r/LIT

616 archived posts · Jan 2011 – May 2026

an axe for the frozen sea

r/LIT

A subreddit for the appreciation of literature, whatever that means to you. Unlike /r/literature, this subreddit welcomes posts in languages other than English, self-promotion, pics and memes, inspirational posts, silly videos, tomfoolery, advertising, homework help requests, book requests, carousing, and loitering.

Created May 28, 2009 · restricted

1.6KMembers (last snapshot)

616Archived posts

A subreddit for the appreciation of literature, whatever that means to you. We welcome original content, critical articles, reviews, discussion, debate, and whatever else the community thinks constitutes literature or the discussion thereof. Primarily I have in mind here literary fiction, poetry, and drama, but the idea is not to be too prescriptive about this.

There is already an established community at r/literature; the goal of r/lit is to provide an alternative that is less prescriptive, less pretentious, and more inclusive. Unlike r/literature, this subreddit welcomes posts in languages other than English, self-promotion, pics and memes, inspirational posts, silly videos, tomfoolery, advertising, homework help requests, book requests, carousing, and loitering. If you don't like it, downvote it.

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. -- Franz Kafka
You are welcome to find or start another subreddit, if you do not like the rules here. -- mod of r/literature

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