If you’re anything like me, you probably read a lot of books and forget a lot about them as well after reading them (also see: being ADHD)
Is there one specific book whose plot, characters, setting you just can’t get out of your mind and still think about today even when in the midst of another book?
For me, it’s 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I think due to the sheer volume of this book (clocked in over 1000 pages) I was so invested in Tengo and Aomame’s stories that it’s quite impossible to forget them quickly. This is also why I prefer long novels, because they stick around in my memory for longer!
So what book is still stuck with you?
Blood meridian has made it hard for me. Every other book I read I compare to it in terms of scope, concept, description and prose.
Still reading, but it feels different now.
I still bring up this book whenever someone asks about good books I’ve read. I’d heard people talk about it for a while, wondering if it was worth the hype.
The Judge’s introduction and basically every scene with him had me on edge the entire time. And it never lets up, even at the end!
Definitely worth the hype. Worth it for the prose alone, but the fact that it’s based on facts elevates it even more. When I found out Glanton was real and that the Judge probably was too, it blew my mind.
The prose is horrible. I hate that CM doesn’t use punctuation. It’s like eating a meal with no utensils. Look up what james ellroy said about him. It’s hilarious. People only read CM because they think they have to.
Read this twice this year because it’s so good. I think it’s depiction and questioning how of the endless cycles of human violence begin and continue is especially relevant for current events as well.
I read the Road right after Blood Meridian this year and was astonished how short the Road felt.
I feel like blood meridian just had more distinct “chapters”. Like it was broken up a little more into distinct parts whereas the road just kept trucking along. Making it feel shorter because it was just more lengthy drawn out take as opposed to being broken up.
I went from Blood Meridian to Lonesome Dove. It was an interesting combination.
I finally read it this year, and couldn’t agree more. It’s a book that’s so good it makes other books seem worse in comparison, and it doesn’t inspire you so much as it haunts you.
Once you read Cormac you’re never able to look at writing the same way.
Seriously. Never. No one comes close to me.
I read the road first. What a harrowing tale. As a father of two young boys it I was fucking wrecked.
A book has never made me cry as hard as that story did.