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Right now I'm reading War with the Newts by Karel Čapek. I decided to be ambitious when I typed it into the Book du jour section, and, instead of using standard, unadorned American letters, I gave the author's name all of its accessories. Ok, there was only one. But I taught myself the html for that one! (A "C with caron", by the way.) I'm so proud!
This seems like a useful segue for describing my process for finding new books to read. I read quite a variety of books. Although my favorite, almost exclusive, genre is "Literature & Fiction", I like to think that my reading really spans it. This past year has seen me make my way through really old classics (e.g.: The Aeneid); sort of old classics (e.g.: The Woman in White); contemporary best sellers (e.g.: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell); and more obscure, relatively contemporary fiction (e.g.: War with the Newts). I especially like finding the more obscure fiction. Ah, the thrill of discovery! There's so much of it out there, and quite a bit of it is really good! You just have to know how to find it. Which really isn't all that difficult anymore. Viva the information age and online marketplaces!
I remember a conversation I had with my advisor and a fellow grad student some time ago. Like me, they love to read. But they were trying to justify their adherance to less literary genres (mystery novels, mainly). By the time I got to be their age, they explained, I would have read most of the big novels there are, and there wouldn't be much "Literature & Fiction" left. Popcorn mysteries, however, are churned out prolifically, and they always had some new book to read. I refrained from arguing, despite my very strong disagreement. Even if you wanted to stick to the best sellers of current literature, many of which are quite good, you could never run out of novels! And that's not even considering any of the obscure ones! (I did get something out of the conversation at least: they both recommend Mary Renault to me, who writes really good, gay historical fiction novels.)
But how do you find the little known ones? This is a question that my book-loving friends ask, since they wonder how I've come to read so many books they've never heard of. So let me walk you through my process. I'll use War with the Newts, which is a fantastic book, as an example, although it is slightly atypical.
(Mitzi says: ;.//.,,)
A little while ago I exclaimed to myself that I don't think I've ever read a Czech novel, and I wondered why. I love Czech music (Dvorak & Smetana); I love Czech dance (the Czardas); I really like Czech professors, or at least the one that I know; he's taught several classes that I've taken and served on my qualifying exam committee. So it stands to reason that since the Czechs are so culturally rich in these aspects, there must be some great Czech novels out there. I decided then and there to find some great Czech novels. Here's where my old pal Amazon comes in. I think I just searched for "Czech literature", followed one of the Listmania lists, and very promptly selected The Good Soldier Svejk, by Jaroslav Hasek, and War with the Newts for my first stab at Czech literature. I also discovered that they are not, in fact, my first stab, that Franz Kafka was Czech too.
So far, Czech literature seems to be very relevant to our times. Granted, my sample is 1.5 novels, and they aren't too old themselves, seeing as Czechoslovakia (and especially the Czech Republic) is a relatively young nation. I really liked The Good Soldier Svejk, which I read a few weeks ago. It's an anti-war novel written about WWI. War with the Newts is a great satire, that I think strikes extra chords to the ecologically-minded among us. I heartily recommend them both, especially War with the Newts!
Finding these relatively unknown books was rather straight forward, however. Much more so than usual, since I'd already narrowed my inquiry down to "Czech literature". The typical procedure is much less directed, much more stream of conscious. Start with a book you love and search for it on amazon. Amazon will tell you about a few other books that people who bought that one bought. This is almost never helpful, which is unfortunate since this is what amazon bases its recommendations on. The problem is that they generally suggest other books by the same author, or if it's a current best seller, other current best sellers. This is worthless as a recommendation because it provides absolutely no information. If I like Nabokov (and I do), it's very easy for me to search for more Nabokov books. There's no need for me to search for Lolita and discover that people who like Lolita also like Pale Fire. Similarly, if I tend to keep track of best sellers, I will already have heard of The Kite Runner, and will not need to have it suggested since I enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
So much for amazon's official recommendations. What are useful are the listmania lists that amazon displays along with your search results. Although they represent the opinions of a single person rather than an integration over all purchasers of Lolita (for instance), they provide a much more varied set of recommendations. Maybe the listmania list you selected has something that sparks your fancy, maybe it doesn't. But on the sidebar there are other lists that share one or more books with this one. Maybe one of those has some new, little known, but absolutely great novel.
And there you have it. There's my strategy for finding obscure books on amazon. Sometimes I vary it a little bit. You can add constraints. Say, I wanted to learn more about my heritage, so I browsed Finnish and Scandinavian literature. That's how I found The Kalevala and Kristin Lavransdatter. Or, you can seed it with a book you haven't read before. I love books that have pages describing the publisher's catalogue in the back. This can be a great way to find new, never-heard-of-before authors! Choose one with a quirky title, and you're off!
Of course, all of this takes time. It's easy to spend an hour at a time just browsing and following connections on amazon. So I also love to get recommendations from friends. So how 'bout all of you? Read any good books lately? :D
This seems like a useful segue for describing my process for finding new books to read. I read quite a variety of books. Although my favorite, almost exclusive, genre is "Literature & Fiction", I like to think that my reading really spans it. This past year has seen me make my way through really old classics (e.g.: The Aeneid); sort of old classics (e.g.: The Woman in White); contemporary best sellers (e.g.: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell); and more obscure, relatively contemporary fiction (e.g.: War with the Newts). I especially like finding the more obscure fiction. Ah, the thrill of discovery! There's so much of it out there, and quite a bit of it is really good! You just have to know how to find it. Which really isn't all that difficult anymore. Viva the information age and online marketplaces!
I remember a conversation I had with my advisor and a fellow grad student some time ago. Like me, they love to read. But they were trying to justify their adherance to less literary genres (mystery novels, mainly). By the time I got to be their age, they explained, I would have read most of the big novels there are, and there wouldn't be much "Literature & Fiction" left. Popcorn mysteries, however, are churned out prolifically, and they always had some new book to read. I refrained from arguing, despite my very strong disagreement. Even if you wanted to stick to the best sellers of current literature, many of which are quite good, you could never run out of novels! And that's not even considering any of the obscure ones! (I did get something out of the conversation at least: they both recommend Mary Renault to me, who writes really good, gay historical fiction novels.)
But how do you find the little known ones? This is a question that my book-loving friends ask, since they wonder how I've come to read so many books they've never heard of. So let me walk you through my process. I'll use War with the Newts, which is a fantastic book, as an example, although it is slightly atypical.
(Mitzi says: ;.//.,,)
A little while ago I exclaimed to myself that I don't think I've ever read a Czech novel, and I wondered why. I love Czech music (Dvorak & Smetana); I love Czech dance (the Czardas); I really like Czech professors, or at least the one that I know; he's taught several classes that I've taken and served on my qualifying exam committee. So it stands to reason that since the Czechs are so culturally rich in these aspects, there must be some great Czech novels out there. I decided then and there to find some great Czech novels. Here's where my old pal Amazon comes in. I think I just searched for "Czech literature", followed one of the Listmania lists, and very promptly selected The Good Soldier Svejk, by Jaroslav Hasek, and War with the Newts for my first stab at Czech literature. I also discovered that they are not, in fact, my first stab, that Franz Kafka was Czech too.
So far, Czech literature seems to be very relevant to our times. Granted, my sample is 1.5 novels, and they aren't too old themselves, seeing as Czechoslovakia (and especially the Czech Republic) is a relatively young nation. I really liked The Good Soldier Svejk, which I read a few weeks ago. It's an anti-war novel written about WWI. War with the Newts is a great satire, that I think strikes extra chords to the ecologically-minded among us. I heartily recommend them both, especially War with the Newts!
Finding these relatively unknown books was rather straight forward, however. Much more so than usual, since I'd already narrowed my inquiry down to "Czech literature". The typical procedure is much less directed, much more stream of conscious. Start with a book you love and search for it on amazon. Amazon will tell you about a few other books that people who bought that one bought. This is almost never helpful, which is unfortunate since this is what amazon bases its recommendations on. The problem is that they generally suggest other books by the same author, or if it's a current best seller, other current best sellers. This is worthless as a recommendation because it provides absolutely no information. If I like Nabokov (and I do), it's very easy for me to search for more Nabokov books. There's no need for me to search for Lolita and discover that people who like Lolita also like Pale Fire. Similarly, if I tend to keep track of best sellers, I will already have heard of The Kite Runner, and will not need to have it suggested since I enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
So much for amazon's official recommendations. What are useful are the listmania lists that amazon displays along with your search results. Although they represent the opinions of a single person rather than an integration over all purchasers of Lolita (for instance), they provide a much more varied set of recommendations. Maybe the listmania list you selected has something that sparks your fancy, maybe it doesn't. But on the sidebar there are other lists that share one or more books with this one. Maybe one of those has some new, little known, but absolutely great novel.
And there you have it. There's my strategy for finding obscure books on amazon. Sometimes I vary it a little bit. You can add constraints. Say, I wanted to learn more about my heritage, so I browsed Finnish and Scandinavian literature. That's how I found The Kalevala and Kristin Lavransdatter. Or, you can seed it with a book you haven't read before. I love books that have pages describing the publisher's catalogue in the back. This can be a great way to find new, never-heard-of-before authors! Choose one with a quirky title, and you're off!
Of course, all of this takes time. It's easy to spend an hour at a time just browsing and following connections on amazon. So I also love to get recommendations from friends. So how 'bout all of you? Read any good books lately? :D
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