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
shitty listicle redeemed by that flopson post
― Nilmar Jr (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 23:28 (ten years ago) link
Yeah solid lol but as for the other floppy posts surely the only dick-measuring is in the og article "if you read a hard book have a cookie" whereas every half smart post itt has been more wgaf if a book is hard or not
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 23:58 (ten years ago) link
Btw I've never read gravitys rainbow, bet it's good tho
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 23:59 (ten years ago) link
rectify asap, i'll read a book of your choosing
― kaputtinabox (imago), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
Btw I've never read gravitys rainbow, bet it's good tho― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins),
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins),
ohhhhh yeahhhhhhh. get the gravity's rainbow companion by weissenburger. read a chapter, then the companion notes on that chapter--after three or four chapters you will be in the flow and not really care if you're getting all the refs. Enjoy!
― Iago Galdston, Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:03 (ten years ago) link
don't get the companion and don't look anything up. just read the damn thing
― kaputtinabox (imago), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:04 (ten years ago) link
well aren't you special! most people, including myself, were daunted by it when i tried over and over to get into it. It helped me immensely!
― Iago Galdston, Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:05 (ten years ago) link
which book are we talking about now
i found reading out loud helped a lot w/ GR, FW and ulysses
― the late great, Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:06 (ten years ago) link
I'll rectify RIGHT NOW imago
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:08 (ten years ago) link
this sucks
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:09 (ten years ago) link
a sucking comes across the page
― kaputtinabox (imago), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:09 (ten years ago) link
naphtha is that even a word I doubt it
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:10 (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), 7. november 2013 00:01 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I read it the summer before I started studying history, and all the 'history-writers don't know anything' was really deflating... Also, does the whole thing after the time-jump make any sense without some knowledge of the decembrist uprising? I had no idea what was going on, and it was definitely an 'aha' moment when I read an explanation of it.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:16 (ten years ago) link
wow free GR
http://browse.reticular.info/text/collected/Thomas%20Pynchon%20-%20Gravity's%20Rainbow.pdf
― the late great, Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:17 (ten years ago) link
Hah, does it have the weird printing hijinks around page ~270 in the Penguin edition?
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:21 (ten years ago) link
i was kind of unprepared for how filthy GR was
― CardiacsPrincesse69xxx (Matt P), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:36 (ten years ago) link
like there were a lot of cleveland steamers iirc
― CardiacsPrincesse69xxx (Matt P), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:37 (ten years ago) link
pynchon's thing would appear to be keeping it relatively clean for 200 pages and then giving you polysexual omnideviant hell if GR and ATD are anything to go by
aw, only one steamer! and lots of shit = death pontification. and a toiletship
― kaputtinabox (imago), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:38 (ten years ago) link
yeah i guess there was only one steamer scene.
aren't all the actual hard books by continental philosophers?
― CardiacsPrincesse69xxx (Matt P), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:40 (ten years ago) link
sold!
*starts on p200*
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:41 (ten years ago) link
(there were dirty bits in ATD much earlier iirc)
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:42 (ten years ago) link
ATD is like a sexual Bolero, it starts clean but fucking hell 700 pages in
― kaputtinabox (imago), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:43 (ten years ago) link
i enjoyed the use of poo humor in gr as it obviously resonates with me, but i wasn't expecting it for whatever reason. i think i read the crying of lot 49 first and that was less of a psychosexual funhouse.
xp ok i'm going to read ATD next
― CardiacsPrincesse69xxx (Matt P), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:45 (ten years ago) link
trainspotting is "hard" because it's written in irish slang language
― Wendy Carlos Williams (jjjusten), Wednesday, November 6, 2013 6:26 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
what? is that not true?
― flopson, Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:45 (ten years ago) link
ah scottish right lol
― flopson, Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:46 (ten years ago) link
I've hardly read any pynchon but against the day is one of my favourite books ever
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:46 (ten years ago) link
blood meridian is hard as fuck to read but super good and rewards close reading immensely
― flopson, Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:48 (ten years ago) link
You don't have to get 200 pages into GR before a character decodes a message using precious bodily fluids.
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:49 (ten years ago) link
I gave up on Blood Meridian, and it was for a class! So yes, I vouch for its difficulty.
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:50 (ten years ago) link
xp sweet! *starts on p199*
― you can get fuckstab anywhere in london (wins), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:51 (ten years ago) link
GR and ATD are my two favourite books ever. Tristram Shandy is probably third; hope it gets a few votes here
― kaputtinabox (imago), Thursday, 7 November 2013 00:53 (ten years ago) link
Pet Semetary is a deeply unscary book that gets overly praised because it has a homicidal ghoul toddler in it. The only part of it that resonated as being upsetting was the argument either at or directly after the funeral; all of the supernatural murder afterward just seemed stupid to me in comparison.
(for reference, I read this like maybe within a year of my brother dying so I was probably not in a frame of mind to appreciate mining a family death for macabre murder scares)
Heart of Darkness isn't difficult going either, it's just super racist.
voted Johnny Got His Gun
― smoking, drinking, cracking and showing the MIDDLE FINGER (DJP), Thursday, 7 November 2013 01:32 (ten years ago) link
was going through my books the other day for a move and found my copy of 'blood meridian' with a bookmark like 20 pages from the end. now i'm torn between finishing it (i left off three years ago) and starting over again.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 7 November 2013 01:51 (ten years ago) link
The dancing paragraph that ends Blood Meridian destroyed me. Anyway, voting Finnegans Wake, not sure why everyone else isn't.
― Popture, Thursday, 7 November 2013 01:55 (ten years ago) link
haven't read it
― smoking, drinking, cracking and showing the MIDDLE FINGER (DJP), Thursday, 7 November 2013 02:07 (ten years ago) link
I never knew Pet Semetary got that much praise--thought it got lumped in with all of King's trashy stuff.
Like a lot of media, the books on this list that I read and appreciate have a lot of life context in them (my state of mind or life when I read them etc.) How a book resonates so often is a part of your life at the time.
― Deuteronomy 23:1 (dandydonweiner), Thursday, 7 November 2013 02:10 (ten years ago) link
Kind of like how The Road will always mean way more to me than Blood Meridian ever will.
― Deuteronomy 23:1 (dandydonweiner), Thursday, 7 November 2013 02:11 (ten years ago) link
how do you get 20 pages from the end of something and not finish it?
― CardiacsPrincesse69xxx (Matt P), Thursday, 7 November 2013 02:27 (ten years ago) link
normally i'm a committed book-finisher, but i was reading it on a trip, got to that point right as my plane landed, and somehow never felt in the mood to pick it back up.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 7 November 2013 02:38 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 18 November 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
oh well I'm definitely not reading Infinite Jest now
― veneer timber (imago), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:06 (ten years ago) link
the long tail
― the late great, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:08 (ten years ago) link
Oops, forgot to vote for GR.
― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:12 (ten years ago) link
oh well I'm definitely not reading Infinite Jest now― veneer timber (imago), Tuesday, November 19, 2013 12:06 AM (28 minutes ago)
― veneer timber (imago), Tuesday, November 19, 2013 12:06 AM (28 minutes ago)
yer fucking loss man, its awesome
― Wendy Carlos Williams (jjjusten), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:35 (ten years ago) link
haha that was truculence @ the robbing of lot 49 (from bottom)
maybe will read IJ, but have to write it first ;)
― veneer timber (imago), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 00:38 (ten years ago) link
of the 'no votes' crew, i really enjoyed reading underworld and hopscotch both. they are both v immersive, engrossing reads.
― ian, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 17:32 (ten years ago) link
surprised GR lost this!
― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 18:27 (ten years ago) link
Have just started Joseph McElroy's Women And Men which is reputedly both longer and more difficult than virtually everything on this list. 20 pages in; it's extraordinary - a gigantic poem of selves and selves-in-selves and a great communal Self that isn't even a self. Strikes me that it could be a fairly great work.
― veneer timber (imago), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 22:02 (ten years ago) link