Christmas Book Haul! (Wild and Crazy Books)

[@spikedaniels1528]

Thanks for sharing the interesting books from your lovely wife. From Arizona, hoping you had an enjoyable holiday!

[@grantlovesbooks]

Hello Spike! Thanks for writing. The holiday was nice, and the baby made sure things were never quiet. Must be nice in Arizona. Hello from rainy BC!

[@jackwalter5970]

Snow Country is enigmatic and beautiful.

[@grantlovesbooks]

I'm looking forward to this one a lot. You know I am partial to the Japanese style, and I really loved 'Beauty and Sadness.'

[@steventregilgas5016]

Hi Grant I really like your channel I’m sick of reading crap commercial novels i tried to read the much lauded Bee Sting what a load of shite I am now reading independent people by Halldor Laxness much better I will try some of your suggestions

[@grantlovesbooks]

I hope you enjoy Independent People, that is one of the top books I want to make a review of. But that one I want to read again to have it fresh in my mind. It moves so incredibly slow, and then suddenly there is this strange scene of violence. And then glacially slow, until another explosion. That might be a hard one to get into, I remember getting a bit fed up with all the 'coffee' scenes. But by the end, I knew I had read something quite incredible.

[@oldmanandtheread]

Intersting list of books. Yes, I've heard of I'm not Stiller, I've even read it, as well as many of Frisch's other books.

[@grantlovesbooks]

I had a feeling there would be a response, 'Never heard of Frisch? Of course we have!'

[@dragonsbreath6860]

Absolutely cannot wait to hear what you think of snow country!! I actually just finished the book last night and I can still feel the cold beautiful mountains around me. I’ll definitely be rereading it soon

[@grantlovesbooks]

It sounds like you had quite an experience! I hope I can get round to it some time soon, but currently I have to keep the focus on my 10 TBR books for 2024. I think I will have time for it this year. I always look forward to my Japanese reads!

[@debpalm8667]

Looking forward to hearing about these books. Your wife was a sweet Santa this year!

[@grantlovesbooks]

It is going to take me quite some time to get round to them, but they will wait patiently on my shelf for me., Hope you are well Deb!

[@cussot]

Oh gosh, I loved The Tale of Genji. Mind you, I did read an older translation, the Arthur Waley one.

[@grantlovesbooks]

This will be my first time reading it, I will let you know how I get on with it!

[@penvogt9197]

Merry Christmas 📕

[@grantlovesbooks]

Thank you! Hope you are well!

[@heidi6281]

Grant you should set up an Amazon wish list so viewers can send you a book as a thank you.

[@grantlovesbooks]

I think I might do that Heidi, but I really have to get quite a lot of these books read before accumulating any more. If I can get a dozen read before my birthday in July I will set it up. Thanks for thinking of me Heidi!

[@the3rdpillblog934]

Dazai, Frisch*, Kawabata are great, of course. The rest are interesting. Looking forward to your reviews. /// It is kind of funny that Max Frisch is so unknown in other countries. Here he is read in schools (mostly Homo Faber (not his best book)).

[@grantlovesbooks]

It is going to take me quite a while to get to them, but I'm looking forward to reading them! Did you grow up in Switzerland, or Germany? The education system here in Canada is gone to hell. I'm in fourth year university Eng. Lit. classes and the teachers regularly ask 'Has anyone read, or heard of The Great Gatsby? Has anyone ever heard of On The Road?' I look around and most of the students sit there with confused faces. Thanks for writing, I hope I will do 'I'm Not Stiller' justice, it will be the first Frisch I have ever read.

[@the3rdpillblog934]

@@grantlovesbooks Germany. I studied mid to late 90s - and even at that time the literary interests of my fellow students were rather frightening. :-) (Same nowadays in the bookstore where I am working ...) I studied librarianship - and if I'm not mistaken, I was the last student there to submit a literary topic as a thesis. It was on Philip K. Dick. Haha. At that time, I actually wanted to write about Borges, but my professor said the topic was too difficult.

[@grantlovesbooks]

@@the3rdpillblog934 I hope you are doing well. I feel terrible for the librarians here. They have to really learn quite a lot of stuff at university, and then the libraries have been turned into homeless shelters with books. Perhaps it has been that way longer than I have realized. But in New Westminster, they take up all the benches during the summer and then move into the library for the winter and I will never sit in any of the furniture in that library ever again. Homeless people, stinking, openly looking at porn on the computers. It is such a shame. I have felt, since childhood, that libraries were hallow sanctuaries. Now the security guard has to keep an eye on how long the street people are spending in the toilet and they don't accidentally wander too close to the children's area.

[@the3rdpillblog934]

@@grantlovesbooks Never really worked as a librarian. Got a job in a big book store shortly after my studies. And I have been there for ... oh dear ... 24 years now.

[@grantlovesbooks]

@@the3rdpillblog934 You must enjoy it, I am sure you make some use of an employee discount if you have one.