Books that changed your life thread

I didn't like this book, what's so good about it?

>What did I get from the Wake, what are its lessons? First of all, be yourself. Second of all, put one foot in front of the other. And lastly, just do it for crying out loud, time's a wastin'!

damn

deep

love this meme

this is the best ever

This is better

you say so?

lmao look at that big nose nigga haha

How so? I mean it's great but...how? Did it make you realise that being an abusive alcoholic in a failed marriage is a bad idea, or something?

cringed
this

Can't say it changed my life, but it did destroy my soul. The last few chapters made me physically sick.

My diary desu

Pic related

Books don't change your life, life changes you.

>Any book written by Faulkner

I grew up thinking of the south as a haven of ignorant people, but Faulkner portrays it as the morally-conflicted society that is still present today.

I think it's more in the sense of everyone knowing inherently what a good man is, yet we lack the self-control to be one. So we complain and argue of an ideal that we think is unattainable, maybe even corrupting it into affordability. If you were to be an actual good man, others would follow. So instead of arguing and forcing others to live an ideal, we ought to live and lead it. Likewise, others will be captivated by you and those that seek true virtue will find courage to rise above this endless cycle of bickering. Those too lax and prideful, on the other hand, will tear you down. They believe in the subjective value of worth, of comparison. A man of virtue values objective worth and can only obtain this by being a good man, instead of arguing what a good man ought to be.

1984, hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, dune, 1984, slaughterhouse 5, brave new world, infinite jest, ulysses, gravitys rainbow

That's 1984 twice, bud

Well said, but:
>A man of virtue values objective worth and can only obtain this by being a good man
What do you mean by "objective worth"?

shit my bad i meant to put it 3 times

>hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
How? It's just comedy.

I think this can quite easily be seen as a cop out from asking the difficult questions. At bottom this is saying : 'Don't think, just do'
I don't at all believe people inherently know what the good is and you see many go off on any seemingly crazy avenues where they think they are doing what's right and they have the attitude that you don't question it too much you just go for it.

The sad truth is that without reading a great deal you're unlikely to have a very well thought out conception of good and where you may slip up and how you might contradict yourself. But there also needs to be a balance between just taking what 'the greats' say and just doing it because they say so.

If you truly want to be a 'good' person to the best ability you can conceive of I think it is an exceptionally difficult and contradictory task that really isn't so plain as 'do it, and it'll happen'

I think that approach is albeit a more useful cop out that 'i don't know what is good so i do nothing' but still a cop out.

it taught me to always bring le towel

What's it like living in a homonormative cult of hypermasculinity?

Though, seriously, what did you like about this book?

Did you read it?

I'm not the guy from the post you're replying to. I also didn't read it, i'm just curious

Haha 42! Xd

Its not so much that I agreed with all of Emerson's conclusions but after reading his essays the way in which I approached every other piece of writing changed drastically

here

I haven't read it, but that's gist I've gathered and it turned me off of it. Was wondering if anyone actually got anything fulfilling out of it.

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good beginner's redpill on communism, desu

Books/Lit Materials
- Brave New World
- 1984
- Fahrenheit 451
- Future Shock
- Notes From The Underground
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
- Simulacra and Simulation
- The Manufacture Of Consent
- Hacker's Manifesto
- The One Dimensional Man
- Ubik

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1984 was a good read, and while it did influence me, I don't feel it was life changing. Much like Winston, when he read "Goldstein's" book, I feel like the book didn't teach me anything new, it just connected a lot of stuff that I'd thought of before and put it together well.

I did not emerge from 1984 with vastly altered perspectives on things like I did after reading Brave New World. Though I read it some years ago, I still think about BNW constantly. I need to re-read it, though.

my nigga

I just read BNW as I am an uncultured American swine. I find it a much more compelling setting than 1984. Orwell's "Boot stamping on a human face forever" future seems a bit too absurd and incomplete. While Huxley's "everybody is stupid and happy" feels a lot more possible. My POV might just be a product of my time.
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If visual novels are novels- then Saya No Uta changed the way I consume all horror stories. Saya is one of the most compelling characters I've ever read.

Particularly these three:

The Great Gatsby

The Brothers Karamazov

Umineko no naku koro ni

Have you read Meditations? Taking the quote out of context, I can see why you might think it's a cop out. But Meditations as a whole contains volumes of specific attributes that Aurelius took from his peers and elders, which he qualifies by explaining how they should be used. He doesn't just say "Be a good man" with no guidance. He thoroughly explains his reasoning why, and remains famously hesitant throughout. You can feel his brilliant composure in every sentence. It was his use of these skills that led him to so much success. The reader might not have an idea of what it means to be a good man, but he can see why the traits Aurelius talks about are important.

And to be fair, this isn't an interview. It's a personal memoir at the pinnacle of Aurelius' success. This isn't Steve Jobs telling you to buy a new iPhone because the old one was so good. It's an extraordinarily famous emperor combining all of his life experience. It might as well be a personal gateway to his mind. What more do you require from a book?

All of Emil Cioran and Lev Shestov's books have had a big influence on me. At least the ones of them I have gotten a hold of.

it appeals to simplistic morons who want an easy way to avoid their problems for another week

same as all self help books really

So what would you recommend?

Arguably, you can't have 'objective worth' as a good man. Being a good man has no worth, that's why it's so hard. The only person who can truly measure your worth is yourself, so there's no way of determining objective worth among men.

I love 'Meditations' but the only place where I think it falls flat, is that Aurelius uses the gods as sort of a catch all for logic holes. While there is some merit to saying 'You can control everything', relinquishing your own responsibility for your actions is naive, even if whatever happened wasn't your fault. I wish Aurelius would have ignored the fates and mythology, and instead directly said that consistently making good, honest, and composed decisions will lead to the best outcomes. He indirectly infers this to be true, but ultimately decides to fall back on the fact that the fates are truly the only ones who control your life in the end.

A lack of control is a qualifier for his brand of stoicism, but he finds lack of control in mythological existential crises, instead of factual ones.

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crime & punishment

This and the church doctrine I read

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Journey to the West

it's like if meditations was good

This quote is "Don't try to find out what a good man is, be one!" What. How can you be what you don't know? You can't be a good man if you don't know what is good. What if good to me is not good to you?

>tfw discovering that all anxiety stems from living in a strained, unnatural way

you are moved by a heavenly spring in you?

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Can you recommend a good translation of this Fampai? ?

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Is this the best translation?

I've never read any stoicism, is this the best starting point?

no, read discourses

Thank you friend.

pic related

settembrini or naphta? thougths

Fitzgerald, Fagles, and Lattimore are the top 3. Find an excerpt from each and see which you like the most. Fitzgerald is the most poetic, Lattimore the most literal, and Fagles is the middle-ground between the two.

suck my fucking dick you fucking retard

What's this about user?

Seconding this. It's the first book that really showed me what good writing can be capable of.

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I started reading Chapman, because that was
the only translation I had around. How much does the quality of the work suffer from his translation?

post it

BNW is for the richer masses of firstworld countries, 1984 is what happens in poorer countries and, so to speak, behind the scenes of firstworld countries, what their governments do. Try revealing secrets when you're high up in some intelligence agency and you'll find yourself in an abandoned military base eating baggies of powdered glass and being electroshocked then forced to eat your own fingers

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Only the people with the power to do damage are boot stomping on a human face forever. The real story of the book is how the regime uses language to destroy the capacity for thoughtcrime in the proles. THere's no need to monitor or repress them, they don't even know what rebellion is.

The fact that huxley hit the nail on the head so well actually comforts me slightly. If he had such a good concept of these things in 31, maybe things havwnt declined as much as it would seem from our perspective.
Or maybe he was just uncannily good and we truly are doomed, which I fear is the reality of it.

25 cents at a yard sale. Still have it.

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Not that annon, but I enjoyed the Jenner translation.

I don't see a believable way to control language to the extent needed to accomplish that. 1984 requires this massive censorship that isn't doable.
Reading 1984 as a response or rebuttal to Brave New World makes it feel a lot more complete actually.
I don't believe that first world governments make their citizens disappear.

How did this change your life? Reading this and Odyssey only made me want to be more tanned and bath in olive oil

Meh. Stoicism helped me for a few months when I was infatuated.

You change your life

Fix'd

It is the failed attempt of a middle-aged history professor to write an introduction to his book. Unlike the book itself, it is strange, offensive, disgusting, highly personal.

Found the tourist and/or high school neckbeard

a million times this

good advice

This.

Yes. We are all in control, like robots.

Second that.

All self-help books are same bullshit, different form.

Kek

>these niggers don't know how actually useful is it to bring a towel everywhere

Sure, you won't scare aliens with it, but it's useful for wiping stuff and shit.

>people actually praising 1984

The idea of people as a whole being so dumb as to not realize what was wrong with the government and/or not doing anything to revolt was just too much for me; and the entire third chapter being torture porn instead of actually showing some kind of over-elaborate plan for a revolution only settled my dislike for it even more.

It may have something to do with the belief that, now that the internet is a thing and everyone can talk with anyone, such levels of isolation may seem impossible to someone grown in this era, though.

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This right here.

isn't this like a million pages long with three volumes?