What books I’m bringing & my summer reading plans

I’m heading back to France for a big part of the summer: let’s chat about what physical books I’ll be bringing & my reading plans for June + July

🏔️ If you plan to read Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain with me, I’ll be starting the last week of June!

Books:
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (trans. H.T. Lowe-Porter) (1924)
Death by Landscape by Elvia Wilk (2022)
Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser (2009)
Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector (trans. Alison Entrekin) (1943)
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (trans. Giovanni Pontiero) (1977)
Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy (trans. Tim Parks) (1991)
The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg (trans. Dick Davis) (1962)
Essayism by Brian Dillon (2017)
The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor (2023)
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante (trans. Ann Goldstein) (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)

Socials:
StoryGraph: @sdelphis

[rebareads]

Love the trio of tiny blue books :) and books over clothing always!

[aleksismil]

And here I thought I was too ambitious with the pile of books I prepared for this summer. Glad to see I am not the only one. ❤

[jameskatie]

ohhh hot summer reading list!!!
a few titles i am really wanting to read there—lispector, ginzberg, jaeggy. so many potential summer reads, too few summer months to cram it all in x

[nathansnook]

"am i correction?!" -- 😭😭😭

i am always over the luggage weight limit because of books..

i can't wait to hear your thoughts on Near to the Wild Heart! you're deep into the cult bb!

[jorjastonej]

I have the John E Woods translation of TMM. End of Junish-July sounds good to me. Happy travels to you!

[DogEaredMusings]

I am really looking forward to getting to the Late Americans!
Your list sounds really fun! Hope you have a great trip :)

[ThePetiteReader]

wow you selected soooo many great books!! I hope you will like them!

[pleasuresofthetext]

excited for your thoughts on sweet days of discipline, it was one of my favorites last year and it’s so slim I’d love to do a reread this year or next

how do you pick your reads for a season? I’m always trying to match the perceived mood of the season, the temperature and climate, etc..

[Literatiloves]

I would never call someone a fool for prioritizing books over clothes. That could be because a few years ago we were going on vacation and I almost forgot to bring any shoes but I had my huge bag of books! 😂 I hope you have a fabulous time with lots of reading!☀️

[meekatui]

So looking forward to reading Lispector with you! 🤍Love this tbr. And prioritising books should always be imperative for summer travel (extra weight from books shouldn't have to count!)

[thelefthandedreader]

I’ve been listening to this on an awesome audiobook. By aBritish actor reader. And I’m enjoying it SO much!

[SpringboardThought]

I can’t remember who it was, but some actor mentioned in an interview that one of the hardest things they had to do was figure out what to do with their arms in any given scene. You point a camera at some people and they gesticulate, it’s a thing~

I loved the heck out of The Magic Mountain, hope you all feel similarly by the end.

…I feel like it was Paul Newman…

[BroJBone]

Just started reading Magic Mountain (Woods). Down to join the read-along! I’ve been floating in the warm and beautiful abstract poetics of Helene Cixous for the past couple months, a dose of high modernism could be a welcome ice bath of traditional narrative structure.

[kaileyidk]

Little virtues is amazing I think you’ll enjoy it :)

[wicebittten]

excited to hear your thoughts on sweet days of discipline, i read it in april and loved it and now i'm planning to dive into the rest of jaeggy's work! also, have you read biography of x by catherine lacey? i'm about halfway through and oh my god... probably the best recent release that i have read in a while. it's seriously something special and i highly recommend it-- its like a fictional biography? set in an alternate history of the US where the south split off from the rest of the country in the 40s? and i also recently discovered that catherine lacey uses quotes from real authors as different quotes or journal entries or whatever in the book, like she recontextualizes them, and they're from authors such as sontag, lispector, jaeggy, and from chris kraus' biography of kathy acker. i'm blabbering but it's just to say that i would definitely be interested to see your thoughts on this book. if you've already read it, ignore this ramble haha

[csp]

tell me when you feel like reading the neapolitan novels!! or we can end up buddy reading something else 🫣 hahaha I'll keep my eyes peeled for books you're reading

[kiranreader]

i've got Death by Landscape on my tbr! i can't wait to hear your thoughts on sweet days of discipline - hope you have a good time in france! will u be in paris end of month ish?

[csp]

HAHAHA starting your videos in a "semi surprised state of distress" 😭

[ameliareads]

I have read Ferrante, but not the Neopolitan quartet and I never will. I'm just not interested enough.
Also I'm German and hate Thomas Mann. Far too full of himself for my taste.
That's it for the unpopular opinions for today. 😂