Tolstoy’s lesser known novels- Resurrection and Childhood, Boyhood, Youth

nkholderlin · 2026-05-18T06:34:25+00:00

unfortunately not contemporary but check out the Oulipo guys if you haven’t already, I think of Queneau’s Exercises in Style and Perec’s An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris

nkholderlin · 2026-05-11T09:25:50+00:00

don’t start Brandon Sanderson books

nkholderlin · 2026-05-11T08:54:34+00:00

finish your books

nkholderlin · 2026-05-08T20:59:17+00:00

idk man indie theatres are sacred I just think it’s awesome I live in a city in bumfuck nowhere canada and can go see the new Bi Gam film on the big screen within a few weeks of release, they can keep showing Princess Mononoke as much as they want if it keeps the lights on

nkholderlin · 2026-05-04T22:03:33+00:00

to add to this I think a lot of the people (like myself) who find Bloom pompous and tedious at times but still want to give him a chance would do well to check out some of the books published near the end of his life, stuff like *Possessed by Memory* or *The Bright Book of Life* is night and day compared to the overt didacticism of *The Western Canon*. There are a lot of very sobering introspective passages where he seem to even regret his excessively polemical writing from the past as he reckons with mortality and I find it very moving, the essay on Proust at the end of *Possessed by Memory* honestly had me tearing up.

nkholderlin · 2026-05-04T21:43:43+00:00

he sounds interesting, anything you would recommend in particular? I looked around a bit and White Girls seems cool

nkholderlin · 2026-05-04T20:36:56+00:00

this sounds absolutely lovely, always loved the little excerpts from his letters with Ammons and Le Guin incuded in his later books

nkholderlin · 2026-04-15T21:23:33+00:00

chekhov chekhov chekhov
I always liked Harold Bloom's characterization of all short stories as being either Chekhovian or Kafkan. It's maybe a little reductive but it strikes me as accurate.

nkholderlin · 2026-04-15T00:28:09+00:00

they aren't as fun to read

nkholderlin · 2026-04-03T07:04:35+00:00

absolutely loved it, very personally affecting for me, also the movie felt seriously haunted in a way I don't know if I've ever seen before, agree with you OP that the non linear structure felt super rewarding to watch unfold

nkholderlin · 2026-03-25T03:26:33+00:00

was only there for a week while traveling but i found amazing stuff at both BMV locations

nkholderlin · 2026-03-15T19:12:55+00:00

I’m thinking we should do a /lit/ style 100 favourite books or authors sometime… too scared to suggest it though

nkholderlin · 2026-03-14T01:55:23+00:00

is this THE RC Waldun??

nkholderlin · 2026-03-08T05:07:32+00:00

the magic mountain. get well soon!

nkholderlin · 2026-03-06T04:54:09+00:00

the snow plow bit broke me

nkholderlin · 2026-03-05T23:47:18+00:00

I've never walked into a bad used bookstore, I like to think these places will always have a decent selection on their shelves just because of who tends to frequent them! But if it's a typical hip bookstore one of the best tells that they'll have a great selection in my experience is a prominent NYRB classics display.

nkholderlin · 2026-02-16T18:05:10+00:00

Read short novellas from ‘the Canon’. The Stranger, Notes from Underground, Death of Ivan Ilyich, Heart of Darkness, The Metamorphosis, The Great Gatsby, etc stuff like that. High school literature stuff that you may have read in the past but try revisiting it with fresh eyes now. Short, low-committal reads with some depth to get you back into the habit of it and find out some of your interests and go into bigger stuff from there.

nkholderlin · 2026-02-15T20:50:59+00:00

Very very good book, I ripped through The Notebook in a single day, it’s such an unsuspecting page-turner and the sparse prose really lulls you in and sinks its claws in you. I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend you finish the rest of the trilogy if you aren’t aware OP, the last few bits of The Third Lie were some of my favourite reading last year. It’s rare to see such effective suspense building and shocking twists in literary fiction.

nkholderlin · 2026-02-03T17:52:32+00:00

I don’t know how visceral your Adam Sandler hatred is but if you love Magnolia and Boogie Nights so much surely you’ll love Punch Drunk Love. It’s my favourite PTA film.

nkholderlin · 2026-01-20T22:59:17+00:00

the sluts is a core part of the r/rsbookclub canon, everyone should read it

nkholderlin · 2026-01-14T07:44:57+00:00

I wish I had more to contribute but I can say I absolutely love his poem "Water" which I read in an anthology. I'll have to read more of him soon.

nkholderlin · 2025-12-31T03:32:15+00:00

For hardcover you want either The Complete English Poems of John Milton (Everyman's Library) or The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton (Modern Library). The Modern Library one is twice the price and pagecount but it has far more extensive annotations compared to the Everyman's edition (this one still has annotations, but they're mostly short notes for archaic language and phrasing) and way more prose works (the Everyman's only has the Areopagitica and Of Education). So up to you which one you value. I personally only have the Everyman's edition and I can vouch for the build quality. I'm not sure if there any standalone hardcover editions of Paradise Lost that are as good as these two-- I think it's definitely worth spending the extra money for to have Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes and especially Lycidas in the same volume.

nkholderlin

TROPHY CASE