Which LIST book did you just finish? Showing 1,651-1,700 of 7,922

[Huda]

Just finished The Testament by John Grisham. Loved it. one of his best!

[Eliza]

I finished Emma yesterday.

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

Dave wrote: "Such a good decision. Not reading books that are uninteresting leaves more time for good books! I returned The Fountainhead recently, after slogging through 180 pages. Life is too short for bori..."

I agree wholeheartedly. I always say - too many books, too little time, (I know a lot of people say that). Just because a book is a "classic" or someone thinks it is a "must read" before you die, doesn't mean it is right for you.

[FromAna]

Lyn wrote: "I agree wholeheartedly. I always say - too many books, too little time, (I know a lot of people say that). Just because a book is a "classic" or someone thinks it is a "must read" before you die, doesn't mean it is right for you."


I'm with you guys on that point!

[Dan]

Just finished To the Lighthouse.

[Carly]

Lolita.

Wow...

[Dianna]

Dan, what did you think of To the Lighthouse? I sort of identify with Virginia Woolf myself. I am intrigued by her writing style but I wouldn't say she is for everyone.

[Dan]

Dianna,

I enjoyed To the Lighthouse. I especially liked the "dinner" chapter because of her portrayal of the inane social conversation we engage in at gatherings such as those. Woolf is so good at showing how personalities and relationships depend on each other and how they change over time or in an instant. The only other one of hers I've read yet is Mrs. Dalloway but I plan to read more. I agree, Woolf isn't for everyone but once you get used to her style she can be very captivating.

[Charity]

Finished Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

[Chel]

I finished A History of Tractors in Ukrainian. What a delightful, funny, and ultimately touching book!

[Chel]

correction: the title is A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.

[Everyman]

Just finished reading (re-reading) the Odyssey. Even after multiple readings, it continues to amaze and to give new insights.

Wish there were a group here on goodreads that was actively discussing the traditional classics, but if there is I haven't found it yet.

[Paula]

The Book of Illusions, by Paul Auster

Fanstic!

And Everyman - I've been looking for that kind of book club and haven't found it either.

[Dianna]

Oh, I tried so hard to get into the Odyssey. I have real difficulty with things written in verse form. Faust was horrible for me and Shakespear's histories I can't do either, though I love the comedy for some reason.

[Everyman]

Dianna wrote: "Oh, I tried so hard to get into the Odyssey. I have real difficulty with things written in verse form. Faust was horrible for me and Shakespear's histories I can't do either, though I love the co..."

There is a prose translation of the Odyssey by Palmer in the Barnes and Noble Classics edition if the verse is what's getting to you. Though I think the Fitzgerald translation reads just as easily as prose. You just need to read about ten pages to get into it, and then I find it reads beautifully. JMHO.

[Everyman]

Paula wrote:
And Everyman - I've been looking for that kind of book club and haven't found it either."

If there are enough people here on goodreads interested, maybe we should start it?

[Lyn (Readinghearts)]

Everyman wrote: "Dianna wrote: "Oh, I tried so hard to get into the Odyssey. I have real difficulty with things written in verse form. Faust was horrible for me and Shakespear's histories I can't do either, thoug..."

That's what I was thinking. It doesn't cost anything to set up a group, and if it doesn't take off, so be it. However, if there are only three people it might still be fun to do.

[Dianna]

I am re-reading War and Peace at the moment and The Thorn Birds lol Don't ask why that combination...

[Lianne]

If we're counting the 2006 list, I finished Charles Dickens's Our Mutual Friend. I enjoyed it a lot (which is great since reading Great Expectations didn't produce the same effect to me).

[Carly]

The Watchmen.

It was really amazing how mature and adult the book was. I had assumed that a graphic novel was just like a comic book, but I was way wrong.

Highly recommended!

[Dianna]

Great Expectations did not meet my expectations. It was very difficult for me and not very satisfying.

[Paula]

Sorry to hear that Dianna - I loved Great Expectations. Dickens is a little like algebra to me; if you look into the details too much it gets overwhelming but if you lean back a bit you can get through it. I hope you find another Dickens you enjoy!

[Dianna]

Paula, I liked A Tale of Two Cities. :)

[Lianne]

Dianna wrote: "Great Expectations did not meet my expectations. It was very difficult for me and not very satisfying."

The same thing happened to me as well, I found myself struggling to finish it a bit. But Our Mutual Friend produced the opposite effect for me (couldn't put it down!) so I'm guessing I'll come back to Great Expectations at some point again, maybe it'll be easier the second time around...

[Gerald]

Everyman,
Why don't you start one. I'll join.
GerryC

[Carly]

Everyman wrote: "Paula wrote:
And Everyman - I've been looking for that kind of book club and haven't found it either."

If there are enough people here on goodreads interested, maybe we should start it?

"

I would join!! Let's make it!! :)

[Kristin]

Carly wrote: "The Watchmen.

It was really amazing how mature and adult the book was. I had assumed that a graphic novel was just like a comic book, but I was way wrong.

Highly recommended!"

I read Watchmen last week and agree with everything you said! Truly phenomenal!

[Anna]

Psie lata | Günter Grass

[FromAna]

Dianna wrote: "Great Expectations did not meet my expectations. It was very difficult for me and not very satisfying."

THANK YOU! I felt the same way.

[Lianne]

I finished reading Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar yesterday; I was surprised at how quick I got through the book. It was pretty interesting overall.

[Emma]

Finished The New York Trilogy. Loved it but also found it very frustrating.

Or maybe I just wanted to love it...

[Paula]

Dianna - glad you enjoyed Two Cities!! That one is sitting on my shelf right now. I think Dickens needs to be done in doses.

Or! If we start that 'classics' book club we could do a Dickens book and it would make it easier for us all to get through it! Although, I think there are quite a few on here I need help to get through :)

[Dianna]

Well, you all let me know when and what the book will be and hopefully I may have it in my library. We could do War and Peace since I am already reading it...

[Denise]

I've finished . THE GIVEN DAY. by Dennis Lehane. He is not just a good mystery writer. He is a very good writer. This novel is fabulous and I recommned it.

[George]

I just finished "To Kill A Mockingbird", I can't believe that I never got around to reading it until now. Loved it!

[Everyman]

We seem to have, so far, Everyman, Gerald, and Carly (and maybe Dianna?) interested in a group to read and discuss classic/Western Canon books. Are there any others who would be active in such a group if it formed? I think a core group of five active people would be a good start for a robust discussion; I would hope there would be other readers here who would eventually find and join us.

If there is the interest, I'll propose a few ideas and then set up a group.

I would think starting with a great but fairly quick read would be a good introduction, and give time to get a discussion started fairly quickly before we started in on major works. A few suggestions would be:

Sophocles's Antigone -- an absolute must read for any thinking reader. Over two thousand years ago, Sophocles was already exploring a the conflict between individual duty and state interests -- a conflict still highly relevant today.

One of the less complex Platonic dialogues -- Meno perhaps -- how do we acquire virtue? What is the nature of knowledge? Or maybe Crito -- a very different exploration from Antigone of the issue of individual interests vs. state interests.

A Shakespearean play is also a possibility -- would it be too ambitious to tackle King Lear at the outset?

Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey or Gray's Elegy in an Country Churchyard both are eminently discussable poems. (Bloom would add The Old Cumberland Beggar.)

One or two of the Canterbury Tales would also be a possibility.

There are a few shorter novels from the great novelistic period which are short enough to read fairly quickly but rich enough to serve as a good basis for discussion. I think, for example, of Silas Marner, The Mill on the Floss, Far from the Madding Crowd, to name just a few.

But first we need a group!

[Dianna]

Count me in!

[Paula]

Count me in, too! I've never done an on-line book club though, so might need some coaching along the way. Are we all doing the 1001 Dr. Peter B's list? If so, I'd be good with sticking to those.

I would love to do a Shakespeare thing, or anything from Hardy - I love Bill but struggle with Tom (I've been working through Tess of the d'Uberville's on and off for almost a year now, despite having both a hardcover and Kindle edition).

Count me in on whatever though!

[Dianna]

I have read Sophocles--wouldn't mind reading it again though.

All of Plato is on my list of books to read; the only one I have read is The Republic and it was very difficult for me to digest.

I have always had trouble with Shakespear's history but maybe if I had someone to help me understand...

Wordsworth is poetry? I have real difficulty with reading in verse.

I have read the Canterbury Tales and wouldn't mind reading them again.

I will have to look up the last three to refresh my mind on what they are about.

[Everyman]

Paula wrote: "... Are we all doing the 1001 Dr. Peter B's list? If so, I'd be good with sticking to those.
..."

I'm not doing the 1001 list, because most of the books are long after the period I most enjoy reading, and he limits himself to novels, whereas a lot of my reading time is spent on other reading -- history, philosophy, biography, criticism, etc. If we stuck to his list we would drop out the majority of the traditional classics and much of the standard Western Canon.

That's why we need a separate group!

[Everyman]

Dianna wrote: "I have always had trouble with Shakespear's history but maybe if I had someone to help me understand.
..."

King Lear isn't really history (not like the other King plays). It's one of his -- I believe his greatest -- tragedies, a fantastic play, very rich, very deep, very sad, but also very affirming. But I think it is best appreciated by, let us say mature readers. (Doesn't that sound better than "older than dirt people"?)

I agree with you about the challenges with the history plays, but we can do them; I think the key is not to worry too much about the details of the history -- Shakespeare changes lots of details around anyhow, so they aren't accurate history to begin with -- and focus on the human interactions and underlying meaning, such as Richard II which is a marvelous study in personal disintegration and the meaning (or lack of meaning) of kingship:

Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let's choose executors and talk of wills:
And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!

[Paula]

Oh, gee - drop Dr. Peter B's list and focus on real Western Canon? Twist my arm :)

Perhaps we could toss Dante into the mix if everyone hasn't already read it? I know it's a bit of a staple, but I've always wanted to read The Divine Comedy and haven't yet.

Needless to say, I'm still in.

[Yrinsyde]

I'd be interested in reading the western canon! I've read Suetonius' Lives of the 12 Ceasers (some parts very funny!) and bits of The Canterbury Tales in middle English (very difficult for me, but I learnt a lot). The Ancient History Sourcebook and the Medieval Sourcebook should point people in the right direction re canon
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancien...
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1...

Quite a few texts should be on the Project Gutenberg site. Or there is the Harvard Canon list on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_...

What ever is decided, I'd to join!

[Dianna]

I read about Silas Marner and The Mill on the Floss and my internet connection went down. The Mill on the Floss sounds interesting. I also really think I could get into studying the kingship thing! I just hope I can get my internet connection back because I hate having to go to the library to get online.

[Dianna]

I just read about Far From the Madding Crowd and I vote for it now, actually. But whatever is chosen I will join in! I will have to maybe get the book at the library if i don't have it already.

[Everyman]

Paula wrote: "Oh, gee - drop Dr. Peter B's list and focus on real Western Canon? Twist my arm :)

Perhaps we could toss Dante into the mix if everyone hasn't already read it? I know it's a bit of a staple, bu..."

I'm sure we'll get to Dante not too far down the road.

[Molly]

Judith wrote: ""Native Son" by Richard Wright

First rate in every respect!"

Hi Judith,
Yes I agree, "Native Son" is wonderful. I just finished it a few days ago. And his autobiography "Black Boy" is even better in my opinion. I can't put it down. Wright was a fantastic, brave writer. He's become a favorite author of mine.
Molly

[Molly]

Everyman wrote: "Paula wrote:
And Everyman - I've been looking for that kind of book club and haven't found it either."

If there are enough people here on goodreads interested, maybe we should start it?

"

I'd be interested in a classics group!

[Molly]

Tom wrote: "Dan wrote: "Just fiinished Animal Farm. Much lighter than 1984 despite the same basic message. What concerns me, because I see far too much of it today, is Orwell's portrayal of such a large perc..."

Indeed.

[Emma]

I finished The Bell Jar last night. I can't believe I hadn't read it before!