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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Judith
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Mar 26, 2010 10:11AM
The Grapes of Wrath - J. Steinbeck
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I have also read Rebecca before and think it is a good book especially when it shows the complexity of human nature.
Masanobu wrote: "I've recently finished Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and it was weaker than I expected, but still great. Not really that gothic; I think it could be easi..."I agree, I was expecting so much from this book that, unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype. That being said, it was still a good novel that brings up many different interesting issues.
Just finished 'Rabbit, Run' by John Updike. I can't believe there's two more books on this series on the list...
Just finished "A Mathematician's Apology" by G.H. Hardy and C.P. Snow (from Modern Library's Best 100 non-fiction books) - now reading "In Cold Blood" and still working on "The promise of American life" and "the education of henry adams."
Oko Jelenia: Droga Do Nidaros by Andrzej PilipiukI started from fourth part and now I finished the first.
Jay wrote: "Just finished 'Rabbit, Run' by John Updike. I can't believe there's two more books on this series on the list..."I've read "Rabbit, Run" also and wondered the same thing, Jay. I guess we'll have to read the other two to find out....It is certainly less than obvious.
Finished Roxana by Defoe, quite enjoyed the book but felt it was a lot like Moll Flanders, but with more of a conscience.
I just finished Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I had been putting it off for ages, but I quite enjoyed it.
Just finished Smilla's Sense of Snow. Even though some people may view this book as dark and violent, I really enjoyed it. Full of philosophical statements, it causes you to think of certain circumstances in a new light. All in all, it was violent and brutal in some sections, and the ending left a lot to be desired, but I would recommend it to anyone that is a "fact buff" or just anyone that likes stories that have dark brooding characters.
Finished Never Let Me Go. What a horrible horrible book, written in a very natural conversational way. A psycho-horror novel about terrible abuse.
Finished reading 'The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Beautifully written, very imaginative and great pictures as well! Enjoyed and cried at the same time!
In the latest updated list (2010 edition) I last finished Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and I have read the following from that list:1. Amis, Martin -- Money: A Suicide Note
2. Atwood, Margaret -- Alias Grace
3. Baricco, Alessandro -- Silk
4. Barth, John -- The Floating Opera
5. Barthelme, Donald -- The Dead Father
6. Bellow, Saul -- Humboldt's Gift
7. Boll, Heinrich -- Billiards at Half-Past Nine
8. Bronte, Charlotte -- Jane Eyre
9. Camus, Albert -- The Outsider
10. Capote, Truman -- In Cold Blood
11. Coetzee, J.M. -- Disgrace
12. de Saint-Exupery, Antoine -- The Little Prince
13. Dostoevsky, Fyodor -- Crime and Punishment
14. Duras, Marguerite -- The Lover
15. Durrell, Lawrence -- Justine
16. Esterhazy, Peter -- Celestial Harmonies
17. Eugenides, Jeffrey -- The Virgin Suicides
18. Faulks, Sebastian -- Birdsong
19. Freud, Esther -- Hideous Kinky
20. Garcia Marquez, Gabriel -- Autumn of the Patriach
21. - do - --Love in the Time of Cholera
22. - do - -- One Hundred Years of Solitude
23. Greene, Graham -- The End of the Affair
24. - do - -- The Power and the Glory
25. Heller, Joseph -- Catch-22
26. Hemingway, Ernest -- A Farewell to Arms
27. - do - -- For Whom the Bell Tolls
28. - do - -- The Old Man and the Sea
29. - do - -- The Sun Also Rises
30. Hesse, Herman -- Siddhartha
31. - do - -- Steppenwolf
32. - do - -- The Glass Bead Game
33. Hustvedt, Siri -- What I Loved
34. Jimenez, Juan Ramon -- Platero and I
35. Joyce, James -- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
36. Kundera, Milan -- The unbearable Lightness of Being
37. Lawrence, D.H. -- Lady Chatterley's Lover
38. Mann, Thomas -- Joseph and His Brothers
39. Maugham, W. Somerset -- The Razor's Edge
40. Mitchell, Margaret -- Gone with the Wind
41. Moravia, Alberto -- The Time of Indifference
42. Orwell, George -- Nineteen Eighty-Four
43. - do - -- Animal Farm
44. Proulx, E. Annie -- The Shipping News
45. Reage, Pauline -- The Story of O
46. Remarque, Erich Maria -- All Quiet on the Western Front
47. Rhys, Jean -- Good Morning, Midnight
48. Roy, Arundhati -- The God of Small Things
49. Salinger, J.D. -- The Catcher in the Rye
50. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr -- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
51. Spark, Muriel -- The Girls of Slender Means
52. Tartt, Donna -- The Secret History
53. Tolstoy, Leo -- Anna Karenina
54. - do - -- War and Peace
55. Wolf, Christa -- The Quest for Christa T.
I intend to finish reading those in the 2010 list, regardless of whatever changes there may be in 2012.
Alexandra wrote: "I just finished Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I had been putting it off for ages, but I quite enjoyed it."I really adored Middlesex. I didn't really think I would after learning what it was about, but it was a long and enjoyable ride that I won't soon forget.
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Finished Moby Dick. Loved the first and the last 150 pages, but I must confess the other 400 in between were really difficult to get through. I think most of the book is more a treatise about whaling and cetalogy than a novel about a man obsessed with defeating nature, and alluring as I found Ahab's and the Pequod's story, all that digressing and rambling about the size of the whale, the anatomy of its head, the history of whaling and so forth, bored me stiff.
I finished The Old Man and The Sea- really enjoyed it.I also finished The Picture of Dorian Gray - not a big fan of this one
Finally finished The Swarm: A Novel. Took me 2 entire months (with a couple books in between). There were parts of it that I liked, but overall I thought it was pretty painful to get through. I think it will make a better movie next year...
I just finished The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. Actually, it is a short story and a VERY quick read. It is strange but entertaining.
This weekend I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog which is on the new list. I had started it before the new list came out and thought, "this should be on the list," and there it was. I liked this one more than I thought I would, but the ending is not sitting so well with me.
I just finished The God of Small Things, which I actually quite liked. I had been putting it off for a long long time.
Finished both Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.For the first one, I actually read The Aleph & Other Stories, because Labyrinths includes many of El Aleph stories plus some from Ficciones (yes, in the first version of the list, you kind of get to read one book twice). It lives up to Borges' writing, but I liked Ficciones more. Anyway, they are written in the same style and share similar themes. Don't let the short book deceive you, though, because these are stories to reflect upon.
As for The Handmaid's Tale, is a like it or hate it kind of thing, and I loved it. The worst complaints I've heard about it come from people who dislike dystopias. If that is your case, avoid it like a plague. A nice dystopia with a feminist turn and good writing (I think, indeed, that it was perfect in order to make the character believable). My only complaint is that it was a bit dated.
The Nun by Denis Diderot. Suffering least-favourite daughter forced to become a nun, who goes on to be misunderstood and ill-treated in a nunnery. Depressing to say the least, though I guess at the time it was written it must have come down as quite a strong statement against the Catholic Church.
Just finished "A short history of tractors in Ukrainian" and " The age of Kali" in quick succession.Though from altogether different genres and diametrically opposite style of writing, enjoyed reading both!
Lauli wrote: "The Nun by Denis Diderot. Suffering least-favourite daughter forced to become a nun, who goes on to be misunderstood and ill-treated in a nunnery. Depressing to say the least, though I..."This is actually a favorite of mine, and there's an interesting story behind it--it actually started out as a practical joke. Diderot and his friends started writing to another friend of theirs as this terrorized nun, asking him for help renouncing her vows and leaving the nunnery. That correspondence, or her side of it, anyway, got turned into the novel. Apparently when the prankee found out that it was all a sham, he thought it was hilarious.
Just finished Vanity Fair and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and am about to start Tender Is the Night. 277 down, 724 to go!
Elise wrote: "Lauli wrote: "The Nun by Denis Diderot. Suffering least-favourite daughter forced to become a nun, who goes on to be misunderstood and ill-treated in a nunnery. Depressing to say the l..."Wow, Elise, I completely missed the joke! Now that you mention the context it makes perfect sense, plus, I didn't understand how the same person could have written Rameau's Nephew. Should re-read it in this light...
New to the group & hope to participate as much as possible. Just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns. Loved it.
Just finished Like Life by Lorrie Moore. It was a great series of short stories and used good sensory imagery. The theme was man/woman relationships. I would recommend it.
I just finished The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. It is an incredibly short read, for those working on knocking a few easy ones off your list.
I just finished Justine by Lawrence Durrell. The characters only think about sex most of the time. However, the prose is rich and luscious. I cannot wait to read the next 3 books!
I finished The Maltese Falcon. I haven't read much crime but it was good, although not a huge fan of Hammett's style.
I just finished The Long Goodbye. I had seen the film but had put off reading the book, for some reason. I loved it, and will definitely be reading more Chandler!
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