because she is right

You ought to consider ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ by Toole. Unlike most gothic Southern literature. A literary ride like few others!

The Kindle store only has the Russian version so I’ll wait until the English version comes out

Quando deixamos de entender o mundo (Benjamin Labatut) é muito bom.

I love War and Peace. 🤍 Reading it I felt like those charakters were real. Tolstoy was a genius. I like Norwegian Wood a lot, but I am not sure, if you'll like it, because it's very different from what you usualy read. Despite, it's worth the read. 😊

I read only in the morning due to my work and daily life schedule. Like you said, reading in the early morning is a joy. Everything is fresh and it is usually the least stressful part of the day.

👍

Looking forward to your thoughts on these! Read As I Lay Dying in college and found it really interesting. Think I mentioned before how much I like the world of Dubliners. Norwegian Wood is probably the easiest entry into Murakami; not sure where I would recommend people start when it comes to the surreal stuff. Think I started with Wild Sheep then went back to Hear the Wind Sing / Pinball (not recommended). (Wait, after checking out his bibliography, I definitely started with Hard-boiled Wonderland--zany stuff. Wind-up is my favorite, but it's a real investment. Hoping to join a Proust read-along next year, but we'll see. My reading muscles are rather flaccid.

Thank you for this! Great recommendation!

if your gunna read any murukami i wouldnt start with Norwegian wood. Id maybe start with hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world, and if you like it, try his more thematically dense books such as kafka on the shore or wind up bird chronicle.

They disagree with her. They hate her for the same reason I hate someome like Marx, quite simple.

This movie was one of the most influential in my life. I found so much of myself in that movie. I highly suggest!

Read The Overstory’ by Richard Powers. He does an excellent job of presenting both sides of an environmental issue (timber industry). Also, I now think of tress in a different way than before

You need to read The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis. It’s his latest book and it’s wonderful. It was my favorite read 2023.

Very happy to see you’ll be reading As I Lay Dying! Once you have read that and The Sound and the Fury, I highly recommend Absalom, Absalom! (my favorite novel of all time).

This vlog is amazing! I have always been mesmerized by both gorky as author and his work. Thank you very much. Keep reading russian literature!

So here I am! I have read war and peace and kolyma tales but I own all the other books except for victor serge. I have studied russian for one year but then I gave up. Thanks for your advice!

If my memory serves me, I would say Denial of Death is more psychoanalysis than philosophy. It talks a lot about Otto Rank and his theory, but yeah you are right he also touched on philosophy and Kierkegaard.

I could say that the best one of 2024 is Yo, Pol Rubio by Hector Lozano

Brock, you've set yourself quite a meaty challenge, so I for one won't be holding you to it as things can change in the space of a year. I've read "South of the Border, West of the Sun", "Norwegian Wood" and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Murakami, and I'm still making up my mind on him, so good luck. I recently read "Confessions of a Mask", an excellent good book but painfully introspective. I'm surprised that you have difficulty finding works by Lispector. I was considering one of hers as a Christmas present for a female friend and there were plenty of titles by her in my local bookshop in SW London. I have to say I really didn't like the character of Young Werther at all as I found him tiresome and couldn't summon an ounce of sympathy for him. I think even Goethe in later life looked upon the book with misgivings. Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Finally, I was going to read "To the Lighthouse" after my current book ("Things Fall Apart") but as it is on your list, I'll try to coordinate it with your reading. Have a great 2025.

Becker's The Denial of Death should be the 1st on your list, particularly given all those Russian novels and books on war. I read that book when I was 18 yrs old (I'll be 71 on Saturday), and it changed my life. I have the book (all annotated by my 18 yr old self), and I plan to re-read it at some point. Enjoy your readings.

Michael Ondaatje is that author. The English Patient is a veteran of my TBR and I'll be reading it next year.

Loving your selection throughout. You may want to dabble in a few of Lispector's short stories alongside The Passion According to G.H., if only to get a greater sense of her style. The Passion According to G.H. is especially intense and manic (but that's also what's most interesting about it). Fit in Woolf's The Waves if you can! I think you can handle the 'challenge' of it.

Every time you discuss Solenoid I think, 'Okay, okay, I'll get to it!' haha.

Have you ever heard of Socionics?

Pluck the beam out of your own eye before tending to another. 🎸❤️

These are the russian novels I am reading now: la cangura by aleskovskij and mosca 2042 by vojnovic(in Italian because is the only language available), sandro of cegem by iskander and between dog and wolf by solokov(this novel is often compared to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake). Can you have any unconventional books to suggest me? Thanks.

I’m so glad you’re trying both Woolf and Faulkner this coming year!

For you I would recommend starting Murakami with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, as its his most literary and thematically heavy text. Norwegian Wood is fantastic, but it has a slightly more adolescent and melodramatic texture.

In this month I am reading only russian novels. Blue lard is a masterpiece. Awesome book such as day of the oprichnik and telluria. Sorokin is one of my faves contemporary writer. White noise was such a rewarding reading. Murakami Was my crush when I Was 28 years old. I read every book of your until 1Q84. I also started with norwegian wood that I enjoyed so much despite the sadness of the book. If you like this book, I suggest you to read south of the border, west of the sun. But if you want to experiment something eerie, I suggest you kafka on the shore or a wild sheep chase. Ps. Mishima was my faves writer when I was 20 years old. The sailor who fell from grace with the sea is my faves novel.

To the Lighthouse is a marvelous novel. Dubliners gets better as you read deeper into the collection. The crowning achievement of the book is the final story, "The Dead." I'm currently reading my first fiction by Murakami, his new best seller, The City and Its Uncertain Walls. It's a slow build but fascinating. Previously I've read two of his non-fiction works, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, and Novelist as a Vocation. I recommend both. In 2025 I want to finish Don Quixote and read much more Borges. Happy reading.

I’d like to hear your opinion on Two Cheers for Anarchism if you ever get the chance

Love the list, and you’re challenging me to read new authors. I just recently finished War and Peace for the first time, and Anna Karenina a year ago. Just WOW. I’ve been struggling with other books lately and I realized that I had a longing for more Russian literature. Dostoevsky and Tolstoy- ugh, they just get me.

you must really like infinite jest

Hey, greetings from Norway! Speaking of «Norway», Norwegian wood is an interesting novel to say the least. As a guy who likes to read the classics, and espessially russian classics (currently on part 6 of crime and punishment), Norwegian wood is a quick and fun read. Looking past the questionable depictions of female characters, the prose is good and the scenery is beautiful! My next read is The sorrows of young Werther which I am very excited for:) Discovered your channel a week ago and you soon became my favourite content creator, always looking forward to your next videos😊

Hope you enjoy Chekhov, he's an incredible author and right next to Dostoevsky on my Mt.Rushmore. Good luck with Norweigan wood however, i don't mind Murakami but Norwegian wood was the only book I've ever had to resist the urge spitting on.

As I Lay Dying is amazing on so many levels. It is a nice gateway drug into Faulkner. I’m looking forward to your thoughts on both As I Lay Dying and The Sound and The Fury in 2025!

I just have no idea how anyone can read the amount of books discussed. I knock off maybe 10-12 each year and I consider that an accomplishment. Not doubting, just amazed at the discipline this must take. Also, Butchers Crossing was one of my favorites last year.

I'm glad both books made it into your reading plan! Which is fantastic even without them. Now I somehow feel obliged to give you an explanation. Solenoid is a puzzle novel composed of at least a hundred other novels that more or less influenced Cărtărescu in different ways. It reminds me of Thomas Pynchon's novels because of the huge number of different references to different novels and authors. In fact, I recently read a novel that uses the same technique of combining autobiographical elements with science fiction, and it reminds me a lot of Solenoid. It is "Lanark" by the Scottish writer Alasdair Gray. Another book that perhaps influenced Cărtărescu the most is Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. So White Noise influenced Cărtărescu, but it is one drop in the ocean of other influences. In the last third of White Noise the main theme is the fear of death, which is also an important theme in Solenoid. There are some other references, but they are not that important, and it has been a long time since I read those novels, so I don't remember the details. As for Virgin Wool, I'm afraid you've chosen her equivalent of Finnegans Wake. But don't worry, it's not that bad. To the Lighthouse is a difficult book, but I'm sure you'll manage. All her novels are very different from each other in terms of writing style. It is the result of her constant experimentation. Perhaps her most accessible novel is Mrs Dalloway. Orlando is probably her wittiest and most entertaining work. The Waves and Jacob's Room are also great novels, and I would recommend reading them together to get a better understanding of them. I'm currently reading The Silver Dove by Russian author Andrei Bely, and I'm really enjoying his writing style. Bely is one of the best authors of the last century, along with Virginia Woolf, Joyce, Proust... His novel Petersburg is a masterpiece. I recommend that you definitely read it, but maybe not next year because it is full of references to previous Russian classics, so you will enjoy it more if you read Demons, Fathers and Sons, Anna Karenina, Eugene Onegin first.

Read Werther this year! You’re going to love it!

Norwegian Woods is a good choice

I've read a number of your 2025 list - WAR AND PEACE ages ago - and got around to Dostoevski's THE ADOLESCENT a few months ago. Finally got around to Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy this year, but I've read almost everything else by him (kept me occupied in grad school). Ruben suggested Vollmann's EUROPE CENTRAL, which I enjoyed, although at times I felt I might as well be reading some historical monographs instead, and am closing in on the end of another of his suggestions, Mukherjee's THE GENE. Pushing Everett's JAMES and Williams' STONER on my local book group for 2025. BTW, all of Chekhov's major plays are available for viewing on YT with excellent productions. And our bookstore also cannot keep Lispector in stock - two customers asked for it last week, with no luck. Haven't made a definite list for 2025, but I should get around to INFINITE JEST one of these days. Searching out a copy of THE TWELVE CHAIRS, but I already have a copy of Ilf & Petrov's THE GOLDEN CALF. And I supposed I'll have to get around to LIFE AND FATE in 2025 and maybe THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, as I've seen so many others on Booktube having read it. Raymond Kennedy's RIDE A COCKHORSE and Arendt's EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM (her ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM is brilliant). I'll be picking up assorted other works - more Everett definitely - when I visit Deep Vellum in Dallas next week.

Hi from Deutschland again! Great that you choose Tchekov (I read all his plays and saw the "Cherry Orchard" on stage). I liked "Stoner" a lot, but "Butcher's Crossing" (sorry to say this to all who appreciated it soo much) felt a bit too "simple" to me (I think this is a book I would have loved when I was in my early twenties or even younger). Murakami - me, I liked "Kafka on the Shore" best, though most of his novels are really worth to be read. And Goethe ... for a German of my generation he is the biggest God Father of high literature (at least we were told so in school) - "Werther" will really be a good starter, I think. Curious what you will say about "American Psycho". So: Thank you for your inspiring videos throughout the year, I wish you a lot of joy with your 2025 choice, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Reading Year. CU, Reiner.

Sorrows of Young Werther is unrequited love at its finest

I _just_ finished _When We Cease to Understand the World_ and it is positively astonishing.

The novel you definitely should read is The Pashas Concubine by Ivo Andric (on Croatian title is "Mara milosnica"l

The last book I read was To Cook Bear by Mikael Niemi (I love it)...currently, I'm reading short stories and novels by Chehov. This year I read The Name of the Rose by Eco, a few books by Stephen King, One Hundred Years of Solitude (btw Netflix adaptation is great too), East of Eden, Devil with a False Passport by Estonian novelist Tammsaare, The Death of Ivan Ilych by Tolstoy....and many others, but this I want to recommend.

Can’t wait to watch what you think of Murakami, and American Psycho!

I’d love to know your reading routine! Do you work from home and find it easier to read before or after work etc? Your videos are so inspiring!

I DNF American Psycho, hated the book. Butchers Crossing and Stoner are excellent reads from John Williams.