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.

Way ahead of schedule, I finished The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. More about that in a few weeks.

I picked up Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges a the library last night.

Cassette? What's a cassette? :'D

That's a double win.... Something for free and a LIST book on top of it. I went to jury duty and they said that we can peruse their library and if we get into a book we are free to take it home. Woohoo! I took home a copy of Beloved.

I have been looking at this a lot lately and just wanted to say thank you for all the time you put into it.

In my continuing attempt to shove the LIST down everybody's throat, I picked The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver for book club this go-round.

Amanda wrote: "The other list book that this one reminded me the most of was Ben-Hur, which I also really liked despite a lack of interest in Christian preaching.."

I thought frequently about Ben-Hur and that time period while reading this book. I have to admit to never having read Ben-Hur nor even ever seeing that movie. I only found out recently that it was heavy in Christian preaching. It was only after that when I realized that, yes, Ben-Hur IS played heavily during the Easter season.... who knew? Everybody apparently! Ha!

I am looking forward to both of those other books now.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - who ever said the "clever books only have words"? This was darling indeed.

Getting a head-start on next month's group read, The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.

I enjoyed my jolly jaunt through La Mancha with the wise fool, Don Quixote. Fun times with the foolish sage!

Mercedes wrote: "Sean wrote: "The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This shouldn't take long..."

A darling book."

I agree. "darling" might be a perfect descriptor.

Yesterday I finished Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz and have posted my thoughts on the group read thread.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This shouldn't take long...

When I first read what this book was about, I was very excited to start it. I love reading about times long past, and this appeared that it was going to be a good one. Then I read a few reviews that claimed it was overly religious and I worried about that a bit because I don't subscribe to much of what organized religion has to say.

As it turned out, I needn't have worried. While it was definitely written in a way that villainized the Roman way of life and exalted living a life bathed in Christ's love, it was not overly preachy.

I found the subject matter to be very interesting. Being raised a Christian and having been subjected to all the New Testament stories, it was interesting to see it from a Roman's perspective. Growing up, I never really understood the importance of Rome in the Jerusalem area. Over the years, I started to understand how Rome expanded and then it all made sense, but reading this book put that even more into prospective. Also, knowing that Rome now is the Catholic HQ made this even more interesting contemplating all the changes that this city of antiquity has gone through.

It's definitely a love story wrapped up in historical fiction. Not just love between people, but love in general. Love was a central theme that needed to grow from almost nothing. At least the kind of love that was needed to save humanity from ruin.

I have to say though, that the history was my favorite part. I love a good historical fiction. I love to try to put myself into the era and imagine how things were. That was the part of this book that had the most appeal to me.

-Coming soon-



Will you read it? Or will you have to wait to see if it makes a future edition of the LIST?

February 18, 1931 to August 5, 2019

Rest in Peace Toni Morrison.

I just saw this news last night. We lost one of our LIST authors the previous Monday.

I have only read one of her books, The Bluest Eye. I read it twice and remember loving it the first time and only liking it more recently.

Beloved still haunts me since I saw the movie way back when. It's #6 on my to-read list. I'm planning it for a book club choice.

What about you? Which have you read? What was your favorite?

my copy of Quo Vadis arrived at the library today. Starting that this weekend also.

Mercedes wrote: "So many movies, so little time ..."

So many books to read no time for all the movies I want to see.

I just started Don Quixote. I will be well occupied for a while.

Dracula. Having recently finished Frankenstein, it stands out to me how much of Dracula's pop culture remains true to this book and how much Frankenstein has wandered away from the original work.

Loved this read. Beautifully written. Thrilling and creepy throughout.

Mercedes wrote: "Sean wrote: "Mercedes wrote: "I'm starting the Claudine series which includes whichever book (Claudine at home?) is on the list. So, Claudine à l'école it is."

[book:Claudine's House|..."

I think you should do the whole series anyway. Because of the film, I wanted to put them on my list also. But as of yet, I have not.

I will see if I can find that earlier show. Sounds interesting.