Luis Panini
@luispanini.bsky.social
Reader / Writer / Architect. Major mottoes: "I would prefer not to," "yes I said yes I will Yes," "I can't go on, I’ll go on."
Here’s the table of contents.
December 21, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Here’s the table of contents.
Up next, the complete works of Fleur Jaeggy, whose succinct books can be read in a single seating, but linger in your mind with the resilience of a brain virus.
December 21, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Up next, the complete works of Fleur Jaeggy, whose succinct books can be read in a single seating, but linger in your mind with the resilience of a brain virus.
A thing of beauty and the closest thing to a miracle: when a poet decides to write a novel. This 568-page brick collects essays about novels or “novelistic attempts” written by such creatures. I’ve been dipping in and out of it and I’m absolutely fascinated by the topic.
December 17, 2025 at 6:35 PM
A thing of beauty and the closest thing to a miracle: when a poet decides to write a novel. This 568-page brick collects essays about novels or “novelistic attempts” written by such creatures. I’ve been dipping in and out of it and I’m absolutely fascinated by the topic.
A 20 years in the making translation has reached my front door. Peter Weiss’ magnum opus has been criticized for being “plotless,” “nonsensical,” and for featuring “unpsychological [?],” characters (everything I want in a novel!). W.G. Sebald admired it. That’s good enough for me.
December 6, 2025 at 7:38 PM
A 20 years in the making translation has reached my front door. Peter Weiss’ magnum opus has been criticized for being “plotless,” “nonsensical,” and for featuring “unpsychological [?],” characters (everything I want in a novel!). W.G. Sebald admired it. That’s good enough for me.
Up next: the dramatic works of Jean Genet.
December 1, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Up next: the dramatic works of Jean Genet.
This novel is wild. Don’t be misled by the title. Haven’t read much Mailer, but enough to know that this is absolutely unMailer. A combo of open-mic mixed with a bit of Finnegans Wake, some nakedlunchesque joie de vivre, stream of consciousness galore and profanity up the wazoo.
November 29, 2025 at 6:38 PM
This novel is wild. Don’t be misled by the title. Haven’t read much Mailer, but enough to know that this is absolutely unMailer. A combo of open-mic mixed with a bit of Finnegans Wake, some nakedlunchesque joie de vivre, stream of consciousness galore and profanity up the wazoo.
Done with Camus. The Fall is his masterpiece, followed by The Plague. The short story The Renegade is his most abstract and best piece of writing. His essay Reflections on the Guillotine is a brilliant analysis of capital punishment and how it engenders a Sisyphean cycle of revenge.
November 24, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Done with Camus. The Fall is his masterpiece, followed by The Plague. The short story The Renegade is his most abstract and best piece of writing. His essay Reflections on the Guillotine is a brilliant analysis of capital punishment and how it engenders a Sisyphean cycle of revenge.
To say that I was elated a few days ago when I found out that a Peter Matthiessen biography (by Lance Richardson) had been published is selling it short. His Far Tortuga, which is phonetically and structurally challenging, is one of the finest novelistic achievements in American fiction.
November 22, 2025 at 11:51 PM
To say that I was elated a few days ago when I found out that a Peter Matthiessen biography (by Lance Richardson) had been published is selling it short. His Far Tortuga, which is phonetically and structurally challenging, is one of the finest novelistic achievements in American fiction.
I blame the purchasing of 15 biographies, 6 volumes of letters, 2 memoirs and 1 volume of diaries on a recent monthlong bout of literary nonfiction fever. Now I must remain optimistic and believe that I’ll have time to read them all. I’ll start with May Swenson’s biography.
November 21, 2025 at 5:58 PM
I blame the purchasing of 15 biographies, 6 volumes of letters, 2 memoirs and 1 volume of diaries on a recent monthlong bout of literary nonfiction fever. Now I must remain optimistic and believe that I’ll have time to read them all. I’ll start with May Swenson’s biography.
Two tomes were acquired. Two.
October 29, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Two tomes were acquired. Two.
Rewatched Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse. I understand why so many abhor this film, but if you’re willing to abandon all hope, surrender to its grueling monotony, and be governed by its sepulchral atmosphere you’ll have one of the most transcending cinematic experiences of your life.
October 22, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Rewatched Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse. I understand why so many abhor this film, but if you’re willing to abandon all hope, surrender to its grueling monotony, and be governed by its sepulchral atmosphere you’ll have one of the most transcending cinematic experiences of your life.
Oh, man. I’m in a plane, one minute away from take off. Guess what’s on my lap?!
October 17, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Oh, man. I’m in a plane, one minute away from take off. Guess what’s on my lap?!
Masterpiece! Camus turns the book into a confessional and the reader into a priest. It features one of the darkest, most reprehensible narrators (thankfully). If I ever dare to write a Top 20 of the best novels I’ve read, it wouldn’t surprise me to see this one on that list.
October 16, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Masterpiece! Camus turns the book into a confessional and the reader into a priest. It features one of the darkest, most reprehensible narrators (thankfully). If I ever dare to write a Top 20 of the best novels I’ve read, it wouldn’t surprise me to see this one on that list.
Fresh from the press and my latest addition to the Gertrude Stein pile. Probably the 113th book in my home library written by (or about) the matriarch of Modernism.
October 12, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Fresh from the press and my latest addition to the Gertrude Stein pile. Probably the 113th book in my home library written by (or about) the matriarch of Modernism.
Come on board the Kraszna train, darlings. You won’t regret it.
October 9, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Come on board the Kraszna train, darlings. You won’t regret it.
Worked all day. Went to a bookstore. Both titles were sold out. Drove to another. Found them a few minutes ago. Can’t read them now. Still happy to have them.
October 8, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Worked all day. Went to a bookstore. Both titles were sold out. Drove to another. Found them a few minutes ago. Can’t read them now. Still happy to have them.
Pausing the Dostoevsky read through I started at the beginning of the year (I need a short break from his voice). Up next: the complete fiction of Albert Camus.
October 4, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Pausing the Dostoevsky read through I started at the beginning of the year (I need a short break from his voice). Up next: the complete fiction of Albert Camus.
How does one engage with a writer whose body of work seems to represent the epitome of solipsistic creation? His purported novels are no more than countless vignettes conjoined in a universe of hopelessness, solitude, and total indifference. Award the Nobel Prize to Botho Strauß.
October 4, 2025 at 4:06 PM
How does one engage with a writer whose body of work seems to represent the epitome of solipsistic creation? His purported novels are no more than countless vignettes conjoined in a universe of hopelessness, solitude, and total indifference. Award the Nobel Prize to Botho Strauß.
She’s recorded in a tongue on the verge of collapse a litany of transposable voices and disjointed perspectives that reject Manichaean dualities, all to create the foundations of refurbished identities that can neither be named nor described. Award the Nobel Prize to Chus Pato.
October 3, 2025 at 3:49 PM
She’s recorded in a tongue on the verge of collapse a litany of transposable voices and disjointed perspectives that reject Manichaean dualities, all to create the foundations of refurbished identities that can neither be named nor described. Award the Nobel Prize to Chus Pato.
In his exceedingly long poetic sequences –always epic in scale– polyphony can turn into a cacophony of everyday voices as he renders, in a most accessible way, a peculiar migrant experience while expanding the possibilities of the poem. Award the Nobel Prize to Π.O. (Pi O).
October 2, 2025 at 3:12 PM
In his exceedingly long poetic sequences –always epic in scale– polyphony can turn into a cacophony of everyday voices as he renders, in a most accessible way, a peculiar migrant experience while expanding the possibilities of the poem. Award the Nobel Prize to Π.O. (Pi O).
Yesterday’s purchases… I had read everything by Olga Tokarczuk available in English translation before she got the big prize, but nothing that was translated after it, so I need to remedy that. And The Sea, the Sea has been on my radar for many years. It’ll be my first Murdoch.
September 7, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Yesterday’s purchases… I had read everything by Olga Tokarczuk available in English translation before she got the big prize, but nothing that was translated after it, so I need to remedy that. And The Sea, the Sea has been on my radar for many years. It’ll be my first Murdoch.
Did I drive like a maniac to my local bookstore upon learning that Eimear McBride’s latest novel hit the shelves on this side of the Atlantic?
Is the night dark and full of terrors?🙄
Is the night dark and full of terrors?🙄
September 6, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Did I drive like a maniac to my local bookstore upon learning that Eimear McBride’s latest novel hit the shelves on this side of the Atlantic?
Is the night dark and full of terrors?🙄
Is the night dark and full of terrors?🙄
His intellectually rigorous novels —mental abodes of a late Modernist that may produce in the reader a permanent feeling of vertigo—, masterfully explore the complexities of entropic realities, even through the consciousness of a disembodied entity. Award the Nobel Prize to Joseph McElroy.
September 4, 2025 at 4:00 PM
His intellectually rigorous novels —mental abodes of a late Modernist that may produce in the reader a permanent feeling of vertigo—, masterfully explore the complexities of entropic realities, even through the consciousness of a disembodied entity. Award the Nobel Prize to Joseph McElroy.