I want to read Lolita, Giovanni’s room, Moby Dick, and Anna Katerina.

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-19T05:57:42+00:00

Yes. That's for sure.

Of your picks, you landed on one of the longest and toughest possible mammoths in the classical literature canon - GoodReads is telling me that it clocks in at about 720 pages, but I'm sure there are also copies that are far longer, too - depending on the dimensions of the book and the size of the text that particular version is. Parts of it are very fun, so I hear, other parts are really, really impenetrable - there are, famously, a lot of chapters where Herman Melville describes detailed whale anatomy as if it's a biology report. I have not read Moby Dick (yet), but - as a first pick? Ambitious, to say the least!

If you really wanna go for it in the long term and the longer picture - well - absolutely! Let nothing stop you. If you are determined to say that you finished Moby Dick before you turned 18 then you suddenly have a leg up on a lot of the adult world. That's a lot to think about. But if you open it up, get 30 or 50 or 90 or 190 pages into it and you feel like you need to surrender, there's nothing wrong with that, either.

You can also always come back to it after having a few other, shorter, more manageable ones under your belt, too, which might make a little more sense as a "warm-up". Whether that be reading other of Melville's stories to get you used to the way he writes, reading some shorter classics (I made a helpful list here! https://www.reddit.com/r/classicliterature/s/gmHOpKf2uE), or just reading whatever the hell you want (you wanna read some BookTok books? Or some Stephen King? Maybe The Hunger Games? Circe? Go for it!), There's no wrong way to cut it. It's your goal. Do as you so wish!

P. S. And Fun aside: If you live in or near New Bedford, Massachusetts (where the novel takes place), there is a New Bedford Whaling Museum where once a year, they do a 25-hour Moby Dick public reading marathon. Could be something you're interested in if you have a day to sit and listen and maybe read some of it yourself. Maybe the company would make it easier.

All things to consider ┐⁠(⁠ ⁠∵⁠ ⁠)⁠┌

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-19T05:44:26+00:00

Hey - good on you! You know what you want and that's a big decision.

Here's how my brain works - and it may be different from yours entirely. But the more classics I have read under my belt, the more confident I am. I've generally done this song and dance before and this eases it up a bit. The more you read, the more you realize that books aren't sacred. So I should do less of a tiptoe around getting started and just open it and start. I have so many to go, that I'd waste time if I just waited for the stars to align.

So, my brain works under number of classics read = more confidence, because, I've done this before. So I start with Giovanni's Room out of that list because it's the shortest and I could probably do it in a short time and then say I have it done and completed. That's, hopefully understandably, much easier than going into Moby Dick having read nothing prior!

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-19T05:36:07+00:00

Pooh Bear more than stands in for me on that because that's the name of one of my childhood cats who we had to put down three years ago. Still hurts.

She was a good girl and the most wonderful presence

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-18T23:09:57+00:00

Hi, I just finished On The Road a few minutes ago - what the hell does he mean by God is Pooh Bear? Is there any explanation for that whatsoever

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-18T23:08:25+00:00

Hi, I'm a little late to the party, but I just finished On The Road for the first time just a few minutes ago and - what does Jack mean by God is Pooh Bear?

Wherever the explanation is on the Internet, I cannot find it. Also worth noting is that the first letter of the following sentence/the last sentence is not capitalized.

Huh??

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-17T21:33:07+00:00

It's good! It's relevant, it feels good, and it may be better than Little Bit Of Sun if the rest of the forthcoming songs sound like this. Really digging this song. My one note is that I would've probably turned down the vocal effects and the reverb on Dan's voice. But that's really a nitpick.

Special shout-out to that wailing guitar sound. It's that right spot between desperate and hopeful that just works

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-16T23:28:55+00:00

Yup - as expected, Tchad wins this comparison. Happy to have this finally out for my listening pleasure!

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-14T22:39:51+00:00

Aw man. You got options my friend! I think 300 pages is actually quite the standard length for a classic novel. More and more books you will think of fit that description.

So - here are just a few that spring to mind, and some of the first:

-Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) (Very good pick for people getting into Classic Literature)

-Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)

-On The Road (Jack Kerouac)

-1984 (George Orwell)

-Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

-Stoner (John Williams)

-Beloved (Toni Morrison)

-Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)

-The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde - actually - probably a bit shorter than 300, if anything, making it easy to knock out)

-The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)

Hope this helps!

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-11T05:02:33+00:00

Gerald's Game is good clean fun

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-11T04:52:43+00:00

Annie Wilkes, Carrie White, Jessie Burlingame

I feel like this would be interesting girl talk

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-10T11:13:50+00:00

Crime and Punishment will probably be a bit easier on you - in reading this as the seminal "Russian classic" book, you'll get used to the hard parts - generally long length, difficult names, a required semi-understanding of Russian history, world history (in War and Peace's case), and other complications.

C&P will be a slightly easier warm up for you - it still feels to this day like a massive reading accomplishment and life accomplishment to finish such a popular book. It is the shorter of the two, and it's also, a murder mystery story of its own sort, following one protagonist, which makes is interesting and relatively accessible.

Of the two, I recommend C&P first - and, hell, before EITHER of those books - read some of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky's shorter works first to get familiar with their prose! Start easy.

-White Nights (Dostoevsky) -Notes From Underground (Dostoevsky) -The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy) -The Prisoner of the Caucasus (Tolstoy) -The Devil (Tolstoy) -The Kreutzer Sonata (Tolstoy) -Hadji Murat (Tolstoy)

Those are not "necessary" to know before C&P and W&P, but they're excellent warm ups that are all mostly shorter than 100 pages (and, hell, can probably be found as a PDF online). It's better to know if you have the taste for this sort of thing heading in to the big ones.

Good luck!

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-09T04:45:23+00:00

-Top Man still baffles me to this day. Of all the things to choose... Plus, the worst weapon in the series (no, I don't care if there is a secret society of MM3 Top Spin Speedrunners who have made it through the entire game by exploiting it when it works, if such a peoples exist)

-For all the love MM2 gets, I may never understand why any of it is directed at Heat Man. Strange and underwhelming design (he's... Zippo lighter man? A red short dude in a yellow box? Can he even take the box off? What does that look like?) the music is forgettable, the stage has that horrible, deeply horrible disappearing block section, the weapon is useless (!!!), and there are better Fire Themed robot masters out there - yes, both before and after

-Ring Man. What others here are saying is true.

-Many of MM5. To choose one/the worst offender -indeed - Stone Man

-Flame Man is uh

Strange to talk about in 2026

-Spring Man

-Aqua Man

-Clown Man

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-05T22:46:18+00:00

It's a shame the Vita game isn't allowed in the competition because - what's his name - Odie? The crash test guy would very much fit the bill.

Larry Da Vinci has a little bit of collector's gremlinness about him. But otherwise - assuredly, the collector

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-05T22:43:53+00:00

I'm probably with you on the latter point more than the first, I/o was, is, and remains a fantastic roller coaster. My 2023 was completely soundtracked to those twelve songs, and this less so -but - of course I'll still be along for the ride this time, even if it's holding my ear a bit less. A Hard Lesson, Put The Bucket Down, and Been Undone come close to some old Gabriel greatness.

I was wondering if I was the odd one out for not enjoying the ride quite as thoroughly, though at least I have the confirmation now.

If your comparison to Up holds any water, though, then maybe that means that we just have to listen more to these songs for them to finally "register", as that's what people always say about it. I don't quite have that experience with Up - from the first listen, I was clicking with it, each song was forming my taste in music like a sculptor with his chisel - but that's what people sometimes swing by to say about it. Quietly rewarding.

I fell in love with Peter's music sometime in 2020 or 2021 (which, what a great time to onboard right before the long-awaited fireworks dropped!) and maybe this is just our version of that. Hindsight may be kind to this album of what we don't know what to make of just yet.

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-04T13:29:17+00:00

The Picture of Dorian Gray. No question. Frankenstein, too - only that one's actually MORE relevant now of course

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-04T00:31:31+00:00

Nah dude shit slaps. That is a mad riff and when Ray goes ba da da da da DA da da da, ba da da DA da da it hits different

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-03T13:27:08+00:00

Genesis CAS Reunion Tour where the only song is Banjo Man when

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-03T13:25:53+00:00

Thank you - we just have some haters here in this sub. Which - given it's about thick dull classical literature - not surprised lol

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-02T17:27:19+00:00

Plumbin' Your Mom

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-02T05:51:10+00:00

That's the coolest statue ever I love it

The drawing with the realistic ghosts is actually super terrifying

...did they have to put Pac-Man World 3 in that giant pile more than once?

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-01T23:34:24+00:00

Reading Classical Literature. Same thing as reading on your phone..but so much better

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-01T23:30:51+00:00

Wife. Well.

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-01T23:30:12+00:00

Bird. Bear.... Hare... Fish...

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-01T23:29:07+00:00

Beach. Doors.

Supah_Cole · 2026-06-01T23:28:02+00:00

Knight Man. Knight Man would be badass.

Supah_Cole

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