11 Books I Wish I Could Read for the First Time Again
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- Опубліковано 5 сер 2024
- I'm jealous of anyone who hasn't read these yet. (I realize I kept saying "reread again for the first time" rather than "read again for the first time." Ignore that.)
0:00 Intro
0:55 Beowulf
2:43 The Sagas of the Icelanders
3:54 Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
5:27 Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
6:40 Tarjei Vesaas, The Birds
7:54 Karl Ove Knausgård, My Struggle
9:17 Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
10:54 Agota Kristóf, The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie
12:18 Anne Carson, Nox
14:22 Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions
15:34 Mathias Énard, Zone
If you are planning on buying any of these books, consider buying from your local independent bookstore, however, if you are going to use Amazon, consider using my affiliate links to support me!
Beowulf: amzn.to/3VlFkmI (Check out my three part read-through of Beowulf: • BEOWULF (Lines 1-989) )
The Sagas of the Icelanders: amzn.to/3OT2AFX (for more on the sagas, check out my recommendations based on The Northman: • Like The Northman? Rea... )
Blood Meridian: amzn.to/3H1O6lp
Song of Solomon: amzn.to/3UjbrSx
The Birds: amzn.to/3VldJSs (full review here: • THE BIRDS, by Tarjei V... )
My Struggle (vol. 1): amzn.to/3OVaLSf
One Hundred Years of Solitude: amzn.to/3gJTSxu
The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie: amzn.to/3FfAqlA
Nox: amzn.to/3iuG62c
Collected Fictions: amzn.to/3EVQ7Np
Zone: amzn.to/3Uoj3Ds
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I was awestruck by Blood Meridian the first time I read it. The prose is so beautiful yet so violent.
David Markson "This Is Not A Novel": Ben Marucs "The Age Of Wire & String": Valeria Luiselli "The Lost Children Archive"" Leanne Shapton "Important Archives...": Jeff Noon "Cobralingus": Clarice Lispector "the Passion According to G.H.": Georges Perec "53 Days": WG Sebald "Austerlitz": Samuel Beckett "Endgame": Heimrad Backer "Transcript": Franz Kafka "Metamorphosis".
That's a great list, Marc. I really need to get to Markson soon - I've heard you extoll his brilliance for so long. Kafka should also be on this list for me too, especially Metamophosis and a few of his other short stories. I've read some of Perec, Sebald, Lispector, and Luiselli, but I think I need to read more by each. Perec's Life: A User's Manual did blow me away though.
@@travelthroughstories It's entirely mutual as I've just ordered Nox and The Birds - I've read some other Vesaas but not that one. And Ann Carson is just, well, Ann Carson, but this one sounds right up my street if it's challenging notions of what a book is plus etymology! Thanks for the recommendations.
@@MarcNash pp
Lispector is so awesome! Love her!
This is a great video. I love how you always put books on my radar that I have never heard of. Thank you for that.
Thanks you! I'd be interested to hear some of your picks as well if you ever decided to make a video on the topic.
It’s nice to hear you talk about the books that are part of you….this is the huge gift of this episode!
This is so beautiful and yes, I can resonate with some of your points. They collide with mine. Thanks for making this video.
Great idea to turn this into a video! Loved your picks from the instagram post, good to see you talk a bit more about each choice in video form too. Énard's Zone, great choice! - that one would be on mine too.
Thank you! Énard's Zone is so good and it doesn't seem to get the attention that it really deserves. Glad to hear from another reader who adores it!
I just discovered your channel and very much enjoy your literary and global approach to reading. Thank you for sharing your thoughtful and personal list, some of which I have't heard of. I'm eager to dive in.
Thanks for saying so, Elizabeth!
Sean....you are an absolute menace :-)
Yet another video that is going to send me hurtling ever faster into penury as I pick up more phenomenal novels. Thanks to you, just this week I have picked up the Kristof and Enard novels as well as two books by Peter Nadas (Parallel Stories and "A Book of Memories").... Still....with great literature, who needs a house :-)
Haha, I'm glad to be of service. Nádas is wonderful - I really want to get to "A Book of Memoires" sometime. I hope you really enjoy Énard, Kristóf, and Nádas!
I was just thinking how I'd love to read Independant People again. And now I look up and you have an entire SHELF dedicated to Halldor Laxness. Wonderful!
I also re-read 100 Years quite regularly. It was amazing the first time, and now that I read it in Spanish it has become even better!
Laxness would be a great addition to a list like this one! Independent People definitely ranks quite highly in my top books of all time and Laxness is easily only of my favorite authors of all time. I'm very jealous that you're able to read One Hundred Years of Solitude in the original Spanish -- I can only imagine that it just that much better.
George Orwell “1984”,
Ray Bradbury “Fahrenheit 451”, JRR Tolkien “The Hobbit”
These have all been influential books for me.
Oh wow, this was great. I *just* put The Birds on my side table hoping to get to it next and then I watch this. Now I guess I'll be putting a box of tissues next to it. Zone is hovering nearby, too.
I read The Notebook trilogy a couple of months ago because of one of your twitter posts. Not sure I have the words to articulate my thoughts on that one. It was brilliant.
Thanks so much for the work you put into this channel. I am accumulating many favourite reads because of you and I'm deeply grateful for this.
Thank you! Hahah - The Birds is really worth your time, I think. I'm having the exact same problem regarding The Notebook trilogy, hence why I haven't done a review yet...That book left me speechless. I'm really glad to be of some service. Thanks for all the kind words.
Fantastic selection, Sean! This is such a cool prompt. I would need to meditate on the issue for about 2 months to come up with my own list, but I'll share the first thing that came to my mind: Julio Cortázar's short stories. Loved your thoughts on all of these texts! The Birds, what a novel... I have Song of Solomon on my list and can't wait to read it. (I'm a big fan of Sula, btw.) Borges, of course... You have reminded me that I need to read Blood Meridian as soon as possible. I managed to find that nice Modern Library edition. Cormac McCarthy stares at me from that tiny picture on the spine... Next year for sure. Thank you for another amazing video!
Thanks, Jorge! My list would also certainly change if I'm asked in a month (or a week...), haha. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on a kind of list like this sometime if you ever need a video idea. Cortázar always looks so wonderful - I often hear his name come up in lists like this. I really need to read him. I have his collection "Bestiary" on my shelf and I've been meaning to get to him for years. I love that edition of Blood Meridian, though I haven't managed to find a nice used copy out in the wild. I'm excited for you to read it!
@@travelthroughstories I'll try to put together a list like this one someday. Bestiary is a very good collection, especially for an early one! (Trivia you may know: it was none other than Borges who published Cortázar's first story.) The nice thing about Cortázar is that his great stories are scattered throughout his books. Anyway, I hope you get to this author sometime soon. I think you will find him fascinating, and I envy you that first experience of his work. Have a wonderful day!
Beowulf! Yes! I read/studied the poem for a class in high school and it cracked opened my consciousness. It awakened a thirst me that I didn’t know existed. Beowulf will always be my most beloved first read. I collect translations and editions as I find them.
Such a good video!! Thank you for this. I’m feeling quite inspired to dive into some books on your list!
Thank you! Glad to see another Beowulf fan. I likewise have about a full shelf of Beowulf translations, editions, and monographs on it. It's a wonderful poem. I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to pick up!
@@travelthroughstories thank you! Sending best wishes…
So nice! Love your experiences here. I was surprised to see My Struggle as one you'd want to do again, but you explained yourself so well!
I can't get enough Knausgård, hah. Thanks! I'd love to hear your list sometime.
The thing I like the most is that you mentioned books from different countries/literatures. I'll definitely check 'The Birds' out as I've never heard of that author before. Thank you for the recommendations!!
Thank you for watching! The Birds is really wonderful, as are all of Vesaas's other books.
Really enjoyed your video. This is a great list-thanks so much for your great insights into these moving books. My favourite on the list is "Blood Meridian". This book does what all truly great literature does-it moves you to a different level-changing the way you think about life , and your place within it. I recently read the book "Blindsight" by Peter Watts. It affected me in a similar way to "Blood Meridian". The beauty of the prose and the way the book is structured grabs hold of you and stays with you long after you've finished it. "Blindsight", like "Blood Meridian", will leave you a slightly different person after reading it.
Thank you! Interesting - I've never heard of that one, but I'll look into it. Thanks for the rec!
Both Hundred years of Solitude and Song of Solomon would be on my list - 100 years really started my reading and inspired me to deep dive into South American literature and eventually to travel and explore the continent - truly life changing. I understand what you said about Zone and the book that did that for me was another Marquez - Autumn of the Patriarch.
That's very cool that it encouraged you to physically travel there as well! 100 years likewise opened up Latin American fiction for me as well and that was really my first experience delving into translated lit. I somehow haven't read Autumn of the Patriarch yet... I really need to rectify that.
@@travelthroughstories I think you will really love it - a combination of the magical and political of 100 years and the unstoppable torrent that you spoke about in Zone. I have yet to read Enard (I do have Compass on the shelf) but the long sentence style is something I find so immersive - many of Thomas Bernhard's novels and Ducks, Newburyport are wonderful examples too.
I keep hearing Blood Meridian recommended. Gonna have to pick it up soon! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching! Blood Meridian gets *a lot* of hype in some spaces, but I really think it's deserved. I hope you enjoy it if you decide to pick it up soon!
Oooh I really relate to what you said about Gabriel García Márquez being an entry point into literary fiction! I was also a kid growing up on a diet of fantasy and medieval lit (and retellings thereof), so it was mind blowing when I discovered magical realism. That just clicked where other literary fiction somehow didn't do it for me.
Have you read Julio Cortázar as well? I love his prose, and he's a master of the short form. It was his short story Continuity of the Parks that set me on my magical realism binge
Also, thanks for sharing all these books. The Mathias Énard and Agota Kristóf sound like my type of books!
I haven't really read Cortázar yet - I've read a handful of stories, but not a full collection. I have his collection, Bestiary, though. Thanks for the reminder that I need to get to it! Both Énard and Kristóf deserve waaay more love in the anglo-phone world, so I hope you enjoy them!
These sound awesome!! I need to read these!!
The books I would reread would be Touching Spirit Bear, Fahrenheit 451, Mary Shelley Frankenstein, the 1001 Nights Malcom C.Lyons translation, Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa, the Conference of the Birds by Farid Attar , Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling, Shahnameh Epic Book of the Persian Kings and in the Land of Time and other Fantasy Tales by Lord Dunsany.
Great recommendation. Loved them
so well done bravo
Great video! You sold me Blood Meridian :D There are some weird warping artifacts in the video, specially in the background.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy Blood Meridian. And yeah, that's from my phone's camera - not sure if there's a way to fix it.
Just ordered the Birds and the Kristof trilogy based off this. Blood Meridian is one of my favorites also-amazing, and my wife is currently finishing One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I'll be reading after. Morrison is on my TBR list, and I have added Nox and Borges to my "saved for later" cart. Cheers!
I'm glad to hear that Vesaas and Kristóf piqued your interest - I hope you enjoy them! Glad to hear from another fan of BM as well.
i hadnt heard many people talk about the kristof trilogy, sounds very intriguing
great idea and vid!
It's wonderful -- she's such a great author! Thank you! I'd be interested to see your list as well.
Great video and question! For me, Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin, The Brunist Day of Wrath by Robert Coover, A Man of Shadows by Jeff Noon, The Affirmation by Christopher Priest, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, High Art by Rubem Fonseca, Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss, Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock, Going Native by Stephen Wright, Bodies Electric by Colin Harrison, How's the Pain by Pascal Garnier
It is a great question, and walking around looking at my shelves, they are now decorated with little lights like yours, also a bit messy ;-), I smiled at Anthony Burgess' Earthly Powers, with to me the best opening sentence. But you, and today Mark Nash mentioned him as wel, reminded me of Enard's Compass that is on my shelve but not read yet. Thank you for your recommendations
Haha, I'm glad I'm not the only one with abysmally messy shelves! I've read some by Burgess, but I've never read that one. I did just read the first few sentences though and...my God. I'll need to seek out that book asap. Thanks for the recommendation!
wonderful video thanks for sharing
A beautiful video. Thank you for sharing. So many unique works.
Books I am interested in checking out further based on this video:
Saga of the Icelanders
The Birds
The Notebook trilogy
Thanks for watching! I'm glad there were a few books that stood out to you.
This is wonderful, Sean! Your sincere passion and intellectual engagement come across so well. I’m so eager to read all the books here that I’ve not read yet. Song of Solomon was my first Morrison as well. One Hundred Years of Solitude was one of my first proper “adult” novels that I read when I was 15 and it opened me up to the possibilities of fiction. I completely agree how it makes you appreciate “difficult” books. Thanks so much for this video.
Thanks for the kind words, Eric! I'd love to hear your list sometime. Marquez is a revelation for so many young readers - it speaks to his ability as an author to reach young people while not sacrificing anything in terms of difficulty.
I'll let you be jealous of me because I just started Blood Meridian today! I'm loving it though I'm reading it very slowly and discussing it with a friend. I love hearing why each one of these books or stories was so impactful for you. Wonderful video!
Wow, enjoy the journey! Blood Meridian deserves to be read very slowly. I really hope you get a lot out of that experience. I'd be interested to know books that you'd like to read again for the first time if you ever needed a video idea!
I’m not sure how I feel about the question itself only because I find that I get so much more out of every subsequent re-read that I’m kind of happy to have at least a go around with a book first. If I had to choose something to forget to just read it again, I would probably pick Catch-22 by Joseph Heller only so I could find my favorite book again
I'm a big proponent of rereading! I completely agree that rereading often reveals so much more about each book. I tried to pick books here that, while they should be read again and again, have something special about the experience of that very first encounter. Catch-22 is a great pick! I need to reread that one at some point, actually.
one of my favorite questions!! loved hearing your books. i wish i could re-read again for the first time: train dreams by dennis johnson, devil in the flesh by raymond radiguet; and agree w/ u on blood meridian and One Hundred Years of Solitude
For whatever reason, I've been saving Train Dreams for so long! I keep hearing about how it's an almost flawless novella and that, for some reason, has made me continue to wait for the perfect time to read it. I'll rectify that soon though. Also, I haven't heard of the Radiguet -- I just looked it up and it sounds incredible. I'll try to find a copy.
@@travelthroughstories you need to read train dreams before the end of the year!!! eager to hear ur thoughts on it when u get to it :)
I'm hoping to reread The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan again soon, fabulous magical realism with a personal story tied to our greater issue of climate change. I'm not sure if it will hit me as hard as the first time I read it and it gave me the feeling of a modern masterpiece.
From your list I've read One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I'm a bit luke warm about now after a reread of Love in the time of Cholera, which was a negative rereading experience. I need to find a good translation of Beowulf, I've read basic versions and I've read bits of the Sagas which were teamed with a modern day visit to Iceland by someone, who his relatives tell him, he is descended from one of the authors of the sagas, Dr Kári Gíslason, Saga Land also by Richard Fidler.
I've struggled to get into Morrison's writing, I suspect I'm too easily distracted and deliberately avoided McCarthy. I think McCathy would be an uncomfortable reading experience and I save my uncomfortable reading experiences for other books that feel more relevant to other issues that interest me. I'm Australian, so I come at those books with a slightly different take on things.
I loved One Hundred Years. I think I read it in high school and have been debating a reread of it. I also have Blood Meridian on my shelves getting ready to read for the first time ☺️ Definitely need to read The Birds now. What an amazing list!
I'm trying to think what would be on my list. Definitely The Bell Jar. Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man. East of Eden. Do I dare add A Little Life to the list? I read the Driver's Seat from Muriel Sparks this year and it blew me away
Eager to hear what you make of Blood Meridian and The Birds if you decide to pick it up! Nice list - I've somehow not yet read East of Eden, but I really liked The Grapes of Wrath. Joyce is always a great addition. A Little Life would be interesting. I was really into it while I was reading it, but I've since soured on the book. It'd be great (and terrible) to experience its hyper-melodrama again for the first time!
Valuable insight, didnt even know about the Icelandic sagas. Currently re-reading "Everything is Illuminated" which made my jaw drop the first time around
The sagas are some of the most accessible examples of medieval lit! I've never read anything by Foer, somehow. I'll look into Everything is Illuminated - thanks for the recommendation!
@@travelthroughstories ❤
@@travelthroughstories Yes, "Everything Is Illuminated" is a must read.
I completely agree with Knausgaard's my struggle. Such a life changing experience for me. I don't think I had ever been that invested in someone else's life and inner world. I think these books are the deepest form of communication I've experienced so far, I really felt like I was in his mind, in his skin. I would add crime and punishment (a book that made me feel mad and feverish), Exhalations (an amazing speculative short story collection by Ted Chiang), the Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, The name of the rose by Umberto Eco, Terre des Hommes by St-Exupéry, Albert Camus' The fall (changed my whole worldview when I was 18), Milkman by Anna Burns (that language, that style!), and the Wind up bird chronicle by Murakami
That's a great way of putting the experience of reading Knausgård. Camus, Eco, and Murakami were pretty influential on my reading life as well, all in different ways. I still need to read Milkman - I remember that book looking so interesting when it came out, but I never got to it! Great list!
Great list... Beowulf, Borges, Marquez, Enard's Compass (for me). At Marc Nash's recommendation I have read some really great books among which is David Mark son's This Is Not A Novel & Perec's Life... Though Günter Grass's The Tin Drum is justly famous I love his Peeling The Onion much more & would have liked to read it for the first time again. Sebald of course I am obsessed with, I re-read them, so yes all of his writing too. Graham Greene The Power & The Glory.
Thanks! Even though love Zone so much, I actually haven't read Compass yet. I bought it immediately upon finishing Zone, but just haven't got to it yet. Perec's Life almost made my list as well. A few different people have mentioned Grass and now I'm really thinking that it's about time I get to him... Thanks for sharing some of your list!
It's dangerous watching your video. Just added a dozen books to my TBR list. Thanks for sharing.
Haha, happy to be of service!
What a great list!
Oooh. Can I steal this idea?
Great list. My own list might be too similar though.
Yes, please do! I should have made it more clear at the end, but I was hoping that some other booktubers would share their own lists. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
@@travelthroughstories I hit reply before I got to the end🤓
Have you reviewed any ancient history books? Such as the one you mentioned, The Iliad?
Would be nice to rediscover Borges all over again! But the truth is like any great poem (aren't Borges' best like prose poems?) they just get better with each read. That first impact of discovering him was special though; someone described it as discovering a new letter in the alphabet. Indeed it felt like a new way of seeing, an integration and synthesis of all knowledge thus far and delimiting the possibility of what literature can do. I'd definitely want to experience that thrill again.
Do you know any other authors you had that feeling with? Still looking for the same impact!
Good point! Most of these books will only get better with each reread, just like Borges, but there's just something about that first encounter that's so special. Similar to Borges, I'd place Kafka (Kafka almost made my list over Borges, in fact). He changed, for me at least, what I thought literature could do.
Great video and recommendations. Your description of Kristóf tempts me to read it, but, what do you mean by "disturbing"? As in graphic descriptions of violence/atrocity or something more ... psychological? The former I can't do but the latter would intrigue me.
Thank you. Unfortunately, the former. It depicts two young boys growing up in a village stuck between two warring countries and so there's quite a bit of senseless violence. It's not the most graphic, but the violence is quite disturbing. I would add a content warning for violence, sexual assault, and simply amoral behavior.
@@travelthroughstories Thank you. Appreciate the reply and clarification. May still check it out if I can work up the courage.
Three "non-fiction" books that really changed the way I see the world and would love to read again are Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks, Wayfinders by Wade Davis and When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
Interesting! I like the idea of focusing on non-fiction books. This reminds me that I really need to read that Labatut as well - it's been on my bedside table for like a year at this point. Thanks for sharing!
Is When We Cease to Understand the World by Labatut non-fiction? After the initial story, it appeared to be a unique blend of fiction and fact. Never read anything like it, such an incredible work.
Adding Kristof and Enard to my TBR. I won't be getting to them any time soon, though. Someone recently gifted me strep and pneumonia and I'd like to finish them first. I'm a bit too addlepated to come up with any cerebral answers to your question, though it does remind me that I wish my earlier reading experiences had been somewhat better curated. Seems I spent my youth reading books for old men and now I'm playing catchup reading coming of age novels filled with irretrievably missed touchstones I never experienced. So, basically every book ever. More recently, I wish I could restart Tara June Winch's The Yield. Early on I started to confuse names and generations and never was able to recover the awe I'd had earlier in the reading experience. This year I set out to read the major Austen and Brontes, but never got past Pride and Prejudice. It was easy to read, but I absolutely hated it until chapter ten. Now I am immersing myself in books about the era and enjoying that at least. Should be better prepared for my second attempt.
Good morning, Sean! Thanks for sharing this list with us. The Song of Solomon and The Birds would be on my list as well. Just out of curiosity, behind you in this video, just above your left shoulder… What are the three books laying horizontally, next to the Fosse? They stood out to me, & I can make out what appears to be the Melville House logo (but maybe not)? Would love to know!
A few other titles that I wish I could read again for the first time would be: The Grapes of Wrath, Lolita, Crossing the Sierra de Gredos, The Idiot, Soul Mountain, The Obscene Bird of Night and The Tin Drum.
Hey Ryan! The Grapes of Wrath and Lolita would definitely be contenders on my list as well. I actually picked up copies of Soul Mountain and The Obscene Birds of Night not too long ago and I hope to get to them next year for sure.
Yeah, apologies for 1, having messy bookshelves with almost no organization, and 2, not having a great camera so many of the books are *just* unreadable. Those three are actually all Norwegian books that I just got in. In descending order: Tor Ulven's Prosa i samling (Echoes of lost libraries has highly recommended Ulven, especially his untranslated short fiction - I've worked through a few short pieces and they're great!); Jens Bjørneboe, Bestialitetens Historie (I've read part of his History of Beastiality trilogy in English, but I really wanted to work through them in norsk. At some point in the next year or to I want to read his entire bibliography from start to finish); Dag Solstad's Det Uoppløselige Episke Element i Telemark i Perioden 1591-1896 (Solstad's largest untranslated book, the one that Lydia Davis famously learned Norwegian to read).
@@travelthroughstories Hey, it’s all good! Thanks for engaging! Yes, I read the History of Bestiality in ‘21 and that was a landmark experience, though I actually preferred The Sharks! And Solstad is a great writer, I have been ever so slowly going through his translations in English, and did read a bit about Lydia Davis’s adoration of that work! So cool! I’m going to set a serious goal for leaning a new language in ‘23. Woe be the monoglot! (LOL) I hope you enjoy these books on your horizon, and this last month of the year treats you kindly. Best,
I've been slowly collecting all of his books over the past year or so, and I believe I finally have them all except a stray play or two, most in translation, a handful in Norwegian. I'm really looking forward to The Sharks, but I think I'll save it for last as it's his last book as well. Solstad is really wonderful! It's odd that this one was never translated as it's, as far as I can, by far his longest work. I hope Lydia Davis was right and that it's worth it!
Woe to the monoglot, indeed! Haha. My speaking skills are abysmal (even in English, to be fair), but I really enjoy the process of slowly reading and translating word-by-word - I find it to be a really fun way of learning a new language. I hope you're successful in your goals of language-learning. I hope all is well with you too (and I'm still very much hoping that you decide to start a channel someday!).
If you're interested in a fantastic one-sentence book I'd highly recommend 'Autumn of the Patriarch' by Garcia-Marquez (I remember it as being 4 sentences, actually). I read it in one sitting, the only time I've done that.
I assume you've read multiple translations of Beowulf. Could you recommend any translations? (Not to mention crediting the translators) Same for Icelanders...
I need to get to that GGM novel some day -- thanks for the rec! My favorite translation of Beowulf is by Roy Liuzza, though the more popular translation by Heaney is perfectly fine. He has some quirks and some blatant mistranslations that distort the text in some ways that I find annoying, but overall, it's probably the most approachable and poetic version in modern English.
As for the sagas, most sagas have only been translated in English once, so you don't have much of a choice. The Penguin edition I mention here is a good starting point. As for crediting the translators, I usually do in my full reviews and I talk extensively about the translations themselves. I didn't do it here for simplicity's sake (it often feels quite awkward and clunky in video format to say the title, the author, the translator, and the publisher), but you're right that I should have. I have nothing but respect and admiration for translators of both medieval and modern lit.
I love Stoner!!! I found it at a second hand bookstore and simply fell in love with it. I really like your channel. What do you think of Knut Hamsen's Hunger? It left me confused... I liked it, but didn't get it
Stoner is wonderful - it just barely didn't make my full list. I read Hunger years ago and remember not clicking with it either. His Growth of the Soil is quite good though - I did a review of that one some time back.
I could honestly read Borges forever and never get bored.
Thanks for this review! I read this awesome edition of The Sagas this year thanks to you. May I ask you, as for Versaas, do you prefer The ice palace or Birds?
Some of the books I wish I could read for the first time: The idiot by Dostoevsky, Ovid's Methamorphoses, Mrs Dalloway by V. Woolf, The Odyssey, A heart so white by Javier Marías, Seven gothic tales by K. Blixen...
Oh wow, I'm glad you enjoyed the sagas! For Vesaas, I loved both, but I enjoyed The Birds a bit more. I think I'm in the minority there though. Great list! Woolf and Marías are both fantastic.
Thank you! just discovered your channel. Appreciate any recommendations on translations would be appreciated, although I assume your links likely point to good X to english translations
Thanks for watching, Peter! Most of the books only have the one English translation that I linked to. The only real exception is Beowulf, which here I linked to the RM Liuzza translation, which I think strikes the best balance between accuracy to the Old English and readability. The Seamus Heaney translation is probably easier to find (and that's the one that most people have read) -- that one is perfectly fine too! It's probably more accessible. I just have a few problems with the translation and so I usually recommend the Liuzza if you can find it for cheap.
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Life, A User's Manual by Georges Perec
Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter
Well done as always good sir. Have you read A Bended Circuity or Novel Explosives yet?
Thanks! I haven't yet, no. I've only heard good things about A Bended Circuity and I'm planning on picking it up the next time I place a Corona/samizdat order. I've heard mixed things about Novel Explosives, but I'm interested in it for sure. I actually do own a copy of that one as I picked it up after Leaf by Leaf's video years ago. Would you recommend these?
@Travel Through Stories I am still working my way through A Bended Circuity, which is fantastic. I actually loved Novel Explosives. Yes, I would recommend both, in part, to hear your thoughts. Keep up the great work.
@@jameshumphries7272 Good to know they're both very worth it - two more "big books" to add to my list 😅. Cheers, James!
I read Beowulf in Old English in grad school and it was fun! Old English is cool, esp. the poems like Deor's Lament. My professor would test us on our knowledge of OE vocab by asking us to translate passages from the New Testament that had been translated into Old English. Since I grew up Baptist, I had no problem with those passages from the OE New Testament. :)
Deor is incredible! There's so much wonderful OE poetry -- it's a language VERY worth studying.
Ehy man, did you ever read something about Gunter Grass? I’d like to year your opinion on his works
I haven't yet! I've been meaning to get to him for some time. Perhaps in 2023!
Good review. Thank you. As for books left off the list.....definitely John Williams' STONER. It had the tightest prose I think I've ever read...nothing was wasted. A little known autobiography that moved me, but which would certainly not be considered great literature was MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND by Claude Brown. His experience as a young black male coming of age in Harlem in the 50's watching Heroin wreak havoc on all of his relationships and virtually destroy Harlem was very powerful to me. Also I have tried twice to read BLOOD MERIDIAN and each time I had to put it down unfinished because I was unable to get beyond the savagery of it. However, this also speaks to the power of McCarthy's writing. Again, thanks for the provocative video.
Stoner is incredible - if I made this list on another day, it may very well have been on the main list. That autobiography sounds fascinating. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! As for BM, I completely understand that sentiment. I was sort of joking about people being driven away by the obscene violence. It is incredibly disturbing, but I just find the power of McCarthy's prose to be completely alluring. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Thanks for replying to my comment, Sean.
The Grapes of Wrath, The Satanic Verses, Phantastes, Hadji Murad, Epitaph of a Small Winner, Dubliners, The Old Man and The Sea. I would love to read them for the first time, but since it is impossible, I will keep reread them for the second, third...
Great list! The Grapes of Wrath and Dubliners were very influential to me too.
My favorite books are
- “No Country For Old Men”
- “The Giver”
- “To Kill A Mockingbird”
- “Animal Farm”
These books got me back into reading. I love them dearly.
No Country for Old Men is underrated
@@dylanmcdermott1110 it's not underrated or overrated. It's amazing and popular because it's amazing imo
I have only read my struggle and one hundred years from your list. I'm starting with the Birds. Let's see.
If I could sheath one book, it would have to be "Shantaram"
I hope you enjoy The Birds! Someday I'd like to tackle Shantaram, though I'm a bit intimidated by it.
What was the other icelandic sagas you mentioned?
I think I mention Egil's saga, Gisli's saga, and Njal's saga.
@@travelthroughstories thank you Sir
I read Borges this year? I think? Or last year, and yeah, loved it. I have the collected edition now but just read Ficciones so far. Nox sounds fantastic, and I have One Hundred Years. I planned on it this year, but yet again have read far less of my library than I wanted. Great list, awesome hearing you chat about these. I actually just ordered the first volume of My Struggle too.
Borges is pretty much unparalleled, in my opinion. Nox is a really quick read, and so it's difficult to justify the cost, but it's such a beautiful object. Really unlike anything I've ever read. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on both One Hundred Years and My Struggle!
Do you ever browse at a bookstore and see a book you own and love and wish you didn’t so you could have the pleasure of purchasing it again?
I didn't know these ones: Tarjei Vesaas, Agota Kristof, Anne Carson and Matihias Enard. Here in Brazil it is a little hard to find Kristof trilogy, buy I will try to buy them. Is there an order to read the trilogy?
As far as I know, the only English-language edition is this edition which includes the full trilogy in one volume. It goes: The Notebooks, The Proof, The Third Lie.
@@travelthroughstories , I bought the 3 books, translated to portuguese. They were published here in Brasil in the 80s. I am reading The Notebook.
On the style of Mathias you could check Fernando Vallejo, marvelous writing
I'll look into him. Thanks for the recommendation!
The Sagas at the very top of the list. The Hobbit and The Tolkien Reader, my childhood edition of The Grimm's Fairy Tales, Anna Karenina.
Nice choices! The Hobbit is one of my all-time favorites as well.
Similar experience with some of these, especially Blood Meridian (and/or Child of God), Morrison, Borges and Garcia Marquez. Enard & Kristoff remain on the to-read list, and Vesaas too (have The Ice Palace but not The Birds). For me? Gravity's Rainbow, JR, The Third Policeman, The Dead (Joyce), The Metamorphosis, Housekeeping ... and any random Vonnegut, since they were a 'real books' gateway. Interestingly, a lot of longer stories/novellas had the biggest impacts - Melville's especially. I'm a huge McElroy admirer, but those reads were not necessarily pleasurable nor beg returning to.
Child of God is such an underrated McCarthy... JR is a good one! As is The Dead. Actually, I taught The Dead yesterday and it was such a joy to see my students just absolutely love it. Those last two paragraphs are about as close to perfection as I think you can get in English...
Vonnegut was one of my gateways as well - I actually almost put Slaughterhouse-5 or Cat's Cradle on this list specifically because the experience of reading them was, in a way, spoiled by the fact that I had to read them in high school and thus, in my rebellious arrogance, I didn't full appreciate them until a couple of years later.
@@travelthroughstories Sometimes I think the opening of The Metamorphosis, the ending of The Dead, the narrative workarounds in JR and any random passage in early McCarthy were all I needed to learn as a writer. Lucky students to get to know The Dead from an impassioned teacher. Soon snow will be general here as well.
Njal’s Saga ( The Saga of Burnt Njal) is amazing. I’ve read it at least 4 times.
It's certainly one of the very best sagas and one that demands -- and rewards -- rereading.
An English translation of Beowulf is the only book on this list that I HAVE read, and I consider myself to be educated (after a fashion). Thanks for the video. I just may try to expand my palette, but some of these (the one sentence book and the Cormac blood-o--thon) may be a bridge too far for this old guy.
All the Scandohoovian books surprised me, but since I have some of that DNA in me, and I know how strange some of my ancestors were, I shouldn't be too surprised. Ice Ages are the Mother of Eccentricity, which comes out in a certain kind of literature.
Haha - there's a lot of great Nordic lit out there! I'm glad I could help put a few different kinds of books on your radar.
I loved Songs of Solomon. That first chapter really captured my imagination!!!
In no particular order: Hamlet, Divine Comedy, Lolita, Candide, Pride and Prejudice, and Middlemarch
"The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", by Oliver Sacks. Medical cases notes turned into high literature. One reviewer described it as "A book of wonder, wonders and wondering". What's not to like about a book described like that? Why not read "The Leopard" by Giuseppe di Lampedusa for a gorgeous evocation of Sicily, together with the author's biting wit. I found this book on a London bus: it changed my life.
Sacks is great! I've had The Leopard on my shelf for a while now and I've been meaning to actually get to it all year. I think I'll try to get to it in early 2023 - thanks for the recommendation!
"Blood Meridian" is nuts.
"Sutree" ,too.
Peace on earth.
this is kinda predictable but reading Lord of the Rings when I was 11 was life-changing, not only because it was so much fun and imaginative and inspired me to learn foreign languages but also because it made my life as a working-class kid from a bad neighbourhood seem so much richer and vibrant and hopeful
Excellent presentation - but where is WG Sebald's Rings of Saturn?
On the shelf just behind me, sitting unread. For whatever reason, I haven't been able to get into Sebald much.
@@travelthroughstories It took a while for me but now he walks with me everywhere. I should like to hear you talk about Rings of Saturn some time
Beowulf 👏👏 where is Don Quixote on your list?
One of my personal deficiencies is that I never quite got to the point where I enjoyed Don Quixote. I've been waiting for the right time to give it a reread.
Jose Saramago - Blindness
Seiobo there below, The man without qualities, DFW's essays.
Not me. I hate some books you mentioned and I wouldn't read it again, there is one I DNF. Ouch!
You didn't need to tell on yourself here.
* IF you think Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian is great..... DAMN HOMIE; you should read his Suttree. I read and listen to that book every year or so and I'd give a left nut just to read it for the first time. It's a lot more relatable than Blood Meridian (at least for me) and... It's truly the greatest masterpiece of America's greatest living author (CC).
I love Suttree! In fact, I probably enjoy Suttree more than Blood Meridian, but Blood Meridian is what got me into McCarthy and I still think it's his magnum opus (I know many disagree though!). I've also simply read Blood Meridian way more times as I occasionally teach it -- Suttree is overdue for a reread!
@@travelthroughstories Try the audiobook of Suttree! Y'all get into it in a totally different way. I'm from El Paso where CC wrote both Blood Meridian and Suttree... definitely his two best books... its landscape also inspired the Road. I love BM for sure.... I just love that Suttree has everything; insane humor, filth, beauty, violence, sex, pastoral poetry.... to me it's the total package. Have you read The Passenger yet? (I've been hesitant in picking it up cause of some of the reviews). *** Also have you ever read the Painted Bird?
🙏🏾📚❤️📚
I would say "The Beach" by Alex Garland was a great novel I'd love to read for the first time. "The Beach" inspired me to understand world cultures.
P.S. What is the title of the book on the top shelf, above your stack to the right ? The book has a white spine and large sharp shapes.
Interesting! I've never heard of that one, but I'll look into it now. That book is Antagony by Luis Goytisolo and translated by Brendan Riley. It was just published a couple of months ago by Dalkey Archive -- it's massive and looks amazing. Hoping to dive in sometime next year.
@@travelthroughstories Nice ! Thanks. I hope to read a massive Stephen King novel in the near future, "Needful Things".
World cultures? I read it a long time ago, but as far as I remember, while the novel is set in Thailand, no Thai character has a speaking role.
All of Michael Chriton
Interesting choice! I've never read a book by him.
Like Spanish speaker, I Always fear that the Magic of the script of writers like Jorge Luis Borges or García Márquez, get Lost in the traduction.
As with any translation, there's always something lost in translation, but there is always something gained as well! I do wish I could read the original Spanish though.
Bobblehead mannn
So medieval literature and contemporary literature, and nothing in between? Interesting. My list would probably be 90% 19th century novels and Shakespeare.
You are by far, the very few with the intelligence to understand Gabriel García Márquez. By admiration and respect to you. 🏆
So handsome.
wait... do you wanna RE-read them for the first time??? or read them again for the first time ;-)
The second sentence of the description answers that.
Enard gang unite
Read Morrison. Won't read her again. Tried Garcia Marquez. Did not like it either.
Good to know.
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Juno Diaz. Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison. The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead. A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing, Eimar McBride. Apeirogon, Colum McCann. Trieste, Dasa Drndic. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens. The Thousand Autumn's of Jacob De Zoet, David Mitchell. All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr.
Great list! Whitehead, McBride, Drndić, and Dickens are all wonderful choices. I also read that Mitchell for the first time this year. I was tempted to put a Dickens on here, as I first encountered him, as many do, in high school where I really didn't appreciate him. It's a shame that my first experience with him was negative, as his books really are wonderful.
@@travelthroughstories I've just found your channel and your content seems informed and insightful, so I'm looking forward to your future content as well as looking at what you have already uploaded. Now subscribed. Dickens isn't normally a go to author for me - I find most of his work melodramatic and needlessly lengthy but A Tale of Two Cities is the one exception to this. McBride's debut was outstanding but I haven't found any of her subsequent works to come close to matching it. You should check out Junot Diaz if you get the chance.
Man, you could use new bookshelf! If you like Marquez, you might like books by Alejandro Jodorowsky, Where the Bird Sings Best and The Dance of the Reality.
Haha, tell me about it! The other bookshelves throughout the house aren't looking much better either. I'll look into Jodorowsky - Where the Bird Sings Best looks really interesting. Thanks for the recommendation
Agota Kristof? Really?
No, that one was a joke, actually!
Did your wife like Nox? I'm sure she did.
Of course - she also has great taste in literature!