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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Danya
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Aug 17, 2015 09:41PM

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I tried this one the other day and stopped after about one chapter. Hoping it was a mood thing - maybe i wasn't focused properly





3 stars

3 1/2 stars

I didn't know there was a movie of this book. I have the book on my shelf waiting, so good to know!





I partly listened to Librivox “Northanger Abbey (Dramatic Reading)”. Yet another good Librivox (they exist!) recording. Only the general and Catherine's mother was hard to understand.

I feel like I haven't posted here forever, but I had a good reason: one of the longer list books, and a well-deserving list book, too.
Just finished The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Another outstanding book by this author. Definitely 5 stars.
Just finished The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Another outstanding book by this author. Definitely 5 stars.

Just finished The Brothers Karamazov by [author:..."
Diane, I have it as an ebook and have always been a bit scared by its length. Not that I don't read long books, but I usually prefer shorter ones, I'm afraid. I will have to read it one time soon, however, since you found it so good.
Marina, I feel intimidated by the longer books, too. I try to read a few of them every year. This one I committed to reading through a reading challenge at the beginning of the year. I figured that this one would be good since I loved Crime and Punishment.




2 1/2 stars


I thought this too! Don't be put off by her other book The Absentee, similar theme but far, far better.



I'm not sure to have understood at all Bessie Head, especially what is real and what is a dream or a hallucination. I read her biography and I was shocked because of all the tragedies in her life.
About Middlesex, I really loved it <3


You should! It it so much more enjoyable for the satire when you've read other Gothic novels.

Took me a year after a weirdly self-imposed "I WILL NOT FINISH THIS UNTIL MY LIFE IMPROVES" which I declared shortly around page 1000 something, after giving up a month in and very slowly going through Genji's son's part of the book.
Finally finished it this weekend and am taking a break from 1001 for some other lists.
My thoughts on the book? Waaaay too long, themes repetitive, should really have ended when Genji's part did, the novel feels incomplete with his son's part.

On the same day I also finished Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, a coming of age story set in 1960s Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). I blew through this one very quickly, and was surprised at how emotionally involved I got. I definitely recommend it.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The novel is immensely readable. However, it is not the best novel on the subject of World War One (The Great War) I have ever read.
If you only read one novel set during the War To End All Wars, may I suggest you read A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry instead.





1/2 star

The book is likely n the list because it is one of the very first of the "Gothic" genre. In its time, the book was new, different, and exciting. Looking at it in 2015, we have become so exposed to what was new in the book when it was written, that we tend to think it isn't anything to bother with. Historically, it is an important book because the horror genre grew from it and owes a great debt to it.
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