this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately my memory is really bad on his books. And what I liked back then as a teenager I might cringe at today. :) I think these two were my favorites.
I remember reading Brighton Rock while in Brighton, though. It was written as a money-spinner, but apparently had pretty good reviews and he was happy with it. One site says it's one of his most famous works. Again, I don't remember anything about it 😅.
Maybe I’ll check it out one of these days then… since you said your tastes have changed, what are you into nowadays?
Very different stuff. Due to chronic pain that affects my focus, I'm not reading thaaat much anymore, especially stuff for leisure, as it's even harder to focus when I'm supposedly relaxing. :)
The closest, I guess, is Homer's Odyssey as an audio book (Emily Wilson translation) which I'm currently enjoying. In the beginning I thought she's going way too much into all the stuff surrounding the story, but after a while it made sense, and I'm grateful for it.
Something I've read recently-ish: Psychopaths Anonymous by Will Carver. Kinda literary fast-food, unless you have an interest in the theme, but still both gruesome and funny. I think True Crime folks would enjoy this.
The novel Children of Gebelawi by Naguib Mahfouz. He is a legendary Egyptian author. Someone told me he'd write his novels sitting outside cafes after work.
Also by an Egyptian, and an easier read, I think, Beer in the Snooker Club
Also currently reading: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends - Spencer, Lewis. This is somewhat leisure, I think, but non-fiction of course :)
In a similar fact/fiction vein, I'm also working my way through: Strange Stories, Amazing Facts Stories That are Bizarre, Unusual, Odd, Astonishing, and Often Incredible.
One of my favorite authors remains Haruki Murakami. Wind-up Bird Chronicle is my absolute favorite novel. Norwegian Wood, and 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World' come close behind.
Broken Phoenix by Edmond Manning is something I really wanna read, to get some fantasy in there, but couldn't get my hands on yet 😭
What kinda stuff do you enjoy?
That honestly sounds like a lot of very interesting stuff, thanks for the very thorough answer! I’m trying to stick to fiction, non fiction often feels too much like work to me haha. Used to be biiiig on fantasy and scify when I was young, like Lord of the Rings, Dune, Ender Series and Cosmere type stuff. Then I stopped reading for a while and afterwards I couldn’t really get into it again for some reason…
So since I started again I’ve been working my way through mostly classics. Last year I was mostly into naturalist/existentialist/psychological realist novels with a focus on Russian, German, French and a few American authors. So stuff like Dostoevsky, Camus, Kafka, but also lots of plays by people like Hauptmann and Ibsen. Greene I read mostly as a nice lighter distraction in between, but I’m happy that it started off this conversation. I definitely wanna broaden my horizons a bit this year to get some more international perspective, especially since last year I read quite a few colonial novels, but very few that were narrated by the colonised. Also trying to read some more women since that is a huge blind spot for me… if you want, check out my StoryGraph profile for more. I’m trying to be thorough on reviewing the stuff I read and I’d love to get a little more social on there since I know no one who uses it yet. Here’s the link: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/flo1312
Oh yeah, Dune is really cool :) It's only really through the fediverse that I got back in touch with fantasy. I see so many good titles mentioned. And after reading that really heavy stuff it only makes sense you're going for something lighter!
I think I'll create an account on StoryGraph and message you to add me, as your profile is private :)
Ah my bad, didn’t even know it was private. Now it should work.