The Book Club

[squirrelynuts]

Malazan Book Of The Fallen is fantastic I love me some Karsa Orlong ( I think that’s how you spell his name lol) Whiskey Jack . More characters I can’t even remember. The theme convergence does take till third book to really pick up on it but the view points and different characters will remain with you. Just a fantastic series. Even all the other side books are worth it.

Wheel of Time was a decent read until Robert Jordan past on . Brandon Sanderson finished the last few books of the series.

I’m now reading American Gods and so far and enjoying it

 

[WhiskyJack]

Malazan Book Of The Fallen is fantastic I love me some Karsa Orlong ( I think that’s how you spell his name lol) Whiskey Jack . More characters I can’t even remember. The theme convergence does take till third book to really pick up on it but the view points and different characters will remain with you. Just a fantastic series. Even all the other side books are worth it.

Wheel of Time was a decent read until Robert Jordan past on . Brandon Sanderson finished the last few books of the series.

I’m now reading American Gods and so far and enjoying it

Hell yeah, what I like about Malazan the most, is that they actually finished the damn series, "cough grrm cough*

And they are STILL pumping out more. Great stuff

 

[HenryFlower]

babyfucker by Urs Allemann

 

[HOLA]

Some of my favorite writers:

Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Nikolai Gogol, Thomas Pynchon, Louis Ferdinand Celine, Knut Hamsun, Fernando Pessoa, Franz Kafka, Umberto Eco, Ilf & Petrov, Charles Baudelaire, Emil Cioran.

 

[WhiskyJack]

Just finished my re-read of Gardens of the Moon. Everything makes so much more sense having been through the series once.

 

[Eternalwarriorking]

Some of my favorite writers:

Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Nikolai Gogol, Thomas Pynchon, Louis Ferdinand Celine, Knut Hamsun, Fernando Pessoa, Franz Kafka, Umberto Eco, Ilf & Petrov, Charles Baudelaire, Emil Cioran.

This is a great list! What do you recommend to someone who hasn't read any Hamsun? I also highly recommend Umberto Eco's work on semiotics if that subject interests you.


Recently, I have read

The first volume of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past

D.H Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover

Jakob Burkhardt's first volume on the civilization of Renaissance Italy

I also re-read Dostoevsky's Notes From The Underground. I was interested in the hype generated around recent translations of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and I must say, it exceeded my expectations

 

[HenryFlower]

Some of my favorite writers:

Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Nikolai Gogol, Thomas Pynchon, Louis Ferdinand Celine, Knut Hamsun, Fernando Pessoa, Franz Kafka, Umberto Eco, Ilf & Petrov, Charles Baudelaire, Emil Cioran.

some big time bangers in this list. when i finished The Book of Disquiet, i immediately ordered another copy w/ a different editor/translator & read it for a second time right afterwards. it was peak wintertime bad feels time for me. i was cold all the time, it was dark all the time, i was between jobs, i was ignoring invitations to hang out w/ friends, & Pessoa’s whirlpool of moods, of solitude, was inebriating.

& fwiw, i slightly prefer the edition edited & translated by Richard Zenith to the “The Complete Edition” edited by Jeronimo Pizarro & translated by Margaret Jull Costa, but i recommend everyone read both. that New Directions “The Complete Edition” hardcover artwork is iconic though. i keep that copy facing out on one of my shelves so i can just look at it from time to time

The first volume of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past

the Lydia Davis translation or the revised Moncrieff & Kilmartin from the Modern Library Classics set?

 

[HOLA]

This is a great list! What do you recommend to someone who hasn't read any Hamsun? I also highly recommend Umberto Eco's work on semiotics if that subject interests you.


Recently, I have read

The first volume of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past

D.H Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover

Jakob Burkhardt's first volume on the civilization of Renaissance Italy

I also re-read Dostoevsky's Notes From The Underground. I was interested in the hype generated around recent translations of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and I must say, it exceeded my expectations

Hunger, Mysteries, Pan and Growth of the Soil are especially excellent. I've always read the Penguin Classics editions, which are translated by Sverre Lyngstad.

 

[HOLA]

some big time bangers in this list. when i finished The Book of Disquiet, i immediately ordered another copy w/ a different editor/translator & read it for a second time right afterwards. it was peak wintertime bad feels time for me. i was cold all the time, it was dark all the time, i was between jobs, i was ignoring invitations to hang out w/ friends, & Pessoa’s whirlpool of moods, of solitude, was inebriating.

& fwiw, i slightly prefer the edition edited & translated by Richard Zenith to the “The Complete Edition” edited by Jeronimo Pizarro & translated by Margaret Jull Costa, but i recommend everyone read both. that New Directions “The Complete Edition” hardcover artwork is iconic though. i keep that copy facing out on one of my shelves so i can just look at it from time to time

the Lydia Davis translation or the revised Moncrieff & Kilmartin from the Modern Library Classics set?

I read the Penguin Classics edition. The New Directions one does have a cool cover though. Makes sense after you read the book.

If you liked Pessoa, I'd check out Emil Cioran. Especially A Short History of Decay. I'm not even sure how I would describe it. Philosophy? Poetry? Aphorisms?

He's quite the pessimist and misanthrope, but he's not humorless. It's really great stuff.

BTW, in addition to her translating work, Lydia Davis is a solid short story writer as well. I have The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis and it's solid.

 

[Eternalwarriorking]

Hunger, Mysteries, Pan and Growth of the Soil are especially excellent. I've always read the Penguin Classics editions, which are translated by Sverre Lyngstad.

I've heard Hunger is very good. Did you read Foucault's Pendulum, by Eco?

 

[HOLA]

I've heard Hunger is very good. Did you read Foucault's Pendulum, by Eco?

Foucault's Pendulum was the first one of his that I read. Loved the conspiracy stuff, so I was immediately hooked. Baudolino is my favorite Eco book though. Reread it fairly recently.

 

[Eternalwarriorking]

some big time bangers in this list. when i finished The Book of Disquiet, i immediately ordered another copy w/ a different editor/translator & read it for a second time right afterwards. it was peak wintertime bad feels time for me. i was cold all the time, it was dark all the time, i was between jobs, i was ignoring invitations to hang out w/ friends, & Pessoa’s whirlpool of moods, of solitude, was inebriating.

& fwiw, i slightly prefer the edition edited & translated by Richard Zenith to the “The Complete Edition” edited by Jeronimo Pizarro & translated by Margaret Jull Costa, but i recommend everyone read both. that New Directions “The Complete Edition” hardcover artwork is iconic though. i keep that copy facing out on one of my shelves so i can just look at it from time to time

the Lydia Davis translation or the revised Moncrieff & Kilmartin from the Modern Library Classics set?

The Monrcrieff and Kilmartin edition. It's an amazing work, but I'll need to put aside some other things in my life (and other, smaller books I enjoy reading!) before I'm ready to finish the other two volumes.

Also, I would recommend to you guys The Man Without Qualities, by Robert Musil, if you haven't already read it/encountered it. Based on what you guys are discussing here, I think you would both really enjoy it.

 

[Eternalwarriorking]

Foucault's Pendulum was the first one of his that I read. Loved the conspiracy stuff, so I was immediately hooked. Baudolino is my favorite Eco book though. Reread it fairly recently.

Dope! I loved it, too. Their mischievous historiography and its unexpected consequences make for quite a romp. I was reading "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Borges the other day and was struck by how deeply it must've influenced Eco's approach for that novel.

 

[HOLA]

Dope! I loved it, too. Their mischievous historiography and its unexpected consequences make for quite a romp. I was reading "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" by Borges the other day and was struck by how deeply it must've influenced Eco's approach for that novel.

I can't make up my mind with Borges. He seems like someone I should love (and some of his stuff I do enjoy), lots of writers I like speak highly of him, he's obviously super intelligent, but he seems too clinical a lot of the times. Might be sacrilegious to say but it just seems like he's lacking verve. Sometimes when I'm reading him I feel like I'm reading an instruction manual for something. I dunno.

 

[Eternalwarriorking]

I can't make up my mind with Borges. He seems like someone I should love (and some of his stuff I do enjoy), lots of writers I like speak highly of him, he's obviously super intelligent, but he seems too clinical a lot of the times. Might be sacrilegious to say but it just seems like he's lacking verve. Sometimes when I'm reading him I feel like I'm reading an instruction manual for something. I dunno.

No no, I understand your reservations! The brevity of Borges' fictions (I think the longest of his works was 14 pages or something?) coupled with his conceptual ambition lends them a very strange quality. There's something very angular and jarring about them. Nevertheless, I cannot help but recommend this short-story to you, as it was honestly the one that won me over. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius is only 10 pages or so, shares some intriguing thematic links to Foucault's Pendulum, and if you're a fan of Eco's non-fiction output on language/epistemology, will certainly get the synapses firing. Alright, that's my pitch! If you've already read it, I guess that's fine lol

 

[HOLA]

No no, I understand your reservations! The brevity of Borges' fictions (I think the longest of his works was 14 pages or something?) coupled with his conceptual ambition lends them a very strange quality. There's something very angular and jarring about them. Nevertheless, I cannot help but recommend this short-story to you, as it was honestly the one that won me over. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius is only 10 pages or so, shares some intriguing thematic links to Foucault's Pendulum, and if you're a fan of Eco's non-fiction output on language/epistemology, will certainly get the synapses firing. Alright, that's my pitch! If you've already read it, I guess that's fine lol

I've read it. It was definitely a cool concept. I have his collected fictions.

So far I've read A Universal History of Iniquity, Ficciones and Shakespeare's Memory. Seems like Ficciones is his most highly regarded, but I actually like Shakespeare's Memory better. IIRC he wrote that much later in his life.

 

[Eternalwarriorking]

I've read it. It was definitely a cool concept. I have his collected fictions.

So far I've read A Universal History of Iniquity, Ficciones and Shakespeare's Memory. Seems like Ficciones is his most highly regarded, but I actually like Shakespeare's Memory better. IIRC he wrote that much later in his life.

Nice, I have that as well. I would say that A Universal History of Iniquity is his weakest output. I could see how the meta-fictive approach Ficciones sometimes takes might seem overly academic, especially given its rise to prominence later in the century. But personally, "Pierre Manard, Author of the Quixote" always has me in stitches, blending humor with an intellectual elegance that expresses a lot of what french literary critics would do decades later.

In terms of pairing erudition with the "verve" that you mentioned you felt was lacking, I feel like Nabokov is an interesting analogue to Borges.

 

[squirrelynuts]

Hell yeah, what I like about Malazan the most, is that they actually finished the damn series, "cough grrm cough*

And they are STILL pumping out more. Great stuff

The last of series I was starting to read fro Erikson was the Anomander Rake series. I read a bit of the first book and never picked it back up . I believe it was when they were leaving the Tiste Andii realm, he didn’t have the Sword (the one where it keeps the souls of victims in it )
The other book was when Anomander went to the islands of the Seguleh and went up to #2 .

Once a year I keep trying to read the series again, never fully make it through lol. I enjoy it everytime it’s almost like reuniting with old friends reading those .

Quick Ben and Kalam parts in the second book were some of the best parts and same with Fiddler

 

[Otto!]

I prefer to read fiction, most likely due to having spent a few decades reading work-related material.

I love a wide range of novels, from detective to scifi, with a solid interest in fantasy as well. Too many authors to list, but lately I”ve really enjoyed the Red Rising trilogy.

 

[WhiskyJack]

The last of series I was starting to read fro Erikson was the Anomander Rake series. I read a bit of the first book and never picked it back up . I believe it was when they were leaving the Tiste Andii realm, he didn’t have the Sword (the one where it keeps the souls of victims in it )
The other book was when Anomander went to the islands of the Seguleh and went up to #2 .

Once a year I keep trying to read the series again, never fully make it through lol. I enjoy it everytime it’s almost like reuniting with old friends reading those .

Quick Ben and Kalam parts in the second book were some of the best parts and same with Fiddler

Ok first, stop it. I haven't read the rake ones.

Quick Ben and kalam are the shit. All batches no that.

Damnit, they actually show when he went to rhe Seguleh Island?

I need to catch up

He is seguleh 7th?