Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

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message 1301: by Ellinor (new)

Ellinor (1001andmore) | 915 comments Mod
Just finsihed Les choses by George Perec. I really enjoyed it even though not much is happening. And most of it is still so true today.


message 1302: by Nicola (new)

Nicola | 770 comments The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror - a wonderful collection of stories. Dr Jekyll is the best and I wished I didn't know the story before I listened to it but even knowing before hand what was going on, it was still a great story.

The Body Snatcher was a classic creepy tale but Olalla stood out with a rather sweet and sad tone.

Great book, highly recommended.


message 1303: by Lisa (new)

Lisa James (sthwnd) | 352 comments Ok, I am 47. I JUST read for the first time in my life, Anne of Green Gables

I was DELIGHTED, charmed, & fell in love with the irrepressible Anne :) She reminds me SO much of myself as a girl, LOL. Whimsical, loved to read, loved to dawdle & daydream, hated house chores unless they involved the animals, loved to go for long walks in the woods, & sucked at Geometry too. I was also tickled to find out this is the first in a series about her!


message 1304: by Wendy (new)

Wendy (wendyneedsbooks) | 154 comments Just finished Watchmen (the only graphic novel on the list?) Despite not being in my oeuvre at ALL, I found a lot to like. Manages to be...surprising in its cliches. And the art is fantastic. Gory, yes, but still.


message 1305: by Nicola (new)

Nicola | 770 comments Just finished The Time Machine and The Golden Ass: Or Metamorphoses.

I think it would be hard to find two books more different. Well, ok, two fiction books which both have connections to the fantastic.

The Time Machine is extremely short, compactly written and in a serious scientific style befitting the protagonist and the era and theme of the book (sci-fi). The Golden Ass is rambling and fantastical without any suggestion of trying to base anything in it to reality and is bawdily unrestrained. Reading them together probably wasn't the smartest but it was rather amusing 


message 1306: by Nicola (new)

Nicola | 770 comments Lisa wrote: "Ok, I am 47. I JUST read for the first time in my life, Anne of Green Gables

I was DELIGHTED, charmed, & fell in love with the irrepressible Anne :) She reminds me SO much of myself ..."


One of my favourite books from my childhood :-)


message 1307: by Ellinor (new)

Ellinor (1001andmore) | 915 comments Mod
Lisa wrote: "Ok, I am 47. I JUST read for the first time in my life, Anne of Green Gables

I was DELIGHTED, charmed, & fell in love with the irrepressible Anne :) She reminds me SO much of myself ..."


Great book, but unfortunately not a LIST book!


message 1308: by Jennifer W (new)

Jennifer W | 251 comments Just finished Go Tell It on the Mountain, still pondering.


message 1309: by Katie (new)

Katie Coleman A Clockwork Orange. I really lived the language, it was real horrorshow :)


message 1310: by Noorilhuda (last edited Oct 21, 2014 11:21PM) (new)

Noorilhuda Noorilhuda | 6 comments Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle


message 1311: by Lauren (new)

Lauren | 73 comments I finished City Primeval by Elmore Leonard. I read it in a few days. I think Elmore Leonard is one of my favorite authors off the list. So glad to have found him. Who would have known I like Crime Fiction so much?


message 1312: by Carol (new)

Carol | 104 comments Read the "House on the Borderland" for a Halloween read. Trippy and weird


message 1313: by Carol (new)

Carol | 104 comments Kim wrote: "Joy wrote: "I just finished Middlemarch by George Eliot. L-O-N-G.... But I made it through!" Good for you. I really loved the characters and sense of community and village society that George Eliot..."

Love her writing and that book especially.


message 1314: by Lynecia (new)

Lynecia (luvnecia) | 40 comments Just finished "Never Let Me Go" - it was great. Ishiguro's "A Pale View of Hills" is on the list too and I can't wait to read that one as well.


message 1315: by Christine (new)

Christine Lynecia wrote: "Just finished "Never Let Me Go" - it was great. Ishiguro's "A Pale View of Hills" is on the list too and I can't wait to read that one as well."

I loved Never Let Me Go! I agree it is a great book.


message 1316: by Nicola (new)

Nicola | 770 comments The Golden Ass: Or Metamorphoses – a jumble of tales pushed together to create a semi cohesive whole following the unfortunate Lucius a ‘man’ more sinned against than sinning. Led on by his overwhelming curiosity to explore the mysteries of magic he reaches to wisdom in the form of an owl and is brought back down to earth in a bump in the shape of an ass and his trials begin. I won’t speak much about his sufferings, suffice it to say that I am surprised that any ass in Greece has a life expectancy of above a few months…

The story telling style of this novel is rather different to modern day, there are a lot of ‘and let me tell you this tale’ and ‘well if you can spare me the time please tell me the story’ so the plot has so many stitched on parts it’s more a bawdy 1001 Nights than an individual (morality?) tale in its own right.

Enjoyable enough but I find that I prefer a story to have not quite so many others tacked on any which way. 2 ½ stars.


message 1317: by Nicola (last edited Oct 24, 2014 02:40AM) (new)

Nicola | 770 comments Like Water for Chocolate – Highly unusual, Like Water for Chocolate explores the connection between food and our emotions bringing them together in a magical symbiosis. Tita, the heroine of the story has a marvellous talent for cookery and her unexpressed passions can sometimes burst out through her dishes in the most surprising of ways. It wasn’t a ‘happy story’ as such but the portrayal of events is done in such an odd manner that I didn’t really connect on an emotional level with any of the ‘tragic’ moments of the book.

Like Water for Chocolate seduced in being a feast for the senses and the frequently bizarre recipes perfectly complemented the oddity that was the book itself. 3 stars.


message 1318: by Genia (new)

Genia Lukin | 205 comments Just finished Henry Fielding's Amelia. It was okay, even for an 18th century novel a bit dull, really.


message 1319: by Jim (new)

Jim Townsend | 23 comments Good morning!

I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith on October 17, 2014.

Jim


message 1320: by Ellinor (new)

Ellinor (1001andmore) | 915 comments Mod
Jim wrote: "Good morning!

I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith on October 17, 2014.

Jim"


Also not a LIST book!


message 1321: by Nicola (last edited Oct 25, 2014 03:56AM) (new)

Nicola | 770 comments Les Misérables - Finally I finished this magnificent epic. No poor words of mine could possibly do justice to this marvellous work but I will say that it was worth the wait. This is my first Victor Hugo and I have been just blown away by the detail and life he breathes into his work. His treatise on Waterloo which almost deserved to be a short book in its own right, his love of Paris, the thieves cant; everything was just wonderful.

A glowing 5 stars.


message 1322: by Linda (last edited Oct 25, 2014 10:48AM) (new)

Linda | 275 comments Nicola wrote: "Les Misérables - Finally I finished this magnificent epic. No poor words of mine could possibly do justice to this marvellous work but I will say that it was worth the wait. This is my..."

I agree, Nicola. It was my first Hugo also and it was a breathtaking book with so much detail and range of emotions.


message 1323: by Elizabeth (Alaska) (new)

Elizabeth (Alaska) Just finished Banville's The Untouchable. Good quality reading - 4 stars. My review.


message 1324: by Carol (new)

Carol | 104 comments Just finished Italo Calvino "Invisible Cities". Quick read about Marco Polo describing cities to Kublai Khan.


message 1325: by S.L. (new)

S.L. Berry | 117 comments The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - excellent if weird and dream producing.


message 1326: by Becky (new)

Becky (munchkinland_farm) | 248 comments Finished A Clockwork Orange about a week ago. Burgess was correct that the British version with the ending chapter included makes for a more satisfying tale. His commentary on the police state is applicable in some communities today.


message 1327: by Becky (new)

Becky (munchkinland_farm) | 248 comments Home by Marilyn Robinson. I'm conflicted about this one. I was completely annoyed by the sanctimonious minister & the absolutely Midwesterness of all the characters (and I'm from the Midwest!) Too many unspoken thoughts. I was hoping for a big reveal at the end to make sense of all the suffering in silence, but God didn't come down and give them all a dope-slap so I was disappointed. Other comments on Goodreads suggest that Gilead is better.


message 1328: by Ellinor (new)

Ellinor (1001andmore) | 915 comments Mod
I recently finished Reasons to Live and Democracy. Both were ok but nothing I'd say I'd have to read before I die.


message 1329: by Katie (new)

Katie Coleman Concrete Garden, I enjoyed some of it, but some of the themes running through were a bit unpleasant.


message 1330: by Ellinor (new)

Ellinor (1001andmore) | 915 comments Mod
Katie wrote: "Concrete Garden, I enjoyed some of it, but some of the themes running through were a bit unpleasant."

Not a List book though.


message 1331: by Ellinor (new)

Ellinor (1001andmore) | 915 comments Mod
Last night I finished Thousand Cranes. It was a very poetic little book.


message 1332: by Katie (new)

Katie Coleman Ah my mistake... the title was The Cement Garden and a list book - not sure which edition though.


message 1333: by Nicola (new)

Nicola | 770 comments Katie wrote: "Ah my mistake... the title was The Cement Garden and a list book - not sure which edition though."

I knew what you meant :-) As soon as you said 'unpleasant themes' I was sure of it!


message 1334: by Linda (new)

Linda | 275 comments Nicola wrote: "I knew what you meant :-) As soon as you said 'unpleasant themes' I was sure of it! "

Um...yeah. That book made me most uncomfortable, to say the least.


message 1335: by Steve (new)

Steve mitchell | 127 comments Finished Almost Transparent Blue uhhhh I'm just glad it was short, my teenage son is reading it and thinks its fantastic????? Reminds me that youth is wasted on the young:)
review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 1336: by Frances (new)

Frances Macknight | 26 comments I just finished, "Surfacing", Margaret Atwood. Also, "Lives of Girls and Women", Alice Munro. I am rereading "The Diviners" by Margaret Lawrence.
I have made a list of 63 books of the 1001 listed, that I want to read! I have read 80.


message 1337: by Frances (new)

Frances Macknight | 26 comments I just finished, "Surfacing", Margaret Atwood. Also, "Lives of Girls and Women", Alice Munro. I am rereading "The Diviners" by Margaret Lawrence.
I have made a list of 63 books of the 1001 listed, that I want to read! I have read 80.


message 1338: by Jim (new)

Jim Townsend | 23 comments Finished The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

Jim


message 1339: by Ed (new)

Ed Lehman | 122 comments Just finished Thousand Cranes which is a gem... and a quick read, just 147 pages. Will have to read the author's other works.


message 1340: by Nicola (new)

Nicola | 770 comments Ed wrote: "Just finished Thousand Cranes which is a gem... and a quick read, just 147 pages. Will have to read the author's other works."

Lovely isn't it. I thought it was absolutely charming.


message 1341: by J_BlueFlower (new)

J_BlueFlower (j_from_denmark) | 387 comments Jim wrote: "Finished The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.


Not a 1001-list book?


message 1342: by Joy (new)

Joy The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By Mark Twain.


message 1343: by Jim (new)

Jim Townsend | 23 comments J wrote: "Jim wrote: "Finished The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.


Not a 1001-list book?"


It isn't?

Jim
J wrote: "Jim wrote: "Finished The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.


Not a 1001-list book?"



message 1344: by Linda (new)

Linda | 275 comments Jim wrote: "J wrote: "Jim wrote: "Finished The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.


Not a 1001-list book?"

It isn't?"


I just checked my combined list and I couldn't find it on there. That is surprising.


message 1345: by Melanti (last edited Oct 31, 2014 09:13AM) (new)

Melanti | 50 comments It's nonfiction.

The list is for novels, basically, though it does break its own rules from time to time.

There are some memoirs in the list, but those are generally from fiction writers and they're generally written in such a way to read like fiction.


message 1346: by Linda (new)

Linda | 275 comments Melanti wrote: "It's nonfiction."

Oh yeah, that's right. I had forgotten about that little detail. :)


message 1347: by Nicola (last edited Oct 31, 2014 12:02PM) (new)

Nicola | 770 comments Melanti wrote: "It's nonfiction.

The list is for novels, basically, though it does break its own rules from time to time.

There are some memoirs in the list, but those are generally from fiction writers and they..."


I'm not sure about that. I'm reading a non fiction at the moment - Testament of Youth as well as Out of Africa a month or so ago. And I know there are a lot of other non fiction ones as well. Definitely more novels of course.

I don't know why Ann Frank isn't there - it's a glaring omission.


message 1348: by Linda (new)

Linda | 275 comments Nicola wrote: "I'm not sure about that. I'm reading a non fiction at the moment - Testament of Youth as well as Out of Africa a month or so ago. And I know there are a lot of other non fiction ones as well. Definitely more novels of course."

Hmmm...I didn't realize there was non-fiction on the list. So yes, now the omission of Anne Frank is very odd.


message 1349: by Nicola (new)

Nicola | 770 comments Linda wrote: "Nicola wrote: "I'm not sure about that. I'm reading a non fiction at the moment - Testament of Youth as well as Out of Africa a month or so ago. And I know there are a lot of other non fiction ones..."

The only thing I can really think of is that they put it in the Children's one, but considering Pippi Longstocking and Alice in Wonderland is included it's really got me scratching my head.


message 1350: by Melanti (new)

Melanti | 50 comments Shrug. The list really doesn't make sense at times. (Okay, often.)

The rule is nonfiction, but then there's several memoirs on the list. I heard someone say that it could be because memoirs in general give the author leave to fictionalize/retell aspects of their history to make it more novel-esque.

And Anne Frank's diary is just that... a diary. There's no way to pretend there's much fiction in that. Nor would you want to pretend.

Is there any non-fiction on the list that isn't a memoir? I guess there's A Modest Proposal. Is there anything else?


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