So what are you reading these days Veeky Forums?

So what are you reading these days Veeky Forums?

Halfway through The Pale King.
Third of the way through Anna Karenina.

I have begun to tire of DFW... has anyone else read TPK? What am I to make of the chapters where he is writing as “himself”?

As for AK, I am really, really digging it. Tolstoy is much more accessible than I anticipated. I feel every page of the book so deeply (except perhaps for right now, where Levin is mowing with all the peasants... yeah I get it he’s gonna love his common man and be a civil servant like his brother has been urging him - but mowing ain’t as fun as affairs).

What about you OP?

>fiction: En attendant Godot by Samuel Beckett. The French is easier than I expected.
>non-fiction: A Secular Age by Charles Taylor. The general conclusions are more or less solid, but detailed history is not Taylors forte, and the writing style is vague.

I enjoyed the mowing parts of Anna Karenina, actually. It shows a lot about Levins changing character, and about the struggle to get close to the lower classes as a nobleman. And the prose is good too.

Its ironic DFW wrote a book to find the worth in boringness but bored himself to death in the process

Interesting. I will say the chapter about the guy whose dad died horribly on the train platform was extraordinary. And the speech the Jesuit (or maybe just Jesuit-seeming?) professor on boredom made it seem like a virtue. But fuck - DFW’s whole observations lmao shtick gets so old. Also Leonard is a hilarious character - what a contemptible little twat, yet he’s just built that way.

You’re right, it is lovely prose! I don’t know - I wish to say that I were a prose lover first and foremost, but that just isn’t me.

I finished Kafka's The Trial recently, as I'm seeing an exhibition about the book soon. I'm still reading The Town and the City by Kerouac, which is a bit of a slower read, even though it's really accessible.

Book of the New Sun my man, it's excellent

Finished Houellebecq's Atomized today. It was terrible. Gonna relax with a re-read of Pascal's Pensées next.

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Odyssey - Homer

I'm currently going through my native classics.

Reading Independent People now. It's insane how different the dialect here was 80 years ago.

Man and his Symbols

hary potter

Halfway through 120 Days of Sodom

Book I am currently reading:
>The House of the Scorpion
>The second book in the foundation trilogy (about half way through)
>finishing up The Dying Earth series (Rhialto the Marvellous)

>reading

Lol who has time for that? its called video games dumbass

Reading Love in the Time of Cholera right now, haven't read regularly in at least two years.

Before this I think it was Findley's The Piano Man's Daughter

Quarter of the way through modern man in search of a soul
After that im gonna read brothers karamazov and beyond good and evil along side each other

The Recognitions. About a third of the way though it. Poised to become my favorite book (ahead of IJ)

...

Little over 1/3 of the way through War and Peace

halfway through the second book of the gay science
gonna start germinal soon

Do you think I'd need a background of Tolstoy's works to read Anna Karenina as my first book from him?

Not who you're replying to but no. Absolutely not. In fact, his fiction, non-fiction, short stories, are all very self-contained and reflect different spiritual/ philosophical growth in his life, but don't require a knowledge of the other works to get. I say this as someone whose read AK, W&P, Gospel in Brief, almost all of his short stories and Kingdom of God is Within You, and probably more if I thought about it.

thank you :))

Fave char? And don't say Andrei

James Branch Cabell. Great stuff imo. Top tier prose on par with that of Addison or Macaulay, satire on disillusionment with romantic ideals.

Hello anons, this is might probably be the stupidest thing to ask, what book should I read first? The Brothers Karamazov, lolita, The book of disquiet, or the selected essay of David Hume? The last book I read was Crime and Punishment if that helps. I know it's not systematic, but these are the books I have right now.

Reading The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand. It's utter trash. But you gotta read trash sometimes. Next step is some Bulgakov.

The Night Land

I N
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V E R I T Y
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The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century by Peter Watson

Pretty good so far. It is effectively a string of Wikipedia-like entries, some longer than others, on what seems to be every idea and historical milestone of the 20th century worth mentioning, with a hard focus on art, philosophy, and science. I feel this book will be very beneficial for any future reading I do, to be at least a little familiar with a bit of everything from the very recent past. Very clear and enjoyable to read.

Does this book explore the question of what modernity is? I would be interested if that were the case.

I finished A Princess of Mars a couple days ago. Very entertaining. >tfw no Dejah Thoris gf

Currently reading pic related.

It does a fair bit. Focusing on The Waste Land, Jacobs Room, and of course Ulysses as well as giving a good, but short, overview of modernism in general as well as the overall milieu of the times before, during and after modernism. During the same period he introduces the intellectual culture on Germany leading up to Hitler's rise to power. Watson also connects Uptown Sinclair to the modernists in spirit. The book is comprehensive so far, so it didn't dwell on modernism for hundreds of pages or anything. It has its place in the book, sharing a chapter with German literature, art, design, and philosophy from around the time.

exit-level chick lit

William Seabrook - Asylum

Very compelling and relevant to shit I'm going through. I want to read more of Seabrook's crazy adventures in Africa next.

Stoner.

...

Thanks man. Working on modernity as a thesis project, so this could be helpful.

is it any good?

Got slightly tired of reading novels so I've started this. It's about half comics and half essays about the creators. The particular time and place of toronto indie comic publishing at the turn of the century is not necessarily the most enthralling but I like being exposed to these higher grade comics.

Old Prince Bolkonski, Nicholas Rostov and (sorry) Andrew. I used to like Pierre but now he's starting to get on my nerves

Why do you dislike Andrew?

Around page 200 of The Magic Mountain. I'm reading it because I wanted a break from Gravity's Rainbow (I read an half more or less) and because I'm actually on holiday in an hotel in the middle of nowere in the woods. It truly is a wonderful and underrated novel. I underrated it myself. Also I'm beginning to find strange connections between Castorp at the Berghof and me right now in the hotel. I never expected to find gorgeous and thrilling a man describing his radiography.

This boring piece of crap

>muh France
>muh passion
>all those little details that i couldn't give a shit about

...

Just finished The rape of Nanking by Iris Chang. It was interesting as an entry level history book. Starting Animal Farm which i will probably have finished tomorrow. Reading good.