Any other books you should read before you die?

[Ana]

I loved it, even when nothing is happening. It is so but so well written! sometimes it is like we were reading poetry. I also loved Anna Karenina.

[Lisa]

Ana wrote: "I loved it, even when nothing is happening. It is so but so well written! sometimes it is like we were reading poetry. I also loved Anna Karenina."

Agree. Have you read any other Tolstoy?

[Buck]

Lisa wrote: "I had a very weird conversation with someone the other day. They told me they are afraid to read. Because if they read too much, they would run out of books and never have anything to read..."

hahahaha That's just too weird.

Ana wrote: "I loved it, even when nothing is happening. It is so but so well written! sometimes it is like we were reading poetry. I also loved Anna Karenina."

Ulysses? You are the first person I know of who enjoyed it.

[Ana]

no, just Anna Karenina, but I want to read Hadji Murad and the The Death of Ivan Ilyich

[Lisa]

Ana wrote: "no, just Anna Karenina, but I want to read Hadji Murad and the The Death of Ivan Ilyich"

Same here!

[Ana]

Now I'm reading Middlemarch, it is also very good.

[Lisa]

Ana wrote: "Now I'm reading Middlemarch, it is also very good."

One of my favorites! Eliot's prose is lyrical

[Ana]

Lisa wrote: "Ana wrote: "Now I'm reading Middlemarch, it is also very good."

One of my favorites! Eliot's prose is lyrical"

I agree!
Although very different, I also loved the "The Sea-Wolf" by Jack London.

[Lisa]

Ana wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Ana wrote: "Now I'm reading Middlemarch, it is also very good."

One of my favorites! Eliot's prose is lyrical"

I agree!
Although very different, I also loved the "The Sea-Wolf" by..."

Never read it! To read list...

[Karlyne]

That is odd! Is Anna Karenina?

[Mayra]

That is on the list, there should be a discussion thread for it already.

[Lisa]

Long Walk to Freedom

So South Africa celebrates 20 years of democracy this year. We also lost our iconic former leader Nelson Mandela last year. In honor of our great leader and in celebration of our young democracy, myself and the SA reads goodreads group have decided that we will be reading A Long Walk to Freedom in April-May. It is truly a book to read 'before you die'.
Please join us.
The discussion will be led by local author John Mountford, author of The Mandela Trilogy
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Dankie. Ke a leboga. Ngiyabonga

[Karlyne]

Great choice. I'm looking forward to it!

[Lisa]

Here is the link to the SA reads group again. The one above is faulty.
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[Andrew]

Maybe I passed over the list too quickly, but I didn't see anything by Victor Hugo.

[Andrew]

I actually bought an old copy of Les Mis' on Saturday!

[Mary]

Les Misérables is one of the few books that I liked as a book, play, and movie.

[Andrew]

@Mary I'm not really into live theatre, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the Les Mis' book haha

[Mary]

Andrew wrote: "@Mary I'm not really into live theatre, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the Les Mis' book haha"

@Andrew, oh but you will be! I actually saw the play before I read the book or saw the film. Each was so different from the other that I didn't compare and just evaluated on its on merits - a first and only time I might add.

[Aymen]

A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens.

[Karlyne]

Aymen wrote: "A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens."

That's a good one!

[Andrew]

@Mary haha thank you, I'll be looking forward to it.

[H]

GHOST, author: Katherine Ramsland
genre- Nonfiction (intriguing read from a phd's perspective)**********

[Subramanian]

'The Exorcist' by William Peter Blatty. It is one of my favourite movies. Like to see how good the book is.

[Subramanian]

There are so many but for a change think everybody should read H.W. Longfellow's Poetry, especially his 'Psalm of Life'.

[Subramanian]

I would also like to add the poems of Walt Whitman with special emphasis on his poem, 'Lilacs on my doorstep bloom'.

[Subramanian]

Thomas Gray's Poetry is remarkable for its diction and impeccable poesy. 'Elegy on a country churchyard' is a haunting poem. The rhythm and the pentameter mesmerise.

[Subramanian]

And then there is William Wordsworth's complete works. All of his poems render the reader speechless because of their simplicity and their ability to let the reader identify himself as a character in the poem. Wordsworth's 'Tables Turned' is little known but a classic.

[Subramanian]

We all are talking about prose. Let's talk poetry for a difference. There is so much in that world that is absent in the prosaic.

[Subramanian]

Think we should also add a list of books that should not be read even after we die. Thomas Hardy's 'Under the greenwood tree' should head that list.

[Lisa]

Narayanan wrote: "Think we should also add a list of books that should not be read even after we die. Thomas Hardy's 'Under the greenwood tree' should head that list."

No way! I love Hardy!
But. Old definitely name some books that should not be read ever!

[Timothy]

"Promise of the black monks"
it's published by Zharmae Publishing Press. Check it out! You won't regret it

[Subramanian]

Lisa wrote: "Narayanan wrote: "Think we should also add a list of books that should not be read even after we die. Thomas Hardy's 'Under the greenwood tree' should head that list."

No way! I love Hardy!
But. O..."

His 'Madding' should be added too. Reading Hardy is misery.

[Karlyne]

I've only read Tess, but it didn't leave me with a hankering for more! Since then, though, I've almost been convinced to give him a try again. Almost.

[Linda]

I haven't read any Hardy, but I'm pretty excited to give him a try just from what I have heard from other groups. I have Tess sitting on my nightstand as my first Hardy when my current reading pile gets a bit shorter.

[Karlyne]

Linda wrote: "I haven't read any Hardy, but I'm pretty excited to give him a try just from what I have heard from other groups. I have Tess sitting on my nightstand as my first Hardy when my current reading pil..."

Good luck! Let us know how you find it!

[Lisa]

Linda, Hardy is incredible!

[Duane]

"The Joke", "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting", "Life is Elsewhere", "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", and "Immortality". I suspect I could recommend anything by Kundera, but I am still reading his work.

[Longhare]

I'll second Germinal (Zola), War and Peace (Tolstoy) and anything by Eliot or Hardy. Irving's Owen Meaney is way up there for me too, along with Morrison's Song of Solomon. I would also throw in Kristin Lavransdatter (Undset) and Vanity Fair (Thackaray).

Now if anybody can explain Ulysses to me, please start a thread. I have been laboring through that monster in fits and starts for years. Bits of it are extraordinary--enough to make you think, yeah this belongs on a list of great novels--but then you turn the page and...Ugh. Usually, I don't bother finishing a book I'm not enjoying, but sometimes a good introduction can illuminate a book and make it enjoyable. This book gets so much respect and has such a devoted readership. It has its own unofficial holiday! Can anybody shed light on this really difficult book?

[Buck]

Nobody likes Ulysses - it's a hoax.

[Karlyne]

I've only read bits and pieces of Ulysses, too, so I might buy the hoax idea, Buck!

[Ken]

I'm going to try Ulysses as an audiobook and see how that goes before actually reading it.

[Buck]

Kenneth wrote: "I'm going to try Ulysses as an audiobook and see how that goes before actually reading it."

I heard an audiobook and read an ebook simultaneously. I think Molly Bloom's stream-of-consciousness soliloquy at the end might have been nearly unintelligible without the well-done audio. Hearing it slowed down the pace of reading, but I was able to increase the speed of the audiobook.

So, I can say I've read it, but I rated it quite low. I have yet to encounter anyone who enjoyed Ulysses.

[Longhare]

I found this guy's blog review:

What’s so great about “Ulysses”?

He says that it is "endlessly playful and mischievous, and is full of silly gags, jokes, and irrepressible high spirits; there is even room for a bit of old-fashioned schoolboy smut. This is what makes all the more amusing the novel’s reputation for highbrow elitism: material less highbrow or elitist cannot be imagined." The problem is that unless you have a classical education and are pretty darn erudite, you aren't likely to pick up on the silly gags. He recommends not worrying about getting all the references, but unless you enjoy relentless unintelligible stream of consciousness, what is left? From the comments following the review, it seems the thing to do is to just skip the boring parts. But I can't. I've thought about it, but it goes against the grain. I was stuck in the pub scene for months before giving up last time. Maybe June 16th, just for the halibut, I'll take another whack at it and see if I can appreciate it any better in light of the blogger's explanation of it.

In the meantime, The Man in the Iron Mask (Dumas) is keeping me up late at nights. Those musketeers!

[Karlyne]

Longhare wrote: "I found this guy's blog review:

What’s so great about “Ulysses”?

He says that it is "endlessly playful and mischievous, and is full of silly gags, jokes, and irrepressible high spirits; there is ..."

I wish I had a copy of The Man in the Iron Mask; I remember loving it!

[Karlyne]

And if I ever decide to give Ulysses a try, as you say, just for the halibut, I'll print off his blog so that it'll help me wade through the snot-green sea of words.

[Ashlee]

Jithin wrote: "And then there were none by Agatha Christie"

Oh, yes!! ALL Agatha Christie is wonderful, though, really ...!

[Ashlee]

I would most definitely add all 7 in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.

For all fantasy lovers, these are my faves:
"Wildwood Dancing" by Juliet Marillier

"Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood" by Meredith Ann Pierce

"Keturah and Lord Death" by Martine Leavitt

[Ashlee]

Agnes wrote: "I'm a huge George Eliot fan! I even did my dissertation on her, examining the artist figure in her works. Brilliant, warm, complex, sympathetic - she was an extraordinary woman.
I agree - Silas Ma..."

I'm a big fan of hers as well!! I grew up reading her in my teens, and just never got her out of my system. My favorite of hers has to be "Middlemarch." I fell in love with Will Ladislaw, and basically wanted to be Dorothea myself :) Haha. Such a classic!

[Subramanian]

Linda wrote: "I haven't read any Hardy, but I'm pretty excited to give him a try just from what I have heard from other groups. I have Tess sitting on my nightstand as my first Hardy when my current reading pil..."
Hardy is as dumb as a goat. His stories are.......just useless.