Awhile ago I downloaded several books including things like War & Peace, Sense & Sensibilities, Ulysses etc.

Some of them are quite thick, and I am wondering if I mostly did so to seem intelligent or smart on some subconscious level.

Have any of you gotten enjoyment or insight from any of these kinds of books? or is it just society and schooling that are telling me these are "good."?

  • GilesGoatGoy [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I think I've read most of the main classics. Here's my ranking:

    Life-Changing: Moby Dick, The Magic Mountain, Ulysses, Beckett's three novels, The Man Without Qualities, Stendhal's The Red and the Black, Against Nature, Maldoror.

    Exceptionally Good: The Trial, The Sleepwalkers, JR and The Recognitions, The Book of Disquiet, ISOLT.

    [everything else]

    Vastly Overrated/Shit: 1984, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Wurthington Heights, Madame Bovary.

      • GilesGoatGoy [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        In Search Of Lost Time by Proust. I've only read the first three books because its a massive undertaking but its worth it

          • GilesGoatGoy [none/use name]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Maximalism baby! That line about literature comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable is especially relevant here and I'm not sure which I am but I know this stuff is worth it. Don't start with the huge books tho.

          • GilesGoatGoy [none/use name]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Well for me the books I listed actually changed my life but people are inclined to hyperbole when it comes to literature and saying a book they just liked changed their life so I'm saying that for me and other people it really did but for some people they might just say it did. It's a stupid joke.

            • Invidiarum [none/use name]
              ·
              4 years ago

              Although I'd agree that it's overrated, I found 1984 changing in that I became interested how language is used to form opinions and how it reflects the culture that uses it. Since I was a teenager reading it and hadn't come across anything of the sort, such a "revelation" isn't that surprising.

              But I'd be interested in how Moby Dick affected you. (Since I assume it didn't have such an obvious aha-moment)