February 25th, 2012 / 4:39 pm
 Snippets
—

What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year?

109 Comments

  1. February 25th, 2012 / 4:46 pm barry graham—

      the book of mormon

  2. February 25th, 2012 / 4:47 pm Helen—

      The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson. Life on a Finnish island. Thoughts on death and aging, the cruelties and joys of children, a model Venice constructed out of driftwood, minor housebreaking. Dry, smart, observant. 

  3. February 25th, 2012 / 4:47 pm David Fishkind—

      Jombang Jet by Michael Earl Craig

  4. February 25th, 2012 / 4:48 pm Tyler Hall—

      Goat in the Snow by Emily Pettit 

  5. February 25th, 2012 / 4:50 pm Tyler Hall—

      I really liked Wichman Cometh by Ben Pease, too.

  6. February 25th, 2012 / 4:52 pm Stephen Tully Dierks—

      “platform” houellebecq

  7. February 25th, 2012 / 4:59 pm Anonymous—

      Divorcer by Gary Lutz

  8. February 25th, 2012 / 5:02 pm Taylor Napolsky—

      1Q84, hands down. 

  9. February 25th, 2012 / 5:18 pm postitbreakup—

      i’m not sure yet, but i can tell you that it wasn’t the marriage plot

  10. February 25th, 2012 / 5:22 pm Anonymous—

      Maybe THREATS, actually. Or A HIGH WIND IN AFRICA, which doesn’t sound nearly as good as it is…if you count rereads: MANIAC MAGEE.

  11. February 25th, 2012 / 5:29 pm William VanDenBerg—

      Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, Barbara Comyns. Although I’m reading Zone and Cyclonopedia now, so that could change.

  12. February 25th, 2012 / 6:27 pm Alexander J. Allison—

      Picked up and swam through Ryan Call’s excellent The Weather Stations. 

  13. February 25th, 2012 / 6:31 pm bartleby_taco—

      Varamo – César Aira (fav. 2012 release)
      The Map and the Territory – Michel Houellebecq
      The Private Lives of Trees – Alejandro Zambra
      The Melancholy of Resistance – László Krasznahorkai (one of the best books I have read)

      Real excited for the translations of A.G. Porta and Daniel Sada coming out this year.

  14. February 25th, 2012 / 6:36 pm Anonymous—

      Saroyan’s Preface to the First Edition of the Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze

  15. February 25th, 2012 / 6:50 pm leapsloth14—

      Salter

  16. February 25th, 2012 / 6:56 pm Anonymous—

      fuckscapes and Bright Brave Phenomena 

  17. February 25th, 2012 / 6:59 pm Affliccion—

      HHhH by Laurent Binet

  18. February 25th, 2012 / 7:09 pm Anonymous—

      Just got around to THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER, so that.

      That’s coming out this year, Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s RETICENCE is wonderful.

  19. February 25th, 2012 / 7:11 pm Mike Meginnis—

      Treasure Island!!! was really excellent. I’ve been finally reading Long, Last Happy and it has been blowing my mind, but I am spacing it out a little, will probably make it last for most of the year. Right now I am not completely in love with anything I am reading but I hope that will change after AWP.

  20. February 25th, 2012 / 7:25 pm Andrew—

      So far it’s a tie between William Fuller’s “Three Replies” and Frank Sherlock’s “Over Here”.

  21. February 25th, 2012 / 7:25 pm Taylor Napolsky—

      ^^^I love Treasure Island. Robert Lewis Stevenson was so good. 

  22. February 25th, 2012 / 7:26 pm Ethan—

      I’m reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons, it’s bad ass.

  23. February 25th, 2012 / 7:26 pm M. Kitchell—

      Bernard Tschumi’s Architecture & Disjunction
      Edward Mullany’s If I Falter at the Gallows
      Jarett Kobek’s ATTA
      Katrina Palmer’s Dark Object
      Johan Jonson’s Collobert Orbital
      Michel Houellebecq’s The Map & The Territory
      Christian Hawkey’s Ventrakl

  24. February 25th, 2012 / 7:28 pm Buck Wilkins—

      I haven’t really read anything that qualifies. I sank way too much time into reading a book about better communication that went nowhere for me.

  25. February 25th, 2012 / 7:32 pm Charlotte Geater—

      leigh stein’s the fallback plan

  26. February 25th, 2012 / 7:42 pm Tyler Christensen—

      “We The Animals” by Justin Torres
      “From the Memoirs of a Non- Enemy Combatant” by Alex Gilvarry
      “Flatscreen” by Adam Wilson

  27. February 25th, 2012 / 7:46 pm werdfert—

      Yes, You Are a Revolutionary! by Sparrow

  28. February 25th, 2012 / 7:47 pm Rene Georg Vasicek—

      SUICIDE by Edouard Levé

  29. February 25th, 2012 / 8:08 pm Tom Willard—

      Hotel Europa- Dmitru 
      Tsepeneag 

  30. February 25th, 2012 / 8:55 pm M. Kitchell—

      is A HIGH WIND IN AFRICA different from Hughes’s A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA? 

  31. February 25th, 2012 / 9:04 pm Anonymous—

      Malone Dies and Wittgenstein’s Mistress and The Erasers…thought I’d start the year off good by reading books I love

  32. February 25th, 2012 / 9:15 pm Anonymous—

      Nope, I’m an idiot, who’s also reading IMPRESSIONS OF AFRICA. And probably a little bit racist….II was talking about A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA.

  33. February 25th, 2012 / 9:19 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

      ZZZZZIPP HAS NOT READ “BOOKS” ONLY PARTS OF BOOKS

      THE FIRST PAGE OF “THE AMERICANS” BY GERTRUDE STEIN
      THE FIRST TEN-FIFTEEN PAGES OF “INFINITE JEST” BY DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
      THE FIRST STORY (“THE DIVORCER”) IN “THE DIVORCER” BY GARY LUTZ
      THE ESSAY THAT BEGINS “THE COMPLETE WORKS OF MARVIN K. MOONEY” BY CHRISTOPHER HIGGS
      THE FIRST CREATION ACCOUNT IN “THE BOOK OF GENESIS”, BY GOD

  34. February 25th, 2012 / 9:21 pm Michael J. Martin—

      What’s the best book you’ve never read?

  35. February 25th, 2012 / 9:21 pm Michael J. Martin—

      Gravity’s rainbow.

  36. February 25th, 2012 / 9:27 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

      OH BARTLEBY ZZZZIPP IS EXCITED ABOUT VARAMO HE JUST BOUGHT IT ON AMAZON ABOUT AN HOUR AGO AND IT WILL COME TO HIS DOOR WHENEVER THE DELIVERY PERSON BRINGS IT

  37. February 25th, 2012 / 9:28 pm Matt Rowan—

      THREATS by Amelia Gray was a real treat for books of 2012 I’ve read. I’m really looking forward to Hot Pink by Adam Levin. Finally read Light Boxes by Shane Jones, Freight by Mel Bosworth and Us by Michael Kimball, those are all great reads. For less contemporaneous awesomeness I suggest The Plummeting Old Women by Daniil Kharms.

  38. February 25th, 2012 / 9:39 pm Daniel Zarko—

      Volt – Alan Heathcock

  39. February 25th, 2012 / 9:42 pm Bobby Dixon—

      The Oregon Trail is the Oregon Trail was my favorite this year, so far. But I feel like I am forgetting something I read. 

  40. February 25th, 2012 / 9:46 pm reynard—

      super mario 64 by nintendo – i loved the way bowser’s psychosexual power grab, accentuated by bondage and flame, finally met its match in mario’s cunning ability to jump, crawl, swim, and even fly his way to greater reproductive success with unparalleled style and joie de vivre; the author’s use of three softly rendered dimensions weaves mimesis at a distance, mirroring reality in all its awful complexity while distilling a form as readily digestible as the proverbial mushroom; truly a work of contemporary fiction the whole family can enjoy!

  41. February 25th, 2012 / 9:51 pm Brian Carr—

      I read it last year, at the tail end, but Train Dreams is the best book I’ve read in a while. 

      Hugo is a kids books, and the story kind of sucks, but when I read it I was like, fuck I wish I could have read this when I was 13. 

  42. February 25th, 2012 / 9:57 pm Paula Roth—

      Venus Drive, Sister Stop Breathing, The Flame Alphabet, Green Girl, and Flatscreen…

  43. February 25th, 2012 / 10:01 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

      NO NO THAT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENED: SAD MUSIC PLAYED AND MARIO WAS CONTINUOUSLY RETURNED TO THE MAIN HALLWAY NEVER TO SHOW ANY PROGRESS AT ALL (ONLY PROGRESSION)

  44. February 25th, 2012 / 10:10 pm reynard—

      so mario

  45. February 25th, 2012 / 10:39 pm Anonymous—

      Hopscotch, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, The Lime Twig. Also really liked The Sorrows of Young Werther and Sorrow Beyond Dreams.

      I was a bit disappointed in The Sisters Brothers; it was quite funny and not at all bad, but after all the hype, I was expecting more. It seemed a little derivative of Charles Portis.

  46. February 25th, 2012 / 11:17 pm Tom De Beauchamp—

      I just read The Descent of Alette for the first time. The first six times. Best thing I’ve read this year. 

  47. February 25th, 2012 / 11:23 pm Mike Meginnis—

      I was so into Dan Simmons, read and loved The Terror and to a lesser extent Drood. Then he published that godawful political novel and now I have to wait until I forget about that to read anything else he did.

  48. February 25th, 2012 / 11:35 pm lorian long—

      i take u out to dinner u let me borrow the map & the territory, kay bb?

  49. February 25th, 2012 / 11:38 pm lorian long—

      ditto

  50. February 25th, 2012 / 11:40 pm Roxane—

      Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung

  51. February 25th, 2012 / 11:40 pm M. Kitchell—

      totes totes totes

  52. February 25th, 2012 / 11:41 pm lorian long—

      ‘ghost machine’ ben mirov
      picked up ‘the tunnel’ again cuz a boy said he’d read it with me and holy cow

  53. February 25th, 2012 / 11:50 pm Michael Filippone—

      As A Machine And Parts – Caleb J Ross
      Scars – Juan Jose Saer
      A Thousand Pearls (for a Thousand Pennies) – Herve le Tellier
      The Land of Green Plums – Herta Muller

  54. February 26th, 2012 / 1:09 am Nathan Goldman—

      The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

  55. February 26th, 2012 / 3:29 am Scott Riley Irvine—

      Beijing Welcomes You by Tom Scocca

      or

      Hour of the Star by Lispector

  56. February 26th, 2012 / 3:37 am M. Kitchell—

      the one-two punch of hughes & roussel assuages you of all guilt

  57. February 26th, 2012 / 4:30 am Michael J Seidlinger—

      Everything’s Fine by Socrates Adams, Threats by Amelia Gray, The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq.

  58. February 26th, 2012 / 4:48 am Courtney Chase Williamson—

      “the Great Enigma” by Tomas Transtromer

  59. February 26th, 2012 / 4:49 am Laura Carter—

      The Phonemes, Frances Richard, Les Figues (it began last year, tho) (I began it then, I should say)….

  60. February 26th, 2012 / 4:50 am Laura Carter—

      Also re-read Marjorie Perloff’s (ed., tho) The Sound of Poetry / The Poetry of Sound. Really great critical text.

  61. February 26th, 2012 / 4:59 am Shane Anderson—

      helm aus phlox.

  62. February 26th, 2012 / 5:54 am Anonymous—

      a distant mirror  – barabara tuchman and an agatha christie (very slowly. in polish.)

  63. February 26th, 2012 / 7:39 am Craig Ronald Marchinkoski—

      curious why you liked 1q84. i thought it forgettable. 

  64. February 26th, 2012 / 10:32 am Paul Jessup—

      I need to buy these books.

  65. February 26th, 2012 / 10:33 am Paul Jessup—

      How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by Christopher Boucher

  66. February 26th, 2012 / 11:00 am Anonymous—

      I loved Karl Taro Greenfeld’s NowTrends.

  67. February 26th, 2012 / 11:33 am JoshuaMarieWilkinson—

      Insomnia and the Aunt by Tan Lin (Kenning Editions)

  68. February 26th, 2012 / 11:59 am emmab—

      Daniil Kharms curates all my dreams

  69. February 26th, 2012 / 12:23 pm Mahmoud—

      Am reading there is no year right now, just got it from the library. o.O

  70. February 26th, 2012 / 12:45 pm bartleby_taco—

      I finished it like two days ago and it was awesome!! Might be among my favorites of the translated Aira’s so far! Well, they’re all great, really.

  71. February 26th, 2012 / 12:48 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

      HAVE YOU READ “THE HARE”? ASIDE FROM “VARAMO” IT IS THE ONLY ONE ZZZZZIPP HAS NOT READ THOUGH HE TOOK IT OUT OF THE LIBRARY AND STARED AT IT SEVERAL TIMES

  72. February 26th, 2012 / 12:54 pm bartleby_taco—

      I have not! I’ve only read the ND ones. That’s an early one right? I’ve heard mixed things, and by mixed things, I mean someone mentioning something once, and this excerpt from a 2-star Amazon review: “This is not his best book. “How I Became a Nun” is as wild and wonderful
      as novels ever get, and “An Epidose in the Life of a Landscape Painter”
      is just as good. But this is a wide-screen, panoramic epic odyssey, and
      Aira has filled it with all sorts of set pieces: battle scenes,
      allegorical journeys, “Pilgrim’s Progress” episodes, a visit to the
      underworld, digressions into politics, and so forth. A lot of this is
      the familiar machinery of nineteenth-century novels.” — which turned me off, but maybe I should read it anyway, eh? He is one of my favorite writers.

  73. February 26th, 2012 / 1:00 pm ZZZZZIPPP—

      AT THE TIME ZZZZIPP TOOK IT OUT HE WAS MAYBE NOT READY TO GET INTO THAT KIND OF AIRA BUT NOW ZZZZIPP THINKS HE WANTS TO READ ANY AIRA. IT IS NOT A ND AIRA AND IT IS LIKE 250-300 PAGES OR SOMETHING AND THE FIRST PARAGRAPH DOES NOT SOUND LIKE “AIRA” BUT IT IS AIRA AND FOR THAT REASON…

  74. February 26th, 2012 / 2:23 pm Rauan Klassnik—

      the same one several times every year–  The Book of Mormon

  75. February 26th, 2012 / 2:38 pm Matthew Salesses—

      me, too

  76. February 26th, 2012 / 3:46 pm Henry Fry—

      Probably ‘White Teeth’ by Zadie Smith. It’s been on my reading list for about six years. It’s really very good. An amazing debut from a writer who was still only in their early twenties when it was published. And it’s big as fuck. 

  77. February 26th, 2012 / 4:11 pm Anonymous—

      Stone Arabia-Dana Spiotta. Short and refreshing. The brother eminded me of a lot of some people I know. There should be more novels about rock and roll.

  78. February 26th, 2012 / 4:48 pm Elissa Washuta—

       Blueprints for Building Better Girls by Elissa Schappell.

  79. February 26th, 2012 / 5:31 pm Ken Baumann—

      The last four Markson books, as one.

  80. February 26th, 2012 / 5:57 pm Spenser Davis—

      the fallback plan by leigh stein

  81. February 26th, 2012 / 6:36 pm Luke—

      Pee on Water by Rachel B. Glaser

  82. February 26th, 2012 / 6:52 pm Dawn West—

      Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

  83. February 26th, 2012 / 7:59 pm Taylor Napolsky—

       I liked the characters Tengo and Aomame. I loved hearing Murakami’s thoughts on writing, via Tengo’s inner monologues. The book was an easy read, yet I found it to be profound the entire time, like there is something under the surface that I can’t quite touch on. It reminded me of The Alchemist in that sense. I loved the parts when they were at the butterfly house. I LOVED the part when he reads to her about the Hiyaks, and it just goes on and on and on. The teenage girl (can’t remember her name) is so quirky and funny. He gives a reveal on Tengo’s history to the reader, but not to Tengo himself, which blew my mind. I’ve never seen something like that done before. I found Ushikawa to be fascinating. I will probably always remember the town of cats. The scene with Aomame in the room with leader is probably the best scene I’ve ever read in any book. Yeah I’m gushing, but 1Q84 is seriously in my top five favorite books of all time.

  84. February 26th, 2012 / 10:44 pm Gregory Sherl—

      Meat Heart by Broder

  85. February 27th, 2012 / 12:40 am alan—

      Good call on Treasure Island!!!

  86. February 27th, 2012 / 2:58 am Cassandra Troyan—

      NOTHING: Blake Butler
      Mercury: Ariana Reines
      Cruel Optimism: Lauren Berlant
      Parables for the Virtual: Brian Massumi
      The Visible and the Invisible: Maurice Merleau-Ponty
      The No Hellos Diet: Sam Pink

  87. February 27th, 2012 / 10:46 am Catie Waier—

      Columbine, by Dave Cullen. Or maybe Icefields by Thomas Wharton. (Thomas Wharton: Please write more books.)

  88. February 27th, 2012 / 2:38 pm Kevin Sampsell—

      The Da Vinci Code (dirty albino remix) by Blake Butler and the new Elizabeth Ellen. 

  89. February 27th, 2012 / 8:32 pm Michael Pucci—

      Steve Erickson’s THESE DREAMS OF YOU.

  90. February 27th, 2012 / 8:34 pm Zack Schuster—

      Trackback by Zack Schuster

  91. February 27th, 2012 / 8:37 pm Patrick Nathan—

      Thanks to a very old Salon post by David Foster Wallace, I discovered Angels, Denis Johnson’s first novel. Startling, exhilarating, brutal, and gorgeous. What more could you want from a book?

  92. February 27th, 2012 / 9:46 pm Joe Kopcha—

      The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. So much to chew on. Can’t wait to read it again.

  93. February 27th, 2012 / 9:56 pm Anonymous—

      The Flame Alphabet so far, but I’m also looking forward to Aira’s Varamo and Hiromi Kawakami’s The Briefcase.

  94. February 27th, 2012 / 10:46 pm Mike Young—

      The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaetan Soucy. Also in the running:

      The Transparency of Evil – Baudrillard
      The Incompossible – Carrie Hunter
      Snowflake/Different Streets – Eileen Myles

  95. February 27th, 2012 / 11:06 pm sam salvador—

      fiction: all the pretty horses; non-fiction: in the spirit of crazy horse

  96. February 28th, 2012 / 4:38 am Anonymous—
  97. February 28th, 2012 / 9:50 am Craig Ronald Marchinkoski—

      murakami leaves me hard, never finishing me off. entertaining, sure. but i want the bitch to waste me. not leave me blue and begging. 
      i’m fine with his simplicity, his sentimentality. but nigga can’t write an ending. 
      i was somewhat into tengo and aomame. aomame more so. i was calling the teenage girl (fuka-eri) marie calloway. the sakhalin segments were cool. as was the bit about jung. but i want more. and i’m not saying i want the book to be longer. i want it to be more creative. more fucked up, as my nephew says. 
      the town of cats was cool. and i wanted that to represent the entire novel. i wanted the whole thing to be that quietly sinister. but it wasn’t.
      for me, the entire book can be summed up in murakami’s own words:
      “from the man’s voice it was hard to guess his age, looks, or build. it was the sort of voice that provided no tangible clues. tengo felt he wouldn’t remember the voice at all, as soon as the man hung up. individuality or emotions–assuming there were any to begin with–were hidden deep down, out of sight” (888).

  98. February 28th, 2012 / 2:44 pm Nathaniel Otting—

      The best books (Pee on Water and Goat in the Snow) keep telling me to read The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches. I can’t wait to get four hands on Snowflake/Different Streets. I’ll have to look for The Incompossible. Good title.

      Moby Book (genuine typo, thanks Tyoyeu I mean APLOD!) I mean Moby Dick is probably actually the best BOOK I have read in 2012 but that’s only because I read Emily Pettit’s Goat in the Snow and Dana Ward’s This Can’t Be Life in 2011. About read them both again and then they will be the best.

      The two booksellers who’ve borrowed my review copy of Satantango both said it’s worth the golden wait.

      Hi Mike.

  99. February 28th, 2012 / 3:47 pm Taylor Napolsky—

      That was a very clear explanation of your opinion. 

      “i’m fine with his simplicity, his sentimentality. but nigga can’t write an ending.”

      I agree actually. The ending was not the strong point. Book three was probably the worst book, though I still loved it. I am kind of sympathetic though, because I myself struggle with writing endings. Stephen King used to struggle with many of his endings. For me, I think the ending to a book isn’t quite as important, if the rest of the book is phenomenal. If it’s a super plot based book, then I think a great ending is crucial. But if the book kicks ass, and it is more character driven, I can deal with an ending that doesn’t quite tie things up.

      “the sakhalin segments were cool”

      I don’t recall what that was.

      “as was the bit about jung”

      Yeah that part was good. The stuff about Chekhov’s gun was good. I also loved the part where Aomame is picking up this guy to sleep with, and the bartender tells them all about police uniforms, and all this other stuff. The bartender is just very knowledgeable on an assortment of topics. It’s toward the beginning of the book, you might not remember it.

      “i want it to be more creative”

      Give me a break. Creativity was the strength of this work.

      “more fucked up”

      Come on. It’s a book about a cult raping kids, creepy tiny people, a mother who got murdered etc. How much more fucked up can it get? Maybe he could’ve written a novel on genocide.

      “the town of cats was cool. and i wanted that to represent the entire
      novel. i wanted the whole thing to be that quietly sinister.”

      To me, it WAS. The entire thing was that sinister. And the town of cats theme resounded throughout the book.

      Regarding the sinister thing, what about the part where that one guy sends Ushikiwa to the bottom of the sea? To me, that was sinister.

      Besides, I didn’t think the book was supposed to be entirely evil. It was a blend of dark and love.

      Entirely evil books are just too damn depressing. Also, your tumblr is cool!

  100. February 28th, 2012 / 5:27 pm Rauan Klassnik—

      a burnt Koran

  101. February 29th, 2012 / 12:58 am Jamie Felton—

      Yes! Agree. High Wind In Jamaica was fantastic.

  102. February 29th, 2012 / 1:16 am Melissa Broder—

      which salter? i read a sport and a pastime a few weeks ago and damn. amazing. which one next?

  103. February 29th, 2012 / 2:06 am postitbreakup—

      throw in a burnt bible, torah, book of mormon, & dianetics, & i’ll co-sign this, otherwise fuck off

  104. February 29th, 2012 / 2:08 am postitbreakup—

      anti-climactic; globe-trotting portions were silly; madeline was very unlikable but not at all in an interesting way

      i’d say the corrections is the pinnacle of that kind of book; freedom is way below that; and marriage plot is way below both of them

  105. February 29th, 2012 / 11:58 am Anonymous—

      overall – probably ammons’s collected poems.

      fiction – probably Skippy Dies. Even though I only sorta kinda liked it.

      nonfiction – A Widow’s Story, JCO. I don’t know that I really liked it as a book, but I am obsessed with JCO, so.

       

  106. February 29th, 2012 / 3:19 pm Anonymous—

      Timothy Donnelly’s The Cloud Corporation. Which I left on the Megabus to Chicago. Which was literally the most disheartening thing to happen to me in memory.

  107. March 1st, 2012 / 1:30 am Rauan Klassnik—

      sure, and all the rest of it,…

  108. March 15th, 2012 / 4:49 am M. Kitchell—

      I read THE NO HELLOS DIET today and i think it’s my favorite book of Sam’s yet

  109. March 15th, 2012 / 9:54 am Cassandra Troyan—

      It’s a goodie.