I’d really appreciate if you help me choose the next book for the Hardcore Literature Podcast.
We’ve had some really interesting episodes lately:
And I think the following choices are quite enticing.
You’ll notice I’ve thrown some manga in there too. I’d like us to chat about some mainstream works along with the classics and also hopefully introduce you to genres and literary forms you might have overlooked (if you haven’t read manga before, Bakuman is a great place to start).
The poll is anonymous. You’re just letting me know what sounds good. I get emails every day from people who like the podcast, but seeing as some of them start with lines like “I don’t agree with everything you say, but I like the show…” it made me think I might be controversial (yay). So let’s keep the votes private.
If none of these interest you, or you have an idea for a show, I’m all ears, so please let me know.
You might see somewhat of a shared common theme with some of these. So choosing anything from Chang, Orwell, Bradbury, or Solzhenitsyn is choosing to set me off on a rant about this year.
Orwell, of course! All good. Have you considered J. G. Ballard?
Thanks, Joanne! I was leaning towards Orwell myself, especially with it being the book’s 75th anniversary yesterday. As for J.G. Ballard, I’ve always wanted to get into his work more deeply, but I’ve read Crash, Empire of the Sun, and Cocaine Nights. I also admired this documentary-maker’s use of reading Ballard’s words for Into the Garden of Glass and Steel. If you have any Ballard books you think I should read, please let me know and I’ll grab them!
Of course Bradbury is always a great choice. But I recommend two more. The Count of Montecristo is a masterpiece everybody needs read unless one time (highly recommended) and the alabaster girl (my discovery of this month) and linked to lover archetype.
Thanks, Iván! I’m a huge Bradbury fan, so would love to talk about a few of his works. I planned to read The Count of Monte Cristo this year – first time and can’t wait. Looks epic, and I’ve heard great things about it. Thanks for recommending The Alabaster Girl. I didn’t know that one. I’ll check it out! Seems very intriguing.
I’ve chosen the short stories of Borges. But I would aslo like to recommend “And Quiet Flows the Don” by Sholokhov. It depicts life of Cossacks during the First World War, the October Revolution and the Civil War in Russia. It is considered to be one of the greatest novels in Russian lterature. And this novel is compared to “War and Peace” by Tolstoy.
And one more work, that I’d like to recommend, is “Freya of the seven isles” by Conrad.
By the way, have you ever read anything written by Vladimir Nabokov? If so, what it was and how did you like it?
Fantastic choice, Maria, and currently seems to be the most popular one! Thank you for the wonderful book recommendations. I’ve just ordered a gorgeous classic hardback version and can’t wait to read it. Having recently finished works by Tolstoy, Chekhov, Turgenev, and Dostoyevsky, I’m thirsty for more Russian literature (it’s making me want to learn the language too).
What a wonderful lesser-known work from Conrad! I wrote about Conrad for my final dissertation, but only glanced at this work briefly. It seems Conrad wrote this one at the peak of his literary career, so this one would be very interesting to discuss.
I’ve enjoyed a few works by Nabokov. Like Conrad, I found it fascinating that one of the most skilled writers in the English language was trilingual, with his mother tongue not being English. I’ve read Lolita, Pale Fire, and Speak, Memory, along with a few of his lectures and short stories. I thought Pale Fire was an ambitious idea, but he pulled it off. And I was always fascinated by Nabokov’s synaesthesia – produced some very fine language, like wine!