Love Norwegian literature.

Jon Fosse also amazing

Never heard of him. Any recomendations?

Septology, such an intense work.

Consists of 3 books but it is just one project. The whole project is pretty much one sentence, he doesn't use dots or points(not sure what to call it in English), these things: .....

Its a crazy reading experience.

Or if you want a lighter read Wakefulness, its a short novella by Fosse.

Thank you man

1. The Third Policeman - Flann O’Brien
2. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony - Robert Calasso
3. De Niro’s Game - Rawi Hage
4. Fire & Blood - GRRM
5. The Pigeon - Patrick Suskind

Gonna look into it. So you’re a norwegian?

Nah, I’m Dutch

The Marriage of Cadmus & Harmony is incredible. I haven't read anything else like it!

Seriously. How clever do you have to be to 1. Know and interpret all of these Ancient Greek myths, and then 2. Take that and delve deeper into a philosophical think piece that links them together and pushes a woven thought as to why the myths exist in the first place and how they’re so prevalent today.

Have you read anything else by Calasso? I never really looked into him after this, despite the amazing novel

Not yet, but I'm definitely planning to, most likely The Ruin of Kasch next. The really crazy thing is that Cadmus & Harmoony is his most entry-level work due to its familiar topic and his other books delve into more obscure subjects but with the same level of erudition, so they may take a bit more effort on the part of the reader.

I reread a fair few last year but as far as books I'd never read before:

Nadifa Mohamed - The Fortune Men
Jorge Luis Borges - Ficciones
James Joyce - Dubliners
Rachel Trezise - Fresh Apples
Rachel Tresize - Easy Meat
George Saunders - Tenth of December
Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions

Was so dope lol Finished that the other day, Low-key wish it didn’t end the way it did though. But I feel like there’s not really a great way to end a book like that without having or trying to get some sort of closure idk @Jim_Halpert_

Dubliners, interesting.

I only tried reading The Dead but I stopped halfway, couldn't push myself reading more of it.

What did you like about Dubliners?

updated for 2023

not sure about the order, but here are my top ten reads of the year

1. La Fiesta del Chivo/Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
2. The Warmth of Other Sons by Isabel Wilkerson
3. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
4. All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
5. Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
6. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
7. All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby
8. A Little Devil In America by Hanif Abdurraqib
9. Hail Mary by Andy Weir
10. Mouthful of Birds by Samantha Schwebin

Olga Ravn - The Employees
Ocean Vuong - Time is a Mother
Ursula K. Leguin - The Wizard of Earthsea
Jon Fosse - Septology

FICTION
A Moment in the Sun by John Sayles
Gun with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
Pop 1280 by Jim Thompson
Short Timers by Gustav Hasford
The Phantom Blooper by Gustav Hasford
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Cain by Jose Saramago
Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert
True Grit by Charles Portis

NON-FICTION
The American Exception by Aaron Good
Method and Madness by Norman Finkelstein
Number Go Up by Zeke Faux
Making Movies by Sidney Lumet
Digital Photography by Martin Hall

HALL OF SHAME
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haldon

The Histories by Herodotus
Opium Fiend by Steven Martin
The Cheese & the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg
The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Against Nature by JK Huysmans
Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari
The Magus by John Fowles

A period lol
…

Less Than Zero & Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis
When We Cease to Understand The World - Benjamin Labatut
Napoleon: A Life - Andrew Robert’s
The Passenger & Stella Maris - Cormac McCarthy
Twilight of The Idols & Ecce H****- Friedrich Nietzsche
Going Infinite - Michael Lewis
The Tunnel - Ernesto Sabato

I’ve read some more things but these are the ones I remember most

Septology is so good

• Suttree by Cormac McCarthy (been meaning to read this for awhile now)

• St Petersburg by Andrei Bely

• Blood of the Virgin by Sammy Harkham (graphic novel)

• Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem

• The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

As an aside, currently going through the fan translated Sacred and Terrible Air (the foundation for what would become Disco Elysium) and it’s a really great read as well.

Fictions - Jorge Luis Borges
Narcissus and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse
The Book of All Books - Robert Calasso
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stewart
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

Septology - Jon Fosse
Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse
The Loser - Thomas Bernhard
Woodcutters - Thomas Bernhard
A Shining - Jon Fosse
Melancholy - Jon Fosse
The Dead - James Joyce
Mercier and Camier - Samuel Beckett

Not really in a particular order, but those were the books that I liked the most this year.

Fosse really is one of the best if not the best living contemporary writer.

real for Fictions and Shuggie Bain