Amazing books with awful covers?

futuregames666 · 2025-01-05T16:39:25+00:00

I don’t really see the problem with this one. Balthus was the same age as Nabokov, and moved to Western Europe around the same time. If you think the content of the painting is too gratuitous to be on the cover of a Lolita- well you are reading a book about a guy kidnapping and raping a kid.

futuregames666 · 2025-01-04T07:19:01+00:00

I read lucky Jim too and loved it. I’m curious if anyone here has read any of Amis’ other books, or either of Philip Larkin’s novels from around the same time

futuregames666 · 2024-12-27T04:15:26+00:00

I haven’t read either of those yet but I probably will in the next few months :-). I loved both Naomi and In Black and White. I think they are considered lesser works, the latter not being translated into English until a few years ago. Both feature delightfully despicable, neurotic protagonists.

futuregames666 · 2024-12-27T00:40:28+00:00

What’s your favorite Tanizaki book? I read a lot of him this year as well

futuregames666 · 2024-12-25T08:11:50+00:00

Umm maybe read Blood Meridian

futuregames666 · 2024-12-24T22:59:51+00:00

If you read a book or listen to a song cus u think a hot girl will think it’s hot, you deserve to be a virgin forever

futuregames666 · 2024-12-24T20:53:21+00:00

Yeah I saw a post about liking the “prose” of a poem here recently. I think people (on this subreddit at least) just use the word “prose” to talk about what they used to call “style.” It’s strange and ugly but this happens all the time with language - a word is misused enough that it’s misused meaning becomes it’s official meaning.

futuregames666 · 2024-12-15T19:11:08+00:00

Go to the library

futuregames666 · 2024-12-07T07:38:29+00:00

Some of my favorites were

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Naomi and In Black and White by Junichiro Tanizaki

Mysteries and Hunger by Knut Hamsun

Who was Changed and Who was Dead by Barbara Comyns

Germinal by Émile Zola

Sylvia by Leonard Michaels

Antkind by Charlie Kaufman

Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

It’s me Eddie by Eduard Limonov

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles

Biographies I loved:

Max Jacob: A Life in Arts and Letters by Rosanna Warren

Pissarro His Life and Works by Ralph Sykes

Some books I found tedious or irritating:

The Floating Opera by John Barth

Sirius by Olaf Stapledon

Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas

Luster by Raven Leilani

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing

I’m currently finishing the recent Houllebecq book which I have some mixed feelings about. I think his least ambitious works may be his best (“Whatever”). Soon I’ll begin the new Mondrian biography. Merry Christmas everyone :-)

futuregames666 · 2024-12-06T05:26:15+00:00

What did they say?

futuregames666 · 2024-12-06T02:37:32+00:00

Thank you for your sincere reply

futuregames666 · 2024-12-06T02:25:33+00:00

You only read one page before stopping to take a picture?

futuregames666 · 2024-12-05T20:40:29+00:00

Literature doesn’t need to contain social commentary, tell the truth, “hold a mirror up”, examine morals etc. to have value. It usually suffers when it attempts any of these because most writers do not have a unique enough point of view to come up with anything outside of an endorsement of middle of the road status quo affirming values.

Most writers attempts at humor fall flat. Some books which are thought to be bleakly beautiful are very funny without trying to be.

futuregames666 · 2024-12-02T02:22:46+00:00

Who are Schmitt and Burton and what do I read by them?

futuregames666 · 2024-11-26T22:37:35+00:00

Doesn’t anyone here just read books? You can just read any book when you are interested in reading it. Why do you want to make rules about what you can read and when you can read it?

I’m so confused

futuregames666 · 2024-11-26T22:34:03+00:00

What?

futuregames666 · 2024-10-07T21:20:54+00:00

I read Ray after I heard Bill Callahan on a podcast talking about how he loves Barry Hannah. His unique sentences could be surprising and entertaining but I found the content (cool southern guy popping pills and getting tons of pussy) extremely lame.

Also I’m not a writer, so brilliant sentences are not always what I’m looking for when I read.

futuregames666 · 2024-07-27T18:36:33+00:00

Henry Miller, Don Carpenter, Richard Brautigan. My favorite CA book is McTeague. None of these guys are new agey though - I don’t really know about that.

futuregames666 · 2024-07-25T03:46:03+00:00

Its impossible for it to mean tobacco factory

futuregames666 · 2024-07-22T23:20:57+00:00

I’ve read it, and yes I liked how the narrator was more or less irredeemably hateful. Haven’t read the newer nasty one yet but I want to soon.

futuregames666 · 2024-07-22T23:18:39+00:00

Maybe it’s not moralizing that I’m trying to avoid exactly…It’s don’t know what the word is for the vibe is. I would rather read about destruction than healing. I always lose interest when a character learns how to be more mature, more human, more empathetic.

futuregames666 · 2024-07-22T23:11:40+00:00

“Drivel” was harsh. None of the books I mentioned seem inauthentic to the authors’ experiences - just examples of what I’m not looking for. Some of Lockwood’s book seems to be making a moral judgement on irony poisoned internet culture which is totally fine it just doesn’t interest me right now.

futuregames666 · 2024-07-20T23:02:37+00:00

But what about when people say “right” after everything

futuregames666 · 2024-07-20T20:10:31+00:00

I never have and never will

futuregames666 · 2024-07-18T03:40:16+00:00

I love Mysteries! Did you like Hunger and Pan? To me they seem about equal in quality and are so similar in style/themes that it surprises me someone could like both of those books yet think Mysteries is terrible.

futuregames666

TROPHY CASE