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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Been reading The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker by Tobias Smollet
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
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I read it recently, a rather dark story but good.
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
I am reading A Prayer For Owen Meany. I am loving it so far. There was a movie made based on it called Simon Birch.
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Just finished Smilla's Sense of Snow for the second time. I absolutely love it. Any character that prefers ice and snow over love is interesting!
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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?
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 the peculiar jargon invented by Burgess and also used in the movie.
My copy of the book has a lot of notes and a glossary at the end. I have yet to read it, though.
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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.
Sean wrote: "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."
Sure but having a glossary at hand is just interesting in its own. My edition also includes snippets of the actual manuscript (and some crazy drawings that go with it) along with some other goodies that diehard fans are very likely to enjoy.
Luís wrote: "I think that both the movie and the book has a fascisist literary style."
I actually don't think so, at least not the book. If you look at actual fascist literature- and the term is used very loosely- you are much more likely to find pseudo-retro speak. Fascists tend to abhor any kind of innovation language wise as they hark back to the 'good old' days when language was 'pure'. Our very own Salazar was all too fond of this, propaganda from the Estado Novo comes across as borderline 19th century in terms of the vocabulary and even syntax.
The content of the book does relate to fascism but I would not say the literary style does, at all.
If anything, it reminds me much more of some Alt-Right ways of expression which would make the book visionary.
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It's in my to-read list for next year. I believe I read a very abridged version when I was about 12. It's in the "Novel 100" list.
Reasons to Live by Amy HempelThis is actually a short story collection--I started reading Hempel's collected stories and it was only by luck I noticed that she had an entry on Boxall's list. They are kind of quirky, more interesting for what they don't say than what they do. I always have trouble sustaining interest in single-author story collections, because they start to run together after a while. I'm only reading one story a day to try and circumvent that.
Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
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Very excited about this one.