I rather prefer The Phonebook to many MANY classics and contemporary books of fiction too. Don DeLillo is so boring that I will probably never read anything of his. Oh and other will not read authors for me are Thomas Bernhardt and Samuel Beckett.
Finnegans Wake is filled with many passages of great beauty and humour but obviously many difficulties too. By the time I had read about two thirds of it, I was ready to judge it an artistic failure, mainly because it just makes too many demands on the reader. However, I was not expecting to find the ending so satisfying. The final chapter contains some of the most beautiful writing I've seen anywhere, and on returning to the opening page, suddenly everything looked considerably more intelligible. Just like Ulysses, this book amply rewards re-reading.
Reading Ulysses and Woolf becomes less dense if you could hear their complex rhythms. Someone once compared what Woolf was doing with language in Mrs. Dalloway to what Hendrix does in a solo and comparison did indeed help.
My feeling for FW is that it is language being lyrical: words as characters, intruding into one another, while paragraph and sentences form a more solid framing. When you're reading it you start thinking in those terms, abandoning logic for a more inclusive flow of modes and rhythm over a single meaning. It's poetic. Joyce was a very conscious wordsmith and even more conscious phrase smith.
I'm a Dubliner and decided to read Ulysses, to see what the fuss is about as you say. I find there's a depressing crudness about it and the characters therein that reminded me of why I always longed to leave Ireland and find somewhere nice with friendly people !.. and probably the reason why Joyce himself preferred to live abroad too. I'm not sure I'll finish it. The sentences dont "flow" very well, making it necessary to constantly backtrack on what you just read ( wha..?..put that by me again 🤔 ). Anyway, I'll soldier on and see how much more I can take 😄
You got me into finally reading my copy of M.R. James' Collected Ghost Stories in August. What a hell of a collection that was, the weather was right for it here too, raining, misty mornings and nights, it just worked.
Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy..I have started to read it twice..When I realized I was skipping a lot of paragraphs I gave it up.But I will try again The Recognitions :the begining may be a bit confusing but as you go on the book can be a page turner..And you are anxious to know the end
"Araby" from _Dubliners_ is one of my favorite short stories. I own a complete set of Proust. Got 100 pages into _Swan's Way_ and stopped. I was enjoying it somewhat, but I realized at that point that I was unlikely to ever finish all of Proust and stopped. Starting again would mean rereading the first hundred pages and, well, its just too daunting to think about. So I doubt I'll ever even finish the novel I started. I also have no plans to read _Finnegan's Wake_ and as it stands right now its looking doubtful that I will make it through _The Brother's Karamazov_ either.
The Brothers Karamazov is worth it! Also Dubliners was amazing, and probably the only thing by Joyce I'll ever read. I was a huge fan of the Beats in my early 20's and since they always talked about Proust I also tried to read him but it really wasn't my cup of tea.
I failed in my first three attempt to get into The Brothers (third time I tried an audio book) and I just couldnt. There's something about Dostoevsky's style that I just struggle with. Other Russian writers don't affect me the same way, thought I'll admit Russian literature isn't my favorite.
@@BookishTexan what translation were you reading? Brothers was honestly a top five most enjoyable read for me but I read crime and punishment and notes from the u by less competent translators before brothers and had a tough time
I think you can jump back into Proust whenever. The plot moves at snails pace so there won't be much to catch up on. I read Swann's Way recently (and loved it) but I'm taking a break, we'll see if I ever continue on
Mine is Notes From The Underground by Dostoyevsky. I love Crime and Punishment. The Double was fun. I've tried to read Notes From The Underground like 5 times, and I've never been able to get through. I'm determined, but I know it'll never happen. It's sitting on my desk right right now, mocking me.
Isn't Notes from Underground like 80 pages? I remember it as being through the lens of a very caustic, depressed and spiteful man, spouting off about all these guests at some dinner party or something he got invited to that he didn't really want to attend but did attend just to sit and sulk about how dreary everyone is? Then goes to buy a prostitute and then just sits and whines to her lol. Idk Dostoevsky's longer novels are imo much better, but idk how you can't get thru an 80 page book, I mean, it's not THAT bad for you is it?
Really, really enjoying the channel! You must be the best reviewer on UA-cam and your love/obsession with Pynchon and Infinite Jest is so refreshing! Keep up the great work! By the way, you should definitely read and do a review on The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. It's a story about stories and a little like ancient tragedy. You will not regret it!
I love how you might some day read the Pale King. I always thought I'd never read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy cause what's the point after the amazing films but some sane people sat me down and explained the depth of the Professor's scope, so I also changed my mind and will read it after all.
It is quite sad not to read those the reading experience is great even in your 20's I don't like the movie adaptations but the books will read them several times
@@rayanknezic8682 I think they are a funny read while being a child, but the prose is terrible. Definitely wouldn't waste any time reading them as an adult.
@@chippchipp1 Well I'm a native spanish speaker, english is just a second language of mine. While writing that comment I surely didn't put a lot of attention to it, so I didn't realize about my mistakes. Thank you!
Its Finnegans Wake for me as well. Tried to do it two times in an MA seminar and just dropped the course both times after getting about 150 pages in. Ulysses, on the other hand, blew me away the second time I read it (the first wasn't so successful). Using the Gilbert scheme and reading each part knowing it is an "episode" really helped me a lot.
Interesting -- I count pretty much every book you'll never read as some of my favorites: Finnegans Wake, Pale King, Ulysses, & Middlemarch -- all beautiful, wonderful. I still enjoy your channel!
When I tried to read the first page of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury I couldn't do it. My mind and my body rejected the words. It was like anaphylaxis.
A book such as Middlemarch needs to be read through at least twice to fully appreciate. Wake needs a few more as it's like learning a new language. Flaubert was convinced one would attain a better education reading certain masterpieces thoroughly, as opposed to constantly consuming new material. The more time I spend rediscovering books like Middlemarch or Ulysses, the more I agree with him. Whether or not Wake is as intrinsically valuable as Ulysses, I couldn't say, but to spend more time with Joyce than say, Chabon, seems a no brainer to me.
The Wake is an all encompassing, entropic and ouroboric symphony, it must be read aloud; it is also the watershed event in literature. reading the Wake separates the men from the boys. It's odd though, considering how much you like Pynchon, that you loathe the Wake.
David Copperfield. I slugged my way through Bleak House during the summer. I think Great Expectations was the perfect length for a Dickens novel. Can't see myself making the effort for DC.
This is such an interesting idea, but I think I am 100% open to anything. Well, anything to an extent. I will give books a try and if I am not enjoying it and think it is never going to be for me then I put it on the "never gonna happen" shelf. Not too many things there though because I try to pick up books I think I will enjoy.
I love The Cantos. They are a rough reading but you always find a precious verse or a system of them lost between the work. Even if you do not understand what is going on sometimes, the rhythm and music of it are worth the effort.
I would say so long as you’ve already read at least one book by an author it’s understandable to write them off as someone you don’t want to read again. But if an author comes to mind as someone you don’t want to ever read before you’ve given them a chance then I think there could actually be some benefit to pushing yourself into that discomfort.
While Proust's series is monumental, the thing is to forget about finishing it. Simply the first 100 or so pages are enough to see the extent of Proust's unique and beautiful style.
I really thought I couldn't do Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections because I could barely survive the introduction. But once I stuck with it, it was amazing! Wittgenstein's Mistress and The Executioner's Song are two books I put down forever and to which I won't return.
Sorry so long winded. However, despite what I said I do love fiction and it doesn't always have to be happy or humorous. When that is part of the story I must say it helps though.
That's definitely understandable - thanks for the comment, and I too am not sure I'll ever read The Stand - I want too, but I've always been intimidated by it!
I think I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to read Moby Dick... I want to like it, I feel like I should (based on other things I enjoy) like it, but I try it every few years and it's just not going to happen.
Oh me too - that one, and In Search of Lost Time and War & Peace too, are books I keep deferring to a magical future where "I'll have the time." I'm starting to suspect it's never going to come!
If you read anything else by Woolf, read To the Lighthouse! I generally am not a huge fan of modernism (I also had trouble seeing what was so great about Portrait of the Artist, for instance) but To the Lighthouse is genuinely the most beautiful piece of literature I have ever experienced. I could honestly call it a perfect novel.
I got The Recognitions staring at me on the living room table. I just bought it, but I have a feeling that I may never actually start reading it. Kinda terrifies me. Sincerely, The guy currently reading The Pale King 8-)
I totally understand how intimidating The Recognitions can be. I was there once, too. But, if you're a fan of DFW, as I am, then I would suggest you at least give Gaddis a try, and The Recognitions is probably the best point of entry (despite its massive page count). You might be pleasantly surprised. Wallace had mentioned Gaddis several times as an influence, and it's easy to see, particularly in the way they handle dialogue. There's a certain scene in The Pale King (no spoilers) that takes place in an elevator. IIRC, it's basically the whole chapter and it's done entirely in dialogue, with little-to-no attribution. Many of the characters speak quite distinctly and so you'll know who they are, while others don't and you won't, and it totally reminded me of the party scenes in The Recognitions, where the random voices of strangers bleed into the conversation of the main characters. Anyhow, sorry for the rambling response. Just wanted to say that I was there once, too, and that any DFW fan should give him a shot.
@@bedet yes, I know of Gaddis via DFW … I read (you know, with skimming many pages) The Pale King, and I might get around to Gaddis sometime. I'm still trying to figure out which Pynchon book to try; so much controversy, I don't know which.
I've read the first 50, the last 100, and pages in the middle of Finnegan's, specifically I wanted to find the mention of 'quarks' which the particle were named after, and a few of the cultural references embedded in it, but the whole thing? Nahhh
Alan Moore recently wrote a chapter of his epic Jerusalem about Joyce's daughter Lucia, in the style of the Wake, which was excellent and only 40 pages, so the allusive gibberish didn't drag on too long...
One I feel I really should but am kinda doubtful if I ever will is Beckett's trilogy. I really didn't click with most of the plays I read of his and his short stories were even worse for me. But then, I love modernism and am very intrigued
Same here! They're supposed to be vital to the shift from modernism to postmodernism (like some beat writing, especially Burroughs) but I have a strong feeling I'll find them exceedingly hard to digest (or understand)!
Impressive pronounciation of Čapek, btw. For me it's the other way, the more difficult books I can found, the more im interested in reading them (but there's difference between difficult and mess) and still searching for different ways how to write and aproach writing, tell a vision (very hard to impress me by anything). I think u have to build it up slowly, you can't jump on most difficult books right away, maybe as very young reader you can digest some hard works very easily, because you had that free mind for it. With me, it started when i read fantasy, and it just all felt same, building world, characters, plot, yada, yada, same shirt, different day... like any fiction, especially nowadays, kinda does, u have blueprints on how to make them, differences are slight... its product. I've read some books that are often recommended as very difficult, and they didn't felt that complex to me (Blood Meridian, Valis). I think with what i sometimes struggle is "long and old" let's say, outdated, literature. It can be so neverending in certain depictions of long describing of events, something like Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, and so on... you just dont feel like having time to read about one thing for so many pages (and i still got both of them, planning to read them, besides many others). Or authors that are simply bad or pretencious (they may sometimes put out even very good book and still come up as pretencious and fake to me). But at the same time, in my head i kinda already know, what i will wanna read, and what i will not wanna read i dont even think about, because i'm lazy and slow and my bookshelf is filled with like 110 unread books (and most of them are long and also difficult).
I too will never read Finnegans Wake but not, unlike you, because I am not passionate about modernism. (I just finished my first reading of Ulysses two weeks ago and though 70% was over my head, the 30% that I was able to access left me to conclude it was the most perfect work I have ever read--and made me want to re-read the book, probably for the rest of my life, so I can unpack the other 70%, which I know has real value.) No, I just don't think I'm smart enough to read FW--I can't decode 60+ languages and riddles and thunderwords. I get why Chabon needed to read it--like Joyce, he knows everything about everything; but I am nowhere near knowing anything about anything.
There is a lot of mainstream fiction I have no interest in, but in the sphere of "serious" literature I prefer to keep an open mind, because you never know how your views or circumstances might change. That said, I'm kind of in the same situation as you regarding DFW. Even if I did like IJ, I feel like that was more than enough of his writing for a lifetime. But like you said, I sometimes find myself a bit curious about the others. I'm definitely reading Finnegans Wake someday though, I love Joyce.
Interesting video. I have started to read Infinite jest twice. At first I found it very interesting and funny, but as I got lost in the kindle edition I turned it down. Later I bought a book because I wanted to finish it... but still I did find time and sitzfleisch to finish it. But im not saying I will not finish it ever (I hope, I will). The other book, which I startwd twice is Gravity's Rainbow. I have been reading it in czech translation, and although I enjoyed some parts of the really dense writing, I just lost patience. But im more open minded, and I like the notion that you can challenge yourself by reading a book.
I think every book lover or avid reader at some point needs to admit to his/herself that they will not read certain works, for one reason or another. I will never read Middlemarch. I'm not a fan of realism nor do I enjoy novels set in rural places. There are several others I will never read, but that's the only one that comes to mind immediately.
I will probably never read Goosebumps, just because I was already in my 30s when they came out. The only young readers books that interest me are the ones that I read when I was young.
I shudder every time I think of having to read the Latin epics the Aeneid and Metamorphoses. Epic style poetry, even Milton's masterwork Paradise Lost to which I refer since it is an example of the genre written in my native language, quickly wears thin on me. I doubt I will be able to avoid the Latin writers completely, but will only consult them rather than read them in their entirety.
I know this was written a year ago, but the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses are MUCH easier reads than Paradise Lost. Personally, I find Paradise Lost a real slog, but the Metamorphoses is honestly one of my favourite literary works ever - don't miss out because Milton can be a bastard !
@@casparb9252 I am currently and coincidentally reading Metamorphoses. I agree that because of the shorter length of the individual narratives, it is quite accessible and not as dense as Paradise Lost. Ovid is also encompassing, not limiting himself squarely to the genre of epic. Metamorphoses has tragedy, romance, comedy, satire, and so on. I appreciate its centrality to the canon. It is a book to be read again over a life time. The imaginary virtuosity on display is staggering, and though incredibly and immediately rewarding, requires a lot of mental power on my behalf since Ovid's vivid diction creates such rich imagery. Whenever dealing with poetry in translation, the issue of verse has always made an initially awkward impression on me. I think Metamorphoses has softened the blow when it comes to the Latins, and on your sound advice, I may give the Aeneid a crack later in the year.
ooooh The Kidneys!! That's some dark humor man. You have read some messed up stuff. That would not have occurred to me as a fear that quick and I definitely have fear of people. Good one though, made me laugh.
The novel 'Lanark' by Alasdair Gray is a strange journey of a book much more readable than 'Finnegans Wake' but seems to be in the same vein as Joyce's odd surreal 'night' novel. Books not to read for me are books unfinished by the author that some publisher ends up publishing anyway just to capitalize on a dead author's name. Exception to the rule - Franz Kafka.
I have a couple Jane Austen novels, but I don't know if I'll ever finish them. Not that I'm opposed to romantic 19th century fiction, I did end up loving Wuthering Heights quite a bit, but something about Austen turns me away from her. I also thought for a while that I was never going to read The Pale King, since my first reading of Infinite Jest was such a painful and bitter experience, but to my surprise I found The Pale King to be far more fulfilling.
I always thought I had a problem for not getting Austen (I did enjoy Northanger Abbey but couldn't quite get Pride & Prejudice at all) but I recently spoke with people who also can't really enjoy her, and now I wonder if she's just one of those authors.
btw: I'm 99.9% certain you will not like The Pale King. It takes a fan to do so (like Chabon w/ Finnegans Wake). - TPK is an unfinished novel, and REALLY reads like one (all those people who claim otherwise are fanboys and/or bullshitters). In general, the book is constituted by great/awesome and finished and polished sections in alternation with just bad stuff that also reads like it was just left there unfinished or was just a failure. So yeah...you might want to read the good parts only xD like this one.. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/02/05/good-people if you don't like this, just give up the book before even trying (if you like it a lot then you may give it a try) P.S. whoever added that subtitle for the new yorker managed to ruin the whole thing...go figure. Peace
Ciao Paolo! Between the two of us? I'll be honest? I'm 99.9% sure I won't like it too. The problem is me and not the book, and it's definitely not the right frame of mind, but what can you do. Thanks for your opinion on the unfinished factor though, because I've read wildly different takes on the idea that it reads like a finished novel - with some people, like you say, claiming it does. I can't read the fragment because the New Yorker is being a shithead but I'll try again soon :*
@@TheBookchemist I didn't think I'd like TPK either, but I did. Full of the Wallace humor -- sure, it doesn't hold together exactly as a novel, since it was unfinished and cobbed together by others. Still, I really enjoyed it for what it is.
I think the only book right now that I won't read (I think) is Finnegan's Wake too. I loved Dubliners and Ulysses and plan to read A Portrait, but I am not down for the gibberish in Finnegan's Wake, which seems like it will prove much more troublesome than Ulysses. Maybe when I'm older I'll give it a try lol 'cause I do love Joyce.
I know it's not gibberish, but it would sure feel like it. What I should have said was I'm not down for cracking it down, at least not now. I don't feel ready to tackle it just yet. Who knows, though.
First comment! I prefer to keep my mind open. You never know what's going to happen. You may end up reading one book or another under very odd circumstances.
I read Swann's Way and really struggled... I did NOT enjoy it. I am certain I will not read the other six books. I'd rather read Gravity's Rainbow again, and that took three attempts.
I started “Anna Karenina,” but definitely won’t finish it (I loved “War and Peace,” though). I also don’t plan on reading “Ulysses,” “Finnegan’s Wake,” or “Swann’s Way” (it’s just too long). I may start reading “Infinite Jest,” just to see what all the fuss is about 😉 If I want to read something long and intricate, I’ll stick to the works of Neal Stephenson for now.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac - a book I will never finish. I pushed myself hard to take it as far as I did when I had it in my hands and I just couldn't finish the thing. Could be my very young age (I was like 16 or something) or the fact that I'm not from USA or something else, but I never really understood the point of it. Pretty sure it had a very deep meaning that completely flew over my head, but I refuse to go back and reread it. It kind of left me drained after every page I was finishing hence the experience not being all that great.
I also hated the book when I first read it, at age 19, and know several people who had the same experience. I think I'd probably be able to enjoy it more if I read it now. It's a problematic novel on so many levels, it's definitely a novel of its age, and I believe, like you too suspect, that one may need to be American to have it resonate fully within them. All things considered, it's one of those books that's 100% fine to dislike if you ask me.
Here's an article by Samuel Beckett about Finnegan's Wake (bear in mind that he dictated a large portion of the book!). A lot of the claims, like the fact that we all should get this and if we don't we're not thinking properly, are a little bit problematic (or maybe they're not and I really am just not thinking properly about this), but I found it very interesting even though I haven't read very far into Finnegan's Wake. Samuel Beckett was a smart dude. bibliot3ca.com/dante-bruno-vico-joyce-by-samuel-beckett/ I don't know anything about this website; if you can find a more reliable source, use that.
I believe this is from “Our Exagmination of Work in Progress,” a series of essays published in 1928 to build excitement and support for Joyce after he got a lot of flak for the incomprehensible early snippets of Finnegans Wake. FW is truly not as hard as it seems - because it is more like looking at a painting than reading a book. And it is meant to be read IN A GROUP with some WINE and GOOD ATTITUDES.
For me is the Magic Mountain. I just find it boring and long and kind of gloomy. There’s almost no storyline, characters are just standing here and chatting for ever and ever in different languages (as I remembered, they speak German, French and Russian) which I find super annoying. I finished like one hundred pages and had to just give up.
It's one of my favourite books, mainly because think the ideas it contains and the characters are fun to engage with. There are many novels where there is little story but if you enjoy the philosophy and characters it is worth it. I will admit that not every chapter is thrilling.
Book Chemist! I require a recommendation! I'm about to finish The Corrections and was wondering if I should read Freedom, Purity, Underworld, Inherent Vice, Sabbath's Theater, The Satanic Verses, or The Yiddish Policeman's Union next! Please help!
They're immensely different books - know that Freedom is The Corrections all over again, Purity is superflous, Underworld is a masterpiece but it's pretty challenging, Yiddish Policemen Union is a masterpiece but some people find it tough to enjoy (while others find it a breeze)
I feel like life is too short to deal with Jonathan Lethem. Love Pynchon, love Chabon, and Joyce (no, not Finnegans Wake) and Woolf, but can't get into Lethem for whatever reason.
For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Tale of Two Cities. Life is too short for Dickens (despite my love of Pynchon and Tartt, who both claim Dickens as a major influence). Meanwhile, Hemingway just bores me incessantly. I've read The Sun Also Rises and The Old Man and the Sea multiple times and I just don't get why he is so beloved.
Keith!! How are you :D? I may probably never read Dickens myself for the same reason you won't read Hemingway - I couldn't really enjoy Christmas Carol and Hard Times at all. As for Hemingway, I love him but I'll be the first to admit he's very hit-or-miss: I plan to one day re-read A Farewell to Arms, which didn't do the trick for me the first time, but everytime I plan to do it I'm like eehh... not really. Keep in mind that 1) For Whom the Bell Tolls is, I think, his best and most entertaining/less boring novel; but also that 2) I quite like Sun and Old Man too, so if you did not enjoy those it's definitely possible you should just skip Hemingway, at least for the time being. Hope everything's fine over there ^^
@@TheBookchemist Things are good! Just busy teaching. When I get the chance to read I'm often just rereading. Most recently The Nix by Nathan Hill (a beautiful book) and now East of Eden, which I still scream from the top of a mountain is by far Steinbeck's best. Glad to hear you're well!
Read Chabon's article when it appeared, liked it. I'm Irish and an early Joycean. FW is totally readable, wish I could show you my annotated copy, my Ulysses too. I'm "afraid" to get into Infinite Jest, cause I know I'm gonna love it. I JUST read along next year, after GR???
Hm. Honestly, I don't think I'm ready to admit there's a work of serious literature that I won't read. I might never read anything by Arno Schmidt though, just because he seems a little /too/ out there for me. . . . . also you're turning into the hot professor of all our dreams lmao why is your hair always flawless.
I think it's ok to admit you aren't going to read something or to not do that. You can always change your mind or stick to it. What harm is either? You can push yourself and still find there are many things you don't even care to get to or to challenge your way through. Right. Well that's my view, even if it's your job to read.
I’ve tried to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man a few times, and I can’t get more than a scant few pages. With apologies to my short Irish ancestors, my reading any Joyce is unlikely. I won’t read Orson Scott Card because he’s an asshole. I have read but won’t read any more Cormac McCarthy (too violent and nihilistic), Don DeLillo (too pretentious), or Celeste Ng (too...man, I really disliked Little Fires Everywhere.)
I won't read bible. Maybe if I became fluent in Latin and Hebrew, I would read the original texts. But not any English nor modern translation of bible. I read few passages from Genesis a long time ago and was like "NOPE!!! Too weird, even if I think it's as a poem".
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I'll never read the Divine Comedy for its poetry and I cant read italian, and to read poetry in ttanslation is like not readibg at all. Probably other epic poems as well, even tough I love poetry.
Oh, I'm with you on Joyce : The Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a young Man, great. I started reading Ulysses and enjoyed it at first, but then Joyce started to disappear up his own posterior and by about page 200, I thought, "I don't like the person who wrote this. I think if I met him in real life, I'd find him obnoxious", so end of Joyce. Middlemarch......aaaaahh, just a great wallow of a read. Its language is beautiful, and so witty that I smiled far more than with supposedly comic novels. I won't read Infinite Jest, Proust or Ayn Rand. It's not that I'm averse to lengthy tomes, these ones are just not for me.
Oddly I only read for enjoyment these days or knowledge so the majority of the books you talk about I will probably never read. I am ok with that. I could ask you if you are going to read plays and perform in them. That is one thing I do. But if not everyone wants to do that even if they are curious I think the world will keep going and people can push themselves if they like. I must admit sometimes I think I must be missing out as I have not read more than a few pages of infinite jest but at this point I find the explanations of it to be kind of scary and creepy. I do not believe I will ever fully read Stephen King's "It" either as it is super long and apparently has many very disturbing things in it. Not gonna miss that horrifying me. Maybe I am a little jaded as I find enough weird shit in the world outside of fiction. Enough terror and fucked up things and unhappiness-es and stresses. I don't want to learn about more or escape to them really intentionally. Just living and not always distracting yourself from reality is quite scary enough for me a lot of my days.
William Blake's apocalyptic poems. Read half of it, will probably never touch it again. And Hery James. Two novels and a couple of short stories was enough to know I hate his writing. Once I'd read Ulysses I knew I'd never read Infinite Jest or Gravity's Rainbow. Too much wasted effort
@@NnoitraSYS Yeah. Read it twice with secondary literature. I didn't care for the prose, for the story or the characters. To me it seems more like a technical exercise in language than a book.
Aw, yeah if all that doesn't interest you then I don't blame you. I loved it all, especially the characters, so that's probably why I admire it, but also I do think I learned so much from reading it.
I hate Finnegan’s Wake with a passion. I forced myself to finish it over a two-year period, basically to win the argument that it’s a pure hoax by Joyce.
The_Bookchemist Yeah, that is not something I’ll likely ever do again. It’s also one of the very few points where I strongly disagree with Eco. I think Finnegan’s Wake is pure self congratulatory trash, written for nothing else than to be indecipherable.
Time after time, I try and restart Naked Lunch, and I only ever eek past the halfway point before tiring and opting to experience something new or something familiar.
The Phonebook. There’s just so many characters and addresses to remember; it completely ruins the story.
IRL lol
Hahahahahaha.......that's true, though; I have yet to get through that big yellow book.
A million times more interesting than Don Quixote
I rather prefer The Phonebook to many MANY classics and contemporary books of fiction too. Don DeLillo is so boring that I will probably never read anything of his. Oh and other will not read authors for me are Thomas Bernhardt and Samuel Beckett.
Finnegans Wake is filled with many passages of great beauty and humour but obviously many difficulties too. By the time I had read about two thirds of it, I was ready to judge it an artistic failure, mainly because it just makes too many demands on the reader. However, I was not expecting to find the ending so satisfying. The final chapter contains some of the most beautiful writing I've seen anywhere, and on returning to the opening page, suddenly everything looked considerably more intelligible. Just like Ulysses, this book amply rewards re-reading.
I'm about 160 pages into Finnegans Wake and I'm enjoying it. Reading it alongside Joseph Campbell's book helps a lot.
im never reading another jane austen novel
Reading Ulysses and Woolf becomes less dense if you could hear their complex rhythms. Someone once compared what Woolf was doing with language in Mrs. Dalloway to what Hendrix does in a solo and comparison did indeed help.
My feeling for FW is that it is language being lyrical: words as characters, intruding into one another, while paragraph and sentences form a more solid framing. When you're reading it you start thinking in those terms, abandoning logic for a more inclusive flow of modes and rhythm over a single meaning. It's poetic. Joyce was a very conscious wordsmith and even more conscious phrase smith.
I'm a Dubliner and decided to read Ulysses, to see what the fuss is about as you say. I find there's a depressing crudness about it and the characters therein that reminded me of why I always longed to leave Ireland and find somewhere nice with friendly people !.. and probably the reason why Joyce himself preferred to live abroad too. I'm not sure I'll finish it. The sentences dont "flow" very well, making it necessary to constantly backtrack on what you just read ( wha..?..put that by me again 🤔 ). Anyway, I'll soldier on and see how much more I can take 😄
That Chabon article actually makes me want to read Finnegans Wake in all its unreadable glory.
You got me into finally reading my copy of M.R. James' Collected Ghost Stories in August. What a hell of a collection that was, the weather was right for it here too, raining, misty mornings and nights, it just worked.
When I got round to reading him I really wasn't expecting him to be that good. Glad I helped!
Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy..I have started to read it twice..When I realized I was skipping a lot of paragraphs I gave it up.But I will try again
The Recognitions :the begining may be a bit confusing but as you go on the book can be a page turner..And you are anxious to know the end
"Araby" from _Dubliners_ is one of my favorite short stories.
I own a complete set of Proust. Got 100 pages into _Swan's Way_ and stopped. I was enjoying it somewhat, but I realized at that point that I was unlikely to ever finish all of Proust and stopped. Starting again would mean rereading the first hundred pages and, well, its just too daunting to think about. So I doubt I'll ever even finish the novel I started.
I also have no plans to read _Finnegan's Wake_ and as it stands right now its looking doubtful that I will make it through _The Brother's Karamazov_ either.
The Brothers Karamazov is worth it! Also Dubliners was amazing, and probably the only thing by Joyce I'll ever read. I was a huge fan of the Beats in my early 20's and since they always talked about Proust I also tried to read him but it really wasn't my cup of tea.
I failed in my first three attempt to get into The Brothers (third time I tried an audio book) and I just couldnt. There's something about Dostoevsky's style that I just struggle with. Other Russian writers don't affect me the same way, thought I'll admit Russian literature isn't my favorite.
@@BookishTexan what translation were you reading? Brothers was honestly a top five most enjoyable read for me but I read crime and punishment and notes from the u by less competent translators before brothers and had a tough time
I think you can jump back into Proust whenever. The plot moves at snails pace so there won't be much to catch up on. I read Swann's Way recently (and loved it) but I'm taking a break, we'll see if I ever continue on
Mine is Notes From The Underground by Dostoyevsky. I love Crime and Punishment. The Double was fun. I've tried to read Notes From The Underground like 5 times, and I've never been able to get through. I'm determined, but I know it'll never happen. It's sitting on my desk right right now, mocking me.
Isn't Notes from Underground like 80 pages? I remember it as being through the lens of a very caustic, depressed and spiteful man, spouting off about all these guests at some dinner party or something he got invited to that he didn't really want to attend but did attend just to sit and sulk about how dreary everyone is? Then goes to buy a prostitute and then just sits and whines to her lol. Idk Dostoevsky's longer novels are imo much better, but idk how you can't get thru an 80 page book, I mean, it's not THAT bad for you is it?
Really, really enjoying the channel! You must be the best reviewer on UA-cam and your love/obsession with Pynchon and Infinite Jest is so refreshing! Keep up the great work! By the way, you should definitely read and do a review on The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. It's a story about stories and a little like ancient tragedy. You will not regret it!
How about Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren?
I love how you might some day read the Pale King.
I always thought I'd never read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy cause what's the point after the amazing films but some sane people sat me down and explained the depth of the Professor's scope, so I also changed my mind and will read it after all.
I read Finnegans Wake and I got a kick out of it by reading the entirety out loud. Funny ass book.
Thank you for the Jacobus links, I used to love that books and you're right, the illustrations were so cool.
Harry Potter. All 7 of them.
I completely agree!
It is quite sad not to read those the reading experience is great even in your 20's I don't like the movie adaptations but the books will read them several times
@@rayanknezic8682 I think they are a funny read while being a child, but the prose is terrible. Definitely wouldn't waste any time reading them as an adult.
@@AllendeEtAl "While being a children"? "Definetely"? Clearly your prose is unmatched by any modern author, Jorge.
@@chippchipp1 Well I'm a native spanish speaker, english is just a second language of mine. While writing that comment I surely didn't put a lot of attention to it, so I didn't realize about my mistakes. Thank you!
Its Finnegans Wake for me as well. Tried to do it two times in an MA seminar and just dropped the course both times after getting about 150 pages in. Ulysses, on the other hand, blew me away the second time I read it (the first wasn't so successful). Using the Gilbert scheme and reading each part knowing it is an "episode" really helped me a lot.
Interesting -- I count pretty much every book you'll never read as some of my favorites: Finnegans Wake, Pale King, Ulysses, & Middlemarch -- all beautiful, wonderful. I still enjoy your channel!
When I tried to read the first page of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury I couldn't do it. My mind and my body rejected the words. It was like anaphylaxis.
You ain't smart enough
I read Dante's inferno way before I was ready. Paradise Lost, however, was a revelation of how good epic poetry could be.
Controversial but I think Purgatorio is the much better book of the 3
A book such as Middlemarch needs to be read through at least twice to fully appreciate. Wake needs a few more as it's like learning a new language.
Flaubert was convinced one would attain a better education reading certain masterpieces thoroughly, as opposed to constantly consuming new material. The more time I spend rediscovering books like Middlemarch or Ulysses, the more I agree with him. Whether or not Wake is as intrinsically valuable as Ulysses, I couldn't say, but to spend more time with Joyce than say, Chabon, seems a no brainer to me.
The Wake is an all encompassing, entropic and ouroboric symphony, it must be read aloud; it is also the watershed event in literature. reading the Wake separates the men from the boys. It's odd though, considering how much you like Pynchon, that you loathe the Wake.
David Copperfield. I slugged my way through Bleak House during the summer. I think Great Expectations was the perfect length for a Dickens novel. Can't see myself making the effort for DC.
Shmizzle Shmazzle it's wonderful, but doesn't need to be as drawn out as much as it is.
Oh, I loved David Copperfield! I am a big Dickens fan though.....
@@shmizzleshmazzle9830 It's a masterpiece, clearly wasted on you.
This is such an interesting idea, but I think I am 100% open to anything. Well, anything to an extent. I will give books a try and if I am not enjoying it and think it is never going to be for me then I put it on the "never gonna happen" shelf. Not too many things there though because I try to pick up books I think I will enjoy.
The Cantos of Ezra Pound. I've tried several times, and have read certain individual Cantos from it, but, yeah, it's just not going to happen.
I love The Cantos. They are a rough reading but you always find a precious verse or a system of them lost between the work. Even if you do not understand what is going on sometimes, the rhythm and music of it are worth the effort.
I would say so long as you’ve already read at least one book by an author it’s understandable to write them off as someone you don’t want to read again. But if an author comes to mind as someone you don’t want to ever read before you’ve given them a chance then I think there could actually be some benefit to pushing yourself into that discomfort.
I don't think I'll ever read Tolstoy, the Bronte sisters. Jane Austen, Murakami nor Bukowski. I'm just not interested enough
While Proust's series is monumental, the thing is to forget about finishing it. Simply the first 100 or so pages are enough to see the extent of Proust's unique and beautiful style.
I can't imagine not ever reading Joyce, all his books are masterpieces in my opinion.
This video made me feel much better about not having the slightest desire to read a Jane Austen novel. Thanks!
I really thought I couldn't do Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections because I could barely survive the introduction. But once I stuck with it, it was amazing!
Wittgenstein's Mistress and The Executioner's Song are two books I put down forever and to which I won't return.
Sorry so long winded. However, despite what I said I do love fiction and it doesn't always have to be happy or humorous. When that is part of the story I must say it helps though.
That's definitely understandable - thanks for the comment, and I too am not sure I'll ever read The Stand - I want too, but I've always been intimidated by it!
I think I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to read Moby Dick... I want to like it, I feel like I should (based on other things I enjoy) like it, but I try it every few years and it's just not going to happen.
Oh me too - that one, and In Search of Lost Time and War & Peace too, are books I keep deferring to a magical future where "I'll have the time." I'm starting to suspect it's never going to come!
If you read anything else by Woolf, read To the Lighthouse! I generally am not a huge fan of modernism (I also had trouble seeing what was so great about Portrait of the Artist, for instance) but To the Lighthouse is genuinely the most beautiful piece of literature I have ever experienced. I could honestly call it a perfect novel.
That's very encouraging, thanks :)!
50 Shades of Grey and The Twilight series (the themes don’t interest me in the slightest) and A Little Life (it just seems too violent for my taste).
I got The Recognitions staring at me on the living room table. I just bought it, but I have a feeling that I may never actually start reading it. Kinda terrifies me.
Sincerely,
The guy currently reading The Pale King 8-)
I totally understand how intimidating The Recognitions can be. I was there once, too. But, if you're a fan of DFW, as I am, then I would suggest you at least give Gaddis a try, and The Recognitions is probably the best point of entry (despite its massive page count). You might be pleasantly surprised. Wallace had mentioned Gaddis several times as an influence, and it's easy to see, particularly in the way they handle dialogue. There's a certain scene in The Pale King (no spoilers) that takes place in an elevator. IIRC, it's basically the whole chapter and it's done entirely in dialogue, with little-to-no attribution. Many of the characters speak quite distinctly and so you'll know who they are, while others don't and you won't, and it totally reminded me of the party scenes in The Recognitions, where the random voices of strangers bleed into the conversation of the main characters. Anyhow, sorry for the rambling response. Just wanted to say that I was there once, too, and that any DFW fan should give him a shot.
I have a similarly ogling copy, I'm so certain I'll never read that one I literally keep it 1000 miles away from me ;)
@@bedet yes, I know of Gaddis via DFW … I read (you know, with skimming many pages) The Pale King, and I might get around to Gaddis sometime. I'm still trying to figure out which Pynchon book to try; so much controversy, I don't know which.
Loved "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," but not sure I'll ever get through Ulysses.
Thanks! I definitely will need help!
I've read the first 50, the last 100, and pages in the middle of Finnegan's, specifically I wanted to find the mention of 'quarks' which the particle were named after, and a few of the cultural references embedded in it, but the whole thing? Nahhh
"Four quarks for Master Mark ..."
Alan Moore recently wrote a chapter of his epic Jerusalem about Joyce's daughter Lucia, in the style of the Wake, which was excellent and only 40 pages, so the allusive gibberish didn't drag on too long...
''- Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he hasn't got much of a bark
And sure any he has it's all beside the mark.''
One I feel I really should but am kinda doubtful if I ever will is Beckett's trilogy. I really didn't click with most of the plays I read of his and his short stories were even worse for me. But then, I love modernism and am very intrigued
Same here! They're supposed to be vital to the shift from modernism to postmodernism (like some beat writing, especially Burroughs) but I have a strong feeling I'll find them exceedingly hard to digest (or understand)!
Impressive pronounciation of Čapek, btw. For me it's the other way, the more difficult books I can found, the more im interested in reading them (but there's difference between difficult and mess) and still searching for different ways how to write and aproach writing, tell a vision (very hard to impress me by anything). I think u have to build it up slowly, you can't jump on most difficult books right away, maybe as very young reader you can digest some hard works very easily, because you had that free mind for it. With me, it started when i read fantasy, and it just all felt same, building world, characters, plot, yada, yada, same shirt, different day... like any fiction, especially nowadays, kinda does, u have blueprints on how to make them, differences are slight... its product. I've read some books that are often recommended as very difficult, and they didn't felt that complex to me (Blood Meridian, Valis). I think with what i sometimes struggle is "long and old" let's say, outdated, literature. It can be so neverending in certain depictions of long describing of events, something like Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, and so on... you just dont feel like having time to read about one thing for so many pages (and i still got both of them, planning to read them, besides many others). Or authors that are simply bad or pretencious (they may sometimes put out even very good book and still come up as pretencious and fake to me). But at the same time, in my head i kinda already know, what i will wanna read, and what i will not wanna read i dont even think about, because i'm lazy and slow and my bookshelf is filled with like 110 unread books (and most of them are long and also difficult).
I too will never read Finnegans Wake but not, unlike you, because I am not passionate about modernism. (I just finished my first reading of Ulysses two weeks ago and though 70% was over my head, the 30% that I was able to access left me to conclude it was the most perfect work I have ever read--and made me want to re-read the book, probably for the rest of my life, so I can unpack the other 70%, which I know has real value.) No, I just don't think I'm smart enough to read FW--I can't decode 60+ languages and riddles and thunderwords. I get why Chabon needed to read it--like Joyce, he knows everything about everything; but I am nowhere near knowing anything about anything.
I knew Finnegans Wake was gonna be here.
There is a lot of mainstream fiction I have no interest in, but in the sphere of "serious" literature I prefer to keep an open mind, because you never know how your views or circumstances might change.
That said, I'm kind of in the same situation as you regarding DFW. Even if I did like IJ, I feel like that was more than enough of his writing for a lifetime. But like you said, I sometimes find myself a bit curious about the others.
I'm definitely reading Finnegans Wake someday though, I love Joyce.
Interesting video. I have started to read Infinite jest twice. At first I found it very interesting and funny, but as I got lost in the kindle edition I turned it down. Later I bought a book because I wanted to finish it... but still I did find time and sitzfleisch to finish it. But im not saying I will not finish it ever (I hope, I will). The other book, which I startwd twice is Gravity's Rainbow. I have been reading it in czech translation, and although I enjoyed some parts of the really dense writing, I just lost patience. But im more open minded, and I like the notion that you can challenge yourself by reading a book.
@William Loudermilk I thought the war parts were outstandingly good, while the peace parts were like a bad soap opera.
I think every book lover or avid reader at some point needs to admit to his/herself that they will not read certain works, for one reason or another. I will never read Middlemarch. I'm not a fan of realism nor do I enjoy novels set in rural places. There are several others I will never read, but that's the only one that comes to mind immediately.
You gotta at least read chapter 22 of Pale King. Its one of the best things DFW wrote in my opinion
I will probably never read Goosebumps, just because I was already in my 30s when they came out. The only young readers books that interest me are the ones that I read when I was young.
Can you do a review of John Kennedy Tool's Confederacy of dunces ? Or any book written by Eduardo Mendoza, would be fun !
Dunces, sure, as soon as I re-read it ;)
You must also read the Neon Bible if you are a JKT fan! It's wonderful.
I shudder every time I think of having to read the Latin epics the Aeneid and Metamorphoses. Epic style poetry, even Milton's masterwork Paradise Lost to which I refer since it is an example of the genre written in my native language, quickly wears thin on me. I doubt I will be able to avoid the Latin writers completely, but will only consult them rather than read them in their entirety.
I know this was written a year ago, but the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses are MUCH easier reads than Paradise Lost. Personally, I find Paradise Lost a real slog, but the Metamorphoses is honestly one of my favourite literary works ever - don't miss out because Milton can be a bastard !
@@casparb9252 I am currently and coincidentally reading Metamorphoses. I agree that because of the shorter length of the individual narratives, it is quite accessible and not as dense as Paradise Lost. Ovid is also encompassing, not limiting himself squarely to the genre of epic. Metamorphoses has tragedy, romance, comedy, satire, and so on. I appreciate its centrality to the canon. It is a book to be read again over a life time.
The imaginary virtuosity on display is staggering, and though incredibly and immediately rewarding, requires a lot of mental power on my behalf since Ovid's vivid diction creates such rich imagery.
Whenever dealing with poetry in translation, the issue of verse has always made an initially awkward impression on me. I think Metamorphoses has softened the blow when it comes to the Latins, and on your sound advice, I may give the Aeneid a crack later in the year.
Exact opposite, I adore ancient epics.
The Turner Diaries. Don't want to be the FBI's watch list.
There are videos on youtube of some Irish people reading Finnegans Wake (they're not done yet) and the book is still a pain in the ass
ooooh The Kidneys!! That's some dark humor man. You have read some messed up stuff. That would not have occurred to me as a fear that quick and I definitely have fear of people. Good one though, made me laugh.
The novel 'Lanark' by Alasdair Gray is a strange journey of a book much more readable than 'Finnegans Wake' but seems to be in the same vein as Joyce's odd surreal 'night' novel. Books not to read for me are books unfinished by the author that some publisher ends up publishing anyway just to capitalize on a dead author's name. Exception to the rule - Franz Kafka.
Weird, when I read Virginia Woolf I find myself letting her take me by the hand, I just get lost in her words :)
I have a couple Jane Austen novels, but I don't know if I'll ever finish them. Not that I'm opposed to romantic 19th century fiction, I did end up loving Wuthering Heights quite a bit, but something about Austen turns me away from her. I also thought for a while that I was never going to read The Pale King, since my first reading of Infinite Jest was such a painful and bitter experience, but to my surprise I found The Pale King to be far more fulfilling.
I always thought I had a problem for not getting Austen (I did enjoy Northanger Abbey but couldn't quite get Pride & Prejudice at all) but I recently spoke with people who also can't really enjoy her, and now I wonder if she's just one of those authors.
btw: I'm 99.9% certain you will not like The Pale King. It takes a fan to do so (like Chabon w/ Finnegans Wake). - TPK is an unfinished novel, and REALLY reads like one (all those people who claim otherwise are fanboys and/or bullshitters). In general, the book is constituted by great/awesome and finished and polished sections in alternation with just bad stuff that also reads like it was just left there unfinished or was just a failure. So yeah...you might want to read the good parts only xD
like this one.. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/02/05/good-people
if you don't like this, just give up the book before even trying (if you like it a lot then you may give it a try)
P.S. whoever added that subtitle for the new yorker managed to ruin the whole thing...go figure.
Peace
Ciao Paolo! Between the two of us? I'll be honest? I'm 99.9% sure I won't like it too. The problem is me and not the book, and it's definitely not the right frame of mind, but what can you do. Thanks for your opinion on the unfinished factor though, because I've read wildly different takes on the idea that it reads like a finished novel - with some people, like you say, claiming it does.
I can't read the fragment because the New Yorker is being a shithead but I'll try again soon :*
@@TheBookchemist I didn't think I'd like TPK either, but I did. Full of the Wallace humor -- sure, it doesn't hold together exactly as a novel, since it was unfinished and cobbed together by others. Still, I really enjoyed it for what it is.
I think the only book right now that I won't read (I think) is Finnegan's Wake too. I loved Dubliners and Ulysses and plan to read A Portrait, but I am not down for the gibberish in Finnegan's Wake, which seems like it will prove much more troublesome than Ulysses. Maybe when I'm older I'll give it a try lol 'cause I do love Joyce.
When you find out it's not gibberish you'll probably enjoy it more.
FW is totally readable. A humorous pleasure upon every page ...
I know it's not gibberish, but it would sure feel like it. What I should have said was I'm not down for cracking it down, at least not now. I don't feel ready to tackle it just yet. Who knows, though.
And more dick jokes than you can shake a stick at.
Lol, well now I already feel like taking but what I said. May give it a shot sooner than I expect, but not too soon haha.
The novels I have read I most regret pouring time into are those of Virginia Woolf. Dire.
First comment! I prefer to keep my mind open. You never know what's going to happen. You may end up reading one book or another under very odd circumstances.
"sort of adult", haha, we are all sort of adults, that is for sure .. up until the day we die, only thing to do is improve or perish.
I read Swann's Way and really struggled... I did NOT enjoy it. I am certain I will not read the other six books. I'd rather read Gravity's Rainbow again, and that took three attempts.
I started “Anna Karenina,” but definitely won’t finish it (I loved “War and Peace,” though). I also don’t plan on reading “Ulysses,” “Finnegan’s Wake,” or “Swann’s Way” (it’s just too long). I may start reading “Infinite Jest,” just to see what all the fuss is about 😉 If I want to read something long and intricate, I’ll stick to the works of Neal Stephenson for now.
The Pale King is worth it
On the Road by Jack Kerouac - a book I will never finish. I pushed myself hard to take it as far as I did when I had it in my hands and I just couldn't finish the thing. Could be my very young age (I was like 16 or something) or the fact that I'm not from USA or something else, but I never really understood the point of it. Pretty sure it had a very deep meaning that completely flew over my head, but I refuse to go back and reread it. It kind of left me drained after every page I was finishing hence the experience not being all that great.
I also hated the book when I first read it, at age 19, and know several people who had the same experience. I think I'd probably be able to enjoy it more if I read it now.
It's a problematic novel on so many levels, it's definitely a novel of its age, and I believe, like you too suspect, that one may need to be American to have it resonate fully within them. All things considered, it's one of those books that's 100% fine to dislike if you ask me.
As soon as I read the title I thought Finnegans Wake
Here's an article by Samuel Beckett about Finnegan's Wake (bear in mind that he dictated a large portion of the book!). A lot of the claims, like the fact that we all should get this and if we don't we're not thinking properly, are a little bit problematic (or maybe they're not and I really am just not thinking properly about this), but I found it very interesting even though I haven't read very far into Finnegan's Wake. Samuel Beckett was a smart dude. bibliot3ca.com/dante-bruno-vico-joyce-by-samuel-beckett/ I don't know anything about this website; if you can find a more reliable source, use that.
I believe this is from “Our Exagmination of Work in Progress,” a series of essays published in 1928 to build excitement and support for Joyce after he got a lot of flak for the incomprehensible early snippets of Finnegans Wake. FW is truly not as hard as it seems - because it is more like looking at a painting than reading a book. And it is meant to be read IN A GROUP with some WINE and GOOD ATTITUDES.
And here’s the link! Beckett’s essay comes first. pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1254/d4ba30e903dc6e292ba6410380f444d2bbcf.pdf
For me is the Magic Mountain. I just find it boring and long and kind of gloomy. There’s almost no storyline, characters are just standing here and chatting for ever and ever in different languages (as I remembered, they speak German, French and Russian) which I find super annoying. I finished like one hundred pages and had to just give up.
It's one of my favourite books, mainly because think the ideas it contains and the characters are fun to engage with. There are many novels where there is little story but if you enjoy the philosophy and characters it is worth it. I will admit that not every chapter is thrilling.
Book Chemist! I require a recommendation! I'm about to finish The Corrections and was wondering if I should read Freedom, Purity, Underworld, Inherent Vice, Sabbath's Theater, The Satanic Verses, or The Yiddish Policeman's Union next! Please help!
They're immensely different books - know that Freedom is The Corrections all over again, Purity is superflous, Underworld is a masterpiece but it's pretty challenging, Yiddish Policemen Union is a masterpiece but some people find it tough to enjoy (while others find it a breeze)
@@TheBookchemist I really appreciate your feedback
Anything from Neal Stephenson. I've read two of his books and his style is not for me.
I feel like life is too short to deal with Jonathan Lethem. Love Pynchon, love Chabon, and Joyce (no, not Finnegans Wake) and Woolf, but can't get into Lethem for whatever reason.
For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Tale of Two Cities. Life is too short for Dickens (despite my love of Pynchon and Tartt, who both claim Dickens as a major influence). Meanwhile, Hemingway just bores me incessantly. I've read The Sun Also Rises and The Old Man and the Sea multiple times and I just don't get why he is so beloved.
Keith!! How are you :D? I may probably never read Dickens myself for the same reason you won't read Hemingway - I couldn't really enjoy Christmas Carol and Hard Times at all. As for Hemingway, I love him but I'll be the first to admit he's very hit-or-miss: I plan to one day re-read A Farewell to Arms, which didn't do the trick for me the first time, but everytime I plan to do it I'm like eehh... not really. Keep in mind that 1) For Whom the Bell Tolls is, I think, his best and most entertaining/less boring novel; but also that 2) I quite like Sun and Old Man too, so if you did not enjoy those it's definitely possible you should just skip Hemingway, at least for the time being. Hope everything's fine over there ^^
@@TheBookchemist Things are good! Just busy teaching. When I get the chance to read I'm often just rereading. Most recently The Nix by Nathan Hill (a beautiful book) and now East of Eden, which I still scream from the top of a mountain is by far Steinbeck's best. Glad to hear you're well!
Good! I'll be reading The Nix soon :D
@@TheBookchemist I'll look forward to that!
I like sun also rises, but yes, for me whom the bell tolls only has sections that are good, most of the historical action is yawny
The Comedians by Graham Greene
Big mistake. I've read a lot of Greene and that book is the only one by him I'd say to anyone that won't be a waste of your time.
Can you read Spanish..? If you do try El Traductor by Salvador Benesdra, Argentinian.
Read Chabon's article when it appeared, liked it. I'm Irish and an early Joycean. FW is totally readable, wish I could show you my annotated copy, my Ulysses too. I'm "afraid" to get into Infinite Jest, cause I know I'm gonna love it. I JUST read along next year, after GR???
Hm. Honestly, I don't think I'm ready to admit there's a work of serious literature that I won't read. I might never read anything by Arno Schmidt though, just because he seems a little /too/ out there for me.
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also you're turning into the hot professor of all our dreams lmao why is your hair always flawless.
Anything by Jane Austen.
It feels like Paul Auster disagrees with everything you’re saying.
Yeah like HE really gets Finnegans Wake D:
I think it's ok to admit you aren't going to read something or to not do that. You can always change your mind or stick to it. What harm is either? You can push yourself and still find there are many things you don't even care to get to or to challenge your way through. Right. Well that's my view, even if it's your job to read.
I’ve tried to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man a few times, and I can’t get more than a scant few pages. With apologies to my short Irish ancestors, my reading any Joyce is unlikely. I won’t read Orson Scott Card because he’s an asshole. I have read but won’t read any more Cormac McCarthy (too violent and nihilistic), Don DeLillo (too pretentious), or Celeste Ng (too...man, I really disliked Little Fires Everywhere.)
There is no reason to read Finnegan's Wake.
I won't read bible. Maybe if I became fluent in Latin and Hebrew, I would read the original texts. But not any English nor modern translation of bible. I read few passages from Genesis a long time ago and was like "NOPE!!! Too weird, even if I think it's as a poem".
I'll never read the Divine Comedy for its poetry and I cant read italian, and to read poetry in ttanslation is like not readibg at all. Probably other epic poems as well, even tough I love poetry.
For the same reason, I have a sneaky suspicion I may never read Goethe's Faust!
war and peace. never. ever. I read way too much Russian lit when I was younger. I've had my fill.
The lord of the rings and all the fantasy stuff
I see you everywhere!, and I too struggle a lot with fantasy. It's really important to know yourself as a reader, time is too precious
Oh, I'm with you on Joyce : The Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a young Man, great. I started reading Ulysses and enjoyed it at first, but then Joyce started to disappear up his own posterior and by about page 200, I thought, "I don't like the person who wrote this. I think if I met him in real life, I'd find him obnoxious", so end of Joyce.
Middlemarch......aaaaahh, just a great wallow of a read. Its language is beautiful, and so witty that I smiled far more than with supposedly comic novels.
I won't read Infinite Jest, Proust or Ayn Rand. It's not that I'm averse to lengthy tomes, these ones are just not for me.
Eheh - I too started happy and enthusiastic with Ulysses and by the third or fourth chapter I was starting to have doubts ;)
Don Quixote. Forced myself halfway through and then just quit. I can read a phonebook so it was pretty bloody terrible.
I made it a bit ways thru, but yeah … I had to read Joseph Andrews in college and that was enuff of the picaresque for me
Oddly I only read for enjoyment these days or knowledge so the majority of the books you talk about I will probably never read. I am ok with that. I could ask you if you are going to read plays and perform in them. That is one thing I do. But if not everyone wants to do that even if they are curious I think the world will keep going and people can push themselves if they like. I must admit sometimes I think I must be missing out as I have not read more than a few pages of infinite jest but at this point I find the explanations of it to be kind of scary and creepy. I do not believe I will ever fully read Stephen King's "It" either as it is super long and apparently has many very disturbing things in it. Not gonna miss that horrifying me. Maybe I am a little jaded as I find enough weird shit in the world outside of fiction. Enough terror and fucked up things and unhappiness-es and stresses. I don't want to learn about more or escape to them really intentionally. Just living and not always distracting yourself from reality is quite scary enough for me a lot of my days.
Moby Dick. Absolutely no interest
William Blake's apocalyptic poems. Read half of it, will probably never touch it again.
And Hery James. Two novels and a couple of short stories was enough to know I hate his writing.
Once I'd read Ulysses I knew I'd never read Infinite Jest or Gravity's Rainbow. Too much wasted effort
Ulysses felt like a waste of time to you?
@@NnoitraSYS Yeah. Read it twice with secondary literature. I didn't care for the prose, for the story or the characters. To me it seems more like a technical exercise in language than a book.
Aw, yeah if all that doesn't interest you then I don't blame you. I loved it all, especially the characters, so that's probably why I admire it, but also I do think I learned so much from reading it.
I hate Finnegan’s Wake with a passion. I forced myself to finish it over a two-year period, basically to win the argument that it’s a pure hoax by Joyce.
Well that's commitment!
The_Bookchemist Yeah, that is not something I’ll likely ever do again. It’s also one of the very few points where I strongly disagree with Eco. I think Finnegan’s Wake is pure self congratulatory trash, written for nothing else than to be indecipherable.
First dislike!
Here you've reached another for you 👎
The Bible.
Pleb
reading that rn
Maybe you could try skipping the genealogies and laws and stick to the narrative parts.
Or any religious fiction.
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Time after time, I try and restart Naked Lunch, and I only ever eek past the halfway point before tiring and opting to experience something new or something familiar.