I decided to start with the greeks as many suggest but I'm having such a difficult time reading it. I'm roughly doing like 20 pages a day and even then it's not really sticking inside my head. It's difficult to remember what I just read. It's so boring.
>>25363450Philosophy is god awful. Read Greek history like the anabasis books and Thucydides’s Peloponnesian war. If you MUST read philosophy read an ultra abridged summary
>>25363450you have to make the rest of your life really boring so when you read these things it's like the greatest shit ever
>>25363460>>25363463Wow, you guys are really making reading seem like utter garbage. Why am I bothering again?
>>25363450starting with Plato is a terrible idea, but unless I know what you've previously read I couldn't give you proper, ordered recommendations
>>25363468First book. Start with the greeks they said. It'll be fun they said. Haven't read any book in my life except like death of a salesman in highschool which I barely bothered with.
>>25363465why should I care if you read or not? stick to playing vidya and jerking it
>>25363473Read but don’t read philosophyHistory and literature are fun
>>25363450Homer comes before Plato
>>25363450Start with The Illiad and The Odyssey. Then read The Histories by Herodotus. Maybe doe some more history like Anabasis and then do philosophy. The histories are dence but entertaining and give you an idea of how they thought and how their society worked.
>>25363475If your best reason is either make my life miserable or read an abridged version of a book then I wonder why the actual fuck you enjoy reading at all. Is there a secret interest or pleasure from reading?
>>25363481Who's homer?
>>25363483When you cut out most of the things normalfags are into like sense pleasures, consumerism, etc, reading becomes good for you.
>>25363486A Greek
>>25363482They sound boring as well but I guess I could try reading that. Is there a good reason to read? I struggle with it so much. I struggle to focus on it and never been good at reading at all even in my early years of life.>>25363489Amazing, why is he named after a simpson character? Does he have a son called bart?
>>25363483That was the other guy you quoted. This is my answer to that: >>25363478From the entire canon, which is gigantic, pick the books written about themes you find interesting
>>25363494>Amazing, why is he named after a simpson character? Does he have a son called bart?Why are you pretending an American cartoon predates ancient Greece and Plato?
>>25363496Everyone of my friends and family recommended mistborn and hunger games. I thought 4chan would be less retarded.
>>25363486PicrelIgnore file name
>>25363498Oh my lord you weren't mocking me, that's his actual name. I didn't think it was a real name.
shit bait
>>25363494The Illiad can be a bit boring but The Odyssey is a good time and so is The Histories and Anabasis. I read for fun and wisdom and because I'm a pretentious son of a bitch. I've just enjoyed reading since I was 10. I didn't even go to college. I costed through high school and have quit shitty job after shitty job. Now I'm almost 40 and have a horrible resume. Hardly anyone will hire me! I'm cool with it though. Fuck bosses. I would thrive if I could just live in a shack and farm. But shacks and land cost too much.
>>25363499I did not say read what your friends and family recommended. I said look at the canon and read what YOU find interesting first.
>>25363516I'm stupid, what does canon mean in this context. I thought it meant like all books.>>25363512So just drop the book I was reading and try out the odussy? Is that the one with medusa in it or?
oh well. back to anime and hentai for you, i guess.
>>25363521Canon means all the good books more or less. There isn’t an official list but it’s stuff like the Greek books recommended here, Dostoevsky, Dickens, works like Frankenstein, etc
>>25363521No that's with Perseus called the Theogeny. Good too.The Odyssey is about Odyseus. It's got a cyclops and sirens.
>>25363526No idea what that means>>25363527So mistborn isn't good despite all I heard about? I doubted it anyway but I wasn't sure if it was like harry potter quality or just bad.>>25363532Ahhh, thanks for clearing that up. I'll attempt Odyssey and hopefully stick with it.
>>25363535Fantasy and sci-fi are considered genre fic and not part of the canon. It may or may not be as good as Harry Potter and you may or may not enjoy it.
Try following this skipping anything you’re not interested in. Edith Hamilton’s mythology is a great introduction. Fagles’ translations for the Iliad and Odyssey are the best for a first time read, he maintains the epic feel of the text. Don’t read anything translated by emily wilson ever. Definitely skip the book written by Strauss, he’s a kike. Personally the order I went with was mythology, then fagles’ Iliad+odyssey, then straight to works and days (Lattimore translation), Sophocles+euripides+aeschylus, now I’m on Plato (collected dialogues of Plato, bollingen press edition edited by Edith Hamilton). The translations you pick are super important, the bias of the translator can completely change the texts. I’d definitely recommend the bollingen press edition of Plato, the older pre-ww2 translations are miles better than the postmodern deconstructionist neutering in the cooper edition.
>>25363468>starting with Plato is a terrible idea?????????
>>25363486>>25363504>>25363521>>25363535Do you know anything? Did you finish grade school yet? I think you need to start with elementary school before you can start with the Greeks.
>>25363559I didn't know what homer or canon means so I must be so retarded that I need to back to school? Dude, I just game and watch tv without ever really touching a book. Reading is for intellectual and nerds anyway. I'm probably never going to even scratch the surface of reading or become any smarter from reading. All I can hope is to expand my mind a bit from reading and grasp some understanding of the world and history.
>>25363566>Dude, I just game and watch tvWow really? I wouldn't have guessed.
who knew bait this poor would get so many replies
>>25363568Speak volumes of the quality of the rest of the threads on the board tbqh.Do I want to post in marxist proselytism threads #1-18? Not really. Incel threads #1-7? Nope. The various generals? No.
>>25363450Filtered
>>25363556Thomas Jefferson agreedHere's his advice to his 15-year-old nephew: An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second. It is time for you now to begin to be choice in your reading, to begin to pursue a regular course in it and not to suffer yourself to be turned to the right or left by reading any thing out of that course. I have long ago digested a plan for you, suited to the circumstances in which you will be placed. This I will detail to you from time to time as you advance. For the present I advise you to begin a course of antient history, reading every thing in the original and not in translations. First read Goldsmith’s history of Greece. This will give you a digested view of that feild. Then take up antient history in the detail, reading the following books in the following order. Herodotus. Thucydides. Xenophontis hellenica. Xenophontis Anabasis. Quintus Curtius. Justin. This shall form the first stage of your historical reading, and is all I need mention to you now. The next will be of Roman history. From that we will come down to Modern history. In Greek and Latin poetry, you have read or will read at school Virgil, Terence, Horace, Anacreon, Theocritus, Homer. Read also Milton’s paradise lost, Ossian, Pope’s works, Swift’s works in order to form your style in your own language. In morality read Epictetus, Xenophontis memorabilia, Plato’s Socratic dialogues, Cicero’s philosophies. In order to assure a certain progress in this reading, consider what hours you have free from the school and the exercises of the school. Give about two of them every day to exercise; for health must not be sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprize, and independance to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks. Never think of taking a book with you. The object of walking is to relax the mind. You should therefore not permit yourself even to think while you walk. But divert your attention by the objects surrounding you. Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far. The Europeans value themselves on having subdued the horse to the uses of man. But I doubt whether we have not lost more than we have gained by the use of this animal. I myself would not propose exactly this, but you will note that Plato is nowhere near firstBesides, Nietzsche was right: Plato is a bore.
>>25363486Start with this collection of myths from penguin classics. If this is too much for you then you are just retarded.
>>25363656>[1] ((lacuna)) . . . For some say, at Dracanum; and some, on windy Icarus; and some, in Naxos, O Heaven-born, Insewn2; and others by the deep-eddying river Alpheus that pregnant Semele bare you to Zeus the thunder-lover. And others yet, lord, say you were born in Thebes; but all these lie. The Father of men and gods gave you birth remote from men and secretly from white-armed Hera. There is a certain Nysa, a mountain most high and richly grown with woods, far off in Phoenice, near the streams of Aegyptus. ((lacuna)) . . . All this reads as gibberish to me. Like just random nouns unexplained.
>>25363566Ok, you're retarded, but you may yet become slightly less so, with substantial effort. Read a few books—doesn't matter what. Then read a couple classics that aren't fucking epic poetry i.e. are at least somewhat plot-driven. Then read something harder and just keep reading, forever.You won't get much from literature until you give it time, just like you wouldn't get everything you could from... gaming... if you just entered with no foreknowledge and started playing either the worst slop around or whatever the artsiest title around might be in some niche circles. Expertise takes time, and literature is the most worthwhile pursuit under creation. You can worry about first-source philosophy and Greek poetry later, if you so wish (you must eventually read Homer. This is not optional.)
>>25363676I'm starting to wonder if I got suggested mistborn and hunger games because of my intelligence rather than their personal recommendations.Also it is utterly comical that I actually have to read homer. Such a ridiculous name. What is so essential to homer's work to serve as a foundation to understanding the greeks? Aren't they all gay fucking slavers? How hard is it to understand that?
>>25363670“Many folktales are told of how Zeus was born and in which country but I the divinely inspired narrator will tell to you how it actually happened.”If that really tripped you up you should really… I don’t wanna say give up but get secondary resources or something.
>>25363687In my defence and rereading it, that's like 20 greek cities I never heard of in my life. Thebes being the only recognizable one.
>>25363685Those works are just entertainment without much literary value, meaning, they have no interest in the broader legacy of art and the betterment of humanity, even though some would call didactic art lesser (I would not.)You need to read Homer because of the influence the Iliad and Odyssey had on the rest of literature thereafter. There's a long and complicated web of legacy comprising Western art and it is an afficionado's duty to make sense of at least a small portion of its structure. You don't need to read them right away, and probably even shouldn't until you gain some familiarity with the basic flow of prose and poetry, but they'll help greatly in appreciating some later works. That, and they're historically incredibly significant.Also, it's not Homer, per se. It's Homeros. The names were butchered by the Englishmen at one point. Homeros, Platon, Aristoteles, etc. No wonder they don't sound Greek.
>>25363450why this compulsion to follow the charts? read what you want, read philosophy slop if it looks interesting. when you realize it's shit you go deeper, you'll find your way to Plato in time. don't force it, the charts aren't gospel
>>25363685You are actually wiser than most of the people in this thread OP. Whether you are doing it on purpose or not (which I believe it is on purpose) you are engaging in Socratic irony which is one of the most effective ways of gaining true wisdom. The people calling you stupid are showing their lack of wisdom and humility.If I were not myself I would be OP.
Posting in retard thread
>>25363930Like this is the only one....
>>25363463So you can get the approval of faceless strangers on a basket weaving forum.
