Sean’s Comments (group member since Jan 30, 2019)

Sean’s comments from the Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group.

I was surprised that none of those had been mentioned here. All very well know. Maybe not The Untouchable. I only know about that one because of this months group read.

I really enjoyed Gone with the Wind also.

I'm also reading Journey to the End of the Night

It should be on this list.

The Quiet American
A Town Called Alice
Gone With the Wind
The Untouchable
Les Misérables

Today I started The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. As a small child I have always heard of The Three Musketeers. Probably even pretended to be one of them. But I know nothing about the book or the story. I don't think I have seen any of the movies and if I did, I didn't pay much attention.

A very fun read was A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. So many good books lately.

Nocturnalux wrote: "Luís wrote: "I've watched the movie a dozen times and I thought was really scary."

Fun fact, my mother translated the movie into Portuguese way back in the day. She told me it was quite hard given...My copy of the book has a lot of notes and a glossary at the end. I have yet to read it, though..."

It's actually fun to try to listen without the aid of the glossary. Using context you really can get the meaning of the made up slang. And it's used so repetitively that it all comes together. After the first chapter it's easier to follow. Also, the way it's used is actually flowy and beautifully constructed. A lot of fun.

Jennifer W wrote: "Yesterday I finished Siddartha. Pretty well bored me, at least it was short."

That's about what I am expecting with this one. I hate when my prejudging kicks in though..

Cphe wrote: "Sean wrote: ".... A Clockwork Orange ,,," After reading the book a few weeks ago I have no interest in watching the movie..."

Because you loved it so much you don't want to ruin it? Or because you didn't like it so much you want nothing to do with it?

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. I really enjoyed this book. Intense and heartbreaking.

In my continuing effort to force my friends to read the 1001 books they MUST read before they die, I have chosen A Clockwork Orange for book club this month.

Ellinor wrote: "D‘Alembert‘s Dream was never on the list. I guess the edition with both works has just more ratings than the one containing only Rameau‘s Nephew and so it was picked by whoever created the List challenges list. The listopia list https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9... shows the correct number of 1315 books (unless someone messes with it again). ..."

Thank you for the assurance. I figured something like that too. I have been considering the list at 1315 since I saw what the maker of the List Challenges list had done.

Ellinor wrote: "George P. wrote: "Here's a significant milestone for me: 25% of the list!

I believe there are 1,316 combining all editions. I've just finished number 332. I thought I was at 329 which makes 25%, s..."

Here's the difference. the List Challenges list shows 1316 because it contains both Rameau's Nephew stand alone and Rameau's Nephew / D'Alembert's Dream combo book both by Denis Diderot. The only physical copy I have looked at is the 2006 edition of the list and the stand alone version is on that list. I don't know if at some point the list changed or included both editions.

I have been on the library waiting list since December 23rd waiting for Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Finally it has arrived.

Last night I started to read A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

Finished The Untouchable by John Banville for March's group read. More in a couple weeks.

I loved this book and it didn't take me very long to decide that. The most specific thing that I liked about it was the way that it is still so relevant today. Mostly everything I know about the era of segregation and the time period leading up to the race riots was written AFTER those events. Written in 1940, segregation was in full swing and that's just "how it was." I loved thinking about that as I read. The difference between something written then, as it was happening; vs now, when we are looking back from the vantage point of history.

There was so much foresight in this book. I felt like Wright practically predicted the race riots. He practically predicted the emergence of African American leaders. Many of them were probably already starting to emerge, I can't claim to be very well educated in that department. But I felt a lot of real-life foreshadowing as I was reading.

I can't say that I particularly liked Bigger. He was a bad seed from the beginning. He even knew it himself. He "reckoned" that his life was destined to end up this way somehow or another. But despite that, (view spoiler)[I was rooting for him to live in the end. Why? I am not sure. Two reasons I can fathom. Bigger was a victim. I was taken in by the court argument that he killed because he had to. Secondly, I just didn't want the extreme racists to win. The racism that was portrayed in the book was so extreme and blatant that it hurt me to read it. It amazed me that people ever thought that way. And kills me that some still do. However, I suppose that if Bigger had beat the death penalty, this would have made the book practically Sci-Fi in the 1940's... pure fantasy that a black man would escape a punishment of death after admitting to the crimes he committed (and those he didn't.) (hide spoiler)]

Native Son by Richard Wright. One of the best LIST books I have read in a very long time. Top five for me for sure. More in the group read thread.

New book in my top 5 favorite LIST books so far. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss!

Picked up The Untouchable by John Banville at the library. I will get started during my vacation in a couple days.

I think my list-reading friends will agree I had a very productive weekend.... my wife, not so much.

Finished:

Foundation by Isaac Asimov - 2/7/2020 - A very good book. But really need to read the others now to see how this turns out
Watchmen by Alan Moore - 2/8/2020 - Loved the story. Saw the movie but remembered nothing about it. I must not have liked it as much.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - 2/8/2020 - Same situation re: the movie. Great book. But this movie I want to see again. Both versions of it.

This weekend I started and got halfway through The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. It's very good so far.