My favorite books that i've read in 2020 were: A heart so white - Javier Marias Gente nel tempo - Massimo Bontempelli (italian magical realism, you'll love it for sure) Poeta Chileno - Alejandro Zambra (sadly, available in spanish only) Thomas Bernhard's autobiography (parts 1-3) On heroes and tombs - Ernesto Sabato Stoner - John Williams Crossings - Pajtim Statovci Notre Dame de Paris - Victor Hugo Chile by night - Roberto Bolano Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco Letters to a young poet - Reiner Maria Rilke
I just found this channel and watched about 10 videos. Ive been a fan of Cliff for about 3 years and was lamenting how there didnt seem to be many other good youtubers with a taste for "serious adult literature" or whatever you want to call it. Any other channel recommendations?
my ten 2020 faves in no particular order: Michael Chabon - _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_ Fernanda Melchor - _Hurricane Season_ Bernardine Evaristo - _Girl, Woman, Other_ Carmen Maria Machado - _In the Dream House_ Italo Calvino - _If on a winter's night a traveler_ Thomas Mann - _Doctor Faustus_ Kōbō Abe - _The Woman in the Dunes_ Vladimir Nabokov - _Pnin_ Mikhail Bulgakov - _The Master and Margarita_ Maisy Card - _These Ghosts Are Family_
1. Wonderboys by Michael Chabon 2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 3. Kalooki Nights by Howard Jacobson 4. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño 5. East of Eden by John Steinbeck 6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy 7. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson 8. Shylock is my Name by Howard Jacobson 9. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon 10. The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino Although many people claim it's the best book of the series, I didn't manage to get into Rabbit is Rich so far.
My top5 of 2020 - Homeland by Fernando Aramburu - World Without End by Ken Follett - Dejaras la tierra by Renato Cisneros - 11/22/63 by Steven King - Los renglones torcidos de Dios by Torcuato Luca de Tena Bonus: Ana Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Whatever. No one asked, but here’s mine: The Best: 1. The House on the Borderland (W.H. Hodgson) 2. Trout Fishing in America (R. Brautigan) 3. The Bell Jar (S. Plath) 4. Joyland (S. King) 5. Sputnik Sweetheart (H. Murakami) 6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (M. Hammond) The Ok: 7. Different Seasons (S. King) 8. The Killer Inside Me (J. Thompson) 9. The Spook who sat by the Door (S. Greenlee) 10. City Primeval (E. Leonard) The Absolutely God-Awful (in no particular order): 1. Journey to the East (H. Hesse) 2. Anthem (A. Rand) 3. The Cycle of the Werewolf (S. King) 4. The Hellbound Heart (C. Barker) 5. Eugene Onegin (A. Pushkin) 6. Middlemarch (G. Elliott) (DNF) 7. The Great God Pan (A. Machen) Bonus: Best Short Stories: 1. The White People (A. Machen) 2. Strawberry Spring (S. King) 3. A Party Down at the Square (R. Ellison) 4. Going to meet the Man (J. Baldwin) 5. At the Bay (K. Mannsfield) 6. The Reach (S. King) 7. One for the Road (S. King) 8. Jerusalem’s Lot (S. King) 9. Guts (C. Palahniuk) 10. The Midnight Meat Train (C. Barker) And the Very Worst Short Stories: 1. “Repent Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman (H. Ellison) 2. Willa (S. King) 3. Graveyard Shift (S. King) 4. The Raft (S. King) 5. Strange News from Another Star (H. Hesse)
Ugh I love "The Hunger Artist". It's such a phenomenal short story. I need to read some more Kafka. I also read Pnin this year, and while it was an extremely difficult read for me, it was just so so brilliant.
thank u for the 20 books i will now be adding to my wishlist my top 5 of 2020 were All the Pretty Horses, Song of Solomon, Sula, All the King's Men, and The Master and Margarita :-) Also Housekeeping, but that was a reread!
In 2020 I had "only" a Top 7: (in no particular order) Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon Anna Burns - Little Constructions Douglas Adams - Shuggie Bain Akwaeke Emezi - Freshwater Hallie Rubenhold - The Five Ada Limón - Bright Dead Things
Thanks Mattia. love these type of videos. Always excited to try new authors and I've not read any Nick Hornby, or David Mitchell, so hopefully will get to read your top 2 sometime this year. My favourite books of 2020 were first and foremost V by Pynchon, followed closely by and in no particular order The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Chabon, Fight Club by Palahniuk, The Plot Against America by Roth, Sanctuary by Faulkner, The Crossing by McCarthy, The Hotel New Hampshire by Irving and finally Sex Lives of Siamese Twins by Welsh.
Some of Kafka's posthumous short-short stories are some of the best examples that live up to his standard of sublimity. Titles that come to mind include Prometheus, At Night, and The Vulture. Going to pick up The Prague Cemetery and Buddenbrooks based on your recommendation. Thanks for the list!
Good list -- my favorites from 2020 are: 1. Finnegans Wake-James Joyce 2. Anniversaries-Uwe Johnson 3. An Angel of Sodom-David Vardeman 4. Completed 'In Search of Lost Time'-Proust 5. Hopeful Monsters-Nicholas Mosley 6. The Invented Part-Rodrigo Fresán 7. Omega Minor-Paul Verhaeghen 8. 4 Rikki Ducornet novels-Stain, Jade Cabinet, Phosphor In Dreamland, Brightfellow 9. Skulls of Istria-Rick Harsch 10. Completed 'Man Without Qualities'-Robert Musil 11. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man-Joyce 12. 3 novels by Daša Drndić- 'Trieste,' 'Belladonna,' and 'Doppelganger.'
My wish was granted! My personal favorite reads this year were Moby Dick, the stories of Bruno Schulz, V., Crying of Lot 49, Viriconium by M. John Harrison and Don Quixote. This year I’ll hopefully learn French (studying it this semester) and I hope to read The Recognitions, The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt, Gravity's Rainbow and more novels in my native tounge (Swedish).
@@sesame135 yeah, took awhile for me too! I also found it really funny and actually sort of terrifying by the end, probably because of the build up of the whale itself. Almost impossible to recommened though, I haven’t been able to convince any of my reader friends to pick it up. Had any luck on that front?
@@sesame135 Yeah, I think your right! This is a book that wasn’t meant to find you, instead waiting to be picked up by the right reader at the right time. Melville's prose really is exquisite, I totally understand Harold Bloom's idea that Moby Dick is more of a prose poem than a novel. The heavy philosophical discussions and parallells certainly became both more digestible and profound when put in some of the best writing ever. As a foreigner, it was endlessly fascinating seeing how Melville's reflections on the paradox of the sea (its potential for freedom and its terrifying, awesom nature) seemed to reflect a very american inner turmoil.
Moby-Dick is one of my absolutely favorite books of all time. I want to reread it this year. The Last Samurai is perpetually on my TBR. I need to get to it as well. Also, good choice in deciding to learn French :)
@@thefrancophilereader8943 The Last Samurai has such a fascinating premise and from what I’ve read seems very well written, hopefully I’ll read it in not too long. Thanks for the encouragment! It is just on course, I’m actually studying for a bachelor's degree in History, but I want to expand my horizons when it comes to source material. Any recommendations for good french non-fiction, specifically history books?
Great video! Bunch of good suggestions on here. I also read Persepolis and Atonement this year. I think my favourite books this year were Love in the Time of Cholera and Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Didion.
Favorite was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - takes all the beautiful mystery from her previous novel but boils it down in a shorter, but much sharper story. The passages describing this labyrinth are gorgeous, to the point where it's almost a shame to get to the eventual (great) plot. Also read Ethan Frome from your suggestion - also wonderful. Re. Name of the Wind - how open are you to epic mega fantasy, bc I would dearly love to hear your take on Steven Erickson's Malazan. It's a hell of a commitment, but mixes the fantasy epic with a post-modern subversion of much of those tropes in a dune meets The Illiad meets Vietnam thing that might be even more up your alley than you first imagine. At the same time, I love coming here for a change of pace from my usual, so maybe ignore me.
Piranesi has been on my radar recently - glad to hear it's good! As for that Erickson saga, these massive fantasy operas tend to scare me :P but I'll keep it in mind!
I want to reread egan's the keep and mcewan’s atonement, I remember I adored them when I read them a few years ago. Nice list!! That rothfuss novel is amazing, I still remember how much fun and immersive it was. I read the sequel a couple of months later and omg how i hated it!! The first part is pretty much like the The name, but then it drags and drags and reads like a fanfiction. Anyway, I'm still reading the final book if it ever comes out jajaja This year I plan to read Buddenbrooks! Your review made me curious about it a while ago. I also plan to continue with the Ferrante saga. About my favorite reads, I would mention Fernanda Melchor's Hurricane Season (so unbelievably good!!! And apparently the English translation is fantastic as well), Marlon James' Black leopard Red Wolf and Mariana Enriquez latest novel.
You have to try Hornby's Fever Pitch which is an absolutely genius and hilarious account of a football fan, but it works just as well as a documentation of an obsessed person. Must read
My 2020 Highlights - Infinite Jest (started in Nov 2019 but finished in Feb 2020) by David Foster Wallace - East Of Eden & Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck - Kafka On The Shore by Huraki Murakami - White Noise by Don Delillo - Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (non-fiction) - Clybourne Park - Bruce Norris (play)
Hi Bookchemist, I just discovered your channel. RUclips randomly recommended one of your videos, "My Favorite Books," and I watched it. I wanted to remark upon two of the authors whose books you would "take to the proverbial desert island": Thomas Pynchon and Michael Chabon. I've always lamented that I've never read more Pynchon, but every time I resolve to do so, I recall the agony of reading "Gravity's Rainbow." Now, I have a degree in philosophy, and I have read and understood extremely difficult texts, such as Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," but I have never encountered a fictional text as perplexing as "Gravity's Rainbow." I can well understand why, in 1974, the board of directors over-seeing the bestowal of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, rejected its own jury's recommendation that Gravity's Rainbow be awarded the prize. In rejecting it, the board stated that Pynchon's novel was "unreadable." Now, as to your second author, Michael Chabon, I have this to say: I enjoyed his first two novels very much. (I'm sure you know the titles so I won't repeat them here.) The second one was made into a decent movie ( though I thought Michael Douglas was too old to play the main character.) I read both of these novels when they came out and was anxiously awaiting another from Chabon. Then "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" appeared. *Disappointed* does not accurately describe my reaction to this book. I was mystified by it -- that is, I was mystified by the sheer boredom of it. His tedious highlighting of details extraneous to any narrative plot-line was, for me, the death of any aesthetic pleasure. As I turned each turgid page of the novel, I kept asking myself, "Why? Why is he dwelling on this? What is this deluge of minutia adding up to?" For me, it added up to a waste of my time. So, you may be asking, why have I typed these negative remarks? Simply put, I would like for you to recommend to me another work by both Pynchon and Chabon that I won't hate so much as the two mentioned above.
Most Pynchon books are more enjoyable than Gravity's Rainbow, really - I often recommend Inherent Vice as one that's quite entertaining while still showcasing his style and concerns! As for Chabon, Moonglow might be the closest to his early works - the prose is still quite baroque, but there's nowhere near the same amount of minutiae as in K&C. Thank you for your comment :)!
My favorite book I read in 2020 was FOR SURE "John Crow's Devil," by Marlon James. His first novel, it was a little rough, but in a great way, especially considering he went on win the Booker Prize. I didn't care for the ending but I liked how cinematic it was. I also liked that i was essentially a literary horror novel. Inspiring on multiple levels.
The end has the final fight between the pastors, which is great. It also goes full-on magic realism, which i loved. But on the last page the powers of the fallen pastor are inexplicably transfered to the widow
Love your perspectives on literature. Any thoughts on diving into the rest of Thomas Mann’s work? Dr. Faustus was a major component of my senior thesis and I’d love to hear your take on it.
I actually read Dr. Faustus when I was 20 - definitely too early: I remember enjoying it, but I can also recollect very little about it, and I don't think I appreciated the full scope of its complexities. Definitely one to revisit! How did your senior thesis approach it?
Here's my semi-annual reminder to try the work of Thomas Ligotti, one of the most magnificent post-Lovecraft writers of weird fiction, whose work I'm sure you'd enjoy.
I know, I know!! Maybe this year :D? (Fun fact - I have two reading lists, one for general books (?) and one exclusively for Lovecraft criticism/marginalia/related writers)
Please please please check out Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive Series! I know that you are into great escapist novels. These books are tomes, and completely transport you to a brand new world. If you liked The Name of the Wind I am very sure that you would love the first book in the series, Way of Kings.
Love mining these videos every year for recommendations. Only read 11 books last year, but five of them (Cloud Atlas, Bleeding Edge, If on a Winter's Night.., Watchmen, and Foucalt's Pendulum) were suggested on here and were all pretty amazing. Have you read A Canticle for Leibowitz? I'm struggling between that and Foucault's Pendulum for my favorite book of 2020.
Is strikes me that your reviews are primarily of books by male authors …. I enjoy your takes but felt wondered if you read more male authors than female. I myself read primarily female authors. Meanwhile, I am delighted to have found you and subscribed. Thank you, Eileen Pierce
Thank you for your question Eileen! For the longest time, I definitely read way more male than female writers - largely because I'd never questioned my reading habits from this angle, so that I was stuck reading the same (male) writers, and writers who wrote very much like them. In recent years, I've decided to challenge myself (very informally) and to alternate my readings between male and female authors. It's been immensely eye-opening and really satisfying - I've discovered so many amazing writers that I would never have read if I hadn't pushed myself this way. (A few bad writers, too, of course!)
My top 20 for the year 2020; not ranked in any particular order. "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" - Haruki Murakami. "2001" Arthur C Clarke. "Valis" Philip K Dick "All The Pretty Horses" Cormac McCarthy "Lullaby" Chuck Palahniuk "The Crossing" Cormac McCarthy "Inherent Vice" Thomas Pynchon "The Name of the Rose" Umberto Eco "Ham on Rye" Charles Bukowski "Against The Day" Thomas Pynchon "The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs" Irvine Welsh "Cloud Atlas" David Mitchell "The World According to Garp" John Irving "American Psycho" Bret Easton Ellis "Last Exit to Brooklyn" Hubert Selby Jr "A Visit From the Goon Squad" Jennifer Egan "The Gallows Pole" Benjamin Myers "Pygmy" Chuck Palahniuk "Postcards" E Annie Proulx "Collected Ghost Stories" MR James
@@TheBookchemist could you please tell me some job fields? I am interested in it but I just don't want a job like being a professor or working in the academia
The keep The brief wonderous life of Oscar Wilde The ----- city 20 - The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster 19 - The Metamorphosis and other stories by Franz Kafka (penguin edition) 18 - Cities of the Plane by Cormac McCarthy 17 - Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov 16 - The Arrest by Jonathan L 15 - The Name of the Wind 14 - Atonement 13 - Ethan Frome 12 - The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy 11 - The Nickel Boys 10 - The Story of a New Name 9 - The Quiet American 8 - The Golden Gate 7 - Portnoy's Complaint ("Hilarious") 6 - White Teeth ("Family-saga", "Hilarious", "strong statements") 5 - Prague's cemetery ("study of hate and prejudice") 4 - Buddenbrooks ("the downfall of a rich family", "masterful", "unforgettable scenes", "irresistible", "real scope and depth in its analysis") 3 - Story of the small child (part of a four book series, "devastating consequences", "hard hitting") 2 - High Fidelity ("stimulating read of 2020", "quotible", "food for thought", "impact of popular culture and music", "interpersonal relationships in truly honest and insightful way", "refreshing and inspiring", honest portrayal of relationships) 1- Number 9 Dream
![Method Writing: The First Four Concepts - Jack Grapes [FULL INTERVIEW]](/img/1.gif)
I will take this list with a "Pynchon" of salt
D:
@@TheBookchemist A Pynchon of Salter.
My favorite books that i've read in 2020 were:
A heart so white - Javier Marias
Gente nel tempo - Massimo Bontempelli (italian magical realism, you'll love it for sure)
Poeta Chileno - Alejandro Zambra (sadly, available in spanish only)
Thomas Bernhard's autobiography (parts 1-3)
On heroes and tombs - Ernesto Sabato
Stoner - John Williams
Crossings - Pajtim Statovci
Notre Dame de Paris - Victor Hugo
Chile by night - Roberto Bolano
Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse
Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
Letters to a young poet - Reiner Maria Rilke
My favorite booktuber (Along with Cliff Sgt. of course). Your reviews always want to make me read more than I already am.
I read the top 5 books on the list and they’re fantastic. He has good taste in books.
I just found this channel and watched about 10 videos. Ive been a fan of Cliff for about 3 years and was lamenting how there didnt seem to be many other good youtubers with a taste for "serious adult literature" or whatever you want to call it. Any other channel recommendations?
@@thomasrockhoff Steve Donoghue is the most knowledgeable book tuber I’ve seen
In 2020 I read and loved the following (among others):
1. In Search of Lost Time, Proust
2. Moby Dick, Melville
3. Oblivion, DFW
my ten 2020 faves in no particular order:
Michael Chabon - _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_
Fernanda Melchor - _Hurricane Season_
Bernardine Evaristo - _Girl, Woman, Other_
Carmen Maria Machado - _In the Dream House_
Italo Calvino - _If on a winter's night a traveler_
Thomas Mann - _Doctor Faustus_
Kōbō Abe - _The Woman in the Dunes_
Vladimir Nabokov - _Pnin_
Mikhail Bulgakov - _The Master and Margarita_
Maisy Card - _These Ghosts Are Family_
Hooray, I found a person in English booktube who reads not only popular fantasy and YA. Thank you for what you are doing.
Phew. I can stop refreshing my subscription box every hour now.
1. Wonderboys by Michael Chabon
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
3. Kalooki Nights by Howard Jacobson
4. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
5. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
6. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
7. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
8. Shylock is my Name by Howard Jacobson
9. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
10. The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino
Although many people claim it's the best book of the series, I didn't manage to get into Rabbit is Rich so far.
Great stuff!!
Yay, these videos at the beginning of the year are always a treat.
My top5 of 2020
- Homeland by Fernando Aramburu
- World Without End by Ken Follett
- Dejaras la tierra by Renato Cisneros
- 11/22/63 by Steven King
-
Los renglones torcidos de Dios by Torcuato Luca de Tena
Bonus:
Ana Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Whatever. No one asked, but here’s mine:
The Best:
1. The House on the Borderland (W.H. Hodgson)
2. Trout Fishing in America (R. Brautigan)
3. The Bell Jar (S. Plath)
4. Joyland (S. King)
5. Sputnik Sweetheart (H. Murakami)
6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (M. Hammond)
The Ok:
7. Different Seasons (S. King)
8. The Killer Inside Me (J. Thompson)
9. The Spook who sat by the Door (S. Greenlee)
10. City Primeval (E. Leonard)
The Absolutely God-Awful (in no particular order):
1. Journey to the East (H. Hesse)
2. Anthem (A. Rand)
3. The Cycle of the Werewolf (S. King)
4. The Hellbound Heart (C. Barker)
5. Eugene Onegin (A. Pushkin)
6. Middlemarch (G. Elliott) (DNF)
7. The Great God Pan (A. Machen)
Bonus:
Best Short Stories:
1. The White People (A. Machen)
2. Strawberry Spring (S. King)
3. A Party Down at the Square (R. Ellison)
4. Going to meet the Man (J. Baldwin)
5. At the Bay (K. Mannsfield)
6. The Reach (S. King)
7. One for the Road (S. King)
8. Jerusalem’s Lot (S. King)
9. Guts (C. Palahniuk)
10. The Midnight Meat Train (C. Barker)
And the Very Worst Short Stories:
1. “Repent Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman (H. Ellison)
2. Willa (S. King)
3. Graveyard Shift (S. King)
4. The Raft (S. King)
5. Strange News from Another Star (H. Hesse)
Yesss! As much as I love the negative reviews, I think these "my top books" videos are my fav
Ugh I love "The Hunger Artist". It's such a phenomenal short story. I need to read some more Kafka. I also read Pnin this year, and while it was an extremely difficult read for me, it was just so so brilliant.
thank u for the 20 books i will now be adding to my wishlist
my top 5 of 2020 were All the Pretty Horses, Song of Solomon, Sula, All the King's Men, and The Master and Margarita :-) Also Housekeeping, but that was a reread!
In 2020 I had "only" a Top 7: (in no particular order)
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
Toni Morrison - Song of Solomon
Anna Burns - Little Constructions
Douglas Adams - Shuggie Bain
Akwaeke Emezi - Freshwater
Hallie Rubenhold - The Five
Ada Limón - Bright Dead Things
Thanks Mattia. love these type of videos. Always excited to try new authors and I've not read any Nick Hornby, or David Mitchell, so hopefully will get to read your top 2 sometime this year. My favourite books of 2020 were first and foremost V by Pynchon, followed closely by and in no particular order The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Chabon, Fight Club by Palahniuk, The Plot Against America by Roth, Sanctuary by Faulkner, The Crossing by McCarthy, The Hotel New Hampshire by Irving and finally Sex Lives of Siamese Twins by Welsh.
Great stuff :)
Some of Kafka's posthumous short-short stories are some of the best examples that live up to his standard of sublimity. Titles that come to mind include Prometheus, At Night, and The Vulture. Going to pick up The Prague Cemetery and Buddenbrooks based on your recommendation. Thanks for the list!
Just found this channel, I've got quite the backlog of videos to watch now; amazing content
Good list -- my favorites from 2020 are: 1. Finnegans Wake-James Joyce 2. Anniversaries-Uwe Johnson 3. An Angel of Sodom-David Vardeman 4. Completed 'In Search of Lost Time'-Proust 5. Hopeful Monsters-Nicholas Mosley 6. The Invented Part-Rodrigo Fresán 7. Omega Minor-Paul Verhaeghen 8. 4 Rikki Ducornet novels-Stain, Jade Cabinet, Phosphor In Dreamland, Brightfellow 9. Skulls of Istria-Rick Harsch 10. Completed 'Man Without Qualities'-Robert Musil 11. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man-Joyce 12. 3 novels by Daša Drndić- 'Trieste,' 'Belladonna,' and 'Doppelganger.'
My wish was granted!
My personal favorite reads this year were Moby Dick, the stories of Bruno Schulz, V., Crying of Lot 49, Viriconium by M. John Harrison and Don Quixote.
This year I’ll hopefully learn French (studying it this semester) and I hope to read The Recognitions, The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt, Gravity's Rainbow and more novels in my native tounge (Swedish).
@@sesame135 yeah, took awhile for me too! I also found it really funny and actually sort of terrifying by the end, probably because of the build up of the whale itself. Almost impossible to recommened though, I haven’t been able to convince any of my reader friends to pick it up. Had any luck on that front?
@@sesame135 Yeah, I think your right! This is a book that wasn’t meant to find you, instead waiting to be picked up by the right reader at the right time.
Melville's prose really is exquisite, I totally understand Harold Bloom's idea that Moby Dick is more of a prose poem than a novel. The heavy philosophical discussions and parallells certainly became both more digestible and profound when put in some of the best writing ever. As a foreigner, it was endlessly fascinating seeing how Melville's reflections on the paradox of the sea (its potential for freedom and its terrifying, awesom nature) seemed to reflect a very american inner turmoil.
Moby-Dick is one of my absolutely favorite books of all time. I want to reread it this year. The Last Samurai is perpetually on my TBR. I need to get to it as well. Also, good choice in deciding to learn French :)
@@thefrancophilereader8943 The Last Samurai has such a fascinating premise and from what I’ve read seems very well written, hopefully I’ll read it in not too long.
Thanks for the encouragment! It is just on course, I’m actually studying for a bachelor's degree in History, but I want to expand my horizons when it comes to source material. Any recommendations for good french non-fiction, specifically history books?
What an impressive year!
Great video! Bunch of good suggestions on here. I also read Persepolis and Atonement this year. I think my favourite books this year were Love in the Time of Cholera and Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Didion.
Awesome stuff!! I recently watched the Netflix documentary on Didion, The Center Will Not Hold - highly recommended!
@@TheBookchemist Yes I just watched it a few days ago, it's really great. Didion is a gem
Favorite was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - takes all the beautiful mystery from her previous novel but boils it down in a shorter, but much sharper story. The passages describing this labyrinth are gorgeous, to the point where it's almost a shame to get to the eventual (great) plot.
Also read Ethan Frome from your suggestion - also wonderful.
Re. Name of the Wind - how open are you to epic mega fantasy, bc I would dearly love to hear your take on Steven Erickson's Malazan. It's a hell of a commitment, but mixes the fantasy epic with a post-modern subversion of much of those tropes in a dune meets The Illiad meets Vietnam thing that might be even more up your alley than you first imagine. At the same time, I love coming here for a change of pace from my usual, so maybe ignore me.
Piranesi has been on my radar recently - glad to hear it's good! As for that Erickson saga, these massive fantasy operas tend to scare me :P but I'll keep it in mind!
@@TheBookchemist hah, totally understandable
I’m surprised by High Fidelity. I have it, but never read it. I’m going to change that.
I want to reread egan's the keep and mcewan’s atonement, I remember I adored them when I read them a few years ago. Nice list!! That rothfuss novel is amazing, I still remember how much fun and immersive it was. I read the sequel a couple of months later and omg how i hated it!! The first part is pretty much like the The name, but then it drags and drags and reads like a fanfiction. Anyway, I'm still reading the final book if it ever comes out jajaja This year I plan to read Buddenbrooks! Your review made me curious about it a while ago. I also plan to continue with the Ferrante saga. About my favorite reads, I would mention Fernanda Melchor's Hurricane Season (so unbelievably good!!! And apparently the English translation is fantastic as well), Marlon James' Black leopard Red Wolf and Mariana Enriquez latest novel.
I found The Keep by Jennifer Egan through your videos and it was definitely in my top 3 for 2020.
The Brooklyn follies was the first novel I ever fully read in english, though I thought It was too cheesy, almost like reading a Hallmark movie
You have to try Hornby's Fever Pitch which is an absolutely genius and hilarious account of a football fan, but it works just as well as a documentation of an obsessed person. Must read
My 2020 Highlights
- Infinite Jest (started in Nov 2019 but finished in Feb 2020) by David Foster Wallace
- East Of Eden & Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
- Kafka On The Shore by Huraki Murakami
- White Noise by Don Delillo
- Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (non-fiction)
- Clybourne Park - Bruce Norris (play)
Hi Bookchemist, I just discovered your channel. RUclips randomly recommended one of your videos, "My Favorite Books," and I watched it. I wanted to remark upon two of the authors whose books you would "take to the proverbial desert island": Thomas Pynchon and Michael Chabon. I've always lamented that I've never read more Pynchon, but every time I resolve to do so, I recall the agony of reading "Gravity's Rainbow." Now, I have a degree in philosophy, and I have read and understood extremely difficult texts, such as Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," but I have never encountered a fictional text as perplexing as "Gravity's Rainbow." I can well understand why, in 1974, the board of directors over-seeing the bestowal of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, rejected its own jury's recommendation that Gravity's Rainbow be awarded the prize. In rejecting it, the board stated that Pynchon's novel was "unreadable." Now, as to your second author, Michael Chabon, I have this to say: I enjoyed his first two novels very much. (I'm sure you know the titles so I won't repeat them here.) The second one was made into a decent movie ( though I thought Michael Douglas was too old to play the main character.) I read both of these novels when they came out and was anxiously awaiting another from Chabon. Then "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" appeared. *Disappointed* does not accurately describe my reaction to this book. I was mystified by it -- that is, I was mystified by the sheer boredom of it. His tedious highlighting of details extraneous to any narrative plot-line was, for me, the death of any aesthetic pleasure. As I turned each turgid page of the novel, I kept asking myself, "Why? Why is he dwelling on this? What is this deluge of minutia adding up to?" For me, it added up to a waste of my time. So, you may be asking, why have I typed these negative remarks? Simply put, I would like for you to recommend to me another work by both Pynchon and Chabon that I won't hate so much as the two mentioned above.
Most Pynchon books are more enjoyable than Gravity's Rainbow, really - I often recommend Inherent Vice as one that's quite entertaining while still showcasing his style and concerns! As for Chabon, Moonglow might be the closest to his early works - the prose is still quite baroque, but there's nowhere near the same amount of minutiae as in K&C. Thank you for your comment :)!
My favs were Ana Karenina (Tolstoi) and Las Malas (Camila Sosa Villada)
In the final days of 2020, I read 'The Greengage Summer' which I enjoyed the most.
My favorite book I read in 2020 was FOR SURE "John Crow's Devil," by Marlon James. His first novel, it was a little rough, but in a great way, especially considering he went on win the Booker Prize. I didn't care for the ending but I liked how cinematic it was. I also liked that i was essentially a literary horror novel. Inspiring on multiple levels.
That novel sure does take a dark turn in the last 30 or so pages.
It gets downright bizarre on the last page. One of the most disappointing endings in recent memory
@@therasbull It’s been a few years since I read the book, but I don’t remember hating the ending. What didn’t you like about it?
The end has the final fight between the pastors, which is great. It also goes full-on magic realism, which i loved. But on the last page the powers of the fallen pastor are inexplicably transfered to the widow
It should have just ended with the fight between the pastors. It would have been extremely dark but at least would have made sense
Now I know how my friends feel when I tell them about my favorite books and they have not read a single one of them! :))))
Top three novels for myself:
1. Gringos by Charles Portis
2. The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
3. True Grit by Charles Portis
Hey, didn't know there was a True Grit book, instantly ordered, thx.
@@ghost2031 you will not be disappointed!
@@ashurbanipalcousin Just finished the book, it was awesome.
@@ghost2031 Awesome! I recommend all his other books as well. My absolute favorite writer.
Love your perspectives on literature.
Any thoughts on diving into the rest of Thomas Mann’s work? Dr. Faustus was a major component of my senior thesis and I’d love to hear your take on it.
I actually read Dr. Faustus when I was 20 - definitely too early: I remember enjoying it, but I can also recollect very little about it, and I don't think I appreciated the full scope of its complexities. Definitely one to revisit! How did your senior thesis approach it?
Hah! A typically varied and stimulating selection of titles and writers, Bookchemist!
Here's my semi-annual reminder to try the work of Thomas Ligotti, one of the most magnificent post-Lovecraft writers of weird fiction, whose work I'm sure you'd enjoy.
I know, I know!! Maybe this year :D? (Fun fact - I have two reading lists, one for general books (?) and one exclusively for Lovecraft criticism/marginalia/related writers)
Your accent is one of your strengths
@thebookchemist do you look up words you don’t know when you read?
Yes! (Not all of them, but all those that sound interesting, or prevent me from making sense of a passage).
hi bookchemist, would like to ask you few things about postmodern literature? how could i connect?'
Please please please check out Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive Series! I know that you are into great escapist novels. These books are tomes, and completely transport you to a brand new world. If you liked The Name of the Wind I am very sure that you would love the first book in the series, Way of Kings.
Thank you, grazie mille! :)
Love mining these videos every year for recommendations. Only read 11 books last year, but five of them (Cloud Atlas, Bleeding Edge, If on a Winter's Night.., Watchmen, and Foucalt's Pendulum) were suggested on here and were all pretty amazing.
Have you read A Canticle for Leibowitz? I'm struggling between that and Foucault's Pendulum for my favorite book of 2020.
Haven't read it, but it's on my radar for a long time! Thank you for the comment :)
Atonement was also among my best reads in 2020
You sort your bookshelves by color...that's interesting.
The best short story ever will certainly be "the death of Ivan Ilitch".
Is strikes me that your reviews are primarily of books by male authors …. I enjoy your takes but felt wondered if you read more male authors than female. I myself read primarily female authors. Meanwhile, I am delighted to have found you and subscribed. Thank you, Eileen Pierce
Thank you for your question Eileen! For the longest time, I definitely read way more male than female writers - largely because I'd never questioned my reading habits from this angle, so that I was stuck reading the same (male) writers, and writers who wrote very much like them.
In recent years, I've decided to challenge myself (very informally) and to alternate my readings between male and female authors. It's been immensely eye-opening and really satisfying - I've discovered so many amazing writers that I would never have read if I hadn't pushed myself this way. (A few bad writers, too, of course!)
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi was by far the stand out of what I read this year 😁
I recommend everyone reading this to read Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping. Hope someone will consider this suggestion.
Brooklyn Follies was great!
Do read Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra and "Into the valley" by Stuart Blackhill.
They give a deep insight
My top 20 for the year 2020; not ranked in any particular order.
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" - Haruki Murakami.
"2001" Arthur C Clarke.
"Valis" Philip K Dick
"All The Pretty Horses" Cormac McCarthy
"Lullaby" Chuck Palahniuk
"The Crossing" Cormac McCarthy
"Inherent Vice" Thomas Pynchon
"The Name of the Rose" Umberto Eco
"Ham on Rye" Charles Bukowski
"Against The Day" Thomas Pynchon
"The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs" Irvine Welsh
"Cloud Atlas" David Mitchell
"The World According to Garp" John Irving
"American Psycho" Bret Easton Ellis
"Last Exit to Brooklyn" Hubert Selby Jr
"A Visit From the Goon Squad" Jennifer Egan
"The Gallows Pole" Benjamin Myers
"Pygmy" Chuck Palahniuk
"Postcards" E Annie Proulx
"Collected Ghost Stories" MR James
Jeez what a year!
@@siege2218 - I read 98 books in all. Let's face it, there wasn't much else going on in 2020.
I finished The Wind-up Bird Chronicle a couple days ago. What a fever dream of a book, but brilliant. I loved it.
My favourite book of 2020 was Carrie by Stephen King.
Have you already read Mariana Enriquez's ''Our Part of the Night''? I'm currently reading it and it's amazing.
I think it hasn't been translated yet! I agree, it's amazing!
@@pabloguzman013 I think you're right!
I didn't know she had a new book out! I'll check it out, I really liked Things We Lost in the Fire :)
Hey man, how do you make money since the have heard that literature degrees don't have many job opportunities?
All the people I know who graduated in English are successfully employed ;)
@@TheBookchemist could you please tell me some job fields? I am interested in it but I just don't want a job like being a professor or working in the academia
Book Barn, Niantic!
sei italiano ?
Sì!
Kafka never published in his lifetime.
Sure he did :)
@@TheBookchemist ya my bad..
Cutie
The keep
The brief wonderous life of Oscar Wilde
The ----- city
20 - The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
19 - The Metamorphosis and other stories by Franz Kafka (penguin edition)
18 - Cities of the Plane by Cormac McCarthy
17 - Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
16 - The Arrest by Jonathan L
15 - The Name of the Wind
14 - Atonement
13 - Ethan Frome
12 - The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
11 - The Nickel Boys
10 - The Story of a New Name
9 - The Quiet American
8 - The Golden Gate
7 - Portnoy's Complaint ("Hilarious")
6 - White Teeth ("Family-saga", "Hilarious", "strong statements")
5 - Prague's cemetery ("study of hate and prejudice")
4 - Buddenbrooks ("the downfall of a rich family", "masterful", "unforgettable scenes", "irresistible", "real scope and depth in its analysis")
3 - Story of the small child (part of a four book series, "devastating consequences", "hard hitting")
2 - High Fidelity ("stimulating read of 2020", "quotible", "food for thought", "impact of popular culture and music", "interpersonal relationships in truly honest and insightful way", "refreshing and inspiring", honest portrayal of relationships)
1- Number 9 Dream