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

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

Impressions of Africa by Raymond Roussel

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. This was my first book by her and I liked it more than I thought I would. She seems interesting author.

Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes

Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

A re-read of an old favorite, Margaret Atwood's Cat’s Eye.

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - 3* - My Review

Les Trois Mousquetaires by Alexandre Dumas

Locus Solus by Raymond Roussel

Last night I finished The Murder of Roger Ackroyd read by Richard Armitage on Audible. Absolutely fantastic!

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh.

The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh - 3.5* - My Review

The Red and the Black by Stendhal.

The Manor by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol - 4* - My Review

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit by John Lyly. This was painful to read.

American Rust - poignant

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk.
An interesting book from a psychological perspective and I am somewhat of a loss as how to rate it. I couldn’t decide whether I loved or hated it, probably both.

Treasure Island It was fun, but not sure it needs to be on the list.

Mia wrote: "Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit by John Lyly. This was painful to read."

Totally agree, I nearly gave up several times.

Like Jennifer, I just read another Robert Louis Stevenson book that I don't think should be on the list, The Master of Ballantrae. Very unfocused and confusing.

His best book by far is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror

I read Euphues in graduate school. Not a fun read, but a landmark in artistic prose in English: it may have had novelty value, transferring Latin rhetorical figures into English in a big way. The literary movement it inspired is known as Euphuism. Moderate examples, serving as purple passages in plainer prose, can be entertaining, if you like Elizabethan literature beyond Shakespeare.

The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell. The ninth book in A Dance to the Music of Time serie.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-Douglas Adams

Kafka On The Shore by Murakami - a wonderfully creative, interesting story.

I finally read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.. On a Vonnegut kick now--wish I'd started much sooner.

Jess wrote: "Like Jennifer, I just read another Robert Louis Stevenson book that I don't think should be on the list, The Master of Ballantrae. Very unfocused and confusing.

His ..."

I really enjoyed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I wasn't expecting the same level of nuance and deep questions in Treasure Island, but if I didn't know, I wouldn't have said that both books were written by the same person.

Read the short story The Yellow Wall-Paper. Really well portrayed descent into madness.

I just finished re-reading this book and it stands up to the test of time:

Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally - 4+* - My Review

Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton

Finished:
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante - 3* - My Review

The Quiet American by Graham Greene.

Finished:

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño - 3* - My Review - Admired it more than enjoyed it

Falling Man by Don DeLillo
An interesting read but not an unqualified success IMHO.

The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett

Rosshalde by Hermann Hesse

The Black Prince

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

Platero and I by Juan Ramón Jiménez
The author through poetic prose muses about his life, his home, and those around him to his donkey, Platero.

I finished my re-read of a classic anti-war novel


Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Trainspotting - took a while to find a reading rhythm with this one.

The Line of Beauty

The Hours

Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes

Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood. Not my favorite Atwood.

Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Long but definitely worth it.

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao - I loved it, great authorial voice