Which LIST book did you just finish? Showing 4,801-4,850 of 10,248

[Sarah]

Finished In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (Book 2) by Marcel Proust.

[Diane]

Finished:

~Bonjour tristesse by Bonjour tristesse
~Spring Flowers, Spring Frost by Ismail Kadare
~The Day of the Dolphin by Robert Merle.

[Karen]

Mercedes wrote: "Karen wrote: "Our Lady of the Assassins by Fernando Vallejo
Another bleak and depressing read and a shocking portrayal of the violence in Medellin, Colombia in the 1990s."

Recently I ..."

And to top it off -- Vallejo renounced his citizenship in Colombia and became a Mexican citizen due to the censorship he encountered in Colombia regarding a film he wanted to produce.

[Diane]

Finished Deadline in Athens (AKA The Late-night News) by Petros Markaris.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I was kind of meh about it to begin with, but it grew on me. I liked it.

[Peter]

A Bend in the River by V.S.Naipaul. I really enjoyed it.

[Mia]

I finished The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I was little disappointed, not as good that I thought.

[Peter]

Oranges are not the only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. I loved it and deserves to be on this list.

[Diane]

Finished Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain. Great book!

[George P.]

Peter wrote: "Oranges are not the only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. I loved it and deserves to be on this list."

If you happen to have read her list book The Passion how did that compare to "Oranges..."? It's a less widely-read book but has higher avg rating (I think that often happens because readers who loved the most well-known book by a writer go on to read some of their lesser-known books and usually like them as well).

[Karina]

Just finished Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor. She is a fantastic writer.

[Diane]

Finished The Path to the Spiders' Nests by Italo Calvino.

[George P.]

Cphe wrote: "Moby-Dick or, The Whale,
Zorba the Greek"

I also read Zorba this year, and Moby Dick last year. They were both four star books for me.

[Karen]

The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses by Apuleius

[Aileen]

The Wonderful O by James Thurber. Funny and short book 4/5.

[Jess]

I've finally read To Kill a Mockingbird and I loved it!

My review

[George P.]

Just finished Death and the Dervish by Mesa Selimovic of Bosnia, which makes a total of 50 countries with authors I've read, and 35 countries with at least one Boxall-listed book I've read. Zimbabwe is next, working on it.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Well, earlier this year I read


The Circle by Dave Eggers

and apparently it's one of the 2018 additions to the list. I liked it and gave it 4 stars (haven't seen the movie) but I can't imagine telling anyone they must read it before they die.

[Karen]

Amongst Women by John McGahern

[Amanda]

She by Haggard. Review is up at http://1001everything.blogspot.com. The more I think about it, the more I dislike it.

[Diane]

Finished:

The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh
Hyperion; or, The Hermit in Greece by Friedrich Hölderlin
One, No One and One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello

[Pillsonista]

Mercedes wrote: "I highly recommend the Richard Zenith translation, available through Penguin; it's one of the few which include all the original text. Zenith is recognized in Portugal as a Pessoa authority."

Totally concur with all of this.

I own both editions, and to take nothing away from Margaret Jull Costa, who is a tremendous translator in her own right, but for me the Zenith translation remains the touchstone for this diamond of world literature.

Reading Zenith's edition was a life-effecting reading experience. It helped that it was the first translation of it that I'd ever read, but Pessoa's incomparable genius shines throughout in just about every sentence in the book.

Luís wrote: "I dare say that all the Pessoa's books have their signature .. "

Multiple signatures, if we're being honest. He genius was so incomparable that even the "authors" he created were more original and greater than 98% of all living writers. A demigod amongst mortals.

[Karen]

The Witness by Juan José Saer

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Mercedes wrote: "I highly recommend the Richard Zenith translation, available through Penguin; it's one of the few which include all the original text. Zenith is recognized in Portugal as a Pessoa authority. ..."

This is the edition I have: The Book of Disquiet

Do you know if this is the complete version? I see that it is translated by Zenith, and according to Goodreads, it's 544 pages. I haven't read this yet, but everyone's comments here have shot it up my TBR list

[Pillsonista]

Bryan wrote: "Do you know if this is the complete version? I see that it is translated by Zenith, and according to Goodreads, it's 544 pages. I haven't read this yet, but everyone's comments here have shot it up my TBR list "

It's the first coherent edition that was ever published in English, Bryan. When Pessoa died, he left The Book of Disquiet unfinished, unedited, and completely unorganized (if not downright disorganized), so that there is no authenticated order to the original manuscript.

The only organizing mechanisms available to scholars are the heteronyms Pessoa attributes to each entry and the chronology in which he wrote it... and that's only if he signed and dated his writings. Sometimes he did one or the other, and sometimes he did neither.

Unfortunately, this means that The Book of Disquiet is notorious for being an editor's worst nightmare. Because the original manuscript was left in such a state of chaos, each edition is largely, and unavoidably, the creation of whoever is the editor.

Personally, I believe Zenith's is about the best that one can hope for in English. In addition to it being a truly gorgeous translation, it's also the most coherent, even if it is not technically "complete."

New Directions advertised their 2017 publication of Margaret Jull Costa's translation as the first "complete" English edition, but that's mostly because she included the writings Pessoa attributed to Vicente Guedes, the nascent heteronym created by the poet in the late 1910s that would eventually become Bernardo Soares, the "author" of The Book of Disquiet. The writings Pessoa attributes to Guedes are notably inferior, in style and scope, to the mature writings he assigns to Soares, and by the late 1920s the Guedes heteronym ceases to exist entirely because Pessoa had it completely subsumed by the character of Bernardo Soares (the most obviously autobiographical of all his fabricated personalities). It is also probably not a coincidence that this timing coincides with the flourishing of Pessoa's poetry in its full maturity (which, alas, would turn out to be its final stage).

The inclusion of these earlier writings don't particularly add to or enhance the work in English. If anything, they interrupt the easy flow of the prose that the Zenith edition possesses, despite the fact that it is technically less "complete."

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Thanks for the information!

[Diane]

Finished Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac.

[Karen]

Mercedes wrote: "I highly recommend the Richard Zenith translation, available through Penguin; it's one of the few which include all the original text. Zenith is recognized in Portugal as a Pessoa authority.

I am intrigued by the comments about Pessoa and Svevo and have just downloaded both for Kindle. Thanks for your recommendations.

[Pillsonista]

Karen wrote: "Mercedes wrote: "I highly recommend the Richard Zenith translation, available through Penguin; it's one of the few which include all the original text. Zenith is recognized in Portugal as a Pessoa ..."

Karen, he is so extraordinary, so extraordinarily unique. I could not recommend him highly enough.

There is no other literary oeuvre like his in all of 20th century literature (I know that sounds like crazy hyperbole, but it is true).

[Benjamin]

I just finished Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne and I adored it. Sure, the prose was lucid and simple, but it was tremendously imaginative and fun.

[George P.]

A few days ago I finished up Bosnian Chronicle (4*) and today the novella Woman at Point Zero (4.5*). Those were both added to the 2012 edition. I also plan to finish up by day's end the novella Notes from Underground (3*). So that's a Bosnian, an Egyptian and a Russian- very international lately.

[Pillsonista]

Mercedes wrote: "George wrote: "I just finished Rebecca. What a fun read. Du Maurier was very convincing in her portrayal of a young, insecure, and unworldly woman I thought. Now I need to watch the Hitchcock film again."

Always a good reason to watch that film again.

One of those rare instances when I love both the book and the film (one of my favorite of Hitchcock's, along with "Strangers on a Train" and "Notorious").

[Peter]

Super-Cannes by J.G.Ballard. I enjoyed it yet it also missed something, I have no idea what, that would have made it really memorable.

[Hilde]

Just finished The Secret History, I loved it!

[Karen]

Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Beautifully written and quite calming in these hectic times.

[Karen]

George wrote: "A few days ago I finished up Bosnian Chronicle (4*) and today the novella Woman at Point Zero (4.5*). Those were both added to the 2012 edition. I also plan to finish up..."

Woman at Point Zero was a tough read. What did you think of it?

[Aileen]

Death Sentence by Maurice Blanchot.

I personally didn't get a lot from this one, 2/5. I found it rambling and thought the plot changed track, losing me, several times, but only 81 pages long.

[Mia]

Quicksand by Nella Larsen.

[Inder]

Castle Rackrent and Written on the Body bring me to 180 books! I didn't particularly like either book, for completely different reasons, although I can appreciate that they were both groundbreaking in some way.

[A Ms.Bennet]

Hi I'm new here .how does this work? Also the title is "which list did you start" implies that there are various lists categorized in some manner but I can't see them .. please help. Thank you

[Diane]

Finished Journey To The Alcarria, Pereira Maintains, and The Devil in the Flesh.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Eman wrote: "Hi I'm new here .how does this work? Also the title is "which list did you start" implies that there are various lists categorized in some manner but I can't see them .. please help. Thank you"

The list that the thread title refers to is the list of books in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. There are various iterations of that list--you can find one here with all but the 2018 additions listed: https://www.listchallenges.com/1001-b...

It's not perfect--there are a couple of mistakes--but I like that I can check off the ones I've read.

The first edition had the original 1001 titles--there were some updates afterwards--this checklist I linked to has all but the ones from 2018. That's why there's over 1300 books on that list.

In this group, probably the two most active threads are the 'which list book did you just start' and 'which list book did you just finish', and both threads refer to books on the same list. Some folks make a distinction between which list they are working from, some don't.

So, I just finished Moby Dick, and I'd list that here.

There are also threads devoted to the group reads, those reads can be found near the top of the group's home page. This month is Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, next month is Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

[Diane]

Finished Strait is the Gate by André Gide.

[A Ms.Bennet]

Bryan Thank you soooo much ! The list you linked is very useful. Thank you for taking the time to explain everything.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Eman wrote: "Bryan Thank you soooo much ! The list you linked is very useful. Thank you for taking the time to explain everything."

Sure--no problem. Happy reading!

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Eman--here is a thread in this group that has some other links and information you might find helpful:

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

[A Ms.Bennet]

Hi Bryan this is fantastic!! The link has everything sorted out by years and all
Can't thank you enough. Happy reading!

[Diane]

Finished Concrete by Thomas Bernhard and Our Ancestors by Italo Calvino.

[Laura]

The French Lieutenants Woman. I was a little disappointed with the ending but otherwise thoroughly enjoyed it

[Inder]

Luís wrote: "Inder wrote: "Castle Rackrent and Written on the Body bring me to 180 books! I didn't particularly like either book, for completely different reasons, although I can appr..."

I had a crazy thought - could I make it to 200 by the end of 2018? I have have another two I'm reading right now (audio and regular) ...