Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
Popular Topics
>
Which LIST book did you just finish?
Cphe wrote: "Alias Grace first half strong but fell away at the end."I agree, Cphe, I'm just coming to the end now and also feel it's fallen away
Just finished Pamela by Samuel Richardson. Surprisingly good.Does anybody else have 1001 book blogs where they review the books? I have had very poor luck finding any.
Mod
A very different Calvino -- This is his first novel and reflects his experiences with the Resistance during WWII.
Mod
How unusual. It got me interested 😉 so I looked it up. It says Graham Greene wrote a novella in preparation for the screenplay (the Dutch edition..."
Greene had the basic idea for the story that he presented to Alexander Korda for the film. Korda wanted to set a film in postwar Vienna. After visiting Vienna, Greene worked with Carol Reed, the director, to develop and write the story. Greene states in the Preface that he felt you had to have a story before you could even think of a script. He goes on to say -- "The Third Man was never written to be read but only to be seen . . . The film in fact, is better than the story because it is in this case the finished state of the story."
Finished The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I enjoyed it (much, much more than The Blithedale Romance), but even more so, I feel like I've filled a hole in my survey of American literature.
Mod
Sarah wrote: "Finished Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami."I read that recently as well. He is an odd duck.
La bete humaine. It was my last Zola novel on the List (review up on http://www.1001everything.blogspot.com). Now I want to read his other novels, but the rest of the List awaits. So many good books, so little time.
The Kreutzer Sonata. Review is up on http://www.1001everything.blogspot.com. I threw a ton of shade at Tolstoy, but I promise he deserved it.
Thomas wrote: "Just finished Pamela by Samuel Richardson. Surprisingly good.Does anybody else have 1001 book blogs where they review the books? I have had very poor luck finding any."
Yes! I have one but I don't want to spam this thread with my URL! See my above comment :)
Amanda wrote: "The Kreutzer Sonata. Review is up on http://www.1001everything.blogspot.com. I threw a ton of shade at Tolstoy, but I promise he deserved it."He sure did!! I wrote about it here: https://independentbookreview.wordpre...
Yrinsyde wrote: "Amanda wrote: "The Kreutzer Sonata. Review is up on http://www.1001everything.blogspot.com. I threw a ton of shade at Tolstoy, but I promise he deserved it."He sure did!! I wrote about it here: h..."
Nice! Yeah, poor Sophia:(
Amanda wrote: "The Kreutzer Sonata. Review is up on http://www.1001everything.blogspot.com. I threw a ton of shade at Tolstoy, but I promise he deserved it."I commented on this one here: it is just like sitting next to a guy on a long flight when he insists on rambling crazily and you cannot get away from him. Except this guy is also a wife-killer.
Finished A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell--second in the Dance of Time Series
The Girls of Slender Means - meant to just start it, but an hour later, I was finished. May take another pass through before May 15th.
I bet that was a laugh-a-minute
Mod
Tough read, but so applicable still to what social workers go through.
I read this twice, once thirty years ago and again recently. Very powerful, both times around. Read some of his other novels, this was the best I thought. the Idiot was the most difficult to get through though.
Mod
This novel had zero literary value for me. ZERO."
While I did enjoy the read, I was puzzled by it's inclusion on the list. Didn't seem to be enough somehow.
Just finished Thank You Jeeves. It was really funny and I was just wondering why more people aren't talking about Wodehouse...then there was the whole wacky misunderstanding involving blackface and it suddenly became clearer.
I just finished Corelli's Mandolin. Really wonderful read! I think the ending was a bit rushed, but I still loved the book and may even reread it someday in the future.
Grada (BoekenTrol) wrote: "I just finished The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell: The Kindly Ones"That book is so brutal. Powerful, but brutal. I think Littell got a little carried away with it near the end (especially the penultimate chapter), but the introductory chapter is one of the most chilling things I've read, with Aue dispassionately recounting the statistics of the Eastern Front
Bryan wrote: re: The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell: The Kindly Ones"...Powerful, but brutal. I think Littell got a little carried away with it near the end (especially the penultimate chapter), but the introductory chapter is one of the most chilling things I've read"Well that just moved up to the top of my 1001 pile.
Meanwhile, I just finished Sputnik Sweetheart
Ella wrote: "Well that just moved up to the top of my 1001 pile...."
It's rough in almost every way it can be. I also think Littell comes close to losing control of his material near the end, but for all its flaws, I have it on my list of the 21st century's best
I finished The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Dickens.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Thought provoking but lacking the undercurrent of malice of 1984 or A Handmaid's Tale.
Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
Books mentioned in this topic
The Sword in the Stone (other topics)Cider With Rosie (other topics)
After the Quake (other topics)
Auto-da-Fé (other topics)
Walden or, Life in the Woods (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
T.H. White (other topics)Laurie Lee (other topics)
Haruki Murakami (other topics)
Elias Canetti (other topics)
Henry David Thoreau (other topics)
More...
How unusual. It got me interested 😉 so I looked it up. It says Graham Greene wrote a novella in preparation for the screenplay (the Dutch edition of Wikipedia says the book came out after the movie).