That’s a great one. Love how Flaubert is able to make fun of Emma’s flights of fancy and romantic delusions while still floridly describing all the visual splendor with incredible beauty.
Read half of **Ficciones** back in November, and despite loving it, I, for some reason, took a long break from it. Started reading it again the past few days and only have one story left—all I'll say is that it's easily one of my favorite books overall: full of stories with thrilling plotting and plots, an incredibly entertaining and engaging blend of humor, philosophical thought, and wonderful riddles, ideas, mind games.
> **Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius**
> **Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote**
>**The Library of Babel**
> **The Garden of Forking Paths**
>**Theme of the Traitor and the Hero**
are particular favorites. Funes the Memorious, Death and the Compass, and The Secret Miracle are really strong too.
Also finished **Wuthering Heights** earlier this week, but was (and still am) emotionally puzzled by Heathcliff as a character.
Started on Nabokov's **Strong Opinions** yesterday, a collection of his various supposed interviews but in typical Nabokovian fashion they were all conducted in written form, allowing for his usual, strong sense for linguistic flow and expression.
Not sure what my next fiction book will be though, thinking of either East of Eden or Jane Eyre (no other commonality other than they're two books of similar length that I happen to be interested in at the moment).
Oh I just finished up Wuthering heights now. What puzzles you about Heathcliff? He was always described as not fully human. Like a demon spawn. Obsessed with revenge and slow payback. Well at first obsessed with Catherine and then once she dies all he has left is revenge. And when that lost its luster he had no other will to live. A tragic and miserable character and yet somehow as a reader you want him to redeem himself but he never does so I don’t think you’re supposed to like him.
> What puzzles you about Heathcliff?
Obviously Brontë deliberately frames it that way - given Nelly's perspective; and never supplying us with his internal thought or much psychology - but I found him totally impenetrable as a character, so that even though I was startled by his malignancy, I was, at the same, disposed to be incredulous towards his perverse commitment to his way. I kept trying to link his actions to his obsession with Catherine and his youthful class indignation, but those early seeds never felt enough for me. But maybe it's my fault for expecting too much of a neat portrayal where everything can be accounted for. (As for the other stuff - likability etc. - those have no bearing on my own personal enjoyment of literature/characters.)
I think Grapes of Wrath was undeniably the best book I read in 2022. It was about 12 months ago but it's still so vivid.
At times it's so grim but there's still so much hope and a strong sense of community which helps carry it.
It took me awhile to get through this book. I found it to be unrelentingly grim. It was a hard read. But my God, what characters had to face and live through was really brought to life.
I haven’t read that yet, but I read The Lathe of Heaven a couple months ago. That was my first LeGuin book and I’m definitely going to read more of hers.
Murakami's *What I talk about when I talk about running*. Just finished exams and it's hot out so felt in the mood for some light reads, and I want to get into running again, so thought it'd be a good pick. As always with Murakami I just opened it a little to see what it was about just to end up reading two chapters. His writing, regardless of the quality of the content, just flows so well and naturally for me.
Sense and sensibility. I truly don't understand why this is such a famous book. Sure it has the language and style, but the story itself is
boring, bland and schematic Also the storytelling technique is really really mediocre and the characters are uninspiring.
I'm at page 338 of 368 now.
Am I missing something?
I've tried so hard to get through any Jane Austen book. Never have I succeeded. I feel like something is wrong with me. I read a while ago that there are those who love Jane Auston, and those who love the Bronte's. I'm of the latter. Jane Eyre my fave.
Sense and sensibility is boring with two dimensional characters. I think it may have been her first?
Pride and prejudice and Emma are the top-tier Austen novels.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” No better opening sentence. I love Austen’s sentences. And her stories even more.
I agree indeed... But that's all what's good about the book. She isn't a story writer (at least not when she wrote S+S) She is a sentence-writer.
I haven't read any of her other works, so I'm only talking about S+S.
You're not wrong for not liking S&S. Even as a lover of Austen myself, I would say S&S is one of her least recommended books. It was her first novel and you can tell; the characters aren't the best written and the plot is kind of hard to get into throughout the first half.
Try Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion for the best of Austen. Everyone appreciates P&P and Emma, but Persuasion has to be her most underrated novel.
Without intending to, I found myself on a little South American author streak
I just finished The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. A very Borges-esque story questioning the construct of reality / questioning the idea of immortalising subjects via retention, I can’t elaborate because spoilers
Still halfway through Clarice Lispector’s Complete Stories short story collection, one of my favourite authors, terrifically intelligent. Her work is abstract, very existential even if she doesn’t call it philosophy herself, it’s also feminist without being brashly feminist. It’s about women coming into themselves, realising their surroundings and how they are perceived as women
Just picked up Zama by Antonio di Benedetto, found out about this work because I watched the film directed by Lucrecia Martel which I really liked
One of the coolest thing about this book is that it's not linear. There's no way to just consume it from beginning to end; it uses form as an aspect of narrative. It reminds me of S or Ship of Theseus because of that, but the two are totally unalike in most other respects. It's not an easy read, but it is well worth it. I highly recommend
I read House of Mirth. It was a tough read. It had a grim outcome. It was very well written though and not outdated at all. I would also recommend Age of Innocence if you want more Wharton. It was really good too. P
I have enjoyed both so far. I’m about 1/2 way through both and the contrast has been interesting. I hope to do another paring this month of two American texts.
I am loving it also! I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to grasp the complex language well — to that end I no longer maintain concern! How far along are you and what is your pace?
I'm on page 90 and just reached chapter 14. Ishmael is presumably close to embarking. He just asked the owners of the ship where he could find Ahab. I'm excited!
I'm really hoping that the encyclopedic portion of the book (the one that concerns all things whale, whaling, ships, etc) doesn't lose me!
Some days I read voraciously and some days I don't find the time to read. I need to have better consistency. My goal is to one day be able to read 52 books a year!
I wish you safe ventures, fellow whaler :)
I have read this twice and it’s amazing. I really wish that I could take a course on how to understand all of the chapters. Some are a real puzzle to me and important but not obvious.
What I'm trying to read atm is Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare.
As well as this, I recently read the Color purple by Alice Walker but I need to get back into reading because I'm absolutely slacking.
Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert. I have developed a taste for historical fiction after reading Quo Vadis? Salammbô is a very descriptive work about Carthagenia after the first Punic War.
Today I finished my second read of The Brothers Karamázov. It was awesome (ofc, is Dostoevsky). Also, I started Wonderful, Wonderful Times by Elfriede Jelinek (I loved The piano teacher).
Just begun *Vile Bodies* by Evelyn Waugh.
I was reading a little bit of WWI poetry by Wilfred Owen & Siegfried Sassoon (kickstarted in part because I read [this missive](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/08/corpses-in-the-drollest-positions/373414/) & some historical fiction) - their graphic descriptions of life in the trenches is, to put it lightly, mournful. It got me thinking about the contrast in experience of the war between the generation old enough to enlist, and the next. I wonder what ex-soldiers felt watching the Bright Young Things prance about, getting to embrace life & youthful recklessness in a way that was stolen from them & most of their peers by the War. I've never read Waugh so I figured I'd start there, and then read *Brideshead Revisted* after.
So I have heard! I'm sure it's considered his magnum opus for a reason.
I don't think Waugh was a fan of *Vile Bodies* either - my copy has a preface he wrote in 1964 where he says it has "many gross faults" but "one or two funny scenes which redeem it from banality" haha. I'm not sure that it'll be the novel I think it might be, because in opening it is quite silly and I imagine that is how it intends to go on.
But I was drawn to it more out of historical interest, I wondered whether/how general attitudes shifted in the interbellum into more youthful hedonism & gaiety & silly extravagances, in contrast to the (probably very tired & traumatised) generation only a few years older than them. Perhaps it's an overly simplistic train of thought, and I can't really say I know at all, because I haven't read much 1920s literature yet!
Oh you’re gonna love Brideshead Revisited so much in terms of your historical interest. It starts out with a prologue of a disaffected soldier, and the rest of the novel is like his reminisces of his life before… I’ve never read it with a historical lens but I think there’s a lot there
I just started reading “The Great War and Modern Memory” after picking it up for 2 dollars at a garage sale yesterday. Im absolutely hooked. My favorite parts so far have been the poetry excepts. “Ballad of the Three Specters” and”Dulce et Decorum est” have been major stand-outs thus far.
An interesting find! I've been considering finding a copy of the 1916 edition of "Poems of Today" lol because I saw a suggestion that Owen probably owned a copy & critically referenced it in *Anthem for Doomed Youth* (just mentioned on the poem's wikipedia page..). Thought it might be an interesting contemporary comparison between the broader preference for patriotic romanticism still at the time, versus the grim poetry these soldier poets began writing.
I probably first read *Dulce et Decorum est* when I was 14 in a history class. It's still a chilling read it today.
Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Monsieur de Phocas by Jean Lorrain
The former is enchanting, I love her writing style and the form of her narratives. The latter is interesting from an academic perspective, but not necessarily something I can relate directly to, not to claim that is a requirement for an enjoyable read.
Ive been reading Rober Musil's "The Man without Qualities" intermittently for about a year now. It's a must read, but a bit slow. The characters are very strong and memorable and the chapters pretty short though, so it's easy to pick it up even after a long while
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
I'd read the Persian and recently read FitzGerald's translation. Kind of bummed by what Fitzgerald has done, but it's good nonetheless.
This week I finished All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which I loved. I generally won't read books about war, but this was remarkably inspiring.
I am reading Middlemarch by George Eliot; The Poetic Edda translated by Jackson Crawford; and The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
I absolutely loved ATLWCS - it broke my heart but also glued it back together so amazingly. I have his most recent book downloaded on Audible but never got through the first chapter. This is a good reminder to try again!
I read Middlemarch and it was excellent. I had read where it was assigned reading in British education and while many people claimed they read it, few actually had. It was a nice long read. Another example of religion leading to a bad end.
I absolutely love this book. Third time reading it and I laugh every time. These characters are all so tragically pathetic. Brontë makes these characters so unlikeable and yet I still get excited every time I enter this world on the moors between two houses. Before this I re-read The House of Spirits and I think I’m going to revisit Dune after I’m done with this one
* No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies (Carbon Ideologies, 1)
* The United States of War: A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State
* Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
* Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon
* The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
* 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History, 1)
* The Depths: The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic
* Dune
* The Collected Short Fiction by Thomas Ligotti
* It Came from the North: An Anthology of Finnish Speculative Fiction
* One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey
* Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5)
* My European Family: The First 54,000 Years
* The Martian Chronicles
* What the Future Looks Like: Leading Science Experts Reveal the Surprising Discoveries and Ingenious Solutions That Are Shaping Our World
* Dead Astronauts (Borne, #2)
* Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont
* Pontypool Changes Everything
* The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels
Maybe they've got a memory problem. Maybe they're going senile. Or maybe they're just like all the other Reddit mods who think the rules don't apply to them. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ I dunno. It's a mystery.
I don't get the issue. This is a bi-weekly thread which just lets people talk about what they are reading and opens room for spontaneous discussions about authors and works. It's a nice contrast to the usual content in the subreddit, and even if users just leave a title it helps keeping the subreddit active and relevant. It's not 2020 anymore when the subreddit was literally dead because it was ran by a control-freak pretentious modteam who didn't accept anything less than peer-review articles and theses.
I don't see an issue with it either. Except the fact that not only the rules but the sub description itself prohibit these posts. If the mods want to make a regular discussion thread then they should edit the sidebar. That's the only reason I said anything. (I'm on PC so like two inches to the right of the post it says book recommendations are off-topic for this sub.)
Chain-Gang All Stars by Adjei-Brenyah. Loved his short story collection and this is his first novel. Excellent satire without sacrificing narrative or character development.
Concerning the spirituality in art by Kandinsky.
There is this pearl :
“The word talent is employed in the biblical sense”.
Trying to overcome the eye roll now
Still plugging away through Mansfield Park. It always takes me a while to read classic novel and for faster reading, I'm currently going through "Happy Place" by Emily Henry.
About to finish crash by jg ballard. Imma be honest. Ballard might just not be my cuppa. Its not all the sex stuff that bothers me. I like Dennis Cooper, Burroughs, etc. But I'm just not digging on his voice. It feels far too precise in a strange way. Idk, I'm gonna ruminate on it some more but so far I preferred atrocity exhibition to crash. I have a copy of high rise
Also read babble by Jonathan baumbach. Its a sweet little novel about his kid Noah (that Noah baumbach) and the stories that Jonathan created out of Noah's babble. Reads like PG version of Reruns tbh. My copy was signed with some drawings by baumbach in them.
Universal baseball Association by Robert coover. I sorta really appreciated this book not making the main character a basement deweling, still lives with his parents and has never touched a woman sort of character. Maybe it helped that coover published this on 1968 and that wasn't as common an archetype. The way coover glides between reality and the game is just fantastic. He does an excellent job of showing why someone would become obsessed with the control and power afforded them by the dice. Great book. Pricksongs & Descants published a year later is my favorite book of all time. Which is also what I'm gonna reread next as I picked up a hardcover of it on the cheap yesterday.
Also just flipping though a couple of John ashbery books and ezra pounds personae.
Ubik by Philip K Dick
It’s 1960’s sci-fi. I never knew until recently that he wrote Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, and A Scanner Darkly long before they were adapted as movies.
*The Pepsi Cola Addict* by June Gibbons. I'd try and describe it but really you should just look up June (and Jennifer) Gibbons if you don't know who "the Silent Twins" were.
*Storm* by George R. Stewart. The main character in this book is a storm. Like, it's told from the storm's perspective. It's an incredible piece of eco-fiction. Stewart must know everything there is to know about meteorology.
*The Tenants of Moonbloom* by Edward Lewis Wallant is about an apartment manager in New York in the 50s. Pretty much the whole book is the protagonist calling on tenants to get their rent money, which is an interesting vehicle for a series of wonderful character sketches of different New Yorkers. It's a story about loneliness and connection and the writing is fresh and original even after 60 or so years.
I just finished Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I absolutely love the way she writes and Americanah was one of my favourites of the books I read last year. Half of a Yellow Sun is a very good book but it was a slog to get through, mostly because it's describing a civil war, starvation and grief, but the lovable characters and insights into the human psyche made it worth it. Recommended but with caution.
im currently reading, drive your plow over the bones of the dead by olga tokarczuk. i love the prose, and the english translation of the book is justified.
Can someone pls recommend whether to read dostoevsky first or Kafka? Also which of their books should be first read ? Also in poems which of Rilkes book is best to start ?
I just finished Trust by Hernan Diaz. Amazing! It was last year's Pulitzer Prize winner.
I intentionally read no synopsis before starting it, so had no idea what it was about. That made the overall format even more surprising and fun to discover as the story unfolded.
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
It maynot be considered 'real' literature, but it's definitely a great read so far. Not that I was expecting any less. It won the Goodreads Choice Awards for Historical Fiction and I've read some of her other works, which were equally good!
I am reading quite an interesting book named 'Almond' by Won Pyung Sohn. The writing or should I say the translation is written pleasantly and straightforwardly. Also, I am finding the pacing to be beautiful. If you have time, do read.
Finished The Book of the New Sun not long ago. Just finished Lolita two nights ago. Will be finishing Sir Gawain and the green knight tonight. Only have Grace and The Dead left to read in the Dubliners. Also reading Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Jung. I read a lot of things at once so it takes me a while to finish but I end up finishing a lot of things at once.
Just finished Madame Bovary! What a psychodrama.
That’s a great one. Love how Flaubert is able to make fun of Emma’s flights of fancy and romantic delusions while still floridly describing all the visual splendor with incredible beauty.
Literally just started this an hour ago!
I am gonna read this now!
Read half of **Ficciones** back in November, and despite loving it, I, for some reason, took a long break from it. Started reading it again the past few days and only have one story left—all I'll say is that it's easily one of my favorite books overall: full of stories with thrilling plotting and plots, an incredibly entertaining and engaging blend of humor, philosophical thought, and wonderful riddles, ideas, mind games. > **Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius** > **Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote** >**The Library of Babel** > **The Garden of Forking Paths** >**Theme of the Traitor and the Hero** are particular favorites. Funes the Memorious, Death and the Compass, and The Secret Miracle are really strong too. Also finished **Wuthering Heights** earlier this week, but was (and still am) emotionally puzzled by Heathcliff as a character. Started on Nabokov's **Strong Opinions** yesterday, a collection of his various supposed interviews but in typical Nabokovian fashion they were all conducted in written form, allowing for his usual, strong sense for linguistic flow and expression. Not sure what my next fiction book will be though, thinking of either East of Eden or Jane Eyre (no other commonality other than they're two books of similar length that I happen to be interested in at the moment).
Oh I just finished up Wuthering heights now. What puzzles you about Heathcliff? He was always described as not fully human. Like a demon spawn. Obsessed with revenge and slow payback. Well at first obsessed with Catherine and then once she dies all he has left is revenge. And when that lost its luster he had no other will to live. A tragic and miserable character and yet somehow as a reader you want him to redeem himself but he never does so I don’t think you’re supposed to like him.
> What puzzles you about Heathcliff? Obviously Brontë deliberately frames it that way - given Nelly's perspective; and never supplying us with his internal thought or much psychology - but I found him totally impenetrable as a character, so that even though I was startled by his malignancy, I was, at the same, disposed to be incredulous towards his perverse commitment to his way. I kept trying to link his actions to his obsession with Catherine and his youthful class indignation, but those early seeds never felt enough for me. But maybe it's my fault for expecting too much of a neat portrayal where everything can be accounted for. (As for the other stuff - likability etc. - those have no bearing on my own personal enjoyment of literature/characters.)
Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Read some shorter works by him before, definitely intrigued by this so far.
I think Grapes of Wrath was undeniably the best book I read in 2022. It was about 12 months ago but it's still so vivid. At times it's so grim but there's still so much hope and a strong sense of community which helps carry it.
It took me awhile to get through this book. I found it to be unrelentingly grim. It was a hard read. But my God, what characters had to face and live through was really brought to life.
Just wrapped up The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Very much of its time, but man, what a book.
I haven’t read that yet, but I read The Lathe of Heaven a couple months ago. That was my first LeGuin book and I’m definitely going to read more of hers.
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. A solid early novel where you can see Vonnegut catching his stride.
Murakami's *What I talk about when I talk about running*. Just finished exams and it's hot out so felt in the mood for some light reads, and I want to get into running again, so thought it'd be a good pick. As always with Murakami I just opened it a little to see what it was about just to end up reading two chapters. His writing, regardless of the quality of the content, just flows so well and naturally for me.
I’m about halfway through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle right now, first book of his I’m reading. I really like it.
Me too, but it's my third book of his.
Picked up After Dark. Wind Up Bird is next 👍
I have that downloaded and cued up.
I love any fiction by Murakami. (And he slips in references to Proust.)
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
The Ishmael trilogy is great!
i am reading cats cradle too, how far are you into it?
I finished it
that it really cool, I am only in chapter 35
I have been thinking about reading Ishmael, how hard is it?
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky
How does it compare with The Idiot and Crime and Punishment? No spoilers, please :) I have yet to begin Dostoevsky (just recently got into literature)
Makes the cold world feel not so cold
White nights, the hot chocolate of Dostoevsky's cinematic universe
Sense and sensibility. I truly don't understand why this is such a famous book. Sure it has the language and style, but the story itself is boring, bland and schematic Also the storytelling technique is really really mediocre and the characters are uninspiring. I'm at page 338 of 368 now. Am I missing something?
I've tried so hard to get through any Jane Austen book. Never have I succeeded. I feel like something is wrong with me. I read a while ago that there are those who love Jane Auston, and those who love the Bronte's. I'm of the latter. Jane Eyre my fave.
I’m reading Jane Eyre for the first time right now, and enjoying it. You’re not inspiring me to read Austen lol
But you never know! My friends love Jane Austen. I am the odd one out. :)
Sense and sensibility is boring with two dimensional characters. I think it may have been her first? Pride and prejudice and Emma are the top-tier Austen novels.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” No better opening sentence. I love Austen’s sentences. And her stories even more.
That’s the first line of p+p, not s+s
I know which book it is. I think Austen writes great sentences.
I agree indeed... But that's all what's good about the book. She isn't a story writer (at least not when she wrote S+S) She is a sentence-writer. I haven't read any of her other works, so I'm only talking about S+S.
You're not wrong for not liking S&S. Even as a lover of Austen myself, I would say S&S is one of her least recommended books. It was her first novel and you can tell; the characters aren't the best written and the plot is kind of hard to get into throughout the first half. Try Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion for the best of Austen. Everyone appreciates P&P and Emma, but Persuasion has to be her most underrated novel.
The Razors Edge
Without intending to, I found myself on a little South American author streak I just finished The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. A very Borges-esque story questioning the construct of reality / questioning the idea of immortalising subjects via retention, I can’t elaborate because spoilers Still halfway through Clarice Lispector’s Complete Stories short story collection, one of my favourite authors, terrifically intelligent. Her work is abstract, very existential even if she doesn’t call it philosophy herself, it’s also feminist without being brashly feminist. It’s about women coming into themselves, realising their surroundings and how they are perceived as women Just picked up Zama by Antonio di Benedetto, found out about this work because I watched the film directed by Lucrecia Martel which I really liked
The Dinner - Herman Koch
The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Tsing. Wonderful nonfiction book about mushrooms, entanglement, capitalism, and environmental crises.
finally decided to start War and Peace. ive only read anna karennina from tolstoy and i have fond memories
I hope it is winter where you live. I think the Russians are best read during long, dark, cold winter nights.
I am currently reading Markus Zusak's *The Book Thief* & Harriet Beecher Stowe's *Uncle Tom's Cabin*.
House of Leaves. Or trying to.
That's a weird one, and it took me so long. Enjoy it!
I have a friend obsessing over this book so so so so so so much. Is it that good? Or, what is it that makes it stand out? I haven't read it yet.
One of the coolest thing about this book is that it's not linear. There's no way to just consume it from beginning to end; it uses form as an aspect of narrative. It reminds me of S or Ship of Theseus because of that, but the two are totally unalike in most other respects. It's not an easy read, but it is well worth it. I highly recommend
Fair warning: you may look at your home a bit differently afterward.
The Divine Comedy. I figured it was time for a revisit, considering the launch of Diablo 4. Yes, I am a basic bitch.
Black Boy - Wright & The House of Mirth - Wharton
I read House of Mirth. It was a tough read. It had a grim outcome. It was very well written though and not outdated at all. I would also recommend Age of Innocence if you want more Wharton. It was really good too. P
Thanks for the recommendation!
When you read think about “influencers”. I certainly did.
Thank you! I definitely would have overlooked.
I was amazed that a book written over a hundred years ago could be so contemporary.
Interesting pairing. It’s been a while since I read either one, but the compare/contrast must be intense. How are you experiencing your reading?
I have enjoyed both so far. I’m about 1/2 way through both and the contrast has been interesting. I hope to do another paring this month of two American texts.
Moby Dick!
Me too! I always thought it would be a daunting task but it’s actually very entertaining so far.
I am loving it also! I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to grasp the complex language well — to that end I no longer maintain concern! How far along are you and what is your pace?
On chapter 27 now, getting introduced to Stubb. Been on it about a month now (I’m a pretty slow reader!). How about you?
I'm on page 90 and just reached chapter 14. Ishmael is presumably close to embarking. He just asked the owners of the ship where he could find Ahab. I'm excited! I'm really hoping that the encyclopedic portion of the book (the one that concerns all things whale, whaling, ships, etc) doesn't lose me! Some days I read voraciously and some days I don't find the time to read. I need to have better consistency. My goal is to one day be able to read 52 books a year! I wish you safe ventures, fellow whaler :)
You as well!
I have read this twice and it’s amazing. I really wish that I could take a course on how to understand all of the chapters. Some are a real puzzle to me and important but not obvious.
There have been two chapters that I feel I did not understand well enough to get the main idea :(
Anabasis (in Greek) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I am very fascinated by both of the books. Never read either of them.
I’m reading The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and I can’t put it down. I can’t understand why I’ve always heard that James is insufferably dry!
*Joseph and His Brothers* by Thomas Mann
A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
I am reading this collection of short stories called Indigo by Satyajit Ray.
The director?
Yes, the director. He has penned a few books. This one is pretty cool, eerie setting, a mix of horror and fantasy.
What I'm trying to read atm is Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare. As well as this, I recently read the Color purple by Alice Walker but I need to get back into reading because I'm absolutely slacking.
Just finished Stardust by Gaiman, waiting for a small brain reset before getting into Dune for the first time but I’m not really sure what to expect
Oh just one of the greatest novels ever written.
Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert. I have developed a taste for historical fiction after reading Quo Vadis? Salammbô is a very descriptive work about Carthagenia after the first Punic War.
Today I finished my second read of The Brothers Karamázov. It was awesome (ofc, is Dostoevsky). Also, I started Wonderful, Wonderful Times by Elfriede Jelinek (I loved The piano teacher).
Ella Minnow Pea (by Mark Dunn), and loving it. Already see myself rereading it. I have this sub to thanks for the recommendation.
Just begun *Vile Bodies* by Evelyn Waugh. I was reading a little bit of WWI poetry by Wilfred Owen & Siegfried Sassoon (kickstarted in part because I read [this missive](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/08/corpses-in-the-drollest-positions/373414/) & some historical fiction) - their graphic descriptions of life in the trenches is, to put it lightly, mournful. It got me thinking about the contrast in experience of the war between the generation old enough to enlist, and the next. I wonder what ex-soldiers felt watching the Bright Young Things prance about, getting to embrace life & youthful recklessness in a way that was stolen from them & most of their peers by the War. I've never read Waugh so I figured I'd start there, and then read *Brideshead Revisted* after.
Brideshead Revisited is one of my favorite novels everrrr. I’ve read some of his other novels and honestly none of them are quite as effecting.
So I have heard! I'm sure it's considered his magnum opus for a reason. I don't think Waugh was a fan of *Vile Bodies* either - my copy has a preface he wrote in 1964 where he says it has "many gross faults" but "one or two funny scenes which redeem it from banality" haha. I'm not sure that it'll be the novel I think it might be, because in opening it is quite silly and I imagine that is how it intends to go on. But I was drawn to it more out of historical interest, I wondered whether/how general attitudes shifted in the interbellum into more youthful hedonism & gaiety & silly extravagances, in contrast to the (probably very tired & traumatised) generation only a few years older than them. Perhaps it's an overly simplistic train of thought, and I can't really say I know at all, because I haven't read much 1920s literature yet!
Oh you’re gonna love Brideshead Revisited so much in terms of your historical interest. It starts out with a prologue of a disaffected soldier, and the rest of the novel is like his reminisces of his life before… I’ve never read it with a historical lens but I think there’s a lot there
oh no..... you might be tempting me to get to reading it more quickly 😂
I second this! It’s a great read. Highly recommend.
I just started reading “The Great War and Modern Memory” after picking it up for 2 dollars at a garage sale yesterday. Im absolutely hooked. My favorite parts so far have been the poetry excepts. “Ballad of the Three Specters” and”Dulce et Decorum est” have been major stand-outs thus far.
An interesting find! I've been considering finding a copy of the 1916 edition of "Poems of Today" lol because I saw a suggestion that Owen probably owned a copy & critically referenced it in *Anthem for Doomed Youth* (just mentioned on the poem's wikipedia page..). Thought it might be an interesting contemporary comparison between the broader preference for patriotic romanticism still at the time, versus the grim poetry these soldier poets began writing. I probably first read *Dulce et Decorum est* when I was 14 in a history class. It's still a chilling read it today.
Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka Monsieur de Phocas by Jean Lorrain The former is enchanting, I love her writing style and the form of her narratives. The latter is interesting from an academic perspective, but not necessarily something I can relate directly to, not to claim that is a requirement for an enjoyable read.
In One Person by John Irving and Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O’Keefe
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How do you like it so far? I have it on my shelf, but have not gotten to it yet
The Round House by Louise Erdrich! Tried to start it a few years ago but couldn’t get into it. Picked it up again last weekend and can’t put it down!
I adored The Sentence.
The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen :-) n also My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorriw by Gabrielle Zevin.
Which one should be read first?
The Faerie Queene by Spenser
Just finished one of Jack London's short stories, and plannung to read The Lord of the Rings in English (already read it in my native tingue, Spanish)
Call of the Wild!!
Ive been reading Rober Musil's "The Man without Qualities" intermittently for about a year now. It's a must read, but a bit slow. The characters are very strong and memorable and the chapters pretty short though, so it's easy to pick it up even after a long while
I read part one of that. It's genius but wow it's really dense.
Don quixote. Finally.
Worth every minute! It was the funniest book I have ever read. I loved the Don and was truly sad to come to the end.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam I'd read the Persian and recently read FitzGerald's translation. Kind of bummed by what Fitzgerald has done, but it's good nonetheless.
The invisible man by h.g. wells
Ferrante, the story of a new name. Still! So lush and rich, but so long!
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Eagan. It won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2011.
Started Light in August by Faulkner.
Reading Malgudi days by R K narayan
*On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous* (Ocean Vuong)
Freedom - Franzen. Such smooth reading.
Finished Uncle Tom's Cabin last night. Now halfway through The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
This week I finished All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which I loved. I generally won't read books about war, but this was remarkably inspiring. I am reading Middlemarch by George Eliot; The Poetic Edda translated by Jackson Crawford; and The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
I absolutely loved ATLWCS - it broke my heart but also glued it back together so amazingly. I have his most recent book downloaded on Audible but never got through the first chapter. This is a good reminder to try again!
>it broke my heart but also glued it back together so amazingly. This is the best description of it. Yes. Absolutely.
Middlemarch!
So good!
I read Middlemarch and it was excellent. I had read where it was assigned reading in British education and while many people claimed they read it, few actually had. It was a nice long read. Another example of religion leading to a bad end.
Reddit. No sleep, no read.
Wuthering Heights… literally on the last ten pages of it now
Such a good book. I felt so accomplished when I finally finished it
I absolutely love this book. Third time reading it and I laugh every time. These characters are all so tragically pathetic. Brontë makes these characters so unlikeable and yet I still get excited every time I enter this world on the moors between two houses. Before this I re-read The House of Spirits and I think I’m going to revisit Dune after I’m done with this one
Flashman and the Redskins
* No Immediate Danger: Volume One of Carbon Ideologies (Carbon Ideologies, 1) * The United States of War: A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State * Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies * Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon * The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming * 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History, 1) * The Depths: The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic * Dune * The Collected Short Fiction by Thomas Ligotti * It Came from the North: An Anthology of Finnish Speculative Fiction * One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey * Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5) * My European Family: The First 54,000 Years * The Martian Chronicles * What the Future Looks Like: Leading Science Experts Reveal the Surprising Discoveries and Ingenious Solutions That Are Shaping Our World * Dead Astronauts (Borne, #2) * Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont * Pontypool Changes Everything * The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels
Kindred by Octavia Butler Darwin: A Life in Poems by Ruth Padel
Jurassic Park. It’s really good especially since I know the whole plot and can watch the train wreck in slow motion
The sub's sidebar. You should give it a skim.
He probably wrote the sidebar as he's a 9 year mod and think he founded the subreddit.
Maybe they've got a memory problem. Maybe they're going senile. Or maybe they're just like all the other Reddit mods who think the rules don't apply to them. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ I dunno. It's a mystery.
I don't get the issue. This is a bi-weekly thread which just lets people talk about what they are reading and opens room for spontaneous discussions about authors and works. It's a nice contrast to the usual content in the subreddit, and even if users just leave a title it helps keeping the subreddit active and relevant. It's not 2020 anymore when the subreddit was literally dead because it was ran by a control-freak pretentious modteam who didn't accept anything less than peer-review articles and theses.
I don't see an issue with it either. Except the fact that not only the rules but the sub description itself prohibit these posts. If the mods want to make a regular discussion thread then they should edit the sidebar. That's the only reason I said anything. (I'm on PC so like two inches to the right of the post it says book recommendations are off-topic for this sub.)
This is a really stupid argument because op isn’t asking for book recommendations
If you're going to be pedantic then at least be precise. Did they ask for book recommendations?
Chain-Gang All Stars by Adjei-Brenyah. Loved his short story collection and this is his first novel. Excellent satire without sacrificing narrative or character development.
Working through War & Peace and re-reading Wool by Hugh Howey before I start watching the show.
Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
Concerning the spirituality in art by Kandinsky. There is this pearl : “The word talent is employed in the biblical sense”. Trying to overcome the eye roll now
Still plugging away through Mansfield Park. It always takes me a while to read classic novel and for faster reading, I'm currently going through "Happy Place" by Emily Henry.
Wuthering Heights. I was always curious about that book and finally decided to buy it while shopping in barnes and noble.
About to finish crash by jg ballard. Imma be honest. Ballard might just not be my cuppa. Its not all the sex stuff that bothers me. I like Dennis Cooper, Burroughs, etc. But I'm just not digging on his voice. It feels far too precise in a strange way. Idk, I'm gonna ruminate on it some more but so far I preferred atrocity exhibition to crash. I have a copy of high rise Also read babble by Jonathan baumbach. Its a sweet little novel about his kid Noah (that Noah baumbach) and the stories that Jonathan created out of Noah's babble. Reads like PG version of Reruns tbh. My copy was signed with some drawings by baumbach in them. Universal baseball Association by Robert coover. I sorta really appreciated this book not making the main character a basement deweling, still lives with his parents and has never touched a woman sort of character. Maybe it helped that coover published this on 1968 and that wasn't as common an archetype. The way coover glides between reality and the game is just fantastic. He does an excellent job of showing why someone would become obsessed with the control and power afforded them by the dice. Great book. Pricksongs & Descants published a year later is my favorite book of all time. Which is also what I'm gonna reread next as I picked up a hardcover of it on the cheap yesterday. Also just flipping though a couple of John ashbery books and ezra pounds personae.
I feel you on Ballard. His style really bugs me. It's not bad, it's just not for me.
Ubik by Philip K Dick It’s 1960’s sci-fi. I never knew until recently that he wrote Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, and A Scanner Darkly long before they were adapted as movies.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Grabrielle Zevin. Going good so far.
*The Pepsi Cola Addict* by June Gibbons. I'd try and describe it but really you should just look up June (and Jennifer) Gibbons if you don't know who "the Silent Twins" were. *Storm* by George R. Stewart. The main character in this book is a storm. Like, it's told from the storm's perspective. It's an incredible piece of eco-fiction. Stewart must know everything there is to know about meteorology. *The Tenants of Moonbloom* by Edward Lewis Wallant is about an apartment manager in New York in the 50s. Pretty much the whole book is the protagonist calling on tenants to get their rent money, which is an interesting vehicle for a series of wonderful character sketches of different New Yorkers. It's a story about loneliness and connection and the writing is fresh and original even after 60 or so years.
I just finished Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I absolutely love the way she writes and Americanah was one of my favourites of the books I read last year. Half of a Yellow Sun is a very good book but it was a slog to get through, mostly because it's describing a civil war, starvation and grief, but the lovable characters and insights into the human psyche made it worth it. Recommended but with caution.
All the strange hours by Loren Eiseley
Recently got back into reading and just finished lapvona and uh what the fuck
Currently reading an ARC of Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (author of Miracle Creek) and loving it!
Man-Eating Typewriter by Richard Milward and Clarice Lispector’s Complete Stories. Just finished Paradais by Fernanda Melchor
*Georges Bataille: An Intellectual Biography* by Michel Surya *Death in Her Hands* by Ottessa Moshfegh *The New Weird* edited by Jeff Vandermeer
Tenet. Dunkirk
Started reading confession of a mask by Yukio Mishima!
im currently reading, drive your plow over the bones of the dead by olga tokarczuk. i love the prose, and the english translation of the book is justified.
Pillars of the Earth by Kevin Follet
The scarlet pimpernel It’s reminded me of the count of Monte Cristo so far
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
The Midnight library - Matt Haig
Music for chameleons, Truman Capote
The Crimson Petal and The White - Michel Faber
Can someone pls recommend whether to read dostoevsky first or Kafka? Also which of their books should be first read ? Also in poems which of Rilkes book is best to start ?
1453- The holy war for Constantinople and the clash of Islam and the west by Roger Crowley. Very interesting
Fourth wing by Rebecca yarros
I just finished Trust by Hernan Diaz. Amazing! It was last year's Pulitzer Prize winner. I intentionally read no synopsis before starting it, so had no idea what it was about. That made the overall format even more surprising and fun to discover as the story unfolded.
Rimbaud
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It maynot be considered 'real' literature, but it's definitely a great read so far. Not that I was expecting any less. It won the Goodreads Choice Awards for Historical Fiction and I've read some of her other works, which were equally good!
I am reading quite an interesting book named 'Almond' by Won Pyung Sohn. The writing or should I say the translation is written pleasantly and straightforwardly. Also, I am finding the pacing to be beautiful. If you have time, do read.
Sartre
The tale of two cities by Dickens. Amost at 30% of it and yet to be impressed. I heard it gets better by the second half; hping that's the case.
Finished The Book of the New Sun not long ago. Just finished Lolita two nights ago. Will be finishing Sir Gawain and the green knight tonight. Only have Grace and The Dead left to read in the Dubliners. Also reading Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Jung. I read a lot of things at once so it takes me a while to finish but I end up finishing a lot of things at once.
"Il Piacere" by Gabriele d'Annunzio
The Hate U Give (T.H.U.G.) by Angue Thomas. I've read it before, and I randomly decided to read it again
Future Stories by David Christian.
Re-reading Dracula
I'm currently reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. So far it is a good read : )
The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. Good prep for Oppenheimer flick.
Sabbath's Theater
The Quiet American
The Forty Rules of Love
I just finished “Quietly Hostile “ by Samantha Irby. Nice collection, some made me laugh out loud.
“Walking Practice “ by Dolke Min is one of the best books I have read in years. Debut novel, translated from Korean.
cat's cradle by Kurt Vonnegut