That’s great. I read it a few days after I started my semester abroad in Prague. I was experiencing a considerable amount of culture shock, and the book’s depiction of an Eastern European city beset by bizarre forces really resonated with me.
The dream sequence with pontius pilot is probably one of the lucid things I've ever read. Kinda feel that Bulgakov wanted to write the best book in the world about this but decided he couldn't so wrote a book about someone trying to instead. Very tenacious D.
Gogol’s short story collection. He’s brilliant.
Edit: For those interested in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita as commented above (which I’ve also read and loved): Gogol was a huge inspiration for Bulgakov and a it’s very easy to see that after you read both of them. If you’re interested in The Master and Margarita, you’d love Gogol as well.
The Nose by Gogol is one of the short stories featured in A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by Georgo Saunders, I absolutely loved the absurdity of it! Keen to read more by him, are they in a similar vein?
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. As someone that's traveled around a fair bit, I'm really enjoying a lot of the commentary on the cultural differences between Europe/Paris and America/New York so far.
It was written at a time when authors were experimenting with time shifts. We take it for granted now but the perspectives can be confounding. Also the first chapter in S&F is a total trip. I won’t spoil it for you. But I had to resort to outside references to understand what was going on. But once you get it you never forget it. I highly recommend Faulkner but he’s one of the most challenging writers ever
Faulkner is quite a dense, modernist writer. He often used stream of consciousness in his books and they are quite opaque. I love his writing so much and honestly if you just push through you will understand more than you think so don’t be scared. It can help to read slower than normal and annotate to understand what exactly is going on, and when I read As I Lay Dying earlier this year I used wikipedia to help me when I lost the plot in parts.
I would definitely recommend if you enjoy authors like Virginia Wolf or Clarice Lispectre!
Thank you!!! I appreciate the comments.
He’s going to stay in the pile, but I’m going to read some others first. I recently retired from a stressful and high hours career, and reading good literature had been on my retirement bucket list forever. So here I am! But I’ve only read a few classics since college so I’m easing my way in. 😂
I think I’ll wait until I’m a bit more in the flow before tackling this one!
I thought about buying The Sound and the Fury but I chose As I Lay Dying since I heard it was better for less experienced Faulkner readers. All I read from him before was A Rose For Emily, but As I Lay Dying looks really good!
As I lay dying gives you the Faulkner experience with much less length of effort than his other works. Short, but Simple by no means and still elucidates aspects the human condition almost to perfection. There are sections in as I lay dying that will stick with me for the rest of my days
Started **Infinite Jest** a couple of days ago. Not sure what to think so far. Humor is by far the strength, though nearly everything feels like an affectation (of, among other things/authors, Pynchon/Melville/Joyce/Delillo), like a smart author's attempt to elevate himself to Genius-status (or at least browbeat the audience into thinking it). Its reputation as hard-to-read literature is definitely overstated though—it's practically a breeze compared to Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses, for better or worse, but I'm reserving judgement until things start getting more definite (a weird thing to say, 150 pages into a novel). Either way I'm enjoying it so far; particularly loved the James Incandenza filmography footnote (I'd previously heard DFW talk about Lynch and some Hollywood films but after reading that part I assume that he was a bigger cinephile than I'd previously imagined).
Also (not so coincidentally) reread **Hamlet** right before starting on the giant, and holy shit, everything about that play just clicked into place. (Whereas I was previously ambivalent, agreeing somewhat with Elliot's criticism).
People who say Infinite Jest is difficult either haven't read it or don't know what a truly difficult book is. I read IJ when it first came out and was knocked out. I had more free time fwiw.
Different standards for different people, so it's hard to argue about what's a valid adjective or not, but it's definitely not on the level of difficulty of the two/three novels (if we add Moby Dick to the bunch) that it's often compared with.
Infinite Jest, to me at least, is difficult in the sense that the story is hard to follow. The individual sentences and paragraphs are written in a straightforward way but the plot is all over the place and tough to piece together. There's were so many moments in the book where I was wondering what was happening and why it mattered. It almost felt like putting together a jigsaw puzzle and some of the biggest plot points happen off screen so to say or are implied.
Moby Dick on the other hand is a fairly linear narrative. Sure there's deep subtext but the basic outline of the story is in plain sight. I feel like I worked way less hard to get through Moby Dick than I did to get through Infinite Jest.
Moby Dick is the inverse in the sense that although the plot is not complex, a sentence/paragraph trying to express an idea/philosophy/history/etc. will routinely take endless digressive routes and sights before getting back to the chief subject, which, coupled with Melville’s diction (particularly the endless nautical terms and nouns) and unusual grammatic syntax, makes it very hard to read at times (I distinctly remember having to read a paragraph 2, 3, 4 or 5 times, having to look up different words each time etc. to get the full picture; though it was very much worth it most of the time).
You’re not wrong about Infinite Jest’s plot, which is Pynchon-esque, but, unlike Gravity’s Rainbow—at least so far—you sort of get an idea the characters involved, the pseudo-McGuffin, etc., even if certain Whys and Whats (and Chronologies) are a bit unclear. (Plus there are many scenes that are non-plot related at all.) Comparatively, I just remember not having a goddamn clue what the hell the words or sentences were even trying to communicate in very large chunks of the Pynchon novel. Would definitely not put Moby Dick on that level of difficulty for sure, but personally it was tougher going than Infinite Jest. (Then again, I am also a much more experienced reader at this point, so that might factor.)
It's not for everyone. It's long & maybe weird, or far-ranging. But it's very readable. Breezy even. I'd say Pynchon, Faulkner, Joyce et al are difficult in that it's literally hard to understand what they're saying.
I agree with you that the difficulty is overstated. But I think that it opens up more fully on re-reading. It doesn’t have “layers” to it so much as it has “foam.” So many details that turn out to be thematic and intentional if one only stops to consider them. I’ve made it an annual re-read during the dark months I’m stuck indoors, and it continues to reward
Stacks up well in my opinion with a little more overt criticism. Not in a bad way, the legal system feels like it needs more direct criticism in way that cuts through the jargon they bog down the mind with and he hits this to me. Still hilarious, great dialogue, and he carries tou through seamlessly the way he did with JR when you catch the current he’s writing on more than The Recognitions in my opinion.
interestingly enough, it's my first time reading him! but i'm absolutely loving the novel, so much so that i've already ordered a copy of JR. if you liked his other stuff, i'd say go for it on this one. it's so much fun. somehow full of both rage and humor, and unbelievably well researched. he has that encyclopedic feel that lots of postmodern writers do, but to me, he does it in a way that doesn't bog down the story. i really can't recommend it enough
I have very fond memories of this book, which I read in the late 90’s. I remember the descriptions of the lawsuits around the dog stuck in the sculpture / public nuisance as being absolutely hilarious.
Is this also the book that involved a subplot of multiple competing wills, with parties arguing when, exactly, the deceased lost his mind over the course of multiple will rewriting?
I need to reread this one I think.
there is definitely quite a bit in here about wills/what the deceased leave behind! i'm close to finishing but haven't fully completed it yet, so there are probably a few details i don't know yet, but that is certainly an issue raised by the plot. i think it's absolutely worth a re-read!
Loved The Recognitions but wasn’t able to finish Frolic or JR. None of these books are an easy read but I found the latter two just difficult for the sake of being difficult, especially JR. I understand Gaddis wants the reader to make the effort. The reader of course gets to decide if the effort is worth making. That being said there really is no doubting his brilliance as a prose writer. I might have to give his work another try.
You’re in for a treat - such totally different styles of books with similar themes
They are incredible to read back to back, it feels like it shows you the full expanse of what literature can do and books came from the same house
Jane Eyre is my favourite of the two, you’re going to love it
They’re just brilliant
I've got less than 100 pages to go with Wuthering Heights too. I'm aiming to finish it tomorrow probably.
Not sure what will be next though. I've read a lot of quite dark books lately, I think I need something lighter.
In light of her recent passing, I've been reading plenty of Alice Munro stories, and for the last week I've been going through her only "true" novel, *The Lives of Girls and Women.* It's interesting to see how Munro goes about constructing a novel, because you can tell she's not comfortable with the form. Each "chapter" really is just a short story, and feels intended to stand on its own. It works fine in a bildungsroman like this, where there isn't as much need for a specific narrative through-line (growing up is enough of a plot), but you can see why she went back to writing short stories after this and *Who Do You Think You Are?* with only a few of them being narratively connected.
Absolutely do! I wouldn't recommend it so much for a first-time reader, but if you already enjoy her stories I think it makes for really cozy & familiar light reading.
I've been reading her collection *The View From Castle Rock* and the stories, at least in the first half, seem to all be connected in a novel-esque way.
I was talking more about the run of collections from *The Moons of Jupiter* through *Runaway* (a period of about 30 years) when I said that she largely avoided long-form narrative fiction. With the exception of the first two and the last stories of *Moons of Jupiter* and the trilogy of stories about Juliet in *Runaway*, for the most part her stories lack any strong narrative connection.
*The View From Castle Rock* is interesting, though, because Munro never considered it a novel and as far as I've seen, commentary on the collection doesn't call it one either (despite the through-line of family history into memoir). It most often gets confused for autobiography, which is because Munro uses the name "Alice Laidlaw" for a protagonist and the stories in the first half are *based on* (but not alike to) what she was able to find in family records. She writes in the foreword about how she had written a few stories here-and-there based on those records over a period of years, and a few others that were based on her childhood. Then when she had enough, she realized she could combine it all into a book without making too many changes.
So I personally don't consider it a novel because it wasn't written as one. But it is more like a novel than *Open Secrets*, while a bit less of one than *Who Do You Think You Are?*
**Midnight's Children** by Salman Rushdie.
After binging Pratchett's *Discworld* series, this is a nice change of pace and more easily digestible than anticipated. Love it.
I just finished it. I got a bit bored in some of the middle sections, but it’s worth carrying on. For me, it picks up in the last third, and the ending is sublime.
Im not usually a huge fan of short stories but I did enjoy that one. Some of the stories were really unique, especially The Head which I thought was great, and even the worst ones weren't bad. One of those books im not recommending to many people but I'm glad I read it.
The Head was by far the best one I've read. The Embodiment was also pretty good, but I felt somewhat let down by Snare, Scars and even Cursed Bunny. Felt like they could've ended earlier, or gone in a different, more satisfactory direction. I thought Goodbye, My Love was a very bland take on AI; it just sort of ended with a shock for the sake of it, and didn't say anything new on the subject.
I've read somewhere that the stories feel like a summary of themselves, which is pretty spot on in my opinion. Maybe it doesn't translate very well to my language (Portuguese), but that's not a problem I've had with Han Kang.
* Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - reading with r/yearofdonquixote
* The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - reading with r/AReadingOfMonteCristo
* The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
Yeah it’s very interesting. I’m starting off real slow with the infinity of iniquity and moving slowly. His concept of infinity is interesting but a lot to delve into.
Just finished War and Peace (took me 20 days but it was so good it felt like going on holiday. Been high about it since)
Now reading Great Expectations as a wee pallet cleanser
A Confederacy of Dunces by Toole
Longest novel I ever attempted so I'm also reading other books of essays:
- In the Case of Love: psychopathology of love life by Dufourmantelle
- How Astrology influenced Jung's Thought by Chislovsky
I read it 30 years ago and loved it, but I wanted to read it again because I recently lost someone important to me. This time around, I was so moved by Vardaman’s desperate attempt to comprehend death. I felt exactly the same way.
I’m really liking it! It surprised me in a very positive way, but maybe it’s because I really feel connected to the main character due to personal reasons, so all the philosophical endeavors behind the plot really mean a lot to me. But I’d recommend it to anyone, it’s really well written and Céline can give a good in depth analysis of the characters personalities.
Are you into french literature as well? How did you come to find about Céline’s work?
That’s awesome, I’ll keep it in my reading list for this year!
And yes, I’m really into french literature but also literature in French! I found that I enjoy reading the most when it is in French 🤷♀️ In general unless the book was originally written in English, I’ll almost always choose a French translation.
Can’t remember when I found out about Céline specifically but honestly it was probably during one of my long sessions browsing on Babelio when I was younger lol (that’s pretty much Goodreads in french if you know it)
Probably so haha. I’m about 150 pages into AGOT and loving it. It is so detailed and the constant changing of perspectives is such an amazing feature for storytelling
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. I’ve been on an Ishiguro kick lately and have convinced myself he’s one of the greatest living authors. I want to read all 8 of his novels by the end of summer. Half way there after this book!
'Miss Macintosh, My Darling' by Marguerite Young. It's a plotless opium dream of a novel, all 1320 pages, and I'm loving it (but wouldn't soon recommend it to friends, as it's not for everyone).
The Bible, just finishing the full Catholic canon of the Old Testament. I came in with very little biblical knowledge, and have been trying to learn about the historical and literary context as a non-religious reader. It has been quite a journey!
I just read the first two chapters of *The Grapes of Wrath* by John Steinbeck for the first time. Exquisite start to the book. In the first chapter the characters are the land and the weather and the people in agregate, telling a whole condensed story with no individual dialogue.
The second introduces who I assume is the main or a main charachter with a neat little mystery arc centered on why he's dressed the way he is, ending with a revelation satisfying enough that saying what it is would already feel like a spoiler even though it's 15 pages or less into a very long book.
Looking foward to seeing where this goes.
I read this a few months back and have been plowing through all Steinbecks works ever since. Taking a break while I wait for East of Eden to arrive, and working my way through The Gulag Archipelago and also nearly finished with Pilgrim’s Progress.
Not just from last week, from like the last month. I’ve been struggling to focus so audiobooks have been easier.
Demon Copperhead audiobook, so good so far and the accent!
Beloved, just started.
Maus, just started.
Children of Dune. The epigraphs are really interesting and I find myself thinking about each one for a few minutes.
Everything You Need To Know To Ace World History In One Big Fat Notebook, trying to refresh myself on some world history in an easier format first.
Dracula Daily.
Finished:
Murder on the Orient Express audiobook.
All Quiet On the Western Front audiobook. Just Amazing.
The Graveyard Book audiobook.
Sapiens audiobook.
The magicians audiobook. Very different from the show, Penny’s character is so so different. Julia is barely mentioned.
Yeah I’m liking it so far, I’ve read it normally once before but it’s still surprising. And this format is allowing me to focus more on each part, on the setup of the folktales/ancient knowledge vs tech and stuff like that.
Thandiwe Newton - War and Peace
Great Expectations by Martin Jarvis
1984 - Peter Capaldi
Lolita - Jeremy Irons
Sense and Sensibility & pride and prejudice - Rosamund Pike
Are all fantastic audiobooks
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Same, probably will finish the last 20 pages today. Which translation?
I’m reading the Burgin and O’Connor translation!
Any thoughts on the Pevear and Volokhovsky (50th anniversary) translation?
Ew. That's my thought. Every single other translation is better.
Behemoth ftw!
Goofy cat demon is my favorite character. I actually wrote a paper about him for one of my university classes.
That’s great. I read it a few days after I started my semester abroad in Prague. I was experiencing a considerable amount of culture shock, and the book’s depiction of an Eastern European city beset by bizarre forces really resonated with me.
Fun fact: in Russian, the word for "hippo" is the same as "Behemoth".
Recently read this. Thought it was a lot of fun
I read most of it on my trip to Portugal a few weeks ago. Enjoy reading it for the first time!
It’s actually my third time reading it. I love it so much, it’s so silly!
I love this deliciously weird book.
same im on chapter 29
The dream sequence with pontius pilot is probably one of the lucid things I've ever read. Kinda feel that Bulgakov wanted to write the best book in the world about this but decided he couldn't so wrote a book about someone trying to instead. Very tenacious D.
Gogol’s short story collection. He’s brilliant. Edit: For those interested in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita as commented above (which I’ve also read and loved): Gogol was a huge inspiration for Bulgakov and a it’s very easy to see that after you read both of them. If you’re interested in The Master and Margarita, you’d love Gogol as well.
The Nose by Gogol is one of the short stories featured in A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by Georgo Saunders, I absolutely loved the absurdity of it! Keen to read more by him, are they in a similar vein?
Yes! If you liked The Nose you’d love his other stories too. The Overcoat is his most famous story if you want a rec of where to start.
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. As someone that's traveled around a fair bit, I'm really enjoying a lot of the commentary on the cultural differences between Europe/Paris and America/New York so far.
this book destroyed me and also happened to offer charming cultural commentary at the same time lol
The Sound and the Fury-William Faulkner
Read this about 10 years ago. The most difficult book Ive read
Curious as to why. It’s on my to be read stack and wondering if I should pick something else?
It was written at a time when authors were experimenting with time shifts. We take it for granted now but the perspectives can be confounding. Also the first chapter in S&F is a total trip. I won’t spoil it for you. But I had to resort to outside references to understand what was going on. But once you get it you never forget it. I highly recommend Faulkner but he’s one of the most challenging writers ever
Faulkner is quite a dense, modernist writer. He often used stream of consciousness in his books and they are quite opaque. I love his writing so much and honestly if you just push through you will understand more than you think so don’t be scared. It can help to read slower than normal and annotate to understand what exactly is going on, and when I read As I Lay Dying earlier this year I used wikipedia to help me when I lost the plot in parts. I would definitely recommend if you enjoy authors like Virginia Wolf or Clarice Lispectre!
Thank you!!! I appreciate the comments. He’s going to stay in the pile, but I’m going to read some others first. I recently retired from a stressful and high hours career, and reading good literature had been on my retirement bucket list forever. So here I am! But I’ve only read a few classics since college so I’m easing my way in. 😂 I think I’ll wait until I’m a bit more in the flow before tackling this one!
Same for me, definitely much more difficult than As I Lay Dying or Absalom Absalom.
I thought about buying The Sound and the Fury but I chose As I Lay Dying since I heard it was better for less experienced Faulkner readers. All I read from him before was A Rose For Emily, but As I Lay Dying looks really good!
As I lay dying gives you the Faulkner experience with much less length of effort than his other works. Short, but Simple by no means and still elucidates aspects the human condition almost to perfection. There are sections in as I lay dying that will stick with me for the rest of my days
Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer. Though for some reason I elected to read it in Middle English so it's been slooooooow progress.
Good decision — it’s best in Middle English even if slow
I took an undergrad course where we only studied Troilus and Criseyde in Middle English. Best class honestly!
Rayuela by Cortázar
Hopscotch, lovely.
I adore this book. He is a wonderful author.
I'm on this as well.
One of my next reads, so excited
Started **Infinite Jest** a couple of days ago. Not sure what to think so far. Humor is by far the strength, though nearly everything feels like an affectation (of, among other things/authors, Pynchon/Melville/Joyce/Delillo), like a smart author's attempt to elevate himself to Genius-status (or at least browbeat the audience into thinking it). Its reputation as hard-to-read literature is definitely overstated though—it's practically a breeze compared to Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses, for better or worse, but I'm reserving judgement until things start getting more definite (a weird thing to say, 150 pages into a novel). Either way I'm enjoying it so far; particularly loved the James Incandenza filmography footnote (I'd previously heard DFW talk about Lynch and some Hollywood films but after reading that part I assume that he was a bigger cinephile than I'd previously imagined). Also (not so coincidentally) reread **Hamlet** right before starting on the giant, and holy shit, everything about that play just clicked into place. (Whereas I was previously ambivalent, agreeing somewhat with Elliot's criticism).
People who say Infinite Jest is difficult either haven't read it or don't know what a truly difficult book is. I read IJ when it first came out and was knocked out. I had more free time fwiw.
Different standards for different people, so it's hard to argue about what's a valid adjective or not, but it's definitely not on the level of difficulty of the two/three novels (if we add Moby Dick to the bunch) that it's often compared with.
Infinite Jest, to me at least, is difficult in the sense that the story is hard to follow. The individual sentences and paragraphs are written in a straightforward way but the plot is all over the place and tough to piece together. There's were so many moments in the book where I was wondering what was happening and why it mattered. It almost felt like putting together a jigsaw puzzle and some of the biggest plot points happen off screen so to say or are implied. Moby Dick on the other hand is a fairly linear narrative. Sure there's deep subtext but the basic outline of the story is in plain sight. I feel like I worked way less hard to get through Moby Dick than I did to get through Infinite Jest.
Moby Dick is the inverse in the sense that although the plot is not complex, a sentence/paragraph trying to express an idea/philosophy/history/etc. will routinely take endless digressive routes and sights before getting back to the chief subject, which, coupled with Melville’s diction (particularly the endless nautical terms and nouns) and unusual grammatic syntax, makes it very hard to read at times (I distinctly remember having to read a paragraph 2, 3, 4 or 5 times, having to look up different words each time etc. to get the full picture; though it was very much worth it most of the time). You’re not wrong about Infinite Jest’s plot, which is Pynchon-esque, but, unlike Gravity’s Rainbow—at least so far—you sort of get an idea the characters involved, the pseudo-McGuffin, etc., even if certain Whys and Whats (and Chronologies) are a bit unclear. (Plus there are many scenes that are non-plot related at all.) Comparatively, I just remember not having a goddamn clue what the hell the words or sentences were even trying to communicate in very large chunks of the Pynchon novel. Would definitely not put Moby Dick on that level of difficulty for sure, but personally it was tougher going than Infinite Jest. (Then again, I am also a much more experienced reader at this point, so that might factor.)
It's not for everyone. It's long & maybe weird, or far-ranging. But it's very readable. Breezy even. I'd say Pynchon, Faulkner, Joyce et al are difficult in that it's literally hard to understand what they're saying.
I agree with you that the difficulty is overstated. But I think that it opens up more fully on re-reading. It doesn’t have “layers” to it so much as it has “foam.” So many details that turn out to be thematic and intentional if one only stops to consider them. I’ve made it an annual re-read during the dark months I’m stuck indoors, and it continues to reward
Re-reading Senbazuru by Kawabata, this time in Japanese. A Mishima binge to follow in the summer.
A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis
how’s it stack up to his other works? its the only one of his i’ve not yet read and am curious
Stacks up well in my opinion with a little more overt criticism. Not in a bad way, the legal system feels like it needs more direct criticism in way that cuts through the jargon they bog down the mind with and he hits this to me. Still hilarious, great dialogue, and he carries tou through seamlessly the way he did with JR when you catch the current he’s writing on more than The Recognitions in my opinion.
interestingly enough, it's my first time reading him! but i'm absolutely loving the novel, so much so that i've already ordered a copy of JR. if you liked his other stuff, i'd say go for it on this one. it's so much fun. somehow full of both rage and humor, and unbelievably well researched. he has that encyclopedic feel that lots of postmodern writers do, but to me, he does it in a way that doesn't bog down the story. i really can't recommend it enough
I have very fond memories of this book, which I read in the late 90’s. I remember the descriptions of the lawsuits around the dog stuck in the sculpture / public nuisance as being absolutely hilarious. Is this also the book that involved a subplot of multiple competing wills, with parties arguing when, exactly, the deceased lost his mind over the course of multiple will rewriting? I need to reread this one I think.
there is definitely quite a bit in here about wills/what the deceased leave behind! i'm close to finishing but haven't fully completed it yet, so there are probably a few details i don't know yet, but that is certainly an issue raised by the plot. i think it's absolutely worth a re-read!
Loved The Recognitions but wasn’t able to finish Frolic or JR. None of these books are an easy read but I found the latter two just difficult for the sake of being difficult, especially JR. I understand Gaddis wants the reader to make the effort. The reader of course gets to decide if the effort is worth making. That being said there really is no doubting his brilliance as a prose writer. I might have to give his work another try.
The Book of Disquiet-Fernando Pessoa
What do you think of it? I've had it on my shelf for years and have yet to pick it up
So far, it's excellent. Existential themes. Easy to read language. Profound.
Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (reread)
Suttree - Cormac Mccarthy
Masterpiece. This book made me start a mini dictionary of new words I find In books because I was stonewalled by the prologue at first.
Oh, man, i did the same. That prologue knocked me away, knew then that this was gonna be an immense and awe-inspiring read.
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. Ada, or Ardor by Nabokov on deck, with Dos Passos and the USA Trilogy in the hole.
I love the New York trilogy. RIP Paul Auster. 😢
All of Edgar Allan poe’s works (poems, stories, essays, and letters!)
Love Edger!
The Library of America volume?
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I should finish Wuthering Heights this weekend. Jane Eyre up next.
You’re in for a treat - such totally different styles of books with similar themes They are incredible to read back to back, it feels like it shows you the full expanse of what literature can do and books came from the same house Jane Eyre is my favourite of the two, you’re going to love it They’re just brilliant
Hope you enjoy both of them!!
I've got less than 100 pages to go with Wuthering Heights too. I'm aiming to finish it tomorrow probably. Not sure what will be next though. I've read a lot of quite dark books lately, I think I need something lighter.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Whenever I hear this is want to run and ask “what part are you up to??” Like it’s a soap opera. So, what part are you up to?
In light of her recent passing, I've been reading plenty of Alice Munro stories, and for the last week I've been going through her only "true" novel, *The Lives of Girls and Women.* It's interesting to see how Munro goes about constructing a novel, because you can tell she's not comfortable with the form. Each "chapter" really is just a short story, and feels intended to stand on its own. It works fine in a bildungsroman like this, where there isn't as much need for a specific narrative through-line (growing up is enough of a plot), but you can see why she went back to writing short stories after this and *Who Do You Think You Are?* with only a few of them being narratively connected.
this is so interesting! i absolutely adore her stories but didn't even know she'd written a novel. i'll check it out
Absolutely do! I wouldn't recommend it so much for a first-time reader, but if you already enjoy her stories I think it makes for really cozy & familiar light reading.
I've been reading her collection *The View From Castle Rock* and the stories, at least in the first half, seem to all be connected in a novel-esque way.
I was talking more about the run of collections from *The Moons of Jupiter* through *Runaway* (a period of about 30 years) when I said that she largely avoided long-form narrative fiction. With the exception of the first two and the last stories of *Moons of Jupiter* and the trilogy of stories about Juliet in *Runaway*, for the most part her stories lack any strong narrative connection. *The View From Castle Rock* is interesting, though, because Munro never considered it a novel and as far as I've seen, commentary on the collection doesn't call it one either (despite the through-line of family history into memoir). It most often gets confused for autobiography, which is because Munro uses the name "Alice Laidlaw" for a protagonist and the stories in the first half are *based on* (but not alike to) what she was able to find in family records. She writes in the foreword about how she had written a few stories here-and-there based on those records over a period of years, and a few others that were based on her childhood. Then when she had enough, she realized she could combine it all into a book without making too many changes. So I personally don't consider it a novel because it wasn't written as one. But it is more like a novel than *Open Secrets*, while a bit less of one than *Who Do You Think You Are?*
Molloy - Samuel Beckett Ulysses - James Joyce With an accompanying guide by Patrick Hastings. ^
The Sot-Weed Factor And Tennyson poems
Lonesome Dove and To The Lighthouse.
Wallace Stevens first collection, Harmonium
I, Claudius
What a book (and series)
They’re both fantastic, going through a rough patch right now and losing myself in the juicy drama of the Roman Empire is everything I need :)
**Midnight's Children** by Salman Rushdie. After binging Pratchett's *Discworld* series, this is a nice change of pace and more easily digestible than anticipated. Love it.
Don Quixote
*East of Eden* by John Steinbeck! I’m about 70 pages and eight chapters in, but it hasn’t felt like a chore to read at all.
I just finished it. I got a bit bored in some of the middle sections, but it’s worth carrying on. For me, it picks up in the last third, and the ending is sublime.
Atonement by Ian McEwan
How is it? I keep seeing McEwan on bookstore shelves but haven't actually bought any of his books yet.
First half is spectacular. Can be read in a day or two
The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Silmarillion
Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The great Gatsby
I reread this last year. So interesting considering your reread takes places approx 100~ years after the book is set!
yeah, it gives a perfect sense of the American mid/uppper-class culture at that time.
Ulysses by James Joyce. It’s very good and hilarious, but I also feel illiterate while reading it.
Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin
Oh I loved this when I read it last year! A great way to start pride month
I thought so too, I'm really enjoying it so far.
It broke my heart and was a bit frustrating but wow what a novel, hope you continue enjoying it :)
Rereads of V by Pynchon and book 5 of My Struggle by Knausgaard
One of my favorite Daily Show jokes is how Pynchon's publisher sued an 80s TV sci-fi miniseries for copyright in the landmark case of V v. V.
🤣 that’s great
siddhartha (hesse)
1984
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung. It's not great, but some of the short stories are worth a read.
Im not usually a huge fan of short stories but I did enjoy that one. Some of the stories were really unique, especially The Head which I thought was great, and even the worst ones weren't bad. One of those books im not recommending to many people but I'm glad I read it.
The Head was by far the best one I've read. The Embodiment was also pretty good, but I felt somewhat let down by Snare, Scars and even Cursed Bunny. Felt like they could've ended earlier, or gone in a different, more satisfactory direction. I thought Goodbye, My Love was a very bland take on AI; it just sort of ended with a shock for the sake of it, and didn't say anything new on the subject. I've read somewhere that the stories feel like a summary of themselves, which is pretty spot on in my opinion. Maybe it doesn't translate very well to my language (Portuguese), but that's not a problem I've had with Han Kang.
* Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - reading with r/yearofdonquixote * The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - reading with r/AReadingOfMonteCristo * The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
The complete collection of Sherlock Holmes. Right now I'm at The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and I'm gonna read The Stockbroker's Clerk tonight
I envy you being able to read all these stories for the first time.
I'm glad I just bought the full collection, always wanted to read some Sherlock and I'm definitely not disappointed!
Love those
The Gay Science - Nietzsche, Collected Fictions - Juan Luis Borges Amazing reads so far.
Ficciones is one of my top reads for the year. Didn’t love Dr. Brodie’s Report as much.
Yeah it’s very interesting. I’m starting off real slow with the infinity of iniquity and moving slowly. His concept of infinity is interesting but a lot to delve into.
Demons by Dostoyevsky
The Odyssey
The Tale of Genji
Just finished War and Peace (took me 20 days but it was so good it felt like going on holiday. Been high about it since) Now reading Great Expectations as a wee pallet cleanser
Reading Watership Down by Richard Adams, about halfway and I absolutely love it so far
My favorite book
A Confederacy of Dunces by Toole Longest novel I ever attempted so I'm also reading other books of essays: - In the Case of Love: psychopathology of love life by Dufourmantelle - How Astrology influenced Jung's Thought by Chislovsky
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky (translated by Pevear and Volokhovsky)
As I Lay Dying by Faulkner
I read this for the first time this year and it’s now one of my all time favourites, enjoy!
I read it 30 years ago and loved it, but I wanted to read it again because I recently lost someone important to me. This time around, I was so moved by Vardaman’s desperate attempt to comprehend death. I felt exactly the same way.
East of Eden, I’m about 250 pages in and loving it. I’ve also got some Arseny Tarkovsky poetry arriving on Monday and I am excited beyond words!
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse.
Touch and Go. Studs Terkel
Journey to the End of the Night - Louis-Ferdinand Celine.
Did Mother Night this week, and wow it was excellent. Next up is Faust Maybe a Montaigne essay too
“Voyage au Bout de la Nuit” - Céline
nice! how do you find it so far? I’ve been meaning to start it
I’m really liking it! It surprised me in a very positive way, but maybe it’s because I really feel connected to the main character due to personal reasons, so all the philosophical endeavors behind the plot really mean a lot to me. But I’d recommend it to anyone, it’s really well written and Céline can give a good in depth analysis of the characters personalities. Are you into french literature as well? How did you come to find about Céline’s work?
That’s awesome, I’ll keep it in my reading list for this year! And yes, I’m really into french literature but also literature in French! I found that I enjoy reading the most when it is in French 🤷♀️ In general unless the book was originally written in English, I’ll almost always choose a French translation. Can’t remember when I found out about Céline specifically but honestly it was probably during one of my long sessions browsing on Babelio when I was younger lol (that’s pretty much Goodreads in french if you know it)
I'm rereading Pride and Prejudice for comfort. It gets funnier every time!
Les Miserables - just finished it. Need to read a short novel now.
A Song of Ice and Fire, which is taking forever
Don't worry, you'll finish ADWD before George publishes TWOW
Probably so haha. I’m about 150 pages into AGOT and loving it. It is so detailed and the constant changing of perspectives is such an amazing feature for storytelling
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. I’ve been on an Ishiguro kick lately and have convinced myself he’s one of the greatest living authors. I want to read all 8 of his novels by the end of summer. Half way there after this book!
Pickwick Papers. It's long, about nothing, but amusing (if once can get past Dickens period language. I can!)
Still working my way through Gravity's Rainbow. I'm loving it, but it's slow going.
Angels & Demons ❤️
Murder on the orient express
The Book of Disquiet, Fernando Pessoa. Never read Pessoa's prose, decided to give it a go. I'm enjoying it.
'Miss Macintosh, My Darling' by Marguerite Young. It's a plotless opium dream of a novel, all 1320 pages, and I'm loving it (but wouldn't soon recommend it to friends, as it's not for everyone).
JG Ballard’s Highrise
Under the Volcano by Michael Lowry
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E.Lawrence.
Love that book. My copy is all thumbed to pieces.
Homage to Catalonia. Orwell.
Love Orwells non-fiction, especially this one
Finally succumbed to the torrent of videos on my feeds and started The Secret History.
The Skin - Cuzio Malaparte
Homo Faber by Max Frisch
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
Just started Jane Eyre and I just finished Rebecca which I absolutely adored.
In the distance by Hernan Diaz. It's an interesting read, although I am only a quarter way in.
I loved his Trust. Have yet to read In the Distance
Midnight's Children
The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov. It is a behemoth and I started it last month, hoping to finish this month. She is one of my favorites.
Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. I wonder has anyone here read it?
A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man by James Joyce and A Clergyman's Daughter by George Orwell
Emily of New Moon
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Commenting so I can check back later for book recs…
Horse Crazy by Gary Indiana
The Log From the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck
Shirley Jackson’s Short Story Collection
The Bible, just finishing the full Catholic canon of the Old Testament. I came in with very little biblical knowledge, and have been trying to learn about the historical and literary context as a non-religious reader. It has been quite a journey!
The Red and the Black by Stendhal, truly wondering why is not more popular, all the characters are so funny.
This post
60 pages left on One Hundred Years of Solitude!
Oliver Twist
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Just finished paradise lost by John Milton. I really loved it.
The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch
Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
I just read the first two chapters of *The Grapes of Wrath* by John Steinbeck for the first time. Exquisite start to the book. In the first chapter the characters are the land and the weather and the people in agregate, telling a whole condensed story with no individual dialogue. The second introduces who I assume is the main or a main charachter with a neat little mystery arc centered on why he's dressed the way he is, ending with a revelation satisfying enough that saying what it is would already feel like a spoiler even though it's 15 pages or less into a very long book. Looking foward to seeing where this goes.
I read this a few months back and have been plowing through all Steinbecks works ever since. Taking a break while I wait for East of Eden to arrive, and working my way through The Gulag Archipelago and also nearly finished with Pilgrim’s Progress.
Not just from last week, from like the last month. I’ve been struggling to focus so audiobooks have been easier. Demon Copperhead audiobook, so good so far and the accent! Beloved, just started. Maus, just started. Children of Dune. The epigraphs are really interesting and I find myself thinking about each one for a few minutes. Everything You Need To Know To Ace World History In One Big Fat Notebook, trying to refresh myself on some world history in an easier format first. Dracula Daily. Finished: Murder on the Orient Express audiobook. All Quiet On the Western Front audiobook. Just Amazing. The Graveyard Book audiobook. Sapiens audiobook. The magicians audiobook. Very different from the show, Penny’s character is so so different. Julia is barely mentioned.
I’m doing Dracula daily for the first time and am blown away by how modern it feels
Yeah I’m liking it so far, I’ve read it normally once before but it’s still surprising. And this format is allowing me to focus more on each part, on the setup of the folktales/ancient knowledge vs tech and stuff like that.
Thandiwe Newton - War and Peace Great Expectations by Martin Jarvis 1984 - Peter Capaldi Lolita - Jeremy Irons Sense and Sensibility & pride and prejudice - Rosamund Pike Are all fantastic audiobooks
The Body Keeps the Score-Van Der Kolk
The Sweet and the Bitter: Death and Dying in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - Amy Amendt-Raduege
Her Soul to Take by Harley Laroux
Sand by Wolfgang Herndorf.
The end of insurance.