SOUTH PHILADELPHIA — Zac, 26, born in Denver, Colo., grew up in Houston, Texas, Sydney, Australia, and Hickory, N.C., and now fundraises at an art museum in Philadelphia. He first encountered the My Struggle series a few years back, upon finding Book One on the floor of his then-girlfriend’s apartment.

I first encountered My Struggle on the recent-release shelf in a bookstore, drawn by how out of place Knausgaard’s self-portrait looked on the cover. I initially scoffed at it. It wasn’t until I heard a podcast with Knausgaard (with novelist Jeffery Eugenides, by the New York Public Library) that I was compelled to start reading.

Karl Ove Knausgaard, 48, was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1968. He began writing the series, which is 3,600 pages long, in 2008, six years after the death of his father.