/lit/ - Reading and Writing

Fine Literature, and or pulp trash

Catalog Archive
Name
Options
Subject
Message

Max message length: 12000

files

Max file size: 32.00 MB

Total max file size: 50.00 MB

Max files: 5

Supported file types: GIF, JPG, PNG, WebM, OGG, and more

E-mail
Password

(used to delete files and posts)

Misc

Remember to follow the Rules

The backup domains are located at 8chan.se and 8chan.cc. TOR access can be found here, or you can access the TOR portal from the clearnet at Redchannit 3.0.

Welcome Refugees!
Don't see your board? Register and create it!


8chan.moe is a hobby project with no affiliation whatsoever to the administration of any other "8chan" site, past or present.

Go read a book anon! Comics|Tabletop Gamin|Stories|Video Games|Weapons|Furry|Random|Retro Vidya|Library|PDFs|FanFiction

current reads Scribe 04/19/2025 (Sat) 18:35:57 No. 820 [Reply]
What are you currently reading or have recently finished and what did you think? I just started pic related, specifically the double, and suffice it to say it is quite strange but hilarious so far, feels different than any other dostoevsky i've read
1 post and 1 image omitted.
My second dostoevsky after notes from underground that I read last year
(186.30 KB 1705x2559 71i9q-AbWnL.jpg)

Reading picrel currently. Halfway in and it's already one of my favorite books.
(440.98 KB 443x1477 derp.png)

>>820 just added two audiobooks

(348.64 KB 1000x562 ClipboardImage.png)

Tolkien's Legendarium Scribe 05/26/2022 (Thu) 23:59:06 No. 525 [Reply]
I just finished reading The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. I know there are tons of other books related to this series, but I'm having a hard time figuring out which ones are actually worth reading as narratives, and which are mostly made for their value of their analysis. I understand how some people might care about analyzing the development of the texts, but I really just want to read stories. But it's hard to figure out which publications are actually made for the sake of telling stories. For example, The History of Middle Earth seems mostly to exist for its analytical value, but its first two volumes are called The Book of Lost Tales, and seem to feature some narratives not told elsewhere, among others that are just earlier versions of narratives in The Silmarillion. Is The Book of Lost Tales (or any other book of The History of Middle Earth) actually worth reading for its narrative value, or only for seeing the literary development of The Silmarillion? Related to the same question, there is Unfinished Tales. As these are unfinished, I'm less interested in them, but would anyone say they are actually worth reading for their narrative value, either on their own or as they add to the greater narrative of the world? Or are they more just interesting for seeing the ideas Tolkien toyed with in the development of his work? What about the "Great Tales?" The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien, and The Fall of Gondolin. They were published as standalone books in the last 15 years, and they seemed like interesting stories in The Silmarillion, so I'd be interested in reading more fleshed out versions. Is that what these publications are? From what I've gleaned from the internet, Children of Hurin and Fall of Gondolin sound like they're novels, but Beren and Luthien is apparently a publication of two versions of the same story, to show the development of it. I'd be less interested in that than I would in just a full book of a much more fleshed out story, especially since that chapter of The Silmarillion interested me much more than the other two Great Tales. Of course, I'd also be interested in your thoughts and questions about the main three books. Now that I've finally read them, I finally understand them. I tried to read The Silmarillion when I was like 12, after Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring movie came out, and I read The Hobbit, so I figured reading the thing that takes place first would be fine, I wouldn't need to know the end of Lord of the Rings since it takes place later. I was sorely mistaken. I finished it, but retained almost nothing. Now, 20 years later, I finally understand it. Except for one thing. Who is Tom Bombadil? I'm pretty sure he's the embodiment of the forest. I mean his wife is very blatantly the spirit of the river, and that would match the forest well enough. But I'd be interested in hearing/arguing about other ideas.
10 posts and 3 images omitted.
>>677 The fact that hobbits are much more down-to-earth than elves, and everyone else, is central to their premise. Elves are definitely stuck up compared to them.
>>661 >So to be clear, The Fall of Gondolin, as well as Beren and Luthien, are there to show the development of the stories, but Children of Hurin is more like an actual novel? Essentially yes. Both the 'Later Tuor' version and the Narn text were written roughly at the same time, yet the latter had been left more or less finished (if unrevised); furthermore Tolkien had also left a (though unfinished) 'Later Quenta Silmarillion' version of the story, and so it was easier for Christopher Tolkien to edit the story into an extensive novel (without too much editorial meddling).
(101.67 KB 317x500 Unfinished_Tales_1980.png)

>>894 (cont.) >Are the final versions of the stories pretty much just the ones that are in The Silmarillion? For Beren and Lúthien it's a much different version, in terms of presentation instead of the amount of contents. The Silmarillion version was purposely edited (and it's even mentioned withing the story) into a prosaic narrative, whilst the Lay of Leithian (shown in the standalone book) tells the same story in a poetic fashion. For the Fall of Gondolin, the Silmarillion uses a heavily edited 1930-version of the story, and only briefly mentions some of the events present in the 'Last Version' (like the dialogue between Tuor and the Vala Ulmo). If you want to read the Last Version, and you're also interested in the other stories of the 2nd & 3rd Ages (like the Hunt for the Ring), I recommend getting "Unfinished Tales" instead.

(79.63 KB 1920x1280 books-g24d0ae1ed_1920.jpg)

Book Sales, Book Stores and Book Hauls Scribe 07/03/2023 (Mon) 00:24:50 No. 587 [Reply]
How often do you guys head out to library book fairs, estate sales and the like looking for stuff to read? When was the last time you picked something up? Anything good, bad, a pleasant surprise? Do you ever bother going to bookstores anymore, or is just a waste of time and money to do anything but browse? For a good couple years in a row I kept stopping in at my library's yearly book fair and managed to grab some copies of older Michael Chrichton books (Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Sphere) along with some books on design and a few "(Year)'s Best Sci Fi/Fantasy." Haven't gone too often since 2020 though for the obvious reasons but also because I don't have as much free time to read now. Around that time I was also looking for some Sector General books because I wanted to get into the series and found an eBay listing for almost the entire collection secondhand for like 20 bucks but didn't get it. I'm still kicking myself over not grabbing that.
10 posts omitted.
>>788 little free libraries reflect the community they're in. I've gotten sheet music, chekov plays, and field guides from them. really nice books in great condition, too. check the rich neighborhoods like 20 mins from a city center. I used to live in a neighborhood where all the houses were 2+ million dollars(I rented a room) and the little free libraries were always packed with good stuff and there was a high turnover rate, so there was always new stuff too. I've seen little free libraries in the ghetto that are smashed out, full of mcdonald's wrappers and narcan. If yours are full of romance novels and kids lit, you should probably move. Yesterday I got a clean copy of Schubert's Winterreise score from a piano store. They had a big bin of free music and I spent 5 mins looking through it. They had Mozart Sonatas, Bach Organ music, and Liszt Etudes. Maybe I'll go back and get more later, I can't imagine anyone else is getting any. I played a 70 thousand dollar piano for an hour and had fun chatting with the salesman. Last week, I went to the local used bookstore by the university and got a biography of Toscanini that has quips and anecdotes from people who knew him. It wasn't on zlibrary or available through normal online shops, so I picked it up. Totally worth it. Honestly, I mostly use the Libby app to listen to audiobooks while I walk the dog or ride the train. Libby is great if you read old stuff on topics that aren't very popular. I listened to Ovid's metamorphoses lately and a book about extinct ecosystems called Otherlands. If you ever want to go back in time to the triassic and have someone help you imagine what it was like, that is your book. It was really engaging and went from the more recent familiar ecosystems to the more distant and alien ones in a way that eased you into the scary depths of the past.
>>587 Never. I just order stuff from Amazon. >>773 I hope you learned not to depend on partners for living spaces. >>788 >>790 >>792 I’m sad I don’t live in the US so I can’t see these “border dens”
>>842 >little free libraries I forgot those things existed. I should make it a point to check out one in my neighborhood.

(176.79 KB 454x722 30785047959-2527331430.jpg)

ITT homo /lit/ Scribe 04/16/2025 (Wed) 00:31:25 No. 688 [Reply]
Preferably the Mishima kind, but anything is welcome.
1 post omitted.
(108.68 KB 606x720 792491193845.jpg)

>>688 Forbidden Colors for another Mishima book. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Death in Venice, Maurice and Last of the Wine if you want something set in Greece.
>>688 Ever read the things you post? >>862 I’ve never read the book. How so?

(267.63 KB 980x1500 91TUNvC7IZL._SL1500_.jpg)

romance of the three kingdoms Scribe 04/20/2025 (Sun) 04:30:22 No. 841 [Reply]
Has anyone read it? if so what is it like? Ive always had somewhat of an interest in the setting so im thinking of checking it out

(2.68 KB 180x180 descarga.jpg)

delphi classics, jack london f 04/19/2025 (Sat) 18:02:43 No. 817 [Reply]
does anyone has this on e-book? i got it at 0.99 and the dollar for page ratio its insane. i have only read "To build a fire" tho so idk about the quality of the rest of the book but it has some typos. loved the story thought

∞/lit/ renaissance Scribe 04/17/2025 (Thu) 16:23:45 No. 748 [Reply]
4chan /lit/ was too soft https://mithrawebb.substack.com/p/wreck-et-mend-a-walking-aphrodisiac 8chan /lit/ should be doubly extreme
>>748 nigga that book has necro-zoo-pedophilia what more extreme?
>>749 The same thing but tasteful
>>748 is that some new meme book?

The Screwtape Letters By C.S. Lewis Scribe 09/01/2021 (Wed) 18:25:53 No. 327 [Reply]
I have not read this book yet, but after reading this excerpt that defines /pol/ and political misanthropy in general, I just might. >This is an epistolary novel, written in the form of a series of letters. The letters are from Screwtape, a senior devil to Wormwood, who’s trying to tempt his human soul.
>>327 This looks pretty good OP. Let you know more later
>>328 >2021 Legends say he is reading The Screwtape Letters to this day.

(52.53 KB 366x500 9780552095549-us.jpg)

Nine Princes in Amber - Roger Zelazny - Amber 1 Scribe 07/17/2021 (Sat) 03:21:23 No. 130 [Reply]
The first in the venerable Amber chronicles, and more importantly the first in the five book Corwin Cycle. We meet an Amnesiac. Bed ridden in some manner of hospital, and where this any other book it probably wouldn't go much further. But here our protagonist proves paranoia isn't necessarily wrong. Just insane. So he rips off his casts and sets a trap for the hospital staff. Soon we have moved from assault to blackmail at gunpoint. Then pockets flush, stolen .38 in hand, and no fucking idea who he is or how he got to upstate New York. Anons I love this series. Absolute favorite. It's fucking good. Highly recommend.
>>130 My older brother loved this series when he was a teen, and I'm 10 years past that age, but he keeps recommending it to me. It breaks my heart that I'd never fully appreciate this series even if I read through it.

(59.35 KB 474x632 OIP.jpg)

Scribe 11/20/2024 (Wed) 02:08:15 No. 681 [Reply]
Screw this pretentious crap. Give me some unapologetically unintellectual hard sci fi with explosions and pussy. Like Frankowski if he had been free to write how he really felt.
(422.38 KB 1400x2289 81hvBrhwjML.jpg)

BAEN books are fucking great.
(739.60 KB 1440x2194 6255949[1].jpg)

>>681 here you go, king

R 04/18/2025 (Fri) 07:58:24 No. 772 [Reply]
Been reading this lately. I like it What are your thoughts on it? https://mises.org/library/book/how-think-about-economy-primer
>>772 Seen it on my wishlist but never picked it up

(114.04 KB 720x1399 sade.jpg)

120 days of Sodom Scribe 04/18/2025 (Fri) 06:35:34 No. 769 [Reply]
I started reading this several months ago but stopped because of the slow pace of the first 30 days. Sade was clearly bored of the weak first fetishes and dropped the 2nd and 3rd months and went straight to the last month, the most extreme. This helped me finish the book in a few days. It's definitely not for normal people, I don't really like gore but I'm open to reading about it. Near the end you feel a bit desensitized because of the overused torture methods and a bit of detachment tl the characters due to the book being incomplete. For someone who read visual novels like Starless and Euphoria when young I feel at home in a sense. It was nice finally being able to meet the father of Sadism. I would rate it a 7/10 book

(3.61 MB 4032x3024 random_shelf.jpg)

Stack/Shelf Thread Scribe 07/13/2021 (Tue) 22:06:06 No. 100 [Reply]
Feel free to share your book shelves and or stacks!
5 posts and 2 images omitted.
(1.23 MB 2628x2438 IMG_6234.jpeg)

Just getting back in to reading and picked up a few books i heard were good
>>684 Someday I'll actually finish Moby Dick. I made it about 2/3rds though and just couldn't go on.
my shelf above my computer

(9.32 KB 192x259 Mage.JPG)

An exploration of metaphysical concepts in fiction: consensus reality Scribe 07/28/2021 (Wed) 11:12:19 No. 245 [Reply]
The idea of the nature of all aspects, laws, entities, and phenomena of reality (aka. absolutely everything and everyone in existence) re-writing itself to match with the majority agreement of all the minds of the universe as to what it should be (consciously or unconsciously). This premise is similar to "mage: the ascension" except that it really explores what this premise of the aggregate psychic influence of mental activity over reality itself would mean, it would not just mean changing of phenomena in the present, but in the past or future as well (like if enough minds believe the holohoax happened, then the evidence in the present would change to indicate a past where it did happen, and a time-traveler to this past would end up in an alternative universe where it had occurred as claimed, unless most minds in the present also believed most minds in this past believed that the holohaox wasn't happening, which would cause the time-traveler to show up in a past where it didn't happen, but from a present where the past was changed from the present to make the present as if it had occurred back then, because the past consensus would warp reality to make it so that the holohoax wasn't happening the moment the time-traveler arrived), it would be able to affect itself, like altering what realities people's mental power goes towards, or straight up creating or deleting people with minds that could contribute to determining what the aggregate consensus on reality is, and the strange idea of making an exception for one species, normal humans, as the sole contributors to the "vote" on what their reality is going to be like is rather arbitrary, what if all minds, including those of animals and even aliens, were to have a "vote"? last deviation is the idea of belief being the sole form of mental activity that contributes to the nature of reality, it might be the strongest kind of mental activity, but the mind has all sorts of mental phenomena going on, for example, imagination and fantasy or thought and emotion, if belief has an influence, surely these should as well? The setting is one where the existence of magic means that all minds can warp reality, any kind of mental activity exerts some level of influence upon the nature of existence. The degree of psychic ability that any mental activity has to alter the world depends on various factors, like how complex the mind is, how close the mind is to what it's affecting, the nature of the mental activity itself, the level of consciousness of the mental activity, the strength of that mental activity, and the duration the mental activity occurs over. The strongest kind of influence would be the most complex kind of mind believing with the greatest level of certainty and with the greatest force of will, at the most forefront of it's own consciousness, for the longest period of time, about some phenomena occupying the exact same space as itself, something usually describing the a priori knowledge of a mind about it's own existence. Since the mental activity of every mind exerts some degree of influence over the way things are, multiple minds can be in disagreement with one another, and even one mind can pull existence in multiple conflicting directions at once just by disagreeing with itself, reality can be pulled in multiple directions by the contradictions between the different potential realities that the actual reality is being pulled towards, in this case, the potential reality with the greatest amount of psychic power behind it is the one which becomes the actual reality. In the rare cases of ties, the nature of some phenomena may be equally disputed as being multiple possibilities that are equally backed by psychic power, and in addition to being supported by perfectly equal amounts of psychic energy, these possibilities are backed by more psychic energy than any other, in such cases, the ties are settled by going through the closest minds to the phenomena and whichever possibility being tied for gets the first bit of psychic power that breaks the tie in favor of one of the tied possibilities determines the nature of the contested phenomena, locality matters (also, most of these exceedingly rare events are resolved immediately without ever being noticed). Any aspect of reality can be affected by the influence of mental activity, including the minds of others and the mental activity produced by them, in such cases, the affected minds would influence reality in accordance with their new states, thus the consensus could theoretically affect itself. Since the consensus could create the existence of new minds, or remove existing minds from existence (such as the consensus causing the creation or erasure of people), and the presence or absence of those minds would include the presence or absence of their mental activity, those new minds that are created by the consensus would create a new contributution to it, and those existing minds which are deleted by the consensus would take their contribution with them, in both cases, this would only affect their contributions towards the consensus in the present and going forward, should there be changes made to their past existence by the consensus, their contributions to it in the altered past would only be observable to one who enters this past from the present after the consensus of the past had been retroactively altered, not just by the creation or erasure of minds that existed in the past, but also by the alteration of what way the minds that existed in the past had contributed to the consensus of their time (see below). The consensus can not only affect the present and future state of reality, but also it's past and future states, should the consensus influence the past to have been a certain way, all of reality would warp itself to be consistent with having come from that version of the past, should the consensus influence the future to be a certain way, the future would warp itself to fulfill this prediction. This makes time-travel more like stepping into another world entirely, as going back to a past that the consensus of the present had altered is not going back to the "true" past that existed pre-alteration. Furthermore, if the consensus on the present had altered the consensus of the past, that past consensus would not have any influence on the time-travelers reality before they went back in time, since their minds wouldn't be present to exert any influence on reality, but after doing so, the time-traveler is now in a world where the consensus is different, and therefore reality will warp itself to match with that new consensus, since the time-traveler's influence is going to be easily overpowered by the influence of the minds of everyone else in that version of the past, and if this consensus of the past was created by a consensus of the present, it's possibly a consensus that never created a reality before, thus the time-traveler is trapped in a brand new version of reality without precedent (whether they are aware of this or not). This is because only minds that are active in the present can contribute to determining the nature of reality at any point in time, a mind that has ceased to generate any activity or which has yet to begin doing so does not have it's contributions factored in to the state of reality at the time. A time-traveler going to the future would have the same experience, as the existing consensus of the future, which may or may not have been influenced by the consensus of the present, would overpower the time-traveler and leave them trapped in a reality that is produced by that future consensus, just as with the case of travel to the past, time-travel in this setting is potentially like stepping into an alternate reality, however, normally the time-traveler wouldn't notice since the differences between produced realities would not likely be readily noticeable. Still, history is no longer an exact science in such a setting.
8 posts omitted.
>>279 Holy fuck two auto success and two extra rerolls. 1d10 = 5 1d10 = 5
>>277 It's been a while since I read the mage core book but that sounds about right. Only as a PC you have a way to cheat a little. To bend temporarily that which is commonly believed into that which only you believe. The greater the disbelief such a thing would generate, or how hard it deviates from the norm of the collective unconsciousness, determines it's difficulty but also the danger. Any time a mage cheats reality in this fashion theres a possibility of failure, and reality snapping back to it's more or less true form. Often in very exciting ways. It is an interesting philosophical concept, but ultimately probably fruitless as it applies to the real world. I would encourage moderation if reading too much into it. And if you wanna play mage then I'm down.
I asked a question on the old /lit/ regarding a sci fi book that features living replicating universes and so far I've gotten stuff that kind of fits the bill but not 100 percent.

(141.23 KB 234x331 xm5iDg4.png)

/writ/ Scribe 07/17/2021 (Sat) 21:24:07 No. 132 [Reply] [Last]
Are you writing? Do you want to? Dreams of writing for anything in particular? Share, chat, and critique. Let's suffer together.
114 posts and 9 images omitted.
Refugee who barely hung around /lit/ transmitting into the blind here. I mostly liked writing threads because ironically I wasn't much of a reader myself. I'm willing to read other's works and give criticism but my stuff was pretty ignored. Figure I'll throw out a pair of chapters I worked on ages ago and see how you guys would like it. Yes its .MD cause I'm a faggot who likes using obsidian. Please be harsh. I want it to hurt.
Ben writing. Very slowly. I'm stuck between writing the first draft and writing the skeleton draft outline. I want to write a separate microfiction in the same universe but just so little time.
Half way through my second volume, working on another series at the same time. Unfortunately, I get distracted much too easily. Maybe I should get into a more isolated space where tv and videogames aren't as accessible.

(4.60 MB 1400x1943 ClipboardImage.png)

(97.65 KB 220x325 ClipboardImage.png)

Kurt Vonnegut Scribe 08/10/2021 (Tue) 23:28:29 No. 294 [Reply]
I just finished Slaughterhouse-Five, this was my introduction to Vonnegut and it couldn't have left a better impression on me if it tried. I went into this completely blind and with little to no expectations but left pleasantly surprised. I would love to know what the fact that ending was supposed to convey exactly beyond "war bad". What should I read next?
>>294 He was anti-war for sure. Of the post world war 1 "oh the inhumanity of man" sort. He's good but that is the overarching theme hes getting at. I'd say offset it with something prowar. Like starship troopers. Not like the movie. Have you read zodiac by Neal Stephenson? He wasn't a cuck when he was starting out so the earlier stuff is good. If you want more vonnegut cat's cradle is popular. For more in the anti-war vein catch-22 is excellent.
>>294 I personally don't recommend The Sirens of Titan, it was the last one of his I read and it was just too nialistic for me. Cat's cradle was interesting

[ 1234 ]
Forms
Delete
Report