TBR 2024 (Patron-Only)

TBR 2024 Cavalier and Clay Yiddish Policeman’s Union The Fisherman Butchers Crossing A Moveable Feast The Shards Some Calvino Ode to Catalonia

Finished reading the golden pavilion (thank you for the video). My next book on my list is to read Sound of Waves by Mishima and Bronze Age Mindset; it's these dam law books that are stopping me from reading 50 pages a day. Btw KJV may be a bit dated (unless youre going for the more poetic english version); NET/NASB are great choices

It took me a few days to get to this but I was very pleased and a little nervous to see The Glamour on your TBR. I hope you end up enjoying it. Priest does not get discussed enough and he's still writing into his 80s now. Sort of like Ballard, he's too speculative for some lit fic readers but not speculative enough for some science fiction readers, so he falls into that hazy middle. I do think Christopher Nolan had to have this book in mind at least thematically when he made Memento, and of course he would go on to film an adaptation of The Prestige, which is probably Priest's most well known work. When I initially finished it, I thought it was one of the best books I had ever read, at least from an entertaining, page-turner standpoint. Over the past few months the "glamour" has worn off a tad but I still think it's a good read, particularly as a palate cleanser between some heavier books. And yeah, this Florida weather has been wild recently. Hope it settles down and hope to see you soon.

Thanks for this great 2024 list, Clifford. I’ll look forward to your thoughts and guidance on Magic Mountain. Have a copy on my bookshelf, but haven’t ventured yet. A few from my list for 2024 are… My Struggle Book 4, Karl Ove Knausgaard. Currently reading this one. Really like it! The Collected Stories, Ernest Hemingway Other Voices, Other Rooms, Truman Capote (re-read). Best to you and the show!! Rob B

Great TBR 2024 list, and very international. Literature is a global monster! For me "The Magic Mountain" was one of my fundamental reading experiences decades ago. I had the privilege to read it in its original langage (German). On my TBR list this year (have titles translated where necessary): Master of Dawn (Malte Herwig), Miami Punk (Juan S. Guse), Cafè of drunken Philosophers (Wolfgang Martynkewicz), Wolf Hall (Hillary Mantel), Spitzweg (Eckhart Nickel), Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen), The Secret Luck (Arno Geiger), Masters of Survival (Hans Magnus Enzensberger), Strange Matter (Terezia Mora), Pandora's Box (Jörn Leonard). And if there is some time left, as a bonus: Dark Mirror and Philosophy, edited by David Kyle Johnson. This book matches philosophical insights and speculations to each of the episodes of this most dystopian series, created by Charlie Booker. If you haven't seen this, put this on your list. It's really dark stuff.

Loved Sexual Personae but it took me awhile because I had to go and read or become familiar with the references she uses. Notably, Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography (wonderful) and Dickenson's poetry (needed refresh) and etc. Very important work. Also, I can read her but hearing her speak is exhausting.

Several titles on my TBR list are thanks to Better Than Food. At the moment my stack includes. currently reading: Stoner John Williams Collected Fictions Jorge Luis Borges (I’ve been reading this slowly over the last year, savoring a story or two at a time) The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa René's Flesh Virgilio Piñera Tess of the d’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy Sanctuary William Faulker Justine Marquis De Sade News from Nowhere William Morris Short Stories of Anton Chekhov Disagreeable Tales Léon Bloy (won in a Better Than Food patron drawing, I still need to read it) I’ll probably get a few Jim Thompson and James Lee Burke novels in there somewhere too

What a dangerous video to watch when your tbr pile is already 2 years long… 😅 Great list of books! Specially happy that Graciliano Ramos is in there ❤️ Barren Lives is one of the mandatory books you have to read in schools in Brazil :) So sad to hear that Brothers Karamazov got kicked out for last year 🤣 it’s my favorite book! But Magic Mountain sounds great. Maybe that will be the motivation I need to finally get into Mann… Have a great year, Cliff!

look into the everymans bible, has everything you are looking for

My main goals this year are to finish up Knausgaard's My Struggle (Book 6), Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet (Book 4), a few Vonneguts (I'm trying to complete his oeuvre), Proust's Within a Budding Grove and a book of Borges non-fiction. And, of course, I will allow myself to be carried away by my whims and also by the recommendations of people I trust, such as yourself:) Right now, I'm reading Kapo by Alexander Tishma. Excellent. Brutal. Recently, I've been absorbed by books published by The New York Review of Books. There are many on their list that I'd never even heard of before, and the ones that I've tried have been excellent. Keep up the great work, and Happy New Year. (P.S. Moby-Dick is one of my favorites. It's one of the few classics that I've actually re-read)

The Snow Ghost and other tales. From the Japanese Kwaidan translated by Lafcadio Hearn. Wolves of Eternity , Carl Ove Knausgaard. The Wizard of Earthsea First Book Ursula K Le Guin. Looking forward to your Cesar Aria review. Knausgaard for a time was on the advisory panel translating the Bible into Norwegian .

I hope you like negative space. The author based his first 2 books off the Bataille ideas, hence why I thought you would like it. Hopefully it lives up to what think it.

Love the idea of the chapters/read-along videos. Your list looks great. I'm plotting out some titles to read this year. I'm really looking to get to a few in particular but otherwise going to "mood read" this year and follow my mood. Right now I'm on Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetralogy and about to start the final book Decay of the Angel. Absolutely his masterpiece. The ones I have plotted out are: Septology by Jon Fosse Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry The Ice-Shirt by William T. Vollman Stars in My Pockets like Grains of Sand by Delany The Wanderer by Knut Hamsun The Last Gentleman by Walker Percy Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa Beautiful Star by Yukio Mishima I'm also planning on re-reading The Magus as it has been about 10 years. I sent you your copy a few years back. Glad to see it on the TBR! Cheers man

Der Leibeigene by Josef Winkler

Great video! It seems like every year passes and I also keep putting off Moby-Dick and Don Quixote. Maybe this will be the year… I read that Mishima last year and adored it. This year I have tentative plans to read the last 2 books in his Sea of Fertility series. My TBR is much more tentative this year as I’m hoping to get some books I own but haven’t read yet, including: Nabokov’s Pale Fire, Borges’ Collected Fictions, Proust’s Swann’s Way, and the big one, Pynchon’s Against the Day. A good list, but also a daunting one. I just finished Stoner by John Williams and would very much like to get to Butcher’s Crossing soon as well. There’s always Shakespeare, and always room for more poetry as well. All this might fall by the wayside in pursuit of other passions. Last year I didn’t watch nearly as many films as I’d like to. I’d like to complete watching all of Kurosawa’s filmography soon, as well as Fellini’s. As always, we will see what happens.

I've watched the whole Against the Day review by Chris. Took me about three weeks to finish but I think it was great. I loved the book and I was really interested in his thoughts.

Awesome as usual, Cliff. I love the idea of the quarterly reports and specially love the idea of the book club/sequential reviews. There’s definitely some material that lends itself a lot better to that format. I rarely make reading plans because I rarely follow them. I just let myself get carried by my whims, albeit often guided by your reviews and a couple other people’s. That said, there’s a handful of books I really want to get to: Ever since I read Adam Levin’s the Instructions, all about a jewish kid with a propensity to violence who believes he might be the messiah and forms something between a cult and a gang around him, I can’t stop thinking about it. So barring a reread I’d love to get to either of the author’s other works. The way you described Mishima’s Sailor actually kind of reminded me of the Instructions. Speaking of Mishima, Kyoko’s House got a spanish translation last year and it’s been beckoning to me for a while now. I’m excited to get to it as it sounds like it gets to the core of what Mishima is all about even though it wasn’t Schrader’s first choice for his movie. Recently new translations of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov by Michael Katz were released and I’m excited to read them because it seems like they solve long standing issues particularly with the Pevear and Volokhonsky translations which I believe was the one you read. If you plan on tackling the Brothers it might be worth checking out this new translation. Thanks for the the video and all the new recommendations. And all the best for this year.

I already finished a short one on Julian the Apostate, Luis de Camoes's The Lusiads and DeLillo's Falling Man. Reading Roussel's Locus Solus. Hoping to get through: Septology by Fosse The Moviegoer by Percy The Immaculate Conception by Soucy The Riddle of the Rosetta by Buchwald The Last Samurai by DeWitt Libra by DeLillo Metaphors We Live By by Lakoff The Silent Cry by Oe Them by Ronson Light Years by Salter Nights of Plague by Pamuk Gathering Evidence by Bernhard Inconceivable by Elton

Hi Cliff I hope you are well. Thank you for the video and that list of books for 2024. In terms of my reading for 2024 I have already kicked things off with a couple of novels, one dealing with aging and memory,  namely Barbara Pym's novel from 1977 Quartet in Autumn. The other, from 1983,  a novel about madness and murder in the Norfolk Fens, Graham Swift's Waterland. Both in their unique ways dealing with the idea of 'Britishness'. Otherwise I am going to tackle the first two volumes of Karl Ove Knausgaard's new series; A Morning Star and The Wolves of Eternity. Hopefully I will finish them in time for volume 3, The Third Realm, which I understand will be published here in the UK in October. Mishima is on my To Read pile along with J G Ballard (The Atrocity Exhibition, Hello America, Miracles of Life and Millenium People), Delillo, Dickens, Dostoevsky, The Leopard and various diaries and letters (Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson and Oscar Wilde). I am also looking forward to reading this year Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor by Roger Lewis. And last but not least I may give Ulysses by James Joyce a shot this year. I hope you enjoy Homage to Catalonia. One of my favourites. As perhaps some useful background material, I would recommend watching the British feature film Land of Freedom (1995). Mentioning the Spanish Civil War, bit of rock music trivia, the Manic Street Preachers 1998 no.1 UK hit song 'If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next' was inspired by the Spanish Civil War.

Homage to Catalunya is a very dear book to me, I read it back when I was 18 and really goin' through it, and it really gave me this warm feeling of clarity and a sense of humour about the most abysmal of events that I really needed to feel -- loved it, and I think it's due a reread Great video, as per, really enjoyed it! And I think the Sexual Personae group read would be fun and interesting. Like everyone I'm sure, there's so many books I want to get through, but my top 5 on my tbr are The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Saramago, An Invincible Memory by João Ubaldo Ribeiro, An Ermine in Czernopol by von Rezzori, Moby Dick, and At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien Glad you're feeling better, and have a nicely caffeinated day :)

Can’t wait to see a review of Moby-Dick, one of my all-time favourite 🐳🖤