Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

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message 1051: by Paula (new)

Paula | 57 comments I meant it's not bad, not mad : )


message 1052: by Ravenskya (new)

Ravenskya  (ravenskya) Just polished off One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest... different from what I expected, but still very good.


message 1053: by Kisace (new)

Kisace I finished Go Ask Alice


message 1054: by Susan (new)

Susan | 28 comments Kind of working on some of the shorter stories, so I just finished The Awakening (beautiful) The Yellow Wallpaper, and A Christmas Carol.


message 1055: by Kristi (new)

Kristi (kristilarson) | 263 comments Go Tell It on the Mountain. Not really for me.


message 1056: by Katharine (new)

Katharine | 19 comments I finished In COld Blood last weekend, I really enjoyed it. I found it really gripping even though the outcome was known from the start


message 1057: by Emma (new)

Emma (mnium) | 135 comments Satin, have you recently finished anything on the list?


message 1058: by Ravenskya (new)

Ravenskya  (ravenskya) I just finished "Great Expectations" and loved it... I was expecting it to be difficult but it was a really great read.


message 1059: by Terrea (new)

Terrea (terreawithat) Just finished A Clockwork Orange!

It took me a good 2/3 of the book to even get into it, but I must say I actually liked the ending (the American version). I didn't really care for the last chapter from the British version.


message 1060: by Leila (new)

Leila (leilatre) | 40 comments I finished Things Fall Apart yesterday. Interesting view of Nigerian tribal life. And a quick easy read. Just what I needed as I sit here waist deep in some heavy ones.


message 1061: by Princess (new)

Princess  Peach (annabananafish) | 7 comments Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Quick read, lots of fun, frivolous without being too shallow.


message 1062: by Jane (new)

Jane (jane_jones) | 2 comments I just finished: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer I was not impressed. Not sure why all the hype


message 1063: by Glenn (new)

Glenn | 14 comments I just finished The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien yesterday and Foundation by Isaac Asimov tonight. Both were good, although not great.


message 1064: by Vicky (new)

Vicky | 43 comments I just finished "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" by Wallace Stegner. I just love Stegner, even if he's not on the List. This was his first novel, written in the 30's while he was still in grad school. It's highly autobiographical, much of it about his fatther. Stegner didn't get along with his own father and this seems to be his first chance to get back at him (there would be others!). He doesn't write here with the grace and discipline he will later exhibit in "Angle of Repose" or "Crossing to Safety". He goes on for at least 100 pages which were unnecessary. All that being said, he is brilliantly deft at characterization I just love this guy!


message 1065: by Sarah Jane (new)

Sarah Jane The Blind Assassin.

Did I hear somewhere on here that this one isn't on the revised list?


message 1066: by Jenn (new)

Jenn (peaceloveread) I just finished Twilight. I think I agree with the general consensus here that it is a wonderful story, a great read, but overall just that. I felt that JK Rowling went into much greater detail for this genre...Ok, back to the list.


message 1067: by Kristi (new)

Kristi (kristilarson) | 263 comments I finished a non-list book this morning, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh: A Novel. I liked it, but not my favorite by Chabon.


message 1068: by Denise (new)

Denise | 231 comments Sarah Jane-

Yes, I believe The Blind Assassin didn't make the revised list. It's one of my all time favorite books, but there really were too many Atwood titles on that first list. Check the Atwood thread for other cut titles.


message 1069: by Leena (new)

Leena Almashat The Notebook =)


message 1070: by P (new)

P (pascalm) | 12 comments Just finished The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. Excellent book, although I must admit that I wasn't impressed by the first 40 or so pages. Fortunately I've read enough Greene by now to know that quite a few of his novels have slow starts, with a crescendo of wit and pure "joie d'écrire" later on - as was the case with The Power and the Glory.

I was pleasantly surprised to see so much Greene on the list, by the way... I think he's an often-overlooked writer, as far as English Literature classes go in Belgium.


message 1071: by Jason (new)

Jason | 4 comments Jane wrote: "I just finished: Twilight by [a:Stephenie Meyer|941441|Stephenie ..."

I agree completely. It's a teenage angst story with no real depth. i agree with the comment that jk rowling did a much better job (and the transition to movie much more satisfying), but the whole series made me miss Anne Rice! meyer doesn't come close to her character development.


message 1072: by Niche (new)

Niche I just finished Perfume. I liked the premise and the first half. Then it got a little slow, and then I just plain did not like it. The ending calls for a lot of suspended disbelief. The character is obviously not likable but I still wanted to know what happened next but by the last quarter of the book I just didn't care.


message 1073: by Kristi (new)

Kristi (kristilarson) | 263 comments Niche, a very strange book, isn't it?! A friend of mine loves Perfume, and had me read it. I still can't decide whether I liked it or not. I guess I don't like it, but it has stuck with me. I remember hating the part where he was in the cave. Initially I felt so bad for the main character. I feel like my sense of smell is very sensitive and I hate it! I don't go to certain restaurants because I can smell it on my clothes and hair for the rest of the day, so I can't imagine how he lived with it. Especially during that time period, with no bathing. Have you seen the movie that came out recently? I don't understand why anyone wanted to make it into a movie, but I guess they pulled it off.


message 1074: by Juliane (last edited Dec 09, 2008 04:33AM) (new)

Juliane (libristar) | 26 comments Kristi, I totally agree with you. I also couldn't decide, if I like "The Perfume" or not. I read it ages ago, but I know, that I didn't liked it that much. But somehow it affected me, so that it is still in my mind. So I am somewhere in between, I guess.


message 1075: by Deanna (new)

Deanna McFadden (ragdoll) | 9 comments Was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed "A Christmas Carol" considering how many times I'd seen the various movies and how well I already knew the story.

http://tragicrighthip.blogspot.com/20...


message 1076: by Glenn (new)

Glenn | 14 comments I finished two books over the past couple days. "The Wasp Factory" by Iain Banks, which was a pretty disturbing book, and "Atonement" by Ian McEwan, which was better, but not as good as "Enduring Love" in my opinion.


message 1077: by Kristi (new)

Kristi (kristilarson) | 263 comments I finished Lucky Jim tonight. I really didn't like it the first couple chapters, but it grew on me.


message 1078: by P (new)

P (pascalm) | 12 comments Finished "The Honorary Consul"... two Greenes in a row. Excellent read, mixing comedy with existentialism and a slight hint of absurdism (an often-overlooked influence on Greene's later works).

Next on the list: Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!"


message 1079: by Niche (new)

Niche LOL Kristi, I'm the opposite. I have no sense of smell. I've haven't seen the movie. It would be hard to um, show the ending.

Congrats on finishing Lucky Jim. I couldn't make it passed the 2nd chapter. I always chalked it up to the fact that I worked in academia and I see behavior like that everyday -but if you thought the first couple of chapters were slow then maybe I should try it again.


message 1080: by Ajala (new)

Ajala Habib | 2 comments finished Lucky Jim tonight. I really didn't like it the first couple chapters, but it grew on me and The book of poetry by Byron was an anthology and as such was completely uneven. His short poems are dark and passionate, and I find his writing style easy to read. I also enjoyed Manfred and Don Juan as his best play and his epic, respectively. Manfred explores the price of defiance by one man over all secular and religious authority while Don Juan was a satire of western civilization. Overall, I gave it four stars but I really wish they had left his Oriental Tales like Beppo out of it. They are only fit for fantasy shows such as Xena.







message 1081: by Anna (last edited Dec 11, 2008 08:24PM) (new)

Anna (lilfox) | 290 comments The Republic of Wine A Novel - nice book about alcohol, drinking and canibalism.


message 1082: by akaellen (new)

akaellen | 12 comments Just finished Northhanger Abbey

Liked it - although Pride and Prejudice is still my favorite Austen.



message 1083: by Stephanie (new)

Stephanie (sbez05) | 32 comments Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer


message 1084: by Kristi (new)

Kristi (kristilarson) | 263 comments I finished Tarzan of the Apes this morning. I liked it, but I'm shocked at the ending. It has made me a little upset!


message 1085: by [deleted user] (new)

Interview with the Vampire.


message 1086: by Tina (new)

Tina Dalton (vulcangirl) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Loved it!


message 1087: by Natalie (new)

Natalie (natshellok) | 8 comments I just finished Anna Karenina. I read it years ago in college but was reading so much in such a short time back then that I don't think I really absorbed much. At any rate it didn't make an impact or stick with me.

I did enjoy it this time though. Partly, I think, becuase of its historical aspects. Just the Russian history... the lifestyle of the Russian aristocracy in that time period and so forth. As for the story itself, I kept wondering why it was called Anna Karenina when she was my least favorite character in the book. Tolstoy switches from one storyline to another and I was always a bit disappointed when he cycled back around to her. I was much more interested in Kitty and Levin and some of the others than Anna. Truthfully, I just thought she was a bit of an idiot.


message 1088: by Pearl (new)

Pearl (puuurlie) | 6 comments I just finished "Up From Slavery" by Booker T. Washington, which I read for school.


message 1089: by Emma (new)

Emma (mnium) | 135 comments I just finished One Hundred Years of Solitude. Pretty amazing. I'm going to have to fight with myself not to go back and straighten all the characters out once and for all though. At some point perhaps I'll read it again and create the "cheat sheet" of which I'm dreaming.


message 1090: by Ravenskya (new)

Ravenskya  (ravenskya) Read a Christmas Carol and loved it

Finally finished "Ulysses" and hated ever word of it... I hated it enough that I don't think I ever want to read any more Joyce again.


message 1091: by Sarah (new)

Sarah (anastasiaarcher) | 4 comments "Veronika decides to die" and "The Devil and Miss Prym" by Paulo Coehlo


message 1092: by Nikki (new)

Nikki (tikki_nik2) | 11 comments A Christmas Carol - readlly enjoyed it!


message 1093: by Ravenskya (new)

Ravenskya  (ravenskya) Ignoring the idiot posting the porn - Flaged.

Just finished "The Unfortunate Traveler" short, but a bit of work to really get into


message 1094: by Stephanie (new)

Stephanie (sbez05) | 32 comments Just finished Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston. Short and a quick read. It's a beautiful story.


message 1095: by Sophie (new)

Sophie (piroska) | 7 comments Joyce Carol Oates' 'Blonde', which I really enjoyed. So much more that a biography of Marilyn Monroe. It's a tome, but I couldn't put it down.


message 1096: by Glenn (new)

Glenn | 14 comments Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut


message 1097: by Christina Stind (new)

Christina Stind | 180 comments Piroska, 'Blonde' is one of my favourite books and the first Joyce Carol Oates book I've read and because of that, she became one of my favourite authors!


message 1098: by Laura (new)

Laura (laurita) | 42 comments Margaret, what did you think of The Body Artist? I just finished DeLillo's The Names and I still don't really know what to think of it. I've been told I started with the wrong one but it still had its qualities.


message 1099: by Julia (new)

Julia (juliajs) | 9 comments The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.


message 1100: by Glenn (new)

Glenn | 14 comments I just finished Falling Man by Don DeLillo, which I thought was good, but not great. I also finished The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho which I thought was excellent.


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