Finished Death In Venice recently.
Feel like I enjoyed it better back in HS,too much blabber and the story is meh.
Also those 80ish pages felt like 450 fr

Just started this today, the part on the school bus had me choking back thug tears at work

He’s a really amazing writer
Book gets better and better

Some really creepy gothic horror stories from the grimiest corners of Buenos Aires. The supernatural elements are interwoven with social commentary, with the spooky s*** often shadowed by the very real ghosts of Argentina's shady past. Good s***

ARGENTINA 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷

my wife just read The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and liked it a lot. gonna try to read that one in Spanish and I might check this out too

if you liked Enriquez you should try another Argentinian writer named Samantha Schweblin, who's kind of in a similar lane. her short story collection Mouthful of Birds is supposed to be very good

If you're reading in Spanish I think her novel Nuestra parte de noche is supposed to be really good as well, there's a translation coming soon so I'm excited for that.

I'll make sure to check out some Schweblin

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

novel about different characters in the music industry and parts of their life throughout decades. very well written, but it felt like a bunch of random stories that were loosely connected but didn't result in a coherent narrative. that may appeal to some, but I think there was a lack of depth with the characters due to bouncing around so much. might have enjoyed it more if it were longer

7/10

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

this is her followup novel that just came out this month. you should definitely read them in order, as there were a lot of Easter eggs and references to characters from the first book. this novel was a bit longer and focused on a new technology that disrupts society. it worked better for me, but at times I still felt like I needed a map to keep track of all the characters. it was a complex book you should definitely take your time with, but definitely well written and unique

8/10

worth checking out these two books. I can see a lot of people on this forum enjoying them

alright so as far as his prose its just really simplistic, i think he thinks about it mainly as a way to get the narrative across rather as its own element of art. he's talked about this before and i think he agrees with that assessment.
HOWEVER, when he writes from one of his characters perspective it can be pretty funny and interesting.

as far as dialogue, a large portion of the dialogue is kind of sitcom esque, but again this depends on the character a lot.

getting into a characters head is definitely a strength of his.

my opinion is that if you compare a few pages of The Stormlight Archive to a few pages of The Lord of the Rings, TSA is going to seem like YA, even though theres a lot of depth there, behind the surface.

I might check him out, but it's a thousand pages lmao. Damn bruh, how long did it take you to read Way of Kings?

like 2 weeks the first time lmfao
its a page turner for sure but i also read all night pretty regularly

This was the last book I ever read and finished back in 6th grade. I need to start reading again

Just read No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. Took me about 3-4 hours total over two days. Great book if you’ve ever suffered from depression. Some might say not to read it if you are, but idk for me nothing in the book dragged me down, just made me think “yeah I get that.”

Yes I read it
Yes I liked it
No it’s not anything profound
Yes I think it will help me going forward
on to the next book

“Amerika” by Franz Kafka

I’d give this a solid 8/10.
I really enjoyed the story being told, but I was upset with the odd transition from the last two chapters. I wish there could have been a bit more wrapped up with other characters in the previous chapters. I also don’t know if it’s the translation or his prose, but some parts were a bit of a slog to get through. Felt like there were some parts that unnecessarily over explained little details, which can be cool to some degree if done well, but I can give two hoots on the linens in a photograph that has little to no relevancy.
I did get frustrated with some of Karl’s decisions, but the way some of the other characters treated him made me feel great anger towards them.

Overall great book, would recommend, on to JG Ballards “The Atrocity Exhibition”

Ayt, just tallying up the last 4 books I've read:

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

4/5

I'mma be real with y'all, it's my first time ever reading this book and I checked it out because my pops was always trashing this passage about God in it, but I also found out why he went so hard against it... why are you geh

Classic novel, and it really throws you in the sharks with the dark s*** but I appreciated that. I enjoyed Cellie's story, Nettie's story in Africa honestly dragged, I didn't care, but the ending was so wholesome and well-deserved after all the s*** and revelations that Cellie went through.

The Hard Way by Mark Billingham

4/5

My first non-fiction pick this year and I gotta say it was a fascinating read. This man has lived quite the life, from grueling training to be a paratrooper, the SAS (but he doesn't get into details about his 20 years in the army, code of silence and all that).

Even though his team did some s*** I did not f*** with, especially when they were recruiting African labor because it was cheap and the country was desperate, I highly recommend this book and I think this dude is tough as nails for what he's accomplished in his long-storied career.

And then there were none by Agatha Christie

3.5/5

I'm judging this solely by the contents in it. First time reading it, and her most famous novel. I enjoyed it; I thought it's play on the human psyche in a time of peril was clever... until we got to that ending. If you like mysteries that make you pick up on clues then make you go 'aha!' at end when the reveal is done, then this book might frustrate you with it's anticlimactic ending.

Also the writing was a bit sterile but I understand why the characters had to be kept at arm's length for the story. Still, you can't beat the length, and how it's all woven together. Granted, the characters are introduced at a thousand miles per hour at the start, but it falls into place once they get to Soldier Island. Overall, enjoyed it.

Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

3/5

It's a breezy, bittersweet read. The story is not so much centered on the cat, Nana, but on the owner, Satoru, who's looking for new owners for the cat. It weaves the backstory of Satoru with these people that he's visiting, while the cat acts as the comic relief. I was surprised by how emotional the last third of the book was, really gave the book a punch.

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

4/5

This was an enthralling read. They tell you on the cover that you're about to read a story about a murderer. What they don't tell you is how much the sense of smell plays a huge role throughout the entire book, and how the author Patrick Suskind has a way with words. Whoever translated this from German did a stellar job of making the prose pop.

The story is about Grenouille, a character who has an enhanced sense of smell. He's like a nose Daredevil but if he belonged in jail. I gave this 4 stars; if it was a little more tighter in certain parts, then this would have been a stellar, front to back 5 star read but I still highly recommend this one.

Im p sure Scentless Apprentice was based off this book

Yeah it was Kurt's favorite book

An early Bolaño, found in his house after he'd died and published posthumously, about a German war games champion on holiday with his wife in Spain. This was equal parts intriguing and frustrating. I love how Bolaño can conjure really intense interactions out of seemingly nothing, but there's loads of loose threads here that he doesn't even try to tie up and basically f*** all happens. The mystic atmosphere and sense of foreboding was enough to keep me hooked though. A decent book by a great writer imo, you get a sense that he was just finding his feet here

Damn I haven’t been keeping up with the books I’ve read since my last post itt

Ima have to distill it to the top 3

"The Atrocity Exhibition" by JG Ballard

I'd give this a solid 7/10
I was frustrated at first reading this because I had zero clue on what was going on, but once I realized the "thing" I went back and re-read some of the previous chapters. A lot of medical and scientific words that went over my head. I had to Google quite a bit. The reasoning of how these stories came to be is almost more interesting then the book.

Overall it's an alright book, would only recommend if you're into waaaaaay far out sci-fi concept books. On to Tom Robbins "Another Roadside Attraction"

Just finished this.
This hits so much harder after living through pretty much EVERYTHING described in this book.
Certified classic,can't recommend it enough,especially if you enjoy Camus' writing

Children Of Dune if Denis drags his franchise out this far it's gonna be a wild ride

@KoGoYos have you read this? saw your post about The Stranger itt and i think you'd enjoy this as well

from Camus I've only read The Stranger and The Fall. thought The Stranger was good, not great and I hated The Fall lol

maybe I'll give em one more chance with The Plague