Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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Which LIST book did you just finish?
I just finished 10:04 by Ben Lerner. It wasn't as bad as many of the reviews here made it sound, but I'm still not sure why I MUST have read it. Oh well, it's done now.
Isabel wrote: "I've been stuck on book 2 for various ..."It’s a sad tale but very good.
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Mercedes wrote: "Recently I read Jubilee by Margaret Walker..."As far as I know, it is not on the list...
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Thanks for the suggestion. I just checked it out.
Booklovinglady wrote: "As far as I know, it is not on the list... "
Haha. I guess we all need a LIST break once in a while. I will put this on my non-LIST list.
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Jubilee and Gone With the Wind are two of my favorite books! Jubilee doesn't get the recognition it should.
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BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...)
(last edited Mar 30, 2019 07:59AM)
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Mercedes wrote: "...@Booklovinglady, I don't live by the list.. ..."Neither do I, but the topic is "Which LIST book did you just finish?' 🙂
Folks, the book in question was suggested after someone finished a LISTED book which they enjoyed. As such, IMHO it was appropriate discussion for this topic. If we are to be limited to literally nothing more than answering what listed book a reader just finished, this whole thread is kind of pointless.
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I haven't. I really want to see it. I hear it is wonderful.
Sean wrote: "Picked up The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind on Friday and finished it that evening. Despite Jonathan's existential crisis, I found myself laughing at his situation (and his r..."I read that back in March and liked it quite a bit. I agree with you on the humor of the book - it's quite a laugh! I love it when authors can convey a meaningful story without taking their writing all that seriously.
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I had heard that too. I still have yet to read anything by Kafka. I will have to try him out sooner than later.
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I ..."
Thanks for the advice. I will keep that in mind when the time comes. So many books, so little time...
Luís wrote: "Sean wrote: "Luís wrote: "Benjamin wrote: "Sean wrote: "Picked up The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind on Fridayi...That's a story a bit kafkaesque, in my point of view .. "I ..."
I started The Trial once but I didn't like it. I loved The Pigeon so maybe I should try The Castle?
Mia wrote: "I started The Trial once but I didn't like it. I loved The Pigeon so maybe I should try The Castle? "It's sort of a shame that the Kafka short stories aren't on the list. I think they'd be a much better intro than the novels, but if you're sticking to the list, I'd try the Castle before the Trial. (And maybe sneak in a few of the better-known shorter works for an appetizer?)
Oh, and I just finished The Day of the Triffids and a quick refresher of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency so I can finally read The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, which I meant to read in a row a while ago, but didn't.
Cataract by Mykhaylo Osadchy. Hard to see this as a must read--Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman would be a much better pick, if one wanted to highlight the injustice of the Soviet Gulag system. On the other hand, this may be one of the only examples of Ukranian literature on the list, and that might be the reason for its inclusion.
Mercedes wrote: "Another book not on the list, although it does appear in the Modern Library's top 100 of the 20th century, is Darkness at Noon. Stalin era atrocities of the psychological torture kind and the purging of agents no longer trusted... it's a great read..."I guess I never noticed Koestler's book was missing from the list. That's kind of surprising, considering the influence it's had.
The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Ella wrote: "Mia wrote: "I started The Trial once but I didn't like it. I loved The Pigeon so maybe I should try The Castle? "It's sort of a shame that the Kafka short stories aren't on the list. I think they..."
Thank you! I'll have to check out his short stories. The Metamorphosis is the only one I've read from him.
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Let us know what you think. I have this one in transit to my library and will be starting it soon also.
Luís wrote: "Baltasar and Blimunda , The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis & The Stone Raft.. Maybe these three. ..."These are three of his that I haven't read either. I really liked Blindness, but I've read three or four others that I was only so-so about, or outright disliked. I have Ricardo Reis on my shelves (and The Double as well), but I think if I read another that I'm not crazy about, I'll probably be finished with Saramago. As far as Portuguese writers, I did find Antonio Lobo Antunes to be intense.
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My first Saramago. Social comentaries abound. I am somewhat disappointed with his having used women as collateral, and this affected my rating, but I very much enjoyed this ..."
I've only read Caim. knowing most of those stories from childhood, I thoroughly enjoyed his sarcasm and wit. -dodges lightning bolt-
The Blind Owl and Other Stories. The first story is the one on the list, but the other stories in the collection are well worth a read too. I loved it.
Finished A Man Asleep by Georges Perec. Never in my life have I read such a miserably bleak book - I loved it.
The Kreutzer Sonata: angry, angry man rants about the horrors of sex and expounds on how women are more less monsters. Angry, angry man has also killed his own wife and barely did any time in jail and remains very much a bundle of ill-managed rage as he unleashes his grievances on a fellow train passenger. As a wild, barely coherent piece of dementia it is actually quite effective. It reminded me more of Dostoevsky than Tolstoy- one can tell there was a crisis of conscience going on when the author wrote this one- as it reads like one of the most unhinged monologues straight from The Brothers Karamazov while in spirit it has some kinship with Crime and Punishment.
Unfortunately, Tolstoy meant this very much as a manifesto as sorts as is made explicit in the essay that he attached to Sonata.
Sex is bad, bad, bad and contraception is demonized, too, so that 'pure chastity' is promoted as the ideal and the woman is expected to be either pregnant or nursing pretty much at all times. Lovely.
I just finished "If Beale Street Could Talk" by James Baldwin. It was a classic love story tragedy surrounding a falsely accused Black man in prison and his pregnant girl. It wasn't the ending or the climax of the book that got to me but, the tenderness between the two lovers that lets me sleep at night. It certainly warrants consideration for it being a great classic book. Baldwin is historic and telling the truth about the injustice in the wake of years of bigotry and racism.
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Baldwin has two books in the Boxall list, but not Beale Street. I've only read one of his novels, Giovanni's Room (& a short), so I can't give an opinion of which is most deserving of being on the list.
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Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
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Monumental. Clever. Sort of like reading a jigsaw puzzle."
A friend of mine (with no knowledge of the LIST (as far as I know) and no knowledge that I am working through the LIST) just recommended this book to me. She said that it was horrifying and amazing and is letting me borrow it so she isn't tempted to pick it up again.