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I love how Cormac McCarthy describes the desert and how he uses his words to really get us there. My favourite is still All The Pretty Horses, but I also had this “deserted“ feeling while reading this book. Be careful: this really is a bloody book, where different kinds of slaughter take place. Sadly, based on true events...

Me: I don't have the time and the money for swaps this year. Also, I have enough unread books here. I'm fine with that.
Litsy: I've got something for you. You might like that. You can sign up now.

#SantaThing

As advertised....This novel is extremely dense, and it‘s slow moving at times, like a company of killers plodding through a dessert wasteland.... well, it‘s exactly like that. At other times, it‘s bloody, violent, and cruel. There‘s many types of beasts, thousands of mules (dead, alive, and at various stages of decomposition), and a whole hell lot of riding and moving on. Not for the casual reader. Overall rating: 4.28 stars

A dude and his criminal friends get into shenanigans in the desert. The shenanigans typically cause death. A naked guy dances in the end.

“Deployed upon that plain they moved in a constant elision, ordained agents of the actual dividing out the world which they encountered and leaving what had been and what would never be alone extinguished on the ground behind them. Spectre horsemen, pale with dust, anonymous in the crenellated heat. Above all else, they appeared wholly at venture, primal, provisional, devoid of order.”

Hanging in the hometown of McCarthy this weekend for the Big Ears Music Festival.

“And so these parties divided upon that midnight plain, each passing back the way the other had come, pursuing as all travelers must inversions without end upon other men‘s journeys.”

“For this will to deceive that is in things luminous may manifest itself likewise in retrospect and so by sleight of some fixed part of a journey already accomplished may also post men to fraudulent destinies.”

“The judge smiled.
Books lie, he said.
God dont lie.
No, said the judge. He does not. And these are his words.
He held up a chunk of rock.
He speaks in stones and trees, the bones of things.“

“Far out on the desert to the north dustspouts rose wobbling and augured the earth and some said they‘d heard of pilgrims borne aloft like dervishes in those mindless coils to be dropped broken and bleeding upon the desert again and there perhaps to watch the thing that had destroyed them lurch onward like some drunken djinn and resolve itself once more into the elements from which it sprang.“

“[He] cried out what it seemed he himself would not hear, a howl of such outrage as to stitch a caesura in the pulsebeat of the world. But the kid only spat into the darkness of the space between them. I know your kind, he said. What‘s wrong with you is wrong all the way through you.”

“Words are things. The words he is in possession of he cannot he deprived of. Their authority transcends his ignorance of their meaning.”

“[T]hey rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms [...] and there began to appear above them in the dawn-broached sky a hellish likeness of their ranks rising huge and inverted [...] the howling antiwarriors pendant from their mounts immense and chimeric and the high wild cries carrying that flat and barren pan like the cries of souls broke through some misweave in the weft of things into the world below.”
———
If Faulkner wrote Revelations

1) Cormac McCarthy
2) Blood Meridian. Or The Road. Or Blindness. It depends on the day.
3) The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisen
4) Sci-fi, horror, dystopia, science nonfiction, history, space stuff, true crime
5) Romance, historical fiction. Basically any story about normal stuff.

#ravenclaw_princess913 @RavenclawPrincess913

Another 2-for-1 sale? Don't mind if I do!
#audiblesale

This is scratching some type of itch for me, goddamn.

"The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate."

I am such a fan of McCarthy‘s writing style. His use of language is stunning. I love his imagery. That being said, this book is a fighter. I constantly had to reread entire pages. The story is secondary to his use of language to me. The sparse dialogue may be a turn off for some people but I‘ve always enjoyed it in his works. I‘ll reread this one again soon because I know I missed a ton of symbolism.

Blood Meridian is a relentless, bleak, blood-soaked novel. It is also one of the most beautiful novels I‘ve ever read. Not a read for the faint hearted, McCarthy commands a lot of his reader here. Both content and style mean that this is not easy reading, but as always McCarthy is the master and I am in awe. #indiebuddyreads

“The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But the man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.”

#novemberreads #novemberwrapup

Multiple 5⭐️ reads this month - Blood Meridian, Born a Crime and Wind in the Willows ( yes that is quite a range ! ). Two very interesting debut novels as well.

23/24 on #readharder2018 - nearly done ✅

Better late than never #indiebuddyreads also, #readharder2018 a western

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the most violent book I have ever read.
It is a relentless, cruel, blood-soaked novel that I think is near impossible to describe. Probably the bleakest Western ever written but it is also one that transcends the genre into something Harold Bloom describes as - the major aesthetic achievement of any living American writer and I really can‘t disagree.
The language alone is astonishing. Tough going but worth it.

I get that Judge Holden is possibly Satan but damned if the man isn‘t really quotable.

This book is definitely a challenging read but it‘s a very rewarding one. I expect I‘ll have to read it a few times before I have fully absorbed the story.

The opening sentence of chapter two of Blood Meridian is referenced in a Florence + the Machine song I love called “Between Two Lungs”. I love finding little connections like this. It makes me feel like I have discovered a precious little secret.

A little Saturday #bookhaul from B&N. Figured it was time to read some more McCarthy since I never shut the hell up about The Road. Adrift caught my eye too. I really should have saved my money because I‘m going to Blizzcon next week but I live life in the fast lane.

So I realised I left a look of books I‘ve been reading without reviews. This book is incredible and really rather horrific. I was left feeling shocked and really uncomfortable when I finished it. I don‘t think it reads as easily as the other McCarthy I‘ve read but the pay off is huge if you have the stomach for it!

I HATE to bail on this one because I KNOW is spectacularly written. The plot just didn‘t hold my interest. There is no doubt that McCarthy is a brilliant author who can make you feel everything he‘s conveying...but this western type storyline just wasn‘t for me. #guiltybail

Only a tiny way into this prosaic, albeit rather violent novel. His style is just terrific. He has a gift for making your heart connect to the emotions he describes. Interested to see where this is all heading. #cormacmccarthy #bloodmeridian

While I gave it a pick, I didn‘t enjoy this as much as what I‘ve read of him so far. That said, the writing is beautiful despite the grim tale. You can see much of What will be McCarthy‘s trademark spare style and his unique, frightening characters.

I‘ll never look at my own scalp the same way again. Or my babies ankles 😭

I got fifty pages into this and just could not do it anymore. A DNF for me. I hate quitting on books, but life is too short to be bored.

I'm finally starting this for September book group. My first attempt at reading a Western. So far so good!

Audible enthusiasts, in case you weren‘t aware, there‘s a 2-for-1 credit sale going on right now from a lovely selection of fiction. If you‘re like me, this is what we train for. And save a credit or two for. 😂

This time, I picked up two #1001books audiobooks with good reviews that are not available from my library. 👊🏻

The writing is stellar. I wasn‘t sure I could handle the violence but the writing had me in a trance.

Should finish this today, it‘s been a weird ride so far so I‘m intrigued to see how I feel when it ends!

Continuing my McCarthy reading, actually scared to read this one 🙈

So far a captivating book. McCarthy‘s writing style is so unique

#RoadTripGiveaway @LibrarianRyan

I actually have a story....
About 9 years ago we went to Key Largo, FL for vacation. I was reading Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy, not the greatest vacation book and a song came on my ipod Ryan Bingham - Boracho Station. A song about the west sung by this raspy voiced new singer songwriter (at the time). I always think of this book when I hear this.

Safe travels and have a blast!

Where oh where could my mail be ??? Cormac McCarthy is here somewhere hopefully nice and dry !!

#postmanfail

Many thanks @hermyknee for doing this.
My two favourite things. #coffeecoffeecoffee and books. I couldn‘t pick just one book, let‘s be honest I have a hard time keeping it at two! And my Paris mug, ahhh, Paris and coffee best way to start a day.

I was incredibly disappointed to see how much I disliked this book because I loved The Road and also because I have seen it reviewed over and over as "the greatest work of American literature" and given five star reviews. There were parts of this novel that I actually enjoyed, but then some parts of his prose was written in such a challenging way that I had trouble following what was going on.

I will finish this book today! 13% left

"He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die."
The immense and terrible Judge Holden definitely has the #devilinside.
#MarchintoOz @Cinfhen @Lizpixie

From 2011. Didn't think I would like this style of cover. Nearly 7 years later, I'm still using it. I like the idea of the flap pocket but have never put anything in it. 👍👍

#kindlewear @JoScho

Sorry, there‘s was just too much violence in this book. I couldn‘t really grasp the message.

First bail of the year! I do plan to return to this one eventually - it‘s more a case of bad timing than a bad book. Just really haven‘t been in the mood for this one and haven‘t touched it in weeks.