13 Big Books I Want to Read in 2022 

Another person angry at a stack of books 😆

What a mean-spirited comment, take a cold shower - get a grip

Just out of curiosity: Have you read the books he discusses? Also: don't bring that negative energy up in here. You sound...bitter.

@@emiliotarsa6582 Some good beers are bitter. @Michael Smith

Thank you very much! Good to see a fellow Spine Crackers fan!

Definitely an author I need to read more of. I'm really looking forward to The Tunnel, though I'm a bit intimidated to start it!

I'm so glad I could help spark a fire! Cheers!

Thank you! Will do.

So. Many. Books! Glad to have a +1 for The Luminous Novel and The Seducer - I'm very eager to read both books. Have a happy new year, Yahaira!

So many books to get through... Thank you!

2022 is the official year of Terra Nostra and Krasznahorkai. The comparisons to Italo Calvino (and Tove Janson!) really told me Leena Krohn as well... As for Kjærstad, it doesn't look like Homo Falsus is translated, but it does look quite interesting. I also have his most recent(?) BERGE on my shelf as well - perhaps that would be a better starting point than the Jonas Wergeland trilogy.

Hello! Thank you for checking out my channel and for the kind words. I look forward to seeing you around!

@@travelthroughstories It's a pleasure, Sean.

Thank you for watching! I hope you enjoy Freedenberg's book - it's an absolutely wild and fun ride!

Thank you! I'm glad other people are interested in Tomb of Sand. I haven't read any of her work , but I'm eager to. Wow, A Suitable Boy AND The Books of Jacob to start off the year? That sounds incredible - good luck with that. I'd be interested to hear what you think of both. A Suitable Boy looks interesting, but I've never really looked too much into it. I just know that it's incredibly long... Happy New Year, Jo!

Thanks for watching!

I'm so glad to hear that it's as incredible as it sounds! I'm looking forward to watching your review once I finally get around to reading it.

That's quite the "currently-reading" list! Both Prae and Miss MacIntosh look incredibly interesting - I think I heard that Prae vol II is supposed to be translated within the next year or two. Magic Mountain also sounds wonderful - he's been on my list for years, but I haven't gotten to him yet. I'm looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts on these big books!

So many books, so little time. I'm also a bit worried about The Tunnel - it looks bleak and all encompassing. Thanks for the sub!

Thank you so much, Anastasia! I'm glad you were able to find a few books to add to your to-be-read pile! Audiobooks are a fantastic way to read more.

Hah - thank you! I know, I'm kicking myself for not actually reading it sooner. It looks so wonderful though. I'm hoping to get to it soon (after I finish The Books of Jacob...). I hope you enjoy it!

I'm glad some of them sounded interesting to you! Kraszahorakai really is one of the greatest living authors - I'd be interested to hear what you think of his books if you decide to read one. Good to know that you enjoyed Kristin Lavransdatter - I'm really looking forward to finishing the series!

Thanks for watching! I've never heard of Henrik Sienkiewicz, but I'll keep an eye out for his book. Thanks for the recommendation!

Sienkiewicz wrote the classic Quo Vadis

Wow - your anecdote makes me even more excited to get to The Tunnel... I also just picked up the William Gass Reader. I think I'll read a few of his essays in there ("On Evil" and "Kinds of Killing," especially) before I read The Tunnel. Either way, it looks like an emotionally exhausting, but brilliant novel... I haven't even heard of Fernando del Paso until right now. It looks like he has few novels in translation - his Noticias del Imperio/ News from the Empire looks interesting. Now I just need to search the internet for used copies! Thanks for the recommendation. Glad to hear that Levrero is good - I know nothing about him, unfortunately, but knowing that someone else enjoyed his works makes me more excited to check him out. Hah! That sounds like a great story - I've only heard good things about both the author and publishers. I think I might try to dive into this one over Winter break...we'll see. I (somehow!) haven't read any Cartarescu yet, though Blinding and Nostalgia are both sitting on my shelf. Thanks for the nudge - I really need to get to his works as soon as possible. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these books!

Thanks -- yeah, I utterly failed with this TBR, haha. There's a reason why this is the only tbr video I ever made. I definitely read at least the same amount of "big books" in 2022 that I talk about here, but just not all of THESE big books... I also DNF books fairly often, which I did with one of these (Books of Jacob). My problem with strict TBRs is that they make reading feel like a series of obligations rather than paths of discovery. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who doesn't really like tbrs!

Agreed!! Thanks for watching! :)

Rockwell seems like a pretty prolific translator (and author? Apparently she wrote a biography of Upendranath Ashk...), though I haven't read either of the ones you noted. I'll look into both of them! Tomb of Sand looks really, really good though - excited to hear what you think about it.

I've somehow still not read Kjærstad, but I have 4 of his books staring down at me. Good to know that his trilogy is worth reading though!

Uhh, you need to email a man from Slovenia, PayPal him like €25, then hope it shows up in a couple of weeks... (But seriously, the only way to order it is directly through the publisher, who is located in Slovenia. You just need to email him directly if you wanted to order it. coronasamizdat.com/aboutcs/ . I'm not sure if there are any plans to sell the rights to a US-based publisher, but it is unfortunate that the book is difficult to acquire right now.)

@@travelthroughstories ohh wow haha! It’s wild that it became such a sensation, then! Thanks for letting me know hah

Haha! It certainly says "something" about me - whether it's positive or negative, I don't know... Carlos Fuentes seems to be a great place to start with Mexican/Hispanic literature, though there are so many wonderful writers from that region (Fernanda Melchor and Roberto Bolaño are two personal favorites!). Terra Nostra looks incredible though! Thanks, Johanna!

Thank you! I haven't read Wolf Hall or Hild yet, but I've heard great things about Wolf Hall. Hild also looks particularly interesting as it's about one of my favorite medieval figures: Hilda of Whitby! I may have to read that one.

@@travelthroughstories 🙂 I'm reading Wolf Hall now and then will probably try The Books of Jacob. Hild does seem very interesting. My one concern is the second book hasn't yet been published and it is supposed to be a trilogy. I also want to try Umberto Eco's 'The Prague Cemetery' but I do find his writing quite difficult.

Good to hear! I've really only heard good things about it. I can't wait to dive back into Krasznahorkai.

Ordering from Slovenia is the only way to get it, as of right now. I was surprised by how quickly it shipped to the USA though - it took less than 2 weeks. But yes, you'll need to email Rick Harsh directly to order it. It certainly looks worth it though!

@@travelthroughstories Thank you! Somehow that makes me even more intrigued, like it's this rare little treasure that can only be found on a hidden shelf on the other side of the world. Looks like I'll be buying myself a Christmas present!

@@Elizabeth-Reads Haha! Agreed! Just based on what other reviewers have said about the book, I suspect that it may find a larger US-based publisher in the next couple of years, but getting it all the way from Slovenia and reading it before it does sounds like a lot more fun.

Good to hear that there's another Kristin Lavransdatter fan out there! And thank you - the list is a bit...much. There's little chance I get to it all, but I can dream!

@@travelthroughstories Dream away!

That's one of the reasons I've been putting it off so long! It's probably a good book to read slowly though, so I'm sure you're getting a lot out of it.

My preemptive apology: it could very well be that you are a prof or teacher, and not a graduate student. I guess because you look young, I assumed that you are a PhD student.

With sincere apologies for my late response: thanks for the kind words! That's not a bad idea to put "world literature" in the channel name -- the current name was made up on a whim with little thought and probably isn't the most marketable...oh well! I need to get back to The Books of Jacob. I started it back in February, I believe, but only made it about half way before putting it aside. While I was enjoying many parts of it, I just didn't have the time to really devout the attention that it required. I suspect I'm in the minority here though -- it's good to hear that you're finding it very worthwhile! I also really like the hyper-specificity of certain pomo lit. I'm a big fan of Karl Ove Knausgård (I know many people do not like him!), and I think he utilizes that exceptionally well. The comparison between 19th century lit and pomo lit is quite interesting. I'm sure there are plenty of similarities, though I'm admittedly not very well-read when it comes to the 19th century. That's something I hope to fix in the future. It's great to hear from your perspective! I'm in my final year of my PhD. I should be defending this spring/summer if everything else goes according to plan. I focus primarily on Old Norse-Icelandic literature, with a subsidiary focus on translation. My diss. looks at translations from Old French and Latin into Old Norse. I'm glad you left a comment, Emilio -- it's good to see other academics around booktube as it is certainly dominated, as you suggest, by fantasy/sci fi fans(which isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course!). I hope you have a nice weekend!

@@travelthroughstories _Books of Jacob_: Definitely requires attention if one is to optimally take in its richness. I'm also stalled--the semester just started and had to get back to reading and teaching books for classes. Advent of defense: whoooo--hoooo! That's exciting! Well, best of luck, man, and your topic sounds amazing.

Thank you! I learned Old Norse in grad school and have since self-taught myself some Icelandic and Norwegian, but I'm definitely not fluent in any modern Scandinavian languages, unfortunately. For Norwegian, I found the book The Mystery of Nils. Part 1 - Norwegian Course for Beginners (ed. Werner Skalla) to be quite helpful, as my goals are to be able to read the languages rather than necessarily speak them. I basically just pick up "easy" books in those language and try to read them, figuring out the grammar along the way!

@@travelthroughstories cool, that was my plan as well. Thank you

@@ivailopetrov2827 Good luck on your journey! I hope to have more Norwegian/Old Norse content on the channel in the coming months.

@@travelthroughstories Good luck with that. Norwegian should be kind of easy, but I wouldn't try to tackle Norse.

That sounds like a great idea! I do have 4-5 Finnish authors I plan to read before I go, so I'll definitely do something like that. Thanks for the idea!

Wow, that's a statistic I would not want to be known for... Whatever they're doing though, there's a lot of great books coming out of Hungary. Whether there's a correlation between that and the suicide rates/alcohol rates, I'm not sure, though the "myth of the depressive artist" seems relevant.

I'm glad to hear it! I only now realized how much of this list is translated literature - some of them are perhaps more obscure than I thought.

Thanks for all the kind words, Balša! I really appreciate it. You've made me really want to return to KIN as soon as possible - the identity problems, the mix of "fact" and fiction, etc. is all incredibly interesting. It's a region and history that I, unfortunately, don't know enough about so I'm sure I was missing quite a few references/allusions, but I'm keen to learn more. Thanks for the advice for what to look out for - I'll keep those in mind! Have you read any of Pajtim Statovci's work? He writes in Finnish, but he was born in Kosovo and most of his works are about the breakup of Yugoslavia and the ensuing...problems. Good to know about Terra Nostra! I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it once you finish as well. As for South Slavic literature - thanks so much for the recommendations! I'm eagerly researching all of the authors you listed right now. Hopefully I'll get to some of them soon.

@@travelthroughstories Ugh, been busy today, sorry about the delay. As a matter of fact I haven't, but having heard your take on Bolla my schedule will be updated with Crossing and My cat Yugoslavia in 2022! Thanks a lot for the recommendation, hope to share some thoughts after reading them. I will, Terra Nostra does cover medieval grounds very frequently. Since I come from a background of Orthodox Christianity my reading is somewhat restrained in theological terms (in light of the question of ,,faith" and heresy, certain heretic teachings characteristic for Catholicism), but again, it inspires me to catch up with the task of understanding different ideas. :) Milorad Pavić's novel Dictionary of the Khazars may be a good one to try, since it envisions the conversion of mighty Khazars to three monotheistic religions while remaining a postmodern work par excellence, close poetically to such writers as Umberto Eco and Jorge Luis Borges. www.goodreads.com/book/show/321566.Dictionary_of_the_Khazars?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=7KYbEXdsD2&rank=2 Ivan V. Lalić is a poet like a sibling to TS Eliot, who was always fascinated with Byzantium. Hopefully Francis R. Jones manages to translate his collection Four canons, which echoes Eliot's Four quartets but is a unique medieval-toned poem. www.goodreads.com/book/show/396692.Roll_Call_of_Mirrors?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=OMeuRAZN1M&rank=1#bookDetails www.goodreads.com/book/show/3214132-rusty-needle Other prominent voices in poetry are Vasko Popa: www.goodreads.com/book/show/1278509.Collected_Poems_of_Vasko_Popa?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=OmXxhGwOTX&rank=1 and Novica Tadić, dark as you can get, probably more than Hungarians: www.goodreads.com/book/show/6581502-dark-things Miodrag Bulatović remains one of the very powerful and autonomous voices, close to magical realism and full of diabolical imagery, his best known novels being: a) The red cock flies to heaven / The red rooster flies heavenwards www.goodreads.com/book/show/40516295-the-red-cock-flies-to-heaven?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=LE5JQIzI0H&rank=2 b) Stop the Danube (short stories collection actually) c) Hero on a donkey www.goodreads.com/book/show/5112241-a-hero-on-a-donkey?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=gxpuBlqP7q&rank=1 Svetislav Basara's The Cyclist Conspiracy tells the tale of a secret Brotherhood who meet in dreams, gain esoteric knowledge from contemplation of the bicycle, and seek to move in and out of history, manipulating events, it will be captivating if you like parodies and alternate history narratives: www.goodreads.com/book/show/11723752-the-cyclist-conspiracy?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=LooMbYP6mU&rank=1 Borislav Pekić might be fascinating and very challenging. His first novel The time of miracles deals with the problem of miracles and salvation with allusions towards stalinist and titoist trials of the time: www.goodreads.com/book/show/1757915.The_Time_of_Miracles?from_search=true&from_srp=V7Xd3eqIDM&qid=10 His novel The houses of Belgrade is a styllistic masterpiece, telling the inner monologue of a man obsessed with his houses for rent that doesn't cross his doorstep for 27 years only to come out on the day of student's anti-government demonstrations in 1968. www.goodreads.com/book/show/2641198-the-houses-of-belgrade?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=s3lBQx1mzJ&rank=1 His most exciting novel is probably How to quiet a vampire, a novel of ideas. It takes upon the theme of betrayal and Faustian nightmares of a man who hides his own Nazi past. www.goodreads.com/book/show/1101366.How_to_Quiet_a_Vampire?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=YajziWj4im&rank=1 His magnum opus Golden Fleece follows the genealogy of the Njegovan-Turjaški family, and I believe it remains the longest novel in South Slavic literature. It is highly unlikely it will be translated any time soon though... One of the authors I like to reccomend for better comprehension of Yugoslav affairs is Aleksandar Tišma, his novels The book of blam and Use of man, also dealing with war related identity issues: www.goodreads.com/book/show/685499.The_Book_of_Blam www.goodreads.com/book/show/1066549.The_Use_of_Man If you like lyrically rich novels, check out one of the best narrators of the Central European tradition, Danilo Kiš, who recollects his family history in times revolving around the atmosphere of Holocaust: www.goodreads.com/book/show/217984.Garden_Ashes?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=BrKjQJE0uw&rank=3 Lana Bastašić Is a beautiful witer, her first novel Catch the rabbit deals with friendship overblown by traumas of (post) war emigration: www.goodreads.com/book/show/56064463-catch-the-rabbit I plan od reading Ismail Kadare's work as well, maybe you are familiar with his writings? Anyway, I crossed the line, I better stop blabbering. :)

@@balsavukcevic8841 Wow, what an absolute treasure-trove of recommendations. Thanks so much for taking the time to write this out - so many of these books look so interesting. I've heard of Tišma and wanted to read his books for awhile now, but all the other authors are new to me. It looks like I'll be ordering a lot of books in the coming weeks! I actually read my first Kadare (Chronicle of Stone) earlier this month and I have his Broken April on my shelf that I need to get to soon. I quite enjoyed Chronicle of Stone! He's a writer I want to read more of as well. Well, I'm gonna look up all of these books/authors and order some soon - thanks, Balša!

Wow, you've made it sound soo amazing! It's still high up on my TBR - I just need to carve out some time to actually read it. I'm really looking forward to it though!

Haha! Good to know, though, and I don't think I made this clear in the video, I'm quite interested in both books on their own terms as well as because they're connected. And I'm looking forward to checking out more books from corona/samizdat!

@@travelthroughstories Your viewers needed to know. I appreciated you showing my book, of course, but I don't want anyone feeling like they won't get Phill's if they don't read mine. Take care, Rick

I appreciate the clarification, Rick!

These all look like they certainly enrich culture. As for their "significance," it may be too early to tell, as many were only published in the last 20 years.

Only three of these were ever nominated for the Booker. Two of these were nominated in 2022, over three months after I made this video.