This year, I have read 100 books, a total of 25,129 pages. It's not that I'm not even slightly proud, even though it's a duty, a task that must be fulfilled, not boasted, for every thinking creature; 100 books that are easy to speak… I wanted to share the ones that impressed me the most.
Kafka on the Shore (2002)- Haruki Murakami : How do I explain, where do I start… A beautiful word written for a beautiful place in a beautiful song. For some reason, these sentences came to my mind when I started to write a comment for "Kafka on the Beach". It's a stunned book that really makes you think about how you're going to tell it when it's finished. Of course you have to start somewhere. First of all, the difficulty begins in defining the genre of the book, from the very first moment. A little fantasy, a little science fiction, drama, romantic, whatever you want to call it. But I think we can mostly include it in the "Magical Reality" movement. Kafka on the Shore is one of the best books of the 21st century that every book lover should read. The 650-page book contains many anecdotes that should be read slowly and pondered… “In short, this is what falling in love is like, Kafka Tamura. You will be the one who feels breathtakingly good and grapples with a deep darkness. You have to endure it with your body and soul.”
The Book of Disquiet (1934) – Fernando Pessoa: One of the cornerstones of Portuguese literature, the work is the diary of a person's rejection of reality and imprisoning himself in dreams. Bernardo Soares is an accountant living in Lisbon, avoiding contact with people, shutting himself out outside of work, living with books and his own inner world. This book can be considered a kind of diary that he wrote between 1931 and 1934. In fact, it is not quite right to call it a diary, but rather it consists of his ideas and aphorisms that he questions about life and writes what comes to mind on almost every subject. A character Soares, who is extremely depressed, introverted, suicidal, there is hardly a day when he is happy, in fact, he doesn't really want it. His melancholic and depressive state has become his refuge, his world where he finds peace, and he has no intention of taking anyone there. Books and dreams almost all of his life; The inconsistency between the world of his dreams and the real world is making him more and more isolated from reality every day. It's like Soares is someone who jumped off a cliff into the void and continued to fall in that void for years. The Book of Unrest is definitely not a book to be read in a short time. I don't think it should be read without swallowing a few hundred books; otherwise it may seem boring due to its language and slow pace. It is a masterpiece that needs to be read slowly, assimilated, pondered, and then returned and read over and over again. He fascinates people with his incredible imagination, terrific descriptions and descriptions. “Our only concern is to distract ourselves, but we are not like prisoners who are busy with vain jobs to forget their fate, we are like young girls who work on pillows to pass the time, that's all.” . “And we live like poor children playing the happiness game, calling the breadcrumbs cake.” “There is a thin glass between me and life. Although I see and understand clearly, I cannot touch life.”
A Hero of Our Time (1840) – Mikhail Lermontov: “There are two people in me: one lives literally, the other thinks and judges him…” Although Lermontov is not well known in our country, he is the most important Russian representative of the romantic poetry movement after Pushkin. Among many other poems is Lermontov's novel "A Hero of Our Time", written in 1840. The novel is actually a novella consisting of 5 short stories. The protagonist, Pechorin, is literally a Byronic character. From the outside, he is a selfish, jealous, bad person who does not care about women's feelings; however, in the chapters written in his own mouth, you can understand a little bit about the reasons and the chaos he lived in.
Without Touching (2017) – Nermin Yıldırım: “Without Touching” is the author's last book, which was published by Hep Kitap Publishing in March 2017. Justice, 29 years old, is a woman who works in a job where she is unhappy and lives a life without being able to touch or love anyone. When She learns she has a terminal illness, she confronts herself, her fears, and her past. He blames himself for what he didn't do more than what he did in the past. While he was thinking about the mistakes that he had to fix before he died, he goes back to the moment when he was five years old when Mahsun, the poor and mentally handicapped son of the doorman of the neighboring apartment, took Muhlise, his one-eyed bear, his only toy. Years later, he sets out to find Mahsun and return his bear, with Hülya, his only friend in life; Meanwhile, Sadi Seber, whom he met as a result of strange coincidences, accompanies him. The book, the subject of which is briefly like this, offers the reader a view of the world, events and society through the eyes of Adalet. Justice, who collects murder news on the third page from every city and every town in a diary-shaped notebook, questions himself as well as the society, confronts and even does not hesitate to judge. Her relationships with her mother, father, grandmother, fragmentary memories from her childhood, and her life are frequently encountered in the book. With her psychology after the news of her death, her journey and Hülya's constant prodding, she also confronts the fact that her memories are not as she remembers, but in the way she wants to remember. Although it may seem like a simple goal to return a toy, Adalet, wandering from street to street, city to city to repair the heart she broke years ago, sets out to repair her own memories, her own heart, actually herself. In addition to the story of Adalet, the book also includes news and tragic events that have no place in our collective memory, that we regret for a few minutes after reading them in the newspaper; like the drama of the family who hid their child's body in the freezer because of the curfew. The author also draws a portrait of the society on the subject of harassment of women in public transport. Those who abuse, those who are harassed and shut up, those who ignore the harassment. A wind is constantly whispering to Justice; By saying “see this, hear this”… Like the general society, he avoids seeing and hearing. In the conscience of Adalet, the author is actually criticizing the insensitive society, that is, us. The book, which you will encounter many surprises throughout its fiction, is very gripping and fluent. Nermin Yıldırım has used metaphors, descriptions and old Turkish very well and skillfully in the book. As a result, a “compassion” novel has emerged, which brings to light the wounds of the society that has been swept under the mat, is conscientious, full of surprises, sometimes brings tears to your eyes, makes you think and question from time to time. “When you tell someone to shut up, you can long for their voice, when you tell them to go away.” “When a person does not know how to love himself, he cannot imagine that he can be loved by others.”
When Nietzsche Wept (1992) – Irvin D. Yalom: First of all, it is a fictional novel, although some of the events in the book are real. It consists of Nietzsche's coming to the doctor Jozef Breuer, one of the pioneers of Psychotherapy, due to his unsolved health problems, and the aphorisms of the two, which lasted more than 300 pages. While there is a full power struggle at the beginning, both of them surrender by being influenced by each other towards the end. As written in some comments, it is not very gripping, on the contrary, it is thought-provoking and challenging, but it is also a valuable book. At the time of the events in Austria in 1882, Freud was still a young doctor, also Breuer's friend. Nietzsche, in his own words, is going through the birth pangs of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra". Although the last 30-40 pages are gripping with the resolution of the events, the book is full of comments and analyzes that need to be considered. While both of them question their entire lives, relationships and existence to the end, you get your share. It is a book of great literary and scientific value.
Unutkan Ayna (2016) – Gürsel Korat: A shadowy time between remembering and forgetting stands in dusty silence. The memory of time is imperfect. It is not known whether the name of the compensation for this defect is life or whether the wall hung by a photograph is human, but just as Proust said: "A person can only stay true to what he remembers and only remember what he knows. The first book by Gürsel Korat. As it is narrated by Armenians, one inevitably wonders if there is a connection, whereas Korat is a Muslim Turk from a nationalist and conservative family, as he himself stated. Gürsel Korat has written a truly masterful novel. The secret and surprise ending at the end of the book is also impressive…
The Human Brain (2004) – Robert Winston: Robert Winston has produced many productions such as Walking With Caveman, Superhuman, Child Of Our Time, as well as the BBC's The Human Body and Human Instinct documentaries broadcast on NTV. A scientist and doctor who has signed and written more than 20 books. In fact, Winston, who is a professor specializing in gynecology, reproduction and microsurgery and was awarded the title of "Sir" in 1994, later became interested in the brain and neurology, according to his own statement. Winston wrote the book, originally called Human Mind, in 2004, one year after the documentary of the same name. The book, published with the translation of Gül Tonak by Say Publications, consists of a total of 544 pages. The book covers many topics such as the structure of the human brain, the neurological system, hormones, our senses and working principles, sleep, dreams, addictions, psychological disorders, learning process, memory, emotions, love, sexuality, character analysis and intelligence. While we are discovering how we can improve our intelligence, how we can reveal our skills that we have but never noticed, how we can give up our old habits and how we can keep our brain in shape as we age, we are also faced with a great paradox. Because the only tool that makes it possible for us to understand the human brain is the human brain itself, and it is highly probable that science will never be able to fully explain the extraordinary mechanism that makes each of us unique. Although it looks dauntingly thick, the book, which is easy to read and written in a very understandable language, is a good resource for those who want to learn about the brain and neurology.
The Dispossessed (1974) – Ursula K. Le Guin: One of Le Guin's cult works is The Dispossessed. The novel he wrote in 1974 is a utopian science fiction. A truly wonderfully imaginative novel; Le Guin won the Nebula and Hugo awards, which are the Oscars of the science fiction world, with this novel. The novel takes place on two planets, Urras and Anarres. Both planets are satellites of each other; one is the Earth of the other, the Moon of the other, and vice versa. There is no State on Anarres, all society is free (or so they think it is), no guns, no possessions and no possessions; it is also a dry, barren, dust-covered planet. Urras, on the other hand, is a planet ruled by a full capitalist system. Class differences, rules, laws, etc. It is also an easier place to live with its fertile lands. He already referred to the USA and Russia with the name Le Guin Urras. (US and USSR: former Soviet Union). It was strange for a country that was communist at that time that Le Guin, who was a socialist and anarchist, sent the USSR. The novel tells the story of a scientist named Shevek, living in Anarres, going to Urras and returning to Urras because of some events that he lived on his own planet (I am not writing to avoid spoilers). Even if you get bored from time to time, it is indisputable that it is a science fiction masterpiece that is beyond its time with its immersive descriptions, dialogues and great imagination. “Like all walls, it was double-meaning, two-faced. What was inside and what was outside depended on which side of the wall you were looking at.”
Oğullar ve Rencide Ruhlar (2004) – Alper Canıgüz: He is a bit like Selçuk Aydemir in terms of style, with plenty of humor. The first of the adventures of 5 year old grown-up Alper Kamu. Of course, it is not a literary masterpiece, but it is extremely entertaining and gripping. I loved it.
Crimson Rivers (1997) – Jean-Christophe Grange
Duman Hotel (2017) – Bülent Çallı
Enigma (2010) – Antoni Casas Ros
The Call of Cthulhu (1926) – H. P. Lovecraft
Orbit (1999) – Tess Gerritsen
My Name Is Red (2000) – Orhan Pamuk
Değişen Beynim (2015) – Sinan Canan
Aylak Adam (1959) – Yusuf Atılgan
Bir De Baktım Yoksun (2009) – Yekta Kopan
The disappointments I gave 1 star out of 5 on Goodreads are:
“Journey to the End of the Night-Ferdinand Celine”, “World History in One Breath-Emma Marriott”, “Weird Tales-Ransom Rigs”, “The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath”, “Zorba-Kazancakis”, “Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz-Barış Bıçakçı”, “The Stone Raft-Jose Saramago”, “Coşkuyla Ölmek-Şule Gürbüz”, “Lighthouse-Virginia Woolf”, “Invisible Cities-Italo Calvino”
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