10 Books I Read Recently

[@hatethenewyou]

Loved hearing your thoughts on all of these books. My copy of Blinding just arrived, and I can't wait to dig into it within the next week.

[@TheActiveMind1]

Enjoy! I'd love to hear your thoughts after finishing it

[@Johanna_reads]

Excellent variety of books! I haven't read Wuthering Heights. While it's a popular classic, I know several others who share your frustrations with it. I'm more inclined to read Jane Eyre, which I've heard is phenomenal. Great video!

[@danielallred1926]

Glad to see you had the same reaction as I did to the Instructions. I picked up Quiet Flows the Don based on your rec and hope to get to it within the month.

[@BobJacobs10]

Loved hearing your thoughts on these. I highly recommend Mishima's tetralogy - The Sea of Fertility: it's great! I share your feelings on Ramuz' book: I did enjoy it, but I also had the feeling there was more there to be done. I'm looking forward to starting Cartarescu's trilogy: early next year for sure! I'm happy I have all three translated in Dutch, haha. I loved Solenoid too, curius about the trilogy...

[@seanoconnor2865]

I was thinking of subscribing, and then I saw Wuthering Heights review coming, and that was going to decide it. You nailed it! Horrible story that so many people I respect absolutely love. Also liked Sailor who fell from grace.

[@Lanicaxx]

The sailor who fell from grace with the sea was very impactful, I especially liked how he handled masculinity and femininity as complementary opposites and love as a unifying but also destructive force. I'd also recommend his tetralogy, especially Spring snow I remember feeling quiet wounded after finishing it. I've read Gorky's Childhood years ago but I still vividly remember the character of the grandfather, a pretty solid read all in all. I'm glad I found someone with a mature and varied reading taste

[@TheActiveMind1]

I'll definitely be reading more Mishima! Grateful that you found and enjoy the channel

[@dellh86]

Wuthering Heights is my favorite read of the year lol. I can see what you mean about the roundabout narrative being a bit too distracting though. Everything else in the book was just so great, so Shakespeareian, to me that I forgave the awkward structure

[@commonplacebook169]

Absolutely loved this Mishima book because of the same reasons as you did. The prose is incredible, the symbolism is interesting I hope to keep hearing your thoughts on other books by him

[@jackwalter5970]

Sorry you didn't like The Tin Drum. Hard Rain Falling is terrific. You're right about Wuthering Heights, but I loved it for all those reasons you mentioned. There's no book like it.

[@TheActiveMind1]

Maybe I’ll come around one day - we’ll see!

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

I read _Childhood_ some time ago and Gorky’s book has some staying power in the memory, but I’ve never gotten to _My Universities._ You may have to do it for me because I don’t know if I’ll get there.

[@Fitness4London]

I'm tempted by Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter.

[@martins1964]

Wuthering Heights is one of my favourites, Mishima is also great!

[@TheActiveMind1]

I hate to be a contrarian! At least we're in agreement on Mishima!

[@pouetpouetdaddy5]

they should expose you at the Louvres. You are quite a masterpiece of beauty.

[@marianacaffaro]

I agree with you about “Wuthering Heights”. Jerzy Kosinski’s “Being There “ is great and short. It was made into a movie

[@tonybennett4159]

Kosinski's books tend to be short and to the point. I've also read "Being There", and "Steps" but my curiosity is piqued by "The Painted Bird" so that will go on my "to buy" list.

[@marciajohansson769]

I became interested in reading Wuthering Heights after I started watching Booktube a few years ago and had a copy sitting around so... Needless to say, I did not care for it and my daughter who was an English major HATED it and said "I'm not surprised Mom, it is an awful book". I enjoy your channel as I hear about books I might not necessarily hear about. I will have to check out Mishima and Gorky. thanks!

[@tonybennett4159]

I'm like you regarding "Wuthering Heights". I was so looking forward to it and it was a huge disappointment. The characters and the telling seemed perverse, and not in an interesting way or ways that illuminated motive. The style was a bit clunky too and there were times when, because the sentence just wouldn't scan, I was forced to read it again, so stylistically it failed for me too. As I've mentioned to you before, "My Childhood" is one of my favourite books ever, and I have now completed the trilogy, and look forward to hearing your thoughts in due course. I only own one book published by Archipelago, and kudos to them for what they are doing. The book in question is a Polish book by Wieslaw Mysliwski, recommended to me by a Polish reader, titled "Stone Upon Stone" in a PEN award winning translation. I thought it was really great and left me wondering why this author is so little known. It seems that Cartarescu will be mentioned frequently in the years to come, and to round out my experience of "Solenoid" I've read "The Gadfly" ( a pretty well crafted tale in spite of some improbabilities) and then as a comparative exercise revisited Kafka's "The Trial". Further to that I bought "Kafka's Other Trial" by Elias Canetti where he details the experience that Kafka had with his fiancee Felice, which prompted the writing of "The Trial", documented in letters that Canetti considers in the book. I think with your interest in Kafka it would be worth your while.

[@TheActiveMind1]

You've piqued my interest in Mysliwski. I'll have to grab a copy soon

[@dragoscbutuzea]

I loved Blinding (the whole trilogy - in romanian, I have first editions - but especially the first volume) - which I want to reread soon - but I couldn't finish Solenoid 😉 Too much similar content and same obsessions. I love Proust (and Pamuk), so I am eager for long sentences and loisir.

[@TheActiveMind1]

I wonder how different the experience is reading Blinding first (as it was obviously published first). They overlap in many ways although I found Solenoid to flesh them out a bit more coherently. I hope they translate the rest of the trilogy into English soon. I suspect I'll adore Proust as well when I eventually read him

[@Patrick-mf1xg]

I ordered Blinding from Archipelago Books back in January 2024 and finally received it a few weeks ago. Blinding and Solenoid are both on my TBR and I'll probably tackle them back to back over the holidays. Do you recommend reading them in any order, or just whichever one I felt like reading first?

[@TheActiveMind1]

Idk. I’d probably say Solenoid first as it’s a bit more contained and cogent

[@Patrick-mf1xg]

@@TheActiveMind1 Thanks, I might do that and follow up the phantasmagoria of Blinding with some Murakami, haha!

[@thatbrianl]

Sounds like bad timing for you and Adam Levin. I truly hope you'll give it another go at some point because I think it's a fantastic book. I plowed through it in about a week. It's definitely a slow burn -- at 1,000+ pages how couldn't it be -- but it does build to a pretty remarkable climax. And I would argue that there's a lot going on thematically, structurally, and textually in the book, even if on the surface it appears to be a hyperdetailed recounting of just a few days in the lives of some very precocious kids.

[@TheActiveMind1]

In all honesty, I was surprised as well! I went in very optimistic and eager to overlook any perceived monotony or aimless rambling - but I wasn't able to overcome it. That said, as I mentioned in the video I'll likely return to it for another try. Perhaps I'll come around...

[@jordanD656]

mishima is the goat

[@jordanD656]

Waiting for the Fear & Solenoid sound great defenitely on my tbr now

[@klaudiuszjanpl]

will you do reading vlogs? 😊

[@TheActiveMind1]

Yes! I’ve posted 2-3 in recent months but I plan to do more

[@FabriceLEQUEUX]

HELLO YOU KNOW I THINK HE HAS BOOKS TO READ IN SUMMER AND OTHERS IN WINTER OUR MOOD CAN VARY HI // FABRICE

[@burke9497]

Wuthering Heights is one of those books where I have always felt guilty for not liking it. I want to like it, but the characters are so unlikable. I have never understood the tremendous regard for this book. Also, I’m not sure I understand all the love for One Hundred Years of Solitude. It’s a strange book that didn’t move me.

[@TheActiveMind1]

Good to know I’m not the only one!

[@FabriceLEQUEUX]

ONI TAKIYE ZHE KRASIVYYE.KAK U GOR;kogo

[@FabriceLEQUEUX]

hi no reponse to my questions or observations why ;you are yet a good guy hello

[@TheActiveMind1]

What is your question?

[@FabriceLEQUEUX]

@@TheActiveMind1 hello can you advise me on a work about a saga of a family at the time of the american railways;thank you very much::::::::::fabrice merci

[@TheActiveMind1]

Unfortunately I haven’t read any books about that time period or topic

[@FabriceLEQUEUX]

@@TheActiveMind1 thank you sir