Classics worth reading and those not worth the time - (Popular but not classics books are okay to include too, forgot about them)

[World Famous Quasi Payer]

Also why the hell am I the only one left posting here? O.o

Alright, I'll post a few.

Don't know if any of these are classics, but The Stainless Steel Rat, Who Goes There/Frozen Hell, The Mote in God's Eye, and The Dragon Masters are wonder, last century works of Science fiction. There's more plot, more character, more science and wonder in anyone of those works, than there is just about any science fiction published in the last decade, or two.

For none science fiction, I would recommend Gasper Ruiz, The Sea Wolf, Master and Commander, and The Shootist.

For short work, you can never go wrong with Lord Dunsany, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Leigh Brackett, or Joseph Conrad's shorter work.

Again, I'm not sure if those count as classics, or not. Or if just citing authors is too broad.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Lord Dunsany

In order to "understand" Fantasy as a genre from the past century The King of Elfland's Daughter is basically essential reading and its also a really good read.

 

[skykiii]

Also since many of you are recommending Tolkien, why not look up the old Viking stories? Many of them were directly referenced for LoTR (Most of the dwarves in LoTR are named after dwarves in the sagas, 'Gandalf'='Wand elf', in old Norse, and the runes in illustration are borrowed from several European sets). The Poetic and Prose Eddas are good, the Ásatrú edda has it all a bit plainer, more modern language. It is strange, weird, wild, sometimes depressing, sometimes hilarious, sometimes a bit boring (Odin lists for us his many names). Easy to get in and out of too.

The closest I ever got is reading Beowulf, can you recommend a translation of the others?

 

[JJLiautaud]

The closest I ever got is reading Beowulf, can you recommend a translation of the others?

https://www.amazon.com/Sagas-Icelanders-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe/dp/0141000031

This book has 10 sagas including 2 of the "big 3" The Saga of Egil Skallagrimson(which I recommend every one read) the prototypical "Adventure Saga" and the Laxdaela Saga, the prototypical "Family Saga" dealing with interfamily feuds and such, the only missing one of the Big 3 is the Saga of the Burnt Njall which deals with a complicated series of legal disputes that results in a bunch of people getting murdered. If you want something more mythic the Saga of the Volsungs is a really good one and Jackson Crawford Cowboy Norse Specialist Extraordinaire did a really good translation of it, only problem is that he "translates" the kennings in the poetry which I personally dislike, but other than that its a good story dealing with the big hero of Norse myth Sigurd and his end. For Norse myth stuff I recommend The Poetic Edda, also tl'd by Jackson Crawford which is the main primary source of Norse myth, contains a ton of the common myths and a lot of the poetic cycle of Sigurd.
NB: The Norse put a ton of importance in genealogy so all of the sagas start 3 or 4 generations back before the "main story" so don't go into these stories expecting to read about the main character until a few chapters in.

 

[Biggie Smalls' Taint]

The Magus. Not sure how popular it is, but it's on a list of 100 novels to read alongside Ulysses and Heart of Darkness. I did not like it one bit.

I got around 120 pages in, saw that it was over 700 pages long and chucked it against a wall. It's dreadful. Incredibly slow, nothing happens at the beginning and the central mystery is so forced.

It's one of those "mysterious men" novels where the main character gets involved with a wealthy chracter whose existence and motives are an enigma (think Gatsby in The Great Gatsby), but the whole thing feels so forced.

He doesn't gradually meet the mystery man, getting hints at his eccentricities and what he might be up to. Someone just tells him "Enjoy working in Greece, main character. It's pretty okay and the kids are terrible. By the way there's this mysterious man and you should stay away from him. Why? I'm not going to tell you it's a mystery wooooo spooooky"

Then the main character gets to Greece and starts asking about The Man and no one knows anything. He obsesses over it but you have no reason to care. Why is he so interested? Some of the townsfolk know about The Man and say he was just some guy, and others essentially go "It's a mystery woooooo mysteryyyyyy"

Then he stumbles on The Man's house and The Man is all "Mmyes I was expecting you mmyess I am man and I am a mystery I speak in riddles mmmyesss woooooo mystery"

Remember, this happens over 120 pages in. You could have read all of Heart of Darkness before this shit gets to its poorly constructed central mystery.

Then The Man tries to argue that the novel is worthless as art and right then and there I physically heard the author masturbating and threw the book against the wall so hard that it gave my neighbor a concussion.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Chesterton is always a fun read if you like to think and laugh his nonfiction is a bit out dated factually but its shocking how the same concerns drove society 100 years ago as they do today. But while I like him quiet a bit, i find he tends to have a mixed reaction to people I recommend him too, so caveat emptor.

 

[skykiii]

So I kept noticing signs that I should pick up Robert E. Howard again, and started reading some Conan--particularly I'm re-experiencing Beyond the Black River, which I remember really liking.

Conan is... the quintessential example of a character who was ruined by adaptations (most notably a pair of movies starring Arnold Schwarzanegger). The original stories are a lot of things, but any word I could use probably would convey the wrong idea.

On that note, I wonder if we should make a Movies version of this topic, "Classic Movies Worth Watching And Those Not Worth Your Time."

 

[del_toid]

Idk if this fits but if you live in the west, reading John Locke's first and second Treatise on Government is worth while. It's way more interesting than I expected it to be.

 

[Spob]

I have a crackpot conspiracy theory that The Catcher in the Rye was written by feds to indoctrinate young men into becoming whiny incels and harboring violent tendencies, and that J.D. Salinger wasn't a real person but some fed-manufactured persona.

 

[El Microwave]

I have a crackpot conspiracy theory that The Catcher in the Rye was written by feds to indoctrinate young men into becoming whiny incels and harboring violent tendencies, and that J.D. Salinger wasn't a real person but some fed-manufactured persona.

It's really strange seeing the one commonality in this thread being a disdain for The Catcher in the Rye. The fact is, any book that is considered assigned reading in school will be simultaneously held on an enormous pedestal yet also hated. Nobody wants to be forced to read things, especially in the last 20-30 years when video games and internet have become more potent distractions than TV. Multiple generations have grown up being told these books are high literature while kids Cliffnoted (nowadays ChatGPT'd) their way to good grades. Any attempt to actually read the damn things results in cognitive dissonance. Ironically enough teenagers especially don't want to be forced to do stuff, yet they fail to identify with Holden. It also seems bizarre that multiple people enjoyed Lolita for its unreliable and exquisitely unlikeable narrator, but not Holden. Also, we're on Kiwi Farms of all places. If you need to like someone to find them interesting, what are you doing doing here? High school classes groaned about Holden and it made sense because they just wanted to go to parties and fuck and play video games. Except once you're past that phase, what's the excuse? Lame prose is meant to be obnoxious and endearing because you were (hopefully) just like Holden at one point. Put that in perspective.

My opinion is that the feds placed the book in the curriculum in order to create hate for it. Evidently it didn't work enough so they manufactured Mark David Chapman in order to further blackwash the book. They seeded rumors among their controlled opp conspiracy theorists that the book, like Alice in Wonderland, is used for MKUltra brainwashing Manchurian woo-woo, to solidify the reputation. Anything to get you to not actually read it and digest it! Because if you did, you'd see the tragedy of how youthful rebellion gets warped and twisted. They don't want you to actually notice things. For example, have you ever wondered what the etymology of the word phony/phoney is? If that doesn't send you down a rabbit hole, I don't know what will. Speaking of rabbit holes, look up the etymology of the word cunny and its relation to the coney, or rabbit, and remind yourself that Lewis Carroll loved little girls. Puts a new meaning on navel-gazing, if you know what I mean.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

The Glass Bead Game is boring as shit.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

Jack london's books are extremely good especially call of the wild

Kurt Vonnegut I don't know if that would be considered a classic but he's a pretentious

Leo Tolstoy
is a pacifist homosexual who Ivan ilian completely destroyed his arguments in the 19th century
also whose family is originally from the Russian empire I cannot stand yet he is the only Russian author anybody knows even the Russian doesn't translate well into English due to the fact that Russian uses a lot less the and these and those
it's funny you can actually see this when Russians type in English that they forget to Add all of those English grammar rules

Socrates is worth reading though so is Plato Aristotle as well I would also suggest my monodies

but my personal favorite classic theologian would be Gregory palamos

TK Chesterton is also good

HP Lovecraft is actually really good and you can get a lot of inspiration from him in his early writings

Starship Troopers is still one of the classics of Science Fiction and what really introduced the idea of Space Marines

Robert E. Howard
ffather of dark fantasy creator of Conan the barbarian sadly killed himself before he work got really really popular
the greatest thing to ever come out of Texas outside of 10 gallon hats and BBQ

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland even though the modern people like that aesthetic have a completely ruined 18th century style fantasy

storm of steel
people who think what is hell are cheese eating surrender monkeys run straight into gunfire in the name of German ultra nationalism

for my Legionnaires
yes this book is considered a classic to me this is probably one of the best books ever written on the subject of the inner ward. As it was going on in Romania from a right wing perspective it's raining a lot more like an biography mixed with a bit of ideology

 

[passionpoop]

I have a crackpot conspiracy theory that The Catcher in the Rye was written by feds to indoctrinate young men into becoming whiny incels and harboring violent tendencies, and that J.D. Salinger wasn't a real person but some fed-manufactured persona.

Why do people hate that book so much? Personally I like it just fine. It's repetitive and the protagonist is a crybaby, but it's really not all that despicable of a book.

 

[IDanceonTrannyGraves]

Thomas Hardy sucks and Tess of the D'Urbervilles is boring as fuck.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Alright, I'll post a few.

Don't know if any of these are classics, but The Stainless Steel Rat, Who Goes There/Frozen Hell, The Mote in God's Eye, and The Dragon Masters are wonder, last century works of Science fiction. There's more plot, more character, more science and wonder in anyone of those works, than there is just about any science fiction published in the last decade, or two.

For none science fiction, I would recommend Gasper Ruiz, The Sea Wolf, Master and Commander, and The Shootist.

For short work, you can never go wrong with Lord Dunsany, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Leigh Brackett, or Joseph Conrad's shorter work.

Again, I'm not sure if those count as classics, or not. Or if just citing authors is too broad.

I'm finding that most of the pre-1990 Hugo/Nebula award winners typically have great work. Hell, the regular popular sci-fi/fantasy of the 40s-80s seemed to be pretty well made.

So far, I'm going through a large batch of older sci-fi/fantasy writers. I'll post my first impressions of a lot of them here.

• Jack Vance. Probably the most influential fantasy writer that's never talked about as much as Tolkein, Lewis, Howard, Dunsany, or Lovecraft. Dying Earth is a fun ride and I wanna get to the rest of his stuff. It's all in print in paperback or hardcover from Spatterlight Press on Amazon. Otherwise, be prepared to shell out a pretty penny for older hardcovers.
• Poul Anderson. I've only read High Crusade so far, which is a very fun Monty Python and the Holy Grail meets Spaceballs vibe of a book. I'm probably going to read Brain Wave next.
• Clifford Simak. I've only read Way Station. However, his writing style is very comfy and pastoral. But his imagination and narrative are thought out and well-executed. I'll be checking him out more in the future.
• Richard Matheson. I've read I Am Legend. It's a great bit of sci-fi horror and there's a reason the book has 3 fucking movie adaptations. He doesn't seem to waste time. Will check again.
• Daniel Keyes. I've only read Flowers for Algernon and it seems he didn't do a ton of work, but his big well-known novel is a good read. It's fucking haunting too.
• Michael Moorcock- Only read the first Elric for now. Very solid book and it seems I'll have an enjoyable journey.

I've got more to read. Delany, Pohl, Asimov, Herbert, Clarke, Heinlein, etc. Hell, Gibson, Le Guin, and all that stuff too. The good sci-fi/fantasy authors are always going off the shelves at the goodwill bookstores or other used bookstores near me have random beat up old paperbacks of all these guys just sitting there and I only pick up a few plus whatever good hardcover/trade paperback catches my eye. No wonder so many retards are seething over old/dead writers. Half the fantasy isles at the books a million/barnes and noble are Tolkein-Lewis-Rowling-Jordan and a mix of older shit or DnD branded shit. Meanwhile I've been seeing the same Tomlinson/Linsey Ellis books on the shelf at the local goodwill bookstore for 6 months now.

Jack london's books are extremely good especially call of the wild

Jack London's great but I feel like I haven't seen his works in B & N or Books a Million in a long time. Feels like they don't consider him a classic any more. I scored me a neat leather bound omnibus for 2 bucks at a library book sale.

Kurt Vonnegut I don't know if that would be considered a classic but he's a pretentious

Isn't a lot of his stuff kinda very cold war centric at heart? It's probably got it's place, but idk if it's a classic just yet.

Leo Tolstoy
is a pacifist homosexual who Ivan ilian completely destroyed his arguments in the 19th century
also whose family is originally from the Russian empire I cannot stand yet he is the only Russian author anybody knows even the Russian doesn't translate well into English due to the fact that Russian uses a lot less the and these and those
it's funny you can actually see this when Russians type in English that they forget to Add all of those English grammar rules

No thoughts on tolstoy just yet. i'll get around to reading tolstoy/dostoevsky someday.

Socrates is worth reading though so is Plato Aristotle as well I would also suggest my monodies

but my personal favorite classic theologian would be Gregory palamos

I'd also put down Herodotus as good reading for people who just wanna dip into ancient history. It's been forever though. Hell, what Greco-Roman stuff would be good introductory reading?

Grew up reading Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas. Didn't understand too much of it until high school though.

TK Chesterton is also good

Father Brown is fun.

HP Lovecraft is actually really good and you can get a lot of inspiration from him in his early writings

I'd toss in Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Clark Ashton Smith, Ambrose Bierce, August Derleth, and the like. William Hope Hodgson too. It's been almost a decade since I checked them out, but I liked it all.

Starship Troopers is still one of the classics of Science Fiction and what really introduced the idea of Space Marines

It's on the list to acquire. I'll probably wind up reading one of the heinlein paperbacks I have someday, like this old copy of farmhams freehold.

Robert E. Howard
ffather of dark fantasy creator of Conan the barbarian sadly killed himself before he work got really really popular
the greatest thing to ever come out of Texas outside of 10 gallon hats and BBQ

Howard is a writer that deserves far more respect and recognition than he currently has. It's a shame he killed himself because he really coulda been big.

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland even though the modern people like that aesthetic have a completely ruined 18th century style fantasy

the alice books are great. i'd also toss in the Oz books as well, although they're not quite as good.

storm of steel
people who think what is hell are cheese eating surrender monkeys run straight into gunfire in the name of German ultra nationalism

for my Legionnaires
yes this book is considered a classic to me this is probably one of the best books ever written on the subject of the inner ward. As it was going on in Romania from a right wing perspective it's raining a lot more like an biography mixed with a bit of ideology

Not familiar with those, I'll put them on the list. . . .

my backlog list is probably a thousand pages long. i want to ask mister popo for the use of the time dilation chamber.

 

[Ewan McGregor]

I wouldn't recommend anybody to read Pride & Prejudice.

I bought it because it evoked me of the struggle LGBT BIPOC sisters endure against white supremacy and the patriarchy, and I thought it was going to be a tale of validation and vindication of queer folks of colour but, instead of that, I got some lowkey depressed crackers prancing around, some annoying privileged Karen with first world problems oozing entitlement as to whether she should date privileged asshole #1 or privileged asshole #2. Truly a meager, worthless, stale, boring piece of white entitlement and privilege.

Don't be fooled, folx!

 

[2mm and 99 others]

What’s everyone’s opinion on The Jungle?

I found it to be a really interesting read, and the way Upton Sinclair illustrated the cynical, brutal nature of the Chicago corporate/political scene gave me an appreciation for how far we’ve come in western countries in terms of labor.

I wasn’t so much a fan of the part of the book that basically just starts preaching socialism, but I found it quite amusing that the people Sinclair wrote to be advocating for it were the disabled, homeless, and champagne socialists. Basically, people who needed others to provide for them. The 1900s analogue of today’s welfare leeches and sheltered college kids.

I just can't see the main character to become a political figure and rhetorician. Man is dumb as a box of rocks, as shown many times throughout the book.
The working people ain't got any time for socialist meetings, as they are occupied by work, and many of them find certain ...professional pride in withstanding their suffering, that ''builds their character''. Things getting better? For everyone? Nah, that's for lazy pussies.
I guess I have to study the matter more to realize what exactly was so powerful to turn the working class into foot soldiers of socialists, and made them turn the tables, what was the exact tipping point when those people decided to no longer get fucked with.

 

[Mnutu]

I just can't see the main character to become a political figure and rhetorician. Man is dumb as a box of rocks, as shown many times throughout the book.
The working people ain't got any time for socialist meetings, as they are occupied by work, and many of them find certain ...professional pride in withstanding their suffering, that ''builds their character''. Things getting better? For everyone? Nah, that's for lazy pussies.
I guess I have to study the matter more to realize what exactly was so powerful to turn the working class into foot soldiers of socialists, and made them turn the tables, what was the exact tipping point when those people decided to no longer get fucked with.

What do you mean? How socialism caught on in the us broadly, or how the regulations were enacted? The former has less to do with Sinclair and more to do with Cesar Chavez. The latter is because it made all the rich people go yuck.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

whatever happened to books that used to be considered classics, but don't get reprinted nowadays as often by the big publishers. like Prisoner of Zenda was considered a big classic book like 50-70 years ago, but it's hardly talked about now despite being a pretty solid book.

or, like, anything by Sir Walter Scott. Ivanhoe, Black arrow, Rob Roy. What happened? They're worth reading.

 

[LloydBraun]

whatever happened to books that used to be considered classics, but don't get reprinted nowadays as often by the big publishers. like Prisoner of Zenda was considered a big classic book like 50-70 years ago, but it's hardly talked about now despite being a pretty solid book.

or, like, anything by Sir Walter Scott. Ivanhoe, Black arrow, Rob Roy. What happened? They're worth reading.

I'd guess because they are considered too white.