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

Finished Stephen Foster Wallace's Infinte Jest...my review:
Finally finished this monster...and feel very conflicted about it. The book read like a combination of Tristram Shandy, Fahrenheit 451 and Clockwork Orange on drugs...lots of drugs! I was blown away by the first 500 pages or so.... but then it became tedious work. Yet, even though there is no real conclusion to the murky story, I think that's the point. Life is a hot mess! I don't think there is one happy character in the work. Every character has his own set of problems.... and almost everyone is trying to escape reality by either drugs.... or the mysteriously addictive and elusive cartridge. I can only give it three stars because I really couldn't enjoy the last half..... but I don't think I will ever forget the read either.

Last night I finished Heart of Darkness It was good enough. Wish there had been more interactions between Kurtz and Marlow.

Finished Il cavaliere inesistente, another part of Our Ancestors: The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, The Non-Existent Knight.

Just finished

Just finished Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. Amazing how people can screw up their lives. At least the cat made out in the end!

Just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Though I enjoyed The Remains of the Day better, still a very good book and just as melancholy.

Summer, by Edith Wharton. Short and good, but not as good as the couple of longer works I've read so far.

Karina wrote: "Just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Though I enjoyed The Remains of the Day better, still a very good book and just as melancholy."

Looking forward to reading this too, from reading those 2 books by Ishiguro would you want to read anything else by him? I loved Remains of the day and will read Never let me go soon.

Just finished Zola's "Therese Raquin"....which was excellent.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. Another little gem that I would never have unearthed without the 1001 list to guide me.

Midnight's Children -Salman Rushdie. VG. I highly recommend.

Mary Barton. Although not my favourite book I will miss cosying up with this of an evening. 4 stars.

Finished Michael Kohlhaas.

Albert Camus, The Stranger
For all the talk about existentialism I found my introduction to Camus slightly disappointing. We get no real insight into why the main character behaves as he does and I thought it was quite light-weight the way it was written. Also a disappointing ending.

Finished The Lambs of London.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. My first 'Paula-Nick'!

Also finished today: Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.

And The Pleasant History of Thomas of Reading by Thomas Delaney. My review has a link to read this one for free online.

Just finished King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard.

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee; review here.

Just finished A Farewell to Arms - Hemmingway

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Finished The left-handed Woman by Peter Handke.

White Tiger by Arvind Adiga

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I enjoyed reading the book, I gave it 4★

A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy. 3 stars.

Just finished Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.... 5 stars.

Finished Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov; review here.

The Bonfire of the Vanities meh.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Excellent short story on the list. If anyone wants to put a quick notch on their bookshelf, I highly recommend this one. It's available for free download at the Kindle store.

Man Of Feeling. Meh.

Colleen wrote: "Man Of Feeling. Meh."

No one should ever have to read this book ever.

The Judge and His Hangman by Durrenmatt. Short and very interesting.

Just finished The Time Machine - another short but packed book.

I've been a slack reader lately - it took me almost a month to read Cold Comfort Farm! That said, I quite enjoyed it and have been reinvigorated - already racing through The Line of Beauty.

Yrinsyde wrote: "I recently finished Portnoy's Complaint. Care to read someone's personal rant about his sex life anyone?"

One Philip Roth has been enough to turn me off for life. Why do you do this to me Peter Boxall and Co?!?!

I read The Scarlet Letter. A true classic!

Danyellemastro wrote: "Yrinsyde wrote: "I recently finished Portnoy's Complaint. Care to read someone's personal rant about his sex life anyone?"

One Philip Roth has been enough to turn me off for life. Why do you do t..."

I was surprised by how popular this book was also, I guess it was shocking for its time, especially when considering it was a kid from a Jewish family writing like that?

I finished The Hours today. I read Mrs. Dalloway for the first time right before I read The Hours, since Virginia Woolf's story is so intrinsically tied in to this one, which I think was a good idea, though I could see myself appreciating Cunningham's work even without reading Woolf first. I enjoyed both books tremendously. 4 stars for Mrs. Dalloway, 5 for The Hours.

I finished Pride and Prejudice last night. Loved this so much more than Sense and Sensibility, which is the only other Austen I've read so far.

I just finished my 100th book (chronologically) on my blog http://1001everything.blogspot.com. Very excited.

War and Peace. Officially my 100th read from the core list.

Nicole wrote: "War and Peace"

Man I loved that baby, history on top of a great story on top of great writing! I should reread that ginormous baby.

Steve wrote: "Nicole wrote: "War and Peace"

Man I loved that baby, history on top of a great story on top of great writing! I should reread that ginormous baby."

It was a much better read than I expected. But definitely a project!

Gabriel Garcia Marquez' "No One Writes to the Colonel".

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark; review here.

Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane - 5 stars (and a quick read!)