Recs if you like Notes from Underground...

literary (or literary-leaning) fiction focused specifically on isolation, disconnection, loneliness — and what they teach us about life and humanity.

ft. recs from the community!

Based on the list/book published in 2006, general editor Peter Boxall.

Just a fun little list of books that have inspired songs. Please list the book and the song with the artist in your suggestions, or if it's a concept album based on a book, just include the book and the album with the artist. I will not be including any books by JKR, Neil Gaiman, or Orson Scott Card, or songs by Iced Earth. Will not be adding musicals based on books, songs written for films based on books, or songs that are classic poems to music.

Books recommended by musician Lucy Dacus, a solo artist and member of the band boygenius. Pulled from her goodreads list.

Books recommended by musician Lucy Dacus, a solo artist and member of the band boygenius. Pulled from her goodreads list.

For when you need to wallow in melancholy and misery: a collection of pessimistic, cynical, downbeat, depressing, doom and gloom fiction for my disillusioned friends.

More to come!

Got the holiday blues? Check out my list Christmas with the Cranks!

ANTI: fascism, ai, nfts, Big Tech, billionaires, surveillance states, optimization, algorithms, bot farms, technofeudalism, enshittification, exploitation, extractionism, planned obsolescence PRO: organized labor, punk, analog, solidarity, free speech, friction, degrowth, experimentation, right to privacy, right to repair, diy, material process, mutual aid, ecological living, the human hand, the human mind

*Short stories welcome. Looking for nonfiction? Check out The Big Bad Luddite List.

For when reading a classic feels too daunting. Classics under 200 pages!

classics (including modern classics) under 200 pages

Books for when you’re laughing at life while quietly freaking out about it. Stories full of absurdity, awkwardness, and existential dread, perfect for anyone who’s ever thought, “WTF is even happening?"

For pretentious academics, by pretentious academics, against pretentious academics.

As seen on Lithub

pieces of literature that feature characters that people who are (or have been) ostracized heavily relate to/find comfort in. we all deserve to feel love and to feel community, and these books portray this. always open to recommendations <3

Various titles, from Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Baltic, & Balkan authors.

not "morally ambiguous/unlikeable characters", no I'm talking about I want to smack his incel ass-levels of dkhjfdbhjgj

these will probably leave you staring at a wall for a while. definition of absurdism: intentionally ridiculous or bizarre behavior; belief that human beings exist in a purposeless, chaotic universe

Fixations and obsessions