books to read

[PatrickSkateman]

I’d say Donna Tartt books are definitely written in a style inspired by Southern Gothic.

[wo_bauer]

I’m about to start Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. My girlfriend bought it because she liked the little stuffed animal on the cover but Murata’s other book Convenience Store Woman is supposed to be very good and weird

I'm part way through Convenience Store Woman and although I find the english translation of original japanese to be odd at times (though I guess honorific language gets lost in translation) I can really relate to the protagonist's lack of ambition and with no plans for marriage/family.

[Atiba Applebum]

I’d say Donna Tartt books are definitely written in a style inspired by Southern Gothic.

It may have been super trendy, but I savored the Goldfinch and unabashedly loved it

[TableClearer]

I’m my mind, Cat’s Cradle is where he really lands on the classic Vonnegut voice and style

100% percent!

Read Hocus Pocus recently as found it for cheap, and something about it's pacing drew me away from enjoying it as much as I did with Cat's Craddle.

Sort of felt like a book of one liners disguised as a novel!   

[oyolar]

That is essentially how he structured Hocus Pocus. It's a narrative that's supposedly based on a bunch of scraps of paper that's like a sort of diary. I remember having the same sense that it didn't work that great but it was at least done on purpose. Hocus Pocus was also very late in Vonnegut's career so I don't blame him for trying something new haha.

[PatrickSkateman]

Expand Quote

I’m my mind, Cat’s Cradle is where he really lands on the classic Vonnegut voice and style

[close]

100% percent!

Read Hocus Pocus recently as found it for cheap, and something about it's pacing drew me away from enjoying it as much as I did with Cat's Craddle.

Sort of felt like a book of one liners disguised as a novel!   

Cat’s Cradle the skate video is an underrated gem.

Breakfast of Champions and Mother Night were great reads.

[DakotaRed]

Galapagos. Armageddon In Retrospect by KV is a nice collection of shorts.

[Rusty Shackleford]

gave in cold blood by truman capote another go, and holy hell its still chilling. pretty good movie too, robert blake played a helluva twisted man-child
all of the one...twice...three times indicted talk has me reading a book called the divider: trump in the white house 2017-2021...equally as chilling thus far

[Mr. Kamikazi]

The Rebel
The Fall

[TheLurper]

I'm going to go back and re-read this:
https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Media_and_Free_Culture/You_Are_Being_Lied_To.pdf

I owned this when I was younger, but I wonder how it holds up 22 years later.

[Ricky Vaughn]

[Atiba Applebum]

Just finished Black Count based off someone’s Rec on here. 

Fascinating to learn what a piece of shit Napoleon was by rolling back racial rights that the French Revolution helped establish.    Probably not going to be covered much in the upcoming biopic (nor will Dumas even be represented)

[Carrolls Chesthairs]

Pageboy

The Comfort Crisis

[MichaelJacksonsGhost]

Reading The Safety of Objects right now, a short story collection by A.M. Holmes. Would recommend. Very dead pan, very Amy Bender-esque.
I’d also recommend Amy Bender if you’ve never checked her out. Her short fiction is fantastic and absurd and funny and sometimes a little sad, too.

About a week ago I read George Saunders’ CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, which was absolutely great. I had never dipped into Saunders’ short work before, and I was not disappointed in the least.

[Coldpizza]

Not a book post but related enough for this thread…
Loving this bootleg I picked up recently.
I’ve gotten a lot of comments on it ranging from readers to people who “just think it’s cool”.
Had one person at work complement it & when I asked if they knew Cormac McCarthy they responded “No, does he work here?” Ha, I got a good chuckle out of that one.

[yghartsyrt]

"We" is such an incredible book. i think i lost my copy at some point, which i'm super bummed about

for anyone into sci-fi, who hasn't read it yet: China Mieville – Embassytown is such an amazing book. great story, an incredible world building with some stunning ideas and – if you are into it – some really interesting linguistic ideas, discussion. Like the movie arrival but times better.

[oyolar]

Have been planning on starting this this weekend. Always like to read Knausgaard in the winter.

[Ricky Vaughn]

Expand Quote

[close]

"We" is such an incredible book. i think i lost my copy at some point, which i'm super bummed about

for anyone into sci-fi, who hasn't read it yet: China Mieville – Embassytown is such an amazing book. great story, an incredible world building with some stunning ideas and – if you are into it – some really interesting linguistic ideas, discussion. Like the movie arrival but times better.

I’m re reading We currently. Still awesome as ever

[mrselfdestruct]

All tomorrows by C.M Kosemen is super good and kinda sad. if you like dystopian scifis, youll love this

[nonickname]

"American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis" by Adam Hochschild, just finished it after King Leopold's Ghost by him earlier in the year - both great reads - but neither a fun read as they're both historical facts that you can't somehow believe could happen - yet you trudge through them hoping for little gleams of light to show through.

[steezenking]

probably about 1/4th way through Heat 2 (prequal/sequel to the movie) and its pretty good. Def check out if you liked the movie.

[breezer]

presently powering through John MacDonalds's Travis McGee series.......awesome crime fiction if thats your thing...Travis bangs the chicks and beats up the bad guys, he's a classic antihero from an another era.  Very entertaining. 

[MichaelJacksonsGhost]

I’ve been poking through some books with long sentences, as I’ve been working on a story of my own that’s about 25 pages with just one period, which has been, honestly, pretty goddamn laborious. I’m pretty sure it’s worth it though. Anyways, these are the books I’ve been drawing from:

Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou
The World Goes on by Laszlo Krasznahorkai (I’m pretty sure this has been mentioned in this thread at some point)
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann (which is probably the best and most experimental of the lot. Roughly 950 pages of a single sentence. It’s awesome)

I’d recommend them all.

Anybody know of any other stuff that is a little more stream-of-consciousness (ideally contemporary)?

[childhood]

Ordered this like a month ago, finally started today

Short story collection that Ethan Coen (of the Coen bros) put out in the late 90s

It's not a huge deal, but I wish I had known there was an original cover that didn't look like a scene from A Streetcar Named Desire or something, and gotten that one instead

Was holding it low to hide the cover while reading it on the train today

[botefdunn]

a little Bolano appreciation inspired by my post count.



What I'm reading at the moment: Volume 2 of Neal Stephenson's Barocque cycle
Each volume is about a thousand pages and his writing style has really shifted as it goes along. I can't tell if it's entirely appropriate/intentional, but it keeps it fresh and I like it.

[chockfullofthat]

Before this year I mayyybe read 1-2 books a year.  This year I've read the Neapolitan novels, My Struggle Book 1 (I'm halfway throught book 2), Norwegian Wood, Transit, and Never Let Me Go.  I considered reading 2666, but it looks intimidating and want to give Savage Detectives a try first.

[oyolar]

Decided to delay my Knausgaard to read Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard. I figured I'd start The Wolves of Eternity as my first book of 2024 and Ballard will be easier to potentially finish around the holidays.

2666 has been on my list a while, but Savage Detectives is really good! I think I posted about it a while back in here.

[chockfullofthat]

How would you describe the rest of KOK's work to those who have only read My Struggle?  What's worth reading?

[oyolar]

If you like My Struggle, you'll like his other stuff but it is all quite different. In terms of his fiction, I've only read The Morning Star. I have a copy of A Time for Everything but haven't read it yet.

The Morning Star was very good. It felt very Knausgaard. It was hyper focused on details and really takes its time building suspense and feeling. I was worried I wouldn't like it but was very happy that I did. I was unsure what to do after My Struggle but I'm 100% on board with this series and will eventually read his first two novels and will likely re-read all 6 volumes of My Struggle again at some point. When I decided to make a concerted effort to finish The Morning Star (the effort was not because I couldn't get into the book but just because I needed to make personal time to read), I really fell into it and was amazed at how enthralled I got. I was very, very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

The Seasonal Quartet is mixed results. They're stylistically very different from My Struggle and that difference makes it super intriguing. Autumn and Winter are great - the individual chapters are great little glimpses into an entirely new way for KOK to write. I remember when I was reading Autumn in particular, there were moments where my mind was blown. I think it was a chapter on "Apples," but I don't have my copy close at hand to check.

Spring and Summer are different. They try to blend the styles of the first two Seasonal volumes and My Struggle and I personally hated it. The best parts are the Seasonal Quartet parts, not the My Struggle parts. The biographical sections feel like stolen valor and noncommittal. It feels like two books and styles smashed together vs. a glimpse into an author challenging himself to do something he hasn't done before. They're worth reading, and it seems many people really like them and I'm a minority, but they're drastically different from the first two Seasonal volumes. If you read them, feel free to skim and skip - you will not miss much.

So Much Longing in So Little Space is fine. I find Knausgaard's writing and criticism on art to be trite and tedious so a book that's just that doesn't get my recommendation.

[Alan]

Just finished this



From the publisher:
"Joe Sanderson died in pursuit of a life worth writing about. He was, in his words, a “road bum,” an adventurer and a storyteller, belonging to no place, people, or set of ideas. He was born into a childhood of middle-class contentment in Urbana, Illinois and died fighting with guerillas in Central America. With these facts, acclaimed novelist and journalist Héctor Tobar set out to write what would become The Last Great Road Bum.

A decade ago, Tobar came into possession of the personal writings of the late Joe Sanderson, which chart Sanderson’s freewheeling course across the known world, from Illinois to Jamaica, to Vietnam, to Nigeria, to El Salvador—a life determinedly an adventure, ending in unlikely, anonymous heroism."

So yeah, I liked it. I do love it when novelists take on non-fiction (think Steinbeck's Travels with Charley or GGM's News of a Kidnapping, so this is right up my alley. Even though Tobar calls this a fictionalized account, it still relies heavily on Sanderson's own diaries, notes, and manuscripts, as well as his correspondence with his family and friends. whom Tobar also interviewed. He also interviewed Sanderson's former comrades in El Salvador. It does drag on a bit in the last quarter before picking up again at the end. I've been struggling with finishing books in the past year or so but I got through this one in a matter of days, so I guess it's interesting, lol.