I write for fun and I have a vocabulary list of words I enjoy coming across while reading. I bet others do something similar.

In my country the bookstores have little notes on them from employees who enjoyed them. When I wander around, I usually check them out, my shopkeepers are good critics.

Sequel to the Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak ? Or a prequel to the 5 People You Meet in Heaven by Albom?

Isn’t Ready Player One a young adult novel ? seems harmless enough

I don’t do either. But I do think it’d be a better way to get it off my chest rather than what I do now, go on reddit.

Thanks, I’ll add it to the backlog. I’m positive Zweig had the fame going to his head and some serious lisztomania, because from that, Letters from a Stranger and The Confusion of Feelings, I notice the story starts off about how the main character is desired in some way.

Beautiful I don’t know, but definitely powerful and gut wrenching. I heavily encourage you to read it !

It’s very spoiler-sensitive but Brothers by Yu Hua infuriated me to no end, which isn’t a dig at the book because it’s what the author wanted. Even made a post venting about it.

Huh, that’s a fun thought exercise. If I were a librarian I’d sell A Confederacy of Dunces & Apathy and Other Small Victories as a pair.

I think I get that with John Grisham. First novels I read of him were like, “what if an idealistic young lawyer tries to help poor people?” or “what if a kid witnessed a murder haha”. Then I read a recent book and it was like “ok this guy rapes a girl and a black kid gets blamed and goes to prison 9 years on death row and and a whole BML movement happens and the rapist gets a brain tumor and decides to confess and the community doesn’t care and the black kid dies and the cancer rapist flees and suddenly the pastor of the cancer rapist is who we follow now?”

In France we have an author, Aurélien Bellanger, the king of super complicated novels about specific, niche stories of economy and philosophy. Hardest prose I ever had to read, but sorely proud to have read him.

In France we have an author, Aurélien Bellanger, the king of super complicated novels about specific, niche stories of economy and philosophy. Hardest prose I ever had to read, but sorely proud to have read him.

Depends what you’re looking for. The best page turner I ever read in my life was The Shadow of the Wind by Zafon. It’s just a fun mysterious adventure, that’s it really. The book that had a profound effect on my personal perspective ? The Old Man and the Sea. The book that amazed me the most, my favorite book of all, all that jazz? Count of Monte Cristo (I can choose both tomes as a single book right?)

so we DO have recommendation threads then ? Cormac McCarthy, Stefan Zweig and Orhan Pamuk !

Not a woman but I enjoy Hemingway in general. I’d also be curious what women think of Lady Ashley in The Sun Also Rises. She has the same tragic flaw as the other 3 friends of the narrator but would people be more harsh towards her foolishness?

Sure, but what really sells me is the synopsis and (I have to admit) how much the title draws me

I got The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak in my library waiting and it’s been a year. Everybody who has read it says it’s very good but I keep dodging it for some reason.

The shop of suicides. But it was still okay!

Yeah I recall The Iliad is getting a new translation so as to be more resonant with nowadays’ culture. The sub was in a big cheer about it.