My 5 Favorite Books I Read in 2023

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  • Опубликовано: 10 янв 2025

Комментарии • 279

  • @BetterThanFoodBookReviews
    @BetterThanFoodBookReviews  Год назад +26

    What were the best books you read in 2023? I’d love to know, please comment below!

    • @Birmanncat
      @Birmanncat Год назад +2

      de-Sent Exupery - Citadelle
      Slavko Janevski - Miracle Plays of Terror
      PKD - UBIK and Electric Sheep
      Andrei Platonov - Chevengur
      Norman Mailer - Ancient Evenings

    • @ewafelcenloben4706
      @ewafelcenloben4706 Год назад +3

      Jose Donoso - The Obscene Bird of The Night; Sheng Keyi - 錦灰 (Polish translation); and works by Adam Bodor, J.L. Borges.

    • @ConnorThompson-w2k
      @ConnorThompson-w2k Год назад +7

      Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death
      Jorge Luis Borges - A Universal History of Iniquity
      Samuel Beckett - Trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable)
      Cormac McCarthy - Suttree
      Emil Cioran - The Fall Into Time
      Great video as always!

    • @domar1
      @domar1 Год назад

      The obscene bird of night! That one was bananas! Had been trying to remember that title as I no longer have to book. May need to reread it.@@ewafelcenloben4706

    • @Vivaldi1Dvorak2
      @Vivaldi1Dvorak2 Год назад +2

      The Emigrants by WG Sebald
      Paradise and Beloved both by Toni Morrison

  • @chazgross4519
    @chazgross4519 Год назад +49

    Your thoughts on Wiseblood got me to thinking about the time someone wrote Flannery O'Connor a letter complaining that "your book left a bad taste in my mouth." Flannery wrote back "you weren't supposed to eat it." Love the channel...All the best in 2024.

  • @Gl1tch2263
    @Gl1tch2263 Год назад +93

    As a sci-fi / fantasy nerd, I’m glad to hear you liked Dune! My top 5:
    1. The Book of Disquiet - Pessoa
    2. Moby Dick - Melville
    3. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Miller
    4. Blood Meridian - McCarthy
    5. Ice - Kavan

    • @aggonzalez8096
      @aggonzalez8096 Год назад +7

      The book of disquiet is an amazing book. And real look into a unique and artistic mind. Also one that must have suffered much existentially

    • @fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044
      @fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044 Год назад +2

      That's a strong 5 (though I need to read Pessoa--I am familiar with his reputation).

    • @arafatsafin650
      @arafatsafin650 Год назад +4

      The Book of Disquiet is my most favourite book. Nice to see it on top.

    • @tauhidal-farook4548
      @tauhidal-farook4548 Год назад +4

      I also read Blood Meridian this year. Changed my life.

    • @imcida
      @imcida Год назад +2

      I read Moby Dick last year too and tried to finish Pessoa but I didn't have the mood to do so. Let's try this year!

  • @cheezeh7288
    @cheezeh7288 Год назад +34

    1 - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
    2 - The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
    3 - Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
    4 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
    5 - No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

  • @lovepiecozitsawesome
    @lovepiecozitsawesome Год назад +13

    I didn't really read a lot this year unfortunately, probably because I mostly didn't have the time to watch your videos to inspire me (your love for reading is infectuous). But my top 5 this year, in no particular order, were:
    - Hyperion by Dan Simmons
    - Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
    - White Noise by Don DeLillo
    - Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
    - The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov
    Here's to hoping I read more than 10 books this year. Also a happy new year to everyone reading this, and may you have a great upcoming year!

    • @ryang.5094
      @ryang.5094 4 месяца назад

      Hyperion By Dan Simmons. Wow, excellent choice. It’s literally in my hands as I read it whilst typing.
      Excellent taste.

  • @deelak2329
    @deelak2329 9 месяцев назад +8

    Read 55 books last year, hard to choose a top 5 but here goes.
    1. East of Eden (became my all time number 1) John Steinbeck
    2. Lightbringer by pierce brown
    3. Secret History by tartsy fartsy
    4. War an peace by tolstoy
    5. Ham On Rye Bukowski
    Honor ment. Less than zero by easton ellis

  • @fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044
    @fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044 Год назад +5

    My Top 5 Reads for 2023:
    1) The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
    2) The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
    3) The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke
    4) The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
    5) The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  • @kavkazip
    @kavkazip Год назад +31

    The Sun also Rises made me get into wine. I loved the scene in the book where they are having a picnic and they place a bottle of wine in the river to make it cold.

    • @mjau65
      @mjau65 Год назад +1

      Same here! Love the whole sequence of crossing the Pyrenees and fishing before they get to Pamplona.

  • @FlintSL
    @FlintSL Год назад +9

    Cliff, you are without a doubt my favourite RUclipsr. Love every video and I only wish they were longer, just thought I'd share that with you

  • @JeanMenezes
    @JeanMenezes Год назад +10

    My 5 favorite books in 2023:
    5. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, by Jules Verne
    4. Hell House, by Richard Matheson
    3. Mindhunter, by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
    2. The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma, by Lima Barreto
    1. The Hobbit, by Tolkein

    • @mateusribeiro5871
      @mateusribeiro5871 Год назад +1

      Pelos nome e os livros já percebi que era brasileiro, ou no mínimo fala português. Segue o canal do professor Guilherme Freire?

    • @JeanMenezes
      @JeanMenezes Год назад

      @@mateusribeiro5871 Sou brasileiro sim. E sim, sigo o canal dele. Comecei a segui-lo por causa das análises de Tolkein.

  • @shoresofpatmos
    @shoresofpatmos Год назад +7

    My list:
    Emil Cioran - The Trouble With Being Born
    Thomas Ligotti - The Conspiracy Against The Human Race
    Frank Herbert - Dune
    Hannah Arendt - Eichmann in Jerusalem
    Clive Barker - The Hellbound Heart

  • @shubhaghosh
    @shubhaghosh Год назад +11

    I recommend Buddenbrooks as well as The Magic Mountain

  • @bjwnashe5589
    @bjwnashe5589 Год назад +7

    Great list, excellent rundown. I agree with you 100% on Flannery O'Connor. Also want to commend you for sticking with literature that truly moves you, rather than following trends and fads. Good job. Cioran and Doyle I have not yet read, but look forward to doing so.

  • @drackaryspt1572
    @drackaryspt1572 Год назад +4

    Your channel has helped me find stuff that actually interesses and captivates me in reading which has been quite hard for me to do for most of my life up until this point(I'm only a 21 art student) so I'm very thankfull and the only book I've read completly this year was Story Of Eye and it left a very profound mark on me so thank you a lot for opening the doors to a world full of so much interesting and profound art that is reading!! Hopefully by next year I'll have a top five of books I've read because I've only managed short story's for now. Thank you for your content its really good and quite humanely profound!!

  • @BenYaxleyFilms
    @BenYaxleyFilms 10 месяцев назад +1

    1. Stoner by John Williams
    2. Monkey King by Wu Cheng'en (new translation)
    3. Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan
    4. The Passenger and Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy
    5. The Vorrh by B. Catling
    Monkey, Goulds Book of Fish and The Vorrh i'd classify as 'fun' books. crazy as it gets

  • @adampearson1541
    @adampearson1541 11 месяцев назад +1

    Hoping to read Wise Blood this year, now that I’ve read all of her short stories.
    My top 5 of 2023:
    1. Moby Dick
    2. To The Lighthouse
    3. Go Down Moses
    4. Light in August (sort of tied with 3)
    5. Disgrace

  • @CruelSpirit
    @CruelSpirit Год назад +2

    Another great list of year end as always. I want to get to Faulkner and O'Connor this year myself. My top five are as follows:
    5. Time Out of Joint- Philip K Dick
    4. Arabesques- Anton Shammas
    3. The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas- Rick Harsch
    2. In Transit- Brigid Brophy
    1. Gravity's Rainbow- Thomas Pynchon

  • @mulefa1
    @mulefa1 Год назад +4

    thanks for all the great recommendations this year

  • @asher_oak
    @asher_oak Год назад +3

    You’re not kidding about 2023, man. Wow.
    Wise Blood is one of my all-time favorites, and I discovered Nathaniel West and maybe Mishima thanks to your recommendation, so thank you.
    My top five from the past year, in no particular order:
    Les Mis, Hugo
    Paradise Lost, Milton
    Shadow & Claw, Wolfe (speaking of sci-fi for people who don’t read sci-fi)
    Far From the Madding Crowd, Hardy
    War & Peace, Tolstoy

    • @imcida
      @imcida Год назад +1

      Les Miserables is sooo good ❤️ I read it in 2022 and I still think about the characters and the story

  • @the_wisecrack9472
    @the_wisecrack9472 Год назад +6

    I always look forward to your yearly reviews!! Also, 2023 was not much of a good year for me. But your recommendations were pretty comforting!❤️

  • @morteningemannpedersen8691
    @morteningemannpedersen8691 Год назад +2

    5. Kristina Glaffey: Mom and Busser
    4. Juni Ito: No Longer Human
    3. Salman Rushdie: Midnight's Children
    2. Olga Tokarczuk: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
    1. Johannes Jensen: The Fall of the King

  • @ryang7759
    @ryang7759 Год назад +3

    west coast canuck here. I've been gravitating to southern lit as well. there's a magic about it that I can't get elsewhere. just read As I Lay Dying and it floored me.

  • @maibritton2882
    @maibritton2882 Год назад +2

    O conners " a good man . . " Incredible mindfuck. I have always feared reading southern writers, (lol) now I know why. consider picking up the magazine of southern writing called "The Oxford American" they put out a music issue.

  • @trashlyfe69420
    @trashlyfe69420 11 месяцев назад

    I’d just like to say I appreciate your channel immensely. It’s so incredibly nice to just hear someone actually speak (as opposed to reading reviews) about some of my favorite authors like Houllebecq, Cortazar, Jünger, Bolaño etc. with such enthusiasm and insight
    I used to live in Chicago but I can’t blame my present more rural location on a lack of literary conversation as the bike messenger crowd I was a part of werent necessarily eagerly wanting to dive into Mishima.
    Anyways, just thanks man. I know there’s plenty of people online, but to hear and see another person talking about these books is a quality I haven’t experienced since skipping class in HS to read Kafka and blast cigs at the downtown cafe (even then I’m pretty sure I was the only one actually reading the shit).

  • @aleksandrabedzinska
    @aleksandrabedzinska Год назад +3

    this video is my personal holiday year in year out!!! and my top read this year was probably ingeborg bachmann's malina (idk about the english but the polish translation overtakes lives - i've seen it happen, i've lived it)

  • @tassiasalazardecamargo4928
    @tassiasalazardecamargo4928 Год назад +1

    In no particular order:
    - Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
    - Piranesi (Susanna Clarke)
    - The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafón)
    - Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
    - Fruits Basket (Natsuki Takaya)
    - Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
    - Zorro (Isabel Allende)

  • @marcelhidalgo1076
    @marcelhidalgo1076 Год назад +3

    We both read Death in Venice this year. Fantastic novella

  • @jackwalter5970
    @jackwalter5970 Год назад +5

    Wise Blood and A Childhood are both incredibly powerful and superbly written. Thanks, Cliff. Happy reading in '24! My favorites were Solenoid and Germinal.

  • @lutascosmin
    @lutascosmin Год назад +1

    Dune 1 & 2 ,
    Master and Margarita - Bulgakov
    Notes from the Underground - Dostoevsky
    A Life Without End - Frederick Beigbeder

  • @birdmanstrength
    @birdmanstrength Год назад +3

    I had a great year, and have thoroughly enjoyed watching your videos with my wife. Thanks for the laughs. Happy New Year.

  • @linjitah
    @linjitah Год назад +1

    My top 5 of 2023:
    The Gospel Singer - Harry Crews
    Ninth Building - Zou Jingzhi
    Go down, Moses - William Faulkner
    Last exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr.
    Whale - Cheon Myeong-kwan

  • @bookoffholicbookwart5945
    @bookoffholicbookwart5945 Год назад +1

    New to the channel but absolutely in love with the short and crisp reviews.

  • @PhillipOliver
    @PhillipOliver 10 месяцев назад +1

    I love the film "Suddenly Last Summer" but have never read the play. I do love "A Streetcar Named Desire". Flannery O'Connor is one of my favorite short story writers. For some reason, I could not get into her novels but I should give them another try.

    • @marknewton6984
      @marknewton6984 6 месяцев назад

      A Good Man is Hard to Find! 😮

  • @Rohanposter
    @Rohanposter Год назад +6

    I highly recommend you giving Dune: Messiah a read. It's short, and more of an epilogue to Dune than a sequel that completes the arcs and deepens the themes of the first book.

  • @HeroOfTheDay99
    @HeroOfTheDay99 Год назад +9

    Top five books I read this year:
    1. Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
    2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
    3. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (thanks for the recommendation)
    4. The Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
    5. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

  • @justwonder1404
    @justwonder1404 Год назад

    2:12 - can confirm, I powered through second and third books but that was it for me.

  • @caligulalister
    @caligulalister Год назад +2

    Highly recommend Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass to you I think it's just your cup of tea!

  • @pawepesiek7217
    @pawepesiek7217 Год назад +3

    My favourite of this year:
    - Story of eye
    - Fictions (especially first story, wooow)
    - A cool million - highly recommend it, wrote by Nathanael West, I know you like him Cliff,
    - Wait unitl the evening by Hal Bennett
    And my favourite - Waiting for Godot. Mindblowing for me.

  • @Robert_K1
    @Robert_K1 Год назад +2

    My top 3:
    - A Heart So White by Javier Marías
    - Age of Iron by JM Coetzee
    - His Name Was Death by Rafael Bernal

    • @pauingles5810
      @pauingles5810 Год назад

      Cool to see that some contemporary Spanish literature leaks out of our country. He's probably the best author that we've had in the last years. You should check out Delibes.

  • @corey8807
    @corey8807 Год назад +1

    Thanks for getting me to read more. 1. The Immortal Game, David Shenk 2. Pessoa, Richard Zenith 3. The warmth of other suns, Wilkerson 4. The Peregrine(off your review)5. Death in the afternoon(perhaps your best review)
    My winter read suggestion: Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. In NYC, Up in the old hotel by Joseph Mitchell. In the SouthWest, Dessert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. This summer, Summer 1927 Bill Bryson Thanks

  • @ritajustino9215
    @ritajustino9215 Год назад +2

    Happy New Year! Thank for the video and the inspiration to read great books.

  • @alissonyamakawa6597
    @alissonyamakawa6597 Год назад +2

    My favorites:
    Mario and the magician, Thomas Mann
    Stella Maris, Cormac McCarthy
    White noise, Don Delillo
    Heldenplatz, Thomas Bernhard
    Time of the magicians, Wolfram Eilenberger
    A girl is lost in her century looking for her father, Goncalo M. Tavares

  • @cindyo6298
    @cindyo6298 Год назад +3

    Interesting, I've seen a lot of hatred and love for Freud lately. I also really need to read Wise Blood! Weyes Blood is great too!

  • @GoedeSoep
    @GoedeSoep Год назад

    I’m adding a lot of books to my TBR pile from your list as well as the comments, thank you!
    My favourites of 2023:
    Study for obedience- Sarah Bernstein
    Trust - Hernan Diaz
    The Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe
    L’Autre Fille - Annie Ernaux
    Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
    Kartonnen Dozen - Tom Lannoye

  • @SheriMaple
    @SheriMaple Год назад +1

    I read Dune and agree reading the first book is fine. I watched Suddenly, Last Summer, but haven't read the book. I have to make a note to read Tennessee Williams because I like him as a playwright. August Wilson is my favorite playwright, love his dialogue.

  • @Linda-bq7eq
    @Linda-bq7eq Год назад +1

    Your reviews are as tight and as tense as the authors you read. Spellbound I am after one of your videos and I have to look up the author and sneak up on the book because now I’m frightened of it. Wiseblood is what I’m referring here & Flannery OConner but they’re not the only ones. Anyway, thanks for being so good at what you do - your reviews drive me to sneak up on even more literature and then read it cold and raw. I’ve been terrified of Flannery OConner since High School but tonite she’s in my sights and I’ll take the plunge.

  • @masonjames1194
    @masonjames1194 Год назад +1

    I have a good amount of books to read this year, some Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, and Flannery o'conner.
    very much enjoyed paradise lost, any recommendations that are similar to the authors and books mentioned.
    would much appreciate it.
    loved your channel this year, I only found it this year, and I was mostly reading non-fiction before, I just turned 19 and some of the books you have recommended really help me cope with my mental health, and there is some great writing.
    happy new year and sincerely, thank you

  • @ellelala39
    @ellelala39 Год назад +1

    Happy New Year, Cliff. May all of your 2024 reads be riveting ones.

  • @emiliamarozzi
    @emiliamarozzi Год назад

    My top 5 for this year:
    1. Cathedral, Raymond Carver
    2. Fever Dream (Distancia de Rescate), Samantha Schweblin
    3. Heartburn, Nora Ephron
    4. Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
    5. Bad Girls (Las Malas), Camila Sosa Villada

  • @Wasp9513
    @Wasp9513 Год назад +1

    My Fav:
    Los llanos by Federico Falco
    Nombre Falso by Ricardo Piglia
    El entenado by Juan Jose Saer
    Los accidententes by Camila Fabbri
    El rio de las congojas by Libertad demitropoulus

  • @hero43able
    @hero43able Год назад +1

    The Shards absolutely floored me, i grew up in LA and his depiction is spot on. Also has me to this moment wons=dering as to who the Trawler really is. Great video, man.

  • @jamiewalkerdine3705
    @jamiewalkerdine3705 Год назад +1

    My top 5:
    1. Orlando, Virginia Woolf
    2. Flowers in the Attic, VC Andrews
    3. Ada or Ardor, Vladimir Nabokov
    4. In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, Marcel Proust
    5. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

  • @hansolonuta
    @hansolonuta 11 месяцев назад

    My top 5 in no particular order:
    The Electric State - Simon Stalenhag
    The Beach - Alex Garland
    Lessons - Ian McEwan
    The Pit and the pendulum - Edgar Alen Poe
    The Labyrinth of the Faun - Cornelia Funke / Guillermo del Toro
    May you have a great (reading) year!!!

  • @kidAaaaa
    @kidAaaaa Год назад +1

    -Les particules élémentaires by Michel Houellebecq
    -Extension du domaine de la lutte by Michel Houellebecq
    -Seda by Alessandro Baricco
    -La possibilité d'une île by Michel Houellebecq
    I left unread lots of books this year, I hope to come across this comment next year and be mindblown by how much more I've read this year compared to 2023, and most importantly, the quality of my reading. I have big plans. Thanks Sarge for always reviving my love and compromise to reading.

  • @theriverarapaper
    @theriverarapaper Год назад

    Fantastic wrap-up video. This is the first of yours that I have watched. Looking forward to digging into your channel.

  • @andrewverlaine
    @andrewverlaine Год назад

    Great to see Rob Doyle's work getting some love! I was at the launch for "Threshold" in Dublin when it came out, was fun to hear Doyle reading from his work! 😄

  • @osamaayham1996
    @osamaayham1996 Год назад +1

    Great picks Clifford!
    Mann and Cioran are personal favorites.
    The Magic Mountain is my favorite novel and I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did. It does require some patience to get through its pages but it really rewards you for giving it the attention it needs.
    I'm eager to know your thoughts about it.
    Thank you for creating this great platform and happy new year to you and your loved ones!

  • @MisterSir7
    @MisterSir7 11 месяцев назад

    Greetings from Australia! Loving the videos and recommendations. Nick and Rowland were the same reason I checked out Wise Blood - albeit the movie - but this has motivated me to pick up the novel. Thanks again!

  • @marcelhidalgo1076
    @marcelhidalgo1076 Год назад +1

    1. Michael Kohlhaas by Henrich von Heist
    2. Apartment in Athens by Glenway Wescott
    3. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

    • @marcelhidalgo1076
      @marcelhidalgo1076 Год назад

      4. Civilization and It's Discontents by Freud
      5. World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

  • @MTheory333
    @MTheory333 Год назад +1

    This is my first video of yours and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you. Great job. Subscriber now and am looking forward to your opinion on other books

  • @30secondsflat
    @30secondsflat Год назад +2

    2023 started off as one of the worst years of my life, and ended being on of the most satisfying as I finally signed a publication deal for my first novel. Once it's out, I would be honoured if you'd be willing to read it sometime in the future.

  • @jordanrc13
    @jordanrc13 Год назад +1

    Thanks for the many great recs Cliff. Looking forward to more great books in 2024. 🎉

  • @kieran_forster_artist
    @kieran_forster_artist Год назад +2

    My favourite books of 2023 : America and the Cult of the Cactus Boots, Jon Fosse Septology, Byung-Chul Han The BurnOut Society et al, Bernardo Kastrup’s books on philosophical idealism, RSS A Bended Circuity and Jung’s Black Books (7 volume journal that became Liber Novus or the Red Book)…..

  • @allesvergaengliche
    @allesvergaengliche Год назад +2

    Have only read short stories by Ms. O’Connor, but I have long admired her writing. Will definitely check out Wise Blood asap.

  • @FisherKing9633
    @FisherKing9633 Год назад +3

    I guess I had a decent year. My top book of the year was The Power Broker by Robert Caro. I’ve spent most of my free time engaging in hardcore proselytism of that book.
    Also recommend:
    This Storm, James Ellroy
    Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
    Shogun, James Clavel
    The Ghosts of Belfast, Stewart Neville
    Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
    Abbadon’s Gate, James SA Corey
    Elantris, Brandon Sanderson

  • @gudi3451
    @gudi3451 Год назад +5

    5 Miss Lonely Hearts- West
    4 Blood of the Virgin-Harkham
    3 Submission- Houellebecq
    2 Old Man and the Sea- Hemingway
    1 Notes From the
    Underground- Dostoevsky

    • @benp4877
      @benp4877 Год назад +1

      That’s a fine list indeed.

    • @MFYouTube683
      @MFYouTube683 3 месяца назад

      Submission is _outstanding_

  • @KalvinMauveMusic
    @KalvinMauveMusic Год назад +1

    I will definitely check out Wiseblood, thanks.

  • @salamantitus7331
    @salamantitus7331 Год назад +1

    Is that 'O Lost' by Thomas Wolfe on your shelf, Cliff?

  • @SuperStrangSshadow
    @SuperStrangSshadow Год назад +1

    I read 103 books last year. My faves are Witch Hunt by Syd Moore, Take Your Turn, Teddy by Haley Newlin, Silver Nitrate by Silvia Monreo-Garcia, Holly by Stephen King and Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. You should check some of these out, if you want some dark books.

  • @titusbramble7403
    @titusbramble7403 Год назад +1

    My top five (not all fiction)
    1. Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein
    2. Cursed Bunny - Nora Chung
    3. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    4. Still Born - Guadeloupe Nettel
    5. Young Stalin - Simon Sebag Montefiore

  • @jamesgwarrior1981
    @jamesgwarrior1981 Год назад +1

    Bless you for still makin these. Love lists 🤘🏽👿

    • @jamesgwarrior1981
      @jamesgwarrior1981 Год назад +2

      2023 not a great year for my reading. Think my fav thing read was “The Memory Police,” Yoko Ogawa. Good thing about having such a crappy year is gives you the fuel and fire for the next, or this, one…

  • @Brokenrain573
    @Brokenrain573 Год назад +1

    Highly recommend mountainhead by new juche and call me burroughs by barry miles to everyone here.

  • @nathanschreffler1415
    @nathanschreffler1415 11 месяцев назад

    I had a great year! New baby boy, and read some good books. Thanks for the recommendations! My favorite 5 books from 2023 were...
    Blindsight by Peter Watts
    The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
    Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
    The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
    The Devils Delusion by David Berlinski

  • @TH3F4LC0Nx
    @TH3F4LC0Nx Год назад +2

    Sweet! I actually was just gifted a copy of Wise Blood for Christmas. Here's hoping I love it too! :D

  • @FranklyItsMe
    @FranklyItsMe Год назад

    First time here and TG!! I have 3 other book channels I watch because they get to the POINT!! I can’t tell how many videos I think might be interesting and all they do is yammer on about themselves for 10 minutes and just throw out book names - pretty sure they don’t actually read them.
    You are up there with Ben McAvoy, Tristan and (Mark&) Elvis.
    Thank you. I’ve not read or heard of some of these. 🙏🏻💙✌🏼

  • @beatriztspacheco
    @beatriztspacheco Год назад

    My top 5 this year:
    Mating, Norman Rush
    Desperate characters, Paula Fox
    Biography of X, Catherine Lacey
    Light years, James Salter
    Ice, Anna Kavan

  • @themiddleplace
    @themiddleplace Год назад +1

    I against my better judgment just opened up about my mental health and thank you for reminding me that I'm not alone, we wouldn't have done it if I hadn't slept properly for a week and I just realized you're selling a f****** product!

  • @00Linares00
    @00Linares00 Год назад +3

    I had a really good start of a year, but last 2/3 were a mess. My favorite book of the year is tough, cause it was a good year. Between 100 Years of Solitude, Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, Screwtape Letters, Notes From the Underground, it could have been any and it would be a good year.

  • @nl3064
    @nl3064 Год назад +1

    Since we're sharing with total strangers and all acting like we care, my 2023 reads:
    Great:
    1. Invitation to a Beheading (V. Nabokov)
    2. The Thing In The Snow (S. Adams)
    3. Campfires of the Dead and the Living (P. Christopher)
    4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (J. Le Carré)
    5. Consider This (C. Palahniuk)
    Good:
    6. Fugitives and Refugees (C. Palahniuk)
    8. The Shards (B.E. Ellis)
    9. Not Forever, But For Now (C. Palahniuk)
    10. The Decay of the Angel (Y. Mishima)
    11. Zodiac (R. Graysmith)
    12. Notes On The Cinematograph (R. Bresson)
    13. Make Something Up (C. Palahniuk)
    14. Faceless Killers (H. Mankell)
    15. Snuff (C. Palahniuk)
    16. Rant (C. Palahniuk)
    17. Red Lights (G. Simenon)
    Fine:
    18. Touching From a Distance (D. Curtis)
    19. The Day of the Locust (N. West)
    Mid:
    Ecce Homo (F. Nietzsche)
    The Fire Next Time (J. Baldwin)
    Bad:
    The ABC Murders (A. Christie)

  • @fergalcussen
    @fergalcussen Год назад +23

    Wise Blood is a book I've owned for almost 20 years, but keep packing in after the first few chapters year in year out.
    The Magic Mountain is a very rewarding book.

    • @rustyshackelford934
      @rustyshackelford934 Год назад

      That's wild. I blazed through it pretty quickly. I preferred her last novel more though, "The Violent Bear It Away".

  • @ranovee2682
    @ranovee2682 Год назад

    Now seems like a good time to finally read OConnor. She has been on my list for so long but just haven’t read her yet. Thanks for the review Cliff.

  • @jadeddiamonds9983
    @jadeddiamonds9983 Год назад +4

    My top read was Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

  • @heidi6281
    @heidi6281 9 месяцев назад

    All fantasy books!
    The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie
    The Daughter of the Empire: Feist & Janny Wurts
    Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne
    The Blacktongue Thief: Christopher Buehlman
    Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott
    Justice of Kings by Richard Swan
    Guards! Guards! By Terry Prachett

  • @floridastar1000
    @floridastar1000 Год назад +1

    Confederacy of Dunces by Toole is an interesting novel if you like southern literature. Check it out! Walker Percy actually helped publish it (could be wrong)

  • @batailleescargot5707
    @batailleescargot5707 Год назад +1

    Woahhh! Been following you for a bit on Instagram. I live in Tampa too! Happy new year and thank you for the review 🎉

  • @Whatever_Happy_People
    @Whatever_Happy_People Год назад

    Hullo the best dark book I've ever read is jerminal by Emile Zola. PS as as tv show the original dark shadows is a long series you might like. If so stick with it you need to full in love with the characters before the vampire barnabis comes in. Happy new year.

  • @lencomua
    @lencomua Год назад +1

    Happy New Year ❤thank you for the review

  • @w4lker
    @w4lker 7 месяцев назад

    Getting really interested in Threshold by Rob Doyle

  • @00czen00
    @00czen00 10 месяцев назад

    Love your channel! You should definitely read and review new Houelbeque book "Annihilate"

  • @scp240
    @scp240 Год назад +1

    My top 5 includes two by Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. I would add Tess of the D’Ubervilles, by Thomas Hardy, and Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov in the Norton Critical Edition. These are all acknowledged classics so perhaps no surprise but in the little known classics department I would add The Moon and the Bonfires by Cesar Pavese in the NYRB classics series. I also read some nice Shakespeare in The War of the Roses series: Henry IV Part 2 and Henry VI Part
    2 and saw both of these in live performances so that was great. Tartuffe by Moliere was fantastic as was Major Barbara by Shaw. I include these plays as kind of a second category because it’s hard to compare with the others. Overall it was kind of a disappointing reading year as I didn’t read nearly as much as I had hoped, but better luck this year I suppose.

  • @BusyGrinch
    @BusyGrinch Год назад +2

    the best was "Cachorro velho" from a Cuban writer.. amazing.

  • @jacquesciesla2550
    @jacquesciesla2550 Год назад +2

    Great list! 2023, despite being brutal, was my most productive in terms of reading so that has to count for something. My favorites would be:
    2666 by Bolano
    Stella Maris by McCarthy
    No Country for Old Men by McCarthy
    Lord of Dark Places by Bennett
    The Complete HP Lovecraft
    Wise Blood by O'Conner
    The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon
    Paradais by Melchor

    • @dbag57
      @dbag57 Год назад

      2666 just blew me away..I'm still thinking about it 2 months on..just unlike anything else I have ever read

    • @jacquesciesla2550
      @jacquesciesla2550 Год назад

      @@dbag57agreed! I read it over the summer and it completely knocked the wind out of me. Not a day goes by where I don’t think of it. Easily my favorite of the year, if not, my favorite I’ve ever read.

  • @lukekrugman1391
    @lukekrugman1391 Год назад

    I also read The Sun Also Rises in 2023 and thoroughly enjoyed it! If I might make a suggestion, please read and review A Time to Love and a Time to Die. It’s by the same author that wrote All Quiet on the Western Front and it was probably my favorite book of 2023. I enjoyed it so much that I listened to the Audiobook after reading it and then came to your page to see if you’ve reviewed it.

    • @marknewton6984
      @marknewton6984 6 месяцев назад +1

      Try Hemingway's short stories. Kilimanjaro! Macomber!

  • @zylo2246
    @zylo2246 Год назад +1

    Since we're all here to be self indulgent, and in the spirit of the new year. to make it brief.
    1) Dark Back of Time- Javier Marias: Still the best, or at least my favorite writer. RIP (1951-2022) Not so much a novel at all, This one's is really more... a meditation? An essay? An inquiry into both the past and the might-have-been? Or perhaps its merely a reaction to an earlier novel and all the people both saw and didn't see themselves in it? Or it about a stray bullet in Mexico and a maybe murder-mystery? Or is it about the dangers of weaving facts thru fiction? Or is it about the great king of a micronation called Redonda? OR!!! Is it just a fun romp and connection to the nature of writing itself, and more importantly the fallout/consequences/endless ripples that ensue when we try and often succeed (Or not) in waxing a good sentence or two through our complex minds. Then again I don't claim to know anything, one way or the other. Just read the book if you can. But read "All Souls" first.
    2)The Thousand Autumn's of Jacob De Zoet- David Mitchell: Another one that was long on my list. But OH MY what a novel! I had High expectations given the Authors other works, and I think this one might be my pick for not only his best, but my personal favorite. Put's you right back into another time and place, this one happening to be Late 18th century early 19th century Japan, as well it's European immigrants and exiles. Both a juggernaut in wordsmithing, it manages to juggle bot historically accurate brilliance as well as both suspense and unexpected romance, and glorious personnel and political stakes and violent intrigue. And that's just at the surface level. I cannot recommend this one more.
    3) The Fortunate Pilgrim- Mario Puzo: Been meaning to read this one for years, and it did not disappoint. started it around charismas and just finished it before New Years, making it one the fastest' read I've had in years. The story is rather cliche by American literary standards, being about an Italian immigrant family living in New York at the turn of the last century, despite it's architypes is simply one of the engaging literary and yet approachable works of so-called "literary" fiction I've coma across. of all the ones on the list, this is defiantly the most approachable to anyone.
    4) The Rum Dairy- Hunter S. Thompson: Consumed the whole thing in a couple of days while on vacation over the summer and due to seeing the movie adaptation years ago, came to be pleasantly surprised by how tonally the same yet plot-wise and prose-wise it is different and yet all simply Hunter S. Thompson. Would make the perfect re-read on another sunny vacation.
    5) The Furies- Janet Hobhouse: Sad yet brilliant. Introspective and illuminating. Devastating yet inspiring. This one is really thinly veiled autobiography, and sadly was never completed due the authors premature death from cancer (giving the whole thing a weighty mournful sense throughout) BUT goodness what great prose. What great perspective. Read it when you can. Just be prepared for little plot, and a lot of oh so soothing depression.
    Runners up:
    All Souls- Javier Marias
    Tough Guys Don't Dance- Norman Mailer
    Killers of the Flower Moon- David Grann
    Empire- Gore Vidal
    Sorry to go on. Hope we all read just as many good pages in the coming year!

  • @manders77
    @manders77 Год назад +1

    I was waiting for this! 🎉

  • @DP-te9cg
    @DP-te9cg Год назад +3

    5 favorites for 2023
    The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
    The Spider’s House by Paul Bowles
    Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
    A Land So Strange by Andres Resendez
    Every Man For Himself And God Against All by Werner Herzog

    • @fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044
      @fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044 Год назад +2

      That's a great list. Check out Paul Bowles' "The Sheltering Sky" if you haven't already read it. Bowles is a very underrated and under-appreciated writer.

    • @DP-te9cg
      @DP-te9cg Год назад

      ⁠@@fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044
      I have read The Sheltering Sky and Let It Come Down. Mr. Bowles is definitely underrated.

  • @arekkrolak6320
    @arekkrolak6320 Год назад +1

    I read all Dune novels by Frank Herbert and I liked them all but one can also consider Dune as a single novel separate from its continuation

  • @timkjazz
    @timkjazz Год назад +16

    The Magic Mountain is well worth the hours, a masterpiece.

    • @aggonzalez8096
      @aggonzalez8096 Год назад +3

      Awesome I’m reading it now, about a hundred pages in. I’m enjoying it right now but am wondering if it will be worth it. So far it’s very funny

    • @fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044
      @fiarandompenaltygeneratorm5044 Год назад +3

      I read it last summer after avoiding it for years, but I loved it too. Like the other commenter, I was surprised how funny it was.

    • @timkjazz
      @timkjazz Год назад

      Absolutely, one of the ten greatest novels I've ever read.@@aggonzalez8096

  • @kayacarmen
    @kayacarmen Год назад +2

    my top 5 were
    notes from underground - dostoevsky
    rebecca - daphne du maurier
    carrie - stephen king
    being lolita - alisson wood
    unlikeable female characters - anna bogutskaya
    :)

    • @experiongallup
      @experiongallup Год назад

      For # 6 check out Morvern Callar by Alan Warner.

    • @kayacarmen
      @kayacarmen Год назад

      ​@@experiongallup sounds like exactly my kind of thing lol thanks! i'll definitely read it

  • @southernbiscuits1275
    @southernbiscuits1275 Год назад +2

    I've read Wise Blood a couple Of times, seen the film twice and watched the Yale lecturer discuss the book. O'Connor is one of my favorite authors. You read her and almost wonder if she's pulling your leg. If I remember correctly, she even wrote a short story where one of the characters stole another character's artificial leg after they had sex in a barn. I could be mistaken but that's how I remember it.

    • @lcee4251
      @lcee4251 Год назад

      It’s in ‘a good man is hard to find’

    • @salamantitus7331
      @salamantitus7331 Год назад

      @@lcee4251 No, it's a novel.