Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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Which LIST book did you just finish?
Been putting it off for many years- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Wow! Jurga's luck is worse than mine!!How much can one protagonist put up with?!?
Just finished Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (which I'd read a long time ago, but I'd forgotten how funny Adams was). Strangely enough, i finished it on towel day.
Also just reread Wuthering Heights - struck me that there wasn't a believable character in the entire book.
Kuya Doni wrote: "Just finished Philipp Meyer's American Rust. Great book!"I really liked that book, too.
Just finished The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (just added in the 2010 edition). Amazing view of India from the working class poor. Although the picture is bleak, the tone of the novel wasn't at all depressing. 5 stars! Also finished David Copperfield. Haven't found a Dickens that I didn't love.
Inna wrote: "The Enormous Room by e.e. cummings"I am very curious about that book. I love cummings as a poet, but can't imagine him writing prose. What did you think of it?
a thousand splendid suns by khaled alhussaini...& the next on my list >> the other hand by chris cleave
Jane Eyre, really enjoyed it! Now reading The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall and really enjoying it. I'm on a Bronte sisters kick.
Julie at All Ears wrote: "Just finished The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (just added in the 2010 edition). Amazing view of India from the working class poor. Although the picture is bleak, the tone of the novel wasn't at ..."Me too. Dickens rocks!
Just finished Goethe's first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. For me, Werther is the saddest male literary character that I've read so far.
Amanda wrote: "Caterina wrote: "Also just reread Wuthering Heights - struck me that there wasn't a believable character in the entire book."That book is, in my opinion, the most overrated book in history."
AGREED!
Lauli wrote: "Inna wrote: "The Enormous Room by e.e. cummings"I am very curious about that book. I love cummings as a poet, but can't imagine him writing prose. What did you think ..."
It's good. I haven't written a review, but you have rather interesting reviews here http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - felt guilty the entire time - a book this whimsical doesn't seem like it should be on the list. =)
I finished The Sea by John Banville. He writes alot like Nabakov with very elegant sentences and alot of dense thinking material but never with a holier than thou or a smarter than thou attidude. Then I zipped through Like Water for Chocolate in 2 or 3 days and it was great! Very passionate and delicious too!
I just finished Anne Enright's The Gathering. Since it won the 2007 Man Booker Prize, not at par as my expectation.
I just finished Gulliver's Travels. I am now wondering why I wasted my time with that one...
I finished the last of The N.Y. Trilogy by Auster this week. I would have preferred more solid endings, but I was haunted by his themes and his main characters. I want to read more...
Oroonoko by Miss Behn Aphra. Since it was supposed to be a true story, I learned a lot from this 1600s lady writer. She is said to be the first English writer and she is even a woman! Girl power!
I just finished Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. I liked it. It was written in the early fifties. The story is about Mildren Lathbury, a thirty something spinster. It is a comedy of manners. I throughally enjoyed it. It is a quick and easy read. Not so heavy like some on the lists. It was added in the second edition.
I just finished Dracula. I have had it on my shelf forever and somehow have just never picked it up. In the end, the inspiration to read it came from reading The Historian which is a more modern day search for Dracula. Comparing the two was quite interesting -- similar literary techniques with different angles on basically the same story. I have read some mixed reviews on The Historian and some of the less believable aspects of it, but I have to say the original Dracula story itself has some pretty fantastical elements to it as well. At any rate, I am glad that I have finally read this classic.
Jim wrote: "the Looming Tower was a great book - gives you insight into history of how Osama etc corrupted and misrepesented true meaning of Islam, US involvement with various terrorist groups and how CIA/FBI ..."Sounds like a great read! Thanks.
Sissy wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Caterina wrote: "Also just reread Wuthering Heights - struck me that there wasn't a believable character in the entire book."That book is, in my opinion, the most overrated book ..."
I agree as well. I felt like I wasted my time with that! By the time it ended, I think I actually said, "Thank God!"
Interpretor of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Picked it up because the title fascinated me. That and it won a Pulitzer. Interesting set of short stories.
Susan wrote: "Just finished Alice in Wonderland. I really enjoyed this book and it was a great fast read."I liked it as well. I worried that the story wouldn't make sense at all but I found it to be a fun adventure. Better than I expected.
Kelly wrote: "I just finished Gulliver's Travels. I am now wondering why I wasted my time with that one..."Gee I didn't get past the first chapter
I just finished Mansfield Park. As a big Jane Austen fan, I was kind of dissapointed, but I still liked it.
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger3 stars
Story of the Glass family, it starts with Franny who is going to her boyfriend's campus on a weekend date. She has become disillusioned with everything about college and has focused on the Prayer of Jesus. The second part is Zooey, her brother. He is suppose to help Franny recovery from her emotional collapse. It is filled with quite a bit of spiritual dialogue. The author was interested in eastern philosophy. He died this year in January at the age of 91.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - so many wonderful Wildean paradoxes. I was amused by how often the main characters "flung" themselves onto a sofa, divan or other suitable piece of furniture. The middle of the story was tedious, perhaps a reflection on the tedium of the lives of the aristocracy. A stark contrast between this story and the other I just finished "An Inheritance of Loss."
Maria wrote: "I just finished Mansfield Park. As a big Jane Austen fan, I was kind of dissapointed, but I still liked it."Mansfield Park makes the rest of Austen's novels feel like a roller coaster ride in comparison.
Just finished Money by Martin Amis - coincidentally, this month's Vanity Fair has an article by Christopher Hitchens on Martin Amis, which includes their having done "background" research for a scene in Money.
Amis is a good writer, but the main character in the book is a bit weird!
Caterina wrote: "
Just finished Money by Martin Amis - coincidentally, this month's Vanity Fair has an article by Christopher Hitchens on Martin Amis, which includes their having done "backg..."
Money by M. Amis, I think, has the best and most creative description of the female genitalia in modern literature.
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Books mentioned in this topic
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Life of a Good-for-nothing (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jorge Luis Borges (other topics)Juan Carlos Onetti (other topics)
Flann O'Brien (other topics)
Clarice Lispector (other topics)
Vladimir Nabokov (other topics)
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Did you like it?"
Yes, very much. Very powerful writing.