Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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Which LIST book did you just finish?
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Dee
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Apr 23, 2015 04:58PM
Just finished reading An Artist of the Floating World. My first by Ishiguro, and I really enjoyed it. Can't wait to read more of his. I have his latest novel on my shelf already.
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Jean wrote: "Just finished 
and I think that I am in the minority in liking this book. ..."I liked it too (=3 star), but not loved it (=4 star). I think the low rating (currently 3.22 stars in average) is due to to type of people reading this book. Most are likely people reading from the 1001-list or similar. And people like that tend to lower their ratings simply because they get more choosy with the high ratings. For me a 5 star book is one that I will own and reread. I did that more when I was younger. Now it is rare for me that a book is so good that I prefer a reread over reading another book for the first time.
If Not Now, When? - started and finished in the same day as I had an afternoon off. It was certainly interesting, although not a 'true' story it is based off of events which happened and reads rather like one.3 1/2 stars
The Female Quixote: or, the Adventures of Arabella - There is really just the one joke but Charlotte Lenox writes it well. The most difficulty I had was reading the convoluted passages of the 'Heroine' but after a while you get into the flow.3 stars
J wrote: "Jean wrote: "Just finished and I think that I am in the minority in liking this book. ..."I liked it too (=3 star), but not loved it (=4 star). I think the low ratin..."
It appears that many people rate according to their like or dislike of the characters. I sometimes do not like the characters but love the author's plot surrounding the characters.
´Yes, I freaking did it! I read War and Peace. That is one of the longest single books I have ever read. My edition was 1440 pages in two volumes, but the pages are 400-450 words. I rate it 3.5 stars. The story and the way it is told is awesome..... but it is just way too long. Why do we need to hear all these details about a peripheral characters leg dress and mustages? I think it could be shorten down to half with out loosing anything important.Many people are unhappy about the mixture of fiction and the thesis on war, military and history. For me it was perfect. It worked really well, like seeing history unfold – and understanding it at the same time and not just afterwards. In particular the destruction of Napoleons army – how it enters Moscow and is absorbed. In the book it was perfect – in the epilogue it was way too much.
The book has a reputation for being hard to read due to the many characters. I found that to be untrue in general. Really there are only 5 main characters, and perhaps 5 lesser important that you really need to pay attention to. On the other hand the many peripheral characters are really confusing if you try to keep track on all of them. For example at some point Irina Vasilevna is mentioned ("The other day young Princess Irina Vasilevna came to see me; she was an awful sight—looked as if she had put two barrels on her arms "). The tone suggest to me that we should know who Irina Vasilevna is. Searching the ebook shows that she is only mentioned that one time. Could it be Helena Vasilevna? That doesn't sound right with "young Princess". There are a number of such persons being mentioned in such a way. Maybe it is just me that have been reading too much detective fiction and is paying way too much attention to details.... but such things are a bit confusing.
Or maybe the reputation for being hard to read is due to the last 30 pages? One looooooong essay on history and philosophy, free will and the connection to laws of history. And Tolstoy does not use any of those modern tricks of introduction or giving an overview or a bit of the conclusion in advance – or even a conclusion at all. The last 30 pages, was, “yes, I am almost done”, I could see the finish line of the marathon just to discover that there was a extra tour of 10 km.
My recommendation for future readers:
1) Get started. It is not hard – just long.
2) Do NOT look of family diagrams. I had a bit of the story spoiled by know who marries who.
3) A good map that helps placing many events:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?...
The rest is about Librivox:
I tried to speed up my reading with listening to parts of the book as the librivox.org audiobook https://librivox.org/group/267?primar...
It is a collaborate reading by many people, and the quality ranges from good, to bad, to really poor. The good ones are near professional quality, the bad ones are accented to a disturbing degree or the recording is bad quality with irrelevant background sounds or computer humming. The really poor ones are so bad that I simply could not understand sufficiently words to follow the story.
The files are usually about 5 to 15 minutes long following the chapters. Each single file started and ended by "this is war and peace chapter whatever, book whatnot read by such-and-such for librivox... etc etc" 20-25 seconds each time amount to several hours of wasted time.
J wrote: "´Yes, I freaking did it! I read War and Peace. That is one of the longest single books I have ever read. My edition was 1440 pages in two volumes, but the pages are 400-450 words. I rate..."I read the P&V translation. I would not recommend it as enough of the dialog is in French with footnotes - the way Tolstoy wrote it originally - to make going back and forth to know what the characters said disrupting.
I did not like Tolstoy's commentary on what other historians had to say about Napoleon and the war. Authors: Just tell the damn story - don't try to tell me how much smarter you are than the next guy.
Length didn't bother me. It was long because Tolstoy chose to tell us stuff I didn't care about and those parts were boring, boring, boring.
Just finished my inaugural Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd Slow start, and I threw the book once or twice, but ultimately satisfying. Shall I tackle Tess next, or is it very dreary? I'd heard that Far from the Madding Crowd is Hardy's only happy ending.
Finished the Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler a few days ago. Great story and well written.
I finished The Trial yesterday. This was my second read and I found it just as brilliant as it was after my first.
finished Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow. Would give it 3.5, maybe. I really wanted to like it more than i did.
Larissa wrote: "I'd heard that Far from the Madding Crowd is Hardy's only happy ending. ."Hah! I'd heard that too which is why I read it. Obviously Hardy's version of 'happy ending' varied quite considerably from mine!
M. wrote: "finished Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow. Would give it 3.5, maybe. I really wanted to like it more than i did."This to me shows how different peoples rating systems are. 3 1/2 stars to me is a very good book. 2 stars is 'ok'. 2 1/2 means it had something special about it but it had some serious flaws that means I can't quite give it a solid 3 star.
My 4 and (even rarer) 5 stars aren't given out very often
I recently finished Queen Margot, or Marguerite de Valois by Alexandre Dumas. It was quite enjoyable!
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Not quite as long as In the First Circle or Cancer Ward, this is my introduction to this author. It was a very interesting read.3 1/2 stars
The Stranger Short... and a bit strange. At one point he enjoyed the sunshine, at it was almost a relief that he finally felt something.
Just finished 'Invisible Man' by Ralph Ellison. Very different from my usual reading, but so glad I read it. That's what I love about this list - it challenges me to read outside my comfort zone.
Finished Crime and Punishment last night- dark, grim, depressing, but a more entertaining and easy read then I thought it would be, I'm still not 100% sure what I thought of it, I think it'll take me a few days....
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Larissa wrote: "Just finished my inaugural Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd Slow start, and I threw the book once or twice, but ultimately satisfying. Shall I tackle Tess next, or is it very d..."Tess is one of the most depressing books I have ever read.
I finished The Three Musketeers on Friday. I enjoyed it and it was a fast paced read even though the book was quite lengthy. I enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo better, but Dumas is a quality writer and I'll read his other stuff.
Karina wrote: "Larissa wrote: "Just finished my inaugural Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd Slow start, and I threw the book once or twice, but ultimately satisfying. Shall I tackle Tess next,..."Agreed. It's even depressing for Hardy.
I finished Oscar and Lucinda. I thought it was extraordinary. Its going into my faves and i'll probably read it again.
Finished Thaïs by Anatole France today. It was okay, but I was quite happy to be finished too.
This afternoon I finished Wise Children. I enjoyed it, but not too sure about its inclusion on the list.
Nicola wrote: "Karina wrote: "Larissa wrote: "Just finished my inaugural Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd Slow start, and I threw the book once or twice, but ultimately satisfying. Shall I ta..."So I'm not the only one to throw a Hardy book? It was Jude the Obscure. I've been afraid to read anymore of Hardy's books since then!
Ginny wrote: "So I'm not the only one to throw a Hardy book? It was Jude the Obscure. I've been afraid to read anymore of Hardy's books since then! "Goodness! I read Tess a few months ago and am really looking forward to my next Hardy - hopefully Jude later this month.
London Fields - I rather misinterpreted the blurb on this book so it wasn't at all the mass murder mystery I was expecting. I really enjoyed it though.4 1/2 stars
Mekki wrote: "I finished Oscar and Lucinda. I thought it was extraordinary. Its going into my faves and i'll probably read it again."The movie is good too if you can find a copy.
Kirsten wrote: "Dree wrote: "Robinson Crusoe. Glad to be done!"And the butler in The Moonstone swore by it."
Haha...nicely done!
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth. I thought it used an interesting technique in portraying language barriers. Even though the book is written almost entirely in English (save for some Hebrew and Aramaic texts), the main characters are usually speaking Yiddish (which is written in "plain" English), while when "actual" English is spoken, it's written in a more phonetic style.
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The Garden Where the Brass Band Played - this started out well but by about halfway through it just lost my interest. I normally don't mind stories about small town drama's but this one felt too formulaic.2 stars
Black Dogs by Ian McEwanThis is the third of his books I've read because they are on the list and the third that has left me underwhelmed perhaps he's not for me.
I tried with The Book About Blanche and Marie - I couldn't finish it. The way it was written was irritating to me....the repetitiveness of certain things every few paragraphs...plus the exclamations! Suffice to say - I am not a fan.
Maureen wrote: "I tried with The Book About Blanche and Marie - I couldn't finish it. The way it was written was irritating to me....the repetitiveness of certain things every few paragraphs...plus ..."I've just picked this one up through an intra library loan. I hope I like it more than you did as it's taken about 3 weeks for it to arrive.
The Lover by Marguerite Duras..This is a semi-autobiographical work (the author wrote this at 70 and the narrator is around 60 years old), so you get the feeling of forgetting details or not quite remembering as she narrates the story of her and her lover in Vietnam.
I'm a fan of experimental novels, so it was a pretty interesting read for me..
The movie was pretty good also!
Nicola wrote: "Maureen wrote: "I tried with The Book About Blanche and Marie - I couldn't finish it. The way it was written was irritating to me....the repetitiveness of certain things every few pa..."Wow - 3 weeks! I am curious to know what you think about it once you read it!
Finished reading (or re-reading) The Pilgrim's Progress. There is so much in here that would repay further re-readimg.
Just finished The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. A great book. Scary atmosphere. I knew, I would like it from the very first pages. Here we see the conflict between the first person teller's view of what is going on and what seems to be going on. If Edgar Allan Poe had lived today, I think he would have written this kind of story. Recommended. I read the book along side the The Death Cure (Maze Runner, #3) by James Dashner. That made it even more clear the quality of the book and language in The Wasp Factory.
Finished The Shining by Stephen King.
Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
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