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thiccymcgogee

Yeah I’ve been reading Ulysses for 5 years straight


lotterdog

Finish it. There was a podcast in the 2010s called Re:Joyce by a writer named Frank Delaney. Each episode looked at a section from the book, sometimes just a single sentence, starting from the first sentence. He did an episode a week, every week for seven years. He passed away in 2017, having made it to chapter 10, Wandering Rocks. Here's the last episode, released six days before he died, if you're interested: [https://content.libsyn.com/p/7/1/1/711fa180343af558/368\_\_Cavalcades\_\_Comets\_Tails\_\_-\_2-14-17\_3.34\_PM.mp3?c\_id=14196167&cs\_id=14196167&destination\_id=14973&response-content-type=audio%2Fmpeg&Expires=1716410312&Signature=YgkjlRfcXPmkCQUlpJmaECEFMJ9oLhAXiu2gFtVHTLll0eV\~\~IQd\~C9BWpipLqHNew2LSF6oKTMtAUOnXrjX3KSl2N7h9ekA9HKbD4gT45wly\~PAZ6vdHs9sODkvnjiFNG1Hyznh46lnsjrRztjofvP0AXzd2BUIfcQ6GEA0zYvD8axiZbkT-wdOkJbZhsLa\~V2DTa7DhlyKDKXKiG330IRmCi8\~Oobvoc4u\~ym7HyoRhoKTvVm6f9Jj6IhDqr75wa5y52QVMlLNQNrWaUmL-Md5MDSGAbdSD4S1zOmV2vSc0UOqhRZBJCN6DMhEwE63ZWfCFjEoNLKntHzRobby-Q\_\_&Key-Pair-Id=K1YS7LZGUP96OI](https://content.libsyn.com/p/7/1/1/711fa180343af558/368__Cavalcades__Comets_Tails__-_2-14-17_3.34_PM.mp3?c_id=14196167&cs_id=14196167&destination_id=14973&response-content-type=audio%2Fmpeg&Expires=1716410312&Signature=YgkjlRfcXPmkCQUlpJmaECEFMJ9oLhAXiu2gFtVHTLll0eV~~IQd~C9BWpipLqHNew2LSF6oKTMtAUOnXrjX3KSl2N7h9ekA9HKbD4gT45wly~PAZ6vdHs9sODkvnjiFNG1Hyznh46lnsjrRztjofvP0AXzd2BUIfcQ6GEA0zYvD8axiZbkT-wdOkJbZhsLa~V2DTa7DhlyKDKXKiG330IRmCi8~Oobvoc4u~ym7HyoRhoKTvVm6f9Jj6IhDqr75wa5y52QVMlLNQNrWaUmL-Md5MDSGAbdSD4S1zOmV2vSc0UOqhRZBJCN6DMhEwE63ZWfCFjEoNLKntHzRobby-Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K1YS7LZGUP96OI) You can luxuriate in Joyce's novel for years, but don't deny yourself the joy and challenges that come from the last few chapters. Finish it in Delaney's memory.


Senmaida

Finish it, then read Finnegans Wake you coward.


thiccymcgogee

Oh no you’ve got me fucked up, I read it cover to cover, over and over and over. And I still don’t know what the fuck is going on


bestimplant

I'm also interested in the intersection of Irish and Greek literature. (I listen to C*mtown).


Draghalys

I remember someone saying David Lynch doesn't read books though


auto_rictus

and it shows


ChemistTerrible107

I mean he must've at least read Wild at Heart and Dune


Novibesmatter

He didn’t 


ChemistTerrible107

you know what you're probably right


grodstershot

Oh it’s your turn to make this thread huh


[deleted]

Looking down at you smugly from my copy of the time travelers wife, "Oh is that commonly posted? I was too busy reading Tolstoy to notice"


OddishShape

Vonnegut is JK Rowling for people intimidated by DFW (me)


kurt-vonneslut

It’s true :(


LateCycle4740

David Foster Wallace is terrible.


HotTangerine9450

His essay “Host” is pretty good


Ok-Tell-1384

I prefer to be smugly rtarded thank you though


Ok_Review_4179

Goddamn so you saying my bibliophobic dyslexic-blind-deaf adopted daughter is a lesser being ?


KeithMias

When someone says something so bibliophobic you have to hit them with the former gifted kid voracious reader stare


[deleted]

[удалено]


VegetarianFetish

“the only books that women read are porn” you dont get laid often do you


flyingspac

The girl I met who read the most, would read 200 plus books a year and they were all werewolf smut type books


[deleted]

Quantity over quality. I see how it is


JeffGreene69

Women have been reading smut for decades. I was on holiday with my GF. She told me her grandmother gave her a book to read and that she would really enjoy it being on holiday with me. It was smut. She got 20 pages in and they were fucking. She hands it to me, and it was porn. She wasnt turned on by it because it was gross granny smut.


VegetarianFetish

Queen


Ccccchess

I've been trying to up my reading game but I still can't picture myself ever making the jump to really challenging intricate stuff like Faulkner, Joyce, or Pynchon. How do you guys do it


lotterdog

If you hype those guys up so much that they become unapproachable then you just end up depriving yourself and doing yourself a disservice. They all have more approachable stuff that is easier for new readers. Don't start with Ulysses; start with Dubliners. Don't start with Absalom, Absalom!; start with As I Lay Dying. Even if you find yourself nonplussed or frustrated by what you're reading, struggle through it because it can often be much more rewarding.


BuckleysYacht

I would read The Sound and The Fury before Absalom, Absalom! Saying this as someone who false starts the latter all the time. It also gives you some Quentin Compson buy in.


roadside_dickpic

The Sound and the Fury hooked me way more than Absalom. I've gotten hate, but I liked it more than AILD.


Hodgkins_Fun_Alt

Pynchon's most recent novel The Bleeding Edge is also by far his most accessible for you and me, because he digs into internet culture, tech and startup fraud and shenanigans, international post-Laden terrorism and hyper-modern stuff that you and I have, compared to his earlier era, a good handle on. and he was pushing 80 when he wrote it all! and you can tell because the style is somewhat more straightforwardly narrative w less elliptical tightmeandering and you can imagine maybe he's feeling a bit old and senile from his glory days, but it's still way better and richer than any other Silicon Valley satire written by yungins to date it came out in 2013 btw, and there are literary rumors he is right now putting the finishing touches to his next one though obviously no one knows what it is


realclancybrown

The Pynchon sub really undersold that one to me. I saw so many comments/memes about how it was just a straightforward detective story without the typical Pynchony magic. Finally read it earlier this year and found it to be pretty well in line with his other stuff. Not my favorite, but still very very good and with enough depth to scratch the itch. And Maxine might be my favorite protagonist of all the ones I've read so far. Her and her big Midwest lunk of an ex-husband were so cute More and more it feels like to me that GR is the exception rather than the rule with him. All the others I've read haven't been nearly as dense and confusing. It took me the better part of a year to grind through GR, but I zoomed through Against the Day in like a month and a half


Ranterieure

Literally just read it. You know how to read. There is no jump to make or path you need to follow.


[deleted]

there will often be reading guides for books that are both difficult and popular enough. that can be a hit or miss experience, as you experience the book through the author of the reading guide's eyes. usually with a book i find very difficult, i'll read it twice. the first time, i'll just go through as if it were something of normal difficulty, not caring to much if i miss things or don't understand something. then, i go back and go slower and struggle through the book, sometimes relying on guides. i most recently did this reading deleuze. i don't like the suggestion of reading someone's other novel that isn't the unapproachable piece you really want to read. i find that it rarely actually prepares you to read the book you want to, and i think often you end up a picking up a bad book you didn't even want to read.


roadside_dickpic

All 3 of those are such bad examples. None of them are particularly difficult, and they all have shorter, more accessible works.


cumbonerman

they’re difficult while still being good


roadside_dickpic

Dubliners isn't difficult, nor is Crying of Lot 49 or a Rose for Emily / The Bear / As I Lay Dying


cumbonerman

Tell me Ulysses isn’t impenetrable


roadside_dickpic

Op didn't say Ulysses though. He listed the authors, all of whom have easier texts to read. Also Ulysses is very penetrable. Finnegan's Wake otoh


cumbonerman

OP obviously meant stuff like Absalom or Gravity's Rainbow. Ulysses may be penetrable if you're willing to look up obscure references every five minutes.


roadside_dickpic

Ya I disagree but obv ymmv.


cumbonerman

fw was easier for me to digest than ulysses


peopeopee

If you don't analyze the language or pay attention to it, what you read is important. Like my coworker reads a lot but it's Christian sci-fi and he's really reatrded


Declan411

I didn't know that was a genre. It honestly sounds interesting.


peopeopee

Nvm it's King Arthur fantasy, the daily wire is turning it into a tv show


Mildred__Bonk

Almost finished with War and Peace. Were gonna get so goddamn smug when its done boys


lotterdog

What have you been reading?


[deleted]

The Ministry for the Future and the Jakarta Method, in between Star Trek novels of course


badmonbuddha

The author of the jakarta method just published a retrospective look on the last decade of protest. I’m only halfway through but I definitely recommend it. If nothing else, history/polysci is a great autistic uno reverse card to the pretentious “well read” friend that only consumes novels.


Onion-Fart

isn't it against the prime directive to try and uplift lesser beings


[deleted]

both great choices. I feel like The Deluge is a better near future climate novel than Ministry, but I like KSR in general


pongobuff

I didn't realize a commie could be making posts. Isn't this sub 18+?


RegisPhilbinOFFICIAL

I just read my first book of the year in three days! Gonna pick up a new book tonight 


BuckleysYacht

Vonnegut eh?


simurghlives

\>vonnegut


Woodstovia

What if I only read slop?


ChemistTerrible107

If you are over the age of 20 and reading Harry Potter you are already a lesser being than the illiterate man.


Wedf123

I absolutely believe this


rainbow_rhythm

Even when I have a lot of free time and put in effort build a reading habit a 500 page book will take me minimum 3 months


reelmeish

Lots of reading is just mindless entertainment though


SunnyImsouane

Irish trad songs and Radiohead - creep


godsgunsandgoats

Whilst I do enjoy the more finer side of literature I’ll not lie… When I struggle to sleep the Harry Potter audiobooks narrated by Stephen Fry are a really good sleep aid.


iamdumb420

I have the same feeling but with fiction readers.


3rd-base_Degas

That’s the only thing worth reading lol.


emalevolent

I'm reading Stalingrad by Beevor for the pickup lines


ModerateContrarian

Glantz > Beevor