A random book from the collection looks interesting: Correction by Thomas Bernhard.
Described as “a mesmerising, claustrophobic novel about obsession, genius and the impossibility of perfection. Structured in two enormous, uninterrupted blocks of prose, it follows an unnamed narrator reconstructing the life of his dead friend Roithamer, before becoming absorbed in his manuscripts. Sentences spiral, repeat and contradict themselves, creating the sensation of being trapped inside an endlessly turning mind. Roithamer is modelled partly on Ludwig Wittgenstein, particularly his intellectual austerity and obsessive pursuit of perfection, reflected in his design of an extraordinary house for his sister. A darkly comic, exhilarating and exhausting masterpiece.”
I like Bernhard. I also recommend The Lime Works and wittgenstein’s nephew if you like correction. I found Bernhard through Thomas Ligotti. For Ligotti I recommend teatro grottesco and if you want to dive off the deep end the conspiracy against the human race.
I never made the connection between Bernhard and Ligotti, but it makes sense. Both seem to have been heavily influenced by Schopenhauer, the granddaddy of pessimism.
McCarthy made his famous dismissal of Proust and Henry James in the NYT in 1992 and in the Oprah interview, on the grounds those writers didn't deal with deep issues of life and death. But from all that has been revealed about his personal library, including this Bernhard book, one wonders if that was a put-on.
Surely he meant their work. Dealing with deep issues of life and death in his work didn’t require him to be serious all the time about every topic in his own life.
Bernhard is fantastic. I would recommend Woodcutters as a starting point, which is shorter, funnier, and less oppressive than Correction (which is his magnum opus). He was at least somewhat as unhinged in real life as in his writing. He was notorious for either refusing literary prizes or showing up at the ceremony just to rant and insult the audience, which he wrote in a memoir, My Prizes. He had a big influence on W.G. Sebald, another great German language writer who makes an appearance in McCarthy's library.
You'll love Correction if you have a taste for experimental literature. I've have all of Bernhard's novels. They are (mostly) uninterrupted walls of text. They can also be quite depressing. You'll likely either love them or hate them. Correction is probably the most exemplary instance of his style and experimentation, and maybe his best novel, but Concrete and Extinction fall into this category as well. Wittgenstein's Nephew, Frost, and Woodcutters are more approachable if you want to ease into it. Starting with Correction might be a bit off-putting and intense depending on how often you read more experimental/stylistic literature.
Side question: how grim is the the Road? I've been meaning to pick it up because I love No Country but I've heard that the Road is just bleaker than bleak.
Bleaker than bleak is an accurate description but it actually ends on what I would consider to be a hopeful note, a moment of true kindness. Worth the read.
Our son was about 3yo when I read it, and I couldn't put it down. To me, it is a story of the father standing by his son no matter what. A really immersive reading experience. A father-son exchange that touched me:
What is it?
Nothing. I had a bad dream.
What did you dream about?
Nothing.
Are you okay?
No.
He put his arms around him and held him. It's okay, he said.
I was crying. But you didnt wake up.
I'm sorry. I was just so tired.
I meant in the dream.
I do think McCarthy's own family life felt, well, "controversial" in the light of all this. But, at least he didn't seem to justify himself about it. IIRC, On not paying child support, he has said "with what?" in one of his rare interviews. Art simply always came first. I'm not a native English speaker, and I've had writerly ambitions myself, and his style feels like magic to me (hey, an accidental cormac-y polysyndeton here!). But... yeah. Thinking about the way many poets "manage" to put art before family life (obviously, they can't help it) is a good reflection of me myself being just a layperson.
But he is a true master, obviously. Could be that I liked "All The Pretty Horses" even more than "The Road". Unfortunately "Suttree" isn't translated to my language yet.
> Could be that I liked "All The Pretty Horses" even more than "The Road".
Have you read the others in the Border Trilogy, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain? If you liked Pretty Horses, you'll probably like them, too. Pretty sure I've read all three twice.
Not all that grim, at least compared to some of his others. Grimmer than No Country for Old Men, less so than Blood Meridian or Outer Dark. There is at least one very grim scene, though, and maybe some others I'm not thinking of at the moment. Been a pretty long time since I read it.
Grimness aside, I'd rank it simpler, at the level of reading difficulty, than some of his others.
It's a good book but personally, I don't think it's among his best.
It is bleaker than bleak but incredibly rewarding. Unlike, say, Child of God where you are wallowing in filth, in The Road there is humanity and warmth and love it’s just the environment that is hostile.
Grim enough to make you cry before sleeping (possibly a lot if you have a kid), but surprisingly not as grim as Blood Meridian. That one you really need to brace yourself for.
I just finished it last week - as a father to young children, I have to admit I felt like crying by the end. It was a great book nonetheless, especially for someone who doesnt usually enjoy fiction.
Depends on your circumstances. I read it as a single male in university and loved it. Recently, I re-read it as an adult with two young sons. Absolutely devastating.
Something I didn't expect -- quite a lot of banal stuff in there in there (in addition to the many known and I'm sure underappreciated greats). You hear about these impressive libraries all the time; good to know at least some of it might be '1001 golf courses to play' and similar pre-internet listicles.
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[ 5.8 ms ] story [ 26.1 ms ] threadCormac McCarthy's personal library - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45444694 - Oct 2025 (138 comments)
Described as “a mesmerising, claustrophobic novel about obsession, genius and the impossibility of perfection. Structured in two enormous, uninterrupted blocks of prose, it follows an unnamed narrator reconstructing the life of his dead friend Roithamer, before becoming absorbed in his manuscripts. Sentences spiral, repeat and contradict themselves, creating the sensation of being trapped inside an endlessly turning mind. Roithamer is modelled partly on Ludwig Wittgenstein, particularly his intellectual austerity and obsessive pursuit of perfection, reflected in his design of an extraordinary house for his sister. A darkly comic, exhilarating and exhausting masterpiece.”
Adding to my ‘want to read’ list now …
A review: https://proletarianpolyglot.substack.com/p/correction-by-tho...
He also wrote poetry.
He's got so many books, did it work?
But he is a true master, obviously. Could be that I liked "All The Pretty Horses" even more than "The Road". Unfortunately "Suttree" isn't translated to my language yet.
Have you read the others in the Border Trilogy, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain? If you liked Pretty Horses, you'll probably like them, too. Pretty sure I've read all three twice.
Not all that grim, at least compared to some of his others. Grimmer than No Country for Old Men, less so than Blood Meridian or Outer Dark. There is at least one very grim scene, though, and maybe some others I'm not thinking of at the moment. Been a pretty long time since I read it.
Grimness aside, I'd rank it simpler, at the level of reading difficulty, than some of his others.
It's a good book but personally, I don't think it's among his best.
The Road, however, is a classic.
https://archive.is/7pFnc
One has to wonder how much of this he actually read, if he was reclusive it must have been because he spent most of his time reading.