Listomania discussion
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Year End Lists Go Here!
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Your Favorite Reads 2013
Mod
- The Book of Ebenezer Le Page - GB Edwards
- Double Oblivion of the Ourang-Outang - H Cixous
- Joseph and His Brothers - T Mann
Very Honorable Mentions:
- Moment of Freedom: The Heiligenberg Manuscript - J Bjørneboe (added 12/19)
- Lands of Memory - F Hernandez
- Malina - I Bachmann
- The Bachelors - A Stifter
- The Day I Wasn't There - H Cixous
- Zeitoun - D Eggers
- Impossible Object - N Moseley
- A Place in the Country - WG Sebald
Thanks for starting this, Jimmy!My year was dominated by the reading of Americans probably for the first time in my life. And many of them were kinda contemporary-ish. It is good to know your fellow countrymen. And what better way to know them through their most deviant intellectual representatives! I also did not read a lot of books this year, but I read a few big ones, thousand pagers, etc. So what follows is a list of titles of books that, when I think about the last year unfolding, immediately step into the forefront of my remembering.
- Fathers and Crows, You Bright And Risen Angels, and Imperial by William T. Vollmann
- Darconville's Cat and Laura Warholic by Alexander Theroux
- The Recognitions by William Gaddis
- A Balcony In The Forest by Julien Gracq
- Middle C by William Gass
- Studies In The History Of The Renaissance by Walter Pater
Terry Eagleton's Ideology An Introduction may not have been the most staggeringly blissful book I read this year, but it is a book that resonated with me and changed the way I think a great deal, it was a very important book for me to read at this particular time.
And I would like to give honorable mentions to two books I started in 2013 but have not yet finished reading, but that I intend to see through to their difficult, baffling ends. Žižek's Less Than Nothing and of course The Restored Wake.
Looking forward to seeing what you other folks dug this year...
PS- I want to add a shout out to Arno Shmidt, that freak!, because I adored the first volume of his collected works, Collected Novellas 1949-64, immensely, even if at times I didn't know what the fuck I was reading. Finding him has been a highlight of the year, ex-peri-mentally speaking...
I'm not sure that I read a single book from 2013.For this year, I read about 40 books, mostly non-fiction and there were only 4 of those which would make my end of year list:
1. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
3. Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss
4. Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion by Janet Reitman
Jimmy, I love lists, so I couldn't resist your chosen topic. On this occasion, I reconsidered the rating I awarded to some books, as I realized they do not make it in top 10. It is a bit difficult and unreliable to settle on an order, but here it goes: 1. The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels by Ágota Kristof OR
Independent People by Halldór Laxness
2. The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso
3. The Door by Magda Szabó
4. Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
5. Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marías
6. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G.B. Edwards
7. Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
8. The Snows of Yesteryear by Gregor von Rezzori
9. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
10. A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
There are other books that are also worth in top 10, but I can't decide where:
I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness
The Diving Pool: Three Novellas by Yōko Ogawa
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernières
For the level of enjoyment:
1. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
2. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
3. The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Mod
Geoff: I am hoping my 2014 looks more like your 2013... in terms of more longer books read. I've not read anything on your list yet, so I better get crackin!
Ema: obv. I love your #6. I also read Ice Palace this year, but it didn't really move me. Odd, as everybody seems to love that one. Thanks for participating.
Mod
This is going to be incomplete. I read a lot and reread a lot.... Also I'm at work and should not be on gr. I'll think. Preliminary list!Wolf Solent
Malina
My phone is bugging. I might have to edit in links later.
The birds by Tarjei Vesaas (wins over the ice palace. It killed me).
Jamie is my hearts desire by Alfred Chester
Insel by Mina Loy
Paterson by William Carlos Williams
Autobiography by Morrissey
Mod
Will edit this later... But here's a rudimentary list:A Farewell to Prague - Desmond Hogan
Perhaps might require some familiarity with Hogan's stories, many of which are retold or referenced here, but with the right key this is a touching (to the point of heartbreak) collage-style novel about a fragile individual barely holding himself together with art and friends and love.
A Time For Everything - Karl Knausgard
A "history" of angels (or rather a history of how humans perceive angels) told mostly through uncanny retellings of Old Testament tales. I will never look at Noah the same way again.
Replacement - Tor Ulven
Hard to summarize at this point without a reread. Shifting identities, pain, atmosphere, death.
Briggflatts - Basil Bunting
A poem that intimidated me for years, though I never even tried to read it. I will be forever grateful to whichever gods led me to finally just read it this year. It is a cranky and moving autobiography in verse, and Bunting led a very interesting life. Beneath his crankiness and mountainous individuality throughout his life he remained fixated on his first love, and this poem was inspired by, and dedicated to, that woman. Upon completion he presented it to her, and their relationship resumed...
Gunslinger - Ed Dorn
This was a great year for me for (re)discovering poetic epics conceived and/or written in the 1960's. This is a kind of lyric psychedelic western epic that I cannot possibly do justice to at the moment.
Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton
I read this as a pitch black comedy (for the most part). The kind of comedy where you laugh for fear of committing suicide.
Stone Upon Stone - Wieslaw Mysliwski
This is all about the voice, and I was immediately totally enamored with it. It is the story of one man's eventful life through the ups and downs of the 20th c. as they impacted rural life in Poland. One story segues into another and another and another... told by a cranky individualist who nevertheless has an earthy heart of gold.
The Tablets - Armand Schwerner
Heady hilarious stuff.
Cigarettes - Harry Mathews
An intricate tale of love and sex and art and horses.
The Gate - Natsume Soseki
Camera Lucida - Roland Barthes
Barthes can bring a tear to your eye.
I want to add The Gate too. Loved it so so so much. I'm reading The Tablets now!
The Tablets really surprised me. What opened it up for me was hearing him read parts of it. Also I recommend Desmond Hogan to everyone!
#1 with a bullet, Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas MannI also read and greatly enjoyed Mann's The Magic Mountain and Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family
Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson
The Inquisitory and Someone by Robert Pinget
Omensetter's Luck by William H. Gass
Ovid's Metamorphoses
According to the "stats" function on my profile, I've read 65 books this year -- a total of 16,163 pages. Of those books and pages, these are the ones that really stood out this year, in vague order of excellence according to me.1. Joseph and His Brothers (Thomas Mann) -- probably the best book I've ever read?
2. My Struggle: Book Two: A Man in Love(Karl Ove Knausgaard) -- wrote about this one at length, even better than the first volume.
3. A Time for Everything (Karl Ove Knausgaard)- sort of the same approach as Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, but spare and fantastic (meaning: angels)
4. Growth of the Soil (Knut Hamsun) -- so solid and informed my reading of novel #3 above
5. A Balcony in the Forest (Julien Gracq) -- perfect prose, anxious, skewed realism
Honorable mentions, but not at the same level as those above:
6. Holderlin, Kleist, and Nietzsche: The Struggle with the Daemon (Stefan Zweig)
7. Fathers and Sons (Turgenev)
8. The Tartar Steppe (Dino Buzzati)
The best among the few American novels published this year I read:
9. The Circle (Eggers)
The funniest by far:
10. How I Became a Famous Novelist (Steve Hely)
Also read two volumes of Proust but they'll be bunched in with the best of 2014 when I finish his Search. I didn't bunch Vol 2 of My Struggle together since it'll be years until all six volumes are translated, published, and read, plus I enjoyed Vol 2 of "My Struggle" much more than "The Guermantes Way" and/or "Sodom and Gomorrah."
In 2014, thanks in part to folks on goodreads, I have high hopes for:
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page
The Summer Book
Harlequin's Millions
Independent People
Resurrection
The World of Yesterday
The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig
The Long Ships
Lands of Memory
The Savage Detectives
Darconville's Cat
and a few dozen others.
I also hope to read a lot more novels by women (living and dead), as well as newish books written in English by people still living who aren't friends/acquaintances.
Way ahead of the others, the best book I read this year was 'The book of Ebenezer Le Page - G.B.Edwards .I only found this book through friends on GR - that's what I love about this place.
Other good reads for me this year (in no particular order):
The Castle - Kafka
Jerusalem - Gonçalo M. Tavares
Laughter in the Dark - Nabokov
Slaughter House 5 - Vonnegut (a re-read)
The last day of a condemned man - Victor Hugo
1Q84 - Murakami (parts 1&2 at least)
If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
Too Loud a Solitude - Bohumil Hrabal
& I'm already getting some good recommendations/ideas for next year from this thread....
the best books i read for the first time in 2013, in the order in which i read them:
Some Things That Meant the World to Me by joshua mohr
The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by shirley jackson
The Recognitions by william gaddis
2666 by roberto bolano
all of which have become instant favorites, among which it would be hard for me to pick one over the other. shouts out to borges, pynchon & keret, authors who - despite their exclusion from the above list - can be used to map the changes in my taste throughout this year.
2013 also marks a few important milestones, as in: baby's first kafka, joyce, woolf &c. next year i'm beyond excited for:
The Instructions by adam levin
The Last Samurai by helen dewitt
Wittgenstein's Mistress by david markson
Log of the S.S. the Mrs. Unguentine by stanley crawford
Blueprints of the Afterlife by ryan boudinot
i'll need to improve my stats next year, too. despite reading 105 different authors this year, only 18 were female (17%). next year i intend to shoot for 50% or better.
Some Things That Meant the World to Me by joshua mohr
The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by shirley jackson
The Recognitions by william gaddis
2666 by roberto bolano
all of which have become instant favorites, among which it would be hard for me to pick one over the other. shouts out to borges, pynchon & keret, authors who - despite their exclusion from the above list - can be used to map the changes in my taste throughout this year.
2013 also marks a few important milestones, as in: baby's first kafka, joyce, woolf &c. next year i'm beyond excited for:
The Instructions by adam levin
The Last Samurai by helen dewitt
Wittgenstein's Mistress by david markson
Log of the S.S. the Mrs. Unguentine by stanley crawford
Blueprints of the Afterlife by ryan boudinot
i'll need to improve my stats next year, too. despite reading 105 different authors this year, only 18 were female (17%). next year i intend to shoot for 50% or better.
Was a pleasurable year of reading for me with well over 40 books I rated 4 stars or more. Guess I'll list a rough top 10 of very enjoyable books, with one bonus...
1. Frankenstein (Shelley) - totally enjoyable, with something interesting on every page, a great humane story.
2. Snow Country (Kawabata) - Silence, beauty and mystery abound. Is that love?
3. Letting Go (Phillip Roth) - great big psychologically-accurate story of a young lit-professor getting involved with others' complications despite an inclination not to?
4. The Town and the City (Kerouac) - Another big book, a family and father/son saga of loss in the 30's and 40's in New England.
5. Dr. Sax (Kerouac) - A weird emotional combo of gothic and mythic nostalgia of youth. (Includes vampires and perhaps a nod to A Christmas Carol.)
6. On the Road (Kerouac) - Average speed 70 mph, may seem shallow, but runs deep and true. A quest for meaning and missing fathers and the true self.
7. Incidents of Egotourism in the Temporary World (Lee Klein) - Yes, our very own GR author. Definitely in my top 10, was very funny, perfectly voiced, and totally enjoyable in many ways. See reviews.
8. Watchmen (Moore) - No one has answers to the 20th Century. This is bleak and not really satisfying, but such is life?
9. The Art of Fielding (Harbach) - Yeah, I liked it this much, for the most part it felt real, partly about 2 college ballplayers struggling despite a high level of talent and promise.
10. Jar of Fools (Lutes) - A graphic novel. Lost love, downpours, and despair. Two washed-up magicians, one escapee from a nursing home, struggle to survive life's beatings.
Bonus: Psycho (Bloch) - Had no idea the movie came from a book! Was a really fun read because it's just like the movie, and written fairly well. The mother is totally creepy.
1. Frankenstein (Shelley) - totally enjoyable, with something interesting on every page, a great humane story.
2. Snow Country (Kawabata) - Silence, beauty and mystery abound. Is that love?
3. Letting Go (Phillip Roth) - great big psychologically-accurate story of a young lit-professor getting involved with others' complications despite an inclination not to?
4. The Town and the City (Kerouac) - Another big book, a family and father/son saga of loss in the 30's and 40's in New England.
5. Dr. Sax (Kerouac) - A weird emotional combo of gothic and mythic nostalgia of youth. (Includes vampires and perhaps a nod to A Christmas Carol.)
6. On the Road (Kerouac) - Average speed 70 mph, may seem shallow, but runs deep and true. A quest for meaning and missing fathers and the true self.
7. Incidents of Egotourism in the Temporary World (Lee Klein) - Yes, our very own GR author. Definitely in my top 10, was very funny, perfectly voiced, and totally enjoyable in many ways. See reviews.
8. Watchmen (Moore) - No one has answers to the 20th Century. This is bleak and not really satisfying, but such is life?
9. The Art of Fielding (Harbach) - Yeah, I liked it this much, for the most part it felt real, partly about 2 college ballplayers struggling despite a high level of talent and promise.
10. Jar of Fools (Lutes) - A graphic novel. Lost love, downpours, and despair. Two washed-up magicians, one escapee from a nursing home, struggle to survive life's beatings.
Bonus: Psycho (Bloch) - Had no idea the movie came from a book! Was a really fun read because it's just like the movie, and written fairly well. The mother is totally creepy.
Glad to see some Kerouac here, esp Dr. Sax!
Photo of mine is up here: https://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/...way more than ten at the moment but I will try and cut it down and make a list...so many BIG books this year!
Two things. I am going to restrict this list to only include books I actually finished in 2013 and, as well, their being all, in my opinion, five-star wonders. I tend to compulsively read authors grouped into what I call studies as a way in which to deny my addictive nature, it seems, for buying books in bulk thinking I might want to read them at some point in my life. I already possess more books on my shelves than I could ever read in what remains of this lifetime, but my general practice is to continue to purchase additional reading possibilities to insure myself of some bullshit sense of immortality. Hence, I do own quite an extensive library of hardcover gems. If I really like an author I tend to read several books in a line until I get worn out by reading the same writer, or in some cases, bored.My greatest discovery for 2013 was Josef Winkler. I doubt I will finish Der Leibeigene before I present this list, but I can include two other titles that just knocked me out. Those being When the Time Comes and Flowers for Jean Genet.
The book that saved my winter vacation back at the beginning of the year was The Tanners by Robert Walser. I also read The Microscripts among other Walser titles I finished this year but these two were by far the best of the bunch.
W. G. Sebald was another writer I couldn't be happier to have in my collection. Almost anything he wrote moved me in ways seldom achieved by most others. Even books about Sebald knocked me out and I cannot say enough good about this man and what a shame it is that he is no longer with us. Among the 2013 five star wonders were The Emigrants, Vertigo, On the Natural History of Destruction, A Place in the Country, Unrecounted, Narratives Unsettled: Digression in Robert Walser, Thomas Bernhard, and Adalbert Stifter, and The Emergence of Memory: Conversations With W. G. Sebald.
Thomas Bernhard is another of my favorite writers and I reread Three Novellas and again gave it the five stars it deserves.
Stefan Zweig took up much of my reading time as well this past year and of all the fiction I read of his I rated La Confusion des sentiments the highest and also was thrilled with his study of Der Kampf mit dem Dämon. Hölderlin, Kleist, Nietzsche.
The Essential Interviews starring Bob Dylan was another great collection to sink my teeth into. My youngest son actually recommended this title to me.
I love to champion the work of Jason Schwartz and his latest book John the Posthumous was a dandy. Seems there are many other readers now who feel the same way about Schwartz as I do.
G.B. Edwards wrote a book titled The Book of Ebenezer Le Page which I struggled with initially and then by the time I was finished with it thought I had read something very special. A real treat and a work that should last as long as humans have heart.
Another amazing discovery was the Australian author Gerald Murnane who captivated me to no end. Of the books of his I read in 2013 I felt Landscape with Landscape and The Plains both worthy of a rating of five stars.
One of the hardest struggles I had in 2013 was with the title Min kamp 1 by Karl Ove Knausgård. Five stars and worth all the trouble in reading it.
Another title that knocked me out this year was Senselessness by Horatio Castellanos Moya.
A brilliant lyrical piece and actually written by a kid was titled The Cardboard House by Martín Adán.
Heinrich von Kleist wrote The Marquise of O and Other Stories. I learned about this title by reading the Stefan Zweig study on Kleist listed above.
In the past I have read much of Sándor Márai and this year brought me another great work titled La herencia de Eszter.
Geoff Dyer has run hot and cold for me through the years but his title Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room was a feast to read and led me back to certain film studies I had grown weary of.
Because of my love for the Hungarian film director Bela Tarr and newfound Aussie writer Gerald Murnane I was notified of this fairly new periodical and I absolutely loved both issues that I ordered from them. The titles were Music & Literature: Issue 2 and Music & Literature Issue 3.
I've an imperfect memory, but for now, here's a list of my favorite reads in 2013:Three Strong Women Marie NDiaye
All My Friends Marie NDiaye
Under the Skin Michel Faber
Hotel Iris Yoko Ogawa
Monsieur Monde Vanishes Georges Simenon
Leaving the Atocha Station Ben Lerner
Thanks for starting this thread, Jimmy. I'm finding plenty of good suggestions here for future reading. And I cannot express how important the people on Goodreads have been in rapidly expanding my reading horizons. So thank you to everyone for sharing your literary finds. Here are my favorites from the year, in no particular order:
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
To the End of the Land - David Grossman
Gathering Evidence - Thomas Bernhard
The Voyeur - Alain Robbe-Grillet
Childhood - Nathalie Sarraute
The Madness of the Day - Maurice Blanchot
Xorandor - Christine Brooke-Rose
Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures - Mary Ruefle (read 2012-2013)
Masquerade and Other Stories - Robert Walser
The Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz
Honorable mentions:
House of Fear - Leonora Carrington
Today I Wrote Nothing - Daniil Kharms
The Insufferable Gaucho - Robert Bolaño
The Way to the Salt Marsh - John Hay (read 2011-2013)
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
To the End of the Land - David Grossman
Gathering Evidence - Thomas Bernhard
The Voyeur - Alain Robbe-Grillet
Childhood - Nathalie Sarraute
The Madness of the Day - Maurice Blanchot
Xorandor - Christine Brooke-Rose
Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures - Mary Ruefle (read 2012-2013)
Masquerade and Other Stories - Robert Walser
The Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz
Honorable mentions:
House of Fear - Leonora Carrington
Today I Wrote Nothing - Daniil Kharms
The Insufferable Gaucho - Robert Bolaño
The Way to the Salt Marsh - John Hay (read 2011-2013)
The variety of loved books on this thread is fantastic!
Sean: I love Sarraute's Childhood and meet few who have read it.
In no particular order:The Instructions
The Royal Family
Regeneration
Beloved
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
The Dispossessed
Gravity's Rainbow
The Golden Notebook
A Writer's Diary
The Second Sex
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Native Son
To the Lighthouse
Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas
Villette
In Search of Lost Time
I'm still looking for a Sarraute to totally fall in love with. Maybe it will be that one!I read fewer books this year than the last couple, due to a job change that cut my commute time and generally kept me busy in different ways. But anyway, out of the 90 so far, here's a top 9 + 15
Christine Brooke-Rose, Between/Out/Such, 1964-69.
The Christine Brooke-Rose Omnibus is an only-just-rediscovered (thanks MJ) showcase of some of the finest experimental novels to come out of 60s Britain. Erudite, human, well-plotted, inventive, and highly deft in constraint and construction. (See also this year, Xorandor and The Sycamore Tree).
Hans Henny Jahnn, The Night of Lead, 1956.
The perfect dark, mysterious myth of our brief path through existence, by a fantastic expressionist storyteller.
John Hawkes, Death, Sleep & the Traveler, 1975.
My first and favorite Hawkes. Less experimental than his earlier, trading confusion for the deceptive clarity of a dream: each image crisp and distinct and perfect, but composing obscure and threatening signs. (See also this year, The Cannibal, The Lime Twig, Second Skin.)
Dennis Cooper, Period, 2000.
The densely, cryptically concise and haunting palindromic close to Cooper's megawork. A puzzle box construction of satanic sacrifice, mirror worlds, myth, amnesia, doubles, and alienation. (See also this year, Try and Guide.)
Jeff Jackson, Mira Corpora, 2013.
Favorite new book this year and it's a debut from an old GR friend. Which normally actually biases me against the writer as I end to be extra-critical of people I know. But this shadow memoir of an archetypally familiar yet hallucinatory America swept aside any doubts.
Kobo Abe, Secret Rendezvous, 1979.
I mean, I kind of have to love this. Surrealist/absurdist horror in and around a labyrinthine dystopian hospital, structured as a fragmented noir trying to catch up with itself. (Also this year: Inter Ice Age 4)
Alan Burns, Europe After the Rain, 1964.
The landscape of ambiguity (descriptive and moral) formed during prolonged and indefinite wartime. (See also this year, Babel and Revolutions of the Night.)
Nicole Brossard, Mauve Desert, 1987.
Formally ambitious and descriptively perfect, in two takes, original and translation, mediated by an obsession. The act of reading, the elemental force of landscape, the ambiguity of words and language, and the solitude of understanding. (see also this year: A Book.)
JG Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition, 1970.
A series of flawless constructions of jointed planes encompassing: sex, architecture, modernity, death, medical anomaly, and the eternal motorway.
Honorable mentions:
Rosalyn Drexler, One or Another, 1970.
Louis Aragon, Paris Peasant, 1926.
Joyce Carol Oates, The Triumph of the Spider Monkey, 1976.
Ben Marcus, Notable American Women, 2002.
Graeme Gibson, Five Legs, 1969.
Julian Gracq, A Balcony in the Forest,1958.
Jason Hrivnak, The Plight House, 2009.
Anais Nin, Under a Glass Bell, 1944.
Tom Mallin, Erowina, 1972.
George Bataille, Story of the Eye, 1928.
Roland Topor, Portrait en pied de Suzanne, 1978.
Tarjei Vesaas The House in the Dark
Robert Pinget, The Inquisitory, 1962.
Dennis Corrigan, The Amusement Park, 1982.
Tony Burgess, Pontypool Changes Everything, 1998.
Interestingly, despite recently claiming to not be much of a completist in reading practice, I seem to have read several (or many) novels this year by most of the top contenders. On the other hand, 6/8 were authors I'd never read before this year at all, so my reaching out in new directions seems to be serving me commendably.
Mod
Same here... I'm loving these lists. Keep them coming, and spread the word.
FEATS of STRENGTH:M. Proust - In Search of Lost Time
J. McPhee - Annals of the Former World
FESTIVUS MIRACLES of Fiction:
P. Meyer's - The Son
V. Nabokov - Ada
J le Carré - A Perfect Spy & The Constant Gardener
P.K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle & Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
C. Dickens - Great Expectations & Oliver Twist
J. Fowles - The French Lieutenant's Woman
J. Cheever - The Wapshot Chronicle & Falconer
T. O'Brien - The Things They Carried
J. Ellroy - The Black Dahlia
R. Kipling - Kim
S. Anderson - Winesburg, Ohio
A. Johnson - The Orphan Master's Son
Nonfiction (for the REST of US):
Xenophon - The Persian Expedition
J. Turner - Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet
H. Arendt - Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
T. Wolff - This Boy's Life
I'll probably be back to this list with additional grievances.
What a fantastic thread to browse through.And my winners are:
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
The Ice-Shirt by William T. Vollmann (is it cheating if I haven't finished it yet?)
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté
With honourable mentions going to:
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Embers by Sándor Márai
Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif
Subscript by Christine Brooke-Rose
The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński
So you don't have to go to the picture (and to cut it down to 10) Not sure about the order, but I would unhesitatingly thrust copies of all of these into your sweaty paws...
1. War and War
2. The Lime Twig
3. Wittgenstein's Mistress
4. The Tunnel
5. Moment of Freedom
6. The Notebook The Proof The Third Lie
7. The Recognitions
8. House Mother Normal
9. Fathers and Crows
10.JR
In no particular order, my favorite books of the year:
Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert, 1869
A sumptuous and profound story of obsession and doomed love set in 1840s Paris. A truly great book.
The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad, 1907
Why did I put off reading Conrad for so long? A dark tale of espionage, political extremism and terrorism. Eerily relevant to today.
Sunday, Monday, and Always: Stories by Dawn Powell, Dawn Powell, 1952
The only book of Powell stories published during her lifetime, augmented by some important other short pieces. Some of her greatest writing can be found in this book.
Play It as It Lays, Joan Didion, 1970
Numb and unpleasant characters in 1960s Los Angeles, yet a strangely compelling and fascinating read.
Kamouraska, Anne Hebert, 1970
A moody, erotic story of adultery and murder set in 1830s Quebec. One of the greatest novels of French Canada.
The Easter Parade, Richard Yates, 1976
A powerful, compact novel about a dysfunctional family and damaged people.
The Regeneration Trilogy, Pat Barker, 1991-1995
A trilogy of novels set in WWI Britain which I found to be an unforgettable reading experience.
The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst, 2004
I am puzzled by any nostalgia for the 1980s. But this unforgettable novel captures the glamor, corruption, and greed of that dark time.
The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters, 2009
A gripping novel about both a "haunted house", and the collapse of the old order in post-war Britain.
Stay Awake, Dan Chaon, 2012
Beautifully-written, unsettling stories of children, losers, and outcasts.
Sentimental Education, Gustave Flaubert, 1869
A sumptuous and profound story of obsession and doomed love set in 1840s Paris. A truly great book.
The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad, 1907
Why did I put off reading Conrad for so long? A dark tale of espionage, political extremism and terrorism. Eerily relevant to today.
Sunday, Monday, and Always: Stories by Dawn Powell, Dawn Powell, 1952
The only book of Powell stories published during her lifetime, augmented by some important other short pieces. Some of her greatest writing can be found in this book.
Play It as It Lays, Joan Didion, 1970
Numb and unpleasant characters in 1960s Los Angeles, yet a strangely compelling and fascinating read.
Kamouraska, Anne Hebert, 1970
A moody, erotic story of adultery and murder set in 1830s Quebec. One of the greatest novels of French Canada.
The Easter Parade, Richard Yates, 1976
A powerful, compact novel about a dysfunctional family and damaged people.
The Regeneration Trilogy, Pat Barker, 1991-1995
A trilogy of novels set in WWI Britain which I found to be an unforgettable reading experience.
The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst, 2004
I am puzzled by any nostalgia for the 1980s. But this unforgettable novel captures the glamor, corruption, and greed of that dark time.
The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters, 2009
A gripping novel about both a "haunted house", and the collapse of the old order in post-war Britain.
Stay Awake, Dan Chaon, 2012
Beautifully-written, unsettling stories of children, losers, and outcasts.
Thanks for the invite, Jimmy!I read really few books in 2013, so my list is going to be a small one. Nevertheless, here are some of my great reads from this year:
- Ulysses
- Middle C
- Palinuro De Mexico
- 2666
- Woodcutters
- Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things
Jessica wrote: "Sean: I love Sarraute's Childhood and meet few who have read it."
Well, this makes you the first person I've met who's read it, so I'm even more glad of this thread for that.
Well, this makes you the first person I've met who's read it, so I'm even more glad of this thread for that.
I used to teach it when I taught a class on Memoir but it's out of print now :(
Eddie wrote: "Will edit this later... But here's a rudimentary listA Farewell to Prague - Desmond Hogan
A Time For Everything - Karl Knausgard
Replacement - Tor Ulven
Briggflatts - Basil Bunting
Gunslinger - Ed..."
Hey Eddie when you edit this could you link to yr reviews? If I missed any I'd like to catch up...
Now I feel useless. This was a very bad review writing year for me. I don't think I wrote a single review for any of my favorite books, but since they are all worthy of rereads maybe I'll reread and write their reviews next year.I did write one for Soseki's The Gate.
Eddie wrote: "Now I feel useless. This was a very bad review writing year for me. I don't think I wrote a single review for any of my favorite books, but since they are all worthy of rereads maybe I'll reread an..."Damn it!
Eddie wrote: I did write one for Soseki's The Gate. an exquisite review too.
Actually Eddie, you reviewed it twice.
What a great list, Jimmy; what a sad year for reading for me, though. My time spent on GR has diminished drastically this year, and it hasn't been just a couple of week slump like previous cases. In fact, this year I couldn't even remember what Good books I've read--I had to resort to looking at my own reading challenge. Only two stood out:Skippy Dies. One of the first books I read this year, yet I remember it better than most that followed. I would recommend to any reader.
and
This wonderful biography of Perec. I learned, and have subsequently forgotten, so much about Perec's life and his fascinating mind from Bellos. This is one I will return to to skim my marginalia whenever I'm about to begin one of Perec's works. Highly recommend for fans of Perec or just OuLiPo.
In fitting fashion for this year, I'm keeping this brief since something else--far less interesting--pulls me in another direction. I hope that 2014 is a better Reading Year for me!
1. Swann's Way 2. In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
3. Mrs. Dalloway
4. To the Lighthouse
5. Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me
6. All Souls
7. Dark Back of Time
8. Omensetter's Luck
9. Embassytown
10. City of Saints and Madmen
11. The New Life
12. Whores for Gloria
13. Going for a Beer
14. Christie Malry's Own Double Entry
15. At Swim-Two-Birds
16. Textermination
17. Black Spring
18. AM/PM
19. In Praise of Love
20. The Debt to Pleasure
I've excluded re-reads, and I've prioritised fiction (apart from "In Praise of Love").
Some important milestones for me personally:
1. I conquered my apprehension about Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf.
2. I discovered Javier Marias, who I see as a contemporary heir to these writers.
3. I dipped my toe into William Gass, and loved it, but know there is more and better in store for me. (Well, actually on my shelves.)
4. I continued my love affair with China Mieville.
5. In the same vein, I discovered Jeff VanderMeer (I hope to read Catherine M. Valente in the next 12 months.)
6. I read my first Orhan Pamuk and loved it.
7. While Modernist authors top my list, I loved the Post-Modernist works in the lower reaches, particularly because of the level of playfulness involved.
8. I started a project to read as much Henry Miller and Anais Nin as I can.
9. I fell in love with a male French philosopher.
10. I enjoyed the short stories of Amelia Gray and look forward to reading all of her work.
Thanks to the encouragement of Jimmy, I am adding my own Top Ten list of books read during 2013, evenly split between fiction and non. There are several titles left off of my list that, on any given day, might have been chosen in lieu of a few of those selected below, including some which I full-boated at the time, and, hence, outrank the four-starrers who made the grade. What can I say? I'm a moody and unsteady son-of-a-gun at the best of times, and I likes things bundled in tens...They aren't listed in sequential order, though I'd be hard pressed to see anything but Syme's masterful revisionist Roman history or Melville's supernal cetological hunt in the number one spot—consider them each the apex predator in their respective bifurcation.
The Roman Revolution — Ronald Syme
Moby Dick — Herman Melville
The Longest War — Peter Bergen
Woodcutters — Thomas Bernhard
Thinking the Twentieth Century — Tony Judt & Timothy Snyder
The Flame Alphabet — Ben Marcus
Critique of Religion and Philosophy — Walter Kaufmann
Peace — Gene Wolfe
Pensées — Blaise Pascal
Woe to Live On — Daniel Woodrell
EDIT: OK, a couple of honorable mentions need be put in here (twelve's a nice number, if not as pureblooded as ten):
Darkness Visible — William Golding
Garden, Ashes — Danilo Kiš
Best Books READ in 2013 (not necessarily published in 2013)FICTION:
Capital by John Lanchester
A Marker to Measure Drift by Alexander Maksik
Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor
Momento Mori by Muriel Spark
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Son by Philipp Meyer
Fin & Lady by Cathleen Schine
The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell
Fragrant Harbour by John Lanchester
The Classifier by Wessel Ebersohn
Alys, Always by Harriet Lane
Slow Horses by Mark Herron
Red Weather by Janet McAdams
In the City by Joan Silber
The Thief of Auschwitz by Jon Clinch
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
A Delicate Truth by John le Carre
Me, Who Dove Into the Heart of the World by Sabrina Berman
NONFICTION
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
1939: The Last Season by Anne de Courcy
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright
Great to see all these lists. Very inspiring! Here are the best books I read in 2013 that were published in years past: OLD MASTERS by Thomas Bernhard
OUTER DARK by Cormac McCarthy
GARDEN, ASHES by Danilo Kis
THE LAST DAYS by Raymond Queneau
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RED by Anne Carson
ANGELS by Denis Johnson
IMAGINATIVE QUALITIES OF ACTUAL THINGS by Gilbert Sorrentino
THE BRIDGES by Tarjei Vesaas
HIGH-RISE by J.G. Ballard
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE by Alain Robbe-Grillet
![s.penkevich [mental health hiatus] (spenkevich) | 1 comments](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1735525095p1/6431467.jpg)
Wow, awesome thread Jimmy. This is great, and I've added a ton to my wish list now.Okay...hmmm
BEST I READ IN 2013
1. (easily) TOMORROW IN THE BATTLE THINK ON ME - Javier Marias
2. WINESBURG, OHIO - Sherwood Anderson
3. my massive stack of Charles Simic
4. ICE - Anna Kavan
5. SWANN'S WAY - Proust
6. THE SUMMER BOOK - Tove Jansson
7. NO WORLD CONCERTO - A.G. Porta
8. VOYAGE IN THE DARK - Jean Rhys
9. IMAGINATIVE QUALITIES OF ACTUAL THINGS - Sorrentino
10. MIDDLE C - WIlliam H. Gass
so here i am with my offerings, which compared to the rest of y'all are super midbrow, but i take comfort in the fact that i have already read so many of the books on the more intellectually impressive lists, and that just makes me ahead of the curve, yes? i am telling myself this.also, thank you for inviting me to this group, jimmy, because i actually make book lists for a living now, so i really should be in on this.
okay - my best of the year, in no particular order, and unannotated for now, due to holiday frenzy:
adult
The Spinning Heart
Flee
The Tilted World: A Novel
The Goldfinch
Golden Boy
The Homecoming
Tampa
The Shining Girls
The Last Whisper in the Dark
Night Film
YA
Rooftoppers
Night of Cake & Puppets
Fangirl
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
More Than This
The Girls of No Return
Starglass
Days of Blood & Starlight
and just to bring the tone wayyyy down, but no less enjoyable, for me:
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
Abraham Lincoln: Fuck Lord of the Moon
so there.
hi jimmy! my brain broke in september and i stopped being able to read so i don't have as big a pool to choose from but i did read some great books earlier in the year and many of them came to me in some fashion through other goodreaders.Number one with a bullet:
Traveling Sprinkler: A Novel
probably the only book i read this year actually published this year. karen -- just up there, hi karen! -- sent me an arc because she knew i was crazy for nicholson baker. it ended up being my favourite nicholson baker book to date: a laid-back kind of prose that nevertheless was full of ideas about music and about protest, and about love. i always learn a lot from nicholson baker books and this was no exception. i know more about debussy and bassoons than i ever did before, and i'm very, very grateful. ben just sent me back the book, signed by mr. baker himself. hurray for ben!
Number two with a perverted sword led to the reading of many other titles by the same author:
Jurgen
this book by james branch cabell had been on my list for a while, though i can't remember exactly how it got there. found a used copy, and read it four? times in a row. i loved how silly and yet how smart it was. simon, another amazing goodreader, read my review and offered up some cabell books he couldn't keep. thank you, simon!! i devoured the silver stallion (!!!!!), figures of earth and dominei before i stopped and decided to hoard the others. full of innuendo, raunchy and witty and wise, jurgen introduced me to cabell's universe, and i'm so grateful for this book.
i won't wax on so here's the rest of my list. some are new to me, some re-reads but i think all are marvellous:
The Sacred and Profane Love Machine
The Man Who Walked through Walls
Mrs. Bridge
Mr Bridge
Haircut and Other Stories
The Night of the Hunter
The Land of Laughs
Sin Titulo
Mod
@Maureen: have you heard Nicholson Baker's recent interview on Bookworm? I haven't read any of his books, but I listened to this interview the other day where he talks about Traveling Sprinkler as well as some of his other books: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/b...
I Hotel by Karen Tei YamashitaThe Public Burning by Robert Coover
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
Remembrance Rock by Carl Sandburg
"...And Ladies of the Club" by Helen Hooven Santmyer
Old Filth and The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam (Last Friends was only so-so.)
Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
U.S.A. by John Dos Passos
The Novel: An Alternative History: Beginnings to 1600 by Steven Moore
No particular order, although if I were to rate them, "...Ladies" would be in my top 3 (or even just #1) just because it was the one book on this list I didn't expect to be good. Romance cover, y'know. But the page count (1433) always intrigued me, so I gave it a try--and while it looks like just a lurid romance novel, it turned out to be an epic multigenerational novel about a ladies' reading group (and all their friends and families) in a small Ohio town in the decades following the Civil War. Sprawling, well-researched (with plenty of post-Civil War politics for history junkies), charming--and much better than I expected. There's a lesson to be had here about judging books by covers, or something.
I'm unlikely to finish those currently read.I'm noticing a trend:
1. Joseph and His Brothers - Review/Review - Women and Men - Don't make me choose!
2. Ulysses/The Restored Finnegans Wake - I thought I'd return to these at a relaxed pace, I rather rapidly read them the first time when I'd only just gotten into "that sort of thing"
3. In Search of Lost Time - Proust 2013: "That still only counts as one!"
4. Holy Bible: King James Version - Reading reviews of this is rather distressing
5. The Feynman Lectures on Physics - This guy, this guy, wow!
6. The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe - I would have appreciated this somewhat more if I weren't currently studying physics, overload and all
7. Belle du Seigneur - Strangely somewhat similar in theme to The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, apparently pronounced "MAH-nee", far funnier, though I'm preferring the latter of late
8. Тихий Дон - In an attempt to improve my rusty Russian, I love time/place-specific pieces
9. Miss MacIntosh, My Darling - I would have probably preferred to read this to someone, wonderful aloud regardless
Jimmy wrote: "Great lists, everyone!@Maureen: have you heard Nicholson Baker's recent interview on Bookworm? I haven't read any of his books, but I listened to this interview the other day where he talks about..."
jimmy! i hadn't heard it but am about to right now, thanks to you! i am debating whether you would like his writing ... did you like his interview? i feel like he's a lot like his books. i told another poet friend about The Anthologist and it just seemed to make him angry. :P
and yes! these are some super lists. jacob's reminds me that i really need to move dos passos up higher on my priority list.
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Listomania
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I Am Legend (other topics)
The Woman in White (other topics)
Carmilla (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Wilkie Collins (other topics)Dianne K. Salerni (other topics)
Agatha Christie (other topics)
Richard Matheson (other topics)
Oscar Wilde (other topics)
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NOTE: Anyone and Everyone is welcome to share their lists... I invited a bunch of people personally, but I can't possibly do that for everyone, so please spread the word... the more the merrier, and I want to see EVERYONE's year end lists, please.
UPDATE 12/14 9am -- Feel free to list (and link to) a few of your FAVORITE REVIEWS (either your own or others) from this year! (...or even older reviews that you read for the first time this year)...