His short stories are also hilarious and in the same vein as Svejk's adventures.

I've enjoyed Švejk's adventures, but never read any Hašek's short stories. Can you recommend a particular one you like?

There was a recent collection of new translations of his stories, many of which had never previously appeared in English. They’re not ideal in that the translations are translations of a German edition of his stories and not the original Czech texts, but they’re still a fun read.

https://paradiseeditions.net/products/the-man-without-a-tran...

Yes, they are only hilarious. Švejk on the other hand is in my opinion much more serious. One Czech literary critic call it even “Kafka by other means”. Yes, Hašek was a satiric writer, so that’s how he wrote, but Švejk is IMHO actually a serious book about the horror of a human being liquidated by the impersonal power of modern society.

> about the horror of a human being liquidated by the impersonal power of modern society

it is now forbidden to call war by its name ? /s

How does it compare to Catch-22?

I thought Švejk to be much funnier.

Rather I thought Catch-22 to be a so-so imitation of Švejk.

Then again I've been re-reading Švejk since childhood.

Similarly, how you can tell when Hasek dies before finishing Švejk and his friend takes over with the ending, the jokes just fall off a bit.

Joseph Heller claimed he would have never written it had he never read The Good Soldier Švejk.

Hmm. A quick Google didn't find that.

From https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/theater/newsandfeatures/t...

"Heller, who died in 1999, told various interviewers that Céline and Kafka were his most powerful influences and that "Svejk" was "just a funny book.""

Found a quote, had to use the anglicized spelling though.

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/08/heller-201108

"The Czech writer Arnošt Lustig claimed that Heller had told him at a New York party for Milos Forman in the late 1960s that he couldn’t have written Catch-22 without first reading Jaroslav Hašek’s unfinished World War I satire, The Good Soldier Schweik. "

Germanized, really.

there are some references in catch-22 and its follow up Closing time.

I was really surprised by Closing Time. I forget all the details of it, but I remember finding it just relentlessly depressing. The only degree to which I thought it worked was, it really emphasized the extent to which we really don’t need to know what happens to characters after the story is done, it is better if we just imagine they go on to have their lives.

Same. It was so heavy compared to catch-22. But I am not sure the aging perspective could have been written any different.

I think if you like one, you like the other. I think the Svejk book have a more innocent tone and is less cynical. But I was way to young when I read them to have a "deep" understanding of the contexts.

I'd say it's more cynical.

There's a place for hope in Catch-22.

In Svejk, the gruesome absurdity of the war prevails in all situations.

I found Catch-22 much more hilarious than Švejk.

I thought Svejk was more available to a younger reader. However, like someone already mentioned, it has enough layers for a reader of almost any age to enjoy. I'd read them both.

It makes sense unlike Catch-22 that does not make sense.

it only makes sense once you've already read it once.

Catch-22 is funny during the read but after the end, and in reflection, is pretty dark.

Svejk is generally funnier, IMO

Švejk is too much slanted by the expectations of “just funny” and by (absolutely awesome, but too nice) illustrations by Josef Lada. When listening to the audio version of the book, I was shocked how actually horrific story it is. I have mentioned elsewhere in this thread a Czech literary historian (M. C. Putna) who called “The Good Solider Švejk” as “Kafka’s ‘Trial’ by other means”. I think he is quite correct.

As a child, I understood Svejk as pure comedy and didn't get any of the darkness.

>How does it compare to Catch-22?

It's the Catch-22 of WW1.

A bit more gruesome and obscene, both less serious and much darker than Catch-22, and highlighting a wider scope of social (and military) issues.

Švejk is what I call a "scalable" book. It works for readers of almost any level. The first time I read it I was maybe 8 years old and had a lot of fun, even though I completely missed most of the nuance.

More examples of "scalable" books please?

My neighbor gave me a great tip: check out anything by Terry Pratchett that I can find in the youth fiction section of the library. My wife and I are reading them to children ages 9 - 16, and all of them are liking the books.

Another vote for Terry Pratchett. He is a master of blending the fantasy and contemporary worlds together. Stuff like in-sewer-ants vs insurance.

A big yes for Terry Pratchett!

It can easily be read as funny little books following the sagas of recuring (anti)heroes. But the light-hearted stories belie a sharp-eyed critique of society, with the most well known example probably being Vimes' Boot theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

Often, the subtility is hidden in a word or a choice of words that can easily go unnoticed, but are all small hints of the vast pluridisciplinary depth of knowledge of the author. The esoteric, historical, literary and physical sciences references (to name just them), are delightful small winks to the reader sprinkled throughout the books.

The lord of the rings is a good one, especially if you skip the songs. Then it’s simply an adventure story.

The Sword in the Stone is pretty good in this regard. Apart from that first book (which is published as a standalone book) the entire Once and Future King is too complex for a child, I think (instead it would come off as boring and obscure).

But in general almost any book a kid wants to try to read will be fine.

Also: back in the day when small towns had a single cinema screen, movies would travel around as physical media and play for a week or two. So they had to be appropriate for anyone in town else the cinema owner wouldn’t take them.

My kid loved those Fred Astaire musicals. I do too. For him they were just fun. To me, many of them were quite racy and quite explicit! But all that just went over his head.

Young Adult fiction is my "go-to" place for this. Nearly anything that has won the Newberry Award is great for the whole family. Some standouts in my mind:

* Island of the Blue Dolphins

* Chronicles of Prydain (Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, etc)

Chronicles of Narnia aren't Newberry winners, but are good regardless (if you don't mind the religious subtext).

+1 for other people mentioning The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Our whole family has enjoyed classics like Pride and Prejudice and Dracula -- such books are called "classics" for a reason.

Modern YA fiction has some very good books as well -- we all enjoyed Hole by Louis Sachar.

Some good modern sci-fi too -- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir was well received, as was Ender's Game.

Brandon Sanderson's stuff is very good. Whole family enjoyed The Way of Kings and the books that follow.

(For context, "whole family" is mix of genders, ages 10-15)

I remember enjoying these as a child without understanding any of the subtext or satire:

Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels

Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose

Bohumil Hrabal: Cutting it Short

Antal Szerb: The Pendragon Legend

I would dispute at least "The Name of the Rose", I'd say it's just a multi layered story.

A good portion of the book are philosophical discussions, which would be IMHO very boring and not understandable for small children.

The magic of novels like Svejk or Little Prince is that those extra layers are mostly implied, emergent, they're not written out explicitly and thus don't bore out the young readers.

This one is a little difficult: the book is laden with multilingual dialogue and notes apparatus; it's not for everybody. That said, I first read The Name of the Rose when I was 11 or 12, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Personal anecdote - I rather enjoyed reading "Name of the rose" as a kid. I don't remember how old I was at the time, maybe somewhere around 11-13. While I obviously didn't understand a lot of the details at the time, I remember vaguely feeling that there was something deeper than just a murder plot. All in all, it was a pretty good experience, and served as my gateway drug into other books by Eco.

My older brother gave me Animal Farm to read as a child, I enjoyed it as a (somewhat depressing) story about animals taking over a farm.

I was probably 7 or 8 my first time through Animal Farm. I cried so hard when Boxer died.

The Little Prince

> More examples of "scalable" books please?

In addition to what the other replies recommended, I read Tom Sharpe at a young age and enjoyed all of them with sometimes uncontrollable giggles.

Start with Wilt, I think. Then maybe The Throwback.

The Wind in the Willows. As a child, I read it purely as an adventure story. Re-reading it as an adult, I realized it's actually two stories: one a eulogy to the British countryside, and the other a comedy about the self-inflicted troubles of Mr. Toad. The humor was lost on me as a child.

As a kid, I was terrified by Mr Toad and stopped reading the book because of him.

the little Prince, i'd say

Every Gary Larson collection you can find.

"The Little Prince"

Karel Čapek: R.U.R.

His short stories are beyond fascinating and adorable, BTW. One, for example, equates accounting to hunting and detective work.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.

Works of James Herriot.

Čapek's "War With The Newts" is good too.

The Earthsea trilogy by Ursula Le Guin is another one (there are also books beyond the first three now, but they're more targeted at older readers).

Now every petal of the rose has a name. . .

Every? Not sure I get the reference...

IIRC, the name for rabbit was kebbo or something like that, so if you called out the true name for rabbit, any and all rabbits would be affected. This would then hold for petals as well?

Just one of the “scenes” I remember from the book - naming every single petal from some flower.

Also, the secret to exiting the school (getting past the guardian) was pretty cool.

Indeed! Great books :)

Definitely! I revisit these every decade or so, and each time I think "wow, I really didn't get this the last time I read it."

The Moomin books by Tove Jansson

Yes! "Moominpappa at Sea" is wonderful. There's melancholy, sea horses, mischief, the creeping gothic horror of the Groke, whisky and pipe smoking, existential crises, dilapidated lighthouses and confused fishermen. Something for kids of all ages.

“The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Whatever age I read it, I am always surprised how much it deals with the actual problems I have.

I don't know anyone who liked The Little Prince when they were kids, regardless of their appreciation of the book as adults.

I disliked it as a kid for the same reasons I've loved it (and Exupéry's other aviator stories) as adult: it's abstract and impressionist.

Dostoevsky's "The Idiot"

Nu, if only Tolstoy and Dostoevsky had collaborated: they could have written "War and Idiots"...

A Wrinkle in Time…

Melville's Moby Dick. It can be about adventure, about whaling, about the fellowship of man, about mortality...

Intruder in the Dust, the best of William Faulkner's "young adult" novels. The short story collection Knight's Gambit is also well worth a look.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Catch-22. I was maybe 11 on my first reading, and read it once a year until I was 19 or so. The book grew darker and darker on each reading, without changing a word. (I've read it a bunch of times since, just not every year. )

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. My mother read it to me before I could read. I thought it was a great adventure book!

Anything from Calvin & Hobbes!

The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.

For a child, it's a slapstick comedy about Satan's retinue's visit to Soviet Moscow.

For a teen, it's a savage political satire taking down Stalinism.

For an adult, it's philosophy...

"The Mysterious Island" by Jules Verne. Was good for me at 11, 16, 28 and 40.

Jules Verne, just about everything he wrote. We had a collection of his books from the early 1910's which I read from around age 11. Get either those old copies or reprints which include the wood cut illustrations.

Very true, I wouldn't have recognized many of the nuances had I not had military training and having worked in government bureaucracies.

Oh yeah? I’ll add it to my list. I’ve served and I was thinking of passing on it.

Luckily I was well versed before I showed up to Uncle Sam’s doorstep. Catch-22 paints paints a good picture. And had a high counselor who was a Vietnam vet and said Apocalypse Now was the most realistic Vietnam movie he’d. And I can’t say that my experiences in were too far from my expectations.

I think the thing people don’t get about the military, at least speaking of my experience in the US’s, is even in places like special operations units and doing the stuff that reads great in a newspaper, often enough there’s an absolute, epic, comedic shitshow going on inside with a cast of characters that you couldn’t even do justice to in a goofball comedy. Suppose that might apply to lots of things. Luckily, no military really has to have their shit together, they just gotta be better than the other side.

One of Napoleon's cavalry generals said his average trooper's horsemanship was mediocre at best, yet they still made the tour of Europe. (Later, in the time of Napoleon III, the Prussians would outdo the French in utilizing mediocrity, providing yet another example that for a conscripted military, quantity is its own quality)

what's the other books that are on your 100 books list to read before one departs this planet ?

Not the original commenter but I'd include:

Vanity Fair by Thackeray

Mr Johnson by Joyce Cary

Lavengro and Romany Rye by George Borrow

The Descent of Woman by Elaine Morgan

Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies by Douglas Hofstadter et al.

Identity Crisis by Ben Elton

I would add One Hundred Years of Solitude to the list. Probably the book that impacted me the most of all the books I've read. I just can't recommend it enough

The audio version read by David Horovitch is incredible.

Ordered!