The Books/Reading Thread

I really want to get that Penguin edition of Ligotti's first two story collections, but since I'm low on cash and already have the The Nightmare Factory (1996) I can't really justify getting it at the moment ... but I love that cover artwork. And TNF omits "Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story" and "Professor Nobody's Little Lectures on Supernatural Horror".

I'm pretty impressed with the Penguin edition. The intro by Jeff Vandermeer is good. Plus, my copy of TNF is beat up to hell
 
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I took up Steppenwolf by Hesse.
This is an amazing book - great choice. I don't remember it being particularly difficult to read though, certainly not like Marquez for instance.

'Steppenwolf' by Hesse and 'The Master and Margerita' by Bulgakov were real life shaping experiences. That German/Russian perspective and imagination is so exciting and mindfucking. If you haven't read 'The Master and Margarita' can I implore you to get on to that at some stage. Just trust me on this.
 
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The Master and Margerita is a fun read, so I'll second that rec. It's not particularly difficult, but it's strange. I should pick up some Hesse at some point. I've read a good number of his anti-war essays, so it would make sense to familiarize myself with what he was actually known for.
 
This is an amazing book - great choice. I don't remember it being particularly difficult to read though, certainly not like Marquez for instance.

'Steppenwolf' by Hesse and 'The Master and Margerita' by Bulgakov were real life shaping experiences. That German/Russian perspective and imagination is so exciting and mindfucking. If you haven't read 'The Master and Margarita' can I implore you to get on to that at some stage. Just trust me on this.

I finished reading Steppenwolf yesterday and I feel swept away. What a great book that was. It was surreal at some point but I loved it. The real mindfuck appears when you realize that perhaps Hermine didn't really exist but was Haller's another part, some kind of mirror. The quotes from Steppenwolf are especially engraved in my memory now.

I'm still waiting for my copy of Siddhartha which I ordered on 12th December. I'm waiting patiently as I know that it's being delivered for very long time because of Christmas.
 
Sticking with my mystery fiction, I finished 3 books in the Lorna Barrett "cozy" mystery series: Murder on the Half Shelf, Not The Killing Type and Book Clubbed.

By the way, my 3rd annual list of my 10 favorite mystery/thrillers of the year will be posted online soon. I'll link it here when it does go up, in case anyone is interested.
 
Bought this off Amazon:

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Looking forward to cracking this open soon
 
Sticking with my mystery fiction, I finished 3 books in the Lorna Barrett "cozy" mystery series: Murder on the Half Shelf, Not The Killing Type and Book Clubbed.

By the way, my 3rd annual list of my 10 favorite mystery/thrillers of the year will be posted online soon. I'll link it here when it does go up, in case anyone is interested.

Have you read Picnic At Hanging Rock by chance?
 
After reading William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy and Burning Chrome collection several times I'm finally moving on to Virtual Light. Is post 80s Gibson any good?
 
Faulkner is one of my favorite authors. Be aware though, his books are often very dense and tough to get through. If you can tackle James Joyce or Cormac McCarthy, you should be good. I recommend starting with As I Lay Dying. It introduces the Compson family, which show up a lot in his novels, and the Yoknapathawjsdjsdj (can't be arsed to spell it correctly) county. It's also one of the more easy to follow books. The Sound & The Fury is a good follow up. Absalom! Absalom! is my favorite and is just fucking epic. The Snopes trilogy is pretty easy to read but can be a bit dry and boring at time. It was written over the course of 30 years or so.

His short stories are also definitely worth reading. "A Rose for Emily" is nothing short of a classic
 
Thanks for recommendations! I got to know of him exactly because of Absalom! Absalom! as this book was included in some kind of a collection which was put out by a newspaper in my country, and that collection was named XX Century Literature Canon.

I'll start with As I Lay Dying in accordance with you. What about Light in August?
 
A Light in August is a great place to start since it doesn't have quite the huge cast of characters some of his other novels do. It's also a good intro into some of the themes which appear frequently throughout his books
 
Okay, thanks then. We'll see how Faulkner appeals to me. I've read that he used great numbers of narrators in his novels as well as stream of consciousness narration which I'm really fond of.
 
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