Rachel's comments (member since Feb 04, 2008)

Rachel's comments from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group.

I received mine Friday when I got home from work. This is a thick book! I won't be able to start it until I'm finished with "World Without End". So I'm sure I'll start it this month but may not be finished by 4/1.

Mara, I guess I understand how you think that Rushdie was trying to portray Ormus and Vina as gods/goddesses . . . but who would want Vina to be a goddess??? She is more like Medusa! She wasn't nice to anybody, used people all the time, played with everybody's heart. In fact, I didn't really like anything about Vina. I just wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up!

Smarti, I have never heard of the "Orpheus & Euridice story". I'll have to check it out on wikipedia :)

So what do you guys think about Ormus' 10-year vow of abstinence? Did anyone find that as weird as I did? I know the length was determined by Vina when she told him she'd be ready to get married in 10-years, but to me that whole thing seemed to be as exaggerated as how famous VTO became.

The U2 connection. . .

Did you guys know that U2 actually put music to the song that Ormus wrote for Vina? "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" is on the soundtrack for A Million Dollar Hotel. I wrote a bit about it and posted a link to the video on my blog if anyone wants to check it out.

http://rachelsodyssey.blogspot.com/2008/...

I totally got chills when reading the lyrics in the book. The song is old and I have known it for a long time, but it was so neat to read it in context of the book.

I actually "listened" to this on audiobook. I am glad that I listened to it because the narrator made the story come completely to life. However, I kind of wich I read it because Salman Rushdie has an amazing use of vocabulary that is both rich and beautiful.

I enjoyed this book but most of all I am glad that I was exposed to Salman Rushdie as an author. I agree with the character development being a bit lacking. I never knew if I should like or hate or feel sorry for the characters. So that was kind of confusing. But the storytelling in general is amazing.

I anticipated this to be more of a "rock and roll" story. I know the backdrop was in the rock world, but there was so much more to the story than that.

Just placed my order for Julie at Amazon.com. . . Right now I'm reading World Without End which is also a huge book. So I won't start this one until closer to the end of the month. We should have it completed by April 1, correct?

I emailed my vote to Mara - I also chose "Julie - Rousseau". Actually, I couldn't easily find "The Judge and the Hangman" or "Forever a Stranger" avaiable at Amazon.com.

I have been reading "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" for the past week.

I just received my copy of "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" from Amazon. This is ONE HEAVY BOOK! Flipping through the book itself is much more daunting than seeing the list of books online. But I am so glad I purchased the companion book because it adds insight to why these books were chosen!

Did I miss the post? I thought you'd post the winner on Sunday and it's now Tuesday. Can you direct me to the selected book?

Thanks!

Do you mean The Ambassadors by Henry James?

I'm definitely interested!