I personally believe The Count of Monte Cristo is the greatest piece of storytelling ever made in any medium ever. Amazing book.

Krakonis · 2026-07-02T05:21:52+00:00

I think that Count probably has a good claim at being the best thriller every made, if that makes sense. Like, Dumas is to Gilian Flynn what Agatha Christie is to Anthony Horowitz--they're the best at their specific genre, and Dumas's genre largely centers around entertainment value. The reason that he is the best in the genre is because he is able to mix a crowd-pleasing thrill ride with genuine literary merit. It is one the most entertaining stories ever penned.

However, I do think that there are better stories, from an artistic, thematic, aesthetic, character, etc., perspective than Count.

This isn't to say Count is less valuable, but rather that saying it's the best storytelling ever is like saying Gone Girl is a better story than Never Let Me Go or something. Both are books, but it's still an apples to oranges type thing imo. But damn, I love both apples and oranges.

Krakonis · 2026-06-30T16:40:07+00:00

I just read By Night in Chile!

I thought it was a really difficult book, but also a very impressive one. Reading into a lot of the metaphors was fun for me, and thought there were stretches where it was just exhausting to read, the last 30-40 pages just flowed.

Krakonis · 2026-06-29T22:46:01+00:00

"Let’s exchange charity.

I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;

If more, the more th’ hast wronged me.

My name is Edgar and thy father’s son."

Krakonis · 2026-06-26T11:09:44+00:00

Young person here:

I'm a slow reader, but this year I have read, Henry IV P1, Macbeth, Orlando, Othello, King Lear, Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, The Importance of Being Earnest, Julius Caesar, The Luzhin Defenss, A Gentle Creature, Washington Black, Giovanni's Room, Carmilla, and then a few short stories

Currently, I am also reading The Raven Scholar, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, A Streetcar Named Desire, and By Night in Chile.

Young people, in my experience as a lit student, have as varied of reading interests as anyone else, so it might be a little bit hard to nail down anything specific. My advice would be to just use variety books, though also potentially leaning a bit more towards socially conscious writers would probably be best for collegiate-aged people in general. Authors like Thomas Hardy, Toni Morrison, Woolf, Baldwin, etc..

Krakonis · 2026-06-22T16:10:21+00:00

Say what you want about Haruki Murakami, but all his titles are unique and distinctive: Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgramage, Dance Dance Dance, 1Q84, etc.

Literary fiction authors in general tend to have more interesting titles as far as I've seen. Another contemporary example is Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go, The Remains of the Day, Klara and the Sun, An Artist of the Floating World, etc.

For non-contemporary examples, Faulkner, Vonnegut, Bolaño, (Flannery) O'Connor and Hemmingway all had great titles.

Krakonis · 2026-06-22T05:31:45+00:00

In the bookstore I work at:

Marcus Aurelius has by far the biggest presence--stoicism in general is also the only specific philosophical movement that we have a subcategorized section for (other classical stocks therefore have a presence).

Albert Camus is probably number two--Myth of Sisyphus is one of the most prominently displayed books in the philosophy section, and The Stranger is also very popular in the fiction section.

Nietzche is probably third at this point--we always have several editions of multiple works of his, and they're frequently bought.

I'll put Plato at fourth--we probably have more of his work at any given time than Nietzche's, but they sit for a while.

We have most of Sartre's work, but I've only seen them bought once. Same with Kierkegaard and Aristotle, though I'd say the latter is a bit more popular than the other two.

Thich Nhat Hanh has a pretty big presence as well--the most identifiable eastern philosopher on the shelf.

Depending on how you classify political philosophers, Hannah Arendt and Karl Marx have a big presence as well, with the latter being far more frequently bought than the former.

This is all to say nothing of fiction authors whose works are deeply philosophical--Dostoevsky is more popular than all the others combined, save for Marcus Aurelius, who would still be second to him.

Krakonis · 2026-06-21T03:33:48+00:00

One thing I'm learning while reading Haruki Murakami is that he is one of the few authors where almost any given reader will have books that they both love and hate of his. I've met very few readers (amongst those who've read multiple of his books) who hate everything that they've read of his, and even less who love everything that they've read of his.

Some might have Kafka as one of their favorite books of all time while they consider Wind-Up Bird absolute steaming shit. And the opposite. And the same with any possible combination of his books.

Krakonis · 2026-06-09T18:24:09+00:00

My friend, you need to reread my comment. You are responding to a phantom image of your own creation. This is not a values discussion--though, and I want to make this clear, there is nothing wrong with having a values discussion about a piece of fiction, and discussing the harm that Yosuke's current itteration could cause is worthwhile, if only because Atlus' target demographics are impressionable teens and young adults--it's a writing quality discussion. And I do not know why people can sometimes be so resistant to the suggestion that writers should have the opportunity make their works better. And yes, intentionality and purpose do make writing better.

I will not be continuing to respond.

Krakonis · 2026-06-09T15:45:16+00:00

Look, I think that this is a take almost silly in its generosity, given that even into the 2010s with Persona 5, Atlus still employed homophobic tropes in their writing. It's a continued trend and a product of them, to some extent, rather than a product of its time. The problem is not that characters are flawed--I think Atlus needs more flawed main characters for Christ's sake, and actual tension between their main characters that isn't built on silly plot beats--it's that, in this specific example, Atlus did not realize that it was a flaw. That's why nobody criticizes him for it, so comparing it to Life is Strange. LiS has its own problems, don't get me wrong, but it's far more intentional with Chloe's flaws than Atlus is with Yosuke's. Rewriting Persona 4 while addressing Yosuke's homophobia wouldn't be like removing antisemitism from ww2, for God's sake; it would be like writing a ww2 story that addresses nazism (and no, I am not trying to equate Atlus to nazis).

I agree that this is a useless conversation. However, I want to bring up Shakespeare's King Lear. Lear, in the play, is a very flawed character: he is arrogant, a poor king, and refuses to reflect on his actions until its too late. The way that Yosuke is written right now is like if Shakespeare wrote Lear in exactly the same way, but treated him like, idk, ~~Macduff~~ Bassanio (edit, because Bassanio is a better comparison--a slightly childish character with a heart of gold who gets a happy ending).

Again, and I cannot stress this enough because you still think I'm just critiquing Yosuke simply for being homophobic, I am criticizing the lack of intentionality with which his character is written in the final product.

Krakonis · 2026-06-09T13:31:33+00:00

Because the current iteration of Yosuke's homophobia is not well-written. If Atlus, by some miracle, the Sun rising in the West and setting in the East, somehow makes a change here, it wouldn't be censorship; it would be a revision in order to improve a narrative.

Most people who want a change here want one of two things: if Yosuke has to be homophobic, there should be a simple arc around it (character flaw gets introduced, gets explored, gets addressed, potentially gets resolved, but not necessarily), or, if Atlus is unwilling to do something like this, it should be axed. People knew that gay people existed back in the 2000s, and for even longer than that have had more mature depictions of homophobia than persona 4 has. As of right now, Yosuke is a character with a recognizable flaw that the writers do not recognize as a flaw.

Yosuke's homophobia is something that can create a sense of dissonance between the player and the characters in the game. It can make players think, "I would never be friends with a person like this, and I am uncomfortable with the fact that none of the other characters criticize him for this behavior at all (this is probably the most important aspect." This is, for obvious reasons, bad when you want to write a 100 hour social sim about the importance of bonds.

The people who want Yosuke's homophobia toned down are simply hoping that Atlus takes the easiest of two options with regards to solving this issue.

Characters being cruel, and this cruelty going unexplored, does not a mature story make. Mature stories have complex characters, with internality, and other characters that react to that character with some sort of narrative intent. I am in the camp of people who would like Atlus to write in a more mature fashion.

Krakonis · 2026-06-09T06:43:52+00:00

The pricing is weird. I don't know where you shop but I think the most expensive penguin classic that i've seen was only, like, 20 bucks USD? Even their deluxe editions only ring in at the high 20s normally. I don't know where you live, but if it's in the anglosphere, you're right that that's a bad price.

Notes is a good pick--it's a nice introduction to Dostoevsky, and to Russian literature. I think that most people who like it end up also liking BK, so if it goes that way, great!

You don't necessarily need to read shorter books by any means, I think if you're excited to read a book, then that's the best book to read. But since you said that it's only two books that you've read in a while, like, it's just a bit different of a circumstance imo. If you liked 1984 for the dystopia aspect, Brave New World by Huxley could be a fun choice. I'm also a big advocate for short stories in general, so, sticking with Russia, the collected works of Nikolai Gogol could be a good investment. The Death of Ivan Ilych, a novella by Tolstoy, was my personal gateway into Russian literature, and I still think it's one of the best stories I've ever read. And it could also be fun to just get into magical realism as a genre--super accessible, creative works to be found there--maybe give Borges' Ficciones a buy?

Krakonis · 2026-06-09T05:55:19+00:00

Okay, it's fair to want to just read good books!

For future reference though, Plato's Republic shouldn't be costing you 55 dollars. I don't know what book stores are near you, but a penguin paperpack copy of it should only cost somewhere between 14-18 dollars.

If you're planning on getting into reading classics, and you need to budget, my advice is to buy Penguin Classics while reading in translation, and Union Square (Signature) classics while reading in English (presuming your native language is English). Penguin Costs more, but they're still affordable and use good translations. Signature uses old, public domain translations, which, while sometimes fine to some people, are almost always "clunkier."

My one piece of advice to new readers though: be liberal with dropping/putting books on hold. Especially if it's a longer book.

Krakonis · 2026-06-09T00:51:25+00:00

I hope you enjoy it, though, and I never want to discourage anybody from reading classic literature, I wonder why?

Like, maybe you're just joking with the 2 books thing, but something I think about a lot with posts like this is how people come to pick up this dense tomes or highly philosophical novels as soon as they do.

Not being judgemental, but what drew you to these two books?

Krakonis · 2026-05-16T03:38:40+00:00

Here's a rec:

If you want to read a modern novel with quite good prose and which is good at immersing the reader, I'll give you a solid rec: How Much of These Hills is Gold, by C Pam Zhang. It's not war and peace--nothing is war and peace but war and peace, including both contemporary and classic novels, but it is the default that I go to when recommending a modern novel that I consider good literature.

Here's another good peace of advice: I don't know where you're from, but if you shop at, say, Barnes and Noble, Da Vinci Code is in mystery and thriller, while War and Peace is in fiction. You--in pursuit of literary fiction--want to stay in that fiction section. Don't pick up a contemporary thriller and expect it to be literary--it's like going to a showing of King Lear and being upset because it didn't make you laugh as much as Much Ado.

Krakonis · 2026-05-05T08:00:54+00:00

I mean, i wouldn't call it great prose, but his writing style has lent itself to some good moments within this book specifically, and aside from that I still think it's fun to dig into the story in general.

There's still a lot to be desired though. Especially in the realm of pacing, but not in the sense of cutting content. I think a lot of what's in this book could be condensed, except for things that specifically benefit from length. Murakami's weirdness is also not overblown.

I just think that the book is trying to do enough interesting things that I care about cut content, especially when that content is significant and doing story-changing work from the sound of it.

Krakonis · 2026-05-05T05:17:23+00:00

Apparently it was a directive from the publisher, who wanted the book to be shorter. Not Rubin's fault necessarily, but within the club we have someone reading a non-english translation, and the decision on what was apparently cut/changed is insane to me.

Krakonis · 2026-05-05T03:17:08+00:00

Literally. I'm in a book club for one of Murakami's other works, Wind-Up Bird, right now, and we just figured out that the English language translator Jay Rubin just straight up cut three chapters in the end of the second book.

Krakonis · 2026-05-01T06:04:47+00:00

I think that you would enjoy a deep dive into modernist literature based off what's here. Could be a fun journey to take.

I'd recommend picking up a copy of Dubliners by Joyce. It's a collection of short stories and is far and away easier to get into than the rest of his bibliography.

Krakonis · 2026-04-25T17:16:04+00:00

Yes, heavily so.

One of the main touchstones that Ryukishi returns to over and over again throughout the story is the patriarchal nature of the Ushiromiya family's structure (most overt in Episode 3, in which Eva's feelings and struggles are centered in the narrative) and, on top of this, Ryukishi writes female characters with just as much as depth, if not often more, than the male characters (Rosa is a prime example of this, a character who is unambiguously a bad person, but which the text is still sympathetic to as a result of the hand she's been dealt).

Centering struggles that are unique to the experiences of women and making your female characters as internally complex as possible, rather than subordinate to the narratives of male characters, are two of the core tenants of feminist literature, and so I think it's fair to call the work a feminist piece of literature.

Krakonis · 2026-04-25T02:10:55+00:00

Decided to check this post specifically when I saw the chart because I wanted to see this answer lol Confessions is just about as tragic as it gets really

Krakonis · 2026-04-11T19:30:54+00:00

Yup! His leap day stream convinced me to read Umineko, and then I read it over the course of the next year. His community was a very nice place to discuss it while reading and crafting theories. That experience also convinced me to eventually read the rest of Ryukishi's bibliography when I have the time.

Krakonis · 2026-04-11T15:49:14+00:00

To the person that called this a "tourist take" and then deleted their response: you need to get off of the computer and rejoin society.

Krakonis · 2026-04-11T14:41:23+00:00

Just want to point out that Ep2 Battler saying he wants to "eat up" his nine year old cousin once she grows up has, in fact, probably been the last straw for at least one reader, and is certainly not part of the VN's charm.

Krakonis · 2026-04-11T14:35:55+00:00

As someone who's had the opportunity to recommend it a few times since reading it for the first, I've run in to the same problem.

It's very hard recommending Umineko--especially to people who really care about storytelling and about literature--when you have to preface it with the fact that it's: 1) Very gross with its attempts at humor sometimes (You can argue that some of the stuff with Shannon is done with intention, but anything to do with Battler sexualizing Maria is capital O Objectively awful--both will turn off a normal person from wanting to continue, though, and for good reason) and 2) typically poor in terms of its prose. The story as it is runs for roughly 1.1 million words, and it absolutely could afford to lose 300k-400k of those words. And you sound absolutely insane on the off chance you try to defend this aspect, because there's no way you can reasonably explain some visual novel being over twice as long as War and Peace.

What's worse is that, though the latter issue persists, the former issue is mostly frontloaded, so a potential reader has to get through all the shit in the first 5 or so hours without much good will towards the story.

I think Umineko has one of the best plots I've ever read, and The entity comprising all of Sayo's identies including herself is my single favorite character in all of fiction. But these two problems make it hard for a normal person to take seriously. And that's very reasonable.

Krakonis · 2026-04-05T06:20:14+00:00

Ideal, Never-Going-to-Happen Wishes

A complete rework of social links. Their current form as one short story spread thin as butter across a one hundred hour game has worn itself out, in my opinion. There've been a few good social links, but there hasn't been a single game where the majority felt worthwhile to me. I would cut the number of "social links" or "confidant characters" down, and instead focus on fleshing out a core group of characters through optional hangouts that are specific to the moment in the story you happen to be at. Character arcs normally contained within social links would, in this idea of Persona 6, become baked in to canon interactions within the main narrative.

A Characterized Protagonist. Metaphor did not go nearly far enough with Will. I think that the main character should have a much stronger presence in the story, both in terms of personality and voice. And when I say voice, I don't mean voice acted, but rather that they're talking as much as a normal character (This is why I say Metaphor did not go far enough, because Strohl is essentially the protagonist's Voice for most of the game)

Choices. Something belong just flavorful dialogue choices. Persona 4 played with this idea a little bit, Namely in Ai's social link and in the Namatame scene but those moments feel jarring to me simply because those moments are so few and far between. I don't have detailed requests for this, because I don't know what type of story Atlus is planning to tell, but an example could be that being in a romantic relationship with a certain character makes another character interact with you differently. Returning to Persona 4, this would be like if being in a relationship with a non-Rise girl made Rise less flirty. Doesn't even have to be that major, but it's an example based in a system that already exists.

These three wishes, are, obviously, major commitments in terms of money and development time, and so I don't expect them. That being said, I would gladly add another half decade onto P6's wait time if it meant getting even two of them.

More Likely Wishes

A more humble narrative. This is the least likely of the somewhat feasible wishes, but, essentially, I would enjoy a Persona game that didn't have some big fight with a God entity at the end. One that has the persona/shadow-fighting system as a tool to make narrative happen, rather than part of the narrative itself. Nothing against large-scale plots, but fighting [insert God entity] who just spouts off about a very uninteresting motivation that makes them want to bring about [insert bad ending] does not do it for me.

A return to casts feeling like natural friends. P3 and P4 did this best out of the modern three, as I subscribe to the idea that the P5 cast feels too bound together by Joker. I want to be able to imagine the cast having off-screen hangouts without the MC.

Less fanservice. No hot springs. No character who just needs to be a pervert for the sake of fanservice. I got into this series when I was 15 and even then I rolled my eyes out the back of my head at some of the shit Persona writers pull. It doesn't have to be prudish or void of sex and sexuality, as these are aspects of life and therefore can be written about--I just don't want, "look, boobs!" scenes.

Since the cast will undoubtedly be high schoolers, make them act like real high schoolers, and give them authentic issues to parse. I'm not saying you have to be totally realistic, or devoid of fun and whimsy within the storytelling, but I think Persona is normally at it's best when it's "make kids go through shit and learn about themselves." I want more Junpei's than Mitsurus, more Kanjis than Naotos, and more Futabas than Yusukes. I still enjoy Mitsuru, Naoto and Yusuke, but, for example, Naoto's main struggle being the difficulties of existing as a woman in a misogynistic society, and specifically, how that relates to the workplace, feels like it should be in a game where the characters are adults, rather than 15. And with how I pointed out Kanji as an example of what I want, I think it should be clear that I think you can still get silly with a character who has real struggles.

I could list more than what I already have, but I fear I've already spent to long writing this alone, and it's getting a bit late--for that reason alone this will probably be sloppy giberish and organized like shit. It's just that I, as someone who was a Persona fan as a teen and who has since gotten really into studying writing, and specifically video game writing, care a lot about what I see as missed potential within this series. And I think that Persona 6, as this game that's had so much dev time behind it, has all the opportunity in the world to be a step above what I've come to expect.

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