NYRB Classics discussion

Rather than wait until the end of the month to choose a book, I thought I'd start this thread right away, not because I hope we choose a book right now but because I hope we discuss what books we'd like to read.

So take a moment to peruse the NYRB Classics collection and let us know which intrigue you most, which you've been meaning to read the longest, or anything. Besides using this as a way to discuss what book to read next, I am hoping we use it to discuss the books in general and lead each other to a deeper relationship with these wonderful books!

For reference, I'm going to place here the titles we talk about below. I don't mind if there are dozens as I hope this becomes a fun place to talk about the books in general as well as choose a book to focus on.

-Indian Summer
-Proud Beggars
-The Towers of Trebizond
-Alice James: A Biography
-The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
-The Peregrine
-Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby
-Poets in a Landscape
-Renoir, My Father
-Monsieur Proust
-Napoleon's Russian Campaign
-Shadows of Carcosa
-The Enchanted April
-Classic Crime
-Great Granny Webster
-The Vet's Daughter
-A Meaningful Life
-The Expendable Man

Cphe wrote: "I'd also like to read Proud Beggars

It was a recommendation and I managed to pick up a paperback version of the book.

Edited to add that I also picked up a copy of [book:The Tower..."

I would be interested in exploring either one of these titles for what it's worth.

I'd be interested in reading The Towers of Trebizond (and already have a copy, which makes this easier).

Are any others seasonal readers like me? I tend to read certain kinds of books at certain times of year because I get that hankering. I don't know why, but it is pretty regular. In November, for example, I tend to veer toward the nonfiction shelf, subconsciously.

If I stick with that thought while putting forward a couple of books I've read and loved . . .

1. Alice James: A Biography, by Jean Strousse. I've read this one already, but it's one of my top-ten NYRB Classics. I'd happily venture into it again to rekindle my relationship with Alice James and her family.

2. The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, by Milton Rokeach. This is a fascinating book about three patients in an Ypsilanti mental institution in the 1950s who each thought he was Jesus Christ. Rokeach was the doctor, and he thought maybe putting them together would help cure them, little knowing at the time that he himself had delusions of godhood in thinking he could manipulate the lives of these poor men. Beautiful, touching, horrendous. One I definitely recommend.

3. The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker. Another favorite, in this book Baker logs his experiences tracking a peregrine falcon over the course of many months. That may not sound like a great book (and it didn't do much for my parents or brother), but it becomes a fascinating rumination on one man's desire to excise himself from humanity and live an isolated life in nature.

And here are three nonfiction titles I have not yet read but would like to:

1. Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby, by Geoffrey Wolff. I'm interested in this book for a few reasons, not the least of which is that Geoffrey Wolff is the brother of Tobias Wolff, and I've heard Tobias praise his brother (and praise from Tobias goes a long way for me). I'm also interested in the story of this man in the 1920s who ended his life after shooting his girlfriend. This blurb also does it: "Black Sun is novelist and master biographer Geoffrey Wolff's subtle and striking picture of a man who killed himself to make his life a work of art."

2. Poets in a Landscape, by Gilbert Highet. I've dipped into this one just a tad and love what I've found in Highet's "delightful exploration of Latin literature and the Italian landscape." This little section from Catullus just thrills me: "Whenever a Frenchman says baiser, whenever and Italian speaks of un bacio, when a Spaniard says besar or a Portuguese beijar, they are using the word which this poet picked up and made into Latin to amuse his sweetheart. The woman was unworthy. The poet died. The word lives."

3. Renoir, My Father, by Jean Renoir. I love both Renoirs, and this is billed as "a wonderful double portrait of father and son."

Of course, we are reading a nonfiction-ish book for October with Akenfield, so I'm not necessarily looking for one more.

Anyway, while I hope people will share whatever is on their minds in these threads, I'd also love to get to know you all a bit by getting to know why you're interested in the books you're interested in :-) . I'll try to come up with a few other categories of books that I've been interested in reading.

I can't say that I've noticed any seasonal pattern in my reading habits. I naturally like to switch between fiction and non-fiction or between different types of fiction. I felt that my fiction reading was dominating in the first half of the year so I've had to read a few non-fiction books just lately.

Of the books you mentioned Trevor, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti probably appeals most.

I must admit that I haven't been attracted to many non-fction books on the NYRB catalogue. One I have been meaning to read this year is Monsieur Proust. I was going to nominate it earlier but felt it wouldn't be of much interest for people that hadn't read Proust. Another that appeals to me is Defeat: Napoleon's Russian Campaign though I have a habit of abandoning war books; not from queasiness but boredom.

I think the main issue that affects a book staying on the list is rights. Though NYRB Classics has lost the rights to relatively few books over the years, that's the primary reason they cease to publish any given title. In fact, the only one I can think of that probably wasn't rights was The Colour Out of Space, which went out of print a few years ago and only just showed up again as Shadows of Carcossa.

It must be even worse for international readers as rights to publish in Australia, for example, are different from rights to publish in the United States, and they may begin and end at varying times.

I'm not really weighing in on what to read as I'm not sure what my time this month will be like, but I will say that an author I follow highly recommended The Peregrine, mentioned above. For the sheer beauty of the writing, at least in part.

I am definitely a fan of Baker's writing in The Peregrine. Here's a sample:

I have always longed to be a part of the outward life, to be out there at the edge of things, to let the human taint wash away in emptiness and silence as the fox sloughs his smell into the cold unworldliness of water; to return to the town as a stranger.

In my top post above I've made a list of all books brought up here (at least, that is the intent), just for easy scan of titles. As I said up there, I don't mind if we bring up dozens of books as I'd kind of like this space to be not just a place to choose our next focus but to also be a place where we can enthuse or inquire about books we may be interested in. To that end, I'm going to try to put forth some fiction titles that have been calling my name for some time.

Here are five fiction titles I've had my eye on for a while but have not plunged into yet.

Okay, okay, so the first title below isn't technically fiction, but it strikes me as something tantalizing and rich with storytelling :-) .

1. Classic Crimes , by William Roughead. Written in the early 1900s this is a compendium of "some of the most notorious crimes and extraordinary trials of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England and Scotland."

2. Great Granny Webster , by Caroline Blackwood. This looks like a nice short look at the underbelly of a great family.

3. The Vet's Daughter , by Barbara Comyns. In November, NYRB will be releasing Comyns' Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, which looks wonderful. I enjoyed her Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead a great deal, and I've been interested in getting to know her biting work better.

4. A Meaningful Life , by L.J. Davis. A few years ago, many of my friends read and loved this book. I bought it, but I still haven't read it!

5. The Expendable Man , by Dorothy B. Hughes. Perhaps in November I also like crime, I don't know, but Hughes' noir has become more prevalent in my life in the last year or so and I've been neglecting this one.

I must be losing my mind, because it's this month that I'm not sure about time, not November. I've been quite intrigued to read both Great Granny Webster and any Barbara Comyns for some time.

I am a Dorothy B. Hughes fan and I loved The Expendable Man. There was one small aspect to it that I didn't like, but otherwise it was very thought provoking.

Aside from The Towers of Trebizond, I've also been looking to read The Pilgrim Hawk: A Love Story and We Think the World of You. I'd also like to tackle Eustace and Hilda at some point, but it's quite long (actually, three books in one!), so I don't know if November is the best month.

The others on my current list have already been read by the group (Warlock, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, and A High Wind in Jamaica).

i'd like to vote for Proud Beggars as it seems light, kind of exotic, well liked and maybe appropriate for the coming Christmas season (beggars, poverty, joy)

I'm not sure how we're making the selection, but just to be clear, my vote is for The Towers of Trebizond.

I'm in no rush to finalize our pick for November, and I'm happy for people to keep talking about books they want to read, but I'll also try to facilitate a bit of a narrowing process.

The books that have come up a few times above, along with "votes," are:

-The Towers of Trebizond
-Proud Beggars

I'm happy to add more to this list. I'm not sure how we should finalize the pick at the end of the day. The polls are cumbersome, I feel. I'd rather find one people are excited about because people are talking about it, if possible.

To give a bit more detail on Proud Beggars and The Towers of Trebizond . . .

Regarding Proud Beggars, I've read a few other books by Albert Cossery, A Splendid Conspiracy and The Colors of Infamy, each published by New Directions. I liked each of them, without loving either, and perhaps have hesitated to read the two NYRB Classics has printed. Cossery's exploration of poor, often deliberately lazy bon vivants is interesting but hasn't quite struck a cord with me. I'd be all for seeing how I line up with Proud Beggars.

I have not read The Towers of Trebizond or anything else by Rose Macaulay, but I'm often fascinated by these quasi-autobiographical accounts from women abroad in the early half of the twentieth century. This one looks particularly raucous! One sad thing to note here is that NYRB Classics has lost the rights to this one, so if selected folks will have to look at third-party sellers or to the current FSG edition (which does have a fun cover!).

Moving forward this month, just keep letting us know which books you're interested in reading, and if you have time tell us why. I'd love this to be not just a place to select the next book but also a place to enthuse over the line in general.

We'll make the decision (however we make it) about a week or so before November begins so folks have time to procure the book.

By the way, have any of you read Theodor Storm's The Rider on the White Horse ? It's a collection of shorter works, written between 1848 and 1888, featuring the novella The Rider on the White Horse. The cover has always attracted me, and I've been enjoying what few German books from this time period that I've read.

How about Red Lights by Georges Simenon

I've read Red Lights and liked it a lot.

Okay, let's look at the following:

-The Rider on the White Horse
-The Towers of Trebizond
-Proud Beggars

Could folks vote on these without a poll? Just vote for one here and I'll tally them up in the next couple of days.

Sorry for repeating, but I vote for Towers of Trebizond. (Also, sorry for not adding more to this discussion. I meant to post something more substantive about what I've been looking to read. Next month!)

No worries, Jason! I'm going to set up another of these for December's selection once November hits. That way, we can keep discussing the books we're interested in all the time :-)

Here's the updated tally (I'm voting for The Rider on the White Horse):

1 : The Rider on the White Horse
1 : The Towers of Trebizond
0 : Proud Beggars

I'll keep this tally alive if people could vote. I don't anticipate a lot of votes on this one. If you'd like to spread the word to other members, I think you can do that through the group. I'm going to forbear this time around but I'll do that again for December's.

I'm going to vote for Proud Beggars, just because it's the one I'm least likely to get to on my own.

And we've got an exciting race!


1 : The Rider on the White Horse
1 : The Towers of Trebizond
1 : Proud Beggars

I vote : The rider on the white horse

More votes, please!



2 : The Rider on the White Horse
1 : The Towers of Trebizond
1 : Proud Beggars


(I haven't, yet, counted any "votes" from before today, thinking they may have been a bit premature. I can do that before this ends, though, should those folks not return . . . I know, this is not the best way to do this, but I'm slightly at a loss when many people vote but never otherwise participate if we do a wider voting.)

Yours was a vote from above that I hesitated to count, Cphe, since two of the titles you mentioned were in the running -- and here you go voting for the other :-) .



3 : The Rider on the White Horse
1 : The Towers of Trebizond
1 : Proud Beggars

Trevor wrote: "Yours was a vote from above that I hesitated to count, Cphe, since two of the titles you mentioned were in the running -- and here you go voting for the other :-) .



3 : The Rider on the White Ho..."

If I can manage to join in and make a better showing than my last attempt I think my vote would be for The Rider of the White Horse as well. I am attempting to try to capitalize on German lit month and this being German sold me.

BTW, one of my local indie shops maintains a full roster of nyrb titles and I noticed that The Towers of Trebizond is only available as an FSG title (I'm in Canada). I wondered if nyrb no longer has the rights.

You're correct. NYRB no longer has the rights to that title. But we can still select it if folks want :-). I will tack you up for Riders, giving it 4.

For my first vote:The Rider on the White Horse

I vote for Towers of Trebizond

I'm not sure how much time I'll have this month but 'Rider on the White Horse' would be my choice. The others don't appeal to me.

I think we should call it with this being the final tally:



5 - The Rider on the White Horse
2 - The Towers of Trebizond
1 - Proud Beggars

I'll get the thread set up for the group read as well as for the general discussion of possibilities for December.

So, for November, let's get into some German literature!

Thinking it was a likely choice I grabbed a copy while I was out today. (I won't even mention the other damage I got into while I was there, but every other book I bought was on sale)

My library doesn't carry this (not even on ILL) - bummer!

My library has it but it is called "The white horse rider" published in 1966