false 4 78 41 true 5677417 read 0 true 862772 currently-reading 37 true 862771 to-read 22 false 863056 1001list-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6751948 Adjunct: An Undigest (Paperback) by Peter Manson
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8059915 to: The Butcher Boy (Paperback) by Patrick McCabe
bookshelves: 1001list-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8059898 The Second Sex (Paperback) by Simone de Beauvoir
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8059889 to: Four Tragedies and Octavia (Penguin Classics) by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8059884 to: Half of a Yellow Sun (Hardcover) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3913-which-one-did-you-just-finish Gauloises made a comment in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group:

Last week it was Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais - very dense, but the sheer exuberance of Rabelais' prose and his anarchic humour makes it worth it - reminded me somewhat of the Maquis de Sade ...

Also put away The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe. Loved this, it's absolutely chilling and heartbreaking, and the slow transformation of Francie from Dennis the Menace to Jack the Ripper ... *shiver* Talk about a slow burn. Couldn't sleep all night after I finished this one.

Taking a break to read The Second Sex again, not sure when I'll come back to the list, maybe with Don Quixote which has been sitting on my shelf for months now. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3910-how-far-are-you Gauloises made a comment in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group:

To be honest, I buy most of my books from charity shops or second-hand book stores, and I've yet to walk into one and not spot at least one title from the 1001 list. If you live somewhere with decent book shops and aren't set on necessarily reading through the list in chronological order (which I wouldn't recommend), just wander into a charity shop or second-hand book shop and pick up what you see.

Of course, if you like new books that's not appropriate, but amazon.co.uk has most of the titles, I'm fairly sure. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4943-the-brothers-karamazov-by-fyodor-dostoevsky Gauloises made a comment in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group:

I think I related more to each of the brothers - Ivan's tortured relationship with God, especially in the Grand Inquisitor sections, Alyosha's grief for the Elder, and Mitya, convinced he's a monster - than I did to any of the characters in Crime & Punishment. I also liked how ultimately, redemption and salvation remained totally ambiguous - more true to my view of the world than the cathartic resolution at the end of Crime and Punishment.

"I punish myself for the whole of my life, for the whole of my life I punish." - Mitya's suicide note.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5078-war-and-peace Gauloises made a comment in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group:

I read it last year, it took me about a week I think but I was reading it during a very long daily commute. I absolutely loved it, some of the sections dealing with the invasion of Russia are quite hard to get through, but stick with it, it is totally worth it. ]]>