Which LIST book did you just finish? Showing 2,651-2,700 of 10,320

[Bam cooks the books]

The Crying of Lot 49. My first Thomas Pynchon book and I didn't really care for it, I'm afraid. Perhaps a discussion would enlighten me as to what I missed. Two stars.

[Emy]

Back to Oegstgeest by Jan Wolkers. I really loved this. I always love reading personal histories, especially when they're this well written.

[Kirsten]

Just finished reading my interlibary loan Contact by Carl Sagan for another book club, and then found out it was on the list!!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[S.L.]

Just finished The Grapes of Wrath on cd while driving to work. I'm finally getting around to reading all the books that I was supposed to have read in high school thanks to the list.

[Linda]

Just finished The Magus by John Fowles. This started as a 4 star book for me, but slowly deteriorated and I finally gave it 2 stars. The narrator for the audio book was awesome, though.

[Tyler]

I finished A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch. It was mesmerizing and dull at the same time. Don't know how she achieved that, but kudos to her.

[Kirsten]

Murdoch is one of those authors, I guess. I remember while reading The Black Prince, I found it was like slogging upwind in a windstorm. But I never stopped reading and did really enjoy it.

[J_BlueFlower]

Beloved by Toni Morrison. It is on the Guardian 1000 and World Library 100 as well. Plus the nobel list.

The style of writing took some getting used to. To start with I did not like it, and was even thinking about giving up. But I made it and things did start to make more sense (maybe except some of the long first person perspectives in part three). 3 stars.

[George P.]

Tyler wrote: "I finished A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch. It was mesmerizing and dull at the same time. Don't know how she achieved that, but kudos to her."

I finished Murdoch's "The Sea, The Sea" a month ago- much as you said, the story is very slight, but the telling of it is so good! The characters, and the way they interact, are so convincingly real, and the things they say to one another fascinating. They no doubt went overboard when they put 6 of her novels in the original 1001 Books list, but they only dropped two in the most recent list I've seen.

[George P.]

Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima. It's the first of his tetralogy (1 more than a trilogy, when 3 isn't quite enough) called The Sea of Fertility.
Mishima wrote beautiful elegant sentences, and was a master of the simile- sometimes used them excessively I thought, but they were usually so good, I'm not complaining.
Downside: doesn't add to my number of List Books (yet) because you have to read the whole tetralogy for that, so I'm still at 181 (combined editions; 179 of the '06 edition) but I will have another complete very soon.

[Diane]

Finished The Devil's Pool by George Sand. Not sure why this is on the list.

[Peter]

London Fields by Martin Amis. Was not impressed and have no idea why it is on the list.

[George P.]

North and South. I didn't know about this book 'til I came across it in the Boxall listing, and found it had 85,000 ratings on Goodreads and an avg more than 4.1! Kind of long- I got the audiobook- I really enjoyed it. I'd describe it as a cross between Dickens (like Bleak House or Great Expectations) and Austen (like Pride and Prejudice).

[Michelle's Empty Nest]

Middlemarch - I listened to it for almost 36 hours. I'm not sure I would have finished it otherwise. It was a stretch to give it 3*. I had high hopes, but I just couldn't get excited with this one.

[Nicola]

Uncle Tom's Cabin - An American classic and not a bad read considering the time period and subject matter.

3 1/2 stars

I also read Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon for a group read and it was likewise very good. A sort of toned down Gabriel Garcí­a Marquez.

3 1/2 stars

[Kirsten]

Molly wrote: ""To Kill a Mockingbird" - hard to believe it was my first time reading it. Listened on Audiobook read by Sissy Spacek. Clearly a classic for a reason. Wish I had read it when I was younger."

I agree. Somehow I got out of school without reading it.

[Kirsten]

Molly wrote: "Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Middlemarch, Michelle! That one became an unexpected favorite. I can see how it would be a slog if you weren't in the mood for it.

Not on 1001 books, but I saw you ..."

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Middlemarch in the end. But, boy was it long!

[Bob]

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. A strange journey into the olfactory world of a strange and demented character. A harsh beginning leads eventually to a harsh end.

[Dree]

Tonight I finished The Burning Plain and Other Stories by Juan Rulfo. An interesting set of short stories that really evoke the landscape, climate, and sense of hopelessness of the characters.

[Tyler]

I finished Cane by Jean Toomer. An amazingly powerful piece of fiction. If jazz improvisation were put to words, this is how it would read.

[Kirsten]

Bob wrote: "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. A strange journey into the olfactory world of a strange and demented character. A harsh beginning leads eventually to ..."

I really enjoyed the movie.

[Bob]

Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "Bob wrote: "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. A strange journey into the olfactory world of a strange and demented character. A harsh beginning leads ev..."
I'll check that out. Thanks.

[Diane]

Finished Mansfield Park and Villette.

[Tasha]

Diane wrote: "Finished Mansfield Park and Villette."

There is SO much Jane Austen on this list.

[J_BlueFlower]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn starts with ”.... persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; ...” Hard not to. I went to school in Denmark in the 1970's where everything was seen in a socialistic perceptive. It is not something I do often, but here it was hard not to: Jim is the slave, Huck is the smart but uneducated working class, and Tom Sawyer is the educated upper class toying with other people and classes just for his own entertainment. Really, I think that were mean of him. In the end he round if of the capitalist way: He give the man money as compensation. “I toyed with your life and sanity for four weeks, here is forty dollars....”

Apparently the 1001 list has A LOT on American slavery, Of the 123 books I have read:
To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone with the Wind, Oroonoko, Beloved
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That is 5 - more than 4%,

[Mia]

I just finished Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

[George P.]

J_BlueFlower wrote: "Apparently the 1001 list has A LOT on American slavery, Of the 123 books I have read:
To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone with the Wind, Oroonoko, Beloved
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. That is 5 - more than 4%"
And you haven't even read Uncle Tom's Cabin, one of the most famous of all novels with the main topic of slavery. It was the 1st American novel to sell a million copies.
However, I looked through my own list of 184 of the 1001 list books I've read or am reading, and except for Uncle Tom's Cabin didn't think of any others of them with the slavery topic. I've only read 2 of the 5 you listed. There are other list novels dealing with the discrimination that persisted after slavery though, as in Ragtime, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Invisible Man. Invisible Man is particularly good for a reader interested in this theme.
I did read The 42nd Parallel but long ago and don't remember the slavery in it.

[Sandi]

J_BlueFlower wrote: "Apparently the 1001 list has A LOT on American slavery, Of the 123 books I have read:
To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone with the Wind, Oroonoko, Beloved
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

While Oroonoko is certainly about slavery, the slave traders in this story were English. The story was a good reminder that the "American slavery" was originally based on a European system of exploitation and slavery. It feels like while we remember our involvement in recent colonialism pretty well, our involvement in less recent slave trading is often off our radar.

[George P.]

Tyler wrote: "I finished Cane by Jean Toomer. An amazingly powerful piece of fiction. If jazz improvisation were put to words, this is how it would read."
It sounds interesting in the description in the Boxall book. I have a note that it's in O'Neal's list of "Greatest 20th century American Novels" put out by "Bookriot" as well.

[Elise]

I just finished What Maisie Knew by Henry James ... he is totally hit and miss for me. Didn't enjoy this or The Wings of the Dove, but absolutely loved The Portrait of a Lady (one of my all-time favourites) and The Turn of the Screw...only another two Henry James' left to check off the list...and I'm not looking forward to them after above reviews :)

[Tyler]

I finished Of Mice and Men this morning. Such a tragic novel. Despite the idyllic setting, you knew from the beginning that everything was doomed. Still, a great short novel.

[Bob]

Story of O by Pauline Réage. blech!

[Mia]

I just finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.

[Diane]

Finished The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood.

[Bam cooks the books]

Walden Some of the best advice ever for living the simple life in tune with nature!

[Leila]

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I found it rather uneven. There were parts I really enjoyed (especially in Part 1), but the first half of Part 2 was pretty tedious in my opinion and I wasn't particularly interested in the title characters (thankfully there's a lot there besides their story).

[George P.]

Elise wrote: "I just finished What Maisie Knew by Henry James ... he is totally hit and miss for me. Didn't enjoy this...."

There was a good film made from What Maisie Knew, came out 1 or 2 yrs ago, set in modern times. Not sure if it had the original title.

[George P.]

Tasha wrote: "Diane wrote: "Finished Mansfield Park and Villette.There is SO much Jane Austen on this list."
True that- there were 6 Austens in the original List; Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were dropped from later edition.

[George P.]

Never Let Me Go. We're reading for the June group read. As my friend Daniel said, it has a haunted vibe. A merger of a coming-of-age story with a dystopian theme, Ishiguro skillfully explored his characters' emotions and relationships in a very realistic manner. Moved to an excellent conclusion. A real novelist.

[Tyler]

I finished Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates. A claustrophobic little novel. And deeply disturbing.

[Diane]

Finished The Twins by Tessa de Loo and Troubles by J.G. Farrell.

[Kirsten]

Tyler wrote: "I finished Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates. A claustrophobic little novel. And deeply disturbing."

What do you think of her writing style? I've played with picking up one of her books...

[Mia]

I finished Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. I really liked this book.

[Tyler]

Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "Tyler wrote: "I finished Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates. A claustrophobic little novel. And deeply disturbing."

What do you think of her writing style? I've played with picking up one of her boo..."

I liked her style. It is disjointed, but simple. Blackwater is a short novel. My edition was only 154 pages, so I would recommend starting there.

[J_BlueFlower]

A Clockwork Orange I have wanted to read this book for a long time, but been a bit scared by the slang. I finally read a translation and it wasn't so hard. There was a dictionary in the back of the book and it is the same words over and over, so you learn them.

The book it self is well written and very condensed. For example we hear about Alex reading in the Bible. What does he find there? Daydreams about helping the Romans torture Jesus. Small details that speak volumes about his personality: Evil in a creative way. Like a 400 page book told in 200 pages with some big moral and ethics questions.

[Wendy]

Finished The Forsyte Saga -- a slow-burner at first but got its claws into me at about the point where Soames Forsyte commits a certain unforgivable act against his wife. The rest of the story follows the many ripples that expand out from this incident across the decades and generations. The last third (To Let) was the slowest, but the end quite affecting.

[Nicola]

The Stranger - The start was difficult, very slow, no action and reading it felt a little like being dosed up on strong medication or how I feel with a severe head cold. Everything moves sluggishly and my body seems unconnected from my brain and the rest of the world.

I also finished Fingersmith which was a quick and easy read. It was ok and I enjoyed it much more than Tipping the Velvet but I'm glad it was removed from the list. There is no way Sarah Water's writing ranks alongside the authors who should be included here.

[Kirsten]

Just finished listening to A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. This audiobook was very enjoyable as read by actor Tom Hollander. Very intense.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Bob]

Timbuktu by Paul Auster. Interesting from the start with a delightful protaganist, Mr. Bones, the dog on the cover. If you like dogs this is a good read.

[Carol]

Finished "The Song of Solomon" really enjoyed the read. Interesting characters and story line.