Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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Which LIST book did you just start?
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It sounds grim but I have it on my to-read list (a couple years down though). Cela received the Nobel in lit. and I've only read a couple of Spanish authors.
George P. wrote: "Dina wrote: "Started The Hive by Camilo José Cela"It sounds grim but I have it on my to-read list (a couple years down though). Cela received the Nobel in lit. and I'v..."
Very interesting book and much better than I expected.
Spring by Ali SmithHa! Just realized this book isn't on the list-----but it's part of the four part series which included Winter that is on the list. Hanging my head -- I won't add Summer when I get to it later in the month.
George P. wrote: "It sounds grim but I have it on my to-read list (a couple years down though). Cela received the Nobel in lit. and I've only read a couple of Spanish authors."Difficult to imagine Cela winning now considering he was such a Fascist he literally denounced fellow colleagues at the university where he taught. Yes, denounced them to the political police that would torture and not that rarely kill "suspects."
Cela was a monster and died firmly convinced he was entirely in the right.
"Fun" fact, the regime he loved so much would and did ban his books.
If you are interested in all this, Javier Marías' books on the list tackle it. Not overtly, Cela's name will never be mentioned, as such, but the author channeled his family trauma in much of his fiction.
Including his father's having been arrested by the fascists after having been denounced by a colleague. Marías' father was already highly renowned as an intellectual and they never found out just who it was who denounced him.
He was very lucky in that the judge in the kangaroo court was willing to hear him out and witnesses were actually willing to testify on his behalf. So he survived.
Others were less lucky.
Nike wrote: "I've just started to read Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley."I love Frankenstein, especially when iI learned how and why it was written!
Kimberly wrote: "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer"there is a phenomenal movie with Edward Norton as the leading actor. The best movies were always books first!
Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
I've finally started Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz. I'd read a couple others by him--most notably Palace Walk, but I'd been somewhat disappointed. So far, I'm enjoying Midaq quite a bit.
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I've previously read and liked Rhys' Good Morning, Midnight, one of her other two List books.
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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
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I have put that one off also, though almost all friends who've read it rated it four or five stars- mostly five. Maybe next year.
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I have put that one off also, though almost all friends who've read it rated..."
Its wonderful so far.
Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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I'm really behind this month. I should be starting that too. Instead I started The Once and Future King by T.H. White. It's just been on my want to read list for too long. And I'm on a kick right now after Our Ancestors and Legend.