moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 28, 2023 19:57:59 GMT -5
This 'tag' popped up on Booktube, so for the purposes of both fun and accountability, here are my stats: # of books read so far this year: 21goal (if any): 40+ so I'm on track favorite so far: Jazz by Toni Morrison I read this for CHIRP Music Book Club, for which I will be leading a discussion tomorrow whilst enjoying a playlist of hot jazz :-) I'd like to live in this book. biggest pleasant surprise: Tamaishi by Ian Tadashi Moore I found this at Signal Return Press in Detroit, which I stumbled upon during a recent work trip. It's a delightful little fable about a little pebble finding his place in the world. biggest disappointment: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan or All About Love by bell hooksmy reviews speak for themselvesnew favorite author: David Batchelor, a painter who writes about aesthetics and color theory book that made you cry: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon My therapist loaned this to me and it was a tough, but very edifying read. I recommend it to anyone with mental health issues with the caveat that you skip any parts that are too boring or too difficult emotionally. book that made you happy: The Pooh Perplex by Frederick C. CrewsOne of my best friends has a sideline in used book dealing and I found this on her personal shelves. Although she only loaned it to me for one of my reading challenges, I've opted to keep it because it's such a hoot. most beautiful book you have received this year: three-way tie between the saucy red Penguin hardcover of Lady Chatterley's Lover, the Annotated Mrs. Dalloway and Supreme Glamour. That probably tells you a lot about me. new release you want to read/pre-order: Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis CockerI broke down and ordered a used hardcover from the UK because I cannot wait for a U.S. edition best sequel: I don't read a lot of series (except Fantomas) but I ended up reading The World We Make by N.K. Jemison simply because she didn't bother to give The City We Became a proper ending. what do you still need to read by the end of the year: I've only finished 5/14 prompts for my Modern Life is Rubbish Reading Challenge, so next up is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro ("Pressure on Julian" – read something ‘dark academia’ or takes place at a school); The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell ("Blue Jeans" – read a story with a blue collar setting); Dead Babies by Martin Amis ("Chemical World" – read something nihilistic and druggy); Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell ("Miss America" – read something with an American female protagonist); The Obscene Bird of Night by Jose Donoso ("Villa Rosie" – read something that takes place in Latin America, Iberian Peninsula, or Italy); and The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber ("Resigned" – read a book about work), among others Fellow readers, where ya at? |
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Jun 29, 2023 3:11:02 GMT -5
I'm on book 34, which happens to be a reread of Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Days by Salman Rushdie.
Hoping to get around 70 for the year, which is the upper level of what I normally manage.
For whatever reason, I've been rereading a lot this year, far more than usual - about two thirds. I'd like to tame that stat over the rest of the year, so here's hoping no more of my favourites die/get murdered, thus driving me back to their shelves. That means you, Stephen King and Salman Rushdie.
I'd like to crack some Proust, since I've never read him, and also A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. I've tackled some long'uns so far this year, such as Dickens and Hugo, but I'll still need a build-up to those.
Anyway, best new thing - Victory City, Salman Rushdie. Best reread - Suttree, Cormac McCarthy.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 29, 2023 10:44:34 GMT -5
I'm on book 34, which happens to be a reread of Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Days by Salman Rushdie. Hoping to get around 70 for the year, which is the upper level of what I normally manage. For whatever reason, I've been rereading a lot this year, far more than usual - about two thirds. I'd like to tame that stat over the rest of the year, so here's hoping no more of my favourites die/get murdered, thus driving me back to their shelves. That means you, Stephen King and Salman Rushdie. I'd like to crack some Proust, since I've never read him, and also A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. I've tackled some long'uns so far this year, such as Dickens and Hugo, but I'll still need a build-up to those. Anyway, best new thing - Victory City, Salman Rushdie. Best reread - Suttree, Cormac McCarthy. I appreciate the Rushdie recommendations because so far I've enjoyed Midnight's Children and Haroun & the Sea of Stories, but I'm much more circumspect about the premises of some of his other books. I've never been sure where to continue with him. |
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Jun 29, 2023 10:57:50 GMT -5
I appreciate the Rushdie recommendations because so far I've enjoyed Midnight's Children and Haroun & the Sea of Stories, but I'm much more circumspect about the premises of some of his other books. I've never been sure where to continue with him. If you want to sidestep the fiction, there's also his memoir, Joseph Anton, largely covering the fatwa years. I thought it really good. Few can put a sentence together as well as him. |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Jun 30, 2023 13:03:51 GMT -5
I finished book 51 last night (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami, aka the book Cousin Richy was talking about in the first episode of the new season of The Bear). My goal is 100, so I'm doing good. I do not expect to read as many monstrous Anthony Trollope novels in the second half of the year as I did in the first half, so that should take some of the pressure off.
Some stuff I really liked:
The Leopard (Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa)
Cathedral (Raymond Carver)
Avid Reader (Bob Gottlieb)
Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison)
Old School (Tobias Wolff)
The Legacy of Conquest (Patricia Limerick), especially in tandem with Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry) bc McMurtry himself recommended it.
Biggest disappointment was probably NW by Zadie Smith, didn't care for the way she presented that story at all.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Jun 30, 2023 13:32:18 GMT -5
I finished book 51 last night ( Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami, aka the book Cousin Richy was talking about in the first episode of the new season of The Bear). My goal is 100, so I'm doing good. I do not expect to read as many monstrous Anthony Trollope novels in the second half of the year as I did in the first half, so that should take some of the pressure off. Some stuff I really liked: T he Leopard (Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa) Cathedral (Raymond Carver) Avid Reader (Bob Gottlieb) Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison) Old School (Tobias Wolff) The Legacy of Conquest (Patricia Limerick), especially in tandem with Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry) bc McMurtry himself recommended it. Biggest disappointment was probably NW by Zadie Smith, didn't care for the way she presented that story at all.
I tried the first two Zadie Smith novels, finished neither of them, and gave up on her. Jeez, though, she was everywhere in the early aughts. |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Jun 30, 2023 13:36:53 GMT -5
I finished book 51 last night ( Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami, aka the book Cousin Richy was talking about in the first episode of the new season of The Bear). My goal is 100, so I'm doing good. I do not expect to read as many monstrous Anthony Trollope novels in the second half of the year as I did in the first half, so that should take some of the pressure off. Some stuff I really liked: T he Leopard (Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa) Cathedral (Raymond Carver) Avid Reader (Bob Gottlieb) Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison) Old School (Tobias Wolff) The Legacy of Conquest (Patricia Limerick), especially in tandem with Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry) bc McMurtry himself recommended it. Biggest disappointment was probably NW by Zadie Smith, didn't care for the way she presented that story at all.
I tried the first two Zadie Smith novels, finished neither of them, and gave up on her. Jeez, though, she was everywhere in the early aughts. I liked White Teeth a fair bit last year. But NW was absolutely smothered by her choice to give the various POV characters extremely affected narrative voices (like, iirc there was one whose chapters go for pages at a time without paragraph breaks?) |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jun 30, 2023 16:08:45 GMT -5
I finished book 51 last night ( Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami, aka the book Cousin Richy was talking about in the first episode of the new season of The Bear). My goal is 100, so I'm doing good. I do not expect to read as many monstrous Anthony Trollope novels in the second half of the year as I did in the first half, so that should take some of the pressure off. Some stuff I really liked: T he Leopard (Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa) Cathedral (Raymond Carver) Avid Reader (Bob Gottlieb) Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison) Old School (Tobias Wolff) The Legacy of Conquest (Patricia Limerick), especially in tandem with Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry) bc McMurtry himself recommended it. Biggest disappointment was probably NW by Zadie Smith, didn't care for the way she presented that story at all.
I tried the first two Zadie Smith novels, finished neither of them, and gave up on her. Jeez, though, she was everywhere in the early aughts. Zadie Smith is on my shit list for her bad characterizations and the botched ending of White Teeth (per my salty review). Between that and the last one I read, I'm actually thinking about starting some sort of online crusade against bad South Asian representation in lit. On this point, I give N.K. Jemison credit; her South Asian characters are pretty legit and I'm pretty sure it's because she took pains to consult with the people she was trying to represent. |
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Jul 1, 2023 9:49:09 GMT -5
I finished book 51 last night ( Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami, aka the book Cousin Richy was talking about in the first episode of the new season of The Bear). My goal is 100, so I'm doing good. I do not expect to read as many monstrous Anthony Trollope novels in the second half of the year as I did in the first half, so that should take some of the pressure off. Some stuff I really liked: T he Leopard (Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa) Cathedral (Raymond Carver) Avid Reader (Bob Gottlieb) Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison) Old School (Tobias Wolff) The Legacy of Conquest (Patricia Limerick), especially in tandem with Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry) bc McMurtry himself recommended it. Biggest disappointment was probably NW by Zadie Smith, didn't care for the way she presented that story at all.
What’d you think of the Murakami novel? I didn’t care for it, aside from a chapter where some guy tells a story about a jazz(?) pianist(?), I think. |
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