Im looking to become a literary patrician. Where do i start?

making lots of money

Thanks m8

np bb

Well you are a bit old but you still might have a chance. The wealth part is a serious issue unless you plan on going into academia. What are you studying?

Well Im a college student so Its understandable to be broke. Also, Im studying engineering. When I said "patrician" I just mean that I want to have a good understanding of literature. What books to read, and which to avoid *cough cough John Green*

Oh that makes things much easier, but the thing is whilst you might have a good understanding of literature compared to your peers unless you want to make a serious effort at it chances are youll never have a good understanding overall. - kind of like if someone went to Veeky Forums or your department and asked what they would have to do to have a good understanding of "science"

Reading that book How to read and why by Bloom might be an interesting starting point.

Honestly ask yourself why you want to have a good understanding of literature and take a look at any of the recommendations in the extensive sticky list.

I see what you mean. Well thank you for the recommendations! I've read a few of the books on this list, ill check out some of the others though. I appreciate it!

Good luck and dont fall for the patrician meme and torture yourself into reading books you hate. Read around find some styles/genres/themes ect that you like then hunt down good literature in that area

This is good advice; if you're new to reading or haven't read much don't force yourself to read "classics" or whatever just because you feel like you have to. Start with some simple stuff or things that sound interesting (the chart above is good, I know there's at least another couple entry level charts out there that are pretty good, try checking the wiki). Really the more you read the more things you'll find you like, and as shitty as this board is you can get some pretty good recommendations on here and learn about authors/books you may not have known. Don't be afraid to read new things or to challenge yourself, but conversely if you're not digging something or finding it too difficult don't be afraid to drop it. You can always come back to a book. Anyway, good luck user, hope you enjoy some good books

>no Metamorphoses

What's the reason for the color coordination?

I didn't make it, friendos

Start with the Mesopotamians.

>not starting with Egyptian wisdom literature like the teaching of Ptahhotep

top pleb

>Metamorphoses
>greek

>patrician
You can start by killing yourself senpai

Is 20 too old If I'm a neet who literally has infinite time to read?

Greeks

Pick literally any author that is considered renowned for his generation and read one of his shorter works.

I say Euclid's Elements myself.

Start with the Greens
>"The thing Alaska did next scared and shocked and surprised me in a way nothing had ever ever scared or shocked or surprised me until that moment, a moment which lasted no longer than one sharp intake of breath but one I have no doubt will last my entire life. She said 'I love you'. Not 'You're cool' or 'I had a really fun time' or 'Do you always kiss like that?' I love you. As in 'I, Alaska Young, love you, Miles Halter'. As in 'I Alaska Young have not only noticed that you Miles Halter exist but I positively adore the fact that you do'. I exhaled. Alaska did too and for the first time I realized she was as scared as I was of admitting the way she felt. I stepped forward and held her hips. 'Are you sure?' I asked. 'I think so!' she replied, smiling. I must have pushed her backwards because just then her body nudged the lightswitch and the room became as dark as my life was without Alaska in it. Laughing, she slipped out of my grasp and disappeared somewhere inside the room. I reached out like a blind man searching for the object that might grant him sight. Truly, I was Looking for Alaska."

This is a meme right? that list is ROACH

As long as you actually have the willpower to use that time and your NEETdom is stable for the indefinite future and you have enough money to have membership to a decent university library you have a decent chance.

The list is pretty much the stuff you should have read during highschool

What is the point of library when you have the internet?

LIBGEN

This isn't good advice. You won't be knowledgeable about literature if you confine yourself to a single style/genre/theme. Of course, your aim is to enjoy what you read, but you should risk, explore and learn every now and then.

A university library gives you access to all the various journals that institution subscribes to which would otherwise cost you about 10-20 per article and which a so low in demand that nobody pirates them.

Getting bogged down in secondary sources is the gateway to understanding literature seriously for the solitary figure.

based user

>Truly, I was Looking for Alaska
Holy shit, this isn't actually in there is it?

I liked the book when I read it. But if it is in there, I didn't see it. I really hope not.

>Im
>i

Some of those are not bad for getting people into literature, but beats in a certain aesthetic. Here's a better, more diverse list (though it's admittedly white and male-dominated; that can't really be helped in a field that's been largely white and male-dominated until recently).

>J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
>Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises
>Hermann Hesse - Siddhartha
>J.D. Salinger - Franny & Zooey
>George Orwell - 1984
>F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
>Yukio Mishima - The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea
>John Williams - Stoner
>Virginia Woolf - Orlando
>Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five
>Bernhard Schlink - The Reader
>Cormac McCarthy - The Road

All are fairly decent, digestible reads for a beginner. If you're after poetry:

>Robert Frost
>Alfred Housman's Shropshire Lad
>Alfred Lord Tennyson
>Emily Dickinson
>Shakespeare's sonnets

After reading through some of the above, move onto poets such as Pound and Eliot, then into contemporary poetry if you like. You may gain something extra from reading Frost alongside contemporary poets.

If you're not mentally ill you're not going to understand art

Notes from Underground. Read it again after.