>>25236950
Doomer chart, go from there.
>I'm so overwhelmed
Don't be, nothing to it.

>>25236950
Read
>confederacy of dunces
>the last unicorn
>stoner
>ass goblins of auschwitz

Same boat, further down the road. Start with fiction and get your attention span back. Then move onto topics that interest you. Don't jump into the iliad. Do you listen to interesting youtube videos? History and odd topics usually list sources. Audiobooks? Check something from the same author out in text. I liked Siddharta, and Steppenwolf was absolutely bizarre, but I got through it. Later, buy a cheap ereader and pirate books. Don't read on your phone, it's an awful experience.

Find books you are interested in, nonfiction, hard to force yourself to read. Set a goal. This chapter, this many pages. Do it every day at a minimum. Don't just read things because you think you should. That comes later. Read educational stuff you personally are interested in. Crawford's translation of the poetic edda isn't a serious scholarly work but it works. Dan Brown's english histories like War of the Roses are engaging. Hell, stoic literature is short, usually. The enchiridion is good advice and like 15 pages. Seneca's letters to a stoic are about the single smuggest thing I've ever seen outside of leftie politics.

If anyone who ever suggests reading Kant, stab them in the throat. It's self defence.

>>25236950
read the iliad and everything else and when you're not reading listen to people smarter than you talk about the iliad and everything else instead of standard youtube slop.

>>25236950
>how do build a custom reading list to educate myself on history and lit?
just read a lot and remember you're allowed to reread things, there's no need to work yourself into a fit because you think you're retarded
>Should I consider catching up on the canon a separate dedicated study time from my fiction enjoyment?
ngmi if you're thinking of it in terms of "reading for fun" and "reading for self-imposed homework." every 3rd book you read should be before WWII. "uhhh uhhh ohhh uhhhh uhhh what do I uhhh what do I readdddd uhhhh I don't knowwwww uhhhhhh" just whatever sounds interesting, you can always reread it
>I'll have to be truly interested in studying the Iliad for months
you don't have to study the iliad for months if you don't want to
>and commit to the rest of the western canon in history, philosophy and fiction for years on end just to understand a 19th century philosopher
you don't have to do this. read, fail to understand, read other shit, reread, fail a little better, repeat
>I'm so overwhelmed
literature is a web, not a ladder, despite what /lit/ says. you can start anywhere and get to anywhere. here's my unironic advice
1. read about 50pgs a day, preferably more
2. every 3rd book should predate WWII
3. 1 out of 3 books you read should be just a bit out of your comfort zone (so if you're used to starwarstrekgate20000slop, read Philip K. Dick, if you're used to Hemingway, read Chekhov, etc)
4. do this for 3 to 5 years consistently
5. reread as much as you need to
happy reading anon

>>25236950
While I got into reading in my early 220s, I'd say just start with things that interest you, then maybe read more of the authors of what you liked and/or research what inspired said authors/books and read those. It's fun creating a "Genealogy" of books or "Reading upstream" as I like to call it.

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>>25236950
required reading for understanding modernity

I started with the Greeks a few days ago, began with Hesiod, read Works and Days and just now I finished Theogony, tomorrow i'll start reading Shields of Heracles. I liked both, but Works and Days was much more enjoyable.

I'm thinking of reading Homer next, and following the standard route, read the historians (Xenophon, Thucydide and Herodotus), then the tragedians and finally Plato and Aristotle.

What do you think Anons, is there any changes I should make, or is this how I should go about things?

>>25236950
If you only read literary modernists and poetry, you are missing out on the intellectual process of reading. We need to be reshaping how we think about approaching texts, not dismissing a text because it’s “genre” or “entertainment” — at least not out of hand.
Take David Foster Wallace. He read anything and everything.
https://veritrope.com/david-foster-wallace-personal-library/

>>25237217
Man, stop posting this.

>>25236950
If you aren't retarded, actually enjoy reading, and aren't constantly doing something else that stimulates your attention span, your mind will do a lot of reflection on its own. So no, you do not need to study the Iliad (or any other work) to get something out of it. Total understanding isn't necessary, in the first place because you're reading a translated work, in the second because you should be reading for entertainment and edification, to leverage and expand your perspective if you will, instead of to get an imaginary stat boost to your intelligence. Life is not a video game.

>>25236969
>Dan Brown's english histories like War of the Roses
You mean Dan Jones? I actually did enjoy that specific book. Read it to prepare for Shakespeare a bit

You need to be intrinsically motivated to do things. And how to get intrinsically motivated to do something is to genuinely enjoy it.

Why do you think you never see anyone write "how do I get into reading Harry Potter books"? Because it's people just reading it for enjoyment. That's how you should read as well.

Instead of reading something that is "healthiest" for you read something you think is the most enjoyable to you. This can be fantasy fiction or maybe even some Japanese light novel about some dude getting a harem of big-titted women. It doesn't really matter the point is you can't learn or do anything in life without intrinsic motivation and you need to cultivate it from somewhere.

I didn't read Homer because I was "grinding intellectualism". Throughout following my interests and reading a lot I just got genuinely interested in the time period and history and reading real works from the time was something I really wanted to do. Not in a "you need to eat your vegetables" kind of way but in a "oh man I can't wait to get back home from school and play the new videogame I got yesterday again" type of way.

This is a thing the vast majority of people don't understand I'd even go as far as to claim that this is the biggest barrier separating successful people from unsuccessful people. Successful people just do whatever they actually find interesting and unsuccessful people force themselves to "improve themselves" and force themselves to do things they don't actually want to do or are interested in which only dulls them over time and make them scared/avoidant towards topics like complex math, literature or language learning etc.

Just to give you some indication as someone that just did whatever I found fun at the moment I taught myself English, Japanese, Latin, Hellenic Greek. Programming (my old job) AI research (my current job) Drawing, Bass Guitar, Piano and Ocarina flute playing, musical notation and composition, digital sound mixing, electrical engineering and soldering, 3d modeling and 3d printing. A shitton of history, philosophy and politics as well.

I'm not a genius all of this is just me doing whatever the fuck I wanted my entire life and just going with what interests me at any particular moment. I never once sat down and decided to learn Japanese. Instead I was just interested in playing some Japanese-only games and thus learned (some) Japanese to be able to do that. If you just go with the flow and follow your (genuine) passion in the moment you will over time accumulate skills and careers all on its own. All the interesting people I've ever met were the exact same.

I should point out that almost everyone I know when I was younger considered me to be irresponsible and impulsive for "just doing what you feel like and what you think is fun instead of focusing on improving your skills". All those people are stuck rotting away in some career track that they don't enjoy with no hobbies or any real interests.

>>25238376
I did neither. Now I have no hobbies or career. Doing this seems far more attainable than ever getting a job thats worth something

>>25238376
i dont know how to have passions. i dont know how to tell if im enjoying something. ive never had an interest ive actually pursued in my entire life. ive tried to. god ive tried so hard. but i failed to broach even the absolute basics of who i am. it affects even mundane things like if im asked for a basic opinion. ive been totally incapable of thinking about my future not out of some Carpe diem philosophy but through a total blockage. my head is void. i dread my day to day and despise my past. i dont understand what has kept me shuffling along at all.

>>25238376
Are people who are not passionate about anything just fucked then?

>>25236950
Dictionary. Also the Bible. This'll give you a basic foundation.

Step 2: read broadly and widely. Don't bother with highly specific books yet. Learn about how you can self-suffice in the world you live in and become i dependent-ish. Study that.

From there onwards: educational websites (.edu webaddresses). Academia, Harvard, more dictionaries, some Greeks and Romans, world literature.

After that's over, go wreck opponents in vidya, apparently that's a passion of yours, but now with the applied knowledge you gained from reading + studying. Protip: you can make money from both texts ánd videogames. Yóú figure out how.

Unrelated to the thread but it’s related to all the charts being posted here so I’m still gonna ask: do I have to get acquainted with classical mythology through other primers before reading the Odyssey/Iliad, or can I just jump straight in? I’m really excited to get straight into it but I want to know whether preliminary understanding is required

>>25238564
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nQWFUsYs3MA
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vHIyeQBgtOw
Start by asking yourself what you really, really want, then ask yourself how to get it. Everything else follows.

>>25239330
Just look anything you don't understand up on Wikipedia as you go

>>25238352
Yeah, that's probably it. There's nothing wrong with accessible history for all some turn their nose up at it.

Someone mentioned Birley's book on Hadrian here and I largely agreed with their assessment - it's a sketch and an attempt to fill in the blanks needing a lot of background knowledge already. Very detailed. Fine work. Not something I'd read again without preparation.

>>25238552
>>25238559
>>25238564
If you're that far gone take psilocybin mushrooms to get a wakeup call. You have some mental barriers and blockades you set up for yourself and you really need to let go of those. Think of it like you giving a presentation alone in your room and you giving a presentation in front of a thousand people. Exact same task but in one you struggle because of some mental barrier. Let that shit go. Stop taking yourself and your life so seriously. You have nothing to lose.

A thought experiment I sometimes use is to separate myself from the situation and reason from first principles. Imagine you died right now but another human soul entered your body and has to continue your life like in some isekai or fantasy novel, what actions would you take, what would you like to do?

Alternatively imagine all of humanity just vanished right now. You're the only human still on earth. All technology and cities still exist but there are no other humans anymore. What would you do with the remainder of your life? There's enough stored food to last a lifetime, what would you do with your free time though now that there are no humans around? Would you walk around in nature? Go to museums? Maybe read specific works or philosophy or physics you want to know or understand before you die? Whatever you think of that you would do in that situation IS your intrinsic motivation, cultivate it and do it. Remember only (you) are (you) all the other shit people do has nothing to do with you and your life and your interests. Just do whatever makes (you) happy and interests (you) all the other stuff is distraction.

>>25236950
>Help! I wasted my youth consuming bullshit!! How do I make up for lost time without committing the time necessary to get back what I wasted away?!
Gee I dunno anon try with some jeet AI summary or something or read Wikipedia late into the night
It's going to take as much as it will need to take. If you are truly interested you will just deal with it

>>25239344
i dont know ive asked that question every day
>>25239897
mushrooms didn't do anything for me.
>there are no other humans anymore. What would you do with the remainder of your life
probably nothing just be really bored i just can't imagine that