Things you like in a book

> character-driven, not plot-driven
> complex, interesting prose, not boring and simple
> time skips
> lots of zeitgeistal content
> medium length, a few hundred pages
> modern setting, the late 20th century and early 21st century

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Rich imagery of americana between '10-'80, dont know why; the bits and pieces of this I found in Libra I really enjoyed.

Simple and clean orchestration of characters and prose in the vein of ancient myth and epics


>Narcissus was proud, in that he disdained those who loved him. Nemesis noticed this behavior and attracted Narcissus to a pool, where he saw his own reflection in the water and fell in love with it, not realizing it was merely an image. Unable to leave the beauty of his reflection, Narcissus lost his will to live. He stared at his reflection until he died.

When the author seems to reach out through my skull and touch my pineal gland.

comic surrealism
picaresque adventures
characters in over their heads who know it
characters in over their heads who don't know it

>the bits and pieces of this I found in Libra I really enjoyed.
Dude. Yes. Delillo is so good for that shit. Have you read White Noise?

convincing unhappiness

that's some great films here
(three colors trilogy is shit, fuck kieslowski)

>some weird, poetical shit on the middle of a very realistic book
>great incipit
>when the title isn't directly related to anything in the book, but more in a metaphorical kind of way

I like Celine

omg, I loved white noise, americana and petty middle class life just resonate with me so hard, that's why donny d is one of my favorites

>descriptive imagery where you can really see the author researched their setting
>climax of book is a dialogue with a character we meet at the end that crystallizes themes of the book
>we leave the book with all our questions answered but are left asking new questions
>it ends where it started

I forget if this picture was supposed to be satire as at first glance it appears the women has better taste but in reality it's just as bad and contrived.

Hey man we should write a book together. You couldnt pin down my favorite elements of a book any better. Large gap in time always gets me, especially if the second part is bleakly depressing.

I like when the author describes stuff (things, motions, feelings) that I've never been able to describe myself.

I like artifice and form. Lots and lots of form. I like books where its easy to imagine swapping all the content entirely, without changing the easthetic representation.

>when the nice people get married and live happily ever after

I can't tell you how much I enjoy this in books

More general:

>reasonably clear, realist-style prose
>builds towards some poignant insight with validity outside of just the book itself
>philosophical issues at stake
>the longer, the better
>slightly caricatured characters with clear personalities and consistent psychology

Examples: In Search of Lost Time, The Goldfinch, Crime and Punishment, etc.

Random stuff I like:

>Plot twists
>Gothic imagery
>Extensive feels
>Grey, complex morality
>Lesbian romance
>Good action scenes

I can't really think of a book that has everything.

When I grow up I want to marry you user-girl!

1) The text must not exist as only drama as in the unnecessary fixation of characters to their position within society, in order to provide an implicit morality. Tragedies at the end must have a necessity that is double-edged regarding the tragic person, not a moral obligation.

2) Use of the meta-language techniques, as in creating new language from existing one.

3) Extreme irony.

My favorite books have all been under 400 pages. Something about the over-long novel becomes tiresome and forced near the middle.

With the exception of maybe Bleak House and One Hundred Years of Solitude

So...Gravity's Rainbow?

Written in the present
A protagonist with lots of psychological traumas and complexes
Good and fitting names
Writing about feelings I didn't even know I had

Suspense and discomfort
Images rich in meaning rather than just purple prose
Melancholy and martyrs

youtube.com/watch?v=KGidvt4NTPI

Raymond Chandler

1. Setting as far away from the abject, cultureless shithole of a society we live in today as is possible (sci-fi, fantasy, historical, all are fine)
2. Characters that are idealized types, not too relateable to the schmucks I'm surrounded with
3. Under 300 pages (very, VERY few authors have the right to take up this much ink in one book)
4. As few things that remind me of where I am as possible (fuck your zeitgeist shit)
5. written descriptively while leaving some room for the imagination.

I consider Orwell and Lovecraft my favorite stylists.

>character driven, not plot-driven

fucking dropped. story is superior.

my aesthetics can be summarised thus:

aristotle
longinus
pope

come at me

dude me too bro

this so much

I really hope this post is satire.

Direct prose
Minimal visual descriptions
No nonsense, no fillers
A shocking, not happy, ending

rec me stuff lads. fav author is bradbury.

Titled chapters
Whimsical feel with a dash of melancholy
Lesbians*
Found Families
Tricksters who are assholes but also adore their kids/family/apprentice/someone
Tricksters who are just assholes with no redeeming qualities
alliterations (in names mostly, and if its not in a name then when the alliteration goes on for more then a sentence, gets me going)
Deconstructions of common tropes

*Who aren't murdered

Title drops can be annoying in most cases.