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
I love Our Mutual Friend but hate the ending, which is what kept it off my list.
― Lily Dale, Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:51 (three years ago) link
Oscar and LucindaMidnight’s ChildrenGlamoramaVanity FairKindredand my forever favouriteLolita
― scampless, rattled and puce (gyac), Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:55 (three years ago) link
i do love a good Dickens too but i think of him as having his 18th century roots showing, especially early on, especially Fielding
19th century stuff that could've should've made my list would include
Bleak HouseWuthering HeightsMary Barton maybe?À rebours
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:05 (three years ago) link
love Glamorama and yeah Lolita of course
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:06 (three years ago) link
surprised The Trial seems the universal Kafka pick, I've always rated The Castle higher (however unfinished)
anyway this is impossible...Moby Dick and The Quixote are my two "favorite" books but almost seems like they shouldn't count, they're looming up there like a couple of stone tablets
ten (almost) pre-war:
Mary Shelley, FrankensteinJ.K. Huysmans, À reboursF.R. Wolf, Hadrian VIIFranz Kafka, The CastleVirginia Woolf, Mrs. DallowayHenry Green, Party GoingFlann O’Brien, At Swim-Two-BirdsWilla Cather, My AntoniaWitold Gombrowicz, FerdydurkeAlbert Camus, The Stranger
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:13 (three years ago) link
xps to NV we need to talk Glamorama sometime, maybe tomorrow?
― scampless, rattled and puce (gyac), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:14 (three years ago) link
NV <3 Against Nature is sublime, I don't know how many times I've read that book or just picked it up and read thirty pp in the middle
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:15 (three years ago) link
xp yeah!
not xp also yeah! i think about monochrome feasts a lot
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:16 (three years ago) link
erm that's Rolfe (Baron Corvo), above
ten post-war
Max Frisch, I'm Not StillerStanislaw Lem, SolarisNabokov, LolitaFrederick Exley, A Fan's NotesThomas Bernhard, The Lime WorksRobert Coover, Universal Baseball Association...Harry Mathews, Sinking of the Odradek StadiumMarguerite Dumas, The LoverPeter Handke, Goalie's Anxiety at The Penalty KickDon Delillo, The Names
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:20 (three years ago) link