What is the most difficult book in your opinion?
>>25457931Should your wife be allowed to read books written by another man? It's essentially another man filling up her willing, receptive brain with the seed of his thoughts.
For fiction that's actually worth reading yet is difficult or cumbersome I'd say Tolstoy is peak. If you even mention reading war and peace people get mad at you for trying to make them look stupid.Difficult to follow doesn't equal potential benefit though. Personally i like books that inspire my imagination, as in like it's hard to digest and follow and visualize but there's also a big instant reward for doing so. Finnegan's wake is fun to sound out and let it tickle your brain but im not sure it really justifies the effort. I know it's not on my list to finish atm.
>>25457931That one.
damn she got the scrubby version of that novel lmao, too bad
>>25457946>If you even mention reading war and peace people get mad at you for trying to make them look stupid.I really hate that type of shit. I haven't had it much with lit but I'm also a big music dork and saying something like "I like their earlier albums best" or just mentioning an artist they haven't heard of can get you that treatment, where they think you're trying to out-cool them or something
>>25457931I know someone who read Finnegans Wake with no problem, and yet is unable to read Riddley Walker. Go figure.
>>25457946You know, I was reading W&P at the doctor's office earlier this year, I think I was 200-300 pages in, and this older couple kept staring at me. I don't know why so I just pretended to not notice lol. Do people really think readers are trying to style on them? Like bruh, I just like Tolstoy.
>>25457931In my experience it’s that one, it’s hard to even understand what’s going on most of the time let alone even really grasp much of what’s being implicated. It feels like the ways your thoughts run in that state between sleep and waking. I’ve never even encountered a work of philosophy that is as difficult in FW. Can’t speak for other modern languages though, I’ve not encountered something this hard in French yet but it might exist, the ancients did not write anything this hard, because Joyce was trying to make it hard. I don’t read any other languages but I think I heard of a Brazilian book that’s meant to be like this or Ulysses “Hell to pay in the backlands” or something
>>25457988War and peace is to the silent generation/ boomers what infinite jest is to genX/millenials, the stereotypical smart literature bro book that you read with the cover displayed to look smart.
>>25457931That's not a phenotype of intellect.
I'd say philosophers are the most difficult to read. most are obscurantists and rely on extensive jargon and historical references. even particularly literarily talented philosophers who depend less on others' systems (somebody like Kierkegaard) still throw me through a loop. that's the virtue of starting with the greeks I guess. but reading philosophy is a lower priority for me anyways.>>25457946I wouldn't say Tolstoy is especially difficult, its been some of the easiest reading for me. his novels are on the longer side, and there's some necessary knowledge of 19th century russian culture, some french phrases and stuff, but it could be worse.I think someone like Dostoevsky is more difficult. maybe its a matter of translation, but the prose feels less direct and economical (qualities which I would say Tolstoy excels in.) plus his books are similarly long.
>>25458002oh shit that makes sense
>>25458009Says who? Because she doesn't have glasses?
>>25458002I wonder what the zoomer equivalent will be. Elden Ring lore probably lmao.
>>25458054That's strange I find dostoyevsky to have the pacing and easy to follow narrative of a modern TV drama. Tolstoy is relateable perhaps, and timeless, but the fact is for every one person who has finished Anna karenina or war and peace there are easily 50 who have read 100, 200, or 300 pages. And it isn't that they thought it was bad, it just demands a lot of conscious effort to stay absorbed in it.I wasn't counting philosophy or nonfiction because I feel the difficulty is of a different kind. They're not meant for entertainment or to tell stories. The way I interpret difficulty is, how much can I love something but still find it difficult to actually read.
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
>>25457931 I’ve read Ulysses multiple times without issue. Couldn’t get through a page of FW.>>25457946Tolstoy is long, but easy to understand. Hadji Murat is like a mini War and Peace. You could finish it in an afternoon.
>>25457931Atlas Shrugged. It's not difficult to understand, but it's difficult to finish because of how repetitive it is. I think that story could have been a novella, easily.
>>25457931Finnegans Wake > Ulysses (Proteus and Oxen) > Gravity's Rainbow > Ulysses
>>25458113Because she has a vagina
>>25458002Infinite Jest is an internet meme for literature nerds. Nobody who isn't big into literature has ever even heard of that book before. War and Peace is one of the most well known and highly appreciated classics ever written, by any generation.
>>25458305This man reads
>>25458294>Couldn’t get through a page of FW.filtrado maximo...
>>25458312>Because she has a vaginaYou just spoilt my wank.
>>25457931The Castle by Kafka.It was brilliant at the beginning, meandered on at the middle, and then towards the end turned into the most incomprehensible, strangely confusing gibberish imaginable that famously ended mid-sentence. Granted, of course, none of Kafka's published novels were ever completed. But to go from The Trial (Which felt complete and was thrilling from the start to the "end"), and then directly to The Castle afterwards completely fucked me up desu.
>>25457931Don't like the nose job she had done and if you watch the video where she puts the bookcase together you can see how many self mutilation scars she has.
>>25457946I'd say that applies more to his non-fictional work. My Confessions has a lot of complex syntax and sentences that can take you a little while to understand.
Finnegan’s wake is written purely as a masturbatory exercise. Tell me, those who have read it: What insights does it offer?
>>25458776There is no point, much like dreams have no point
>>25458776It's pure noumenic language. The words speak for themselves, any attempt of a human mind to give them human meaning is not only useless but also limiting to their scope.
>>25458122Zoomer don't really read contemporary things, no one is flexing their Knausgard books. A lot of things entry level zoomer book bros talk about is things like House of Leaves or Blood Meridian or Dostoevsky. East of Eden is getting trendy lately.
>>25458845there are different types of dreams. lots of dream have a point. then you forget them because they're too profound. if only I could remember mine.
>>25458666I can save her
>>25459119>>25459119I matched with a zoomer on hinge over a Knausgard prompt. After we had sex she told me that she’d never read him.
>>25458776
>>25458165>it just demands a lot of conscious effort to stay absorbed in it.compared to what? doomscrolling and gaming? lol
I read The Sound and the Fury without knowing anything about it or Faulkner. I had a hard time. I was too much of a brainlet to figure anything out without reading the wikipedia article afterwards.I enjoyed it though, in retrospect, and I really want to continue with either As I lay Dying or Absalom!
>>25459306Abaslom is one of the hardest novels you'll ever read, it makes Sound and Fury look like video game lore. Continue with AILD first.
>>25459264you underestimate how mindbroken the average NPC is in 2026
>>25459385could be real
>>25458295>women writer>expecting brevity and coherence
>>25459260Let me be clear! If you like or """enjoy""" Finnegan's wake you are a performative reader. What is literature to you if you enjoy this drivel?
>>25459306Really only the first part of The Sound and the Fury is difficult because the narrator is mentally handicapped and jumps between memories without warning. Faulkner had wanted the publisher to print the book with colored text that would denote the timeline of each sentence, but they refused. The rest of the novel is standard Faulkner. Quentin’s narration is particularly beautiful.AILD is much easier. It’s a straightforward Odyssey type story with a lot of beautiful narration. The hard part is that some of the narrators are handicapped or children, so they often try to interpret events they don’t understand. You have to read between the lines during those parts to figure out what’s actually going on.Absalom is harder, but the best of the three in my opinion. You get a lot more of Quentin in that one. It’s an odd book because it’s about Quentin and his roommate trying to understand an event that occurred decades before they were born. They piece together stories Quentin heard growing up, many of which contradict each other, and end up filling in a lot of the story themselves. So in a sense, you’re doing that as well - their conclusion may not be your conclusion. It’s very rewarding if you can make it through it.
>>25459429>i got filtered therefore so did YOU
>>25459143>lots of dream have a point.according to whom?
>>25459438thanks esl dude but no thanks
>>25457935deep thoughts for recovering alcoholics
>>25458776there's no apostrophe
>>25457931Green Eggs and Ham
>>25457931Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics is the hardest book I ever had to read.
>>25459451>Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!Reddit the book.
>>25457931Pounded in my ass by recursion.
I don't know. Finnegan's Wake or Zettl's Traum or some other obtuse bullshit.
>>25460487fomo and mad kek
>>25457946>Tolstoy>DifficultI’ve never heard of someone that has actually read him describe him as difficult.Something being long does not make it difficult, nor does characters having five billion names make it difficult. Russian literature is among the easiest to read.
>>25457931Gravity's Rainbow fucked me up
>>25457946I read War and Peace, and there’s nothing difficult to understand about it; it’s just long and, at times, very boring. Anna Karenina is way better.
>>25457931Probably Dungeon Crawler Carl. There's just too much shit to imagine. I have to keep looking up the random shit that appears in the dungeon to get an idea of what he's even describing.
>>25461224if you think tolstoy is difficult then you probably still view reading as a chore.
she has a spooky face if you stare long enough.
>>25461509Big eyes.
>>25457931Please don't post my wife
>>25460488UHHHH BASED?
>>25457931Finnegans Wake. It's bullshit
>>25461975sorry sweetie but you need FORTY ph.ds before you're allowed an opinion on that book
>>25457931Anyone can read the Bible, but having a full understanding of it is practically impossible even for an intelligent person.
