I'm trying to say be self-aware so you don't come across as patronising, but maybe that self-awareness is being read as patronising in itself?
― emil.y, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 17:52 (ten years ago) link
Silmarillion is easy when you're a thirteen year old Tolkien freak. I probably couldn't read it now.
― jmm, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 17:55 (ten years ago) link
Ah, well I wouldn't try to tell anyone how to enjoy ANY book, though I might say "this is how I enjoy it"
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 17:57 (ten years ago) link
I mean if someone I know is thinking of reading the wake I'll assume we share an interest in literature at least, don't think that's too presumptuous
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:03 (ten years ago) link
the silmarillion is engaging as hell and deceptively simple but overall a better impression of hellenic myth than ulysses is. inklings > modernists
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:04 (ten years ago) link
are you saying that it is better than ulysses??
― Treeship, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:06 (ten years ago) link
way better
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:08 (ten years ago) link
lol, no way.
― emil.y, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:09 (ten years ago) link
I'm just going to back away slowly from the emil.y and wins' sub-discussion -- I have no idea what's at stake here!!!!
Haven't read any Tolkien, but if it has a scene where a character takes a dump and wipes himself with a short story written by Tolkien himself, then we'll talk.
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:10 (ten years ago) link
qualmsley is XTREMEST reader
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:10 (ten years ago) link
tolkien knew more languages than joyce, his tone was more solid, and the fables he related fuckloads more trippy than ulysses' travesties. joyce wrote better characters, for sure, and they're shakespearian in their pathos, but tolkien was working on a cosmic not urban scale, so apples and oranges
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:10 (ten years ago) link
Or if The Silmarillion has any singing bars of soap.
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:11 (ten years ago) link
Lol leee nothing to see here I'm just shooting the shit
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:12 (ten years ago) link
Whew!
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:13 (ten years ago) link
no singing lightbulbs, either. singing stars!
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:14 (ten years ago) link
Me too, no beefs here.
Except maybe with qualmsley. ^__^
― emil.y, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:20 (ten years ago) link
extreme reading is like you're driving down a highway at 55 mph and you have the book in your lap, or maybe you are skydiving or snowboarding while reading.
or you can be drinking an energy book while reading, that's extreme too i hear.
i tried reading with my glasses off, that was pretty extreme i guess.
― lollercoaster of rove (s.clover), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:22 (ten years ago) link
maybe not extremely extreme.
― lollercoaster of rove (s.clover), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:23 (ten years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4139pllL0tL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:24 (ten years ago) link
I was once reading a menu in a restaurant and I guess I was holding the menu a bit too close to the candle on the table and the menu caught on fire. That was probably the most extreme reading I've done.
― silverfish, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:25 (ten years ago) link
http://www.lyrics007.com/Extreme%20Lyrics/More%20Than%20Words%20Lyrics.html
― emil.y, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:28 (ten years ago) link
if you do the floyd/zeppelin test on joyce and tolkien, tolkien scores a 4 and joyce a 0, unless you count barrett solo albums (then joyce gets a 1)
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:32 (ten years ago) link
flavorwire
― Lamp, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:46 (ten years ago) link
n+1?
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:56 (ten years ago) link
lol @ everybody itt pulling out their dicks all "oh, why i just breezed through gravity's rainbow"
― flopson, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:59 (ten years ago) link
trainspotting is "hard" because it's written in irish slang language
― flopson, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:00 (ten years ago) link
I was surprised to see Pet Sematary on here, but its inclusion resonates with me. I read it at 15 while I was on vacation, 2000 miles away from home and the little 3 year old sister I doted on. I ended up having an hour-long crying fit on the floor of my hotel room when I finished.
― certified skeleton fucker (reddening), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:02 (ten years ago) link
most people who read in their spare time would consider infinite jest a hard book to read. for a reference point, my mother's favourite authors are tom robbins and john irving. her cowokers, who she occsasionaly shares books with, have never finished a book by either any time she's lent them one, because they found them too difficult
― flopson, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:05 (ten years ago) link
for some reason to the lighthouse was really hard for me. the radical pov games i guess. i was very impressed.
― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:07 (ten years ago) link
i read 'the silmarillion' on an airplane last summer and i am reasonably sure i would've given it up as a bad job if i hadn't been stuck w/o anything else to read the dense fog of archaic wikipedia entries style was pretty fatiguing
― Lamp, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:12 (ten years ago) link
reading that as a kid riding high off of having blasted through lotr was a real let-down
― flopson, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:20 (ten years ago) link
i dunno if we should blame tolkien too much for the unreadability of the silmarillion -- it was assembled after his death, mostly from writings he didn't expect ever to be published.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:21 (ten years ago) link
House of Leaves isn't difficult or disturbing, unless you're driven to blind rage by words falling across multiple pages and shit.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:23 (ten years ago) link
my main difficulty w/ GR was the sudden shifts from character to character. i had a hard time keeping all the plot threads straight.
i found ulysses EASY because i read it side-by-side with this bad boy
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31FPWk2oUDL._BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
oh hey look! somebody put ulysses up with all of the annotations!
http://www.columbia.edu/~fms5/ulys.htm
― the late great, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:37 (ten years ago) link
read this one side-by-side with finnegan's wake
http://www.amazon.com/Joyces-Book-Dark-Finnegans-Ingraham/dp/0299108244
^^ took two classes w/ this guy in college, he was a HOOT
― the late great, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:38 (ten years ago) link
highly recommend both books
― the late great, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 19:40 (ten years ago) link
ulysses is awesome if not the best thing ever. nothung! finnegans wake never seemed worth the effort but i never took a class on it or was taught how to appreciate it. the ones most people seem to have read are the silmarillion and gravity's rainbow. surprised there isn't more mention of tristram shandy, the sweetest novel ever published?
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 20:02 (ten years ago) link
Ulysses is the best thing ever yes
I'm surprised Nabokov's Ada isn't on the list. What a hot, gorgeous mess that one is.
― never have i been a blue calm sea (collardio gelatinous), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 20:49 (ten years ago) link
my vote for my favorite of those listed was for tristam shandy.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 20:52 (ten years ago) link
Tristram Shandy has been on my reading list for too long now. Time to crack it open.
War and Peace is simply big. Only thing difficult about it is carrying it around.
― never have i been a blue calm sea (collardio gelatinous), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 20:55 (ten years ago) link
Same here, but my biggest regret was not taking his JAJ seminar.
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 21:57 (ten years ago) link
This thread is awesome.
I've only read 8 of the books, but "Sound and the Fury" is certainly my favorite of those. Pet Semetary is not a challenging read but it was chilling.
― Deuteronomy 23:1 (dandydonweiner), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 22:03 (ten years ago) link
Also, I've never read Finnegan's Wake. Do I:
1. Fumble though it (fake it!) without warning or companions once, feel like a dumbass, then re-read with a companion book at my side?
or
2. Know going in that I'm fucked and just read it with a companion book at the get go?
― Deuteronomy 23:1 (dandydonweiner), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 22:08 (ten years ago) link
3. get drunk and just read it out loud for the sounds
― j., Wednesday, 6 November 2013 22:12 (ten years ago) link
anyone read this?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XFm17WPPL._SL500_SY300_.jpg
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 22:17 (ten years ago) link
if you read FW with a companion book you will get the advantage of some kind of thread leading you thru, but the disadvantage that that thread will be mostly bollocks - most of the companions i know of try to "decode" the book and that isn't the point in the end.
but on mature reflection i'd say yeah take a companion, it won't kill the book for you and it might sustain your interest long enough to develop your own strategies for reading it
― . (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 22:26 (ten years ago) link
War and Peace is long but awesome and easily read. It is action-packed, at least in the War-sections. However, the last 200 pages or so are really boring. It might be the biggest masterpiece with the worst ending.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 22:35 (ten years ago) link
wd stress tho that anybody who hasn't read A Tale of a Tub shd read it pronto
― . (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 22:37 (ten years ago) link
haha i like the final exam section of war and peace because it's like after a huge dinner u retire for cigars w tolstoy and he pontificates about history until he falls asleep
― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 23:01 (ten years ago) link
trainspotting is "hard" because it's written in irish slang language― flopson, Wednesday, November 6, 2013 7:00 PM (4 hours ago)
― flopson, Wednesday, November 6, 2013 7:00 PM (4 hours ago)
uh
― Wendy Carlos Williams (jjjusten), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 23:26 (ten years ago) link