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Top 20 Books I Read in 2018
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- čas přidán 9. 01. 2019
- My Patreon page, where you'll find books 30 to 21, and my least favorite book this year. If you enjoyed my videos in 2018, or if I helped you discover some great books, please consider supporting my channel on Patreon:
/ thebookchemist
My review of Auster's New York Trilogy, mentioned early in the video:
• The New York Trilogy b...
My review of Gravity's Rainbow [coming soon!]
Lethem's article on debut novels:
jonathanlethem.com/my-first-no...
The books in the list, in alphabetical order, together with links to my review, to buy them on The Book Depository (yep I'm an affiliate), or to buy them on IndieBound (also an affiliate):
Auster - Leviathan
RV: • Leviathan by Paul Aust...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97801...
Auster - Man in the Dark
RV: • Some Paul Auster REVIEWS
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97895...
Bolano - The Savage Detectives
RV: • The Savage Detectives ...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97803...
Broder - The Pisces
RV: • The Pisces by Melissa ...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97815...
Eco - Foucault's Pendulum
RV: • Foucault's Pendulum by...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97801...
Egan - Look at Me
RV: • Look at Me by Jennifer...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97817...
Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend
RV: • My Brilliant Friend by...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97816...
Greer - Less
RV: • Less by Andrew Sean Gr...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97803...
Hamid - The Reluctant Fundamentalist
RV: • Exit West AND The Relu...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97801...
Halliday - Asymmetry
RV: • Asymmetry by Lisa Hall...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97815...
Heller - Catch-22
RV: • Catch 22 by Joseph Hel...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97814...
Kiesling - The Golden State
RV: • The Golden State by Ly...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97803...
Lethem - As She Climbed Across the Table
RV: • As She Climbed Across ...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97803...
Lethem - Chronic City
RV: • Chronic City by Jonath...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97803...
Lethem - Dissident Gardens
RV: • Dissident Gardens by J...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97803...
Lethem - Gun, With Occasional Music
RV: • Gun, With Occasional M...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97801...
Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
RV: • Cloud Atlas by David M...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97803...
Vance - The Eyes of the Overworld
My review of its prequel, The Dying Earth: • The Dying Earth by Jac...
VanderMeer - Annihilation
RV: • Annihilation by Jeff V...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97803...
Walker - The Color Purple
RV: • The Color Purple by Al...
BD: www.bookdepository.com/book/9...
IB: www.indiebound.org/book/97801...
You are The greatest book tuber
Agreed. Sad he doesn't have as many subscribers as a lot of the other ones.
@@MrShaiya96 you're ok
Just discovered your channel and you've become one of my favorite CZcamsrs. Thanks so much for the reviews :)
My Favourite books of 2018:
1.Fever Dream (Samanta Schweblin)
2.Runaway(Alice Munro)
3.The Wind-up Bird Chronicle(Haruki Murakami).
Thanxx a lot, Bookchemist! Gonna save this one so I can see it again further this year. Right now I'm reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, very great. You mentionned it once and I found it secondhand.
Last year I didn't read much cause I was writing my own novel which is finished now, so I'm happy to read a lot!
I love your bookreviews, they're very inspiring. Keep up the good spirit!
Glad you're enjoying Oscar Wao, it's one of my very favorite :)
great video! I want to pick up Cloud Atlas at some point
Reading Gravity's Rainbow again with you and everyone was great fun. I hope you do another Pynchon, soon.
Out of the 20 books, I nly read Cloud Atlas, but boy did I enjoy it! A true masterpiece, and you talk about its numerous achievements so well...
Sole awesome books in here, thanks Bookchemist!
Great video! Wonderful choices and enlighteningly presented.
Man in the Dark was also one of my favourite reads and on the strength of that I've just bought Moon Palace. You mention books that are not in one's normal reading range, and I can think of two, inspired, as you have with many people, by two youtubers. The first and at the top of my list is Stone Upon Stone by Wiezlaw Mysliwski, recommended by Kamil of WhatKamilreads. It's just magnificent. It does for Poland during a specific period of its history what Ferrante does for Naples. You enter into the characters' lives, their connectedness to the land and the influences of history upon them. The second, recommended by Adam of Memento Mori, as part of a novel/film tie-in is Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. It is a compellingly strange, Kafkaesque fable and is rightfully considered a modern classic.
Thanks for these recommendations - duly noted :)
Yay! I was waiting for this.
My favourite books of 2018.
V. - Thomas Pynchon
Housekeeping- Marilynne Robinson
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Unconsoled - Ishiguro
The Great Gatsby- F Scott fitzgerald
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
The Crying of Lot 49 - Pynchon
Libra- Don Delillo
The Border Trilogy - Cormac McCarthy
Never Let Me Go - Ishiguro
These are the ones that stick out to me with keeping enjoyment the most in mind. To answer your final question, I read more of what I was comfortable with and when I felt like mixing it up I'd read an old classic or non north american title. Like you I'm around your age and interested in American contemporary fiction and I finished a lot of titles that i''ve been meaning to read for a while. Now I'm kinda burnt out on that (there were a lot of disappointing reads) and looking to read popular older novels from say ..the Victorian era or early 20th century at least. Only contemporary authors I'm planning to read this year is more Pynchon and maybe finish Ishiguro's works. I read all of McCarthy's novels last year and it was a lot of fun.
Anyways, thanks as always for your great content! And to anyone looking to discuss any of the books I listed or whatever let me know.
I've read most of those. Loved all all of them too!! "The Crossing" is probably the one I think of most. Maybe " Gatsby " Actually just finished ",Never let me go" great book too. I have read a lot of Ishiguro lately.
@@ericgrabowski3896 I've grown to like The Crossing the more I ponder about it. Rereading it will be interesting. My initial reaction to it was hindered due to thinking it would follow John Grady (I was led to believe this by someone but he actually meant Cities of the Plain) so I was confused and skeptical in the early stages.But as of right now, as unfashionable as it is, I consider ATPH my favourite work by him. The Crossing is close hence why I just decided on the whole trilogy...though Cities left me mostly perplexed and indifferent besides the good conclusion.
Glad to see you liked NLMG. I'm a huge Ishiguro fan since starting with 'Remains' last year. I really think The Book Chemist should give him a shot. I was skeptical and I ignored his acclaim for a while, but on a sudden whim thought I'd give Remains of the Day a go. He's definitely one of my favourites now.
@@YN-jc9je Yes I was lucky enough to have read Ishiguros first four novels one after the other and have been devouring him since. Also read the B.T in order pretty quickly as well. The Crossing was to me a more mystical journey than ATPH and that's the only reason why I like it more I think. I love everything I've read by McCarthy. Have you read " artist of the floating world" by Ishiguro? It's his first I believe but it's my favorite I think.
@@ericgrabowski3896 Haven't read it yet, but I assure you I will soon. I've only read the three i listed and 'When we were orphans'. It's actually his second...so idk maybe I'll go in order from 'Pale View of hills' then to that one.
@@YN-jc9je right "A pale view of hills" is his first I'm sorry, That is the one I actually meant. I loved it.
My own personal list would be
1.) The Pale king - David foster Wallace
2.)the light in August - William Faulkner
3.) The master and the margarita - Mikhail bulgakov
4.) Cosmos - Witold Gombrowicz
5.) The ring of Saturn - WG Sebald
6.) The name of the rose - Umberto eco
7.) Savage detectives - Roberto bolano
8.) Will you be quiet, please - Raymond carver
9.) Ficciones - Borges
10.) Rabbit run - john Updike
11.) The crying of lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
Pretty sure I'm the only person who loves savage detectives and not 2666. Tried the big IJ but couldn't get on with it, just far too much novel, but will try again this year
Love your channel, my favourite!!
My favorite of 2018: The Three Body Problem trilogy. Just mind-blowing
I hope you read 2666 in 2019. Thanks man. I Want to read Eco. And thanks for the Lethem article.
Hey man have you read the Hyperion books? Some of the most literate SF I’ve read in a while.. Feel like you would love them, especially the first
I "discovered" Roberto Bolaño in 2018 with The Savage Detectives and I am so happy to see it on your list. Moreover, I've been meaning to read Foucault's Pendulum for over a year now and I think I might give it a go this year. By the way, do you intend to read Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle series any time soon?
Not anytime soon ;) have fun with Foucault's Pendulum!
In no particularly, the best books I’ve read in 2018 was:
1. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
2. V. by Thomas Pynchon
3. The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
4. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
5. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
6. It by Stephen King
Favourites from last year, The Counterlife by Philip Roth; The Human Factor by Graham Greene; Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote; Indignation by Philip Roth; Sing, Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward;
Read Asymmetry by Halliday - a very entertaining read - agree with your comments. Less by Greer was a fun read. Again I agree with your views on this book. Read Infinite Jest - very memorable but tough going. A great author but a little too detailed in parts! Still I will read more Foster Wallace. Foucault's Pendulum was a very tough read - a little too clever and too detailed for me, but glad I read it. Enjoyed The Name of The Rose lots more.
I found the second novel in the Elena Ferrante series a brilliant read and another favourite for last year.
Discovered V.S. Naipaul last year, a truly intelligent and clever writer. A Bend in the River is a powerful story about some people in a country in Africa. In A Free State was also a very good read.
Counterlife has been on my list for a long time; either that one or Portnoy's Complaint will be my next Roth's read. Sing, Unburied Sing should also be up my alley!
Excellent reads my friend, and thanks for the comment and suggestions :)
Did Eco compared The Pendulum with The Code? What?! Why? How? Loved the Pendulum, loved the Ferrante novels, so I'm going to had Cloud Atlas to my TBR. Great Work, thank you!
I know little about it but apparently he said that not only The Da Vinci Code was a ripoff of Foucault's Pendulum, but that he (Eco) had basically invented Dan Brown :) what a man!
I found your comment on Catch 22 very interesting. I've read it this year and it went straight into my #1 favorite book of all time. I was engaged from the very begging and thought it was hilarious! It really didn't feel hard to read at all. Having said that, I've read Pynchon's V before, which I also enjoyed but found it to be a very hard read indeed. Inherent Vice I liked more than V and thought it was easier too. Now, I've always heard that Gravity's Rainbow was extremely hard to read so your comment left me wondering, should I expect it to be more like V or C22? Thank you.
More like V, but with V's most challenging and chaotic chapters (the ones in Africa or Florence, say) taking up roughly all of the book. GR and Catch-22 have some clear and obvious points of contact and are in a very close conversation with one another, but Catch-22 is significantly less crazy and messed-up than GR. (And it still is a pretty crazy novel!)
You should do the least favorite books list: we LOVE bad reviews here on CZcams! Also, I am so HAPPY that you liked so much Bolaño's "Savage Detectives" (number 7) and Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" (number 1) because I love them too and, if you remember, it was me who suggested this titles to you. :-) For what is worth, here is my 2018 top ten: 10. Takashi Hiraide, "The Guest Cat"; 9. Margaret Atwood, "The Handmaid's Tale"; 8. Ernesto Sabato, "El Túnel"; 7. Juan Rulfo, "Pedro Paramo"; 6. Nicola Pugliese, "Malacqua", 5. Paolo Volponi, "La Macchina Mondiale"; 4. Isabella Santacroce, "Amorino"; 3. Katsuo Ishiguro, "The Unconsoled"; 2. Michele Mari, "Leggenda Privata"; 1. Mario Vargas Llosa, "La Ciudad y los Perros".
I don't like to talk trash about books, but since I mentioned it in a Patreon post, my least favorite book from 2019 was probably Ancillary Justice ;)
Oh and thanks for sharing your list :D
Haha I also love Foucault’s Pendulum and just finished La Ciudad y los Perros literally half an hour ago and loved it too
Your reviews are always spot-on, fun and in-depth without giving away too much. One you must read, a book that those who truly, truly know books have read, is 'Mulato' by the Guatemalan Nobel Prize winner Miguel Angel Asturias, a masterpiece that seems to have been written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, James Joyce, Dante, Stephen King and Thomas Pynchon with a dash of Kurt Vonnegut and Chuck Palahniuk. Believe me, you have never read anything like it nor will you ever read anything quite like it, it is an absolutely original work of literature that seems to have been delivered to us on the tip of a lightning bolt.
Fun fact: my girlfriend wrote a thesis on Asturias and I've always had the impression he is supremely challenging and cryptic. You make Mulato sound very interesting though :)
I think Chronic City is Lethem's best. I would say Mitchell is also heavily influenced by spending so much time in Japan. Only "Black Swan Green" would I say is quintissentially British in tone & style
Very interesting - I saw that a book on Mitchell and Buddhism (Harris-Birtill's David Mitchell's Post-Secular World) was published recently by Bloomsbury. I'd love to check it out once I've explored his oeuvre a bit more widely!
Hi, have you read Rayuela by Julio Cortázar? I just remember that many year ago I was reading Foucault's Pendulum and I had to re-read Rayuela at the same time to reset and be able to continue with the second novel of Eco. There are no posible relation between this two novels, just in my memory. Or maybe it is, perhaps the idea of the city of a labyrinth. Writing this I can see the influence of Borges on both writers. Anyways, Rayuela (Hopscotch, in English) is not to a "meta" novel but a "counter" novel or "anti-novel". An absolutely wonderful book.
It's been on my list for a long time! I'll definitely read it one day, but I'm quite intimidated by it: some of Cortazar's stories are among my very favorite works of fiction, while others I found rather hard to digest, so I'm not sure what to expect from Hopscotch.
K. Here's what I read in 2018:
My Favorites:
1. American Psycho (B.E. Ellis)
2. Watchmen (A. Moore & D. Gibbons)
3. The Wasp Factory (I. Banks)
4. Red Harvest (D. Hammet)
5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (H. Thompson)
6. Glamorama (B.E. Ellis) - Began in Dec, 2018, finished in Jan, 2019
7. Wise Blood (F. O'Conner)
Ones that were good to alright:
*Wind-Up Chronicle (H. Murakami)
*Smiley's People (John Le Carre)
*Franny and Zooey (J.D. Salinger)
*Rebels on the Backlot (S. Waxman) - Biography on the major movie directors to come out of the '90's
*In Cold Blood (T. Capote)
*Less Than Zero (B.E. Ellis)
OK:
*The Crying of Lot 49 (T. Pynchon)
*Crash (J.G. Ballard)
*Rashomon (R. Akutagawa)
*Story of the Eye (G. Bataille)
HATED, HATED, HATED:
*The Midwich Cuckoos (J. Wyndham)
*Steppenwolfe (H. Hesse)
*Siddhartha (H. Hesse) - Not bad itself, just infuriatingly, painfully boring
*The Violent Bear It Away (F. O'Conner)
*Buddha of Suburbia (H. Koreishi)
Hi, do you think Cloud Atlas might lose something important if I read it in translation?
Not too much more than any other novel, although one of its six parts is written in a very peculiar idiom, and it will take a good translator to convey that effectively. I'd say, go with the translation :)
Bookchemist , do you have an opinion of Don Delillo's work.I recently read White Noise and am now reading Underworld and have been blown away by the writing style and the author's vision.
He's God
my best book was Proust, but then i also started reading 'a dance to the music of time' at the end of the year and that's also amazing. many others in between: 'a bend in the river', 'memoirs of an anti-semite.' maybe i will read some leatham soon
well and how could i forget the 6th volume of knausgaard. now that was the jam
ehi, posso chiederti se hai gia letto opere di Thomas Ligotti ed in caso che ne pensi?
Purtroppo no, ma è sulla mia lista da secoli! Magari quest'anno :P
How many book do you read in a year? When im at the top, 17 a week
my most favourite book of 2018 is " island of the day before", by eco,,,
Can't wait to get to that one - glad to hear it's good :)
You might really like The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. Definitely looking forward to your future reviews of him and his others works. By the way, I don't know if you're aware of this article or not, but I thought you'd find it interesting. It's about the differences in the U.S. and U.K. editions of Cloud Atlas. This Guardian article gives the overall story about the differences between the books and the academic who 'discovered' them. It also includes a link to the actual academic paper that you should check out: www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/10/cloud-atlas-astonishingly-different-in-us-and-uk-editions-study-finds
This sounds very interesting, thanks :)
That wink, tho..😂
I wonder if he would ever read The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard. It may be just a collection of stories, but I wager it would make for an entertaining video (well, maybe for me).
And if not, maybe a noir novel like The Killer Inside Me, The Big Sleep etc.
I've been meaning to read some Robert E. Howard for a long time! (while The Big Sleep is one of my favorite crime novels :) )
@@TheBookchemist By all means, it's never too late. I loved all of Solomon Kane's pulp stories, even the unfinished ones, and I intend to continue with Kull and Bran Mak Morn before I get to Conan.
Collections which come from the same publication and with the same style of front cover
Read Mitchell's 1000 autums of Jacod de zoet
Hi Bookchemist, I really like your videos and how critical but assertive at the same time you are when you do your job. I would like to ask you a favour: since I'm Italian, too (dk why I'm writing this in English) and I hope to, one day, become a writer, if you could read a short story of mine and tell me what you think of it. Thank you very much and keep up with the good work.
Ciao Alessandro! La leggo molto volentieri, soprattutto se ne hai una non troppo lunga (diciamo sulle 4-5,000 parole?) visto che è un periodo molto impegnato :) mandala pure a ravasimattia@yahoo.it e grazie!!
I am lost with the Lisa Halliday being Lisa Kudrow thing... It was a joke, right?
Ha! Got it, they look alike! I'll go now.
:D
dr strangelove is so good......
just kidding lol
It's like Reddit Best-of, Greatest Hits.
That's considered an insult in certain circles.