Has anyone read any of the books on this list? If so, what are your thoughts on it/them? I'm trying to find out which ones are worth reading.
sacred wood, the paris review interviews, and simon leys are all def. worth reading
the abc of reading was pure fucking nonsense start to finish
avoid edmund wilson, he was a shitty contrarian critic and hardcore marxist (shat all over LOTR and Ulysses, most of the books he commends are all lost to history)
the eco collection is disappointing. I was excited given how much of a pedant he was but his actual essays are mediocre.
Gass' nonfiction is kinda meh besides one hilarious account of a Wittgenstein lecture he once attended, all of his fiction is breathtaking though.
avoid Borges' non-fiction too, broke my heart to learn he was an edgy schopenhauerian at core
>>7477650
Noted. Thanks, anon.
read how fiction works about a month back. first of this kind of thing i ever read except for a few things in high school. really liked it. lots of good advice for readers and writers. want to keep reading similar shit. thank you for turning me on to this list.
>>7477650
What do you get out of reading these kinds of books?
>>7477666
You wouldn't happen to study in Utrecht, would you?
>>7477690
S, not trecht. Why?
>>7477699
I had to read that book for a course last year in the same time period. Doesn't look like a very famous book, so I was wondering.
I read Kundera's Art of the Novel. The work begins with a pretty interesting thought, which is that there was a pretty long section of history in which the novel didn't exist. There are some interesting thoughts and his writing on Kafka is truly splendid. It's really short so you can easily read it in a day; would recommend picking it up.
>>7477752
Noted.
The Well Wrought Urn is excellent if you're interested in poetry/how poetic criticism. It's New Criticism but not obnoxious, and it stands to the test of time.
Calvino is a joy to read as he often is with his fiction, it's a very light hearted take on canonicity and what "great literature" means.
Skip The Western Canon by Bloom desu. If you're curious in Bloom, I recommend The Visionary Company (Romantic poets) and Anxiety of Influence. Bloom was much better as an aesthetic critic of verse than as a puffed up defender of the canon. How to Read and Why isn't bad, but I haven't read the whole thing.
Paris Review Interviews are all top notch. Pick an author you like, or you're interested about, and just go for it. I personally remember really liking the ones they did with Kenzaboro Oe, William Weaver (Eco/Calvino translator), and a million others. Seriously they're all excellent and interesting.
>>7477776
>>7477776
What is the best poetry criticism book?
>>7477632
Borges. Absolutely Borges. I think his essays are better than his short stories. They are fantastic. Some of the best. One of the best books I've ever read. Re-read it all the time (though, the early essays are not good).
>>7477849
Borges officially changed from red to yellow
>>7477776
>puffed up
>>7477846
Depends on the poem but the two I mentioned are good and I also like Fearful Symmetry (Northrop Frye) which focuses on Blake.
>>7477632
Rexroth apparently wasn't fond of his literary criticism, but I really adored it. Maybe partially based on the fact that he acknowledges Eastern classics among the Western in his essays.
Davenport's book is really wide-ranging too, but more across disciplines. It's not only about books, but aesthetics, art history, history generally, and all humanities.
Dirda's very relaxing. He's the Washington Post book reviewer. Readings has a lot of genre chapters, but Dirda is just someone who loves reading; he doesn't praise trash, as far as I've found.
Moretti is essential for world literature studies, and The Novel is a huge two volume chunk of a compilation of vast swathes of comparitive literature. There are essays on everything from book market statistics to the early Greek novel.
Leys was a sinophile, and so his work might be a bit more specialized. But near the end of that book are a good lot that would appeal to anyone in academia or book lovers generally (I think it's the ones that are speeches and keynotes).
Dedalus Book of Literary Suicides is as interesting as you would think it would be, and it does have a lot on Mishima, but also the authors you might not have known killed themselves, like Trakl. The first several chapters are more theory-based essays, the latter half examines specific writers.
>>7477667
Mostly a comfortable feeling.
>>7477632
The ABC of Reading was pretty good. I never took Pound too seriously in his proscriptions (and his theory behind Chinese writing is nonsense), but it really inspires you to take the reading, writing and study of literature seriously. He's a very funny writer too.
>>7479318
what was his theory on chinese writing and why was it wrong?
I haven't read that particular Bloom but he can be pretty useless to read. He's in his own Bloom world most of the time and as a result you get either the inane or the unspeakably obvious. You can be generally assured that what he likes is good so just pick that out and ignore everything else.
>>7479826
"I've never read anything by Bloom in its entirety and I'm just gonna parrot what I read on /lit/"
why the fuck would you comment if you even admit you never read it? fuck off
An anon did a write up on those a week or so ago. Search the archive for it.
>>7479911
not OP but i'm interested; no clue what search terms to use any idea? thanks
Is Bloom that frowned upon in /lit/?
Bloom, and How to Read and Why in particular, is what got me started on literature to begin with. I can definitely understand an aversion to his near militarism. Reminded me of Ayn Rand a tad. But his insight into the totality of the western canon and resultant commentary on the Great Conversation are unrivaled.
That being said, one could do away with most of Bloom's later work by reading the more the more insightful/energetic early stuff. Becomes repetitious in some aspects and codger-ly in others.
>>7477742
American here who had to read that book for a creative writing course I think, back when I was an undergrad. So it's probably fairly well-known.
Bloom here.
>>7477632
How To Read A Book was good, would recommend.
>>7479914
https://warosu.org/lit/thread/S7421085
>How to Read a Book
>Just read this book!
FUCK
>>7479297
>Leys was a Sinophile
I did wonder why he was dressed like that...
>>7481172
>Le Sinophile
>They are preparing to become Imperialists in East Asia and Neocolonialists in Africa
>IT'S 2015
>>7480642
In the introduction he mentions that someone published a book called "How To Read 2 Books" to make fun of him.
