My 5 Favorite Books I Read in 2023 (Patron-Only Early Access / Ad-Free)

Almost all of your books here i want to get, i love the John Huston film of Wise Blood, Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes is pretty memorable, but the novel must be so much more dynamite!! Found a dollar e edition of it, let the being floored begin!!!

The Snow Ghost & Other tales Lafcadio Hearn. His translation of tales from the Japanese Kwaidan

I finished 45 books in 2023. My favs were Train Dreams + Angels by Denis Johnson Ada or Ardor by Nabokov The Years by Annie Ernaux The Crossing by Cormac Omensetter's Luck by William H. Gass Some honorable mentions: Under the Volcano, The End of Vandalism, 'Good Morning, Midnight', The MANIAC, and Malina Best rereads: Gravity's Rainbow, Blood Meridian, Jesus' Son, The Sun Also Rises

Really enjoyed the video! My top 5 are: 1. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (I found it breathtaking) 2. If On A Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino 3. Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow 4. Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz 5. Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (because of course) Honorable Mentions for Body by Harry Crews and for The Widow Ching-Pirate by Borges, a mesmerizing short story that packs a punch so hard it feels like a cannonball to your imagination

I finished 60 books last year but these were probably my favorite: * The Stronghold (New Translation of The Tartar Steppe) -- Dino Buzzati * The Quiet American -- Graham Greene * The Woman in the Dunes -- Kobo Abe * Junky -- William S Burroughs * The Glamour -- Christopher Priest Honorable Mention for Song of Kali by Dan Simmons as the most memorable/fucked up book I read

My top 5 1. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut 2. L'étranger - Albert Camus 3. The Antichrist - Friedrich Nietzsche 4. Dubliners - James Joyce 5. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Caitlin Doughty Honorable Mentions (including essays, poems and tales) 1. Heaven and Hell - Aldous Huxley 2. Hills Like White Elephants - Ernest Hemingway 3. São Bernardo - Graciliano Ramos 4. Ghosts - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 5. Régals - Paul Verlaine

Fiction: 1. A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter 2. The Education of the Stoic - Fernando Pessoa 3. Underworld - Don DeLillo 4. The Book of Monelle - Marcel Schwob 5. Solenoid - Mircea Cartarescu Honorable Mentions: The Little Girl who was too Fond of Matches - Gaetan Soucy The Rest is Slander - Thomas Bernhard The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa (re-skimming of the New Directions edition. I think I prefer the Penguin edition by Zenith) Non-Fiction: 1. The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan 2. From Signal to Symbol - Ronald Planer & Kim Sterelny 3. The Stammering Century - Gilbert Seldes 4. The Language Game - Morten Christiansen & Nick Chater

Cheers Cliff, top shelf list as always. My top 5 1. Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo (reread but too good not to mention) 2. Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M Coetzee 3. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett 4. What Narcissism Means To Me by Tony Hoagland 5. The Houseguest and other stories by Amparo Davila Honourable mentions: The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away by Richard Brautigan Fires by Raymond Carver The Third Man and other stories by Graham Greene

Thank you for the excellent selections, Cliff. Here’s my top 5 new reads from 2023. 1. Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux 2. The Passenger & Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy 3. A Man’s Place by Annie Ernaux 4. Stoner by John Edward Williams 5. Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynn Honorable Mentions: A. Philosophy in the Bedroom by Marquis de Sade B. Happening by Annie Ernaux C. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson D. Twilight of the Idols by Friedrich Nietzsche E. Foundations of Arithmetic by Gottlob Frege Best rereads: Collected Short Stories of Anton Chekhov, Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert, Tears and Saints by Emil Cioran.

Thanks Cliff, great selections. In terms of my favourite reads of 2023, they were: 1. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. 2. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. 3. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. 4. The Son by Philip Meyer. 5. Unfinished Business by Michael Bracewell. Honourable mentions go to; Empire of the Summer Moon, The Maniac, Fire Weather, Gilead and Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir.