The Book Thread Book • Page 127

I wonder if there is more that he's going to write? I feel like now he kinda can't right??

 

Finished Paterson by William Carlos Williams (which was incredible btw).

Since then, I recently started Julien Gracq's Balcony in the Forest. Every sentence is truly gorgeous and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. About a French lieutenant during WW2 assigned to an isolated region in the forest, where he waits and watches, eventually becoming disillusioned about the existence of a war at all, instead reminiscing about his childhood and life's purpose, falls in love with a widow, etc... I'm finding so many brilliant moments about the unreality of war and risking one's life. It's excellent poetic stuff.

 

recently picked up Speedboat by Renata Adler. think I'll start that next week

 

Just finished Julien Gracq's Balcony in the Forest and holy shit what a truly amazing book. Highly rec’d to any and all fans of literary fiction- this shit just knocked me on my ass. I love when a book gives voice to a feeling that I’ve always thought impossible to articulate and this one does it HARD. I didn’t want to finish this one either. Every sentence was so beautiful

 

Started Ark by Ronald Johnson today, a book-long “metaphysical poem” from the 90s. It’s good and weird af. Seems like the kind of thing I can appreciate as a literary achievement without really investing my heart into it, if that makes sense. Might read something fiction alongside it but unsure what to do next.

 

I know this will sound cliche and pretentious but I don’t give a fuck, I’ve started getting back on the band wagon of reading again and being on my phone / social media / watching tv less and it feels sooooooo good.

just re-reading Americana by DeLillo again (my favorite author) and some days I’ll only read 5 pages and that’s ok. Reason I got burned out years ago on reading was because it consumed me to the point where I felt bad doing anything else. That won’t happen again (I hope!) and I’m excited to start reading some new books (new to me) later on this year or in 2022.

 

Finishing up Calvino’s Invisible Cities tonight. Overall pretty solid, steady and easy despite its lyricism, with some startling moments of brilliance. But I couldn’t shake the feeling it comes across as a glorified travel brochure, and once you “get” the overarching concept, it starts to get repetitive. I enjoyed it though.

Onto the next one. Might either do Hour of the Star or Mrs. Dalloway.

 

I’m not sure if this thread is active but I’m gonna drop this list here:

100 Best Novels « Modern Library

question: looking at the top 10-20, which would be your favorite?

 

Of the ones that I have actually read from that top 20 it would be The Grapes of Wrath

 

I've read 6 of the top 20. Catch-22 is probably my favorite, but To The Lighthouse and Slaughterhouse Five are also up there. I need to reread Gatsby.

I've actually never read 1984

 

1984 is so good

definitely give it a shot at some point

 

Keeping track of what I've read first...

67. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
65. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
56. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
41. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
31. Animal Farm - George Orwell
18. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
13. 1984 by George Orwell
5. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
2. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

1984 is easily my favorite from this short list. I also think this list is *deeply* flawed and inherently wrong, haha.

 

Yea I looked and it's a reader's poll from 1998. I'm hoping this would look a lot different if it was done this year

 

Has anyone here read Ulysses? Is it.... actually a good read?

 

yes, and it is one of the hardest books to get through imo

but most of his shit is very convoluted to begin with, outside of a few

 

Ulysses, Slaughterhouse, or 1984

been years since I read any of them but they're all favorites of mine

 

Off the top of my head.. where is Lord of the Rings? Any genre fiction, really? East of Eden (which made me realized I forgot the Grapes of Wrath on my list)? JANE EYRE?

It’s in my Audible as something I want to tackle. I got a Joyce three-pack for my annual attempt at enjoying a classic.

 

my big blind spot is Huxley

never read anything by him tbh

 

anyone here read any John Cheever? wondering where I should start

 

Not a single Toni Morrison book on the list but three DH Lawrence novels

 

Will take a closer look later at that list but first impression is that it has some incredible stuff and some stuff I really don’t love and some stuff people consider classic but does nothing for me

 

Is there a better 100 books to read list?

 

Agreed that that's not a great list, but I can't argue with Lolita near the top.

 

The 100 best novels written in English: the full list

This one is pretty good iirc. Flawed as all lists will be.

 

FYI for anyone looking at this list I don’t think it’s ranked, it just goes in order by year of release