katietatey
katietatey t1_jdjn4ha wrote
Reply to How do I get over a sad ending? by cocky_roachy
What book? You can't keep us in suspense OP!!!
When I get an event or ending I can't deal with in a book or a movie I just rewrite it myself. "Nope, that's not what happened, this is what happened." It doesn't happen often, usually with an animal death or suffering.
Also getting mad at the author sometimes helps. I'm still mad at David Wroblewski for The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. And also to my friend who said "you love dogs, you will love this book," and gave me a copy.
katietatey t1_jdjmgu0 wrote
I have read Joyce's other work and have been curious about Finnegan's Wake. I don't think I'm ready to read it yet but if I have a smaller TBR and more free time, then one day maybe I will. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. :)
katietatey t1_j91vuwy wrote
Reply to comment by WendellSanders01 in What is the strangest way you've found a book? by WendellSanders01
I think Crime and Punishment intimidated me because I had heard Dostoyevsky was hard to read AND it was long, but honestly it wasn't that long, and I don't find him hard to read at all. That was a page-turner to me. After that I decided to explore classics more and not to let "hard" reputations intimidate me. The most difficult books I've read have been Ulysses by James Joyce (needed a lot of support for that one in the form of online analyses and stuff), Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, War and Peace by Tolstoy, and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I still have Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon yet to tackle. :) I am not be reading these at the comprehension level of an English professor, but the good thing about the classics is their many layers and how you can get so much out of them the more in-depth you dive. Honestly I hope I live long enough to have time to re-read and re-read these.
Some favorites are:
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, Moby Dick and House of the Seven Gables by Herman Melville, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion by Jane Austen, Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Notes From Underground by Dostoyevsky, Howard's End and Maurice by E.M. Forster, He Knew He was Right by Anthony Trollope, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas...
For more modern classics, anything William Faulkner although my favorites are The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absaolm, the Unvanquished, and Flags in the Dust, James Baldwin (Another Country, Giovanni's Room, and If Beale Street Could Talk are my faves), Toni Morrison (can't pick a fave, everything of hers I've read has been amazing), Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Native Son and The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright...
I could go on and on (actually I guess I DID go on and on) but those are some top picks. I'm currently reading Jazz by Toni Morrison and I was up super late last night because I just couldn't put it down.
katietatey t1_j8zw7c2 wrote
It wasn't really strange, but one slow rainy night, I found a copy of Crime and Punishment in the break room at a place where I worked overnights when I was in my early 20s. I had always thought of that book as a big hard classic, but I was bored and started reading it. It was so good! That really started my love for classics as I hadn't read anything outside of school assignments in a while at that point. I never found out whose book it was (small workplace), and I left it in the break room for the next person.
katietatey t1_j6ku5f0 wrote
Reply to comment by Your_Product_Here in The 10 Inalienable Rights of the Reader by swedish_librarian
Used to be impervious to this as a child. My parents would be in the car calling my name over and over to get my attention and I just wouldn't hear them at all. As an adult, I can't tune out surroundings anymore. Wah!
katietatey t1_j4qigqd wrote
It might be the genre.
I used to be the same and then I made a point to read more female authors and I've found several I like a lot. Toni Morrison and Yaa Gyasi are 2 that I particularly like. I've read 5 of Toni Morrison's books in the past year and loved each one. Also they are only like 200-300 pgs so not a huge commitment, maybe try one.
katietatey t1_jdqkdz3 wrote
Reply to I just realized talking to Chatgpt about books I finished helps me process and think about them by QueenMackeral
I haven't had any interactions with ChatGPT but this does sound cool! I don't have any IRL friends that like the same types of books that I do and I have some of the same thoughts / issues as you when finishing a book. Thanks for the recommendation.