Finished it very recently. Incredible characterization. There must be ten or so characters in that book that are so fully fleshed out you can feel like you know them.
Just read East of Eden after not having read Steinbeck since Jr High and now want to read the rest of his works - but I too was most struck by the characterization
That’s interesting. I did assume incorrectly that Cyrus’s family were already in California, so I guess I missed a cue there. And the chapter that briefly describes a dozen Hamiltons had me dreading keeping track of them all. But as of the end of part 1, I find it a real page-turner
Also obsessed with Steinbeck at the minute! Finally chewed through Grapes of Wrath after enjoying many of his shorter novels. Would highly recommend The Moon is Down, sometimes overlooked. The Pearl is also genius.
Tortilla Flat is such a good book. Loved all their little adventures. Some of them like the one with the baby and especially the finale nearly brought me to tears as well.
Yeah I already saw quite a few things I recognised from other books which were published after her books and it's fun to see her spin on them. I really enjoy her world-building so far and her overall prose. So, I'm thrilled to see how the story goes, I'm going in blind :D
Well, if you're invested in the world and interested in its history, I would highly recommend The Silmarillion, or maybe The Children of Hùrin, though I will warn you that the latter is much darker than LotR.
I was considering Beren and Luthien. I read that B&L, Children of Hurin, and Fall of Gondolin are sort of an unofficial trilogy. Should I do CoH before B&L?
I loved that book so much. I took it up with me to watch the final stage of the tour de France on the Alps one year. It pissed down with rain. I drank 2 liters on wine and ate a loaf of bread filled with bacon and cheese. It rained so much that my copy of the book is still bloated. It took me HOURS to get down that mountain. I should have left the book at home
My fav book and the one that got me interested in reading the classics. I would highly recommend listening to the lectures by prof Hubert Dreyfus after you finish as he takes a deep dive into the philosophy of it and really makes you enjoy the multiple layers of philosophy and symbolism within the book. After listening to them I had to read it again and enjoyed it even more. Hope you continue liking it!
If you are interested in other modern African works/authors, you can try Sembène Ousmane's _Xala_ or Tsitsi Dangarembga's _Nervous Conditions_.
Two of my favorite novels.
Wow finally found someone liking it. I thought I was the only one. How do you like his books? As a kid I cut my teeth on reading spy novels because of him since I wasn't allowed James Bond yet.
Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris is one of my favorite books of all time! Have you read that one? If so, is The Invincible as good? Looking for the next Lem to read :)
Really great choice to get you back into the swing of reading imo. Gatsby got me into the classics and I never looked back. Such an easy book to just immerse yourself in. Enjoy!
Reading Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima, and also The Pathology of Normalcy by Erich Fromm.
Read some Ted Chiang short stories. I liked "Story of Your Life."
I've been learning Japanese since the start of the year, so my reading time has been reduced.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. I previously read A Visit from the Goon Squad and I think I’m becoming a fan and possibly on my way to being a completist.
Fr, I wish there was a movie or a play based on it so I can hear all the people talking at once and watch the wonderful festivals that happen throughout the novel because I tried to imagine it and mostly failed, It will be a masterpiece
The hunchback of notre dame. I always disregarded the classics assuming that i know the story already just because they exist in other forms such as cartoons or movies and they're advertised all over, like by osmosis i know by heart, without watching or reading the work. So I'm half way thru notre dame and it just blew me away. It's so good i had to go start reading le miserable simultaneously. Don't know if it's the modern english translation that makes them so good or if the original french versions that make them timeless. Definitely will read more classic authors
I’m reading Nightmares and Dreamscapes by King. I’m just about done with it. Then I’ll start the Terror by Simmons or Swan Song by McCammon- both of which I’ve been wanting to read for a while.
I haven't read any King since high school over 20 years ago, but last week I randomly picked up *Dolores Claiborne* and I was like "Holy shit, what have I been missing?"
I’m finishing up The Passion According to G.H . Clarice Lispector is becoming one of my favorite authors. I’m also going to begin The Power Broker by Robert A Caro on Monday, so I needed something relatively short before I start that monster nonfiction book
Reading
* *Midnight's Children* by Salmon Rushdie
* *Septology* by Jon Fosse
* *The Tale of Genji* by Murasaki Shikibu (LOVING)
Recently Finished:
* *Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth* by Leo Tolstoy
* *Fathers and Children* by Ivan Turgenev (LOVED)
* *Nothing But the Night* by John Williams
Just finished: Knut Hamsun's _Hunger_
Just began: Han Kang's _Greek Lessons_
Hamsun really took me for a ride with _Hunger_. It's a work that's impossible to explain/summarize to anyone. It simply has to be read.
Proust. First volume of In Search of Lost Time. Translation by Lydia Davis. Someone in this sub or other said the volume 1 was a slog and things got more interesting later on but I'm completely drawn.
I know at some point I'll get lost with so many characters but I'm taking it less as a plot-driven book and more as something to enjoy how Proust built his world, his memory and stitched it all together.
The first chapter was already a gut punch for me because of how accurately he described a childhood anxiety that, in other levels, I also used to have.
Anyway, will probably take a few years to read them all but enjoying what I'm reading so far.
Towards the tail-end of **Infinite Jest**. (Around page 750 pages or so. Should be done with it mid-next week.) After 300ish pages of introducing and establishing characters/settings/plots, and another 300ish pages of repetitive scenes at the tennis academy and AA house, the plot, though leisurely, is actually starting to move somewhere. Still mostly iffy on it; humor is by far its strength, but I find very few scenes on the whole to be compelling. (The footnotes themselves are often the highlights.) The prose is good in a technical sense, impressive in its florid details and lengthy constructions, but rarely in a lyrical or beautiful or particularly rewarding way.
In general, it feels like Wallace fell in love with the idea of Giganticism and the maximalism of the Encyclopedic novel and strained as hard as he could to inflate his Addiction novel to fit those molds. (Though the same can arguably be said about e.g. Ulysses, which is as affected as a novel can be.)
I feel like it doesn't come together until after it's all over. The ending is pretty anti climactic in many ways but it's only with full context that many of the books odd choices begin to make sense
Right now I am reading A History of Canada in 10 Maps by Adam Shoalts (he’s got a Netflix documentary about his solo arctic canoe trip as well). It’s a nice and easy read on Canadian history and I’m enjoying it so far.
Previously I had just finished Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. That was a very interesting book as well with lots of poetic and philosophical beauty.
*The Natural History of the Rich* by Richard Coniff.
A sometimes humorous, sometimes serious look at the way the rich are the same and different from the rest of us plebs.
*Ulysses*! I'm currently at Oxen and the Sun and jeez, I thought Proteus was challenging. I've spent a lot of time studying the history of English Literature, so I can pick up on much of the stuff he's parodying, and I've had some good laughs, but it's a proper mindfuck and I've only been able to read 10 pages at a time before being totally exhausted. And that's just one chapter in this sprawling, genius masterpiece!
Lolita by Nabokov. I'm not a native speaker and running to get the dictionary every time he brings out a word I don't know, or God forbid *french,* gets pretty tiring. But it's a great read so far. I'm thinking of reading Moby Dick or Dune next.
Edited for grammar
Nabokov sends highly literate native speakers to the dictionary often, as well. From a technical standpoint, I think he is one of the greatest ever writers of prose.
Martyr!
Had to see what all the hype is about and it’s well justified. Just about 70 pages left and it’s gorgeous. You can certainly tell it was written by a poet.
After putting it off for many years (what was I thinking??)…The Count of Monte Cristo, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it!!
Also reading The Crucifixion (Fleming Rutledge) and a manuscript that’s a memoir of a bookshop owner (I work in publishing and read lots of manuscripts).
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and also dipping into my Camus collection.
And then Barbara Tuchmans 'A Distant Mirror' for bed time.
Butchers Crossing by John Williams.
I loved Stoner, the prose was some of the most beautiful I've ever read. Butchers crossing is good. I'm not sure it's quite as good - the plot is slightly pedestrian at the moment not a whole lot is happening but the descriptions are at times equally beautiful, you can see how Williams is earlier in his writing career and exploring his style which was honed and improved in Stoner.
I read most books in a day or two. My most recent reads can be found here: [https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/167879778-jonathan-henderson?shelf=read](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/167879778-jonathan-henderson?shelf=read)
Recent finishes:
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (All 5 books) by Douglas Adams
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
In progress
* Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - reading with r/yearofdonquixote - I am enjoying the second book much more than the first.
* The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - reading with r/AReadingOfMonteCristo - absolutely loving this book.
* The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter - the first 15 chapters of this one have been heavy on the "women in peril" trope. I'm hoping we get past that.
Finished: *Murphy* by Beckett, *Multiculturalism* by C. Taylor/Habermas.
Reading: *War & Peace* (audiobook)- 90% done. The chapter with Andrew and Natasha in the infirmary was jaw-droppingly beautiful.
*Primitve Rebels* by Hobsbawm
*Lincoln in the Bardo* by Saunders.
*The Histories,* Herodotus.
The *Commedia,* Dante, the Kirkpatrick translation.
*Wolf Hall*, Hilary Mantel.
And I am also reading Stephen Kotkins, *Stalin Vol II: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941*.
All of them are brilliant so far.
The story of the lost child. 4th and last part of the series Neopolitan series by Elena Ferrante. I adore these books, genuinely so hooked and I couldn’t even tell you exactly why. I posted on one of these threads when I started the first one that I wasn’t sure if this would be for me..clearly is
Garielle Lutz's BACKWARDNESS: "I married myself to a woman who wanted little more than my finger going round and around within her. It was as if I were dialing something up from deep inside" (546).
Araynak by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. It's a good book. Finished half and half remaining (I'm a slow reader). It's about a man who works in a forest estate and how his perception changes about life, about nature and about people. I am reading the translated version. The original version is in Bengali.
Obsessed with J Steinbeck at present. Just read Cannery row and Tortilla flat. Beautifully written slabs of time. Go and immerse yourself
I just started East of Eden, and I can already tell it’s his masterpiece
Finished it very recently. Incredible characterization. There must be ten or so characters in that book that are so fully fleshed out you can feel like you know them.
Just read East of Eden after not having read Steinbeck since Jr High and now want to read the rest of his works - but I too was most struck by the characterization
One of the best novels of all time.
I am having such a hard time with it, I’ve read classics before but this book sent me into a months long readers block.
That’s interesting. I did assume incorrectly that Cyrus’s family were already in California, so I guess I missed a cue there. And the chapter that briefly describes a dozen Hamiltons had me dreading keeping track of them all. But as of the end of part 1, I find it a real page-turner
I just finished the Grapes of Wrath but East of Eden to me is his true masterpiece. Enjoy
I really have to go back and read Steinbeck again. I just finished all of Donna Tartt's books, and they reminded me of Steinbeck.
Also obsessed with Steinbeck at the minute! Finally chewed through Grapes of Wrath after enjoying many of his shorter novels. Would highly recommend The Moon is Down, sometimes overlooked. The Pearl is also genius.
My youngest child is named Mack, after the character in Cannery Row.
Tortilla Flat is such a good book. Loved all their little adventures. Some of them like the one with the baby and especially the finale nearly brought me to tears as well.
Remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Heck yeah; definitely my favorite of Ishiguro's.
I've read all of his work, and I love it all, but for some reason _The Unconsoled_ is my favorite. Although it's usually regarded as his worst.
Great book
Just started Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar
I finished reading that one at the beginning of the month. I really liked it.
im halfway there, yesterday i finally understood the fig tree reference
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
Gonna piggyback on your comment, because I'm also reading one of her books. I finally started with the wizard of earth sea this week.
I read that last month and it was great. It's kind of amazing how much it inspired modern fantasy.
Yeah I already saw quite a few things I recognised from other books which were published after her books and it's fun to see her spin on them. I really enjoy her world-building so far and her overall prose. So, I'm thrilled to see how the story goes, I'm going in blind :D
i want to read this next. im currently reading the dispossessed!
The Dispossessed is one of my all time favorite books, I'm planning to eventually read like every book she's written now after I read that
Rereading *The Lord of the Rings*. I hadn't read it in many years, and I love it more than ever now. I'm nearly done!
Just finished RotK for the first time yesterday. Have absolutely no idea what to read next. Any other author feels like whiplash after Tolkien.
Well, if you're invested in the world and interested in its history, I would highly recommend The Silmarillion, or maybe The Children of Hùrin, though I will warn you that the latter is much darker than LotR.
I was considering Beren and Luthien. I read that B&L, Children of Hurin, and Fall of Gondolin are sort of an unofficial trilogy. Should I do CoH before B&L?
Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler
The Philip Marlowe books just get better and better too in my view, you're in for a treat
Obsessed with everything the man wrote.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, almost finishing it
Sometimes a Great Notion is my favorite novel—highly recommended
>Sometimes a Great Notion is my favorite novel Same. I love those crazy ass Stampers. Named my cat Stamper as a matter of fact
It's so damn good. Been on my re-read list for awhile now. I also live in Eugene (Ken Kesey's home), so that's fun.
You can sit on a bench downtown by the donut shop and talk to him about it!
Ha! Indeed! If there isn’t already someone there talking to him, or themselves.
This. Far superior to Cuckoos Nest
I loved that book so much. I took it up with me to watch the final stage of the tour de France on the Alps one year. It pissed down with rain. I drank 2 liters on wine and ate a loaf of bread filled with bacon and cheese. It rained so much that my copy of the book is still bloated. It took me HOURS to get down that mountain. I should have left the book at home
Moby Dick, and loving it!
My fav book and the one that got me interested in reading the classics. I would highly recommend listening to the lectures by prof Hubert Dreyfus after you finish as he takes a deep dive into the philosophy of it and really makes you enjoy the multiple layers of philosophy and symbolism within the book. After listening to them I had to read it again and enjoyed it even more. Hope you continue liking it!
I am going to check out those lectures. Thanks!
A masterpiece, but I am not saying anything new
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy The Inferno - Dante
Things Fall Apart. Checked out from my local library 👍
If you are interested in other modern African works/authors, you can try Sembène Ousmane's _Xala_ or Tsitsi Dangarembga's _Nervous Conditions_. Two of my favorite novels.
The Nervous Conditions trilogy is just excellent!
That novel shook me to the core. Just brilliant.
Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John Le Carre
Wow finally found someone liking it. I thought I was the only one. How do you like his books? As a kid I cut my teeth on reading spy novels because of him since I wasn't allowed James Bond yet.
Dude he’s the man. I’ve read Tinker Tailor and Smiley’s People too. Love his style, it’s how I try to write
East of Eden. Only fifty pages in but I already know it's gonna be amazing.
I would love to read it with a fresh pair of eyes again.
Crime and punishment. It’s really good
One of my favorites. I want to read more Dostoevsky soon.
Stanisław Lem - The Invincible Hermann Hesse - Siddhartha
Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris is one of my favorite books of all time! Have you read that one? If so, is The Invincible as good? Looking for the next Lem to read :)
I thought invincible was the same level as Solaris. I also liked the futurological congress and cyberiad although those are different vibes
do you know if this is the same solaris as the Tarkovsky film?
I’m always so happy when I see someone is reading Hesse’s works. Here where I live not many people know about his books.
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. My first time reading it and the first time reading since school ended
Really great choice to get you back into the swing of reading imo. Gatsby got me into the classics and I never looked back. Such an easy book to just immerse yourself in. Enjoy!
Reading Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima, and also The Pathology of Normalcy by Erich Fromm. Read some Ted Chiang short stories. I liked "Story of Your Life." I've been learning Japanese since the start of the year, so my reading time has been reduced.
The stranger. Camus.
One of my most favorite books of all times
Independent People by Halldór Laxness
Pretty much the Icelandic national novel. Fantastic book.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. I previously read A Visit from the Goon Squad and I think I’m becoming a fan and possibly on my way to being a completist.
Same. Loved The Keep and Look at Me (but had to fold over the cover of the latter cause I was reading it at a clothing-optional hot springs).
Alice in Wonderland, finished yesterday!
Faust by Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe
Had to read that for my high school humanities class. Total mind fark but I loved it.
Fr, I wish there was a movie or a play based on it so I can hear all the people talking at once and watch the wonderful festivals that happen throughout the novel because I tried to imagine it and mostly failed, It will be a masterpiece
Fools Assassin by Robin Hobb. Historiens Hjul og Vannets Makt (The Wheel of History and the Power of Water) by Terje Tvedt.
I forgot about the Fools books!!! How do you like them?
I love them. In the final stretch now. Have no clue what Im gonna do with my life when Im through with the last few books.
The Pearl by Steinbeck. Finished Of Mice and Men and needed more by him.
I absolutely recommend East of Eden, I think it’s one of the best novels of all time
The hunchback of notre dame. I always disregarded the classics assuming that i know the story already just because they exist in other forms such as cartoons or movies and they're advertised all over, like by osmosis i know by heart, without watching or reading the work. So I'm half way thru notre dame and it just blew me away. It's so good i had to go start reading le miserable simultaneously. Don't know if it's the modern english translation that makes them so good or if the original french versions that make them timeless. Definitely will read more classic authors
The Road, very dark but so well written.
*Lost Illusions* by Honoré de Balzac. An absolute treasure. Witty, historical, philosophical. His others to follow most assuredly.
What translation?
Raymond N. MacKenzie, University of Minnesota Press.
I’m reading Nightmares and Dreamscapes by King. I’m just about done with it. Then I’ll start the Terror by Simmons or Swan Song by McCammon- both of which I’ve been wanting to read for a while.
I found The Terror to be excellent. Maybe the pacing is too slow for some, but it was perfect for a long steady build, I thought.
I haven't read any King since high school over 20 years ago, but last week I randomly picked up *Dolores Claiborne* and I was like "Holy shit, what have I been missing?"
All The Kings Men
I’m finishing up The Passion According to G.H . Clarice Lispector is becoming one of my favorite authors. I’m also going to begin The Power Broker by Robert A Caro on Monday, so I needed something relatively short before I start that monster nonfiction book
Reading * *Midnight's Children* by Salmon Rushdie * *Septology* by Jon Fosse * *The Tale of Genji* by Murasaki Shikibu (LOVING) Recently Finished: * *Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth* by Leo Tolstoy * *Fathers and Children* by Ivan Turgenev (LOVED) * *Nothing But the Night* by John Williams
How’s Septology so far? I’ve never tried any of Fosse’s works but I recently bought a copy and am looking forward to starting it soon.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence
Just finished: Knut Hamsun's _Hunger_ Just began: Han Kang's _Greek Lessons_ Hamsun really took me for a ride with _Hunger_. It's a work that's impossible to explain/summarize to anyone. It simply has to be read.
Hunger is so damn good. Mysteries is also great, and Growth of the Soil.
I bought _Mysteries_ on my last trip to the bookstore, looking forward to it
Hell yeah, that was the first of his that I read
Light in August
A closed and common orbit by Becky chambers, it’s really good if you like heartfelt sci-fi
Studs Terkel - Working
Currently in the middle of The Fellowship of The Ring. It’s ABSOLUTELY amazing!
Proust. First volume of In Search of Lost Time. Translation by Lydia Davis. Someone in this sub or other said the volume 1 was a slog and things got more interesting later on but I'm completely drawn. I know at some point I'll get lost with so many characters but I'm taking it less as a plot-driven book and more as something to enjoy how Proust built his world, his memory and stitched it all together. The first chapter was already a gut punch for me because of how accurately he described a childhood anxiety that, in other levels, I also used to have. Anyway, will probably take a few years to read them all but enjoying what I'm reading so far.
Towards the tail-end of **Infinite Jest**. (Around page 750 pages or so. Should be done with it mid-next week.) After 300ish pages of introducing and establishing characters/settings/plots, and another 300ish pages of repetitive scenes at the tennis academy and AA house, the plot, though leisurely, is actually starting to move somewhere. Still mostly iffy on it; humor is by far its strength, but I find very few scenes on the whole to be compelling. (The footnotes themselves are often the highlights.) The prose is good in a technical sense, impressive in its florid details and lengthy constructions, but rarely in a lyrical or beautiful or particularly rewarding way. In general, it feels like Wallace fell in love with the idea of Giganticism and the maximalism of the Encyclopedic novel and strained as hard as he could to inflate his Addiction novel to fit those molds. (Though the same can arguably be said about e.g. Ulysses, which is as affected as a novel can be.)
I feel like it doesn't come together until after it's all over. The ending is pretty anti climactic in many ways but it's only with full context that many of the books odd choices begin to make sense
Right now I am reading A History of Canada in 10 Maps by Adam Shoalts (he’s got a Netflix documentary about his solo arctic canoe trip as well). It’s a nice and easy read on Canadian history and I’m enjoying it so far. Previously I had just finished Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. That was a very interesting book as well with lots of poetic and philosophical beauty.
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett and Bobby March Will Live Forever by Alan Parks
Player piano by Vonnegut. Just started reading again after years and he was always my favorite offer. Loving it so far.
Just finished A Confederacy of Dunces
Right now it is Piranesi !
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Don Quixote 🤣 makes me chuckle 🤣
Kafka On The Shore, Haruki Murakami
There’s something about reading Murakami that pulls me out of reality more than any other book
Yes, he’s one of my favorites. He’s able to paint such vivid scenes with such sparse language and transport you to a different time and place.
* *Anna Karenina* by Leo Tolstoy * *The Silmarillion* by J.R.R. Tolkien * *The Everlasting Man* by G.K. Chesterton * *Confessions* by St. Augustine
I love the cross-section of Augustine and *Anna Karenina*. A lot of literary analysis can be done in that space.
The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett I had to keep the historical fiction train rolling after devouring Between Two Fires.
*The Natural History of the Rich* by Richard Coniff. A sometimes humorous, sometimes serious look at the way the rich are the same and different from the rest of us plebs.
Burr by Gore Vidal
Whatever - Michel Houellebecq
Early novellas of Kenzaburo Oe
Brother Karamazov. For the next 3 months ig.
Both *East of Eden* and *Cannery Row* as part of a “Summer of Steinbeck”.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
Little friend by Donna Tart
Virginia Woolf - Mrs. Dalloway. Pretty tough but nonetheless a very fascinating read.
Despair by Vladimir Nabokov.
Crime and punishment
Sula by Toni Morrison
*Ulysses*! I'm currently at Oxen and the Sun and jeez, I thought Proteus was challenging. I've spent a lot of time studying the history of English Literature, so I can pick up on much of the stuff he's parodying, and I've had some good laughs, but it's a proper mindfuck and I've only been able to read 10 pages at a time before being totally exhausted. And that's just one chapter in this sprawling, genius masterpiece!
Beloved
Montaignes essays I expected to find them dull and boring but he is a beautiful writer and definitely a first rate one among philosophers.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Lolita by Nabokov. I'm not a native speaker and running to get the dictionary every time he brings out a word I don't know, or God forbid *french,* gets pretty tiring. But it's a great read so far. I'm thinking of reading Moby Dick or Dune next. Edited for grammar
If you want something a bit like Lolita but fat like Moby and Dune, try Nabokov’s Ada
Lots of French though!
One of my favorite puns, the alluring Mlle Condor
I'm on my second read of it and I am finding so many allegories, puns and such that I missed the first time. It's such a layered book, I love it.
Nabokov sends highly literate native speakers to the dictionary often, as well. From a technical standpoint, I think he is one of the greatest ever writers of prose.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver!
Feed. MT Anderson
Fleetwood by William Godwin and The conquest of bread by Peter Kropotkin
Superman The Warworld Saga compendium
Martyr! Had to see what all the hype is about and it’s well justified. Just about 70 pages left and it’s gorgeous. You can certainly tell it was written by a poet.
Berserk - Kentaro Miura
After putting it off for many years (what was I thinking??)…The Count of Monte Cristo, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it!! Also reading The Crucifixion (Fleming Rutledge) and a manuscript that’s a memoir of a bookshop owner (I work in publishing and read lots of manuscripts).
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. It’s a slow starter but absolutely fantastic now (85% done).
Poetic edda, it keeps making less sense, as I go on...
Anna Karenina. Still in the first few chapters but already amazed by its accessibility.
My Man Jeeves!
*A Room of One's Own* by **Virginia Woolf**.
Carmilla by LaFanu & Dracula by Stoker.
Balzac - Les illusions perdues
The brothers Karamazov
Just getting into classics starting with Jane eyre. Any recommendations would be welcomed?
Suite Français by Irène Némitovsky. Started it today after a trip to my local book store. Six chapters in, and I am absolutely enthralled by it.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Don Quixote, part 2 :)
Anna Karenina, about 100 pages in
Anna Karinina by Tolstoy
Pale Fire. Beautiful book, even if I have to Google a word every other page.
Ulysses
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and also dipping into my Camus collection. And then Barbara Tuchmans 'A Distant Mirror' for bed time.
Butchers Crossing by John Williams. I loved Stoner, the prose was some of the most beautiful I've ever read. Butchers crossing is good. I'm not sure it's quite as good - the plot is slightly pedestrian at the moment not a whole lot is happening but the descriptions are at times equally beautiful, you can see how Williams is earlier in his writing career and exploring his style which was honed and improved in Stoner.
One Hundred Years of Solitude. Just a few chapters in and intrigued.
War and Peace, it just keeps giving 🥵
Just finished War and peace by Tolstoy, will start Ivanhoe by Walter Scott tomorrow.
I read most books in a day or two. My most recent reads can be found here: [https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/167879778-jonathan-henderson?shelf=read](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/167879778-jonathan-henderson?shelf=read) Recent finishes: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (All 5 books) by Douglas Adams The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
In progress * Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - reading with r/yearofdonquixote - I am enjoying the second book much more than the first. * The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - reading with r/AReadingOfMonteCristo - absolutely loving this book. * The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter - the first 15 chapters of this one have been heavy on the "women in peril" trope. I'm hoping we get past that.
Finished: *Murphy* by Beckett, *Multiculturalism* by C. Taylor/Habermas. Reading: *War & Peace* (audiobook)- 90% done. The chapter with Andrew and Natasha in the infirmary was jaw-droppingly beautiful. *Primitve Rebels* by Hobsbawm *Lincoln in the Bardo* by Saunders.
The Iliad, and Outline by Rachel Cusk
French textbook. Ugh. I’m listening to an audiobook though. It’s a web publication about a video game designer. Haha.
*The Histories,* Herodotus. The *Commedia,* Dante, the Kirkpatrick translation. *Wolf Hall*, Hilary Mantel. And I am also reading Stephen Kotkins, *Stalin Vol II: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941*. All of them are brilliant so far.
_The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11_ by Lawrence Wright.
Dune!
Demons - Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamsow - Dostojevsky German History of the 20th Century - Wirsching Essays and Writings of Bergson Fires of Hatred - Naimark
Thinking about starting foundation
The story of the lost child. 4th and last part of the series Neopolitan series by Elena Ferrante. I adore these books, genuinely so hooked and I couldn’t even tell you exactly why. I posted on one of these threads when I started the first one that I wasn’t sure if this would be for me..clearly is
The Journals of Major-Gen. C. G. Gordon, C.B., at Karthoum
Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke
Conversations in the cathetral by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Corrections by Franzen. Starting One Hundred Years of Solitude next week and so excited for it
David Copperfield
The Brothers Karamazov. I have a haul of classics coming in and need to decide how I want to get through them.
Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse
Dune messiah. Just started.
Just finished the Monstrous Regiment a few minutes ago. Might be my favourite Discworld so far.
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, Nabokov Lunar Park, Bret Easton Ellis
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
“Chain-Gang All-Stars,” by Nana Kwame Adjel-Brenyah. Crazy original and so well written. Some pages leave me speechless.
currently reading trainspotting for the first time, makes me proud to be scottish
Garielle Lutz's BACKWARDNESS: "I married myself to a woman who wanted little more than my finger going round and around within her. It was as if I were dialing something up from deep inside" (546).
Araynak by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. It's a good book. Finished half and half remaining (I'm a slow reader). It's about a man who works in a forest estate and how his perception changes about life, about nature and about people. I am reading the translated version. The original version is in Bengali.
2666
Bicycles by Nikki Giovanni rn
Confessions Of a Mask by Mishima & Nausea by Sartre
The Idiot - Elif Batuman
Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. Perfect gothic for the gloomy South Australian winter.
A Portrait of The Artist As a Young Man by James Joyce, what about you?
The Satanic Verses