Kristel continues to read 1001 in 2019

I was at 490 at the end of 2018.

First of the year
491. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Enjoyed this one. I liked the blogs with insights into social commentary on race, etc.

bogs? I don't remember descriptions of any toilets or marshy areas ;-)

Trying hard to figure out what that typo was meant to be

>2 arukiyomi: Very good! blogs, maybe?
I read this last year and enjoyed it as well. A very different perspective and it's good to be exposed to other views.

It was blogs. I don't think there was any bogs either.

492. A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch, a real soap opera of a novel. Not my favorite by her.

493. after the quake by Haruki Murakami, a set of short stories all set in February 1995 between Kobe earthquake and Tokyo gas attack.

494. London Fields by Martin Amis, interesting, creative.

ah blogs! Yes that makes sense!

495. Tale of a Tub by Swift (2 stars)

496. Auto-Da-Fé by Canetti 4 stars


497. A Dry White Season Brink. 3 stars.

Both were good books all in all.

498. Billy Budd, Sailor by Melville enjoyed.

499. Ormond by Maria Edgeworth. 3.67 stars. Easy to read

500. Dead Souls by Nikoli Gogol 4 stars

501. Drop City by C. W. Boyle, 3 stars

502. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. I really liked this 4 stars.

Congratulations on 500 and being half way there (to 1001 at least)!

Congratulations on reaching the halfway mark!

Yeah for you! Congratulations on reaching 500!

Fantastic progress!

501. The Portrait of a Lady Henry James. I loved this one, best of Henry James that I've read.

It's probably the only enjoyable one... I certainly haven't found another that comes anywhere near close.

>19 arukiyomi: Hahaha! I haven't enjoyed any of the James I've read. It's good to know at least one of them is okay.

BTW, it's prob a good idea to read The Master by Toibin before picking up any James. It at least makes you more sympathetic.

>21 arukiyomi: I read The Master by Toibin. I really liked it.

502. Moby Dick by Herman Melville. So glad to finally read this one.

503. Cider House Rules John Irving. A good one.
504. Slow Man by Coetzee, I liked it but Coetzee has had to grow on me. Read Elizabeth Costello before this one.
505. Wise Children Angela Carter. A good one.
506. Pale Fire Nabokov. Probably his greatest book, better than Lolita.
507. Trawl by B. S. Johnson a whole lot of regurgitation

Interested as to why you feel Pale Fire is better than Lolita...

>25 arukiyomi:, it is a more sophisticated work with a unique structure. Lolita is good but Pale Fire is Nabokov at his best.

ah... yes, I can see how you'd think that...

508. Vile Bodies , okay
509. Born in Exile George Gissing -- liked this one
510 Summer by Edith Wharton (not as good as some of her others, but liked it, interesting mirror characters.

511. Cat and Mouse by Günter Grass

512. Loving by Henry Green. I really liked this one!

513. Another World by Pat Barker

514. They Shoot Horses, Don't They Horace McCoy. Enjoyed this quick read about a topic I knew little about. Dance Marathons of the Great Depression. Noir crime novel that is also existentialist.

515. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. 4.6 stars. Liked this coming of age feminist story.

2020 continues to read 1001

First book finished for 2020
516. Memory of Fire by Eduardo Galeano. Must read book of history of Americas from Uruguayan perspective.

517. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry Takes a bit of concentration, deserves a reread.

518. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, entertaining historical fiction/adventure.

519. The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing, a book about the deterioration of a woman, set in Rhodesia. 4.2 stars

520. The Red and the Black by Stendhal. Stendhal not my favorite author but recently had been studying about reformation/post reformation so reading the book had context for me. I don't necessarily agree that our author is an expert on love but this historical, political satire is also a book of romance with a unlikable, inconsistent narrator who doesn't know what he wants.

521. Germinal by Emile Zola. This was one that I liked. Story of coal strike in Northern France.

522. Vathek by William Beckford. A short work by 21 y/o William Beckford combines Gothic novel and Orientalism.

523. Amok by Stefan Zweig short work, quick read, psychological study of a man that has run amok.

524. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. A defense of Architecture as story and the story of a hunchback, gypsy, and the archduke. And one must not forget the Vagabonds.

525. The Midnight Examiner by William Kotzwinkle. 3 Stars read, I do appreciate the writing/book.

526. The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, rated this one 3.2. No doubt author can write. I liked a lot of the statements and the amount of topics she covers in over the top. Historical fiction, romance or at least about love, about art, coming of age story. Set in late 60/early 70s but also WWI, rubber harvesting in the Amazon, speed trials in the salt flats. You name it, it might be in this book.

527. The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley. A coming of age book that really captures that transition from childhood innocence to adolescent/adulthood awareness of flawed nature of humans. 3.6 stars. On my shelf since 2012.

530. The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor. This is a good one. Epic humorous look at Indian History from the British Rule to independence (Indira Ghandi).

531. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton

532. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. 4 stars. Enjoyed it. Character study.

533. A Heart So White by Javier Marias, I know a lot of people like this one. I did not like it that much.

534. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster. debut novel, cultural clash

535. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald this one deserves a second read.

536. White Teeth by Zadie Smith, I liked this one quite a bit. I thought is was a great debut novel that had a lot going for it. I agree that there were parts where I think it dragged and those could have probably been deleted and not hurt anything in the book. She covered a lot in the book. Loved the use of teeth as symbol. Themes of identity. Play on words for past, future.

537. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (5 star book for me).

538. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. 4.2 stars.

539. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, not my favorite Dickens but Dickens at his norm of writing about social injustice.

540. She: a history of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard. Not my favorite author on the list but his books led the way for the development of the novel in many areas and deserves the place on the 1001 list.

541. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. Satire. Written in 1700s continues to be timely.

542. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. I liked it. 4.8 stars

543. The Book of Disquiet: the complete edition by Fernando Pessoa Ugh, painful to read, not a novel, published posthumously from a trunk full of ramblings. Rating less than 1 star.

544. Contact by Carl Sagan. Struggled to read it the first time but now I have it done. I enjoyed it more than I expected.

> 59 ... I didn't think much of it either! http://arukiyomi.com/?p=6926

545. The Breast by Philip Roth This is a short novella by Philip Roth and like Kafka and Gogol, the narrator becomes something else. He becomes a 155 lb female breast. While a cockroach is disgusting and a nose would be odd at least it doesn't require clothing, a breast is sexual and generally kept covered. I will quote, "Roth has a genius for making everything potentially beautiful and joyful filthy and disgusting. . . . Roth writes dirty books, not pornography." https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper.... There is a good deal of sexual writing that I did not appreciate. The question is, did Roth write this to make some quick money, did he sit down and think, I can write something like Kafka and Gogol. Not long. Fast to the publisher. The Breast is concluded with a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo". The last line, "You must change your life." The breast is an object, a thing that really is just passive. It is not fully human. The breast cannot communicate much on how it feels other than arousal. To live life, you must become more that a statue, you must be active, make changes. Rating 2.5

read Sabbath's Theatre yet? If not, this has prepared you well!

546. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, by Irish author Eimear McBride who writes with thought clouds, incongruent and absent punctuation, made up words to tell the family story of a young girl and her older brother diagnosed with cancer. A hard story to read both for the style and the subject matter.

547. finished The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I own the book, and I decided to listen to the audio. It was good. A lot of philosophy and social/political musings. Thoughts about time, death, and deterioration of family. Also micro culture of the sanitorium in the Alps.

548. Finished The Vice-Consul by Marguerite Duras, 3.2 stars.

549. Finished Adam Bede by George Eliot, 4.2 stars.

550. Melmoth The Wanderer, Charles Maturin, classic gothic transition novel, too long. 3.6 stars
551. At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill, (2001), historical gay romance. 3.6 stars

552. Money: A Suicide Note pornography/profanity.
553. Our Mutual Friend Dickens at his best. Last book from 1001 by author

554. Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu early mystery horror, locked door mystery.

555. The Sea, the Sea Iris Murdoch, typical Murdoch, 500 plus pages
556. Martin Fiero by Jose Hernandez (epic poem), not my favorite thing