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

Just did a quick cram for the end of the year, completed:
The Wasp Factory
Evelina
Metamorphoses
Adam BedeHowards End
Martin Chuzzlewit
The River Between
Oliver Twist
Franny and Zooey
Walden
2001: A Space Odyssey
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Thin Man
Agnes Grey
WHEW. Least favorite: The Thin Man, Contenders for favorite: Wasp Factory, Evelina, Adam Bede, The River Between, Franny and Zooey

Pepita Jiménez by Juan Valera

I finished out 2022 with Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. Wonderful!

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle was my first book finished in 2023!

Backwater by Dorothy M. Richardson.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun

So much misery . . . so hard to read about.

Just Finished Crime and Punishment

Hyperion / Empedokles by Friedrich Hölderlin

The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard. An experimental novel that was dropped from the 1001 List after the 1st edition. 2 stars for me- didn't get much out of it.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. The combination of a nonlinear timeline and a large cast of characters made this one a slow start for me, but it was ultimately a rewarding read. 5 stars for me.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.

On Worstward Ho, I found this blog post quite helpful as pre-reading: https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2021...

Once I started thinking of it as an experiment in minimizing the minimal, I enjoyed it though it still made my brain hurt. But I was intrigued to see how bare Beckett could really strip language, how close to nothing can it go and still exist.

No matter how close he gets, he can't get there! After all, things are never the worst (you aren't fully 'worstward') if you yet have words to say they are the worst. They are in fact only just worse. :)

Alice wrote: "Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett

I don't think I'm smart enough for books like this."

Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid

The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy.
For anyone else tackling this book, the Modern Library edition features an excellent introduction by Doris Lessing (though I read it afterwards).

Bonjour tristesse by Françoise Sagan.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss - 4* - My Review

started 2023 with A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne
Goal this year is to work on the first 100 books in the combined lists - I've read about 30 of that group already.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor - 3* - My Review

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

Cataract by Mykhaylo Osadchy.

Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

The Circle by Dave Eggers
An excellent novel!
This is a good pick for the 2023 Scavenger Hunt #7 (can be classified as genre fiction -- SF).

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
quick read!

The Man of Feeling by Henry MacKenzie

I commute and enjoy some books on Audible. I chose the Penguin classic of The Picture of Dorian Gray read by Ben Barnes. Wow! Why did I wait so long? Wilde is brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories by Flannery O'Connor

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

What a fabulous book! Five stars!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym. This was odd, but I loved it, and understand why it made the list.

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky - 5* - My Review

I finished translated by Donald Keene. Do yourself a favor and read this. It's a great read! This book is #6 on Boxall's list.

I finished The Hobbit by Tolkien. . The Hobbit is #476 on Boxall's list.

Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Dead Air by Iain Banks. Enjoyable at times but also a bit vacuous.

Finished --

Our Ancestors: The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, The Non-Existent Knight) by Italo Calvino

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery -- Absolutely love this book!

The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing

The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez

Finished The Immoralist by André Gide

Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburō Ōe.

I finished ... just okay for me, although I appreciate Fitzgerald's ability to "paint a scene."

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Wise Children by Angela Carter

I have read "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien about 5 times, and when I used to teach memoir classes I used that as a gorgeous example of the truth of memory - how it changes based on our experiences and perceptions and what we can bear to remember. A beautifully written book!!