ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
In a bit of a reading rut. Been reading stuff of a bit too much mental strain this year and need a fun page turner, or something short, but compelling. Any recommendations?
The Reader’s Nook - The N&G Book Thread
- Thread starter Joe Mac
- Start date
Bull Shannon
Well-Known Member
YMMV, but when I think of that I think: Piranesi, most Kazuo Ishiguro (esp Klara and the Sun or Never Let me Go), some Kurt Vonnegut (Cat’s Cradle, Hocus Pocus), Elmore Leonard (Killshot, 52 Pickup, $wag), Generation X (Coupland), White Noise, Ubik, Raymond Chandler, Shopgirl (Steve Martin writes good one-sitting books; see also Pleasure of My Company).
Again, tastes vary, and my wife likes to point out I don’t read anything actually easy-fun, but these are the titles that jump out at me on peeping my shelf.
Indymisanthrope
Well-Known Member
I haven’t finished a book in 11 months. I hate how stuck I get when I don’t like the book I’m reading but can’t bring myself to abandon it.
Bull Shannon
Well-Known Member
Ok now I’m peeping my Goodreads and finding some library books that were quickies:
We Have Always Lived in the Castle: this one’s short, snappy, and atmospheric af; Circe by Madeline Miller; Daisy Jones and the Six; Leave the World Behind, which many people hated but I found short enough to forgive the ambiguity; True Grit; The Vanishing Half; This is How You Lose the Time War
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
Read and loved a few of these, thank you! Might be time to visit the unread Ishiguro and Vonnegut on my shelf.
ayayrawn
Well-Known Member
This exact thing happens to me all the time. I take the impractical route and force myself through the book. Purely by the drive of wanting to read something else.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
Second the Vonnegut recs if you haven't read Cat's Cradle or Hocus Pocus (or even if you have), or anything else by him really. If I'm in a rut, I find re-reading an old favourite or something I haven't revisited in a while to be a good way to get excited about reading again.
Have you read Auster's The New York Trilogy? I reread the first volume, City of Glass, recently over the course of a few nights — tight, interesting, the right amount of strange.
Other short ones I've loved: Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, Lou Mathews' Shaky Town, Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet. Portis' Masters of Atlantis and The Dog of the South are both quick and a ton of fun.
Have you read Auster's The New York Trilogy? I reread the first volume, City of Glass, recently over the course of a few nights — tight, interesting, the right amount of strange.
Other short ones I've loved: Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, Lou Mathews' Shaky Town, Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet. Portis' Masters of Atlantis and The Dog of the South are both quick and a ton of fun.
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TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
If I am struggling on a book I will drop it an start something else. If, later I am still thinking about about the book, I will give it another shot. If I try again and stall out again but want closure I will either give the audiobook a shot or just read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
I don't really have loyalty to any publisher, but I've been reading long enough to know at least which paperbacks I like the feel of. If a classic has been published by Vintage International, that's normally what I'll go for. They're the perfect size and just the right degree of "floppy," if you know what I mean. Paperbacks should fall open. Stiff ones are annoying.When it comes to books that are classics/public domain and thus available in several editions - do you have a preference or loyalty on which edition you buy?
This goes for both books in print and ebooks. For ebooks, I have a really hard time paying $10+ for a penguin edition of something that's public domain. I usually go for the Delphi Classics editions that have all of the author's works bundled together in one ebook for $1.99 or $2.99. They often seem to include other ephemera: illustrations, photos, articles written by the author on other topics, printed criticism of their work by other famous writers, or printed biographies of the author. If I see an individual novel ebook on sale for $2.99 or less with a really nice cover image, I might buy it, but otherwise it just seems like a waste of money.
For books in print, I'm kind of a sucker for a deckle edge and thus, often end up with Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions. I wouldn't hesitate to just say that those are unequivocally the best if it weren't for the bizarre cover art that a good chunk of them have. I'm not at all interested in a book cover that tries to illustrate the plot of the novel as if it were a graphic novel:
Or the set of covers that look like they were designed for angsty goth teens:
Like I said, many of them are really nice covers that I love, but I wish that they'd go for a slightly more consistent aesthetic.
I used to like the regular black penguin classics, but they recently changed the cover design on those so that the both the author's name and title now appear in white text and both in all caps and they seem to have increased the font size of the author's name - like maybe it will grow on me, but after so many years of seeing the author's name in orange and the title in italics, this just looks wrong - I could see someone looking at this edition of Jane Eyre and thinking that Charlotte Brontë was the title of Jane Eyre's novel:
the way that I'm used to:
There's also the newer set of Penguin Clothbound Classics that are hardcovers with patterned designs on the covers:
they're kind of cool - but they're anywhere from $15-30 and I got of few of them and the way that the design is printed on the cloth kind of looks like it will wear off easily. They don't look quite as clean and precise in person, and some of the color combinations or images also just seem odd to me:
There are also Modern Library Classics editions, which feel like the paper is a little heavier somehow:
They also have updated covers on these which appear quite simple and elegant to me:
besides these, there are the hardcover Everyman's classics editions, vintage classics (another one of my favorites though there seem to be different versions between the US and the UK for these), and the red-and-white Oxford World Classics.
I'm torn on this because currently my collection is a smattering of different editions, and part of me wants to see a little more uniformity from the spines on my bookshelves, at least when it comes to the classics.
I first read Faulkner in high school with the Oprah's Book Club (lol) three-pack of As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury and Light in August. I like some uniformity on my shelves too — not everywhere, of course — so through the years I've picked up all the others I could find in that style. They changed the look several years back, so I'm trying to pick up the rest when I see them in overstock stores.
You're spot on about the comic-book style of many of the Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions; no slight against graphic novels but that's not what I think when I think "classic." Some of them are absolutely gorgeous, though; they're very well made and I like deckle edges. I don't love the uniformity of the font, though. I wish they mixed that up a little more. These are some of my faves on my shelves:
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TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
I don't own of these Folio Society editions but I've been awfully tempted as they look absolutely amazing
Beautifully Illustrated Hardcover Books | Folio Society
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TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Though I am a sucker for mass production paperbacks too. I will pick them up for cheap when I come across a cool one…
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
Yeah, same. There are some stunning ones. I rarely buy hardcovers in the first place and find it tough to justify the cost of those when I'd usually prefer to read a paperback.I don't own of these Folio Society editions but I've been awfully tempted as they look absolutely amazing
View attachment 171767View attachment 171768View attachment 171769
Beautifully Illustrated Hardcover Books | Folio Society
Discover The Folio Society. The world's most extensive selection of beautifully illustrated books. The perfect gift. Find out more.www.foliosociety.com
Ericj32
Well-Known Member
I know exactly what you're talking about with the floppiness of vintage classics - they feel like you barely need to break them in and they lay flat pretty well on their own, so you don't have to play a marathon game of thumb war with the book to keep it open as you read haha. I have all of those vintage classics editions in your photo and also the Oprah Faulkner 3 pack. A lot of the Pevear and Volokhonsky translations of Russian literature are available in Vintage classics editions as well and they have a similar distinctive design across most of them. Of the penguin classics deluxe editions, I just recently picked up the master and the margarita and the portrait of the artist as a young man because they were so beautiful.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
That's the only one I posted that I haven't read yet. I admit the cover is what initially drew me to it, but it sounds right up my alley. I haven't read any Russian lit in a while so I'm looking forward to it.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
Forgot about the NYRB series. I only read my first few last year from the library but I liked the feel of those books a lot, too; they felt very well made. It helped that all the titles I read were great or at least interesting. I'm sure collecting those would become intimidating, though!I love this topic!
I'm not too picky in terms of consistency of publisher/spine; if I'm shopping in the store, I'll favor the print that is most readable and the cover that's most pleasant (I'll skew between demure covers and more colorful, interpretive ones, though I agree the comic-book style ones are not my jam even though I'm happy to see some cartoonists I love get a check). Glad to finally have a word to go along with my love: deckle edges. They're great, but not key.
The internet age has made it a bit easier to pick and choose editions and covers; I've had some really good luck with Thriftbooks filling in a few holes in my collection and getting copies of series books which fit one another. That said, I recently received a copy of Dead Man's Walk with the worst book cover I've ever seen (I still haven't read it out of shame):
(honestly, the cover itself is in that poor resolution)
Also, on the spine consistency front, I've been a member of NY Review of Books Classics for about two years now, and I'll tell you: the uniform spines slowly become a monolithic reminder of all the Serious books you haven't read yet. I do like the nyrb style of cover in general though; they do a good job of balancing design and class.
Mr Moore
Well-Known Member
6 Ishiguros on sale today for any UK account kindle users.
Any Don Delillo fans? I saw him referenced in two straight books I just read and had never even heard of him. Then when I looked him up I saw blurbs like 'quintessential American novelist' and I had to wonder how he slipped through, if he's that highly regarded.
I'm going to pick one up...thinking White Noise, Falling Man or Great Jones Street.
I'm going to pick one up...thinking White Noise, Falling Man or Great Jones Street.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
White Noise is where I started and it’s wild and funny. I’d recommend starting there.
Noah Baumbach recently adapted the novel for a Netflix limited series staring Adam Driver but I have yet to watch it. I am kinda curious as it’s a book that seems like it would be kinda tough to adapt.
Bull Shannon
Well-Known Member
5-7 years ago my wife gifted me White Noise; I was similarly unfamiliar but it felt like reading something written specifically for me. I’ve also read Libra and about half of Underworld (great stuff, I just petered out). Got a copy of Mao II on deck in the next few months.
BjorgenFjorgen
Well-Known Member
I've read White Noise so far and liked it (the movie was bad) and plan on reading Underworld this summer.