Books you've read in 2020

Well, The Sea The Sea was absolutely wonderful (check out the book club thread) and those who missed out on it, well, missed out!

I just started Cleanness by Garth Greenwell and he's already reeled me right in. Could this be better than What Belongs to You? Let's see. And yes this one is also set in Bulgaria (hi @ameraal ).
 
Suedey said:
Well, The Sea The Sea was absolutely wonderful (check out the book club thread) and those who missed out on it, well, missed out!

I just started Cleanness by Garth Greenwell and he's already reeled me right in. Could this be better than What Belongs to You? Let's see. And yes this one is also set in Bulgaria (hi @ameraal ).
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i only ever heard of him recently thanks to moopy. i very rarely read anything "current" but going by the raves, i guess i should investigate greenwell.

just need to finish off a couple of difficult reads i've started that are turning me off reading in general :oi:
 
Suedey said:
Well, The Sea The Sea was absolutely wonderful (check out the book club thread) and those who missed out on it, well, missed out!

I just started Cleanness by Garth Greenwell and he's already reeled me right in. Could this be better than What Belongs to You? Let's see. And yes this one is also set in Bulgaria (hi @ameraal ).
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I can't decide. I think WBTY affected me more upon reading it, but then I read it all in pretty much in one sitting. Again, I can see the argument that it may have felt more complete as just the Mitko novella that it was originally, but I LOVED the second part and think it added a lot to the story and to the narrator's character.

Cleanness was an odd reading experience in that I bought it and read half of it in a gay hostel in Berlin so it was a little hard to concentrate, and finished the rest of it over the course of about three flights in the midst of the Covid mess. It is much more a collection of experiences and encounters, but it works in that they're all connected and give an (almost) full scope or exploration on the narrator's identity and sexuality in a way that I can't imagine any other writer doing. The section with his boyfriend in Italy and rural Bulgaria are just as powerfully written as the brutal sadomasochistic stuff.

Both are brilliant I think.
 
which one to start with @Suedey and @Chlammy?

sidebar: i ordered 5 books the other day from book depository (i have lost my income and my friends) and they all appear to be dispatched separately for some reason and it's driving me insane.

(giovanni room's, i am not your negro, lolita, call me by your name and catcher in the rhye - haven't read that since my teens and only in bulgarian)
 
Out of those I would start with Call me by Your Name or Giovanni's Room!

When you finish the first one, hold off on starting any others because Lolita will be our May Book Club choice and we can all SYNC together like we're all on our periods.
 
ameraal said:
sidebar: i ordered 5 books the other day from book depository (i have lost my income and my friends) and they all appear to be dispatched separately for some reason and it's driving me insane.

(giovanni room's, i am not your negro, lolita, call me by your name and catcher in the rhye - haven't read that since my teens and only in bulgarian)
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they do this with every order (unless you only order one book, of course, imagine that)

it's frustrating!
 
i finished faulkner a few days ago after putting the final chapter off for ages. i wish i had read about it beforehand - something i never normally do - but i would probably have appericated it more and i am never reading it again.

currently finishing a portrait of the artist as a young man, camus' myth of sysiphus, some random hemmingway that fell from the sky called men without women.

i've started the second sex and in search of lost time but i feel like i need a change in scenery for those.
 
Mats said:
they do this with every order (unless you only order one book, of course, imagine that)

it's frustrating!
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it's rubbish! a waste of effort and i feel like a complete asshole having a single book delivered.
 
ameraal said:
which one to start with @Suedey and @Chlammy?

sidebar: i ordered 5 books the other day from book depository (i have lost my income and my friends) and they all appear to be dispatched separately for some reason and it's driving me insane.

(giovanni room's, i am not your negro, lolita, call me by your name and catcher in the rhye - haven't read that since my teens and only in bulgarian)
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Out of the Greenwell?

WBTY first. Though really I'm only saying that because it was the first written. It's the same narrator and it wouldn't hurt WBTY if you read Cleanness first but I'd go in order.
 
Suedey said:
Out of those I would start with Call me by Your Name or Giovanni's Room!

When you finish the first one, hold off on starting any others because Lolita will be our May Book Club choice and we can all SYNC together like we're all on our periods.
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ooh wonderful re: lolita. i definitely want to start with giovanni's room. i have an audiobook of call me by your name and i think i'll give that a shot as my friend said armie does a good job of narrating it.

i've only tried a book club once. the name of the book escapes me... @Mats, i'm sure you know it - it's by a scandinavian woman, something about a cave or some kind of orifice. it's probably a feminist icon but it made me give up on book clubs.
 
I loved Dorian Gray at the time although I don't know if I would have been as into it ordinarily or if that module was just full of really boring books so it was exciting by comparison.

I'm half way through Wuthering Heights and it is very good but I'm not salivating over Heathcliff like everyone seems to.
 
Out of these I’ve only read Lord of the Flies back in school, so I’m excited about reading them all, but I’m really struggling to stay focused and awake when reading since the whole Corona thing started. I mostly blame it on social media.
 
ameraal said:
ooh wonderful re: lolita. i definitely want to start with giovanni's room. i have an audiobook of call me by your name and i think i'll give that a shot as my friend said armie does a good job of narrating it.

i've only tried a book club once. the name of the book escapes me... @Mats, i'm sure you know it - it's by a scandinavian woman, something about a cave or some kind of orifice. it's probably a feminist icon but it made me give up on book clubs.
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there are so many books about orifices in Scandinavian literature I feel... but sorry, doesn't ring any cave bells
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
I bought these today:



And a couple of weeks before I bought:



I’ve been slowly reading The Picture of Dorian Grey but it’s really going slowly.
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nice covers. i really hate books with poor artwork.

i've read most of those as a kid but in bulgarian. loved dorian grey, wuthering heights and to kill a mockingbird (do people hate it these days or was that catcher?)

only ever read an abridged children's version of little women but it was one of my favourite books when i was a little girl (along with alexandre dumas' ouvre). is the full thing essential?
 
I read Dream faculty (Drömfakulteten) by her and it was rather horrible. Don’t understand all the hype. Her other book Kärlekens Antarktis is about a woman getting raped and her body decaying in the woods or something like that... no thanks.
 
Suedey said:
I've read most of those but I really do not rate Jane Austen. *shrug*
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I have yet to read anything by Austen, but I loved Woolf’s commentary on her and the Brontë sisters in her essay in A Room of One’s own; how these girls’ world was so limited and they had no experience to speak of... so with that in mind, what they’ve written is such an achievement.
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
I read Dream faculty (Drömfakulteten) by her and it was rather horrible. Don’t understand all the hype. Her other book Kärlekens Antarktis is about a woman getting raped and her body decaying in the woods or something like that... no thanks.
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thanks, I'll give her a pass too. I don't think I've got that much Swedish lit on my radar. Jonas Hassen Khemiri, perhaps, and there was also a re-translation of some Strindberg earlier this year that got great review which I feel I should read
 
I don't really care about book artwork (I'm more into my music collection for that) but I do like a nice font and good quality paper. Some of my older Penguin Popular Classics are such shite but I keep them for sentimental value. They'd be the worst extreme, whilst on the other end of the spectrum is pretty much any book published by Faber & Faber. I like the Vintage Classics series as well.
 
ameraal said:
nice covers. i really hate books with poor artwork.

i've read most of those as a kid but in bulgarian. loved dorian grey, wuthering heights and to kill a mockingbird (do people hate it these days or was that catcher?)

only ever read an abridged children's version of little women but it was one of my favourite books when i was a little girl (along with alexandre dumas' ouvre). is the full thing essential?
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I wish we read it together when we were little girls.

Nice covers are essential! English books are much better at that than Swedish. I love the English library series.
 
RaspberrySwirl said:
I have yet to read anything by Austen, but I loved Woolf’s commentary on her and the Brontë sisters in her essay in A Room of One’s own; how these girls’ world was so limited and they had no experience to speak of... so with that in mind, what they’ve written is such an achievement.
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I love the Bronte sisters although I wouldn't say I've read everything they've collectively done. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights though - both totally in a different league from Jane "I'll just write the same novel over and over again" Austen..
 
I have a friend who designs great covers

sadly not for books I'd want to read
 
I love the Macmillan Collector's Edition books.

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Suedey said:
I don't really care about book artwork (I'm more into my music collection for that) but I do like a nice font and good paper quality. Some of my older Penguin Popular Classics are such shite but I keep them for sentimental value. They'd be the worst extreme, whilst on the other end of the spectrum is pretty much any book published by Faber & Faber. I like the Vintage Classics series as well.
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I hate the Penguin classics with the black spine. I had some but I threw them away and will buy the English Library versions of them.

Also not really in love with the turquoise spines of the Modern Classics.
 
Those hardbacks @Chlammy has posted are lovely as decoration on the bookshelves daaaarling - but I hate reading hardbacks. Paperback all the way! As I always like to say, 'one should never leave the house without a paperback' - in your backpack/briefcase/manbag etc. Hardbacks are heavy, bulky, difficult to pack and not comfy to read in bed etc. Just no.
 
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my copy of walden is macmillan. i like it. it's almost pocket size.
 
Suedey said:
Those harbacks @Chlammy has posted are lovely as decoration on the bookshelves but I hate reading hardbacks. Paperback all the way! As I always like to say, 'one should never leave the house without a paperback' - in your backpack/briefcase/manbag etc. Hardbacks are heavy, bulky, difficult to pack and not comfy to read in bed etc. Just no.
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I wish European publishers would publish paperbacks in the Japanese format. handy, even fits in your pocket!
 
Suedey said:
Those harbacks @Chlammy has posted are lovely as decoration on the bookshelves but I hate reading hardbacks. Paperback all the way! As I always like to say, 'one should never leave the house without a paperback' - in your backpack/briefcase/manbag etc. Hardbacks are heavy, bulky, difficult to pack and not comfy to read in bed etc. Just no.
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Like ameraal said, these are tiny and you easy to carry. Though I never really actually read them. They just look nice with the gold and blue.

Likewise I've never touched my Harry Potter Signature Edition box set from about eight years but love them:

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Yeah, the worst hardbacks are the really massive ones, like nearly A4 size - I think they were mostly older ones in the '70s and '80s. I don't know why they even bother :manson:
 
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