The Book Thread Book • Page 161

On that, I got given George Saunders' book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain for Christmas. It's a series of relatively informal essay breakdowns of seven short stories from four of the golden age 19th century Russian authors — two Tolstoy stories, three Chekhov stories, and one each from Turgenev and Gogol. It's been a joy so far.

 

Finished my final book of 2023 with a little over an hour to spare!

 

This year I read more. Bought a book light because I'm stuck in 2008

 

I have one too!

 

Read a little over 50 books in 2023. Hard to narrow it down but these were my favs in no order.

Poetry:

The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro - Fernando Pessoa, tr. Margaret Jull Costa & Patricio Ferrari

It Skips A Generation - Alison Lubar

The Green Lake is Awake - Joseph Ceravolo

Selected Poems - Octavio Paz

Every Living Day - Adam Gianforcaro

The Far Field - Theodore Roethke

A Treatise on Stars - Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge

Monsoon Daughter - Mandy Moe Pwint Tu

A Map to the Next World - Joy Harjo

Selected Poems - Nikiforos Vrettakos, tr. David Connolly

Mystic Orchards - yours truly



Fiction/Non-Fiction/Prose:

Go Down Moses - William Faulkner

Reef - Romesh Gunesekera

The Lost Weekend - Charles Jackson

Beloved - Toni Morrison

The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende

Acid Christmas - Charlotte Dune

Someone Who Isn’t Me - Geoff Rickley

Ring of Bright Water - Gavin Maxwell

The Natural Order of Things - António Lobo Antunes, tr. Richard Zenith

The Immense Journey - Loren Eiseley

 

Day 1 of not playing videogames in bed at night and reading instead begins now

 

Finally dipping my toes into some Michael Connelly with Concrete Blonde and man this guy can write courtroom drama.

 

Two things:

1. I have a Goodreads, so feel free to follow me on there: Landon Defever

2. I'm almost done with A Dream About Lightning Bugs by Ben Folds, which will be my first book of 2024!

 

Added you on GR

 

About halfway through Blood Meridian. I really like this writing style to tell this kind of story but goddamn I’m not sure I should be enjoying this kind of story lol

 

I didn't read much in 2023, but I'm trying to get back on it in 2024. Just started Crook Manifesto. I think I forgot that is was a sequel to Harlem Shuffle (I book I loved), so I was pretty delighted on the first page when I recognized the character name Ray Carney.

 

Oh my few reads in 2023 were good though. I finally completed a bucket list goal of reading Moby Dick. It can be kind of a frustrating reading at times (there is about one chapter of story for every three chapters of whaling facts), but overall I liked it a lot. Even those whaling fact-heavy chapters do add to the setting and themes of the book in the end. I have also begun to randomly say "avast!" jokingly in conversation.

Another highlight for me was our very own @OotyPa's Below Torrential Hill. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for a good coming-of-age story, but it also had some of the most beautiful prose throughout. Every chapter feels so vividly thought out, like reading a painting. Without giving away too much, the end also went places I never expected. Like a fever dream. It's a quick read too if anyone is looking for that.

 

It means the world to me you spent time with that book. It took me seven years to write and was my first real attempt at a novel, so I'll always hold it close to my heart. Knowing it ends up in readers' hands never fails to blow my mind! And I'm beyond glad you enjoyed it!

Obviously no pressure, but if you're feeling up to it, leave a rating/review on GoodReads. Every bit of support helps

 

Definitely will! I've been meaning to sign up for GoodReads for a while, so I'm gonna sign up and drop one in there.

 

I'm 2/3 of the way through this right now and I think it's just as good as Harlem Shuffle, which I also loved.

 

I am devoted to reading 24 books this year, which would be a personal record and achievable if I am consistent. To help with accountability, I am posting a pic of the book and a mini 1-3 sentence review and rating as an IG story every time I finish one. To add to it, I will do the same in this thread!

First book of 2024 was Rick Rubin's The Creative Act: A Way of Being. What a huge crock of shit lol. It's literally all platitudes and full of contradictions ("if this color is perceived as red, it can also be perceived as yellow"). It's 90% meaningless garbage and I cannot recommend it to anyone, especially any other creatives. Please do not believe the hype because one of the most prolific record producers wrote it.

 

I finished 2023 with (fittingly) 23 books. Here’s my GoodReads.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22736381

 

Really need to update my goodreads and make storygraph account

 

Favorite books from last year:

Opposable Thumbs by Matt Singer
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott by Zoe Thorogood
It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy
The High Desert by James Spooner

 

That was one of my favorite books last year. I love to see a fellow Native come to prominence in the horror genre.

 

@chewbacca110 thanks for liking my comment from a while back! It’s a good reminder for me to go pick up Don’t Fear the Reaper from my library lol

 

so good. I cannot wait for the last one in the trilogy

 

yo Storygraph is looking pretty cool I might get on that. Goodreads lost me a bit when I realised Amazon owned it lol

 

What are the pros / cons of it compared to GoodReads?

 

maybe some advanced metrics around your reading, but imho, it's cumbersome to use in it's current state and still isn't a good replacement. it still requires you start over completely, or you import a goodreads file that you want to completely ensure is very clean (and you can only do it once).