From the Bookshelf of Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)…

Zorba the Greek

Nikos Kazantzakis

Start date: January 1, 2026

Finish date: January 30, 2026

Why we're reading this: January 2026 New School Classics Group Read
[close] January 2026 New School Classics Group Read

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What Members Thought

Oct 16, 2008 Brad rated it really liked it

Shelves: classic

Sensuality, sexuality, misogyny, homoeroticism, brutality, indifference, spirituality, religion, capitalism, war, communism, murder, arson, music, dance, work, rest, sleep, death, food and wine.

These ingredients may have been put together to tell us how to live our lives in and for every moment, but something tells me Kazantzakis was not writing Zorba the Greek to preach a way of life so much as to celebrate life in all its glory -- seeing everything in life, including death, as worthy of glori ...more

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Aug 23, 2024 Andreea rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, read-shelf-my-audiobooks, classics, literary-stuff, philosophy-stuff-maybe, no-plot-just-vibes, book-club-b, summer-reads

2.75 stars (I am kinda being nice, but there are some pretty damn good things in this one)

You bet I am listening to Paris Paloma's Labour as I am writing this review.

Let's start with what I liked:

- I started this book in Crete and I absolutely fell in love with the author's way of describing Crete - especially the flora of it, especially being there and noticing the same trees and plants. I want to say it really transported me there but I was already there so.. It was an epic experience anyway.
- ...more

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May 23, 2015 Sudha Hariharan rated it really liked it

After reading a lot of books which seemed to eulogize book-reading (Ex libbers Ruined by reading,..), this novel was an unforeseen change. An avid reader often hears statements such “you read too much”, “reading much won’t help you any way”. It gets annoying and the usual reaction is to treat the person passing such comments as an ignorant brute. Zorba the greek changes the perspective. The illiterate brute, who does not read, is portrayed as a man who has brilliant insights to life.

To the mode ...more

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