Found Matter a challenging read but it sure is full of great ideas. The Hunger Games I read about a fourth of, it's fine.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 12 November 2021 16:54 (three years ago) link
lol at frontloading the sad young literary men
once again haven’t read any of these
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, 12 November 2021 16:56 (three years ago) link
I've read Anathem, that's it.
There's always a batch of books in these polls that, if you didn't read them when they were new, it's very hard to imagine ever reading.
― jmm, Friday, 12 November 2021 17:18 (three years ago) link
I was surprised thinking, I’ve surely read none of these, but no, three. Am not going to vote on that. I also own a signed copy of His Illegal Self that I got at a Guardian book event where Peter Carey talked about Oscar and Lucinda that I still haven’t read.This Charming Man is decent, but as far as her later work goes, it’s no The Mystery of Mercy Close. I will be back to stan for that one if you include it in 2012, Daniel! Looking at the cover, the cover is really trivial and sparkly but it’s dark as fuck and a genuinely uncomfortable read. I liked it, but it was too hard to read again. I feel like her actual work & the marketing of might be up there with the most misleading in publishing?!
― suggest bainne (gyac), Friday, 12 November 2021 17:18 (three years ago) link
I tried reading The Three Body Problem, Lavinia, and I Curse the River of Time and couldn't get into any of them; I guess 2008 just isn't for me.
― Lily Dale, Friday, 12 November 2021 17:18 (three years ago) link
I've absorbed the Hunger Games by osmosis (via my kids) but this year is basically a blank for me.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 12 November 2021 17:23 (three years ago) link
I think of Seiobo as a collection of stories rather than a novel (got into an argument about this before) but I will still confidently vote for it because it's front-to-back bangers
― Nature's promise vs. Simple truth (bernard snowy), Friday, 12 November 2021 18:27 (three years ago) link
The White Tiger is good journalism first and decent fiction second. Not quite enough for a vote but I'd not not recommend it
― imago, Friday, 12 November 2021 18:36 (three years ago) link
Because of my old person reading habits, as these polls entered the 21st century they have included ever fewer titles I've read. This one is a shutout.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 12 November 2021 18:51 (three years ago) link
Voted Home, which, after looking out across time and space and tumblin' tumbleweeds from Gilead, especially (but even if I'd started here) is tight and sometimes claustrophobic, with these few family members bumping up against each other even when trying to avoid or slow confrontation, as the father's condition deteriorates, but w those bolts of lucidity, as olde rationalizations are forgotten, and new developments are noted--but also moments of respite, grace notes, even, setting them up for the next round (ending incl. sweet payoff, though not living-dying happily ever after)
― dow, Friday, 12 November 2021 18:52 (three years ago) link
I own one or two of these, have read none.
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 13 November 2021 00:35 (three years ago) link
Have read 5, voted Home.
― Jaq, Saturday, 13 November 2021 00:48 (three years ago) link
Seiobo There Below by László Krasznahorkai
The only one by him I really liked. Goes from his post Joycean modernism of the earlier work to something more essayistic. But the writing can be as challenging as what he writes about.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 13 November 2021 01:07 (three years ago) link
I've read "All the Sad Young Literary Men" but I don't remember it very distinctly. I think this would be a write-in for Joseph O'Neill's Netherland for me.
― o. nate, Saturday, 13 November 2021 02:14 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 15 November 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
Haven't read many of these. Suicide by Edouard Leve is a pretty striking one - author writes a 'novel' entitled Suicide, about a 'friend' who commits suicide, then three days after it's accepted for publication, author commits suicide, leaving a note to say he still wants the novel published.
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 15 November 2021 00:30 (three years ago) link
Interesting piece about the author here: https://www.frieze.com/article/last-things
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 15 November 2021 00:32 (three years ago) link
3BP
― flopson, Monday, 15 November 2021 00:46 (three years ago) link
I've read six - Home, Olive Kitteridge, Visitation, Matter, Anathem, The Three Body Problem. No regrets about any of them though I do prefer Gilead's open hearted protagonist to Home's over anxious and somewhat less generous Glory. Olive Kitteridge is abother not so sympathetic character but I warmed to her contradictions and moments of self awareness. I'm voting for Visitation which is monumental, and devastating where it touches on the holocaust. Anathem is my favourite Stephenson, love the idea of the monasteries only open once every year, decade, century, or millennium. Matter is one of the more fun Culture novels and The Three Body Problem is bonkers but memorable.
― namaste darkness my old friend (ledge), Monday, 15 November 2021 08:43 (three years ago) link
Oh, Visitation has a thread: 'may and must, and may, and must, and may, and must': a thread for jenny erpenbeck's novel 'visitation'
2x 3bp novels in the list, neither of them short (i'm guessing this was the translation into english rather than initial publication).
just those two and Matter for me (and House Of Suns, not listed). can't choose between them.
― koogs, Monday, 15 November 2021 10:04 (three years ago) link
I think this would be a write-in for Joseph O'Neill's Netherland for me.
Only because I don't think I've ready anything else on this list.
― hocus pocus, alakazam (PBKR), Monday, 15 November 2021 13:22 (three years ago) link
Home's Glory is youngest daughter/sister, back to take care of their father and for private reasons, then lifelong outlier prodigal brother finally returns, she's cooped up in old weird family home w them, no room for laidback Rev. John reveries, though she has her own at the end---think it works on its own terms, like the others in this cycle. But it's also the only one in this poll that I've read, as usual; otherwise, I might vote for something else.
― dow, Monday, 15 November 2021 17:26 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 16 November 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
Least popular year since 2003 which also had 13 votes.
― namaste darkness my old friend (ledge), Tuesday, 16 November 2021 08:38 (three years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 2009
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 16 November 2021 14:45 (three years ago) link
Only top tie so far!?
― dow, Tuesday, 16 November 2021 17:22 (three years ago) link
Oh no, theer were tons of those in the early 20th century polls.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 17 November 2021 10:18 (three years ago) link