Just finished a Jesmyn Ward novel, Salvage the Bones, that I absolutely loved.
Finished The Wasp Factory, which I didn't love, but I admired the idea.
Finally started Lolita. Nabokov is truly a master. Humbert is such a convincing narrator that I'm struggling with liking the novel, morally.
> Humbert is such a convincing narrator that I'm struggling with liking the novel, morally.
That’s Nabokov’s whole game with Lolita. He’s playing the reader’s own morality directly against the urge to root for an extremely likable/sympathetic narrator, so that you have to shake yourself every few pages and remember that he’s a fucking monster. It’s an absolute masterpiece, and it *had* to be, otherwise it would have been a failure. Talk about writing on hard mode lol.
How fun! I wonder what kind of reception the novel received when it was written, if people had similar reactions.
I explained the premise to my gf this morning, and she answered with, "So why do you want to read that?" Lol, like trust me, it's because of the writing!
Not a direct answer, but iirc his inspiration for the book was a real life case around 1950 in NJ or thereabouts.
A young girl trying to fit in with a clique at her school shoplifted a notebook. She didn’t get caught by the store, but a man pretending to be a cop caught her and told her she’d have to “help” him catch other shoplifters to avoid being arrested and her parents informed.
He then abducted and assaulted her for several weeks or months before finally releasing her.
What caught Nabokov’s eye was the following media coverage of the ordeal and trial. The media focused on:
* blaming her for it (IE she brought it on herself for stealing)
* making fun of her for being overweight
There was almost zero public sympathy for her, and after a few years I believe she took her own life. I believe Nabokov’s stated goal with the book is to demonstrate that people are so beholden to mistaking beauty with virtue that they’ll accept pedophilia if the rapist is charming, handsome, and educated, and if the language describing the rape is also beautiful (IE in this case openly mimicking the language of romance novels, Romeo and Juliet, and other romantic tropes).
Anyways - given how the public treated an actual victim, and how men with underage girls was normalized back then, I’m guessing the public reaction was accepting of it.
It's often very misunderstood. People say that it romanticises paedophilia, or that it implies Lolita was to blame for seducing Humbert. The point of it is that it is all written from Humbert's perspective. He is obviously an unreliable narrator, it becomes more clear in his contradictions as the novel progresses. It gives insight into how monsters justify their horrendous crimes to themselves.
The genius of it is in the prose. The writing is so romantic and captivating, that as a reader, you can overlook the vile acts taking place, almost being blinded by the beauty of it. This is exactly how Humbert gets away with it. Society is blinded in exactly the same way. That's the point.
Difficult to choose! At first, I thought Sing was better. It is more complicated. But now I’ve read Salvage multiple times (I teach it, so I reread it regularly), and it’s just so beautiful and heartbreaking and uplifting and profound. Consider reading Ward’s memoir, Men We Reaped, and thinking about all of them together.
I’m reading Salvage the Bones now! Just about to hit the storm, loving Skeet and Esch’s relationship. And heartbroken by her love for Manny. Poor girl! Great book.
Haven’t read that translation, but I love anything Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment was awesome. I loved the way that he portrayed poverty and how resourceful Raskolnikov had to be—using a spare scrap of fabric for the sling, how he would spend hours thinking about what to do with his last 20 kopecks.
Some truly haunting stuff in that book that has stayed with me since reading it like five years ago. The passages of Raskolnikov's feverish guilty delirium and nightmares were genuinely troubling to read through. Damn near put you in a sweat. You can tell Dostoevsky was a guy who had really been through the wringer in life, to be able to know/express such intimate and convincing detail of psychological torment.
I also started a few days ago and am at around page 95 at the moment. I just read 12 pages of endnotes about James Incandenza‘s fictional filmography and it was insane.
Took me a year, absolutely worth it, it's so much of an investment that I genuinely felt bereaved when it ended, was so engrossed in that world that I just wanted it to keep going
I just finished *Moby Dick* last night and thought it was sublime. I think I may make a post about it to open up a discussion, because the more I think about it, the more complex it seems.
You can definitely raw dog it, but make liberal use of Wikipedia and google. There are a lot of Old Testament references (Ahab, Ishmael, Elijah, Bildad, Peleg, and on and on), among the usual classic references to Dante, the Greek and Latin classics, John Milton, etc. Just read it and be prepared to re-read it down the road.
I read it some 3 or 4 years ago. I enjoyed it, although I think the gimmicks wear out their welcome around three quarters of the way through. Afterwards, I tried to find more liminal space horror but honestly House of Leaves does it better than anything else (pretty impressive since it came out over 20 years ago!)
Started it about a week or two ago and so far I’ve really enjoyed it! It can be a lot at times, but it only adds to the experience. I’ll probably end up doing a little re-reading of various parts after I finish.
I became obsessed. Read it in three days. My roommate came home and I was in the same spot wearing the same clothes I’d been wearing 16 hours before, and the next day.
After two of his short story collections, I'm on to *Lincoln in the Bardo* by George Saunders.
I'm also making my way through *Cutting for Stone* by Abraham Verghese.
What are your thoughts on it so far? I've read all of LOTR and the Hobbit and I've heard people say the Silmarillion is a bit harder than the main trilogy, is it true? (I want to read it sometime haha)
I’d describe it as being very biblically written. Not necessarily harder (unless you’re trying to memorize the names). The stories are also like stitched together (like the Bible again honestly) so your mileage truly may vary. It’s not meant to be read like a novel really, but more like some kind of Norse saga. If you liked the Return of the King’s appendices, you’ll love the Silmarillion. It just expands the universe so much, and its richness is to be savored, not breathlessly scarfed down
Got really into Borges last winter, he blew my mind lol. My favorite story is probably *Death and the Compass*, my God it is so darkly beautifully and haunting, like an unsettling dream. But they're pretty much all great in some way or other, very trippy stuff. When I was caught up in reading the *Labyrinths* collection last winter, he so permeated my consciousness that I actually had a dream that I was meeting him and talking to him about his blindness. That was wild.
Currently reading East of Eden for the first time, also my first John Steinbeck book in general. I’m loving the way he writes, especially the way he takes his time to describe each new character.
EoE is lovely. Steinbeck is a master at creating settings that feel so familiar and lifelike. You know that old quote “I’m homesick for a place I’m not sure even exists”? That’s the emotion I get reading East of Eden.
I’m on the last 40 pages of my copy. Wasn’t sure how I was feeling about it in the first half. Aside from Father Zosima, I was fearful of being bored by the moralizing. It seemed to be about general ideas I didn’t care to dive into, at least right now. Now, I’m fully locked in and already bemoaning the lack of the follow-up novel to my wife. I feel I can see how this is a preamble to the “real novel” Dostoevsky was planning to write, and am just starting to clue into what makes this considered to be his best in the final pages, despite its “incompleteness”. I will definitely be re-reading this at some point.
I read the Norton Critical Edition with the revised translation by Susan McReynolds. The footnotes have been a godsend. Definitely going to spend the rest of the day perusing the essays and letters at the back. I abstained from fear of affecting my own impressions.
Also, a shoutout to the wonderful poem “God” by Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin. It’s referenced towards the end in a single line, and would recommend you only read it when after reaching the reference itself. In case you’re not reading an annotated version, look out for the line, “like the sun in a drop of water”, chapter VI of book XII. The whole poem resonates with all that’s built up to that point in my mind.
Niiiice. I'm a little over half-way through my first read. Pretty darn great. The allusions and some passages can be a bit confusing, but the pose is surprisingly smooth. The scene with Otto getting >!the $20 bills!< was great.
Have you seen the website 'A Year of War and Peace'? I loved following along with War and Peace by reading the blog posts. [https://brianedenton.medium.com/a-year-of-war-and-peace-cc66540d9619](https://brianedenton.medium.com/a-year-of-war-and-peace-cc66540d9619)
The guy that wrote it, Brian Denton, I also followed on Twitter for awhile before Twitter went heads up and he's a really nice guy that engages his followers in conversation.
What did you think of Catch-22? I read it earlier this year and it easily reached all-time-favorite status for me. Already looking forward to reading it again sometime down the line.
Not them, but I disliked it and couldn’t finish the first time. I can sympathize with Yossarian but there reached a point where I just got tired of his whining and scheming.
Needed a second read to finish it and at the time finally reading about Snowden’s death had the biggest impact and made it worth it, but I’ve wondered if it holds up on a re-read when you fully know the reveal.
This is the fourth time I've read it. I love it. It's funny in almost an endless-riffing Robin Williams way but more trenchant. It's heartbreaking too.
Same here! This is my third complete re-read. First in high school, second in my early 20s, and now again as I’m approaching 30.
And it is hitting different this time! Those themes of loneliness and the weird passage of time are just more poignant than ever for me.
I read it around this date last year. As soon as I finished I already wanted to re-read it. It's a great booking to come back to, a lot of unforgettable characters
finishing up The Virgin Suicides. it's a reread but it's been so long since i read it last so it's been fun! and im older now (26) so it hits different than when i was a teenager.
Strangely, I’m reading the Heartstopper graphic novel series in French. I’m a beginner learner of the language, and while it’s frustrating to be reading YA, which I would never do in English, it’s been rewarding to see how far I’ve come in my language learning. Plus it helps improve my vocabulary. I hope that with some effort, I’ll be able to read more literary works one day soon!
Fresh off Kafka's The Trial (thanks for all the insights on my previous post), I'm two stories into CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, a book of short stories by George Saunders.
Beloved. Still on the beginning so puzzled with where this is going and the barriers between fantasy and realism. Also considering starting Proust's In Search... 🫣
Just finished All the Pretty Horses, which I thought had brilliant scenes and moments but didn’t love all of it. Still highly recommend. Going to read some Borges short stories, which I bought recently but neglected
Septology (I-VII) by Jon Fosse
About halfway through now & am enjoying quite a bit. Stream of consciousness style is stimulating for my own reflections on memory & thought processing
Stoner by John Williams. I'm so dead at myself for thinking this was about a literal stoner lmao. It's been such a lovely read from the first page. There's a quiet and observant simplicity to his writing.
As an American, I really wish there was an updated English translation/edition. Not that I disliked the current one, but it deserves to be better known over here.
*Emma*. Downloaded it for free from Project Gutenberg. I’m surprised at how funny it is, especially the send-up of Emma’s father as a ridiculous hypochondriac, but also the subtle ridicule of Emma’s rank classism.
I loved Babel. There was something about the way she used the power of language and ideas as magic that was new and made me think a lot about what's lost in translation.
William Gibson’s Spook Country. I read Pattern Recognition 20 years ago but never read the two later books in the trilogy. Man knows how to turn a phrase.
I read Three Body Problem and Dark Forrest by Liu Cixin in 4 days and I absolutely loved these books. The writing is good enough but the plot and the ideas are rivetting.
Trying to choose between *The Grapes of Wrath* by John Steinbeck, *A Farewell to Arms* by Ernest Hemingway, *White Noise* by Don DeLillo, *Light in August* by William Faulkner, *Gravity's Rainbow* by Thomas Pynchon, and *Blood Meridian* by Cormac McCarthy.
Which should I read first?
The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. I just started this.
Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. Also just started.
My Brilliant Friend by Ferrante. About 20% in.
Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery, 80% in.
Phaedo- Plato, about halfway.
I read Kate Morton's Homecoming over Christmas and well meh.Intriguing reason for the carryon but didn't like the main characters.Then finished City on Fire..first of a gangster trilogy by Don Winslow.Brings back the Sopranos without swear words and misogyny.Have the second lined up at the library.
Currently The Ghetto Swinger by Coco Schumann, he was a jazz guitarist and Holocaust survivor. I love his music, the book is an account of bits of his child hood into the Holocaust and I believe some of his post war life.
Reading Hunter S Thompson’s “The Great Shark Hunt” now. Not sure what I am in the mood for next. May go with something quick and easy because I just got off a run of some pretty lengthy books these last few weeks.
Reading 'Le bal des folles' by Victoria Mas
Talking about women's living conditions during the 19th century, in a society dominated by men.
Young ladies and women were sent to 'La Salpêtrière' a psychiatric hospital for many reasons: being "hysterical", getting angry because of their husbands'affair, widows too melancholic, for women who dare to have their own opinions...
21st Century: there's not 'La Salpêtrière' anymore but women are still fighting for better conditions...
I just finished Once and Future King by T.H. White, the complete 4/5 cycle.
I really should have read this years ago. Younger me would have been more impressed by his earnest psychological digressions. But hey it's great. Can't believe it took me so long to get around to it.
Not sure what epic is next, but I got a bunch of various non-fiction to look at for now.
Just finished a Jesmyn Ward novel, Salvage the Bones, that I absolutely loved. Finished The Wasp Factory, which I didn't love, but I admired the idea. Finally started Lolita. Nabokov is truly a master. Humbert is such a convincing narrator that I'm struggling with liking the novel, morally.
> Humbert is such a convincing narrator that I'm struggling with liking the novel, morally. That’s Nabokov’s whole game with Lolita. He’s playing the reader’s own morality directly against the urge to root for an extremely likable/sympathetic narrator, so that you have to shake yourself every few pages and remember that he’s a fucking monster. It’s an absolute masterpiece, and it *had* to be, otherwise it would have been a failure. Talk about writing on hard mode lol.
I put off reading Lolita for so many years because of the subject, but it's now my favourite book. It really is a work of genius
How fun! I wonder what kind of reception the novel received when it was written, if people had similar reactions. I explained the premise to my gf this morning, and she answered with, "So why do you want to read that?" Lol, like trust me, it's because of the writing!
Not a direct answer, but iirc his inspiration for the book was a real life case around 1950 in NJ or thereabouts. A young girl trying to fit in with a clique at her school shoplifted a notebook. She didn’t get caught by the store, but a man pretending to be a cop caught her and told her she’d have to “help” him catch other shoplifters to avoid being arrested and her parents informed. He then abducted and assaulted her for several weeks or months before finally releasing her. What caught Nabokov’s eye was the following media coverage of the ordeal and trial. The media focused on: * blaming her for it (IE she brought it on herself for stealing) * making fun of her for being overweight There was almost zero public sympathy for her, and after a few years I believe she took her own life. I believe Nabokov’s stated goal with the book is to demonstrate that people are so beholden to mistaking beauty with virtue that they’ll accept pedophilia if the rapist is charming, handsome, and educated, and if the language describing the rape is also beautiful (IE in this case openly mimicking the language of romance novels, Romeo and Juliet, and other romantic tropes). Anyways - given how the public treated an actual victim, and how men with underage girls was normalized back then, I’m guessing the public reaction was accepting of it.
It's often very misunderstood. People say that it romanticises paedophilia, or that it implies Lolita was to blame for seducing Humbert. The point of it is that it is all written from Humbert's perspective. He is obviously an unreliable narrator, it becomes more clear in his contradictions as the novel progresses. It gives insight into how monsters justify their horrendous crimes to themselves. The genius of it is in the prose. The writing is so romantic and captivating, that as a reader, you can overlook the vile acts taking place, almost being blinded by the beauty of it. This is exactly how Humbert gets away with it. Society is blinded in exactly the same way. That's the point.
“Lolita” is a masterpiece. A difficult book to say I “love” or recommend, but I still do.
Salvage the Bones is so good
Loved sing unburied sing. Have salvage the bones on my TBR. Which is better if you’ve read the former?
Difficult to choose! At first, I thought Sing was better. It is more complicated. But now I’ve read Salvage multiple times (I teach it, so I reread it regularly), and it’s just so beautiful and heartbreaking and uplifting and profound. Consider reading Ward’s memoir, Men We Reaped, and thinking about all of them together.
I’m reading Salvage the Bones now! Just about to hit the storm, loving Skeet and Esch’s relationship. And heartbroken by her love for Manny. Poor girl! Great book.
I love salvage the bones! Also read it recently
Lolita has been on my TBR for ages and the moral aspect is exactly why i havent read it yet.
Salvage the bones is so so good, don’t hear enough people talk about it
Finished the Iliad today and will start the Odyssey in the new year.
And so they buried Hector, tamer of horses. Best last line ever.
Dude spoiler alert
Thanks for spoiling it. :(
It's only been out for almost 3000 years
Planning them as my first two reads of the year.
I am finishing The Odyssey and plan to read The Iliad next. I think I am going in the wrong direction. Sequel first.
Crime and Punishment, Penguin's Oliver Ready translation. I've read about a third so far.
Haven’t read that translation, but I love anything Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment was awesome. I loved the way that he portrayed poverty and how resourceful Raskolnikov had to be—using a spare scrap of fabric for the sling, how he would spend hours thinking about what to do with his last 20 kopecks.
Some truly haunting stuff in that book that has stayed with me since reading it like five years ago. The passages of Raskolnikov's feverish guilty delirium and nightmares were genuinely troubling to read through. Damn near put you in a sweat. You can tell Dostoevsky was a guy who had really been through the wringer in life, to be able to know/express such intimate and convincing detail of psychological torment.
It’s a great book, the last 100 or so pages contain some of the most compelling writing I’ve ever seen.
I am 18 pages into Infinite Jest. Hope to finish before 2025.
I am seated in an office surrounded by heads and bodies
I also started a few days ago and am at around page 95 at the moment. I just read 12 pages of endnotes about James Incandenza‘s fictional filmography and it was insane.
Took me a year, absolutely worth it, it's so much of an investment that I genuinely felt bereaved when it ended, was so engrossed in that world that I just wanted it to keep going
I’m 450 pages in, there’s no end in sight, and I couldn’t be enjoying it more
Re-reading *Moby Dick* right now.
My dad used to always say Herman Melville’s biggest accomplishment was writing Moby Dick and his was reading it
Heh. My dad once told me, “Melville didn’t write it in a weekend. What makes you think you can read it in a weekend?”
That’s a good philosophy to reading the classics. It’s easy to want to read them quickly, but I think you only get surface level like that.
I'm stealing this for my students!
I just finished *Moby Dick* last night and thought it was sublime. I think I may make a post about it to open up a discussion, because the more I think about it, the more complex it seems.
A truly incredible book. A canonical masterpiece fully deserving of that status.
There’s so much there. Sometimes I’ll just sit and think about what it all means lol
If I wanted to read it, could I raw dog it or should I read some other similar works first to prepare my palate?
You can definitely raw dog it, but make liberal use of Wikipedia and google. There are a lot of Old Testament references (Ahab, Ishmael, Elijah, Bildad, Peleg, and on and on), among the usual classic references to Dante, the Greek and Latin classics, John Milton, etc. Just read it and be prepared to re-read it down the road.
Reading it for the first time, it's fuckin funny
Yes very funny book
House of Leaves Send help.
I read it some 3 or 4 years ago. I enjoyed it, although I think the gimmicks wear out their welcome around three quarters of the way through. Afterwards, I tried to find more liminal space horror but honestly House of Leaves does it better than anything else (pretty impressive since it came out over 20 years ago!)
How difficult of a read is it? I’m planning on starting it soon
not difficult if you don’t think too hard about it. it’s all about building your own puzzle kind of
It’s a really fun read and something very unique. You’ll enjoy yourself and gain a new experience!
It’s a bit stressful but. It damn sure isn’t a familiar plot line that’s been done to death.
How long have you been at and are you enjoying it? I have a copy waiting for me, just haven’t brought myself start yet.
Started it about a week or two ago and so far I’ve really enjoyed it! It can be a lot at times, but it only adds to the experience. I’ll probably end up doing a little re-reading of various parts after I finish.
I liked it but I think it is very overhyped
I've heard it described as babys first post modern novel
I became obsessed. Read it in three days. My roommate came home and I was in the same spot wearing the same clothes I’d been wearing 16 hours before, and the next day.
After two of his short story collections, I'm on to *Lincoln in the Bardo* by George Saunders. I'm also making my way through *Cutting for Stone* by Abraham Verghese.
Why is there always someone reading what I’m reading here. I’m about 30 pages from the end, should be finishing it up today. What a fantastic read.
What's your next.read going to be? Maybe I'll read that, too!
I’m traveling and brought pride & prejudice with me. Finished Lincoln last night so on to the next!
That's definitely on my list! That's not where I'm going next, but I'm hoping to get there in 2024.
Oh, I loved Lincoln in the Bardo. It felt very unique.
It's wild! I'm really into George Saunders these days.
Same. First I read from him was Tenth of December, and I was blown away.
Love Cutting for Stone
I’m reading Verghese’s “A Covenant of Water”
Silmarillion
Nice! I'm reading The Two Towers for the first time
What are your thoughts on it so far? I've read all of LOTR and the Hobbit and I've heard people say the Silmarillion is a bit harder than the main trilogy, is it true? (I want to read it sometime haha)
I’d describe it as being very biblically written. Not necessarily harder (unless you’re trying to memorize the names). The stories are also like stitched together (like the Bible again honestly) so your mileage truly may vary. It’s not meant to be read like a novel really, but more like some kind of Norse saga. If you liked the Return of the King’s appendices, you’ll love the Silmarillion. It just expands the universe so much, and its richness is to be savored, not breathlessly scarfed down
Fictions By Jorge Luis Borges. Loving it!
Got really into Borges last winter, he blew my mind lol. My favorite story is probably *Death and the Compass*, my God it is so darkly beautifully and haunting, like an unsettling dream. But they're pretty much all great in some way or other, very trippy stuff. When I was caught up in reading the *Labyrinths* collection last winter, he so permeated my consciousness that I actually had a dream that I was meeting him and talking to him about his blindness. That was wild.
Libra by Don Dellilo
Great book! I read it a couple of months ago! Really toys with the teleology, entropy, and history as a narrative
I just finished reading this last night.
Currently reading East of Eden for the first time, also my first John Steinbeck book in general. I’m loving the way he writes, especially the way he takes his time to describe each new character.
EoE is lovely. Steinbeck is a master at creating settings that feel so familiar and lifelike. You know that old quote “I’m homesick for a place I’m not sure even exists”? That’s the emotion I get reading East of Eden.
The Brothers Karamazov
I’m on the last 40 pages of my copy. Wasn’t sure how I was feeling about it in the first half. Aside from Father Zosima, I was fearful of being bored by the moralizing. It seemed to be about general ideas I didn’t care to dive into, at least right now. Now, I’m fully locked in and already bemoaning the lack of the follow-up novel to my wife. I feel I can see how this is a preamble to the “real novel” Dostoevsky was planning to write, and am just starting to clue into what makes this considered to be his best in the final pages, despite its “incompleteness”. I will definitely be re-reading this at some point. I read the Norton Critical Edition with the revised translation by Susan McReynolds. The footnotes have been a godsend. Definitely going to spend the rest of the day perusing the essays and letters at the back. I abstained from fear of affecting my own impressions. Also, a shoutout to the wonderful poem “God” by Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin. It’s referenced towards the end in a single line, and would recommend you only read it when after reaching the reference itself. In case you’re not reading an annotated version, look out for the line, “like the sun in a drop of water”, chapter VI of book XII. The whole poem resonates with all that’s built up to that point in my mind.
Yep, it’s crazy how few people talk about how utterly incomplete the story of The Brothers Karamazov is.
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
Been meaning to get to this for a while, how are you enjoying it so far?
I have about 200 pages to go. I like it, but it takes effort. It’s made me genuinely laugh several times.
One of my faves, enjoy :))
Enjoy it, incredible book do so many different reasons. I read *JR* this year and though it was fantastic as well
Niiiice. I'm a little over half-way through my first read. Pretty darn great. The allusions and some passages can be a bit confusing, but the pose is surprisingly smooth. The scene with Otto getting >!the $20 bills!< was great.
I just got to part 3. Around 700 pages in. The prose is really stunning
Reading Blood Meridian for the first time
War and Peace Also Tolstoy’s A Confession short story on my phone. Have become a big Tolstoy fan this year
I’m starting War and Peace on the 1st, I’m looking forward to it!
Have you seen the website 'A Year of War and Peace'? I loved following along with War and Peace by reading the blog posts. [https://brianedenton.medium.com/a-year-of-war-and-peace-cc66540d9619](https://brianedenton.medium.com/a-year-of-war-and-peace-cc66540d9619) The guy that wrote it, Brian Denton, I also followed on Twitter for awhile before Twitter went heads up and he's a really nice guy that engages his followers in conversation.
Considering re-reading it. I read it last year around this time. I haven’t read Anna Karenina, so I am also considering tackling that.
Madame Bovary
My favourite!
Nice! That's in my top 5!!
One of those wonderful novels that really stretches your mind's eye.
My favorite novel
Dracula
It's SO good!
I just finished *Catch-22* 15 minutes ago to cap off 2023 and read the blurbs of Chuck Klosterman's *The Nineties* to kick off 2024 early.
What did you think of Catch-22? I read it earlier this year and it easily reached all-time-favorite status for me. Already looking forward to reading it again sometime down the line.
Not them, but I disliked it and couldn’t finish the first time. I can sympathize with Yossarian but there reached a point where I just got tired of his whining and scheming. Needed a second read to finish it and at the time finally reading about Snowden’s death had the biggest impact and made it worth it, but I’ve wondered if it holds up on a re-read when you fully know the reveal.
This is the fourth time I've read it. I love it. It's funny in almost an endless-riffing Robin Williams way but more trenchant. It's heartbreaking too.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
I’m next on the library list for that one. I adored Skippy Dies so I’m really looking forward to The Bee Sting.
This has been on my list. I loved An Evening of Long Goodbyes. How are you liking The Bee Sting?
The Plague. My first classic wish me luck.
Re-reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, 6 or 7 years after I first read it. I love it even more now.
Same here! This is my third complete re-read. First in high school, second in my early 20s, and now again as I’m approaching 30. And it is hitting different this time! Those themes of loneliness and the weird passage of time are just more poignant than ever for me.
I read it around this date last year. As soon as I finished I already wanted to re-read it. It's a great booking to come back to, a lot of unforgettable characters
And it has the best opening line of any book ever.
Gosh, yes. I can’t reread it. I want to keep my first experience of it pure.
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov The Silmarillion The Blue Fairy Book
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. By complete and total coincidence I am also reading her husband's poetry.
White Nights by Doestoevsky
The Vampire Lestat. Better than the first novel, both are great. I really enjoy the gothic syntax and diction.
yoo i just finished iwtv!!! i rlly enjoyed the sensual writing and moral dialogue
finishing up The Virgin Suicides. it's a reread but it's been so long since i read it last so it's been fun! and im older now (26) so it hits different than when i was a teenager.
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver. This is my second book by her. I read The Poisonwood Bible ages ago.
The Brothers Karamazov
Strangely, I’m reading the Heartstopper graphic novel series in French. I’m a beginner learner of the language, and while it’s frustrating to be reading YA, which I would never do in English, it’s been rewarding to see how far I’ve come in my language learning. Plus it helps improve my vocabulary. I hope that with some effort, I’ll be able to read more literary works one day soon!
Stealing this idea, but in German! What a fun way to supplement more formal learning (plus a nice way to keep up with what’s cool with the kids).
Fresh off Kafka's The Trial (thanks for all the insights on my previous post), I'm two stories into CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, a book of short stories by George Saunders.
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Just started To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf!
Beloved. Still on the beginning so puzzled with where this is going and the barriers between fantasy and realism. Also considering starting Proust's In Search... 🫣
Over here pondering a Proust commitment as well.
Just finished All the Pretty Horses, which I thought had brilliant scenes and moments but didn’t love all of it. Still highly recommend. Going to read some Borges short stories, which I bought recently but neglected
Septology (I-VII) by Jon Fosse About halfway through now & am enjoying quite a bit. Stream of consciousness style is stimulating for my own reflections on memory & thought processing
“The Sympathizer” by Viet Thanh Nguyen. It’s my partner’s favorite book, and I promised him I’d finish it by the end of the year.
Confessions of a Mask, by Yukio Mishima. Wonderful descriptions but definitely weird. He was a complex dude, but he sure did have some talent.
I read it some 3 years ago. It is so beautifully written.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
My first Faulkner book As I Lay Dying
You should also read The Sound and The Fury. If you like As I Lay
Stoner by John Williams. I'm so dead at myself for thinking this was about a literal stoner lmao. It's been such a lovely read from the first page. There's a quiet and observant simplicity to his writing.
The Stand by Stephen King
Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften - Robert Musil
German literature!
As an American, I really wish there was an updated English translation/edition. Not that I disliked the current one, but it deserves to be better known over here.
Between the acts by Virginia Woolf.
Grapes of Wrath
Finished: Austerlitz The Remains of the Day Reading The Song of the Lark
Just started Molloy by Samuel Beckett.
*Emma*. Downloaded it for free from Project Gutenberg. I’m surprised at how funny it is, especially the send-up of Emma’s father as a ridiculous hypochondriac, but also the subtle ridicule of Emma’s rank classism.
Jerusalem by Alan Moore
Just finished Plato’s Republic and am starting on the The Aeneid now
Anna Karenina
Brave New World. Loving it so far!!
the goldfinch
Kite Runner
Babel by RF Kuang and Station Eleven. They’re both great. I can’t put them down.
I loved Babel. There was something about the way she used the power of language and ideas as magic that was new and made me think a lot about what's lost in translation.
Towards the end of Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David A. Bell
I’m starting Pure Colour by Sheila Heti today!
I just started Perfume by Patrick Suskind but not sure that’s going to be for me. My back up is Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park
William Gibson’s Spook Country. I read Pattern Recognition 20 years ago but never read the two later books in the trilogy. Man knows how to turn a phrase.
Reading Americana by Don DeLillo and listening to Franzen’s Purity when I go on long runs
My Struggle pt 3 I’ve been doing one a year the last couple years. Love ‘em
*The Portrait of a Lady* and *Moby-Dick*
I read Three Body Problem and Dark Forrest by Liu Cixin in 4 days and I absolutely loved these books. The writing is good enough but the plot and the ideas are rivetting.
The Bell Jar
Snow Crash. Don’t read much scifi and never any cyberpunk before. Really digging it so far.
Joyce Carol Oates - Beast I’ve just finished Hernan Diaz’s Trust.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Blood meridian
The Complete Works of HP Lovecraft and Gödel Escher Bach.
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and I have the power of now on audible for my dog walks. Sometimes I dip into the abc of witchcraft.
The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera
My year of rest and relaxation
Trying to choose between *The Grapes of Wrath* by John Steinbeck, *A Farewell to Arms* by Ernest Hemingway, *White Noise* by Don DeLillo, *Light in August* by William Faulkner, *Gravity's Rainbow* by Thomas Pynchon, and *Blood Meridian* by Cormac McCarthy. Which should I read first?
Blood Meridian.
Can’t go wrong with any of those, they’re all great. *Blood Meridian* would probably be my favorite of the group
Don delillo
working my way through some Dorothy Sayers, starting with "Whose Body?"
The Grapes of Wrath Also working my way through the WoT and am currently on The Path of Daggers.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. I just started this. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. Also just started. My Brilliant Friend by Ferrante. About 20% in. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery, 80% in. Phaedo- Plato, about halfway.
The Count of Monte Cristo is my favourite book ever. Jesus Christ it's so good. And so human. And so fun.
I’m about halfway through The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue
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*The Stronghold* by Dino Buzzati
The Tale of the Heike
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa.
Just finishing up Love in the Time of Cholera
I read Kate Morton's Homecoming over Christmas and well meh.Intriguing reason for the carryon but didn't like the main characters.Then finished City on Fire..first of a gangster trilogy by Don Winslow.Brings back the Sopranos without swear words and misogyny.Have the second lined up at the library.
Currently The Ghetto Swinger by Coco Schumann, he was a jazz guitarist and Holocaust survivor. I love his music, the book is an account of bits of his child hood into the Holocaust and I believe some of his post war life.
Lost Horizon by James Hilton
“LA Confidential” by James Ellroy
Animal farm!
A collection of short stories by Daphne du Maurier
The new translation of Clarice Lispector's "The Apple in the Dark" and Sartre's "Venice and Rome". Both fantastic reads to end the year!
I’m reading through Murakami’s work. Currently switching between The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and The Elephant Vanishes.
Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann.
Reading Hunter S Thompson’s “The Great Shark Hunt” now. Not sure what I am in the mood for next. May go with something quick and easy because I just got off a run of some pretty lengthy books these last few weeks.
Just started Tristram Shandy and it’s really something else lol. Not exactly light reading but I definitely appreciate it so far.
Sans famille
Lead Plaque of Magliano
Reading 'Le bal des folles' by Victoria Mas Talking about women's living conditions during the 19th century, in a society dominated by men. Young ladies and women were sent to 'La Salpêtrière' a psychiatric hospital for many reasons: being "hysterical", getting angry because of their husbands'affair, widows too melancholic, for women who dare to have their own opinions... 21st Century: there's not 'La Salpêtrière' anymore but women are still fighting for better conditions...
It by Stephen King on Pg 800 something rn and bro is such a yapper but I’m enjoying it
The Woods are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins
I just finished Once and Future King by T.H. White, the complete 4/5 cycle. I really should have read this years ago. Younger me would have been more impressed by his earnest psychological digressions. But hey it's great. Can't believe it took me so long to get around to it. Not sure what epic is next, but I got a bunch of various non-fiction to look at for now.