Which LIST book did you just finish? Showing 3,151-3,200 of 7,922

[Stuart]

Regine wrote: "if you look at the group's bookshelf, you'll find the 1001 books before you die."

I will stick to the list in future, my apologies.

[Reid]

The Elegance of the Hedgehog. A book that requires a fair bit of patience on the part of the reader, but it pays dividends.

[Cass]

Never Let Me Go...so engaging and SO creepy!!

[Cass]

I really tried to get into The Girls of Slender Means, but just couldn't! And its so thin, too! You'd think I could muddle through...does anyone have any encouragement about this book? Maybe I just haven't hit the interesting parts yet?

[Becky]

Rabbit Run by John Updike - eh. I suspect the novel was shocking when it was first published. Depressing tale of a high school jock whose glory days are behind him. Life as a grown-up is nowhere near as fulfilling and he's just another guy in an unhappy marriage.

[Deanne]

The 13 clocks, very quick read.

[Jennifer W]

Cloudsplitter. Even though it took me several months to finish this books, I really enjoyed it. It was not what I had expected, but it made John Brown and his family so much more human.

[Judith]

Finished "The Enormous Room" by E.E. Cummings this weekend. Very much worth the time!

[Joselito Honestly]

Cass wrote: "I really tried to get into The Girls of Slender Means, but just couldn't! And its so thin, too! You'd think I could muddle through...does anyone have any encouragement about this book? Maybe I just..."

I've read and reviewed it. Muriel Spark is a good writer. Had lots of fun reading it. I think it got 4 or 5 stars from me.

[Jennifer W]

I finished The Sun Also Rises. It was just OK for me. I felt like nothing really happened. It makes me leery of reading his other books, especially since they may be much longer than this one.

[Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ]

On The Road by Jack Cerouac

love this book

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Rogers and I gave it 3 stars, very easy entertaining read.

[Becky]

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Wonderful characters lovingly and humorously depicted.

[P.]

GONZO'D!!! Guess which one I finished... Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream... yeah, you better believe it!

[Eva]

I just finished Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.

Not my favourite Austen-book so far.

I had been warned that I would probably be annoyed by Fanny Price, but I was actually more annoyed by Edmund...

[mark]

Hubert wrote: "Robert wrote: "Don DeLillo's "Libra" ."

How does it compare to White Noise?"

almost as good. but then i think White Noise is pretty much perfect. Libra certainly has more emotional content. delillo's postmodern effects and concerns are still very much in effect, but this is where his latent humanism started seeping through, which to me at least is a good thing, and helped lead him to his masterful epic Underworld. my favorite part of Libra is the surprisingly affecting death scene for oswald - not something i would expect from the cold-blooded author of Ratner's Star & Players.

[Joselito Honestly]

I think you're the topnotcher here Amanda. 200 1001 books?

[Joselito Honestly]

I just finished, and gave 5 stars to, Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated. Amazing how he treated the great themes of memory, love, loss, tragedy and humor in a style all his own.

[mark]

Amanda wrote: "The Plague by Albert Camus, for my 200th book! Woot! I feel a jig coming..aaaannnndd the feeling's gone. Ok, so I really enjoy Camus generally though I disagree with him philosophically on almost every point. But this wasn't my favorite- I preferred The Stranger. Here's my full review"

not really sure how i feel about your blog review. entertaining & enjoyable, definitely yes. a shallow assessment based entirely on an unashamedly subjective and very surface-level & visceral reaction to experiences you've never really been confronted by on any sort of deep or internal level....sadly, another yes. ah well. i guess what i often enjoy in blogs is the completely subjective point of view of the author when confronting the world's myriad issues, and your assessment clearly delivers in that regard. but personally, as someone who works with people living with terminal illnesses and also as someone who sees their fascinating & multi-faceted viewpoints reflected in challenging ways in works like The Plague, well...i'll just say that you are an engaging blog writer, there's no doubt about that. but depth in both creative writing AND critical writing is often attained by experience and a willingness to look through a lense darkly, so to speak. perhaps that will come in time. in my humble opinion, The Plague exists on many levels and confronts many things about the human experience, and your blog review seems to purposely ignore those virtues.

[jb]

I just finished Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.

[Brian]

Just finished When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

[Elise]

Amanda wrote: "Mark wrote: "Amanda wrote: "The Plague by Albert Camus, for my 200th book! Woot! I feel a jig coming..aaaannnndd the feeling's gone. Ok, so I really enjoy Camus generally though I di..."

To be fair, you did ask everyone to go read your review on your blog. Amanda is free to post her response. I guess it's also fair for you to post your response to her response. Carry on, everyone!

I just finished A Severed Head. Iris Murdoch is an author I probably never would have gotten into if not for the list, and there is something so compelling about her writing! You can't decide whether you want everyone to live happily ever after or die horrible deaths. She just sucks you in, relentlessly.

@Brian - Sadly, I don't think the great David Sedaris has made it onto the list. Does anyone have any suggestions for making it clear to all that this discussion is only for books on the Peter Boxall list?

[Elise]

Whoops, I get an F for careful reading--I thought Mark had posted a review and Amanda responded. Nothing to see here, folks, move along!

[Brian]

Elise wrote: "Amanda wrote: "Mark wrote: "Amanda wrote: "The Plague by Albert Camus, for my 200th book! Woot! I feel a jig coming..aaaannnndd the feeling's gone. Ok, so I really enjoy Camus genera..."

Sorry, definitely didn't realize that this was only about the list.

[mark]

Amanda wrote: "M...You can assume I don't "get" the book until kingdom comes- that's just the sort of literary snobbishness I'm trying to avoid on my blog.

you certainly have succeeded in that regard.

forgot to mention, congratulations on reaching your 200th list book. that is actually an amazing accomplishment, i'm genuinely envious. next up for me is The Siege of Krishnapur. i'm hopeful that it will be at least as good as A Passage to India or the novels of paul scott. but i have my doubts.

[Pam]

Joselito wrote: "I just finished, and gave 5 stars to, Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated. Amazing how he treated the great themes of memory, love, loss, tragedy and humor in a style all his own."

I loved that book. It took awhile to get into it but once I did I couldn't put it down.

[Pam]

The Monk by Matthew Lewis.

[Erik]

Emma by Jane Austen.

I love Jane Austen.

[Lauli]

The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. Talk about a heartbreak! I suffered so much reading this book! Steinbeck really got me to sympathise with his characters and understand their terrible plight. His writing is just exquisite, and the interchapters in the novel, which comment on the social situation parallel to the family's story, are almost poetic in scope. Gets 5 stars from me.

[Becky]

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - definitely chick lit - amusing but the social niceities become rather tiresome.

[Regine]

Pam wrote: "Joselito wrote: "I just finished, and gave 5 stars to, Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated. Amazing how he treated the great themes of memory, love, loss, tragedy and humor in a style ..."

It's on my to-read list. I've seen the movie and loved it... so I'm only assuming that book is going to be 10 times better.

[Helen]

I have just finished Half of a Yellow Sun .... it gave me an insight into a war I knew nothing about .... as well as a family story that held my interest ....... had a few tears as well.

Highly recommended ...

[Liz M]

Joselito wrote: "I think you're the topnotcher here Amanda. 200 1001 books?"

I think the person the furthest along is Deanne. She has read about 75% of the 2006 list.

[Erik]

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte.

She's better than Emily and, according to my friends, Charlotte.

[Deanne]

74% of the 2006 list, but finding it harder to find some of the list, some have gone out of print and that includes No5. However Leicester library have bought a couple of books from the list which I've asked for.
Just finished Camilla, probably too long with the path of true love definitely having it's ups and downs.
Reading a book off the list Rapscallion and planning where to go on my next day off.

[Kristi]

I just finished Cost: A Novel, a new edition to the list. I really don't know why it deserves to be on here.

[Lauli]

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. I liked The Burning Plain better, but this one is also quite powerful. It's very faulknerian at times, with a whole town peopled with ghosts reliving their past experiences. Interesting read.

[Linda]

Deanne wrote: "74% of the 2006 list, but finding it harder to find some of the list..."

Wow, Deanne, you're an inspiration! You give others hope that this goal is actually attainable!

Regarding being unable to find some of the books, etc.
I actually "cheated" - there are some titles that I know I have no intention of ever reading, or that I know were published in a foreign language and will be difficult to obtain in English - Meanwhile, there are books which I've read that I personally feel SHOULD have been on the list that aren't (see that thread), so I swapped a few titles out and replaced them with ones I've read and feel I deserve credit for reading.

So, the way I look at it the Book List isn't the Bible or anything, it's just a reference tool for me to use how it suits my needs.

I hoped I don't get stoned now....

[K.D.]

Just finished Iris Murdoch's Under the Net Some parts are engaging but overall, it seems fragmented.

[Joanne]

Like Helen I also just finished Half of a Yellow Sun. I seem to have read lots of books set in India lately so this African novel was a nice change. About I war I had no knowledge of, a beautiful, sad and touching story.

I'm now onto The Corrections - a definite change of pace, but also enjoyable. My sister hated this one - a sure sign I'll enjoy it.

[Helen]

I've just finished Thank You, Jeeves by PJ Wodehouse ... read it in two sittings and had three quite lengthy bursts of laughing out loud .... wonderful comic prose .... great fun!

[Joselito Honestly]

I agree. As a humorist, P.G. Wodehouse beats Kingsley Amis by a mile.

[Aileen]

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan.

Took me a couple of chapters to get into it, then I couldn't put it down. A very strange tale of obsession and how it affects not just the person being obsessed on. 8/10

[Elise]

Just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and I highly recommend it, though you should probably prepare by reading The Feast of the Goat first.

[Judith]

Pam wrote: "The Monk by Matthew Lewis."

"The Monk" is another that has been on my tbr shelf for a long time. I'm anxious to hear how anyone who has read it reacted. Let us know, Pam.

[Judith]

Elise wrote: "Just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and I highly recommend it, though you should probably prepare by reading The Feast of the Goat first."

I really thought highly of "The Feast of the Goat". I'll have to double my efforts to get a copy of "Oscar Wao". Glad to know of the connection.

[Judith]

Kristi wrote: "I just finished Cost: A Novel, a new edition to the list. I really don't know why it deserves to be on here."

Please tell us more about "Cost" when you're so inclined, Kristi.

[Judith]

Joselito wrote: "I agree. As a humorist, P.G. Wodehouse beats Kingsley Amis by a mile."

Wodehouse makes me laugh more, but "Lucky Jim" is quite a jewel. Amis' humor is dryer, more subtle. I think the Brits "get" Amis better than the outsiders, but it is pretty easy for everyone to "get" the humor of Wodehouse. He's really "out there" with it!

[Judith]

K.D. wrote: "The Panamanian PrincessK.D. Brogdon"

Not on the "1001 Books You Should Read Before You Die List[s}, is it?

[Judith]

Becky wrote: "Rabbit Run by John Updike - eh. I suspect the novel was shocking when it was first published. Depressing tale of a high school jock whose glory days are behind him. Life as a grown-up is nowhere..."

That's pretty much my take on Rabbit in the first in the series too, Becky. I still plan to read at least one more of Updike's Rabbit books to see if I get into them more. How about you?