Starting Literature

[Butters]

I have always been reading for most of my life but usually it has just been books which I seem to find interesting and I have not given much thought over what books to read. I have been browsing these forums and people seem to say that before getting started with more modern literature you should read the classics such as Shakespeare.

So I was just wondering what do you guys recommend I get started with and where should I go from there?

Thank You

[Evaril]

If you really want to have a step-by-step plan, start with the Ancient Greeks and the Romans and their mythologies. But my advice is don't try to systematize literature. It'll just take away the fun. Read anything you feel like reading.

[mono]

Though a reader cannot go wrong with Shakespeare, it may not seem the greatest beginning point. As Evaril suggested, 'read anything you feel like reading,' even if others do not consider it a classic; I have encountered people who got the same out of Robert Heinlein, as I did from D.H. Lawrence, or people who place as much value upon Ayn Rand, as I do with Fyodor Dostoevsky.
In my opinion, people get burned out on literature when they only read what they feel they ought to read. I regard Shakespeare as one of the greatest literary figures ever, but, in terms of plays, I admit that I enjoyed Goethe and Ibsen a bit more. Save getting forced to read something for the classroom.
A few authors that I have encountered few people disliking, whether they adore the classics or hate them: as Evaril mentioned, any ancient Greek and Roman works (The Iliad, The Odyssey, Metamorphoses, The Æneid), Victor Hugo, J.D. Salinger, Emily Brontë, Mark Twain, Thomas Hardy, Harper Lee . . . just to name a few. ;)
Good luck!

[LitNetIsGreat]

I have always been reading for most of my life but usually it has just been books which I seem to find interesting and I have not given much thought over what books to read. I have been browsing these forums and people seem to say that before getting started with more modern literature you should read the classics such as Shakespeare.

So I was just wondering what do you guys recommend I get started with and where should I go from there?

Thank You

I would suggest the same as the others have suggested go with what interests you initially and branch out from there. It is often natural progression that leads you onto bigger and better books if you have been reading for a while, the "page-turners" or the same old "angry-detective-coffee-and-donut-books"* simply won't do it for you anymore, but you shouldn't feel compelled in what you should read. Pick up Hardy or Shakespeare or whatever you fancy and if it clicks with you great, if not come back to it when it does, for it surely will if not now, but later.


*New genre patent applied for.

[kidvisions]

I have always been reading for most of my life but usually it has just been books which I seem to find interesting and I have not given much thought over what books to read. I have been browsing these forums and people seem to say that before getting started with more modern literature you should read the classics such as Shakespeare.

So I was just wondering what do you guys recommend I get started with and where should I go from there?

Thank You

I could say that it's the same problem for me.

[Bluenote]

I have always been reading for most of my life but usually it has just been books which I seem to find interesting and I have not given much thought over what books to read. I have been browsing these forums and people seem to say that before getting started with more modern literature you should read the classics such as Shakespeare.

So I was just wondering what do you guys recommend I get started with and where should I go from there?

Thank You



Read what interests you , if you have an affinity for the written word you'll inevitably branch out to the authors that are similar and those that have influenced the authors that you like , along with the authors that they've influenced.

To put labels on literature and allow that to influence you , or to be influenced by labels stamped upon various literature by others is inherently self-limiting. Personal opinions count to some degree of course. But that said and as I've stated in the Lonesome Dove thread , one individuals classic is another individuals Sears catalog for usage in the privy.

At least you READ , I have zero idea of your chronological age , but many of our young folk nowadays don't read anthing but the manual that came with whatever new game machine they just purchased , and often not even that.

What do you have an affinity for as regards genre and/or authors? That may well help as goes any possible suggestions.

But just READ.




B.

[Bluenote]

In my opinion, people get burned out on literature when they only read what they feel they ought to read. Save getting forced to read something for the classroom.

Good luck!



Two of the most pertinent and highly apropos comments as regard reading in general that have been posted within this thread.


And it's been my experience that certain instructors manage to "burn out" some of the younger generation by forcing them to read something based upon the given instructors opinion.

And yes of course in certain courses one has a specific curriculum one must stick to , but as goes reading for recreation , an instructor who labels something as "trash" based solely upon their personal opinion inevitably does a disservice to the student.



B.

[PeterL]

Just read what you like. If you read enough, you will be led from one author, style, sub-genre to others. Your taste probably will change over time. If you try an organized survey without someone pushing you, then you probably will reach a point where you will get sick of reading.

[Jeremiah Jazzz]

I'd suggest Plato, one of the most talked about world figures. Also, check out Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka

[promtbr]

Butters, I really envy you! ( I was where you are ab 3 decades ago). You have an incredibly amazing adventure ahead! :thumbs_up

All great advice above I might add.

I can only add, as recently I too am re-emersing myself in literature, I have to remind myself to bring as little "personal baggage" (prejudices) as possible to the text. I acknowledge that's a loaded statement and I should qualify that, (there are other threads on that topic)...

To try to keep an open mind. A lot of Classics ie works generally accepted as being characterized as Literary ART, esp later Modernist and Post Modern Lit, is not Plot Driven Drama (ie, its first goal may not be tittilate your base emotions :bawling::lol:) I see time and again some (esp younger ;)) posters in the forum having negative reactions to some non plot/ character driven, less accessible texts largely because they (understandably) are used to being entertained while reading, I call it the Smells Like Teen Spirit reading attitude: "Here we are now, entertain us"... There is the Twilight series, Harry Potter and of course Blu Ray for the human desire to be pacified.


Some of "difficult", or multi-level works simply don't register meaningfully or fully on the first reading. I can tell you, in my experience, most of the time, the payback for spending the time learning how the text is teaching you how to read it, is worth the effort. That's the beauty of literary art as opposed to the commercial stuff! As others said, enjoy the exploration! And if you want to avoid premature frustration or burn out, if I had it to do over again I would (the first years anyway) stay away from the some of the Modernist and Post Modern "Classics" that tend to be the more erudite, allusion filled narratives (single works that are semester long University courses and/or thesis subjects). No need for me to name these, you will find out for yourself...

A frame of reference for many suggested reading lists:
http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/greatbks.html

If I were starting out again, I would read Don Quixote...it is one of the all time great novels (and first novel depending on who you ask) Plus it is very accessible while being as entertaining as a commercial novel. It is only alluded to, and/or influenced about half of all writers of fiction since it was written.. I love symmetry, and its a questing work, paralleling your literary adventure..

Good luck in YOUR quest!

[Butters]

Alright thank you for the suggestions. I'll probably try Don Quixote and then maybe some older classics (Shakespeare, Homer and Plato) see if those strike my fancy.

[ihavebrownhaira]

I disagree. You don't have to read old literature to appreciate and understand modern literature. If anything i believe it is the opposite. Some guys and gals on here are very intelligent, but that does not mean their opinions are right because, that is all it is. Opinions and that's the beautiful thing about literature. Just because many claim Shakespeare is a great writer does not mean this is true. Its an opinion.


I recommend Hemingway, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Charles Bukowski.


Don't give up. There is a lot of trash out there and sometimes you have to weave through the trash to find the gems.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Just because many claim Shakespeare is a great writer does not mean this is true. Its an opinion.



You don't have to read old literature to appreciate and understand modern literature.

This is the type of thing I had in mind with the canon thread.

[Bluenote]

Alright thank you for the suggestions. I'll probably try Don Quixote and then maybe some older classics (Shakespeare, Homer and Plato) see if those strike my fancy.


Don Quixote is one that is timeless and memorial , and likely the first time you read it will be an entertaining yarn and hilarious adventure story , subsequent readings will reveal the societal commentary inherenent within the book.

Plato ( if you have the interest) will almost inevitably lead you to Socrates and Aristotle , which will lead you on to myriad other post and pre-socratic philosphers and eventually lead on to myriad other philosphy and social construct authors , which of course can lead on to all sorts of other fields and schools of thought such as existestenialism , logic theory , theory of rationality , various theologies and the roots of atheism. etc.etc.

Think of it as a road-map , where do you wish to travel today , what sights do you wish to see...........



B.

[promtbr]

I disagree. You don't have to read old literature to appreciate and understand modern literature. If anything i believe it is the opposite. Some guys and gals on here are very intelligent, but that does not mean their opinions are right because, that is all it is. Opinions and that's the beautiful thing about literature. Just because many claim Shakespeare is a great writer does not mean this is true. Its an opinion.


I recommend Hemingway, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Charles Bukowski.


Don't give up. There is a lot of trash out there and sometimes you have to weave through the trash to find the gems.

I agree that what you read on the forums to be taken as reader's opinons. That's why you see "imo" in most of my posts to emphasize I am just relating my opinion.

An observation, as you can read, no one in this thread suggested that one has to read old classics first to apreciate modern writers.

An opinion, one should approach any work without a pre conceived award category upon finishing it that it is going to be in the "trash" or a "gem". A lot of subject material of works considered literature may not sit with or agree with every one's mores or sensibilities, and thats all good. Its pretty easy to find out what a particular work is going to be about before you purchase it.

Also if I were to start sorting writers I don't personally care for as "trash" (which I don't do, as I realize others may consider those same writers "gems"), in my opinion, Huxley, Orwell and Bukowski would be in the garbage bin;)..

[blazeofglory]

I read books based on my random choices, at times books of fiction and mostly non fiction.

Now I am switching to spiritual books.

Reading a particular genre of books is monotonous. I prefer the variety.