Books of 2017

>Never reads contemporary literature.

What were the best books of 2017? I don't think I have read any relevant lit this year that was published in this millennium.

New Shipley is worth a look.

bump to see the Veeky Forums top ten books of 2017

is there anything out there that is to the internet what wallace was to the tv?

Who Wallace?

some barely known american sociologists who wrote during similar period as Wallace and made barely any echo, sadly. also, most of their work was theoretical essays and articles, no sexy doorstopper tomes of knowledge and surreal short stories.

I have the exact same problem. I feel I have read so little in my life - I started when I was around 17 - and that I have to read a sizeable chunk of what is considered ´classic literature´ before bothering to read new stuff.

Is this stupid?

Reading this at the moment. Pretty fun overall. The olde English vs modern slang schtick gets a little gimmicky at times but, that's my only complaint.

who the FUCK do you think

Yes. Doris Lessing wrote something that resonated with me.

"There is only one way to read, which is tobrowse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag—and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty—and vice-versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you."

You have a whole life of reading ahead of you. Enjoy it. There's no need to hurry.

Beautifully put user

bump, i would like this thread to continue

Doris Lessing is truly inspirational. If she can win the Nobel prize, anyone can!

>2017
>Laurus

>"There is only one way to read, which is tobrowse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag—and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty—and vice-versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you."
this is the exact reason that a 2012 survey showed 55% of all YA readers are over 25

The most contemporary book I read was from 2016. "The Last Painting of Sara de Vos" -- it was bretty good overall, definitely readable and comparable to a lot of the classic lit I read.

My pro-tips for finding good contemporary lit:
* Avoid awards/best-of-lists like the plague. There's almost always a socio-political reason why certain books get nominated or win that has nothing to do with quality. When you then look back on those awarded books 5+ years on, their low quality is stunningly obvious.

* Instead, focus on trusting your own taste. In this day and age, it's easy as fuck to read previews (hell, LONG previews) of contemporary books on Amazon/GooglePlay.

* To go with the above point, try to minimize brute-forcing. A technique I've used is looking the publishers of award-winning/year-best books. In many cases, you'll get their specific "adult literary fiction" imprint, so that most of what's published in that imprint is potentially readable to someone with halfway good taste.

You'll have to test and toss a lot of books, but you'll eventually find one or two that -- based on their preview -- might be readable all the way through.

bumping for more tips

i generally only ever end up reading recent books in my book group and they're generally pretty meh, but i liked lincoln in the bardo

Lincoln in the Bardo, la

but why waste your time reading something which you say is at best "readable"

there's just better stuff out there, and its not contemporary

She had too much faith in the good taste and sensibility of future generations

Fragments of Lichtenberg and The World Goes On (though both are 2017 translations of previously-released titles)

It's almost like contemporary books have been subverted to some kind of agenda

maybe if you're a brainlet who doesn't follow quality publishers like Dalkey Archive

Why haven't you then?

Can anyone dump the best books from 2000-2017 just so that we Veeky Forumsizens can read more contemporary stuff. Just the best ones of their respective years. It's so easy to do with stuff like movies, anime, vidya but you never see it with literature

bumping for some replies

From what I can tell serious literature just exists in a sort of bubble where it's written for academics and critics and not really meant to end up anywhere else; i.e. in your hands.
The stuff that's meant for your consumption is all in the Dan Brown-vein and that is what you end up seeing on the shelves.

The only real exception to this seems to be /ourboy/ Tao Lin

The Sarah book
the door posts of your house on your gates
(the only two books from this year I read this year, but they were both good)

underrated post

>If she can win the Nobel prize, anyone can

Is this an insult?

>dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag—


I don't even know her but I already fucking despise her.