billy

@silly

wyze guy

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Great Short Books

Does what it says on the tin, get it done in a day

  • Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

    Mental German dude finding inner peace via a fantasy India. Cannot recommend enough.

  • The Fall - Albert Camus

    Very good, but if you haven't read the stranger read that first.

  • Fear and Trembling - Soren Kierkegaard

    Beautiful, unique, mostly went over my head. Read the first few chapters about Abraham and Isaac. No where else have I encountered someone thinking so deeply about a short piece of text and drawing so much out of it.

  • The Stranger - Albert Camus

    A really niche, obscure one, from a nearly forgotten author. Well worth the read, probably shouldn't take its view on life to heart. Despite the associations its actually super fun.

  • Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

    Twisted Sci-fi tragicomedy.

  • A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemmingway

    "ahhhh where have they gone" Great book, bit longer than the others. Maybe a long weekend, not long afternoon.

  • The Gospel of Matthew - Eponoymous

    "How's the water?" said the old fish to the young fish. "What's water"

Great Long Books

Commitment

  • War & Peace - Leo Tolstoy

    You gotta commit, but it's worth it. Get through the first ~100 pages, where he's setting it all in motion, and you'll be rewarded with the greatest read of all time. It didn't get its reputation for nothing.

  • Wolf Hall, Bring up The Bodies & The Mirror and the Light - Hillary Mantel

    Do not start these if you have anything important that needs your attention in the next month or so.

  • A Place of Greater Safety - Hillary Mantel

    Her debut, probably not as good technically as the wolf hall trilogy, but I enjoyed it even more. Maybe more appealing because the characters are younger, living more intensely than Cromwell? Have re-read multiple times. Genuinely detracted from my studies, could not pull myself away from it.

"Vasudeva listened with great attention; he heard all about his origin and childhood, about his studies, his seekings, his pleasures and needs. It was one of the ferryman's greatest virtues that, unlike most people, he knew how to listen. Without his saying a word, the speaker felt that Vasudeva took in every word, quietly, expectantly, that he missed nothing. He did not await anything with impatience and gave neither praise nor blame - he only listened. Siddhartha felt how wonderful it was to have such a listener who could be absorbed in his own life, his own strivings, his own sorrows."

Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

"But I will say no more about it. Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another"

Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

"On the Contrary"

Henrik Ibsen, His last words, said to his maid who insisted his health was improving.

No re-recs yet.

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