Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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Which LIST book did you just finish?
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Amber
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Mar 22, 2013 10:35PM
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. Never again, thankfully. Too many useless repetitive descriptions of scenery and pages of doing nothing but crying, playing the lute, and remembering happier days with the person you love.
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Finished a re-read of The Sound and the Fury. Strangely, I liked it less well now than I did at school age. Also read over the weekend Dead Air. Enjoyed it, but it wasn't nearly as good as Complicity, and not sure that it should have rated inclusion on the list.
I just finished Gulliver's Travels.I liked it. In some places it was very funny, especially the the "Lilliputians" and the "projectors".
His satire basically attacks everything, from government, politics and the law to the basically the human race.
4 stars
I just finished the Metamorphoses by Ovid. I didn't get along well with the translator, I think. The stories themselves border on the absurd and hilarious, but the writing itself was dry and tasteless. Tasteless as in bland, although it was also lacking in some tact (that I attribute to the Romans though).There was a jilted lover who took revenge on her rival by turning her limbs and body into dogs. Not her into a dog. Her body into dogs, plural. She became a pack. Pause for a second and imagine that. Ridiculous, right? Now imagine that being told to you in the most long-winded monotone you can imagine. That was what reading this translation was like.
There was no poetry, no real imagery left.
Ovid himself is also exceptionally long-winded and rambling. I'm not sure any translator can save the apparent lack of narrative structure--it is mythic story after story, and then someone else telling a mythic story to illustrate their point, but where that person came from is anybody's guess. And then, randomly, at the end Ovid rants in favor of vegetarianism. *shrug* I may have missed...well, many things, but I got lost.
2 Stars--one because I have to, one for the funny bits
"Sentimental Education" by Gustave Flaubert.That's a magnificent book.There's some kind of political issue,but that's my genre.It has a series of affairs, or the author himself was not a master in this subject, like others of his tempo.Também the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Paris at that time inspires me a lot when I read such books.
5 STARS
5 STARS
Kim wrote: "ooo...Never let me go is the next one on my list. =)"
One of my favorite books of all time - it's amazing. Don't forget to watch the movie afterwards - although different in many ways from the book, it really captures the core emotions of the story. Great read altogether!
One of my favorite books of all time - it's amazing. Don't forget to watch the movie afterwards - although different in many ways from the book, it really captures the core emotions of the story. Great read altogether!
Just finished my first book off the list! The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. It was really amazing - it took a while for all the pieces to fall together for me but the end result was beautiful. Definitely one I will be buying to read again!
Leora wrote: "Just finished Ulysses by James Joyce. Yuck. Glad to have that one crossed off."
Beautiful that book,Ulysses.I'm glad you like that!!
Beautiful that book,Ulysses.I'm glad you like that!!
I'm just finished "The Republic" by Plato... Lovely!!
Hurray, I have just finished A Dance to The Music of Time and and although I really enjoyed I'm very thankful to get on to other books.my review
I just finished The Awakening by Kate Chopin. It was a quick and interesting read. I've been bogged down by a lot of non-list books lately, so it was nice to finally finish one off my to-do pile!
Herzog by Saul Bellow. It was slow at first, but about two-thirds of the way through I found my rhythm and started to miss Herzog when I was finished.
I just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. I enjoyed it so much that I created a "Reread" shelf just to put it on and remind myself I want to read this book again! :)
Ed wrote: "Tono Bungay by H.G. Wells.... gave it four stars. Very good.... but gets bogged down a few times."Looking forward to this in about a month readying for May's group read.
Just finished Antic Hay. It's my second Huxley in the last year, and I'm realizing that I didn't really know anything he was about. Having read Brave New World in high school, I just assumed his other books were somewhat similar. Totally wrong.I'll review it later today.
Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn - wow! Packed a punch, and I found myself picking it up whenever I had five minutes which is always a good sign. Now onto Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, a first for me by this author.You can see my edition of Mother's Milk here: http://bookbebeautiful.blogspot.com.a...
Danyellemastro wrote: "Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn - wow! Packed a punch, and I found myself picking it up whenever I had five minutes which is always a good sign. Now onto Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, a first..."
That's a great book,Madame Bovary!! Hope you like it...
That's a great book,Madame Bovary!! Hope you like it...
The Diviners - Margaret LaurenceThe Diviners
I really enjoyed this one. It took me awhile to finish, it lends itself well to a slow reading pace, has a well-developed theme, and a particularly satisfying ending.
Finished 2 since my last post for my Restoration and 18th Century Literature class. Evelina by Frances Burney and The Man of Feeling by Henry Mackenzie. 4 stars for the first, loved it! But 1 for the second - just wasn't my thing. Working on Tom Jones by Henry Fielding - but since my exam is today, I'll have to finish the last 400 pages or so on my own time and with papers and other exams to study for, as well as upcoming summer school, I expect to be at this for another month or two.
Brave New World which was really good when you take into consideration the time period Huxley wrote it in. Interesting concepts.
Judy wrote: "Don Quixote!
I enjoyed it, but am ever so glad to have another huge book off the list."
Beautiful !!
I enjoyed it, but am ever so glad to have another huge book off the list."
Beautiful !!
No One Writes to the Colonel - Gabriel Garcia MarquezNo One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories
Marquez can make you chuckle as easily as he makes you feel others' pain, and often does so in the same short story.
Listened to Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer....and glad I did. Two readers portrayed the characters excellently...I especially liked the character of Alexander. I think I would have missed a lot of the enjoyment if I had actually been reading it since Sasha (Alexander) speaks a very special (and humorous!) Ukrainian brand of English. The readers did an excellent job. : )
Lolita. It took me FOREVER to get through it. The subject just made me feel weird and I could only handle it in small chunks.
"Great Expectations" de Dickens ... I adored it !! 5 stars
Julie or the new Eloise, good but I prefer Dangerous Liasons
or
when reading a novel written as a series of letters.
Agustin wrote: "Lolita. It took me FOREVER to get through it. The subject just made me feel weird and I could only handle it in small chunks."My favorite book
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