Yet another list thread.
Mine is at the bottom of: What all did you read in 2013?
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 15 December 2014 23:07 (nine years ago) link
this was the first year in a long time that i didnt keep a list. i keep moving and going places and forgetting things. i reread a lot of stuff. all of trollope who i like a lot still, pullmans 'dark materials' which gets pretty soppy. all of the 'wheel of time'. i reread lots of proust cuz thomp complained about it to me once. i spent five weeks at my parents summer house reading for hours a day and i cant recall any of it. my bedroom had a large shelf full of books and i read all of them. a good 60% were about like headstrong modern witches and another 25% or so were lit 101 titles that i had read before the only specific ones i remember are 'mansfield park' and 'dubliners'. one of the others was 'gone girl'. there was also a steampunkish one about a magic circus that i thought was pretty good and one about victorian conwomen that wasnt. there were also some mysteries by a local writer that performed the same function as the decorative soap in the bathroom. i bought a fantasy novel that i vaguely enjoyed and now cant remember the title of which is killing me. i gave it to a girl i met at the swimming pool because i didnt want to pack it when i flew home. i read 'native son' for the first time and loved it. i read it again a few weeks later. 'nobody is ever missing' was probably the best new thing i read. i was disappointed in the lydia davis collection and the lorrie moore collection. the david mitchell book was maybe the worst book i read this year. in contention is vol. 3 of 'my struggle'. david hair and brain mcclellans new fantasy series were v enjoyable. i read probably another dozen nyrb classics but nothing that really sticks out. same with all the fantasy i read. although sandersons brilliant light forever vol. 2 has to win 'longest book i read this year'.
idk what else... 'appointment in samarra' was really wonderful. it was sort of a sponge for all these things i was thinking and feeling and then it was a rock that sat in my stomach. i read lots of dos passos on airplanes. 'magic mountain'. i stayed with a man in london for a month who had a bunch of stuff by merleau-ponty on the bookshelf in his guest bedroom. i dont think i got much more than 15 pages into any of it. i borrowed 'money' from the same friend and left it in a restaurant. i read that book when i was 15 and thought it was superb, funny, insightful &c &c. a decade later all i could think of was a well-dressed man in a casual setting pantomiming self-satisfied glee. like doing a soundless cackle and rubbing his hands together. or maybe a teenage girl rolling her eyes and saying 'wow... so clever'. i just wanted some outside authority to reassure me that everything was as terrible as it seemed. i read 'the time-travellers wife' and sobbed after i finished it.
i kept house-sitting this year and reading other peoples books. one friend had all of bret easten ellis books including the new ones i hadnt read before. they were terrible. i read 'everyday is for the thief'. i spent more time telling people i read 'capital' than i did reading it, probably. 'lila' was pretty good but couldnt make an impression. i read celan. i made notes and lost them. i read the first three dune books while house-sitting for a different couple. i would sit up all night with their cat in my lap thinking how stupid dune is. it doesnt make any sense. i also read 'north of the border, west of the sun' there. someone gave me the new murakmai but i havent read it. i read 'the laughing monsters' instead. there was more midlist-y stuff: 'redeployment', 'the dog', 'nora webster'. i disliked those all strongly but they arent bad. just false. theres lots more thats faded or never really signified. 'the bone season' was a huge disappointment. this post is too long now.
― ≖_≖ (Lamp), Tuesday, 16 December 2014 06:24 (nine years ago) link
things i can remember
c.s. lewis space trilogy: out of the silent planet, perelandra (fave), that hideous strengthgaiman's sandman seriesdavid lindsay - voyage to arcturuslouis-paul boon - summer in termurenyourcenar - memoirs of hadrian (prob best thing i read all year)mishima - temple of the golden pavilion (didn't quite finish, enjoyed it just got distracted)the hundred thousand songs of milarepalotus sutrareread sections of the diamond sutrasome writings by kalu rinpochefoucault's discipline and punishqueneau - zazie on the metrovarious books on shinto, right now reading one called "immortal wishes" abt female mountain ascetics in japan
probably lots i'm forgetting
― (曇り) (clouds), Tuesday, 16 December 2014 07:17 (nine years ago) link
yourcenar - memoirs of hadrian (prob best thing i read all year)
Keep meaning to read that - see cheap copies of it all the time.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 16 December 2014 13:03 (nine years ago) link
suspect that you would enjoy the boon as well, definitely see if you can find a copy of chapel road (summer in termuren is the "sequel") -- one of the most remarkable modernist lit masterpieces
― (曇り) (clouds), Tuesday, 16 December 2014 14:25 (nine years ago) link
Was just reading a quick article about him: http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/louis-paul-boon/
Thanks, pick it up if I see it.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 16 December 2014 14:50 (nine years ago) link
lamp I feel like actually it was you complaining to me about proust
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Tuesday, 16 December 2014 21:55 (nine years ago) link
I also read Gaiman's Sandman this year. I started reading it not long after my mom died and there were aspects of the series that really affected me as a result. A couple things in particular that hit me hard were the bits where Morpheus tells Orpheus "At times the fact of her absence will hit you like a blow to the chest, and you will weep. But this will happen less and less as time goes on." and where Barbie says "I don't think Home's a place anymore. I think it's a state of mind." It resonated. That's not a bad thing - I'm glad I read it when I did because it actually helped a lot. But uh moving away from weepy/cheesy stuff, the middle of this series is pretty great - A Game of You/Fables and Reflections/Brief Lives is a good run.
I read Neverwhere a couple months ago as a Gaiman follow up but found it really frustrating. I didn't feel like I knew what anyone's motivations were or why I should care. Ennh.
ANYWAY. Other things:Stanislaw Lem, Solaris - I really don't understand the hype, found it really boring. John Wyndham, The ChrysalidsRobert Sheckley short story collectionAlasdair Grey, LanarkChristopher Priest, the AdjacentMargaret Atwood, all of Maddaddam series - started out alright, book 2 was probably my favourite, book 3 was pretty bad.Kate Wilhelm, Where Late the Sweet Birds SangHelene Wecker, the Golem and the DjinniUrsula Le Guin, the Lathe of Heaven Walter Tevis, Mockingbird
And then a load of comics - some off the top of my head, Bendis' All New X-Men run, Hawkeye, Ms Marvel, Fatale, Lazarus, Simonson's Thor run, Translucid (which I thought was really great and I want to recommend it to people)
Overall a pretty good reading year. I five-starred the Sheckley, Wilhelm, Le Guin, and Tevis on Goodreads.
― salsa shark, Tuesday, 16 December 2014 23:00 (nine years ago) link
I gleaned all the WAYR threads for 2014 and I found this data:
Books completed (except the Rabelais, which I'll finish before year's end):
My View From the Corner: A Life in Boxing, Angelo Dundee & Bert SugarHow Music Works, David ByrneThis Reckless Breed of Men, Robert Glass Cleland (SW USA fur trapper history)Michael Holroyd Introduces The Best of Hugh KingsmillThe Garden of the Brave in War, Terrence O'Donnell (memoir of 1960s Iran)Life Among Giants, Bill Roorbach (murder mystery-ish)The Three Musketeers, Alexandre DumasGhosts of Everest, by many handsOld Money, Nelson W. Aldrich Jr.Go Tell It on the Mountain, James BaldwinSavage Detectives, Roberto BolanoThe Deltoid Pumpkin Seed, John McPheeThe Wallowas, William AshworthDemons, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Pevear & Volokhonsky translationFour Fish, Paul GreenbergOranges, John McPhee My Antonia, WIlla CatherAiding and Abetting, Muriel Spark Six Easy Pieces and Six Not-So-Easy Pieces, Richard P. FeynmanThe Boys in the Boat, Daniel James BrownThe Golden Age, Gore VidalAnti-Intellectualism in American Life, Richard HofstadterBerlin Game, Len DeightonThe Goliard Poets, translation by Geo. Whicher The Comforters, Muriel Sparks Gilead, Marilynne RobinsonKidnapped, Robert Louis StevensonThe Great Gatsby, F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Heart of Darkness, Joseph ConradOur Game, John LeCarre Eric and Enide, Chretien de TroyesCliges, Chretien de TroyesThe Knight of the Cart, Chretien de TroyesThe Knight with the Lion, Chretien de TroyesThe Story of the Grail, Chretien de TroyesWelcome to Hard Times, E.L. DoctorThe Great Crash, J. K. GalbraithBuccaneers of America, Alexander ExquemelinWhat I Saw in America, G.K. ChestertonPsmith, Journalist, P.G. WodehouseMy Brilliant Career, Miles FranklinThe Civil War, Volume 1, Shelby FooteReality and Dreams, Muriel SparkThe Driver's Seat, Muriel Spark Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais, M.A. Screech translation
Books read only in part:
The Voice of the Coyote, J. Frank DobieAs I Was Going Down Sackville Street, Oliver St. John GogartyEssays on Zen Buddhism, D. T. SuzukiThe Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, Evelyn WaughWe Sagebrush People, Annie Pike Greenwood (memoir of early Idaho)The Garden Party, Katherine MansfieldBlackwater, journalist's expose about the 'security contractor'
...plus an odd assortment of bits of poetry, which I rarely or never mention in WAYR threads
― oh no! must be the season of the rich (Aimless), Wednesday, 17 December 2014 01:01 (nine years ago) link
p much realized my yearly reading is gonna always be ~~ jcox2, updikex2, rothx2 until I exhaust them and i'm fine w/ that, best of these were prob jco - solstice & American pastoral fyi, tho several others id def recommend
collected interviews w/ joyce carol oatesdidion - slouching toward Bethlehemmarisha pessl - night filmJackson galaxy - cat daddyyates - young hearts cryingfellini & Damian pettigrew - i'm a born liar Jonah keri - the extra 2%Nicole laporte - the man who would be kingupdike - brazil; hugging the shore; bech at bayroth - American pastoral; my life as a manalice munro - too much happinessBegley - updike biopizzolatto - Galvestoneggers - zeitounrivka galchen - American innovationschad harbach - the art of fieldingmaria semple - this one is mineevan osnos - age of ambition re: chinajco - solstice; night-sidejohn Gregory dunne - the studioJoshua ferris - to rise again at a decent hourEleanor coppola - notesdavid Shapiro - youre not much use to anyoneStephen Elliott - Adderall diariesCurtis sittenfeld - American wife; sisterlandsam wasson - 5th ave, 5amken Russell autobiogcapote - music for chameleons
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 17 December 2014 16:25 (nine years ago) link
fitting i guess :/
― ≖_≖ (Lamp), Wednesday, 17 December 2014 17:15 (nine years ago) link
My list of the books I finished this year is in reverse-chronological order below. This was one of my heavier reading years and one of my weirdest years in existential terms (though it was literally transformative in a lot of positive ways). The highlights of my reading in 2014 were Proust, James Baldwin's non-fiction, Jean Rhys's novels, and the works of various trans women writers, especially Imogen Binnie's Nevada.
gertrude stein - the making of americansgertrude stein - everybody's autobiography (reread)stanislaw lem - solarisnicholas rombes - the absolution of roberto alcestes laingannie mok - bleedthroughs #2 + shadow manifesto: tall girl summerlidia yuknavitch - the chronology of wateringeborg bachmann - malinamariko tamaki and jillian tamaki - skimrebecca solnit - a field guide to getting losthenri lefebvre - critique of everyday life ijackqueline frost - young americanscaitlin kiernan - tales of pain and wondermichele bernstein - all the king's horseskathy acker - don quixoteannie mok - collected 2008-2013caitlin kiernan - the drowning girllynne tillman - motion sicknesssimon hanselmann - megahexjulie delporte - journalgeorg lukacs - history and class consciousnesssheila heti - how should a person be?roberto bolano - a little lumpen novelitadaniel clowes - ice havenmartin vaughn-james - the cagegilbert hernandez - children of palomarlynne tillman - haunted housesdash shaw - new schoolclarice lispector - selected cronicaslydia davis - can't and won'tmarcel proust - finding time againgiovanni arrighi - the long twentieth centuryjeanne thornton - the dream of dr bantammattilda bernstein sycamore - the end of san franciscolynne tillman - someday this will be funnysamuel beckett - proustmattilda bernstein sycamore - why are faggots so afraid of faggots? flaming challenges to masculinity, objectification, and the desire to conformjohn darnielle - wolf in white vanlynne tillman - what would lynne tillman do?mary gaitskill - veronicasamuel beckett - malone / molloy dies / the unnamablepaolo virno - a grammar of the multitudemary gaitskill - bad behaviorjulie maroh - blue is the warmest colorosip mandelstam, trans. christian wiman - stolen airmarcel proust - the fugitivemarcel proust - the prisonermaggie nelson - the art of crueltyfabien vehlmann & kerascoët - beautiful darknessleslie feinberg - trans liberationdavid b - incidents in the nightgene luen yang - boxers & saintsgeorg buchner - lenzcasey plett - a safe girl to loveariel schrag - adamluc sante - kill all your darlingsfred moten and stefano harney - the undercommonsgenevieve castree - susceptibleulli lust - today is the last day of the rest of your lifemaggie nelson - bluetsmarcel proust - sodom and gomorrahgertrude stein - lectures in americacharles olson - call me ishmaelherman melville - moby dick (reread)aime cesaire - notebook of a return to the native landmattilda bernstein sycamore - nobody passes: rejecting the rules of gender and conformityleslie jamison - empathy examsmarguerite duras - the lovereileen myles - infernomarcel proust - the guermantes waysamuel delany - times square red, times square bluekarl ove knausgaard - my struggle 3david wojnarowicz - 7 miles a secondanna anthropy - zzthilda hilst - with my dog eyesmarcel proust - in the shadow of young girls in flowerjenny offill - dept of speculationezra pound - confuciuschris kraus - i love dickann quin - threesamuel delany - trouble on tritonroberto bolano - 2666 (reread)dean spade - normal life: administrative violence, critical trans politics and the limits of lawamelia gray - am/pmjames baldwin - blues for mr charliejane bowles - two serious ladiesandres neuman - talking to ourselvesw.e.b. dubois - the souls of black folkjames baldwin - the devil finds workezra pound - the cantosjose munoz - cruising utopiajames baldwin - going to meet the manjoseph conrad - the secret agent (reread)clarice lispector - the hour of the starjean rhys - quartetjean rhys - after leaving mr mackenziebeatriz preciado - testo junkiesusan stryker - transgender historyjames baldwin - no name in the streetjames baldwin - another countryanne carson - red doc>karl ove knausgaard - my struggle 2clarice lispector - the passion according to g.h.alejandra pizarnik - a musical helljames baldwin - go tell it on the mountainjaime saenz - immanent visitordavid wojnarowicz - close to the knives: a memoir of disintegrationjames baldwin - the fire next time (reread)thomas hardy - moments of visionjean rhys - good morning, midnightjames baldwin - nobody knows my namejames baldwin - notes of a native sonmichel foucault - lectures on the will to knoww.b. yeats - michael robartes and the dancer (reread)imogen binnie - nevadah.g. wells - the time machinejames baldwin - giovanni's roomjean rhys - wide sargasso seaf. scott fitzgerald - tales of the jazz agewilliam gaddis - the recognitions (reread)claudia rankine - don't let me be lonelykatherine mansfield - in a german pensionmichel foucault - the birth of biopoliticswilla cather - the professor's house
― one way street, Wednesday, 17 December 2014 21:49 (nine years ago) link
did you happen to be bedridden the entire year but with well-working eyeballs
― j., Wednesday, 17 December 2014 21:53 (nine years ago) link
My eyesight is terrible, and I went out dancing pretty often in the summer and fall. It was a strange year, as I said.
― one way street, Wednesday, 17 December 2014 22:06 (nine years ago) link
Also, you can do a lot of reading when you're by turns working on a dissertation, avoiding writing a dissertation, and trying to understand yourself.
― one way street, Wednesday, 17 December 2014 22:11 (nine years ago) link
Just went through the unknown titles for a good half hour and have at least have a dozen to look out for.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 17 December 2014 23:32 (nine years ago) link
fucking hell
i mean i'm busy with school and language study and all, and don't feel like i'm "wasting my life" or anything but sheesh
― (曇り) (clouds), Thursday, 18 December 2014 00:34 (nine years ago) link
I'd be glad to comment on any of the books I haven't talked about in the other reading threads, but I also don't want to derail this thread. Also, clouds, I never claimed I wasn't wasting my life!
― one way street, Thursday, 18 December 2014 00:48 (nine years ago) link
i highly doubt you are!
― (曇り) (clouds), Thursday, 18 December 2014 00:56 (nine years ago) link
I don't want to derail it either, but um what was your take on Jean Rhys?
― dow, Thursday, 18 December 2014 01:52 (nine years ago) link
i didnt read much at all this year. well compared to previous years. split up from my long term gf, i dunno if that had anything to do with it, just one of those years where i wasnt really bothered to read and couldnt get into stuff either. lots of film books this year cos im studying film and the robin wood and robert b ray books were excellent and probably the best ive read this year. morrissey bio was great too.
Robin Wood – From Hollywood to VietnamMorrissey – AutobiographyDavid Remnick – King of the WorldJack Kerouac – Maggie CassidyNassim Nicholas Taleb – Fooled by RandomnessDonal Ryan – The Spinning HeartCinema Colonialism Post-Colonialism (ed. Dina Sherzer)Dan Whyte - Political Cinema: The Dialectics of Third Cinema John Kennedy Toole – A Confederacy of DuncesThe Cult Film ReaderKevin Curran – BeatsploitationJared Diamond – Guns, Germs and SteelRobert R. Ray – A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema 1930-1980Richard Maltby – Hollywood CinemaFilm Theory and Criticism (ed. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen)
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Thursday, 18 December 2014 01:53 (nine years ago) link
one way street - Have you read Bernstein's The Night? My library has it so I ordered.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 19 December 2014 00:38 (nine years ago) link
lol
gertrude stein - the making of americans
just this in a year would be O_0 but with everything else it's just
i commend your reading o.w.s., it's inspiring
― j., Friday, 19 December 2014 03:26 (nine years ago) link
xyzzz___, I've been wanting to read The Night (and hope to when I can find a copy--I think it's between printings) mostly because I'm fascinated by the Situationists and I believe it's supposed to be one of the most detailed (though fictional) accounts of a dérive.
j., there's probably no way I would have gotten through The Making of Americans without a reading group with a contingent of dedicated Steinians (we're bound together by agreement that Two Serious Ladies is a perfect novel). It's fascinating and frustrating in that I still don't know quite how to read it (I enjoy the "difficult" Stein but more so in Tender Buttons and the portraits, which don't pose quite the same problems of duration).
dow, I don't really have a unified take on Jean Rhys, but (as I think I wrote in another thread), she has a remarkably pure and unadorned prose style and one of the most powerful visions I've encountered of the painful tension between unbearable isolation and abject dependence on others. Wide Sargasso Sea has the most searching treatment of race, madness, and the scars of colonialism, and handles its perspectival shifts more powerfully than some of her earlier fiction, but Good Morning, Midnight overshadows everything else for me with the claustrophobic intensity of its narrator's voice. I haven't looked much at much of the existing Rhys criticism so far (I should go back and reread Spivak's essay on Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre), but I like Jed Esty's reading of Voyage in the Dark (in his Unseasonable Youth) in terms of adherence to an "antidevelopmental time," informed by the colonial relation between London and the peripheral space of Antigua, that disrupts the traditional logic of the Bildungroman.
― one way street, Friday, 19 December 2014 18:48 (nine years ago) link
have you ever read "zero" by ignacio de loyola brandao?
― (曇り) (clouds), Friday, 19 December 2014 18:55 (nine years ago) link
Thanks for comments on Rhys. unbearable isolation and abject dependence on others makes me think of Jane Bowles, and also stuck by dedicated Steinians (we're bound together by agreement that Two Serious Ladies is a perfect novel): that Bowles achieved a Steinian ideal, or an ideal with plenty of Steinian appeal! I've read a lot of Stein (though only excerpts of The Making), and as I said elsewhere, almost all of Bowels' small trove, but somehow never thought of a link. Saw the movie of Wide Sargasso Sea many years ago. Don't remember much except being tremendously impressed, still need to read her.
― dow, Friday, 19 December 2014 22:37 (nine years ago) link
:Bowels' small trove," sorrreee. Three Lives was my gateway to Stein's way; "Brim Beauvais" was some kind of recognition (like just now reading online about the dérive).
― dow, Friday, 19 December 2014 22:44 (nine years ago) link
The Making of Americans, The Cantos, all of Proust, Moby Dick, The Recognitions...
All one can do is stand back and admire.
― alimosina, Friday, 19 December 2014 23:58 (nine years ago) link
xyzzz___, I've been wanting to read The Night (and hope to when I can find a copy--I think it's between printings)
Indeed it is being reprinted in 2015.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 20 December 2014 00:12 (nine years ago) link
I just finished Two Serious Ladies tonight and I saw it more in parallel with Djuna Barnes' Nightwood - which is talked about in the intro, but also maybe Marguerite Duras. I haven't read a lot of Stein or Jean Rhys, so a lot of links to be drawn in the year to come.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 20 December 2014 00:17 (nine years ago) link
clouds, I haven't read zero or anything else by Brandao--as interested as I am in Latin American literature, my engagement with Brazilian literature so far has been almost entirely confined to Lispector--but I'll look out for it.
xyzzzz__ and dow, I'd agree that Two Serious Ladies is much closer to Nightwood than to Stein in its interest in an ambiguous transcendence through abjection--I guess that's probably there in Duras, too, although I've only read The Lover and some of her wartime notebooks. My Steinian friends (there's just two of them, so calling them a contingent is a little grandiose) just share my love for Bowles's work on its own terms--one friend has been writing about Bowles, the other wrote a text for the journal Two Serious Ladies and so was led back to its namesake. (We also share an appreciation for oversized cats, dancing to Robyn, and neglected female modernists....)
― one way street, Saturday, 20 December 2014 19:15 (nine years ago) link
Here's my list (I keep a Google doc so I can remember). Mostly fun fiction (by my definition anyway), mostly dystopian in one way or another.
M.T. Anderson, FeedBennett Sims, A Questionable ShapeSergio De La Pava, PersonaeMarlen Haushofer, The WallMarcel Theroux, Strange BodiesJeff Vandermeer, AnnihilationChristopher Priest, The AdjacentJeff Vandermeer, AuthorityMarcel Theroux, Far NorthMegan Abbott, Dare MeTeju Cole, Every Day Is for the ThiefDan Simmons, The TerrorChimamanda Ngozi Adichie, AmericanahDavid Mitchell, The Bone ClocksJeff Vandermeer, AcceptanceJohn Darnielle, Wolf in White VanFuminori Nakamura, Last Winter, We PartedSean Michaels, Us ConductorsRichard Powers, Orfeo
― virtuoso thigh slapper (Jordan), Saturday, 20 December 2014 19:26 (nine years ago) link
Marlen Haushofer, The Wall
Really want to read that - did you enjoy it?
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 20 December 2014 20:43 (nine years ago) link
the only brazilian book i read this year was gilberto freyre's the masters and the slaves
― Chairman Feinstein (nakhchivan), Saturday, 20 December 2014 21:01 (nine years ago) link
I was just reading this roundup of Clarice Lispector's books and finally got round to ordering a couple from the library. I sorta avoided reading her for some stupid reasons I can't remember. Between that and The Wall I am all up for this 'untutored' take on existentialism (Kushner's contrast of this stuff w/Malina)
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 20 December 2014 21:45 (nine years ago) link
Greatly enjoyed Rachel Kushner's guide through/personal take on Lispectorvision, thanks so much for the link. K's passing mention of Caetano Veloso reminds me of his multi-dimensional-as-hell Tropical Truths, speaking of guide through/personal takes on his life in Brazil and vice versa, drawn from notebooks kept backstage, in jail, exile, back home in the absolutely new/improved etc.Oh, one more question for one way street: I just now noticed that you read The Professor's House; what did you think of that??
― dow, Saturday, 20 December 2014 22:55 (nine years ago) link
I did. It's a slog at times but you can take that as mirroring the tedium of the main character living out her days in solitude (or a metaphor for clinical depression, apparently), if you're charitable. It definitely stuck with me though.
― virtuoso thigh slapper (Jordan), Sunday, 21 December 2014 01:03 (nine years ago) link
was the new richard powers one good?
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 21 December 2014 18:50 (nine years ago) link
i used to really dig him but idk
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 21 December 2014 18:51 (nine years ago) link
xyzzz__, I'd missed or forgotten that Kushner essay, so thank you for that link; I'll be interested to see what you make of Lispector. dow, my impressions of The Professor's House are not as vivid as they could be, since I read it very early in the year: I still haven't read much of Cather's work, but a close friend of mine had called it one of her favorite novels, which sparked my interest. It's bleak and haunting in its sense of the barely visible fractures possible in what would seem like a stable and fulfilled life. It would be very easy to be heavy-handed about this "Richard Cory" kind of material, but Cather's treatment of it gave me a new respect for her subtlety as a novelist.
― one way street, Sunday, 21 December 2014 21:27 (nine years ago) link
Death Comes For The Archbishop is supposed to be very fine too. Other than The Professor's House, I've only read her early novels about pioneer life, like My Antonia They're really different from her stark proto-modernism or whatever you want to call it, with surging anecdotal vitality and some idealism---Antonia is not one of her conflicted-to-tragic characters. Some short stories, however, foreshadow the darker novels (see what I did there). A transition from the financially necessary mainstream crowd pleasers might be One of Ours, a big novel of the Great War, but the central character is based on unwelcome insights/empathy re her obnoxious real-life cousin and his fate. Hope to read it this year.
― dow, Monday, 22 December 2014 04:45 (nine years ago) link
xp one way street, holy mother of god
― Treeship, Monday, 22 December 2014 04:48 (nine years ago) link
good picks though. i love rhys and lispector. also the lefebvre book on the everyday is interesting.
― Treeship, Monday, 22 December 2014 04:49 (nine years ago) link
i think i probably read like 20 books this year but i forget what they were. the best ones were austerlitz and 10:04. in hindsight, open city was also a tremendous book.
― Treeship, Monday, 22 December 2014 04:51 (nine years ago) link
my best reading experience though was probably shakespeare's julius caesar because i taught it. definitely not in the top tier of shakespeare plays, but aspects of it are very interesting. students pointed out to me that brutus is really kind of monstrously selfish, as he deludes himself in order to maintain this inner sense of moral purity that benefits no one else. either that or he is one of the dumbest characters in literature.
― Treeship, Monday, 22 December 2014 04:55 (nine years ago) link
this probably isnt the right thread for this but i dont think theres an end of year critics lists thread for ILB so...
has anyone read any elizabeth harrower?
― just sayin, Wednesday, 24 December 2014 10:14 (nine years ago) link
Rachel Louise Snyder - What We’ve Lost Is NothingDouglas Kennedy - The MomentTerry Teachout - Duke: A Life of Duke EllingtonTom Standage - Writing On The Wall: Social Media The First 200 YearsPeter Baker - Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney In The White HouseRachel Kushner - The FlamethrowersA Scott Berg - WilsonJ Michael Lennon - Norman Mailer: A Double LifeElmore Leonard City - Primevel: High Noon In DetroitElmore Leonard - TouchElmore Leonard - Freaky DeakyPhilip Roth - Goodbye Columbus & Five Short Stories/Letting Go Library of America editionPhilip Roth - Sabbath’s TheatrePhilip Roth - I Married A CommunistPhilip Roth - The Human StainPhilip Roth - The CounterlifeWalter Kirn - Blood Will OutMichael Connelly - The Gods Of GuiltMichael Connelly - Angels FlightMichael Connelly - The Burning RoomRose George - 90 Per Cent Of EverythingGillian Flynn - Gone GirlJo Nesbo - CockroachesJo Nesbo - PoliceJo Nesbo The RedcoatEileen Cronin - MermaidJohn Le Carre - The Looking Glass WarJohn Le Carre - Call For The DeadJohn Le Carre - The Honourable SchoolboyJohn Le Carre - A Small Town In GermanyJohn Le Carre - A Perfect SpyAdam Begley - UpdikeAnna Funder - Stasiland: Stories From Behind The Berlin WallEdward St Aubyn - Lost For WordsJustin Torres - We The AnimalsLorrie Moore - Bark: StoriesJohn Lanchester - The Debt To PleasureJames Hamilton-Patterson - Cooking With Fernet BrancaJames Hamilton-Patterson - Rancid PansiesRick Perlstein - The Invisible BridgeHaruki Murukami - Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of PilgrimageJames Elroy – PerfidiaDennis Lehane – The DropTim O’Brien –The Things They CarriedIan McEwan – The Children ActMartin Amis - The Zone Of InterestMarlon James- A Brief History of Seven KillingsRichard Norton Smith - On His Own Terms: A Life Of Nelson RockefellerWilliam Gibson - The PeripheralArnlaldur Indridason - Strange ShoresGeorge Clinton w/Ben Greenman - Brothers Be Like Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard on YouGustavo Faveron Patriau - The AntiquarianRichard Ben Cramer - What It Takes
― Pontius Pilates (m coleman), Tuesday, 30 December 2014 12:00 (nine years ago) link
Lethem DISSIDENT GARDENSLethem THEY LIVELethem YOU DON'T LOVE ME YETLethem AS SHE CLIMBED ACROSS THE TABLELethem CONVERSATIONSLethem / Scholz KAFKA AMERICANALorrie Moore BARKRobert Sheckley STORE OF THE WORLDSPKD SELECTED STORIESJames 'The Jolly Corner'Fitzgerald THE GREAT GATSBYHemingway IN OUR TIMEZora Neale Hurston THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GODJoyce DUBLINERSE McBride A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THINGJim Crace THE GIFT OF STONESR.F. Foster VIVID FACES
some of these were rereading.possibly I read other books I now forget.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 12:10 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, if I can't remember 'em, so be it.I've commented re most of these on previous threads, but queries, comments welcome.
Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder, edited by DG Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer(Estimated Time of Arrival Hoffman, who deserves a new anthology, bio & much commentary; ditto badass Victorian fabulist Lucy Clifford, also Graham Greene, IB Singer yadda yadda modern madcaps like Rudy Rucker)
Tales Before Tolkien, edited by Douglas A. Anderson(William Morris, George MacDonald, H. Rider Haggard, oh my)
The Lord of The Rings, JRR Tolkien (one of the more recent editions, with many typos corrected, and in one volume as intended)
The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope (so great)
A Century of Noir, edited by Max Allen Collins and Mickey Spillane (not a century, and not all what I'd think to tag as noir, a term Spillane hates, but mostly good-to-great, esp.frequent Howard Hawks screenwriter Leigh Brackett's step-by-step neurotic asskicking novelette, which should have been a classic b starring Robert Ryan and directed by Fritz Lang)
Kate Russell, Vampires In The Lemon Grove (stories, wide-ranging, call em magic realism or whatevs, most of it works)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (magical bits come to seem tacked on, but still works---although my lit prof emeritus Mom says she still prefers Borges, ooh! Not fair to compare, but I agree)
Kate Atkinson, Life After Life ( gets very good in some early and final passages, middle's a slog, but could be good, off-the-wall Anglophile movie/public tv saga)George Saunders, Tenth of DecemberThomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow(rough patch, those three. though all worth reading)
Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman's UnionLock In, John Scalzi(Chabon's police procedural is hard-boiled, sometimes poetically incisive alternate timeline; Scalzi's is an avatar x cyborg x restive flesh descendant of Asimov's robot detective stories)
Ramona Ausubel, No One Is Here But All Of Us (constructing your own alternate universe during WWII, then veering into ours, or somebody's)
Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle In Time (good and see how she influenced development of YA Lit, except gets a bit CS Lewis w the wet xtian bits. I'm told the series gets stronger)
Old Mars, edited by George RR Martin & Gardner Dozois (dedicated to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Roger Zalazny, etc, but these are new tales of red sands, layered legacies, etc.)
Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (amazing the simple male mind)
Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend (amazing the ditto ditto ditto)
which dittos also:
ZZ Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (scary, funny, skidmark insights---"But it was also," as Chris Rock says, "Tuesday.")
― dow, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 15:04 (nine years ago) link
― johnny crunch, Sunday, December 21, 2014 12:50 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― johnny crunch, Sunday, December 21, 2014 12:51 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I'm still in the middle of it actually. He's never clicked with me before but I'm enjoying this one. It's mostly about music and he does that really well (considering it's so easy to do terribly). There's a nested story about Messiaen and the quartet he wrote in a Nazi p.o.w. camp that might be worth the price of admission.
― virtuoso thigh slapper (Jordan), Tuesday, 30 December 2014 15:14 (nine years ago) link
also read Hugh Kenner, A HOMEMADE WORLD !
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 16:16 (nine years ago) link
various books on shinto, right now reading one called "immortal wishes" abt female mountain ascetics in japan
Any recommendations?
― dutch_justice, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 23:57 (nine years ago) link
Another 15 or so half read, these are the ones I finished (my favourites very helpfully asterisked):
More of Peter SimpleShirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived In The CastleWinston Churchill - My Early LifeAlan Watts - The BookKaren Armstrong - Through The Narrow GateStephen Spender - World Within WorldGeorge Borrow - LavengroKaren Armstrong - A Short History of MythElizabeth Gaskell - North and SouthElizabeth Von Arnim - The Enchanted April, Elizabeth & Her German GardenJulian Maclaren Ross - Of Love & HungerEvgeny Zamyatin - WeTony Parker - LighthouseBruno Schulz - The Street of CrocodilesMolly Keane - Good Behaviour (***)Alan Johnson - This BoyAntoine de Saint Exupery - Wind, Sea and StarsPG Wodehouse - Right Ho J, Very Good J, The Inimitable J, The Code of the W, The Mating Season Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Ernest, Lady Windermere's Fan, SaloméFourth Leaders from The Times, 1951Barbara Pym - A Glass of BlessingsFlora Thompson - Still Glides The StreamDavid Thomson - Nairn In Darkness and LightWyndham Lewis - The Revenge For LoveMartin Amis - The Rachel PapersMaupassant - Mont OriolA N Wilson - The Wise VirginTarjei Vesaas - The Ice PalaceDavid Lodge - Changing PlacesArthur C Clarke - Childhood's EndBernard Levin - EnthusiasmsAlessandro Baricco - SilkBarbara Comyns - Our Spoons Came From Woolworths, The Vet's Daughter, The Juniper TreeRod Liddle - Selfish, Whining MonkeysNik Cohn - Awopbopaloobop AlopbamboomPatti Smith - Just KidsWilliam Bolitho - Murder For ProfitE M Forster - Abinger HarvestRobert Louis Stevenson - Kidnapped (***)John Meade Falkner - Moonfleet Adrian Mitchell - The BodyguardR K Narayan - The Painter of Signs (***)John Banville - The Book of EvidenceJohn Meade Falkner - The Lost StradivariusR K Narayan - The GuideAnthony Trollope - The Belton EstateAl Alvarez - The Savage GodHalldor Laxness - Independent People (**********)George Gissing - The WhirlpoolColm Toibin - BrooklynWilla Cather - Death Comes To The ArchbishopKate Chopin - The AwakeningHarold Nicolson - Some PeopleRobert Louis Stevenson - Dr Jekyll & My HydeJoanna Cannan - Princes in the LandRosamond Lehmann - Dusty AnswerPer Lagerkvist - BarabbasW M Thackeray - Vanity FairIsaac Bashevis Singer - The SlaveVirginia Woolf - Between The ActsArnold Bennett - Buried AliveVirginia Woolf - FlushLawrence Durrell - Bitter LemonsLawrence Durrell - Reflections on a Marine VenusDoris Lessing - Memoirs of a SurvivorMolly Keane - Time After TimeBaroness Orczy - The Scarlet PimpernelKeith Simpson - Forty Years of MurderDJ Taylor - The Comedy ManIsaiah Berlin - Personal Impressions (***)Vladimir Nabokov - The Luzhin Defense (***)Jona Oberski - A ChildhoodGeorge Sand - A Winter in MajorcaAnne Bronte - Agnes GreyJulia Strachey - Cheerful Weather for the WeddingSandra Brown - Where There Is EvilAnthony Trollope - Rachel RayF Tennyson Jesse - A Pin To See The PeepshowAnonymous - A Woman in BerlinIvan Turgenev - On The Eve (***)Ian MacDonald - Revolution in the Head (***)Derek Marlowe - A Single Summer With L.B.Ivan Turgenev - Spring TorrentsGiuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa - The Leopard (***)John Lewis-Stempel - MeadowlandWilliam Shakespeare - Macbeth Hilary Mantel - Bring up the BodiesCaroline Blackwood - Great Granny WebsterAlberto Moravia - Two Women (********)Hans Fallada - Little Man, What Now?Dan Davies - In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy SavileAlberto Moravia - ContemptEvelyn Waugh - A Little LearningJoseph Roth - The Emperor's TombHalldor Laxness - The Atom StationAlberto Moravia - The ConformistIsaac Bashevis Singer - The Magician of LublinAdam Nicolson - The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters (still reading)Edith Sitwell - I Live Under A Black SunIvan Turgenev - A Sportsman's Notebook (still reading)
― crimplebacker, Wednesday, 31 December 2014 10:48 (nine years ago) link
Final list, updated for December (might as well post it all here instead of last year's thread -- first time I am properly compiling something like this). A few I haven't finished (*), and finishing a couple (**) (maybe by midnight ;-)).
Favourite discoveries were (these are books I had no idea I was going to find at the start of the year, never mind enjoy so much): Bachmann, Peter Weiss' Aesthetics of Resistance, Ferrante's Naples bks, Qiu Miaojin, Soseki.
For poetry the highlights were Brecht, Emily Dickinson, Trakl, Holderlin, Ungaretti (among all those Penguin Modern European Poets vols), Enzensberger's Mausoleum
Prose:
Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis and Short stories/The Trial/Diaries 1910-1923/Letters to Milena/Letters to FeliceIngeborg Bachmann - MalinaElias Canetti - The Voices of Marrakesh/Kafka's Other TrialFrank Wedekind - Diary of an Erotic Life*Peter Weiss - The Aesthetics of Resistance/Leavetaking/Vanishing PointRainer Maria Rilke - Letters on Cezanne/Letters to a Young Poet/The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge/Ernst Juenger - On the Marble CliffsGert Hofmann - The Film ExplainerGeorg Buchner - The Complete PlaysPaul Celan/Ingebord Bachmann - CorrespondencePeter Handke - A Sorrow Beyond DreamsPeter Stamm - Seven Years/We're flyingThomas Mann - Death in Venice and Other StoriesArthur Schnitzler - La Ronde and Other Plays/The Green Cockatoo (plus more plays)Robert Walser - Berlin StoriesThomas Bernhard - Gathering Evidence/Wittgenstein's Nephew/ConcreteJoseph Roth - The Hundred Days/AntichristCarlo Emilio Gadda - Acquainted with GriefMishima - Confessions of a MaskMarina Tsvetava - A Captive SpiritFernando Pessoa - Always AstonishedD.H.Lawrence - (Two Collections of Short Stories)Cesare Pavese - The Suicides (short story)/The BeachMiklos Szentkuthy - Marginalia on CasanovaCurzio Malaparte - Kaputt/The SkinGyula Krudy - SunflowerHelen DeWitt - Lightning RodsCeline - Rigadoon/North/Castle to CastleHenry Green - Concluding/Doting/Nothing/Pack my BagQiu Miaojin - Last Words from MontmarteJocelyn Brooke - Image of a Drawn SwordVictor Serge - The Conquered CityJ.G. Ballard - (vol. of short stories)Denton Welch - I left my GrandFather's HouseMarilynne Robinson - GileadMontale - Poet in our TimeElena Ferrante - My Beautiful Friend/The Story of a New Name/The Lost Daughter/Days of Abandonment/Those who Leave and Those who StayDoris Lessing - The Golden NotebookElio Vittorini - Women of Messina*Natsume Soseki - Kokoro/Botchan*Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz - House of DesiresVarious: Tales of the German Imagination - from the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg BachmannVarious: Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida**Heinrich von Kleist - Selected ProseJane Bowles - Two Serious LadiesElsa Morante - Arturo's Island**
Poetry:
Goethe - Roman Elegies and Other Poems and Epigrams Heine - SelectedHolderlin - CompletePaul Celan - SelectedTrakl - SelectedBrecht - CompleteRainer Maria Rilke - Duino ElegiesHans Magnus Enzenberger - Mausoleum: 37 Ballads on the History of Progress/Selected (Modern European Poets)20th Century German Poems (ed. Michael Hofmann)Marina Tsvetava - The Ratcatcher: A lyrical satireEugenio Montale - Selected (Modern European Poets)Salvatore Quasimodo - Selected (Modern European Poets)Ungaretti - Selected (Modern European Poets)Holub - Selected (Modern European Poets)Federico Garcia Lorca - Poet in New YorkEmily Dickinson - Complete*Petrarch - Songs & SonnetsA Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse (Richard Hamer)Chretien de Troyes - Erec and Enide/CligesVerlaine - SelectedSzymborska - View with a Grain of Sand Walt Whitman - A Choice of Whitman's VerseOsip Mandesltam - SelectedJoseph Brodsky - Selected (Modern European Poets)Four Greek Poets - Selected (Modern European Poets)Giacomo Leopardi - CantiManley Hopkins - SelectedD.H Lawrence - SelectedFaber book of Italian 20th century poemsNostradamus - The Prophecies Kabir - Songs (NYRB)Ovid - HeroidesJohn Donne - SelectedEzra Pound - Selected
Overall I think poetry will become a bigger part of my reading. First year in which I sought it out in a big way instead of reading a volume here or there.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 31 December 2014 11:36 (nine years ago) link
This was probably the best year of reading I've ever had, in terms of how much I enjoyed it and how much I got around to. There were only maybe five books that I didn't enjoy, and many of the rest will stay with me a long time. Looking forward to next year!
Despair - Vladimir NabokovA Visit to Don Otavio - Sybille BedfordOaxaca Diaries - Oliver SacksPietr the Latvian - George SimenonThe Secret Agent - Joseph ConradVertigo - WG SebaldBreak It Down - Lydia DavisYour Face Tomorrow Vol. 3 - Javier MariasThe Lazarus Project - Alecsander HemonThe Beginning of Spring - Penelope FitzgeraldInnocence - Penelope FitzgeraldChristine Falls - Benjamin BlackDead Souls - GogolAlmost No Memory - Lydia DavisSamuel Johnson is Indignant - Lydia DavisThe Late Monsieur Gallet - George SimenonThe Blue Flower - Penelope FitzgeraldNight at the Crossroads - Georges SimenonThe Yellow Dog - Georges SimenonThe Hanged Man of Saint-Pholein - Georges SimenonA Crime in Holland - Georges SimenonEnormous Changes at the Last Minute - Grace PaleyA Favourite of the Gods - Sybille BedfordThe Grand Banks Cafe - Georges SimenonThe Mating Season - PG WodehouseThe Way By Swann's - Marcel ProustLoving - Henry GreenThe Carter of La Providence - Georges SimenonA Man's Head - Georges SimenonA Passage to India - EM ForsterWhere Angel's Fear to Thread - EM ForsterDevil in a Blue Dress - Walter MosleyParis Stories - Mavis GallantAn Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo IshiguroA Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics - Donald RichieThe Makioka Sisters - Junichiro TanizakiThe House in Paris - Elizabeth BowenBullfight - Yasushi Inoue.A Time to Keep Silence - Patrick Leigh Fermor.Bending Adversity - David Pilling.Offshore - Penelope FitzgeraldNetherland - Joseph O NeillThe Sense of an Ending - Julian BarnesThe Two Penny Bar - Georges SimenonAlone in Berlin - Hans FalladaKing,Queen,Knave - Vladimir NabokovNever Mind - Edward St. AubynThe Shadow Puppet - Georges SimenonLight Years - James SalterThe Knox Brothers -Penelope Fitzgerald
― .robin., Wednesday, 31 December 2014 16:19 (nine years ago) link
Slow reading year (new job, new child):The Black Spider - Jeremias GotthelfThe Age of Capital / The Age of Empire - Eric HobsbawmThe Summer Book - Tove JanssonNo Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthySightlines - Kathleen Jamie (the best book I read this year)Little Tales of Misogyny - Patricia HighsmithMiss Lonleyhearts / A Cool Million / Day of the Locust - Nathanael WestLathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le GuinThe Farenheit Twins - Michel Faber
Lots of good intentions for this coming year.
― calumerio, Saturday, 3 January 2015 23:36 (nine years ago) link
i must have read some this and that here and there, but i just read this the other day and it was the first thing in forever i read straight through, avidly
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CEEQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%2Fabout%2FPublic_Goods_Private_Goods.html%3Fid%3D9hHcLSeo4_wC&ei=SH2oVLWKI4iAygS1x4KoAw&usg=AFQjCNGjawxJ-gWQsMlufgv2iygpJSPkhw&sig2=I2JYCyIbiTtlMnipi_IsXw
― j., Saturday, 3 January 2015 23:46 (nine years ago) link
Oaxaca Diaries - Oliver SacksPietr the Latvian - George Simenon Haven't heard of these---info please!Also, what did you think ofLight Years - James Salter?
― dow, Sunday, 4 January 2015 03:07 (nine years ago) link
army of the potomac trilogy - bruce cattona shropshire lad - a.e. housmangulliver's travels - swiftclaudine at school - colettethe man who was thursday - g.k. chestertonlegacy of ashes - tim weinerthree men in a boat - jerome k. jeromethe education of an anti-imperialist: robert la follette and u.s. expansion - robert drakethe trial and death of socrates - platofree soil, free labor, free men - eric fonerthe journalist and the murderer - janet malcolmjfk's last hundred days - thurston clarkeperils of dominance - gareth portergriftopia - matt taibbia colossal wreck - alexander cockburnmiami and the siege of chicago - norman maileran unfinished life - robert dallekthe bonesetter's daughter - amy tanthe united nations: a very short introduction - jussi m. hanhimakiletters to a young contrarian - christopher hitchensthe riddle of the dinosaur - john noble wilforda little history of the world - e.h. gombrichfive weeks in a balloon - jules vernearound the world in 80 days - jules vernebonjour tristesse - francoise saganthe graveyard - marek hlaskothe burning of the world: a memoir of 1914 - béla zombory-moldována summer bird-cage - margaret drabblethe obamians - james mannnot in our lifetime - anthony summersdutch: a memoir of ronald reagan - edmund morrismy life and hard times - james thurber
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 5 January 2015 01:23 (nine years ago) link
i barely read this year but kept a list of the ones i finished
Jesse Ball - Silence Once BegunElena Ferrante - Days of AbandonmentJohn Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of DuncesDon Delillo - White Noisebell hooks - Feminist Theory: From Margin to CenterJefferson Cowie - Stayin’ AliveNeil Gaiman - American GodsJulio Cortazar - Blow-UpThomas Piketty - Capital in the 21st CenturyBenjamin Kunkel - Utopia or BustDavid Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
― flopson, Monday, 5 January 2015 01:50 (nine years ago) link
― dow, Sunday, January 4, 2015 3:07 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Oaxaca diaries is an account of a trip taken by a group of amateur botanists with a particular interest in ferns to the Mexican state known, in those circles, for its particularly large variety of species. I only read it because I was in Oaxaca at the time, but I thoroughly enjoyed it - his descriptions of the oddities of the group were charming and an insight into a world I knew nothing about. There's also some nice descriptions of Oaxaca itself. Its nothing earth shattering but if you're interested in either botany or Mexico its definitely a good read. (Although if you want to read a travel book about Mexico I'd definitely go for "A Visit to Don Otavio" by Sybille Bedford - I've read quite a few books about Mexico and its by far the best.
Pietr the Latvian is the first of the Inspector Maigret books, all 75 of which are being republished by Penguin in new translations. I'd never read them before but I'm now totally addicted. Its hard to say why, the endings are often not particularly satisfying and the writing can be fairly dodgy (I read a review which said he makes Ian Fleming look like Nabokov, which sounds about right!) but the way he conjures up an atmosphere is amazing, they're great books for when you want something that falls into the category of comfort reading, they're all about 150 pages and designed to be read in one sitting, so they're perfect for when you want to take a break from more serious reading, whatever that means. I feel like they're getting better as they go along as well.
I thought parts of the James Salter book were amazing, but I wasn't entirely convinced by it. There's an arrogance to the writing that you completely forget about when you're in the middle of some of the best bits, but there's times where it doesn't quite seem justified. Having said that the book stayed with me more than I expected and I'd say I'll end up reading some of his other stuff, the parts I found a little off putting don't seem so bad in retrospect and the evocation of the passing of time and accumulation of disappointments punctuated by occasional moments of joy was something that I suspect will stick with me as I get older.
― .robin., Monday, 5 January 2015 21:52 (nine years ago) link
Yes, it's stuck with me. Your experience with the book is pretty close to mine. Think I came to it directly, with a jolt, from The Hunters, which is very and appropriately taut (keeps lyricism on a short leash): it's based on his experience as a combat pilot, flying missions every morning, or very often. Later revised, dunno how that turned out.
I've read several Simenons, but they all had Maigret's name in the title. Black Snow and other non-genre novels can be better, but yeah I'm sure I'll get back to the series.
I've read several Sacks books and his 60s drug memoirs in The New Yorker, which may not be in a book yet. Only knew of Oaxaca via its excellent old-tyme reputation re weed; will check his book and Bedford's, thanks.
― dow, Monday, 5 January 2015 23:37 (nine years ago) link
Was it The Hunters that was significantly revised or was it his second novel, The Arm of Flesh, which was reworked into Cassada
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 January 2015 23:56 (nine years ago) link
I wish you were right, but just checked his New Yorker profile:He has also described his pilot years as lost ones. He was ashamed not to have achieved more in war. “I felt contempt for myself,” he wrote later. He felt similarly about the flying books. “Youth,” he has said. But eventually he wrote again of his flying years, in “Burning the Days,” and then, when a friend wanted to republish the old novels, he revised “The Hunters” and a second Air Force novel, “The Arm of Flesh” (1961), which he renamed “Cassada.” Glad he changed that title.
― dow, Tuesday, 6 January 2015 00:23 (nine years ago) link
Maybe I'll do a comparative reading, but mainly, the first version seemed like exemplary self-discipline, with bits of imagery flying out at just the right moments. Must be nice.
― dow, Tuesday, 6 January 2015 00:27 (nine years ago) link
been picking up various simenons secondhand over the last year, so been reading them in the old translations (at least one was even done by julian maclaren-ross!). just finished the first maigret which was okay, though there was some fairly rank & nasty anti-semitism and *spoiler* the twin thing was just slightly ridiculous. think the new translation for this has been done by the perec translator/biographer david bellos?. have been struck by his use of weather as an integral part of the general atmosphere for his narratives: very good at the oppressiveness of heat, especially in one of his early non-maigrets about a turkish consul newly arrived in a soviet port (forget the name of it but weirdly reminded me of robbe-grillet). and xposts: they are totally addictive!
― no lime tangier, Tuesday, 6 January 2015 07:18 (nine years ago) link
Aieee! In the middle of the night, I woke up realizing I'd left Dubliners off my list!
Finally read Dubliners. Love the intent observation and the improbable navigation through all the detail: can't call it "omniscient" narration in the lordly sense: early 20-something author knows he's still got a lot to learn about women, for instance/especially, and like some of his male protagonists (generally older and more experienced than he), the sense of surprise, in sometimes possibly teachable moments, is a recurring source of vitality, a key center, maybe. Also, there's a sense of compassion, or fairness---well, justice anyway, 'cause life ain't fair. But art can be, sometimes.Also, unusually enough, it's making me monitor and question my own behavior, incl the binge of high-class reading: am I really learning from this, or is it just more status-seeking, if very belated? Can't take it with you (not all the way, but how far?)
― dow, Sunday, November 2, 2014 4:23 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Dubliners is really good. Perhaps only viewed as 'minor' because of who wrote it and what else he wrote.
― Thackeray Zax (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, November 2, 2014 5:01 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― dow, Friday, 9 January 2015 14:01 (nine years ago) link
like dow I read the whole of DUBLINERS (in my case again). I liked it and I think dow has a point (implicit) re: maturity, reading it with an experience eye, etc.
I also watched the film THE DEAD (1987) again and liked that too.
― the pinefox, Monday, November 10, 2014 5:12 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Thanks, yeah that's what I meant. It was like Dylan used to be my bold young uncle, and when I finally listened to Blonde On Blonde. I was struck by his being so much younger than that now--but still dropping science on me. Re Joyce, I read Portrait and Ulysses so long ago, in school, so was really amazed by his youthful voice here, more vulnerable in a way, for the lack of constantly-risking-absurdity literary acrobatics---if he failed in this kind of deep social commentary, via focus on individuals, especially with less outspoken well-wishers and guardians of the status quo watching so intently---you want an audience, you got it kid---would have been much worse than just going off into stylistic doodledom for the nonce. Not worse than court actions vs. obscenity maybe, but bad enough.
― dow, Friday, November 14, 2014 11:01 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The movie is very worthwhile; Huston always does right by his literary sources.
― dow, Friday, November 14, 2014 11:03 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
"finally listened to Blonde On Blonde" *again*, I meant to say.
― dow, Friday, November 14, 2014 11:04 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― dow, Friday, 9 January 2015 14:03 (nine years ago) link
Also my first Colette, Four Short Novels:
Haphazard months, needy periods of waiting. Does all this, then, happen in a woman's life because of certain definite infractions and disobediences, through individual omissions, the breach of a companionship with one man, the choice of another, and then the fact of being chosen by yet a third? The long sequence of household cares, of toil with the needle, of turned skirts---"My dear, I swear it's better than right-side out!"---of ingenuities which one pretends are little triumphs, are not, then, the result of pure hazard, but of a hostile, almost fatalistic power? She thought without gratitude of old Becker's gratuitous alms-giving. She called to mind those little festivities of the flesh, swiftly conducted and swiftly forgotten, exasperated moments from which a broken masculine voice seemed to rise up to Julie's ears. 'It's not their real voice,' thought Julie, 'but the voice of an instant.'..."Julie, you're not feeling ill, are you?"She shook her head and smiled patiently. 'No,' she answered within herself. 'I'm just waiting for the moment when you are no longer there...You read through me into another man, and you treat him as an enemy. One would really think that Herbert has no secrets for you. You hate him and understand him. When I think of Esquivant you ask me if I'm feeling ill. What good advice you give me from the height of your twenty-eight years! An honest little counsellor, one of those plebeian marvels that chance sometimes places at the elbows of queens. But the bitches of queens go to bed with the marvel and turn him into a trumpery duke, an embittered lover and a misunderstood statesman. With you as my advisor I'd never do "anything silly," as you so nicely put it.'She emptied her glass of brandy at a gulp, though it was a very old brandy, and worth serious attention, a smooth and civilized brandy."Alley-oop!" said Julie, putting her glass down."Bravo!" said Coco Vatard.'If he only knew what he was applauding! Nothing silly any more---that's tantamount to saying I'll never be any use to anyone anymore---not even to myself. He'll keep me from ruing myself, or from being taken in. People can always ruin themselves, even when they've got nothing.'
original 2014 post cont.:Ornamental Cabbage, thanks so much for encouraging me to read this collection of short novels by Colette! So many scary speed bumps for the simple male mind---I want to trot around Paris with Julie de Carneilhan 4ever, and sometimes feel that I have, with her American frienemies (can't really keep up, of course, but)
― dow, Friday, 9 January 2015 14:10 (nine years ago) link
I read more books for pleasure in 2014 than I've read in any other year of my adult life (but it's still a fairly short list):
Caitlín Kiernan - The Red TreeJeff VanderMeer - City of Saints and MadmenNina Kirika Hoffman - A Fistful of SkyTanith Lee - The Book of the DamnedEdwin Abbott Abbott - FlatlandM. John Harrison - Viriconium NightsM. John Harrison - A Storm of WingsM. John Harrison - The Pastel CityVladimir Nabokov - PninVladimir Nabokov - Pale FireVladimir Nabokov - LolitaShirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the CastleShirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill HouseShirley Jackson - The Lottery and Other StoriesC. J. Cherryh - CyteenRay Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way ComesRay Bradbury - Dandelion WineRay Bradbury - The Martian ChroniclesWalter Miller - A Canticle for LeibowitzAlan Garner - The Stone Book QuartetClifford Simak - Way StationClifford Simak - All Flesh Is GrassDiana Wynne Jones - HexwoodJohn Wyndham - The Day of the TriffidsPatricia McKillip - The Forgotten Beasts of EldRobin McKinley - The Blue SwordMervyn Peake - GormenghastMervyn Peake - Titus GroanJack Vance - The Dying EarthHope Mirrlees- Lud-in-the-Mist
books I didn't finish in 2014:
Mervyn Peake - Titus Alone (was immediately disappointed by the change in tone/style, but I plan to start it again soon — maybe I'll appreciate it more when the first two Gormenghast books aren't so fresh on my mind)Isak Dinesen - Seven Gothic Tales (I like her flowery faux-Victorian prose, but I can only tolerate a little at a time)Joy Chant - Red Moon and Black Mountain (an early Narnia/LotR clone. I gave up shortly after the epic battle between the good white eagles and the evil black eagles)Ray Bradbury - Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (a lot of this is second-rate Bradbury, isn't it? I think I'm better off reading some more of his original collections or getting this)
I've also developed the habit of starting a series without finishing it. I didn't finish Vance's Dying Earth, Harrison's Viriconium, McKinkley's Damar, Peake's Gormenghast, VanDermeer's Ambergris, and Lee's Paradys. hopefully I can catch up on a few of them this year.
books I wish I didn't finish in 2014:
Nina Kirika Hoffman - A Fistful of Sky (blecch)
― please login or register if you are (unregistered), Saturday, 10 January 2015 03:23 (nine years ago) link