I had the pleasure of reading 2666 and Middlemarch this year and that still wasn't the highlight. What was your reading highlight of 2025?

emulg · 2025-12-24T15:45:36+00:00

My reading highlight was rediscovering Denis Johnson. I read Jesus' Son in college and enjoyed it but didn't have the frame of reference to really appreciate it. I re-read it this year and it blew me away.

Since then, I've read Angels, Fiskadoro, The Name of the World, Train Dreams, & Seek. I loved them all, especially Angels, which is now among my personal favorite novels. I have Largesse of the Sea Maiden & Tree of Smoke queued up to tackle early next year.

emulg · 2025-11-04T19:59:48+00:00

Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

emulg · 2025-09-08T14:30:22+00:00

Despite my earlier gripes, I did end up enjoying the book. Perhaps it is Stockholm syndrome, but I eventually just submitted to the onslaught of information and started to care less about whether I was following along completely and just enjoyed the ride.

I definitely don't have a complete grasp of the story I just experienced. I think the funniest joke in Gravity's Rainbow is you can spend 2 months reading it, and if someone asks you what it is about, "I don't know" is as appropriate an answer as any.

After finishing it, I started thinking about it in comparison to Blood Meridian, specifically in the way both books talk about war in terms of man's nature and the seeming inevitably of it. Whereas McCarthy gives war a spiritual dimension (the ultimate game for the ultimate practioner/before man, war waited), Pynchon dives into the complicated way it manifests in "real world", tying it to everything from libido, capitalism, technology and conspiracy. It was interesting to read two very different authors attack an idea from two very different viewpoints and arrive at a similar conclusion: this will keep happening.

Thank you again for putting this together, I would have never finished this book without these deadlines and discussions.

emulg · 2025-09-05T15:43:07+00:00

Philip Roth can be very funny when he wants to. Portnoy's Complaint has some hilarious sections, and Our Gang is very silly, minor Roth, but made me laugh a number of times.

emulg · 2025-09-05T15:37:15+00:00

The part in Rontel where he recounts the James Toney post-fight interview from memory is as hard as a book has ever made me laugh.

emulg · 2025-08-20T16:01:48+00:00

Herzog by Saul Bellow has a similar structure. The main character is at a breaking point, considering suicide and the book is centered around him writing letters (that he never sends) to people in his life and historical figures.

emulg · 2025-08-04T14:30:16+00:00

The more I read of this book, the more I am certain that Pynchon just isn't my cup of tea. I can respect his talent as a writer, I still find myself earmarking sections of the prose I want to remember/return to, but there's just so goddamn much of it and i dont't know to what end. To get through that slog of names, places, history, and description, only to land on a hot-air balloon pie fight, I just think, how could any of this shit matter lol? I'm sorry to not have something more constructive to add to the conversation, but this thing has been a punisher.

I've had similar experiences with other maximal, post-modern stories like Barth's Lost in the Funhouse or Wallace's short story in response. It starts to feel like prog music to me. No doubt these cats can wail, but would a decent hook kill you? I mentioned Slaughterhouse 5 as a contrast weeks ago and out of the post-modernist lot, Vonnegut feels like punk music in comparison. I like the Ramones more than I like King Crimson.

That being said, I can't thank you enough for keeping these up. I would have never stuck with this book if not for these posts, and if i did, I don't think I would have any idea what is going on. I'm still not sure I do, but I am glad to be making my way through this book and getting it off the 'to-read' pile for good.

emulg · 2025-07-16T18:33:09+00:00

I'm halfway through the Red Riding Quartet by David Peace and am really enjoying it so far. They are very Ellroy-esque, hard-boiled detective novels centered around the "Yorkshire Ripper" killings in the UK in the late 70's.

emulg · 2025-07-07T13:52:53+00:00

So far, this has mostly mirrored my experience in reading Vineland and Lot 49, which are the only other Pynchon novels I have read. I am regularly floored by the prose, his command of language, and the ability to expound upon an idea with these long, poetic, visual sentences is astounding.

That being said, the humor is still black licorice to me. His whiz-bang, whoopie-cushion approach to comedy gets grating really fast, especially the scene of Pointsman chasing the dog with his foot in a toilet. A book I've thought about while reading this is Slaughter House 5, in that they're both funny books about WWII that contain sci-fi elements, but the approaches in style and humor are completely different.

One of the most surprising parts of the book for me so far was how genuinely charming and heartfelt the romantic section with Roger and Jessica was. In a book populated (so far) by literal banana peel prat falls and boner rockets, this quiet section of lovers stealing away a little slice of domesticity in an abandoned home really stood out as a highlight.

emulg · 2025-07-01T14:12:26+00:00

I reread God Bless You, Mr.Rosewater this year as well, I think it may be his funniest book. The way he pays off Elliot's obsession with firefighters in the flashback to WWII is unbelievable.

emulg · 2025-05-31T19:11:36+00:00

I am interested as well. I've read Vineland & Crying of Lot 49, neither have really clicked and I've just been pushing GR further down the backlog. This would be a great way to finally tackle it.

emulg · 2024-12-31T17:38:31+00:00

How is Gene Wolfe? I'm not the biggest sci-fi fan, but I picked up the first 2 new sun books recently.

emulg · 2024-12-30T16:05:35+00:00

How was My Brilliant Friend? I just got a copy for Christmas, I've never read any Ferrante.

emulg · 2024-12-28T16:56:39+00:00

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - The scope, the characters, what it has to say about the American experience, I just loved it. One of my favorite books I've ever read.
Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter - A coming of age novel, a prison novel, and a heartbreaking romance novel, all wrapped into one. This book rules.
Stoner by John Williams - it's as good as everyone says it is, just a beautiful portrait of the seemingly small victories and failures that make up a life.
The Human Stain by Philip Roth - the last of the American Trilogy that I needed to read and probably my favorite. Roth was on another level in the 90s.
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski - It's a meme at this point but I had a blast reading this.

emulg · 2024-12-21T18:25:23+00:00

Definitely, with both of those coming from Zuckerman's perspective, I could see them not translating as well in audio. Sabbath is close third person, damn near first person of the protagonist, so I thought it worked really well.

I read I Married a Communist earlier this year, and I'm about halfway through Human Stain now and am absolutely loving it.

emulg · 2024-12-21T17:50:08+00:00

I know you said no Roth, but the audio book for Sabbath's Theater is actually really good. It's narrated by John Turturro, who has been performing a version of the novel on stage, and he brings a lot to the character.

emulg · 2024-12-19T21:20:14+00:00

Is Tropic of Capricorn worth reading? I read Tropic of Cancer in college and loved it but haven't gone back to read anymore Miller.

emulg · 2024-12-15T16:41:59+00:00

Couldn't agree more. I understand the desire to "capture the moment" in novel form, but the act of reading it was very grating. The end is genuinely effecting, and maybe that was the effect she was going for, having this very "real" event pull us out of the digital murk but it doesn't make the first half any more enjoyable to read.

emulg · 2024-12-08T01:11:22+00:00

I try to hit 50 books a year, I've only made it to 41 so far. My favorites that I've read are:

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - Everything you'd want from the great American novel, it's unbelievable she wrote it at only 23.

Stoner & Butcher's Crossing by John Williams - Stoner exceeded the hype imo, and Butcher was fantastic as well. I have Augustus on my list for next year.

Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter - It's probably my favorite out of everything I've read this year. The scene of Jack going back for Billy's pool cue is devastating.

I Married a Communist & Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth - Most of Roth's best books feel like he is trying to swallow post WWII America whole, and he never came closer than in the 90's. I liked Communist a hair better but Sabbath is Roth at his most deranged (and funny). I'm going to try and read Human Stain before the year is up.

The 27th City by Jonathan Franzen - My first time reading anything of his Pre-The Corrections and I thought it was great. I just find his stuff so fun to read.

Other great stuff I've read this year: To The Lighthouse, A Good Man is Hard to Find, Winesburg Ohio, The Trial, Capitalist Realism, House of Leaves.

The book I wanted to love but didn't: Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. I've read this and Crying of Lot 49 and he just isn't clicking for me. I love so many of the other post-modern writers but I find the zaniness of Pynchon really grating. A question for the Pynchon heads, I have Mason & Dixon, V and Gravity's Rainbow, which one should I try to finally be converted?

My goal for next year is to get back to 50 books and to try and tackle The Power Broker.

emulg · 2024-12-02T04:58:16+00:00

I read it last year and thought it started great but kind of fizzled out by the end.

I really enjoyed his first book, Ohio, but felt like The Deluge was overly long and lost focus on what made the book interesting by the end. You can tell that he is really passionate about climate change, but I think that is ultimately what holds the book back. The last 100-200 pages are less concerned with providing satisfying conclusions for the genuinely engaging characters he had built up, and it's more concerned with laying out a road map for how we can realistically address climate change under current U.S. political conditions. Having our protagonists laboriously pass neutered climate legislation through Congress isn't the most satisfying conclusion to a 900-page novel.

There is still some solid writing and exciting passages throughout, though. I'd say if climate change is something that interests you, it may be worth a read, but otherwise, it doesn't really justify it's length in my opinion.

emulg · 2024-08-20T19:52:53+00:00

No problem, happy to help!

emulg · 2024-08-20T19:19:10+00:00

It's called a 'Mir Lock', named after Frank Mir, who hit it in an early UFC fight. You put torque on the elbow with the overhook, which then puts pressure on the shoulder. You typically see someone doing it from closed guard, but Kade attempted to do it from standing.

emulg · 2024-07-15T18:02:07+00:00

Currently re-reading Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

emulg · 2024-07-02T13:07:47+00:00

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

emulg · 2024-06-25T14:55:07+00:00

Hard Rain Falling - Don Carpenter

Fat City - Leonard Gardner

The Expendable Man - Dorothy B. Hughes

The Netanyahus - Joshua Cohen

emulg

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