all i ever read was manga, i want to start reading books but what i hate about them is the excruciating detail also most of them have hard language, so any recommendations for a beginner? i'm interested in something existential and depressing.
>>25169608Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
>>25169608good books are more or less challenging. you have to engage with them regardless and your ability to read will improve over time The Tartar SteppeNotes from the UndergroundStoner (more challenging if you are ESL)
>>25169608Harry Pottet is unironically a great starting point, the Earthsea series too>b-but im not a childEr.. okay, dunno why you are telepathically communcating with me instead of replying to me.
>>25169608>most of them have hard language, so any recommendations for a beginner?>existential and depressinghemingway's short stories, get a copy of picrel. pay special attention to the title story and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," which I think you'll like. keep in mind that hemingway is not manga -- manga will say>Here is Character A! They are EVIL! Doing something EVIL! And here is exactly what they think of Character B! while hemingway's much more>Here's Character A. You'll have to decide what kind of person they are. They have a short conversation with Character B and it's not immediately clear what they're talking about. How Character B reacts tells you something about both Character A and Character B, but it's not explicit, and might be several different thingswhich people new to reading (you) always, always trip over, usually because they're used to "media" basically looking the "consumer" (ugh) dead in the eyes and saying "here is the exact conflict, here's why it's a conflict, here's exactly what's going on, here's what everyone's thinking verbatim, just in case you're confused I'll repeat that a few more times." literature isn't like that. good literature isn't, at least. I'll leave you with a vignette (self-contained scene, somewhat akin to flash fiction) from Hemingway's first book of stories titled 'in our time'>While the bombardment was knocking the trench to pieces at Fossalta, he lay very flat and sweated and prayed, "Oh Jesus Christ get me out of here. Dear Jesus, please get me out. Christ, please, please, please, Christ. If you'll only keep me from getting killed I'll do anything you say. I believe in you and I'll tell everybody in the world that you are the only thing that matters. Please, please, dear Jesus." The shelling moved further up the line. We went to work on the trench and in the morning the sun came up and the day was hot and muggy and cheerful and quiet. The next night back at Mestre he did not tell the girl he went upstairs with at the Villa Rossa about Jesus. And he never told anybody.Happy reading OP
>>25169608>what i hate about them is the excruciating detailMan, what kind of manga do you read? The most basic of shonenshits, no? No way you think Stevenson is more "excruciatingly detailed" than say, HxH
>>25169648Kek this made me laugh.>>25169608Depends what manga you like, though I’d probably say something like Camus (I hate him) but he’s sort of what you’re looking for. Is The Book of Disquiet too much to recommend to a newcomer? I don’t know, it’s great though. Hemingway like another anon said. Catcher in the Rye perhaps too. American Psycho was the first book I ever read that I myself bought when I was like 15. I wouldn’t touch it now, but it’s witty and sort of depressing because Bateman isn’t so much a cool psychopath boy like you see in the movie, but more like an absolute autistic miserable chud.
>>25169608The Black Company has manga-tier writing. The author even reads nipponese LNs.
>>25169608The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
>>25169744this seems interesting, thanks
>>25169608Aren't existential and depressing awfully big words for a retarded baby who can't handle big words after his widdle brainy-wainy got tuwned into mushy-wushy fwom animoo?Read 'The Road'
>>25170044You’re a fucking asshole, leave him be. But yeah, OP, I second The Road I guess, it’s good miserable entry level stuff.
>>25169608STICK TO FLICKS, AND TO COMIC BOOKS; LITERATURE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE, NOR SHOULD IT BE.
>>25170049No, bullying serves an important social function and it makes me feel good.
>>25169608Read what interests you, my first “lit” book was No Longer Human. Might be a good start for you as well because it’s pretty short and it’s a Japanese author so transition from manga to lit wouldn’t be that jarring.
>>25170064I can’t argue with you there. It does feel good sometimes. But I shall refrain. His OP is very tempting though, it almost feels like bait.
>>25169608> something existential and depressing.Ligotti and Cioran.
>>25170054i don't like comic books
>>25170418Manga is comic books but with cute girls though.
>>25169608read camus: the plague, the stranger
