My 5 Favorite Books I Read in 2023

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Today's video is sponsored by BetterHelp
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OMITTED CLASSICS and obvious choices:
The Sun Also Rises: amzn.to/3S0HrNj
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RUNNER UPS:
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Death in Venice: amzn.to/41FRKJY
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The Bloody Chamber: amzn.to/41Et2tv
The Shards: amzn.to/3H07rSX
A Sport and a Pastime: amzn.to/3H4mOcM
MY 5 FAVORITES I READ IN 2023
The Moviegoer: amzn.to/47iGa8H
The Trouble with Being Born: amzn.to/3tIvKl1
Suddenly Last Summer: amzn.to/47i1vzo
A Childhood: amzn.to/3H35zZq
Wise Blood: amzn.to/48BTuGl
FULL REVIEWS:
OMITTED CLASSICS and obvious choices:
The Sun Also Rises: • The Sun Also Rises - E...
Dune: • Dune - Frank Herbert B...
RUNNER UPS:
Threshold: • Rob Doyle - Threshold ...
Death in Venice: www.patreon.com/posts/death-i...
The Wisdom of Life: • Arthur Schopenhauer - ...
The Bloody Chamber: • Angela Carter - The Bl...
The Shards: • The Shards - Bret East...
A Sport and a Pastime: • A Sport and a Pastime ...
MY 5 FAVORITES I READ IN 2023
The Moviegoer: • The Moviegoer - Walker...
The Trouble with Being Born: • Emil Cioran - The Trou...
Suddenly Last Summer: • Suddenly Last Summer -...
A Childhood: • Harry Crews - Childhoo...
Wise Blood: • Wise Blood - Flannery ...
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PATRON ONLY REVIEWS:
Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
/ death-in-venice-88575877
The Myth of Sisyphus - Albert Camus
/ myth-of-sisyphus-80534135
H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu (Halloween Special)
/ call-of-cthulhu-74055549
Hamlet: Poem Unlimited by Harold Bloom
/ 66203438
10 Books to Be Read 2022:
/ 63010254
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
/ 60574022
The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop - Halloween 2021
/ 58073911
Death in Midsummer by Yukio Mishima
/ 55759685
Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard
/ 53139833
The Key by Junichiro Tanizaki
/ 51134117
Platforms by Nina Power
/ 48914140
Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk
/ 45465524
Bookshelf Tour 2020:
Part 1: / 41287302
Part 2: / 42817306
Part 3: / 43783138
The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat
/ 38823138
Margery Kempe by Robert Glück
/ 38645694
Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov
/ 37527267
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
/ 35574016
11 Books to be read in 2020:
/ 33921584
Atomic Habits by James Clear
/ 32697977
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
/ 30969884
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
/ 29515320
Reading is Expensive (A Rant)
/ 29065141
White by Bret Easton Ellis
/ 26771749
A Room on the Garden Side by Ernest Hemingway
/ 21573550
The Return by Roberto Bolaño
/ 21019229
Darkness Visible by William Styron
/ 20276630
"Blindness", an essay by Jorge Luis Borges
/ 19529985
The Alligators by John Updike
/ 18428537
The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain
/ 17281418
Animal Crackers in My Soup by Charles Bukowski
/ 16924023
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
/ 16133547

Опубликовано:

1 янв 2024

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Комментарии : 271

@BetterThanFoodBookReviews 6 месяцев назад

What were the best books you read in 2023? I’d love to know, please comment below!

@Birmanncat 6 месяцев назад

de-Sent Exupery - Citadelle Slavko Janevski - Miracle Plays of Terror PKD - UBIK and Electric Sheep Andrei Platonov - Chevengur Norman Mailer - Ancient Evenings

@ewafelcenloben4706 6 месяцев назад

Jose Donoso - The Obscene Bird of The Night; Sheng Keyi - 錦灰 (Polish translation); and works by Adam Bodor, J.L. Borges.

@user-ns4ed3nu6h 6 месяцев назад

Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death Jorge Luis Borges - A Universal History of Iniquity Samuel Beckett - Trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable) Cormac McCarthy - Suttree Emil Cioran - The Fall Into Time Great video as always!

@domar1 6 месяцев назад

The obscene bird of night! That one was bananas! Had been trying to remember that title as I no longer have to book. May need to reread it.@@ewafelcenloben4706

@Vivaldi1Dvorak2 6 месяцев назад

The Emigrants by WG Sebald Paradise and Beloved both by Toni Morrison

@mitch8948 6 месяцев назад

As a sci-fi / fantasy nerd, I’m glad to hear you liked Dune! My top 5: 1. The Book of Disquiet - Pessoa 2. Moby Dick - Melville 3. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Miller 4. Blood Meridian - McCarthy 5. Ice - Kavan

@aggonzalez8096 6 месяцев назад

The book of disquiet is an amazing book. And real look into a unique and artistic mind. Also one that must have suffered much existentially

@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044 6 месяцев назад

That's a strong 5 (though I need to read Pessoa--I am familiar with his reputation).

@arafatsafin650 6 месяцев назад

The Book of Disquiet is my most favourite book. Nice to see it on top.

@tauhidal-farook4548 6 месяцев назад

I also read Blood Meridian this year. Changed my life.

@aparecraft 6 месяцев назад

I read Moby Dick last year too and tried to finish Pessoa but I didn't have the mood to do so. Let's try this year!

@deelak2329 3 месяца назад

Read 55 books last year, hard to choose a top 5 but here goes. 1. East of Eden (became my all time number 1) John Steinbeck 2. Lightbringer by pierce brown 3. Secret History by tartsy fartsy 4. War an peace by tolstoy 5. Ham On Rye Bukowski Honor ment. Less than zero by easton ellis

@cheezeh7288 5 месяцев назад

1 - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini 2 - The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima 3 - Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 4 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 5 - No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

@chazgross4519 6 месяцев назад

Your thoughts on Wiseblood got me to thinking about the time someone wrote Flannery O'Connor a letter complaining that "your book left a bad taste in my mouth." Flannery wrote back "you weren't supposed to eat it." Love the channel...All the best in 2024.

@kavkazip 6 месяцев назад

The Sun also Rises made me get into wine. I loved the scene in the book where they are having a picnic and they place a bottle of wine in the river to make it cold.

@mjau65 6 месяцев назад

Same here! Love the whole sequence of crossing the Pyrenees and fishing before they get to Pamplona.

@mulefa1 6 месяцев назад

thanks for all the great recommendations this year

@shubhaghosh 6 месяцев назад

I recommend Buddenbrooks as well as The Magic Mountain

@FlintSL 6 месяцев назад

Cliff, you are without a doubt my favourite RU-vidr. Love every video and I only wish they were longer, just thought I'd share that with you

@bjwnashe5589 6 месяцев назад

Great list, excellent rundown. I agree with you 100% on Flannery O'Connor. Also want to commend you for sticking with literature that truly moves you, rather than following trends and fads. Good job. Cioran and Doyle I have not yet read, but look forward to doing so.

@lovepiecozitsawesome 6 месяцев назад

I didn't really read a lot this year unfortunately, probably because I mostly didn't have the time to watch your videos to inspire me (your love for reading is infectuous). But my top 5 this year, in no particular order, were: - Hyperion by Dan Simmons - Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke - White Noise by Don DeLillo - Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf - The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov Here's to hoping I read more than 10 books this year. Also a happy new year to everyone reading this, and may you have a great upcoming year!

@birdmanstrength 6 месяцев назад

I had a great year, and have thoroughly enjoyed watching your videos with my wife. Thanks for the laughs. Happy New Year.

@bookoffholicbookwart5945 5 месяцев назад

New to the channel but absolutely in love with the short and crisp reviews.

@drackaryspt1572 6 месяцев назад

Your channel has helped me find stuff that actually interesses and captivates me in reading which has been quite hard for me to do for most of my life up until this point(I'm only a 21 art student) so I'm very thankfull and the only book I've read completly this year was Story Of Eye and it left a very profound mark on me so thank you a lot for opening the doors to a world full of so much interesting and profound art that is reading!! Hopefully by next year I'll have a top five of books I've read because I've only managed short story's for now. Thank you for your content its really good and quite humanely profound!!

@the_wisecrack9472 5 месяцев назад

I always look forward to your yearly reviews!! Also, 2023 was not much of a good year for me. But your recommendations were pretty comforting!❤️

@ritajustino9215 6 месяцев назад

Happy New Year! Thank for the video and the inspiration to read great books.

@lencomua 6 месяцев назад

Happy New Year ❤thank you for the review

@jackwalter5970 6 месяцев назад

Wise Blood and A Childhood are both incredibly powerful and superbly written. Thanks, Cliff. Happy reading in '24! My favorites were Solenoid and Germinal.

@manders77 6 месяцев назад

I was waiting for this! 🎉

@jordanrc13 6 месяцев назад

Thanks for the many great recs Cliff. Looking forward to more great books in 2024. 🎉

@ellelala39 6 месяцев назад

Happy New Year, Cliff. May all of your 2024 reads be riveting ones.

@theriverarapaper 5 месяцев назад

Fantastic wrap-up video. This is the first of yours that I have watched. Looking forward to digging into your channel.

@shoresofpatmos 6 месяцев назад

My list: Emil Cioran - The Trouble With Being Born Thomas Ligotti - The Conspiracy Against The Human Race Frank Herbert - Dune Hannah Arendt - Eichmann in Jerusalem Clive Barker - The Hellbound Heart

@osamaayham1996 6 месяцев назад

Great picks Clifford! Mann and Cioran are personal favorites. The Magic Mountain is my favorite novel and I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did. It does require some patience to get through its pages but it really rewards you for giving it the attention it needs. I'm eager to know your thoughts about it. Thank you for creating this great platform and happy new year to you and your loved ones!

@pisy183 6 месяцев назад

this series is one of the things i like most about a year ending. I really respect your taste.

@jamesgwarrior1981 6 месяцев назад

Bless you for still makin these. Love lists 🤘🏽👿

@jamesgwarrior1981 6 месяцев назад

2023 not a great year for my reading. Think my fav thing read was “The Memory Police,” Yoko Ogawa. Good thing about having such a crappy year is gives you the fuel and fire for the next, or this, one…

@odetomyalterego 6 месяцев назад

Happy New Year!

@KalvinMauveMusic 6 месяцев назад

I will definitely check out Wiseblood, thanks.

@trashlyfe69420 5 месяцев назад

I’d just like to say I appreciate your channel immensely. It’s so incredibly nice to just hear someone actually speak (as opposed to reading reviews) about some of my favorite authors like Houllebecq, Cortazar, Jünger, Bolaño etc. with such enthusiasm and insight I used to live in Chicago but I can’t blame my present more rural location on a lack of literary conversation as the bike messenger crowd I was a part of werent necessarily eagerly wanting to dive into Mishima. Anyways, just thanks man. I know there’s plenty of people online, but to hear and see another person talking about these books is a quality I haven’t experienced since skipping class in HS to read Kafka and blast cigs at the downtown cafe (even then I’m pretty sure I was the only one actually reading the shit).

@andrewverlaine 5 месяцев назад

Great to see Rob Doyle's work getting some love! I was at the launch for "Threshold" in Dublin when it came out, was fun to hear Doyle reading from his work! 😄

@CruelSpirit 6 месяцев назад

Another great list of year end as always. I want to get to Faulkner and O'Connor this year myself. My top five are as follows: 5. Time Out of Joint- Philip K Dick 4. Arabesques- Anton Shammas 3. The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas- Rick Harsch 2. In Transit- Brigid Brophy 1. Gravity's Rainbow- Thomas Pynchon

@GoedeSoep 5 месяцев назад

I’m adding a lot of books to my TBR pile from your list as well as the comments, thank you! My favourites of 2023: Study for obedience- Sarah Bernstein Trust - Hernan Diaz The Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe L’Autre Fille - Annie Ernaux Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie Kartonnen Dozen - Tom Lannoye

@MisterSir7 5 месяцев назад

Greetings from Australia! Loving the videos and recommendations. Nick and Rowland were the same reason I checked out Wise Blood - albeit the movie - but this has motivated me to pick up the novel. Thanks again!

@marcelhidalgo1076 6 месяцев назад

We both read Death in Venice this year. Fantastic novella

@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044 6 месяцев назад

My Top 5 Reads for 2023: 1) The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton 2) The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann 3) The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke 4) The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy 5) The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

@Andy2kk 6 месяцев назад

Good Stuff

@HeroOfTheDay99 6 месяцев назад

Top five books I read this year: 1. Suttree by Cormac McCarthy 2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 3. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (thanks for the recommendation) 4. The Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe 5. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

@jackwalter5970 6 месяцев назад

Suttree is McCarthy's best.

@aleksandrabedzinska 6 месяцев назад

this video is my personal holiday year in year out!!! and my top read this year was probably ingeborg bachmann's malina (idk about the english but the polish translation overtakes lives - i've seen it happen, i've lived it)

@Ozgipsy 6 месяцев назад

Yes, I read a few of these because of your recommendation. 👍👍

@allesvergaengliche 6 месяцев назад

Have only read short stories by Ms. O’Connor, but I have long admired her writing. Will definitely check out Wise Blood asap.

@batailleescargot5707 6 месяцев назад

Woahhh! Been following you for a bit on Instagram. I live in Tampa too! Happy new year and thank you for the review 🎉

@caligulalister 6 месяцев назад

Highly recommend Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass to you I think it's just your cup of tea!

@masonjames1194 6 месяцев назад

I have a good amount of books to read this year, some Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, and Flannery o'conner. very much enjoyed paradise lost, any recommendations that are similar to the authors and books mentioned. would much appreciate it. loved your channel this year, I only found it this year, and I was mostly reading non-fiction before, I just turned 19 and some of the books you have recommended really help me cope with my mental health, and there is some great writing. happy new year and sincerely, thank you

@BenYaxleyFilms 4 месяца назад

1. Stoner by John Williams 2. Monkey King by Wu Cheng'en (new translation) 3. Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan 4. The Passenger and Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy 5. The Vorrh by B. Catling Monkey, Goulds Book of Fish and The Vorrh i'd classify as 'fun' books. crazy as it gets

@pawepesiek7217 6 месяцев назад

My favourite of this year: - Story of eye - Fictions (especially first story, wooow) - A cool million - highly recommend it, wrote by Nathanael West, I know you like him Cliff, - Wait unitl the evening by Hal Bennett And my favourite - Waiting for Godot. Mindblowing for me.

@caivail4614 6 месяцев назад

You’re not kidding about 2023, man. Wow. Wise Blood is one of my all-time favorites, and I discovered Nathaniel West and maybe Mishima thanks to your recommendation, so thank you. My top five from the past year, in no particular order: Les Mis, Hugo Paradise Lost, Milton Shadow & Claw, Wolfe (speaking of sci-fi for people who don’t read sci-fi) Far From the Madding Crowd, Hardy War & Peace, Tolstoy

@aparecraft 6 месяцев назад

Les Miserables is sooo good ❤️ I read it in 2022 and I still think about the characters and the story

@ranovee2682 5 месяцев назад

Now seems like a good time to finally read OConnor. She has been on my list for so long but just haven’t read her yet. Thanks for the review Cliff.

@MTheory333 6 месяцев назад

This is my first video of yours and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you. Great job. Subscriber now and am looking forward to your opinion on other books

@BetterThanFoodBookReviews 5 месяцев назад

Welcome aboard! Thank you very much.

@Rohanposter 5 месяцев назад

I highly recommend you giving Dune: Messiah a read. It's short, and more of an epilogue to Dune than a sequel that completes the arcs and deepens the themes of the first book.

@maibritton2882 6 месяцев назад

O conners " a good man . . " Incredible mindfuck. I have always feared reading southern writers, (lol) now I know why. consider picking up the magazine of southern writing called "The Oxford American" they put out a music issue.

@adampearson1541 5 месяцев назад

Hoping to read Wise Blood this year, now that I’ve read all of her short stories. My top 5 of 2023: 1. Moby Dick 2. To The Lighthouse 3. Go Down Moses 4. Light in August (sort of tied with 3) 5. Disgrace

@corey8807 6 месяцев назад

Thanks for getting me to read more. 1. The Immortal Game, David Shenk 2. Pessoa, Richard Zenith 3. The warmth of other suns, Wilkerson 4. The Peregrine(off your review)5. Death in the afternoon(perhaps your best review) My winter read suggestion: Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. In NYC, Up in the old hotel by Joseph Mitchell. In the SouthWest, Dessert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. This summer, Summer 1927 Bill Bryson Thanks

@ryang7759 6 месяцев назад

west coast canuck here. I've been gravitating to southern lit as well. there's a magic about it that I can't get elsewhere. just read As I Lay Dying and it floored me.

@marknewton6984 15 дней назад

Great book. Faulkner.

@cindyo6298 6 месяцев назад

Interesting, I've seen a lot of hatred and love for Freud lately. I also really need to read Wise Blood! Weyes Blood is great too!

@emiliamarozzi 5 месяцев назад

My top 5 for this year: 1. Cathedral, Raymond Carver 2. Fever Dream (Distancia de Rescate), Samantha Schweblin 3. Heartburn, Nora Ephron 4. Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut 5. Bad Girls (Las Malas), Camila Sosa Villada

@morteningemannpedersen8691 6 месяцев назад

5. Kristina Glaffey: Mom and Busser 4. Juni Ito: No Longer Human 3. Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children 2. Olga Tokarczuk: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead 1. Johannes Jensen: The Fall of the King

@lutascosmin 6 месяцев назад

Dune 1 & 2 , Master and Margarita - Bulgakov Notes from the Underground - Dostoevsky A Life Without End - Frederick Beigbeder

@LuvLuke954 5 месяцев назад

First time here and TG!! I have 3 other book channels I watch because they get to the POINT!! I can’t tell how many videos I think might be interesting and all they do is yammer on about themselves for 10 minutes and just throw out book names - pretty sure they don’t actually read them. You are up there with Ben McAvoy, Tristan and (Mark&) Elvis. Thank you. I’ve not read or heard of some of these. 🙏🏻💙✌🏼

@hero43able 6 месяцев назад

The Shards absolutely floored me, i grew up in LA and his depiction is spot on. Also has me to this moment wons=dering as to who the Trawler really is. Great video, man.

@hansolonuta 4 месяца назад

My top 5 in no particular order: The Electric State - Simon Stalenhag The Beach - Alex Garland Lessons - Ian McEwan The Pit and the pendulum - Edgar Alen Poe The Labyrinth of the Faun - Cornelia Funke / Guillermo del Toro May you have a great (reading) year!!!

@FisherKing9633 6 месяцев назад

I guess I had a decent year. My top book of the year was The Power Broker by Robert Caro. I’ve spent most of my free time engaging in hardcore proselytism of that book. Also recommend: This Storm, James Ellroy Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut Shogun, James Clavel The Ghosts of Belfast, Stewart Neville Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson Abbadon’s Gate, James SA Corey Elantris, Brandon Sanderson

@SheriMaple 6 месяцев назад

I read Dune and agree reading the first book is fine. I watched Suddenly, Last Summer, but haven't read the book. I have to make a note to read Tennessee Williams because I like him as a playwright. August Wilson is my favorite playwright, love his dialogue.

@maxilopez1596 5 месяцев назад

Completely agree about EM Cioran

@alissonyamakawa6597 6 месяцев назад

My favorites: Mario and the magician, Thomas Mann Stella Maris, Cormac McCarthy White noise, Don Delillo Heldenplatz, Thomas Bernhard Time of the magicians, Wolfram Eilenberger A girl is lost in her century looking for her father, Goncalo M. Tavares

@PolinaShvetsova 6 месяцев назад

My top 5 of 2023: The Gospel Singer - Harry Crews Ninth Building - Zou Jingzhi Go down, Moses - William Faulkner Last exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr. Whale - Cheon Myeong-kwan

@nathanschreffler1415 4 месяца назад

I had a great year! New baby boy, and read some good books. Thanks for the recommendations! My favorite 5 books from 2023 were... Blindsight by Peter Watts The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis The Devils Delusion by David Berlinski

@00czen00 4 месяца назад

Love your channel! You should definitely read and review new Houelbeque book "Annihilate"

@TH3F4LC0Nx 6 месяцев назад

Sweet! I actually was just gifted a copy of Wise Blood for Christmas. Here's hoping I love it too! :D

@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044 6 месяцев назад

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like Hazel Motes.

@Linda-bq7eq 6 месяцев назад

Your reviews are as tight and as tense as the authors you read. Spellbound I am after one of your videos and I have to look up the author and sneak up on the book because now I’m frightened of it. Wiseblood is what I’m referring here & Flannery OConner but they’re not the only ones. Anyway, thanks for being so good at what you do - your reviews drive me to sneak up on even more literature and then read it cold and raw. I’ve been terrified of Flannery OConner since High School but tonite she’s in my sights and I’ll take the plunge.

@ayda2876 6 месяцев назад

i really need to read Dune it seems so interesting

@Whatever_Happy_People 5 месяцев назад

Hullo the best dark book I've ever read is jerminal by Emile Zola. PS as as tv show the original dark shadows is a long series you might like. If so stick with it you need to full in love with the characters before the vampire barnabis comes in. Happy new year.

@justwonder1404 6 месяцев назад

2:12 - can confirm, I powered through second and third books but that was it for me.

@w4lker Месяц назад

Getting really interested in Threshold by Rob Doyle

@kidAaaaa 5 месяцев назад

-Les particules élémentaires by Michel Houellebecq -Extension du domaine de la lutte by Michel Houellebecq -Seda by Alessandro Baricco -La possibilité d'une île by Michel Houellebecq I left unread lots of books this year, I hope to come across this comment next year and be mindblown by how much more I've read this year compared to 2023, and most importantly, the quality of my reading. I have big plans. Thanks Sarge for always reviving my love and compromise to reading.

@gudi3451 6 месяцев назад

5 Miss Lonely Hearts- West 4 Blood of the Virgin-Harkham 3 Submission- Houellebecq 2 Old Man and the Sea- Hemingway 1 Notes From the Underground- Dostoevsky

@benp4877 5 месяцев назад

That’s a fine list indeed.

@30secondsflat 6 месяцев назад

2023 started off as one of the worst years of my life, and ended being on of the most satisfying as I finally signed a publication deal for my first novel. Once it's out, I would be honoured if you'd be willing to read it sometime in the future.

@PhillipOliver 4 месяца назад

I love the film "Suddenly Last Summer" but have never read the play. I do love "A Streetcar Named Desire". Flannery O'Connor is one of my favorite short story writers. For some reason, I could not get into her novels but I should give them another try.

@marknewton6984 15 дней назад

A Good Man is Hard to Find! 😮

@beatriztspacheco 5 месяцев назад

My top 5 this year: Mating, Norman Rush Desperate characters, Paula Fox Biography of X, Catherine Lacey Light years, James Salter Ice, Anna Kavan

@kieran_forster_artist 6 месяцев назад

My favourite books of 2023 : America and the Cult of the Cactus Boots, Jon Fosse Septology, Byung-Chul Han The BurnOut Society et al, Bernardo Kastrup’s books on philosophical idealism, RSS A Bended Circuity and Jung’s Black Books (7 volume journal that became Liber Novus or the Red Book)…..

@titusbramble7403 6 месяцев назад

My top five (not all fiction) 1. Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein 2. Cursed Bunny - Nora Chung 3. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 4. Still Born - Guadeloupe Nettel 5. Young Stalin - Simon Sebag Montefiore

@SuperStrangSshadow 6 месяцев назад

I read 103 books last year. My faves are Witch Hunt by Syd Moore, Take Your Turn, Teddy by Haley Newlin, Silver Nitrate by Silvia Monreo-Garcia, Holly by Stephen King and Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. You should check some of these out, if you want some dark books.

@marknewton6984 15 дней назад

Check out Charles Willeford.

@Wasp9513 6 месяцев назад

My Fav: Los llanos by Federico Falco Nombre Falso by Ricardo Piglia El entenado by Juan Jose Saer Los accidententes by Camila Fabbri El rio de las congojas by Libertad demitropoulus

@timkjazz 6 месяцев назад

The Magic Mountain is well worth the hours, a masterpiece.

@aggonzalez8096 6 месяцев назад

Awesome I’m reading it now, about a hundred pages in. I’m enjoying it right now but am wondering if it will be worth it. So far it’s very funny

@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044 6 месяцев назад

I read it last summer after avoiding it for years, but I loved it too. Like the other commenter, I was surprised how funny it was.

@timkjazz 6 месяцев назад

Absolutely, one of the ten greatest novels I've ever read.@@aggonzalez8096

@salamantitus7331 5 месяцев назад

Is that 'O Lost' by Thomas Wolfe on your shelf, Cliff?

@tassiasalazardecamargo4928 5 месяцев назад

In no particular order: - Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf) - Piranesi (Susanna Clarke) - The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafón) - Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) - Fruits Basket (Natsuki Takaya) - Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) - Zorro (Isabel Allende)

@lukekrugman1391 5 месяцев назад

I also read The Sun Also Rises in 2023 and thoroughly enjoyed it! If I might make a suggestion, please read and review A Time to Love and a Time to Die. It’s by the same author that wrote All Quiet on the Western Front and it was probably my favorite book of 2023. I enjoyed it so much that I listened to the Audiobook after reading it and then came to your page to see if you’ve reviewed it.

@marknewton6984 15 дней назад

Try Hemingway's short stories. Kilimanjaro! Macomber!

@fergalcussen 6 месяцев назад

Wise Blood is a book I've owned for almost 20 years, but keep packing in after the first few chapters year in year out. The Magic Mountain is a very rewarding book.

@rustyshackelford934 6 месяцев назад

That's wild. I blazed through it pretty quickly. I preferred her last novel more though, "The Violent Bear It Away".

@Brokenrain573 6 месяцев назад

Highly recommend mountainhead by new juche and call me burroughs by barry miles to everyone here.

@jadeddiamonds9983 6 месяцев назад

My top read was Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

@scp240 6 месяцев назад

My top 5 includes two by Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. I would add Tess of the D’Ubervilles, by Thomas Hardy, and Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov in the Norton Critical Edition. These are all acknowledged classics so perhaps no surprise but in the little known classics department I would add The Moon and the Bonfires by Cesar Pavese in the NYRB classics series. I also read some nice Shakespeare in The War of the Roses series: Henry IV Part 2 and Henry VI Part 2 and saw both of these in live performances so that was great. Tartuffe by Moliere was fantastic as was Major Barbara by Shaw. I include these plays as kind of a second category because it’s hard to compare with the others. Overall it was kind of a disappointing reading year as I didn’t read nearly as much as I had hoped, but better luck this year I suppose.

@marknewton6984 15 дней назад

Good list. I read a lot.

@johnsailorsgoat 6 месяцев назад

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë was probably my best read this year!

@ImSchneckenhaus 5 месяцев назад

My top 5 are as follows: The End of the Road by John Barth The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick Abigail by Magda Szabo Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert I’m Glad my Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy Most of these made me feel something and that’s my gauge to determine if a book is good or not… looking forward to your reviews for 2024! (I’m on a McCarthy binge because of your review of The Road lol)

@arekkrolak6320 6 месяцев назад

I read all Dune novels by Frank Herbert and I liked them all but one can also consider Dune as a single novel separate from its continuation

@LykaGillan 6 месяцев назад

the best was "Cachorro velho" from a Cuban writer.. amazing.

@00Linares00 6 месяцев назад

I had a really good start of a year, but last 2/3 were a mess. My favorite book of the year is tough, cause it was a good year. Between 100 Years of Solitude, Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, Screwtape Letters, Notes From the Underground, it could have been any and it would be a good year.

@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044 6 месяцев назад

That's quite a five books to try to choose best from!

@moss.neobisid 6 месяцев назад

My top read was Wildcat Dreams in the Deathlight by Reagan M. Sova

@bawesome7771 5 месяцев назад

kierkegaard is worth the dive into. doesn’t get enough praise imo. also read dune messiah then call it quits for dune

@jamiewalkerdine3705 6 месяцев назад

My top 5: 1. Orlando, Virginia Woolf 2. Flowers in the Attic, VC Andrews 3. Ada or Ardor, Vladimir Nabokov 4. In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, Marcel Proust 5. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

@marknewton6984 15 дней назад

Feminist list.

@Robert_K1 6 месяцев назад

My top 3: - A Heart So White by Javier Marías - Age of Iron by JM Coetzee - His Name Was Death by Rafael Bernal

@pauingles5810 5 месяцев назад

Cool to see that some contemporary Spanish literature leaks out of our country. He's probably the best author that we've had in the last years. You should check out Delibes.

@heidi6281 2 месяца назад

All fantasy books! The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie The Daughter of the Empire: Feist & Janny Wurts Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne The Blacktongue Thief: Christopher Buehlman Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott Justice of Kings by Richard Swan Guards! Guards! By Terry Prachett