The Woman in Dunes, which I enjoyed as much as the film adaptation (and Tōru Takemitsu's typically stellar score).
― pomenitul, Monday, 26 April 2021 13:56 (two years ago) link
pale fire gonna run away with this, right
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 26 April 2021 14:00 (two years ago) link
The Golden Notebook.
I loved Bassani and Ballard too.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 26 April 2021 14:08 (two years ago) link
Abe edges out Dick, Vonnegut, Stark, Ballard and L'Engle for me, these choices are only going to get more difficult.
― john p. coltrane in hot pursuit (Matt #2), Monday, 26 April 2021 14:40 (two years ago) link
Uhhh The Woman in *the* Dunes.
Apparently the original Japanese title is closer to 'Sand Woman'.
3xp
― pomenitul, Monday, 26 April 2021 14:52 (two years ago) link
― pomenitul
Yes, I'm very keen to read this (and other Kōbō Abe works) after watching the Teshigahara films. The version I saw was translated as Woman of the Dunes, which made more sense to me, as a stronger, deeper relationship between the person and the sand.
― emil.y, Monday, 26 April 2021 15:31 (two years ago) link
Anyway, a tough year but I'm pretty sure this has to be Pale Fire for me, it's right up there. Going to give it a short while just to properly assess (and also make sure I haven't missed anything in the list).
― emil.y, Monday, 26 April 2021 15:33 (two years ago) link
Don't remember the exc Pale File or The Jewels of Aptor (teen Delaney's enjoyable first published novel) well enough for them to win over The Man In The High Castle, which even if you haaated the streaming version, which I never saw but I know several people who found it frustrating, you should def. stay with the novel for a while; it's not that much like anything else.
― dow, Monday, 26 April 2021 16:17 (two years ago) link
Ooh missed out on a couple: We Have Always Lived In The Castle is creepy and it's sort of astounding that it's by the same author of Haunting Of Hill House; Hill House is very much rooted in the "real world", or at least the mid-century country house simulacrum of same, with the supernatural intruding on its character's lives; We Have Always Lived In The Castle just plunges you into this grotesque southern gothic nightmare from the get-go, despite no actual supernatural elements.
Read and enjoyed The Man In The High Castle but don't think I really "got" it. Do love the quip Dick made that it's not alternate history, it's about our current history. Very Adam Curtis.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 08:27 (two years ago) link
I love the ending of The Man in the High Castle, never has a rug been more throughly pulled from under feet. Gotta be Pale Fire for me though. Honourable mention to the super creepy Something Wicked This Way Comes.
― I took drugs recently and why doesn't the UK? (ledge), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 09:40 (two years ago) link
four or five books I love here (though none from my favourites list) - throwing a vote to the one of these I fear will be overlooked.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 09:51 (two years ago) link
Interesting that nobody's talking about A Clockwork Orange here. It's another one where the popular culture version of it has taken over the source material, but imo it is a very good book. Up against a lot of competition, but not even one mention surprises me.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 15:20 (two years ago) link
It feels like the '60s is really getting underway here with Ken Kesey, Vonnegut, PKD, etc. I've only read two of these: "Man In The High Castle" and "A Wrinkle In Time". My choice would be L'Engle's classic, which blew my mind as a young reader.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 16:59 (two years ago) link
Of the notable books I've read from this list I'll have to go with Pale Fire, in spite of my quarrels with Nabokov over the smug cleverness he revels in in that book. It was an amazing achievement in spite of its author's unconcealed contempt for his readers and nearly everyone else on the planet.
― sharpening the contraindications (Aimless), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:22 (two years ago) link
Kubrick was right to cut out the last chapter of A Clockwork Orange.
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:29 (two years ago) link
Of the notable books I've read from this list I'll have to go with _Pale Fire_, in spite of my quarrels with Nabokov over the smug cleverness he revels in in that book. It was an amazing achievement in spite of its author's unconcealed contempt for his readers and nearly everyone else on the planet.
― A Stop at Quilloughby (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 27 April 2021 17:47 (two years ago) link
Saw latest post first, thought of Vlad The Impaler Fire
― dow, Tuesday, 27 April 2021 22:22 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
This is the hardest so far. Love the Shirley Jackson, Kesey, Dick and Vonnegut but on reflection I think this has to be Another Country.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 06:12 (two years ago) link
Mugged? Burgled? Run over? Kesey, Dick and Vonnegut are the lawyers for you.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 06:14 (two years ago) link
lol
btw guys I have zero knowledge of what Burgess is well-regarded beyond the Orange so here's yer chance to lobby me for future inclusions
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 07:39 (two years ago) link
I read another Burgess, a fairly grim seedy spy novel set on a ship, it was bad.
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 08:13 (two years ago) link
Only just seen the Ballard. The Drowned World is great but second tier, I think. Besides, I'll have plenty of opportunity. to vote for him later.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 08:52 (two years ago) link
This was a crazy hard choice before I kneejerk voted for Pale Fire
― Call of Scampi: Slack Nephrops (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 09:22 (two years ago) link
Solzhenitsyn loomed large for a while before his rebranding as an anti-everything talking head ... I have no idea how his reputation stands these days, but A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is powerful
iirc I enjoyed Garcia Márquez, Deighton, Delany, Faulkner, Le Carré, and Burgess; Stark, Dick, Jackson, and Abe are great; Kerouac is not so hot; Nabokov is the canonically correct winner
I voted for Ballard for sentimental reasons ... I agree it's not his best novel, but it feels like the one that best splits the difference between classic SF and Ballardianism
I see quite a few titles I ought to have read here ... I've enjoyed all of Baldwin's non-fiction but haven't attempted any of the novels yet, I wonder if this would be a good one to start with
― Brad C., Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:37 (two years ago) link
It was the one I started with and I got hooked, so I'd say yeah.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:38 (two years ago) link
Anything but Pale Fire.
― Cocteau Twinks (jed_), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 15:59 (two years ago) link
― Daniel_Rf
Honestly not sure, tbh. Having a look over his bibliography and the only ones I recognise are the Enderby novels, which I haven't read and don't look that much like my kind of thing. I will warn you that we're getting very close to the point where I will expect you to include every single BS Johnson and Ann Quin novel so I can vote for them and shout about it.
― emil.y, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:03 (two years ago) link
Earthly Powers for one thing, re Burgess.
― A Stop at Quilloughby (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 18:02 (two years ago) link
I will warn you that we're getting very close to the point where I will expect you to include every single BS Johnson and Ann Quin novel so I can vote for them and shout about it.― emil.y, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:03 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― emil.y, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 17:03 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
This is what I am hanging around here for.
― Tim, Wednesday, 28 April 2021 19:56 (two years ago) link
If we can make requests, I want to vote for J.B. Priestley's Lost Empires in 1965, please (not knowing what else is coming in 1965)
― American Fear of Scampos (Ed), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 23:58 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 29 April 2021 00:01 (two years ago) link
I've had Pale Fire on my shelf for the best part of 25 years. Thread, I will read it this year.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 29 April 2021 06:05 (two years ago) link
Huh, I didn't expect Baldwin to win this, but I didn't expect mine to be the only vote, either.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 29 April 2021 09:18 (two years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 1963
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 29 April 2021 10:11 (two years ago) link
I wasn't sure where to put this but... If one has recently watched Point Blank and would like to read some Richard Stark does one a) need to start with The Hunter ii) read the series in order?
I have been in a lot of corridors today, trying to walk as loudly as possible.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Monday, 5 July 2021 19:51 (two years ago) link
Would be interesting to compare book and movie, but bookwise I started with the last, Dirty Money, which picked up right where the one before left off, and had no mystifying references to anything. Stark talk here over the years, most recently from noob me and some experts responding: Crime Fiction, S/D
― dow, Monday, 5 July 2021 20:32 (two years ago) link
An all-time classick crime movie for sure.
― dow, Monday, 5 July 2021 20:33 (two years ago) link
I have a bias towards reading series in order, but I wouldn't worry about it too much with the Parker books ... there are some recurring characters, but they aren't developed in ways that are likely to be confusing if you read the books out of sequence. (I've only read the pre-Comeback books, so maybe the later books have more continuity.)
― Brad C., Monday, 5 July 2021 20:37 (two years ago) link
Cheers both - I've ordered a couple and will see. And aye, what a film.
As with most things, I'm a dilettante (grew up on Hardy Boys and Hitchcock's Investigators; sprawled since then); I can see that thread is going to cost me a fortune!
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Monday, 5 July 2021 20:59 (two years ago) link
Agreed you can just start wherever but I see no real reason NOT to start with The Hunter - it's a great introduction to the character and sufficiently different from the film to not feel deja vu.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 6 July 2021 09:53 (two years ago) link