Reddit reviews If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

If On a Winter’s Night A Traveler - Italo Calvino

Try, If on a winter's night, a traveller by Italo Calvino

[If on a Winter's Night a Traveler] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0156439611?pc_redir=1409922838&robot_redir=1) by Italo Calvino is an absolute delight to read. Its told in the not very common second-person and that alone I think makes it worth checking out. Beyond that it's a meditation on the joy of reading and engaging with a book and it's author. (But it's much more than that!) And really it's like 10 different books in one.

In my humble opinion If on a Winters Night is a book lover's book. I defy you to read the first ten pages online and not go out and pick it up!

Definitley Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami. Its about a dude who's wife leaves him and he has to find her. There is even a talking cat and some dream state scenes. some of it is a retelling of different histories and it has a lot of branching narratives. Kafka On The Shore is another great one by Murakami.

For Vonnegut,you're likely looking for Sirens of Titan, a retelling of Jonah and the Whale through an Alice and Wonderland lens. It's got a character who is very much representative of the Cheshire Cat. He has three different phases. His early books are the best. After (or even during) Breakfast of Champions he start writing a little more autobiographically (Slapstick is about his late sister and Hocus Pocus is about his brief tenure at Rollins college) and it's not as poignant (I don't think). And then later with stuff like Galapagos, he goes back to more philosophical lit, but it doesn't pack the same punch as his first phase.

Finally, House of Leaves is an amazing haunted house book that dramatically alters how you read a book. His other work is good too, but I haven't given any of it enough attention.

Edit: If you want to get meta, check out Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth or If On a Winter's Night a Traveler... by Italo Calvino.

I reread "If on a winters night a traveler" by Italo Calvino every year once the weather has become decidedly wintery. It's a wonderful book: It describes the tale of a person (yourself, actually) attempting to finish reading a book they began but could not continue due to a printing error. Every odd numbered chapter is written in the second person and details the efforts you make to continue your read while every even numbered chapter contains another excerpt from the next book you reach in your attempt to finish the original book. Charming and witty, it's one of my favourite books and I implore you to try it - everyone I've convinced to do so has been thrilled by it.

A few good Italian authors that wrote prose are as follows:

• Italo Svevo (Zeno's Conscience)
  
  
• Italo Calvino (if on a winter's night a traveler)
  
  
• Elsa Morante (History: A Novel). I haven't read this, but I have heard great reviews.
  
  
• Tommaso Landolfi (Gogol's Wife and Other Stories) A pretty good collection of short stories.

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend "Einstein's Dreams," by Alan Lightman. You may also like Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" and "If on a winter's night a traveler."

Very If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.

This is one I've really wanted for a while. Oh, and this would be lovely too. Thanks for the great opportunity, I hope you like postmodernism!