Your Folio Predictions for 2022

I’m predicting (hoping) for some Hilary Mantel!

Predicting (hoping) for some Terry Pratchett!

Hoping for some reprints of often requested books that are fetching exorbitant prices on the secondary market.

I'd love an FS Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

I predict FS will finish up it's Bond series with Otopussy and The Living Daylights. Also, it will publish a Marvel Ironman volume. And there will be a C. Van Sandwyk illustrated version of YRTTD (no slipcase) priced at a surprisingly affordable $99.00.

The Bond series should be wrapping up. Presumably we'll get For Your Eyes Only in spring, and Octopussy & The Living Daylights next winter.

And I'm always hoping for more Italo Calvino.

Still waiting vor Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar, with illustrations by Mark Smith.

>8 Andrew14:

Oh yes, good call.

I predict that they'll finally publish A Canticle for Leibowitz, but it will feature dreadful artwork and cost $225 USD.

>8 Andrew14:
>9 folio_books:
wholeheartedly agree, please please more Mark Smith-illustrated Josephine Tey! Both a new edition of Brat Farrar and the novel FS has yet to publish, The Man in the Queue...

Maybe a standard edition of The Three Musketeers. Depending on how quickly they sell out, we could also see SEs of Tristram Shandy and Madame Bovary.

It seems I’ve heard rumors of a reprint or Ulysses. Also a SE of Philip K Dicks short stories.

>12 ubiquitousuk: Those, Tristram Shandy and Madame Bovary, would both be really good to see.

I predict a reprint of And Then There Were None and/or Murder on the Orient Express. And a reprint of Fahrenheit 451.

Why not Tarzan and the Princess of Mars in a boxed LE

>13 CJR93: They did respond to someone who asked from the Facebook page regarding Ulysses that they had plans for the centenary but we’re not revealing it yet. Whether it’s a reprint or more time will tell.

There is also the proposed 75th anniversary pick to come which was surveyed earlier this year and Folio 75 would be welcome.

>10 chrisrsprague: It gave me the chills just thinking about that. I've been clamoring for them to publish that book for a long time, and have finally accepted that they will do so the year after I move to the library in the sky.

Still hoping for:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Stardust~Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere~Neil Gaiman
The Graveyard Book~Neil Gaiman

Alice, Through the Looking Glass~To match the latest Alice in Wonderland.
More Game of Thrones books...there is still one more, correct?

Dandelion Wine~Ray Bradbury

My Antonia~Willa Cather
The Awakening~Kate Chopin

The Sketchbook~Washington Irving
Memoirs of a Geisha
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Year of Wonders
Heidi~Johanna Spyri

etc., etc.,

>22 strangenews: I think McKean confirmed recently that the Neuromancer art was for a Centipede Press edition. Doubt that'll see the light of day next year though.

>5 SF-72: oh my god, Neverwhere, yes please!

>15 whytewolf1: I wonder if FS might consider bringing Christie's 'Death on the Nile' back into print in 2022. With the new movie adaptation now due in Feb, could make sense.

>16 Maretzo: Not Folio, but I doubt if they'd do much, if any, better:
https://www.erbbooks.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

>25 jeremyjm: I'd certainly be happy if they did, and perhaps that will make the difference. They certainly seem to be on top of that sort of thing, what with Dune, Foundation, and so forth. Sadly, I was not actively collecting when a number of the most iconic Christie books were released. So having missed out on them, I would definitely welcome any Christie reprints they would like to do. :)

I hope they continue publishing Philip K Dick books, specifically my favorite one, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.

I really enjoyed most of A Canticle for Leibowitz but a large portion of the last act focused on anti euthanasia which was a bit forced and heavy handed which kind of brought the book down for me sadly.

Predicting and hoping for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West.

>29 goldengift: that would be fantastic

>28 Charon49: Interesting as the author ended up basically euthanizing himself.

>28 Charon49:

I read it quite differently to you. The main character at that point was anti-euthanasia but I didn't think he was necessarily framed as being correct. There was a secondary opinion from the doctor who was framed as quite rational. I read it far more neutrally.

I think another LE to accompany Herodotus' Histories. I'm sure I saw something on that some time back.

I live in hope that we'll see publication of Sumption's Hundred Years War books and Robert Caro's LBJ books.

My guess would be limited edition of dostoevsky as the first LE of new year, followed by the gormenghast as their first scifi/fantasy LE, then some poetry LE.

>34 trentsteel: A Dostoyevksy LE would be great news indeed. Did you get any hints on it or wishful thinking?

Based on the year alone - I predict something from Marcel Proust (2022 would mark 100y from his death), Death on the Nile, Salem's Lot by Stephen King (upcoming high-budget movies) - I'm even more confident there would a re-print or new edition of Pinocchio (two upcoming movies - from Guillermo del Toro and Disney)

>20 Lady19thC: More Game of Thrones books...there is still one more, correct?
Dance of Dragons is the last one. Winds of Winter will hopefully release in the author's lifetime (the first chapter was actually included in the paperback book) and lastly, for the optimists, the last book is called A Dream of Spring which I doubt we'll ever get to see.

>35 bacchus.: nope. Just keep seeing general news about bicentennial of dostoevsky. Plus they have done tolstoy, pasternak LE, so seems natural that they would go with a dostoevsky.

>36 trentsteel: It would be surprising (though not unwelcome) as the anniversary of his birth is this year rather than next year and they released the short stories edition to mark that.

Along the Dostoevsky vein, I can see them re-printing The Brothers Karamazov, with the updated logo at the bottom of the spine, in line with Crime and Punishment and Short Stories. At least I hope they do, as it would "complete" that set for me.

>38 chrisrsprague: I'd be happy with a reprint as well.

This is for sure the year of Shogun.

More LEs. Yawn!

>41 Willoyd: More SE editions of LEs. Yay!

>40 Sorion: I hope so.

The Sun Also Rises is now public domain here in the US, so I'd bet on an edition of that coming out this year or next.

>44 Jason461: Everyman’s Library releases that in April!

>44 Jason461: >45 DMulvee: Century Press will also be releasing a letterpress edition of it- https://www.instagram.com/p/CXb5gZasgFy/

>42 assemblyman:
Now that would be good!

>45 DMulvee: where did you see that?

>35 bacchus.: Really hoping for that Proust LE. It would be amazing but also unlikely that it would be more than just Swann's Way.

I'd echo those above proposing a Death on the Nile reprint. I do wonder if they would produce a new edition in series with Crooked House & And Then There Were None or if that might be too expensive.

I wonder if we'll get a reprint for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which is currently going for truly insane prices on eBay. The demand is clearly there. Given the success of Dune and the pending sequel film, I wouldn't be surprised if they produced an edition of Dune Messiah (assuming they can get the rights).

I’m expecting A Dance with Dragons and the SE of Philip K Dick short stories. Hopeful for The Tombs of Atuan and The Secret Commonwealth. I think they will print those given the fantasy survey. After watching both The Wheel of Time and Station Eleven I wouldn’t be surprised if they are done as well. I would buy them.

I think Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories and A Wizard of Earthsea may see a reprint at some point. They've been in high demand. Probably The Man in the High Castle too.

And yes, if you look at the success of the Dracula SE, I'm pretty sure they will do an SE edition of Philip K Dick's short stories. The demand for sci-fi novels is just too huge at the moment. On Instagram, in particular, you see so many people only buying Folio books from that genre. It's also a way for the Folio Society to get its name out there in the community.

A deluxe, leather edition of Year Round Things To Do (illustrated by Quentin Blake).

Begin printing SE series of complete La Comédie humaine.

>52 Kainzow:

Would love a reprint of Call of Cthulhu. Only took an interest after it just sold out.

>54 DanielOC:
That would be absolutely terrific and I’m sure it would sell in the… low hundreds?

>56 GusLogan: they can offset the cost with a LE Assassin's Creed boxed set

>57 DanielOC:
Since I wouldn’t buy that, your plan seems like it involves someone else subsidizing my book buying - better and better!

>52 Kainzow:
It's also a way for the Folio Society to get its name out there in the community.
What community?

>59 Willoyd: Fans of sci-fi, many of which tend to be collectors.

There are some science-fiction accounts with huge followings on Instagram, for example. And pretty often now, you can see Dune or some FS books by Philip K Dick popping up. It's almost like free advertising for the Folio Society. These posts tend to have huge numbers of likes, compared to those featuring other FS classics (and mind you, there are some people who are die-hard fans of the Brontes and Austen and give these posts their fair share of likes, but still, the numbers do not compare).

And that doesn't only apply to popular accounts, sci-fi classics just tend to have more likes and views on social media. With Folio releasing quite a few of them lately, they have increased their exposure to that community. I'm sure they are aware of that.

And to give substance to what I'm writing, you can check Folio Society's reposts and see that a lot of the recent purchases have come out of the sci-fi category.

So, yes. I really, really think the Philip K Dick stories will be published in an SE. It'll sell like crazy, and even more people will be aware of the FS.

>55 adriano77:
I took an interest only when it was selling out. I couldn't afford paying express shipping for just one book, so I gave it a pass. But I obviously regret now.

I'm optimistic they will reprint it at some point because so many people have requested it. Also, they told me they would tell the team about the demand for the book. Normally, they just tell you that they'll pass on your suggestion to the team. Haha, or maybe I'm looking too much into it.

>60 Kainzow:

Fans of sci-fi, many of which tend to be collectors.....It'll sell like crazy...

I wonder if it is a coincidence (or not!) that the only 3 genres where men outbuy women are scifi, fantasy and horror.

>62 Willoyd: is that true just with respect to fiction?

I’d be astounded if women bought more non-fiction than men, in any sub category.

>63 Uppernorwood: As an English teacher for the last 15 years, let me tell you about how much easier it is to get girls to read than boys right now. At least in the US. Our culture is weird.

>63 Uppernorwood:

I'd also note that almost every big reader I know except for myself is a woman. Women drive almost the entire book industry right now as far as I can tell.

>65 Jason461: I am a 35 year old woman and I can tell you, I have not a single male friend who reads more than 2 books a year, let alone any book. They tend to focus on their smartphones.
Friends of mine who actually read? All women.
I recently had a discussion with my boyfriend about it, because I am always a bit out off when he loves movies and TV shows that have been great books first (His Dark Materials for example), but he never wants to read a good book first. He is of the opinion that there are easier ways to be entertained now: Netflix, video games and so on. Books do not have the exclusive right to good content is how he put it…heated discussion to put it mildly.
I am a bibliophile and he does not read at all.

>62 Willoyd: this seems plausible to me, but I am curious about your data source.

My book club is coed and has been around for 30 years in one form or another. It currently consists of four men and five women. I’m male and read about fifty books a year and I have both male and female friends that read a lot as well.

>67 abysswalker:
Fair question, and when I went to look, I couldn't find it. It was in some notes I took when reading an article on the subject in the autumn on male/female reading, and IIRC now, I took the notes so that I could ask just that question - what was the data source?! I have found some 2015 stats that show a slightly different picture (it's on the statista website, and is quoted by various articles, but when I go to it now I hit a paywall): sci-fi was still male dominated, but fantasy had slightly more women reading, horror not mentioned; most other fictional genres were female dominated, again IIRC.

>63 Uppernorwood:
is that true just with respect to fiction?
The article was about the low numbers of men reading fiction; I understand its very different for non-fiction. For instance, those figures above showed most non-fiction genres to be mostly male readers.

>66 woodstock8786:
I am a 35 year old woman and I can tell you, I have not a single male friend who reads more than 2 books a year, let alone any book.
This is all anecdotal of course, but I think your quoting of age is relevant. I'm a 60+ year old man, and read on average around 75 books a year (c40:35 in favour of fiction). Of the 3 book groups I belong to (all reading primarily fiction), I'm the only male in one of them (out of 7), there's 2 of us out of 8 in another, and the third has 4 out of 13. We are all over 50 (but then, so are all the women). Of my friends, I'm the only one who reads fiction. In the library where I volunteer, the only male fiction reading that I see is of thrillers/crime: I can't recall the last time I saw a man (other than me) borrow a book from the general fiction shelves. The only under-40 male regular reader I know (not a large sample admittedly!) is my 29-year old son, who reads a dozen or so fiction books a year, varying genre. He says that most of his friends read little fiction.

I will dig further, but so far I've found it difficult to find hard data rather than people quoting figures (uncited - just like i did here, oops!), especially for adults.

Later edit:
I've found a site that has a copy of those figures, without the paywall! Bear in mind, these are figures for people who already read - it's not percentages of all men and all women. So, whilst it might say men at 60% and women at 30%, if that's 30% of the 80% women who read, it's in absolute terms rather more than 60% of the 20% men who read (or whatever the figures are!).

https://mythsofthemirror.com/2016/07/11/reader-surveys-by-genre-and-gender/

>66 woodstock8786: I completely agree that women read more than men, but I don’t know any women who read non-fiction, especially history and science. They read fiction best sellers and mystery/crime/who dunnits. If they do read non-fiction it tends to be celebrity autobiographies.

My dad might only read one non-fiction book a year, but that’s still more than my Mum has read in a decade!

Women absolutely drive the industry and best seller lists, which I appreciate as while I generally have next to no interest in the books which typically appear on best seller lists, they fund the publishing of books which I am interested in!

>66 woodstock8786: As a bookseller tending to focus on quite high level history and literature, the great majority of our book-buyers are chaps. It could be that these subjects attract more men, while women possibly might prefer the modern novel, or perhaps they just spend more time on the internet looking at ABE Books.

I would hazard a guess that although females out-read males on average when it comes to fiction, men would dominate among the ranks of book collectors—and especially fine book collectors. For reasons that I don't think are fully understood, men seem to have a much higher propensity to be collectors and seem to invest more time and energy into collecting behaviour.

>72 ubiquitousuk: ‘men are interested in the things, women are interested in people’

A gross generalisation which doesn’t apply on an individual level, but does contain some truth.

>66 woodstock8786: re. video grames. Many years ago I once read that many folks especially in Asian countries made lots of money playing video games in order to acquire in-game artifacts, etc to sell on in the real world. Thought me, that's a really "cool" way to earn a living, so I joined one of the then popular games. I lasted an hour before total and utter boredem made me decide that perhaps this way of earning a living was not for me after all!

:-(

OTOH A decent book I find hard to put down... BTW what is a smart phone? :-)

Regarding the number of men vs. women who read, I think most people's basic intuition is correct. I work in an industry that collects and processes self-declared consumer data, on the order of hundreds of millions of people. If I were to look at the data for the US/UK, the ratio of women to men who declare reading as their hobby is approximately 3:1. Interestingly, for Japan it is about 1:1, so it is not universal in nature. Granted, these are people who actively state that reading is their hobby, and not the number of books purchased or read. I suspect that business book buyers wouldn't say their purchases are a hobby, whereas fiction readers might.

>48 ironjaw: Sorry I didn’t see this message until just now.

Amazon shows the upcoming Everyman releases, there are two release dates one for the US and one for the U.K.
This year will see ‘Rebellion’ by Roth, ‘The Sun Also Rises’ by Hemingway, ‘Pursuit of Love, Love in a cold climate’ by Mitford and ‘Life and Fate’ by Grossman in Feb-April. Whilst ‘The King Must Die; The Bull and the sea’ by Renault is the only release confirmed so far in the Sep-Nov dates

>70 Uppernorwood: "I don’t know any women who read non-fiction."

My wife reads a lot of history and biography as well as fiction from 18th to 21st centuries, but then she's an ex-history teacher.

The fiction I read is generally before say 1970, and mostly classic literature from the 17th to the mid-20th century. I also enjoy classic crime and classic sci-fi. Apart from Tolkien, I'm not a great fan of modern fantasy. I read an equal amount of non-fiction, chiefly history, biography and memoirs. I love diaries but don't keep one myself. Like the stereotypical woman mentioned somewhere above, I usually prefer to read about people more than things. However, I do enjoy reading about science (so long as it is not over-mathematical) - particularly cosmology and the phliloshopic implications of Relativity, etc. If I want to get away from politics and the woke generation I read bird books.

My children read, but not a great deal, as they lead very busy lives with children to bring up. Maybe later. One of my grandchildren, aged 10, reads constantly (when he isn't playing Minecraft): mainly a series of Ancient Greek fantasy that appears to be a neverending story! He's constantly correcting me on the genealogy of the Greek gods.

Hey all I’m new to this thread. I recently discovered Folio Society and have absolutely blown all my extra cash. For me there is nothing better to buy then books I love in nice editions. I thought I was always going to be locked into Easten Press editions, which I was not a huge fan of the plain leather look.

Speaking of your recent posts, I’m a man in my 30’s and read about 60 -70 books a year. I know NOBODY who reads like I do unfortunately, man or woman. But of the few book discussions amongst friends I have been able to have, most were in fact women. It seems no one makes time to read and would rather watch tv or play games. I’m also in the first responder business and all the “type A” men don’t seem to publicly talk about reading habit.

I’ve purchased 26 books from Folio (🤷🏼‍♂️) and they were almost all Sci Fi / Fantasy / Horror. Just all the ones currently on the website. The exception being I bought two Josephine Tey novels since they were on sale as well as the short stories of Dostoyevsky as an easier introduction into his writing.

Anyway, I hope this year to see more King, fantasy books, and modern sci fi. I voted for Mr. Norrell for the voting but would have chosen Lonesome Dove if I didn’t jussssst purchase a standard hardcover.

Most wanted: Hyperion or Shogun!

>79 AlexG743: welcome to the club. You’ll enjoy your time. These are lovely books. Space will become an issue.

>50 indianabones: ...Death on the Nile reprint. I do wonder if they would produce a new edition in series with Crooked House & And Then There Were None or if that might be too expensive

They will not, 100%. The Art Deco series design of Death on the Nile is neither old nor outdated. They have two different concurrent formats for Agatha Christie: one format is for the Poirot and Miss Marple books (most of the recent books including Death on the Nile), the other for non-Poirot/Marple (Crooked House and the now OOP And Then There Were None).

I think there's a generational gap when it comes to gender and reading. The divide is more visible the younger you go; and the boys choose tv, movies and games over reading. If they read, it's not fiction. Based on my own observations of others and my own experience. I only recently got back into reading and cleared my 100 books goal for last year. But there were many years of ~5.

There's also a component of specialization that might be relevant - the book "The Shallows" laid it out pretty well; the more you get used to multitasking 30 tabs of information online, jumping between conversations, constantly scanning information to avoid ads and junk filler of the web, the harder it is to switch gears to long stretches of focus, like reading just one book for an hour or two. And it's real common to see zoomers talking about having TV on as background noise while they chat with 20 different people and try to write an essay - constant juggling and switching back and fro. I've also heard people say exactly that they used to be able to read, but now get antsy and unfocused after 10 minutes.

Again, from my own experience, it's not like you lose the ability permanently, you just have to get back at it until your brain becomes cooperative again.

I’m wondering now that the employees have control and the company sold and no longer in the gavron family, what interesting choices might be introduced. Maybe a reprint of the Andrew Lang, pretty please?

>84 ironjaw: Or fewer interesting choices? I don't know the intricacies of the new model & any increased say employees have (if any) on editorial decisions, but if my bonus depended on the number of volumes sold & profitability I’d probably be voting for more of the same from populist authors like Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett, Philip K. Dick etc & fewer of the more obscure or slow selling titles that might take years to sell through. Would ‘interesting’ choices like a LE Babar happen (as has been mentioned before it seems like even FS employees felt that Babar was a lovely edition but would be a ‘hard sell’ - even at 50% off as it is in the current sale) ? Who knows, but let’s be optimistic !

Just to get back in the topic, the Secret Commonwealth by Phillip Pullman is likely this year.

I wonder is something like the Song of Achilles might appear too. Would be a bridge between popular modern fantasy fiction and more critically acclaimed literature and ‘classics’.

And it would probably sell well.

>84 ironjaw: why should anything much change? Previously, the business was owned by the Gavrons and was supposed to be run by management to maximise profits distributed to them. Now it's owned by employees and managers should maximise the benefits to these new owners. To the extent that employees also care about profit, the decisions taken by management shouldn't change much. If anything, I'd expect an increased focus on improving working conditions, but that needn't have a big and visible impact for end customers.

>87 ubiquitousuk: I didn’t point out that much would change from my >84 ironjaw: post. I was merely suggesting that I was wondering if anything interesting might be published that might not have due to the gavron ownership. That all.

Hello all, a newbie to this group and only found Folio Society a few months but have already spent far too much! My literary tastes lean far more towards the popular side of things though I do peruse some more high-brow works from time to time!

Gutted to have missed out on The Shining and some of the Agatha Christie editions especially given their current resale value on the 2nd hand market so hoping some of those might be reprinted.

Apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere but does anyone know why Folio Society retain listings of sold out titles for several months? Is that a sign that a reprint might be coming?

>89 ThisLifeIrl: It’s to lure in the uninitiated like yourself, hunting after gothic tales, horror and SF mostly but leaving with the Babar LE. It’s a kind of magic!

>89 ThisLifeIrl: Probably to encourage folks to quickly purchase the books that are in stock that they fancy, seeing as how many they no doubt also want have already sold out.

>89 ThisLifeIrl: Another reason would be search crawlers. If one's searching for any of the listed titles and FS appears early in results it can bring in a fair amount of traffic (think of Pratchett, Moby Dick etc.). In addition, if one meets certain criteria (book-fiend, preferable from UK etc.) Google will most likely take a hint and bump FS to be on first page results. The subsequent FOMO symptoms are already mentioned above...

>90 NLNils: *quickly searches for the exit*

>93 ThisLifeIrl:
Too late, Faddiction is incurable!

Really interesting discussion on reading habits above - which doesn't generally surprise me. I'd be interested - if anyone here knows - to learn more about differing cultural socializations of reading. The difference between the US/UK and Japan is really interesting.

I will say that both my wife and mother-in-law read primarily nonfiction. But I also trust the stats that put them in the minority there. I (41 and male) read a mix of things that skews toward fiction.

>94 wcarter: I appears to be in full swing already - order #2 of the sale has just gone in!

No idea where they'll eventually reside as there ain't no free space currently. I wonder if anyone has had any success in installing bookcases on the ceilings...

>96 ThisLifeIrl: You could always turn your doors into bookcases :) https://murphydoor.com/pages/store?utm_campaign=Brand-High-Funnel&utm_source...

>97 AMindForeverVoyaging: Hmm, I kinda like the look of those. Don't think my current purchases would fill all that shelf space and would hate to see it empty and gathering dust. Perhaps more book purchases would be needed?

*and so the vicious circle begins*

>83 A.Godhelm: "The divide is more visible the younger you go; and the boys choose tv, movies and games over reading."

Oddly, with my children it's the other way around.

>98 ThisLifeIrl: *and so the vicious circle begins*

Until you reach the point where there is physically no more room for bookshelves. I solved this by prevailing upon my cousin, who lives ten minutes away, to give up some of her house space, in return for which she gets a handsome collection of Folio books (between a quarter and a third of my collection). But what do you do when your house can take no more, nor can your "overspill" premises? For that is the position I now find myself in, and determined never to go back to the bad old days of storing Folio Society books in the loft (shuddering at the very thought).

>100 folio_books: I don't have space in my place to swing the proverbial feline and spent part of today contemplating whether I really do need a fridge. Perhaps that space could be better utilised with another bookcase. Reminded me of that TV ad from several years back of the child studiously thinking: "Daddy or chips?". In my mind I was wondering "fridge or bookcase?".

Still, I feel it would be remiss of me not to offer to "store" any titles you feel need temporary rehoming if required.

>101 ThisLifeIrl: feel it would be remiss of me not to offer to "store" any titles you feel need temporary rehoming if required.

Mmm, I think you need to solve your own storage issues before turning to mine.

I’ll predict that Folio will cancel the sale that occurs every six months. Currently this encourages some (me!) to order twice a year. Instead they announce each month a much smaller range of books with discounts (instead of 63 in the current sale perhaps 10 different books a month). This encourages more orders, and could see an increase in the number of books they sell

>103 DMulvee:

That would stop a lot of people from buying in (mini) sales due to the by now very high shipping fees. At over 30 Pounds for shipping, only larger orders make sense. It's why I didn't buy anything in this sale, there just wasn't enough to make it worth that kind of shipping fee to me.

>103 DMulvee: I predict that Folio will announce their next book on Kickstarter hyping up its production qualities, labelling it a once-in-a-lifetime campaign, soaring up the demand on social media, and being endlessly overwhelmed by the responses and success, announcing their next publication in the same ad infinitum

>76 DMulvee: Amazon shows the upcoming Everyman releases, there are two release dates one for the US and one for the U.K. This year will see .....‘Life and Fate’ by Grossman in Feb-April.

Now that is good news! At least someone is producing decent quality hardback editions of classics that aren't just rehashes.

>106 Willoyd: Have you read it? Although very long it's an outstanding book. I tried Stalingrad last year and had to give up around page 400 but Life and Fate is so much better - maybe Grossman wasn't as censored? Everyman also released Independent People and Memoirs from the House of the Dead (I think its titled differently but that's how I remember it having read it years ago with a different translation). Great selections indeed!

>107 Joshbooks1: I've dipped in, but hadn't read anything big since start of lockdown until this month - just haven't been able to settle. On my list for this year though! Interesting what you say about comparison with Stalingrad.
I bought the Everyman Independent People only a couple of weeks ago. Have just started a 'Read Around the World' challenge to myself, and that's the one I have down for Iceland.

>108 Willoyd: Ah Life and Fate is one of those books I envy people for not having read it yet since it's such a magnificent experience. It's peculiar Folio published A Writer at War, which is also a great book, but passed on Life and Fate. He must have been heavily censored when writing Stalingrad - the writing is magnificent but it just felt like a 1000 page piece of Russian propaganda with one-dimensional characters and I had to eventually put it down. As for Independent People I think you're in for an even greater treat, at times it gets bland but it is easily one of the best novels ever written and Bjartur of Summerhouses is a character you'll both love and hate and never forget.

>107 Joshbooks1:/>109 Joshbooks1: Stalingrad was written and published while Stalin was still alive. Naturally, a great deal of self-censorship and added propaganda was necessary just to be in a position to present the work for publishing considerations. Then it had to go through further editing before one of the major literary monthlies agreed to publish it. And still it was destroyed by the Soviet press after the publication.

But Life and Fate was written mainly after Stalin's death. I guess Grossman felt that in the era of de-stalinization and Khruschev's Thaw he could write and publish what he wanted. However, he overestimated the Thaw's level of liberalism. The work was not only refused by the literary monthly, but also reported to the KGB, which confiscated all copies of the work they could find, including Grossman's own. It was published in the Soviet Union only in the last years of Perestroika, well after Grossman's death, first in a censored form in 1988, then fully in 1990.

There is a wonderful new biography of Stalin in a trilogy by Stephen Kotkin underway with the first two volumes now published. I have just taken delivery of Volume II for my personal library and am looking forward to some absorbing reading. The title is 'Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941' ISBN 978-1-59420-380-0. This book was published recently and new hardback copies are easily available in the UK.

I could not find a reasonably priced hardback copy of Volume 1 which is entitled 'Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928'.

I have no financial interest at stake with this recommendation.

Just add I saw a recent review of a new 20th century history book (cannot recall title) but its thesis was that you cannot understand the rise of European Fascism without understanding just how much of its growth was fuelled by the fear of the spread of Soviet / Russian Communism.

>111 English-bookseller: I think the book you're referring to is The Spectre of War by Jonathan Haslam. An excellent read.

I second your recommendation of the Kotkin trilogy. For what it's worth, I had some difficulty tracking down the second volume in hardback, but got there after about 12 months' patience. Looking forward to the third volume, apparently titled "Miscalculation and the Mao Eclipse, 1942-1953". No word on when that will be published, though.

>109 Joshbooks1:
Both moved up the list to read in the light of that! Thank you.

I still get excited for the seasonal releases even though I haven't been tempted by any in the last couple of years. It's like I'm in an abusive relationship with FS. I keep hoping it will change so I stay.

>115 L.Bloom: Which titles would float your boat?

I would love to see some editions by Carlos Ruiz Zafon or Dan Simmons.

Realistically, I'd be happy with The Shining, some more Rebecca Du Maurier, the Invisible Man by HG Wells and other odds and ends that i would never have come across if it were not for FS (such as Melmoth the Wanderer and Birdsong).

>116 NLNils: I have a long list of things I'd like to see and an equally long list of things I'd like to stop seeing, as I'm sure most of us do. It's really more of a combination of selection and price point. For example, I do want the "Europe: A History" set but the $260 USD (after shipping) price point is above the threshold for myself and many others I suspect.

I'm a bit surprised with Folio being around for 75 years, they have never done an edition of the Swiss Family Robinson. Hoping this year is the year...

Having read Midnight's Children, I wish they released more books in the same style.

There are so many award-winning books from other countries that can be considered, but I guess they do take in consideration how well these will be received. Latin America alone has so many incredible books...

>119 Dropkickerbob:
Not a chance, I'm afraid. Their recent track record on classics, other than rehashes, has been abysmal, and doesn't look like changing.

>118 L.Bloom:
Exactly!

>120 Kainzow:
I've recently started doing a 'Read Around The World' challenge - a book from each country - and it's been a complete eye-opener on a number of fronts: how narrow my reading has been, how narrow the availability of literature in English is, and how much really promising (I've yet to get really stuck in) stuff there is out there.

>121 Willoyd: That can rapidly open a can of political worms. We were once informed that, as privileged white readers, we should not be reading Nigerian authors, as “the oppressed can understand the oppressors, but the oppressors can never understand the oppressed”. It was eye-rolling stuff then, but I fear such attitudes have become even more mainstream in the twenty-five years since then. I am no reactionary, mind, but there we are.

>122 cwl: I’m really surprised to hear that! I guess I’m a bit out of the way here in Germany, but I don’t think I know anyone who would be so eurocentric (white supremacist?) in their thinking, at least, no one who would admit it…

>123 stopsurfing: The person saying this was, how to put this, neither white nor male. She was saying that minority experience could never be understood by non-minority, ie “oppressor”, communities, and that it was somehow racist-classist to try to understand those experiences.

>124 cwl: I hate people like that. It seems their priority is just to start an argument and perdure it for as long as possible. The thing is, you can never ever win against these people, as any response you put forth is good enough to start another argument.

>124 cwl: So I got it completely wrong! I would say that minority experience can never be ‘completely’ understood by a non-minority person, but obviously I need more understanding, or not as the case may be.
Personally I will still read books by Nigerians, Māori, black Americans etc, because they’ve written some great books (Half of a Yellow Sun, The Bone People, the Color Purple among many others). Just try and stop me

>124 cwl:
I can understand why someone from a non-minority can never fully understand a minority's experience (except that often that person may well have experienced being part of a different minority community), but I don't understand why it's somehow racist-classist to try at least to understand better. OTOH, to reject a writer based on their ethnicity or culture, which is what this individual suggests I do, strikes me as thoroughy racist.

That was apparently said 25 years ago? I wonder if they would say the same thing today. It's interesting that most of those who say that it's not good enough to be just 'non-racist' but that one needs to work towards being 'anti-racist', also say that one of the first things one needs to do on that front is improve one's education on the subject - which includes reading.......

Having said all that, none of this is part of why I'm doing my Read Around The World. Rather, it's about my own personal reading, knowledge, experience and enjoyment of literature. But an improved understanding of other issues wouldn't go amiss!

>126 stopsurfing: I would say that minority experience can never be ‘completely’ understood by a non-minority person
But you can play that game with any trait. A woman can never "completely" understand the male perspective. An american can never "completely" understand a swedish perspective. Someone can't "completely" understand chess unless they're a grand master themselves.

It's just an appeal to some unique, incomprehensible quality of a trait. I'm not even saying it's wrong, it's just a fairly pointless fight over how to slice the concept of a complete understanding of another's experience. I could read 100 000 pages about someone, watch video surveillance of their life, and still not be able to claim a 100% "complete" understanding of them as a person - but that's such a navel gazing fight over definitions nobody would think to start it. We'd call whoever did so an obsessive and an expert (probably with a PhD at that point).

I don't know why these arguments are so in vogue or why people give credence to them. The whole point of reading widely is to gather perspectives and wider experience; and the whole endeavour being based on the idea that everyone everywhere has a perspective to contribute and valuable stories to tell is as anti-racist as you get.

>128 A.Godhelm: Totally agree. I mean, you could go one step further and say that even two people belonging to the same minority will never be able to fully understand each other's experience. This is often where labels fall down, of course. We often forget the diversity of one - everyone's lived experience is unique.

>128 A.Godhelm:

"I don't know why these arguments are so in vogue or why people give credence to them."

Never underestimate the one-upmanship involved in wanting to be special.

>128 A.Godhelm: I completely agree with you, I hope that’s clear.

I will say that there’s a world of difference between someone *professing* to understand minority experience just because they read a book, and someone reading with a desire to understand the perspectives and experiences of others. I think minority people experience the first far more often than we imagine. I’ve engaged in that behaviour myself I’m sure, so I’m quite happy to cut them some slack if they seem to be unreasonably pissed off sometimes.

>131 stopsurfing:
I think minority people experience the first far more often than we imagine. I’ve engaged in that behaviour myself I’m sure, so I’m quite happy to cut them some slack if they seem to be unreasonably pissed off sometimes.

Having recently been told umpteen times by various politicians claiming publicly as part of their non-apologies that they "completely understand" people's anger (and thus making me even angrier as it is crystal clear they actually haven't a clue!), I have certainly gained considerable insight into how many members of minority groups must feel in the same situation. Dare I say, I even 'understand'?

I would think these would be relatively safe choices of works in translation:
- Another title from Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Another title from Dostoevsky
- Something from Stanislaw Lem

These would probably be more of a risk:
- Dead Souls (Gogol)
- Something from Vasily Grossman
- The Red and the Black (Stendhal)
- Reissues of Proust

But I would love to see any of those in 2022.

>124 cwl:

Can you provide a reference for that?

>128 A.Godhelm:

But you can play that game with any trait. A woman can never "completely" understand the male perspective.

While we're at it, nobody can completely understand anyone else, as every individual is such a unique combination of infinitely many idiosyncracies. That said, I think we ought to recognise that things like gender, race, sexual orientation and similar, do cause some general differences in how much and what we experience. Women my age and older have typically grown up with tons of exposure to male points of view, male heroes, stories etc. and since we live in misogynistic, patriarchal societies, we all internalize the "male perspective". People of color, the more so if they live in the West, will typically be exposed to white points of view, values, etc. and know very well "the white perspective".

So, while any individual woman or person of colour may not be great at grasping the awesome depths of a white man, women in general know men much better than men do women, and people of colour know whites much better than the latter know people of colour.

>131 stopsurfing: Sure, but now we've goal post shifted to a new problem about insincerity or condescension. There's nothing unique about that to this topic either, you run into people feigning competence or interest everywhere.

I certainly understand it's more infected on topics of race, religion or sex, maybe even more prevalent. But, returning to the original idea of being browbeaten over expressing interest in reading about a minority or different culture, I don't think it's neither here nor there.

I'm also not sure about this "minority vs the oppressor" POV. I know these concepts and ideas are coming primarily from US universities, and removed from that context I don't think it has much purchase. Trying to put sami, roma, yugoslavs and arabs in a "minority" group as if they have similar experiences or desires is just befuddling. This is also not a colonialist country and the only people we enslaved routinely were other europeans.
All of which is to say, I reject the idea of a "minority experience". I think this POV and the associated school of thought is flawed and regional, and it frankly can't handle the ethnic diversity and history of other nations.

>132 Willoyd: Being screwed by the government is as close to a universal experience as you can get. Death and taxes.

>134 LolaWalser: nobody can completely understand anyone else, as every individual is such a unique combination of infinitely many idiosyncracies
This is certainly the most extreme interpretation and it borders on solipsism. You can’t reason your way out of solipsism; you have to start with the axiomatic belief there’s more to the world than your own experience. Similarly with these appeals to unique traits beyond understanding - we can assert they're all powerful barriers that can never be traversed; but such a view kills the enlightenment prospect of a universal humanity, and the project of even trying to understand other cultures in the first place.

people of colour know whites
Who’s a person of colour? Who’s white? You can’t get whiter than the sami. Could you pick the roma out of a crowd of swedes? What about spotting a finn? When we oppress the finns for a couple of centuries do they become less white? This americanized POV being universialized leads to nonsense.

I seldom meet people who know anything about Sweden beyond "blonde" and "vikings" (neither is correct), and it's hardly surprising given our tiny space on the world stage. I don't expect you to have read Selma Lagerlöf or Pär Lagerkvist, let alone Sara Lidman. I believe doing so is as valuable a cultural gateway as opening Murakami or Adichie. Unique perspectives aren't colour coded.

To the actual topic of the thread; I wonder if they'll release more of Borges' works. Labyrinths has held a strong second hand market value. I know it's a mix of Ficciones and Aleph, but there's at least one more compilation's worth of good stories to be had. New translations could be even more interesting.
Or how about a two-in-one book set in the vein of the PKD book, where they meet in the middle? Illustrations by Piranesi? This is really just a disguised dream books topic isn't it?

>136 A.Godhelm: My Bar is low. More classics than not please. More great history works. More great travel logs. Sets like the the recent Shackleton; chef's kiss.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more Sci-Fi titles.

Maybe Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" or Simak's "City". A reprint of 2001 would sell fast as well.