Best reads of 2021

[ministerpumpkin]

Best books:

?? Halldor Laxness, World Light

?? Jon Fosse, I is Another

?? Can Xue, Purple Puerilla

?? M. John Harrison, Viriconium

?? Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation


Below are some flawed books that stayed with me. I read some others I'm not listing that I thought were technically better them, but these left a bigger impact. I guess you could say they're not the best but they are among my favorites of the year.

?? M. John Harrison, Parietal Games

?? Olav Hauge, Luminous Spaces

?? Stephen Dixon, I.

?? Peter Handke, Innerworld of the Outerworld of the Innerworld

?? Kobo Abe, The Ruined Map

And I read a decent amount of Mark Fisher this year. No one text really sticks out, but I just wanted to mention him on my "best of" list.

I read The Ruined Map last year too! For me it was a pleasurable read, but I wouldn't place it among his very best. Incidentally, an early book of his, Inter Ice Age 4, is next up for me after I find my way out of Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet. Thankfully I've left a trail of breadcrumbs behind me! ?

 

[redhead]

I read The Ruined Map last year too! For me it was a pleasurable read, but I wouldn't place it among his very best.

I definitely had some issues with it, but I read it at the right time when I was in the exact perfect headspace for it, and since then I’ve kept thinking about it. I read his play Friends this year too which I thought was objectively better, but it didn’t leave as much of an impression on me.

 

[Leseratte]

Best books:

?? Halldor Laxness, World Light

?? Jon Fosse, I is Another

?? Can Xue, Purple Puerilla

?? M. John Harrison, Viriconium

?? Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation


Below are some flawed books that stayed with me. I read some others I'm not listing that I thought were technically better them, but these left a bigger impact. I guess you could say they're not the best but they are among my favorites of the year.

?? M. John Harrison, Parietal Games

?? Olav Hauge, Luminous Spaces

?? Stephen Dixon, I.

?? Peter Handke, Innerworld of the Outerworld of the Innerworld

?? Kobo Abe, The Ruined Map

And I read a decent amount of Mark Fisher this year. No one text really sticks out, but I just wanted to mention him on my "best of" list.

I liked your division between best books and most impacting books.

 

[Daniel del Real]

?? D. O. Fagunwa, Forest of a Thousand Daemons

Definitely interested in reading this one. From a quick search it was writter in yoruba, am I right Dave?

?? Ibrahim Al-Koni - Gold Dust

Glad to see this one on your list as well. I bought A Bleeding Stone so I can keep reading him this year.

 

[Daniel del Real]

?? Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen

This book has been on my radar for a while. It was a recommendation from a professor, a friend who passed away last November ?

??The eighth Life(for Brilka)-Nino Haratischwili

I really really want to read Nino for the first time and I'd definitely add it to my reading project of the year if it wouldn't need to order this book from Spain.

David Grossman, See under "Love"

Really? I don't know how I even managed to finish this book. So dull and tedious.

 

[Daniel del Real]

?? Kaiki, Cuentos de Terror - Various

Did you read the Spanish version from Quaterni? Also read it this year and found it quite interesting but very uneven. First two were excellent. Then the usual old masters such as Akutagawa & Tanizaki delivered.

Really want to put my hands on a poemario by Takuboku. There are a couple translated to Spanish by Hiperión, just waiting to find them at the right price

My all time favorite from Gabo!

Interesante. Para mí y muchos críticos este es un proyecto fallido de GGM. Trata de lograr un flujo de consciencia y se aleja de su forma de narrar tan original y concisa y lo único que logra es un libro amorfo y bastante tedioso.

?? Anticitera, artefacto dentado - Aura García Junco

¿En serio? ¿Estamos hablando de la misma mujer que escribió algo llamado "El día que aprendí que no se amar"? Eso parece algo escrito para los progres de redes sociales, más parecido que nada a los mugreros para adolescentes de Elvira Sastre.

Por otro lado una maravilla que tengas a Ana Blandiana en tu lista. Ya con eso quedamos tablas ?

P.S. Ah no, tienes a Rivera Garza también. Ya no estamos tablas jajaja

 

[Leseratte]

The book is available in English but also in Spanish:

The eight life - Google Search

www.google.com

LA OCTAVA VIDA | PARA BRILKA

Mágica como Cien años de soledad, intensa como La casa de los espíritus, monumental como Ana Karenina. «Nino Haratischwili es una de las voces más importantes de la literatura alemana.»Die Zeit Georgia, 1917. Stasia, la hija de un exquisito fabricante de chocolate, sueña con ser bailarina en la...

www.traficantes.net

 

[tiganeasca]

Definitely interested in reading this one. From a quick search it was writter in yoruba, am I right Dave?

Yes sir; that's the book. It's not a long one.

 

[Ludus]

Interesante. Para mí y muchos críticos este es un proyecto fallido de GGM. Trata de lograr un flujo de consciencia y se aleja de su forma de narrar tan original y concisa y lo único que logra es un libro amorfo y bastante tedioso.

La verdad a mí me gustó muchísimo cuando lo leí, precisamente porque vi que GGM se permite escribir fuera de su zona de confort. Yo sí estoy del lado de los que creen que es una excelente novela.

¿En serio? ¿Estamos hablando de la misma mujer que escribió algo llamado "El día que aprendí que no se amar"? Eso parece algo escrito para los progres de redes sociales, más parecido que nada a los mugreros para adolescentes de Elvira Sastre.

No puedo decir nada de su libro más reciente, y de hecho va sobre un tema que me interesa más bien poco, pero Anticitera es una novela súper bien escrita, me recordó mucho a Schwob en su forma de estructurar el relato con narraciones personales conectadas por sólo un par de hilos. Está muy buena, la verdad

Por otro lado una maravilla que tengas a Ana Blandiana en tu lista. Ya con eso quedamos tablas ?

P.S. Ah no, tienes a Rivera Garza también. Ya no estamos tablas jajaja

La emoción me duró muy poquito jajajajaja

 

[alik-vit]

Really? I don't know how I even managed to finish this book. So dull and tedious.

Sometimes it happens. Is it not one of the miracles of literature? One book but different texts for different readers in different situations.
My first two books by Grossman were fiasco too.

 

[Liam]

I'd say, the best read of 2021 for me was the poetry of Paul Muldoon.

I finished his latest collection Howdie-Skelp shortly before New Year's and was blown away (again) by his virtuosity and commitment to exploration. Some of the more obviously political pieces didn't sit well with me but there aren't too many of those, fortunately.

His elegy for Ciaran Carson, a beloved friend and colleague, sprawled over an incredible 25 pages (!), is magnificent. Up there with "Incantata" and "The Loaf," for me at least, in terms of Muldoon's best poems.

 

[Daniel del Real]

Sometimes it happens. Is it not one of the miracles of literature? One book but different texts for different readers in different situations.
My first two books by Grossman were fiasco too.

Yes. It was my first Grossman and it put me away from him for a while. Then, last year I picked A horse walks into a bar and liked it a lot.

 

[hayden]

2020 and 2021 look like a blurry slurry in my memory. I cannot really tell apart books read in one year from those read in the other; so,

Likewise. Luckily I have things (kinda) logged, but by memory it's all very muddled. ?

Here are 10 works I read for the first time in 2021 that will surely remain on my favourites shelf—

?? Guillaume Apollinaire - Alcools
?? Simone de Beauvoir - A Very Easy Death
?? Mario Benedetti - The Truce (La Tregua)
?? Kamau Brathwaite - The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy
??Julio Cortázar - Cronopios and Famas (Historias de cronopios y de famas)
?? Tove Ditlevsen - The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency
?? Annie Ernaux - Happening
?? Jon Fosse - Trilogin
??Max Frisch - A Man In Holocene
?? Jack Gilbert - Collected Poems
?? Knut Hamsun - Under the Autumn Star
?? Olav H. Hauge - The Dream We Carry: Selected and Last Poems
???? Nazım Hikmet - Poems of Nazım Hikmet
?? Kim Hyesoon - I'm OK, I'm Pig!
?? Tove Jansson - The Moomin series (#1-9)
?? Rolf Jacobsen - The Roads Have Come to an End Now: Selected and Last Poems
?? Yaşar Kemal - The Birds Have Also Gone
???? Comte de Lautréamont - Maldoror and the Complete Works
???? Claude McKay - Collected Poems
?? Qiu Miaojin - Notes of a Crocodile
???? Michael Ondaatje - The Cinnamon Peeler
?? Fernando Pessoa - The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro
?? Salvatore Quasimodo - Complete Poems of Salvatore Quasimodo
?? Jules Renard - Nature Stories
?? Jules Renard - The Journal of Jules Renard
?? Tarjei Vesaas - The Birds
?? WB Yeats - Collected Poems

And various poetic volumes by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Florbela Espanca, Ana Blandiana, Sergei Esenin, Kofi Awoonor, Giuseppe Ungaretti, and Yang Lian.

Which, is 10.
Pretty fantastic year for first reads honestly. No major epics on the board, mainly kept to poetry/non-fiction/journals/novellas throughout 2021, but I hope some users find something they like up there. I was way late to the ball with Yeats, Apollinaire and Jansson... not sure why I put them off for so long.

Here's to 2022. Looking forward to tackling some (larger) works that have been collecting dust for far too long. I think World Light will be first at the bat.

 

[tiganeasca]

Likewise. Luckily I have things (kinda) logged, but by memory it's all very muddled. ?

Here are 10 works I read for the first time in 2021 that will surely remain on my favourites shelf—

?? Guillaume Apollinaire - Alcools
?? Simone de Beauvoir - A Very Easy Death
?? Mario Benedetti - The Truce (La Tregua)
?? Kamau Brathwaite - The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy
??Julio Cortázar - Cronopios and Famas (Historias de cronopios y de famas)
?? Tove Ditlevsen - The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency
?? Annie Ernaux - Happening
?? Jon Fosse - Trilogin
??Max Frisch - A Man In Holocene
?? Jack Gilbert - Collected Poems
?? Knut Hamsun - Under the Autumn Star
?? Olav H. Hauge - The Dream We Carry: Selected and Last Poems
???? Nazım Hikmet - Poems of Nazım Hikmet
?? Kim Hyesoon - I'm OK, I'm Pig!
?? Tove Jansson - The Moomin series (#1-9)
?? Rolf Jacobsen - The Roads Have Come to an End Now: Selected and Last Poems
?? Yaşar Kemal - The Birds Have Also Gone
???? Comte de Lautréamont - Maldoror and the Complete Works
???? Claude McKay - Collected Poems
?? Qiu Miaojin - Notes of a Crocodile
???? Michael Ondaatje - The Cinnamon Peeler
?? Fernando Pessoa - The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro
?? Salvatore Quasimodo - Complete Poems of Salvatore Quasimodo
?? Jules Renard - Nature Stories
?? Jules Renard - The Journal of Jules Renard
?? Tarjei Vesaas - The Birds
?? WB Yeats - Collected Poems

And various poetic volumes by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Florbela Espanca, Ana Blandiana, Sergei Esenin, Kofi Awoonor, Giuseppe Ungaretti, and Yang Lian.

Which, is 10.
Pretty fantastic year for first reads honestly. No major epics on the board, mainly kept to poetry/non-fiction/journals/novellas throughout 2021, but I hope some users find something they like up there. I was way late to the ball with Yeats, Apollinaire and Jansson... not sure why I put them off for so long.

Here's to 2022. Looking forward to tackling some (larger) works that have been collecting dust for far too long. I think World Light will be first at the bat.

Intriguing list. I'm intrigued by the Kemal; I thought I knew and had most of his works. I wonder if you know whether this has been translated under any other name; it's completely new to me. Glad you liked the Vesaas; I will confess I am still unsure of my reaction to it--and I read it about a year or two ago. It's an odd book, I thought. So I should probably read more by him to see what I think.

 

[hayden]

Intriguing list. I'm intrigued by the Kemal; I thought I knew and had most of his works. I wonder if you know whether this has been translated under any other name; it's completely new to me.

Hmm... I don't think so. In English, it seems to always be The Birds Have Also Gone. It isn't his most popular work, nor his most critically acclaimed, but I thought it was a lovely (and impactful) read despite being such a thin volume. Its original Turkish title is Kuşlar da Gitti.

I should note I also read his novella To Crush The Serpent for the first time last year, and that was excellent as well. His magnum opus (Memed, My Hawk) is going to be high priority for me in 2022.

 

[tiganeasca]

Thanks; I'll start examining the copyright pages in my collection of his work. And, fwiw, don't wait on Memed, My Hawk; it's wonderful.

 

[Stevie B]

And, fwiw, don't wait on Memed, My Hawk; it's wonderful.

I liked that one, too, but my favorite Kemal book is Iron Earth, Copper Sky. Good, old-fashioned storytelling.

 

[OverTheMountains]

La verdad a mí me gustó muchísimo cuando lo leí, precisamente porque vi que GGM se permite escribir fuera de su zona de confort. Yo sí estoy del lado de los que creen que es una excelente novela.

Yo también estoy de este lado. Para mí el libro es bastante exitoso en su meta. El estilo de escribir, y el personaje del dictador - sus pensamientos, sus miedos, sus relaciones - y las partes mágicas eran indicaciones de un genio, obviamente. Y aún más escribió algo con muchas observaciones de la humanidad, del poder, del pueblo - las ideas me impresionaron muchísimo. No creo que sea tan increíble como 100 Años de Soledad, pero todavía es una obra de un maestro (y en la carrera de casi cualquier otro escritor, supongo que sí será su obra maestra).

 

[Stevie B]

Thanks; I'll start examining the copyright pages in my collection of his work. And, fwiw, don't wait on Memed, My Hawk; it's wonderful.

Found one copy of that title currently for sale on ebay, Dave. It can be yours for only $86.00 U.S. (on sale from $123.00) and another $22.00 for shipping from Australia. By the way, while I was looking, I came across a Kemal title I had never heard of - To Crush the Serpent. Are you familiar with that one?

 

[tiganeasca]

Found one copy of that title currently for sale on ebay, Dave. It can be yours for only $86.00 U.S. (on sale from $123.00) and another $22.00 for shipping from Australia. By the way, while I was looking, I came across a Kemal title I had never heard of - To Crush the Serpent. Are you familiar with that one?
View attachment 1099

Not only familiar with it, but have it! As to Birds, it is not in my library, though I've got nine other books by Kemal. So, since the Australian copy is so cheap, I'll order a couple and forward one to you.