2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This is where we will discuss the book after we start reading it in December.

Please remember to mark spoilers by using spoiler tags: [spoiler]...[/spoiler], but replace [ by < and ] by >

This is your space to chat about this month's book selection with other readers. There is no set schedule to follow, and no discussion leader is assigned. Everyone should feel free to post comments, share pertinent articles or interviews, ask questions, share likes or dislikes, etc. Most importantly, enjoy reading together!

What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

I just read the first chapter and I'm so intrigued.
The diction is gorgeous even though it's a translation.
I can safely assume that this is not an ordinary novel :)
Also, Josè Arcadio Buendía sounds like my father. 😄

I am about 10% into it and I am thinking that I probably should have read this one instead of trying to listen to it. There is something about the audio that is not keeping my mind from wandering. I am lost a good part of the time so I think I may have to start over. When I am not lost, I have found it very interesting though.

Carrie wrote: "I am about 10% into it and I am thinking that I probably should have read this one instead of trying to listen to it. There is something about the audio that is not keeping my mind from wandering. ..."

I'm almost 100 pages in reading it and I feel lost. :(

I haven't gotten super far, but it's clear that this is the kind of book that needs to be read and digested before asking too many questions. I really enjoy the prose and I'm looking forward to meeting more characters and seeing how the stories progress.

I tried to read it but I just couldn't, so I'm trying to listen to the audiobook. That's... a little better, but I'm having a hard time paying attention. I feel like I'm just waiting for it to be over, like when a teacher is reading something from a textbook. I was excited to read/listen to something new too.

Carrie wrote: "I am about 10% into it and I am thinking that I probably should have read this one instead of trying to listen to it. There is something about the audio that is not keeping my mind from wandering. ..."
I am also about 10% in and honestly even while reading it I still find my attention wandering! It's not the easiest story to follow, and I find myself reading very slowly or going back to re-read some pages a lot haha

I finished listening to the book and it helps if you can keep a family tree with you while listening to/ reading the book. Without any doubt, it is not an easy read but it becomes more enticing after the first few chapters!! It will be very magical! Each and every character is lonely in one way or another and their loneliness is what runs through the bloodline. I want to read the book again to really immerse in the surreal world of the novel.

I suggest you draw your own family tree as you read, cos if you find one complete it can be minor spoiler for future relationships. Just take a peace of paper and as new character shows up add it to the drawing. There is also new Tv series recently released done by this books and it does look visually amassing if anyone wants to check it out after finishing the book.

I have finally made it about 78% of the way through this. I also ended up finding a family tree to refer to and it has helped. I really wished that I had the time to stop and study and maybe even re-read parts of it. This is not the kind of book that you want to rush through.
(view spoiler)[ I am a little confused by the way the book started, I really thought that it was doing a little "look back" to the beginning at the same time that it was "looking to the end" and then would fill in the middle. And it kinda did that but then just kept on going way past that. I am wondering if the ending will tie everything together to one main plot a little better. Right now, this seems more like a really interesting sopa opera where characters come and go, are born and die, and the story just keeps going with no planned end game. Don't get me wrong, I have loved a good soap opera in the past and have followed for decades so I can get on board with that type of storytelling but it just is a little harder to enjoy in a book where you expect a beginning, middle, and end even if sometimes they are told out of order. (hide spoiler)]

As I get closer to the end of the book, I feel like I have missed a lot of important story and I wish that I was enjoying it more. It ebbs and flows, I will really get into part of it and then the next thing I know I am completely lost again. But just the fact that it is taking me so long to finish says quite a bit about it. I keep saying I like it, but have to make myself pick it up every time.

This is one of those books I was assigned to read in college and I feel immensely guilty for skimming/spark noting my way through it now that I’m a bit older. I’ve kept my old copy on the shelf and brought it with me through every move planning to one day pick it back up and this group read has finally motivated me to do so!

I read chapter 1 today and like most everyone else has said, I’m very curious about where this story is going to take us. Thank you, Sinisa, for the advice about creating your own family tree to update as you go along. I think I’m going to have to do this before we add many more characters. I knew going in based on my Spanish professor’s lessons that the names would get confusing very quickly and the further away in the book we get from that family tree the more I anticipate it being too difficult to remember on my own. Plus I like being able to add my own notes about characters.

I’ve only ever heard fantastic things about Gabriel García Márquez and I really want to push through the book this time even if it gets confusing.

I'm half way through chapter two, and I'm intrigued, like many people in this thread. I'll draw my own family tree, as I find those characters' names quite confusing (though not as much as in a Russian novel).

I wonder, would it help to draw a rough map too? The geography seems significant, but also quite nonsensical...

Edit : I'm about 90 pages into this book : is it me, or are all the characters really weird about sex? Like, sometimes, borderline criminal?

La_mariane wrote: "I'm half way through chapter two, and I'm intrigued, like many people in this thread. I'll draw my own family tree, as I find those characters' names quite confusing (though not as much as in a Rus..."

You’re not the only one. It’s a re-read for me, and I’m reading it now after probably 10 or more years have passed since I read it the first time, so the way I see a lot of things have changed quite a bit, and all the violent/creepy sexual stuff is chilling me quite a bit also. But from what I understand, there’s a lot of subtext about colonialism and all the stuff that comes with that, and so that distorted/criminal sexuality does not surprise me, in a sense.

On another note, I’m somewhere in the second chapter now. It’s a slow book, like most have already mentioned, but the prose it beautiful, and I’m getting reminded with every single sentence of why this book has been one of my favorite books for such a long time. And the fact that I catch myself doing further research into certain passages, their possible meanings, or things mentioned, looking into other similar works and even literature science works written about this book (already reserved one such disertation in the library)… yeah, this book has me in it’s grip, even though it is not an easiest read, effort and subject wise.

Wait, nevermind, I’m further into the book and it’s just getting worse (the sex thing), and does not have anything to do with colonialism, like I’ve read in some article.

I’ve got one chapter left in this book and I have to thank everyone who recommended keeping a family tree of all the characters. It has kept me sane throughout this story!

(view spoiler)[ I must say, I’m ready for Gabriel to wrap this story up. After the deaths of almost all the original characters from the first few chapters, there’s not a lot left that I’m finding interesting. I’m glad that I’ve stuck it out though and finally finished the book after all these years but I don’t think I return to it anytime soon for a reread. (hide spoiler)]

Sylvia wrote: "I tried to read it but I just couldn't, so I'm trying to listen to the audiobook. That's... a little better, but I'm having a hard time paying attention. I feel like I'm just waiting for it to be o..."

Reading your comment made me feel so seen! I was worried that I was the only one with this opinion. I'm struggling with how many different ideas are presented, and how much each is described and sometimes intertwined. There are times where I'm reading about a character or event and it feels so long and drawn out that I'm confused because my mind can't physically hold and connect all that information so I get lost from the beginning to end.

I also listened to an audio version. This novel is excellent if you enjoy magical realism. I'm not a big fan, but I did complete it. I may go back and reread it someday.