Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

#126:

I finished the estate-authorized sequel to The Time Machine by H.G. Wells


The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am at 568 though I have some confusion about series only partly read and DNFs... sometimes I count them and sometimes not.

I am on 571! looks like we are running neck-and-neck Leslie!
(oh, and I count DNFs)

I will see if adding those will bring me past your count! ;)

gaaah!

So counting those DNFs and partially completed series (and a few list books I have read since my last post), I am now at 582. Hahaha, beat you Darren 😜

Still a long way from done though! Not that I think I will ever actually finish this list...

#127:


The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

during Feb & March I added 9 more:

Julie, or the New Éloïse (Rousseau, Jean-Jacques) - 4
The Man Without Qualities (Musil, Robert) - DNF
The Wimbledon Poisoner (Williams, Nigel) - 3.5
The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro, Kazuo) - 4
The Adventures of Augie March (Bellow, Saul) - 4.5
Oroonoko (Behn, Aphra) - 3
De Niro's Game (Hage, Rawi) - 3
The Moon and the Bonfire (Pavese, Cesare) - 4.5
Anthills of the Savannah (Achebe, Chinua) - 4.5

making 573 total

and an "OTGA":
Gardens Of The Moon (Malazan Book Of The Fallen #1) Erikson, Steven - 4

4 more in April:

Waiting For The Barbarians Coetzee, J.M. - 3.5 Stars
I Served The King Of England Hrabal, Bohumil - 3.5
Tale Of A Tub, A Swift, Jonathan - 3.5
Neon Rain, The Burke, James Lee - 3.5

making 577 total

plus one "should be in the list":
Cloudstreet Winton, Tim - 5

#128 - I finished the mother of all high seas pirate adventure books:


Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I have for now read 150 books (I checked it with the lists of categories).

I have tried but have not finished 13 books (perhaps I will try them again someday).

And I have watched only adaptations of 20 of them (I don't know if I will read those books in the future).

#129 - I finished this one a few months ago but forgot it was on the list...


The Third Man by Graham Greene
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "#129 - I finished this one a few months ago but forgot it was on the list...


The Third Man by Graham Greene ..."

Have you ever seen the film version with Orson Wells and Joseph Cotton? A great movie imo.

Leslie wrote: "Have you ever seen the film version with Orson Wells and Joseph Cotton? A great movie imo."

I saw it a long time ago. I want to re-watch it now that I've read the story. Supposedly the ending is different.

6 more in May:

Wieland Brown, Charles Brockden - 2 Stars
Space Merchants, The Pohl, Fred & Kornbluth, C.M. - 4
Justine (Alexandria Quartet#1) Durrell, Lawrence - DNF
Slouching Towards Kalamazoo De Vries, Peter - 2
Blue Flower, The Fitzgerald, Penelope - 3
Rickshaw Boy She, Lao - 4

making 583 total

Only 3 new-to-me books from the list finished in May for me:

A Tale of a Tub, 2.5*
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, 3.5*
The Corrections, 4*

though I did finish Tropic of Cancer on 1 June which is almost May...

#130 - I finished "that book by Nabokov"


Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

9 new to me books from the list read in June:
Tropic of Cancer
The Young Lions
No Orchids for Miss Blandish
Play It As It Lays
Midnight's Children
The Ship
American Gods
The Constant Gardener
Cheese

That brings me to 592 total, including DNFs and series partially completed.

Well, not having worked on this list yet, I've already read 73 items on the list, which is including the complete discworld series (and any other book written by sir Pratchett).

With just over 60 books a year, two live reading groups and a few lists to work on, I'm hoping to add one or two books a month, maybe some extra when I can combine lists.

#131 - I finished


The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

5 more in June:

La Debacle Zola, Emile - 4.5 Stars
Les Miserables Hugo, Victor - DNF
The Baron In The Trees Calvino, Italo - 3.5
My Search For Warren Harding Plunket, Robert - 3.5
Red Shift Garner, Alan - 2.5

making 588 total

I have been reading all the comments about commenting on reads, rereads, etc and admit have not kept up with my tally or my comments. So, comment 434 I said I had read 289 books on the list and asked a question about how to count the 12 book sequence for A Dance to the Music of Time . thanks Darren for your reply so I had three books for the three movements of the sequence.
289 plus 3 - 292.
Since then have read
True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey read while on holidays in Kelly Country in Victoria. 3*
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 5*
Villette by Charlotte Brontë 5*
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 4*
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 3*
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot 4*

Total now: 298

#132 - I finished the classic suspense thriller


Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It's been a year since I updated my progress. My last post was 357. My current total stands at 431, so a very productive year. I am hoping to start posting progress more regularly. I have also just begun working on the Balzac collection, so that will likely slow me down a bit.

I finished Lolly Willowes recently to make 331!

#133 - I finished the classic Science-Fiction/Horror novel


The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm at 360 now. More significantly I am now almost done with all the listed Charles Dickens novels, and I finished Clarissa, by Richardson, so the average length of the remaining books I need to read may be a bit shorter now.

That's a big step Jamie. Especially Clarissa.

Finally after almost a year finished True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. I started it when I was on holidays in Kelly country last year. 3 stars
now 299.
DNF No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase

forgot to report 5 more in July:

Power And the Glory, The Greene, Graham - 3.5 Stars
Scarlet Letter, The Hawthorne, Nathaniel - 2.5
Sour Sweet Mo, Timothy - 3.5
Lady Chatterley's Lover Lawrence, D.H. - 3.5
Crash Ballard, J. G. - 2.5

making total of 593

plus one "should be on the list":
Mulatta and Mister Fly, The Asturias, Miguel Ángel - 4.5

#134 - I finished the short novel


Washington Square by Henry James
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

#135 - I finished the sequel to The Thirty-Nine Steps


Greenmantle by John Buchan
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It's been a pretty good year so far - I've finished 11 from the list so far in 2023 and there's still more than 5 months to go.

#136 - I finished the somewhat-autobiographical classic


Martin Eden by Jack London
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

#137 - I finished the first book in the Border Trilogy


All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

3 more for me in August, namely:

Cakes And Ale Maugham, Somerset - 3.5 Stars
Any Human Heart Boyd, William - DNF
Sentimental Journey, A Sterne, Laurence - 3

making running total of 596

plus 2 OTGA's:
Carol (oka Price Of Salt, The) Highsmith, Patricia (as Claire Morgan) - 3.5
I Was Dora Suarez Raymond, Derek - 3

hoping to break 600 this month :oP

#200 - Captain Blood

Marilyn wrote: "#200 - Captain Blood"

Congratulations on reaching the big Two Hundred!

#138 - I finished the sixth (publication order) book in the Discworld series


Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

#139 - I finished the Gothic novel written in French but first published in English and set in Arabia:


Vathek by William Beckford
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

#213:
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
★★★

oops a bit late, but:
4 more in September:
Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, The (Narnia#1) Lewis, C. S. - 3 Stars
Solomon Gursky Was Here Richler, Mordecai - 4
Garden Of The Finzi-Continis, The Bassani, Giorgio - 3.5
Scaramouche Sabatini, Rafael - 2.5
plus one "OTGA":
Ethan Frome Wharton, Edith - 3
thus ringing up the 600
then 6 in October:
Recognitions, The Gaddis, William - DNF
Darkness At Noon Koestler, Arthur - 4 Stars
Waterland Swift, Graham - DNF
American Pastoral Roth, Philip - DNF
Epitaph For A Spy Ambler, Eric - 3.5
Hideous Kinky Freud, Esther - 3.5

making running total of 606...

The Man of Property by John Galsworthy. Actually I read all nine novels in the Forsyte Saga but the only one listed is Man of Property.
I think that's my 299th novel in the list. I am making a better list to keep a better track!

#140 - I finished the classic gothic romance novel


Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

How do you account for re-reads, especially if you enjoyed the book on a totally different level . I have just reread Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. it had been many, many years since the last read and found that our Hero, Mr Rochester, so annoying and pompous that it was nearly a DNF All other characters lived up to expectations. If I can count this it will be my 300th read.
Still 4 stars.

ok so getting ready for end of year declaration,
rounding up November's G1000 reads, of which there were 5:
Gathering, The Enright, Anne - 3.5 Stars
Cop Hater McBain, Ed - 2.5
Way We Live Now, The Trollope, Anthony - 4
Adventures Of Gil Blas, The Le Sage, Alain-Rene - DNF
Auto-da-Fé Canetti, Elias - DNF
making 611 total as of 30th Nov...

Penelope wrote: "How do you account for re-reads, especially if you enjoyed the book on a totally different level . I have just reread Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. it had been many, ..."

Well of course you can count as you want but personally I don't count rereads.

I do reread books on the list, some of them many times. I have had the experience you describe (and its obverse) which is one of the more compelling reasons for rereading that I know of. However, my reaction to a book doesn't affect whether I have read it or not which is all I consider in my count!

Darren wrote: "oops a bit late, but:
4 more in September:
....
making running total of 606 ..."

You have surpassed me! Great job on your progress.

I think that I am at 600 now. I managed to read ~30 'new-to-me' books from the list this year despite my haphazard participation here so not too bad.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to be more consistent in my participation here...

Leslie wrote: "Penelope wrote: "How do you account for re-reads, especially if you enjoyed the book on a totally different level . I have just reread Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. i..."

Thank you for your reply Leslie. I have taken some time to respond mainly because Goodreads was having its moments and kept throwing me out whenever I started to type anything. I agree that rereads are not really in the spirit of the group. I think it was because I read it so long ago. I have counted it in this instance but won't count rereads in future. I worked out I last read the book 30 years ago. No wonder I had a different attitude to the hero!

5 more for me in December:

Book Of Daniel, The Doctorow, E. L. - 4.5 Stars
Silas Marner Eliot, George - 3.5
Atomised Houellebecq, Michel - 3
French Lieutenant's Woman, The Fowles, John - 4
Sunset Song Gibbon, Lewis Grassic - 4

making 616 total at end of 2023.

I have been getting through 50-60 per year over the last 3 years, and looking at my planning for 2024 projects mid-50s again...

4 new ones finished in December:

The Black Prince - Iris Murdoch : 4 Stars
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon : 5*
On Beauty - Zadie Smith : 5*
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy : 5*

Which gives me 372 by close of the year. And three Five Star books in a row to finish 2023 which is great and unusual.

I've now also joined the Boxall List group and there's a fair bit of overlap, but does mean that I've got another book which may or may not be included in the Guardian List.

30 read from the Guardian 1000 this year, which is very good for men and only 3 of them were rereads.