Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Where NOT to start

I got the idea to make these videos from Claudia at the channel @SpinstersLibrary Please check out her playlist of videos about where to start if you are considering reading certain authors.

#BookRecommendations

[ellethinks]

I love this type of content and am glad that this sort of niche is being filled on booktube. I definitely feel that I haven’t given some authors the proper chance because I started with the wrong book by them. I will have to check out Claudia’s channel. I am also glad that the only Gabriel Garcia Marquez I own is what you say is his best work to start with. 😄

[aaronfacer]

I love the idea of this series! I've never read Marquez but have been curious for quite a while. So thanks for your suggestions, I'll definitely keep them in mind!

[attention]

This is such a great idea! I know a lot of people will have different tastes' and all, but the way you present the works, and the reasons on why they are not great places to start, is very helpful. And I completely agree with "Love in the Time of Cholera." I had read a few short stories before this one, but this was the first novel, and I never actually finished it. However, I do like Marquez, and if I were to pick it back up, I would probably feel very different about it now. Look forward to seeing more of these!

[AmyGetsLit]

This is so fantastic! I'm looking forward to this series. I think it's very valuable content. Great job on this!

[veryliterarykari]

Claudia was one of the first Booktubers I followed! She’s awesome! Why is it when I see a video with NOT in the title I automatically click it? 🤣 Great video! I have One Hundred Years, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

[kmwwrench]

Great idea for a series. Eager to see who else you address. Of course, Love in the Time of Cholera is the only Marquez I've read. It's been a few years so I don't remember exactly what I thought. I do remember that when I got to the end my thought was "What exactly was the point of all that?" I've read a fair amount of Latin American literature and didn't have trouble with this, but I felt slightly disappointed for some reason. Happy reading!

[GuiltyFeat]

This is fantastic. I endorse starting with One Hundred Years... I was told that the book would change my life. I read it over 30 years ago and it did. I would shout out also some late career books. News of a Kidnapping is non fiction and places Marquez in context in Colombia. Living to Tell the Tale is the first volume of a never finished autobiographical trilogy and has plenty about it to love.

His last publish novella Memoirs of My Melancholy Whores is completely skippable.

[TheQuietMidden]

Great idea for a series. I need to reread his two most famous because reading them for papers wasn't enjoyable at the time. I did really enjoy News of a Kidnapping, though. I might try The General in His Labyrinth. Aside from the repetition, it sounds like my kind of book.
I appreciate these kinds of helpful non-review videos from well-read booktubers. 😊

[Moonpome]

This is a wonderful idea for a series. There are only a few authors that I’d feel confident to make such recommendations about, so I’m glad to hear your thoughts.

[GunpowderFictionPlot]

Great idea for a series, where not to start is so much more important than where to start, IMO.

So I take it as you've recommended 100 years as a starting point that there's no place to start that doesn't make my brain hurt?

[ramblingraconteur]

Great idea, Brian! This is a series I look forward to following. Love in the Time of Cholera was my first Marquez, and it did turn me off from his other works for a long time. One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my wife’s favorite books, so she reintroduced me to him.

I might be trying to trace the general through his labyrinth later this year . . .

Hope this weekend is fantastic and special for all of you!
Best, Jack

[AJDunnReads]

I've only read One Hundred Years of Solitude. I love stark and horrendous. I should read Love in the Time of Cholera.

[jeremyfee]

Great video idea. I love the stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez; I hadn't really thought about people getting off to a bad start with an author.

[scallydandlingaboutthebook]

I think the question for me with GGM was where to stop. I loved him and a couple including A Hundred Years remain precious to me but I think I wearied of aspects such as the treatment of young women, despite admiring his writing style in other ways.

[RoadReads]

This is great! Very helpful…thank you!

[CourtneyFerriter]

My first Marquez was One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I read in high school and remember liking, but I haven't reread it since. Read Chronicle of a Death Foretold in grad school and liked it, too. I endorse both of these choices!
Where NOT to start with Thomas Hardy: The Return of the Native 😉 (Where to start: The Mayor of Casterbridge)

[lsah]

This is a great idea and I hope you keep doing them!! I have GGM’s short stories as well as One Hundred Years of Solitude. I tried Love in the Time of Cholera and DNF’d it. At some point I may try some of his others, but I have to be in the mood to undertake them.

[jimsbooksreadingandstuff]

Oops, too late, I started with Love in the Time of Cholera.... the obsession reminded me of Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence... I have read other Gabriel Garcia Marquez since, I prefer the short magic realism stories like "Light is Like Water".

[seriela]

Look forward to the series, Brian. 😳 Did you just airquote "el Libertador"!!? 😳 (I just hauled the Marie Arana biography - in Spanish)

[MsReadsAlot]

I love this idea! I think I read 100 years before love in the time of cholera but my bad memory isn’t allowing me to know for sure. What a great way to introduce readers to authors! Looking forward to more in this series!