Got 1/3 through gravity’s rainbow two separate times as a younger man. Decided to put Pynchon away for later in life. Just watched chair company and now have decided it’s time to do the thing. So, CoL49 first. Then Vineland (maybe) and then G’sR.
Not OP, but I would totally recommend. It is a great story. I am also a woman of Irish descent, so that may have contributed to my own experience with the book.
I’m about 100 pages in and really feel like I’m “there” with the characters in a time and place among people worth knowing. It’s been on my Read It list for a long time as it’s such a classic, and I can see why. There isn’t anything especially “happening” (so far) that I’d call a story, but it’s like being there among the people. I am enjoying it.
Betty Smith was exactly the same age as my grandparents, and she lived in an urban world similar to hers. So I feel like it gives me a little taste of their lives in the early 20th century.
Just finished listening to Kingsolver reading this in audiobook form. She is a wonderful writer and reader. Love the way her voice changes for each of the five women…
This run of Woolf from To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928), A Room of One’s Own (1929), and The Waves (1931) puts her in the Top Tier of Writers imo. Hope you enjoy it!
I loved everything I have read by her, including her diaries. I really liked Jacob's Room, which doesn't get mentioned much - the ending was devastating.
Still on Faulkner in chronological order. Finishing The Town this weekend, maybe tonight. Then it’s one short story I can’t recall the name of and then on to the jewel of the Faulknerian crown: The Sound and the Fury.
I JUST finished this. What a wonderful storyteller Morrison is. I read the bluest eye earlier this year (a re-read, but I remembered almost nothing), and plan to read through her fiction catalogue chronologically over the next year or two. Not sure if I will reread those novels that I’ve already read or not. She is definitely one of my favorite authors.
Sula is a re-read for me. I read it first for class in college. I am enjoying it. As an Ohioan, I am excited for the upcoming Morrison centennial in 26 and all the events and readings around the state.
I'm at the part where Raskolnikov meets Luzhin. It's a little slow for me, but I find the psychological aspects to be interesting. I did take a break to read more about the historical/philosophical context in which this was written and it helped me better appreciate the focus on Raskolnikov's mental torment.
Just finished Endling by Maria Reva (and loved it). Started the My Brilliant Friend tetralogy by Elena Ferrante and no one can convince me that Yiyun Li's The Book of Goose isn't lowkey a direct copy of the relationship between the two girls in MBF.
The Book of Goose is one of the most elegantly written books I have ever read. Not one wasted word. She is such an incredible writer, and has had a very dark life.
Just started Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. I recently finished A Swim in a Pond in the Rain and I liked his style despite not having read any of the short fiction he’s known for
Mick Herron, Clown Town.
Funniest sentence so far: "The royal family, apparently, never travel en masse in the same vehicle - this is to avoid the possibility of lineage-shattering accidents. That what they tell Andrew, anyway."
Read about half of it still not sure if I can grasp what’s going on here. Not necessarily a bad thing, it’s beautifully written. But not much of a plot or characters to follow.
I'm a little over halfway through and it has been enjoyable. Specially the two longerish stories that I've read so far. This is the first time I read her so I can't compare relative to the quality of her other works, but it has been good so far.
Europe's Steppe Frontiers, 1500-1800 by William McNeill. Mainly bedtime reading. I just finished Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner and Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, and I'm not sure what I want to pick up next.
One of the classic dictator novels of Latin America. This one is particularly noteworthy for the storytelling style, or in this case, styles. Bastos blends together the Supreme’s first person narrative, his private notebook, someone’s running commentary in the marginalia of that notebook, a perpetual circular that is meant to be the “official” record, footnotes by various people (both historical and fictional) all put together by a mysterious “compiler.”
Facundo by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
This work has inspired countless other works, notably, I, the Supreme. It’s considered “creative nonfiction,” a blend of essay, history, biography, politics, culture, and study of the gaucho, of Argentina, of civilization vs barbarism. His sense of barbarism isn’t the same as our notion of it today but it’s still quite a good read and a foundational piece of literature.
I’m reading Blackwater by McDowell. Enjoyed it, but kept wondering when my taste had taken this turn. Turns out it hadn’t — I’d ordered it by mistake. The Blackwater Lightship by Tóibín was the book I actually meant to buy.
Between books right now! Have to pick my next today
I have a few options; I want to do some epic scifi or fantasy because I haven’t in a while, so it’s either going to be Gardens of the Moon, or Fire Upon the Deep
I started reading Great Expectations after finishing the Death of Virgil today. I’ve realised I’ve grossly ignored Dickens and have never given him a fair shot. Enjoying it so far
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. I cannot believe I have not read this till now. I think I thought Tad Williams was some fantasy hack trying to ape Tolkien. He's absolutely not. This is better than a Song of Ice and Fire, no joke.
I keyed up the audiobook for Tom Sawyer. I listen to it on my heights which is about an hour or two at a pop. I'm hoping to do more American classics this year as audio books. Regular reading I'm purely smut.
I always have several books going at once. Just started The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, I'm rereading Lonesome Dove, and slowly making my way through The Return of the King.
I just finished ‘I Hope This Finds You Well’ by Natalie Sue.
I’m now going through my ritual of choosing the next one: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent, or All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood.
At work: Orbit 4. The Orbit anthologies are collections of SF short fiction compiled and edited by Damon Knight. Great window onto New Wave SF. This volume in particular as a novella titled “Probable Cause” that uses its core concept of emerging psychic phenomena as an examination of the US legal system, with a focus on the Supreme Court Justices ruling on whether a clairvoyant’s claims constitute probable cause to issue a warrant, whether they’re an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, and whether a Justice’s obligation is to the law or to the accused. Great stuff.
Public Transit book: Joan Vinge’s The Snow Queen, s part of my goal to read all of the Hugo-winning novels.
Audiobook for walking and chores: Downbelow Station by Cherryh, also among the Hugo winners.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Oh how I love Olive!
Strout is a master!
Absolutely. The Amgash series was brilliant too.
I’m in the middle of Tell Me Everything. She is such a pleasure to read.
One of my favorite reads of 2025!
Crying of Lot 49
Great introduction to Pynchon
Got 1/3 through gravity’s rainbow two separate times as a younger man. Decided to put Pynchon away for later in life. Just watched chair company and now have decided it’s time to do the thing. So, CoL49 first. Then Vineland (maybe) and then G’sR.
Inherent Vice was my first this year and I didn’t really struggle at all. I’m surprised I don’t hear people recommend it more as a first Pynchon.
Once I got past the first few chapters I found it fascinating!
I've got trauma from this number also 51
More like PTSD
Little Women
The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende
Great book!
Loved this, obviously owes a huge debt to 100 Years of Solitude but feels unique and insightful in its own way.
Giovanni's room which i highly recommend so far, vivid, aggresive prose, and you can finish it in a couple days.
East of Eden. Almost done!
Timshel
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Would you recommend?
Not OP, but I would totally recommend. It is a great story. I am also a woman of Irish descent, so that may have contributed to my own experience with the book.
I’m about 100 pages in and really feel like I’m “there” with the characters in a time and place among people worth knowing. It’s been on my Read It list for a long time as it’s such a classic, and I can see why. There isn’t anything especially “happening” (so far) that I’d call a story, but it’s like being there among the people. I am enjoying it.
Betty Smith was exactly the same age as my grandparents, and she lived in an urban world similar to hers. So I feel like it gives me a little taste of their lives in the early 20th century.
I read it as a 33 year old blue collar carpenter in the countryside, and fell in love.
Anna Karenina for the first time.
This was the first book I ever actually read all the way through. I must have been 15 or 16 and it was life changing.
Same
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
Just finished listening to Kingsolver reading this in audiobook form. She is a wonderful writer and reader. Love the way her voice changes for each of the five women…
You’re so right, they’re all so distinct!
King Lear
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - Raymond Carver
To The Lighthouse
My favorite by her. Such a beautifully written novel.
My first by her, but it won't be the last. I don't know why I waited so long. I guess I was afraid of Virginia Woolf!
What? Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?!
jk. Sorry. Great play and film.
This run of Woolf from To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928), A Room of One’s Own (1929), and The Waves (1931) puts her in the Top Tier of Writers imo. Hope you enjoy it!
The Waves is my all-time favorite novel!
Woolf hit nothing but home runs after Mrs. Dalloway.
I loved everything I have read by her, including her diaries. I really liked Jacob's Room, which doesn't get mentioned much - the ending was devastating.
Still on Faulkner in chronological order. Finishing The Town this weekend, maybe tonight. Then it’s one short story I can’t recall the name of and then on to the jewel of the Faulknerian crown: The Sound and the Fury.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.
About a 100 pages in.
This had me laughing and snotty unglued crying, it hit all the right places
I love all his books.
Sula by Toni Morrison.
I JUST finished this. What a wonderful storyteller Morrison is. I read the bluest eye earlier this year (a re-read, but I remembered almost nothing), and plan to read through her fiction catalogue chronologically over the next year or two. Not sure if I will reread those novels that I’ve already read or not. She is definitely one of my favorite authors.
Sula is a re-read for me. I read it first for class in college. I am enjoying it. As an Ohioan, I am excited for the upcoming Morrison centennial in 26 and all the events and readings around the state.
Just read this yesterday!
Crime and Punishment. It's been on my list for years!
Same here! Currently approaching part 3, haven’t quite clicked with it yet. Where are you at, should I stick it out?
I'm at the part where Raskolnikov meets Luzhin. It's a little slow for me, but I find the psychological aspects to be interesting. I did take a break to read more about the historical/philosophical context in which this was written and it helped me better appreciate the focus on Raskolnikov's mental torment.
Keep going!
I just did my longest session yet! Part 2's latter half enthralled me!
Looking forward to seeing Raskolnikov's philosophy play out.
Made me SOB ! ❤️
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce! I'm a bit over halfway through and I love it, Joyce's prose is something else so so good
The long depiction of catholic hell cements it as a horror novel
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
I'm doing my annual New Year's rewatch of the three movies. Always so good!
Savoring the last part of Brideshead Revisted.
Ah, I just started this! I'm early in but already enjoying it a lot.
Moby Dick
To me, a perfect novel. And the amount of detail/research he put into it is incredible.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Me, too!
Great book - I re-read it this year. Been on a dark academic kick - but this is The book that started that whole vibe. Enjoy!
Un chef d’œuvre.
I just finished Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Highly recommend.
Lonesome Dove
Infinite jest. 210 pages in. Mixed feelings so far but it's slowly warming up to me.
Just finished Endling by Maria Reva (and loved it). Started the My Brilliant Friend tetralogy by Elena Ferrante and no one can convince me that Yiyun Li's The Book of Goose isn't lowkey a direct copy of the relationship between the two girls in MBF.
The Book of Goose is one of the most elegantly written books I have ever read. Not one wasted word. She is such an incredible writer, and has had a very dark life.
Just started Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. I recently finished A Swim in a Pond in the Rain and I liked his style despite not having read any of the short fiction he’s known for
"you are a wave thats crashed upon the shore"
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Devastatingly good.
The Double by Dostoevsky
Just now finished Of Mice and Men - Wow! What a story.
Crime and Punishment, the Oliver Ready translation.
Honestly I know this is not a flex but I finally picked up the fourth wing series and I love the brain break. It’s wonderfully written.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
It by Stephen King, my first King novel
Just now finished Audition by Katie Katimura. Will be chewing on it for some time.
Cloud Atlas
East of Eden
Moby Dick
Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Fiction — Giovanni’s Room (Baldwin)
Nf — Unweaving the Rainbow (Dawkins)
DUNE
Gone Girl. Nick and Amy are both horrible people in the same horrible way and deserve each other. Loving this book!
Dracula! It’s actually a fantastic story. Creepy.
Mick Herron, Clown Town.
Funniest sentence so far: "The royal family, apparently, never travel en masse in the same vehicle - this is to avoid the possibility of lineage-shattering accidents. That what they tell Andrew, anyway."
Screenplay for The Big Lebowski.
Hell yeah! A well-written movie script can be literature. I haven’t read a Coen Brothers script but your post inspired me to do so. Cheers!
https://inwardeleven.com/lebowski/The%20Big%20Lebowski.pdf
The Plains - Gerald Murnane
Read about half of it still not sure if I can grasp what’s going on here. Not necessarily a bad thing, it’s beautifully written. But not much of a plot or characters to follow.
Murnane is autistic/neurodivergent and he really has his own way of exploring ideas and writing. He is a writer's writer for sure.
Yeah, it feels like he’s working out ideas here. Closer to some kinda philosophical treatise than a normal novel.
Good though, how often do you read a book where you wonder how the fuck could anyone come up with this?
Sobolos Rios Que Vão - Lobo Antunes
Reddit really put a translation button on this comment and changed nothing.
Ehehe I don’t think the work is translated to english anyway, but some other of António Lobo Antunes are
The Familiar, Vol. 5 - MZD
Vaim - Jon Fosse
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf
Huh. I’ve read most of her novels but somehow missed this collection of short stories. How is it?
I'm a little over halfway through and it has been enjoyable. Specially the two longerish stories that I've read so far. This is the first time I read her so I can't compare relative to the quality of her other works, but it has been good so far.
Europe's Steppe Frontiers, 1500-1800 by William McNeill. Mainly bedtime reading. I just finished Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner and Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, and I'm not sure what I want to pick up next.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (ebook).
Assassin's Creed The Secret Crusade by Oliver Bowden (paperback}.
3 other historical nonfiction ongoing...
Cloud Atlas was excellent.
Eye of the Monkey by Krisztina Toth, Satantango by Krasznahorkai and The Morning Star by Knausgaard.
The Hobbit
Human Acts by Han Kang
The Moustache by Emmanuel Carrére
I'll finish it tonight or tomorrow. It's has a very strange plot, it plays some interest philosophical issues, definitely got me thinking.
Edit: very disturbing book, would recommend
I, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos
One of the classic dictator novels of Latin America. This one is particularly noteworthy for the storytelling style, or in this case, styles. Bastos blends together the Supreme’s first person narrative, his private notebook, someone’s running commentary in the marginalia of that notebook, a perpetual circular that is meant to be the “official” record, footnotes by various people (both historical and fictional) all put together by a mysterious “compiler.”
Facundo by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
This work has inspired countless other works, notably, I, the Supreme. It’s considered “creative nonfiction,” a blend of essay, history, biography, politics, culture, and study of the gaucho, of Argentina, of civilization vs barbarism. His sense of barbarism isn’t the same as our notion of it today but it’s still quite a good read and a foundational piece of literature.
Lord of the Rings. I purchased a hardcover copy that comes with all three books in one and copies of Tolkien's illustrations.
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Mason & Dixon
Only about 60 pages in and I'm digging it.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. (I’m only around 70 pages in, so I know I’m in for a long ride.)
I made it about 200 in
That was years ago
Perhaps another attempt is nigh
Lincoln in the Bardo
Re-reading The Handmaid's Tale before starting The Testaments.
I'll be doing the same with 1984 before reading Sandra Newman's Julia
The Poppy Wars, Book 2.
Travels with Charley: In Search of America-Steinbeck
I’m reading Blackwater by McDowell. Enjoyed it, but kept wondering when my taste had taken this turn. Turns out it hadn’t — I’d ordered it by mistake. The Blackwater Lightship by Tóibín was the book I actually meant to buy.
Finishing Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami. Such a great book!
My friend loves it! And I couldn’t get into it. It’s been a few years so maybe I’ll give it another shot :)
Madame Bovary.
Beach music by Pat Conroy
The Wastelands by Stephen King it’s been 6 months since I have been to Midworld… go then… there are other worlds than these
Currently I’m reading this post and it’s comments.
/s
I know I’m gonna get downvoted by book worms who can’t take a joke. And I’m prepared for it.
It's not so much can't take a joke and bored of seeing the same joke ad nauaseum
The Death of an Ordinary Man - Sarah Perry
Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan. As a non sub-atomic physicist it's fairly tough sledding.
The sense of an ending just started but I have high expectations
The Book of Lights by Chaim Potok
Novelist as a vocation by Murakami
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. Finally finished Moby Dick (!) and needed a palate cleanser.
This is my favorite LeGuin book (of the ones that I have read). It might be time for a reread. Enjoy.
Song Of The Lark by wila cather.
American Prometheus
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil
Between books right now! Have to pick my next today
I have a few options; I want to do some epic scifi or fantasy because I haven’t in a while, so it’s either going to be Gardens of the Moon, or Fire Upon the Deep
Almost done with Your Name Here by Helen DeWitt
Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is my first one of his books. Let me know if you have any other suggestions!
Baphomet The Temple Mystery Unveiled by Tracy Twyman and Alexander Rivera
I started reading Great Expectations after finishing the Death of Virgil today. I’ve realised I’ve grossly ignored Dickens and have never given him a fair shot. Enjoying it so far
Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata
A Christmas Carol - a yearly tradition, this year I’m doing it differently and listening to Tim Curry’s narration
Also reading The Bell Jar - another re-read.
I’m finally finishing Infinite Jest
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. I cannot believe I have not read this till now. I think I thought Tad Williams was some fantasy hack trying to ape Tolkien. He's absolutely not. This is better than a Song of Ice and Fire, no joke.
Just finished Dostoyevsky’s Demons. Taking a break with a few fun novels before reading some Gogol.
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Fahrenheit 451
Been reading “IT” by Stephen King for the past couple of months
I keyed up the audiobook for Tom Sawyer. I listen to it on my heights which is about an hour or two at a pop. I'm hoping to do more American classics this year as audio books. Regular reading I'm purely smut.
Jazz by Toni Morrison
I spent yesterday reading Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke. Inspiring.
Moby Dick
at the moment, overstory by richard powers
The Wager.
A farewell to arms
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Cakes and Ale by WS Maugham
Moby Dick, finally lol
The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of The Calla
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
I always have several books going at once. Just started The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, I'm rereading Lonesome Dove, and slowly making my way through The Return of the King.
Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski
ficciones by borges to practice my spanish during uni interterm
The death of Ivan Ilich
I’m trading two books right now:
War and Peace- Tolstoy
The Fires of Heaven- Robert Jordan
How readable is War and Peace?
Balcony in the Forest
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
florence adler swims forever by rachel beanland
Itzá by Rios de la Cruz
It's short, and I only have 25 pages left, so I'll start something new today, but I'm not sure what yet.
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
About to start "Sisters in Yellow" by Mieko Kawakami.
Murdrum The Probe Begins
A Woman of No Importance, Sonia Purnell. Maybe not literature but a terrific read!
I just finished ‘I Hope This Finds You Well’ by Natalie Sue.
I’m now going through my ritual of choosing the next one: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent, or All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood.
Wolf Solent by John Cowper Powys
The Compound, by Aisling Rawle; The Book of the Damned, by Tanith Lee; and rereading Ice, by Anna Kavan. A great book. Very uncomfortable.
At work: Orbit 4. The Orbit anthologies are collections of SF short fiction compiled and edited by Damon Knight. Great window onto New Wave SF. This volume in particular as a novella titled “Probable Cause” that uses its core concept of emerging psychic phenomena as an examination of the US legal system, with a focus on the Supreme Court Justices ruling on whether a clairvoyant’s claims constitute probable cause to issue a warrant, whether they’re an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, and whether a Justice’s obligation is to the law or to the accused. Great stuff.
Public Transit book: Joan Vinge’s The Snow Queen, s part of my goal to read all of the Hugo-winning novels.
Audiobook for walking and chores: Downbelow Station by Cherryh, also among the Hugo winners.
Ideas and opinions - Albert Einstein
Ultimate hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Complete poems of Emily Dickinson
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison
I just finished Life for Sale by Mishima. Probably my favourite Mishima so far-- I didn't realize how funny he could be!
Chelsea Girls by Eileen Myles
A Girl’s Story by Annie Ernaux
A little life :<
I am about to complete The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Tokarczuk and The Fire Next Time by Baldwin
Authority by Jeff Vandermeer
The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr. Loving it!