jfetting's 1001 list

Inspired by the individual totals tracking thread, I thought I'd start one of these of my own. Most of my reading is over on my 100 books challenge thread, but this one will (I hope) keep me accountable to reading more 1001 books. I'm sort of following all the lists, keeping track of milestones within each list - yay for positive reinforcement! - and hoping to read all of at least one list before I die. Which, according to Arukiyomi's app, will be in 46 years when I am 81.

Right now (10/10/13) I've read 300 off the original list and 331 from the combined lists. I'll start adding reviews with the books I read from here on out; those I've read previously will get the star ratings.

Reverse chronological order - combined list

2000s
Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, 5 stars
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, 3 stars
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, 3 stars
Home by Marilynne Robinson, 5 stars
The Gathering by Anne Enright, 4 stars
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, 4 stars
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, 4 stars
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, 4 stars
Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, 4 stars
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
Saturday by Ian McEwan, 2 stars
On Beauty by Zadie Smith, 3 stars
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, 3 stars
2666 by Roberto Bolano, 4 stars
Small Island by Andrea Levy, 5 stars
The Sea by John Banville, 5 stars
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, 5 stars
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, 5 stars
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, 3 stars
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre, 1 star
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, 4 stars
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, 3 stars
The Double by Jose Saramago, 5 stars
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, 5 stars
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, 1 star
Life of Pi by Yann Mantel, 3 stars
Atonement by Ian McEwan, 4 stars
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa, 3 stars
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, 4 stars
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho, 3 stars
White Teeth by Zadie Smith, 3 stars
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, 3 stars

1900s
Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb, 3 stars
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, 2 stars
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, 5 stars
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho, 3 stars
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, 4 stars
Memoirs of a Geisha, 4 stars
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 4 stars
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker, 4 stars
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, 5 stars
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, 3 stars

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, 5 stars
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 5 stars
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, 5 stars
Deep River by Shusaku Endo, 5 stars
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, 4 stars
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, 4 stars
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, 4 stars
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, 3 stars
Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker, 4 stars
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 2 stars

Regeneration by Pat Barker, 5 stars
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, 4 stars
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, 1 star
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, 4 stars
Possession by A.S. Byatt, 5 stars
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago, 5 stars
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, 5 stars
The Book of Evidence by John Banville, 4 stars
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, 4 stars

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, 4 stars
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, 5 stars
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, 1 star
Beloved by Toni Morrison, 3 stars
The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind, 3 stars
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 4 stars
The Cider House Rules by John Irving, 1 star
Contact by Carl Sagan, 4 stars
Perfume by Patrick Suskind, 5 stars

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, 5 stars
White Noise by Don DeLillo, 3 stars
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, 3 stars
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago, 5 stars
The Lover by Marguerite Duras, 3 stars
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, 2 stars
The Color Purple by Alice Walker, 5 stars
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, 5 stars
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa, 4 stars

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, 2 stars
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, 3 stars
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, 4 stars
Smiley's People by John le Carre, 5 stars
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul, 3 stars
If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, 5 stars
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 5 stars
The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt, 3 stars
The Shining by Stephen King, 5 stars
Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 4 stars

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, 5 stars
Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami, 1 star
Interview with a Vampire by Ann Rice, 4 stars
A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell, 5 stars
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, 4 stars
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre, 5 stars
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, 3 stars
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, 5 stars
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 5 stars
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, 4 stars

Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth, 1 star
A Void by Georges Perec, 4 stars
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark, 3 stars
The Cubs and other stories by Mario Vargas Llosa, 3 stars
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 4 stars
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, 3 stars
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, 5 stars
The Magus by John Fowles, 3 stars
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, 3 stars
Silence by Shusaku Endo, 5 stars

The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 4 stars
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre, 5 stars
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 4 stars
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, 4 stars
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, 4 stars
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, 4 stars
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, 5 stars
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, 3 stars
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, 5 stars
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 5 stars

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 5 stars
Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow, 1 star
The Once and Future King by T.H. White, 5 stars
On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 1 star
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 5 stars
Justine by Lawrence Durrell, 5 stars
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, 2 stars
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein, 5 stars
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 5 stars
The Quiet American by Graham Greene, 4 stars

The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima, 4 stars
Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1 star
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch, 4 stars
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, 4 stars
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, 1 star
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin, 5 stars
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym, 5 stars
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 5 stars
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 2 stars
Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, 5 stars

Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell, 4 stars
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene, 4 stars
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, 5 stars
If This is a Man by Primo Levi, 5 stars
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, 4 stars
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 5 stars
Animal Farm by George Orwell, 3 stars
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, 5 stars
Loving by Henry Green, 3 stars
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, 4 stars

The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham, 5 stars
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, 4 stars
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 5 stars
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, 5 stars
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner, 4 stars
Native Son by Richard Wright, 3 stars
Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce, 3 stars
Party Going by Henry Green, 3 stars
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 3 stars
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, 5 stars

U.S.A by John dos Passos, 3 stars
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, 3 stars
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein, 4 stars
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 5 stars
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner, 5 stars
Threepenny Novel by Bertolt Brecht, 3 stars
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, 3 stars
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, 2 stars
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, 5 stars
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 3 stars

Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, 5 stars
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West, 3 stars
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 5 stars
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, 5 stars
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, 5 stars
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, 4 stars
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, 4 stars
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, 4 stars
Living by Henry Green, 3 stars
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, 5 stars

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, 5 stars
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, 3 stars
Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford, 4 stars
Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki, 4 stars
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, 4 stars
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, 4 stars
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 3 stars
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, 2 stars
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, 5 stars
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 3 stars

The Trial by Franz Kafka, 4 stars
The Professor's House by Willa Cather, 4 stars
Billy Budd, Foretopman, 1 star
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster, 4 stars
Amok by Stefan Zweig, 5 stars
The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield, 4 stars
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, 3 stars
Ulysses by James Joyce, 5 stars
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, 4 stars
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, 4 stars

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence, 1 star
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West, 5 stars
Summer by Edith Wharton, 3 stars
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, 3 stars
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford, 4 stars
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, 5 stars
The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence, 1 star
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, 4 stars
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence, 1 star
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, 2 stars

Howards End by E.M. Forster, 5 stars
A Room With a View by E.M. Forster, 4 stars
The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett, 3 stars
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad, 3 stars
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, 5 stars
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, 1 star
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler, 3 stars
The Call of the Wild by Jack London, 2 stars
The Golden Bowl by Henry James, 5 stars
The Ambassadors by Henry James, 4 stars

The Wings of the Dove by Henry James, 5 stars
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, 1 star
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, 4 stars
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, 5 stars
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, 1 star
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, 4 stars

1800s
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville and Ross, 3 stars
The Awakening by Kate Chopin, 3 stars
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, 3 stars
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, 3 stars
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, 3 stars
Dracula by Bram Stoker, 4 stars
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 4 stars
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, 4 stars
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 4 stars
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, 5 stars

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, 3 stars
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, 4 stars
The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy, 1 star
Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant, 3 stars
She by H. Rider Haggard, 3 stars
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson, 3 stars
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, 5 stars
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, 3 stars
Germinal by Emile Zola, 3 stars
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, 3 stars

Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant, 4 stars
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, 3 stars
Une Vie by Guy de Maupassant, 3 stars
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stephenson, 3 stars
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, 4 stars
Nana by Emile Zola, 4 stars
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, 4 stars
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, 5 stars
Drunkard by Emile Zola, 3 stars
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, 5 stars

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, 3 stars
The Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 4 stars
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, 4 stars
Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, 4 stars
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 4 stars
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 5 stars
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, 5 stars
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola, 3 stars
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope, 5 stars
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 5 stars

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 5 stars
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 3 stars
The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley, 3 stars
Silas Marner by George Eliot, 3 stars
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, 4 stars
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 5 stars
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 4 stars
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 5 stars
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, 5 stars
Hard Times by Charles Dickens, 3 stars

Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 4 stars
Bleak House by Charles Dickens, 5 stars
Villette by Charlotte Bronte, 4 stars
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, 5 stars
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 3 stars
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, 1 star
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 2 stars
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 1 star
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, 4 stars
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, 4 stars

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, 4 stars
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, 4 stars
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, 3 stars
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 5 stars
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, 5 stars
The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, 4 stars
La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas, 5 stars
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, 4 stars
The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe, 4 stars
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe, 5 stars

Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac, 4 stars
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 5 stars
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, 3 stars
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal, 5 stars
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, 3 stars
Le Pere Goriot by Balzac, 4 stars
Eugenie Grandet by Balzac, 4 stars
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, 4 stars
The Red and the Black by Stendhal, 4 stars
Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, 2 stars

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 4 stars
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, 4 stars
Persuasion by Jane Austen, 5 stars
Emma by Jane Austen, 5 stars
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, 3 stars
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 5 stars
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, 4 stars

1700s and earlier
Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, 5 stars
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, 1 star
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, 5 stars
Candide by Voltaire, 4 stars
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, 5 stars
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, 5 stars
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 4 stars
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, 5 stars
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 3 stars
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift, 3 stars

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, 3 stars
Don Quixote by Cervantes, 4 stars
The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius, 3 stars
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, 3 stars
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter by Anonymous, 3 stars

Very impressive! Welcome :)

Yay! Glad to see your list all in one place. I'll have to go through and add your 4 and 5 star reads to my TBR list.

#332 Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster

Usually I'm a big Forster fan, but not this time. If it wasn't short it would be unbearable.

I've been following some of your threads in the yearly challenges but it's great to see all of your reading in one thread. Welcome to the group!

Jennifer - I've had fun studying your list and comparing it to mine. You've read about 100 books more than I have, and we have lots of overlaps, but lots that only you have read, or only I have. We share 115 books, and I have 53 on my TBR pile that you've read (I'm taking note of your ratings for my near future reading).

But what I find most amusing is that although we generally agree on ratings, sometimes we're waay off. For example, you gave The Elegance of the Hedgehog 5 stars, while I gave it 2. And you gave Saturday 2 stars, and I gave it 4. Interview with a Vampire: you-4, me, 2.5. Lord of the Flies: you- 1 (really? 1? I'd love to hear your thoughts), and I see I only gave it a 3, but in my mind I remember better than that, so maybe a 4. But the biggest difference I think is The Little Prince. It's a 5 star for you, and a 1 for me . . . because I really didn't get it. Anything redeeming about that one went right over my head, so if you feel motivated one day, please explain it to me. (Oh yeah, you also gave Parade's End 4 stars, whereas it was 10 weeks of wanting to poke my eyes out, and thus, 1 star.)

Wouldn't we have fun if we could talk about all these books in person!

That would be so much fun! Debating the terribleness/wonderfulness of Saturday would be much better in person.

Interview with a Vampire I read when I was around 13, maybe (note: I am lucky enough to possess parents who bought into Neil Gaiman's "Let them read whatever they want" philosophy, so no books were ever censored. I turned out all right). And it catapulted me into an Anne Rice phase where I read all the vampire ones, and all the witches ones, repeatedly. Would I like it as much if I read it for the first time as an adult? Not sure. But it gets the 4 stars from the memories, and I haven't re-read it because other teenage favorites (cough Catcher in the Rye cough) did not stand up to an adult reading.

Saturday - protagonist is a whiny douche, and I was not in the mood for whiny douches when I read it.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - really, only 2 stars? But it is so beautiful! I loved the writing, and the characters, and I even loved that I didn't see the ending coming until I read the words on the paper.
Lord of the Flies - inflicted on me back in - I don't remember - freshman year of high school? Yuck. SO AWFUL. Lots of savage little boys and killing and it's just the worst. Gross, gross, gross.

Le Petit Prince - Haven't read this one in awhile either, but I loved the illustrations and the philosophy and the adorable little flower.

Edit: and now I need to go back and go through your list again and pick out which of the ones on my TBR are on your Already-Read list! This would be so much easier if we could upload excel spreadsheets and run it through something like the gene list comparison script we use here in the lab.

and now I need to go back and go through your list again and pick out which of the ones on my TBR are on your Already-Read list! This would be so much easier if we could upload excel spreadsheets and run it through something like the gene list comparison script we use here in the lab.

Ooooh, fancy! Sounds like fun.

Lord of the Flies - I had to read that in grade 10 (sophomore year? I can never catch on to that system) and liked it just because it was so different from anything I'd read before. It kept my interest, which is saying a lot for a high school English book. I had to read it again at uni, and still think it has something. But I have a friend who teaches English 10 and she taught it for years but has stopped because she says she gets no buy in from her female students. You're certainly not alone in your opinion.

I have books like your Interview with a Vampire--great memories, but not sure they'd hold up now. Can't remember which ones at the moment. I actually just listened to Interview on audiobook and I just found it melodramatic. Interesting world building though. I read her Witching Hour back in the 90s and thought it was fun. My mom was like yours--didn't care what I read. I was a teen in the late 70s so there wasn't much written for that age group. I have fond memories of reading Looking for Mr Goodbar and The Boston Strangler when I was 13.

I also absolutely hated Lord of the Flies. Haaaaaated. I read it on my own because none of my classes ever did, I was maybe 19 or 20 when I picked it up. I thought it had zero merit and was just horrible.

#332 The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan

I really liked Amsterdam, and I sort of liked Atonement, but everything else I've read by McEwan is just terrible. Including this book. At least it is short, right?

#333 A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan

Yawn. 2 stars.

#334 Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

I loved it. Totally bizarre, naturally, but I loved it. As with all Murakami novels, this one had a lot about cats, classical music, food, and sex, and some bizarre supernatural-ish magical-ish bits.

#335 The Immoralist by Andre Gide

I find the strangest books using Amazon Prime's Kindle lending library. This is one of them. As far as I can tell, it is about a guy who gets married and travels with his wife to north Africa. He has TB, but recovers. Then there is a bit with a farm in Normandy, then Paris & childbirth, then his wife gets TB, then they travel again. Oh, sorry, should've done a spoiler alert? But then again, there is probably much, much more to the book than I got from it, and so you all should read it and tell me about what it really means.

re:Kafka - You didn't have a problem with the tons of things left unexplained, things that were big parts of the story that never went anywhere, etc?

I enjoyed The Immoralist quite a lot, although I just had to look back at my review to remember exactly what I got out of it. I'm not usually all that "thinky" about books, but it struck a chord with me. Maybe I just read it at the right time/in the right frame of mind.

Kafka on the Shore was an inevitable let down for me (although not an extreme one) because I loved The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle so much. But I suspect even my not-favorite Murakamis will rank pretty highly on my personal continuum of books.

I sort of assume with Murakami that there will be much left unexplained, big parts of the story that go nowhere, etc. Sometimes I think he writes himself almost into a corner, where no actual explanation will be as interesting as the buildup implies it will be, and then wisely decides to NOT provide an explanation. I still don't understand all the things that happened in any of his books that I've read (Norwegian Wood being an exception).

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is also fantastic. I agree with you, ursula, in that I will probably rank even lesser Murakamis highly.

See I have a lot of problems with that. Why don't his editors make cuts, or tell him "hey this is incomplete you have to finish this arc before we can publish" or whatever?? I don't believe there is any excuse to end a book without actually ending a whole ton of angles that were supposedly big important parts of it. I enjoyed Kafka... while reading it, but then it ended and I was like wtf! And since that seems to be his thing I have no interest in reading more of him. :|

Yes, it does sound like much of Murakami is not for you - Norweigan Wood is relatively straightforward, if I remember correctly. No talking cats or anything like that. Also not on the 1001 list, though.

#336 Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding

Funny, but not as good as Tom Jones.

Oh I don't have a problem at all with the fantasy aspects, I thought the cats were quite amusing. I just am not good with creating large story arcs that then are simply forgotten about.

#337 The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor

Sad, beautifully written, reminded me of a lot of novels I've read by Irish novelists. I'll have to find more by this author because he's pretty great.

#338 The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan

This book is gross. What is the point of it? Shock value? Hated it. At this point I feel like I am just hate-reading all of McEwan's books on the list.

#24, felt the same way about that book. So bad it hurt.

#339 The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst

Dirty, dirty, dirty. And boring. I'm not offended by sex scenes of any flavor (straight, gay, whatever), I'm offended by books that are little more than sex scenes interspersed with trips to the gym and reminiscences of the main character's (and another character's) days at fancy boarding school - I believe you Brits call them "public schools". Note: these reminiscences are really just more sex scenes, actually, just ones in past tense. I am not by any means giving up on Hollinghurst b/c The Line of Beauty was nice, but I'd steer people away from this one unless you are a Hollinghurst completist or something. I picked up the book at a library book sale a couple years ago, and it has such a great title but of course I knew nothing of what it was about. Such a disappointment.

I got that one at a library book sale too--haven't had the interest to pick it up though. After absolutely loving Stranger's Child, I had high hopes for this one, but then I read a review and thought maybe not. Back down to the bottom of the TBR with it! Thanks for taking one for the team.

> 27. Then read The Line of Beauty. I loved that one and yes, The Swimmingpool Library is not as good and contains indeed way too much sex, but still. Hollinghurst writes so well! But maybe I am a completist!

Yes, read The Line of Beauty. It was a really good book.

I own the Line of Beauty and it was actually higher on my TBR pile, so I'm glad to hear it's better than the other.

"interspersed with trips to the gym"

disgusting!

Lol!

#340 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Loved it. 5 stars. It was so funny in places, and so weird in other places, and I love Behometh the cat and the whole Satan's Ball bit and really just everything about it.

Yeah! Glad to see your rating because I've got that one lined up for this year.

#341 Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

So long! So very very long! But charming, and entertaining, and populated by idiots who are either sweet and good and stupid or evil and stupid. But charming, entertaining idiots.

4 stars.

#342 After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

Not my favorite of his - I give it 4 stars instead of 5 - but still an excellent collection of six short stories set in Japan after the Kobe earthquake. Only one story is what I would consider "standard" Murakami (there is a talking frog), but fans should probably read this.

#343 The Master by Colm Toibin

Beautifully written, and I love Henry James, so I loved this book. 4 stars.

#344 The Bell by Iris Murdoch

Tedious. It had all the elements of a great novel - English countryside, adultery, homosexuality, layperson communities, faith and loss thereof, etc. But no. 2 stars

#345 The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Oh, now THIS is something great. It started a little shaky - it is one of those "poor kid goes to rich school and admires this standoffish group of fabulous people and then becomes one of them" stories (like the Twilight series, The Magicians, Special Topics in Calamity Physics etc). Most of these books annoy me and are terrible, but THIS book is fantastic. Its about a group of friends who murder one of themselves (not a spoiler - you know this from chapter 1) and why and how and the consequences. Super good. 4 stars, may be upgraded to 5 soon.

I agree with you about The Secret History. Such a page turner! While I was reading it, I was all: NOBODY SPEAKS TO ME UNTIL I'M DONE!

I was reading it stuck on the tarmac on a plane and I didn't really even notice the hour and a half delay because the book was so good.

#346 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

I liked it better and better as I kept reading, and I'm still thinking about it, so while I probably would have given it three stars when I started it is up to at least 4. Janie is a fascinating character who really develops as a person and gets what SHE wants, not what other people want. The dialogue was all in dialect, which was tricky enough for me that it slowed me down while reading it and that really helped me appreciate it more.

#347 The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker

4.5 stars. Loved it. Alice Walker is one of my favorite writers and her books just suck me in and don't let me go. They often cover horrific topics, but still impossible to put down.

I've had the Temple of My Familiar in my TBR pile for years and I just feel daunted by it. But your 4.5 stars is very encouraging. She is a fabulous writer.

#348 Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Oh, wow. 5 stars. This book is incredible. It is short in page-number terms, but it took me a long time to read it because it was so beautifully written that I read each sentence 3 or 4 times.

Is this the first time you've read Mrs Dalloway? I ask just because I always think you've read everything. It is lovely, isn't it.

Last summer I was in London, and I followed the Mrs Dalloway walk. If you're interested, you can see my pictures here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/155123#4238887 It was a nice thing to do on my 50th birthday.

must have missed that photo tour when you first posted it. Funny to finally see an image of someone you've 'known' incognito for years! Lovely walk.

It is the first time I've read Mrs. Dalloway. It won't be the last. And I love your pictures! Thanks for posting - I want to go do this myself now.

#349 The Hours by Michael Cunningham

It was good, but it is no Mrs. Dalloway. Despite being influenced by/an homage to that fantastic novel.

#350 The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I did it! This book has been a huge challenge for me; I think I've started to read it about 4 times and never got past the Grand Inquisitor chapter. But this time I was in exactly the right mood for it, and "flew" through it (not really - 3 weeks or so) and absolutely loved it. I had no idea it was a courtroom book!

This really read as a much more modern book than it is. So many of the themes are still applicable. I loved Aloysha, obviously, although Ivan gets all the best scenes (Grand Inquisitor, the meeting with the Devil). 5 stars.

Congrats! It's awesome when a book finds its time and place and ends up blowing you away.

#351 Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe

It is one of those Southern coming-of-age novels set around the turn of the last century. Eugene is the youngest in a family of alcoholics who are mostly charming and crazy and obsessed with money. He grows up, goes to college, WWI comes, etc. I did enjoy it; the writing especially was beautiful. The racism was disgusting and difficult to read in sections but with Southern coming-of-age novels set around the turn of the last century there is no avoiding racism.

My favorite part was all the descriptions of delicious Southern meals. Biscuits and gravy, ham, fried apples, mashed potatoes, greens... yum! It made me hungry.

#352 The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan

Forgot to add this! A really fun and short adventure story set in Scotland just before WWI. I liked it even more than I liked the Hitchcock movie.

oh gosh yes. That was by no means Hitchcock's best at all!

#353 The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
I've tried to read this many times over the years, and I finally managed to drag myself all the way through it. Still not sure what the point of this book was, or what even really happened. Is it a ghost story? A murder story? What is this even?

#354 The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

This was a lot of fun.

#355 Aesop's Fables

Quite violent. Lots of death and getting eaten.

>54 jfetting: so which version did you read? It seems like there are so many, I have no idea which one to start with.

would be more worrying if there was lots of getting eaten without the death!

>55 japaul22: japaul22 I picked the free one on Kindle. I'm sure there are better translations, but this was sufficient for my needs. I don't know if it was abridged or not; it said not but how can I tell?

>56 arukiyomi: arukiyomi that would be horrifying and even less appropriate for children

>57 jfetting: some sort of kindle version definitely sounds like the way to go with that one since it seems like something you could pick up and read if you didn't have anything else with you. I'm in no hurry to get to that one though!

It was just about perfect for when I was waiting for people or appointments or whatever.

#356 The Third Man by Graham Greene

Very entertaining spy novel. Not a whole lot to it. 3 stars.

#357 The Marble Faun by Nathanial Hawthorne

This one isn't read much anymore, and I'm pretty sure the reason why is because it is terrible. All of Hawthorne's other novels are terrible too, but this one is epic. It is about a group of four friends in Rome back in Hawthorne time. Two are girls - one is beautiful and pure (constant emphasis on her purity and goodness. She is not a real person) and the other is beautiful but has a mysterious past withs hint of evil and also Jewish-ness. Hawthorne was a giant religious bigot, it seems, and this book is full of it. Anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic... really the only acceptable way to be is New England Puritan. New England and its purity get brought up almost as much as Hilda's purity.

And then a big horrible thing happens, and there are a bunch of plot holes that don't get filled, and then apparently people complained so Hawthorne added an epilogue where he bitches because people can't figure the plot holes out for themselves.

His short stories are so, so good. I can't believe how bad his novels are. SO SO BAD. This gets one star.

#61, your review is so hilarious that it almost makes me want to read the book.

I had to study an excerpt from The Marble Faun at university and I enjoyed it and thought I wanted to read more. But the book is firmly entrenched at the bottom of my TBR, and your review makes me wonder if I should pour some cement over it.

Encase it in marble. Throw it in a dungeon! Imprison it until the truly guilty party shows up to be thrown into a dungeon, but at no point indicate that prisons are at all involved!
And then insult people for not figuring that out!

Great plan. Off to execute it . . .

Dear oh Dear....

Well, it's in my combined list so it might have just earned itself a place right at the bottom as well.

Review Quote

I've just, finally, finished reading "The Marble Faun" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and I now have some conception of what it feels like to have run a marathon dressed in full deep-sea diving gear. Zeus, what a tedious, turgid, overblown book. I chose it because it was listed in a book called "1001 books to read before you die" - but perhaps I misread the title and it was actually "1001 books that are only marginally better than actually being dead".

#67 - Minks - love it!

#67 M1nks - YES!!! Exactly. Whoever wrote this quote is exactly right.

#358 The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy 5 stars

(spoilers abound!)

I loved it, but probably differently than many (based on the reviews I've read calling Soames a villain). I get that Soames did a terrible thing to Irene. I get that Irene did not want to be married to Soames. But Irene is terrible. I think she is the worst character in the book. She marries a man she doesn't love, she decides after a week that banging him is intolerable (paraphrasing from Jolyen's letter to Young Jon) which probably did suck back then when she couldn't legally get out of it. But no one put a gun to her head. She didn't have to marry him. If you marry for money and not love, you know EXACTLY what you are getting into. It is a choice she made. AND THEN she proves herself to be as horrible a friend as she was a wife by having an affair with June's fiance. But everyone in the book is obsessed with her! Soames, his gross uncles, etc... but she doesn't do anything or think anything or act in any way like she might be an interesting character. But she is beautiful. So that whole driving force of the plot, the Soames vs Irene thing, didn't work for me. He was well rid of her, I think, and ended up having the delightful Fleur, whose happiness was ruined by that awful manipulative Irene...

I loved the writing and the setting and the way the book infuriated me.

#359 Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino 5 stars

Another 5 star book (two in a row! Woohoo!). There's no real plot. The closest thing to a plot is that it is loosely "about" Marco Polo describing the cities he has visited to Kublai Khan. So it is mostly a description of cities. It is practically a poem, the writing is so beautiful and imaginative.

Glad to know you liked Invisible cities since it's my next read!

Invisible Cities is one of my favourite books of all time, Calvino just throws around carefreely ideas, each which some other writer might have turned into a whole book of its own...

It is an amazing book. Each chapter absolutely could be made into a book of its own. I've only read a couple books by Calvino, but I've loved them.

Sounds great! Looks like I have another on my tbr sooner rather than later pile.

#360 Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

3.5 stars on this one. Little girls can be horrible to each other.

#361 The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (audiobook)

I was all impressed with Justin Cronin's imagination in writing The Passage until I read this. The Passage is basically Triffids with vampires and a magical girl.

I loved Triffids. Wyndham is my new favorite creepy science-fiction writer.

Sounds good, I'll put it on my list and see if I can get hold of it in audio.

Whyndham is great! I've loved everything I read of him. One of his best is sadly not on the list though. If you can get your hands on The Chrysalids, I highly recommend it.

The Chrysalids is definitely his best!

Ok, sold! I will look for The Chrysalids. He's so much fun.

#362 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

I appreciate what she did with the structure of the book - the chapters are all a little different. I hated the story and had a hard time getting through it. 1.5 stars.

I also gave that one 1.5 stars.

#363 Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe

Two Japanese classics in a row that I do not gush over (the other one is part of the Sea of Fertility tetralogy, so it'll be reviewed when I finish the last one) . This book is more like Lord of the Flies, which I also hated, set in wartime Japan. 2 stars instead of 1 because it was beautifully written.

#364 The Sea of Fertility by Yukio Mishima

And with that, the Sea of Fertility tetralogy is done. As a whole, I loved the first two books and tolerated the second two. Very impressive series, and too bad that Mishima decided to kill himself after finishing it. I love his writing.

#365 Adam Bede by George Eliot

A lovely book that makes me want to be in the middle of a warm green summer (it is currently snowing here in Maine with a sharp wind). I loved the book and would have given it 5 stars if it wasn't for the last section. Just didn't work for me - the people who got married had never exhibited any behavior that suggested they would want to get married. It was a bit like Edward whats-his-name in Mansfield Park who falls in love with his idiot cousin Fanny in a paragraph on the second to last page. Oh, ok. Sure.

Edward whats-his-name

Edmund Bertram. Edward (Ferrars) is from Sense & Sensibility. I take it you're not a big Mansfield Park fan?

Nope. I always skip it on my Austen binges.

#366 The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

2 stars

I just cannot stand these early McEwan novels. If they weren't on the 1001 list and they weren't available through the kindle lending library, I'd skip them. At least they are short.

>88 jfetting: - I like some of the earlier McEwans (and they're short!), but I didn't understand The Child in Time at all. There are some interesting reviews on it here at LT so I may read it again one day. But my reaction was "what is this?"

hmmm... I didn't think it was too bad and I said why here:

http://johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?p=4595

I am surprised that you consider On Chesil Beach his best. To put it mildly, I did not. I suppose my issue with it was that I couldn't get my head around why anyone at all would write a book about this particular plot. It just seemed to me like the story was one of those that would be about a page long if every character wasn't an idiot.

The only ones I really liked were Amsterdam which I thought was great and Atonement which was ok.

#367 The Enormous Room by e.e. cummings 1 star

I enjoy the poetry of ee cummings. I think that his attempt at prose is truly, deeply, profoundly boring and I'm glad he stuck to poetry. Awful. I almost couldn't finish it.

#368 No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Three stars.

A depressing but well-written collection of short stories. Not my favorite by this author.

#369 Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

One of those books I appreciate how good they are but that I hate. Kesey's writing is beautiful and the story is epic. It's one of those brother vs. brother stories set in a logging family in Oregon. The older brother, Hank, is introduced as an arrogant, union-busting jerk who is ruining everyone's life. This impression is kept up through the background-setting first 100 pages and in the point-of-view paragraphs of the younger brother, Leland (Lee). The POV switches between Hank, Lee, their dad Henry, and Hank's wife Viv from sentence to sentence without warning, but it is usually pretty easy to figure out who is talking. I found Hank to be a very sympathetic character once we got to is POVs, and it quickly became clear what Lee was going to do to destroy him. I'm not sure if Kesey wants the reader to sympathize with Lee, who is the more educated and cultured character. He is also a total jerk and I couldn't stand him.

As I said, it is well-written and the story has stuck with me, which should be enough to give it a good rating but I really, really disliked reading it so I'm only giving it 2 stars.

#370 Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

I forgot how much I like Vonnegut's writing. This was the story of Kilgore Trout and his book and how it drove an already-crazy man to violence. Very funny.

#371 Sula by Toni Morrison

Short, fantastic novel that touches on all the Morrison themes - race, being a woman, friendship, love, betrayal, etc. Super super good.

#372 Cain by Jose Saramago ****
Saramago is one of my favorites, and Cain is an extremely entertaining look at the Old Testament God through the eyes of Cain of "Am I my brother's keeper?" fame. Its basically a rationalist's argument against the God of the Israelites, bringing up all the inconsistencies in the Bible and some of God's really horrible and inexplicable behavior. Definitely worth a read. Plus its a 1001 book that is only about 150 pages.

#373 Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut ***

Scientists are the worst, always destroying humanity. Or maybe religions are the worst. Or maybe they're ALL the worst.

>98 jfetting: brilliant

or maybe "they" is actually the wrong pronoun

We are all the worst? Yes, true. We are all the worst!

>101 jfetting: Your third sentence melted my logic circuits ;)

I am very sorry for your broken circuitry. This is the wrong thread if you are looking for logic, I'm afraid.

My circuits will recover.

I like old Kurt. I read a mostly non-fiction collection of his called Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons in my early twenties. It really had an effect on me. In one fell swoop, his arguments successfully put me off Hermann Hesse and Science Fiction.

Welcome to the Monkey House is a great collection of his too.

Is Welcome to the Monkey House the collection with "Harrison Bergeron"? If so, I love that book.

That's the one, and for me 'Harrison Bergeron' is the stand-out piece. It made such an impression on me that two or three decades after reading it, I can still remember the final two lines.

It's an odd one too. It could be taken as a very right wing piece, a satire on the follies of governments trying to create freedom from oppression by repressing individual talents. Which doesn't sound very Vonnegut at all. (as an aside, when prog-rockers Rush wrote about similar themes, they got lambasted by the British music press as 'crypto-fascists').

I've read quite a bit of Vonnegut. I don't remember Breakfast of Champions or God Bless You, Mr Rosewater very well, but I liked Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-5, The Sirens of Titan and to a lesser extent Galapagos. The autobiographies Palm Sunday and Fates Worse than Death are interesting too. I read the Wampeters book so much that it fell to pieces in the end, my favourite being the piece called 'Yes, We Have No Nirvanas' which I think is just perfect.

#374 The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy ***

Not his best and a bit of a mess. The characters' feelings and motivations kept switching inexplicably. The resolution of the main plotline was unbelievable. The only character I actually cared about ended up with an unhappy outcome. Not going to be re-reading this one.

#375 A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry ***

So when I started reading this book, I thought it was going to be one of those stories where a woman overcomes a sad childhood tragedy and an even sadder loss of her husband after a few years of marriage to start a business, make friends with some tailors, become successful and live happily ever after. This is not what happens. A lot of the book is horrifying. Did this sort of thing really happen in India in the 70s and 80s? Forced castration, burning entire families in their home because of a caste grudge? Whenever you start to think things are going to be ok for any of the four main characters, something really spectacularly awful happens. It's very well written, though.

>108 jfetting: Ha ha ha ha. I'm sorry, I can't help it. Isn't this just the most depressing thing you've ever read? When I finished, I thought that the writing made it a 5 star book, but in my opinion it was a 1 star. I just hated it. Time has softened that and now I mostly just recognize the literary achievement. A few years after A Fine Balance, I read his Family Matters and realized that he just really likes to take the most possible depressing twist on any situation. So while I admire his artistry, I don't think I'll ever read anything by him again.

Is he worse than Zola?

>110 M1nks: From my reading of Zola so far I don't think he ever pretends that there will be a happy ending; with Mistry in Family Matters I really believed that there would be a happy ending, until there wasn't.

I must sound crazy but I enjoyed reading A Fine Balance as well as Family Matters. I sometimes just prefer an unhappy ending that stucks with me for some days.

I think he is worse than Zola because A) graphic dismemberment and B) you think things are going to get better.

I think A Fine Balance will remain sitting on my TBR shelf for a few years at least.

>112 Simone2: I'm with you. I loved A Fine Balance. It was one of the first Eastern novels I read, and it changed how I think about literature.

>112 Simone2: I as well loved A Fine Balance. I have actually read it twice because I read it when it first came out and then when a book club I was in chose it I decided to read it again.

Twice!?!?!

A Fine Balance is a book that brings out . . . emotions? Conversation? Both? I had two friends rave about it and both said it was their favourite book ever. The woman who leant it to me sort of raised her eyebrows when I told her that, which I understood after I'd read it. When I questioned the two lovers, one said "I guess it's because I've been to India," and the other said "I guess it's because I've always wanted to go to India but haven't been." Well then.

I just noticed the title, and now that I think about it, the book really isn't balanced at all, is it.

I had always wanted to go to India. Now not so much.

>119 jfetting: That made me laugh out loud for real. I've never really wanted to go to India (I had cousins who lived there and it didn't sound that great). After reading AFB, not so much either.

:-) I'm not all that keen on India either just at the moment, but that has less to do with any books I might have read and more related to the steady stream of unpleasant news reports I've been hearing for several years.

My list of places which I think it 'safe' to visit has been rather drastically curtailed over the last 5 years or so. Even Turkey which I have been wanting to go back to is now on the 'not just yet' list.

My list of places which I think it 'safe' to visit has been rather drastically curtailed over the last 5 years or so.

So true!

>121 M1nks: I'm currently reading the not-even-a-little-bit-1001 book Book Lust to Go by Nancy Pearl and she basically says something similar, that there are a lot of places in the world it would be difficult to go to right now outside of books. Or military service.

Turkey is also a dream vacation of mine - my boss went there this summer to some seaside resort and got to go snorkeling through ancient underwater ruins.

#376 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe ***

Interesting yet also depressing look at the downfall of a man in colonial Africa.

India is an absolutely superb country to visit. But only for those who really like to travel and explore places and get deep down into the culture/s of people. If you you want everything neat and tidy, no poverty or corruption with happy endings to everyone's life, then it's not for you.

Bit like A Fine Balance actually.

Looking at your review of Things Fall Apart, a monumental book, I can't help wondering... do you do much background on the significance of the novel while you are reading it?

>125 arukiyomi:

Wow. Ok. Thank you for your opinion.

>126 arukiyomi:

No, I don't actually. At this point in my life I read strictly for enjoyment (even the 1001 books) and don't spend a lot of time researching the books. I am aware that Things Fall Apart is a monumental book and that my reaction to it is likely less than it deserves. That said, I've never claimed to provide in depth analysis of the books I read in my LT threads.

Again, thank you for your opinion.

>128 jfetting:

Another non-researcher here. At least by LT standards. I respond to books mostly according to whether I enjoyed them, or whether they made me think, or if they stirred some sort of feeling in me. With few exceptions, I know very little about the cultural or literary significance of the work I'm reading.

For me, Things Fall Apart was simply a reasonably good read. Ultimately, as a reader, I'm more interested in that than its context.

I'm not a researcher either. Cliff seems to have said what I would have quite well, so I'll just add that I think that most of the time, a good book should provide something to readers who haven't read up on its significance.

I only research if something sparks my interest in finding out more when I'm reading the books so I don't do it for every book I read. I rate them on how much I enjoyed them and how well I thought they are written.

I know it's my own opinion, but I would say that I have not only learned a great deal about history and the world but also about the importance of a novel by trying to at least hit the Wikipedia link for a book I might have read. Often, I'm extremely surprised to learn what impact a book has had on a generation or the art form or even, in the case of Things Fall Apart, an entire nation or even a continent.

For me, that's what reading the 1001 list is all about as opposed to reading any old random novels. I'd say it's very hard to rate a book on how well you think it's written unless you understand what the writer was trying to do and why they wrote what they did and in the way they did.

For example, with Things Fall Apart, Achebe wrote in English and that was a very controversial move at the time, particularly for what is widely regarded as the first novel by a black African. How might knowing that affect how you'd rate how well it was written?

>129 Cliff-Rhu-Rhubarb:

My sentiments exactly, including the opinion about TFA.

Apologies to Jennifer for invading her thread with a wordy response to Arukiyomi.

>132 arukiyomi: The point you make in your middle paragraph is a really interesting one. I've been batting it back and forth trying to decide whether I agree.

I'm not certain that knowing more about a book ever alters my fundamental response to it. Take Orlando, the book I'm reading -and not enjoying - at the moment.

I'll freely admit that I know little about Orlando's background. I have a passing acquaintance with the Bloomsbury group; I know that the titular Orlando is in large part a transfigured Vita Sackville-West. Other than that, I'm pretty ignorant of the book's context and aims.

Nevertheless, I could read a whole slew of biographies on Woolf and the Bloomsbury group and - with the best will in the world - I don't think I would get much more out of Orlando.

Even I know that Virginia Woolf was a bona fide literary colossus, that she towers over 20th century literature. She was a daring, original author who could write in the most luminous, beautiful prose (The Waves is simply gob-smacking). Academics who are much brighter and more perceptive than me have no doubt written extensively on Orlando's virtues, and I believe it's one of her best-loved works.

None of that changes the fact that personally I just don't like it. I'm finding the authorial voice naff, the central character tedious, the plot flimsy, and Woolf practically nails some of her themes to your forehead in case you miss them.

In the same way, understanding a smidgeon of the context for conceptual art hasn't make me engage with it any more. I can see that Martin Creed's minimal pieces might pose questions about the nature and value of art, but it doesn't make me want to examine a ball of screwed-up paper, or lights going on and off in an empty room. For all their cleverness, there are other pieces of art that I connect with more, and life is short.

Reading is really a strange business. If I hear someone savaging a book that I love, I have to work at not taking it as a personal slight - ridiculous! If a friend reads a book that I hate and declares it a work of genius, I struggle not to think any less of them - absurd!

This alone persuades me that as an experience, reading is only partly intellectual. It's also partly visceral - and wholly (and intensely) personal. So I think that a knowledge of context can change how much we admire a book but not necessarily how much we love it.

At least, that's what I think today!

Having said that, I think you're dead right about the novel as a way of learning about 'history and the world', and I agree that this is where the choice of books in the 1001 list really scores. From this point of view, there's certainly masses to be gained from researching their context, and I abhor my own laziness with reading background material!

Apologies again for yammering on.

My two cents.... I do generally research novels because I'm interested in learning more about them, but it doesn't usually impact my ratings of them. I rank books on whether I enjoyed reading them (or at least got something interesting out of them if I struggled through.)

That said, the research does help me appreciate why a novel is on the 1,001 list even if I didn't think it was an enjoyable read. Things Fall Apart and The Well of Loneliness are two examples that spring immediately to mind.... both deserve to be on the list because of their historical significance. But that doesn't mean I really enjoyed reading them.

In the case of Things Fall Apart, there are other books with similar themes that I found more effective and interesting. But it certainly does deserve its spot on the list anyway.

I think we are increasingly in violent agreement here.

135> sums up my position well. I often go to the likes of Wikipedia or similar when I'm about 20% in to a book and finding it very average so that I can get some insight in to why I'm reading the book. At this point I also have a look through the threads of members of this group to scan through your reactions (while ignoring potential spoilers).

I can then plough on with the remaining 80% of what usually remains an average book, and I then rate it according to my enjoyment of the writing, irrespective of the context.

As I rate a book though, particularly many of the older books on the list which I often struggle to enjoy, I do wonder how I might have rated the experience had I lived at the time and in the culture that the author was writing to/for. But it very rarely improves my rating.

#377 The Princess of Cleves by Madame de la Fayette ***

Oh those naughty French aristocrats!

I'm a bit of a flip-flopper on the I Just Wanna Read! vs There May Be A Test Later. Sometimes a book will inspire me to do a lot of background research because of the way it's written, sometimes I feel I need to do it because I haven't got a clue what's going on!

Other times though, I Just Wanna Read!

#378 Spring Flowers, Spring Frost by Ismail Kadare ***

What a strange little book. I don't think I really understand it. It was about this artist, Mark, in Albania just after the dictatorship ended. He has a girlfriend. He gets locks for his door because he is worried about theft. He's also obsessed with the blood feud tradition in the rural area he moved to from the city. There is a shooting, and a bunch of stuff about Oedipus, and some bits about Death. I'll have to read it again, I think.

And no, I haven't had time to research this book either. Just saying that upfront so that I can avoid strangers on the internet telling me what a crappy reader I am.

>139 jfetting: Just saying that upfront so that I can avoid strangers on the internet telling me what a crappy reader I am.

Just saying that anyone who tells you that you are a crappy reader 1. doesn't know you, and 2. is a twit.

Happy New Year!

Thanks, Joyce! Happy New Year to you too!

"And no, I haven't had time to research this book either. Just saying that upfront so that I can avoid strangers on the internet telling me what a crappy reader I am."

ha, I laughed out loud when I read that :) well said

I'm intrigued by this book after your review, yet another added to my 'to read' list - sounds interesting

>139 jfetting: That made me laugh. And sigh all over again.

Happy new year!

I believe the same 'person on the internet' told me that I am a horrible person because sometimes I skip to the back of a book and spoil the ending for myself. I guess some people don't realise that readers come in all shapes and sizes.

I do that too (the horror!). I never dislike spoilers - how the story gets to the ending is just as interesting as the ending itself.

> 144 "I guess some people don't realise that readers come in all shapes and sizes." Yeah, even opinionated readers who can be misquoted. ;-)

#379 The Radiant Way by Margaret Drabble **

I've had a beat up paperback copy of this on my shelves forever, and as I prepare to pack up and move I want to get rid of as many of these as possible. This 1001 book is definitely not a keeper. I really, really enjoyed her writing style - it was the only thing that kept me going and let me finish the book. The story itself was dated. It is about 3 friends from Cambridge 25 years after their college years and starts on New Years Eve 1979 in London. Lots and lots and lots of the problems of intellectual and artsy and (mostly) rich people in London as the Thatcher years begin.

>147 jfetting: Ah, too bad, I also have such a beat up copy waiting for me and have been looking forward to reading it. I always assumed (I don't know why) that it would be a great read...!

I think that same thing sometimes when I'm reading current books - that I'm enjoying it but it's going to feel dated in 20 years. I haven't gotten to Drabble yet, maybe I'll try The Red Queen first.

The writing was so good that I wouldn't tell other people not to read it just because the story felt dated to me. I was surprised at how much I liked her style until I remembered that she is A.S. Byatt's sister.

Also, if you want to fall down an incredibly entertaining internet rabbit hole, google "Byatt Drabble feud". They don't get along.

I disliked The Red Queen so much I couldn't finish it... not looking forward to trying The Radiant Way. So, I decided I'm firmly in the Byatt camp, despite not having read anything by her yet. The feud between the two sisters makes for some interesting reading.

I did and it was.

#380 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou **** (audiobook)

Many thanks to mabith for her review and recommendation of the audiobook. I can't imagine approaching this book any other way. Angelou herself reads it and even sings the song bits. She's wonderful. The book is obviously challenging in places, as her childhood wasn't easy, and the description of her rape by her mother's boyfriend at age 8 is particularly horrific. If you can make it past that, you are in for a treat.

#381 The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf **

I could barely finish this, Woolf's first novel. Long and boring. I didn't become invested in any of the characters (even the Dalloways!). I thought Helen had some potential, especially after that beginning scene, but not exciting mystery came out of it.

Good thing she improved!

#382 Neuromancer by William Gibson ***

Reading this in combination with the Michio Kaku book The Physics of the Future was fascinating - basically everything in this sci-fi novel is something that Kaku predicts will occur before 2100. I liked it but didn't love it.

> 155 - I loved the plot but didn't really like his writing style. But reading it along with Kaku's book would be interesting!

yes, thanks for that recommendation...

#383 The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler **

Two grudging stars. This is the sort of book that is much better as a movie. Philip Marlowe is a private investigator who speaks in very short sentences, gets in a lot of arguments, is basically a jerk to everyone, and drinks a lot. He solves a crime. The movie is better.

I'm not a big fan of his style either, although admittedly I've only read one. It might be that I'm not a fan of the genre.

#384 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy ****

I did it! I read War and Peace! It took me six months, what with all the life changes and all, but I did it! I really enjoyed the peace sections, and didn't mind the war sections too much (although I did want to get back to Natasha and her very interesting life). It would have been a 5-star book except for that long, rambling, completely unrelated epilogue.

I agree with you about the epilogue, I just wanted to savour the story at that point.

#385 Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens ***

Not much to say - not as good as Bleak House or Pickwick Papers, not as bad as David Copperfield. I adore Tom Pinch and really think he got the shaft. Poor guy. He deserved so much better! I kind of wish Martin jr. had died in the US so that
Tom could end up with the girl.

And boy, Dickens did not think much of we Americans, and it's a little horrifying how familiar some of his U.S. caricatures seem, still. Especially this year...

Whoops, I'd forgotten this one. It should be 385, but let's call it 386 anyway.

#386 The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh ****

Another one I had forgotten to post here, but this book was great. I loved the story, and the connections between the families, and how slowly Ghosh gets us to the tragic event at the end.

He was feeling particularly bitchy when he wrote that one I think because his works kept getting plagiarized in the US and he didn't receive any royalties.

The bitchiness was really funny - and its even funnier how in some ways, Americans haven't changed.

#387 The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene ****

A powerful little novel about a priest living (and hiding) in a Mexican state under the control of a government who murdered all priests who wouldn't stop being priests. He hides, and tries to escape, but keeps getting pulled back to help people. He is torn between what he sees as his fundamental unfitness to minister to these people, and his desire for self-preservation, and his desire to serve God. I've read that many consider this Greene's masterpiece, and while it wasn't necessarily my favorite to read, I can see why.

#388 The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell **

I don't understand the praise of this book. It alternates between disgusting and incredibly boring. The premise is good - WWII, told from the point of view of a Nazi SS officer - and his rationalization of war crimes is disturbing but well done. That's about 10 pages of the book. Otherwise, it is slaughter, diarrhea, incest, murder, feces, bugs, ick. Ick. And it goes on forever. Avoid.

#389 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick ***

I didn't love Blade Runner - the book is better. And the idea that humans can be distinguished from AI androids by empathy is pretty optimistic, I think.

#390 The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams ****

I needed this. Hilarious and witty and containing Norse gods and, if not quite up to Hitchhiker's Guide levels of hilarity, still one of the better books I've read all year.

Yikes, I haven't updated this ALL YEAR. Here we go.

#391 Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann ****

I read this one slowly because I enjoyed it and because it required a little more concentration than my average before-bedtime reading. It's a sort-of retelling of the Faust story, set in pre-WWI, WWI, and 1920s Germany (but written by the entertaining and unreliable narrator during WWII). The narrator is telling the story of his brilliant composer friend, who made a pact w/ the Devil, and comparing his story to that of Germany during the Hitler years.

Recommended

#392 The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark ****.5

This was almost as good as Miss Brodie. It's set in London between VE day and VJ day, and centers on a sort of boarding house for young, unmarried working girls. The action slowly builds (I think I was about halfway through before I realized that a tragic event was coming up), and then hits you all at once. I loved it.

#393 The Godfather by Mario Puzo *****

So The Godfather is one of my favorite movies; my Dad and I have a father-daughter tradition (which probably began when I was around 8 or 9) of watching at least the first one together, and usually also the second, once a year. We love these movies. If you haven't read the book, you'll be pleased to know that both movies follow it very closely (some of the best lines are not in the book, though - Dad and I like "leave the gun, take the cannoli" the best) and it is great.

#394 A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marine Lewycka **.5

Short and completely forgettable. I just finished it last night and I don't even remember what happened. I could have lived a long, full, productive life before I died without having read this book.

#395 Eline Vere by Louis Couperus ****

This would have been a 5-star book if I hadn't disliked Eline herself so much. I loved all of the other characters and the descriptions of life in The Hague whenever this book was set (turn of last century, maybe? I don't know). It feels a lot like House of Mirth to me (which I also loved), so if Wharton is your thing, maybe try this book too.

I am so close to 400! Now to figure out how to use the wiki thing...

I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed reading The Godfather. I have never paid much attention to that type of book before and only picked it up because of the list.

Love that the movies are a tradition for you!

>169 jfetting: Good reviews! The wiki thing puts me off as well. I don't dare updating or even visiting it...

#396 The Monk by Matthew Lewis **

Two grudging stars because the novel hadn't even been around for very long when he wrote this, so it is possible that all of the melodramatic events weren't cliches back then (licentious monks, women forced to become nuns, ghosts, Satan makes an appearance, etc). However, it's pretty bad, but not even so bad that it is funny.

#397 The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark ****

Loved it. You think you know where the story is going in the first or second chapter, but then the 3rd chapter reveals that it is going in a completely different direction. THAT direction is also incorrect, btw. As is the 4th. It's so good. You should read it.

I'm reading The Driver's Seat right now! Coincidence!

#172 Oh that's such a shame! I love The Monk - there's something about the sheer melodrama of it that I enjoy. Plus the Satan cameo.

That said I read this 14 years ago at Uni so my views may have changed - I won't be re-reading it as I don't want to now ruin it for myself :)

>174 BekkaJo: It is possible that if I had read it in a different mood, I would have found it hilarious (I did sort of enjoy the Satan cameo).

I thought the Monk was fantastic and pretty much blows away anything else from the Gothic genre. He was like 21 or something when he wrote it too. Ah well...

I was impressed that he was 21 when he wrote it (but also maybe not surprised? I bet I would have liked this a lot better when I was 21).

#398 There But For The by Ali Smith ***

I love her writing and how she tells a story. I have NO IDEA what story she is trying to tell.

>177 jfetting: I was also in the ‘what’s all the fuss about’ camp when I read The Monk a few years ago - but I was well beyond 21 even then...

I was actually 21 when I read it... weird.

I think we're on to something...

Ok, 398 is clearly where 2018 is going to begin for me. I'm going to take this opportunity to start a new thread, and use some of my vacation time to update the list at the top. Happy New Year all!