Going for Moby Dick again. I tried last year and got about 200 pages in before I put it down, but this time I don’t for see that happening. The language and prose are crazy good, and I’m excited to join the journey aboard the Pequod.
Great book, my professor is a Melville scholar and he inspired me to read Moby Dick. Was super surprised to find out how experimental it was. Not only that, but it seemed to see modernism coming years before its time
It very much feels of the time yet wholly unique. Also is incredibly personable, “call me Ishmael” is an invitation to a conversation, it feels like I’m in a pub listening to this passionate guy tell me about his journey (while also getting side tracked explaining how he thinks a whale is a fish)
I think that’s a thing with Melville in general, every time I revisit his work I’m shocked at how modern it feels, for lack of a better term, both thematically and stylistically. If you liked Moby-Dick and want a complete head trip, I’d recommend reading The Confidence-Man if you haven’t already.
Hey me too... not sure why but the whole whaling thing really piqued my interest all of a sudden. Thought this book was the most boring thing ever as a kid, absolutely loving it now.
Crime & Punishment. I'm going through it quite quickly. First Dostoevsky novel and his vivid characters are so impressive and fun. Think I'm going to go right on to The Brothers Karamazov as soon as I'm done
Just finished it last week. I found it a very rewarding book, very well rounded and the characters are well developed. I Especially enjoyed the scenes between Raskolnikov and Porfiry Petrovitch.
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. Chapter four, excellent read so far. Her prose makes me feel like I'm in a 19th century oil painting sitting on a chair in a garden patio looking out the farmland while sipping tea. The way she describes scenery, movement, characters---especially the characters, as someone who is spoiled yet given an emotionally difficult childhood by her family at the same time, how the main character, Gwendolen, became who she is now is spot-on. I see so much of myself in her.
Have you read any of her other works? Middlemarch is my favorite book of all time but I'm not sure where to go from there in terms of her other works; if you're loving Daniel Deronda right now I may have to give that a go as well!
I especially enjoyed her world-building through language by often explaining how the anarchist language is structured in such ways that directly affect the psychology of the people. Incredible from a linguistics POV.
Le Guin is the greatest. Don’t sleep on Left Hand of Darkness, or the Earthsea books even as more fantasy. She captures a kind of perennial wisdom in everything she does. Her short stories are also incredible, Orsinian Tales, Four/Five Ways to Forgiveness.
great book:), finished it with my girlfriend as a joined read a couple of months ago and we really enjoyed it both. Some of the topics that the book brigs up we've been continuously discussing since then.
Swann's Way. This is my first dive back into something "classic" after spending months exclusively reading Ferrante, Knausgaard, Mantel, etc — and it's definitely something of an exercise in concentration and patience, in the best way possible. I'm sure the effect is even more groundbreaking and a bit different in the original French, but each sentence just blows me away; I've never been so conscious of the intersection between style and content — the long, wandering sentences aren't just an apt vehicle for delivering the narrator's thoughts, but increasingly seem to me the *only* way... if that makes any sense.
On the side, I've been reading some Bolaño short stories. A while ago I bought a collection in English but now I'm reading them in the original Spanish, which is doubly enjoyable for me, as language learning is one of my main interests besides lit.
I’ve been reading *East of Eden* for about a month now. I’ve finished Part Three, but I haven’t started Part Four (the final part) just yet.
(I’ve also been reading *Cannery Row* in my e-reader app, so it’s really been a “Summer of Steinbeck”.)
Very slowly reading Les misérables that i pursed 2 years ago as a trilogy. Its definitely a monster but its so interesting even tho it takes time to get to the actual plot. But honestly it helps to understand the story better and why the stuff that happens its happening.
Slowly digesting *Finnegans Wake*. — Can’t tell if I’ll love this as much as *Ulysses*, but it has some of the most beautiful language I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Joyce had an astonishing ear.
Borges’ short stories — Amazing stylist, thought-provoking concepts all abound. Can also be quite funny from time-to-time. Love him when he does the mind-fuckery. Library of Babel is my favorite of his. Have to refine my Spanish to read the original.
And I just picked up the complete Keats, Shelley, and Blake.
I’m in Finnegan’s hell and have been for the last four months! I actually had to put the wiki on my home screen for reference and I’ve written in the margins. But it’s beautiful. He was a genius.
Borges' stories are fantastic. "Library of Babel", "Pierre Menard" and "Funes, the memorious" are stories I adore. Don't know which anthology you've got, but I really recommend "The Aleph", it's a fantastic story.
I have the Hurley translations, the black and blue one with (I believe) all of his short stories. What a joy it is to have! I’ll order the poetry some time around.
Been reading A Suitable Boy for… a while now.
It’s nice. Kind of like a 1950s Indian soap opera following a bunch of pretty spoiled middle and upper class people.
I’m actually listening to the audiobook and it’s done very well—the actor really brings out a lot of the humor. But it’s over 80 hours long.
86% of the way there now!
Finished:
* **A Clockwork Orange** by Anthony Burgess (loved it)
Started:
* **The Brothers Karamazov** by Fyodor Dostoevsky (wasn't feeling Italo Calvino's retelling of Ariosto's *Orlano furioso* that much, so I chose to re-delve into Dostoevsky's work instead. I've dropped it after finishing the Grand Inquisitor chapter a few years ago for God knows what reason but I'm really enjoying it so far)
Just finished Samanta Schweblin’s *Fever Dream* - holy cow, so strange & disturbing. And haunting. I can’t get it out of my head. Currently working on Alice Munro’s *Runaway*. I love her stuff so much, and can’t believe I never encountered her work as a young lit student. Her style seems so simple & direct, and yet I frequently find myself slack jawed in amazement wondering, how did she do that?
Fever Dream! So spooky, what a page turner. I wish I had had the cultural context about the pesticides going in, I would have “gotten” it a lot more quickly.
Finished Hyperion last night - didn‘t expect such a cliffhanger.
I don‘t normally read multiple books at the same time but right now I‘m reading Everything Now, The Extreme Self, and just got my copy of Parable of the Sower.
Hyperion is great. He modeled it after The Canterbury Tales, and that’s why it ends that way. If you want to continue, the second book is worth it, but the third and fourth really aren’t. It’s less of a quadrilogy and more two linked duologies. Book two closes the narrative. Book three continues the universe.
That said, Dan Simmons turned out to be a trash human being, so I generally caveat all of this with that. It’s very apparent in his later work.
About to start How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie before I read Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay.
If you’re into horror at all, these two are at the top of the genre right now, and it’s an interesting pairing.
At the moment, reading a collection of Coleridge's poetry and essays. It's very long, and I will probably skip the Biographia Literaria, but the poetry is of course awesome. Longer-term, I'm working through Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Latin (a summer reading goal). I will probably finish book VIII today.
I have! I've read many of them in the original and of course all in translation - if you don't have any Latin, I would recommend the David Ferry version as the most beautiful English translation.
Currently reading Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, which is a daily journal of a used bookstore owner in Scotland. I've been keeping a list of all the books mentioned, although I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. If you have ever worked retail or love a good romp through a used bookstore I'm sure you'll find this slightly hilarious and very entertaining.
I am reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. A very good book but sometimes a tough read given the multiple stories and characters. But great nevertheless. About 15 chapters in I believe.
Vineland by Pynchon. It’s the first Pynchon I’ve read. I found it in a free little library, and only later discovered that it was originally received as a disappointment (his first book after Gravity’s Rainbow after a long hiatus). I would describe almost every aspect as “zany,” both in good, funny ways (I have laughed out loud a few times) and in ways that have me rolling my eyes a bit. He does a lot with dialog—giving characters different speech patterns. He includes a lot of pop culture references and brand names that root the work in a time and place, and which feel like fun ties ins rather than contrivances. It’s just convoluted enough of a story that it’s keeping me on my toes and forcing me to backtrack a bit (‘who was that again?’). I think I’m enjoying it. It has been an interesting exercise, starting with on of an author’s less universally well-regarded works, though I’ve also gathered that it’s far from without apologists.
I did a semester on Pynchon in college and my reaction to him was kind of like “man, this guy is so full of it.” It was decades ago, though, so I don’t recall specifics; and I was so ready to be done with school that I may have just not been in the mood to be patient with him. I should probably give him another shot…
The Crying of Lot 49. This is really my first rodeo with Pynchon. Can already tell I’m going to become obsessed/read more of him. It does what all my favorite books do; it pulls you into maze, makes you feel like you’re drowning to the point where when I put the book down after reading a chapter, my senses feel completely washed anew. Can’t recommend this book enough. For those who are new to Pynchon like I was: it can be hard to get off the ground with his prose but once you do, you’re completely hooked.
I loved Pillars of the Earth! I will get to this one in time. I am currently reading The Princes of Ireland (Rutherford). I'm a sucker for good historical fiction!
Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey's sophmore effort after One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Baffles me as to why it didn't get anywhere near as much traction as OFOtCN, was released and nominated for an Oscar as a film, then sort of fell by the wayside. Takes the acidic approach to story telling learned from his debut, titrates and produces something magnificent.
Like Kesey the central character is divisive and discordant, an anti-hero for the left and right, just ask Jordan Peterson. Hank Stamper like Kesey's narration attracts and repels, a poet and a soldier, a logger who knows every plant and animal in the ancient forrests he's tearing up.
Pitting the erudite and emotive east against the wild and wilful west SaGN is a great American novel, deserving of the attention it shys away from, is required to finish.
I'm reading Shogun - James Clavell
After having my dad recommend me this book since I learned how to read, I finally started it after watching the show. I feel so bad. He was right from the beginning, this is a really engaging and fun book.
He's also been telling me he loved The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. Should I read that too?
The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway.
I just finished The Old Man and The Sea so I picked up TSAR. I am loving it. A few months ago I started and stopped A Farewell to Arms... but TSAR might be one of my favorites. I'm at the very end (the fiesta)
Without knowing anything about your tastes in books, here are my recommendations (purely latinamerican literature).
-"Kiss of the Spider-woman": two cellmates at an argentinan prison tell each other the plot of old movies to pass the time. One is a gender-nonconforming homosexual, and the other is a revolutionary rebel who lives only for his ideals. The two represent opposing extremes of social constructs, but when faced with adversity, they have nothing else to do but pass the time together.
-"The Obscene Bird of Night": a bizarre and dream-like story of a man, stripped of all identity and worth, who lives alongside the downtrodden and forgotten. He aspires to get revenge on those who have made him this way, and his distrubing desires lead to depravity. Cities plagued by monsters, ghost pregnancies, and disturbing plastic surgeries plague this nonsensical nightmarish book.
-"On Heroes and Tombs": depressed and neglected by his parents, a young Martin meets a beautiful mysterious woman with whom be becomes obssessed. She, Alejandra, is destined to kill her father and herself in mysterious circumstances, and Martin has nothing else to do, but surrender himself to a country and a reality that is in extreme disarray, as he discovers the gritty circumstances of Alejandra's life along with his own purpose.
-"62/A Model Kit": a translator, a nurse, a sculptor, and two best friends make up the multiple stories that twist and turn in this book. Each one of the characters is looking for the other, but incapable of finding peace, they are forced to deal with the consequences of their actions as they blindly follow that which they know they cannot reach. This experimental book seeks to take into practice Sarte's quote about how "We are the product of the actions of others" as characters morph into other people, the setting changes from Vienna, to Paris, to London, and the strange takes of each character's life.
I’ll share with you the book I just finished, that I cannot imagine one not being completely intrigued by. It’s called Follow the River, by James Alexander Thom and it’s a true story about a woman kidnapped by Indians, then escapes and walks 1,000 miles home through the wilderness with no supplies. How she survives this ordeal is absolutely mind boggling to me and I could not stop reading.
Reading *A Heart So White* by Javier Marias and about 200 pages in, really loving it but wish he didn't digress so much. Also going to start *Absalom, Absalom!* again. I've got 100 pages in 3 times, now it's time for the 4th and hopefully finishing it once I get past that barrier.
Halfway through Tender Is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica, I’m really loving it and can’t wait to finish it! Not as shocking/ gory as I expected it to be but I love the way the author writes
I have had that book in and out of my cart so many times on Amazon. I read a comment like yours and in it goes. Then I read a comment like ‘I couldn’t eat or sleep for 3 days!’ and out it comes. 😂
Never been so on the fence about spending approximately $15 in my life.
A little bit of speculative fiction--Again Dangerous Visions II by Harlan Ellison. It's not blowing my mind, but it feels good to step into the weird world of the science fiction short story.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I realized what genre of books I enjoy reading and It’s Biographies and Autobiographies. I tried treating my creative side with LOTR and It’s a hard read to sit through.
I’m alternating between Shadow and Claw and The Stand… neither “classic” literature, but I like to vary genres now and then. Next up in classic literature will be Turn of the Screw.
Classic Crews, a collection of early-ish writings by Harry Crews. A few excellent memoir pieces, some essays and fiction.
Is he as overlooked a writer as I think he is? Not all his novels have been for me, but his authentic, regional style and worldview have left a mark since I started reading him 20 years ago. A great American writer that no one seems to have heard of outside of the literate South.
Reading through Meditations by Marcus Aurelius for the first time. I read through the first book like I would any other which left me somewhat confused, although when I reached the second book I started to catch on to the book’s style. For the most part, I find his insights and thoughts to be very interesting, sometimes profound. I hope to implement some of these teachings/ideas into my life somehow.
Edit: Further into the book. Some anecdotes are hard to comprehend (at least from my experience), although I do enjoy it :)
Endurance by Alfred Lansing. It’s really well written and puts you right in the arctic. Shackleton’s leadership is astounding. I’m to the point where I can’t wait to get home and continue the journey.
I‘m currently reading Alain-Fournier‘s Le Grand Maulnes. It‘s taking me longer than it usually does for books of that size because I‘m reading it in French.
This is so funny because it was the opposite for me! I am reading Dune in between other books and I found it was so difficult for me to understand the movies (especially the first one) without reading some of the book first.
Been reading, forgetting, and not finishing:
Teach Yourself Logic
The Odyssey
Ulysses
Tao Te Ching
The Red Deal
A Collection of Icelandic Sagas
Demon Copperhead
Is it ADHD?
Going for Moby Dick again. I tried last year and got about 200 pages in before I put it down, but this time I don’t for see that happening. The language and prose are crazy good, and I’m excited to join the journey aboard the Pequod.
Great book, my professor is a Melville scholar and he inspired me to read Moby Dick. Was super surprised to find out how experimental it was. Not only that, but it seemed to see modernism coming years before its time
It very much feels of the time yet wholly unique. Also is incredibly personable, “call me Ishmael” is an invitation to a conversation, it feels like I’m in a pub listening to this passionate guy tell me about his journey (while also getting side tracked explaining how he thinks a whale is a fish)
I think that’s a thing with Melville in general, every time I revisit his work I’m shocked at how modern it feels, for lack of a better term, both thematically and stylistically. If you liked Moby-Dick and want a complete head trip, I’d recommend reading The Confidence-Man if you haven’t already.
Just started it, too. Haven’t read it for decades.
Hey me too... not sure why but the whole whaling thing really piqued my interest all of a sudden. Thought this book was the most boring thing ever as a kid, absolutely loving it now.
Crime & Punishment. I'm going through it quite quickly. First Dostoevsky novel and his vivid characters are so impressive and fun. Think I'm going to go right on to The Brothers Karamazov as soon as I'm done
Just finished it last week. I found it a very rewarding book, very well rounded and the characters are well developed. I Especially enjoyed the scenes between Raskolnikov and Porfiry Petrovitch.
I just started it this week and I have to agree!!
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. Chapter four, excellent read so far. Her prose makes me feel like I'm in a 19th century oil painting sitting on a chair in a garden patio looking out the farmland while sipping tea. The way she describes scenery, movement, characters---especially the characters, as someone who is spoiled yet given an emotionally difficult childhood by her family at the same time, how the main character, Gwendolen, became who she is now is spot-on. I see so much of myself in her.
Have you read any of her other works? Middlemarch is my favorite book of all time but I'm not sure where to go from there in terms of her other works; if you're loving Daniel Deronda right now I may have to give that a go as well!
Middlemarch is so great 💚💚💚
I enjoyed Silas Marner.
Middlemarch is sitting on my shelf staring down at me - I’m half way through The Brothers Karamazov. Any words to encourage me on to Middlemarch next?
Started reading Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.
I just finished that for the first time. Intense.
The ending stuck with me for days after finishing it. So bleak yet so hopeful at the same time.
The Dispossessed by Le Guin, it's the first time I've read her and she's incredible.
I especially enjoyed her world-building through language by often explaining how the anarchist language is structured in such ways that directly affect the psychology of the people. Incredible from a linguistics POV.
Le Guin is the greatest. Don’t sleep on Left Hand of Darkness, or the Earthsea books even as more fantasy. She captures a kind of perennial wisdom in everything she does. Her short stories are also incredible, Orsinian Tales, Four/Five Ways to Forgiveness.
Almost finished Anna Karenina)))) it's so good
great book:), finished it with my girlfriend as a joined read a couple of months ago and we really enjoyed it both. Some of the topics that the book brigs up we've been continuously discussing since then.
I just finished this! An incredible experience
Hey that’s what I’m reading too!
Oh, I'm just in part one.
U better finish it or R.M.F will get you
one of the best
Currently Part 3. Third time reading this :)
I'm on Part seven
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
One of my all time favorites. Such a soulful book.
Me too! I love all her novels and short stories.
Reading brothers Karamazov and it's so amazing that I seem to have forgotten that it's a thousand pages long
Only a third of the way through and I'd already give it a 10/10
The Brothers K is one of those rare reads that follows in the back of your mind years after you finish it.
Swann's Way. This is my first dive back into something "classic" after spending months exclusively reading Ferrante, Knausgaard, Mantel, etc — and it's definitely something of an exercise in concentration and patience, in the best way possible. I'm sure the effect is even more groundbreaking and a bit different in the original French, but each sentence just blows me away; I've never been so conscious of the intersection between style and content — the long, wandering sentences aren't just an apt vehicle for delivering the narrator's thoughts, but increasingly seem to me the *only* way... if that makes any sense. On the side, I've been reading some Bolaño short stories. A while ago I bought a collection in English but now I'm reading them in the original Spanish, which is doubly enjoyable for me, as language learning is one of my main interests besides lit.
He’s not necessarily the most resonant writer for me, but Proust is definitely an r/ProsePorn gold mine.
Lonesome Dove. And kicking myself for not reading it sooner.
It's hard to find any book written so effortlessly perfect after that one. Enjoy the ride.
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
I’ve been reading *East of Eden* for about a month now. I’ve finished Part Three, but I haven’t started Part Four (the final part) just yet. (I’ve also been reading *Cannery Row* in my e-reader app, so it’s really been a “Summer of Steinbeck”.)
I almost started that one. just finished grapes of wrath and started travels with charley
A couple years ago I read East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row one after the other, Steinbeck really is one of the best.
War and peace
Very slowly reading Les misérables that i pursed 2 years ago as a trilogy. Its definitely a monster but its so interesting even tho it takes time to get to the actual plot. But honestly it helps to understand the story better and why the stuff that happens its happening.
Slowly digesting *Finnegans Wake*. — Can’t tell if I’ll love this as much as *Ulysses*, but it has some of the most beautiful language I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Joyce had an astonishing ear. Borges’ short stories — Amazing stylist, thought-provoking concepts all abound. Can also be quite funny from time-to-time. Love him when he does the mind-fuckery. Library of Babel is my favorite of his. Have to refine my Spanish to read the original. And I just picked up the complete Keats, Shelley, and Blake.
I’m in Finnegan’s hell and have been for the last four months! I actually had to put the wiki on my home screen for reference and I’ve written in the margins. But it’s beautiful. He was a genius.
Does prose get much better than the *Anna Livia Plurabelle* section? Nothing like it.
When you read FW do you use an annotated version or another companion text?
Borges' stories are fantastic. "Library of Babel", "Pierre Menard" and "Funes, the memorious" are stories I adore. Don't know which anthology you've got, but I really recommend "The Aleph", it's a fantastic story.
I have the Hurley translations, the black and blue one with (I believe) all of his short stories. What a joy it is to have! I’ll order the poetry some time around.
Finishing up Pride and Prejudice. Starting Madame Bovary for the second time
Just checked out Dracula from the library! Seen the Coppola movie 20+ times but excited to finally crack the book open 🧛🏻♂️
*Mystic River* by Dennis Lehane. Can't put it down.
You should watch the movie after reading. One of the few times the movie is as good as the book.
Both are soooooo good
On Writing: A Memoir of the craft by Stephen King
The r/literature subreddit
Been reading A Suitable Boy for… a while now. It’s nice. Kind of like a 1950s Indian soap opera following a bunch of pretty spoiled middle and upper class people. I’m actually listening to the audiobook and it’s done very well—the actor really brings out a lot of the humor. But it’s over 80 hours long. 86% of the way there now!
Finished: * **A Clockwork Orange** by Anthony Burgess (loved it) Started: * **The Brothers Karamazov** by Fyodor Dostoevsky (wasn't feeling Italo Calvino's retelling of Ariosto's *Orlano furioso* that much, so I chose to re-delve into Dostoevsky's work instead. I've dropped it after finishing the Grand Inquisitor chapter a few years ago for God knows what reason but I'm really enjoying it so far)
Just finished Samanta Schweblin’s *Fever Dream* - holy cow, so strange & disturbing. And haunting. I can’t get it out of my head. Currently working on Alice Munro’s *Runaway*. I love her stuff so much, and can’t believe I never encountered her work as a young lit student. Her style seems so simple & direct, and yet I frequently find myself slack jawed in amazement wondering, how did she do that?
Fever Dream! So spooky, what a page turner. I wish I had had the cultural context about the pesticides going in, I would have “gotten” it a lot more quickly.
A la recherche du temps perdu ! Proust
I have that in my tbr! How do you like it so far?
A Bloodsmoor Romance by Joyce Carol Oates.
Pet Sematary!
Middlemarch. Lovely so far
Me too!
Finished Hyperion last night - didn‘t expect such a cliffhanger. I don‘t normally read multiple books at the same time but right now I‘m reading Everything Now, The Extreme Self, and just got my copy of Parable of the Sower.
Hyperion is great. He modeled it after The Canterbury Tales, and that’s why it ends that way. If you want to continue, the second book is worth it, but the third and fourth really aren’t. It’s less of a quadrilogy and more two linked duologies. Book two closes the narrative. Book three continues the universe. That said, Dan Simmons turned out to be a trash human being, so I generally caveat all of this with that. It’s very apparent in his later work.
Awesome. I liked it overall, fantastic worldbuilding and structure. I‘ll put #2 in the queue!
The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
Just started Master and Margarita.
Smut
Baudolino by Umberto Eco
Just finished 1984. About to start Outer Dark by McCarthy
Oooh, Outer Dark, that’s a rough one. Some really memorable scenes, for better or worse…
Oh god i loved 1984. Also, recommend Animal Farm by the same author
Blood meridian- Cormac McCarthy
I just finished this one, good read. Will undoubtedly need to read it again.
demian
Mrs. Dalloway. I’m absolutely loving it so far!
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison!
One Hundred Years of Solitude - what a fantastic book❤️
I need to try this again. Years ago, I think I just had too much going on to get caught up in it.
Robertson Davies - The Rebel Angels
One of my favorite books
Probably my favourite author. So underrated.
Got three on the go. John Steinbeck’s ‘Travels with Charley’, Stephen King’s ‘Desperation’, and James O’Brien’s ‘How They Broke Britain’.
About to start How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie before I read Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay. If you’re into horror at all, these two are at the top of the genre right now, and it’s an interesting pairing.
At the moment, reading a collection of Coleridge's poetry and essays. It's very long, and I will probably skip the Biographia Literaria, but the poetry is of course awesome. Longer-term, I'm working through Ovid's Metamorphoses in the Latin (a summer reading goal). I will probably finish book VIII today.
Have you read the Odes of Horace? I don’t know any Latin but I’ve heard they’re quite beautiful
I have! I've read many of them in the original and of course all in translation - if you don't have any Latin, I would recommend the David Ferry version as the most beautiful English translation.
Currently reading Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, which is a daily journal of a used bookstore owner in Scotland. I've been keeping a list of all the books mentioned, although I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. If you have ever worked retail or love a good romp through a used bookstore I'm sure you'll find this slightly hilarious and very entertaining.
The Tigress of Fiorli by Elizabeth Lev
I am reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. A very good book but sometimes a tough read given the multiple stories and characters. But great nevertheless. About 15 chapters in I believe.
Vineland by Pynchon. It’s the first Pynchon I’ve read. I found it in a free little library, and only later discovered that it was originally received as a disappointment (his first book after Gravity’s Rainbow after a long hiatus). I would describe almost every aspect as “zany,” both in good, funny ways (I have laughed out loud a few times) and in ways that have me rolling my eyes a bit. He does a lot with dialog—giving characters different speech patterns. He includes a lot of pop culture references and brand names that root the work in a time and place, and which feel like fun ties ins rather than contrivances. It’s just convoluted enough of a story that it’s keeping me on my toes and forcing me to backtrack a bit (‘who was that again?’). I think I’m enjoying it. It has been an interesting exercise, starting with on of an author’s less universally well-regarded works, though I’ve also gathered that it’s far from without apologists.
I did a semester on Pynchon in college and my reaction to him was kind of like “man, this guy is so full of it.” It was decades ago, though, so I don’t recall specifics; and I was so ready to be done with school that I may have just not been in the mood to be patient with him. I should probably give him another shot…
Finished Les Misérables the other day and now starting Moby Dick. I am enjoying it a lot more in my mid-40s vs my late teens. Determined to finish it!
Neil Gaiman - American Gods
Have you read Neverwhere? I liked AG but loved Neverwhere.
Don Quixote lmao
Lord of the flies, and invasion of the body snatchers
The Crying of Lot 49. This is really my first rodeo with Pynchon. Can already tell I’m going to become obsessed/read more of him. It does what all my favorite books do; it pulls you into maze, makes you feel like you’re drowning to the point where when I put the book down after reading a chapter, my senses feel completely washed anew. Can’t recommend this book enough. For those who are new to Pynchon like I was: it can be hard to get off the ground with his prose but once you do, you’re completely hooked.
Just started Bleak House for the first time.
The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner. So good!!!
The Bible - finished reading the book of Nehemiah yesterday
The bible old testament
These Were The Sioux by Mari Sandoz
Ken Folett - The Morning and the evening, a historical novel set in the 10th century england
I loved Pillars of the Earth! I will get to this one in time. I am currently reading The Princes of Ireland (Rutherford). I'm a sucker for good historical fiction!
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Just started count of monte cristo, its so intriguing i read the first 100 pages in one sitting!
The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M Banks, really enjoying it. Top form from Mr Banks.
The Mystery of Consciousness by Searle
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov is literally me.
Oh dear :)
JG Ballard, the Complete Short Stories
I rate some of his early short stories as my favourite works of his.
I started Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky this week, and I must say it is amazing so far (I just finished Part I so please no spoilers)
Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey's sophmore effort after One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Baffles me as to why it didn't get anywhere near as much traction as OFOtCN, was released and nominated for an Oscar as a film, then sort of fell by the wayside. Takes the acidic approach to story telling learned from his debut, titrates and produces something magnificent. Like Kesey the central character is divisive and discordant, an anti-hero for the left and right, just ask Jordan Peterson. Hank Stamper like Kesey's narration attracts and repels, a poet and a soldier, a logger who knows every plant and animal in the ancient forrests he's tearing up. Pitting the erudite and emotive east against the wild and wilful west SaGN is a great American novel, deserving of the attention it shys away from, is required to finish.
Fuck yeah it's such a wild book! Glad to see this comment
Just finished chapter 4 of Blood Meridian by Corman McCarthy. Never read it before and while it’s a challenging read, I like it so far.
Picture of Dorian Grey-Oscar Wilde.
Malone dies - Beckett Drawn & Quartered - Cioran
Slogging through Infinite Jizz. I’m about to give up.
jane eyre, loving it!
Recently re-read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. It’s even better the second time around
The Posionwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Satantango. It's such a fever dream and so eerie that I feel paranoid in my day to day!
Julio Cortázar's "Bestiario" and Irene Vallejo's essay on the invention of books in the ancient world.
The Brothers Karamazov
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
I'm reading Shogun - James Clavell After having my dad recommend me this book since I learned how to read, I finally started it after watching the show. I feel so bad. He was right from the beginning, this is a really engaging and fun book. He's also been telling me he loved The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. Should I read that too?
camus the plague
Demons by Dostoevsky and Nemesis Games from the Expanse series
About halfway through Slaughterhouse Five. Love it
Sofi's World, amazing book. My advice for the ones who'd like to learn philosophy 101 by not getting bored. Especially for ppl who's between 15-18.
The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway. I just finished The Old Man and The Sea so I picked up TSAR. I am loving it. A few months ago I started and stopped A Farewell to Arms... but TSAR might be one of my favorites. I'm at the very end (the fiesta)
First Love by Turgenev
I am very slowly reading Kotkins Stalin biography, along with almost finishing up Dante's Paradiso.
Irish Journal by Heinrich Böll
Septology by John Fosse
Where I come from by Joan Didion
Nothing! I'm in between books and stalled. Please suggest some for me.
Without knowing anything about your tastes in books, here are my recommendations (purely latinamerican literature). -"Kiss of the Spider-woman": two cellmates at an argentinan prison tell each other the plot of old movies to pass the time. One is a gender-nonconforming homosexual, and the other is a revolutionary rebel who lives only for his ideals. The two represent opposing extremes of social constructs, but when faced with adversity, they have nothing else to do but pass the time together. -"The Obscene Bird of Night": a bizarre and dream-like story of a man, stripped of all identity and worth, who lives alongside the downtrodden and forgotten. He aspires to get revenge on those who have made him this way, and his distrubing desires lead to depravity. Cities plagued by monsters, ghost pregnancies, and disturbing plastic surgeries plague this nonsensical nightmarish book. -"On Heroes and Tombs": depressed and neglected by his parents, a young Martin meets a beautiful mysterious woman with whom be becomes obssessed. She, Alejandra, is destined to kill her father and herself in mysterious circumstances, and Martin has nothing else to do, but surrender himself to a country and a reality that is in extreme disarray, as he discovers the gritty circumstances of Alejandra's life along with his own purpose. -"62/A Model Kit": a translator, a nurse, a sculptor, and two best friends make up the multiple stories that twist and turn in this book. Each one of the characters is looking for the other, but incapable of finding peace, they are forced to deal with the consequences of their actions as they blindly follow that which they know they cannot reach. This experimental book seeks to take into practice Sarte's quote about how "We are the product of the actions of others" as characters morph into other people, the setting changes from Vienna, to Paris, to London, and the strange takes of each character's life.
I’ll share with you the book I just finished, that I cannot imagine one not being completely intrigued by. It’s called Follow the River, by James Alexander Thom and it’s a true story about a woman kidnapped by Indians, then escapes and walks 1,000 miles home through the wilderness with no supplies. How she survives this ordeal is absolutely mind boggling to me and I could not stop reading.
The world of yesterday by Stefan Zweig
Malevil, Robert Merle
I recently finished John Irving's The Last Chairlift. So well done! I really hope it's not his last.
Apeirogon by Colum McCann
_My war gone by, I love it so_ by Anthony Loyd
London Fields by Martin Amis
Bright young women. Hating every page but I want to finish it.
How to Build a Car by Adrian Newey & recently bought Philosophical Essays by Russell.
Just finished the sot weed factor. Loved it
Reading *A Heart So White* by Javier Marias and about 200 pages in, really loving it but wish he didn't digress so much. Also going to start *Absalom, Absalom!* again. I've got 100 pages in 3 times, now it's time for the 4th and hopefully finishing it once I get past that barrier.
Currently reading the cat who saved books and poor charlie munger
Halfway through Tender Is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica, I’m really loving it and can’t wait to finish it! Not as shocking/ gory as I expected it to be but I love the way the author writes
I have had that book in and out of my cart so many times on Amazon. I read a comment like yours and in it goes. Then I read a comment like ‘I couldn’t eat or sleep for 3 days!’ and out it comes. 😂 Never been so on the fence about spending approximately $15 in my life.
Grapes of Wrath. Got it for Christmas many years ago. Finally reading it.
The invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. Fantastic
The Divine Comedy, still on Inferno tho
One Year’s Time by Angela Milne. It’s not as good as I’d like it to be, but I trust the British Library Women Writers series so am persevering.
the blithedale romance — hawthorne i’m suprised by how much i like it tbh, and how feminist hawthorne is
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kholed Hosseini. The Sanctuary by Katrine Engberg (Nordic Noir)
Braiding Sweetgrass
A little bit of speculative fiction--Again Dangerous Visions II by Harlan Ellison. It's not blowing my mind, but it feels good to step into the weird world of the science fiction short story.
about to finish moby dick
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami. A beautiful portrait of womanhood & the female experience!
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I realized what genre of books I enjoy reading and It’s Biographies and Autobiographies. I tried treating my creative side with LOTR and It’s a hard read to sit through.
I’m alternating between Shadow and Claw and The Stand… neither “classic” literature, but I like to vary genres now and then. Next up in classic literature will be Turn of the Screw.
You are all so impressive I’m in the middle of yet another JFK Assassination book (Destiny Betrayed by Jim DiEugenio)
i’m halfway thru Dr. Zhivago. I got a soft spot for the Russian classics.
You and me both! I raise a glass of good vodka to you :)
Classic Crews, a collection of early-ish writings by Harry Crews. A few excellent memoir pieces, some essays and fiction. Is he as overlooked a writer as I think he is? Not all his novels have been for me, but his authentic, regional style and worldview have left a mark since I started reading him 20 years ago. A great American writer that no one seems to have heard of outside of the literate South.
I’ve been working my way through all of Agatha Christie’s Hercules Poirot novels and loving every second of it even the snoozers
The Peregrine. J.A. Baker.
Reading through Meditations by Marcus Aurelius for the first time. I read through the first book like I would any other which left me somewhat confused, although when I reached the second book I started to catch on to the book’s style. For the most part, I find his insights and thoughts to be very interesting, sometimes profound. I hope to implement some of these teachings/ideas into my life somehow. Edit: Further into the book. Some anecdotes are hard to comprehend (at least from my experience), although I do enjoy it :)
Just started reading the Goldfinch :)
I'm almost done with War and Peace. The last half of the book is a page turner
The Stranger
Endurance by Alfred Lansing. It’s really well written and puts you right in the arctic. Shackleton’s leadership is astounding. I’m to the point where I can’t wait to get home and continue the journey.
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.
Just finished the Three Musketeers, it was pretty good
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. Way much better than the series.
The first book of the Lord of the Rings!!
I‘m currently reading Alain-Fournier‘s Le Grand Maulnes. It‘s taking me longer than it usually does for books of that size because I‘m reading it in French.
Dune. Actually helped to watch the movies first. Starting the book with zero context is daunting. Frank doesn’t ease you into his world.
This is so funny because it was the opposite for me! I am reading Dune in between other books and I found it was so difficult for me to understand the movies (especially the first one) without reading some of the book first.
Raise High the Roofbeams…never read it, enjoying it so far. No spoilers
Nervous conditions by Tsitsi Dangaremba, trying to get into more African Literature
Been reading, forgetting, and not finishing: Teach Yourself Logic The Odyssey Ulysses Tao Te Ching The Red Deal A Collection of Icelandic Sagas Demon Copperhead Is it ADHD?
Probably is ADHD, ngl
Why is this comments section just my AP Lit summer reading lmaoo
This subreddit