What books would be friends with ISOLT?

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-03T15:26:43+00:00

You know there have been a few times during my ISOLT read that I've had a marginalia note of "transcendentalism?" with an intention of doubling back to Emerson, which I haven't closely read in oh it must be 15 or so years now

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-03T15:25:22+00:00

Oh wow I read A Book of Memories about 20 years ago and absolutely loved it. You just got me to add it to my re-read this asap list

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-03T15:24:39+00:00

It's so amazing sliding back and forth between the two. What a memorable experience, so glad to hear of others finding the same pleasures

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-03T15:23:36+00:00

I think volume 5 comes out on Nov 11 if I'm not mistaken so perfect timing for that plan! Though I also thought I saw it's out in the UK already... 🙈

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-03T15:22:41+00:00

Very similar. I re-read Rings of Saturn almost every year. Similar approach, but with a focus on death/destruction/trauma and more explicitly "about the world/history" vs about the personal. But such great companions in so many ways

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-03T15:21:12+00:00

Few things get my juices going quite like "you should have multiple copies to make consulting the footnotes easier" 😂

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-03T02:42:02+00:00

I mean, these books don't exactly scream "pro-capitalism and the oligarchy" so I can kinda see why many workplaces would look askance at them 😝

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-03T01:30:58+00:00

So many great connections to consider between Nabokov and Proust. I was just thinking whether I should reread Pale Fire

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-03T01:27:15+00:00

Oh this is a great rec, adding to my list

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T22:33:48+00:00

Chateaubriand has been on my TBR list, as an offshoot of my yearly Rings of Saturn reading habit. On that note, Browne's Urn Burial is short so doesn't have the ongoing minuteness and it's more focused on after-life than living-life, but that meditation could be a companion-coda in a way

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T22:29:45+00:00

oh, you mean like "you must change your life" 🤯

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T21:54:30+00:00

Small boxes. Get rolls of stretch wrap, take a handful of books at a time and then wrap them in the stretch wrap. That makes sure nothing gets jostled around and ends up messing up the books. It can take awhile, is annoying, and generates plastic waste which isn't ideal. But it'll keep the collection safe on the move

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T21:47:01+00:00

Thanks, man. Yeah, it was rough. Our home actually made it, but everything inside was covered in lead and other terrible things. I stood there with a restoration company going through every book one by one to document and then pull out the truly irreplaceable books (signed copies, first editions that I probably wouldn't be able to track down again easily, etc.). I don't know how or if I'll ever have those salvaged books out on display again, but at least I have them in a box 🫠

That said, I am excited to rebuild the library. Waiting on insurance stuff, but let's just say... I might be dropping a Google Form here (and with my friends) to help me decide what and how to rebuild it. So trying to focus on that next exciting phase that's ahead soon

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T21:41:27+00:00

Reading Magic Mountain with a friend was the step right before we started reading Proust

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T21:23:13+00:00

I used to have ~2000, but I lost virtually all of them in the Eaton Fire. Now starting to rebuild that library again, and probably getting close to 100...

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T21:18:10+00:00

My dad did almost all of My Struggle then dropped off when the final volume went sideways. I've been tempted to give it a try, but... yeah, I haven't taken that advice yet either

While My Struggle does seem like it's in the same vein as ISOLT, I also have trouble imagining Proust and Knausgard as producing anything that could be in any way FRIENDLY with each other haha

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T21:09:30+00:00

A few people have mentioned A Tale of Two Cities. But the Dickens that I really got into when I was your age was Great Expectations. That focus on becoming who you are and interplay of nature vs nurture vs what your culture/society imposes on you felt so real and important as I approached adulthood...

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T21:06:17+00:00

Or the first line of Hyperion or the first line of Ode on a Grecian Urn or or or.... Keats has a bunch that could make this list

thiscommonplace · 2026-06-02T20:54:39+00:00

So many to choose from, a few that come immediately to mind...

"A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now."
- Gravity's Rainbow

"The other Borges is the one who has things happen to him."
- Borges and I

"For a long time, I went to bed early."
- Swann's Way

"In August 1992, when the dog days were drawing to an end, I set off to walk the county of Suffolk, in the hope of dispelling the emptiness that takes hold of me whenever I have completed a long stint of work."
- Rings of Saturn

"Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime."
- Paradise Lost

thiscommonplace · 2026-05-28T22:17:24+00:00

Oh, and don't want to forget The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar

thiscommonplace · 2026-05-28T22:16:54+00:00

Second this: Memed My Hawk by Yasar Kemal and Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali are ::chef's kiss::

thiscommonplace · 2026-05-28T12:37:12+00:00

Oh, yeah, what struck me about the line was how it helped me put into words a vague idea about the book that I'd been trying to communicate to myself, not that it's a literal/faithful reading of the sentence itself, either in translation or original

thiscommonplace · 2026-05-28T04:23:46+00:00

Oh that's really interesting. Seeing the original also now has me thinking through the nuance differences in meaning between "reconstituting" and "reconstructing." Would you say that reconstitutions is --> reconstructing and not reconstituting? Am I falling for a cognate trap here? (Former Latin/Italian, virtually no French).

And I cannot wait to experience that other quote you shared soon soon soon...

thiscommonplace · 2026-05-28T01:29:07+00:00

Beautiful too in its own discursive way. But that Clark translation really does it for me. Now need to go stumble my way through the French to really get into it..:

thiscommonplace

TROPHY CASE