I’m currently reading Demian by Hermann Hesse. I’m loving it so far.
For those interested in Neorealist films, I took a class last semester on 20th Century Italian Literature and Film where we focused on films and literature that influenced the neorealist era. Some of the books below (that I enjoyed) have influenced some of those films of those time.
Elio Vittorini – Conversations in Sicily (I’m fascinated with the prose in this book)
Ceasre Pavese – The Moon and the Bonfire
Italo Calvino – Path to the Spiders Nest
Primo Levi – Survival in Auschwitz
Carlo Levi – Christ Stopped at Eboli
Some other authors, poets and philosophers I enjoy: John Stuart Mill (On Liberty), Karl Marx, Frederich Nietzsche, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason), Henrich Heine (The Harz Journey), Wordsworth Longfellow, Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake), Daniel Quinn (Ishmael), Voltaire (Candide), Bronte Sisters and Dostoevsky.
Some other authors I will eventually read: Franz Kafka, Upton Sinclair, Jean Paul Sarte, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Cormac McCarthy, Bertolt Brecht and Hemingway.
My three best friends, all quite similar yet so unique:
Orhan Pamuk: “The New Life”, “The Black Book”, “Snow”, “Istanbul” (I hope no one attempts to adapt any of his novels!)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: “Memories of My Melancholy Whores”, “Love in the Time of Cholera”, “One Hundred Years of Solitude”
Milan Kundera: “The Joke”, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, “Immortality”, “Slowness”, “Ignorance”, “The Curtain”
Currently reading:
Hoffmann’s “The Golden Pot and Other Tales”
I finished Caligula (Albert Camus) yesterday.
I have ordered kangaroo Notebook from my bookstore and they just received it. I’ll go get it today…
Caligula is awesome. What did you think? “Il n’y a qu’une façon de s’égaler aux dieux : il suffit d’être aussi cruel qu’eux.”
Yeah I loved Caligula!
these lists are wonderful to read, so many good leads to follow. Currently some of my favourites are:
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
Great Apes – Will Self
The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch
A Fringe of Leaves – Patrick White
Theft – Peter Carey
Lost Man’s River – Peter Matthiessen
Swimming to Cambodia – Spalding Gray
but I would say ANYTHING by Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Brautigan, Margaret Atwood are books I can come back to again and again – these authors can make me both laugh and think – very important.
Currently I am reading “Polis, polis, potatismos!” – Sjöwall and Wahlöö. I’m a sucker for crime fiction, and theirs is some of the best.
Just finished The Stranger by Camus. Soon I’ll be picking up Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky.
‘Notes from The Underground’ is such an amazing book! I hope you will enjoy it, Alexander.It might actually be my favorite book by Dostoevsky. If you like the book check out Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal’s “Too Loud a Solitude.” The book is very similar in style, mood, and prose. It is also, in my opinion, one of the greatest books for 21th Century…
Thanks for the recommendation, Halim. I will add it to my growing list.
Hey Alexander, I hope you will like the Hrabal book. I feel like if you like the writing style and the themes of Camus, you will definitly enjoy Hrabal’s books…
Olivier Todd’s biography “Albert Camus a Life” is a pretty incredible read, it has some amazing insights into Camus’ working methods – if you’re a Camus fan and are not ‘anti’ artist-biography, then it is worth reading.
double post.
I’ve read “Steps” and “Blind Date” by Jerzy Kosinski. Both books are harrowing psychological sex thrillers that also feel intensely autobiographical. I’m beginning to love this Kosinski cuz he’s such a great author but the more I read the more I can get the idea of why he had no problems “going out” when cancer struck him. He led a very interesting life nonetheless.
Antoine^ Thanks for the suggestion, the biography of Albert Camus sounds very interesting. I will most definitly check it out!
“Auto da Fé” by Elias Canetti is a brilliant read for any bibliophile – it is an absurd epic about literature, obsession and madness.
I’m reading “The Idiot” Dostoievsky
Gabriel^ I have recently read “The Idiot” are you enjoying it? The more I think about that book is actually to more I like it. I sort of want to even re-read, when and if I have the time….
Recently…
Story of an Eye by Georges Bataille (ooo that rhymes)
Anti-Œdipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram
On another note, I would really recommend Cinema 1: The Movement Image and Cinema 2: The Time-Image by Deleuze. Good for philosophy heads and cinephiles, obviously!
Two films I absolutely adore are ‘Billy Liar’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’, but in both cases I actually prefer the books upon which they’re based. Both are cleverly and beautifully written and reading them enhanced my viewing experience of the films no end.
I’m directing a production of the stage version of Billy Liar at the moment and it throws up a real set of problems in translating the spirit of the book into another medium – even more challenging than adapting it for the screen I’d say.
This summer Im reading:
Colette- Duo (the book in which Rossellini found the inspiration for “Viaggio in Italia”)
Eric Rohmer- La maison de Elisabeth (his unique novel)
Gustave Flaubert- Novembre
Arthur Schnitzler- Traumnovelle (the book that inspired Kubrick’s “Eyes wide shut”)
Recently, I have finished Ayn Rand’s “Anthem,” which I did liked a lot… It was a very engaging read, and the ideas behind the book were very thought-provoking.
Now, I am reading Japanese Author Natsuo Kirino’s “The Real World,” which somewhat reads like a very dark version of Bret Easton Ellis’ “Rules of Attraction” blended with “Battle Royale.” The book chronicles a brutal murder mystery from the point-of-view five school students as they try to understand the murder that shook their neighborhood, while also trying to deal with the regular growing-pains of being young and helpless. Even though, I haven’t actually finished the book yet( I have read almost 80% of it), I highly recommend it for anyone searching for an unique voice to read…
Anything by PAUL AUSTER
Paul Auster is really great…I especially really liked his book “Mr. Vertigo”
I recently started reading “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer. I heard so much about the book, but wasn’t very intrigued. Until I have learned that the writer is and lives in a very strict Mormon community and she started writing as a card writer for Hallmark. So, a vampire romance novel written by a Mormon woman that became a New York Times Best Seller? Now, I am interested… I am not quite finished with the book, but it is most definitly very entertaining, very detailed, and also quite dark…It is more in the style of books like ‘Harry Potter’ than Nabokov, yet it is certainly an entertaining summer-read… Though, I am very doubtful how the movie will turn out…It could be possibly a horrible teenager movie…
Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I also read the Da Vinci Code and i must say that it is about a hundred times better than the movie which totally sucked.
Hey Kid Law^ Like you, I was also not particularly interested at the book, thinking it will be just another cliche teenage romance/vampire book. Though, I happen to come across an article about the writer and she really intrigued me as a persona. So I gave it a shot. I also – most of the time – tried to read books that are turning into movies, just get an idea… Like I said, in my previous post, “Twilight” is not a literary gem, but it is certainly entertaining to read…Though, I am not sure I will be reading all the four books of the saga…
I’m surprised that nobody mentioned Philip Roth and Coetzee. Are people not reading them anymore? They are both very movie-like and sarcastic in their imagery.. introspective visuality.. if such a term exists.
My favorites are:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell
The Stranger & The Plague by Albert Camus
Better For All The World: The secret history of forced sterolization and america’s quest for racial purity by Harry Bruinius
Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City by Jennifer Toth
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Hey Flaca, great list! I also like many of the books that you mentioned, including Perks of being a Wallflower, which I highly identified with…
Olivier, Probably
Halim: I finished “The Childhood of a Leader”(from The wall) last week and it is great! The mental progress of the boy is just so well explained… I’ll check for No exit soon…
Now I’m looking for the Kobo Abe novel “kangaroo Notebook” but I didn’t found it in bookstores. I’ll have to order it on web. Someone have already read it?