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

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message 4451: by Deanne (new)

Deanne | 681 comments Finished Buddenbrooks, it didn't grip me but I did come to care for some members of the family, and disliked others.


message 4453: by Shovelmonkey1 (new)

Shovelmonkey1 | 190 comments Finished Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and loved it. I would definitely read this one again and recommend it to 1001 book readers as a quick but absorbing short novella (and therefore an easy one to tick off the list as well as being a pleasure to discover)


message 4454: by Sarah (new)

Sarah (mollygr) Recently finished A Passage to India. It was ok, I didn't think it was anything really special though. A lot of these books I am just not really getting the point of.


message 4455: by Judith (new)

Judith (jloucks) | 1202 comments A re-read of "A Room with a View" - loved it more the second time.


message 4457: by David (last edited May 29, 2011 10:37PM) (new)

David (boototter) | 12 comments Buddenbrooks / The decline of a family by Thomas Mann
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97...



Not often when I have seen a film first, thus knowing the plot, I so much enjoyed a book. The 2008 film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1058601/ was very much criticized for it's filmic values, but follows the book strictly enough to give you an 'aha-Erlebnis' each and every time.
My initial fears the book would take me ages to read, proved unfounded. Such a rich language, such deep and refined, sometimes humorous descriptions of snobbism, moods, fears, against a world politically and economic rapidly changing, drove me from chapter to chapter, part to part.
Yes, I needed a dictionary frequently, sometimes even wikipedia to understand the meaning of outdated words, the impact of economic and political changes, the value of the currency to understand the capital mentioned.
I felt those pauses and sidesteps as en enrichment. Some of the funny descriptions on the use of different kinds of German will get lost in translations I suppose, but that won't matter.
This book is a MUST-read indeed, high in the list.


message 4458: by Anand (new)

Anand Bongir (abongir) Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse


message 4459: by Shovelmonkey1 (new)

Shovelmonkey1 | 190 comments Finished The Lambs of London and liked it a lot better than The House of Dr Dee, also by Peter Ackroyd. Here's my review for anyone who's interested in my ramblings!
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...


message 4460: by Deanne (new)

Deanne | 681 comments Finished Oblomov last night and really enjoyed it.


message 4461: by laut (new)

laut | 28 comments I didn't really finish Dining on Stones, more gave up on it. It really seemed like the author cared more about being clever than interesting the reader.


message 4462: by Jeffrey (new)

Jeffrey (jeff_nardecchia) The Kings Speech.


message 4463: by Shovelmonkey1 (new)

Shovelmonkey1 | 190 comments Finished The Child in Time by Ian McEwan last night because I had trouble sleeping. Not a massive fan of this book to be honest. Just a little bit pointless.


message 4464: by Liz (new)

Liz   (lizvegas) | 25 comments The Secret History. I loved, loved, loved it!


message 4465: by Shovelmonkey1 (new)

Shovelmonkey1 | 190 comments Liz Vegas wrote: "The Secret History. I loved, loved, loved it!"

This was a book I chose to take away with me for a long spell of work abroad last year and I loved it too! I was very pleased with my choice and thought it was a great read ( was much less pleased with What a Carve up by Jonathan Coe which I also took with me and can only summarise (in polite company) as being pants!)


message 4466: by Charity (new)

Charity (charityross) Jeffrey wrote: "The Kings Speech."

Not a list book, sorry.


message 4467: by Mike (new)

Mike | 78 comments I just finished The Brothers Karamazov. Not for me. It was really a tedious book to read. It took some skimming to get through it.


message 4468: by laut (new)

laut | 28 comments I've finally managed to finish Moby-Dick! I found I couldn't focus on it for too long at any one time, so it's taken forever.

I did really enjoy it though.


message 4469: by Philip (new)

Philip Lane | 21 comments Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson. Yes, really, all NINE volumes. Took me 3 months. It WAS worth it despite some turgid bits in the first few volumes. Overall a deserved classic.


message 4470: by Deanne (new)

Deanne | 681 comments Finished Rasselas by Johnson, getting together a list of books for my two weeks off work.


message 4471: by Shovelmonkey1 (new)

Shovelmonkey1 | 190 comments Today I finished Invisible by Paul Auster. Another very enjoyable (if slightly more inconclusively pointless) read than the last few Austers. The The Music of Chanceis still my favourite though!


message 4472: by Mikela (last edited Jun 02, 2011 03:10PM) (new)

Mikela | 378 comments Just finished Fingersmith. This book just did not grab me although it was really well written. Sarah Waters captured the flavor of the Victorian novel and made her characters seem real and likeable, not despite their flaws but perhaps because of them. The ending was just a little too predictable in the mode of a Harlequin Romance with a lesbian twist.


message 4473: by Haley (last edited Jun 03, 2011 07:26AM) (new)

Haley (haley_hemen) | 9 comments Just finished The Princess of Cleves. I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed it once I got into it.


message 4474: by Tom (new)

Tom Name of the Rose gets kicked to the curb! False advertising. I thought it was a book about rose husbandry. The only mention of roses I noticed was on a decorative box description and none of the monks named any of them.


message 4475: by Shovelmonkey1 (new)

Shovelmonkey1 | 190 comments Finished Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with mixed feelings. This will be on the shelf marked, things that make you go hmmmm.


message 4476: by [deleted user] (new)

La Liseuse wrote: "Adam Bede by George Eliot"

Loved that book. I enjoyed it so much.


message 4477: by [deleted user] (new)

Mikela wrote: "Just finished Fingersmith. This book just did not grab me although it was really well written. Sarah Waters captured the flavor of the Victorian novel and made her characters seem real..."

Oh Mikela, I loved that book. I read it three years ago and fell in love with her writing.


message 4478: by [deleted user] (new)

I just finished Wuthering Heights and LOVED IT. There were so many emotions though packed into one book that I have to read something light now.


message 4479: by [deleted user] (last edited Jun 03, 2011 12:53PM) (new)


message 4480: by Grada (BoekenTrol) (new)

Grada (BoekenTrol) (boekentrol) | 60 comments I finished The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan recently. Liked it a lot, although it is quite dark.

Now I'm reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn another gloomy book. Enjoying the read nonetheless...


message 4481: by Summer (new)

Summer (summerskyes) I just finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray" as well


message 4482: by Lianne (new)

Lianne (eclecticreading) The last book I finished reading from the list was Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Française. Wonderful book, it's a pity she wasn't able to finish the rest of it.


message 4483: by Mikela (new)

Mikela | 378 comments Sonia, I know that I am very much in the minority with my view of Fingersmith but it just wasn't a book that appealled greatly to me. I do agree that she is a very good writer.


message 4484: by Mark (new)

Mark Graham | 1 comments Death and a Penguin - Andre Kurkov


message 4485: by Maggie (new)

Maggie (mmorrell) | 25 comments The Book Thief

I really liked it!


message 4486: by Charity (new)

Charity (charityross) Mark wrote: "Death and a Penguin - Andre Kurkov"

Not a list book. Sorry.


message 4487: by Charity (new)

Charity (charityross) Maggie wrote: "The Book Thief

I really liked it!"


Not a list book. Sorry.


message 4488: by Sarah (new)

Sarah (mollygr) I just finished Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. I still feel the episode of Doctor Who he "recycled" some of the plot from was better, but that was a bit-more Who-centered, while this was told from the point of view of a random person that got involved for one story. Interesting and very funny though.


message 4489: by Jennifer W (new)

Jennifer W | 251 comments Orlando by Virginia Woolf. It was good, but I liked Mrs. Dalloway better.


message 4490: by M (new)

M (masanobu) | 110 comments If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. It is PERFECT. You honestly shouldn't die before reading this book or at least its first chapter!


message 4491: by Heather (new)

Heather (heathera77) | 11 comments I've just recently finished Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Although it's quite short I found it slow to get going so it took me a while to read it. However it was definitely interesting and worth reading.


message 4492: by laut (new)

laut | 28 comments Masanobu wrote: "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. It is PERFECT. You honestly shouldn't die before reading this book or at least its first chapter!"

I'm not sure that I'd enthuse about If on a Winter's Night that much, but I definitely enjoyed it. It's always good when the list gives you a gem of a book though, isn't it?

I just finished Les Enfants Terrible. I'm really not sure what to make of it at all.. it was very strange!


message 4493: by Judith (new)

Judith (jloucks) | 1202 comments I finished Billy Budd, Foretopman by Herman Melville.

So very sad, but worth it!


message 4494: by Judith (last edited Jun 07, 2011 09:27AM) (new)

Judith (jloucks) | 1202 comments Sarah wrote: "I just finished Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. I still feel the episode of Doctor Who he "recycled" some of the plot from was better, but that was a bit-more Who-centered..."

My husband and I read this one aloud to each other once when on a leisurely vacation. We doubled over with laughter a number of times. I think it is Adam's funniest book.


message 4495: by Judith (new)

Judith (jloucks) | 1202 comments Boekenwurm wrote: "I finished The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan recently. Liked it a lot, although it is quite dark.

Now I'm reading One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by ..."


This one is a masterpiece!


message 4496: by Leonard (new)

Leonard (leonardseet) | 24 comments Judith wrote: "Boekenwurm wrote: "I finished The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan recently. Liked it a lot, although it is quite dark.

Now I'm reading [book:One Day in the Life of Ivan Den..."


One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is an excellent book, humor in the middle of suffering.


message 4497: by Cindy (new)

Cindy (newtomato) | 195 comments Judith wrote: "I finished Billy Budd, Foretopman by Herman Melville.

So very sad, but worth it!"


This is probably going to sound crazy, but I had no idea Billy Budd was a book! I've only seen & heard the Benjamin Britten opera of the same name. Clearly I must not have read the playbill.


message 4498: by Maggie (new)

Maggie (mmorrell) | 25 comments I just finished The Trial by Kafka.

I liked it much more than I thought I would.


message 4499: by [deleted user] (new)

I just finished Love in Excess. It was very over the top so there was like no characterization. It was really junky which was enjoyable.


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