 20 books read a doorstopper. Might be a good idea to focus on a subject with nonfiction. If you are poor, read business books. And so on.

Mix fun with study. I like to read fantasy or sci fi for my easy reads.

START WITH THE FUCKING BIBLE

ahahahhahahaahha

What's with everyone recommending the bible? It's fucking boring and you could read some good books in the time you'd be wasting on that shit.