READ / OPTIONAL / AVOID

I am inept with anything but text, so heregoes:
READ
>Slaughterhouse 5
>Cat’s Cradle
>Look At the Birdie
OPTIONAL
>Breakfast of Champions
>Hocus Pocus
AVOID
>Player Piano
>Galapagos

File everything of Vonnegut's under "Avoid". Larry Niven knew what was cool, making him burn in hell eternally was sweet.

Light in August is fire bars
Still gotta read Sanctuary
Otherwise I can't speak on this chart, but Sound and the Fury is also fire bars

>Absalom, Absalom!
>optional
Who made this shitty image?

I haven't read all the novels by Calvino, but here's my take on what I've read:
>READ
If on a winter's night a traveler
Invisible Cities
>OPTIONAL
The Baron in the Trees
The Cloven Viscount
The Nonexistent Knight
>AVOID
Mr. Palomar
The Castle of Crossed Destinies

I plan on reading "The Path to the Nest of Spiders" this year.

>Kurt "they made soap and lamp out of the JUICE" Vonnegurt
lmao no thanks user

>Still gotta read Sanctuary

You really don't

This meme works humorously with some authors

e.g. Cervantes

READ
Donn Quixote

OPTIONAL
-

AVOID
-

For McCarthy I'd say

READ
>Blood Meridian
>Suttree
>The Crossing
>The Road

OPTIONAL
>All the Pretty Horses
>Cities of the Plain
>Outer Dark
>Child of God
>No Country for Old Men

AVOID
>The Orchard Keeper

this is a good list, I'd say include Cosmicomics under optional as well

agreed. Maybe put Sirens of Titan under read? Or optional.

...unsure about that... AA and Light in August are some of his best works, in my opinion, both of them combined at least as good as The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying -- in fact, I'd pick those two over TSATF or AILD, they're probably my 2 favorite novels by him. I mean, it makes sense if you're just reading to be seen as well-read, because AILD and TSATF are his most well-known works, I guess. But if you're actually reading for pleasure and are the type to like modernist texts/Faulkner in particular, I wouldn't skip those two.

>Requesting a plato chart

found this archived post
>Start with the Apology; it's the key to the rest of the dialogues, and almost all of them make some reference to some aspect of the Apology. Keep in mind that it's a work of philosophy, and not a historic account, and you'll be good to go. After that, it's really up to you, since there a couple of ways to order those dialogues: 1) By *seeming* difficulty: Apology, Euthyphro, Crito, the Symposium, Phaedo, Republic, Parmenides. This is helpful if you're really just looking to dip into Plato to see what's there. 2) "Developmental" order: (roughly the same order as above). This might be an indication of what order the dialogues were written, though there's really no good way to say whether Plato's thought really actually develops according to the three basic periods some scholars say his basic approaches would fit within; Republic and Phaedo both have different accounts of the soul but are both "Middle" period dialogues; no dialogue contains exactly the same views concerning the Forms, regardless of period; Socrates almost always uses question-and-answer modes at some point or another, regardless of whether one is to take him as Plato's strict mouthpiece. 3) "Dramatic" dating: Parmenides, Republic, Symposium, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo. This approach would be the most rewarding for a philosophy student who's already read these dialogues before, and wants to see how Plato wants to present Socrates as a whole to us. Very hard to read in this order, but one gets to see relations that would otherwise be missed. Some other dialogues that might go well with those would be: Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman (all of which relate to Parmenides and the four dialogues that take place around Socrates' trial and execution).

Gorgias and Phaedrus: Both deal with rhetoric, but the Gorgias is connected to the Republic by the concern with Justice, and the Phaedrus to the Symposium by the concern with Love. Cratylus: Relates to the Euthyphro and the dialogues at the end of Socrates' life in general. It's about language, and it's one of Plato's funniest dialogues. Maybe Timaeus as well, which alludes to the Republic. Other than that, the rest are great from a certain philosophic perspective, but maybe not so essential to someone who'd just like familiarity.

How about Hemingway?

READ
>A Farewell To Arms
>For Whom The Bell Tolls
>The Old Man And The Sea
>Short stories: Hills Like White Elephants; The Snows Of Kilimanjaro; A Clean Well-Lighted Place; The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macromber

OPTIONAL
>Death in the Afternoon
>The Sun Also Rises
>A Moveable Feast
>The Nick Adams Stories

AVOID
>Everything else

I'd put Slapstick in 'read'.

Sun Also Rises is his best tho

>SaR optional
>aFtA and fWtBT read
You fucked up

Are Faulkner's stories really that good? I loved tS&tF and AILD. Can anyone confirm?

Nabokov

READ
>Lolita
>Pale Fire
>Invitation to a Beheading

OPTIONAL
>Despair
>The Gift
>The later stories

AVOID
>Ada
>Mary
>Bend Sinister

Everything else goes in optional, but I actually think almost everything he wrote is worth reading.

Palomar is GOAT you faggot. So is non-existent knight.

Hmmm... not sure what's going on with this strange Sun Also Rises love. Bunch of self-pitying time-wasters wander around and then nothing happens and then nothing happens some more. Wasn't EH supposed to be trying to show how the "lost generation" were actually splendid people? If anything, he proved the opposite.

Pleb high schooler taste
His best is FwtBT

I read TSATF a while back, best thing ever, so now I'm on AbsolomAbsolomAbsolomAbsolom and it seems pretty good.
(Not nearly as "difficult" as I was led to believe; not so far at any rate.)

>Ada
>Avoid

the fuck u on about

But but what about the collected stories

I read Go Down Moses and it was OK but no more than that. Wouldn't say it was required.

>I nostri antennati trilogy
>Optional

Cervantes wrote more than just Don Quijote, user.

>Avoid: Mosquitoes

Well that's just generally good advice. Can't focus on what you're reading with those little shits buzzing about.

Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but compared to "If on a winter's night a traveler" and "Invisible Cities", it's optional.

I love the structure, but it's really underwhelming, save for a few chapters.

"Cosmicomics" is a short story collection, but it can go under optional, I guess. I need to read his other short stuff to be able to make a short story tier list. I'm planning on reading Marcovaldo soon, but as of now I'm not interested in any of his other short story collections.

"The Sun Also Rises" is definitely a must-read, and "For Whom The Bell Tolls" should be in optional. I'd also put "In Our Time" as a must-read. It doesn't have the short stories you listed, but I think it's an amazing work.

READ
>V.
>The Crying of Lot 49
>Gravity's Rainbow
>Vineland
>Mason & Dixon
>Against the Day
>Inherent Vice
>Bleeding Edge

OPTIONAL
Slowlearner

AVOID
David Foster Wallace

I know Faulkner claimed to have written it just for money, but I think Sanctuary is a great work.

His short stories display his talent a lot better than the books, which are subtle.

It's a meme and he's said himself he rewrote the entire thing after writing it as a cash grab.

Also McCarthy's No Country for Old Men ripped off Sanctuary.

I love when people assume other people who like something they don't are pretending.

Absalom, Absalom is also a must and you ought to avoid a Fable and pylon

So where does Persiles land?

>Heller dunking on Joyce
lmao

Banks is cozy

ugly covers though

not all can be must read

>absalom and LIA optional

confirmed pleb

also what about sanctuary

theres skepticism that faulkner termed sanctuary as a potboiler but actually it wasnt really

sanctuary is an underrated masterpiece IMO

Joyce Kino

read
>finnegans wake

optional
>everything else

DELILLO

MUST READ:
WHITE NOISE
LIBRA
MAO II
UNDERWORLD

OPTIONAL
EVERYTHING ELSE

what a meme

Aw man I thought someone was actually gonna stick up for Mosquitoes. I have a soft spot for that book.

Good as gold is so shit though

McCarthy ripping off Faulkner?! Damn, user. My head just popped off my shoulders and spun around in the air out of surprise.

You're in good company. Borges admired it.

I thought it had some really funny lines. e.g.

Gold was struck again how many gorgeous tall women fell in love with shorter men like himself who were rapacious, egotistical and scheming. She couldn't be expected to know he was rapacious and scheming but she had to suspect he was shorter.

But I agree it's not a patch on C22 or SH. Maybe I was too generous with the "OPTIONAL" ones.

>avoid Soldiers Pay

I actually quite like Soldiers Pay. It’s his first novel, and it’s clear he hasn’t hit his stride yet, but it’s a solid novel with some great prose, interesting characters, and compelling themes. I would list it as optional.

>tfw never have read more than 4 books from an author

READ
>Metamorphoses
>Love Poems

OPTIONAL
>Heroides
>Fasti

AVOID
>Tristia
>Ibis
>Epistulae ex Ponto

It's really not a far stretch user, it's like the Infinte Jest reviews that lambast it for having paragraphs that are too long and writing that is too "obtuse" thereby missing the whole point of the book.

...

Bolaño

READ
>2666
>The Savage Detectives
>Distant Star
>By Night in Chile
>Collected short stories

OPTIONAL
>Amulet
>Antwerp
>The Skating Rink
>Nazi Literature in the Americas
>Monsieur Pain
>A Little Lumpen Novelita
>The Third Reich

AVOID
>The Woes of the True Policeman
>The Spirit of Science Fiction
>Cowboy Graves

Haven't read his poems nor his non-fiction.

Art of Love should be Read.

Borges

>READ

All his stories

>OPTIONAL

Poetry and essays

>AVOID

Early racist pamphlets.

why ole miss friend

Switch The Road with Child of God and it's fine.

...

bump

Totally; it’s a real shame. The 80’s/90’s covers are GOAT though.

Meant for

------- ROBERT BROWNING ------

READ
>"The Year's at the Spring" from Pippa Passes
>My Last Duchess
>The Lost Leader
>Fra Lippo Lippi
>Andrea Del Sarto

OPTIONAL
>Porphyria's Lover
>Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
>The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church
>Home Thoughts from Abroad
>Meeting at Night
>A Toccata of Galuppi's
>Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came
>The Patriot
>Bishop Blougram’s Apology
>Caliban upon Setebos
>Rabbi Ben Ezra

AVOID
Everything else.
Especially:
>The Ring And The Book
>Sordello
(Sorry Ezra!)

Need one for Agatha Roastie pls

Read:
>Metamorphosis
>Trial
>In the Penal Colony
Optional:
>Amerika
>Country Doctor
Avoid
>Castle
>every other short story

Add The Hunger Artist to "Read"

----- TED HUGHES -----

READ
>Crow
>Hawk in the Rain
>Lupercal

OPTIONAL
>Tales from Ovid
>Birthday Letters
>Wodwo
>Moortown Diary
>Gaudete
>The Iron Man

AVOID
>Everything else

I thought the Skating Rink was wonderful, and Nazi Literature was fun, but I haven read the other stuff so you might be right. Can you explain why you didnt like the AVOID? I know those were his scrapped ones but I eventually want to get to them.

Should I start the Culture series in order?

Useful, I just bought the Norton Critical.

OSCAR WILDE
-----
Read:
>The Picture of Dorian Grey
>Ballad of Reading Goal
>Teleny, or The Reverse Medal
>The Importance of Being Earnest

Optional:
>Lady Windermire's Fan
>The Little Prince and Other Stories
>An Ideal Husband

Avoid:
>De Profundis

I absolutely despise AILD. I lament the time I spent on it, and spend more time than I'd like to remembering it.
How was the book redeemable in any way?

I've read all of his work (unfortunately). If you're looking at getting into him, I'd add Mother Night to Read and move Look at the Birdie down to optional. Galapagos could be optional, but everything else can and should be Avoid.
Why? It's his worst book by a mile, and that's saying something. Genuinely curious, as I've never heard of anyone, even Vonnegut, not talking shit about Slapstick. What about it spoke to you?

Ada is not Avoid.

This.
Read up on Existentialism a bit, then read it again. Or fall for a bitch, have her not notice or care, then read it again. A lot of people relate to TSAR for a reason

I'm loving everything this guy is saying.

They are.

I'll do a couple shitty authors, since no one else will want to touch these with a 10 ft. pole.

Kerouac

READ
>The Subterraneans (actually decent)
>On the Road (shit, but influential)
>The Dharma Bums (interesting)

OPTIONAL
>Big Sur (sad old alcoholic stuff)

AVOID
>LITERALLY every other published word the man wrote

King

READ
>The Shining
>The Stand
>The Dark Tower Series
>It

OPTIONAL
>The Dead Zone
>The Green Mile
>Hearts in Atlantis

AVOID
>Everything else

H. Murakami

READ
>Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
>Norwegian Wood
>The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
>Kafka on the Shore

OPTIONAL
>Hear the Wind Sing
>Pinball, 1973
>Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage

AVOID
>Pretty much everything else, esp. IQ84

Now pardon me while I go rinse out my eyes with bleach.

Against a Dark Background is his best one.

No, start with Player of Games.

Castle was good but Palomar was so dull that at times I found myself wondering if Calvino wasn't just trolling me

Can someone make an Umberto Eco list?

Stephen King:

Read: First third of The Stand
Optional: Second third of The Stand
Avoid: Last third of The Stand

Put On the Quai at Smyrna, Big Two-Hearted River, and The Sun Also Rises into Read.

Put For Whom The bell Tolls and Farewell to Arms into optional.

I’ve read and enjoyed 2/3 of the read and 1/2 of the optional ...

But I juuuust bought Mosquitos like an hour ago. Why avoid?

No love for Misery? I haven’t read much King, but It was my favorite of the bunch.

s

i love you user

it's really great and the reputation it has breaks my heart

READ
>A Dark Brown Dog
>The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
>The Open Boat
>The Blue Hotel
>The Red Badge of Courage
>Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

OPTIONAL
>War is Kind and Other Lines
>The Black Riders and Other Lines
>The Third Violet

UNECESSARY
>Anything else

Jorge Luis Borges

READ
>Ficciones
>Labyrinths
>The Aleph

OPTIONAL
>A Universal History of Iniquity
>The Book of Sand / Shakespeare's Memory
>Brodie's Report
>Selected Poems
(though I've always been iffy of poetry in translation)

AVOID (unless you've read everything else)
>Selected Non-Fictions

--
Natsume Soseki

READ
>Kokoro
>I Am A Cat

OPTIONAL
>Sanshiro

AVOID
>Botchan

--

Haruki Murakami

READ
>The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
>Kafka on the Shore
>After the Quake
>The Elephant Vanishes

OPTIONAL
>1Q84
(I liked it, but I read it when I was 16 and unfamiliar with Murakami, who really wears on you)
>Norwegian Wood
>Blind Hollow, Sleeping Woman
>Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

AVOID
>Hear the Wind Sing / Pinball, 1973
>Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki
>After Dark
>Sputnik Sweetheart
etc.

I loved Misery, but that was almost 20 years ago, so I wouldn't vouch for it anymore. I guess add that one and Gerald's Game under OPTIONAL.

Can someone do one for Shakespeare please?

'twould be like the best anime characters - top-heavy.

OK, here's my cursory thoughts:

READ
>The Tempest
>Measure for Measure
>Much Ado About Nothing
>A Midsummer Night's Dream
>The Merchant of Venice
>As You Like It
>The Taming of the Shrew
>Twelfth Night
>The Winter's Tale
>Coriolanus
>Titus Andronicus
>Romeo and Juliet
>Timon of Athens
>Julius Caesar
>Macbeth
>Hamlet
>King Lear
>Othello
>Antony and Cleopatra
>Cymbeline
>Richard II
>Henry IV, Part 1
>Henry IV, Part 2
>Henry V
>Richard III

>The Sonnets

OPTIONAL
>Two Gentlemen of Verona
>The Merry Wives of Windsor
>The Comedy of Errors
>Love's Labour's Lost
>All's Well That Ends Well
>Pericles, Prince of Tyre
>The Two Noble Kinsmen
>Troilus and Cressida

>The Rape of Lucrece
>Venus and Adonis

AVOID
>Henry VIII
>Edward III
>King John
>Henry VI, Part 1
>Henry VI, Part 2
>Henry VI, Part 3

>A Lover's Complaint
>The Phoenix and the Turtle