Soul Mountain | 
A 667-pages roadtrip novel, with chapters alternating between a disillusioned “you“ mainly looking for young women to spend the night with (those sections haven't aged well), and a “I“ looking for what I'll sum up as “Eternal China“: folksongs, old monasteries, folktales... and of course, the Soul Mountain in the title. I am glad I read it -I enjoyed the folk chapters- but I am in no hurry to read any more from this #NobelPrize winner.
#10BeforeTheEnd update:
I finished Paris noir and The Adventures of Vela. I was planning on starting Mejnun and Leyla but after Vela, I need a break on the long-form poetry front, so Soul Mountain it is! As it is a doorstop and I have a few days off, it should be perfect.
@ChaoticMissAdventures
Pic is of the Chinese Garden in Chaumont, back in June
#NobelPrize
so-so⭐⭐
FINALLY, I've finished this book. It has been a long two months. Tbh, I have no idea what I have just read. This Nobel prize winning piece is incomprehensible to me. There is no purpose, no theme, no journey, no story.... perhaps I am limited in my understanding of this "masterpiece" by my lack of literature experience. Or maybe the English translation simply fails to do the original work justice. Either way, what are your thoughts on this one?
I won't buy any books at the church garden party. I won't, I won't, I won't......... oh I did!
Will power 0 books 4
Does anyone know anything about these books?
“You should know that there is little you can seek in this world, that there is no need for you to be so greedy, in the end all you can achieve are memories, hazy, intangible, dreamlike memories, which are impossible to articulate. When you try to relate them, the are only sentences, the dregs left from the filler of linguistic structures.”
I'm tarrying for quite a while in Asia on my #ReadingAroundTheWorld tour. So many amazing works to explore! Today I found this lovely gem from Gao Xingjian at a local indie bookstore called Grey Matter Books-- "used books for scholars and holy fools"! #China #NobelPrizeWinners
panIt may have taken me four months, but I finally finished this book. I can say I technically read every word, but I would be hard-pressed to tell you what the book is about. There are 81 chapters, and none of them seemed really related. This is not a traditional novel. I am not really sure what it is, but I am so glad I do not have to take a test over it! On a positive note, with this book I finished the #LitsyAtoZ challenge!!
#uncannyoctober day 20: #booksinthewild
Probably as #wild as it's gonna get here. But we did have a bit of a wild night with rain splattering against the windows, an always rare sight in bone dry California. It did however mean that my 4yo's pumpkin patch field trip had to be rescheduled 😢
bailedNo way. There are a few interesting anecdotes, but this is not a novel: it is utterly devoid of shape or meaning; there's not a blinking thing I can get behind or grab hold of to push myself past the 23% mark, which has taken me three months to get to. No way. I am out of here. Yay!
I am struggling some with this book, but I will keep plugging along. This is my last book - X - for my #LitsyAtoZ challenge. I have to finish (before the end of the year 😂)!! The writing is simple and beautiful, but the book is definitely not one to be read lightly. It takes some work.
This is a quintessentially meditative passage, and it's juxtaposed at the beginning of one chapter up against a harrowing tale at the end of the last one about a man's horrific experiences during the Cultural Revolution. Wow… I'm finally getting a sense of what Xingjian is up to here. ❤️
#QuoteOfTheDay
I am pretty allergic to spiritually-themed stuff but have to get through a novel about a non-white protagonist's spiritual journey for one of the book challenges. So this will be my second try, after bailing on Wagamese's Medicine Walk last month. Fingers crossed!
#bookhaul from my local library's used book store. Every library should have one!
If you are looking for a book with the author's last name starting with 'X' here's one and he's award winning at that. #LitsyAtoZ
Some of my books set in Asia! I haven't read most of these yet, but I've heard so many wonderful things about each of them.
Countries represented: India 🇮🇳, China 🇨🇳, Indonesia 🇮🇩, Japan 🇯🇵, Myanmar 🇲🇲, and an unnamed country in the Middle East (but the author's from Kuwait 🇰🇼).
#SeptPhotoChallenge #SomethingforSept #AsianBooks #WNDB #WeNeedDiverseBooks #AuthorsofColor #POCAuthors
I was browsing through a used book sale in the park which consisted mostly of old text books from the seventies, when I lucked upon this first American edition of Gao Xingjian's critically acclaimed epic Soul Mountain. I've been searching for this one for a long time and I think it found me at just the right time in my life.
3 down, 7 to go for #10BeforeTheEnd @ChaoticMissAdventures
And also, this my chunkster for #classicschallenge2025 (edited) 3w
@AnnCrystal 😀 3w