Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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Which LIST book did you just finish?
Bryan "They call me the Doge" wrote: "Dostoyevsky looms large in my mind as a struggle between one's nature and a desire for a nearness to divinity. He seems to exist in the gap between our human frailties and an angelic ideal. Miss Lo..."Well now you've intrigued me, I may add Dostoyevsky further up the list on my TBR pile now.
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haha. I simply meant that I didn't know because I didn't bother to look it up. But thank you for letting me know that it has, indeed, been translated into Portuguese.
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I like the way you put this. It's very true. Geographically, as well as our place in time vs the time it was written.
Sean wrote: "Kayla wrote: "it's often very easy to get caught up in our own bubble of geographic location and forget that there is a bigger world out there than just what we see in front of us...."I like the ..."
Yes- the time period is soooo important also. I've found myself not enjoying some of the older works as much just because of the time period they were written in- I can easily read a modern piece of literature SET in those same periods, but reading one that was actually written back then? That is a whole other ballgame and not just in the language used itself, but also in so far as things were just different back then so you could read something that seems appalling or gross or crazy/unbelievable and yet it only seems that way because we aren't living in time when those things were likely just a normal way of life...something as simple as reading a book written in the 70s and 80s and even early 90s, it seems that ALL of the characters smoke- something I myself detest, yet when reading those books I remind myself of when they were written and the fact that in those decades it was normal and extremely common and there wasn't anywhere near as much research and data available on the effects and when I remember that, it doesn't bother me *as much* lol.
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That's very true too.... or how about 14 year-old girls marrying 35 year old-men? And starting to have babies immediately. That was totally not even a big deal once upon a time. Now we all cringe.
Sean wrote: "Kayla wrote: "70s and 80s and even early 90s, it seems that ALL of the characters smoke- something I myself detest..."That's very true too.... or how about 14 year-old girls marrying 35 year old-..." Yes exactly! And I can hate the concept when I read it and still enjoy the book IF I remind myself that this was a different time and socially acceptable (even if it is wrong IMO lol) not to mention it's so cringeworthy these days that even in movie adaptations they typically cast older people in those roles to avoid the "cringeworthiness"
Finished White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Funny, enjoyable novel--much more entertaining than NW, I thought, though NW might be a stronger statement.
Just finished "Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar" on the recommendation of one of my fave booktubers.
I just finished "The Water-Babies" today. I had to really force myself to finish it.
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King Solomon's Mines and She by H. Rider Haggard
Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem by Emilio Salgari
What a fun read -- good pirates, innocent maidens, romance, and lots of adventure! (This book is also on the Boxall 1001 Children's Books list.)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. This story puts forth ideas and principles that are still pertinent today. This is the mark of a classic to have the ability to still be relevant almost seventy years after being first published. This also says a lot about our society that some of the problems faced by people of color have remained the same during all that time.
Persuasion by Jane Austen. I have now read all six of Austen's listed novels.
Finished 2 big ones this week:- War and Peace: finally! Took me some time to get into the story but liked it in the end. Also as a French person it's interesting to see how the Napoleonic wars are viewed from Russia.
- Americanah hands down my favorite book so far this year. Looking forward to reading other Adichie books!
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A beautiful, fascinating book about the author's struggle with training a goshawk and dealing with her grief over her father's death. Woven in with her story is that of T. H. White (A Once and Future King).
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- War and Peace: finally! Took me some time to get into the story but liked it in the end. Also as a French person it's interesting to see how the Napoleon..."
I finally read War and Peace earlier this year also, had vowed I would do it when I retired. It's not a difficult read, but very long. I thought Americanah was very good also.
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The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene. I found this a hard and not overly enjoyable read, OK rather than memorable.
The Call of the Wild by Jack London.I loved it even when it was difficult and heartbreaking. One of those books that you don’t “put away” once you turn the final page. It sort of just sticks with you for a bit.
Recently completed and very much enjoyed: An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro - 4 stars - My Review
The Cider House Rules by John Irving. I don't believe in abortion but this book made me rethink some of my reasons. The characters are wonderful, John Irving has a great writing style.
In the last couple of weeks, I've finished Ulysses, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, The Wonderful O, The Purloined Letter, and The Thirty-Nine Steps. Ulysses was quite a challenge...though I did use some helps suggested by other Goodreads reviewers. I think it's one that I'll read again. I've always liked James Joyce...he's a genius....but not the easiest to read. Also, love the books on the list. Some fun reads!
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That one gave me the heebie-jeebies due to my irrational fear of cockroaches.
Just finished this marvelous book about PTSD in WWI:Regeneration by Pat Barker - 5 stars - My Review
Just finished Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote.
Diane wrote: "That one gave me the heebie-jeebies due to my irrational fear of cockroaches."That would do it. I thought that was an extraordinarily difficult book in general though. I believe the gist was the deconstruction and reconstruction of a human being through the catalyst of the dead cockroach, but I could be wrong. It's one I'll have to return to someday, just to see what new impressions it makes.
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens. Took months to read and is one I'm glad to tick off the list. My least favourite of his so far.
Kayla wrote: "Basically- you're point is very good, there are so many things to remember when asking ourselves why we didn't enjoy a book as much or why it's included on a list and it's often very easy to get caught up in our own bubble of geographic location and forget that there is a bigger world out there than just what we see in front of us."Not to mention the list is heavily biased toward Western and in particular English speaking authors.
Just to have an idea of how little some other parts of the world are represented, there isn't a single Portuguese speaking African author in the list. Mia Couto, missing, Agualusa, missing, Pepetela, missing.
There's been plenty of edits to the list, usually dropping and adding more European and/or American authors and yet not a single African author who writes in Portuguese has been added. And I have checked, these authors have been translated into English so it is not a matter of just not being available.
The Once and Future King by T.H. WhiteNot what I was expecting. I read The Sword in the Stone when I was young and I loved it, but the other three books in this quartet are much darker in tone. They were written at different points during and after World War II, and White uses the characters and folklore of the Arthurian legend to question why wars are fought.
I found this book relentlessly bleak. It just did not appeal to me at all, though it is well-written:The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison - 2 stars - My Review
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One of my favorites!
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Fascinating look at the 1960s art scene in New York and the rise of the Red Brigade in Italy.
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One of my favorites!"
Mine too!!
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AKA: The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. This is how I read it. I kept reading about how the English translation really didn't do the book justice. That's too bad. However, I loved this book anyway and I guess I can't miss what I wouldn't have understood anyway.
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Oroonoko by Aphra Behn. Can't say I liked it but I did read it. Now I am finally up to 100 books read!!
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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)
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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)
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Many of these books were written in languages that are not your own. When you read one of those, you are probabl..."
Very good points and one that can be very much applied all the way down to children's books. My son's school will sometimes read bilingual books to the class which I think is amazing, but the translation just doesn't come across as well always- I'm speaking from the "sound" perspective as I don't know another language and so can't full translate the other language directly, but my point being in that in a recent book, it was clearly initially written in english and it rhymed- well obviously, a rhyming book in one language won't likely be translated into another language and still rhyme. Basically- you're point is very good, there are so many things to remember when asking ourselves why we didn't enjoy a book as much or why it's included on a list and it's often very easy to get caught up in our own bubble of geographic location and forget that there is a bigger world out there than just what we see in front of us.