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

Colleen wrote: "Finished Infinite Jest and loved it!"

I love this book. People are so intimidated by the length but it's so fun, funny, and sad.

Starburn wrote: "Just finished A Gate at the Stairs it was fine. I never wanted to stop, but some of the turns it takes are so out of left field and forced. The author seemed to be saying I want to t..."

Agreed. Her short fiction is much better. This was a disappointing novel after a certain point.

Just finished Whatever I expected the book to become comedic as I was beginning it...but it veered off into Seinfeld territory....almost about nothing. Then when things turned darker... I was getting turned off. By the end, my aversion grew into, well not sympathy...but empathy. It reminded me of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar... but oh so more empty.
I did appreciate the austere style.... so different than another book I'm currently reading (1Q84).

Finished Fifth Business, not 5 stars, but very good.

My review.

Just finished The Corrections. Not sure how I feel about it. Still digesting, I guess.

Sula by Morrison

Sula

I felt conflicted about Morrison's Beloved, and I have the same reaction to Sula.

Just finished The Secret History. It's good, but I thought it was just a bit too long. Or maybe my attention span is a little too short right now? Don't know.

The Shining by Steven King.

Judith wrote: "Sula by Morrison

Sula

I felt conflicted about Morrison's Beloved, and I have the same reaction to Sula."

I haven't read either of them. Why do you feel conflicted about them?

Just finished The English Patient. Meh.

Starburn wrote: "Just finished A Gate at the Stairs it was fine. I never wanted to stop, but some of the turns it takes are so out of left field and forced. The author seemed to be saying I want to t..."

I just finished this yesterday and feel exactly the same way. The narrator was engaging, but totally unbelievable. Very little about the book felt plausible. It didn't necessarily need to be, but the narrator was also not believable enough as a character to make me interested. It was like eating Twinkies or something. It was enjoyable at the time and there were some good turns of phrase, but I felt guilty and gross at the end because I had enjoyed parts of it. This was a total lightweight entry on the list and I don't understand why it was there at all. Oh well, another one off the list .

Robyn wrote: "Just finished Oliver Twist. It's my second book by Dickens, and I look forward to reading more."

Dickens are on my top writers of all time..

Just finished Bleak House. With so many characters to keep track of in the beginning, I loved how everything came together at the end with no loose ends. I rated it 5 stars.

Linda wrote: "Just finished Bleak House. With so many characters to keep track of in the beginning, I loved how everything came together at the end with no loose ends. I rated it 5 stars."

One of my favourite books.

Finished Under the Volcano and I won't lie, it was a bit of a slog. My review is here

I finished Disgrace on audiobook. I don't see why it made the list. It is average 3*.

I finished The Summer Book. It was pretty different from a "normal" book. There's really no plot. It's a series of vignettes.

Finger smith by Sarah Waters. I really enjoyed it

La Bas (Down There) by Huysmans

A difficult subject, at best, but Huysmans was such a scholar and wordsmith that it has redeeming qualities.

La-Bas

Finished The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore

Recently disposed of Melmoth the Wanderer which is, you know, Gothic horror. It's nice to go back to the time where villains were villains, passions were passions, demonic possession was terrifying and making people faint, and humanity was a lot less corruptible.

Finished A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess this morning. I liked it a lot more than I thought I was.

Becky wrote: "Finger smith by Sarah Waters. I really enjoyed it"

Did you read other book by Sarah Waters? I just finished tripping the velvelt, and I heard that Finger smith is better.

Tolstoy's War and Peace. It took me seven months to complete and I now feel a little empty without it. I thought it would be a chore to read, but enjoyed it so much. 5/5

Aileen wrote: "Tolstoy's War and Peace. It took me seven months to complete and I now feel a little empty without it. I thought it would be a chore to read, but enjoyed it so much. 5/5"


Such a tremendous book..

Karina, I loved A Clockwork Orange too! When I first read it, I almost gave it up because of the slangs in the book, but I decided to keep going!

Smilla's Sense of Snow - a very different read for me, I found it fascinating at first, but found the heroine more interesting than the thriller/mystery part of the plot!

Just finished The Bell Jar and liked it much more than I thought I would. It's immensely readable, dark yes, but it hit me harder than I expected.

Finished Giovanni's Room. It was okay, I guess. I didn't see in it whatever other people saw in it.

Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda
3 stars (generously)- Such a long story and no payoff. I really didn't feel much connection with any of the characters. I felt myself confused often and drifting often. It reminded me at times of my other recent disappointing read "The Way of All Flesh". I saw so many opportunities to inject some humor into some pretty bizarre scenarios...but that never happened. All the characters are miserable...and apparently beyond salvation (religious or otherwise.)

Finished Le Petit Prince in one sitting last night. What a wonderfully heart-warming fairy story. Wish I'd read it a long time ago.

The Poisonwood Bible
I really enjoyed it. Very thought provoking.

Herzog by Saul Bellow

I just finished "The Picture of Dorian Grey." I loved it. Disturbing but intriguing. What an amazing look at good and evil, youth and age, and just the philosophy of life and sin.

Finished Camilla awhile back. The last half made up for the first half, two fold. Took me 8 months though, on and off.

Finished Perfume: The Story of a Murderer last night. Short quick read. The ending took a couple of unexpected turns. Some parts of the book were indeed very creepy and what I was expecting, and some parts of the book had me thinking "what the heck?!"

Finished The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
Review here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. It is the second book by Greene I've read recently, (the other was The Human Factor) and I have decided he is too depressing for me. I might try one of this espionage novels later... Someone please tell me The Quiet American or Our Man in Havana won't put me off reading for a week because I'm so sad.

Finished The Ghost Road. It is the third of a trilogy, but stands alone quite well.

Just finished Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head...strange but compelling and excellently written.

Just finished The Swimming Pool Library.

Christine wrote: "The Poisonwood Bible
I really enjoyed it. Very thought provoking."

I really liked this book also. It was interesting to watch the sisters personalities develop over time and how that influenced their life choices.

Just finished Naked Lunch, Slaughterhouse 5 and The Color Purple (re-read). I've really got to get The Trial finished - it's a bit grim so I'm finding it difficult to be in the right frame of mind. Still, one good push should do it.

Erin wrote: "I just finished The End of the Affair by Graham Greene. It is the second book by Greene I've read recently, (the other was The Human Factor) and I have deci..."

Can't tell you about Havanna but The Quiet American shouldn't be too bad.

David wrote: "Finished Le Petit Prince in one sitting last night. What a wonderfully heart-warming fairy story. Wish I'd read it a long time ago."

Out of interest which translation did you read?

Nicola wrote: "Out of interest which translation did you read? "

I didn't. I read it in French, so can't help you there.

Just finished The Vicar of Wakefield. Quick read. Nothing amazing but glad to know I read a book that my favorite authors enjoyed.

Just finished The Heretic: A Novel of the Inquisition by Miguel Delibes, a gem of a historical fiction novel that I never would have found without the List. Maybe it's a little TOO in-depth on all the details for some - the dull economic ones as well as the more gruesome ones we might expect from something set in the Spanish Inquisition. But I learned so much!

a couple of days ago i finished The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I enjoyed the different portrayals(theme) of love in this book.

Finally finished The Trial and added a review for it here and on my 1001 blog. Quite a short book really but difficult for me to get through in parts.