Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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Which LIST book did you just start?
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Lauli
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May 01, 2010 05:53AM
Getting started with Mansfield Park. Always a pleasure to visit Miss Austen.
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Lauli wrote: "Getting started with Mansfield Park. Always a pleasure to visit Miss Austen."If you're determined to enjoy this one, you probably will, but I found Fanny to be an incredible simp. I think Austen got kind of bored with her too, by the end.
The New York Stories by Paul Auster - engagingly strange
Elise wrote: "Lauli wrote: "Getting started with Mansfield Park. Always a pleasure to visit Miss Austen."If you're determined to enjoy this one, you probably will, but I found Fanny to be an incre..."
I'm liking the book so far, but you're right as regards Fanny, I still haven't been able to find any charm in her.
Judith wrote: "Cindy wrote: "Ginny wrote: "Okay, I'm almost finished with A Passage to India, and have started The Rainbow and finished The Blind Assasin; is it just me(because I just found out that man I've been..."Thank u for all the really good suggestions! I'm reading some of the sci fi books too and liking those as well.
I just started Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. It is the first in a trilogy but only the first two books of the trilogy are part of the 1001 Books and they both are counted separately.
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster. So far, so good.
Page 938 now of A Suitable Boy. I covered more than 200 pages today, the first working day of the week. 500 or so pages more to go...
Started Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann last night, a really quick read I'm nearly half way through
Joselito wrote: "Page 938 now of A Suitable Boy. I covered more than 200 pages today, the first working day of the week. 500 or so pages more to go..."Are you enjoying the book? I have it on my bookshelf but get scared away by its size...
This is like a buffet of Indian food. Everything seems to be here, in this monster of a book, all 1349 pages and 3 kilos of it: law, politics, business, history, tradition, superstitions, deities, romance, suspense, tragedy, humor, festivals, marriages, infidelities, friendship, betrayal, family, deaths, births, suicide,court trials, land reform, poetry, the Chatterji's couplets, amusing characters, etc. Even my mother is here (I mean, a character who, in some ways, resembles my mother). There's something in it for everybody and this comprehensiveness makes it difficult for anyone not to like--or at least not to like something in--this book. Personally, I think the best here would be a tie between the love stories and Vikram Seth's wicked, humorous turn of phrase and the witty conversations between his characters which made me smile so many times.Even the heftiness of this book did not escape the author's humor. A character here, Amit, is also an author. In a scene somewhere near the end of the book Amit is entertaining some questions from a group of academicians after a poetry reading he held. One asks him about the novel he is writing which is rumoured to be more than a thousand page long already--
"'Why, then, is it rumoured that your forthcoming novel--to be set, I understand, in Bengal--is to be so long? More than a thousand pages!' she exclaimed reproachfully, as if he were personally responsible for the nervous exhaustion of some future dissertationist.
"'Oh, I don't know how it grew to be so long,' said Amit. 'I'm very undisciplined. But I too hate long books: the better, the worse. If they're bad, they merely make me pant with the effort of holding them up for a few minutes. But if they're good, I turn into a social moron for days, refusing to go out of my room, scowling and growling at interruptions, ignoring weddings and funerals, and making enemies out of friends. I still bear the scars of 'Middlemarch.'
"'How about Proust?' asked a distracted-looking lady, who had begun knitting the moment the poems stopped.
"Amit was surprised that anyone read Proust in Brahmpur. He had begun to feel rather happy, as if he had breathed in too much oxygen.
"'I'm sure I'd love Proust,' he replied, 'if my mind was more like the Sundarbans: meandering, all-absorptive, endlessly, er, sub-reticulated. But as it is, Proust makes me weep, weep, weep with boredom. Weep', he added, He paused and sighed. "Weep, weep, weep,' he continued emphatically. 'I weep when I read Proust, and I read very little of him.'
"There was a shocked silence: why should anyone feel so strongly about anything? It was broken by Professor Mishra.
"'Needless to say, many of the most lasting monuments of literature are rather, well, bulky.' He smiled at Amit. 'Shakespeare is not merely great but grand, as it were.'
"'But only as it were,' said Amit. 'He only looks big in bulk. And I have my own way of reducing that bulk,' he confided. 'You may have noticed that in a typical 'Collected Shakespeare' all the plays start on the right-hand side. Sometimes, the editors bung a picture in on the left to force them to do so. Well, what I do is to take my pen-knife and slit the whole book up into forty or so fascicles. That way I can roll up 'Hamlet' or 'Timon'--and slip them into my pocket. And when I'm wandering around--in a cemetery, say--I can take them out and read them. It's easy on the mind and on the wrists. I recommend it to everyone. I read 'Cymbeline' in just that way on the train here; and I never would have otherwise.'"
Vikram Seth may not be aversed to the idea of his book being torn up for easy reading like what his character Amit did to his 'Shakespeares'. But whether you do that or not, you will not weep, weep, weep while reading 'A Suitable Boy.' This is a delightful work of art.
Oh, yes. I've finished reading it.
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Invisible by Paul Auster. Straightforward storytelling. This is my 2nd book by him and I think I will like it as much as I enjoyed his The New York Trilogy that I read last year.
The only Paul Auster I've read was Timbuktu. It made me hungry.
I started "Crash" by J.G. Ballard. It's making me angry.
Kristel wrote: "I just started Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. It is the first in a trilogy but only the first two books of the trilogy are part of the 1001 Books and they both are counted separately."that's understandable....the third book is the weakest and is quite separate in theme, tone, and even location & characters from the first and second books. the first and second can stand together as amazing achievements in literature, but the third book (written when the author was on his deathbed & perhaps not himself mentally)....well, not so much.
"The Day of the Triffids" - John Wyndham
Judith wrote: ""The Day of the Triffids" - John Wyndham"I've had that book for a year but never got down to reading it yet. Please let me know what you think of it.
The Shining (my daughters find this hilarious that I'm reading a Stephen King novel) and Contact.
The Golden Ass. I know it's on the 2006 list. I'm not sure if it's on the updated ones. It's good and strange so far.
Trisha wrote: "The Golden Ass. I know it's on the 2006 list. I'm not sure if it's on the updated ones. It's good and strange so far."Yes- It is on both the 2008 and 2010- I have it on my summer reading list so let me know what you think of it ass you get further into it.
Joselito wrote: "I started "Crash" by J.G. Ballard. It's making me angry."What is it about the book that makes you angry?
Lauli wrote: "Judith wrote: ""The Day of the Triffids" - John Wyndham"I've had that book for a year but never got down to reading it yet. Please let me know what you think of it."
I liked it very much. Of course, its main claim to fame is how ahead of its time it was when published; but I liked the characters, their interactions and how their thinking changed during the tragedy. Well worth the read!
"Decline and Fall" - Evelyn Waugh One of my favorite authors on the list!
I'm also still reading "Everything That Rises Must Converge". I can't take too many of O'Connor's stories in a row, so I need something lighter to intersperse!
I started A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne. It is ok so far.
Up to page 70 of Enduring Love by Ian McEwan. Very interesting so far, hope to finish it sometime this week.
I am halfway with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I have been postponing this book for years now because it is chick lit, though classic, for me. However, it has been a great read so far. Jane Austen writes beautifully and sensibly. Her plot and prose are a lot better than Jodi Piccoult's. I will not be surprised that centuries from now, young people will still be reading Jane Austen and by that time Jodi Piccoults books will then be buried in oblivion.
Joselito wrote: "I started "Crash" by J.G. Ballard. It's making me angry." I loathed this book but it was very hypnotising and I had to keep reading. Disgust and arousal is a very confronting feeling for the reader. Let me know what you think!
Abbey wrote: "I've been reading "Drop City" by T.C. Boyle this past week. It's my first T.C. Boyle, and I've become a sudden fan of his of style. This is definitely a worthwhile read!"
Abbey wrote: "I've been reading "Drop City" by T.C. Boyle this past week.
It's my first T.C. Boyle, and I've become a sudden fan of his of style. This is definitely a worthwhile read!"
He is wonderful: read "Water Music" one of his earliest. And then you'll want to read every one of his books.
Yrinsyde wrote: "Joselito wrote: "I started "Crash" by J.G. Ballard. It's making me angry." I loathed this book but it was very hypnotising and I had to keep reading. Disgust and arousal is a very confronting feeli..."The only scene I found a little bit arousing was that one between a teenage prostitute and Vaughan inside the car while J.G.Ballard was driving and watching them. But it was mostly disgusting along the way, including that lovemaking between Ballard and the crippled girl Gabrielle. I had difficulty following also the various positions described in those numerous sex scenes inside cars because in such cramped spaces I only know one position where partners can be comfortable--the guy sitting, the girl riding him like a jockey.
I still gave the book 4 stars, however. I thought, if you can give, say, Ian McEwan 4 stars because he sought to write a good love story and succeeded in writing one, why won't you give the same grade to Ballard who sought to write a book about this strange fetish about death/mutilation in car crashes and succeeded in writing a really good one?
Now I'm halfway through "Annie John" by Jamaica Kincaid which I bought yesterday for 10 pesos, which is about 23 cents (US).
Just started "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez that I am reading for another group I am in. I am enjoying this immensely so far!
I am reading Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych tonight. It is only forty pages, but he can cram a lot of theory into a few pages, so I am expecting a thoughtful evening.
I'm halfway through "The Underdogs" by Mariano Azuela (a Mexican) and after that, I'll probably go Italian by starting "The Betrothed" by Alessandro Manzoni.
I've just started Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin. The pages long sentences are a bit hard to take in, but it has a large font so I'm getting through it fast!
Roxana Robinson's newly added book to the 2010 edition, Cost. Well written. Exceptional family drama. So far, soo good!
Stuart wrote: "Joselito wrote: "I started "Crash" by J.G. Ballard. It's making me angry."What is it about the book that makes you angry?"
The fact that even if a character there is supposedly the author himself (which somehow gives hint that this could be autobiographical, or at least a true story), practically everything in it (plot, characters, sequence of events, etc.) are HIGHLY IMPROBABLE. Like I feel I am being taken for a ride (and it does not help that there are cars in practically every scene.
I am now starting to read my used copy of "The Betrothed" by Alessandro Manzoni which still bears the name and address of its previous owner:Gregory T. Martin
1185 Hanchet Ave.
San Jose, Calif.
First sentence of the author's introduction says:
"Historie may be verilie defined as a mightie war against Time, for snatching from his hands the years emprisoned, nay already slain by him, she calleth them back unto life, passeth them in review, and rangeth them once more in battle array."
Published in 1827, supposedly the second best historical novel (first goes to War and Peace).
Joselito wrote: "Stuart wrote: "Joselito wrote: "I started "Crash" by J.G. Ballard. It's making me angry."What is it about the book that makes you angry?"
The fact that even if a character there is supposedl..."
Fair comment, it is not any easy book to like. Though in some ways I do like it. Though I find it hard to explain why, except that I found most of the characters morally grey and it kept me turning the pages to find out how the characters would turn out.
I just started A Passage to India. I thought I would try the book everyone would be reading. I had to start somewhere, so I figured I might as well start there! Looking forward to the discussion about the book.
"Decline and Fall" - Evelyn WaughHilarious satire on British values and the aristocracy -- a frequent topic for the author; but this one was his first.
"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker.. first it was quite difficult for me to decipher the words (as English is not my mother language) but with every page I'm becoming more and more impressed by the book...
Persephone wrote: ""The Color Purple" by Alice Walker.. first it was quite difficult for me to decipher the words (as English is not my mother language) but with every page I'm becoming more and more impressed by the..."Great book!! I hope you enjoy it!
Just finished Untouchable, not a bad read. I am now half way through Kitchen, which is suprisingly good.
Do you agree that Kitchen has the same mood as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter?
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Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
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