/v/ user here

/v/ user here.

Any starter kits like pic related that are of the sci-fi or fantasy genre? I need more hobbies in my life besides fapping, video games, and browsing the web.

Yes

The Fault in Our Stars
Hitchhikers Ride to the Galaxy
Alex Rider Ark Angel

Thanks. I did try reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy once but didn't get far. Forgot about it. I'll try picking it up again.

Any more recommendations?

How about reading actual literary fiction instead of genre trash?

What? It has to fall into some kind of genre. There are special snowflake books that don't fit any kind of known categories or labels?

Anyway, since I like video games I know I prefer those genres.

Geez user this is just mean, he doesn't know any better.

OP check out Harlan Ellison (A Boy and His Dog inspired Fallout and of course there's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream), Philip K Dick, Stanislaw Lem, and Alfred Bester.

Hitchikers isn't good?

Also, yeah I played the game and read the book on I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It was good.

Not sure about those other authors. Guess I'll try to find their books.

Not really what you're asking for, but here's another kit.

Literature works differently. The commercial books are sold under genres and have varying levels of competency and they're typically gimmicky and follow the same tired formulas. Real literature is experimental and doesn't conform to, say, being a mystery story because then you're confined to using only a handful of gimmicks. The speculative aspects of the more talented science fiction writers occasionally make them worthy but at the same time their writing on a technical level is generally more sloppy even if they have interesting ideas.
user's fucking with you but hitchhikers is probably fun as a casual read even if it is for the reddit crowd.

Hey user, stop by the scifi general here /sffg/. There are recommendations in the OP copypasta.

>/v/

Also, please stop posting fanboy cancer in /g/.

Here's another unrelated kit.

Okay /v/irgin let me level with you. Literature is not about entertainment the same way that vidya is. Genres mean nothing here. Plot is not important; prose is. The starter kit is a perfect selection of books that are easy to get into but are of high quality even when you get into more complicated areas of study. Treat a book like it has something to tell you and not like it's going to entertain you. You're going to be disappointed with the kind of stuff we like on this board if you approach reading the same way you do video games. Most of the time, you can trust that the author has a purpose for the supposedly "boring" parts. Oh and don't read books about video games because that's fucking gay.

I recommend that you read through most of the starter chart that you posted and then dive into something more challenging like Blood Meridian.

holy shit can we update that thing

>Treat a book like it has something to tell you and not like it's going to entertain you.

Why? What if I simply happen to disagree with the view of the author.

Why is clockwork orange in there when most copies in the west have the redacted first chapter version also because that book was shat out in like 2 months for money

Being told something doesn't mean you have to agree with it. Writing and reading are a kind of dialogue between authors and readers.

>Being told something doesn't mean you have to agree with it.

Then what's the point of being 'told' then? What type of dialog do you have in mind then?

read the fuckinggeneral

>Genres mean nothing here.
Yes they do. They very much shape how the book is written, be it russian realism, french naturalism, new wave of science fiction or modernism
>Plot is not important; prose is.
The plot is very important, I couldn't imagine reading Anna Karenina and The Resurrection or The Brothers Karamazov or Heart of the Matter or any other novel that isn't involved with defabilarisation.
>The starter kit is a perfect selection of books that are easy to get into but are of high quality even when you get into more complicated areas of study.
No, half of them are plot based pedestrian science fiction worth very little which can be summed up in 10 pages of political messages.

There's absolutely no reason to. Those books are just as good as they were when they were published. Changing it for the sake of changing it is stupid.

That's the point. You don't have to agree. The fact that you're listening (reading) is what's important. Think of it as getting to hear out the thoughts of another human being who lived a different life from your own in a different time

Do you only talk to people who agree with everything you say?

>There's absolutely no reason to. Those books are just as good as they were when they were published.
Yes and half of them are bad.

Do you mean the last chapter? Because that hasn't been an actual issue for years.

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Starship Troopers by that one guy