avecigrec
Well-Known Member
I pretty much fall asleep whenever I try to.
2025 Reading Challenge
- Thread starter Selaws
- Start date
I pretty much fall asleep whenever I try to.
Mr Moore
Well-Known Member
Brighton Rock is really good and has one of the meanest antagonists I’ve read. Because it could just as easily be a modern gangster story, it can seem a bit dated at times and Greene’s return to Catholic guilt is a bit bewildering if you weren’t brought up under such a regime. Good and quick read though.
Mrs Dalloway is magnificent but, hands down the most difficult book I’ve ever read. I read Ulysses a few years afterwards and had it suggested early on that there’s more enjoyment to be had if you allow the prose to simply wash over you and mentally pick up again when your brain allows you to re-engage. I truly think that did help with Ulysses and suspect it would have with parts of Mrs Dalloway too. As it was, I found myself repeatedly going back on myself to try and make full sense of another person’s train of thought. That had its own rewards but be prepared to spend at least twice the time you normally would on a book it’s size.
I preferred Remains of the Day over Never Let Me Go, which I found a stilted read (there’s good narrative reason for this) and rather overrated. RotD is just a wonderful exploration into a changing world through the eyes of a few people who are struggling to adapt. As someone who has felt a little like that myself, this one really spoke to me.
I’m just a couple away from finishing my Auster bibliography read-through. I’ve found myself enjoying his later period books much more. For want of a better way to describe them, they’re slightly more mainstream and slightly less up their own arse. It’s funny because I read many of the earlier works back in the 90s when I was in my early 20s and loved them so, Auster’s style of metafiction either appeals more to a younger, possibly more experimental brain or, acceptance of slightly pretentious bullshit diminishes as we get older.
I’ve only read V from Pynchon and whilst I didn’t dislike it, it didn’t blow me away and to be honest, in my mind suffered from some of what I’ve written about Auster insomuch as it felt like it was trying to be a bit too clever for its own good. I’m honestly not against smart writing and smart writers, quite the opposite but, I do think V was one of those books that perhaps ignores the pleasure a reader gets from actually understanding just a bit about what is going on! I’ve half a dozen other Pynchons in my kindle library but every time I think about opening one, I’m reminded that I’ve also got hundreds of other books that are less likely to frustrate me.
Nee Lewman
बैस्टर्ड
Sounds like Pynchon to me.
Rowan
Well-Known Member
This is pretty bang on. You look at the first chapter and its soldiers growing bananas in London and you kinda think it’s going to be a laugh but you get to the second and quickly realise it’s absolutely not. One of my mates once described Pynchon to me as ‘James Joyce if he’s left the last couple of shots in the bottle’ which is both really unfair and also really accurate.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
As mentioned by others, Gravity's Rainbow is incredibly difficult, probably the most difficult book I've read. And as @ayayrawn said, it is not a very good place to start with Pynchon. (The Crying of Lot 49 or Inherent Vice are much quicker and give you a good idea of his sort of thing.)
But hard disagree that it's only worth reading to say you've read it. That's bullshit. It can be very rewarding if you can put in the work, are willing occasionally to get very frustrated and confused, do outside research and potentially follow a reader's guide (there are several).
I like his later work better for a variety of reasons, but I highly recommend anyone up for a challenge give Rainbow a go—or two, or as many as it takes.
The Sound and the Fury is also quite difficult, though the first section is the hardest because of its perspective. (Each section is from a different character.) Have you read any other Faulkner before? Again, I'd start elsewhere.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
I cannot recommend Mason & Dixon highly enough, FYI! Probably the finest novel I have ever read, not totally baffling in the way many of his novels are (though it certainly has its own challenges: getting used to 18th-century writing style takes a while). It is essentially a buddy road novel.
V. was his first novel and he wrote it when he was quite young, so you can imagine why it might come across as a little too smart for its own good. He gets better.
Selaws
Well-Known Member
We went on a long walk between towns over the weekend but not before stopping into a charity bookshop.
I picked up 3 Murakami books that I was missing ("Pinball, 1973", "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman", and "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running"), a Jack Reacher ("The Secret" by Lee Child & Andrew Grant), The Maze Runner (enjoyed the film despite it being aimed towards the teen market). So plenty to read.
And to reiterate I bought these BEFORE we went walking....
I picked up 3 Murakami books that I was missing ("Pinball, 1973", "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman", and "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running"), a Jack Reacher ("The Secret" by Lee Child & Andrew Grant), The Maze Runner (enjoyed the film despite it being aimed towards the teen market). So plenty to read.
And to reiterate I bought these BEFORE we went walking....
Rowan
Well-Known Member
Have you seen the Vintage Editions Murikami represses? Handsome jackets on them!
Selaws
Well-Known Member
Just looked and they are super nice!
Rowan
Well-Known Member
I’ve been picking them up gradually from my local to replace my old paperbacks. They look even nicer in whatever the book equivalent to flesh is.
ranbalam
Well-Known Member
As I Lay Dying is the only other Faulkner I've read, but it's been decades. Luckily my to-read list is so long that I can take some time deciding which of these to dive into.
Mr Moore
Well-Known Member
LeSamourai
Well-Known Member
I don't know, I'd say it's closer to a pile than a list...
jamieanderson1968
ninniest jackaninny
At least it is not the Dublin Prize, which has something like 70 titles in its long list
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
Solenoid is fantastic, for anyone interested.
Rowan
Well-Known Member
Book six
Felt almost destined to never read this having lost 3 copies previously without actually cracking it open (one loaned to a friend on holiday who then took it home with him, one left in an airport lounge, one in a bag that got pinched off a bus). Having blasted through it I’m not sure I’ll read a better book this year. It’s spectacularly good. I read DeWitt’s debut when it was first released and also enjoyed it but I’ve punted through 300 of pages of this in a couple of sittings. The story is good but the characters and narration make the book. And it’s funny too. In a slightly morbid way but actually laugh out loud funny.
Most will have read this already I’m sure but anyone who hasn’t should get all over it.
Felt almost destined to never read this having lost 3 copies previously without actually cracking it open (one loaned to a friend on holiday who then took it home with him, one left in an airport lounge, one in a bag that got pinched off a bus). Having blasted through it I’m not sure I’ll read a better book this year. It’s spectacularly good. I read DeWitt’s debut when it was first released and also enjoyed it but I’ve punted through 300 of pages of this in a couple of sittings. The story is good but the characters and narration make the book. And it’s funny too. In a slightly morbid way but actually laugh out loud funny.
Most will have read this already I’m sure but anyone who hasn’t should get all over it.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
Storygraph
Mr Moore
Well-Known Member
February, 2025
Book 9: Nicola Barker - Darkmans (2007)
I spent a hefty chunk of the month with this 850pp monster but it was most definitely worth it. It's a book that I'm not sure I have anything to compare it with. There's a whole lot of strange happening amongst the mundane lives of the good people of Ashford, Kent as the story draws from my country's long and dark history and brings it right into the present day lives of a core group of ordinary people. Barker plays with language and even makes the development of language a narrative feature which was pretty exciting to read and avoided feeling overly academic. Good one, this. Would recommend.
Book 10: Paul Auster - Invisible (2009)
I feel like I'm enjoying Auster's books more, the closer I get to completing his canon. Common Auster elements like the story-within-a-story, a mystery to solve and the positioning of an author in a lead role are present here but, this felt like a much easier and less pretentious read than many of his earlier books. The complexities are present but, they come more from the switching of narrator throughout, and indeed the person and tense their section of the story employs. Not one for people who like a nicely wrapped up story as this one, like one of the European movies the characters discuss, is very open-ended and as such, leaves as many questions and doubts about the events told and indeed the reliability of any of the narrators and the characters they depict.
Book 11: Marilynne Robinson - Housekeeping (1980)
Mesmerising writing in this debut novel that tells of a family, (focusing largely on one of the young girls), who seem besieged by misfortune resulting in an off-the-grid life that eventually rattles the rest of the local society. In some ways I found the principle story reminiscent of Where the Crawdads Sing that I'd read not too long ago but, where the story probably won out there, it's Robinson's impressive prose that wins out here, every sentence being loaded with immaculate form and purpose. Really good, my first Marilynne Robinson but undoubtedly not my last.
Book 12: Patrick Süskind - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985, Trans: John E. Woods, 1986)
Very enjoyable, very entertaining and very well written and translated. It somewhat lost its way for me in the middle section when the antagonist takes a seven year Siddarthaesque solitary sojourn into the mountains but quickly recovered once he had re-entered society and restarted his hunt for victims. The real winner for me was the super detailed and presumably well-researched descriptions of the ways in which scents are extracted and recorded in their various mediums to provide us with marketed perfumes. Really fascinating read.
Book 9: Nicola Barker - Darkmans (2007)
I spent a hefty chunk of the month with this 850pp monster but it was most definitely worth it. It's a book that I'm not sure I have anything to compare it with. There's a whole lot of strange happening amongst the mundane lives of the good people of Ashford, Kent as the story draws from my country's long and dark history and brings it right into the present day lives of a core group of ordinary people. Barker plays with language and even makes the development of language a narrative feature which was pretty exciting to read and avoided feeling overly academic. Good one, this. Would recommend.
Book 10: Paul Auster - Invisible (2009)
I feel like I'm enjoying Auster's books more, the closer I get to completing his canon. Common Auster elements like the story-within-a-story, a mystery to solve and the positioning of an author in a lead role are present here but, this felt like a much easier and less pretentious read than many of his earlier books. The complexities are present but, they come more from the switching of narrator throughout, and indeed the person and tense their section of the story employs. Not one for people who like a nicely wrapped up story as this one, like one of the European movies the characters discuss, is very open-ended and as such, leaves as many questions and doubts about the events told and indeed the reliability of any of the narrators and the characters they depict.
Book 11: Marilynne Robinson - Housekeeping (1980)
Mesmerising writing in this debut novel that tells of a family, (focusing largely on one of the young girls), who seem besieged by misfortune resulting in an off-the-grid life that eventually rattles the rest of the local society. In some ways I found the principle story reminiscent of Where the Crawdads Sing that I'd read not too long ago but, where the story probably won out there, it's Robinson's impressive prose that wins out here, every sentence being loaded with immaculate form and purpose. Really good, my first Marilynne Robinson but undoubtedly not my last.
Book 12: Patrick Süskind - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985, Trans: John E. Woods, 1986)
Very enjoyable, very entertaining and very well written and translated. It somewhat lost its way for me in the middle section when the antagonist takes a seven year Siddarthaesque solitary sojourn into the mountains but quickly recovered once he had re-entered society and restarted his hunt for victims. The real winner for me was the super detailed and presumably well-researched descriptions of the ways in which scents are extracted and recorded in their various mediums to provide us with marketed perfumes. Really fascinating read.