Asklemmy

55894 readers

333 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 7 years ago

MODERATORS

100

Whats your favorite book? EDIT: apologies I don’t respond to your recommendations but I highly appreciate the community hooking me up with good reads. Stay lit with literature. <3 (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by Up_dog@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

132 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Need to get back into reading. Usually read horror literature and Russian works. But regardless, tell me your favorites !

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. Kind of a weird one because it’s technically incomplete, assembled by his longtime editor and his wife from materials going back to the 90s. I think it could’ve been his best work, even though I’ve always held that his nonfiction is superior.

[–] Varpeggio@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

As someone who loves Infinite Jest and enjoyed Brief Interviews, The Pale King didn’t do it for me.

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Entirely fair! I think the posthumous assembly of the novel — leaving most storylines necessarily incomplete — made it more of a rough draft than anything. I’m just glad it got published, since I love any literature about bureaucracy. My favorite part of IJ is the footnotes/endnotes, if that says anything.

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Really enjoyed Pale King. IJ is my favourite book ever, and I also love his non fiction.

What did you think of The Broom of the System? I've started it twice and given up both times. I just cannot get into it at all.

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Same. I made it about halfway through at the furthest. It kinda shows that it was an undergrad thesis project, and I think his own assessment that it seemed to be written by “a very smart fourteen-year-old” speaks to the roughness. I get it though — he’s chasing the sparks that we find developed later on. It’s funny how close this was written to Girl with Curious Hair, which is so much better.

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Don't think I've ever heard of that one, will need to check it out. Glad I'm not alone with BOTS! 😁