kick start

[YojimboMonkey]

Not the fucking unbearable lightness of being. What, does the department want you all trying to pick up undergrad girls?

The Name of the Rose is a pretty spectacular novel -- for my money it's Eco's best work (sorry, Jim).

For what, disagreeing with me?  I don't even think you're doing that, "my favorite" is not necessarily the same as "the best."  The Name of the Rose is excellent too.  Foucault's Pendulum just pushes my buttons more.

[davy]

Kawabata, Yasunari. Snow Country

I've read this a few times. It's a favorite of mine. So subtle and quiet.

It's the first book I read that really had me thinking about translation as art, and might be part of the reason I decided to minor in Comparative Literature (which, at least at UGA, means "literature in translation" ... not sure if other schools use the same terminology).

[Bernard]

Biely, Andrey.  St. Petersburg. I don't see this book mentioned that often, nice to see it here.
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. I read this book as a child on the recommendation of a friend and got physically ill.
Chekhov, Anton. The Essential Stories. Cannot overstate the excellence of Chekov. Very deep, and if you are a word nerd of any kind, sort of unmissable.
Duras, Marguerite. The Lover. I'm a huge fan but not everybody will be. There's a movie, it's lousy, kind of Euroartporn.
Flaubert, Gustave.  Madame Bovary. New transl. from LPTJ darling Lydia Davis. Haven't read it yet.
García Marquez, Gabriel.  One Hundred Years of Solitude Read as a teen, enjoyed greatly. Haven't reread since but many parts are still very vivid in my mind, all these years later.
Gide, Andre.  The Counterfeiters. Gide was another, like Biely, that's kind of not the A-lister that others of his ilk are, but that is worthwhile.
Grass, Gunter.  The Tin Drum. Another movie, haven't seen it. I got this book shortly after reading 'The Painted Bird' by Jerzy Kosinski, so maybe that's why I didn't have the stomach to read it.
Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories and Parables. Like Chekov, Kafka's one of those you half-know and know is important, then you read him and are all, dude is correctly highly rated.
Levi, Carlo. Christ Stopped at Eboli. 1963. I didn't know this was a book. There's a movie. I haven't seen it, but it's on my list to check out.
Moravia, Alberto. The Conformist. 1951. There's a movie of this and it's fucking amazing.
Musil, Robert.  The Man Without Qualities. -- TOP REC. I have four copies of this in three different translations, including two copies of the same one. I can't rep any harder than that. Only need to read the first volume, second is optional. Everybody reps for this book. By everybody I mean, like, Duras reps for this -- hard core. If you read only one, this has to be it.

Oh my god. It's nearly midnight, I can't stay up repping as hard as I want for all these. Have added a few notes.

[auto-da-fey]

I kind of liked the movie of The Lover, mostly for its quaint-feeling effort to recreate that mid-70s first-Emannuelle "exotic," "classy" softcore vibe in the era of Shannon Tweed techno-thrillers.
Also, for Jane March.

But yeah, the book is better, though I could never get into Duras' other stuff--I remember La Maladie de la mort really leaving me cold.

Would love to read The Conformist because the film is so great, but suspect the regrettable gay-panic aspect is even more prominent and would make me sigh.

[Bernard]

I kind of liked the movie of The Lover, mostly for its quaint-feeling effort to recreate that mid-70s first-Emannuelle "exotic," "classy" softcore vibe in the era of Shannon Tweed techno-thrillers.
Also, for Jane March.

This is an accurate description.

[monkeypants]

It's been a very long time since I read it (as part of a German literature course I took in college), but I really loved "The Tin Drum."

[fishjim]

Last time I read a book and thought, "Fuck, this is an awesome translation," was with W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz (2001), translated by Anthea Bell.

Sebald lived in England most of his adult life, taught at an English university, and was the founding director of the British Centre for Literary Translation. So it seems likely he worked closely with Bell on the translation, which won some kind of prize.

But a translation doesn't need to be a knockout to do the job. I always come back to Baudelaire's "The Albatross," an iconic poem in 16 lines regardless of how artfully it's been repeated. Myself, I'm partial to the first translation I read, which seems to be the case for a lot of folks.

[Bernard]

And Sebald was a Bernhard acolyte! Well, in a manner of speaking.

[fishjim]

And Sebald was a Bernhard acolyte! Well, in a manner of speaking.

I didn't know that!

I can't wait to read the latest Bernhard I've seen around, the one about all the Austrian prizes he won, and the institutions he offended. Sounds freaking uproarious.

[davy]

Definitely second the Sebald recommendation. I'm reading Rings of Saturn right now, as a matter of fact. I really liked Austerlitz and Vertigo.

[YojimboMonkey]

Well you guys I was looking for something to bring on the train to read this morning and my eyes came across my copy of The Name of the Rose so I am rereading that.  I probably would have picked something else like maybe a trashy sci-fi or fantasy novel were it not for this thread so hurray for you guys and all your fancy literacy. 

[ellaguru]

We only like that book 'cause you can see Christian Slater's naked butt in it.

[Bernard]

Name of the Rose is definitely more entertainment than High Litracher.

[Bernard]

"Brands built around communities are actually effective. Going back to my survey, a few of my students admitted to seeking out books by particular authors and publishers. Exact Change. New Directions. These symbolize a certain aesthetic in the same way Matador and Merge do for us indie rock lovers who went to college in the mid-90s. A book by New Directions—even by an unknown, “literary” author—_must_ be good. "

http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=3123

[fishjim]

"Brands built around communities are actually effective."

I'd agree with this, with the reservation that brands built around regions are even more effective.

For poetry, my Matador is a letterpress called Tangram, based in Berkeley. It prints broadsides and chapbooks in small runs of ~150. Half go to the poet as payment. The printer, Jerry Reddan, sells the rest, or gives them to friends himself. This is the press that introduced me to Jim Dodge, also a couple other favorite N. Calif poets, Jerry Martien and Michael Hannon.

I've been buying up extra copies of the ones I like -- broadsides & chapbooks -- for about 3 years now. Hard to find outside of N. Calif, unless you're buying overpriced stuff online.

More about Tangram here:

http://www.arionpress.com/news-notes/2007/08/jerry-reddan-and-tangram-gerald-reddan.html

[Bernard]

Oh, I know about Tangram! I think a friend of mine is getting his work published there -- but I will have to double check, I could be conflating two different things. I think what you say is true when a region has a distinctive character of its own.

[fishjim]

That's awesome, Bernard. I bet you could find some Tangrams in LA if you know the right bookstores. You'll have better luck with antiquarian sellers, since they're usually the ones who collect letterpress. I get mine at Serendipity Books in Berkeley, usually for about $15/title. Online the chapbooks are often 3 times that, with a few collectible authors like Dodge priced even higher.

Here's a sample spread from Tangram's latest, Kingdom Come by Joseph Stroud (2011):

[Bernard]

Oh, that looks pretty gorgeous...

[simonfox]

In this thread, I learn that I should read more.

[fishjim]

Peter B. Howard of Serendipity Books died today.

‎"Death is now the phoenix' nest."

RIP, Peter.

http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine_books_blog/2011/04/peter-b-howard.phtml

~

More tributes and photos here:

http://www.booktryst.com/2010/08/wake-for-still-alive-peter-b-howard.html

[fishjim]

Lovely profile of Serendipity Books & Peter Howard today.

[Bernard]

$5 e-books from Open Letter -- anybody familiar with these titles? http://catalog.openletterbooks.org/ebooks