This is true! Tho I confess I’m not sure I’m interested in that one for unknown reasons, and I hadn’t heard of it when I recorded this 😦 But it may have been an honorable mention if i had known of it!
So I actually just finished 2666 a few weeks ago. Was it good, yes. But also contained some of the darkest subject matter I've ever read. One section of the book in particular was hard to stomach. Especially knowing that he based his fictional city on Juarez, and much of the details on real crimes that were happening in there. Rough. But the structure of the novel is genius! I would elaborate on why but it would spoil your experience.
Excellent list! All either personal favorites, or books that are pretty high on my TBR! \o/ As for other weird books/authors: Again, Julio Cortazar comes to mind (haven't read them yet, but multiples on my TBR) where apparently chapters can be read in different orders (Hopscotch) or seem to be completely random (62: A Model Kit).
Those types might be a bit more out there for me 😂 Will definitely have to hear more about them from folk like you first before I add them to my own interest list hahaha
I am also very happy that Valor clicked for me! I will be sure to update later in the year when I read Ruin (and possibly Wrath too) to see if the trend continues 🔥
I liked it too. In defense of the title, there's a reference to Ballard towards the beginning of the novel where McCarthy refers to him as "a child of God such as yourself." Maybe McCarthy is challenging us to see some small divine spark in even the most wicked human being. While utterly vile, Ballard is also very pathetic. Alternatively, "God" in this sense does not refer to a benevolent deity, but to the Demiurge (much has been made of McCarthy's supposed Gnosticism). On this reading, Ballard (and we) are violent beings born of an evil god. In this case, I would say that McCarthy is inviting us to look within ourselves and see what perversities we allow to fester in our own hearts. [SPOILER] One mark in favor of Ballard being the evil son of an evil god is that there is a rather significant Christ illusion. Like Christ, Ballard spends three days inside of a cave. But unlike Christ, Ballard enters the tomb/cave to escape death/punishment, then emerges/resurrects and returns to the Hospital to face (he assumes) death/punishment. Making him something of an antichrist. I'm not quite sure what to make of the seven corpses in the cavern, but seven being a divine number I'm sure it symbolizes something. I'm also not quite sure what to make of Ballard's body being dissected by the researchers. A sacrificial death, as his body proves useful to society? Society treating his body irreverently, something to make use of, as he had treated so many other bodies? I don't know. But in any case, I actually find the title quite provocative.
I suppose I can see the utility in the title under some of these classifications. Unfortunately, it actually makes me hate the title more because I so fundamentally disagree with the core of those theories 😂 On one hand, it’s blasphemy; on the other hand, it’s blasphemy with extra steps 😂😂😂😂 I only partially kid, but I 100% appreciate the perspective!
I don’t reread because I have too md u books to get through in life before I die AND I definitely don’t want to reread books I loved in the past and, for some reason, it doesn’t hit the same, so it’s kinda ruined for me. I can’t live life like that 😂 😢
Very glad to hear you’re loving it! Ben and I will be getting together later this month, and that video should come out in October. I too look forward to it 🙌🏻
I used to reread a ton as a kid but the older I've gotten the less I do it. There are some books I'll probably return to quite a bit, like Sun Eater for instance, but overall I tend to just get hyped for new stuff first lmao
I wanna be a rereader so bad 😂😂 but there’s so much I wanna get into. I think once I feel I’ve hit a lul in enjoyment with new tthings (as you said) I’m gonna get into some good ol favorites
I feel so incredibly exposed. The dialogue is why I put this book down. I love Ruocchio and he blurbed this book so I read the first ten percent then put it down for another time. I think I COULD enjoy it later, but the headspace I was in when I read it made the style a little jarring for me. But like I said I definitely want to try again. I probably think about rereading it every couple weeks.
As I obviously said, I totally see why dialogue or certain tonal decisions wouldn’t jive haha If it merely ends up not being for you, no harm no foul 🙌🏻
Finished this a couple nights ago. It was truly phenomenal. Ended up loving it. I loved all the “convergence” and just all the pieces in front of us throughout. Well paced and overall well done. Great review! I feel like it’d be so tough to not talk spoilers so that’s awesome on ya
Trust me it wasn’t easy! Glad you enjoyed. Liar and I will be having a discussion pretty soon, which will come out in October, so I’m excited for that too!
ZOOOMING through West Passage My Sept TBR: Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowsi Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky Bloodsworn 1 and 2 by John Gwynne in preparation for Fury next month; I feel highly obligated to read that series asap considering the events surrounding it :(
I had never heard of "The Failures" by Benjamin Liar. "Infinite Jest" is one I've been wanting to read for a few months, but I've never been able to get my hands on a copy where I live at the moment, whether in English or translated. August started with my biggest disappointment of the year so far, and overall, it was not a very productive month. It took me almost two weeks to finish reading "The Relic", but I would say it was my favorite of the month. Books started and finished in August and rating: Children Of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 6/10 Misery by Stephen King 7.5/10 The Relic by Eça de Queirós 8/10 The Terror by Dan Simmons 7.5/10 Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie 7/10 If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino 8/10
Unfortunate that Children of Time would have been your biggest disappointment of the year! 🥲 But hey, we all have rough spots haha, most of the time I really struggle to get through very much reading 🫨
@@KingCrusoe Thanks for the reply. I had been saving Children of Time for months and trusting the hype, and this generally never ends well, unfortunately. I know your channel is more focused on fantasy but I haven't had much of a mood or opportunity to read fantasy, I'm slowly rereading The Witcher saga and the Black Company by Glenn Cook during this year, and picking up stand alone fantasy on some occasions. TBR for September: Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (Finished yesterday). The Steppe by Anton Tchêkhov. Re-read The Lord of the Rings and finally read the last book of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. And perhaps the Conan stories I've never read by Robert E. Howard.
Sounds like a pretty solid TBR to me! Yeah you’re right about hype haha. A shame, that. I should do better about branching out of fantasy occasionally tbh, but too much of my TBR is still those series I need to read, which almost sucks 😂
In August I finished Part 1 & 2 of “To Green Angel Tower” by Tad Williams (Epic Fantasy, final «novel(s)» in the “Memory, Sorrow & Thorn” “Trilogy”, book of the month and in my top 3 so far this year!), Michael Moorcock’s “The Warlord of the Air” (Multiverse Time Travel Steampunk? 😅), and “The Thousandfold Thought” (Epic Dark/Grimdark Fantasy, the final novel in the «Prince of Nothing» Trilogy) by R. Scott Bakker. So after a very ambitious (but very rewarding) Summer TBR, this Autumn I am gonna be a bit more mood reading with no «big chonkers». I know I am definitely gonna read «Leviathan Falls» (The Expanse #9, Space Opera, only book I didn’t get to from my Summer TBR) & «Lustrum» (US: «Conspirata», Cicero Trilogy #2, Historical Fiction about the eponymous Roman Statesman) by Robert Harris (book #1 «Imperium» is contending for my book of the year so far, together with «A Brightness Long Ago» and «Too Green Angel Tower»), and I am most likely also gonna get to Michael Moorcock’s «(The Tale of)The Eternal Champion» Trilogy (Epic Fantasy/S&S). For now, I have started with some Rosemary Sutcliff (YA Historical Fiction) & might get some David Gemmell (Epic Fantasy) too! Cheers!
Hoping Ben is open to it, cuz it’d be an awesome experience! Looking forward to giving him a shout very soon. And no I do not really play DnD haha. Have played a few sessions here and there but no time and improv is far from my skill so it’s not really my thing.
@@KingCrusoe 😞 ah darn-alllll right I figured I’d ask. And yeah dude-I think that may be the first recorded tuber interview with him which would be so awesome… I also haven’t confirmed that. But I am more interested to hear your questions and to see if you get into spoilers and so on
Wasn't able to comment on that last one, but I didn't know you are a Trivium fan. I met them in 2018 and got them to sign my guitar, got a couple crappy pictures with them as I had an awful phone at the time.
2018 would have been amazing to meet them, damn. TSATS is still a Top 3 album of all time for me, integral to my being a metalhead today, and those shows in 2017-2019 would have been sick as hell.
"IT" is easily my favorite King novel and has stayed in my thoughts since the first time I read it when I was 14. I'm definitely due for a reread of it myself and will certainly be interested in following along with your progress when you decide to tackle it.
Having read part of it myself, it is no surprise it has such a high reputation. I can’t wait to circle back around to it again hopefully sooner than later 🔥
Outside of House of Leaves, Red Rabbit is the one that I am most interested in reading, and the Terror too of course. I think you will like Blackwater, but like you said, it isn't horror, but it has some moments of horror sprinkled throughout.
The Long Walk for me is one of the best books written by Stephen King without a doubt. I would say it's the closest he's come to literary fiction rather than commercial fiction. Other books of his that are four times longer don't have the same density in my opinion.
My favorite band, Unleash the Archers has a song called Faster Than Light with a music video inspired by The Long Walk that’s worth checking out. The song itself has nothing to do with it, just the video.
Good to know war and peace is a must pick up 😂 I haven’t heard about it being difficult-but it being a classic, I feel I must. I like how you highlight the unconventionality of most of these-I think it’s cool when authors make choices that “challenge” the reader or our thought processes
I agree! Part of what puts some of these titles up in so many lists IS the unconventionality! We must tackle not just what the book is doing but the way in which it is doing it, which is a good note. While I hadn’t heard of half of these titles before making the video, some have been added to my TBR just because of their supposed reputation.
In regard to War and Peace, you make a great point about length not really correlating with difficulty. You pointed up at WoT as a further example, and I agree. While it's vast in scope, features a large cast of characters with long arcs, and is 14 tomes long (15 if you count the prequel), it's not difficult to read. Some that you mention, such as Moby Dick, are likely a little more difficult today due to changes in the language since the time in which they were written and also modern readers' preferences for less description. I read Moby Dick when I was 15 or 16 and loved it. I haven't read To The Lighthouse, but I have read Mrs. Dalloway and The Waves by Woolf. They are "difficult" due to their unconventionality, but they're cool if you roll with them. Thank you for the video, KC!
Thank you as well! Moby Dick has always been an intimidating one because of the infamous whale anatomy type stuff, but your seal of approval (albeit your teenage self) is additionally encouraging haha
Okay, 3 things: 1. Solenoid: "You can see the cover on the screen..." No, we can't. :P 2. You really made me even more curious about Cloud Atlas! 3. I think certain Cortazar novels would have been a worthy addition to this list, mostly Hoscotch and 62: A Model Kit. Overall quite a few books I still have on my list, so we'll talk when I eventually get to them.
One thing that's nice about living in the internet age is that there are tons of free resources out there to help explain all the symbolism and obscure jokes in these massive tomes. In the case of Ulysses specifically, there's an awesome podcast by fellow Irish writer Frank Delaney that goes page by page explaining all hidden meanings and historical context and other details. It's a really great podcast. Sadly Delaney died before finishing the project tho.
Gravity's Rainbow is hands down the one book that I can confirm is the most difficult book that I've read up to date. Though, I'm supposed to read Finnegan's Wake next month, so that might change. 😅
@@KingCrusoe Naaaah. I don't let others impact my ratings (thus the fact that FoH and KoD is at the top of my list. TSR is still brilliant though and usually ranked 3rd.) I think it's purely cause you let expectations color your rankings. i.e. - people say something is bad - you look for the good. They say it's great? You look for the bad 😜
You definitely missed the joke in my comment lmao And no actually, expectations had no affect on my TSR opinion besides Rhuidean. I just happen to think it’s the weakest book in pacing. Zarine being awful is also far from an unpopular opinion so idk man lol
