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

Recently finished The Scarlet Letter. I liked it well enough.

Just finished Halldor Laxness' Independent People.... quite good..... and reading it while I toured Iceland was a help in appreciating it.

"Around the World in Eighty Days"

I don't love Jules Verne. I can see why he was so well-loved at the time and he was undoubtedly ground-breaking but he's also dated. I did take my time reading this, unlike "Journey to the Centre of the Earth". It made a positive difference. It was originally serialized and I found it more entertaining to read it a chapter at a time with breaks in between.

The Manila Rope ... a fast read. Ok stories last couple lost me a bit.

The Book of Evidence by John Banville

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. I preferred Howards End, the characters were more to my liking. But the message was important in A Passage, why two cultures conflict when their are misunderstandings and prejudices that cause these racial tensions.

Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer.

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Started off slow but excellent read

Finished Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner and loved it. A contender for book of 2014 for sure!

Allgenresbookworm wrote: "Finished The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and Yes by Thomas Bernhard.

I gave both five stars and added them as favorites."

Love Julian Barnes!

Finished Never Let Me Go a little while ago- really well written, definitely a page turner, but it was almost exactly like Remains of the Day in the way it was written- first person, slowly giving away little snippets of what had happened. I hope Ishiguro's other books offer more of a variety.

Just finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass. Not sure how it took me so long to get around to this! I enjoyed it, but it would have been so great to read as a kid.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.

This one is also a Man Booker Prize winner, and I found it really interesting and insightful beyond words.

The Sense of an Ending

Just finished Dracula by Bram Stoker. I really enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Excellent imagery and suspense.

I loved "Sense of an Ending" so much. It seems to be a real love it-hate it type of book. I do find that a lot of people who disliked it seemed to lack sympathy for the narrator. Whether or not one "likes" the narrator seems to be beside the point. It also seems increasingly to be a standard upon which readers, at least many American readers, judge their experience of a narrative form, be it a novel or a movie. It's not an invalid reaction but it is an almost completely emotional one and one that won't serve a reader well while attempting to read this list.

For example, I'm currently reading Tolstoi's "The Kreutzer Sonata", most of which is taken up by the rantings and musings of a man disenchanted by love, fatherhood, morality, and human life. It's enchanting writing and a very difficult feat to sustain and suspend a reader in a narrative that takes such a negative and, at times, almost insane view of pretty much everything. There are so many examples of this type of narrative or narrator that do work so well but lack an empathetic center and are worth a reader's time.

Give Julian Barnes your time. Try to pay attention to the quality of the writing and the questions confronted by the author and his characters without judging the characters. Reading in this way, I believe, can lead to a greater empathy in our lives outside of books.

Living by Henry Green (didn't like it as much as Loving) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (listened to Audible version with Elijah Wood - very good)

The Last Juror by John Grisham. Don't know why it's included in any version of the lists, but in case anyone hasn't read it, I enjoyed the heck out of it, & it was what I would classify as a "quick read", as it only took me a day & a half to finish.

Lisa wrote: "The Last Juror by John Grisham. Don't know why it's included in any version of the lists, but in case anyone hasn't read it, I enjoyed the heck out of it, & it was what I would classif..."

If it helps your thinking, it isn't on any of the lists.

Just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany. Wow, wow, wow. So good. The book is extra special to me since I grew up near the area where the book is set.

I kept having moments of deja vu and realized that I had seen a movie about this book. I never realized that the movie Simon Birch was based upon the book. The movie (which I saw a really long time ago) seemed to follow the beginning of A Prayer for Owen Meany, but the ending was quite different.

Just finished The Count of Monte Cristo Loved it!!!

I just completed Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Hope to read all of the rest of the list books by her as well as The Writer's Diary this summer.

I've just finished reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. Some parts of the religious exhortations were hard to read though.

War and Peace. I'll have to take a breather for a short while, because anything I read now will feel trivial compared to this!

Unless you have a crack at Ulysses. Anyone who says they have read Ulysses is fibbing

I read "Ulysses" for a literary modernism course in college with around thirty other people. It required patience an a bit of guidance but was far from impossible.

Jonpaul wrote: "I read "Ulysses" for a literary modernism course in college with around thirty other people. It required patience an a bit of guidance but was far from impossible."

I had to-read it,but in portuguese..I've read it in english,and that's a bit confusing..Me even enjoying reading in English, was very painful!

Just finished Samuel Butler's The Way of All Fleshand glad that that's over.

The Poisonwood Bible
Heartbreaking and brilliant.

Isn't this an incredible work. It really shows the disjuncture between Western efforts to "help" in Africa and the African perception of that help.

Is AJ Jacobs Know it All on the list?

Just finished The Cider House Rules by John Irving. Although I did enjoy this book immensely, I enjoyed A Prayer for Owen Meany more.

Recently finished Gone with the Wind. I loved it, and I was amazed at what an "easy read" it was for being such a lengthy book.

The Age of Innocence --

Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence is the story of an idealistic young man who finds that he is trapped by society's conventions (1870's N.Y upper crust). He marries not for love but because of convention. Although the beginning of the second book seemed to drag, it was still Wharton at her best. Wealth, Wharton shows that wealth has its own baggage particularly for the women. An empty-headed wife, I could not be.

Listened to Nineteen Seventy-Seven by David Peace. Because it's Book 2 in a four-part series, I read Nineteen Seventy-Four first. I think I missed out on some of the literary value of these books by listening to them. I had difficulty distinguishing between the voices of the main characters and had to re-listen to several parts. I'm still confused by the ending. Hopefully I'll know what happened when I read the next two. Violent sexuality/rape - extremely malecentric & hard to listen to at times.

I read The Nose by Gogol. Sort of funny, but so archaic! (Yes, I know, written a long time ago!) I'm also reading IQ84, which is probably going to take a while to finish. It's sort of slow going right now, and a fairly long book.

I just finished a re-read of "Giovanni's Room" by James Baldwin. Blown away all over again.

Lynecia wrote: "I just finished a re-read of "Giovanni's Room" by James Baldwin. Blown away all over again."

It's a powerful book indeed.

Diane wrote: "Just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany. Wow, wow, wow. So good. The book is extra special to me since I grew up near the area where the book is set.

I kept having moments of deja v..."

The movie had to settle for being "inspired by a book by John Irving" because he didn't want his book associated with it.

Just finished The History of Love by Nicole Krauss and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, both of which were stellar. Also just wrapped up 'The Killer Inside Me' by Jim Thompson, less than impressed, cNt believe how many 5 star reviews it has!

Just finished Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It is surprising that I liked the story since I did not like any of the characters.

Angelique wrote: "Just finished Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It is surprising that I liked the story since I did not like any of the characters."

One of my favourites of Bronte's sisters!

Finished "born to run" by Michael Morpugo :)!

Quicksand Short read, interesting but not my favorite.

Michael wrote: "Isn't this an incredible work. It really shows the disjuncture between Western efforts to "help" in Africa and the African perception of that help."

Exactly

The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights. This is the edition listed in the group, but I am not so sure this is the edition intended by Boxall. I think the true version would be thousands of pages longer. At 900+ pages, however, I am content with this version. A very enjoyable read.

Watchmen- I can appreciate it but I didn't love it.

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. Strong (and often humorous) beginning and great ending. The middle of the book, however, was a bit tedious.

I've just read a couple of short novels - the Hound of the Baskervilles, 13 Clocks. I enjoyed both. I also read and loved Metamorphosis by Kafka ( not on the 1001 list, but it deserves to be!) I would like to read more Kafka soon.

Katie wrote: "I've just read a couple of short novels - the Hound of the Baskervilles, 13 Clocks. I enjoyed both. I also read and loved Metamorphosis by Kafka ( not on the 1001 list, but it deserves to be!) I wo..."

I totally agree that Metamorphosis should be on the list.

Just finished The Return of the Native by Hardy. My first Thomas Hardy book and I wasn't disappointed. After suffering through the first 50 pages, I couldn't put it down.