21st Century Literature discussion
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I Can't Believe I Haven't Read [?] Yet! (3/3/19)
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I can't think of many post-2000 ones other than new ones that are still in hardback, though with the exception of 2666, Roberto Bolaño should be there, and the only Pynchon I have read is Gravity's Rainbow.
Pynchon for me as well - I haven't read any. He inspired so many authors I love - but I have a feeling I really won't like his books if I read them. Someone said (although I can never trace the quote) of, I think, Joyce's novels, 'I am glad other authors read them, so I don't have to' and Pynchon may be the same for me.Of 2018/19 Zeitgeisty books where an opinion, either way, seems almost compulsory, I haven't read Normal People by Sally Rooney.
Classics are a weak point - Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Moby Dick, I've never read Jane Austen, Middlemarch, Faulkner, I've only read one Bronte, As for contemporary lit, I'm quite happy. I'm just a bit annoyed that I haven't read the Art of Fielding yet but that's on the TBR stack and should be tackled soon.
For me the only ICBIHR_Y is Borges. I first became interested in him 30 years ago when I first read Calvino and Borges was often cited as an influence. Over the years I have always meant to get around to reading him and every so often he is named as an influence for other writers or books I quite like. Last year, during Mookse Madness, one of his stories was selected for the competition, which was the first time I read any of his work and it did not disappoint me. But I still have not gotten around to reading more of him. I call him my favourite author I've never (almost never, now) read.
The Waves -- I love Woolf and went through a phase where I read and reread just her novels and non-fiction about her, but I was going in roughly chronological order and stopped short of The Waves. It's on the bookshelf nearest my bed so I see it every day, reminding me.
Like Paul, I haven't read Sally Rooney and feel like I should. The waitlist for Conversations with Friends at my library is astronomical. I've been on it forever and now I'm 34th in line. I just ordered Normal People. I'm going to assume that I'll never be able to get it from the library.
Also can't believe I haven't read Coetzee.
Like Paul, I haven't read Sally Rooney and feel like I should. The waitlist for Conversations with Friends at my library is astronomical. I've been on it forever and now I'm 34th in line. I just ordered Normal People. I'm going to assume that I'll never be able to get it from the library.
Also can't believe I haven't read Coetzee.
Sara G wrote: "I haven't read Sally Rooney and feel like I should. The waitlist for Conversations with Friends at my library is astronomical. I've been on it forever and now I'm 34th in line."If there are university libraries near you, check there. On many occasions I have found waiting lists of 50 or more for a book at the public library for books just sitting on the shelf at one (or more) university library. Where I live, the universities allow anyone with a public library card to borrow, too.
Paul, I have read all of Pynchon, a lot of it twice - I am fairly sure you won’t like it, but I would love you to try one and prove me wrong.For me, A Suitable Boy has been sitting on the bookshelf for more years than I care to remember.
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Good call. I just checked and their one copy isn't due back until June. The semester-long due dates are great when they benefit me, but not when I'm waiting for a book.
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- The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
- In Search of Lost Timeby Proust, Marcel
The rest are authors I find it hard to believe I haven't read yet given my interest and/or their quality/output: Pynchon, Powers, Tolstoy, Kushner, Cusk, Coetzee, and Tóibín.
Classics: https://www.goodreads.com/list/user_v... (Some of those listed as to-read are books I read part of when I was younger and gave up on, including Moby Dick and Ulysses. I keep that list updated when I finish a new one and list the read ones in the comment box).
Walden is probably the worst of those (though I've read Penguin Great Ideas excerpts) because I post in-depth reviews of nature/environmental writing to which it would be relevant, making a decent number of other informed references... but have still not read bloody Walden. It's very rare anything reminds me of it though - probably only once or twice a year does something come up to flag up what a glaring omission it is. It's weirdly invisible in the UK compared with how canonical it is to Americans.
Recent stuff:
- more by Thomas Pynchon, especially Against the Day
- The Savage Detectives, or any Bolano, but that's the one I really want to read.
- more by Martin Amis, though I'm not very likely to now. London Fields, which I read in my teens, was a massive reference point for me and Amis a big part of how I thought about literature (and still do think of British literature from the 80s and 90s), but I've actually only read that and Money. This never quite computes because it was only when I joined GR that I became of other people who weren't book critics who had read a lot more than I had - or any - of what I'd gone around for more than 15 years thinking of as one of the authors whose works I knew, and compared a lot of other stuff to.
- a number of books I got as gifts when I was a teenager, again mostly 90s litfic by people like Rushdie and McEwan
- various books recommended by an old flatmate from the late 90s who was very up on contemporary literature, and from whom I first heard of Murakami, DFW, and David Mitchell (of Ghostwritten, not Peep Show)
I see some of this as resulting from canon and trend shifts as although I've never done a year or big project of reading all women writers, the idea of catching up on all of that (all big-name male writers) at once looks a little stale
I still haven't read Borges, but I feel like I'm coming closer ;) I also don't know why I've been resistant to starting Ferrante - I have a feeling I'll love Brilliant Friend if I can only push myself to open it.
Neil wrote: "For me, A Suitable Boy has been sitting on the bookshe..."Dive in, the water is great!
It sounds like it might be an idea to have a side project in one of the contemporary literature groups for reading classics, as quite a few frequent posters feel these are oversights.
THE book that I can't believe I haven't read yet: Dune. I start it and I hate it and for some reason this feels like much more of a cultural gap than my not-reading of Proust.
I thought I was the only one who hadn't read Pynchon!I've also never read any Octavia Butler, but that will change soon!
I also haven't read Wolf Hall. Someday!
Marc wrote: "Inspired by a comment Nadine made in the the 21C What Are You Reading thread, how would you fill in the following blank (it can be a book, an author, a series, a genre, etc.)?I CAN'T BELIEVE I HA..."
Oh, my! This one is painful, and much too long. Among authors I'll name, today, V.S. Naipaul, José Saramago, Laurence Sterne, and Mia Couto. (Tomorrow the list would have an entirely other set of names or books or genres, from Ivan Turgenev to Cormac McCarthy's The Road to Patricia Grace's Baby No-Eyes, this last purchased years ago and still not read.)
As some of you know, over the past fifteen years, when I have probably done my most extensive reading for pleasure, I flit between classics and current, leaving many gaps, especially in the early 1900's. I do encourage anyone who has not indulged in the classics to do a dip and scald sampling. I am especially fond of Tolstoy -- books I was surprised to find myself ever reading, I have now read two or three times. He provides me one standard for characterization.
For classics, I'm in pretty good shape except for Pynchon so I need to join the Thomas Pynchon group. Amazingly there is one on GR but it isn't active. I also need to add some Gertrude Stein, Naguib Mahfouz, and Marcel Proust. For contemporary fiction, the list is huge which is one reason I joined this group. The authors I want to get to soon are A. S. Byatt, Angela Carter, Haruki Murakumi, and Sarah Waters.
This thread has pushed me into starting Walden. I'll probably read it quite slowly (due to other reading projects) but that is in the spirit of the thing
Lark wrote: "THE book that I can't believe I haven't read yet: Dune. I start it and I hate it and for some reason this feels like much more of a cultural gap than my not-reading of Proust."I bought and started Dune and thought I would love it but it yeah, I couldn't get into it and so had to set it aside.
For those who are interested in Dune but haven't been able to get into it, you might try the audio version narrated by George Guidall (I can't speak to the other versions currently offered.) I can well imagine that I would have had the same problem getting into the book if I'd read it, but I got so swept up in the story that I ended up reading the other two books in the original trilogy after listening to Guidell's version. I probably never would have started listening to audiobooks, but I travel for my work, and audiobooks have been a lifesaver.
Bryan thanks for this tip. I actually just tried again via audiobook with Dune but it's a version with a big cast, and they have very different levels of narrative skill, and it also drove me crazy how they all pronounce GOM JABBAR differently.
You're welcome. I found out after listening to this several years ago that Guidall is kind of a super-star narrator (I think Simon Vance is probably in that category as well). I think the big cast version must be something that's being pushed at the moment, because when I tried to find Guidall's version on google, all I got was the Scott Brick et al version. Not saying that that one is good or bad, just that I enjoyed Guidall's.
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I probably wouldn't have read Walden if it hadn't been assigned in high school English (there may have been some skimming). I think Don Quixote is the one I most feel is an act of neglect, otherwise I was pretty on point for my classics reading, it's only in the last 10 years or so I've switched to primarily contemporary literature.
For those who don't like Dune, I expect it was mostly of a time (approximately between 1965 and 1985) and an age (preferably between 13 and 18 for first reading). Sorry to hear it doesn't hold up, but that's understandable. It's definitely a bit problematic by today's standards (white savior, anyone?).
I'm all for classics, but still can't believe I haven't read Gone with the Wind, The Three Musketeers, or Robinson Crusoe. Books I'll have to tackle when I get some time.
Paul wrote: "Pynchon for me as well - I haven't read any. He inspired so many authors I love - but I have a feeling I really won't like his books if I read them. Someone said (although I can never trace the quo..."I was determined to read something by Pynchon. Tried the Crying of Lot 49 because recommended as entry point and short. Nope. Then along came Mason and Dixon. Not short, but such fun. I don't have to read any more.
Lark wrote: "THE book that I can't believe I haven't read yet: Dune. I start it and I hate it and for some reason this feels like much more of a cultural gap than my not-reading of Proust."Lark, I read Dune when it was new and was enchanted enough to read the rest of the series until dropping of exhaustion during God Emperor. I decided to give Dune another read last year and couldn't get past the first few chapters. So goes reading.
Maggie wrote: "Paul wrote: "Pynchon for me as well - I haven't read any. He inspired so many authors I love - but I have a feeling I really won't like his books if I read them. Someone said (although I can never ..."I think the biggest mistake is thinking that Crying of Lot 49 is the best entry point for Pynchon. It's easily his worst book. Just goes to show that a think book does not necessarily equate an easy read.
I always tell Pynchon virgins to start with V. It's readable, funny and difficulty level is on par with books such as A girl is a half formed thing or Zadie Smith's more experimental works likeThe Autograph Man or NW.
Inherent Vice is also a good starting point as it is just a convoluted detective novel but it lacks Pynchon's madcap sense of humor and is more an unveiling of the dark underbelly of the hippy era ( something Frank Zappa did in a much better way with the album We're only in it for the Money back in 1968)
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God Emperor was my Waterloo, as well. More recently, I tried reading one of the later books written by Frank Herbert's son. I don't recommend it.
Robert wrote: "I always tell Pynchon virgins to start with V. It's readable, funny and difficulty level is on par with books such as A girl is a half formed thing or Zadie Smith's more experimental works likeThe Autograph Man or NW."There are several people among my GR friends (including some who are very serious about big American lit and who are Pynchon completists) who don't like V or rate it as middling, but love other Pynchon books.
I've also seen a few criticisms of it for sexism.
I liked the beginnings of all other Pynchon books I've looked at (only read 3 whole ones, browsed the others except Bleeding Edge), with the exception of V which seemed like proto-Pynchon, after starting with later, better books.
Overall, my impression of it is as one of the worst places to start.
Haha it’s my word against their’s :) seriously I can understand that because gravity’s rainbow and against the day is Pynchon at his most dazzling but V is a solid taster.
Ah sexism in Pynchon? That’s present in all his books but I’ve read worse (Philip Roth, David foster wallace)
It's ages since I read those comments /reviews but, as far as I can remember, the people in question were saying that they thought it worse in the earlier books, V and Gravity's Rainbow than in the later doorstoppers like Mason & Dixon and Against the Day.
Antonomasia wrote: "It's ages since I read those comments /reviews but, as far as I can remember, the people in question were saying that they thought it worse in the earlier books, V and Gravity's Rainbow than in the..."They're right
I know this thread isn't about what we like in book discussions, but I'll just comment that the back and forth between Robert and Antonomasia is an example of one of the things I most enjoy in (good?) book discussions -- it starts in disagreement, but it also (politely, albeit with a certain firmness) goes somewhere beyond simply circling set positions.
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I started with Gravity's Rainbow, and everything else of his pales by comparison. Maybe that's a good reason to start with something else? I read GR a looooong time ago. I took it with me on an extended trip to places where books in English are thin on the ground and read it twice through. I highly recommend this method.
Vineland is one of his lessor works, but I recommend it to anyone who ever spent time among the weed growers of Northern California in the 80's; it is dead-on in many of its observations.
Whitney wrote: "Robert wrote: "Haha it’s my word against their’s :) seriously I can understand that because gravity’s rainbow and against the day is Pynchon at his most dazzling but V is a solid taster."I starte..."
That and mason & dixon are the only two pynchon novels I haven't read.
Lily wrote: "I know this thread isn't about what we like in book discussions, but I'll just comment that the back and forth between Robert and Antonomasia is an example of one of the things I most enjoy in (goo..."In the past I would explode and blurt the first thing on my mind (it's a Mediterranean thing you get mad, insult and then everything's back to normal in 5 minutes and life goes on) but now I've matured and have a long think :)
So as one of the non-readers of Pynchon what should I read that is:a) not tooooo long
b) doesn't require wikipedia or a commentary to comprehend
c) won't annoy me (madcap humour is a no no in novels for me; The Nix is the only book I have abandoned in last few years)
d) but still is the real Pynchon experience
or do a, b and c rule out d?
Lot 49 had been my plan.
Paul wrote: "So as one of the non-readers of Pynchon what should I read that is:a) not tooooo long
b) doesn't require wikipedia or a commentary to comprehend
c) won't annoy me (madcap humour is a no no in nov..."
In that case then start with Bleeding Edge - it ticks off all those boxes
When I finished Tom Jones and noticed that you had rated it 2 stars, I thought, "yeah, Paul *really* won't like Pynchon". But you rated Tristram Shandy 5 stars. I haven't read more than a chapter of two of Tristram Shandy yet, but that rating meant I wasn't nearly as sure because there still are similarities. I would suggest waiting till a holiday and then trying to read one of the big novels (Mason & Dixon is my favourite, but it suited me because of the history & regionalisms; others like Gravity's Rainbow might potentiallt suit you better. But madcap humour is kind of a Pynchon thing. ) Do you never abandon books?
Antonomasia wrote: "When I finished Tom Jones and noticed that you had rated it 2 stars, I thought, "yeah, Paul *really* won't like Pynchon". But you rated Tristram Shandy 5 stars. I haven't read more than a chapter o..."In the later novels it is downplayed - hence why I thought Bleeding Edge would be the better one. But really Gravity's Rainbow is the masterpiece.
Paul wrote: "So as one of the non-readers of Pynchon what should I read that is:a) not tooooo long
b) doesn't require wikipedia or a commentary to comprehend
c) won't annoy me (madcap humour is a no no in nov..."
Keep that plan, but hope to die first.
*i thought you needed a little more variety to the fine advice you’re getting from our Pynchon fans.
If you do CoL49, you get to find out why Radiohead call their website w.a.s.t.e. But you won’t care about that. I think it’s a good one to start with, although Pynchon himself says he appeared to have forgotten everything he’d learned when he wrote it! Bleeding Edge might be of interest, too, I agree.But really you need to take the plunge! Mason & Dixon and Against the Day are my two favourites.
What’s a week of your reading life - it’s nothing, really? And you will probably stop after 50 pages, anyway, so the length of the full book is irrelevant!
For what it's worth, the only Pynchon I have read is The Crying of Lot 49. Didn't really like it and as a result am not sure when - or if - I will try him again. I'm going to see the film adaptation of Inherent Vice, so that might move me to try him again, but there are too many books and too little time, so maybe not.
It also depends what you mean by not too long. V. is the place people normally recommend starting, I think. But it is close to 500 pages.
David wrote: "For what it's worth, the only Pynchon I have read is The Crying of Lot 49. Didn't really like it and as a result am not sure when - or if - I will try him again. I'm going to see the film adaptatio..."I really like PTA's adaptation of Inherent Vice - it's not easy to adapt Pynchon and I think he did a good job. Not his best film (especially compared to Phantom Thread or Boogie Nights ) but one I do admire
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I resent the time I spent reading The Nix as well. I share your general opinion about madcap humor, but I never really thought about Gravity's Rainbow that way (granted it's been many years since I read it). Maybe because that sort of humor takes on a sharper, slightly hysterical edge when it's a response to insane circumstances, rather than just for its own sake.
I read an interview with Nathan Hill where he said he had originally intended The Nix to be a more serious book about the era, but then decided to make it light in contrast to the current political situation. It makes me think he just wasn't a skilled enough writer to combine the humor with the horror, whereas I'd say Pynchon is.
A lot of classics - I am just scared to start Anna Karenina, Les Miserables or Gone With the Wind! Also anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I am not sure why I have not read anything from him.
21st Century Literature
Books mentioned in this topic
Vineland (other topics)Dune (other topics)
The Three Musketeers (other topics)
Gone with the Wind (other topics)
Robinson Crusoe (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Gertrude Stein (other topics)Naguib Mahfouz (other topics)
Sarah Waters (other topics)
Marcel Proust (other topics)
A.S. Byatt (other topics)
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I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVEN'T READ ________ YET!!!