What are you reading currently, why and how do you like it?

I heard the same accusations regarding Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers and I couldn't, by all genuine fucks, pinpoint what's racist when I read it.
Con- and nontroversal books bring make me curious: What's the premise of Guns, Germs, and Steel?

Hmm, too bad I cannot talk about this one. Is it as depressing as No Longer Human? I didn't read that too, but I know the basic premise of it, at least.

>Hmm, too bad I cannot talk about this one. Is it as depressing as No Longer Human? I didn't read that too, but I know the basic premise of it, at least.

It's actually a really funny book. The depression is all on me because of how similar I am to the main character.

B-but the protagonist has to be a miserable life or something. Or why does it pull you down?

Decided to start with Hemingway to become more familiar with modern fiction.

I felt the same way reading it.
Connected way too much with Ignatius, and the tragic story of the author. Laughing out loud during many parts of the book

related to OP
I'm reading pic related. Very good book so far.

Startled a few times already and im a few chapters in.

Said what the fuck out loud when one of the characters(atheist philosopher) gets hit by one of the refugees and says "Forgive them lord,for they know not what they do", then gets pushed off the gangplank and as he sinks to the bottom intentionally breathes in the water to die
And when the old man in the beginning comes back with the gun
spoilers for pic related if you haven't read

I guess you'll just have to read it to know where I'm coming from. Ignatius is a NEET extraordinaire, he's very likable but not somebody you want to be.

I actually have watched the Crash Course videos. I still stand by what I said, it seems like the people calling it “racist” just haven’t actually read it.

CC tries to make some sort of false equivalence between the arguments presented in Guns, Germs, and Steel and the other, actually rather racist, arguments that they present throughout the rest of the video. As I said earlier, I’ve only read about a third of the book so maybe I’m missing some crucial factor (although I sincerely doubt that it just completely shifts course and becomes some horribly racist ideology from the current line of thinking it is presenting).

It honestly seems like the only two options as to why someone would call the book racist are: they didn’t read it, or they are misrepresenting it on purpose.

The Wikipedia article for the book has a pretty good summary:

>The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures (for example, by facilitating commerce and trade between different cultures) and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes.

forgot how and why
It's an interesting book i've been wanting to read, about the refugees coming and what all happens. Been looking forward to it, eerily similar to whats going on today with the refugees.

I like the style of writing so far, and it's funny. I thought it being a french novel would make it hard to get into, but the translation i'm reading is really fine to me desu

Startling me(I like books that can make me react like that), funny/interesting characters, dehumanizing of the refugees is definitely interesting.

Since Hemming was recommended to me, he's on my to-read-list. Am generally curious about tendentially masculine literature.

Didn't read, can't discuss, senpai.

>Ignatius is a NEET extraordinaire, he's very likable but not somebody you want to be.
What if I told you, that I am a NEET, social outcast and genuinely lack social graces, let alone don't have feeling for them? This is why I could relate so well to Raskolnikov from Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment - that and that he was the nihilist I was from age 17 to 19.
Noice freemason dubs, mate.
>pic related

>The Wikipedia article for the book has a pretty good summary:
Thanks for the sauce.

I went from reading C&P to Confederacy of Dunces, to The Metamorphosis, relating to all three characters.
feels bad man

Even though I didn't read the two latter books, I feel you ... why are you doing this anyways? Isn't it kind of a downward spiral, especially when you're stuck as a NEET?

You're on a roll, man - noice Satanic dubs.

I'm the other Confederacy of Dunces reader, not the one who got dubs

I think I've been on autopilot for the last 5 years, playing video games, not furthering my life at all. Just recently in the last month or so i haven't been playing video games and ordering books to read. I think regret from failing school and years of social isolation feeds into this downward spiral. I've been writing in a journal lately, and trying to plan out the steps i need to take to get from point a to point b, but i just don't know where i am right now. I'm in chaos, and i need to turn it into order, and sort myself out. But it's all very easy to say these things, i still haven't acted on any of them.

i havent read it but from what i hear it's supposed to be a philisophical argument for why some civilizations developed faster than others.
how long do you think it'll take to read?

Don't worry about it man. You're tearing the nails from the foundation. Every day is a victory. You pay for now what you will reap later. There is no reason to feel you are in chaos- you aren't. In fact, you know exactly what you're doing. And it feels good to turn it all around, doesn't it? The social isolation will end when you attain progression. No one can stop you. Don't say that you are not acting. The mere act of being on "autopilot" suffices. You are losing the battle, but you will win the war. Believe.

Holy shit, but now you're blessed with double dubs.

Anyways, back to the topic.
I'm sorry I cannot offer you advice here, because I'm stuck in the same mess as you and don't really know how to get out. Even though I'm a NEET for nine months, I am already at that point where I cannot enjoy video games anymore since I immediately start to associate a new game with utter existential dispair and depression. This is why I turned to literature; it is easier to get sucked in and being in your bubble of fiction.

Hey, at least you started with something helpful. A journal helps to keep your memories clean, which is great for self-reflection, possibly motivating you to improve not only in a theoretical, but also in a practical manner.

It's not much, but if you want some company we could exchange our Discord or similar shit - I could use some company too since living as borderline-hikikomori eradicates my sanity day by day.

I've been a little bit busy with school stuff this week, so I'm not reading as much as I'd like to, but it will probably only take about a week start to finish nonetheless. It's not too long and its a fairly easy read.

Currently reading Ghosts of my Life by Mark Fisher. Series of essays on popular culture, it's really good, especially interesting as he recently killed himself which seems to add weight to everything (he talks about suicide 'legitimising' artists at one point).

I am currently learning Russian, and thus decided to explore the Russian literature. Currently reading Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.
I'm about 90 pages in, and I'd say it's a pretty funny and interesting book, not much to say about it for now.

>can't play videogames without utter existential despair and depression

alright there, Freud

care to share anymore of your armchair enlightenment?

Please don't spoil the ending for me. I'm almost done with it.

Never gonna do it. Stop trying. You're embarrassing yourself.

I'm a writer and poet myself, so I have a good sense of poetics, or at least I feel I do. So I actually love Shakespeare's sentence construction. I can feel it and understand it. It's beautiful and enjoyable to read.

>what
Atlus Shrugged
>why
To see what all the hubbub's about
>how do you like it
It's a damn good story and easy to read. I don't care if Rand was a bitch

The Republic survives!

~300 pages in
Masterpiece

>what
Rules for Radical
>why
To gain a better understanding of the subversive Left's modus operandi, as well as insight into how individuals come to identify with collectivist ideas in the modern age
>how do you like it
It's shit
Alinsky does little but regurgitate talking points about organization in the face of political unrest, while offering no reconciliation for saud organization among individuals who even in his age were largely in support of anarchy and governmental deposition. He also outright marginalizes the political stance of the Right without exception, not even attempting to address why this ostracization is earned - obviously intended to reinforce the ideals of his target audience, but this and many other intentional or unrecognized fallacies reveal Alinsky to be a demagogue profiting off and encouraging rebellious ignorance of the youth.

Raskolnikov is objectively not a nihilist you giant mong. He's a Pragmatic Egoist, if you had to give Dostoevsky's "Great Man Theory" a classification. True that it was created as a kind of morally exaggerative response to the Nihilist communes sweeping St. Petersburg at the time, but Raskolnikov is never shown to run in those circles, only really existing at the periphery (especially during the Bar scenes, and later the Beer garden from Svidigrailov's perspective)

John Green ended up pulling that video and apologizing when it got massively shit on by everyone for clearly being the work of biased and out-of-touch scriptwriters and presenters.
GGG argues for environmental determinism, or the theory that geological, meteorological, etc. factors played the dominant role in determining the advancement of various groups of people in lieu of biology. It is inherently incapable of being a racist work, because Environmental Determinism does not attribute determinism to race or any other biological factor.

>He's a Pragmatic Egoist
No, he isn't. In the end, his poverty was just a poor justification for the murder he comitted - he just wanted to do it in order to prove to himself he isn't part of the subhuman-class, who is bound by morality. And not being in certain circles is not an argument, since there's a difference between Russian nihilism and vanilla nihilism.

Just because Raskollnikov says he isn't a nihilist, doesn't make him a nihilist. Throughout the novel he said he believes in god, but he doesn't. It's the very end where he starts to believe, and embraces salvation.

And now kill yourself, you illiterate schlong.

I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov because I like Dostoevsky and I hadn't read what most people cite as his best work.
I'm like 170 pages in. I like how in depth the characters are fleshed out. I feel like I relate to each of them partially. I actually almost forgot it's supposed to be about a murder trial because of how into the characters he takes you.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
the actual brief interviews are good, the other short stories not so much.

The Book of Tobit. Pretty hilarious so far.

Tobit 2:10
>I did not know that there were sparrows on the wall; their fresh droppings fell into my eyes and produced white films. I went to physicians to be healed, but the more they treated me with ointments the more my vision was obscured by the white films, until I became completely blind. For four years I remained unable to see. All my kindred were sorry for me, and Ahikar took care of me for two years before he went to Elymais.

what is the best annotated physical edition of moby dick?

Also, OP sounds like an annoying person.

>reads book because of a game
>looks down on people reading multiple books
top-tier thread OP

I'm about halfway through Moby Dick because it seemed interesting.

I don't like the way it keeps switching between the story and the explanations but I understand why it's necessary. I like it so far.

So, you want to tell me I shouldn't be able to estimate my state of mind?

Why do people say that Ayn Rand was a total bitch? Stefmeme Molycuck said he was chastized for reading her too ... why? What have personal merits to do with one's literary writing skills? Nobody cares Dostoyevsky was an anti-Semite either.

Sounds like the typical propaganda that fueled the October Revolution. What a shame some authors cannot take the middleground and are therefore unable to highlight radicalism in every political spectrum. At least you got smarter and can advise your fellow men to not read that pile of anti-right garbage.

What else did you read of Dostoyevsky? The beauty of his characters is that no matter how seemingly different you are from them, they always unravel some traits similar to the reader at one point - showing how people have the same struggles, same traits and with less hypocrisy all help out each other in one way or another - that's what I think. To be honest, even though I like Karamazov, I do not consider it as his best work, this title is reserved for his third major novel, Demons.

>Also, OP sounds like an annoying person.
Elaborate, then I might genuinely care, user.

I don't see the problem. Care to elaborate your fallacy?

Before I purchased it I heard it switches to basically encyclopedic entries about saling and whaling. So far, I don't mind it, really.

>I don't see the problem
Yeah, that's te problem

You are an annoying person because; you wrote a post on Veeky Forums that read like an undergrad's first academic essay, gave little to no worthwhile commentary on the book you were reading, and post pointless responses defending your character on an anonymous website.

>reading the Dick because of MGSV
lmao
What is your favourite chapter so far and why is MGS better than MGS2?

>you wrote a post on Veeky Forums that read like an undergrad's first academic essay, gave little to no worthwhile commentary on the book you were reading
Minus the academic thing, that is the point.
>and post pointless responses defending your character on an anonymous website.
Guess you skipped Must be hard being an illiterate product of 12 generations incest, isn't it?

You sound like a brat, I don't think you should be posting on this board.

I have that version. I like all the little whales

Guess I'd reply the same way when I reached my mental capacity already. So, I'll just do as you do.

Me too! I like the harpoons too, as well as the penguin in the middle of all that chaos.

Reading The Bible, because I've had it for years but never even thought about reading it and I see it meme here all the time, so why not. I like it a lot except sometimes it just boils down to listing names, I'm some 20 pages in out of 1166.

>Moby Dick
>stream of consciousness-prose
Please off yourself, you're stealing oxygen from my valuable hamster.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. It's my friend's favorite book. I'm six chapters in and I'm enjoying it so far.

>he just wanted to do it in order to prove to himself he isn't part of the subhuman-class, who is bound by morality.
Doesn't this run pretty opposite to standard nihilism? Raskolnikov is shown tp have moral standards unfitting of a nihilist throughout the book.
And him finding religion as his answer is a giant fucking copout

The thread on here last night gave me the motivation to pick this up again and re-read it.

Fuck, you got me. I didn't think that far. Of course - the lone fact that he has some sort of moral standard excludes him from nihilism.
Kudos, good Sir.

>And him finding religion as his answer is a giant fucking copout
Wouldn't say it is cop out though. Raskolnikov seemed to be tremendously deprived of affection, and he was imprisoned anyways. It's cheesy to combine salvation through Christianity with Sonya (or however she's called in the English version) though. All he needed was genuine affection and melt his heart a little in order to swallow his elitist fallacy.

Glad my thread brought you motivation, at least something we achieved, besides shitposting.

Thanks, bro.

My ex was reading this when we broke up. Just finished the copy of White Noise she gave (the last gift shared between us). Thinking of picking it up after I finish my current book (I, Claudius).

Religion being a copout is metatextual, in the story it works more or less alright, but a lit of scholars agree that Dostoevsky settled on that ending so that the book would not be deemed subversive

>Religion being a copout is metatextual
Please elaborate, I'm thrilled to know the actual meaning.

The encyclopedic parts don't really start until he's on the Pequod

Git gud fgt

>Moby Dick
>stream of consciousness
You what?

Now they're aboard the Pequod. Pray for me - there'll be a lot of passages, heck, pages I will understand to 30 % max.

reading pic related cuz I love getting memed hard. 62 pages in and where is all the misery and violence I was promised? I'm appreciating the reader-friendly structure.

pay attention going further in, I got a bit lost by the last few chapters. imho you're already past the best bits.

fucking masterpiece right there

maximum comfy

I've skirted around reading this for years.

>stream of consciousness
>narrative
hope that version has end notes, they are really handy. Could be my favorite book. [insert anti-gaming snobbery]

its 1000 pages long and you're complaining about it 60 pages in. top pleb lad

>>stream of consciousness
>>narrative
Can you explain what's wrong with that? Stream of consciousness is a narrative style, and it occsionally occurs whenever Ishmael interrupts himself, delving into one aspect deeper, and then deeper, before continuing with the actual subject/story.

And as aforementioned, it doesn't have notes. I didn't know there would be so many words with an entirely different meaning or I've never heard of.

>wanting to read anything before having read Shakespeare and the Bible
No. Just no.

SoC refers to texts that follow a character as if in real time (see The bell jar, catcher in the rye) and usually this style is consistent throughout a text whereas in Moby Dick Ishmael is telling you about the whaling industry rather than his moment-to-moment experience/interpretation of the world. He is treated as a conduit for the reader to understand whaling yes, but it's not a good/strong example of SoC imhoartissubjective. In terms of narrative, Moby Dick barely has a narrative/plot as the vast majority of the text is spent shoveling technical, real world info on whaling at you (hence it's often described as 'encyclopedic'). Yes of course there is a fucking plot and that is what gets highlighted by most other representations of Moby Dick but the book itself is more focused on delivering information - I for instance was not swept up by the narrative nearly as much as the lush descriptions and detail. Please continue reading, I don't mean to be a cunt about it and put you off, just Narrative and SoC are not the first things I'd highlight about the book but then I'm not sure exactly whats going on around page 100. I highly recommend picking up an annotated version before you get much further in.

wtf u on about m8

Thank you for the explanation. At last I know what Stream of Consciousness really is. I'd like to get a physical annotated version in English then, but I don't find any - only ebook versions.

I've 40 pages left of Moby dick. My opinion is kinda mixed. It was incredibly slow and detailed at first, and while I didn't enjoy the measurments of whale bones and the other dictionary entries very much, I acknowledge it was an invaluable part of the journey.

But when it came time for the plot to happen, Melville started rushing shit. You get chapters that are one paragraph long for no fucking reason. They run into ships every other day, as if the author just couldn't think of anything else that could happen. It's become painfully apparent that we didn't get a thorough analysis of the whale to supplement a massive, all-encompassing epic, but because Melville was an autist with no imagination and just copy-pasted his research to meet the target page count.

The style is inconsistent and all over the place. Suddenly he throws in a chapter in shakespeare-style and random songs because why the fuck not.
A wild ride and I'm glad I went through it, but I kinda expected something else.

>my literary knowledge is pretty chaste

What did he mean by this? this whole thread must be bait

I meant what I've written. Thank you for poiting this sentence out.