/lit/ Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:03 No. 670 [Last 50 Posts]
What is your favorite book?
Anonymous 21-12-20 05:19:59 No. 637
>>630 Find a better list tbh. This is what you get when you base a list like this on polling. You get a bunch of "hidden gems" that aren't hidden at all. And you get fucking Harry Potter at #54 book of all time.
>>631 Unironically go read Animal Farm. It's very short. And if you haven't read like half that list in high school go look up some high school reading list and remedy yourself.
Anonymous 21-12-20 05:19:59 No. 638
>>637 I did high school in Turkey.
How do I know if a reading list is better if I haven't read the books?
Anonymous 21-12-20 05:20:00 No. 650
>100 Years of Solitude the American proletarian writer.
Anonymous 21-12-20 05:20:01 No. 651
>>650 >>649 An addendum:
It all depends what you're looking for. Are you just looking for a good read? If so mostly all of the books are just canonical literature, and you can't particularly go wrong.
Are you looking for literature that valorizes some basic concepts of Marxism-Leninism? If so, you might be disappointed. There's been a long standing critique of so-called socialist realism in literature, I think it was Lukacs who first pointed out its shortcomings. The fact of the matter is that novels, as a form, are suited (and born out of) capitalist individualism. They're meditations of and on the individual as a unit. There are few books about or praising movements, or coming together productively. They're far more about the
lack of connection between people, even if they are left-leaning, or critique class politics.
Anonymous 21-12-20 05:20:01 No. 652
>>630 89. Walden by Henry David Thoreau. It's essentially the first book of American drop out culture. A near mid 19th century story of a man's experiment in simplified living, who moved out to a pond, and constructs a cabin so as to see if he could live more in tune with his beliefs. It's difficult to pigeonhole it, the first chapter on "economy" is a critique of america, capitalism, civilization , etc. The book emphasizes the self reliance and autonomy of the individual, while making clear that it is a fools errand, and is unnatural to avoid our social nature. The question is how can one live more simply, how to cut away the excess chaff, to find what is essential, and to build a life around that essence. Walden is celebrated by anarchists, and ecology minded folks as well, non vulgar marxists should be able to dig it, its part of the lefty canon. The book is a general praise of the depths of nature, of the sublime in the everyday, in the immediate natural world we inhabit, and which likewise inhabits us. It advocates getting closer to it, to minimizing what is unnecessary, so we can not only have free reign over ourselves, but the freedom to construct a more authentic life.
There are definite criticisms, mostly superficial, but if you are a 'marxist'(as I am) there are theoretical disagreements over certain ideas, issues with labor, its relevance, the class composition of the ideas and how they represent the emerging class struggles. Regardless, it remains an inspiration, it's one of my favorite books and has changed my life in more ways than any other book I've read, because it actually moved me to live differently, which seems to be the story of most people who love Walden too.
Anonymous 21-12-20 05:20:01 No. 653
>>649 >>650 Good taste. I still haven't read quite a few of those though, looking forward to trying.
Here are some of mine that weren't covered.
For Calvino fans, an extremely cool little meta-book.
Boccaccio's magnum opus of 100 stories. The meta-narrative is of bourgeois youngsters escaping to the countryside during the Plague (!!!). The kids tell each other stories for 10 days, 10 stories each day. The stories poke fun at every level of society, exposing the vices and virtues of all: the peasants, city workers, bourgeoisie, clergy, nobility, no one is spared. It is absolutely hilarious, irreverent, vulgar and insightful, and even arguably proto-feminist. Highly recommend!
Plutarch's collection of biographies of famous heroes of antiquity. Part fiction, part history, full entertainment. Not only are the characters and events larger than life, but the author himself often takes the liberty of passing judgement on them, adding humor and context to the insane happenings and tying them all together. As Emerson called it, "The Bible for Heroes"
PS why is this thread bumplocked? Just because there's some trash in the OP's pic? Or does this belong in /edu/?
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:01 No. 655
>>630 Well I haven't read most of them but I can give you my notes on the ones I have read.
>Moby Dick These are two of my favorite books of all time
Pretty good.
Not my favorite work by Shakespeare but all his works are good. I prefer the tempest.
I've read this several times and it's pretty good. Definitely worth reading and very short. You can probably get through it in one sitting.
This one is great. I've read the original and some modernized versions and I wouldn't say you NEED to read the original. It's kinda long winded and nearly half of it is just them taking breaks to get hammered.
>The Divine Comedy More superb works. Definitely read these.
I mean, they are fun. The Hobbit was one of my favorite books as a kid. I don't see why they are on this list though. You can skip them if you want, but if you're looking for entertainment they are worthwhile.
>The Holy Bible Lmao why are these on here? They are culturally influential I guess and I've read them both and got something out of it… the Harry Potter series 4 times through. They are both rather bad from a literary standpoint though.
C'mon. Seriously? I mean, it's good, but there are so many things by Thomson that are better. This should be replaced with The Great Shark Hunt.
Another must-read.
>Lord of the Flies They are alright. Would recommend but hardly essential.
Ugh, I mean it's good… really good actually. Just if you like it you should also read some Octavia Butler and Ursula K Leguin.
Yeah it's good… not as good as Beyond Good and Evil or the Genealogy of Morals but I guess it is sort of fiction unlike those two so I can see why they included it.
I like this book. If you like it then you should also read some Edward Abbey. Start with Desert Solitaire or The Monkey Wrench Gang.
Fucking nerd. I feel the same way about this as I do about Tolkien.
See my notes on the Odyssey.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:01 No. 656
>>655 Oh apparently I missed a few…
If you don't know Spanish you can skip it tbh. If you can read it in the original it is top tier. There's a lot of other books in this style I could recommend.
<Like Water for Chocolate
<The Temple of My Familiar
<Kafka on the Shore
I agree with
>>650 on this. Kafka is probably my favorite author and I would recommend literally everything he wrote, even the ones I haven't read because I know they are gonna be good.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:01 No. 659
>>634 >You will never read 100 books! What? I read over 100 books in one year when I was 11. If you read every day a book a week is pretty manageable if they are 200-500 pages. So 52 a year, you should be able to finish this list in 3-4 years even if you take some breaks.
Some of the ones on this list are pretty long, but the idea that you can't read all of them is ridiculous.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:02 No. 665
>>602 E-Readers are the way to go. I still recommend dead tree books for the "tomes" you know you'll reference a lot (
Capital and the like)
I use a Kobo Clara HD which I bought for $120 new. I'm sure the cheaper options are fine though; resolution doesn't make nearly as much of a difference as I thought it would. Just make sure it has a frontlight and a touchscreen (for highlighting). Kobo has the best piracy support (native epub + others), Kindle has the slickest software, Nook is meme tier.
Go to gen.lib.rus.ec for your copyrighted ebooks and marxists.org for public domain ebooks. Marxists.org has a ton of out of print stuff as well. I recommend making eBooks out of them as you read them to volunteer. If you need paper books check to see if your city has a radical bookstore. Mine has good prices but the best part is getting recommendations from the based boomer volunteers.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:03 No. 674
>>603 >>669 Which e-readers do you guys use?
>>665 Thanks for the post comrade, very helpful! How's the battery life? My partner got an amazon one and it is basically bricked in under a year because the battery is so bad now. Also what is a radical bookstore?
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:05 No. 689
>>674 The battery life is still pretty great on it after a year and a half or so of use. I once took it on a family vacation and blazed through Trotsky's
History of the Russian Revolution for several hours a day for a week, never had to charge the eReader once. I may be remembering wrong but I think the battery is replaceable if needed, there's no glue or shit like on the Kindles.
A radical bookstore is a bookstore specializing in radical left / socialist books. Look for independent bookstores in your city and radical bookstores should be on the list if you have one nearby. Typically they'll be cash only. Anarchist bookstores are more common than Marxist / "authleft". Besides buying books, radical bookstores are a good place to socialize and learn which events are happening in your area without the sectarian spin.
http://www.maydaybookstore.org/ Mayday Books is my specific example, I don't think I'm doxxing myself too bad.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:06 No. 699
>>666 Because it's one of the best examples of English prose that doesn't sound fucking retarded? Personally I prefer Lord Byron to Shakespeare but in general english is a pretty ugly language imo.
Everyone memorizes the monologue from the end of hamlet at some point right? I certainly did as a kid along with the first however many digets of pi. Fucking nerd…
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:07 No. 702
>>670 Really hope there’s a futa cock beneath that book.
Anyways I don’t really like reading that much, Flowers for Algernon is one of the few books I’ve read and I liked it a lot
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:07 No. 703
>>630 Where the fuck is socialist literature, OP? Are you even ML or did you read all of them?
Anyway, in that list, I recommend Faust. And skip everything from post-modern authors
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:07 No. 704
>>702 I forgot about Flowers for Algernon! I have read it three times I think and it might actually be my favorite book. I do like reading and I do it every day, but I'd say you have good taste in literature even if you don't like to read!
This same thread was put up in hobby. I will copy and paste my response from there.
>>670 >What is your favorite book? Hmmm hard to say but my favorite one I read in 2019 was Moby Dick. The His Dark Materials series was probably my favorite as a kid.
In terms of my actual life? Maybe the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver or Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. In terms of how I write? The books that made the biggest impression on me stylistically where War and Peace by Tolstoy, Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, and basically everything that Kafka wrote.
I guess I will finish capital some day. The Grunderise or however you spell it might be another priority.
Yesterday I read anti-duhring. I might read it again today. I will finish the german ideology soon. I've been slowly working through leviathan by hobbes but it is a bit of a slog.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:09 No. 718
>>670 >What is your favorite book? Poor folk by dosto atm.
> What book influenced you the most? 18th Brumaire
> What do you like about books? I like to read cause it allows me to learn new things, and explore human psyche as well.
> what are you planning to read? The Greeks as I’d like to get into philosophy more.
> What are you reading now? The Republic.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:09 No. 726
>>650 >The first book about Alienation? IMO Notes is not so much a book about alienation as about the involuntary integration from which the narrator tries to desperately escape through deliberately irrational but futile acting out. It's before its time by 150 years.
>Man I love Delilo, but he's real-deal postmodernist lit He's actually an anti-postmodernist. A lot of his works are Baudrillard's attack on postmodern society in literary form.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:12 No. 755
>>726 >A lot of his works are Baudrillard's attack on postmodern society in literary form. I agree, but this doesn't exclude him from post-modern lit. Sure he's not playing with the novel as a form, but all of his works are hyper-meta, partiularly Mao II, explicitly asking itself what the novel, as a medium, and each of his books in particular, can do in the postmodern age. Can they reconcile history? Can they still save the individual? Are they capable of constructing world narratives?
>>703 Most ""Socialist Literature"" is bad.
Literature by socialists, however, is good.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:12 No. 757
>>756 I didn't say all socialist lit was bad, just a lot of it.
>And Quiet Flows the Don My Russophile friend always badgers me to read this but, man, I don't really wanna read a four volume novel. I tend to tap out after one thousand pages
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:12 No. 758
>>757 Please, read it. It's not only a Russian novel, but a socialistic novel. It shows how the revolution actually was, from the viewpoint of non-proletarian class.
Also Как закалялась сталь, this is not a masterpiece, but it shows the revolution from the viewpoint of proletarian class. Both of them will give you a quite completed picture of the revolution
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:23 No. 845
>What is your favorite book? That's really hard to say. The Brothers Karamazov, Point-Counterpoint, or Ulysses. Honorable mention to The Journey to the East and The Glass Bead Game.
>What book influenced you the most? Probably Point-Counterpoint or
The Bible >What do you like about books? The texture of the pages, the feel and sound of shuffling paper, but most of all the fact that I can connect with people from hundreds or thousands of years ago.
>What are you reading now? The Trial
>>704 No surprise to find Kafka fans here. War and Peace was the last big novel I've read and it was amazing. Good on you for all the Marx, Grundrisse is really important and can illuminate the argumentation provided in Capital. However it's very long and you can probably skip some of the polemical parts if you only want to use it to help with Capital. Also, Leviathan represents Hobbes' mature views, you can find similar more simply put ones in his "De Cive"/The Citizen.
>>718 Good for you for getting into The Republic. Probably not enough of us have this foundation.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:31 No. 926
>>670 Weird one but it’s the Iron Heel. Even though it’s one of London’s less known, mediocre works, but I still hold it dearly.
Reading that and some of his views later in life showed a level of desperation and hopelessness at the failure of US socialist movements but with a tiny light of hope of a socialist future really stuck with me. Not to mention his description of the Iron Heel and how it accurately foresaw what happened to the socialist movement of the 20th century just both enlightening and depressing. The way the oligarchy crushed mankind being straight up what happened to Chile as well.
>What are you reading now? The road to Phnom Penh - a memoir of a general in the war against the Khmer Rouge.
>what are you planning to read? Other Songs an alternate history book about our world but instead of Einsteinian physics it follows Aristotle’s metaphysics (I.e. Earth being the center of the solar system,…). Even though the author is Polish lib, his writing resembles Stanislaw Len a lot and the premise seems interesting.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:38 No. 996
>>670 >What is your favorite book? Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
They're great to be seen with in public.
The Fault in Our Stars
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, for like the fifth time!!
Comrade 21-12-20 05:20:39 No. 1004
>>998 The Reign From This World - Alejo Carpentier
One Hundred Years of Solitude - García Márquez
Pedro Páramo - Juan Rulfo
The term is somewhat old, check the article if you're interested in its history
Comrade 21-12-20 05:21:35 No. 1502
>>630 >>631 >I'm a ML 2,3,9,10,13,28,31,34,35,36,40,45,49,50,56,68,71,79,84,85,91,92,94,100 are mandatory reading
Comrade 21-12-20 05:21:37 No. 1537
>>630 skip everything.
read "kingkiller chronicles".
Comrade 21-12-20 05:21:41 No. 1569
>>1567 I loved
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector. It's about a girl living in poverty in Rio de Janeiro.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:21:41 No. 1572
>>1567 Rayuela by Cortázar
Los detectives salvajes by Bolaño
2666 by Bolaño
Cien años de soledad by García Márquez
Ficciones by Borges
My favorite writer ever is Bolaño and my favorite novel ever is 2666.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:21:41 No. 1573
>>1567 El Llano en Llamas by Juan Rulfo
Batallas en el Desierto by José Emilio Pacheco
Both are pretty good and leftist pilled. The later is pretty short and simple so it could help you a lot if you're learning spanish
Comrade 21-12-20 05:21:41 No. 1579
>>1567 La palabra del mudo of Julio Ramon Ribeyro, a good storyteller (idk how to say cuentista).
Some books of early Vargas Llosa, like Conversacion en La Catedral.
Borges is great, you should check it.
Idk what book of Arguedas to sugest, Rios profundos is about his childhood in a intern in the peruvian highlands. His cuentos/stories are about the indigenous people. Or El Sexto, about life in jail as a political prisioner.
Cesar Vallejo, the poet wrote some cuentos too. Paco Yunque, or El Tungsteno (a little novel about intrigues in a mine camp.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:21:55 No. 1730
>What is your favorite book?
Comrade 21-12-20 05:22:53 No. 2310
>>1502 Why should I lose my time reading these useless books when I could be reading actually interesting shit like theory or history?
One of the few work of fiction I have ever read were 1984 and The Stranger, they left such a bad taste in my mouth that I haven't read any fiction since the last decade.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:22:53 No. 2312
>>2310 >>2311 Well, maybe I exagerated a little, I actually read another fiction book, How the Steel was Tempered. I didn't like reading it, I understand why the author wrote it or the ideas he was trying to convey, but reading fiction is boring as fuck even when it's a Socialist realist work.
So yeah, if you don't read often don't bother reading useless fiction books and read theory instead or you are going to discourage yourself from ever reading again.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:22:53 No. 2314
>>2307 this list is so shit. Most of people there are irrelevant and had irrelevant philosophical thought.
The Greeks and Romans were irrelevant besides Plato, Homer and Aristotle. Irrelevant understand as in "knowing their thought will provide no value to you", but they had big and positive contribution to society (Euclid, Archimides, Herodotus, Hippocrates). If you are not a philosophy student or joined some philosophy courses (mostly beginner courses or history of philosophy. Since they start with greek materialism) then nobody ever will talk with you about Epicurus thought (believe me) and it's outdated thought, so it's only good if you want to understand the history of philosophy and materialistic thought.
(Greek materialism is primitive understanding of the world. It has no relation to modern understanding of materialism or marxist understanding of materialism. It is pretty useless)
Every philosopher in Middle Ages was irrelevant idiot that copied Aristotle. They literally copied Aristotle and changed his thought into some amalgamation of christian philosophical thought (which is dogshit btw) — look at Augustine for example or Aquinas.
also:
>the old testament >the new testament made me chuckle. There are people studying those fictional books their whole life. It seems like a waste of time (and is a waste of time). It's just a timesink and you have two choices:
1. Try to understand the testaments literally
2. Try to understand it figuratively
If you try to understand it literally then it's some nonsense bullshit that primitive people wrote about the world and how reactionary patriarchal society should work. Also it's obviously explicitly anti-marxist. It has no meaning or value. If you want to understand history or psychology of reactionary value — you would have more value (or something) if you've just read Mein Kampf or writings of Mussolini.
If you try to understand it figuratively, then which version is the right one? There are thousands of interpretations. There are people wasting their whole life trying to make sense of it. Instead of wasting life yourself, you could spend all this time reading marxist literature which or any other philosophical literature.
Also if you think that will help you better reach the masses then you are wrong. None of the revolutionary leaders cited the Bible, which was more popular in their time (it keeps getting less popular with every year) — and they succeeded in providing their message.
tl;dr => drop bible, drop greeks (besides Aristotle and Plato), drop romans (if you really want to: then Cicero, Aurelius, Plutarch and Horace seem to be more relevant than all the others. People quote them, you can semi-talk about them etc. — at least in Europe which has Latin/Roman roots), drop all middle age writers (christians). They are all irrelevant, provide no useful insight and middle ages is just regurgitated Aristotle which was fit in christian worldview (big cringe, very boring).
Comrade 21-12-20 05:22:53 No. 2315
>>2314 Also depends on how you interpret 'revolutionary leader'. By that I mean a leader of a socialist revolution, a successful one at that. So I am not concerned with burger-centric worldview and people like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X.
Wrote that just in case somebody would want to go with the "haha gotcha".
Comrade 21-12-20 05:22:59 No. 2385
>>630 Bruh are those even books? Looks like something children and liberals read.
I only read theory, history, political-economy, science or philosophy books
Ioseb 21-12-20 05:23:05 No. 2462
>>670 >What is your favorite book? Dandelion wine by ray bradbury
>What book influenced you the most? State and revolution by Vladimir Lenin
>What do you like about books? There’s more room for interpretation than other forms of media
>what are you planning to read? Haven’t read for whom the bell tolls yet, I was thinking of reading that
>what are you reading now? Fall of the ottomans by Eugene Rogan
Comrade 21-12-20 05:23:08 No. 2479
>>2478 lol
She just thinks Nabakov was the century's finest prose stylist.
Anonymous Comrade 21-12-20 05:24:41 No. 3257
>What are ya reading now Capital , good lord is the third chapter a slog. Luckily I'm almost finished, and I've been told that it gets easier from there for the most part.Breakfast of Champions not too long ago, and it's so good. It's about a small incident where one of the main characters goes nuts and starts assaulting people, and the writer having his views changed about humanity. The incident it's self is a very small part of the book that is built up almost as if it's not that important in the grand scheme of things, and most of it is about all of the things inter-connected things in society and history that lead to that moment in time happening, almost as if by inevitable accident, and through it explores inequality, poverty, and race. The same goes for the author's view of people which undergoes a synthesis between what he believed before, and what a character in the book believes that convinces him to look at humanity differently. It's very much worth a read.
Anonymous Comrade 21-12-20 05:24:41 No. 3264
>>3259 are you talking about the chan board or literature in general?
I think there is just as much reason to be disillusioned by literature as to find it a revolutionary vehicle. I don't know if it has always been the case, but literature and education have a link that perhaps a lot of other arts do not, and so it is a medium for the educated. The educated also happen to be more likely to be bourgeois, capitalist sycophants, so it's natural that a lot of literature, at least within the western-anglo cannon, should fall in line with boujee values. That said, There is a significant amount of authors that also look at class relationships critically. Melville, Dos Passos, Steinbeck, etc. While I think something about the process of literature leads one to refrain from making outright political gestures and proclamations through literature, there are many heralded texts that you will find sympathetic, if not supportive, of the working class and some kind of revolution or systemic change.
Anonymous Comrade 21-12-20 05:24:42 No. 3265
>>3253 >What is your favorite book? Hmmm hard to say but my favorite one I read in 2019 was Moby Dick. The His Dark Materials series was probably my favorite as a kid.
In terms of my actual life? Maybe the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver or Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. In terms of how I write? The books that made the biggest impression on me stylistically where War and Peace by Tolstoy, Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, and basically everything that Kafka wrote.
I guess I will finish capital some day. The Grunderise or however you spell it might be another priority.
Yesterday I read anti-duhring. I might read it again today. I will finish the german ideology soon. I've been slowly working through leviathan by hobbes but it is a bit of a slog.
Anonymous Comrade 21-12-20 05:24:42 No. 3266
>>3253 >What is your favorite book? My favourite recently has to be The City and The City. Mieville runs with the concept of border gore and somehow manages to think up nationalist spooks worse than our own.
In terms of writing style, I'm still trying to find my voice. I had a phase after high school where I tried to write like David Foster Wallace (I forced myself to finish Infinite Jest when I had cholera). In hindsight, DFW's nested and spangly prose is probably most of the reason people drop the book, but I still find his flawed and addicted characters compelling.
There's also the wilful stupidity in Don Delilo's White Noise. Delilo is something of a broken record and I learned this when I picked up his other books, but if you only read White Noise then he's perfect. In a nutshell, it's the Vaporwave book. It's easy to read despite how hateable the main character is.
In the end I like to write SF but I tend to hate the views and characters expressed inside. My big dick idol in terms of prose is still William Gibson. I remember trying to read Neuromancer back in elementary school and failing, and later picking up one of his hack imitators (Zack Parsons' "Eastwood" on SA) and thinking "shit, this is the future of writing". I went back to Gibson with a new lens and have loved his style ever since.
Nowadays I find it hard to be as enthused about anything as I was as a young'un, but I'm trying to get back into writing.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:24:54 No. 3381
>>674 I bought a remarkable e-ink tablet. I really like the large display and the ability to write on it.
I haven't tried other e-ink readers, but I'm satisfied with this one.
My biggest problem with kindles was the tiny fucking screen. Drives me fucking mad because most books I have are PDF letter size books, which are impossible to read on a kindle. The tablet I have is large enough so that pages are usually large enough to read.
I haven't had problems with it. I've been reading much more since I got it. I love taking notes on it. I mostly use the highlighting pen though.
I've also used it to a lesser degree for note taking.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:24:54 No. 3383
I'm a much faster reader using a big screen than with pocket-sized ereaders. You kids know nothing of pain. I used to read whole books on a shitty CRT…
>>3381 >I bought a remarkable [b]e-ink tablet[/b] That's what I need! Name of the thing?
Comrade 21-12-20 05:24:54 No. 3386
>>3383 lol, the name is 'remarkable'. sorry for the confusion, I don't usually use the word 'remarkable'.
https://remarkable.com/ A friend that was learning classic Chinese scripture recommended it to me. I mostly use it for highlighting shit from pdfs. Sometimes I make notes on random subjects.
2 yards linen = 1 coat 21-12-20 05:26:04 No. 4097
>>3711 Solzhenitsyn's
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is an excellent book.
>…inventing his own neologisms, meandering prose with no rhyme or rhythm, and endless exposition dumps with ambitions of a wannabe 20th century Leo Tolstoy constantly fall flat on their face. This does not describe the book at all.
2 yards linen = 1 coat 21-12-20 05:26:04 No. 4101
>>3675 >What is your process? When I had access to a university library + a lot of time, I searched through the library catalog for certain topics then skimmed various books on a single subject, discarding the ones that didn't seem useful and noting the names of the rest for further study.
What I do now (since I only have access to what I can find on the internet) is to do the same thing by searching online using whatever platform is available, plus using authors sources and footnotes to find more books to read.
This is a good way of compiling info on specific topics.
Comrade 21-12-20 05:26:17 No. 4237
>>670 >What is your favorite book? Gotta be between:
Caliban and the Witch - it's a Marxist feminist analysis of the witch trials throughout history and the subjugation of women
Towards a New Socialism - Do I have to explain myself on this one? Everyone here talks about it
Hard to say, I feel like I always seek out books that fit my general internal development and they just act as a catalyst. Books that I've connected with the most when I've read them would be:
Conquest of Bread
The New Revolution
Towards a New Socialism
One Straw Revolution
I learn stuff I guess, feels like I'm doing something important, idk
Not sure atm, chugging through a couple atm and I have a big reading list to choose from. Probably against the grain.
How the World Works by Cockshott
How to make a food forest
The Unique and Its Property - the new translation, much better read than the original
TheThingNoticer 21-12-20 05:26:49 No. 4659
>>670 I'd say my favorite book was the original Thrawn novel, from the Star Wars universe. In terms of actual political literature, though, I thoroughly enjoyed TANS by Dickblast. Said book has been my biggest influence to date.
I don't actually like books very much, and prefer PDFs. I plan on reading more of Cockshott's books, a few of which I've already covered. I'm normally too busy with trade school to read much, but it's still going bit by bit. That said, I'm not currently reading anything.
Anonymous 28-01-21 14:38:54 No. 4924
>>670 >What is your favorite book? Zaregoto: The Kubishime Romanticist, love it for how it flips the idea of the protagonist on it's head, and the mystery is less the murder in the novel, and more the ideology that leads him down the path he walks.
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, I read it as a kid, and some of the ideas of fair play that I missed out on in terms of writing lessons were something that, conceptually, I internalized after reading it.
As a means of ideal communication it's n embodiment of easy to learn, hard to master. It's a craft that attracted me as a child, and never lost it's luster, same as other crafts which have attracted me.
Everything I'm currently reading. More political theory as well.
Infinite Jest, Boogiepop, House of Leaves, Nekomonogatari Shiro, etc.
Anonymous 25-02-21 14:02:41 No. 5057
>>670 >What is your favorite book? El reino de este mundo by Alejo Carpentier, its beautifully written. Don Quijote is a great novel too.
>What book influenced you the most? Capital. It was incredibly clarifying.
>What do you like about books? Books can be an escape, I started out reading fantasy, "graduated" to science-fiction, and came back to fantasy with LOTR and ASOIAF. Books can educate you, they can help you become a master of any field. Books can make you think in new ways, exploring reality in ways you could have never imagined. Books are the congealed form of human imagination and experience.
>What are you planning to read? The Visible and the Invisible by Maurice Merleau-Ponty
>What are you reading now? In Defense of Lost Causes by Zizek. I'm in part 2 and despite its deficiency of organization I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.
Anonymous 21-03-21 19:37:12 No. 5213
>>670 An Alchemy Of The Mind by Dianne Ackerman
Rule By Secrecy by Jim Marrs. It's a conspiracy theory book that I picked up in middle school.
It kind of wasted my time and mental energy, because I was constantly looking for confirmations and contradictions to what he said everywhere, but it turns out that that's kind of a never-ending pursuit, and it's unfruitful, and there probably aren't aliens using humans to fight proxy wars or whatever the fuck that book was trying to get me to believe.
It was an influential book because it ruined my intellect and wasted my time and ruined my life, drugs are probably safer.
They change your mental state and are rewarding to read. I can go back to sleep if I drank too much the night before, or I can let the sunrise of being entranced yet awake dissipate the mental fog obstructing my perception of my imagination.
And if they're paperbacks, they're soft.
unf The Body In The Mind by Mark Johnson
The New Left Revisited
>>704 > Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Holy shit this was my favorite book when I was in like 3rd or 4th grade
Anonymous 26-03-21 18:20:58 No. 5302
>>670 >What is your favorite book? Don't really have one so much, although Brothers Karazamov, Death of Ivan Ilyich, Checkov's short stories, Pessoa and Saramago I enjoyed it a lot.
>What book influenced you the most? I'm poortuguese, so "Levantado do Chão" (roughly translates to "Risen from the ground") by José Saramago. Unironically was a novel that turned me into a convicted socialist and later Marxist and believing in a revolutionary methodology.
>What do you like about books? It's a very uniquely useful way for an autist like me to understand other humans if it's fiction. They have a lot of information to help me understand things in non-fiction.
>what are you planning to read? Currently reading Capital and other Marxist. Will continue to do that as well as some philosophy and psychoanalysis, and more canon Portuguese language authors like Eça de Qeuirós atm.
>what are you planning to read? Other than what I've already said above, Cidade e as Serras, by Eça de Queirós.
read_a_fucking_book Read a Fucking Book Anonymous 26-03-21 18:23:19 No. 5303
>>5302 *>>what are you reading now?
Other than what I've already said above, Cidade e as Serras, by Eça de Queirós, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, and Casa-Grande & Senzala by Gilberto Freyre.
read_a_fucking_book Read a Fucking Book Anonymous 25-09-21 20:56:18 No. 7458
>>670 >what is your favorite book? the fool, raffi
>what book influenced you the most? the right to struggle, monte melkonian
>what do you like about books? idk i like learning
>what are you planning to read wagnerism, alex ross
>what are you reading now? my year of rest and relaxation, otessa moshfegh
Anonymous 26-09-21 00:26:43 No. 7459
>>670 >What is your favorite book? Probably Lord of the Rings, tbh. One Hundred Years of Solitude is a close second. Man, that book is great, I never thought it would live up to the hype but somehow it did.
>What book influenced you the most? No clue. Maybe One Hundred Years of Solitude since it got me back into reading fiction again after not having done so for several years. Or some stuff that my mom read aloud to me when I was a kid.
>What do you like about books? That I can learn stuff. And actually don't feel like I am wasting my time as opposed to when aimlessly browsing the internet.
>what are you planning to read? Debt: The First 5000 Years and a book called Mute Compulsion by a Danish marxist that just got published. Also wanna read more fiction from Latin America, I just gotta decide who and what…
>What are you reading now? Bitter Fruit, about the US intervention and coup in Guatemala in 1954. Scary stuff.
Anonymous 28-09-21 14:52:54 No. 7504
>>4230 I'm dying fuck
>>969 checked
fr why is the op image arousing Anonymous 12-02-22 18:43:28 No. 9751
>>670 >favorite book The Idiot
>book influenced you the most Literature only? This sounds gay, but probably Macbeth.
>what do you like about books? They're the purest interpersonal exploration of consciousness (though I would say this is true of 'stories' in general, and is therefore not exclusive to the written tradition, but such is our particular mediation)
>what are you planning to read? A bunch of stuff idk too much procrastinating I need to read plenty of non-fiction boring theory still… endless mountains
>what are you reading now? see above
Anonymous 21-07-22 07:25:19 No. 11292
>>10312 read stuff by cool ppl… lots of communisty stuff out there, its just not so easy to find cause "not-censorship"
For fiction I like joseph conrad. "English canon" type shit but he's neat, anti-imperialist at least, anti-capital + pro people power at best. Flannery O'Connor is cool. Ray Bradbury is honestly fucked and full of ideology, but the writing is fun so i fw it. Lots of sci fi short story stuff is fun tbh
even tho the fear of AI singularity and machines taking over humans e.g. is literally disgusting anti-communist and prole-objectifying ideology For non-fiction or art, i mean there's historical commie shit.
Anonymous 26-07-24 19:12:33 No. 22630
>>670 I need to put these books on my reading list right now.
Six-Legged Soldiers by Jeffrey Lockwood.
>It's about using insects in war. Basically the bugs can used to kill crops or spread disease (etc). Quite horrifying and totally inhumane. The Battle for Your Brain by Nita Farahany
>The pigs are trying own your body. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell.
>I want to know how to set up barricades etc. Total Resistance by Hans von Dach
>Same as above but more. Unique IPs: 20