What are you reading right now? What do you think of it? What have you read so far this year, and what are you going to read next?
I'm reading Brighton Rock. I expected to enjoy it more to be honest - but Pinkie is a good character. I like the themes of Catholicism that run through it and the idea that some things are just self evident to Pinkie and his girl that non 'Romans' would simply not understand. The casual, unquoted usage of biblical sayings reinforces this. Any other good books about what it is to be a Catholic? I loved Brideshead Revisited earlier in the year.
Funnily enough I just read Our Man In Havana while visiting my parents this weekend. Really enjoyed it, first Greene I've read but I poached The Power and The Glory from my parents bookshelf too. I liked the humour in Our Man. Felt pretty natural which I find rare in literature.
Just started Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. Thought it'd be a bit darker and mopey but it's reading just like a straight thriller right now. I think its almost endearing how some male writers can't help but be so horny even when writing mind control rape scenes.
A Game of Thrones - house of the dragon has reignited my ASOIAF obsession. That series really tickles my brain like nothing else.
I'm an embarrassingly slow reader, and also lazy, but for a while I've been reading The Galfredian legend. It's crazy to see the stories that up until quite recently were considered real British history. Such as the necromancer king, the fact that the British descend from Trojan, the tribes of giants, the inspiration for King Lear etc
Accordian Crimes by annie Proulx. She's good; everyone's lives are miserable.
>>251 I love the fact that everyone in Europe since antiquity has regarded it as self-evidently necessary to root their own histories in the Trojan war. Never mind that it happened on what was more or less the other side of the known world from Britain. I suppose it's because in their conception of history it was the 'oldest thing' so it makes sense that it should be there on page 1 of the history book... even if you're writing about Wales.
I just finished Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. It's extremely comfy, nostalgic, and a little bit melancholy at times, and a perfect read for the Summer.
Just finished Confederacy of Dunces, plot was a little weird but the characters were incredible and hilarious. Read Ignatius as if it's Matt Berry (IT Crowd, etc) saying the lines.
Just finished The City & The City and really enjoyed it. The setting was an interesting concept and I felt like Miéville pulled it off well. Currently reading Kraken by the same author now and I'm wicked digging it so far.
Currently reading Lucky Jim. Quite funny and probably even funnier if you're in Academia. You can see why Kingsley Amis was at best ambivalent towards his son's output.
Currently reading Dubliners. It has kind of dissuaded me from reading Ulysses. I have been reading less because there are simply too many book in the literary canon, so now I'm prioritizing enjoyment.
Reading Faust so far. My translation is really nice, very easy to read. I was not expecting it to be about courting a 14 year old girl but I'm not surprised I supposed -- it is about making deals with a devil.
The years best science fiction - 10th annual collection. The one with Neptune on the cover. “Dust” and “Griffon’s Egg” have been my favorite so far.
reading Infinite Jest for infinite Summer. Started a little late so I'm about a quarter of the way through (pg. 263) This is my second attempt and I can't stop thinking about it. DFW's writing style like no one I've ever read and it feels so intimate- like he knows what's going on inside my head. Also, it's surprisingly funny. Like laugh out loud funny- which is super rare for a book to be able to do. 5/5 so far
I actually like the stories and how well the characters are fleshed out. But for some reason his style of writing makes me lose focus a lot
I just read nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro and it rocked. 5 short stories that compliment and expand on eachother thematically. They’re all very funny, but there’s an extremely melancholy undercurrent to all of them that makes them insidiously interesting.
Just finished Anne of Green Gables. For years, all I did was stick to thrillers and books featuring neurotic protagonists, so when I picked up this book, I half-expected to be underwhelmed in some way. The simple slice of life plot turned out to be a very refreshing and welcome change of pace. It was a really cozy and soothing read that I found hard to put down. It was really rewarding seeing Marilla mellow out and accept Anne’s eccentricities more throughout the book while still being herself, and Anne’s antics cracked me up quite a bit. It was a lovely mix of funny and heartwarming and I enjoyed it a lot.
I read once that the Japanese love Anne.
Paul Auster, New York Trilogy, after seeing it mentioned in r/rsp. It's okay I guess. Literature for writers and readers of detective novels.
>>283 Have you read Catch-22 before? And if so, would you said Confederacy of dunces has a similar feel to that, or was it a fairly different experience for you? Am currently reading Catch-22 and am also enjoying the (countless) characters and their various idiosyncrasies a lot while feeling a little confused what is going on at times (I’m not halfway through yet, maybe it’ll come together some more later on, and the chapters are not in chronological order). I’m enjoying the experience overall and have chuckled aloud a handful of bizarre dialogue and goings-on whenever the jokes don’t go over my head. Confederacy of dunces is also on my to-read list, as I’m trying to compile as many humorous books as I can. I also have “Three Men on a Boat” and plan to read that shortly too. Anybody here got more funny/absurd recs?
Currently reading Portnoy's Complaint. Funny in parts but also a bit tiresome. Wow is me my Jewish mum is overbearing and also I need a wank!
The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia by Peter Hopkirk. Its all about english lads and russian chads battling it out in the -stans and trying not to be beheaded by local tribal leaders.
about to finish Augustus by John Williams. haven't read Williams before but I've been reading a lot about ancient Rome recently including Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. the entire book is told via letters between famous Romans like Julius Caesar, Augustus, Cicero, Agrippa, Brutus, etc. the book really feels like another great addition to the myth of the Romans, as it is starting to feel like now. I've got just twenty or so pages left which are all in Augustus' voice so I'm excited to see how Williams portrays him and how Williams has Augustus wrap up a book about himself.
Tangential, but I recently finished the History of Rome podcast. It's easy to see why generations of historians have been captivated by the question of why the western empire fell. I might read that Augustus book I did really like Stoner.
This rec chart could have a literature version (although I doubt Williams and Yourcenar are 'for plebs').
>>624 I never read Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrien. But I finished Augustus and it was well ended. Augustus comes across as wise if a bit meandering, but Williams really shines through Augustus. It was very bittersweet. I almost think that the novel was about William's acceptance with his own legacy and work and life coming to a close. I'm going to pickup another of Williams' novels but probably not going to read it yet. Thinking of Stoner.
> I almost think that the novel was about William's acceptance with his own legacy and work and life coming to a close. Not to spoil it but this was a theme in Stoner too. Seemingly a preoccupation of Williams'.
I read Stoner and it was brilliant. Certainly tragic but in Stoner's own words, "What else did you expect?" I knew the ending and still read. But the journey itself was worth it and I think Stoner would agree even if he is tinged with regret, because he knows that the regret ultimately doesn't matter. I am glad that I read this book _after_ reading Augustus. Augustus was certainly the best book I read this year until I read Stoner. I guess I have to read Butcher's Crossing now.
I think acceptance of the inevitability of regret is pretty important if you want to have some modicum of contentment.
About to start Dennis Cooper's novel Frisk. I read Closer (meh), but loved The Sluts. Also slowly working through The Mortgaged Heart, but I've always preferred McCuller's novels over her short stories.
I've been reading The Age of Innocence, it's kind of an interesting insight to see wasps from 150 years ago acting like stereotypical asians. I really enjoy these views into old American culture I've been trying to read more in general recently, used to love it as a kid. it's really disappointing how much my attention span has eroded so I'm trying to get it back
I’m reading 2666. About ~500 pages into this 900 page behemoth. I’m very curious about Archimboldi and the four academics at the beginning of the novel. I guess it was that story that got me reading. The killings are very interesting too but not in the same way. The characters are the most evocative I think I’ve read because the way Bolaño presents them is almost always juxtaposed or backgrounded with some lurid interaction. A guy who only fucks in cemeteries, a repressed faggot who’s gone schizo but is aware of it, genuinely helpful people in certain contexts doing genuinely harmful acts later or even at the same time. Gruesome and beautiful. I’m not done yet but I’d recommend the book to most who’d read it.
Money, Martin Amis Good book but the writerly urge to put lovely and lucid prose into the mouth of the troglodyte narrator is jarring. Maybe it will be resolved in the second innings since the whole thing seems to be taking a metafictional turn.
I took a sick day and read the first two chapters of The Fold. It's such a fucking sick book. I'm seriously amped to read a Deleuzian account of the Baroque. I don't know how to explain but this is seriously making everything about Leibniz and early modernity come clear to me.
>>774 An obsession with upholding an image, implicit social rules, understanding the unsaid, saying the right things even if its not what you think, stuff like that. A main theme of the book is the main character becoming increasingly frustrated with his stuffy environment because it makes it harder for him to run off with the hot European in town
> implicit social rules, understanding the unsaid, saying the right things even if its not what you think I feel like these are features of all cultures, aren't they? It would be quite easy to argue that contemporary liberal Anglosphere culture has these traits, even though it's not very 'Asian' at all.
Just finished 'The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu' by Charlie English. This book is captioned as 'postmodern historiography' which would fairly put some eyes asquint, but in fact this turns out to be a fair and laudatory epithet. It interweaves the history of the city of Timbuktu - or more accurately, the historical relations of European explorers, intellectuals, and colonialists to the city of Timbuktu - with a modern narrative taking place during a Jihadi uprising. Ultimately it ties the two narratives together by showing how in each case mythos and romance become an impassable impediment to truth. Highly recommended.
I (skim) read 'Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body' by Armand Marie Leroi, a professor at ICL. Not bad. Decent prose style for the most part, makes a change from the dryness of Wikipedia. Discusses embryology and genetics through the lens of various disorders and abnormalities. Lots of historical anecdotes about how birth defects and genetic conditions have been viewed through history. Most of it I was familiar with, but this is an area I'm interested in and have read a lot about on the internet. Even so it's nice to have it presented in one book. Doesn't shy away from the inherently morbid and grotesque nature of the subject. Some pictures of malformed stillbirths; poor stocking filler for expectant parents. But hey, if you're reading a book called Mutants what do you expect. Bit of crypto-HBD at the end - not surprising from an academic geneticist. I wonder how these guys all feel about liberal Lysenkoists like Adam Rutherford lying for money and liberal plaudits all the time...
I read Coming Up For Air by George Orwell. If I were to hazard a guess at the frequency with which Orwell's works are read, I would say that the satirical novels, 1984 and Animal Farm, are by far the most popular, followed by the biographical books - Homage to Catalonia and The Road to Wigan Pier chief among them - followed by the more famous essays. However a substantial proportion of his writings in the 30s were novels of the traditional kind, all of which have been relegated by the winnowing effect of history to footnotes in his oeuvre. For the 'dedicated Orwell reader', one might say. Which is a shame, since this is a funny, brisk, and readable novel. It is interesting to see Orwell trying on a different voice from his own. The main character is a middle aged travelling salesman, corpulent and mediocre. In fact, as a character, he has extraordinary similarities to John Self in Amis' Money which I mentioned in >>768. Though this is not an explicitly political book like 1984, the familiar Orwell themes are present - the chilling fear of totalitarianism on the one hand, and the disdain for liberal modernity on the other, with its mass produced consumer goods and its dietary fads. A sharp contrast is drawn between the 'old England', where a man could literally starve to death for want of money, even while he owned his own house, and the 'new England', where working men grow flabby even as they suffer under the crushing weight of a rip-off mortgage. The delimiter between these two worlds is explicitly stated as being the First World War. On the one side is the last gasp of Hardy's England. On the other, the 'intricate rented world' of Philip Larkin, in its larval stage. Through his character George Bowling, Orwell declares that if one did not live through the war one cannot fully understand the shift in mindset that it induced. He claims that a surefire and stolid world became mutable and contingent. Of course, that's not how history works. But surely it did feel that way to people of that time. Even as Bowling reminisces of the time before the last war the nation is gearing up for the next one. This is one of the most interesting aspects of the novel. It was seemingly written rapidly, being set in 1938 and published in 1939. He writes that at "every shipyard in the world they're riveting up the battleships for another war", and many people are spoiling for a fight, especially those too young to remember the last one. The air itself is laden with the premonition of bloodshed. Bowling alternates between fear and apathy about the war, and what might come after it. At times it seems of immense important to him, yet this feeling is constantly undercut by the cynical notion that it shan't affect him much either way. After all, he is too old to fight, and would not be a target for persecution even if fascism were to arrive. Orwell writes Bowling as a sympathetic character - certainly more sympathetic than the strident anti-Fascists who are depicted as warmongers - but it seems apparent that he is the sort of man who would need to be won over to the cause of fighting Hitler. Still, we are left with the sense that he will go along with the war, if only because fascism is the endpoint of all that is detestable about modernity. If there is an intention of this book, then, it is to draw upon the reader's reactionary impulses and direct them to work against fascism rather than for it. No doubt, this was a better strategy than asking people to die for the love of mortgages and mock-Tudor architecture.
>>891 Thank you for sharing your thoughts on it. I read Steinbeck's Winter of our Discontent just after reading Coming up for Air. Maybe that's why I read both as in the genre "individual born out of modernity morally dying of its nonsense". They are both very good novels imo (not to use the overrated "underrated" word).
I read Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe) and The Fraud (Zadie Smith). The former is proceeded by its reputation and I was a bit apprehensive. I had the sense that it might be an 'improving' novel more than an enjoyable one. Anyway I was wrong about this, it is a good read, Achebe has a delightfully spare and understated prose style, and the central character of Okonkwo is sympathetic even while being deeply flawed. I read online that Achebe cut his manuscript down to a third of its size before publication, which shows - this is a novel with the bodyfat percentage of a cage fighter. Recommended. The second book was one of the most popular novels of 2023 and sees Zadie Smith, whom Sam Kriss called the "poet of the Kilburn High Road", tell the story of a lurid Victorian courtroom drama through the eyes of the middle-class widower Eliza Touchet. The strongest parts of the novel, however, deal with the experience of slaves on the Jamaican 'Hope Estate'. Having read this after Things Fall Apart, I found myself moved by the oral traditions of the slaves, which correspond recognisably to the culture and practices of Okonkwo's Igbo village, even as they fade out of living memory. Slavery is in fact the central theme here, and the most intelligent question raised is a Marxian one - does the hand-to-mouth existence of the working poor constitute a form of slavery? How much difference is there really between the chattel-held blacks in the Carribean and the rookery dwellers of London. The black characters in the novel have an essentialist view that the two conditions are fundamentally different, but this is challenged when in the wake of the closure of the middle passage, a 'humane' landowner ships her own Irish Catholic servants to the Carribean to bolster the workforce. We are told that they die in droves. Ultimately, the novel ends with a confrontation between the young 'mulatto' man Henry Bogle and the now elderly Eliza. Their argument shadows the race debates of the next century. The lifelong reformer Touchet infuriates Bogle with her belief in incremental liberation, and her sincere Catholic conviction that oppression withstood in this life will lead to reward in the next. Bogle abhors this conciliatory Fabianism and sneers at the idea that the emancipation of women and of black people might be a unified struggle. The conflict between the two is recognisable as that same tension expressed in Martin Luther King's famous Letter from Birmingham Jail. The novel ends with this tension left unresolved. An enjoyable book albeit one that could engage more deeply with the questions it poses. The unconventional structure with very many brief chapters makes it readable even for the dopamine poisoned. Recommended to fans of Smith and of historical fiction.
I’ve been looking into the meditative practices of medieval christians. Surely there will be parallels between them and the buddhists. This was sparked by an assertion that many threads of contemporary philosophical frameworks can be found in widespread theological contemplations in historical Christianity.
> many threads of contemporary philosophical frameworks can be found in widespread theological contemplations in historical Christianity. elaborate? and is it true?
>>899 Nice I found some parallels between orthodoxy and buddhism. Nepsis (Christian orthodox) and Sati (Buddhism) are very much alike; the continuous Jesus prayer from The Way of the Pilgrim is very similar to Samadhi, with it's one-pointed focus on repetition. From what I gather, the desert saints and the Buddha walked on similar paths - extreme deprivation, then realizing a middle way involving some restriction is more fruitful. I remember something about one type of Jewish prayer being close to meditation, but I never dig deeper.
Thoughts on this book? I've seen opinions ranging from "pop/pseudo-science" to "revolutionary."
I read Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. This is the forth of Hardy's novels I've read. I really enjoy his characters and his Wessex setting. I found the central plot idea of this novel - a young man selling his wife and infant child in a state of drunken vehemence - to be very compelling. The sinner in question, Michael Henchard, is a believable and sensitively drawn figure, whose tremendous force of will proves to be his greatest asset and weakness both. His friend turned bitter rival Farfrae is also an attractive figure, though Hardy's attempts at phonetically rendering the Scot's accent in text sometimes veer towards the risible. The paradox of the exile who simultaneously pines for his homeland and yet has no actual desire to return there is an especially well depicted facet of his character. Most women in the story are not so striking personages, with the unfortunate auction victim Susan largely a cipher, and the coveted Lucetta over whom Henchard and Farfrae compete being a recognisable Hardy Jezebel in the pattern of Jude's Arabella. That said, the bookish and reserved Elizabeth-Jane is a well rounded character, and perhaps the book's most unequivocally sympathetic, with her curious yet winning combination of practical intellect and retiring unworldliness. This book is criticised for having too many episodes within in, a criticism which is completely valid. Like so many Victorian novels the strains and stresses of serialisation are plain to see in the narrative. This book, classic though it may be, could clearly be edited into a better one. However the best scenes in this story are as good as you will find anywhere in Hardy's repertoire. In one classic set-piece, Henchard arranges a wrestling match in a grain loft with Farfrae. The former man, being more strongly built, binds his left arm so that it may not be used in the grappling. Hardy not being scared of melodrama, he has it that the men compete to topple each other from the loft to the floor below, with injury certain and death probable. Even having handicapped himself, Henchard overpowers Farfrae, but having pinned him over the precipice, he finds he cannot bring himself to doom his former friend. In most writers' hands, this piece of melodrama would be at best kitsch and at worst bathetic. However, such is Hardy's psychological mastery of his leading characters, that it transpires to be a moving and illuminating insight into the psyche of a tortured and flawed man, whom against our better judgement we cannot help but admire. It's this talent for interiority that makes The Mayor of Casterbridge a compelling read, even though the full arc of the story is plain to see the whole way through the narrative. I rate this as my third favourite Hardy novel, stronger than Far from the Madding Crowd, but weaker than Tess and Jude.
I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel I don't have loads to say about this but I think it was an easy and enjoyable read. Mandel is a good writer, and though her style is unobtrusive, when she ventures into poetics she is successful. The story centres primarily on two narratives: the messy and regret-filled life of a Hollywood star; and the travels of a peregrinating troupe of musicians-cum-actors who perform symphonies and Shakespeare plays twenty years after a pandemic has left less than a percent of people alive. The central premise of a flu epidemic killing nearly every single person on Earth in approximately a week is a bit dubious, but it makes for an interesting story. I enjoyed the somewhat unusual 'post-post-apocalyptic' setting of the novel - 20 years after a civilisation-ending pandemic, things are far from back to normal, but humanity is finding its footing again. One of the main characters, Kristin, a woman who was a young girl at the time of the pandemic, has two knives tattooed on her arm, corresponding to people she has killed (trite but plausible). She observes of one of her younger travelling companions that it is quite likely that she will go through her life without ever having to kill someone. Not exactly a high bar, but clearly an improvement on the years immediately following the virus. Another character, Jeevan, was just setting his sights on a career as a paramedic on the eve of the pandemic. Twenty years later we find him established as a village doctor. He is seemingly competent and respected in spite of his lack of schooling, and he has a healthy family. His life seems strikingly pleasant – perhaps even better than the one he had before. This is not a typical apocalypse novel, then. Some reviewers have remarked critically on the relative niceness of life in this story, but I do not find it implausible. The fact that so few people are left alive after the cataclysm of the virus means that there is simply no need for protracted violent conflict over resources and territory. It is repeatedly reinforced that the first few years post-pandemic were awful beyond description – the slightly irritating plot device of Kristin having traumatic amnesia from that first year, while other characters find themselves in fortunate sanctuaries, allows the novel to not dwell to much on this – but with the passage of time people disperse themselves over an abundant and nearly empty continent, and the necessity for bloodshed disperses with them. In any case, the novel is not without its disturbing moments. One especially moving episode sees a passenger jet land at an airport which by remarkable fortune has become a sanctuary for the uninfected. It is not fully explained how, but word has gotten through to the crew of the aeroplane that the flu is horrifically contagious and invariably fatal. They must also have realised that they had infected people on board. The pilots taxi the plane to the airport perimeter fence and await their deaths. We are not privy to the events on-board the plane, instead we are simply invited to imagine the horror for ourselves. My least favourite thing about this very decent book is that when Covid happened, every midwit book reviewer with the ability to operate a MacBook was tripping over themselves to laud its prescience. Well no. A pandemic which kills 99 point something percent of people on Earth and ends civilisation as we know it is not the same thing as Covid. No it is not similar. P.S. If Mrs Mandel or her editor happen upon this review, I would like to tell you one thing. Passenger jets are made of aluminium, titanium, and carbon fibre. They don't rust. I know it would look cool if they did, but they don't. Sorry.
So, I'm guessing most of you know about lit.salon? Some sort of small goodreads for rs people. Otherwise, you are now in the know.
>>1054 Officially it's 1,5OO people, but it's small (like a few reviews a day at most). The pace is pleasant, the reviews are interesting (a lot seems to be written for writers). Most of all : the recs are decent. I have discovered a lot of good stuff. It does feel like a bit of the old Internet. The discord is weird tho, the schizo posting happens over there.
Anyone have recommendations for books on the French Revolution? Such an impactful period that I know far too little about.
>>919 I read that for a book club last month. Really liked it, but it was basically my introduction to psychoanalysis. I find zero flaws in the thesis and it's written well but you kind of get the argument with just the first and last chapters, if thesis argument is all you care about. The hate at the book club was not on merits but rather that the intended audience was very obviously not women. It isn't very scientific though, lots of proof by assertion. Good book though.
I am reading Oblivion by DFW for my book club but I can't force myself to do so because the first short story is not fun and about a bunch of corporate stuff.
Finished My Struggle Part 1 this week. It was good but I wish it about something else. The book feels like it was written for himself. This is totally fine but it doesn't make me want to pick up Part 2. I liked Knausgaard's A Time for Everything better because the stories of the people after the fall were so interesting and perfectly written. Do the other parts come close to this?
Got a tall stack of oprah winfrey book club type books at my boyfriends hometown library for 10 bucks. Reading thru them all rn. First one was a novel about privilege written by an old white lady obviously feeling a lot of guilt and published in 2019. But now I'm on "Playing with the Grown-ups" by Roald Dahl's granddaughter and it's actually great. I love having something to invest in though so I want to read really long books this year including Anna Karenina finally and East of Eden. Would love a series too, was considering My Struggle but idk
I recently finished Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World.
Peter Doyle's Suburban Noir
I am currently reading Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Disney War by James B. Stewart.
How do I get into books? I'm depressed and nothing interests me. The last book I read was The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. It was OK I guess. I feel like I should get into history or philosophy.