Since the last time I did this I noticed a slight uptick, I thought now would be a good time to suggest for other readers (and reviewers as well, of course) to do some of the following sometime:
1) Review a 19th century fantasy work. It could be something by say a George MacDonald, William Morris, H. Rider Haggard, F. Marion Crawford, or several others who have had their works reprinted in the past generation.
2) Review a relatively obscure (and likely out-of-print) book by someone from the 1960s or 1970s. Perhaps something by Joy Chant, later Leigh Brackett, or maybe early Ursula Le Guin, among others.
3) Review a translated fiction. It could something by Homer, or Cervantes, or Marguerite de Navarre, or more modern writers like Thomas Mann, Gert Jonke, or Christine Montalbetti.
4) Review something "weird," whether it be (for you) a Decadent fiction or a Ray Bradbury novel or something by Thomas Ligotti or Michael Cisco.
5) Review something published the year you were born. That might make for some interesting timeline discussions, if nothing else.
And if you do decide to do this, would you please leave a comment for me in any post here, just so I can find it and read it and perhaps link to it myself? Thanks.
The Empirical Approach to Learning
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Actually I have two translated fictions I read recently and will come up on FBC for review soon - Voltaire's Calligrapher by Pablo de Santis (tbp Tue Oct 5, originally 2001 Buenos Aires) and The Notebook by Agota Kristof that's from the late 80's and early 90's - first part of a trilogy which was printed as such in the mid-90's in English but this one is just awesome, the rest are excellent but pale with respect to this one.
Aurorarama has been written in English so it does not count though it's by a French author and it shows
Did a quick Google check for 1969 books and there are quite a few I read and of various kinds, so maybe I will do one of those since that is a great idea i did not think about; Left Hand of Darkness for example qualifies, but also Runaway Horses, French Lieutnant's Woman, Papillon, Ada and Portnoy's Complaint and a bunch of others I read if the list i saw is correct but these I should be able to review from memory with only a cursory check...
Of all Runaway Horses is the one I would be most excited about today with Papillon second and Ada third
Actually the whole Mishima loose tetralogy of which Runaway horses is 2nd is superb
I've reviewed Ligotti recently: http://evilhat.blogspot.com/2010/09/thomas-ligotti-songs-of-dead-dreamer.html, and I'm planning to do several more articles on him.
I have #3, or will as of Tuesday, from Leonid Andreyev's Visions collection, as well as, somewhat, number one from it. His work was originally in Russian, if you're not familiar with him (though I doubt that), and one or two of his stories are speculative, with the rest just being very good. I'll link the review when I put it up.
I've heard of none of the 19th century names from number one; I only really know of the authors with a connection to horror from that period (Machen, Dunsany, Blackwood, etc), so I think I'll look some of them up.
I left some brief ( by my standards ) comments on Strange Pilgrims by Garcia Marquez.
http://chadnhull.blogspot.com/2010/08/strange-pilgrims-by-gabriel-garcia.html
Liviu, The French Lieutnant's Woman is on my TBR list for this month. I read The Collector earlier this year and loved it. I love the "books published in your birth year" idea and can't wait to see what happened in 1980.
I haven't read The French Lieutenant's Wife, but, like Chad said, The Collector is excellent, and I've heard good things about the man's work in general.
As Fowles goes, The Magus is the work to be read and which made him a big name in literary circle and I remember being utterly bowled over by it except for the lame ending, Daniel Martin second, French Lieutnant's Woman third. The Collector is good too, but not on par with those imho
So far all I have is one translated fiction: Sergei Lukyanenko's Nightwatch.
http://littleredreviewer.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/nightwatch-by-sergei-lukyanenko/
I have an article floating around somewhere from years ago on Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Should probably get that posted one of these days. Damn good book.
I knew that the Magus was supposed to be Fowles best work, but the thought that it might leave the Collector in the dust is quite exciting.
My review of Andreyev's Visions is up here: http://evilhat.blogspot.com/2010/10/leonid-andreyev-visions.html.
1)I have yet to make it too far into my Poe collection despite loving his work. My collection of M.R. James stories won't work because they didn't publish until the turn of the century. There is Notes from Underground though.
2)--lost--
3) I have some Dostoevsky, Zivkovic, and Ajvaz sitting on the shelf and even some Dumas, but the latter probably won't be read for a good long time. Murakami is high on my list of authors to read more of.
4) I have two Cisco novels to finish, two Ligotti collections, and a Bradbury collection whenever I get around to it.
5) Dear God, there were a lot of books published that year.
Of course, I just have to read all of it. A problem, since no book has managed to keep my interest (be it new, an old favorite, or a comfort read) in over three weeks now.
Hey, it's a good idea! I also have a review blog and I will accept the challenge!
Can I translate this post for my blog? Thanks!
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