(melancholic-ish) book recommendations pleaseee c:

[funhaver63]

I've started reading recently since i find myself feeling pathetic when I just play video games, watch youtube, and sleep for all my free time so now I can feel slightly better by instead choosing to read, watch youtube, and sleep! Reading printed books piqued my interest because I've been a fan of visual novels for the past month or two now but I find it difficult to read one for a long period of time, and I can generally just read them at night bc I don't really want my family to think I'm more of a loser than I already am.

I recently read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Stranger by Albert Camus and I have The Metamorphosis by Kafka and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde on hold at my local library and I'm waiting on those right now and wanted to build up a bit of a backlog so I can stagger the books that I have to read. I would appreciate some book recs that are similarly tinged in the melancholic/lonely feeling of Bell Jar and The Stranger, but I'm open to trying something new aswell :)

 

[Set Real Goul]

You should definitely try Hermann Hesse -specially the Glass Bead Game and siddhartha. Steppenwolf is quite melancholic.
Lovecraft's the case of Charles Dexter Ward - although it is a horror story, a significant part of it has a rather melancholic and lonely atmosphere.

 

[MessyNonsense]

Basically all of russian classical literature lol

 

[funhaver63]

Basically all of russian classical literature lol

I was considering reading anna karenina because a song I like shares a name with it, but I was a bit dissuaded by the long page count, do you think it would be a good start to classic russian lit? I've also heard about and was interested by the unsettling nature of Lolita but I'm apprehensive to have a physical copy of it for obvious reasons, and I'm not a big fan of ebooks

 

[MessyNonsense]

I was considering reading anna karenina because a song I like shares a name with it, but I was a bit dissuaded by the long page count, do you think it would be a good start to classic russian lit? I've also heard about and was interested by the unsettling nature of Lolita but I'm apprehensive to have a physical copy of it for obvious reasons, and I'm not a big fan of ebooks

Full transparency i haven't read any of that, i've just heard it's known for being melancholic/angsty. If long page count dissuades you, you could always start and see if it keeps your interest, after all you can always just quit reading it (too many people feel pressure to finish a book they're not enjoying; reading is supposed to be enjoyable and meaningful, not a chore. PSA there's no shame in quitting a book!). That being said, while classic russian lit is supposed to be some of the best writing of all time, i've heard it can be dense, so maybe not a starting point? But like i said i haven't read it so i can't say either way. Again, one can always start a book and just see if they want to keep reading it or not. As for lolita, intersting story, I've heard the author never wanted those suggestive covers and was super angry that publishers kept putting them on the book. If you're worried about people seeing, you could always buy a hardcover with a dustjacket and take the dustjacket off, maybe replace it with one from a different book? But honestly, people generally don't notice what others are reading, and if they do they rarely care.

 

[funhaver63]

Full transparency i haven't read any of that, i've just heard it's known for being melancholic/angsty. If long page count dissuades you, you could always start and see if it keeps your interest, after all you can always just quit reading it (too many people feel pressure to finish a book they're not enjoying; reading is supposed to be enjoyable and meaningful, not a chore. PSA there's no shame in quitting a book!). That being said, while classic russian lit is supposed to be some of the best writing of all time, i've heard it can be dense, so maybe not a starting point? But like i said i haven't read it so i can't say either way. Again, one can always start a book and just see if they want to keep reading it or not. As for lolita, intersting story, I've heard the author never wanted those suggestive covers and was super angry that publishers kept putting them on the book. If you're worried about people seeing, you could always buy a hardcover with a dustjacket and take the dustjacket off, maybe replace it with one from a different book? But honestly, people generally don't notice what others are reading, and if they do they rarely care.

ty and yeah im mostly just worried bc im still living with my parents, and my desk, which is where my pc and other shit is, is in a room that they go through every once and a while. That being said, i think i'll probably give anna karenina a shot and just stop if its too dense. for reference, the longest book ive read is the odyssey which is about 470 ish pages and anna karenina seems to be about 900

 

[settling]

My childhood by maxim gorky is my most recent book I've read that fits that sort of theme

 

[Set Real Goul]

I was considering reading anna karenina because a song I like shares a name with it, but I was a bit dissuaded by the long page count, do you think it would be a good start to classic russian lit? I've also heard about and was interested by the unsettling nature of Lolita but I'm apprehensive to have a physical copy of it for obvious reasons, and I'm not a big fan of ebooks

Try Anna Karenina, but you will most likely abandon it, because even though I really like Tolstoy's verbosity, and I am a native rus speaker, I gave up on it myself.
If you are interested in rus classics, try The Overcoat by Gogol and A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov. From Tolstoy, I would recommend the death of Ivan Ilyich and the Kreutzer Sonata. Or you could try some of Chekhov's short stories just pick one whose title catches your interest.
I would not recommend Lolita although it is beautifully written, the plot is very boring.