Sorry if this is a crappy thread but I just turned 18 and decided to start reading.
I have read a few books (pic related) but after lurking for a bit just realized I'm pretty new...
Any good reading lists to get around? Probably something easy, I have shit attention span
Also, are eBooks shit? I like them because I can download them for free and carry them on my phone all the time.
If you like ebooks then go for it. Most people are going to tell you to "Start with the Greeks", but I'd recommend reading short story collections if you have a poor attention span
Depends on what you want to read, as "Well Read" could mean anything from "Able to intelligently comment on today's culture/politics" to "This motherfucker knows his Heidegger".
The simplest route is to pick a subject and study it. With large subjects like history and philosophy, find something to narrow it down.
Join a book club, talk with other people about books. If you have a shit attention span like everyone on Veeky Forums, schedule your time to read and study. Cut out screens and phones. Find out what works for you.
Try a bit of Henry Miller old enough to be getting out of copyright
Please make sure you comply with the copy right laws of your country
Miller had a big influence on me its semi autobiographical and doesnt really have a plot is very patchy put have read some of his books many times and still enjoy dipping into them
Absolutely baffles me how people pick up Nietzsche without a lot of background reading, even if he is pretty easy to read and seems interesting in summation.
You read that so I'd wager you can read pretty much anything posted here if you find the subject interesting and aren't afraid to do a bit of background research on the subjects the books deal with.
is a good suggestion for once in these threads
Don't be afraid to abandon books now and then. When you start studying literature seriously, you will encounter books that you don't like. Consistently forcing yourself to read them will harm our enjoyment of reading. Some books will not be worth forcing yourself through.
Other than that, try to find a reader who knows you well enough to recommend books.
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When i was 18 i started with Charles Bukowski but he's only good if you indulge in self-loathing.
Go with Franz Kafka or maybe science fiction like Neuromancer, Old Man's War, the Horus Heresy series, etc.
From there go with Dostoevsky.
I really enjoyed reading notes from the underground and have been looking forward into reading more Dostoyevsky
Fuck off with this fake list, you cunt.
Find a mentor, a teacher, a kindred spirit that reflects your values, then allow your curiosity to take hold
value your mental development over everything until you've destroyed your life. You will find enlightenment
Read Crime and Punishment
It's good
An 18 year old wants to get into reading and you hand them a list that has Finnegan's Wake in the top five?
You should read two types of books: books that are easy and serious books.
>Easy books
This can be pretty much anything. The goal with these is to increase your reading comprehension and joy of reading. E.g., short stories are really good for this.
>Serious books
These are the books that are going to make your life better. You're going to read them over and over again throughout your life, and soon you will find yourself referencing what you've learned from them when making life decisions. If you are a Christian, these are your Bible. Start with the Greeks.
Start with the Greeks
>until you've destroyed your life
What did he mean by this?
Is start with the Greeks not a meme? Not OP but also an 18 year old. Aren't the Greeks' works just long and dated with some really stupid stuff that we know is wrong now? Do we need to study them to learn where modern thought developed from or because their works hold standalone value?
Why is it that IJ gets number 42 when it held the top spot for 2 years in a row?
Fuck ebooks.
My advice: get some short classic novellas and short stories and work through them slowly, taking notes longhand in an attempt to articulate your understanding of each section.
Recs:
1. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
2. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
3. Metamorphosis by Kafka
4. Good People by David Foster Wallace
5. Offloading Mrs Schwartz by George Saunders
You really should understand that an attention span is something to be developed and retained. It takes self-discipline, focus, and the willingness to realize you have learned something valuable only a long time after the experience of reading something.
What the fuck are they teaching you kids these days
I try to read serious books but the problem is I dont know how to take them seriously. I mean the best I can do is retort to some vague argument or simply just write down what its main ideas are. I don't know how to wrestle or write about the ideas the book is trying to convey.
Ignore the "reading starter packs" and just read. As you gain more experience with different types of literature, try to find a synopsis that can better explain what you've been reading. I'd suggest beginning with Mark Twain, Whitefang, The Insect, and Anna Ahkmatova
Nah it's not a meme, that research can literally lay the foundation of the past 2500 years of cultural development and thought. I think your journey needs to take you to them naturally though for you to appreciate them; they were fucking geniuses granted what they were working with, and you need the humility to effectively move past them. They were more ambitious and came from a more culturally ambitious time; their significance cannot be overstated. You'd be doing yourself a favor is all
Just emphasizing the potential boons of extreme engagement with the text as well as the pitfalls. My readings have occurred largely outside of the academic setting, and reading Plato while living like a normie is maddening
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>Thomas Kinkade
ignore this user
No. Also the Greeks aren't just the Greek philosophers.
Plato will really make you think.
give a list of short stories NOW
The Greeks have some of the best literature known to man, in short, worth checking out. Its a meme because its posted without an explanation;
>see
>
Basically you are asking "Should something without intrinsic value be ignored?" The answer is no
plato literally has ancestral knowledge of ancient civilizations, this is proven by his accurate pinning of the end of the younger dryas
I would honestly just read whatever you think is interesting although there is value in the 'start with the Greeks' meme, especially if you're interested in philosophy.
Anyone you read is guaranteed to have read and been well versed in the Greeks at some point.
it helps if you read "the greeks" in academia
i hope you can go to college/comm college or can read them in HS and talk to your teacher.
a lot of plebby pseudo-intellectuals on this forum think they know what's up and are getting at the actual meaning of the text, when really their whole faggy perspective is based on error which snowballs into autistic levels of fucked up self assurance when in reality you just look like an idiot who THINKS they're smart
Widely read isn't the same as well read.
Am STEMfag unfortunately. Is there anyway I can read and understand the Greeks by myself? What's the core books/plays I should read?
>Aren't the Greeks' works just long and dated with some really stupid stuff that we know is wrong now?
No. Read them
>The Odyssey
>The Iliad
>The Flight of Icarus
>Oedipus Rex
>Plato(philosophy)
>Sophocles(plays)
>Herodotus(for history)
>Aristotle(Plato's student and early critic)
Start with the great greek epics, move onto philosophy and theater. Definitely read with a guide, the writing is usually quite dense, but worth understanding
This
But honestly the first thing you should do is read a book which you will find enjoyable instead of following an objective list. So i recomment something like crime and punishment or metamorphosis, the stranger (something widely known as great). But this list is definitely what you need to get to understant literature. Good luck!