I wasn't a big reader growing up. Didn't read for pleasure and stopped reading after college for about 7 years. Made a new year's resolution in 2023 to read 6 hours a week and have stuck with it ever since.
Saw this list last year and thought "there's no way anyone's actually read all of these". I'm sure some have, but probably not many. A couple months later I decided to read all of them. At the time I had read 23. 6 back in high school and 17 as part of my new reading. Today I finished the 51st book. Been focusing on the shorter ones lately, so page count-wise I'm only like 40% done.
Overall, skews extremely male and western, which isn't a big shocker for 4chan. A lot of these books are just not that fun to read, but I'm no quitter. They've given me information that's useful and helped me with my attention span issues.
Here's what I've done. The ones with End Dates are the completed ones.
Top 5:
East of Eden- You see a lot of praise of this book on here, and rightfully so. Beautiful, fun to read, and a great story. I lived on the central coast near the Salinas Valley for about 8 years, so all the imagery I could picture really well.
Catch-22- Funny, interesting, great story, lots of fun characters as well as sad and beautiful moments.
The Grapes of Wrath- Story that transcends time and is extremely relevant to modern day. Great structure and lovely writing.
Stoner- Just a story about a guy doing his job. Doesn't sound too interesting, but getting to know this guy is a nice experience.
Siddhartha- Talks a lot about the meaning of life in a very beautiful way. Lots of wisdom to glean from this book.
Bottom 5: I won't give reasons for these, but they're all kinda the same. Didn't understand what was going on and I couldn't follow. Probably just too dumb.
Ulysses, To The Lighthouse, Pedro Paramo(tbf I was going through a breakup), Demons(also going through a breakup), The Sound and the Fury
Other Books: These aren't necessarily the next 5 favorite, but ones I think are interesting.
White Noise- Very funny, scary, good critique of modern life.
The Trial- I am a government worker, so I could relate to this extremely well.
Crime and Punishment- My favorite of the Dostoevsky works. Raskolnikov's interactions with Porfiry will always stick with me.
The Metamorphosis- Creepiest, most anxiety inducing book I've ever read, by far. Beware reading this one.
Pale Fire- Extremely cool structure. Funny. Plays with writing without being too hard to read.
Books I'd add: These aren't necessarily my favorite books I've read, but ones that fit the theme of this list.
To Kill a Mockingbird- No idea why this wasn't already on the list. Arguably the most famous American novel.
Giovanni's Room- Only book to make me cry. But it's about gay people, so I don't think 4chan would like it.
To a God Unknown- One of Steinbeck's lesser known books, but I'd put it up there with East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath.
Left Hand of Darkness- Very strange book, and explores topics way ahead of its time.
The Poisonwood Bible- Excellent story of a family out of their element and how they deal with completely alien obstacles.
by studmuffffffin
2 Comments
adding stoner to my to-read list!
Nothing to add except,
>To Kill a Mockingbird- No idea why this wasn’t already on the list. Arguably the most famous American novel.
Because 4chan has a large racism bias.