Otherwise, this is another poll where I got nothin’.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 26 November 2021 14:16 (two years ago) link
Milllllllssss
A Cruel Bird is one of my shouts for 'most underrated book I've read'; it absolutely belongs on that 'literary treats' thread; it conveys a world of crazed simplicity and grave humour with the lightest possible touch
― imago, Friday, 26 November 2021 15:02 (two years ago) link
i've read the 3 you expect i've read
The Martian by Andy WeirReady Player One by Ernest ClineThe Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller
but not the other one you expect i've read (Reamde) - it's on the TODO list, but quite low because it's 900 pages
― koogs, Friday, 26 November 2021 16:19 (two years ago) link
*resists urge to vote for Ready Player One just to troll you all*
― emil.y, Friday, 26 November 2021 16:59 (two years ago) link
Ferrante.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 26 November 2021 17:19 (two years ago) link
Man, A Dance With Dragons is over a decade old. GRRM should def consider writing a sequel!
― jmm, Friday, 26 November 2021 17:22 (two years ago) link
is Lightning Rods in the same ballpark of greatness as DeWitt 1 btw
― imago, Friday, 26 November 2021 18:07 (two years ago) link
i own it but still have yet to read it
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 26 November 2021 18:10 (two years ago) link
I liked Lightning Rods, but it's much smaller-scale than The Last Samurai and has a very weird sense of humor that could easily be off-putting.
― Lily Dale, Friday, 26 November 2021 18:12 (two years ago) link
TLS is basically a neuroatypical symphony and creed so I'm not surprised if she felt emboldened to Go Weirder, sounds delightful tbh!
― imago, Friday, 26 November 2021 18:16 (two years ago) link
Yeah I found Lightning Rods pretty funny but part of it was just that someone would decide to write a book like this in the first place.
Have also read The Sense of an Ending (a drag) and Open City (good, I think, still not sure how I feel about the ending).
― JoeStork, Friday, 26 November 2021 20:34 (two years ago) link
think the only one i've read is zone one
― mookieproof, Friday, 26 November 2021 20:36 (two years ago) link
Have read more of these than the previous year's list:The Martian, Ready Player One, Reamde, Swamplandia!, Embassytown, A Sense of an Ending. I have a soft spot for Embassytown due to attending a reading Mièville did.
― Jaq, Friday, 26 November 2021 21:32 (two years ago) link
Limonov, though it isn't a novel at all.
― alimosina, Friday, 26 November 2021 23:27 (two years ago) link
I've just seen Open City, which isn't as good a novel as My Brilliant Friend, but has probably stayed with me to a greater extent. Also a shout out for the Ben Lerner (if only for the section on John Ashbery).
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 26 November 2021 23:30 (two years ago) link
Yeah, tough time picking between those two. Did you participate on the Open City book club thread, can’t remember.
― Duck and Sally Can't Dance (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 26 November 2021 23:32 (two years ago) link
I don't think I did, no. Will look for the thread (and listen to some Mahler).
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 26 November 2021 23:34 (two years ago) link
Leaving the Atocha Station, Zone One, and Among Others are just wonderful (in extremely different ways, though now that I think of it there's something tonally similar between the slightly chilled, distant narrators of the Lerner and the Whitehead) but in a year with My Brilliant Friend they are not contenders for me.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 27 November 2021 00:30 (two years ago) link
Yeah. But I knew Whitehead was qualified to write Zone One when he disclosed in The New Yorker's Science Fiction Issue (they've only done the one, right?) that he was a Psychotronic Magazine junkie in the 80s. Jacket flap promised literary satisfaction x pulp gratification, and book did not disappoint. I really like Helen DeWitt and Karen Russell, so am glad I haven't read their (and other people's) books on this list, which might entail even more regrets for choosing the Ferrante, yeah, no question.
― dow, Saturday, 27 November 2021 03:34 (two years ago) link
I struggled with Lightning Rods. I think it's a common problem with comic novels and me in that once I feel like I've keyed into the central idea and 'got it' I sort of switch off. It reminded me, in the broadest sense, of Catch 22 and A Confederacy of Dunces, two other books I've had to abandon because of inertia.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Saturday, 27 November 2021 12:46 (two years ago) link
Catch 22 is one of my favourites and Confederacy one of my most hated, I'm now curious to know where I would place Lightning Rods on that continuum.
― namaste darkness my old friend (ledge), Saturday, 27 November 2021 16:59 (two years ago) link
I added My Brilliant Friend and its three companions to my to-be-read pile today.
― Jaq, Saturday, 27 November 2021 17:14 (two years ago) link
The only one I've read is "My Brilliant Friend".
― o. nate, Sunday, 28 November 2021 00:50 (two years ago) link
‘Leaving the atocha station’ is a great novel
― flopson, Sunday, 28 November 2021 01:00 (two years ago) link
Oh wow, I’ve actually read 5 of these in the last few years, compared to the usual 0. Loved Atocha Station, and Lightning Rods, but as far as having a “very weird style of humour one could easily find off-putting”, deadpan absurdity is one of my favourite styles of humour, so…
How does The Stranger’s Child compare to the Line of Beauty? I haven’t read either but, seeing how beloved LoB is, I’m curious about TSC, which for me has the crucial benefit of being available as an audiobook.
― ed.b, Sunday, 28 November 2021 16:08 (two years ago) link
A real disappointment.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 28 November 2021 16:11 (two years ago) link
Ferrante
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 28 November 2021 16:11 (two years ago) link
What was effortless now looks fussy, mannered, even the (better realized) contemporary section. xpost
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 28 November 2021 16:12 (two years ago) link
These threads now making me wonder if there's any fiction from the last couple of decades that I've read that doesn't have witchers in it
― huile about oeuf (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 28 November 2021 16:13 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 29 November 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 30 November 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
A resurgence of interest, lots of voters coming back, refreshing.
― dow, Tuesday, 30 November 2021 02:17 (two years ago) link
I mean, lots and lots and lots of people read that Ferrante (and I'm guessing most liked it, because it's great!)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 30 November 2021 03:02 (two years ago) link
My challenge is going to be to not vote for each of the other Naples books
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 2012
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 30 November 2021 11:51 (two years ago) link
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - 1
― koogs, Tuesday, 30 November 2021 12:24 (two years ago) link
If it had been listed I probably would have voted for Train Dreams.
― JoeStork, Tuesday, 30 November 2021 17:34 (two years ago) link