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Hardcore Literature Book Discussion (July 2021) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-07-03 11:34:08
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2026-06
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Dear Book Club Readers ---

Your reading during the month of June was impressive. 

The June Book Club General Discussion thread makes for some great reading.

Deep reads of the Great Books on the schedule, poetry sampling, historical accounts, acclaimed biographies, short stories galore, and much more.

So tell us what your July is looking like.

What are you reading at the moment?

Let us know anything that's on your mind, your literary loves, and anything you wish to share or sharpen your thoughts about.

  • Short stories
  • Author details
  • Areas to explore
  • Your current Big Read
  • Questions about literature
  • Things you're finding difficult
  • Things you want to recommend
  • General life updates (we're interested)

We've got an amazing Book Club community that's growing thanks to your thoughtful meditations on the Great Books.

So thank you for being a part of the family, and I hope your summer is filled with bookish adventures.

Happy reading!

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Comments

Len Larsson

Hi Ben. I am reading How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom. Also I am working my way through a short story Anthology, with "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson slated for tomorrow. I also have Short Story collections of Wilde, Ray Bradbury and Hemingway to work through over time. Proust of course, and Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell.

hardcoreliterature

I’ve recently treated myself to a couple of beautiful Oxford hardback clothbound books. The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The second is a reread, whilst the former is new territory for me. I believe I read the short story ‘Rats’ a long time ago, but would like to sample more of James’ gothic short stories. He made it a Christmas Eve tradition at Cambridge University (where I believe he was the Provost) in which, in a candlelit chapel at midnight, he would read aloud to the students the latest ghost story he penned. I love that sort of thing, and hope to reignite a similar tradition this year. Around Halloween time, we’re reading ‘The Turn of the Screw’ in original serialised fashion and our Big Read is Frankenstein, but how delightful would it be to be to light some candles and do a few live readings of chilling tales spread across the spooky season? I also recently picked up an early edition hardback of Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’. I love the story behind the book’s conception. His wife fished it out of the trash and made him bring it back to life. She said he needed a little help writing more believable teenage girls, but other than that he needed to persevere. King wrote the story in his trailer laundry room, balancing a typewriter on his knees, whenever he wasn’t working as an English teacher. His wife was working at Dunkin Donuts and they were raising their children. His wife Tabitha was right to encourage him. Doubleday bought the book for the equivalent of ~$2 million in today’s dollars and, after decades of toiling, King’s career got the kickstart it needed. I love that. I’m also rereading Austen, Proust, Cervantes, and Hesse (of course), and find Persuasion to be the novel that most speaks to me in my current season of life as I struggle to find a new home. But, as Anne Elliot says, “When pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure.”

hardcoreliterature
>>63069687

Tremendous book! "Free your mind of academic cant" - one of the rules of reading from a fantastic introduction. I covered much of this book in pen, and remember particularly loving Bloom's section on Dickens' Great Expectations. "The Lottery" is a superb choice and one of my personal favourites - we'll have a video on it soon actually :) Bradbury is a hero of mine, as is Wilde. I've heard a few readers mention Hamnet now, so I would be really keen to hear what you make of it, Len!

Mina Carrabba

Hi everyone! I'm excited to be a part of this book club with you all. I'll start off with an introduction... I am from the US (Massachusetts) and I graduated college (actually a whole year earlier than I had planned) back in May with my Bachelor's degree in public health, and I'm job searching right now. I have really been motivated to get back into reading this year and have been picking up some classics! I also enjoy gardening and am currently trying to get into sewing here and there.

Bill Freeman
>>63070298

Mina - Congratulations on your early graduation. I spent my career working in public health and for the last decade+, I have been a public health professor (MPH). Ben and the members are great. I know of nothing that comes close to this bookclub. My recommendation --- start with Anna Karenina, it is life-changing. BTW, I am from Massachusetts (Taunton, Martha's Vineyard, Boston).

Bill Freeman

Personal Challenge – During the Memorial Day weekend and into the first week of June, I experience the most significant personal challenge of the past 25 years. And I am slowly, mindfully coming to resolution. This framed my reading for the past month. Read in June: Oscar Wilde – I only have a very, very passing knowledge of this Dublin-born 19th-century personality by as a tribute to 2021 Gay Pride, I took a deep dive. This includes reading “A Picture of Dorian Gray,” and his prison writing, “De Profundis.” I watched the 1997 biopic of Wilde (IMDb), and I read everything I could find online, including discovering a dedicated website: https://www.cmgww.com/historic/wilde/ James Baldwin – “The Fire Next Time,” and “I Am Not Your Negro.” Erudite, angry, pained. Queen / Freddy Mercury – I rewatched the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Rami Malek’s award-winning performance as Freddy Mercury. I watched several of their concert recordings (e.g., Rio, Wimbledon, NYC). I was executive director of The National Association of People with AIDS (Washington, DC) and spoke at the U.S. memorial service after his death in November 1991. Currently reading and reading into July: Continue with "The Proust Project." I have stopped reading "Swann's Way," and am only listening to the audio. “The World's Greatest Short Stories” (Dover Thrift Edition, 2006) by James Daley (Editor) Wonderfully wide-ranging and enjoyable, this outstanding collection features short stories by great 19- and 20th-century writers from America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Western Europe. Included are Hemingway. John Updike, Jorge Luis Borges, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Herman Melville, Thomas Mann, Guy de Maupassant, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, D. H. Lawrence, and ten other great writers. Herman Hesse's “Siddhartha.” This is a reread of a book that is a meditation on the well-living life. Like all wisdom literature, its message is both contemporary and timeless. “The Gulag Archipelago” (One-volume, abridged; Vintage) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Ben’s recommendation. I have read and am rereading Jordon Peterson’s Forward. This very much has the feel of a book that is experienced as it is read. July reading: “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (nearly 2-million positive Amazon ratings). Toni Morrison identifies him as the heir to James Baldwin with his reflections on the present moment of race and reckoning in America. “Don Quixote “by Cervantes. Following Ben’s recommendation, I’ve ordered the John Rutherford (2000) translation and will start it this week. “The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams” by Jonathan Ned Katz. Last week listening to Apple News, I heard an interview about Eve Adams and this book. Eve Adams came to the U.S. from Poland in 1912. She befriended anarchists, sold radical publications, and ran a lesbian- and gay-friendly bookstores in Chicago and New York City. In 1925, Adams wrote and published a book titled “Lesbian Love.” Because of her publication and the fact that she was a lesbian, she was swallowed up by a young J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI leading to her arrest. She was convicted of publishing an obscene book and being a lesbian and deported back to Europe. She was arrested by the Nazis in Paris and died at Auschwitz concentration camp. What a month . . .

Caroline P
>>63077233

Wow Bill, what an epic month you have in store reading all that. I haven’t read The Picture of Dorian Gray and feel a bit ashamed of that. Are you enjoying it? Also I haven’t read James Baldwin…have you read others by him..where would you start?

Caroline P

Hello, maybe I need to do a short Introduction. I live near the coast in Norfolk U.K. which is just as well because I love all things watery, swimming, diving, sailing…reading in the bath…most of my books get water damage one way or another in the end. I recently dropped Klara and the Sun (by Ishiguro) in the bath..and frankly that was the best end to that book. I am a retired research scientist but recently went back to the lab to do Covid testing. It was ok, busy, but I am happy in very many ways to have been able to stop doing that now and get back to reading, drawing (I draw little stories, just for fun) , dog walking, sitting about and having fun. I found this group because I was unsure about reading Proust. I had a little search on YouTube and found Bens videos and then the audio podcasts and this group. I am so excited about this because my friends don’t really read and I have been so disappointed with BookTube. I really want to listen to proper discussions about books that concentrate on reading properly and not feel a failure if I haven’t read and enjoyed the latest huge stack of releases. I am not educated in English literature and don’t really have the ability to talk intelligently about books, but I want to learn how to get my mountain of thoughts about what I read out in a considered way and just talk to people who love reading. Proper bookish enthusiasts. Ok, I am currently reading Swanns Way and ohhhhh my goodness I am loving it ( there you go…see comment above about how to talk about books). I like how he challenges me with really difficult ideas that I struggle to always understand. I almost get it but the meaning is a bit slippery. I am finding that I need to read some bits many times and listen on audible too…then go out for a walk with my dog and contemplate it..then I usually feel enlightened. And just when I think I can’t take anymore thinking, there are wonderful funny little stories about the maid, or the aunt, or beautiful descriptive passages about buildings or whatever. It is a real rollercoaster read and I am loving it hugely. I saw that some people wonder about missing Combray…what a mistake that would be. I think sometimes he toys with me, the reader, quite playfully. One thing I have noticed is that if you tell people you are reading this book you get quite a reaction. Either that it is difficult or you are being pseudo clever…or they tried it once and it was soooo boring, going on about sleep and mamma. Proust seems to carry a lot of preconceived prejudice. I can’t really read two books at once but I would like to mention a book I just finished. It took me three readings to get it but it was only short. It is The Employees by Olga Ravn. It is set on a space ship but definitely is not scifi. I won’t go on about what it is about…but it was written to complement a conceptual art exhibition and like Proust, the book is enhanced by looking at the art. That book was just brilliant and has made me think so much about sentience and how to view art I don’t necessarily understand. It also reminded me a lot of that poem Welsh Incident by Robert Graves. It was shortlisted for the Booker International but didn’t win (maybe because it didn’t tackle the current obligatory themes), it should have tho if I ruled the world. And of Poetry I am rereading Seamus Heaney. I love his poetry, how he can be so poignant and lyrical e.g. Postscript and also so deeply, seethingly angry without ranting or dictating about Ireland…I love his poems about peat bog bodies. I would love to know more about Byron. I know some but would love to know more about him. Mainly because he was bad and godforsaken…I went to poets corner in Westminster Abbey last week and had a little giggle that Byron was too naughty to be buried there and was buried in Northamptonshire instead (!) ( tho his heart may be inGreece). Anyway, I would like to know more about all of him and is life…which I guess we may touch on later with Frankenstein. Ps my Rutherford translation of Don Quixote is sitting on my table…can’t wait to start that.

Florian Pesantes

I shall start with what I’m not reading anymore thanks to you, Benjamin: the morning papers, a lifelong habit of my wasted past. As my day-job is extremely time- and energy consuming I have to carefully choose what to do with the few hours that I have to myself. Music, films, meditative walking and recently Wim-Hof’s breathing meditation are important to me as well, hence I have to be selective with my reading. Proust is an immense pleasure and I willingly follow all hints. So I read into Vergil’s ‘Georgics’ and found a precious English translation as an audiobook: https://youtu.be/1RruQyt2_to so well read. I also followed the paths into the labyrinth of French politics of the 19th century alongside the names Proust mentions. Did you know, Ben, that Maréchal Mac-Mahon, former President of the 3rd Republic of France was an Irish descendant like yourself? I also was excited to find an explanation for the letter from Twickenham, Swann supposedly had in his pocket. I felt like Sherlock Holmes. I want tell here, of course. No spoiler. Apart from this I finished “Persuasion” with all homework attached and Tchekov’s “Lady with the dog”. In preparation of a performance of the play in Winchester, Hampshire, the city of my previous residency I’m reading “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” aloud. As always with Shakespeare’s plays, reading an explanation of the plot prior confuses me completely and rather puts me off. But then, the magic of the language and the plasticity of the characters enthralled me once more. For this I paused Goethe’s Faust II. WS’ Sonnets: 9 and 30 I much enjoyed. And Tennyson’s “In Memoriam”, today an intense reading and listening of the preface. ‘A beam in darkness: let it grow’. I had also the privilege to have a preview at Arthur L Wood’s next book of poems, which will be published in August: extraordinary! Rilke, when I’m out in the parks, cafes and in the nature. I’m slowly proceeding with Zarathustra and Marc Aurel. Very slowly. Bill reminded me of “Dorian Gray”. I think I’ll read this next. As a sideline to Proust. So, a good mix I think, I’m happy with the parallel reading, but I think I couldn’t start more right now. C. G. Jung would be most interesting for me. “Das Rote Buch” . And Baldwin. Some time in the future. And of course Don Quixote to keep pace with you my fellow club members.

Mina Carrabba
>>63088877

Caroline, I can absolutely relate to you on wanting to find a passionate community of readers, especially since not many people my age (21 in a few days!) are into reading never mind discussing literature! The last time I have ever been in that kind of environment was high school AP English classes, and I really want to have that passion again and share it with others! And to add to your point about reading something and finding meaning, I think that everyone's experience/ interpretation with a book is unique and worthwhile, even of the meaning is not always as obvious to us as it is to others, or doesn't hit us until later on. :)

Bill Freeman
>>63091395

Florian - As always, wonderful sharing. Interesting you mention Virgil. I am reading "Aeneid" in Latin-English as a way to (hopefully) recall six years of Latin. - "Arma virumque, cano, Troiae qui primus ab ordis Italia, fato profungus . . . ". My Wilde excursion was, well, wild! I liked him very much. If you get a chance check out the movie. It paces with what historical info I could find I think he'd be a hoot! Irreverent, brilliant, iconoclastic, and wounded. I can picture boas, feathers, and fabulousness.

John Starliper

Besides the usual Book Club fare, I am reading Conversations With Flannery O’Connor, a collection of her interviews where she discusses literature and writing. It has me spellbound at the moment. I’ll keep you abreast of any especially pithy wisdom I encounter.

Florian Pesantes

Often I turn to YouTube to find explanations to authors and works I’m currently on. “In our time” a BBC series with Melvyn Bragg is usually a valuable source. There’s plenty from and about CG Jung, a bit difficult to choose. Stephen Fry’s talks are always thought provoking and entertaining alike, his mastering of the English language is mind boggling and delightful. And of course Benjamin’s own podcasts and videos! Like visiting a beloved friend who fertilises my brain and heart each time I visit one of his videos. An hour of his videos turns into 3 hours of research alongside or thereafter. I’m looking forward to my first life session later today

Florian Pesantes

Jordan Peterson. I’m a bit ambivalent about his lectures. Aesthetically: I don’t like his voice much, so quacking. The topics he talks about are usually interesting to me, gender not so much, Nietzsche and Jung more. He is a bit too provocative for my taste, like an angry teenager. Lately he seems to me a bit like an anxious boy who overcompensates. His omnipresence seems a tad too vain to me, the right wing culture war bit: I don’t buy it from him. I have the impression he’s a bit of a contrarian by character ( nothing wrong with this, better than boring). And also he might be interested in marketing himself as a brand. He probably is an intelligent, knowledgeable man, but I don’t take too much home from his YouTube lectures. I will certainly spend some time again with one of his lectures if the topic were interesting to me, “culture war” themes are too hackneyed and divisive for me to engage. What do you think of him?

Bill Freeman
>>63122476

Florian – It was delightfully spending time with you this afternoon. As I explained, my introduction to Peterson is his phenomenal Forward to the single-volume release of Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago.” I’ve read it about four times and want to read it a number more (deep bow to Ben for encouraging rereading w/o blame). For me, this is highwire without a net political commentary. I would enjoy your feedback on the Forward. With that said, I can undoubtedly understand your take on his video with the talk-show host. I agree that he was a bit edgy, but I also found the interviewer unnecessary provocative. I think he gave as good as he got. As I mentioned above, I was unaware of him and, most definitely, want to read more of his work. Regarding gender pay equality, my partner has shared that a single-cause analysis is inadequate following the gravy train of casual similarities being determinative. While unpopular, it is just more complex and nuanced. I leave you with a bit from Levin and Kitty’s wedding ceremony: “The church became so still that the dripping of wax could be heard” (p. 451).

Florian Pesantes

Dear Bill, the pleasure had been mine. I am delighted to have been admitted to this illustrious circle! And special thanks for the Tolstoi quote. I’ve only joined the club after you’d finished the lecture of Anna Karenina, but now I feel the wish to reading it on my own sometime, if the breathtaking pace of Benjamin’s wonderful suggestions, which I most willingly follow would allow me to do that.

Caroline P

Florian, I have just heard that quote in my audible version of Letters to a young poet. Isn’t that an amazing book. It isn’t a spoiler so I hope it is ok to add this little sentence from Swanns Way that I just read and really love. I will always think of this now when I see the moon sneak up during the day. ‘Sometimes, in the afternoon sky the moon would creep up, white as a cloud, furtive, lustreless, suggesting an actress who does not have to ‘come on’ for a while, and watches the rest of the company for a moment from the auditorium in her ordinary clothes, keeping in the background, not wishing to attract attention to herself.’

Tammy Merck

Hello all and welcome to the new book club members. I hit a bit of a reading slump recently but I feel as if I am getting back on track now. i am reading Persuasion at the moment and will also read/watch some other Austen material this month as it is Jane Austen July in the booktube world. I am also reading At Night All Blood Is Black which is a very different book from anything Austen to say the least! It is an excellent book though and I highly recommend it. I also recently read a Natalia Gizzburg novel, The Dry Heart. I have to say that reading shorter books did help me in moving out of feeling stuck with reading. My next “big read”is probably going to be David Copperfield or Little Dorrit.

hardcoreliterature
>>63174736

Oh, that is such a beautiful quotation. I love clipping them out and keeping them - "furtive, lustreless" - how perfect is that? The poetry of Proust is endless.

hardcoreliterature
>>63277612

Reading slumps happen to the best of us, Tammy. It's wonderful to hear you're getting back into it though. I had no idea it was Austen month in the Booktube world! Perhaps lucky timing as I've just put out a Persuasion Podcast which I found immensely enjoyable. Quite easily one of my favourite novels now. Nice choice on the Dickens, and I typically read a couple of short stories or short things between big novels as it can be quite jarring to shift between big books.

Sharon xx

Hi Everyone!! Hope you're all well and happy? A huge welcome to the new members - it's good to have you all here. Apologies for being late to the party [yet again] life is just ridiculous for me currently. My middle son is in the process of emigrating to Canada and that has had it challenges this week. Gotta love a Covid Pandemic for putting a viral spanner in the emigration works. Just when you think all the paperwork is in place Justin Trudeau moves the goal posts. So reading wise - not much has changed from June's update really. Current Reads: - Proust, Swann's Way - working my way slowly along with this and journaling copiously enroute. Still enjoying it immensely and find that, when I hit a bit that really makes me think, I have to pause for a day or so to process that section before I can move on. I genuinely thought I could just do a few pages each day with a bit of journaling but I can't move onto the next page/s until I've thoroughly dissected the parts that make me question myself and the world. That happens a lot. C&P - I've so nearly finished this - I've actually put AK on-hold because this has taken over completely. I'm listening [everywhere and anywhere] on Audible [Constance Garnett translation which feels dated and clumsy compared to my Nicolas Pasternak Slater OWC's physical edition] but it's narrated by the actor, Will Poulter [Maze Runner] who I have to say is totally amazing. He gives all the characters regional british accents which some reviewers have found off-putting but I love them; he makes me smile. This will be finished within the next couple of days because I'm hooked and desperate to know the ending now. AK - as you know I was tandem reading this beside C&P but, as I said above, this is on-hold until C&P is finished and I've watched the last couple of Ben's C&P lectures. I will come back to it after that as I need to finish it before Les Mis. Bleak House - Dickens - I'm over half way through this now and I don't want it to end :( . I'm aware Ben has a Dickens lined up for us over Christmas so if I time it well, I should be able to finish BH just in time to start the Christmas Dickens. If Ben chooses BH for us I will just have to reread it lol. How terrible :) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - I started this a couple of days ago and I've nearly finished it I'm sad to say. This is my first read of this [not my first Bronte though - I read, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall at the end of last year]. I had put off reading this for well over a year as I thought it would be dark, depressing and slow. Don't get me wrong, it is dark and a bit sad but it's so much more than that. It's rich and nuanced. It's true and honest; raw and wild. Multifaceted. I've no idea how someone who, on the face of it, had such a 'narrow' experience of life could write something so mature and full of life's experiences and capture such a wide variety of characters and personalities in such a beautiful way. It's quite breathtaking. I shall be a bit bereft when I've finished it. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel - is on-hold until Wuthering Heights is finished. Somehow it got sidelined and it needs my full attention or I lose track so, in order to do it justice, it's waiting patiently on my book shelf. The style of writing in this trilogy was always going to be a challenge [for me] as it doesn't flow easily. The mass of characters and information mean you really have to concentrate and you can't leave it for any amount of time or you lose track very quickly. Not one to read at bedtime when your brain is fluffy and you're too tired to remember your own name. All that said, it has lived up to its hype so far and I've no regrets about buying it but I need to own it fully when I read it or it will just be a box ticked and not a book read. Poetry: - Shelley - Ode to the West Wind - I absolutely loved this and really wanted to give it more time as I could easily have spent a week studying and deep diving into this poem. Instead it got a paltry five hours of my time but oh so worth it. I love things that fizz my brain a bit. The more you read it the more layers of meaning reveal themselves. A real poetic rabbit hole. Plans afoot for July: - I've yet to read Blake - Proverbs of Hell but it's on my 'To Do' list so it will happen this month. I really want to read the essay by Shelley, "The Necessity of Atheism'. This was the essay that got him expelled from Oxford and, given the mixed messages in Ode to the West Wind, I think this might be a great supplementary read. That's about it I think. I've still got my eye firmly on Les Mis in the Autumn, hence I'm not starting a lot of new titles. I need to finish AK/C&P/WH by the end of the Summer as I suspect Les Mis will need 100% of my attention. Proust will continue to tick over. BH needs to last until Christmas so I don't have to endure a single moment without a Dickens in my life. Summer continues to be evasive in the UK. I still think the first two weeks of June were it. I have the first two weeks of August off with Si. We're not going away but we are planning some days out and Haworth [home of the Bronte's] is on that list!!!! Beyond excited! Wishing you all a fabulous July with lots of quality reading time and sunshine. Sharon xx

hardcoreliterature
>>63560530

Emigrating to Canada! That must be incredibly stressful at this period in time. I used to live in Canada for a few years - Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto (never made it to Vancouver), with French Canada being one of my favourite places in the world - the people are so friendly. But I couldn't imagine what one would have to do in order to successfully move there in this climate. I've been longing to relocate to Japan, but I would have no confidence that it would go smoothly. It's quite hard enough trying to get a place in this country. I hope things start to work out for you soon! Wonderful to hear you are taken with C&P. You always have such great audiobook recommendations, Sharon - you're a connoisseur. I used my last Audible credit on your recommendation and I'll use my next on this one too. It's great that you mentioned Dickens, as the last few days have involved me working on the planning for that Christmas read. Soon to be revealed :) Wuthering Heights is great, and has made it onto the (currently secret) schedule for next year. You're clearly very busy at the moment, and yet you are reading voraciously! This is something I relate to strongly. Thank you for the wonderful update, Sharon. Fingers crossed the heat wave that has battered the UK will ease of just a little bit this week :)