Love Agua Viva, read a few books by Lispector this year, she's great.
it was hard to pick one so i picked the first i read
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Sunday, 1 March 2015 20:29 (nine years ago) link
member of the wedding - carson mccullerstherese raquin - zolafoundation trilogy - asimovthe europeans - henry jamesa summer bird-cage - margaret drabbleclaudine at school - colettemadame bovary - flaubertremains of the day - kazuo ishigurogatsby - fitzgeraldpale fire - nabokovsputnik sweetheart - murakamino longer human - osamu dazaimiss lonelyhearts/day of the locust - westbonjour tristesse - francoise saganthe wind in the willows - kenneth grahame
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Sunday, 1 March 2015 22:14 (nine years ago) link
xpost Thanks, Alfred! I see that my library also has Nobody's Family Is Going To Change---how's that one?
― dow, Sunday, 1 March 2015 22:42 (nine years ago) link
I haven't read it.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 1 March 2015 23:00 (nine years ago) link
This was going to be a top 10, but I couldn't cut any more. At the moment:
The Brothers KaramazovThe Savage DetectivesThe PlaguePride and PrejudiceInfinite JestThe Book of Laughter and ForgettingMason & DixonChronic CityA Wild Sheep ChaseCat's EyeJitterbug PerfumeBrighton Rock
― Cherish, Sunday, 1 March 2015 23:12 (nine years ago) link
Love Agua Viva, read a few books by Lispector this year, she's great.it was hard to pick one so i picked the first i read― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Sunday, 1 March 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Sunday, 1 March 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I actually think she has never written any better than this - also its hard to reconcile as a novel.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 2 March 2015 09:41 (nine years ago) link
Off the top of my head...
Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyAlasdair Gray - LanarkMichael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & ClayDavid Foster Wallace - The Pale KingWilkie Collins - The Woman in WhiteKurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse FiveMargaret Atwood - Oryx & CrakeAlasdair Gray - 1982 JanineR.L. Stevenson - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
er.... That's only nine... uh... I must have read more than 9 novels...
― Unheimlich Manouevre (dog latin), Monday, 2 March 2015 16:04 (nine years ago) link
I want to say that Ulysses is my favourite, but I've only read it once and I don't feel that I know it well. "Favourite" seems to me to suggest that you've made the book your own, which I definitely can't say for Ulysses. But it looms in my mind as the most interesting novel I've read.
― jmm, Monday, 2 March 2015 18:28 (nine years ago) link
don't think i've ever answered this before
1. Robertson Davies - Deptford Trilogy2. Nikolai Gogol - Dead Souls3. Isaac Asimov - Foundation Trilogy4. Philip Roth - American Pastoral5. Thomas Pynchon - V.
i kinda miss reading novels. it has been a while.
― Mordy, Monday, 2 March 2015 18:37 (nine years ago) link
I didn't know where to place these favorites from the 19th century, so here will do.
― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 February 2021 03:02 (three years ago) link
wonder if my list would be really basic lol
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 February 2021 03:04 (three years ago) link
dhalgrenthe rings of saturnthe magic mountainthe dispossessed moby-dicko pioneers!água vivastonermadame bovarythe last samurai
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 February 2021 03:09 (three years ago) link
reread The Magic Mountain last April.
― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 February 2021 03:10 (three years ago) link
oh i posted a list five years ago! but i have read several of my favorite books of all time since then thank goodness
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 February 2021 03:11 (three years ago) link
Moby Dick and The Last Samurai would be on my list, and I really liked The Dispossessed (and Zazen! I missed that she published another novel last year!). I have the feeling I wouldn’t be into Stoner but I should probably give it a shot sometime.
― JoeStork, Thursday, 11 February 2021 04:48 (three years ago) link
I'm done with the idea of favorite novels, unless the concept is stretched so thin as to encompass many hundreds of novels I have derived a large measure of enjoyment from. Making a shorter list is just an exercise in forgetfulness and self-deception.
― Compromise isn't a principle, it's a method (Aimless), Thursday, 11 February 2021 05:01 (three years ago) link
Kim - KiplingThe Plague - CamusThe Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le GuinThe Master and Margarita - BulgakovThe Last Chronicle of Barset - Anthony TrollopeThree Novels - Karel CapekThe Last Samurai - Helen DeWittA Scanner Darkly - Philip K. DickWives and Daughters - Elizabeth GaskellRiddley Walker - Russell HobanVillette - Charlotte BronteThe Lantern Bearers - Rosemary Sutcliff
― Lily Dale, Thursday, 11 February 2021 07:11 (three years ago) link
Addendum for favorite mystery novels:
Gaudy Night - Dorothy SayersThe Fire Engine That Disappeared - Sjowall and WahlooBrat Farrar - Josephine Tey
― Lily Dale, Thursday, 11 February 2021 07:14 (three years ago) link
i read moby dick a few years ago and as soon as i got into it was like 'oh obviously this is one of the greatest things ever made'
― flopson, Thursday, 11 February 2021 07:17 (three years ago) link
yeah i’m more or less with aimless, except for moby-dick
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 11 February 2021 07:18 (three years ago) link
Villette, and then others
― abcfsk, Thursday, 11 February 2021 07:54 (three years ago) link
Been a long time since I read Moby Dick. But have been making my way through the Moby Dick Energy podcast which is fun.
Really not sure I could do a top 5 of books or cds that was accurate beyond the moment. I also don't seem to have been reading fiction much recently or at least not in that form. Seem to have been reading non whenever I have actually got around to reading anything.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 11 February 2021 08:09 (three years ago) link
i read Hunger a few years ago and was horrified/compelled by it. great book
― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone), Thursday, 11 February 2021 08:20 (three years ago) link
yeah finally got around to reading it a couple of years ago myself and have picked up a couple since.I think it had turned up in something like 3 or 4 decades ago, is it mentioned in the Outsider by Colin Wilson or Biba Kopf's Hardcore essay from the NME in 1984? possibly both.So it had been something i had wanted to read for ages.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 11 February 2021 10:16 (three years ago) link
The Man Who Loved Children - Christina SteadComing Through Slaughter - Michael OndaatjeSalem's Lot - Stephen KingThe Great Gatsby - F. Scott FitzgeraldAnother Country - James BaldwinDisgrace - J.M. CoetzeeAusterlitz - W.G. SebaldA View of the Harbour - Elizabeth TaylorInvitation to the Waltz - Rosamund LehmannA Month in the Country - J.L. Carr
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 11 February 2021 10:38 (three years ago) link
I can already see gaps. Impossible.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Thursday, 11 February 2021 10:39 (three years ago) link
Just because I've recently entered all my reading from 2008 on (and what I can remember before that) into goodreads:
Middlemarch - George EliotPale Fire - Vladimir NabokovTehanu - Ursula Le GuinGilead - Marilynne RobinsonCatch 22 - Joseph HellerThe Unconsoled - Kazuo IshiguroOur Mutual Friend - Charles DickensOutline - Rachel CuskWittgenstein's Mistress - David MarksonThe American - Henry James
― ledge, Thursday, 11 February 2021 10:53 (three years ago) link
It's kinda sad that I can't imagine rereading enough to have an all-time faves list. Fave authors, sure.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 11 February 2021 11:27 (three years ago) link
Jane EyreOur Mutual FriendThe Catcher in the RyeCrime and PunishmentThe Brother's KaramazovUlyssesInfinite JestThe Grapes of WrathNineteen Eighty-FourThe Lord of the Rings
― cajunsunday, Thursday, 11 February 2021 11:36 (three years ago) link
Mason & Dixon - Thomas Pynchon2666 - Roberto BolañoAbsolom, Absolom - William FaulknerThe Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. TolkienNeuromancer - William Gibson (lol)
I could probably sub As I Lay Dying for Absolom Absolom nearly any day; likewise The Savage Detectives for 2666 on certain days. Infinite Jest and The Brothers Karamazov would have been on the list at one point, but I have last my connection to those novels over the years.
― Rocky Thee Stallion (PBKR), Thursday, 11 February 2021 13:37 (three years ago) link
last = lost
Always on my mind:
The Dream of the Red Chamber (or A Dream of Red Mansions or The Story of the Stone)UlyssesI Claudius/Claudius the GodInvisible ManMiddlemarchA Tale of a TubGulliver's TravelsNadja
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 13:42 (three years ago) link
The Man Who Loved Children - Christina SteadA View of the Harbour - Elizabeth Taylor
Come sit beside me.
― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 February 2021 13:49 (three years ago) link
good standard
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:01 (three years ago) link
xps to NV I was thinking of reading Story of the Stone! Should I?
― scampless, rattled and puce (gyac), Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:02 (three years ago) link
your writing has kind of a Swift-y vibe, NV
― horseshoe, Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:06 (three years ago) link
Can I recommend a great little novel? Vivek Shanbhag’s Ghachar Ghochar is a perfect one...it rewards an immediate second read and is v short so that’s doable.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:12 (three years ago) link
gyac - I'd say yes, definitely. nb it's looong and I read the modern Penguin translation, the older public domain translations I've seen add layers of florid English to the difficulty. It's a really moving family epic of loss and transience with extra Buddhism and magic sprinkled into the mix, and it's a really absorbing world.
horseshoe aw shucks thank you I admit I shamelessly steal Swift's rhetorical moves all the time, he still makes me laugh and he invented that kind of dry sometimes meanness that I fall well short of but can't help aping
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:18 (three years ago) link
Also I'm bookmarking Ghachar Ghochar
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:19 (three years ago) link
Also I love the horrified recognition in Swift's long books or "novels" when he realises he's ultimately satirising himself
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:21 (three years ago) link
In Search of Lost TimeThe Brothers KaramazovMiddlemarchThe Hobbit and The Lord of the RingsJeeves novelsPride & PrejudiceThe Book of the New SunLe Grand MeaulnesWashington SquareMoby-Dick
I said Ulysses earlier itt, but feel like I was fooling myself in retrospect. I need to give it a lot more time at least.
― jmm, Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:42 (three years ago) link
Hooray!
Yes I always think of myself of disliking 18th century lit, but I forget Swift; he is great!
― horseshoe, Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:43 (three years ago) link
off the top of my head
catch-22lord of the ringscat's cradlecoming through slaughtermaster & margaritaragtimesiddhartha
― tiwa-nty one savage (voodoo chili), Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:46 (three years ago) link
A Dance to the Music of Time - PowellAusterlitz - SebaldHangover Square - HamiltonThe Trial - KafkaMoby-Dick - MelvilleMiddlemarch - EliotHav - MorrisThe Hound of the Baskervilles - Conan-DoyleFive Red Herrings - SayersJude the Obscure - HardyThe Good Soldier Švejk - Hašek
― Sven Vath's scary carpet (Neil S), Thursday, 11 February 2021 15:50 (three years ago) link
Books I keep coming back to:
Conrad, Heart of DarknessFitzgerald, The Great GatsbyMcCarthy, Blood MeridianWharton, The House of MirthChandler, The Long GoodbyeJohn Dos Passos, U.S.A. trilogyDelany, DhalgrenGibson, Blue Ant trilogy (Pattern Recognition/Spook Country/Zero History)Hammett, Red Harvest and The Dain Curse
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:03 (three years ago) link
I love a lot of 18th century prose: Henry Fielding, Lawrence Sterne, Gibbon. Jane Austen feels closer to 18th than 19th for me, English in that era feels looser and more fluid and just more fun tbh
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:06 (three years ago) link
an easy squeezy threesy:
Kolyma Tales by Shalamov
Moby Dick
Cat's Cradle
― calzino, Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:07 (three years ago) link
i am trying to think but i forget a lot of books that i read. i was going to read war and peace this summer because i liked anna karenina.
― harbl, Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:16 PM (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink
two guesses :(
― superdeep borehole (harbl), Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:36 (three years ago) link
Austen is what happens when the 18th century FIGURES ITSELF OUT imo. I get why people like Fielding and Sterne, but they’re not for me.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:48 (three years ago) link
Give me a Victorian doorstop any day. I need to read Our Mutual Friend.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:50 (three years ago) link