How many of the LIST books have you read?

[Leslie]

December roundup:
5 new-to-me books finished and 1 in progress; 3 rereads

In progress: Dr. Zhivago

Finished:
High Fidelity, 4*
Red Shift, 2*
The Ascent of Rum Doodle, 4.5*
A Sentimental Journey, 4*
Life: A User's Manual, 3*

Reread the 3 Sherlock Holmes books via audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry (great for listening to in the car as I drove to and from my brother's house for the holidays!)

Overall in 2023 I read 34 new-to-me books from the list. I will have to up my game if I am going to keep up with Darren, lol!

[Darren]

6 more for me in January:

Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne, The Moore, Brian - 4 Stars
Satanic Verses, The Rushdie, Salman - 3.5
Glass Key, The Hammett, Dashiell - 3.5
Fountain Overflows, The West, Rebecca - 4
Silence of the Grave Indriðason, Arnaldur - 3
Elmer Gantry Lewis, Sinclair - DNF

making 622 total

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#141 - I finished the 1960s phenomenon


Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Leslie]

I am at 602 books read, with 2 new-to-me in January:
Doctor Zhivago
Fight Club

[Darren]

3 more for me in "quality over quantity" February:

Steppenwolf Hesse, Hermann - 4 Stars
Grand Meaulnes, Le (aka "Lost Estate, The") Alain-Fournier, Henri - 4
Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, The (Poirot #4) Christie, Agatha - 5

making 625 total

[Leslie]

Although I read 2 new-to-me books from the list in February, I am just at 603 since one of the 2 was from Balzac's Human Comedy.

New books read were:
The Black Sheep by Honoré de Balzac, 3.5*
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, 4*

[Darren]

5 more for me in, frankly, a quite low quality March:

We Need to Talk About Kevin - Shriver, Lionel - 2.5 Stars
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Tressell, Robert - 2.5
The Constant Gardener - le Carré, John - 3.5
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Hardy, Thomas - 3
Naked Lunch - Burroughs, William S. - 1.5

making 630 total

oh, and one that "Should Be In The List":
The Foundation Pit - Platonov, Andrei

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#142 - I finished


The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Mela]

For the last year, I have read 9 more books and tried but did not finish 6.

So my total now is: 159 read, 19 did not finish and 20 known only from the movies/adaptations.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#143 - I finished the Booker Award-winning historical novel set in 1960s rural India


The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#144 - I finished another excellent noir crime novel by one of my favorite authors


The Getaway by Jim Thompson
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#145 - I finished the short novel


The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Darren]

2 more in April:
Great Fortune, The (Fortunes Of War: Balkan Trilogy #1) Manning, Olivia - 3 Stars
Kite Runner, The Hosseini, Khaled - DNF
6 more in May:
Day of the Triffids, The Wyndham, John - 3.5
Tender Is The Night Fitzgerald, F. Scott - DNF
Hollow Man, The Carr, John Dickson - 4
Prisoner of Zenda, The (Ruritania Trilogy#2) Hope, Anthony - 2.5
Bamboo Bed, The Eastlake, William - 4
Passion of New Eve, The Carter, Angela - 1.5

making 638 total

plus two that "Should Be On The List":
Voyeur, The Robbe-Grillet, Alain - 4
Mason And Dixon Pynchon, Thomas - 4.5

[Terris]

Darren wrote: "2 more in April:
Great Fortune, The (Fortunes Of War: Balkan Trilogy #1) Manning, Olivia - 3 Stars
Kite Runner, The Hosseini, Khaled - DNF
6 more in May:
Day of the Triffids, The Wyndham, John - 3...."

Darren -- "The Kite Runner," DNF?? You didn't like it? I liked that one quite a bit. But "Tender is the Night" was not a favorite of mine (I don't love Fitgerald).
I liked Prisoner of Zenda better than you did though ;)
I did love "Day of the Triffids"! Wyndham is a wonderful writer :)

You are doing great on your numbers!

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#146 - I finished this short novel about bitter disappointment and the American Dream


The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jason]

I don't post too frequently, but I just finished The Child in Time. That brings my total to 500.

[Darren]

Jason wrote: "I don't post too frequently, but I just finished The Child in Time. That brings my total to 500."

Congratulations on reaching the Big 500 Milestone!

half-way there, and downhill from here on in... ;o)

[Darren]

oh, and belated update for June - 3 more:
South Riding Winifred Holtby - 3.5 Stars
Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau - 4
Enduring Love Ian McEwan - 3

making 641 total

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#147 - I finished the first volume in the Book of the New Sun series


The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#148 - I finished the Children's classic


The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Darren]

4 more in July:
Washington Square James, Henry - 3.5 Stars
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, The Hogg, James - 2
Little Women Alcott, Louisa May - 2.5
Season In Sinji, A Carr, J. L. - 4

making 645 total

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished my re-read of the Cold War espionage classic


The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

#149 - I finished the amusing memoir-ish


My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Darren]

2 more in August:
Doctor Zhivago Pasternak, Boris - 3 Stars
Memoirs Of A Gnostic Dwarf Madsen, David - 3.5

making 647 total

[Darren]

5 more in September:
Girl In Winter, A Larkin, Philip - 3.5 Stars
Greenmantle Buchan, John - 3.5
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Loos, Anita - 4
Cat's Eye Atwood, Margaret - DNF
Devil In A Blue Dress Mosley, Walter - 3

making 652 total

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished my re-read of a classic anti-war novel


Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Darren]

5 more in October:
Little World Of Don Camillo, The Guareschi, Giovannino - 4 Stars
Room At The Top Braine, John - 4
East Lynne Wood, Mrs. Henry - 3.5
Notes From Underground Dostoevsky, Fyodor - 2.5
Disparition, La ("A Void") Perec, Georges - 4

making 657 total

oh, and one "should be on the list":
Fortunata and Jacinta Pérez Galdós, Benito 1887 - 4.5 Stars

[Darren]

through a weird glitch in my planning, and although I read a near personal record 16(!) books in November, I only managed a single G1000-er, namely:
Mansfield Park Austen, Jane - 3.5 Stars, and now my second-favourite Austen (after P&P natch)

thus making 658 total

but I do have 7 (seven) planned for December, so hopefully ending the year strongly... :oD

[Darren]

I did bring in 7 in December:

Claudine at School Colette - DNF
No Bed For Bacon Brahms, Caryl & Simon, S.J. - 3 Stars
As I Lay Dying Faulkner, William - 2.5
How Late it Was, How Late Kelman, James - 4
Berlin Alexanderplatz Doblin, Alfred - DNF
Money Amis, Martin - 3
Girls of Slender Means, The Spark, Muriel - 4

thus closing out the year on a total of 665

[Darren]

3 more in January:
Death of a Hero Richard Aldington - 4 Stars
Before Lunch Angela Thirkell - 3.5
Hurrah for St Trinian’s Ronald Searle - 3 (and shouldn't be in G1000 list cos not a novel!)

making total of 668

[Darren]

3 more in February:
True History Of The Kelly Gang Carey, Peter - 4 Stars
Personality O'Hagan, Andrew - 3.5
Go-Between, The Hartley, L.P. - 3.5

making total of 671

[Bucky Buchanan (from Saratoga)]

I see you also DNFd Berlin alexanderplatz. It was truly terrible I thought 😆

[Phil]

I don't often post in this section, but I discovered when I ticked off Agatha Christie's first Tommy and Tuppence novel, "The Secret Adversary" off my List Challenges online list, that it was my 400th book read in the challenge.

[Darren]

ok so since my last update to end Feb. I have read:

5 more in March:
Memoirs Of A Survivor Lessing, Doris - 2 Stars
Breakfast Of Champions Vonnegut, Kurt - 2.5
How Green Was My Valley Llewellyn, Richard - 4
Afternoon Men Powell, Anthony - 3.5
Nice Work Lodge, David - 4

2 more in April:
Magnificent Ambersons, The Tarkington, Booth - 2
She Haggard, H. Rider - 3

1 more in May:
Big Blowdown, The Pelecanos, George - 3

1 more in June:
Silver Stallion Junghyo, Ahn - 3

6 more in July:
Nightwood Barnes, Djuna - 2
Covenant With Death Harris, John - 5
Rogue Male Household, Geoffrey - 4
Good Behaviour Keane, Molly - 4.5
Erewhon Butler, Samuel - 2
Time Ships, The Baxter, Stephen - 4

5 more in August:
Golden Compass, The Pullman, Philip - 2.5
Manon Lescaut Prévost, Antoine François - 2.5
Under Western Eyes Conrad, Joseph - 3.5
Lush Life Price, Richard - 3.5
Breakfast at Tiffany's Capote, Truman - 4

in summary:
20 more overall making total of 691

[Darren]

3 more in September:

Bright Lights, Big City McInerney, Jay - 5 Stars
Some Do Not… (Parade's End #1) Ford, Ford Madox - 3
Case of Comrade Tulayev, The Serge, Victor - 4.5

making total of 694

[Kimberly]

#195: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

[Liz]

Hello, I've just joined the group! I've been reading the Guardian 1,000 for a few years now (alongside other reading goals) and decided to see how I've been doing before I go any further: 282

I'm pretty happy with that and look forward to tackling more of them. :)

[Liz]

I'm not sure if this is the place to mention what I'm reading now:

I'm about halfway through the final 'Movement' of A Dance to the Music of Time: 4th Movement. (Anthony Powell is another author who definitely swallowed a dictionary - luckily I'm reading on my trusty Kobo, so I can look up any new words!)

There's twelve books all together, but they are handily divided into four volumes, so you don't get indigestion looking at them all together! (Another good reason for an e-reader...)

As I like to mix up my reading, I've read one of the quartet a year for the last four years, but the end is now in sight!

But what are they like? I'll have to save my thoughts for when I actually finish, but I can say it has been time well spent.

Has anyone else read them?

[Darren]

I read the first three of the 12, and although I thought they were well written, they didn't really engage me enough to continue on to the other 9 - I just didn't find the characters interesting enough to find out what happened to them :o/

I'm not averse to tackling big serieses though - currently working my way through Balzac's Comedie Humaine :oO

[Liz]

Darren wrote: "I read the first three of the 12, and although I thought they were well written, they didn't really engage me enough to continue on to the other 9 - I just didn't find the characters interesting en..."

True, the characters are 'pretty ghastly' (to use the language of the book), but I think the author knows it and enjoys putting them through the wringer. The books remind me of a cross between Evelyn Waugh and Somerset Maugham (sp?).

Balzac's Comedie Humaine's going to take you an age! I've been dipping into Zola - I thought The Beast Within was fantastic and even enjoyed Germinal, despite the less-than-promising setting of 19thC French coal mining. I also have Thérèse Raquin on my to read list, but I have yet to try Balzac. Are you going in order?

[Darren]

I am reading Balzac in "whatever I can lay my hands on" order ;o)
my fave so far is The Black Sheep

I have also dabbled with Zola - Germinal is superb (although long/bleak), Therese Raquin I was less impressed with, but La Débâcle is my fave so far, and I have La Bête humaine (Beast Within) down for next year

[Liz]

That sounds the best order! ;)

I'll be putting The Black Sheep and La Débâcle on my to read list. Thanks.

[Darren]

4 more in October:

This Sporting Life Storey, David - 3.5 Stars
Chronicle In Stone Kadare, Ismail - 3.5
Painter of Signs, The Narayan, R.K. - 4
Living Green, Henry - 4

making total of 698

[Liz]

I should finish the final volume of A Dance to the Music of Time: 4th Movement tonight, and then I'll be making a start on Burmese Days by George Orwell. So that will be starting #283