Which LIST book did you just finish? Showing 2,151-2,200 of 10,320

[Danya]

Infinate Jest, took me 6 weeks..it never takes me that long to finish a book

[Alice]

I read A Passage to India. I couldn't really get into it. Not a very long book but it took me nearly 2 weeks.

[Mandy]

Alice wrote: "I read A Passage to India. I couldn't really get into it. Not a very long book but it took me nearly 2 weeks."

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

[Carol]

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, really enjoyed it. I like books with historical interest. I love the domestic details of the period. The first book I've read set in Canada.

[Tyler]

I finished Contact by Carl Sagan. I enjoyed it, though most of the technical jargon is beyond me. It at times took away from the story, but the story is good.

[Dee]

Finished The Erl-King by Michel Tournier last night. Took me a while to get into, as it is fairly dense, but I loved it in the end.

[Katherine]

I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog earlier this evening, and promptly watched the movie with my husband. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audiobook, but I can understand how parts would drag otherwise.

[Nicola]

The Island of Doctor Moreau - continuing my small scifi kick. This was good and thought provoking.

3 stars

[Nicola]

The Leopard - A little slow to start but by the halfway point I was fully engaged. It had a wonderfully poignant finish and then kept going to provide yet another ending. Excellent.

3 1/2 stars

[Nicola]

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - very entertaining and far more amusing than I was expecting.

3 stars

[Linda]

Katherine wrote: "I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog earlier this evening, and promptly watched the movie with my husband."

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

[Marina]

I've just finished The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was good, but nothing like The Scarlet Letter.

[Becky]

Do androids dream of electric sheep? AND The end of the affair.

[Robin]

I just finished my first book of Edgar Allan Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher. I had to get used to the writing style and didn't like it at first, 10 pages later I was intrigued by the dark and chilling setting and at the end of the story I just loved it. I think I will read another Poe from the list tonight to establish if I like his stories or not ;)

[Amanda]

Just finished The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf. I finally found a Virginia Woolf book that I liked! I have been wanting to like her for ages. Which is good, since we have to read like everything she has ever written to finish the List.

[Amy the book-bat]

I just finished 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. Now I get to watch the movie for the 1001 movies list. I found that I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would, since I'm not much of a sci-fi reader.

[J_BlueFlower]

Finished Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. A parody over novels from her own period. The book was really funny, mostly for it's exaggerated characters (Isabella in particular). I have not read the book it mostly parodies Ann Radcliffe : Mysteries of Udolpho (also a list-book), and that was not a problem.

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.

[Linda]

Just finished Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West. Excessive gruesome violence is an understatement when describing this book. But at the same time the prose is absolutely beautiful and the themes being conveyed really had me thinking and rethinking what it all meant. I gave it 4 stars.

[Carol]

Music of Chance, Paul Auster really enjoyed it.

[Diane]

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.

[Marina]

Diane wrote: "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 [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.

[Diane]

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.

[Angelique]

Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis published 1985 on the 2006 list.

[Wendy]

I finished Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids (aka "Pluck the Buds and Destroy the Offspring") by Kenzaburō Ōe. Many of the reviewers describe it as being a wartime Japan version of Lord of the Flies. It was a bleak, rather difficult (luckily short) read. I suppose the comparison is apt, though I thought unlike Lord of the Flies, the adults here behave far more barbarically than the abandoned youngsters do.

[Robin]

I just finished Little Women, I just loved the book! Truly one of my favorites.

[Amanda]

I just finished Amerika. It wasn't particularly interesting, the minor characters were frustrating, and it was incomplete. Kafka hasn't made a great impression on me yet.

[Angelique]

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain.

[Jennifer W]

Last night I stayed up into the wee hours to finished listening to Beloved. It was wonderful! Far surpassed any expectations I had. I would highly recommend listening to it.

[Bob]

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

[Nicola]

Lucky Jim - I can see why some people like it so much but there's a little too much of the 'she's pretty and so she's a worthwhile person' judgement going on to make me rate it very highly.

2 1/2 stars

[Marina]

I've just finished Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth. I honestly can't see why it is in the list at all, it is one of the most boring and dullest books I have read in ages.

[Aileen]

Marina wrote: "I've just finished Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth. I honestly can't see why it is in the list at all, it is one of the most boring and dullest books I have read in ages."

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

[Rowizyx]

The Savage Detectives by Bolano. It's a hard book, and it took to me more than six weeks, but I'm glad I didn't give up.

[Robin]

I've just finished Enduring Love by Ian McEwan. I liked the beginning and the end, but the middle part was slow and a bit repetitive at times. I enjoyed it, but it's definitely not my favorite book from McEwan.

[Mia]

I just finished The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

[Rowizyx]

I finished yesterday A Question of Power and Middlesex

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

[Carol]

Gulliver's Travels by J.Swift. Enjoyed it and its sarcasm but feel sad for someone so adverse to other humans; small, tall or otherwise. great writing

[Nicola]

Our Mutual Friend - This was wonderful.

4 stars

[Amber]

J_BlueFlower wrote: "Finished Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. A parody over novels from her own period. The book was really funny, mostly for it's exaggerated characters (Isabella in particular). I have n..."

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

[Amber]

The Tale of Genji by Mursaki Shikibu

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.

[Wendy]

I recently finished Eugene Onegin, a novel told in verse (and my first Pushkin). I really enjoyed the dry, playful author's voice, but wasn't drawn into the emotional part of the story as much as I had hoped.

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.

[Kirsten]

I just finished reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.

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.

[J_BlueFlower]

The Big Sleep A very nice, dry, dark humour here. Noir. Yes, I like it. Very well written. 4 stars and the two other Raymond Chandler is on the to-read list.

[Kirsten]

I really, really need to read some Chandler!

[Mia]

I finished The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien yesterday. And I think I'm gonna start The Fellowship of the Ring soon.

[Linda]

I finished The Shining by Stephen King as my first audio book and enjoyed it. I saw the movie many years ago so now I need to watch it again. I gave it 4 stars.

[Katherine]

I finished A Town Like Alice and found it completely engaging. Knowing nothing about the plot before I started reading, I discovered such engrossing and inspiring characters.

[Mia]

I finished Frankenstein. I liked the story more than I thought.

[Nicola]

The Castle of Otranto - Pathetic. I'd say that Walpole must have written this as a joke but apparently he thought it was the best thing he had ever written. Thank goodness this is the only thing of his on the 1001 list!

1/2 star

[Amy the book-bat]

Nicola wrote: "The Castle of Otranto - Pathetic. I'd say that Walpole must have written this as a joke but apparently he thought it was the best thing he had ever written. Thank goodness this is the ..."

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.