Reddit mentions: The best russian literature books

Here's a sneak peek of /r/Poetry using the top posts of the year!

#1: [General] Two fitting eulogies for the man who demystified the stars. Rest in peace, Steven. | 12 comments
#2: [general] Possibly the best poem I have ever read.
#3: [General] my dad has been translating into the English the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's poems for the last 20 years as a hobby of his and just recently I helped him self-publish a collection of his translations on Amazon. If you guys could check it out he would really appreciate it. Thanks | 10 comments

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Both of these books one and two are books I need for school this coming semester. So I would love either or both. :)

Gah...3 favorite books SO HARD. Ok i'm cheating a bit.

1. Harry Potter Series (can't break them up but I would say i liked the 4th book probably the most. I never read 6 and 7 til now so no spoilers!)
   
   
2. Kite Runner
   
   
3. Hunger Games series/Anything dystopian
   
   page-turner
   
   Edit: the amazing /u/jbs090020 gifted me the two books I initially picked so now I will say this and this for school. :)

I highly recommend any collections illustrated by Ivan Bilibin, like this Russian Fairy Tales. The stories are pretty well-known, so it should give you the introduction you're looking for, plus the art is really magnificent. There are also collections like this that have a ton of stories in them. If you want some sort of history/analysis/criticism to go with it, you could take a look at this one about the Russian folktale or this one about Baba Yaga specifically.

Lingvist has a very good vocabulary app.

Bondar's Simplified Russian Method is the best textbook to get you reading quickly. It was printed by Middlebury College in 1949 and was used by the CIA and DOD. It's a funky way to learn while still being grammatically accurate, even if it uses words like гражданин/гражданка and перо.) Each chapter is between 3-10 pages.

Unlike новая искра! It doesn't waste your time with endless pictures of people saying "Hello, Mr. Smith, how are you" "Good, thank you" "Are you a teacher" "Yes, I am a Russian teacher." etc.
It's all about increasing vocab, methodically teaching grammar and getting used to reading long-ish passages.

You can get a reprint for $35 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Bondars-Simplified-Russian-Method-English/dp/054844630X

Pevear and Volokhonsky just edges out Burgin and Tiernan O'Connor for readability. The latter is great, and has a lot of good footnotes and commentary, but P&V is my preference.

As far as I know they are the only two English translations that include the complete text of the novel: Ginsburg and Glenny each used the older version of Bulgakov's text. Of those two, Glenny is significantly better than Ginsburg.

Moscow-Petushki, also published as Moscow to the End of the Line, Moscow Stations, and Moscow Circles, is a pseudo-autobiographical postmodernist prose poem by Russian writer and satirist Venedikt Yerofeyev. The story follows an alcoholic intellectual, Venya (or Venichka), as he travels by a suburban train on a 125 km (78 mi) journey from Moscow to visit his beautiful beloved and his child in Petushki, a town that is described by the narrator in almost utopian terms. At the start of the story, he has just been fired from his job as foreman of a telephone cable-laying crew for drawing charts of the amount of alcohol he and his colleagues were consuming over time.

Buy it on Amazon, for Kindle.

It's very funny.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

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Pevear and Volokhonsky are really excellent translators of Russian Lit.

I read their's, and it was excellent.

Try to avoid Constance Garnett.

The Foundation Pit is great. I know it's not a short story, but I'm excited you mention Platanov.

Pretty sure I've seen this used as the cover for Anna Karenina. [ETA: indeed]

Unrelated: Have you read Moscow to the End of the Line? It's awesome. Let me know if you haven't, I will find a way to get you a copy, seriously.

Here's some 20th century stuff:

Moscow to the End of the Line - Venedict Erofeev. This book certainly ranks up there with Chekhov and Gogol.

Life of Insects by Vladimir Pelevin.

Queue by Vladimir Sorokin.

Absurdist Stories by by Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky.

Try the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation.

While I haven't read their translation of this book, I've read other books they've translated and I haven't been disappointed yet.

Read this translation
http://www.amazon.com/The-Master-Margarita-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141180145

Few books:

Nora Ikstena - "Soviet Milk", "Life Stories"

Janis Jonevs - "Doom 94"

Andrejs Pumpurs -"Bearslayer"

Rainis - "The Glass Mountain"

Mara Zalite - "Five Fingers"

Aleksandrs Caks - "Between Two Rains"

War and Peace in Russian. It's slow going. I haven't studied it since high school. I am only in Book III so far.

Snow Crash! Keywords: ninja, cyberpunk, hackers, augmented reality, linguistics, religion, malignant memes, corporate-run America

Also, Petersburg, by Bely. Ulysses + Metamorphosis + House of Leaves?

I read this one, but I don't know if that's good or bad, as I haven't read any others and don't speak Russian.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0141180145/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687522&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0679760806&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=09V8F9P9Y9Z9BNBKH270

How mad at you are you willing to make her?

https://www.amazon.com/Mumu-Ivan-Sergeyevich-Turgenev/dp/1533145873/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2WLOUAELRJ4YD&keywords=mumu+turgenev&qid=1573675126&s=books&sprefix=mumu+tu%2Cstripbooks%2C330&sr=1-1