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Invisible cities was too visual for me (I have a weak visual imagination, so I can't appreciate books that rely too heavily on images), but I really liked If On
by retsibsi 7y ago
Invisible cities was too visual for me (I have a weak visual imagination, so I can't appreciate books that rely too heavily on images), but I really liked If On A Winter's Night a Traveler, and this quote reminds me that I want to read more Calvino.
Would you (or anyone else here) recommend another book of his, given those preferences/weaknesses of mine?
- riffraff 7y agoit's been a while since I read it, and it wasn't my favourite, but I believe Palomar[0] was much less visual than Invisible Cities. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Palomar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Palomar
- ycombinete 7y agoHis letters. Wonderfully written, and not visual at all.
- retsibsi 7y agoThanks! Not something I would have naturally gravitated to, but I think I might enjoy them.
- alberto_ol 7y agoItalian here. I read all Calvino's novels and short-stories in high school. I would suggest The Nonexistent Knight and Cosmicomics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nonexistent_Knight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nonexistent_Knight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmicomics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmicomics
- retsibsi 7y agoThanks! Cosmicomics rings a bell as something I'd considered reading but never got around to, and those mini-synopses on the Wikipedia page are pretty enticing.
- kaffeemitsahne 7y agoI have no visual imagination at all, but loved Invisible Cities. Just wanted to mention this so other non-imagers don't discard this wonderful book :)
- qfwfq_ 7y agoCosmicomics has long been my single favorite collection of written work. Calvino's amazing.
- kristianov 7y agoUsername checks out!
- galaxyLogic 7y agoYes that's the best I think, and very suitable for HN audience
- rbrtdrmpc- 7y agoThe Castle of Crossed Destinies (Il castello dei destini incrociati), it helps having visual imagination on this too, but i think is less intensive that Invisible Cities (Città invisibili) and Marcovaldo too. p.s. Italian here too, though i never had the chance to read much of him during highschool
- RobertKerans 7y agoIf you're an English [native] speaker, The Baron in the Trees just received a very nice new English translation (published by Penguin on their Vintage Classics imprint in the UK). I love Calvino so much as an writer, but that's probably my favourite and the one I find I can recommend most successfully; it's imo more straightforward than his other more famous books, with less of the linguistic games.
- piffey 7y agoSo glad you posted this. Baron In The Trees is one of my favorite books and it has been so long since I read it. I'll be picking up that new translation.
- mcphage 7y agoNumbers in the Dark (https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Dark-Italo-Calvino/dp/0544146425 https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Dark-Italo-Calvino/dp/0544146...) has a wide variety of stories, it's a good starting point.
- daviday 7y agoSix Memos for the Next Millennium is outstanding