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

Inho by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Most recently finished Schindler’s List on audio. Fabulous, devastating, gut-wrenching, there are not enough adjectives to ascribe to this book.

Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett.

Finished:
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides - 3* - My Review

Memoirs of My Nervous Illness by Daniel Paul Schreber. It's sad that this is a true depiction of a real person's life. At the same time it is fascinating to see into the inner workings of this individual's thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. This memoir is filled with the writer's hallucinations, delusions (including delusions of grandeur), misconceptions, misunderstandings, and loss of reason. He has made up words, phrases, and definitions (e.g. Order of the World, nerves of voluptuousness, miracles, unmanning) that apparently mean something to him but not to others. I'm entirely surprised that he was released and allowed to manage his own affairs after what I read. The only way much of this would have made sense was if it had been a fiction written about a make believe character immersed in a tragicomic life.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride - 2* - My Review

Strait is the Gate by André Gide

Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Wolfe's writing is dazzling at times and his dialogue is fantastic. There are several funny scenes, particularly towards the end, with one in a restaurant being absolutely brilliant.

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

Indigo by Marina Warner

Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy.

The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. What superb storytelling.

The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe

Ulysses by James Joyce

White Noise by Don DeLillo

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.

The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe

Rabbit is Rich by John Updike.
Overall this was my least favourite book in the series thus far but will be looking to finish it off at some point.

I've just finished The Reader by Bernhard Schlink and I enjoyed it tremendously. It's such a powerful, well written book. I highly recommend it!

The Ambassadors by Henry James

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke

The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell.

Finished:
Baltasar and Blimunda by José Saramago - 4* - My Review

The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez

What Maisie Knew
I have a complicated relationship with Henry James. I find him brilliant, but sometimes inscrutable, and I couldn't say if I like or dislike his books!

Solitude: A Novel of Catalonia by Víctor Català

Life and Times of Michael K by J.M.Coetzee
On the whole I enjoyed the sparse nature of the writing but Coetzee's sudden decision to ask a moral question right at the end seemed out of place, a little puzzling and rather let down what had come before.

I finished my re-read of the Cold War espionage classic


The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Finished:
Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson - 4* - My Review

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
I love reading Ishiguro's words.

The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch.

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.

Finished Giovanni’s Room. What brilliant writing!

La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas.

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

The Soldier's Art by Anthony Powell.

Gargantua & Pantagruel by François Rabelais

A few weeks ago I finished Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan. The most remarkable thing about this interesting story is that Sagan was still a teenager when she wrote it.

Aubrey wrote: "The Leopard; that did not go well at all."
It seemed very unemotional to me, which would cause it to bore many people I think.

I finished Journey to the Alcarria , which I absolutely loved! 5* I also read Coming up for Air, which I enjoyed - the ironic humour was great fun and made me chuckle aloud.

Ann A wrote: "What Maisie Knew
I have a complicated relationship with Henry James. I find him brilliant, but sometimes inscrutable, and I couldn't say if I like or dislike his books!"
I found this one a bit ponderous and turgid. It was like James was deliberately making things difficult - drown a simple story with lots of words!

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde