What did you read last month?

[Lencho of the Apes]

Sult “Hunger“ [translated by Ulrich Sonnenberg] (Anonymous / 1890 / Norway / Norwegian / German) ♥

By curious coincidence, this book turned up in my facebook feed today. What's 'anonymous' about it?

khh.jpg (49.16 KiB) Viewed 4367 times

[wba]

Sult “Hunger“ [translated by Ulrich Sonnenberg] (Anonymous / 1890 / Norway / Norwegian / German) ♥

By curious coincidence, this book turned up in my facebook feed today. What's 'anonymous' about it?

khh.jpg

Wow, that looks cool!
It was published anonymously in 1890.

I finally read a translation of the 1890 version, and it made much more sense to me than the 1907 version, which I had read before. I hate it, when authors revise their texts (totally ok and interesting in itself), and after that the initial version gets ignored by publishers for decades (or sometimes centuries, or usually simply. forever). The worst is this curious obsession with definitive editions, often supervised by the author, which usually means the last version, changed by the author for the last time during his lifetime. I am so not interested in reading those versions.

[nrh]

june 2024
my life as edgar, dominique fabre
maigret & the killer, george simenon
stories of the true, jeyamohan
adam, s. hareesh

july
diary of a malayali madman, n. prabhakaran
sakina's kiss, vivek shanbhag
scavenger's son, t. sivasankara pillai
my grandad had an elephant, basheer
the execution of justice, friedrich durrenmat
snail on the slope, boris & arkady strugatsky
veniss underground, jeff vandermeer
maigret's childhood friend, george simenon

august
festival, cesar aira
game of worlds, cesar aira
the centauri device, m. john harrison
witchdame, kathleen sky
fever dream, samanta schweblin
complete works & other stories, augusto monterroso
red shift, alan garner
invisible yet enduring lilacs, gerald murnane
january, sara gallardo
dweepa, na. d'souza
moogavani pillangrovi, kesava reddy

[brian d]

had a lot of free time, obviously...

july
the stepford wives (ira levin) ****
the penultimate truth (philip k dick) **** getting into sci-fi, mostly thanks to ursula
chouette (claire oshetsky) ****
adua (igiaba scego) ***
what move the dead (t kingfisher) **** nice reworking of the fall of the house of usher
black leopard, red wolf (marlon james) ** this was the biggest disappointment, definitely not sure i was getting much out of it
what feasts at night (t kingfisher) ***
a maze of death (philip k dick) *** pkd can't write female characters very well, but the core ideas are interesting
b traven, an introduction (michael baumann) ***
martian time-slip (philip k dick) **** best of the pkd's on the list
game plan for a novel (gianna manzini) ***

august
tales from earthsea (ursula k le guin) ****
the elegy of lady fiammetta (giovanni boccaccio) **
the anarchist banker (fernando pessoa) ***
they shall have stars (james blish) ****
time out of joint (philip k dick)****
a life for the stars (james blish) ** written for teens, i think
wieland (charles brockden brown) *** overlong chapters, but a really good central premise
babel-17 (samuel r delany) **** ignoring the space opera parts, this is an interesting take on linguistics in sci-fi
empire star (samuel r delany) *** also written for teens, i think

[Lencho of the Apes]

Martian Time Slip's one of my favorite PKDs. You think you might tackle Dhalgren? I haven't read it since it came out, but I trust it would hold up as a big fat modernist mess. A fabulous big fat modernist mess. And there's Delany's notorious porn novel, which I wasn't able to finish...

[nrh]

black leopard, red wolf (marlon james) ** this was the biggest disappointment, definitely not sure i was getting much out of it

i remember this being something of a confounding book. it was funny that there was a huge publicity push, an hbo adaptation deal and "next game of thrones" talk and the actual novel is this very private, tortured thing full of masochistic sexual violence. i'm interested enough in the genre that i'll probably any serious attempt by a major author, but i have to admit that the idea of finishing the series is not exactly pleasant.

and it's amazing to think that delany was barely out of his teens when he wrote empire star...

[brian d]

Martian Time Slip's one of my favorite PKDs. You think you might tackle Dhalgren? I haven't read it since it came out, but I trust it would hold up as a big fat modernist mess. A fabulous big fat modernist mess. And there's Delany's notorious porn novel, which I wasn't able to finish...

i have several more pkd ready to go (valis, ubik, a skanner darkly). none of them have been disappointing so far. i do plan on giving dhalgren a read at some point, along with a few others by delany. if you're referring to hogg at the end, i don't know that i care enough to read it. i'd probably stick to the sci-fi.

black leopard, red wolf (marlon james) ** this was the biggest disappointment, definitely not sure i was getting much out of it

i remember this being something of a confounding book. it was funny that there was a huge publicity push, an hbo adaptation deal and "next game of thrones" talk and the actual novel is this very private, tortured thing full of masochistic sexual violence. i'm interested enough in the genre that i'll probably any serious attempt by a major author, but i have to admit that the idea of finishing the series is not exactly pleasant.

and it's amazing to think that delany was barely out of his teens when he wrote empire star...

it sounded so good in the store, but it was a struggle. some friends mentioned that the writing style wasn't working for them. i didn't find that an issue, but the meandering of the plot wasn't the easiest to work through. i'm glad to have read it, but i don't feel like reading the second (or potentially third) parts would really accomplish more than i got out of the first one.

[wba]

August 2024

The Ladies of Lyndon (Margaret Kennedy / 1923 / UK / English / English)
Störtebeker & Co. Die Blütezeite der Seeräuber in Nord- und Ostsee (Dieter Zimmerling / 1980 / West Germany / German / German)
Onkel Poppoff kann auf Bäume fliegen (Janosch / 1964 / West Germany / German / German) ♥
Ex-Wife (Anonymous [= Ursula Parrott] / 1929 / USA / English / English) ♥
Der Tag von Stralsund (Wilhelm Jensen / 1901 / Germany / German / German)

[nrh]

september
the wandering unicorn, manuel mujica lainez
maigret's patience, georges simenon
cyrion, tanith lee
palm of the hand stories, yasunari kawabata
the wood beyond the world, william morris
border district, gerald murnane

comics
isaac the pirate (vol 1 & 2 in the us edition), cristophe blain
tokyo these days vol 3, taiyo matsumoto

[brian d]

the possessed (witold gombrowicz) ***** i seem to have a thing for books that were written with the intention of being trashy (faulkner's sanctuary, melville's pierre...)
a scanner darkly (philip k dick) **
monday starts on saturday (arkady and boris strugatsky) *** not sure what to do with this one
ubik (philip k dick) ****
story of the stone 1: the golden days (cao xuequin) **
the hammer of god (arthur c clarke) ****
fiasco (stanisław lem) ***** would be 5 stars even if just for the first chapter, honestly
post-scarcity anarchism (murray bookchin) *** dated, but what he has to say about political parties is still important
maría (jorge isaacs) **
the honorary consul (graham greene) ** just a set-up for working through boring theological debates

[brian d]

border district, gerald murnane

have you read the plains? i've been tempted to track down a used copy because it doesn't seem to be in print anymore.

[nrh]

i read the plains and loved it, definitely a more conventional work of fiction than the other murnane i've read, which is all after his 20 year break break from publishing fiction. i'm pretty sure i got mine used for a few dollars, it's the relatively ugly "text classics" paperback

[wba]

September 2024

Der König der Täufer (Heinrich Schoene / 1886 / Germany / German / German)
Hart am Rande (Levin Schücking / 1887 / Germany / German / German)
The World of William Clissold. Books I and II (Herbert George Wells / 1926 / UK / English / English) ♥
„Einige Herren sagten etwas dazu“. Die Autorinnen der Gruppe 47 (Nicole Seifert / 2024 / Germany / German / German)
Knut Hamsun (Wolfgang Schneider / 2011 / Germany / German / German)
1922. Wunderjahr der Worte (Norbert Hummelt / 2022/ Germany / German / German)
The Evening and the Morning (Ken Follett / 2020 / UK / English / English)
Florentin. Erster Band (Anonymous [= Brendel Mendelssohn] / 1801 / Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation / German / German)
Hotel Amerika (Maria Leitner / 1930 / Germany / German / German)
Kim Basinger (Berndt Schulz / 1990 / Germany / German / German)

[brian d]

october:
earthman, come home (james blish) ***
the triumph of time (james blish) ***
trickery [several stories] (roald dahl) ***
the cyberiad (stanisław lem) **
the plains (gerald murnane) *** - it felt kind of like reading a terrence malick movie
los perros hambrientos (ciro alegría) ***
print culture and the formation of the anarchist movement in spain (james michael yeoman) ***
the diver's clothes lie empty (vendela vida) ****
casas viejas (ramón sender) ****
the amazon, land without history (euclides da cunha) ****
the stars, like dust (isaac asimov) **

[wba]

October 2024

Es steht geschrieben (Friedrich Dürrenmatt / 1947 / Switzerland / German / German)
Hotel du Lac (Anita Brookner / 1984 / UK / English / English)
The Heat (Garry Disher / 2015 / Australia / English / English)
Das vierte Tor (Ilse Aichinger / 1945 / Austria / German / German) ♥
Die Projektoren (Clemens Meyer / 2024 / Germany / German / German)

[nrh]

october 2024 -
the continuous katherine moretenhoe, d.g. compton
dead space: martyr, brian evenson
lord valentine's castle, robert silverberg
the comedy is finished, donald westlake
the wasp factor, iain banks
doctors wear scarlet, simon raven

[nrh]

november 2024 -
hell! said the duchess, michael arlen
valentine pontifex, robert silverberg
the bride from odessa, edgardo cozarinsky
maigret & the nahour case, georges simenon
ten, juan emar
fictions, basheer
tokyo express, seicho matsumoto
non-stop, brian aldiss
inverted world, christopher priest
roadside picnic, boris & arkady strugatsky
the rest is silence, augusto monterroso
monsieur teste, paul valery

[brian d]

hard to be a god (strugatskys) ****
the jewels of aptor (samuel delany) ****
the ballad of beta-2 (samuel delany) **
they fly at çiron (samuel delany) ***
backlands: the canudos campaign (euclides da cunha) *****
fire on the mountain (terry bisson) ***
l'assommoir (émile zola) **

[karl]

Paradise of the Blind Dương Thu Hương
Washington Square Henry James
Iceland's Bell Halldór Laxness
The Magician of Lublin I. B. Singer
The Foundation Pit Andrei Platonov
Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk
Pnin (once again) Vladimir Nabokov


Glad to have finally found a Henry James I like, but I think Laxness was the best of the lot - though for frequent flashes of brilliance few can best V. N. The Polish Nobelist was the weakest. I don't know if it's a trick of my imagination or if I truly can tell that something was written by someone who grew up on the internet.

[wba]

November 2024

Lichtspiel (Daniel Kehlmann / 2023 / Germany / German / German)

[wba]

December 2024

Le Dernier Chouan ou la Bretagne en 1800 “Die Chouans oder die Bretagne im Jahre 1799” [new version, translated by Curt Noch] (Honoré de Balzac / 1829, 1845 / France / French / German) ♥
Wizard and Glass (Stephen King / 1997 / USA / English / English) ♥
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates (Robinson Crusoe / 1719 / Great Britain / English / English)
Papperlapapp (Rainer Groothuis / 2004 / Germany / German / German)
La aventura de Miguel Littín clandestino en Chile “Das Abenteuer des Miguel Líttin. Illegal in Chile” [translated by Ulli Langenbrinck] (Gabriel García Márquez / 1986 / Colombia / Spanish / German)

[nrh]

december 2024
martian time slip, philip k. dick
point zero, seicho matsumoto
verdigris, michele mari
you, bleeding childhood, michele mari
the thinking about gladys machine, mario levrero
the doomed city, boris & arkady strugatsky

[brian d]

mumbo jumbo (ishmael reed) ***
macunaíma (mário de andrade) ****
uncle tom's children (richard wright) [reread] ****
the july revolution (leopoldo bonafulla) ****
the snail on the slope (arkady and boris strugataky) ****
evil in the night (erico verissimo) **
monstrous regiment (terry pratchett) ***


got back to a good reading year overall, more than last year and pretty close to what i was reading 2-3 years ago.

[flip]

i started on two new reading-related projects for the new year, but i'm traveling now and won't be able to continue with them this week,

i've been reading one poem per day this month, by randomly selected famous poets, half of them i really didn't know except by name, the other half i hadn't read in a long time. i think of poetry as something i don't like much, but actually i found some of these really good (william carlos williams and robert frost in particular, but others too)

afton water - robert burns
she walks in beauty - lord byron
la guerre - ee cummings
because i could not stop for death - emily dickinson
the hollow men - ts eliot
the rhodora - ralph waldo emerson
the world is a beautiful place - lawrence ferlinghetti
stopping by woods on a snowy evening - robert frost
america - allen ginsberg
death of a naturalist - seamus heaney
crow's fall - ted hughes
ode to a nightingale - john keats
this be the verse - philip larkin
ballad of the moon moon - federico garcia lorca
daddy - sylvia plath
the duino elegies: first elegy - rainer maria rilke
sonnet 18 - william shakespeare
where the sidewalk ends - shel silverstein
the snow man - wallace stevens
a farewell - alfred tennyson
do not go gentle into that good night - dylan thomas
a farm picture - walt whitman
this is just to say - william carlos williams
the solitary reaper - william wordsworth
easter, 1916 - wb yeats

[wba]

That's a very nice idea, flip! I haven't read much poetry in my life (though a few hundred poems might have nevertheles assembled over the decades), but I'm currently reading a collection from the early 1920s by a poet who wrote in the German language.

I remember enjoying some poems by William Blake as a teen. Other than that, I haven't any real knowledge of any poet's poetry.

[wba]

January 2025

El congreso de literatura “Der Literaturkongress“ [translated by Klaus Laabs] (César Aira / 1997 / Venezuela / Spanish / German)
The Sea Is My Brother (Jean Louis Kirouac / 1942 / USA / English / English) ♥
Nacht im Bioskop (Clemens Meyer / 2020 / Germany / German / German)
The Scarlet Letter, A Romance (Nathaniel Hawthorne / 1850 / USA / English / English) ♥
Himmelpfortgasse (Max Pulver / 1927 / Switzerland / German / German) ♥
Wir drucken nur Bücher, die wir selber lesen möchten. Die Geschichte der Anderen Bibliothek in Gesprächen (Heiner Boehncke, Hans Sarkowicz [editors] / 2014 / Germany / German / German)
The Awakening (Kate Chopin / 1899 / USA / English / English) ♥
Le Condottière “Der Condottiere“ [translated by Jürgen Ritte] (Georges Perec / 1960 / France / French / German)

[nrh]

january 2025 -

the suicides, antonio di benedeto
insistence as a fine art, enrique vila-matas
boston adventure, jean stafford

comics
the gull yettin, joe kessler
the concierge at hokkyoku department store, tsuchika nishimura
agony, mark beyer
juliette, camille jourdy

[brian d]

dom casmurro (machado de assis) ****
cannibalism (bill schutt) ***
the city and the stars (arthur c clarke) **
empire of the summer moon (sc gwynne) ***
valis (philip k dick) *
the wind's twelve quarters (ursula k le guin) ****
anarchist prophets (james r martel) ***