that's generous

Today I wanted to read but after a page I returned to lurking.

I just finished the first chapter. I made the right decision in choosing this book, Bernd tier protagonist. I can relate to his emptiness.

Finished second chapter.

Good job Bernd, I'm cheerleading your reading.

I just ate dinner, will wash my hands, then I will do some more reading.

 

Tried to post the /lit/ chart with Bernd MCs but the site gives an erorr

There was a bug which prevents you from attaching an image more then 1 MB. Maybe that.

Just finished chapter three. Did you already read this book as well?

That should have been fixed by now though.

I also really liked the introduction by John McGahern. He summarized the book quickly and presented the protagonist through quotes from the book in a concise manner while giving some general thoughts to the novel. Very good.

How to override it

 

Not yet, but I plan to read it since it's on the Berndcore chart

 

I still get the syntax error: json blah blah

Fourth chapter: finished. I pity the protagonist, now he feels love for the first time, but gets quietly rejected by his wife. She seems to have mental problems and sexual restrictions.

cringe

i own this

its kindle oasis

POCCNR is dependent on wect reading technology? I thought that Russia manages better and that the worry would be wect copying poccnrian reading technology?

poccnrian tech can only display cyrillic

Worked around the problem by taking a screenshot, obviously the quality went down

 

I hope the error is fixed soon

Started reading it too, the book flows pretty well and it captures de feeling of your life passing you by pretty well (chapter 3)

Cool, maybe we can continue discussing it in this thread. I will continue reading it after work today.

The only thing that’s bothering me until now is the brevity of his writing. Don’t get me wrong, how he depicts characters and situations still affects the reader in a way, but I think, if he would give character portrayals or story parts more room would be even more enjoyable.

it says made in china

Finished chapter 5.

bydlo tier bost my fren

Chapter 6 is finished. The end of this chapter is very pleasant to read, because the protagonist is finally somewhat happy.

Chapter 9: done.

Chapter 10 was an intense one. I wonder how the protagonist’s life progresses from here. I can only pity him as a Bernd pities another Bernd.

Chapter 11 was short and ended with a beautiful winter scene I imagined vividly.

I binged today too

But I stopped since it's making me too depressed frankly

I guess I have weak nerves currently

I think this is due to his style, I think he's trying to be impressionistic? Impressionism, but I think that for impressionism you have to filter the story through the subjective lens of a character and Stoner has a ln external narrator, so I think thats not the case

 

I think the point of the prose is to get straight to the point and it focuses on making the story flow smoothly

 

I'm not a lit pro this is just a guess

Oh, really? It doesn’t have that effect on me at all. I don’t know why, but I keep believing in the character and think he’s very strong, he’s a true hero in the literal sense for me, that’s why I find it so enjoyable to read this book and observe his development.

 

My guess is that a brief style only fits the main character of this book. He probably thought that a book which has a protagonist like Stoner shouldn’t be one of voluptuous remarks, but of concise clarity. The writing style depicts the emotional life of Stoner.

Chapter 12: love.

I think, Chapter 13 corresponds with my opinion that the writing style corresponds to the soul life of Stoner. In this chapter, the author takes his time to describe the relationship between Stoner and Driscoll. He describes beautifully what love really means. A quote from the chapter that stuck with me is the following:

do you motivate yourself to read by posting results?

No, I just like to track my reading and maybe spark discussion. Chapter 15 was one of the more depressing ones. Stoner is unable to reconcile with his daughter and she slowly slips away. He can’t do anything. Since his love affair many years ago he withered and is only a shell of his former self. I wonder, if we’ll see an uplift in the story towards the end.

Btw, in that chapter the author perfectly summarized the experience of getting fat:

After having finished Stoner yesterday, today I started reading „Demian“ and I’m already half through. Probably will finish it tomorrow or the day after that.

The next books on my list are (not in that particular order):

Werner Herzog - Das Dämmern der Welt (The Twilight World)

Alfred Lansing - Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Fjodor M. Dostojewski - Die Brüder Karamasow (The Brothers Karamazov)

i reading this, no opinion yet

What is it about?

about aging man, he has 3 children, good job, wife but still suffers because he is getting old.

Hmm interdasting. Finished Demian today, will start reading "Endurance" tomorrow.

I read Good as Gold. I favor Catch 22, most likely for the war theme.

catch 22 is my top 1 book i think

Thanks for the rec of stoner. As someone working in academia and who went to college/graduate school in Missouri this is very relatable. In addition the prose is wonderful.

Heller's "something happened" 3/5

"Stoner" solid 5/5, good book

now reading Philip Dick's "Valis"

Do you read books in English

no

protip: don't read books in English exclusively; for every book in English read at least one in your own language, because if you don't then you'll get to a point where you forget words in your language; happened to me and it's not fun

It happens to me as well.