I only recently made a Goodreads account so I could keep track of this stuff, although I'm fairly certain I've forgotten stuff I read before that point.
Timothy Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory: The Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe, 1648-1815Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceOctavia Butler, Seed to HarvestJohann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young WertherToni Morrison, SulaToni Morrison, Song of SolomonThomas Paine, The Rights of ManRick Perlstein, NixonlandClara Reeve, The Old English BaronClay Risen, A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King AssassinationHorace Walpole, The Castle of OtrantoMary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men/A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Currently reading:William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
Still reading sporadically:Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A HistoryBrian Copenhaver, The Book of Magic: From Antiquity to the EnlightenmentLord Dunsany, In the Land of Time
I have a large stack of early Gothic novels and Romantic poetry collections on the docket for the new year.
― my hand is finally unglued from my face (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 16:18 (five years ago) link
I kept track this year. I hoped to get through more, but my pace of reading fluctuated a lot. Maybe I can hit 40 over the holiday break.
Molière – Le MisanthropeMarcel Proust – La PrisonnièreChristopher Faulkner – Jean Renoir: A Conversation with his Films 1894-1979Alexander Sesonske – Jean Renoir: The French Films, 1924-1939 (chs. 10, 16-21)William Shakespeare – The TempestWilliam Shakespeare – As You Like ItMarcel Proust – Albertine disparueMarcel Proust – Le Temps retrouvéE. H. Gombrich – The Story of ArtMalcolm Bowie – Proust Among the StarsP. G. Wodehouse – Joy in the MorningJane Austen – Sense and SensibilityAlexandre Dumas – Les Trois MousquetairesNathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet LetterAeschylus (tr. Robert Fagles) – The OresteiaMark Twain – Adventures of Huckleberry FinnGeorge D. Painter – Marcel Proust: A BiographyGustave Flaubert – Madame BovaryAlain-Fournier – Le Grand MeaulnesPhilip Roth – PatrimonyP. G. Wodehouse – The Code of the WoostersWilkie Collins – The Woman in WhiteP. G. Wodehouse – Right Ho, JeevesMarcel Proust – Du côté de chez SwannJoshua Landy – Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in ProustGeorge Eliot – MiddlemarchBarry Stroud – The Significance of Philosophical SkepticismClaire-Louise Bennett – PondMarcel Proust (tr. Scott Moncrieff/Kilmartin) – Within a Budding GroveCaroline Weber – Proust’s Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle ParisTimothy Snyder – Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and StalinRoger Shattuck – Proust’s Binoculars: A Study of Memory, Time, and Recognition in A La Recherche Du Temps PerduNathaniel Hawthorne – The House of the Seven GablesMarcel Proust (tr. Scott Moncrieff/Kilmartin) – The Guermantes WayAlexandre Dumas – Le Comte de Monte-Cristo I (chs. 1-56)
And currently:Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice
― jmm, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 16:37 (five years ago) link
Really want to read Code of the Woosters and Middlemarch next year
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 16:43 (five years ago) link
37 books that were books, not counting fiction. Lame by ILB benchmarks, but good by mine.
December is "read anything month." So after the current respectable book, I'll jump into a saved-up pile of the most haphazard printed matter.
― alimosina, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 16:48 (five years ago) link
I'm thinking of focusing on Dostoyevsky next year, maybe with a goal of reading all of the fiction.
And, uh, possibly a greater percentage of female writers too.
― jmm, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 17:18 (five years ago) link
Not a lot read this year and Im not sure why (i do. bloody internet/smartphone)
Judge Dredd: OZ - John WagnerLast Train to Memphis - Peter GuralnickI Must Not Think Bad Thoughts - Mark DeryStalin: The Court of The Red Tsar - Simon Sebag MontefioreMeet Me In The Bathroom - Lizzy GoodmanThe Death Of Truth - Michiko KakutaniYou are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes, and Cultural Myths - Russ KickPortnoy's Complaint - Philip RothLaughter Over The Left Shoulder - Vladimir Soloukhin
Currently reading:Postwar - Tony Judt
― . (Michael B), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 19:27 (five years ago) link
No order. Asterisks indicate that I didn't finish them, either because they were big and i wanted to go onto something else, but i want to finish them (Crashed) or because they were palpable shit (Forbidden Line) or because they were functionally unreadable (Sisyphean).
Britain Begins – Barry CunliffeThe Weirdstone of Brisingamen – Alan GarnerThe Devil’s Candy – Julie SalamonThe Rise and Fall of the British Nation – David EdgertonSisyphean – Dempow Torishima*The Edge of the Horizon – Antonio TabucchiForbidden Line – Paul StanbridgeHotel – Joanna WalshObject Oriented Ontology – Graham HarmanThe Three-Body Problem – Cixin LiuThe Dark Forest – Cixin LiuDeath’s End – Cixin LiuThe Periodic Table – Primo LeviBedouin of the London Evening – Rosemary TonksLove’s Work – Gillian RoseThinking in Systems – Donella H MeadowsSome Trick – Helen deWittThe Lifecycle of Software Objects – Ted ChiangThe Book of Dust – Philip PullmanSelect Prose – Heinrich von KleistDevices and Desires – PD JamesMurmur – Will EavesThe Case of the Constant Suicides – John Dickson CarrThe Unforeseen – Doroth MacardleSolar Bones – Mike McCormack1974 – David PeaceThe Death of Woman Wang – Jonathan D SpenceCodes of the Underworld – Diego GambettaThe Owl Service – Alan GarnerStrandloper – Alan GarnerThe Moon of Gomrath – Alan GarnerCrashed* – Adam ToozeHow Democracy Ends – David Runcimanvarious fucking product management books
Top FiveLove’s Work – Gillian RoseSolar Bones – Mike McCormackThe Owl Service – Alan GarnerThe Rise and Fall of the British Nation – David Edgertonand hmm, I’m gonna go The Three-Body Problem – Cixin Liu oh wait no, Periodic Table was amazing. fuckit.
― Fizzles, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 21:08 (five years ago) link
oh wait,
The Knowledge We Have Lost in Information – Philip Mirowski
I ended up enjoying this very much! Despite initially slagging it off quite heavily on the economics thread. This suggests there's a few more that aren't on my list here, suspect things like
No One Makes You Shop at Walmart – Tom Slee
and a couple of other soft economics books should be on there.
― Fizzles, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 21:15 (five years ago) link
These are the books I finished in 2018:
Karl Ove Knausgaard - My Struggle Vol. 3*Lucretius - On The Nature of ThingsJohn Wyndham - ChockyAleksandar Hemon - The Making of Zombie WarsScott Adams - How To Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win BigFred Anderson - Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North AmericaAlan Furst - Night SoldiersJessica Mitford - Hons and Rebels*Georges Simenon - The Man Who Watched Trains Go By*Michael Hiltzik - Dealers of Lightning: Xerox Parc and the Dawn of the Computer AgeDezso Kosztolanyi - SkylarkItalo Calvino - Numbers in the DarkFlannery O'Connor - The Violent Bear it AwayJames Salter - Light Years*David Oshinsky - BellevueGe Fei - The Invisibility Cloak*J.G. Farrell - The Siege of KrishnapurJonathan Mahler - Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is BurningOttessa Mossfegh - My Year of Rest and RelaxationJay Neugeboren - Imagining Robert*Patrick Hamilton - Slaves of SolitudeAugustine - ConfessionsDeborah Eisenberg - Twilight of the SuperheroesAldo Schiavone - The End of the PastGustave Flaubert - Bouvard and Pecuchet*Helen C. Epstein - Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda and the War on Terror
*particularly enjoyed
― o. nate, Wednesday, 12 December 2018 02:36 (five years ago) link
Almost three weeks left to run in 2018. I'm waiting to see how it ends.
― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 12 December 2018 02:39 (five years ago) link
There's a 1952 film of Man Who Watched the Trains go by with Claude Rains and Herbert Lom. I stumbled across it as a daytime TV showing a few years after chancing on the book.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 12 December 2018 08:38 (five years ago) link
just the classix yo. as i'm ilb trash i'll even assign scores
BOLANO - nazi literature in the americas 8.5/10HOLLINGHURST - the line of beauty 9/10ZWEIG - chess 8/10MILLS - the restraint of beasts 9/10MILLS - three to see the king 7/10DEWITT - the last samurai 9.5/10 altho i finished it twenty minutes ago so
a few months ago read the first 50 pages of O'BRIEN - at swim-two-birds and it was aiming at 9+ but for mysterious reasons of burnt-mindedness have put it to pasture and will return to it now and finish by year's end so you can add that in too
― imago, Wednesday, 12 December 2018 23:43 (five years ago) link
This year I did the GoodReads challenge, and set my target at 52 books. So far I've managed 63, but that includes cheaty graphic novels and cartoon collections, not to mention a ton of SF and a fair few Agatha Christies. Next year I'm planning on going to Dublin for Worldcon, so intend to read a lot of Joyce in 2019.
Nova Express - William S Burroughs 4/5Dead Man's Folly - Agatha Christie 3/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie 4/5Five Little Pigs - Agatha Christie 2/5The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James 5/5Evil Under the Sun - Agatha Christie 3/5Batman: The Court of Owls - Snyder/Capullo 2/5The Masterpiece - Zola 4/5Lou Reed: A Life - DeCurtis 3/5The Vision: Little Worse Than a Man - King & Hernandez Walta 4/5Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time - Hilary Spurling 4/5Hercule Poirot's Christmas - Agatha Christie 3/5The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984 - Riad Sattouf 5/5The Arab of the Future 2: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1984-1985 - Riad Sattouf 5/5This is Memorial Device - David Keenan 3/5The Hugo Winners 1955-1961 - Isaac Asimov ed 3/5 (best story: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes) The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester 4/5Journals 1982-1986 - Anthony Powell 4/5Kill or Be Killed Vol 2 - Brubaker & Phillips 3/5In the Woods - Tana French 1/5Robinson - Muriel Spark 5/5Double Star - Robert A Heinlein 3/5Hit & Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber took Sony for a ride in Hollywood - Griffin & Masters 4/5The Late Show - Michael Connelly 3/5The Defenders Vol 1 - Bendis & Marquez 2/5BC is Alive and Well! - Johnny Hart 3/5The Hugo Winners 1963-1967 - Isaac Asimov ed 4/5 (best story: The Last Castle by Jack Vance)Second-Hand Time - Svetlana Alexievich 5/5A Case of Conscience - James Blish 4/5Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh 4/5 (docked a point for some grotesque racism, but still genuinely funny throughout)A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller 4/5The Whites - Richard Price 2/5Two Kinds of Truth - Michael Connelly 3/5Trashed - Derf Backderf 4/5Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie 3/5Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol 2 - Robert Silverberg ed 4/5 (best story would be Fondly Farenheit by Alfred Bester, but The Country of the Kind by Damon Knight runs it close)Mrs McGinty's Dead - Agatha Christie 2/5A Science Fiction Omnibus - Brian Aldiss ed 4/5 (2007 revision of the classic anthology - of the new stories added, the best was 'Swarm' by Bruce Sterling)The Victim - Saul Bellow 5/5The Hugo Winners 1968-1970 - Isaac Asimov ed 3/5 (best story: Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones by Samuel R Delany. I didn't finish Philip Jose Farmer's Sci-fi pastiche of Finnegan's Wake, 'Riders of the Purple Wage'.)So Long, Silver Screen - Blutch 3/5Nebula Award Stories 1 - Damon Knight ed 4/5 (best story: The Drowned Giant by J.G. Ballard)Nebula Award Stories 2 - Aldiss & Harrison eds 3/5(best story: Among the Hairy Earthmen by R.A. Lafferty)Nebula Award Stories 3 - Roger Zelazny ed 4/5 (best story: Aye and Gomorrah by Samuel R Delany)Nebula Award Stories 4 - Poul Anderson ed 1/5 (the weakest volume in this series, no stand out stories)Nebula Award Stories 5 - James Blish ed 3/5 (best story: Passengers by Robert Silverberg)Nebula Award Stories 6 - Clifford D Simak ed 2/5 (best story: The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories by Gene Wolfe)Nebula Award Stories 7 - Lloyd Biggle Jr ed 1/5 (again, no particular stand outs)Nebula Award Stories 8 - Isaac Asimov ed 4/5 (best story: When It Changed by Joanna Russ)Nebula Award Stories 9 - Kate Wilhelm ed 3/5 (best story: Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death by James Tiptree, Jr)Nebula Award Stories 10 - James E Gunn ed 4/5 (best story: Born With the Dead by Robert Silverberg)Nebula Award Stories 11 - Ursula K LeGuin ed 3/5 (best story: Shatterday by Harlan Ellison)Nebula Winners 12 - Gordon R Dickson ed 4/5 (best story: Houston Houston Do You Read by James Tiptree, Jr)Nebula Winners 13 - Samuel R Delany ed 4/5 (best story: The Screwfly Solution by 'Raccoona Sheldon' aka James Tiptree, Jr)Nebula Winners 14 - Frederik Pohl ed 2/5 (best story: Seven American Nights by Gene Wolfe)Nebula Winners 15 - Frank Herbert ed 3/5 (best story: Sandkings by George R R Martin)Nebula Winners 16 - Jerry Pournelle ed 3/5 (best story: Rautavaara's Case by Philip K Dick)Pnin - Vladimir Nabokov 5/5 (reading this after all that SF brought home how masterful Nabokov could be just at the level of the sentence)Nebula Award Stories 17 - Joe Haldeman ed 3/5 (best story: Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson)Nebula Awards 22 - George Zebrowski ed 2/5 (best story: R & R by Lucius Shepard)Sabrina - Nick Drnaso 5/5The Abbess of Crewe - Muriel Spark 4/5Armageddons - Dozois & Dann eds 2/4 (best story: Fermi and Frost by Frederik Pohl)
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 13 December 2018 11:42 (five years ago) link
read the Penguin Classics translation of The Story of the Stone and it was incredible
― I Accept the Word of Santa (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 December 2018 11:50 (five years ago) link
Cormac McCarthy - All The Pretty HorsesAldous Huxley - Brave New WorldFlannery O'Connor - A Good Man Is Hard To FindFlannery O'Connor - Everything That Rises Must ConvergeGraham Greene - The Quiet AmericanR.F. Delderfield - To Serve Them All My DaysRobert Louis Stvenson - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydePhillip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?William Shakespeare - HamletWilliam Shakespeare - OthelloWilliam Shakespeare - MacBethWilliam Shakespeare - King LearLeo Tolstoy - The Forged CouponFrank Herbert - DuneJohn Steinbeck - The PearlAlfred Bester - The Stars My Destination
― hot dog go to bathroom (cajunsunday), Thursday, 13 December 2018 12:05 (five years ago) link
I'm unhappy with how little I read this year. I had a resolution to read 365 short stories but that quickly got abandoned.
FictionLe Guin - Five Ways to Forgiveness (1994, 1999) 5Le Guin - The Found and the Lost: Collected Novellas (audiobook) 6Le Guin - The Finder (included in above) 2Anthony Horowitz - The Word is Murder 4Anthony Horowitz - Magpie Murders 6Highsmith - Strangers on a Train (audiobook read by famous stranger Bronson Pinchot) 5Mur Lafferty - Six Wakes (2017, audiobook) 5Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany’s (audiobook, novella) 5Scalzi - Fuzzy Nation (audiobook) 4; bad jokes, clever mysteryScalzi - Miniatures (audiobook) 1; nothing but bad jokesEgan - Manhattan Beach - almost finished
Non-FictionMichelle Goldberg - I’ll be Gone in the Dark (audiobook) 4Mill - Utilitarianism; interestingMary Roach - Stiff 5Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) 7Sean Howe - Marvel Comics: The Untold Story 5; comfort reading - i knew most of it beforeJeannette Walls - The Glass Castle 5
comicsVera Brosgol - Be Prepared (2018) 4; disappointingly mainstreamDerf Backderf - My Friend Dahmer (2012) 5; also read the shorter versionLethem - Omega the Unknown (2008) 8; would be 9 with a better endingHope Larson - Mercury 2; don’t like the art, ditto the magicShiga - Bookhunter (2007) 6Smith - RASL (2013) 5; disliked the thomas crown endingBusiek - Marvels (1994) 5
unfinished but will return to:Robert Caro - The Power Broker -- read 3/10thsSvetlana Alexievich - The Unwomanly Face of War (audiobook) -- half read
― adam the (abanana), Thursday, 13 December 2018 13:45 (five years ago) link
I'm always glad to see others including comics stuff on their lists but if I included it on my own it would easily be of octuple length. In terms of word count, I'm sure I read more actual books, but in terms of sheer paper weight comics definitely win out.
― Home Despot (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 December 2018 13:52 (five years ago) link
been a v busy year for me
Hasek - the good soldier svejkPynchon- gravity's rainbowHill - the world turned upside downBechdel - Fun homeGeorge-Warren A Man called Destruction Gibbon - Decline and Fall bks 1 and 2Sachs - MusicophiliaBahn - Images of the ice agePinker - The Language InstinctBecket - MurphyFisher - Capitalist RealismZeldin - The FrenchP K Dick - selected storiesEuripides - The BacchaeOrwell - The Lion and the UnicornEpictetus - writingsSchitzler - Dream storyRumi - The essentialHuman evolution - Human evolution Barash - Homo mysterious Oford Evolution ReaderDamasio - Descartes ErrorThe TainPoe - storiesLigotti - 4 stories from songs of a dead dreamerBorges - LabyrinthsBarthes - MythologiesBenjamin Walker - GnosticismMichael Benson - Space OdysseyMontaingne - selected essaysKeats - EndymionBugs BrittanicaGuralnick - Last train to Memphisgrammar books for celta course hahaErasmus - Praise of FollySincalir - London OrbitalEmily Dickinson - collected faberGoodall - Ten technologies to save the planet
― glumdalclitch, Thursday, 13 December 2018 17:50 (five years ago) link
how do you all do it
― imago, Thursday, 13 December 2018 17:52 (five years ago) link
I’m guessing your list of records listened to would probably put ours to shame.
― o. nate, Thursday, 13 December 2018 17:56 (five years ago) link
music is easy to listen to though! these are some serious feats of sustained non-distraction
― imago, Thursday, 13 December 2018 18:00 (five years ago) link
Here's my list of mostly middle brow lit fic & lit sf (actually this was a very good reading year for me, I feel bad if I finish fewer than 12 books):
Christopher Priest, The GradualNathaniel Rich, King ZenoChandler Klang Smith, The Sky is YoursJeff VanderMeer, The Strange BirdZadie Smith, Feel FreeHelen DeWitt, Some TrickJohn Langan, The FishermanRachel Cusk, KudosLauren Groff, FloridaOttessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and RelaxationKarin Tidbeck, JagannathKarin Tidbeck, AmatkaZadie Smith, NWGary Shteyngart, Lake SuccessRoberto Bolano, The Skating RinkPatrick DeWitt, French ExitMeghan O’Gieblyn, Interior States
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 13 December 2018 18:00 (five years ago) link
Read about 250 books so far this year. Best ones discussed in this thread:
The sporadic throughout-December thread of EXCELLENT BOOKS WHAT I READ THIS YEAR:— Caustic Cover Critic (@Unwise_Trousers) December 2, 2018
Or more easily read here http://causticcovercritic.blogspot.com/2018/12/excellent-books-what-i-read-this-year.html
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 13 December 2018 22:44 (five years ago) link
I wrote down some of those, thanks! Seriously though, how much time do you spend reading per day?
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 13 December 2018 23:12 (five years ago) link
Archipelago Books are so pretty.
― jmm, Thursday, 13 December 2018 23:19 (five years ago) link
James, I had no idea you were Caustic critic. I like your tweets haha
― glumdalclitch, Friday, 14 December 2018 00:19 (five years ago) link
Thanks! I read a lot due to not knowing how to drive, so taking public transport everywhere, plus being antisocial at work in my lunch breaks, plus insomnia. Plus being lazy.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 14 December 2018 02:46 (five years ago) link
Old Lunch and Ward- you mind telling me your goodreads names?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 14 December 2018 20:37 (five years ago) link
Thanks for yr interest RAG, but I just list and 'rate' books on Goodreads, as a diary for myself - no reviews or anything - exactly what I posted here in fact, plus cover images of the particular old paperback I actually read (a source of vexation when a particular edition isn't there). I haven't burrowed very deep into Goodreads - you can 'follow' reviewers/authors etc on it? I'm def in the market for SF reviews, especially of short story anthologies - though as I say, I plan to mostly lay off the SF for a while - James Joyce and film theory/history for 2019!
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 14 December 2018 21:19 (five years ago) link
I could have read so much more if I didn't keep falling asleep after work. It's been perplexingly hard to get my sleeping pattern right. Why is it so hard?
I'll list when the year finishes.
I recently heard writer Grady Hendrix say he often reads 6 books a day! He's not any kind of dick waving showoff either, couldn't be further from that.
I'm determined to someday become a superhuman reader.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 14 December 2018 21:43 (five years ago) link
I get the most serious reading done when I'm not feeling anxious or stressed from work. Otherwise I tend to blow my free time on the computer.
I'm thinking about starting a reading blog next year to get a little more serious about writing. I haven't had a writing project in a long time, and books are basically my hobby right now. Also considering whether a daily reading journal might be a good idea.
― jmm, Friday, 14 December 2018 22:41 (five years ago) link
This was the first year I've kept a list of my reading -- I'm surprised how much I did. Retirement had a lot to do with it.
Read in 2018:
Atkins, Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in JapanAyatsuji, The Decagon House MurdersBlackburn, A Scent of New-Mown Hay, Bury Him Darkly, and Nothing But the NIghtBounds, Perry Mason: The Authorship and Reproduction of a Popular HeroCain, Fast OneCamus, The Stranger (Ward translation)Carlotto and Videtta, PoisonvilleCarr, The Burning Court, The Man Who Could Not Shudder, and In Spite of ThunderCarroll, Philosophy of HorrorChristie, Sparkling CyanideConrad, The Inn of the Two Witches and Notes on Life and LettersCook, Blue Note RecordsCooper (trans.), Li Po and Tu FuDe Angelis, The Murdered BankerFugate, Secrets of the World’s Best-Selling Writer: The Storytelling Techniques of Erle Stanley GardnerGardner, 47 novels in the Perry Mason seriesGottlieb, Reading JazzGreene, Ways of Escape and This Gun for HireInnes, Operation PaxIzzo, Total Chaos, Chourmo, and SoleaJudkins and Nielson, The Creation of Wing Chun: A Social History of the Southern Chinese Martial Arts Kenny, A New History of Western Philosophy, v. 1-4LeBlanc, The Exploits of Arsene DupinLeffler and Westad (Eds.), The Cambridge History of the Cold War, 2 of 3 volumesLem, SolarisMarlowe, A Dandy in AspicMcCarthy, Bubishi (2015 ed.)McKinney (trans.), Kenko and Chomei: Essays in Idleness and HojokiMurakami, 1Q84 and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of PilgrimagePriestley, BenightedQuast, A Stroll Along Ryukyu Martial Arts HistoryRosenthal, Hard BopSartre, Existentialism is a HumanismShahar, The Shaolin Monastery Shimada, The Tokyo Zodiac MurdersSidran, Talking JazzSimenon, 19 novels in the Maigret seriesSmith, Principle-Driven Skill Development in Traditional Martial ArtsStubbs, Future Days: Krautrock and the Birth of a Revolutionary New MusicStugatsky Bros., Roadside PicnicTanizaki, In Praise of ShadowsTompkins, How to Wreck a Nice BeachVarley, Japanese CultureWallace, Four Just Men
Started in 2018, still reading:
Bordwell, Film ArtFisher, Ghosts of My LifeHabermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public SphereLeffler and Westad (Eds.), The Cambridge History of the Cold War, v. 3Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, (eds.), The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
― Brad C., Friday, 14 December 2018 23:11 (five years ago) link
RAG, my username is the same on Goodreads as it is here but with an underscore between. It's still very much a work in progress.
― Home Despot (Old Lunch), Friday, 14 December 2018 23:36 (five years ago) link
Just realized you cant search users. Can I get a direct address?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 14 December 2018 23:58 (five years ago) link
James- Do you recommend the new Simon Ings ahead of his previous novels? I was thinking of starting at Wolves.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 15 December 2018 18:26 (five years ago) link
lot of stuff i should have read years ago
Han Kang - The VegetarianJane Austen - Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Emma, Mansfield Park, PersuasionEmily Bronte - Withering HeightsAnn Bronte - The Tenant of Wildfell HallCharlotte Bronte - Jane EyreFlannery O’Connor - The Violent Bear it AwayHelen DeWitt - The Last SamuraiThomas Bernhard - Concrete, Wittgenstein’s Nephew, The Voice ImitatorThomas Mann - Death in Venice & Other Stories, The Magic MountainAnn Quin - The Unmapped CountryMikhail Bulgakov - The Master & MargheritaJohn Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of DuncesJames Joyce - Portrait of the Artist…, *UlyssesW. G. Sebald - The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants, Vertigo, AusterlitzHenry James - Washington SquareSally Rooney - Conversations with FriendsChina Mieville - The City and The CityMuriel Spark - The Drivers SeatPaul Schrader - Transcendental Style in Film Yasunari Kawabata - The Sound of the Mountain, Snow Country, House of the Sleeping BeautiesElena Ferrante - My Brilliant FriendYuko Tsushima - Child of FortuneMichael Deforge - Sticks Angelica, Folk HeroBanana Yoshimoto - AsleepAnna Seghers - TransitAngela Carter - The Bloody ChamberJorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths Martin Hammond / Homer - The Iliad: Goethe - The Sorrows of Young WertherPhilip Roth - The Ghost Writer
― devvvine, Saturday, 15 December 2018 18:39 (five years ago) link
Re Simon Ings: I liked but didn't love Wolves. The Smoke is just amazing. I suspect it's his best book (though I have not read a number of his earlier novels)
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Sunday, 16 December 2018 06:17 (five years ago) link
bits & pieces of the anatomy of melancholy interspersed with:
josephine tey - the daughter of time josephine tey - to love and be wisejosephine tey - miss pym disposespatricia highsmith - suspension of mercydorothy l sayers - gaudy nightdorothy l sayers - the nine tailorsmargery allingham - look to the ladymargery allingham - the fashion in shroudsmargery allingham - police at the funeralmargery allingham - more work for the undertakercyril hare - tenant for deathjohn dickson carr - poison in jestellery queen - the door betweenellery queen - new adventures of ellery queenagatha christie - murder in the mews and others storiesngaio marsh x 33elizabeth bowen - eva troutelizabeth taylor - the soul of kindnesselizabeth taylor - hester lillywilliam gerhardie - of mortal lovenabokov - collected storiesgoncharov - oblomovknut hamsun - the wandererknut hamsun - the ring is closedceline - london bridgeee cummings - eimidjuna barnes - vivid & repulsive as the truthwilliam carlos williams - wcw readerchristina stead - the people with the dogsmalcolm lowry - lunar causticanna kavan - my soul in chinaanna kavan - julia & the bazookaunica zurn - dark springgiorgio de chirico - hebdomerosjames branch cabell - jurgenfitz-james o'brien - the fantastic tales offitz hugh ludlow - the hasheesh eaterherman melville - mardi
going to continue with the anatomy next year & plan on delving deeper into more pre-20th century lit
― no lime tangier, Monday, 17 December 2018 10:50 (five years ago) link
Is one way street no longer posting? I want to see the list.
― jmm, Monday, 17 December 2018 13:46 (five years ago) link
j hawes - shortest history of germanyl. child - past tensem connelly - dark sacred nighth murakami - killing commendatoreh murakami - men without womens rooney - normal peopleg hurwitz - hellbenth arikawa - traveling cat chronicless murata - convenience store womang honeyman - eleanor oliphant is completely fined baldacci - end gamed baldacci - fallens cavanagh - thirteens harris - colour of bee markham's murders hannah - mystery of 3 quartersc bond - second childs montgomery - soul of an octopusr galbraith - cuckoos calling/silkworm/career of evil/lethal whitej cruyf - my turng balague - brave new worlda munru - selected stories
also read big chunks of the following xmas celeb bios in between serving customers over the last few weekslily allenp crouchmel b
― oscar bravo, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 13:25 (five years ago) link
Is that the Simon Ings who wrote Stalin and the Scientists?
― alimosina, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 16:40 (five years ago) link
Emily Bronte - Withering Heights
very into this typo i made
― devvvine, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 16:50 (five years ago) link
Same Simon Ings, yes
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 20 December 2018 03:47 (five years ago) link
I'll post my list when 2018 is over, but I did manage to reach my goal of 52 books read.
By the way, Sunday is the night to start reading Reve's The Evenings, one chapter a night until new year's eve.
― ArchCarrier, Thursday, 20 December 2018 08:15 (five years ago) link
otessa moshfegh - mcglue; my year of rest and relaxationtom wolfe - hooking upp roth - nemesis judith rossner - looking for mr goodbarjim schutz - bully: a true story of high school revengestephen williams - invisible darknessjoyce carol oates - i am no one you know; in rough countrymichael finkel - a stranger in the woodsdfw - string theoryjoshua cohen - moving kingstao lin - tripeugene o'neill - hughieben lerner - leaving the atocha stationmegan boyle - liveblogayelet waldmann - red hook roadlena dunham - not that kind of girllorrie moore - barkmark titus - dont put me in, coachgerald marzorati - late to the ballgreg johnson - invisible writer: bio of joyce carol oates
― johnny crunch, Friday, 21 December 2018 03:57 (five years ago) link
Is one way street no longer posting? I want to see the list.― jmm, Monday, 17 December 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― jmm, Monday, 17 December 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
far as I can tell ows isn't posting. Shame really
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 21 December 2018 16:07 (five years ago) link
just re-read all of Pierre Michon’s Winter Mythologies and Abbots, translated by Ann Jefferson which i read at the end of last year as well. It’s very much at the top of anything i’ve read in recent memory.
― Fizzles, Friday, 21 December 2018 19:53 (five years ago) link
Next year - I think my New Year's resolution will be to take a note of stuff I read, or watch.
― Leaghaidh am brón an t-anam bochd (dowd), Friday, 21 December 2018 19:57 (five years ago) link
And drink! I should keep a whisky journal too...
Love that Michon (though I read it in one sitting in a pub so need to re-read myself) and also would be tempted to read his other translations despite these not being as well regarded in the nyrb Michon overview:
https://archipelagobooks.org/book_author/michon-pierre/
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 21 December 2018 20:13 (five years ago) link
I've reached the seventies this year, and mostly finished my pile, which I feel very good about. Two books I stopped (a fat Thiong'o and a fat Pynchon) and close to 25 highlights, which is what I'll post here (in order of reading). Titles in French where applicable. I'm a young reader so expect classics too.
Atwood - The Handmaid's TaleFukazawa - The Ballad of Narayama (untranslated in ENG iirc)Bulgakov - Heart of a Dog*James - A Brief History of Seven Killings*Gyasi - HomegoingKourouma - Les Soleils des IndépendancesMiller - The Crucible Emecheta - The Joys of MotherhoodPushkin - Eugene OneginPlath - The Bell JarNdibe - Arrows of RainGray - Lanark: A Life in Four BooksBulgakov - A Young Doctor's NotebookTolkien - The Hobbit (or There and Back Again)O'Connor - A Good Man is Hard to FindMofolo - ChakaLe Guin - The Dispossessed*Tchekhov - Three SistersHamidou Kane - L'aventure ambiguëStrugatskis - Roadside PicnicHuysmans - Là-basSôseki - BotchanRhys - Wide Sargasso SeaAragon - Le Con d'IrèneKessel - Belle de JourSalih - Season of Migration to the NorthPushkin - The Captain's Daughter*
*top favorites
― Nabozo, Sunday, 23 December 2018 19:18 (five years ago) link
I read the Pushkin and the James this year too!
― Leaghaidh am brón an t-anam bochd (dowd), Sunday, 23 December 2018 21:33 (five years ago) link
My profound respect to all multi-lingual ILBers. My unilingual brain seems unable to absorb more than the merest smattering of other languages.
― A is for (Aimless), Sunday, 23 December 2018 21:57 (five years ago) link
I'm much the same. I studied English at a reasonably high level - got a degree in English lit ad a degree in Philosophy in which I focused on language. But for some reason I can't do other languages. Though, I was pleased to discover that I remember the polish Xmas greeting after learning it last year. But I lived in Berlin for 3 years as a kid, studied that at school, at uni I tried Ancient Greek, privately I've tried spanish, russian, scots Gaelic. I just don't have the head for it, for some reason.
― Leaghaidh am brón an t-anam bochd (dowd), Sunday, 23 December 2018 22:12 (five years ago) link
i didn’t keep track of what i read this year, and i read regrettably little. i know i read the new ottessa moshfegh, i read talk by linda rosenkrantz, i read a bunch of the power broker but didn’t finish it. read a few short denis johnson novels i can’t temember the names of. im currently reading the vegetarian by han kang and it’s great
― flopson, Monday, 24 December 2018 00:15 (five years ago) link
I think it's close enough to year's end now that I feel secure this list would, at most, lack the title of a partially-finished book on New Year's Eve. Of all the books I read this year, I think the one that gave me the most memorable pleasure was The Door, Magda Szabo. It was just outstanding in so many ways.
Books I read in 2018 (in the order I finished them):
A Month in the Country, J.L. CarrThe Bread of Those Early Years, Heinrich BöllA Man's Head, Georges SimenonJames J. Hill: A Brief Biography, Stewart HolbrookThe Women at the Pump, Knut HamsunJulian, Gore Vidal (<- re-read)Selected Short Stories, Guy de Maupassant (<- Penguin classics collection)The Door, Magda SzaboTropic Moon, Georges SimenonWhat the Dormouse Said, John Markoff (<-a silicon valley 'history')The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben (<- botany)A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor (<- memoir)Sapphira and the Slave Girl, Willa CatherA Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889, Frederic MortonLife of Alfred the Great, Asser the Monk (tr. Keynes)Another Country, James BaldwinJourney Into the Past, Stefan ZweigConquest of Constantinople, Geoffroy de VillehardouinNature, Man and Woman, Alan WattsThe Dud Avocado, Elaine DundyEmma, Jane Austen (<- re-read)The Wizard and the Prophet, Charles Mann (<- global warming debate)Around the World in Seventy Two Days and Other Writings, Nellie BlyThe Price of Admiralty, John Keegan (<- military history)Barchester Towers, Anthony TrollopeKitchen Confidential, Anthony BourdainAucassin & Nicolette and Other Tales, trans. Pauline Matarasso (<-Penguin Classics)The Soul of an Octopus, Sy Montgomery (<-natural history of a sort)Democracy Reborn, Garrett EppsZen and the Birds of Appetite, Thomas Merton (<- essays)The Aran Islands, J. M. Synge (<- re-read)The Golden Spur, Dawn PowellThe Grand Babylon Hotel, Arnold BennettWatership Down, Richard AdamsMasters of Atlantis, Charles PortisGorgon, Peter D. Ward (<-about Permian mass extinction)Troilus and Criseyde, Geoffrey ChaucerTuring's Cathedral, George DysonThe Stalin Front, Gert Ledig The Gate of Angels, Penelope Fitzgerald Maigret Gets Angry, Georges SimenonThe Little Nugget, P. G. WodehouseUnder the Glacier, Haldor LaxnessThe Sicilian Vespers, Steven RuncimanA Time to Be Born, Dawn PowellThe Wet Engine, Brian DoyleRaffles, Maurice Collis (<- a biography)Excellent Women, Barbara PymThe Saga of the Volsungs, translator: Jesse Byock Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, Thomas MannFair Play, Tove Jansson Towers of Trebizond, Rose Macaulay
Books I started, read about a third, but did not finish:
Crashed, Adam Tooze (->about the serial financial crises: 2008-2018)Stoner, John Williams
― A is for (Aimless), Monday, 24 December 2018 20:06 (five years ago) link
The Door really is remarkable.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Tuesday, 25 December 2018 11:04 (five years ago) link
38 or so, including some graphic novels and omitting some other graphic novels for no particular reason. Can't post them all because I'm on my phone but the top two were probably
Les MiserablesThe Iron Heel
― koogs, Tuesday, 25 December 2018 12:23 (five years ago) link
Cannery Row too
and The Martian, which felt a lot like A C Clarke's Fall Of Moondust or similar.
― koogs, Tuesday, 25 December 2018 15:24 (five years ago) link
Stoner, John Williams
― A is for (Aimless), Monday, December 24, 2018 1:06 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
noooooo
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, 25 December 2018 17:39 (five years ago) link
I bought 6 Jeeves and Wooster books I haven't read or 50p each, so that'll do me until new year.
― Leaghaidh am brón an t-anam bochd (dowd), Thursday, 27 December 2018 16:08 (five years ago) link
surprised you didn't like Crashed, Aimless
― flopson, Thursday, 27 December 2018 18:23 (five years ago) link
It fell at an awkward moment when I didn't have the attention or stamina for it.
― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, 27 December 2018 18:25 (five years ago) link
Yeah it’s pretty brutal
― flopson, Friday, 28 December 2018 06:14 (five years ago) link
ive heard rumours t0oze is gonna get #MeToo’d
― flopson, Friday, 28 December 2018 06:20 (five years ago) link
A pathetic year, if you discount Asterix and books abandoned (I will finish the Lispector story collection before 2020 is out):Michel Tournier - The Erl King. John Preston - A Very English Scandal. Samanta Schweblin - Fever Dream.Ottessa Moshfegh - Eileen.Hannah Arendt - Eichmann in Jerusalem. Ottessa Moshfegh - Homesick for Another World.PG Wodehouse - Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.Christopher Hill - The World Turned Upside Down.Brian Phillips - Impossible Owls.Yukio Mishima - The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea.
Of this lot, the Erl King was the most intense, Eileen had the most powerful single image (frozen vomit) and Wodehouse had the best dialogue ("Blast all vegetables!").
― calumerio, Friday, 28 December 2018 13:53 (five years ago) link
I've read The Door this year as well, but couldn't accept the whiny narrator's near-religious obsession for Emerence, who was a very human character after all, a force of nature with qualities and flaws. The relation between them also became excessive or overdramatic in the climax. I do like books with dog characters (the Bulgakov <3 <3 <3).
― Nabozo, Friday, 28 December 2018 14:28 (five years ago) link
Calumerio, if you started the year with Erl King I can see why you'd need some time to recover from the PTSD
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Saturday, 29 December 2018 00:24 (five years ago) link
Yes, with hindsight, a string of Wodehouse should have followed, as a mental sorbet. I think Fever Dream and Eileen felt mild in a way that they would otherwise not have.
― calumerio, Saturday, 29 December 2018 11:51 (five years ago) link
My year probably best summed up by the fact that early on I started diligently updating a goodreads page for 2018, but it hasn't been updated since June lol - so everything after the koja anthology is from memory or from my audible history
Thomas Bernhard, CorrectionMiranda July, No One Belongs Here More Than YouMaggie Nelson, BluetsTrey Ellis, PlatitudesRay Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451Sylvia Plath, The Bell JarWilliam S Burroughs, JunkyLidia Yuknavitch, The Book of JoanJennifer Egan, Look at MeJoanna Walsh, VertigoChris Petit, The Butchers of BerlinJG Ballard, The Unlimited Dream CompanyRichard Matheson, I Am Legend*Paul Beatty, The SelloutRobert McCrum, Every Third ThoughtOttessa Moshfegh, EileenStephen King, Gwendy’s Button BoxJoe Hill, The FiremanStephen King, Lisey’s Story (audiobook)Stephen King, Duma Key (audiobook)Jack Ketchum, StrangleholdJack Ketchum, Off SeasonJack Ketchum, The Girl Next DoorJack Ketchum, The LostJames Joyce, DublinersElena Ferrante, My Brilliant FriendMark Frost, The List of SevenStephen King & Joe Hill, In The Tall GrassStephen King, The Outsider (audiobook)Toast on Toast (audiobook)Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Rashōmon and other storiesDavid Peace, Patient XLeïla Sebbar, Confessions of a MadmanGabriel Zaid, So Many BooksDavid Lynch, Room to Dream (audiobook)Gyula Krúdy, SunflowerAlice Munro, Dear LifeJoy Williams, 99 Stories of GodJack Ketchum, OffspringLydia Davis, Collected Stories (unfinished, had to go back to the library)Kathe Koja (ed), Year’s Best Weird Fiction 2 (unfinished, couldn’t be arsed)Stephen King, The Tommyknockers* (audiobook) Stephen King, either Skeleton Crew or Nightmares and Dreamscapes* (audiobook, on youtube when I was off sick)Limmy, That’s Your Lot (audiobook)John Wyndham, The Kraken Wakes* (audiobook)Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five* (audiobook)Stephen King, Full Dark, No Stars (audiobook)Stephen King, The Talisman* (audiobook)HP Lovecraft, Necronomicon (audiobook of his complete stories, think I’d read about half before)Thomas Bernhard, YesCristina Rivera Garza, The Iliac CrestArthur C Clarke, 2001: A Space OdysseySarah Manguso, 300 ArgumentsJoe Hill, NOS4R2Olivia Laing, The Lonely CityStephen King, ElevationOttessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and RelaxationShirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill HouseRamsey Campbell, Strange CompanionsStephen King, The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger*Stephen King, The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (Revised Edition)Stephen King, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three*Stephen King, The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands*Stephen King, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass*Stephen King, The Dark Tower V: The Wolves of the Calla* (might stop at this one idk)Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre*Mark Sinker (ed), A Hidden Landscape Once a Week (about halfway through this, expect to finish it at some point on Jan 1st)
Asterisks indicate rereads as per ilx film thread convention (but, confusingly, not ilx this thread convention). Worst were the McCrum and some of the Kings & Ketchums, most of the rest I liked or loved
― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Monday, 31 December 2018 13:28 (five years ago) link
Add to my tally:Jane Austen - Pride and PrejudiceJerome Jerome - Three Men in a BoatP. G. Wodehouse - Uncle Fred in the Springtime
And I picked up the second Folio classique volume of Comte of Monte-Cristo and that's what I'm reading.
I expected to really love Jerome but had trouble keeping my eyes on the page. Maybe I was just tired.
― jmm, Monday, 31 December 2018 16:15 (five years ago) link
I read about 105 books in 2018, including a few second or third reads (The Waves), but these five new ones were best.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 31 December 2018 16:37 (five years ago) link
― jmm, Monday, 31 December 2018 16:15 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i love my reading, i could watch it all day etc
― imago, Monday, 31 December 2018 18:31 (five years ago) link
Christopher Barzak - The Love We Share Without KnowingPhilippa Pearce - Tom's Midnight GardenJaroslav Kalfar - Spaceman of BohemiaDavid Zindell - NevernessThomas Tryon - Harvest HomePaul Theroux - The Great Railway BazaarPaul Park - Soldiers of ParadisePaul Park - Sugar RainPaul Park - The Cult of Loving KindnessPenelope Lively - Going BackM. John Harrison - Viriconium NightsM. John Harrison - In ViriconiumH. P. Lovecraft - The Shadow Out of TimeH.M. Hoover (RIP) - The Shepherd Moon
I gave up on Austin Tappan Wright's Islandia (stodgy/sexy Thoreauvean utopia) after 467 pages, but I might force myself to finish it in 2019. the sunk cost fallacy is a powerful motivator
― v. s. rupaul (unregistered), Tuesday, 1 January 2019 02:52 (five years ago) link
This is all the fiction I read in 2018. Bolded titles are especially recommended. Some of the Dutch and German books haven't been translated in English, but I translated their titles for easier reading:
Gerard Reve, Werther NielandDavid Mitchell, Cloud AtlasMartha Batalha, The Invisible Life of Euridice GusmaoGeorges Perec, A Man AsleepVerna B. Carleton, Back to Berlin: An Exile ReturnsJenny Erpenbeck, Go, Went, GoneMaarten van der Graaff, Worms and AngelsNikos Kazantzakis, Christ RecrucifiedJason Matthews, Red SparrowJane Harper, The DryMaurits Mok, The UndergroundJason Matthews, Palace of TreasonFrank Martinus Arion, Double PlayDennis Lehane, Since We FellGraeme Macrae Burnet, His Bloody ProjectStefan Brijs, The Angel MakerDan Simmons, Song of KaliPhilip Roth, The Plot Against AmericaRobert Franquinet, QuicksandSadeq Hedayat, The Blind OwlJuli Zeh, UnterleutenShirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill HouseJames Herbert, The FogT.E.D. Klein, The CeremoniesFrans Coenen, Sunday RestSimon Vestdijk, Mr. Visser's Trip to HellMaylis de Kerangal, The HeartJoost Zwagerman, Gimmick!Peter Terrin, Post mortemStuart Turton, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn HardcastleA.J. Finn, The Woman in the WindowGerard Reve, The Evenings
― ArchCarrier, Tuesday, 1 January 2019 15:05 (five years ago) link
only 1 more than last year...
As I Lay Dying — William Faulkner Julia and the Bazooka — Anna KavanFire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House — Michael WolffNature Documentary: Poems — Noah Cicero Solaris — Stanislaw Lem McGlue — Ottessa Moshfegh Steps — Jerzy Kosinski The Left Hand of Darkness — Ursula K. Le Guin Twelve — Nick McDonell An Expensive Education — Nick McDonell Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change — Tao LinAll About Love: New Visions — bell hooks Natural Causes — Barbara Ehrenreich The Breast — Philip Roth The Seagull — Anton Chekhov I Married a Communist — Philip Roth My Year of Rest and Relaxation — Ottessa MoshfeghRoom to Dream — David Lynch and Kristine McKenna The Chapo Guide to Revolution — Chapo Trap HouseF*cked — Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson The Ghost Writer — Philip Roth Fear: Trump in the White House — Bob WoodwardJane Eyre — Charlotte Brontë The Zap Gun — Philip K. DickIn the Blink of an Eye — Walter MurchIf Beale Street Could Talk — James Baldwin That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound — Daryl SandersI Might Regret This — Abbi Jacobson Notes on the Cinematograph — Robert Bresson The Red and the Blue — Steve Kornacki The Elementary Particles — Michel Houellebecq
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 2 January 2019 03:42 (five years ago) link
I can remember reading, for the first time:
Paul Beatty, THE SELLOUTJonathan Lethem, MORE ALIVE AND LESS LONELYJonathan Lethem, THE FERAL DETECTIVEJonathan Lethem and Karl Rusnak (writers), OMEGA: THE UNKNOWNHenry Roth, CALL IT SLEEPTerry Eagleton, RADICAL SACRIFICEColm Toibin, MAD, BAD, DANGEROUS TO KNOW
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 2 January 2019 13:24 (five years ago) link
All the above were good in their ways. Toibin the shallowest as a book, I suppose. Beatty a challenging blast. JL's occasional essays terrific. His new novel a return to form. His comic book thoughtful, artful, poignant. Roth the longest read but worthwhile. TE maybe coasting but can still make every other sentence an aphorism.
I might manage to read more books for the first time in 2019.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 2 January 2019 13:27 (five years ago) link
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Tuesday, December 25, 2018 9:39 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Mr. Jaq finished reading Stoner aloud to me on New Year's Eve. It felt a fitting end to a brutal year.
― Jaq, Thursday, 3 January 2019 00:33 (five years ago) link
Here's wot I read, with * for favourites and ** for super bingo classics.
No real disappointments, but The Hobbit was a bit of a letdown (classic first half, mostly tedious second).
Amber SpyglassFive Little PigsOffshore Exit West Faithful Place *The Jewish JokeMy Brilliant Friend * The Examined LifeThe Big Sleep **A Little History of PhilosophyWhy I'm No Longer Talking to White People About RaceLords and Ladies *The Pursuit of Love *A Sting in the Tale *Zuckerman UnboundLeviathan WakesThe SwitchLa Belle SauvageThe Three Musketeers **The Day of the Doctor *The Hot Rock Thunderball Asymmetry *Uncle Fred in the Springtime In a Lonely Place Manhattan Beach * The HobbitTraitorous Purse The Story of a New Name **How to Stop Brexit Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession Right Ho JeevesBetween Therapist and Client
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 3 January 2019 19:52 (five years ago) link
Wins - did you like any of the Ketchum books especially?
Unregistered - I'm very much looking forward to Zindell, Park and MJ Harrison, any thoughts?
here's mine
Isis & Corrick (editors) Drowning In BeautySebastian Wolfe (editor) - Little Book Of HorrorsRobert Aickman (editor) - Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories vol.1Clark Ashton Smith - Collected Fantasies vol.1William Hope Hodgson - Collected Fiction vol.1Farah Rose Smith - The VisitorFarah Rose Smith - The Almanac Of DustFarah Rose Smith - EvisceratorJayaprakash Satyamurthy - Weird Tales Of A BangaloreanJayaprakash Satyamurthy - A Volume Of SleepKarin Tidbeck - JagannathAliette De Bodard - The Citadel Of Weeping PearlsAliya Whiteley - The BeautyTanith Lee - Tempting The GodsMR James - Collected Ghost StoriesHP Lovecraft - Call Of Cthulhu (embarrassed how late I'm coming to some of these, I've had a lot of this stuff for well over a decade)
((nonfiction))Broderick & Di Filippo - Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010
((comics))Ibrahim R Ineke - Eloise
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 4 January 2019 19:58 (five years ago) link
Also read about eight books I haven't finished yet.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 4 January 2019 20:01 (five years ago) link
I had much reduced year I think, probably down to a reduced commute and more other distractions. Most of these seem to have been read out in the park, during the very long, very hot British summer. I seem to have read virtually nothing from Jan-Mar and Oct-Dec.
George Eliot – MiddlemarchFilip Springer – History of a DisappearanceElif Batuman – The IdiotRobert Musil – The Confusions of Young TorlessDenis Johnson – Tree of SmokeEimear McBride – A Girl Is A Half-Formed ThingDan Hancox – Inner City PressureRoss Raisin – A NaturalJon McGregor – Reservoir 13William Gass – Omensetter’s LuckIris Murdoch – The Sea, The SeaAnn Quin – ThreeNicole Krauss – Forest DarkThomas Pynchon – VinelandOlivia Sudjic - SympathyJohn Updike – Rabbit ReduxRosie Snajdr – The Hypocritical ReaderGuy Gunaratne – In Our Mad And Furious CityWill Eaves – MurmurAlvaro Enrique – Sudden DeathTim Weiner – Legacy of AshesRichard Ford – The SportswriterMike McCormack – Solar Bones
― Matt DC, Saturday, 5 January 2019 17:05 (five years ago) link
how was Omensetter's Luck?
― flappy bird, Sunday, 6 January 2019 05:23 (five years ago) link
it's been a loooong time but I remember omensetter's luck being an odd one in that he hasn't yet gone full pomo as he would in his later two novels, it's strange/"difficult" but in a way that's more in line with something like Faulkner - iirc the thing that felt the most gassian to me was the character names (that and the fact that he chose to set it in 1890s Ohio because it was a place & time he knew nothing about, and wrote it without doing any research lol)
Robert, I'd hesitate to use the word "like"; you realise pretty quickly that ketchum isn't really trying to scare you so much as make you feel sick in your soul from relentless hopelessness and ugliness. This is most effective in the extremely fucked up and sad the girl next door, apparently based on a true case; but even with something like off season, which from its schlocky urban-legend cannibal hillbilly premise (not to mention a bunch of hilariously gratuitous sex scenes at the start) seems like it'll be this fun gory survival horror but is just grim and stomach-turning in its unpleasantness. Or the lost, a very tight thriller of JDs run amok in the 60s that ends with a really disgusting and racist prison rape fantasy - I have a feeling JK's politics were probably quite reactionary from reading these.
Those three are all pretty good tho, but after a while I was like ok I pretty much know what to expect from this guy now: extreme violence committed against (or perpetrated by) children, a parallel narrative of a world-weary ineffectual cop who arrives too late to save the day, birching (this is just a weirdly specific thing to keep showing up again and again, it's a bit yikes) - and the writing quality gets worse in the later books I read. Stranglehold is atrocious, manipulative tripe.
His short story "the box" is really good imo.
― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Sunday, 6 January 2019 14:38 (five years ago) link
Also, as usual I missed a couple of books off my list: I also read out are the lights by Richard Laymon and our house by louise candlish. I found the Laymon on the "take a book, leave a book" shelf in our launderette and got excited because it has the half-remembered story I posted about here and later tried to look up but couldn't find any evidence that any such story existed. Laymon's an "extreme" horror merchant but much sillier than ketchum, all action and dialogue, one-sentence paragraphs and massive type, you can read a book of his in a couple of hours. The Candlish was me getting suckered by marketing, it was promoted with the hashtag #THATlastline & I was curious. It was ok, ymmv depending on how much you care about the anxieties of homeowners, the last line was completely unremarkable.
― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Sunday, 6 January 2019 15:11 (five years ago) link
I've never been in a hurry to read Laymon as he's particularly known for gratuitous rape scenes but I feel obligated to try a few.
Girl Next Door and Off Season are the Ketchum fan favorites (haven't read any myself). I really don't know much about Ketchum's politics but he isn't one of those writers whose fans swing right or left. There's a decent summary and biographical info in these links.
https://thebedlamfiles.com/commentary/jack-ketchum-1946-2018/https://thebedlamfiles.com/nonfiction/book-of-souls/
The first piece is “Henry Miller and The Push,” a memoir of Ketchum’s mercifully brief 1970s-era tenure as a New York literary agent, with clients that included his longtime hero Henry Miller. After pushing an old woman to the ground in a rush to catch a taxi, an act that shocked him as much as it did the woman he pushed, Ketchum became determined to quit his job immediately—but not until after meeting his idol face to face. The tale’s final pages lovingly detail that meeting, with Henry Miller registering as “a living fucking saint.” I’ve read other recollections of Miller that paint a far less rosy picture, but Ketchum’s claims are persuasive. Certainly his account demonstrates the enormous influence Henry Miller had on Ketchum’s life and writing, starting with the title of the book under discussion, which was evidently inspired by that of Miller’s BOOK OF FRIENDS.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 6 January 2019 15:34 (five years ago) link
I never even heard of Ketchum until early last year when I went to this annual recital/birthday party given by a flamenco guitarist and he mentioned various friends who had recently passed including Jack Ketchum and Billy Joel's piano teacher Morton Estrin.
― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 6 January 2019 15:45 (five years ago) link
I loved Omensetter's Luck, but yes it did remind me more of Faulkner than anything by Barth or Gaddis or Pynchon, which was what I'd been expecting.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 6 January 2019 15:57 (five years ago) link
I’ve told the “what fun do monks have?” joke irlXp I shouldn’t make assumptions about politics really as I know horror is often about pushing those kinds of buttons. Re ketchum’s career as an agent, didn’t he use that to get an author signed who turned out to be himself under a pseudonym or something?
― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Sunday, 6 January 2019 16:05 (five years ago) link