authors i want to start reading

diversifying my tbr, author edition

esje

Sep 11, 2024

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Welcome back to ‘our usual spot’, come join me with your cup of coffee, tea, or glass of wine, for thoughtful and intentional rambles on media, recommendations, and the occasional life musings. Take what you need, and leave the rest. Enjoy!

File:Leonid Pasternak - The Passion of creation (1).jpg - Wikimedia Commons — Leonid Pasternak, The Passion of Writing, oil on canvas, date unknown.

Reading has always been my go-to pastime since I was a young kid. However, as I’ve grown up, I’ve come to appreciate the value of reading beyond what is simply fun and entertaining, or reading simply what I know.

Reading widely, and deeply, has given me some of the most life-changing pieces of literature that I would never have picked up if I stayed in my reading comfort zone.

From simply being a source of entertainment, it has become an avenue to learn about life, people, relationships, and so much more (this is my 100% F in the MBTI coming out, I’m sorry — and yes, pseudo-science blah I know, it’s a fun little test let me be).

But I’ll save this much longer ramble for a separate post.

Now, to the topic at hand.

2024 introduced a lot of new favorite authors to me, which was a tall order after discovering some brilliant ones last year as well (Lispector, Pessoa, and more).

To name a few:

Caleb Azumah Nelson’s newest novel Small Worlds, was my first five-star of the year, and allowed me to revisit Open Water with a newfound appreciation. I don’t know how I missed his brilliance the first time around, but Nelson is now an author whose releases I look forward to.

Ali Smith and her unique, experimental writing could have gone so wrong for me. Every time I heard about her writing and themes, it has never piqued my interest. Not until I experienced my first ever spring in Japan, and wanted a book to remember the feeling. To date, I have read three of her Seasonal Quartet, as well as ‘How to be Both’ and have not looked back since.

Jon Fosse’s Septology not only become a favorite read of 2024 so far, but is easily one of the best novels I have ever read. I should probably preface that I’ve only read the three books comprising of the Septology, but it’s hard to respect the man that wrote such a masterpiece.

Billy-ray Belcourt made me tear up 11 pages into Coexistence, and held me with so much tenderness for the rest of the short story collection. Queer and Indigenous, written with so much delicacy and tenderness, everything I would want to experience from literature — to see more of myself, but also to expand my worldview beyond what I have grown up around.

As such, I thought it would be a fun exercise to go through my to-be-read list and identify the authors I want to (i) discover more of (reading beyond the one book I’ve read from them); and (ii) start reading (self-explanatory).

If you have read, or plan on reading any of these authors — I’d love to hear your thoughts on the comments below!

i. authors i want to read more of

Here is a list of authors I have gotten a taste of (read only one book), and regardless of the star rating for the sole book I’ve read from them, have intrigued me enough to look forward to exploring more of their works.

Magda Szabo (Hungary)

Books read: The Door — 4.5 stars (due for a reread)

Favorite Quote: “I know now, what I didn’t then, that affection can’t always be expressed in calm, orderly, articulate ways; and that one cannot prescribe the form it should take for anyone else.”

It’s been five years since I first read The Door. I remember that one afternoon vividly, locking myself up in a family friend’s bedroom to avoid socializing, transporting myself to mid-1980s Hungary to witness the unexpected and complex friendship that forms between a busy writer and her housekeeper. Szabo writes emotions with such flare, depicted with some of the most captivating character work I’ve read from any novel in the form of the writer and the housekeeper.

In the same intimacy of their unlikely friendship, we see the communist-era Hungary as an ever-looming presence as they navigate their beliefs, influences, similarities and differences. An astounding work on the influences of our environment and upbringing to the relationships we build and form.

The Door impacted me as a reader so much so that I bought Abigail immediately after (one of her most famous books). However, as you can see with most of the authors here, and in line with my nature of being an awful mood reader, it hasn’t called to me yet.

Rachel Cusk (UK)

Books read: Outline — 4 stars

Favorite Quote: “Your failures keep returning to you, while your successes are something you always have to be convince yourself of.”

I’ve noticed that Rachel Cusk has been getting very famous within specific parts of the book community in the last few months. I first attempted reading one of her books, around 3 years ago. By attempt, I mean I read 8 pages and gave up.

‘It’s not you, it’s me’ kind-of reading situation. It was just not the right time. I can’t even remember which book it was.

Then her name started popping up more recently, especially from people whose reading taste I trust with my life. So I picked up Outline and brought it with me to Copenhagen as the first of my Scandinavian Summer reads.

I was impressed and intrigued. But i’m still holding out full judgment. Cusk shines in conversations — Outline being a novel that allows you to discover more about our private protagonist, through the many people she meets, and the many conversations they have. Cusk does this very well — injecting philosophical and psychological subtext with ease, allowing the conversations to flow while still giving you something to think about.

Isn’t that such an accurate way of viewing life, though? That a big part of our lives are made up of the many people we encounter and spend our lives with. I’ll have to see what else Cusk has in store with the rest of her books.

Yan Lianke (China)

Books read: Dream of Ding Village — 3.75 stars

Favorite Quote: “They died like falling leaves. Their light extinguishing, gone from this world.”

One of China’s most controversial authors, with his works often banned in the country — my first and only experience reading his works come in the form of “Dream of Ding Village”.

One of the many banned books by Yan Lianke in China — “Dreams of Ding village” is inspired by the real-life “Blood Scandal” in Henan, with 3 years worth of research by the author despite the likely criticism he would get from the government.

Picture this: a local provincial government offers its poor rural towns a life line by introducing blood-selling (which they in turn, sell to pharmaceutical companies — capitalism, of course), to allow them keep up with the rapid growth seen in other towns/provinces. Unfortunately, the lack of regulation and sanitary practices created widespread contamination of HIV/AIDs that wiped out whole towns and villages in the provinces from the 80s-00s.

The novel, humanized through the story of one family, shows the impact of the blood scandal on the lives of the locals from those that facilitate, to those that have passed — and the role the government played in driving the towns to ruin (and censoring it from the public).

Yan Lianke, beyond this novel, is well known for his satirized accounts of very real issues that are faced in China, a country often misunderstood due to the questionable actions of its government. I currently have a copy of “The Four Books” which tackles Maoist China, that I’m looking forward to (eventually) reading.

Marcel Proust (France)

Books read: Swann’s Way — 5 stars

Favorite Quote: That masterpiece of a page about the madeleine.

“No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea.”

What do I even say that decades of people witnessing the brilliance of Proust have not said yet. There’s a running joke I have with my friend, that with a lot of my favorite authors, there is an almost 70% chance that either Marcel Proust or ‘In Search of Lost Time’ will, at one point, be mentioned.

That was the start of my journey with Proust. A life’s work that, with its daunting page count, makes it seem like a life’s work of reading as well, which put me off reading Swann’s Way for a good year. Alas, a difficult year in my life had me grasping for straws and thought maybe Proust could solve my problems. I mean, he seemed to have impacted some of my favorite authors that much to never shut up about him.

He didn’t. But he helped. Swann’s Way was a dream of a novel that I long to revisit (I just don’t have my physical copy with me). Most importantly, to hopefully continue on to the rest of the series. Hopefully, it won’t take me a whole lifetime to read.

ii. authors i want to start reading

Here is a list of authors I hope to one day read. Attached are quick blurbs (Krasznahorkai and Beckett from Goodreads; Smith from Brittanica) on their style of writing and themes they cover. As I have yet to read a single book by them, I instead attach a quick commentary as to why I want to read their works.

Laszlo Krasznahorkai (Hungary)

László Krasznahorkai is a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter who is known for critically difficult and demanding novels, often labelled as postmodern, with dystopian and bleak melancholic themes.

The most daunting of the authors on this list. Every single review I’ve read of his books, as well as general comments I hear about his writing just puts him further down on my TBR — what keeps him there, however, is the sheer awe I’ve heard from people who consider him one of the best within his style of writing, and always favored to one day win the Nobel Prize.

Samuel Beckett (Ireland)

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet,(…). His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.

There is a trend here, authors whose works are very distinct stylistically and unique (avant-garde) that tackle deep, complex themes are the very authors I have not yet read any books from, but I hope to one day read.

It’s daunting. What can I say. Although, Samuel Beckett is often an author mentioned side by side with Jon Fosse, which as I mentioned above, has grown to become one of my favorite authors from the masterpiece of Septology alone.

Zadie Smith (UK)

British author known for her treatment of race, religion, and cultural identity and for her novels' eccentric characters, savvy humor, and snappy dialogue.

Shame. I have had a copy of White Teeth on my bookshelf (it’s even starting to show discoloration) for around 7 years already and I have yet to read it. Zadie Smith seems to be a favorite author of a lot of authors I have a deep respect for — reading the blurb about her writing style and themes she tackles, I can understand why.

For some reason, Zadie Smith has not called to me yet, though I hope it happens soon.

There you have it — the authors I want to read more of.

Again, If you have read, or plan on reading any of these authors — I’d love to hear your thoughts (and recommendations)!