What was your big literary "find" of 2008?
- Thread starter Sevigne
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saliotthomas
Reader
I was very impressed by Nocturne Indien by Antobio Tabucchi,so i got 3 more.Maybe the one i most curious about.Definitely unusual.
Aris Fakinos with Tale of lost times also made me want to read other.
Silk by Alessandro Baricco was a nice discovery,his style is very light and original.
Knut Hamsun also but in a more complexe way.
I discovered a dark side in Andrei makine and Mika Waltari that i did not suspected before.Like a good friend you supposed mild and gentel suddenly turning mercyless and violent in a fight.Sort of opening new perspective in both.
In Fantasy, i found Garry Kilworh with the navigator kings excellent.
BTW KPjayan I see you are reading Amin Maalouf and i am very happy to find someone else reading him.If baltazar story is not the best of his book it still is quite good.I look forward to your opinion on it.
Aris Fakinos with Tale of lost times also made me want to read other.
Silk by Alessandro Baricco was a nice discovery,his style is very light and original.
Knut Hamsun also but in a more complexe way.
I discovered a dark side in Andrei makine and Mika Waltari that i did not suspected before.Like a good friend you supposed mild and gentel suddenly turning mercyless and violent in a fight.Sort of opening new perspective in both.
In Fantasy, i found Garry Kilworh with the navigator kings excellent.
BTW KPjayan I see you are reading Amin Maalouf and i am very happy to find someone else reading him.If baltazar story is not the best of his book it still is quite good.I look forward to your opinion on it.
SilverSeason
Reader
My two big discoveries were The Oppermanns by Lion Feuchtwanger and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Marukami. Both of these were authors whose names I had heard without any clean sense of they were/are and why I should care about them.
I am now reding my second Marukami: The Wing-up Bird Chronicle.
I am now reding my second Marukami: The Wing-up Bird Chronicle.
My find was a book by a man who hasn't ever been "hidden" . The size of his ego prevented any such accident.
My surprise was Les Miserables.
I read Notre Dame de Paris by Hugo after avoiding the book for years. It was just too damn Disney and I wasn't having any part of it. (I told my husband I'd do childbirth but he had to handle Disney.)
But I got along with Notre Dame just fine and so was waiting anxiously when the new translation of Les Miserables by Julie Rose issued in July.
I lived and died with that book for a month. And when it ended...although I knew how it ended...I sobbed heartbrokenly.
Damned book put me through the wringer and I loved every miniute of it.
My surprise was Les Miserables.
I read Notre Dame de Paris by Hugo after avoiding the book for years. It was just too damn Disney and I wasn't having any part of it. (I told my husband I'd do childbirth but he had to handle Disney.)
But I got along with Notre Dame just fine and so was waiting anxiously when the new translation of Les Miserables by Julie Rose issued in July.
I lived and died with that book for a month. And when it ended...although I knew how it ended...I sobbed heartbrokenly.
Damned book put me through the wringer and I loved every miniute of it.
Jayaprakash
Reader
Snake Catcher by Naiyer Masud. Also, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.
I also began re-reading Dickens' novels which was a find in a sense - I realised that 'classics' needn't merely be something I read once and notch up but can repay re-reading.
I also began re-reading Dickens' novels which was a find in a sense - I realised that 'classics' needn't merely be something I read once and notch up but can repay re-reading.
I'm awfully curious about The Magic Mountain. I've heard such mixed reviews but can't help but believe that there must be something in a novel that has stayed in the public eye for so long.
If I hadn't just bought the last book I'll ever buy... (think Zeno here)
Maybe I can barter for a copy.
If I hadn't just bought the last book I'll ever buy... (think Zeno here)
Maybe I can barter for a copy.
I think that the Classics are perennial favorites because they are good not good because they are Classics.
That being said a really good book always needs to be re-read. The minute I begin reading a great book I realize that I am not getting it all and will have to go back for another read sooner or later.
That being said a really good book always needs to be re-read. The minute I begin reading a great book I realize that I am not getting it all and will have to go back for another read sooner or later.
There have been so many writers and books I've discovered this year. Among women authors, I'd have to name: Margaret Oliphant, Nancy Mitford, Elizabeth Gaskell, Muriel Spark, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. As for other writers, I'd have to say that L.P. Hartley and Anthony Trollope were two wonderful discoveries. I fell in love with Thomas Hardy all over again, and the same goes for D. H. Lawrence and Honore de Balzac. Three writers that stand out are Yasunari Kawabata, Tanizaki Junichiro, and Eca De Queiroz. The latter has quickly become one of my favorites, on a par with Balzac, Stendhal, and Dickens. Many specific books stand out, though I would have to make a special mention of Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece, Cancer Ward. I have Stewart to thank for introducing me to Tarjei Vesaas, author of The Ice Palace, and Eric to thank for suggesting that I read the Estonian author, Jaan Kross. The Czar's Madman was an impressive read, and I cannot wait to read more Estonian literature!
Favorite book: (tie) Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
Funniest book: The Little Demon by Fyodor Sologub
Favorite authors: Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, Guy de Maupassant, Honore de Balzac, and Eca De Queiroz
Quickest read: The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Saddest book: A Woman's Life by Guy de Maupassant
Happiest book: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (a re-read)
I know I've left some books and authors out, but I must say, 2008 was a year in which I expanded my knowledge of literature greatly. And, to a large extent, I have this fantastic forum to thank for that!
Now Stewart, you simply must post what your literary finds of 2008 were.
After all, you're the one who started this magnificent list!
~Titania
Favorite book: (tie) Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
Funniest book: The Little Demon by Fyodor Sologub
Favorite authors: Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, Guy de Maupassant, Honore de Balzac, and Eca De Queiroz
Quickest read: The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Saddest book: A Woman's Life by Guy de Maupassant
Happiest book: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (a re-read)
I know I've left some books and authors out, but I must say, 2008 was a year in which I expanded my knowledge of literature greatly. And, to a large extent, I have this fantastic forum to thank for that!
Now Stewart, you simply must post what your literary finds of 2008 were.
After all, you're the one who started this magnificent list!
~Titania
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Heteronym
Reader
Looking back my book list, I'd say the highlights of my year included:
- Discovering Adolfo Bioy Casares; especially reading A Plan for Escape;
- Reading more Dino Buzzati, particularly The Tartar Steppe;
- Reading more Milan Kundera: I've bought nearly all his novels this year;
- Reevaluating E?a de Queiroz: I've realised he's actually a pretty great writer and not the bore I thought he was when I read him in high school.
- Discovering Adolfo Bioy Casares; especially reading A Plan for Escape;
- Reading more Dino Buzzati, particularly The Tartar Steppe;
- Reading more Milan Kundera: I've bought nearly all his novels this year;
- Reevaluating E?a de Queiroz: I've realised he's actually a pretty great writer and not the bore I thought he was when I read him in high school.
Colette Jones
Reader
Because of the Man Booker Prize, I read Sebastian Barry and Phillip Hensher for the first time this year and loved both of their offerings (The Secret Scripture and The Northern Clemency, respectively). However, I'd have to say the one that surprised me most is Thomas Mann, read very recently for the group read here. I didn't expect to like it but was going along for the ride. I like it!
Mirabell
Former Member
same here. am rereading it in french currently. ah.
Mirabell
Former Member
Beckett, I think. Thanks to one of the smartest persons I know, a resident on a different board, I really discovered Beckett. I mean I've read stuff of his before but I wasn't prepared for the mindfuck that godly writer has to offer.
Also, but on a much much smaller scale I'm happy to have read and discovered Bynum (through her heartrendinglybeautiful "madeleine is sleeping"), Hari Kunzru (through his incredibel "My Revolutions") and John Williams ("Stoner"). Oh, I also started a through read of Althusser's ruminations on Marxism, which surprisingly did blow my mind. And I am currently being overwhelmed by Gottfried Keller's Der GR?ne Heinrich, which I read ages ago and always thought good, but reading it I am suprised how good it is. Putting a few hundred books between two reads of such a canonical text can make a huge difference I guess. Oh, and JOhn Kinsella and Mary Oliver. Two incredible poets of whom I hadn't yet read a single line.
There have been many more great reads but none of them can justly be called a "find", either because I know the writer (Tova Reich's "My HOlocaust" was a revelation but I expected no less from her; dito Ondaatje's "Divisadero" and many many more) or the reviews led me to expect good things (Bolano's "Savage Detectives"!).
Also, but on a much much smaller scale I'm happy to have read and discovered Bynum (through her heartrendinglybeautiful "madeleine is sleeping"), Hari Kunzru (through his incredibel "My Revolutions") and John Williams ("Stoner"). Oh, I also started a through read of Althusser's ruminations on Marxism, which surprisingly did blow my mind. And I am currently being overwhelmed by Gottfried Keller's Der GR?ne Heinrich, which I read ages ago and always thought good, but reading it I am suprised how good it is. Putting a few hundred books between two reads of such a canonical text can make a huge difference I guess. Oh, and JOhn Kinsella and Mary Oliver. Two incredible poets of whom I hadn't yet read a single line.
There have been many more great reads but none of them can justly be called a "find", either because I know the writer (Tova Reich's "My HOlocaust" was a revelation but I expected no less from her; dito Ondaatje's "Divisadero" and many many more) or the reviews led me to expect good things (Bolano's "Savage Detectives"!).
jackdawdle
Reader
I've seen many reviews of Paul Auster's books but for some reason I was always less than impressed. Either way, whether it be a dis or praise, the tenor of the reviews were lukewarm, noncommital. Then I read Mirabell's, a tongue-in-cheek piece dismissing the book as crap. I was hooked and am still. Paul Auster's Brooklyn Follies, read it.
Mirabell
Former Member
Bjorn
Reader
I agree. Having read most, though not quite all, of Auster's novels, I have to say Brooklyn Follies was the least impressive. Not the worst, but the least impressive. (At least Travels In The Scriptorium failed in an interesting way.)
I guess the most intriguing writers I read for the first time in 2008 were Ryszard Kapuscinski, JMG Le Cl?zio, Ivan Vladislavic and Hwang Sok-yong, all of whom I definitely plan on reading more. But the big thing was that I not only kept my goal of at least half the books I read being written by non-UK/US/Swedish authors, but also had a ton of fun doing it. Now I've got more openings into above all African and Eastern European fiction, and I plan on continuing that.
I guess the most intriguing writers I read for the first time in 2008 were Ryszard Kapuscinski, JMG Le Cl?zio, Ivan Vladislavic and Hwang Sok-yong, all of whom I definitely plan on reading more. But the big thing was that I not only kept my goal of at least half the books I read being written by non-UK/US/Swedish authors, but also had a ton of fun doing it. Now I've got more openings into above all African and Eastern European fiction, and I plan on continuing that.