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

just finished Iris Murdoch's "The Bell"...5 stars.

Finished Kidnapped, which was a good deal of fun, and A Handful of Dust which was great until the end, and then became exceptionally weird.

The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil - starts off rather stream-of-conscious-y, but ends up being quite gripping in uncomfortable ways. 4*s

The house of mirth. Not my cup of tea.

The Secret Agent and Nostromo -Conrad,
Babbitt -Lewis,
Bouvard and Pecuchet -Flaubert,
Siddhartha -Hesse,
Vile Bodies -Waugh,
Sons and Lovers -Lawrence,
Their Eyes Were Watching God -Hurston,
Miss Lonelyhearts -West.

All quite good!

Ballard - The Drowned World

I finished The Art of Fielding today and have to say I really enjoyed it. It was so engrossing that I plowed through the 500+ pages in less than a week. I know the reviews of this one are kind of split, but for me it was worth it and very deserving of it's spot on the 2012 list.

Finished DuMaurier's "Rebecca" which was excellent.

The War of the Worlds by Wells. The more I read Wells and Verne the more I realize they were ahead of their time.

I finished Brave New World. Well-written, but disturbing.

I just finished

I finished rereading Bellow's "Seize the Day" last night. It struck me as more manic than it did the first time through.

Seize the Day

just finished
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg, I am pretty surprised this is on the list, but then I guess you have to look at it in its time, which would have been blasphemous.

Eugenie Grandet by Balzac. Adored it :)

Finished The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The House of Doctor Dee by Peter Ackroyd. Mixed feelings at the moment, so 3/5.

Finished listening to testament of mary by Toibin, very interesting and well written.

And finished reading Flauberts Parrot by Julian Barnes he is awwwwwsum.

Read "The Sense of an Ending" if you liked "Flaubert's Parrot". It's one of the best novels I've ever read.

I just finished "The Namesake", which I loved for the first two thirds of the book and found tepid and uninspired, if still well-written, during the last third.

I just finished reading The Testament of Mary too and loved it - but it isn't on any of the lists, right?

Testament of Mary isn't on any of the lists.

Finished Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. There were several things I enjoyed about it (especially some of the political views) but also some things (e.g. how it was structured) that really annoyed me.

Jonpaul wrote: "Read "The Sense of an Ending" if you liked "Flaubert's Parrot". It's one of the best novels I've ever read.

I just finished "The Namesake", which I loved for the first two thirds of the book and ..."

completely agree Jonpaul, sense of an ending is one of my new favorites:)

Christina Stind wrote: "I just finished reading The Testament of Mary too and loved it - but it isn't on any of the lists, right?"

Yes, I didnt realize it till later, somehow I thought for sure it was? I dont care this book should be and was fantastic, I guess i need to read the master now!

Finished In Search of Lost Time. Phew.

Aubrey wrote: "Finished In Search of Lost Time. Phew."

congratulations!

Just finished Howards End. I think I enjoyed this book better than A Room With A View and A Passage to India.

Just finished The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and really enjoyed it.

The Shining by Stephen King

About 40 mins from finishing the body artist

Just finished A Christmas Carol. Great short read to get into the holiday season.

Congrats Aubrey!

Just finished Pnin. Excellent!

Vertigo by Sebald. I loved it although found the style initially hard to get into. Once I chilled out and let it wash over me I found it addictive!

The Secret History. Excellent storytelling

Finished both Rebecca and To Kill a Mockingbird this week. I loved them both and am kicking myself for waiting so long to read them.

FINNEGAN'S WAKE!!!!!

Sorry. I just HAD to shout about it. It felt crazy to begin with, and crazy during, but now I feel like James Cameron.

Wow. We had one read In Search of Lost Time and another read Finnegans Wake! I feel like a slacker.

Congratulations, Stephanie! That's quite the accomplishment.

I finished To Have and Have Not today. Not my favorite Hemingway, but a good, quick read. And it was my 200th read off of the combined lists. Nice to get that out of the way before the end of the year.

Hello all, I only started the 1001 books thing (I'm using the 2012 edition) this year so I'm new to the group and probably miles behind everyone else!

I've just finished 'On the Road' and it was ok I guess. It didn't bore me but I didn't feel especially excited by it either. I probably would have liked it more if I had read it when I was a teenager :).

Things Fall Apart - brilliant and quick read. Five stars :)

Kat wrote: "Hello all, I only started the 1001 books thing (I'm using the 2012 edition) this year so I'm new to the group and probably miles behind everyone else!

I've just finished 'On the Road' and it was ..."

I didn't think much of On the Road either, but don't worry that's lots of good books on the list! :)

Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" 2 stars.
My review:As a retired Union Rep., I should have liked this expose of capitalism and its excesses..... but after a promising opening scene....the book continually deteriorates and ends in a totally simplistic and childish argument on behalf of socialism. Sinclair of course does a great job exposing the disgusting practices at the Chicago slaughtering and meat-packing plants... and then follows a family that has one tragedy after another. No subtlety, no sense of humor (even if dark humor), just bummer after bummer.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

FINALLY finished The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, after giving up on it a couple times and finally being stubborn enough to finish because it was the last of the 2010 added books I needed to read. Will not be recommending this one. Painful.

This week I finished reading Rebecca and Emma. I didn't mean to finish reading two books that share names with women at the same time. In fact, I started Emma a lot earlier and it just dragged on, neglected on my ereader. I read Rebecca in about a week in hard copy.

Andrea wrote: "FINALLY finished The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, after giving up on it a couple times and finally being stubborn enough to finish because it was the last of the 2010 added books I needed to read..."

I felt precisely the same way about it, Andrea, and Possession, also. I am glad to see I was not the only one.

I've finished Silas Marner, and rather liked it.

Finally finished Of Human Bondage. I really did like it, but it took me a long time to get through.

I finally finished "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis" by Saramago.


It was not long, but so s-l-o-w moving. I did as I almost always do though by rating it highly after I finished it and could see what the author was striving for and that the slow moving parts were essential to his craft.

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

Genia wrote: "Just finished The Golden Bowl. *shudder* I can't believe how much Henry James is on this list."

I really hated that one and am not looking forward to reading more Henry James. Maybe The Golden Bowl is the worst of it.

Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers. Not a huge fan, but I will take it over Henry James any day!

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys; review here.